i 222 Self -government efential to Thifdont: SE R M. who is voluptuous in youth, becometh, per- IX. haps, covetous in his more advanced years, and peevith and froward in his old age ; fo that even oppofite difpofitions prevail in him at different times. Betides, they have been, the very ftrongeft of them, conquered and amended, by firm refolution, by diligence in the ufe of proper means, with the aßîí}- ance of divine grace. As to the caufes of thefe affetions and propenfions in men, there is generally thought to be, and probably is, a remote tendency to particular difpofitions of mind from the very frame of the body. One is fanguine, another is cholerick, another is melancholy ; but there is no fuch infelicity of bodily conftitution as hath a necefíary in- fluence on the mind, while it continueth poffeífed of its natural powers to form its temper, otherwife the diforders arifing from this caufe would be faultlefs; the conftitu- tion of the body may minifter great temp- tations, yet the mind bath a natural force, and is under a law to refift them. I am apt to believe, the more `general caufe of criminal diforders, and contracted faulty difpofitions, is from rafh opinions haftily taken up, and on no juft grounds, Every man may find, if he confiders what paffeth
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