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agree in fome Refemblance to their First Original; Facies non omnibus Una, Nec Diverfa tamen; qualem decet effe Sororum ; They all bear Likeness enough to each other, to prove themselves of the fame Family, and deriv'd from the fame Stock; Even that First Disobedience of Adam, (as all the Sins, that are descended from it) was Unprofitableness and Vanity in the Enjoyment, Shame and Confusion in the Confequence, and in the End Destruction and Death. For what Fruit gather'd our first Father from the forbidden Tree? what gain'd he by it? Knowledge of Good and Evil? he did indeed but of Good loft, and Evil. got. What immediately follow'd? He faw himself naked, and was afham'd, and what was the End of all but Death? for in the Day that he eat thereof, He, and in Him all his Pofterity, did furely Dye. Yet tho' of fo pernicious and deadly a Nature, how foon did Sin overspread the Face of the Earth? With the Generations of Adam, which grew fo foon to be fo vaftly Numerous, it made an equal Progrefs; and as Man, the Work of God's hands, obey'd his Blessed Command, Encrease and Multiply; So Sin, the Work of the Devil, feem'd to have had a Curfed Command from Him, and accordingly that too was Fruitfull and Multiply'd and Replenifh'd the Earth. Whatever new

Cities were Built, wherever new Colonies were sent forth, Murder and Rapin and Luxury and Luft and all other Wickednefs followed and kept equal pace; and the whole History of the Beginning of Nations, and Rife of Monarchies, is nothing elfe but an Account of the new Territories and Conquests and enlarg'd Dominions of Sin.

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This then being the most Universal Contagion spread over all the World, as general an Antidote, as univerfal a Remedy ought to be fought out and apply'd to it. And my Text feems to be of this Nature; for it discovers the whole Progress of Sin, in its firft Commitment, its immediate Confequence, its laft End; it infinuates itfelf into all the different Sorts of Mankind likely to be inveigled by it, by Motives fuitable to each one's natural Inclinations: and Paffions; Thofe of a more fenfual or fordid Mind, whom Sin flatters either with Hopes of Profit or Pleasure, it teaches to confider, what Fruit is in it: To the more generous and noble Spirits, it uses the powerfull Argument of the Shame and difhonourable Nature of it: and to those, with whom Fear has a greater Force, the more ftrong and univerfally prevailing Argument, Death: thus does our great Apoftle in these Words, as elsewhere he fays of himself, Become all things to all Men, that if poffible He may fave fome. There

There are manifeftly in my Text three Propofitions:

I. That even in the Committing of Sin there is not that Satisfaction, which Men expect from it; What Fruit had yow Then in thofe Things?

II. That however Satisfactory or Plea. fant it is, yet Sin is really Shameful and Bafe; Whereof Te are now afbam'd.

III. That tho' it yielded never fo much Fruit and Satisfaction, tho' it were never so Creditable and in Repute, yet the End of thofe Things is Death.

I. I fhall First fhew that even the Enjoyment of Sin is far from giving that Satiffaction, which, by the fo eager pursuit of it, Men feem to expect from it. So perverse a Mind as to love Sin only for Sinning Sake, and the mere Malice of Difobe. dience, as it is proper to the damn'd Spirits, fo it is moft commonly rather the Effect and Punishment of Sin, than the Motive to it ; and is feldom found but in those, who, having long refifted God's good Grace that fhould lead them to Repentance, are given over to a Reprobate hardness of Heart to Work all Uncleanness with Greediness. There must therefore of neceffity be fome more bewitching Enticement, fome more tempt

ing Bait laid, fome more colourable Pretence to draw Men in: and Sin, as it is of its Father the Devil, fo His Works it will do ; His, who was a Lyar from the beginning. It will Fawn and Flatter, make great Profeffions, and large Promises, it will use us as Satan did our Saviour, raife us in our Imaginations above the Pinnacles of the Temple, fhew us the Riches and Honour and Pleasure of the World, and fay, all this will I give you, if You will fall down and worfhip Me. But as it generally happens, that the greatest Promifers are the leaft Perform ers; fo in this particular Cafe, those cre dulous Wretches will certainly find themselves most miserably deluded, who listen to the Voice of the Tempter, or hope to reap any real Enjoyment from that fair imaginary Shew, that the Deceitfulness of Sin represents to 'em. If we fhould reckon up the large Catalogue of all the different Vices of Mankind, how empty and vain, nay, how troublesome and uneafy the Purfuit, even of those that seem the most delightful and charming, would appear? Thofe I fay, that seem the moft Delightful and Charming. For with what Pain and Anxiety do we fee fome Men labour after finful Pleasure? Pleasure, and the unconfin❜d Delights of a loose, diffolute, and roving Life, is all they pretend to, and value themselves

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upon and the wretched Mistake is, that they often think themselves Mafters of it, when in earnest they are running a more laborious Course, and undergo often more Hardships, in this wild Chafe of Folly and Sin, than ever the ftrictest Rules of Morality or Religion, would have requir'd at their hands. To live in a perpetual Hurry and Distraction, to be laying in continual Supplies for fresh Diseases, to pride themselves in fome wild Humour, or invent fome unaccountable Frolick, regarding neither the Sacredness of Perfons, Places or Things; to be in at every Fray and midnight Scuffle, and to be often deservedly as ill-us'd as they infolently intended to have used Others; these are accounted fome of their Pieces of Gallantry; and the more extravagant the Vice, the more accomplish'd the Gentleman. It were vain to go to prove, how little Satisfaction these unhappy Creatures reap from their lewd Folly, when for half the Mifery and Pain fome of them endure in the Road to Deftruction, had they fuffer'd it in the Caufe of Virtue or Religion, they might have been more than Canoniz'd, they might have Been Saints. What loud Accufations should we hear, from these very Men, against the Juftice of the Divine Providence, did Men fuffer half so much by Piety and Virtue, as they do in the Service of their

Lufts?

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