'As we pray, so we communicate': reading Taylor's 'The Worthy Communicant' in Lent
The holy sacrament is, in its nature and design, a solemn prayer, and the imitation of the intercession, which our glorious High Priest continually makes for us in heaven; and as it is our ministry, and contains our duty, it is nothing else but the solemnity and great economy of prayer, for the whole, and for every member, and for all and every particular necessity of the church; and all the whole conjugation of offices and union of hearts, and conjunction of ministers, is nothing but the advantages, and solemnity, and sanctification of prayer; and, therefore, in order to do this work in solemnity as we ought, it were very fit that we examine ourselves, how we do it in ordinary and daily offices.
In other words, if there is an absence of prayer in daily life, faithfully partaking of the Sacrament is not possible, for "it is nothing else but the solemnity and great economy of prayer". The place of the Eucharist in the "great economy of prayer" is powerfully set forth by Taylor:
For what Christ did once upon the cross in real sacrifice, that he always does in heaven, by perpetual representment and intercession; what Christ does by his supreme priesthood, that the church doth by her ministerial; what he does in heaven, we do upon earth; what is performed at the right hand of God, is also represented, and, in one manner, exhibited upon the holy table of the Lord: and what is done on altars upon solemn days, is done in our closets in our daily offices; that is, God is invocated, and God is appeased, and God is reconciled, and God gives us blessings and the fruits of Christ's passion in the virtue of the sacrificed Lamb; that is, we, believing and praying, are blessed, and sanctified, and saved, through Jesus Christ.
The ascended Christ's prayer in heaven; the prayer of the ordained minister at the "holy table of the Lord"; prayer in "our closets in our daily offices" - this is all one, each pleading and relying upon the "blessing and the fruits of Christ's passion". Such an understanding of the Sacrament as prayer is found throughout Taylor's works. In Clerus Domini (1651), he particularly addressed the prayer of the ordained minister in the sacrament:
Now what Christ does alwayes in a proper and most glorious manner, the Ministers of the Gospel also do in theirs: commemorating the Sacrifice upon the Cross, giving thanks, and celebrating a perpetual Eucharist for it, and by declaring the death of Christ, and praying to God in the vertue of it, for all the Members of the Church, and all persons capable; it is in genere orationis a Sacrifice, and an instrument of propitiation, as all holy prayers are in their several proportions ...
What happens in "all holy prayers" is, in a manner, focussed and concentrated in the prayer offered by the minister at the Eucharist, united to, pleading, and offer thanksgiving for the Lord's saving sacrifice.
Likewise, in The Great Exemplar (1649), emphasised the nature of the Sacrament as prayer:
the celebration of the holy sacrament is in itself and its own formality a sacred, solemn, and ritual prayer, in which we invocate God by the merits of Christ ...
The absence of lively prayer in daily life, therefore, necessarily means that we cannot faithfully partake of the heavenly and spiritual food that is offered in the prayer that is the holy Sacrament. To return to The Worthy Communicant:
So that as we pray, so we communicate; if we pray well, we may communicate well, else at no hand.
This being so, Taylor sets out "two great lines of duty, by which we can well examine ourselves in this particular", that is, in our approach to prayer. Firstly, our prayers must be offered in faith and love:
That our prayers must be the work of our hearts, not of our lips; that is, that we heartily desire what we so carefully pray for ... We pray sometimes, that God may be first and last in all our thoughts; and yet we conceive it no great matter whether he be or no; but we are sure that he is not, but the things of the world do take up the place of God, and yet we hope to be saved for all that, and, consequently, are very indifferent concerning the return of that prayer.
Secondly, what is offered and desire in prayer must be reflected in daily living:
If you will know how it is with you in the matter of your prayers, examine whether or no the form of your prayer be the rule of your life ... The prayers of a Christian must be like the devotions of the husbandman, 'God speed the plough;' that is, labour and prayer together.
This then leads to Taylor's conclusion regarding how self-examination regarding our prayers prepares us to receive the Sacrament:
He that prays otherwise, must expect the curses and contempt of lukewarmness, and will be infinitely unworthy to come to the holy communion, whither they that come, intend to present their prayers to God in the union of Christ's intercession, which is then solemnly imitated and represented. An indevout prayer can never be joined with Christ's prayers ... There is not, indeed, any greater indication of our worthiness or unworthiness to receive the holy communion, than to examine and understand the state of our daily prayer.
This indicates how Taylor's understanding of the Sacrament as "the solemnity and great economy of prayer" particularly challenges the approach to the Eucharist defined by the Parish Communion movement. The Sacrament is not primarily to be understood as a fellowship meal: it is prayer - prayer rooted in Christ's saving sacrifice and heavenly intercession, as all prayer must be. This is how we are to approach the holy Mysteries, for "as we pray, so we communicate".
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