forely, than he, to distrust and deny divine pro◆ vidence, and to throw off all thoughts of religion. No man, that we know of, except our bleffed Saviour, at once fuffered fo much, and deferved fo little yet hear, how, on his dunghill, when defpoiled of every thing, of his health, his pof feffions, his fervants, his fons and daughters, and friends; hear, I fay, how he expreffes his entire reliance on God, and his abfolute refignation to him! Till I die (fays be) will I not remove my integrity from me. Though he flay me, yet will I trust in him. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked fhall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away bleff ed be the name of the Lord!" Job xxvii. 5. xiii. 15. i. 21,

To thefe fevral fcripture inftances, I crave leave to add yet one more, relating to the paffion of revenge; one of the most important and violent, that are incident to human nature; which yet we are fure is conquerable, under all the ftrongest temptations to it, that can be well conceived, from the account of good David, He had Saul, his great enemy, at his mercy; an enemy, that had often fought his life. in the bafeft and most unmanly methods, that had hunted him (as his own expreffion is) like a partridge upon the mountains ;" an enemy that food between him and a throne; fo that nothing was wanted, but the taking off Saul, in order to David's reigning, This enemy, I fay, he had an opportunity of re moving: The followers of his fortune proffered themfelves to be the ready minifters of his revenge; and upon them he might have laid the blame of

the

the dead, and have been himself (to all appear ance) innocent and ignorant of it. This was a temptation, which fome men would have called infuperable; and yet he, we find, actually with ftood it, with fo refolute a virtue, as the elequent pen of St. Chryfofton is never more clequent, than when he defcribes it; particularly in that homily, which is defigned to fhew, that Dav de conqueft of himself, in this inftance, was more great and glorious, than his victory over Goltah. For in vain did that fon of violence Abifbai pufh him on, by faying; "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me fimite him, I pray thee, with the fpear, even to the earth at once, and I will not fmite a fecond time." 1 Sam. xxvi. 8, &c. His honourable and pious return to this bafe counsel was-" As the Lord liveth, the Lord fhall fmite him, or his day fhall come to die, or he fhall defcend into battle, and perifh: but deftroy thou him not: for who can ftretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltlefs ?"

From unquestionable accounts therefore it appears, that all the foreft trials of virtue, which can any ways happen, have been withstood and baffled by men of like paffions with us, and may therefore be with ftood and baffled ftill, with equal refolution and innocence.

But because it may be faid, that Inftances do not conclude Univerfally: it is certain indeed, that whatever hath once been done, may be done again, by perfons endued with like degrees of holy fortitude and firmnefs; but it doth not therefore follow, that I am capable of doing it, whofe

infirmity

1

infirmity perhaps may be greater than other mens, in this particular:

Because fuch pretences may, I fay, be made, I fhall therefore proceed (further) to confirm the truth laid down by fome general reasonings, drawn from the nature, eitheir of Temptation itself, or of that gofpel grace, which is to fupport us under it; or of man, the subject of that grace; or of God, the Bestower of it.

They who fay, any temptation is not to be conquered, did they confider what they faid, would find that they speak abfurdly, and inconfiftently. For a temptation is only another word for an experiment or, or tryal; a tryal, whether we will do, or forbear fuch a thing; whether we will comply with, or reject fuch a propofal: and therefore it fuppofes it to be in our power to do, or forbear; to yield, or not to yield; elfe it were no temptation, no tryal of us. to try, which way a thing will act, that is necefWe are not faid farily determined to act one way beforehand.To fay therefore, as fenfualifts do, that fome temptations are not refiftible, is, when that expreffion is examined, really to fay, That fome temptations are not temptations; for if they are, their very being fuch implies, that it is poffible to withstand them.

What is grace, but an extraordinary supply of ability and ftrength to refift temptations, given us on purpose to make up the deficiency of our natural strength to do it? And therefore, if our natural strength, together with this divine fupply, be not now equal to every temptation; the grace of God may thus far be faid to have been given

us

us in vain; in as much as doth not, and cannot reach the end for which it is bestowed.

is not man, by nature, a free agent? Hath he not liberty and will? The great difference between him and brutes, doth it not lie in this, That they are unavoidably constrained to act one way while He hath always the power of determining himfelf on this fide, or on that, of choofing or refufing? But now, if there be any fuch things as inducements to fin, that are altogether infuperable, there is an end of his boafted freedom; for in those inftances, he acts as neceffarily, as mechanically, as the beafts that perifb, Pfal. xlix. 12. The great end of man is, to glorify God, by living according to the perfect rule of right reafon and virtue; and yet impoffible it is, that he should ever attain this end, while he converfes with temptations, which he cannot furmount. Now all other beings (animate, or inanimate) have powers, that enable them to fulfil the design of their creation: Is man alone utterly deftitute of thofe powers? Is the nobleft creature on earth framed to no end? or (which is all one) under an utter incapacity of reaching that end? Is He only incapable of arriving at any degree of perfection in his way, for whofe ufe and fervice all thofe other creatures were made, which are confeffedly perfect in theirs? If this be fo, he is fo far from being the pride and glory of the vifible creation, that he is the meaneft, moft imperfect, and contemptible of beings. Once more. Let us confider the nature and perfections of God. He is, and must be, holy, juft, and true: And yet he neither is, nor can be,

holy,

holy, juft, or true, if he places us under i refiftible temptations.

How can he be holy, who is the author of fin ? And how can he but be the author of fin, who (according to the libertines fcheme) hath fo adapted the frame of our mind within, to the impreffion of evil objects from without, that it is utterly impoffible for us to withstand the force of them? Is not this to have a direct influence and efficiency in producing fin, fo to order and dif, ofe fecond caufes, as that they cannot mifs producing it? Now an holiness that permits fin to be in the world, and hates all the while what it permits, we are able to conceive: Bút an holinets, which directly occafions fia, is utterly inconceivable.

Nor is the Juftice of God less blemished by this pretence, than his holiness. For how can he be faid to be juft, who (as men tell us) places us under irresistible temptations; and yet (as he himself affures us) will punith us for not refifting them; that is, makes us unavoidably obnoxious to fin first, and then animadverts upon us for the commiffion of it afterwards? Let any man fay worse than this of injustice and cruelty if he can.

The last divine perfection, concerned in this difpute, is his truth :- Which cannot be maintained, if the libertines plea in this cafe be true. The promises of God made to us in fcripture are moft exprefs and full: That he "will perfect his ftrength in our weakness; that his grace fhall be fufficient for us;" 2 Cor. xii. 9. that he will "make us more than conquerors in all temptations;" Rom viii. 37. and, here in the text, that he" will not fuffer us to be tempted, above what

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