neft undertaking, than when they el.VII. are ingaged in a wicked defign? Do not bad Men feel a fecret shame and horror, when no Eye fees them, and the wickedness they are about to commit doth not fall under the cognisance and cenfure of any human Court or Tribunal? Have they not many checks and rebukes in their own Spirits, much disturbance and confufion of Mind, when they are enterprifing a wicked thing? And does not this plainly argue, that they are guilty to themselves, that they are about fomething which they ought not to do?

'Tis very true that moft Men are more fenfible of the Evil of an Action, when they feel the ill effects and confequences of it, and fuffer the punishment that is due to it: but yet the fense of good and evil is fo deeply impreft upon humane Nature, that I think no Man, remaining a Man, can quite deface and blot out the difference of good and evil. So that if Men will but attend to the natural dictates and fuggeftions of their own Minds, they cannot poffibly infer from the delay of punishment, that there is no diffe rence of good and evil.

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But because those who argue thus Vol. VII are but few in comparison, there being not many in the World arrived to that degree of blindness and height of impiety, as to disbelieve a God and a Providence, and I think none have attained to that perfect conqueft of Confcience, as to have loft all fenfe of good and evil; therefore I fhall rather infift

II. Upon thofe kind of Reasonings which are more ordinary and common among bad Men, and whereby they cheat themselves into everlafting Per dition; and they are fuch as these.

Because fentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore Sin is not fo great an Evil.

2. Therefore God is not fo highly offended and provoked by it. Or, 3. God is not fo fevere in his own' Nature, as he is commonly reprefentéd.

4. Therefore the punifhment of fin is not fo certain.

5. Or however it is at a distance, and may be prevented time enough, by a future Repentance, in our old Age, or at the hour of Death; by fome fuch falfe reafonings as thefe, P which

which Men think may probably be Vol. VII. collected from the Patience and longfuffering of God, they harden and encourage themselves in an evil course.

1. Because the punishment of fin is deferr'd, therefore they conclude it is not fo great an Evil; they do not feel the ill Effects of it at prefent, all things go well and profperoufly with them, no less than with thofe who are fo ftrict and confcientious; and therefore they hope there is no fuch great Evil in Sin, as melancholy People are apt to fancy to themselves. For anfwer to this,

(1.) Confider feriously what Sin is; and then thou wilt fee reafon enough to call it a great Evil. To fin against God, is to contemn the greateft Authority in the World, to contradict the greatest Holiness and Purity, to abuse the greatest Goodness, and to provoke Almighty Juftice to take Vengeance upon thee, and to make thee as miferable as thou art capable of being. To fin against God, is to be disobedient to thy Soveraign, and unthankful to thy beft Benefa&tor, and to act contrary to the great. eft Obligations, against thy beft Rea

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fon and trueft Intereft; to difoblige thy kindest Friend, and to gratifie Vol. VII. thy worft and bittereft Enemy; it is to diforder thy felf, to create perpetual difquiet to thy own Mind, and to do the greatest mifchief poffible to thy felf; to deprive thy felf of the greateft Happiness, and to draw down upon thy felf extream and eternal Mifery. And what do we call a great Evil, if this be not, which contains in it all the kinds, and all the aggra. vations of Evil that can be, and hath all the circumftances of ugliness and deformity in it that can be imagined?

(2.) Whatever Sin be in it felf, yet from hence we can in no wife conclude, that it is not a great Evil, because the punishment of it is deferred for a while; from hence indeed it follows, that God is very good in deferring the punishment which is due to thee for thy fins, but by no means that Sin is not very Evil. The Reprieve of a Traytor does indeed argue the goodness and clemency of the Prince, but doth not at all abate of the heinousness of the Crime for which he is fentenced. The great Evil of Sin is evident, because the holy and juft God hath forbidden

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bidden it, and declared his hatred and Vol. VII.deteftation of it, and threatned it with most severe and direful punishments; but that God refpites the punishment which is due to fin, and does not immediately take Vengeance upon Sinners, but affords them a fpace, and means, and opportunity of repentance, this doth not at all leffen the Evil of Sin, but is rather an aggravation of it; that we fhould offend and provoke that God, who is fo patient and long-fuffering towards us, fo very loth to bring thofe Evils upon us, which we are fo rafh and forward to pull down upon our felves.

2. If God doth not immediately punish fin upon the commiffion of it, and inftantly let flye at the Sinner, this they would conftrue to be a fign that he is not fo highly offended and provok'd by it; if he were,he would manifeft his difpleasure againft it, by the fudden and violent effufions of his Wrath. For answer to this, I defire these two things may be confidered.

(1.) That God himself in his word. every where plainly declares to us his great difpleasure againft fin; Pfal. 5. 4, 5. Thou art not a God that hast plea

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