A treatise concerning the Lords Supper

And God will check you at his Table, by withdrawing himself from you, for your neglect before you came? It may be you were busy about the World, when you should have been preparing for your Duty: It may be you were in your Shop, when you should have been in your Chamber, or your Closet: It may be God saw you reading your Account book• when you should have been reading the History of the Death of Christ in the Book of God, and should have been studying the Book of your own heart: God saw you thinking ⟨p. 142⟩of the World, when you should have been endeavouring to have warmed your• heart in the believing thoughts of the Love of God, in the great transactions of Man's Redemption.

And God will check you at his Table, by withdrawing himself from you, for your neglect before you came? It may be you were busie about the World, when you should have been preparing for your Duty: It may be you were in your Shop, when you should have been in your Chamber, or your Closet: It may be God saw you reading your Account book• when you should have been reading the History of the Death of Christ in the Book of God, and should have been studying the Book of your own heart: God saw you think•ing ⟨p. 142⟩of the World, when you should have been endeavouring to have warmed your• heart in the believing thoughts of the Love of God, in the great transactions of Man's Redemption.

Thirdly, Because after diligent actual preparation, you have rested in your foregoing duties, and expected that for your preparations sake, which you must only receive for Christs sake. It is hard to make diligent preparations, and then deny them when we have done, and expect all through Christ, and after our most serious preparations, to acknowledge them as nothing, and that it will be Free Grace if God discover himself unto us at his Table. Sometimes you may observe, that after greatest enlargements in secret preparation, you have been most strained in the duty; Not that God is displeased with your diligence in preparation, but that you lay too great a stress upon your previous duties; and mounted them up above their place, and would have made a Christ of your duties, and would have detracted from the merits of Christ, in hoping that from God, because you had prepared, which you must only hope for, because Christ hath dyed: Not but that you may and ought to look after your Prayers which you make, and see what returns the Lord doth give you; but there is a difference between an expectation of good things from God according to your prayers and preparations; and between an expectation of good things from God for your prayers and