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Propofals of Happiness, and as incapable of judging of other Happinefs and Pleafure, as he who is enflaved to Intemperance.

A LADY abominates a Sot, as a Creature that has only the Shape of a Man; but then fhe does not confider that drunken as he is, perhaps he can be more content with the Want of Liquor, than fhe can with the Want of fine Clothes: And if this be her Cafe, fhe only differs from him, as one intemperate Man differs from another.

THUS it appears, that whether we confider the Nature, Circumstances, and Effects of Drunkenness, that all Mankind are more or lefs in the fame State of Weaknefs and Disorder.

I HAVE dwelt the longer upon this Comparison, because it seems fo eafily to explain the Disorder of our Nature. For as every one readily fees how the bodily Disorders of Drunkennefs, and violent Paffion, blind and pervert our Minds, fo it feems an eafy Step from thence, to imagine how the Body, though in a cooler State, does yet diforder the Mind in the fame Manner, though not in the fame Degree. It is also easy to conceive, that if violent Paffion, or a heated Imagination, confounds our Judgments, and gives us wrong ApT 2

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prehenfions of Things, that therefore all Paffions, though more ftill and fecret, muft yet influence our Minds, and make us weak and difordered in our Judgments, in the fame Manner, though not in the fame Degree, as those are, who are in a violent Paffion. So that the meaneft Capacity may by this apprehend, that so long as we are in the Body, we are in a State of Weakness and Disorder, that is full of such Blindness and Delufion, as attends a State of Drunkenness and Paffion.

IT is intended by this Account of hu man Nature, to convince us of the absolute Neceffity of renouncing our felves, of denying all our Tempers and Inclinations, and refigning our felves wholly to the Light and Wisdom of God. For fince by our State of Corruption and Slavery to the Body, we are always under the Power of its blind Motions, fince all our Inclinations and Judgments are only the Judgments of heated Blood, drunken Spirits, and difordered Paffions, we are under as absolute a Neceffity of denying all our natural Tempers and Judgments, as of refraining from Intemperance.

FOR must a Man that is in a Fit of violent Paffion, filence that Paffion before he can judge of the ordinary Things of Life? Is it a State of fuch Blindness as makes him

him blind in the plainest Matters, and unable to judge rightly even of Things which he is acquainted with? And can we think, that our more ftill and fecret Paffions of Self-love, Pride, Vanity, Envy, and the like, make us lefs blind as to the Things of God, than a heated Paffion does as to the Things of this World?

WILL an inflamed Paffion disorder a Man too much to judge of any thing even in his own Bufinefs? And will not a Paffion of lefs Violence diforder a Man's Judgment in Things of a fpiritual Nature, which he never was rightly acquainted with, which he never faw or understood in the Manner that he ought, and which are all contrary to the Impreffions of his Senses?

EVERY one fees People in the World whom he takes to be incapable of fober Judgments, and wife Reflections, for this Reason, because he fees that they are full of themselves, blinded with Prejudices, violent in their Paffions, wild and extravagant in their Imaginations.

Now as often as we see these People, we should reflect that we see our felves; for we as certainly fee a true Representation of our felves, when we look at fuch People, as we see a true Picture of our State, T 3 when

when we see a Man in the Sorrows and Agonies of Death.

You are not dying as this Man is, you are not in his State of Sickness and Extremity; but ftill his State fhews you your own true Picture, it fhews you that your Life is in the midft of Death, that you have in you the Seeds of Sicknefs and Mortality, that you are dying, though not in his Degree, and that you are only at a little uncertain Distance from thofe, who are lying upon their laft Beds.

WHEN therefore you fee Men living in the Disorders of their Paffions, blinded with Prejudices, fwelling in Pride, full of themselves, vain in their Imaginations, and perverfe in their Tempers, you must believe, that you fee as true a Reprefentation of your own State, as if you faw a Man in his laft Sickness.

You, it may be, are not in the Extravagance of his difordered Tempers, you are at fome uncertain Distance from his State, but if you fancy that you are not corrupted with Self-love, not weakened by Prejudices, not blinded with Pride, not vain in your Imaginations, not ridiculous in your Tempers, because you are not in fuch Disorders as you find fome People, you think as abfurdly, as if you was to imagine your felf to be immortal, because you are

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not in that Extremity of Death, in which you fee fome People.

AND as the true Way of knowing and being rightly affected with the Weakness and Mortality of our State, is frequently to view the Condition of dying Men, as Pictures of our felves, fo the most likely Means to affect us with a juft Senfe of the Corruption and Disorder of our Hearts, is to confider the Frailties, Corruptions, and Disorders, of other People, as certain Reprefentations of the Frailty and Corruption of our own State.

WHEN therefore you fee the Violence of other Men's Paffions, the Irregularity of their Tempers, the Strength of their Prejudices, the Folly of their Inclinations, and the Vanity of their Minds, remember that you fee fo many plain Reafons for denying your felf, and refifting your own Nature, which has in it the Seeds of all those evil Tempers, which you fee in the most irregular People.

FROM the foregoing Reflections upon human Nature, we may learn thus much, that Abftinence, as to Eating and Drinking, is but a small part of Chriftian Self-denial.

THE Corruption of our Nature has its chief Seat in the Irregularity of our Tempers, the Violence of Paffions, the Blindnefs of our Judgments, and the Vanity of T 4

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