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
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
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
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.
seek for Christ we shall find him in the methods of Vertue and the paths of Gods Commandments in the houses of Prayer and the offices of Religion in the persons of the poor and the retirements of an afflicted soul we shall find him in holy reading and pious meditation in our penitential sorrows and in the time of trouble in Pulpits and upon Altars in the Word and in the Sacraments If we come hither as we ought we are sure to finde our Beloved him whom our soul longeth after Sure enough Christ is here but he is not here in every manner and therefore is not to be found by every inquirer nor touched by every hand nor received by all comers nor entertained by every guest He that means to take the air must not use his fingers but his mouth and he that receives Christ must have a proper that is a spiritual instrument a purified heart consecrated lips and a hallowed mouth a tongue that speaks no evil and a hand that ministers to no injustice and to no uncleanness For a disproportionate intrument is an undecency and makes the effect impossible both in nature and morality Can a man bind a thought with chains or carry imaginations in the palm of his hand Can the beauty of the Peacocks train or the Estrich plume be delicious to the palat and the throat Does the hand intermeddle with the joys of the heart or darkness that hides the naked make him warm Does the Body live as does the Spirit or can the Body of Christ be like to common food Indeed the Sun shines upon the good and bad and the Vines give Wine to the drunkard as well as to the sober man Pirates have fair winds and a calm Sea at the same time when the just and peaceful Merchant man hath them But although the things of this world are common to good and bad yet Sacraments and spiritual joys the food of the soul and the blessing of Christ are the peculiar right of Saints and the Rites of our Religion are to be handled by the measures of Religion and the things of God by the rules of the Spirit and the Sacraments are Mysteries and to be handled by Mystic persons and to be received by Saints and therefore whoever will partake of Gods secrets must first look into his own he must pare off whatsoever is amiss and not without holiness approach to the Holiest of all Holies nor eat of this Sacrifice with a defiled head nor come to this feast without a nuptial garment nor take this remedy without a just preparative For though in the first motions of our spiritual life Christ comes alone and offers his Grace and enlivens us by his Spirit and makes us begin to live because he is good not because we are yet this great mysterious Feast and magazine of Grace and glorious mercies is for those only that are worthy for such only who by their cooperation with the Grace of God are fellow-workers with God in the laboratories of salvation The Wrastler that Clemens of Alexandria tells us of addressing himself to his contention and espying the Statue of Jupiter Pisaeus prayed aloud If all things O Jupiter are rightly prepared on my part if I have done all that I could do then do me justice and give me the Victory And this is a breviate of our case He that runneth in races saith the Apostle he that contends for mastery is temperate in all things and this at least must he be that comes to find Christ in these Mysteries he must be prepared by the rules and method of the Sanctuary there is very much to be done on his part there is an heap of duties there is a state of excellency there are preparations solemn and less solemn ordinary and extraordinary which must be premised before we can receive the mysterious blessings which are here not only consign'd but collated and promoted confirmed and perfected The holy Communion or Supper of the Lord is the most sacred mysterious and useful conjugation of secret and holy things and duties in the Religion It is not easie to be understood it is not lightly to be received It is not much opened in the writings of the New Testament but still left in its mysterious Nature It is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the Doctors and by them made more mysterious and like a Doctrine of Phylosophy made intricate by explications and difficult by the aperture and dissolution of distinctions So we sometimes espie a bright cloud formed into an irregular figure when it is observed by unskilful and phantastick travellers looks like a Centaure to some and as a Castle to others some tell that they saw an Army with Banners and it signifies War but another wiser than his fellow says it looks for all the world like a flock of Sheep and foretels Plenty and all the while it is nothing but a shining cloud by its own mobility and the activity of a wind cast into a contingent and inartificial shape So it is in this great Mystery of our Religion in which some espie strange things which God intended not and others see not what God hath plainly told some call that part of it a Mystery which â—none and others think all of it nothing but a meer ceremony and a sign some say it signifies and some say it effects some say it is a Sacrifice and others call it a Sacrament some Schools of learning make it the Instrument of Grace in the hand of God others say that it is God himself in that Instrument of Grace some call it venerable and others say as the vain men in the Prophet that the Table of the Lord is contemptible some come to it with their sins on their head and others with their sins in their mouth some come to be cured some to be quickned some to be nourished and others to be made alive some out of fear and reverence take it but seldom others out of devotion take it frequently some receive it as a means to procure great graces and blessings others as an Eucharist and an office of thanksgiving for what they have received some call it an act of obedience meerly others account it an excellent devotion and the exercising of the virtue of Religion some take it to strengthen their Faith others to beget it and yet many affirm that it does neither but supposes Faith before-hand as a disposition Faith in all its degrees according to the degree of Grace whither the Communicant is arrived Some affirm the Elements are to be blessed by prayers of the Bishop or other Minister others say it is only by the mystical words the words of institution and when it is blessed some believe it to be the natural body of Christ others to be nothing of that but the blessings of Christ his Word and his Spirit his Passion in representment and his Grace in real exhibition And all these men have something of
the spices and gums upon the Altar of Incense SECT II. What it is which we receive in the holy SACRAMENT IT is strange that Christians should pertinaciously insist upon carnal significations and natural effects in Sacraments and Mysteries when our blessed Lord hath given us a sufficient light to conduct and secure us from such mis-apprehensions The flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life that is the flesh is corruption and its senses are Ministers of death and this one word alone was perpetually sufficient for Christ's Disciples For when upon occasion of the grosse understanding of their Masters words by the men of Capernaum they had been once clearly taught that the meaning of all these words was wholly spiritual they rested there and inquired no further insomuch that when Christ at the institution of the Supper affirmed of the bread and wine that they were his body and his blood they were not at all offended as being sufficiently before instructed in the nature of that Mystery And besides this they saw enough to tell them that what they eat was not the natural body of their Lord This was the body which himself did or might eat with his body one body did eat and the other was eaten both of them were his body but after a diverse manner For the case is briefly this We have two lives a natural and a spiritual and both must have bread for their support and maintenance in proportion to their needs and to their capacities and as it would be an intollerable charity to give nothing but spiritual nutriment to a hungry body and pour diagrams and wise propositions into an empty stomach so it would be as useless and impertinent to feed the Soul with wheat or flesh unless that were the conveyance of a spiritual delicacy In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the body of Christ according to the proper signification of a humane body is not at all but in a sense differing from the proper and natural body that is in a sense more agreeing to Sacraments so St. Hierom expresly Of this sacrifice which is wonderfully done in the commemoration of Christ we may eat but of that sacrifice which Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse by it self or in its own nature no man may eat For it is his flesh which is under the form of bread and his blood which is in the form and tast of wine for the flesh is the Sacrament of flesh and blood is the Sacrament of blood for by flesh and blood that is invisible spiritual intelligible the visible and tangible body of our Lord Jesus Christ is consigned full of the grace of all vertues and of Divine Majesty So St Augustine For therefore ye are not to eat that body which ye see nor to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour out it is the same and not the same the same invisibly but not the same visibly For until the world be finished the Lord is above but the truth of the Lord is with us The body in which he rose again must be in one place but the truth of it is every where diffused For there is one truth of the body in the Mystery and another truth simply and without Mystery It is truly Christs body both in the Sacrament and out of it but in the Sacrament it is not the natural truth but the spiritual and the mystical And therefore it was that our Blessed Saviour to them who apprehended him to promise his natural body and blood for our meat and drink spake of his ascension into heaven that we might learn to look from heaven to receive the food of our souls heavenly and spiritual nourishment said St. Athanasius For this is the letter which in the New Testament kills him who understands not spiritually what is spoken to him under the signification of meat and flesh and blood and drink So Origen For this bread does not go into the body for to how many might his body suffice for meat but the bread of eternal life supports the substance of our spirit and therefore it is not touch'd by the body nor seen with the eyes but by faith it is seen and touched So St. Ambrose And all this whole mystery hath in it neither carnal sense nor carnal consequence saith St. Chrysostom But to believe in Christ is to eat the bread and therefore why do you prepare your teeth and stomach believe him and you have eaten him they are the words of S. Austin For faith is that intellectual mouth as S. Brasil calls it which is within the man by which he takes in nourishment But what need we to draw this water from the lesser cisterns we see this truth reflected from the spring it self the fountains of our blessed Saviour I am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall not hunger and he that believeth on me shall not thirst and again He that eats my flesh hath life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day The plain consequent of which words is this that therefore this eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood can only be done by the Ministeries of life and of the spirit which is opposed to nature and flesh and death And when we consider that he who is not a spiritual and a holy person does not feed upon Christ who brings life eternal to them that feed on him it is apparent that our manducation must be spiritual and therefore so must the food and consequently it cannot be natural flesh however altered in circumstance and visibilities and impossible or incredible changes For it is not in this spiritual food as it was in Manna of which our Fathers did eat and died but whosoever eats this divine nutriment shall never die The Sacraments indeed and symbols the exterior part and ministeries may be taken unto condemnation but the food it self never For an unworthy person cannot feed on this food because here to eat Christs flesh is to do our duty and to be established in our title to the possession of the eternal promises For so Christ disposed the way of salvation not by flesh but by the spirit saith Tertullian that is according to his own exposition Christ is to be desired for life and to be devoured by hearing to be chewed by the understanding and to be digested by faith and all this is the method and oeconomy of heaven which whosoever uses and abides in it hath life abiding in him He that in this world does any other way look for Christ shall never find him and therefore if men say Loe here is Christ or loe there he is in the desart or he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cupboards or Pantries where bread or flesh is laid believe it not Christs body is in heaven and it is not upon earth the heavens must contain
him till the time of restitution of all things and so long as we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. In the mean time we can taste and see that the Lord is gracious that he is sweet but Christ is so to be tasted as he is to be seen and no otherwise but here we walk by faith and not by sight and here also we live by faith and not by meer or only bread but by that Word which proceedeth out from God that as meat is to the body so is Christ to the soul the food of the soul by which the souls of the just do live He is the bread which came down from heaven the bread which was born at Bethlâ—hem the house of bread was given to us to be the food of our souls for ever The meaning of which mysterious and Sacramental expressions when they are reduced to easie intelligible significations is plainly this By Christ we live and move and have our spiritual being in the life of grace and in the hopes of glory He took our life that we might partake of his he gave his life for us that he might give life to us He is the Author and finisher of our faith the beginning and perfection of our spiritual life Every good thought we think we have it from him every good word we speak we speak it by his spirit for no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and all our prayers are by the aids and communications of the spirit of Christ who helpeth our infirmities and by unutterable groans and unexpressible representment of most passionate desires maketh intercession for us In fine all the principles and parts all the actions and progressions of our spiritual life are derivations from the Son of God by whom we are born and nourished up to life Eternal 2. Christ being the food of our souls he is pleased to signifie this food to us by such symbols and similitudes as his present state could furnish us withal He had nothing about him but flesh and blood which are like to meat and drink and therefore what he calls himself saying I am the bread of life he afterwards calls his flesh and his blood saying My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed that is that you may perceive me to be indeed the food of your souls see here is meat and drink for you my flesh and my blood so to represent himself in a way that was neerest to our capacity and in a more intelligible manner not further from a Mystery but neerer to our manner of understanding and yet so involved in figure that it is never to be drawn neerer than a Mystery till it comes to experience and spiritual relish and perception But because we are not in darknesse but within the fringes and circles of a bright cloud let us search as far into it as we are guided by the light of God and where we are forbidden by the thicker part of the cloud step back and worship 3. For we have yet one further degree of charity and manifestation of this Mystery The flesh of Christ is his word the blood of Christ is his spirit and by believing in his word and being assisted and conducted by his spirit we are nourished up to life and so Christ is our food so he becomes life unto our souls Thus St. Clemens of Alexandria and Tertullian affirm the Church in their days to have understood this Mystery saying The word of God is called flesh and blood For so the eternal wisdom of the Father calls to every simple soul that wanteth understanding come eat of the bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled and that we may know what is this bread and wine he adds forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding Our life is wisdom our food is understanding The Rabbins have an observation that when ever mention is made in the Book of the Proverbs of eating and drinking there is meant nothing but wisdom and the Law and when the Doctors using the words of Scripture say Come and eat flesh in which there is much fatness they would be understood to say Come and hear wisdom and learn the fear of God in which there is great nourishment and advantage to your souls Thus Wisdom is called Water and Vnderstanding Bread by the son of Sirach with the bread of understanding shall she feed him and give him the water of wisdom to drink It is by the Prophet Isaiah called water and wine and the desires of righteousness are called hunger and thirst by our blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount And in pursuance of this mysterious truth we find that God in his anger threatens a famine of hearing the words of the Lord when we want Gods word we die with hunger we want that bread on which our souls do feed It was an excellent Commentary which the Jewish Doctors make upon those words of the Prophet with joy shall ye draw waters from the wells of salvation that is from the choicest or wisest of the just men saith Rabbi Jonathan from the chief Ministers of Religion the Heads of the people and the Rulers of the Congregation because they preach the Word of God they open the wells of salvation from the fountains of our Saviour giving drink and refreshment to all the people Thus the Prophet Jeremy expresses his spiritual joy and the sense of this Mystery Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by thy Name O Lord God of Hosts the same with that of our Blessed Saviour My words are spirit and they are life they give life and comfort they refresh our souls and feed them up to immortality As the body or flesh of Christ is his Word so the blood of Christ is his Spirit in real effect and signification For as the body without blood is a dead and liveless trunck so is the Word of God without the Spirit a dead and ineffective Letter and this Mystery we are taught in that incomparable Epistle to the Hebrews For by the blood of Christ we are sanctified and yet that which sanctifies us is the spirit of grace and both these are one For so saith the Apostle the blood of Christ was offered up for us for the purification of our consciences from dead works but this offering was made through the eternal spirit and therefore he is equally guilty and does the same impiety he who does dâ—spâ—te to the spirit of Grace and he who accounts the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing for by this spirit and by this blood we are sanctified by this spirit and by the blood of the everlasting Covâ—nant Jesus Christ does perfect us in every good work so that these are the
Christs death an act of obedience a ceremony of memorial but of no spiritual effect and of no proper advantage to the soul of the receiver Against this besides the preceding discourse convincing their fancy of weakness and derogation the consideration of the proper excellencies of this mystery in its own seperate nature will be very useful For now we are to consider how his natural body enters into his oeconomy and dispensation For the understanding of which are to consider that Christ besides his Spiritual body and blood did also give us his natural and we receive that by the means of this For this he gave us but once then when upon the Crosse he was broken for our sins this body could die but once and it could be but at one place at once and Heaven was the place appointed for it and at once all was sufficiently effected by it which was design'd in the Counsel of God â—or by the vertue of that death Christ is become the Author of life unto us and of salvation he is our Lord and our Lawgiver but it he received all power in heaven and earth and by it he reconciled his Father to the world and in vertue of that he intercedes for us in heaven and sends his spirit upon earth and feeds our souls by his word he instructs us to wisdom and admits us to repentance and gives us pardon and by means of his own appointment nourishes us up by holinesse to life eternal This body being carried from us into heaven cannot be touch'd or tasted by us on earth but yet Christ left to us symbols and Sacraments of this natural body not to be or to convey that natural body to us but to do more and better for us to convey all the blessings and graces procured for us by the breaking of that body and the effusion of the blood which blessings being spiritual are therefore called his body spiritually because procured by that body which died for us and are therefore called our food because by them we live a new life in the spirit and Christ is our bread and our life because by him after this manner we are nourished up to life eternal That is plainly thus Therefore we eat Christs spiritual body because he hath given us his natural body to be broken and his natural blood to be shed for the remission of our sins and for the obtaining the grace and acceptability of repentance For by this gift and by this death he hath obtained this favour from God that by faith in him and repentance from dead works by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we may be saved To this sense of the Mystery are those excellent words of the Apostle He bare our sins upon his own body on the Tree that he might deliver us from the present evil world and sanctifie and purge us from all pollution of flesh and spirit that he might destroy the works of the devil that he might redeem us from all iniquity that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousnesse Totum Christiani nominis pondus fructus mors Christi All that we are or do or have is produced and effected by the death of Christ. Now because our life depends upon his death the ministry of this life must relate â—o the ministry of this death and we have nothing to glory in but the Crosse of Christ the Word preached is nothing but Jesus Christ crucified and the Sacraments are the most eminent way of declaring this word for by Baptism we are buried into his death and by the Lords Supper we are partakers of his death we communicate with the Lord Jesus as he is crucified but now since all belong to this that Word and that Mystery that is highest and neerest in this relation is the principal and chief of all the rest and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is so is evident beyond all necessity of inquiry it being instituted in the vespers of the Passion it being the Sacrament of the passion a sensible representation of the breaking Christs body of the effusion of Christs blood it being by Christ himself intituled to the passion and the symbols invested with the names of his broken body and his blood poured forth and the whole ministry being a great declaration of this death of Christ and commanded to be continued until his second coming Certainly by all these it appears that this Sacrament is the great ministry of life and salvation here is the publication of the great word of salvation here is set forth most illustriously the body and blood of Christ the food of our souls much more clearly than in Baptism much more effectually than in simple enunciation or preaching and declaration by words for this preaching is to strangers and infants in Christ to produce faith but this Sacramental enunciation is the declaration and confession of it by men in Christ a glorying in it giving praise for it a declaring it to be done and own'd and accepted and prevailing The consequent of these things is this That if any Mystery Rite or Sacrament be effective of any spiritual blessings then this is much more as having the prerogative and illustrious principality above every thing else in its own kind or of any other-kind in exteriour or interiour Religion I name them both because as in Baptism the water alone does nothing but the inward cooperation with the outward oblation does save us yet to Baptism the Scriptures attribute the effect so it is in this sacred solemnity the external act is indeed nothing but obedience and of it self only declares Christs death in rite and ceremony yet the worthy communicating of it does indeed make us feed upon Christ and unites him to the soul and makes us to become one spirit according to the words of S. Ambrose Ideo in similitudinem quidem accipis sacramentum sed verae naturae gratiam virtutemque consequeris thou recâ—ivâ—st the Sacrament as the similitude of Christs body but thou shalt receive the grace and the virtue of the true nature I shall not enter into so useless a discourse as to inquire whether the Sacraments confer grace by their own excellency and power with which they are endued from above because they who affirm they do require so much duty on our parts as they also do who attribute the effect to our moral disposition but neither one nor the other say true for neither the external act nor the internal grace and morality does effect our pardon and salvation but the spirit of God who blesses the symbols and assists the duty makes them holy and this acceptable Only they that attribute the efficacy to the Ministration of the Sacrament chose to magnifie the immediate work of man rather than the immediate work of God and prefer the external at least in glorious
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
produce you ought not to esteem it strange and impossible for how earthly and mortal things are converted into the substance of Christ ask thy self who art regenerated in Christ Not long since thou wast a stranger from life a pilgrim and wanderer from mercy and being inwardly dead thou wert banished from the way of life On a sudden being initiated in the laws of Christ and renewed by the Mysteries of Salvation thou didst passe suddenly into the body of the Church not by seeing but by believing and from a son of perdition thou hast obtained to be adopted a son of God by a secret purity remaining in a visible measure thou art invisibly made greater than thy self without any increase of quantity thou art the same thou wert and yet very much another person in the progression of Faith to the outward nothing is added but the inward is wholly changed and so a man is made the son of Christ and Christ is formed in the mind of a man As therefore suddenly without any bodily perception the former vileness being laid down on the sudden thou hast put on a new dignity and this that God hath done that he hath cured thy wounds washed off thy staines wiped away thy spots is trusted to thy discerning not thy eyes so when thou ascendest the reverend altar to be satisfied with spiritual food by faith regard honour admire the holy body of God touch it with thy mind take it with the hand of thy heart even with the draught of the whole inward man SECT V. Practical conclusions from the preceding Discourses THe first I represent in the words of St. Augustin who reduces this whole doctrine to practice in these excellent words let this whole affair thus far prevail with us that we may eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ not only in the Sacrament which many evil persons doe but let us eat and drink unto the participation of the spirit that as members we may abide in the Lords body that we may be quickened by his spirit and let us not be scandalized because many do temporally eat and drink with us who yet in the end shall find eternal torments that is let us remember that the exteriour ministery is the least part of it and externally and alone it hath in it nothing excellent as being destitute of the sanctity that God requires and the grace that he does promise and it is common to wicked men and good but when the signs and the thing signified when the prayers of the Church and the spirit of God the word and the meaning the sacrament and the grace do concur then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a venerable cup and full of power and more honourable than all our possessions it is a holy thing saith Origen and appointed for our sanctification For Christ in the Sacrament is Christ under a vail as without the hand of faith we cannot take Christ so we must be sure to look here with an eye of faith and whatsoever glorious thing is said of the holy Sacrament it must be understood of the whole Sacrament body and spirit that is the Sacramental and the spiritual Communion 2. Let no man be lesse confident in his holy faith and persuasion concerning the great blessings and glorious effects which God designs to every faithful and obedient soul in the communication of these Divine mysteries by reason of any difference of judgement which is in the several Schools of Christians concerning the effects and consequent blessings of this Sacrament For all men speak honourable things of it except wicked persons and the scorners of Religion and though of several persons like the beholders of a dove walking in the sun as they stand in several aspects and distances some see red and others purple and yet some perceive nothing but green but all allow and love the beauties so do the several forms of Christians according as they are instructed by their first teachers or their own experience conducted by their fancy and proper principles look upon these glorious mysteries some as vertually containing the reward of obedience some as solemnities of thanksgiving and records of blessings some as the objective increasers of faith others as the Sacramental participations of Christ others as the acts instruments of natural union yet all affirm some great things or other of it and by their differences confesse the immensity and the glory For thus Manna represented to every man the taste that himself did like but it had in its own potentiality all those tasts and dispositions eminently and altogether those feasters could speak of great and many excellencies and all confessed it to be enough and to be the food of Angels so it is here it is that to every mans faith which his faith wisely apprehends and though there are some who are of little faith and such receive but a less proportion of nourishment yet by the very use of this Sacrament the appetite will increase and the apprehensions grow greater and the faith will be more confident and instructed and then we shall see more and feel more For this holy nutriment is not only food but physick too and although to him who believes great things of his Physitian and of his medicine it is apt to do the more advantage yet it will do its main work even when we understand it not and nothing can hinder it but direct infidelity or some of its foul and deformed ministers 3. They who receive the blessed Sacrament must not suppose that the blessings of it are effected as health is by physick or warmth by the contact and neighbourhood of fire but as musick one way affects the soul and witty discourses another and joyful tidings a way differing from both the former so the operations of the Sacrament are produced by an energy of a nature intirely differing from all things else But however it is done the thing that is done is this no grace is there improved but what we bring along with us no increases but what we exercise we must bring faith along with us and God will increase our faith we must come with charity and we shall go away with more we must come with truly penitential hearts and to him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly he shall be a better penitent when he hath eaten the sacrifice that was slain for our sins and died in the body that we might live in the spirit and die no more For he is the bread from heaven he is the grain of wheat which falling into the earth unless it dies it remains alone but if it dies it brings forth fruit and brings it forth abundantly 4. Although the words the names and sayings concerning the Blessed Sacrament are mysterious and inexplicable yet they do nay therefore weare sure they signifie some great thing they are in the very expression beyond our understanding therefore much more are
the things themselves too high for us but therefore we are taught three things 1. To walk humbly with our God that is in all entercourses with him to acknowledg the infinite distance between his immensitie and our nothing his wisdom and our ignorance his secrets and our apprehensions he does more for us than we can understand It was an excellent saying of Aristotle which Seneca reports of him Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere quam cum de Diis agitur we ought never to be more bashful and recollect than when we are to speak any thing of God Timidè de potâ—state Deorum pauca dicenda sunt said Cicero we must speak of his power and glory timorously and sparingly with joyfulness and singleness or simplicity of heart so the first Christians eat their Bread their Eucharist so we understand the words of St. Luke 2. To walk charitably with our disagreeing brother that this may be indeed a Sacrament of charity and not to wonder if he be mistaken in his discourses of that which neither he nor you can understand 3. Though it be hard to be understood yet we must be careful that with simplicitie we admire the secret and accept the mystery but at no hand by pride or ignorance by interest or vanity to wrest this mysteâ—y to ignoble senses or to evil events or to dangerous propositions or to our own damnation 5. Whatever propositons any man shall entertain in his manner of discoursing of these mysteries let him be sure to take into his notice and memorie those great appellatives with which the purest ages of the Church the most ancient Liturgies and the most eminent Saints of God use to adorn and invest this great mysteriousness In the Greek Liturgie attributed to St. James the Sacramental Symbols are called sanctified honourable precious celestial unspeakable incorruptible glorious fearful formidable divine in the use of which Epithets as we have the warranty and consent of all the Greek Churches since they ever had a Liturgy so we are taught only to have reverend usages and religious apprehensions of the Divine mysteries but if by any appellative we can learn a duty it is one of the best waies of entring into the secret To which purpose the ages Primitive and Apostolical did use the word Eucharist the name and the use we learn from Origen the Bread which is called the Eucharist is the Symbol of our thanksgiving towards God But it is the great and most usual appellative for the holy Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find in Ignatius St. Clemens Justin Martyr the Syrian Paraphrast Origen and ever after amongst the Greeks aâ—d afterwards amongst the Latins By him we understand that then we receive great blessings since â—he very mystery it self obliges us to great thankâ—ulness I have instanced in this as an example to the use of the other Epithets and appellatives which from Antiquity I have enumerated 6. He that desires to enter furthest into the secrets of this mystery and to understand more than others can better learn by love than by inquiry He that keepeth the law of the Lord getteth the understanding thereof saith the wise Bensirach if he will prepare himself diligently and carefully observe the dispensations of the Spirit and receive it humbly and treat it with great reverence and dwell in the communion of Saints and pass through the mystery with great devotion and purest simplicity and converse wiâ—h the purities of the Sacrament frequâ—ntly â—nd with holy intention this man shall undeâ—stand more by his experience than the greatest Cleâ—ks can by all their subtilties the commentaries of the Doctors and the glosses of inquisitive men Obey and ye shall understand said the Prophet and our blessed Saviour assur'd us that if we continue in his word then we shall know the truth and if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no. For we have not turned from our iniquities that we might understand the truth said Daniel for the love of the Lord saith the wise man passeth all things for illumination 7. Let no man advance the preaching of the word of God to the disparagement or to occasion the neglect of the Sacraments For though it be true that faith comes by hearing yet it is not intended that by hearing alone faith is ingendred for the faith of the Apostles came by seeing and St. Pauls faith did not come by hearing but by intuition and revelation and hearing in those words of St. Paul does not signifie the manner of ministration but the whole Oeconomie of the word of God the whole office of preaching which is done most usefully to babes and strangers by sermon and homily but more gloriously and illustriously to men by Sacraments But however be it so or otherwise yet one ordinance ought not to exclude the other much less to disparage the other and least of all to undervalue that which is the most eminent but rather let every Christian man and woman think that if the word ministred by the spirit is so mightie it must be more when the word and the spirit joyn with the Sacrament which is their proper significatorie He that is zealous for the word of God does well but let him remember that the word of God is a goodly ring and leads us into the circles of a blessed eternity but because the Sacrament is not without the word they are a jewel encha'sd in gold when they are together The Ministeries of the Gospel are all of a piece they though in several manners work the same salvation by the conduct of the sâ—me spirit 8. Let no man in the reception of the Sacrament and in his expectation of blessings and events from it limit his hopes and belief to any one particular for that will occasion a littleness of faith and may make it curious scrupulous and phantastical rather let us adore the secret of God and with simple expectations receive it disposing our selves to all the effects that may come rather with fear and indefinite apprehensions than with dogmatical and confident limitations for this may beget scruples and diminution of value but that hinders nothing but advances the reverential treatments and opinion 9. He that guesses at the excellency and power of the Sacrament by the events that himself feels must be sure to look for no other than what are eminently or virtually contained in it that is he must not expect that the Sacrament will make him rich or discover to him stoln goods or cure the Tooth-ach or Countercharm Witches or appease a Tempest if it be thrown into the Sea These are such events which God hath not made the effects of religion but are the hopes and expectations of vain and superstitious people and I remember that Pope Alexander the third in the Council of Lateran wrote to the Bishop of S.
Agatha advice how to treat a woman who took the Holy Sacrament into her mouth and ran with it to kiss her husband hoping by that means to procure her husbands more intense affection But the story tells that she was chastis'd by a miracle and was not cur'd but by a long and severe repentance 10. He that watches for the effects and blessings of the Sacrament must look for them in no other manner than what is agreeable to the usual dispensation we must not look for them by measures of nature and usual expectations not that as soon as we have received the Symbols we shall have our doubts answered or be comforted in our spirit as soon as we have given thanks for the holy blood or be satisfied in the inquiries of faith as soon as the prayers of consecration and the whole ministery is ended or prevail in our most passionate desires as soon as we rise from our knees for we enter into the blessings of the Sacrament by prayer and the exercise of proper graces both which being spiritual instruments of vertues work after the manner of spiritual things that is not by any measure we have but as God please only that in the last event of things and when they are necessary we shall find them there Gods time is best but we must not judge his manner by our measures nor measure eternity by time or the issues of the spirit by a measuring line The effects of the Sacrament are to be expected as the effect of prayers not one prayer or one solemn meeting but persevering and pasâ—ionate fervent and lasting prayers a continual desire and a dayly address is the way of prevailing In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shâ—ll prosper either this or that or whether they shall be both alike good 11. He that looks for the effects and blessings told of to be appendant to the Sacrament must expect them upon no other terms but such as are the conditions of a worthy Communion If thou doest find thy faith as dead after the reception as it was before it may be it is because thy faith was not only little but reprovable or thou didst not pray vehemently or thou art indisposed by some secret disadvantage or thou hast not done thy duty and he shall imprudently accuse that physick for useless and unfit that is not suffered to work by the incapacity the ill-diet the weak stomack or some evil accident of the patient 12. Let no man judge of himself or of the blessings and efficacy of the Sacrament it self or of the prosperity and acceptation of his service in this ministery by any sensible relish by the gust and deliciousnesse which he sometimes perceives and other times does not perceive For these are fine accidents and given to some persons often to others very seldom to all irregularly as God please and sometimes are the effects of natural and accidental dispositions and sometimes are illusions But that no man may fall into inconvenience for want of them we are to consider that the want of them proceeds from diverse causes 1. It may be the palate of the Soul is indispos'd by listlesness or sorrow anxiety or weariness 2. It may be we are too much immerg'd in secular affairs and earthly affections 3. Or we have been unthankfull to God when we have received some of these spiritual pleasures and he therefore withdraws those pleasant entertainments 4. Or it may be we are therefore without relish and gust because the Sacrament is too great for our weakness like the bright Sun to a mortal eye the object is too big for our perceptions and our little faculties 5. Sometimes God takes them away least we be lifted up and made vain 6. Sometimes for the confirmation and exercise of our faith that we may live by faith and not by sense 7. Or it may be that by this driness of spirit God intends to make us the more fervent and resign'd in our direct and solemn devotions by the perceiving of our wants and weakness and in the infinite inability and insufficiency of our selves 8. Or else it happens to us irremediably and inevitably that we may perceive these accidents are not the fruits of our labour but gifts of God dispensed wholly by the measures of his own choice 9. The want of just and severe dispositions to the Holy Sacrament may possibly occasion this uncomfortableness 10. Or we do not relish the Divine Nutriment now so as at other times for want of spiritual mastication that is because we have not considered deeply and meditated wisely and holily 11. Or there is in us too much self-love and delight in and adherence to the comforts we find in other objects 12. Or we are carelesse of little sins and give too much way to the dayly incursions of the smaller irregularities of our lives If upon the occasion of the want of these sensible comforts and delightful relishes we examine the causes of the want and suspect our selves in these things where our own faults may be the causes and there make amends or if we submit our selves in those particulars where the causes may relate to God we shall do well and receive profit But unlesse our own sin be the cause of it we are not to make any evil judgment of our selves by reason of any such defect much lesse diminish our great value of the blessings consequent to a worthy communion 13. But because the pardon of sins is intended to be the great effect of a worthy Communion and of this men are most solicitous and for this they pray passionately and labour earnestly and almost all their lives and it may be in the day of their death have uncertain souls and therefore of this men are most desirous to be satisfied if they apprehend themselves in danger that is if they be convinced of their sin and be truly penitent although this effect seems to be least discernable and to be a secret reserved for the publication and trumpet of the Arch-Angel at the day of Doom yet in this we can best be satisfied For because when our sins are unpardoned we are under the wrath of God to be expressed as he pleases and in the method of eternal death now if God intends not to pardon us he will not bless the means of pardon if we shall not return to his final pardon we shall not passe through the intermedial if he will never give us glory he will never give us the increase of grace If therefore we repent of our sins and pray for pardon if we confess them and forsake them if we fear God and love him if we find that our desires to please him do increase that we are more watchful against sin and hate it more that we are thirsty after righteousnesse if we find that we increase in duty then we may look upon the tradition of the holy
which is intended to be signified by all the exterior passions but when he hath no sign he must be the more careful he have the thing signified and then all is right again But happy is that soul which comes to these springs of salvation as the Hart to the water brooks panting and thirsty longing and passionate weary of sin and hating vanity and reaching out the heart and hands to Christ and this we are taught by the same Mystery represented under other Sacraments the waters of the spiritual Rock of which our fathers drank in the wilderness the Rock was Christ and those waters were his blood in Sacrament and with the same appetite they drank those Sacramental waters withal we are to receive these divine Mysteries Evangelical Now let us by the aids of memory and fancy consider the children of Israel in the wildernesse in a barren and dry land where no water was marching in dust and fire not wet with the dew of heaven wholly without moisture save only what dropt from their own brows the air was fire and the vermin was fire the flying serpents were of the same cognation with the firmament their sting was a flame their venome was a fever and the fever a calenture and their whole state of abode and travel was a little image of the day of judgment when the elements shall melt with fervent heat These men like Salamanders walking in fire dry with heat and scorched with thirst and made yet more thirsty by calling upon God for water suppose I say these thirsty souls hearing Moses to promise that he will smite the Rock and that a River should break forth from thence observe how presently they ran to the foot of the springing stone thrusting forth their heads and tongues to meet the water impatient of delay crying out that the water did not move like light all at once and then suppose the pleasure of their drink the unsatiableness of their desire the immensity of their appetite they took in as much as they could and they desired much more This was their Sacrament of the same Mystery and this was their manner of receiving it and this teaches us to come to the same Christ with the same desires For if that water was a type of our Sacrament or a Sacrament of the same secret blessing then that thirst is a signification of our duty that we come to receive Christ in all the ways of reception with longing appetites preferring him before all the interests in the world as birds do corn above jewels or hungry men meat before long orations For it is worth observing that there being in the Old Testament thirteen Types and Umbrages of this holy Sacrament eleven of them are of meat and drink such are * the tree of life in the midst of Paradice * the bread and wine of Melchisedeck * the fine meal that Sarah kneaded for the Angels entertainment * the Manna * and the roasted paschal Lamb * the springing Rock * and the bread of proposition to be eaten by the Priests * the barley cake in the host of Midian * Sampsons Fathers oblation upon the rock * the honey-comb that opened the eyes of Jonathan * and the bread which the Angel brought to Elijah in the strength of which he was to live fourty days all this to shew that the Sacrament is the life of the spiritual man and the food of his soul the light of his eyes and the strengâ—h of his heart and not only all this and very much more of this nature but to represent our duty also and the great principle of preparation Meat is the object and hunger is the address The wine is the wine of Angels but if you desire it not what should you do with it for the wine that is not to satisfie your need can do nothing but first minister to vanity and then to vice first to wantonness and then to drunkenness St. Austin expressing the affections of his Mother Monica to the Blessed Sacrament says that her soul was by the ligatures of faith united so firmly to the Sacrifice which is dispensed in the Lords Supper that a Lion or a Dragon could not drag her away from thence and it was said of St. Katherine that she went to the Sacraments as a sucking infant to his mothers breasts and this similitude St. Chrisostom presses elegantly See you not with what pretty earnestnesse and alacrity infants match their nurses breast how they thrust their lips into the flesh like the sting of a Bee Let us approach to this Table with no lesse desire and with no lesse suck the nipple of the holy Calice yet with greater desire let us suck the grace of the holy Spirit And it is reported that our Blessed Lord taught St. Mechtildis When you are to receive the holy Communion desire and wish to the praise of my Name to have all desire and all love that ever was kindled in any heart towards me and so come to me for so will I inflame and so will I accept thy love not as it is but as thou desirest it should be in thee Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden saith Christ that is they that groan under the burden of their sins and feel the load of their infirmities and desire pardon and remedy they that love the instruments of grace as they are channels of Salvation they that come to the Sacrament out of earnest desires to receive the blessings of Christ's death and of his intercession these are the welcome guests for so saith God Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it for he hath filled the hungry with good things said the holy Virgin Mother for Christ is food and refreshment to none else for the full he hath sent empty away If therefore you understand your danger and deeply resent the evil of your infirmities and sinful state if you confesse your selves miserable and have all corresponding apprehensions if ye long for remedy and would have it upon any termes if you be hungry at your very heart and would fain have food and Physâ—ck health and spiritual advantages if you understand what you need and desire what you understand if these desires be as great as they are reasonable and as lasting as they are great if they be as inquisitive as they are lasting and as operative as they are inquisitive that is if they be just and reasonable pursuances of the means of grace if they carry you by fresh and active appetites to the communion and that this may be to purpose if they fix you upon such methods as will make the Communion effect that which God designed and which we need then we shall perceive the blessings and fruits of our holy desires according to those words of David as it is rendered in the vulgar Latin the Lord hath heard the desire of the poor and his ear hath hearkned to the preparation of their heart An earnest
and God is appeas'd and God is reconciled and God gives us blessings and the fruits of Christs passion in the vertue of the sacrificed Lamb that is we believing and praying are blessed and sanctified and saved through Jesus Christ. So that as we pray so we communicate if we pray well we may communicate well else at no hand Now in this besides that we are to take account of our Prayers by all those measures of the Spirit which we have learned in the holy Scriptures there are two great lines of duty by which we can well examine our selves in this particular 1. That our Prayers must be the work of our hearts not of our lips that is that we heartily desire what we so carefully pray for and God knows this is not very ordinary For besides that we are not in love with the things of God and have no worthy value for Religion there are many things in our Prayer which we ask for and do not know what to do with if we had them and we do not feel any want of them and we care not whether we have them or no. We ask for the Spirit of God for Wisdom and for a right Judgment in all things and yet there are not many in our Christian Assemblies who use to trouble themselves at all with judging concerning the Mysteries of Godlinesse Men pray for humility and yet at the same time think that all that which is indeed humility is a pitiful poornesse of spirit pusilanimity and want of good breeding We pray for contrition and a broken heart and yet if we chance to be melancholy we long to be comforted and think that the Lectures of the Crosse bring Death and therefore are not the way of Eternal Life We pray sometimes that God may be first and last in all our thoughts and yet we conceive it no great matter whether he be or no but we are sure that he is not but the things of the world do take up the place of God and yet we hope to be saved for all that and consequently are very indifferent concerning the return of that Prayer We frequently call upon God for his grace that we may never fall into sin now in this besides that we have no hopes to be heard and think it impossible to arrive to a state of life in which we shall not commit sins yet if we do sin we know there is a remedy so ready that we believe we are not much the worse if we do Here are prayers enough but where are the desires all this while We pray against covetousnesse and pride and gluttony but nothing that we do but is either covetousnesse or pride so that our Prayers are terminated upon a word not upon a thing We do covetous actions and speak proud words and have high thoughts and do not passionately desire to have affections contrary to them but only to such notions of the sin as we have entertained which are such as will do no real prejudice or mortification to the sin and whatever our Prayers are yet it is certain our desires are so little and so content with any thing of this nature that for very many spiritual petitions we are indifferent whether they be granted or not But if we are poor or persecuted if we be in fear or danger if we be heart-sick or afflicted with an uncertain soul then we are true desirers of relief and mercy we long for health and desire earnestly to be safe our hearts are pinch'd with the desire and the sharpnesse of the appetite is a pain then we pray and mind what we do * He that is in fear of death does not when he prays for life think upon his money and his sheep the entring of a fair woman into the room does not bend his neck and make him look off from the Princes face of whom he sues for pardon And if we had desires as strong as our needs and apprehensions answerable to our duty it were not possible that a man should say his prayers and never think of what he speaks but as our attention is so is our desire trifling and impertinent it is frighted away like a bird which fears as much when you come to give it meat as if you came with a design of death When therefore you are to give sentence concerning your Prayers your â—rayer-book is the least thing that is to be examined your Desires are the principal for they are fountains both of action and passion Desire what you pray for for certain it is you will pray passionately if you desire fervenâ—ly Prayers are but the body of the bird Desires are its Angels wings 2. If you will know how it is with you in the matter of your Prayers examine whether or no the form of your Prayer be the rule of your life Every Petition to God is a Precept to man and when in your Litanies you pray to be delivered from malice and hypocrisie from pride and envy from fornication and every deadly sin all this is but a line of duty and tells us that we must never consent to an act of pride or a thought of envy to a temptation of uncleannesse or the besmearings and evil paintings of hypocrisie * But we when we pray against a sin think we have done enough and if we ask for a grace suppose there is no more required Now Prayer is an instrument of help a procuring auxilliaries of God that we may do our duty and why should we ask for help if we be not our selves bound to do the thing Look not therefore upon your prayers as a short method of ease and salvation but as a perpetual monition of duty and by what we require of God we see what he requires of us and if you want a system or collective body of holy precepts you need no more but your prayer book and if you look upon them first as duties then as prayers that is things fit to be desired and fit to be laboured for your prayers will be much more usefull not so often vain nor so subject to illusion not so destitute of effect or so failing of the promises The prayers of a Christian must be like the devotions of the husbandman God speed the plough that is labour and prayer together a prayer to bless our labour Thus then we must examine Is desire the measure of our prayer and is labour the fruit of our desire if so then what we ask we shall receive as the gift of God and the reward of our labour but unless this be the state of oâ—r prayer we shall finde that the receiving of the Sacrament will be as ineffective because it will be as imperfect as our prayer For prayer and Communion differ but as great and little in the same kinde of duty Communion is but a great publick and solemn addresse and prayer to God through Jesus Christ and if we be not faithful in a little we shall not be
and unfruitful soul I have already a parched ground give me a land of Rivers of Waters my Soul is dry but not thirsty it hath no water nor it desires none I have been like a dead man to all the desires of heaven I am earnest and concerned in the things of the world but very indifferent or rather not well enduring the severities and excellencies of Religion I have not been greedy of thy Word or longed for thy Sacraments The worst of thy followers came runing after thee for loaves though they cared not for the miracle but thou offerest me loaves and miracles together and I have cared for neither Thou offerest me thy self and all thy infinite sweetnesses I have needed even the compulsion of laws to drive me to thee and then indeed I lost the sweetnesse of thy presence and reaped no fruit These things O God are not well they are infinitely amiss But thou that providest meat thou also givest appetite for the desire and the meat the necessity and the relief are all from thee II. Be pleased therefore O my dearest Lord to create in thy servant a great hunger and thirst after the things of thy kingdom and the righteousnesse of it all thy holy graces and all the holy ministeries of grace that I may long for the bread of heaven thirst after the fountains of salvation and as the Hart panteth after the brooks of water so my soul may desire thee O Lord. O kindle such a holy flame in my soul that it may consume all that is set before me that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy will III. Grant O blessed Jesus that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee of conversing with thee of receiving thee let me not rest in the least and lowest measures of necessity but passe on to the excellencies of love and the transportations of an excellent Religion that there may remain in me no appetite for any thing but what thou lovest that I may have no satisfaction but in a holy Conscience no pleasure but in Religion no joy but in God and with sincerity and zeal heartinesse and ingenuity I may follow after righteousnesse and the things that belong unto my peace until I shall arrive in the land of eternal peace and praises where thou livest and reignest for ever world without end Amen CHAP. III. Of Faith as it is a necessary disposition to the Blessed Sacrament EXamination of our selves is an inquiry whether we have those dispostions which are necessary to a worthy Communion Our next inquiry is after the dispositions themselves what they ought to be and what they ought to effect that we may really be that which we desire to be found when we are examined I have yet only described the ways of examining now I am to set down those things whereby we can approved and without which we can never approach to these divine Mysteries with worthinesse or depart with joy These are three 1. Faith 2. Charity 3. Repentance SECT I. Of Catechumens or unbaptised persons THE Blessed Sacrament before him that hath no faith is like messes of meat set upon the graves of the dead they smell not that nidour which quickens the hungry belly they feel not the warmth and taste not the juyce for these are provided for them that are alive and the dead have no portion in them This is the first great line of introduction and necessarily to be examined we have the rule from the Apostle Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Châ—ist is in you except ye be reprobates As if he had said ye are reprobates and Jesus Christ shall never dwell in you except by faith without this you can never receive him and therefore examine strictly your selves concerning your faith But the necessity of this preparation by faith hath a double sense and a proportionable necessity 1. It means that no unbaptised person can come to the holy Communion 2. It means that those that are baptized have an actual and an operative faith properly relative to these divine Mysteries and really effective of all the works of faith Of this we have the most ancient and indubitable records of the Primitive Church For in the Apology which Justin Martyr made for the Christians he gives this account of the manner of dispensing the holy Eucharist It is lawful for none to participate of this Eucharistical bread and wine but to him who believes those things to be true which are taught by us and to him that is washed in the laver of regeneration which is to the remission of sins and who live as Christ hath commanded Shut the proâ—hane and the unhallowed people out of doors So. Orpheus sang None comes to this holy feast but they whose sins are cleansed in Baptism who are saâ—ctified in â—hose holy waters of regeneration who have obedient Souls eaâ—s attentive to the Sermons of the Gospel and hearts open to the words of Christ. These are they who see by a brighter light and walk in the warmâ—h of a more refreshing Sun they live in a better air and are irradiated with a purer beam the glories of the Sun of righteousnesse and they only are to eat the precious food of the sacrificed lamb For by Baptism we are admitted to the spiritual life and by the holy Communion we nourish and preserve it But although Baptism be always necessary yet alone it is not a sufficient qualification to the holy Communion but there must be an actual faith also in every Communicant Neither faith alone nor baptism alone can suffice but it must be the actual faith of baptized persons which disposes us to this sacred Feast For the Church gives the Communion neither to Catechumens nor to Infants nor to mad men nor to natural fools Catechumens not admitted to the holy Communion Of this besides the testimony of Justin Martyr St. Cyril of Alexandria gives this full acoount We refuse to give the Sacraments to Catechumens although they already know the truth and with a loud voice confesse the faith of Christ because they are not yet enriched with the holy Ghost who dwells in them who are consummated and perfected by Baptism But when they have been baptized because it is believed that the holy Ghost does dwell within them they are not prohibited from the contact and communion of the body of Christ. And therefore to them who come to the mystical benediction the Ministers of the Mystery cry with a loud voice Sancta sanctis Let holy things be given to sanctified persons signifying that the contact and sanctification of Christs body does agree with them only who in their spirits are sanctified by the holy Ghost And this was the certain and perpetual Doctrine and Custom of the Church insomuch that in the primitive Churches they would not suffer unbaptized persons so much as to see the
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
negative of the same thing 2. Whatsoever is against right reason that no faith can oblige us to believe For although reason is not the positive and affirmative measures of our faith and God can do more than we can understand and our faith ought to be larger than our reason and take something into her heart that reason can never take into her eye yet in all our Creed there can be nothing against reason If true reason justly contradicts an article it is not of the houshold of faith In this there is no difficulty but that in practice we take care that we do not call that reason which is not so for although a mans reason is a right Judge yet it ought not to passe sentence in an inquiry of faith until all the information be brought in all that is within and all that is without all that is above and all that is below all that concerns it in experience and all that concerns it in act whatsoever is of pertinent observation and whatsoever is revealed for else reason may argue very well and yet conclude falsly it may conclude well in Logick and yet infer a false Proposition in Theology but when our Judge is fully and truly informed in all that where she is to make her judgment we may safely follow it whithersoever she invites us If therefore any society of men calls upon us to believe in our Religion what is false in our experience to affirm that to be done which we know is impossible it ever can be done to wink hard that we may see the better to be unreasonable men that we may offâ—r to God a reasonable sacrifice they make Religion so to be seated in the will that our understanding will be uselesse and can never minister to it But as he that shuts the â—ye hard and with violence curles the eye lid forces a phantastick fire from the crystalline humor and espies a light that never shines and sees thousands of little fires that never burn So is he that blinds the eye of his reason and pretends to see by an eye of faith he makes little images of notion and some atoms dance before him but he is not guided by the light nor instructed by the proposition but sees like a man in his sleep and grows as much the wiser as the man that dreamt of a Lycanthropy and was for ever after wisely wary not to come neer a River He that speaks against his own reason speaks against his own conscience and therefore it is certain no man serves God with a good conscience that serves him against his reason For though in many cases reason must submit to faith that is natural reason must submit to supernatural and the imperfect informations of art to the perfect revelations of God yet in no case can a true reason and a right faith oppose each other and therefore in the article of the Sacrament the impossible affirmatives concerning Transubstantiation because they are against all the reason of the world can never be any part of the faith of God 3. Whatsoever is mâ—tter of curiosity that our faith is not obliged to believe or confess For the faith of a Christian is pure as light plain as a Commandment easie as childrens Lessons it is not given to puzzle the understanding but to instruct it it brings clarity to it not darknesse and obscurity Our faith in this Sacrament is not obliged to inquire or to tell how the hoâ—y bread can feed the soul or the calice purifie our spirits how Christ is united to us and yet we remain imperfect even then when we are all one with him that is perfect there is no want of faith though we do not understand the secret manner how Christ is really present and yet this reality be no other but a reality of event and positive effect though we know not that Sacramental is more than figurative and yet not so much as natural but greater in another kind It is not a duty of our faith to discern how Christs body is broken into ten thousand pieces and yet remains whole at the same time or how a body is present by faith only when it is naturally absent and yet faith ought to believe things to be as they are and not to make them what of themselves they are not We need not to be amazed concerning our faith when our overbusie reason is amazed in the article and our faith is not defective though we confesse we do not understand how Christs body is there incorporeally that is a body after the manner of a Spirit or though we cannot apprehend how the Symbols should make the grace presential and yet that the grace of God in the receiver can make the Symbols operative and energetical The faith that is required of those who come to the holy Communion is of what is revealed plainly and taught usually what sets devotion forward not what ministers to curiosity that which the Good and the plain the easie and the simple man can understand For if thou canst not understand the reciprocations and pulses of thy own arteries the motion of thy blood the feat of thy memory the rule of thy dreams the manner of digestion the disease of thy bowels and the distempers of thy spleen things that thou bearest about thee that cause to thee pain sorrow it is not to be expected that thou shouldest understand the secrets of God the causes of his will the impulses of his grace the manner of his Sacraments and the Oeconomy of his spirit Gods works are secret and his words are deep and his dispensations mysterious and therefore too high for thy understanding St. Gregory Nazianzen sayes of God the more you think you comprehend of him in your understanding the lesse he is comprehended like the sand of the glass which the harder you grasp the less you can retain or like the sand of the sea which you can never number but by going about it you are confounded and by doing something of it you make it impossible to do the rest Curious inquiries are like the contentions of Protogenes and Apelles who should draw the smallest line and after two or three essayes they left this monument of their art that they drew three lines so curiously that they were scarcely to be discerned And therefore since faith is not concerned in intrigues and hard questions it were very well if the Sacrament it self were not disguised and charity disordered by that which is not a help but a temptation to Faith it self In the holy Communion we must retain an undoubted faith but not enquire after what manner the secrets of God are appointed Whether it be or no that is the object of faith to enquire and to accept accordingly What it is he that is to teach others and speak mysteries may modestly dispute but how it is nothing but curiosity will look after The Egyptians used to say that unknown darknesse
is the first principle of the world not meaning that darknesse was before light but by Darkness they mean God as Damascius the Platonist rightly observes saying This darknesse or obscurity is the beginning of every intellectual being and every Sacramental action and therefore in their ceremonies they usually made three acclamations to the unknown Darkness that is to God whose secrets are pervious to no eye whose dwelling is in a light that is not to be discerned whose mysteries are not to be understood by us and whose Sacraments are objects of faith and wonder but not to be disordered by the mistaking undiscerning eye of people that are curious to ask after what they shall never understand Faith is oftentimes safer in her ignorance than in busie questions and to enquire after the manner of what God hath plainly and simply told may be an effect of infidelity but never an act of faith If concerning the things of God we once ask Why or How we argue our doubt and want of confidence and therefore it was an excellent Counsel of S. Cyril Believe firmly in the mysteries and consent to the words of Christ but never so much as speak or think How is this done In your faith be as particular and minute as Christ was in his expressions of it but no more He hath told us This is his body This is his blood believe it and so receive it but he hath not told us how it is so it is behind a cloud and tied up with a knot of secrecy therefore let us lay our finger on our mouth and worship humbly But he that looks into the eye of the Sun shall be blind and he that searches into the secrets of Majesty shall be confounded with the glory The next enquiry is What is the use of faith in this Sacrament It is tied but to little duty and a few plain articles what then is the use and advantages of it To what graces does it minister and what effect does it produce To this the answer is easie but yet such as introduces a further enquiry Faith indeed is not curious but material and therefore in the contemplation of this mysterious Sacrament and its Symbols we are more to regard their signification than their matter their holy imployment than their natural usuage what they are by grace than what they are by nature what they signifie rather than what they are defin'd Faith considers not how they nourish the body but how they support and exalt the soul that they are Sacramental not that they are also nutritive that they are made holy to purposes of Religion not that they are salutary to offices of nature that is what they are to the spirit not what they are to sense and disputation For to faith Christ is present by faith we eat his flesh and by faith we drink his blood that is we communicate not as men but as faithful and believers the meaning and the duty and the effect of which are now to be inquired 1. It signifies that Christ is not present in the Sacrament corporally or naturally but spiritually for thus the carnal and spiritual sense are opposed So St. Chrysostom upon those words of Christ the flesh profiteth nothing what is it to understand carnally To understand them simply and plainly as they are spoken For they are not to be judged as they seem but all mysteries are to be considered with internal eyes that is spiritually For the carnal sense does not penetrate to the understanding of so great a secret saith St. Cyprian For therefore we are not devourers of flesh because we understand these things spiritually So Theophilaect 2. Since the spiritual sense excludes the natural and proper it remains that the expression which is natural be in the sense figurative and improper and if the holy Sacrament were not a figure it could neither be a sign nor a Sacrament But therefore it is called the body and blood of Christ because it is the figure of them as St. Austin largely discourses â—or so when good Friday draws neer we say to morrow or the next day is the passion of our Lord although that passion was but once and that many ages since and upon the Lords day we say to day our blessed Lord arose from the dead although so many years be passed since and why is no man so foolish as to reprove us of falshood but because on these dayes is the similitude of those things which were done so long since Was not Christ once sacrificed and yet he is sacrificed still on the solemnities of Easter and every day in the Communions of the people neither does he say false who being asked shall say that he is sacrificed for if the Sacraments had not a similitude of those things whereof they are Sacraments they would be no Sacraments at all But most commonly by their similitudes things receive their names Thus Tertullian expresses this mystery This is my body that is the figure of my body and St. Gregory Nazianzen calls the Passeover because it antedated the Lords Supper a figure of a figure 3. But St. Austin added well The body of Christ is truth and figure too The holy Sacrament is not only called the Lords body and blood for the figure similitude and Sacramentality but for the real exhibition and ministration of it For it is truly called the body of Christ because there is joyned with it the vital power vertue and efficacy of the body and therefore it is called by St. Austin the intelligible the invisible the spiritual body by St. Hierom the Divine and spiritual flesh the celestial thing by St. Irenaeus the spiritual food and the body of the divine Spirit by St. Ambrose for by this means it can very properly be called the body and blood of Christ since it hath not only the figure of his death externally but internally it hath hidden and secret the proper and divine effect the life-giving power of his body so that though it be a figure yet it is not meerly so not only the sign and memorial of him that is absent but it bears along with it the very body of the Lord that is the efficacy and divine vertue of it Thus our blessed Saviour said of John the Baptist that Elias is already come because he came in the power and spirit of Elias As John was Elias so is the holy Sacrament the body and blood of Christ because it hath the power and spirit of the body of Christ. And therefore the ancient Doctors of the Church in their Sermons of these divine Mysteries use the word Nature and Substance not understanding these words in the natural or Philosophical but a Theological in a sense proper to the Schools of Christians by Substance meaning the power of the substance by Nature the gracious effect of his natural body the nature and use and mysteriousnesse of Sacraments so allowing them to speak
violence not only to the laws and manners but even to the very nature of men Lions indeed and Tygres do with a strange curiosity eye and observe him that struck them and they fight with him above all the hunters to strike again is the return of beasts but to pardon him that smote me is the bravest amends and the noblest way of doing right unto our selves whilest in the wayes of a man and by the methods of God we have conquered our enemy into a friend But revenge is the disease of honour and is as contrary to the wisdom and bravery of men as dwelling in rivers and wallowing in fires is to their natural manner of living and he who out of pretence of valour pursues revenge is like to him who because fire is a glorious thing is willing to have a St. Anthonies fire in his face 2. He that is injured must so pardon as that he must not pray to God to take revenge of his enemy It was noted as a pitiful thing of Brutus that when his army was broken and himself exposed to the insolencies of his enemies and that he could not revenge himself he cryed out most passionately in the words of the Greek tragedy to Jupiter to take vengeance of young Octavius But nothing is more against the nobleness of a Christian spirit and the interest of a holy communion than when all meet together to pray for all and all for every one that any man should except his enemy that he who prayes for blessings to the whole mystical body of Christ should secretly desire that one member should perish If one prayes for thee and another prayes against thee who knows whether thou shalt be blessed or accursed 3. He that means to communicate worthily must so forgive his enemy as never to upbraid his crime any more For we must so forgive as that we forget it not in the sense of nature but perfectly in the sense of charity For to what good purpose can any man keep a record of a shrewd turn but to become a spie upon the actions of his enemy watchful to do him shame or by that to aggravate every new offence It was a malicious part of Darius when the Athenians had plundered Sardis he resolving to remember the evil turn till he had done them a mischief commanded one of his servants that every time he waited at supper he should thrice call upon him Sr. remember the Athenians The Devil is apt enough to do this office for any man and he that keeps in mind an injury needs no other tempter to uncharitableness but his own memory He that resolves to remember it never does forgive it perfectly but is the under officer of his own malice â—or as rivers that run under ground do infallibly fall into the sea and mingle with the salt waters so is the injury that is remembred it runs under ground indeed and the anger is head but it tends certainly to mischief and though it be sometimes lesse deadly for want of opportunity yet it is never lesse dangerous 4. He that would communicate worthily must so pardon his enemy that though he be certain the man is in the wrong and sinned against God in the cause yet he must not under pretence of righting God and Religion and the laws pursue his own anger and revenge and bring him to evil Every man is concerned that evil be to him that loves it but we cozen our selves by thinking that we have nothing to do to pardon Gods enemies and vile persons It is true we have not but neither hath any private man any thing to do to punish them but he that cannot pardon Gods enemy can pray to God that he would and it were better to let it all alone than to destroy charity upon pretence of justice or Religion For if this wicked man were thy friend it may very well be supposed that thou wouldest be very kind to him though he were Gods enemy and we are easie enough to think well of him that pleases us let him displease whom he list besides 5. He may worthily communicate that so pardons his enemy as that he endeavour to make him to be his friend Are you ready to do him good Can you relieve your enemy if he were in want Yes it may be you can and you wish it were come to that And some men will pursue their enemy with implacable prosecutions till they have got them under their feet and then they delight to lift them up and to speak kindly to the man and to forgive him with all the noblenesse and bravery in the world But let us take heed lest instead of shewing mercy we make a triumph Relieve his need and be troubled that he needs it Rescue him from the calamity which he hath brought upon himself or is fallen into by misadventure but never thrust him down that thou mayest be honoured and glorious by raising him from that calamity in which thou art secretly delighted that he is intangled Lycurgus of Sâ—arta in a tumult made against him by some Citizens lost an eye which fact the wiser part of the people infinitely detesting gave the villain that did it into their Princes power and he used it worthily he kept him in his house a year he taught him vertue and brought him forth to the people a worthy Citizen To pardon thy enemy as David pardoned Absalom that 's true charity and he that does so pardon needs no further inquiry into the case of conscience It was an excellent saying of Seneca When thou doest forgive thy enemy rather seem to acquit him than to pardon him rather excuse the fault than only forbear the punishment for no punishment is greater than so to order thy pardon that it shall glorifie thy kindness and upbraid and reproach his sin 6. He that would be truly charitable in his forgiveness and with just measures would communicate must so pardon his enemy that he restore him to the same state of love and friendship as before This is urged by St. Bernard as the great imitation of the Divine mercy God hath so freely so intirely pardoned our sins that he neither condemns by revenging nor confounds by upbraiding nor loves lesse by imputing He revenges not at all he never upbraides and when he hath once pardoned he never imputes it to any evil purposes any more And just so must our reconciliation be we must love him as we loved him before for if we love him lesse we punish him if our love was valuable then he is forgiven indeed when he hath lost nothing I should be thought severe if I should say that the true forgiveness and reconciliation does imply a greater kindness after than before but such is the effect of repentance and so is the nature of love There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance and a
that when our affections to sin are gone when our hearts are clean then we may freely partake of the feast of the supper of the Lamb. For as in natural forms the more noble they are the more noble dispositions are required to their production so it is in the spiritual for when Christ is to be efformed in us when we are to become the Sons of God flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone we must be washed in water and purified by faith and sanctified by the spirit and cleansed by an excellent repentance we must be confirmed by a holy hope and softned by charity So God hath ordered in the excellent fabrick of humane bodies First our meat is prepared by fire then macerated by the teeth then digested in the stomach where the first separation is made of the good from the bad the wholesom juyces from the more earthy parts these being sent down to earth the other are conveyed to the Liver where the matter is separated again and the good is turned into blood and the better into spirits and thence the body is supplied with blood and the spirits repair unto the heart and head that thence they may be sent on Embassies for the ministeries of the body and for the work of understanding So it is in the dispensation of the affairs of the soul The ear which is the mouth of the soul receives all meat and the senses entertain the fuel for all passions and all interests of vertue and vice But the understanding makes the first separation dividing the clean from the unclean But when the spirit of God comes and purifies even the separate matter making that which is morally good to be spiritual and holy first cleansing us from the sensualities of flesh and blood and then from spiritual iniquities that usually debauch the soul then the holy nourishment which we receive passes into diviâ—e excellencies But if sensuality be in the palate and intemperance in the stomach if lust be in the liver and anger in the heart it corrupts the holy food and makes that to be a savour of death which was intended for health and holy blessiâ—gs But therefore when we have lived in the corrupted air of evil company and have sucked in the vile juices of coloquintida and the deadly henbane when that is within the heart which defiles the man the soul must be purged by repentance it must be washed by tears and purified by penitential sorrow For he that comes to this holy Feast with an unrepenting heart is like the flies in the Temple upon the day of Sacrifice the little insect is very busie about the flesh of the slain beasts she flies to every corner of the Temple and she tastes the flesh before the portion is laid before the God but when the nidour and the delicacy hath called such an unwelcome guest she corrupts the Sacrifice and therefore dies at the Altar or is driven away by the officious Priest So is an unworthy Communicant he comes it may be with pâ—ssion and an earnest zeal he hopes to be fed and he hopes to be made immortal he thinks he does a holy action and shall receive a holy blessing but what is his portion It is a glorious thing to be feasted at the Table of God glorious to him that is invited and prepared but not to him that is unprepared hateful and impenitent But it is an easie thing to say that a man must repent before he communicates so he must before he prayes before he dies before he goes a journey the whole life of a man is to be a continual repentance but if so then what particular is that which is required before we receive the holy Communion For if it be an universal duty of infinit extent of unlimited comprehension then every Christian must alwayes be doing some of the offices of repentance but then which are the peculiar parts and offices of this grace which have any special and immediate relation to this solemnity for if there be none the Sermons of repentâ—nce are nothing but the general doctrine of good life but of no special efficacy in our preparation The answer to this will explicate the intricacy and establish the measures of our duty in this proper relation in order to this ministery SECT II. The necessity of repentance in order to the holy Sacrament 1. THe holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper does not produce it's intended effect upon an unprepared subject He that gives his body to that which is against the spirit his spirit to the affections of the body cannot receive the body of Christ in a spiritual maner He that receives Christ must in great truth be a servant of Christ. It is not lawful saith Justin Martyr for any one to receive the holy Eucharistical bread and to drink of the sacred Calice but to him that believes and to him that lives according to Christs Commandment For as St. Paul argues of the infinite undecency of fornication because it is a making the members of Christ to become the members of an harlot upon the same account it is infinitely impossible that any such polluted persons should become the members of Christ to the intents of blessing and the spirit How can Christs body be communicated to them who are one flesh with an harlot and so it is in all other sins we cannot partake of the Lords table and the table of Devils A wicked person and a Communicant are of contrary interests of differing relations designed to divers ends fitted with other dispositions they work not by the same principles are not weighed in the same ballance nor meted by like measures and therefore they that come must be innocent or return to innocence that is they must repent or be such persons as need no repentance and St. Ambrose gives this account of the practise of the Church in this affair This is the order of this mystery which is every where observed that first by the pardon of our sins our souls be healed and the wounds cured with the medicine of repentance and then that our souls be plentifully nourished by this holy Sacrament and to this purpose he expounds the parable of the prodigal son saying that no man ought to come to this Sacrament unless he have the wedding ring and the wedding garment unless he have receiv'd the seal of the spirit and is cloathed with white garments the righteousness and justification of the Saints And to the same purpose it is that St. Cyprian complains of some in his Church who not having repented not being put under discipline by the Bishop and the Clergy yet had the Sacrament ministred to them against whom he presses the severe words of St. Paul He that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself that is he that repents not of his sins before he comes to the Holy Sacrament comes before he is prepared and therefore
or prevails dangerously and because our returns to God and the mortifications of sin are divisible and done by parts and many steps of progression they that delay their Communion that they may be surer do very well provided that they do not stay too long thâ—t is that their fear do not tâ—rn to timorousness their religion do not change into superstition their distrust of themselves into a jealousie of God their apprehension of the greatness of their sin into a secret diffidence of the greatness of the Divine mercy And therefore in the first conversions of a sinner this reverence may be longer allowed to a good man than afterwards But it must be no longer allowed than till he hath once communicated For if he hath once been partaker of the Divine mysteries since his repentance he must no longer forbear for in this case it is true that he who is not fit to receive every day is fit to receive no day If he thinks that he ought wholly to abstain let him use his caution and his fear to the advantages of his repentance and the heightning of his longings but if he may safâ—ly come once he may piously come often He caâ—not long stand at this distance if he be the man he is supposed But for the time of his total abstention let him be conducted by a spiritual guide whom he may safely trust For if he cannot by the usual methods of repentance and the known Sermons of the Gospel be reduced to peace and a quiet conscience let him declare his estate to a spiritual Guide and if he thinks it fit to absolve him that is to declare him to be in the state of grace and pardon it is all the warrant which with the testimony of Gods Spirit bearing witness to our spirit we can expect in this world I remember what a religious person said to Petrus Celestinus who was a great Saint but of a timorous conscience in this particular Thou abstainest from the blessed Sacrament because it is a thing so sacred and formidable that thou canst not think thy self worthy of it Well suppose that But I pray who is worthy Is an Angel worthy enough No câ—râ—ainly if we consider the greatness of the mystery But consider the goodness of God and the usual measures of good men and the commands of Christ inviting us to come and commanding us and then Cum timore reverentiâ frequenter operare Receive it often with feare and reverence To which purpose these two things are fit to be considered 1. Supposing this fear and reverence to be good and commendable in his case who really is fit to communicate but does not think so yet if we compare it with that grace which prompts a good man to take it often we may quickly perceive which is best Certainly that act is in its own nature best which proceeds from the best and the most perfect grace but to abstain proceeds from fear and to come frequently being worthily disposed is certainly the product of love and holy hunger the effect of the good Spirit who by his holy fires makes us to thirst after the waters of salvation As much then as love is better than fear so much it is to be preferred that true penitents and well-grown Christians should frequently address themselves to these Sacramental Unions with their Lord. 2. The frequent use of this Divine Sacrament proceeds from more as well as from more noble vertues For here is obedience and zeal worship and love thanksgiving and oblation devotion and joy holy hunger and holy thirst an approach to God in the waies of God union and adherence confidence in the Divine goodness and not only hope of pardon but a going to receive it and the omission of all these excellencies cannot in the present case be recompenced by an act of religious fear For this can but by accident and upon supposition of something that is amiss be at all accounted good and therefore ought to give place to that which supposing all things to be as they ought is directly good and an obedience to a Divine Commandment For we may not deceive our selves the matter is not so indifferent as to be excused by every fair pretence It is unlawful for any man unprepared by repentance and its fruits to communicate but it is necessary that we should be prepared that we may come For plague and death threaten them that do not communicate in this mysterious banquet as certainly as danger is to them who come unduly and as it happens For the Sacrament of the Lords body is commanded to all men saith Tertullian and it is very remarkable what St. Austin said in this affair The force of the Sacraments is of an unspeakable value and therefore it is sacriledge to despise it For that is impiously despised without which we cannot come to the perfection of piety So that although it is not in all cases the meer not receiving that is to be blamed but the despising it yet when we consider that by this means we arrive at perfection all causless recusancy is next to contempt by interpretation One thing more I am to add whereas some persons abstain from a frequent Communion for fear lest by frequency of receiving they should less esteem the Divine mysteries and fall into lukewarmness and indevotion the consideration is good and such persons indeed may not receive it often but not for that reason but because they are not fit to receive it at all For whoever grows worse by the Sacrament as Judas after the Sop hath an evil spirit within him for this being by the design of God a savour of life it is the fault of the receiver if it passes into death and diminution of the spiritual life He therefore that grows less devout and less holy and less reverent must start back and take physick and throw out the evil spirit that is within him for there is a worm in the heart of the tree a peccant humour in the stomach it could not be else that this Divine nutriment should make him sick Question II. But is every man bound to communicate that is present or that comes into a Church where the Communion is prepared though but by accident and without design and may no man that is fit omit to communicate in every opportunity To this I answer That in the Primitive Church it was accounted scandalous and criminal to be present at the holy Offices and to go out at the celebration of the Mysteries What cause is there O Hearers that ye see the Table and come not to the Banquet said St. Austin If thou stand by and do not communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent So St. Chrysostome and to him that objects he is not worthy to communicate he answers that then neither is he fit to pray And the Council of Antioch and of Bracara commanded that those
they had zeal for the good of souls Let no man say I repent in private I repent before God in secret God who alone does pardon does know that I am contrite in heart For was it in vain was it said to no purpose whatsoever ye shall loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven we evacuate the Gospel of God we frustrate the words of Christ so S. Austin And therefore when a man hath spoken the sentence of the most severe medicine let him come to the Presidents of the Church who are to minister in the power of the Keyes to him and beginning now to be a good son keeping the order of his Mother let him receive the measure and manner of his repentances from the Presidents of the Sacraments Concerning this thing I shall never think it fit to dispute for there is nothing to inforce it but enough to perswade it but he that tries will find the benefit of it himself and will be best able to tell it to all the world SECT VII Penitential Soliloquies Ejaculations Exercises and preparatory Prayers to be us'd in all the days of preparation to the Holy Sacrament I. ALmighty and eternal God the fountain of all vertue the support of all holy hope the Author of pardon of life and of salvation thou art the comforter of all that call upon thee thou hast concluded all under sin that thou mightest have mercy upon all Look upon me O God and have pity on me lying in my blood and misery in my shame and in my sins in the fear and guilt of thy wrath in the shadow of death and in the gates of hell I confesse to thee O God what thou knowest already but I confesse it to manifest thy justice and to glorifie thy mercy who hast spared me so long â—hat I am guilty of the vilest and basest follies which usually dishonour the fools and the worst of the sons of men II. I have been proud and covetous envious and lustful angry and greedy indevout and irreligious restless in my passions sensual and secular but hating wise counsels and soon weary of the Offices of a holy Religion I cannot give an account of my time and I cannot reckon the sins of my tongue My crimes are intolerable and my imperfections shameful and my omissions innumerable and what shall I do O thou preserver of men I am so vile that I cannot express it so sinful that I am hateful to my self and much more abominable must I needs be in thy eyes I have sinn'd against thee without necessity sometimes without temptation only because I would sin and would not delight in the ways of peace I have been so ingrateful so foolish so unreasonable that I have put my own eyes out that I might with confidence and without fear sin against so good a God so gracious a Father so infinite a Power so glorious a Majesty so bountiful a Patron and so mighty a Redeemer that my sin is grown shameful and aggravated even to amazement I can say no more I am asham'd O God I am amaz'd I am confounded in thy presence III. But yet O God thou art the healer of our breaches and the lifter up of our head and I must not despair and I am sure thy goodness is infinite and thou dost not delight in the death of a sinner and my sins though very great are infinitely less than thy mercies which thou hast revealed to all penitent and returning sinners in Jesus Christ. I am not worthy to look up to heaven but be thou pleased to look down into the dust and lift up a sinner from the dunghil let me not perish in my folly or be consumed in thy heavy displeasure Give me time and space to repent and give me powers of Grace and aids of thy spirit that as by thy gift and mercy I intend to amend whatsoever is amiss so I may indeed have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same Inspire me with the spirit of repentance and mortification that I may always fight against my sins till I be more than conquerour Support me with a holy hope confirm me with an excellent operative and unreprovable faith and enkindle a bright and a burning charity in my soul Give me patience in suffering severity in judging and condemning my sin and in punishing the sinner that judging my self I may not be condemned by thee that mourning for my sins may rejoyce in thy pardon that killing my sin I may live in righteousness that denying my own will I may always perform thine and by the methods of thy Spirit I may overcome all carnal and spiritual wickednesses and walk in thy light and delight in thy service and perfect my obedience and be wholly delivered from my sin and for ever preserved from thy wrath and at last passe on from a certain expectation to an actual fruition of the glories of thy Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen Amen 1. I am in thy sight O Lord a polluted person sin like a crust of leprosie hath overspread me I am a scandal to others a shame to my self a reproach to my relations a burden to the earth a spot in the Church and deserve to be rejected and scorn'd by thee 2. But this O God I cannot bear It is just in thee to destroy me but thou delightest not in that I am guilty of death but thou lovest rather that I should live 3. O let the cry of thy Sons blood who offers an eternal Sacrifice to thee speak on my behalf and speak better things than the blood of Abel 4. My conscience does accuse me the Devils rejoyce in my fall and aggravate my crimes already too great and thy holy Spirit is grieved by me But my Saviour Jesus died for me and thou pittiest me and thy holy Spirit still calls upon me and I am willing to come but I cannot come unlesse thou drawest me with the cords of love 5. O draw me unto thee by the Arguments of charity by the endearments of thy mercies by the order of thy providence by the hope of thy promises by the sense of thy comforts by the conviction of my understanding by the zeal and passion of holy affections by an unreprovable faith and an humble hope by a religious fear and an increasing love by the obedience of precepts and efficacy of holy example by thy power and thy wisdom by the love of thy Son and the grace of thy Spirit Draw me O God and I will run after thee and the sweetnesses of thy precious ointments 6. I am not worthy O Lord I am not worthy to come into thy presence much less to eat the flesh of the Sacrificed Lamb For my sins O Blessed Saviour Jesus went along in confederation with the High Priests in treachery with Judas in injustice with Pilate in malice with the people 7. My sins and the Jews crucified thee my hypocrisie was the kiss that betrai'd thee my covetous
or to speak nothing but what is pertinent for a day or for a day not to be angry and then sometimes for two daies and so diet your weak soul with little portions of food till it be able to take in and digest a full meal Or 6. Meditate often every day of death or the day of judgment By these and the like instruments it will happen to the remains of sin as it did to the Aegyptians what is left by the Hail the Catterpiller will destroy and what the Catterpiller leaves the Locusts will eat These instruments will eat up the remains of sin as the poor gather up the gleanings after the Carts in harvest 9. But if at any Communion and in the use of these advices you do not perceive any sensible progression in the spirit of mortification or devotion then be sure to be ashamed and to be humbled for thy indisposition and slow progression in the discipline of Christ and if thou beest humbled truly for thy want of improvement it is certain thou hast improved And if you come with fear and trembling it is very probable you will come in the spirit of repentance and devotion These exercises and measures will not seem many long and tedious as the rules of art if we consider that all are not to be used at all times nor by every person but are instruments fitted to several necessities and useful when they can do good and to be used no longer â—or he that uses these or any the like advices by way of solemnity and in periodical returns will still think fit to use them at every Communion as long as he lives but he that uses them as he should that is to effect the work of reformation upon his soul may lay them all aside according to his work is done But if we would every day do something of this if we would every day prepare for the day of death or which is of a like consideration for the day of our Communion if we would every night examine our passed day and set our things in order if we would have a perpetual entercourse and conversation with God or which is better than all examinations in the world if we would actually attend to what we do and consider every action and speak so little that we might consider it we should find that upon the day of our Communion we should have nothing to do but the third particular that is the offices of Prayer and Eucharist and to renew our graces by prayer and exercises of devotion SECT IV. Devotions to be used upon the morning of the Communion 1. O Blessed Lord our gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords thou art fairer than the children of men upon thee the Angels look and behold and wonder what am I O Lord that thou who fillest heaven and earth shouldst descend and desire to dwell with me who am nothing but folly and infirmity misery and sin shame and death 2. I confess O God that when I consider thy greatness and my nothing thy purity and my uncleanness thy glory and my shame I see it to be infinitely unreasonable and presumptuous that I should approach to thy sacred presence and desire to partake of thy Sacraments and to enter into thy grace and to hope for a part of thy glory But when I consider thy mercy and thy wisdome thy bounty and thy goodness thy readiness to forgive and thy desires to impart thy self unto thy servants then I am lifted up with hope then I come with boldness to the throne of grace Even so O Lord because thou hast commanded it and because thou lovest it should be so 3. It was never heard O Lord from the beginning of the world that thou didst ever despise him that called upon thee or â—orsake any man that abides in thy fear or that any person who trusted in the Lord was ever confounded But if I come to thee I bring an unworthy person to be united unto thee if I come not I shall remain unworthy for ever If I stay away I fear to lose thee If I come I fear to offend thee and that will lose thee more and my self too at last I know O God I know my sins have separated between me and my God but thy love and thy passion thy holiness and thy obedience hath reconciled us and though my sins deter me yet they make it necessary for me to come and though thy greatness amazes me yet it is so full of goodness that it invites me 4. O therefore blessed Saviour who didst for our sakes take upon thee our passions and sensibilities our weaknesses and our sufferings who wert hungry after the temptation of the Devil weary and thirsty in thy discourse with the woman of Samaria who didst weep over Lazarus wert afflicted in the garden whipt in the Consistory nail'd on the Cross pierc'd with a spear wrapp'd in liâ—nen laid in the grave and so art become a 〈◊〉 High Priest and pitiful to our infiâ—â—â—â—ieâ— be pleased to receive a weary sinner 〈◊〉 overburdâ—neâ—â—â—nscience an afflicted polluted soul iâ—to thy câ—re and conduct into thy custody and â—â—re I know that a thousand years of tears and sorrow the purity of Angels the love of Saints and the humiliation of the greatest penitent is not sufficient to make we worthy to dwell with thee to be united to thy infinity to be fed with thy body and refreshed with thy purest bloud to become bone of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh and spirit of thy spirit 5. But what I cannot be of my self let me be made by thee I come to thee wounded and bruised and bleeding for thou art my Physician arise then with healing in thy wings I am thirsty and faint as the Hart longeth after the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God thou art the eternal fountain from whence spring the waters of comfort and salvation I am hungry and empty and weak and I come running after thee because thou hast the words of eternal life O send me not away empty for I shall faint and die I cannot live without thee O let vertue go forth from thee and heal all my sickness do thou appear to my soul in these mysteries heal my sores purifie my stains enlighten my darkness turn me from all vain imaginations and illusions of the enemy all perverseness of will all violence and inordination of passions sensual desires and devillish angers lust and malice gluttony and pride the spirit of envy and the spirit of detraction let not sin reign in my members nor the Devil lead my will captive nor the world abuse my understanding and debauch my conversation 6. O Jesus be a Jesus unto me and let this Sacrament be a savour of life and thy holy body the bread of life and thy precious bloud the purifier of my sinful life Grant I may receive these Divine mysteries for the amendment of my
life and the defensative against my sins for the increase of vertue and the perfection of my spirit Grant that I may from thee thus Sacramentally communicated derive prevailing grace for the amendment of my life spiritual wisdom for the discerning the waies of peace the spirit of love and the spirit of purity that in all my life I may walk worthy of thy gracious favours which thou givest to me unworthy that I may do all my works in holiness and right intention that I may resist every temptation with a never fainting courage and a caution never surprized and a prudence never deceived 7. Sweetest Saviour I come to thee upon thy invitation and thy commandment I could not come to thee but by thee O let me never go from thee any more but enter into my heart feed me with thy word sustain me with thy spirit refresh me with thy comforts and let me in this divine mystery receive thee my dearest Saviour and be thou my wisdom and my righteousness my sanctification and redemption let me receive this holy nutriment as the earnest of an eternal inheritance as a defensative against all spiritual danger for the eviction of all the powers of the enemy as an incentive of holy love and a strengthning of my faith for the increasing of a holy hope and the consummation of a heavenly love that thou being one with me and I with thee I may by thee be gracious in the eyes of thy heavenly Father and may receive my portion amongst the inheritance of Sons O eternal and most gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesu Amen Amen CHAP. VII Of our Comportment in and after our Receiving the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. Of the Circumstances and Manner of Reception of the Divine Mysteries IT is the custom of the Church of great antiquity and proportionable regard that every Christian that is in health should receive the Blessed Sacrament fasting The Apostles and primitive Bishops at first gave it after Supper or together with it but that soon passed into inconvenience and some were drunken and some were empty and despis'd and the Holy Sacrament was dishonour'd and the Lords body was not discerned and God was provoked to anger and the sinners were smitten and died in their sin as appears in the sad narrative which St. Paul makes of the misdemeanours and the misfortunes in the Corinthian Churches Something like to which is that which Socrates tells of some Christians in Aegypt they celebrated the Holy Communion at evening but never till they had fillâ—d themselves with varities of choice meat Of some also in Africa that communicated at evening St. Austin speaks and of others who communicated both morning and evening At evening because S. Paul called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Supper and in the morning from the universal custom of the Church which in most places from the very days of the Apostles prevail'd that the holy Eucharist should be given to none but to them that were fasting which thing was also decreed in the third Council of Carthage and hath been observed ever since And in this the Church hath not without good reason taken up the custom For besides that the intemperance of them that fâ—asted before they communicated did not only give scandal to the Religion but did infinitely indispose them that came and dishonour the Divine Mysteries and such feastings would for ever be a temptation and a snare and therefore could not be cured so well as by taking the occasion away besides these things the Church observed that in the time of the Synagogue the Servants of God did religiously abstain from meat and drink upon all their solemn feast days till their great Offices of Religion were finish'd and that upon this account the Jews were scandaliz'd at the Disciples for eating the ears of corn early on their Sabbath and Christ excus'd them only upon the reason of their hunger that is upon necessity or charity and after all even by natural reason and experience we find that they pray and worship best who are not loaden with meat and drink and that therefore this solemnity being the greatest worship of God in the whole Religion consequently ought to be done with all advantages it was therefore very reasonable that the Church took up this custom and therefore they who causelesly do prevaricate it shall bear their own burden and are best reproved by St. Pauls words We have no such custom nor the Churches of God But sick people and the weak are as readily to be excused in this thing as the Apostles were by Christ in the case before mentioned For necessity and charity are to be preferr'd before such ceremonies and circumstances of address 1. When you awake in the morning of your Communion day give God thanks particularly that he hath blessed thee with so blessed an opportunity of receiving the Symbols of pardon the ministery of the Spirit the Sacrament of Christ himself the seed of immortality and the Antepast of heaven and hasten earlier out of your bed The cock crowing that morning is like the noise that is made of the coming of the Bridegroom and therefore go out to meet him but rise that you may trim your lamp When you are up presently address your self to do such things as you would willingly be found doing when the Bridegroom calls and you are to appear before him to hear your final sentence 2. Make a general confession of your sins and be very much humbled in the sense and apprehension of them Compare the state and union of all your evils with the state and grandeur of that favour which God intends that day to consign to you and then think what you are and what God is what you have done and what God intends to do how ill you have deserved and yet how graciously you are dealth with And consider what an infinite distance there is between that state which you have deserved and that good which you are to have by considering how intolerable your case would have been if God had dealt with you as you deserve and as he hath dealt with very many who sinn'd no more than you have done and yet in what felicities you are placed by the mercies of your good God that you are in the hopes and in the methods and in the participations of pardon and eternal life 3. The effect of this consideration ought to be that you make acts of general contrition for all your sins known and unknown That you renew your purposes and vows of better obedience That you exercise acts of special graces and that you give God most hearty and superexalted thanks with all the transports and ravishments of spirit for so unspeakable so unmeritable so unrewardable a loving kindness 4. Worship Jesus Love him dedicate thy self to him recollect what he hath done for thy soul what glories he laid aside with what meanness he was invested what pains he suffered what shame he endur'd
what excellencies he preach'd what wisdom he taught what life he liv'd what death he died what Mysteries he hath appointed by what ministeries he conveys himself to thee what rare arts he uses to save thee and after all that he intercedes for thee perpetually in heaven presenting to his heavenly Father that great Sacrifice of himself which he finished on the Cross and commands thee to imitate in this Divine and Mysterious Sacrament and in the midst of these thoughts and proportionable exercises and devotions address thy self to the solemnities and blessings of the day 5. Throw away with great diligence and severity all unholy and all earthly thoughts and think the thoughts of heaven for when Christ descends he comes attended with innumerable companies of Angels who all behold and wonder who love and worship Jesus and in this glorious imployment and society let thy thoughts be pure and thy mind celestial and thy work Angelical and thy spirit full of love and thy heart of wonder thy mouth all praises investing and incircling thy prayers as a bright cloud is adorned with fringes and margents of light 6. When thou seest the holy man minister dispute no more inquire no more doubt no more be divided no more but believe and behold with the eyes of faith and of the spirit that thou seest Christs body broken upon the Cross that thou seest him bleeding for thy sins that thou feedest upon the food of elect souls that thou puttest thy mouth to the hole of the rock that was smitten to the wound of the side of thy Lord which being pierced streamed forth Sacraments and life and holiness and pardon and purity and immortality upon thee 7. When the words of Institution are pronounced all the Christians us'd to say Amen giving their consent confesâ—ing that faith believing that word rejoicing in that Mystery which is told us when the Minister of the Sacrament in the person of Christ says This is my body This is my blood This body was broken for you and this blood was poured forth for you and all this for the remission of your sins And remember that the guilt of eternal damnation which we have all incurr'd was a great and an intolerable evil and unavoidable if such miracles of mercy had not been wrought to take it quite away and that it was a very great love which would work such glorious mercy rather than leave us in so intolerable a condition A greater love than this could not be and a less love than this could not have rescued us 8. When the holy Man reaches forth his hands upon the Symbols and prays over them and intercedes for the sins of the people and breaks the holy bread and pours forth the sacred calice place thy self by faith and meditation in heaven and see Christ doing in his glorious manner this very thing which thou seest ministred and imitated upon the Table of the Lord and then remember that it is impossible thou shouldest miss of eternal blessings which are so powerfully procur'd for thee by the Lord himself unless thou wilt despise all this and neglect so great salvation and chusest to eat with swine the dirty pleasures of the earth rather than thus to feast with Saints and Angels and to eat the body of thy Lord with a clean heart and humble affections 9. When the consecrating and ministring hand reaches forth to thee the holy Symbols say within thy heart as did the Centurion Lord I am not worthy but entertain thy Lord as the women did the news of the resurrection with fear and great joy or as the Apostles with rejoycing and singleness of heart that is clear certain and plain believing and with exultation and delight in the loving kindness of the Lord. 10. But place thy self upon thy knees in the humblest and devoutest posture of worshippers and think not much in the lowest manner to worship the King of Men and Angels the Lord of heaven and earth the great lover of souls and the Saviour of the body him whom all the Angels of God worship him whom thou confessest worthy of all and whom all the world shall adore and before whom they shall tremble at the day of judgment For if Christ be not there after a peculiar manner whom or whose body do we receive But if he be present to us not in mystery only but in blessing also why do we not worship But all the Christians always did so from time immemorial No man eats this flesh unless he first adores said S. Austin For the wise men and the Barbarians did worship this body in the manger with very much fear and reverence let us therefore who are Citizens of heaven at least not fall short of the Barbarians But thou seest him not in the Manger but on the Altar and thou beholdest him not in the Virgins arms but represented by the Priest and brought to thee in Sacrifice by the holy Spirit of God So. St. Chrysostome argues and accordingly this reverence is practised by the Churches of the East and West and South by the Christians of India by all the Greeks as appears in their answer to the Cardinal of Guise by all the Lutheran Churches by all the world saâ—es Erasmus only now of late some have excepted themselves But the Church of England chooses to follow the reason and the piety of the thing it self the example of the Primitive Church and the consenting voice of Christendome And if it be irreverent to sit in the sight and before the face of him whom you ought to revere how much more in the presence of the living God where the Angel the president of prayer does stand must it needs be a most irreligious thing to sit unless we shall upbraid to God that our prayers to him have wearied us It is the argument of Tertullian To which many of the Fathers add many other fair inducements but I think they cannot be necessary to be produced here because all Christians generally kneel when they say their prayers and when they bless God anâ— I suppose no man communicates but he does both and therefore needs no oâ—her inducement to perswade him to kneel especially since Christ himself and St. Stephen and â—he Apostle St. Paul used that posture in their devotions that or lower for St. Paul kneeled upon the shore and our Lord himself fell prostrate on the earth But to them that refuse I shall only use the words of Scripture which the Fathers of the Council of Turon applied to this particular Why art thou proud O dust and ashes And when Christ opens his heart and gives us all that we need or can desire it looks like an ill return if we shall dispute with him concerning the humility of a gesture and a circumstance 11. When thou dost receive thy Lord do thou also receive thy Brother into thy heart and into thy bowels Thy Lord relieves thee
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
Spirit of mercy and justice prudence and diligence the favour of God and the love of their people and grace and blessing that they may live at peace with thee and with one another remembring the command of their Lord and King the serene and reconciling Jesus 4. Give an Apostolical Spirit to all Ecclesiastical Prelates and Priests grant to them zeal of souls wisdom to conduct their charges purity to become exemplar that their labours and their lives may greatly promote the honour of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus O grant unto thy flock to be fed with wise and holy shepherds men fearing God and hating covetousness free from envy and full of charity that being burning and shining lights men beholding â—heir light may rejoyce in that light and glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven 5. Have mercy upon all states of men and women in the Christian Church the Governors and the governed the rich and the poor high and low grant to every of them in their several station to live with so much purity and faith simplicity and charity justice and perfection that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven 6. Relieve all oppressed Princes defend and restore their rights and suppress all violent and warring spirits that unjustly disturb the peace of Christendom Relieve and comfort all Gentlemen that are fallen into poverty and sad misfortunes Comfort and support all that are sick and deliver them from all their sorrows and all the powers of the enemy and let the spirit of comfort and patience of holiness and resignation descend upon all Christian people whom thou hast in any instance visited with thy rod And be graciously pleas'd to pity poor mankind shorten the days of our trouble and put an end to the days of our sin and let the Kingdom of our dearest Lord be set up in every one of our hearts and prevail mightily and for ever 7. I humbly present to thy Divine Majesty this glorious Sacrifice which thy servants this day have represented upon earth in behalf of my dearest Relations Wife Children Husband Parents Friends c. Grant unto them whatsoever they want or wisely and holily desire keep them for ever in thy fear and favour grant that they may never sin against thee never fall into thy displeasure never be separated from thy love and from thy presence but let their portion be in the blessing and in the service in the love and in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever 8. Have mercy upon all strangers and aliens from the Kingdom of thy Son let the sweet sound of thy Gospel be heard in all the corners of the earth let not any soul the work of thy own hands the price of thy Sons blood be any longer reckon'd in the portions of thy Enemy but let them all become Christians and grant that all Christians may live according to the Laws of the holy Jesus without scandal and reproach full of faith and full of charity 9. Give thy grace speedily to all wicked persons that they may repent and live well and be saved To all good people give an increase of gifts and holiness and the grace of perseverance and Christian perfection To all Hereticks and Schismaticks grant the Spirit of humility and truth charity and obedience and suffer none upon whom the Name of Christ is called to throw themselves away and fall into the portion of the intolerable burning 10. For all mankind whom I have and whom I have not remembred I humbly represent the Sacrifice of thy eternal Son his merits and obedience his life and death his resurrection and ascension his charity and intercession praying to thee in vertue of our glorious Saviour to grant unto us all the graces of an excellent and perfect repentance an irreconcilable hatred of all sin a great love of God an exact imitation of the holiness of the ever blessed Jesus the spirit of devotion conformable will and religious affections an Angelical purity and a Seraphical love thankful hearts and joy in God and let all things happen to us all in that order and disposition as may promote thy greatest glory and our duty our likeness to Christ and the honour of his Kingdom Even so Father let it be because it is best and because thou lovest it should be so bring it to a real and unalterable event by the miracles of grace and mercy and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant poured forth in the day of the Lords love whom I adore and whom I love and desire that I may still more and more love and love for ever Amen Amen SECT III. An Advice concerning him who only Communicates Spiritually THere are many persons well disposed by the measures of a holy life to communicate frequently but it may happen that they are unavoidably hindred Some have a timerous conscience a fear a pious fear which is indeed sometimes more pitiable than commendable Others are advis'd by their spiritual Guides to abstain for a time that they may proceed in the vertue of repentance further yet before they partake of the Sacrament of love and yet if they should want the blessings and graces of the Communion their remedy which is intended them would be a real impediment Some are scandalized and offended at irremediable miscarriages in publick Doctrines or Government and cannot readily overcome their prejudice nor reconcile their consciences to a present actual Communion Some dare not receive it at the hands of a wicked Priest of notorious evil life Some can have it at no Priest at all but are in a long journey or under a Persecution or in a Country of a differing perswasion Some are sick and some cannot have it every day but every day desire it Such persons as these if they prepare themselves with all the essential and ornamental measures of address and eanestly desire that they could actually Communicate they may place themselves upon their knees and building an Altar in their heart celebrate the death of Christ and in holy desire joyn with all the Congregations of the Christian world who that day celebrate the holy Communion and may serve their devotion by the former Prayers and actions Eucharistical changing only such circumstantial words which relate to the actual participation And then they may remember and make use of the comfortable Doctrine of S. Austin It is one thing saith that learned Saint to be born of the Spirit and another thing to be fed of the Spirit As it is one thing to be born of the flesh which is when we are born of our mother and another thing to be fed of the flesh which is done when she suckles her Infant by that nourishment which is chang'd into food that he might eat and drink with pleasure by which he was born to life when this is done without the actual and Sacramental participation it is called spiritual Manducation Concerning which I only add the pious advice of
a religious person Let every faithful soul be ready and desirous often to receive the holy Eucharist to the glory of God But if he cannot so often Communicate Sacramentally as he desires let him not be afflicted but remain in perfect resignation to the will of God and dispose himself to a spiritual Communion For no man and no thing can hinder a well-disposed soul but that by holy desires she may if she please communicate every day To this nothing is necessary to be added but that this way is to be used never but upon just necessity and when it cannot be actual not upon peevishness and spiritual pride not in the spirit of schism and fond opinions not in despight of our Brother and contempt or condemnation of the holy Congregations of the Lord but with a living faith and an actual charity and great humility and with the Spirit of devotion and that so much the more intensly and fervently by how much he is really troubled for the want of actual participation in the Communion of Saints and then that is true which S. Austin said Crede manducasti Believe and thou hast eaten Adora Jesum FINIS A Catalogue of some Books to be sold by Tho. Basset at his shop under St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet SCintilla Altaris Primitive Devotion in the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England By Edw. Sparke D. D. And also Devotions on the three grand Solemnities last added to the Liturgy of the Church of England viz. The Fifth of November viz. The Thirtieth of January viz. The Twenty ninth of May. By the same Author Officium Quotidianum or A Manual of Private Devotions By the Most Reverend Father in God Dr. William Laud late Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury The New Common-Prayer with choice Cuts in Copper newly engraven Suited to all the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England throughout the year in all the Pocket-Volumes A Collection of all the Statutes in force from the year 1640. to this present time in a fair Character Printed by His Majesties Printers The Reader is also desired to take notice That there is another Counterfeit Impression in a small Character and very imperfect wanting ten Acts now in force said to be Printed by Ja. Flesher Hen. Twyford and J. Streater with Mr. Manbee 's Name of Lincolns-Inn in the Title * So the Syriac Interpreter renders the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the places of my Father In iis quae patris mei sunt So the Arabic Version In negotiis patris mei in my Fathers business So Castellio Piscator and our English Bibles But the second reddition is more agreeable with the words of the Greek and the first is more consonant to the use of that phrase in the N. T. So Joh. 19.27 St. John received the Mother of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recepit eam in domum suam so Beza and our English Translation he took her to his own house And thus St. Chrysostom uses the same phrase Serm. 52. in Genes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whither do you drive the just man do you not know that where-ever he sets his foot he is within his fathers house or territory Isa. 31.9 O Tarpeie Pater qui Templa secundam Incolis à coelo sedem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.1.2 Act. 2.38 * Heb. 10.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiderata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hâ—stia hostiarum mysterium mysteriorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.13 1 Cor. 11.20.8.29 1 Cor. 10.16 Jude v. 12 Acts 16.2 Duplex vita duplicem poscit panem St Aug. oportuit autem non solum primitias nostrae naturae in participationem venire melioris sed omnes quotquot velint homines secundâ nativitate nasci nutriti cibo novo huic nativitati accommodato atque ita praevenire mensuram perfectionis Damasc. de fide orthod l. 4. c. 14. Et quoniam spiritualis est Adam oportuit nativitatem spiritualem esse similiter cibum Ib. ibid. in Levit habetur de consecrat dist 2. secundum se. habet de consecrat dist 2. Epist. ad Iren. Ibid. vide eund in Johaâ— tract 50. In tract verb. Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium hominis In Levit. c. 10. hom 7. * De Sacram l. 5. c. 4. in Luc. l. 6. c. 8. * In Johan 6. hom 47. Tract 26. in Johan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil in Ps. 33 Joh. 6.35 v. 54 56. Res ipsa cujus Sacramentum est omni homini ad vitam nulli ad exitium quicunque ejus particeps suerit S. Aug tract 16. in Joh. de resur car c. 37. Annon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc mysterium pronunciat Nestorius irreligiose fidelium mentes in sensus adulterinos detrudit ac humanis cogitationibus aggreditur quae solâ purâ inexquisitâ fide accipiuntur S. Cyril lib. ad Euophium anathem 11. Quod esca est carni hoc animâ—e fides S. Cypr. de coenâ— Dom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Arabas Hebraeos significat panem corpus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost Pedag. 1. lib. de resur car 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M. S Prov. 9.5 Moreh Nevouch l. 1. c. 30. Pedag. 1. lib. de resur car 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M. S Prov. 9.5 Moreh Nevouch l. 1. c. 30. Ecclus. 15.3 Isa. 55.1 2. Mat. 5.6 Amos. 8.11 Isa. 12.3 à selectis justorum à capitibus primariis coetus Jer. 15.16 Heb. 9.14 10.29 13.20 Luke 14.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibyl Erithr Orac. Luk. 22.30 Eâ formâ quâ semper carnalia in figuram spiritualium antecedunt Tertul de baptis * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Allegor In ratione sacrorum par est animae corporis causa nam plerunque quae non possunt circa animam fieri fiunt circa corpus Servius in illud Virgil. vittasque resolvit lib. 4. In sacris quae exhiberi non poterunt simulabantur erant pro veris. Joh. Chap. 6. * Ad infantes apud Bedam * Tingimur in passione Domini Tertul. l. de bapt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Cyril vocatbaptismum Catech. 11 Rom. 5.10 Col. 1.20 21 22. Tit. 2.14 Heb. 2.9 14. Heb. 9.15 1 Pet. 1.18 1 Pet. 2.24 Tertul. l. 3. c. 8. contr Marcion Figura est ergo praecipiens passioni Domini esse communicandum suaviter atque utiliter recondendum in memoria quo pro nobis caro ejus crucifixa vulnerata sit S. August de doctr Christ. l. 3. Et tu qui accipis panem divinae ejus substantiae in illo participas alimento S. Ambros. lib. 66. de sacram Hic umbra hic imago illic veritas umbra in