have spiritual discernment, which consists in the apprehension and application of these to the soul. How stands your knowledge then? what know you of Christ? what of his salvation? what of your sins? what of the benefits you are to expect? are these dark and unknown? is your un- derstanding blind and ignorant? then you are certainly unfit to come to his table, and are in the nature of things excluded from all the blessings of the communion; for the sacraments do not of themselves work necessarily, but only according to our discernment, according to the exercise of our spiritual senses.

(2.) Those are evidently excluded from the Lord's table, who live in any known sin, or the allowed and habitual neglect of any known duty. It were a horrid insult on the blessed Jesus, to come with a conscience still defiled, or with hands still unwashen from our iniquities, to touch his sacred sacramental body; and therefore all who live in the open breach of his commandments, should be utterly cast out. And it were much to be wished the ancient discipline were restored, and all scandalous sinners cut off visibly, as they are spiritually from the communion of Christ. Our church addresses, in her exhortation, a most solemn admonition by name to all such: "Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, (profane in any measure in your conversation) an hinderer or slanderer of his word, an adulterer, or be in malice, envy, or any other grievous crime, (such as drunkenness, or sabbath-breaking, and the like) repent, or come not, lest the devil enter into you, as he did into Judas, and fill you full of all iniquities." A wise admonition indeed! for what communion hath light with darkness, or Christ with Belial? And how can it ever be supposed that God would have res

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pect to any offering, when he sees our hearts going a whoring from him, after the abominable thing which he hates? If you can see in your soul that there is one allowed sin, which you are unwilling to part with, and for which your conscience condemns you, be assured that God is greater than your heart, and must much more condemn you. Whilst this is kept back, you can have no part nor lot in the matter. mists of sin will hinder you from discerning Christ, and your very appearance among his people will be but profane mockery. And yet how many dare come, whose conversations testify against them that they are yet unwashen from their iniquities? How many, who live habitually in pride and passion, pretend to drink into a meek and humble Jesus? How many, whose superficial inquiries into their hearts shew they are afraid to go deeply to work? How many in the interval of the seasons let loose the reins to worldliness and gratification? And some I have heard of, horrid to think it! who suppose the mere act of communicating is, the cancelling of the past offences, and a licence to sin again.Surely such must be in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. The cup of blessing is to them a cup of trembling, and the bread of life a savour of death unto death. And the like may be said of those who live in the neglect of any known duty, such as private prayer, prayer in their families, reading the scriptures, mutual exhortation, and all other helps appointed for our increase in grace; to neglect these, except once a month, or once a quarter, for a dull week it may be, by way of formal preparation for the sacrament, whilst all the interval hath been spent in forgetfulness of God, and disregard of his service, or in some course of vanity, care or indulgence:

this, I say, is a direct proof of unsuitableness for the ordinance: such an one can never discern the Lord's body.

(3.) They are excluded from any spiritual partaking of the Lord's supper, who come merely to qualify themselves for an office. The impiety and profaneness of which is indeed past the power of words to express. What ! can worms of the earth dare trifle with the blood of the Son of God! and, merely to serve their own secular concerns, pollute the altar of the Lord? Can any thing be so horridly insolent as to come evidently with this thought? "Lord, I am not come here with any view to thy glory; I am not come here as an undone sinner, penitent and believing, to receive the pardon of my sins; I am not come to remember thy death, nor expecting any benefits from it; or at least these are not my chief aim, I am come only to qualify myself for an office, a mere temporal business; and were it not for this, I should gladly stay away. What a language this! What spots are these at our feasts? What a hardness and stupidity of conscience is such communicating disposed to beget? This is making the blood of the covenant common indeed. I tremble for the consequences. Knowing very well, that though we may be deceived, God will not be mocked. To have eaten and drank in his presence thus, will doubtless send us away at the last day, with a Depart from me, I never knew you. And they who now thus drink of the cup of the Lord, will be found among those who shall then drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

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(4.) They partake unworthily who only come at particular seasons, and, instead of having an

habitual fitness, make all the work of the communion to consist in a week's preparation; as if the Lord's supper was a mere slavish duty, and a week's cleansing was all that is necessary to approach it. These mistake the very nature of the ordinance, and put their one week's prepa-` ration, instead of all those tempers and dispositions which are required to be abidingly in the soul. For it is not cleansing the outside of the cup and platter, it is not the abstaining from gross sin, it is not saying so many prayers extraordinary, or not going into company, or being strictly regularly for one week, that can shew us to be faithful" people. This is the strangest farce of devotion that can be conceived, and can neither be pleasing in the eyes of an heart-searching God, nor at all answer the end designed of preparing us for a suitable approach to the Lord's table. The work to be done is heart-work, not of the lip and knee; and the preparation is the inward trimming of our graces, not the outward form of a round of extraordinary duties. None are meet to approach the Lord's table, who are not every day maintaining spiritual communion with Christ, and always ready for his table, whenever a call invites them thither. There must be a daily sacramental vowing fidelity to him, and an exercise of faith in his death and the benefits of it, wherever Christ had real communion with the soul. Hence you may see the absurdity of putting on religion, only as our best cloaths, once a month, or a quarter; and that such persons as these, instead of being the friends of Christ, are no better than ceremonious visiters, whose room would be more welcome than their company. Christ, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and who searcheth the heart and the reins, sees nothing but

spiritual ignorance, under the mask of devotion, and no inward sense exercised to discern him, consequently not the least meetness for an approach to his table; needs must he address such with how camest thou in hither?

(5.) To conclude: None can partake profitably, who have not found acceptance with God, through the righteousness of the Saviour, and in consequence experience the mighty power of his grace on their souls. By the mighty power of his grace, I mean that virtue derived from Christ, whereby a dead sinner is quickened to spiritual life, and endued with spiritual sensibility. If in this ordinance, the exercise of repentance, faith, charity, thankfulness, humility, and of all the other graces, is necessarily requir ed, in order to a discerning the Lord's body, then it is evident that they who are without these can never partake spiritually. Now we are all destitute of these, till the spirit of God, making the gospel of Jesus effectual to us, enlightens our minds to see the fulness which is in Christ, and inspires these holy dispositions into our souls.

We cannot repent and believe, and love and be thankful, or humble, when we will, or by our own power, in our natural state; we might as soon think of plucking the sun from the firmament, as of exercising one of these graces. They are all the work of God, the parts of the divine nature communicated to the chil dren who are begotten, not after the will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God. Therefore if youdo not know any such change wrought in you, any such new creation, any mighty working,, like unto that which raised up Jesus from the dead; if you have not an experimental sense of the quickening influence of the spirit of Gods upon your soul, and have not begun to see that