(an evil action) good. If unbeleife be the greateft fin as I have fhewed, then thou thinkeft the great eft fin no fin but a vertue. If it be a fin for thee to beleeve,then thou makeft God evil,who is good, and unbeleife pleasing to him which is the worst of fins. And therefore I befeech you put no barrs in your way, make no ftopps in your course, look not to find objections that may ftumble your felves when you are going towards Jefus Chrift. You think you are wary, but you are falfe: you think to prevent fin, but you fal into the greatest fin which can be committed, that is pardonable, and that is unbeleife. Nothing I am fure wil prevail more with one whofe heart God hath touched, then this wil. Sin they would not, that is their misery: If thou wouldeft not, then beleeve.

Object. How can unbelief be fo great a fin, seeing it arifeth from Ignorance? Aufw. There is a double Ignorance 7. Means of Conviction that Unbelief is fo great a fin. 1. Confider the Commandment and Law of Faith. Herein are four things to be confidered. 1. The Kind of the thing commanded. 2. The Attributes of God from which the Commandment flows, and which are manifold in it. 3. The Kind of the Law that is broken 4. The Condition of the Perfons under that Law.

BUT

OBJECT.

UT it may be yet further faid, How can unbe leife be fo great a fin, feeing it doth arife either from ignorance, for they that know the name of God wil truft in him, Pfal. 9, 10. Or elfe the caufe

of

of ignorance doth put out their right eye, that they know not what to do: and when men know not what to do,their condition is not fo dangerous,their fact and fin is thereby extenuated and leffened.

Now for anfwer unto that. You must know that there is a double ignorance.

1. One is that which is wel called by Divines (puræ negationis) when a man hath not the knowledg of a thing, either because it doth not concerne him to know it: or elfe if it concerns him, yet it is impoffible for him to come unto the knowledg of

it.

2.

There is an ignorance (prave difpofitionis ) which arifeth from an il difpofition in a man and that is of two forts.

:

Either when a man hath apprehenfions of God and of Chrift which are not according unto truth. He looks upon God as implacable and upon Chrift, as a Judg, and that wil not be kind unto them that are fo guilty as he is.

4.

Or elfe, the indifpofition from whence ignorance comes is, that a man wil not know, that fo he may ferve his fins, and himself. He wil not know the way and the path of life, that fo he may ferve his fins and himself. Or out of ftubbornness, because he wil not be beholden to Chrift. The ignor ance which Paul had, was not only privative: but was fuch as was farre otherwife then needed to The have been if he had attended on the meanes. fum of the anfwer comes to thus much, viz. What ever ignorance arifeth from prejudicate apprehenfions or il opinions of God, yet if it hinders our faith, our unbeleife notwithstanding is a fin. And

therefore

therefore the Apostle bids them, (when he faith, I know you did it out of ignorance) to repent that their fins may be blotted out. Alts. 3. 19. But if ic comes either frem ftubbornnefs, or love of fin, then it is an exceeding great fin, even the highest fin almoft that can be. A man being blinded, and blinded of purpose with his lufts, that he may not be taken with the beauty, or drawen by the neceffity of grace that is in jefus Chrift. Ifhal there. fore again and again, my beloved, perfwade you that you would be convinced that you cannot do worfe then to live civilly, to live in the practice of holy dutyes, and to live without blame to your natural confciences, and thereby to keep your felves from going to Jefus Chrift. Compare fin with fin, and your not going unto Jefus Chrift is as bad, as a mans living in any other fin. What is fin? But only a turning afide from the Creator to the creature: the feeking of the ever lafting good, in mutable good things. Now is it not as great a fin for a man to leave Jefus Chrift, and God through him as to feek his happiness in himself, and in his own performances.

Object, But you wil fay unto me. I find it to be the most difficult thing in the world to be convinced of this. If this were but cleer to me, and fettled upon my beart, that I finned when I did not fet my face to Chrift and did not stretch out my hand to Chrift, when my thoughts were not taking in fome thing or other from bim to apply unto my felf; but, therein lyes the hardship. I know it is a commandment, but it belongs not to me?

Answer. Therefore for meanes to convince you of this, I fhal propound.

I If you would know the greatness of the fin of unbeleife,

unbeleife, confider the Law and commandment of faith.

2 Confider alfo the evil that unbeleife doth you. 3 Fix your thoughts of these things upon your

heart.

4 Regard not what fence, or reason faith. 5 Labor to beleeve.

6 Seeke to have the spirit.

7 Ger. love.

These seven things are meanes or wayes to convince you, or to bring your hearts to feel the weight of the fin of unbeleife."

First, Confider the Commandment of faith, and the Law of faith. By the law comes the knowledg of fin. The Law of every duty fhews us as in a glafs, the contrary fin,and it fhews the finfulness of it,and fhews it as cleerly as it doth the duty, and fhews it with authority, because it is a rule: and impartially, because it refpects the things, not the perfons of men. Every law is a demonftration or discovery of what the fin is, which is forbidden in its felf: and what the duty is which is commanded without refpect of perfons. The Law (faith the Apoftle) was given that fin might abound, Rom. 5. 20. That is, that Sin might be feen in its greatnefs, and juft magnitude, that men might behold it in its juft aggravation and provocation of God. So that by the law of faith you fhal fee the juft great nefs of the Sin of unbeleife.Now that you may by this law, or by the law of any duty difcerne the greatness of the contrary Sin. You must confider.

The kind of the thing commanded.

2 Thofe attributes and excellencies of God which are manifefted in it, from whence that

Commandment flows

L

You 3

3

You must confider the kind of the law.

4 The Condition of the perfons that are under that law and commandment. Ifay, if you would know the greatnefs of any fin, you must know the kind of the things commanded. 2. The attributes of God whence the commandement comes, and which fhine forth in that command. 3. The kind of the Law. 4. The condition of the perfons un

der that Law.

As

First, The kind of the things commanded. namely; Whether the things commanded belong unto the firft table, and fo unto the worship of God immediately or only refpects God remotely, as al the duties of the fecond table do. Sins against the firft table are (al other circumftances being confidered alike) the greateft fins that can be. And therefore the first table is called the great commandement; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This is the firft, and the great commandment. Math. 22. 38. And of al fins against the first table, thofe are worst which are against the firft & fecond commandment. For Chrift calls the firft Commandment,and branch of it; (Thou shalt love the Lord thy God) the great Commandment. And the reafon of it, why the fins against the first and fecond Commandment are greateft, is, because the firft Commandment requires the acknowledgment of God as God in his effential Glory. And the fecond Commandment requires worshipping of him according to his own appointment. It's a great fin to take the name of God in vaine,which is the third commandment:that is, to ufe any of the holy things of God to any other end and purpose than he hath commanded. And its a great fin to break the fourth Commandment : Therefore he that did it with an high hand, was (by the Lord himself ) to be put to death.. But

the