For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." "Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth; seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee?"

Let not, however, this warning be misapplied, so as to discourage the humble and contrite. Where there is the character of the true Christian in any degree-where there is faith, even as a grain of mustard seed-where there is the least particle of sincere love to the Saviour, there is the right to this ordinance, in the sight of God, and the certainty of a welcome. The Lord will look graciously to those who are of a contrite spirit, and tremble at his Word. "The bruised reed he will not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.”

If, on examination, a person is fully persuaded that he is a true Christian, if he is possessed of the assurance of hope, then his duty to communicate must be plain. But what is his duty, if he cannot fully attain to this? In the Larger Catechism, the following question is stated: "May one who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation, come to the Lord's supper?" and thus judiciously answered, "One who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's supper, may have true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured thereof, and in God's account hath it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly desire to be found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity; in which case (because promises are made, and this sacrament is appointed for the relief even of weak and doubting Christians), he is to bewail his unbelief, and labour to have his doubts resolved; and so doing, he may, and ought to come to the Lord's supper, that he may be farther strengthened." Bearing closely on the same inquiry, the following sentiments of an American divine,* are also worthy of consideration: "As the moral character of man is, at the best, but imperfectly known by himself, and as evangelical assurance is no" (necessary) " part of the character of a new * Dr Dwight.

convert, it is an indispensable qualification for communion in the Church of Christ, particularly at the sacramental table, that the candidate possess a rational and preponderating persuasion of his own sincere piety. In all cases where certainty is unattainable, no rule exists for our direction, but the commanding probability. The commanding probability ought, therefore, to control in this case, because certainty is evidently by the supposition beyond our reach."— "We know that we shall commit sin if we neglect to make this profession; but we do not know that we shall sin in making it. On the contrary, we are furnished with a commanding probability, that, if we make a profession of religion, in this case, we shall not sin, but perform a service acceptable to God. To do this in the case supposed, becomes, then, if I mistake not, our unquestionable duty."-" By a rational preponderating persuasion, I intend such a one as is the result of repeated, thorough, solemn, self-examination, aided by a faithful resort to books, which exhibit the genuine evidences of piety, and by the advice of wise and good men, particularly ministers of the gospel. He who does not, in a case of this magnitude, seek for all these, is regardless of his own well-being."

you

You who are living wilfully in the absolute neglect of this ordinance, consider your guilt and danger. The soul who was clean, and refused or neglected to eat the passover, was to bear his sin, and be cut off;* and the contempt of this Christian institution cannot be a less heinous offence. The command is clear and express, and yet you disregard it. By this conduct you neglect to follow up the obligations of your baptism; you seek not to be numbered with Christ's people, but prefer to have your lot with his despisers; you refuse communion with him, and with the Church; and slight his love, his atoning death, and his dying command. You may endeavour to palliate this; but it is truly a heinous offence. Think not that, by abstaining from this ordinance, you avoid the obligation to a holy life; for, you are bound to that, whether you choose or not. What excuse can you possibly have? Do you say that you are not prepared-not in a fit state for the Lord's supper? Be it so. But, will you therefore rest contented in the neglect of a positive precept? Nay, will you even make a merit of such neglect? Your want of fitness is your sin and danger, and a dreadful sin and danger too; for what does it imply? It implies that

* Exod. xii, 15; Numb. ix. 13.

ness.

you are destitute of saving knowledge, faith, love, and holiBut if you are thus unfit for the communion, you are unfit for death and judgment; and, were you to die in your present state, where would you be? You are shut up to sin at present. You sin if you partake of this ordinance, and you sin if you do not partake of it. What, then, ought you to do? Ought you to communicate in a state of unbelief and impenitence? No; by no means. As the best thing you can do, while you are in a graceless state, is, of two dreadful evils, to choose the least, that is, to abstain from profaning the Lord's supper, you should neither come to it unprepared, nor should you continue unprepared. Your only path of duty and safety is forthwith to seek for preparation, by receiving the Saviour, turning from sin, and putting yourselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus shall you be fit for this pleasing service, and, in its performance, taste the sweetness of the Saviour's love.

Finally, You who have the habitual preparation of being in a state of grace, see that, in every prospect of partaking of this ordinance, you have the actual preparation of grace in exercise. Examine yourselves anew. Commune with your own hearts, and be still. Avail yourselves of the usual preparatory exercises in public; and be faithful to your own convictions in private. "Purge out the old leaven;" cherish good dispositions; and be much in prayer to God. Say unto him, "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord, that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works."-"O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God."

LECTURE CXVIII.

LUKE XXII. 21-30.

"But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. 22. And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed! 23. And they began to inquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing. 24. And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. 25. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. 26. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. 28. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. 29. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 30. That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

WE noticed, on a former occasion, that the question has been much agitated whether Judas partook of the Lord's supper, some holding that, though he ate the passover with Christ and the other apostles, he went out before the institution of the Christian ordinance, and others, that he remained all the time. Without being positive, and without intending to attach much importance to the question, I incline to the opinion that he was a communicant. With regard to the alleged improbability of this, on the ground that, if his own conscience would have allowed him, our Lord would not have allowed the traitor to profane this ordinance, more especially as his treachery had already been made known to the other disciples-there is no reason to suppose that one who had been habitually acting in so hypocritical a manner would hesitate to act the hypocrite now; nor had Jesus, strictly speaking, divulged his treachery, for, he had not mentioned his covenanting with the rulers to betray him for a certain sum, but had merely foretold that he was about to betray him—a crime which was not yet consumated. It is an established rule in reasoning, to argue,

not from what is disputed to what is allowed, but from what is allowed to what is disputed. It is quite certain, then, and universally agreed, that Judas was an apostle : the point in dispute is, Was he a communicant? Whatever, therefore, be the importance attached to the question, and whatever the answer given to it, it may be fairly stated thus, We are sure that Judas was employed as a minister and an apostle by Christ, knowing him to be a hypocrite and a traitor; can any probable conclusion be drawn from this fact as to whether our Lord would admit or reject him as a communicant? The natural inference seems decidedly against the necessity of any interference to exclude him. We also noticed that the opinion we should hold as to what the character of communicants ought to be, does not at all depend on the way in which this question is answered: for, if we hold that Judas did not remain till the Lord's supper was celebrated, we may fairly infer that wicked men ought to abstain from it; whereas, if we hold that he did remain, then we must esteem that an instance of base hypocrisy, not to be imitated, but avoided.

Leaving such conjectural reasonings, and coming to scriptural authority, the way in which the passage now before us opens is quite decisive, if left to speak for itself, and if no liberty be taken with it; for, immediately after the words of the institution of the Lord's supper, and without any break in the connection, Christ is represented by Luke as adding, "But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table." Anxious, however, to avoid what they imagine would be a supposition unworthy of the sacredness of this ordinance, many very respectable judges hold that these words are introduced by Luke out of the order of time, and endeavour to prove that Judas was gone before the Lord's supper, from John xiii. 30, where, after the account of our Lord's pointing out to John, Judas as the traitor, by giving him the sop, or morsel, when he had dipped it in the sauce, John adds, " He then, having received the sop, went immediately out." The applicability, however, of these words to the point in hand depends entirely on the correctness of the supposition that the supper mentioned in the 13th chapter of John was the supper in Jerusalem on the evening of the passover. Now, many excellent expositors remark, and I think justly, that that supposition is quite gratuitous, there being no mention of that being the passover, nay, there being a plain declaration