in the unjust idea formed of the divine justice. They persuade themselves that, man being born with violent inclinations for pleasure, our errors are more worthy of the pity than of the anger of the Lord; and that our weakness alone solicits his favour, in place of arming his indignation against us.
But, in the first place, it might be said to you, that the corruption of your nature comes not from the Creator; that it is the work of man, and the punishment of his sin; that the Lord had created man righteous; and consequently, that this unfortunate tendency, of which you complain, is an irregularity which God must punish whenever you fall under it; how then can you suppose that it shall serve you as an excuse? It is in consequence of it that you are a child of wrath and an outcast vessel: how do you pretend to draw reasons from thence, in order to enter into contestation even with God, and to challenge his j ustice? It is, in a word, in consequence of it that you are unworthy of all favours:^how dare you to hold it out as a reason for demanding them?
Secondly. It might be said to you, that whatever be the weakness of our will, man is always master of his desires; that he hath been left under the charge of his own resolution; that his passions have no more empire over him than what he himself chooses to allow them; and that water, as well as fire, hath been placed in our way, in order to allow a perfect freedom of choice to our own will. Ah! I could herein attest your own conscience, and demand of you, above all, of you, my dear hearer, if, in spite of your weakness, whenever you have forsaken the law of God, you have not felt that it wholly depended upon yourself to have continued faithful? If piercing lights have not discovered to you all the horror of your transgression; if secret remorses have not turned you away from it; if you have not then hesitated between pleasure and duty; if, after a thousand internal deliberations, and those secret vicissitudes, where one while grace, and the other while cupidity gained the victory, you have not at last declared for guilt, as if still trembling, and ^almost unable to harden yourself against yourself? I might go even farther, and demand of you, if, considering the happy inclinations of modesty and of reserve, the dispositions with which God had favoured you at your birth, the innocency of virtue would not have been more natural, more pleasing, and more easy to you than the licentiousness of vice; demand of you, if you have not suffered more by being unfaithful to your God, than it would have cost you to have been righteous; if you have not been obliged to encroach more upon yourself, to do more violence to your heart, to bear with more vexations, to force your way through more intricate and more arduous paths? Ah! what then can the justice of God find in your dissipations which doth not furnish to him fresh matter of severity and anger against you?
Lastly. It might be added, that, if you are born weak, yet the goodness of God hath environed your soul with a thousand aids; that it is that well-beloved vine which he hath fostered with the tenderest care, which he hath fenced with a deep moat, and forti-
