12 Temptations to Evil; not from God. S ER M. tempting us to fin, or even leaving us by his L conftitution in a Rate of indifference to it, he hath done all which was confiftent with our freedom to prevent our falling into it. And thus it appeareth, that in the frame of our nature the foundations of virtue are laid ftrong and deep, and that we are not tempt- ed to evil, but rather warned and fortified againft it. Again ; if we confider the adminiftration of providence, and the divine condu& to- wards all men, we thall find that the fame defign is regularly purfued by methods be- coming the wifdom of God, and bell fuited to our condition ; the defign, I mean, not of tempting us to fin, but preferving us from. it. As God fent men into the world, a fpecies of rational beings, fitted by the ex- cellent faculties wherewith he endued them for rendering him very important fervice, and enjoying a great meafure of happinefs, and an higher kind than any other inhabi- tants of this earth are capable of; for con- templating the order and beauties of the world, and offering to the author of it the praife due to him for the manifeftation of his wifdom and goodnefs, in the inanimate and brutal parts of the creation, for imita- ting the moral perfections of the fupreme Being
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