Mofes was a wonderful Statift, an illuftrious Prince, and a great General, conducting at once through a vaft and terrible Wilderness, wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions, all the Armies of Ifrael, fix hundred thoufand Men, besides Women and Children, and most of them too, not of a flexible, ingenuous and governable Temper, but a mutinous, perverfe, and murmuring Generation. David was likewife a Man of infinite Troubles and Vexations, the Government not only of a diforderly and tumultuous Family, but also of a ftiff-neck'd, rebellious People, lying wholly upon his Shoulders; and the Prophet Daniel was made Ruler over the whole Province of Babylon, and Chief of the Governours over all the Wifemen of Babylon. And yet all these, in the midst of their innumerable Avoca tions and Disturbances, found leisure for their Devotions, and the Worship of God. Nay, this is against the common Senfe of Mankind: For all Nations have allow'd large Portions of their Time for their publick Devotions,and reckon'd that the more Religious they were, by fo much the more they profper'd. As for your Scruples, you are to unfold them to your Spiritual Guides, who

are appointed by Chrift to inform your Confciences, and who will be fo far from leffening their good Opinion of you for any thing you fhall difcover, that they will both highly applaud your Ingenious and Pious Care for the wel fare of your Souls, and alfo most heartily blefs God for the happy Opportunities he vouchfafes them of doing you good. These therefore can by no means excuse you from coming to the Lord's Table, fince they may, through God's Bleffing, be happily remov'd in the regular method of his Appointment. Your Sins ought as little to difcourage you as your Scruples. As long indeed as you continue in them, you are not to come, leaft the Lord fay, The Hand of him that betrayeth me, is with me on the Table. But if you are truly humbled at the fight of your Impieties,and fincerely and peremptorily refolve from this Moment to relinquish and forfake them, you are those very Perfons for whom this Sacrament is defign'd, for he came not to call the Righteous, but Sinners to Repentance. If you ask, how you fhall be affur'd, that your Refolutions are fincere and peremptory, especially fince, after all that you have made, you have still relaps'd into your old Sins?

I answer, that whatever your re-
lapfes have been, you may be hum-
bly confident, that your Refolutions
are fincere and peremptory, if your
Souls are poffefs'd with a deep Senfe of
your unworthy, difingenuous, ungrate-
ful Behaviour to your God, and you
can appeal unto him that fearcheth the
Hearts that you defire now at last to be
freed from the burthen of your Sins,
and to serve him in Righteoufness and
true Holiness, all the Days of your Life.
Laftly, That excufe of after-Amend-
ment and greater Preparations, is Idle
and Impertinent, and the most perni-.
cious Subterfuge that can be
invented. g For have
measures of Time in your own
Hands? and can you difpenfe
to your felves what Portions
of it you please? Or rather,
does not your Time run away
a pace, your Spiritual Strength
decay, and your Hearts grow
every Day harder
harder and harder a-
gainst the Precepts of the Gofpel? How
then can it be fafe for you under fo ma-
ny disadvantages to delay your Cure
one Moment longer? Now then, my
Brethren, while it is call'd to Day,
harden not your Hearts: But repent of
O 2
your

you

the

g

Cras te victurum.Cras dicis,pofthume femper ; Dic mihi, Cras is tue,

Pofthume, quando ve

nit? Cras vides? hodiè jam vivere, Poft

bume, ferum eft; Ille fapit, quifquis Pofthu

me, vixit beri.

Mart.

your Sins, renounce all your Follies, divorce your darling Lufts, and arife from the Death of Sin to the Life of Righteousness, and then come and partake of this Heavenly Food, which will nourish your Souls to Eternal Life. And fo I come to make good the fecond part of my Promife, which is to fhew, How you are to prepare your felves in order to your coming to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Now then in the

ift Place you are to confider, That you are going to meet your God in his moft comfortable and fublimeft Ordinance, and confequently that you ought to dress your Souls in their best Robes, in their cleanest, their pureft, their whiteft Garments. To this end you are to enter into a fevere, impartial Scrutiny of your Lives and Converfations, that wherefoever you shall perceive them, either through the infinuations of Satan, or their own weakness, to have contracted any pollution from the World or the Flefh, you may wash it off by your Penitential Tears, before you prefume to approach this Holy Ordinance. This courfe is recommended to you by the conftant Practice both of Jews and Pagans. For, how Reli giously

giously did the latter of these endeavour
to qualify themselves for the Tables
of their Gods? They wafh'd their
Cloaths, abftain'd from Worldly and
Carnal Pleafures, and underwent a
ferious and folemn Courfe of Purifica-
tion. How carefully, how nicely, how
curiously did the Former prepare to eat
the Paffover? They look'd with all
imaginable Diligence into every corner
of their Houses, not fuffering any the
leaft Particle of Leaven to remain among
them, and us'd many other Obfervances
which I need not particularly
enumerate. Nay, the h Soci-
nians themselves, as little
Friends as they are to this Co-
venant-Feaft, will not allow
you to come to it without due
Preparation, till you have
feriously, and with just appli-
cation of Mind, call'd to your
remembrance the Death of Christ, and
tafted and perceived in your Souls its
Fruit and Efficacy. In fhort, St. Paul
affures you, that this Self-examination
is abfolutely neceffary. Let a Man exa-
mine himself, fays he, and fo let him eat of
that Bread, and drink of that Cup. Do
not then think to hide or to extenuate
your Offences before God, whofe Eyes
pierce

9 3

h Nifi quis, antequam illuc accedat, non modò rectè mortis Chrifti meminerit, fed ejus efficaciam fructum jam interiore animo juftet ac fentiat, indignus planè est, quitò accefine Canæ Domini dat. Focin. de ufu &