5erm. CIX. An Argument for Répen'tancc, 37 to be commanded and hurried away by everyunruly Appetite and PafÍìon, to do things which they know to be greatly to their Harm and Prejudice, and which they are convinced are mean and fordid things, and fuch as they are afhamed that any wife Man fhould fee them doing ! And there is no greaterArgument ofa pitiful and degenerate Spirit, than tocommit fuch things as a Manwould blush tobe fur- prized in and would be mightily troubled to hear of afterwards. And which is more after he hath been convinc'd by manifold Experience, that they are a Shame and Difgrace to him, and make him to hang down his Head, and let fall his Countenance, whenever he is in better Company than himfelf ; yet'after this togo anddo the fame things again, which he is fenfible are fo fhameful, and to be fo impotent, and to have fo little Command of himfelf, as not tobe able to free himfelf from this Bondage, nor the heart to pray to God that byhis Gracehe would enable him hereto. And that Sin isof this (hameful Nature, is evident, in that the greate(t part of Sinners take fo much Care and Pains to hide their Vices from the fight and notice of Men, and to this purpofe chufe Darknefs and [beret places of Retirement to commit theirSins in. The Apoftle takes notice, that thus much Modefty was left even in a very wicked and degenerate Age, r Thef. ç. 7. They, that be drunk (lays he) are drunk in the night. Now all this is a plain acknowledgment, that Sin is a fpurious and degenerate thing, that it misbecomes Humane Nature, and is below the Dignity ofa reafonable Creature : Otherwife why fhould Men be fo folicitous and concern'd tocover their Faults from the fightof others ? If they arenot Aimed of them, why do they not bring them into the broad Light, and thew them openly, ifthey think they will endure it? So true is that Obfervation whichPlato makes, That tho a Man were fare that God would forgive his'Sins, and that Men fhould never know them, yet there is that Bafenefs in Sin, that a wife Man, that confiders what it is, would blush to himfelf alone to be guilty of it ; and rho he were not afraid of the Punifhment, would be afhamed of the Turpitude and Deformity of ir. Did bin a Man confider ferioufly with himfelf, how mean and unmanly it is for a Man,tobe drunk ; and wh . t an apifh and ridiculous thing he renders him- felt to ali fober Men that behold him, and with what Contempt and Scorn they entertain fuch a fight; and how brutifh it is to wallow in any unlawful Luft, and bowmuch a Man defcends and (loops beneath himfelf ; what shameful Fear and Cowardife he betrays whenhe is frighted to tell a Lye out of Fear, or tempted thereto for fome little Advantage ; and yet is fo inconfiftent with himfelf, as to have, or to pretend to have the Courage to fight any Man, that {hall tell him fo fawcy. aTruth, as that he tolda Lye. Would but a Man think beforehand, howunworthy, and how unequal a thing it is to defraud or cheat his Brother, or to do any thing to another Man, which he would be loth in the like cafe that he fhould do tohim ; how bare a thing it is, for aMan to be perfidious and falfe to his Promife or Truht; howmonftrous to be unthankful to one that hath highly obligedhim, and every way and upon all occafions deferved well at hishands; and fo I might inflance in all other forts of Sins; I fay, he that confiders thiswell and wifely, tho' therewere noLaw a- gainft Sin, and (if it were a pofiible cafe, and fit to befuppofed) tho' therewere no fuch Being as God in the World, to call him to account and punifh him for it, yet out of meer Generofity and Greatnefs ofMind, out ofpure refpect to him- felf, and the Dignity and Rank of his Being, and of his Order in the World, out of very Reverence to human Nature; and the inward Perfwafion of his own Mind, ,(however he came by that Perfwafion) concerning the Indecency andDe- formity andShamefulnefsof the thing ; Ifay, for thefe Reatens, ifthere were no other, a Man would (trive with himfelf, with all his might, to refrain frein Sin and Vice, and not only blush, but abhor to think of doing a wicked Aftion. 3. Sin will yet farther appear shameful, in that it is fogreat a Reproach toour Understandings and Reafons, and fo foul a Blot upon our Prudence and Difcre- tion. Onenio peccano nut ignorans efä, asst incogitanr, is a Saying, j think, of one of
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