to make them abuse God with his own Gifts, and blafpheme the Wisdom of their Creation, by living contrary to the Laws of it. Indeed he that

commits an Error thorough ignorance or furprize, borrows some Plea from the darker fide of his Nature, for he acts at worst, like a weak and frail Man; but then to Sin with deliberation, and choice, to court Vice and take Pleafure in it; this looks like a Conspiracy against God and Reason, and Truth, and shews that the very Light within us is Darkness; and if so, what should prevent our Ruin, or hinder our Sin from proving unto Death, if by a perverse and obftinate Course of it, we implicitely declare that we will not be reclaim'd?

But 2dly, Another great aggravation of wilful Sins is, That 'tis a great affront and a most vile indignity to the Grace of God, and the motions of his Spirit: Now this is yet an higher Principle, than the meer light of Reason and Nature, and the more Divine and Heavenly the Gift is which Men thus abuse, the heavier will be both their Guilt and Punishment; God will not

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fail to refent our Baseness, when we oppose his Voice, when it whispers good Advice from the Confciences with in us; but he will be yet more provok'd, when we shut our Ears to the louder calls of his Word, and Fight against those brisker Efforts of his Spirit, by which he is always striving to better and reform us; and yet this is the Cafe of every stubborn and obstinate Sinner, he resists the motions of his most friendly Monitor, rejects the Conduct of his best Guide, and refuses to hear the Voice of the wisest Charmer; fo that confidering the vile Ingratitude of thus striving against God, of thus refifting the healing Application of his gracious Spirit, nothing can carry a fouler Face than fuch chosen and wilful Sins do.

But yet 3dly, Another addition to the Guilt of them is this, that they are notorions Contempts of the Goodness and Patience of God; they at onee affront that bounteous Mercy, which is over all his Works, and that gracious Mercy, by which he pities and pardons the Infirmities of Mankind; 'tis a gross piece of Ignorance when Men do not, and

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and a monstrous piece of Ingratitude,
when they act as if they did not know
That the Goodness of God should lead them
to Repentance, Rom. 2. 4. 'Tis St. Paul's
Reasoning, and very highly concerns
all stubborn and profligate Offenders,
and yet if we survey the Nature of
any wilful Sin, it seems to be a plain
defiance of Gods Power, and a bold
presumption upon his Patience, and
both ways 'tis a notorious Addition to
our Guilt; for if we Sin on in the Be-
lief that God cannot punish us,
are downright Infidels; and if we still
offend him, in hopes of a continuance
of that Mercy, which pardon'd the last
Offence, we make God unholy and un-
just, and perfectly to contradict his own
Nature. But such Infidels and Hipo-
crites are all Men, who continue in Sin
on any pretence whatever; for in delay-
ing their Repentance, after so many
inward Calls, and outward Admoniti-
ons to it, they tacitly upbraid God
with his Forbearance, and plainly turn
his Grace into Wantonness. Does not,
for Instance, the Riotous and Lustful
Person abuse those Gifts to Gods dishon-
our and his own, which ought to
make him Humble and Thankful?
And

And what do the Furious and Revengeful the Covetous and worldly Minded, but charge the Wisdom of his Provideuce in placing his Benefits in the way of fuch unworthy Objects? Certainly should any Earthy Friend bestow a Favour on another, to such or fuch an End, and the Receiver should apply it to a quite contrary use, even to the difcredit of the Giver, it would be construed as a monstrous Indignity; and so much more heinous is the Guilt of willfully Sinning against God, as his Mercies are great and infinite, both for proportion and number, and all intended to bring Glory to him, and Happiness to us. I come then in the third place, to illustrate and make appear the wretched State of such, as are involv'd in a course of Sin: And this, I presume, may be done in good part from the last Clause of the Text, I do not say that he shall pray for them. For whether we are to understand it as implying a liberty of Difcretion in Christian Afsemblies, whether they will put up their Prayers for habitual Sinners, or not, or else, as containing a direct Prohibition, to allow such Perfons the

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Benefit of their Prayers, it seems to speak their Cafe highly deplorable; and yet one of these things the Apostle must mean in this place; for it was not only usual in his Days to cut off notorious Offenders from the Church, for so long at least till they should return to God and their Duty, and make a publick amends for the Mifchief and Scandal of their Example; but 'twas his own Method and Advice to deliver incorrigible Sinners to Satan, i. e. to shut them up under the worst and last degree of Excommunication, That they might learn not to Blaspheme, 1 Tim. 1. 20. And to shew that this was a Punishment as much dreaded on the Peoples fide, as any that could be inflicted, we meet in the earlier Records of the Church, with vast Crowds of Penitents, weeping and proArate for their Sins, and defiring, at any expence of Hardship and Difcipline, to be reftor'd to the Peace of the Church, and the Benefit of Communion with their Fellow-Chriftians. And truly a very little Reflection may teach us, how wretched beyond all Expreffion, that Man's Condition is whose Sins have drove him from the Altar (a Privilege