and Juftice they are set forth in the Words of the Text, it may be worth our while, in the following Difcourfe, to confider. And here, as was obferved before, we find Sin reprefented to us under three Characters.

I. IT is unfruitful; what Fruit had
ye then of those things.

II. IT is shameful; whereof ye are
now ashamed.

III. It is deftructive; the End of those
things is Death.

1. THEN, Sin is unfruitful? What Fruit had ye then in those things?

What Fruit? i. e. what Profit, what Advantage had ye then of thofe Things then, even at the Time when ye were engaged in the Service of Sin?

THE Only Circumftance, which Sin has to boast of, is prefent Enjoyment: And if even this Quality be found not to confift with Sin, then the whole Amiableness of it is entirely loft and removed. Now if we confider Sin in a general View, it has been so far from providing for the Q 4 Welfare

Welfare of the World, that it has been productive of all the Calamities which Mankind has ever felt: It first introduced Mifery into the World; and not content, through our firft Parents, to entail Afflictions upon all the Generations of Men, it goes on to load us with Variety of fresh Plagues. The, neceffary Tendency indeed of Sin is Mifery; but befides thofe Punishments, which moft Vices draw down upon us by their natural and immediate Confequences, all the fevere Judgments of the Almighty might have been entirely fpared, had not the Sin of Man made fuch Afflictions abfolutely neceffary. For an Inftance of this, we may look up to the moft terrible Judgment, that, fince the Fall, was ever executed upon the World; when, in the Mightiness of his Wrath, God opened the Windows of Heaven, and broke up the Fountain of the great Deep, and deftroyed both Man and Beaft from the Face of the Earth by a general Deluge. The Reason of this heavy Difpleasure is exprefly faid in the Holy Scriptures to haye been the Wickednefs of Man, becaufe

cause it was exceeding great, and the Thought of every Imagination of his Heart was only evil continually.

:

THE fame Reafon extends to Nations and Cities; Sodom and Gomorrah, Jerufalem and Babylon, owe their Destruction entirely to the Wickedness of their Inhabitants For when the Contagion of Vice hath generally spread among a People, fo that the prevailing Practices afcend up to God as a Sacrifice of Abomination; when the publick Outrages of clamorous Impiety call for immediate and exemplary Vengeance, then can the Almighty's Fury be no longer stopp'd, but Destruction overwhelms 'em in the midft of their Iniquities, and, in the Violence of God's Indignation, they are wiped away from under Heaven.

PRIVATE Calamities are not indeed in fo ftated and direct a Manner the Effects of God's Wrath, but they are all the Offspring of Sin: God never afflicts his Creatures willingly; Peace, Wealth, and Profperity are the Bleffings which the Goodness of the Holy One would choofe to indulge us with, if our own Perverse

nefs

nefs would not turn them into Curfes : And however Afflictions, under our prefent Circumstances, may ferve many deep and exalted Purposes of God's Providence, yet the Malignity of our Sins it is that makes fuch fevere Remedies the neceffary Phyfick of our diftemper'd Souls.

UPON this general View then, we find that Sin is not only unfruitful, but mifchievous; nor will a particular View tend at all to its Advantage, But however fome Perfons may vainly fancy, that amidst this general Disorder, they may, by their Sins, come to a larger Share of worldly Riches, Honour and Pleasure, than a Life of Virtue could probably procure, (as Plunderers are generally great Gainers by Publick Calamities) yet if the moft happy Man in an earthly Notion, which this World could ever boast of, was to take a Retrofpect of his Life, he would find a vaft Difproportion between the Satisfaction he receives, and the Evil he fuftains from Sin; for all the Evil he does fuftain, is from Sin in general.

BUT moreover, the tranfitory and uncertain Nature of finful Delights, are

Circum

Circumftances which would deter a wife Man from making them his Hope and Confidence; and befides, at the very best, the fullest Enjoyments of them are but Vanity, large in Expectation, low and trifling in Fruition; fo that Defire and Disappointment make up the Whole of a Sinner's Life.

THE Character given of Man in his Primitive State is this, that God made Man upright, a Being perfect in his Kind; all his Faculties were well contrived to act in a regular and harmonious Subordination; and by acting according to that Difpofition, the Dignity of our Nature can only be preferv'd, and therein the Perfection and Happiness of our Being do entirely confift: But on the contrary, the Dethronement of our Reafon by Sin, infers the Confufion of rebellious Pafficns, and all the corroding Cares of Selfcontradicting Appetites; fo that however happy the outward Man may feem in the Abundance of Wealth and Honour and fenfual Enjoyments, that Happiness is too flight and fuperficial to affect his Soul; Tumult and Disorder rage

within