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SER M. and that this is a power often exerted by us, The most vehement defires of meat and drink are refifted upon an apprehenfion of danger; the love of money, and the love of honour, are checked, and their strongest folicitations fometimes utterly denied, thro' the fuperior force of contrary paffions, or upon motives of confcience. Are not we conscious of a power to apply the attention of our minds to motives which urge to actions directly oppofite to thofe which our appetites tempt us to, or to a refolved forbearance of thofe actions; and do not our hearts often reproach us for not thus engaging our attention? All which clearly fheweth that we are under no conftraint by our own lufts, and that temptation only, in the strictest and most proper fenfe, proceedeth from them, not fin itself neceffarily, nor any otherwife than by an abuse of our freeagency, by a voluntary, and therefore criminal confent. Not only fo, but the oppofite affections, the virtuous and good, though they do not neceffarily produce the practice of virtue (we find ourselves able to resist them, and very often do it) yet are they of greater force in the human constitution than the lower inclinations, or, what St. Paul calleth the law of the mind, is fu

perior to the law in the members, and hath SER M. a greater fanction added to it; a much higher II. pleasure is the reward of obedience to it, and the most severe penalty of bitter felfreproaches is annexed to disobedience; whereas thwarting the oppofite law produceth inward fatisfaction and peace. We muft, therefore, conclude, that the first motions of luft, or of appetite and paffion in the mind, are not fins; and it is a dangerous mistake to think they are, tending to caufelefs fcruples and uneafinefs in the minds of good men, and which is worfe, to difhonourable and unbecoming thoughts concerning God; I fay, they are not fins for the reafons which have been infinuated, namely, that they are not in our power, I mean, as to their being or not being. And we are fure our wife, equitable, and good lawgiver doth not require impoffibilities; and because they are the natural growth of our conftitution; and if they are to be reckoned fins at all, they are the fins of the conftitution, which every one may see where it will end, and to whofe account it must be charged, not the fins of the free-agent, on whose will they do not depend. Let us suppose the cafe of one man tempting another; he representeth to his mind the idea of pleasure

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SERM. or advantage of fome kind, to accompany II. the action he foliciteth him to: Is this any fault on the part of the tempted, provided he doth not confent to the criminal act, but hath only the fimple apprehenfion of the pleasure or advantage propofed? And is not the cafe parallel, of him, to whose mind the idea of the pleasure or advantage is presented by his own luft, but he with equal integrity refuseth his consent to the finful means of obtaining it? For instance, the defire of riches is in itself lawful: Suppose then that the fuggeftion arifeth in a man's mind, that by fome fubtle fraud, or by an act of violence, by faulty parfimony, with-holding an act of generous equity or beneficence, which religious virtue recommendeth, riches may be acquired or encreased; accordingly the unjust action, or the mean and fordid refolution, is proposed; this is the temptation, but it goeth no farther, the propofal is rejected with firm refolved honesty and good affection, and, the directly contrary is chofen and executed. In this cafe, I make no difficulty in saying, there is no more fin committed, than if the temptation had been offered by another perfon, To illustrate this farther, let us obferve what we are all agreed in believing, as a moft certain truth,

II.

that our Lord Jefus Chrift was perfectly in- SER M. nocent; he had no fin, but was holy, harmlefs, and undefiled; yet having affumed the human nature, with all its finless infirmities, he had appetites fuch as we have, that is, uneafy fenfations, with defires to the objects fit to remove them; he had hunger, and thirst, and wearinefs, as the gospel expreffly faith, with defires of meat, and drink, and rest; was there any guilt in all this? One inftance is very remarkable in the approach of his laft extream fuffering, in which he fubmitted to the will of his Father, fo as perfectly to please him; we find him thus praying, Luke xxii. 42. Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. The plain meaning of which is this; Father, if it was confiftent with the eternal counfels of thy divine wisdom, and that thy glory and the falvation of men might be equally promoted without my fuffering this cruel and ignominious death, the firft apprehenfions that human nature hath of fo fevere and bitter a potion, make me even defire that I should escape it; but fince, in thy infinite wisdom and goodness, thou knoweft it fit and neceffary that I should undergo it, I acquiefe intirely, and submit myself abfolutely

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SER M. to thy moft holy will and pleasure. Here is a plain example of the reluctance of nature against duty, or of defire arifing from the inferior part of the human constitution disagreeable to the will of God, which fo far may be called a temptation. Nor is it an indignity to our Saviour, to say that he was tempted; but thofe defires and reluctances were conquered by the fuperior force of good principles, which is an illustrious pattern of the most perfect virtue,

It is in a way agreeable to what I have faid, that St. James defcribeth the whole procefs of temptation, even to the compleating of fin, and the fatal effect of it, which is death; in the words following my text, he faith, then when luft hath conceived, it bringeth forth fin, and fin when it is finished bringeth forth death. By the conceptions of luft, are meant what I have called the motions of appetite and paffion; they are the occafions of fin, and tend to bring it forth; but they are not fins, if they become abortive, or be ftrangled in the birth; they are not finished tranfgreffions; they die, and shall never rise in judgment to our condemnation; they propofe fin, and even strongly incite to it, but if they are refolutely oppofed, and the heart with fixed purpose determineth