This duty is abfolutely neceffary; for without it we cannot know how it is with us, we cannot know our plagues and miferies, our defects and neceffities; and, till fuch time as we know thefe, we will neither value nor apply the remedy provided for us in the facrament. Nay, we will be ready to mistake our condition, and think we are in a good state, that we have true grace, when really we have it not. There is much counterfeit grace in the world, and many are deceived therewith: yea, there is no grace but what hath its counterfeit. What did Mofes for a time, but the Egyptian forcerers did the like? Did Mofes turn the waters into blood? So did they. Did Mofes bring frogs on the land? So did they. And the magicians blood and frogs feemed as real,as thefe produced by Mofes and yet they were nothing but counterfeits and external appearances. So there is nothing a true Chriftian hath or can do, but Hypocrites may have and do the fame as to outward appearance. Therefore it is neceffary we bring our graces and duties to be weighed in the balance of the fanctuary

O communicants, would you know how matters are with you now, and how it is like to fare with you for ever? Would you have your hearts affected with your condition, and made acquaint with Jefus Chrift? Would ye have a visit from Christ at his table? Would you have grace quickened, and your wants fupplied? Would you be worthy receivers, and prevent your eating and drinking your own damnation ? Then examine yourfelves before ye approach. Many a Christian can declare, that the time of their fearching themselves in their younger years, in order to prepare for the Lord's table, was the very time their hearts were first engaged to Jefus Chrift and ferious godlinefs. O wherefore is it that there are fo many dead and formal communicants? Why fo many hardhearted and impenitent finners, who could never yet be brought to mourn for their fins, or turn from

them

them to God and holiness? The reason is plain from God's word, Jer. viii. 6. Lam. iii. 45. Pfal. cxix. 59. They are strangers to the duty of felf-exami

nation.

If you neglect to examine yourselves, remember you have to do with an all-feeing and heart-fearching God, who will not fail to examine and find out every careless and unworthy communicant, to bis utter fhame and confusion. Christ, whose eyes are as as a flame of fire, will certainly come in and fee the guests; and, when he comes, he will look nar. rowly upon them: and tho' the house be full of guests, he will fpy out one man that wants a wedding garment, Mat. xxii. II. In a great crowd or multitude, one fingle man might think to fculk and not be found out; but we see that not one man can escape his piercing eye; far less then can forty, fifty or an hundred unworthy communicants think to efcape in one of our congregations. Again, remember what was the fate of the man that came to the feast without the wedding-garment. In the firft place, we fee our Lord not only spied and singled him out, but he examined him allo. The man had come without examin ing himself before-hand, whether he had this weddinggarment or no; but God fmartly examined him. So that we fee, these who will not be at the pains and trouble to examine themselves, God will examine them to purpose: yea, it will be fuch an examina-` tion, as the chief Captain commanded Paul to be examined with, Alts. xxii. 24. viz. that he fhould be examined by fcourging. Every question and interrogato. ry that God will put to a finner, or an unworthy com municant, will have a lafh or fting alongit with it. What a fcourging question did he put to that man, Mat. xxii. 12. Friend how camelt thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ? It was fo fharp, it drew blood of his confcience: nay, it funned and confounded him, for it is faid, He was fpeechless. Friend fays he, why thou profeffeth thyself to be a friend

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of

of Christ, and dost associate thyself with his friends; but in thy heart thou art an enemy to Chrift, a trai tor that cometh to ftab him under the fifth rib: there

fore bind him hand and foot, and take him away, &c. v. 13. In the mean time, the man is fpeechlefs, Chrift condemned, and felf-condemned; he had nothing to fay against the juftice of the sentence. The man that comes without a wedding garment on his back, fhall not go without chains and fetters on his feet, his hands, yea, on his heart, his will, his confcience, and his whole foul. Better for the man to have examined himself, and fo to have prevented this terrible examination and fentence.

God's questions to unworthy receivers will be nonpluffing and confounding. Confider these stinging interrogatories, Ifa. i 12. Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts Pfal, l. 16. What haft thou to do to take my covenant in thy mouth? Jer. vii. 9, 10. Will ye fteal, murder, commit adultery, and walk after other gods, and come and stand before me in this houfe? Thefe be fcourging examinations, that fetch blood at every stroke; and you may look for it, that God will come and examine thee thus, cither by an awakened confcience in this life, or at a dying hour, or as foon as thou entereft into eternity: And who may abide the day of his coming? Now, the way to prevent fuch an examination, is to examine your. felves, for, if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. David did not fear God's examination, when he had examined himself fincerely before-hand; nay, with a humble confidence he doth appeal to God to fearch him, Pfal. cxxxix. 23, 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, &c. Wouldst thou prevent the terror of God's fearch, then put fearching questions to yourfelf before-hand, and fee how matters are with your foul. It is better to have confci. ence awakened to fearch thee now, than to have it awakened in hell, where there is no place for repen

'tance.

This is a duty incumbent, not only on natural and unrenewed men, and upon these who were not at the Lord's table before, but even upon the best of men, and these who have communicate frequently. We can never be too fure about our fouls eftate; befides, we daily contract new guilt, are liable to new decays, new wants, new burdens and grievances and therefore the best have need to examine themselves every time they repair to this holy feaft, but much more they who were never there before.

Now there are feveral things you ought to enquire into at fuch a time. 1. The ftate and condition of your fouls. 2. Your fins and fhortcomings. 3. Your wants and neceffities. 4. Your ends and defigns. 5. Your graces and qualifications.

I have difcourfed all thefe points very fully in my Sacramental Catechifm, from page 117. to page 210. [firft edit.] to which the reader is referred. Some few things more I fhall add here.

I. Of the examination of our State.

Seeing this holy feaft belongs only to the children of God, and thefe that are ftrangers have no right to it, it highly concerns all that defign to approach to the Lord's table to examine what ftate they are in. As the Lord cried to Adam in the garden, Adam where art thou? So do thou cry to thy foul, O my foul, where art thou? Art thou in the broad way, or in the narrow? Whether art thou in Satan's or in Christ's camp? Whether under a covenant of works, or a covenant of grace; under a cloud of wrath, or a banner of love? In a special manner, there are two im→ portant queftions that every communicant fhould much think upon; Whose am I? and, whom ferve I? Happy is the man that can answer both these questions with Paul, Acts xxvii. 23. It is God, whofe I am, and whom I ferve. It is not the Devil, it is not the world, it is not my lufts; but God, whofe I am, and whom I ferve.

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I ferve. Surely Paul in this conditiou, tho' a poor defpiled prifoner, was happier than Cefar himself, to whofe bar he was then going. Alas, it is to be feared, there are many communicants, if they fhould answer the forefaid queftions truly, might fay, It is not God, but the Devil, or the world, or fleshly lufts, whole. I am, and whom I ferve. Oh, Lord, pity fuch, and open their eyes, to see what woful mafters and bad fervice they are engaged into, and deliver them speedily from their bondage.

Look then to yourselves, examine your state, and fee if you be among these who have a right to this facred meal. Have you a right to these characters?

I. Are you Priefts to God? Under the law it was not lawful for any to eat of the shew-bread but the priests, Mark . 26. fo, under the gospel, none have right to eat of this confecrated bread but these who pertain to the Spiritual priesthood. Try then if ye be priefts to God. 1. Are you fet apart and dedicated to God, by your own confent and voluntary refignation? 2. Are you related to the great high priest of the church, Jefus Chrift,- and do you pertain to his fa mily 3. Are you confecrated to God, by being wafhed in Chrift's blood? Rev. i. 5. 6. He hath lo ved us, and washed us in his blood, and hath made us priests unto God. 4. Do you offer up to God the fpiritual facrifices of prayer and praises? Heb. xiii. 15. 5. Do you prefent the facrifice of Chrift's blood and merits in the hand of faith to divine juftice, whenever you find yourselves accused by the law, or challenged by confcience? Well then, if you have these marks of priests, it is lawful for you to come and eat of this holy fhew-bread.

II. Are you members of God's family and houf hold then you have a right to this precious food 2 for Chrift's flesh and blood in the facrament is the food that God provides for those of his own, houfhold; not for ftrangers and foreigners, not for dogs or profane perions, Mat. xv. 26. It is not

meet: