finitely, 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 honour 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. 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 any thing, 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: 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. Christian. He that believes so much, needs not to inquire farther, nor to entangle his faith by disbelieving his sense.

He that believes not this, is not a

11. Fail not at this solemnity, according to the custom of pious and devout people, to make an offering to God for uses of religion and the poor, according to thy ability. For when Christ feasts 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 descend 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 dwell 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 ac

tion, 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 employments; 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.

The effects and benefits of worthy Communicating.

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

T