SER M. vain Sorrow and Prayers of Men continuXIV. ing Wicked, (for he calls him profane, )

fhall not move God to repent and reverse their Sentence. And when St John speaks of a Sin unto Death, he does not mean that repentance cannot remedy it; but that fome Sinners are as unlikely to repent, as fome Diseases of Body are unlikely to be cured.

I SHALL conclude with this one pra&tical confideration. If, where there is no real ground for trouble of Spirit, yet the mere Phantom of a deluded Imagination can be fo terrible as men fometimes find

it ;

What then is the reality of God's infupportable Wrath, lying upon the mind of an impenitent and defpairing Sinner! Therefore take heed of real and habitual Wickedness.

SERMON

SERMON XV.

Of publickly Denouncing Curses upon Sinners.

Curfed be be that confirmeth not all the
words of this Law to do them; And all
the people shall say, Amen.

T

R M.

XV.

HE Proper Design and Use SE
of all publick or private Sea-
fons of Humiliation, is, to m
recollect and examine care-

fully the State of our
Lives; to confefs our paft Sins, with a
just Sense of our own unworthinefs in
committing them; humbly to afk pardon
VOL. X.
Z

of

SER M. of God, for the breaches of his Law we XV. have been guilty of; to imprint upon our Minds a deep Senfe, of the reasonableness and obligation of our Duty; to acknowledge the Juftice and Righteousness of God's indignation, denounced against impenitent Sinners; and to form within ourselves strong and folemn Refolutions, of better obedience for the future. To this end it is, that the Law of God is held forth unto us, recommended with all the Bleffings, and fenced in with all the Surfes, that are written in his Book. To this end it is, that the Prophets in the Old Teftament, and the Apoftles in the New, represent unto us in fuch fublime expreffions, the Happinefs of Obedience; and on the other hand fet forth in fuch moving and affectionate defcriptions, the wrath of God exprefsly revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. To this end it is, that our Saviour has appointed his Minifters to continue, even unto the End of the World, perfwading men to Repentance both by the Love of God, and by the Terrours of the Lord. Which as it is at

all

of

XV.

all Times their perpetual Duty, fo more SERM. especially at fuch Seafons as are thought proper to be fet apart for Fafting and Humiliation. The proper and Christian Obfervation of which Times, does not confist in fuperftitious Distinctions Meats, for which there is no foundation either in the Law of God or in the nature of things; but it confifts in fuch general Abstinence, as every ferious perfon finds by his own Experience best to promote the performance of his whole Chriftian Duty. In which matter, because the Temper and Constitution and other accidental circumstances of every particular perfon, are different from Others; therefore no general Rules can be given for all perfons; but every one for himself must in particular, with the Prudence and Sobriety of a Chriftian, determine the Measure and Degrees of that Abftinence, which the Law of God has not determined, and the Laws or Customs of Men have in Reason no Power to determine. But some things there are, very proper for all perfons, and wherein the whole Church may join without diftinction: Such are, Z 2

con

SERM. confeffions of Sin, publick acknowledgXV. ments of the righteousness of God's Laws, and folemn Deprecations of his Judgments. Which Acts of Devotion, as they are always proper; So it has wifely been judged, that the performing them with greater Solemnity, at certain periods or feasons set apart for publick Humiliation; may be very advantagious and helpful, towards the keeping up a publick Spirit of Religion in a Nation. And there was the more reason fo to judge, because God himself, when he brought the Children of Ifrael over fordan, was pleafed by an exprefs Command to appoint the Bleffings and Curfes of the Law to be read in a folemn manner to the whole Body of the People; and that the People, at the repeating of each Curfe, fhould, by way of acknowledgment of the righteousness and reasonableness of God's Judgments denounced against impenitent Sinners, dif tinctly and folemnly fay, Amen. Of This we have a large account, in this xxviith Chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy; in which, from the 15th verfe to the End, is fet down a diftinct Denunciation of the

Curfe