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draw on another, but can never excuſe It. It is our great fault that we are wholly unprepared, and no man can claim any benefit by his fault, or plead it in excuſe or extenuation of this neglect. A total want of preparation and an abſolute unworthineſs is impenitency in an evil courſe, a reſolution to continue a bad man, not to quit his luſts, and to break off that wicked courſe he hath lived in: But is this any excuſe for the neglect of our duty, that we will not fit our ſelves for the doing of it with benefit and advantage to our ſelves? A father commands his ſon to ask him bleſſing every day, and is ready to give it him; but ſo long as he is undutiful to him in his other actions, and lives in open diſobedience, forbids him to come in his fight. He excuſeth himſelf from aſking his =
fathers bleſſing, becauſe he is undutiful in other things, and reſolves to continue ſo. This is juſt the cauſe of neglecting the duty God requires, and the bleſſings he offers to us in the Sacrament, becauſe we have made our ſelves incapable of ſo performing the one as to receive the other, and are reſolved to continue ſo. We will not do our duty in other things, and then plead that we are unfit and unworthy to do it in this particular of the Sacrament.
3. The proper inference and concluſion from a total want of due preparation for the Sacrament, is not to caſt off all thoughts of receiving of it, but immediately to ſet about the work of preparation, that ſo we may be fit to receive it. For if this be true, that they who are abſolutely unprepared ought not to receive the Sacrament, nor can do it with any benefit; nay by doing it in ſuch a manner render their condition much worſe, this is a moſt forcible argument to repentance and amendment of life. There is nothing reaſonable in this caſe, bur immediately to reſolve upon a better courſe, that ſo we may be meet partakers of thoſe holy Myſteries, and may no longer provoke God's wrath againſt us by the wilfull neglect of ſo great and neceſſary a duty of the Chriſtian Religion. And we do willfully neglect it, ſo long as we do willfully refuſe to fit and qualifie our ſelves for the due and worthy
