The worthy communicant, or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation : together with the cases of conscience occurring in the duty of him that ministers, and of him that communicates : to which are added, devotions fitted to every part of the ministration / by Jeremy Taylor ...

SECT. VII. Penitential Soliloquies, Ejaculations, Exercises, and preparatory Prayers to be us'd in all the days of preparation to the Holy Sacrament.

I.

ALmighty and eternal God, the fountain of all vertue, the support of all holy hope, the Author of pardon, of life, and of salvation; thou art the comforter of all that call upon thee; thou hast concluded all under sin, that thou mightest have mercy upon all: Look upon me O God, and have pity on me lying in my blood and misery, in my shame and in my sins, in the fear and guilt of thy wrath, in the shadow of death, and in the gates of hell. I confesse to thee O God what thou knowest already; but I confesse it to manifest thy justice, and to glorifie thy mercy who hast spared me so long, ••hat I am guilty of the vilest and basest follies which usually dishonour the fools and the worst of the sons of men.

II.

I have been proud and covetous, envious and lustful, angry and greedy, indevout and irreligious; restless in my passions, sensual and secular, but hating wise counsels, and soon weary of the Offices of a holy Religion. I cannot give an account of my time, and I cannot reckon the sins of my tongue. My crimes are intolerable, and my imperfections shameful, and my omissions innumerable; and what shall I do O thou preserver of men? I am so vile that I cannot express it, so sin∣ful that I am hateful to my self, and much more abominable must I needs be in thy eyes. I have sinn'd against thee without necessity, sometimes without temptation, only because I would sin, and would not delight in the ways of peace: I have been so ingrateful, so foolish, so unreasonable, that I have put my own eyes out, that I might with confidence and without fear sin against so good a God, so gracious a Father, so infinite a Power, so glorious a Majesty, so bountiful a Patron, and so mighty a Redeemer, that my sin is grown shameful and aggravated even to amaze∣ment. I can say no more, I am asham'd, O God, I am amaz'd, I am confounded in thy presence.

III.

But yet O God thou art the healer of our breaches, and the lifter up of our head; and I must not despair; and I am sure thy good∣ness is infinite, and thou dost not delight in the death of a sinner; and my sins, though very great, are infinitely less than thy mercies, which thou hast revealed to all penitent and returning sinners in Jesus Christ. I am not worthy to look up to heaven; but be thou pleased to look down into the dust, and lift up a sinner from the dunghil; let me not pe∣rish in my folly, or be consumed in thy heavy displeasure. Give me time and space to re∣pent; and give me powers of Grace and aids of thy spirit; that as by thy gift and mercy I intend to amend whatsoever is amiss, so I may indeed have grace and power faithfully to ful∣fil the same. Inspire me with the spirit of repentance and mortification, that I may al∣ways fight against my sins till I be more than conquerour. Support me with a holy hope, confirm me with an excellent, operative, and unreprovable faith, and enkindle a bright and a burning charity in my soul: Give me patience in suffering, severity in judging and condemning my sin, and in punishing the sinner, that judging my self, I may not be condemned by thee; that mourning for my

sins, may rejoyce in thy pardon; that killing my sin, I may live in righteousness; that de∣nying my own will, I may always perform thine; and by the methods of thy Spirit I may overcome all carnal and spiritual wick∣ednesses, and walk in thy light, and delight in thy service, and perfect my obedience, and be wholly delivered from my sin, and for ever preserved from thy wrath, and at last passe on from a certain expectation to an actual fruition of the glories of thy King∣dom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen, Amen, Amen.

1. I am in thy sight O Lord a polluted per∣son; sin like a crust of leprosie hath over∣spread me: I am a scandal to others, a shame to my self, a reproach to my relati∣ons, a burden to the earth, a spot in the Church, and deserve to be rejected and scorn'd by thee.

2. But this O God I cannot bear: It is just in thee to destroy me; but thou delightest not in that: I am guilty of death; but thou lovest rather that I should live.

3. O let the cry of thy Sons blood, who offers an eternal Sacrifice to thee, speak on my behalf, and speak better things than the blood of Abel.

4. My conscience does accuse me, the Devils rejoyce in my fall and aggravate my crimes, already too great; and thy holy Spirit is grieved by me: But my Saviour Jesus died for me, and thou pittiest me, and thy holy Spirit still calls upon me, and I am willing to come; but I cannot come unlesse thou drawest me with the cords of love.

5. O draw me unto thee by the Arguments of charity, by the endearments of thy mer∣cies, by the order of thy providence, by the hope of thy promises, by the sense of thy comforts, by the conviction of my un∣derstanding, by the zeal and passion of ho∣ly affections, by an unreprovable faith and an humble hope, by a religious fear and an increasing love, by the obedience of pre∣cepts and efficacy of holy example, by thy power and thy wisdom, by the love of thy Son and the grace of thy Spirit: Draw me O God, and I will run after thee, and the sweetnesses of thy precious ointments.

6. I am not worthy O Lord, I am not wor∣thy to come into thy presence, much less to eat the flesh of the Sacrificed Lamb: For my sins, O Blessed Saviour Jesus, went a∣long in confederation with the High

Priests, in treachery with Judas, in inju∣stice with Pilate, in malice with the peo∣ple.

7. My sins and the Jews crucified thee; my hypocrisie was the kiss that betrai'd thee; my covetous and ambitious desires were the thorns that pricked thy sacred head; my vanity was the knee that mocked thee; my lusts disrobed thee, and made thee na∣ked to shame and cruel scourgings; my an∣ger and malice, my peevishness and re∣venge, were the bitter gall which thou did••t taste; my bitter words and cursed speaking were the vinegar which thou didst drink; and my scarlet sins made for thee a purple robe of mockery and derision; and where shall I vile wretch appear, who have put my Lord to death, and expos'd him to an open shame, and crucified the Lord of Life?

8. Where should I appear but before my Sa∣viour, who died for them that have mur∣dered him, who hath lov'd them that hated him, who is the Saviour of his enemies, and the life of the dead, and the redem∣ption of captives, and the advocate for sinners, and all that we do need, and all that we can desire?

9. Grant that in thy wounds I may finde my safety, in thy stripes my cure, in thy pain my peace, in thy cross my victory, in thy resurrection my triumph, and a crown of righteousness in the glories of thy eter∣nal Kingdom. Amen, Amen.

S. Austins penitential Prayer.

Before thy eyes, O gracious Lord, we bring our crimes; before thee we expose the wounds of our bleeding souls. That which we suffer is but little; but that which we deserve is intolerable: We fear the punish∣ment of our sins, but cease not pertinaci∣ously to proceed in sinning: Our weakness is sometimes smitten with thy rod, but our iniquity is not changed; our grieved mind is troubled, but our stiff neck is not bend∣ed with the flexures of a holy obedience; our life spends in vanity and trouble, but amends it self in nothing: When thou smitest us, then we confess our sin; but when thy visitation is past, then we forget that we have wept: When thou stretchest forth thy hand, then we promise to do our duty; but when thou takest off thy hand, we perform no promises: If thou strikest, we cry to thee to spare us; but

when thou sparest, we again provoke thee to strike us.

Thus O God the guilty confess before thee; and unless thou givest us pardon, it is but just that we perish: But O Almighty God our Father, grant to us what we ask, even though we deserve it not; for thou madest us out of nothing, else we had not any pow∣er to ask.

] Pardon us, O gracious Father, and take away all our sin, and destroy the work of the Devil; and let the enemy have no part nor portion in us; but acknowledg the work of thy own hands, the price of thy own blood, the sheep of thy own fold, the members of thy own body, the purchase of thine own inheritance; and make us to be what thou hast commanded; give unto us what thou hast designed for us; enable us for the work thou hast injoin'd us, and bring us to the place which thou hast prepared for us by the blood of the everlasting Covenant, and by the pains of the Cross, and the glories of thy Resurrection, O blessed and most glo∣rious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus. Amen.