fpare all such as should discover a fear of the punishment, after they had incurred it by difobedience. Now our reafon being the common rule by which we judge of the actions of all reasonable beings, and by which we ought to regulate our own; how come we to judge it reasonable for God to do that, which, in parallel circumftances, we never think reasonable to do ourselves? It may be faid, that we are not capable of judging in this cafe, and distinguishing between the mere fear of punishment, and the rational forrow for having offended; but God can diftinguish, and therefore there is ground to suppose him to act otherwife than reafon in our circumftances can oblige us to act. Admit this difference, and it follows, that all who are willing to reform merely through the fears and terrors of guilt are without remedy: which fhews, that the far greater number of finners are in an helpless ftate under natural religion.

But let us fee what the condition is of one feriously convinced of the iniquity of fin, and purpofing to forfake it. The cafe fuppofes him to have finned fo as to deserve punishment by all the rules of reafon and equity: the question is, Whether a fincere alteration of mind can give him fecurity of a pardon. I fuppofe it agreed by all who admit a future judgment, that mifery and happiness are fet before us upon fome terms: I suppose likewise, that it will be deemed reasonable for God to act upon fuch terms as reason itself, the interpreter of God's will in this cafe, proposes to us. Confider now; We come into this world reasonable creatures, enabled to distinguish between good and evil; we find

ourselves accountable for our behaviour to God, our maker and our judge: from these principles the confequence is certain, that obedience to the moral law is the condition of falvation: but how will you come to the confequence fo much wanted, that whoever lives in disobedience shall be saved, if ever he grows fenfible of the folly and iniquity of fo doing? Is this condition implied in any law in the universe? Would it be a fit condition for God to propose to men at their first setting out in a state of nature? No, you will fay, it would enervate the force of all his laws. How comes it then to be abfolutely fit for God to do that, which it is absolutely unfit he should ever promise or profess? But we depend, you will fay, upon the equity and goodnefs of God. You do well: but where do you learn this equity? How do you find it to be equitable, that men fhould live by one rule, and be judged by another? No man will affirm, that reason teaches us to think God and his law fatisfied by finning, and then repenting: we are not to conduct our lives by this rule, why then muft we needs be judged by this rule? efpecially fince it is a confeffed maxim, that the rule of life and the rule of judgment ought to be the fame. It may perhaps be thought, that the goodness of God confidered, and the weakness and frailty of man, and his inability to pay a punctual obedience in all things to the law of reason, it is a reasonable construction upon the law of nature to expect pardon for our failings and omiffions, and that the very terms of our obedience carry this equitable conftruction with them. This to me feems the moft material

thing to be faid upon the subject, and I readily allow it but the moft that can be made of it is, that we shall be entitled to equitable allowances in the course of an imperfect obedience: but it does not come up to the cafe of fuch, who, under all these allowances, fall from their obedience, and forfeit the favour of God. But these are the perfons for whom we seek relief.

Upon the whole, it does not appear that natural religion has any certain cure for the terrors of guilt; because the title by obedience being forfeited, there are no certain principles of reason from which we can conclude how far, and to what inftances, the mercy of God will extend; because we can have no affurance of ourselves, that our forrow is fuch, and our refolutions of amendment fuch, as may deferve mercy; and laftly, because this whole matter, whatever there be in it, is founded upon reafons and speculations too exact, and too refined, to be of common ufe to mankind. And this last reason alone will, I think, fufficiently justify the wisdom and goodness of God in propofing to the world a fafe and general method for the falvation of finners for what if you have penetration enough to fee a way for finners to escape under natural religion; muft your great parts be a measure for God's dealing with all the world? Shall thousands and thousands live and die without comfort, because they cannot reason as you do? This confideration fhould make those who have the higheft opinion of themselves, and therefore of natural religion, adore the goodness of God, in condefcending to the infirmities of men, and fhewing them the way to

mercy, which they were unable to find out. This he has done by the revelation of the Gospel of Christ Jefus, which is the finner's great charter of pardon, a certain remedy againft all the fears and terrors of guilt.

Here then is a fafe retreat for the guilty confcience; here God appears, and gives his own unalterable word for your fecurity: the Son of God is your Mediator and High Prieft, to offer up and fanctify the forrows of a broken heart; and to bring down fpiritual strength, joy, and comfort to the penitent, and to perfect the word begun in you by his grace and affiftance. Let no man therefore fink under the terrors of guilt, but let him approach the throne of grace; but if in no confidence of himself, yet in full confidence in the promises made through Chrift, by whom, and through whom, every finner, who returns to God, fhall be faved.

After fo much done for the fecurity of finners on God's part, and fuch great confolations provided against the terrors of guilt, it is much to be lamented there should be any ftill incapable of comfort: yet fuch there are, of whom I proposed to fpeak in the last place, whose religious fears arife from accidental diforders of mind or body. This cafe is not fubject to reason, and therefore much cannot be faid upon it. Whatever the union of foul and body is, fo united they are, that the diforders of one often derive themselves to the other. A melancholy mind will waste the ftrength, and bring paleness and leanness upon the body: diforders in the body do often affect the mind; a ftroke of the palfy will rob a man of the use of his

understanding, and leave him difabled in mind as well as body. For this reafon it is that I afcribe fome religious fears to the disorders of the body, though they properly belong to the mind. We call only great disorders in the mind madnefs; but all disorders, as far as they extend, are of the same kind the melancholy man, who thinks himself in a state of damnation, without any reafon, or power to reafon upon his cafe, is as certainly in this point a madman, as the poor wretch, whofe diforder has taken another turn, and makes him believe himself to be a king or an emperor. There are many inftances of this kind abroad in the world: the unhappy fufferers, were they capable of receiving the advice, fhould be directed to feek their cure from phyficians rather than divines. Were I to give you inftances in what manner these religious fears work, what unreasonable fufpicions and jealoufies they create, how full they oftentimes are of abfurdity and manifeft contradiction, it would evidently appear to you, that they are truly diftempers either in the mind or body; but this would be but melancholy entertainment, and of no great use. Such perfons as these are not chargeable with feeking falfe comfort for themselves; for it is part of their diftemper to refufe all comfort. The true comfort we have for them they are unable to receive, that they are not capable of judging of themselves, and that he, to whom judgment belongeth, will deal with them not according to their imaginations, but according to the rules of his own goodness and righteousness.

These terrors cannot be imputed as a blemish to