We have fallen into the same false and unscriptural way
of looking at the Lord's Supper, into which the Papists have. People
go to the Lord's Supper nowadays too much to get some private good
for their own souls, and it would not matter to many of them, I am
afraid, if not another person in the parish received it, provided
they can get, as they fancy, the same blessing from it. Thus they
come to it in an utterly false and wrong temper of mind. Instead of
coming as members of Christ's body, to get from Him life and
strength, to work, in their places, as members of that body, they
come to get something for themselves, as if there was nobody else's
soul in the world to be saved but their own. Instead of coming to
ask for the Spirit of God to deliver them from their selfishness, and
make them care less about themselves, and more about all around them,
they come to ask for the Spirit of God because they think it will
make themselves higher and happier in heaven. And of course they do
not get what they come for, because they come for the wrong thing.
Thus those who see them, begin to fancy that the Lord's Supper is
not, after all, so very important for the salvation of their souls;
and not finding in the Bible actually written these words, "Thou
shalt perish everlastingly unless thou take the Lord's Supper," they
end by staying away from it, and utterly neglecting it, they and
their children after them; preferring their own selfishness, to God's
Spirit of love, and saying, like Esau of old, "I am hungry, and I
must live.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127