Abernathy - Houston-Packer Collection BX9178.A33 S4 1748 v.4

C ro Temptations to Evil, not from God. SE R M. however, advanceth (lowly to its maturity ; 1. but in every ftep of its progrefs, if we ufe it aright, it cafteth a growing light upon, and ítrengtheneth what I may call the virtuous pre- fenfation originally planted in our minds ; for doth not reafon teach any man who calmly attendeth to it, that the God of na- ture, by prepofeffing the mind fo power- fully in favour of the things which are pure, and honeft, and virtuous, hath not led us away from our true intereft and happinefs, but direly to the profecution of it ? To this fenfe of good and evil, there is added in our conftitution a ftrong inforcement of the choice, and the practice of the former, in that high pleafure of felf- approbation which is naturally and infeparably annexed to it, which is the greateft enjoyment that we are capable of; and a ftrong motive to our efchewing the other, that is, moral evil, in that inward felf- condemning and remorfe, which as naturally and neceffarily follow it, and is of all pains the moft intolerable. Muft it not be acknowledged, then, that the frame of our nature prompteth to the prac- tice of virtue as its proper end, and that the defigning caufe of it did not intend to tempt us to evil, but to provide againft our being tempted ? It is true that liberty is a part of the

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