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and in vain shall we seek for remedy or healing any other way than that proposed. This, therefore, we shall inquire into.
The first thing supposed in the proposition before laid down was taken from the circumstance of the time wherein, and with reference whereunto, our Lord Jesus Christ delivered the rule of the necessity of repentance and reformation, unto an escape from total destruc- tion; and this was a time when sin greatly abounded in the church and nation. And this supposition is the foundation of the truth of the whole assertion ; for in other cases it may not always hold.
I. Our first inquiry must, therefore, be, — " When is a people or nation so filled with sin, or when doth sin so abound among them, as, in conjunction with the things afterward to be insisted on, to render their salvation or deliverance impossible, without repentance and reformation?" And it doth so, —
First. When all sorts of sin abound in it. I do not judge that every particular sin, or kind of sinning, that may be named, or may not be named, is required hereunto ; nor is it so, that there should be the same outrage m public sins — for instance, in blood and op- pression— as there hath been at some times, and in some places of the world, the dark places of the earth being filled with habitations of cruelty; nor is it so, that sin doth reign at that height, and rage at that rate, as it did before the flood, or in Sodom, or before the final destruction of Jerusalem, or as it doth in the kingdom of Antichrist : for in that case there is no room or place either for repentance or re- formation. God hides from them the things that concern then* peace, that they may be utterly and irrecoverably destroyed. But this, I will grant, is required hereunto, — namely, that no known sin that is com- monly passant in the world can be exempted from having a place in the public giiilt of such a church or nation. If any such sin be omitted in the roll of the indictment, peace may yet dwell in the land. It would be too long, and not to my purpose, to draw up a catalogue of sins — from the highest atheism, through the vilest uncleanness, unto the lowest oppression — that are found amongst us. I shall only say, on the other hand, that I know no provoking sin, condemned as such in the book of God, whereof instances may not be found in this nation. Who dares make this a plea with God for it, namely, that yet it is free and innocent from such and such provoking sins? " Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob ; " let us stand up, if we can, and plead for ourselves herein. But the only way whereby we may come to plead with God in this matter is fully described, Isa. i. 16-20. It must be repentance and reformation, laying a ground for pleading and arguing with God for pardon and mercy, that must save this nation, if it be saved, and not a plea for exemption from judgments on the account of our
612 THE DESIGN OF IMPENDENT JUDGMENTS.
innocency. This is that which, of all things, God most abhoiTod in the people of old, and which all the prophets testified against in them.
But yet, to speak somewhat more particularly unto the first part of the proposition, in reference unto ourselves, — There are four sins, or four sorts of sins, or ways in sinning, which, unless God prevent, will be the ruin of this nation.
1. The first is atheism, — an abomination that these parts of the world were unacquainted withal until these latter ages. I do not speak concerning speculative or opinionative atheism, in them that deny the being of God, or, which is all one, his righteous government of the world ; for it will not avail any man to believe that God is, unless Avithal he believe that " he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him ; " — yet, of this sort it is to be feared that there are many amongst us; yea, some that make great advantages of religion, do live and talk as if they esteemed it all a fable. But I speak of that which is called practical atheism, — when men live and act as if they Avere influenced by prevalent thoughts that there is no God. Such the nation is replenished withal, and it exerts itself especially two ways: —
(1.) In cursed oaths and blasphemous execrations, whereby the highest contempt is cast on the divine name and being. The most excellent Thuanus,^ giving an account of the Parisian massacre, with the horrible desolations that ensued thereon, ascribes it, in the first place, unto the anger of God revenging the hon-id oaths and mon- strous blasphemies Avhich, from the court, had spread themselves over all the nation. Hist, lib. liii. Nor is it otherwise among us at pre- sent ; though not generally amongst all, yet amongst many, and those unpunished.
(2.) Boldness, confidence, and security in sinning. Many are neither ashamed nor afraid to act, avow, yea, and boast of the vilest of sins. The awe that men have of the knowledge, conscience, and judgment of others, concerning their evil and filthy actions, is one means whereby God rales in the world for the restraint of sin. When the yoke hereof is utterly cast away, and men proclaim their sins like Sodom, it is the lieight of practical atheism. Nor, I think, did it ever more abound in any age than in that wherein we live.