The communicants guide directing the younger sort, which have never yet received, and the elder, and ignorant sort, which have hitherto received unworthily, how they may receive the sacrament of the Lords Supper to their souls comfort together with a treatise of divine truths, collected out of ancient and moderne divines / by R. Gove ...

EXPRESSION X. Of this, That no Man can grow, thrive, or be nou∣rished by the use of the Sacrament, that is not in Charity when he cometh to Re∣ceive.

FOr the whole Church is a body, and every Christian is a Member of that body. Now a member (we know) that will grow in the body, and thrive, must necessarily be united to, and conjoyned with the body. If a member be separa∣ted from the body, it cannot be nourish∣ed, nor grow: an Hand, or an Arme rent, or cut off from the body, cannot be nourished, nor grow. Nay, though a part of the body be not separated from the rest, yet if there be but a dislocation of a part, so that it be onely out of joynt, it cannot thrive, and prosper till it be set in joynt againe. So it is in the body mysticall, it is a growing body, e∣very member thereof growes, and in∣creases, Colos. 2. 19. as long as it is joyn∣ed to the rest of the members in love, Eph. 4. 16. but being disunited from the rest, or out of joynt, by reason of

want of Love, and Charity, it can be neither nourished, nor thrive, nor in∣crease with the rest of the body, though it receive this spirituall food of the Sacra∣ment never so often.