Monthly Preparations for Holy Communion, Title page – Preface
Monthly Preparations FOR THE Holy Communion, By R. B.
To which is added Suitable Meditations before, in, and after Receiving.
WITH Divine Hymns, In Common Tunes; Fitted for Publick Congregations, or Private Families.
LONDON; Printed for Tho. Parkhurſt, at the Bible & Three Crowns, the lower end of Cheapſide. 1696.
THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
SAcramental work is ſolemn work indeed: And all thoſe helps are valuable and deſirable, whereby the furniture of our minds, the temper of our hearts, and the conduct of our lives may be anſwerable to the ſolemnity of a Sacramental Table. A mind that is barren or perplext; an heart that is falſe or ſtupid; and the conſcience of a diſordered converſation, are bad Companions to attend us to the Holy Supper of our Lord. The Lord's Body is to be diſcerned, his Death ſhewed forth, his tender'd ſelf and benefits received, and his next Coming ſeriouſly thought on, and throughly prepared for, and joyfully expected by us; and all this is to be influenced and actuated by this Memorial which Chriſt hath left with us: Such helps as theſe, are the more uſeful by being brief, if brevity do not render them defective and obſcure, as here I think they will not. No Directory can be better than the Inſtitution, if well diſcerned and attended to.
I. The Memorable Perſon is the Lord Jeſus, in his perfections, relations, and deſigns. Here therefore let him be conſidered,
1. As Man, to render him capable of ſufferings, ſervice, and contending with that Enemy of God and Man, who once deceived and enſlaved us.
2. As the Son of Man, the chief of Humane Race, for Tryals, Faithfulneſs and Advancement.
3. As the Son of God, as eſſentially and moſt intimately one with God; as Lord of the Univerſe, Head over all things to his Church, and of the Church it ſelf. The brightneſs of his Fathers Glory, the one Mediator; and ſo God's way to Man, and Man's way to God; and one deputed to undertake and perfect our Conduct, Government, and Salvation.
II. His Sufferings are the things here next to be commemorated. Great were his Tryals, from God, from Hell, and from this World. With great compoſedneſs and gallantry of ſpirit did he endure them, and work his paſſage through them to that exalted ſtate, wherein he had ſo much to do with God for us: In all theſe and in his preparations for them, doth he appear moſt exemplary to us, claiming and urging our Conformity to his obedient, ſubmiſſive, and reſolved ſelf. And in his Meritorious Sufferings and Expiatory Death, muſt we diſcern and think ſeverely on, what there and thence was evident; viz. Gods Wiſdom, Majeſty, Holineſs, and his Governing Juſtice, and Prerogatives; the ſinfulneſs of ſin, the miſery of Revolted Man, the equity and power of God's Violated Law; and the eminence of the Divine above the Animal Life, Nature, and Concerns.
III. Our Intereſt in, and Benefit by theſe his Sufferings, are next to exerciſe our thoughts. He died to let us ſee,
1. How glorious a God we have to do with.
2 What wiſe and righteous Conſtitutions we had violated.
3. What dreadful evils we had brought upon our ſelves.
4. What ſpirit, ſtrength and reach there is in Divine Threatnings.
5. How hard it is to be recovered, when we are faln from God, and ſo what an Enemy Satan is to Man; and how unwilling to let his Captives go.
6. To ſhew us the riches of God's Grace in him, and his own Dignity; in that his Sufferings could, and did, merit and obtain of God our Pardon, Adoption Acceptance, and Eternal Bliſs through him.
7. To raiſe and cheriſh holy endeavours to return to God in hope.
8. To make us dread the thoughts of ever falling off from God again.
9. To juſtifie our claims to all the Benefits of our Goſpel-ſtate and day.
10. To obtain of God for us the Spirit and Means of Grace, thereby to fit us for our preſent Work and Trials in this our Probationary ſtate, and to ſuit and bring us to his Father and himſelf in Glory, and that with univerſul Satisfaction, and Advantage, and Applauſe.
11. To put himſelf into a capacity of interceding for us in Heaven, and bleſſing us from Heaven as our High-Prieſt upon his Throne.
12. To put us into, and to keep us in a Covenant-ſtate and frame, that thus we may deal and walk with God, as Children, as intereſted in his Son, as inhabited and actuated by his Spirit, and as united with all the Family of God and Chriſt, in the ſame Principles, Practices, Concerns, and Hopes, in order to the exerciſes of all the ſympathies and ſervices of mutually Chriſtian Love, Epheſ. iv. v. 1-6.
IV. Our Commemoration of Chriſt thus repreſented to us, as upon the Croſs, and as determining to come again, is our next work.
1. The Sacramental Elements, and the Obſerved Inſtitution, is the Memorial.
2. The Remembrance contains,
1. Head-work, in diſcerning, remembring and believing the Sacramental Doctrine of this Supper to be true, and of great conſequence to us: Chriſt Crucified, and determining to come again.
2. Heart-work, in forming the temper, purpoſes, hopes and comforts of our hearts unto what this Supper imports, and our acceptance of what is tendered here; and our obliging our ſelves to do and be as Chriſt would have us.
3. Life-work; in keeping up our Chriſtian practice and profeſſion as we are here directed and obliged to; for a more full account whereof, and greater fitneſs for it, thou art commended to this helpful Treatiſe, by Thine to his poor power for Chriſt,
Matthew Sylveſter. Feb. 3. 1695/6.