not be fo loth to part with the Pleafures 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 those 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, tho' the way to that Heavenly Canaan is through a Wilderness, through the dark and unknown Region of Death, through which a thousand wandering Souls are alwayes paffing, yet we fhall be conducted fafely through it by Angels, who will bring us to the Palace of the great King, where we shall 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 Fathers houfe; and we fhall then as much wonder at our felves for fearing

fearing to dye, as we are now willing to live. If the account which Scripture gives us of those invifible Regions be true, and we do fully believe that Joy, that Glory, that Blessedness, 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 this load and luggage of Flefh, because we know that if our earthly houfe of this tabernacle were dif folved, 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 patt 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 in the gulph of Perdition, and how

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by the wonderful Grace of God he hath happily escaped them, and is come fafe to Heaven, and therefore will

will now offer Eternal Thanksgiv ings, and pay his Vows of Praife to his great Deliverer, and rejoyce evermore in his Glorious and Heavenly Salvation.

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

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 and great Sins committed after Baptifm; and this is charged upon Smaltius and other Socinians, that they deny the fame to heinous and habitual Šins 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 fa

vour these hard Opinions, as Heb. 6. 4, 5, 6. For it is impoffible for those who were once inlightened, and have taft ed of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghoft, and have tafted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they fhall fall away, to renew them again unto Repentance. And Heb. 10. 26. For if we fin wilfully after that we have receized the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more facrifice for fins. And 2 Pet. 2. 20, 21, 22. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, they are again intangled 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 fow that was washed to her_wallowing in the mire. And in other places the Scripture speaks of a Sin unto Death, 1 John 5, 16. as of a more malignant and deadly Nature, and

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different

different from all other Sins which are Mortal, and Sins alfo unto Death without Repentance: And our Saviour fayes exprefly of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, that it is unpardonable, and fhall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor the world to come, Luke 12. 20. Matth. 12. 32. i. e. as St. Mark expreffes it, It hath never forgiveneß, but is in danger of eternal damnation, Mark 3: 29. And what that is, is not fully agreed on by Divines, and fo there may be fear, if not danger of a Chriftians falling into it, and fo into an unpardonable state, by the Holy Ghosts being fo many wayes concerned in his Salvation, and he having fo many wayes to Sin against him.

This gives therefore great trouble to a great many Minds, and if one particular Sin, or any forts of Sin, be unpardonable by the Gofpel, they will be very fearful, and can hardly be fatisfied but that they have committed that Sin, and fo are cut off from all hopes by it; and they will like melancholly perfons who read of fuch grievous difeafes, fancy immediately that they have them themselves, and that

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