2. That he who upon due examination, can find none of these qualifications, should not presume to come, which appears:
1. By the Apostolical command, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat; so, and not otherwise.
2. By the sin which he commits, in being guilty of the body and blood of Christ, vers. 27.
3. By the Danger he incurres to himself, in eating and drinking his own damnation, vers. 29.
2. From the nature of the Sacrament.
1. It is the table of the Lord, and the Lords Supper; and consequently the friends, and not the enemies of Christ, are thereto invited.
2. It is an ordinance, wherein we publiquely profess communion with Christ and his mystical body, & if he that comes, be by sin disjoyned from Christ, he is guilty of a sacrilegious lye against him and his Church, whilest he professeth himself to be a friend, and is really an enemy.
3. It is (according to the nature of all Sacraments,) [77]a sealing Ordinance, as is intimated in those remarkable sacramental phrases, This is my body, this is my blood, denoting not only a bare sacramental signification, but also a spiritual obsignation and exhibition of Christs body and blood, to a worthy receiver. Now a seal supposeth a writing to which it is annext, or else it is a meer nullity; and certainly Christ never intended to have his Seal put to a blank or counterfeit writing.
4. It is an ordinance appointed for the nourishment of those who are spiritually alive, Christs body & blood being therein conveyed under the Elements of bread & wine; which they only can eat and drink, [78]who are alive by Faith, and not they that are dead in trespasses & sins.
5. It is the New Testament in the blood of Christ, that is, a confirmation of the New Testament, and of all the promises and priviledges thereof in the blood of Christ, which belong not at all to wicked men, [79]Godlinesse having the promises of this life, and that which is to come.