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have set to the affections, the purfuit and en-SER M. joyment. The defire of eating and drinking I. may be lawfully gratified, fo far as the neceffity of life requires, but in being drunk with wine there is excess, as the apostle fpeaks; indulging appetite in fuch a measure as to opprefs nature, and render us unfit for rational, manly, pious, virtuous and charitable exercifes: this is finful, and ought to be denied. Natural affection to parents, to brothers and fifters, and to children is innocent, nay virtuous: and to be without it is one of the worst of characters: but it becomes criminal when it prevails to such a degree, that thro' the influence of our dearest relatives, or a folicitude for their intereft, we defert our duty to God. Here the province of felf-denial is very plain. It is to restrain our appetites, defires, and paffions within due bounds, fo as to preferve the fupremacy of confcience; their just share to the higher affections in forming our tempers, and their influence in the direction of our con

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duct. And if the instincts of nature are to be fo far under government, our obligation must be as great with respect to propenfities we have contracted, which are fometimes ftrong even as nature itself, taking their rife from prejudice, cuftom, and falfe notions, which we have imbibed thro' inattention. And,

Laftly,

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Laftly, It should be our conftant care, that our thoughts do not unduely dwell on the objects of the lower appetites and paffions; for the tendency of this is to ftrengthen our affections to them, and increase their influence on our practice. We cannot hinder the first impreffions of thefe objects, nor the first motions of our affections and defires to them: but the entertaining them in our thoughts, and meditating upon them is more voluntary. The imagination is often employed actively in colouring them, and fetting them off with advantage; in forming scenes of pleasure which heighten defire, and various projects in order to fulfil it. This might be in a great measure restrained, by a careful attention and purpose of heart to exercise our thinking powers in a better and more proper manner: but when our vain thoughts lodge within us, and the fancy, not corrected by reafon, heightens the apparent agreeableness of tempting objects, the mind is thereby betrayed into a compliance with the motions of lufts beyond the bounds which God's law has fet us: and this by frequent indulgence grows into habit, which becomes a ftrong principle of action, forming the temper, and depriving the fuperior powers of their just dominion.

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As this is the natural progress of fin, where- SERM. by it advances to its reign in our mortal bodies, bringing the foul into the most abject flavery; in oppofition to it, self-denial become habitual would recover us to true freedom, restoring the fovereignty of reason and conscience. And the acquiring of fuch a habit I would principally recommend as the very perfection of our obedience to our Saviour's command in the text. It is acquired as all other habits are, by customary practice or frequently repeated acts. Let us then arm ourselves with ftrong refolution, and in pursuance of it, accustom ourselves to watch over the firft tendencies of appetite and paffion; to examine carefully the report of the imagination concerning them; to fufpend our consent to their motions, till we have maturely weighed and compared them with the just rules of action, and feen them agreeable; peremptorily to reject their demands when confcience gainsays, or is doubtful; and refolutely to oppose their dominion. When this kind of discipline is habitual to us, the difficulties of felf-denial are conquered, and the practice of our duty is eafy.

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Indeed, when men have long gone on in an evil courfe, and have been used to indulge every appetite without controul, their first

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SERM. effays in the way of felf-denying virtue will be painful to them. The Prophet Jeremiah compares the impotence of mind to act worthily, which is contracted by vicious habits, to natural impoffibilities. As the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his Spots, fo they who have been accustomed to do evil, cannot learn to do well: which, at least, imports a very great difficulty. But even this difficulty is not altogether unconquerable. Strong virtuous refolutions, by the affiftance of divine grace, have got the better of very bad habits. The conqueft however cannot be obtained without a ftruggle; and they who will break off their fins by repentance, and return to the paths of righteousness, must lay their account to meet with pain and uneafi nefs, especially at the beginning. To this imperfect state of mens minds are accommodated the Scripture representations of this duty, which defcribe it under the notions of mortifying the deeds of the body and crucifying the flesh with its affections and lufts +. · Our Sa-·· viour uses the figurative expreffions of plucking out the right eye and cutting off the right hand, which mean the fame thing with deny ing ourselves, only fignifying, that violence. must be done to vicious and worldly inclinations

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+ Matt. v. 29.

tions confirm'd by habit, and the reluctance SERM. arifing from their prevalence in the heart muft I. be overcome, be it ever fo painful. This is the disadvantage which attends our infancy in a virtuous state; and therefore the scripture account of felf-denial under the idea of mortification was well adapted to the new difciples of Chrift in the firft age, as it is to others. in every age, whofe condition is parallel in refpect of weakness.

But Chriftians fhould always be growing up to perfection in every virtue and in order to that increasing in felf-denial, which it may be expected will go on the more fuccessfully, because it ftill becomes more easy. And indeed it may be very useful for Chriftians of the highest attainments who are zealously preffing on to perfection, by a customary feverity towards their inferior appetites, to lay reftraints upon their liberty, within the limits of what is ftrictly lawful, that they may the more effectually reftore and preferve a dominion over themselves, that thereby they may be the more stedfast, abounding in the work of the Lord. This kind of discipline St. Paul used, as he tells 1 Cor. ix. 27. I keep under my body, and bring it into fubjection; that is, as appears from the preceding verfes, by denying myfelf liberty in the use of indifferent things, in order to my being

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