SERMONS

PREACHED UPON

SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

BY ROBERT SOUTH, D. D.

PREBENDARY OF WESTMINSTER, AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.

A NEW EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES,

INCLUDING

THE POSTHUMOUS DISCOURSES.

VOL. III.

PHILADELPHIA:

SORIN & BALL, 42 NORTH FOURTH STREET.

1845.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.

MAN'S condition, with reference to temptation, is so desperate, that without the assistance of a superior good spirit he cannot be an equal match for the evil one, 16. And the text sets forth to us the signal mercy of God to the godly or truly pious persons, 18, in delivering them from all temptations or trials, chiefly such as are designed to corrupt them, 20.

I. All the ways of deliverance from temptation may be reduced to these, 22. 1. Of being kept from it, 22.

2. Of being supported under it, 25.

3. Of being brought out of it, 28, when the temptation has in some measure prevailed; for there are several degrees, ib., viz. seduction, 29, enticement, ib., consent of the will, ib., commission of sin, 30, and the habitual reigning of sin, ib. Into which last state those scarcely fall who are actually in a state of grace, 31.

From the foregoing particulars we may learn,

1. The great goodness and wisdom of God, in the severest precepts of religion, 32.

2. The most effectual method of dealing with a temptation, viz. prevention, 33.

II. The impulsive causes inducing God thus to deliver the godly, 35, are, 1. The free mercy of God, 35.

2. The prevailing intercession of Christ, 37. With some objections answered, 40, and a case resolved concerning the fallibility of regenerate persons, 41, and the several assurances of regeneration, ib., and the expectations men may have of being delivered, 42, in relation to the ways of entering into temptation, 45, illustrated by instances of different success, 46, with a confutation of some pretences alleged by some bold men, who unwarrantably put themselves upon trial, 47.

III. Deliverance out of temptation is a transcendent privilege, 52. Which will appear from those intolerable evils consequent upon a prevailing temptation, 53, viz.

iii