SERM. I fhall in the following difcourfe distinctXV. ly confider thefe two contrary principles of

action, fight and faith, by which, I hope, we shall see the reasonableness and excellency of the religious, or the christian, life conducted by the latter principle, and be determined to chufe it; at the fame time we may be able to form a true judgment concerning the character of our own converfa→ tion.

Firft, Let us confider what it is to walk by fight: As walking in the proper and literal fenfe is a voluntary motion, it fignifieth here, and in the ufual ftile of the fcriptures, ordering the courfe of our voluntary and deliberate actions. As we are confcious of our being free agents, whofe works depend upon our own choice, the question is, what guide we fhall follow in them? That which is the most obvious, and firft occurreth to our minds, the apostle here calleth fight, the knowledge conveyed to us by our fenfes, and the views we have of the external ftate of things in this world. Every man knoweth his prefent conftitution to be fuch, that a multitude of outward fenfible objects make strong impreffions on his mind: The ideas of them are conveyed by various ave

nues

pues, and defires and averfions are excited SERM. by them, which prompt him to action. He XV. hath appetites which incline him without any reflection at all, to eat, and drink, and enjoy other fenfual pleasures; he hath painful fenfations, which determine him to avoid fome things as hurtful; and the uneafy apprehenfions of danger whereby he is excited to fhun it and provide for his fafety. These and fuch like inftincts or determinations of nature belonging to the animal life, are the first springs of action which we perceive in ourfelves, and they continue to have an influence on us through the whole of our prefent state; not as principal or the governing part of our conftitution, for the attentive mind will difcern in itself higher capacities and affections, which justly claim the dominion over its active powers; but fome of degenerate mankind are so far loft to a sense of the dignity and privileges of their being, as to fubject themselves to the affections of the animal nature, as if there were nothing more noble in them than the brutes: In this criminal, which the brutes are not, that they voluntarily dishonour their fuperior condition, and degrade thofe excellent powers with which God has diftinguished them. This is what God pronounced concerning

the

SERM. the groffly corrupted human race, whom he XV. therefore destroyed with a flood, Gen. vi. 3.

that they were flesh; their minds fo carnal, and thereby their manners fo depraved, that they were become unfit for that rank in his creation, which he had appointed for them. This is the very loweft fenfe of walking by fight, and yet so prevalent it is in fome men, and fo governeth their difpofitions, as to form their temper and true character. The Epicurean philofophy, ignorant of God, and destroying all the principles of religion, placed the chief good of man in pleasure ; and to a vicious tafte, the pleasures of the external fenfes are the higheft: But it prevaileth more in the affections of many men than in their fpeculations, and the language of their hearts is truly expreffed by the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 32. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.

Let us preserve ourfelves as long as we can in the free enjoyment of all the pleasures of the animal life, for when we die there is an end of us and all our enjoyments for ever: In like manner Solomon reprefenteth Eccl. xi. 9. the spirit and fixed ruling inclination of the licentious youth, to walk in the way of his heart, and the fight of his eyes, without confidering that for all this God will bring him

into judgment. Nay, the fame author feems, SER M. by way of penitential confeffion, to speak XV. of himself as far gone in the fame profligate temper, chap. ii. 10. Whatfoever mine eyes. defired, I kept not from them: I with-held not my heart from any joy: What can this mean but that he did not check any of his inclinations? He had no rule over his own Spirit, his appetites and paffions; but gratified every defire which was excited by his fenfes, which is to walk by fight in the worst manner, as the most voluptuous men do; who, as the apostle faith, Titus iii. 3. Are foolish, difobedient, and deceived, ferv ing divers lufts and pleasures.

2dly, Another fort of converfation, not so groffly fenfual, may be comprehended in walking by fight: Every one knows that the human life is distinguished from that of all other living things, with great advantages and ornaments, befides thofe which arise directly from the purely intellectual and moral capacities; tho' these capacities themselves, joined as they are in man to the fenfitive life, raise it to a perfection which it could never rife to without them: It is easy to difcern what an addition both of beauty and happiness, reason, and the focial virtues

SERM. bring to our present state of being, which XV. otherwise it could not be capable of; but, I

say, abstracting from the highest uses of reafon and morality, which make the most important difference between man and the reft of the animal kinds, there are other powers in the human nature which fet our condition far above all the brutal fpecies. Men have large comprehenfive imaginations, which afford them a vast variety of agreeable entertainment; a sense of natural beauty in the contemplation of objects which continually occur to them, and whence they learn to diverfify the pleasures of life by productions of their own art in imitation of nature: An ability of communicating their fentiments, and thereby mutual aid and comfort to one another by fpeech; a fenfe and a defire of honour and approbation from each other, which, not to mention any relation it hath to virtue, the highest perfection and improvement of human nature, and the greatest ornament of human life, yieldeth a delight to the mind, far fuperior to any we have by external fenfes, and produceth effects very advantageous to fociety. In thefe refpects the life of man hath a great pre-eminence above the beafts; it is rendered much more elegant as well as happy and its sphere both