have set to the affections, the purfuit and en-SER M. joyment. The defire of eating and drinking I. may be lawfully gratified, fo far as the neceffity of life requires, but in being drunk with wine there is excess, as the apostle speaks; indulging appetite in such a measure as to oppress nature, and render us unfit for rational, manly, pious, virtuous and charitable exercises; this is finful, and ought to be denied, Natural affection to parents, to brothers and fifters, and to children is innocent, nay virtuous: and to be without it is one of the worst of characters: but it becomes criminal when it prevails to fuch a degree, that thro' the influence of our dearest relatives, or a folicitude for their interest, we defert our duty to God. Here the province of felf-denial is very plain, It is to restrain our appetites, defires, and paffions within due bounds, fo as to preferve the fupremacy of confcience; their juft fhare to the higher af fections in forming our tempers, and their proper influence in the direction of our conduct. And if the inftincts of nature are to be fo far under government, our obligation must be as great with refpect to propenfities we have contracted, which are fometimes ftrong even as nature itself, taking their rise from prejudice, custom, and falfe notions, which we have imbibed thro' inattention. And,

Lastly,

SERM.

I,

Lastly, It fhould be our conftant care, that our thoughts do not unduely dwell on the objects of the lower appetites and paffions; for the tendency of this is to ftrengthen our affections to them, and increase their influence on our practice. We cannot hinder the first impreffions of these objects, nor the first motions of our affections and defires to them: but the entertaining them in our thoughts, and meditating upon them is more voluntary. The imagination is often employed actively in colouring them, and fetting them off with advantage; in forming scenes of pleasure which heighten defire, and various projects in order to fulfil it. This might be in a great measure restrained, by a careful attention and purpose of heart to exercise our thinking powers in a better and more proper manner: but when our vain thoughts lodge within us, and the fancy, not corrected by reafon, heightens the apparent agreeableness of tempting objects, the mind is thereby betrayed into a compliance with the motions of lufts beyond the bounds which God's law has fet us: and this by frequent indulgence grows into habit, which becomes a ftrong principle of action, forming the temper, and depriving the fuperior powers of their just dominion.

As

I.

As this is the natural progress of fin, where- SERM. by it advances to its reign in our mortal bodies, bringing the foul into the most abject flavery; in oppofition to it, self-denial become habitual would recover us to true freedom, restoring the fovereignty of reason and conscience. And the acquiring of fuch a habit I would principally recommend as the very perfection of our obedience to our Saviour's command in the text. It is acquired as all other habits are, by customary practice or frequently repeated acts. Let us then arm ourselves with ftrong refolution, and in pursuance of it, accustom ourselves to watch over the first tendencies of appetite and paffion; to examine carefully the report of the imagination concerning them; to fufpend our consent to their motions, till we have maturely weighed and compared them with the juft rules of action, and feen them agreeable; peremptorily to reject their demands when confcience gainsays, or is doubtful; and refolutely to oppose their dominion. When this kind of discipline is habitual to us, the difficulties of self-denial are conquered, and the practice of our duty is easy.

Indeed, when men have long gone on in an evil course, and have been used to indulge every appetite without controul, their first

effays

SERM.effays in the way of self-denying virtue will I. be painful to them. The * Prophet Jeremiah compares the impotence of mind to act worthily, which is contracted by vicious habits, to natural impoffibilities. As the Ethiopian cannot change his fkin, nor the leopard his Spots, fo they who have been accustomed to do evil, cannot learn to do well: which, at least, imports a very great difficulty. But even this difficulty is not altogether unconquerable. Strong virtuous refolutions, by the affiftance of divine grace, have got the better of very bad habits. The conqueft however cannot be obtained without a ftruggle; and they who will break off their fins by repentance, and return to the paths of righteousness, must lay their account to meet with pain and uneafi nefs, especially at the beginning. To this imperfect state of mens minds are accommodated the Scripture reprefentations of this duty, which defcribe it under the notions of mortifying the deeds of the body and crucifying the flesh with its affections and luftst. Our Sa viour uses the figurative expreffions of ‡ plucking out the right eye and cutting off the right band, which mean the fame thing with denying ourselves, only fignifying, that violence must be done to vicious and worldly inclina

tions

* Jer. xiii. 23. + Gal, v. 24. † Matt. v. 29.

I.

tions confirm'd by habit, and the reluctance SERM, arifing from their prevalence in the heart must be overcome, be it ever fo painful. This is the disadvantage which attends our infancy in a virtuous state; and therefore the scripture account of felf-denial under the idea of mortification was well adapted to the new disciples of Chrift in the first age, as it is to others in every age, whofe condition is parallel in refpect of weakness.

But Chriftians fhould always be growing up to perfection in every virtue and in order to that increafing in felf-denial, which it may be expected will go on the more fuccessfully, because it ftill becomes more eafy. And indeed it may be very useful for Christians of the highest attainments who are zealoufly preffing on to perfection, by a customary feverity towards their inferior appetites, to lay reftraints upon their liberty, within the limits of what is strictly lawful, that they may the more effectually reftore and preferve a dominion over themselves, that thereby they may be the more stedfaft, abounding in the work of the Lord. This kind of difcipline St. Paul ufed, as he tells 1 Cór. ix. 27. I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; that is, as appears from the preceding verfes, by denying myself liberty in the ufe of indifferent things, in order to my