no life in us Whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day For his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed He that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him As the living Father hath sent the Son and he liveth by the Father so he that eateth him shall live by him This is that bread that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat Manna and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live for ever I shall here only give you some brief Directions for your private duty herein Direct 1. Understand well the proper ends to which this Sacrament was instituted by Christ and take heed that you use it not to ends for which it never was appointed The true ends are these 1. To be a solemn Commemoration of the Death and passion of Jesus Christ Mat. 26. 28. Mar. 14. 24. Luke 22. 20. to keep it as it were in the eye of the Church in his bodily absence till he come 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the Holy Covenant which was first entred in Baptism between Christ and the Receiver and in that Covenant it is on Christ's part a solemn delivery of himself first and with himself the benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and right to Life eternal Heb. 9. 15 16 17 18. 1 Cor. 10. 16 24. And on mans part it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his Benefits upon his terms and a delivering up our selves to him as his Redeemed ones even to the Father as our reconciled Father and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier with Professed Thankfulness for so great a benefit 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means by which the Spirit of Christ should work to stir up and exercise and increase the Repentance Faith Desire Love Hope Joy Thankfulness and New-Obedience of Believers by a lively Representation of the evil of sin the infinite love of God in Christ the firmness of the Covenant or Promise the greatness and sureness of the Mercy given and the Blessedness purchased and promised to us and the great obligations that are laid upon us And that herein believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these Graces 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 31. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 21. 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 6. 4. and might be provoked and assisted to stir up themselves to this Communion with God in Christ to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ 4. It is appointed to be the solemn Profession of Believers of their Faith and Love and Gratitude and Obedience to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of continuing firm in the Christian Religion And a Badge of the Church before the World Acts 2. 42 46. 20. 7. 5. And it is appointed to be a sign and means of the Unity Love and Communion of Saints and their readiness to Communicate to each other The false mistaken ends which you must avoid are these 1. You must not with the Papists think that the end of it is to turn Bread into no Bread and Wine into no Wine and to make them really the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ For if sense which telleth all Men that it is still Bread and Wine be not to be believed then we cannot believe that ever there was a Gospel or an Apostle or a Pope or a Man or any thing in the World And the Apostle expresly calleth it Bread three times in three Verses together after the Consecration 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. and he telleth us that the use of it is not to make the Lords Body really present but to shew the Lords Death till he come that is As a visible representing and commemorating sign to be instead of the Bodily presence till he come 2. Nor must you with the Papists use this Sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father to propitiate him for the quick and dead and ease Souls in Purgatory and deliver them out of it For Christ having died once dieth no more and without killing him there is no sacrificing him By once offering up himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Having finished the sacrificing work on Earth he is now passed into the Heavens to appear before God for his Redeemed ones Ro. 6. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Heb. 9. 26. and 10. 12 26. and 9. 24. 3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the Sacrament to confirm some Confederacies or Oaths of Secresie for rebellions or other unlawful designs as the Powder-Plotters in England did 4. Nor is it any other than impious prophanation of these sacred Mysteries for the Priest to constrain or suffer notoriously ignorant and ungodly persons to receive them either to make themselves believe that they are indeed the Children of God or to be a means which ungodly men should use to make them godly or which Infidels or Impenitent persons must use to help them to Repentance and Faith in Christ For though there is that in it which may become a means of their Conversion as a Thief that stealeth a Bible or Sermon Book may be converted by it yet is it not to be used by the Receiver to that end For that were to tell God a lie as the means of their Conversion for whosoever cometh to receive a setled pardon doth thereby profess repentance as also by the words adjoyned he must do And whosoever taketh and eateth and drinketh the Bread and Wine doth actually profess thereby that he taketh and applieth Christ himself by Faith And therefore if he do neither of these he lieth openly to God and lies and false Covenants are not the appointed means of Conversion Not that the Minister is a lier in his delivery of it For he doth but conditionally seal and deliver Gods Covenant and Benefits to the Receiver to be his if he truly Repent and Believe But the Receiver himself lieth if he do not actually Repent and Believe as he there professeth to do 5. Also it is an impious prophanation of the Sacrament if any Priest for the love of filthy lucre shall give it to those that ought not to receive it that he may have his Fees or Offerings or that the Priest may have so much money that is bequeathed for the saying a Mass for such or such a Soul 6. And it is odious prophanation of the Sacrament to use it as a League or Bond of Faction to gather persons in to the party and tie them fast to it that they may depend upon the Priest and his Faction and Inerest may thereby be strengthned and he may seem to have many followers 7. And it is a dangerous abuse of it to
Monthly Preparations FOR THE Holy Communion By R. B. To which is added Suitable Meditations before in and after Receiving WITH Divine Hymns In Common Tunes Fitted for Publick Congregations or Private Families LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible Three Crowns the lower end of Cheapside 1696. THE PREFACE TO THE READER SAcramental work is solemn work indeed And all those helps are valuable and desirable whereby the furniture of our minds the temper of our hearts and the conduct of our lives may be answerable to the solemnity of a Sacramental Table A mind that is barren or perplext an heart that is false or stupid and the conscience of a disordered conversation are bad Companions to attend us to the Holy Supper of our Lord. The Lord's Body is to be discerned his Death shewed forth his tender'd self and benefits received and his next Coming seriously thought on and throughly prepared for and joyfully expected by us and all this is to be influenced and actuated by this Memorial which Christ hath left with us Such helps as these are the more useful by being brief if brevity do not render them defective and obscure as here I think they will not No Directory can be better than the Institution if well discerned and attended to I. The Memorable Person is the Lord Jesus in his perfections relations and designs Here therefore let him be considered 1. As Man to render him capable of sufferings service and contending with that Enemy of God and Man who once deceived and enslaved us 2. As the Son of Man the chief of Humane Race for Tryals Faithfulness and Advancement 3. As the Son of God as essentially and most intimately one with God as Lord of the Universe Head over all things to his Church and of the Church it self The brightness of his Fathers Glory the one Mediator and so God's way to Man and Man's way to God and one deputed to undertake and perfect our Conduct Government and Salvation II. His Sufferings are the things here next to be commemorated Great were his Tryals from God from Hell and from this World With great composedness and gallantry of spirit did he endure them and work his passage through them to that exalted state wherein he had so much to do with God for us In all these and in his preparations for them doth he appear most exemplary to us claiming and urging our Conformity to his obedient submissive and resolved self And in his Meritorious Sufferings and Expiatory Death must we discern and think severely on what there and thence was evident viz. Gods Wisdom Majesty Holiness and his Governing Justice and Prerogatives the sinfulness of sin the misery of Revolted Man the equity and power of God's Violated Law and the eminence of the Divine above the Animal Life Nature and Concerns III. Our Interest in and Benefit by these his Sufferings are next to exercise our thoughts He died to let us see 1. How glorious a God we have to do with 2 What wise and righteous Constitutions we had violated 3. What dreadful evils we had brought upon our selves 4. What spirit strength and reach there is in Divine Threatnings 5. How hard it is to be recovered when we are faln from God and so what an Enemy Satan is to Man and how unwilling to let his Captives go 6. To shew us the riches of God's Grace in him and his own Dignity in that his Sufferings could and did merit and obtain of God our Pardon Adoption Acceptance and Eternal Bliss through him 7. To raise and cherish holy endeavours to return to God in hope 8. To make us dread the thoughts of ever falling off from God again 9. To justifie our claims to all the Benefits of our Gospel-state and day 10. To obtain of God for us the Spirit and Means of Grace thereby to fit us for our present Work and Trials in this our Probationary state and to suit and bring us to his Father and himself in Glory and that with universul Satisfaction and Advantage and Applause 11. To put himself into a capacity of interceding for us in Heaven and blessing us from Heaven as our High-Priest upon his Throne 12. To put us into and to keep us in a Covenant-state and frame that thus we may deal and walk with God as Children as interested in his Son as inhabited and actuated by his Spirit and as united with all the Family of God and Christ in the same Principles Practices Concerns and Hopes in order to the exercises of all the sympathies and services of mutually Christian Love Ephes iv v. 1-6 IV. Our Commemoration of Christ thus represented to us as upon the Cross and as determining to come again is our next work 1. The Sacramental Elements and the Observed Institution is the Memorial 2. The Remembrance contains 1. Head-work in discerning remembring and believing the Sacramental Doctrine of this Supper to be true and of great consequence to us Christ Crucified and determining to come again 2. Heart-work in forming the temper purposes hopes and comforts of our hearts unto what this Supper imports and our acceptance of what is tendered here and our obliging our selves to do and be as Christ would have us 3. Life-work in keeping up our Christian practice and profession as we are here directed and obliged to for a more full account whereof and greater fitness for it thou art commended to this helpful Treatise by Thine to his poor power for Christ Matthew Sylvester Feb. 3. 1695 6. A Monthly Preparation for our Holy Communion with Christ and his Church in the Lord's Supper THIS is a holy Feast that is purposely provided by the King of Saints for the Entertainment of his Family for the refreshing of the weary and the making glad the mournful Soul The night before his bitter Death he instituted this Sacramental Feast He caused his Disciples to sit down with him and when they had partaked of the Passover the Sacrament of Promise and had their taste of the old wine he giveth them the new even the Sacrament of the better Covenant and of the fuller Gospel-Grace He teacheth them that his Death is Life to them and that which is his bitterest suffering is their Feast and his sorrows are their Joyes as our sinful pleasures were his sorrows The slain Lamb of God our passover that was Sacrificed for us that taketh away the sins of the world was the pleasant food which Sacramentally he himself then delivered to them and substantially the next day offered for them The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world John 6. 33. He is the living bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which he giveth is his flesh which he hath given for the life of the world verse 50 51. Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood we have
bring forth its store Thoughts offer your first-born God did assume the shape of Man With flesh his glory vail'd Himself he humbled unto death He to the Cross was nail'd III. Made sin us to acquit from sin Accursed us to bless Of Righteousness he wrought a Robe To hide our nakedness Darling of Heaven he was and is The Father 's chief delight Angels wonder the Saints above Are ravish'd at his sight IV. Array'd he is with Majesty Angels do him attend All pow'r is his in Heaven and Earth All to his Scepter bend A glorious Crown is on his head Most lovely is his face Treasures of wisdom are with him For us he 's stor'd with grace V. His Love doth pass dimensions His Love exceeds all thought Stronger than death this Love to us Salvation hath brought Hence all the Clouds away away Darken no more mine eye Fain would I see this lovely one Whose dwelling is on high VI. Open thine Eye here Jesus stands He looks he breathes he moves By Faith thou may'st discern him plain In this sweet Feast of Loves And art thou here indeed my Lord Draw nearer yet to me And nearer nearer my dear Lord Too near thou canst not be VII Come my Beloved let me view Thy beauteous lovely face Thee I would fold in arms of love Fain I would thee embrace I feel I feel a flame within Dear Lord I thee admire Thy sparkling beauty which I see Hath set me all on fire VIII Thy kind looks have me overcome The glances of thine Eye Sweetly my Soul transported have I feel an extasie Unutterable Joys I feel How sweet how sweet how sweet Is this taste of thy Love whilst I And my Beloved meet IX Sure this the Gate of Heaven is Methinks I'm entring in Where I shall always see thy face And no more grieve or sin Ten thousand praises let us give Unto our Lord on high Let heart and lip and life combine To make the melody HYMN II. I. O Come let us joyn all like one The Lord to magnifie Let us together lift his name In sweet sounds to the Sky Sweet Hymns of Love come let us sing Let Love us act and move Let Love our voices tune to praise Our God for God is Love II. God's Love the lofty Heav'ns above In height doth far transcend Its depth the Sea its breadth and length Is without bound or end God's Love to us is wonderful To us who Rebels were God gave his only Son to die That Rebels he might spare III. From guilt and reigning power of sin And Satan's slavery From fire of Hell us to redeem God gave his Son to die Christ suffer'd in our stead he was More harmless than the Dove That God should lay our sins on him This this indeed is Love IV. O come let us give God our Loves Let every heart take fire Let flames come forth and joyn in one And unto Heav'n aspire â—weet Spirit come like Southern Gales Within us breathe and move Blow up our spark into a flame That we may burn with love V. That we with all our hearts may love Our hearts Lord circumcise Of Love persum'd with sweet Incense Accept the Sacrifice VI. Draw near O God unvail thy self Our cloudiness remove O shine and smile on us that we may see thy face and love VII Dear Jesus come and visit us A stranger do not prove Heal wounds of sin speak peace that we Thy voice may hear and love VIII Our selves we offer with our hearts Our whole selves we resign To thee who art the God of Love We are and will be thine HYMN III. I. GOD hath us brought into his Courts And Chambers of his Love That he might feed and feast us here With dainties from above Heav'n opened is before our Eye The Vail is rent that we May upward look and his dear Son Crowned with Glory see II. This Jesus crowned was with Thorns Scourged with cruel hands His flesh was torn when to the Cross He tyed was with Bands Tears trickled from his mournful eyes Sweat dropped from his face Blood flowed from his hands and feet And side in streams apace III. His groans were strong his crys were loud Pressures of wrath did lye Upon his Soul with sense of which In anguish he did dye He harmless was and innocent No guilt upon him lay But as our Surety he our debts Did by his sufferings pay IV. Thus did he Justice satisfie By dying in our room That we might justified be By Faith that to him come The Bread we eat at this great Feast Christ's flesh is and his blood Is represented by the Wine This this indeed is food V. Here is the heavenly Manna which Our God to us doth give Who eateth other bread shall die In eating this we live A hidden life of Grace we have Breathing desires and love Christ is our Life the Author Spring By whom our Graces move VI. Come let us look unto our Lord This Glass will show his face Not veiled over with dark Types As heretofore it was God-man that name is wonderful So is his beauty so His love is full of wonders both Beyond our reach to go VII Yet where we cannot comprehend Looking let us admire Admiring love loving rejoyce And to enjoy aspire Our Lord is present at this Feast He looks let 's meet his Eye With ours sweet glances looks of love It may be we shall spy VIII Come Lord draw near we long we long Thy face to see thy love To taste thy voice to hear within To feel thy Spirit move Thou art all fair thou hast no spot Thy beauty is divine Thou art all love embrace us Lord In those sweet Arms of thine IX We look we wait we hope we trust We long we love we burn Ravish thou dost our hearts whilst thou To us thine Eye dost turn With all the powers of our Souls Dear Jesus we thee praise In songs of joy and thankfulness Our voices we do raise X. Hosanna's we Hosanna's we Do sing with one accord In Hallelujah's of triumph We joyn to praise the Lord. Ye Angels and triumphant Saints Praise ye our Lord above Whilst we his Servants here below Do sing his praise with love HYMN IV. I. THousands of thousands stand around Thy Throne O God most high Ten thousand times ten thousand sound Thy praise but who am I Thine arm of might most mighty King Both Rocks and hearts doth break My God thou canst do every thing But what would show thee weak II. Most pure and holy are thine Eyes Most holy is thy Name Thy Saints and Laws and Penalties Thy holiness proclaim Mercy is God's Memorial And in all Ages prais'd My God thine only Son did fall That Mercy might be rais'd III. Thy bright back-parts O God of Grace I humbly here adore Shew me thy glory and thy face That I may praise thee more Mysterious depths of endless love Our admirations raise My God thy Name exalted is Far above
receive it that you may be pardoned or sanctified or saved barely by the work done or by the outward exercise alone As if God were there obliged to give you Grace while you strive not with your own hearts to stir them up to love or desire or faith or obedience by the means that are before you or as if God would pardon and save you for eating so much Bread and drinking so much Wine when the Canon biddeth you or as if the Sacrament conveyed Grace like as Charms are supposed to work by saying over so many words 8. Lastly It is no appointed end of this Sacrament that the Receiver thereby profess himself certain of the sincerity of his own Repentance and Faith For it is not managed on the ground of such certainty only by the Receiver much less by the minister that delivereth it But only he professeth that as far as he can discern by observing his own heart he is truly willing to have Christ and his benefits on the terms that they are offered and that he doth consent to the Covenant which he is there to renew Think not therefore that the Sacrament is instituted for any of these mistaken ends Direct 2. Distinctly understand the parts of the Sacrament that you may distinctly use them and not do you know not what This Sacrament containeth these three parts 1. The Consecration of the Bread and Wine which maketh it the Representative Body and Blood of Christ 2. The Representation and Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ 3. The Communion Or Communication by Christ and Reception by the people 1. In the Consecration the Church doth first offer the Creatures of Bread and Wine to be accepted of God to this Sacred use And God accepteth them and blesseth them to this use which he signifieth both by the words of his own Institution and by the Action of his Ministers and their Benidiction They being the Agents of God to the People in this Accepting and Blessing as they are the Agents of the People to God in offering or dedicating the Creatures to this use 2. This Consecration having a special respect to God the Father in it we acknowledge his three grand Relations 1. That he is the Creator and so the Owner of all the Creatures for we offer them to him as his own 2. That he is our Righteous Governor whose Law it was that Adam and we have broken and who required satisfaction and hath received the Sacrifice and atonement and hath dispensed with the strict and proper execution of that Law and will rule us hereafter by the Law of Grace 3. That he is our Father or Benefactor who hath freely given us a Redeemer and the Covenant of Grace whose Love and Favor we have forfeited by sin but desire hope to be reconciled by Christ 3. As Christ himself was Incarnate and true Christ before he was sacrificed to God and was sacrificed to God before that sacrifice be communicated for life and nourishment to Souls So in the Sacrament Consecration must first make the Creature to be the Flesh and Blood of Christ representative and then the sacrificing of that flesh and blood must be represented and commemorated and then the sacrificed flesh and blood communicated to the Receivers for their spiritual life II. The Commemoration chiefly but not only respecteth God the Son For he hath ordained that these consecrated Representations should in their manner and measure supply the room of his bodily presence while his body is in Heaven And that thus as it were in effigy in representation he might be still Crucified before the Churches eyes and they might be affected as if they had seen him on the Cross And that by Faith and Prayer they might as it were offer him up to God that is Might shew the Father that sacrifice once made for sin in which they trust and for which it is that they expect all the acceptance of their persons with God and hope for audience when they beg for mercy and offer up prayer or praise to him III. In the Communication though the Sacrament have respect to the Father as the principal Giver and to the Son as both the Gift and Giver yet hath it a special respect to the Holy Ghost as being that spirit given in the flesh and Blood which quickeneth Souls without which the Flesh will profit nothing And whose operations must convey and apply Christs saving benefits to us John 6. 63. 7. 39. These three being the parts of the Sacrament in whole as comprehending that sacred Action and participation which is essential to it The Material parts called the Relate and Correlate are 1. Substantial and Qualitative 2. Active and Passive 1. The first are the Bread and Wine as signs and the Body and Blood of Christ with his Graces and Benefits as the things signified and given The second are the Actions of Breaking Pouring out and Delivering on the Ministers part after the Conscration and the Taking Eating and Drinking by the Receivers as the sign And the signified is the Crucifying or Sacrificing of Christ and the Delivering himself with his Benefits to the Believer and the Receivers thankful Accepting and using the said gift To these add the Relative Form and the Ends and you have the definition of this Sacrament Direct 3. Look upon the minister as the Agent or Officer of Christ who is Commissioned by him to seal and deliver to you the Covenant and its benefits And take the Bread and Wine as if you heard Christ himself saying to you Take my Body and Blood and the Pardon and Grace which is thereby purchased It is a great help in the Application to have mercy and pardon brought us by the hand of a Commissioned Officer of Christ Direct 4. In your preparation before-hand take heed of these two extreams 1. That you come not prophanely and carelesly with common hearts as to a common work For God will be sanctified in them that draw near to him Levit. 10. 3. And they that eat and drink unworthily not discerning the Lords Body from common Bread but eating as if it were a common meal do eat death to themselves instead of life 2. Take heed lest your mistakes of the nature of this Sacrament should possess you with such fears of unworthy receiving and the following dangers as may quite discompose and unfit your Souls for the joyful exercises of Faith and Love and Praise and Thanksgiving to which you are invited Many that are scrupulous of receiving it in any save a feasting gesture are too little careful and scrupulous of receiving it in any save a feasting frame of mind The first extream is caused by prophanness and negligence or by gross ignorance of the nature of the Sacramental work The latter extream is frequently caused as followeth 1. By setting this Sacrament at a greater distance from other parts of God's worship than there is cause So that the excess of Reverence doth overwhelm the minds
where where are they I saw them by me but just now I said them by my heart before I went to bed Oh what was I so long a reasoning about Oh what long and many threds did my reason spin even now but to make these twines to tye up my joy and to raise up my love and to hang my Heavenly delight upon But ah I fear this envious world hath with her vanities stollen them away or hid them from me or the envious Devil or unbelief have been ravelling or snarling of them that now I am as far to seek as ever Whither O whither shall I go to find them out Now will the Bridegroom come and I am not ready I cannot dare not go to day Now will my Lord be angry and ask me why I came not and I have no answer to make him And if I go undrest he will ask me where is my Weding-garment and then I shall be speechless Ah foollsh simple heart that thou shouldst take no more care but to let these thoughts of earth so intangle themselves with thy so pure and heavenly contemplations Now how to get them loose again thou knowest not this thou mightest by heed and care have prevented but now what help Lord I have sinned O holy Father pardon this time and I will take more heed Oh come and unty my thoughts from this earth and come and dress me up as best pleaseth thee Come be not discouraged Oh my Soul Let but thy attire of Grace be whole that is sincere thy God and so thy Saviour will accept thee Though thy garments are not so much perfumed with Heaven as thy brethrens are but yet if they are but white and free from the spots of flesh and spirit thou wilt be looked on and liked of well enough Thy Lord doth know that all have not Talents alike and where he gives but a little he expects but little A faith that it richly embroidered over with love and delight is not given to all and is not expected from any but from those to whom it is given Thou hast an honest willing serious heart that thinks it doth despise and trample under feet the nearest dearest pleasures profits and glories in the world in compare with him that gave himself to death for thee and hadst rather anger flesh and blood the dartest friends and all the world than him by sinning against him in the least If this be true fear not thou hast thy Weding-garment on thou art well clad as mean so ever as it is it is such a one as Heaven gave thee and such a one as thy dear Redeemer can and will embrace thee in The Presence-Chamber Fear not O my soul I charge thee do not faint Let not thy weakness and the poverty of thy grace discourage thee â—ee how thy Lord draws nigh Fear not I say he will not ask thee Friend how camest thou hither not having on thy Wedding garment He sees thy heart and sees thou hast it on Oh he comes and it is out to whisper thee a welcome in thine ear it is but to fall about thy neck and kiss thy be-tear'd cheeks and bid thee a kind welcome to thy bleeding Lord. Soul Oh did I think to be thus much made of I thought he would not have minded me but I did no sooner appear and set my feet within the doors but he ran to meet me he took mee in his arms he brought me hither and set me here Is this a house or is it a Palace Is this a Court for Princes or for Angels Never did place more ravish me into amazement than this place Beautiful are thy gates O Zion O how pleasant is the habitation of the most high Is it the place or the company that strikes me into astonishment Now I can say most feelingly say with David My delights are with the Saints of the most high and the most excellent of the earth Their poverty their disgrace their contempt amongst whom they live do not puzzle my quick-ey'd Faith these are the Kings Daughters that are all glorious within their garments are of needle work imbroidered over with pure gold fine-spun gold These O these how poor and mean soever they are or may seem to be these shall sit with Christ to Judge the World Oh! how my soul is ravished with delight to see and look on those with whom I shall live for ever If they are so lovely now what will they be hereafter when our God shall take them and scowr off their rust and wash their Garments bright in the Sun-shine of his countenance and change those mortal and corruptible bodies into immortal and glorious ones and set them upon Thrones about himself and lade their heads with Crowns of massy gold and when I shall hear them warbling out the everlasting Praises of the Lamb whose Body and Blood we shall sit down to feed on Communion-Plate Never was Gold or Silver graced thus before To bring this Body and this Blood to us is more than to Crown Kings or be made Rings For Star-like Diamonds to glitter in The Bread Welcome Fairest take and eat 't is the sweetest dainties dearest morsel Heaven can afford thee Welcome my Dear to the Table of my Lord. Welcome a thousand times I bid thee yea welcomer than thine own heart can wish Take eat this morsel it cost my life it 's a portion thy Father sent unto thee by me and bid me remember thee of his love to thee He bids thee remember a Fathers love Ay a Saviours He hath a heart to give thee and so have I. Take this in earnest of them both in one Take freely if thou wert not welcome I would have told thee I would have asked thee for thy Weding-Garment knew I not thy heart or if I were uncertain of thy love I would have scorn'd thee as unworrhy of my presence did I know thou lovest any thing above me I would have hid my face and never have spoke thee a welcome so feelingly and kindly to thy soul Tell me O tell me dost thou not love me I know thou dost and above Father or Mother Wife or Child Lands or Living or Credit I know thou dost And wilt thou not take the Cross and sollow me I know thou wilt I see and know the labour of thy love I remember the pains and travel of thy soul I saw thee follow me on thy knees in tears and begged my life rather than thy life I know thy heart I saw it bleeding before my Throne I took it in my arms and bound it up and in that breast I remember I put it up again I saw thee when no eye saw thee I heard thee and had compassion on thy groanings whilst thou wert complaining that I had shut out thy prayers I will remember since thy heart did first fall sick with love since the time thy flesh began to die and since thou laidst thy self in the grave down by me and wert willing to