These are the points which we are to consider, they are the signs to which God giveth a voice unto us ; as the Lord speaketh unto Moses, Exod. iv. 8, ' So shall it come to pass, that if they will not believe thee, neither obey the voice of the first sign, yet shall they believe for the voice of the second sign.' You see to the sign is given a voice. [You see] that the sacrament, when the bread is broken, and the wine poured out, it is a voice speaking unto thee. Thou must therefore be a man of understanding to discern the same.
The next point ; the sacrament is not only a sign to signify that all things are to be had in Christ, for a wicked man may know thus much ; but Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal : it is also a seal. We must therefore examine ourselves in our knowledge as whether we have faith and grace, otherwise God sealeth no comfort unto us. But how shall a man know this ?
• Probably refers to John vi. 52, a question put in Capernaum. — G.
THE RIGHT RECEIVING. G9
There is a general life. I will touch it as briefly as I can, and so mako an end. The matter to be understood is this, whether we have grace in us, whether living and regenerate. No man spreads his table for dead men. We arc dead by nature, and if wo find that we are dead, this ban- quet is not for us. We must then be regenerate. I know many coma when they are dead, and therefore they abuse God and their own souls, and they put his seal to a false deed. Well, the apostle's conclusion is, 1 John V. 12, 'He that hath the Son hath life.' But the point of thig examination is, namely, how a man may know whether he be dead or liv- ing, which must be the point of trial in the next place.
That matter and examination which concerneth the heart and affections.
For knowledge, with examination, is not enough to make a man a right receiver ; but there must first be understanding, and then grace in the heart. For we must understand thus much of the sacrament of the supper, it never bringeth gi-ace where it findeth none. It confirmcth that good grace which it findeth before. So that, as I have said, it always presup- poseth some grace to be in the heart. When we come, we come not to receive life, but to have our strength increased. For if a man were to deal with the king, and would have him to confirm some estate unto him, it were to no end if his title and ground were not good ; so, if the ground of our estate fail, if we have not some grace, faith, and the like, the receiving of the sacrament will not give them, they will not make an ill matter good. Therefore we must labour for gi'ace in our hearts if we would have comfort. Upon this we may expect a blessing, I will touch the heads of this briefly, because it is very large. The points wherein a man must examine himself are,
1. Whether he discerneth of the necessity of this neiv life: whether he dis- cerneth that without this supply from heaven, without the body of Christ, his estate is most wretched and miserable.
This is the first thing in our examination, which may bo thought a thing needless to examine our conscience upon : that our estate is miserable with- out Christ. But it is necessary, and that course which God taketh with his children. He first makes them discern in what a miserable estate they are. And it is not every one that can discern this ; for it must be the work of God's Spirit to shew a man the death of sin ; because every man hath naturally pride in his heart. So the apostle Paul confesseth, Rom. vii. 9, seq., before the Lord had shewed him his misery by the law. Whilst he was left to natural direction, [he] thought himself a man of worth — by his own confession — a great man. Now, therefore, before the Lord would dis- cover unto him the riches of his grace, he applieth the law unto him ; the law that told him, ' Thou shalt not lust.' Then he perceiveth his misery, as soon as the commandment came, seeing himself to be full of concupis- cence. Then, when the commandment came, sin revived and appeared to be sin, saith the apostle. A man must first, therefore, discern that he is in a miserable estate. Hereupon, John x\i. 8, seq., when the works of God's Spirit are set down, the first is this, ' to convince the world ; ' when the Sphit shall come and shall convince the world of sin. The ground of our sensible comfort in this action stands in the humiliation of our souls, when a man becometh out of love with his sin ; when he, finding the body of sin about him, can say, 'Who shall deliver me from this bondage of corrup- tion ? ' when this giveth him an edge to come unto Christ, for we must not think that we are thus ready to come, unless we be drawn by some scourge or other. The prodigal son, when he had wasted his goods riotously, if