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PLAIN SERMONS,

BY

CONTRIBUTORS

TO THE

"TRACTS FOR THE TIMES."

"We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

"For we are glad when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish,
even your perfection."-2 COR. xiii. 8, 9.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD,

AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.

1842.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

SERMON XCIII.

OF NOT RECEIVING GOD'S GRACE IN VAIN.

2 COR. vi. 1.

"We... beseech you that ye receive not the Grace of GOD in vain."

...

EVERY person who has read his prayer-book with any degree of attention, knows that this season of Lent is appointed by the Church for the especial exercise of repentance; that she intends us to refrain for a while even from the innocent pleasures of the world, that our time and thoughts may be the freer to consider our past lives, to bewail and confess our sins, and so prepare ourselves, with thankful hearts, to acknowledge the infinite mercies of GOD in CHRIST JESUS on the great days of His death and resurrection.

Now labouring men and poor men are apt to imagine that they have very little to do with such times as this: "Fasting and abstinence, humiliation and self-denial, are very well for those who live in mirth and abundance, and fare sumptuously every day;' but we, whose lives are all poverty and toil, had need take all the pleasure we can find, and divert ourselves without fear or scruple, in Lent as well as at other times in the year." And, upon the strength of such excuses as this, too many go on, neglecting their GOD and SAVIOUR, and burying themselves in thoughts of this world, throughout this holy season, with as little remorse or concern as they have done all the year besides.

VOL. IV.

B

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