SERM.as giving a Law without a Sanction, III. that is, without reprefenting him at the

fame time to our felves, as enforcing that Law with a Threat, and fecuring the Observance of it by fome Penalty annexed. This is the Method of all inferior Legiflators, and is from thence easily and naturally transferred by us to the Supreme. So that our first and most immediate Conceptions of God, by which we are excited to our Duty, involve in them this very Motive we are fo apt to suspect; and we cannot propose to our selves the One, without feeling in fome Measure the Power and Force of the Other.

To obferve God's Laws under a Profpect of Reward is what many of those, who reject a Principle of Dread, will not deny to be a reasonable and fufficient Inducement to Vertue. Now, how our defiring a Good fhould make what we do on that Account acceptable in the Eyes of God, and yet that very thing be unacceptable, when done to avoid an Evil; how the Hope of Reward fhould

fhould be a good Motive, and yet the Fear SE RM. of losing that Reward be an ill one, is III. hard to determine. It is on each fide, the Selfishness of the Principle, and the Mixture of our own Interest with it, that feems to leffen its Worth. And I cannot fee, how our Interest is less concerned in pursuing Pleasure, than in flying Pain.

Indeed, the noblest and most com. mendable Reason of our serving God is, our Love of him. God is Love, and he chiefly delights in thofe difinterested Duties which spring from that Principles However he hath been pleased to condefcend to the Weakness, nay to the Bafeness of our Natures, and to accept our bounden Duty and Service upon much lower Terms. He hath thought fit to allure, and to frighten us into Obedience; and him that comes even this way to him, he will in no wife caft out.

3. To ftrengthen this Proof yet farther, let us, in the third place, take a View of the State and Condition of

SERM. profligate Sinners. We fhall find it to III. be fuch, that nothing but Terror can

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any ways lay hold of them. Is it poffible for a Man that is funk into all manner of Vice and Impurity, to be ftruck on a fudden with the Beauty of Vertue and Goodness, with the Love of God, and of his infinite Perfections? Can he (do we think) recover himself, by reflecting on the Deformity and Turpitude of Sin, or the Dignity of his Nature, and of that divine Character and Refemblance which he bears? Alas! let Vertue be never fo lovely, Goodness never fo defirable; yet he hath no Eyes to fee it, no Heart to defire it. He hath loft the Tafte of every thing, but thofe very Delights in which he indulges himself; and Reason is no longer Reason to him, than it pleads for his Enjoyments. Now what, I say, can poffibly roufe fuch a Creature as this, fo loft to all ingenuous Motives, but the Sense of divine Vengeance, and the Dread of eternal Punishments? The Terrors of Hell may ftill perhaps perfuade

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perfuade him to confider, (for Fear will SER M. find an Entrance where no other Paffion III. can;) but to all Arguments befides he is perfectly impenetrable.

Indeed, after that the Wrath of God hath terrified him into Reflections on his wretched State, and into Refolutions of quitting it, there is room for other Motives to come in, and finish the Work thus begun; to improve his Contrition, and raise his Refentments, and build him up in the Practice of all manner of Holiness. But ftill the leading Step towards Repentance muft, I fay, proceed from his Fear; which therefore is a fure Foundation for all Penitents to build on, unless we can fuppofe that God ever leaves Men in Sin, without affording them any one proper Motive to ftir them up to Vertue; an Opinion not eafily to be entertained of infinite Goodness!

Why then should the pious Chriftian harbour any Doubts of this kind in his Breaft? O, why should his Soul be caft Pf. xlii. 5. down, and his Spirit difquieted within him?

SERM. There is no room for Despondency of III. Mind in fuch a State as his; no Rea

fon, why that Dread of divine Wrath which frighted him at first into the Ways of Vertue, fhould continue to haunt and pursue him ftill, now he is far advanced in them. The only Fears, which will be prejudicial to him, and which he ought to difmifs, are those concerning the Validity of his Repentance. His other Fears were agreeable to Nature, and Reason, and to those Methods which the Divine Wisdom hath thought fit to make Ufe of for reclaiming Sinners. To ferve God out of Love, and Love only, without the leaft Mixture or Allay of any baser Principle, is the Privilege of Angels and blessed Spirits who live in the Prefence of God. It will hereafter be the Reward of our having lived as became the Gofpel; but it cannot be matter of ftrict Duty to us now. Lower and less noble Ends muft influence us, while we are in this State of Imperfection; 1 Cor. xii. Till that which is perfect is come, that which

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