into Death; that, like as Chrift was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father, even fo we also fhould walk in Newness of Life. From these Reasons he proceeds to others, not of less Moment, appealing to the Sense of Confcience and the Voice of Reason against the presumptuous Conceit which made the Son of God the Minister of Sin, and the Gospel to give Countenance to the Iniquities of which Nature was ever ashamed, and against which the common Reason of Mankind had paffed Sentence of Condemnation: What Fruit had ye then in thofe Things whereof ye are now afhamed? For the End of thofe Things is Death.

These Words will fuggeft to our Confideration the following Particulars :

First, That the Shame and Remorfe which attend upon Sin and Guilt arife from the natural Impreffions on the Mind of Man.

Secondly, That the Expectation of Punishment for Sin is the Refult of the Reafon given.

unto us.

Thirdly, That thefe common Notions are the Foundation of all Religion, and therefore must be fuppofed and admitted in Revealed Religion, and cannot be contradicted by it.

Firft, That the Shame and Remorfe which attend upon Sin and Guilt arise from the natural Impreffions on the Mind of Man.

It is certain from Experience that we can no more direct by our Choice the Senfations of our Mind, than we can those of the Body: When the Fire burns, Flesh and Blood must feel Pain; and a rational Mind compelled to act against its own Conviction must ever grieve and be afflicted. These natural Connections are unalterably fixed by the Author of Nature, and established to be Means of our Prefervation. We are taught by the Senfe of Pain to avoid Things hurtful or destructive to the Body; and the Torments and Anxiety of Mind, which follow fo clofe and fo conftantly at the Heels of Sin and Guilt, are placed as Guardians to our Innocence, as Centinels to give early Notice of the Approach of Evil, which threatens the Peace and Comfort of our Lives. If we are perfect Masters of the Sensations of our Mind, if Reflection be fo much under Command, that when we say, Come, it cometh, when we fay, Go, it goeth, how is it that fo many fuffer fo much from the uneafy Thoughts and Suggestions of their own Hearts, when they need only speak the Word and be

whole?

whole? Whence the Self-conviction, the Self-condemnation of Sinners, whence the foreboding Thoughts of Judgment to come, the fad Expectations of divine Vengeance, and the Dread of future Mifery, if the Sinner has it in his Power to bid thefe melancholy Thoughts retire, and can when he pleases fit down enjoying his Iniquities in Peace and Tranquillity?

the

Thefe Confiderations make it evident, that the Pain and Grief of Mind which we fuffer from a Sense of having done ill, flow from very Conftitution of our Nature, as we are rational Agents. Nor can we conceive a greater Argument of God's utter Irreconcileableness to Sin, than that he has given us fuch a Nature that we can never be reconciled to it ourselves. We never like it in others where we have no Interest in the Iniquity, nor long approve of it in ourselves when we have. The Hours of cool Reflection are the Sinner's Mortification, for Vice can never be happy in the Company of Reafon; which is the true Cause why profligate Sinners fly to any Excess that may help them to forget themselves, and hide them from the Light of Reason, which, whenever it ceases to be the Glory of a Man, will neceffarily become Dd4

his

1

his Shame and Reproach. No Vice is the better for being found in the Company of Intemperance, but becomes more odious in the Sight of God and Man. And And yet how often does Vice fly to Intemperance for Refuge? which shews what miferable Company Sinners are to themselves, when they can be content to expofe themselves to the Contempt of all about them, merely for the fake of being free from their own Cenfure for a Season. Were it in the Power of Men to find any Expedient to reconcile their Reason to their Vices, they would not fubmit to the hard Terms of parting with their Reason for the fake of being at eafe with their Vices. But there is no Remedy; as long as we have the Power of thinking, so long must we think ill of ourselves when we do Ill. The only Cure for this Uneafinefs is to live without Thought; for we can never enjoy the Happiness of a Brute, till we have funk ourselves into the fame Degree of Understanding.

It may be faid, I know, that there have been fome profligate Sinners who have discovered no Uneafiness upon the Account of their Guilt, but have gone through a Life of profperous Wickedness with great Shew of outward Peace and Tranquillity: I know too,

that

that there have been Inftances of Men who could play with Fire, and be very familiar with it, without fhewing any Sense of Pain: But neither will the Art of one be accepted as an Argument against the Sense of Feeling, nor the Obdurateness of the other be admitted as a Proof against the natural Sense of a rational Mind. Great wicked Men are often loft in a perpetual Succeffion of Business and Pleasure, and have no Refpite for Reflection. The poor idle Sinner feeks Eafe in Intemperance; the more profperous is kept at an unhappy Distance from himself by living in a Croud, and having his Hours filled up with Business, Ceremony, or Pleasure; and both equally live, with refpect to themselves and their own Condition, in one continued Lethargy. But fuch Inftances as these are of no Confequence in determining the general Cafe of Mankind; especially confidering that even these are laying up in store for themfelves fad Materials for Reflection, whenever the Seafon of Reflection overtakes them; and that, fhould they ever be deferted by Business and Pleasures, instead of being Objections to the general Senfe of Mankind under the Terrors of Guilt, they may feem to be the most miferable Examples of it. These