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 shown the danger incurred by an unworthy reception of the sacrament, it is necessary to inquire 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," 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
