ESSAY IV. 153 God to be the Governor of the world, and that he is a great and dreadful God, who has, in very visible instances, sometimes manifested his displeasure against the sins of men, and revealed his wrathfromheaven against their unrighteousness and ungod- liness ; Rom. i, 18. And under the fear and terror of his ven- geance they have sometimes put on sackcloth and lived in ashes : They have denied themselves the common food of nature, and half famished their bodies with abstinence. So the Ninevites did at the threatening of the Lord byJonah the prophet. Sometimes they have banished themselves from towns and cities, and all converse with men, into mere deserts and caves of the earth, and gtrained their limbs in painful postures, for years together, to make atonement for the sins of the people ; so some of the pre- tended saints in the East Indies have done. They have put themselves in iron cages, with sharp spikes, to be carried about andwounded from head to foot, as someof the bonzes in China ; they have thrown themselves under a heavy leaden chariot of theirhuge images and idols, and been crushed to death, as some of their holy men in Malabar. But what hath all this availed to obtain the favour of that God whom they have offended ? Who bath required thisat their hands ? And what ground have they to think God will accept it ? So also those of the Roman church, who are fallen from the doctrine that St. Paul once wrote to the Romans,, have invented various penances, and endeavoured to come into the favour of Godby them : As though lashing themselveswith cords, could satisfy infinite justice for their crimes, and wearing sackcloth on their flesh could make their polluted souls pure and ac- ceptable to God. In following ages when the priests were grown more crafty and covetous, they taught them to come to God by money, and to buy pardons for sin, and titles to heaven of the pope. This was called a commutation of penance, and making their purse suffer instead of their flesh; and thusthey compounded with the justice of God for the sins of their souls. They lavish away much silver and gold, to make atonement be- fore God for breaking his law. Poor attempts and hopeless pretences, to remove the displeasure of a God and make a way for their favourable access to him ? There have been some austere persons that have separated themselves from the law- ful customs of the world, and common comforts of life, in order to appease their consciences for past indulgence and sen- suality, as though, God and his holiness, and his governing wis- dom and majesty, wouldbe as easily satisfied as their blinded consciences. Others again after sin are terrified with fears of death and destruction ; and under these impressions they seem to mourn for their sins, and then fly to their repentauces and tears to save them; though perhaps their repentance and regret of conscience
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