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Pleasures,or the Gains of Wickedness. And whenever this is the Cafe, there is but one Remedy, Repentance, through Faith in Christ Jefus, which will never be refused when it comes from a fincere Heart, touched with a lively Senfe of God's Goodness and its own Unworthiness.

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DISCOURSE VIII.

2 COR. vii. 10.

Godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of; but the Sorrow of the World worketh Death.

OU have, in the Words of the Text, a Character given you of Religious Sorrow, and the Advantages of it, set forth, and illuftrated, by a Comparison between them, and the evil Effects of worldly Sorrow. Sorrow, in all Cafes, arifes from the Conceit of Misery, either present, or expected. When our Sorrow, grows from the Confideration of our spiritual Condition, from a Sense of our own Iniquity, and the Pains of a guilty Mind; from the Fear of God's Wrath and heavy

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heavy Judgments denounced against Sinners; which are the proper Objects of Religious Sorrow, and distinguish it from the Grief of a worldly Mind, which reaches only to the real or fuppofed Evils of this Life: In this Cafe, Sorrow is not only the Confequence of the Evil we suffer, or apprehend, but likewife its very Cure and Remedy. But in worldly Grief, where Men lament the Lofs of Riches and Honours, and vex their Souls with the various Difappointments of Life; which are perpetual Springs of Uneafinefs, to all whofe Affections are wedded to the Pleafures and Enjoyment of the World; there Sorrow is a Remedy, worse than the Dif ease, and adds Weight to our Misfortunes, which, could they be neglected, would not be felt.

It is the Glory of Philosophy, to raise Men above the Misfortunes of Life, to teach them to look with Indifference upon the Pleasures of the World, and to fubmit with manly Courage, and a steady Mind, to those Calamities, which no Care can prevent, and which no Concern can cure. Such, Such, are all the Miseries which

are

are brought on us by a Change of Fortune, or the Neceffity of human Condition. And the Confiderations of Philofophy, not extending beyond these Limits, it is no Wonder to find Wisdom, placed in an Absence of Paffion; and Grief and Sorrow, and all the tender Motions of the Mind, expofed, as certain Marks of a flavish abject Spirit. But when the Reafons of Philosophy, are transferred to the Cause of Religion, they lose their Name; and the fame Conclufions, for want of the fame Principles to fupport them, are foolish and abfurd. In natural Evils, Sorrow, and Grief of Mind, give us the quickest, and fharpeft Sense of our Afflictions, and diveft us of the Power of looking out for the proper Comforts and Supports: they increase and lengthen out our Misery; nor can the Mind ever lofe Sight of its Afflictions, till Length of Time, fets it free from Grief, or the very Excefs of Sorrow, fo far ftupefies the Senfe of Feeling, that it destroys itself. And when it leaves us, often it carries off with it, our Strength and Health, and bequeaths to us a weak Body and a feeble Mind, and entails upon

the

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