7l4'en tempted to Evil by their own E2 f s. And here what I would principally obferve SE R ra; is, that lulls are only the occafions or temp- II. tations to moral evil, not neceffitating caufes. ``Y`°"/ The mind is free, and voluntarily determi- neth itfelf upon the fuggeftions of appetites and paffions, not irrefìf'<ibly governed by them ; to fay otherwife, is to reproach the conftitution and the author of it ; and for men to lay upon him the blame of their own faults, which yet their confciences cannot help taking to themfelves. But experience íheweth, that whereas the motions of appe- tite and pail-ion are common to men, forne fuffer tharnfelves to be hurried away by them without any refiraint, always to their felf condemnation, and the difapprobation of the reft of mankind who know it, while other men of like paffions peremptorily re- jeft their folicitations in forbidden inflances, always to their praife and the inward fatif- faftion of their own mind. Let us refle t on what paffeth in our own heart on fuch occafions, to which none of us can be orangers ; and we fhall be convinced that we have the power of controuling the in- clinations and tendencies which arife in our mind, or not contenting to them, and a power of fufpending our confcnt till we have farther confidered the motives of aftion, D 2 and
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