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sincere endeavours to please him. But if on the other side, they regard their sins abstracted from the dreadful punishment that ensues, they form the notion of a deity soft and careless, little moved with their faults, easy and indulgent to pardon them. Thus, the sensual presumer becomes secure and incorrigible in his wickedness. But we must consider these two objects as most strictly joined; the judgment of God with respect to sin that always precedes it, and sin with respect to the punishment that follows it, in the infallible order of divine justice. And thus we shall conceive of God becoming his perfections; that he is gracious and merciful, and loves the work of his hands; but that he is holy and just, and hates sin infinitely more than men love it. These are the two principal ideas we should form of God, with respect to his moral government, and are mainly influential on his subject. For the correspondent affections in us to those attributes, are a reverend love of his goodness and tender apprehension of his displeasure, the powerful motives to induce us to the practice of holiness, and avert us from sin.

Now that the divine law is not hard in its sanction, forbidding sin upon the pain of eternal death, will appear by a due representation of the essential evil of sin. This is discovered by considering.

(1.) The glorious object against whom it is committed. It is a rule universally acknowledged, that from the quality of the person offended, the measure and weight is taken of the offence. Now as the nature and perfections of God, so his dignity and majesty is infinite, and from hence the transcendent guilt of sin arises. The formalis ratio of sin is disobedience to the divine law, and the least breach of it, even a vain thought, an idle word, an unprofitable action, is in its proper nature a rebellious contempt of the authority of the wise and holy Law-giver. Now that a poor worm should dare to rebel against the Lord of heaven and earth, and if it were possible dethrone him, what understanding can conceive the vastness of its guilt? No finite sufferings in what degree soever are equal reparation for the offence. After the revolution of millions of years in a state of misery the sinner cannot plead for a release; because he has not made full payment for his fault, the rights of justice are not satisfied.

If it be objected, that this will infer an equality between all sins.

I answer, Though there is a great disparity in sins with respect to their immediate causes, circumstances, complicated nature and quality, by which some have a more odious turpitude adhering to them, yet they all agree in the general nature of sin, relating to the law of God, and consequently in their order to eternal death. The least disobedience has as truly the formality of sin, as what is so in the supreme degree. This may be illustrated by a comparison. As the parts of the world compared with one another, are of different elevation and greatness; the earth and water are in the lowest place, and but as a point to the celestial orbs, that are above the highest regions of the air; yet if we compare them with that infinite space that is without the circumference of the heavens, they are equally distant from the utmost extent of it, and equally disproportioned to its immensity. For greater or less, higher or lower, are no approaches to what is infinite. Thus there are several degrees of malignity in sins, compared one with another, but as they are injurious to the infinite and incomprehensible majesty of God, there is the same kind of malignity, and so far an equality between them. Rebellion in the least instance, is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness in the smallest matters, is as idolatry; that is, the least sin is as truly repugnant to the divine law, as those that in the highest manner are opposite to the truth and glory of the Deity. And from hence their proportion to punishment is not distinguished by temporal and eternal, but by stronger or remisser degrees of torment, by suffering the rods or scorpions of justice in that endless duration.

It is a vain excuse to say that God can receive no hurt by sin, as will appear in a case of infinitely a lower nature. The counterfeiting of the broad-seal does no hurt to the person of the king, but it is injurious to his honour and government, and the offender incurs the guilt of high-treason, and is punished accordingly.

(2.) Consider man's relation to God as the creator and preserver, who gives him life and innumerable benefits, who confers on him the most shining marks of his favour, and this unspeakably enhances the guilt of sin against God, by adding ingratitude to rebellion, the abuse of his goodness, to the ignominious affront of his majesty. The degrees of guilt arise in proportion to his duty and obligations. For man then to turn enemy against his

father and sovereign, to deprave and pervert his gifts, to deface his image, to obscure his glory, justly provokes his extreme anger. If in the judgment of mankind some heinous offenders, as parricides, the assassinators of kings, the betrayers of their country, contract so great a guilt as exceeds the most exquisite torments that the criminal can endure, and no less than death, that for ever deprives of all that is valuable and pleasant in this natural life, is an equal punishment to it; what temporal sufferings can expiate sin against God? For besides the transcendent excellence of his nature, infinitely raised above all other beings, there are united in him in an incomparable degree, all the rights. that are inherent in our parents, princes, or country, for benefits received from them. And may he not then justly deprive ungracious rebels for ever of the comforts of his reviving presence?

(3.) The necessity of eternal recompences to excite a constant. fear in men of offending God, makes the justice of them visible. For (as it has been proved before) whilst they are clothed with flesh and blood, the disposition inclining from within, and the temptation urging from without, if the punishment of sin were not far more terrible than the pleasures of it are alluring, there would be no effectual restraint upon the riots of the carnal appetite. Now if civil justice, for the preservation of society, wisely decrees such penalties for offences as are requisite to maintain the honour of laws that are founded in equity, either by preventing, or by repairing the injury done to them; is it not most righteous that the supreme Lord of the world should secure obedience to his most holy laws, by annexing such penalties as are necessary to induce a reverence of them in his subjects, and to execute the sentence in full severity upon presumptuous transgressors? Without this the divine government would be dissolved.

(4.) Eternal life, and eternal death are set before men, to encourage them to obedience, and deter them from sin, so that none dies but for wilful impenitence. And can there be the least aspersion of unjust rigour cast on God's proceedings in judgment? If it be said, it is so contrary to the most inviolable inclinations of nature, that no man can choose his own destruction: to that a full answer may be given, it is true man cannot divest reason and sense so as to choose directly and intentionally eternal misery, but virtually and by consequence he does. For the deliberate

choice of sin as pleasant or profitable, though damnable in the issue, is by just interpretation a choosing of the punishment that attends it. And to make it clear, that sinners are in love with perishing, let us consider.

1. The inestimable reward of obedience they refuse. It is a felicity worth as much as the enjoyment of God himself, and as durable as eternity. Now what is put in the balance against heaven? "Only this world that passes away with the lusts thereof." And it argues a violent propension in the will to carnal things, when the little fleeting pleasures of sense (how empty, how vanishing!) outweigh in the competition the substantial everlasting blessedness of the spirit. And what a vile contempt is it of the perfections of God, that such base things, such trifling temptations should be chosen before him? Were it not visibly true, reason would deny the possibility of it. It is as if the wife of a prince should prefer in her affections before him a diseased deformed slave. Or, as if one should choose the food of beasts, hay, acorns, or carrion, before the provisions of a royal table. This is no hyperbole, no exaggeration: but the reality, infinitely exceeds all figures. And is it not perfectly reasonable that sinners should inherit their own option?

2. This rejecting of eternal life by sinners, is peremptory against the best and often renewed means to induce them to accept of it. They are allured by the sweetest mercies, urged by the strongest terrors, to forsake their beloved lusts and be happy. And "till the riches of goodness and forbearance are despised," they are not past hopes. For though the sentence of the law be decisive upon the first act of sin, yet it is not irrevocable but upon impenitence in it. But when sin has such an absolute empire in the will, that no obligations, no invitations can prevail with it, it is manifest, that obstinacy is an ingredient in the refusal of heaven. And is it not most just that an obstinate aversation from God should be punished with an everlasting exclusion from his glory? This will clearly vindicate divine justice, and render sinners excuseless in the day of accounts. God will overcome when he judges, and every mouth be stopped. This will be a fiery addition to their misery, and feed the never-dying worm. For by reflecting upon what they have irrevocably lost, and what they must for ever suffer, and that by their own wretched choice, the awakened conscience turns the most cruel fiend against itself.

"In hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth." Extreme misery, and extreme fury, despair and rage, are the true characters of damnation.

in the present life, An habitual pravi

(5.) The defilement contracted by sins cleaves to him that dies in his sins for ever. ty possesses the soul, and expresses itself in direful blasphemies against the righteous Judge. And are not such polluted wretches for ever unworthy of the favour of God, and communion with him? Is it not most reasonable, the justice of God, should continue in its terrible effects, as long as the injustice of man remains invincible. Equum est, ut is qui nunquam desinit esse malus, nunquam desinat esse miser.

CHAP. XIII.

What influence the doctrine of the future state should have upon our practice. It must regulate our esteem of present things, And reconcile our affections to any condition here, so far as it may be an advantage to prepare us for the better world. The chiefest care is due to the immortal part. The just value of time, and how it should be improved, It is the best wisdom to govern our whole course of life here, with regard to eternity that expects us.

I WILL now briefly show what influence this principle of natu

ral religion should have on our practice. It is not a matter of pure speculation, but infinitely concerns all. For whatever inequality there is between men with respect to temporal accidents in the present state, yet there is no difference with regard to things future. Their souls are equally immortal, and capable of the same blessedness, and liable to the same misery. It is most necessary therefore to reflect upon what so nearly touches us.

If the eternal state hereafter were not an infallible truth, but only a probable opinion, and the arguments for and against it were so equal, that the understanding remained in suspence, yet

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