All the Beginning of our Life is a Life of Senfe only. The firft Acquaintance we have is with the Body and its Affections; and from our Infancy, which is the tender Age, that eafily receives Impreffions, and long retains them, every Thing we do, all that we choose or refufe, is all by the Choice and Judgment of Senfe; and we have for a long Time no Converfe at all, but with Worldly Senfible Objects: By this Means they have a great Opportunity of faftening themselves upon us, and have gone a great Way in engaging our Affections, before we come to the Use of our Reason, to know to refufe the Evil, and to choose the Good; and before we come to be capable of the weighty Confiderations of Religion. And as we advance in Years, they gain Strength; Worldly Inclinations are all the while growing up with us into Cuftom and Habit. When we have once given up the Reins to our sensual Appetites, they foon get the Mastery over us 3 and by Cuftom and Practice, Vice and Debauchery become fo habitual, that we are ready to think them a Part of our Nature, miftaking the Corruptions and Depravations of Nature for Nature itself; And after long Habit, they are indeed almost as Difficult to be conquered by us.

From hence it was, (from the Power and Prevalence of evil Custom,) that Pelagius

seems

feems to have sprung his Herefy *. Confidering the mighty Power that Evil Habits, when once contracted, have over us, he from thence concludes to this Purpose, "That "what we call Original Sin, and the evil

Propenfity of our Nature, had nothing at "all of Nature in it, and was really nothing "but evil Custom; that when we first of all. began to act upon the Principles of our

own Wills, having but little Reason or "Judgment to guide us, we fell into the Imi"tation of the Evil Practices of the World, "which foon grew up into Habits, which

were fo ftrong upon us, that we were rea"dy to think they were Natural to us: Confequently fince it was no Defect of our "Nature, but only evil Example and Custom "that betray'd us into Sin, that there was no "Need of any fupernatural Grace, and that

'

we had nothing to do, but to set ourselves "with Refolution to caft off our vicious Ha"bits, and to reduce ourselves (proprio marte)

* Neque alia nobis Caufa Difficultatem benefaciendi facit quàm longa Confuetudo Vitiorum, que nos infecit à parvo, paulatimque per multos corrupit annos; Et ità pofteà obligatos fibi & addictos tenet, ut vim quodammodò videatur habere Nature. Omne illud tempus, quo negligenter edocti, (i. e.) ad vitia eruditi fumus, &c. Nunc nobis refiftit, & novam Voluntatem impugnat vetus Ufus, &c. Pelagius in Epift. ad Demetriadem; Extat in Tomo ult. Operum Sancti Hieron. Confitetur tamen Hominem Vitiorum Confuetudine velut quadam teneri Neceffitate peccandi; Et quamvis Bonum appeteret Voluntate, ufu tamen precipitari in Malum. Fanfenius de Hærefi Pelag. Lib IV.

by

by our own Strength, to the Original Rectitude and Purity of our own Nature.

Now though he was greatly mistaken both in the Caufe and Cure of Human Corruption, yet it fhews what Opinion He, and all his Numerous Followers, had of the mighty Power and Prevalence of Evil Custom, that could think, that all the Pravity and Corruption, all the Sin and Wickedness that has been in the World, is wholly owing to it.

But fuch indeed is the Strength of Custom, that it has at all Times been commonly call'd a Second Nature, and reckon'd well nigh as Hard to be Chang'd as Nature itself. The Prophet himself speaks of the Difficulty of Con-. quering the Old Habits of Sin, as Infuperable; as if it were not a Work of Moral Difficul ty only, but a Work of Natural Impoffibility, comparing it with what is really fo, the Ethi opian's Changing his Skin, and the Leopard his Spots; Jer. xiii. 23. Can the Ethiopian (fays he) Change his Skin, or the Leopard his Spots? Then may Te alfo Do Good, that are Accustomed to Do Evil. Nay, our Saviour himfelf expreffes the Difficulty of breaking off Evil Habits, by Cutting off Hands, and Plucking out Eyes. Intimating, that when we have long Accustomed ourselves to them, and have them thoroughly rivetted in us, they become fo Natural to us, that it is Hard Work to rend them from us, and that we as hardly part with them as Limbs from our Body.

C

Now

Heb. iv. 2.

Now these are Difficulties that Few Men have the Heart to encounter: They could well like the Rewards that Religion and Virtue propose, but they hope they may come upon Eafier Terms, than fo much Self-Denial and Mortification of themselves, and their Deareft Interefts and Inclinations.

2dly, Worldly Gratifications are Prefent to us, and do ftrongly affect us, and give us Immediate Satisfaction and Delight. But the Great Rewards of Holiness and Virtue are at a Great Distance from us. And as in Natural Caufes, whatever is to work upon Remote Subjects lofes much of its Force and Efficacy, fo do these Moral Motives by That Means lose much of their Influency and Efficacy upon us. The Generality of the World look but a little Way before them ; what they have not in Prefent View, will scarcely move them at all. Moft Men are for making their Beft of the Prefent.

But in this Cafe there must be a Spice of Diffidence or Infidelity at the Bottom. Men will not forego their Prefent Fruition for Future Doubtful Expectations; The Great Things that are Promifed them are a great Way off, and what if they fhould Never Come? Now the Greatest Promifes, or Rewards in the World, can have no Effect nor Influence where they are not thoroughly Believed. The Word Preached (fays the Apoftle) did not Profit Them It was the Word of Life, the Goffel of Salvation, that was Preached unto them,

and

and yet it Profited them not The Reafon follows, Not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it. Again, A Promife (lays he) was left them of Entring into his Reft.- But they to whom it was preached, entred not in 3 why? Because of Unbelief, as we find it in the fame Chapter, Heb. iv. 6. It is no Defect in the Promifes, or Rewards, that Christianity Propofes, but Want of Faith in Us, if they are not Powerful and Effectual for the Mortifying our Corrupt Affections, and Subduing the Flesh to the Spirit. Therefore when Men Profefs to Believe another World, and act only by the Rules and Maxims of this World, it is but a Reasonable Prefumption, that they only make an outward Profeflion, but do really not Believe at all.

3dly, Carelefness, Inconfideration, False Judgments of Things, and the Cheats that Men, in Favour of their Eafe and Pleasure, are willing to put upon themselves, do all favour the Allurements of Sense, against the Rational Judgment.

All Men are not Capable, but of those that are, Few will give themselves the Trouble of Weighing Reasons and Confequences: 'tis Eafier and more agreeable to them, to follow Example, to go on in the Old Road, to do as the World does; and furely the Generality of the World, and fome of them that they know to be Men of Understanding, have some good Reason for what they Do. Or if they will C2

Judge