Forfake all their Evil ways: And there is no fuch means to encourage to this, as to affure them of the Divine Mercy, and the certain Forgiveness of all of them if they do. 'Tis this is the way to bring Men in to their Duty and Allegiance, when their Governour proclaims an univerfal Act of Grace for what is paft; whereas the being cut off from all fuch hopes, makes them go on, and grow more defperate; and 'tis by this Goodnels and Mercy of God, held forth to all Sinners, and fo fully difplayed in the Gospel and the Death of Chrift, that we are led to Repentance, and therefore it ought by no means to be leffened or diminished unless we would make God lefs Good than he is, and hinder Men from ever becoming better.

(2.) Let us take care to avoid all manner of wilful Sin, and efpecially all those great ones that come near and any way approach to this Sin against the Holy Ghoft. A very wilful Sin, in a Christian especially, is in some sense a Sin against the Holy Ghoft; 'tis a grieving, a quenching, and a refifting the Spirit, in the language of Holy Scripture. That Bleffed Spirit is concerned as the great promoter of Vertue and Goodness in the World, and as the great Principle of it in the Hearts of Men, and whenever we do any wicked thing we offer violence to that, and by our rude and vicious carriage we affront, and grieve, and at laft banish and drive away that Bleffed Guest out of our Souls. Whatever is Wicked and Sinful is fo contrary to his Pure and Excellent Nature, that it is highly offenfive to him; and

if we go on in a courfe of long and cuftomary Wickedness, we fin the more against him, and come the nearer to that fad and wretched ftate that is unpardonable. I do not think indeed that any one Sin, or particular Act of any Sin whatever puts us into that condition; but as every Sickness and Indifpofition of Body is a tendency to Death and Mortality, fo every wilful Sin is a corruption of the Mind, and an approach to a ftate of Spiritual Death. And there are fome Sins that bring this sooner upon us, as the acting against our Confciences, and the fenfe of our own Minds, an oppofing the Truth that is evident to us, a fcoffing at Religion and making a mock of Sin, an abufing the Scriptures and ridiculing the Holy Word of God, an obftinate refiftance of all the motions of God's Holy Spirit upon our Minds. Thefe and fuch like grofs and obftinate impieties, though I do not think they are any of them the very Sin against the Holy Gholt, for that ought not to be extended further than we have a warrant from Scripture, yet they are fe many approaches as it were to it, and have more of the ill fymptoms of that upon them, and therefore we ought efpecially to avoid them left they bring us by degrees into that fad state which is unpardonable; for though one Sin, I believe, do not do this, yet a great many may, and especially fuch as those which do fo walte the Confcience, and corrupt the Mind as to make it uncurable. And this is the faddeft State and Condition in the World, next to the ftate of Hell and Damnation, tho

it be not the immediate Sin against the Holy

Ghoft.

Having endeavoured to give the plaineft and fulleft fatisfaction I can to the most doubtful and fcrupulous Minds about this Sin of the Holy Ghoft, I fhall now Difcourfe of fome other things of a Leffer Nature, which many Penitents and good Men are apt to be greatly diffatisfied with, and have dark and wrong thoughts about. As,

I. Concupifcence, the Luftings of the Flesh, or ftruggle between that and the Spirit, which they find in themselves.

II. Trouble of Mind, and a wounded Spirit, which many lye under by reason of their Sins, or by reafon of Melancholly, or both together.

SECT. III.

Of Concupifcence, the Luftings of the Flesh, or ftruggle between that and the Spirit.

THE

THE right understanding of our felves is very neceffary to the right understanding of Religion. Religion is fitted and adapted to Human Nature in its prefent ftate and capacity in this World, and is defigned not to deftroy it, but to perfect and improve it, and raise it to its true Happiness and Perfection. We cannot be like the Angels in Heaven, nor like Pure and Glorious Spirits whilst we live here

upon

upon Earth, and have Bodies of Flesh and Blood united to our Souls. God who made us, and knows our Frame, did not intend to destroy and undo his own Creation by the Precepts of Religion, nor make us cease to be Men by becoming Chriftians. We find indeed in our felves a great many Weakneffes and Corruptions, ftrong Paffions and fenfual Inclinations, which if we did not wifely govern would be great occafions of Sin to us, and if we let them loofe, would carry us into a thoufand Mischiefs as well as Sins and Wickedneffes. They who give the Reins to thofe, and the full fwinge to their Natural Lufts and Paffions run into all Vice and Debauchery, and commit all uncleanness with greedinefs. And the best of Men cannot be wholly free from that Original Concupifcence, and thofe Senfual Motions and Defires that are not always agreeable to Reafon and Religion; but they complain of this bondage of corruption, and this body of death, which they cannot be delivered from, Rom. & 21. and 7. 24. Grace and Religion, though it gives us another Principle, and conveys new powers of a Divine and Spiritual Life into our Souls, yet whilst the Animal and Senfual Life remains, and whilft we are com pounded of Flesh and Blood as well as Spirit and Reason, and have a Carnal as well as Spiritual Principle in us, there will be a mighty Aruggle and a great conteft between those two, and a kind of civil War in our Breafts between thofe différent Parties, and which of thofe fhall be uppermoft, and have the chief N 4 Power,

Power, and gain the Victory, is the great point, and the great concern of all Vertue and Religion; fince in all of us, as the Apoftle fays, The Flesh lufteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh, and thefe are contrary one to the other, fo that we cannot do the things that we would, Gal. 5. 17. And this we know by Experience as well as by Revelation. Now this Concupifcence that remaineth in good Men is often matter of great trouble to them, and they know not what to judge of it, or how far it is a Sin and ought to be Repented of, and what way they may beft overcome it. I fhall therefore to clear and fatisfie their thoughts about this matter of the ftruggle or lufting between the Flesh and Spirit, fhow these three things.

First, That mere Lufting on either fide is not what makes either Sin or Vertue, or denominates a bad or a good Man.

Secondly, That these are the proper matter of Vice or Vertue, in which the tryal and exercife of them lye.

Thirdly, That we ought to leffen the Power of the Fleshly Lufting, and increase that of the Spirit, and what are the proper means to do this, I fhall briefly confider.

First, That meer Lufting on either fide is not what makes either Sin or Vertue, nor what conftitutes or denominates a Bad or a Good Man: For this Lufting is in both good and bad, though according to feveral degrees and mea

fures: