Impenitent sinners warned of their misery and summoned to judgment delivered in two sermons,…

2. Here we see one great reason why there is so much horrid wickedness committed in the ⟨p. 48⟩World, the root of it indeed is in that Original Sin, which the hearts of all men are by nature full of, and is a fountain that is always sending forth its bitter streams: and he was never rightly acquainted with his own naughtiness, who is not led by the observation of his actual prevarication to the source from which all do derive: However, there are those restraints under which the Corruption that is within men is held back from breaking forth into prodigious Enormities, which is none of the least of these favours which God indulgeth the children of men withal, but for which all humane Societies must disband, and one, and not the least of these, is the d•ead of an after reckoning imprinted on the Consciences of men, by which they are kept in awe; when therefore this chain, with which God ties men up, and sets bounds to their violence, is taken off, and men are insensible of any impressions from it, what will not their impetuous lusts make them dare to do? It is the Psalmists observation in Psal. 36. 1. The transgression of the wicked saith in my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes, and did men think of, or believe the terrors of the Lord, they would surely make them afraid; were the expectation of a future judgment, and a strict reckoning then to be taken of men, of all that ever they have done, realities to them, they would not dare to do as they do. Would the bold Sinner dare to run himself upon the point of the sword of revenging Justice, if he knew that it is for his life: Would ⟨p. 49⟩the miserable children of men dare Heaven with their impious blasphemies, and all manner of brutish abominations, if they believed that there is a great and holy God, who will bring them before his bar, and punish them with everlasting destruction for these things? No, there is a root of Atheism in the bottom of all this; Psal. 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. And they that entertain arguings in their minds to put them on calling in question the being and perfections of God, will certainly, on the same Topics, conclude that there can be no Judgment. The Prophet therefore is given to understand, what it was that nourished the daring abominations of those Jews,