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2. But when sin hath so far insinuated it self to bring men to a better opinion of it, it doth not presently hurry them on to the greatest height of wickedness; but leads them gently and by easie steps and degrees, lest they should start back presently with the fright of some dreadfull sin. Which will appear, if we consider how one comes to be corrupted by sin that hath had the advantage of a modest and vertuous education: if those who design to debauch him speak out at first in plain words what they aim at, a sudden horrour seizes upon him at the apprehension of [Page 156] it, and it may be he hates their company for ever after. But there is so much a sense of shame left in humane nature, that men dare not tempt others to sin, at least at first, in plain terms; and the same temptation which being represented one way would affright, appearing with greater art and dissimulation may easily prevail. And sin is a thing, that men hate to be forced, but too much love to be cheated into the practice of it. How doth a young sinner struggle with himself, and would if it were possible get out of the noise of his own Conscience, when he hath offered force and violence to it! He is very uneasie to himself, and wisheth a thousand times he had never committed the sin, rather than to feel such horror and disquiet in his mind, upon the sense of it. But if this doth not make him presently repent, and resolve never to be guilty again of the same folly, (as in all reason it ought to do) then by time and company he wears off the impression of his guilt, and the next occasion of sinning makes him forget the wounds of his Conscience, and the smart he endured before; and the fresh temptation revives the sense of his former pleasure, and [Page 157] then he is able to withstand no longer; and thus by repeating the same acts, by degrees he becomes a very hopefull sinner, and the reports of his Conscience are but like that of sounds at a greater distance; they lessen still more and more, till at last they cannot be heard at all. And when he hath thus mastered his Conscience, as to any one sin, which at first he was fearfull of committing, and hath sound such an Ice upon his Conscience as will bear him, he goes on still farther and farther, till nothing be too hard for him. He that at first started and trembled at the hearing of an horrid oath, now can hear whole volleys of them discharged without shrinking; and can bear his part in that hellish Concert: and he that was so hardly brought to be wicked himself, may in a little time (as some men are strange proficients in wickedness) tempt and encourage others to the practice of it.
2. Men are hardned by the deceitfulness of sin, from the hopes of their future repentance. For that is one of the great cheats of sin, that every one thinks he can repent and shake off his sins when he hath a mind to do it. Sin doth not lie like a heavy weight upon their backs, so that they feel the load of it; and therefore they think it is easily removed, if they would set themselves to it. Most of those that believe [Page 163] a God and a judgment to come, and yet continue in sin, do it upon this presumption, that one time or other, they shall leave their sins, and change the course of their lives before they go out of this world. They have not only thoughts of repentance, [...]ut general purposes of doing the acts of it at one time or other; but that time is not come, and God knows whether it ever will or no. For sin entices them and draws them on still; and when any motions towards repentance come into their minds, that presently suggests, It is time enough yet; why so much haste? there will be trouble enough in it when you must do it, what need you bring it so fast upon you? Are not you likely to hold out a great many years yet? what pity it is to lose so much of the pleasure of life, while you are capable of enjoying it? There is old Age coming, and when you will be good for nothing else, then will be time enough to grow wise and to repent. But O foolish sinner, who hath bewitched thee to hearken to such unreasonable suggestions as these are! For
2. When they are committed with more than ordinary contempt of God and Religion. All Ages are bad enough; and every Age is apt to complain of it self, as the worst of any; because it knows more ill of it self, than of the foregoing. But yet there is a difference in the manner of sinning; sometimes the stream of wickedness hides its head, and runs under ground, and makes little noise, although it holds on the same course; at other times it seems to break forth like a mighty torrent as tho' it would bear down all before it, as tho' the fountains of the great Deep were broken up, and Hell were let loose, and the Prisoners there had shaken off their [Page 221] chains and come up upon the earth; When Atheism, Prophaneness and all manner of Wickedness grow impudent and bare-faced; when men do not only neglect Religion,Jer. 5.9, 29. but reproach and contemn it. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this? God did forbear his People of Judah beyond what they could have expected, waiting for their amendment; but when they added impudence to their obstinacy, when they made sport with the Prophets, and turned their threatnings into songs of mirth and drollery, then the peremptory decree came forth, and there was no hopes to escape. But they mocked the messengers of God, 2 Chr. 36.16. and despised his Words, and misused his Prophets, untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his People, till there was no remedy. There still seemed to be some hopes left till they came to this temper. But when they burlesqued the Prophet Jeremiah's words, Jer. 23.34, 36. Ezek. 33.31. In canticum oris sui vertunt illos. Vul. Lat. and turned the expressions he used into Ridicule, crying in contempt, The burden of the Lord, which is called, perverting the words of the living God: when they turned Ezekiel's words into pleasant songs, and made [Page 222] sport with God's judgments, no wonder he was so highly provoked. For there can be no worse symptom to a people, than to laugh at the only means to cure them; and if this once grow common, it must needs make their condition desperate. For then it comes to God's turn to mock and laugh too; Because I have called and ye have refused, Prov. 1.24. I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; 25. but ye have set at nought all my Counsel, and would have none of my reproof; 26. I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. Woe be unto that people whom the Almighty takes pleasure in punishing.
1. A general Proposition, viz. That every man shall receive in another World according to the good that he doth in this. Be not deceived, 6.7. God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. 6.8. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of his flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting: i. e. He that looks only after his present advantage in this world, and dares not venture to do any thing out of hopes of recompence for it in another life, he is said to sow to his flesh; but he that is good and charitable and kind to others without hopes of any other advantage than what God will give him for it, is said to sow to the spirit; the flesh and spirit being opposed as the two Centres of the different worlds: the great thing [Page 382] to which all things tend in this world being something carnal or that relates to the Flesh; and the great principle of another world being wholly spiritual. And these two Flesh and Spirit are placed as two Loadstones drawing our hearts several ways; the one is much stronger, but at a greater distance; the other hath less force in it self but is much nearer to us, by which means it draws more powerfully the hearts that are already touched with a strong inclination to it. But the Apostle useth the similitude of two Fields, wherein the product of the Seed answers to the nature of the Soil; so he that sows to the flesh, i. e. that minds only his present interest in this world, his harvest shall be proportionable to his seed, he may reap advantages to himself in this world suitable to his pains and industry; but the utmost this world can yield is but of a short continuance, being of a temporary, transient corruptible nature, he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the spirit, i. e. hath so great a regard to the rewards of another life, that he is willing to let go a present enjoyment and bury it under ground, casting it in as [Page 383] seed into the earth in hopes of a future resurrection, however he may be condemned as a weak and improvident man by the men of this world, yet as certain as there is a life everlasting to come, so certainly shall all his good deeds yield an abundant increase and meet with a glorious recompence then, if there be no corrupt mixture in the sowing which may spoil the vertue of the seed, for he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let not men deceive themselves; if they look only at themselves and the things of this world, let their pretences be never so spiritual, if they dare not do acts of Charity so as to trust God for a reward, they do but sow to the flesh; and though the world may be cheated, and men may sometimes deceive themselves, yet God cannot be mocked; he knows the hearts and intentions, and secret designs of men, and according to them their reward shall be; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap. This I take to be the natural and genuine meaning of the Apostle in those words.
(1.) Those who make Religion to be such a contrivance, must suppose that all Mankind were once without any such thing as Religion. For, if some crafty Politicians did first start the notion of an Invisible Being among the rude and unthinking Multitude, the better to awe them into Obedience to Government; then Mankind must have lived before those Politicians appear'd, with as little sense of God and Religion, and with as much security and ease, as to the thoughts of another World, as the very Beasts that perish. If this were true, these Politicians were so far from consulting the interest of Mankind, that they were the greatest Enemies to it; by filling their minds with such unconquerable [Page 512] fears, as rob them of that undisturbed Tranquillity which they enjoyed before. But when and where did this race of mankind live, whom these designing Men first cheated into the belief of a Deity, and the practice of Religion? The eldest Writings in the World, without all dispute, are those of the Holy Scriptures; and among these, the Book of Job hath been thought the most antient; for in all this Book we have not one word of the Law of Moses, or of Circumcision; which makes it very probable to have been written before the Children of Israel's coming out of Aegypt;Greg. Abulfarai. hist. Dynast. p. 13. Hier. Trad. Hebr. in Gen. 22. (and some Arabic Writers think that Job lived before Abraham; and others, at least in the time of Jacob) however it be, this Book of Job gives an account of the sense of mankind about Religion very early; and by it we find that the great, and wise, and understanding men of the World, such as Job and his three Friends were, (who as far as appears by the story, were all of them independent Princes; such as were common then, and a long time after, in those parts about Arabia) had a mighty sense of God and Providence, and the Duties of Religion upon [Page 513] their minds. And they not only give an ample Testimony as to their own times, but they appeal to all the Traditions of former times;Job 8.8. Enquire I pray thee, of the former Age, saith one of Job's Friends, and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers. For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing. But what is it he appeals to Antiquity for, and the observations of all former Ages? It was for this, viz. the bad condition of all that were not sincere in Religion: So are the paths of all that forget God, Job 8.13. and the hypocrites hope shall perish. And another of his Friends speaking of the remarkable judgments of God upon the World, saith to Job, 22.15, 16. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden; which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overthrown with a flood? i. e. the Men of the old World. And what was their great and provoking sin? A contempt of God and Religion, Which said unto God, 17. Depart from us; and what can the Almighty do for them? This is the oldest, and truest, and severest instance of such a profane and irreligious temper, and the great mischief it brought upon the World; which shews, that this is not the original disposition [Page 514] of Mankind, but the monstroudegeneracy of it. But if they are unsastisfied with the Testimony of Job's Friends, let them produce any to be mentioned the same Day with it, which can pretend to give a truer account of the Religion of the first Ages of the World: I do not mention Moses (although his Authority be unquestionable) lest he should be thought one of these Politicians, who inspired the People of Israel with the Principles of Religion; but I the rather chuse this instance of the free Princes of those parts of the East, who were under subjection to no common Authority, yet were so early possessed themselves with such firm Principles of Religion, and assure us that all good Men had the same; and that they were slighted by none, but such loose and profane wretches, whom God set up for the Monuments of his Indignation. 2b1af7f3a8