SERM.bind him for thy maidens? Shall the ComXVII. panions make a Banquet of him? Shall they

part him among the Merchants? Canft thou fill his fkin with barbed irons, or his Head with Fifb-fpears? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the Battle, do no more.

II. AND now, having fhown particularly, what is meant by this phrafe of making a mock at Sin; I proceed, in the 2d place, to confider upon what Grounds or Reafons men are tempted to be guilty of the feveral degrees of this Vice. And

ift, As to thofe Sitters in the Seat of the Scornful; thofe profane Spirits, who esteem it a mark of Courage to despise all Religion, and a Greatness of mind to deride all the Obligations of Virtue: The only Ground Thefe have to go upon, is Atheism and Infidelity. Either they must diíbelieve the Being of God, and disclaim all difference of good and evil, and renounce in general all expectation of a future State; or at leaft they must reject all divine Revelation, cafting behind them all the Promises and Threatnings of God, and denying that he will ever judge men according to their Works. This is excellently

lently reprefented to us by St Peter, inSER M. his Second Epiftle, ch. iii. 3, There shall XVII. come, faith he, in the last days Scoffers, walking after their own Lufts, and faying, Where is the Promife of his coming? For fince the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were, from the Beginning of the Creation. The Perfons the Apoftle here describes, looked upon all things as going on, it seems, in a conftant and neceffary Courfe of Nature: One generation of men paffed away, and another came in the room of it: but the World remained still as it was; And thus, for ought They knew, things might hold on for ever. The thing which Hath been, they thought, is That which Shall be; and Eccl. i. 9. that which Is done, is That which shall be done; and there is no New thing under the Sun. Upon This foundation, the fame kind of Debauchees argue with themfelves in All Ages; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die. Come ye, fay they, I will fetch wine, If. lvi.

fill ourselves with ftrong

12, and we will
drink, and to

morrow fhall be as This day, and much

more abundant.

There is a most elegant

defcri

SER M. defcription of This fort of Sinners, in XVII. the 2d chapter of the Book of Wisdom, ver. I, The Ungodly faid, reafoning with themselves but not aright; -We are born at all adventures, and we shall be bereafter as though we had never been; for the Breath in our Noftrils is as Smoak, and a little spark in the moving of our Heart: -Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are prefent, and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth: Let us opprefs the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the gray hairs of the aged; Let our Strength be the Law of Justice, for that which is Feeble is found to be nothing worth. Thus the only foundation This kind of Mockers build upon, is the Hope that there will be no future state, no judg

ment to come.

2dly, THE fecond fort; those who pretend to believe a God, and another life after this, and yet live as vitioufly as if they believed it not. The manner of Thefe, is to flatter themselves with a Notion, that Sin is not of fo dangerous a nature, as the Preachers of the Gofpel reprefent

it;

it that Morality, or Righteoufnefs of SER M. Life, is not abfolutely of indifpenfable XVII. importance; and that God will be very well fatisfied with a Form of Godliness, with a Zeal for Names and Diftinctions of Religion, though not accompanied with Moral Virtue. And then

3dly, As to the last fort of Men, who (I faid) might also justly be charged with being in fome degree guilty of the fame Vice of making a Mock at Sin; namely, those who are really fenfible of the Neceffity of true Repentance and Amendment, and yet at the present speak Peace to themfelves in the Practice of Unrighteousness, or in the Injoyment of unlawful Pleasures : The only Foundation Thefe can poffibly go upon, is an artificial Defign of fecuring to themselves Both Worlds, and of ingroffing More Happiness than either God or Nature defigned them; by injoying fecurely the Pleafures of Sin for a Seafon, and at the End by Repentance obtaining the Reward of Virtue likewife. This is what the Apoftle calls, mocking of God, Gal. vi. 7; and is indeed more truly a mocking or deceiving of Themselvės. VOL. III.

Cc

As

SER M. As will appear, if we proceed now, in XVII the Third place,

III. To confider, how Weak all the forementioned Grounds or Reafons are, upon which men are tempted to be guilty of the feveral Degrees of this Vice: and confequently how Great the Folly is of Acting upon thofe Grounds: Fools make a Mock at Sin. And

ift, As to that highest degree of Profane Mockers, who have no other Hope to rest upon but that of Atheism and Infidelity; Their Folly is greater than can be expreffed in words, or than can rightly be conceived by any Imagination. For, What is the State of fuch a perfon, when God taketh away his Soul? Can he be fure that there is no God? or can he demonftrate to himself, that there will be no future ftate? The Hardieft Unbeliever never yet pretended to have demonftration in this cafe. And if he had, yet all the Comfort, all the Hopes, that could be built even upon That, would be but the Hope of a Beaft, the Expectation of perishing as if he had never been. But fince there can be no fuch demonstration, on

the