of the body of Christ for we being many are one body and one bread in baptisme we partake of the death of Christ and in the Lords Supper we do the same in that as Babes in this as men in Christ so that what effects are affirmed of one the same are in greater measure true of the other they are but several rounds of Jacobs ladder reaching up to heaven upon which the Angels ascend and descend and the Lord sits upon the top And because the Sacraments Evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the Sacraments of old from them we can understand that even signs of secret graces do exhibit as well as signifie for besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred calice and a participation of the body and blood of Christ it is also in the method of the divine oeconomy to dispense the grace which himself signifies in a ceremony of his own institution thus at the Unction of Kings Priests and of Prophets the sacred power was bestowed and as a Canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book and an Abbat by his staffe a Bishop by a ring they are the words of St. Bernard so are divisions of graces imparted to the diverse Sacraments And therefore although it ought not to be denyed that when in Scripture and the writings of the holy Doctors of the Church the collation of grace is attributed to the sâ—gn it is by a metonymy and a Sacramental manner of speaking yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole because both the Sacrament and the grace are joyned in the lawful and holy use of them by Sacramental union or rather by a confederation of the parts of the holy Covenant Our hearts are purified by faith and so our consciences are also made clean in the cestern of water By faith we are saved and yet he hath savâ—d us by the laver of regeneration and they are both joyned together by St. Paul Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that is plainly by the Sacrament according to the famous Commentary of St. Austin accedat verbum ad elementum tum fit sacramentum when the word and the element are joyned then it is a perfect Sacrament and then it does effect all its purposes and intentions Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands and yet as Austin rightly affirmes God alone can give his holy spirit and the Apostles did not give the holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands but prayed that God would give it and he did so at the imposition of their hands Thus God sanctified Aaron and yet he said to Moses thou shalt sanctifie Aaron that is not that Moses did it instead of God but Moses did it by his ministery and by visible Sacraments and rites of Gods appointment and though we are born of an immortal seed by the word of the living God yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians I have begotten you through the Gosâ—el and thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least he that drinks Christ's blood and eats his body hath life abiding in him it is true of the â—acrament and true of the spiritual manducation and may be indifferently affirmed of either when the other is not excluded for as the Sacrament operates only by the vertue of the spirit of God so the spirit ordinarily works by the instrumentality of the Sacraments And we may as well say that faith is not by hearing as that grace is not by the Sacraments for as without the spirit the word is but a dead letter so with the spirit the Sacrament is the means of life and grace And the meditation of St. Chrysostom is very pious and reasonable If we were wholly incorporeal God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and Sacraments but because our spirits are in earthen vessels God conveyes his graces to us by sensible ministrations The word of God operates as secretly as the Sacraments and the Sacraments as powerfully as the word nay the word is alwayes joyned in the worthy administration of the Sacrament which therefore operates both as word and sign by the ear and by the eyes and by both in the hand of God and the conduct of the spirit effect all that God intends and that a faithful receiver can require and pray for For justification and sanctification are continued acts they are like the issues of a Fountain into its receptacles God is alwayes giving and we are alwayes receiving and the signal effects of Gods holy spirit sometimes give great indications but most commonly come without observation and therefore in these things we must not discourse as in the conduct of oâ—her causes and operations natural for although in natural effects we can argue from the cause to the event yet in spiritual things we are to reckon only from the sign to the event And the signs of grace we are to place in stead of natural causes because a Sacrament in the hand of God is a proclamation of his graces he then gives us notice that the springs of heaven are opened and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy he then by a Sacrament sent salvation unto David he bad him be gone and flie from his Fathers wrath and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation yet that symbol brought it unto David for so are we conducted to the joyes of God by the methods and possibilities of men In conclusion the sum is this The Sacraments and symbols if they be considered in their own nature are just such as they seem water and bread and wine they retain the names proper to their own natures but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin and bread and wine of Christs body and blood therefore the symbols and Sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign they are the body and they are the blood of Christ they are Metonymically such But because yet further they are instruments of grace in the hand of God and by these his holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a Divine nature therefore the whole work is attributed to them by a Synecdoche that is they do in their manner the work for which God ordained them and they are placed there for our sakes and speak Gods language in our accent and they appear in the outside we receive the benefit of their ministery and God receives the glory SECT IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sacrament enumerated and proved
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
same Ministry of salvation and but one and the same Oeconomy of God Thus St. Peter affirms That by the precious blood of Christ we are redeemed from our vain conversation and it is every where affirmed that we are purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ and yet these are the express effects of his Spirit for by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body and we are justified and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God By which expressions we are taught to distinguish the natural blood of Christ from the spiritual the blood that he gave for us from the blood which he gives to us that was indeed by the spirit but was not the same thing but this is the spirit of grace and the spirit of wisdom And therefore as our Fathers were made to drink into one spirit when they drank of the water of the rock so we also partake of the spirit when we drink of Christs blood which came from the spiritual rock when it was smitten for thus according to the Doctrine of St. John the water aâ—d the blood and the spirit are one and the same glorious purposes As it was with our Fathers in the beginning so it is now with us and so it ever shall be world without end for they fed upon Christ that is they believed in Christ they expected his day they lived upon his promises they lived by faith in him and the same meat and drink is set upon our Tables and more than all this as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world so he shall be the food of souls in heaven where they who are accounted worthy shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal Supper of the Lamb concerning which blessedness our B. Saviour saith Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God for he hath appointed to his chosen ones to eat and drink at his table in his Kingdom plainly teaching us that by eating and drinking Christ is meant in this world to live the life of the spirit and in the other world it is to live the life of glory here we feed upon duty and there we feed upon reward our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrhe there it is mere and unmixt but still it is called meat and drink and still is meant grace and glory the fruits of the spirit and the joy of the spirit that is by Christ we here live a spiritual life and hereafter shall live a life eternal Thus are sensible things the Sacrament and representation of the spiritual and eternal and spiritual things are the fulfillings of the sensible But the consequent of these things is this that since Christ always was is and shall be the food of the faithful and is that bread which came down from heaven since we eat him here and shall eat him there our eating both here and there is spiritual only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of glorification and our faith into Charity and all the way our souls live a new life by Christ of which eating and drinking is the Symbol and the Sacrament And this is not done to make this mystery obscure but intelligible and easie For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire which to our flesh is most painful and the joyes of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure by meat and drink and the growth in grace by the natural instruments of nutrition and the work of the Soul by the ministeries of the body and the graces of God by the blessings of nature for these we know and we know nothing else and but by phantasmes and ideas of what we see and feel we understand nothing at all Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our Communion that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in the world And when he gives us his body and his blood he does not fill our stomachs with good things for of whatsoever goes in thither it is affirmed by the Apostle that God will destroy both it and them but our hearts are to be replenished and by receiving his spirit we receive the best thing that God gives not his liveless body but his flesh with life in it that is his doctrine and his spirit to imprint it so to beget a living faith and a lively hope that we may live and live for ever 4. St. John having thus explicated this mystery in general of our eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ added nothing in particular concerning any Sacraments these being in particular instances of the general mystery and communion with Christ. But what is the advantage we receive by the Sacraments besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministeries of faith I thus account in general The word and the spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ that is the ground of all Now because there are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abbreviature of the whole word of God the great messages of the word incarnate Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two Sacraments and assist those two Sacraments as he did the whole word of God with the presence of his Spirit that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards Believe and repent is the word in Baptisme and and there solemnly consigned and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ for faith as it is opposed to works that is the new Covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old Covenant of works is the covenant of repentance repentance is expressly included in the new covenant but was not in the old but by faith in Christ we are admitted to pardon of our sins if we repent and forsake them utterly Now this is the word of faith and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ for this is that which the soul feeds on this is that by which the just do live and when by the operation of the holy spirit the waters are reformed to a Divine Nature or efficacy the baptized are made clean theâ— are sanctified and presented pure and spotless unto God This mystery St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed that we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ when we are in baptisme incorporated into his body we are baptized in the passion of our Lord so Tertullian to the same sense with that of St. Paul we are buried with him in baptisme into his death that is by baptisme are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are in baptisme reached to us by the hand of God by his holy spirit and received by the hand of man the Ministery of
a holy faith So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven so we do it also and do it much more in baptisme because in this besides all that was before there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment The difference is only this That out of the Sacrament the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of man in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God For here God is the preacher the Sacrament is Gods sign and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son that is by the death of Christ into which we are baptized And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery So often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye declare the Lords death till he come This indeed is a word of comfort Christ died for our sins that is our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is verbum visibile the same word read to the eye and to the ear Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacramental signification here faith is in triumph and exaltation but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical we eat Christ by faith here we have faith also by eating Christ Thus eating and drinking is faith it is faith in mystery and faith in ceremony it is faith in act and faith in habit it is exercised and it is advanced and therefore it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage The sum is this Christs body his flesh and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression but very proper and intelligible in the event to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood since by these it is that we have and preserve life But because what Christ begun in his incarnation he finished in his body on the crosse and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by his body and blood does contain in it a visible word the word in symbol and visibility and special manifestation Consonant to which Docrtine the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament the extension of the Incarnation So that here are two things highly to be remarked 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the Sacrament by the same he is taken in the Sacrament and by some wayes here more than there 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacrament the life and the spirit is believing greatly and doing all the actions of that believing direct and consequent So that there are in this two manducations and Sacramental and the Spiritual That does but declare and exercise this and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone as it is a ceremony as it does only consigne or expresse the internal it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well so in it and with it much better For here being as in baptisme a double significatory of the spirit a word and a sign of his own appointment it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration Here we have bread and drink flesh and blood the word and the spirit Christ in all his effects and most gracious communications This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery Christians are spiritual men faith is their mouth and wisdom is their food and believing is manducation and Christ is their life and truth is the Air they breath and their bread is the word of God and Gods spirit is their drink and righteousness is their robe and Gods laws are their light and the Apostles are their salt and Christ is to them all in all for we must put on Christ and we must eat Christ and we must drink Christ we must have him within us and we must be in him he is our vine and we are his branches he is a door and by him we must enter he is our shepherd and we his sheep Deus meus omnia he is our God and he is all things to us that is plainly he is our Redeemer and he is our Lord He is our Saviour and our Teacher by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal and that is the sum of all For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ which is now in heaven but of his Word and of his Spirit which are therefore indeed his body and his blood because by these we feed on him to life eternal Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel but especially in the Sacraments where the Word is preached and consigned and the Spirit is the teacher and the feeder and makes the Table full and the Cup to overflow with blessing SECT III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministery proved in General IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth but the word and the spirit of Christ by faith and a spiritual hand and upon this account have discovered their mistake who think the secret lies in the outside and suppose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conjecture and zeal do speak of and know not what to say but resolve to speak things great enough it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries who say it is nothing but a commemoration of
appellations before the internal and they that deny efficacy to the external work and wholly attribute the blessing and grace to the moral cooperation make too open a way for despisers to neglect the divine Institution and to lay aside or lightly esteem the Sacraments of the Church It is in the Sacraments as it is in the Word preached in which not the sound or the letters and syllables that is not the material part but the formal the sense and the signification prepare the mind of the hearer to receive the impresses of the holy spirit of God without which all preaching and all Sacraments are ineffectual so does the internal and formal part the signification and sense of the Sacrament dispose the spirit of the receiver the rather to admit and entertain the grace of the spirit of God there consigned and there exhibited and there collated but neither the outward nor the inward part does effect it neither the Sacrament nor the moral disposition only the spirit operates by the Sacrament and the Communicant receives it by his moral dispositions by the hand of faith And what have we to do to inquire into the philosophy of Sacraments these things do not work by the methods of nature But here the effect is imputed to this cause and yet can be produced without this cause because this cause is but a sâ—gn in the hand of God by which he tells the soul when he is willing to work Thus Baptism was the instrument and sign in the hands of God to confer the holy Spirit upon believers but the holy Ghost sometimes comes like lightning and will not stay the period of usual expectation for when Cornelius had heard St. Peter preach he received the holy Ghost and as sometimes the holy Ghost was given because they had been baptized now he and his company were to be baptized because they had received the holy Ghost and it is no good argument to say The graces of God are given to believers out of the Sacrament ergo not by or in the Sacrament but rather thus If Gods grace overflows sometimes and goes without his own instruments much more shall he give it in the use of them If God gives pardon without the Sacrament then rather also with the Sacrament For supposing the Sacraments in their design and institution to be nothing but signs and ceremonies yet they cannot hinder the work of God and therefore holinesse in the reception of them will do more than holinesse alone for God does nothing in vain the Sacraments do something in the hand of God at least they are Gods proper and accustomed times of grace they are his seasons and our opportunity when the Angel stirs the pool when the Spirit moves upon the waters then there is a ministry of healing For consider we the nature of a Sacrament in general then pass on to a particular enumeration of the blessings of this the most excellent When God appointed the bow in the clouds to be a Sacrament and the memorial of a promise he made it our comfort but his own sign I will remember my Covenant between me and the earth and the waters shall be no more a flood to dâ—stroy all flesh This is but a token of the Covenant and yet at the appearing of it God had thoughts of truth and mercy to mankind The bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting Covenant between me and every creature Thus when Elisha threw the wood into the waters of Jordan Sacramentum ligni the Sacrament of the wood Tertullian calls it that chip made the iron swim not by any natural or any infused power but that was the Sacrament or sign at which the Divine power then passed on to effect and emanation When Elisha talked with the King of Israel about the war with Syria he commanded him to smite upon the ground and he smote thrice and stayed This was Sacramentum victoriae the Sacrament of his future victory For the man of God was wroth with him and said Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice In which it is remarkable that though it was not that smiting that beat the Syrians but the ground yet God would effect the beating of the Syrians by the proportion of that Sacramental smiting The Sacraments are Gods signs the opportunities of grace and actâ—on Be baptized and wash away thy sins said Ananias to Saul and therefore it is calâ—'d the laver of regeneration and of the renâ—wing of the holy Ghâ—st that is in that Sacrament and at that corporal ablution the work of the spirit is done for although it is not that washing of it self yet God does so do it at that ablution which is but the similitude of Christs death that is the Sacrament and symbolical representation of it that to that very similitude a very glorious effect is imputed for if we have been planted together in the LIKENESSE of his death we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his Resurrection For the mystery is this by immersion in Baptism and emersion we are configured to Christs Burial and to his Resurrection that 's the outward part to which if we add the inward which is there intended and is expressed by the Apostle in the following words knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that 's our spiritual death which answers to our configuration with the death of Christ in Baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in nâ—wness of life there 's the correspondent of our configuration to the resurrection of Christ that is if we do that duty of Baptism we shall receive that grace God offers us the mercy at that time when we promise the duty and do our present portion This St. Peter calls the stipulation of a good conscience the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God who promises us pardon and immortality resurrection from the dead and life eternal if we repent toward God and have faith in the Lord Jesus and if we promise we have and will so abide The same is the case in the other most glorious Sacrament it is the same thing in neerer representation only what is begun in Baptism proceeds on to perfection in the holy Communion Baptism is the antitype of the passion of Christ and the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that also represents Christs passion Baptism is the union of the members of Christ and the admission of them under one head into one body as the Apostle affirms we are all baptized into one body and so it is in the Communion the bread which we break it is the communion
do all the mischief for which they can have instruments and opportunity Concerning some sorts of passionate persons it may be truly said that they are very unfit to communicate but that thâ—y are fit it can be confidently said of none Here therefore let us thus examine our selves Are your desires unreasonable passionate impotent and transporting If God refuses to give you what you desire can you lay your head softly down upon the lap of providence and rest content without it Do you thankfully receive what he gives and when he gives you not what you covet can you still confesse his goodness and glorifie his will and wisdom without any amazement dissatisfaction or secret murmurs Can you be at peace within when your purposes are defeated and at peace abroad with him that stands in the way between you and your desires And how is it with you in your angers Does it last so long or return so frequently as before Have you the same malice or have you the same peevishness For one long anger and twenty short ones have no very great difference save only that in short and sudden angers we are surprised and not so in the other but it is an intolerable thing alwayes to be surprised and a thousand times to say I was not aware or I was mistaken But let us without excuses examine our selves in this matter for this is the great Magazine of vertue or vice here dwells obedience or licentiousness a close knot or an open liberty little pleasures and great disturbances loss of time and breach of vows But if that we may come to Christ we have stopped so many avenues of sin and fountains of temptation it may be very well but without it it can never 2. He that comes to the Holy Communion must examine himself whether his lusts be mortified or whether they be only changed For many times we have a seeming peace when our open enemies are changed into false friends and we think our selves holy persons because we are quit of carnal crimes and yet in exchange for them we are dying with spiritual It is an easie thing to reprove a murderer and to chide a foolish drunkard to make a liar blush and a thief to run away But you may be secretly proud when no man shall dare to tell you so and to have a secret envy and yet to keep company with the best and most religious persons A little examination will serve your turn to know whether you have committed adultery or be a swearer but to know whether your intentions be holy whether you love the praise of men more than the praise of God whether religious or secular interest be the dearer whether there be any hypocrisie or secret malice in your heart hath something of more secret consideration Do not you sometimes secretly rejoyce in the diminution or disparagement of your brother Do not you tell his sad and shameful story with some pleasure Are you not quick in telling it and willing enough it should be believed Would you not fain have him lesse than your self not so eminent not so well esteemed and therefore do not you love to tell a true story of him that is not so very much for his commendation These things must be examined not that it can be thought that a man must be without fault when he comes but that he must cherish none he must leave none unexamined he must discover as much as he can and crucifie all that he can discover He that hath mortified his carnal appetite and is proud of his conquest or prayes often reproaches him that does not and gives almes and secretly undervalues him that cannot or is of a right opinion but curses him that is in the wrong or leaves his ambitious pursuits and vain glorious purposes but sits at home and is idle is like a man who stands by a fire in a wide and a cold room he scorches on one side and freezes on the other whereas the habits of vertue are like a great mantle and the man is warm and well all over But it is an ill cure for the ague to fall into a feavour or to be eased of sore eyes by a diversion of the rheum upon the lungs and that soul that turns her back upon one sin and her face to another is it may be weary of the instance but not of the iniquity and rolling upon an uneasie bed of thorns chooses only to be tormented in another part but finding the same sense there because the part is informed by the same spirit and no difference between the thorn in the side and the thorn in the hand perceives her self miserable and incirled with calamity But when from carnal crimes which bring shame a man falls into spiritual crimes which most men let alone from those sins which every thing can reprove to a secret venom and an undiscerned ulcer a man may come to the Communion and the holy man that Ministers cannot reject him but he causes no joy before the Angels and because he does not examine wisely and judge severely he is discerned by God and shall be judged when to be judged means all one with being condemned 3. When we examine our selves in order to receiving of the blessed Sacrament we must be careful that we do not limit our examination and confine it to the time since our last receiving For some persons who think themselves spiritual usually examine how they have comported themselves since the last communion only and accordingly make judgement upon themselves and these men possibly may do well enough if they be of the number of them of whom our blessed Saviour affirms that they need no repentance that is no change of life no inquiry but into the measures of progression But there are but few who live at that rate and they that do it may be have not that confidence But to them and all men else it were safe advice that the inquiry how they have lived since the last communion should be but one part of their examination 1. Because they who so limit their inquiries must needs suppose that till then all was well and that they communicated worthily and consequently that all the whole work and Oeconomy of salvation was then performed every one of which supposals hath an uncertain truth but a very certain danger 2. They who so limit their examination suppose that at every Communion they begin the world anew whereas our future life is to be a progression upon the old stock and judgement is to be made of this that comes after by that which went before and therefore these limited examinations must needs be of lesse use and purpose True it is that at every Communion we are to begin a new life and so we ought every day that is we ought to be as zealous and as penitent and resolute and affectionate as if we never had begun before we ought so to suspect the imperfection of what
Consecration of the holy Mysteries as is to be seen in many Ecclesiastical Records The reason of this is noâ—hing but the nature and analogy of the thing it self For we first come to Christ by faith and we first come to Christ by Baptism they are the two doors of the Tabernacle which our Lord hath piâ—ched and not man By faith we desire to go in and by baptism we are admitted Faith knocks at the door and baptism sets it open but until we are in the house we cannot be entertained at the Masters Table they that are in the high ways and hedges must be called in and come in at the doors and then they shall be feasted The one is the moral entrance and the other is the ritual Faith is the door of the soul and baptism is the door of the man Faith is the spiritual addresse to God and baptism is the Sacramental Baptism is like the pool of Siloam appointed for healing it is salutary and medicinal but the Spirit of God is that great Angel that descends thither and makes them virtual and faith is the hand that puts us in So that faith alone does not do it and therefore the unbaptized must not Communicaâ—e So neither will baptism alone admit us and therefore Infants and Innocents are yet uncapable But that 's the next inquiry SECT II. Of Communicating Infants Question Whether Infants are to be admitted to the Holy Communion WHether the holy Communion may be given to Infants hath been a great question in the Church of God which in this instance hath not been as in others divided by parties and single persons but by whole ages for from some of the earliest ages of the Church down to the time of Charles the Great that is for above six hundred years the Church of God did give the holy Communion to newly baptized Infants St. Cyprian recounts a miracle of an Infant into whose mouth when the parents had ignorantly and carelesly left the babe the Gentile Priests had forced some of their Idol Sacrifice But when the Minister of the Church came to pour into the mouth the Calice of our Lord it resisted and being over-powred grew sick and fell into convulsions By which narrative the practice of the Church of that age is sufficiently declared Of the matter of fact there is no question but they went further The Primitive Church did believe it necessary to the salvation of Infants St. Austin believed that this Doctrine and practice descended from the Apostles that without both the Sacraments no person could come to life or partake of the Kingdom of heaven which when he had endeavoured to prove largely he infers this conclusion It is in vain to promise salvation and life eternal to little children unlesse they be baptized and receive the body and blood of Christ since the necessity of them both is attested by so many so great and so divine Testimonies And that this practice continued to the time of Charlemaine appears by a Constitution in his Capitular saying That the Priest should always have the Eucharist ready that when any one is sick or when a child is weak he may presently give him the Communion lest he die without it And Alcuinus recites a Canon expresly charging that as soon as ever the Infants are baptized they should receive the holy Communion before they suck or receive any other nourishment The same also is used by the Greeks by the Aethiopians by the Bohemians and Moravians and it is confessed by Maldonate that the opinion of St. Austin and Innocentius that the Eucharist is necessary even to Infants prevailed in the Church for six hundred years together But since the time of Charles the Great that is for above eight hundred years this practice hath been omitted in the Western Churches generally and in the Council of Trent it was condemned as unfit and all men commanded to believe that though the ancient Churches did do it upon some probable reasons yet they did not believe it necessary Concerning which I shall not interrupt the usefulnesse which I intend in this discourse by confuting the Canon though it be intolerable to command men to believe in a matter of fact contrary to their evidence and to say that the Fathers did not believe it to be necessary when they say it is and used it accordingly yet because it relates to the use of this divine Sacrament I shall give this short account of it The Church of Rome and some few others are the only refusers and condemners of this ancient and Catholick practice But upon their grounds they cannot reasonably deny it 1. Because Infants are by them affirmed to be capable of the grace and benefits of the Eucharist for to them who put no bar as Infants put none the Sacraments by their inherent virtue confer grace and therefore particularly it is affirmed that if Infants did now receive the Eucharist they should also receive grace with it and therefore it is not unreasonable to give it to them who therefore are capable of it because it will do them benefit and it is consequently upon these grounds uncharitable to deny it For 2. They allow the ground upon the supposition of which the Fathers did most reasonably proceed and they only deny the conclusion For by the words of Christ it is absolutely necessary to eat his flesh and drink his blood and if those words be understood of Sacramental manducation in which interpretation both the ancients and the Church of Rome do consent then it is absolutely necessary to communicate For although there are other ways of eating his flesh and drinking of his blood besides the Sacramental manducation yet Christ in this place meant no other and if of this he spake when he said Without doing this we have no life in us then it will not be sufficient to baptize them though it baptism they should receive the same grace as in the Eucharist because abstracting from the benefit and grace of it it is made necessary by the Commandment and by the will of God it is become a means indispensibly necessary to salvation It is necessary by a necessity of the means and a necessity of precept True it is that in each of the Sacraments there is a proportion of the same effect as I have already discoursed yet this cannot lessen the necessity that is upon them both for so Pharaohs dream was doubled not to signifie divers events but a double certainty and therefore although children even in baptism are partakers of the death of Christ and are incorporated into and made partakers of his body yet because Christ hath made one as necessary as the other and both for several proportions of the same reason the Church of Rome must either quit the Principle or retain the consequent for they have digged a ditch on both sides and on either hand they are fallen into inconvenience But it will be
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
and so requiring us to understand 4. And now to this spiritual food must be sitted a spiritual manner of reception and this is the work of faith that spiritual blessings may invest the spirit and be conveyed by proportioned instruments lest the Sacrament be like a treasure in a dead hand or musick in the grave But this I chuse rather to represent in the words of the Fathers of the Church than mine own We see saith St. Epiphanius what our Saviour took into his hands as the Gospel says he arose at supper and took this anâ— when he had given thanks he said This is my body and we see it is not equal nor like to it neither to the invisible Deity nor to the flesh for this is of a round form without sense but by grace he would say This is mine and every one hath faith in this saying For he that doth not believe this to be true as he hath said he is fallen from grace and salvation But that which we have heard that we believe that it is his And again The bread indeed is our food but the virtue which is in it is that which gives us life by faith and efficacy by hope and the perfection of the Mysteries and by the title of sanctification it should be made to us the perfection of salvation For these words are spirit and life and the flesh pierces not into the understanding of this depth unlesse faith come But then The bread is food the blood is life the flesh is substance the body is the Church For the body is indeed shewn it is slain and given for the nourishment of the world that it may be spiritually distributed to every one and be made to every one the conservatory of them to the resurrection of eternal life saith St. Athanasius Therefore because Christ said This is my body let us not at all doubt but believe and receive it with the eye of the soul for nothing sensible is delivered us but by sensible things he gives us insensible or spiritual so St. Chrysostom For Christ would not that they who partake of the divine Mysteries should attend to the nature of the things which are seen but let them by faith believe the change that is made by grace For according to the substance of the creatures it remains after consecration the same it did before But it is changed inwardly by the powerful vertue of the holy Spirit and faith sees it it feeds the soul and ministers the substance of eternal life for now faith sees it all whatsoever it is From these excellent words we are confirmed in these two things 1. That the divine Mysteries are of very great efficacy and benefit to our souls 2. That Faith is the great instrument in conveying these blessings to us For as St. Cyprian affirms the Sacraments of themselves cannot be without their own vertue and the divine Majesty does at no hand absent it self from the Mysteries But then unless by faith we believe all this that Christ said there is nothing remaining but the outward Symbols and the sense of flesh and blood which profits nothing But to believe in Christ is to eat the flesh of Christ. I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall not hunger that is he shall be filled with Christ and he that believeth in me shall not thirst coming to Christ and believing in him is the same thing that is he that believes Christs Words and obeys his Commandments he that owns Christ for his Law-giver and his Master for his Lord and his Redeemer he who lays down his sins in the grave of Jesus and lays down himself at the foot of the Crosse and his cares at the door of the Temple and his sorrows at the Throne of Grace he who comes to Christ to be instructed to be commanded to be relieved and to be comforted to this person Christ gives his body and blood that is food from heaven And then the bread of life and the body of Christ and eating his flesh and drinking his blood are nothing else but mysterious and Sacramental expressions of this great excellency that whoever does this shall partake of all the benefits of the Crosse of Christ where his body was broken and his blood was poured forth for the remission of our sins and the salvation of the world But still that I may use the expression of St. Ambrose Christ is handled by faith he is seen by faith he is not touched by the body he is not comprehended by the eyes 5. But all the inquiry is not yet past For thus we rightly understand the mysterious Propositions but thus we do not fully understand the mysterious Sacrament For since coming to Christ in all the addresses of Christian Religion that is in all the ministeries of faith is eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ what does faith in the reception of the blessed Sacrament that it does not do without it Of this I have already given an account But here I am to add That in the holy Communion all the graces of a Christian all the mysteries of the Religion are summ'd up as in a divine compendium and whatsoever moral or mysterious is done without is by a worthy Communicant done more excellently in this divine Sacrament for here we continue the confession of our faith which we made in Baptism here we perform in our own persons what then was undertaken for us by another here that is made explicit which was but implicit before what then was in the root is now come to a full year what was at first done in mystery alone is now done in mystery and moral actions and vertuous excellencies together here we do not only here the words of Christ but we obey them we believe with the heart and here we confesse with the mouth and we act with the hand and incline the head and bow the knee and give our heart in sacrifice here we come to Christ and Christ comes to us here we represent the death of Christ as he would have us represent it and remember him as he commanded us to remember him here we give him thanks and here we give him our selves here we defie all the works of darknesse and hither we come to be invested with a robe of light by being joined to the Son of Righteousnesse to live in his eyes and to walk by his brightnesse and to be refreshed with his warmth and directed by his spirit and united to his glories So that if we can receive Christs body and drink his blood out of the Sacrament much more can we do it in the Sacrament For this is the chief of all the Christian Mysteries and the union of all Christian Blessings and the investiture of all Christian Rights and the exhibition of the Charter of all Christian Promises and the exercise of all Christian Duties Here is the exercise
the beloved Son the first born of every creature according to the Prophecies which went before him of the seed of of Abraham and David and of the Tribe of Judah He who is the maker of all that are born was conceived in the womb of a Virgin and he that is void of all flesh was incarnate and made flesh He was born in time who was begotten from eternity He conversed piously with men and instructed them with his holy Laws and doctrine He cured every disease and every infirmity He did signs and wonders among the people He slept and eat and drank who feeds all the living with food and fills them with his blessing He declared thy Name to them who knew it not He enlightned our ignorances He enkindled Godliness and fulfilled thy will and finished all that which thou gavest him to do All this when he had done he was taken by the hands of wicked men by the treachery of false Priests and an ungodly people he suffered many things of them and by thy permission suffered all shame and reproach He was delivered to Pilate the President who judged him that is the Judge of the quick and dead and condemned him who is the Saviour of all others He who is impassible was crucified and He died who is of an immortal nature and they buried him by whom others are made alive that by his death and passion he might free them for whom he came and might dissolve the bands of the Devil and deliver men from all his crafty malices But then he rose again from the dead he conversed with his Disciples forty days together and then was received up into heaven and there sits at the right hand of God his Father We therefore being mindful of these things which he did and suffered for us give thanks to thee Almighty God not as much as we should but as much as we can and here fulfil his Ordinance and believe all that he said and know and confess that he hath given us his body to be the food and his blood to be the drink of our souls that in him we live and move and have our being that by him we are taught by his strength enabled by his graces prevented by his spirit conducted by his death pardoned by his resurrection justified and by his intercession defended from all our enemies and set forward in the way of holinesse and life eternal O grant that we and all thy servants who by faith and Sacramental participation communicate with the Lord Jesus may obtain remission of our sins and be confirmed in piety and may be delivered from the power and illusions of the Devil and being filled with thy Spirit may become worthy members of Christ and at last may inherit eternal Life through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. IV. Of Charity preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. THE second great Instrument of preparation to the blessed Sacrament is Charity for though this be involved in faith as in its cause and moral principle yet we are to consider it in the proper effects also of it in its exercise and operations relative to the Mysteries For they that speak distinctly and give proprieties of employment to the two Sacraments by that which is most signal and eminent in them both respectively call Baptism the Sacrament of Faith and the Eucharist the Sacrament of Charity that is Faith in Baptism enters upon the work of a good life and in the holy Eucharist it is actually productive of that Charity which at first was designed and undertaken For Charity is that fire from heaven which unlesse it does enkindle the Sacrifice God will never accept it for an atonement This God declared to us by his Laws given to the sons of Israel and Aaron The Sacrifice that was Gods portion was to be eaten and consumed by himself and therefore to be devoured by the holy fire that came down from heaven And this was imitated by the Persians who worshipped the fire and thought what the fire devoured their god had plainly eaten So Maximus Tyrius tells of them that bringing their Sacrifices they were wont to say O Fire our Lord eat this meat And Pindar in his Olympiaes tells of the Rhodians that when they brought a Sacrifice to Jupiter and had by chance forgotten to bring their fire he accepting of their good intentions and pitying their forgetfulnesse rained down upon them a golden shower from a yellow cloud that is a shower of fire came and consumed their sacrifice Now this is the great emblem of Charity the flame consumes the feasters Sacrifice and makes it a divine nutriment our Charity it purifies the Oblation and makes their Prayers accepted The Tables of the Lord like the Delian Altars must not be defiled with blood and death with anger and revenge with wrath and indignation and this is to be in all senses of duty and ministration an unbloody Sacrifiâ—e The blood of the Crosse was â—he last that was to have been shed The Laws can shed more but nothing else For by remembring and representing the effusion of blood not by shedding it our expiation is now perfected and compleat but nothing hinders it more than the spirit of war and death not only by the emissions of the hand or the apertures of a wound but by the murder of the tongue and the cruelties of the heart or by an unpeaceable disposition It was love that first made Societies and love that must continue our Communions and God who made all things by his power does preserve them by his love and by union and society of parts every creature is preserved When a little wâ—ter is spilt from a full Vessel and falls into its enemy dust it curles it self into a drop and so stands equally armed in every point of the circle dividing the Forces of the enemy that by that little union it may stand as long as it can but if it be dissolved into flatnesse it is changed into the nature and possession of the dust War is one of Gods greatest plagues and therefore when God in this holy Sacrament pours forth the greatest effusion of his love peace in all capacities and in all dimensions and to all purposes he will not endure that they should come to these love-feasts who are unkind to their brethren quarrelsom with their neighbours implacable to their enemies apt to contentions hard to be reconciled soon angry scarcely appeased These are dogs and must not come within the holy place where God who is the Congregating Father and Christ the great minister of peace and the holy spirit of love are present in mysterious Symbols and most gracious Communications For although it be true that God loves us first yet he will not continue to love us or proceed in the methods of his kindnesse unlesse we become like unto him and love For by our love and charity he will pardon us and he will
Heathens and especially in that grace which is the ornament and jewel of our Religion that is in forgiving our enemies in appeasing anger in doing good for evil in returning prayers for cursings and gentle usages for rude treatments this is the glory of Christianity as Christianity is the glory of the world I end this with the advice of St. Bernard let every man who desires to come worthily to the Sacrament of peace the communion of Christs body for the wrong that he does be ready to ask pardon and for the wrong that he receives be ready to give pardon and so Christs members will be in peace Quest. VI. Whether the precept of forgiveness and the charity of the Communion must of necessity put a period to all Law-suits To this I answer that suits at Law in matters Criminal relating to injuries done or suffâ—r'd are so often mingled with interests of anger and revenge they are so often conducted violently and passionately that he who forbiâ—s angers and reveâ—ge does also in effect forbid suits of Law upon the account of injuries receiv'd But this is to be understood only of such repetitions of right or vindications of wrong as cannot or will not be separated from revenge Thus if the Law which God gave to Moses in the matter of injuries were the measure of our judicatories An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth it were not lawful to go to Law to get his eye put out that had extinguish'd mine for this does not repair me but only afflicts him A Wolf is in nature less hateful than a Viper He wounds that he may drink the blood and kills that he may eat but the Viper smites that he may kill and gets nothing by it So is every Law-suit that vexes one and repairs no man But the rules and measures of conscience in this particular are briefly these 1. If the injury be transient and passes away in the Act it is not lawful for a Christian to go to Law because he cannot rescind the act and he cannot repair himself and that which remains is nothing but revenge which can never consist with charity 2. The case is the same if the injury be permanent but irremediable for if nothing can be rescinded if no amends can be made it is but a phantastick pleasure to delight in the affliction of him that injur'd me If cutting off his arm would make mine grow if striking him upon the face would bring me a new tooth in stead of that which he struck out of mine then there might be a just cause of going to Law but when the evil remains after all that the Law can do it is enough that I lost a limb I will not lose my charity which iâ— left me to make amends to me and to procure a blessing to make me reparation If by my arm I got my living it is fit that he that cut my arm off should give me maintenance because he can repair my losse of livelihood though he can never restore my arm and to cause him to be barely afflicted for my affliction when I am not relieved by his affliction is barbarism and a rude uncharitableness To revenge is but the more excusable way of doing injury Nay Maximus Tyrius sayes it is worse the revenging man is worse than the injurious and therefore to prosecute him in Law who did me wrong and cannot now amend me is but uncharitableness acted under the visor of authority so Methridates affirm'd that usually men carry arms against a thief for revenge as much as for their security it is in many cases nothing else but revenge 3. He thâ—t hath receiv'd an injury must not avenge himself by going to Law though with a purpose to prevent another injury that is tolerable and inconsiderable The reason is because if he fears an evil that is but little the smalnes of the evil and the uncertainty of its event are not considerable if compar'd to the evil of revenge that is included to the trouble of the suit to the evil of our Brothers punishment to his shame and to his smart to his expence and his disorder and the charity of forgiveness shall never have a proper season for its exercise or an opportunity to get a reward if every excuse and every degree of temptation or seeming warranty can legitimate that action which is more like a revenge than it can be to prudence and a reasonable caution All quarrellngs and contentions at Law for little matters are arguments of impatience of a peevish spirit and an uncharitable mind He is a very miserable man that is unquiet when a mouse runs over his shooe or a fly does kiss his cheek Whatsoever is little and tolerable must be let alone said Aristides and Apollonius answered that wars must not be undertaken for great causes nor suits at Law for little ones There is in such persons who run to Courts and complain for every small offence such a stock of anger and peevishness and such a spirit of fire within them that every breath and every motion from without can put it into a flame and the Devil will never be wanting to minister occasions to such prepar'd materials It is told in the Annals of France that when the Kings of England and France in a deadly war had their armies ready to joyn bâ—ttel the French officers having felt the force of the Englâ—sh valoâ—r were not willing to venture the hazard of a battel and perswaded their King to offer conditions of peace The treaty was accepted and the two Kings withdrew into an old Chappel in the field where when they had dicours'd themselves into kindness they resolved to part friends and to appoint Commissionners to finish the Treaty But as they were going out a great Serpent issued out of the ruinous wall and made toward the Kings who being affrighted with the danger drew their swords and in that manner ran out of the Chappel Their guards who in equal numbers attended at the door seeing their Princes in a fright and with their swords drawn suppos'd they were fighting and without any sign instantly drew upon each other which alarm the two armies taking instantly engag'd in a bloody fight and could not for all the power of their Kings be totally disengag'd till the night parted them Just such is the danger of an angry and quarrelsome spirit He hath his sword by his side and his army in the field his hand is up and his heart is ready and he wants nothing but an occasion a Serpent to set him on and that will never be wanting as long as the old Serpent the Devil hath any malice or any power But let us not deceive our selves we are bound very far by the laws of charity to the soul of our Brother and we are very much concern'd that he be saved and therefore our Blessed Saviour commanded us if our brother have sinned against us to
yet still this is done by parts and methods of natural progression after the manner of nature though by the aids of God and therefore it is fit that we expect the changes and make our judgment by material events and discerned mutations before we communicate in these mysteries in which whoever unworthily does communicate enters into death 4. He that hath resolved against all sin and yet falls into it regulaâ—ly at the next temptation is yet in a state of evil and unworthiness to communicate because he is under the dominion of sin he obeys it though unwillingly that is he grumbles at his fetters but still he is in slavery and bondage But if having resolved against all sin he delights in none deliberately chooses none is not so often surprized grows stronger in grace and is mistaken but seldom and repents when he is and arms himself better and watches more carefully against all and increases still in knowledge whatever imperfection is still adherent to the man unwillingly does indeed allay his condition and is fit to humble and cast him down but it does not make him unworthy to communicate because he is in the state of grace he is in the Christian warfare and is on Gods side and the holy Sacrament if it have any effect at all is certainly an instrument or a sign in the hands of God to help his servants to inlarge his grace to give more strengths and to promote them to perfection 5. But the sum of all is this He that is not freed from the dominion of sin he that is not really a subject of the Kingdom of grace he in whose mortal body sin does reign and the Spirit of God does not reign must at no hand present himself before the holy Table of the Lord because whatever dispositions and alterations he may begin to have in order to pardon and holiness he as yet hath neither but is Gods enemy and therefore cannot receive his holy Son 6. But because the change is made by parts and effected by the measures of other intellectual and spiritual changes that is after the manner of men from imperfection to perfection by all the intermedial steps of moral degrees and good and evil in some periods have but a little distance though they should have a great deal and it is at first very hard to know whether it be life or death and after that it is still very difficult to know whether it be health or sickness and dead men cannot eat and sick men scarce can eat with benefit at least are to have the weakest and the lowest diet and after all this it is of a consequence infinitely evil if men eat this Supper indisposed and unfit It is all the reason of the world that returning sinners should be busie in their repentances and do their work in the field as it is in the parable of the Gospel and in their due time come home and gird themselves and wait upon their Lord and when they are bidden and warranted then to sit down in the Supper of their Lord. But in this case it is good to be as sure as we can as sure as the analogy of these divine Mysteries require and as our needs permit 7. He that hath committed a single act of sin a little before the Communion ought for the reverence of the holy Sacrament to abstain till he hath made proportionable amends and not only so but if the sin was inconsistent with the state of grace and destroyed or interrupted the divine favour as in cases of fornication murder perjury any malicious or deliberate known great crime he must comport himself as a person returning from a habit or state of sin and the reason is because he that hath lost the divine favour cannot tell how long he shall be before he recovers it and therefore would do well not to snatch at the portion and food of Sons whilest he hath reason to fear that he hath the state and calamity of Dogs who are caressed well if they feed on fragments and crums that are thrown away Now this Doctrine and these cautions besides that they are consonant to Scripture and the analogy of this divine Sacrament are nothing else but what was directly the sentiment of all the best most severe religious and devoutest ages of the Primitive Church For true it is the Apostles did indefinitely admit the faithful to the holy Communion but they were persons wholly enflamed with those holy fires which Jesus Christ sent from heaven to make them burning and shining lights such which our dearest Lord with his blood still warm and fresh filled with his holy love such whose spirits were so separate from the affections of the world that they laid their estates at the Apostles feet and took with joy the spoiling of their goods such who by improving the graces they had received did come to receive more abundantly and therefore these were fit to receive the bread of the strong But this is no invitation for them to come who feel such a lukewarmnesse and indifference of spirit and devotion that they have more reason to suspect it to be an effect of evil life rather than of infirmity for them who feel no heats of love but of themselves for them who are wholly immerg'd in secular affections and interests for them who are full of passions and void of grace these from the example of the others may derive caution but no confidence So long as they persever'd in the Doctrine of the Apostles so long they also did continue in the breaking of bread and solemn conventions for prayer for to persevere in the Doctrine of the Apostles signified a life most exactly Christian for that was the Doctrine Apostolical according to the words of our Lord teaching to observe all things which I have commanded you And by this method the Apostolical Churches and their descendants did administer these holy Mysteries a full and an excellent testimony whereof we have in that excellent Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy commonly attributed to St. Dionys. The Church drives from the Sacrifice of the Temple meaning the divine Sacrament such persons for whom it is too sublime and elevated First those who are not yet instructed and taught concerning the participation of the Mysteries Next those who are fallen from the holy and Christian state meaning Apostates and such as have renounced their Baptism or fallen from the grace of it by a state of deadly sin or foulest crimes Thirdly they who are possessed with evil spirits And lastly those who indeed have begun to retire from sin to a good life but they are not yet purified from the phantasms and images of their past inordinations by a divine habitude and love with purity and without mixture And to conclude they who are not yet perfectly united to God alone and to speak according to the style of Scripture they who are not intirely inculpable and without reproach And when St.
which was said by Vincentius Ferrerius The Angels that assist at this Sacrament would kill every unworthy Communicant unless the Divine mercy and long sufferance did cause them to forbear a speedy execution that the blessed Sacrament might acquire its intention and become a favour of life unto us SECT II. Acts of Vertues and Graces relative to the Mystery to be us'd before or at the Celebration of the Divine Sacrament I. The Address IT is well O sweetest Saviour Jesus it is very well that thou art pleas'd to be a daily Sacrifice for us and to become our daily supersubstantial bread to feed our souls Certain it is that we by our daily failings and the remaining pollution of our sins frequently sink down to the bottom of thy displeasure But do thou grant that being refreshed by the Sacrament and recreated by thy grace strengthened by thy spirit and comforted with thy miraculous sweetness my heart and my affections may be lifted up on high II. O grant that by thee my soul may be lifted up to thee and from her self may pass into thee with a pure mind with an unfeigned Religion with an unblameable faith and burning devotion with filial piety and a profound reverence For thou art the true God the word of life the bright Image and splendour of thy Fathers Glory the reward of the Saints and the Lord of Angels the brightness of eternal light the unspotted mirrour of eternal purity An Act of Love Thee alone O Lord my soul desires thou art eternal sweetness in my soul. If the perfume of thy oyntment be sufficient to all the the world what is the refection of thy Table If we live by every word proceeding out of thy mouth what felicity and joy is it to live upon thee the eternal Word chewing thee by faith and digesting thee by love and entertaining thee in our hearts for ever How shall not my bowels melt into thee the Sun of righteousness How is it that I do not forget all deliciousness besides thee A single pleasure poor and empty wearying and unsatisfying hath often made me to forget thee Now that thou art truly and effectively present with me how can any other pleasure in the world seem pleasant to me any more I will forget all the world I will quit all the world to live on thee if thou pleasest O dearest Saviour but do thou open thy ark and repositories of sweetness and fill my soul and all my desires that there may be no room for any thing else Thou hast called unto me to open my hand and thou wouldst fill it But I would not open it I held the world fast and kept my hand shut and would not let it go But do thou open it for me not my hand only but my mouth not my mouth but my heart also An Act of Desire after Jesus O blessed Jesus that hast said it is thy delight to be with the sons of men Thou hast made thy self the companion of our journeys the light of our ignorance the remedy of our infirmity Dwell with me sweetest Saviour and delight in me It is no small thing I ask O my God can it ever be that my God should delight in me That 's too much O God Grant that I may delight in thee and do thou delight to pardon me to sanctifie and to save me Grant that I may never offend thee that I may never grieve thy Holy Spirit that I may not provoke the Angel of the everlasting Covenant to anger But thou delightest in the works of thy hand in the graces of the Spirit in thy own excellencies and glories Endue me with thy graces fill me with thy excellencies let me communicate of thy spirit and then enjoy these thy delights with thy servant for thou canst not else delight in me Thou art thy own essential joy and everlasting blessedness and inseparable felicity But this thou hast said that thou delightest to be with the Sons of men because thou truly lovest us Blessed be thy Name for ever and ever An Act of Thanksgiving O Blessed Saviour Jesus I adore the secrets of thy eternal wisdom I admire the mysteriousness of our salvation and I love and praise and give all possible thanks to thee the Author of our spiritual life the Deliverer that came out of Sion the Redeemer of thy people the spoiler of all spiritual wickedness in heavenly places the conqueror over sin and death the triumpher over Devils thou hast taken from our strongest enemies all their armour and divided the spoil Grant that I may know nothing but thee account all things loss in comparison of thee and endeavour to be made conformable to thee in the imitation of thy actions and obedience of thy Laws in the fellowship of thy sufferings in the communion of thy graces and participation of thy glories that beginning here to praise thy Name according as I can I may hereafter for ever rehearse and adore thy excellencies according to the measures of glory for ever and ever Amen Ejaculations and Meditations to be us'd at any time but particularly after the Consecration of the Symbols when the holy Man that ministers is bringing the Sacrament 1. O holy Jesu I behold thee stretch'd upon the Cross with thy arms spread ready to embrace and receive all mankind into thy bosome 2. I come Lord Jesus I come O take me to thee in the comprehensions of an unalterable of an everlasting love for thou hast opened thy heart as well as thine arms and hast prepar'd a lodging place for me in the seat of love 3. I see the Symbols the holy bread and the blessed cup but I also contemplate thy authority establishing these rites I adore thy wisdom who hast made these Mysteries like thy own infancy I see thy self wrapt up in swadling clouts and cover'd with a vail I hear thy voice blessing these Symbols thy mercy reaching out my pardon thy holy Spirit sanctifying my spirit thy blessed self making intercession for me at the eternal Altar in the heavens 4. Thy infinite arm of mercy is reached unto us and our arm of faith reaches unto thee Blessed be Jesus who will be joyned unto his servants 5. This is thy body O blessed Saviour Jesus and this is thy blood but these are not thy wounds My Lord had the smart but we the ease his were the sufferings but ours the mercy he felt the load of stripes but from thence a holy balm did flow upon us He felt the thorns but we shall have the Crown and after he had paid the price we got the purchase Holy Jesus Blessed be God 6. I adore thy unspeakable goodness I delight in thy unmeasurable mercy I rejoyce in thy cross I desire to know nothing but the Lord Jesus and him crucified O let the power of thy Cross prevail against all the powers of darkness let the wisdom of thy Cross make me wise unto salvation let the peace
of thy Cross reconcile me to thy eternal Father and bring to me peace of Conscience let the victory of thy Cross mortifie all my evil and corrupt affections let the triumph of thy Cross lead me on to a state of holiness that I may sin no more but in all things please thee and in all things serve thee and in all things glorifie thee 7. Great and infinite are thy glories infinite and glorious are thy mercies who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and earth Heaven it self does wholly minister to our salvation God takes care of us God loves us first God will not suffer us to perish but imployes all his attributes for our good The Son of God dies for us the holy Spirit descends upon us and teaches us the Angels minister to us the Sacrament is our food Christ is married to our souls and heaven it self is offered to us for our portion 8. O God my God assist me now and ever graciously and greatly Grant that I may not receive bread alone for man cannot live by that but that I may eat Christ that I may not search into the secret of nature but inquire after the miracles of grace I do admire I worship and I love Thou hast overcome O Lord thou hast overcome Ride on triumphantly because of thy words of truth and peace load my soul in this triumph as thy own purchase thy love hath conquer'd and I am thy servant for ever 9. Thou wilt not dwell in a polluted house make my soul clean and do thou consecrate it into a Temple O thou great Bishop of our souls by the inhabitation of thy holy spirit of purity Let not these teeth that break the bread of Angels ever grind the face of the poor let not the hand of Judas be with thee in the dish let not the eyes which see the Lord any more behold vanity let not the members of Christ ever become the members of a harlot or the ministers of unrighteousness 10. I am nothing I have nothing I desire nothing but Jesus and to be in Jerusalem the holy City from above Make haste O Lord Behold my heart is ready my heart is ready Come Lord Jesus come quickly When the holy Man that Ministers reaches the consecrated Bread suppose thy Lord entring into his Courts and say Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word Lord and thy servant shall be whole After receiving of the Bread pray thus Blessed be the Name of our gracious God Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosannah in the highest Thou O blessed Saviour Jesus hast given me thy precious body to be the food of my soul and now O God I humbly present to thee my body and soul every member and every faculty every action and every passion Do thou make them fit for thy service Give me an understanding to know thee and wisdom like as thou didst to thy Apostles ingenuity and simplicity of heart like to that of Nathanael zeal and perfect repentance like the return of Zacheus Give me eyes to see thee as thy Martyr Stephen had an ear to hear thee as Mary a hand to touch thee as Thomas a mouth with Peter to confess thee an arm with Simeon to embrace thee feet to follow thee with thy Disciples an heart open like Lydia to entertain thee that as I have given my members to sin and to uncleanness so I may henceforth walk in righteousness and holiness before thee all the days of my life Amen Amen If there be any time more between the receiving the holy Body and the blessed Chalice then add O immense goodness unspeakable mercy delightful refection blessed peace-offering effectual medicine of our souls Holy Jesus the food of elect souls coelestial Manna the bread that came down from heaven sweetest Saviour grant that my soul may relish this divine Nutriment with spiritual ravishments and love great as the flames of Cherubims and grant that what thou hast given me for the remission of my sins may not â—y my fault become the increase of them Grant that in my heart I may so digest thee by a holy faith so convert thee into the unity of my spirit by a holy love that being conformed to the likeness of thy death and resurrection by the crucifying of the old man and the newness of a spiritual and a holy life I may be incorporated as a sound and living member into the body of thy holy Church a member of that body whereof thou art head that I mâ—y abide in thee and bring forth fruit in thee and in the resurrection of the Just my body of infirmity being reformed by thy power may be configured to the similitude of thy glorious body and my soul received into a participation of the eternal Supper of the Lamb that where thou art there I may be also beholding thy face in glory O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen When the holy Chalice is offered attend devoutly to the blessing and joyn in heart with the words of the Minister saying Amen I will receive the Cup of salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. After receiving of the holy Cup pray thus It is finished Blessed be the name of our gracious God Blessing glory praise and honour love and obedience dominion and thanksgiving be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever I bless and praise thy Name O eternal Father most merciful God that thou hast vouchsafed to admit me to a participation of these dreadful and desirable mysteries unworthy though I am yet thy love never fails and though I too often have repented of my repentances and fallen back into sin yet thou never repentest of thy loving kindness Be pleased therefore now in this day of mercy when thou openest the treasures of heaven and rainest Manna upon our souls to refresh them when they are weary of thy infinite goodness to grant that this holy Communion may not be to me unto judgment and condemnation but it may be sweetness to my soul health and safety in every temptation joy and peace in every trouble ligâ—t and strength in every word and work comfort and defence in the hour of my death against all the oppositions of the spirits of darkness and grant that no unclean thing may be in me who have received thee into my heart and soul. II. Thou dwellest in every sanctified soul she is the habitation of Sion and thou taâ—est it for thine own and thou hast consecrated it to thy self by the operation of glorious mysteries within her O be pleased to receive my soul presented to thee in this holy Communion for thy dwelling place make it a house of prayer and holy meditations the seat of thy Spirit the repository of graces reveal to me