THE Penitent Christian Fitted with Meditations and Prayers FOR The Devout Receiving OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE Lords Supper By LEWIS SOVTHCOMB Rector of Rose-Ash in the County of DEVON For the Benefit of the People under his Charge and Others St. John 6.56 He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him London Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1682. The Institution of his last Supper Mark 14.22 And as they did eat Iesus took bread blessed brake it gaue to them said Take eat this is my body And he took the Cup when he had given thank he gave it to them they all dranke of it TO THE Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Exon. My Lord IT were a piece of very great and intolerable vanity which would need a bigger Apology than even the prefixing your Lordship's great Name to this mean Discourse to think that I could say any thing more or better than what has been already said on this Subject particularly of late years by the Pious and Learned Dr. Patrick in his three several excellent Treatises of the Holy Sacrament I can therefore truely assure your Lordship that I was very far from any such perswasion or thought in the publishing these Sheets The chief reasons that I had to do it were two First that as this plain Discourse was primarily design'd only for the benefit and use of the people of my particular Charge so are there some things in it fitted for their peculiar needs and tempers with which no man can be so well acquainted as my self The other reason was that though I could easily have recommended them to very many far better Treatises of those holy Mysteries yet I have observ'd that most men are much more ready to read attentively and seriously consider any thing publisht by a person whom they know and with whom they daily converse by whose Neighbourhood and Conversation they have contracted a particular Friendship and Familiarity with him which begets a mutual confidence and endearment than they would a better Discourse of one altogether unknown to them For their sakes therefore chiefly have I adventured it abroad but if it may be useful to any other the meanest Soul in the promoting a more frequent and Devout use of this deplorably neglected Duty I shall have my desire and aim And in prospect of that end and Design shall be content to run the adventure of the Censures of all men whatever Against which I shall be the better guarded if the many imperfections of this Discourse particularly it 's extraordinary plainness even to a fault though in that it is adjusted to the Capacities of them to whom it was first delivered and for whom it is principally intended may not hinder your Lordships vouchsafing me and it your Blessing and your Patronage I cannot but remember your Lordships great earnestness at a late Visitation in pressing us of the Clergy to recommend a more frequent and Vniversal practise of this Duty to our People And I thank God this small evidence of my obedience to that injunction as it brought with it some considerable success to my People so I have great reason to believe that how mean soever it really be by putting it into their hands it may be greater yet However such as it is it is humbly laid at your Lordship's Feet by My Lord Your Lordship 's affectionate honourer and faithfully devoted Servant Lewis Southcomb To the People of his Charge the Parishioners of Rose-Ash in the County of Devon My Friends and Neighbours IT has long been my great wonder and trouble too to see so many of you who are constant frequenters of most other publick Offices of the Church and seem to be great Lovers and Friends of it to be so negligent and backward in your coming to the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper I must confess I have not altogether so much reason to complain of this now as I have had heretofore but however I am sure there is yet too much reason for such a Complaint as this That the necessity and meaning the benefits and advantages of this Christian Sacrifice should be no better understood and considered and the Table of our dear Redeemer so unfrequented deserves to be bewailed with tears of blood and there may be reason to fear that the omission of this holy duty is one crying Sin of the Nation The concernment that I ought to have for you in that Relation which I bear to you makes me willing to hope you will no longer be partakers in this too common guilt What other mens Reasons for this great Neglect may be I know not But I have some cause to think that the chief ground of your too seldom approaching these holy Mysteries is this that you are not satisfied of your preparations or not sufficiently perswaded wheher your Examination and your Faith your Repentance or your Charity are such as they ought to be and so tremble at the thoughts of unworthy receiving and are resolv'd to let it alone and by so doing at once rob the Soul of it's greatest Priviledge and highest Duty If this be your Case give me leave to enquire If you were not satisfied as to the Settlement of an Estate would you not willingly ask Counsel of the Lawyer or if you were afraid of the State of your health would you not run for the Direction of the Physician If so let me beseech you in matter of doubt or Scruple or dissatisfaction of Conscience if you think not fit to advise with me do it with some other Minister of Religion of greater abilities and not let your doubts and scruples keep you from this Solemn Act Christian Worship when you may so easily have them satisfied The only Reasons that I can think of why you should not readily and willingly do so are these Either first you question our willingness to offer you satisfaction if you come and that we are loath to be troubled Or Secondly you question our ability and think you can judge of your own state as well as a Guide of Souls Or thirdly you cannot conquer your own loathness and unwillingness and fears so to do Or fourthly you are afraid we would despise you for so doing or make known the secrets of your Soul To all which therefore I shall briefly answer First If you question my willingness to endeavour to remove and satisfie your doubts or think me unwilling to hear you and suppose me loath to be troubled I do as to this assure you that you will find me by God's assistance as ready to endeavour your satisfaction as to take the Tenth of your Possessions and as we of the Ministry love our own eternal Interest so we cannot but be concern'd for the future safety of your Souls when our neglects would endanger the security of our own But secondly it may be 't is
God inwardly calling us often by his holy Spirit or outwardly by his Embassadors should so long have been in vain Oh that we should not have been perswaded by them to come sooner and to tast and see how gracious the Lord is That we should scarce ever till now find by our own Experience that the wayes of Religious Wisdom are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3.17 But blessed be God that he has at last opened our Eyes to behold the wonderful things of his Law Ps 119.18 and enclined us to experience and try the sweetness pleasure and satisfaction of being in a good measure qualified to have his merits applied to us that he has given us Grace to experience somewhat of the blissful apprehensions of being in his Favour And now O my Soul what infinite reason have we to say Blessed be the day that ever we came acquainted with our Saviour Blessed be the day that ever our disobedient heart was melted into Love of thee O our dear Redeemer And I beseech thee keep it filled ever with this love fortified ever with these Resolutions ever fixt and constant in this temper and if there be any thing in it that yet may displease thee O make me to know it and assist me to throw it off for ever And when will our Lord come again that we may again Sup with him and feast our selves upon his sacred Body and Blood and tast this pleasant most delicious food again May he make no long tarrying may it not be long O may it not be long before we again either meet him at his Table meet him in the Air or meet him in his Kingdom O what will it be to be always with him where there is so much secret joy and peace in this small glymps of him and at so great distance too And now my Soul seeing we have given up our heart to our dearest Lord in this temper let us live and in this disposition let us dye and we hope by Death we shall come nearer to him never more to be pulled back again or in danger to be drawn off from him by the violence of any temptation for these shall be done away And being thus united to him the great Lover of Souls we shall at last at his glorious coming not much dread the heavens being rolled into a Scroul or the Crack and flames of the dying World or the Trump of the Arch-angel but with infinite joy hear the words Arise come up hither awake and arise and come Take your Crowns your place on my right hand Arise and come and see your new State and new Condition your unknown felicities and unknown Glories your endless peace and safety Arise and come hither up to me your Jesus the Captain of your Salvation Come and be above the reach of Infelicities and Miseries Sin and Death for all ages and sit down in your Immortality and Rest for ever Arise come and partake of those Glories that cost me your Lord Sighs and Groans and Blood and Wounds pangs and Life it self to purchase it for you that cost you also so many Dutys the Strugling with so many temptations the combating so many Enemies before you got the Victory so many difficulties discouragements so much shame and reproach self-denials and the like before you were intitled to my Merits and qualified to receive the bene t of my purchase Come now and sit down in their Enjoyment for above millions of years and ages In a word O my Soul say May these hopes be ever in our view ever in our heart thoughts And as we have lately begun for Eternity upon the Stock of this Hope so let us by this square and order all the Actions of our lives That so at last when we shall come to leave Mortality our Passage hence may be peacefull safe and holy our Resurrection joyfull safe and holy and through him who is the foundation of our hope we may not fail to be remembred with mercy in the day of judgment After which we may with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven laud and magnify his glorious Name ever more praising him and Saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Glory be to the O Lord most◠High Amen A Prayer before the holy Sacrament O My dearest Saviour who wert pleased to suffer death upon the Cross to purchase Heaven and Salvation for me and now callest me to a remembrance of that thy dying Love so fit and trim and adorn my Soul I beseech thee that I may not fail to be now and ever an acceptable guest at thy holy Table Let the consideration of my state and the remembrance of my past sins lead me to a deep humiliation and contrition for them and that contrition to intire hatred a sincere reformation of them and fixt resolutions of future Love and obedience O my Saviour let my Faith and Charity and Devotion be by thy gracious assistance raised to a Heavenly pitch and temper that so whatever thou please to deny me in this lower World I may never be denied a participation of all the benefits of thy meritorious death and sufferings I come dear Jesu I come to renew my Covenant with thee which I have so miserably broken by my Sins of Omission and Commission by my Iniquities of thought word and deed †Here you may mention those grosser Crimes which upon Examination you find your self to stand guilty of particularly by my Sins of For these and all other my impieties known and unknown be pleased to receive a reconciliation and let this holy Sacrament prove a sealing of my Pardon in the Court of Heaven and may I not fail O my Saviour together with thy body and blood to receive new Grace and strength against them O my Jesu who hast done and suffered so much for me and now invitest me to come and see it represented to me be pleased to do this further for me to grant that it may not be in vain and lost as to me by mine own default O let it never be said or remembred of me in the day of Judgment that I ever appeared before thee in this holy action without such a wedding Garment as thou didst mercifully accept or that I did eat and drink my own damnation And though my Iniquities are great great like thy Sorrows and great like thy sufferings which I am coming to commemorate yet because they are infinitely less than thy Mercies and thy Merits Pitty me O Lord pitty me accept me O my God accept me for lo I come to do thy will and grant that I may ever hereafter live the life of Grace in a state acceptable to thee that so by thine Agony and bloody sweat by thy Cross and Passion by thy precious death and burial by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascention which I am coming to remember my past Iniquities being done away I may now at length be more closely
our ability you doubt of and think you can judge of your own State as well as a Spiritual Guide To this I answer that though it may be we are not all good Lawyers or skilful Physicians or cunning managers of our affairs of this World yet 't is not to be supposed but that such who have made it the chief business of their life to know the mind and will of God should at least know somewhat more of it than they who have been bred up in other Imployments Besides though you should suppose us to understand but little more of Divine things than your selves yet consider few men can so well judge of their own state and case as another for them But to put an end to this question I shall for my self declare and promise that if any of your scruples of Conscience in this Case or any other should be such as that you shall think my directions not to be safe and satisfactory that then I will undertake to procure you the opinion of some or one of the most wise and holy and learned persons of the Nation without giving you any further trouble But thirdly it may be you are willing to receive advice and directions in any scruples of Conscience but you cannot conquer your own loathness and unwillingness and secret fears when you would make them known If this be your Case I answer Be pleas'd to consider what you would do if you were really in as good earnest with Almighty God and your Souls as you are with respect to your Bodies and Estates and why should it be thought more a shame to be concern'd for an immortal Soul than for a temporal Interest when in truth it will be esteemed far more creditable and prudent too by all good men and as for others for ill men no matter what they shall think of you for so doing Nay as all wise and holy men will infallibly respect you much the more for so doing so also all the prophane sort of the World that outwardly reproach and scoff at you for it will inwardly and really reverence you the more Besides sit down a little and when you are next private and alone consider seriously what you would do on a sick Bed is not the company of a Guide of Souls welcome then is not his advice thankfully received and joyfully pursued and his prayers for you look't on as the greatest kindness he can do for you Remember it will come to this again and why then should you not be ready to advise with them sooner as well as later when they are capable of doing you more good and you capable to perform more And would you once but throughly perswade your selves of this as a great trueth that a pious Person would have a much greater value and esteem for you for such a care of your Souls I am apt to think that then you would as readily apply your selves to them in such Cases as you would be to make an advantageous bargain Consider further Self-denial is a great Christian-Duty St. Matt. 16.24 and to do violence to our selves in conquering and subduing that unwillingness that we have to open a doubt or scruple of Conscience to a Minister of Religion would be one great Exercise of that Duty Fourthly possibly neither of these may be the reasons why you will not ask their Counsel or direction but you are afraid that we would despise you for so doing or make known the secrets of your Soul I answer so far should we be from this that we should look upon them that would so do to have a greater care of and concernment for their eternal safety than the generality of the World have we should esteem you as those that are in good earnest with God and their Souls we should from thence have good ground of reason to believe that Religion is the Practice of such not their Profession only Nay we should be apt to hope that our pains and labours have had some success with them and that they are truely willing to be in safety with Jesus at Jerusalem when they thus are desirous that a Spiritual Guide should take them by the hand and assist and direct them in their Journies thither And then as for your fear that we will make known the Secrets of your Souls which you should at any time discover to us this is unreasonable for as 't is highly disingenuous and unjust so to do so are we strictly bound by the Canons that is by the wholsome and excellent Laws of the Church Can. 113. which every one of us have engaged to observe and obey to conceal all such cases and not at any time to reveal and make known to any person whatever any such trust committed to us Having thus taken off your great objection I see nothing more that you can justly plead in excuse for your absenting your Selves but what may possibly be spoken to in the following book If you shall not here meeâ— with helps sufficient to direct you in the particulars of Self-Examination or in your Meditations when you are at the holy Table that want will be abundantly supplied by another book I mean The wholâ— Duty of Man a book which aâ— you tender the welfare of youâ— Souls I desire no one familâ— may be without Two sorts of persons theâ— are among you which I woulâ— desire chiefly to read and consider this discourse First thoâ—â— who wholly absent themselves Secondly those who though they do not wholly neglect this Duty yet come to it very seldom As for them that wholly absent themselves my business in these Papers is to invite them earnestly to fit and prepare their Soul to come and take the very next opportunities that shall be given them whatsoever pain or self-denial it shall cost them to put on the Wedding-Garment lest all opportunities may shortly be at an end and over and they be found in the day of Judgment to have lived and dyed in the guilt of this dangerous neglect As for them who sometimes come but very rarely my earnest desire of them is to fit and prepare the Souâ— to come more frequently anâ— that they may be so persevering in this frequency thaâ— whenever their Lord shalâ— come he may come and find theâ— so doing At least that he maâ— come and find in them a Soâ—â— habitually disposed for it anâ— not long before to have beeâ— so doing That the good God of hâ—â— infinite mercy may open a your Eyes to see and with serious heart consider the necessity and advantages of a frâ—quent and devout use of thâ—â—â— holy Mysteries is the prayâ—â— of Your Friend and Servant in our Saviour Lewis Southcomb OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SUPPER CHAP. I. THE first great Infelicity that befel the World was the fall of Adam by which he lost Paradise and he and his Posterity became uncapable of being saved by the terms of the first Covenant But the greatest Blessing
habitual preparation for this holy Feast Whereas in this declining Age of the Gospel in which holiness so visibly decayes how loath are we to approach him how uneasie when we are there how joyful when we are gone So unwilling that alas we must be even hal'd and drag'd to it And it may be feared that some of us could even wish it over and at an end already Why what 's the Reason of this unwillingness this backwardness this loathness to go to meet the Lord of life in the most holy and sweet and pleasant Duty in the World Is there so much charge or difficulty in it or is it so hard to be performed O what is there in this holy Action that any Soul that professes the Religion of the ever Blessed Jesus should have such an aversness to it Say are there any expensive chargeable Sacrifices to be offered any Firstlings of our Flocks to be slain No why what 's then the Cause that we should not be as ready and forward and when any opportunities are offered us to remember the death of our Great Master in this holy Mystery as constant too as the Sun is to run his race Alas our great Reason is That the Wedding-Garment of Religion and Holyness Repentance and Reformation of our Lives Charity and Devotion does not please us We are loath to put it on it sits uneasie about us we are hugely unwilling to put off the old spotted rayment of Sin and Iniquity of Wrath and Malice and Irreligion We find no tast no relish in the Sweets and Delicacies of Piety and Vertue We are willing enough doubtless to meet our Lord that is if we thought he would receive and welcome us with our sins about us and with our old affections to them then would we continue as stedfastly in breaking of bread and prayers as ever the first Worthies did Id. ibid. p. 9. though it were twice a day as is with great reason supposed they did of old Were those arms that were once stretcht upon the Cross and still are open to receive the true-penitent were they but as open too to receive the habitually disobedient and impenitent then would we frequent the Lord's Table But does not the Wedding-Garment of Faith and Repentance and Charity and Devotion and the like does not this please us Give me leave to ask as the Apostle did in another case unto what then were ye Baptized have ye put on Christ for this And was it for this that we were early dedicated to him in Baptism and received into the Covenant of Grace and Mercy that when we with the Disciples of old should have continued stedfastly to renew this Covenant in the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and to ow̄n what was then done for us when we could do nothing for our selves and come and declare our willingness to stand to those Engagements then made for us to come and in person to shew our readiness and our willingness to follow him in the ways of his Commands and holy Religion that then we should refuse it or if we do not refuse it yet come so seldom as if we desired to be excused from it Whither Oh whither will our Indevotion our Lukewarmness our Inconsideration carry us Is this to act as they who now sit at Peace and rest in the Mansions of Glory have done before us And has not our Lord shed as much blood for us as for them And are not our hopes and Promises and Expectations the same which they had why then Cur non possumus quod isti istae as the pious Father said of old Why cannot we at least in far better measures than now do as they have done before us whence is it then that our Practice is gone so far off from their frequency in this Heavenly action their zeal and their fervour Certainly this must of necessity proceed from a great and most deplorable want of Love to our Religion or of Zeal for our Saviour from a stupid unconcernment for a joyful Resurrection or as was before hinted because we find no tast or relish in this heavenly food this sood of Angels or from intolerable inconsideration Hence O hence is it in a great measure that our Lives are so unholy our Actions so uncharitable and unchristian our thoughts so impure and prophane and inconsiderate and the whole frame of our Live so disordered and discomposed and as this chiefly for want of a more frequent and devout use of these holy Mysteries Whence sayes one came the Sanctity and Holiness of the first Christians Whence came their strict observation of the Divine Commandments whence was it that they persevered in holy Actions with a comfortable hope and unweary diligence from whence came their despising the World their universal Charity whence came these and many other Excellencies but from a constant Devotion and frequent Communion They who every day represented the Death of Christ every day were ready to dye for Christ We look upon that body to be sickly distempered and diseased and dangerously ill that allways loaths it's wholesome food and has no appetite to that which would be its only or it 's best nourishment Thus O thus it is in the Case of the Soul how sickly and distempered how diseased and disordered must that Soul needs be that loaths it's most wholesome food the food of Angels this nourishment of the holy Sacrament which if duely and devoutly taken would so nourish it up to Salvation as to make it more healthful and holy more chearful and religious more just and upright more pure and devout and Angelical 'T would make it much more ready for the performance of any other Duty more full of zeal and fervour more constant and unwearied in all Religious actions In short 't would make it more ready for Death and Immortality The holy Sacrament is call'd by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of Blessing and surely if we do not thirst after this Cup of Blessing Blessing may be far from us Neither is it imaginable That that man should love Heaven and his Soul or felicity or his Lord that desires not frequently to bath in that wholsome stream the blood of that immaculate Lamb of God that takes away the Sins of the World Having thus seen what these texts of Scripture are that imply a frequency of Communicating we shall briefly consider the second thing Secondly let us see what was the custom and the practice of the first Worthies of the Christian Church shortly after our Saviour's time and if in a few Instances we find them frequently meeting and representing the death of their and our Common Lord and Master Let us remembring he has done and suffered as much for us as he had done for them ever hereafter fit the Soul to take all opportunities we are able to do in some degree as they have done before us The first Instance I shall produce shall be of a great and holy man
St. Cypr. a Bishop of the Church of Christ who lived above two hundred and fifty years after our Saviour Christ he tells us that the Custom of receiving it daily was observ'd in his days Another who liv'd above three hundred years from our Saviour St. Ambro. says Receive that every day which may profit thee every day And no less than a whole Council or Assembly of Devout men at Antioch the place where the Disciples were first called Christians as we are told Act. 11.26 though not at the same time decreed some ages since our Saviour's time that those should be excommunicated cast out of the Church who came to other holy offices and divine Services but went away without receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper And to mention no more a Reverend Father of the Church St. Jerom. who liv'd about four hundred years from Christ's time saies the practice of daily receiving was continued to his time Let us then with eyes shut and arms folded when we are next alone and retir'd from the World in a serious thought consider Did those of old who owned the same crucifyed Jesus with our selves Did they as constantly do this in remembrance of him as they did publickly meet to pray together or hear the Word And is it come from once a day and once a week to once a year to once in our whole lives Is it come to this Is this all the sense and apprehension we have of the necessity and advantages of this duty Is this the obedience we shew to an Express Command of our Saviour either wholly to disobey it or perform as seldom as possible we can Is this the imitation of the practice of the first ages of Christianity Is this all the reckoning and accompt we make of that inestimable priviledge of being in Covenant with God or of being called and invited to come and renew it again when we have broken our terms and to have it signed and sealed to us again Was it for this O blessed Jesu that thou hast done and suffered so much for our sakes Was it for this that thou wert content for us to submit to an Agony and bloody sweat to the Cross and Passion to a Death and Burial And is it for this that we have so long owned thee for our Lord and our Redeemer a tender and merciful Saviour that some of us should stupidly live in an habitual neglect of doing this in remembrance of thee And have we no greater sense of and concernment for the last words of a dying Saviour shall the expiring breath of a dear Redeemer poured out for our eternal Interest be lost and in vain to any of us that call him so O how much Reason have we to say of such Father forgive them or rather father open their eyes for they know not what they do Bishop Taylor 's life of Christ But thus as is observ'd by an excellent Prelate now with God it hath fared with this Sacrament as with other Actions of Religion which have descended from Flames the Flames of the Devotion of the first ages to still Fires from Fires to Sparks from Sparks to Embers from Embers to Smoke from Smoke to Nothing But in the Name of God let me enquire are we willing to make any publick thankfull joyfull acknowledgments at all of the love of our crucifyed Jesus and the great things he has done and undergone for the redemption of us and of our Children after us if not we are monsters of Ingratitude and Impiety If we are at all willing so to do why shall we not fit our soul to take all possible opportunities while we are yet here below and at this distance from him to do this in remembrance of him How can we think that our other Devotions shall be prevalent with or acceptable to the Holy God without the Intercession of our Saviour and the merit of his sufferings and yet this is the way he hath appointed to give our prayers an Interest in his Sacrifice Can we reasonably suppose that indeed any Duties whatever and the performance of them shall be accepted when this great and solemn act of Religious worship shall be refused omitted and neglected O let us in our next retirements when we are withdrawn from the noise and tumult and business and thoughts of the world deeply think should we not have reason to be afraid that no Petitions of ours no Devotions no works of Mercy Piety or Charity no Fastings or Alms no hearings or readings shall be accepted without this part of our Christian Worship Would it not further be a sad and dismal consideration to remember in the hour of Death or day of Judgment that these and many other holy Actions shall fall to the ground being vain and lost only for our wilful neglect of this holy Sacrament Again in the same retirement from the World and in your next meditations consider what could you think of a rich and very wealthy person that never in all his life should be perswaded to bestow so much as the worth of a farthing to the poor and needy Or what thoughts should we have of him who never in the whole course of his life should offer up a prayer to God either in publick or in secret The same may we think of him that would never accept of an Invitation to fit and trim the Soul to come and with the rest of his Christian Brethren to partake of these holy Mysteries for they did but disobey a plain Command of our Saviour's the one only disobeyed the command of feeding the hungry and cloathing the naked the other only refused obedience to the Command of praying without ceasing So the wilfull absenter from the holy Supper of the Lord only dissobeys the Command of Do this Nay I look upon this to be a greater piece of disobedience because in this there is an obligation of love Love infinite and unspeakable an obligation of thanks and gratitude to engage us Do this in remembrance of me the Lord that bought you the Lord that pay'd down the dear price of his blood Wounds sweat and groans pains and death for you Give me leave to say further I shall never I can never truly believe you have any tolerable care of your souls till I see this Holy Sacrament more frequented till I see some evidence of your greater love to these holy Mysteries Not however as if I would perswade or give encouragement by this to wicked men while they continue such to approach this heavenly feast But for those who resolve heartily by divine Grace to reform their lives and amidst the disadvantages of this life are fully purposed to Devote themselves in sincerity though not in perfection to the Laws of our holy Religion whatever else you do yet I shall never I can never suppose you have any tolerable Love or Zeal for our Dear Redeemer while you habitually turn your back on his Holy Table