sons from such a frequency as may please others; and that which one calls opportunity, others do not. But, however, no man ought to be prejudiced in the opinion of others: for besides all this now reckoned, the receiving of the holy sacrament is of that nature of good things, which can be supplied by internal actions alone, or sometimes by other external actions in conjunction; and it hath a suppletory of its own, viz. spiritual communion:-of which I am to give account in its proper place. And when we consider, that some men are of strict consciences, and some churches are of strict communions, and will not admit communicants but upon such terms, which some men cannot admit, it will follow, that as St. Austin's expression is, "Men should live in the peace of Christ, and do according to their faith:" but that, in these things, no man should judge his brother. In this no man can directly be said to do amiss, but he that loaths manna, and despises the food of angels, or neglects the supper of the Lamb, or will not quit his sin, or contend towards perfection, or hath not the spirit of devotion, or does any way, by implication, say, That the table of the Lord is contemptible.' 4. These rules and measures, now given, are such as relate to those, who, by themselves or others, are discernibly in, or discernibly out of, the state of grace. But there are some, which are in the confines of both states; and neither themselves, nor their guides, can tell to what dominion they do belong. Concerning such, they are, by all means, to be thrust or invited forward, and told of the danger of a real or seeming neutrality in the service of God; of the hatefulness of tepidity, of the uncomfortableness of such an indifference. And for the communions of any such person, I can give no other advice, but that he take his measures of frequency, by the laws of his church, and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a spiritual guide, who may consider whether his penitent, by his conjugation of preparatory actions, and heaps of holy duties, at that time usually conjoined, do, or is likely to, receive any spiritual progress: for this will be his best indication of life, and declare his uncertain state, if he thrive upon this spiritual nourishment. If it prove otherwise, all that can be said of such persons is, that they are members of the visible church, they are in that net, where there are fishes good and bad; they stand amongst the wheat and the tares; they are part of the lump, but whether leavened or unleavened, God only knows; and, therefore, they are such to whom the church denies not the bread of children; but whether it does them good or hurt, the day only will declare. For to such persons as these, the church hath made laws for the set time of their communion: Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, were appointed for all Christians that were not scandalous and openly criminal, by P. Fabianus; and this constitution is imitated by the best constituted church in the world, our, dear mother the church of England: and they who do not, at, these times, or so frequently, communicate, are censured by the council of Agathon", as unfit to be reckoned among Christians, or members of the Catholic church. Now by these laws of the church, it is intended, indeed, that all men should be called upon to discuss and shake off the yoke of their sins, and enter into the salutary state of repentance; and next to the perpetual sermons of the church, she had no better means to engage them unto returns of piety; hoping, that by the grace of God, and the blessings of the sacrament, the repentance, which at these times solemnly begins, may, at one time or other, fix and abide; these little institutions and disciplines being like the sudden heats in the body, which sometimes fix into a burning, though, most commonly, they go away without any further change. But the church in this case does the best she can, but does not presume that things are well; and indeed as yet they are not: and, therefore, such persons must pass further; or else their hopes may become illusions, and make the men ashamed. 5. I find, that amongst the holy primitives, they who contended for the best things, and loved God greatly, were curious even of little things; and if they were surprised with any sudden indecency, or a storm of passion, they did not dare that day to communicate. When I am angry, or when I think any evil thought, or am abused with any illusion or foul fancy of the night, intrare non audeo,' 'I dare not enter' (said St. Jerome *), I am so full of horror 66 An. Christi 256. ut Sabellicus et Volaterranus referunt. › Adver. Vigilant. and dread, both in my body and my mind." This was also the case of St. Chrysostom; who, when Eusebius had unreasonably troubled him with an unseasonable demand of justice against Antonine, just as he was going to consecrate the blessed sacrament, departed out of the church, and desired one of the bishops, who by chance was present, to do the office for him; for " he would not offer the sacrifice at that time, having some trouble in his spirit"." 2. To this are to be reduced all such great actions, which, in their whole constitution, are great and lawful; but because so many things are involved in their transaction, whereof some unavoidably will be amiss, or may reasonably be supposed so, may have something in the whole, and at the last to be deplored in such cases as these, some great examples: have been of advices to abstain from the communion, till, by a general, but a profound repentance, for what hath been amiss, God is deprecated, and the cause of Christian hope and confidence do return. In the ecclesiastical history we read, that when Theodosius had fought prosperously against Eugenius, the usurper of the empire, when his cause was just and approved by God, not only giving testimony by the. prediction and warranty of a religious hermit, but also by prodigious events, by winds and tempests fighting for him, and by which he restored peace to the church, and tranquil-: lity to the empire: yet he, by the advice of St. Ambrose,: abstained a while from the holy sacrament, and would not carry blood upon his hands, though justly shed, unto the altars; not only following the precedent of David, who, because he was a man of blood, might not build a temple, but for fear lest some unfit appendage should stick to the management of a just employment. 3. Of the same consideration it is, if a person whose life should be very exemplar, is guilty of such a single folly, which, it may be, would not dishonour a meaner man, but is a great vanity and reproach to him; a little abstention, and a penitential separation (when it is quit from scandal), was sometimes practised in the ancient church, and is advisable also now in fitting circumstances. Thus when Gerontius, the deacon, had vainly talked, that the devil appeared to him one night, and that he had bound him with a chain, St. Ambrose commanded him to abide in his house, and not to come to the church, till, by penances and sorrow, he had expiated such an indiscretion, which to a man, had in reputation for wisdom, is as a fly in a box of ointment,' not only useless, but mischievous. And St. Bernard commends St. Malachi, because he reproved a deacon for attending at the altar the day after he had suffered an illusion in the night; it had been better he had abstained from the altar one day, and, by that intermediate expiation and humility, have the next day returned to a more worthy ministry. 4. One degree of curious caution I find beyond all this, in an instance of St. Gregory the Great; in whose life we find, that he abstained some days from the holy communion, because there was found in a village near Rome a poor man dead, no man could tell how; but because the good bishop feared he might have been starved, and that he died for want of provision,-he, supposing it might reflect upon him, as a defect in his government, or of his personal charity, thought it fit to deplore the accident, and to abstain from the communion, till he might hope for pardon, in case he had done amiss. If these things proceed from the sincerity of a welldisposed spirit, that can suffer any trouble, rather than that of sin, the product is well enough; and, in all likelihood, would always be well, if the case were conducted by a prudent spiritual guide; for then it would not change into scruples and superstition. But these are but the fears, andcautions, and securities of a tender spirit, but are not an answer to the question, Whether it be lawful for such persons to communicate? For certainly they may, if all things else be right; and they may be right in the midst of such little accidents. But these belong to the questions of perfection and excellencies of grace; these are the extra a In vita St. Malachæi, cui injungens pœnitentiam, 'non debueras,' inquit, 'hodie ministrasse, sed verecunde te subtrahere sacris, et deferre tantis tamque divinis mysteriis, ut, hac humilitate purgatus, dignius exinde ministrares.' ordinàries of them, who never think they do well enough! and, therefore, they extended no further than to a single abstention, or some little proportionable retirement; and may be useful, when they are in the hands of prudent and excellent persons. t SECTION V. What Significations of Repentance are to be accepted by the Church in Admission of Penitents to the Communion. THIS inquiry will quickly be answered, when we consider, that the end, why the church enjoins public or private amends respectively to any convict or confessed criminal, she only does it as a mother and physician to souls, and a minister of the divine pardon, and the conductress of penitential processes: she does it, that the man may be recovered from the snare of the enemy, that she may destroy the work of the devil, that the sinner may become a good Christian, And, therefore, the church, when she conducts any man's repentance, is bound to enjoin so many external ministries, that, if they be really joined with the internal contrition and reformation, will do the work of reconcilement in the court of heaven. The church can exact none, but what she can see, or, some way, take external notice of; but, by these externals, intends to minister to the internal repentance; which when it is sufficiently signified by any ways that she may prudently rely upon, as testimonies and ministries of a sufficient internal contrition and real amends, she can require no more, and she ought not to be content with less. It is, therefore, infinitely unsafe and imprudent to receive the confessions of criminals, and, after the injunction of certain cursory penances, to admit them to the blessed sacrament, without any further emendation, without any trial of the sincerity of their conversion, before it is probable that God hath pardoned them, before their affections to sin are dead, before the spirit of mortification is entered, before any vice is exterminated, or any virtue acquired. Such a looseness of discipline is but the image of repentance (whether we look upon it as it is described in Scripture, or as it was |