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particular; 2. Not to conclude every thing impos-
sible, which to our reason is unintelligible; 3. Nor
by a vain presumption to pretend to clear up all
mysteries in religion.

SERMON XXXI. — Page 258.

THE LINEAL DESCENT OF JESUS OF NAZARETH FROM
DAVID BY HIS BLESSED MOTHER THE VIRGIN MARY.

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"He came to his own, and his own received him fully undergoing troubles and afflictions in this

not." JOHN, i. 11.

"Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the

pains of death, because it was not possible that he

should be holden of it."— ACTS, ii. 24.

The necessary belief of a future state has been
confirmed by revelation and exemplification, chiefly
in that of the resurrection of Christ, whom

I. God hath raised up; such an action proclaim-
ing an omnipotent cause. And,

II. The manner of his being raised was by having

loosed the pains of death; an explication of the word

pains. And,

III. The ground of his resurrection was the im-

possibility of his being holden of it, which impos-
sibility was founded upon, 1. The hypostatical union
of Christ's human nature to his divine; 2. The im-
mutability of God, in respect of his eternal decree,
and of his promise; 3. The justice of God; 4. The

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upon their personal qualifications; 2. Because they
have the most powerful influence upon the concerns
of religion.

IV. Hence, 1. Princes may learn their duty
towards God; and, 2. Subjects may learn theirs
towards their prince.

SERMON XXXVII.-P. 309.

THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED, &c.

a man ought, 1. To consider the uncertainty of it; And, 2 How little he is bettered by it; 3. To use the severe duties of mortification.

SERMON XXXIX.-P. 328.

SHAMELESSNESS IN SIN THE CERTAIN FORERUNNER OF DESTRUCTION.

"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord."— JEREMIAH, vi. 15.

Shamelessness in sin is the certain forerunner of destruction. In the prosecution of which proposition we may observe,

1st, What shame is, and how it is more effectual than law in its influence upon men, with respect to the evil threatened by it, and to the extent of that evil.

2dly, How men cast off that shame, 1. By the commission of great sins; 2. By a custom of sinning; 3. By the examples of great persons; 4. By the observation of the general practice; 5. By having been once irrecoverably ashamed.

3dly, The several degrees of shamelessness in sin, 1. To shew respect to sinful persons; 2. To defend sin 3. To glory in it.

4thly, The reasons why shamelessness is so destructive, 1. Because it presupposes those actions which God seldom lets go unpunished; and, 2. It has a destructive influence upon the government of the world.

5thly, The judgments by which it procures the sinner's ruin, 1. A sudden and disastrous death; 2. War and desolation; 3. Captivity.

Lastly, an application made of the whole.

SERMON XL.-P. 337.

CONCEALMENT OF SIN NO SECURITY TO THE SINNER.

"Be sure your sin will find you out."- NUMBERS, xxxii. 23.

These words reach the case of all sinners,

1st, Sin upon a confidence of concealment, for, 1. No man engages in sin, but as it bears some appearance of good; 2. Shame and pain are by God made the consequents of sin.

2dly, Take up that confidence upon, 1. Their own success; 2. The success of others; 3. An opinion of their own cunning; 4. The hope of repentance.

3dly, Are at last certainly defeated, because, 1. The very confidence of secrecy is the cause of the sinner's discovery; 2. There is sometimes a providential concurrence of unlikely accidents for a discovery; 3. One sin sometimes is the means of discovering another; 4. The sinner may discover himself through frenzy and distraction; or, 5. Be forced to it by his own conscience; 6. He may be suddenly struck by some notable judgment; or, lastly, His guilt will follow him into another world, if he should chance to escape in this.

SERMON XLI.-- P. 345.

THE RECOMPENSE OF THE REWARD.

"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of reward."- НЕВ. xi. 24-26.

A Christian is not bound to sequester his mind from respect to an ensuing reward. For,

1st, Duty, considered barely as duty, is not sufficient to engage man's will; because, 1. The soul has originally an averseness to duty; 2. The affections of the soul are not at all gratified by any thing in duty; 3. If duty of itself was a sufficient motive, then hope and fear would be needless. An answer to some objections.

2dly, A reward, and a respect to it, are necessary to engage man's obedience, not absolutely, but with respect to man's present condition; the proof whereof may be drawn from Scripture, and the practice of all lawgivers. Therefore it is every man's infinite concern to fix to himself a principle to act by, which may bring him to his beatific end.

SERMON XLII.-P. 355.

ON THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.

"Having hope towards God, (which they themselves also allow,) that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."- ACTS, xxiv. 15.

It is certain that there must be a general retribution, and, by consequence, a general resurrection The belief of which, though,

1st, It is exceedingly difficult, because, 1. Natural reason is averse to it; 2. This averseness is grounded partly upon many improbabilities, partly upon downright impossibilities charged upon it: Yet,

2dly, Is founded upon sufficient and solid grounds, which will appear, 1. By answering the objections of improbability and impossibility; 2. By positive arguments.

3dly, Gaineth much worth and excellency from all those difficulties; for from hence, 1. We collect the utter insufficiency of bare natural religion; 2. We infer the impiety of Socinian opinions concerning the resurrection.

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ILL-DISPOSED AFFECTIONS BOTH NATURALLY AND PE-
NALLY THE CAUSE OF DARKNESS AND ERROR IN THE
JUDGMENT.

A very severe judgment is here denounced against

them who receive not the love of the truth, which
will be best understood by shewing,

1st, How the mind of man can believe a lie, either,
1. Through the remoteness of the faculty from its
object; or, 2. Through some weakness or disorder

in it.

2dly, What it is to receive the love of truth, viz.
to esteem, and to choose it; and consequently, what
it is not to receive it.

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.

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2dly, The reason of that dehortation, that "

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.

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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.

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,

1. Parents; who ought to deserve that honour
which their children must pay them, and to instil
into their hearts early principles of their duty to
God and their king.

2. Schoolmasters; whose influence is more power-

ful than of preachers themselves, and who ought to

use great discretion in the management of that

charge.

3. The clergy; who should chiefly attend first

upon catechizing, then confirmation, and lastly, in-

structing them from the pulpit, not failing often to

remind them of obedience and subjection to the

government.

Lastly, It is incumbent upon great men to sup-

press conventicling schools or academies, and to
countenance all legal free grammar-schools.

PRETENCE OF CONSCIENCE NO EXCUSE FOR REBELLION.

"And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was

no such deed done nor seen from the day that the

children of Israel came up out of the land of

Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice,

and speak your minds." -JUDGES, xix. 30.

These words were occasioned by a foul and detes-
table fact, which, for want of kingly government,
happened in one of the tribes of Israel, but may be
applied to express the murder of king Charles the
First. The unparalleled strangeness of which deed
will appear, if we consider,

1. The qualities, human accomplishments, and
personal virtues, of the person murdered.

2. The gradual preparations to such a murder, a

factious ministry, and a covenant, and their rebellious

catechism.

3. The actors in this tragical scene.

4. Their manner of procedure in it, openly,

cruelly, and with pretences of conscience, and pro-

testations of religion.

5. The fatal consequences of it, such as were of a

civil, or a religious concern.

Lastly, Hereupon we ought to take advice, and
consider, that our sins have been the cause of our
calamities; and that the best way to avoid the same
evil is to sin no more.

SATAN HIMSELF TRANSFORMED INTO AN ANGEL OF

LIGHT.

"And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed

into an angel of light."— 2 COR. xi. 14.

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.

Therefore we ought not to cast the least pleasing
look upon any of his insidious offers, but encounter
him with watchfulness and prayer.

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THE CERTAINTY OF OUR SAVIOUR'S RESURRECTION.

"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast

seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they

that have not seen, and yet have believed." -

JOHN, XX. 29.

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.

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