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great a number in fimilar circumstances, fome, it is certain, do refift the folicitations that affail them; and if we are not equally fuccefsful, it is only because we are not equally vigilant and active. Sacred history (to fay nothing of profane) will furnish us with numberlefs examples of the most invincible integrity, temperance, and fortitude under the fevereft trials, under every poffible difadvantage, both of nature and fituation, that can be imagined. What, therefore, has been done once, may be done again. Human nature is nearly the fame in all ages. Our paffions are not ftronger than those of our forefathers; our difficulties in fome refpects much less; our natural ftrength and fupernatural affiftances to the full as great; and if therefore we do not ftruggle against the world as effectually as they did, we are left without excufe.

But if, at laft, men will be convinced by no experience but their own, to their own we must refer them; and if they will neither believe the teftimony of man, nor the promifes of God, they will at least believe themfelves, and give credit to the report of their

own

own hearts. And in fact may we not appeal to every man's own breaft, whether he has not actually, on certain occafions, refifted thofe folicitations, which he declares are not to be refifted; whether he cannot recollect a time when a regard to reputation, to intereft, to decency, to propriety, or some other cafual confideration, has repreffed the violence of his predominant paffion, when most urgent and impetuous? The common occurrences of life make this absolutely neceffary; and every one that is not loft to all fenfe of honour and shame, and all regard to external appearances, muft confefs it to have been frequently the cafe with himself. How often, for inftance, does the prefence of fome refpectable person restrain even the most irritable man alive from a fudden burft of paffion, which at another time, and under the fame temptation to indulge, he would have declared it was impoffible to controll? It is notorious, that men can mortify their strongest paffions when they please, and that they do every day forego the most exquifite gratifications, from what they call prudential motives. There are not any more importunate appetites in man,

than

than those of hunger and thirst, and yet, what is more common than, for the fake of life and health, to do the utmost violence to both? Nay, even when the natural rage of thirst is still further exafperated by the burnings of a fever, yet, if fuch abftinence be deemed neceffary, we can and do deny these moft earnest cravings of the foul, and in this and many other inftances undergo far greater torment for the fake of preferving a life we muft part with at last, than is almost ever ncceffary for fecuring the poffeffion of life

eternal.

What our own experience teaches us, our own confciences confirm to us, which, by inftantly fmiting us for every wicked action, however ftrongly we were prompted to it by nature or folicited by temptation, loudly intimate to us, that it was in our power to have done otherwife; for what is naturally impoffible, can never be imputable, either here or hereafter. The truth is, thefe fpecious pretences of of ungovernable paffions and invincible temptations cannot ftand the teft even at the partial tribunal of our own hearts; and how then fhall they appear before that

moft

moft awful and impartial one, THE JUDGE

MENT-SEAT OF GOD?

Let us not, then, any longer delude ourfelves, and affront our Maker, by throwing all the blame of our misconduct on the strength of temptation or the frailty of our nature. It is enough that we have acted wickedly, let us not go on, moreover, " to charge God "foolishly." Let us rather, with the royal pfalmift, "confefs our wickednefs, and be

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forry for our fins." A cafual lapfe, or a distressful surprize, God may and will, no doubt, upon our fincere repentance, forgive; but a cool deliberate defence of our impiety, is an infult upon Heaven, which can hope for no mercy. To accufe our conftitution, is to accuse the author of that conftitution; to fay we are by any means compelled to fin, is in fact to fay we are tempted of God ;" an affertion not only repugnant to the plaineft declarations of fcripture, but to the plainest dictates of common fenfe. It is not God that tempts, but man that will be tempted. It is not by God's appointment, but by man's own negligence and supineness, that temptation becomes too strong for his virtue. The growth

growth of the paffions is gradual, and may be seasonably checked; the approach of temptation is vifible, and may be easily guarded against. But, instead of that, we generally invite the danger, and court our own ruin ; we fofter up fome favourite appetite by conftant indulgence, and then mistaking, wilfully mistaking, this monftrous production of habit for the genuine child of nature, very disingėnuously complain of our paffions and conftitutions. We see the enemy of our falvation approaching at a distance, and, inftead of preparing to make a vigorous refistance, or (what is generally the fafeft way) a timely retreat, we either fit ftill in ftupid indolence and fuffer ourselves to be fubdued, or we run to meet the destroyer with open arms, and make hafte to be undone.

That fome men are by nature more prone to vice than others, and that there is a difference in the original frame and temperament of our minds, as there certainly is in that of our bodies, is not perhaps to be abfolutely denied; but it must at the fame time be allowed, that a bad conftitution of mind, as well as of body, may by proper care and attention

be

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