when God by the Thunder of his Judgments, and the Voice of his Minifters has been ringing Hell and Vengeance into the Ears of fuch a Sinner, perhaps, like Felix, he may tremble a little for the present, and seem to yield; and fall down before the over-powering Evidence of the Conviction; but after a while, Custom overcoming Confcience, the Man goes his Way, and though he is convinced, and fatisfied what He ought to do, yet He actually does what He uses to do: And all this, because through the Darkness of his Intellect he judges the prefent Pleasure of fuch a finful Course, an over-balance to the Evil of it.

For this is certain, That Nature has placed all Humane Choice in fuch an Effential Dependance upon the Judgment, that no Man does any Thing, tho' never fo vile, wicked, and inexcufable, but all Circumstances confider'd, he judges it, Pro hic & nunc, absolutely better for him to do it, than not to do it. And what a Darkness, and Delufion muft Confcience needs be under, while it makes a Man judge that really beft for him, which directly tends to, and generally ends in, his utter Ruin and Damnation! Cuftom is faid to be a fecond Nature, and if by the first we are already fo

bad,

bad, by the fecond (to be fure) we shall be much worse.

Thirdly, Every Corrupt Paffion, or Affection of the Mind, will certainly pervert the judging, and obfcure and darken the difcerning Power of Confcience. The Affections which the Greeks call Пán and the Latines Affectus Animi, are of much the fame use to the Soul, which the Members are of to the Body; ferving as the proper Inftruments of most of its Actions; and are always attended with a certain Preternatural Motion of the Blood and Spirit peculiar to each Paffion, or Affection. And as for the Seat or Fountain of them, Philofophers both place them in and derive them from the Heart. But not to infift upon meer Speculations: The Paffions or Affections are (as I may fo call them) the mighty Flights and Sallyings out of the Soul upon fuch Objects as come before it; and are generally accompa nied with fuch Vehemence, that the Stoicks reckoned them, in their very Nature and Esfence, as fo many Irregularities, and Deviations from Right Reason, and by no means incident to a wife or good Man.

But though better Philosophy has long fince exploded this Opinion, and Christianity,which is the greatest and the best, has taught us, that

we may be Angry and yet not Sin, Eph. 4. 16. And that Godly Sorrow is neither a Paradox nor a Contradiction, 2 Cor. 7. 10. and confequently, that in every Paffion or Affection there is fomething purely Natural, which may both be diftinguished and divided too from which is finful and irregular; yet notwithstanding all this, it must be confeffed, That the Nature of the Paffions is fuch, that they are extremely prone and apt to pass into Excess, and that when they do fo, nothing in the World is a greater hinderance to the Mind or Reason of Man, from making a true, clear, and exact Judgment of Things, than the Paffions thus wrought up to any thing of Ferment, or Agitation. It being as impoffible to keep the Judging Faculty fteady in fuch a Cafe, as it would be to view a Thing diftinctly and perfectly through a Perfpective Glafs, held by a fhaking, Paralytick Hand.

When the Affections are once engaged, the Judgment is always Partial, and Concerned. There is a strong Bent, or Byafs upon it, it is poffeffed and gained over, and as it were fee'd and retained in their Cause, and thereby made utterly unable to carry fuch an equal regard to the Object, as to confider Truth Nakedly, and ftripped of all Foreign Respects; and as such

to

to make it the Rigid Inflexible Rule, which it is to Judge by; especially where Duty is the Thing to be Judged of. For a Man will hardly be brought to Judge Right, and True, when by fuch a Judgment he is fure to Condemn Himself.

But this being a Point of fuch high and Practical Importance, I will be yet more particular about it, and show severally, in feveral corrupt and vitious Affections,how Impoffible it is for a Man to keep his Conscience rightly Informed, and fit to guide and direct Him in all the Arduous Perplexing Cases of Sin, and Duty, while He is actually under the Power of any of them. This I know Men, generally are not apt to believe, or to think that the Flaws or Failures of their Morals can at all affect their Intellectuals. But I doubt not but to make it not only Credible, but Undeniable.

Now the vitious Affections which I fhall fingle, and cull out of those vaft Numbers, which the Heart of Man, that great Storehoufe of the Devil, abounds with, as fome of the Principal, which thus Darken and Debauch the Conscience, fhall be these Three. First, Senfuality. Secondly, Covetousness. Thirdly, Ambition,

Of

BIBL

CODE

Of each of which I shall speak particularly : And

First, For Sensuality, or a vehement delight in, and pursuit of Bodily Pleasure. We may truly fay of the Body, with Reference to the Soul, what was faid by the Poet of an ill Neighbour. Nemo tam propè tam proculq;! None fo nearly joined in point of Vicinity, and yet fo widely distant in point of Interest and Inclinations.

The Ancient Philofophers generally holding the Soul of Man to be a Spiritual Immaterial Substance, could give an Account of the feveral Failures and defects in the Operations of it, (which they were fufficiently fenfible of) but from its Immerfion into, and intimate Conjunction with Matter, called by the Greeks A. And accordingly all their Complaints, and Accufations were ftill levelled at this van as the only Cause of all that they found amiss in the whole Frame and Conftitution of Man's Nature. In a word, whatfoever was obferved by them, either Irregular, or Defective in the Working of the Mind, was all charged upon the Body, as its great Clog, and Impediment. As the skilfulleft Artist in the World would make but forry work of it, should he be forced to make use of Tools no way fit for his Purpose.

But