light and with fecurity. And were it not for this, it would be impoffible for any confidering man, to fatisfy himself in his continuance in any known fin for one mo ment. For he could not, with any confiftence with that mighty over-ruling principle of felf preservation, commit a fin, if he affuredly knew or believed that he should be damned for it; which yet, fince the infinitely juft and true God has most perempt orily decreed and threatned, unless repentance intervenes, it is evident, that his whole refuge must be in the hopes and profpect of that, which, he perfuades himself, shall in due time come in, between him and the fatal blow. And this very confideration utterly evacuates the terrifying force of the divine threatning; and by promifing the finner a fair iffue of things, both here and hereafter, makes the deluded creature conclude, that his fin fhall never find him out.

AND thus having fhewn fome of those fallacious grounds, upon which men ufe to build their confidence of the concealment, or at least of the impunity of their fins; I proceed now, in the

IId Place, to fhew the vanity and folly of

fuch

fuch a procedure.—And this will appear on feveral accounts.

THE very confidence it felf of fecrecy, is a direct and natural cause of the finner's dif covery. For confidence, in fuch cases, causes a frequent repetition of the fame action. And if a man does a thing frequently, it is odds, but fome time or other he is difcovered. For by this he subjects himself to fo many more accidents; every one of which may poffibly betray him. Confidence makes a man venturous; and venturoufness cafts him into the high road of danger, and the very arms of deftruction.

THERE is fometimes alfo, a ftrange, providential concurrence, of unufual, unlikely accidents for the difcovery of fome fins, especially of a great and enormous nature. A villany committed perhaps but once in an age, comes fometimes to be found out alfo by fuch an accident, as fcarce happens above once in an age. For there are some fins more immediately invading the great interefts of fociety, government, and religion; which providence fets it felf in a more peculiar manner to detect, and bring to light, in spight of all the coverings which

art

art and power can caft over them: Such as are murder, perjury, facrilege, and the like. And more particularly for murder; it hath been often obferved, in what a strange, ftupendous manner providence oftentimes traces it out; tho' concealed with all the clofeness, which guilt and fkill could contrive.

Further: God fometimes makes one fin the means of difcovering another: As for inftance, how many have by their drunkennefs difclofed their thefts, their adulteries, and murders, which might otherwise have been buried in perpetual filence? For the tongue is then got loofe from its obedience to reafon, and commanded at all adventures by the fumes of a distempered brain, and a roving imagination; and fo, presently pours forth whatsoever they fhall fuggeft to it, fometimes cafting away life, fortune, and reputation, all at once.

And how does the confident finner know, but the grace of God, which he hath fo often affronted and abused, may fome time. or other defert, and give him up to the fordid temptations to this vice of drunkenness, which fhall make the doors of his heart fly VOL. III. ន

open,

open, and cause his own tongue to give evidence against him, for all the villanies which had laid fo long heaped up, and concealed in his guilty breaft? For let no man think, that he has the fecrets of his own. mind in his own power, while he has not himself fo; as it is moft certain that be has not, who is under the power of this frenzy.

And therefore, as it is a frequent, and indeed a very rational faying, That a lyar ought to have a good memory; fo, upon the like account, a perfon of great guilt, ought to be also a perfon of great sobriety.

AND fometimes, God lets loose the finner's confcience upon him; filling it with fuch horror for fin, as renders it utterly unable to bear the burden it labours under, without publifhing, or rather proclaiming it to the world.

None knows the force, the power, and the remorseless rage of confcience, when God commiffions it to call the finner to an account. How ftrangely it will fift and winnow all his retirements. How terribly it will wring and torture him, till it has bolted out the hidden guilt, which it was in fearch

fearch of. All which is fo mighty an argument of the prerogative of God over men's hearts, that no malefactor can be accounted free, tho' in his own keeping; nor any one concealed, tho' never fo much out of fight. For God ftill has his officer in the finner's breaft, who will be fure to attack him, when God gives the word.

And this fhews the great importance and wisdom of that advice, That every man, when he is about to do a wicked action, should, above all things in the world, stand in awe of himfelf, and dread the witness within him; who fits there as a spy over all his actions, and will be fure, one day or other, to accufe him to himself; and perhaps compel him to accufe himself alfo to others. For this is no new thing, but an old experimented cafe; there having been feveral in the world, whofe confcience has been fo much too hard for them, that it has compelled them to disclose a villanous act, tho' they faw certain and immediate death the reward of that confeffion.

But most commonly has confcience this dismal effect upon finners, at their departure out of this world. At which time, fome