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Prayers to be used in any Day or Time of Preparation to the Holy Sacrament.

I.

O THOU Shepherd of Israel, thou that feedest us like sheep; thou makest us to lie down in pleasant pastures, and leadest us by the still waters running from the clefts of the rock, from the wounds of our Lord, from the fountains of salvation; thou preparest a table for us, and anointest our heads with the unction from above, and our cup runneth over: let the blood of thy wounds, and the water of thy side, wash me clean, that I may, with a pure clean soul, come to eat of the purest sacrifice, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world.

II.

food of our souls in the faith of thy word, in the Perform that in thy ser

Thou givest thyself to be the wonders of the sacrament, in the blessings and graces of thy Spirit. vant, which thou hast prepared and effected in thy Son; strengthen my infirmities; heal my sicknesses; give me strength to subdue my passions, to mortify my inordinations, to kill all my sins: increase thy graces in my soul; enkindle a bright devotion; extinguish all the fires of hell, my lust and my pride, my envy, and all my spiritual wickednesses ; pardon all my sins; and fill me with thy Spirit, that by thy Spirit thou mayest dwell in me, and, by obedience and love, I may dwell in thee, and live in the life of grace, till it pass on to glory and immensity, by the power and the blessings, by the passion and intercession of the Word incarnate; whom I adore, and whom I love, and whom I will serve for ever and ever.

III.

O mysterious God, ineffable and glorious Majesty; what is this thou hast done to the sons of men? thou hast from thy bosom sent thy Son to take upon him our nature; in him thou hast opened the fountains of thy mercy, and hast invited all penitent sinners to come to be pardoned, all the oppressed to be eased, all the sorrowful to be comforted, all the sick to be cured, all the hungry to be filled; and the thirsty to be refreshed with the waters of life, and sustained with the wine of select souls. Admit me, O God, to this great effusion of

loving-kindness, that I may partake of the Lord Jesus, that by him I may be comforted in all my griefs, satisfied in all my doubts; healed of all the wounds of my soul, and the bruises of my spirit; and being filled with the bread of heaven, and armed with the strength of the Spirit, I may begin, continue, and finish, my journey through this valley of tears, unto my portion of thy heavenly kingdom, whither our Lord is gone before to prepare a place for every loving and obedient soul. Grant this, O eternal God, for his sake, who died for us, and intercedes for us, and gives himself daily to us, our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus. Amen.

CHAPTER II.

OF OUR GENERAL PREPARATION TO THE WORTHY REOF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, AND THE

CEPTION

PARTICIPATION OF THE MYSTERIES.

IN all the Scriptures of the New Testament, there are no words of particular duty relating to the blessed sacrament, and expressing the manner of our address to the mysteries, but those few words of St. Paula, " Let a man examine himself; and so let him eat." The apostle expresses one duty, and intimates another. The duty of preparation is expressed; but because this is a relative duty, and is not for itself, but for something beyond,―he implies the other to be the great duty, to which this preparation does but minister. 1. A man must examine himself. 2. And a man must eat A man must not eat of these mysteries, till he be examined; for that were dangerous, and may prove fatal: but when a man is examined, he must eat; for else that examination were to no purpose.

SECTION I.

Of Examination of ourselves in order to the Holy Communion. THERE is no duty in Christianity, that is partly solemn and partly moral, that hath in it more solemnity and

a 1 Cor. xi. 28.

more morality than this one duty; and, in the greatest declension of religion, still men have fear, when they come to receive this holy sacrament. They that have no religion, will fear, when they come to die; and they who have but a little, will fear, when they come to communicate. But although men who believe this to be the greatest secret and sacredness of our religion, do more in their addresses to this than to any thing else, yet many of them, that do come, consider that they are only commanded to examine themselves; and that, according to the ordinary methods, is easily done. It is nothing but asking ourselves a few questions: Do I believe? Do I repent? And am I in charity?' To these the answers are ready enough; I do believe that Christ gave his body and blood for me, as for all mankind; and that Christ is mystically present in the sacrament; I have been taught so all my life, and I have no reason to doubt it. 2. I do also repent according to the measures I am taught: I am sorry I have sinned, I wish I had not done it; and I promise to do so no more; and this I do constantly before every communion, and before the next comes, I have reason enough to renew my vows; I was never so good as my word yet, but now I will. 3. I am also in charity with all the world; and against this good time, I pray to God to forgive them; for I do.' This is the usual examination of consciences; to which we add a fasting day; and on that we say more prayers than usual, and read some good discourses of the sacrament; and then we are dressed like the friends of the bridegroom, and with confidence come to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. But this examination hath, itself, need to be examined. Noah laboured a hundred years together, in making the ark, that he and a few more might be saved; and can we think, in an hour, to prepare our souls for the entertainment of him, that made all the world? This will very hardly be done: for although our duty of preparation is contained in this one word of 'Try,' or Examine,' it being, after the manner of mysteries, mysteriously and secretly described,-yet there is great reason to believe, that there is in it very much duty; and, therefore, we search into the secret of the word, and to what purposes it is used in the New Testament.

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1. It signifies to try and search, to enter into the depths

and secrets, the varieties, and separations, and divisibilities of things. The word is taken from the triers of gold, which is tried by the touchstone, and, in great cases, is tried by the fire. And, in this sense, St. Paul might relate to the present condition of the Christians, who were often under a fiery trial. For the holy communion, being used by the primitive Christians according to its intention, was, indeed, a great consolation to the martyrs and confessors, as appears often in St. Cyprian. And this blessing and design was mystically represented to the church in the circumstance of the institution, it being done immediately before the passion: they who were to pass through this fiery trial, ought to examine themselves against this solemnity, in order to that last trial, and see whether or no they were vessels of sanctification and honour; for none else were fit to communicate, but they also that were fit to die; Christ would give himself to none but to them who are ready to give themselves for him; according to that saying of Christ, "If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me," &c. That is, "those, who are tried by the experiments of great love, and a great patience, that out of love are willing to suffer, and with patience do suffer unto the end; these are the guests at my heavenly table:" for labour and affrightment put a price upon the martyr's crown, while his virtue grows in danger, and like the water-plants ever grow higher than the floods. Now the use that we can make

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3 Δοκιμαζέτω καὶ τὸν χρυσὸν θεωροῦμεν καὶ δοκιμάζομεν, ἕτερα παραδεικνύοντες. b Non Israel edit sine amaris caulibus agnum;

Tolle tuam, Christi qui cupis esse, crucem;

Quos amat, ærumnis etenim Deus angit; at illis
Lætior exhausto palma labore venit.

c Nunc non infirmis, sed fortibus, pax necessaria est; nec morientibus, sed viventibus, communicatio à nobis danda est; ut quos excitamus et hortamur ad prælium, non inermes et nudos relinquamus, sed protectione sanguinis et corporis Christi muniamus; et cum ad hoc fiat eucharistia, ut possit accipientibus esse tutela, quos tutos esse contra adversarium volumus, munimento Dominicæ saturitatis armemus.-Lib. de Lapsis, et Epist. 54. d Rev. iii. 20, 21.

e sit laurea justis

Ex pretio quod terror agit; mansuraque virtus
Crescit in adversis, quæ, testibus usa periclis,
Ad meritum discrimen habet-

Arat. Diacon, lib. ii, in acta.

of this sense of the word, is, that we also are to examine what we are likely to be, or what we have been, in the day of persecution; how we have passed through the fire. Did we contract the smell of fire, or the pollution of smoke? Or are we improved by the purification of the discerning flames? Did we do our duties then, and then learn to do them better? Or did we then, only, like glass, bend in all the flexures and mobilities of the flame, and then mingle with the ashes, incorporating with the interests and foulest pollutions of the world? Or were we like gold, patient of the hammer, and approved by the stone of trial? Like gold in the fire, did we untwist ourselves from all complications and mixtures with impurer dross? Certain it is, that by persecution and by money', men are, in all capacities and relations, best exa mined how they are in their religion and their justice.

Sometimes God tries his friends as we try one another, by the infelicities of our lives; when we are unhappy in our affliction, if we be not unhappy in our friend too, he is a right good one; and God will esteem of us so, if we can say with David, "Though thou hast smitten us into the place of dragons, yet have we not forgotten thee;" and "my soul is alway in my hand,"—that is, I am always in danger and trouble, and I bear death about me, "yet do I not forsake thy commandments."-This, indeed, is God's way of examination of us; but that is all one; for we must examine ourselves here in order to our duty and state of being, as God will examine us hereafter, in order to what we have been and done. And there is no greater testimony of our being fit to receive Christ, than when we are ready to die for him. But this is a final trial; we must have some steps of progression, before we come thus far.

2. There is a way something less than this. Lycurgus instituted among the Spartans, that the princes, the magistrates, the soldiers, and every citizen that was capable of dignity, should be tried; they examined their lives whether they had lived according to the rate of their employment or pretension and those who were so examined, were called Joniμaobévres, tried and examined men ;' and if they were

f Ecclus. xxxi. 9.

8 Δοκίμαζε τοὺς φίλους ἐκ τῆς περὶ τὸν βίον ἀτυχίας. h Ενίοτε δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ ἐξετάζετο ὁ βίος· δοκιμασθέντες, ἀντὶ τοῦ εἰς ἄνδρας ἐγγραφόμενα. Suidas. ἐπὶ τῶν πράξεων τῶν χρησίμων τοὺς εὖ φρονοῦντας δοκιμάζειν.

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