SER M. able Reflections, enough to balance them.

X.

The Negligent (the fecond Sort of Men I
have mentioned) will be numerous in all your
Congregations. But if you are not negligent
in duly inftructing them; you will not be
accountable for their Carelessness in practi-
fing. Your beft *Endeavours will not, we
truft, be wanting to recover them; for you
are fenfible what a Luftre, fuch Endeavours,
if fuccessful, muft add to your Glory in an-
other World, where the Wife fhall shine as
the Brightness of the Firmament, and they
that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars
for ever and ever, Dan. xii. 3. And though
your Labour should prove in vain as to them;
you ftill will have the Satisfaction left, that
you have freed
your own Souls, and that your
Pains here will in the next Life have a fuit-
able Reward.

However I have obferved that in all Congregations, by the Bleffing of God, there are some that will yield us Comfort even here: Some, in whom you fhall fee the Fruits of your Labour springing up to your View, and encouraging the Sower ftill to add to his Seed. And of what Benefit thefe few may prove to the whole, I have already obferved: But in a word, and to conclude; the Performance

of

X.

of your Duty, whether to Good or to Bad, S ER M. is fo fure of a Reward either in this Life or the next, and in fome Measure, in both, that notwithstanding all the Oppofition that is made to your Endeavours, you have EncouCallragement enough to be inftant in your ing, and, to use the Words of St. Paul, to be ftedfaft, unmoveable, always abiding in the Work of the Lord, forafmuch as you know, your Labour is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 58. Neither our Planting nor our Watering shall be vain, if he vouchsafe to give an Encreafe; and that He may do fo, let us all join to afk his Bleffing in these Words of our Church. *O Almighty GOD,-make, we befeech thee, all Bishops and Paftors diligently to preach thy boly Word, and the People obediently to follow the fame, that they may receive the Crown of everlasting Life, through Jefus Christ our Lord.

ין

Amen.

* Collect for St. Peter's Day.

SERMON

SERMON XI.

Chrift tempted.

SERM.

XI.

8

MATT. iv, I.

Then was Jefus led up of the Spirit into the
Wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil.

I

Have fixed on thefe Words to difcourfe on at this Time, with the fame View that the Church proposes them to our Thoughts and Meditations upon this first Sunday within the Season of Lent. During this Season the fuppofes us to be in fome Degree employed in looking into and examining our Spiritual State, in obferving what Progrefs or Proficiency we have made in Religion and Virtue, and what Hindrances and Obstructions the Enemy of our Salvation ftill throws in our Way, or lays before us. And whilft we are taken up with fuch Thoughts as these, she concludes we shall fee the Neceffity of our continuing ftill militant here, in order to be victorious or triumphant hereafter. And there

XI.

therefore that our prefent Difficulties and Dif. SER M. couragements may not flacken our Purfuit after that Crown of Glory we fhall obtain, provided we manfully continue the War to the End; the fhews us our Enemy foiled and fubdued, and directs us where we may have Arms and Strength to keep him under. She fhews us the Holy Jefus alone, fet upon with all the Wiles of the Devil, under the utmost Disadvantage of Time and Place, and yet fingly repelling that Arch-Fiend and Adversary of Men, and forcing him to retreat with Confufion and Shame. A Combat worthy the closest Obfervation of every Chriftian, through every Particular. But before we defcend to confider it minutely, give me Leave to fuggest to you the Reason why Providence affigned him this Trial and Conflict as to himfelf, before he fhould enter upon his Miniftry and Office with refpect to others.

Now the Reafon of the Son of GoD's being made manifeft in the Flesh, St. John tells us, was, that he might destroy the Works of the Devil, ἵνα λύση τὰ ἔργα τῆ Διαβόλα, 1 John iii. 8. or rather that he might loose them, (as the Greek Word fignifies) i. e. that he might counter-act the Devil's Part, and fet Men free from the Dominion and Power

XI.

SER M. which Satan by tempting our firft Parents had obtained over them. He was to undo, as the fecond Adam, all the Mifchief that the firft Adam had done; to begin the Work of Man again, and confequently to go through that Trial and Probation of his Virtue and Strength, which the first Man, alas! though fufficiently warned and prepared for the En"gagement, could not, or rather would not, ftand.

The first Adam, though placed in the Midft of the Paradife of GOD; though indulged in the Ufe of all the Fruits and the Trees, which even Eden could produce, one only excepted; though carefully forewarned of the Danger and Ruin that would immediately enfue upon the tafting that one forbidden Tree; yet no fooner does the Tempter approach and allure him with the fpecious Beauties and Qualities of the Fruit; no foon er does he reprefent it to be good for Food, to be pleasant to the Eyes, and a Tree to be defired to make one wife, and to be as GOD's knowing good and evil, Gen. iii. 5, 6. but immediately the Wife deluded by the Devil, and the Hufband by the Wife, both preferring the Gratifications of Senfe to the Obedience of Reafon, prefent Delights to Happiness