prepare and fit our felves for it by a timely and thorough Repentance.

2. To joyn the livelieft Act of Faith with this our Habitual Repentance, and exert that at the time when Death is near us.

(1.) To. perfect our Repentance, and fo to live in the habit. of that and of all Goodness, that we may be the best prepared to Dye that we can be, Dye we know we muft. Death if it be not now near us, and yet we do not know but it may be dogging us at the Heels, yet will certainly in a little time come up to us, and fright and ftartle us when it does, if we do not take great care to be ready and prepared for it. Since we must therefore neceffarily encounter this great Monfter, this terrible Enemy which there is no escaping but we muft certainly grapple with him, let us all our Lives prepare for the Battle, let us arm our felves with the whole Armour of God and Religion, with a Careful, and Pious, and Good Life, with a timely and thorough Repentance of all our Evil ways, with a fincere, and upright, and good Confcience, and with avoiding every thing that we know is finful and unlawful, and which will make Death terrible to us whenever it comes. Let us not be fuch def. perate Bravoes in Sin, as to venture upon that with a falfe Courage, which will make us the worst of Cowards when we come to Dye; but let us be fo wifely afraid of Death now, as to live with that care and exactness that we may not be afraid of it when we come to it. were well if fome Men were more afraid of Death than they are, and as I am fure they K.4

It

have

have all reafon to be, that fo they might be brought off from their Evil ways, and not run headlong upon thofe Dangers which are very near them, though they are not fenfible of them. The Sword hangs over their head tha' they do not fee it, and nothing but the thin thread of Life keeps it from falling upon them; they walk blindfold upon the brinks of Hell and Damnation, and it would be well if Fear would open their Eyes, and make them recover themselves before Death makes it too late. Nothing can truly and throughly arm us againit the Fears of Death, but Repentance and a good Life: To thofe who have lived in the practice of them, Death is a very harmless thing, 'tis but lying down to fleep, clofing the eyes and going to reft, the Bodies being fenflets a while, till it awakes at the great Day of Judgment, and paffing a longer night in the Grave till it arifes more fresh and lively in the Morning of the Refurrection; and as for the Soul, 'tis a thort and quick paffage from Earth to Heaven, and therefore fuch have no reason to be afraid of it, when it approaches them never so near. But then,

(2.) Let the true Penitent quicken his Faith at that time, and raife that to the highest and trongest pitch, that fo' he may then look beyond the Grave, and fee, and believe, and defire thofe Happy and Glorious things which God has prepared for him in another World. If we believed thofe as we ought, we fhould never be to afraid to Dye,if we were fo affected with thofe pleasures that are above, and that are at God's Right-hand for evermore, we fhould

fhould not be fo loth to part with the Pleasures - fhall I fay, rather with the Troubles and the Miseries of this Life. Did we think as we ought of that perfect peace, and joy, and fatisfaction which is not to be had here, but to be met with only in Heaven, we should not be fo fond to abide in this Valley of Tears, and not go up to thofe Manfions above, where is full Joy and Contentment. Let us fix our Thoughts and fet our Hearts upon thofe Happy Regions of Blifs and Glory, and we fhall not fear to pass through the fhadow of Death to come to them, though the way to that Heavenly Canaan is through a Wilderness,through the dark and unknown Region of Death, through which a thoufand wandering Souls are always paffing, yet we fhall be conducted fafely through it by Angels, who will bring us to the Palace of the great King, where we fhall be received by our Bleffed Master and Saviour, and by all the Saints and Holy Souls that are gone before us, who as they rejoyce at a Sinners Repentance, will now welcome him to his Father's Houfe; and we shall then as much wonder at our felves for fearing to Dye, as we are now willing to Live. If the account which Scripture gives us of thofe invisible Regions be true, and we do fully believe that Joy, that Glory, that Bleffedness, that unfpeakable Happiness which is there revealed to us, this our Faith, joyn'd with our Repentance, fhould overcome the Fears of Death, and make us not only not afraid, but defire to be diffolved, and to be willing to lay

down

down this load and luggage of Flesh, because we know that if our earthly houfe of this Tabernacle were diffolved, we have a building of God, an houfe not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. And there fhall be no more Sin, nor Sorrow, nor Repentance: But the Bleffed Penitent, now he is fafely arrived at his happy Port, fhall look back upon the past Hazards and Dangers he was in, and comfortably remember how his Sins like fo many Rocks, had like to have split and fhipwreck'd, and fwallowed him up in the gulph of Perdition, and how by the wonderful Grace of God he hath happily escaped them, and is come fafe to Heaven, and therefore will now offer Eternal Thank givings, and pay his Vows of Praise to his great Deliverer, and rejoyce evermore in his Glorious and Heavenly Salvation.

CHA P. III.

Whether all Sins are Pardonable, and may have the benefit of Repent

I

ance.

Am next to confider, Whether all Sins are Pardonable, and may have this benefit of Repentance. This has been denyed by a great many, and particularly by the Novatians, who would not allow Pardon and Abfolution to

· wilful

wilful and great Sins committed after Baptifm; and this is charged upon Smalcius and other Socinians, that they deny the fame to heinous and habitual Sins of Relapfe, into which any fhall fall after they have once Repented, and been freed from them. And there are fome places of Scripture that feem very much to favour thefe hard Opinions, as Heb. 6. 4, 5, 6. For it is impoffible for those who were once enlightned, and have tafted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tafted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto Repentance. And Heb. 10. 26. For if we fin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more facrifice for Sins. And 2 Pet. 2. 20, 21, 22. For if after they have escaped the pollu tions of the World, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Fefus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, then after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true Proverb, The Dog is returned to his own vomit, and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. And in other places the Scripture fpeaks of a Sin unto Death, 1 John 5. 16. as of a more malignant and deadly Nature, and different from all other Sins which are Mortal, and Sins alfo unto Death without Repentance: And our Saviour fays exprefly

of