CHAP. IV.

Objections against communicating anfwer'd.

Hoping that fome men at leaft are

fincere in their excuses, which they make for coming to the Lord's fupper, how light and trifling foever the excufes themselves may be; I fhall not grudge my time and pains in considering them distinctly, and giving answers to them. And first, the most common excufe which men make in this cafe, is that they are unworthy, and therefore dare not communicate; always bearing in mind thofe terrible words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himSelf. Now in anfwer to this, I defire men to confider these three things.

Firft, What it is they mean, when they say they are unworthy. For, if they mean any thing to the purpose, they must

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mean

mean either that they are not forry for their fins, and fully refolv'd to forfake them; or that they do not stedfastly believe all the articles of the christian faith; or lafily, that they are not in charity with the world, ready to forgive and do good to all mankind; for thefe are the only things which can render a man unworthy to receive the Lord's fupper. And yet I verily believe, that the far greatest number of those, who call themselves very unworthy, would think themselves very much injured, if any of these things fhould be faid of them. Well then, fuch men give themselves their own anfwer; they are not really unworthy, and therefore they may fafely come.

But, fay they, we are incumbred mightily with worldly business; we do not find in our felves a zealous and a warm faith and love of God, our Saviour and religion; we have contests, difputes and lawfuits with many of our neighbours; and these things we are afraid render us unworthy. By no means; if we pursue our worldly business honeftly and fairly, without letting it incroach upon the business of religion, by fwallowing up all our time,

and

and leaving none, or very little for the worship of God and service of our neighbours, we not only do what is innocent, but commendable, and our duty. If we are rooted and grounded in faith, so that in the general course of our lives, we have our converfation as becometh the gospel of Chrift, and keep all his commandments; this is a fufficient proof of our faith and love to God, our Saviour and religion, altho' we never have any hot fits and fudden ftarts, raptures and extafies. Lastly, If we are contending with our neighbours for nothing, but what we fincerely think our right; if we take a fair and legal way of righting our felves, and profecute our fuits without the leaft malice or ill-will to our neighbour's perfon; there is no harm in all this; none of these things are any bar to our communicating. But,

Secondly, If you are really unworthy, whose fault is it that you are fo? May you not have, or at least might you not have had for asking, fuch a measure of divine grace, as would fufficiently enable you to attain all those qualifications which are neceffary to render a man a worthy communicant; and why then did you not, or

why now do you not accept and make use of it? Do you think to make your own fault your excuse? or will you plead in your behalf that you are not worthy, because you will not be fo? No, certainly; all that you can do in this cafe, is to make what hafte you can poffibly, by immediately embracing and complying with the offers of God's grace to become worthy; that fo there may lie no fault at your door, either on one fide or the other, but that you may both communicate and communicate worthily.

Laftly, As to thofe terrible words of St. Paul, He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself; I might obferve, that the word which we here render damnation, fignifieth no more than judgment, and probably was defign'd in this place only to denote temporal judgments; but I fhall not infift upon this. For whatever the meaning of these words may be, it is certain, that the unworthy receiving the Lord's fupper, till repented of, is a damnable fin; as being a downright impudent mocking of God and Chrift, by pretending our felves their fervants, and folemnly vowing all holy obe

dience to them, when yet in our hearts we at the fame time mean no fuch thing. But what then? Shall we therefore ftay away from the communion, and by fo doing wilfully break a plain commandment of our Saviour, and thereby become guilty of a damnable fin? This is to take a certain damnation for fear of none, which we may avoid if we please. No, certainly; the jufter confequence, in this cafe, is that we ought to use our utmost endeavours to qualify our felves for communicating worthily, that fo we may have no reafon to fear the dreadful punishment of communicating unworthily.

Secondly, Others are afraid of communicating, left they fhould fall into fin afterward, and this they think would be unpardonable; for this reafon fome men have thought it wisdom to abstain from communicating till the time of their death, when they are beyond all danger of finning more.

Now I readily grant that it is a very great aggravation of any fin, that it is committed after receiving the holy communion, because this makes it a fin against new vows and promifes, which we there

made,