fhould be enabled to bear: And when SERM. he faid, No Temptation, he made no IV. Allowance for a darling Infirmity. Let the Profane and Diffolute Person cease to affront God and Man by his Impious and Abfurd Reasonings! Let it be enough, that he refolve, at any rate, to be Impure and Lawless; but let him "not go on to defend his Impurities, by reproaching and vilifying Human Nature,' and under That, the Wife Author and Contriver of it! If he is determined to live a Life of Senfe, and to obey his Lufts, yet let him not boldly and openly juftify it, by faying, that it is necessary for him to act as he does; and that All Men are, in many Points, though not perhaps in the very fame, just as He is; as impotent every whit, and utterly dif abled. For this is defending One Sin with Another, and a much greater than the first. It is a malicious Design of representing Every body to be Wicked, that He may appear Innocent. The Persons that reason thus, sometimes pretend to have an high Regard for the Liberties SERM. berties and Just Freedoms of Human IV. Nature in Civil Matters, and are mighty uneafy, and impatient under any Reftraint of them. If they are fuch Friends to Freedom, in God's Name, let them affert it there, where it will be of most Importance to them, in the Caufe of Vertue and Religion. Let them remember themselves to be, not only freeborg Englishmen, but freeborn Chriftians Let them be Jealous of their Spiritual Liberty,' as well as their Temporal; and not tye their own Hands, and deliver themselves up (as it were) bound and fettered to the Imperious Sway of their Lufts and Paffions. This is to make Man a Slave, and God a Tyrant; and is by no means of a Piece with their Scheme, nor becoming those who plead for the Rights and Liberties of Human Nature. Wherefore, laying aside these Shifts and Excuses, let us All fet ourselves in good earnest to refift all manner of Temptations: Let us put out all the Strength which we naturally have to this Purpose, and beg of God Supernatural ly ly to fupply us with what we have not. SERM. Especially at this Solemn Time, set a- IV. part to Commemorate the great Conflict of our Saviour with the Tempter in the Wilderness, and to prepare and qualify Us for fuch Spiritual Encounters. Let us look up to the Example of Chrift, and remember how Victorious he was over those fierce Affaults of Satan; and what Affurances he hath given us, that They who tread in his Steps, and refolutely fight the good Fight, fhall be alike Victorious. And whilft we refist, as he did, let us be sure to use the same Means of Resistance, that he used, Fasting and Prayer: For there is no Kind of Temptation, but may, by the Joint Force of Thefe, be cast out. To These therefore let us fly, These let us lay hold of, bending our Knees often in private, during this Seafon of Devotion, and applying ourselves to the Throne of Grace, in those Excellent Words of the Church, which comprehend in fhort whatever hath in this Dif course been more largely delivered. VOL. I. I O God, SERM. O God, who knoweft us to be fet in the IV. midst of fo many and great Dangers, that by reafon of the Frailty of our Natures we cannot stand upright; Grant to us fuch Strength and Protection, as may support us in all Dangers, and carry us through all Temptations, through Jefus Christ our Lord. To whom, &c. THE |