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other Afpect. When we confider Pleasure SER M. and Pain, not as precarious and momentary, XII. but certain and eternal; whoever confiders thefe things rightly, will give them their due Weight. And indeed People cannot want Motives to this; the Scripture abounds with a Multitude of Paffages, that represent thefe Things in a true Light, and with a Multitude of Arguments and Persuasions to a right Confcience. It conftantly teaches us that Vice is odious, paints the Deformity of it, and that it is attended with a certain Degree of Punishment here, but will be punish'd eternally in another State; that Virtue is attended here with a certain Degree of Happiness, and an Eternity of it hereafter, and Arguments drawn from the Nature of these things, from the Happiness on one fide, and the Torments on the other. And can we now, after all, think that a few momentary Pleasures bear any Propor'tion to the Pleafures that are to have no End? Is an heavenly Felicity nothing? Is it nothing to see the Face of God, and enjoy him to all Eternity? To have our Hopes and Defires compleated and gratified to the utmoft Perfection? If all this is nothing, is it alfo nothing to be evermore shut out from the Prefence of God, and to live in

endless

SERM. endless Torments, and be for ever tortur'd, XII. without even the Hopes of any Relief? How fhould we then wish to begin again, and have a fecond Trial! How fhould we improve thofe Fragments of Time that now die upon our Hands! But, alas! there is a great Gulph fix'd fo that there is no pa fing from thence. Now we have it in our Power to prevent these fruitless Wishes, let us prevent the melancholy Reflections upon what we would have done, by doing it. If Happiness and Mifery are worthy our Concern, their being eternal does not make it lefs fo, I fuppofe. Let our Regard to thefe Things be proportion'd to the Value Importance of them, that, when Time is fwallowed up in Eternity, our Happiness may partake of the fame Perfection, and continue without End. Amen.

SER

SERMON XIII.

ACTS xxiv. 16.

And herein do I exercife myself, to have always a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Men.

HESE Words are part of the SERM. Answer which St. Paul gave to XIII. the Accufation brought against m him by Tertullus. The whole Cafe is this: When he was fent from Jerufalem to Cefarea for fear of the Jews, who intended to deftroy him, and his Accufers were come, they employ'd a certain Orator, named Tertullus, to inform the Governor against Paul; who accordingly laid many grievous Crimes to his Charge; a mongst the rest, that he was a peftilent Fellow, a Sower of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the World, and a Profaner of the Temple. But now to prove the Improbability

M m

SERM. bability of this Charge, and how unlikely XIII. it was that he should raise any Tumults ac

cording to this Accufation, he fhews, that it was but twelve Days fince he went up to Jerufalem to worship, seven of which he spent there, until the Time of his Purification was accomplished, and the other five he had been in Cuftody, and at Cefarea; and, fays he, they neither found me in the Temple difputing with any Man, neither raifing up the People, neither in the Synagogues, nor in the City, neither can they prove the Things whereof they now accufe me; and then he goes on ftrenuously afferting his Innocence and Integrity, and gives a fhort Account of his Religion, fhewing plainly that he worfhip'd no other God than the God of his Fathers, whom Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob had worshipped, and that he profess'd no other Religion than what was taught in the Law and the Prophets, from whence they themselves had received theirs ; But this I confefs unto thee, that after the Way which they call Herefy, fo worship I the God of my Fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets, and have Hope towards God, which they themfelves alfo allow, that there fhall be a Refurrection of the Dead, both of the Juft and

Unjuft:

Unjust: And herein do I exercise myself, to SERM have always a Conscience void of Offence XIII. towards God and towards Men; i. e. up

on Confideration of the Refurrection of the Dead, and that we fhall be rewarded or punish'd, according as we have done well or ill in this Life, I accuftom myself to live without Blame, without being confcious of having done any thing that fhall be an Of fence to God or Man. From the Words

of the Text I will fhew,

I. What it is to have a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Men.

II. The Happiness that refults from it, and the Misery that attends the Want of it.

III. I fhall lay down fome Rules and Directions in order to our obtaining fuch a Confcience.

First, I am to fhew what it is to have a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. Now Confcience is the Judgment of a Man's own Mind concerning the Morality of his Actions; and as all Actions are either good or bad (as they are either commanded or forbidden by God) or elfe M m 2 in

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