III. The bright and morning star, with relation,

1. To the nature of its substance; he was pure,

without the least imperfection. 2. To the manner

of its appearance; he appeared small in his humanity,

though he was the great Almighty God. 3. To the

quality of its operation, open and visible by his light,

chasing away the heathenish false worship, the

imperfect one of the Jews, and all pretended Mes-

siahs; secret and invisible by his influence, illumi-

nating our judgment, bending our will, and at last

changing the whole man.

SERMON XXXII.-P. 267.

JESUS OF NAZARETH PROVED THE TRUE AND ONLY

PROMISED MESSIAH.

"He came to his own, and his own received him

not."-JOHN, i. 11.

No scripture has so directly and immoveably

stood in the way of the several opposers of the

divinity of our Saviour as this chapter, whereof this

text is a part: in which we have,

I. Christ's coming into the world, who, 1. Was

the second Person in the glorious Trinity, the ever
blessed and eternal Son of God; 2. Came from the
bosom of his Father, and the incomprehensible
glories of the Godhead; 3. Came to the Jews, who
were his own by right of consanguinity; 4. When
they were in their lowest estate, national and eccle-
siastical in which we may consider the invincible
strength and the immoveable veracity of God's
promise.

II. Christ rejected by his own. For, 1. The
Jews' exceptions were, (1.) That he came not as a
temporal prince; (2.) That he set himself against
Moses's law. 2. The unreasonableness of which
exceptions appears from this: (1.) That the Mes-
siah's blessings were not to be temporal, and he
himself, according to all the prophecies of Scripture,
was to be of a low, despised estate; (2.) That Christ
came not to destroy, but to fulfil and abrogate

There are several opinions concerning the person

here spoken of by the prophet; but, setting aside

those of later interpreters, who differ even among

themselves, we may safely, with all the ancients,

affirm him to be the Messiah, and this Messiah to be

no other than Jesus of Nazareth. In these words

we may consider,

I. That he was stricken; his suffering, in its lati-

tude and extent, in its intenseness and sharpness,

and in its author, which was God.

II. That he was stricken for transgression; the

quality of his transgression was penal and expiatory;

he was punished for sins past, not to prevent sins for

the future. He bore our sins, his soul was made an

offering for sin. He was qualified to pay an equiva-

lent compensation to the divine justice, by the infinite

dignity and the perfect innocence of his person.

III. That he was stricken for God's people; the

cause of his suffering. Man's redemption proceeds

upon a twofold covenant, one of suretyship, the

other of grace; and, without any violation of the

divine justice, Christ suffered for men,

upon the

account of his voluntary consent; and because of his

relation to them, as he was their king and head, and

their surety.

---

Thence we should learn also to suffer for Christ,

1. By self-denial and mortification; 2. By cheer-

fully undergoing troubles and afflictions in this

world.

necessity of Christ's being believed in as a Saviour;
5. The nature of Christ's priesthood.

The belief of Christ's resurrection affords us, 1.
The strongest dehortation from sin; 2. The most
sovereign consolation against death.

SERMON XXXV.-P. 291.

THE CHRISTIAN PENTECOST, OR THE SOLEMN EFFUSION
OF THE HOLY GHOST, IN THE SEVERAL MIRACULOUS
GIFTS CONFERRED BY HIM UPON THE APOSTLES AND
FIRST CHRISTIANS.

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit."-1 COR. xii. 4.

The Holy Ghost, the design of whose mission was

to confirm Christianity, did it by an effusion of

miraculous gifts upon the first messengers of it. In

which we consider,

I. What those gifts were, either, 1. Ordinary,

conveyed to us by the mediation of our own endea-

vours; or, 2. Extraordinary, immediately from God

alone, such as the gift of tongues, of healing the sick,

and raising the dead, of prophecy, the continuation

of which miraculous gifts in the church was but for

a time.

II. The diversity of those gifts, which consisted,

1. In variety; 2. Not in contrariety.

III. The consequences of their emanation from

one and the same Spirit, which are, 1. That this

Spirit is God, and hath a personal subsistence; 2.

That every one of us may learn humility under, and

content with, his own abilities; 3. That it affords a

touchstone for the trial of spirits, as in the gift of

prophecy, of healing, of discerning of spirits, of divers

tongues, of interpreting, by which trial we may

discover some men's false pretences to gifts the

Spirit; 4. That knowledge and learning are not

opposite to grace.

SERMON XXXVI.-P. 300.

THE PECULIAR CARE AND CONCERN OF PROVIDENCE FOR

THE PROTECTION AND DEFENCE OF KINGS.

"It is he that giveth salvation unto kings."-PSALM

cxliv. 10.

The relation between prince and subject involves

in it obedience and protection; and the same rela-

tion is between princes and God, who gives salvation

unto kings, whose providence over them,

I. Is peculiar and extraordinary, besides the usual

operation of causes, contrary to the design of expert

persons, beyond the power of the cause employed.

II. Making use of extraordinary means, as, 1. By

endowing them with a more than ordinary sagacity;

2. By giving them a singular courage and resolution;

3. By a strange disposition of events for their pre-

servation; 4. By inclining the hearts of their people

towards them; 5. By rescuing them from unseen and

unknown mischiefs; 6. By imprinting an awe of their

authority on the minds of their subjects; 7. By dis-

posing their hearts to virtue and piety.

III. The reason of this particular providence is,

1. Because they are the greatest instruments to sup-

port government, to the ends of which monarchy is

best adapted, and the greatness of which most depends

III. What it is to bring out of one's treasure

things new and old.

And then, by applying all this to the minister of

the gospel, we are to examine,

1st, His qualifications, namely, 1. A natural abi-

lity of the faculties of his mind, judgment, memory,

invention; 2. A habitual preparation by study, in

point of learning and knowledge, of significant

speech and expression;

2dly, The reasons of their necessity, namely, 1.

Because the preacher's work is to persuade; 2. Be-

cause God himself was at the expense of a miracle

to endow the first preachers with them; 3. Because

the dignity of the subject, which is divinity, requires

them;

3dly, The inferences from these particulars; 1.

A reproof to such as discredit the ordinance of

preaching, and the church itself, either by light and

comical, or by dull and heavy discourses; 2. An

exhortation to such who design themselves for the

ministry, to bestow a competent time in preparing

for it.

SERMON XXXVIII.— P. 322.

PROSPERITY EVER DANGEROUS TO VIRTUE.

"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them."-

PROVERBS, i. 32.

The misery of all foolish or vicious persons is,

that prosperity itself to them becomes destructive,—

because,

I. They are ignorant or regardless of the ends

wherefore God sends it, 1. To try and discover what

is in a man; 2. To encourage him in gratitude to

his Maker; 3. To make him helpful to society.

II. Prosperity is prone, 1. To abate men's vir.

tues; 2. To heighten their corruptions, such as

pride, luxury, and uncleanness, profaneness.

III. It indisposes men to the means of their

amendment, rendering them, 1. Averse to all coun-

sel; 2. Unfit for the sharp trials of adversity, under

which they either despond or blaspheme.

Therefore, that prosperity may not be destructive,

3dly, How the not receiving the love of truth into

the will, disposes the understanding to delusion, 1.

By drawing the understanding from fixing its con-

templation upon truth; 2. By prejudicing it against

it; 3. By darkening the mind, which is the peculiar

malignity of every vice.

4thly, How God can properly be said to send men

delusions, 1. By withdrawing his enlightening influ-
ence from the understanding; 2. By commissioning
the spirit of falsehood to seduce the sinner; 3. By
providential disposing of men into such circumstances
of life as have an efficacy to delude; 4. By his per-
mission of lying wonders.

5thly, Wherein the greatness of this delusion con-
sists, 1. In itself, as it is spiritual, and directly annoys
a man's soul, and more particularly blasts his under-
standing; 2. In its consequences, as it renders the
conscience useless, and ends in a total destruction.

6thly, What deductions may be made from the
whole, 1. That it is not inconsistent with God's holi-
ness to punish one sin with another; 2. That the
best way to confirm our faith about the truths of
religion is to love and acknowledge them; 3. That
hereby we may be able to find out the true cause of
atheism, and fanaticism.

SERMON XLVI. XLVII.-P. 394.

COVETOUSNESS PROVED NO LESS AN ABSURDITY IN

REASON, THAN A CONTRADICTION TO RELIGION, NOR

A MORE UNSURE WAY TO RICHES, THAN RICHES

THEMSELVES TO HAPPINESS.

"And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of

covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in
the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

— LUKE, xii. 15.

It is natural for man to aim at happiness, the way

to which seems to be an abundance of this world's

good things, and covetousness is supposed the means

to acquire it. But our Saviour confutes this in these

words, which contains,

1st, A dehortation, wherein we may observe,

1. The author of it, Christ himself, the Lord of the

universe, depressed to the lowest estate of poverty;

2. The thing we are dehorted from, covetousness,

by which is not meant a prudent forecast and par-

simony, but an anxious care about worldly things,
attended with a distrust of Providence; a rapacity
in getting, by all illegal ways; a tenaciousness in
keeping; 3. The way how we are dehorted from it,
"Take heed, and beware;" for it is very apt to

prevail upon us, by its near resemblance to virtue;

the plausibility of its pleas; the reputation it gene-

rally gives in the world; and there is a great diffi-

culty in removing it.

2dly, The reason of that dehortation, that "a
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the
things which he possesseth," because, 1. In the get-
ting of them men are put upon the greatest toils and
labours, run the greatest dangers, commit the great-
est sins; and, 2. When they are gotten, are attended
with excessive cares, with an insatiable desire of
getting more; are exposed to many temptations, to
the malice and envy of all about them; 3. The pos-
session of earthly riches is not able to remove those
things which chiefly render men miserable, such as

affect his mind, or his body; 4. The greatest happi-

ness this life is capable of, may be enjoyed without

that abundance.

SERMON XLVIII.- Page 412.

NO MAN EVER WENT TO HEAVEN, WHOSE REART WAS
NOT THERE BEFORE.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also."- MATT. vi. 21.

These words, concerning the heart of man being
fixed upon his treasure or chief good, may be con-
sidered,

1st, As an entire proposition in themselves,
1. Supposing, that every man has something which
he accounts his treasure, which appears from the
activity of his mind, and the method of his acting;
2. Declaring, that every man places his whole heart
upon that treasure, by a restless endeavour to ac-
quire it, by a continual delight in it, by supporting
himself with it in all his troubles, by a willingness to
part with all other things to preserve it.

2dly, As they enforce the foregoing precept in the
19th and 20th verses, wherein the things on earth

and the things in heaven are represented as rivals

for men's affections; and that the last ought to claim

them in preference to the other will be proved,

1. By considering the world, how vastly inferior it

is to the worth of man's heart; 2. By considering

the world in itself, how all its enjoyments are perish-

ing, and out of our power; and, on the contrary,

heaven is the exchange God gives for man's heart,

and the enjoyments above are indefectible, endless,

and not to be taken away.

The improvement of these particulars is to con-

vince us of the extreme vanity of most men's pre-

tences to religion.

SERMON XLIX. - Page 421.

VIRTUOUS EDUCATION OF YOUTH THE WAY TO A HAPPY

OLD AGE.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and

when he is old, he will not depart from it.".

PROV. xxii. 6.

The rebellion of forty-one has had, ever since, a

very pernicious influence upon this kingdom. To

hinder the mischief whereof, Solomon's advice is best,

-to plant virtue in youth, in order to ensure the

practice of it in a man's mature or declining age;

for since every man is naturally disposed to evil, and

this evil principle will (if not hindered) pass into

action, and those vicious habits will, from personal,

grow national; and no remedy against this can be

had but by an early discipline; it is absolutely neces-

sary that the minds of youth should be formed with

a virtuous preventing education; which is the busi-

ness of,

These words suppose that there is a devil, and

forewarn us against his deceitful disguises; and the

sense of the words may be prosecuted by shewing,

1st, What influence he has upon the soul, and how

he conveys his fallacies, 1. In moving, or sometimes

altering the humours of the body; 2. In suggesting

the ideas of things to the imagination; 3. In a per-

sonal possession of the man.

2dly, Several instances, wherein he, under the

mask of light, has imposed upon the Christian world,

making use, 1. Of the church's abhorrence of poly-

theism, to bring in Arianism; 2. Of the zealous

adoration of Christ's person, to introduce the super-

stitious worship of Popery; 3. Of the shaking off of

Popery, to bring in the two extremes of Socinianism,

and enthusiasm; a comparison of this last with

Popery.

3dly, Certain principles, whereby he is like to

repeat his cheats upon the world, 1. By making

faith and free grace undermine the necessity of a
good life; 2. By opposing the power of godliness

irreconcilably to all forms; 3. By making the king-

dom of Christ oppose the kingdoms of the world.

The resurrection of a body, before its total dis-

solution, is easier to be believed, than after it; and
it was this last sort of resurrection which puzzled
Thomas's reason. Various objections, which, after
some preliminary considerations, are severally pro-
posed, and answered under eight heads, together
with a confutation of the lie invented by the Jews.
All objections being removed, Christ's resurrection
is proposed to our belief upon certain and sufficient
grounds, namely,

1st, The constant, uniform affirmation of such
persons, as had sufficient means to be informed of
the truth, and were of an unquestionable sincerity.