II.

SERM. and neceffary Duties, to which the Apostle exhorts them in the preceeding Verfe, the being fober, and watching unto Prayer: Above all which, it cannot be fuppos'd, that the Duty of converfing with one another according to the Rules of Good-Nature and Gentleness should be enjoin'd.

The Words, therefore, have, in the Second place, been thus also interpreted. Charity shall Cover the multitude of Sins, that is, fays the excellent Grotius, it will have a mighty Influence towards reclaiming Sinners from the Errour of their Ways; the Confequence of which is, That the Sins of Men thus reclaim'd, are pardon'd, or cover'd. Charity, which is an exalted Love of God and our Neighbour, will make us induftrous in procuring Glory to the One, by the Salvation of the Other. It will create a mighty Zeal for the Interests of Virtue, and the Honour of the Gospel, and the Good of our Souls; and it will run through all the Difficulties that lie in the way towards fo good an End, with Readiness and Pleasure. It

II.

will not be frightned from making At- SERM. tempts even on Those of the first Rank in Wickedness, the Worst and most Hardned of Men; because it knows, that Their Revolt from Sin to Virtue (if it can be compass'd) will be of mighty Confequence to Religion, and will probably draw whole Troops of Common Sinners along with it: The Sense they have of their Own Sins being cover'd, will make Them alfo eager, in their turn, to cover those of Other Men.

This is a very Good and Pious Sense of the Words, but (I believe, it will be allow'd me) no very Easy and Natural One they must be rack'd e'er they can be brought to confefs This Meaning. However, it was what that Learned Perfon was led into by a former Explication he had made of a Parallel place in St. James; which I fhall crave leave to produce at length, and to comment upon, because I take it to be the Key of the Text, which easily and readily lets us into the True sense of it. Brethren (fays St. James, at the Conclufion of his Epistle) if any One of James v.

You

SERM. You do Err from the Truth, and One

II.

Convert him, let him know, that he which converteth a Sinner from the Errour of his Ways, shall fave a Soul from Death, and shall hide a Multitude of Sins. He intended to shut up his Epistle with recommending to them One of the most important and useful Virtues, That of endeavouring the Converfion and Reformation of Men. And he intended alfo to stir them up to the Exercise of this Virtue by the most powerful Motives he could propofe: What are they? Why, firft, That He who converteth a Sinner from the Errour of his ways, fhould confider, that he faveth a Soul from Death; and then, secondly, and chiefly, That he shall [alfo] cover a multitude of Sins. Whofe Sins? Thofe of the Converted Perfon? Nay, but That was already faid, and much more than that in the foregoing Motive, He shall fave a Soul from Death: for furely the faving a Soul from Death, neceffarily includes and presupposes the Remiffion of its Sins. It must then be meant of His Sins who makes, and not of His who becomes,

the

II.

the Convert And Thus indeed this SER M. Laft Claufe carries a New Motive in it, diftinct from That in the Former; and such an One as rifeth beyond it, and more fenfibly toucheth those to whom it is address'd; and was therefore fit to be propos'd in the Laft place, and to be left, as a Sting, in their Minds. 'Tis as if St. James had faid more at length, "Let such an one know, that He shall, " by This Means, not only fave a Soul “from Death, (though This it fe'f be a very Great and Defirable Thing) but "fhall alfo (which more nearly concerns "him) fecure to himself on this account "the Pardon of many Sins.

Now the Words of St. James here explain'd, are exactly the fame with those of St. Peter, in my Text; and the Occafion upon which they are introduced, and their dependance on the Context is much the fame in both Places; except only that they are used in my Text as a Motive to Charity in general, but in St. James, with regard only to One main and eminent Branch of it, the Converfion of Souls: What therefore

St.

SER M. St. James means by them, is meant also

II.

by St. Peter: and, confequently, that most Obvious and Easy Senfe, which I mention'd at the Entrance of this Difcourse, is, in all probability, the Truest: And, as fuch, I fhall take the liberty here once again to repeat it. It is This, "That the Virtue of Charity is of fo 66 great price in the fight of God, that "They, who poffefs and exercise it in σε any Eminent Manner, are peculiarly "entitled to the Divine Favour and Par"don, with regard to numberless Slips "and Failings in their Duty, which they << may be Otherwife guilty of. This

great Chriftian Perfection, of which "they are Mafters, fhall make many "little Imperfections to be over-look'd "and unobferv'd; It shall Cover the "multiude of Sins.

Nor are there wanting Parallel Places in other parts of Holy Writ, which confirm this Interpretation of the Words, and the Doctrine contain'd in it. For befides those Paffages in the Apocryphal Tob xii.9. Writers, which directly affirm that Alms Eccluf. shall purge away Sin, and that As Water quencheth

iii. 30.