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ΧΙ.

a Way to escape, that ye may be able to bear SERM. it, 1 Cor. x. 13. Resist therefore, but manfully, and you may be sure of the Victory, of the greatest of Victories in subduing your own corrupt Inclinations, and of the noblest of Triumphs, fince your conquered Paffions draw you up into Heaven.

SERMON

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SERM.
ΧΙΙ.

SERMON XII.

Christ led up by the Spirit into the
Wilderness to be tempted of the
Devil.

MATT. iv. 1, 2.

Then was Jefus led up of the Spirit into the
Wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil.
And when he had fafted forty Days and forty
Nights, be was afterwards an hungred.

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AVING seen the End which Providence designed in allotting our blessed Lord and Saviour those great Trials and Temptations, which the Church proposes to our Thoughts at our Entrance on this holy Seafon; I propose, this Day, to offer to your Contemplations some general Circumstances leading and conducing to them, which my Text particularly notes and points out to us, and which it will be very useful carefully to observe, before we proceed to a particular Confideration of the Temptations themselves.

XII.

And here the First Thing that requires our SERM. Attention, is what the first Word in my Text fefers to, viz. The Time of this folemn Engagement between the Saviour and the Enemy of Mankind. THEN (faith the EvangeTist in the Paffage I have read to you) i. e. (as appears from the Close of the Chapter immediately foregoing) As foon as he came from 'the Waters of Jordan, where he had been baptized, immediately after the Holy Ghoft had in a visible Manner defcended on him, when a Voice from Heaven had audibly pronounced him the well beloved Son of GOD, and whilft Jesus was yet full of the good Spirit within him, THEN was he led up to be tempted of the Devil During all the Time of his private Life, we do not find that the Devil, in any remarkable Manner, set upon him: But now when he has received an extraordinary Testimony of God's Love and Pleasure in him; when he is anointed for the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind, and is just entring upon the Exercise of his great Office and Miniftry; This is the Time which the Devil thinks his proper Seafon: He conceives that now, by one Foil (could he give him one) he should render this diftinguished Son of Gop, but level with the rest of the Sons

of

ΧΙΙ.

SERM. of Men; that he should frustrate the eternal Decrees of Heaven, and for ever quash all future Hopes of the World's Redemption. This Juncture therefore the Arch-Fiend seizes to attempt the Holy Jesus with his utmost Malice, Effort and Skill. Not that either the Devil could have tempted him in so strenuous a Manner, or that Jesus would have thrown himself purposely and designedly in the Devil's Way, had not the Holy Spirit of God permitted the one and conducted the other. For so the Text tells us in the

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SECOND Place, viz. That Jesus was led up of the Spirit, i. e. by the Holy Spirit with which he was filled, and which now led him to this Conflict or Trial to see what Use he would make of his Strength. -Not that the Holy Spirit of God leads Men into Temptation with the same View, with which the Devil tempts: For he, it is plain, endeavours to force or entice us into Sin; whereas when God tempts or leads us to Temptation, it is only for our Trial, that we may refift the Temptation, and by such Resistance give Proof of our Faith. GOD's Design is not to pervert, but to manifest our Obedience. This therefore we may afssure ourselves was the End

proposed

XII.

proposed by the Holy Spirit in leading up Je-SERM. fus to be tempted of the Devil, i. e. not that the Devil should prevail over or allure him to do any thing displeasing to God, but that Jesus might prove the Constancy and Stedfaftness of his Resolution and Obedience, in Oppofition to all the Snares and Temptations the Devil could lay for him. Accordingly we see the Spirit did not lead him to the Trial, till he had first communicated to him a Plenitude or Fullness of his own Power and Grace. For fo St. Luke tells us, Jesus (faith he) being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Fordan, and was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness, Luke iv. 1. But then as the Grace and Strength he received was greater than that of any Man before; so must the Trial he undergoes (as it is a Trial of the Human Nature in general) be greater and stronger than ever any one, in that Nature, before went through. He has not the Liberty of staying in a Paradise, in the Garden of God, and waiting there till the Tempter comes to him; but must go forth into a Place of Horror and Dread, and there engage him on his own Ground. For this I apprehend to be the Meaning of the Text, when it

tells us in the

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VOL. I.

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THIRD

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