II 40 Men tempted to Evil by their own Lufls. S E R MM to thy molt holy will and picafure. Here II. is a plain example of the reluctance of na- ture againft duty, or of defire arifing from the inferior part of the human conftitution difagreeable to the will of God, which fo far may be called a temptation. Nor is it an indignity to our Saviour, to fay that he was tempted ; but thofe delires and reluc- tances were conquered by the fuperior force of good principles, which is an illuftrious pattern of the molt perfect virtue. It is in á way agreeable to what I have faid, that St. .7arnes defcribeth the whole, procefs of temptation, even to the compleat- ing of fin, and the fatal effect of it, which is death ; in the words following my text, he faith, then when luft bath conceived, it bringeth forth fin, and fin when it is _fined bringeth forth death. By the conceptions of lufi, are meant what I have called the motions of appetite and paflion ; they are the occafions of fin, and tend to bring it forth ; but they are not fins, if they become abortive, or be firangled in the birth; they are not dnifhed tranfgref3ions; they die, and dial] never rife in judgment to our condem- pation; they propofe fin, and even ftrongly incite to it, but if they are refolutely oppo- fed, and the heart with fixed purpofe de- terminet.I
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