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ON THE TEMPTATION OF EVE.

selves perhaps not unacquainted with such, who have
maintained the maxim that "for the sake of power,
there is a splendour in doing wrong.*"
This prin-

ciple operates, indeed, in a greater or less degree,
upon all the votaries of ambition. The blindness of
their hearts disqualifies them for perceiving those
exact distinctions between virtue and vice, which
by alarming their consciences, would impede their
schemes; and they are encouraged, by the adula-
tion they receive from other men, to acquiesce in
that blindness. Religion-that pure and spiritual
religion, which is essentially a call to humility and a
denunciation against all pride-must, in the very idea
of an ambitious spirit, be disregarded, or regarded
so far only as not to be an obstacle. The language
of the Gospel is-" Be not highminded, but fear,”—
"Condescend to men of low estate,"-"Let each
esteem others better than himself,"-" Be clothed
with humility." Yet the number of those is but
small, who, though they "know these things" have
sufficient resolution and constancy to observe them.

PLEASURES attract us by the allurements they offer to our senses and appetites. It certainly was the intention of Divine Providence, that we should moderately enjoy the good things of this world. The inferior creatures are evidently adapted for our use and benefit, even if they were not created for that special purpose. Our appetites and senses were implanted in us for the natural ends of animal support and preservation, as well as to be subservient to *Eurip. Phon. 534.

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the greater purposes of our moral and religious probation. But we are too ready to overlook this distinction, and to act as if our own immediate gratification were their chief and sole design. Not only in the giddy season of youth, but in the maturer years of manhood, we are apt to transgress that law of temperance, which was prescribed by the philosophy of the unenlightened heathen as necessary to our dignity and happiness,-and which is inserted among the commands of scripture as an essential part of our religious duty. Our Saviour and his Apostles, by their injunctions and cautions, remind us, in almost every page of the New Testament, how dangerous it is to indulge in sensuality and idle gratifications,-charging us strictly to "take heed that our hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness."-to "keep our bodies in subjection,"" to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul"-and to be "temperate in all things." Yet, familiar as these admonitions are to our minds, we seek, rather than avoid, the evils against which they warn us. The examples, that are daily before our eyes, of the loss of health and peace and character from excessive indulgence, are of little or no avail. We yield to the infatuation of present desire, and hazard all the bad consequences, temporal and eternal, that it may bring upon us.

The temptations, however, of the world would not so forcibly prevail over us, if we had not another and a powerful source of temptation within ourselves

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"I delight in the law of God after the inward man,’ says St. Paul, "but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." "For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do." If we search our own hearts, we shall have reason to join in this declaration of the Apostle, and to condemn ourselves for many inconsistencies and wilful sins. The Almighty has provided for man every aid to direct, and every comfort to cheer him on his way to eternity; but man disregards these helps, and by his own perverseness, embitters the days of his pilgrimage. If, instead of yielding to indolence and base desires, we were as studious of our duties as we are of our appetites and passions--if we would use the power, which we certainly possess, of acting by the laws of reason, the dictates of conscience, and the precepts of our holy religion; we should enjoy a substantial happiness, even in this life ;-the Christian virtues would every where flourish ;-and we should be, in a great measure, beyond the reach of temptations. The weakness of human nature has, in all ages, and by all classes of men (whether enlightened by Divine revelation, or judging merely from the impulse of their own feelings) been a common subject of complaint; -yet it has universally been admitted, that this weakness might be overcome, and a high degree of moral excellence be attained, if reason, and not passion, were to actuate mankind.* A proof that we can control our passions and desires, is that God

* See particularly Sallust in his Preface to the Jugurthine War.

commands us to do so, and that he will punish us if we do not. Another proof is, that we censure other men when they commit such sins as we are not inclined to;-and that our own consciences upbraid and torment us, when we ourselves commit sin. Yet we suffer our hearts to mislead us from our duty :We suffer our appetites to be debased, our affections to be perverted, and our passions to be corrupted. This is a great source of our deficiency, not only in respect to personal holiness, but with regard also to piety towards God, and charity towards our brethren. It is the spring and channel from which all temptations derive their force ;-and will accordingly be imputed to us by the Almighty, with the greater severity and the more obvious justice.

The last source of temptations I shall mention are the stratagems which our spiritual adversary the Devil employs against us. Nothing is more plainly asserted in Scripture, than that "he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,"-but at the same time, that if we "resist him, he will flee from us," and can have no power over us. Yet-as if the enticements of the world, and the suggestions of men's own hearts were not sufficient to lead them into evil, they yield also to his allurements. That they do so, is, in a manner, visible, from the excesses into which they are often plunged for it is impossible to account for some instances of depravity, without supposing that the persons are led away and carried headlong by the agitations of an Evil Spirit.

The same Tempter, that insinuated into our first parents the notion "that they should not surely die,” continues still to impress that notion on those who are inclined to listen to it. He endeavours to seduce men into infidelity by representing that God does not see their sins, or that he will not punish them individually, by creating in them a distrust of Christ's merits, or of the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, -by combating the wholesome doctrines of faith, repentance, and obedience,—or by giving them too arrogant an idea of their own virtue and sufficiency. And though men are strongly admonished against all such perverseness and delusion, yet they will and they do act in opposition to every thing that is salutary and self-convincing,-only because it lays upon them a restraint to which they will not submit.

Let us carefully bear in mind that if we disobey the commands of the Almighty-wilfully, heedlessly, and in contempt of his authority,-we shall without doubt be visited by his justice, and shall die. Even if we are inclined to persuade ourselves that we stand, let us take especial heed lest we fall. The world will tempt us with all its shews and offers of happiness. Our own hearts will be continually busy to increase that temptation. The Devil will ever be ready to take advantage of these, and to counteract the goodness of God, who has given us every means to work out our salvation in our earthly state of trial. By that exceeding great love, therefore, which the Father hath for us;-by the mercies of Christ who