10 Of Self - Denial. S E R M. pofition to the short and defe Live comments I. of the Scribes and Pharifees, at the 22 ver. he pronounces anger refting in the bofom, and breaking out into provoking and infulting words, tho' there be no blood -flied, I fay, he pronounces this to be a violation of the firth commandment, whereby the penalty of dif- obedience is incurr'd, and at the 28 ver. he states a plain cafe, wherein he exprefsly de- clares that adultery is already committed in the heart, without proceeding any further. In other parallel inftances, the fame judgment is to be made, and therefore we mull conclude, that the precept of felf-denial reaches to the preventing finful purpofes of heart, as well as the perpetration of outward evil ations. And in this cafe to deny ourfelves, is no more than what St. Paul tells us the gofpel, or the grace which brings falvation, was intended to teach men ; that is, to deny all ungodlinefs and worldly lulls ; as well as the as of impiety and vice, to which they folicit us. Thirdly, There are no appetites, delires, and paflions, planted in the human nature, but what tend to an innocent, if it be a moderate gratification. The fault lies only in the ex- cels ; or in tranfgreßing thofe limits which the obvious reafon of things, or the laws of God have
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