our General Preparation to the worthy Reception of the Blessed Sacrament and the participation of the Mysteries IN all the Scriptures of the New Testament there are no words of particular duty relating to the Blessed Sacrament and expressing the manner of our address to the Mysteries but those few words of St. Paul Let a man examine himself and so let him eat The Apostle expresses one duty and intimates another The duty of preparation is expressed but because this is a relative duty and is not for it self but for something beyond he implies the other to be the great duty to which this preparation does but minister 1. A man must examine himself 2. And a man must eat A man must not eat of these Mysteries till he be examined for that were dangerous and may prove fatal but when a man is examined he must eat for else that examinations were to no purpose SECT I. Of Examination of our selves in order to the Holy Communion THere is no duty in Christianity that is partly solemn and partly moral that hath in it more solemnity and more morality than this one duty and in the greatest declension of Religion still men have fear when they come to receive this holy Sacrament They that have no Religion will fear when they come to die and they who have but a little will fear when they come to communicate But although men who believe this to be the greatest secret and sacrednesse of our Religion do more in their addresses to this than to any thing else yet many of them that do come consider that they are only commanded to examine themselves and that according to the ordinary methods is easily done It is nothing but asking our selves a few questions Do I believe Do I repent and am I in charity To these the answers are ready enough I do believe that Christ gave his body and blood for me as for all mankind and that Christ is mystically present in the Sacrament I have been taught so all my life and I have no reason to doubt it 2. I do also repent according to the measures I am taught I am sorry I have sinned I wish I had not done it and I promise to do so no more and this I do constantly before every Communion and before the next comes I have reason enough to renew my vows I was never so good as my word yet but now I will 3. I am also in charity with all the World and against this good time I pray to God to forgive them for I do This is the usual examination of Consciences to which we add a fasting day and on that we may say more prayers than usual and read some good discourses of the Sacrament and then we are dressed like the friends of the Bridegroom and with confidence come to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But this examination hath it self need to be examined Noah laboured a hundred years together in making the Ark that he and a few more might be saved and can we think in an hour to prepare our souls for the entertainment of him that made all the World This will very hardly be done For although our duty of preparation is contained in this one word of Try or Examine it being after the manner of mysteries mysteriously and secretly described yet there is great reason to believe that there is in it very much duty and therefore we search into the secret of the word and to what purposes it is used in the New-Testament 1. It signifies to try and search to enter into the depths and secrets the varieties and separations and divisibilities of things The word is taken from the tryers of Gold which is tryed by the touch-stone and in great cases is tryed by the fire And in this sense St. Paul might relate to the present condition of the Christians who were often under a fiery tâ—yal For the holy Communion being used by the Primitive Christians according to its intention was indeed a great consolation to the Martyrs and Confessors as appears often in St. Cyprian and this blessing and design was mystically represented to the Church in the circumstance of the institution in being done immediately before the passion they who were to pass through this fiery tryal ought to examine themselves against this solemnity in order to that last tryal and see whether or no they were vessels of sanctification and honour for none else were fit to communicate but they also that were fit to die Christ would give himself to none but to them who are ready to give themselves for him according to that saying of Christ If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and sup with him and he with me To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me c. That is those who are tryed by the experiments of a great love and a great patience that out of love are willing to suffer and with patience do suffer unto the end these are the guests at my heavenly Table for labour and affrightment put a price upon the Martyrs Crown while his vertue grows in danger and like the water-plants ever grow higher than the Floods Now the use that we can make of this sense of the word is that we also are to examine what we are likely to be or what we have been in the day of persecution how we have passed through the fire Did we contract the smel of fire or the pollution of smoak or are we improved by the purification of the discerning flames Did we do our duties then and then learn to do them better or did we then only like glasse bend in all the flexures and mobilities of the flame and then mingle with the ashes incorporating with the interests and foulest pollutions of the world or were we like Gold patient of the hammer and approved by the stone of tryal like Gold in the fire did we untwist our selves from all complications and mixtures with impurer drosse certain it is that by persecution and by mony men are in all capacities and relations best examined how they are in their Religion and their Justice Sometimes God tries his friends as we try one another by the infelicities of our lives when we are unhappy in our affliction if we be not unhappy in our friend too he is a right good one and God will esteem of us so if we can say with David though thou hast smitten us into the place of Dragons yet have we not forgotten thee and my soul is alway in my hand that is I am alwayes in danger and trouble and I bear death about me yet do I not forsake thy Commandments This indeed is Gods way of Examination of us but that 's all one for we must examine our selves here in order to our duty and state of being as God will examine us hereafter in order to what we have been and
particularly IN the reception of the blessed Sacrament there are many blessings which proceed from our own actions the conjugations of moral duties the offices of preparation and reception the reverence and the devotion of which I shall give account in the following Chapters here I am to enumerate those graces which are intended to descend upon us from the spirit of God in the use of the Sacrament it self precisely But first I consider that it must be infinitely certain that great spiritual blessings are consequent to the worthy receiving this Divine Sacrament because it is not at all received but by a spiritual hand for it is either to be understood in a carnal sense that Christs body is there eaten or in a spiritual sense If in a carnal it profits noâ—hing If in a spiritual he be eaten let the meaning of that be considered and it will convince us that innumerable blessings are in the very reception and Communion Now what the meaning of this spiritual eating is I have already declared in this chapter and shall yet more fully explicate in the sequel In the Sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally but we receive him spiritually and that of it self is a conjugation of blessings and spiritual graces The very understanding what we do tells us also what we receive But I descend to particulars 1. And first I reckon that the Sacrament is intended to increase our faith for although it is with us in this Holy Sacrament as it was with Abraham in the Sacrament of circumcision he had the grace of faith before he was circumcised and received the Sacrament after he had the purpose and the grace and we are to believe before we receive these symbols of Christ death yet as by loving we love more and by the acts of patience we increase in the spirit of mortification so by believing we believe more and by publication of our confession we are made confident and by seeing the signs of what we believe our very senses are incorporated into the article and he that hath shall have more and when we concorporate the sign with the signification we conjoyn the word and the spirit and faith passes on from believing to an imaginary seeing and from thence to a greater earnestness of believing and we shall believe more abundantly this increase of faith not being only a natural and proper production of the exercise of its own acts but a blessing and an effect of the grace of God in that Sacrament it being certain that since the Sacrament being of Divine institution it could not be to no purpose for in spiritualibus Sacramentis ubi praecipit virtus servit effectus where the commandment comes from him that hath all power the action cannot be destitute of an excellent event and therefore that the representing of the death of Christ being an act of faith and commanded by God must needs in the hands of God be more effectual than it is in its own nature that faith shall then increase not only by the way of nature but by Gods blessing his own instruments can never be denied but by them that neither have faith nor experience For this is the proper scene and the very exaltation of faith the Latine Church for a long time into the very words of consecration of the calice hath put words relating to this purpose For this is the cup of my blood of the New and Eternal Testament the mystery of faith which for you and for many shall be shed for the remission of sins And if by faith we eat the flesh of Christ as it is confessed by all the Schools of Christians then it is certain that when so manifestly and solemnly according to the divine appointment we publish this great confession of the death of Christ we do in all senses of spiritual blessing eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and let that be expounded how we list we are not in this world capable and we do not need a greater blessing and God may sâ—y in the words of Isaac to his son Esau with corn and wine have I sustained thee and what is there left that I can do unto thee my son To eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Christ Sacramentally is an act of faith and every act of faith joyned with the Sacrament does grow by the nature of grace and the measures of a blessing and therefore is eating of Christ spiritually and this reflexion of acts like circles of a glorious and eternal fire passes on in the univocal production of its own parts till it passe from grace to glory 2. Of the same consideration it is that all the graces which we do exercise by the nature of the Sacrament requiring them or by the necessity of the commandment of preparation do here receive increase upon the account of the same reason but I instance only in that of Charity of which this is signally and by an especial remark the Sacrament and therefore these holy conventions are called by St. Jude feasts of charity which were Christian Festivals in which also they had the Sacrament adjoined but whether that do effect this persuasion or no yet the thing it self is dogmatically affirmed in St. Pauls explication of that mystery we are one body because we partake of one bread that is plainly Christ is our head and we the members of his body and are united in this mystical union by the holy Sacrament not only because it symbolically does teach our duty and promotes the grace of charity by a real signature and a sensible Sermon nor yet only because it calls upon Christians by the publick Sermons of the Gospel and the duties of preparation and the usual expectations of conscience and Religion but even by the blessing of God and the operation of the holy Spirit in the Sacrament which as appears plainly by the words of the Apostle is designed to this very end to be a reconciler and an atonement in the hand of God a band of charity and the instrument of Christian Communion that we may be one body because we partake of one bread that is we may be mystically united by the Sacramental participation and therefore it was not without mystery that the Congregation of all Christ servants his Church and this Sacramental bread are both in Scripture called by the same name This bread is the body of Christ and the Church is Christs body too for by the communion of this bread all faithful people are confederated into one body the body of our Lord. Now it is to be observed that although the expression is tropical and figurative that we are made one body because it is meant in a spiritual sense yet that spiritual sense means the most real event in the world we are really joyned to one common Divine principle Jesus Christ our Lord and from him we do communicate in all the blessings of his grace and
it self indeed shall have what reward God please to apportion to it as it is obedience yet of it self it hath no other worthiness it is not so much as an argument of persuasion for the pouring forth of wine can no more prove or make faith that Christs blood was poured forth for us than the drinking the wine can effect this persuasion in us that we naturally though under a vail drink the natural blood of Christ which the Angels gathered as it ran into golden phials and Christ multiplied to a miracle like the loaves and fishes in the Gospel But because nothing that naturally remains the same in all things as it was before can do any thing that it could not do before the Bread and wine which have no natural change can effect none and therefore we are not to look for an egge where there is nothing but order and a blessing where there is nothing but an action and a real effect where there is nothing but an analogy a Sacrament a mystical representment and something fit to signify and many things past but nothing that is to come This is the sense and discourse of some persons that call for an express word or a manifest reason to the contrary or else resolve that their belief shall be as unactive as the Scriptures are silent in the effects of this mystery Only these men will allow the Sacraments to be marks of Christianity symbols of mutual Charity testimonies of a thankful mind to God allegorical admonitions of Christian mortification and spiritual alimony symbols of grace conferred before the Sacrament and rites instituted to stir up faith by way of object and representation that is occasionally and morally but neither by any Divine or physical by natural or supernatural power by the work done or by the Divine institution This indeed is something but very much too little But others go as far on the other hand and affirm that in the Blessed Sacrament we receive the body and blood of Christ we chew his flesh we drink his blood for his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and this is the Manna which came down from heaven our bodies are nourished our souls united to Christ and the Sacrament is the infallible instrument of pardon to all persons that do not maliciously hinder it and it produces all its effects by vertue of the Sacrament it self so appointed and that the dispositions of the Communicants are only for removing obstacles and impediments but effect nothing the sumption of the Mysteries does all in a capable subject as in infants who do nothing in penitents who take away what can hinder for it is nothing but Christ himself the body that dyed upon the crosse is broken in the hand of him that ministers and by the teeth of him that communicates and when God gives us his Son in this Divine and glorious manner with heaps of miracles to verify heaps of blessings how shall not he with him give us all things else They who teach this doctrine call the holy Sacrament The host the unbloody sacrifice the flesh of God the body of Christ God himself the Mass the Sacrament of the Altar I cannot say that this is too much but that these things are not true and although all that is here said that is of any material benefit and reall blessing is true yet the blessing is not so conferred it is not so produced A third sort of Christians speak indefinitely and gloriously of this Divine mystery they speak enough but they cannot tell what they publish great and glorious effects but such which they gather by similitude and analogy such which they desire but cannot prove which indeed they feel but know not whence they do derive them they are blessings which come in company of the Sacraments but are not alwayes to be imputed to them they confound spiritual senses with mystical expressions and expound mysteries to natural significations that is they mean well but do not alwayes understand that part of Christian Philosophy which explicates the secret nature of this Divine Sacrament and the effect of it is this that they sometimes put too great confidence in the mystery and look for impresses which they find not and are sometimes troubled that their experience does not answer to their Sermons and meet with scruples instead of comforts and doubts instead of rest and anxiety of mind in the place of a serene and peaceful conscience But these men both in their right and in their wrong enumerate many glories of the holy Sacrament which they usually signifie in these excellent appellatives calling it the Supper of the Lord the bread of elect souls and the wine of Angels the Lords body the New Testament and the calice of benediction spiritual food the great Supper the Divinest and Archisymbolical feast the banquet of the Church the celestial dinner the spiritual the sacred the mystical the formidable the rational Table the supersubstantial bread the bread of God the bread of life the Lords mystery the great mystery of salvation the Lords Sacrament the Sacrament of piety the sign of unity the contesseration of the Christian communion the Divine grace the Divine making grace the holy thing the desirable the comunication of Good the perfâ—ction and consummation of a Christian the holy particles the gracious symbols the holy gifts the Sacrifice of commemoration the intellectual and mystical good the hereditary donative of the New Testament the Sacrament of the Lords body the Sacrament of the Calice the Paschal Oblation the Christian pasport the mystery of perfection the great Oblation the Worship of God the life of Souls the Sacrament of our price and our Redemption and some few others much to the same purposes all which are of great and useful signification and if the explications and consequent propositions were as justifiable as the titleâ— themselves are sober and useful they would be apt only for edification and to minister to the spirit of devotion That therefore is to be the design of the present Meditations to represent the true and proper and mysterious nature of this divine nutriment of our souls to account what are the blessings God reacheth forth to us in the Mysteries and what returns of duty he expects from all to whom he gives his most holy Son I shall only here add the names and appellatives which the Scripture gives to these Mysteries and place it as a part of the foundation of the following doctrines It is by the Spirit of God called The bread that is broken and the cup of blessing the breaking of bread the body and blood of the Lord the communication of his body and the communication of his blood the feast of charity or love the Lords Table and the Supper of the Lord. Whatsoever is consequent to these titles we can safely own and our faith may dwell securely and our devotion like a pure flame with these may feed as with
the spices and gums upon the Altar of Incense SECT II. What it is which we receive in the holy SACRAMENT IT is strange that Christians should pertinaciously insist upon carnal significations and natural effects in Sacraments and Mysteries when our blessed Lord hath given us a sufficient light to conduct and secure us from such mis-apprehensions The flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life that is the flesh is corruption and its senses are Ministers of death and this one word alone was perpetually sufficient for Christ's Disciples For when upon occasion of the grosse understanding of their Masters words by the men of Capernaum they had been once clearly taught that the meaning of all these words was wholly spiritual they rested there and inquired no further insomuch that when Christ at the institution of the Supper affirmed of the bread and wine that they were his body and his blood they were not at all offended as being sufficiently before instructed in the nature of that Mystery And besides this they saw enough to tell them that what they eat was not the natural body of their Lord This was the body which himself did or might eat with his body one body did eat and the other was eaten both of them were his body but after a diverse manner For the case is briefly this We have two lives a natural and a spiritual and both must have bread for their support and maintenance in proportion to their needs and to their capacities and as it would be an intollerable charity to give nothing but spiritual nutriment to a hungry body and pour diagrams and wise propositions into an empty stomach so it would be as useless and impertinent to feed the Soul with wheat or flesh unless that were the conveyance of a spiritual delicacy In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the body of Christ according to the proper signification of a humane body is not at all but in a sense differing from the proper and natural body that is in a sense more agreeing to Sacraments so St. Hierom expresly Of this sacrifice which is wonderfully done in the commemoration of Christ we may eat but of that sacrifice which Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse by it self or in its own nature no man may eat For it is his flesh which is under the form of bread and his blood which is in the form and tast of wine for the flesh is the Sacrament of flesh and blood is the Sacrament of blood for by flesh and blood that is invisible spiritual intelligible the visible and tangible body of our Lord Jesus Christ is consigned full of the grace of all vertues and of Divine Majesty So St Augustine For therefore ye are not to eat that body which ye see nor to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour out it is the same and not the same the same invisibly but not the same visibly For until the world be finished the Lord is above but the truth of the Lord is with us The body in which he rose again must be in one place but the truth of it is every where diffused For there is one truth of the body in the Mystery and another truth simply and without Mystery It is truly Christs body both in the Sacrament and out of it but in the Sacrament it is not the natural truth but the spiritual and the mystical And therefore it was that our Blessed Saviour to them who apprehended him to promise his natural body and blood for our meat and drink spake of his ascension into heaven that we might learn to look from heaven to receive the food of our souls heavenly and spiritual nourishment said St. Athanasius For this is the letter which in the New Testament kills him who understands not spiritually what is spoken to him under the signification of meat and flesh and blood and drink So Origen For this bread does not go into the body for to how many might his body suffice for meat but the bread of eternal life supports the substance of our spirit and therefore it is not touch'd by the body nor seen with the eyes but by faith it is seen and touched So St. Ambrose And all this whole mystery hath in it neither carnal sense nor carnal consequence saith St. Chrysostom But to believe in Christ is to eat the bread and therefore why do you prepare your teeth and stomach believe him and you have eaten him they are the words of S. Austin For faith is that intellectual mouth as S. Brasil calls it which is within the man by which he takes in nourishment But what need we to draw this water from the lesser cisterns we see this truth reflected from the spring it self the fountains of our blessed Saviour I am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall not hunger and he that believeth on me shall not thirst and again He that eats my flesh hath life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day The plain consequent of which words is this that therefore this eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood can only be done by the Ministeries of life and of the spirit which is opposed to nature and flesh and death And when we consider that he who is not a spiritual and a holy person does not feed upon Christ who brings life eternal to them that feed on him it is apparent that our manducation must be spiritual and therefore so must the food and consequently it cannot be natural flesh however altered in circumstance and visibilities and impossible or incredible changes For it is not in this spiritual food as it was in Manna of which our Fathers did eat and died but whosoever eats this divine nutriment shall never die The Sacraments indeed and symbols the exterior part and ministeries may be taken unto condemnation but the food it self never For an unworthy person cannot feed on this food because here to eat Christs flesh is to do our duty and to be established in our title to the possession of the eternal promises For so Christ disposed the way of salvation not by flesh but by the spirit saith Tertullian that is according to his own exposition Christ is to be desired for life and to be devoured by hearing to be chewed by the understanding and to be digested by faith and all this is the method and oeconomy of heaven which whosoever uses and abides in it hath life abiding in him He that in this world does any other way look for Christ shall never find him and therefore if men say Loe here is Christ or loe there he is in the desart or he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cupboards or Pantries where bread or flesh is laid believe it not Christs body is in heaven and it is not upon earth the heavens must contain
the things themselves too high for us but therefore we are taught three things 1. To walk humbly with our God that is in all entercourses with him to acknowledg the infinite distance between his immensitie and our nothing his wisdom and our ignorance his secrets and our apprehensions he does more for us than we can understand It was an excellent saying of Aristotle which Seneca reports of him Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere quam cum de Diis agitur we ought never to be more bashful and recollect than when we are to speak any thing of God Timidè de potâ—state Deorum pauca dicenda sunt said Cicero we must speak of his power and glory timorously and sparingly with joyfulness and singleness or simplicity of heart so the first Christians eat their Bread their Eucharist so we understand the words of St. Luke 2. To walk charitably with our disagreeing brother that this may be indeed a Sacrament of charity and not to wonder if he be mistaken in his discourses of that which neither he nor you can understand 3. Though it be hard to be understood yet we must be careful that with simplicitie we admire the secret and accept the mystery but at no hand by pride or ignorance by interest or vanity to wrest this mysteâ—y to ignoble senses or to evil events or to dangerous propositions or to our own damnation 5. Whatever propositons any man shall entertain in his manner of discoursing of these mysteries let him be sure to take into his notice and memorie those great appellatives with which the purest ages of the Church the most ancient Liturgies and the most eminent Saints of God use to adorn and invest this great mysteriousness In the Greek Liturgie attributed to St. James the Sacramental Symbols are called sanctified honourable precious celestial unspeakable incorruptible glorious fearful formidable divine in the use of which Epithets as we have the warranty and consent of all the Greek Churches since they ever had a Liturgy so we are taught only to have reverend usages and religious apprehensions of the Divine mysteries but if by any appellative we can learn a duty it is one of the best waies of entring into the secret To which purpose the ages Primitive and Apostolical did use the word Eucharist the name and the use we learn from Origen the Bread which is called the Eucharist is the Symbol of our thanksgiving towards God But it is the great and most usual appellative for the holy Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find in Ignatius St. Clemens Justin Martyr the Syrian Paraphrast Origen and ever after amongst the Greeks aâ—d afterwards amongst the Latins By him we understand that then we receive great blessings since â—he very mystery it self obliges us to great thankâ—ulness I have instanced in this as an example to the use of the other Epithets and appellatives which from Antiquity I have enumerated 6. He that desires to enter furthest into the secrets of this mystery and to understand more than others can better learn by love than by inquiry He that keepeth the law of the Lord getteth the understanding thereof saith the wise Bensirach if he will prepare himself diligently and carefully observe the dispensations of the Spirit and receive it humbly and treat it with great reverence and dwell in the communion of Saints and pass through the mystery with great devotion and purest simplicity and converse wiâ—h the purities of the Sacrament frequâ—ntly â—nd with holy intention this man shall undeâ—stand more by his experience than the greatest Cleâ—ks can by all their subtilties the commentaries of the Doctors and the glosses of inquisitive men Obey and ye shall understand said the Prophet and our blessed Saviour assur'd us that if we continue in his word then we shall know the truth and if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no. For we have not turned from our iniquities that we might understand the truth said Daniel for the love of the Lord saith the wise man passeth all things for illumination 7. Let no man advance the preaching of the word of God to the disparagement or to occasion the neglect of the Sacraments For though it be true that faith comes by hearing yet it is not intended that by hearing alone faith is ingendred for the faith of the Apostles came by seeing and St. Pauls faith did not come by hearing but by intuition and revelation and hearing in those words of St. Paul does not signifie the manner of ministration but the whole Oeconomie of the word of God the whole office of preaching which is done most usefully to babes and strangers by sermon and homily but more gloriously and illustriously to men by Sacraments But however be it so or otherwise yet one ordinance ought not to exclude the other much less to disparage the other and least of all to undervalue that which is the most eminent but rather let every Christian man and woman think that if the word ministred by the spirit is so mightie it must be more when the word and the spirit joyn with the Sacrament which is their proper significatorie He that is zealous for the word of God does well but let him remember that the word of God is a goodly ring and leads us into the circles of a blessed eternity but because the Sacrament is not without the word they are a jewel encha'sd in gold when they are together The Ministeries of the Gospel are all of a piece they though in several manners work the same salvation by the conduct of the sâ—me spirit 8. Let no man in the reception of the Sacrament and in his expectation of blessings and events from it limit his hopes and belief to any one particular for that will occasion a littleness of faith and may make it curious scrupulous and phantastical rather let us adore the secret of God and with simple expectations receive it disposing our selves to all the effects that may come rather with fear and indefinite apprehensions than with dogmatical and confident limitations for this may beget scruples and diminution of value but that hinders nothing but advances the reverential treatments and opinion 9. He that guesses at the excellency and power of the Sacrament by the events that himself feels must be sure to look for no other than what are eminently or virtually contained in it that is he must not expect that the Sacrament will make him rich or discover to him stoln goods or cure the Tooth-ach or Countercharm Witches or appease a Tempest if it be thrown into the Sea These are such events which God hath not made the effects of religion but are the hopes and expectations of vain and superstitious people and I remember that Pope Alexander the third in the Council of Lateran wrote to the Bishop of S.
in their age their Parents and their Priests the laws of the Church and the Religion of the Country make up the demonstration but because their faith is no stronger than to be the daughter of such arguments we find they commonly live at such a rate as if they did neither believe nor care whether it were so or no. The confidence of the article makes them not to leave off violently to pursue the interests of this world and to love and labour for the other Before this faith can enable them to resist a temptation they must derive their assent from principles of another nature and therefore because few men can dispute it with arguments invincible and demonstrative and such as are naturally apt to produce the most perfect assent it is necessary that these men of all other should believe it because it is said to come from God and rely upon it because it brings to God trust it because it is good acknowledge it certain because it is excellent that there may be an act of the will in it as well as of the understanding and as much love in it as discourse For he that only consents to an article because it is evident is indeed convinced but hath no excellency in his faith but what is natural nothing that is gracious and moral true Christian faith must have in it something of obscurity something that must be made up by duty and by obedience but it is nothing but this we must trust the evidence of God in the obscurity of the thing Gods testimony must be clear to him and the thing in all other senses not clear and then to trust the article because God hath said it must have in it an excellency which God loves and that he will reward In order to this it is highly considerable that the greatest argument to prove our Religion is the goodness and the holiness of it it is that which makes peace and friendships content and comfort which unites all relations and endears the relatives it relieves the needy and defends the widdow it ends strife and makes love endless all other arguments can be opposed and tempted by wit and malice but against the goodness of the Religion no man can speak by which it appears that the greatest argument is that which moves love intending by love to convince the understanding But then for others who can enquire better their inquiries also must be modest and humble according to the nature of the things and to the designes of God they must not disbelieve an article in Christianity which is not proved like a conclusion in Geometry they must not be witty to object and curious to enquire beyond their limit for some are so ingeniously miserable that they will never believe a proposition in Divinity if any thing can be said against it they will be credulous enough in all the affairs of their life but impenetrable by a Sermon of the Gospel they will believe the word of a man and the promise of their neighbour but a promise of Scripture signifies nothing unless it can be proved like a proposition in the Metaphysicks If Sempronius tell them a story it is sufficient if he be a just man and the narrative be probable but though Religion be taught by many excellent men who gave their lives for a testimony this shall not passe for truth till there is no objection left to stand against it The reason of these things is plain they do not love the thing their interest is against it they have no joy in Religion they are not willing and desirous that the things shall appear true When love is the principle the thing is easie to the understanding the objections are nothing the arguments are good and the Preachers are in the right Faith assents to the revelations of the Gospel not only because they are well proved but because they are excellent things not only because my reason is convinced but my reason yields upon the fairer termes because my affections are gained For if faith were an assent to an article but just so far as it is demonstrated then faith were no vertue and infidelity were no sin because in this there is no choice and no refusal but where that which is probable is also naturally indemonstrable and yet the conclusion is that in which we must rejoyce and that for which we must earnestly contend and that in the belief of which we serve God and that for which we must be ready to die It is certain that the understanding observing the credibility and the will being pleased with the excellency they produce a zeal of belief because they together make up the demonstration For a reason can be opposed by a reason and an argument by an argument but if I love my Religion nothing can take me from it unless it can pretend to be more useful and more amiable more perfective and more excellent than heaven and immortality and a kingdom and a crown of peace and all the things and all glories of the Eternal God 2. That faith which disposes to the holy Communion must have in it a fulness of confidence and relying upon God a trusting in and a real expectation of the event of all the promises of the Gospel God hath promised sufficienâ— for the things of this life to them that serve him They who have great revenues and full bags can easily trust this promise but if thou hast neither mony nor friends if the labour of thy hands and the successe of thy labour fails thee how is it then Can you then relie upon the promise What means your melancholy and your fear your frequent sighs and the calling of your self miserable and undone Can God only help with means or cannot he also make the means or help without them or see them when you see them not or is it that you fear whether he will or no He that hath promised if he be just is alwayes willing whether he be able or no and therefore if you do not doubt of his power why should you at all doubt of his willingness For if he were not able he were not Almighty if he were not willing to perform his promise then he were not just and he that suspects that hath neither faith nor love for God of all things in the world faith never distrusts the good will of God in which he most glories to communicate him self to mankind If yet your fear objects and sayes that all is well on Gods part but you have provoked him by your sins and have lost all title to the promise I can say nothing against that but that you must speedily repent and amend your fault and then all will be quickly well on your part also and your faith will have no objection and your fears will have no excuse When the glutton Apicius had spent a vast revenue in his prodigious feastings he kill'd himself for fear of starving but if Caesar had promised
delicious because we dote upon mushromes and colliquintida But as Manna was given in the desart and it became pleasant when they had nothing else to eat So it is in â—he sweetnesses of Religion we cannot live by faith and rejoyce in the banquets of our Saviour unlesse our souls dwell in the wilderness that is where the pleasures and appetites of â—he world may not prepossesse our palates and debauch our reasonings And this was mysterioâ—sly spoken by the Psalmist The broad places of the wilderness shall wax fat and the hills shall be enâ—ircled with joy that is whatsoever â—s barren and desolate not full of the things and affections of the world shall be inebriated with the pleasures of Religion and rejoyce in Sacraments in faith and holy expectations But the love of mony and the love of pleasures are the intrigues and fetters to the understanding but he only is a faithful man who restrains his passions and despises the world and rectifies his love that he may believe a right and put that value upon Religion as that it become the satisfaction of our spirit and the great object of all our passionate desires pride and prejudice are the Parents of misbelief but humility and contempt of the world first bear faith upon their knees and then upon their hands SECT V. Of the proper and Specifick work of Faith in the reception of the holy Communion HEre I am to enquire into two practical questions 1. What stresse is to be put upon faith in this Mystery that is how much is every one bound to believe in the article of this Sacrament before he can be accounted competently prepared in his understanding and by his faith 2. What is the use of faith in the reception of the Blessed Sacrament and in what sense and to what purposes and with what truth it is said that in the holy Sacrament we receive Christ by faith How much every man is bound to believe of this mystery If I should follow the usual opinions I should say that to this preparatory faith it is necessary to believe all the niceties and mysteriousnesse of the blessed Sacrament Men have introduced new opinions and turned the key in this lock so often till it cannot be either opened or shut and they have unravel'd the clue so long till they have intangled it and not only reason is made blind by staring at what she never can perceive but the whole article of the Sacrament is made an objection and temptation even to faith it self and such things are taught by some Churches and some Schooles of learning which no Philosophy did ever teach no Religion ever did reveal no prophet ever preach and which no faith ever can receive I mean it in the prodigious article of Transubstantiation which I am not here to confute but to reprove upon practical considerations and to consider those things that may make us better and not strive to prevail in disputation That therefore we may know the proper offices of faith in the believing what relates to the holy Sacrament I shall describe it in several propositions 1. It cannot be the duty of faith to believe any thing against our sense what we see and taste to be bread what we see and taste and smell to be wine no faith can engage us to believe the contrary For by our senses Christianity it self and some of the greatest Articles of our belief were known by them who from that evidence conveyed them to us by their testimony and if the perception of sense were not finally to be relied upon Miracles could never be a demonstration nor any strange event prove an unknown proposition for the Miracle can never prove the Article unless our eyes or hands approve the miracle and the Divinity of Christs person and his mission and his power could never have been proved by the Resurrection but that the resurrection was certain and evident to the eyes and hands of so many witnesses Thus Christ to his Apostles proved himself to be no spirit by exposing his flesh and bones to be felt and he wrought faith in St. Thomas by his fingers ends the wounds that he saw and felt were the demonstrations of his faith and in the Primitive Church the Valentinians and Marcionites who said Christs body was phantastical were confused by no other argument but of sense For sense is the evidence of the simple and the confirmation of the wise it can confute all pretences and reprove all deceitful subtilties it turns opinion into knowledge and doubts into certainty it is the first endearment of love and the supply of all understanding from what we see without we know what to believe within and no demonstration in the world can be greater than the evidence of sense Our senses are the great arguments of vertue and vice and if it be not safe to rely upon that evidence we cannot tell what pleasure and pain is and a man that is born blind may as well have the true idea of colours as we could have of pain if our senses could not tell us certainly and all those arguments from heaven by which God prevails upon all the world as Oracles and Vrim and Thummim and still voices and loud thunders and the daughter of a voice and messages from above and Prophets on earth and lights and Angels all were nothing for faith could not come by hearing if our hearing might be illusion That therefore which all the world relies upon for their whole Religion that which to all the world is the great means and instrument of the glorification of God even our seeing of the works of God and eating his provisions and beholding his light that which is the great ministery of life and the conduit of good and evil to us we may rely upon for this article of the Sacrament what our faith relies upon in the whole she may not contradict in this Tertullian said that It is not only unreasonable but unlawful to contradict the testimony of our sense lest the same question be made of Christ himself lest it be suspected that he also might be deceived when he heard his Fathers voice from heaven That therefore which we see upon our Altars and Tables that which the Priest handles that which the Communicant does taste is bread and wine our senses tell us that it is so and therefore faith cannot be enjoined to believe it not to be so Faith gives a new light to the soul but it does not put our eyes out and what God hath given us in our nature could never be intended as a snare to Religion or to engage us to believe a lie Faith sees more in the Sacrament than the eye does and tastes more than the tongue does but nothing against it and as God hath not two wills contradictory to each other so neither hath he given us two notices and perceptions of objects whereof the one is affirmative and the other
is the first principle of the world not meaning that darknesse was before light but by Darkness they mean God as Damascius the Platonist rightly observes saying This darknesse or obscurity is the beginning of every intellectual being and every Sacramental action and therefore in their ceremonies they usually made three acclamations to the unknown Darkness that is to God whose secrets are pervious to no eye whose dwelling is in a light that is not to be discerned whose mysteries are not to be understood by us and whose Sacraments are objects of faith and wonder but not to be disordered by the mistaking undiscerning eye of people that are curious to ask after what they shall never understand Faith is oftentimes safer in her ignorance than in busie questions and to enquire after the manner of what God hath plainly and simply told may be an effect of infidelity but never an act of faith If concerning the things of God we once ask Why or How we argue our doubt and want of confidence and therefore it was an excellent Counsel of S. Cyril Believe firmly in the mysteries and consent to the words of Christ but never so much as speak or think How is this done In your faith be as particular and minute as Christ was in his expressions of it but no more He hath told us This is his body This is his blood believe it and so receive it but he hath not told us how it is so it is behind a cloud and tied up with a knot of secrecy therefore let us lay our finger on our mouth and worship humbly But he that looks into the eye of the Sun shall be blind and he that searches into the secrets of Majesty shall be confounded with the glory The next enquiry is What is the use of faith in this Sacrament It is tied but to little duty and a few plain articles what then is the use and advantages of it To what graces does it minister and what effect does it produce To this the answer is easie but yet such as introduces a further enquiry Faith indeed is not curious but material and therefore in the contemplation of this mysterious Sacrament and its Symbols we are more to regard their signification than their matter their holy imployment than their natural usuage what they are by grace than what they are by nature what they signifie rather than what they are defin'd Faith considers not how they nourish the body but how they support and exalt the soul that they are Sacramental not that they are also nutritive that they are made holy to purposes of Religion not that they are salutary to offices of nature that is what they are to the spirit not what they are to sense and disputation For to faith Christ is present by faith we eat his flesh and by faith we drink his blood that is we communicate not as men but as faithful and believers the meaning and the duty and the effect of which are now to be inquired 1. It signifies that Christ is not present in the Sacrament corporally or naturally but spiritually for thus the carnal and spiritual sense are opposed So St. Chrysostom upon those words of Christ the flesh profiteth nothing what is it to understand carnally To understand them simply and plainly as they are spoken For they are not to be judged as they seem but all mysteries are to be considered with internal eyes that is spiritually For the carnal sense does not penetrate to the understanding of so great a secret saith St. Cyprian For therefore we are not devourers of flesh because we understand these things spiritually So Theophilaect 2. Since the spiritual sense excludes the natural and proper it remains that the expression which is natural be in the sense figurative and improper and if the holy Sacrament were not a figure it could neither be a sign nor a Sacrament But therefore it is called the body and blood of Christ because it is the figure of them as St. Austin largely discourses â—or so when good Friday draws neer we say to morrow or the next day is the passion of our Lord although that passion was but once and that many ages since and upon the Lords day we say to day our blessed Lord arose from the dead although so many years be passed since and why is no man so foolish as to reprove us of falshood but because on these dayes is the similitude of those things which were done so long since Was not Christ once sacrificed and yet he is sacrificed still on the solemnities of Easter and every day in the Communions of the people neither does he say false who being asked shall say that he is sacrificed for if the Sacraments had not a similitude of those things whereof they are Sacraments they would be no Sacraments at all But most commonly by their similitudes things receive their names Thus Tertullian expresses this mystery This is my body that is the figure of my body and St. Gregory Nazianzen calls the Passeover because it antedated the Lords Supper a figure of a figure 3. But St. Austin added well The body of Christ is truth and figure too The holy Sacrament is not only called the Lords body and blood for the figure similitude and Sacramentality but for the real exhibition and ministration of it For it is truly called the body of Christ because there is joyned with it the vital power vertue and efficacy of the body and therefore it is called by St. Austin the intelligible the invisible the spiritual body by St. Hierom the Divine and spiritual flesh the celestial thing by St. Irenaeus the spiritual food and the body of the divine Spirit by St. Ambrose for by this means it can very properly be called the body and blood of Christ since it hath not only the figure of his death externally but internally it hath hidden and secret the proper and divine effect the life-giving power of his body so that though it be a figure yet it is not meerly so not only the sign and memorial of him that is absent but it bears along with it the very body of the Lord that is the efficacy and divine vertue of it Thus our blessed Saviour said of John the Baptist that Elias is already come because he came in the power and spirit of Elias As John was Elias so is the holy Sacrament the body and blood of Christ because it hath the power and spirit of the body of Christ. And therefore the ancient Doctors of the Church in their Sermons of these divine Mysteries use the word Nature and Substance not understanding these words in the natural or Philosophical but a Theological in a sense proper to the Schools of Christians by Substance meaning the power of the substance by Nature the gracious effect of his natural body the nature and use and mysteriousnesse of Sacraments so allowing them to speak
There are some significations of repentance which charity never can refuse but must accept the offending person as a convert and a penitent 1. Such is open and plain confession of the fault with the circumstances of shame and dishonour for he that does so much rudeness to himself as to endure the shame of his sin rather than not to return to duty gives great testimony that he returns in earnest And this can no waies be abated unless he have done so before and that his confession is but formal and his shame is passed into shamelesness In this case we may expect some more real argument 2. Whatsoever are the great usual signs and expresses of repentance before God those also are to be accepted by us when they are done before men and though we may be deceived in these things and God cannot yet they are the best we can get and something we must rely upon And because like God we cannot discern the hearts of men yet we rightly follow his example when we do that which is the next best and expound the action to the best and most favourable sense of charity 3. An oath if it be not taken lightly is a great presumption of an innocent a sincere and a repenting soul. It is the sign of an ill mind not to trust him that swears seldom and alwaies solemnly and for ought we know justly said Amphides For a solemn sacred oath is a double hedge and it is guarded by a double fear lest I abuse my friend and lest I provoke my God and the blessed Apostle saith That an oath is the end of all strife meaning amongst persons who can cease to strive and can cease to be injurious It is so among them who have Religion and who can be fit for society For there is no man whose oath it can be fit to take but it is also fit that having sworn he should be trusted But it is seldom that our charity can be put to such extremities and in no conversation can it happen that a man shall do an injury and repent and do it again twenty times and a hundred times in the revolution of a few daies If such things could be those men are intolerable upon other accounts and though charity must refuse no man and forgiveness must alway stand at your door ready to let in all that knock yet the accidents of the world caution and prudence and innocent fears will dispose of our affairs in other channels of security and cut off the occasions of such disputes so certain is that observation of St. Heirom which I menâ—ioned before that we are tied to forgive oftner than our Brother can sin but then also so safe are we whose charity must be bigger than the greatest temptation and yet no temptation is like to happen but what is less than an ordinary charity Question V. Whether the injured person be bound to offer peace Or may he let it alone and worthily communicate if the offending party does not seek it To the Question whether of the parties must begin the peace I answer that both are bound For although he that did the injury is bound in conscience and justice to go to him whom he hath injured and he is not a true penitent if he does not and he must not for his part be accepted to the Communion of which I am to give account in the Chapter of repentance yet because we are now upon the title of Charity I am to add that if the Criminal does not come the offended person must offer peace he must go or send to him If others begin the quarrel do thou begin the peace said Seneca For sometimes the offender desires pardon but dares not ask it he begs it by interpretation and tacite desire consult therefore with his modesty his infirmity and his shame He is more bound to do it than thou art yet thou canst better do it than he can It is not alwaies safe for him it is never unsafe for thee It may be an extream shame to him it is ever honourable to thee it may be sometimes to his loss it is alwaies thy gain for this was the resolution of Hesiod's Riddle Half is more than the whole A dinner of herbs with peace is better than a stalled Oxe with contention and therefore upon all accounts it is for thy advantage to make the offer I add also it is thy duty I do not say that in justice thou art bound but in charity thou art and in obedience to thy Lord. If thy Brother offend thee go and tell him Go thou saies Christ. For by so doing we imitate God whom though we have so often so infinitely offended yet he thought thoughts of peace and sent to us Embassadors of peace and Ministers of reconciliation When Pompey and Marcus Crassus were to quit their Consulships Cueius Aurelius I know not upon what account ran into the Forum and cried out that Jupiter appearing to him in his dream commanded that they should be reconciled before they were discharged by the people which when the people also required Pompey stirred not but Crassus did he reached out his hand to his Collegue saying I do nothing unworthy of my self O Romans If I first offer peace to Pompâ—y whom you honoured with the title of Great before he was a Man and with a Triumph before he was a Senator We cannot want better arguments of peacefulness It is no shame to thee to offer peace to thy offending Brother when thy God did so to thee who was greatly provoked by thee and could as greatly have been revenged and it is no disparagement that thou shouldest desire the reconcilement with him for whom Christ became a Sacrifice and to whom he offers as he does to thee the Communion of his body and bloud * Thou art I say bound in charity to thy Brothers soul whose repentance thou canst easily invite by thy kind offer and thou makest his return easie thou takest away his objection and temptation thou securest thy own right better and art invested in the greatest glory of mankind thou doest the work of God and the work of thy own soul thou carriest pardon and ease and mercy with thee and who would not run and strive to be first in carrying a pardon and bringing messages of peace and joyfulness Consider therefore that death divides with you every minute you quarrel in the morning and it may be you shall dye at night run quickly and be reconciled for fear you anger last longer than your life It was a pretty victory which Euclid got of his angry Brother who being highly displeased cried out Let me perish if I be not revenged But he answered And let me perish if I do no not make you kind and quickly to forget your anger That gentle answer did it and they were friends presently and for ever after It is a shame if we be out done by
a capacity of doing this action For it is not Lent nor the Epiphany which makes us worthy to approach to the Son of God But the sincerity and purity of the soul with this come at any time but without this never In fine it is the general doctrine of the holy Fathers and the publick practice of the Primitive Church that no impenitent person should come to these divine Mysteries and they that are truly penitent should practice deep humility and undergo many humiliatioÌ„ns and live in a state of repentance till by little and little they have recover'd the holinesse they had lost and must for a long time live upon the word of God before they approach to the holy Table to be nourished by his body For so should every prodigal child cry unto his Lord Drive me not O Lord out of thy doors lest the enemy espying a wanderer and a vagabond take me for a slave I do not yet desire to approach to thy holy Table thy mystical and terrible Table for I have not confidence with my impure eyes to behold the holy of holies Only suffer me to enter into thy Church amongst the Catechumens that by beholding what is there celebrated I may by little and little enter again into the participation of them to the end that the Divine Waters of thy Word running upon me may purifie my ears from the impressions which have been made upon them by ungodly songs and from the filthinesse they have left behind and seeing how the righteous people partake by a holy violence of thy precious jewels I may conceive a burning desire to have hands worthy to receive the same excellencies I end this collection of the ancient Doctrine of the Church with recitation of the words of Gennadius I perswade and exhort Christians to receive the Communion every Lords day but so that if their mind be free from all affection of sinning For he who still hath will or desires of sin he is burdened and not purified by receiving the Eucharist And therefore although he be bitten or griev'd with sin let him for the future renounce all will to sin and before he communicate let him satisfie with prayers and tears and being confident of the mercy of our Lord who uses to pardon sins upon a pious confession let him come to the Eucharist without doubting But this I say of him who is not pressed with capital and deadly sins for such a person if he will not receive the Eucharist to judgment and condemnation let him make amends by publick penance and being reconcil'd by the Bishop or Priest let him communicate I doubt not also but such grievous sins may be extinguish'd by private satisfactions but this must be done by changing the course of his life by a professed study of Religion by a daily and perpetual mourning or contrition that through the mercy of God he may do things contrary to these whereof he does repent and then humbly and suppliant let him every Lords day communicate to the end of his life This advice of Gennadius declares the sentiment of the Church that none must communicate till they have worthily repented and in the way of piety and contrition made amends for their faults as well as they may and have put themselves into a state of vertue contrary to their state of sin that is have made progression in the reformation of their lives that they are really changed and become new men not in purpose only but actually and in the commencement of holy habits And therefore it is remarkable that he advises that these persons who do not stand in the place of publick penitents should upon the commission of grievous faults enter into Religion he means into solitude and retirement and renunciation of the world that by attending wholy to the severities and purities of a religious life they may by such strictnesses and constant piety be fitted for the communion Now whatever ends besides this the Divine Providence might have yet it is not to be neglected that when the ancient discipline of the Church of penances and satisfactions was gone into desuetude the Spirit of Religion entred more fully into the world and many religious orders and houses were instituted that at least there the world might practise that severity in private which the change of affairs in the face of the Church had taken from the publick ministeries Penance went from the Churches into desarts and into Monasteries but when these were corrupted and the manners of men were worse corrupted it is hard to say whither it is gone now It may be yet done in private and under the hand of a spiritual guide or by the spirit of penance in the heart of a good man and by the conduct of a wise counsellor but besides that the manners of men are corrupted the doctrines also are made so easie and the Communion given to sects and opinions or indifferently to all that it is very rare to see them who have sinn'd grievously repent worthily who therefore can never be worthy communicants for no impenitents can partake of Christ who as S. Hierom cals him is the prince of penance and the head of them who by repentance come unto salvation But this was his advice to them that commit grievous sins such which lay the conscience wast and whose every single action destroyes our being in the state of grace But as for them whose sins are but those of dayly incursion and of infirmity or imperfection such which a great diligence and a perpetual watchfulness might have prevented but an ordinary care would not these must be protested against they must not joyn with our consent our will must be against them and they must be confess'd and deplor'd and prayed against before we may communicate This is the sense of the Church of God Having established this great general measure of preparation it will not be very difficult to answer that great question often disputed amongst spiritual persons viz. Question I. Whether is it better to communicate seldom or frequently To this I answer That it is without peradventure very much better to receive it every day than every week and better every week then every month Christiani omni die carnes agni comedunt said Origen Christians every day eat of the flesh of the sacrificed lamb And St. Basil expresly affirms that to communicate every day and to partake of the body and blood of Christ is excellent and very profitable Christ himself having manifâ—stly said it he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath life eternal For if the Sacrament does no benefit to souls and produces no blessings then a man can institute a Sacrament for he may appoint any thing that shall be good for nothing But if it be an instrument in the hand of God to procure blessings to us and spiritual emolument if it be a means of union with Christ who would not willingly