An Invitation to the Communion. to make them accepted, instead of laying down their sins at the foot of his cross; when they lean either in the whole, or in part upon their own righteousness, instead of seeing Christ 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 blood and righteousness before God-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 burthen under its present corruption; 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 An Invitation to the Communion. 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 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 God is greater than your heart, and must much An Invitation to the Commuuiou. more condemn you. Whilst this is kept back, you can have no part or 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 enquiries 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, sinful pleasures, and sensual 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 a course of vanity, worldly-mindedness, or indulgence-this, I say, is a direct proof of unsuitableness for the ordinance; such an one can never discern the Lord's body. An Invitation to the Communion. 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 bu"siness; and, were it not for this, I should gladly stay away." What a language this! what spots are these at our feast! what 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, accursed! I never knew you. And they who now thus drink of the cup of the Lord, will be found among those who shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. Mark this well, ye who only come to qualify, and sell not your souls to the god of this world, for thirty or thirty thousand pieces of silver. To prostitute this ordinance as a test, has long ap-. An invitation to the Communion. peared to me among the deepest of our national crimes. Tremble, ye Ministers of State, to the lowest Exciseman! There is a God who seeth and judgeth, and will in no wise spare the guilty. 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 formal 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 ot 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 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 heartsearching 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 or devotions. 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, |