under the load of sin when he beheld Christ groaning upon the Cross for it whose heart could remain unbroken when he saw his body broken for us who could withhold his eyes from tears when he saw the Wounds of Christ weeping blood for us Behold O Lord would such a mans soul answer unto him I am sorry that my sins have liv'd so long It was sore against my will that there should be any of them now to kill fain would I have had their lives but they are hitherto overstrong for me O do thou strike my soul through with a sense of thy sufferings and they will not be able to endure thy hand Do thou transfix me first with a sense of my baseness and then with a sense of thy love and sure they cannot but die when they feel thy pains I am resolved not to carry away one of them alive If they had a thousand lives they should lose them all that my soul may live to thee How it would delight our Lord to hear such language in mens hearts it is not for me to express nor can you imagine how you should please him better and draw him more powerfully into your armes then by such discourse within your selves Nor can you ever think to get the victory over your sins and bring them under your hatred and displeasure if such a sight as Christ crucified before your eyes be not able to effect it Never will they be killed if they can outlive the sight of a bleeding Saviour Never shall we get them under our power if they can escape with their lives when we remember so solemnly his accursed death III. When we see him that ministers come to give the bread unto us let us employ our selves in these three Acts of Devotion First It will well become a soul to sink into a very deep humility and to abase it self in the sense of its own unworthiness When thou seest that Christ is coming as it were towards thy house Run forth to meet him at the door before he come in and entertain him with an act of reverence worship and humble obeysance to him Say Lord I am not worthy that thou should'st come under my Roof I deserve not the crumbs that fall from thy Table Say as Ruth to Boaz Ruth 2.10 after she had bowed her self to the ground Why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldst take knowledg of me seeing I am a stranger How comes it that my Lord should cast his eye upon me What am I that he should visit me and come to marry himself unto me And when thou hast depressed thy self a while at his feet Then Secondly Rise a little up again and mix some Acts of love with this humility Think of the infinite love of God that would give his own Son think of the infinite love of Christ that would so graciously come to save us and would leave us these remembrances and tokens of his love Wish that thou hadst a thousand hearts to correspond with so great a love Say within thy self Oh Lord What am I that thou shouldest command me for to love thee What compare between me and thee that thou shouldest so much desire to make me a visit and give to me an embracement Whence comes it that thou who art in Heaven among them who know so well how to love and serve thee wilt vouchsafe to descend to me who know little else but how to offend thee Is it possible O Lord that thou canst not content thy self to be without me Did thy meer love draw thee down from Heaven for my sake Dost thou still give thy self unto me as if thou couldst never be mine enough Who can abide the heat of this love Who can feel thy heart and not be burnt up There is none can dwell in such flames without being consumed No soul that can abide in the body if a great sense of this love do long abide We must therefore entreat our gracious Lord that he would stay for the full measure of our love till he hath made us able to do nothing else but love him And thirdly Let us turn our Love into desire Let us beseech him to fill us with his holy Spirit and to dwell in us by all his divine graces Say Lord since thou art pleased to come and offer thy self unto me My soul thirsteth for thee even as the thirsty Land I humbly stretch out my hands unto thee Psal 143.6 I open my mouth wide that thou mayest fill me O satisfie my soul with thy likeness O let me taste that the Lord is gracious And you may be assured that the Lord loves a soul that lies in such a posture ready to receive him that gasps and longs after him and saith in its heart Whom have I in Heaven but thee Psal 73.25 and there is none on earth besides thee Stir up thy appetite therefore and come to him as a chased Hart to the streams of water as an hungry man unto a Feast as a Bride unto her Wedding a thousand times desired Labour to feel something like to those longings that so thou mayst taste and savour his love the more and it may leave a sweeter gust and relish upon thy soul and thy mouth may praise him afterward with joyfull lips IV. When we take the Bread into our hands it is seasonable time to do that Act which I told you was one end of this Sacrament viz. Commemorate and shew forth or declare the Death of Christ unto God the Father Let us represent before him the sacrifice of atonement that Christ hath made let us commemorate the pains which he indured let us intreat him that we may enjoy all the purchase of his Blood that all people may reap the fruit of his Passion and that for the sake of his bloudy sacrifice he will turn away all his anger and displeasure and be reconciled unto us Themistocles they say not knowing how to mitigate and atone the wrath of King Admetus and avert his fury from him snatcht up the Kings Son and held him up in his armes between himself and death and so prevailed for a pardon and quenched the fire that was breaking out against him And this the Molossians of whom he was King held to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Themist the most effectual way of supplication and which of all others could not be resisted or denied Of far greater prevalency is this Act the holding up as it were the Son of God in our hands and representing to the Father the broken body and the Bloud of his onely begotten Let us set this between the heat of Gods anger and our souls let us desire he would have regard to his dearly beloved and the Lord cannot turn back our Prayers that press and importune him with such a mighty argument Say therefore to him Behold O Lord the sacrifice of the everlasting Covenant behold we lay before thee the Lamb
observed We must strive to be of the highest by keeping our affections alive that are begotten in us p. 330. CAP. XVI Eight directions for the maintaining in our hearts those resolutions that are wrought in them and keeping our hearts in a constant good temper p. 335. SECT IV. Of the Benefits of holy Communion CAP. XVII Holy men can best tell themselves how sweet this Feast is yet for the inviting of others to this chear a Discourse is begun of the pleasures of it p. 374. CAP. XVIII Three benefits we may receive by it 1. Great pleasure which is brought to us sundry wayes 2. Great nourishment and strength as is proved by the three graces of Faith Hope Charity 3. Great cures of our sicknesses and diseases p. 382. CAP. XIX The danger of coming hither with a love to our sins opened in several particulars Yet it is a great sin not to come out of love to Christ Mens excuses shown to be frivolus p. 410. CAP. XX. The great excuse of many unmasked which is that wicked men are permitted to come thither p. 431. Mensa Mystica THe Sacraments being not unfitly called by an ancient Writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys cop 3. Eccles hierarch The Garments that are cast about our Saviour and it being the profession of Divines to labour to see the naked face of truth it is most worthy our pains to open and reveal those secrets that lie hid and vailed under symbols and sensible things And to say the truth these Vestments are so thin and transparent that the truth doth shine through them and shew it self to well-prepared minds They are but like to those thin clouds wherein the Sun is sometimes wrapped which render its body the more visible to our weak and trembling eyes I cannot pretend to have conversed much with barefac'd truth yet having been drawn to publish a few thoughts concerning Baptism I shall now further endeavour to unfold those mysteries that lie hid under the coverings of bread broken and wine poured out in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper that men may not Ixion-like embrace a meer cloud instead of God himself My sight is not so sharp as to discern the very flesh and blood of Christ in those forms and shapes of bread and wine no more could that Eagle-eyed Author I mentioned though he thought he could see as far as the coelestial Hierarchy which will appear to any one that shall be at the pains to read him Yet I am so far from thinking that they are meer signs of what Christ did for us or onely representations of the benefits we receive by him but am perswaded that they exhibit our Lord himself unto believing minds and put them into a surer possession of him The truth commonly lies between two extreams and being a peaceable thing cannot join it self with either of the directly opposite parties And therefore I shall seek for her in a middle path not bidding such a defiance to the corporeal presence as to deny the real nor so subverting the fancy of a miraculous changed into a coelestial substance as to level these things into meer shadows CHAP. I. FIrst then this holy rite of eating bread broken and drinking wine poured out is a solemn commemoration of Christ according as he himself saith to all his Apostles Luk. 22.19 and particularly to St. Paul who twice makes mention of this command 1 Cor. 11.24 25. Do this in remembrance or for a remembrance of me His meaning is not that we should hereby call him to mind for we are never to forget him but rather that we should keep him in mind and endeavour to perpetuate his Name in the world and propagate the memory of him and his benefits to the latest posterity Now this is done by making a solemn rehearsal of his famous Acts and declaring the inestimable mable greatness of his royal love For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie barely recordatio recording or registring of his favours in our mind but commemoratio a solemn declaration that we do well bear them in our hearts and will continue the memory and spread the fame of him as far and as long as ever we are able I hope that none will conceive so little to be meant by this word remember or commemorate as a naked mention of his Name with our mouthes or a dead image of him in our minds For all these words to know believe meditate remember and the like are hearty words and full of life Though they seem to speak only actions of the mind yet in holy language they include in their comprehension the affections of the heart Cold pale thoughts which have no feeling of themselves nor leave any footsteps or memorials behind them are as good as none at all And therefore I understand hereby a very warm sence in the soul which begets and stirs up such motions in the heart as the conceived object is apt for to raise Suppose you have been in deep love with any person and have lost the half of your selves when you remember the death of that friend the image of him is ready to rob you of your lives and make all the blood retire to your heart as if death were about to surprize the main Fort of life But on the contrary if you think of that person as alive the remembrance of him makes your spirits for to dance and the blood to run into your cheeks and smiles to sit on your forehead and breeds a pleasance in your whole man Just so would our Saviour be remembred by you that the thoughts of him may even kill you with grief and transport you with love and captivate your wills and ingage all your affections that they may be at his command and issued forth at his pleasure As you think of a friend of a father of a wife or a husband or any one that hath got the possession of your heart so think of him By which examples you may see that I intend not a natural passion and a sensual commotion in the soul but a well-grounded affection When we read a true History or a Romance we are apt to side with some persons in the story and when we meet with a Duel we favour one of the Combatants and are sensible of his wounds and sorry for his fall as on the contrary we are glad he comes off a conquerour and wins the field So may a man when he thinks of Christ and his Tragedy conceive a natural hatred and indignation at the treachery of Judas and the vile malice of the Pharisees and be much moved to see him used in such an unworthy manner it may be fetch sighs from his heart and tears from his eyes and put him into such a huge passion as if he suffered with him But if all this have non effect in his life and produce no answerable fruits afterward it is no more than a natural motion and is void of the divine and
them we make no scruple to use Eusebius his words who saith it is a remembrance instead of a sacrifice a L. 1. Demons Evang. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in another place We sacrifice a remembrance of the great sacrifice b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so every Christian is a Priest or a Sacrifice when he comes to the table of the Lord. For as our Lord saith to his Apostles Luke 22.19 Do this in remembrance of me so he saith to every private Christian the same words 1 Cor. 11.24 onely there is this difference that Do this c. in St. Luke doth manifestly referre to those words before To take bread give thanks and give to others which is only the Ministers work but in St. Paul Do this c. referres to Take eat which immediately precedes and this is to be done by all So that both the one and the other in their several kinds do commemorate Christ and represent him to the Father And that it is onely a memorial of a Sacrifice and not a Propitiatory Sacrifice the Arguments of a Divine in the Council of Trent will prove Hist Cone Trent in spite of all opposers Our Saviour saith he did not offer sacrifice when he instituted this Sacrament for then the oblation of the Cross would have been superfluous because mankind would have been redeemed by that of the Supper which went before Besides saith he the Sacrament of the Altar as he calls it was instituted by Christ for a memorial of that which he offered on the Cross now there cannot be a memorial but of a thing past therefore the Eucharist could not be a sacrifice before the oblation of Christ on the Cross but shewed what we were afterward to do From hence we argue That if it was not so then neither is it so now We do nothing but what Christ then did and therefore if he offered no sacrifice neither do we but onely commemorate that sacrifice which he was then about to offer Therefore a Portugal Divine in that Assembly made a speech to prove that it could not be demonstrated out of the Scripture Georg. de Ataide that this Sacrament is a sacrifice but onely out of the ancient Fathers and he answered all the arguments to the contrary so strongly and the Protestants arguments afterwards so weakly that the most intelligent were of opinion that he did not satisfie himself But of this perhaps too much unless the state of things among us plead my excuse I will add but this one thing more and so put an end to this Chapter That it may be called a Sacrifice because with the Action we do offer Prayers to God for all good things Epist 59. ad Paulinum And so St. Augustin expounds that place in 1 Tim. 2.1 concerning the Petitions put up at the Lords Supper By Supplications he understands the Petitions put up before the bread and wine be blessed By Prayers he understands those whereby they are blessed and sanctified and made ready to be given to the people By Intercessions he understands the prayers made for the people when they do partake for then the Minister as if he were a kind of Advocate doth offer them to God and commit them to his hand after which follow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giveings of thanks which are made by all for that and all other mercies that the good God bestoweth on us Whatsoever becomes of this interpretation we need not fear to call the whole action by the name of a Sacrifice seeing part of it is an Oblation to God of hearty prayers and it is not unusual for that to be said of a whole that is exactly true but of one part But methinks it much unbecomes Christians to quarrel about Names especially about the name of that which should end all quarrels and therefore I only intended to shew how this word may be used if we please without danger and how the ancient Church did understand it CHAP. II. THis holy action is to be next of all considered as a remembrance or commemoration with thanksgiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thence it is called by the name of Eucharist i. e. Thanksgiving according to the phrase of Ancient times Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. For as the bread and wine the breaking and pouring out are representations so our takeing eating and drinking express our hearty resentments This good cheer cannot but breed a certain cheerfulness This Divine Food cannot but fill us with gladness After we have swallowed the sweetness of Heaven and Earth after we have tasted of that which Angels desire to feed but their eyes withall how can it choose but breed a spiritual joy in our souls and make our mouthes break forth into singing If there be any wine that makes glad the heart of man this sure is it which is pressed as it were out of the Coelestial Vine and tasts not of the blood of the Grape but of the Blood of God This should send up our souls in songs of praise to Heaven this should make us wish that we could evaporate our spirits in flames of love and that our souls were nothing but a harmony and consent that we might alwayes be tuned to his praises And though the Angels have many strains of Praise that we are unacquainted withall yet this is a note that they cannot sing Rev. 1.5 6. Unto him that hath loved us and washed us from our sinnes in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever Now for the fuller understanding of this I take these six things to be considerable I. That as it is a Feast it betokens joy and all joy at such times is expressed by songs If we will beleeve the wiser sort of Heathens they lookt upon their publick Feasts not only as times of ease and outward mirth but as instruments to raise their thoughts to spiritual things and fill them with an inward joy So Proclus doth apply their customs in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intellectual things which he saith lay hid under such Ceremonies Lib. 1. in Timaeum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And among other matters he saith That their Feasts on the first day of those Solemnities were an embleme of the perpetual quiet and tranquillity we should labour for in the World knowing that if we be filled with God he brings in with him a never ceasing feast Do I hear a Heathen speak Dropt these words from the pen of a Pagan O my soul that readest this blush to think that thou shouldest celebrate a Divine Feast without a Feast and come to the Table of God empty and void of God For if they laboured to see something Divine under I know not what strange rites how can we chuse but be fill'd with God and Festival joys when we sit with him at a Heavenly Banquet And if we be then there will
and attend upon this which lays the foundation of them Yea by this faith and love our hearts are more inlarged the vessels of our souls are rendred more capable and the Temple of Christ is much more amplified to receive more of Gods presence And that is the next thing III. The holy Spirit is here conferred on us in larger measures which is the very bond and ligament that ties us to him For this union is not onely such a moral union as is between husband and wife which is made by love or between King and Subjects which is made by Laws but such a natural union as is between head and members the vine and branches which is made by one spirit or life dwelling in the whole For the understanding of this which I shall insist on longer then therest you must consider these things 1. That our union with Christ is set forth by many things in Scripture or in St. Chrysostom's phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He unites us to himself after many patterns I think there is not a better collection of them then we meet with in him He is the head faith he we are the body Hom. 8. in 1. ad Cor. He is the foundation we are the building He is the vine we are the branches He is the bridegroom we are the bride He is the sheepherd we are the sheep He is the way we are the travellers We are the Temple and he is the inhabitant He is the first-born we his brethren He is the Heir we the coheirs He is the life we are the living c. all these thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do shew an union and such an one that will not admit the least thing to come between them 2. Observe that the highest and closest union is that which is made by one spirit and life moving in the whole And therefore I take notice that the Scripture delights most frequently to use the two first examples of a body and a building and those that are nearest to these Now because a building hath no life but yet by its firmness and strength doth notably set forth the firmness of the union that is between Christ and his people therefore the Apostle puts both these together and calls Christ a living stone and those that come to him lively or living stones which are built up a spiritual house or temple where they offer spiritual sacrifices unto God 1 Pet. 2.4 5. That union therefore is most perfect which is made by life though others may be of great est strength and therefore the Apostle applies it even to things without life that he might the better shew that the union between Christ and his members by one life is in strength more like the solidness of a Temple then any other thing whose parts are so cemented as that they would last as long as the world 3. We must observe That things at the greatest distance may be united by one spirit of life actuating them both and so may Christ and we though we enjoy not his bodily presence It is truly noted by a most Rev. A. usher Person that the formal reason of the union that is made between the parts of our body consists not in their continuity and touching of each other but in the animation of them by one and the same spirit which ties them all together If the spirit withdraw it self from any part so that it be mortified it presently remains as if it were not of the body though its parts still touch the next member to it And so we see in trees if any branch be deprived of the vegetative spirit it drops from the tree as now no more belonging to it On the other side you see the toes have an union with the head though at a distance not onely by the intervening of many parts that reach from them unto it but by the soul that is present in the farthest member and gives the head as speedy notice of what is done in the remotest part as if it were the next door to the brain And this it doth without the assistance of the neighbouring parts that should whisper the grief of the toes from one to the other till the head hear but without the least trouble to any of them which do not feel their pain If you should suppose therefore our body to be as high as the Heavens and the head of it to touch the throne of God and the feet to stand upon his footstool the earth no sooner could the head think of moving a toe but presently it would stir and no sooner could any pain befall the most distant part then the head would be advised of it Which must be by vertue of that spirit which is conceived alike present to every part and therefore that must be taken likewise to be the reason of that union which is among them all Just so may you apprehend the union to be between Christ our head and us his members Although in regard of his corporal presence he be in the Heavens which must receive him untill the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3.21 yet he is here with us always even to the end of the world Mat. 28.20 in regard of his holy Spirit working in us By this he is sensible of all our needs and by the vital influences of it in every part he joyns the whole body fitly together so that he and it make one Christ according as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12.12 As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of tha◠one body being many are one body so also is Christ And that this union is wrought by the Spirit which every true Christian hath dwelling in him Cor. 6. 7. Rom. 8.9 the next verse ver 13. will tell you we are all baptized into one body by one spirit c. Which will lead me to the fourth thing for which all this was said 4. We receive of this Spirit when we worthily communicate at the Supper of the Lord according as the Apostle in that 13th verse is thought to say We have been all made to drink into one spirit i. e. we have all reason to agree well together for there is but one spirit that animates the whole body of us which we receive at the Table of the Lord when we drink the cup of blessing One Christian doth not drink out of the same cup a spirit of peace and another Christian a spirit of contention but as Chrysostome expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We all come to be initiated in the same secrets we all enjoy the same Table and though he doth not say as it follows in him that we eat the same body and drink the same blood yet since he makes mention of the spirit he saith both For in both we are watered with one and the same spirit even as trees saith he are watered out of one and the same fountain V.
love from us and he hath made our Brethren to be his proxies and receivers he hath transferred the debt that is owing him unto them that we may do them those kindnesses for his sake which we cannot do immediately unto him It is worthy our notice that the first person that ever received this holy Sacrament was in all likelihood St. John the beloved Disciple he that lay in Jesus his breast and is therefore called by some Greek Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he in the bosome whose heart was so full of love to the Brethren that he breathes little else in one whole discourse which he left to his little children And you may observe also that immediately after this Supper spoken of Joh. 13. our Saviour entertains his Disciples the rest of that night till he went into the garden with those heavenly discourses which you read in the 14 15 16 17 Chapters of the same Gospel A great part of which contain the Commandment of brotherly love of living in peace and being one with each other even as He and his Father are one which may well suggest to our meditations that one intent of this heavenly repast is to breed in us a kind of coelestial charity and make us all like that Disciple who first had the favour to taste of it IV. This Supper is the more significant of Christian charity and peace that is to be between all the guests because they all eat of one loaf as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 10.17 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render one bread more properly may be translated one loaf of which all the company do partake and thereby are made one body members of the same Christ and members one of another As the flour though consisting of many little parts is mingled and knealed into one loaf so are all Christians united and compacted into one body by partaking of that one and the same individual loaf And therefore we may by the way take notice that the bread provided for our Communions though never so great ought to be but one loaf and likewise that all should communicate if it may be at the same time and not one part of a Congregation to day and the other at the next meeting for this doth not so well signifie the union that is among all Christians who live together in the same society And to render this contesseration the more manifest Joseph de Vicecom L. 2. de Mâ—ssae rit cap. 10. in some ages of the Church though but in some particular places every family that did receive offered a quantity of flower with which the Communion-bread was made This mixture of one mans meal with anothers and the combination of all the particles in one paste did well denote that they were but one body of men mingled together by such a common affection that they were made one lump and did lose themselves in one another not knowing any difference between each other And indeed there never was any society of men so strongly united and kneaded together as the first body of Christians were Though their union may well be represented by the little Atomes of flower all glewed together in a loaf yet the strength of their union may be better compared to the stones of a Temple so cemented that the hand of man is of no force so much as to move them And to such stones the Apostle St. Peter compares them when he saith 1 Ep. Cap. 2.5 that as lively stones they are built up a spiritual house c. Living stones they were because they were so many souls or hearts joyned together into a spiritual temple making one great heart beating with the same love and because likewise they had all drunk into the same spirit of life Act. 2.32 which was the common vinculum tie or bond that thus united them together and made this one bread to be like the strength of stones rather then bread As the little particles of meal were by the help of water wrought into one paste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 12.13 so were all particular Christians by this spirit wherewithall they were watered formed into one spiritual body to be no more many but one V. The ancient Christians likewise had many significant customs and practises whereby they did notably express at this feast the love which was among them The most remarkable of which are these 1. There was the Holy Kiss wherewith they saluted each other as a token of the dear affection wherewith they embraced and of their desire that their souls might pass as it were into each others bodies There are many places of Scripture which mention this kiss as Rom. 16.16 1 Cor. 16.20 c. and the best Writers near the times of our Saviour tell us it was used to be given at the holy Communion as the fittest season to express such an innocent and sincere love When we have done prayers saith Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. 2. c. we salute each other with a kiss and then immediately the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chief Minister takes the bread and wine from the hand of those that offer them c. At this feast then they did salute one another and when they fasted De Orat. cap. 14. it began to be a custom saith Tertullian that after prayers they should forbear the kiss of peace quod est signaculum perfectionis which is the sign or seal of perfection i.e. of love and charity I suppose he means which is called by the Apostle the bond of perfectness That it was a custom among the Jews to salute with a kiss at their prayers is the affirmation of Drusius In Generosia but a greater man then he was saith that he finds no such thing in all their writings and shews that in all likelihood he was deceived by mistaking the word Tiphluth for Tepilloth the former of which signifies foolishness and the latter prayers Buxtorf Lex Tal. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so he observes that it is said in the great Bereschit upon those wvrds Gen. 29.11 every kiss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to folly i. e. a wanton kiss except those three to which one adds a fourth First The kiss of homage such as Samuel gave to Saul 1 Sam. 10.1 and such I may add as we are bid to give to the Son of God Psal 2.12 Secondly The kiss of meeting such as Aaron gave to Moses Exod. 4.27 Thirdly The kiss of departure such as Orphah gave to her mother Ruth 1.14 And fourthly The kiss of kindred such as Jacob here gave to Rachel because she was his Cousin VVe must seek therefore for no other reason of this kiss but that it was a sign of kindness and love by the custom of all the world and therefore it is called the kiss of charity 1 Pet. 5.13 And for this cause saith Chrysostome the Apostle bids the Corinthians
demand more of us then we will give of our own good will unto our God Shall not love engage us faster then any other bands Hath not God given unto us the principal and requires nothing back again but a little small pittance for his poor Alas my soul we are too much behind-hand with him already and have run too far in arrears For how many years have we lived in the world and given nothing considerable unto his uses we are so much indebted that way that we had need now to be more open-handed and make satisfaction for our unjustice But then what shall we give him for himself and for his Son if we be so much bound unto him for these temporal things O my soul once more consider what gift we shall present our Lord withall Are not thy first thoughts below the proportion of his love Is it not too little that thou hast consecrated to his service Come my Soul and open thy heart it is to a good friend even unto thy God never stand upon it but double the summe and for every peny thou first thought of write down two for God hath prospered us beyond all our thoughts Or if we have not thriven perhaps it is because we gave no more Let us try therefore this way of thriving by offering liberally unto God and see how he will improve our goods for us And I wish heartily that men would try not onely for their souls sake but for the good of their bodies and the welfare that I wish unto their posterities For there is no such sure way of enlarging or preserving an estate as doing good with it and giving out of it to those that need By this means we do not so much leave God in trust for our children as make him become their debtor who will pay them back again with large use and advantage I would not have writ so many lines of this subject if I did not fear that mens Charity comes from them by drops and those drops likewise are expressed by accident and chance rather then by any advised thoughts And therefore I desire that this part of our Religion may be made more serious and have a deeper foundation in our hearts so that we should study what sum of money God may justly expect from us to whom he hath given so much Now a fitter time there cannot be to meditate of this then before our approaches to the solemn remembrance of Gods bounty and liberality towards us VI. We are likewise to endeavour that all the passions and affections of our souls may be quieted and stilled We must take some pains with them that they may be so mortified and deadned to the world that then they may not be too quick and lively and hinder our Meditations of heavenly things For this as you have seen is a spiritual banquet and the food gives no nourishment but what we receive by meditation by serious thoughts and affections which can find no place but onely in still and quiet souls When the body feasts a great part of the good Cheer is pleasant discourse and innocent mirth and there is no welcome unless there be some noise But the soul feasts in silence it eats its morsels in a deep and calm thought its pleasure is in conference with its self and God and all the sound is onely the voice of thanksgiving in hymns or Psalms of Praises to God into which at last it breaks and utters its self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dost not thou know saith Chrysostome that thy soul ought to be big with a calm at that season when thou goest so near unto God There is need of a great deal of peace and tranquility and there should be no tumults of anger and such like passions since thou thinkest of the God of Love The Sun of Righteousness shines so hot upon thee that thou shouldest be as smooth and fair as the face of the water in the brightest day Thou shouldest labour that there may not be a wrinkle upon thy brow that all thy storms may be so husht and lay'd as if thou heard'st thy Saviours voice saying Peace be still And therefore all holy men have taken an especial care when they were going to the Table of the Lord to renew their acts of forgiveness and passing by all injuries and offences to reconcile themselves perfectly to their Brethren and repair any wrong that they could possibly conceive themselves to have done to others which before they had not observed I have in the beginning of this Discourse prevented all mistakes so that none can reasonably think that he may harbour malice in his heart and bear a grudge in his mind unto his neighbour with sufficient safety at other times so he do but discharge all these black passions when he approaches unto God And my meaning now is That seeing we come to this Feast that we may more encrease our love we ought to search if there be but any spark of anger that lies buried in our souls and take care that it be perfectly quenched And seeing there will be many occasions of differences among Neighbours that we ought now to consider if there were any heats in the management of them and if any seeds of fire yet remain that they may utterly be extinguished and never break forth again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys Orat. 60. ad Pop. Antioch Vid. etiam Hom. 3. in Epist ad Ephes Dare a man touch this holy Sacrifice with unwashen hands How dare he then approach with an unwashed and polluted soul Now there is nothing that doth more soot and black a soul then an abideing anger which causeth the holy Spirit to flie away and as I may say driveth it out of its lodging as fire doth us to seek some other habitation Valerius Maximus tell us Cui praeter cognatus affines nemo interponebatur L. 2. c. 1. Sect. 8. that there was a solemn Feast appointed by their Ancestors which they called Charistia to which none but those that were of kin or had some affinity were permitted to approach I am sure to the Eucharistia the Sacrament of Love and Peace none shall be welcome but those that are the friends and kindred of Christ and are allied to each other in a brotherly affection We must all as you have seen already come hither as children to feast with our Father and if there be any displeasure in our hearts to one another he cannot be well pleased nor give us such an entertainment as we expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Procâ—â—s in Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. l. 5. which Heiasius saith is in some editions of the LXX in Isa 24.16 Remember that then which Clemens Alex. saith he found in some Gospel My mysteries or secrets are to me and the children of my Family Unless you be the children of Peace think not to penetrate into his
our company So handsomely do our deceitfull hearts teach us to cover our own nakedness by calling all that superstition which creates any trouble to us and crying out upon that as a spice of Will-Worship which doth not sort with our humour For it too plainly appears that if a Child of our own brain do please us well we are as fond of it as any of our Neighbours can be thought to be of their conceptions and would have the world embrace it as a divine Ordinance formed in Heaven The very truth is Men lend to God and their Devotion only such Offices as flatter their passions There is much of pleasure in having the ears tickled with a Sermon and it makes a great noise among our Neighbours to keep dayes of Fasting and Prayer and therefore these are accepted with a greater applause than the sad Meditations of Christs death and the frequent remembrance of the Wounds of a Crucified Saviour which prick too deep and make too wide gashes in our hearts Though this be more expresly commanded than many other things that men perform with a great noise and spend much zealous breath upon yet they cast but a cold and heavy aspect on it because it humours not their ease and speaks not kindly to their covetousness but makes too busie and narrow a search into their souls And really I doubt that mens endeavours to be removed as far as they can from Rome have done our Religion a great deal of harm They still retain the custome of celebrating every day but the Priest doth it alone and they make it a Sacrifice for the quick and dead Now some men so that this false notion was destroyed and private Masses abolished did not care though the frequent Communions were destroyed also together with them and it is our manner to pay this honour to Christ but twice or thrice in a year And so because they speak of Justification differently from us men are apt to live as though good works were a piece of Popery and as if Alms-deeds and Charity to the Poor were a scandalous thing in Religion Though men Communicate very seldome yet their Offerings are as sparing as if they Communicated every week and so their souls and the Poor are both defrauded and starved together Idleness and covetousness are mens darlings they are the brats of all new devices in Religion and these two are nursed up and dandled on the knees of this trifling conceit that zealous devout Christians do bear too great a reverence to this Sacrament and hope to go to Heaven by their charitable deeds Well! let sloth and avarice pride themselves a while it will not be long before God take down their Plumes and make it manifest that it was not superstition which prickt forward the first Christians to such frequent Communion nor vain-glory which made them so prodigal as the modern stile is in their liberality Methinks I see how the lazy and worldly Christians do thrust themselves into the Arms of Christ and do even melt and dissolve into his bosome in raptures of love their mouthes can relish nothing but Christ and his Name is so sweet that it is ingraven upon their lips they court him as if they would ravish his heart and they exceed the strains of all Romantick lovers If he will not bestow himself upon them they cannot imagine who should be taken into his heart They cannot believe but he will take it very ill if they will not trust him for their salvation without troubling themselves whom he is so tender of that he would have them void of all care and thoughtfulness It is a piece of self think such men to be so strict and curious Alas poor ignorant souls men would fain be doing something to procure salvation they would purchase Heaven and give something to attain it but we will give Christ the honour of doing all and only cast our selves upon him that he may save us You cannot imagine now how these mens hearts are tickled and ravished with these Liquorish thoughts and the pleasure of them doth but make them believe that they are in greater favour In this transport of fancy they do verily conceive that they have the testimony of the holy Ghost bearing witness to them that they are the Sons of God But how fearfully these persons will one day fall is a great deal further from all our conceits The Lord will shake off all these men with a great deal of disdain who offer but to touch the very skirts of his Garments O you vile and adulterous souls will he say who think that I am altogether such an one as your selves depart from me for I know you not ye workers of iniquity Down you arrogant spirits that thought to build your nests on high and by the wings of fancy to flie up unto Heaven I have no room in my heart for such flatterers nor can my foul love such Hypocrites and Unbelievers But come you blessed of my Father you who have loved me and kept my Commandments you that did what I bid you in remembrance of me and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Then shall there be great wailing and men shall groan for anguish of spirit Then shall the worldlings say this is he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverb of reproach We fools accounted his life madness and his end without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his lot is among the Saints I wish all men would lay it to heart betimes and not think that it is preciseness to endeavour to observe all the commands of our blessed Lord. Which if we did then this command would not be so slighted of commemorating his death in the way he hath appointed nor should men be so unmeet for it as now they seem to be For Secondly What excuses can men find to palliate the neglect of this duty but what arise from an unholy or careless life Many pretences there are I know to keep me from waiting upon our Lord and accepting of his kindness but they all grow upon this bitter root of loving the world and the lusts of it We put him off with the excuse of too much boldness and rudeness that we should be guilty of if we should give him frequent visits Truly as the case stands most men would be too full of confidence if they should approach but the only reason is because they have a mind to live as strangers to him and not to be his houshold Servants and Domesticks for then they might alway come unto him Men plead their unworthiness but it were well if they were more sensible of it for then they would not remain so unworthy They think they must not come so oft because it costs them so much time to prepare themselves once but if they would spare so much time as to lead an holy life and be at so much trouble as to please God in other things they would not
with power Rom. 15.13 Fill me with all joy and peace in believing Let me abound in hope Ephes 3 17. Let me be rooted and grounded in love If I have found favour in thine eyes let me be filled with the holy Ghost How sayst thou that thou lovest me if I have no more love unto thee no more life from thee and if I be so barren and unfruitfull in good Works O my Lord I take the boldness lovingly to complain to thee and expostulate with thee Why am I so dull and cold in thy service why am I so unwilling to execute thy commands why am I so weak and unable against the enemies assaults If thou be with me who can be against me Surely the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 Through thee I shall do valiantly thou shalt tread down all my enemies Psal 60.12 Psal 57.2 It is the Lord that performeth all things for me I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me Phil. 4.13 Psal 20.5 I will rejoice in thy salvation and in the Name of my God will I set up my Banners Lord I believe Mark 9.24 help thou my unbelief When we have done these things with the best devotion we can it will be a great refreshment to the soul if we turn it a little towards those who are the friends of your Lord. And therefore VI. Sixthly When we see him give the same Bread to others let us renew Acts of Love unto our Brethren Let us think that we being many are but one body and that we are made members one of another Let us ardently therefore embrace them in our armes let us clasp about them as our friends let us love one another with a pure heart fervently If we feel not the flame hot enough let us stir up in our minds again the remembrance of the dear love of our Lord and that will make us burn in affection to each other That will utterly put out all the sparks of envy anger or malice which are already buried that they may never any more revive to glow in our souls That will teach us a perfect remedy against all such distempered motions Let us but resolve that our thoughts shall dwell in the fide of Christ and Hell can never shoot any of its fires unto us If ever any of those black and dark passions begin to reek let us but presently enter into his wounds and they will all be extinguished When we feel but the loving warmth of his heart all our anger will turn into love and all our enemies will find us friends Let us resolve therefore now that we remember his love to enemies that we will never bear any hatred more Let us resolve now that we see how he distributes himself to us all that we will never contemn nor despise the meanest Brother that the eye shall not say to the foot I have no need of thee that one member shall not strike another that we will live in all peace and love bearing one anothers infirmities kindly accepting of reproofs doing all the good we can to soul and body that all men may know us to be Christs Disciples That we may do thus let every man think as seriously as he can within himself Did Christ dye only for me Was his body broken for my sake alone Are not other persons as dear unto him as my self Have we not all eaten of the same Loaf Are we not about to drink of the same Cup How shall I hate those whom my Beloved loves How shall I envy those to whom he is so liberal How shall I offend one of these for whom Christ dyed How shall I deny my self to him to whom my Lord hath given himself O my soul hast not thou espoused the same loves with thy blessed Lord Must not all his friends and relations be thy kindred Now he is not ashamed to call them brethren And therefore let them lye in my bosome let my soul cleave unto them let us keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Such heavenly Aspirations and Affections as these would be as a sweet perfume in our souls that would make our Lord to like of his habitation the better they would be as the fragrant Oyntment poured on the head of Aaron Psal 133 2. that would invite him to more ardent embraces and give him the greater contentment in us For so you read him saying in the Cant. 4.10 How fair is thy Love my Sister my Spouse how much better is thy love than Wine and the smell of thy Oyntments than Spices She had said cap. 1.3 That his Name was an Oyntment poured forth the savour of which made all Virgin souls in love with him and now he saith the very same of her That he was much enamoured of her love yea even ravished as it is in the verse before and that nothing was so beautifull or sweet unto him as that love Now by the mention of the Oyntments to which the Psalmist compares the unity of Brethren it should seem the Bridegroom commends not only her love to him but to all his not only to the head but the whole body And therefore he compares her presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Pamph. v. 12. to a Garden because as one of the Ancients speaks she did bring forth all the fruits of the spirit which are Love Joy Peace and the rest of their kindred And to a Garden enclosed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. because guarded against the enemy by the hedge and fence of the Commandments the summe of which is love to God and to one another VII Seventhly When we receive the Cup it is fit that we should again admire the wonderfull love of God that he would purchase us to himself by his own bloud And we should consider the great and inestimable value of this bloud Acts 20.28 that could make expiation and give God full satisfaction for such a world of offences The infinite virtue likewise as well as value of this sacrifice should be taken into our thoughts which lasts for ever and is now as fresh and full of efficacy as if the blood were newly shed upon the Cross Heb. 12.10 For so the Apostle saith This man after he had once offered for sinne for ever sate down on the right hand of God And that you may wonder more at the excellency of this Offering Consider how many sinnes you have committed and then guesse how many the sinnes are which have been committed by all men that have been are and shall be in the World and yet that this one Sacrifice is sufficient in Gods account to take away all being of an everlasting force and power And the better again to conceive of this admirable thing compare it with the sacrifices of old One sacrifice could
angry at him that would save his soul Do we eat and drink this Heavenly provision and then rise up to play do we stand in need of such noble nourishment for the following of our trades and the encouragement of us in our worldly business O consider beloved Reader that lookest on these lines that an honest Heathen would do better things than these He that never heard of Christ and never tasted of this Heavenly food would be ashamed of such a life Philosophy which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nutriment of the soul would produce far more excellent works There is no need thou shouldest be a Christian if thou hast no more noble end Meer reason will breed up better Scholars and therefore go and sit with the Deipnosophists and come not unto the Supper of the Lord unless thou intendest to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing Col. 1.10 being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God Do but hear what they promised themselves from their Philosophy Hoc est quod Philosophia mihi promittit ut me parem Deo faciat Epist 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then judge to what it is fit a Christian so divinely nourished should aspire This saith Seneca Philosophy doth make me promises of that it will make me a Peer with God This is that saith Cleomedes which preserves the Demy-God that is within us from being shamefully intreated which keeps it unmoveable and unshaken which gives it the better of all pleasures and pains which makes it intend some worthy end and receive all events and contingencies as coming from thence from whence it self came and above all which learns it to wait for the coming of death with a chearfull mind What man then deserves the name of a Christian that notwithstanding all the means of grace which God affords doth strive to make himself equal with a Beast that basely uses his noble part that is like a feather shaken with the wind and lyes down at the feet of every pleasure and cannot sustain the load of the least grief that vexes and frets at every cross as if the Devil ruled the world and trembles at death as a Child doth at a friend with a vizard on God expects sure that we should be men of another sort and that Philosophy should not beget more lusty souls than Christianity can We must be ashamed to live at a lower rate than a man that had been but at Plato's Compotation and we must make account the Blood of Christ is to nourish better Spirits in us than the very soul and spirit of reason if we could suck it in can be able to generate Let us look therefore into our hearts daily and see that he be there Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever else we do let us ask him if he be pleased Let us go to him constantly that he may know we love him And let us entreat him to tell us what he would have us to do and then let us do it with all our might VII Seventhly Let us maintain a longing in our souls after another such repast Let us strive every day to keep up a spiritual hunger after this food that so we may not neglect the next opportunity which God shall give us of Communion or if we should die before we have one yet Heaven may find us prepared for the Feast where the marriage shall be compleated Christ may find such holy longings after him that our souls may be taken into his bosome to dwell in him as he before dwelt in us When we cannot outwardly communicate yet we may in heart in spirit Though we cannot alwayes celebrate the mysteries yet we may have the thing signified in those mysteries as St. Bernard speaks at all times in all places i. e. We may with pious affections and holy actions receive Christ continually into our souls As the Sacrament saith he sine re Sacramenti without the thing of the Sacrament is death to the unworthy so we may conclude that res Sacramenti the thing it self without the Sacrament will be life eternal to the worthy Whensoever in remembrance of Christ thou art piously and devoutly affected into an imitation of Christ thou dost eat his Body and drink his Blood But then if we do constantly preserve such longings and hungring after this Feast and do at all times feast upon him we cannot pass by any occasion that God affords us of receiving him in that manner that he hath appointed and blessed and we cannot but be very forward to go to remember him when opportunity is presented in the Assembly of his people And therefore I shall not make it a distinct advice that you would come again when this Table is spread for you For this is but a just gratitude to God a sign that we like his fare and are well pleased with his chear and are ambitious of nothing more than such an entertainment And I think we shall shew our selves to have been very unworthy guests at the last Feast if we like it so little as to refuse to come the next time that we are invited In the beginning of our Religion they received every day Acts 2.46 Which proceeded from a great devotion and fervency of spirit when the holy Ghost like fire had descended upon them And this heat did not abate in all places for the space of 400 years but in some Churches of Affrica as St. Augustine writes and in Rome and Spain as St. Hierome tells us they retained this ardent love and continually remembred the dying of the Lord Jesus And it was proposed to St. Augustine as a doubt whether a person of business as a Merchant Husbandman or the like should every day Communicate To which he answered To receive the Sacrament every day I neither praise nor reprove but to Communicate every Lords-day I would wish you and exhort every one so to do And so St. Chrysostome exhorting of the people to build Churches in the Villages where they might hold Assemblies he perswades them by this Argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cap. 8. Act. p. 716 edit Sav. There Prayers will be sent up daily for every one of you there God will be continually praised with Hymns and every Lords day will there be an Offering made for you And though the devotion of Christians fell from once in a day to once in a week and from thence to once in a moneth till at last the Church of Rome hath thought it fit to bind men of necessity but to once in a year yet I find a devout Papist thus speaking Fr. Sales Introd Though it be hard to say how often a man is bound to Communicate yet I think I may boldly affirm That the greatest distance between the times of Communicating among such as desire to serve God devoutly is from moneth to moneth And sure the strict observance
of the divine Commandments which was among the Primitive Saints their despising of all worldly things their great charity and love may be thought to have flowed in great part from this spring that they received so frequently the Body and Blood of our Lord. Hence we may derive their strength activeness and zeal because they were so often refreshed with this Wine This gave them boldness against their adversaries this made them run so forwardly into flames because they were constantly heated with divine fires From this Table they went away with the courage of Lions and were terrible even to that great roaring Lion which devours so many careless souls He could not make such an easie prey of them as he doth of us because they did daily renew their strength by this food and became as bold as a Lion after he hath eaten flesh and drunken blood And if we did more frequently Communicate it would be a means to bring us to a greater resemblance of our Lord which was the thing that I last pressed who you know overcame the evil one and trod him under his feet As the Leverets saith the forementioned Author in the Mountains of Helvetia become all white because they neither see nor eat any thing but driven Snow so by often adorning and eating beauty goodness and purity it self in this divine Sacrament we should become altogether vertuous pure and beautifull And I am of the mind of another excellent Writer Dr. J. Taylor who judges it very probable That the Warres of Kingdomes the contentions in Families the infinite multitude of Law suits the personal hatreds and the universal want of charity which hath made the world so miserable and wicked may in a great degree be attributed to the neglect of this great Symbole and instrument of charity And that is the last thing that I shall commend unto you VIII Eighthly Let us be sure to live in charity with our Brethren to which we are in a special manner engaged by this Sacrament and of which we make a most solemn profession Let us behave our selves as Servants in the same family as sons of the same father as those who have eaten of the same bread Let us be very carefull that we do not cover the coals of anger and contention under the ashes for a night and then blow them up again the next morning but let us quite extinguish them and utterly put them out Let not your jealousies your hard thoughts your uncharitable and rash censurings your differences and enmities ever return again but let that sentence run in your minds 1 John 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought to love one another If he have given his Son if he still give him to us if we feed and live upon him then let us love as Brethren and not fall out in our way to Heaven And if we find our love to grow sick and weak and to be fallen to decay then let us come hither on purpose for to revive it and raise it up again If the Lamp begin to burn dim and to cast a very weak light let us pour in more Oyl that it may not go out If our love begin to be chill and cold let us put this fire the oftner under it that it may be kept in a flame For assure your selves that they who take up their differences and enmities again did never truly lay them aside they did but mock God when they came to this holy Communion with a pretence of Love and Charity their hearts not being throughly resolved to forget all in juries and offences Or if they did seriously labour to put to death all hatreds one great reason why they are not throughly mortified is because they use so rarely this powerfull means of suppressing them and keeping them in their graves Men do one with another Plutarch alij as the Thespienses with married persons who once in five years space kept a Feast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Cupids honour for the reconciling of all differences that had happened between Man and Wife Such a small Festivity do men make of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper to which they come perhaps with an intention to bury all differences but then they give them a whole twelve moneths time if not more to revive and gather strength again Hence it is that the temper of the Christian World is as much different from the Spirit of the elder times as heat is from cold or life from death They held such frequent Communions that their love was so flagrant as to make them dye for one another and we hold them so seldome that the heat of our unmortified passions makes us wound and kill each other So that I make account there is but a little difference between doing this seldome and not doing it at all yea those enmities will be more fierce and untractable which even the Bloud of Jesus hath not quenched To put a conclusion then to this Discourse let me advise you when you come from the Table of the Lord thus to meditate within your selves I have received fresh Pledges of the love of my Lord and I have made new professions of my own What now doth the Lord require of me What have I that I can render back to him Alas I have nothing to give him but only my love nothing but my love did I say Oh how great a thing is love how much is inclosed in the bosome of love It is no such trifle as I imagine Love brought God down to us and love will carry us up to God Love made God like to man and love will make men like to God Love made him dye for us and love will make us lay down our lives for the Brethren O the power of Heavenly Love How shall I get thee planted in my heart Who can bring thee into my soul but only love Love begets love and the frequent Meditation of this love of God and of his Son will inflame thy heart in love to them Oh let a sense of this love lye perpetually in my breast that may change me into love Let me burn and languish in the Armes of Jesus Let me long for nothing but him let him be all my talk all my joy the Crown of my delight Let me never forget how gracious he is let the taste of his incomparable sweetness be never out of my mouth let me never rellish any thing but what hath some savour of him O my foul what should we wish for but to feast again with him What should we desire but to be satisfied with him Psal 27.4 This one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of my Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple What friend is there to whom we have been endeared that we can forget Do we use to throw the