no further, then he actually attends to and exerts them; as let a Traveller's Eye-fight be never fo good, it ferves him however for Direction no longer than he keeps his Eyes open and intent upon his Way; and if he fhut them, 'tis not his general Habitor Power, of Seeing,that will keep him from Mistakes and Wandrings. If the Light be not prefent to him, for ready ufe,when he is to walk by it; 'tis all one as if it were at the other fide of the Hemisphere; he could but be in the Dark then, and fo he is now. For he has it not to order his Motions by it, though he has it; and fo the Traveller is Blind, though the Man fees. The Application of this to Morality is very Eafy; and therefore fince he that Profeffes the Belief of a God,may not Confider what is contain'd in that Belief, nor maintain in his Mind a prefent actual Senfe of it; how Fundamental a Principle foever that may be, and in it felf productive of good Living, yet, for want of this actual Senfe of what he habitually and in the general believes,it may prove a mere nothing to him, and he may Live and Act as diforderly as if he acknowledged, no fuch Principle. And when he does fo, we may argue as well backwards from his ill Practice, to the want of his Actual Belief; as we did before from the want of his Actual Belief, to his ill Practice. Which opens us an Entrance upon the Second thing propofed.

Secondly, That an Ill Life is a real Denial of God, or, That those who lead Wicked Lives do really Deny That God whom they otherwife profels. For fo the Apostle exprefly, They profefs that they know God, but in works they deny him. These Works to be fure are ill Works, being fet in Oppofition to the Profeffion of God, which accordingly has laid usa ground

ground for the First Propofition, That the Profess'd Belief of a Deity is Confiftent with an ill Life. We have now in the next place the true Natural Value and Import of thefe Works, what they fignify, and by Neceffary Construction amount to, which it feems is no lefs than a Denial of God. In Works they deny him.

By which I do not mean (nor do I fuppofe does the Apostle) that he that Lives an ill Life muft Neceffarily, in his General and Habitual Judgment,hold that there is no God. For that were to Confound the Practical with the Speculative Atheift; which need not be, fince, as has been fhewn already, not only the Profeffion, but even the Belief of a God, may, upon other Accounts, be Confistent with a Courfe of Ill Living. Nor do I mean that there is any Neceffity, that our Ill Liver fhould, by way of Pofitive Judgment, fo much as Actually pronounce within himself, that there is no God. 'Tis enough if he do not actually Believe and Confider that there is one; that alone being fufficient to fruftrate and put by all the Influence and Efficacy of his General Belief, and to lay him open to the Affaults of the Tempter. When therefore, I fay, That an Ill Life is a Denial of God, my meaning precifely is; that all Ill Livers do by their Actions plainly declare that either they do not thoroughly Believe that there is a God, but are Atheists in their Hearts, whatever they may pretend or profefs to the World; or at least that they have not a prefent Sense of their Belief, and do_not_Actually Confider_that there is a God. They either are not really convinc'd and perfwaded of that Fundamental Truth, or elfe they do not duely attend to it; they are either under the Habit, or under the Act of Infidelity,

delity; which as it may very properly be call'd,during the time that it lafts, a Denial of God, fo 'tis that which the ill Life of any Man will justly warrant us to Conclude of him.

'Tis most certain in the General, that all Defect in Practice proceeds from, and therefore argues,fome Defect in Theory. For it being Neceffary that a Man fhould Will as at that Inftant he Thinks, however it may be againft his Habitual Judgment; (fince otherwife he would Will what then appears to him not to be Eligible, which would be to Will Evil as Evil) if he Wills amifs 'tis plain that he must alfo Think amifs, and that there is an Errour in his Understanding as well as in his Will. If any man walk in the day, fays our Saviour, he ftumbleth not, because he feeth the light of this World. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. John 11.9. This is true in a Spiritual and Mystical Senfe as well as in the Natural. A well-inform'd Understanding keeps all the Motions of the Will true and regular, but Ignorance and Mistake will be fure to pervert them. And as the Night makes a Man Stumble, fo from his Stumbling we may conclude that he walks in the Night. Whoever Sins, is Ignorant of fomething or other which he fhould know; and if not wholly deftitute of Light, has at leaft fome Darkness in him. Either he is not fuffici ently inftructed in his Duty, fo as to know in general that fuch an Action is a Sin; or else he does not think it at the very Inftant to be fo, or he does not (perhaps Habitually, however to be fure Actually) think Sin to be the greatest Evil; but that 'tis better to Commit it, than to be without fuch a Pleasure or fuch an Intereft, the want of which in the Hurry of his Paffion he imagines to be

the

the greater Evil of the two. Or it may be he does not fufficiently confider the Consequences of Sin; nor the great Motives and Ingagements to Obedience, which are fo weighty and momentous in themfelves that they need only be confider'd to make them Effectual. Or he flatters himfelf with Hopes of Impunityuponthe account either of God's Mercy, or Human Frailty,or the violence of the Temptation, or of the Number of thofe who offend with him. Or poffibly he boldly Ventures upon Sin with a deluding profpect of Repenting for it afterwards, and that, it may be,after he has for a long time indulged himself in the Practice of it; not confidering the Certainty of Death, nor the uncertainty of Life, nor the invifible Periods of the Divine Grace, nor the Stings of an awaken'd Conscience, nor the Terrours of the Lalt Judgment, nor the two Great Eternities. Some Practical

Truth or other he is ignorant of, or, which comes to the fame, has not in his View. For if a Man could Sin with all thefe Confiderations quick and fresh about him, what is there left that should ever make him Repent? For 'tis the Recovery of these Thoughts that muft put him upon it. But if thefe very Thoughts can confift with a Courfe of Sinning, the Man muft e'ne go on in it for ever, there being then no handle left in him for Repentance to take hold of. We must therefore conclude that our Sinner walk't in the Dark when he Stumbled and Mifs'd his Way, that either he had no Light with him, or that it fail'd him by fome fudden Eclipfe, that either he had not to much as an Habitual Knowledge of the moft Concerning and Important Truths of Morality, or at least that the Eye of his Mind was turn'd off from the Actual

View of them. That is in fhort, that either he did not Understand, or that he did not Confider.

And as this is true in the General, that want of Light is the Caufe of Men's Stumbling, and that all diforder in Will and Practice argues fome Defect and Mistake in Judgment; according to what the Scripture fays of the First Sinner, 1 Tim. 2. 1 4. The Woman being deceiv'd was in the Tranfgreffion, fo does it particularly argue fome Defect or other, either Habitual or Actual, in the Belief of that Great Fundamental Principle, the Existence of a God, which either is not Cordially and thoroughly receiv'd, or at least not duely confider'd and attended to,by those who prefume to offend and difobey him. Infidelity of fome fort or fome Degree or other is at the Bottom of all Sin, and Turks fecretly in the Hearts of all Sinners. They either do not with a full Conviction and Perfwafion believe that there is a God, but have fome hidden referves of Sufpicion and Miftruft, fome Sceptical Doubts and Irrefolutions about it, even when they feem to be moft Confident of it, and Zealous for it; or else they do not keep up in their Minds a lively Senfe and Recollection of that Thought, nor with due Application confider that there is really fuch an awful Being in the World. Or they do not fufficiently attend to the Confequences of this Faith or they do not mind what it includes, nor diftinctly confider what it is that they believe in believing a God, nor take afunder and examine the feveral Articles of this their grand Creed, but fwallow it down whole and in grofs, without either Chewing or Digesting it, and then no wonder if like a Medicine wrapt up in an indiffolvible Vehicle it goes through them without any Operation.

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