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. 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. 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. 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. "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with 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 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 2dly, By watchfulness and prayer on the part of 1st, Watching imports, 1. A sense of the great- ness of the evil we contend against; 2. A diligent 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 Of all the cheats put upon a man by trusting, none is more pernicious than that of trusting his own heart, and resigning up the entire conduct of himself to the directions of it, as of an able and a faithful guide. The folly of which will appear by 1st, The value of the things we commit to that trust, namely, 1. The honour of God, who is our Creator, our Lord, and our Father; 2. Our happi- ness in this world, with relation both to our temporal and spiritual concerns; 3. Our eternal happiness 2dly, The undue qualifications of that heart to whose trust we commit these things, which, 1. Can not make good the trust because of its weakness, in point both of apprehension and of election; 2. Will not make it good because of its deceitfulness, which shews itself in several delusions, that relate either to the commission of sin, or to the performance of duty, Since, therefore, the heart is so deceitful, and to trust it is inexcusable folly, we ought to trust only A Christian, though he has great privileges and self, namely, to rid himself, 1. Of the power of sin; duties, and by often using fervent prayer, whence 2dly, How the hope of heaven does purify a man, grace, in its nature contrary to sin; 2. Upon a moral POSTHUMOUS SERMONS. SERMON I.-P. 79. "He that descended is the same also that ascended 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- 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 II. Christ's glorious advancement and exaltation, most eminent place of dignity and glory in the highest III. The qualification and state of Christ's person, IV. The end of Christ's ascension," that he might 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 "That he might fill all things."— EPHES. iv. 10. These words are capable of a threefold interpre I. "All things" may refer to the whole series of II. "All things" may refer to the church, which - 1st, In respect of its government. Hereupon he 2dly, In respect of instruction, for this Christ made b |