the mind. " Behold how great a matter a Httle fire kindleth !" Let us then stand at a distance from the places, the books, the company that may engender sin. And let us, in conformity with our Lord's advice, " watch and pray, that we enter not into temptation."]
3. Do not for one moment neglect the Saviour —
[There is none but Jesus that can stand between sin and death. Lideed even " he overcame d»ath only by dying"-in our stead : and we can escape it only by '^believing in him. We deserve death : we have deserved it for every sin we have ever committed. Ten thousand deaths are our proper portion. Let us then look to Him who died for us. Let us look to him, not only for the sins committed long ago, but for those of daily incursion. Our best act would condemn us, if he did not " bear the iniquity of our holy things." He is our only deliverer from the wrath to come : to Him therefore let us flee continually, and " cleave unto him with full purpose of heart."]
Jam. i. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truthy that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.
THERE is an evil in the world so monstrous and so horrible, that one can scarcely conceive how it shoulci ever be coimiiitted ; namely, the ascribing unto God our own iniquities, and tracing them to him as their proper author. Yet is this the common re- fuge of sinners ; who, when led captive by their own lusts, excuse themselves by averring, that no cri- minality can attach to the indulgence of passions which God himself has given them. i3ut St. James protests against this impiety, and declares, that " God temptethno man ; but that every man who yields to temptation, is drawn away and enticed by his own lust"^." Another evil also he sets himself to counter- act, namely, the tracing of good to ourselves, as though it originated v/ith us as its 'proper authors. This, though it does not shock our feelings so much as the former docs, yet is of the same nature with it,
and
» ver. 13, 14.