N01152:58
The inexcusableness of neglecting the worship of God, under a pretence of being in…
The inexcusableness of neglecting the worship of God, under a pretence of being in an unconverted condition. Showed in a sermon preached at Northampton, the 17th. Decemb. 1707. being the time of the sitting of the Inferior Court. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton. ; Imprimatur, J. Dudley.The inexcusableness of neglecting the worship of God, under a pretence of being in an unconverted condition. Shewed in a sermon preached at Northampton, the 17th. Decemb. 1707. being the time of the sitting of the Inferiour Court. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton. ; Imprimatur, J. Dudley.
printed by B. Green. Sold by Samuel Phillips, 1708
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
10. No Christian Country does neglect this Ordinance no we do in this Land. In our own Nation at home, so in Scotland, Holland, Denmark, Sweedland, and among the Protestants in Germany & France, they do generally Celebrate the Memorial of Christs Death. This Country is singular in neglecting of it. About Forty years past, there were a Multitude in the Country, Unbaptized: but that neglect was taken into Examination, and now there is an alteration in that particular. But to this day there be Four to One that do neglect the Lords-Supper; as if it did not belong to them to magnify God upon the account of the Work of Redemption. We are a People that pretend high in Religion, but indeed we fall short of other People in the very Form of it, and don't come up in our practice in this particular to many other Churches.
11. The general neglect of this Ordinance is a visible denying of the Gospel. Christ has threatened to deny them before his Father, that do deny him before men, Mat. 10. 33. And the neglect of this Institution is a visible denial of Christ. Our business at the Lords Supper is to Celebrate the Memorial of Christs Death, & to give our Testimony to the Gospel: 1 Cor. 11. 26. As often as ye eat this Bread, & drink this cup, ye show forth the Lords death till he come. They therefore that do neglect to do this, do with-hold their Testimony. They act as if they did not believe the Doctrine to be true. What construction can be put upon it, but that they are unconcerned to give their Testimony to Christ, and question the truth of the Gospel; it is an open reproaching of Christ, & a visible contempt of the Gospel? This neglect has a great tendency, to strengthen & confirm others in their Infidelity; for they act as if they did not believe it. And many Children when they are reproved for their Infidelity, ⟨p. 27⟩have that excuse for themselves, That their Fathers and Mothers do not believe the Gospel.