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SERM. the world to intemperance, and all kinds of criminal pleasure, merely through the influence of customs which they had allowed to become fo inveterate that it was not in their power to alter them? Are they not often reduced to a condition fo wretched, that when their licentious pleasures have become utterly infipid, they are ftill forced to continue them, folely because they cannot refrain; not because the indulgence gives them pleafure, but becaufe abftinence would give them pain; and this too, even when they are obliged at laft to condemn their habits of life, as injuring their fortune, impairing their conftitution, or difgracing their character? Vice is not of fuch a nature that we can fay to it, Hitherto shalt thou come and no further. Having once entered into its territories, it is not in our power to make a retreat when we please. He that committeth fin is the fervant No man who has who has once

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may carry him. He may be brought SER M. into such a defperate ftate, that nothing fhall remain for him but to look back with regret upon the forfaken path of innocence and liberty; and, feverely confcious of the thraldom he suffers, to groan under fetters which he despairs of throwing off. Can the Ethiopian change his fkin, or the leopard his Spots? then may ye alfo do good who are accuftomed to do evil*.

Vice confirms its dominion, and extends it ftill farther over the foul, by compelling the finner to fupport one crime by means of another. Not only is he enslaved to thofe vices which take their rife from his own inclination, but they render others neceffary, to which, against his inclination, he must submit; and thereby ftrengthen the commanding power of iniquity within him. The immoderate love of pleafure, for instance, leads him into expence beyond his fortune. In order to VOL. IV.

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Jeremiah xiii. 23

SER M. fupport that expence, he is obliged to

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have recourfe to low and dishonourable methods of gain, which originally he defpifed. To cover thefe, he is forced upon arts of diffimulation and fraud. One inftance of fraud obliges him to fupport it by another; till, in the end, there arifes a character of complicated vice; of luxury fhooting forth into bafenefs, dishonesty, injuftice, and perhaps cruelty. It is thus that one favourite paffion brings in a tribe of auxiliaries to complete the dominion of fin. Among all our corrupt paffions there is a ftrong and intimate connection. When any one of them is adopts ed into our family, it never quits us until it has fathered upon us all its kindted.--By fuch means as thefe, by the violence of paffions, by the power of habits, and by the connection, of one vice with another, fin establishes that fervitude over the will, which deprives bad men of all power of free choice in their actions.

II. THE flavery produced by vice appears

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appears in the dependence under which SER M. it brings the finner, to circumftances of external fortune. One of the favourite characters of liberty, is the independence it bestows. He who is truly a freeman is above all fervile compliances, and abject fubjection. He is able to reft upon himself; and while he regards his fuperiors with proper deference, neither debafes himself by cringing to them, nor is tempted to purchase their favour by dishonourable means. But the finner has forfeited every privilege of this nature. His paffions and habits render him an abfolute dependant on the world, and the world's favour; on the uncertain goods of fortune, and the fickle humours of men. For it is by these he fubfifts, and among these his happiness is fought; according as his paffions determine him to pursue pleasures, riches, or preferments. Having no fund within himself whence to draw enjoyment, his only refource is in things without. His hopes and fears all hang upon the world. He partakes in all its viciffitudes; and is moved and fhaken

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SERM. fhaken by every wind of fortune. This is to be in the ftricteft fenfe a flave to the world.

Religion and virtue, on the other hand, confer on the mind principles of noble independence. The upright man is Satisfied from himself. He defpifes not the advantages of fortune; but he centers not his happiness in them. With a moderate thare of them he can be contented; and contentment is felicity. Happy in his own integrity, confcious of the efteem of good men, repofing firm trust in the providence, and the promises of God, he is exempted from fervile dependence on other things. He can wrap himself up in a good conscience, and look forward, without terror, to the change of the world. Let all things shift around him as they please, he believes that, by the divine ordination, they fhall be made to work together in the iffue for his good: And therefore, having much to hope from God, and little to fear from the world, he can be easy in every state. One who poffeffes within himfel fuch an establish

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