A TREATISE OF THE Necessity and Frequency of Receiving the Holy Communion With a Resolution of Doubts about it In Three DISCOURSES begun upon Whit-Sunday in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh To press the observation of the Fourth Rubrick after the Communion Office By SYMON PATRICK D. D. Dean of Peterburgh and One of Hiâ— Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Book-seller to His most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXXV IVth Rubrick after the Communion And in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colleges where there are many Priests and Deacons they shall all receive the Communion with the Priest every Sunday at the least except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary To the Most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop OF CANTERBURY HIS GRACE Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan one of His Majestie 's most Honourable PRIVY-COUNCIL c. May it please your Grace HAving endeavoured with some success to restore the Weekly Communions in that Church to which I relate and hoping for greater by publishing these Discourses which I made there upon that occasion I take the boldness to send them abroad under your Grace's Protection that if they can do any good all that shall receive it may understand unto whom under God they principally owe it and stand obliged to acknowledge it For it was by your Grace's Fatherly Care that I was put in mind of this great Duty and exhorted to put it in practice which produced these Meditations wherein I have pressed it upon others Who will be stirred up I trust by this means to bless God for setting over them such a Faithful Pastor as by taking care to have this Sacred Food provided continually for them seeks their increase in true Religion and their nourishment with all goodness They are very blind who do not see this to be a singular blessing and very hard whose hearts are not affected therewith especially at such a time as this when Religion calls for all the supports we are able to lend it and teaches us it desires no better no other than it self if we will but uphold it in our hearts Of which I beseech the Lord of all power and might the giver of all good things to make every one of us so deeply sensible that we may be no longer negligent in the principal office of it but in some measure return unto that First love towards our blessed Lord and Saviour from which we as well as other Christian People have long since shamefully faln And may the same Good God who put this thing into your Grace's heart be pleased to bless and prosper all your pious designments and prolong your dayes which are spent in the study of the publick good to see the ancient Devotion and Vertue too not only bud again in this Church but flourish also and bring forth fruit in such abundance that it may be the joy of all its Friends the terror of all its Enemies and as the Prophet speaks of Jerusalem a Praise in the Earth Then will this that your Grace hath done be spoken of with Praise and Posterity will call you Blessed Nay to have but designed and attempted this whatsoever the issue be is so praise-worthy that it will make your Name no less honoured in future Generations than that great Devotion which we see combines in you with eminent Learning that deep Humility which cohabits with the highest Dignity makes your Self to be reverenced in this With which Reverence if the Confidence I take in making this small Present to your Grace seem inconsistent I comfort my self with the long experience I have had that the best men are not always the hardest to please but ever the easiest to forgive As I doubt not your Grace will the presumption of this Address from 7th Sunday after Trinity 1684. May it please your Grace Your Grace's Most humble and Most obedient Servant Symon Patrick To my Beloved Friends the Inhabitants of the City of Peterburgh THE reason of Printing these Discourses is nothing else but the hope I have that by presenting to your Eyes what you heard lately with your Ears it may make not only a new but a more lasting impression upon your hearts because you may have recourse to it when you please and thereby not only refresh your memories but settle in your minds the remembrance of those things which you perceive have a power in them to perswade you to the constant performance of that duty which is the subject of this Book A weighty Duty it is whose practice I here most earnestly press and thereby invite you also to the enjoyment of a very high Priviledge the highest we are capable of in this present State So it was accounted in ancient times when to be detained from it by sickness or such like hindrance was lookt upon as a very sore affliction under which they groaned so heavily that they were wont to be comforted by having the Holy Sacrament sent home to them from the Church in token of Peace and Communion But when any one was deny'd the Communion being thought unâ—orthy to receive it they lookt upon it as the greatest punishment in the World Such a punishment that they could not rest quietly under it but being full of grief and sorrow for those sins which kept them from such a Blessing they made most humble supplications with many tears and most lamentable cries to be restored to the peace of the Church and Communion with Christ in his benefits They fell upon their Knees and beseeched the forgiveness and the Prayers and Intercessions of their Christian Brethren whom they intreated after a most lowly manner to solicite for them that they might no longer remain in that forlorn condition banished from the presence of God and from the Society of his People And till this was effected they were in anguish of mind and bitterness of Spirit looking upon themselves as lost men who had the sentence of death passed upon them from which they begged in sack-cloth and ashes that they might be delivered Vpon which things when I reflect I am amazed and cannot but cry out saying Good God! how are we faln What a dismal decay is there of Christian Piety among us What an universal Lethargy hath seized us in these Ages Wherein we see men lying very contentedly under that which the first Christians thought the heaviest Calamity Nay willingly refraining the holy Communion and keeping themselves from it as unworthy of the benefit and yet are not at all troubled at it What an alteration is this What new or rather no Christianity is it which teaches men now to lie quietly in such a condition as they themselves confess makes them unfit for Communion with God and never to think of bewailing it and being reconciled to Him whom they have thus hainously offended This is so sad a consideration that it ought to awaken all good men to call
of his Christian duty as much as hearing the Sermons of the Apostles and Prayers I am loth to spend the time in going about to prove against vain Cavillers that by breaking of bread is here meant this holy action of receiving the Communion and not their bare eating together But to give full satisfaction in that matter let it be briefly considered First that breaking of Bread is here placed in the midst between other holy actions preaching fellowship or communicating to one anothers necessities and prayers and therefore in all reason must be concluded to be it self of that nature not a common but an holy action And besides secondly their eating at a common Table if it be at all mentioned in this Chapter Acts ii under the phrase of breaking bread is spoken of v. 46. and therefore not intended here No nor there neither I shall show hereafter for even in those words also they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house or at home c. the breaking of bread belongs to the holy Communion And to put all out of doubt thus the Syriack an ancient Translation understands it expresly turning it thus in the Eucharist As it doth also Act. xx 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them c. that is when they came to receive the Eucharist saith that Translation which was a part of their Lords days work nay the principal part for this was the thing for which the Disciples came together and not merely to hear the Apostle preach And who can give any reason why it should not be so now as it was then when in familiar speech it was as usual with them to say they would go to Church to receive the holy Communion as it is with us to say in these days we will go to Church to Prayers or to hear a Sermon III. But more than this not only the practice of the Apostles and first Believers after they were divinely inlightned by the Holy Ghost expounds the meaning and the obligation of this Precept to be perpetual but Christ himself showed it so to be after he went to Heaven and was exalted at Gods right hand For appearing to St. Paul to make him one of his Apostles and in order to it revealing himself and the whole Christian Religion to him which he gave him commission and authority to preach He declared this to be a part of his Will and a piece of his holy Religion For I have received of the Lord saith he in this Chapter v. 23 24. c. that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup saying This is the New Testament c. Observe here an evident proof that what our Lord did with his Apostles at his last Supper he intended should be done by them and by others when he was gone For sending one who was not then with him nor had any knowledge of him while he was on Earth to preach his Gospel he gives him particular instructions about this matter to take care to see this done in remembrance of him So St. Paul who was the man to whom he appeared and gave a special Commission after he went to Heaven avows to the Corinthians in this place telling them that he delivered nothing to them but what he had received of the Lord and what he delivered to them was this that they should do what the Lord Jesus had done with his Apostles in remembrance of him This he received from him that is it was of the Lords Institution and to be practised by his order and special command and therefore called the Lord's Supper v. 20. When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper Where it is called the Lord's Supper not because it was eaten by the Lord with his Apostles for at that Supper the Corinthians were not present nor was that now done in this place where they came together but because it was instituted by the Lord both then when he eat that Supper with his Apostles and now again when he appeared to St. Paul and required him to see this practised in the Churches which he converted And accordingly was now practised in this Church at Corinth to whom this Discourse of St. Paul is directed IV. In which we find many things more to prove this to be a necessary Christian Duty which was the fourth head mentioned in the beginning I shall single out two which will make it evidently appear to all unprejudiced minds I. The first is very remarkable that the Apostle takes a great deal of pains and spends a great deal of time in showing the manner how the holy Communion ought to be celebrated among them Which he would not have done if this had not been a necessary duty incumbent on them by vertue of Christs Command and a Divine Institution Do but consider this I beseech you and be at the pains to ponder at your leisure how serious earnest and laborious the Apostle is here in this eleventh Chapter of his Epistle to make the Corinthians sensible by a long Discourse about it after what manner they ought to approach to the Table of the Lord reproving their scandalous behaviour at the Communion directing them how to reform it and make a due preparation to receive the benefit thereof And then tell me or rather tell your selves was there any cause for a reasonable man to write so much to show how and after what manner the thing should be done if the very doing of the thing had not been necessary and under the obligation of a Command Can the manner and way of doing an action be matter of duty and yet that action it self be no duty at all Or can a man of common sense be very solicitous in giving directions how men should order themselves in a place and about a business into which they may never come but let it alone Can the Apostle be supposed to say so and so you ought to eat this Bread and drink this Cup and yet there be no command tying them to eat it and drink it at all And so and so you ought to prepare your selves to partake of Christs Body and Blood and yet after that preparation they might chuse whether they would do the thing for which they were to be prepared Surely we cannot imagine the Apostle to have had so much idle time to spare nay to be so impertinent as to busy himself in ordering the circumstances of an holy action if the action it self had not been a necessary nay a very weighty duty and of exceeding great moment which therefore he was highly concerned and took due care
then all men living for ought we know must be unfit If they be sins of wilfulness then you do in these very words confess that they may be reformed For wilful sins in the judgment of all mankind are such as by care and diligence and watchfulness over our selves may be avoided As wilful Drunkenness is not being intoxicated with some liquor of whose strength we were ignorant but losing the Government of our selves when we were aware of the danger and could have prevented it 4. But this in effect hath been said already and therefore to bring this matter to a speedy issue let such as say they have no power to prepare themselves for the Communion by amending their lives consider that every man hath power to do what he can do To say otherways is a contradiction for it is to say he cannot do what he can Now do what you can and I will undertake God shall not charge you with what you cannot But if you do not what you are able you will be charged both with that and with the guilt of not doing that unto which in time you might have been enabled For God hath promised that they who seek shall find that he will open to them that knock and graciously answer them that call upon him faithfully Why then do you not address your self to the doing that which you certainly can do for instance call upon God and earnestly importune him for the help of his grace which is a thing you can do for in so doing God will not be wanting to you but inable you to that which for the present it may not be in your power to do 5. Unto which lastly let this be added which is of great moment You that say you cannot prepare your selves for the holy Communion have you ever tried have you gone about the work and made a serious and hearty attempt towards the reformation of your selves If you have not how come you to be so bold as to say you cannot do that which you have not yet tried and indeavoured to do what a prevarication is this with God and your own Consciences though I doubt this is the case of most of those men who plead inability when they never in good earnest made an experiment what might be done in the use of such means as God hath appointed and are in our power to use But if you have tried and miscarried why did you not try again and after that again and again and that with greater diligence and care than before For this you could have done and why should it be judged reasonable in our Worldly affairs to attempt over and over again the same thing wherein we have failed at the first in hope of better success at last and not be thought fit nay why should we not be willing to use the same repeated diligence notwithstanding such like discouragement in the weighty concernments of our Souls And since we find by experience we can do the one for we do it we ought to conclude that we can if we set our selves to it do the other For a Soul can do more for it self than for any thing else if it will but consider what a valuable being it is and where its true interest lies in the love and favour of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the first answer to the pretence of unfitness And what was last said may serve for an answer also to those that complain of hardness of heart and want of affection in the performance of this holy duty Let them do it as well as they are able and they will find acceptance with God and grow more affected with his love And for an Answer to those also that say they are never the better for coming to this Sacrament It is certain they were something the better by their very coming thither if they did not come without a resolution of amendment for that resolution was a good thing and the work of Gods grace Which though they did not keep they should not thereby have been discouraged from coming again but rather have renewed it which had been still a better thing And they ought not to have given over the attempt upon a new miscarriage but still laboured and indeavoured to settle this resolution so stedfastly by constant renewals of their Covenant with Christ that at last it might have stood unmoveable in all those temptations which were wont to overthrow it This is the way of Christ not to sit down contented with complaints of our unfitness to have Communion with him but never to rest satisfied till by our earnest and repeated indeavours we be better disposed II. And there is this great reason to inforce such indeavours which these complainers would do well to lay to heart that if they be unfit for this holy duty of Commemorating the Death of Christ and receiving the tokens and pledges of his love they have no cause to think themselves fit for other holy duties which are confessed by all to be of daily use viz. for Prayer for Thanksgiving and praising God Which duties if men be not fit to perform they ought to look upon themselves as not fit to live in the World or to go out of it but if they be not unfit for these then how can they say they are unfit for this since our part in the holy Communion is wholly performed by devout Prayer and Praise and Thanksgiving with such Faith and Love and holy resolutions as ought always to accompany those holy actions And our part being thus performed what reason have we to think that God will not perform his by accounting us worthy to receive those blessings which he there imparts For he is always more ready to give than we are to receive and we are not unmeet to receive when we are thus disposed to ask To this purpose you may remember I alledged St. Chrysostoms words in my former Discourse Art thou not worthy to partake of the Sacrifice then art thou not worthy neither to pray but thou oughtest to depart when the Deacon cries Be gone all you that are in penance c. For the holy Communion is a special way of praying and making Supplication to God through Christ Jesus for which they cannot be unfit who are fit to pray to God in his name at all No I am apt to think that many men who pretend this do not really think themselves unfit but use it only as a shift to excuse themselves from the performance of their duty For should the Minister of God upon this score keep those from the Communion who now keep themselves from it saying to them as of old Be gone you are not fit to partake with us they would take it very hainously at his hands and be apt to reply We are as fit as many whom you admit to partake with you you do us an injury in thrusting us away from the Table of the Lord where we see those
entertained that are no better than our selves For which ill resentment of such a supposed judgment passed upon them what reason can be given but this that they have no such opinion of their own unfitness For if they had they would be pleased rather than angry that other men are of their mind as they desire they should be in other cases They would be far from looking upon it as an indignity to be told they are not fit to Communicate it being the thing which they themselves pretend doth keep them from the Communion But herein they dissemble with us and cheat their own Souls having no such thoughts of themselves but are only loth to be at the pains of thinking seriously what is to be done there and of raising sutable affections and purposes in their heart that they may be acceptable to God our Saviour This idle lazy temper frames such excuses and makes them pretend unfitness which they are by no means willing to own if another charge them with it but rather think they are affronted by it Just like those that pretend to be sick and therefore lie in Bed when they have no mind to make or receive those Visits to which they are obliged but would be troubled if another should tell them they look very ill and had best go to Bed and send for a Physician for they fear their case is dangerous III. These things seem to me sufficient to take away this exception of unfitness but for the further conviction of all such persons as alledge this for the reason of their not receiving the holy Communion let it be considered that there are other duties of Christianity which are of indispensable obligation if we hope to be saved and those far more difficult to be performed than the duties now mentioned or this to which I exhort you for which if you be not fit as is pretended how will you be able to undertake the other where you will find much greater hardship and severity That is how will you be able to deny your selves and take up the Cross if it fall in your way and follow Christ in that bloody path wherein he is gone before us An injury will be intolerable an indignity insufferable to pass by affronts and abuses which are the smallest parts of the Cross of Christ will be beyond your power if you cannot do so easy a thing as this which Christ hath commanded in remembrance of his sufferings whereby you are to prepare and arm your selves with resolution to atchieve the other This is a thing to be seriously pondered because it is so necessary to be able to indure hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ and perform those difficult tasks when we are tried by them that otherwise it is in vain to pretend to the Christian Religion For our Lord Christ himself hath said Matth. xvi 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me c. Which is often repeated in the Gospel with peremptory asseverations that unless he do this a man cannot be his Disciple and that he who takes not up his Cross and follows after me as our Saviours words are Matth. x. 38 is not worthy of me These sayings of our Saviour show that this work of self denial and taking up the Cross and bearing it is not more harsh and troublesome to flesh and blood than it is necessary to make a man acceptable unto Christ who will reject those as unworthy of him that are not thus disposed Now how they will be able to go thorough with this tedious and irksome work who stick at the sweet and pleasant labour of making themselves fit to receive the tokens and pledges of Christs Everlasting love whereby they should be incouraged and animated unto the other I leave them to judge For my part I can see no hope of it but look upon their condition as desperate unless they dispose themselves even for the suffering of the Cross by fitting themselves for the devout Commemoration of the sufferings of Christ upon the Cross Which is so easy a duty compared with the other that I may shame all those who refuse to perform it when it is required of them in such opprobrious words as Naaman's Servant made bold to reprove him withal 2 King v. 13. If the Prophet had bidden thee do some great thing wouldst thâ—… not have done it how much rather then when he saith unto thee wash and be clean So say I if our Lord should now require you to conflict with the greatest hardships would you not obey rather than perish How much rather then when he saith unto you do this in remembrance of me Which is so easy to be done that there is no trouble in it but all pleasure all comfort and joy to think what Christ hath done for us and intends to do All the trouble and the pains is only to fit and dispose our selves to partake of this high pleasure and satisfaction of being assured that we are beloved by him and that he will love us for ever if we continue in his love by keeping his Commandments IV. Which small pains if men will not undertake but having passed this judgment on themselves that they are unmeet to receive the holy Communion continue so to be I do not understand why they should not withal judge themselves not to be Christians For all Christians are Members of Christ a part of his Body but how can any man be a member of the Body and not be in Communion with the head and how is it possible to be in Communion with the head and yet unfit to Communicate with him These things cannot stand together but overthrow one the other For they that are members of Christ are united to him and they that are united to him are in Communion with him and derive continual influences from him and they that are in such Conjunction and Communion with him must be fit to Communicate with him at his Table Else they are not his Friends and if not Friends then Strangers or Enemies For what medium is there between these Or how can men pretend to be Friends to Christ by being in Covenant with him and refuse to commemorate his Death which seals that Covenant because they are unfit always unfit to make that Commemoration These things are utterly inconsistent Either we must confess we are not in Covenant with him or we must not affirm that we are altogether unfit to commemorate that Death which confirms and seals that Covenant V. It will be much to the same purpose if I add that he who is not in some measure fit for this holy Sacrament cannot be in any measure fit for the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Life with our blessed Saviour But it may be fit to press this a little because the same thing in effect represented after divers manners becomes the more apt to meet with and affect all sorts of