Perhaps nothing kind than fuperFor those who

them are not frequently repeated. contributes more to Neglects of this ftitious Notions about Preparation. think themfelves obliged every Time they come to the Lord's Table to pass through (it may be for a whole Week together) the feveral Stages of Self Examination, Confeffion, &c. which are prefcribed to them in fome modern Books of Devotion, may find it to be fo troublesome, that they may not have Inclina on to repeat it often. And this will more especially be the Cafe, when through a melancholick Turn of M nd, Men cannot think themselves fufficiently prepared funlefs they feel Raptures and Tranfports; to which the more even and regular they are in their Tempers and Behaviour, the lefs they may find themselves difpo, ed. There is nothing more hurtful to true Religion than this kind of Enthufiafm; which leading Men out of the plain Path of fober Reafon conducted by the Word of God, teaches them to judge of themselves by I know not what inward Feelings and Experiences; whereby many are kept away from God's Ordinances, who have the beft Right to them, and others again are bloated with Conceit and Spiritual Pride, whilst they mistake the Boilings of an over-heated Imagination, for the Workings of the Spirit of God.

But there are others who never communicate at all, for fear that they should afterwards lapfe into Sin; the Confequence of which Principle, if it were right, would be, that no Man ought to receive the Sacra. ment but at the Point of Death; and fo far fome Men feem to carry it. There is this plain Evidence to fhew that the Scruple is wrong, that it agrees not in Fact with the Circumftances of the Sacrament at its first Inftitution, nor with the Practice of the Church which followed upon it. For the Apostles were not dying Men, when Chrift faid, Take, eat, this is my Body; nor were thofe dying Men of whom we read As ii. 42. that they continued ftedfafly in the Apofiles Dorine and Fellowship, and in breaking of Bread, and in Prayers. There were fome in the first Ages of Christianity,

G 2

5.

Chriftianity, who had the fame Scruple about Baptifm; which, for fear of breaking their Vow, they would not receive till they were upon their Death Beds: But the Practice was looked upon as fcandalous. To the Reafon of the Scruple I therefore thus anfwer: That in Cafes of vowing where Men are at liberty to keep themselves free, they ought to be very fecure of their future Conduct before they take the Vow upon themfelves; for in fuch Cafes the Rule holds, it is better that thou should not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not pay, Ecclef. v. This is the Cafe of many Vows in the Church of Rome; as Vows of Continency, Vows of Poverty, and the like, which are very often grievous Snares upon the Confciences of Men. But this is not the Cafe of the Vow of Baptifm, or the Vow of the Sacrament; where the Vow itself, and the Matter of it, are both of them commanded. To receive the Sacrament is the Law of Chrift to all who believe, and profefs his Name; as believing and profeffing is the Law of God to all, to whom the Gospel is offer'd, and are or may be convinced by the Evidence it yields that it is of God; for he that wilfully refufes God's Call, is condemned in fo doing. And what do we vow when we come to the Sacrament? Why nothing, but what we are obliged to, whether we vow it or not; to love God, and to keep his Commandments. And therefore the Confiderations of human Weakness and Frailty are fo far from being an Objection against our vowing Obedience by the Sacrament, that they are the very Reason why we ought to do it; as the Senfe of the Engagement we thereby lay ourselves under, will be a Means to make us more watchful againft the Temptations of the World. This, as I have fhewn you above, is the proper End and Ufe of this Sort of Inftitutions; to add Weight to the natural Obligation we are under to serve and obey God, and to make us more diligent and industrious in our heavenly Calling. And this is all that is at any Time wanting (and for lack of which alone we mifearry) to be diligent and induftrious to do our best;

for

for God doth not expect Impoffibilities. To avoid wilful deliberate Tranfgreffions of the Law of God, or not to act against Reafon and Confcience in known Cafes, must be fuppofed to be in every Man's Power; and thefe alone are the Sins which will infer a Breach of Vow; for we do not vow Perfection. We do not vow never again to be overtaken by a Fault; this we cannot answer for: But we vow to be prudent and circumfpect; and this we may answer for: And if we are as good as our Word, we shall not offend in any confiderable Matters. And therefore when Men hang back, and will not communicate for fear of breaking their Vows, it feems to betray fome Confciousness in themfelves that they mean to break them; which is a Reafon againft Communicating, that they do not think of. It is a prefent Difqualification; for it fhews that they are not so seriously refolved against Sin as they ought to be.

In one Word: It is idle to incur a certain Guilt by neglecting the Sacrament, through Fear of an uncertain one in breaking the Sacramental Vow. The Law of Chrift is peremptory upon all Chriftians, This do in Remembrance of me; and the Breach of this Law is a certain Offence both in those who are qualified, and in those who are not. The proper Advice therefore, to the one, is, that they would lay afide their Fears; and, to the other, that they would lay afide their Sins; for whilst they are not qualified for the Lord's Table, they are not, they cannot be, qualified for the King. dom of Heaven. That State which difqualifies for one, difqualifies for both, and would have condemned us, if Chrift had never appointed he Sacrament to be received. I blame not Men for keeping away from the Lord's Table whil they are not qualified for it by true Repentance; but they must not imagine, that because they avoid the particular Sin of receiving un worthily, therefore all Things are right with God; which yet feems to be the Miftake of many, if one might judge of their Opinions by the Eafe with which they indulge themselves in an habitual Neglect of the

G 3

Sacrament::

Sacrament; making great Confcience not to come unqualified, but making no Confcience at all whether ever they qualify themselves or not: As if there was but one Way of offending in this Cafe, and it were a great Sin to communicate unworthily, no Sin not to communicate at all. This is a very partial Way of judging, and what they will not endure in any other Cafes. If a Master fhould call his Servant to wait at his Table, and the Servant, being drunk, fhould refufe to come; what would a reafonable Man fay? Why I fuppofe he would fay, that the Servant did right not to come when he was not fit to appear. But it must be faid withal, that the Servant ought to have kept himself fober, that he might have been in a Condition to attend upon his Master's Call. And thus it is in all Cafes where Duty obliges us to do any Thing, and to do it well. We offend by not doing it at all, and we offend by doing it in an improper Manner. Rightly therefore doth our Church advise: If any Man fay, I am a grievous Sinner, and therefoze am afraid to come; wherefore then do ye not rexent and amend? When God calleth you, are ye not alhamed to lay ye will not come? The Cafe is well reprefented in the Parable of the Supper, recorded Matt. xxii. which our Church on this Occafion recommends to our Confideration. A certain Man made a great Supper, and bad many; and fent forth his Servants to tell them that were bidden, behold I have prepared my Oxen, and my Fatlings are killed, and all Things are ready, come unto the Marriage. But they made light of it, and went their Ways, one to his Farm, another to his Merchandize. Upon this, he was obliged to fend and invite others; and when the King came in to fee the Guefls, he faw a Man which had not on a Wedding Garment. And what does he fay to him? Why that, which God will fay to every one that comes to his Table without the Qualifications of Faith and Repentance. Friend, how cameft thou in hither? What haft thou to do here, who art in no Condition to appear before me? The Sentence

Sentence which follows upon this Prefumption, is fevere and dreadful; Bind him Hand and Foot, and take bim away, and caft him into outer Darkness, there fhall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth. This Part of the Parable then, you'll fay, is Caution ftrong enough, to keep us away from the Lord's Table, whilft we are unworthy of it. True; fo it ought to be. But is not the other Part of it as good a Caution against not coming at all? For did the King excufe thofe who refused to come? No; he rejected them in great Difpleasure. For, as St. Luke reports it, the Mafier of the Houfe was angry, and faid to his Servant, Go out quickly into the Streets and Lanes of the City, and bring in hither the Poor and the Maimed, the Halt and the Blind-For I say unto you, that none of those Men which were biddden fhall tafle of my Supper, Luke

Xiv. 21.

I have now gone through the feveral Parts of the Chriftian Worfhip; which you fee is an open and publick Profeffion of our Faith in Chrift, and a Method of Difcipline preparing us for the Obedience of his Will. Now from hence give me Leave to enforce a confcientious Obfervance of all Seafons fet apart for religious Worship; an abfolute Neglect of which is a giving up the publick Profeffion of Chriflianity, and with it Christianity itself, which will not long outlive the publick Profeffion of it. If Chrift and his Apoftles, having once delivered the Chriftian Doctrine to the World, had left it to the common Fate of Things; in all Probability, it would have been loft long before this Time: But the erecting a publick Worship upon this Doctrine, was the Way to make it perpetual. Such a publick Memorial as this, was an Inftruction to the then préfent Generation of Men, and to the Generations that were yet to come; as Mofes intimates in a like Cafe. And it shall be, when thy Son afketh thee in Time to come, faying, What is this? That thou fhalt fay unto him, By Strength of Hand the Lord brought us up out of Egypt, from the House of Bondage-and it fhall be for a Sign unto thee upon thine Hand, and

for