We fhall be afhamed that we were fo cheated and imposed upon, fo deluded by the deceitfulnefs of Sin, that we were fo weak as to be governed by our mean Paffions and low Inclinations, which are the imperfection and the foft fide of our Nature, and that we should not live up to that Reafon which is proper to us, and diftinguishes us from Brutes, that we fhould hearken only to the defires of our Senfes and our inferiour Appetites, and not to the wife voice and dictates of Reafon and Understanding which God had given us. We fhall be convin

ced of the folly of this, and fee the many ill effects that have come of it, when we confider rightly, and weigh things impartially, and make Judgment not by our Lufts and Paffions, but by right Reafon and Wisdom, and fhall condemn our felves when we grow cool, for all the mad Frollicks and Extravagancies we committed in the heat of Folly, and fhall then feel the Pains and Wounds they gave us, though we were not fenfible of them before. Then we shall fee that Danger which before we were not duly aware of, and have a dread and terrour of that upon our Minds which is the due punishment of our Sins; for the consciousness of our own Guilt will fill us with terrible Fears, and we fhall find the Burden greater than we can bear, but how fully to get rid of it is a defect, and a defideratum in Natural Religion,' and therefore we must go further than that for the other Motives to Repentance, which are fetcht from Revelation, and from the Gospel and Chriftianity under which God now commandeth

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all men to Repent, as St. Paul fays, Acts 17, 30. now more than heretofore, namely, by fome more proper and peculiar Motives, greater than Mankind had before to encourage them to this Duty, fuch as I fhall come now to confider, and fhall offer very largely.

I.

SECT. III.

Motives to Repentance from the Gofpei.

WOW then by Revelation and the Gof

N pel we have an affurance of God's Par

doning us upon our Repentance, which the World could not have without a Revelation, for this depends upon the free Will, and arbitrary Pleafure of God, to which he is not obliged by his Effential and Natural Goodness, and of which we cannot be certainly affured without an exprefs Promife and Divine Revelation. Nature taught all Mankind that there was a God, the knowledge of this is not to be had from Revelation, but must be fuppofed as previous and antecedent to it; we learn it not from the Bible, but from the great Volume of Nature that lyes every where written before us with the plaineft Marks of an Infinite, and Perfect, and Wife God, and in that, the Characters of his Goodness are as legible as thefe of his Power and Wifdom, by making his Sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and fending Rain on the just and the unjust, and by other the Natural Provifions and Contrivances for the good of his Crea

Creatures, God has fhown himself to be no Evil and Malicious Principle, as fome Hereticks imagined, but a Being of Goodness, which is an Effential Perfection of his Nature, and as Natural and Neceffary to him as his very Being. And this Goodness belong to him not only as a Creator but a Governour, and obliges him not to condemn an innocent Creature, nor inflict more Mifery upon it than he gives it Good by its Being. His Natural Juftice, as well as his Goodnels, hinders him from doing any injury by his Power, or acting contrary to the unalterable Rules of Right and Wrong, from dooming Men to Mifery by an Eternal Decree before they had offended him, from punifhing any one more than he deferves, for the fault of another, and for any fault of its own that was wholly inevitable and unavoidable, but after Men have wilfully offended God, and been guilty of voluntary Crimes, and prefumptuous Difobedience against his known and Righteous Laws, and fo fallen under his juft Anger and Difpleafure, that then he fhould not punish them as they deferve, this his Natural Goodness does no way require of him; if it did, then he could never punish any Sin, nor make any ufe of the Sword of Juftice, but his Goodness would tye up his hands, and put a neceffary and contant restraint upon him, which would make it wholly inconfiftent with his other Attributes, and with his wife Government of the World, in order to which it is more neceffary to punish Sin than to forgive it. If it be not inconfiftent then with Goodneis to punish Sin, it

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is not neceffary from that, it fhould be forgiven, and God is not obliged to do this from his Effential or Natural Goodnefs, but it depends upon a more Free and Arbitrary Grace and Goodnefs that was not included in the Natural Knowledge of God, or in the Notion of the Divine Goodness, as a neceffary part of it, and fo not knowable by the Light of Nature. God's Goodnefs is over all his Works, and yet, fo far as we know, he never offered forgiveness to a great number of his Creatures when they once rebelled against him, and yet the Devils themfelves can bring no juft impeachment against the Divine Goodness notwithstanding that, no more could we have done if God had dealt thus with Mankind, if he had punisht us as foon as we wilfully broke his Laws, and never admitted us to Pardon. A good Lawgiver is bound only to give Righteous and Good Laws to his Subjects, and if they break them, they make themselves juftly lyable to the punishment that was threatned, and 'tis no more contrary to Goodness to inflict that, then it was at firft to threaten it; and though that be very fevere and terrible, yet if it exceed not the merit of the Crime, i. e. if it be no greater than is neceffary for the ends of Government, for that is the only true and full measure by which the proportion of the Fault and the Punishment can be adjusted, 'tis no way contrary to the Goodness of the Governour to fee it executed. I do not think he is always obliged to punish by his vindictive Juftice, no more than he is obliged to pardon by his Effential Goodness, but here

his Prerogative takes place, and there is room either to Pardon or to Punifh as he pleafes, without regard to any Law or Obligation.Mercy which is a relaxing of a Law, is due by no Law, if it were, it would make void all other Laws, it would be not a relaxing or an abating of a Law, but a correcting all other Laws by a Law that is Superior to them, and fo it would be an Injury or a denying a Legal Right, not to grant it where that Superior Law required it, but it is a pure, and arbitrary, and undue Favour shown to one that has no manner of Right or Claim to it, which a Supreme Governour, who has a Power paramount to all Law, may by vertue of that, grant or deny by the meer Motion and free Inclination of his own good Pleafure. So that Mankind could not know that God would do this, would be fo good as to forgive their wilful Sins and Offences against him from his Natural Goodnefs, nor could have any certain grounds to be affured of this, but by his own exprefs Promife, and positive Declaration of this his free Grace and good Will towards them. They might have fome faint hopes, and probable furmizes, and finall expectations of this from his Natural Goodness, as Malefactors may prefume and hope fuch a thing from the Temper and Difpofition of a good Gover nour, but they could not neceffarily conclude it, or be any way afcertained of it. They might have fuch an uncertain encouragement to hope this, as the Men of Niniveh had, Jonah 3. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not;

and