or a Devil So that tho' Vice may sometimes be in Vogue where it is universally spread and propagated yet it being a Vogue without Foundation all the Credit it gives is only a fantastick Being a thing that is only the Sport and Dalliance of vulgar Breath and popular Noise but whilst its own blind Votaries sing Hosanna's to it and strew its way with Palms all the World besides exclaim against and cry unanimously Crucify it Crucify it So that while it is honored at home it is vilified abroad and tho' we may be sometimes so besotted as to reckon it our Glory yet to be sure all wise and indifferent Iudges will upbraid it to us as our Shame For what wicked Nation is there that hath ever escaped the Reproaches and Infamy of Mankind that hath abandoned it self to Fraud and Treachery to Softness and Effeminacy to Oppression and Cruelty and hath not thereupon drawn upon it self the Scorn and Hissing of all the Nations round about it And when a People are grown cheap and despicable in their Neighbours eyes when their Faith is suspected their Truth branded and their Virtue stained and blemished what Support or friendly Intercourse can they expect from them Who will trust to their Leagues or Confederacies or enter into Commerce with them who have neither Truth nor Iustice to secure them for so much Reputation as a Nation loses so much Strength it loses for 't is a mighty Strength to a People to be feared and lov'd by their neighbouring Nations neither of which they can expect to be when once they have sunk their Reputation for who will dread an effeminate People softned with Luxury and Voluptuousness or who will love a profligate People distained with Cruelty and Falshood And when a People hath not Credit enough to make them either fear'd or lov'd if then they are not ruin'd and destroy'd it is because their Enemies either think it not worth the while or are not at leisure to attempt it And thus you see how many ways Wickedness contributes to the Ruine of a Nation So that when Wickedness hath overspread a People and is become their Epidemical disease it doth not only bode their approaching fate but hastens it and pulls it headlong down upon them and without a Miracle they must reform or sink or perish For unless God alters the natural Course of things and hinders necessary Causes from producing their Effects it will be as impossible to hinder the Ruine of a Kingdom that is overwhelmed with Wickedness and obstinately continues so as it is to save a House from burning that is wrapt and compassed round with Flames because the burning of a House is not a more necessary Effect of the Flames that surround it than the Ruine of a Nation is of the Sins that overspread it One way therefore there is left and only one for such a Nation to save it self and that is by Repentance which brings me to the next Proposition in the Text That true Repentance and Amendment is the certain way to prevent that Ruine which our Iniquities threaten Repent and turn your selves from all your trangressions so iniquity shall not be your ruin But before I enter upon this Proposition I shall draw a few practical Inferences from what hath been said 1. From hence I infer what plagues and nuisances wicked Men are to a Kingdom since the Tendency of Sin in so many particulars is so very destructive to its Welfare and Interest These are the grand disturbers of Israel the wretched Incendiaries that set all in Flames and Combustions about them their Sins are the Trains that do give Fire to those Mines of Ruine that sink and tear up Kingdoms and their Breasts are the Seminaries and Harbourers of those Traitors that do conspire against and undermine our Peace and Happiness For as for those Traytors without tho' they were a thousand times if possible more crafty and restless and malicious than they are we might defy their hellish Plots and Intreagues and smile at their vain Attempts did not our Sins contribute to make us miserable but when we by our own Wickedness will joyn hands with their restless Craft and Malice assist them against our selves and co-operate with them to our own destruction what remedy is there for us when the sins of our Friends are conspiring our ruine together with the malice of our Enemies how can we hope either wholly to escape or much longer to defer it for if ever that destruction come upon us which hath been so long designing and is now hanging over us this Epitaph will very well fit our Tombs Here lies a miserable Nation whose Ruine is owing more to their own Sins than to all the Designs and Powers of their Enemies Consider this therefore O you Sinners in this our Sion you are tho you know it not in a strict confederacy with the Priests and Iesuits against your native Country against the Protestant Religion and against the Liberties and Properties of English Men you are accessary to all those Treasons which they have contrived and are still contriving against the Religion and Laws and Government of the Nation and if ever they thrive and take effect which the God of Heaven avert we may thank you for prospering and succeding them who by your pride and sensuality your fraud and faction your covetousness and oppression do what in you lyes to ripen and give a prosperous birth to the treasonous designs of our common Adversaries And therefore if yet you have any regard either for this sinking Kingdom whose Womb bore you or to this bleeding Church whose Paps gave you suck both which in the most sorrowful postures that a Church and Kingdom can be well reduced to are now crying out unto you O you our cruel and unnatural Children have pity upon us have pity upon us if I say you have any regard either for the one or the other O be now at last perswaded to commiserate their deplorable Condition to take off those loud-mouthed Sins you have set upon them and are now like a Pack of Hounds tearing and worrying them in pieces 2. From hence I infer what is the true Cause of those many national Evils which we feel and justly fear For since Iniquity doth so directly tend to the Ruine of a Nation to what other Cause may we more truly attribute either those present or those future Evils that have or shall befal us When any Calamity befals us we are apt to ascribe it all either to false or else to partial Causes and if we reckon Sin among the Causes to be sure we skip and overlook our own 'T is the Carelesness or ill Design of this or t'other Minister of State crys one 't is the Peevishness and Faction of such a Gang and Party crys another 't is the Rigour and Severity of those who comply with and contend for the legal Establishment crys a third when these at most are but a partial Cause and
this Reason he that hath said do not commit adultery said also do not kill James 2. 10 11. i. e. it is the same Authority that forbids the one as well as the other and therefore tho' thou dost not the one yet if thou dost the other thou sinnest against the Authority of both Seeing therefore we are not accounted universally righteous by the Law of Christ unless we do universally obey it a partial Resolution to obey can never constitute us Righteous because such a Resolution will never make us universally obedient Then shall I not be ashamed saith David when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Psal. 119. 6. So that to make our Resolution a Christian Principle of Righteousness it is necessary that it should be universal i. e. of equal extent with that Law which is the Measure of our Righteousness that like a fruitful Womb it should be pregnant with every good Work and vertually contain in it every Particular that our Religion hath made our Duty 5. It must be a prevailing Resolution a Resolution of such Force as doth engage us to do what we resolve and actually prevails over all Temptations to the contrary For all the Vertue of a good Resolution consists in its Relation to Action because if that we resolve to do be not necessary it is indifferent whether we resolve to do it or no but if it be it must be done otherwise we had been as good never to have resolved to do it The goodness of our Resolution therefore consists in this that it is an Engagement to practise what we resolve and consequently if our Resolution to obey God be not prevalent enough to engage us to obey him it is so far from being a true Principle of Christian Righteousness that it is a meer insignificant Cypher For as that can be no Cause which produces no Effect so that can be no Principle of Righteousness which is not productive of it and if to make it a Principle of Righteousness it is necessary that it should be a prevalent Engagement to a righteous Life then it follows that when it ceases to be prevalent it ceases to be a Principle of Righteousness and consequently that whenever we do commit any Sin that is inconsistent with a prevailing Resolution to obey God we do for that Time cease to be righteous Men. But there are no Sins inconsistent with a prevailing Resolution to obey God but such as do prevail against it and actually over-power it and therefore as for those Weaknesses Surreptions and Surprizes which for Distinction-sake we call Sins of Infirmity either we do not consent to them and consequently they are so far from over-powering our good Resolution that they do not at all contest with it or if we do consent to them it is unawares before we can oppose our Resolution against them So that tho' upon Surprize they do win our Consent yet they do not win it from our good Resolution which in this suddain Hurry of Thoughts had not time to canvas for it but had Power enough to have obtained it had it had but Opportunity to prefer its Claim and therefore as for such Sins as these they may fairly comport with a prevailing Resolution of Obedience But then there are Sins of Wilfulness which proceed either from wilful Habits or from deliberate Choice and these are no more consistent with such a Resolution than one Contrary is with another in the same Degree For he who sins wilfully is prevalently resolved to sin and to be so and at the same time prevalently resolved to obey God is a Contradiction in Terms Whilst therefore Sin hath the Prevalence in us we are so long Servants of Sin and do so long cease to be Servants of Righteousness 'T is true there are Degrees of Wickedness and the longer a Man continues wicked the worse he will be but still he is a wicked Man who is more prevalently resolved to sin than to obey God and he who is so tho' but for an Hour or a Day is so long wicked as well as he who continues so for a Month or a Year He is not wicked indeed to so high a Degree and so may far more easily recover but from the Time that we deliberately consent to any known Sin to the Time that we repent of it we are wilful Sinners If we repent immediately we immediately recover into that good Estate from whence we were fallen and so our Wound is cured almost as soon as it is made For the proper Repentance of single Acts of wilful Sin is either to resolve not to repeat them or where it can be done to undo them again by Restitution But when our baffled Resolution to obey God is thus recover'd into a prevalent Engagement to obey him it revives into a living Principle of Righteousness but yet before we can reasonably conclude it is such we must make some Tryal of it for as it is certain that until it be Prevalent it is not a true Principle of Righteousness so it is certain that till for some time it hath actually prevailed we cannot be secure that it is prevalent That is not to be called a prevalent Resolution that for a Day or a Week puts us into a Fit of Religion and so expires such flashy Purposes are so far from being thorough Cures that they are only so many Intermissions of our Disease that always leave us as bad or worse than they found us But if upon sufficient Tryal we find that our Resolution doth hold against all Temptations and actually engage us to our Duty in despite of all Sollicitations to the contrary we may then safely conclude that it is that very vital Principle which in the Judgment of our holy Religion doth constitute us Righteous Men. And accordingly Matth. 21. 28 29 30. our Saviour compares those who might but did not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to a Son that first resolved to go whither his Father commanded him but afterwards cooled and did not obey implying that the great Fault which spoiled his Resolution and rendred it insignificant was this that it was not firm and prevalent which had it been it had actually entered him in the Kingdom of Heaven 6. And lastly It must be a Resolution to obey God springing out of our Belief of the Christian Religion and this it is which renders it strictly and properly a Christian Principle of Righteousness 'T is true indeed if either we never heard of Christianity or it had never been proposed to us with sufficient Motives of Credibility our Infidelity would have been only our Misery but not our Crime and if upon a through Consideration of the Arguments of natural Religion and of the Good and Evil which naturally springs out of good and evil Actions we were effectually resolved to study the Will of God and so far as we understood it to obey it it had been no criminal Defect in our Resolution not to be founded upon
more he hath offended him for the time past by so much the more he will study to please him for the time to come 6. And lastly Another necessary Fruit of Repentance is Caution and Wariness for the future not to offend again in the same or the like Instances For Repentance is a penal Duty in which a Man undergoes some degree of the smart and punishment of his Fault in which he indures the Shame and Confusion of a guilty Mind the Regrets and Remorses of an awaken'd Conscience and the burnt Child we say will dread the Fire He that hath undergon the severe Discipline of a deep and solemn Repentance will be sure to take warning by it and be very cautions for the future not to approach those sins for which he hath smarted so severely And hence we find that Repentance is not only expressed in Scripture by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Change of Mind but also by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies an After-Care which shews that though the Essence of Repentance consists in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Change of our mind yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an After-Care to avoid those sins from which our Minds are changed and converted is a necessary Effect and Fruit of Repentance it being an usual Figure in Scripture to express Causes by their most natural and easie Effects And indeed when I see Men boldly approaching and venturing towards those Vices of which they pretend to have heartily repented I cannot but suspect that their Repentance is nothing but a Pretence that 't was only a present Pet and Distaste that they took against their sin upon some ungrateful Accident or under a sudden Qualm of Conscience and that it never proceeded so far as to a cool and deliberate Change of their Judgment and Resolution concerning it For certainly had they undergon those Lashes of Conscience those sharp and cutting Reflections that are usually necessary to prepare the way for such a Change they could never be so fool-hardy as to play upon the hole of the Asp again and to thrust their hands into the den of the Cockatrice after they have been so severely stung by it and the Remembrance of those Agonies of Soul those Spasms and Convulsions of Conscience which their sin hath already cost them would make them tremble to think of it and be instead of a Sea-mark to forewarn and terrify them from approaching it again But such was the humour of the Pharisees that though they pretended to be Penitents yet when it served their Cause and Interest they were as bold and venturous at an evil Action as ever For so our Saviour long after this Reprehension of the Baptist and consequently after this their pretence of Repentance charges them with being as intimate and familiar with their old Vices as ever It was their way indeed and so it was always to make their Religion a Cloak and Pretence for their Wickedness but to serve their own Faction which they called propagating the Glory of God they esteemed nothing unlawful And though in any point that was repugnant to the Interest of their Sect they were the most nice and scrupulous People in the World yet to serve their Cause they could lye and forswear themselves with the help of a juggling Reserve or Distinction as our Saviour observes of them Matth. xxiii 16. And no doubt but they could have taken Oaths and Sacraments too against their Consciences to keep their Placcs in the Sanhedrim and there carry on their factious and turbulent Designs It being therefore evident by their being so venturous upon sinful Actions that their Pretence to Repentance was false the Baptist dismisses them with this severe Admonition go bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance i. e. let me see you more wary and cautions of running into those sinful Courses of which you now pretend to repent and then I shall have some reason to believe that you are Penitents indeed And certainly while a Man affects to draw near to his old Sins and to dwell in the Neighbourhood of them whilst he delights in their Remembrance and loves to sport and entertain himself with their phantastick Pleasures while he affects to dwell within View of their Temptations to venture to the very Edge and Brink of them to the very utmost Limits of lawful and innocent it is a very ill sign that he never had that thorough Sense of their Malignity and Danger that is necessary to an hearty Repentance for if he had he would be afraid of all Approaches and Tendencies towards them and be ready to start and run away not only from the sins themselves but even from their Appearances and Resemblances And thus I have endeavoured to give you an Account of the natural Fruits and Effects of true Repentance by considering of which and impartially consulting our own Experience of our selves we may easily determine whether the Repentance we pretend to if we pretend to any at all be true or false We live in an Age that doth so abound with all sorts and degrees of Wickedness that a Man can hardly mention any kind of Wickedness or party of wicked men that are branded for such either in Sacred or Profane History but it is presently suspected that his design is to reproach and expose some Party or other among our selves And I confess if men will set themselves to guessing who is meant by the Pharisees and who by the Sadducees they may find Parallels enough of both in this degenerate Age and God knows they go together too often now in pursuance of worse Designs than those Sadducees and Pharisees that came together to Iohn's Baptism But if any should ask me who or what Party of Men it is I reflect upon in these severe Representations I have made of Pharisaical Pretenders to Repentance I can truly answer that I intend no one Party of whatsoever Denomination there being among all Parties a great many that do not so much as pretend to Repentance and among most as I verily hope a great many that do more than pretend to it But the Pharisees whom I mean are those whom the Baptist and after him our Saviour himself do so smartly inveigh against and if you please to consult St. Matthew xxiii you will there find them treated with much more Severity by the meekest and most charitable Person that ever was But if in any Party among our selves there be any such Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Repentance as these Pharisees were as I doubt there are too many among all Parties I must then ingenuously acknowledge that I mean them too And if any thing that hath been said should reflect upon and gall them they ought to consider that that is their own Fault They may avoid being Hypocrites but We must not avoid declaiming against Hypocrisy and when ever we do so we must reflect upon them whether we will or no. If Men will be Hypocrites our Saviour's
our Wills are byassed with bad Habits and Inclinations and our Thoughts dispersed and squander'd among the infinite Diversions that surround us it is morally impossible that is it is not reasonably to be expected that in these Circumstances we should be always upon our Guard against every evil Object without and every evil Motion within us so as never to be surprized or to act unadvisedly Whenever therefore we are so surprized into an evil Action as that we could not consider if we would either for Want of Time or for Want of Order and Distinction in our Thoughts occasioned by some suddain Tumult of Passion this is not our Fault but our Infelicity because our Will is no way concerned in it But when we are so surprized as that notwithstanding we might have considered had we taken all due Care to recollect our selves and exert our utmost Attention this is partly our Fault because there is something of Will in it but more our Infelicity because there is more of Weakness and Infirmity than Will in it and therefore is called a sin of Infirmity which by the merciful Indulgence of the Gospel is discharged of Course from all eternal Penalties But if when we are tempted we either designedly omit to consider or consent upon Consideration this is pure Malice of Will which while we are born of God can have no Place in us 4. And lastly I must premise that the same Actions may be Sins of Weakness and Sins of Wilfulness in the same or in different Persons under different Circumstances For seeing it is the willing of an evil Action that makes it be a sin it necessarily follows that it is the willing of it in a greater or a lesser Degree that makes it a greater or a lesser Sin and it is certain that the same sin may have more or less of Will in it in the same or different Persons under different Circumstances As for Instance one Man may be excusably ignorant of the Evil of such an Action which another doth either know to be a Sin or would have known it had he not been wilfully ignorant and that Sin which this Man commits upon Deliberation another may be hurried into on a suddain surprize in which Case tho' both do the same Act and in some Sense both do it willingly too yet because the one wills it more intensely than the other it is a Sin of Wilfulness in the one and a Sin of Infirmity in the other And this holds true also in the same Person who may do the same Action ignorantly and inconsiderately at one Time and knowingly and advisedly at another and if when he hath fallen into any Sin unawares he is wilfully careless and neglective to prevent the Return of it that which now is a pitiable Weakness and as such falls under the general Indulgence of the Gospel will anon be inexcusable Obstinacy From all which it is apparent that is not the Kind of the Sin but the Will of the Sinner that makes the Difference between Sins of Weakness and Wilfulness seeing the same Sins according to the different Degrees of Will that are in them may be Sins of Infirmity at one time and Sins of Obstinacy at another For so by the Law of England the same Act of Killing is distinguished into Chance-medly Manslaughter and Murther the first of which is innocent because it hath no Will in it the second pitiable because but imperfectly willed the third capital because freely chosen and fully consented to And so also by the Christian Law the very same Act under different Circumstances may be an innocent Error a sin of Infirmity and a sin of Wilfulness for if it be perfectly involuntary it is an innocent Error if imperfectly willed it is a sin of Infirmity but if fully consented to a sin of Wilfulness So long therefore as the Temptations of Men are so infinitely various and their Capacities of resisting so unequal in different Persons there will be more or less of Will in the same Actions and the same Act will be far more excusable where there is a greater Temptation to it and a less Power of resisting then it can be when the Temptation is less and the Power of resisting it greater All that can be done therefore in the Case before us is this to lay down such general Rules of Distinction between Sins of Infir-mity and Sins of Wilfulness as that thereby every Man that hath the free Use of his own Faculties may upon a due Consideration of his Particular Circumstances distinguish whether his Sin be wilful or no. For when all is done every Man must thus far be his own Casuist it being impossible for another to determine what Degrees of Will there are in his Sin unless he knew under what Circumstances he committed it because different Circumstances do vary the Case and make the Sin to be more or less voluntary These Things premised I come now particularly to state what those Sins are upon the Commission of which we cease to be born of God and these I shall rank under 3 Heads 1. Sins of wilful Ignorance 2. Sins of wilful Inconsideration 3. Sins against Knowledge and Consideration 1. Sins of wilful Ignorance I say wilful to exclude all invincible and unaffected Ignorance By invincible Ignorance I mean such as we neither do nor can surmount by the utmost Improvement we can make of our Reason For sure not to understand what we cannot understand is not all criminal and if our Ignorance be innocent whatever is the necessary Effect of it must be so too all necessary Effects being of a common Nature with their Causes And certainly no Man breathing can be innocent if he be not so who acts to the best of his Knowledge and knows to the best of his Capacity For so our Saviour himself pronounces concerning the Pharisees If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now you say that you see therefore your sin remains John 9. 4. By unffected Ignorance I mean such as is vincible but by Reason of some innocent Hindrances such as the Obscurity of the Object or the Weakness of the Capacity or the innocent Prejudice and Prepossession of the Understanding is not to be removed without extreme Difficulty which tho' it be so far sinful as it is within the Reach of our Power to be better informed yet is by no Means to be accounted a wilful Sin For if it be wilful Sin not to know and do the Will of God to the utmost of our Power there is no Sin in the World but what is wilful because it is no Sin at all not to do more than our utmost But then there is a wilful and affected Ignorance which proceeds either from our prophane Contempt and Regardlessness of God by which we have so far extinguished our natural Sense of Religion as not to think it worth the while to concern our selves about it and so rudely stop our Ears against all the
wilful And This is twofold viz. actual and habitual Actual is either when notwithstanding we have been sufficiently forewarned by precedent Surprizes we are wilfully neglective of our selves and take no Care to fortify our Minds by Consideration against them in Case they should return again upon us or when upon the Appearance of a prevailing Temptation we either quench the good Motions of our own Consciences and refuse to consider the Evil and Danger of the Sin we are tempted to lest we should be deterred from committing it or purposely contrive to baffle our own Consideration and to render it ineffectual by opposing against it either some ungrounded Hope of Impunity or some fallacious Promise of future Amendment In all which Cases our Inconsideration is apparently wilful and so consequently must the Sins be which follow upon it and he who pleads his own wilful Inconsideration as an Excuse for his Sin doth only Apologize for one Fault by another which instead of extenuating inflames and aggravates it And then as for habitual Inconsideration it is the Effect of our frequent stifling the Convictions of our own Consciences whereby we fear them into a deep Insensibility of Good and Evil so as that at last we Sin on without Remorse and return to our Lusts with a perfect Indifferency without ever considering what we do or reflecting upon what we have done Now as it is no Excuse for our Sin if it proceeds from a sinful Habit contracted by frequent Acts of wilful Sin so neither will it excuse our Sin that it proceeds from an habitual Inconsideration contracted by often refusing to consider And as vicious Habits have a proper Evil and Guiltiness in them distinct from those vicious Acts that produced them so habitual Inconsideration hath in it a peculiar Venom of its own beyond what was in those wilful Acts of Inconsideration whereby it was contracted And accordingly in Scripture it is described as the most desperate State of Sinners it is to be past feeling which was the Condition of the leudest and most irreclaimable Gentiles Eph. 4. 19. it is to have a seared conscience the Character of Sinners under the last Apostacy 1 Tim. 4. 2. it is to have a reprobate mind which was the Cause and Effect of the foulest Gentile Impieties 1 Rom. 28 29. In a word it is to have a hard and unrelenting Heart by which Men are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. 3. And lastly another Sort of wilful Sins are such as are wilfully committed against Knowledge and Consideration I say again wilfully to exclude those known Evils which either we do not all consent to or very imperfectly For it is a known Evil for a Man to rove in his Devotions or to think blasphemous Thoughts of God or to be drowsy and liftless in our Addresses to him and yet many times these are the necessary Effects even of innecent Causes such as Melancholy or Weariness or antecedent Thoughtfulness and therefore tho' they are evil in the Matter yet because they necessarily proceed from such Causes as are not evil we are no more accountable for them than for the Returns of our Appetite or the Palpitation of our Heart and if we do not indulge our Drowsiness nor harbour and entertain our evil Thoughts but throw them out of our Minds as soon as we observe them and keep a more careful Watch to prevent their Return our Will is innocent and so long we may be sure God will not condemn us for our Weakness Again it is a known Evil for a Man to be angry without a Cause or to have an unchast Desire or to love or hate or hope or fear or rejoyce or grieve unreasonably yet these Evils are such as no Care can wholly prevent and against which no Warchfulness is a sufficient Guard And tho' in many of these Instances there be many times so much of our Will intermingled as to render us culpable yet this is not sufficient to extinguish the Principle of our Regeneration or to degrade us into a State of Wickedness But when a Man knows that such an Action is evil and either actually considers that it is so or neglects to consider it through habitual Inconsideration and thereupon actually consents to it he doth hereby openly defy God and maliciously trample upon his Authority being desperately resolved to pursue his sinful Desire let God and his Conscience say what they can to the contrary which is such an Height of wilful Malice as no Apology can extenuate Hence our Saviour pronounces that the servant that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12. 47. And accordingly St. Iames tells us that he that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin that is 't is a very great and inexcusable Sin Iames 4. 17. and St. Paul assures us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness that is who know the Truth and yet wilfully sin against their Knowledge Rom. 1. 18. and to name no more Heb. 10. 26. we are told that if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin which Words are to be understood according to the general Analogy of the Gospel if we sin wilfully i. e. if we are deliberately guilty of any known Sin after we have received the knowledge of the truth i. e. have been chatechized and baptized in the Christian Faith there remains no mere sacrifice for sin i. e. unless we recover our selves by Repentance and Amendment of the Fact And seeing that where we sin wilfully the Vertue of the great Sacrifice for Sin hath no Place without a special and particular Repentance and consequently there is no other Remedy left for us in the Gospel all that remains is what follows in the next verse viz. a certain fearful looking for of Iudgment and fiery indignation to devour the adversary From whence it follows that upon our sinning knowingly and wilfully in any particular Instance we fall into a State of Wrath and Condemnation and consequently fall from the happy State of our Regeneration or being born of God And now to conclude this Argument from the whole I infer the horrible Evil of consenting to any known Sin after we have entered into good Resolutions to the contrary which will plainly appear upon the following Considerations 1. Consider the shameful Weakness and Impotency of it For such Resolutions if they are well formed are grounded on the strongest and most momentous Reasons in the world and for a Man to Cancel a Resolution inforced with such powerful Motives for a meer Vanity or to gratify some foolish and importunate Lust the Pleasure of which dyes away in the Enjoyment argues him to have a base and prostitute Mind that hath no Strength of Thought or stedfastness of
Enmity and Hatred she hath towards it causes an anxious Contraction of the Heart and Compression of the Animal Spirits which produces a Chilness in the Breast a retarding of the Blood and an unequal motion of the Pulse and then the Soul sympathizing with the Body cannot but be sensible of this ungrateful Passion it is put into which must needs add to her Hatred of those odious Objects which were the Cause of it and cause her more vehemently to shun and avoid them So again when the Soul is moved to Sorrow and Repentance for any past Sins and Miscarriages the sad Regrets she suffers within her self produce a very doleful Passion in the Body such as pinches the Heart congeals the Blood and causes an ungrateful Languor of the Spirits and then by compassionating her grieved Consort she is thereby excited to a higher degree of Displeasure against those Sins that caused its Grief and Disturbance Lastly when the Soul is joyed and delighted with any religious Object or Exercise by that sweet Complacency she enjoys within her self there is produced a most pleasant Emotion in the Body the Animal Spirits flowing to the Heart in an equal and placid Stream where being arrived through its dilated Orifices they sooth and tickle it into a most sensible Pleasure and then the Soul being affected with the Body's Pleasure doth from thence derive an additional Joy which doth more vigorously encourage her to pursue those Objects and continue those Exercises from whence her Original Joy proceeded So that you see that by reason of that perpetual Intercourse there is between our Souls and our Bodies there is an excellent Use even of our sensitive Passions in Religion And it cannot be denied but that a gentle Temper of Body whose Passions are soft and easie and ductile and apt to be commoved with the Soul may be of great advantage in our Religious Exercises because whensoever it is religiously affected its Passions will be apt to intend and quicken the Affections of the Soul and to render them more vigorous and active but farther than this they are of no account at all in Religion For as there are many Men who are sincerely good that yet cannot raise their sensitive Passions in their religious Exercises that are heartily sorry for their Sins and yet cannot weep for them that do entirely love God and delight in his Service and yet cannot put their Blood and Spirits into the enravishing Emotions of sensitive Love and Joy so on the other hand there are many gross Hypocrites that have not one dram of true Piety in them who yet in their Religious Exercises can put themselves into wondrous Transports of bodily Passion that can pour out their Confessions in Floods of Tears and cause their Hearts to dilate into Raptures of sensitive Love and their Spirits to tickle them into Ecstasies of Joy which is purely to be resolved into the different Tempers of Mens Bodies some Tempers being naturally so calm and sedate as that they are scarce capable of being disturbed into a Passion others again so soft and tender and impressible that the most frivolous Fancy is able to raise a Commotion in them And hence we see that some People can weep most heartily at the Misfortunes of Lovers in Plays and Romances and as much rejoyce at their good Successes though they know that both are Fictions and mere Idea's of Fancy whereas others can scarce shed a Tear or raise a sensitive Joy at the real Calamities or Prosperities of a Friend whom yet they love a great deal more than these Men can possibly do their feigned and Romantick Heroes And yet alas how very often do Men place the whole of their Religion in these mechanical Motions of their Blood and Spirits that think they are exceeding good if they can but chafe themselves into a devout Passion and that it is an infallible Sign of Godliness that their Blood and Spirits are easily moved by religious Idea's and apt to be elevated or dejected according as sad or joyous Arguments are pathetically represented to their Fancies and though they do not understand the Argument or which is all one to them though that which is delivered for Argument is mere Gibberish and insignificant Canting that hath nothing of Argument or Reality in it only some empty Fiction is conveyed to their Fancies by a musical Voice in fanciful Expressions yet because they are affected by it and it raises a sensible Perturbation in their Blood and Spirits they presently conclude it to be an Income of God and an infallible Token of his special Love and Favour to them as if it were a Sign of Godliness and a Mark of God's Favourites to be affected with Nonsense feathered with soft and delicate Phrases and pointed with pathetick Accents Thus there are some Men who believe themselves to be converted meerly because they have run through all the Stages of Passion in that new Road of Artificial Conversion which some modern Authors have found out for according as the Work of Conversion hath been described by some modern Authors it is wholly placed in so many different Scenes of Passion For first a Man must pass under the Discipline of the Law and the Spirit of Bondage that is he must be frightned into a Sense of his lost and undone Condition and in this Sense he must grieve bitterly for his Sins as the Causes of his Ruin and Perdition and this is that which they call Conviction and Compunction From hence he must proceed into the Evangelical State and pass into the Spirit of Adoption the Entrance of which is Contrition or Humiliation which consists in an ingenuous Sorrow for Sin proceeding from a passionate Sense of God's Love and Goodness and then having acted over all these mournful Passions he embraces and lays hold upon Christ which is the concluding Scene and is altogether made up of Ioy and Exultation and so the Work of Conversion is finish'd Now though I do not at all deny but to the Conversion of an habitual Sinner it is indispensably necessary that he should be convinc'd of his Danger and deeply affected with Sorrow and Remorse for his Folly and Wickedness and therefore would not be so understood as if I intended to discountenance these holy Passions which are such necessary Introductions to a sincere Conversion yet neither do I doubt but by the help of a melancholy Fancy attended with soft and easie Passions a Man may perform all these Parts of Conversion and yet be never the better for it for many times these Passions are only the necessary effects of a diseased Fancy and are altogether as mechanical as the beating of our Pulse or the Circulation of our Blood And hence we see that this kind of Conversion which wholly consists of bodily Passions doth commonly both begin and end with some languishing Distemper of the Body in which the Fancy is over-clouded and the Motion of the Blood and Spirits retarded by the Prevalence
Constitution will by degrees inevitably weaken it and without a speedy and effectual Purgation finally consume and destroy it and if it were the best constituted Nation in the World it would be impossible for it not to decay and languish under the malignant Influence of an Epidemical Wickedness That therefore which purges away this corrupt Humor out of which all National Diseases spring must needs be the most effectual Means of a dying Nations Recovery and that and that only is Repentance one essential Part whereof consists in putting off the Body of Sin ceasing to do Evil and denying all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. And if once this bad Cause were removed all the mischievous Effects of it would immediately cease and thereupon the sick and declining Kingdom that groans and languishes under them would immediately mend and in a little time recover its native Health and Vigour For what should hinder it from growing well when the malignant Cause of all its Distempers is removed when that which befools its Counsels Dissolves its Courage disorder its Harmony breaks its Unity lavishes out its Wealth and Reputation is utterly abolish'd what should hinder it from growing up again into a wise and a valiant an orderly and unanimous a wealthy and renowned Nation 4. And lastly true Repentance doth also put us upon such a Course of Action as doth naturally tend to the Publick Good For Repentance doth not only consist in ceasing to do Evil but in learning to do Well in putting on the new Man as well as putting off the old that is it is an intire Submission of our souls to God to do what he commands as well as to forbear what he forbids and the Matter of his Commands is such as all of it tends to the publick Good and if the several Ranks and Orders of Men whereof a Nation is composed would but unanimously conspire in that Course of Action which God hath enjoyned it would doubtless more contribute to the Weal and Prosperity of such a Nation than the wisest Counsels or most puissant Forces without it If those that sit at the Helm would but once resolve to stear by those excellent Rules of honest Prudence impartial Iustice discreet Mercy wise Liberality advised Constancy and Magnanimity it would doubtless render their Government far more safe and easy more useful and prosperous than all the crafty Tricks dark Intreagues and wiley Subterfuges of wicked Policy which instead of promoting the Government do generally lead it into a perplexed Maze and leave it there miserably bewildred and intangled Again if those that are Subjects would but learn to govern themselves by those Laws of Candor and Modesty of Meekness and Fidelity of Submission and Loyalty which God hath enjoyned them with what Peace and Quiet Safety and Contentment might they enjoy themselves under the Shadow of Government In a word if the Rich would be but as courteous and charitable the Poor as thankful and industrious and all as just and honest as kind and gentle as ready to assist forbear and forgive one another as God requires what a most glorious and happy Society would there spring out of such a regular Course of Action doubtless for Peace and Contentment for Bliss and Happiness next to Heaven it self there is no Place comparable to a vertuous Nation and were I in quest of a terrestrial Paradise I should sooner expect it in a barren Wilderness inhabited with a vertuous People than in the most fruitful and delicious Canaan peopled with wicked and degenerous Natives Since therefore a virtuous Course of Action hath so direct a Tendency to the publick Good it hence necessarily follows that Repentance which is the Entrance and Introduction to it must needs very much contribute to the Safety and Recovery of a Nation because it puts the several parts of it into such a Course of Life and Conversation as mutually conduces to the Peace and Happiness and Preservation of the Whole so that whether we consider the powerful Influence it hath upon God or the good Effect it hath upon us you see 't is a most efficacious Instrument of publick Happiness and Salvation Wherefore if the Consideration of our own private Interest and everlasting fate in another World be not sufficient to move us to a serious Repentance let us add to this the Consideration of our temporal Concerns which are all involved in the fate of the Nation For the publick Good is a common Bank in which every Member hath a share and consequently whatsoever Damage that suffers we must expect to bear our Part of it And yet God help us if we impartially view the Designs and Behaviour of the Generality we would hardly think that they did seriously believe there were any such thing as a Common Weal among us every one almost endeavouring to advance his own Interest though it be upon the publick Ruine and all our Pretences to the Publick being little else but a contrasting of Parties running a Tilt at one another whilst the Common Good lyes between them and is equally trampled on by both sides Wherefore as we would not betray our Common Interest and bury our selves in the publick Ruine let us be persuaded to consider our ways before it be too late and turn to the Lord by a deep and hearty Repentance And to move you hereunto I shall desire you to consider these few things 1. What imminent Danger we are in 2. How much we have all contributed to it 3. How possible it is to prevent it by our timely Repentance 4. How much our personal Repentance will avail us tho' we should not prevent it 5. How dearly we shall repent when it is too late if we do not endeavour the Prevention of it by repenting now 1. Consider the imminent Danger we are in For if we consider our present Circumstances how many visible Causes there are conspiring to effect our Ruine how we lye open to the common Adversary that doth so vigorously pursue our Destruction and like an unwalled Vineyard are surrounded with wild Boars without and over-run with little Foxes within which tho' they are of different Kinds agree in the same Ends and concur to waste and to destroy how whilst these little Foxes are pulling down the Vine above the wild Boars are waiting underneath to seize and to devour both how the restless and indefatigable Malice of our Romish Adversaries without is assisted with the furious Zeal of our hair-brain'd Factions within who tho' they cannot be insensible how much their Divisions weaken and expose us yet seem resolved rather to venture all than not to be uppermost how our Counsels puzzl'd and entangled and our Procedures clogg'd and incumbred how our Choices are poiz'd and suspended between contrary Evils that seem so equally great that we can hardly determine which is the least in a word how our Mischiefs are chain'd and link'd to one another so that we cannot remove one without drawing on another in the room
propitious to this sinful Nation and if for the sake of five righteous Persons God would have saved a Sodom why may not you hope that by adding your selves to the far greater number of righteous Persons among us you may yet prevail with God to save the whole Nation and for the possible Hope of being Saviours to our native Country who would not make such a cheap and easie Experiment But suppose it should not produce this happy Effect that notwithstanding our personal Repentance the Cloud should break and discharge a bloody Storm upon the Kingdom yet I dare secure you you shall never have Cause to repent of your Repentance for God will either call you into his Chambers shut his door upon you and hide you for a little moment till the Indignation is overpast or he will turn it into such an inestimable Blessing that you shall be sure to reap from it unspeakably more Good than Prejudice and whilst impenitent Wretches shall be lashed at the same time both by God and their own Consciences whilst they shall be surrounded with Darkness and Horror on every side and not be able to discover any glimps of day either within or without or above them whilst Heaven and Earth and their own Consciences are storming together about their Ears so that which way soever they turn themselves they are miserable whilst God disowns them their own Consciences reproach them and the World will no longer help or succour them you being reconciled by your Repentance both to your God and your Conscience will have a safe Retreat within your own Bosoms whereinto you may retire and be merry in spight of Fortune and being there entertained with the ravishing sense of your Fathers Love with the soft Harmonies of a quiet Conscience and the glorious Hopes of a blessed Immortality hereafter you will not only be inabled to support your share of the publick Calamity but also to rejoyce and triumph under it So that would you be but persuaded to repent I durst assure you you shall find the Benefit of it either in the Removal of the Iudgments you fear or in the Assistance it would give you to undergo them bravely 5. And lastly Consider how dearly we shall repent when it is too late if we do not endeavour to prevent our Danger by repenting now when we are groveling under those dreadful Iudgments that hang lowering over us When our Religion Liberties and Properties are seized and become a prey to our insulting Enemies when our Country is spoiled or imbrewed in Blood by intestine Broils or Forein Invasions and all is involved in Ruines and Confusions round about us then we shall remember with the Tears in our Eyes that we had once an Opportunity to be happy that if we would have been contended to part with a few base Lusts that did unman and prostitute our Natures we might have been still a blessed and prosperous People that if we would have been so wise as to have sacrificed to Gods approaching Iudgments our Sensuality and Profaneness our Faction Oppression and Hypocrisy they would then have fairly retreated and left us in the quiet Enjoyment of all our spiritual and temporal Blessings we enjoy'd whereas now being incensed and drawn on by our desperate Obstinacy they have made a dismal Spoil of all and left us nothing but our Sins and Guilts to bear us company in our Miseries When we shall see our desolate Country that was heretofore the Queen of Nations sitting like a mournful Widow in the dust with her Head uncrowned her Garments torn her Breast wounded and all her Parts besmeared with Blood when we shall see our Church unpaled and all her fences trodden down by wild Beasts her Beauty defaced her Sun extinguished or overcast with Darkness and Confusion how will it cut our Hearts to think that all this is the Product of our own Follies and that if we would have been persuaded betime to abandon our Lusts and listen to sober Counsels all these dismal Ruines and Desolations might have easily been prevented O then we shall lament our Follies and wring our woful hands and wish a thousand and a thousand times that we had been wiser before it was too late Seeing therefore it is not yet too late let us for once resolve to make a tryal what good our Repentance can do to the Publick and O would to God we would once conspire to make this blessed Experiment and if upon our making it a Cure doth not yet follow if we do not sensibly perceive our Grievances abate our Dangers vanish our Enemies weakened and disheartned and our broken Counsels retrieved and united in the publick Good I will be contented to undergo Cassandra's Fate never to be believed in my Affirmations more For this I am sure of Repentance cannot fail of a good Effect and that besides all the Good it would do us by its own natural and necessary Influence it would reconcile Him to us that hath the disposal of our Fate and then all would go well and God even our own God would give us his blessing Which he of his infinite Mercy grant to whom with his eternal Son and Spirit be ascribed of us and all the World all Honour and Glory and Power from this time forth and for evermore Amen MATTHEW III. 8. Bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance THese Words are a Part of Baptist's Sermon to the Pharisees and Sudducees of whom mention is made in the foregoing Verse the first of which being a sort of demure and formal Hypocrites who under religious Pretences shrouded the blackest Villanies the second a Company of Atheistical Debauchees who to supersede the troublesome Obligations of their Consciences and to obtain of themselves a free Dispensation to be wicked denied the Existence of Spirits and the Life to come The Baptist upon their Address to be admitted to his Baptism sharply reprehends them both under one common Name O Generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come and then he goes on Bring forth fruits meet for Repentance As much as if he should have said O ye worst of Men ye brood of venomous Miscreants I perceive by your coming hither some body or other hath alarmed you with the Forewarnings of that dreadful Vengeance that is falling upon this Generation and now to prevent it you pretend Repentance of your Sins because you have heard that I baptize with Water unto Repentance you would needs assume this outward Badge of Penitents But I know you well enough ye are a pack of arrant Knaves and Hypocrites and howsoever at present you may be frightned into a demure Pretence of Repentance I know your Hearts are as wicked as ever and that you will not part with one of those Lusts which render you so base and infamous And therefore for my part till I have better hopes of you I am resolved I will have nothing to do with you Go therefore bring forth
are necessitated for the most part to choose in the dark because we see so little of the whole Series of Things and of the Circumstances wherewith Events are accompanied and attended that it is not in our Power to determine which is good or which bad for us We many times look on such an Event as highly good for us and extremely desirable and believe that if we could compass it we should be extremely happy but poor short-sighted Creatures that we are we see neither the Company nor the Train of it If this Event doth befal us according to the Series of Things a thousand others must and what they will prove we are not able to prognosticate and for all we know the Mischief of them may abundantly outweigh the Benefit of this and did we but foresee all that goes along with and all that must follow it we should be many times most afraid of what we most eagerly desire This therefore being our Case how extremely unfit are we to make Choices for our selves since it is almost an equal Lay whether what we choose will prove our Food or our Poison But God being the supreme Orderer and Disposer of Things must needs have them altogether intirely in his View and having the first Link of the whole Chain of Causes in his own Hands cannot but plainly see all the intermediate ones from the Beginning to the End And since his Power is the Cause not only of all actual Events but even of the Possibility of those that shall never be actual he must needs discern the utmost Issues of every possible as well as actual Event and see the remotest Effects and Consequents that are in the Wombs of all actual and possible Causes and Principles and having all Things that are or that may be in his View he doth not only see what is good or hurtful to us but what would be so if it were actual and existing So that He needs not try Experiments upon us to know what is beneficial or injurious to us because the Operation and Consequence of every possible Event is as obvious to his all-comprehending Knowledge before as after it is befallen us And hence it is impossible for him to be mistaken in his Choices because he knows as well before hand what Things would be if they were as what they are when they actually exist And tho' we may sometimes pervert the Natures of Things by our Abuse of them and make that Evil to us which is really Good yet God cannot be mistaken so as to prescribe us for Physick what is in its own Nature Poison and consequently if he love us but as well as we love our selves as I have demonstrated he doth he must needs choose better for us than we because he sees the utmost Consequents of all that doth or can befal us and so cannot be imposed on by shews and false Appearances as we often times are And of this I shall only give you one Instance which is that of good old Iacob when he lost his Son Ioseph which we plainly see by the Sorrow he expressed at it was an Accident that happened sore against his Will and which he would have gladly prevented had he been but aware of it But it is plain the good Man saw but a little Way into the Series of Things he saw his Loss but he saw not the Issues of it for doubtless had he beheld that Train of happy Consequents that was chained and annexed to it how it tended not only to Iosephs Advancement but to the Preservation of himself and his Family from the ensuing Famin he would doubtless have been more a Friend to himself and a Father to his Family than to have countervoted God in his Choice and Election for him But it was well for Iacob that God saw farther into the Consequents of Things than he for if he had not not only Ioseph had missed of his Preferment but himself and all his Family had been in a great deal of Danger of perishing in the Famin. So that when all is done you see the wisest Course we can take is to resign up our selves into the Hands of God who seeing the utmost Issues and Consequents of Things can never be mistaken in choosing what is best for us 4. We many times know only what is Good for us with respect to our present Temper and Disposition but God knows what is good for us in Reference to our constant and most abiding Condition We are a Sort of Creatures that are extremely fickle and immutable our Humours change upon every new Occasion and our Desires like the Weather-cocks look contrary Ways upon every contrary Wind now we are of one Mind and by and by of another this seems to us now and anon the quite contrary and often times in the same Hour we are several Sorts of Men. But still we choose according to our present Temper and so still as this alters our later Choices thwart and run a Tilt at our former So that should every Thing happen to us that we desire and wish for we should be the most miserable Creatures in the World since what we choose in this Hour we should reject in the next and what we longed for to Day we should be sick of to Morrow And since no Man certainly knows now what mind he shall be of anon for all that he can tell that which is most agreeable to him now may be most disagreeable to him then and if he should change his present Mind as it is very likely he may he will immediately unwish what he now wishes for and dearly repent of what he most heartily chooses How then is it possible that we should choose well and wisely for our selves all whose Choices do depend on a Temper that is so everlastingly fickle and variable But now God who foresees what our most constant lasting and durable Temper will be is much better able to adapt Events to it and to contrive all our Circumstances into a fair Accommodation with it and tho' it is impossible but he must sometimes cross us because our Humours do so vary and we do so often cross and contradict our selves yet knowing best what our standing and permanent Temper will be he must needs know best also what will be most constantly convenient for us and agreeable to us For if he be cordially our Friend as it is apparent he is he will not so much consult the Gratification of our peevish fickle and unconstant Humours as of our most permanent Temper and Disposition and if he know much better than we what our most permanent Temper and Disposition will be as it is apparent he doth he must needs be much abler to suit and accommodate it with convenient Events and Circumstances Of this you have a remarkable Instance in the Method of Gods conducting Israel out of Egypt into Canaan Doubtless had They had their own Choice they would have been immediately translated from their
Means of Instruction or else this wilful Ignorance arises from some sinful Prejudice against the Knowledge of the Truth begotten in us by some darling Lust which that we may quietly enjoy without any Remorse of Conscience we industriously shun all the Means of Conviction and either exclude all Thoughts of Religion from our Minds lest they should discover to us the Evil and Danger of our Sin which is the way of those who are openly prophane and irreligious or indeavour to wheadle our own Understandings to such false Opinions as are soft and easy and indulgent to our Lusts which is the way of Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion Now as for this Sort of Ignorance it springs from a wicked Will and is not so much to be imputed to the Weakness of our Understandings as to the Depravedness of our Affections they are the impure Vapours from below that cloud the Sky above and overcast the intellectual Region with Darkness and Confusion And if we are ignorant of our Duty because we will not be informed our Ignorance is so far from excusing our Neglect of it that it self is inexcusable If I commit a Sin because I am wilfully ignorant the Wilfulness of my Ignorance makes my Sin to be wilful Here the Effect always partakes of the Nature of the Cause and derives into its self all its Venom and Malignity and therefore if my Ignorance be a wilful Sin whatever Sins it betrays me into they must be all wilful as well as that And hence our Saviour tells us that this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light John 3. 19. 2. Another Sort of wilful Sins are Sins of wilful Inconsideration I say wilful because there are sundry Evils whereinto we are perfectly surprized as when Temptations start out so suddainly upon us as that either for Want of Time or the great Hurry and Tumult it puts our Thoughts into it is not in our Power to consider and deliberate in which Case we are not capable Subjects of Law and Morality For that which makes us capable Subjects is first that we are rational Agents and so can deliberate what is best to choose 2. That we are free Agents and so can choose what is best upon Deliberation without which Mad-men and natural Fools are as capable Subjects of Law as we Whenever therefore our Circumstances are such that we cannot deliberate and choose upon Deliberation tho' the Actions we do are materially Evils yet are they not formally Sins because while we do them we are not capable Subjects of the Law that forbids them nor consequently accountable to it As for Instance it is doubtless a great Sin and deserves a great Punishment for a Man to wound his Friend or abuse his Benefactor but yet in a Madman it is no Sin at all because when he doth it he is incapable of being governed by the Law that forbids it And this I judge is the Case of Men under perfect surprizes when they are violently hurried into evil Actions in a suddain Distraction and Confusion of Thoughts which doubtless may sometimes be the Case of very good Men especially under great Pains or the suddain Appearance of frightful Dangers which for the present at least may distract and scare them out of all Capacity and Deliberation and at other Times while their Thoughts are innocently wandring among the vast Variety of outward Objects a Temptation may suddainly break in and prevail upon them before they have Time to recollect themselves For we find by Experience that the Mind hath not that absolute Dominion over the Will as to make it choose or refuse at its beck upon the bare Proposal of good or evil Objects but many Times before it can prevail is fain to dispute it out with our Passions and Appetites and to oppose their Importunities with more prevalent Motives to the contrary and therefore if it should so fall out that in that Moment when the Temptation comes the Mind should be very much diverted by other Imployments it is in many Cases morally impossible but Passion and Appetite should prevail and obtain our Consent before the Mind is aware of it because that being at present otherwise imployed and always unable to attend many Things at once it cannot be ready in the present Exigence immediately to urge the Arguments on its own side and to detect the Fallacies on the other Tho' this I confess will hardly hold in any gross Acts of Sin because in these there is generally some Pause and Interval between the Temptation and the Action wherein the Mind may easily be advised with which if it be a good Mind cannot fail to suggest sufficient Arguments against it But if the Temptation doth so hurry the Man as that he cannot deliberate he is so far innocent and if as soon as he considers he retracts the evil Consent into which his Will was surprized before it passes into Action or if having acted it before he was aware he becomes more wary and watchful for the future it is not so much his Fault as his Misery 'T is true there are surprizes of Temptation which are not innocent but then the Reason is because they are not pure surprizes but such as do not incapacitate us to deliberate and if when it is in our Power we either do not deliberate at all or not enough but make a rash and foolish Choice when if we had used our utmost Care we might have chosen more advisedly our Choice is culpable and so is the Action thence proceeding But seeing ours is the Religion of Men and not of Angels and it cannot reasonably be expected considering our Circumstances that we should always do as well as possibly we can it is to be supposed that this Religion of ours which is purposely accommodated to our imperfect State admits us to be good in the Main tho' we are not so to Perfection or which is the same Thing to the utmost of our Possibility For while our Soul is fain to minister to a Body and hath so quick a sense of its Necessities and while we are incompassed with so vast a Variety of tempting Objects and our Thoughts are so dispersed and squandred among them it is morally impossible but that many of our Actions should be unadvised and pass our Watch without a severe Examination nor can it reasonably be expected that we should in all Cases where it is in our Power so precisely weigh every minute Circumstance of our Actions as to determine exactly on which side our duty lies and therefore should our Religion exact this of us without any Mitigation or Abatement I doubt that even the best of Men would never be able to abide the Test of it But then besides this Kind of Inconsideration which is either purely involuntary and by consequence innocent or but partly voluntary and so excusable there is another Sort of it which is absolutely and inexcusably