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SER M. utmost importance to us; on the due reXI. ceiving, or on the neglecting whereof,

depends the greatest Happiness or the extremest Misery our Nature is capable of; is the greatest Folly and Stupidity imaginable. To difobey the Commands of our Supreme Governour, whofe Power is abfolute, and his Authority uncontroulable; is the highest Infolence; and to oppose the Will of our greatest Benefactor, is the bafeft Ingratitude: To flight and reject a gracious propofal of Mercy, procured for us by the interpofition, and conveyed to us by the hands, of a Perfon of the greatest Dignity and Excellency; and who was likewife in order thereunto, neceffarily to condefcend and fubmit to undergo great Sufferings and Indignities; is the highest degree of Perverfeness poffible. And to withstand and not be convinced by fuch Proofs, as both in Number, Strength, and Clearness, are the best and greatest Evidence that can be expected or in reafon defired; is the utmoft Obftinacy, and most inexcufably wilful Oppofition to Truth. Now all

these

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these aggravating Circumstances attend the S E R M. rejecting, or (which is the very fame thing) the disobeying the Gofpel; and they are most of them contained in these words of the Apoftle; How shall we efcape, if we neglect fo great falvation, which at the first began to be Spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with figns and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghoft, according to his own will? In the words,

ift, HERE is the intrinfick Goodness and Excellency of the Thing itself, which wicked men reject; intimated as a just ground why they should not escape.unpunifhed. It is in itself or in its own Nature a great Salvation; a Salvation from Sin and Misery, from the Power and Tyranny of the Devil, and from the punishment of Death.

2dly, HERE is a great Aggravation of the Sin of rejecting the Gospel; in that it is a Salvation not only great in itself, but al

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SER M. fo offered unto us by express revelation XI. from God himself.

3dly, HERE is the Dignity and Excellency of the Perfon, by and through whom this Salvation is proposed to us; mentioned as a further Aggravation of the Sin of rejecting it. It was at the first began to be Spoken by the Lord.

4thly and Laftly, THE Strength and Clearness of the Evidence, and the Number and Greatnefs of the Proofs, made use of to affure us of the Truth and Certainty of the Gofpel; is of all others the highest Aggravation, of the Guilt of those who neglect or disobey it; and that which of all other circumstances renders them the most utterly inexcufable: God also bearing them witness, both with figns and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghoft, according to his own will. The principal and most remarkable of all which Signs and Wonders, being that plentiful Effufion of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, which we this day commemorate; I fhall therefore

be

be very brief upon all the former Heads. S E R M. Ift, HERE is the intrinfick Goodness and XI. Excellency of the Thing itfelf, which wicked men reject; intimated as a just ground why they should not escape unpunished. It is in itself, a great Salvation; a Salvation from Sin and Misery, from the Power and Tyranny of the Devil, and from the punishment of Death. Sin, in its own Nature, even feparate from the confideration of its being an obstinate disobeying the revealed Will of God, is in itself utterly unreasonable and inexcufable: 'Tis acting in oppofition to the known reason and proportion of things; contrary to that eternal Order and Equity, which God has established in the original conftitution of Nature; oppofite to the Light of Reason, the dictates of Confcience, the unprejudiced Judgment of our own Minds, the agreeing Opinion of all wife and good men, nay and even of bad men themselves too; contrary to all our natural Notions and Apprehensions, of the Attributes and Will of God; deAtructive to the publick Welfare and

Happi

XI.

SER M. Happiness of Mankind, the Health of our own Bodies, the Peace of our Minds, and the Support of our good Name and Reputation amongst wife and reasonable men: 'Tis a fubjecting our reason to vile affections, to inordinate and brutish appetites, to diforderly and ungoverned Pasfions; Which is the greatest and the worst flavery in the world; to fee and approve what is good, and yet not be able to prevail with ourselves to practise it; to be fenfible of the deftructive confequences of Sin, and yet, through the Strength of evil Habits, continue under the power and dominion of it; To feel ourselves deprived of our prefent Happiness, and of our beft hopes of all that is to come; and yet continue in the practice of fuch Vices, as are the only Causes of all this Mifery This is evidently the greatest Mifery, and most flavish Bondage that can be. Now to have a way propofed to us, of being delivered from this Body of Sin, into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God; to have a method laid before us, of being refcued from this Mifery,

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