his Shame and Reproach. No Vice is the better for being found in the Company of Intemperance, but becomes more odious in the Sight of God and Man, And yet how, often does Vice fly to Intemperance for Refuge? which fhews what miferable Company Sinners are to themselves, when they can be content to expose themselves to the Contempt of all about them, merely for the fake of being free from their own Censure for a Season. Were it in the Power of Men to find any Expedient to reconcile their Reason to their Vices, they would not fubmit to the hard Terms of parting with their Reason for the fake of being at eafe with their Vices. But there is no Remedy; as long as we have the Power of thinking, fo long muft we think ill of ourselves when we do Ill. The only Cure for this Uneafinefs is to live without Thought; for we can never enjoy the Happinefs of a Brute, till we have funk ourselves into the fame Degree of Understanding.

It may be faid, I know, that there have been fome profligate Sinners who have difcovered no Uneafinefs upon the Account of their Guilt, but have gone through a Life of profperous Wickedness with great Shew of outward Peace and Tranquillity; I know too,

that

that there have been Inftances of Men who could play with Fire, and be very familiar with it, without fhewing any Senfe of Pain: But neither will the Art of one be accepted as an Argument against the Senfe of Feeling, nor the Obdurateness of the other be admitted as a Proof against the natural Sense of a rational Mind. Great wicked Men are often loft in a perpetual Succeffion of Business and Pleasure, and have no Refpite for Reflection. The poor idle Sinner feeks Ease in Intemperance; the more profperous is kept at an unhappy Distance from himself by living in a Croud, and having his Hours filled up with Bufinefs, Ceremony, or Pleasure; and both equally live, with refpect to themselves and their own Condition, in one continued Lethargy. But fuch Inftances as these are of no Confequence in determining the general Cafe of Mankind; especially confidering that even these are laying up in ftore for themfelves fad Materials for Reflection, whenever the Seafon of Reflection overtakes them ; and that, fhould they ever be deferted by Business and Pleasures, instead of being Objections to the general Senfe of Mankind under the Terrors of Guilt, they may seem to be the most miferable Examples of it.

Thefe

Thefe Obfervations will receive an additional
Strength by confidering,

Secondly, That the Expectation of Punishment for Sin is the Result of the Reason given unto us. The End of thofe Things is Death.

There are no certain Principles from which we can infer the Nature and Sort of Punishment defigned by God for Sinners; and as Reafon has left us in the Dark in this Par! ticular, fo neither has Revelation clearly difcovered this Secret of Providence. The Representations of Scripture upon this Head are metaphorical; the Images are strong and lively, full of Horror and Dread, and lead us to this certain Conclufion, That endless Mifery will be the Lot of the Unrighteous: But they do not lead us to a Solution of all the Inquiries which an inquifitive Mind may raise upon this Occafion. We read of the Fire that never goes out, of the Worm that never dies, both prepared to prey upon the Wicked to all Eternity: But what this Fire is, what this Worm is, that thall for ever torment, and never deftroy the Wicked, we are no-where informed. Among the antient Heathens we find Variety of Opinions, or, to speak more properly, of Imaginations, upon this Subject; and tho' none of them

can

can make any Proof in their own behalf, yet they all prove the common Ground upon which they ftand, The natural Expectation of future Punishment for Iniquity. The Atheistical Writers of Antiquity entertain themselves with expofing the vulgar Opinions of their Time; and the Unbelievers of our Time have trodden in their Steps, and pleased themselves mightily with dreffing up the various and uncertain Imaginations of Men upon this Subject. But what is this to the great Point? If Nature has rightly inftructed us in teaching us to expect Punishment for our Sins, what fignifies it how far Men have been mistaken in determining the Kinds of Punishment that are in Reserve for Sinners? Let the Learning of the Egyptians pafs for Superftition, and the Wisdom of the Greeks for Folly; yet what has the Senfe of Nature to do with them, which teaches us to expect Punishment for Sin from the Hand that made us? And when once the Time comes in which that Hand shall exert itself, this we may be fure of, that the Sinner will find no farther Subject for Laughter and Diverfion. Men think they gain a great Point Point by bringing plausible Reafons against the common Notions of future Punishment:

Punishment: But fuppofe these Notions to be indeed Mistakes, yet if it remains certain from the Light of Reason, as well as of Revelation, that God will punish Sin, what does the Cause gain by this Argument? Will you suppose that God intends to punish Wickedness, and yet that he has no poffible Way to do it? Where lies the Defect? Is it Want of Wisdom to contrive proper Means for the Punishment of Sin, or is it Want of Power to put them in Execution? If he wants neither the one nor the other, we have nothing to inquire after in this Cafe, but, What his Will is; and of that he has given us fuch Evidence, that we can never lofe Sight of it as long as we continue to be reasonable Creatures.

The Power of Confcience which every Man feels in himself, the Fear that pursues every Sin, that haunts the most secret and most successful Offenders, are great Evidences of the common Expectation of a Judgment to come. For why does the Sinner fear, whom no Man fufpects? Why does he fit joyless over the Gains of his Iniquity, whilst all around him are congratulating his Profperity, and know nothing of the dark Contrivances by which he obtained it? What is that Spirit in Man, and how inftructed, that can bear