when our Hearts are ready, we may praise the Lord with the best Member that we have; that that Meekness and Charity which the Gospel inspires, that Innocence and Simplicity which adorn a Christian Conversation, may run through all our Discourse; and that while we minifter Grace unto the Hearers, we may treasure up our own Justification against that Day, wherein by our Words we shall be justified, and by our Words we shall be condemned.

SERMON

SERMON XI.

ROMANS Vi. 21.

What Fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now afkamed? for the End of those things is Death.

W

HERE Interest and Happiness are apparently concern'd, there seems to be no Room at all left for Perswasion; and the Suggeftions of our Nature, one would imagine, should anticipate the Force of any enticing Words of Exhortation, in the Purfuit of whatever may be good and profitable to us, and in the rejecting what

VOL. I.

ever is hurtful and prejudicial. Yet continual Experience evinces, how palpably Men act against their highest Intereft; and how strongly our Affections, the Tendency of which is to the Attainment of Happiness in general, prompt us to the Profecution of finful Objects, at the same time that we cannot but be sensible upon the leaft Recollection, that nothing brings upon us more certain and substantial Misery.

THE Sensualist in his cooler Thoughts cannot but condemn those Vices as odious, which through the Heat of Defire, he acts over with so much Greediness; and could he but so regulate his Affections, as to submit them to the constant Guidance of his Reason, Vice would ever appear equally deteftable; and the Danger and Baseness of Sin would fill his Mind with fuch glaring and affecting Apprehenfions of its Nature and Confequences, that he would live in an habitual Fear and Shame of falling into the Commission of it.

THE Holy Scripture is very large and frequent, in defcribing Sin under every Character and Allufion, that may pro

voke our Detestation and Abhorrence: Thus, for Instance, the Continuance in a State of Sin is called walking in the Night, the being in a State of Darkness; Circumstances full of Horror and Uncertainty, Confufion and Danger : Awake out of Sleep, and awake to Righteousness, says the Apostle, intimating that Sin is a State of Sleep, a State of Insensibility and Delufion.

BUT we need not go on to recount all the Particulars, wherein the Sacred Writings express the wretched Condition of Sin; the Words before us will be found to take in the whole Argument: For here the Apostle, under the Allegory of a Service, is shewing the Reasonableness of performing our Duty in the most entire and chearful Obedience, and this is the Amount of his Reasoning : While we were under the Slavery of Sin, we yielded our Members Servants of Iniquity unto Iniquity; i. e. we gave up ourselves to fulfil every Luft and Affection; but being made free from that, and admitted into another Service, viz. that of Religion, we ought to yield our Members Q3 Servants

Servants of Righteousness unto Holiness; i. e. with the fame Fidelity and fincere Submiffion, we ought to fatisfy the Duties of Pure and Holy Living: And this will appear much more reasonable, if we reflect upon the different Characters, wherein these Services stand recommended us: The service of God is truly lovely and beneficial; we thereby have our Fruit unto Holiness, and our End everlafting Life: But, on the contrary, the Service of Sin is unfruitful, it is scandalous, it is destructive; and for Proofthereof, the Apostle appeals even to the Experience and Sentiments of those who have been engaged in that Service: What Fruit had ye then of those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the End of those things is Death.

Now the only Circumstances which are the true Grounds of Hatred, are either the Mischief which we do, or may receive from, or the inherent Foulness and Ugliness of the Objects, towards which we exercise this Affection: And how eminently these Circumstances agree with Sin; with what Fulness of Truth and