THE PRESENT CORRECTION AND REPROOF of SIN, OR A Discourse on 2 Jer. 19 verse. Thine own Iniquities shall correct thee, & thy Backslideings shall reprove thee.  Hoc sunt peccata Lapsis, quod grando Frugibus, quod turbidum sydus Arboribus, quod Armentis pestilens vastitas, quod Navigiis saeva Tempestas. Cyprian Serm. de Lapsis. 
LONDON, Printed for J. Eaglesfield, at the Marigold, near Sarisburrycourt in Fleetstreet. 1685.   

TO His much Honoured Friend, Mr. ***.  
SIR,  
I Have not adventured to displeas you by publishing your Name to the World; whereby you will easily apprehend, that I send you this Discourse as to a Friend, for your impartial Opinion of it; rather than to a Patron for Protection: (the stolen Compliment of Epistles Dedicatory.) I designed it should have been accompanied with several other Discourses, concerning the Evil of Sin, and its Agravations. First, in relation to the B. Trinity; as it dishonours God, disparageth the Divine Nature, & bespatters every Attribute & Perfection of the Godhead; & consequently strikes at the very being of a God. As it is a Rebellion against his Souveraingty; Enmity to his Holiness; a Provocation to his Justice; a Contempt of his Wisdom; an ungrateful Affront to his infinite Goodness; challenging his Almighty Power; giving the Lie to his invariable Truth; slighting his Omniscience; wearying his Patience; etc. as it opposeth his Glory, & contradicts his holy Will, & the great design of all his Revelations, Institutions, & Providences. Secondly, with respect to us as it thwarts the end of our Creation, perverts our rational Faculties, and the very principles of our Nature: as it blurs the Image of God upon our Souls; robs us of his Delight & Love; & renders us uncapable of any friendly Convers & Communion with him. As it deforms & defiles the Soul; enslaves us to many foolish & hurtful Lusts; as it gratifyes the Devil, & brings us under his power; as it infects others with its contagion; disturbs Societies; is the great  of the world, and the fatal source of all he Mischiefs and Calamities, under which the Creation groans, and Thirdly, In comparison with all other Evils of Affliction and Punishment: whereby sin will appear to be the most pernicious and intolerable Evil: especially as the cause of the Eternal Ruin of Souls. Where I intended to consider the certainty of that Everlasting Destruction threatened in Holy Scripture to the finally Impenitent. A Doctrine which so many would feign persuade themselves to doubt of. I cannot wonder at it, since Interest and Inclination are instead of Evidence in other cases as well as this: men are loath to admit any such Premises, whose Conclusion would engage them to change their course of Life: it is not therefore strange if after having forfeited the Blessedness of Heaven, they endeavour to extinguish the flames of Hell. But being at present diverted from finishing what I began in that kind, I am desired to let this be published alone. I have not bespoke the Readers candour, as is usual, by representing in a Preface the seasonableness & usefulness of the Argument treated of; because both are sufficiently obvious.  
There is hardly any man whose Experience & observation will not oblige him to acknowledge, that Sin doth very often correct & reprove the sinner in this world. The Evidence is too sadly notorious to be denied, in the miserable Catastrophe of Apostats, in the afflictive consequences of great Transgressions, & in the ordinary fruits of Lust & Folly, Lewdness, & Passion, Intemperance & unrighteousness, & a disorderly Life. Nevertheless, thro' the deceitfulness of Sin, & the subtlety of the Tempter, the neglect of Consideration, the powerful Influence of bad Company, and sometimes the Righteous Judgement of God, (suffering men to harden themselves in their wickedness) the far greater part will not receive Instruction by this voice of the Rod; but turn the deaf Ear to all the Calls of God; & will not be reclaimed, by all the methods of his Grace, to bring them to Repentance.  
SIR, by the following acount that is given of it, you will be furnished with abundant matter of Thanksgiving to God: who partly by the early communications of his Grace, and the pious Care of those who had the conduct of your younger years; & partly by the kindness of his Providence, in keeping you at a distance from Temptations; & by your own vigilance & prudent Caution in places & seasons of Danger; hath preserved you from those Vices, which are thus attended with Temporal sufferings. Such an Improvement of this Discourse should be made by all those happy Persons, who cannot confirm this sad Truth by their own Experience, save in very few & the less considerable Instances of it.  
The best men may reap this Benefit by perusing it: that the consideration of the mighty Prevalence & Growth of wickedness, with the present bitter fruits of it, may promote their being crucified to this World, and willingness to quit it, assoon as God shall please: & so dispose them to desire & wait to be translated to a better state; where they shall neither Sin, nor feel the smart of Sin any more for ever; or be grieved & sadned by the sins or Sufferings of other men.  
In this Life our corrupted Nature is not perfectly healed, but doth ever & anon cast forth Mire & Dirt. Tho we are dying daily unto Sin, & long for the funeral of the old man; it is not quite Dead; neither will it entirely be so, till our own Dissolution: on which acount the deceitfulness & desperate Wickedness of the heart discovers itself in an hour of Temptation. So that some of those, who were thought to be Established & Confirmed Christians, have dishonoured the name of God by scandalous Backslideings, discredited their profession, falsifyed their most solemn vows and obligations, hardened the hearts of some, & weakened the hands of others, and shamefully disparaged the Religion of our B. Saviour. Whereupon God testifves his displeasure by inward and sometimes outward Troubles: a terrified Conscience writes bitter things against them; or God denies the aids of his Grace, after such a forfeiture; and their minds are darkened, their hearts hardened by degrees, & they become careless and remiss in the Matters of Religion, & continue in their security; till by a severe Providence, or a more than ordinary Grace, they are awakened to consider their ways, and remember whence they have fallen, & Repent; & thereby recover his lost favour, & God restores the Joy of his Salvation.  
But this, Sir, is our Encouragement, & aught to be argumentative to continued watchfulness, & the utmost endeavours to persevere, that if we are faithful to the Death, (which may be nearer than we are ware) we shall then enter into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God, & Sin no more. We shall no more provoke him to Anger, by our Apostasy; or suffer his correcting Rebukes for our Backslideings. We shall no more be exposed to Temptation; or seduced by Satan, to defile our Consciences, to destroy the Peace of our minds, & grieve the H. Spirit of God. We shall no more start aside like a broken Bow, & violate our holy promises & Resolutions. Ignorance shall no longer darken our minds, or unmortifyed Lust lay lurking in the Heart, or the Body any more betray the soul by unruly passions to the Commission of Folly. And as the blessed Consequent of a sinless state, no sorrow shall ever more be felt, and therefore no complaint ever more he heard. Oh that thes thoughts were more delightful & more connatural to us! This should be the highest of our Wishes, and the object of our most deliberate & Resolved Choice; to be made more partakers of the Divine Life; & to glorify God by a more perfect conformity to his holy Image. I most hearty beseech the great Sanctifier & Lover of souls to effect it more & more on the my own heart & yours. And though one Kingdom do not hold us, & I may never see your Face on Earth again; yet before that glorious Everlasting Kingdom we expect, (when by seeing God, we shall be changed into his likeness,) we may daily meet at the Throne of Grace; & there I humbly beg you would be my Remembrancer, as I promise to be yours. I most affectionately kiss your hands, & remain  
SIR, Your most Obedient Humble Servant JOHN. SHOWER.   

THE PRESENT CORRECTION AND REPROOF of SIN.  From 2 JER. 19 former part. 
For thine own wickedness shall correct thee, & thy Backslidings shall reprove thee.  
THese words may be considered in relation to the Jews, and their causeless revolt from the worship of the true God, and obedience to him. In the preceding verses God acquits himself from the imputation of having ever given them or their Fathers any just occasion for such an Apostasy. 
Vers. 5.  What iniquity have your Fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity and are become vain. And then upbraids them with their ingratitude and folly, in the following verses. 
V 11, 12, 13.  Hath any nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, o ye Heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, for my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no waters. Thereupon God charges them as the authors of their own ruin, as having brought upon themselves the calamities under which they smarted. 
V 14.17.  Is Israel a servant? is he an homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? Hast thou not procured it unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God? In vain therefore dost thou seek for help to Egypt, or have recours unto the King of Assyria: for thou shalt eat of the fruit of thine own ways, Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy Backslidings shall reprove thee.  
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, 
7 Hos. 15.  or thou shalt be bound and fetterred, and held in the chains of thine own sins, as the original word doth sometimes signify. or rather, thou shalt beinstructed and taught by thine own folly, 
4 Job. 3.  how evil and bitter a thing it is, to sin against God. Which is the meaning of the word in other places, and therefore the Septuagint make use of a word in this place which signifies both, to teach and to chasten.  
And thy backslidings shall reprove thee, or convince thee by argument and demonstration. The fruit of thine Apostasy shall convince thee of the folly of it: in forsakeing the way of truth for lying vanities; the fountain of living waters, for broken cisterns. The miserable effects & consequences of sin shall correct and reprove thee.  
What is here spoken to a community, may be as truly aserted of Individuals, and particular persons, that the calamities they suffer are the fruits of their own folly; that they bring miseries on them self in this world; and are ten times severely corrected and chastened by their own wickedness. My present design is, to make it evident that it is so, by showing in several instances, how sinners are reproved & punnisht by their own sin and folly, even in this Life, as well as in the next. And then shall improve this argument by some practical inferences, which may be gathered from it. I shall endeavour to manifest this truth.  
1. From the justice and righteousness of God, which doth oftentimes proportion and suit temporal punishments to the sins of men.  
2. From the more immediate effects & consequences of Sin, which in this life do ordinarily correct and reprove the sinner.  
1. We may consider, how the Justice of God doth oftentims suit the punishment to the sin even in this Life. This is evident, either on their own persons who were guilty: or on their Relatives & posterity. As to the former, 2 ways. Either when one sin is the punishment of another: or when some calamity is inflicted which is answerable to the sin.  
1. God doth sometimes correct sinners in this world, in the punishment of one sin by the permission of more. Which may be either, by their own further sin, or by the sins of other men.  
1. God doth sometimes punish former sins, by permitting the offending person to commit more and greater. That this is the severest punishment of sin in this life, may easily be evinced. To be left of God to sin on, & to commit more & greater abominations, is a kind of damnation, were there no other Hell to succeed it: for we know the the life of the Prodigal is dated from his Repentance, and not from his birth: This my son was dead, but is now alive. And that some of the heathens themselves have concluded any man to be more worthy of a public lamentation, at the time of his debauchery, then of his death. Some sins, 'tis true, have almost an inseparable connection & dependence on each other, as lust follows gluttony, and folly drunkenness: but God in righteous judgement may leave a man to the power of Temptation, & suffer him to encreas the number, and add to the measure of his former sins, & so treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. Thus he punnisht the wantonness of Solomon, by permitting him to fall into Idolatry: and the covetousness of Judas; by suffering him to betray his Lord, & Peter's first denial of Christ, by his forswearing him afterward. The Jews, for killing the Prophets, were left of God, to crucify the Messtah; and Israel, when they committed wheredoms with the Daughters of Moab, 
12 Numb. 1: 2.  were left to be ensnared by their Idolatry. One sin makes way for more; as the Idolatry of the golden Calf was ushered by intemperance & Idleness: 
32 Ex.  The people sat down to eat, & drink, and risen up to play. Thus what men get by oppression & acts of injustice, they oftentimes spend in pride & luxury. The wages of unrighteousness, or what they purchased by unlawful means, is sinfully employed & wasted, and that so quickly sometimes, as if they resolved their silver and gold should not tarry to witness against them. God suffers their treasures of wickedness to melt away by intemperance & riotous living. Besides when one sin is made a cloak to conceal another, and to hid the shame, or avoid the punishment of one crime, they are suffered to commit more: as Joseph's Brethren, after their cruelty to him, in selling him into Egypt, they were as unkind & cruel to their aged Father in bringing him his bloody coat, in revenge for his particular fondness & affection to their Brother. After the commission of any wickedness God may justly leave us to excuse it with a Lye. Which is the greatest folly imaginable, as thereby professing that it is better to be really guilty of two faults, then to be thought guilty of one. And then you may proceed farther, to protect that Lie by on oath, and at length grow impudent & incorrigible. Therefore fear the beginnings of sin.  
2. Sometimes God corrects the sins of one, by the sins of another. Jacob the younger son stole his Father's blessing by the deceit of his elder Brother's garment: and not long after his Father in Law Laban, 
Genes. 27.29.  by a like fraud gives him Leah instead of Rachel, substitutes the elder sister in the room of the younger, whom he loved, and served an apprenticeship for. God by the faults of othermen repays us for our own. As David's secret adultery, by Absolon's openincest, in laying with his Father's concubines: & by the lust of his son Ammon towards his sister Tamar. And when David neglected to execute justice on Ammon for that offence, Absalon injustly slew him. David's treachery against Uriah was requited by the treason of his Son, and the rebellion of his own subjects, who joined in conspiracy with him against his Father. Thus God employed the ambition of the King of Moab to punish the Idolatry of Israel, 
3 Jud. 9.14.  & they became slaves for eighteen years to that people, with whose Idolatrous customs they had wickedly complied. Thus those who were disobedient to their Parents are oftentimes punnisht by the undutifulness of their own children. Unfaithful servants may meet with some hereafter who will be so to them.  
2. God doth oftentimes in this world inflict some calamity that is suitable to the crime, and in some respect or other carries the resemblance of it. And the Justice of God is more especially visible in the likeness & proportion between the sin and the punishment in these four respects. 1. In the kind and quality. 2. In the quality and measure. 3. As to the time. 4. As to the place.  
1. The kind and quality of the temporal punishment is oftentimes suited to the kind and quality of the sin. As men sow, so they reap, 
8 Hos. 3.  and to every seed it's own body. They plough wickedness, and sow iniquity, & reap a punishment that is adapted to the sin. They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind, as the Prophet speaks. 
14 Prov. 14.  The Backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. And the foolish sinner eat the fruit of his own do, and be filled with his own counsels. 
23 Numb. 32.  And their calamity be so remarkable, that their sin shall find them out.  
There are some peculiar punishments that ordinarily attend some sort of crimes: that follow the guilty persons almost as constantly as giddiness doth a drunkard, as that the spoiler shall be spoiled, he that defrauds' others, shall be outwitted, the Liar shall lose his credit: the censorious talebearer be blasted in his reputation, the oppressor be brought low: the proud be scorned, and despised: and he that stops his ears against the cry of the poor, shall want a friend to secure him in distress, shall cry himself and not be heard. That he that judgeth shall be judged: the slanderer be evil spoken of: that he that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword: and that the Murderer shall not live out half his days. If Jacob deceive his old Father Isaac, by the borrowed garments of his Brother Esaw; his own children, when he is old impose upon him by the bloody garment of his beloved Joseph. Abimelech slew seventy of his Brethren, 
6 Jud. 9.5: 6.  on one stone, and he himself was slain by a piece of a millstone. God sometimes observes even an arithmetic proportion, demands, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: gives blood for blood, and burning for burning. 
1 Jud. 9.6.  We have a pertinent example in Adonibezeck, who had his Thumbs and great Toes cut off. And in the next verse he owns that he had served seventy Kings in the like manner. He was so affected with the equity and justice of his punishment, that he cries out, 
1 Ex 15.12. c. 29.14. c. 23.  As I have done, so hath the Lord requited me. Pharaoh resolves to destroy the male infants of the Israelites, and the firstborn in every family of the Egyptians was cut off in a night. He gives order to the midwives that they should be drowned, and he and his mighty host perished in the waters. Joseph's Brethren sold him into Egypt, that his dream concerning their sheaves bowing down to his, might not be accomplished, and that was the very means to bring it about. The Jews crucified the son of God, that the Romans might not come, & take away their Land: and as the punishment of that crime, God sends the Romans to destroy their Temple, city, and Nation. Jeroboam thought to prevent the revolt of Israel to the King of Judah, by erecting calves in Dan and Bethel, near to Sechem, (where the Samaritans had their Temple, and where Abraham built an altar) and forbidding the people to go up to Jerusalem to worship, 
2 Cron. 36.21.  and by that wretched policy he and his posterity lost the government of Israel. The captivity of Israel for seventy years was the punishment God inflicted for their profaning the seventhday Sabbath, and not suffering their Lands to rest every seventh year. The unnatural lust of the Sodomites, we read was punnisht by fire from Heaven. 
19 Gen.  The punishment is in such cases the very echo of the sin that brought it: Which honours the Justice of God, & renders it conspicuous to all observers. If Absalon take a pride in his hair, his destruction shall come by that means. If Nadab & Abihu offer strange fire to the Lord, 
2 Sam. 18: 9  by fire shall they be consumed: as face answers to Face, so doth the punishment to the impiety, that brought it. 
10 Levit.  If David glory in the numbers of his men of war; seventy thousand shall be swept away by a pestilence, to diminish the number: that he may see cause of humiliation in the matter of his pride. Because Solomon served God with a divided heart, his Kingdom shall be divided, 
1 Kings. 11: 30.  & but a part of it descend to his posterity. Because the Israclites served strange Gods in their own land, God threatens that other Lords should have dominion over them, & they should serve strangers, in a land that was not their own. Thus some herbs bear the marks of those parts of the body, to which, if ill affected, they are medicinal; so doth the punishment & the calamity oftentimes describe the sin for which God sends it. The sinners Temporal Cross is form as it were out of that forbidden Tree whereby he offended, or rather like the cross of Christ, carries on it in capital Letters an account of the crime, for which he suffers. Tho many of God's judgements, I confess, 
36 Ps. 6.  are of a great depth, past our sounding, as to the grounds & reasons of them, yet in several of them his Righteousness is as the great Mountains, i: e. visible & apparent to the dullest eye.  
2. There is sometimes a Suitableness in respect of the quantity & the measure. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly, & he that soweth plentifully, so doth he reap. which is true of evil actions as well as good: Impudent & extraordinary sinners ha●● been signalised by as remarkable judgements & plagues from Heaven. God lays judgement to the line, & equity to the Balance, rewards them according to their works, & measureth out their calamities & sorrows in proportion to their sins. Tho sentence be not all ways speedily executed against great offenders, & sometimes not at all in this world, but they are bound over to the laff Great Assize in the world to come: yet in all ages divine justice gives some instances how notorious & exemplary sinners have had as extraordinary punnishments.  
3. There is frequently a proportion & resemblance between the sin & the Punishment in respect of Time. In that very hour, when Belshazar was quaffing & carousing in the vessels of the Temple, with his Princes, his Wives, & Concubines; & praising the Gods of gold & silver, the hand of the Lord was against him, 
5 Dan. 3-6.  & he saw his Doom written on the wall; which made his countenance fall, & his Thoughts tremble, & the joints of his loins were loosed, & his knees smote one against an other. When Benhadad the Syrian, with the 32 Kings with him, were drinking themselves drunk in the Pavilions, 
1 Kings. 20. c. 16: 19 v.  the young men of the Princes of the Provinces of Samaria, came out against them, & slew every man his man, etc. Jonah is pursued by a Tempest, at that very Time, when he fled from the Commandment of God. Many who have been going out of God's way, have been arrested & seited by some strange rebuke of divine Providence: wherein the Circumstance of Time hath been peculiarly remarkable.  
God sent the Prophet Jonah to Ninive, that exceeding great City, 
3 Jon. 3.  of three days journey, to deliver his terrible message to that People: but he disobeyed his voice, & fled to Tarshish. 
1 c. 3. v.  For which God condemned him to be three days a Prisoner in the belly of a great Fish. The word whale is not in the original Hebrew, or septuagint Greek.  
The Jewish captivity for seventy years in Babylon, is attributed to the prophanatis on of the Sabbath, as one principal provoking cause, as will appear by comparing thes following Scriptures, 2 Cron. 36. c. 17.— 22. v. 13. Nehem. 18: 17. Jerem. 27: 22. Ezek. 26. & 23. c. 38: 46. it was at the time of the Passover, that the Jews put to death the Lord of Glory; & afterward about the same time of the year, the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost for that sin: their Temple, City, & Nation were destroyed by the Romans. Nebucadnezar was admonished of his Pride, & warned of that Judgement which afterwards befell him: And as the Punishment in its kind was proportioned to his sin, (his Brutish condition being a suitable Rebuke for his insolence & vain glory,) the Time also of the execution of that Judgement is observable; it was just a twelve month from Daniel's interpretation of his dream concerning it, 
4 Dan. 29: 30: 31. v. 12 Acts. 32 Exod.  & took effect while the proud words were in his mouth, Is not this great Babylon that I have built, by the might of my power, & for the honour of my majesty? So in the case of Herod: & of the Israëlites, in the case of the molten calf. Your own reading & observation may furnish you with examples of Blasphemers, Swearers, Liars, Murderers, & Sabbath-breakers etc. who have been either punished in the act; or have been followed by some particular judgement afterwards, at the same time of the year, the same day of the month, or week or hour of the day, when they committed the sin. So that the very season of their calamity, hath brought the sin to remembrance for which they suffered. Several Villages, Towns, & Cities, have been taken notice of, to have suffered greatly by Fires, which broke out on the Lordsday, that were before observed & talked of as infamous for the profanation of the Sabbath, more than other places, & some of them forewarned of such Judgements for that very Sin.  
4. Oftentimes they meet with some Rebuke & Punishment in the same Place, where they commit their folly. As in that very house where Rahab hide the Hebrew spies, she & her kindred were afterward preserved, as the Reward of her Faith: So divine Judgement doth frequently overtake men, in the very place where they acted their Wickedness. 
10 Levit. 1: 2.  Nadab & Abihu are destroyed by Fire from Heaven before the Lord, where they offered strange fire, & they are said to die before the Lord. How often doth the Drunkard get his death in the same house, where he drank to Excess, by causeless quarrelling? And the Adulterer loose his Life in the same room, where he committed Folly? Ahab, by the advice of Jezabel, murders Innocent Naboth, 
1 Kings. 21. c. v. 13. v. 19 c. 22. v. 38.  & his sons: but the Lord had said, that in the same place, where Dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall Dogs lick thy Blood, even thine. Which was not long after exactly full filled, in a Place of the same nature. A public & common place, within the Territory of Samaria, but because of his Humiliation, 
2 Kings. 9 c. v. 23.  it was more literally & expressly accomplished in the death of his son Joram. Who was slain by Jehu, & cast into the same plat of ground, 
v. 33.34. etc.  to remain unburied, as a prey for Dogs, according to the word of the Lord. And of Jezabel, for the same crime, spoke the Lord, saying, The Dogs shalleat Jezabell, by the wall of Jezreel. Which was exactly verified.  
This illustrates the Justice of God, & makes it conspicuous to every Eye. As Public Magistrates condemn notorious Criminals to be executed at or near the place, where the Fact was committed. That the very Place may make the Sin to be the better Remembered, & render the Equity of the sentence the more manifest & observable.  
2 We are to consider those temporal Punishments of sin; which flow from the sins themselves. that are either inseparable from, or do commonly attend & follow them. Such as thes which follow,  
§. 1. Shame. Assoon as our first Parents had sinned, as if the colour of the forbidden fruit had got into their faces, they blushed & were ashamed of their nakedness, & of their folly which brought it. And is it not in some measure thus, with their posterity also? Such an inseparable Shame is the fruit of sin, that hardly any man will own himself guilty of the practice of any vice, till he hath changed its name: given it an honourable title, & varnished it with some appellative of virtue: that so prudence & wisdom, thrift & good husbandry, friendship & good humour, valour & generosity, may protect worldliness, covetousness, debauchery, & foolish mirth, & conceal madness, fury, & pride. The like may be said of other faults. If men are surprised in some acts of Impiety, what silly excuses will they frame? what childish pretences, & frivolous evasions will they make? what slender shifts & weak apologies, to justify them self, to extenuate, or prevent the publication of their folly? their disordered, & down cast looks, or stupid silence, make it evident they are ashamed. The shame of being thought guilty makes them shift, & turn, & try all methods, to excuse them self, or defend what they have done: & so throw the blame on some what else, as on the temperament & constitution of their bodies which they cannot help, on the importunities of their Company which they could notresist, on the temptations of the Devil; or rather than fail, with Adam, they'll charge God himself as accessary to their crimes, and reflect upon his holy Providence. Except among a few Savages like beasts, there is no nation or people under heaven where filthiness, and intemperance, & some grosser sins, are not reckoned shameful. The voice of nature itself is against such sins, and we thereby violate the modesty of our own natures, and offend against an internal witness that condemns us. And when once we begin to do so, God may leave us to proceed, till we become public spectacles of shame to all that know us, and wish us better. There are very few I hope who have sinned them self beyond all shame; though more of late then ever, who work all uncleanness with greediness, and glory in their shame. Who boast of that which should cover them with confusion of face; but such have sinned them self within a step of Hell; and being past feeling, are so far past all hope of being reclaimed. None but such Absalon's would commit lewdness on the house top, in the face of the sun, and the view of the world. 'tis a shame saith the Apostle, 
5 Eph. 3.2.  to speak of what some men do in secret. I wish such sins were secret still, which were not then so much as to be named among Saints. i: e. not without need, and not without abhorrence. They that are drunk, saith the same Apostle, 
1 Thes. 5. c. 7.  are drunk in the night. The Heathens them self never celebrated the feasts of a drunken Bacchus, but by night. So for uncleanness, The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight, 
24 Job. 14: 15: 16.  saying no eye shall see me, and he disguiseth his face, in the dark they dig throthouses, which they had marked for themselves in the day time: they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. So for murder, and theft and other works of Darkness, to which shame is inseparably annexed. How shamefully are men disfigured by Drunkeness, How do thy talk and act like fools, when wine hath filled them with more Spirits than they are able to govern? how ill favoured are their looks? and how ridiculous their carriage? betraying that folly in their drunken fits which afterwards they are ashamed to think or speak of, exposing themselves to the pity of their friends & neighbours, to the contempt of children, and the scorn of their own servants. 'tis sad to consider how the commonness of this, and other vices hath in great measure taken off the shame of committing it. So that we may ask the question with the Prophet, Were they ashamed, when they commitmitted all these abominations? and make the same answer, No, they were not at all ashamed, neither did they blush. If ever they reform, and return to God with all their hearts, they will then be hearty ashamed, 
* 
E del mio vaneggiar vergogna e'l frutto,  
E'l Pentirsi, e'l conoscer chiarament,  
Che que quanto piace all mondo, è breve sogno.   when reflecting on their past folly, they shall ask themselves, what fruit have we of those things whereof we are now ashamed? But if a timely repentance do not bring them to holy shame and confusion of face before they die; they shall arise again to shame and everlasting contempt.  
§. 2. The pain, and trouble, and slavery, and sufferings, that wait upon sin, do correct and reprove the sinner. And this will appear if we consider 1. the preparatories to the commission of some crimes. 2. 
12 Dan. 2.  The actual commission 3. The consequent trouble by disaponitment. etc.  
1. The preparations necessary to the commission of some sins. They who have had any tolerable education in the knowledge of Christianity under Religious or sober Parents cannot presently adventure upon great Transgressions. They must first stifle their convictions, & debauch their reason, and baffle conscience, and lay aside consideration and serious thoughts, forsake the ministry of the word, neglect the reading of the Bible and other good books, leave off secret prayer, entertain lose company, and admit some principles of Atheism or Sadduceism, before they can date to adventure. For the debauching of a young man well educated, is not to be done all at once; it is a work of some time, and must be effected by degrees, and many arts of the Devil are requisite in order to it. And after all, 'tis with reluctance at first, that they dare do as others, & run into the same excess of riot. And some grosser villainies they boggle at still, and are afraid to proceed. 'tis a strange expression of the Psalmist, (7 Psal. 14.) They Travel with Iniquity, and conceive mischief: are in as great pain almost as a woman in travel, and all this, to bring forth a Lye. The Law of God stairs them in the face, and something within tells them. It is better to forbear, and they ought to do otherwise: so that they are not easy, or free from distracting fears, till the way be prepared by lesser sins, and a gradual Apostasy.  
2. We may consider the trouble they meet with in the actual commission of some sins. Not only as the demands of several lusts are contradictory and inconsistent, and Satan in such a case must needs cast out Satan, because all cannot be gratifyed: but the very act of some crimes is a down right punishment. So that with equal reason a man might desire a fever, or choos to be scorched upon the fire; to quench his thirst with his own sweat. One man eats out his own heart with Envy and malice, to see his neighbour prosper: another burns with impatient lust, and cannot meet with the opportunity to acomplish his lascivious design. A nother is even choked to death with thirst for gold, and yet he labours in the fire, and cannot reach that estate he covets. Or if he do, he is still as far from true content and satisfaction as he was before; yea farther, because his drought increaseth, his fever grows upon him: the more he hath, the more he thinks is necessary to make him happy: like the horseleech, he will still be crying, Give, Give, till the disease be cured. Moreover, to bring about a wicked purpose what pains do some men take, to contrive the model, to remove difficulties and objections, to obviate Rivals, and prevent disapointment, surprise, and discovery? what mean things must they stoop to? what base submissions must they undergo? into how many different shapes must they be transformed? and into what an agony do they put themselves? their countenance altered, their eyes fiery, their hands trembling, their breath short, and the whole man, body and soul, in disorder. Whereas it were comparatively very easy, & the way plain, to keep in the path of righteousness, and obey God.  
3. We may consider the consequent trouble upon the immediate commission. The uneasiness & remorse of a natural conscience, and the frustration of their hopes, the enjoyment falling short of what they promised themselves, & eagerly expected. They looked for pleasure and they meet with disquiet, from the reflections of their own minds on their disapointment, and a consciousness to themselves that they have not done well. They promised themselves ease, and meet with dissatisfaction. What they sought for, they do not find; but instead of their expected joy, regret; conscience threatens them with an after reckoning: to stop its mouth, and silence its clamours, they have recours to company, & fresh pleasures: & being weary of one sort, they must change for another, by various methods endeavouring, though in vain, to appears their bosom enemy. But more of this under another head. And is it not a shame, to consider what pains men take to be undone, what Gibeonites they are in the Devil's service? while we are such lazy dreamers in the service of God; whose yoke is easy, and whose burden is light. What and how many are the cares and fears, and difficulties of the Proud, and Ambitious? (who perhaps may take it ill I began not with him first,) to be filled with the wind; and applauded by the people, and honoured in the world? how jealous of every Rival; how watchful of every advantage; & how diligent to improve, and make the most of it. When the favour of God, that is infinitely preferable, may be had at a cheaper rate. Why shall not we mind the things above, & our future interest, with the same eagerness, that sinners do the satisfaction of a sensual lust? why shall not we strive to enter into Heaven, with the same diligence as others hasten to the Gates of Hell? why shall not we seek the Kingdom of God, and its righteousness, with equal vigour and resolution, as they the enjoyment of a forbidden pleasure? especially, since instead of pain, and trouble, sorrow & dissatisfaction, which they meet with; the joy of the Lord would be our strength, encouragement, and support. For even in, as well as after, the keeping his commandments, there is great reward. His burden would be lighter too, the more we are accustomed to bear it: & his yoke easier, the longer we have carried it.  
§. 3. Sin corrects the sinner in this world, by spoiling that peace, & concord, that love, and unity, among men and Christians, which is necessary to our temporal happiness. Whence come wars sightings, tumults & disorders, animosities & divisions, quarrels & contentions, but from lust in the heart, & the fruits of it in the life? from what other original can we derive the unchristian heats and janglings, strifes and persecutions, among Professors; the uncharitable feuds and hatred among neighbours, unnecessary & tedious law suits, and the consequent malice and contumelies of vexatious quarrelling, on which the impoverishing of particular persons, and the ruin of whole families, is so often consequent? did we but observe the Christian rules of Justice, & charity, meekness, & humility; did we but endeavour, as much as in us lays to live peaceably with all men; being kindly affectioned one towards another; apt to be reconciled, and ready to forgive, restraining our exorbitant passions, and interpreting every thing of each other in the best since; with how different a face would the world appear, how happy would be the nation, the city, the family, where the case were thus. But what contentions and enmities are caused every day by Pride, drunkenness, & Evilspeaking? in every town, village, and neighbourhood, we might find Instances. Were it not for the corruption of mankind, and the sad effects of that, there were no foundation in any since to call the state of Nature the state of War. And the peace and harmony, and consequent happiness of the world had not been destroyed, but by the sin of man. What Nation was ever set on fire within itself or made desolate by a foreign power; what battle was ever fought, (much less a Duel,) what war was ever commenced or prosecuted, but on one side or the other or both, Ambition, or Pride, Rashness, or Rebellion, Fury, or Revenge was at the bottom? hence they spring as from their grand source, by thes were they cherished as by their proper fuel: the great convulsions & desolations that tear Provinces & Empires, and destroy Kingdoms, are caused by armies of Iniquities rather than of soldiers. 
13 Pr. 10.  Discord, contention and war, are the scumm of pride. Whereas, the meek shall inherit the earth, and be delighted with multitudes of Peace. Among the sinless Angels, 
37 Ps. 11.  though there be many Legions, we read of no wars. The Earth only is the seat of war; Jerusalem above is free. If men would cease to do evil, and learn to do well, Spears must be turned into ploughs hears, and swords into pruning hooks. And the inhabitants of the earth would learn war no no more, did they once forbear to be wicked. Prince's would not then oppress and murder their Subjects; nor would Subjects rebel against their lawful Souveraigns; a blessed universal peace would return to the earth, which is now so much a stranger to the far greatest part of the inhabited world. So that the Reproof and Correction of sin thunders in our ears by the noise of canon, and the Instruments of war; is as loud as the beating of Drums, and the sound of trumpets: it should pierce our hearts, as do the last cries of mangled soldiers: and affect us with a like resentment, as do the tragical effects of a desolateing War.  
§. 4. Sin doth correct and reprove the sinner in this world, by impoverishing his Estate. Gluttony and Drunkenness, Uncleanness and Lust, Ambition and Pride, Contentions and Quarrelling, Prodigality, the Gaming humour, etc. have all a tendency to Poverty, and commonly effect it. If men will sell themselves to commit wickedness, they must sell their estates, to make provision for their lusts. The Drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, 
23 Pr. 21.  and Idleness clothe a man with rags. He that loveth pleasure shall be poor. 
21 Pr. 17.28. c. 19  And he that loveth wine, & oil, shall not be rich. And he that follows after vain persons, shall have poverty enough. Such men are not only unfit for the works of their calling, whereby they should subsist; but will pawn all they have, borrow all they can, and sell all they are worth, to maintain their vices. They misspend their time, and neglect their Employments, which would otherwise find them a livelihood, and so poverty comes upon them ere they are ware. For no man resolves from a vast estate to make himself a Beggar; but at the long run how many do so? this needless expense is for their honour, or rather pride; and will not undo them: that is for their pleasure, and diversion; and they think they may bear it, it will not ruin them: and so for others, not one of which alone brings poverty, but altogether in a little time do it. What large revenues have been wasted in vanity? how many considerable patrimonies devoured by lust? men that had estates left them, almost sufficient to maintain an army, have been beggared by a ritious course, and made as indigent as a disbanded foot soldier; reduced to a morsel of bread, and deprived of necessaries, and forced to depend on those, who were once their dependants. It would be endless to give a bill of all the cost and charges, which some men are at, to maintain and feed their lusts. How many have been forced to feed on husks, and ready to starve, as the Prodigal, by following his lustful and riotous courses. They that have glisteren in scarlet, 
4 Lam. 5.  have by this means embraced dunghills. Great estates have been turned into sauce, to pleas a glutton, and he that once fared deliciously every day, was choice in his diet, and delicate in his food, and prodigal in his treats and intertainments, is at a loss where to find a dinner. His throat was an open sepulchre, and his houses, lands, and live, and money too, have been buried in this tomb. So for other sins, the poor and the Deceitful man shall meet together i: e. the latter be brought as low, as mean, and miserable, and indigent as the former. What the oppressor wrings from the Fatherless and widows, or gets by over reaching his neighbours, 
29 Pr 13.  thro' the little arts of cheating, which are called the mysteries of Trade, shall be put into a bag with holes. 
1 Hag. 6.  And methinks this reproof of sin should be very audible and affecting, that you cannot loose your souls, throw away your hopes of Heaven, and be miserable and undone for ever, but you must part with your money too, and be beggared here on earth. I might add under this head, that sin doth impoverish the sinner by consuming his precious Time. God gives us other blessings with a larger hand, in a greater plenty and abundance at once: only our Time he distils by drops; and never gives us two moments at once, but takes away one, when he lends us another. To teach us the price of so rich a Jewel. And what opinion have sick and dying persons of the worth and value of their irrecoverable Time, which we prodigally consume in sin and folly: in vain company, and sinful mirth; in sensual pleasures, and diversions; with the neglect of the great end and business, we ought to prosecute in this Life, in order to the felicity of the next. Forgetting that we hasten daily to the end of time, and our final judgement, & that whither we sleep or wake; whither we work, or are Idle; whither we prepare for death, and judgement, and our Everlasting state, or do it not; our glass runs, and we are hastening to our last hour. Oh that we would think, with serious self-Reflexions, what despairing souls beyond the grave would give for some of that Time, we know not what to do with, but spend in vanity, or what is worse! or what we our selves shall ere long be willing to give for a little of it upon the same terms as now, when time is past, and 'tis too late.  
§. 5. Sin doth correct and reprove the sinner in this Life, by blasting his Reputation. There must be some appearance at least of virtue, and goodness, of justice and honesty, to render any thing honourable, and recommend it as praise worthy. The grosser acts of wickedness are almost every where accounted of ill repute, hence it is that few arrive to that height of impudence and degeneracy, as to rail and speak evil of others for being upright and religious, being honest men and good Christians, but for being Hypocrites: for pretending to be what they are not: practical religion, and the power of godliness hath still such an invincible awe upon the minds of men, and commands that respect and inward reverence, which they cannot refuse. So true is it, that they who honour God, shall be honoured. And 'tis equally certain and universal, that they who despise and forsake him, shall be lightly esteemed. 
1 Sam. 2.30.  And we find by experience, that men expose themselves to contempt, & loose their reputation by forsaking God. Lust and Drunkenness cloud the reason, and weaken the understanding, corrupt the judgement, and destroy wisdom, and render men not only an abomination to God, and his holy Angels, but the contempt or pity of all wise and sober men. Their vices make them vile, Eclipse the glory of their birth, and the honour which their ancestors, and families, or their own other good qualities would give them. The name of a Liar is a brand of disgrace, and a mark of dishonour, among the worst of men who often resent it so far, as to demand his blood for reparation of the affront, who presumed to call them so. Sin, saith a late Author, as some beasts, hath a stinking breath, as well as deadly claws, and brings infamy and disgrace, as well as pain and trouble. If men degrade themselves into swine by Intemperance, or into goats by lasciviousness, & lust, they must not expect the reward of virtue, to be well reputed, and spoken of. If they are slaves to an Imperious lust, they must bear the Infamy of being so. And no better are they in the practice of Impiety: for as Slaves are at the command of their Masters, and blindly obey their wills, and are no gainers by what they do, and oftentimes feel the lash and the whip, notwithstanding their drudgery; such is the case of sinners, under the power of a domineering vice. Yea their service is more dirty, and dishonourable, their chains stronger, and their recovery more difficult, as being less apprehensive & sensible of their thraldom. And who can honour or esteem such voluntary slaves, under the worst of Tyrants? they render themselves infamous & despicable; & can not expect better then to be scorned, or pitied. No man will esteem or trust one that is a known drunkard, and whoremaster: a frugal honest man that hath but half the estate, is better loved, & will be farther trusted, than such a one, though he have twice as much. Who can think or speak well of a drunkard any otherwise then of a cask or vessel to be often filled and emptied. As of one that is a confident boaster of himself, his own actions & undertake: a slanderer & backbiter of others; one that is vain and scandalous in company, foolishly babbling all he knows, unfaithfully revealing the secrets of his friends, rash and hasty in his resolutions; extravagant in his projects, irregular in his actions; etc. And what reputation can such a man expect? the like I might say of the Glutton, who spends his Life in carrying meat from the Table to the Dunghill; and so of others. The name of such men shall rot, saith the wise man. It shall putrify assoon as their bodies, and sometimes long before. Yea some men's wickedness makes them infamous after they are dead, kills them to immortality, and poisons their memory to future ages: they stand upon record as great Villains, and warnings to posterity.  
§. 6. Sin corrects and reproves the sinner in this world by destroying his health. How doth gluttony and drunkenness correct men by evening vomits, and morning qualms, crudities of the stomach, pains of the head, and inflammations of the liver, rheums, gouts, dropsies, colic, consumptions, apoplexies, palsies, decay of sight, want of appetite, loss of memory, and judgement: stupifyeing the brain, weakening all the members of the body, and hastening old age and death? How many an healthy constitution hath been destroyed by intemperance? besides that it inflames passion, and excites quarrels, makes men more apt to give affronts, & more unwilling to take them. On which acount saith Solomon. Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, 
23 Pr 29.  who hath wounds without cause? they that tarry long at the wine etc. who can recount all the mischiefs to the body, by an excess of eating and drinking? whereas abstinence and a temperate life hath been proved by many to be the certain cure of catarrhs, and gouts, and other diseases, wherewith formerly they have been tormented. How many miserable instances have we known, of men tortured by acute distempers, swollen with gouts, burnt with fevers, racked by the stone, torn with cholicks, etc. and forced to pine away a great part of their days in pain & misery, by the effects of Intemperance and lust. By this means Princes and great men have been forced to own, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, to forsake God, suffering such torments as the fruit of their Impieties, that have made them envy the condition of Peasants, Slaves, and Beggars. How many sacrifice their health, and strength, to a beastly opportunity, and are punished by pains of the head; oppressions of the heart; conturbations of the stomach; gripeing of the bowels, continual thirst; unseasonable and unquiet watchfulness; (when nature and digestion require rest.) Besides that horrible disease imparted by this vice, the most cruel, the most filthy, the most shameful of all maladies: (from which no lustful person can be secure: Because 'tis the nature of vice, and of this in particular, to precipitate from one degree of excess to another.) A disease which anticipates the corruption and uncleanness of the grave; whereby sinners meet with their Limbo, their Tophet here, as a sad preface, without repentance to an everlasting Hell.  
§. 7. By an untimely Death. 'Tis true a natural Death is the fruit of sin, we may consider epidemical diseases, and our common mortality, the trouble of sickness, and the pains of dying, as some correction, and reproof of sinners. Their tears and groans, and ghastly looks in a dying hour, their broken sighs, their distorted members, their trembling languishing pulse, their putrid breath, and last agonies, do all bespeak us to consider what sin hath done. But a natural death being the punishment of the first transgression, and common to all mankind; 'tis an untimely death, I am now to speak of.  
Without disputing whither the period of Life he mutable, or not, This is certain, that God from the infinity of his nature must needs be present in all duration at once; and so cannot but foresee and know how long we shall live. And t' is likewise evident from Scripture, reason, and experience, 
55 Ps. 23.  that some do not live out half their days, to which they might have arrived according to the course of nature. The meek, & such as are blessed of God, shall live long to inherit the earth, but the Transgressor's shall be cut off. 
37 Ps. 22.  The fear of the Lord prolongeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. Some think that Balaam when he desired to die the death of the Righteous, and that his last end might be like his, 
23 Numb. 10.  meant only the prevention of an untimely death, & that he might go to his grave in a good old age. And God hath promised, among other temporal blessings, that the good man shall be gathered in peace to his Fathers like a shok of corn fully ripe: and crowned with length of days; as well as with riches and honour. 'tis true a short Life, and an hasty death, are not always a curse, or the fruit of God's displeasure. To a prepared soul, t' is a blessing, and as such more , then to abide in the flesh, in order to our being with Christ, which is best of all. But how many are there whose impieties shorten their days, and 
* 
Hinc subitae mortes, atque intestata senectus,  
It nova nec tristis per cunctas fabula coenas:  
Ducitur iratis plaudendum funus amicis.   hasten their dissolution. How many die martyrs by the fire of lust. By the strange woman, many fall down wounded, and many strong men are slain by her. Her house is the way to the grave, & leads to the chambers of death. How many have extinguished their vital flame, by intemperate drinking, and brought those diseases, or furnished the matter of them, by excess, whereof in a short time they died. Besides the many thousand Murders which drunkenness hath caused: in a drunken fit men have murdered themselves, their best friends, and dearest Relations. The rise of most duels hath been from hence: the challenge sent from the tavern, or the resolution of fight commenced there. Not to mention, what every sessions and assize may inform us, how many expose themselves to the penalty of humane laws by great Transgressions, & perish by the sword of the civil Magistrate. Which may be considered as another instance, whereby Sin doth correct and reprove the Sinner in this world.  
§. 8. By troublesome reflections, and horror of Conscience. Rather than sinners shall escape unpunnisht, they shall correct themselves: Conscience that was privy to their Impieties, & keeps a register of their crimes, & is more than a thousand witnesses, shall accuse, condemn, & torture them, (& that it may be for secret sins, which none of their acquaintance can charge them with,) shall be witness, Judge, and Executioner too, before their irreversible doom at the day of judgement. Hence many are continually haunted by the Spectres of their former wickedness; & their own guilty minds frequently check them in their greatest jollity, and make a sad discord in their mirth: so that in the midst of laughter, their hearts are sorrowful. They are always uneasy, and walk in fear, lest vengeance overtake them. As the first Murderer Cain, who was afraid of being slain by every man he met, when he was sure to meet with none, but Brethren & Nephews. What can we suppose should be able to give such a man courage & support? when he is dejected by his own fears, and cast down by an inward sens of guilt. They must needs have sad hearts, not withstanding cheerful countenances, from the bitings of this Tarantula within, which no outward applications will cure; any more than an inward bruise may be healed by a plaster upon the outer garment. Yea some from the horror of their own minds, have been ready to make away themselves, and become their own Executioners; as if the Worm, which never dies, were more Intolerable than the fire, that never goes out. And certainly the most sharp & terrible bodily pains are much inferior to the anguish of an awakened guilty Conscience, under the apprehensions of divine wrath. Did you never hear the outcries of a dying sinner, after an impenitent wicked Life, convinced of sin, & sensible of Eternity, expecting within a few hours to appear before his glorious Judge? When his past Impieties stare him in the face, & Death, and Hell, and Gods Eternal vengeance, are open & naked before him: Despairing now of the mercy of God, which all his Life before he slighted, and curseing those fugitive pleasures, & vain Companions, that enticed him to misspend his time, & commit folly, and neglect his preparations for another world.  
But many sinners feel these rebukes of Conscience in health, as well as sickness; Terrors possess their guilty minds, & curdle all their delights. They tremble with tormenting fears, which they cannot get rid of: & not takeing the right method of cure, they at last sigh away their fainting breath, in total despair. In the mean time what arts do they use, to drive away this evil spirit, which perpetually haunts them? but none of their tried methods of running to company, & recreations, to drunkenness & riot, etc. have been found effectual for any considerable time. But still they are dogged by their own guilt. In vain do you think, to laugh & sport & drink away your fears; they will soon return upon you with greater violence, when the company is broken up, & the heat of wine is over: Which like sprightly music may raise a man's mind for the present, but will leave him more dumpish & melancholy afterward. Yea it makes farther work for Repentance, & so will but augment your terrors. Mirth & pleasure, instead of giving eas to an accusing conscience, will but aggravate and increase your trouble: you will speed no better than the Philistines did, when they sent for Samson, to make them sport: who pulled the house down upon their heads.  
Backsliders, of all others, are particularly reproved and corrected by sin, in this instance: how many such have been known, who when they come to themselves, and repent, are even distracted by the terrors of the Lord, thro' remorse for their apostasy? such before Repentance have-less pleasure in the commission of sin than others, who never had so much light, or knew so much of the common workings of the Spirit: And afterwards have more terrible apprehensions of God's avenging Justice. Conscience speaks louder in their ears, and the flames of Hell flash oftener in their eyes. So that commonly they doubt, whither God will ever receive them to mercy; and sometimes whither they have not committed the unpardonable Sin.  
Backsliding Christians, who have formerly rejoiced in the light of God's countenance, and walked in the comforts of the holy Ghost, (while they walked in their Integrity) after the commission of presumptuous sins, have dearly experienced how evil & bitter a thing it is, to forsake God. Conscience flies in their faces, being commonly awakened by some afflicting providence) and sets their sins, with the aggravations of them, in order before them; and writes bitter things against them. All their joy is turned to wormwood, and their very lives are become a burden, and yet they dare not die. They read their Indictment, but cannot see a pardon, or scarce entertain any hopes of one. They are covered as with sackcloth, and lay in the dust, bewailing their folly, and confessing their guilt, with broken, bleeding hearts before the Lord. Oh vile Apostate that I am! after such a profession for so long a time, after so many convictions of the evil of sin, and so much experience of the sweetness and satisfaction of holy walking, thus to forsake my own mercies, dishonour my profession, and provoke God. It had been better for me never to have known the way of Righteousness, then after having known, and tried it, thus shamefully to revolt. Such a man's sin appears with horror, and fills him with anguish: so that he would give all the world he had not been guilty of that apostasy he reputes of. Lord! what a wretch, what a fool was I? will such a man say, Thus wilfully to offend thee, in spite of the clearest knowledge, & the most endearing kindness? against so many obligations, so many vows, & resolutions, those made upon the most weighty reasons: what grace, what love, what mercy, have I trampled on, & sinned against? whither shall I go? what shall I do? how dare I appear before that God, on whom I have thus perfidiously turned my back! how can I ever hope to regain his lost favour! Against thee only, holy God, have I sinned, & done evil in thy sight. Lord! I am unworthy to appear in thy presence, I am ashamed & blush to look up to Heaven. How shall I escape thy justice, when I have despised thy goodness, & forfeited thy grace! What can I reply, if thou utterly forsake me, & refuse to be entreated by my prayers, or accept my return? Eternal wrath is my due, Hell is my deserved portion: & even there may I justly carry thes stings of conscience; even there must I acknowledge I was justly condemned, & punnisht; & own the righteousness of my doom, to unquenchable fire, with my flaming tongue & breath. Wretch that I am, who shall deliver, & save me! only the mercy of God, in Christ, whose blood, cleanseth from all sin, can possibly relieve the exigence of my case. And wilt thou pity, and pardon, and graciously receive such a rebel? For Jesus Christ his sake, spare me, & give me repentance; blot out my transgression, for it is great, and hid thy face from my sin, from my sin, which is ever before me. I cannot avoid the sight of it; I cannot but remember it, and abhor myself in dust & ashes, & go mourning all the day long.  
Thes are the thoughts, this is the language of an humble Penitent, under the since of former backslidings. To this purpose, David tells us in one of his penitential Psalms, 
51 Ps. 3.  that his sin was ever before him. And in another, that his sorrow was continually before him. The one as the cause, 
38 Ps. 17.  the other as the effect. His sin as the reason of his sorrow; & his sorrow as the fruit of his sin, was continually before him. This made him cry so earnestly for pardon, O Lord, blot out my transgressions; and remember not my sins. i e. I remember them, I acknowledge, I humbly confess them, they are ever in my view, & before my face. O do not thou remember them, but cast them behind thy back. On this account, he complains of broken bones, & a wounded spirit. That the arrows of God stuck fast in his soul, and his hand pressed him sore: that he roared all the day long: & watered his couch with his tears. Thes conflicts and terrors, this darkness & despondency, are the fruit of backsliding, and 'tis well if it do not issue in the sin unto death, in final incurable Apostasy. IT is true some who are fallen from so great an height, are raised again: and God upon sincere Repentance will pardon and save returning Backsliders, yet so as by fire, with great difficulty. And they may never recover their former tranquillity and peace, but walk heavily and softly, under doubts and fears, and dejection of spirit, to their dying day. And likewise suffer smart Afflictions, to scour off the filth they have contracted by their revolt, and to humble them more deeply under the apphrehension of their aggravated guilt. In thes, and other such instances, as might be mentioned, sin doth correct and reprove the sinner in this world.  
What remains, is to consider what Inferences of truth & duty, may be collected from the preceding discourse, for our instruction and practice; or what improvement we should make of it. Which I shall dispatch in thes following Propositions.  
§. 1. That we ought thankfully to admire the wisdom & goodness of God, who hath, in so great measure, connected our present duty & happiness. That we cannot disobey God without injuring our self, & feeling the smart of it, even in this Life. Let us thank him for hedging up our way to Eternal death, by the thorns & briers of temporal calamities. By making sin so unreasonable, painful, shameful, troublesome, & against our Interest, even on this side the Grave. In so much, that in many instances we can not be undone forever, without being miserable now: nor loose the happiness of the other world, without exposeing our self to many sorrows, & calamities in this. By our sin & folly we make the Rod which corrects us: our own finger twists the cords, whereby we are rebuked & chastened: the web which ensnares & entangles us is spun out of our own bowels. And God in wisdom & kindness so order it, to prevent our perishing in both worlds.  
§. 2. We ought hearthly to bless God for restraining us, by his grace, & providence, from Presumptuous Crimes. That he was pleased to stop us in our way to ruin, & mercifully prevent us from running into those excesses, which would have been attended with such miserable effects here, & at last have exposed us to his condemning sentence. Had he not sometimes withheld us by his grace, when we were tempted: & prevented us, at other times, by his providence, from divers Temptations, by which others have fallen; we had ere this been deplorable spectacles of divine Justice, and severely corrected by our own folly. And this is the favour, which God is pleased to vouchsafe to his Children, to succour them when they are tempted, & to keep them from such Temptations, as they would not be able to resist. Not that he is a good man, who would live wickedly, if he were but tempted to do so, by those ordinary trials that humane nature may expect: but he who prefers God, and the blessedness of the other world, before all things else; & lives agreeable to such a choice; if he so continue shall be saved: though there might have been supposed a Temptation so strong, as would have conquered his resolutions, with that measure of Grace he then had, if it had not been fortified with new supplies. Therefore thank God for the care of his providence, which secures us from many dangerous Temptations: & for the assistance of his Grace in enabling us to come off wit victory, when we have been tried.  
§. 3. How much better than is a Life of holy Obedience to God, than the practice of sin, if there were no reward to be expected after Death? If in this Life only we had hope (the case of cruel persecution excepted: such as St. Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 15. And extreme Poverty, & bodily Pains, etc. because under thes the hopes of a future blessedness are the chief supports: otherwise) We should be so far from being of all men the most miserable in this world, by obeying the Gospel of Christ; that it is apparently for our present Interest, to observe the precepts of natural & Christian Religion: the Yoke of Christ is easier, & his burden lighter, & the service of God less difficult, than the drudgery of Sin, with such consequences, as have been mentioned. Let me seriously appeal to your Experience, whither it be not evil & bitter to departed from God, & cast off his fear? have you not found it so, to your cost? have not you your self, & many others whom you know, been severely chastened & reproved, by sin? & what fruit have you, or they, or what fruit have you ever had, of the sins you are now ashamed of, but such as hath been described? what profit hath he, saith the Wiseman, 
5 Ecl. 16.  who hath laboured for the wind?  
Bring in your acounts of what you have ever got by a wicked Live: & compare it with the present reward of holy living. Set down your income, & proceed to a reckoning, & see what the total sum amounts to. So much Shame & Fear; so much Care & Trouble; so much Loss & Damage; so much Ignominy & Disgrace; so much Disquiet & Dissatisfaction; so much Discredit & Disparagement; so many Frustrations & Disapointments; so many Difficulties & perplexities; so many Diseases, Griefs, & Aches. An ill name, an empty purse, a decayed Fortune, a distempered Body, a guilty accusing Conscience, etc. And all this for a little sensual mirth & pleasure, for wine, & women, for a feather, a fancy, an humour, a lust. 
* Te miseriae, te aerumnae premunt omnes, qui te Beatum, qui te florentem putas: Tuae libidines te torquent, tu dies noctesque cruciaris. Te conscientiae stimulant maleficiorum tuorum, te metus exanimant judiciorum, atque legum quocunque aspexisti, ut furiae; sic tuae tibi occurrunt incuriae, quae te respirare non sinunt— Cicero.  Whereas if you would seriously return to God, & walk humbly, & circumspectly before him, you will quickly be able joyfully to relate from your own Experience, the contrary fruit of holy Obedience. Remember therefore the vinegar, and the Gall of former sins, and return no more to folly. Especially considering that,  
§ 4. If sin do thus correct the sinner in this Life, how much more severely will it do so in the next? If the consequences of sin in this world, are oftentimes so dreadful, how much more intolerable will they be in that which is to come? never did any sinner without Repentance escape the justice of God; but sooner or later his sin did find him out. You cannot swallow poison, but you will feel the effects of it. Even those sins you now justifye & glory in, shall be your Everlasting punishment. Tho you should not be scourged & chastened in this world, as many others are. Conscience that is now asleep, will ere long awake to purpose; & be faithful to its office when the most stinging apphrehensions of your own guilt, shall vex & torture your Souls, with a fruitless remorse for past folly, & remediless despair under an intolerable wrath.  
All those inquities, which you designedly forget, are written down in God's book of Remembrance. And the day is hastening when a strict Reckoning will be demanded; & justice impartially executed, on those who will not now believe a future Judgement; & on those who live, as if they did not expect it.  
It is observable in the word of God, or may be inferred from thence, to the glory of divine justice, that in the proceed of the last day, God will suit & proportion the future punishment of flagitions men, to their present sin.  
Every vice shall have its proper torment: & the miseries which now correct men, as the Beginning of Hell, shall be then consummate. Is not the Disorder & Confusion, the Everlasting Pain & shame of Hell, begun to be inflicted on sinners in this Life? some impieties are now troublesome & painful, the full wages will be exquisite & intolerable anguish. As there is nothing more loath some then some crimes; there shall be stench in the lake of Brimstone here after. Sinners are now in slavery to their lusts, & led Captive by the Devil; & in the prison of Hell, there are chains of Everlasting Darkness. They shall reap as they sowed; & every man receive according to his works. God's Eternal curse shall be the portion of the Impious swearer, & Blasphemer. Outer Darkness is reserved for the wilful despisers of natural, & Evangelicall Light. The Atheists heart shall tremble under the vengeance of that God whose being & authority he denied. The Glutton's teeth shall gnash; The Lascivions & unclean be tormented in unquenchable flames, & vainly sigh for a drop of water to cool their tongues.  
As they who were useful in the world, & did good to others, shall shine as stars in glory; the malicious, spiteful, & Envious, shall gnaw their own bowels. As the Lovers of Peace, shall see the God of Peace, & be blessed; Furious, Passionate, Angry, Turbulent sinners shall rave & roar for ever under the wrath of God. As the merciful shall find mercy; the Covetons, & uncharitable shall remember their lost opportunites of doing good, with extreme regret; & the thoughts of their unemployed Riches be as Thorns in their sides. As the meek & Humble shall be exalted; The proud shall be covered with Shame: & thrown down to the bottom of contempt. As the Diligent soul shall be rewarded with a glorious recompense; the slothful shall lament their stupid neglicence; in trifling away their precious seasons, without a possibility of retreiveing them. As holy Mourners shall then be comforted; the merry Jovial sinner, who now laughs at serious piety, & derides Religion as a melancholy humour, shall weep & wail, for ever. Every impenitent sinner shall after Death be condemned to a state of unspeakable misery: not only far beyond the present punishments of sin; but infinitely above all we can now apprehend or fear; to continue as long as God & Heaven endure. i: e. it shall be without the least hope of an intermission or Period. And this without unfeigned Repentance, you will find to your cost, when 'tis too late, to be no groundless fancy, or melancholy Dream, no politic device, or fine contrivance to keep the world in awe; but the words of soberness, & the certain truth of God. Therefore  
§. 5 This may abundantly convince us of the great absurdity & sottishness of most sinners, in the prosecution of their Lusts. Who turn the deaf ear to all thes loud reproofs & smart corrections of their own Sin. Tho God hath made the wages of Iniquity to be troublesome & afflictive in this world, as well as threatened eternal sorrows to the Impenitent hereafter; though some crimes do not only merit punishment, at the hands of Justice, but inflict it; yet foolish sinners court their own misery, with the refusal of Happiness. They will feed upon husks, when Manna is offered them: they forsake the Fountain of living Waters, to purchase a Fever: they neglect an Everlasting Heaven, in the other world, for the Beginnings of Hell, in this. They forfeit & relinquish the favour of God, and peace of conscience, & eternel Life, for the embraces of an Harlot, for unjust gain, for Drunkenness & Riot, & such like follies, with the afflictive consequences that attend them in this Life.  
As if Pain were preferable to ease, & disquiet to satisfaction, & contentment: as if Trouble were better than Peace: & Poverty than Riches. As if sickness were more  than health; & Disapointment than Certainty: and the horror & anguish of an accusing Conscience, than calmness & serenity of mind. As if a long and happy Life, with the Love of God, and the Testimony of a good Conscience, and the joyful prospect of a future blessedness after this Life is ended, were less eligible than a miserable, shameful, and untimely Death. Is it like Men, who have rational Souls, to make such a choice? But t' is more foolish and unreasonable, if you are considered as professing Christians; to betray your God for a lust; your Redeemer, with all the purchase of his death, for Pain, and Shame and loose your immortal Souls, redeemed by his precious Blood, not for nothing only, but for what is worse: and in order to be miserable for ever, choos to be so for the present. Can you look upon Sin with all thes disadvantages; and hath it, can it possibly have, any beauty to entice & charm you? But you will object, it may be, that many who live in Sin, do not meet with thes mischievous effects & consequences, upon the account whereof I would dissuade you from it. Therefore  
§ 6. We ought to consider that 'tis very consistent with the Justice of God, & reconcileable to his wisdom, that all wicked men should not equally receive the correction & punishment of Sin in this world. Many men may so far bridle their lusts, or enjoy the pleasures of Sin with so much craft & cunning, as to escape many of those rebukes & smart corrections, which others meet with. We have Instances of some who spend their days in Pride, & Cruelty, Lust, & Luxury, & Rebellion against God, & yet leave this world without any remarkable stroke of his anger & Justice: to the wonder, & stumbling of Divers who observe it.  
In all Ages this hath been a difficult objection against the Providence of God; & urged on all occasions by Atheists & saducees in favour of their cause against the Worshippers of God. And 'tis more easy of the two, to give sufficient reasons of the persecutions & sufferings of good men, then to solve the Impunity & Prosperity of the Wicked. 
21 Job 7: 8. & seqq.  But neither can be done with clearness & satisfaction, without the belief of a Future Judgement; & both of thes are argumentative in their kind to persuade that Belief. 
12 Jer. 1.  David himself was puzzled for a time with this mystery of Divine Providence: till he went into the sanctuary, 
73 Ps. 22.  & seriously considered the latter end of Sinners. And then he exclaims against himself, & cries out of his folly, How foolish was I & ignorant: I was as a Beast before thee. For the Consideration of another Life, & a Judgement to come will abundantly satisfy us of the reasons of divine Patience & long-suffering for the present.; Why Sentence against Evil doers is not speedily executed, or not at all in this world. They are condemned by the holy Law of God, & bound over to his final Judgement; & though the Execution be delayed for a while, they cannot escape the hand of Justice, since God is Omnipresent, Almighty, & lives for ever. And how short is the time of God's forbearance in this Life, if compared with an endless duration of misery after the judgement day. We have little reason to envy them their present Prosperity, when we consider that the day of Execution is appointed, & that they are hastening to it; 
2 Pet. 2: 3.  for their Judgement doth not linger, & their Damnation slumbreth not, saith the Apostle. The honour of God's Justice will then be more publicly vindicated, & more openly manifest to all the world, than it could be by the present punishment of all great offenders. It will not be long ere they feel the dismal effects of that Almighty vengeance they now deride; see the Heaven they have lost and scorned; & suffer those intolerable & remediless torments which they will not now believe or consider. In the mean time they are not all of them altogether unpunished in this world, but feel the lashes of their own guilty self-condemning thoughts, by inward horror & anxiety of mind, & continual fears of divine Justice: Which all their outward prosperity cannot remedy, any more than music can cure the stone or Gout, or a Crown of gold give eas to the headache. And thes very fears of an after reckoning are a mighty check & restraint upon those, who are above the control of humane laws, & have power to defend & justifye their crimes. The world would be filled with cruelty & blood, & mankind be destroyed by the Lusts of Tyrants, & great Oppressiors, were they not in some measure restrained by the fears of a future Judgement, & punishments in another Life.  
Some such it may be are spared, in order to their Repentance & Amendment; for some Persecutors, & Blasphemers, & notorious Criminals have been called to Repentance; & afterwards have been instrumental to glorify that God, whom before they affronted & provoked. Or it may be God forbears them, as the Executioners of his wrath upon others, as the scourges of the world, to punish the wickedness of other men. And when they have done his work, they shall be seized by his Justice, & their latter end be as exemplary & remarkable, as were their 
* 

Jam non ad culmina Rerum,  
Injustè crevisse queror; tolluntur in altum,  
Ut lapsu graviore ruant.    Impieties. Of this Instances may be given in the Roman Emperors, & others. For of nineteen or twenty Emperors, that passed between Antoninus the Philosopher, & Claudius the second, not one of them escaped a violent Death. Moreover, God may design to instruct us in our duty by his own Example, to teach us by his infinite condescension & patience toward those who provoke him, how to exercise meekness & forbearance one toward another. It being impossible any injury we receive from our fellow-creatures should ever be heightened to such a guilt, as our sins against God are clothed with▪ But whatever be the reason of Divine Patience, it is so far from being an argument against his Providence, & a Future Judgement, that it may serve to establish both. For some sinners are now corrected, and pursued by his justice, lest we should question whither he do at all concern himself in the affairs of mankind, or would ever call men to an acount for what they do: & all great offenders are not,, that there may be room for the exercise of Faith: & that we may the better see the need of a judgement Day, & believe the certainty of it: & that the threaten of Everlasting miseries may have the more influence & effect upon us; because some in great measure do escape the present punnishments of their Impiety. And no wonder if the Providence of God in the distribution of temporal good & Evil be now more dark & intricate then formerly; that we can not so clearly observe his displeasure against the wicked by present punishment, or his approbation of the Righteous by prosperous Events: because we have now less need of such indications of divine favour or wrath: since the extraordinary revelation which he hath made of himself in the holy Scriptures, especially in the new Testament, whereby we have a much clearer light to guide us & a fuller & more manifest assurance of Eternal Rewards & Punishments. But because ordinarily men are chastened, & corrected by their wickedness in this world. Therefore  
§. 7. Let us resolve to avoid Sin, as ever we would avoid being meserable in both worlds. The number is not great of those who abhor Evil by contemplating it merely in the abstract; or choos piety by viewing in only in a Metaphysical dress. Holiness, it is true, should be loved for itself, as the image of God, the most Excellent & most perfect Being: & Sin hated for its own intrinsic Malignity, the Deformity, & Evil of its nature. But while we dwell in bodies; present sufferings, & temporal calamities will very much affect us: & as they are the usual consequents of Sin, may be likely to dissuade us from it. Let us therefore gather grapes from thes thorns, & figs from thes thistles, & turn thes stones into Bread, by learning to be wise at a cheaper rate than others. Let the Justice of God upon them be mercy to us, for our Instruction & Warning: that we may not be corrected & reproved by our own folly.  
Because some have been impious without feeling all those miserable effects, or but very few of them; shall we therefore run the hazard? will we swallow a cup of poison, when we are foretold of the fatal consequence, because some have done so unawares & escaped with their lives? Because some have been in a tempest, and not drowned; would we choos to adventure our self in a storm? will any Wiseman rush upon the point of a sword, because it may possibly miss his heart, & not mortally wound him? whereas in case, if it should not, yet the wound, will cost him dear by Repentance; and the dearer still, the longer he delays the remedy.  
Be persuaded therefore to receive instruction, before you taste the bitter fruit of your own folly: & do not purchase Everlasting sorrows at the price of Temporal. Be not such Enemies to your self, & to your own interest, as to run the hazard of being calamitous & afflicted now, to secure thereby irrecoverable perdition hereafter. But if Sinners entice thee consent thou not, 
1 Prov. 10: 15.4. c. 15.5. c. 4.7, 8, 9, 10, 11.  walk not in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it & pass away. For the end will be bitter as wormwood etc. Therefore avoid the occasions of Sin, lest thou give thine honour unto others; & thy reproach be not wiped away; least strangers be filled with thy wealth; & thou mourn at the last, when thy Flesh and thy Body are consumed, & say how have I hated Instruction, & my heart despised Reproof. Consider the Reproof, and avoid the Correction of Sin, which now it gives you; that thes smaller drops may not preface a shower of vengeance: that your final ruin be not the consequent of your incorrigibleness under present chastisement: that thes Temporal Punnishments may not introduce more terrible, insupportable, & endless wrath. Especially since our merciful Saviour hath offered to deliver us from both: from the Temporal Punishments of Sin, by our present Obedience to his holy Gospel; & from Everlasting Destruction, by that Eternal Salvation, whereof he is the Author to All that obey him, and to none but them.  
THE END.   

ERRATA.  
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