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Thus ended this memorable scene of Chrift's temptation in the wilderness. The reasons of it refpecting our Lord have been already explained; the inftructions it furnishes to ourselves are principally these :

1. It teaches us, that even the best of men may fometimes be permitted to fall into great temptations, for we fee that our blessed Lord himself was expofed to the severest. They are not therefore to be confidered as marks of God's displeasure or desertion of us, but only as trials of our virtue ; as means of proving (as Mofes tells the Ifraelites) what is in our hearts, whether we will keep God's commandments or no ; as opportunities gracioufly afforded us to demonftrate our fincerity, our fortitude, our integrity, our unshaken allegiance and fidelity to the great Ruler of the world.

*

2. Whenever we are thus brought into temptation, we have every reafon to hope for the divine affistance to extricate us from danger. We have the example of our blessed Lord to encourage us. We fee the great Captain of our falvation affaulted by all the art and all the power of Satan, and yet rifing fuperior to all his efforts. We fee him going before us in the paths of virtue and of glory, and calling upon us to follow him. Though he was led by the fpirit of God himself into the wilderness in order to be tempted, yet the fame divine spirit accompanied and supported him throughout the whole of his bitter conflict, and enabled him to triumph over his infernal adversary. To the fame heavenly fpirit we alfo may look for deliverance. If we implore God in fervent prayer to send him to us, he will affuredly grant our petition. He will not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation alfo make a way to escape (when we ourselves cannot find one) that we may be able to bear it.+

3. We may learn from the conduct of our Lord under this great trial, that when temptations affail us we are not to parley or to reason with them, to hesitate and deliberate whether we fhall give way to them or not, but muft at once repel them with firmness and with vigour, and oppose to + Cor, X, 13;

* Deut. viii, 20

the dictates of our paffions the plain and pofitive commands

of God in his holy word.

We muft fay refolutely to the "Get thee hence, Satan,”* and he will inftantly flee from us, as he did from him.

tempter, as our Lord did,

4. It is a moft folid confolation to us under fuch contests as these, that if we honeftly exert our utmost efforts to vanquish the enemies of our falvation, moft humbly and devoutly foliciting at the fame time the influences of divine grace to aid our weak endeavours, the unavoidable errors, and imperfections of our nature will not be ascribed to us, nor will God be extreme to mark every thing that is done amiss; for we shall not be judged by one who has no feeling of our infirmities, but by one who knows and who pities them, who was himself in all things tempted like as we are, yet without fint, and who will therefore make all due allowances for our involuntary failings, though none for our wilful tranfgreffions.

5. And lastly, in the various allurements prefented to our Lord, we fee but too faithful a picture of those we are to expect ourselves in our progrefs through life. Our Lord's temptations were, as we have feen, fenfual gratifications, incitements to vanity and oftentation, and the charms of wealth, power, rank, and fplendour. All thefe will in the different stages of our exiftence fucceffively rife up to feduce us, to oppose our progress to heaven, and bring us into captivity to fin and mifery. Pleasure, intereft, business, honour, glory, fame, all the follies and all the corruptions of the world, will each in their turn affault our feeble nature; and through these we must manfully fight our way to the great end we have in view. But the difficulty and the pain of this contest will be confiderably leffened by a refolute and vigorous exertion of our powers and our refources at our first setting out in life. It was immediately after his baptifm, and at the very beginning of his miniftry, that our Lord was expofed to all the power and all the artifices of the devil, and completely triumphing over both, effectually fecured himself from all future attempts of that implacable enemy. In the fame manner it is on our first set

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ting out in life, that we are to look for the most violent affaults from our paffions within, and from the world and the prince of it without. And if we ftrenuously resist thofe enemies of our falvation that prefent themselves to us at that most critical and dangerous period, all the reft that follow in our maturer age will be an eafy conquest. On him who in the beginning of life has preserved himself unfpotted from the world, all its subsequent attractions and allurements, all its magnificence, wealth, and splendour, will make little or no impreffion. A mind that has been long habituated to difcipline and felf-government amidst far more powerful temptations, will have nothing to ap prehend from fuch affailants as these. But after all, our great fecurity is affistance from above, which will never be denied to those who fervently apply for it. And with the power of divine grace to fupport us, with the example of our Lord in the wilderness to animate us, and an eternity of happiness to reward us, what is there that can shake our conftancy or corrupt our fidelity?

Set yourselves then without delay to acquire an early habit of ftrict felf-government, and an early intercourse with your heavenly Protector and Comforter. Let it be your first care to establish the fovereignty of reafon and the empire of grace over your foul, and you will foon find it no difficul ty to repel the most powerful temptations. "Watch ye, ftand faft in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be ftrong,"* be refolute, be patient; look frequently up to the prize that is fet before you, left you be weary and faint in your minds. Confider that every pleasure you facrifice to your duty here, will be placed to your credit and encrease your happiness hereafter. The conflict with your passions will grow lefs irksome every day. A few years (with fome of you perhaps a very few) will put an entire end to it; and you will then, to your unfpeakable comfort, be enabled to cry out with St. Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, fhall give me in that day."+

* 1 Cor. xvi. 13.

4 2 Tim. iv, 7, 8,

LECTURE V.

MATTH. iv. Latter Part,

THE

HE former part of the fourth chapter of St. Matthew, which contains the hiftory of our Saviour's temptation, having been explained to you in the preceding Lecture, I fhall now proceed to the latter part of the chapter, in which an account is given of the firft opening of our bleffed Lord's miniftry, by his preaching, by his chufing a few companions to attend him, and by his beginning to work miracles; all which things are stated very briefly, without any attempt to expatiate on the importance and magnitude of the fubject, which was nevertheless the noblest and most interesting that is to be found in hiftory; an enterprize the most stupendous and astonishing that ever be. fore entered into the mind of man, nothing less than the converfion of a whole world from wickednefs and idolatry to virtue and true religion.

On this vaft undertaking our Lord now entered; and we are informed by St. Matthew, in the 17th verse of this chapter, in what manner he first announced himself and his religion to the world. His first address to the people was fimilar to that of the Baptift, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The very first qualification he required of those who afpired to be his disciples was repentance, a fincere contrition for all past offences, and a resolution to renounce in future every fpecies of fin; for fin, he well knew, would be the grand obftacle to the reception of his, Gofpel.

What a noble idea does this prefent to us of the dignity and fanctity of our divine religion! It cannot even be approached by the unhallowed and the profane. Before they can be admitted even into the outward courts of its fanctu

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