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 Practice.

I. WE may take notice here of the strange decay of Christianity, especially with respect to Fasting; a piece of Devotion, whereby the Primitive Believers effected very great things: And it's to be feared that the over-tenderness of Men to their Bodies in this Age, and a fancy that every thing is necessary which their Appetite craves, is no small hinderance to their eminen∣cy in Virtue and Goodness. It's granted, that Men may be very vicious, and yet great Fasters too, as one John Scot in Scotland, in the year 1539. a man of no Learning,* 1.1 and no good Qualities nei∣ther, who was able to abstain thirty or for∣ty days together from all manner of Meat and Drink; whereof the King willing to

make tryal, shut him up in a Room within the Castle of Edinburgh, suffering no creature to come at him: A little Bread and Water indeed was set before him at his first com∣ing into the room; but upon examination, it was found that he had not so much as tasted of it in the space of 32 days. And going afterwards to Rome, the like proof of his fasting was given to Pope Clement VII. and some time after, preaching against King Henry the Eighth's Divorce at London, he was shut up in Prison, where he fasted 50 days, yet continued still a dissolute man. But it is not the bare abstinence that makes a Man a Christian, but the spending a Fast religiously, and to good ends, works the Miracle of Holiness; and such were the Fasts of the Primitive Believers, who by such frequent Mortifications made their Graces tower and climb, and culminate, to the admiration of the unbelieving World; when they would conquer any Corruption, when they had a mind to arrive to any excellency in Vertue, when they wanted a signal spiritual Blessing; nay, when their Friends and Relations, or any eminent Servant of God, lay sick, they presently applied themselves to this piece of Mortifica∣tion, and found great success: And it stands to reason, that where the Soul gets thus above the Body, slights the Pleasures of the flesh, determines to converse with God, and entertains herself with the thoughts of his Greatness and her own Vileness; God, who ever loves an humble Spirit, will look down and satisfie the longing Soul, and fill the thirsty Soul with Goodness. Yet,

II. Let's not think we have discharged our duty, when we have received the Lord's Supper fasting; that will signifie but little, if after receiving we do not fast from sin. This is the acceptable Lent, and must be observed more religiously than the Mahometan doth his month Ramasan: This is the Fast which the Lord hath chosen, and except our Abstinence from Food be in order to this Fast, God regards it no more than the lowing of Oxen, or the bleating of Sheep. To fast from sin, is both a Preparative for the Lord's Supper, and must be

the consequence of it. This Fast must be the very end of our coming to the holy Table, and we eat and drink there, that we may be out of love with this dangerous Meat. Nor is this Fast from sin a thing impossible, if by sin, as we ought to do, we understand wilful and ha∣bitual sin; and the Motives to this perpetual Fast are ve∣ry cogent: He that believes that sin is the Food of De∣vils, and the Meat of Hell, and the Festival of Fallen Angels, can have no great Stomach to it. Nothing starves the Soul sooner than sin; and as pleasant as it may be to the Palate, the Soul suffers extreamly by it, and falls into Palsies and Apoplexies. It makes it not only lean, but miserable too; it shuts her out from the care and ten∣derness of a Gracious God, and, in its pernicious effects, goes beyond the Apples of Sodom; for whereas these, up∣on touching of them, fall and shatter only into Ashes, that ends in eternal Fire. The Ears must be stopt there∣fore against its Charms, the Eyes shut against its alluring Dresses; and thus we may wean our selves from any af∣fection to this forbidden fruit.

Notes

• * 1.1

  See Archbi∣shop Spots∣wood's Hist. Book 2. p. 69.