a pleasure and this will appear upon these three Accounts 1. That it is seldom or never that any Man comes to such a Degree of Impiety as to take pleasure in other men's Sins but he also shews the World by his Actions and Behaviour that he does so 2. That there are few Men in the World so inconsiderable but there are some or other who have an Interest to serve by them And 3 ly That the Natural Course that one Man takes to serve his Interest by another is by applying himself to him in such a way as may most gratifie and delight him Now from these Three things put together it is not only easie but necessary to inferr That since the Generality of Men are wholly acted by their present Interest if they find those who can best serve them in this their Interest most likely also to be gained over so to doe by the sinfull and vile Practices of those who address to them no doubt such Practices shall be pursued by such Persons in order to the Compassing their desired Ends. Where Greatness takes no delight in Goodness we may be sure there shall be but little Goodness seen in the Lives of those who have an Interest to serve by such an one's Greatness For take any Illustrious potent Sinner whose Power is wholly employ'd to serve his Pleasure and whose chief Pleasure is to see others as bad and wicked as himself and there is no question but in a little time he will also make them so and his Dependants shall quickly become his Proselytes They shall Sacrifice their Vertue to his Humour spend their Credit and Good name nay and their very Souls too to serve him and that by the worst and basest of Services which is by making themselves like Him It is but too notorious how long Vice has reigned or rather raged amongst us and with what a bare face and a brazen forehead it walks about the Nation as it were Elato Capite and looking down with Scorn upon Vertue as a contemptible and a mean thing Vice could not come to this pitch by chance But we have sinned a pace and at an higher strain of Villainy than the Fopps our Ancestors as some are pleas'd to call them could ever arrive to So that we daily see Maturity and Age in Vice joyned with Youth and Greenness of Years A manifest Argument no doubt of the great Docility and Pregnancy of Parts that is in the present Age above all the former For in respect of Vice nothing is more usual now-a-days than for Boys illico nasci Senes They see their Betters delight in ill things they observe Reputation and Countenance to attend the Practice of them and this carries them on furiously to that which of themselves they are but too much inclin'd to and which Laws were purposely made by Wise men to keep them from They are glad you may be sure to please and preferr themselves at once and to serve their Interest and their Sensuality together And as they are come to this Height and Rampancy of Vice in a great measure from the Countenance of their Betters and Superiors so they have took some steps higher in the same from this That the Follies and Extravagances of the Young too frequently carry with them the Suffrage and Approbation of the Old For Age which naturally and unavoidably is but one Remove from Death and consequently should have nothing about it but what looks like a decent Preparation for it scarce ever appears of late days but in the high Mode the flaunting Garb and utmost Gaudery of Youth with Cloaths as ridiculously and as much in the fashion as the person that wears them is usually grown out of it The Eldest equal the Youngest in the Vanity of their Dress and no other Reason can be given of it but that they equal if not surpass them in the Vanity of their Desires So that those who by the Majesty and as I may so say the Prerogative of their Age should even frown Youth into Sobriety and better Manners are now striving all they can to imitate and strike in with them and to be really vicious that they may be thought to be young The sad and apparent Truth of which makes it very superfluous to enquire after any further Cause of that monstrous Encrease of Vice that like a Torrent or rather a breaking in of the Sea upon us has of late years over-flowed and victoriously carried all before it Both the Honourable and the Aged have contributed all they could to the promotion of it and so far as they are able to give the best Colour to the worst of things This they have endeavoured and thus much they have effected That Men now see that Vice makes them acceptable to those who are able to make them considerable It is the Key that lets them into their very Heart and enables them to command all that is there And if this be the Price of Favour and the Market of Honour no doubt where the Trade is so quick and withall so certain Multitudes will be sure to follow it This is too manifestly our present Case All Men see it and wise and good Men lament it And where Vice push'd on with such mighty Advantages will stop its progress it is hard to judge It is certainly above all humane Remedies to controll the prevailing Course of it unless the great Governour of the World who quells the Rage and Swelling of the Sea and sets Barrs and Doors to it beyond which the proudest of its Waves cannot pass shall in his infinite Compassion to us doe the same to that Ocean of Vice which now swells and roars and lifts up it self above all Banks and Bounds of humane Laws and so by his Omnipotent Word reducing its Power and abasing its Pride shall at length say to it Hitherto shalt thou come and no further Which God in his good time effect To whom be rendred and ascribed as is most due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen Natural Religion WITHOUT REVELATION SHEWN Only sufficient to render a Sinner inexcusable IN A SERMON PREACHED On ROMANS I. 20. Before the UNIVERSITY AT Christ-Church Oxon On Novemb. 2. 1690. ROM I. 20. latter Part. So that they are without excuse THis excellent Epistle though in the Front of it it bears a Particular Inscription yet in the Drift and Purpose of it is Universal as designing to convince all Mankind whom it supposes in pursuit of True Happiness of the Necessity of seeking for it in the Gospel and the Impossibility of finding it elsewhere All without the Church at that time were comprehended under the Division of Iews and Gentiles called here by the Apostle Greeks the Nobler and more Noted part being used for the whole Accordingly from the 2d Chapter down along he Addresses himself to the Iews shewing the Insufficiency of their Law to justifie or make them happy how much soever they
into a fixed confirmed Habit of Sin which being properly that which the Apostle calls the finishing of Sin ends certainly in Death Death not only as to Merit but also as to Actual Infliction Now peradventure in this whole progress Preventing Grace may sometimes come in to the poor Sinner's help but at the last hour of the Day and having suffered him to run all the former risk and maze of Sin and to descend so many steps downwards to the black Regions of Death As first from the bare Thought and Imagination of Sin to look upon it with some Beginnings of Appetite and Delight from thence to purpose and intend it and from intending to endeavour it and from endeavouring actually to commit it and having committed it perhaps for some time to continue in it And then I say after all this God may turn the fatal Stream and by a mighty Grace interrupt its Course and keep it from passing into a settled Habit and so hinder the absolute Completion of Sin in final Obduracy Certain it is that wheresoever it pleases God to stop the Sinner on this side Hell how far soever he has been advanced in his way towards it it is a vast ineffable Mercy a Mercy as great as Life from the Dead and Salvation to a man tottering with Horror upon the very Edge and Brink of Destruction But if more than all this God shall be pleased by an Early Grace to prevent Sin so soon as to keep the Soul in the Virginity of its first Innocence not tainted with the Desires and much less defloured with the formed Purpose of any thing vile and sinfull What an Infinite Goodness is this It is not a Converting but a Crowning Grace such an one as irradiates and puts a Circle of Glory about the Head of him upon whom it descends It is the Holy Ghost coming down upon him in the form of a Dove and setting him Triumphant above the Necessity of Tears and Sorrow Mourning and Repentance the sad After-games of a lost Innocence And this brings in the Consideration of that other great Advantage accruing to the Soul from the Prevention of Sin above what can be had from the bare Pardon of it Namely 2. The Satisfaction of a man's Mind There is that true Joy that solid and substantial Comfort conveyed to the Heart by Preventing-Grace which Pardoning-Grace at the best very seldom and for the most part never gives For since all Joy passes into the Heart through the Understanding the Object of it must be known by one before it can affect the other Now when Grace keeps a Man so within his Bounds that Sin is prevented he certainly knows it to be so and so rejoyces upon the firm infallible Ground of Sense and Assurance But on the other side though Grace may have reversed the Condemning Sentence and sealed the Sinner's Pardon before God yet it may have left no Transcript of that Pardon in the Sinner's Breast The Hand-writing against him may be Cancelled in the Court of Heaven and yet the Enditement run on in the Court of Conscience So that a Man may be safe as to his Condition but in the mean time dark and doubtfull as to his Apprehensions Secure in his Pardon but miserable in the Ignorance of it and so passing all his days in the disconsolate uneasie Vicissitudes of Hopes and Fears at length go out of the World not knowing whither he goes And what is this but a black Cloud drawn over all a man's Comforts A Cloud which though it cannot hinder the supporting Influence of Heaven yet will be sure to intercept the refreshing Light of it The Pardoned Person must not think to stand upon the same vantage Ground with the Innocent It is enough that they are both equally safe but it cannot be thought that without a rare Privilege both can be equally chearfull And thus much for the advantagious Effects of Preventing above those of Pardoning Grace which was the Fourth and Last Argument brought for the Proof of the Proposition Pass we now to the next General Thing proposed for the Prosecution of it Namely 2. It s Application Which from the foregoing Discourse may afford us several usefull Deductions but chiefly by way of Information in these Three following Particulars As First This may inform and convince us how vastly greater a pleasure is consequent upon the Forbearance of Sin than can possibly accompany the Commission of it And how much higher a Satisfaction is to be found from a conquered than from a conquering Passion For the proof of which we need look no further than the great Example here before us Revenge is certainly the most luscious Morsel that the Devil can put into the Sinner's mouth But doe we think that David could have found half that pleasure in the Execution of his Revenge that he expresses here upon the Disappointment of it Possibly it might have pleased him in the present heat and hurry of his Rage but must have displeased him infinitely more in the cool sedate Reflections of his Mind For Sin can please no longer than for that pitifull Space of Time while it is committing and surely the present pleasure of a sinfull Act is a poor Countervail for the bitterness of the Review which begins where the Action ends and lasts for ever There is no ill thing which a man does in his Passion but his Memory will be revenged on him for it afterwards All Pleasure springing from a gratified Passion as most of the Pleasure of Sin does must needs determine with that Passion 'T is short violent and fallacious and as soon as the Imagination is disabused will certainly be at an end And therefore Des Cartes prescribes excellently well for the Regulation of the Passions viz. That a Man should fix and fore-arm his Mind with this settled Perswasion that during that Commotion of his Blood and Spirits in which Passion properly consists whatsoever is offered to his Imagination in favour of it tends only to deceive his Reason It is indeed a real Trapan upon it feeding it with Colours and Appearances instead of Arguments and driving the very same Bargain which Iacob did with Esau A Mess of Pottage for a Birth-right a present Repast for a Perpetuity Secondly We have here a sure unfailing Criterion by which every Man may discover and find out the gracious or ungracious Disposition of his own Heart The Temper of every Man is to be judged of from the Thing he most esteems and the Object of his Esteem may be measured by the prime Object of his Thanks What is it that opens thy Mouth in Praises that fills thy Heart and lifts up thy Hands in gratefull Acknowledgments to thy great Creator and Preserver Is it that thy Bags and thy Barns are full that thou hast escaped this Sickness or that Danger Alas God may have done all this for thee in Anger All this fair Sun-shine may have been only to harden thee in thy Sins He
Commission of Sin be not prevented whether ever it will come to be pardoned In order to the clearing of which I shall lay down these Two Considerations 1. That if Sin be not thus prevented it will certainly be committed And the Reason is because on the Sinner's part there will be always a strong inclination to Sin So that if other things concurr and Providence cuts not off the opportunity the Act of Sin must needs follow For an active Principle seconded with the Opportunities of Action will infallibly exert it self 2 ly The other Consideration is That in every Sin deliberately committed there are generally speaking many more Degrees of Probability that That Sin will never come to be pardoned than that it will And this shall be made appear upon these Three following Accounts 1. Because every Commission of Sin introduces into the Soul a certain degree of Hardness and an Aptness to continue in that Sin It is a known maxim That it is much more difficult to throw out than not to let in Every degree of Entrance is a degree of Possession Sin taken into the Soul is like a Liquor poured into a Vessel so much of it as it fills it also seasons The Touch and Tincture go together So that although the Body of the Liquor should be poured out again yet still it leaves that Tang behind it which makes the Vessel fitter for that than for any other In like manner every Act of Sin strangely transforms and works over the Soul to its own likeness Sin in this being to the Soul like fire to combustible matter It assimilates before it destroys it 2 ly A second Reason is Because every Commission of Sin imprints upon the Soul a further disposition and proneness to Sin As the second third and fourth Degrees of Heat are more easily introduced than the first Every one is both a preparative and a step to the next Drinking both quenches the present Thirst and provokes it for the future When the Soul is beaten from its first Station and the Mounds and Out-works of Vertue are once broken down it becomes quite another thing from what it was before In one single Eating of the forbidden Fruit when the Act is over yet the Relish remains and the Remembrance of the first Repast is an easie Allurement to the second One Visit is enough to begin an Acquaintance and this Point is gained by it that when the Visitant comes again he is no more a Stranger 3 ly The third and grand Reason is Because the only thing that can entitle the Sinner to Pardon which is Repentance is not in the Sinner's power And he who goes about the Work will find it so It is the Gift of God And though God has certainly promised Forgiveness of Sin to every one who Repents yet he has not promised to any one to give him Grace to Repent This is the Sinner's hard Lot that the same thing which makes him need Repentance makes him also in danger of not obtaining it For it provokes and offends that Holy Spirit which alone can bestow this Grace As the same Treason which puts a Traytor in need of his Prince's Mercy is a great and a just Provocation to his Prince to deny it him Now let these Three things be put together First That every Commission of Sin in some degree hardens the Soul in that Sin Secondly That every Commission of Sin disposes the Soul to proceed further in Sin And Thirdly That to repent and turn from Sin without which all Pardon is impossible is not in the Sinner's power And then I suppose there cannot but appear a greater likelihood that a Sin once committed will in the issue not be pardon'd than that it will To all which add the Confirmation of general Experience and the real Event of Things That where one Man ever comes to Repent an hundred I might say a thousand at least end their days in final Impenitence All which considered surely there cannot need a more pregnant Argument of the Greatness of this Preventing Mercy if it did no more for a man than this That his grand immortal Concern more valuable to him than ten thousand Worlds is not thrown upon a Critical Point that he is not bronght to his last Stake that he is rescued from the first Descents into Hell and the high Probabilities of Damnation For whatsoever the Issue proves it is certainly a miserable thing to be forced to cast Lots for one's Life yet in every Sin a man does the same for Eternity And therefore let the boldest Sinner take this one Consideration along with him when he is going to Sin That whether the Sin he is about to act ever comes to be pardoned or no yet as soon as it is acted it quite turns the Balance puts his Salvation upon the venture leaves him but one Cast for all and which is yet much more dreadfull makes it ten to one odds against him But let us now alter the state of the matter so as to leave no doubt in the case But suppose that the Sin which upon non-prevention comes to be committed comes also to be repented of and consequently to be pardoned Yet in the Fourth and Last place The Greatness of this Preventing-Mercy is eminently proved from those Advantages accruing to the Soul from the Prevention of Sin above what can be had from the bare Pardon of it And that in these Two great Respects 1. Of the Clearness of a man's Condition 2. Of the Satisfaction of his Mind And First For the Clearness of his Condition If innocence be preferrible to Repentance and to be clean be more desirable than to be cleansed then surely Prevention of Sin ought to have the Precedence of its Pardon For so much of Prevention so much of Innocence There are indeed various Degrees of it and God in his Infinite Wisdom does not deal forth the same measure of his Preventing Grace to All. Sometimes he may suffer the Soul but just to begin the sinfull production in reflecting upon a Sin suggested by the Imagination with some Complacency and Delight which in the Apostle's phrase is to conceive Sin and then in these early imperfect Beginnings God perhaps may presently dash and extinguish it Or possibly he may permit the Sinfull Conception to receive Life and Form by passing into a purpose of committing it and then he may make it prove Abortive by stifling it before ever it comes to the Birth Or perhaps God may think fit to let it come even to the Birth by some strong Endeavours to commit it and yet then deny it strength to bring forth so that it never comes into Actual Commission Or lastly God may suffer it to be Born and see the World by permitting the Endeavour of Sin to pass into the Commission of it And this is the last fatal step but one which is by frequent Repetition of the sinfull Act to continue and persist in it till at length it settles