Motives to holy living, or, Heads for meditation divided into consideratins, counsels, duties : together with some forms of devotion in litanies, collects, doxologies, &c.

III. Concern∣ing the un∣reasonable∣ness, and hurt, of Sin.

III. Concerning the unreasonableness, and hurt of Sin. Consider

1. The great unreasonableness of sin; and the con∣stant opposition it hath, both to the publick, and to a man's private, natural good. Or, That all things,na∣turally, and in the judgment of right reason, good for man are by the supreme Law-giver allowed, and only things naturally, as we are men, hurtful, prohibited.

2. The chief Causes of Sin

1. External: The Devil, and the evil Spirits his Angels, enemies to man.

Digr. Of the great malice, and power of Satan, interve∣ning in humane affairs in general; and of the incessant temptations and suggestions of evil Spirits to the pro∣duction of Sin, circumeuntes, & quaerentes, quem devorent.

3. 2ly, Internal: The sensitive part disobedient and rebellious to the rational.

Digr. Of the great power and the many ways that the sensitive faculties have in perverting reason for the pro∣duction of Sin.

4. The Antecedent of a sinful Act, the torment of an inordinate desire.

5. The great trouble, and servitude, that is under Sin.

6. The Consequents of Sin.

1. Either Inquietude of Conscience; Or (which is worse) a dangerous blindness of mind, and hardness of Heart, within.

7. 2ly, Stronger Delusion (by God's Grace abandon∣ing us to the will of Satan) from abroad: And so, the Curse of Sin still more Sin.

[ 1] 8 1. The present Temporal punishments of Sin in this world. Some inflicted by God's vengeance: which especially pursues Murder, and Cruelty; Adultery; Dis∣obedience to Parents; Breach of Oaths, and Solemn Promises.

9. Some naturally caused by the Sin; Among these, Sickness; a shortned life; Infamy; Poverty; Quarrels; Disconsolation, and Despair.

[ 2] 10. 2 Such Punishments inflicted, and that very se∣verely, for greater sins, even upon those, who are in God's favour, and Penitents.

11. Inflicted upon many Generations, one, for the sins of another; God using, besides those on private persons, Inquisitions (Ps. 9.12.) and Judgments, more publick, (at pre-appointed times,) on families, on na∣tions, wicked.

12. These publick Judgments returning ordinarily once in three or four Generations, upon the disobedient (Exod. 20.5.34.7;) for God's Eternity, and exceeding patience, maketh not such hast, as we.

13. Then, These Judgments extending further than Man's Justice doth; 1st. For the Sufferers; namely to Relatives, in that particular sin not faulty; to Children; to Buildings &c; And 2ly further than man's, for the Crimes also, that such persons are charged with; name∣ly, for those of many Predecessors; for God's hand is heavier than man's.

14. Punishing, 1st, the Crimes, (if very grievous,) of the Fathers (though they become afterwards penitent, and received into favour) upon their Posterity wicked, or other Relatives. As appears in Manasseh. 2. Chron. 33.10, 13. — 2. King. 24.3, 4. And in David. 2. Sam. 24, 17.

15. 2ly, The Crimes of sinning Parents upon Posterity innocent of such Crimes (though not every way righteous Ezech. 18.14. 2. Sam. 21.1.14. — 2. Sam. 12.18.) But never this in the same measure, as he doth on a wicked Progeny. See Ezech. 18. chap.

16. Using ordinarily the more wicked, his Instruments, to punish the less.

17. The first, and more, in Grace when lapsed, the first, and more, in punishment.

18. Punishing men for their guilt in one thing, by another thing, wherein they are innocent; or involving those in the same punishments, who are innocent, as to that common guilt, for which he punisheth the rest.

19. Punishing also the Instruments of his Justice, and of his punishments, (they executing them most what unjust∣ly;) and punishing also the Rejoycers at his punishments.

20. In equal guilt, punishing some, not others. Lu. 13.2.4.

21. In unequal guilt, punishing all alike; yet not this by punishing any beyond, but only some less than, their desert.

22. Punishing, at certain times only the sins of ma∣ny times; and sometimes the less wicked age, for the sins of the more wicked.

23. Not excusing sin the more, when grown to ge∣neral custome, as man doth; but ordinarily then his wrath breaking forth upon it, when the commonness makes it seem no fault; and so when the Sinners least fear, or think of wrath. Our sins appearing greatest to him, when least to our selves.

24. Punishing in such set places, universally, the less faulty there, as the more; whilst at the same time else∣where people more faulty enjoy impunity; and yet the Lord, in all these punishments, most righteous; since, of these, the more guilty are always punished much un∣der, the less guilty never beyond, their demerits; their Demerits I say, in some other, if not in the same, kind.

25. Inflicted, not according to the estimation, which man, the Offender, maketh of his sin; but which God the Judge, who reckons many very hainous, which the other accounts very small; and all sins in general far more sinful, than man doth; He looking on the heart, and discovering its malice, and hypocrisy, more perfect∣ly, than the sinner himself doth; beholding all sins past, as present, and always before him, whilst to the sinner

himself many are never known, many, once known, quite forgotten. Again; He, as being the person wronged by sin, who is always a higher valuer of the offence, than is the party offending, justly aggravating it, from the su∣preme dignity of his person; his infinite love, and num∣berless benefactions to the Sinner: his former long pa∣tience toward Him; his exceeding holiness, and purity so opposite to its filthiness, &c. See Gen. 6.6. Where 'tis said: That man's sin grieved him at his heart, and it repented our Lord, that ever he had made him on the earth. —And again: Mar. 3.5. That our most meek Lord Jesus was so provoked by it, That he looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. But especially the hainousness of sins may be learnt from the many experienced stupendious Judgments upon them, at which man is much troubled, how to make them bear any just proportion to his Faults.

Which dreadful revenges upon Sin you may consider; 1. In the faln Angels for one sin exiled from heaven, and held in chains of darkness near upon ever since the Creation of the world, besides what is to come; made also for ever uncapable of any means of Reconciliation. 2. In Adam; for one sin, ejected out of his most pleasant Habitation; apparrel'd with the covering of Beasts; condemned to eat his Bread in labour, and sorrow, and penance, for near a 1000 years, and then to return to Putrefaction, and a curse laid on all his Posterity, and on the ground they lived on, for his sake. 3. In the drown∣ing at one time, for their lusts, and oppressions, of all the men in the world (except Eight persons) their chil∣dren, and infants, and all other living creatures, for their sake. 4. In the storm of Fire and Brimstone, rained upon the five Cities for their Lusts; and those pleasant Plains turned to a dead Lake, till this day; and yet these Cities to undergo a new Damnation at the day of Judg∣ment,

as if they had as yet suffered nothing. See Mat. 11.22. Where our Lord, aggravating the punishment of Bethsaida, saith, it shall be then more intolerable than that of Sodome. 5. In the severe punishments of David, though otherwise a most holy person; the sad story of which you may read in the 13.15. and 24. Chapters of 2. Sam. Concerning all which forenamed punishments, this is a sufficient evidence, that the sins deserved them, because he, who is Justice it self, and from whom man learns the true notions of it, inflicted them. 6. Lastly. In the precious Sacrifice of the only Son of God, required by his Father for the Expiation of Sin. This of the pre∣sent temporal punishments. But then consider also,

[ 2] 2^ly, The future punishment, for all sin, here un∣repented of and unforsaken before death, in the world to come.

27. 1 Immediately after death; Of the Soul. Exem∣plified, in the deceased rich man, tormented in fire, whilst his brethren yet living, in their jollity here on earth, Luk. 16.24. And, in the Beast, and false Prophet their being cast into the Lake of fire before the Invasion of Gog, and Magog, and before Satan's being shut up there. See Rev. 19, 20. Comp. 20.8.10. Which also appears from our Lord's declaring, that a temporal death kills the Body but not the Soul: Matt. 10.28. And St. Pet. 1. Ep. 3, 4. adviseth the adorning of the hidden man of the heart, be∣cause this not corruptible: And Ibid. ver. 19. makes mention of Spirits in Prison; viz. the spirits of such per∣sons as were preached-to in the days of Noah. And if the Souls of the Righteous be then presently in Paradise, Luk. 23.43. and with Christ their Lord, and partake of God's mercy, and glory; the Souls of the Wicked must be then presently imprisoned, and remain with the Devil their Master, feel the lashes of God's Justice, and begin their never ending misery, and ignominy; Whilst the Body

descends into the Grave, the poor Soul, by the strength of Angels, being forced downward into a far lower Dun∣geon, an infernum inferius, in the most innermost bowels of the earth; from whence it shall never return again, nor see light; save, at the last day, that, which flasheth from the face of the angry Judge, when it is brought to his Bar to receive its last doom, doubled torments; and, to make it much more sensible of them, forc'd to take a∣long with it its loathed Mate the Body, into the same profound pit. Who then can tell the agony of such per∣son now come to the end of his days; when scorched with Feavers, he desires to dye; and, by death can re∣move only into a bed of fire; when he cannot endure his present pains, and hath no change, save to far greater; these he cannot suffer, and the other, if ceasing to suffer these, he can no way avoid; nor knows he what way to turn himself, in this Labyrinth of Despairs? These sufferings of the Soul having been by some endured al∣ready above 5000 years: and those of the rich glutton in flames (if this not made wholly a Parable) suffered now above sixteen Centuries, though he lived here not one.

28. 2 After Dooms-day; Of Soul and Body. Where also weigh well the terrible description of these punish∣ments mentioned in his Word who cannot lye. The Body raised in dishonour; —A Carcass, deformed, stink∣ing; Chains; binding hand and foot; Prison; depth of the Earth; Dungeon; Bottomless Pit; A Fire— and Brimstone-Lake; Immobility; Suffocation; Worm, or Serpent gnawing; Fire devouring; Thirst never re∣freshed; Body never consumed; Sense never stupified; Weeping, wailing, gnashing the teeth; Society of wicked men and Devils; ugly, stinking; All hating, cursing, one another; hating, cursing, God; cast into a land of Oblivion, Psal. 88.12. None to comfort, none

to bemoan; The ancient Compassion of Saints, and Angels, and God, now turned into Hate, and Derision; No Mediator, no Redeemer; The Soul always in an Agony and sick to death; restless, hopeless, despairing; wounded to the heart with the sense of lost happiness, as well as present misery: And all her sufferings eternal, eternal. Eternal these pains; God, in his upright Justice, not being so indulgent as to grant to that his wretched Creature the relief of an Annihilation. And these pains unremitting; the rich man sparingly begging of the beggar, that before wanted his relief, but only one drop of water, falling from the dipped tip of his finger (Luk. 16.24.) and it would not be granted him. The great∣ness of God's vengeance then answering the greatness of his person, and of his patience (when yet, for the pre∣sent, so much hating sin): which Patience, abused, at last turns to Fury; and no wrath comparable to the wrath of the Lamb. (See Rev. 6.6. —Rom. 2.5.) And, from the magnitude of this wrath and punishment is chiefly learnt the magnitude of sin; and what a Monster that must be, that deserves such Torments for ever and ever, from him that cannot do the least Injustice.

Digr. Of the Degrees of future Torments, * according to the several measures of sin here (Matt. 10.15.) * Ac∣cording to the measures of sinful pleasures enjoyed here (Rev. 18.7. —Luk. 16.25.) * According to the greater knowledge of God's will here (Luk. 12.4.47, 48.)

29. After all that is said; seriously imagine, What one of those poor Souls, released from Hell-torments, would do, not to return again to those intolerable pains: what rigid long Penances he would undergo: what great works of Piety and Devotions he would attempt; what a strict watch he would keep over his words, and thoughts; and, after all think this nothing in compari∣son of such a deliverance. And then do you endeavour

to do the like mortification, (who perhaps are a greater Sinner,) to prevent those pains, and secure your future Condition. The unreasonableness, and hurt of Sin, thus, seriously pondered;