were so examined, were called doкiμaσ0évτes P, 'tried and examined' men; and if they were persons quitting themselves like men, they were ascribed into the number of the good citizens. That is our way; to try whether we be instructed and rightly prepared to this good work, and that is to be examined by a course and order of good works; that was the old and true way of examining.

For examination is but a relative duty, and nothing of itself; for no man is the better for being examined, if being examined there follows nothing after it. He that is examined, either must be approved, or else in S. Paul's phrase he is adóμos, a reprobate;' and to what purpose is it that every man should examine himself, but in case that he find himself unfit, to abstain and forbear to come; for if he comes unworthy, he dies for it; and therefore to examine' must signify, 'Let every man examine himself so that he be approved.' And so the word is used by S. Paul", "Happy is he that doth not condemn himself in that which he approveth:" the word signifies both to examine and to approves, that is indeed to examine as wise men should (doкiμáσas avтì TOû кpívas, saith Suidas'); it is all one as to judge righteous judgment after due examination; and that is expressly added by the apostle, in the same chapter, after the precept of examination; "Judge yourselves that you be not judged of the Lord;" that is, your examination of yourselves will prevent the horrors of the eternal scrutiny; your condemnation of your sins will prevent God's condemnation of you for them; and then when you examine so as to judge, and so condemn your sins that you approve yourselves to God and your own consciences, then you have examined rightly.

The sense then is this; let a man examine and prove himself, whether he be fit to come to the holy communion; and so let him eat: not so if upon examination he be found unfit: but because it is intended he should come, and yet must not come without due and just preparations, let him who comes to the holy communion be sure that he worthily prepare himself.

These then are the great enquiries: first, how a man shall so examine himself as to know whether he be fit or no; secondly, what are those necessary dispositions without which a man cannot be worthily prepared. The first will represent the general rules of preparation; the second enquiry will consider the more particular.

SECTION II.

OF THE EXAMINATION OF OUR DESIRES.

EVERY one that comes to the holy sacrament must have earnest affections and desires towards God and religion, and particularly toward these divine mysteries; and therefore he must examine accordingly whether or no he be willing and passionately desirous to do all his duty. His saying that he is so I do not suppose to be a sufficient satisfaction to a serious enquiry, unless he really feels himself to be so. For we find that all men pretend that they have earnest desires to be saved; and very many espying the beauties of wisdom, the brightness of chastity, the health of temperance, the peace of meek persons, and the reputation and joy of the charitable, wish that they were such excellent persons. But they consider not that it is the splendour, not the virtue, the reputation, not the usefulness, the reward and not the duty, that they are in love withal : our desires of holiness are too often like our desires of being cut of the stone, or suffering caustics or cupping-glasses; an unwilling willingness, a hard and a fatal necessity, and therefore something of a consequent choice; since it can be no better, it must be no worse: but this can never make our duty pleasant; we can never be heartily reconciled to the things of God as long as we feel smart and pain in the ministries of religion: we 'suffer' religion, and 'endure' the laws of God, but we 'love' them not. He that comes to God whether he will or no, confesses the greatness of God and the demonstrations of religion, but sees no amability and comeliness in it; and shall find as little of the reward.

It is true that force and fear may bring us in to God; and 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and Christ said, 'Compel them to enter;' and our natural needs or our superinduced calamities may force us to run to God, and affright us into religion as into a sanctuary: but then if we enter at this door we must examine whether we be taken with the beauties of the interior house: does fear make us look, and does looking make us like ? If holy desires and love be not in the beginning or the progression, we shall do the work of grace pitifully, and our preparations coldly, and our attentions distractedly, and receive the sacraments without effect.

Now concerning our desires, we shall best judge of them by the proper effects and significations of desire.

SIGNS AND INDICATIONS OF THE SINCERITY AND HEARTINESS

OF OUR DESIRES.

1. ARE his affections warm and earnest, inquisitive and longing, interested and concerned in the things of God? I do not say it is necessary that he find those passions and degrees of fierceness which passionate persons find in sensual objects. But yet it is very fit that we enquire concerning those degrees and excesses of desire; not that he is unfit who finds them not; but that they who have them can also receive comfort in their enquiry, and become examples to others, and invite them forwards by the arguments of amability which they feel.

But our passions and desires are so to be enquired of, that we find no rest in our souls concerning this question unless we do indeed set a high value upon these mysteries, and love to partake of them, and desire them reasonably", and without very great cause not to omit the opportunities which the church gives and requires us to use, and to exceed the lowest measure of the law. For he that only communicates when he is commanded, communicates in obedience, but not in love: for though obedience to God is love, yet our obedience to man is most commonly fear; at least we cannot so well be sure that we are passionate enough, and have love enough to these mysteries, when the law of men, that is, when something without is our measure. For ecclesiastical laws have necessity most commonly for their limit; and that is the least of all holy measures; less than their determination we cannot go and be innocent but if we will make judgment concerning our love and our desires, we must frequent these holy mysteries by the measures and suggestion of something that is within: if it be love, it will have no measures but itself, and nothing can give it limits but the circumstances of things themselves and the possibilities of our persons and affairs.

2. Besides this coming upon necessity, our desires are very much to be suspected, if compliance and custom or reputation be the ingredients, and prevail above any better motive that can be observed. As force makes hypocrites, so favour and secular advantages make flatterers in religion; and when a prince or a ruler, a master of a family or any one that hath power to oblige, is heartily religious, religion will quickly be in fashion. Those persons which come upon such inducements are by our blessed Saviour signified by the parable of the

"Ut perdunt propriam mortalia corpora vitam,
Si nequeunt escas sumere corporeas:
Sic animæ, nisi deliciis rationis alantur,
Dum verbi æterni pane carent, pereunt.

Nam quid erit quod dira procul fastidia pellat

Cum se ipso refugit mens saturare Deo?

Prosper, epigr. [ix. de fastidio spiritali, p. 86 G.]

corn that fell by the high way; they presently receive it with joy, and it springs quickly if the sun shines; but when persecution comes they hang the head, and slack their pace, and appear seldom, and shew that they had no depth of root. These men serve God when religion is rich and prosperous; they come to Christ for the loaves, but care but little for the mystery. As long as the religion stays at this port, it is good for nothing, and the very entry itself is suspicious; fear is better than this; but if it pass on to create an effective and material love, it will be well at last.

3. They that are easily diverted from communicating, and apt to be excused from the solemnity; these men have just cause to suspect their desires to be too cold to kindle the fires upon this altar, and to consume this sacrifice; they have not love, and come against their will. Some men are hindered by every thing; if a stranger come to the house; if they be indisposed with a little head-ache; if they have affairs of the world; if a neighbour be angry with them; if a merry meeting be appointed the day before: this is a suspicious indifferency and lukewarmness. They that are not desirous to use all opportunities and to take all advantages, and long for all the benefits, want very much of that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God which is fulfilled in those mysteries, and to which Christ hath promised such ample satisfaction. I do not say that every man is bound to communicate every time that he can have it, and that it is lukewarmness not to desire it so often as it is in our power; but he that refuses it when it is in his opportunity, when his circumstances are fitted, when by the measures of piety and religion it is decent and useful to him to do it (of which I shall afterwards give account) that man is guilty of a criminal indifference; and when he does come, may fear that he hath not spiritual hunger enough for so divine a banquet.

4. They that in their preparation take the least measures that are practised or allowed, and rest there and increase not, have neither value for the sacrament, nor desires of the blessing, nor expectations of any fruit; and therefore cannot have this holy appetite in due proportion because they see no sufficient moving cause; and they look for little and find less, and therefore can never be true desirers. For he that thinks there is no great matter in it, will have no great stomach for it; and he that will do no great matter for it, certainly expects no great excellency in it; and such are all they that take the least measures of preparation: who therefore shall find the least measures of blessing; and in spiritual things that which is called positively the least, is just none at all; he that shall be called least in the kingdom,' shall be quite shut out. This is an indifferency both in the cause and in the effect: they feel no great blessings consequent to their reception, and therefore their affections are cold: and because they are so, they shall for ever be without the blessing. [?on stony ground.']

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5. They only can be confident that their desires are right, who feel sharpnesses and zeal in their acts of love. For in spiritual things every abatement is by the mixture of the contrary; and therefore when things are indifferent we cannot tell which shall be accepted or accounted of; and when there is as much evil as good, the evil is only abated, but the good is destroyed, and is not accepted; and therefore till the victory be clear and evident we cannot have much comfort: but the strong desire is only certain and comfortable to the spirit. Great desires are a great pain; and the spouse in the Canticles complains that she is 'sick of love,' and then calls upon Christ to 'comfort her with flagons' of wine. Less desires than the greatest, if they be real and effective of the work, are fit for such persons as are not the greatest in religion; but in all spiritual progressions we are sure that our desires shall never cease growing till they be full of God, and are swelled up to immensity; and till they come to some greatness, that they are like hunger and thirst, or like the breasts of a fruitful nurse, full and in pain till they be eased, we cannot be so confident that things are well with us in this particular. Are we in trouble till we converse with our Lord in all the ways of spiritual entercourse? do we rejoice when a communion day comes? and is our joy fixed upon consideration of that holy necessity of doing good works at that time especially, and receiving the aids of grace and the helps of the sacrament liberally? When it is thus it is well; that we can be sure of: all measures of desire which are so little that we can compare them to no natural similitude of earnestness and appetite, we can only say that they are yet very uncomfortable; and if we come often and pray that we may have lively relish and appetite to the mysteries, it may be well in time; but as yet we cannot be sure that it is so.

There is only in this case one help to our examination and to our confidence: he that comes because God commands him, in a direct and certain obedience to the words of Christ, or in a deep sorrow for his sins, coming hither in hopes of remedy, or in a great apprehension of his infirmity, addressing himself hither for support and strength, this man, although he feels no sensual punctures and natural sharpnesses of desire, yet he comes well and upon a right principle. For S. Austin, reckoning what predisposition is necessary by way of preparation to the holy sacrament, reckons 'hunger and the sense of our sins and our infirmities; but if he wants the pleasure of these passionate indications, he must be careful that he be sure in the intellectual and religious choice; for that is the thing which is intended to be signified by all the exterior passions; but when he hath no sign, he must be the more careful he have the thing signified, and then all is right again.

But happy is that soul which comes to these springs of salvation as the hart to the water brooks, panting and thirsty, longing and * [Sine dolore non vivitur in amore.-Th, a Kemp. iii. 5.]

▾ [Cant. ii. 5.]