Feeling of Sin. Habits grow from oftenrepeated Actions; and, though at first they require diftin&t Acts of the Will to give them Being, yet at last we grow so perfect, fo ready at the Work, as not to want the Authority and Consent of the Mind: As Servants, who, by being often told their Masters Work, at laft fall into the Road of their Business without being called on, and yet a&t as much under the Direction of their Masters Will, as when they were under their daily or hourly Instruction. And so it is in Habits: The Mind, which is the governing Principle, lies by, and the Work goes on without being attended to. Of many Instances give me leave only to mention one, which shall be that of common Swearers, and Blafphemers of the Holy Name: A Vice in itself so prodigious, that no Aggravation can heighten it, no Excufe can leffen it! And yet thofe who are moft guilty of this Sin are leaft fenfible of it: It is fo familiar to them, that they are not confcious when they offend: Blafpheming is their Idiom, a Turn in their way of speaking, and Oaths the mere Expletives of their Language. And when every fober Heart trembles to hear what they utter, they only are unconcerned, as only being ignorant

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ignorant of the accurfed Malice with which they defy the living God. For all these Things God will call Sinners into Judgment; in his Book they are noted down; But yet when Sinners call themselves to Judgment, they only can tell that they have grievously offended; the Measure of their Iniquity they know not, nor the many Aggravations of it: And therefore the utmost that the fincerest Penitent can do, is to lament the Offences of his Heart and Tongue, which he is not able to remember, and to pray to God that he likewife will be pleased to blot out the Remembrance of his Iniquities.

Fourthly, The Apostle has advised us not to be Partakers of other Men's Sins; which fhews, that when others fin, being led to it by our Influence, Example, or Encouragement, we share with them in the Guilt of their Iniquity. How far our Influence spreads, to what Instances, and what Degrees of Vice, how many we feduced by our Example, or hardened by our Encouragement, is more than we can tell, and yet not more than we fhall answer for. Those who are thus entered in our Service, and fin under our Conduct, are but our Factors: They trade for us, as well as for themselves; and whatever their

Earnings

Earnings are, we shall receive our due Proportion out of the Wages of their Sin. This is a Guilt which steals upon us without being perceived; it grows whilft we fleep, and is loading our Account even when our Bodies are in the Poffeffion of the Grave. The higher our Station, and the greater our Authority, the more Reafon have we to fear being involved in this kind of Guilt; because in proportion to our Authority will the Infection of our Example fpread; and, as our Power is great, our Encouragement will be the more effectual; and fome perhaps there may be, who shall appear not only for their own Sins, but for the Wickedness of the Age they lived in. But then, on the other fide, (pardon me a small Digreffion) Power, and Honour, and Riches, are great Means of Salvation in the Hands of a wife Man, who knows how to use them to the Glory of God, and the Good of Mankind. To him shall be added the Virtue and Religion which grow up under his Influence and Protection; And how transporting will the Surprize be to fuch happy Souls, when they fhall find the Improvement of this and future Ages in religious Holiness placed to their Account at the great Day, as being the genuine Offfpring

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spring of their Care and Solicitude, and unshaken Fidelity in the Cause of God, and of his Chrift!

Fifthly, The great Measure of Folly and Vanity and Self-love there is in the best of our Actions is what feldom falls under our Notice; and yet from fuch fecret Errors who is free? We hardly know our own Hearts well enough to answer at all Times for the Integrity of our Intentions. How much of our Virtue and Religion is mere Respect to common Decency, and arises from no higher Spring than a Regard to our own Credit and Reputation, is more than we can certainly tell. When we are most eager pursuit of fome good End, could we stop hort, and examine ourselves fairly, we should find perhaps that we were only gratifying fome private Paffion, and that none of the beft, perhaps Malice and Revenge, or fome other inordinate Defire.

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To this Account we may add the many vain Imaginations which are conceived in the Heart, though never brought to Life by Action, but die in the Womb, and are out of Remembrance. Such are the ambitious Man's imaginary Scenes of Honour and Glory, formed and wrought up to a kind of

Life in a mere Delufion of Thought; which, fantastical as they are in themselves, do arise from real Pride and Vanity. Such the vifionary Enjoyment of fenfual Men, when the Thoughts traverse all the forbidden Paths of Luxury and Wantonnefs; where, though the Phantom be airy and bodiless, yet does this Dream of Senfuality derive itself from no imaginary Corruption, but from a real Diftemper in the Mind, from inordinate Defires and Affections. Such is the fecret Anger, fuch the Malice of the Heart, which fits brooding over envious or revengeful Designs, which it contrives within itself, and feems to execute upon its Enemies; and, for want of Power or Opportunity for real Revenge, feeds itself with viewing the Execution of its Wrath, though only expreffed in the Images of Fancy. Harmless and innocent as this Revenge may seem, which spends itself in imaginary Mischief only, yet it springs from the Root of Bitterness, and is too plain an Evidence that we hate one another.

Lastly, When we come to repent of our Sins, many of them may be secret to us merely through the Weakness and Imperfection of the Memory, which cannot recollect all the various Paffages of a vicious Life.

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