3o The Gofpel a Law of Liberty. S E R M. make contrary demands ; and if thofe demands II. be not complied with, they give him very great uneafinefs, the greateft often that the mind is capable of, fo that he cannot enjoy his lower pleafures without controul. It is true, that by a cuftomary indulgence to vicious in- clinations, that uneafinefs abates; but the peace and the liberty then enjoyed is unnatural, and rather a real flupidity. Betides, that it is of no certain continuance ; when outward gratifica- tions fail, when afHiftive events prefs the mind, or any other inevitable occafions of felf- refle ±ion, it comes then with a greater force and more exafperated feverity, becaufe con- fcience has been fo long laid afleep, and the tormenting prefages of future mifery as the penal confequences of fin, are a molt painful ingredient in it. On the other hand, when reafon and Confcience have their full force in the mind, when the inferior fprings of action are fubje ±t to them, and controuled by their law, there is an inward fecurity and peace, folid and lafting, and all the uneafinefs which arifes from the rebellion of the appetites and paffions, is over- ballanc'd by the very pleafure of thwarting and denying them. Upon the whole, then, it appears, that the only true liberty fuitable to the human nature, worthy to be defired by us, and which tends to our real
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