Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/116

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the great Creator of the universe, came down and took upon himself Humanity in the world, in order, upon the battle-ground of that Humanity, to meet the powers and hosts of hell, and overcome them, and cast them down, and so remove them from mankind. Thus Jehovah-Jesus redeemed mankind, by delivering them from the preponderating influence of hell, and so restoring them to mental freedom; as a consequence of which, every man is now able to think and do right if he will, and thus to be regenerated and saved. It is to be understood that before the Lord came into the world, the influence of hell over men was so powerful as to take away their mental freedom, so that they could scarcely help thinking and doing evil. Moreover, infernal spirits, or devils, entered into men's bodies (as we read in the Gospels) and tortured them. Thus, mankind were fast becoming the very slaves of the Infernal Powers. Now, this yoke the Lord came to break. He assumed a human nature like that of other men, in order that the Powers of hell might flow into it, that there he might meet and overcome them, and bring them into subjection. It was this, in which the work of Redemption consisted. To believe that the Lord Jesus did accomplish this work of Redemption, and thus is the Almighty Saviour, and to look and pray to him as such—this is what is meant by believing in the Lord.

Let us now consider what is meant by keeping his commandments. To keep the Divine commandments is, chiefly, to resist in ourselves the evils which those commandments forbid. Most of the Divine command-