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other to excuse themselves, but none that will excuse them before God and their own consciences another day.
What their pretences are, I shall not undertake to determine. They are so many, that they cannot easily be numbered. And many of them so vain and trifling, that they are not worth rehearsing. But the bottom of them all is this; men renounced the world, the devil, and the flesh in their baptism, but they are loth to do it in their lives: they then promised to serve God, but now they find something else to do. They have all one sin or other that reigns over them, and captivates their hearts and affections, so that they cannot endure the thoughts of parting with it. And they think, as they ought to do, that if they come to the Holy Sacrament, they must first examine themselves, repent of all their sins, turn to God, renew their baptismal vow, and resolve to lead a new life. But this they are resolved not to do. And if they should come to the Sacrament, it would but disturb their quiet, make them uneasy in their minds, and hinder them from enjoying the pleasure they were wont to take in all their sins And for their part, they had rather displease God than themselves; and neglect their duty rather than leave their sins. And so add sin to sin, and "treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God." This is plainly the case of most of those who live in the neglect of His Holy Commandment. And what can be said to such men? so long as such, they are not fit to come to the Communion. And therefore all that can be said to them, is only to beg of them to consider their condition before it be too late, and repent as soon as they can: lest they die, as they have lived, in sin, and so be punished with "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power."
But there are others who do receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood sometimes, as perhaps two or three times in a year; and my charity prompts me to believe, that they would do it oftener, if they thought it to be their duty. But there are some things which at first sight may seem, at least to them, to plead their excuse; and therefore deserve to be duly considered by us. As first, they say, our Church requires them only to receive three times a year: and they do not question but she would oblige them
