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PREBENDARY OF WESTMINSTER AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXON.

WITH THE

CHIEF HEADS OF THE SERMONS,

A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR,

AND

GENERAL INDEX.

VOLUME SECOND.

LONDON:

REEVES & TURNER, 196, STRAND.

1877.
L8

252

5726

V.2

THE

CHIEF HEADS OF THE SERMONS.

VOLUME SECOND.

SERMONS LXIV. LXV. LXVI.-P. 1.

Some useful inferences, and directions for a man not to be peremptory with God in his prayers for any particular enjoyment or state of life, but to

DELIVERANCE FROM TEMPTATION THE PRIVILEGE OF acquiesce in the state allotted him by Providence.

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Man's condition, with reference to temptation, is so desperate, that without the assistance of a superior good spirit he cannot be an equal match for the evil one. The text sets forth to us the signal mercy of God to the godly, or truly pious persons, in delivering them from all temptations or trials, chiefly such as are designed to corrupt them.

1st, All the ways of deliverance from temptation may be reduced to these: 1. Of being kept from it; 2. Of being supported under it ; 3. Of being brought out of it, when the temptation has in some measure prevailed; for there are several degrees, namely, seduction, enticement, consent of the will, commission of sin, and the habitual reigning of sin,- into which last state those scarcely fall who are actually in a state of grace. From the foregoing particulars we may learn, 1. The great goodness and wisdom of God in the severest precepts of religion; 2. The most effectual method of dealing with a temptation, namely, prevention.

2dly, The impulsive causes inducing God thus to deliver the godly, are, 1. The free mercy of God; 2. The prevailing intercession of Christ. Some objections answered, and a case resolved concerning the fallibility of regenerate persons; and the several assurances of regeneration, and the expectations men may have of being delivered, in relation to the ways of entering into temptation, illustrated by instances of different success; with a confutation of some pretences alleged by some bold men, who unwarrantably put themselves upon trial.

3dly, Deliverance out of temptation is a transcendent privilege, which will appear from those intolerable evils consequent upon a prevailing temptatation, namely, 1. The soul's utter loss and damnation; 2. Loss of a man's peace with God and his own conscience; 3. Temporal judgments of God in some signal and severe affliction; 4. The disgrace and reproach which it casts upon our Christian profession.

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SERMON LXVII.-P. 27.

THE HAPPINESS OF BEING KEPT FROM THE HOUR OF TEMPTATION.

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, therefore will I keep thee from the hour of temptation, which is coming upon all the world, to try the inhabitants of the earth."— REV. iii. 10.

Nothing more sets off the greatness of God's mercy in delivering his people out of temptation, than the critical time of his vouchsafing it. For, 1st, There is a certain proper scason and hour which gives a peculiar force and efficacy to temptation.

2dly, A temptation attains its proper season and hour by these means: 1. By the original, universal corruption of man's nature; 2. By every man's particular corruption; 3. By the continual offer of alluring objects agreeable to it; 4. By the unspeakable malice and activity, the incredible skill and boldness of the tempter; 5. By God's just judgment, in commissioning this evil spirit to tempt at a rate more than ordinary; 6. By a previous growing familiarity of the mind with the sin which a man is tempted to; 7. By a long train of gradual, imperceptible encroachments of the flesh upon the spirit.

3dly, A temptation's proper season, may be discerned by some signs, -as, 1. By an unusual concurrence of all circumstances and opportunities for the commission of any sin; 2. By a strange averseness to, if not a total neglect of, spiritual exercises, prayer, reading, and meditation; 3. By a temptation's unusual restlessness and importunity.

4thly, Useful inferences may be drawn from this discourse, such as these: 1. Every time wherein a man is tempted, is not properly the hour of temptation; 2. Every man shall assuredly meet with such an hour; 3. The most successful way to be carried safe through this hour, is to keep the word of Christ's patience.

SERMONS LXVIII. LXIX. — P. 35.

True faith is bottomed upon God's infinite wisdom

and power, who alone is able to give a full and

absolute deliverance out of temptation. Some of

the principal temptations which threaten most the

souls of men, are, 1. A public declared impunity to

sin. 2. The vicious examples of persons in place

and power. 3. The cruel oppressions of men in

their persons, liberties, and estate. In opposition to

which, we must consider, 1. That the strongest temp-

tations to sin are no warrants to sin: and, 2. That

God delivers only those who do their lawful utmost

to deliver themselves.

The deliverances out of temptation are of two sorts:

1st, Those whereby God delivers immediately by

himself and his own act. 1. By putting an issue

to the temptation; 2. By supplying the soul with

mighty inward strength to withstand it; 3. By a

providential change of a man's whole course of life

and circumstances of condition; 4. By the over-

powering operation of his Holy Spirit, gradually

weakening, and at length totally subduing the temp-

tation. From these considerations, that God alone

can deliver out of temptation, and that the ways by

which he does so are above man's power, and for the

most part, beyond his knowledge, we may deduce

these useful, practical consequences, · 1. That the

estimate of an escape from temptation is to be taken

from the final issue and result of it; that a tempta-

tion may continue very long, and give a man many

foils before he escapes out of it: which affords an

antidote against presumption on the one hand, and

despair on the other. 2. No way out of any cala-

mity, if brought about by a man's own sin, ought to

be accounted a way allowed by God for his escape

out of that calamity or temptation. Nor, 3. To

choose a lesser sin to avoid a greater. 4. When a

temptation is founded in suffering, none ought to be

so solicitous how to get out of it, as how to behave

himself under it. 5. There can be no suffering
whatsoever, but may be endured without sin. Since
to be delivered out of temptation is of an infinite
concern, and since the tempter has so many advan-
tages, we should be so much the more careful to use
such means as our Saviour himself has prescribed to
us, namely, watchfulness and prayer.

2dly, By watchfulness and prayer on the part of
the person being tempted; which forms the subject
of the following sermon.

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1st, Watching imports, 1. A sense of the great-

ness of the evil we contend against; 2. A diligent
survey of the wit and strength of our enemy, com-
pared with the weakness and treachery of our own
hearts; 3. A consideration of the ways by which
temptation has at any time prevailed upon ourselves
or others; 4. A continual intention of mind upon
the danger, in opposition to idleness and remissness;
5. A constant and severe temperance.

2dly, Prayer is rendered effectual by, 1. Fervency,

or importunity; 2. Constancy, or perseverance.

Lastly, Watching and prayer must always be

joined together; the first without the last being but
presumption, and the last without the first, mockery.
Which is shewn by two instances, in which men may
pray against temptation without any success.

A Christian, though he has great privileges and
hopes, yet ought not to presume, but prepare himself
for future glory by the purity of his life. Having
considered how a man may be said to purify himself,
and to such a degree, even as Christ is pure, we
shall in these words observe,

self, namely, to rid himself, 1. Of the power of sin;
1st, What is implied in a man's purifying of him-
which consists in bewailing all his past sinful acts,
and in a vigilant prevention of future ones. And
this will be effected by opposing every first sinful
motion, by frequently performing severe mortifying

duties, and by often using fervent prayer, whence
we may perceive the error of those who pursue the
reformation of some particular sins only, and of
others who only complain of the evil of their nature,
without endeavouring to amend it; 2. Of the guilt
of sin, which can be expiated by no duty within
man's power, but only by applying the virtue of
Christ's blood to the soul through faith.

2dly, How the hope of heaven does purify a man,
namely, 1, Upon a natural account, as it is a special

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grace, in its nature contrary to sin; 2. Upon a moral
account, by suggesting to the soul arguments for
purification, such as these, that purity is the
necessary means to the acquisition of eternal happi-
ness, that it alone can qualify the soul for heaven,
that it is a duty we are obliged to out of gratitude,
that it only can evidence to us our_right in those
glorious things that we hope for. From all these,
every one may gather a certain criterion, by which
to judge of his hope as to his future happiness.

POSTHUMOUS SERMONS.

SERMON I.-P. 79.

"He that descended is the same also that ascended
far above all heavens, that he might fill all things."
- EPHESIANS, iv. 10.

Christianity, in those great matters of fact upon

which it is founded, happily complies with man's

mind, by affording proper objects to affect both the

pensive, sad, and composed part of the soul, and also

its more joyful, serene, and sprightly apprehensions;

which is instanced in many passages of Christ's life,

from the humble manger, attended with angels, to

his descent into the grave, followed by his miracu-

lous resurrection and ascension. This last great and

crowning passage, however true, still affords scope

for the noble actings of faith; and since faith must

rest itself upon a divine word, such a word we have

here in the text; wherein are four things consider-

able:

I. Christ's humiliation implied in these words,

"he that descended." The Socinians answered con-

cerning Christ's descent according to his divine

nature. And an inquiry made as to the place

whither he descended, "the lower parts of the

earth," which, 1. Some understand simply of the

earth, as being the lowermost part of the world;

2. Some of the grave; 3. Some of hell itself, the
place of the damned; 4. The Romanists, by the help
of this text, have spied a place called purgatory;
or rather the pope's kitchen. These words may
bear the same sense with those in Psalm cxxxix. 15,
and be very properly taken for Christ's incarnation
and conception in the womb of the blessed Virgin;
and that upon these grounds:-1. Because the for-
mer expositions have been shewn to be unnatural,
forced, or impertinent, and there is no other besides
this assignable; 2. Since Paul here uses David's
very words, it is most probable that he used them
in David's sense; 3. The words "descending" and
"ascending" are so put together in the text, that
they seem to intend a summary account of Christ's
whole transaction in man's redemption, which was
begun in his conception, and consummate in his
ascension.

II. Christ's glorious advancement and exaltation,

"he ascended far above all heavens," that is, to the

most eminent place of dignity and glory in the highest
heaven.

III. The qualification and state of Christ's person,
in reference to both conditions: he was the same,
"He that descended," &c. which evinces the unity
of the two natures in the same person.

IV. The end of Christ's ascension," that he might
fill all things." "All things" may refer here,
1. To the Scripture prophecies and predictions;

2. To the church, as he might fill that with his gifts

and graces; Or, 3. (Which interpretation is pre-

ferred,) to all things in the world, which he may be

said thus to fill in a double respect: (1.) Of the

omnipresence of his nature, and universal diffusion

of his godhead; (2.) Of the universal rule and

government of all things committed to him as Medi-

ator upon his ascension. It remains that we tran-

scribe this into our lives, and by being the most

obedient of servants, declare Christ to be the greatest

of masters.

"That he might fill all things."— EPHES. iv. 10.

These words are capable of a threefold interpre

tation,-

I. "All things" may refer to the whole series of
prophecies and predictions recorded of Christ in the
Scriptures, which he may be said to fulfil by his
ascension. Saint Paul vindicated against the Jews'
charge of perverting the prophet's meaning in that
eminent prediction, Psalm lxviii. 18.

II. "All things" may refer to the church, which
sense is here most insisted on. The church, from
its very nature and constitution, has unavoidably a
double need or necessity, which it is Christ's pre-
rogative to fill, -

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1st, In respect of its government. Hereupon he
gave some, apostles; some, evangelists; some,
prophets; some, pastors and teachers.

2dly, In respect of instruction, for this Christ made
a glorious provision by the diffusion of the Holy
Ghost upon the apostles. In which passage two
things are observable: 1. The time when, which is
remarkable in this respect, (1.) Of Christian reli-

gion itself, it being about its first solemn promulga-

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