SERM.ftrength of the meat that he had eaten, VIII. forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb the

Mount of God. Mofes's Faft, was for the Sins of Ifrael in the Wilderness; Deut. ix. 18. I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, I did neither eat 'bread, nor drink water, because of all your Sins which ye finned, in doing wickedly in the fight of the Lord, to provoke him to Anger. Elijah's Faft, was for the Idolatry of Ifrael in the days of the Kings; 1 Kings xix. 13. There came a voice to him, faying, What deft thou here, Elijah ? And he faid, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hofts; because the children of Ifrael have forfaken thy Covenant, thrown down thine Altars, and flain thy Prophets with the Sword. Thefe Types therefore of the Giver of the Law, and of the Chief of the Prophets, our Saviour who came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, to fulfil all Legal, as well as Moral Righteousness, and to be an Expiation for the Sins of the whole World; thought fit to accomplish. And poffibly even in his Own Fast also of forty days, there might till be fomething typical, and propheti

cal.

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cal. For, as it was told to Ezekiel in his SER M. VIII. Vision; ch. iv. 6; Thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days, I have appointed thee each day for a Year: And as the Prophet Jonah prophefied of Nineveh, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown; (which, though in the literal sense it was deferred upon their Repentance, yet in the accounts of prophetical computation it was really fulfilled, as is intimated at the conclufion of the book of Tobit :) So 'tis very obfervable, that God fuffered the Manners of the Jews in the Wilderness (upon whofe Account Mofes's Faft was kept; God bore with them, I fay, in the Wilderness) forty years, in the time of that Great Provocation; Acts xiii. 18; and Pf. xcv. 8, 9, 10. And from the time of our Saviour's Death to the final deftruction of Jerufalem, the fame impenitent Nation had again the fame Space allowed them of forty years.

THE Use of fuch Obfervations as these, is, to show the exact Connexion there is, between the several prophetical Types made use of in Scripture, and the Events to which thofe Types have relation. The comparing

SER M. comparing of which one with another, is a confirmation of the Truth of the inspired Writings, and confequently of the Truth of the Revelation itself.

VIII. ww

THE Churches in following Ages, long after the Apostles times, inftituted the Forty-days Faft of Lent, for fome fort of a Refemblance or Imitation of our Saviour's Faft: But This, being not of Apoftolical institution, is to be looked upon only as all Other Appointments of merely humane Authority.

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3. IT may be inquired why our Saviviour, who had Power over unclean Spirits, and could caft out Devils at his Pleasure; was yet pleafed to fubmit himself and condescend fo far, as to be Tempted at all by the Enemy. To this Question, the Apostle gives an Anfwer, Heb. ii. 14; that our Lord being through Death to deftroy him that had the Power of Death, that is, the Devil; took therefore upon him, not the Nature of Angels, wherein he could not have died; but the Nature of Men. Wherefore in all things it beboved him to be made like unto his Bre-i thren, that he might be a merciful and

faithful

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faithful High Prieft in things pertaining SER M.
to God, to make reconciliation for the Sins VIII.
of the People. For in that He himself bath
fuffered, being Tempted; he is able to fuc-
cour Them that Are Tempted. And ch. iv.
15; We have not an High Priest which
cannot be touched with the Feeling of our
Infirmities; but one who was in all points
Tempted like as we are, yet without Sin.
Tempted, not only by the Great Adver
fary, as in the prefent Hiftory, whereof
my Text is a part; but Tempted alfo by
all the ufual Difficulties of humane Life.
For fo he expreffès himself to his Difci-
ples, Luk. xxii. 28; Ye are they which have
continued with me in my Temptations.
And indeed the Defign of his coming in-
to the World, was not barely to Die; but
in the whole Courfe of his Life alfo, to
fet an Example of Humility and of per-
fect Obedience, as well as to give himself
a Propitiation for our Sins by his Death.
For This reafon he was circumcifed, and
became obedient in all things to the Law
of Mofes. And when he came to John's
Baptifm; though he had No Sin to wash
away by Repentance; and John, knowing

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SER M. him, would have forbidden him, faying, VIII. I bave need to be baptized of Thee, and comeft Thou to Me? Matt. iii. 14: yet Jefus infifted upon it, faying, Suffer it to be fo Now; For thus it becometh us to fulfil All Righteoufnefs. All Righteousness; that is, every thing which is, not only properly and ftrictly needful in itself; but every thing that is meet, every thing that is decent, every thing that is regular, exemplary, or of good report.

4. IT may be inquired, (and This is one of the greatest Difficulties of all,) why the Tempter would at all affault our Lord, or what Advantage he could poffibly hope to gain over him. Was it poffible that he could think to defeat the Counfel of God, or difappoint the Defign of his fending the Meffiah into the World? To This, it may be replied, 1ft, That as wicked men perpetually attempt vain, unreasonable, and abfurd things; fo wicked Spirits likewife, deferted of God, and forfaken of all Goodness and True Underftanding, may well be fuppofed to attempt things no lefs unreasonable and abfurd. That Evil Spirits fhould at any time have

boped