SECTION X.
1. The celebration of the holy sacrament is
the great mysteriousness of the Christian religion, and succeeds to the most
solemn rite of natural and Judaical religion, the law of sacrificing. For God
spared mankind, and took the sacrifice of beasts, together with our solemn
prayers, for an instrument of expiation. But these could not purify the soul
from sin, but were typical of the sacrifice of something that could. But
nothing could do this, but either the offering of all that sinned, that every
man should be the anathema or devoted thing: or else by some one of the
same capacity, who by some superadded excellency might, in his own personal
sufferings have a value great enough to satisfy for all the whole king of
sinning persons. This the Son of God, Jesus Christ, God and man undertook, and
finished by a sacrifice of himself upon the altar of the cross.
2. This sacrifice, because it was perfect, could
be but one, and that once; but because the needs of the world should last as
long as the world itself, it was necessary that there should be a perpetual
ministry established, whereby this one sufficient sacrifice should be made
eternally effectual to the several new-arising needs of all the world, who
should desire it, or in any sense be capable of it.
3. To this end Christ was made a priest for ever:
he was initiated or consecrated on the cross, and there began his priesthood,
which was to last till his coming to judgment. It began on earth, but was to
last and be officiated in heaven, where he sits perpetually representing and
exhibiting to the Father that great effective sacrifice which he offered on the
cross, to eternal and never-failing purposes.
4. As Christ is pleased to represent to his
Father that great sacrifice as a means of atonement and expiation for all
mankind, and with special purposes and intendment for all the elect, all that
serve him in holiness; so he hath appointed that the same ministry shall be
done upon earth too, in our manner, and according to our proportion; and of men
who, by `shewing forth the Lord's death,' by sacramental representations, may
pray unto God after the same manner that our Lord and high-priest does; that
is, offer to God and represent in this solemn prayer and sacrament, Christ is
already offered; so sending up a gracious instrument, whereby our prayers may,
for his sake and in the same manner of intercession, be offered up to God in
our behalf, and for all them for whom we pray, to all those purposes for which
Christ died.
5. As the ministers of the sacrament do, in a
sacramental manner, present to God the sacrifice of the cross, by being
imitators of Christ's intercession; so the people are sacrificers too in their
manner; for besides that, by saying Amen, they join in the act of him that
ministers, and make it also to be their own; so, when they eat and drink to
consecrated and blessed elements worthily, they receive Christ within them, and
therefore may also offer him to God, while, in their sacrifice of obedience and
thanksgiving, they present themselves to God with Christ, whom they have
spiritually received, that is, themselves with that which will make them
gracious and acceptable. The offering their bodies and souls and services to
God in him, and by him, and with him, who is his Father's well-beloved, and in
whom he is well pleased, cannot but be accepted to all the purposes of
blessing, grace, and glory.[293]
6. This is the sum of the greatest mystery of our
religion; it is the copy of the passion, and the ministration of the great
mystery of our redemption; and therefore, whatsoever entitles us to the general
privileges of Christ's passion, all that is necessary by way of disposition to
the celebration of the sacrament of his passion; because this celebration is
our manner of applying or using it. The particulars of which preparation are
represented in the following rules:
1. No man must dare to approach to the holy
sacrament of the Lord's supper, if he be in a state of any one sin,[294] that is, unless he have entered into the
state of repentance, that is, of sorrow and amendment; lest it be said
concerning him, as it was concerning Judas, the hand of him that betrayeth me
is with me on the table: and he that receiveth Christ into an impure soul or
body, first turns his most excellent nourishment into poison, and then feeds
upon it.
2. Every communicant must first have examined
himself; that is, tried the condition and state of his soul, searched out the
secret ulcers, inquired out its weaknesses and indiscretions, and all those
aptnesses where it is exposed to temptation; that, by finding out its diseases
he may find a cure, and by discovering its aptnesses he may secure his present
purposes of future amendment, and may be armed against dangers and
temptations.
3. This examination must be a man's own act and
inquisition into his life; but then also it should lead a man on to run to
those whom the great Physician of our souls, Christ Jesus, hath appointed to
minister physic to our diseases, that in all dangers and great accidents we may
be assisted for comfort and remedy, for medicine and caution.
4. In this affair let no man deceive himself, and
against such a time which public authority hath appointed for us to receive the
sacrament, weep for his sins by way of solemnity and ceremony, and still retain
the affection: but he that comes to this feast must have on the
wedding-garment, that is, he must have put o Jesus Christ, and he must have put
off the old man with his affections and lusts; and he must be wholly conformed
to Christ in the image of his mind. For then we have put on Christ when our
souls are clothed with is righteousness, when every faculty of our soul is
proportioned and vested according to the pattern of Christ's life. And
therefore a man must not leap from his last night's surfeit and bath, and then
communicate; but when he hath begun the work of God effectually, and made some
progress in repentance, and hath walked some stages and periods in the ways of
godliness, then let him come to him that is to minister it, and having made
known the state of his soul, he is to be admitted; but to receive into an
unhallowed soul and body is to receive the dust of the tabernacle in the waters
of jealousy; it will make the belly to swell, and the thigh to rot; it will not
convey Christ to us, but the devil will enter and dwell there, till with it he
returns to his dwelling of torment. Remember always, that after a great sin, or
after a habit of sins, a man is not soon made clean; and no unclean thing must
come to this feast. It is not the preparation of two or three days that can
render a person capable of this banquet; for in this feast, all Christ, and
Christ's passion, and all his graces, the blessings and effects of his
sufferings, are conveyed. Nothing can fit us for this but what can unite us to
Christ, and obtain of him to present our needs to his heavenly Father: this
sacrament can no otherwise be celebrated but upon the same terms on which we
may hope for pardon and heaven itself.
5. When we have this general and indispensably
necessary preparation, we are to make our souls more adorned and trimmed up
with circumstances of pious actions and special devotions, setting apart some
portion of our time immediately before the day of solemnity, according as our
great occasions will permit: and this time is specially to be spent in actions
of repentance, confession of our sins, renewing our purposes of holy living,
praying for pardon of our failings and for those graces which may prevent the
like sadnesses for the time to come, meditation upon the passion, upon the
infinite love of God expressed in so great mysterious manners of redemption;
and indefinitely in all acts of virtue which may build our souls up into a
temple fit for the reception of Christ himself and the inhabitation of the Holy
Spirit.
6. The celebration of the holy sacrament being
the most solemn prayer, joined with the most effectual instrument of its
acceptance, must suppose us in the love of God and in charity with all the
world; and therefore we must, before every communion especially, remember what
differences or jealousies are between us and any one else, and recompose all
disunions, and cause right understandings between each other; offering to
satisfy whom we have injured, and to forgive them who have injured us, without
thoughts of resuming the quarrel when the solemnity is over; for that is but to
rake the embers in light and fantastic ashes; it must be quenched, and a holy
flame enkindled - no fires must be at all, but the fires of love and zeal; and
the altar of incense will send up a sweet perfume, and make atonement for
us.
7. When the day of the feast is come, lay aside
all cares and impertinences of the world, and remember that this is thy soul's
day, a day of traffic and intercourse with heaven. Arise early in the morning.
1. Give God thanks for the approach of so great a blessing. 2. Confess thine
own unworthiness to admit so divine a guest. 3. Then remember and deplore thy
sins, which have made thee so unworthy. 4. Then confess God's goodness, and
take sanctuary there, and upon him place thy hopes; 5. And invite him to thee
with renewed acts of love, of holy desire, of hatred of his enemy, sin. 6. Make
oblation of thyself wholly to be disposed by him, to the obedience of him, to
his providence and possession, and pray him to enter and dwell there for ever.
And after this, with joy and holy fear, and the forwardness of love, address
thyself to the receiving of him, to whom, and by whom, and for whom, all faith
and all hope and all love, in the whole catholic church, both in heaven and
earth, is designed; him, whom kings and queens and whole kingdoms are in love
with, and count it the greatest honour in the world that their crowns and
sceptres are laid at his holy feet.
8. When the holy man stands at the table of
blessing and ministers the rite of consecration, then do as the angels do, who
behold and love and wonder that the Son of God should become food to the souls
of his servants; that he, who cannot suffer any change or lessening, should be
broken into pieces, and enter into the body to support and nourish the spirit,
and yet at the same time remain in heaven, while he descends to thee upon
earth; that he who hath essential felicity should become miserable and die for
thee, and then give himself to thee for ever to redeem thee from sin and
misery; that by his wounds he should procure health to thee, by his affronts he
should entitle thee to glory, by his death he should bring thee to life, and by
becoming a man he should make thee partaker of the divine nature. These are
such glories that, although they are made so obvious that each eye may behold
them, yet they are also so deep that no thought can fathom them; but so it hath
pleased him to make these mysteries to be sensible, because the excellency and
depth of the mercy is not intelligible; that while we are ravished and
comprehended within the infiniteness of so vast and mysterious a mercy, yet we
may be as sure of it as of that thing we see and feel and smell and taste; but
yet it is so great that we cannot understand it.
9. These holy mysteries are offered to our
senses, but not to be placed under our feet; they are sensible, but not common;
and therefore as the weakness of the elements adds wonder to the excellency of
the sacrament, so let our reverence and venerable usages of them add homour to
the elements, and acknowledge the glory of the mystery, and the divinity of the
mercy. Let us receive the consecrated elements with all devotion and humility
of body and spirit; and do this honour to it, that it be the first food we eat,
and the first beverage we drink that day, unless it be in case of sickness, or
other great necessity; and that your body and soul both be prepared to its
reception with abstinence from secular pleasures, that you may better have
attended fastings and preparatory prayers. For if ever it be seasonable to
observe the counsel of St. Paul, that married persons by consent should abstain
for a time, that they may attend to solemn religion, it is now.[295] It was not by St. Paul, nor the after-ages of the
church, called a duty so to do, but it is most reasonable that the more solemn
actions of religion should be attended to, without the mixture of anything that
may discompose the mind and make it more secular or less religious.
10. In the act of receiving, exercise acts of
faith with much confidence and resignation, believing it not to be common bread
and wine, but holy in their use, holy in their signification, holy in their
change, and holy in their effect; and believe, if thou art a worthy
communicant, thou dost as verily receive Christ's body and blood to all effects
and purposes of the Spirit as thou dost receive the blessed elements into thy
mouth - that thou puttest thy finger to his hand, and thy hand into his side,
and thy lips to his fontinel of blood, sucking life from his heart;[296] and yet, if thou dost communicate
unworthily, thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger and death and
destruction. Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery, and the nicety
of the manner of Christ's presence; it is sufficient to thee that Christ shall
be present to thy soul as an instrument of grace, as a pledge of the
resurrection, as the earnest of glory and immortality, and a means of many
intermedial blessings, even all such as are necessary for thee, and are in
order to thy salvation. And to make all this good to thee, there is nothing
necessary on thy part but a holy life, and a true belief of all the sayings of
Christ; amongst which, indefinitely assent to the words of institution, and
believe that Christ in the holy sacrament, gives thee his body and his blood.
He that believes so much needs not to inquire further, nor to entangle his
faith by disbelieving his sense.
11. Fail not at this solemnity, according to the
custom of pious and devout people, to make an offering to God for the uses of
religion and the poor, according to thy ability. For when Christ feasts us with
his body, let us also feast our fellow- members, who have right to the same
promises, and are partakers of the same sacrament, and partners of the same
hope, and cared for under the same Providence, and descended from the same
common parents, and whose Father God is, and Christ is their elder brother. If
thou chancest to communicate where this holy custom is not observed publicly,
supply that want by thy private charity; but offer it to God at his holy table,
at least by thy private designing it there.
12. When you have received, pray and give thanks.
Pray for all estates of men; for they also have an interest in the body of
Christ, whereof they are members: and you, in conjunction with Christ, (whom
then you have received,) are more fit to pray for them in that advantage, and
in the celebration of that holy sacrifice, which then is sacramentally
represented to God. Give thanks for the passion of our dearest Lord: remember
all its parts, and all the instruments of your redemption; and beg of God, that
by a holy perseverance in well-doing you may from shadows pass on to
substances, from eating his body to seeing his face, from the typical,
sacramental, and transient, to the real and eternal supper of the Lamb.
13. After the solemnity is done, let Christ dewll
in your hearts by faith and love, and obedience and conformity to his life and
death: as you have taken Christ into you, so put Christ on you, and conform
every faculty of your soul and body to his holy image and perfection. Remember,
that now Christ is all one with you; and, therefore, when you are to do an
action consider how Christ did or would do the like; and do you imitate his
example, and transcribe his copy, and understand all his commandments, and
choose all that he propounded, and desire his promises, and fear his
threatenings, and marry his loves and hatreds, and contract his friendships;
for then you do every day communicate; especially when Christ thus dwells in
you, and you in Christ, growing up towards a perfect man in Christ Jesus.
14. Do not instantly, upon your return from
church, return also to the world and secular thoughts and employment; but let
the remaining parts of that day be like a post-communion, or an after-office,
entertaining your blessed Lord with all the caresses and sweetness of love and
colloquies, and intercourses of duty and affection, acquainting him with all
your needs, and revealing to him all your secrets, and opening all your
infirmities; and as the affairs of your person or employment call you off, so
retire again with often ejaculations and acts of entertainment to your beloved
guest.
When I said that the sacrifice of the cross,
which Christ offered for all the sins and all the needs of the world, is
represented to God by the minister in the sacrament, and offered up in prayer
and sacramental memory, after the manner that Christ himself intercedes for us
in heaven, (so far as his glorious priesthood is imitable by his ministers on
earth,) I must of necessity also mean, that all the benefits of that sacrifice
are then conveyed to all that communicate worthily. But if we descend to
particulars, then and there the church is nourished in her faith, strengthened
in her hope, enlarged in her bowels with an increasing charity; there all the
members of Christ are joined with each other, and all to Christ their head; and
we again renew the covenant with God in Jesus Christ, and God seals his part,
and we promise for ours, and Christ unites both, and the Holy Ghost signs both
in the collation of those graces which we then pray for an exercise and receive
all at once. There our bodies are nourished with the signs, and our souls with
the mystery: our bodies receive into them the seed of an immortal nature, and
our souls are joined with him who is the first-fruits of the resurrection and
never can die. And if we desire anything else and need it, here it is to be
prayed for, here to be hoped for, here to be received. Long life and health,
and recovery from sickness, and competent support and maintenance, and peace
and deliverance from our enemies, and content and patience, and joy, and
sanctified riches, or a cheerful poverty, and liberty, and whatsoever else is a
blessing was purchased for us by Christ in his death and resurrection, and in
his intercession in heaven. And this sacrament being that to our particulars
which the great mysteries are in themselves and by design to all the world, if
we receive worthily, we shall receive any of these blessings, according as God
shall choose for us; and he will not only choose with more wisdom, but also
with more affection, than we can for ourselves.
After all this, it is advised by the guides of
souls, wise men and pious, that all persons should communicate very often, even
as often as they can, without excuses or delays; everything that puts us from
so holy an employment, when we are moved to it, being either a sin or an
imperfection, an infirmity or in devotion, and an inactiveness of spirit. All
Christian people must come. They, indeed, that are in the state of sin must not
come so, but yet they must come. First they must quit their state of death, and
then partake of the bread of life. They that are at enmity with their
neighbours must come-that is no excuse for their not coming; only they must not
bring their enmity along with them, but leave it, and then come. They that have
variety of secular employment must come;[297] only they must leave their secular thoughts and
affections behind them, and then come and converse with God. If any man be well
grown in grace, he must needs come, because he is excellently disposed to so
holy a feast: but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come, that
so he may grow in grace. The strong must come lest they become weak; and the
weak that they may become strong. The sick must come to be cured; the healthful
to be preserved. They that have leisure must come, because they have no excuse;
they that have no leisure must come hither, that by so excellent an act of
religion they may sanctify their business. The penitent sinners must come, that
they may be justified; and they that are justified, that they may be justified
still. They that have fears and great reverence to these mysteries, and think
no preparation to be sufficient must receive, that they may learn how to
receive the more worthily; and they that have a less degree of reverence must
come often, to have it heightened: that as those creatures that live amongst
the snows of the mountains turn white with their food and conversation with
such perpetual whitenesses, so our souls may be transformed into the similitude
and union with Christ by our perpetual feeding on him, and conversation, not
only in his courts, but in his very heart, and most secret affections and
incomparable purities.
[293] Nosti tempora tu Jovis sereni, Cum
fulget placidus, suoque vultn, Quo nil supplicibus solet negare.-Martial. ep.
1.v.6.
[294] Vasa pura ad rem divinam.-Plaut. in
Cap. Act. iv.sc.1.
[295] Discedite ab aris, Queis tulit
hesterna gaudia nocte Venus Tibul ii. 1.12.
[296] Cruei haeremus, sanguinem sugimus, et
inter ipsa Redemporis nostri vulnera, figimus linguam.-Cyprian. de Caena
Dovt.
[297] L'Evaque de Geneve, Introd. a la Vic
Devote.