are principally to be thought upon in the very Christian Considerations to be thought upon by CHAP. LXVII.-Devout Considerations to be used after the Receiving of the Holy Sacrament Meditations accommodated to the several parts and Petitions contained in the Lord's Prayer, which Prayer is wont to be prayed after our Receiving 221 Of the vigilant care that a Christian ought to have CHAP. LXIX.-An Admonition to the Godly Reader concerning the Controversy about the Holy Eu- The Peroration, or summing up by Prayer the Ad- monition about the Controversy CHAP. LXX.-Godly Meditations upon the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; necessary PAGE CHAP. LXXII.-Godly Meditations upon the Divine Presence; to stir us up to a continual care of walking in the ways of God, after our Receiving CHAP. LXXIII.-How greatly this Exercise is com- mended in the Scriptures, and how special a care the Servant of God ought to place therein, be- ing desirous to proceed in Godliness of Living . 257 CHAP. LXXIV.-Of the exceeding great Fruits of this CHAP. LXXV.-How, by the Contemplation of the Divine Presence, Temptation may be overcome, and perseverance in Virtue attained CHAP. LXXVI.-How, by this Exercise of the Divine Presence, Stability of Heart, the Perfection of Virtues, and outward Cleanness are attained CHAP. LXXVII.-How this Exercise of the Divine Presence doth bring Spiritual Comfort CHAP. LXXVIII.—By what means this Gift of having God present in our Actions is to be had CHAP. LXXIX.-How this Exercise, and all other good GODLY MEDITATIONS, &c. CHAPTER I. OF THE FIRST INSTITUTION OF THIS MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. MONGST other parts of divine worship, and religious duties of a Christian life, which knit men in love and service unto God, (for who should have the fruit but He that planted the tree?) there is none more solemn, none more divine, than is the celebration of the most Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in the due celebration whereof we present ourselves before God. We honour Him who hath honoured us, (miserable sinners that we are !) and thereby we become partakers of our greatest good. 1. Fasting humbleth, prayer beseecheth, repentance bewaileth, charity worketh, faith believeth; but the Holy Sacrament applieth all by Christ Jesus' merits to the salvation of our souls. B 2. If any ask (saith an ancient father) the Jews why they keep their Passover, all that they will answer is, to relate of a bondage in Egypt, of Pharaoh their oppressor, of a Moses, God's servant, their deliverer. But if any ask me, who am a Christian, of our heavenly Passover, I can shew him not of Moses, a servant, but of Christ Jesus, the only Son of God; of a more terrible Pharaoh, the prince of darkness; of a more woeful bondage, the shadow of death; and last of all, of a deliverance indeed by the Blood of that immaculate Lamb, once offered for the sins of the world. 3. For our comfortable access to this most Holy Service, let us call to mind the first institution of the same, how we have Christ's own precept, and His promise. His precept, Hoc facite, 'Do this;' His promise, Hoc est corpus meum, hic est sanguis meus, &c., 'This is My Body, which was given for you; this is My Blood, which was shed for you ;' as if here I offer you the benefit of My sufferings, and leave you a pledge at parting of My dearest love. Novum testamentum, 'a new testament,' a new league or covenant between God and man, that God will now think on your sins in justice no more. 4. Saint Austin, in his 118th Epistle, ad Janu Heb. ix. 28. b Matt. xxvi. 26; Luke xxii 13. |