table without a due preparation; carefully weighing what is neceffary to be done, before, at, and after receiving the facrament of the body and blood of Christ. And,

First, let a man examine his life and converfation by the rule of God's word. For a life governed by the Things to be precepts of the gofpel is the beft preparation for done before this facrament; because he that believes the chri- receiving. stian religion, and makes it his conftant business to perform what our Saviour hath injoined, has all that fub- Examina ftantial preparation, which qualifies chriftians to on. partake of this ordinance, and ought therefore to receive when any opportunities prefent; for this holy facrament does not fo much oblige us to new duties, as it inables us to make good thofe obligations, which we in our baptifm have promised and vowed to perform. Let a man therefore examine himself never so much, faft never so strictly, and pray never fo fervently, if his life has not been pious towards God, just towards his neighbour, and fober in reference to himself; without effectual refolutions, all thofe duties, in which he employs himself before he receives, will never be able to make him a fit gueft at God's table; they are indeed good preparative helps, when they repair thofe breaches fin has made in our fouls; but, without fteady purposes of amendment, they are of no value in the fight of God, and will not be able to qualify us for a worthy participation of the body and blood of Chrift. If our lives prepare not the way for our offerings, we approach the holy altar in vain. We fhould hereby be deterred from receiving only out of custom, or in order to qualify ourselves for fome temporal or worldly employment; but pious chriftians, who are fincerely wearied and grieved with the burthen of their fins, ought not to be difcouraged in their duty; because here they will find their proper remedy; here they will meet with that strength and affiftance, which is fo neceffary to inable them to lead that holy life, which they purpose for the time to come, beginning it with a ftrict examination of the ftate of their own fouls. Concerning which take thefe directions:

First, Recollect your baptismal vow; * and endeavour to

See the baptifmal vow, Sunday 2. Sect. vii.

rivet

rivet in

your

foul a juft fenfe of those mercies promised on God's part, and the particular duties to which you in common with all chriftians are obliged thereby. For our chief business at the Lord's table is to renew our baptifmal covenant with God.

Secondly, Then inquire by thy confcience, the candle of the Lord, how thou haft broken that covenant made in thy baptifm, either by thought, word, or deed. We tranfgrefs by our thoughts, when we are contriving and compaffing any forbidden thing: but irregular thoughts, *which spring up in our minds, and are but little in our power, they are neither fins nor matter of punishment, any farther than they are caufes and principles of a finful choice and refolution; because as we affent or diffent to thofe motions that are in aur minds, fo will our thoughts be virtuous or finful. But it is not enough to know what is fin: for we must also underftand the true state and condition of our fouls. Without felf-reflection, a man may have every vice under the fun, without knowing he has any; provided he has it not in a high degree. For one, that perishes for want of knowing his duty, there are numbers, who are loft for ever, for want of seriously confidering it, and laying it to heart. Our repentance must be full and complete, and extend to all thofe particulars wherein we have tranfgreffed the laws of God; and till we difcover all our follies and infirmities, we cannot amend, or fo much as watch against them.+'

Our repentance by this means may in fome measure keep The use of pace with our errors and failings, when this exafelf-exami mination is frequently repeated before the Lord's nation. fupper; and thus we may prevent the infupportable weight of the fins of a whole life falling upon us all at once, when we may neither have understanding nor leisure to recollect ourselves, much less to exercife any fit and proper acts of repentance towards God or man. And, in this examination, let us confider the fins that most easily beset our weakest part, by nature or cuftom leaft defenfible; for the devil,

See Sunday 13. Sect. i. concerning the Government of our thoughts.

+ For which purpofe you will be greatly affifted by the beads of felf-examination in the devotions at the end of this Book.

devil, like a skilful general, will attack us where we lie most expofed, hoping, by gaining that post, to make the town quickly furrender at his difcretion. For which reafon, in furveying the state of our minds, we should have an eye to those places that will leaft bear an affault; thofe appetites or paffions that most frequently occafion our fall from God's grace. Again, we should confider the several aggravations of our follies: whether committed against the light of our minds: withthe free confent of our wills; and in defpite of the checks of our own confcience: whether they have been often repeated; whether tranfient acts or habitual diforders. And we ought to obferve all thofe previous steps that have made us tranfgrefs, which have been fatal to the corrupting of our innocence, and the occafions of betraying our virtue.

This makes us thoroughly acquainted with ourselves and our own corruption; a knowledge, which is of the Humiliagreatest confequence. By this we are driven to re- tion. pentance, as the only cure for that guilt which oppreffes our fouls, and for which we lie at the mercy of God's vengeance: we are difpofed to humility; and gain a lively sense of God's power and our frequent errors and mifcarriages : we keep our accounts clear and even; and it is an admirable means to advance us towards chriftian perfection, by making us careful to avoid thofe faults for the future, which we have discovered in our former lives and converfations, not only through fear of punishment, but because we have offended fo good and gracious a God. And

This duty should be accompanied with confeffion of fins to God, which is the judgment a man paffes upon The feveral himself, either of approbation or of condemnati- parts of conon, whenever he deliberately weighs his own ac- feffion. tions or it is the fentence, which his reafon suggests that God, the judge of all the earth, will pafs upon him. Yet it is not barely a repetition of the faults we are guilty of to God Almighty; but it is fuch an acknowledgement of our faults, as is accompanied with fhame for them, with hatred to them, and with refolutions to amend them. So that confeffion of fins doth plainly include, First, contrition, which is an holy grief, excited by a lively

Contrition.

fenfe,

fenfe, not only of the punishment due to guilt, but likewife of the infinite goodness of God, against which we have offended, accompanied with a deteftation of our fin, and of ourfelves for the fake of it. Secondly, that this fenfe, and this forrow and this indignation, do put us upon applying ourselves to God, and there with fhame and confufion layConfefion. ing open our miserable condition before him, and humbly and heartily begging his mercy and favour through the merits and interceffion of our Lord Jefus. And this is that which is confeffion in the precife strict sense of the word. Purpofe of Thirdly, that at the fame time we enter into ftedamendment. faft and ferious purposes to amend what hath been amifs in us, and to live more carefully, more obediently to the laws of God for the future. In fuch cafes, where we have been preferved from guilt, we must give glory to God, and thankfully acknowledge that grace, which hath restrained us from fin. For, as no man is qualified for the mercy of God, that doth not devoutly confefs his fins; fo, if we do confider what is imported in confeffion, we shall be convinced that it is a thing, which in the very nature of it must needs, above all other things we can do, recommend us to God; for, by approaching to God with an hearty fenfe of our fins, and confeffing them before him with truly contrite and penitent hearts, we make the best reparation we are capable of, for the affronts and injuries which by our fins we have committed against his divine majefty. And the more particular our confeffion is, the better it is, and the more acceptable it will be, because this particular confeffion is an argument and an expreffion of the fincerity of our repentance, and fhews that we have fearched and examined our hearts to the bottom, and that we harbour no concealed affection to any particular fin whatsoever, but that we are willing to bring out every enemy that speaks oppofition to God and his laws, to be fain before him. And fourthly, when our fins have been not only against God, but against our neighbour, we must make him Satisfac fatisfaction: we must reftore whatever we have unjustly taken from him by fraud or force; we muft vindicate his reputation, if we have blemished it by ca

tion.

*

lumny

*See Sund. 11. Sea. iii.

lumny and evil-fpeaking; we must endeavour his recovery, by making him fenfible of fuch fins and dangerous errors as we have drawn him into, that he may be put into a way of pardon before the throne of divine juftice. So we muft from our hearts forgive those that have injured us, if we expect that God should forgive us our faults; refting in a fure confidence that God's grace will be fo effectually conveyed in our fouls by this facrament, as to feal God's pardon of all our fins for Chrift's fake, provided we perform our part in forfaking them, and obeying his commandments for the future.

Faith.

Of the

If we do not strive after this temper of mind, it is impoffible we should be fit guests at the Lord's table; Refolutions for this was the end of his death, which will de- of obedience. liver none from the punishment due to fin, who do not make ufe of that grace he has purchased to overcome the power and dominion thereof. How dare we pretend to commemorate our Saviour's fufferings, if we do not renounce and deteft what was the cause thereof? Or, how can we expect to be received by our Lord, if we do not declare war against his enemies, nor in the leaft profecute thofe finful lufts and affections, which tormented and nailed him to the crofs? It becomes us to lay afide all refentment against those that have injured us, when we go to commemorate that in- means. finite love, which took pity of us, when we were enemies to him. Such love fhould work into us a conformity, and make us defirous to be reconciled to thofe that have offended us; to be at peace withall the world, as we defire to be beloved and forgiven, and to be at peace with our Redeemer. Can we fcruple to forgive others, who are undone ourfelves, unless we are forgiven? Is it not in vain to afk pardon, when we find no inclination in our hearts to grant it to our neighbours? Or, can we forbear giving what we are able to the poor, when we go to commemorate fo much bounty and liberality exercised towards us? It is our duty to do good to all men, because they are God's creatures, but neceffitous chriftians must partake of our beneficence, because they are members of the fame body, and are particular o jects of the mercy and tenderness of our bleffed Redeem,

Charity.