be lefs common. But if they be great and habitually indulged alfo; that makes the worst of Cafes. Committing Sin can never be a flight Matter. For it is acting as our own Hearts tell us we ought not. It is likewife, for the most Part, injuring, one Way, or another, our Fellow-creatures: and it is always behaving undutifully and ungratefully to our Creator, who hath fovereign Power over us, and fhews continual Goodness to us. We may be fure therefore, that the Punishment, due to the leaft Sin, is fuch as will give us Cause to with from the Bottom of our Souls, that we had never done it. More enormous ones are of worse Desert, according to their Degree. And fince Recompences proportionable to them are not, with any Constancy, diftributed in this World; as certainly as God is just, they will in the next; unless we obtain Forgiveness in the mean Time: And all will be made miferable, as long as they are wicked.

This is the Main of what human Abilities unaffsisted feem capable of discovering to us concerning Sin and its Confequences; excepting it be, that as we have a natural Approbation of what is good, fo we have, along with it, a natural Proneness to what is evil: an Inconfiftence, for which Reason finds it hard, if poffible,

to account.

But here most seasonably Revelation comes in; and teaches, not indeed all that we might wifh, but all that we need to know of this whole Matter: that our first Parents were created upright; but foon tranfgreffed a plain and eafy Command of God, intended for a Trial of their Obedience: by which they perverted and tainted their Minds; forfeited the Immortality, which God had defigned them; brought Difeafes and Death on their Bodies; and derived to us the fame corrupt Nature and mortal Condition, to which they had reduced themfelves. An imperfect Illuftration of this lamentable Change, and I give it for no other, we may have from our daily Experience, that wretched Poverty, fatal Diftempers, and even vicious Inclinations, often defcend

from Parents to their Children. Now the finful Difpofitions, which our Origin from our primitive Parents hath produced in us, are called original Sin. And this Tranfgreffion of theirs may, very confiftently with divine Juftice, occafion, as the Scripture thews it hath, our being condemned, as well as they, to temporal Sufferings and Death. For even innocent Creatures have no Right to be exempt from them: and to fallen Creatures they are peculiarly inftructive and medicinal. The fame Tranfgreffion may alfo, with equal Juftice, occafion our being exposed to a more difficult Trial of our Obedience, than we fhould elfe have undergone; indeed than we fhould be able, by the Strength which remains in us, to fupport. And thus, were we left to ourselves, we muft, in Confequence of the Fall of our first Progenitors, become finally miferable. But God is ready to give us more Strength, if we will afk it: and. he may undoubtedly fubject us to any Difficulties that he pleases, provided he bestows on us, whether naturally or fupernaturally, the Power of going through them in the Manner, that he expects from us: which he certainly doth bestow on all Men. And if they ufe it, they will be accepted by him in a proper Degree: what that is, we are no Judges.

But when, instead of refifting our bad Inclinations, as through the Grace of God we may, we voluntarily follow and indulge them; then we fall into actual Sin; and are in Striétnefs of Speech guilty, and deferving of Punishment. And this Punishment the Scripture frequently expreffes by the Name of Death. For Death being the most terrible to human Nature, of all the Punifhments, that Man inflicts; it is ufed to fignify the moft terrible, that God inflicts; even thofe, which extend beyond Death, and are therefore called the fecond Death'. Accordingly our Saviour directs his Followers: Be not afraid of them that kill the Body; and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you wham ye shall fear. Fear him, which, after he hath killed,

bath Power to caft into Hell: yea, I say unto you, fear him b.

The Nature and Duration of the future Sufferings, reserved for Sinners, are moft awfully defcribed in the Word of God: the Declarations of which concerning them I fhall foon have Occafion to lay before you. But in the mean while we all know them to be fuch, as may abundantly fuffice to engage us in a most serious Inquiry, how we shall obtain, what was propofed to be explained, II. The Forgiveness of Sins. Now thus much our own Reafon evidently teaches; that when we have done amifs, we are to undo it, as far as we can. We are to

difapprove it, and be forry for it, as we have great Caufe; to beg Pardon of God, for having offended him; to make the best Amends we are able to our Fellow-creatures, if we have injured them; to be very humble in our Hearts, and very watchful in our future Conduct. Thefe Things, through God's Help, we can do: and these are all that Nature directs us to do. Undoubtedly he will never accept lefs: but the Question is, whether he will fo far accept this, as to be reconciled to us upon it. Since Wickednefs deferves Punishment, it may be justly punished. Being forry for it, is not being innocent of it. And the most careful Obedience afterwards no more makes a Compenfation for what went before, than avoiding to run into a new Debt pays off the old one: befides that we never obey fo well, as not to add continually fome Degree of fresh Mifbehaviour. God indeed is merciful; but he is equally righteous and holy, and abhorrent of Sin. And what can the mere Light of our own Understandings discover to us, with any Afsurance, from these Attributes joined? We fee, that in this World the most merciful Rulers, if they are just and wife alfo, which God is, often punish even those Offenders, who repent the moft heartily. The Honour and good Order of their Government requires it. And why

› Luke xii. 4, 5•

may

may not he have Reasons of the fame, or even of a different Nature, for doing the fame Thing?

Still the Cafe of Penitents must be more favourable, than that of others. And there is Ground for all fuch to hope, that fuch Pity, as can, will be fhewn them in fome Manner, though they cannot be fure how, or to what Effect. And God hath been pleased to confirm this Hope, from Time to Time, by various Revelations, gradually unfolding_his_gracious Designs: till, by the coming of our bleffed Lord, the whole Purpose of his Goodness was opened; as far as it is proper, that Mortals fhould be acquainted with it.

From thefe Revelations, contained in the Bible, we learn, that Repentance alone, even the completeft, would not be fufficient to reinftate us fully in God's Favour; much less the poor Endeavours towards it, which we of ourselves are capable of ufing: but that our Pardon and Salvation depend on the compaffionate Interceffion of a Mediator appointed by our heavenly Father: that a Perfon, who fhould deliver Mankind from the bitter Fruits of their Tranfgreffions, had in general been promifed, and the Promife been believed, from the earliest Ages; and more particular Notices of him gradually imparted to the fucceffive Generations of the chofen People: that at Length in the Seafon, which infinite Wisdom faw to be fitteft, he appeared on Earth, in the Character of the only begotten Son of God; taught his Followers the Precepts, and fet them the Example, of perfect Piety and Virtue; and after bearing cheerfully, for this Purpose, all the Inconveniences of mortal Life, fubmitted to fuffer a cruel Death from wicked Men, provoked by the Perfections which they ought to have adored: that this voluntary Sacrifice of him felf, the Almighty was pleafed to accept from him, whofe divine Nature, united to the human, gave it unfpeakable Value, as a Reason for entering into a Covenant of Mercy with all thofe, who fhould be influenced, by Faith in his Doctrines, to obey his Laws: that ftill neither our Obedience, nor our Faith itself, is at all meritorious, or

in any Degree the Caufe of our Acceptance; for they are both of them God's Gift; and they are both, through our Fault, very imperfect: but yet that thankful Belief in Chrift, as our Saviour from the Power and the Punifhment of Sin, working by Love to our Maker, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, our Fellow-creatures, is appointed the Condition of our obtaining, and the Inftrument of our receiving, Pardon.

The Reafons of this Appointment we fee, as through a Glafs, darkly: yet enough of them to convince us of its being the Wijdem of God, though in a Mystery. With respect to ourselves, it hath the most powerful Tendency to infpire us with Humility, Gratitude, and Diligence. With refpect to the bleffed Jefus, it was a fit Reward for what he had done and fuffered, to take thofe into Favour again, for whom he had interested himself with fuch inexpreffible Goodnefs. And with refpect to God, it was a ftrong Demonftration of his Concern for the Glory of his Attributes, and the Honour of his Government, that he would not be reconciled to Sinners on any other Terms, than fuch an Interpofition of fuch a Perfon in their Behalf: which yet, fince he himself provided, as well as accepted, his Kindnefs to us is no lefs, than if he pardoned us without it. Thus then did Mercy and Truth meet together, Righteoufnefs and Truth kiss each other; and God thew himself juft, and yet the Justifier of them which believe in Jefus &.

But then we must always remember, that none will be forgiven and made happy by the Means of Christ, but they who are reformed and made holy by his Means: that his Sacrifice is not to ftand inftead of our Repentance and Amendment; but is the Confideration which induces God first to work in us pious Difpofitions, then to accept us, if we cultivate and exert them faithfully.

Perhaps the Benefit of this Sacrifice may extend, in a very valuable, though inferior Degree, even to thofe

< Gal. v. 6. XXXV, 10.

d1 Cor. xiii. 12, Rom. iii. 26.

* 1 Cor. ii. 7.

Pfal.

who