WHEN God hardens any judicially, it is always on account of some sin, very heinous, complex, or reite rated. Every sin tends to render the heart callous and insensible; but those sins which are very heinous, complex, or often repeated, do this in a much higher degree. David's sin, in the affair of Bathsheba, was both complex and very heinous, and he seems to have remained a considerable time judicially hardened. In doing this, God leaves them under the power of that lust which they have gratified, but particularly under that callous and insensible state of mind which is the consequence of their sin. During the continuance of this, the persons do not seem to have any proper exercise about sin, any wish to have its power destroyed, or to obtain pardon; nor does it seem to distress their minds, or fill them with fear; nor does God deal with them by any convictions to lead them to repentance. For any thing that appears, such was the case of David, till the prophet went to him. On the other hand, the spouse, Song v. sinned heinously in refusing admission to her beloved, yet he did not judicially harden her, by leaving her to remain in the very insensible state in which he found her, but he immediately awakened her, and brought her to a sense of her sin, and delivered her from it. "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose to open," &c.

THIS is, however, a very deplorable situation for any soul. Grace, in the mean time, is suspended, and the work of mortifying sin is not advancing: Lust preys upon the whole soul; evil thoughts, evil affections and evil desires reign in it; and no opposition is made to them. "So I gave them up," said God "unto their own heart's lust: and they walked in their own counsels." Psalm

lxxxi. 12. In such a case there is no enjoyment, no pleasure in the ordinances of God, and nothing of their power felt.

THE sin of unworthy communicating may be followed with this terrible consequence. It will be allowed that the profanation of this ordinance is an aggravated sin, considering the nature and design of the ordinance. It is very probable, however, that God will not proceed to deal judicially with such persons, till they have repeated the profanation of it, and seem determined to persist. This was Israel's situation. God had often admonished, and warned, and threatened them; "But," says he, " my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up," &c. In such a case secret duties will be neglected, and secret sins indulged, and even the external form of religious duties will become burdensome, formal, and lifeless; and it will be very easy to neglect them; because the heart instead of taking pleasure in them, is become averse to them.

6. SEVERE rebukes from God will follow unworthy communicating. These may be inflicted for any sin, because all sins are acts of disobedience, and rebellion, which deserve severe chastisement. God can easily discharge his arrows into the heart, and fill it with distress. "The arrows of the Almighty are within me," said Job, "the poison of which hath drunk up my spirit."

AN abuse of the holy supper, or an unworthy ap proach to it, has something peculiarly aggravating in it. A very peculiar discovery of a crucified Saviour is given in the ordinance. His astonishing love, displayed in the dreadful sufferings he endured, is here held out, and the believer invited to a blessed fellowship in it. * E e

The striking exhibition of his blood shows how bitter the punishment of sin was to him, and how careful the believer should be to have his soul purged from that evil thing, and to have all grace, especially love, in vigorous exercise, so as to answer the design of the ordinance. Where this is neglected, sin is considered as a mere trivial thing, which can neither hurt our souls, dishonour God, nor interrupt our fellowship with Christ; the blood of the Redeemer is trampled on, instead of being improved for destroying sin; and his love, with all that satisfaction which flows from a sense of it, is disesteemed. Thus is this sin aggravated, and deserves severe rebukes. As God visits other sins with severe corrections it may be expected this sin will not be overlooked.

IN administering rebukes, God acts in various ways. He lays sin upon the conscience, distressing it, and filling it with fear, anxiety, and remorse: he impresses a sense of his displeasure on the soul, holds up his se vere threatenings to its view, and disturbs its peace. He also withdraws the sense of his love formerly enjoy. ed. "Thou didst hide thy face," said David," and I was troubled. I am consumed,' I am consumed," says he," by the blow of thy hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth." Psalm xxxix. 10, 11. In such a case, the more the believer turns his thoughts to God, the more pungent is his distress, because that mercy, which formerly relieved him in perplexity is withheld, and that countenance, whose smiles for merly exhilarated his soul, now wears an angry frown. This makes him cry out. "Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Hath God forgotten to be be gracious? hath he in anger shut up

Psalm lxxvii. 7, 9.

his tender mercies? If deprivation of a sense of divine love is to be dreaded, and if a sense of his indignation is to be deprecated, and if, when these two meet, the perplexity of the believer is indescribable, let him cautious'y avoid the procuring cause, let him beware of eating and drinking unworthily.

7. THE effects of an unworthy approach to the Lord's table will extend to, and affect all the other exercises of the believer.

WERE this ordinance duly observed the effects of it would be very different. It is a table of rich entertainment, for invigorating every spiritual principle in the soul, and directing it to its proper exercise; because it affords an opportunity of happy intercourse with Christ, in all the enriching and quickening influences of his grace. Here the believer partakes of Christ's blood to cleanse him from all sin; of the power of his Spirit to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts, and to strengthen him with all might, in the inner man. This enlarges the heart, attaches it to religious exercises of every kind, and renders the performance of them easy. "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon." Hos. xiv. 5, 6. In this way his strength is renewed, and he runs without wearying, and walks without fainting, in the duties of holiness. In proportion as the believer lives upon Christ, he will increase in strength, be active in his service, and live to his glory. live; yet not I," said an eminent Apostle, " but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." When the believer comes to this ordinance with a lively frame,

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with a strong faith, and powerful desires, quickened by a sense of want and a wish to serve God, he meets with Jesus, the bread and fountain of life, he feeds upon him, and comes from the feast, like a giant refreshed with wine, strong, and fit for every work.

BUT the dead, carnal, and unworthy communicant; who has not seen Jesus, who has not fed upon him, and who has received no new influences of his Spirit, returns from the ordinance unfit for the proper discharge of holy duties. The work of self examination, confessing, mourning over, and mortifying sin, will succeed very indifferently. These are exercises not pleasant in themselves, and in which a dead languid spirit can do nothing. Should the believer, in such a case, be assaulted with temptation, he will find neither inclination nor ability to resist it. The workings of lust will now more easily obtain the object that gratify them. The law in the members will more powerfully oppose, and overcome the law in the mind. The duties and exercises of religion will cease to yield that pleasure which they formerly yielded; attendance on them will be irksome, and indifference about them prevailing in the soul; and some duties, especially secret, may be neglected. The mind will now become more attached to the world, and more anxious in grasping at it; by means of which religious duties will be justled out of their place, and when attempted the mind will be unsettled, unimpressed, and lifeless.

8. Ir may be followed by temporal judgments. The effects of sin are not confined to the soul, the body too has its share. All the calamities to which the body is liable are the fruits of sin; and all the losses and disappointments which we meet with in our civil concerns, proceed from the same cause. And though it may be