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SERM. let us exert our utmost vigilance against XV. our own evil passions; it is these, which

being pampered by indulgence, and suffered to gain dominion over us by habit, can alone destroy us.

It is in vain that we impute our guilt either to the general depravity of human nature, or to our own particular situation; such excuses will not be suffered to avail us. With respect to the first indeed, allowance will probably be made for it, but then it will be on the supposition that we have used every effort to subdue it; and we must remember likewise, what aid we have been promised from heaven to assist us; if we do not succeed, at least in a degree, we may be sure that we have not done all that was in our power.

With regard to any particular situation, and the fancied difficulties, with which our virtue may have to contend, let us recollect that the whole of human life is a state

of

XV.

of probation; that no temptations have be- SERM. fallen us but such as are common to man; that those trials which we meet with, are such as are allotted us by our Creator, and that it is in combating and subduing these that our spiritual warfare consists. We are not to say, if we had been born rich or powerful, if such or such misfortunes had not befallen us, if we had not been entangled in such or such unfavourable circumstances, we should, in that case, have retained our integrity; no-we are to do our duty in that state, in which it has pleased God to place us, assured that thus alone we can work out our salvation.

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SERMON XVI.

SINS OF MEN ARISING FROM A WANT OF

THE FEAR OF GOD,

AND THE INSTIGATIONS OF THE DEVIL.

PROV. XVI. LATTER PART of v. 6.

By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.

THE wickedness, which is so prevalent SERM. amongst the human race, owes its exist- XVI. ence to various causes; there are, however, two which have a more general and extensive influence than the rest; one of them, more particularly, in a greater or less degree, enters into the production of every crime.

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SERM, crime, These two causes are, a want of a XVI, due apprehension of the Almighty, and, the

instigation of the devil. The legislature

of our country, on account of their great pre-eminence, has singled them out as giving rise to all these enormities, which require the interposition of the law; when the culprit stands charged with a breach of the public tranquillity, it is stated, you know, in the indictment, that he had not the fear of God before his eyes, and was seduced by the instigation of the devil.

It shall be my endeavour in this discourse, to prove that these causes, and more particularly the first, are the only origin, not only of these enormities, which are of that magnitude and notoriety to call for human punishment, but of every other deviation from innocence, however slight or

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secret.

And first, I assert, that all guilt arises from the want of a due fear of the Almighty;

this

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