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XI.

a Way to escape, that ye may be able to bear SER M.
it, 1 Cor. x. 13. Refift therefore, but man-
fully, and you may be fure of the Victory, of
the greatest of Victories in fubduing your own
corrupt Inclinations, and of the nobleft of
Triumphs, fince your conquered Paffions
draw you up into Heaven.

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SERMON XII.

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

SERM.

XII.

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, he was afterwards an hungred.

CHA

AVING feen the End which Providence defigned in allotting our bleffed Lord and Saviour thofe 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 fome general Circumstances leading and conducing to them, which my Text particularly notes and points out to us, and which it will be very ufeful carefully to obferve, before we proceed to a particular Confideration of the Temptations themselves..

XII.

And here the Firft Thing that requires our S ER M. Attention, is what the firft Word in my Text refers to, viz. The Time of this folemn Engagement between the Saviour and the Enemy of Mankind. THEN (faith the EvangeTift in the Paffage I have read to you) i.e. (as appears from the Clofe 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 vifible Manner defcended on him, when a Voice from Heaven had audibly pronounced him the well beloved Son of GoD, and whilst Jefus 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, fet upon him: But now when he has received an extraordinary Teftimony of GoD's Love and Pleafure in him; when he is anointed for the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind, and is juft 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

1

SER M. of Men; that he fhould fruftrate the eternal XII. Decrees of Heaven, and for ever quash all future Hopes of the World's Redemption. This Juncture therefore the Arch-Fiend feizes to attempt the Holy Jefus with his utmost Malice, Effort and Skill. Not that either the Devil could have tempted him in so strenuous a Manner, or that Jefus would have thrown himself purpofely and defignedly in the Devil's Way, had not the Holy Spirit of GOD permitted the one and conducted the other. For fo the Text tells us in the

SECOND Place, viz. That Jefus 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 fee what Ufe he would make of his Strength.- -Not that the Holy Spirit of GOD leads Men into Temptation with the fame 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 fuch Refistance give Proof of our Faith. GOD's Defign is not to pervert, but to manifest our Obedience. This therefore we may affure ourselves was the End proposed

XII.

proposed by the Holy Spirit in leading up Je- SER M. fus to be tempted of the Devil, i. e. not that the Devil should prevail over or allure him to do any thing difpleafing to GOD, but that Jefus might prove the Conftancy and Stedfaftnefs of his Refolution 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, Jefus (faith he) being full of the Holy Ghoft, returned from Jordan, 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 Paradife, 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

VOL. I.

C c

THIRD

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