have any set quantity of time allotted wherein to make it as of a month a year or the like space but so much is necessary as will compose our souls to the image of Christ and make us fit company for so holy a God It is not the washing our cloathes a little before the sprucing up of our souls as I may say and the putting on of a fine and demure behaviour when we come thither though we be never so filthy and ragged at other times But a holy life is the true time for preparing our souls to be Gods guests Whatsoever care and exactness we use and whatsoever extraordinary ornaments we put on immediately before our approaches to him yet that a constant good behaviour towards God and man is the main thing we are to look after is the sum of what I have to say in the following particulars I. The first of which I have already begun and it is nothing but this That holiness is to be a Christians constant employment and the great business of his life It is not a quality of which we have use onely at certain times nor is it a strictness at some seasons that gets us a liberty in the rest of our lives to be loose and careless nor a solitary retiredness now and then that shall make an amends for all our wandrings But it is a walking with God a patient running of the race which he hath set us and a daily dying unto the world insomuch that the Apostle saith we must be holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 We are not to put on the Lord Jesus as we do a cloak which we throw off at our pleasure and again cast about us when there is occasion but as we do our inner garment which we never go without nor lay aside no not when we have none in company but our selves Our Religion is not the feast of unleavened bread which the Jews observed but for seven days except you take the number seven to denote perfection and to be a token that they should rejoyce always in a constant course of holiness before God And in this sense I confess the Apostle is pleased to call our life a feast of unleavened bread 1 Cor. 5.7 8. which he bids us observe now that Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us but without any limitation of time because it is to last always And the reason of it is because Christians themselves are become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unleavened ver 7. i. e. they are separated by their profession from the wickedness wherein formerly they lived and therefore were to be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new mass or lump that should never admit of any of the old prophane mixtures that formerly had defiled their hearts and lives We are not onely to make a solemn stir against a Sacrament and then light candles to search for the old leaven that it may be thrown out but being by Christ become unleavened we are constantly to maintain such a light shining in our hearts that not we may live but Christ may live in us and the life that we lead may be by faith of the Son of God Before a great festival the worst of Heathens had their Votivae noctes their severe and pure nights as their Authors call them ten of which together used to precede the feast of Isis in which time as if they had imitated the command to Israel when the Law was given Exod. 19.15 they abstained from the most lawfull enjoyments and chaste embraces But what an heathenish life notwithstanding was you all know or else the Apostle will tell you 1 Pet. 4.3 They walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquetings abominable Idolatries And therefore their own sober Authors reproved this great folly of thinking holiness and purity to be the actions of a few days and not the course of a mans life Orat. in Timoer An illustrious place there is in Demosthenes to this purpose which I cannot but mention because it will testifie so much against the Christian world Before men come saith he to their holy offices they abstain for a certain number of days from all filthiness and vile actions whereas they who go about holy things should not onely for some space of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for their whole life have purified themselves of such kind of practices Hear O Christian what an Heathen saith and please not thy self in thy separate and strict devotion before thou comest to the Table of the Lord or against an holy time But think that every day is to be holy to the Lord though every action in the day be not equally holy Learn not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his phrase is to purifie thy self for a set number of days as if thou hadst appointed or ordered so much time to be spent in holiness and so much in sin but to behave thy self as if thou didst account thy whole life an opportunity of serving God and a season of cleansing thy self from all that filthiness which will not let thee see the face of God When I think of the Persians who they say every year had a feast wherein they destroyed all the Serpents that could be found and then let them multiply as fast as they would till the same solemnity returned again It puts me in mind of the Religion that is most in fashion among them that are named after Christ They are very angry at the Devil and all his cursed brood they are in some mood at a solemn feast mightily incensed against the old Serpent but afterwards they patiently suffer him to take his rest and his lusts increase like the spawn of fishes without any considerable distaste or opposition These men are as much mistaken in the Christian life as they that mistake a Serpent for an Eele or a stone for bread God expects and so he justly may that we should abound in all the fruits of righteousness that are by Christ Jesus to his praise and glory Phil. 1.11 and that we should pass the time of our sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.17 abstaining as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 II. The second thing that I would have observed is that this holiness consists of actions of divers sorts and is expressed in different manners It is diversified not onely by the objects about which it is imployed but the state of the subject wherein it is will not permit that all the acts of it should be of one kind and value And therefore it was that I said the Actions of a holy life are not equal in their holiness Some of them respect God others our neighbours and the rest our selves and all these we can do at some times with a better understanding and greater devotion then at other times it is possible for us to do For we begin this life of holiness
a stone and grinde them to powder seeing they would not love him as the Bread of Life bruised for them Matt. 22.44 This sad Meditation may not be unseasonable at a Feast of joy no more than a little vinegar in a mixture of many sweets And as dreadfull as it is it may bring us the more abundant comfort afterward by making us firm to God and establishing us in Faith and Obedience But whether the Reader will think fit to meditate of this matter at that time or no yet let me stay his thoughts a while now and entreat him seriously to think what the doom of all those will be who rebel against him to whom they have so often sworn subjection The love of God cannot make them love him the Bloud of Christ cannot make them bleed notwithstanding the Death of Christ they will dye and all the bands that he can lay upon them will not hold them fast O what chains of Darkness are they reserved for who break so many cords of love asunder What a sacrifice must they be to the vengeance of God whom the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross could not deliver The wrath of God will utterly consume and burn them up They shall be a whole burnt-offering to his fiery indignation they themselves shall satisfie for their fins and then he can never be satisfied These men take all the guilt of their sinnes upon their own souls and fearlesly go to Hell as though they could bear his indignation or fave themselves from the fury of his anger O let sinners consider what they do when they neglect so great salvation So farre shall they be from being Christs and Saviours to themselves that they shall be their own Devils and Tormentors Their spirits shall turn into fiends and they shall miserably rage and fame against their own selves and eternally crucifie their own hearts in vexing and racking-thoughts Their anger and displeasure shall burn against their own souls for their contempt of the Covenant of Grace the bloud of Christ will call for their bloud the pardon that was offered will plead for no pardon and all the Expence which God hath been at will be charged upon them What then will they do when they shall be rendred guilty of the bloud of the Lord when the Love of God it self will be their accuser when they shall be oppressed and cast under an infinite debt which they can never pay They must groan and sigh and cry under the burden to all eternity and the Name of Christ which is so sweet to converted sinners will be a name of death and horror unto them and the bloud of Christ which is the life of all the holy Ones of God will be like red and bloudy colours to some creatures which will make them raging mad If I could exaggerate this as it deserves methinks I could affright a soul that is in the profoundest sleep in the Devils Arms. And yet why should I think such a thought if the bloud of Christ cannot do it but men will dye in secure-sinning why should we think to prevail O think of the bloud of Christ therefore and let it not be shed in vain Think how angry he will be that his dearest heart bloud should be spilt on the ground like water to no purpose at all as to thy soul Think how it grieves him to see his love so undervalued how it pierces him to see his bloud trodden under feet into what anger his love will at last turn and this will move thee more than all that I can say If a man could speak nothing but fire and smoak and bloud if flames should come out of his mouth instead of words if he had a voice like thunder and an eye like lightning he could not represent unto you the misery of those that make no reckoning of the bloud of the Sonne of God The very Sun shall be turned into darkness saith the Apostle out of Joel Acts 2.20 and the Moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord viz. the day when he shall come to destroy the Enemies of his Cross And yet he seems there to speak but of one particular day of Judgement upon the Jewish Nation who crucified the Lord of Life and that was but a type and figure of the last day and came far short of the blackness and darkness of that time when the Lord will come to take vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus How terrible would it be to see the Heavens all covered with clouds of blood to feel drops of blood come raining down upon our heads and next showres of fire from the melting Sun come trickling upon our eyes and then sheets of flames wrapping about our bodies to hear the earth groan and the pillars of the world crack as if the whole frame of Nature were a dying and the world were tumbling into its Grave All this would be but a petty image of that dreadfull Day when the Son of righteousness shall be cloathed with clouds of wrath when his countenance shall be as flames of fire when he shall cloath himself with vengeance as a Garment when the Lamb of God himself shall roar like a Lyon and the meek and compassionate Jesus shall rend in pieces and devour There can be nothing more strange than for a Lamb to be angry for a sheep to tear and destroy If he once gird his sword upon his thigh and resolve to dip his feet in the blood of the wicked it will be a dismall a bloudy day indeed and woe be to all those on whom that dreadfull storm shall fall when the God of Heaven himself shall come in flaming fire to destroy his Adversaries For ever shall they lye wallowing in their own bloud and all their bloud shall be turned into fire and they shall bathe themselves in streams of Brimstone and roll themselves in beds of flames and their torment shall never cease Much rather would I have a Lyon satisfie his bloudy Jawes with my flesh or a cruell Tyrant rake in my bowels with the teeth of burning Irons or be prickt to death with Needles or endure all the miseries that any ingenuous witty Devil can invent than fall into the angry hands of a loving Saviour Much rather would I see the Sun scowle and all the clouds of Heaven come ratling down in a Tempest upon my head than behold the least frown in the brow of the blessed Jesus What anger must that be which shall lye in the bosome of Love What fire burns like to Jealousie Who so enraged as those whose love is abused and grosly contemned All that the Apostle can tell us in Answer to this Question is that our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Our God even the God of Christians the God of St. Paul the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the God of Love and Goodness is a burning consuming Fire
Melchizedeck unto Abraham as a part perhaps of the blessing of that High Priest and as a signification of that Sacrament which God would have Abrahams seed to feed upon when the true High Priest after that great mans order should come And fifthly It is not to be forgotten that they do best answer to some things whereunto Christ is compared in the holy Scriptures For he is called the Vine and every branch that is in him must bring forth fruit as he doth which may hereby be represented And he is called the Bread of life which came down from Heaven as the Manna in the Wilderness who is to support our souls as the staff of bread doth our bodies Sixthly But it is most to be remarked that these were part of the Passeover-Supper when Christ as Cyril of Alexandria speaks was typically eaten in Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For first It is acknowledged by all that the Bread was blessed and the Cup also and so went round to all the guests And the forms of Benediction are still extant in some of the Hebrew Authors And secondly The whole Feast after the Passeover-night was called the Feast of unleavened Bread And thirdly It is the opinion I observe of some that our Saviour at the time of instituting this Sacrament Grot. did eat onely the Bread and the bitter Herbs but not the Lamb of the Passeover For it is not said in the Evangelists that his Disciples killed the Passeover for him but onely that they made ready the Passeover which might be nothing else but that bread of affliction and the herbs which were attended with the cup of kindness that used to pass among them For our Saviour died at the time the Passeover-Lamb was offered being indeed the Lamb of God himself And therefore S. John saith Chap. 13.1 That the Supper was before the Feast of the Passeover and he calls it eating of the Passeover because this was a great part of it a principal portion of this Feast And this part was all that they could partake of who at any time could not come to Jerusalem where only the Lamb was to be eaten being first offered at the Temple But supposing this to be doubtful yet there is no question but that this Lamb was a Type of Christ and that Bread and Wine was a part of their Supper And upon search I believe we shall find that the Lamb of the Passeover was the only Sacrifice which the people did wholly eat its blood being poured out at the Altar and it doth the better set forth Christ who gives himself wholly to us To which fourthly may be added that as the Paschal-Lamb did represent him so the manner of its killing was very conformable to Christs death upon the Cross which may make it more reasonable to borrow from the Supper resemblances of him For they hung the Lamb upon nails much what as Butchers now do a Sheep which they have killed and then fley'd off its skin that it might be dressed While it hung in this posture it was just like the scituation of Christs body upon the Cross as Buxtorf hath observed out of the Talmud whose hands were so spread and leggs so stretched out as the Lamb was 5. Unto which I may add That the Law of Moses was not to be wholly destroyed but to be changed and altered by Christ So the Apostle teacheth us to speak in Heb. 7.12 And the malice of St. Stephen's accusers could prompt them to say no worse of him then that he preached Jesus should change the customs which Moses delivered Act. 6.14 Circumcision is commanded under the title of an everlasting Covenant and it is not so much abolished as improved into a better Sacrament and seal of greater blessings to Mankind The sabbath-Sabbath-day likewise was to be a commemoration of Gods rest from all his works on the seventh day and of his deliverance of them out of Egypt and it is not cancelled but changed into another day which contains the former and something else even a remembrance of the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead that he might enter into his rest So we may conceive that this great Feast of the Passeover was not quite done away but gave place to a better Feast which is in memory of a greater deliverance than that from the thraldom of Egypt and the iron Furnace In this the Jewish Christians might still commemorate their ancient mercies as well as if they had eaten of the flesh of their Lamb. Yea because there was in it such a clear representation of Christs sufferings especially in its first Institution when the blood was sprinkled on the door-posts part of it was thought fit still to remain viz. the Bread and Wine which they used to eat and drink in memory of that mercy with solemn forms of thanksgiving unto God And lastly The Bread and Wine was more fit then the flesh to be retained because now that Christ is come all Sacrifices are to cease and no more blood is to be shed for fin This I say may be a good reason why Bread and Wine only are used because they are unbloody things and after the killing of the Lamb of God there is to be no more life offered for our offences This Feast our Saviour did first of all celebrate with his twelve Disciples §. 3. And it was but fit that he should do so that he might the better answer to the Type in Exod. 29. where we read that Aaron the High Priest with his sons was to eat the breast and shoulder of the Ram of consecration whereby he was sanctified to officiate in the Priesthood Even so our Lord being to be offered up in Sacrifice and thereby to be consecrated an high Priest did institute this Supper that together with his Disciples he might as much as is possible feast with them upon that Sacrifice And seeing our Saviours Sacrifice answered both to the Paschal Lamb and the propitiatory Sacrifice on the day of Expiation it will be no wonder if it were so compleat as to have reference to this also The time when it was first instituted was in the night when he was betrayed for at the Even they celebrated the Passeover which makes some I suppose to keep the memory of Christs death in the close of the day But if they think that they must exactly follow that precedent they should do it after Supper And I rather think that the manner of receiving about noon is most agreeable to the true pattern For we do not remember the Supper of the Lord but his Sacrifice on the Cross And therefore as the Jews feasted at Even because they came out of Aegypt at that time so should we feast about Noon because our Lords death began between nine and twelve and ended about three of the Clock as you will clearly see by comparing the relation of S. Mark and S. John together It is said John 19.14 that it was about
heavenly spirit We must remember Christ therefore as Nehemiah desires God to remember him by doing good or as we remember our Creator by a true subjection of all our faculties to his soveraign will Then we remember him as we ought when we get him formed in our hearts and have a more living image of him left in our minds when it stirs and is busie in our souls and awakens all other images and calls up all divine truths that are within us to send them forth upon their several imployments into our lives Now for the fuller understanding of this matter you must know that the Paschal Supper which is called by Greg. Naz. very elegantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more obscure type of this type was instituted for a remembrance and was a Feast of commemoration as will soon appear if you look but a while into the particulars of it And first you must observe that the very day of the Passeover was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a memorial of their miraculous deliverance out of Egypt as you may read Exod. 12.14 and therefore they are bid Exod. 13.3 to remember this day in which they came out of Egypt out of the house of bondage c. Thence it was that they were commanded to eat the Lamb with bitter herbs Exod. 12.8 for a remembrance of their hard bondage in Egypt which made their lives bitter unto them Exod. 1.14 So was the unleavened bread the bread of affliction in remembrance that they brought their bread out of Egypt unleavened Exod. 12.34 and were there in great servitude Exod. 13.3 so that their soul was even dried and parched in them The later Jews have added the charóseth which is a thick sawce in memory of the clay and morter which they wrought in and they use red wine for a remembrance that Pharaoh shed the blood of their children To which may be added that God required there should be a rehearsal to their children of what the Lord had done for them that so this feast might be for a sign upon their hand and for a memorial between their eyes to all posterity as you may see Exod. 13.8 9. And thence it is that the Jews call that section of the Law or the Lesson which they read that night the Haggádah annunciation or shewing forth because they commemorated and predicated both their hard services and Gods wonderful salvation and the praises that were due to him for so great a mercy It is easie now to apply all this to our present purpose if we do but consider that this likewise is a holy feast Whence it is called the Lords Supper not only because he appointed it 1 Cor. 11.20 but because he was the end of its celebration and an entertainment at the table of the Lord. 1 Cor. 10.21 This Feast our Saviour first keeping with his Apostles who were Jews he makes part of the Passeover-chear to be the provision of it For he takes the bread and wine which used to go about in that Supper through the whole family to signifie his broken body and his blood which was to be shed Now this was to be in commemoration of a deliverance wrought by him from a greater tyranny then the Israelites were under which made all the world to groan and was ready to thrust us all below into the Devils fiery furnace And therefore as it is said Exod. 13.8 thou shalt shew thy son in that day saying This is done c. So the Apostle in a manifest allusion to that phrase saith 1 Cer. 11.26 that when we eat this bread and drink this cup we do shew forth the Lords death until he come So that we may conclude that in this feast in honour of Christ we are to make a rehearsal of his famous acts to proclaim his mighty deeds to speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty and of his wondrous works and to indeavour that one generation may praise his works to another Psl 146.3 4 c. and declare his mighty acts that they may speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power And indeed it should seem that the memory of a thing is by nothing so sensibly preserved and so deeply ingraven in mens minds as by feasts and festival joys For it hath been the way of all the world to send to posterity the memory of their benefactors or famous persons by instituting of such solemn times wherein men did assemble together and by the joys and pleasures of them more imprint the kindnesses and noble atchievements of such Worthies in their minds So we find among the Greeks their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in honour of Aeacus their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in honour of Ajax and in latter times their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such like in remembrance of the merits of such persons and how highly they deserved of the places where their feasts were celebrated In like sort the Jews had their feasts in memory of some great and rare passage of divine providence though not of any particular persons lest they should be tempted to worship them as their Saviours according as the custom of the heathen was But all worship being due to our Lord and Saviour he thought fit in like manner to appoint this feast to be as a Passeover unto us a holy solemnity that should call us together and assemble us in one body that we might be more sensibly impressed with him and that all generations might call him blessed and he might never be forgotten to the worlds end Now of two things it is a remembrance and two ways we do commemorate or remember them I. It is instituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Dialog cum Tryph. c. for a remembrance that he was imbodied for those that believe on him and became passible for their sakes The bread and the wine are in token that he had a true body and that the word was made flesh For thence Tertullian and Irenaeus do confute Marcion who denied the truth of Christs flesh and made his body to be a phantastical thing because then real bread and wine could not be a figure of it and so Theodoret saith out of Ignatius Dialog 3. that some Simon and Menander I think did not admit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thanksgivings and offerings viz. of bread and wine in this Sacrament because they did not confess that it was the flesh of our Saviour Now with what affection we should call to mind this love that God would appear to us not by an Angel in a bright cloud not in a body of pure air but by his Son in our own flesh I leave your own hearts to tell you Methink we should wish that all the world could hear us proclaim this love and that even the fields and forests i. e. the most desolate and heathenish places might resound our joyful acclamations to him We should wish to feel something of extasie and
be all the usual attendants and companions of such seasons Luk. 15.25 the soul will begin to leap and dance for joy it will awake Psaltery and Harp and all the Instruments of Praise And so the Apostle speaking I suppose of the Christian Feasts and Entertainments bids them not be drunk with wine Ephes 5.18 19. wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking to themselves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord. These two things did commonly finish the Heathen Meetings After they were well liquored with Wine they used to sing and roar the Hymns of Bacchus The Apostle therefore opposes two sorts of heavenly pleasure unto that madness bidding them not to gorge themselves with Wine but to crave larger Draughts of the Spirit not to fill the air with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Bacchus as the manner was but with Hallelujahs unto God Drunk they might be so it were with the Holy Ghost And chaunt they might so it were Psalms and Thanksgivings to the Lord. Psal 36.8 Inebriabuntur ubertate c. Vulg. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thine house saith the Psalmist and thou shalt make them to drink of the River of thy pleasure Even a heathen could say Pramium virtutis esse perpetuam ebrtetatem That the reward of virtue is a perpetual drunkenness But then we must distinguish of drunkenness as Ficinius doth who hath well noted That there is one Earthly and Mundane v. Argumentum dialogi 2. de Justo when the soul drinks of Lethe's Cup and is beside her self and unmindfull of all divine things This is it the Apostle speaks against in the beginning of those verses as a heathenish crime But there is another coelestial drunkenness when the soul tasts of Heavenly Nectar and is indeed out of it self because above it self When it forgets these mortal things and is elevated to those which are divine feeling it self by a supernatural heat to be changed from its former habit and state This is it which the Apostle exhorts unto this is it which we must long for when we are at the Supper of the Lord. This is that which the Spouse means according to some ancient Expositors when she saith He hath brought me into his banquetting-house or Wine-Cellars and his banner or covering * For they feasted upon beds Cant. 2.4 over me was Love The Septuagint make it a prayer and render it thus Bring me into his wine-cellar place love in order over me Which may be conceived saith one as the voice of the Church to the Apostles or Ministers Polychronius Prepare for me the Supper of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set me down orderly at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feast of love There is nothing that holy souls can more desire then to be so satisfied with him that their mouthes may praise him with joyfull lips This is the fruit of the spiritual inebriation that the soul meditate spiritual songs and hymns to God And indeed the better sort of Heathens did in their feasts sing the praises of famous men which good Criticks make the true original of the word Encomium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so the Apostle exhorts the Christians that they would break forth into their praises of God and Christ who were most worthy of all their hymns Before I end this let me observe That every one may sing such Hymns as the Apostle calls for and indite them in his own heart unto God because a Hymn is not as we ordinarily think onely praise in verse and metre but any words of Thanksgiving that set forth the merits of him that we extoll So a Heathen will teach us if we be still to learn it When a man saith Libanius hath any gift given him by God 〈◊〉 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should by way of thankfulness return something unto God and some give one thing some another The Shepherd offers a Pipe the Huntsman a Stags head the Poet a Hymn in metre the Orator a Hymn without metre and in my judgment saith he a Hymn is more valuable with God then Gold and far to be preferr'd before it Now Love will make any one eloquent if our hearts be full of God they will run over Thanksgiving and Praise is the natural language of a pious heart and there is no such copious subject whereon to spend them as the Lord Christ and in the knowledg of Christ nothing so admirable as his death and therefore when we commemorate that the high praises of God must be in our mouths II. The Jewish Feasts upon their Sactifices do more plainly instruct us in this matter They that offered peace-offerings unto God were admitted to eat some part of them after they were presented to God and some pieces of them burnt upon the Altar And this is called partaking of the Altar which was God's Table 1 Cor. 10.18 Ezek. 41.22 Mal. 1.7 where they did rejoyce before him as those that were suffered to eat and drink with him So I observe That where there is mention made of their eating before the Lord which can signifie nothing else but their partaking of the Altar and feasting at his table they are said likewise to rejoyce before him Deut. 12.7 18. Deut. 16.11 in the later of which places after he had given command concerning the three great Feasts he adds ver 14. Thou shalt rejoyce in thy feasts And in the later end of King David's Reign when Solomon was crowned there was sacrifices offered in abundance for all Israel as you may read 1 Chron. 29.21 22. and the people are said to eat and drink before the Lord on that day with great gladness But the Psalmists words are most to be observed to this purpose Psal 116.12 13. where to the question What shall I return to the Lord for all his benefits towards me he returns this answer I will take the cup of salvation c. i. e. when I offer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifices for salvation or deliverance that God hath granted me out of trouble I will remember the mercy of God with all thankfulness as I feast upon the remains of that sacrifice For it was the manner that the Master of the sacrifice should begin a cup of Thanksgiving to all the guests that he invited that they might all praise God together for that salvation in consideration of which he paid these vowes unto him And in those words the Ancients thought they tasted the cup of salvation which we now drink in the Supper of the Lord expounding them in the anagogical sence to signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Psal 116. the participation of the Christian mysteries For in them we are to lift up songs of praise to Heaven as we feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ and we are to laud his Name who hath done such great
else we shall do nothing at the Lords Supper but what we might do at any other time as well If it be onely beleeving and meer spiritual eating that here is exercised then we may feed so without this food And when Christ commands so frequently Do this in remembrance of me it would be no more sence then if he had said Do this which yet you may do without doing this This eating and drinking therefore must be a profession of our faith a covenanting solemnly with God and a receiving and giving of those pledges of love which we cannot have any where else V. And indeed the old Christians did so sacredly bind themselves hereby to their Saviour that Heathens were ready to suspect them of dangerous combinations and such conspiracies as might prove mischievous to the Commonwealth From which imputation whilest Pliny doth acquit them L. 10. Epist. 97. he likewise instructs us for what end they met together at this feast They assemble themselves saith he in a Letter to Trajan the Emperor before day break and sing a Hymn to Christ as if he were God and then they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves with a Sacrament or Oath not that they will do mischief to any but that they will not rob or steal nor commit adultery nor falsifie their words nor deny their trust c. And then after they have eat together they depart to their own homes Of more then this they protested to him he should never find them guilty and this was the crime of Christians in those first ages to engage themselves to commit no crime which they bound themselves unto by this Sacrament of Christs body and blood The Greek Christians at this day Christop Angelus rit Eccles Graec. when they take the bread or cup into their hands make this profession Lord I will not give thee a kiss like Judas but I do confess unto thee like the poor thief and beseech thee to remember me when thy Kingdom comes If we do touch the body of Christ with traitorous lips and embrace him with a false heart we stain our souls with the guilt of that blood which can onely wash them from all their other sins And therefore we must come unfeignedly to bewail our neglects and to settle our former resolutions of strict obedience It is grown even to a Proverb as Joseph Accosta relates among the poor Indians that have entertained the faith De procur Ind. Sal. L. 6. that Qui eucharistiam semel susceperit nullum amplius crimen debet committere He must never be guilty more of any crime who hath once received the Eucharist And if they chance to commit any they bewail it with such a sorrow and compunction that he saith he hath not found such faith no not in Israel But it would be very sad if we should be sent to school as far as India There are I make no doubt many pious souls among our selves that look upon it as a blessed opportunity to knit their hearts in greater love to God and that are more afflicted for an evil thought after such engagements then other are for a base and unworthy action Whensoever therefore we come to celebrate the memory of Christs death in this manner we must remember with our selves that we are assembled for to renew our baptismal vow and league and in the devoutest manner to addict our selves to a more constant love and service of the Lord Jesus We must look upon this feast to which we are admitted as a disclaiming of all enmity to him and a profession of our continuing a hearty friendship so as never to do any hostile act against him And thence indeed it is called a Sacrament according to Tertullian and others with him because we here take an Oath to continue Christs faithfull Souldiers and never to do any thing against his Crown and dignity as long as there remains any breath in our bodies We do repeat our Oath of Allegiance and swear fealty again to him or as we ordinarily speak we take the Sacrament upon it that we will be Christs faithfull servants and Souldiers against the Devil World and Flesh and never flie from his service Every act of sin then after such promises is not onely treason but perjury not onely the breaking of our faith but of our Oath yea not onely the violation of a simple Oath but of Oath upon Oath which we ought more to dread then we do to break our bones We esteem it an impiety of a high nature for a Minister to give a cup of poyson into a mans hand instead of the blood of Christ and we do deservedly abhorre that Priest that poysoned Pope Victor the 3d. Venenum sub specie sacramenti dedit vertens calicem vitae in calicem mortis with the Sacrament and him that poysoned Henry the 7th Emp. turning as Nauclerus his phrase is the cup of life into the cup of death But whilest our hearts swell in indignation at such a crime let us consider with our selves what a treasonable act it is to poyson our souls with our own hands and by a base treachery to God to swallow down curses and woes into our selves Better were it for us to be choaked with the bread of life or to feel the venome of Asps boiling in our veins after the holy cup then to take an Oath which we take small care to keep then to go on in a course of sin after such sacred professions of our duty and service unto Christ We are amazed to hear that men can touch the Gospels before a Magistrate and kiss the book or lift up their hand to Heaven and yet make good never a word that they swear We are apt to think that either these men have no souls or that they do not value them at the price of a rotten nut O let our very flesh then tremble to think that we should lay our hand upon the body of Christ and take it into our very mouths and solemnly swear unto him and yet not be faithfull in his Covenant nor heartily indeavour to perform our promises unto him For there is no forsworn person hath such a black soul as he whose soul is fouled even by the blood of Christ himself which washes the souls of others The world cannot but shrink at the thoughts of that fearful act of one of the Popes who making a League with Caesar and the French King divided the bread of the Sacrament into three parts with this saying scarce tollerable As the holy Trinity is but one God so let the union indure between us three confederates and yet he was the first that broke it and started from the agreement Far be it from us then after this action wherein we joyn our selves to God and unite our hearts to fear his Name and become as it were one with him to rescind our Covenants or stand again at tearms of defiance But let us have a care
and there embracing together did pass as it were into each others bodies As it was said of Jonathan 1 Sam. 18.1 so it might be affirmed of them their soul was knit to the souls of their brethren and they loved them as their own soul And therefore Alexander the false Prophet Lucian in Pseudomant in imitation I make no question of these holy brethren did entertain all his followers with a kiss and those that were admitted to a near communication with him were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they within the Kiss There are several places I observe in holy Writ where this kind of salutation is joined with weeping Gen. 29.11 Gen. 33.4 Gen. 45.15 whereby the Scripture expresseth such a joy at each others sight that it stopt all passages for the present but the eyes and tears told that which the mouth could not yet speak but by a kiss And in one place this salutation goes under the Name of falling on the neck Gen. 46.29 which denotes the Ardency of their embraces and that they hanged on each others lips as if they were loath to be two any more But beside all this it must be marked that the kiss was usually accompanied with some form of Benediction or Prayer for their welfare which plainly appears in the salutations of two treacherous persons Joab and Judas 2 Sam. 20.9 Matth. 26.49 the one of which saith Art thou in health my brother i. e. I pray thou mayest be as I hope thou art c. and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All hail Master From all which we may be well assured That these Christian embraces did onely melt them into tears and not inflame them into any distempered heats that they did onely shew their dear affection and heartily pray to God that all Peace might be with them i. e. that all prosperity and happiness might be their portion 2. The first Christians having the Blood of Christ as yet warm upon their hearts burnt with such Charity to each other that they instituted frequent Feasts which they kept at the same time after they had received the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood At this sacred Meal the poor were feasted together with the rich upon those offerings which the rich had made And they sate down as it hapned without any distinction either in higher or lower forms to shew that they looked on themselves as equals in Christ and fellow-heirs of the same promise These Feasts were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feasts of Love or Charity and are mentioned in St. Jude ver 14. and by St. Peter 2 Pet. 2.13 So denominated they were as Anastasius Sinaita will have it from their end and purpose which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to draw all together to an unity and agreement Tertullian gives a better reason but tending to the same sence Our Supper saith he carries its reason in its Name Coena nostra de nomine rationem sui ostendit Vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id quod dilectio penes Graecos est Tert. in Apol. for Agapae signifies love in the Greek Language We find no Divine Institution for these Entertainments yet they have as a Learned man speaks * Montag against Sdden Divine Toleration And they had a good beginning though in process of time they nourishod disorders In the first simplicity they fed the soul as well as the body and Charity was no less nourished then their Carcasses though in after-times it must be confessed they made greater expences then formerly but did far worse employ them And therefore in Justin Martyr's dayes about the year 160 as far as one can guess by his Apology they left them off and disposed the offerings more advantagiously into a common Bank for the poor and distressed persons For they were not like men now that take away abuses and save their money but they reformed the mispence of that Charity which they still continued And therefore those Agapae which after-Authors mention were but rarely celebrated on their Birth or Marriage-dayes or at their Funeral Obsequies whence a dole is at this day used to be given to poor people But they were so approved of in the Apostles dayes that the phrase of breaking bread in the New-Testament seems to have reference to this whole Feast and not onely to receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For so the phrase is used among the Hebrews for a Feast and so in the Acts of the Apostles cap. 27.35 St. Paul is said to take bread and give thanks and break it which was not a celebration of the Eucharist but a common meal together with the passengers in the same ship And in like sence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Supper is to be understood 1 Cor. 11.20 for the whole Feast including both the Agape and the Eucharist also being so immediately joined together Whence it is that Ignatius speaking of this under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make an entertainment he saith they should never do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. ad Smyrn without the Bishop or Overseer of the Congregation And the reason sure was because this Sacrament was alwayes joined with that Feast and both understood by one name which Sacrament none might celebrate without the presence of him that was appointed by God to bless and sanctifie the offerings that were brought So Mr. Thorndike testifies Review of Rights of the Church That he finds in a MS. expounding divers Greek words of the Bible this glofs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords Supper is to dine in the Church This common Entertainment being made for poor and rich out of the stock of the Church from the offerings that were brought the seaven Deacons were first appointed to attend upon the making of this provision and relieving the poor otherwise which the Apostles had not leisure for to mind as you may read Acts 6.2 Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving Tables we cannot well understand any other thing then providing for the poor this Table at the Feasts of Charity which maintained a singular love and kindness among them all So great a kindness it was that hereby was nourished that the Heathens could not but take notice of it as inviting many to be Christians You shall find In Frag. saith Julian among the Galileans by which name they called Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Feast of Love which they call Agapae their entertainment and their serving of Tables which draws many to their Religion And this is the great thing which the Apostle reproves the Corinthians for that though the Sacrament and this feast were appointed to preserve love yet they rudely abused them to the very contrary end The Gloss of Oecumenius if it be perused will make this very clear When you come together saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1 Cor. 11.20 into one place This is not to eat the Lords
know or ever heard of do think that nothing less than a morning and evening-Worship can denominate prayer continual or without ceasing As the Lambs that were offered every morning and every evening throughout the year were called in Moses his Law the continual burnt-offering Exod. 29.42 Numb 28.3 So the offering unto God our Morning and Evening Sacrifices even the calves of our lips for what we want and what we have received may be called our continual prayer which must be alwayes joined according to the Apostle with thanksgiving From their practise we fetch the best explication of these expressions concerning prayer that I know of and so we may of such things as I before mentioned and many others also These solemn Addresses then we may by no means omit but look upon our selves as necessarily bound unto them And as among them there were two Lambs more offered upon the Sabbath day over and above the continual Burnt-offering Numb 28.8 9. So we cannot but think our selves most strictly enjoined to enlarge our prayers and praises upon the Lords day to a greater length than at other times and to offer as many more sacrifices as other days require Several other times there were wherein God required more than the ordinary offerings of them as may be seen in the same Chapter but yet he left room for some voluntary Oblations which as I said he thought they would be so kind as to bestow upon him or else he would never have made mention of them nor given any Laws about them Even so hath God left it to our love and good will we bear to him to make choice of some seasons beside those he hath appointed wherein to pay him larger acknowledgments and testifie a more abundant affection to his service both by the fervency of our souls in what we do and by the greater proportion of time which we allow for the doing of it Pral 119.164 and in the 108 verse he prayes God to accept the Free-will-offerings of his mouth And therefore it will be highly accepted of God if sometimes we pray with David seven times in a day and make some addition to the daily sacrifice Charles the fifth though a person of a high employment as David was used to continue so long at his private devotions and was so sparing in his ordinary speech that his Courtiers were wont to say Chytreus Orat. de eo he did saepius cum Deo quam hominibus loqui speak oftner with God than he did with men The more pious sort likewise among the Jews seem to have prayed at least four times in a day twice at the Temple if they were at Hierusalem and twice in their own private houses At the third hour when the Disciples were together at the Temple it is very probable because all Nations that were at Jerusalem took notice of it the holy Ghost came down upon them Acts 2.15 which was the time of the morning sacrifice about nine of the clock according to our reckoning On the same day in all likelihood two of the Apostles went into the Temple at another hour of Prayer which was the ninth viz. three of the clock in the afternoon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the time of the evening-sacrifice as you read Acts 3.1 where the words are so placed that they intimate another hour of prayer to be usual besides that From the constant observance of these appointed times they are said in Luk. 24. ult to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continually in the Temple blessing and praising God But beside you may find that Peter prayed at twelve of the Clock in his own private house which was the sixth hour of the day in their language Acts 10.9 and therefore it is probable that the twelfth hour or six at night was another hour for private prayer among them And if it should be said That he being not at Hierusalem but Joppa might omit the hours of prayer at the Temple that will be confuted by the practise of Cornelius in the same Chapter ver 3 30. who being at Caesarea prayed at the ninth hour and the holy Apostle cannot be thought to be less devout than him There is nothing lost by going unto God and the oftner we perswace our selves to it the better success we shall have in all other things according to a good Proverb of the Dutch I think which saith Thefts never enrich Alms never impoverish Prayer hinders no work Our Saviour hath given us an example of extraordinary devotion in his own practise Luke 6.12 where you read that he continued all night in prayer to God or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by some rendred in one of Gods places of Prayer Thither he retired from company and passed the night in holy meditations and converses with God He did not sin when he slept other nights but this was a more illustrious act of holiness and a more fervent expression of love to his Father above that which the precept requires And concerning such devotions the Mahometans say Preces nocturnae sunt splendor dici Night-prayers are the light of the day So in Luke 22.41 we find that our Lord fell upon his knees and prayed and not long after ver 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he prayed more earnestly and fervently than before He did not fail of his duty in the former prayer because it was not in such a vehement degree but in this later prayer he expressed a more excellent zeal and ardor of spirit then he was absolutely tied unto All these things are written for our instruction that we may learn to lay hold on the occasions that are presented to us of intending our spirits raising our hearts beyond their common pitch and temper I remember Strabo saith concerning the ancient Venetians that they used to sacrifice to Diomedes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a white Horse which might both signifie the purity and also the strength and speed of the service that they owed to God We must alway be holy and pure in our Addresses to the Divine Majesty but we have examples in Scripture and it will be highly pleasing unto him to put to greater strength sometimes and press forward with a greater speed to collect all the forces of our souls and strain them to the noblest degree of desire and love that we are able VI. You may likewise consider further That one act of Religion is preparative to another The daily sacrifice makes the weekly more acceptable Continual prayer makes us more fit for prayer on the Lords day The morning and evening spent well make us ready to spend a whole day better And these constant sacrifices keep the Altar warm and maintain a fire to kindle our free-will-offerings And one free-will-offering inflames our heart to a forwardness to present God with another So likewise back again these extraordinary devotions make us more solemn in our ordinary duties and the Lords day employed well makes every day
have laid down to our selves as the guide of our life From these two arise the whole of that which is necessary to be done continually for the approbation of our selves to be such persons as have a care to please God Now this may be the prime and first sense of the Apostles words when he saith Let a man examine himself and so let him eat c. i. e. let him have a care that he lead such a Christian life that his own heart may approve of him as one of Christs Disciples This you may be best satisfied out of another place where this word is used Gal. 6.4 Let a man prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or examine his own work c. The meaning of which is Let every man make his work so approved and behave himself in that manner that both God and his own Conscience may judge it to be right and according to the Word of God That this is the sense of the phrase in that place will appear from the whole context where the Apostle speaks of bearing the infirmities of the weak and not thinking our selves to be godly because we do not fall like them by any temptation And so saith he Thou shalt have glory or rejoycing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toward thy self and not in regard of another i. e. thou shalt take comfort simply in thy self that thou art a good man and not only be pleased with comparing thy self with others and being better then they for so thou mayest be and yet not be good From this it appears that he speaks not of something that should follow the actions of our life viz. a searching whether they be good or no but of such an institution and ordering of our lives beforehand that we may not fall into those sins which we reprehend in another nor be beholden to their sins to make us seem godly And the next words v. 5. plead for this sense For every man shall bear his own burden i. e. Thou oughtest to make thy work good and approved for every man sins at his own peril One mans sin will not excuse thee who dost not sin in that fashion but thou art to do thy own duty heartily to God according to thy Conscience or else thou shalt suffer as well as he And that the Apostle may have respect unto this examination before we come to the Sacrament in that place before-mentioned there is another phrase following v. 31. which may perswade us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if we judge our selves c. i. e. if we do discern our selves and discriminate our actions and determine our duty and live in conformity to it we should not be judged nor punished of God in this sort But whether this be the proper meaning of examining or no I shall not be overmuch solicitous seeing I have already made this good that he must be a holy person that comes to Gods Table And that there is beside this a more particular examination to be used when the time is near of communicating with our Lord I willingly grant And it consists of two parts according to the two-fold use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render examine The first is a proof trial and search into our own souls that we may know our estate and in what condition we stand before God So the word is used 1 Thess 5.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove all things i. e. make a trial of them and consider what they are and then hold fast that which you find to be good This examination considering that I suppose a pious life to precede must chiefly consist in a review of those failings or of those wants which our every-day proof of our selves doth present us withall If we should never examine our selves but when we come to the Lords Supper we should not know what we are nor what we need but in a confused heap of things many would be unobserved and yet if we should not also examine then we should not have such a lively sense of what we are to ask and for what we ought to plead the bloud of Christ But then this examination is but a serious reflection upon the Notes which we take every day of our selves Unless it be needfull that we examine our selves whether we have not forgot any of the ends for which we go to the Table of the Lord and though that be a great part of the Apostles meaning yet I have already taken notice of it In short we are to search rather in what state our Graces stands than whether we be in a state of Grace or no. Then secondly We must approve and allow of our selves and bring the trial to such an issue that we pass a verdict on our souls So the word is used Rom. 2.18 thou approvest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that are excellent i. e. Thou professest to like and embrace them And so when the Apostle bids the Children of the light to prove what is acceptable unto God Ephes 5.8 10. He doth not mean a bare inquisition but that act which follows it which is embracing For they cannot be deemed Children of the light who do not so enquire after the pleasure of God as to pursue and practise it The meaning likewise of the Apostle Rom. 14.22 is this Happy is he that when he uses an indifferent thing doth approve himself as doing that which is lawfull and acts not against his Conscience Or this Happy is he that when he is resolved that he may do such a thing lawfully and with the approbation of his Conscience yet doth it with such a care that he hurts not others by the use of it There is one place more 2 Cor. 13.5 where you have both these parts of examination together Try your selves whether you be in the faith prove i. e. approve your selves When you know your estate by trial then pass a judgement upon your selves to be what you profess and pretend unto Now all the approbation that a good man is to give of himself before he go to the Lords Supper is this 1. He ought to judge himself to continue a friend of Christ and to remain as far as he can find in Covenant with God And 2. He ought to find that he hath used some godly care and diligence that he come not in a rude unbeseeming and drowsie manner into so holy a presence And this is plainly another part of the Apostles meaning when he saith Let a man examine himself and so eat c. i. e. Let him approve himself to come for pious and holy ends and with a due regard to the Lords most sacred body and blood Lay thy hand then Christian Reader upon thy heart before thou comest to this Table and feel how the pulse of thy soul beats mind whether it beat evenly or after a distempered sort Doth it move three times as quick when thou thinkest of the World as it doth when God is in
house will be foul again before I awake unless thou keep me Ah my dear God! seeing I have bestowed some small pains upon my heart and have conceived some little hopes suffer them not to be all dashed in pieces in a night Spread the wings of thy goodness over me and maintain that which not I but thou thy self hast wrought Lord let me find when I awake that my affections and desires are grown beyond the strength of man and that thy power rests up on me Oh let me find a greater fervour than ever in thy service let that spark which I feared would go out be grown to a flame that will never expire and so shalt thou draw mine eyes towards thy self alone who workest such wonders so shall my heart be filled with nothing but thy sweetness and my lips shall overflow with thy praises Lord if I may beg this grace of thee I am verily perswaded I shall languish after none but thee and seek for no other pleasures but to please thee Therefore my good Lord I leave my self in thy hands hoping that either I am or would be such as thou wouldst have me And if I be arrived but as far as a will and desire to be what thou wouldst have me that will is thine and therefore seeing that will is mine too and we both conspire together I take the boldness to say Lord let thy will be done Oh my sweet Saviour I was going to say that I am sick of love that I cannot live unless thou love me and make me better But I correct my self and it is enough if I be sick because I cannot love thee Do thou make me sick or rather make me well with love unto thee so shall I come to thy Table with joy and gladness hoping that thou wilt kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth for thy love is better than Wine Draw me and I will run after thee yea we will run after thee for I will proclaim to others the loving-kindness of the Lord. When one bad Socrates prepare himself for his trial he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not I seem then to thee through all my life to be prepared for this thing It hath been my care neither before thee nor alone to do any evil Aâ—rian lib. 2. cap. 2. CHAP. XI WHat preparation there should be besides this I do not understand it being directly contrary to the first thing that I propounded for any to imagine that we ought just before the Sacrament to have a greater care of not sinning than at other times We are alwayes pilgrims and strangers and so ought to abstain from fleshly lusts that warre against the soul These lusts are alwayes poysonous and not onely when we are going to take the Cup of the Lord into our hand And therefore it is a grand deceit to think that we and our sins must be severed only then when we more nearly embrace our Lord for holiness is our profession afterward as much as before we communicate with his Holiness Or rather all the time after one Communion being before the next which doth succeed it is the time of Preparation for it We are to keep our selves in a constant purity and to labour to keep close to the Covenant of our God only when the time doth nearly approach that we may enjoy such another repast we should excite our appetite raise our thoughts and meditations imprint the ends of the institution more fairly in our memories voluntarily offer more of our time and our thoughts to religious exercises and do all that over again with a greater zeal which we have been doing every day since we were last in his Sacred Presence You may observe that as just before this solemnity our thoughts are more deep and serious and our hearts lifted up to a greater fervour and we have stronger longings after Christ and his Blessings which prepare us for the enjoyment so the enjoyment leaves us for some time afterward in a great degree of heat in more lively apprehensions and more vigorous affections But these through multitude of business and many occasions may languish by little and little and may abate of that degree and ardour wherein they were which I look upon as the weakness rather than the sin of a good heart and therefore our work is to recover our souls before the next Communion to the same or rather an higher degree of zeal And then though afterward there may be again some abatement and fall in our affections yet it will be less and more fervency and heat will remain than would have been if we had not got up our hearts by that Preparation and that Communion to an higher pitch of spiritual love The Primitive Christians who communicated every day as some passages in the Acts of the holy Apostles would make us think or at least every Lords Day had need of less of this Preparation that I have mentioned for as soon as ever the flame began to decay there was new fewel added and that degree of warmth to which they were raised was scarce gone from their hearts before a new fire was kindled But now the custome is so that this Feast returns more seldome and we cannot say with Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epist 2. ad Caesarcam Patritiam In the beginning of which Epistle he commends an every-day Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as good and profitable We Communicate four times in a week besides all Festival dayes but it is very much if men be so devout as to Communicate once in four weeks and therefore because many things may be slipt out of our minds and former impressions may be grown weak we had need more solemnly to recollect what we have learnt to stir up our remembrance to renew a sense of the ends of its institution of our own wants of the wants of the poor and the rest of those things which I have in the former Chapter recommended to your thoughts If men understood these things they would neither wonder that the ancient Christians communicated so oft nor would they have any excuse left for their own neglect First I say they would not wonder that the fervour of those primitive souls was so great for they had a huge care to lead an holy life and that made them both fit and desirous to converse with God every day VVe judge of them perhaps by our selves and think that it was superstition rather than Religion that made them so forward to this Office and by casting a blot upon their Piety we hope in this frozen age to be accounted Pious If superstition can be believed to have grown up so early then we may be thought with less zeal to be more devout If they did only flatter Christ with such a busie devotion and frequent resort unto him we may hope to pass for better Friends that are not so forward but more discreetly reserved and sparing of
our company So handsomely do our deceitfull hearts teach us to cover our own nakedness by calling all that superstition which creates any trouble to us and crying out upon that as a spice of Will-Worship which doth not sort with our humour For it too plainly appears that if a Child of our own brain do please us well we are as fond of it as any of our Neighbours can be thought to be of their conceptions and would have the world embrace it as a divine Ordinance formed in Heaven The very truth is Men lend to God and their Devotion only such Offices as flatter their passions There is much of pleasure in having the ears tickled with a Sermon and it makes a great noise among our Neighbours to keep dayes of Fasting and Prayer and therefore these are accepted with a greater applause than the sad Meditations of Christs death and the frequent remembrance of the Wounds of a Crucified Saviour which prick too deep and make too wide gashes in our hearts Though this be more expresly commanded than many other things that men perform with a great noise and spend much zealous breath upon yet they cast but a cold and heavy aspect on it because it humours not their ease and speaks not kindly to their covetousness but makes too busie and narrow a search into their souls And really I doubt that mens endeavours to be removed as far as they can from Rome have done our Religion a great deal of harm They still retain the custome of celebrating every day but the Priest doth it alone and they make it a Sacrifice for the quick and dead Now some men so that this false notion was destroyed and private Masses abolished did not care though the frequent Communions were destroyed also together with them and it is our manner to pay this honour to Christ but twice or thrice in a year And so because they speak of Justification differently from us men are apt to live as though good works were a piece of Popery and as if Alms-deeds and Charity to the Poor were a scandalous thing in Religion Though men Communicate very seldome yet their Offerings are as sparing as if they Communicated every week and so their souls and the Poor are both defrauded and starved together Idleness and covetousness are mens darlings they are the brats of all new devices in Religion and these two are nursed up and dandled on the knees of this trifling conceit that zealous devout Christians do bear too great a reverence to this Sacrament and hope to go to Heaven by their charitable deeds Well! let sloth and avarice pride themselves a while it will not be long before God take down their Plumes and make it manifest that it was not superstition which prickt forward the first Christians to such frequent Communion nor vain-glory which made them so prodigal as the modern stile is in their liberality Methinks I see how the lazy and worldly Christians do thrust themselves into the Arms of Christ and do even melt and dissolve into his bosome in raptures of love their mouthes can relish nothing but Christ and his Name is so sweet that it is ingraven upon their lips they court him as if they would ravish his heart and they exceed the strains of all Romantick lovers If he will not bestow himself upon them they cannot imagine who should be taken into his heart They cannot believe but he will take it very ill if they will not trust him for their salvation without troubling themselves whom he is so tender of that he would have them void of all care and thoughtfulness It is a piece of self think such men to be so strict and curious Alas poor ignorant souls men would fain be doing something to procure salvation they would purchase Heaven and give something to attain it but we will give Christ the honour of doing all and only cast our selves upon him that he may save us You cannot imagine now how these mens hearts are tickled and ravished with these Liquorish thoughts and the pleasure of them doth but make them believe that they are in greater favour In this transport of fancy they do verily conceive that they have the testimony of the holy Ghost bearing witness to them that they are the Sons of God But how fearfully these persons will one day fall is a great deal further from all our conceits The Lord will shake off all these men with a great deal of disdain who offer but to touch the very skirts of his Garments O you vile and adulterous souls will he say who think that I am altogether such an one as your selves depart from me for I know you not ye workers of iniquity Down you arrogant spirits that thought to build your nests on high and by the wings of fancy to flie up unto Heaven I have no room in my heart for such flatterers nor can my foul love such Hypocrites and Unbelievers But come you blessed of my Father you who have loved me and kept my Commandments you that did what I bid you in remembrance of me and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Then shall there be great wailing and men shall groan for anguish of spirit Then shall the worldlings say this is he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverb of reproach We fools accounted his life madness and his end without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his lot is among the Saints I wish all men would lay it to heart betimes and not think that it is preciseness to endeavour to observe all the commands of our blessed Lord. Which if we did then this command would not be so slighted of commemorating his death in the way he hath appointed nor should men be so unmeet for it as now they seem to be For Secondly What excuses can men find to palliate the neglect of this duty but what arise from an unholy or careless life Many pretences there are I know to keep me from waiting upon our Lord and accepting of his kindness but they all grow upon this bitter root of loving the world and the lusts of it We put him off with the excuse of too much boldness and rudeness that we should be guilty of if we should give him frequent visits Truly as the case stands most men would be too full of confidence if they should approach but the only reason is because they have a mind to live as strangers to him and not to be his houshold Servants and Domesticks for then they might alway come unto him Men plead their unworthiness but it were well if they were more sensible of it for then they would not remain so unworthy They think they must not come so oft because it costs them so much time to prepare themselves once but if they would spare so much time as to lead an holy life and be at so much trouble as to please God in other things they would not
them own it in the secrets of their own soul and let them profess it unto him that God hath set over them and so desire to be admitted for to strengthen their resolution by adding a new Sacrament to the former Engagement That which they should have done at Baptism if they had been men let them do now that they understand their Baptism and enter their protestations against the lusts of the world the flesh and the Devil Secondly As they must well exmine themselves before they make such a profession so now intending to receive this holy Sacrament they should make a new search into all the parts of their soul Let such a man therefore first bring his understanding unto tryal and examine it what it apprehends concerning Christ and all his Offices What knowledge it hath of the ends of his death and the benefits that come thereby unto us as also of the nature of the new Covenant and of this Sacrament whereby we come to partake of those benefits Then secondly Call thy Judgement before the Barr of Conscience and ask it how it prizes and esteems of Christ and all his benefits and whether it count all things but dung and dross for the excellency of his knowledge and whether it value the deliverance wrought by him from the power as well as punishment of sin more than a Kingdom bigger than the world Then thirdly Take thy will under examination and ask it if it heartily consent to believe all that he saith to do all that he commands and to expect in such a way all that he promiseth Here thou must be very inquisitive lest thy heart should be divided between two Masters And it is necessary that thou represent unto thy self all the dangers thou mayest undergo and the hazards thou mayest run if thou cleave to Christ and not unto the world and then ask thy soul if it chuse Christ with disgrace if it embrace him and a stake both together and in one word if it sincerely love a crucified Saviour Fourthly Then next of all Let thy affections be called to an account which are but several motions of thy will See what sorrow what pain and grief thou hast conceived for offending of thy Lord. What hunger and thirst there is in thee after righteousness What desire after the Blood of Christ to quench the fire of Gods anger that is kindled in thy soul and to wash away all that filthiness which makes him angry See that thou be in love in charity with all men that there be no hatred nor enmity no wrath nor displeasure against any of thy Brethren See that there be such affections in thy heart as befit that duty which thou thinkest to perform ex gr Ask thy soul why did thy Saviour bleed was he a Malefactor or were thy sins the Traytors which delivered him to these horrid torments What hatred then dost thou find against them how canst thou find in thy heart to use them Ask again Was thy Saviour overcome by death or did he overcome it O think what triumph it should raise in thy soul if thou dost consent unto him and what joy it should create in thy heart that he hath destroyed sin death and the grave and opened the gates of life Ask it once more What are those glorious things that he hath purchased by his Bloud And what love dost thou feel in thy self towards him What sympathy hast thou with his dear affection and what canst thou find in thy heart to do for the Holy Jesus Fifthly And then after all this let all the actions of thy life be brought again before the same Tribunal and arraign thy self for all the villanies thou hast committed against thy Lord for all the breaches of thy faith and sacred Oath unto him Yea if there be but a little passion a rash word a vain thought whereby thou hast given him the least prick of a wound find them out as near as thou canst and let them be brought forth to be slain before him Then lastly Dive most seriously into the bottome of thy heart and fetch up all the resolutions that thou thinkest lye there set them in the very face of thy Lord and ask thy heart before him and bid it say true as it will answer it at the day of Judgement What are thy purposes for the future for what ends wouldst thou approach to the Lords Table Yea go so far as to examine thy self about thy intention in such things as thou thought'st formerly could never be done or never avoided from being done Ask thy heart about the faults of thy nature of thy temper and those which through humane weakness will occurre about thy foolish thoughts thy little passions which none discern to swell but thy self c. Art thou resolved to be more watchfull against these to use more industry to suppress them to redeem thy time to avoid all occasions of evil to guard thy self more strongly where the temptation used to come Resolve thy self and be satisfied about all these particulars and so accordingly proceed forward when thou knowest thy self and thy heart hath told the truth concerning thine estate For examination is not commanded for it self but in order to something else that is to follow after this search 3. Therefore thirdly Let every man approve himself in these particulars and judge that he is a person that means really to live godlily to forsake all other Masters and cleave to Jesus only having an understanding of the conditions of his Service Let thy soul give thee a good Answer upon the foregoing examination and then I have little more to say But be sure of this That thy judgement of thy self i. e. of thy Understanding Will Affections c. be impartial and unbiassed and do not incline to any favourable construction of thy self but let the Word of God be thy Rule and thy spiritual Pastor be thy Guide if thou doubtest that thou flatterest thy self But fourthly If thou hast lately committed some great and scandalous offence before thy heart began to be thus pricked and stimulated to ransack it self make some trial of thy self before thou comest to the Lords Table Two sorts of Converts there are Some have not behaved themselves towards God as they ought but lived carelesly without the exercise of Piety and Devotion to him yet have not committed any gross sin which might cast a blot upon the Sacredness of this Feast if they should presently come to it nor offend the flock of Christ who have Communion with them If they be touched with a sense of their private neglect if their sins against God be a burden to them though men know them not if they heartily abhor them and betake themselves to the work of godliness with all their might and do firmly determine with themselves that they will hereafter be more carefull and diligent in their duty and desire to come to the Sacrament that they may be more strongly engaged and tyed to
do as they resolve I think they may have a comfortable hope that there is a change wrought in them and so should approach unto it But there are others whose sins are notorious and ill favoured known to all the Neighbourhood And perhaps they have been reeking in a sin a few dayes before the holy Communion but their hearts begin now to smite them and they find such severe reproofs in their souls that prick them to some good resolutions I would wish these persons seriously to advise with themselves whether this may not be a start which comes from some sudden spurre and to make trial how they can like to travell in the wayes of God There are certain pangs of devotion that come upon men against a solemn time and when their souls are at a little leisure they speak very freely to them and their sins being great ugly and staring they may much affright them Therefore it is the safest course to stay till this fit be over and the next day to look upon them with the eye of a rational consideration and see whether they have not recovered their old complexion and begin to smile again For else we may adde one sin to another if we come to this holy duty with a relish of our sins and a likelihood to return again unto them after some little falling out which may conclude in a greater kindness It is monstrously unseemly and dangerous for a man to come from the last dayes vomit and his yesternight surfeit to sit at the Table of the Lord though he seem never so much ashamed It is that which destroyes Religion for men to think that they can leap so instantly from one state to another and change a state of fin for a state of Grace at a dayes warning Such Crimes must be purged with a great sorrow and in a deep humiliation which if it be true will make a man think himself unworthy to be presently entertained by God in so near a Communion yea to be below the least good look from his gracious eye With many tears will such a man seek but for the hope of a pardon many punishments will he inflict upon himself for such intemperance or uncleanness or covetousness or whatsoever other gross sin it be that he is guilty of and he will think it but a just punishment that though he were invited he should keep himself from the enjoying of God at his Table and from such good company of Gods People Shall I who am a Beast will such an one say go among the People of Gods Pasture A meer Wolf go and feed among the Sheep of his hands I who have wallowed in vice like a Swine in the mire go and sit me down in so holy a place I whose meat hath been ordure and filth to put the Bread of God to my lips Far be it from me let me rather eat ashes the bread of affliction and take my tears for my drink No! let my tongue rather cleave to the roof of my mouth let my lips rather be sowed together than that I should presume to drink of the Cup of Blessing who have deserved such a curse from the hand of God I sit down with God at his Table A Dunghill is a more proper place for such a bruit Come let us embrace the dust let us kiss the earth and think it is a strange mercy that we live and let us stay a while to see if the Lord will let us live and hope to live for ever Sit at the Table of the Lord Alas I am not fit to lye upon my own bed I dare not sleep for fear I die And oh that I could give no rest to my eyes nor slumber to my eye-lids till I had prepared a place for him to dwell in Oh that we were but friends though he would not use me as his friend I have but represented to you the sad and pathetick groans of a heart that knows what it is to sin It cannot tell how to move forward so boldly to God as men are apt to do it stands still or rather it lyes down and knows not what to do It wonders at the security and carelesness of offenders and if sleep come to stroak its head with the hopes of a slumber it can scarce tell how to welcome it by receiving its kindness and suffering its blanditions But then all this sadness tends to joy and is but like the Clouds which gather about the Heavens which having wept as much as they can make them look the clearer This humility and modesty doth not make a soul run from God but makes him to approach to it And when a man perceives really that he hath left his sin and is become a new Creature then let him entreat the favour of God that he who hath done him so much good would grant him the liberty to be in the number of those whom he feeds at his own Table Fifthly When thou findest that it is the sincere resolution and likewise endeavour of thy soul to please God though in some things thou shouldst break thy resolution against the very purpose of thy heart yet let not this hinder thy coming to the Supper of the Lord. When notwithstanding all our diligence we still offend it is a sign that we must use some other diligence and therefore we should be induced rather to fortifie our resolutions by so powerfull a means than to abstain from it For they that neglect it because they are weak may justly fear lest they be therefore weak because they live in neglect of a known duty Let it be the endeavour then of all those that study to live godlily though they be feeble and tottering to understand the true use and benefit of this duty and then to perform it for this end that they may be strengthened and confirmed 6. Yea sixthly If thou breakest thy resolution after thou hast received these holy Pledges and feelest but little strength yet let it not deterre thee from receiving but rather make thee frequent it the more that the repetition of this action may do that which a single act was not able to do For this Sacrament was instituted for the weak more than for the strong though it be necessary for both and it is likely men remain therefore weak because they seed so seldome and let the received strength decay before they give it a fresh repast But if they still forbear when they are sensible of a consumption what can be expected but a dangerous languishment If thou hast not got the victory by the use of this weapon thou canst not think but to be worsted and foiled by the neglect of it If thou hast received no more strength against thy lusts by this strong food how shalt thou hope by a weaker and thin diet to be able to wrestle with them Approve then thy resolutions to be smcere and stir up thy hunger more frequently awaken thy appetite that thou mayest feed
the fruits of his Sons death and the earnests we have of the eternal inheritance We should begin to praise him with the Heavenly host and to joyn our hearts and voices with the celestial Quire we should wish that we could make all the world ring with his praises and that we could make all men hear from the East to the West the sound of our thanksgivings We should sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all the Churches of Christ throughout all ages have sung saying Holy Holy Holy See the Learned Mr. Thorndike in his Relig. Assemb Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory And so we read that as soon as our Saviour had spoken those words that he would not any more drink with them till the Kingdom of his Father should come they sung an Hymne or Psalm of praise and so went forth And indeed who can sufficiently praise his divine Majesty The tongues of Angels stammer in uttering of his goodness and we become dumb the more we endeavour to speak of it The highest of our praises is humbly and affectionately to acknowledge that we cannot sufficiently praise him the greatest of our endeavours is daily to admire him the furthest we can strain our souls is to long for eternity wherein it may be our imployment to admire and praise him Call upon the Armies of Angels and wish them to praise him seeing thou canst not call upon all men and bid them praise him wish thou couldst awake all the world that all Creatures might praise him and make thine own soul hear more plainly call upon it more shrilly call upon it again and again call upon it every day to praise him Say as the Psalmist doth Psal 103. Bless the Lord ye his Angels which excell in strength that do his Commandements hearkning to the voice of his words Bless the Lord all ye hosts ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion Bless the Lord O my soul Mensa Mystica The Postcaenium or of our Deportment afterward CHAP. XV. ANd now that we have had a sight of them let us remember his love more than Wine Let his name be engraven upon our hearts and his Image remain fair and lively upon our souls Let us find a kind of unwillingness to admit of any other company and say in the secrets of our mind None but Christ none but Christ Yea when we do return to converse again with other things let us still be looking back towards him as one that hath got our hearts and say Lord evermore give us this Bread Let us labour that other objects may not come near our hearts nor make any strong impressions upon us but that they may be sealed up by him and so filled with him that all things else may look upon themselves as having nothing to do there Eusebius Pamphilus hath a pretty Observation on Cant. 5.12 where the eyes of the beloved are compared to the eyes of Doves by the Rivers of water washed with Milk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Milk saith he of all other moist things hath this singular property that it will not admit of the image or picture of any thing to be reflected in it and therefore it is a fit resemblance of his eyes in which nothing vain insubsistent deceiving doth cast its shadow but they do alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold the being that truly is Our souls should labour to imitate him as much as they can and to endeavour at least that the world may not deceive and cheat us with its shadowes and pictures of things but we may see through them all to that being which is true and substantial and on that our eyes may be fixed as our only good and happiness The Lord expects now that we should proceed to a greater strength by the higher food that he vouchsafes unto us that our knowledge should be more bright that our love should be more inflamed that by our actions we should shine like lights in the world holding forth the word of life Many of the Ancients upon those words V. Comment trium Patrum Cant. 6.10 do note that there are four degrees of Christians Some are but newly converted and they do but look forth as the morning with weak and trembling thoughts being as it were in the twilight and not far enlightned A second sort have made some progress and are fair as the Moon they are much enlightned but have abundance of spots still in them and some discernable darkness still remaining A third sort are clear as the Sun very full of light very pure unblameable and bright in their conversations The world can take notice of no common failings yet sometime there may be a partial eclipse and if they mark themselves they will observe many weaknesses as the modern Astronomers that have pried more narrowly have discerned spots in the body of the Sun A fourth sort are they that are become such strong Christians that they are as terrible as an Army with Banners and all their enemies flie before them Few temptations are able to worst them but they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the appearance of an Agnelical Host that are so strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that they overcome the world and tread Satan under their feet Now in which soever lower form and rank we be of these we should strive to advance to that which is higher and seeing we have more than Angels food we should labour to do the will of God on earth as they do in Heaven We should put on all the Armour of God and gird it closer to our loins and shew greater valour to the perfecting the conquests we have begun We should labour to be so full of Christ that the Devil may be afraid of us and run away when he sees us grown so stedfast in the faith For we must not judge of the state of our souls by our fervency in this duty but by the holiness of our lives which is the fruit and effect of it Unless our lives be better than they were before we our selves are not made better We are but like some of the Sect of Pythagoras who held that a man took a new soul when to receive Oracles he approached to the images of their Gods but it was such a new one as was lent him but for a time and then he returned to the same man he was before Such a new soul men seem to have some time when they come to the solemn duties of their Religion they are inspired with strange and unusuall affections and moved beyond themselves But it is a soul that lives but for a day and then they fall to their old dulness and as for their own soul it gives no sign of its amendment and further renewal after the Image of God It is fit therefore that I should next of all
consider what is fit to be done for the keeping alive and feeding these flames of love when they are kindled in our souls And that shall be the business of the next Chapter CHAP. XVI FIrst I conceive it will be a fit expression of our love afterward to invite the poor the next meal unto our Table or to send some portion of our good things unto them When God hath feasted us at his House it is agreeable that we should feast others at ours or relieve them more plentifully than at other times The Jews used to send portions one to another and gifts to the poor upon a good day as they call it i. e. at a festival or time of rejoycing as you may see Esth 9.22 The Portions I suppose were part of the sacrifice of Peace-offerings which they had offered and which they sent unto friends that were absent and could not be with them and gifts to the poor likewise accompanied them that they might rejoyce in God also And so you read that the first Christians Act. 2.46 47. after they had broken bread did eat their meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Ham. in singleness i. e. liberality and openness of heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having favour c. i. e. doing acts of charity as an excellent Critick notes unto all the people It may be said that we make an offering at the Sacrament and so need not now renew our charity But those that think so forget that I am perswading to keep the heart from cooling by laying on new fewel And therefore as we praise God again in our private houses so it will well become us and will much assure our good disposition to us if we again express our bounty as we are able unto others For our charity is to be a running stream through our whole lives and therefore this advice is good to keep the passage open that it may not be suddenly stopped now that it hath newly found a vent for it self The Apostle bids the Christian Jews to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Heb. 13.15 whereby in all likelihood he understands their offering of Almes instead of the fruits of their herds and flocks joyned with praises and thanksgivings to God at the Eucharist Which offerings he calls the fruits of their lips because they were such as they had vowed and consecrated to God in token of their gratitude And this place of the Apostle seems exactly answerable to that of the Psalmist 50.14 Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy vowes to the Most High But then after he had given them this exhortation to perform these two duties of Thanksgiving and Almes-doing at the Sacrament he adds v. 16. But to do good and communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased i. e. Do not think it sufficient to have payed your vowes at that solemn meeting of Christians but over and above that you must be carefull to exercise continuall Charity and not to omit any season or occasion of doing others good and this is a kind of daily sacrifice wherewith God is much delighted As the Jewes had their continuall Burnt-offerings beside those extraordinary Peace-offerings when they gave thanks for some great mercy so Christians besides these offerings at the Table of the Lord must be mindfull daily to be beneficiall unto others according as they have objects presented unto them And that they may not forget it will be wisdome to keep themselves in doing and presently after this Divine Food to think of feeding others that stand in need II. Secondly Let us not presently return to our worldly Employments if it be not upon the Lords day that we receive but let us spend the after-part of the day in entertaining our Lord with acts of Love and Delight with Thanks and Praise unto him for his favours Let us admire his Perfections and Graces let us talk with him about the Affairs of our Souls let us open to him every room in the House and lead him into the most private closet of our hearts shew him all our fecrets acquaint him with all our wants and weaknesses spread before him all our desires and earnestly entreat him to stay and dwell with us Let us tell him again That all we have is his let us tye a new knot upon the band of the Covenant that is between us let us be afraid lest by going presently into the world it should be loosed and dissolved It is not fit you know that a Bride on the day she is married should go from the company of the Bridegroom to follow Houshold-business or associate her self with other persons but she delights only in the presence of her new Love Even so unseemly it is to leave the company of our Lord as soon as we have let him into our hearts and to divert to other occasions when we have newly given him our Faith and taken him as the Bridegroom of our souls We should pass that day at least in heavenly discourses with him in expressions of our love and affection toward him in acts of desire after inseparable union with him and in promises and vows that we will alwayes be faithfull and loyal unto him that so the remaining part of the day may be as a Postcaenium an lafter-Supper and second Communion like the Feast of Charity which succeeded I told you in ancient time the holy Sacrament And indeed it is not only unbecoming us but likewise very dangerous and prejudicial to our health when we are thus warm to step instantly into the cold and chilling affairs of this world Motibus oppositis nihil permitiosius is a rule among Physicians there is nothing more hurtfull to us than motions quite opposite immediately succeeding each to other and therefore as it is pernicious after exercise to go and wash in cold water so it must needs be extreamly noxious to sink our selves into Earthly Employments just after our souls have been above in the exercise of love to God It argues likewise a soul but little affected that can presently relish Worldly things after it hath had any tasts of Gods sweetness It seems to me that such a man is like to Ganymede the Shepherds Boy in Lucian who though he was beloved of Jupiter and carried up to Heaven yet could not forget the things that he had left behind but asks What now will become of my Fathers Sheep Alas whither will they wander now that I am taken from them How will my business thrive if I spend so much time in Meditation and Prayer saith a silly soul How shall I be cast behind in my work while I am thus employed But as the Dialogist handsomely brings in Jupiter giving him a check so may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. dost thou yet think of thy sheep now that thou art made immortal Doth thy mind run upon thy shop now that thou
art with thy Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of thy Cheese thou mayest feed on Ambrosia and instead of Milk thou mayest drink Nectar with the gods Who would long for the World any more that knows what it is to be in Heaven Who would not be unwilling to go his Earthly Affairs any more who hath once conversed with the soveraign good Instead of riches he is getting an eternal Inheritance instead of friends he is injoying God And therefore if it be not fit nor safe to return presently to our Secular business much less can it be tollerable to go to any merry Entertainments or Compotations though never so moderate and innocent We should not so soon forget these heavenly pleasures as to relish these that are earthly We must not be like the Heathen who used after their sacrifices to make merry all day and drink even to Excess Whence some long agone have thought that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be drunk took its Name from this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Ancients used to drink liberally after their sacrifices But we have not so learned Christ we must make the savour of Heavenly things sit longer upon our pallates than an hour and not wash them off with any long sensual delights We should cry out again and again Cant. 1.2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for thy Love is better than wine We should long as the Spouse doth to have such tasts of his love that we may rest assured of his good affection to us and may like better of it than of any thing that comes within our lips 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aâ—bil Tatius l. 2. Kisses saith a great Master of his Art who may fitly be heard in this case are the seals of Love and there the Church teacheth us to long to feel such sensible impressions of his love upon us that we may know he loves us And this saith she is better than Wine for kisses are the food of Lovers seeing they are the seales of Love and as he saith of his Leucippe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lb. so may I say of the Spouse she feeds upon the mouth of her Beloved and eats his kisses i. e. desires his love so ardently that it makes her forget all other food So incomparable should the love of our Lord seem to us that we should desire if it were possible to live upon nothing else and that our very bodies could be nourished and fed with his dear love III. Thirdly If we communicate upon the Lords day yet let us not take our thoughts off from this Action but spend as much as we can of the remaining day in such exercises as I have now named Let us entertain with the best chear we are able to make our new and beloved Guest Let us commend his beauty and praise him for his kindness and extoll his Riches and protest unto him how much we love him and crave him pardon for our follies and desire him not to be offended at the dark and nasty hole into which we have brought him and entreat him of all loves that he will not take exception at his poor entertainment and labour to charm him as it were to stay with us by all the songs of praise and thanksgiving that we can devise For to say the truth there is no exercise more meet upon the Lords Day than that of giving thanks and singing Psalms of Praise to God for all his goodness to us as we are his Creatures and as we are Christians The day it self is a type of Heaven and the Eternal Rest and therefore our work in it should better accord with what is done in Heaven where they at every thought indite a Psalm and at every breath they chant it forth and never cease day nor night from blessing God And so Justin Martyr tells Trypho the Jew That they used to thank God on their holy times for having made the world and all things in it for the use of man c. And in his second Apology he justifies the Christians against the Heathen from this thing that they consumed not Gods Creatures with fire in sacrifice but received them with Prayer and Thanksgiving for being boin for all means of health all kinds of qualities and changes of seasons and such like mercies which we should imitate not only at the Eucharist but afterward when we may more largely think how much we are beholden to him for his goodness Let us say O my Lord I have been praising of thee but alas I have not praised thee enough and therefore I cannot cease to praise thee The birds that chirp in the Air would shame me if I should not still praise thee For how long do they sing for a sip or two of Water or for a Dinner upon half a Worm and for a little house within a bush Shall not I then persist in blessing of thee for the viands of Heaven for a Feast on the Body and Bloud of thy Sonne for the joys of thine own house for a long health for a pleasant dwelling for a plentifull Table for a world of Creatures that minister every day unto me Better were it that I should be turned into one of those little chearfull Creatures and that I should take my dwelling in an hedge than that I should not have a heart to bless thee as long as I live and sing praise to thee as long as I have my being Awake awake O my sleepy soul and let this day be more than a shadow of Heaven Yea one day is too short let every day have something of this in it and be a good day unto thee And then shall Eternity be joyfull and the everlasting day shall give thee light long enough to perfect his praises IV. Fourthly As we should spend a great deal of the after-part of the day in such acts of praise so let some of it be spent in an after-examination Let us make some solemn reflections upon our behaviour when we were before the Lord and if we find our minds not to have been so seriously intended and our hearts not so deeply affected as we did desire We may cast down our selves humbly at the feet of our Lord and beg a pardon of our sweet and loving Saviour and earnestly importune him that he would help us now by an after-act that we may be able to do that which we should have done before Or else we may be excited to rejoyce the more in his goodness and to bless him for the refreshments he hath afforded us and to render him more hearty thanks that he hath satisfied us so abundantly with the fatness of his house and made us to drink of the Rivers of his pleasure But this examination of our selves being a thing that we should exercise every day and was practised even by Heathens before they went to bed I shall spare all further discourse about it V. Fifthly Let us
angry at him that would save his soul Do we eat and drink this Heavenly provision and then rise up to play do we stand in need of such noble nourishment for the following of our trades and the encouragement of us in our worldly business O consider beloved Reader that lookest on these lines that an honest Heathen would do better things than these He that never heard of Christ and never tasted of this Heavenly food would be ashamed of such a life Philosophy which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nutriment of the soul would produce far more excellent works There is no need thou shouldest be a Christian if thou hast no more noble end Meer reason will breed up better Scholars and therefore go and sit with the Deipnosophists and come not unto the Supper of the Lord unless thou intendest to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing Col. 1.10 being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God Do but hear what they promised themselves from their Philosophy Hoc est quod Philosophia mihi promittit ut me parem Deo faciat Epist 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then judge to what it is fit a Christian so divinely nourished should aspire This saith Seneca Philosophy doth make me promises of that it will make me a Peer with God This is that saith Cleomedes which preserves the Demy-God that is within us from being shamefully intreated which keeps it unmoveable and unshaken which gives it the better of all pleasures and pains which makes it intend some worthy end and receive all events and contingencies as coming from thence from whence it self came and above all which learns it to wait for the coming of death with a chearfull mind What man then deserves the name of a Christian that notwithstanding all the means of grace which God affords doth strive to make himself equal with a Beast that basely uses his noble part that is like a feather shaken with the wind and lyes down at the feet of every pleasure and cannot sustain the load of the least grief that vexes and frets at every cross as if the Devil ruled the world and trembles at death as a Child doth at a friend with a vizard on God expects sure that we should be men of another sort and that Philosophy should not beget more lusty souls than Christianity can We must be ashamed to live at a lower rate than a man that had been but at Plato's Compotation and we must make account the Blood of Christ is to nourish better Spirits in us than the very soul and spirit of reason if we could suck it in can be able to generate Let us look therefore into our hearts daily and see that he be there Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever else we do let us ask him if he be pleased Let us go to him constantly that he may know we love him And let us entreat him to tell us what he would have us to do and then let us do it with all our might VII Seventhly Let us maintain a longing in our souls after another such repast Let us strive every day to keep up a spiritual hunger after this food that so we may not neglect the next opportunity which God shall give us of Communion or if we should die before we have one yet Heaven may find us prepared for the Feast where the marriage shall be compleated Christ may find such holy longings after him that our souls may be taken into his bosome to dwell in him as he before dwelt in us When we cannot outwardly communicate yet we may in heart in spirit Though we cannot alwayes celebrate the mysteries yet we may have the thing signified in those mysteries as St. Bernard speaks at all times in all places i. e. We may with pious affections and holy actions receive Christ continually into our souls As the Sacrament saith he sine re Sacramenti without the thing of the Sacrament is death to the unworthy so we may conclude that res Sacramenti the thing it self without the Sacrament will be life eternal to the worthy Whensoever in remembrance of Christ thou art piously and devoutly affected into an imitation of Christ thou dost eat his Body and drink his Blood But then if we do constantly preserve such longings and hungring after this Feast and do at all times feast upon him we cannot pass by any occasion that God affords us of receiving him in that manner that he hath appointed and blessed and we cannot but be very forward to go to remember him when opportunity is presented in the Assembly of his people And therefore I shall not make it a distinct advice that you would come again when this Table is spread for you For this is but a just gratitude to God a sign that we like his fare and are well pleased with his chear and are ambitious of nothing more than such an entertainment And I think we shall shew our selves to have been very unworthy guests at the last Feast if we like it so little as to refuse to come the next time that we are invited In the beginning of our Religion they received every day Acts 2.46 Which proceeded from a great devotion and fervency of spirit when the holy Ghost like fire had descended upon them And this heat did not abate in all places for the space of 400 years but in some Churches of Affrica as St. Augustine writes and in Rome and Spain as St. Hierome tells us they retained this ardent love and continually remembred the dying of the Lord Jesus And it was proposed to St. Augustine as a doubt whether a person of business as a Merchant Husbandman or the like should every day Communicate To which he answered To receive the Sacrament every day I neither praise nor reprove but to Communicate every Lords-day I would wish you and exhort every one so to do And so St. Chrysostome exhorting of the people to build Churches in the Villages where they might hold Assemblies he perswades them by this Argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cap. 8. Act. p. 716 edit Sav. There Prayers will be sent up daily for every one of you there God will be continually praised with Hymns and every Lords day will there be an Offering made for you And though the devotion of Christians fell from once in a day to once in a week and from thence to once in a moneth till at last the Church of Rome hath thought it fit to bind men of necessity but to once in a year yet I find a devout Papist thus speaking Fr. Sales Introd Though it be hard to say how often a man is bound to Communicate yet I think I may boldly affirm That the greatest distance between the times of Communicating among such as desire to serve God devoutly is from moneth to moneth And sure the strict observance
of the divine Commandments which was among the Primitive Saints their despising of all worldly things their great charity and love may be thought to have flowed in great part from this spring that they received so frequently the Body and Blood of our Lord. Hence we may derive their strength activeness and zeal because they were so often refreshed with this Wine This gave them boldness against their adversaries this made them run so forwardly into flames because they were constantly heated with divine fires From this Table they went away with the courage of Lions and were terrible even to that great roaring Lion which devours so many careless souls He could not make such an easie prey of them as he doth of us because they did daily renew their strength by this food and became as bold as a Lion after he hath eaten flesh and drunken blood And if we did more frequently Communicate it would be a means to bring us to a greater resemblance of our Lord which was the thing that I last pressed who you know overcame the evil one and trod him under his feet As the Leverets saith the forementioned Author in the Mountains of Helvetia become all white because they neither see nor eat any thing but driven Snow so by often adorning and eating beauty goodness and purity it self in this divine Sacrament we should become altogether vertuous pure and beautifull And I am of the mind of another excellent Writer Dr. J. Taylor who judges it very probable That the Warres of Kingdomes the contentions in Families the infinite multitude of Law suits the personal hatreds and the universal want of charity which hath made the world so miserable and wicked may in a great degree be attributed to the neglect of this great Symbole and instrument of charity And that is the last thing that I shall commend unto you VIII Eighthly Let us be sure to live in charity with our Brethren to which we are in a special manner engaged by this Sacrament and of which we make a most solemn profession Let us behave our selves as Servants in the same family as sons of the same father as those who have eaten of the same bread Let us be very carefull that we do not cover the coals of anger and contention under the ashes for a night and then blow them up again the next morning but let us quite extinguish them and utterly put them out Let not your jealousies your hard thoughts your uncharitable and rash censurings your differences and enmities ever return again but let that sentence run in your minds 1 John 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought to love one another If he have given his Son if he still give him to us if we feed and live upon him then let us love as Brethren and not fall out in our way to Heaven And if we find our love to grow sick and weak and to be fallen to decay then let us come hither on purpose for to revive it and raise it up again If the Lamp begin to burn dim and to cast a very weak light let us pour in more Oyl that it may not go out If our love begin to be chill and cold let us put this fire the oftner under it that it may be kept in a flame For assure your selves that they who take up their differences and enmities again did never truly lay them aside they did but mock God when they came to this holy Communion with a pretence of Love and Charity their hearts not being throughly resolved to forget all in juries and offences Or if they did seriously labour to put to death all hatreds one great reason why they are not throughly mortified is because they use so rarely this powerfull means of suppressing them and keeping them in their graves Men do one with another Plutarch alij as the Thespienses with married persons who once in five years space kept a Feast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Cupids honour for the reconciling of all differences that had happened between Man and Wife Such a small Festivity do men make of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper to which they come perhaps with an intention to bury all differences but then they give them a whole twelve moneths time if not more to revive and gather strength again Hence it is that the temper of the Christian World is as much different from the Spirit of the elder times as heat is from cold or life from death They held such frequent Communions that their love was so flagrant as to make them dye for one another and we hold them so seldome that the heat of our unmortified passions makes us wound and kill each other So that I make account there is but a little difference between doing this seldome and not doing it at all yea those enmities will be more fierce and untractable which even the Bloud of Jesus hath not quenched To put a conclusion then to this Discourse let me advise you when you come from the Table of the Lord thus to meditate within your selves I have received fresh Pledges of the love of my Lord and I have made new professions of my own What now doth the Lord require of me What have I that I can render back to him Alas I have nothing to give him but only my love nothing but my love did I say Oh how great a thing is love how much is inclosed in the bosome of love It is no such trifle as I imagine Love brought God down to us and love will carry us up to God Love made God like to man and love will make men like to God Love made him dye for us and love will make us lay down our lives for the Brethren O the power of Heavenly Love How shall I get thee planted in my heart Who can bring thee into my soul but only love Love begets love and the frequent Meditation of this love of God and of his Son will inflame thy heart in love to them Oh let a sense of this love lye perpetually in my breast that may change me into love Let me burn and languish in the Armes of Jesus Let me long for nothing but him let him be all my talk all my joy the Crown of my delight Let me never forget how gracious he is let the taste of his incomparable sweetness be never out of my mouth let me never rellish any thing but what hath some savour of him O my foul what should we wish for but to feast again with him What should we desire but to be satisfied with him Psal 27.4 This one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of my Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple What friend is there to whom we have been endeared that we can forget Do we use to throw the