Such is the weakness of mankind, that one errour, whether admitted, or detected, is very often the cause of another. Those who reject any opinion, however justly, are commonly incited by their zeal to condemn every position, in which they discover any affinity with the tenets which they oppose, of which they have been long accustomed to shew the falsehood and the danger, and therefore imagine themselves nearer to truth and safety, in proportion as they recede from them. For this reason it sometimes happens that in passionate contests, and disputations long continued, each controvertist succeeds in the confutation of his adversary’s positions, and each fails in the establishment of his own.

In this manner have writers, of different persuasions, treated on the worthiness required of those who partake of the Lord’s Supper; a quality, not only necessary to procure the favour of God, and to give efficacy to the institution, but so strictly enjoined in the words of the text, that to approach the holy table without it, is to pervert the means of salvation, and to turn prayer into sin.2

The ardour and vehemence with which those are condemned, who eat and drink unworthily, have filled the melancholy, the timorous, and the humble with unnecessary terrours, which have been sometimes so much increased by the injudicious zeal of writers, erroneously pious, that they have conceived the danger of attempting to obey this precept of our Saviour, more formidable than that of neglecting it, and have spent the greatest part of their lives in the omission of a duty of the highest importance; or, being equally terrified on either hand, have lived in anguish and perplexity, under a constant sense of the necessity of doing, what they cannot, in their opinion, do in an acceptable manner, and which of course they shall either do, or omit, at the utmost hazard of eternal happiness.

Such exalted piety, such unshaken virtue, such an uniform ardour of divine affections, and such a constant practice of religious duties, have been represented as so indispensably necessary to a worthy reception of this sacrament, as few men have been able to discover in those whom they most esteem for their purity of life, and which no man’s conscience will perhaps suffer him to find in himself, and therefore those who know themselves not to have arrived at such elevated excellence, who struggle with passions which they cannot wholly conquer, and bewail infirmities, which yet they perceive to adhere to them, are frighted from an act of devotion, of which they have been taught to believe, that it is so scarcely to be performed worthily by an embodied spirit, that it requires the holiness of angels, and the uncontaminated raptures of paradise.

Thus it appeared, that, instead of being excited to ardent desires of perfection, and unwearied endeavours after the utmost height of sanctity, not only the sensual and the profligate were hardened in their wickedness, by conceiving a life of piety too hard to be borne, but the diffident and scrupulous were terrified into despair, considered vigilance and caution as unavailing fatigues, remitted their ardour, relaxed their diligence, and ceased to pursue what they could no longer hope to attain.

To remove these doubts, and disperse these apprehensions, doctrines of very different tendency have been industriously promoted; lower degrees of piety have been declared sufficient, and the dangers of reception have been extenuated; nor have any arts of interpretation been untried, or any conjecture which sagacity or learning could produce, been forgotten, to assign to the words of the text a sense less to be dreaded by the unworthy communicant. But by these opinions, imprudently inculcated, many have been misled to consider the sacrament, as little more than a cursory act of devotion; the exhortations of the Apostle have lost their efficacy, and the terrours of the Lord, with which he enforces them, have no longer repressed the licentiousness of the profligate, or disturbed the indolence of the supine. Religion has sunk into ceremony; God has, without fear, been approached with the lips, when the heart has been far from him;3 and the Supper of the Lord has been frequented by those, of whom it could not be perceived, that they were very solicitous to avoid the guilt of unworthy communication.

Thus have different interpretations of the same text produced errours equally dangerous, and which might have been equally obviated, by a careful attention to the nature and institution of the sacrament, an unprejudiced examination of the position of the Apostle, and the comparison of this passage with other comminations;4 methods of enquiry which, in the explication of doubtful texts of Scripture, ought always to be observed, and by which it may be proved, to the comfort of the depressed, and the confirmation of the doubtful, that the sin of unworthy reception, though great, is yet to be pardoned; and to the restraint of the presumptuous, and confusion of the profane, that the preparation required is strict, though practicable, and the denunciation such as ought to terrify the negligent, though not discourage the pious.

When eternal punishments are denounced against any crimes, it is always evidently the intention of the writer to declare and enforce to those, that are yet innocent, the duty of avoiding them, and to those who have already committed them, the necessity of repentance, reformation, and future caution. For it is not the will of God, that any should perish, but that all should repent, and be saved. It is not by one act of wickedness, that infinite mercy will be kindled to everlasting anger, and the beneficent Father of the universe for ever alienated from his creatures; but by a long course of crimes, deliberately committed against the convictions of conscience, and the admonitions of grace; by a life spent in guilt, and concluded without repentance. “No drunkard or extortioner,” says the Apostle, “shall inherit eternal life.”5 Yet shall no man be excluded from future happiness, by a single instance, or even by long habits, of intemperance, or extortion. Repentance and new life will efface his crimes, reinstate him in the favour of his judge, restore him to those promises which he has forfeited, and open the paths to eternal happiness.

Such is the crime of unworthy reception of the holy sacrament, by which “he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself”; to which no man can come unprepared, or partake of, if he is divested of the intentions, suitable to so solemn a part of divine worship, without adding to the number of his sins, and, by a necessary consequence, to the danger of his soul. But though the soul is, by such an act of wickedness, endangered, it is not necessarily destroyed, or irreversibly condemned. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, contributes indeed, by eating and drinking, to his own damnation, as he that engages in fraudulent, or unlawful commerce, may be said, with great propriety, to traffick for damnation, or to set his soul to sale; yet as it is certain, that fraud is not unpardonable, if it shall afterwards give way to justice, so neither is the profanation of the sacrament a crime, which the goodness of God cannot forgive, if it be succeeded by true devotion. The whole life of man is a state of probation; he is always in danger, and may be always in hope. As no short fervours of piety, nor particular acts of beneficence, however exalted, can secure him from the possibility of sinking into wickedness, so no neglect of devotion, nor the commission of any crimes can preclude the means of grace, or the hope of glory. He that has eaten and drank unworthily may enter into salvation, by repentance and amendment; as he that has eaten and drank worthily may, by negligence or presumption, perish everlastingly.

This account of the guilt of unworthy reception makes it necessary to enquire, whether by the original word6 in the text be meant, as it is translated, damnation, the eternal punishments of a future state; or, as it is more frequently interpreted, condemnation, temporary judgements, or worldly afflictions. For, from either sense, the enormity of the crime, and the anger of God enkindled by it, is sufficiently apparent. Every act of wickedness that is punished with immediate vengeance, will, if it be aggravated by repetitions, or not expiated by repentance, incur final condemnation; for temporal punishments are the merciful admonitions of God, to avoid, by a timely change of conduct, that state in which there is no repentance, and those pains which can have no end. So that the confident and presumptuous, though it should be allowed that only temporal punishments are threatened in the text, are to remember, that, without reformation, they will be only aggravations of the crime, and that at the last day, those who could not be awakened to a just reverence of this divine institution, will be deprived of the benefits of that death, of which it was established as a perpetual commemoration. And those who are depressed by unnecessary terrours, may repel any temptations to despondency, by considering, that the crime of unworthy communication, is, like all others, only unpardoned, where it is unrepented.

Having thus shewn the danger incurred by an unworthy reception of the sacrament, it is necessary to enquire how it may be avoided, and to consider, First, what it is to eat and drink unworthily. Secondly, by what means a man may become a worthy partaker of the Lord’s Supper. First, I am to consider what it is to eat and drink unworthily.

The unworthiness with which the Corinthians are upbraided by the Apostle, was, in part, such, as the present regulated establishment of Christianity, and the assistance which religion receives from the civil power, make it unnecessary to censure, since it is not now committed even by the most presumptuous, negligent, or profane. It was a practice amongst them to assemble at the holy table in a tumultuous manner, and to celebrate the Eucharist with indecency and riot. But though such open profanation of this sacred ordinance is not now to be apprehended, and, therefore, no man needs to be cautioned against it, yet the cause which produced it is such, as we cannot too anxiously fear, or too diligently avoid; for its influences are various and extensive, and often weaken the efficacy of the sacrament, though they produce no apparent disorders in the celebration of it.

The Corinthians fell into this enormous sin, says the Apostle, “not discerning the Lord’s body,”7 for want of discerning the importance and sanctity of the institution, and of distinguishing the Lord’s body, from the common elements of bread and wine, exhibited on common occasions of festive jollity. It is therefore the first duty of every Christian to discern the Lord’s body, or to impress upon his mind a just idea of this act of commemoration, of the commands by which it is enforced, of the great sacrifice which it represents, and of the benefits which it produces. Without these reflections, often repeated, and made habitual by long and fervent meditation, every one will be in danger of “eating and drinking unworthily,” of receiving the sacrament without sufficient veneration, without that ardent gratitude for the death of Christ, and that steady confidence in his merits, by which the sacrament is made efficacious to his salvation; for of what use can it be to commemorate the death of the Redeemer of mankind without faith, and without thankfulness? Such a celebration of the sacrament is nothing less than a mockery of God, an act by which we “approach him with our lips, when our hearts are far from him”;8 and as such insincerity and negligence cannot but be, in a very high degree, criminal, as he that eateth and drinketh thus unworthily cannot but promote his own damnation, it is necessary to enquire,

Secondly, by what means a man may become a worthy partaker of the Lord’s Supper.

The method by which we are directed by the Apostle to prepare ourselves for the sacrament, is that of self-examination, which implies a careful regulation of our lives by the rules of the gospel; for to what purpose is our conduct to be examined, but that it may be amended, where it appears erroneous and defective? The duty of examination therefore is only mentioned, and repentance and reformation are supposed, with great reason, inseparable from it; for nothing is more evident, than that we are to enquire into the state of our souls, as into affairs of less importance, with a view to avoid danger, or to secure happiness. When we enquire with regard to our faith, whether it be sufficiently vigorous or powerful, whether it regularly influences our conduct, restrains our passions and moderates our desires, what is intended by this duty, but that if we find ourselves Christians only in name, if we discover that the example of our divine Master has little force upon our constant conversation, and that God is seldom in our thoughts, except in the solemn acts of stated worship, we must then endeavour to invigorate our faith by returning frequently to meditate upon the objects of it, our creation, our redemption, the means of grace, and the hope of glory;9 and to enlighten our understandings, and awaken our affections, by the perusal of writings of piety, and, above all, of the holy Scriptures.

If any man, in his examination of his life, discovers that he has been guilty of fraud, extortion, or injury to his neighbour, he is to make reparation to his utmost power. If he finds malice or hatred lurking in his mind, he must expel them by a strong resolution never to comply with their motions, or suffer them to break out in any real act of revenge. If he observes that he is often betrayed, by passions, or appetites, into unlawful methods of gratifying them, he must resolve to restrain them for the future, by watching and fasting, by a steady temperance and perpetual vigilance.

But let him beware of vain confidence in his own firmness, and implore, by fervent and sincere prayer, the co-operation of God’s grace with his endeavours; for by grace alone can we hope to resist the numberless temptations, that perpetually surround us; by grace only can we reject the sollicitations of pleasure, repress the motions of anger, and turn away from the allurements of ambition. And this grace, when sincerely implored, is always granted in a degree sufficient for our salvation; and it ought, therefore, to be one of the first parts of our preparation for the sacrament, to pray for that grace, without which our examination itself will be useless, because, without it, no pious resolution can be formed, nor any virtue be practised.

As, therefore, it is only by an habitual and unrepented unworthiness that damnation is incurred, let no man be harrassed with despondency for any past irreverence or coldness! As the sacrament was instituted for one of the means of grace, let no one, who sincerely desires the salvation of his own soul, neglect to receive it; and as eternal punishment is denounced by the Apostle against all those who receive it unworthily, let no man approach the table of the Lord, without repentance of his former sins, steadfast purposes of a new life, and full confidence in his merits, whose death is represented by it.