-40.11111111111 8 Temptations to Evil, not from God. S E R M. cannot folicit any others to it, nor give them I. the leaft countenance in it, which mull al- ways neceffarily fuppofe a corrupt affection. Another of the divine attributes is goodnefs, equally effcntial to his character, and of equal importance and neceffity to the pur- pofes of religion : Without believing it, we can neither love him, nor truft in him, nor do good in imitation of him. But if God be good, he cannot tempt any man ; for that proceedeth from the ntmoft malevo- lence, Peeing it aimeth at the unhappinefs, nay, the utter ruin of the human nature. Perhaps there may be a fond, blind affec- tion in one man tempting another, directed by the bias of his own depraved heart, to- wards criminal pleafure, or imagined advantr age of fome kind or other, in which he would have the tempted to participate ; but the mind which comprehendeth the true intereft of mankind, and feet li what the molt enlarged underftanding mull fee, the infeparable con - netion between virtue and happinefs, and between vice and extreme mifery ; fuch a mind, I fay, could not be imagined to fo- licit any man to fin, will that he fhould fin, or do an at with defign to induce him to it, without a malicious intent to deftroy him. Secondly,
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