The absence of these words from contemporary Anglican eucharistic rites is striking from the perspective of Jeremy Taylor's The Worthy Communicant (1667). Taylor regards reconciliation with our neighbours as fundamental and necessary to our partaking of the holy Sacrament. If we are not "in love and charity" with our neighbours, we should not approach the Sacrament, the love feast:
It was love that first made societies, and love that must continue our communions: and God, who made all things by his power, does preserve them by his love, and by union and society of parts every creature, is preserved ... when God, in this holy sacrament, pours forth the greatest effusion of his love, peace in all capacities, and in all dimensions, and to all purposes, he will not endure that they should come to these love-feasts who are unkind to their brethren, quarrelsome with their neighbours, implacable to their enemies, apt to contentions, hard to be reconciled, soon angry, scarcely appeased. These are 'dogs,' and must not come within the holy place, where God, who is the 'congregating Father?,' and Christ the great Minister of peace, and the Holy Spirit of love, are present in mysterious symbols and most gracious communications.
This reflects the very nature of the Christian life, for without charity there is no Christian life, there is no Christian faith. The Dominical and Apostolic teaching is, as Taylor emphasises, explicit that we must be in love and charity with your neighbours:
For although it be true, that God loves us first, yet he will not continue to love us, or proceed in the methods of his kindness, unless we become like unto him in love. For by our love and charity he will pardon us, and he will comfort us, and he will judge us, and he will save us; and it can never be well with us till love, that governs heaven itself, be the prince of all our actions and our passions. 'By this we know we are translated from death to life, by our love unto our brethren:' that is the testimonial of our comfort. 'I was hungry, and ye fed me: I was hungry, and ye fed me not:' these are the tables of our final judgment.
This leads to a beautiful exposition from the 'Shakespeare of divines' on how living in love and charity with our neighbour is much more than a duty to give alms. It is, rather, to be embodied in the character of our daily relationships:
He that loves me, does me good; for until love be beneficial, it is not my good, but his fancy and pleasure that delights in me. I do not examine this duty by our alms alone; for although they are an excellent instrument of life, ("for alms deliver from death," said the angel to old Tobit,) yet there are some who are bountiful to the poor, and yet not charitable to their neighbour. You can best tell whether you have charity to your brother, by your willingness to oblige him, and do him real benefit, and keeping him from all harm we can. Do you do good to all you can? Will you willingly give friendly counsel? Do you readily excuse your neighbour's faults? Do you rejoice, when he is made glad? Do you delight in his honour and prosperity? Do you stop his entry into folly and shame? Do not you laugh at his miscarriages? Do you stand ready in mind to do all good offices to all you can converse with? For nothing makes society so fair and lasting, as the mutual endearment of each other by good offices
Such good offices also require speaking good of our neighbours. Again, Taylor's emphasis is how being in love and charity with our neighbours is considerably more radical than merely the duty of giving alms:
"The mouth that speaketh lies," or stings his neighbour, or "boasteth proud things," is not fit to drink the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. Christ enters not into those lips, from whence slander and evil talkings do proceed: and the tongue that loves to dispraise his brother, cannot worthily celebrate the praises and talk of the glorious things of God. Let no man deceive himself; an injurious talker is an habitual sinner; and he that does not learn the discipline of the tongue, can never have the charity of Christ, and the blessings of the peaceful sacrament. Persons that slander or disgrace their brother, are bound to make restitution; it is as if they had stolen a jewel, they must give it back again, or not come hither. But they that will neither do nor speak well of others, are very far from charity: and they that are so, ought to be as far from the sacrament, or they will not be very far from condemnation. But a good man will be as careful of the reputation, as of the life, of his brother; and to be apt to speak well of all men, is a sign of a charitable and a good man; and that goes a great way in our preparation to a worthy communion.
'The blessings of the peaceful sacrament': it is this which necessitates that communicants be in love and charity with their neighbours. This was upheld by the discipline of the Primitive Church and maintained by the Church of England:
"I wonder," saith St. Cyprian, "what peace they can look for, that are at war with their brethren?" - "These men may be compelled, by their injunction of severe fastings, to be reconciled;" said Fabianus, the martyr. And, in the decree of P. Victor, it was expressly commanded, "That they should be driven from the communion of all faithful people, who are not in peace, and have no charity to all their brethren." This decree was renewed, and earnestly pressed in the council of Agatho; "They that will not, by the grace of God working within them, lay aside the hatred, and long suits, and dissensions, first let them be reproved by the priests of the city: but if they will not, at their reproof, lay aside their enmity, let them, by a most just excommunication, be driven from the congregations of the church." Which decree the church of England hath inserted into the second rubric, before her office of communion.
The Prayer Book rubric, while it also addresses "other grave and open sin without repentance", has as its primary focus "malicious and open contention"; that, in other words, which breaks the bonds of common life, of neighbourliness, of peaceable living:
If a Minister be persuaded that any person who presents himself to be a partaker of the holy Communion ought not to be admitted thereunto by reason of malicious and open contention with his neighbours, or other grave and open sin without repentance, he shall give an account of the same to the Ordinary of the place, and therein obey his order and direction, but so as not to refuse the Sacrament to any person until in accordance with such order and direction he shall have called him and advertised him that in any wise he presume not to come to the Lord's Table ...
The duty to forgive is also inherent to the call to be in love and charity with our neighbours. Without forgiving those who have wronged us, we cannot approach the holy Sacrament:
it is infinitely reasonable, that he that needs, and comes for a great pardon, should not stick at the giving a little; and he that desires to be like God, and to be united to him, should do like him; that is, rejoice in remitting offences, rather than in punishing them. In this, as in all other things, we must follow God's example; for in this alone he else will follow ours. In imitating him, it is certain, we are innocent; and if in this he follows us, though we be wicked, yet he is holy; because revenge is his, and he alone is to pay it. If, therefore, we will forgive, he will; if we will not, neither will he: for he makes his spear as long, and his angers as lasting, as we do ours.
Taylor illustrates this with words from the wise son of Sirach:
But this duty, and the great reasonableness and necessity, I shall represent in the excellent words of the Talmudists, recorded also by the famous Bensirach; "He that revengeth, shall find vengeance of the Lord, and he will surely keep his sins in remembrance. Forgive thy neighbour the hurt, that he hath done unto thee; so shall thy sins also be forgiven, when thou prayest. One man keepeth anger against another; and doth he seek healing from the Lord? He showeth no mercy to any man that is like himself; and doth he ask forgiveness for his own sins? If he that is but flesh, nourish hatred, who will entreat for pardon of his sins?" The duty is plain, and the reason urgent, and the commandment express, and the threatening terrible, and the promise excellent.
We cannot faithfully partake of 'the peaceful sacrament' if we refuse to forgive our neighbour.
Taylor's teaching on the necessity of charity as "Preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament" is, of course, powerfully challenging. It is, however, an understanding inherent to the Prayer Book Holy Communion, as the first exhortation demonstrates:
And if ye shall perceive your offences to be such as are not only against God, but also against your neighbours; then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them; being ready to make restitution and satisfaction, according to the uttermost of your powers, for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other; and being likewise ready to forgive others that have offended you, as you would have forgiveness of your offences at God's hand; for otherwise the receiving of the holy Communion doth nothing else but increase your damnation.
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