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or to work in the mines for a thousand years together, or to fast all thy life-time with bread and water? were not heaven a very great bargain even after all this? And when God requires nothing of us but to live soberly, justly, and godly, (which things themselves are to a man a very great felicity, and necessary to our present well-being), shall we think this to be an intolerable burden, and that heaven is too little a purchase at that price; and that God, in mere justice, will take a death-bed sigh or groan, and a few unprofitable tears and promises in exchange for all our duty?

If these motives joined together with our own interest, even as much as felicity, and the sight of God, and the avoiding the intolerable pains of hell, and many intermedial judgments comes to, will not move us to leave, 1. the filthiness, and, 2. the trouble, and, 3. the uneasiness, and, 4. the unreasonableness of sin, and turn to God, there is no more to be said; we must perish in our folly.

SECTION X.

Of Preparation to, and the manner how to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

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 kind 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 therefore hath constituted and separated an order of men, who, by "shewing forth the Lord's death" by sacramental representation, 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 as 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 the 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,

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 sin1, 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

h Nôsti tempora tu Jovis sereni,

Cùm fulget placidus, suoque vultu,

Quo nil supplicibus solet negare.-Martial. ep. 1. v. 6.

i Vasa pura ad rem Divinam.-Plaut. in Cap. Act. iv. sc. 1.

comes to this feast, must have on the wedding-garment, that is, he must have put on 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 his 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 it 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

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