2. Let no man be less confident in his holy faith and persuasion concerning the great blessings and glorious effects, which God designs to every faithful and obedient soul in the communication of these divine mysteries, by reason of any difference of judgment, which is in the several schools of Christians concerning the effects and consequent blessings of this sacrament. For all men speak honourable things of it, except wicked persons and the scorners of religion: and though of several persons, like the beholders of a dove walking in the sun, as they stand in several aspects and distances, some see red, and others purple, and yet some perceive nothing but green, but all allow and love the beauties: so do the several forms of Christians, according as they are instructed by their first teachers, or their own experience, conducted by their fancy and proper principles, look upon these glorious mysteries, some as virtually containing the reward of obedience, some as solemnities of thanksgiving and records of blessings, some as the objective increases of faith, others as the sacramental participations of Christ, others as the acts and instruments of natural union; yet all affirm some great things or other of it, and, by their differences, confess the immensity and the glory. For thus manna represented to every man the taste that himself did like; but it had in its own potentiality all those tastes and dispositions eminently; and altogether, those feasters could speak of great and many excellencies, and all confessed it to be enough, and to be the food of angels: so it is here, it is that to every man's faith, which his faith wisely apprehends; and though there are some who are of little faith, and such receive but a less proportion of nourishment, yet by the very use of this sacrament, the appetite will increase, and the apprehensions grow greater, and the faith will be more confident and instructed; and then we shall see more, and feel more. For this holy nutriment is not only food, but physic too; and although to him who believes great things of his physician and of his medicine, it is apt to do the more advantage; yet it will do its main work, even when we understand it not, and nothing can hinder it, but direct infidelity, or some of its foul and deformed ministers. 3. They who receive the blessed sacrament, must not suppose that the blessings of it are effected as health is by physic, or warmth by the contact and neighbourhood of fire; but as music one way affects the soul, and witty discourses another, and joyful tidings a way differing from both the former,--so the operations of the sacrament are produced by an energy of a nature entirely differing from all things else. But however it is done, the thing that is done, is this; no grace is there improved, but what we bring along with us; no increases but what we exercise. We must bring faith along with us, and God will increase our faith; we must come with charity, and we shall go away with more; we must come with truly penitential hearts; and to him that hath, shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly: he shall be a better penitent, when he hath eaten the sacrifice that was slain for our sins, and died in the body, that we might live in the spirit and die no more. For he is the bread from heaven; he is "the grain of wheat, which falling into the earth, unless it dies it remains alone,---but if it dies, it brings forth fruit, and brings it forth abundantly." 4. Although the words, the names, and sayings concerning the blessed sacrament, are mysterious and inexplicable, yet they do, nay, therefore we are sure, they signify, some great things; they are in the very expression beyond our understandings, and, therefore, much more are the things themselves too high for us: but, therefore, we are taught three things. 1. To walk humbly with our God; that is, in all intercourses with him to acknowledge the infinite distance between his immensity and our nothing, his wisdom and our ignorance, his secrets and our apprehensions; he does more for us than we can understand. It was an excellent saying of Aristotle, which Seneca reports of him, "Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere, quam. quum de Diis agitur;" "we ought never to be more bashful and recollect, than when we are to speak any thing of God.". "Timidè de potestate deorum, et pauca dicenda sunt," said Cicero"; "We must speak of his power and glory timorously and sparingly,' ," with joyfulness and singleness,' or simplicity ' of heart:' so the first Christians ate their bread, their eucharist; so we understand the words of St. Luke. 2. To walk - d Nat. Q. lib. vii. c. 30. Ruhkopf. vol. v. pag. 414. • De Nat. Deor. 2. Let no man be less confident in his holy faith and persuasion concerning the great blessings and glorious effects, which God designs to every faithful and obedient soul in the communication of these divine mysteries, by reason of any difference of judgment, which is in the several schools of Christians concerning the effects and consequent blessings of this sacrament. For all men speak honourable things of it, except wicked persons and the scorners of religion: and though of several persons, like the beholders of a dove walking in the sun, as they stand in several aspects and distances, some see red, and others purple, and yet some perceive nothing but green, but all allow and love the beauties so do the several forms of Christians, according as they are instructed by their first teachers, or their own experience, conducted by their fancy and proper principles, look upon these glorious mysteries, some as virtually containing the reward of obedience, some as solemnities of thanksgiving and records of blessings, some as the objective increases of faith, others as the sacramental participations of Christ, others as the acts and instruments of natural union; yet all affirm some great things or other of it, and, by their differences, confess the immensity and the glory. For thus manna represented to every man the taste that himself did like; but it had in its own potentiality all those tastes and dispositions eminently; and altogether, those feasters could speak of great and many excellencies, and all confessed it to be enough, and to be the food of angels: so it is here, it is that to every man's faith, which his faith wisely apprehends; and though there are some who are of little faith, and such receive but a less proportion of nourishment, yet by the very use of this sacrament, the appetite will increase, and the apprehensions grow greater, and the faith will be more confident and instructed; and then we shall see more, and feel more. For this holy nutriment is not only food, but physic too; and although to him who believes great things of his physician and of his medicine, it is apt to do the more advantage; yet it will do its main work, even when we understand it not, and nothing can hinder it, but direct infidelity, or some of its foul and deformed ministers. 3. They who receive the blessed sacrament, must not suppose that the blessings of it are effected as health is by physic, or warmth by the contact and neighbourhood of fire; but as music one way affects the soul, and witty discourses another, and joyful tidings a way differing from both the former,--so the operations of the sacrament are produced by an energy of a nature entirely differing from all things else. But however it is done, the thing that is done, is this; no grace is there improved, but what we bring along with us; no increases but what we exercise. We must bring faith along with us, and God will increase our faith; we must come with charity, and we shall go away with more; we must come with truly penitential hearts; and to him that hath, shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly: he shall be a better penitent, when he hath eaten the sacrifice that was slain for our sins, and died in the body, that we might live in the spirit and die no more. For he is the bread from heaven; he is "the grain of wheat, which falling into the earth, unless it dies it remains alone,---but if it dies, it brings forth fruit, and brings it forth abundantly." 4. Although the words, the names, and sayings concerning the blessed sacrament, are mysterious and inexplicable, yet they do, nay, therefore we are sure, they signify, some great things; they are in the very expression beyond our understandings, and, therefore, much more are the things themselves too high for us: but, therefore, we are taught three things. 1. To walk humbly with our God; that is, in all intercourses with him to acknowledge the infinite distance between his immensity and our nothing, his wisdom and our ignorance, his secrets and our apprehensions; he does more for us than we can understand. was an excellent saying of Aristotle, which Seneca reports of him, "Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere, quam. quum de Diis agitur;" "we ought never to be more bashful and recollect, than when we are to speak any thing of God." "Timidè de potestate deorum, et pauca dicenda sunt," said Cicero"; "We must speak of his power and glory timorously and sparingly," with joyfulness and singleness,' or simplicity ' of heart:' so the first Christians ate their bread, their eucharist; so we understand the words of St. Luke.2. To walk d Nat. Q. lib. vii. c. 30. Ruhkopf. vol. v. pag. 414. e De Nat. Deor. It sacraments. But however, be it so or otherwise, yet one ordinance ought not to exclude the other, much less to disparage the other, and least of all to undervalue that which is the most eminent: but rather let every Christian man and woman think, that if the word ministered by the Spirit is so mighty, it must be more, when the word and the Spirit join with the sacrament, which is their proper significatory. He that is zealous for the word of God, does well; but let him remember, that the word of God is a goodly ring, and leads us into the circles of a blessed eternity; but because the sacrament is not without the word, they are a jewel enchased in gold when they are together. The ministries of the Gospel are all of a piece; they, though in several manners, work the same salvation by the conduct of the same Spirit. 8. Let no man, in the reception of the sacrament, and in his expectation of blessings and events from it, limit his hopes and belief to any one particular; for that will occasion a littleness of faith, and may make it curious, scrupulous, and fantastical:- rather let us adore the secret of God, and with simple expectations receive it; disposing ourselves to all the effects that may come, rather with fear and indefinité apprehensions, than with dogmatical and confident limitations; for this may beget scruples and diminution of value; but that hinders nothing, but advances the reverential treatments and opinion. 9. He that guesses at the excellency and power of the sacrament, by the events that himself feels, must be sure to look for no other than what are eminently or virtually contained in it; that is, he must not expect that the sacrament will make him rich, or discover to him stolen goods, or cure the toothach, or countercharm witches, or appease a tempest, if it be thrown into the sea. These are such events that God hath not made the effects of religion, but are the hopes and expectations of vain and superstitious people. And I remember that pope Alexander III., in the council of Lateran, wrote to the bishop of St. Agatha for advice how to treat a woman who took the holy sacrament into her mouth, and ran with it to kiss her husband, hoping, by that means, to procure her husband's more intense affection. But the • Concil. Lat. part. 50. cap. 30. |