tions and reproofs from others; and contrary to our own most serious vows and refolutions, renewed at feveral times, especially upon receiving of the bleffed Sacrament, and in times of fickness and distress: and all this, notwithstanding the plaineft declarations of God's will to the contrary; notwithstanding the terrors of the Lord, and the wrath of God revealed from heaven, against all ungodlinefs and unrighteoufnefs of men; notwithstanding the cruel fufferings of the Son of God for our fins, and the most merciful offers of pardon and reconciliation in his blood. Add to this, the fcandal of our wicked lives to our holy religion; the ill example of them to the corruption and debauching of others; the affront of them to the divine authority; and the horrible ingratitude of them to the mercy, and goodnefs, and patience of God, to which we have fuch infinite obligations. Thus we fhould fet our fins in order before our eyes, with the feveral aggravations of them. 2. A hearty trouble and forrow for fin: I thought on my ways; that is, I laid my fins fadly to heart. And furely, whenever we remember the faults and follies of our lives, we cannot but be inwardly touched and fenfibly grieved at the thoughts of them; we cannot but hang down our heads, and fmite upon our breasts, and be in pain and heaviness at our very hearts. I know that the tempers of men are very different, and therefore I do not fay, that tears are absolutely neceffary to repentance; but they do very well become it: and a thorough fenfe of fin will almost melt the most hard and obdurate difpofition, and fetch water out of a very rock. To be fure, the confideration of our ways fhould cause inward trouble, and confufion in our minds. The least we can do, when we have done amifs, is to be forry for it; to condemn our own folly; and to be full of indignation and difpleasure againft ourselves for what we have done; and to refolve never to do the like again. And let us make fure that our trouble and sorrow for fin have this effect, to make us leave our fins; and then we fhall need to be the lefs folicitous about the degrees and outward expreffions of it. 4. A ferious confideration of the evil and unreafonableness of a finful courfe: That fin is the ftain and ble mifh of our natures, the reproach of our reafon and understanding, the disease and deformity of our fouls, the great enemy of our peace, the cause of all our fears and troubles; that whenever we do a wicked action, we go contrary to the cleareft dictates of our reafon and con⚫ fcience, to our plain and true intereft, and to the ftrongeft ties and obligations of duty and gratitude. And, which renders it yet more unreasonable, fin is a voluntary evil, which men wilfully bring upon themfelves. Other evils may be forced upon us, whether we will or no: a man may be poor or fick by misfortune; but no man is wicked and vitious but by his own choice. How do we betray our folly and weaknefs, by fuffering ourfelves to be hurried away by every foolish luft and pas fion; to do things which we know to be prejudicial and hurtful to ourselves, and fo bafe and unworthy in themfelves, that we are afhamed to do them, not only in the prefence of a wife man, but even of a child or a fool? So that if fin were followed with no other punishment befides the guilt of having done a fhameful thing, a man would not by intemperance make himself a fool and a beast one would not be falfe and unjust, treacherous or unthankful, if for no other reafon, yet out of mere greatnefs and generofity of mind, out of refpect to the dignity of his nature, and out of very reverence to his own reafon and understanding. For let witty men fay what they will in defence of their vices, there are fo many natural acknowledgements of the evil and unreafonableness of fin, that the matter is past all denial. Men are generally galled and uneafy at the thoughts of an evil action, both before and after they have committed it. They are afhamed to be taken in a crime, and heartily vexed and provoked whenever they are upbraided with it. And it is very obfervable, that though the greater part of the world always was bad, and vice hath ever had more fervants and followers to cry it up; yet never was there any age fo degenerate, in which vice could get the better of virtue in point of general efteem and reputation. Even they whofe wills have been most inflaved to fin, could never yet fo far bribe and corrupt their understandings, as to make them give full approbation to : it. 4. A due fenfe of the fearful and fatal confequences of a wicked life. And these are fo fad and dreadful, and the danger of them fo evident, and fo perpetually threatening us, that no temptation can be fufficient to excufe a man to himself, and his own reafon, for venturing upon them. A principal point of wisdom is, to look to the end of things; not only to confider the prefent pleasure and advantage of any thing, but also the ill confequen ces of it for the future, and to balance them one againft the other. Now, fin in its own nature tends to make men miferable. It certainly caufes trouble and difquiet of mind: and to a confiderate man, that knows how to value the eafe and fatisfaction of his own mind, there cannot be a greater argument against fin, than to confider, that the forfaking of it is the only way to find reft to our fouls. Befides this, every vice is naturally attended with fome particular mifchief and inconvenience; which makes it even in this life a punishment to itself and commonly the providence of God, and his juft judgement upon finners, ftrikes in to heighten the mischievous confequences of a finful courfe. This we have reprefented in the parable of the prodigal. His riotous courfe of life did naturally, and of itself, bring him to want; but the providence of God likewife concurred to render his condition more miferable: At the fame time there arofe a mighty famine in the land; fo that he did not only want wherewithal to fupply hiinfelf, but was cut off from all hopes of relief from the abundance and fuperfluity of others. Sin brings many miferies upon us; and God many times. fends more and greater than fin brings and the farther we go on in a finful courfe, the more miferies and the greater difficulties we involve ourselves in. But all these are but light, and inconfiderable, in comparifon of the dreadful miferies of another world, to the danger whereof every man that lives a wicked life doth every moment expofe himself: fo that if we could conquer fhame, and had ftupidity enough to bear the infamy and reproach of our vices, and the upbraidings of our confciences for them, and the temporal mifchiefs and inconveniences of them; though, for the prefent gratifying gratifying of our lufts, we could bruik and difpenfe with all thefe; yet the confideration of the end and iffue of a finful course, is an invincible objection against it, and never to be answered. Though the violence of our fenfual appetites and inclinations fhould be able to bear down all temporal confiderations whatfoever; yet, methinks, the intereft of our everlafting happine's fhould lie near our hearts; the confideration of another world fhould mightily amaze and startle us; the horrors of eternal darkness, and the dismal thoughts of being miserable for ever, fhould effectually difcourage any man from a wicked life. And this danger continually threatens the finner; and may, if God be not merciful to him, happen to furprife him the next moment. And can we make too much hafte to fly from fo great and apparent a danger? When will we think of faving ourselves, if not when, for ought we know, we are upon the very brink of ruin, and juft ready to drop into deftruction? 5. Upon this naturally follows a full conviction of the neceffity of quitting this wicked courfe. And neceffity is always a powerful and over-ruling argument, and doth rather compel than perfuade; and, after it is once evident, leaves no place for farther deliberation. And the greater the neceffity is, it is ftill the more cogent argument. For whatever is neceffary, is fo in order to fome end; and the greater the end, the greater is the neceffity of the means, without which that end cannot be obtained. Now, the chief and laft end of all reafon. able creatures, is happiness; and therefore whatever is neceffary in order to that, hath the highest degree of rational and moral neceffity. We are not capable of happiness till we have left our fins: For without holiness no man fhall the fee Lord. But though men are convinced of this neceffity, yet this doth not always inforce a prefent change; becaufe men hope they may continue in their fins, and remedy all at last by repentance. But this is fo great a hazard in all refpects, that there is no venturing upon it. And in matters of greatest concernment, wife men will run no hazard, if they can help it. David was fo fenfible of this danger, that he would not defer his repentance, and the change of his life, for one moment: I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy teftimonies : I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. This day, this hour, for ought we know, may be the laft opportunity of making our peace with God. Therefore we fhould make hafte out of this dangerous ftate, as Lot did out of Sodom, left fire and brimftone overtake us. He that cannot promife himfelf the next moment, hath a great deal of reafon to feize upon the present opportunity. While we are lingering in our fins, if God be not merciful to us, we fhall be confumed therefore make hafte, finner, and efcape for thy life, left evil overtake thee. 6. Laftly, An apprehenfion of the poffibility of ma king this change. God, who defigned us for happiness. at first, and after we had made a forfeiture of it by fin, was pleased to reftore us again to the capacity of it by the redemption of our bleffed Lord and Saviour, hath made nothing neceffary to our happiness that is impoffible for us to do, either of ourselves, or by the affiftance of that grace which he is ready to afford us, if we heartily beg it of him. For that is poffible to us which we may do by the affiftance of another, if we may have that affistance for afking and God hath promised to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. So that, notwithstanding the great corruption and weakness of our natures, fince the grace of God, which bringeth falvation, hath appeared, it is not abfolutely out of our power to leave our fins, and turn to God. For that may truly be faid to be in our power, which God hath promised to enable us to do, if we be not wanting to ourselves. So that there is nothing on God's part to hinder this change. He hath folemnly declared, that he fincerely defires it, and that he is ready to affiit our good refolutions to this purpofe. And moft certainly, when he tells us, that he hath no pleasure in the death of a finner, but rather that be fhould turn from his wickedness, and live; that he would have all men to be faved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth; that he would not that any fhould perifh, but that all fhould come to repentance; he means plainly as he faith, and doth not speak to us with any private referve, or nice diftinction, between his fecret and revealed will; that is, he doth not decree one |