and woman, who, after being brought under the power of conviction, and recognizing a plain truth in the sight of God, allows selfish considerations to come in to stifle that conviction, and to paralyze the hand that was stretched forth to do the duty. Such a process leaves a sting and a stain upon the conscience; for, "if your heart condemn you, GOD is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence in GOD." Now do not suffer your heart to condemn you in this instance.

And, finally, while you consider, while you recognize the duty I have set before you this day, my dear brethren, consider your own souls. Who among you has received the Lord Jesus Christ as the salvation of your souls? With whose spirit among you does the spirit of God bear witness that you are members of Christ-that you have fellowship with his sufferings that you are daily made conformable unto his death-and that you are willing that it should be so, if, by any means, ye may attain unto

when it is no night matter to confess him in either character trulyhear our Lord's application, “Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me before this adulterous and evil generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels."

Oh, God Almighty, give thy blessing upon this people, make them feel the power of Divine truth; and, stored as their minds are with what they read in the Scriptures; hearing, as they do, the ministers of thy Gospel, receiving one portion of truth after another, and one conviction after another, oh, GOD Almighty, keep them from this fearful, aggravated condemnation of stifling those convictions; keep them from going back after they have known the ways of righteousness, or it would have been better for them never to have known them. Keep them from falling away, keep them from stifling the honest convictions of their souls, lest they should be hardened and believe a lie, and so fall into eternal perdition!

the resurrection from the dead? Re- Now is the time of mercy-now is member those solemn words which the day of grace—now is the accepted you heard read in our second lesson time-now then is the throne of mercy this morning: "Whoso shall save-judgment is not yet—but judgment his life, in this world, shall loose it; is at hand. Now it is grace—now it but whosoever shall loose his life for is invitation. "Ho! every one that my sake and the Gospel's the same thirsteth;" and "whosoever will, let shall find it. What is a man pro-him come;" and now it is, "come fitted if he gain the whole world and unto Jesus, all ye that labour and are loose his own soul; or, what shall heavy laden, and he will give you a man give in exchange for his soul." rest." Now, oh gracious GOD, let Whosoever, therefore, mark the Lord's none of this people be cast into hell; application, my brethren, mark it and no, not one, but let all be saved let it sink into your very heart, in this with an everlasting salvation in Jesus evil day, when it is no light matter, Christ; that when the Lord of the honestly, to confess Jesus-Jesus the servants cometh we may be found an living God-Jesus the man of sorrows acceptable people in his name, and for -man of our nature-flesh of our flesh his sake. Amen. —seed of Abraham, and seed of David

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. W. BUSFIELD,

AT ST. MICHAEL'S, WOOD-STREET, ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 4, 1830.

Corinthians, xi. 29.-" He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."

that there are not a few conscientious Christians who have been deterred from coming to the altar by a fear of the consequences attached to an un

THE near approach of those two most sacred and solemn days in our Christian calendar-Good Friday and Easterday-naturally reminds us of the holy rite which Jesus Christ himself did in-worthy participation of the sacrament. stitute on the eve of his sufferings and death. It was on the very "same night (we read) in which he was betrayed" -at the last supper he ever shared with his disciples-" that Jesus took bread; and when he had given thanks he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body which is broken for you; ❘ this do in remembrance of me." After the same manner, also, he took the cup when he had supped, saying, "This cup is the New Testament in my blood; this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come."

It is unnecessary for me to explain that this exhortation, though primarily addressed to his disciples, was by no means limited to them, but extends to Christians of every age, and class, and condition in life-in fact, to all who call themselves after the name of Christ.

My brethren, in my anxiety to remove all groundless apprehensions from your minds, I have selected for my text the strongest passage throughout the whole of the New Testament-" He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.” Now, if I can show that there is nothing really intimidating in this passage, at least when rightly considered-nothing which a well-disposed Christian has cause to dread-I trust that I shall then have obviated the only rational objection you may have felt to appearing at the table of your Lord.

Let me begin by setting you right as to the meaning of the expression, "eating and drinking damnation to a man's self." It is repeated also by the officiating minister at the communion (as you may see by reference to your prayer-books) and the possibility of a mistake has often occurred to me while reading that portion of our service. If the earnest and affectionate in- Attend, then, my brethren, I beseech vitation of their Divine Master is neg- you, to one very necessary observalected by so many of his professed fol- tion. The original word, which is lowers (and that it is, the church translated in the text "damnation," where I am speaking affords a lament- signifies no more than "judgment or able proof) I cannot attribute such neg- punishment," in general; and so it is lect to an ignorance of the obligation given by all the best marginal Bibles. laid down; I rather ascribe it to some The utmost, therefore, that can be descruples respecting the due perform-duced from it is, that " they who eat ance of this holy rite: and I imagine and drink unworthily," are obnoxious

to the judgment of God for so doing; | morate Christ's death,) to furnish forth

as, indeed, all persons are who either pray, or hear, or perform any other duty otherwise than they ought to perform it. And what kind of judgment the Apostle here means, he himself plainly declares in the words immediately following our text: "For this cause," says he, "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep"all which are temporal judgments that GOD is often pleased to inflict for other sins as well as this, and are so far from eternal damnation, that they frequently prove the very means of preventing it.

Having thus explained away a term which we have reason to believe has been a stumbling-block to many welldisposed Christians, we may enter on the important question, what it is to "eat and drink unworthily." And here it will be necessary that we take a general survey of the context.

St. Paul had been speaking of the great disorders which he heard of among the Corinthians in their Christian assemblies; that there were divisions among them even at those sacred times; and that, though they intended to receive the sacrament, they did not in reality do it. "When ye come together, therefore," says he, "into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper; for 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 drink in? Or, despise ye the church of GOD, and shame them that have not?" From which expostulation it is evident, that the sin which St. Paul here rebukes in the Corinthians was, that they ate the Lord's supper as if it had been ordinary food, without expressing any regard or reverence to Christ's mystical body and blood. They carried themselves at the Lord's table, as if they had been at their own. And whereas there was a custom, (when they came together to comme

a common banquet, where no man might appropriate to himself what he brought, but was to eat in common with the rest; this charitable custom the Corinthians wholly perverted. The richest among them ate and drank too much, whilst the poor had nothing to eat and drink. Hence, the Apostle's complaint--" these were hungry, and the other drunken." And they who eat this bread, and drink this cup (he proceeds to tell us), after such an unbecoming fashion, are guilty of the body and blood of Christ; that is, they violate and profane the Lord's mystical body and blood, and so are guilty in a manner of the same sin as the Jews were in crucifying and deriding him. They "trampled upon the Son of GOD, and accounted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing," and behaved themselves accordingly in receiving it. That this is the true sense of receiving unworthily, is rendered still more apparent from the final clause of our text: "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or more properly judgment), to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." The latter words are as explicit as we could wish or require, for by them the Apostle shows wherefore they who eat and drink unworthily, eat and drink judgment to themselves; it is because they discern not the Lord's body; that is, they do not discern or discriminate Christ's body from ordinary food, by taking it with that veneration which is its peculiar due.

Such is the exposition, and I think the only exposition, which these words of our Apostle will justly bear. They were applied in the first instance to the Corinthian converts, and, in a literal sense, to the Corinthians alone are they applicable. No judgment could be too great or sharp to vindicate our blessed Saviour's

holy institution from the contempt to which, by their gluttony and intemperance, the Christians of Corinth had reduced it. Those scandalous irregularities and excesses are here called "eating and drinking unworthily," which were heard of only in the first ages of the church, when the sacrament was always accompanied with charitable banquets or love-feasts, which were, therefore, in process of time, wholly abrogated; and to prevent that intemperance and abuse they had introduced, it very generally prevailed, to receive the sacrament fasting. My brethren, I have entered into this short historical account, with a view to justify the opinion I now freely give you. Whatever faults may be found amongst our communicants of the present day, they cannot be charged with those mentioned in the chapter before

us.

Iman who is otherwise desirous of be-
coming a communicant. In a strict
sense we are none of us worthy of so
great a favour and privilege as being
admitted to this sacrament, and de-
riving the inestimable benefits which it
confers upon us.
After all our care-

after all our preparation to make our-
selves fit, we must still acknowledge
that we are " unworthy even to pick
up the crumbs that fall from our
Master's table," much more to sit and
feast at it. If, then, we are not to
receive this sacrament until we can
account ourselves worthy, the very best
of men must go away sorrowful; nay,
the humbler and the holier they are,
the less inclined would they be to
enter upon their duty. Such un-
worthiness, however, which all must
confess to, is no bar or hinderance to
our receiving the sacrament. We are
not, indeed, worthy of the smallest
mercy, either temporal or spiritual,
which we enjoy, but shall we there-
fore starve ourselves or go naked, be-

The worst of modern Christians, if they communicate at all, do it with greater reverence than did the Corinthians of old. So that neither the fault here reproved, nor the judg-cause undeserving of food or raiment ? ment here denounced, hath place amongst us now. What reason, then, I seriously ask, what reason that this text of Scripture, whether read in our Bibles or repeated in our prayer-books, should frighten any from the sacrament, since there is neither the same fault committed now, nor the same punishment inflicted.

We are not worthy so much as to cast up our eyes towards heaven, the habitation of God's holiness; but what then? Shall we never make our humble addresses to the throne of grace, because we are not worthy to ask and have our petitions heard and granted? Shall we refuse any favours which the kindness of heaven may bestow, because they But it is not enough, my fellow- are beyond our merits, or more than Christians, that I have endeavoured to we could challenge or expect? It is put the words of my text in a clear not said in the text, "He that is unand distinct point of view. As long worthy to eat and drink of this sacraas the plea of unworthiness is insisted ment, by doing so eateth and drinketh on for not attending the sacrament, his own damnation," (for then might and as long as that plea remains unall of us be justly afraid of approachanswered and unrefuted—I speak it ing the Lord's table), but he that with concern-our labour as ministers eateth and drinketh unworthily." is in vain. Grant me, then, your conThere is a wide difference between the tinued attention, while, with a plain- two-between a man's being unworthy ness of speech suitable to the subject, to receive the sacrament, and his reI enquire how far the danger of receiving the same unworthily—a differceiving unworthily ought to prevent a ence which I shall thus illustrate.

Suppose, for example, that a man appointed, and for whose benefit it was hath grossly wronged, maliciously instituted. Were we not all sinners, slandered, or without any provocawe had no need of such means of tion of mine, evil entreated me; he is, grace, such instruments of religion as you will allow, utterly unworthy of the sacramental ordinances. "I came any kindness or favour from me. not," says Jesus, "to call the righteStill, if notwithstanding this unwor- ous, but sinners to repentance. They thiness, I do him some considerable that are whole need not a physician, kindness, or offer him some signal but they that are sick." What folly favour, his unworthiness is no hin- for a man to be afraid to receive alms, derance to his receiving it. And if he because he is miserably poor; to be accepts it with a due sense and a grate-loath to take physic, because he is ful mind; and by it is moved to lay dangerously sick. Equal folly does it aside his former enmity, repent him of betray in us to shun the altar for the his former ill-will, and seek only how very reason that we should hasten to requite the present favour; it is thither. Just in proportion to our felt clear that, though he were unworthy unworthiness, do we stand in need of of the favour, yet he has now received this holy sacrament; that good resoit worthily, and that it has produced lutions may be raised, or strengthened, upon him the desired effect. and confirmed in us; that sufficient grace may be communicated to enable us by degrees to subdue our darling passions, and resist our prevailing temptations; and that by often receiving, we may become every time less unworthy to receive the sacred elements.

In like manner, my brethren, we are all unworthy to partake of this holy feast; but, being invited and admitted, we may conduct ourselves as becomes us in such a presence, and at such a solemnity. And if therein we thankfully commemorate the death of our Saviour Christ, forsake our former sins, renounce our evil ways, vow to him a holier obedience, and be touched with a devouter sense of his love; then, though unworthy of so great a favour, yet we have worthily-that is after a right manner as to God's acceptancereceived this blessed sacrament. But if, in addition to our acknowledged unworthiness, we also receive it unworthily, neither regarding the end, nor design, nor use of it, without any repentance for past sins, any resolutions of future amendment, or any gratitude for the self-sacrificing love of our Redeemer, then indeed do we most highly provoke the Omnipotent GOD, and must justly incur his displeasure. But I proceed another step, and I affirm that those who are unworthy, and truly sensible of their own unworthiness, are the very persons for whom this sacrament was

It has been a subject of dispute among divines, whether the sacrament of the Lord's supper be (like prayer and preaching) a converting ordinance or not. I confess, for my part, I see no reason why this sacrament may not (as well as prayer or any other duties of religion) be a means of begetting true repentance in a sinnner, of turning him from sin to righteousness, and from the power of Satan unto God. And my argument is simply this. If the death of Jesus Christ, his bitter passion and mortal agony, was, among other reasons, designed by GOD to convince us of the heinousness of sin, to withdraw us from an attachment to it, and engage us in a new and better life, surely the consideration of the same things represented to us in the sacrament. the commemoration of his death and passion there made, may contribute to promote the same beneficial