Judging our felves, and fo of preventing the Judgment of the great Day, yer 'tis much to be feared, that the generality of the World proceeds by quite other Measures, and that moft Men estimate their Condition, not by the Measure of that Piety, Juftice and Charity, they have expreffed in their Lives and Converfations, but by fome flight and gene ral Notions they have formed to themfelves, of the Mercies of God, the Merits of Chrift, and the narrow extent of Chriftian Obedience; as if God required but very little at their Hands, and Chrift had perform'd fome part of that little, and if the worst come to the worst they were still in the Hands of a merci ful Creator, who would not deftroy his own Work, Man efpecially, the Flower and Beauty of it, for making a little too bold with his Precepts. But these are very grofs and carnal Reasonings, and the Apostle gives a fufficient Check to them, in the diftinction of my Text; for, as in order to prevent Mens despair, he acquaints them in the Verfe following, That every the fmallest error of their Lives, is not (thorough the mercies of God) of a damning Nature; So to guard them against Prefumption (the much more dangerous

dangerous Malady of the two) he lets them know in the Words here quoted that there is a Sin, a fort of Sin (befides that of the Holy Ghoft we may fuppose) of a mortal Confequence; fo certainly mortal, that he does not venture to ask the Prayers of the Church for fuch as are involv'd in it: There is, fays he, a Sin unto Death, I do not fay, &c.

In difcourfing upon thefe Words I fhall, with what Brevity and Clearnefs I can, difpatch and illuftrate the fol lowing Particulars.

I. I fhall examine the general Force and Meaning of the Words, and clear up the distinction implied therein.

II. I fhall more particularly enquire what are the Circumftances which chiefly render the Sin here spoken of fo deadly and damning. And

III. I fhall reprefent the deplorableness of their State and Condition, who happen to be involv'd in these kind of Sins.

And

And First, in order to give you the Apoftles meaning in this paffage, I fhall premise thus much, that when he fays, There is a Sin unto Death, he does not leave room for this Inference, that there are fome Sins, which in their own Natures are not mortal; this he does not affirm; and indeed St. Paul, who was acted by the fame Spirit, has told us, Rom. 6. 23. That the Was ges of Sin, i. e. all manner of Sin, is Death; but the Text only infinuates that according to the Terms and Meafures of the Covenant of Grace, fome Sins are capable of an easier and more ready Pardon than others, and that God punishes Sinners according to the quality, the number or the degrees of their Crimes; fo that the Perfon who has committed one Offence and of a lighter kind, fhall not fall under fo heavy a Condemnation as another, whofe Guilt is fwell'd to a greater Proportion.

He that has tranfgreffed the leaft or the feweft of Gods Laws, and that with fome Regret, and an after revenge upon himself, is in a much fafer

State

state than one who has fin'd perhaps against the Commands of both Tables, and That with a kind of stiffness and complacency,void of all remorfe: Indeed nothing can be more evident from the general current of Scripture, than that every Sin a Man commits shall not weigh him down to Hell, or confign him to a state of reprobation: But fuch only as he perfifts in, and acts over and over, against the light of Nature, the checks of his own Mind, and the freer conduct of God's Spirit. From hence then we may draw this obvious Inference, that all Sins are not equal, but borrow a wide difference from their feveral Natures, and the circumstances they are cloath'd with: An idle Word, for inftance, cannot be thought fo damning a Sin, as an act of Theft or Murder; and he that offends God, or his Brother, through Ignorance or Surprize, Inadvertency or Miftake, has not fo fevere an account to make, as one, whofe Will and Intention went along with the Crime, and whofe Lufts detain'd and hardned him in it: And now, because the difpofition of the Agent does thus remarkably alter the quality of the act, the Spirit of God

himself has mark'd out in feveral Expreffions the difference between fome Sins and others; and we not only read in the Old Teftament of Sins of Infirmity, Ignorance and Surprize, term'd by the Pfalmift, fecret and forgotten Sins, and to which the Prophet oppofes Sinning with an high Hand, and a ftiff Neck; but 'tis the ufual Language of the Apoftles to ftile fome Sins TATAY, Slips or Failures, whilft they blacken others with the character of Offences and Tranfgreffions, words of an higher import and a wider extent. Нaving offer'd thus much in the general, I observe in the first place, That the Sin unto Death mentioned in the Text, cannot justly be apply'd to every little deviation from their Duty, which Men commit in the courfe of their Lives; for fince in many things we not only do, but must offend all, God has been therefore pleas'd to remit fo much of his own Right, as not to take the forfeiture of fuch unavoidable Infir mities: He confiders, fays the Royal Prophet, whereof we are made, and remembers that we are but Duft, i. e. having form'd us frail, weak, and deceivable Creatures, he will not Judge us by the

Law