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A53963 A practical discourse upon the Blessed Sacrament shewing the duties of the communicant before, at, and after the Eucharist / by Edward Pelling ... Pelling, Edward, d. 1718. 1692 (1692) Wing P1089; ESTC R20512 120,778 284

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Promises at his hands THIS is enough to shew what a becoming and suitable posture Kneeling is at this Great Solemnity and how Naturally it follows where People entertain right Notions of it and come unto it with humble Minds Nor can I sufficiently admire that of all the Usages in the Christian Church this so Significant so Decent a Ceremony should ever become a stumbling-block and matter of Dispute Certainly it must be an ill sign of very Lofty Imaginations when there is such stiffness in Mens Knees BUT it is high time for me to proceed CHAP. XII Of our Behaviour after Receiving WHEN we have thus devoutly employ'd this blessed hour we must not imagine that our great Business is at an end that we may now drop those Religious Considerations which hitherto took up our time and thoughts that we may now go home leaving our Vows and Resolutions behind us in the Church much less may we think our selves free to fall afresh upon our former course of Life I must tell you the greatest part of our business is yet before us and to stop and rest here in the performance of those things which have hitherto employ'd our minds is the ready way to unravel our whole work and to defeat the design of this Heavenly Ordinance For this Rite of Eating and Drinking at the Lord's Table though it be of admirable use yet it is not naturally and intrinsecally good as those Acts and Dispositions of the Mind are wherein the Substance and Excellence of Religion doth consist but it i● a Relative thing instituted by our Saviour as a Means to promote and carry on that Noble End for which the Grace of God hath appeared unto all Men that denying all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Tit. 2. 12. Here indeed we lay the Foundation of a life of Virtue by devoting unto God the Powers and Faculties of our Souls and the Members of our Bodies but as the Ground-work is in order to a Superstructure so are our Actions now in order to the further edifying and perfecting of us that we may be built up more and more in our most Holy Faith and being sitly framed together and compacted may grow and rise up by degrees to an Holy Temple for the Lord to be an Habitation of God through the Spirit THIS you will easily perceive if you observe 1. The Nature of the Ordinance it self It is first a Representation of the very Death of Christ a Representation exhibited to our Sences by the breaking of the Bread and the effusion of the Wine And what doth this mean but to awaken our Fears by shewing us the Terror of the Lord who for the expiation of the World's Guilt spared not his own Son nor would be reconciled to the World at a lower rate than by delivering him up to Torments and Death for us all What doth it mean but to set our Zeal a work upon mortifying all our Lusts and Affections and upon perfecting Holiness in the fear of God because Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and Purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works What doth it mean but to make us ever watchful and circumspect lest we tread under foot the Blood of the Son of God Because if we sin wilfully after we have received the Knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sin Heb. 10. 26. It is secondly a Memorial of Christ's Love Love stronger than Death that made him give his life a ransom for the ungodly And what doth this mean but to kindle in our Hearts the most ardent Affections to Him again who so loved us as to die for us The greatest Affection this that 't is possible for any Mortal Man to express to lay down his Life for the Brethren But yet infinitely short of that which the Son of God expressed upon the Cross for his Enemies In this he commended his Love towards us above all proportion and comparison in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us the Just for the Vnjust It is thirdly a foederal Solemnity whereby we renew the Covenant we entred into at our Baptism Vowing Promising and Engaging over the Symbols of Christ's Body and Blood and Swearing as it were with our Hands laid upon the Redeemer of our Souls that we will henceforth walk in Newness of Life And what doth this mean but to bind us with the most Solemn Securities and under the most dreadful Penalties to renounce the Devil and all his Works to deny all the Lusts of the Flesh so as not to follow or be led by them and not only to offer up our Hearts and Spirits unto the God of Purity but to present even our Bodies a living Sacrifice Holy and Acceptable to him And for the farthering of all these Noble Ends this Mystery is in the Fourth place the very Means of Grace and Salvation an Instrument that conveys to us the present Possession of all necessary and suitable Assistances and a Title under Seal to all the Evangelical Promises and particularly to this that he that persevereth unto the end the same shall be saved and that to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. And what doth this mean too but that we should grow in Grace that we must not grieve the good Spirit of God whereby we are Sealed to the day of Redemption but that we should be strong in the Lord and in the power of his Might and give all manner of diligence to make our Calling and Election unto Grace sure and effectual by adding to our Faith Virtue or Courage and to Virtue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity Charity in the highest degree to all Mankind and even to our Enemies Thus you see the nature of the Ordinance it self is such that it is not only highly useful for the present but of mighty Importance for the future it hath a tendency forward and it drives at mighty Ends which our endeavours are to be employ'd about after the Celebration of it is over that we may be more and more Partakers of the Divine Nature and come every day nearer and nearer to the Life of God TO confirm this still we may observe Secondly That those very Preparations which are required in order to our worthy Communicating do all look the same way and have a direct tendency to the same purpose Thus Faith or the hearty belief of the truth of our Religion upon those Evidences and Motives it carries with it is naturally productive of constant Obedience to the Precepts of it throughout the whole course of our lives For as it discovers to us the Folly the Shamefulness and the bitter Fruits of Sin so it shews
Vniversal and Vniform or that we habitually live according to the whole Will of God because where we come short of this Vniformity there we come short of that Perfection and by consequence of that Happiness which is the great scope and design of Christianity This is the meaning of Divines when they tell us that there must be in us a Perfection of Parts though we are not capable of a perfection of Degrees that is there must be the presence of every Virtue though there be at the same time such a mixture of Corruption with our noblest Endowments that we cannot exercise them in that high pitch as we shall do in the next Life when we shall be of perfect Stature even as a Child in the Womb hath all the necessary Parts and Lineaments of a Man though it will be long before he comes to a full Growth and Proportion CONSIDER then I beseech you and you especially who have been Partakers of the Blessed Viands of Immortality what strict Obligations ye have entred into and what manner of Persons ye ought to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness You are now to fulfil all Righteousness you are now to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts you are now to do as the Combatants in the old Olympick Games to lay aside every weight that might oppress and every Incumbrance that might intangle you and to run with Perseverence the race that is set before you and you are to remember what the Apostle tells us Jam. 2. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is become guilty of all that is Guilty of Disobedience and Obnoxious to Punishment as well as if he had violated all THAT you may not miscarry therefore through the Wilful neglect of any necessary Duty or by the presumptuous Commission of any heinous Sin lay daily before your Eyes the perfect Law of Liberty which our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles have left us as the Infallible Rule of a perfectly Christian Life And for your more easie performance I shall now briefly represent to you a Scheme and Platform of Virtue agreeable to those Precepts which are scatter'd up and down in the Holy Scriptures as a very fit and proper Undertaking to come at the close of this whole Subject I begin with that which is the source and Principle of our Actions whether they be good or evil the inner Man Keep thy Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Prov. 4. 25. As a good Man cut of the good Treasure of the Heart bringeth forth good things so an evil Man out of the evil Treasure bringeth forth evil things Matth. 12. 35. For out of the Heart proceed evil Designs Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemies Mat. 15. 19. It is a good thing therefore that principally in this sense the Heart be established with Grace Heb. 13. 9. Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God Matth. 5. 8. THE good things which come out of this hidden Treasure are usually divided into three general kinds as St. Paul hath reckoned them Tit. 2. 12. Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness Under which three Heads are comprehended all the several Duties which relate to our selves and to our Neighbours and to God himself According to which Division I shall proceed FIRST to lay before you those Virtues which more immediately relate to your selves in a separate and Personal capacity as I find them proposed in the Holy Scriptures LEARN of Christ in the very first place to be lowly in Heart Mat. 11. 29. God hath respect unto the lowly Ps 138. 6. He giveth Grace unto the lowly Prov. 3. 34. Be ye therefore cloathed with Humility 1 Pet. 5. 5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in Fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became Obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8. That no one of you be puffed up 1 Cor. 4. 6. That ye be not high minded but fear Rom. 11. 20. That ye mind not high things but condescend to Men of low Estate Rom. 12. 16. That ye think not of your selves more highly than ye ought to think but think soberly according as God hath dealt to every Man the Measure of Faith Rom. 12. 3. And that ye trust not in uncertain Riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy 1 Tim 6. 17. NEXT of Kin to this Virtue of Humility is that of Meekness such a Beauty of the Mind that it is called the Ornament of a meek and a quiet Spirit which even in the sight of God is of great Price 1 Pet. 3. 4. To recommend it unto us God requires us to be as he himself is slow to wrath Jam. 1. 19. To cease from Anger Ps 37. 8. Not to be angry without a cause Mat. 5. 22. Nor to be angry in such a measure as to Sin or to let the Sun go down upon our Wrath Ephes 4. 26. But to put on Bowels of Mercy Kindness Meekness Long-suffering Col. 3. 12. And to let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and Evil-speaking be put away from us with all Malice Ephes 4. 31. THESE two Virtues being deeply radicated Patience will naturally produce in us great Temper and Firmness of Mind in any grievous Circumstances God himself though he be provoked every day is long-suffering towards us The Blessed Jesus endured all the Contradictions of Sinners against himself Heb. 12. 3. And when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. And all this to leave us an Example that we should follow his Steps 1 Pet. 2. 21. That we should possess our Souls in Patience Luk. 21. 19. That we be patient in Tribulations Rom. 12. 12. That we endure Afflictions 2 Tim. 4. 5. That we endure to the End 1 Pet. 1. 13. And when any fiery Tryal comes that we should not wonder or be troubled as if some strange thing hapned but rejoyce inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed we may be glad also with exceeding Joy 1 Pet. 4. 12 13. THIS leads on the slighting of all Mortification things here below when they stand in competition with the love of God and a good Conscience Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15. Therefore let your Conversation be without Covetousness Heb. 13. 5. Lay not for your selves Treasures upon Earth Matth. 6. 19. If Riches encrease set not your Heart upon them Ps 62. 10. Neither take