the affairs of the public with fidelity and honesty, without selling justice, without oppression, and without sacrificing them to his private interest. And the greater dangers and temptations he is exposed to, the greater need he has of God's grace and assistance, which is abundantly communicated in this holy ordinance. When we travel in ways frequented by robbers, we go well armed and unite companies, that we may be the better able to defend ourselves. So that the man of business, who has any serious thoughts of another world, ought more especially to lay hold on such opportunities, which may secure him against those dangers he daily converses with, and which may fortify him against those watchful enemies that lie in wait to destroy him. For as they who have leisure ought frequently to receive the holy communion, as the best improvement of their time; so they that are engaged in many worldly affairs ought to come often to the sacrament, and learn how to sanctify their employments.

Object. 5. Others think they satisfy their duty in this particular, if they comply with the command of the Church, which

enjoins three times in the year,

Rub. after the com. Can. xxi.

whereof Easter to be one, and so think themselves excused from frequent communion.

Ans. These objectors against frequent com

munion quite mistake the sense of the Church in this injunction, who, in her exhortations, excites us to frequent communion, and therefore in most parishes invites us at least every month, and in some churches every Sunday and every holyday; especially in cathedrals, where all priests and deacons are enjoined" to receive every Sunday at

Rub after the communion.

the least, except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary." All that she says is, that Christians ought to communicate at least three times in the year, as if that was the minimum quod; that is, the least that is absolutely necessary to denominate us Christians, which if we neglect, we deserve to be separated from that body whereof Christ is the Head, and incur the censures of the Church, which when rightly dispensed are very terrible. I would fain know, if a physician should tell a man that just so much is absolutely necessary to maintain lifeif he should eat less, he would not only endanger his health, but run the hazard of starving himself,—whether a man that confines himself to such a method would be thought to be in love with life; and whether those that have good appetites could subsist under such a discipline. It is just the same in our spiritual life; so many times communicating preserves us from being separated from the body of Christ, which is the

life of a Christian: except we are members of His body, we cannot in any ordinary way partake of the favourable influences of the Head. But this is not enough in order to our wellbeing. It is a sign that we are weak and very imperfect Christians, if we have so small an appetite for this spiritual food; it is a sign we have little relish for the things of God. Let us call to mind the fervours of the primitive Christians, who made the commemoration of our Saviour in the eucharist a constant part of their public worship. As the primitive piety decayed, so the means of maintaining it were less frequented; and it was the bad lives of Christians, and their total neglect of communicating, which made the Church oblige them to receive at some certain times, under the penalty of excommunication. And is it becoming a man that has any sense of the excellency of this Christian institution, any value for the privilege of being a disciple of the crucified Jesus, any care of his salvation, any desire of being perfect as God is perfect, to excuse himself from a necessary duty by an injunction which was introduced by the indevotion of negligent Christians? It is not enough that we are Christians-we must grow in grace, and the man of God must be made perfect; of which when we are once convinced, we shall

never neglect frequent communion, because it is the most effectual means of attaining it.

Fourthly, I shall, in short, lay before you the great advantages of frequent communion.

Our intimate converse with temporal things, and our familiarity with the delights and satisfactions of sense, is but too apt to take off our minds from serious thoughts, and to impair that vigour and resolution which ought to be employed about the one thing necessary. Now frequent communion keeps a lively sense of religion upon our minds, and invigorates them with fresh strength and power to perform our duty. It is the proper nourishment of our souls, without which we can no more maintain our spiritual life, than we can our temporal without eating and drinking.

As long as we carry these frail and sinful bodies about us, the world, the flesh, and the devil, those constant enemies to our true happiness, will be making perpetual assaults upon our virtue, and using their best endeavours to corrupt our innocence. Now frequent communion is the sovereign remedy against all their temptations, by mortifying our passions, by spiritualising our affections; for how can we yield to any sinful satisfactions that crucified the Lord of glory, or fix our hearts upon perishing objects, when God only deserves, as He requires, the whole man?

One of the great advantages of our Christianity consists in being made members of Christ's mystical body, by reason of those happy influences we derive from our Head; and our happiness depends upon our enjoying this blessed privilege. Now frequent communion preserves this spiritual union inviolable between Christ and all faithful Christians; by a mutual intercourse of goodness and compassion, in pardoning our sins, in strengthening our feeble virtues, and in communicating heavenly joys and foretastes of happiness; and on our side by repeated acts of adoration and thankfulness, of love and admiration, of resignation and submission to His holy will, and of sincere professions of constancy and perseverance in His

service.

We are convinced by fatal experience, that either through surprise, or the strength of temptation, we cannot always stand upright; that we do those things we ought not to have done, and leave undone the things we ought to have done. Now this holy sacrament perfects our repentance, and ratifies and confirms to us the pardon of our sins; repairs those breaches which our follies have made in our souls; and applies to us in particular that satisfaction which our Saviour made upon the cross, and conveys to us the benefits of that all-suf