XI.

II. WHAT Obligations lie upon us to SERM, perform the Duties enjoined in them. III. WHAT are the chief Letts and Hinderances which keep us from performing thefe Duties.

IV. WHAT bleffed Effects the Practifing of them would have upon our Lives and Converfations.

I. I SHALL inquire into the Meaning and Extent of thefe Words, Be fober, be vigilant. Now,

1. By being fober, is chiefly and principally meant fuch a moderate Ufe of Meats and Drinks, as will fupport and refresh Nature, and render us more able to ferve God, and to do our Duty in those several Callings and Stations, in which God has placed us. This is Sobriety, in the strict Sense of the Word; but this is not all, for Sobriety implies much more; and to be fober, in the utmost Extent of the Word, denotes the Management of all our Paffions and Affections, by the Rules of right Reason; the Mortifying all inordinate Lufts and Defires, and the abfolute Government of all the Appetites of our Soul: For a Man may be drunk with Anger, or Pride, or Ambition, or Envy, or Uncharitablenefs, as much as with Wine,

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SERM. Wine, and may be betrayed by these unXI. governable Paffions, into the fame foolish

and ridiculous Actions, as another Perfon is, by being guilty of Intemperance in the Use of intoxicating Liquors. A paffionate, proud, or malicious Perfon may be as litile capable of governing his Words and Actions, and living up to the Rules of right Reason, as he is, who is transported by the Fumes of Drink.

AND this I the rather remark, because there feem to be few who acknowledge any other Kind of Intemperance, but what confifts in the Excefs of eating and drinking; or can hardly be brought to confefs, that a Man who is overborne with Paffion, blown up with Pride, elated with Ambition, or cankered with Envy and Malice, is guilty of the Breach of this Duty of Sobriety, and expofes himself to the fame fatal Confequences.

FOR, when these inordinate Affections and corrupt Inclinations have got the Dominion over a Man, they ferment the Blood and vitiate the Paffions; they clap a falfe Biafs upon his Words and Actions, and, whether he will or no, hurry him frequently into Sin and Folly; they lead him captive whither they please, and, in Effect, make him their Servant and Bonddave; and therefore, in Scripture, such

Men,

Men as are given up to their unruly Paf-SE RM. fions and Affections, are faid to be fold XI. to do Wickedness, and to be in Bondage unto Sin; and when they return to God, and lead an holy and religious Life, they are faid to be fet at Liberty. From whence it appears, that, when the Apostle commands us to be fober, it is, as if he had faid, Keep your Bodies and Souls in fuch an equal and even Temper, that your Adverfary the Devil may take no Advantage either from your Intemperance in Meats and Drinks, or from the Disorder of your Affections, The Irregularity of your Paffions, to feduce you into Sin; but that whenever he comes, and fets upon you by his Allurements and Temptations, he may find you upon your Guard, ready to refift him.

2. NEXT the Apoftle adds, Be vigilant, Be not puffed up and fecure, when you have got the Better of your Adverfary, and withstood his first Affaults, and refifted the Temptations of the Devil, and efcaped those Snares which he laid for you; be not filled with Pride and Vain-glory, and a Pharifaical Conceit of your own Righteousness, becaufe you think you have behaved yourself

better than others have done; but fet a continual Watch over yourfelf, be conftantly upon your Guard, at all Times, and

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SERM. and in every Seafon, for the Devil, like a XI. roaring Lion, walketh about feeking whom be may devour, i. e. fince the Devil is fo vigilant or watchful to entice you into Sin, fince he makes it his Bufinefs, and walks about the Earth, compaffing Sea and Land to gain a Profelyte, and to feduce Men from their Obedience to the Laws of God; they ought to be much more careful to fecure themselves, to difcover and defeat all his Devices, and to Eph. vi. take to themselves the whole Armour of a Chriftian, whereby they may be enabled. to refift and withstand him.

11.

AND that this is abfolutely neceffary will appear from enquiring,

II. WHAT Obligations lie upon us to perform the Duties of Sobriety and Vigilance, enjoined in the Text. Now we fhall be convinced that it is our Duty to perform them,

I. FROM the Confideration of the Weakness and Frailty of our Natures. We find that Man in his greatest Perfection, even in the State of Innocency, when endowed with all thofe Accomplishments which made him little lower than the Angels, when the Faculties of his Soul were pure and undefiled, vigorous and active, and all the Powers of his Body in their

greatest

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greatest Strength, was feduced by the fub- SE RM. tle Infinuations of that old Serpent, the XI. Devil, and betrayed by his own inordinate Lufts. And therefore, even in Paradife, God gave Adam this Command of Vigilancy and Watchfulness: And, if Man, in his first Innocency, had Need of fuch a Caveat, much more has he Occafion for it when weakened by Sin and in Bondage to his own vile Lufts and corrupt Affections: How much more Need have we, who are prone to Vice and Wickedness, fo ready to close with the Temptations of the Devil, to ftand upon our Guard?

now,

fo

ALAS! we are Creatures of Senfe hurried on by the Violence of our fenfual Appetites, our Reason is biaffed by our Paffions, and our Wills are led afide by the falfe Judgments we make of Things; and then, how difficult a Thing is it, to withstand a Temptation baited with Pleasure, and to refift the Importunity of our carnal Defires; how readily do we close with Objects which, at prefent, feem either pleafing or profitable to us, without any Regard to the Future, or confidering what the Confequence of Things will be?

2. WE have Reafon to be fober and vigilant, if we confider the Power and Cunning of our Adverfaries; that we R 4

are