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VIII.

invifible, wicked Men and wicked Spi-SER M.. rits, was stirred up against him to fuch a degree, that he Thus fpeaks concerning Himself, fob. xii. 27; Now is my Soul troubled, and what fhall I fay? Father, fave me from this Hour: and concerning bis Enemies, Luke xxii. 53; This is This is your Hour, and the Power of Darkness. The Effect was, that he was delivered into the Hands of Wicked men, to be crucified and flain. And when the Enemy of man's Salvation, and the Enemies of their own Salvation, thought they had thus entirely put an End to the Doctrine of Chrift by his Death; the Wisdom of God, on the contrary, brought it to pafs, (which was the Mystery hid from the Foundation of the World,) that by this very means, even through Death, he deftroyed Him that had Heb.ii.14. the Powor of Death, that is, the Devil: According to That Prediction of his own, fpoken just before his Paffion, but not understood till after his Refurrection, Joh. 31: Now is the Judgment of this World, now shall the Prince of this World be caft out: And ch. xvi. 11; Of Judgment, becaufe the Prince of this World is judged.

xii.

SERM.

THE only Obfervation I fhall add fur VIII. ther upon This Head is, that whereas

it is affirmed in This Hiftory, that Satan entred into Judas, and put it in his Heart to betray his Mafter; it is not to be underftood, either in Judas's, or in any other Wicked man's cafe, that the Devil's tempting them is any manner of excufe or Extenuation of their Sin. For the Devil can but fuggeft, even as Wicked men do one to another. And, being Tempted, or having Evil fuggefted to them, is no Sin. Sin confifts wholly in the Confent of the Will, approving and putting in practice the Evil fuggefted. Over which Confent of the Will, the Devil has no Power; but it is owing entirely to the Wickedness of the man's own Heart, chufing to do the Evil which it ought to have refused. And therefore the Question is put by St Peter to Ananias, (Acts v. 3;) by way of aggra vation and fevere Reproof of his Crime why hath Satan filled thine Heart? that is, what Excufe can you have, for complying with fo vile a Temptation of the Devil, which you ought to have rejected with all Abhorrence?

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BUT

BUT concerning This, (which is a SER M.
practical Inference from the whole,) I VIII.
fhall have occafion to fpeak further, in
the following Discourse.

C.

aft Clarke most certainly is not bether: Master of the subject. than other Divines. Thers reasoning ems a perfect contradiction to our common thin/represented of equal poner tion

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to God, was

created.

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somnipotent have been created

by god to the always endeavouring to counterach God's Attubuves of mercy & perfection & will to redeem his "creatures from their evil sins

L wa ways..

SERMON

SERMON IX.

Of our SAVIOUR's Temptation.

[A Sermon preached in Lent.]

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Then was Jefus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness, to be tempted of the De

vil.

I

IX.

N difcourfing upon the Ac-SER M count the Scripture gives us of our Saviour's Temptation, I propofed it to confider the feveral Difficulties, which, in That portion of the Gospel-Hiftory, may seem to want more particular Explica tion; and 2dly, to deduce from thence

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