termineth against them, no crime is com- SERM mitted, nor fhall be imputed. I do not II. mean, by all this, that guilt is not contracted without the external overt acts to which men are tempted; fo indeed human judicature determineth, for its cognizance cannot reach to what paffeth in the mind; but God trieth the hearts of the children of men, and confcience judgeth for him upon the determinations of the heart, which are known only to itself. And we must be convinced this is juft; for the inquiry and the judgment being concerning moral evil, it relateth only to the prevalent affections, the choices, and purposes of the mind, in which it is confummated; not to external actions, which may be prevented through want of power to accomplish them, or by fome undefigned occafion; or the mind may be hindered to execute its ill defigns by motives in which there is no goodness at all. But if we are confcious to ourselves that however we may be tempted from within as well as from without, however we may be folicited to evil by the reprefentations of pleasure, profit, honour, danger, or whatever the temptation be; yet that the propofed choice and purpose is peremptorily refufed, we ftand clear in the judgment

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SER M. judgment of our own confciences, and have II. no reason to apprehend the judgment of God against us. I come now, in the

Third place, to fhew, that in the account which the text giveth, we may reft our inquiry, as to all the valuable purposes of it, concerning the origin of fin in ourselves. The true end of fuch inquiry, is our prefervation and deliverance from fin, that we may know how to avoid it, or repent of it when committed; excepting fo far as they contribute to thofe ends, fpeculations about it are curious but unprofitable. Now, from the apoftle's inftruction we have feen that fin is not from God; he cannot himself be tempted with evil, neither doth he tempt any man; that, indeed, the principal occafion of it is the infirmity of our own conftitution; but fin doth not neceffarily arise even from that; we are tempted, it is true, by our lufts, or the appetites and paffions of our nature, and the propenfities which we have contracted, but we ourfelves, voluntary conscious agents, are the fole, compleat, and adequate causes of our own transgresfions ; we have ourselves wholly to blame for them, and the heart of every one of us fhould fmite and reproach us, taking to us shame

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shame and confufion as guilty; and it is SER M. only a right government of our own spirits, the springs of action within us, which will be an effectual fecurity against fin for the future. The question concerning the origin of moral evil abftractly, is a very arduous one, of an high nature, and embarraffed with great difficulties. How came fuch a thing into the world, fince the one fupreme governor is infinitely good, fince the being of every thing that is in the whole series of caufes and effects in the universe, was in his power to have prevented, and within the reach of his knowledge to foresee? Particularly, why was man made with fuch weakness in a frail tabernacle of flesh and blood, which not only giveth pain in its decays, crampeth the intellectual powers of the mind, and hindereth its progress in knowledge and fpiritual enjoyments; but, which is worst of all, tempteth it to fin, tempteth so, that nothing else can do it fo powerfully, not the fubtileft infernal spirit; nay, so that men are apt to think its temptations irresistible, and their very fins a fort of conftitutional infelicities? Since this is mentioned, and it is what we very naturally fall into, leading to very dangerous mistakes, I shall offer fome things upon it very briefly,

SERM. which may contribute to the quieting our II. minds, and preferving in them right fentiments concerning God. It ought still to be acknowledged, that we are in a state of temptation by divine appointment; it is very natural to think that all rational creatures fhould be fo; and fuitable to our best notions of the deity, of his wifdom, equity, and goodnefs, that he should put them into a ftate of probation, till by bearing their trial, and refifting temptations, their integrity is confirmed, and they are prepared to enjoy the reward of it. As in the material, fo in the moral world, there are various orders of beings, and degrees of perfection, and the wisdom of God is manifefted in that variety. There are bodies celeftial and terreftrial, which have different glories, and many different degrees belong to both these kinds; and of intelligent beings, there are many different orders, very unequal in the measure of their perfection and enjoyment. Can

any one take upon him to say, that in ftoring the universe with proper inhabitants, there fhould not be a fpecies fo conftituted and fo fituated as we are, fo imperfect, and fo liable to the danger of moral evil, yet not without fufficient defences against it? If it be fo, we have no reason to complain, but

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to be well contented with the condition ap- SER M. pointed for us; for the fovereign difpofer, II. who himself originally made all things, fixeth the whole order of being; who else could do it? and placeth the feveral kinds in their proper ranks as it seemed good to him. The ends to be ferved by this part of the universal fyftem, the condition of man upon earth, what relation it may have to other parts of God's great family, or his moral kingdom, comprehending all the kinds of rational creatures, this is above our comprehenfion; but furely it would be the greatest presumption and folly, to fay it can. ferve no fuch ends, and beareth no such relation as to render it capable of being useful and beautiful in the whole; and that it was not worthy of the wisdom and goodness of God to make this probationary state of ours a part of his great fcheme, frail as it is, liable to temptations, whereby every one is in danger of being, and many actually are, drawn away and enticed. But if we confider our condition by itself, and abstractly from the purposes it may ferve in the universe, which is a way of conceiving it more level to our capacities, it will appear, even in that view, no uneligible thing; and that the good in it overballanceth the inconveni

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