li /8 Iretnptations to Evil, tiol from Cod. S E R M. from their being originally from God, name - I ly, that they take their rife from the lulls of the heart, the conception whereof intro - duceth fin, which, when it is finifhed by the confent of the mind, endeth in death; the apoftle, I fay, then repeateth an earneft cau- tion againft this error, fo folicitous he was to preferve chriftians from it, ver. i6. Do not err, my beloved brethren, that is, by im- puting, in any manner or degree, your fins or temptations to God ; in oppofition to which he declareth, ver. 17. every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variablencfs, neither fhadow of turning. All the moral capacities and af- fe Lions of our nature, and all the gifts of grace, are from the eternal Father, the pure fountain of intelleaual light and happinefs, who cannot be fo inconfiftent with himfelf, as to be the author of darknefs, fin, and mifery ; for there is no fhadow of turning with him, there is really no poffibility, and we ought never to imagine an appearance of his turning from good to evil. The neceffity and importance of this doc- trine may be further illuftrated by confider - ing, on the one hand, the danger of men's falling into oppofite fentiments or prefump- tions
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