We It is a plain cafe, and requires no long time to deliberate. Come, ye that would stand among his people at his right hand at last, come now with prepared hearts, and mingle among them at his table. are going to enter into an everlasting covenant with our God, and to fet our folemn feal to the contract. And who among you gives his confent? Who is willing to take the Lord Jefus for his only Saviour and Lord, and to give himself up to him entirely and forever? Who will avouch the Lord to be his God, that He may avouch him to be one of his people? How are your hearts, my brethren, difpofed in this refpect? Do they give a full confent? And are you willing from this time to renounce and abjure all your lufts and finful pleasures? In fhort, do you confent to the covenant of grace? If fo, come and confirm it with that folemn oath and feal. God and Christ are agreed to the propofal; and if you agree, the happy contract is made; it is established firmer than the pillars of heaven; and if you had them, you might venture ten thousand fouls upon it. We are going to maintain communion with the faints, and fit down with them at the fame table of our common Lord. And who of you would join yourselves with that little flock, that defpifed but happy few? If you would mingle with them in heaven, separate from the wicked world, and join them now: and as a token of it eat of the fame bread, and drink of the fame cup with them. But we are going to maintain communion of a still more exalted kind; communion with the Father of our spirits, with the Son of his love, and with the Holy Ghoft. And where are they that pant and languifh for this facred and divine fellowship? Come to the table of the Lord, the place of interview, and you may humbly hope to meet him there. There you may pour out your hearts to him with all the freedom of intimacy and filial boldness, and there you may receive the tokens of his love. My My brethren, if, upon careful felf-examination, you find reafon to hope you have the qualifications of acceptable communicants, which I have defcribed, I require you, in the name of that Jefus who expired upon the cross for you, a name which one would think should have some weight with you; in his endearing, irresistible name, I require you to come to his table. This is not only your privilege, but your duty; and you cannot neglect it without the bafeft ingratitude and wickednefs. Shall Jefus, when he views the guests around his table, find your feat empty? Alas! fhall he have reafon to fay, What! has fuch a one turned his back upon me? I bought him with my blood, and have I deferved to be thus treated by him?" O! my brethren, is it come to that pass with you that you ftand in need of perfuafions to commemorate that Saviour who laid down his life for you? Had he been as fhy of a cross as you are of his table, as backward to die as you are to commemorate his death, alas! what would have become of you? What are the obftructions and difcouragements that lie in your way? Mention them, and methinks I can remove them all in a few words, when the cafe is fo plain. Do you urge, that you are afraid you are not prepared? But have you examined yourselves impartially by what I have faid? Are you fure you have the qualifications mentioned? If fo, your way is very clear. Or if you are not fure, does it appear probable to you? If fo, you may humbly venture. Or if you cannot go fo far as a probability, have you fome trembling hopes? hopes which, though they often waver, yet you cannot entirely caft away, tho' you admit all the evidence you can get, and are defirous to know the very worst of yourselves. Why, if you have even thus much of encouragement, I would advise you to come, though with trembling. If you are impartial in felf-examination, and yet cannot after all discover that you are deftitute of those quali fications fications I have mentioned, it is extremely unlikely that you are deceived: perfons are never deceived in this cafe but by their own careleffness and partiality; therefore take courage. If you look out with a careful eye, there is little danger of your fplitting on this rock. Or are you afraid that you will not be able to perform your facramental vows, but may apoftatize from your God? But I need not tell you that your strength is entirely from God: and I appeal to yourselves whether it be moft likely you will obtain ftrength from him in the way of duty, or in the neglect of it? My brethren do you do your duty, and leave the confequence to him. Truft in him, and he will take care of you, and keep you from falling, or raise you up if you fhould fall. It is not his ufual way to defert those that, fenfible of their own weakness, depend upon him; nay, he has bound himself by promise that he will not do it; but you shall be kept by his power through faith unto falvation, 1 Pet. i. 5. and he will never leave you nor forfake you, Heb. xiii. 5. therefore, in his ftrength, humbly make the adventure. As for fuch of you as have not the qualifications defcribed, and yet are communicants at the Lord's table, I have a few ferious confiderations to offer to you. 1. Did you never obferve that folemn warning of St. Paul, which, like a flaming fword, hovers round the table of the Lord to guard it from your profanation? Whosoever fshall eat of this bread, and drink of this cup of the Lord unworthily, fhall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; and eateth and drinketh damnation, or judgment, to himself. 1 Cor. xi. 27, 29. Keep off, therefore, ye unholy finners, left the weight of this tremendous curfe fall upon you and crush you to ruin. 2. To what purpose do you communicate? This will not conftitute you chriftians, nor fave your fouls. Not all the ordinances that ever God has inftituted can do this, without an intereft in Chrift, and univerfal holincfs holiness of heart and life. And will you incur fuch dreadful guilt, without answering any valuable end by it? 3. How abfurd is it for you to pretend friendship to Chrift in this ordinance, when your hearts are not well affected towards him! This I have hinted at already. This ordinance is a feal; but what do you fet your feal to, when you do not heartily and practically confent to the covenant of grace? How can you hold communion with the faints when you are none of them? or with God, when you neither know him nor love him? How dare you wear the badge and livery of his fervants, when you are enemies in your minds by wicked works? Will you mingle among his people when you belong to the camp of the gloomy god of this world? Will you act the part of a Judas over again, and compliment Chrift with a traiterous kifs? What abfurdity, what grofs hypocrify, what a daring infult is this? Can Omnifcience be impofed upon by fuch pretenfions? Or will a jealous God let them escape unpunished? Do but read a part of the fiftieth Pfalm: you will fee your doom, ver. 16—22. Unto the wicked, God faith, what haft thou to do, that thou Shouldeft take my covenant in thy mouth; feeing thou hateft inftruction, and cafteft my words behind thee?—These things haft thou done, and I kept filence: thou thoughtest. I was altogether fuch a one as thyfelf. But I will reprove thee, and fet them in order before thine eyes. Now confider this, ye that forget God, left he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. O, firs, confider, it will be a poor plea at laft to have it to fay, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drank in thy prefence? and thou haft taught in our streets. The fupreme Judge will, notwithstanding, pronounce the dreadful fentence upon you, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. Luke xiii. 26, 27. 4. Has not God appointed other means which are preparatory to this ordinance; and in the use of which you may hope to obtain proper qualifications? His word, prayer, meditation, and fuch means, are for the common ufe of faints and finners, and intended to beget as well as to confirm grace in the hearts of men. But the Lord's fupper is the peculiar privilege of fuch as are true chriftians already; and is intended only to cherish and improve true religion where it is begun. Therefore your partaking of it without this grand preparative is prepofterous, and directly contrary to the order of divine appointment. Sinners, go first upon your bended knees before God; cry to him with all the earneftnefs of perifhing creatures for converting grace. Think upon your miserable condition, and never take off your thoughts from the melancholy contemplation till your hearts are deeply affected. Read, and hear, and meditate upon his word, till you know your danger and remedy. Take this method first, and when you have fucceeded, come to this ordinance, and God, angels and men, will bid you welcome. 5. Confider how aggravated your punishment will be, if you continue in your prefent condition. To fink into hell from the table of the Lord! O! what a terrible fall! They that perished from Sodom and Gomorrah, though their punishment will be intolerable, will be but flightly punished in comparison of you. A loft communicant !-One that went to hell with the bread and wine, the memorials of a dying Saviour, as it were, in his mouth! O! methinks, fuch a one must be the most shocking fight in the infernal regions. How will loft angels, and loft heathens, wonder and ftare at you as an horrible phenomenon, a dreadful curiofity! How will they upbraid you, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? art thou alfo become as one of us?" To tell the truth without referve, I cannot but tremble at the thought of feeing fuch of you on the left hand of the Judge. O! what a fhocking figure will you make there! Therefore do not make the profanation of the body and blood of Chrift the whole of your VOL. II. religion, PP |