stances and yet be fo befotted and infatua ted as to let one darling fin overcome and enflave him, when he knows that this by the Principles of his Religion is as damnable and destructive as any of the reft; which is juft as if he should be careful to preferve his Health and avoid a great many Difeafes, and live by regular Methods to that purpose, and yet give himself a mortal stab and a wound that will certainly dispatch him; for one Sin, like one Wound, may be Mortal and bring Death along with it as well as many, and one drop of Poyson may kill, and one wilful fin damn us as well as

more.

God will not judge of our fins as the Custom and Opinion of the World does, nor abate of the Measures of our Duty and Conditions of our Salvation as we madly and unreasonably do our felves; but whatever fin ftands condemned by the Divine Law, however Modish or Common and Cuftomary it be, that will not alter its Nature, nor take off its guilt and danger; one Man's Temper carries him to fuch Sins that he thinks Flefh and Blood cannot refift; another's Trade or Bufinefs tempts him to others that he thinks 'tis impoffible to get a Livelyhood without them; he cannot drive his Bargains with his Cuftomers without immoderate drinking, nor Sell and Trade in the World without Customary Lying, and perhaps Swearing; and to perfuade Men out of thofe that their Convenience and Condition, or their Temper or Complexion

do

do fo ftrongly difpofe 'em to, is to pluck out a right Eye, and cut off a right Hand. I confefs it is fo in our Saviour's fenfe; but 'tis also very neceffary to do this, to Cut off even the most pleasant or advantagious. Sin, and deny even the most darling and beloved Luft, if we would not be caft into Hell hereafter, and into a bad State at prefent: Our Saviour's Words there fuppofe and imply that, but, as he fays 'tis more profitable, more for our Good, Intereft and Advantage to forego any pleafure, and part with any Advantage, than for the fake of them to expofe our felves to fuch a miserable state.

He that is truly afraid of Hell, will not dare to live in any fuch fin as he knows will bring.him thither; he must be ftrangely thoughtlefs and inconfiderate, or else a downright Atheist, Infidel or Sceptick, who can allow himself in any fuch finful Liberties and undue Practices as are directly contrary to Religion and inconfiftent with all the Fears and Hopes of it; and as one would think, with all true Faith and belief of another World. But let every one that hath thofe, and any ferious fenfe of Religion remaining upon his Mind, not venture to indulge himself in any fecret or known Sin, nor harbour any beloved vice or wickedness in his Soul; but let him though with the greatest Self-denyal to his Temper or difficulty to his Circumftances and Condition in the World, break it off and tear it from his Heart though it ftick by never fo many

ftrings

ftrings and fibres and be like a fecond Nature grown to it, like a Cancer it will certainly kill us if it be not thus torn from the Breast, and fo perfectly cut off that none of its spreading Venom or Poyfon remain behind. He that has any fuch mortal illness growing upon his Mind', or has been guilty of any fuch wilful Sin as puts him into an ill state, must thus Repent of it fo as never again to commit it, nor live in the practice of it afterwards, or else till he do this he can have no hopes that he is recovered or got out of it, nor any reafonable grounds to believe that he is in a Condition any way hopeful or comfortable? For,

Lastly, 'Tis only this mark of not committing any known and wilful fin that diftinguishes good Men who are born of God, from those who are wicked and the Children of the Devil and Enemies to God. And to be fure there must be fome very great and notorious difference between them, and fome plain and evident marks by which they may be known from one another; now thofe are plainly given us by St. John, 1 Ep. 3. c. 8, 9. ver. He that committeth fin is of the Devil, and whosoever is born of God doth not commit fin. Where nothing lefs can be meant by committing fin than living in the practice of any known fin or wilful wickedness which deftroys the image of God upon the mind, and fo defiles and depraves our Souls that they are unlike to the pure and holy and unfpotted Nature of God; and when any

Vice of Pride, Luft, Malice or the like abides upon them, they bear thefe Marks and Signatures and likeness of accurfed Fiends and of their Father the Devil upon them in Scripture phrase: There are none fuch great Sinners as to break all the Divine Laws; fome fins are contrary to one another, and fome may be contrary to our Inclinations, Complexions, or Conditions and Employments; but he that will violate any one Law as it fuits with any of thofe and will gratifie any Luft or Temptation as it is offered to him, he is one whom the Scripture denominates a Sinner in the high fenfe, i. e. one who ftands condemned by it to an ill ftate. here, and to Eternal Mifery hereafter. We are all Sinners in a low fenfe, as I fhall fhew presently when I come to state the difference of Men's fins, and enquire what are and what are not confiftent with a good ftate, but no Judgment could be made between a Good and a Bad Man if this did not distinguish them, that the one though he may be encompast with a great many frailties and infirmities yet never allows himself in one wilful known and deliberate wickednefs, which the other does: There may be degrees both of Sinners and of Good Men; fome have attained to greater improvements' and Perfections both in Vice and Vertuc, and are more the Children of God or the Children of the Devil; but that which divides their States and cuts the Line of difference between them must be this, that the one

allows himself in the practice of fome known fin or fins which the other does not, but carefully avoids, and never commits any fuch wilful Wicked nefs.

Though this feems very plain and undeniable, and I have endeavoured to convince every one of the truth of it by the feveral Arguments I have brought to prove it, it being of great ufe to them to Judge and Examine themfelves by this plain and certain Mark and Criterion, instead of the many falfe and uncertain ones that are given out as figns of Grace, and to judge thereby of their Spiritual Condition, and know whether they are in a Good or Bad State, yet there are two seemingly great Objections against it: The one is the quite other Character and Account which St. Paul gives of himself in the Seventh Chapter to the Romans, who was undoubtedly in a good state, and a Regenerate Man, and yet fpeaks of fin dwelling in him, ver. 17. and that the good which he would, he did not, but the evil which he would not, that he did; ver. 19. and that there was a War in his Members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the law of fin which is in his Members, ver. 23. &c. The other is that no Man lives without fin, and that 'tis impoffible he fhould; for in many things we offend all; and if we fay we have no fin we deceive our felves, as the Apostle fays; and therefore to exclude all from a ftate of Grace who live in any fin, and to make the not Committing fin the only true Mark and Sign

of