Thou hast bound thyself with the chain of covetousness; loose thyself with the injunction of the love of poverty. Thou hast bound thyself with the furious desire of pleasure; loose thyself by temperance. Thou hast bound thyself with the heterodox belief of Eunomius; loose thyself with the religious embracing of the orthodox faith." But they did not only require an orthodox faith in general, but a particular faith with respect to the sacrament itself, teaching men, not the monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation, but that under the visible elements of bread and wine, sanctified by the spirit, the worthy communicant, by faith, might receive the spiritual food of Christ's body and blood, and all the blessed effects and benefits of his death and passion. To this purpose, they required men to come with the mouth of faith, spiritually to eat Christ's flesh and blood; and to see him sacrificed with the eyes of their mind, whilst his real bloody sacrifice once offered was daily represented and commemorated in the visible images and symbols of bread and wine. St. Austin is very copious in setting forth this necessary doctrine of spiritual manducation by faith, as that, which makes both sense and piety of so many expressions in the Gospel, which otherwise would seem horrible and absurd. Explaining those words of our Saviour, Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you," he says, "This seems to command a crime. Therefore it is a figurative speech, commanding us to communicate in the passion of our Lord, and with a pleasure and profit to lay it up in our minds, that his flesh was crucified and wounded for our transgressions." So again he brings in our Saviour telling his disciples, ," Ye are not to eat this body, which 1 Aug. de Doctrinâ Christ. lib. iii. cap. 10. Facinus vel flagitium videtur jubere. Figura ergo est, præcipiens passioni Domini esse communicandum, et suaviter, atque utiliter in memoriâ recondendum, quod caro ejus pro nobis crucifixa et vulnerata est. 2 Aug. in Psal. 98. tom. viii. p. 452. Non hoc corpus quod videtis, manducaturi estis; et bibituri illum sanguinem, quem fusuri sunt qui me crucifigent. Sacramentum aliquod vobis commendavi; spiritaliter intellectum vivificabit vos, et si necesse est illud visibiliter celebrari, oportet tamen invisibiliter intelligi. ye see, and drink that blood, which my crucifiers shall shed. But I have commended to you a certain sacrament, which, being spiritually understood, will quicken you; and though it be celebrated visibly, it is invisibly or spiritually to be understood:" meaning this faith, with which the body of Christ was to be received, to make it spiritually and really the true body, and life to the receiver. For the true body of Christ could no other ways be eaten but spiritually by faith, whilst it was really absent in heaven. The hand could not reach that body, nor the teeth consume it; but faith could ascend up to heaven, and there touch the body of Christ; and with the heart it might be eaten, though not with the teeth and oral manducation. This is therefore that special faith, which the Ancients so often require in every pious communicant, to qualify him to eat the flesh of Christ to life and salvation; a faith whereby in heart he ascends to heaven, (according to the usual phrase of the Church in her sacramental prayers, "Sursum Corda, Lift up your hearts; We lift them up unto the Lord;") and whereby he receives the real body of Christ by spiritual eating, which no wicked man can receive, though he receive the sacrament of his body both in his hand and mouth to his condemnation. Therefore St. Austin bids all communicants prepare their hearts, and not their mouths, to eat "the bread of life, which came down from heaven," and St. Chrysostom calls upon them to imitate eagles and fly up to heaven.* "For where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together," says our Saviour, calling his body the carcase because of death. For if he had not fallen, we had not risen. But he calls us eagles, shewing, that 1 Id. Ser. ii. de Verb. Apost. tom. x. p. 94. Manduca vitam, bibe vitam. Tunc autem hoc erit, id est, vita unicuique erit corpus et sanguis, si quod in sacramento visibiliter sumitur, in ipsâ veritate spiritaliter manducetur. spiritaliter bibatur.—It. Tract xxvi. in Joan. tom. ix. p. 94. Qui manducat intus, non qui manducat foris; qui manducat in corde, non qui premit dente. Aug. Tract. i. in 1 Joan. p. 236. Ipsum jam in cœlo sedentem manu contrectare non possumus, sed fide contingere. Aug. Ser. xxxiii. de verb. Dom. p. 40. Nolite parare fauces, sed cor. &c. Chrys. Hom. xxiv. in 1 Cor. p. 536. Vid. Hom. xiv. in Ephes. p. 1127. he that comes to this body, ought to soar aloft, and have nothing to do with the earth, nor move downward and creep upon the ground, but always to fly upward, and look to the Sun of righteousness, and have the eyes of his mind quicksighted. For this table is the table of eagles, not of jack-daws. And they, who thus worthily receive him, may expect to meet him when he shall come down again from heaven." SECT. 9.-What Purity of Soul by Repentance and Obedience. How far Fasting useful or necessary to this Purpose. 2. But St. Chrysostom observes,' that to come unto Christ by faith, is not barely to receive him in the outward element, but to touch him with a pure heart. And therefore he discourses excellently upon this most necessary part of preparation, to some who put great confidence in their observation of the Lent fast, as if that were a just preparation for the communion." Let us give up ourselves," says he, " to the practice of virtue. For at this end aims all our fasting, and Lent, and religious assemblies so many days together, and our hearing, and prayers, and preaching; that by these exercises we may wash away the guilt and stain of whatever sins we have any ways contracted during the whole year, and so come with piety and spiritual assurance to partake of that unbloody sacrifice. But if we do not thus purify ourselves, all that other labour is in vain and to no purpose, we reap not the least advantage from it. Let every one, therefore, consider with himself, and examine in his account, what defect he has amended, what virtue he has acquired, what vice he has washed away, in what part he is grown better and if he finds any considerable advantage of this kind arise from his fasting, and that many of his wounds have been cured by it, let him come: but if he has been negligent, and has nothing to shew but his fasting, without any other goodness or amendment, let him keep off and abide without, and then come when he has purged him 1 Chrys. Hom. li. in Mat. p. 454. Simultate. tom. i. VOL. V. 2 Chrys. Hom. xxii, de 2 F self from all his sins. Let no man place his confidence in fasting only, who adheres to his sins without amendment. For it is possible a man, that does not fast, may obtain pardon, having the excuse of bodily infirmity: but he, that does not correct his faults, cannot possibly have any excuse. Thou hast omitted to fast by reason of the infirmity of thy flesh but why hast thou not been reconciled to thy enemies? Canst thou here pretend bodily infirmity also? Thou still retainest hatred and what excuse, I envy : pray, canst thou plead for these? There is no flying for refuge to bodily infirmity in behalf of such sins as these." Thus Chrysostom shows the necessity of correcting every evil way, in thought, word, and deed, in order to prepare men for a worthy reception at God's table; and that no pretences of other qualifications without holiness, nor any excuses for sin will be accepted, while Christ has made his commandments very practicable, and recommended his yoke as easy, and his burden as light. SECT. 10.-How necessary Justice and Restitution to a worthy Communicant. 3. And because there are some great sins, to which men have a more than ordinary propensity and affection, and are ready to find out a thousand arts to palliate and retain them with a semblance of piety and pretended devotion: the same author is always very careful to particularize about these in men's preparation, pulling off the visor and false colours they were apt to lay upon them. Thus, in the case of injustice, many were inclined to impose upon themselves by that old pharisaical pretence of giving something to the Corban to make a full atonement, as they thought, for their manifold rapines and oppression. Whom he thus reproves, and lays open their folly: "Let no Judas, no Simon Magus come near this table: for they both perished in their avarice and love of money. Wherefore let us fly from this pit, and not imagine it sufficient for our salvation, that when 1 Chrys. Hom. li. in Mat. p. 455. It. Hom. lxxxvi. p. 722. cited before chap. iv. sect. 2. we have spoiled widows and orphans, we offer a golden cup adorned with jewels to this table. Wouldst thou honour this sacrifice? Offer thy soul, for which Christ was offered, and make it a golden soul. But if thy soul remain worse than lead or earth, what will thy golden vessels profit thee? Let us not therefore labour to offer golden vessels only, but offer what we acquire by our just and honest labour. For these are more precious than gold, which are not the fruits of covetousness and injustice. The Church is not the work-house of silver and gold, but the congregation of angels. Therefore the purity of our souls is required: for God receives these things upon the account of our souls. Doubtless that table was not of silver, nor that cup of gold, wherein Christ gave his blood to his disciples: yet all was precious and full of reverence, because they were filled with the spirit." St. Chrysostom speaks this to men's own consciences in private, who knew their own extortions, when perhaps the Church knew nothing of them; and he lays upon them the necessity of justice and restitution, in their private accounts with God, before they could hope to gain his favour, or be accepted at his altar. For as to public offences of this kind, we have noted before,' that when they were such as the Church could take cognizance of, they fell under her public discipline: and it was a standing law, that the oblations of known oppressors should not be received; much less their persons to the communion of the altar. SECT. 11.-The Necessity of Peace and Unity. 4. Another thing they much insisted on, was unity and a peaceable spirit: by which they chiefly intended that sort of peaceableness, which preserves the unity of the Church, not only in opposition to formed and professed schisms, but all factions and divisions within the bosom of the Church. As to formal and professed schismatics, they were objects Book xv. chap. ii. sect. 2. |