covert of his righteoufnefs, to fkreen all his imperfections. We read of feverals in Hezekiah's time, 2 Chron. xxx. that were not fo fuitably prepared for the paffover as they should have been, and ate it otherwife than it was written; and yet, upon Hezekiah's praying for them, God pardoned their fin, and healed them.

4thly, It may yield comfort to a troubled foul, if upon a review he can fay, it was his earnest defire to communicate humbly, with a lively frame, and the exercise of all the facramental graces; and whatever fhort-comings he was chargeable with, they were not wilful and allowed, but matter of grief and mourning to him. If this be your cafe, then your defects are fins of infirmity, which your gracious God will pardon for Christ's fake.

5thly, Whatever your fhort-comings formerly have been, you ought to be humbled for the them, flee to the blood of Chrift for pardon, and refolve in his ftrength to come more reverently, humbly and believingly, to his table for the future, and that in order to renew your covenant with God, and receive a feal of the pardon of all your former fins, and, particularly, of the fin of unworthy communicating. And this you may expect, if you perfevere in the road of duty, looking to God in Chrift, who is ftill ready to welcome and pardon the penitent believer: But to abfent and withdraw from God's ordinance, is to put yourfelf out of the road of his mercy, and to aggravate your former fin of unfuitable partaking.

Object. VI. "If we did communicate fo frequently, we would not have fuch time to prepare ourselves for this ordinance as were needful, and as now we have."

Anf. If we did partake more frequently, lefs pains and time about preparation work might be more fucsefsful, and fooner reach the end, than all the pains and time we now beftow that way: For thus we might be helped to keep up a communion-frame habitually, and it would be no fuch difficulty (as now we find it) to get the tears of repentance poured out, or the fire of divine love blown up, when called to celebrate this ordinance.

The

The believer, when in a frame, the oftener he comes to the communion, he adds the more nourishment, and hath the greater delight in it; and fo he comes to have fuch a longing for the ordinance as the child hath for the mother's breaft.

DIRECT. IV. Be perfuaded of the neceffity of folemn preparation before you approach to the Lord's table.

IF we be required to take heed to ourselves when we enter the house of the Lord, Ecclef. v. 1. much more doth it concern us to look to ourselves when we approach the table of the Lord Why? This holy table is under the gofpel the folemn tryfting-place of the great God, where he useth to meet with men, and to entertain converfe and communion with them. And, have we not then ground to call to you in the prophet's words, Amos iv. 12. " Prepare to meet thy God, O Ifrael?" Remember who it is that tryfts with you; it is God, even thy God. Did an Angel tryft to meet you at a certain place, against fuch an hour, would you not pre-. pare with all ferioufnefs and folemnity to keep tryst with him? Oh, but it is the God of Angels that trysts with you here; even that God, before whom all the Angels adore, and the devils tremble: A holy and jealous God, who hath declared that he will be fanctified in them that come nigh to him, Lev. x. 3. And can you come fo near him any where in the world, as at his holy table? What Samuel spoke to the Elders of Bethlehem, in the cafe of offering facrifice, may well be applied to communicants in the cafe of approaching to the Lord's table, 1 Sam. xvi. 5. "Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the facrifice." So, well may your. minifters fay to you Sanctify your felves, and come with me to the facrament. Come here, and behold the facrifice of the lamb of God unto divine juftice for your fins: For "even Chrift our paffover is facrificed for us, I Cor. v. 7. Here he is reprefented as a lamb flain, to pacify a holy God for our impurity and unholiness. It

is most fit then that we prepare and fanctify ourselves, when we adventure fo near this holy God, and take upon us to celebrate the commemoration of this bleffed. facrifice in our gospel-paffover.

The Jews had their preparation for their paffover, John xix. 14. They took the pafchal lamb and set it a part from the reft of the flock on the tenth day of the month, but did not kill it till the fourteenth, Exod. xii. 3. 6. And during the four days the lamb was kept alive (Jewish rabbies tell us) they tied it to their bed-posts, that hearing the bleatings of the lamb as they came in and went out, lay down and rose up, two things thereby might be brought to their remembrance: 1, They might look back to Egypt, and remember the forrows and bondage they endured there, and be thankful for their redemption; and, especially, for their deliverance from the destroying Angel, that night he paffed over their houses, which were fprinkled with the blood of the lamb: 2dly, They were to look forward to the Messiah, and remember the bitter agonies and fufferings he was to endure for their fins. Thus the pafchal lamb for feveral days was to be prepared for its fufferings, to teach the people of God folemnly to prepare themselves for eating thereof, and therein to celebrate the memorial of the Meffiah's fufferings, which were thereby typified. That the four days feparation of the lamb was a continual ftanding fermon, preaching and preparation, to the Ifraelites, as if God had faid to them, Be ye alfo fe queflrated from the world, and take time to think on the bleatings of the lamb, the agonies of Christ, and prepare yourfelves for this folemn ordinance. Oh, what fhall we fay of those, who, inftead of four days, never spent four hours, in ferious preparation for our great gospel paffover! O worthy communicant, as foon as you hear the Lord's fupper intimated, let the lamb be tied to your bedpofts; entertain the lively meditation of your Redeemer's fufferings, and beg preparation of heart from God, for celebrating the memorial thereof. Was our Lord fo long a time in preparing for them, and shall we take no time in preparing to behold them, efpecially when it is fo highly for our advantage fo to do? VOL. I. 3 C

We

We read, that the primitive-Chriftians, and ancient fathers, ufed to fit up whole nights at prayer, before they approached to the Lord's table, which they called their Vigilia.

In this ordinance, God makes great preparations for us; he hath provided a feast which hath coft more than ten thousand kingdoms, or a million of worlds: And, ought not the guests, who are honoured with an invita tion to it, to make great and folemn preparation for it? Were we called to dine with an earthly prince, we would dress ourselves, and fee to have every thing about us in good order: But here we are called to feast with a holy and all feeing God, who will infallibly spy out every unprepared communicant, "when he comes to fee the guests," Matt. xxii. II.

If the linen on the communion-table, or the veffels that contain the elements, were foul, you would be ready to cry out, It is a horrid shame and abomination to fee them in such a cafe; and fo, indeed, it would, for there ought to be an outward decency in these things; our Lord would have the very room in good order, where he was to eat the paffover. But, O, it is a fmall crime to have a foul cloth or veffel for receiving the outward elements, in refpect of what it is to have a foul heart, an unpre pared foul, to receive the body and blood of Chrift.

Jofeph prepared himself, by fhaving himself and changing his raiment, before he went in unto Pharaoh; and, wilt thou not prepare thyfelf, by putting thy foul in the holiest drefs and humbleft pofture, when thou art to go in to the King of heaven and earth? O communicant, thou exceedingly wrongest thine own foul, if thou do it not. Preparation is the feed time, receiving is the harvest: "As a man foweth, so shall he reap.

He who foweth fparingly, fhall reap alfo fparingly: "And he who foweth bountifully, fhall reap alfo bountifully, 2 Cor. ix. 6. It is in the duty of partaking, as in the duty of praying, the more prepared the heart is to pray, the greater is a man's return from heaven, Pfal. x. 17. "Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt caufe thine ear to hear." So, in the cafe of receiving, it may be faid, Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine hand to give. When

God

God gives us a heart prepared for duty, it is a token he hath a hand prepared for mercy.

Hence it is, that the Lord makes that gracious promife, Pfal. lxxx. 10. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." I'll enlarge my hand, as you enlarge your hearts. He faith, as Jofeph to his steward, Gen. xliv. 1. "Fill the mens facks with food, as much as they can carry." According as Jofeph's brethren prepared facks in number and largenefs, fo did they carry corn away; and the fewer and fmaller facks they had, the less they carried away. So here, if you bring prepared and enlarged hearts to the ordinance, you fhall be supplied with as much as you can carry.

DIRECT. V. Confider, that both habitual and actual preparation is requifite for worthy communicating.

1. HABITUAL Preparation is neceffary to every communicant, that is, that he be a believer, a man in a gracious ftate, furnished with the graces of the Spirit, endued with knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and new obedience. No man is fit to approach the Lord's table, till he have these gracious habits planted in his foul. He must be a man that is renewed inwardly by the Spirit of God, and aims at holiness in all manner of converfation. This new wine must not be put into an old veffel, else the wine will be fpilt, and the veffel perifh, It was an ancient abuse of this facrament, condemned by the Carthaginian council, to give it to dead men; fo it is an abufe condemned by the word of God, to give it to dead fouls, and thofe who have no fpiritual life. Under the law, God did forbid the offering of facrifices that either were blind or lame, Mal. i. 8. and they that were ceremonially unclean, could not keep the paffover. The ignorant perfon's facrifice is blind, for he cannot give account of his own work: The hypocrite's facrifice is lame, for he halteth in God's way: The profane man is morally unclean, and fo cannot entertain communion with a holy God. Holinefs becomes God's houfe, and 3 C2

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