and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Here then you may read your own condemnation; who of you that is come to years of discretion doth not know the great duty lying upon you to remember the death of CHRIST? Do not you condemn others that live in neglect of the Lord's Supper, and what is this but condemning yourself? you have excuses I know, but I warn you there will none of them be taken in the day of judgment; and your own consciences will tell you so, if you will but give them time to speak. You know your breaking the commands of GOD is what nothing can excuse, and therefore you may be fully assured that the wrath of GOD lieth upon you. O that from each of these considerations I knew how to reach your hearts, with such an awful, with such a tender expostulation, as might at once alarm and constrain you; and what urgent cause have I to speak, whilst I see the dreadful neglect of many of you who never come, and of others who come so seldom, that the same condemnation lieth at their door. Are all such flagrant transgressors? are all such dead in trespasses and sins? are all such out of the church of GOD? are all such under the wrath of GOD? in what a fearful state then, brethren, are the most of you living? in what an ungrateful state, where you make CHRIST'S Blood to be shed in vain for you? have you no sensibility of the amazing love of JESUS, of him who lived, who bled, who groaned, who wept, who suffered, who died, for you? hath he undergone so many things for you in vain? and surely it is as yet in vain: for do not you slight all his mercies, despise his salvation, count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and do despite to the Spirit of grace, whilst you quench all his strivings? but if love will not move, at least let fear dismay you; consider what it is to be an outcast of heaven, to be a stranger to GOD's covenant, to be an enemy to CHRIST, to be marked out for the divine vengeance, to be without a Saviour in the day of judgment, to be exposed to the storms of eternal wrath, to be banished from God's presence, to be cast into hell, and have your portion with unbelievers; yet all this, fearful and tremendous as it is, lieth against your soul. Thou, even thou art the man. Not having Communion with CHRIST you are as a branch dried up and withered, which

men gather and cast into the fire and they are burned. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of GOD to consider these awful truths, and begin to examine your souls, lest, with the thousands that have gone before you, you should perish after the same example of unbelief.

But I mean not herein that, with all your sins and carelessness about you, you should approach the sacred place where CHRIST spreads his Table. No. There is a serious inquiry necessary before you presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup, which too many rashly and unadvisedly thrust themselves to partake of, who have no discernment of the Lord's Body. This therefore,

II. I address to you who come not, 'and all others who come with an undue disposition, that they consider the aggravated guilt of" eating and drinking their own damnation, not "discerning the Lord's Body." A fearful and a common case. To discern the Lord's Body, seems to be a phrase taken from the use of the senses in bodily objects; as the eye discerns a prospect, the palate discerns its food, and the hand discerns what it handles; such spiritual discernment must the soul have of JESUS CHRIST in this ordinance, it must see him by the eye of faith, it must verily and indeed receive him as actually to nourish the soul, as the Bread and Wine to strengthen and refresh the body; it must so handle the word of life, as to apply the Blood of CHRIST and his saving benefits. All which necessarily presupposes a new life, a living principle implanted in the soul, a resurrection from the death of sin, and a desire of growth in grace; concerning which I shall speak more particularly in the next chapter, only from hence it may be easily apprehended,

1. Who they are that, "not discerning the Lord's Body," eat and drink unworthily.

2. What is meant by "eating and drinking their own “damnation."

and

1. Who they are that do not discern the Lord's' Body, eat and drink unworthily. And here I beg your serious attention. The matter is deeply interesting to you. I suppose our eternal salvation is in nothing more nearly concerned, than in a right approach to the Lord's Table; and therefore the following persons cannot possibly have any call to appear there.

(1.) Such as are without the knowledge of CHRIST, the nature of his salvation, their own wants, or the benefits they are to expect. As our food does not profit us when we have no appetite or digestion, so where knowledge is wanting, the Sacrament is mere Bread and Wine, and can in no wise minister to the soul strength or refreshment. Indeed how is it possible they should remember CHRIST to any saving purpose, who are unacquainted with his nature as God and man in mysterious union; with his offices, as a Prophet to teach, a Priest to atone and intercede for, a King to protect and rule over and in, his people; and who have not so learned CHRIST out of the Scriptures as to know why he saves, or how he saves? Here ignorance is a total bar, it is the darkness which cannot comprehend him. And the case is the same where the nature of his salvation is mistaken; when any come to the Lord's Table without seeing the intire freedom of the salvation; when they bring their works and good life to make them accepted, instead of laying down their sins at the foot of his cross; when they lean either in whole or in part upon their own righteousness, instead of seeing him to be their alone righteousness before GOD; when they think the doing the duty is to save them, instead of renouncing that as well as every thing else, to plead only CHRIST'S merit before Gop, then spiritual discernment must needs be wanting. Again, when there is no knowledge of our own sinfulness, when we are ignorant of the miseries of our state by nature, and feel no burden under its present corrup tion; when we have no sense of the perverseness of our hearts, and the guiltiness of our lives; when we have never felt the desert of sin in the consciousness we have provoked God to cast us into hell; what should such do at a table where a Saviour only stands for sinners sakes? Or in fine, If there be no

knowledge nor expectation of the benefits procured by CHRIST, no desire of pardon, adoption, grace, or consolation, it is impossible we should 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 understanding 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, and with hands still washen 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 exortation, a most solemn admonition by name to all such; "Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of GOD, (profane in 66 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 respect 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 Gon 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. The 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 license 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.

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(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 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 (6 come to remember thy death, nor expecting any benefits "from it; or at least these are not my chief aim, I am come

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