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An Invitation to the Communion.

nity; but you have no such desires, no such disposition, because you have chosen death rather than life, and are daily pursuing the course, the end of which must be everlasting destruction. Ask yourself this plain question, Why do I not come to the Communion? And what can you answer, but that I am living in the pursuit of iniquities, and the pleasures of sin, which I have no inclination to forsake? And what is this but a plain acknowledgment of the dreadful misery in which you are lying every day, liable to the wrath of God, and assuredly ready to receive it, if you die as you live, without a new birth from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness?

3. The danger of neglecting the Lord's table is evident, as it includes the renunciation of our covenant with God. There are but two sorts of people in the world, believers and unbelievers; those who are within the covenant, and those who are out of it. When we were infants, the charitable act done for us in baptism, and the conditional engagement then entered into, can profit us nothing, unless we are putting in our own claim to the blessings then promised; and, by partaking in the other Sacrament, when we are come to the years of discretion, declare we thankfully embrace the covenant of grace, and receive the signs and seals thereof, in token both of our dependence upon Christ, and our renewed dedication to him. Where this is not done, we deny in fact our baptismal engagements, break the covenant we have entered into, and declare our disavowal of all the promises then made for us. Hence we can claim nothing under

An Invitation to the Communion.

it, and are left, though we may be professing members of Christ outwardly, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the promises; without Christ, without God, without the covenant, and consequently without hope, without grace, and without heaven.

4. The great danger of neglecting it is evident from the wrath and indignation God hath revealed against the despisers of his covenant. It is said, in Romans i. 18. that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness 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 the 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. Oh, 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

An Invitation to the Communion.

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 from 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 should perish after the same example of unbelief.

But I mean not herein that, with all your sins

An Invitation to the Communion.

and carelessness about you, you should approach the sacred place, where Christ spreads his table. No. There is a serious enquiry necessary before you presume to eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, which too many rashly and unadvisedly thrust themselves in to partake of, who have no discernment of the Lord's body. This, therefore,

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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. 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 neces sarily 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,

First Who they are that, "not discerning the Lord's body," eat and drink unworthily,

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An Invitation to the Communion.

Secondly, What is meant by "eating and drinking their own damnation."

First, Who they are that do not discern the Lord's body, and who 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.

The case is the same where the nature of his salvation is mistaken. When any come to the Lord's table without seeing the entire freedom of the salvation; when they bring their works and good life

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