did in the Greek and Ethiopic churches, and, it seems, in this very church above a thousand years ago; and still we carry them up to the altar, to mind them of their duty. And doubtless the omission of it occasions the too soon forgetting of this mercy, and the sudden falling off from piety, which we see in too many. Here they may praise God for Jesus, and for this late temporal mercy, both; here they may quicken their graces, seal their vows and promises of obedience, offer their charity, and begin that pious life to which they are so many ways obliged. To receive the sacrament while the sense of God's goodness and her own engagements is so fresh upon her, is the likeliest means in the world to make her remember this blessing long, apply it right, and effectually to profit by it, wherefore let it never be omitted on this occasion.

¶ Quæ desiderat sumere sacramentum tuum sanctum. Benedict. Æthiop. ut supr.-"Iva aka τακρίτως ἀξιωθῇ μετασχεῖν τῶν ἁγίων

σov μvorηpiov. Eucholog. 324. Interrog. August. ad Gregor. Magn. ap. Spelm. tom. 1.

THE

COMMINATION,

OR

DENOUNCING OF GOD'S ANGER AND JUDGMENTS
AGAINST SINNERS.

THOUGH We ought to repent as well as to pray daily, yet because we seldom do that well which we pretend to do always, the church hath in all ages thought fit to set apart some solemn times for the public performance of our repentance, and these are the days of fasting; for God himself usually joins fasting with his commands to repentance, and good men have rarely practised the one without the otherb, because the main end of fasting is to make us penitent, nor is it any further acceptable to Almighty God, than as it promotes our contrition, and makes us fitter to humble ourselves for our sins: so that the exercise of repentance is most seasonable when the days of fasting and abstinence come; and when any extraordinary judgment is upon us, which requires an extraordinary humiliation, then also the church was wont to appoint a day of fasting and repentanced. And upon both these occasions (as

a Joel i. 14; ii. 12, 13, &c. b I Sam. vii. 6. Ezra viii. 21. Dan. ix. 1-3.

c Isa. lviii. 6. Quid enim prodest vacuare corpus ab escis, et animam replere peccatis?

Aug. Temp. Ser. 64.

Episcopi universæ plebi mandare jejunia assolent, interdum ex aliqua sollicitudinis ecclesiasticæ causa. Tertull. in Psych. cap. 13.

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well the great ordinary fast of Lent, as those extraordinary days of fasting set apart on special reasons for universal humiliation) this penitential office is prescribed; the preface whereunto gives us so full an account of its original, that, without any introduction, we will begin to discourse upon that, when we have first presented the excellent method of this devout and useful office.

SECTION I.

OF THE PREFACE.

§. I. BRETHREN, IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH THERE

WAS A GODLY DISCIPLINE, THAT, AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT, &c.] The best men are led by love, and by entreaty, by shewing them their duty, and proposing the rewards of it; but the most are driven by fear, and require threatenings and penalties to awe them into obedience. So that discipline as well as doctrine is necessary for the right ordering of the church; and herein the primitive ages were far happier than these; for though they needed the severities of penance less, they used them more than our times will allow us to do. Then all notorious offenders, of what degree soever, were immediately censured and separated from the faithful, who avoided them so strictly, that the poor penitents, finding no shelter nor succour, were forced to quit their evil ways, and glad to submit to the long and strict penances of fasting and mortification which the church imposed on them, as tokens of their sorrow and evidences of their reformation; yea, at last they thought themselves happy, if with prayers and tears they might be admitted to the peace of God and of his church again', and this proved a happy means to save many sinners, who, if they had been let alone, (as they are in these ungovernable times,) would have added sin to sin till they had dropped into everlasting destruction. But besides this discipline, which was exercised on particular offenders, lest there should be any sinners pass unobserved and uncensured, the ancient

e 1 Tim. i. 9. Oi ȧyaðoì vóμwv οὐ δέονται ποιοῦντες ἑκουσίως διὰ τὸν λόγον, ἃ ἄλλοι διὰ τὸν νόμον. Plutar. adv. Colot.

f See this more largely discoursed in Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity, part iii. chap. 5.

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church thought fit to appoint some times for general repentance, and especially the holy time of Lent. And the holy Fathers advise all Christians (even those who were not under the censures of the church) to observe this time of fasting very strictly, that by this voluntary penance and mortification, they might solemnly testify their repentance for the sins of the whole years, and do that duty out of choice which others were compelled to perform by the necessity of an excommunication. And though a private repentance perhaps might suffice to obtain mercy from God, yet these public acts of humiliation, imposed on us by our spiritual guides, were, according to the ancient doctrine, necessary for the satisfaction of the church; nor did they think any time so fit for this as Lent, that by spending those days in mortification they might be better prepared for the holy sacrament, of which all were to partake at Easteri. In Lent therefore all fasted, and all repented in those blessed days: the catechumens, to fit them for their baptism, publicly solemnized on the day of our Lord's resurrection; the penitents, to dispose them for their absolution, usually granted on the Thursday in the Passion week; yea, all the faithful, to prepare them for the communion on Easter day. And upon this account the beginning of Lent, when all sorts of persons, either by choice or by necessity, entered upon this solemn exercise of penance, was very religiously observed, as St. Augustine plainly testifieth, saying, "Therefore the time of Lent is holy and consecrated, because presently the upon first entrance thereof we begin by a sort of

g Quia toto anno nobis viximus, saltem vel paucos dies vivamus Domino. Aug. de Temp. ser. 65. item 55 et 56. vid. Hieron. Com. in Jonam, tom. 5. p. 318. et Leo. de Quadrages. ser. 4.

h Augustin. Enchirid. ad Laurentium, cap. 65.

i In Quadragesima tristitiam habemus, ut in Pascha ordine legitimo gaudeamus. Idem de Temp. ser. 56.