THE BORDERERS. 265 vidual ; forgetting that every man must bear his own burden, and suffer for his own sin ; for though multitudes may give countenance to your errors here, they will not answer for you hereafter. Do not follow those who have no settled course of their own who are hurried to and fro by every breath of custom - whom fashion leadethwhither- soever it listetb. The persons against whom we would guard you, though con- fident, are not without their fears ; but it is worth observing, that their fears sel- dom lie on the same side with their dangers. They fear not great practical errors ; these they soften down and treat with complacency ; these are tenderly mentioned as the infirmities of nature - weaknesses to which we are all liable. Almost every excess in personal gratifi- cation is thus kindly palliated : " Why did God give us both the disposition, and the means to indulge it, if indulgence were a sin ? There is but one excess they guard against - an excess, indeed,
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