laudable Practice

Today we conclude our Lenten readings from Jeremy Taylor's The Worthy Communicant (1667). We do so with Taylor again emphasising both the significance and effectiveness of the duty of self-examination before receiving the holy Sacrament. Our self-examination is to be thorough and searching. It is the very fact that this is, for Taylor, the fundamental discipline regarding the Sacrament which means that we cannot judge others who come to the Sacrament, for we are called to not judge others but only ourselves, instead exercising grace and mercy to others: I do not say that persons unprepared may come, for they ought not; and if they do, they die for it: but I say, if they will come, it is at their peril, and to no man's prejudice, but their own, if they be plainly and severely admonished of their duty and their danger; and, therefore, that every man must judge of his own case, with very great severity and fear, even then when the guides of souls must judge with more gentleness, ...

... and are in love and charity with your neighbours. 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 con...

Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort ... The Prayer Book's invitation to communicants culminates with this call to approach the Sacrament "with faith". This, of course, gives liturgical expression to Article XXIX, a statement of a distinctive of Reformed eucharistic theology: The Wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth (as Saint Augustine saith) the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and drink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing. The doctrine is also central to the Catechism's understanding of what is required of communicants: What is required of them who come to the Lord's Supper? To ... have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his death. What, however, does it mean to "Draw near with faith ", to receive the holy ...

He that comes to the holy communion, must examine himself concerning his passions ... A searching self-examination regarding our hearts and interior life are urged as necessary by Taylor in The Worthy Communicant . This, he emphasises, is not " the consideration of single actions", which "will do but little". Rather: See, therefore, what you are from head to foot, from the beginning to the end, from the first entry to your last progression: and although it be not necessary that we always actually consider all; yet it will be necessary that we always truly know it all, that our relative duties, and our imperfect actions, and our collateral obligations, and the direct measures of the increase of grace, may be justly discerned and understood. Such a self-examination is, of course, demanding and challenging. For the vast majority of us, it will be painful and humbling. Not least is this so because it is an examination of the heart, of our desires and passions: Are your ...