The crucified Jesus, or, A full account of the nature, end, design and benefits of the sacrament of the Lords Supper with necessary directions, prayers, praises and meditations to be used by persons who come to the Holy Communion / by Anthony Horneck ...

The Preceding Considerations reduced to far∣ther Practice.

I. COnfession of Sins is no such trivial, slight and easie thing, as Men commonly make of it. The Confession, that a great many Men make to God, in Publick especially, while their Thoughts are wandring, their Eyes staring upon sensual Objects, their Souls feel∣ing no compunction, no remorse, no grief, and their minds without any lively apprehension of God's Holi∣ness, and their own Vileness; such Confessions, instead of obtaining God's pardon and forgiveness, are prepara∣tives and attractives of his Indignation. Alas! Sinner, that's no Confession, where thy Lips only speak thy

Sorrow and Offences, and thy Heart still goes after Co∣vetousness. In this case, thou dost but speak into the Air whilst thou confessest not with shame, and confu∣sion of Face, and with purposes strong and Masculine, strong as Mount Sion, to offend thy God wilfully no more; such Confessions reach not the Throne of Grace and Mercy, but, like Smoke, are dispers'd in the ascent, and cause no delight, but in the powers of Darkness, who are glad to see thee play with Religion, and jest with Devotion.

II. It is a certain Rule, where Men are loth to for∣sake their Sins, they will be loth to confess them too. There are divers Actions of Human Life, which being ve∣ry pleasing to the Flesh, and suited to the humour of the Age, and such as preserve our Credit and Reputation with Men, which we overlook, take to be no Sins, in∣deed are loth to be depriv'd of them, and therefore, do not so much as mention them in our Confessions. Search thy Heart, Christian, and take a serious view of thy Dress, thy Habit, thy Looks, thy Behaviour, thy Speeches, and thy Conversation, and see, whether thou hast not reason to suspect many things, of being contra∣ry to the stricter Rules of the Gospel, yet thou art loth to know them, loth to own them, loth to confess them, as Sins, and all because thou hast no mind to part with them. Thy wanton looks and glances; thy lascivious gestures, and postures, and dresses; thy striving for pla∣ces, and discontent at other Men's omitting to give thee the Honour thou fanciest to be due to thee; thy despi∣sing and scorning thy Neighbour in thy Heart; thy touchiness at Trifles; thy secret Injustice; thy careless and unprofitable Talk; thy gaudy Attire, which feeds thy Pride; thy delight in imitating the looser and more wanton sort of People; thy mispending thy Time in dangerous Sights and Recreations; thy neglect of read∣ing the Word, and praying with thy Family; thy ea∣sie exceptions at thy Neighbour's Actions; thy wilful mis∣constructions of Men's words; thy hidden things of disho∣nesty;

thy doing evil, that good may come out of it; thy extenuations of Sin, thy putting favourable names upon what thou art loth to leave, &c. What Man of sense, and who reads the Word of God, but must suspect, that these things, and such like, are disagreeable to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? And yet, because thou wouldst fain preserve and keep all these, or some of these, or others, that are not unlike these, thou art wil∣lingly ignorant of their sinfulness, or wilfully forgettest them, or dost carelesly pass them by, and confessest on∣ly such Sins, as thou canst not well avoid acknowledg∣ing. Thou thinkest; if once thou confessest these things to be Sins, thou must be forc'd to leave them; for in∣deed, it is perfect impudence to tell God, that I sin against him in such things, and yet to go on in com∣mitting of them. And therefore, the only advice that can be given in this case, is this, Look upon Heaven as worth doing any thing to gain it, and thou wilt not be afraid, either of knowing thy particular Sins, or of con∣fessing of them, or of bending the force and powers of thy Soul against their insinuations.

III. We may easily guess at the reason, why a carnal Man wonders at the stir, a Penitent keeps to be recon∣ciled to God; He sees not, he knows not, what Poison there is in Sin. A Person, who never troubled his Head much about Religion, seeing a Man or Woman take on for their Offences, accuse themselves, condemn them∣selves, and inflict Judgments of Fasting, of Mortifica∣tion, and of Self-denial, upon themselves, no doubt, will admire what ails the Fool to keep such a whining and howling, and put himself to such needless troubles to recover the favour of God, which, he fancies, is to be had at as easie a rate, as Children's Smiles, and Infants Tears. Indeed, if the love of God may be had with a wish, and a Man could no sooner send for it, but have it; or were it a thing we could command to attend us at a minute's warning, prostrations and lyings on the Ground, and Sackcloth, and Alms-giving in larger pro∣portions,

and all the rigorous Ceremonies of Repen∣tance, would be Phantastical, and a mere distemper of the Brain; but when the Men, whom God favoured much, vouchsafed his Inspirations to, and who conver∣sed with the fountain of Wisdom, with him, that is the Way and the Life, did all this, and much more, and re∣commended the same Acts of Mortification to their Suc∣cessors, and God himself expresses the welcome Dress of Repentance, as to the External part, in such things as these, Jer. 6. 26. Jer. 7. 29. There we must give Men leave to laugh, to wonder, and to think us distem∣per'd for doing so. Stange! Men should not see the ne∣cessity of denying their Bodies in that ease and latitude, they are so apt to take, in order to a better Life, when is evident, that the Flesh, in the Circumstances it is un∣der naturally, is in a continual fermentation of evil de∣sires, and covets altogether sensual satisfactions, with∣out considering, whether they are agreeable to Reason, or no; and, like Salomon's Horse-leech, cries still, Give, Give; And if a Man give his Eyes, or Taste, the plea∣sure they desire to day, to morrow they shall still crave more; so that if a severe Mortification do not stop, and cast them off, especially if he intends to be saved, he will continue a carnal Man to his dying day. It hath been the practice of all the Primitive Saints, to inflict seasonable Judgments on themselves; not one, but the greatest part, have taken that way, and the reason is clear, for we must become Saints by the Spirit of the Cross, which is evidently a Spirit of Mortification both of Soul and Body; The design of Holiness is to make us conformable to the temper of our Saviour; and if his Spirit be in us, we shall be desirous to dye to the World, and have great inclinations to suffer with him; and this is not to be done, but by bridling both Soul and Body, through a severe Mortification.

IV. In inflicting Judgments upon our selves, the Word of God must be our guide. He that should use all the Mortifications he meets with in Ecclesiastical Hi∣story,

especially in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries after Christ, might run himself into great Errors and Incon∣veniencies. The Scripture is ever the safest Rule, which, when Men have forsaken, and thought to do more than is commanded, or recommended by Examples in that Book, they have been often lest exposed to great Temp∣tations. He that follows an Example of Penitential ri∣gor, recorded in Scripture, though some imprudence may mingle with the imitation, yet it is an error of the Right Hand. There have been excesses of Devotion in all Ages, and even good Men have sometimes run be∣yond the bounds prescribed them by Almighty God, into superstition, especially in things relating to volun∣tary affliction of the Body; and from hence have grown those abuses in Popery, where Penances have swallow'd the measures of substantial Piety, and Men's inflicting of Judgment upon themselves, hath been a means to make them neglect Faith, Judgment, and Mercy. This shews the necessity of keeping close to the Rule of Scrip∣ture, which, besides the Precepts, hath thought fit to Record such Examles, as are sufficient to instruct us both in the nature of Repentance, and the Rigors that in some cases are to bear it company. It's certain, that in some persons, strong habits of Sin will not be dissol∣ved or broke, but by Corrosives, and violent Remedies, and where a Man sees, that the corruption, which cleaves to him, baffles all softer Applications, he must needs save himself, from being undone, by lancing the wound; Maimonides, the learned Jew, in his Rules of Ethicks,* 1.1 gives this advice to his Disciples, that would arrive to any considerable degree in vir∣tue. He, saith he, that hath been guilty of one ex∣treme, i. e. He that finds an habit of a certain sin in himself; to become good, must, at first at least, run into the opposite extreme of the Virtue, which is its contrary, till he be qualified to walk in the middle way without danger; i. e. He that finds himself very cholerick and passionate, to arrive to an habit of meekness, must at first run into an ex∣cess of meekness, and be patient, and silent, and contented,

even under injuries and actions, that, in some measure, de∣serve his anger, and continue thus for some time, till his Soul be quieted like a weaned Child, and then he may abate of that excess, and use his meekness with greater discretion; so he that hath been proud, to mortifie that ill habit, or extreme, must apply himself to the other, and be humble, even to con∣tempt and reproach, so long, till his stubborn affection be subdued, and then he may use his humility with greater mo∣deration. We see, by this, that Jews as well as Christi∣ans, are sensible, that, without a rigor and severe Di∣scipline, there is no arriving to any height of Goodness, and Religion; yet as this inflicting Judgments upon our selves, is a thing of great use in the weighty Work of true Repentance, and in the support of a serious Life; so care must be taken, that all opinion of Merit be laid aside in the practice of it, for if such a Worm get into the Timber of the Sanctuary, it soon rots it; nor must we think, that after we have exercised such Acts of Ju∣stice upon our selves, for the Sins we have committed, we may, upon the credit of it, take fresh liberty to of∣fend God. The design of it, is, to mortifie our Appe∣tite to Sin, an therefore, must not prove fewel of that Fire. To this must be added Discretion and Moderati∣on in the management of these Acts of Justice, and, as by inflicting upon our selves the Discipline of Fasting and Humiliation before the Holy Sacrament, not a few Christians find much Comfort, if their Bodies be able to bear it; so in times of Sickness, or bodily Weakness, this inflicting of Judgment on our selves, becomes use∣less and unnecessary, for, in these cases, God inflicts Judgments, and therefore we need not: All we have to do at such times, is, to kiss the Rod, and to bear God's gentle Corrections, as things we have both de∣serv'd, and are intended for the renewing of our in∣ward Man. Our English Histories tell us of two Men, in the time of Popery, one, who, upon his Death-bed, when the Priest came to him with the Holy Sacrament, would be dragg'd like a Traitor out of his Bed,* 1.2 to the place where the Priesthood;

and another, who, hearing the Bishop was come to Administer the Sacament to him, would needs crawl out of his Bed half naked, with an Halter about his Neck to receive it: But as I know not, what Motives or Impulses they might have for these Actions, so I am loth to judge, whether they did ill, or not.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.2

  Willam de Raley, and Wil. Longspe.