is a fit Season for extraordinary Thanksgiving and Praise blessing God for Jesus Christ Which Thankfulness for Christ disposes and fits us for the Reception of further Grace as the Fruit and Purchase of his Death and so is the Means of our Communion in his Body and Blood Thus it is the Cup of Blessing and of Thanksgiving that we there Receive which Cup of Blessing upon such Accounts as these is our Communion in the Blood of Christ. 2. You will hereby the better perceive what is to be done on our part in order to this Communion 1. Our Faith must Eye the Authority of Christ enacting it We must act in Obedience to an Institution and Appointment of Christ It was a Remarkable Instance and Act of his Kingly Office to enjoyn this Memorial of his dying Love And the Season of its Institution is the more observable viz. In the close of his Publick Ministery of his Prophetical Office upon Earth and in his Entrance upon the Execution of the Principal part of his Priestly Office by being made a Sacrifice between both of these And to render both Effectual our Lord interposed an Act of his Kingly Office in the Institution of this Ordinance Accordingly it should be eyed and owned by us in order to our Communion with him therein 2. The Love of Christ must especially be Eyed and Attended to in this Supper as Exprest by his Death and Sufferings Of this we have here the most lively Representation with the Glorious Effects of that Love which are not Represented with such a Beauty and Lustre by any other Ordinance as by this The constraining Love of Christ in his whole undertaking is better discerned and tasted in this Ordinance than as it is proposed 〈◊〉 several parts in the Holy Scripture Here we are called to the particular Application of it He loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Rev. 1.5 3. The Soveraignty and the Wisdom of God in Instituting these External Signs and Elements of Bread and Wine must also be Eyed and Attended to They most fitly Signifie and Represent the great Things they are designed for and yet without a Divine Institution could have no Relation to the Thing signified How suitable is the plain matter of this Sacrament unto the holy Author of it We remember in this Supper his Body hanging on the Cross and therefore it was not fit the Sacrament of his Body should be sumptuous and rich upon the Table Nevertheless by Bread to strengthen and Wine to comfort all the Benefits of a crucified Saviour are fitly Represented and much better than they could have been by the choicest Delicates In order to this Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ we must take heed to our selves not to rest in the External Signs but to discern the Lord's Body to apprehend the Spiritual Import and End of this Divine Institution That by Faith we may Receive Christ and feed upon him so as to Experience the Communications of his Grace and Receive fresh Influences of his Spirit That we may Accept all the Benefits of the New Covenant which are here Offered and Sealed to us and that we may Devote Resign and Dedicate our selves afresh to be the Lord's to Obey him and serve the Purposes of his Glory while we live in hope of the blessed Recompence which he has Purchased and promised and is gone to prepare and which he will not fail to come again and bestow Until which time this Ordinance is to continue in the Church To shew forth the Lord's Death till he come Vse 1. The first Reflection I would make on this is upon the Sacrilegious Confidence of those Men who deny Christians the Means of their Communion in the Blood of Christ who rob them of one half of this Sacrament by denying the Cup of Blessing to the Laity The Cup is the Communion of the blood of Christ says the Apostle Drink ye all of it says our Lord. And yet the Church of Rome will not suffer the People to taste it But as one Errour makes way for another they pretend that by the New Doctrine of Concomitancy the Bread or the little Wafer which is not broken neither according to the order of Christ but put whole into the Peoples Mouths by the hands of the Priest This Wafer shall be enough for the People and by the help of a strong Imagination of the Authority of their Church the very Body Blood and Bones of Christ shall be contained under the Form and Appearance of Bread One would wonder how any Thing can be plainer both in this and the next Chapter and in the Institution it self as Recorded by the Evangelists than the Universal Obligation upon Christians to partake of the Cup as well as the Bread And what Authority can any Man or Number of Men have to alter such a Constitution May they not as well take away the Bread from the People as the Cup They will grant that for a Thousand Years after Christ it was the Sense and Practice of the Christian Church that the People should partake of the Cup too And for Fourteen hundred Years it can be proved that they did even from the Apostle's Time down to that of Thomas Aquinas in the latter end of the Thirteenth Century Justin Martyr Cyprian Nazianzen Chrysostom and all the most considerable Writers of the Ancient Church are express in their Testimony for it But what need we concern our selves about the Judgment of Antiquity When there is a Positive Institution of Christ and in a large Account thereof by the Apostle Paul in the Eleventh Chapter he speaks but one word of the Consecration of the Bread but uses divers Expressions to signifie the Excellency of the Cup. This is my Blood says Chrâ—st The Blood of the New Testament shed for the Remission of Sins of many His sufferings and the reality of his Death are in a most lively manner set forth by the shedding of his Blood Not to insist upon his bloody sweat in the Garden You know when he was whipt and scourged and crowned with Thornes he then shed Blood Blood issued from his hands and Feet when he was nailed to the Cross and from his side when he was pierced by the Roman Soldiers By the shedding of his Blood he lost his Life and without shedding of Blood there could be no Remission So that to deprive the People of the Cup is to take away the most lively and the most essential Representation of the Sufferings and Death of Christ The Doctrine of Concomitancy will not availe in this Case The partaking of the Bread only is not sufficient whereby to remember his Death For the Separation of his Blood from his Body was the means of his Dying This destroys the Distinction between the two Symbols which yet are very different in their Names in their Properties in their Vse and in the Time of receiving them Besides it is contrary to all the Rules of Language
the Spirit of Christ and not after the Flesh or according to the course of the World as formerly Is the Life you lead in the Flesh by the Faith of the Son of God How do you stand affected as to inward Spiritual Duties that concern the inward workings of your Thoughts and Conscience and Affections and such things as none but God and you do know of Is it as great a burden and trouble to your Souls to act contrary to the renewed Nature as before to contradict the Inclinations of the Flesh Is Prayer your dayly work and delight Do you cherish and promote the new Creature Are you restless after you have fallen into Sin till by Repentance you recover Pardon and Peace Do you grow up daily into greater Conformity to Christ and Imitation of him Desiring nothing more than that his Image may be drawn more lively on your Hearts and exprest more fully in your Lives according to the various Providences of God that call for the exercise of such and such Graces and according to the various Institutions of Christ wherein such and such Holy Affections are to be imployed The knowledg of this Union to Christ upon examination will give us the Comfort of all those Priviledges which result from it Examine how matters are with you as to these things and what care you take to maintain the bonds of Union to strengthen Faith and obey the Spirit and whether it be better now than it was a year ago While Merchants and Tradesmen cast up their Books and make up their Accounts at the end of the Year let us not neglect the like work as Christians with reference to our Spiritual State Let us not be less concerned to know whether we Thrive or Decay whether we advance and go forward or else decline 5. The next Vse may be of Comfort to such as are in Christ Our Union to him is the Foundation of all our Fellowship with him and after supplies of Grace and Life If we are in Jesus Christ he is made of God unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Such shall be delivered from Wrath entituled to Eternal Life have the Pardon of all their Sins Christ as their Advocate pleads for 'em in Heaven in him they are Adopted and have free access to God his Spirit dwells in them their Services are accepted c. If we are in him there is no condemnation unto such Rom. 8.1 Such a man is not condemned is not in a state of condemnation for the present John 3.18 And such a Member of Christ cannot Perish who by Union to him is United to God the Fountain of Life Our Lord speaks of the Union of the Father unto him as Mediator and his Union unto us as both in order to our Perfection and eternal Felicity John 17.20 23. I in them and thou in me that they may all be made perfect in one But there is no Reconciliation to God no Remission of Sins no Adoption no Salvation by Christ but for such as are in him Whereas all things are yours even Life and Death things present and things to come when you are Christ's There is a Train of invaluable Blessings follow this new Creation and Union to Christ where it is truly wrought * See Mr. Polhill 's Christus in Corde chap. 8. 2 Ephes 13.14 1 Cor 3.22 You are brought under the bond and blessing of the New Covenant Jer. 31.33 You are dignified with a new Name Rom. 2.17 You are begotten to a new Hope entitled to a new Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 1 John 12.13 And you shall be preserved and kept by the powerful Grace of Christ unto the full possession of it None shall pluck you out of his hands because he lives you shall live nothing shall be able to separate you from him If you are planted into the likeness of his Death for the destruction of the Body of Sin you shall grow up with him in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 6. Not only shall you receive Influence of Spiritual Life from him while you live but by vertue of this Union you shall dye in the Lord and sleep in Jesus Rev. 14.13 1 Thes 4.14 You shall be with him in Glory and your Bodies shall be raised by him and be made like his most glorious Body Rom. 8.11 But Lastly Let me close with Exhortation 1. Unto all to labour after Vnion to Christ 2. Unto those that have good hope through Grace that they are in him and profess to be so Let me exhort them that they would live as new Creatures 1. Labour after Vnion unto Christ How earnestly should this be desired how diligently pursued For we can have no Communion no Adoption no Freedom from Condemnation without it Faith on our part and the Spirit on Christ's are the Bonds of Union Let us carefully make use of the Word and Prayer in order to both waiting and begging of God and using all the hopeful means that are in our power in order to it How earnest should be our pursuits of this Priviledge how fervent our Prayers and constant our Endeavours after it Never leave solliciting the Throne of God till the Creator and Father of Spirits have created another breath into your nostrils another spirit into your Souls even the Spirit of Christ whereby we are united to him lay your self at his feet and with all the violence and importunity and humility that your distressed case may prompt you to beg the holy spirit to over shadow thee And yet learn so much Patience from thy beggarly state as not to challenge him at thine own times but wait his leasure and observe his motions doing all that possible thou canst in the use of common Grace to prepare the room against his coming and continue in Prayer watching thereunto in the use of all the out means which God hath afforded thee 2. Be exhorted to live as New creatures You are obliged to it by your Baptism and by your Profession of Christianity You that come to the Lord's Table are especially obliged That old things should be done away and all things become New You consider his Sufferings from time to time as represented in that Ordinance You there feast upon his Sacrifice and consider the cause of his Sufferings your own Sins and the end of them your Redemption from the Guilt and Filth and Power of Sin Can you do this and not feel the Obligation to live as New creatures and resolve upon it Do you not there renew your Covenant and engage your selves afresh to walk as the Redeemed of the Lord unto all well pleasing Do you not there cast your selves into the Arms of a Crucified Saviour and plead the Merits of his Death and beg the Supplies of his Spirit and bind your selves to strict fidelity to him as long as you live under a grateful sense of his kindness who has loved you and washed you from your sins in
his Blood that he might redeem you to himself that he might purchase to himself a People zealous of good works False are we to all this if we do not walk as New creatures There are but two Motives with which I shall enforce this The Text furnishes me with one And the Season of the Year with the other 1. The Motive in the Text Old things are done away Behold all things are become New I shall not consider it as amplifying the other expression and so refering to the Change of those that are iâ— Christ and consequently of like import with the Phrase a New creature but as an Argument to urge and enforce it And accordingly understand these words as relating to the Obligation of the Law of Moses That that is now ceased Those old things are now done away The Shadows of the Ceremonial Law are expired at the coming of the Substance which is Christ Colos 2.20 We are said to be dead with Ch ist from the Rudiments or Elements of the World Respecting material and worldly things either to do or forbear them For of that kind were the Ordinances and Institutions of the Ceremonial Law They were the first and lowest Lessons fitted to the Infancy of the Church But now the Kingdom of Heaven is come by the Erection of the gospel-Gospel-Church a Kingdom which shall not be shaken and the Orders and Institutions of it never be changed Now a more noble and spiritual worship is to take place those old things are past away No wonder if the Scaffolds of Ceremonies be taken down when the Church of God the Spiritual Building is brought by Christ to its full height Now all things are become new by Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant The Testament he left us is a New Testament He rent the Vail of the Temple in twain when he died and put an end by his own Sacrifice of himself unto all the Sacrifices and Services of the Jewish Temple And therefore it is observable that the first time he spake of his Death was in the Temple But after his Death he never entred into it though we read that he was in Jerusalem after his Resurrection We have a New Sanctuary an Heavenly one A New High Priest of a better Order than that of Aaron New Heavens and a New Earth as the. Gospel State is called A New Light to inlighten the World even the Knowledge of God in the Face of Christ A New Sun even Christ the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his Beams A New Adam after the Image of God the express Image of his Person and the Brightness of his Glory in whom all fulness dwells We have a New Coelestial Paradise into which the Old Serpent shall never enter A New Tree of Life whose Leaves are for the healing of the Nations A New Eve the Church of Christ Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh formed of his Blood and animated by his Spirit We have New Sacrifices New Sacraments a New Circumcision a New Passover a New Jerusalem a New Temple Behold all things are made New And shall not we that profess to be the Disciples and Followers of Christ by whom all things are thus made New Answer all this by being New creatures that we may serve him in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Rom. 7.6 That is that we being delivered from the manifold difficult Impositions of the Mosaick Law all which we could not fulfil and from the Curse upon those which did not we should now serve God with new Hearts and Lives by the Spirit of Christ according to the Law of Grace 2. There is yet another Argument from the Circumstance of â—ime In the begining of the New Year which makes the Exhortation seasonable to press you to be New creatures And when may I expect to be attentively heard upon such a Subject if not at such a season when I may hope several of you have had serious reflexions this very Morning upon Time and Eternity from the Conclusion of the last Year and the beginning of another to awaken your Thankfulness for the Mercies of the year past and your Repentance for the sins of it and your good Resolutions and Self-Dedication to the Lord for the future It will be sad if the Experience of another Year do not teach us some Vnderstanding when day unto day uttereth Knowledg and night unto night might teach us Wisdom The very thoughts of our hasty Time measured by Years and Months and Weeks and Days should put us upon considering how irrevocable and past recovery is the last year and all our former years it being utterly impossible to call back Yesterday Almighty Power may stop the course of the Sun as in the time of Joshua but to make that which is past to be present and not past is a Contradiction and cannot be done And oh how small a point doth separate and distinguish that which is past from that which is yet to come They are divided by one Moment by an Instant that is almost nothing by that which we cannot speak of without losing it being gone while we open our Mouths to say the least word about it So near is Death to Life The very nature of Time it self may teach us this And certainly the changes of the year past should be very instructive and give us many Reflexions according to our Sins and Mercies according to the Trials and Exercises we have been carried through this last year May not all of you look back upon many Changes the preceding year of several kinds those especially which God hath made amongst us by Death We are called to review how many of them we knew and were acquainted with with whom we familiarly conversed not a Year since are now silent in the dust While their immortal Spirits are some in Heaven and others in the place of Torment And of the multitude that have dyed this last year could we but separate the corrupted putrifying Relicks of those Persons whom we Honoured Valued and Loved from the rest of the Deceased and view their Bodies as now they are How affecting would be the Spectacle to think what they were less than a year ago and to consider what now they are as to their Bodies and the greater change there is as to their Souls But even as to the former let us compare in our thoughts the Figure they lately made while acting their Parts upon this Stage as living Men and Women amongst us What a Change is made in a few Months as to every of them And the like may be our own Case within a few Months from this moment long before the end of this year we now begin For consider it Christians This last year that is now ended is one great step we have every one made towards the Grave Another such may bring us home O that we may be found ready Who knows but as the last Year carried off
yet there is not sufficient Evidence against such to bar them from the Lord's Table much less to exclude them after once they are Admitted to such a Priviledge A seemingly serious Profession if not contradicted by a contrary Profession of Words or Actions is the Evidence of Men's Interest in Church-Priviledges * See Mr. Baxter's third Disput Of Right to Sacraments 410. in Foro Ecclesiae Charity believeth all things and hopeth all things 2. You ought first in Charity to reprove the guilty Persons as you have opportunity and to acqâ—aint the Pastors of the Churches that they may deal faithfully with them in order to their Repentance and Several by such means may be brought to give you Satisfaction concerning their true Repentance and Amendment But there are many who are so far from this that on the contrary they solicit and tempt men to Sin if they know they come to the Lords Table that they may find occasion to reproach Reâ—igion and others applaud and consent with such as do this that they may shame Religion by the Irregularities and Excesses of some that profess it Such have a dreadful Account to give to God And so have they who come to the Lords Table and yet by their Drunkenness or Unfaithfulness their Worldlyness or Unrighteousness or any disorderly walking do give occasion to such an Objection and open the mouths of Enemies to reflect Dishonour and Reproach upon the Profession of Religion in General and upon that particular Church or Congregatiâ—n unto which they are joined Such have a double Guilt to answer for and woe be to them if they do not Repent Such as these we often warn not to come to the Lord's Table till they give some good Testimony of their Repentance and so far as they are known they ought to be refus'd 3. If you know of a purer Communion where there are none but Saints at least such as you are strongly confident to be so rather go and joyn with them and communicate there but do not live in the neglect and omission of this Duty For I am not pleading for any particular Church or Society of Christians but only speaking of the Duty in general of all sincere Christians to joyn somewhere for the Participation of this Ordinance If you are scrupulous as to the Company admitted in some Christian Assemblies and know of Others which you think are purer where you believe you can statedly communicate more to your Edification do it without Delay You are allowed by God and at present by the Laws of the Land too to chuse your own Pastor 4. However you ought to consider That it is impossible but some Hypocrites and false Professors will be Admitted to the Lord's Table Not only as Pride and Covetousness and Envy and some such Sins are hard to be defined so as to convince a particular Person that in a prevailing Degree he is guilty of these Not only as it is hard to determine what particular Acts now and then of grosser Sins are consistent with true Grace But because the Tares and Wheat are mixt together in the visible Church and All are not Israel that are of Israel If we will Communicate with none but Saints there is no Church on Earth we can joyn with without Fear and Doubting So that if the Errours and Faults of the Pastors or of the People with whom we joyn in the Worship of God do defile us and make us guilty or if our Communion with them upon that account be a Sin we should joyn no where at all 'T is true If the Doctrine Ordinances and Worship of any Church be so corrupted as that the Substance of the Worship is unlawful Separation is a Duty For when any Thing sinful is required of us as necessary to our Communion in such Cases Separation is a Christians Duty * See Mr. Vines On the Lord's Supper Chap. 20. But to keep from the Ordinance because some come unworthily to it hath no Order or Command of Christ to warrant it Though he had many Things against the Seven Asian Churches Rev. 2.3 yet he did not call them to separate but there are Promises to them if they keep themselves pure 5. If it be unavoidable to Communicate with some such as are not sincere Christians then to do so is not unlawful Every one is to Examine himself so says the Apostle to these Corinthians among whom there were so many unworthy Communicants and if they Eat and drink unworthily they did Eat and drink Judgment to Themselves Though the Apostle speaks of the Prophanation of that Ordinance by Some he does not bid Others Withdraw and Separate upon that Account Christ hath commanded thee to Examine thy self and so eat but it is not necessary thou shouldst Examine and know the fitness of all Others How would you know when to Communicate if we may not do it till Others be prepared as well as we Great Strictness and Severity should be used in Judging of our selves and our own Case but we must use Great charity and tenderness as to the case of Others and not conclude them Hypocrites when we cannot tell but they truly Repent But if they do not their Presence cannot pollute me if I endeavour to discharge my Duty by personal private Reproof and then if that be unsuccessful with Others and afterwards by acquainting the Pastors of the Church c. If I have Right to come to the Lord's Table shall the coming of Another that has none bar my Right Shall I sin in keeping from the Ordinance because another sins in coming to it Or because the Church or the Pastor sins in not Excluâ—ing of him The power of the Keys is not in my hand I have no Authority to cast out such a Member And though that particular Pastor or Church should be faulty in not doing of it it is not yet a sufficient ground oâ— my Separation Rev. 2.14.15.20 It I have a Wedding Garment I will come to the Marriage Feast though there should be Others there that have none Should not I offer my Gift at the Altar because my Neighbour comes there with me who should first go and be reconciled to his brother I may relish and digest my Food though there is one who sits by me who hath a weak Stomach and a bad Digestion If I am duly prepared it will not hurt me that Another is not Whilst I partake not of other Mens Sins surely I may joyn with them in the Performance of necessary Duties I say not That the Wicked and the Vnregenerate ought to come you often hear me declare the contrary such are forbidden to come But if they will come under a false profession and shew of Religion after having been forewarned of their Danger and been faithfully told their Duty It is at their own Peril and they eat and drink Judgment to themselves and to no body else For neither a Minister of Christ nor a private Christian can deny
Communion with several persons who if they would judge righteous Judgment concerning themselves ought to tarry away As having no Right before God to come to the Table of the Lord as the Case is with them at present In short It is unlawful to Communicate with Wicked Men if they be so bad and their Number so great as that it is our Duty to forsake such a Church If Heresie and Impiety be justified by the Major Vote and bare down Faith and Godliness then that particular Society is uncapable of the Ends of Church-Communion and so to joyn there would be sinful But in Cases of lesser Irregularity if we do not sin by the Neglect of our Duty it will be no sin of ours to Communicate with that Church though Unworthy Persons be Admitted The Sins of the Pastor and of particular Delinquents are not ours much less may we refuse Communion upon the account of other Men's Faults when we have not done our Duty in order to the Remedy and Cure of them 2. Object But others will say I am truly afraid to venture the Danger of Vnworthy Receiving is so very great that it makes me tremble to consider it I have been many years frighted with your Text That he that Eats and Drinks Unworthily eats and drinks Damnation to himself Answ 1. The Word which we translate Damnation signifies only Judgment or Punishment in the general and so is used in several places What Judgment therefore is meant the Context must determine And that speaks principally of Temporal Punishments for such are mentioned Verse 30. as inflicted on the Corinthians for the Profanation of this Ordinance For this cause some of you are sick and weak and many are fallen asleep Besides the Reason that is assigned for these Punishments or Judgments was That they might not be condemned with the World Verse 32. For when we are judged says the Apostle It is the same word it may be as well Rendred Damned as that in the Text Damnation But when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World God did thus judge or punish the Corinthians in this World that they might be Reformed and not perish Eternally So that he who Eats and drinks unworthily may fear lest his Contempt and Profanation of the Ordinanance be followed by some Remarkable Jugdment of God at least it was so in the Apostle's time 2. Conside◠〈…〉 That the Disorders committed by the Corinthians and occasioned by their Love Feasts that preceded the Lord's Supper They were such as were peculiar to those Times and are now Abolish'd and disus'd Christians then Feasted by themselves in their Religious Assemblies in Imitation of what the Heathens did in their Idol-Temples The Rich sent in their own Provisions and every one contributed to this Feast by bringing some Portion but there they banded into several Parties as they came without tarrying one for another and feeding lovingly together Every one fell to that Portion of Meat which he brought as if they were at home when it should have been divided in Common and the Poor have had their share Whereas says the Apostle Some are hungry and others intemperate and drunken This they are taxed with in the 22. Ver. What says he have ye not houses to eat and to drink in They made little or no Difference between these Love-Feasts and the Lord's Supper at the close of them between these Sacred Symbols of our Lord's Body and Blood and common Food and Drink They were in the House and Worship of God just as in their own and made no Distinction between this and a common Meal Nay it was worse They turned this Ordinance into a drunken Club or a Riotous Entertainment making it an Instrument and Occasion of Debauchery This was Eating and Drinking Vnworthily indeed and no wonder if God did so severely punish them for it The Apostle Jude taxes these Love-Feasts Verse 12. But there is no danger of such Excesses at the Lord's Table now or of eating and drinking Vnworthily in the same manner as the Corinthians did 3. If we take Damnation for Eternal punishment which Vnworthy Receiving does without Repentance expose to Yet consider that the Wages of every Sin is Eternal Death And you have the same Reason to be afraid of Other Sins because you run the same Hazard The Sacrifices of the Wicked God abhors And the very Prayers of the Hpocrite are an Abomination to him But 4. Consider That by eating and driâ—king his own Damnation the Apostle does not mean that every such Person shall certainly and inevitably be damned but that without Repentance it is a damning Sin Unworthy eating is so and so is sinful abstaining too without Repentance And why so much Tenderness in the one Case and not in the other No Man needs be blamed for being unwilling to Damn himself But why should Men be fearful of it in this Instance and not in others Infidelity Disobedience and Impenitence will as certainly expose a Man to Damnation without the Sacrament as with it And they cannot fairly urge the Fear of Damnation against coming to it who are not restrained thereby from other sins as damning as this 5. That therefore which the Apostles words will most properly infer and direct us to is this That siâ—ce we are required iâ— Obedience to Christ to do this in rememb ance of him and yet such severe Punishments are threetned to those that do it unworthily The plain consequence is this That we should not omit it becaâ—se of the Command nor yet carelesly undertake it because of the threatned Juâ—gment But it will by no means excuse or plead for the total neglect and omission of it 'T is plain the Apostle never thought that the sin and danger of doing a Duty amiss might be made an Exception against the doing iâ— at all or â—hat threatning Damnation to eating a d drinking unwo thily should fâ—are Men from eating and drinking at all He takes what care he can that the Duty may be perform'd and the Err r in doing it may be effectually prevented But never makes the Danger of the one a Dispensation from the other He tells them of the sin to eat and drink unworthily and of the punishment it makes 'em obnoxious to but he doth not therefore tell 'em they may stay away from the Sacrament for fear of committing the sin or of incurring the Danger Not even in that case where they were actually Guilty and really Punisht 6. You ought to consider That you will but increase your Sin and aggravate your Damnation by all the other Duties of Religion and other parts of Divine Worship if you continue Impenitent You are often told that you ought not to come to this Table till you Repent and turn to God in Christ with all your heart and give up your selves intirely to be the Lord's But if you do not Resolve to do so the same Argument will hold for the neglect