natural judgment and confcience do ftill dictate to us what is good, and what we ought to do; and the impreffions of the natural law, as to the great lines of our duty, are still legible upon our hearts. So that the law

written in God's word is not contrary to the law written upon our hearts. And therefore it is not truly faid, that we are born under one law, and bound to another but the great disorder is, that our inferior faculties, our fenfitive appetite and paffions, are broke loofe, and have got head of our reafon, and are upon all occafions apt to rebel against it; but our judgment ftill dictates the very fame things which the law of God doth injoin.

It is likewife very visible, that the fad effects of this degeneracy do not appear equally and alike in all. Whether from the better or worse temper of our bodies, or from fome other more fecret caufe, I fhall not determine, because I know not. But that there is a difference, is evident. For, though a proneness to evil, and fome feeds of it, be in all; yet we may plainly dif cover in many, very early and forward inclinations to fome kinds of virtue and goodness; which, being cultivated by education, may, under the ordinary influence of God's grace, be carried on with great ease to great perfection.

And there are others who are not fo ftrongly bert to that which is evil, but that, by good inftruction and example in their tender years, they may be fwayed the other way, and without great difficulty formed to goodnefs.

There are fome indeed, which is the hardest case, in whom there do very early appear strong propenfions and inclinations to evil; efpecially to fome particular kinds of vice. But the cafe of thefe is not defperate; though greater attention and care, and a much more prudent management is required in the education of fuch perfons, to correct their evil tempers, and, by degrees, to bend their inclinations the right way. And, if the feeds of piety and virtue be but carefully fown at firft, very much may be done by this means, even in the most depraved natures, towards the altering and changing of them; however to the checking and controuling of

Ser. 28. their vitious inclinations. And if thefe perfons, when they come to riper years, would purfue thefe advantages of education, and take fome pains with themselves, and earnestly seek the affiftance of God's grace, I doubt not but even these perfons, by degrees, might at laft get the mattery of their unhappy tempers.

For, next to the being and perfections of God, and the immortality of our own fouls, there is no principle of religion that I do more firmly believe than this, that God hath that love for men, that, if we do heartily beg his affiftance, and be not wanting to ourselves, he will afford it to every one of us, in proportion to our need of it; that he is always beforehand with us, and prevents every man with the gracious offers of his help. And I doubt not but many very perverse natures have thus been reclaimed. For God, who is the lover of fouls, (as the fon of Sirach calls him), though he may put fome men under more difficult circumftances of becoming good than others, yet he leaves no man under a fatal neceffity of being wicked, and perishing everlast ingly. He tenderly confiders every man's cafe and circumftances; and it is we that pull destruction upon ourfelves with the works of our own hands: but, as fure as God is good and juft, no man in the world is ruined for want of having fufficient help and aid afforded to him by God for his recovery.

2dly, It is likewife to be confidered, that God did not defign to create man in the full poffeffion of happiness at first, but to train him up to it by the trial of his obedience. But there could be no trial of our obedience without fome difficulty in our duty, either by reason of powerful temptations from without, or of crofs and perverfe inclinations from within.

Our first parents, in their state of innocency, had only the trial of temptation without; to which they yielded, and were overcome; having only a natural power to have refifted the temptation, without any aid of fupernatural grace. And that weakness to good, and pronenefs to evil, which they by wilful tranfgreffion contracted, is naturally derived to us; and we neceffarily partake of the bitternefs and impurity of the fountain from whence we fpring. So that we now labour under a dou

ble

ble difficulty; being affaulted by temptations from without, and incited by evil inclinations from within. But then, to balance thefe, we have a double advantage; that a greater reward is proposed to us, than, for ought we know, would have been conferred on our first parents, had they continued innocent; and that we are endued with a fupernatural power to conflict with these difficulties. So that, according to the merciful dispensation of God, all this conflict between our inclination and our duty does only ferve to give a fairer opportunity for the fitting trial of our obedience, and for the more glorious reward of it.

3dly, God hath provided an univerfal remedy for this degeneracy and weakness of human nature: fo that what we loft by the firft Adam, is abundantly repaired to us by the fecond. This St. Paul tells us at large, Rom. v. that as by one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; fo the grace of God hath abounded to all men by Jefus Chrift; and that to fuch a degree, as effectually to countervail the ill effects of original fin, and really to enable men, if they be not wanting to themselves, to mafter and fubdue all the bad inclinations of nature, even in those who seem to be naturally most corrupt and depraved.

And, if this be true, we may, without any reflexion upon God, acknowledge, that though he did not at firft create man fick and weak; yet, he having made himfelf fo, his pofterity are born fo. But then God hath

not left us helpless in this weak and miserable state, into which, by wilful tranfgreffion, mankind is fallen : but, as he commands us to be found, fo he affords us fufficient aids of his grace by Jefus Chrift for our recovery.

And though there is a law in our members, warring a gainst the law of our minds, and captivating us to the law of fin and death; i. e. though our fenfitive appetite and paffions are apt to rebel against the reafon of our minds, and the dictates of our natural confcience; yet every Christian may fay with St. Paul, Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jefus Chrift; i. e. hath not left us deftitute of a fufficient aid and ftrength to enable us to conquer the rebellious motions

of

of fin, by the powerful affistance of that grace which is fo plentifully offered to us in the gofpel. And this is the cafe of all those who live under the gofpel. As for others, as their cafe is best known to God; fo we have no reason to doubt, but that his infinite goodness and mercy takes that care of them which becomes a merciful creator; though both the measures and the methods of his mercy towards them, are fecret, and unknown to us. 4thly, The hardest conteft between man's inclination and duty, is in those who have wilfully contracted vitious habits, and by that means rendered their duty much more difficult to themfelves; having greatly improved the evil inclinations of nature by wicked practice and cuftom. For the fcripture plainly fuppofeth, that men may debauch even corrupt nature, and make themfelves tenfold more the children of wrath, and of the devil, than they were by nature.

This is a cafe fadly to be deplored, but yet not utterly to be defpaired of: and therefore thofe who, by a long progrefs in an evil courfe, are plunged into this fad condition, ought to confider, that they are not to be refcued out of it by an ordinary refolution, and a common grace of God. Their cafe plainly requires an extraordinary remedy. For he that is deeply engaged in vice, is like a man laid fast in a bog, who, by a faint and lazy ftruggling to get out, does. but fpend his ftrength to no purpofe, and finks himself the deeper into it. The only way is, by a refolute and vigorous effort to fpring out, if poffible, at once. And therefore in this cafe, to a vigorous refolution, there must be joined an earnest application to God for his powerful grace and affistance, to help us out of this miserable state. And if we be truly fenfible of the defperate danger of our condition, the preffing neceflity of our cafe will be apt to infpire us with a mighty refolution: for power and neceffity are neighbours, and never dwell far asunder. When men are forely urged and preffed, they find a power in themselves which they thought they had not : like a coward driven up to a wall, who, in the extremity of distress and defpair, will fight terribly, and perform wonders; or like a man lame of the gout, who, being affaulted by a present and terrible danger, forgets

his disease, and will find his legs rather than lose his life.

And in this I do not fpeak above the rate of human nature, and what men thoroughly roused and awakened to a sense of their danger, by a mighty refolution, may morally do, through that divine grace and affiftance which is ever ready to be afforded to well-refolved minds, and fuch as are fincerely bent to return to God and their duty. More than this I cannot fay for the encouragement of those who have proceeded far in an evil course : and they who have made their cafe fo very defperate, ought to be very thankful to God that there is any remedy left for them.

5thly, From all that hath been faid, it evidently ap pears, how malicious a fuggestion it is, that God feeks the deftruction of men, and hath made his laws on purpofe fo difficult, and cross to our inclinations, that he might have an advantage to ruin us for our difobedience to them. Alas! we are fo abfolutely under the power of God, and fo unable to withstand it, that he may deftroy us when he pleaseth, without feeking pretences for it: for who hath refifted his will? If goodness were not his nature, he hath power enough to bear out whatever he hath a mind to do to us. But our destruction is plainly of ourselves, and God is free from the blood of all men And he hath not made the way to eternal life fo difficult to any of us, with a defign to make us miferable; but that we, by a vigorous refolution, and an unwearied diligence, and a patient continuance in well-doing, might win and wear a more glorious crown, and be fit to receive a more ample reward from his bounty and goodness: yea, in fome fenfe, I may fay, from his juftice; for God is not unrighteous, to forget our work and labour of love. He will fully confider all the pains that any of us take in his fervice, and all the difficulties that we ftruggle with, out of love to God and goodness. So that this objection, from the clafhing of our duty with our inclination, is I hope fully anfwered; fince God hath provided fo powerful and effectual a remedy against our natural impotency and infirmity, by the grace of the gospel.

And though, to those who have wilfully contracted

vitious