to fecure and guard them; 'tis not to Vol. II. Terrifie our Minds, but to fortifie them; 'tis not to enflave our felves by idle and vain fears, but 'tis to set our felves free from them, by a juft Moderation and wife Resolutions grounded on the very Nature of Things: But if Temporal Calamity be too cold and blunt a Motive to Moderation, let us in the next place to come 2. Reflect a little upon a Judgment After Solomon had ironically invited the young Man to let loose the Rein to a diffolute Paffion, he adds, But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Many are the Contemplations which a Judg. ment to come fuggefts to us, fufficient to chill the Heat and curb the Violence of the most ungovernable Paffion, I will content my self with laying before you two or three. 1. If there be a Heaven to reward Abstinence, which is implyed in a Judgment to come; ah! how much do we lose by our Senfual Indulgencies: the Pleasures of Sin are Temporal, but the Rewards of Vertue are Eternal. Temporal, did I say, alas! the Vol. II. the longest Life is but a Span of Time, and how little of that space does Pleafure fill up; nay, finful Pleasures are never drawn off clear, there is Mud and Sediment in every single Draught; we scarce taste it, before it ends in Bitterness and Repentance, in Shame and Fear. The Pleasures of Sin are like the gaudy Scenes the Devil prefented our Saviour on the top of a Mountain, when all the Kingdoms of the Earth, and the Glories thereof appeared and disappeared in the fame moment: and is it for this that we quit those Pleafures which are as Eternal as God, which shall look young and verdant, when we have enjoyed them as many Millions of Ages as there are little Drops in the vast Ocean? and yet this is not all, there is as vaft a Difproportion in the Worth and Excellence, as in the Duration of Sinful Pleasure and heavenly; the one is in intrinfick value and perfection, as much above the other, as Heaven is above Earth, or Angels, I had almost said God, is above Man. Will not this do neither, then confider Secondly Secondly, If there be a Hell to pu- Vol. II. nish Senfuality, which is fuppofed in a Judgment to come, ah! how dearly do we purchase every finful Indulgence, a Hell! a Dungeon! a Lake of Fire and Brimftone! a Fire that shall never be extinguished ! a Worm that never dies! a Region of Pain and Sorrow, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and that for ever! ah! how can the foft Soul of a Sensual Sinner think on these things! ah! Eternity, faid once an Epicurean, whom I very well knew, drawing nigh the last hour of Life, ah Eternity! faid he, fetting his Teeth, and darting wishful and distracted Looks on those about him and there he ftopt; he faid no more; more he could not fay, more he needed not fay; by this one word he laid open to all that ftood by, all those dismal Thoughts, all those gloomy and tormenting Fears that haraffed and diftreffed the departing Soul. Ileave this Example for fuch as are concerned in it to ponder upon. He that likes fuch a Death may lead fuch a Life. The 294 Vol. II. Thefruitlefnefs, fhamefulness, and punishment of Sin. Rom. VI. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof je are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death? WHEN HENI confider in the first place, that Sin is a voluntary Tranfgreffion of the Divine Law, and confequently an Act of Choice, not Neceffity; and next, what God has done to prevent and repress it ; that this is the great End for which he has bestow'd his Son and his Spirit upon the World; the great End which inceffantly imploys his ever-wife and ever-waking Providence; when I confider, lastly, that our refraining from it will be rewarded with a thousand Bleffings, ན Bleflings too great, too perfect, to be Vol. II. fully either conceiv'd or enjoy'd, till we be made equal with Angels; and our Commiffion of it punish'd with as many thousand Plagues: Plagues innumerable and infupportable; Plagues which Devils, as wilful and as wicked, as strong and hardy as they are, believe and tremble at, James 2. 19. when, I fay, I put these things together, I begin to wonder that there fhould be fuch a thing in the World as a Sinner; that Man, indow'd with Reason, fhould be capable of fo much folly, rather fo much boldness and defperate madness, as Sin amounts too; and yet, alas! Sin is the Business of the Fool, and the Temptation of the Wife; the Worst live in it, and the Best of Men fall into it; few there be that escape or free themselves from the Corruption that is in the World through Luftzand fewer far, who being escap'd and made partakers even of a Divine Nature, do not one time or other relapfe into fome A&s and Inftances of it. In this Cafe, what fball one think? fure there must be a fecret Magick in Sin; there must be a refiftless Force in Temptation; on the quite contrary, if my Text be true, as fure |