DISCOURSE XVIII.

ROMANS VI. 21.

What Fruit had ye then in thofe Things whereof ye are now afhamed? For the End of those Things is Death.

T

HOUGH the Hopes introduced by the Gospel of Chrift are in

themselves fitted to support and encourage Virtue and true Religion, and are only to be truly enjoyed by those who make a Title to them by the Innocency of their Lives; yet they have been perverted to very ill Purposes by such as, hating to be reformed by the Precepts of the Gospel, are willing nevertheless to put their Sins under the Protection of the glorious Promifes contained in it. This Policy prevailed fofoon in the Church, that we find the Apostle ftating the Pretence, and rejecting Dd 2

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it with Indignation, in the first Verses of this Chapter: What shall we fay then? Shall we continue in Sin, that Grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein? In the Chapter before this of the Text, he fets forth the exceeding great Benefits we receive through Jefus Chrift: That being juftified by Faith, we bave Peace with God. That God commendeth bis Love towards us, in that while we were yet Sinners Chrift died for us. That being justified by his Blood, we shall be faved from Wrath thro' him. That as by one Man's Difobedience many were made Sinners; fo by the Obedience of one fhall many be made righteous. To prevent the Ufe which ill-difpofed Men were ready to make of this great Goodness of God towards Sinners, imagining their Iniquities to be privileged, fince fo much Grace had been extended to them, the Apostle in this Chapter enters into the Question, Whether the Hopes of the Gospel are reconcileable to a Continuance in Sin; and fhews by many Arguments, drawn from the Profeffion, the State, and the Condition of a Chriftian, that a State of Grace and a State of Sin are as inconfiftent as Life and Death: fince every Chriftian is buried with Chrift by Baptifm into Death; that,

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like as Chrift was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father, even fo we also Should walk in Newness of Life. From these Reasons he proceeds to others, not of less Moment, appealing to the Senfe of Conscience and the Voice of Reason against the prefumptuous Conceit which made the Son of God the Minifter of Sin, and the Gospel to give countenance to the Iniquities of which Nature was ever afhamed, and against which the common Reason of Mankind had passed 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 Remorse which attend upon Sin and Guilt arife from the natural Impreffions on the Mind of Man.

Secondly, That the Expectation of Punish. ment for Sin is the Refult of the Reason given

unto us.

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

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First, That the Shame and Remorfe which attend upon Sin and Guilt arife 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 thofe of the Body: When the Fire burns, Flesh and Blood muft 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 Senfations of our Mind, if Reflection be fo much under Command, that when we fay, Come, it cometh, when we fay, Go, it goeth, how is it that so many fuffer fo much from the uneafy Thoughts and Suggestions of their own Hearts, when they need only fpeak 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 these melancholy Thoughts retire, and can when he pleases fit down enjoying his Iniquities in Peace and Tranquillity?

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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 Intereft 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 Reason ; 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 Dd 4

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