_i Serm, f. check Sin in the fireri zngs of it ? 99 and indecency, that an immortal foul fhould forger, contemn, and affront th'e Father of fpirits.Now to affirm that God can difpence with the former, nay, make our fear of him, or delight in him to be a fin, and punifh it with everlafting torments ; and to affirm that God can wink at, or allow the latter, much lefs command Atheifm,Blafphemy, Pride, Unthankfulnefs, &c. or make Hypocrifiic, Covetoufnefs, Re- venye, Senfuality, to become duties and graces, and reward them with everlafting happinefs, this were to utter the molt helli(h blafphemy, and the molt impoflible contradi} ions in the world. The heathen Plato (in thole divine difcourfes of his, his Emtyphro, and Yheatetau,and othervvbere ) may well rebuke the madnefs of fuch Chriflians, as this bold and vain fpeculator. The fum of this Rule then is,deeplypoffefs and dy thy foul all over with the reprefentation of that eve:lafling beauty and amiablenefs that is in holinefs, and of that horrour and uglinefs, and deformity that eternally duels on the forehead of all iniquity. Be under the awe and majefty of fuchclear convictions all day long, and thou (halt not fulfill the lofts of the flefh. For the mind of man is wont coconceive, before its own apprehenuons and Ideas of good and evil,as has fheep did before the Rods in theGutter. If thy notions of good and evil lae right and clear, thy luftings and delires will be from evil towards good,all the conceptionsof thy foul and theft births will be fair and unfpotred. But if thy apprehenfions be fpeckled, c.nfufed, and ring (}raked (like his Rods) the conceptions ofthe mind, thy luftiags, will be fo too, fo great a truth is that =if go%9npòsei yvog, that dark ignorance and folly lies at the bottom, as the root and foun- dation of all wickednefs, * every immoral naan is a fool,even when he ,E Tlx dH commits a known fin, yet then he may be faid not to know what he e5, y` doth,Lu 3.34. All theReafon in theworld cakes the part of holinefs uuTv `v T6d . 3 4 P , ovnßçzvTwv,Tiì and fin bath not one jot of true Reafon to plead, er alledge in its own? aye,¿d_ beha'f. rcovesttTx, ds d tia ä'37,16Ta- Tg rtAt.tó?nT xj szirnsddoiat xecvaeiveo'i TW p9,) ó!toggoo: J?á Tat ád`ixtS qtre HS,Tw d i d POUOiúgtvoi ó'iVTes ó7i tsT 487tH, ¿ VTSS d`i TO' 467'1 ßlov oi ó61.014M, dYicnvT1145ct, í&c, Plato in Theateto. llnderfiand thy felf, be no ftranger to thy own breaft, know the Rule 3. _. frame, and remper,and conflitution of thy mind. The wife men's eyes are in his bead, but the fool walke.th in darknefs, Ecclef.2.14. It is a true and fober maxim of the Platonift, I¢' öoav o'auTava'yvoé4 v &Fqst,ceáivi, Demophil. in as far as a man is ignorant of himfelf, fo far forth he is to reckon 7"14 himfelf guilty of madnefs and dillra6tion. The Satyrift complains of 0 2 this
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