finner with "confufion of face." I fhall fpeak to SERM. them feverally.

1. The natural ruggedness and deformity of fin and vice render it very fhameful. Men are apt to be ashamed of any thing in them, or belonging to them, that looks ugly and monftrous, and therefore they endeavour with great care and art to conceal and diffemble their deformity in any kind. How ftrangely do we see men concerned, with all their diligence and skill, to cover and palliate any defect or deformity in their bodies; an ill face, if they could, however a foul and bad complexion, or blind or fquinting eye, a crooked body or limb, or whatever is ill-favoured or monftrous. Now in regard of our fouls and better part, fin hath all the monftrousness and deformity in it, which we can imagine in the body, and much more; and it is as hard to be covered from the eye of difcerning men, as the deformity of the body is; but impoffible to be concealed from the eye of GOD, to whom "darkness "and light," fecret and open are all one. But then the moral defects and deformities of the mind have this advantage above the natural defects and defor mities of the body, that the former are poffible to be cured by the grace of GoD, in conjunction with our own care and endeavour: Whereas no diligence or fkill can ever help or remove many of the natural defects and deformities of the body.

Sin is the blindnefs of our minds, the perverfenefs and crookednefs of our wills, and the monftrous irregularity and diforder of our affections and appetites; it is the mif-placing of our powers and faculties, the fetting of our wills and paffions above our reafon; all which is ugly and unnatural, and, if we were truly fenfible of it, matter of great fhame and reproach to us.

There

CLXIII.

SERM.

There is hardly any vice, but at firft fight hath an CLXIII. odious and ugly appearance to a well difciplined and

innocent mind, that hath never had any acquaintance with it. And however familiarity and custom may abate the sense of it's deformity, yet it is as it was before, and the change that is made in us does not alter the nature of the thing. Drunkenness and furious paffion, pride and falfhood, coveteousness and cruelty, are odious, and matter of fhame, in the fincere and uncorrupted opinion of all mankind. And though a man, by the frequent practice of any of thefe vices, and a long familiarity with them, may not be fo fenfible of the deformity of them in himfelf, yet he quickly difcerns the ugliness of them in others, whenever they come in his way, and could with falt and sharpness enough upbraid those whom he fees guilty of them, but that he is inwardly concious, that the reproach may be fo easily returned, and thrown back upon himself. However this is a natural acknowledgment of the deformity and fhamefulness of fin and vice.

2. They are likewife fhameful, because they are fo great a dishonour to our nature, and to the dignity and excellency of our being. We go below ourfelves, and act beneath the dignity of our nature, when we do any thing contrary to the rules and laws of it, or to the revealed will of God; because these are the bounds and limits which God and nature hath fet to human actions; and are the meafures of our duty, i. e. what is fit and becoming for us to do, and what not. So that all fin and vice is base and unworthy, and beneath the dignity of our nature; it argues a corrupt and difeafed conftitution and habit of mind, a crooked and perverfe difpofition of will, and a fordid and mean temper of fpirit.

And therefore the fcripture doth frequently repre- SERM. fent a state of fin and wickedness, by that which is CLXIII. accounted the bafeft and meanest condition among men, by a state of fervitude and flavery, especially if it had been our choice, or the evident and neceffary confequence of our wilful fault; for we do as bad as chufe it, when we wilfully bring it upon ourfelves. So that to be a finner, is to be a flave to fome vile luft, appetite, or paffion to fome unnatural or irregular defire; it is to fell ourselves into bondage, and to part with one of the most valuable things in the world, our liberty, upon low and unworthy terms. Such a ftate and condition does unavoidably debase and debauch our minds, and break the force and firmness of our fpirits, and robs us, as Dalliah did Sampfon, of our ftrength and courage, of our refolution and conftancy; fo that men have not the heart left to defign and endeavour in good earneft their own refcue out of this mean and miferable estate, into which by their own folly and fault they have brought themselves.

When men are engaged into a cuftom of finning, and have habituated themselves to any vicious course, how do they betray their weakness and want of refolution, by being at the beck of every foolish lust, and by fuffering themselves to be commanded and hurried away by every unruly appetite and paffion, to do things which they know to be greatly to their harm and prejudice, and which they are convinced are mean and fordid things, and such as they are a→ fhamed that any wife man fhould fee them doing! and there is no greater argument of a pitiful and degenerate spirit, than to commit fuch things as a man would blush to be furprised in, and would be mightily troubled to hear of afterwards. And which is

more,

SERM.more, after he hath been convinced by manifold exCLXIII. perience, that they are a fhame and disgrace to him,

and make him to hang down his head, and let fall his countenance, whenever he is in better company than himself; yet after this to go and do the fame things again, which he is fenfible are fo fhameful, and to be fo impotent, and to have fo little command of himself, as not to be able to free himself from this bondage, nor the heart to pray to God that by his grace he would enable him thereto.

And that fin is of this fhameful nature, is evident, in that the greatest part of finners take fo much care and pains to hide their vices from the fight and notice of men, and to this purpose chufe darkness and fecret places of retirement to commit their fins in. The apostle takes notice, that thus much modesty was left even in a very wicked and degenerate age, I Thef. v. 7. "They that be drunk (fays he) "are drunk in the night." Now all this is a plain acknowledgment, that fin is a fpurious and degenerate thing, that it mifbecomes human nature, and is below the dignity, of a reasonable creature: otherwise why should men be fo folicitous and concerned to cover their faults from the fight of others? If they are not ashamed of them, why do they not bring them into the broad light, and fhew them openly, if they think they will endure it?

So true is that obfervation which Plato makes, that though a man were fure that GOD would forgive his fins, and that men should never know them, yet there is that bafenefs in fin, that a wife man, that confiders what it is, would blush to himself alone to be guilty of it; and though he were not afraid of the punishment, would be aflamed of the turpitude and deformity of it.

Did

Did but a man confider feriously with himself, SERM. how mean and unmanly it is for a man to be drunk; CLXII. and what an apifh and ridiculous thing he renders himself to all fober men that behold him, and with what contempt and fcorn they entertain fuch a fight; and how brutish it is to wallow in any unlawful luft, and how much a man defcends and ftoops beneath himself; what fhameful fear and cowardice he betrays when he is frighted to tell a lie out of fear, or tempted thereto for fome little advantage; and yet is fo inconfiftent with himself, as to have, or to pretend to have the courage to fight any man, that shall tell him fo fawcy a truth, as that he told a lie.

Would but a man think before-hand,how unworthy, and how unequal a thing it is to defraud or cheat his brother, or to do any thing to another man, which he would be loath in the like cafe that he fhould do to him; how base a thing it is, for a man to be perfidious and falfe to his promife or truft; how monstrous to be unthankful to one that hath highly obliged him, and every way and upon all occafions deferved well at his hands; and fo I might inftance in all other forts of fins; I fay, he that confiders this well and wifely, though there were no law against fin, and (if it were a poffible cafe, and fit to be fuppofed) though there were no fuch being as GoD in the world, to call him to account and punish him for it, yet out of meer generofity and greatnefs of mind, out of pure refpect to himself and the dignity and rank of his being, and of his order in the world, out of very reverence to human nature, and the inward perfuafion of his own mind, (however he came by that perfuafion) concerning the indecency and deformity and fhamefulness of the thing; I fay, for these reasons, if there were no other, a man would ftrive with . VOL. IX.

I

him