A treatise of self-judging, in order to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper.…

This truth is an Article of Faith, and having such powerful influence upon our lives, it is good to possess our minds with the truth of it, and our hearts with the terror of it, for both corrupt minds and profane hearts have withstood this main Fundamental point: As the fool hath said in his heart (by wish and affection) ⟨p. 17⟩that there is no God: So they say in their hearts, there is no Day of Judgement; And as that King of France strictly forbade any so much as to mention death in his hearing, he did so abhor the thoughts of it; so do many about the name of this Day. The Devil cannot hurry men into hell, as he did the Swine into the Sea, until the thoughts of this Day are wholly obliturated; Therefore before Christs time, and since, there have been Doctrinal and Practical opposers of it; Doctrinal, so the Sadducees, who denied the Resurrection and Immortality of the soul, were ⟨p. 18⟩necessitated also to deny the Day of Judgement: And as Josephus observes, The Sadducees, though they were not so many as the Pharisees, nor so reputed of for Religion, yet they were the most potent, the greatest in wealth and honour; So that the denial of a Resurrection, and the Day of Judgement was very suitable to their interest. After Christs time, though this Article be so plainly affirmed in the New Testament, that no words can speak it more clearly, yet there is a large Catalogue given by learned men of blasphemous and damnable Heretics, who do deny it; and ⟨p. 19⟩the Socinians in that they hold eternal torment to be the annihilation of the whole man, do in effect also renounce this necessary Truth. And as for Practical Opposers of it, the Apostle Peter doth signally decipher some even in his days, that were but scoffers and deriders at that truth which should have struck them into fear and trembling, 2 Pet. 3.3, 4. There shall in the last days come scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? No doubt all profane, secure and atheistical sinners, who say, Let us eat and drink, and to morrow shall be as this day, though they ⟨p. 20⟩do not expressly, yet do really deny this Day, or put it far from them. It is therefore Gods great mercy, that whereas some main points in Divinity are not directly in Scripture, but by consequence, though the sense and matter be in Scripture, yet not the words; But for this Article, we have in Scripture both the truth and the words;