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in that we faw the Anguish of his Soul when be befought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this Diftrefs come upon us.

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tunes may befal the Good as well as the Evil, for righteous Men have no Promise to secure them in this Life against the common Calamities incident to it; but then, under the fame Circumstances, there is a mighty Difference in their Sufferings, arifing from the different Reflections their feveral Cales afford. The innocent Man, who finds nothing to charge himself with as the Cause of his Calamity, fubmits to it as to an Accident of Life, to which he always knew himself subject, or as a Dispensation of the Providence of God towards him, whofe Kindness he has no Reason to miftrust: But when any Calamity overtakes the Sinner, and fetting afide at present what his Sins may deserve, even as a Man he is fubject to the Cafualties of Life; and, whenever they overtake him, will it be poffible for him to think that they are not the Punishment of thofe Sins which, he is confcious, have deferved them? And what Weight must this add to his Woe? how tormenting must the Thought be, that all his Sufferings are Effects of God's Wrath, and the Prefage of greater Woe to come? Innocence

Innocence may sometimes steal a Man from the Senfe of his Pain, and his Peace of Mind make him forget the Sorrow and Affliction of his Heart: But Guilt has no resting Place; it raifes every Faculty of the Soul to increase the present Mifery. How does the Memory of what is past, and the Fear of what is to come, give an Edge and Sharpness to Affliction? How does the Imagination work to paint in all the Colours of Terror the fad Doom that is expected? It is this only that renders the Afflictions of Life truly infupportable; for the Spirit of a Man will fuftain his Infirmity, but a wounded Spirit who can bear? So that, if we confider the Cafe fairly, we shall find, that tho' the final Reward of Virtue, and Punishment of Vice, are referved to another Time and Place; yet there are fuch Rewards and Punishments annexed to them here, and which have their Foundation in the very Frame and Conftitution of our Minds, as are fufficient to determine the Choice of a wife or reasonable Man. And if fome, who pretend to Doubts and Uncertainties concerning a future State, are ferious, let them confider, whether that Defect, as they suppose, in the Foundation of Religion be not supplied by what we now fpeak of: For, were they ever fo certain of VOL. II. Dd a future

a future State, their Duty would consist in thofe very Things which their own Reason requires of them, and which are absolutely neceffary to the Peace of their Minds, upon which all their Happiness depends. Allow them then their Doubts, will the Confequence be, that they may fafely go contrary to their own Reason, and the Measures of their prefent Happiness? How then does this Uncertainty affect the Practice of Virtue, fince the Certainty requires nothing of us but what our Reason and present Interest will teach us without it? And this fhews how effectually God has laid before us the Knowledge of his Law, together with proper and sufficient Motives to fecure our Obedience.

To conclude then: As you value the Ufe of that Reafon which diftinguishes you from the Creatures of a lower Rank, as you value the Comforts of this Life, and the Glories of the next (and, if thefe Arguments will not weigh, there is nothing more to add) take heed to preferve Innocence and Virtue, which fill up the Character of that Godliness, which, the Apostle tells us, is great Gain, having the Promise of this Life, and of that which is to come.

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE XVIII.

ROMANS vi. 21.

What Fruit bad ye then in those Things. whereof ye are now afhamed? For the End. of thofe Things is Death.

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HOUGH the Hopes introduced by the Gospel of Christ are in themselves fitted to fupport and

encourage Virtue and true Religion, and are only to be truly enjoyed by those who make a Title to them by the Innocency of their Lives; yet they have been perverted to very ill Purposes by such as, hating to be reformed by the Precepts of the Gospel, are willing nevertheless to put their Sins under the Protection of the glorious Promises contained in it. This Policy prevailed fo foon in the Church, that we find the Apostle stating the Pretence, and rejecting Dd 2

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it with Indignation, in the first Verses of this Chapter: What shall we fay then? Shall we continue in Sin, that Grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein? In the Chapter before this of the Text, he fets forth the exceeding great Benefits we receive through Jefus Chrift: That being juftified by Faith, we have Peace with God. That God commendeth his Love towards us, in that while we were yet Sinners Chrift died for us. That being juftified by his Blood, we shall be saved from Wrath thro' him. That as by one Man's Difobedience many were made Sinners; fo by the Obedience of one fhall many be made righteous. To prevent the Ufe which ill-disposed Men were ready to make of this great Goodness of God towards Sinners, imagining their Iniquities to be privileged, fince so much Grace had been extended to them, the Apoftle in this Chapter enters into the Question, Whether the Hopes of the Gospel are reconcileable to a Continuance in Sin; and fhews by many Arguments, drawn from the Profeffion, the State, and the Condition of a Christian, that a State of Grace and a State of Sin are as inconfiftent as Life and Death: fince every Christian is buried with Chrift by Baptifm

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