bate Sinners, but himfelf the Pattern of fuffering Innocence. And therefore Chrift, by weeping over them, and refusing the Tears of the holy Women, gave us to understand that there is but one Thing in this World, viz. Sin, which fully deferves our Tears, and that a Perfon labouring under the heaviest Load of Sufferings is not fo great an Object of Compaffion, as a Soul in mortal Sin.

Sin therefore is an Evil that juftly challenges our Tears. All Sufferings of the Body, tho' never fo great, are but imaginary Evils, if compared with Sin. Job, on the Dunghil, was a happy Man, because he was free from mortal Sin; and a Monarch on the Throne, tho' favour'd with all the Bleffings, and wallowing in all the Pleafures of Life, is infinitely Unhappy, if he be in the State of mortal Sin. The Saints and Angels in Heaven, if they were

pable of fenfible Impreffions, would weep over him; and Jefus Chrift himfelf, if his State of Glory could admit of Grief and Tears, would lament his unhappy Condition. Let us then lament our Sins with fuch true penitential Tears, as may wash off their Stains, and be a fource of Life and Grace to our Souls.

The

The XXIId ENTERTAINMENT.

Sin confider'd as it regards a God.

To thee alone have I finned, and done Evil in thy Sight. Pfal. 1. 5.

I Ne

N the foregoing Difcourfe I have only defcribed Sin from its Effects upon the Soul: But the Words of my Text lead me to its very Effence and Nature, which confists precifely in its being an Offence committed against the infinite Majefty of God and tho' the Mischief it does to the Soul, be the greatest Evil that can happen to us in this World, as I have already fhewn, yet this discovers but one Part of its Malice. But the Injury it does to God, in violating his holy Law, is that which conftitutes its principal Deformity, and shall be the Subject of this Entertainment.

To form a juft Idea of the Injury we do to God by mortal Sin, we must confider with a ferious Attention, what Divines and fpiritual Writers teach, viz. that every mortal Sin, whether committed by Thought, Word, or Deed, is an Offence of infinite Malice. Neither muft we understand the Word infinite, as it is often ufed by the Vulgar,

C. 4.

Vulgar, to exprefs any Thing that is very great; but we must take it in its obvious and literal Meaning, and according to its full Import: Because it is not the Business of Divines to fet off Chriftian Truths with Flourishes of Rhetorick, but to explain them fimply and naturally, as they are in themfelves: And therefore when they fay that the Malice or Deformity of Sin is infinite, their Meaning is, that the Injury it does to God exceeds all Bounds and Measure; that whatever can be practifed betwixt Man and Man holds no Proportion to it finally, that it furpaffes all human Comprehenfion: So that, tho' we should ima gine the fouleft and blackest Treafon, Man's Heart is capable of; nay, tho' we fhould load it with all the most aggravating Circumftances, as of Perjury to a Sovereign, of Treachery to a Bofom-friend, of Ingratitude to a Benefactor, or any thing. elfe we can think of to render it odious and deteftable in the Eyes of Men; yet the Malice or Foulnefs of it in Relation to the Party, on whom we fhould fuppofe it practifed, would bear no Proportion with that of the leaft mortal Sin, as it regards Almighty God: Becaufe whatever paffes betwixt Man and Man has its Bounds and Limits fix'd, and whatever is limited, can

not

not enter into Comparison with what is infinite and unlimited.

For this Reason the Royal Prophet feems to make no Account of that Part of his Crime, which regards Urias and Bethabe, and appears fenfible only of the Injury he had done to God, to whom he addreffes himself in the foremention'd remarkable Words of my Text, to thee alone have I finned, and done Evil in thy Sight. He had certainly injured both Urias and Bethbabe in a very heinous Manner, having murder'd the one, and drawn the other into Adultery. Nay, he had done Evil int the Eyes of Men, as well as before God:: For he had given publick Scandal, and (as the Prophet Nathan reproach'd him) had. made the Enemies of God blafpheme his holy; Name. But the Heinoufnefs of the Injury he had done to God, both by the one and. the other, outweigh'd fo far the wrong he had done to Men, that his Repentance was wholly grounded on that Motive; as appears yet farther from his Anfwer to Nathan, who, tho' he represented to him in the moft pathetick Manner poffible, the unna-tural wrong he had done his faithful Servant Urias, received from him no other. Confeffion of his Sin, but this, peccavi Domino, I have finned against the Lord.

Sin therefore, to speak properly, is hateful in itself, precifely as it is an Offence of God. This conftitutes its effential Deformity and Malice: And even those Sins which regard our Neighbour immediately, as Calumny, Detraction, Murder, Adultery, Theft, and the like, derive their whole Enormity from their Oppofition to the eternal Law establish'd by God; and fince the Majefty of God, who is injured and dif honour'd by the Violation of his holy Law, is infinite, hence all Divines conclude, that the Malice of Sin is alfo infinite: And this they demonstrate by this unanswerable Proof; viz. because as Honour takes its Degrée of Value from him who pays it, fo the Dishonour of an Offence or Affront is measured from the Dignity or Character of him who receives it.

This is one of thofe Truths that carry Self-evidence with them, and are clearest in their own Light; fo that to go about to prove them, is like fetting up a Candle to, fee the Sun by: We all know by the Light of natural Reason, that to fhew a Contempt of a Superiour, is a greater Offence than if he were our Equal or Inferiour. That to affront a fovereign Prince is a more heinous Crime, than if he did the fame thing to a private Man: In a Word, that it is a greater Indignity to injure and abufe a

Parent,