explained and recommended. 377 nues, and decres and averfions are excited S E R M. by them, which prompt him to action. He XV. hath appetites which incline him without reflection at all, to eat, and drink, and enjoy other fenfual pleafures; he hath pain- ful fenfations, which determine him to avoid fome things as hurtful; and the uneafy ap- prehenfions of danger whereby he is excited to fhun it and provide for his fafety. Thefe and fuch like inftincts or determinations of nature belonging to the animal life, are the firft fprings of action which we perceive in ourfelves, and they continue to have an in- fluence on us through the whole of our pre - fent Rate ; not as principal or the governing part of our conftitution, for the attentive mind will difcern in itfelf higher capacities and affections, which juftly claim the domi- nion over its active powers; but fome of degenerate mankind are fo far loft to a fenfe of the dignity and privileges of their being, as to fubject themfelves to the affections of the animal nature, as if there were nothing more noble in them than the brutes : In this criminal, which the brutes are not, that they voluntarily difhonour their fuperior con- dition, and degrade thofe excellent powers, with which God has diftinguifhed them. This is what God pronounced concerning the ÍI
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