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CLXI.

brought to God by them, and infinitely more in the SERM. danger they expofe us to! can we weep for our dead friends? And have we no sense of that heavy load of guilt, of that body of death, which we carry about with us? Can we be fad and melancholy for temporal loffes and fufferings, and refufe to be comforted? And is it no trouble to us to have loft heaven and happiness, and to be in continual danger of the intolerable fufferings and endlefs torments of another world?

I fhall only offer to your confideration, the great benefit and advantage which will redound to us from this "godly forrow; it worketh repentance to fal"vation, not to be repented of," faith St. Paul. If we would thus "fow in tears," we fhould "reap "in joy." This forrow would but "continue for "a time," and "in the morning" of the refurrection there would be joy to all eternity, "joy un"fpeakable and full of glory." It is but a very little while, and thefe "days of mourning will be

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accomplished;" and then "all tears shall be wip"ed from our eyes; and the ranfomed of the LORD "fhall come to Sion with fongs, and everlafling

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joy fhall be upon their heads. They fhall obtain

joy and gladnefs, and forrow and fighing fhall "flee away. Bleffed are they that mourn, for they "shall be comforted: but wo unto you that laugh, "for ye fhall mourn and weep." If men will rejoice in the pleasures of fin, and "walk in the ways "of their hearts, and in the fight of their eyes;" if they will "remove forrow from their heart," and put away all fad and melancholy thoughts from them, and are resolved to harden their spirits against the fenfe of fin, against the checks and convictions of their own confciences, and the fuggeftions of

GOD'S

GOD's holy Spirit, against all the arguments that GOD can offer, and all the methods that GoD can use to bring them to repentance; let them "know, that for "all these things GOD will bring them into judg"ment;" and because they would not give way to a timely and seasonable forrow for fin, they fhall lie down in eternal forrow, "weeping and wailing and "gnafhing of teeth fhall be their portion for ever." From which fad and miferable eftate, beyond all imagination, and past all remedy, GoD of his infinite goodness deliver us all, for JESUS CHRIST'S fake.

"To whom," &c.

CLXII.

Preached

SERMON CLXII. The unprofitableness of fin in this life, an argument for repentance.

JOB xxxiii. 27, 28.

He looketh upon men, and if any fay, I have finned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his fout from going into the pit, and his life fhall fee the light.

THE

SERM. HE great folly and perverfenefs of human nature is in nothing more apparent than in this, that when in all other things men are generally led on Afh- and governed by their interefts, and can hardly be wednef impofed upon by any art, or perfuaded by any foliciday.1689. tation, to act plainly contrary to it; yet in matter of their fin and duty, that is, in that which of all other is of greateft concernment to them, they have

little or no regard to it; but are fo blinded and be- SER M. witched with "the deceitfulness of fin," as not to CLXII. confider the infinite danger and difadvantage of it; and at the fame time to caft the commandments of GOD, and the confideration of their own happiness behind their backs.

And of this every finner, when he comes to himfelf, and confiders what he hath done, is abundantly convinced; as appears by the confeffion and acknowledgment, which is here in the text put into the mouth of a true penitent; "I have finned, and "perverted that which was right, and it profited me r not, &c."

In which words here is a great blessing and benefit promised on GoD's part, and condition required on our part.

First, The bleffing or benefit promifed on GOD'S part, which is deliverance from the ill confequences and punishment of fin; "he will deliver his foul "from going into the pit, and his life fhall fee the

light," that is, he will deliver him from death and damnation. And though perhaps temporal death be here immediately intended, yet that is a type of our deliverance from eternal death; which is exprefly promised in the gospel.

Secondly, Here is a condition required on our part; "If any fay, I have finned, and perverted that which "was right, and it profited me not." In which words there are contained,

I. A penitent confeffion of our fins to GOD; for "he looketh upon men, and if any fay, I have fin"ned," that is, make a penitent confeffion of his fin to God.

II. A true contrition for our fin, not only for fear of the pernicious confequences of fin, and th: VOL. IX. punifh

G

CLXII.

SER M. punishment that will follow it, implied in these words, "and it profited me not," this is but a very imperfect contrition: but from a just sense of the evil nature of fin, and the fault and offence of it against GOD, that we have done contrary to right and our duty. If any fay, I have finned, and perverted "that which was right." Here you fee that true and perfect contrition for our fins, is made a neceffary condition of the bleffing and benefit here promised, viz. deliverance from the punishment due to them.

III. Here is a difcription of the evil nature of sin, it is "a perverting of that which is right." Sin is a perverting of the constitution and appointment of GOD, and of the nature and order of things. God hath given man a law and rule to walk by, but "the "foolishness of man perverteth his way." The great lines of our duty are plain and vifible to all men ; and if we would attend to the direction of our own minds, concerning good and evil, every man would be "a law to himself." "He hath shewed thee, O "man, what is good." That which is right and juft and good is plain and obvious, and offers itfelf firft to us; and whenever we fin, we go out of the right way that lies plain before us, and "turn afide into "crooked paths." But when we do that which is right, we act agreeably to the defign and frame of our beings, and comply with the true nature and order of things; we do what becomes us, and are what we ought to be: but fin perverts the nature of things, and puts them out of courfe; "I have finned and "perverted that which was right."

IV. You have here an acknowledgment of the mifchievous and pernicious confequences of fin; "I "have finned and perverted that which was right, "and it profited me not." Which last words are a

μείωσις,

jos, in which much lefs is faid than is meant and SERM. intended; "It profited me not," that is, it was fo CLXII. far from being of advantage, that the effects and confequences of it were very pernicious and destructive.

And this is not only true as to the final iffue, and event of an evil courfe in the other world; but I fhall endeavour to fhew, that even in refpect of this world, and the prefent life, the practice of fome fins is plainly mischievous to the temporal interefts of men; that others are wholly unprofitable; and that those which pretend to bring fome benefit and advantage, will, when all accounts are cast up, and all circumstances duly weighed and confidered, be found to do far otherwise.

First, I fhall fhew, that the practice of fome vices is evidently mischievous and prejudicial to us, as to this world; as all thofe vices which fall under the cognizance of human laws, and are punished by them: murder, theft, perjury, fedition, rebellion, and the like; thefe cannot be denied to be of per-nicious confequence to men, and therefore the great patrons of vice feldom plead for thefe, the inconvenience of them is fo palpable, that fome feel it, and all may fee it every day.

But befides thefe, there are many other forts of fin, which human laws either take no notice of, or do not fo feverely punish, which yet in their natural confequences are very pernicious to our present intereft; either they are a disturbance to our minds, or dangerous to our health, or ruinous to our eftate, or hurtful to our reputation, or it may be at once prejudicial to us, in all, or most of these respects; and these are the greatest temporal inconveniences that men are liable to.

All irregular paffions, as wrath, malice, envy,
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