And to pray, too, for forgiveness from Christ, and for the
sake of Christ, whenever we have yielded to our low passions, and defiled
the likeness of God in us, and grieved His Spirit, lest at the last day
it be said to us, if not in words yet in acts, which there will be no
mistaking, no escaping,--"I made thee in My likeness in the beginning of
the creation, I redeemed thee into My likeness on the cross, I baptised
thee into My likeness by my Holy Spirit; and what hast thou hast done
with My likeness? Thou hast cast it away, thou hast let it die out in
thee, thou hast lived after the flesh and not after the spirit, and hast
put on the likeness of the carnal man, the likeness of the brute. Thou
hast copied the vanity of the peacock, the silliness of the ape, the
cunning of the fox, the rapacity of the tiger, the sensuality of the
swine; but thou hast not copied God, thy God, who died that thou mightest
live, and be a man. Then, thou hast destroyed God's likeness, for thou
hast destroyed it in thyself. Thou hast slain a man, for thou hast slain
thy own manhood, and art thine own murderer, and thine own blood shall be
required at thy hand. That which thou hast done to God's likeness in
thee, shall be done to that which remains of thee in a second death."

And from that may Christ in His mercy deliver us all. Amen.

SERMON VII. TEMPTATION

Eversley, 1872. Chester Cathedral, 1872.

St Matt. iv. 3. "And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be
the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."

Let me say a few words to-day about a solemn subject, namely, Temptation.
I do not mean the temptations of the flesh--the temptations which all men
have to yield to the low animal nature in them, and behave like brutes.
I mean those deeper and more terrible temptations, which our Lord
conquered in that great struggle with evil which is commonly called His
temptation in the wilderness. These were temptations of an evil spirit--
the temptations which entice some men, at least, to behave like devils.

Now these temptations specially beset religious men--men who are, or
fancy themselves, superior to their fellow-men, more favoured by God, and
with nobler powers, and grander work to do, than the common average of
mankind. But specially, I say, they beset those who are, or fancy
themselves, the children of God. And, therefore, I humbly suppose our
Lord had to endure and