Page images
PDF
EPUB

SERM. for the fafety of the animal; but often carried beyond the bounds which that end prescribes.

I.

But, befides the inftincts originally planted in us for the prefervation of the animal life, and which terminate there, there are other defires and propenfities contracted from our knowledge of the world, and the common course of things in it, which are also a part of the Self to be denied. When we have begun to tread the path of life, and are capable of obferving the conditions of men, we obviously difcern a disparity in them: fome have much greater measures of power, honour, and wealth than others; and the advantage of fuperiority in these refpects is as eafily feen, for it furnishes more abundantly the means of various enjoyment. Hence arifes, though without any previous excitations in nature, ftrong defires, and an eager pursuit of riches and grandeur; which having no connection with the highest ends of our being, are to be retrench'd by the law of the mind; for, when they are indulg'd, they grow up to the pernicious vices of covetoufnefs and ambition; or what the apostle John calls the lufts of the eyes, and the pride of life; eminent branches of the love of the world, which he pronounces utterly inconsistent with the love of the Father, or true religion.

A

"

A multitude there are of other principles of SERM. action, or which have the force of principles, I. affections, paffions and determinations of one kind or other in the human mind, which may be confidered in the fame view, that is, as objects of felf-denial, because their tendencies often interfere with a right moral conduct, or with the duty of Chriftians. Fear fometimes brings a fnare; forrow is frequently immoderate, both often misleading men from the path of virtue, and drawing them into the most dangerous errors in practice. But I will not infist on these things particularly.

It is time we should confider what is meant by denying them, or whatever may be called Self: and certainly it is not that we should extirpate any natural affection, appetite or paffion. Our conftitution is what God has been pleas'd to make it. In vain fhould we attempt to make any effential alteration, and 'tis impious to think, that he requires it; for it would be to reproach his work as if it were faulty, and endeavour to deftroy it. But indeed our whole nature is wifely fram'd, and no part of it unneceffary, fo far from being evil. Every paffion, every appetite, every instinct in the mind has its particular ufe, as well as each member of the body; as any one may be convinc'd who attentively confiders that matter. Nor

B 4

SERM. Nor have we power over the first motions of

I.

our Instincts, any more than over their being. It is their nature to operate in fuggesting to the mind, what is agreeable to them, and fo far we are no more voluntary accountable agents, than in animal actions and motions, which have no dependance at all upon our own choice. Can it enter into any ones mind, that the uneasy senfations of hunger and thirst, with the fimple defire of meat and drink common to all animals, and preventing any thought or deliberation, that these are fins? The perfectly innocent Jefus, altogether free from every kind and degree of moral evil, had them as other men have; tho' fometimes 'tis certain the defire, but not without a voluntary indulgence, grows to a criminal excess; which is the vice of intemperance. The fame must be faid concerning other natural appetites and paffions, the first motions whereof are not faulty, tho' they may be the occafions of, or temptations to fin, when they are not duely regulated and reftrained, which is the province of reafon and confcience. But

Secondly, It is exceeding plain, that selfdenial imports our absolute refusal to comply with any motion or fuggeftion in our minds, from whatever quarter it fprings, fo far as to

do

I.

do what we know to be finful. There are SER M. some cases, wherein perhaps 'tis difficult to fix the precife limits of right and wrong; but there are others, wherein it is not difficult at all, and these by far the most numerous. Some actions are fo exprefly prohibited by the law of God, and have fuch a glaring turpitude and malignity, as strikes the mind at the first view of them; as adultery, murder, theft; the luft of a man's heart may entice him to all these. His lasciviousness may prompt him to the most odious acts of impurity; his covetousness may folicit him to steal; his wrath may push him on to the most destructive outrages against his neighbour. But felf-denial must pass for nothing at all, if it does not reftrain such exorbitances; and a man is abandon'd to himself in the worst sense, confcience having utterly loft its fovereignty, unless it interposes to forbid, nay, and effectually to prevent those finished heinous tranfgreffions. Let me add, here, that fin is not only completed in external acts: when the heart deliberately confents to the temptations, and a refolution paffes of complying with it, the guilt of that wickednefs is really contracted, tho' the outward act fhould never follow. Thus our Saviour in his fermon upon the mount, Matt. v. expounds the commandments of the moral law, in oppofition

SERM.pofition to the short and defective comments I. of the Scribes and Pharifees, at the 22 ver.

In

he pronounces anger refting in the bofom, and
breaking out into provoking and infulting
words, tho' there be no blood-shed, I fay,
he pronounces this to be a violation of the
sixth commandment, whereby the penalty of
difobedience is incurr'd, and at the 28 ver. he
states a plain case, wherein he expreffly de-
clares that adultery is already committed in the
heart, without proceeding any further.
other parallel instances, the fame judgment is
to be made, and therefore we must conclude,
that the precept of felf-denial reaches to the
preventing finful purposes of heart, as well as
the perpetration of outward evil actions. And
in this cafe to deny ourselves, is no more than
what St. Paul tells us the gofpel, or the grace
which brings falvation, was intended to teach
men; that is, to deny all ungodliness and
worldly lufts; as well as the acts of impiety
and vice, to which they folicit us.

Thirdly, There are no appetites, defires, and paffions, planted in the human nature, but what tend to an innocent, if it be a moderate gratification. The fault lies only in the excefs; or in tranfgreffing thofe limits which the obvious reafon of things, or the laws of God

have

« EelmineJätka »