4thly, Sins against the faints and people of God are more hainous than against others, because of their relation to God, as being those in all the world dearest to him, Matth. xviii. 6. "Whofo fhall offend one, of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the fea." Such are fins against weak faints, as being more liable to get harm by them than those who are strong, Rom. xiv. 15. "If thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Chrift died."

Lastly, Sins against the common good of all, or of many; for the wider the effects of one fin go, it is ftill the worse, Jofh. xxii. 20. "Did not Achan the fon of Zerah commit a trespass in the accurfed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Ifrael? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity." "One finner," fays Solomon, "deftroyeth much good;" and the more, the greater is his fin.

3. From the quality of the offence. A fin may be vested with fuch qualities, as will make it much more hainous than when divested of them. Thefe evil qualities are many; I will reduce them to two heads.

(1.) Intrinfic qualities. Thus fins against the letter of the law are more hainous than others; mother-fins, which are big and bring forth many others, than fimple ones; fins confummated by action, than while merely in the heart, Jam. i. 15.; fins that are fcandalous, than others not fo; fins the injury in which to men admits of no reparation, than that of others in which it does. This was the reason why death was the punishment of adultery, not of fornication, because in this last case the man was obliged to marry the woman.

(2.) Extrinfic qualities; which again are of two forts. [1.] Being done against means whereby one might be with-held from fin, Matth. xi. 21, 22. “Wo unto thee, Chorazin, wo unto thee, Bethfaida: for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in fackcloth and ashes. But I fay unto you, It fhall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you." Thus one's finning against mercies drawing them from their fin, judgments and rebukes from the word or providence, from God or

men, finning against the light of one's own confcience, do all of them aggravate fin.

[2.] Being done against bonds one has taken on him against the fin, when men fin against purposes and refolutions of amendment, against their covenants and engagements to the Lord, whereby they are bound to stand off from fuch courses, Ezek. xvii. 19.

4. From the manner of committing it. Who can imagine, but fin done deliberately, and wilfully, and prefumptuously, is more hainous than fin committed through inadvertency and weakness? If one be impudent in his fin, delight in it, and boast of it; if he go on in it obftinately, fall in it frequently, and relapfe into it after convictions and humblings for it; every one of these aggravates the guilt.

5. From the time of it, as in the cafe of Gehazi, 2 Kings v. 26. where Elisha says to him, "Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive-yards, and vine-yards, and sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and maid-fervants?" Thus fins committed on the Lord's day, immediately before or after divine worship, are more hainous than at other times. And fo is finning just after reproofs, warnings, engagements; or in a time when the anger of the Lord is going out against the land, family, or perfon, as Ahaz in his diftrefs.

Laftly, From the place of it. Thus in a place where the gospel is preached, fin is more hainous than elsewhere, If. xxvi. 10. "Let favour be fhewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majefty of the Lord." Sins done in public before others, are more hainous than thofe in fecret; for in the former many may be defiled, as in the cafe of Abfalom, lying with his fathers's concubine on the house-top.

A few inferences fhall conclude this fubject.

Inf. 1. Never think light of fin, nor flightly of Chrift, and your need of him, fince all fin is hainous in God's fight, and exposes the finner to his juft vengeance.

2. There will be degrees of torment in hell, though the leaft degree will be dreadful, Matth. xi. 21. fince there are degrees of finning.

3. No wonder God's anger go out against us, and the VOL. III. No. 25.

Cc

land wherein, and the generation amongst whom we live. For hainous are our fins beyond thofe of many, and a frightful look may we get of them in this glass. Magiftrates, ministers, parents, the aged, profeffors, fons and daughters of the Lord, have corrupted their ways, as well as others. Our fins have struck immediately against God, and against those who are vested with his authority in the state, in the church, and in families, against his people, and the common good, Sins against the letter of the law, fcandalous offences abound, over the belly of light, mercies, and judgments, covenants national, facramental, and perfonal; and thefe continued in obftinately, in a time when the Lord's hand has oft been ftretched out and drawn in again, in a land of light.

4. Repent, and flee to the blood of Chrift for pardon, if so be our hainous fins may not be our ruin.

5. The means of grace which we enjoy will either promote our falvation, or they will aggravate our damnation.

6. When ye examine yourselves, and think on your fins, confider the several aggravations of them; and lie deep in the dust before the Lord on account thereof; and, through the grace of God, abstain from every fin, and all appearance

of evil.

OF THE DESERT OF SIN.

GAL. iii. 10.-It is written, Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

THO

HOUGH fome fins be greater than others, yet there is no fin but deferves damnation, which we can no where better learn than from the voice of the law, which is the verdict of a juft God upon the demerit of fin. This verdict in the text is found written, Deut. xxvii. ult. "Curfed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." And herein confider,

1. The party condemned by the law; every finner. The law condemns him for omiffions as well as commiffions, for breaking off from obedience as well as never entering upon

it; for every fin, even the least fin, the leaft breach of the law as well as the greatest: Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things, &c.

2. The doom pronounced in all these cafes, is God's wrath and curfe; Curfed is he that continueth not in all things, &c. This curfe binds over to wrath in this life and that which is to come. It is God's own voice in his law, whose justice will not allow him to fix a punishment on fin greater than it deferves. Hence the doctrine is,

DOCT." Every fin deferveth God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come."

Here I fhall fhew,

I. What is God's wrath and curfe, which every fin deferves.

II. What this wrath and curfe is.

III. That there is no fin which does not deferve God's wrath and curse.

IV. Deduce fome inferences.

I. I fhall fhew, what is God's wrath and curfe, which every fin deferves.

First, God's wrath is no paffion, nor is there any pertur bation in God, though an angry God. His wrath is a fire without fmoke, and may be taken up in these two things.

1. God's displeasure against the finner, Pfal. v. 4, 5. "For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness : neither fhall evil dwell with thee. The foolifh fhall not stand in thy fight thou hateft all workers of iniquity." Sin makes the foul loathsome and hateful in God's fight, kindles a holy fire in his heart against the finner. Were the fun continually under a cloud, and the heavens always covered with blackness, none of these would be comparable to the ftate of a finner under wrath, Pfal. xc. 11. "Who knoweth the power of thine anger

2. God's dealing with finners as his enemies, whom he is incensed againft, Neh. i. 2. "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth and is furious, the Lord will take vengeance on his adverfaries; and he referveth wrath for his enemies." If. i. 24. "Ah! I will ease me of my adverfaries, and avenge me of mine enemies." The wrath of

a king is as the roaring of a lion; what then must the wrath of God be, an enemy, whom we can neither fight nor flee from, neither outwit nor outbrave? Of this wrath it is faid, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Secondly, His curfe is his feparating one to evil, Deut. xxix. 21. " And the Lord shall separate him unto evil, out of all the tribes of Ifrael, according to all the curfes that are written in this book of the law." It is a devoting the finner to destruction, to all the direful effects of the divine wrath. It is the tying of the finner to the stake, setting him up for the mark of God's vengeance, that a broken law and offended justice may difburden all their arrows into him, and that on him may meet together all miseries and plagues, flowing from the wrath of God *.

II. I fhall fhew, what is God's wrath and curse in this life, and that which is to come.

1. In this life they comprehend all the miseries of this world which one meets with on this fide of time, miferies on the body, relations, name, eftate, employment; miseries on the foul, as blindness, hardness, vile affections, horrors of confcience, &c.; and, finally, death in the separation of foul and body. Thus they make a flood of miferies in this life.

2. In the life to come, they comprehend eternal death and damnation, and an eternal being under the punishment of lofs and fenfe in hell. So they make a fhoreless sea of miferies in the life to come. But of both these I spoke largely in a former part of this work. [Vol. i.]

III. I proceed to fhew, that there is no fin which does not deferve these, but that every fin deferves this wrath and curfe.

1. The wages of every fin is death, Rom. vi. 23.; that is, eternal death, as is clear from the oppofition to eternal life, Rom. v. 12. As by one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and fo death paffed upon all men, for that all have finned." Job xxiv. 19. "The grave confumes those which have finned."

* See a more particular account of the curfe, in the author's View of the Covenant of Works, part 4. published in 1772.