SERMON I.

MATTHEW IV. VERSE I.

Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.

In this season of the year, when we are reminded of our Saviour's miraculous temptation, it is highly expedient that we should consider those perils to which we are exposed by the great deceiver of mankind; who offers to us also all the pleasures,` and glories of the world, if we will forget the Lord our God, and fall down to the worship of the powers of darkness. Day, and night man is tempted from the path of his salvation; and on each side stand alluring pleasures, inviting him to destruc

tion: There are lust, avarice, and ambition; the great sin of intemperance; deep servitude to this world; timid apostacy that corrupted the soul of Peter; revenge, that shed the blood of Abel; cruelty, that sharpened the sword of Herod; falsehood, by which Ananias fell; treachery, that nailed Jesus to the cross: The soul is assailed by all these powers of darkness, and no man will ever see God, who has not clad himself in the armour of righteousness, and walked unhurt through them all to the mountain of Calvary; to finish his race at that goal, to breathe his last at the feet of Christ.

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Let him among us, (say the scriptures,) who would avoid temptation, think meanly, and humbly of himself: The danger that is to be averted, must be well known, and rationally apprehended, or it will come in double terror: No confidence, I beseech you, in the strength of resolutions, in the solemnity of vows, in the force, and freshness of repentance;-the wind scatters chaff, the waves toss down mounds of sand;

passion sweeps before it the oaths, the protestations, the resolves of men, and breaks in pieces, the slender fabrics of his soul. Before temptation, we are more than angels; have I not, (the sinner says,) mourned for my fault? am not I weary of the bondage of this sin? is it possible that I shall be tempted once more, that I shall forget all that suffering has taught me, all that I have learnt from dejection, and selfreproach? Alas! a word, a sound, a sight will melt all this new wisdom into air, and hurry us back to the same station of sin; again we shall resolve, again feel boldness, and pride; again learn the weakness of man's nature, again know the strength of sin, and again feel the bitterness of repentance.

There is a degree of fear, however which leads to despair; our notions of the power of sin may be so excessive as to make all resistance appear hopeless; but the holy fear, of which I am speaking, is that which is opposed to rash confidence; a fear mingled with so much hope, that it excites

activity, and does not confound judgment; a fear which discovers the whole extent of the danger, without magnifying it more than reality; and distrusts the means of opposing sin, without distrusting them more than they ought to be distrusted; distrusts them when unaided by grace, when unfounded on religion, when unblest by God, when purely, and entirely human; but when connected with heaven, when sanctified, and hallowed, and touched by Christ; then sees their dignity, and glory; and knows they have strength to trample on every lust, and passion of the flesh.

Confidence is the great auxiliary of temptation; if we say that we have no sin we perpetually deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: Profound christian humility is the only safeguard of virtue: "I dare not so much as lift up my eyes to that allurement; I dare not confide it to my thoughts; I will flee from it into the bosom of the deep, and into the nethermost parts of the world; if God save me not, I am lost, for of myself I can do nothing-and my portion is sin;' -so think the just; thus do

they cry unto God in their prayers, and in this way, by fear and trembling, are they saved.

I beg you to observe, that in speaking of this timid apprehension of the perils of temptation, I speak rather of the beginning of righteousness, than of its very advanced, and mature state; the time at length comes, when the force of temptation is diminished, and the power of resistance increased; and this fact is one of the strongest incitements to resist temptation, that the difficulty, and the struggle become every day less intense, till righteousness, and evangelical purity appear to be almost habitual; we see in the perils of the flesh, that which we have before encountered, and subdued; we remember the former protection of Heaven; we resume the same confidence in Christ; we put up the same prayer; we receive for our aid the same emanations of the Divine Grace;-there dwells within us a constant courage, founded upon experience of the efficacy of grace, a proneness to trust in God, a cheerful, and invincible hope. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will

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