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Good Company, Good Government of our Paffions, and the like. And particular Means fitted for the acquiring of every particular Virtue; and perhaps adapted to our particular Occafions and Circumftances. The Manner too, with fome Pain and Violence to ourselves, is here pointed at, in the Words, pulling out, cutting off, and cafting from And fo I come now to the

us.

3. Third and last Thing I proposed to confider from the Words, namely, the Danger of Suffering any Member to go on in being an Inftrument of Sin: For it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members fhould perish, and not that thy whole Body fhould be caft into Hell. By this we see the vast Confequence of governing all our Members, so as that none of them may prove an Occasion of Sin. It is amazing and dreadful to think how eafy and imperceptible almost the Beginnings of Sin are, but how fatal the End of it: It begins with a Glance of the Eye, a Touch of the Hand, a Sound of the Ear, a Word of the Tongue, a Motion or Dance of the Feet, an idle Vifit, or fome fuch thing: It proceeds to a finful Delight, and then to actual Wickednefs: From fingle Acts of which it goes on to an Habit or Cuftom, till the whole Soul is polluted. This bad Difpofition of the Soul prevents the Influence of good Exhortations, and all the Means of Grace; or if they have any Operation, it goes no farther than fome feeble Refolutions of Amendment, and thefe perhaps at fome diftant Time, which the Force of the evil Habit doth eafily break through and diffipate; fo that the Man is faft bound in the Fetters of his evil Customs, till Death feizes him, before he has repented and amended. And as Death feizes him,

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fo Judgment finds him, and commits him to Hell Torments, from which there is no Redemption. So that from the firft to the laft; a very fmall matter of Care in the Beginning, the reftraining the Extravagancy of a Thought, the Keeping the Eye from fixing on a dangerous Object, the Keeping off of our Hands, or the declining a Vifit; in fhort a little Good Government of the Senfes and Members, might have prevented a whole Eternity of Milery in Hell. But the Mischief is, tho' all this is very Natural, the Devil doth fo blind Mens Understandings, that they will not perceive or believe it, till it is too late and then they would give a thoufand Worlds, if they had them, to have their Life to begin again, that they might become New Men and Women. We may tell you over and over, till we are weary, that this Infidelity will be your Ruin; but at the fame time may complain with the Prophet, Who hath believed our Report? O Mortify in time your unruly Members, and indulge them not in finful Courses; better to fuffer the Pain of a little Self-Denial now, than to suffer one Sin, which will certainly spread like a Gangrene, and at laft, if not cut off in time, infect both Soul and Body, that they will be good for nothing but to be caft into Hell. Thus now we fee what Abundant Care our Saviour has taken to ftop up all the Doors and Windows, and Avenues, and Flood-Gates by which Sin enters. Some, this Restraint upon the Eyes and Hands, and the former upon the Heart and Thoughts, may seem severe. But if ye confider the Matter right, ye will find it quite otherwife; it being much easier to keep out Sin, particularly the Sins of Uncleanness, of which our Saviour was here treating,

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treating, from the Heart, and Eyes, and Hands, than indulging them there, to refrain from the outward grofs Acts of Fornication and Adultery. It is eafier to abftain altogether, than beginning any Sin, not to go on to the Finishing of it. So much for the first Senfe of the Words I mentioned. The other two I must reserve to another Opportunity. I fhall conclude with the Words of St Paul to the

Coloffians: (a) Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth, Fornication, Uncleanness, inordinate Affection, evil Concupifcence, and Covetoufness, which is Idolatry; for which things fake, the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Difobedience.

He that hath Ears to hear, let him hear.

Now to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be all Praise, Honour, and Glory, Might, Power, and Dominion, for ever and ever.

(a) Col. iii. 5.

Amen,

SER M.

SERMON XX.

MATT. V. 29.

And if thy right Eye offend thee, pluck it out, and caft it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members fhould Perish, and not that thy whole Body fhould be caft into Hell. Ver. 30. And if thy right Hand offend thee, cut it off, and caft it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members fhould Perish, and not that thy whole Body Should be cast into Hell.

I

The Second Sermon on this Text.

Na former Difcourfe on thefe Words, I fhewed you that the chief Purport and Design of them, is to cut off all the Occafions of Sin, particularly the Sins of Uncleannefs, of which our Saviour had been treating immediately before. This Advice he wraps up in a figurative Expreffion, borrowed from that Operation of Surgery, whereby we take off gangren'd Members, that the Contagion of them may not further fpread to infect the whole Body. This in general is the Purport of the Words; but what particular Advices are aimed at under this general Exhortation, Interpreters are not fo fully agreed. Without troubling you

with any Opinions of the Probability of which I am not myself well fatisfied; there were three Things I told you might very naturally fall under this general Advice; namely,

1. The curbing our Curiofity and evil Inclinations, as to the use of our bodily Members; the restraining, mortifying, and governing of them, that they should not act but by the fuperiour Direction of our Reafon and Conscience.

2. The abandoning the Friendship and Conversation of such beloved Perfons, and the Use of fuch beloved Things (though ever fo dear and neceffary, like a Right Eye, or a Right Hand) as betray us into finful Courses.

3. The cutting off our Affection to all darling predominant Sins, which we love as well as a Right Eye, or a Right Hand.

Now having spoke to the first of these, the denying our felves as to the Ufe of the Members of our Bodies, whenever they would lead us into finful Courses, I proceed now to the other Two Things meant by pulling out of the Right Eye, and cutting off of the Right Hand.

II. The fecond Thing then I told you might be meant by these Words, and which is like wife a cutting off the Occafions of Sin, was, that if any Perfon or any Thing, as dear to us as an Eye or a Hand, even a right Eye, or right Hand, fhould prove the Occafion of our falling into any finful Course, that we should abandon the Friendship, Converfation or Enjoyment of fuch Perfons or Things.

1. To begin with the Perfons; there are many ways they may prove to us the Caufes or Occafions of Sin; and many ways too they are to be cut off or laid afide; for one general Rule will not

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