45 SERMON CXI. The final Iffue ofSin, an Argument for Repentance. ROM. VI. 2I, 12. What fruit had ye then in thofe,things, whereof ye are now afhamed ? Ive th r1 rno For the end of thofe things is death. But nom Je being made free from th¡, Tn exte on fin, and become Servants to God, ye, have your fruit unto Holinefs, and the end EverlaßingLife. THE SE words are a Comparifon between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sin- ful and Vicious Courfe of Life, and fet before us themanifeft Inconveni- ences of the one, and the manifold Advantages of theother. I have enter'd into a Difcourfe upon the Fir/l ofthefe Heads, viz. The manifeft Inconveniences of a finful and vicious Courfe : And the Text mentions thefe three. I. That it is Unprofitable. II. That the refle&ion upon it afterwards is matterof Shame. Thefe Two I have fpoken largely to. I Ihall now proceed to the III. And laß Inconvenience, which the Text mentions, ofa finful and vicious Courte of Lite, viz. That the final Iffue and Confequence of thefe things is very difmal and miferable; The endof thofe things is Death. No Fruit then when ye did thefe things thame now that you come to refle&upon them ; and Mifery and Death at the lait. There are indeed almoft innumerable Confiderations and Arguments todifcou- rage and deter men from fin; the Unreafonablenefsof it,in it felf; the Injuftice and Difloyalty, and Ingratitude of it in refpe& to God; the ill Example of it to o- thers; the Cruelty ofit to our (elves; the Shame and Difhononr that attends it; the GriefandSorrowwhich it will colt us, ifever we be brought to a due Senfe of it; the Trouble and Horror of a guilty Confcience, that will perpetually haunt us; but above all the miferable Event and fad Iffue of a wicked Courfe of Life continued in, and finally unrepented of. The Temptations to fin may be alluring enough, and look upon us with a fluffing Countenance, and the Com- miflion may afford us a fhort and imperfe& Pleafure, but the Remembrance of it will certainly be bitter, and the Endof it miferable. And thisConfideration is ofall others the molt apt to work upon the generality ofmen, efpecially upon the more obstinate andobdurate fort of (inners, and thofe whom no other Arguments will penetrate; that whatever the prefent Pleafure and Advantage of fin may be, it will be Bitternefs and Mifery in the end. The twoformer Inconveniences of a finful Courfe, which I have lately dif- courfed of, viz. That Sin isunprofitable, andthat it is Shameful, are very con- fiderable, and ought to be great Arguments againft it to every (inner, and con- fiderateMan : and yet how light are they, and but as the very fmall duff upon the balance, in companion of that infupportable weight of Mifery which will opprefs the (inner at lait! Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguifh upon eve- ry foul of Man that doth evil. This, this is theRing of all, that the end of thefè things is death. It is very ufual in Scripture to exprefs the greateft Happinefs and the greateft Mifery, by Life and Death ; Life being the firft and molt deferable of all other Bleflings, becaufe it is the Foundationof them, and that which makes us capa- ble ofall the relt. Hence we find in Scripture, that all the Bleflings of the Gofpel are
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