The Caufes and Danger of Self- Deceit. 79 And yet there is a fufficient certainty, where SERM. the mind is confcious of a calm deliberate at- III., tention, and that it is fo far impartial as not `'V"--i to be prepoffefs'd in favour of fome intereft or objeft of affeâion which it is not willing to bring to clear light. This may be illuf- trated by the familiar example of the bodily eye, the figure ufed in the text ; it is in a due difpofition fufficient for its proper pur- pofes in the natural life; indeed a man in a fever or a dream may not perceive fenfible things truly as they are, yet one who knows himfelf not out of order, and awake, may truft his eye -fight within its own fphere. In like manner, though he who is full of hy- pocrify and iniquity, may deceive and flatter himfelf in his own blinded eye, yet the truly virtuous heart, calmly and deliberately atten- tive to its own difpofitions and exercifes, and knowing in itfelf that it has no prejudice in favour of any vice, but would with pleafure receive a convi ition of all its faults in order to amendment, and thus, not condemning itfelf but rejoicing in the teftimony of con - fcience concerning its fincerity, and perfe- vering with Ready refolutions in the uniform pra Lice of all that is pure, and juft, and honeft, as far as it is underftood ; fuch .a 4 heart,
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