him till the time of restitution of all things and so long as we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. In the mean time we can taste and see that the Lord is gracious that he is sweet but Christ is so to be tasted as he is to be seen and no otherwise but here we walk by faith and not by sight and here also we live by faith and not by meer or only bread but by that Word which proceedeth out from God that as meat is to the body so is Christ to the soul the food of the soul by which the souls of the just do live He is the bread which came down from heaven the bread which was born at Bethlâ—hem the house of bread was given to us to be the food of our souls for ever The meaning of which mysterious and Sacramental expressions when they are reduced to easie intelligible significations is plainly this By Christ we live and move and have our spiritual being in the life of grace and in the hopes of glory He took our life that we might partake of his he gave his life for us that he might give life to us He is the Author and finisher of our faith the beginning and perfection of our spiritual life Every good thought we think we have it from him every good word we speak we speak it by his spirit for no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and all our prayers are by the aids and communications of the spirit of Christ who helpeth our infirmities and by unutterable groans and unexpressible representment of most passionate desires maketh intercession for us In fine all the principles and parts all the actions and progressions of our spiritual life are derivations from the Son of God by whom we are born and nourished up to life Eternal 2. Christ being the food of our souls he is pleased to signifie this food to us by such symbols and similitudes as his present state could furnish us withal He had nothing about him but flesh and blood which are like to meat and drink and therefore what he calls himself saying I am the bread of life he afterwards calls his flesh and his blood saying My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed that is that you may perceive me to be indeed the food of your souls see here is meat and drink for you my flesh and my blood so to represent himself in a way that was neerest to our capacity and in a more intelligible manner not further from a Mystery but neerer to our manner of understanding and yet so involved in figure that it is never to be drawn neerer than a Mystery till it comes to experience and spiritual relish and perception But because we are not in darknesse but within the fringes and circles of a bright cloud let us search as far into it as we are guided by the light of God and where we are forbidden by the thicker part of the cloud step back and worship 3. For we have yet one further degree of charity and manifestation of this Mystery The flesh of Christ is his word the blood of Christ is his spirit and by believing in his word and being assisted and conducted by his spirit we are nourished up to life and so Christ is our food so he becomes life unto our souls Thus St. Clemens of Alexandria and Tertullian affirm the Church in their days to have understood this Mystery saying The word of God is called flesh and blood For so the eternal wisdom of the Father calls to every simple soul that wanteth understanding come eat of the bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled and that we may know what is this bread and wine he adds forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding Our life is wisdom our food is understanding The Rabbins have an observation that when ever mention is made in the Book of the Proverbs of eating and drinking there is meant nothing but wisdom and the Law and when the Doctors using the words of Scripture say Come and eat flesh in which there is much fatness they would be understood to say Come and hear wisdom and learn the fear of God in which there is great nourishment and advantage to your souls Thus Wisdom is called Water and Vnderstanding Bread by the son of Sirach with the bread of understanding shall she feed him and give him the water of wisdom to drink It is by the Prophet Isaiah called water and wine and the desires of righteousness are called hunger and thirst by our blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount And in pursuance of this mysterious truth we find that God in his anger threatens a famine of hearing the words of the Lord when we want Gods word we die with hunger we want that bread on which our souls do feed It was an excellent Commentary which the Jewish Doctors make upon those words of the Prophet with joy shall ye draw waters from the wells of salvation that is from the choicest or wisest of the just men saith Rabbi Jonathan from the chief Ministers of Religion the Heads of the people and the Rulers of the Congregation because they preach the Word of God they open the wells of salvation from the fountains of our Saviour giving drink and refreshment to all the people Thus the Prophet Jeremy expresses his spiritual joy and the sense of this Mystery Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by thy Name O Lord God of Hosts the same with that of our Blessed Saviour My words are spirit and they are life they give life and comfort they refresh our souls and feed them up to immortality As the body or flesh of Christ is his Word so the blood of Christ is his Spirit in real effect and signification For as the body without blood is a dead and liveless trunck so is the Word of God without the Spirit a dead and ineffective Letter and this Mystery we are taught in that incomparable Epistle to the Hebrews For by the blood of Christ we are sanctified and yet that which sanctifies us is the spirit of grace and both these are one For so saith the Apostle the blood of Christ was offered up for us for the purification of our consciences from dead works but this offering was made through the eternal spirit and therefore he is equally guilty and does the same impiety he who does dâ—spâ—te to the spirit of Grace and he who accounts the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing for by this spirit and by this blood we are sanctified by this spirit and by the blood of the everlasting Covâ—nant Jesus Christ does perfect us in every good work so that these are the
same Ministry of salvation and but one and the same Oeconomy of God Thus St. Peter affirms That by the precious blood of Christ we are redeemed from our vain conversation and it is every where affirmed that we are purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ and yet these are the express effects of his Spirit for by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body and we are justified and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God By which expressions we are taught to distinguish the natural blood of Christ from the spiritual the blood that he gave for us from the blood which he gives to us that was indeed by the spirit but was not the same thing but this is the spirit of grace and the spirit of wisdom And therefore as our Fathers were made to drink into one spirit when they drank of the water of the rock so we also partake of the spirit when we drink of Christs blood which came from the spiritual rock when it was smitten for thus according to the Doctrine of St. John the water aâ—d the blood and the spirit are one and the same glorious purposes As it was with our Fathers in the beginning so it is now with us and so it ever shall be world without end for they fed upon Christ that is they believed in Christ they expected his day they lived upon his promises they lived by faith in him and the same meat and drink is set upon our Tables and more than all this as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world so he shall be the food of souls in heaven where they who are accounted worthy shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal Supper of the Lamb concerning which blessedness our B. Saviour saith Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God for he hath appointed to his chosen ones to eat and drink at his table in his Kingdom plainly teaching us that by eating and drinking Christ is meant in this world to live the life of the spirit and in the other world it is to live the life of glory here we feed upon duty and there we feed upon reward our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrhe there it is mere and unmixt but still it is called meat and drink and still is meant grace and glory the fruits of the spirit and the joy of the spirit that is by Christ we here live a spiritual life and hereafter shall live a life eternal Thus are sensible things the Sacrament and representation of the spiritual and eternal and spiritual things are the fulfillings of the sensible But the consequent of these things is this that since Christ always was is and shall be the food of the faithful and is that bread which came down from heaven since we eat him here and shall eat him there our eating both here and there is spiritual only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of glorification and our faith into Charity and all the way our souls live a new life by Christ of which eating and drinking is the Symbol and the Sacrament And this is not done to make this mystery obscure but intelligible and easie For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire which to our flesh is most painful and the joyes of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure by meat and drink and the growth in grace by the natural instruments of nutrition and the work of the Soul by the ministeries of the body and the graces of God by the blessings of nature for these we know and we know nothing else and but by phantasmes and ideas of what we see and feel we understand nothing at all Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our Communion that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in the world And when he gives us his body and his blood he does not fill our stomachs with good things for of whatsoever goes in thither it is affirmed by the Apostle that God will destroy both it and them but our hearts are to be replenished and by receiving his spirit we receive the best thing that God gives not his liveless body but his flesh with life in it that is his doctrine and his spirit to imprint it so to beget a living faith and a lively hope that we may live and live for ever 4. St. John having thus explicated this mystery in general of our eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ added nothing in particular concerning any Sacraments these being in particular instances of the general mystery and communion with Christ. But what is the advantage we receive by the Sacraments besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministeries of faith I thus account in general The word and the spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ that is the ground of all Now because there are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abbreviature of the whole word of God the great messages of the word incarnate Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two Sacraments and assist those two Sacraments as he did the whole word of God with the presence of his Spirit that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards Believe and repent is the word in Baptisme and and there solemnly consigned and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ for faith as it is opposed to works that is the new Covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old Covenant of works is the covenant of repentance repentance is expressly included in the new covenant but was not in the old but by faith in Christ we are admitted to pardon of our sins if we repent and forsake them utterly Now this is the word of faith and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ for this is that which the soul feeds on this is that by which the just do live and when by the operation of the holy spirit the waters are reformed to a Divine Nature or efficacy the baptized are made clean theâ— are sanctified and presented pure and spotless unto God This mystery St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed that we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ when we are in baptisme incorporated into his body we are baptized in the passion of our Lord so Tertullian to the same sense with that of St. Paul we are buried with him in baptisme into his death that is by baptisme are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are in baptisme reached to us by the hand of God by his holy spirit and received by the hand of man the Ministery of
a holy faith So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven so we do it also and do it much more in baptisme because in this besides all that was before there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment The difference is only this That out of the Sacrament the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of man in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God For here God is the preacher the Sacrament is Gods sign and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son that is by the death of Christ into which we are baptized And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery So often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye declare the Lords death till he come This indeed is a word of comfort Christ died for our sins that is our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is verbum visibile the same word read to the eye and to the ear Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacramental signification here faith is in triumph and exaltation but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical we eat Christ by faith here we have faith also by eating Christ Thus eating and drinking is faith it is faith in mystery and faith in ceremony it is faith in act and faith in habit it is exercised and it is advanced and therefore it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage The sum is this Christs body his flesh and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression but very proper and intelligible in the event to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood since by these it is that we have and preserve life But because what Christ begun in his incarnation he finished in his body on the crosse and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by his body and blood does contain in it a visible word the word in symbol and visibility and special manifestation Consonant to which Docrtine the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament the extension of the Incarnation So that here are two things highly to be remarked 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the Sacrament by the same he is taken in the Sacrament and by some wayes here more than there 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacrament the life and the spirit is believing greatly and doing all the actions of that believing direct and consequent So that there are in this two manducations and Sacramental and the Spiritual That does but declare and exercise this and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone as it is a ceremony as it does only consigne or expresse the internal it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well so in it and with it much better For here being as in baptisme a double significatory of the spirit a word and a sign of his own appointment it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration Here we have bread and drink flesh and blood the word and the spirit Christ in all his effects and most gracious communications This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery Christians are spiritual men faith is their mouth and wisdom is their food and believing is manducation and Christ is their life and truth is the Air they breath and their bread is the word of God and Gods spirit is their drink and righteousness is their robe and Gods laws are their light and the Apostles are their salt and Christ is to them all in all for we must put on Christ and we must eat Christ and we must drink Christ we must have him within us and we must be in him he is our vine and we are his branches he is a door and by him we must enter he is our shepherd and we his sheep Deus meus omnia he is our God and he is all things to us that is plainly he is our Redeemer and he is our Lord He is our Saviour and our Teacher by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal and that is the sum of all For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ which is now in heaven but of his Word and of his Spirit which are therefore indeed his body and his blood because by these we feed on him to life eternal Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel but especially in the Sacraments where the Word is preached and consigned and the Spirit is the teacher and the feeder and makes the Table full and the Cup to overflow with blessing SECT III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministery proved in General IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth but the word and the spirit of Christ by faith and a spiritual hand and upon this account have discovered their mistake who think the secret lies in the outside and suppose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conjecture and zeal do speak of and know not what to say but resolve to speak things great enough it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries who say it is nothing but a commemoration of
the spices and gums upon the Altar of Incense SECT II. What it is which we receive in the holy SACRAMENT IT is strange that Christians should pertinaciously insist upon carnal significations and natural effects in Sacraments and Mysteries when our blessed Lord hath given us a sufficient light to conduct and secure us from such mis-apprehensions The flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life that is the flesh is corruption and its senses are Ministers of death and this one word alone was perpetually sufficient for Christ's Disciples For when upon occasion of the grosse understanding of their Masters words by the men of Capernaum they had been once clearly taught that the meaning of all these words was wholly spiritual they rested there and inquired no further insomuch that when Christ at the institution of the Supper affirmed of the bread and wine that they were his body and his blood they were not at all offended as being sufficiently before instructed in the nature of that Mystery And besides this they saw enough to tell them that what they eat was not the natural body of their Lord This was the body which himself did or might eat with his body one body did eat and the other was eaten both of them were his body but after a diverse manner For the case is briefly this We have two lives a natural and a spiritual and both must have bread for their support and maintenance in proportion to their needs and to their capacities and as it would be an intollerable charity to give nothing but spiritual nutriment to a hungry body and pour diagrams and wise propositions into an empty stomach so it would be as useless and impertinent to feed the Soul with wheat or flesh unless that were the conveyance of a spiritual delicacy In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the body of Christ according to the proper signification of a humane body is not at all but in a sense differing from the proper and natural body that is in a sense more agreeing to Sacraments so St. Hierom expresly Of this sacrifice which is wonderfully done in the commemoration of Christ we may eat but of that sacrifice which Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse by it self or in its own nature no man may eat For it is his flesh which is under the form of bread and his blood which is in the form and tast of wine for the flesh is the Sacrament of flesh and blood is the Sacrament of blood for by flesh and blood that is invisible spiritual intelligible the visible and tangible body of our Lord Jesus Christ is consigned full of the grace of all vertues and of Divine Majesty So St Augustine For therefore ye are not to eat that body which ye see nor to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour out it is the same and not the same the same invisibly but not the same visibly For until the world be finished the Lord is above but the truth of the Lord is with us The body in which he rose again must be in one place but the truth of it is every where diffused For there is one truth of the body in the Mystery and another truth simply and without Mystery It is truly Christs body both in the Sacrament and out of it but in the Sacrament it is not the natural truth but the spiritual and the mystical And therefore it was that our Blessed Saviour to them who apprehended him to promise his natural body and blood for our meat and drink spake of his ascension into heaven that we might learn to look from heaven to receive the food of our souls heavenly and spiritual nourishment said St. Athanasius For this is the letter which in the New Testament kills him who understands not spiritually what is spoken to him under the signification of meat and flesh and blood and drink So Origen For this bread does not go into the body for to how many might his body suffice for meat but the bread of eternal life supports the substance of our spirit and therefore it is not touch'd by the body nor seen with the eyes but by faith it is seen and touched So St. Ambrose And all this whole mystery hath in it neither carnal sense nor carnal consequence saith St. Chrysostom But to believe in Christ is to eat the bread and therefore why do you prepare your teeth and stomach believe him and you have eaten him they are the words of S. Austin For faith is that intellectual mouth as S. Brasil calls it which is within the man by which he takes in nourishment But what need we to draw this water from the lesser cisterns we see this truth reflected from the spring it self the fountains of our blessed Saviour I am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall not hunger and he that believeth on me shall not thirst and again He that eats my flesh hath life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day The plain consequent of which words is this that therefore this eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood can only be done by the Ministeries of life and of the spirit which is opposed to nature and flesh and death And when we consider that he who is not a spiritual and a holy person does not feed upon Christ who brings life eternal to them that feed on him it is apparent that our manducation must be spiritual and therefore so must the food and consequently it cannot be natural flesh however altered in circumstance and visibilities and impossible or incredible changes For it is not in this spiritual food as it was in Manna of which our Fathers did eat and died but whosoever eats this divine nutriment shall never die The Sacraments indeed and symbols the exterior part and ministeries may be taken unto condemnation but the food it self never For an unworthy person cannot feed on this food because here to eat Christs flesh is to do our duty and to be established in our title to the possession of the eternal promises For so Christ disposed the way of salvation not by flesh but by the spirit saith Tertullian that is according to his own exposition Christ is to be desired for life and to be devoured by hearing to be chewed by the understanding and to be digested by faith and all this is the method and oeconomy of heaven which whosoever uses and abides in it hath life abiding in him He that in this world does any other way look for Christ shall never find him and therefore if men say Loe here is Christ or loe there he is in the desart or he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cupboards or Pantries where bread or flesh is laid believe it not Christs body is in heaven and it is not upon earth the heavens must contain
Consecration of the holy Mysteries as is to be seen in many Ecclesiastical Records The reason of this is noâ—hing but the nature and analogy of the thing it self For we first come to Christ by faith and we first come to Christ by Baptism they are the two doors of the Tabernacle which our Lord hath piâ—ched and not man By faith we desire to go in and by baptism we are admitted Faith knocks at the door and baptism sets it open but until we are in the house we cannot be entertained at the Masters Table they that are in the high ways and hedges must be called in and come in at the doors and then they shall be feasted The one is the moral entrance and the other is the ritual Faith is the door of the soul and baptism is the door of the man Faith is the spiritual addresse to God and baptism is the Sacramental Baptism is like the pool of Siloam appointed for healing it is salutary and medicinal but the Spirit of God is that great Angel that descends thither and makes them virtual and faith is the hand that puts us in So that faith alone does not do it and therefore the unbaptized must not Communicaâ—e So neither will baptism alone admit us and therefore Infants and Innocents are yet uncapable But that 's the next inquiry SECT II. Of Communicating Infants Question Whether Infants are to be admitted to the Holy Communion WHether the holy Communion may be given to Infants hath been a great question in the Church of God which in this instance hath not been as in others divided by parties and single persons but by whole ages for from some of the earliest ages of the Church down to the time of Charles the Great that is for above six hundred years the Church of God did give the holy Communion to newly baptized Infants St. Cyprian recounts a miracle of an Infant into whose mouth when the parents had ignorantly and carelesly left the babe the Gentile Priests had forced some of their Idol Sacrifice But when the Minister of the Church came to pour into the mouth the Calice of our Lord it resisted and being over-powred grew sick and fell into convulsions By which narrative the practice of the Church of that age is sufficiently declared Of the matter of fact there is no question but they went further The Primitive Church did believe it necessary to the salvation of Infants St. Austin believed that this Doctrine and practice descended from the Apostles that without both the Sacraments no person could come to life or partake of the Kingdom of heaven which when he had endeavoured to prove largely he infers this conclusion It is in vain to promise salvation and life eternal to little children unlesse they be baptized and receive the body and blood of Christ since the necessity of them both is attested by so many so great and so divine Testimonies And that this practice continued to the time of Charlemaine appears by a Constitution in his Capitular saying That the Priest should always have the Eucharist ready that when any one is sick or when a child is weak he may presently give him the Communion lest he die without it And Alcuinus recites a Canon expresly charging that as soon as ever the Infants are baptized they should receive the holy Communion before they suck or receive any other nourishment The same also is used by the Greeks by the Aethiopians by the Bohemians and Moravians and it is confessed by Maldonate that the opinion of St. Austin and Innocentius that the Eucharist is necessary even to Infants prevailed in the Church for six hundred years together But since the time of Charles the Great that is for above eight hundred years this practice hath been omitted in the Western Churches generally and in the Council of Trent it was condemned as unfit and all men commanded to believe that though the ancient Churches did do it upon some probable reasons yet they did not believe it necessary Concerning which I shall not interrupt the usefulnesse which I intend in this discourse by confuting the Canon though it be intolerable to command men to believe in a matter of fact contrary to their evidence and to say that the Fathers did not believe it to be necessary when they say it is and used it accordingly yet because it relates to the use of this divine Sacrament I shall give this short account of it The Church of Rome and some few others are the only refusers and condemners of this ancient and Catholick practice But upon their grounds they cannot reasonably deny it 1. Because Infants are by them affirmed to be capable of the grace and benefits of the Eucharist for to them who put no bar as Infants put none the Sacraments by their inherent virtue confer grace and therefore particularly it is affirmed that if Infants did now receive the Eucharist they should also receive grace with it and therefore it is not unreasonable to give it to them who therefore are capable of it because it will do them benefit and it is consequently upon these grounds uncharitable to deny it For 2. They allow the ground upon the supposition of which the Fathers did most reasonably proceed and they only deny the conclusion For by the words of Christ it is absolutely necessary to eat his flesh and drink his blood and if those words be understood of Sacramental manducation in which interpretation both the ancients and the Church of Rome do consent then it is absolutely necessary to communicate For although there are other ways of eating his flesh and drinking of his blood besides the Sacramental manducation yet Christ in this place meant no other and if of this he spake when he said Without doing this we have no life in us then it will not be sufficient to baptize them though it baptism they should receive the same grace as in the Eucharist because abstracting from the benefit and grace of it it is made necessary by the Commandment and by the will of God it is become a means indispensibly necessary to salvation It is necessary by a necessity of the means and a necessity of precept True it is that in each of the Sacraments there is a proportion of the same effect as I have already discoursed yet this cannot lessen the necessity that is upon them both for so Pharaohs dream was doubled not to signifie divers events but a double certainty and therefore although children even in baptism are partakers of the death of Christ and are incorporated into and made partakers of his body yet because Christ hath made one as necessary as the other and both for several proportions of the same reason the Church of Rome must either quit the Principle or retain the consequent for they have digged a ditch on both sides and on either hand they are fallen into inconvenience But it will be
and so requiring us to understand 4. And now to this spiritual food must be sitted a spiritual manner of reception and this is the work of faith that spiritual blessings may invest the spirit and be conveyed by proportioned instruments lest the Sacrament be like a treasure in a dead hand or musick in the grave But this I chuse rather to represent in the words of the Fathers of the Church than mine own We see saith St. Epiphanius what our Saviour took into his hands as the Gospel says he arose at supper and took this anâ— when he had given thanks he said This is my body and we see it is not equal nor like to it neither to the invisible Deity nor to the flesh for this is of a round form without sense but by grace he would say This is mine and every one hath faith in this saying For he that doth not believe this to be true as he hath said he is fallen from grace and salvation But that which we have heard that we believe that it is his And again The bread indeed is our food but the virtue which is in it is that which gives us life by faith and efficacy by hope and the perfection of the Mysteries and by the title of sanctification it should be made to us the perfection of salvation For these words are spirit and life and the flesh pierces not into the understanding of this depth unlesse faith come But then The bread is food the blood is life the flesh is substance the body is the Church For the body is indeed shewn it is slain and given for the nourishment of the world that it may be spiritually distributed to every one and be made to every one the conservatory of them to the resurrection of eternal life saith St. Athanasius Therefore because Christ said This is my body let us not at all doubt but believe and receive it with the eye of the soul for nothing sensible is delivered us but by sensible things he gives us insensible or spiritual so St. Chrysostom For Christ would not that they who partake of the divine Mysteries should attend to the nature of the things which are seen but let them by faith believe the change that is made by grace For according to the substance of the creatures it remains after consecration the same it did before But it is changed inwardly by the powerful vertue of the holy Spirit and faith sees it it feeds the soul and ministers the substance of eternal life for now faith sees it all whatsoever it is From these excellent words we are confirmed in these two things 1. That the divine Mysteries are of very great efficacy and benefit to our souls 2. That Faith is the great instrument in conveying these blessings to us For as St. Cyprian affirms the Sacraments of themselves cannot be without their own vertue and the divine Majesty does at no hand absent it self from the Mysteries But then unless by faith we believe all this that Christ said there is nothing remaining but the outward Symbols and the sense of flesh and blood which profits nothing But to believe in Christ is to eat the flesh of Christ. I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall not hunger that is he shall be filled with Christ and he that believeth in me shall not thirst coming to Christ and believing in him is the same thing that is he that believes Christs Words and obeys his Commandments he that owns Christ for his Law-giver and his Master for his Lord and his Redeemer he who lays down his sins in the grave of Jesus and lays down himself at the foot of the Crosse and his cares at the door of the Temple and his sorrows at the Throne of Grace he who comes to Christ to be instructed to be commanded to be relieved and to be comforted to this person Christ gives his body and blood that is food from heaven And then the bread of life and the body of Christ and eating his flesh and drinking his blood are nothing else but mysterious and Sacramental expressions of this great excellency that whoever does this shall partake of all the benefits of the Crosse of Christ where his body was broken and his blood was poured forth for the remission of our sins and the salvation of the world But still that I may use the expression of St. Ambrose Christ is handled by faith he is seen by faith he is not touched by the body he is not comprehended by the eyes 5. But all the inquiry is not yet past For thus we rightly understand the mysterious Propositions but thus we do not fully understand the mysterious Sacrament For since coming to Christ in all the addresses of Christian Religion that is in all the ministeries of faith is eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ what does faith in the reception of the blessed Sacrament that it does not do without it Of this I have already given an account But here I am to add That in the holy Communion all the graces of a Christian all the mysteries of the Religion are summ'd up as in a divine compendium and whatsoever moral or mysterious is done without is by a worthy Communicant done more excellently in this divine Sacrament for here we continue the confession of our faith which we made in Baptism here we perform in our own persons what then was undertaken for us by another here that is made explicit which was but implicit before what then was in the root is now come to a full year what was at first done in mystery alone is now done in mystery and moral actions and vertuous excellencies together here we do not only here the words of Christ but we obey them we believe with the heart and here we confesse with the mouth and we act with the hand and incline the head and bow the knee and give our heart in sacrifice here we come to Christ and Christ comes to us here we represent the death of Christ as he would have us represent it and remember him as he commanded us to remember him here we give him thanks and here we give him our selves here we defie all the works of darknesse and hither we come to be invested with a robe of light by being joined to the Son of Righteousnesse to live in his eyes and to walk by his brightnesse and to be refreshed with his warmth and directed by his spirit and united to his glories So that if we can receive Christs body and drink his blood out of the Sacrament much more can we do it in the Sacrament For this is the chief of all the Christian Mysteries and the union of all Christian Blessings and the investiture of all Christian Rights and the exhibition of the Charter of all Christian Promises and the exercise of all Christian Duties Here is the exercise
a capacity of doing this action For it is not Lent nor the Epiphany which makes us worthy to approach to the Son of God But the sincerity and purity of the soul with this come at any time but without this never In fine it is the general doctrine of the holy Fathers and the publick practice of the Primitive Church that no impenitent person should come to these divine Mysteries and they that are truly penitent should practice deep humility and undergo many humiliatioÌ„ns and live in a state of repentance till by little and little they have recover'd the holinesse they had lost and must for a long time live upon the word of God before they approach to the holy Table to be nourished by his body For so should every prodigal child cry unto his Lord Drive me not O Lord out of thy doors lest the enemy espying a wanderer and a vagabond take me for a slave I do not yet desire to approach to thy holy Table thy mystical and terrible Table for I have not confidence with my impure eyes to behold the holy of holies Only suffer me to enter into thy Church amongst the Catechumens that by beholding what is there celebrated I may by little and little enter again into the participation of them to the end that the Divine Waters of thy Word running upon me may purifie my ears from the impressions which have been made upon them by ungodly songs and from the filthinesse they have left behind and seeing how the righteous people partake by a holy violence of thy precious jewels I may conceive a burning desire to have hands worthy to receive the same excellencies I end this collection of the ancient Doctrine of the Church with recitation of the words of Gennadius I perswade and exhort Christians to receive the Communion every Lords day but so that if their mind be free from all affection of sinning For he who still hath will or desires of sin he is burdened and not purified by receiving the Eucharist And therefore although he be bitten or griev'd with sin let him for the future renounce all will to sin and before he communicate let him satisfie with prayers and tears and being confident of the mercy of our Lord who uses to pardon sins upon a pious confession let him come to the Eucharist without doubting But this I say of him who is not pressed with capital and deadly sins for such a person if he will not receive the Eucharist to judgment and condemnation let him make amends by publick penance and being reconcil'd by the Bishop or Priest let him communicate I doubt not also but such grievous sins may be extinguish'd by private satisfactions but this must be done by changing the course of his life by a professed study of Religion by a daily and perpetual mourning or contrition that through the mercy of God he may do things contrary to these whereof he does repent and then humbly and suppliant let him every Lords day communicate to the end of his life This advice of Gennadius declares the sentiment of the Church that none must communicate till they have worthily repented and in the way of piety and contrition made amends for their faults as well as they may and have put themselves into a state of vertue contrary to their state of sin that is have made progression in the reformation of their lives that they are really changed and become new men not in purpose only but actually and in the commencement of holy habits And therefore it is remarkable that he advises that these persons who do not stand in the place of publick penitents should upon the commission of grievous faults enter into Religion he means into solitude and retirement and renunciation of the world that by attending wholy to the severities and purities of a religious life they may by such strictnesses and constant piety be fitted for the communion Now whatever ends besides this the Divine Providence might have yet it is not to be neglected that when the ancient discipline of the Church of penances and satisfactions was gone into desuetude the Spirit of Religion entred more fully into the world and many religious orders and houses were instituted that at least there the world might practise that severity in private which the change of affairs in the face of the Church had taken from the publick ministeries Penance went from the Churches into desarts and into Monasteries but when these were corrupted and the manners of men were worse corrupted it is hard to say whither it is gone now It may be yet done in private and under the hand of a spiritual guide or by the spirit of penance in the heart of a good man and by the conduct of a wise counsellor but besides that the manners of men are corrupted the doctrines also are made so easie and the Communion given to sects and opinions or indifferently to all that it is very rare to see them who have sinn'd grievously repent worthily who therefore can never be worthy communicants for no impenitents can partake of Christ who as S. Hierom cals him is the prince of penance and the head of them who by repentance come unto salvation But this was his advice to them that commit grievous sins such which lay the conscience wast and whose every single action destroyes our being in the state of grace But as for them whose sins are but those of dayly incursion and of infirmity or imperfection such which a great diligence and a perpetual watchfulness might have prevented but an ordinary care would not these must be protested against they must not joyn with our consent our will must be against them and they must be confess'd and deplor'd and prayed against before we may communicate This is the sense of the Church of God Having established this great general measure of preparation it will not be very difficult to answer that great question often disputed amongst spiritual persons viz. Question I. Whether is it better to communicate seldom or frequently To this I answer That it is without peradventure very much better to receive it every day than every week and better every week then every month Christiani omni die carnes agni comedunt said Origen Christians every day eat of the flesh of the sacrificed lamb And St. Basil expresly affirms that to communicate every day and to partake of the body and blood of Christ is excellent and very profitable Christ himself having manifâ—stly said it he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath life eternal For if the Sacrament does no benefit to souls and produces no blessings then a man can institute a Sacrament for he may appoint any thing that shall be good for nothing But if it be an instrument in the hand of God to procure blessings to us and spiritual emolument if it be a means of union with Christ who would not willingly
Spirit of mercy and justice prudence and diligence the favour of God and the love of their people and grace and blessing that they may live at peace with thee and with one another remembring the command of their Lord and King the serene and reconciling Jesus 4. Give an Apostolical Spirit to all Ecclesiastical Prelates and Priests grant to them zeal of souls wisdom to conduct their charges purity to become exemplar that their labours and their lives may greatly promote the honour of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus O grant unto thy flock to be fed with wise and holy shepherds men fearing God and hating covetousness free from envy and full of charity that being burning and shining lights men beholding â—heir light may rejoyce in that light and glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven 5. Have mercy upon all states of men and women in the Christian Church the Governors and the governed the rich and the poor high and low grant to every of them in their several station to live with so much purity and faith simplicity and charity justice and perfection that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven 6. Relieve all oppressed Princes defend and restore their rights and suppress all violent and warring spirits that unjustly disturb the peace of Christendom Relieve and comfort all Gentlemen that are fallen into poverty and sad misfortunes Comfort and support all that are sick and deliver them from all their sorrows and all the powers of the enemy and let the spirit of comfort and patience of holiness and resignation descend upon all Christian people whom thou hast in any instance visited with thy rod And be graciously pleas'd to pity poor mankind shorten the days of our trouble and put an end to the days of our sin and let the Kingdom of our dearest Lord be set up in every one of our hearts and prevail mightily and for ever 7. I humbly present to thy Divine Majesty this glorious Sacrifice which thy servants this day have represented upon earth in behalf of my dearest Relations Wife Children Husband Parents Friends c. Grant unto them whatsoever they want or wisely and holily desire keep them for ever in thy fear and favour grant that they may never sin against thee never fall into thy displeasure never be separated from thy love and from thy presence but let their portion be in the blessing and in the service in the love and in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever 8. Have mercy upon all strangers and aliens from the Kingdom of thy Son let the sweet sound of thy Gospel be heard in all the corners of the earth let not any soul the work of thy own hands the price of thy Sons blood be any longer reckon'd in the portions of thy Enemy but let them all become Christians and grant that all Christians may live according to the Laws of the holy Jesus without scandal and reproach full of faith and full of charity 9. Give thy grace speedily to all wicked persons that they may repent and live well and be saved To all good people give an increase of gifts and holiness and the grace of perseverance and Christian perfection To all Hereticks and Schismaticks grant the Spirit of humility and truth charity and obedience and suffer none upon whom the Name of Christ is called to throw themselves away and fall into the portion of the intolerable burning 10. For all mankind whom I have and whom I have not remembred I humbly represent the Sacrifice of thy eternal Son his merits and obedience his life and death his resurrection and ascension his charity and intercession praying to thee in vertue of our glorious Saviour to grant unto us all the graces of an excellent and perfect repentance an irreconcilable hatred of all sin a great love of God an exact imitation of the holiness of the ever blessed Jesus the spirit of devotion conformable will and religious affections an Angelical purity and a Seraphical love thankful hearts and joy in God and let all things happen to us all in that order and disposition as may promote thy greatest glory and our duty our likeness to Christ and the honour of his Kingdom Even so Father let it be because it is best and because thou lovest it should be so bring it to a real and unalterable event by the miracles of grace and mercy and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant poured forth in the day of the Lords love whom I adore and whom I love and desire that I may still more and more love and love for ever Amen Amen SECT III. An Advice concerning him who only Communicates Spiritually THere are many persons well disposed by the measures of a holy life to communicate frequently but it may happen that they are unavoidably hindred Some have a timerous conscience a fear a pious fear which is indeed sometimes more pitiable than commendable Others are advis'd by their spiritual Guides to abstain for a time that they may proceed in the vertue of repentance further yet before they partake of the Sacrament of love and yet if they should want the blessings and graces of the Communion their remedy which is intended them would be a real impediment Some are scandalized and offended at irremediable miscarriages in publick Doctrines or Government and cannot readily overcome their prejudice nor reconcile their consciences to a present actual Communion Some dare not receive it at the hands of a wicked Priest of notorious evil life Some can have it at no Priest at all but are in a long journey or under a Persecution or in a Country of a differing perswasion Some are sick and some cannot have it every day but every day desire it Such persons as these if they prepare themselves with all the essential and ornamental measures of address and eanestly desire that they could actually Communicate they may place themselves upon their knees and building an Altar in their heart celebrate the death of Christ and in holy desire joyn with all the Congregations of the Christian world who that day celebrate the holy Communion and may serve their devotion by the former Prayers and actions Eucharistical changing only such circumstantial words which relate to the actual participation And then they may remember and make use of the comfortable Doctrine of S. Austin It is one thing saith that learned Saint to be born of the Spirit and another thing to be fed of the Spirit As it is one thing to be born of the flesh which is when we are born of our mother and another thing to be fed of the flesh which is done when she suckles her Infant by that nourishment which is chang'd into food that he might eat and drink with pleasure by which he was born to life when this is done without the actual and Sacramental participation it is called spiritual Manducation Concerning which I only add the pious advice of
seek for Christ we shall find him in the methods of Vertue and the paths of Gods Commandments in the houses of Prayer and the offices of Religion in the persons of the poor and the retirements of an afflicted soul we shall find him in holy reading and pious meditation in our penitential sorrows and in the time of trouble in Pulpits and upon Altars in the Word and in the Sacraments If we come hither as we ought we are sure to finde our Beloved him whom our soul longeth after Sure enough Christ is here but he is not here in every manner and therefore is not to be found by every inquirer nor touched by every hand nor received by all comers nor entertained by every guest He that means to take the air must not use his fingers but his mouth and he that receives Christ must have a proper that is a spiritual instrument a purified heart consecrated lips and a hallowed mouth a tongue that speaks no evil and a hand that ministers to no injustice and to no uncleanness For a disproportionate intrument is an undecency and makes the effect impossible both in nature and morality Can a man bind a thought with chains or carry imaginations in the palm of his hand Can the beauty of the Peacocks train or the Estrich plume be delicious to the palat and the throat Does the hand intermeddle with the joys of the heart or darkness that hides the naked make him warm Does the Body live as does the Spirit or can the Body of Christ be like to common food Indeed the Sun shines upon the good and bad and the Vines give Wine to the drunkard as well as to the sober man Pirates have fair winds and a calm Sea at the same time when the just and peaceful Merchant man hath them But although the things of this world are common to good and bad yet Sacraments and spiritual joys the food of the soul and the blessing of Christ are the peculiar right of Saints and the Rites of our Religion are to be handled by the measures of Religion and the things of God by the rules of the Spirit and the Sacraments are Mysteries and to be handled by Mystic persons and to be received by Saints and therefore whoever will partake of Gods secrets must first look into his own he must pare off whatsoever is amiss and not without holiness approach to the Holiest of all Holies nor eat of this Sacrifice with a defiled head nor come to this feast without a nuptial garment nor take this remedy without a just preparative For though in the first motions of our spiritual life Christ comes alone and offers his Grace and enlivens us by his Spirit and makes us begin to live because he is good not because we are yet this great mysterious Feast and magazine of Grace and glorious mercies is for those only that are worthy for such only who by their cooperation with the Grace of God are fellow-workers with God in the laboratories of salvation The Wrastler that Clemens of Alexandria tells us of addressing himself to his contention and espying the Statue of Jupiter Pisaeus prayed aloud If all things O Jupiter are rightly prepared on my part if I have done all that I could do then do me justice and give me the Victory And this is a breviate of our case He that runneth in races saith the Apostle he that contends for mastery is temperate in all things and this at least must he be that comes to find Christ in these Mysteries he must be prepared by the rules and method of the Sanctuary there is very much to be done on his part there is an heap of duties there is a state of excellency there are preparations solemn and less solemn ordinary and extraordinary which must be premised before we can receive the mysterious blessings which are here not only consign'd but collated and promoted confirmed and perfected The holy Communion or Supper of the Lord is the most sacred mysterious and useful conjugation of secret and holy things and duties in the Religion It is not easie to be understood it is not lightly to be received It is not much opened in the writings of the New Testament but still left in its mysterious Nature It is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the Doctors and by them made more mysterious and like a Doctrine of Phylosophy made intricate by explications and difficult by the aperture and dissolution of distinctions So we sometimes espie a bright cloud formed into an irregular figure when it is observed by unskilful and phantastick travellers looks like a Centaure to some and as a Castle to others some tell that they saw an Army with Banners and it signifies War but another wiser than his fellow says it looks for all the world like a flock of Sheep and foretels Plenty and all the while it is nothing but a shining cloud by its own mobility and the activity of a wind cast into a contingent and inartificial shape So it is in this great Mystery of our Religion in which some espie strange things which God intended not and others see not what God hath plainly told some call that part of it a Mystery which â—none and others think all of it nothing but a meer ceremony and a sign some say it signifies and some say it effects some say it is a Sacrifice and others call it a Sacrament some Schools of learning make it the Instrument of Grace in the hand of God others say that it is God himself in that Instrument of Grace some call it venerable and others say as the vain men in the Prophet that the Table of the Lord is contemptible some come to it with their sins on their head and others with their sins in their mouth some come to be cured some to be quickned some to be nourished and others to be made alive some out of fear and reverence take it but seldom others out of devotion take it frequently some receive it as a means to procure great graces and blessings others as an Eucharist and an office of thanksgiving for what they have received some call it an act of obedience meerly others account it an excellent devotion and the exercising of the virtue of Religion some take it to strengthen their Faith others to beget it and yet many affirm that it does neither but supposes Faith before-hand as a disposition Faith in all its degrees according to the degree of Grace whither the Communicant is arrived Some affirm the Elements are to be blessed by prayers of the Bishop or other Minister others say it is only by the mystical words the words of institution and when it is blessed some believe it to be the natural body of Christ others to be nothing of that but the blessings of Christ his Word and his Spirit his Passion in representment and his Grace in real exhibition And all these men have something of
of the body of Christ for we being many are one body and one bread in baptisme we partake of the death of Christ and in the Lords Supper we do the same in that as Babes in this as men in Christ so that what effects are affirmed of one the same are in greater measure true of the other they are but several rounds of Jacobs ladder reaching up to heaven upon which the Angels ascend and descend and the Lord sits upon the top And because the Sacraments Evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the Sacraments of old from them we can understand that even signs of secret graces do exhibit as well as signifie for besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred calice and a participation of the body and blood of Christ it is also in the method of the divine oeconomy to dispense the grace which himself signifies in a ceremony of his own institution thus at the Unction of Kings Priests and of Prophets the sacred power was bestowed and as a Canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book and an Abbat by his staffe a Bishop by a ring they are the words of St. Bernard so are divisions of graces imparted to the diverse Sacraments And therefore although it ought not to be denyed that when in Scripture and the writings of the holy Doctors of the Church the collation of grace is attributed to the sâ—gn it is by a metonymy and a Sacramental manner of speaking yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole because both the Sacrament and the grace are joyned in the lawful and holy use of them by Sacramental union or rather by a confederation of the parts of the holy Covenant Our hearts are purified by faith and so our consciences are also made clean in the cestern of water By faith we are saved and yet he hath savâ—d us by the laver of regeneration and they are both joyned together by St. Paul Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that is plainly by the Sacrament according to the famous Commentary of St. Austin accedat verbum ad elementum tum fit sacramentum when the word and the element are joyned then it is a perfect Sacrament and then it does effect all its purposes and intentions Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands and yet as Austin rightly affirmes God alone can give his holy spirit and the Apostles did not give the holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands but prayed that God would give it and he did so at the imposition of their hands Thus God sanctified Aaron and yet he said to Moses thou shalt sanctifie Aaron that is not that Moses did it instead of God but Moses did it by his ministery and by visible Sacraments and rites of Gods appointment and though we are born of an immortal seed by the word of the living God yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians I have begotten you through the Gosâ—el and thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least he that drinks Christ's blood and eats his body hath life abiding in him it is true of the â—acrament and true of the spiritual manducation and may be indifferently affirmed of either when the other is not excluded for as the Sacrament operates only by the vertue of the spirit of God so the spirit ordinarily works by the instrumentality of the Sacraments And we may as well say that faith is not by hearing as that grace is not by the Sacraments for as without the spirit the word is but a dead letter so with the spirit the Sacrament is the means of life and grace And the meditation of St. Chrysostom is very pious and reasonable If we were wholly incorporeal God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and Sacraments but because our spirits are in earthen vessels God conveyes his graces to us by sensible ministrations The word of God operates as secretly as the Sacraments and the Sacraments as powerfully as the word nay the word is alwayes joyned in the worthy administration of the Sacrament which therefore operates both as word and sign by the ear and by the eyes and by both in the hand of God and the conduct of the spirit effect all that God intends and that a faithful receiver can require and pray for For justification and sanctification are continued acts they are like the issues of a Fountain into its receptacles God is alwayes giving and we are alwayes receiving and the signal effects of Gods holy spirit sometimes give great indications but most commonly come without observation and therefore in these things we must not discourse as in the conduct of oâ—her causes and operations natural for although in natural effects we can argue from the cause to the event yet in spiritual things we are to reckon only from the sign to the event And the signs of grace we are to place in stead of natural causes because a Sacrament in the hand of God is a proclamation of his graces he then gives us notice that the springs of heaven are opened and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy he then by a Sacrament sent salvation unto David he bad him be gone and flie from his Fathers wrath and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation yet that symbol brought it unto David for so are we conducted to the joyes of God by the methods and possibilities of men In conclusion the sum is this The Sacraments and symbols if they be considered in their own nature are just such as they seem water and bread and wine they retain the names proper to their own natures but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin and bread and wine of Christs body and blood therefore the symbols and Sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign they are the body and they are the blood of Christ they are Metonymically such But because yet further they are instruments of grace in the hand of God and by these his holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a Divine nature therefore the whole work is attributed to them by a Synecdoche that is they do in their manner the work for which God ordained them and they are placed there for our sakes and speak Gods language in our accent and they appear in the outside we receive the benefit of their ministery and God receives the glory SECT IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sacrament enumerated and proved
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
which is intended to be signified by all the exterior passions but when he hath no sign he must be the more careful he have the thing signified and then all is right again But happy is that soul which comes to these springs of salvation as the Hart to the water brooks panting and thirsty longing and passionate weary of sin and hating vanity and reaching out the heart and hands to Christ and this we are taught by the same Mystery represented under other Sacraments the waters of the spiritual Rock of which our fathers drank in the wilderness the Rock was Christ and those waters were his blood in Sacrament and with the same appetite they drank those Sacramental waters withal we are to receive these divine Mysteries Evangelical Now let us by the aids of memory and fancy consider the children of Israel in the wildernesse in a barren and dry land where no water was marching in dust and fire not wet with the dew of heaven wholly without moisture save only what dropt from their own brows the air was fire and the vermin was fire the flying serpents were of the same cognation with the firmament their sting was a flame their venome was a fever and the fever a calenture and their whole state of abode and travel was a little image of the day of judgment when the elements shall melt with fervent heat These men like Salamanders walking in fire dry with heat and scorched with thirst and made yet more thirsty by calling upon God for water suppose I say these thirsty souls hearing Moses to promise that he will smite the Rock and that a River should break forth from thence observe how presently they ran to the foot of the springing stone thrusting forth their heads and tongues to meet the water impatient of delay crying out that the water did not move like light all at once and then suppose the pleasure of their drink the unsatiableness of their desire the immensity of their appetite they took in as much as they could and they desired much more This was their Sacrament of the same Mystery and this was their manner of receiving it and this teaches us to come to the same Christ with the same desires For if that water was a type of our Sacrament or a Sacrament of the same secret blessing then that thirst is a signification of our duty that we come to receive Christ in all the ways of reception with longing appetites preferring him before all the interests in the world as birds do corn above jewels or hungry men meat before long orations For it is worth observing that there being in the Old Testament thirteen Types and Umbrages of this holy Sacrament eleven of them are of meat and drink such are * the tree of life in the midst of Paradice * the bread and wine of Melchisedeck * the fine meal that Sarah kneaded for the Angels entertainment * the Manna * and the roasted paschal Lamb * the springing Rock * and the bread of proposition to be eaten by the Priests * the barley cake in the host of Midian * Sampsons Fathers oblation upon the rock * the honey-comb that opened the eyes of Jonathan * and the bread which the Angel brought to Elijah in the strength of which he was to live fourty days all this to shew that the Sacrament is the life of the spiritual man and the food of his soul the light of his eyes and the strengâ—h of his heart and not only all this and very much more of this nature but to represent our duty also and the great principle of preparation Meat is the object and hunger is the address The wine is the wine of Angels but if you desire it not what should you do with it for the wine that is not to satisfie your need can do nothing but first minister to vanity and then to vice first to wantonness and then to drunkenness St. Austin expressing the affections of his Mother Monica to the Blessed Sacrament says that her soul was by the ligatures of faith united so firmly to the Sacrifice which is dispensed in the Lords Supper that a Lion or a Dragon could not drag her away from thence and it was said of St. Katherine that she went to the Sacraments as a sucking infant to his mothers breasts and this similitude St. Chrisostom presses elegantly See you not with what pretty earnestnesse and alacrity infants match their nurses breast how they thrust their lips into the flesh like the sting of a Bee Let us approach to this Table with no lesse desire and with no lesse suck the nipple of the holy Calice yet with greater desire let us suck the grace of the holy Spirit And it is reported that our Blessed Lord taught St. Mechtildis When you are to receive the holy Communion desire and wish to the praise of my Name to have all desire and all love that ever was kindled in any heart towards me and so come to me for so will I inflame and so will I accept thy love not as it is but as thou desirest it should be in thee Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden saith Christ that is they that groan under the burden of their sins and feel the load of their infirmities and desire pardon and remedy they that love the instruments of grace as they are channels of Salvation they that come to the Sacrament out of earnest desires to receive the blessings of Christ's death and of his intercession these are the welcome guests for so saith God Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it for he hath filled the hungry with good things said the holy Virgin Mother for Christ is food and refreshment to none else for the full he hath sent empty away If therefore you understand your danger and deeply resent the evil of your infirmities and sinful state if you confesse your selves miserable and have all corresponding apprehensions if ye long for remedy and would have it upon any termes if you be hungry at your very heart and would fain have food and Physâ—ck health and spiritual advantages if you understand what you need and desire what you understand if these desires be as great as they are reasonable and as lasting as they are great if they be as inquisitive as they are lasting and as operative as they are inquisitive that is if they be just and reasonable pursuances of the means of grace if they carry you by fresh and active appetites to the communion and that this may be to purpose if they fix you upon such methods as will make the Communion effect that which God designed and which we need then we shall perceive the blessings and fruits of our holy desires according to those words of David as it is rendered in the vulgar Latin the Lord hath heard the desire of the poor and his ear hath hearkned to the preparation of their heart An earnest
and unfruitful soul I have already a parched ground give me a land of Rivers of Waters my Soul is dry but not thirsty it hath no water nor it desires none I have been like a dead man to all the desires of heaven I am earnest and concerned in the things of the world but very indifferent or rather not well enduring the severities and excellencies of Religion I have not been greedy of thy Word or longed for thy Sacraments The worst of thy followers came runing after thee for loaves though they cared not for the miracle but thou offerest me loaves and miracles together and I have cared for neither Thou offerest me thy self and all thy infinite sweetnesses I have needed even the compulsion of laws to drive me to thee and then indeed I lost the sweetnesse of thy presence and reaped no fruit These things O God are not well they are infinitely amiss But thou that providest meat thou also givest appetite for the desire and the meat the necessity and the relief are all from thee II. Be pleased therefore O my dearest Lord to create in thy servant a great hunger and thirst after the things of thy kingdom and the righteousnesse of it all thy holy graces and all the holy ministeries of grace that I may long for the bread of heaven thirst after the fountains of salvation and as the Hart panteth after the brooks of water so my soul may desire thee O Lord. O kindle such a holy flame in my soul that it may consume all that is set before me that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy will III. Grant O blessed Jesus that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee of conversing with thee of receiving thee let me not rest in the least and lowest measures of necessity but passe on to the excellencies of love and the transportations of an excellent Religion that there may remain in me no appetite for any thing but what thou lovest that I may have no satisfaction but in a holy Conscience no pleasure but in Religion no joy but in God and with sincerity and zeal heartinesse and ingenuity I may follow after righteousnesse and the things that belong unto my peace until I shall arrive in the land of eternal peace and praises where thou livest and reignest for ever world without end Amen CHAP. III. Of Faith as it is a necessary disposition to the Blessed Sacrament EXamination of our selves is an inquiry whether we have those dispostions which are necessary to a worthy Communion Our next inquiry is after the dispositions themselves what they ought to be and what they ought to effect that we may really be that which we desire to be found when we are examined I have yet only described the ways of examining now I am to set down those things whereby we can approved and without which we can never approach to these divine Mysteries with worthinesse or depart with joy These are three 1. Faith 2. Charity 3. Repentance SECT I. Of Catechumens or unbaptised persons THE Blessed Sacrament before him that hath no faith is like messes of meat set upon the graves of the dead they smell not that nidour which quickens the hungry belly they feel not the warmth and taste not the juyce for these are provided for them that are alive and the dead have no portion in them This is the first great line of introduction and necessarily to be examined we have the rule from the Apostle Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Châ—ist is in you except ye be reprobates As if he had said ye are reprobates and Jesus Christ shall never dwell in you except by faith without this you can never receive him and therefore examine strictly your selves concerning your faith But the necessity of this preparation by faith hath a double sense and a proportionable necessity 1. It means that no unbaptised person can come to the holy Communion 2. It means that those that are baptized have an actual and an operative faith properly relative to these divine Mysteries and really effective of all the works of faith Of this we have the most ancient and indubitable records of the Primitive Church For in the Apology which Justin Martyr made for the Christians he gives this account of the manner of dispensing the holy Eucharist It is lawful for none to participate of this Eucharistical bread and wine but to him who believes those things to be true which are taught by us and to him that is washed in the laver of regeneration which is to the remission of sins and who live as Christ hath commanded Shut the proâ—hane and the unhallowed people out of doors So. Orpheus sang None comes to this holy feast but they whose sins are cleansed in Baptism who are saâ—ctified in â—hose holy waters of regeneration who have obedient Souls eaâ—s attentive to the Sermons of the Gospel and hearts open to the words of Christ. These are they who see by a brighter light and walk in the warmâ—h of a more refreshing Sun they live in a better air and are irradiated with a purer beam the glories of the Sun of righteousnesse and they only are to eat the precious food of the sacrificed lamb For by Baptism we are admitted to the spiritual life and by the holy Communion we nourish and preserve it But although Baptism be always necessary yet alone it is not a sufficient qualification to the holy Communion but there must be an actual faith also in every Communicant Neither faith alone nor baptism alone can suffice but it must be the actual faith of baptized persons which disposes us to this sacred Feast For the Church gives the Communion neither to Catechumens nor to Infants nor to mad men nor to natural fools Catechumens not admitted to the holy Communion Of this besides the testimony of Justin Martyr St. Cyril of Alexandria gives this full acoount We refuse to give the Sacraments to Catechumens although they already know the truth and with a loud voice confesse the faith of Christ because they are not yet enriched with the holy Ghost who dwells in them who are consummated and perfected by Baptism But when they have been baptized because it is believed that the holy Ghost does dwell within them they are not prohibited from the contact and communion of the body of Christ. And therefore to them who come to the mystical benediction the Ministers of the Mystery cry with a loud voice Sancta sanctis Let holy things be given to sanctified persons signifying that the contact and sanctification of Christs body does agree with them only who in their spirits are sanctified by the holy Ghost And this was the certain and perpetual Doctrine and Custom of the Church insomuch that in the primitive Churches they would not suffer unbaptized persons so much as to see the
delicious because we dote upon mushromes and colliquintida But as Manna was given in the desart and it became pleasant when they had nothing else to eat So it is in â—he sweetnesses of Religion we cannot live by faith and rejoyce in the banquets of our Saviour unlesse our souls dwell in the wilderness that is where the pleasures and appetites of â—he world may not prepossesse our palates and debauch our reasonings And this was mysterioâ—sly spoken by the Psalmist The broad places of the wilderness shall wax fat and the hills shall be enâ—ircled with joy that is whatsoever â—s barren and desolate not full of the things and affections of the world shall be inebriated with the pleasures of Religion and rejoyce in Sacraments in faith and holy expectations But the love of mony and the love of pleasures are the intrigues and fetters to the understanding but he only is a faithful man who restrains his passions and despises the world and rectifies his love that he may believe a right and put that value upon Religion as that it become the satisfaction of our spirit and the great object of all our passionate desires pride and prejudice are the Parents of misbelief but humility and contempt of the world first bear faith upon their knees and then upon their hands SECT V. Of the proper and Specifick work of Faith in the reception of the holy Communion HEre I am to enquire into two practical questions 1. What stresse is to be put upon faith in this Mystery that is how much is every one bound to believe in the article of this Sacrament before he can be accounted competently prepared in his understanding and by his faith 2. What is the use of faith in the reception of the Blessed Sacrament and in what sense and to what purposes and with what truth it is said that in the holy Sacrament we receive Christ by faith How much every man is bound to believe of this mystery If I should follow the usual opinions I should say that to this preparatory faith it is necessary to believe all the niceties and mysteriousnesse of the blessed Sacrament Men have introduced new opinions and turned the key in this lock so often till it cannot be either opened or shut and they have unravel'd the clue so long till they have intangled it and not only reason is made blind by staring at what she never can perceive but the whole article of the Sacrament is made an objection and temptation even to faith it self and such things are taught by some Churches and some Schooles of learning which no Philosophy did ever teach no Religion ever did reveal no prophet ever preach and which no faith ever can receive I mean it in the prodigious article of Transubstantiation which I am not here to confute but to reprove upon practical considerations and to consider those things that may make us better and not strive to prevail in disputation That therefore we may know the proper offices of faith in the believing what relates to the holy Sacrament I shall describe it in several propositions 1. It cannot be the duty of faith to believe any thing against our sense what we see and taste to be bread what we see and taste and smell to be wine no faith can engage us to believe the contrary For by our senses Christianity it self and some of the greatest Articles of our belief were known by them who from that evidence conveyed them to us by their testimony and if the perception of sense were not finally to be relied upon Miracles could never be a demonstration nor any strange event prove an unknown proposition for the Miracle can never prove the Article unless our eyes or hands approve the miracle and the Divinity of Christs person and his mission and his power could never have been proved by the Resurrection but that the resurrection was certain and evident to the eyes and hands of so many witnesses Thus Christ to his Apostles proved himself to be no spirit by exposing his flesh and bones to be felt and he wrought faith in St. Thomas by his fingers ends the wounds that he saw and felt were the demonstrations of his faith and in the Primitive Church the Valentinians and Marcionites who said Christs body was phantastical were confused by no other argument but of sense For sense is the evidence of the simple and the confirmation of the wise it can confute all pretences and reprove all deceitful subtilties it turns opinion into knowledge and doubts into certainty it is the first endearment of love and the supply of all understanding from what we see without we know what to believe within and no demonstration in the world can be greater than the evidence of sense Our senses are the great arguments of vertue and vice and if it be not safe to rely upon that evidence we cannot tell what pleasure and pain is and a man that is born blind may as well have the true idea of colours as we could have of pain if our senses could not tell us certainly and all those arguments from heaven by which God prevails upon all the world as Oracles and Vrim and Thummim and still voices and loud thunders and the daughter of a voice and messages from above and Prophets on earth and lights and Angels all were nothing for faith could not come by hearing if our hearing might be illusion That therefore which all the world relies upon for their whole Religion that which to all the world is the great means and instrument of the glorification of God even our seeing of the works of God and eating his provisions and beholding his light that which is the great ministery of life and the conduit of good and evil to us we may rely upon for this article of the Sacrament what our faith relies upon in the whole she may not contradict in this Tertullian said that It is not only unreasonable but unlawful to contradict the testimony of our sense lest the same question be made of Christ himself lest it be suspected that he also might be deceived when he heard his Fathers voice from heaven That therefore which we see upon our Altars and Tables that which the Priest handles that which the Communicant does taste is bread and wine our senses tell us that it is so and therefore faith cannot be enjoined to believe it not to be so Faith gives a new light to the soul but it does not put our eyes out and what God hath given us in our nature could never be intended as a snare to Religion or to engage us to believe a lie Faith sees more in the Sacrament than the eye does and tastes more than the tongue does but nothing against it and as God hath not two wills contradictory to each other so neither hath he given us two notices and perceptions of objects whereof the one is affirmative and the other
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
Soter exhorted all persons to receive upon the day of the Institution or the vespers of the Passion he excepted those who were forbidden because they had committed any grievous sin But what was the Doctrine and what were the usages of the Primitive Church in the ministery of the Blessed Sacrament appears plainly in the two Epistles of St. Basil to Amphilochius in the Canons of Ancyra those of Peter of Alexandria Gregory Thaumaturgus and Nyssâ—en which make up the Penitential of the Greek Church and are explicated by Balsamo in which we find sometimes the penance of two years imposed for a single theft four years and seven years for an act of uncleannesse eleven years for perjury fifteen years for adultery and incest that is such persons were for so many years sepâ—rate from the Communion and by a holy life and strict observances of penitential impositions were to give testimony of their contrition and amends The like to which are to be seen in the Penitentials of the Western Church that of Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury that of venerable Bede the old Roman and that of Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Mentz The reason of which severity we find thus accounted in St. Basil All this is done that they may try the fruits of their repentance For we do not judge of these things by the time but by the manner of their repentance For the Bishop had power to shorten the days of their separation and abstention and he that was an excellent penitent was much sooner admitted but by the injunction of so long a trial they declar'd that much purification was necessary for such an address And if after or in these penitential years of abstention they did not mend their lives though they did perform their penances they were not admitted These were but the Churches signs by other accidents and manifestations if it hapned that a great contrition was signified or a secret incorrigibility became publick the Church would admit the first sooner and the latter not at all For it was purity and holinesse that the Church required of all her Communicants and what measure of it she required we find thus testified The faithful which hath been regenerated by baptism ought to be nourished by the participation of the divine Mysteries and being cloathed with Jesus Christ and having the quality of a child of God he ought to receive the nutriment of life eternal which the Son of God himself hath given us and this nutriment is obedience to the word of God and execution of his will of which Jesus Christ hath said Man lives not by bread alone but my meat is to do my Fathers will and a little after he affirms that whereas St. Paul saith that Jesus Christ hath appointed us to eat his body in memory of his death the true remembrance which we ought to have of his death is to place before our eyes that which the Apostle saith that we were wholly dead and Jesus Christ died for us to the end that we should no more live unto our selves but to him alone and that so we should do him honour and give him thanks for his death by the purity of our life without which we engage our selves in a terrible damnation if we receive the Eucharist And again He that not having this charity which presses us and causes us to live for him who died for us dares approach to the Eucharist grieves the holy Spirit For it is necessary that he who comes to the memorial of Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us should not only be clean from all impurity of flesh and spirit but that he should demonstrate the death of him who died and rose for us by being dead unto sin to the world and to himself and that he lives no more but only to God through Jesus Christ. And therefore St. Cyprian complains as of a new and worse persecution that lapsed persons are admitted to the Communion before they have brought forth fruits of a worthy repentance and affirms that such an admission of sinners is to them as hail to the young fruits as a blasting wind to the trees as the murren to the cattel as a tempest to the ships The ships are overturned and broken the fruits fall the trees are blasted the cattel die and the poor sinner by being admitted too soon to the ministeries of eternal life falls into eternall death And if we put together some words of Sâ— Ambrose they clearly declare this Doctrine and are an excellent Sermon Thou comest to the Altar the Lord Jesus calls thee he sees thee to be clean from all sin because thy sins are wash'd away therefore he judges thee worthy of the câ—lestial Sacraments and therefore he invites thee to the heavenly banquet Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth But some desire to be admitted to penance that presently they may receive the Communion These men do not so much desire themselves to be absolved as that the Priest be bound for they do not put off their own evil conscience But I would that the guilty man should hope for pardon let him require it with tears seek it with sighs beg to obtain it by the weepings of all the people and if he be denied the Communion again and again let him consider that his prayer was not sufficiently earnest let him weep more and pray more To which I shall add some like words of St. Austin Therefore my dearest Brethren let every one consider his conscience and when he finds himself wounded with any crime first let him take care with prayers and fastings and alms to cleanse his conscience and so let him receive the Eucharist .... for he that knowing his guilt shall humbly remove himself from the Altar for the amendment of his life shall not fear to be wholly ex-communicate from that eternal and celestial banquet For this Divine Sacrament is not to be eaten with confidence and boldnesse but with fear and all manner of purity saith St. Chrysostome for impudence in these approaches will certainly slay the souls For thâ—s is the body whither none but Eagles are to gather because they ought to be sublime and elevated souls such which have nothing of earthliness in them that do not sit and prey upon the ground that are not immerg'd in the love of Creatures but such whose flight is towards heaven whose spirit does behold the Sun of Righteousnesse with a penetrating contemplation and piercing eyes for this is the Table of Eagles and not of Owls And therefore this Saint complains of some who did approach to the Eucharist as it were by chance or rather by custom and constraint of Laws rather than by argument and choice In whatsoever estate their souls are they will partake of these Mysteries because it is Lent or because it iâ— the feast of the Epiphany but certain it is that it is not the time which puts us into
for preparation to this holy Feast they do not mean that any man who on the Thursday is unfit and unworthy should be fitted to communicate on Sunday but that he should on those days try whether he be or no and pass from one degree of perfection to a greater from the less perfect to the more for let us think of it as we please there is no other preparation and it might otherwise seem a wonder to us why St. Paul who particularly speaks of it and indeed the whole New Testament should say nothing of any particular preparation to this holy â—east but only gives us caution that we do not receive it unworthily but gives us no particular rule or precept but this one that a man should examine himself and so let him eat I say this might seem very strange but that we find there is and there can be no worthy preparation to it but a life of holiness and that every one who names the Lord Jesus should depart from iniquity and therefore that against the day of Communion there is nothing peculiarly and signally required but to examine our selves to see if all be right in the whole and what is wanting towards our proportion of perfection and ornament to supply it So that the immediate preparation to the holy Communion can have in it but three parts and conjugations of duty 1. An examination of our conscience 2. An actual supply of such actions as are wanting 3. Actual devotion and the exercise of special graces by way of prayer so to adorn our present state and dispositions SECT II. Rules for Examination of our Consciences against the day of our Communion HOw we are to examine our selves concerning such states of life and conjugations of duty as are properly relative to the great and essential preparation and worthiness to communicate I have already largely consider'd Now I shall add such practical advices which may with advantage minister to the actual reception such which concern the immediate preparatory and ornamental address that we may reduce the former Doctrine to action and exercise against that time and this will serve as an appendix and for the compleating the former measures 1. In the days of your address consider the greatness of the work you go about that it is the highest mystery of the whole Religion you handle that it is no less than Christ himself in Sacrament that you take that as sure as any Christian does ever receive the Spirit of God so sure every good man receives Christ in the Sacrament that to receive Christ in Sacrament is not a diminution or lessening of the blessing it is a real communion with him to all material events of blessing and holiness that now every Communicant does an act that will contribute very much to an happy or unhappy eternity that by this act and its appendages a man may live or die for ever that a man cannot at all be supposed in any state that this thing will be indifferent to him in that state but will set him forward to some very great event that this is the greatest thing that God gives us in the world and if we do it well it is the greatest thing we can do in the world and therefore when we have considered these things in general let us examine whether we be persons in any sense fitted to such glorious communications and prepar'd by such dispositions which the greatnesse of the Mystery may in its appearance seem to require Some may perceive their disproportion at the first sight and need to examine no farther It is as if a Jew in Rome with his basket and bottle of hay should be advised to stand Candidate for the Consulship you mock him if you speak of it and therefore if you find your case like this start back and come not neer It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there 's Divinity in it and to the wicked it brings brimstone and fire 2. Next to this general consideration examine your self concerning those things in which you are or may be offensive to others For although every man is to begin at home yet that which is first to be chang'd is that which is not only evil in it self but afflictive to others that which is sin and shame that which offends God and my neighbour too that is it is criminal and it is scandalous Examine therefore thy self about injuriousness robbery detraction obloquy scolding much prating peevish conversation ungentle nature apâ—ness to quarrel and the like For thus if like Zachary and Elizabeth we walk unblameably and unreprovable before all the world certain it is the Church will not reject us from the Communion and we have purchas'd a good degâ—ee in the faith and shall think our condition worth preserving and worth improving 3. Examine thy self concerning all entercourses in the matter of men whether any unhandsome contract was made any fraudulent bargain any surprise or out-witting of thy weaker thy confident or unwary Brother and whatever you do place that right For money is a snare and in contracts we are of all things soonest deceived and are very often wrong and yet never think so and we do every thing before we part with this But when every thing is set right here we may better hope of other things for either they are right or will with less difficulty be made so 4. Like to this for the matter of the inquiry is that we examine our selves in the matter of our debts whether we detain them otherwise than in justice we are oblig'd Here we must examine whether we be able to pay them If so whether presently or afterwards By what we are disabled Whether we can and ought to alter the state of our expences What probability we have to pay them at all How we can secure that they shall be paid and if they cannot how much can we do towards it And what amends can we make to our Creditors And how we mean to end that entercourse For this ought to be so far at least stated that we may be sure we do no injustice and do no injury that we can avoid This is a material consideration and of great effect unto the peace of conscience and a worthy dispoâ—ition to the holy Communion 5. Let us examine our selves how we spend our time Is it imployed in an honest calling in worthy studies in useful business in affairs of government in something that is charitable in any thing that is useful But if we throw away great portions of it of which we can give no sober account although the Laws chastise us not and appoint no guardians to conduct our estates as it does to fools and mad men yet we are like to fall into severer hands and God will be angry But they are very unfit to entertain Christ who when they have received his Sacrament resolve to dwell in idleness and foolish divertisements and have no business but recreation At the best