and Death before them, as Moses before the Jews, Deut. 30. 15. and it must be great Madnefs to choose the worfer part, and what one would think it impoffible for any Man to do, if his Reafon were not cheated and deceived with falte appearances of good in it, and it were not represented to him in fuch a falfe light, and fuch falfe colours, as made it feem quite otherwife than it is in its own Nature: For no Man can choose Evil as Evil, naked in it felf, and with its own ugliness and deformity about it, but it must be dreft up under the fhew of Good, and painted and decked up in a meretricious drefs, to hide its Native and abominable Filthinefs. Mens Imaginations must be deluded, and fo their Reafon deceived and impofed upon by the Temptations to Sin; and there must be a great many falfe reafonings used to entice them to it, or elfe fo many who have thoughts about them, and who cannot do any thing without thinking fome way or other, could ne ver be drawn over to confent to it, and to commit it.

Now the chief Delufions, and falfe Reafonings and Perfwafions by which Men are drawn into Sin, for there must be fome fuch procef's in their Minds, are fuch as these following.

1. They fee and feel the prefent Good of their Sins, and the after Evil is fo uncertain or fo remote that they know not what to think of it, and fo are not much influenced by it, for they think it unreafonable to part with the present Pleasure, and the certain Profit which their Sins afford them, for an unknown, and unseen, and unconceived Pleafure and Happiness, they know D 2

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not when or where; they find and feel most Vices very grateful to their Natural Appetites, and outward Senfes, and they are not fuch fcols as to be perfwaded out of thofe, nor to put a force and reftraint upon Nature and its proper enjoyments. Vertue tyes them them up to fuch fevere, and hard, and unnatural restraints, as they cannot endure; its Mortifications and Selfdenials are very uneafie to Flesh and Blood, and they look upon its Rules and Precepts as the morofe dictates of peevish and melancholly Men, who cannot fo well enjoy what others do, and therefore talk against the Liberties and Freedoms of Human Nature, and fright Men from the Pleasures and Enjoyments of Sin here, with the Terrors of another World, and imaginary Dangers hereafter.

Is it then fo very certain that Vice is fo pleafant here? So defirable and comfortable upon the account of prefent enjoyment, and that its punishment hereafter is fo unknown and uncertain? That'tis not to be taken into confideration, nor worth being more minded than it is by these Sinners, do they never think of Dying? Or are they poffed with fuch a frenzy as to hope they fhall live always, or that three or fourscore Years will never be run out, though few live fo long, and they perhaps have lived above half that time, and fee how quickly it is gone, and then will any Man in his wits venture to be Miferable for ever, for the Pleasures or Profits of Sin which are but for a Season, were they never fo great? If there were a much greater uncertainty about another World then there is, yet who would run fo dreadful a hazard, whe would

would put fo great a matter to fuch a dangerous venture? Were not the evidence we have of a future ftate from Nature, from Revelation,from the Refurrection of Chrift, nay from the belief of all Mankind fo ftrong as it is, fo that not only whatever the Jews or the Chriftians have believed and witneffed down through all Ages must pass for a Fable, if it be not true, but what all Wife Men have ever believed about a God and Religion, must be a meer Dream and Chimara: Yet however, no Man can ever be fure but that there is another World, he can have no positive Proof or Demonftration that there is not, and were there no more in it but that there may be fuch a thing, which the greatest Atheist or Sceptical Infidel cannot pretend to deny, yet this might be enough to keep him from running upon fo dreadful, though meerly poffible dan ger, and expofing himfelf to fuch extream but irrecoverable Mifchief, efpecially for the poor and pitiful Temptations of Sin at prefent. For alas however Pleafant and Delightful they may imagine them, yet they are generally miffaken, and there is more true Pleature and Comfort, a thousand times, to be found in a Life of Vertue and Religion than in the most tempting Wickednefs, and the most guftful Senfuality: For which yields most present Pleafure and Comfort of Life, a found and healthful Body, a fair and good Reputation, a quiet and eafie Mind, or a Thattered and rotten Carkafs, a fcandalous and infamous Life, a guilty, and disordered, and diftracted Confcience? Are not most of the Pleafures of Sin not only fhort but fickly? That have a fharp and poyfonous fting hid un

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der all their fweetnefs, fo that however they go off to the Palate, yet they are very bitter after they are gone down; whereas the Pleafures of Vertue are clear, and pure, and lafting, not mixt with any of thofe dregs which foul and embitter Sin, but purified from all the Sediment and the Lees that are at the bottom of Senfuality and Wickednefs. Religion does not deny us any truly Natural and proper Pleature and Enjoyment, but only keeps us within the bounds of Innocency and Vertue, within which compa's a Man may enjoy all the Pleasure that he can with, or was made for. It does not by its Rules of Mortification and Self-denyal deftroy or cut off any Natural Appetite, or true of us; that is not the meaning of cutting off a right Hand,or plucking out a right Eye, Matth. 5. 29, 30. but only to deftroy the unnatural Exceffes, to cut off the vitious Corruptions, to take away the depraved and inordinate Affections and Lufis, that will grow too strong and unruly, without a wife Conduct and Government of our felves by the Rules of Vertue and the Restraints of Reafon and Religion; and would any Man think fit to have those let loofe, and have the reins thrown upon their neck without any check or controul? Will he complain of the feverity of Religion, and the lofs of his Natural Freedom by the reftraints of morofe and peevish Vertue, as he calls it, if he be not allowed the full fwinge of his Lufts, and the gratifying of his immoderate Paffions and Defires in all manner of Inftances? Then adieu not only to the government of Vertue and Religion, but the governinent of all Human Laws and

Worldly

Worldly Wisdom, which for the conveniency of this World, and the Peace, Quiet and Comfort of this present Life, has thought fit to keep Mens Lufts and Paffions within fuch bounds under the feverest Penalties, and to prohibit the fame Sins under the Punishments of this World, that God has done under the far greater Punishments of another; for nothing is more pernicicious and destructive to the Welfare of a Kingdom, as well as of particular Men, then Licentiousness and Debauchery, which befides the immediate Judgments of God upon it, does by its own Nature bring a thousand prefent Miseries and known Evils along with it, befides the unknown and unfpeakable Miferies that attend it in another World.

Can any Sinner deny this, when he seriously thinks and confiders of it? Does not his own Obfervation, and his own Experience, by which I hope he will be inftructed if by nothing elfe, teach him that this is the Nature of Sin? That as 'tis a common Peft and Plague to the World, and to Mankind in general, fo 'tis generally a Difeafe to his Body, a Moth and Canker to his Estate, and a Worm to his Confcience: Whereas Vertue is Health and Soundness to his Body, Life to his Soul, and Grace to his Neck, as the Wife Man obferves, That length of days are in her Right hand, and in her Left Hand riches and honour. That she is a tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth. her, Prov. 3. 16, 17, 18, 22. This true Notion of Vertue, which is not an empty Panegyrick, but a ftrict Truth founded in Nature, that will always be true of it, and that all Wife Men

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