been happy, nay, much happier for us, that the First had never been? What Satisfaction or Comfort is it likely to afford to an imprison'd Malefactor, or notorious Criminal, to entertain him with Discourses of the mighty Pomp and glorious Solemnity in which he that is to give Sentence upon him shall appear? what Support or Relief can be expected from such a Ones Contem. plating on the great State of his Trial, and the Majesty of his Condemnation? Certainly they who live like Sadducees, tho' they call themselves Christians, altho' Christ is risen, nay, because he is risen, are of all Men most miserable. To them, and to Them only, is the Resurrection of Christ a matter of Joy and Unspeakable Confolation, over whose whole Lives and Conversations, over all whose Thoughts and Words and Actions this Belief has so Powerful an Influence, as to keep 'em in a constant and reverential Awe of the great Majesty of their Judge, as well as in a perpetual Course of Gratitude and Praise and Love to their Redeemer.

To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory and Praise both now and for evermore.

Amen.

/

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SERMON VI.

1.

1

SERMON VI.

ROM. VI. 21.

:

What Fruit had ye then in those Things, whereof ye are now aspam'd? For the End of those Things is Death.

A

S our First Parents were they from whom all Mankind was propagated, and as thro' the whole vast Family of the World, there are visible Marks of our Relation one to another, and a common Likeness wherein we all agree; So their Sin was the Parent of all the Sins that have, orare, or shall be Committed to the End of the World; and This unhappy Offspring too, tho so infinite in Number and Variety, do yet all agree

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agree in some Resemblance to their First Original; Facies non omnibus Una, Nec Diversatamen; qualem decet effe Sororum; They all bear Likeness enough to each other, to prove themselves of the same Family, and deriv'd from the same Stock; Even that First Disobedience of Adam, (as all the Sins, that are defcended from it) was Unprofitableness and Vanity in the Enjoyment, Shame and Confusion in the Consequence, 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 saw himself naked, and was asham'd, and what was the End of all but Death? for in the Day that he eat thereof, He, and in Him all his Posterity, did surely 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 so soon to be so vastly Numerous, it made an equal Progress; and as Man, the Work of God's hands, obey'd his Blesled Command, Encrease and Multiply; So Sin, the Work of the Devil, seem'd to have had a Curfed Command from Him, and accordingly that too was Fruitfull and Multiply'd and Replenish'd the Earth. Whatever new

Cities were Built, wherever new Colonies were Sent forth, Murder and Rapin and Luxury and Lust and all other Wickedness followed and kept equal pace; and the whole History of the Beginning of Nations, and Rife of Monarchies, is nothing else but an Account of the new Territories and Conquests and enlarg'd Dominions of Sin. This then being the most Universal Contagion spread over all the World, as general an Antidote, as universal 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 first Commitment, its immediate Consequence, its last End; it infinuates itself into all the different Sorts of Mankind: likely to be inveigled by it, by Motives fuitable to each one's natural Inclinations and Paffions; Those of a more sensual or fordid Mind, whom Sin flatters either with Hopes of Profit or Pleasure, it teaches to consider, what Fruit is in it: To the more generous and noble Spirits, it uses the powerfull Argument of the Shame and dishonourable Nature of it: and to those, with whom Fear has a greater Force, the more strong and universally prevailing Argument, Death: thus does our great Apostle in these Words, as elsewhere he says of himself, Become all things to all Men, that if possible He may save some.

There