[2.] Custom prevaileth with most rather than conscience ; they wUl receive because they have used to do it. The people are ready to ask us concerning this holy feast, as the Jews did the prophet, in Zech. vii. 3, concerning their fast : ' Should I not weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these many years ? ' So these, Should I not receive now, having received so long ? Custom is the main principle that puts them upon an ordinance ;, and custom usually eateth out the strength of any performance, and dissolves it into a mere formality ■• ' When ye fasted, ye fasted not to me, saith the Lord.' When people receive they receive not for the Lord, but for custom's sake : ' Ye eat , for yourselves, and drink for yourselves, not for the Lord.' No wonder then if many rush upon the ordinances when
340 A PKEPARATIVE SERMON FOR
custom driveth them. ]\Iany would be beaten off from coming uit- prepared, if use had uot liardened them in it. Wliere people come to duty for fashion's sake, no wonder if they be without life and motion in it. Customary services are cold services. The main reason why people rush so unworthily upon the ordinances, is because they have been at them heretofore, and felt no sensible hurt by the disorderly approach ; and therefore why should they not venture again ? Those that have but the least experience in the ministry, can say that it is the hardest work of all to fetch the people off from their old customs, esj)ecially in matters of religion ; and more especially there where they have a command for their warrant, and a precept to justify their practice. Where custom meets with a duty it altereth it ; our actions are as they are principled. Receiving is not receiving when it is done for fashion's sake, because we have done so these many years. And indeed profaneness may kill its thousands, but custom its ten thousands in this kind, most unworthy receivers are but customary receivers ; and therefore did they come unpreparedly, because they came not for conscience. These are the gi'ounds.
Briefly to apply the point. Is it so that many rush upon the ordinances notwithstanding their unpreparedness ? It serveth then —
(1.) To teach us in the ministry how careful we should be to put people in mind of the danger of unworthy receiving ; that we may, if })Ossible, snatch them out of the fire, as the apostle speaks ; and be like the angels that guarded paradise with their flaming swords, keep men out of that place which will prove their destruction. And would to God I could sufSciently press the point upon jour considerations, and possess you of the danger of rushing upon the ordinance in a state of unpreparedness, whilst .you are in your unfitness and uncleanness, and live under the power of your reigning sins. O brethren ! consider God is somewhat chary over his ordinances ; he will not have them unhallowed by profane and rude hands. Uzzah's touch struck him dead in the place. Duties are tender things, and therefore it is not good to be too busy with them. A drachm of poison is enough to make you stone dead ; and one poisoned ordinance may kill you. Unpreparedness, indisposedness, poisoneth duty. The sacrifices of the wicked, continuing in their wickedness, are an abomination to the Lord. The want of cleansing of the heart infects the ordinance ; and when that is poisoned once, farewell the performer. God will be sanctified in all that come near him, either by obedience from them or vengeance upon them. Nadab and Abihu were struck dead in the place for offering strange fire ; and God may strike you dead in the place for bringing strange affections into his presence. I remember what Jonathan said in 1 Sam. iv. 4, ' I did but taste a little honey with the end of my rod, and lo, I must die.' And so it is here ; the tasting of a little bread, and the sipping of a cup of wine, may kill thee.
But because men are not easily persuaded of the heinousness of this sin, I shall briefly display it — (1.) In the gi-eatness of the guilt ; (2.) In the grievousness of the punishment.
1st, The greatness of the fault. It is no less than blood-guiltiness, even being guilty of the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
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The apostle saith just so much, 1 Cor. xi, 27, 'Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.' 0 ! there are many of us whose hearts rise against these Jews, that were the cause of so innocent a person's death as our Saviour's ; we could even pluck out their eyes if they were present ; whereas all the while we carry the same malice in our hearts, and at eveiy sacrament do crucify the Lord of life afresh. You would take it ill of a man to unchristian you, and call you a Jew ; and yet such you are ; for you have also imbrued your hands in the blood of your Saviour. See the difference between a worthy com- municant and an unprepared receiver ; the one hath all his guilt taken away by partaking, the other hath his increased, and hath a crying sin added to the score, which indeed maketh all the rest full weight ; they have killed their Saviour. It was a close one of Peter to the Jews : Acts ii. 23, ' This is he whom ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.' And it must be mine to all unworthy receivers, for they are the very men.