lity and faith, how dare I receive Him; nay, touch Himi?

3. If the Apostle St. Peter said to Christ, "Go from me, for I am a sinful man;" how may I presume to join myself unto Him ?

4. If Uzzah the priest was punished for touching the ark after an irreverent manner; what may I not fear, if I come not with reverence?

5. Joseph, saith Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, ad Olympia, laid the Body of our Blessed Saviour in clean linen; this clean linen may resemble a clean conscience.

6. God saith to Moses, Sanctify the people before they come near the mount; how much more ought we to be sanctified before that God cometh near us?

"Take then this lesson, O thou that art desirous of this Table, of Emissenus, a godly father, that when thou goest up to the reverend Communion, to be satisfied with spiritual meats, thou look up with faith upon the holy Body and Blood of Thy God, thou marvel with reverence, thou touch it with the mind, thou receive it with the hand of thy heart, and thou take it fully with thy inward man."-[Homily of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.]

* Exodus xix. 10.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

OF EXTERNAL REVERENCE, AND KNEELING AT THE TIME OF RECEIVING THE HOLY SACRAMENT.

A

LTHOUGH for no other respect, yet in regard of the solemn performance of religious offices in the face of the Church, that rule of the Apostle ought to direct us, "Let all things be done decently and in order." For if reverence be to be used in actions of common life, much more in actions tending to the service of God. What gesture doth better become us presenting ourselves at the Table of the Lord, under whose Table we confess we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs, than a gesture of reverence?

Our Lord and Saviour at the first institution of this Holy Sacrament, observed that which custom and long continuance made fit in celebrating the Passover. We, in celebrating the Lord's Supper, observe that which fitness and decency amongst the people of God, and long practice of the Church, hath made usual.

The service of God consisting both in the inward humbleness of the mind, and outward reverence of the body, doth manifest that duties ought to proceed from humility in both. As nature first maketh

the heart, and after external parts in man; so, first, God requireth obedience of the mind, as in the first commandment; and next, reverence of the body, as we see in the second. Again, our bodies are the members of Christ, as the Apostle speaketh; and members ought to be obedient to their head.

To say that outward reverence is not expedient, is a branch of the heresy of the Manichees. To come unto the Holy Table of the Lord in any other behaviour than beseemeth humble suppliants, meekly kneeling upon our knees, being now to receive grace from the Giver of grace, were great indignity offered. To come into such a Presence, and to demean ourselves as if we were assembled to sit in commission with God, is sure far from Christian piety. If one come in that believeth not, seeing no reverence, what will he say? If he see reverence, then he saith, God is in them of a truth'.

David went uncovered before the ark; Michal mocked him. David's answer is, It is before the Lord, who hath exalted me". Solomon in all his glory was upon his knees ". twenty elders, which signified the

The four and

Church trium

II Cor. xiv. 24.

m 2 Sam. vi. 21.

I Kings viii. 54.

phant, fall down before Him that was, and is, and is to come.

We owe to God a twofold devotion, internal and external; the one to be done, the other not to be left undone. The words of our Saviour to the woman of Samaria, "God is a Spirit; and the true worshippers are they that worship Him in spirit and in truth;" they do not take away external worship, as St. Ambrose and St. Cyril expound that place; but in spirit, that is, without the shadows of the Jews; in truth, without the error of the Gentiles. So, in spirit principally, but not in spirit only; for He that created both body and soul will have duties of both. It will be replied, that Pagans have kneeled to their idols; so it may be, that Pagans have worshipped the sun; shall we, therefore, cast away the use of the sun?

Sure, kneeling is a gesture well beseeming so holy a Service. St. Paul blamed the Corinthians for their irreverent assembling at the Lord's Table, and tells them there was a difference between God's House and their own, between sacred and the common assemblies P.

Let them, therefore, take heed by the example of those Corinthians, amongst whom many were

• Revelation iv. 10.

PI Corinthians xi. 22.

afflicted and punished unto death, as the Apostle in that place testifieth, for their want of reverence at the Table of the Lord. They that make no more of this holy Service than of some familiar and ordinary repast, let them call to mind who hath said it, "Every knee shall bow before Me."

It is often repeated, and to our greater shame neglected, "O come, let us worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord." We must learn of St. Paul to bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and not to be as the people of whom the Prophet complaineth, whose neck was an iron sinew. We call it a service, and beseech God to accept it as a reasonable service; now servants before their masters will shew respect and reverence. We may consider the place where we are, which is the house of God; and holiness becometh His house, saith the Prophet David. Jeremiah biddeth us lift up our hands and hearts to God in the heavens". At the table of a mortal man we will use to take the lowest form; much more ought we to humble ourselves at this so high and so heavenly a Presence.

St. Paul doth require the lifting up of pure hands in prayer; and St. James saith, "God re