were obliged to? Or how fhall we make that which is paft and done to be undone as it were, and the old account to be blotted out, and the paft Guilt done away? 'Tis only the Meritorious Sacrifice of Chrift can do this, and whe ther God could do this without any Sacrifice I will not difpute, because I know not the Meafures of the Divine Government, nor the Secrets of his Wifdom and Counsel, but by a Sacrifice it is much better obtained and affured to us, as being granted upon the account of fomething that was given in ftead of it, and that is worth it indeed in fair Juftice, for fo was the Blood of the Son of God of equal va lue to the Souls of all Mankind, though I acknowledge it depends upon the free Pleasure of the Governour to accept or refuse such a fatisfaction and compenfation as was made by that or by any Sacrifice,yet all this being tranfacted in fuch a Method, being granted upon a Valuable Confideration, and being made over to us by a formal Covenant and ftanding Agreement, Ratified and Sealed by the Blood of Chrift, as well as a bare Promife: So that by all these immutable things in which it was impoffible for God to lye, we might have ftrong confolation, Heb. 6. 18. We have hereby the greatest Comfort, the higheft Satisfaction and Affurance in the World given us, of that which we can never be too much affured of, and which is of the nearest and clofeit conicern to us in the World, the Pardon of our Sins, and the Expiation of all our Guilt, which is only to be had, and only fully difco

vered by the Gofpel; and 'tis indeed the greatest thing in which the Gofpel confifts, as tis different from Natural Religion.

3. From hence, namely, from the Sacrifice and Death of Chrift arife new Motives, and fresh and moft endearing Obligations to perfwade all Chriftians to repent and leave their Sins. The very Nature of a Sacrifice carries thefe in it, and was defigned to offer the ftrongest Motives against Sin at the fame time that it procures Pardon for it. It is the wifelt Expedient that could ever be thought of, to fhow Juftice and Severity, and yet Mercy and Clemency at the fame time; to put a Governour into thofe two different Capacities, both at once to forgive, and yet to punish the fame Perfon, and to fhow him to be neither too eafie nor yet implacable, but by an admirable temper and mixture of two Vertues and two Paffions that feem contrary to one another, it finds out a way to fpare the Man, and yet fhow the greatest displeasure to his Sin; neither to fuffer the Guilty to perith, nor yet the Guilt to be unpunished; fo that hereby the greatness of the Guilt and the greatnefs of God's Anger, is as vifible against the Sin in the fufferings of the Sacrifice, as if the offender himself had fuffered; and we have Reafons to dread it the more, even becaufe it is forgiven us; but we have stronger Reafons, I think, to do this, out of gratitude to that dear Perfon who was pleased to become a Sacrifice for us, And from the confideration of his Love, and what he has done for us, we have most parti

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cular and strong engagements to leave our Sins: For 'tis the higheit Ingratitude, and the moft difobliging thing to him that can be to continue in them, who fuffered for this very end, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and cleanfe is from all our fins; 'tis a fpoiling all his great undertaking for us, making void his Paffion in effect, and making his Blood to be but like common Water fpilt upon the ground, and yet 'tis a renewing his Paffion at the fame time, A crucifying to our felves the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open Shame, Heb. 6. 6. 'Tis like running the Spear again into his Side, making new Wounds in his Breaft,and pricking him to the very Heart; 'tis doing that which is more difpleafing to him than his very Crofs, which he willingly underwent rather than we fhould Live and Dye in our Sins. Look then, O Unworthy and Impenitent Chriftian, upon thy Saviour offering up himself a Sacrifice for thee, and confider what a mighty Argument his Death is to perfwade thee to Repent. Do not thy Sins look terrible when thou feeft them through the Blood of Chrift, and canft thou have any hopes that God who spared not his own Son,. will fpare thee, if thou continueft in them ? And how great are the Characters of his Love, which are there written in his own Blood? and will not fo much Love prevail upon thee to leave thy Sins, were there nothing else? How does thy Dying Saviour, with his expanded Arms, and his Head hanging down, befeech and intreat thee, and fpeak to thee as F Z

it were from every gaping Wound in his broken Body, to forfake and renounce thofe Sins which Crucified him, and for which he Dyed? And if with the belief of a Christian thou haft but the Paffions of a Man, this cannot but ftrongly affect and move thee.

4. Chriftianity and the Gospel fet forth and fhew us the true Nature and Evil of our Sins, in a better Light, and by greater Confiderations, than Mankind had before; Sin was always known to be a Weaknefs and Imperfection of our Nature, gratifying a low Paffion, a foolish Humour, a filly Cuftom, acting in oppofition to Realon, and doing things quite contrary to our own wife and calm thoughts, but by Rafhnefs and Inconfideration doing that which we shall afterwards Repent of, and condemn our felves for, and with we had never done, and what we know will tend more to our Mischief and Prejudice than any real good to us, only it pleafes our fancy, and tickles our fenfes, and is a little grateful to us at prefent; fo that 'tis a fort of Childifhnefs, and want of Understanding, and of Manly and Rational Government of our felves to yield to it, and be overcome by it; this it mult appear to any thinking Man, to a Heathen and Philofopher that confidered the Nature of things, and the difference of Good and Evil that atofe from thence, and therefore that to Repent of it was as neceffary as for a Man to act wifely and reasonably, not to do what is Weak and Foolifh, below the Nature and the Reason of a Man ; but now Chrift, befides

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befides all this, has reprefented Sin in more ugly and frightful Characters by the Gospel, as that which had thrown all Mankind into the most miferable and loft Condition, as the work of the Devil which he came to deftrov, as the Device and Stratagem of Evil and Malicious Spirits to deftroy us, fo that whenever we are drawn into Sin, we are drawn in by the Devil, and ufed as Tools by cunning infernal Fiends, who this way over-reach us, and fport themselves in our Ruin and Defruction; fo that when we think we are enjoying our Pleafures, and gratifying our Lufts, and ufing the Freedoms and Liberties of Hu man Nature, we are but inveigled by thofe Devils with the Baits they lay for us, and the Snares they every where fet to entrap us, and are meer Slaves and Properties to their Cunning and Curfed Designs upon us, fo that Chrift came to refcue us from thofe by calling us to Repentance, to rescue us from the Snares of the Devil, and redeem us from that Servitude and Slavery whereby we are led captive by him. Christianity better acquaints us alfo with the Nature of Sin and the Evils of it, than Nature could by fhowing us the Ruins it had made upon Mankind, and the Coft and Expences Heaven was at to repair Human Nature; by letting us fee the Wretched and Miferable Eftate the Sins of Mankind had thrown them into irrecoverably without a Saviour. Our Salvation by that ftupendous and mysterious way makes the greatnefs of our Danger, and the mischief of our Sins,

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