That ever we should repent, was so coftly a Purchase, fo great a Concernment, fo high a Favour; and the Event is esteem'd by God himself fo great an Excellency, that our bleffed Saviour tells us, There shall be Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth; meaning, that when Christ fhall be glorify'd, and at the right Hand of the Father, making Interceffion for us, praying for our Repentance; the Converfion and Repentance of every Sinner is part of Chrift's Glorification; it is the answering of his Prayers; 'tis a portion of his Reward, in which he does effentially glory by the Joys of his glorify'd Humanity. This is the Joy of our Lord Himfelf directly, not of the Angels, except only by Reflexion. The Joy, faid our bleffed Redeemer, fhall be in the prefence of the Angels; They fhall fee the glory of the Lord, the answering of his Prayers, the fatisfaction of his Defires, and the reward of his Sufferings, in the Repentance and confequent Pardon of a Sinner. For this Reafon he once fuffer'd, and for that Reason he rejoices for ever. Wherefore, when a penitent Sinner comes to receive the Effect and full Confummation of his Pardon, 'tis call'd an entring into the foy of our Lord; a partaking of that Joy which Chrift receiv'd at our Converfion, and enjoy'd ever fince.

Add to this, That the Rewards of Heaven are so great and glorious, and Chrift's Burden is fo light, his Yoke fo easy, that it is a fhameless impudence to expect fo great Glories at a lefs Rate than fo little a Service, at a lower Rate than a holy Life. It coft the Heart-Blood of the Son of God to obtain Heaven for us upon that Condition: And who shall die again to get Heaven for us upon eafier Terms? What would you do if God fhould command you to kill your eldest Son, or to work in the Mines for a thousand Years together, or to fast all your Life-time with Bread and Water? Were not Heaven a very great Bargain even after all this? And when God requires nothing of us, but to live Soberly, Juftly, and Godly; which Things of themselves are to a Man a very great Felicity, and neceffary to our prefent Well

being: Shall we think this to be an intolerable Burden, and that Heaven is too little a Purchafe at that Price? That God in meer Juftice, will take a Death-bed Sigh, or a Groan, and a few unprofitable Tears and Promifes, in exchange for all our Duty ?

If these Confiderations, join'd together with our own Intereft, even as much as the Felicity and the Sight of God, and the avoiding the intolerable pains of Hell, and many intermediate Judgments to come, will not move us to leave the Filthiness, the Trouble, the Uneafinefs, and the Unreasonableness of Sin, and turn to God; there is no more to be faid, we must perish in our Folly.

This fure is fufficient to warn all Chriftians against deferring their Repentance to the Hour of Death. They will from hence perceive, that to fend for a Minister when the Doctor has done with them, or even when Sickness has render'd them impotent to Sin, can be ne more Help to their Salvation, than to that of the Damn'd. And how comfortably do fome deluded Wretches flide into Perdition, depending on the efficacy of a few apt Prayers by the Minifter, a too late receiving of the Lord's Supper? Do they think that God will take their Service, when the Devil can have no more of it; and that the Repentance of their last Moments, fhall atone for the Sins of their whole Lives? How dreadful will their Disappointment be, who die in this fad Dream! and in what a world of Mifery will they awake!

THE

THE

SACRAMENT.

I

has been often obferved, that the defign of this Work was suited with a particular View to ferve the Ladies, to whom 'tis particularly addrefs'd: But the generality of Authors having spoken to the Men, that Sex is often nam'd in Imitation of them; but the Women always understood too; there being but few or no Virtues or Vices which do not alike concern both them.

There remains another Duty to be treated of, to which many of the female Sex seem to need fome Incitation; and that is, Communicating; a part of Devotion, the loofer Sort fcarce ever think in Seafon till their Death-Beds. As if that Sacrament, like the Extreme Unation of the Papifts, was only fit for expiring Souls. But to fuch we may apply the Words of the Angel to the Woman, Why feek ye the Living among the Dead? Why think ye that the Sun of Righteousness is only to fhine in the Shades of Death? or that Christ is never to give us his Flesh, till we are putting off our own? One of the principal Ends of that Sacrament is, to engage and enable us to a new Life: How prepofterous then is it, how utterly inconfiftent with that End, to defer it to the hour of Death? It is true, 'tis a good Viaticum for fuch as are in their way towards Blifs; but 'tis too bold a Hope to fancy it shall in an Instant bring them into

that

that Way, who have their whole Life pofted on in a contrary. The Roads to Heaven and Hell lie fure too far afunder to be within one Step's Distance: Nor can it with any Safety be prefum'd, that once receiving at their Death, fhall expiate fo many wilful Neglects of it in their Life.

It is to be hop'd these total Omiffions are not a common Guilt; yet, with many others, the Fault differs only in Degree; they do not wholly omit, but yet come fo feldom, as if they thought it a very arbitrary Matter whether they come or no. And this truly is obfervable in many, who seem to give good Attendance on other parts of Divine Worship: 'Tis a fad Spectacle to fee, that, let a Church be never fo much crowded at Sermons, 'tis empty in an Inftant when the Commu nion begins. People run as it were frighted from it, as if they thought with those in Malachi, that the Table of our Lord is polluted: That fome Peft or Infection would thence break forth upon them. A ftrange Indignity to the Majefty, and Ingratitude to the Love of our Redeemer! Let a King, or but fome great Man, make a publick Entertainment, how hard is it to keep back the preffing Multitude? Many Officers are neceffary to repel the uninvited Gueft; and yet here there needs more to drive us to it, tho' the Invitation be more general, and the Treat infinitely more magnificent.

I know this Fault, like many others, fhrouds itself under a fair Disguise; and this barbarous Neglect pretends to the humbleft Keneration. People fay 'tis the great Reverence they have for the Sacrament, which keeps them at so great a distance. That certainly is a fictitious Reverence which discards Obedience. And when Christ commands our Coming, our drawing back looks more like Stubbornness and Rebellion, than Awe and Respect. I suppose we pretend not to exceed the primitive Chriftians in Humility and godly Fear; and yet they communicated daily. Our Reverence therefore is of a much different

Make

Make from theirs, if it produces fuch contrary Effects. Indeed 'tis to be fear'd, that many put a great Cheat upon themselves in this Matter. The Eucharift is justly accounted the highest of divine Ordinances; and thofe who think of no Preparation in others, yet have fome general Impreffions of the neceffity of it in this; but the Uneafinefs of the Task difcourages them; they dare not come without a Wedding-Garment, and yet are loth to be at the pains to put it on. Thus all this goodly Pretext of Reverence, is but the Devil in Samuel's Mantle, is but Sloth clad in the habit of Humility.

And to this Temptation of Sloth, there is another thing very fubfervient, which is the eafy and flight Opinion that is commonly taken of Sins of Omiffion. Many are startled at great Commissions, think them to carry a face of Deformity and Horror, who in the mean time look on Omissions as Privations, and mere Nothings. As if all the Affirmative Precepts were only things of Form put in by God, rather to try our Inclinations than to oblige our Performance; and fo were rather Overtures and Proposals, which we may affent to or not, than Injunctions, which at our Peril we must obey. A Fancy no less abfurd than impious, that God fhould be content fo to compound with his Creatures, and, like a Prince overpower'd by his Vaffals, confent to remit all their Homage, abfolve them from all pofitive Duty, fo they would be but fo civil as not to fly in his Face, or commit Outrage on his Perfon: Which wild Imagination needs no other Confutation than that Form of Indictment our Saviour gives us as the Model of that which shall be 'us'd at the last Day, in St. Matthew's Gofpel, where the whole Process lies against Sins of Omission; and yet the Sentence is as difmal and irreverfible, as if all the Commiffions in the World had been put into the Bill.

And certainly of all Omiffions, none is like to be more feverely charg'd than this of Communicating; which is not only a Difobediènce, but an Unkindness, ftriking at the

Authority,