Of 'Self-Denial. 3 when this, I fay, comes in competition with S E R ivr; confcience, and the virtuous affections ; the L one, or the other, muff be denied ; and they are are both comprehended in ourfelves : but it is the former our religion requires us to deny. To fpeak in the Idle of the facred writer jufl now referred to, when the conceptions of Tuft are entertained and carry the determination of the mind, then fin is brought forth, when confcience prevails, and the practical decilon is on its fide, then an ad of chriflian felf- denial is perfected. This notion of a diverfity of practical prin- ciples, or fprings of a &ion in the human heart, is familiar in the fcriptures and other moral writings; nor without it can we underftand the praäice of virtue in our prefent Rate, which is a (late of trial and difcipline. We meet in the ancient moralifis, frequently, with a di- ftin&ion between the rational and irrational, the merely fenfitive and the intelligent, the in- ferior and the fuperior part of men. There are fome parts of our conflitution common to us with the brutal kinds ; for the animal na- ture to anfwer the ends of its being, and it's prefervation, is mov'd by inftinEls to purfue its proper objets; but we are capable of reflection, which the brutes are not ; of confidering the ends of thofe inftincts, and thereby judging of B 2 the
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