"only to qualify myself for an office, a mere temporal busi 66 ness, 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 withous mixture into the cup of his indignation.

(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 preparation 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 regular for cne 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 apIroach to the Lord's Table. The work to be done is heartwork, 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 fit, wherever CHRIST hath real communion

with the soul. Hence you may see the absurdity of putting on religion, only as our best clothes, once a month or a quarter. And that such persons as these, instead of being the friends of CHRIST, are no better than ceremonious visitors, 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 required, in order to a discerning the Lord's Body, then it is evident, that they who are without these never can 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 children who are begotten, not after the will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God. Therefore if you do 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 quickning influence of the Spirit of God upon your soul, and have not begun to see that you have passed from death unto life, from darkness unto light, from the power of

Satan unto God, it is plain you cannot possibly partake discerningly in this ordinance. Should you give ever so much meat and drink to a dead man, it would neither bring him to life nor nourish the carcase. The case is the same, if there be no spiritual life in the soul, there can be no strengthening and refreshing by the Body and Blood of CHRIST.

2. THESE persons therefore one and another must needs be excluded from all the saving benefits of CHRIST's death and passion; and if thus careless, ignorant, sinful, and unconverted, they approach the Lord's Table, they must needs eat and drink their own damnation. A fearful word indeed! enough to make the ears of every one that heareth it to tingle; and which our church well explains thus, "We kindle God's wrath a"gainst us, we provoke him to plague us with divers diseases, ❝and sundry kinds of death. Judge therefore yourselves, brethK ren, that ye be not judged of the Lord." Here you see that present judgments, and the wrath to come, are the wages of such as, by a rash, unadvised, and unsuitable approach to the Lord's Table, are guilty of the Body and Blood of CHRIST Our Saviour. And shall we provoke GOD's wrath against us? are we stronger than he? forgive my tender concern for you, I am not speaking these things to grieve or disturb you, but as beloved children I warn you. You must be freely dealt with; you will not forgive me else at the day of judgment, if I should now be unfaithful to your souls. I press, I invite you, yea I command you in the name of JESUS CHRIST, not to slight his Table as you do. But then judge yourselves whether ye are in the faith, for if ye are amongst those I have described, you cannot be welcome guests, if you live in ignorance or sin, if you respect merely a temporal convenience, if you make it a matter of form, and have not a living principle of grace in your souls, abstain at present, as you would not imbrue your hands in CHRIST'S Blood, and crucify him afresh. Yet abstain not altogether. As you value your everlasting salvation do not lie down in this state, but hear the present call of JESUS, look to his sacrifice that still bleeds for you, call upon him whilst yet he is near to prepare your heart according to the preparation of the

sanctuary. Let your past forgetfulness, neglect and dishonour of him, lie deep upon your minds, and be among those things -which especially humble you before him. And then arise, as perishing sinners, to lay yourselves at the foot of his cross, to look to him whom you have pierced, till faith in his Blood produces love in your souls towards him, and a willing heart leads you to his Table, to present yourselves a living sacrifice unto him. Then shall the ordinance be as much to his glory as your comfort, and you shall find by blessed experience that you do not only come, but are welcome.

CHAP. III.

Self-Examination a necessary Duty before we come to the LORD'S SUPPER.

As the profiting in the blessed ordinance of the Lord's Supper depends chiefly upon the disposition of mind in which we approach it, it will become all, as St. Paul advises, who would come with spiritual discernment, and return with a blessing, seriously to examine themselves before they presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. To comfort the afflicted, encourage the doubting, and to help the sincere in this behalf, will be the design of the present chapter, as well as to quicken every soul to the too-neglected work of communing with his own heart. Our Church Catechism will supply us with the four principal and essential points of inquiry, which if we understand thoroughly, and answer faithfully, we may come to the knowledge of our state respecting GOD, and consequently our fitness or unfitness for the Lord's Supper.

And these are,

I. Whether we "repent truly of our former sins, sted"fastly purposing to lead a new life.”

II. Whether we "have a lively faith in God's mercy through CHRIST."

III. Whether we "have a thankful remembrance of his "death.

IV. Whether we * are in charity with all men."

Points, each of which deserve a larger treatment than this short exercise, and yet you may come to some safe determination about them, if you will attend to what is now to be set before you.

I. Then, to examine whether you "repent truly of your "former sins, stedfastly purposing to lead a new life," you must understand what is meant by evangelical repentance and newness of life. I shall describe them as including,

1. A Sorrow for Sin.

2. Hatred of Sin.

3. Forsaking of Sin.

4. An evident change wrought upon your heart and life.

1. Evangelical repentance includes sorrow for Sin. They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. And when have we so much cause to be exercising sorrow for our sins, and to mourn, as when we are coming to look upon him whom we have pierced? here the foundation of repentance must be laid, we must lay to heart the great dishonour we have done to God by our sins, how many and great they have been, how vile our nature and hearts are, as well as how perverse our ways have been. We must reflect upon the ingratitude of sin, and how every act, every thought of it, has added a pang to the SAVIOUR's agony. We must consider it as the grieving of the SPIRIT, the defilement of his temple our bodies, and the abominable thing which he hateth. We should reflect on the wages of sin, even death eternal, and that of but one sin; how deeply then are we in arrear to the divine justice, when heart and life have been nothing but sin? Thus its evil nature and heavy guilt should both conspire to beget in us the deepest sorrow and remorse that ever we should dare transgress against the Majes