SERMON XV.

1 CORINTHIANS, 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 tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

PERHAPS nothing can exceed the efforts of God to enable us to overcome temptation, except our own endeavours to disappoint them. There would be something amusing, if it were not too terrible to amuse us, in observing the riches of our resources, and the curious variety of expedients which we haye invented for trifling with temptation; forgetting, that to trifle with temptation is to trifle with God.

Some of us plunge into it headlong,-with a sort of heedless and frantic desperation, never stopping to look to the right hand or to the left, even for the shadow of an excuse; shutting our eyes as we hurry on, and imagining there is

no danger, because we do not see it; flying so rapidly from one temptation to another, that there is no time for thought or reflection between ; until at last we arrive, full speed, at the brink of the grave! There is no stopping then; the force with which we arrived hurries us onward of its own accord; and we are hurled to the bottom, with the weight of all the sins we have committed bearing us down with greater fury.

There are others amongst us, who first, without any consideration, comply with the temptation, and then stop to look about them for the excuse: they first commit the sin, not well knowing at the time what defence they can make, but trusting to chance, or to their own ingenuity, for finding one afterwards.

There are others, more cautious and circumspect, who first look round for an excuse; but the moment they see any thing that bears any resemblance to one, they are perfectly satisfied. They dare not look that way again, lest a second thought should undeceive them: it is an excuse as it stands, but another glance, or one moment's closer inspection, might shew them that all was false and hollow; and rather than be

thus undeceived, they take it at the first view, and surrender to the temptation, hoping that, because they had deceived their own hearts, they have deceived One" that is greater than "their hearts.” However, it may be well to study them a little more attentively, as one day or other we shall have to look them in the face.

All the excuses which we are in the habit of making, appear to be reducible to two classes; and, what is very remarkable, they contradict each other. One of these dangerous apologies is, that many of our particular temptations are, in their very nature, different from those of other

men.

We often persuade ourselves that we are placed in circumstances totally different from those in which other human beings are involved; and often fancy that nature has given us passions and propensities from which the generality of mankind are entirely free, or by which they are much less powerfully actuated. Hence we flatter ourselves that our situation is so original, and the temptations to which we are exposed so unlike those which human nature is generally called upon to encounter, that the transgression into which it leads us is something

new-that it stands distinct and alone; and we can scarcely bring ourselves to think that God will class it with the ordinary violations of his law, or sentence it to the same condemnation. Thus we often go on, imagining that many of our transgressions are exceptions to those of the generality of men, and that we have made out a new case for ourselves in the annals of sin, to plead before the throne of God.

This is one of our excuses: but what is the other? The common frailty of our nature; the plea that all men do the same; that our sins are such as the bulk of mankind commit; and that we only gratify the passions of human nature, or its common weaknesses, in complying with such temptations. Now, would it not be enough to shew the emptiness and silliness of these apologies, to consider, that there is not a single sin that we could not justify by such means? If the temptation seems to be peculiar to us-not such as human nature is in general subject to, the first will serve. If it be one to which the generality of mankind are exposed, the second comes to our relief: so that we are certain that, if the one fails, the other will succeed. One would imagine that this would be

enough. But the passage before us meets them both. As to the first excuse, that there are certain temptations peculiar to ourselves, and which we do not share in common with our fellowcreatures, it says, "There hath no temptation "taken you, but such as is common to man." But, even leaving Scripture out of the question, what reason have we to suppose that we are an exception to the general laws of human nature? Should we not rather conclude, that men who partake of the same nature as ourselves may be subject to the very same temptations? We are all inclined to conceal "the sins which most easily beset us:" therefore, without our observation, others may be exposed to those very trials which we conceive exclusively our own, and may, at that instant, be making the very There is no doubt that men differ very much in their character and constitution, and the ingredients of human nature are variously mixed in different beings. The ruling propensity in one man may be avarice; in another, "evil concupiscence" and debauchery; in another, gluttony and drunkenness; in another, ambition; in another, the predominant passion may be, a fondness for mischief, for

66

same excuse.