Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DISCOURSE IV. . NO TEMPTATIONS UNSURMOUNTABLE BY CHRISTIANS, 1 Cor. x. 13. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be templed above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear.it. HERE are tvo errors into which Christians, who are not well grounded in the principles of their religion, are apt to run. The one is presumption on the promises of God, which they suppose to be so absolute that they cannot fail to obtain them, be their conduct whatever it may. Agamst this error St. Paul sufficiently cautions us, when he said, " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall"—Let him who thinketh he standeth secure in the favour of God, take heed that he forfeit it not by unbelief and disobedience. The other error is dejection of spirits, and despondence at the prospect of the temptations and difficulties that lie in the way of a holy and Christian life. Sensible oFthe weakness of nature, many people suffer, the imagination to dwell on the difficulties that are before them; till they persuade themselves, that these difficulties are so, inevitable, that they cannot avoid them, and so strong that they cannot resist them. This conclusion, had they nothing but their own wisdom and strength to depend on, wYnild be perfectly just, and they would have every reason to dread all the evils they so anxiously forebode. Blind indeed is human wisdom in the things of God ; and, to resist temptations, the greatest strength of nature is perfect weakness. But to the wisdom and weakness of nature God hath not left us. His power, his grace,his Holy Spirit, are our defence and security in our Christian warfare. And the holy Apostle appeals to the experience...