man, who thinketh at all, muft fee that the SERM, true perfection of his nature doth not con- XV. fift in, and his higheft happiness doth not depend upon, the gratifying without any controul or restraint every inclination or defire which happeneth to arise in him. There is an order established by the Author of our being, that the true ends of it may be obtained; there must be harmony, otherwise the human conftitution is an unfinished piece, not like the other works of God, which have all of them the plain characters of wife defign appearing in their beautiful union, the parts, however vario us, being mutually related to each other, and all agreeing in one common end. Now, if there is order and harmony intended originally in the frame of our minds, and if it be neceffary to the defign of our being and the highest enjoyment we were made for, there muft be government; a fubordination of fome affections to others, fo as the former shall be gratified only by the permiffion of the latter; all the active powers must be under a law to exert themfelves only in fuch a manner, and to fuch a degree, as one governing principle directeth. Of this we have a plain and fufficient evidence in ourselves, namely, that we cannot allow an unreftrain SERM. ed indulgence of every inclination or appetite XV. with the approbation of our own minds. We can never be happy in any thing while we are uneafy in ourselves, I mean, while pain. and discontent arife from a review of our own actions; but this is unavoidable when we act contrary to our fenfe of moral good and evil: Now, it is the first law of our nature, that we should be juftified to ourselves, which we can never be, without fubjecting all our defires and active powers to confcience. Still it is to be remembered that we are voluntary Agents, and as fuch must pursue the ends of our being; our happiness and the perfection of our nature refult from the actions which we chufe to do, indeed, they alone are properly our actions; we are not like many other creatures, which neceffarily, and without any activity of theirs, fulfil what is called the law of their nature, but fuch is our conftitution, that the ends of it can only be attained by the exercise of our liberty, and by an active obedience to the laws which God hath given us. We are not under a neceffity of acting according to the direction of every inftinct in our nature, but find in ourselves a power of fufpending the execution of what we are prompt ed SERM. ed to, and of deliberating, that we may freely do what to our own understandings XV. appeareth in the whole to be beft. This fheweth the advantage of what I mentioned at first, fome certain principle fixed as a general rule whereby to govern our lives: To run haftily into every action or courfe of action to which we are prompted, is unworthy of intelligent beings, for the reafons already infinuated; to go through the progress of a laborious inquiry upon every particular cafe, without having any settled maxim, to which we may appeal and be determined by it, would embarrass our understandings, and involve them in perplexing difficulties; whereas to have an invariable rule ready at hand with which we can compare every point we are confidering, leads to a just and easy decifion: In fact, it may be truly faid in fome fenfe, that every man doth fo conduct himself, whether he attendeth to it or not; he hath either a principle, or fome prejudice that hath the force of a principle, which guideth his whole courfe. What multitudes of mankind are there, who being accustomed to an uncontrouled gratification of their appetites and paffions, or having learned from their childhood, and merely from the example Bb 3 SER M. ample of others, a certain manner of acting, XV. go on in the fame beaten track without ever enquiring into the grounds of it; and these habits and prejudices are as a law which continually directeth them. Others more wifely confider the reafons of their conduct, and have certain principles upon careful examination approved to their own minds, to which they refer their measures as to a fettled rule which conftantly determineth them. The apoftle in the text mentioneth two principles of operation in the human mind, directly oppofite to each other; the one he rejecteth, the other he declareth to be the established rule by which he conducted his own life, and indeed, the common rule of chriftians; we walk by faith, not by fight. In the preceding part of this chapter he treateth of the glorious hopes in a future ftate which we have by Jefus Chrift, which he carrieth fo far as to a full affurance that when the earthly boufe of this tabernacle, that is, this frail mortal body, shall be dif folved, we fhall have a building of God, an boufe not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. The effect which this expectation produced was a moft earnest and folicitous defire of that eternal happiness which was to be confummated at the refurrection of SERM. the dead; and a confidence, as he calleth XV. it, or a firm and fteady refolution of adhering inviolably to his duty, whatever temptations or difficulties he might be exposed to. St. Paul for himself was refolved though he knew that bonds and afflictions did abide him, to persevere in propagating christianity, and endeavouring to make converts to it; and other christians are, at all hazards, to be ftedfaft and unmoveable, abounding in the work of the Lord, making it their chief study, while they are in the body, and when they depart from it, to be accepted of the Lord. The animating spring of this. fteady refolution and uniform tenor of converfation is faith, or a firm affectionate perfuafion concerning the great principles of religion, the being, the attributes, and providence, of the invifible God, the reality and excellence of piety and virtue, and the truth of the gofpel motives, particularly the future ftate of rewards and punishments; I fay, it is this faith, as in oppofition to fight, which hath a quite contrary tendency, or the rafh and hafty judgment of the mind con fining its views to fenfible objects, and the prefent vifible appearance of things. Bb. 4 I shall |