THE WORTHY COMMUNICANT; OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE, EFFECTS, AND BLESSINGS, CONSEQUENT TO THE WORTHY RECEIVING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, AND OF ALL THE DUTIES REQUIRED IN ORDER TO A WORTHY PREPARATION: TOGETHER WITH THE CASES OF CONSCIENCE OCCURRING IN THE DUTY OF HIM THAT MINISTERS, AND OF HIM THAT COMMUNICATES; AS ALSO DEVOTIONS FITTED TO EVERY PART OF THE MINISTRATION. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCESS HER ROYAL HIGHNESS MARY, PRINCESS OF GREAT BRITAIN, DOWAGER OF ORANGE, &c. MADAM, ALTHOUGH none of the subjects of these nations can, in propriety of speaking, be a stranger to the royal family, from whom every single person receives the daily emanations of many blessings;-yet besides this, there is much in your Royal Highness, by which your princely person is related to all amongst us, that are or would be excellent. For where virtue is in her exaltation, to that excellent person, all that are or would be thought virtuous, do address themselves either to be directed or encouraged, for example or for patronage, for the similitude of affection or likeness of design; and, therefore, Madam, although it is too great a confidence in me, something a stranger, to make this address to so high-born and great a princess; yet when I consider that you are the sister of my king, and the servant of my God, I know there was nothing to be expected but serenity and sweetness, gentleness and goodness, royal favours and princely graces; and, therefore, in such fruitful showers, I have no cause to fear, that my fleece shall be dry, when all that is round about it, shall be made irriguous with your princely influence. I shall, therefore, humbly hope, that your Royal Highness will first give me pardon, and then accept this humble oblation from him who is equally your servant, for your great relations, and for your great excellencies: for I remember with what pleasure I have heard it told that your Royal Highness's Court hath been, in all these late days of sorrow, a sanctuary to the afflicted, a chapel for the religious, a refectory to them that were in need, and the great defensative of all men, and all things, that are excellent; and therefore, it is but duty, that by all the acknowledgments of religion, that honour should be paid to your Royal Highness, which so eminent virtues perpetually have deserved. But because you have long dwelt in the more secret recesses of religion, and that, for a long time, your devotion hath been eminent, your obedience to the strictest rules of religion hath been humble and diligent, even up to a great example, and that the service of God hath been your great care and greatest employment; your name hath been dear and highly honourable amongst the sons and daughters of the church of England and we no more envy to Hungary the great name of St. Elizabeth, to Scotland the glorious memory of St. Margaret, to France the triumph of the piety of St. Genevieve, nor St. Katharine to Italy, since in your royal person we have so great an example of our own, one of the family of saints, a daughter to such a glorious saint and martyr, a sister to such a king, in the arms of whose justice and wisdom we lie down in safety, having now nothing to employ us, but in holiness and comfort to serve God, and, in peace and mutual charity, to enjoy the blessings of the government under so great, so good a king. But, Royal Madam, I have yet some more personal ground for the confidence of this address; and because I have received the great honour of your reading and using divers of my books, I was readily invited to hope, that your Royal Highness would not reject it, if one of them desired, upon a special title, to kiss your princely hand, and to pay thanks for the gracious reception of others of the same cognation. The style of it is fit for closets, plain and useful; the matter is of the greatest concernment, a rule for the usage of the greatest solemnity of religion: for as the eucharist is, by the venerable fathers of the church, called the queen of mysteries ;' so the worthy communicating in this, is the most 6 |