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
to give him all Sicily or the revenues of Egypt the beast would have lived and eaten But the promises of God give to many of us no security not so much as the promise of our rich friend who yet may be disabled or may break his word or die * But let us trie again * God hath promised that all things shall work together for good to them that fear him Do we believe that our present affliction will do so Will the loss of our goods the diminution of our revenue the amission of our honour the death of our eldest son the unkindness of a husband the frown of our Prince the defeating of our secular hopes the unprosperous event of our imployment Do we find that our faith is right enough really to be satisfied in these things so much as to be pleased with Gods order and method of doing good to us by these unpleasing instruments Can we rejoyce under the mercy by the joys of believing at the same time when we groan under the affliction by the passions of sense Do we observe the design of cure when we feel the pain and the smart Are we patient under the evil being supported by the expectation of the good which is promised to follow This is the proper work of faith and its best indication Plutarch tells that when the cowards of Lacedaemon depicted upon their shields the most terrible beasts they could imagine their design was to affright their enemies that they might not come to a close fight they would fain have made their enemies afraid because themselves were so Which when Lacon espied he painted upon a great shield nothing but a little fly for his device and to them who said he did it that he might not be noted in the battle he answered yea but I mean to come so neer the enemy that he shall see the little fly This is our case our afflictions seem to us like Gorgons heads Lions and Tigres things terrible in picture but intolerable in their fury but if we come neer and consider them in all the circumstances they are nothing but a fly upon a shield they cannot hurt us and they ought not to affright us if we remember that they are conducted by God that they are the effect of his care and the impresse of his love that they are the method and order of a blessing that they are sanctified and eased by a promise and that a present ease it may be would prove a future infelicity If our faith did rely upon the promise all this were nothing but our want of faith does cause all the excesse of trouble For the question is not whether or no we be afflicted whether we be sick or crossed in our designs or deprived of our children this we feel and mourn for but the question is whether all this may not or be not intended to bring good to us Not whether God smiles or no but to what purposes he smiles Not whether this be not evil but whether this evil will not bring good to us If we do believe why are we without comfort and without patience If we do not believe it where is our faith And why does any of us come to the holy Communion if we do not believe it will be for our good but if we do think it will why do we not think so of our crosse for the promise is that every thing shall Cannot the rod of God do good as well as the bread of God and is not he as good in his discipline as in his provision Is not he the same in his School as at his Table Is not his physick as wholesome as his food It is not reason but plainly our want of faith that makes us think otherwise Faith is the great magazine of all the graces and all the comforts of a Christian and therefore the Devil endeavours to corrupt the truth of it by intermingling errours the sincerity of it by hypocrisie the ingenuity of it by interest the comforts of it by doubting the confidences of it by objections and secular experiences and present considerations by adherence to humane confidences and little sanctuaries and the pleasures of the world and the fallibilities of men * When Xerxes had a great army to conduct and great successes to desire and various contingencies to expect he left off to sacrifice to his Country gods forsook Jupiter and the Sun and in Lydia espying a goodly Platan tree tall and strait and spread he encamped all his army in the fields about it hung up bracelets and coronets upon the branches and with costly offerings made his petitions to the beauteous tree and when he march'd away he left a guard upon his God lest any thing should do injury to the plant of which he begged to be defended from all injury By such follies as these does the Devil endeavour to deflour our holy faith and confidences in God we trust in man who cannot trust himself we relie upon riches that relie upon nothing for they have no stabiliment and they have no foundation but are like atoms in the air the things themâ—elves can bear no weight aâ—d the foundation cannot bear them In our afflictions we look for comfort from wine or company from a friend that talkes well or from any thing that brings us present ease but in the mean time we look not into the promises of God which are the store houses of comfort and like the dogs at Hippocrene we lick the water drops that fall upon the ground and take no notice of the fountain and the full vessels These things are so necessary to be considered in order to our preparation to the Communion as they are necessary to be reduced to practice in order to a Christian Conversation for the holy Communion is the summary and compendium of the Religion and duty of a whole life and as faith cannot be holy material and acceptable without it contain in it a real trust in the promises of God so neither can it be a sufficient disposition to the receiving the divine mysteries unlesse upon this ground it be holy acceptable and material 3. That faith which is a worthy preparatory to the holy Communion must be the actual principle and effective of a good life a faith in the threatnings and in the Commandments of God Who can pretend to be a Christian and yet not believe those words of St. Paul Follow after peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God and yet if we do believe it what do we think will become of us who neither follow peace nor holiness but follow our anger and pursue our lust If we do believe this we had need look about us and live at another rate than men commonly do But we still remain peevish and angry malicious and unplacable apt to quarrel and hard to be reconciled lovers of money and lovers of pleasures but careless of holiness and
kindnesses which Christ requires of thee for thy enemy that is to pray for him and to love him But you may secure your selves by all means which his violence and your case hath mâ—de necessary But this I say is in case the evil be intolerable or that â—o avoid it be a matter of duty or charity to those to whom you are obliged Though my old friend and new enemy Caâ—bo do me little spites and kill my Deer or shoot my Pigeons or trespasse upon my grasse I must not be avenged on him at the Law or right my self by afflicting him but strive for the rewards of patience and labour for the fruits of my charity and for the rest use all the guards of prudence that I can yet if he takes away my childrens portions or fires my houses or exposes me and mine to beggary or destitution I must do that duty which my charity to my children and my justice does oblige me I may defend my childrens right though that defence exposes him to evil that does the evil I may not let Carbo alone and suffer my children to be undone I must provide for my own according to their condition and states of life if this provision be but necessary or competent according to prudent modest and wise accounts and be not a contention for excesses and extravagancies of wealth He that goes to Law for another hath greater warrant than he that does it for himself for it is more likely to be charity in their case and revenge in my own and certainly in the disputes of charity our children are to be preferred before our enemies In short If the vexation that is brought by the suit of Law upon an injurious person be not revenge and if the defence be necessary or greatly charitable and if the injury be intolerable or greatly afflictive in all these cases Christ hath left us to the liberties of Nature and Reason and the Laws 5. No man must in his own case prosecute his enemy to death or capital punishment The reasons are because no mans temporal evil his injury his disgrace his money and his wound are not a competent value for the life of a man and when beyond this there is no evil that we can do it can in no sense consist with charity that goes so far He that prosecutes his enemy to death forgives nothing forbears nothing of that injury he means no good to his enemy desires not his amendment is not careful of his repentance is not ambitious to gain a brother to secure the interest of a soul for God to get himself the rewards of charity and it is a sad thing to make thy adversary pay the utmost farthing even whilst he is in the way and to send him to make his accounts to God reeking in his sins and his crimes broad blown about his ears There are not many cases in which it can consist with the spirit of Christianity for the Laws themselves to put a criminal hastily to death Whatsoever is necessary that is lawful and of the necessities of the publick publick persons are to judge only they are to judge according to the analogy and gentlenesse of the Christian Law by a Christian spirit and to take care of souls as well as of bodies and estates If the criminal can be amended as oftentimes he can it is much better for a Common-wealth that a good Citizen be made than that he be taken away while he is evil Strabo tells of some Nations dwelling about Caucasus that never put their greatest malefactors to death and Diodorus says that Sabacon a pious and good King of Egypt changed capital punishments into slavery and profitable works and that with excellent successe because it brought more profit to the publick and brought the criminal to repentance and a good mind Balsamo says the Greek Emperours did so and St. Augustin advises it as most fitting to be done But if this in some case be better in the publick it self it is necessary in the private and it is necessary in our present inquiry in order to charity preparatory to the holy Communion and in the Council of Eliberis there is a Canon If any Christian accuse another at the Law and prosecute him to banishment or death let him not be admitted to the Communion no not so much as in the article of death For he whose malice passed unto the death of his brother must not in his death receive the Communion of the faithful and the seal of the Charities of God But this was severe and it is to be understood only to be so unlesse when we are commanded to prosecute a criminal by the interest of necessary justice and publick charity and the command of the Laws But in other cases he that hath done so let him repent greatly and long and at last Communicate That 's the best expedient Question VII Whether the Laws of Forgivâ—â—esse and the Charities of the Communioâ— oblige the injured person to forgive the adulterous Husband or Wife if they do repent There are two cases in which it is so far from being necessary that it is not lawful to do some things of kindnesse which in all other cases are indeed true charity and highly significative of a soul truly merciful and worthy to Communicate 1. When to retain the adulterous person is scandalous as in the Primitive Church it was esteemed so in Clergy men then sâ—ch persons though they be penitent must noâ— be suffered to cohabit they must be paâ—doned to aâ—l purposes which are not made unlawful by accident and to all purposes which may minister unto their repentance and salvation but charity must not be done to a single person with offence to â—he Chuâ—ch and a Criminal must not receive advâ—ntage by the prejudice of the holy and the innocenâ— Against this I have nothing to oppose but tâ—at those â—hurches which diâ— foâ—bid this forgivenâ—sse upon pretence of scandal should also have considered whether or no that the forgiveness of the Criminal and the charitable toleration of the injury and the patient labours of love and the endeavours of repâ—â—tance be not only more profitable to them both but also more exemplar to others 2. The other is the case of direct dâ—nger if the sin of the offending party be promoted by the charity of the injured man or woman it is made unlawful so far to forgive as to cohabit if this charity will let her loose to repent of her repentance it turns to uncharitablenesse and can nâ—ver be a duty But except it be in these cases it is not only lawful but infinitely agreeable to the duty of charity to restore the repenting person to his first condition of love and society But this is such a charity as although it be a counsel of perfection and a nobleness of forgivenesse yet that the forgivenesse shall extend to society and mutual endearments of cohabitation is under no Commandment
thy paths that my footsteps slip not As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tryed he is a buckler to all those that trust in him For who is God save the Lord and who is our rock save our God Judge me O Lord for I have walked in mine integrity but I trust in the Lord therefore I shall not slide Examine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart for thy loving-kindnesse is before mine eyâ—s and I will walk in thy truth I will not sit with vain persons neither will I go in with dissemblers I hate the Congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked I will wash mine hands in innocency so will I compasse thine Altar O â—ord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works But as for me I will walk in my integrity redeem me and be merciful unto me So shall my foot stand in an even place and in the congregations will I blesse the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Prayers O Eternal and most Glorious God who sittest in heaven ruling over all things from the beginning thou dwellest on high and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in heaven and earth thou hast searched me O Lord and known me thou understandest my thoughts afar off and art acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word in my tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether Be pleased to impart unto thy servant a ray of thy heavenly light a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law that I may walk in them all my days Set all my sins before my face that I may speedily and earnestly and perfectly repent and forsake them all Give me a sight of my infirmities that I may watch against them discover to me all my evil and weak principles that I may reform them and whatsoever is wanting in me towards the understanding of any thing whereby I may please thee and perfect my duty I beg of thee to reveal that also unto me that my duty may not be undiscerned and my faith may not be reproved and my affections may not be perverse and hardned in their foolish pursuance and a secret sin may not lye undiscovered and corrupting my soul. II. GIve me an ingenuous and a severe spirit that whatever judgment of charity I make concerning others I may give a right judgment concerning my own state and actions condemning the criminal censuring the suspicious suspecting what seems allowable and watchful even over the best that I may in the spirit of repentance and mortification correct all my irregularities and reform my errours and improve the good things which thou hast given me that endeavouring to approve my actions to my conscience and my conscience to thy law I may not be a reprobate but approved by thee in the great day of examination of all the world and be reckoned amongst thy Elect thy secret ones through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A short form of Humiliation after our Examination I. THY Judgments O Lord God are declared in thunder and with fear and dread thou shakest all my bones and my soul trembles when I consider that great day in which thou shalt judge all the world and that infinite justice which will not spare the mighty for his greatnesse nor the poor for his poverty and thy unlimited power which can mightily destroy all them that will not have thee to reign over them II. O most dreadful Judge I stand in amazement when I consider that the heavens are not pure in thine eyes and if thou foundest perversnesse in thy Angels and didst not spare them what shall become of me The stars fell from heaven and what can I presume who am but dust and ashes They whose life that seemed holy are fallen into an evil portion and after they have eaten the bread of Angels they have been delighted with Carobe-nuts with husks and draffe of Swine III. There is no holinesse O God if thou withdrawest thy hand no wisdom profits if thy government does cease No courage can abide no chastity can remain pure no watchfulnesse keep us safe unlesse thou doest continue to strengthen us to purifie us to make us stand When thou leavest us we drown and perish when thy grace and mercy visits us we are lifted up and stand upright We are unstable and unsecure unlesse we be confirmed by thee but we seek to thee for thy help and yet depart from the wayes of thy commandements IV. O how meanly and contemptibly do I deserve to be thought of how little and inconsiderable is the good which I do and how vast how innumerable how intolerable are the evils which I have done I submit O God I submit to the abysses of thy righteous and unsearchable judgements for I have been searching for a little some little good in me but I finde nothing Much indeed of good I have received but I have abused it thou hast given me thy grace but I have turned it into wantonnesse thou hast enabled me to serve thee but I have served my self but never but when I was thy enemy so that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing V. I am a deep abysse O God of folly and calamity I have been searching my heart and can find no good thing I have been searching and I cannot find out all the evil Thou didst create in me a hope of glory but I have lost my confidence and men have sometimes spoken good things of me but I know not where they are and who shall raise me up when I fall down before thy face in thy eternal judgment VI. I will no more desire I will no more suffer I will no more seek I will no more be moved by the praises of men for behold they speak but they know nothing Thou art silent but thou knowest all things and I increase the number of my sins What shall I do O thou preserver of men I will lay my face in the dust and confess my self to be nothing VII Pity my shame O God bind up my wounds lift me from the dust raise me up from this nothing and make me something what thou wilt what thou wilt delight in Take away the partition wall the hindrance the sin that so easily besets me and bring me unto Jesus to my sweetest Saviour Jesus unite me unto him and then although in my self I am nothing yet in him I shall be what I ought to be and what thou canst not chuse but love Amen Amen A Prayer for holy and fervent desires of Religion and particularly of the Blessed Sacrament O Most Blessed most glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus thou that waterest the furrows of the earth and refreshest her wearinesse and makest it very plenteous behold O God my desart
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.