but the most important business, because most conducive to a good life.

The last point to be considered is the seasons for this duty. Those of leisure and reflection, of a serious and contemplative turn, may possibly want no directions or no certain occasions for this duty. Their thoughts of themselves naturally and frequently turn to such subjects. But they who are engaged in business, or who mix with the bustle of the world, young persons in high health and spirits, poor persons taken up with daily labours, rich persons occupied in rounds of diversion and company-these all must form to themselves stated seasons for this duty, or they will not perform it at all. It is to be hoped we have many of us our seasons for private prayer. Self-examination will properly accompany our private devotions, if not always, at least sometimes, and at some stated times. Sunday is with all of us a day of cessation from business and from our ordinary diversions: public worship takes up only a part of the day-there is always time enough to spare for this important

concern.

The return of the sacrament is a fit opportunity for such an exercise.

I have only to add, that the business of self-examination, like every business of importance, should be gone about when the mind and spirits are calm, firm, and cheerful. There is great uncertainty in what is done under the impression of some fright, or state of affliction; when the thoughts are hurried and disturbed, and the spirits sunk and overwhelmed.

Self-examination is a serious, but not a melancholy business. No one need let his spirits sink under it, or enter upon it with terror and dejection; because, let a man's spiritual condition turn out upon inquiry ever so bad, he has it always in his power to mend it; and because when the amendment is begun and goes on, every examination of himself affords fresh matter of comfort, hope, and satisfaction.

XI.

SACRAMENT.

1 COR. xi. 26.

"As oft as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.'

THERE are some opinions, concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's supper, which are very deserving of consideration, as they are the means either of deterring Christians from coming to it, or making them uneasy in their minds after it; or, lastly, as they sometimes lead men to abuse this institution to the purposes of vice and profligacy, which is by far the worst of all.

There are many errors in religion, which having no bad effect upon a man's life or conduct, it is not necessary to be solicitous in correcting. A man may live in such like errors as these without prejudice, we humbly hope, to his happiness or salvation. But when errors in opinion lead to errors in practice, when our notions affect our behaviour, it then becomes the duty of every Christian, and especially of every teacher of Christianity, to set these notions right, as far as it is in his power.

Many persons entertain a scruple about coming to the sacrament, on account of what they read in the 11th chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, concerning the unworthy receiving of it. "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself;" surely, they say, it is better to keep away from the Lord's supper altogether than to incur the risk of so terrible a sentence. And who, they will ask, can know that he is safe from it? Who will be bold enough to say that he eats and drinks worthily? Who, however, that is conscious of many defects and imperfections-who, that has made so imperfect preparation for it, and what is worse, who is so liable to forget it all, and relapse again into his former course of life? Now there are two sorts of persons who profess this scruple. There are your heartless, indifferent Christians, who are glad of any reason to get rid of their duty, and who, because this seems a sort of excuse from coming to the sacrament, take up with it without farther inquiry, or any sincere concern, indeed, about the matter.

Besides these, there are also many serious and well-meaning

Christians who have been much and really affected by this text; and who have either been kept away, as I said before, from the Communion, or much disturbed and distressed in their minds about it. Now none but sincere and pious people have these scruples, and therefore the utmost tenderness and indulgence are due to them; even where there is less foundation for them than there appears to be in the present case. For the ease, therefore, and satisfaction of all such, I will endeavour, in this discourse, to make out two points. 1st. That the unworthy eating and drinking, meant by St. Paul, is what we, at this time of day, can scarcely possibly be guilty of. 2d. That the damnation here spoken of means worldly punishment; or, as we say, judgement upon the offender in this world; and not everlasting perdition in the world to come, as the term damnation commonly signifies in our mouths.

First; I maintain that the eating and drinking, meant by St. Paul, is what we, at this time of day, can hardly be guilty of.

St. Paul, you observe, is not writing to all Christians in general, but to the Corinthians-to the Christian converts in that city. Now these converts, it should seem, had been guilty of some disorderly behaviour in receiving the Lord's supper, or, at least, at the time of receiving it. "Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not; that ye come together, not for the better but for the worse." (x. 17.) The coming together in this verse means the coming to the sacrament, because in the 20th verse he says, "When ye come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper." So then they had incurred St. Paul's censure for some misbehaviour about the sacrament; and the next question will be, what that misbehaviour was? And this we find out from what St. Paul says of them, in the 21st and 22d verses, which two verses are the key, indeed, to the whole chapter. "In eating, every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What! have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not."

The fact was, then, the Corinthians had perverted the Lord's supper into a common feast, or, at least, accompanied it with a common feast; in which, forgetting entirely the nature and design of this institution, they indulged themselves without moderation in eating and drinking, so as, in some degree, to come

away from it surfeited and drunken: "One is hungry, and another is drunken one goes to indulge in eating, and another in drinking."

It appears, I dare say, to you unaccountable how any people could fall into such a mistake and misbehaviour as this-so gross an abuse of a religious institution; but it appears from St. Paul's words that, in fact, they did so; and one way of accounting for it may be this. These Corinthians, you are to consider, were not like us, bred up to Christianity from their infancy. They had been heathens, and a great part of them were converted to Christianity. Now it had been a practice among them before their conversion, as it was with all the heathens, to make feasts to their gods, in which all sorts of intemperance were practised and allowed of. It is possible, and probably was the case, that when they became Christians, some of them mistook the Lord's supper for one of these sorts of feasts which they had been accustomed to hold to their gods, and celebrated it accordingly with the same licentious festivity and intemperance. But whatever was the reason of it, such, in fact, was their mistake and misbehaviour. It is certain, however, that the misbehaviour was that unworthy eating and drinking which St. Paul mentioned, and which he condemned in such severe terms. The fault, which St. Paul reproves, was the fault which the people he writes to had been guilty of. That is very plain. The fault they had been guilty of was, the indulging themselves to excess in eating and drinking at the time of celebrating this sacrament. That is equally plain, from St. Paul's account of them: "The one is hungry and another drunken. What! have ye not houses to eat and drink in?" (to make, that is, your entertainments and hold your feasts in?) which shows that they made a common feast and entertainment of the holy communion.

St. Paul proceeds to state to them the history of the institution of the sacrament, which certainly was the proper preservative against the gross abuse of it; and he adds, in order to put an end to so strange proceedings, " He that eateth and drinketh unworthily," that is, in this unworthy manner which ye have done, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself"" not discerning the Lord's body." That is, not distinguishing it from a common feast-not at all reflecting that it was a commemoration of the Lord's body.

I am now, therefore, authorized to say, that the unworthy receiving, intended by St. Paul, is what none of us can almost possibly be guilty of; as none of us, I trust, can ever so far forget ourselves as to mistake this institution for a worldly entertainment, or behave at it in that unseemly manner that the Corinthians did.

The next point I undertook to show was, that the damnation denounced in the text did not mean final perdition in the world to come; which is what the word commonly signifies, but only judgements and punishments upon them in this world. It should have been rendered condemnation-eateth and drinketh condemnation to himself; for the word in the original means any sort of punishment, either temporal or eternal; so that from the expression itself, it would have been dubious which the apostle meant, had he not, in the verse following, added an explanation of the matter, which clears it up sufficiently. "For this cause," (that is, for their misbehaviour and unworthy receiving,) "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." That is, many are visited by weaknesses and infirmities, and many are cut off by death: which are all, you observe, worldly judgements; and these immediately following the mention of damnation or condemnation, show that worldly punishment and visitations were what St. Paul meant by it.

I allege, therefore, that no Christian at this day has any thing to fear from this text. I do not mean, but that men may come to the sacrament with such a thoughtlessness and levity, as entirely destroys the good effect of it; though I hope and believe that is not much or often the case; but I mean that none of us, the least and worst prepared even, incur the crime against which St. Paul denounced the sentence. And if we do not incur the crime, we have no occasion to fear that the sentence will be applied to us.

Others, again, are kept away from the sacrament by the fear that, after they have received it, they should relapse into their former sins, and so only aggravate their guilt and punishment. To such I shall answer, that all we can do, and even all that is required of us to do, at the sacrament, is to be sincere in our resolutions at the time. Whether these resolutions take effect or not is another question, although a most serious one.

But if they be hearty and sincere at the time, I see no reason to doubt but that a man is a worthy communicant, and will be