Discourse Concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, Title page – Dedication
MENSA MYSTICA; OR A DISCOURSE Concerning the SACRAMENT OF THE Lords Supper.
In which the ends of its Inſtitution are ſo manifeſted; our Addreſſes to it ſo directed; our Behaviour there, and afterward, ſo compoſed, that we may not loſe the benefits which are to be received by it.
By Simon Patrick D. D. Miniſter of Gods Word at Baterſea in Surrey.
1 Cor. 11.24.
Do this in remembrance of me.
LONDON, Printed by A. M. for F. Tylon; at the three Daggers in Fleetſtreet, 1667.
To the Honourable Sir Walter St. John Baronet, AND THE Lady Johanna St. John his Wife.
THeſe Meditations being conceived and born in your Houſe, I take it to be a piece of Juſtice that they ſhould lay themſelves at your feet, and come abroad into the world under your Name. (And long before this, had they come to tender their ſervice to you, had the Preſs been favourable to them, and not let them ſtick longer there than they did in my mind, before they could be brought forth into the world.) Love hath as great a power to make ſervants as any thing elſe, and no bondman is faſter chained than he that is tied by the bands of his own affection. A Captive of that quality I muſt needs profeſs my ſelf, having ſuch a feeling of the obligations you have laid upon me, that I am not free to love you, or not to love you; but am held under ſuch a ſweet tyranny, that I cannot ſo much as deſire to recover my former liberty. Theſe thoughts therefore being the births of one ſo bound to ſerve you, both by your favours and his own affections;Exod. 21.4. according to the Law of the Hebrews you may challenge a right in them, ſeeing I am yours as much as my own. I know that I am writing to you, and not of you; and that you do not expect my commendation, but my Counſel; for if you did, you would not deſerve Commendation. There is ſo much flattery many times in theſe addreſſes, that men will not believe us when we ſay true, and ſo we diſpleaſe while we ſtudy to pleaſe. The world likewiſe is ſo envious, that they never think more of our faults, than when we are praiſed. But yet to tell you of your kindneſs to me, though you do not expect it, methinks I might be allowed, were it not that then I ſhould commend my ſelf for a gratefull Perſon, after I have declined to commend you. But ſeeing that is no ſuch great vertue that a man ſhould be tempted to be proud of it, I ſhall ſay thus much: That of all the cauſes that are uſually aſsigned of theſe Dedications, I can find the impulſe of none ſo ſtrong as that of love and gratitude. Which bids me bind my executors by theſe preſents (if theſe Papers can live longer than I) to acknowledge your love, and ever be mindfull of it to you and yours. And although I may juſtly ſuſpect that they have not ſtrength enough to live to any great Age; yet if they can increaſe your Piety but in the leaſt degree, that is a thing that never dies, and will be an immortal witneſs of my endeavours to ſerve you. To the ſtudy of that it is, that I do moſt affectionately exhort you. Do well, and you ſhall hear well, though mine and all other Pens lie aſleep. Piety is the trueſt and moſt Ancient Nobility, as wickedneſs is the greateſt and baſeſt degeneracy. There is no ſuch way to exalt your Family, as to make a ſtrict alliance with God, and to draw him into your kindred. Nothing can ſo enrich your Bloud, as to contract an affinity with the Blood of Jeſus. But if earthly honour be of any value (as it may conduce to the better ſerving of God) you have the favour granted unto you to be noble both in your ſoul and body, to be allied both to the Bloud of God, and of great Men. The Saint in your name, may put you in mind to be Saints in your ſelves. The two Mullets or Stars in your Coat of Armes, bids you ſhine like two Lights in the World. The occaſion of your bearing them (which if I miſtake not, was becauſe your Progenitors warred in the Holy Land) may put you in remembrance to ſtrive and fight to be made free of the Heavenly Jeruſalem, that City of God that is above. As theſe Stars were born in their Enſigns in that expedition in oppoſition to the Turkiſh Creſcent; ſo let them put you in mind to keep the world ſtill under your feet, and to ſcorn theſe mutable and moon-like things,See Cambden in Glamorganſhire. Nympha. fluit propius. Fons refluit. Illa recedit. Iſte redit. Sic livor in st & pugaa parennis. as much as you do Mahomet and the Turk. There is a Spring in that Countrey where your name firſt took root in Brittiſh ſoil, which is very low and empty of water, when the Sea flows and ſwells the neighbouring River Ogmar; and again aſcends and fills it ſelf when the Sea retires out of the Channel. It will be a moſt lovely ſight both to God and Man, to ſee you humble and lowly in the higheſt tides of a ſwelling fortune; and if your fulneſs ſhould abate and draw back into the Ocean from whence it came, to behold the elevation of your ſpirit, and the greatneſs of your mind riſing above all the reach of theſe worldly changes. Then would you moſt truly imitate thoſe Stars in your Eſcutchion, which are not ſeen in the day; and ſhine moſt brightly in the night.
But your name bids you above all things to be full of love both to each other, and towards all men.foreign For beſide that John in the Hebrew Language carries in its ſignification graciouſneſs and kindneſs; the beloved Diſciple was the first of your name. Degenerate not, I beſeech you, from ſo worthy a precedent, but imbrace with as dear an affection as two St. Johns would have done each other. That great Saint had this alwayes in his mouth, Little Children love one another; the ſame have you alwayes in your heart, ſeeing you are not onelyonly Chriſtians, but of the ſame Family, and of the ſame name which carries a remembrance of that divine Perſon. The Athenians promiſed themſelves nothing but Triumphs in the Sicilian War, becauſe their General Nicias derived his name from Victory, which in the opinion of men had a good preſage in it. And ſome of the Ancient Philoſophers did ſeriouſly Diſpute whether there was not ſome ſecret fate or providence in it,Plato in Cratilo. that men ſhould have names given them that did ſo exactly-agree with their after good or bad fortune. I hope you will not think me impertinent therefore that I have urged you ſo much with your name, and that you will not let it be given you for nothing. And though that Nicias by his great overthrow did diſappoint the hopes which his fellow Citizens conceived from his name, yet you will have a care that you deceive not the expectation both of God and Man from you, which is grounded upon a better foundation.foreign Euſeb. Severus imperator gravis, & vir nominis ſ…i dicitur. Lamprid. I verily believe that you will endeavour to be foreign, (as the Greeks call them) perſons of your own name. And as the Apoſtle prays for his Theſſalonians, 1 Theſ. 3.12, 13. you will encreaſe and abound in love one toward another and towards all men, to the end that you may eſtabliſh your hearts unblameable in holineſs before God even our Father, at the coming of the Lord Jeſus Chriſt with all his Saints. Let me ſpeak to you and all others once more in the words of another Apoſtle:1 Pet. 3.8. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compaſſion one of another; love as Brethren, be pitifull, be courteous. But what need I inſiſt ſo long on this, who find you ſo full of love towards me? It is a delightfull Subject, and therefore you will pardon my vehemence in it. But though it be delightfull, yet I will refrain my ſelf from enumerating my particular obligations, becauſe I know (Sir) that you do not do your kindneſſes that they ſhould be talkt of. And for you (Madam) who carries kindneſs in both your names, I know alſo that you love to be concealed, and that your love ſhould have none to ſpeak of it but it ſelf; and therefore I ſhall forbear to ſay how much (at leaſt to me) you anſwer the double remembrance you have in them. It will be more acceptable I know to you both, if I turn this addreſs to you into a Prayer to God, that he would do all this and much more for you. And to that God of Peace from whom all good comes, I humbly bow my knees, that he would make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleaſing in his ſight, through Jeſus Chriſt,Hebr. 13.21. to whom be glory for ever and ever. The more particular petitions that concern you, I ſhall put up alone, and ever remain what I am much engaged to be
Your affectionate Friend and Servant Si. Patrick. From your houſe at Baterſea January 27. 1659 60