sin is but one step, as well as the first; and, if the Devil prevail with us to take one step, why should he not prevail with us to take the last step as well as the first step, seeing it is but one? Your second sin no more exceeds your first, than your first doth your duty; and so of the rest.

We should not, therefore, account any sins small; but look upon them as the spawn of all the vilest abominations. And, as you would abhor death and hell, so abhor the least sin; because it hath a plot upon us, in subserviency to greater sins, that, without infinite mercy, will certainly bring to and terminate in death and hell.

vi. Consider, that THOSE SINS, THAT WE COMMONLY CALL THE LEAST, ARE INDEED THE GREATEST AND VILEST PROVOCATIONS.

Some sins are sins of greater infamy and scandal: other sins are sins of greater guilt and sinfulness; rude and blustering sins. Those sins, that are of greater infamy, are such as make him, that commits them, a scandalous person: and these are commonly reputed great and crying sins by the world: if a man bé a swearer, or a drunkard, a whoremonger, or an adulterer, or a murderer; these sins make a man a scorn and a reproach to all that pretend to civility. But there are other sins, that are inward and spiritual sins; that are indeed more sinful, though less scandalous: such as unbelief, hypocrisy, hardness of heart, slighting and rejecting of Christ, resisting the Holy Ghost, and the like.

Now herein lies the great mistake of the world, in estimating of sin. At the naming of the former, we are ready to tremble: and so, indeed, we ought; and, not only so, but we ought to shun and avoid those, that are guilty of them, as monsters of But we have no such abhorrency against the latter: if the life be free from gross enormities, we look upon unbelief and impenitency but as small and trivial sins.

men.

Now those sins, that we thus slight, are incomparably the greatest and the vilest sins. Murder, adultery, blasphemy, and the rest of those crying impieties, could not damn the soul, were it not for unbelief and impenitency. It is not the swearer, or the drunkard, that perishes; but it is the unbeliever: He, that believeth not, is condemned already: John iii. 18. And, so, hating of God, and a secret scorning and despising of holiness and the ways of God; these are sins, that do not defile and pollute the outward man; and many, doubtless, are guilty of

them, that are of a fair and civil life and conversation: and, yet, these are sins, that may outvie the most horrid sins, for the hottest and lowest place in hell.

We see then what small heed is to be given to the judgment of the world concerning Small Sins. Those, that the world counts Little Sins, may be great and heinous in the sight of God; for God judgeth not as man judgeth: he is a spirit; and, therefore, spiritual sins and provocations, such as inordinancy in the thoughts, desires, and affections, are sins, possibly, that are more heinous in God's sight, than more carnal and gross sins are.

vii. Consider this: DAMNATION FOR LITTLE SINS WILL BE MOST AGGRAVATED AND MOST INTOLERABLE DAMNATION.

Oh, will it not be a most cutting consideration to the soul in hell, when it shall think, "Here I lie for ever in unquenchable flames, for the gratifying of myself in that, which I called Little Sins! Fool that ever I was, that I should account any sin little, that would bring to this place of torment! There is another of my fellow-wretched sinners, between whom and me there was as much difference as there was between me and a true saint: he profane and daringly wicked, I honest and civil; and yet, for allowing myself in those sins to which the world encouraged me and called Little Sins, the same hell, that holds him, shall hold me for ever. Oh, the dreadful severity of God! Oh, wretched folly and madness of mine! Oh, insufferable torments and anguish!"

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Believe it, thus will those, that are damned for Small and Little Sins, reflect upon their former lives. Such will be their dismal reflections; and such will be yours also: expect no other, if, being warned of the great evil that there is in Little Sins, you will yet persist in them without repentance.

And thus I have done with the Doctrinal part of the Text.

IV. I now come to make some APPLICATION of it.

i. And the First Use shall be by way of corollary. If so be that Little Sins have in them so much danger and guilt as hath been demonstrated to you, WHAT SHALL WE THEN THINK OF GREAT AND NOTORIOUS IMPIETIES? If sands will sink a man so deep into the lake of fire and brimstone, how deep then will

their hell be, that are plunged into it with talents of lead bound upon their souls?

Whilst I have been setting forth the aggravations of the great evil that there is in Little Sins, possibly some profane spirit or other may thus argue: "If Little Sins be so dangerous and damning, then, since it is utterly impossible to keep ourselves free from all sins whatever, what need I scruple the greatest sin more than the least? I am stated down under a necessity of sinning; and I am told, that the rate, that every sin will stand me in, is eternal death: the least is not less, and the greatest is no more. It is but ridiculous folly, for a malefactor nicely to shun the dirt, and pick out the cleaner path, when he is going to execution: and so it is but a folly, for me to go the straiter and severer way to hell. And, therefore, since there is no difference between sins in the end, but all alike lead down to the same destruction, I will put no difference between them in my practice."

But, let such presumptuous sinners know,

1. That, as all men's sins are not equal here, so neither shall all men's torments be equal hereafter.

Some shall be beaten with fewer, others with more stripes. Some shall be chastised with whips, others with scorpions. The eternal furnace shall be heated seven times hotter for some, than for others. And for whom is the greater wrath prepared, but for the greatest sinners? In the blackest and hottest place in hell, is chained the great Devil, that Arch Rebel against God: and, after him, are ranked whole clusters of damned spirits; each, according to his several degrees, both of sin and torment. He, that suffers the least, suffers no less than a hell; but, yet, he is in a condition to be envied by those, whose daring and desperate wickednesses have brought upon them far heavier and sorer vengeance. These shall have cause to envy the state of little sinners, even as they do envy the state of glorified saints in heaven. Do not therefore conclude, that, because the wages of the least sin is death, therefore the wages of the greatest sin is no more, nor no worse: for, though, in a natural death, there is no being dead a little; yet, in the spiritual and eternal death, there are degrees. As the civil man was a saint here on earth, in comparison of the lewd and debauched sinner; so shall he be happy hereafter, in comparison of his torments. Let such, therefore, seriously consider, how sad and infinitely wretched their condition must needs be, since no less than damnation itself shall be judged a

happiness, compared with what they shall suffer, and what wrath they shall lie under to eternity.

2. Consider, In the commission of great sins, you do not avoid the commission of less sins: but only add to the guilt of them; and to that damnation, that will follow upon them.

It is true, if a mere civil man, whose highest attainments are but some commendable external virtues; if he could change the guilt of all the Little Sins that he hath committed in his whole life, for the single guilt of some great and heinous sin, (though I pretend not to know the size or quantity of wrath that every sin deserves) yet possibly his eternal punishment might be hereby somewhat diminished. But this is the misery of great and presumptuous sinners, that they stand guilty of as many Little Sins as they do, that perish under the guilt of no other but Little Sins. Where do you see a person that is given up to vile abominations, but he lives also in a constant course and practice of Lesser Sins? The drunkard, the unclean person, and the rest of them, are they not always sinful in their thoughts, frothy and vain in their discourses? And is it nothing to you, that you incur damnation by Little Sins, unless you can advance your own destruction? unless you can promote yourselves to be next of all in torments to the Devil himself, by your greater provocations and impieties?

As you see in rivers, the natural course of them tends to the sea; but the tide, joining with them, makes the current run the swifter and the more forcibly: so is it with sin. Little sins are the natural stream of a man's life; that do of themselves tend hell-ward, and are of themselves enough to carry the soul down silently and calmly to destruction: but, when greater and grosser sins join with them, they make a violent tide, that hurries the soul away with a more swift and rampant motion down to hell, than Little Sins would or could do of themselves. Therefore, when you hear how much evil there is in Little Sins, presume pot to think there is nothing more in Great Sins. Yes, certainly: God is more provoked by them: your own consciences are more wounded by them: hell is more inflamed by them and your own souls are more widened and capacitated by these Great Sins to receive fuller and larger vials of God's wrath, than they would be by the commission of Lesser Sins only.

We may take an estimate, in what proportion God's dealings with sinners will be, when he comes to punish them; by observing how he deals with them, when he comes to convince and humble

them. The sober sinner feels no such pangs and throes, usually, in the new birth; but God deals with him in a more mitigated and gentle manner: but when, at any time, he humbles a notorious blustering sinner, usually his method is, even to break his bones and scorch up his marrow; and, that he may save him from a hell hereafter, he creates a very hell in his conscience here. Now, as it is usually thus in conviction, so, is it always thus in condemnation: of which convictions are but, as it were, the type and resemblance. When God comes to execute his wrath and vengeance upon sinners for their sins, his hand shall be very heavy and sore upon civilized sinners: oh, but the bold, daring, presumptuous sinner, him he will press down, and break in pieces with all his might. He, that suffers the least, shall yet lie under intolerable wrath; but where, then, unless in the flaming depth of the bottom of hell, will the infamous and profane sinner appear?

ii. Another use we may make of this doctrine is this. Is there so great evil and danger in Little Sins? then HERE BEHOLD

A WOEFUL SHIPWRECK OF ALL THE HOPES AND OF ALL THE CON

FIDENCES OF FORMALISTS AND SELF-JUSTICIARIES, that hope to appear before God, upon the account of their own innocency and harmlessness.

Hence learn, that a quiet, civil, honest life, free from gross and scandalous impieties, is no good plea or title for heaven.

Yet, truly, this is that alone, that the generality, especially of the ignorant, rely upon. Their lives are harmless, their dealings upright: none can justly challenge them, that they have done them any wrong: were they presently to appear before God's judgment-seat, they know nothing by themselves, that deserves eternal death: therefore, if God save any persons in the world, sure they are in the number of them.

. But is it so, indeed? What! do you know nothing by yourselves? Had you never so much as a thought in you, that stept awry? Did you never lodge a thought in you, that had in it the least vanity, impertinency, or frivolousness? Have you never uttered a word, that did so much as lisp against the Holy Law of God? Will you dare to tell God you never yet did an action, that innocency itself would be ashamed to own? Have your lives, in every part, been as strict and holy, as the Law of God commands them to be? If not, it is in vain to plead, for heaven, that your conversations have been honest, civil, and harmless;