of thy Cross reconcile me to thy eternal Father and bring to me peace of Conscience let the victory of thy Cross mortifie all my evil and corrupt affections let the triumph of thy Cross lead me on to a state of holiness that I may sin no more but in all things please thee and in all things serve thee and in all things glorifie thee 7. Great and infinite are thy glories infinite and glorious are thy mercies who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and earth Heaven it self does wholly minister to our salvation God takes care of us God loves us first God will not suffer us to perish but imployes all his attributes for our good The Son of God dies for us the holy Spirit descends upon us and teaches us the Angels minister to us the Sacrament is our food Christ is married to our souls and heaven it self is offered to us for our portion 8. O God my God assist me now and ever graciously and greatly Grant that I may not receive bread alone for man cannot live by that but that I may eat Christ that I may not search into the secret of nature but inquire after the miracles of grace I do admire I worship and I love Thou hast overcome O Lord thou hast overcome Ride on triumphantly because of thy words of truth and peace load my soul in this triumph as thy own purchase thy love hath conquer'd and I am thy servant for ever 9. Thou wilt not dwell in a polluted house make my soul clean and do thou consecrate it into a Temple O thou great Bishop of our souls by the inhabitation of thy holy spirit of purity Let not these teeth that break the bread of Angels ever grind the face of the poor let not the hand of Judas be with thee in the dish let not the eyes which see the Lord any more behold vanity let not the members of Christ ever become the members of a harlot or the ministers of unrighteousness 10. I am nothing I have nothing I desire nothing but Jesus and to be in Jerusalem the holy City from above Make haste O Lord Behold my heart is ready my heart is ready Come Lord Jesus come quickly When the holy Man that Ministers reaches the consecrated Bread suppose thy Lord entring into his Courts and say Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word Lord and thy servant shall be whole After receiving of the Bread pray thus Blessed be the Name of our gracious God Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosannah in the highest Thou O blessed Saviour Jesus hast given me thy precious body to be the food of my soul and now O God I humbly present to thee my body and soul every member and every faculty every action and every passion Do thou make them fit for thy service Give me an understanding to know thee and wisdom like as thou didst to thy Apostles ingenuity and simplicity of heart like to that of Nathanael zeal and perfect repentance like the return of Zacheus Give me eyes to see thee as thy Martyr Stephen had an ear to hear thee as Mary a hand to touch thee as Thomas a mouth with Peter to confess thee an arm with Simeon to embrace thee feet to follow thee with thy Disciples an heart open like Lydia to entertain thee that as I have given my members to sin and to uncleanness so I may henceforth walk in righteousness and holiness before thee all the days of my life Amen Amen If there be any time more between the receiving the holy Body and the blessed Chalice then add O immense goodness unspeakable mercy delightful refection blessed peace-offering effectual medicine of our souls Holy Jesus the food of elect souls coelestial Manna the bread that came down from heaven sweetest Saviour grant that my soul may relish this divine Nutriment with spiritual ravishments and love great as the flames of Cherubims and grant that what thou hast given me for the remission of my sins may not â—y my fault become the increase of them Grant that in my heart I may so digest thee by a holy faith so convert thee into the unity of my spirit by a holy love that being conformed to the likeness of thy death and resurrection by the crucifying of the old man and the newness of a spiritual and a holy life I may be incorporated as a sound and living member into the body of thy holy Church a member of that body whereof thou art head that I mâ—y abide in thee and bring forth fruit in thee and in the resurrection of the Just my body of infirmity being reformed by thy power may be configured to the similitude of thy glorious body and my soul received into a participation of the eternal Supper of the Lamb that where thou art there I may be also beholding thy face in glory O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen When the holy Chalice is offered attend devoutly to the blessing and joyn in heart with the words of the Minister saying Amen I will receive the Cup of salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. After receiving of the holy Cup pray thus It is finished Blessed be the name of our gracious God Blessing glory praise and honour love and obedience dominion and thanksgiving be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever I bless and praise thy Name O eternal Father most merciful God that thou hast vouchsafed to admit me to a participation of these dreadful and desirable mysteries unworthy though I am yet thy love never fails and though I too often have repented of my repentances and fallen back into sin yet thou never repentest of thy loving kindness Be pleased therefore now in this day of mercy when thou openest the treasures of heaven and rainest Manna upon our souls to refresh them when they are weary of thy infinite goodness to grant that this holy Communion may not be to me unto judgment and condemnation but it may be sweetness to my soul health and safety in every temptation joy and peace in every trouble ligâ—t and strength in every word and work comfort and defence in the hour of my death against all the oppositions of the spirits of darkness and grant that no unclean thing may be in me who have received thee into my heart and soul. II. Thou dwellest in every sanctified soul she is the habitation of Sion and thou taâ—est it for thine own and thou hast consecrated it to thy self by the operation of glorious mysteries within her O be pleased to receive my soul presented to thee in this holy Communion for thy dwelling place make it a house of prayer and holy meditations the seat of thy Spirit the repository of graces reveal to me
himself and therefore since it is necessaâ—y that he hath something to offer so long as he is a Priest and there is no other sacrifice but that of himself offered upon the crosse it follows that Christ in heaven perpetually offers and represents that sacrifice to his heavenly Father and in vertue of that obtains all good things for his Church Now what Christ does in heaven he hath commanded us to do on earth that is to represent his death to commemorate this sacrifice by humble prayer and thankful record and by faithful manifestation and joyful Eucharist to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father so ministring in his Priesthood and doing according to his commandment and his example the Church being the image of heaven the Priest the Minister of Christ the holy Table being a Copy of the celestial altar and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World being alwayes the same it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the Crosse but it is wonderfully represented in heaven and graciously represented here by Christs action there by his commandment here and the event of it is plainly this that as Christ in vertue of his sacrifice on the crosse intercedes for us with his Father so does the Minister of Christs Priest-hood here that the vertue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the Church both for things temporal and eternal and therefore it was not without great mystery and clear signification that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the crosse should be made by breaking bread and effusion of wine to signifie to us the nature and sacredness of the Liturgy we are about and that we minister in the Priest-hood of Christ who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck that is we are Ministers in that unchangable Priest-hood imitating in the external Ministery the prototype Melchisedeck Of whom it is said he brought forth bread and wine and was the Priest of the most high God and in the internal imitating the antitype or the substance Christ himself who offered up his body and blood for atonement for us and by the Sacraments of bread and wine and the prayers of oblation and intercession commands us to officiate in his Priest-hood in the external ministring like Melchisedeck in the internal after the manner of Christ himself This is a great and a mysterious truth which as it is plainly manifested in the Epistle to the Hebrews so it is understood by the ancient and holy Doctors of the Church So St. Ambrose Now Christ is offered but he is offered as a man as if he received his passion but he offers himself as a Priest that he may pardon our sins here in image or representation there in truth as an Advocate interceding with his Father for us So St. Chrysostom In Christ once the Sacrifice was offered which is powerful to our eternal salvation but what then do we do not we offer every day what we daily offer is at the memorial of his death and the Sacrifice is one not many because Christ was once offered but this Sacrifice is the example or representation of that And another Christ is not impiously slain by us but piously sacrificed and by this means we declare the Lords death till he come for here through him we humbly do in earth which he as a son who is heard according to his reverence does powerfully for us in heaven where as an advocate he intercedes with his Father whose office or work it is for us to exhibit and interpose his flesh which he took of us and for us and as it were to presse it upon his Father To the same sense is the meditation of St. Austin By this he is the Priest and the Oblation the Sacrament of which he would have the daily Sacrifice of the Church to be which because it is the body of that head she learns from him to offer her self to God by him who offered himself to God for her And therefore this whole Office is called by St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prayer of oblation the great Christian Sacrifice and Oblation in which we present our prayers and the needs of our selves and of our brethren unto God in virtue of the great Sacrifice Christ upon the Crosse whose memorial we then celebrate in a divine manner by divine appointment The effect of this I represent in the words of Lyra That which does purge and cleanse our sins must be celestial and spiritual and that which is such hath a perpetual efficacy and needs not to be done again but that which is daily offered in the Church is a daily commemoration of that one Sacrifice which was offered on the Crosse according to the command of Christ Do this in commemoration of me Now this holy Ministry and Sacrament of this death being according to Christs commandment and in our manner a representation of the eternal Sacrifice an imitation of Christs intercession in heaven in vertue of that Sacrifice must be after the pattern in the Mount it must be as that is pur â prece as Tertullians phrase is by pure prayer it is an intercession for the whole Church present and absent in the virtue of that Sacrifice I need add no more but leave it to the meditation to the joy and admiration of all Christian people to think and to enumerate the blessings of this Sacrament which is so excellent a representation of Christs death by Christs commandment and so glorious an imitation of that intercession which Christ makes in heaven for us all it is all but the representment of his death in the way of prayer and interpellation Christ as head and we as members he as High Priest and we servants as his Ministers and therefore I shall stop here and leave the rest for wonder and Eucharist we may pray here with all the solemnity and advantages imaginable we may with hope and comfort use the words of David I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord we are here very likely to prevail for all blessings for this is by way of eminency glory and singularity Calix benedictionis the cup of blessing which we bless and by which God will bless us and for which he is to be blessed for evermore 5. By the means of this Sacrament our bodies are made capable of the resurrection to life and eternal glory For when we are externally and symbolically in the Sacrament and by faith and the spirit of God internally united to Christ and made partakers of his body and his blood we are joyned and made one with him who did rise again and when the head is risen the members shall not see corruption for ever but rise again after the pattern of our Lord. If by the Sacrament we are really united and
which was said by Vincentius Ferrerius The Angels that assist at this Sacrament would kill every unworthy Communicant unless the Divine mercy and long sufferance did cause them to forbear a speedy execution that the blessed Sacrament might acquire its intention and become a favour of life unto us SECT II. Acts of Vertues and Graces relative to the Mystery to be us'd before or at the Celebration of the Divine Sacrament I. The Address IT is well O sweetest Saviour Jesus it is very well that thou art pleas'd to be a daily Sacrifice for us and to become our daily supersubstantial bread to feed our souls Certain it is that we by our daily failings and the remaining pollution of our sins frequently sink down to the bottom of thy displeasure But do thou grant that being refreshed by the Sacrament and recreated by thy grace strengthened by thy spirit and comforted with thy miraculous sweetness my heart and my affections may be lifted up on high II. O grant that by thee my soul may be lifted up to thee and from her self may pass into thee with a pure mind with an unfeigned Religion with an unblameable faith and burning devotion with filial piety and a profound reverence For thou art the true God the word of life the bright Image and splendour of thy Fathers Glory the reward of the Saints and the Lord of Angels the brightness of eternal light the unspotted mirrour of eternal purity An Act of Love Thee alone O Lord my soul desires thou art eternal sweetness in my soul. If the perfume of thy oyntment be sufficient to all the the world what is the refection of thy Table If we live by every word proceeding out of thy mouth what felicity and joy is it to live upon thee the eternal Word chewing thee by faith and digesting thee by love and entertaining thee in our hearts for ever How shall not my bowels melt into thee the Sun of righteousness How is it that I do not forget all deliciousness besides thee A single pleasure poor and empty wearying and unsatisfying hath often made me to forget thee Now that thou art truly and effectively present with me how can any other pleasure in the world seem pleasant to me any more I will forget all the world I will quit all the world to live on thee if thou pleasest O dearest Saviour but do thou open thy ark and repositories of sweetness and fill my soul and all my desires that there may be no room for any thing else Thou hast called unto me to open my hand and thou wouldst fill it But I would not open it I held the world fast and kept my hand shut and would not let it go But do thou open it for me not my hand only but my mouth not my mouth but my heart also An Act of Desire after Jesus O blessed Jesus that hast said it is thy delight to be with the sons of men Thou hast made thy self the companion of our journeys the light of our ignorance the remedy of our infirmity Dwell with me sweetest Saviour and delight in me It is no small thing I ask O my God can it ever be that my God should delight in me That 's too much O God Grant that I may delight in thee and do thou delight to pardon me to sanctifie and to save me Grant that I may never offend thee that I may never grieve thy Holy Spirit that I may not provoke the Angel of the everlasting Covenant to anger But thou delightest in the works of thy hand in the graces of the Spirit in thy own excellencies and glories Endue me with thy graces fill me with thy excellencies let me communicate of thy spirit and then enjoy these thy delights with thy servant for thou canst not else delight in me Thou art thy own essential joy and everlasting blessedness and inseparable felicity But this thou hast said that thou delightest to be with the Sons of men because thou truly lovest us Blessed be thy Name for ever and ever An Act of Thanksgiving O Blessed Saviour Jesus I adore the secrets of thy eternal wisdom I admire the mysteriousness of our salvation and I love and praise and give all possible thanks to thee the Author of our spiritual life the Deliverer that came out of Sion the Redeemer of thy people the spoiler of all spiritual wickedness in heavenly places the conqueror over sin and death the triumpher over Devils thou hast taken from our strongest enemies all their armour and divided the spoil Grant that I may know nothing but thee account all things loss in comparison of thee and endeavour to be made conformable to thee in the imitation of thy actions and obedience of thy Laws in the fellowship of thy sufferings in the communion of thy graces and participation of thy glories that beginning here to praise thy Name according as I can I may hereafter for ever rehearse and adore thy excellencies according to the measures of glory for ever and ever Amen Ejaculations and Meditations to be us'd at any time but particularly after the Consecration of the Symbols when the holy Man that ministers is bringing the Sacrament 1. O holy Jesu I behold thee stretch'd upon the Cross with thy arms spread ready to embrace and receive all mankind into thy bosome 2. I come Lord Jesus I come O take me to thee in the comprehensions of an unalterable of an everlasting love for thou hast opened thy heart as well as thine arms and hast prepar'd a lodging place for me in the seat of love 3. I see the Symbols the holy bread and the blessed cup but I also contemplate thy authority establishing these rites I adore thy wisdom who hast made these Mysteries like thy own infancy I see thy self wrapt up in swadling clouts and cover'd with a vail I hear thy voice blessing these Symbols thy mercy reaching out my pardon thy holy Spirit sanctifying my spirit thy blessed self making intercession for me at the eternal Altar in the heavens 4. Thy infinite arm of mercy is reached unto us and our arm of faith reaches unto thee Blessed be Jesus who will be joyned unto his servants 5. This is thy body O blessed Saviour Jesus and this is thy blood but these are not thy wounds My Lord had the smart but we the ease his were the sufferings but ours the mercy he felt the load of stripes but from thence a holy balm did flow upon us He felt the thorns but we shall have the Crown and after he had paid the price we got the purchase Holy Jesus Blessed be God 6. I adore thy unspeakable goodness I delight in thy unmeasurable mercy I rejoyce in thy cross I desire to know nothing but the Lord Jesus and him crucified O let the power of thy Cross prevail against all the powers of darkness let the wisdom of thy Cross make me wise unto salvation let the peace
thy mysteries and communicate to me thy gifts and love me with that love thou bearest to the Sons of thy house Thou hast given me thy Son with him give me all things else which are needful to my body and soul in order to thy glory and my salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. III. An act of Love and Eucharist to be added if there be time and opportunity O Lord Jesu Christ Fountain of true and holy love nothing is greater than thy love nothing is sweeter nothing more holy Thy love troubles none but is entertained by all that feel it with joy and exultation and it is still more desired and is ever more desirable Thy love O dearest Jesu gives liberty drives away fear feels no labour but suffers all it eases the weary and strengthens the weak it comforts them that mourn and feeds the hungry Thou art the beginning and the end of thy own love that thou mayest take occasion to do us good and by the methods of grace to bring us to glory Thou givest occasion and createst good things and producest affections and stirrest up the appetite and dost satisfie all holy desires Thou hast made me and fed me and blessed me and preserved me and sanctified me that I might love thee and thou would'st have me to love thee that thou mayest love me for ever O give me a love to thee that I may love thee as well as ever any of thy servants loved thee according to that love which thou by the Sacrament of love workest in thy secret ones Abraham excelled in faith Job in patience Isaac in fidelity Jacob in simplicity Joseph in chastity David in religion Josiah in zeal and Manasses in repentance but as yet thou hadst not communicated the Sacrament of love that grace was reserved till thou thy self shouldst converse with man and teach him love Thou hast put upon our hearts the sweetest and easiest yoke of love to enable us to bear the burden of man and the burden of the Lord give unto thy servant such a love that whatsoever in thy service may happen contrary to flesh and bloud I may not feel it that when I labour I may not be weary when I am despised I may not regard it that adversity may be tolerable and humility be my sanctuary and mortification of my passions the exercise of my daies and the service of my God the joy of my soul that loss to me may be gain so I win Christ and death it self the entrance of an eternal life when I may live with the Beloved the joy of my soul the light of my eyes My God and all things the blessed Saviour of the world my sweetest Redeemer Jesus Amen An Eucharistical Hymn taken from the Prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the blessed Sacrament Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the Assembly of the upright and in the Congregation He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred the Lord is gracious and full of compassion He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindful of his Covenant His bread shall be fat and he shall yield royal dainties Binding his Foal unto the vine and his Asses colt unto the choice vine he washed his garment in wine and his cloaths in the bloud of grapes In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of wine on the lees He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth for the Lord hath spoken it And the Lord their God shall save them as the flock of his people for how great is his goodness and how great is his beauty Corn shall make the young men chearful and new wine the virgins The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in He shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord saying Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips for in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy The Lord hath said I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the corn and blossom as the Vine the memorial thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon The poor shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek him your heart shall live for ever for he hath placed peace in our borders and fed us with the flower of wheat For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same the Name of the Lord shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto his Name and a pure offering for his Name shall be great among all Nations Who so is wise he shall understand these thiâ—gs and the prudent shall know them for the waies of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein Glory be to the Father c. A Prayer to be said after the Communion in behalf of our souls and all Christian people 1. O most merciful and gracious God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory thou art the great lover of souls and thou hast given thy holy Son to die for our salvation to redeem us from sin to destroy the work of the Devil and to present a Church to thee pure and spotless and undefiled relying upon thy goodness trusting in thy promises and having received my dearest Lord into my soul I humbly represent to thy divine Majesty the glorious sacrifice which our dearest Jesus made of himself upon the Cross and by a never ceasing intercession now exhibites to thee in heaven in the office of an eternal Priesthood in behalf of all that have communicated this day in the Divine Mysteries in all the Congregations of the Christian world and in behalf of all them that desire to communicate and are hindred by sickness or necessity by fear or scruple by censures Ecclesiastical or the sentence of their own consciences 2. Give unto me O God and unto them a portion of all the good prayers which are made in heaven and earth the intercession of our Lord and the supplications of all thy servants and unite us in the bands of the common faith and a holy charity that no interests or partialities no sects or opinions may keep us any longer in darkness and division 3. Give thy blessing to all Christian Kings and Princes all Republicks and Christian Governments grant to them the
thy paths that my footsteps slip not As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tryed he is a buckler to all those that trust in him For who is God save the Lord and who is our rock save our God Judge me O Lord for I have walked in mine integrity but I trust in the Lord therefore I shall not slide Examine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart for thy loving-kindnesse is before mine eyâ—s and I will walk in thy truth I will not sit with vain persons neither will I go in with dissemblers I hate the Congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked I will wash mine hands in innocency so will I compasse thine Altar O â—ord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works But as for me I will walk in my integrity redeem me and be merciful unto me So shall my foot stand in an even place and in the congregations will I blesse the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Prayers O Eternal and most Glorious God who sittest in heaven ruling over all things from the beginning thou dwellest on high and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in heaven and earth thou hast searched me O Lord and known me thou understandest my thoughts afar off and art acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word in my tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether Be pleased to impart unto thy servant a ray of thy heavenly light a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law that I may walk in them all my days Set all my sins before my face that I may speedily and earnestly and perfectly repent and forsake them all Give me a sight of my infirmities that I may watch against them discover to me all my evil and weak principles that I may reform them and whatsoever is wanting in me towards the understanding of any thing whereby I may please thee and perfect my duty I beg of thee to reveal that also unto me that my duty may not be undiscerned and my faith may not be reproved and my affections may not be perverse and hardned in their foolish pursuance and a secret sin may not lye undiscovered and corrupting my soul. II. GIve me an ingenuous and a severe spirit that whatever judgment of charity I make concerning others I may give a right judgment concerning my own state and actions condemning the criminal censuring the suspicious suspecting what seems allowable and watchful even over the best that I may in the spirit of repentance and mortification correct all my irregularities and reform my errours and improve the good things which thou hast given me that endeavouring to approve my actions to my conscience and my conscience to thy law I may not be a reprobate but approved by thee in the great day of examination of all the world and be reckoned amongst thy Elect thy secret ones through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A short form of Humiliation after our Examination I. THY Judgments O Lord God are declared in thunder and with fear and dread thou shakest all my bones and my soul trembles when I consider that great day in which thou shalt judge all the world and that infinite justice which will not spare the mighty for his greatnesse nor the poor for his poverty and thy unlimited power which can mightily destroy all them that will not have thee to reign over them II. O most dreadful Judge I stand in amazement when I consider that the heavens are not pure in thine eyes and if thou foundest perversnesse in thy Angels and didst not spare them what shall become of me The stars fell from heaven and what can I presume who am but dust and ashes They whose life that seemed holy are fallen into an evil portion and after they have eaten the bread of Angels they have been delighted with Carobe-nuts with husks and draffe of Swine III. There is no holinesse O God if thou withdrawest thy hand no wisdom profits if thy government does cease No courage can abide no chastity can remain pure no watchfulnesse keep us safe unlesse thou doest continue to strengthen us to purifie us to make us stand When thou leavest us we drown and perish when thy grace and mercy visits us we are lifted up and stand upright We are unstable and unsecure unlesse we be confirmed by thee but we seek to thee for thy help and yet depart from the wayes of thy commandements IV. O how meanly and contemptibly do I deserve to be thought of how little and inconsiderable is the good which I do and how vast how innumerable how intolerable are the evils which I have done I submit O God I submit to the abysses of thy righteous and unsearchable judgements for I have been searching for a little some little good in me but I finde nothing Much indeed of good I have received but I have abused it thou hast given me thy grace but I have turned it into wantonnesse thou hast enabled me to serve thee but I have served my self but never but when I was thy enemy so that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing V. I am a deep abysse O God of folly and calamity I have been searching my heart and can find no good thing I have been searching and I cannot find out all the evil Thou didst create in me a hope of glory but I have lost my confidence and men have sometimes spoken good things of me but I know not where they are and who shall raise me up when I fall down before thy face in thy eternal judgment VI. I will no more desire I will no more suffer I will no more seek I will no more be moved by the praises of men for behold they speak but they know nothing Thou art silent but thou knowest all things and I increase the number of my sins What shall I do O thou preserver of men I will lay my face in the dust and confess my self to be nothing VII Pity my shame O God bind up my wounds lift me from the dust raise me up from this nothing and make me something what thou wilt what thou wilt delight in Take away the partition wall the hindrance the sin that so easily besets me and bring me unto Jesus to my sweetest Saviour Jesus unite me unto him and then although in my self I am nothing yet in him I shall be what I ought to be and what thou canst not chuse but love Amen Amen A Prayer for holy and fervent desires of Religion and particularly of the Blessed Sacrament O Most Blessed most glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus thou that waterest the furrows of the earth and refreshest her wearinesse and makest it very plenteous behold O God my desart
of our faith and acts of obedience and the confirmation of our hope and the increase of our charity So that although God be gracious in every dispensation yet he is bountiful in this although we serve God in every vertue yet in the worthy reception of this divine Sacrament there must be a conjugation of vertues and therefore we serve him more we drink deep of his loving kindnesse in every effusion of it but in this we are inebriated he always fills our cup but here it runs over The effects of these Considerations are these 1. That by Faith in our dispositions and preparations to the holy Communion is not understood only the act of faith but the body of faith not only believing the articles but the dedication of our persons not only a yielding up of our understanding but the engaging of our services not the hallowing of one faculty but the sanctification of the whole man That faith which is necessary to the worthy receiving this divine Sacrament is all that which is necessary to the susception of Baptism and all that which is produced by hearing the word of God and all that which is exercised in every single grace all that by which we live the life of grace and all that which works by charity and makes a new creature and justifies a sinner and is a keeping the Commandments of God 2. If the manducation of Christs flesh and drinking his blood be spiritual and done by faith and is effected by the spirit and that this faith signifies an intire dedition of our selves to Christ and sanctification of the whole man to the service of Christ then it follows that the wicked do not Communicate with Christ they eat not his flesh and they drink not his blood They eat and drink indeed but it is gravel in their teeth and death in their belly they eat and drink damnation to themselves For unlesse a man be a member of Christ unlesse Christ dwells in him by a living faith he does not eat the bread that came down from heaven They lick the rock saith St. Cyprian but drink not the waters of its emanation They receive the skin of the Sacrament and the bran of the flesh saith St. Bernard But it is in this divine nutriment as it is in some fruits the skin is bitterness and the inward juice is salutary and pleasant the outward Symbols never bring life but they can bring death and they of whom it can be said according to the expression of St. Austin they eat no spiritual meat but they eat the sign of Christ must also remember what old Simeon said in his prophecy of Christ He is a sign set for the fall of many but his flesh and blood spiritually eaten is resurrection from the dead SECT VI. Meditations and Devotions relative to this Preparatory Grace to be used in the days of Preparation or at any time of spiritual Communion St. Bernard's Meditation and Prayer THE Calice which thou O sweetest Saviour Jesus didst drink hath made thee infinitely amiable it was the work of my redemption Certainly nothing does more pleasingly invite or more profitably require or more vehemently affect me than this love for by how much lower thou didst for me descend in the declinations of humility by so much art thou dearer to me in the exaltations of thy charity and thy glory * Learn O my soul how thou oughtest to love Christ who hath given us his flesh for meat his blood for drink the water of his side for our lavatory and his own life for the price of our redemption He is stark and dead cold who is not set on fire by the burning and shining flames of such a charity I. Blessed Saviour Jesus the author and finisher of our faith the fountain of life and salvation by thee let us have accesse to thy Heavenly Father that by thee he may accept us who by thee is revealed to us Let thy innocence and purity procure pardon for our uncleannesse and disobedience let thy humility extinguish our pride and vanity thy meeknesse extinguish our anger and thy charity cover the multitude of our sins II. O blessed Advocate and Mediator intercede for us with thy Father and ours with thy God and ours and grant that by the grace which thou hast found by the prerogative which thou hast deserved by the mercy which thou hast purchased for us that as thou wert partaker of our sufferings and infirmities so we by thy death and resurrection and by thy infinite gracious intercession may be made partakers of thy holinesse and thy glory III. Let the brightnesse of the divine grace for ever shine upon thy servants that we being purified from all errour and infidelity from weak fancies and curious inquiries may perceive and adore the wisdom and the love of God in the truth and mysteriousnesse of this Divine Sacrament And be pleased to lighten in our spirits such a burning love and such a shining devotion that we may truly receive thee and be united unto thee that we may feed on thee the celestial Manna and may with an eye of faith see thee under the cloud and in the vail and at last may see thee in the brightest effusions of thy glory Amen A Confession of Faith in order to the Mysteries of the Holy Sacrament taken out of the Liturgy of St. Clement to be used in the days of Preparation or Communion HOly Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Blessed art thou O God and blessed is thy Name for ever and ever Amen For thou art holy and in all things thou art sanctified and most exalted and sittest on high above all for ever and ever Holy is thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ who in all things did minister to thee his God and Father both in the creation of the world and in the excellent providence and conservation of it He suffered not mankind to perish but gave to him the Law of nature and a Law written in Tables of stone and reproved them by his Prophets and sent his Angel to be their guards And when men had violated the natural Law and broken that which was written when they had forgotten the Divine Judgment manifested in the deluge upon the old world in fire from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah in many plagues upon the Egyptians in the slaughters of the Philistins and when the wrath of God did hang over all the world for for their iniquity according to thy will he who made man resolved to become a man he who is the Law-giver would be subject to Laws he that is the High Priest would be made a Sacrifice and the great Shepherd of our souls would be a Lamb and be slain for us Thee his God and Father he appeased and reconciled unto the world and freed all men from the instant anger He was born of a Virgin born in flesh He is God and the Word
before he should and St. Basil hath a whole chapter on purpose to prove that it is not safe for any man that is not purged from all pollution of flesh and spirit to eat the body of the Lord and that is the title of the chapter The wicked think to appease God with rivers of oyl and hecatombs of oxen and with flocks of sheep they think by the ceremony and the gift to make peace with God to get pardon for their sin and to make way for more but they lose their labour saies the comedy and throw away their cost because God accepts no breakers of their vowes he loves no mans sacrifice that does not truly love his service what if you empty all the Maevanian valleys and drive the fat lambs in flocks unto the Altars what if you sacrifice a herd of white buls from Clitumnus One sacrifice of a troubled spirit one offering of a broken heart is a better oblation then all the wealâ—h which the fields of the wicked can produce God by the forms and rites of sacrifice teaches us how to come to the Altars whether for Prayer or Eucharist we must be sure to bring no evil passion no spiritual disease along with us faith Philo. The sacrament of the Lords Supper is the Christian sacrifice and though the lamb of God is represented in a pure oblation yet we must bring something of our own our lusts must be crucified our passions brought in fetters bound in chains and laid down at the foot of the throne of God We must use our sins as the asses first colt was to be used among the Jewes there is no redeeming of it but only by the breaking of its neck and when a sinner comes to God groaning under his load carrying the dead body of his lusts and laying them before the Altar of God saying this is my pride that almost ruin'd me here is the corps of my lusts they are now dead and as carkasses are more heavy then living bodies so now my sin feels more ponderous because it is mortified I now feel the intollerable burden and I cannot bear it When a sinner makes this address to God coming with a penitential soul with a holy sorrow and with holy purposes then no oblation shall be more pleasing no guest more welcome no sacrifice more accepted The Sacrament is like the word of God if you receive it worthily it will do you good if unworthily it will be your death and your destruction Here the penitent can be cleansed and here the impenitent are consumed here they that are justified shall be justified still and they that are unholy become more unholy and accursed here they that have not shall have more abundantly and they that have not shall lose what they have already here the living are made strong and happy and the dead do die again He that giveth honour to a fool saith Solomon is like him that bindeth a stone in the sling so we read it but so it is not easie to tell the meaning The vulgar Latine reads it As he that throws a stone into the heap of Mercury so is he that giveth honour to a fool and so the Proverb is easie For the Gentiles did of old worship Mercury by throwing stones at him now giving honour to a fool is like throwing a stone at Mercury that is a strange and unreasonable act for as the throwing of stones is against all natural and reasonable way of Worship and Religion and is against the way of honour so is a fool as strange and unfit a person to receive it But when Rabbi Manasses threw stones at Mercury in contempt and defiance of the image and thâ— false god he was questioned for idolatry and paid his liberty in exchange for his outward worship of what he secretly hated but by his external act he was brought to judgment and condemned for his hypocrisie This is the case of every one that in a state of sins comes to the holy Sacrament he comes to receive the bread of God and throws a stone at him he pretends worship and secretly hates him and no man must come hither but all that is within him and all that is without must be symbolical to the nature and holiness of the mysteries to the designs and purposes of God In short The full sense of all this is expressed in the Canon-Law in a few words A Sacrament is not to be given but to him that repents for there must no sinful habit or impure affection remain in that tabernacle where God means to place his holy spirit It is like bringing of a swine into the Propitiatory such a presence cannot stand with the presence of the Lord. It is Dagon before the Ark the Chechinah the glory of the Lord wil depart from that unhallowed place But because the duty of Repentance as it is a particular grace is limited and affirmative and therefore is determinable by proper relations and accidents and there is a special necessity of repentance before the receiving of the Sacrament we must inquire more particularly 1. What actions or parts of repentance are necessary in our preparation to the receiving these Divine mysteries 2. How far a penitent must be advanced in a good life before he may come safely and how far before he mâ—y come with confidence 3. What significations of repentance are to be accepted by the Church 4. Whether in case the duty be not performed may every Minister of the Sacrament refuse to admit the wicked person or the imperfect penitent that offers himself and persists in the desire of it SECT III. What actions of repentance are specially required in our preparations to the Holy Sacrament THe particular actions of repentance which are to be performed in their proper seasons which cannot be alwaies actual because they have variety and cannot be attended to altogether all such particulars of repentance are then in their season they have this for their opportunity For it is an admirable wisdom of God so to dispose the times and advantages of Religion that by the solennities of duty our dispersions are gathered up our wandrings are united our indifferencies are kindled our weariness is recreated our spirits are made busie our attention is called upon our powers are made active our vertues fermented we are called upon and looked after and engaged For as it is in motion and as it is in lines a long and a straight progression diminishes the strength and makes languishing and infirmity but by doubling the point or making a new Centre the moving body gathers up its parts and powers into a narrower compass and by union as by a new beginning is rescued from weakness and diminution So it is in the life of a Christian when he first sets forth he is zealous and forward full of appetite and full of holy fires but when his little fuel is consumed and his flame abates when
or to speak nothing but what is pertinent for a day or for a day not to be angry and then sometimes for two daies and so diet your weak soul with little portions of food till it be able to take in and digest a full meal Or 6. Meditate often every day of death or the day of judgment By these and the like instruments it will happen to the remains of sin as it did to the Aegyptians what is left by the Hail the Catterpiller will destroy and what the Catterpiller leaves the Locusts will eat These instruments will eat up the remains of sin as the poor gather up the gleanings after the Carts in harvest 9. But if at any Communion and in the use of these advices you do not perceive any sensible progression in the spirit of mortification or devotion then be sure to be ashamed and to be humbled for thy indisposition and slow progression in the discipline of Christ and if thou beest humbled truly for thy want of improvement it is certain thou hast improved And if you come with fear and trembling it is very probable you will come in the spirit of repentance and devotion These exercises and measures will not seem many long and tedious as the rules of art if we consider that all are not to be used at all times nor by every person but are instruments fitted to several necessities and useful when they can do good and to be used no longer â—or he that uses these or any the like advices by way of solemnity and in periodical returns will still think fit to use them at every Communion as long as he lives but he that uses them as he should that is to effect the work of reformation upon his soul may lay them all aside according to his work is done But if we would every day do something of this if we would every day prepare for the day of death or which is of a like consideration for the day of our Communion if we would every night examine our passed day and set our things in order if we would have a perpetual entercourse and conversation with God or which is better than all examinations in the world if we would actually attend to what we do and consider every action and speak so little that we might consider it we should find that upon the day of our Communion we should have nothing to do but the third particular that is the offices of Prayer and Eucharist and to renew our graces by prayer and exercises of devotion SECT IV. Devotions to be used upon the morning of the Communion 1. O Blessed Lord our gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords thou art fairer than the children of men upon thee the Angels look and behold and wonder what am I O Lord that thou who fillest heaven and earth shouldst descend and desire to dwell with me who am nothing but folly and infirmity misery and sin shame and death 2. I confess O God that when I consider thy greatness and my nothing thy purity and my uncleanness thy glory and my shame I see it to be infinitely unreasonable and presumptuous that I should approach to thy sacred presence and desire to partake of thy Sacraments and to enter into thy grace and to hope for a part of thy glory But when I consider thy mercy and thy wisdome thy bounty and thy goodness thy readiness to forgive and thy desires to impart thy self unto thy servants then I am lifted up with hope then I come with boldness to the throne of grace Even so O Lord because thou hast commanded it and because thou lovest it should be so 3. It was never heard O Lord from the beginning of the world that thou didst ever despise him that called upon thee or â—orsake any man that abides in thy fear or that any person who trusted in the Lord was ever confounded But if I come to thee I bring an unworthy person to be united unto thee if I come not I shall remain unworthy for ever If I stay away I fear to lose thee If I come I fear to offend thee and that will lose thee more and my self too at last I know O God I know my sins have separated between me and my God but thy love and thy passion thy holiness and thy obedience hath reconciled us and though my sins deter me yet they make it necessary for me to come and though thy greatness amazes me yet it is so full of goodness that it invites me 4. O therefore blessed Saviour who didst for our sakes take upon thee our passions and sensibilities our weaknesses and our sufferings who wert hungry after the temptation of the Devil weary and thirsty in thy discourse with the woman of Samaria who didst weep over Lazarus wert afflicted in the garden whipt in the Consistory nail'd on the Cross pierc'd with a spear wrapp'd in liâ—nen laid in the grave and so art become a 〈◊〉 High Priest and pitiful to our infiâ—â—â—â—ieâ— be pleased to receive a weary sinner 〈◊〉 overburdâ—neâ—â—â—nscience an afflicted polluted soul iâ—to thy câ—re and conduct into thy custody and â—â—re I know that a thousand years of tears and sorrow the purity of Angels the love of Saints and the humiliation of the greatest penitent is not sufficient to make we worthy to dwell with thee to be united to thy infinity to be fed with thy body and refreshed with thy purest bloud to become bone of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh and spirit of thy spirit 5. But what I cannot be of my self let me be made by thee I come to thee wounded and bruised and bleeding for thou art my Physician arise then with healing in thy wings I am thirsty and faint as the Hart longeth after the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God thou art the eternal fountain from whence spring the waters of comfort and salvation I am hungry and empty and weak and I come running after thee because thou hast the words of eternal life O send me not away empty for I shall faint and die I cannot live without thee O let vertue go forth from thee and heal all my sickness do thou appear to my soul in these mysteries heal my sores purifie my stains enlighten my darkness turn me from all vain imaginations and illusions of the enemy all perverseness of will all violence and inordination of passions sensual desires and devillish angers lust and malice gluttony and pride the spirit of envy and the spirit of detraction let not sin reign in my members nor the Devil lead my will captive nor the world abuse my understanding and debauch my conversation 6. O Jesus be a Jesus unto me and let this Sacrament be a savour of life and thy holy body the bread of life and thy precious bloud the purifier of my sinful life Grant I may receive these Divine mysteries for the amendment of my
made one with Christ then it shall be to us in our proportion as it was to him we shall rise again and we shall enter into glory But it is certain we are united to Christ by it we eat his body and drink his blood Sacramentally by our mouths and therefore really and spiritually by our spirits and by spiritual actions cooperating For what good will it do us to partake of his body if we do not also partake of his spirit but certain it is if we do one we do both cum naturalis per sacramentum proprietas perfectae sacramentum sit unitatis as St. Hilaries expression is the natural propriety viz the outward elements by the Sacrament that is by the institution and blessing of God become the Sacrament of a perfect unity which beside all the premisses is distinctly affirmed in the words of the Apostle we which are sanctified and he which sanctifies are all of one and again the bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ plainly saying that by this holy ministery we are joyned and partake of Christs body and blood and then we become spiritually one body and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union the chief of which in relation to our bodies is resurrection from the grave And this is expresly taught by the Ancient Church So St. Irenaeus teaches us As the bread which grows from the earth receiving the calling of God that is blessed by prayer and the word of God is not now common bread but the Eucharist consisting of two things an earthly and an heavenly so also our bodies receiving the Eucharist are not now corruptible but have the hope of resurrection And again when the mingled calice and the made bread receives the word of God viz. is consecrated and blessed it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ out of those things by which our body is nourished and our substance does consist and how shall any one deny that the flesh is capable of the gift of God which is eternal life which is nourished by the body and blood of Christ And St. Ignatius calls the blessed Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the medicine of immortallity for the drink is his blood who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruptible love and eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Fathers of the Nicene Councel the symbols of our resurrection the meat nourishing to immortallity and eternal life so Cyril of Alexandria for this is to drink the blood of Jesus to be partakers of the Lords incorruptibility said St. Clement For bread is food and blood is life but we drink the blood of Christ himself commanding us that together with him we may by him be partakers of eternal life So St. Cyprian aut quicunque sit author Sermon de coenâ Domini 6. Because this is a ministry of grace by bodily ceremonies and conveys spiritual blessings by temporal ministrations there is something also of temporal regard directly provided for our bodies by the holy Sacrament It sometimes is a means in the hand of God for the restoring and preserving respectively of our bodily health and secular advantages I will not insist upon that of St. Gorgonia who being oppressed with a violent head-ach threw her self down before the holy Table where the Sacrament was placed and prayed with passion and pertinacy till she obtained relief and ease in that very place Nor that of St. Ambrose who having trod upon a Gentlemans foot afflicted with the gout in the time of ministration gave him the holy smbols and told him it was good for his sicknesse also and that he presently found his cure I my self knew a person of great sanctity who was afflicted to deaths door with a vomiting and preparing her self to death by her viaticum the holy Sacrament to which she always bore a great reverence she was infinitely desirous and yet equally fearful to receive it lest she should reject that by her infirmity which in her spirit she passionately longed for but her desire was the greater passion and prevailed she received it and swallowed it and after great and earnest reluctancy being forced to cast it up in zeal and with a new passion took it in again and then retained it and from that instant speedily recovered against the hope of her Physician and the expectation of all her friends God does miracles every day and he who with spittle and clay cured the blind mans eyes may well be supposed to glorifie himself by the extraordinary contingences and Sacramental contacts of his own body But that which is most famous and remarked is that the Austrian Family do attribute the rise of their House to the present Grandeur to Wâ—lliam Earl of Hasburgh and do acknowledg it to be a reward of his piety in the venerable treatment and usage of these Divine mysteries It were easier to heap together many rare contingences and miraculous effects of the holy Sacrament than to find faith to believe them now-adayes and therefore for this whole affair I relie upon the words of Saint Paul affirming that God sent sicknesses and sundry kinds of death to punish the Corinthian irreverent treatment of the Blessed Sacrament and therefore it is not to be deemed but that life and health will be the consequent of our holy usages of it for if by our fault it is a savour of death it is certain by the blessing and intention of God it is a favour of life But of these things in particular we have no promise and therefore such events as these cannot upon this account of faith and certain expectations be designed by us in our communions If God please to send any of them as sometimes he hath done it is to promote his own glory and our value of the Blessed Sacrament the great ministry of salvation 7. The sum of all I represent in these few words of St. Hilary These holy mysteries being taken cause that Christ shall be in us and we in Christ and if this be more than words we need no further inquiry into the particulars of blessing consequent to a worthy communion for if God hath given his Son unto us how shall not he with him give us all things else nay all things that we need are effected by this said St. Clement of Alexandria one of the most antient Fathers of the Church of Christ Eucharistia qui per fidem sunt participes sanctifiâ—antur corpore animâ They who by faith are partakers of the Eucharist are sanctified both in body and in soul. Fonte renascentes membris sanguine Christi Vescimur atque ideo templum Deitatis habemur Sedul How great therefore and how illustrious benefits it is the meditation of St. Eusebius Emissenus does the power of the Divine blessing