by fhewing them briefly (tho' I doubt not but that they have full, very full, Serm. 1. evidence of this within their own Breafts; if they would be fo honest and ingenuous as to speak the Truth) even from the acknowledgments of the best and wifeft of their own Heathen Friends, and from the very Di&tates of that Nature and Reafon, which they pretend fo ftrictly to follow and obey, that there is, there muft be, fuch a wounded Spirit, as we are now difcourfing of. And, having done this, I fhall the more cheerfully proceed.

Secondly, To prove that fuch a wounded Spirit is indeed intolerable. And this, I hope I fhall be able to make very plain, both from Reason and Experience.

First, From Reafon, which feems readily to admit these two things.

First, That a wounded Spirit is the greatest Evil, or Affliction, that can possibly befall us, in this Life.

Secondly, That there is no affistance

any where to be had, to enable us to Serm. 1. fupport our felves under it: but, on the contrary, all thofe things, which us'd to adminifter Comfort to us, under our other Afflictions, turn powerfully against us, and mightily help tó encrease this.

First, That a wounded Spirit is the greatest Evil, or Affliction, that can poffibly befall' us, in this Life. There are no Afflictions fo fharp and pungent, as thofe, which do most immediately affect, our most fenfible and tender part, the Mind: and nothing fure can affect that,like the lashes of our own Reason and Confcience, like the dread of an offended God, and the imminent danger of falling into Infinite and Everlasting Torments. It is no small uneafinefs to a Man, to be unable to approve and justify himself to his own mind, and to lie under a fentence of Condemnation from his own Reason; but it is an uneafiness, above all uneafineffes, to lie under fo much as the apprehenfion, much more the certain expectation of God's wrath: nay, and of that fierceft and hottest wrath too, which he has laid

up

in

ftore

Serm. I.

ftore, for the Ungodly, against the great and terrible day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment Rom. 2.5. of God. This wrath doth fo infinitely tranfcend and furpass all other the Difpenfations of God's wrath against Sinners, in this world: that the very Fears of this muft needs be a great deal more terrible and grievous, than the actual feeling of those. Befides, there is this aggravating Circumstance peculiar to a wounded Spirit, that, while all other afflictions grow easier and lighter by continuance, and by degrees wear off and decline towards an end, this alone is always encreasing; because always coming nearer and nearer to that, which, tho' an end to all other Afflictions, is the beginning of fuch an additional load to this, as it makes me even tremble to think of. To all which add, that this is fuch an Affliction as brings all other Afflictions along with it: for a broken Spirit, as Solomon obferves, drieth the bones, Prov. 17. that is, destroyeth our Health, fpoils our Taste of every thing that is good. and pleasant, and, like a fecret fire within us, is continually preying upon and devouring us.

Farther

22.

Farther yet, it is not to be doubtSerm. 1; ed but that, befides the nature of the thing it felf, God doth, in Judgment, widen and enlarge this wound upon the Spirits of Sinners, and, as the Jer. 45.3. Prophet Jeremiah expreffeth it, add grief to their forrow; by withdrawing the comfortable prefence of his Holy Spirit from them, quick'ning their sense of their Guilt, reprefenting to them, in an extraordinary manner, the danger of their Condition, giving them a plainer fight and apprehenfion of the Torments of Hell, and thereby bringing them, as it were, nearer to them. All this, as it is very agreeable to Reason to suppose of God, after he has been, beyond all measure, affronted and exafperated by Sinners; fo is it exactly confiftent with his way of dealing with obftinate Sinners, in all other cafes, which is to add to thofe Mifchiefs which they have willfully brought upon Ifai. 6. 10. themselves; stopping the ears, and hardning the hearts of thofe, who would not hear when he call'd, nor Rom.1.18. relent when he punish'd: giving thofe up to a reprobate mind, who did not like to retain him in their knowledge;

and

2

and fending strong delufions on them, ~ who received not the love of the truth, Serm. 1. that they should believe a lie. And Theff. 2. moreover, it is exprefly faid of Saul, 11. when he was under grief and trouble of Mind, upon account of his having difobey'd and provok'd God, that the 1.Sam. 16. Spirit of the Lord departed from him, 14. and an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled, or, as it is in the Margent, terrified him.

Well then might the Son of Sirach pray, Give me any plague, but Eccluf. 25. the plague of the heart, and well may 13. we cry out, with St. Ambrofe, What lib.3.Offic. pain is more grievous than that of a cap.4. wounded Confcience, is not this rather to be avoided, than Weakness, than Poverty, than Banishment, nay than Death it felf? And, with St. Austin, In. Pf. 45• Among all the troubles and afflictions of the Mind of Man, there is none greater than that of a guilty Confcience. And yet, as great, as unspeakably great, as this Affliction is, there is ftill one terrible and inflaming Circumstance of it behind, and that is

Secondly,