particular; 2. Not to conclude every thing impos- SERMON XXXI. — Page 258. THE LINEAL DESCENT OF JESUS OF NAZARETH FROM "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."- REV. xxii. 16. In this book of mysteries, nothing is more mys- terious than what is contained in these words, the union of the divinity and humanity in our Saviour's I. In his divinity, the root of David, having a being before him, a being which had no beginning, equal to his Father; though his divinity is denied by the Arians; and his pre-existence to his huma- II. In his humanity, the offspring of David, being in Saint Matthew's genealogy, naturally the son of David; and in that of Saint Luke, legally the king 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- "For the transgression of my people was he 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 J. 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, account of his voluntary consent; and because of his Thence we should learn also to suffer for Christ, "He came to his own, and his own received him fully undergoing troubles and afflictions in this not." JOHN, i. 11. No scripture has so directly and immoveably 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 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, "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 I. God hath raised up; such an action proclaim- II. The manner of his being raised was by having loosed the pains of death; an explication of the word III. The ground of his resurrection was the im- possibility of his being holden of it, which impos- H 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 of the 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- upon their personal qualifications; 2. Because they IV. Hence, 1. Princes may learn their duty SERMON XXXVII.-P. 309. THE SCRIBE INSTRUCTED, &c. "Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe Christ here gives the character of a preacher or evangelist, in these words; where we are to con- I. What is meant by the scribe among the Jews, either as a civil or a church-officer. II. What it is to be instructed for the kingdom of III. What it is to bring out of one's treasure 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 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 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 The misery of all foolish or vicious persons is, that prosperity itself to them becomes destructive,— 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 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. 1st, What conditions are required to denominate a thing a mystery, viz, 1. That it be really true, and not contrary to reason; 2. That it be above the reach of mere reason to find it out before it be revealed; 3. That, being revealed, it be yet very difficult for, if not above, finite reason fully to 2dly, That all these conditions meet in the article An account of the blasphemous expressions and assertions of the Socinians. Lastly, Since this article is of so great moment, it is fit to examine, 1. The causes which have un- settled and destroyed the belief of it,- representing it in a figure, expressing it by bold and insignificant terms, building it on texts of Scripture which will evince no such thing; 2. The means how to fix and continue it in the mind, by acquiescing in ILL-DISPOSED AFFECTIONS BOTH NATURALLY AND PE- A very severe judgment is here denounced against them who receive not the love of the truth, which 1st, How the mind of man can believe a lie, either, in it. 2dly, What it is to receive the love of truth, viz. 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 4thly, How God can properly be said to send men delusions, 1. By withdrawing his enlightening influ- 5thly, Wherein the greatness of this delusion con- 6thly, What deductions may be made from the 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 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, prevail upon us, by its near resemblance to virtue; the plausibility of its pleas; the reputation it gene- 2dly, The reason of that dehortation, that " man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the affect his mind, or his body; 4. The greatest happi- These words, concerning the heart of man being 1st, As an entire proposition in themselves, 2dly, As they enforce the foregoing precept in the 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 improvement of these particulars is to con- VIRTUOUS EDUCATION OF YOUTH THE WAY TO A HAPPY "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”. The rebellion of forty-one has had, ever since, a 1. Parents; who ought to deserve that honour 2. Schoolmasters; whose influence is more power- ful than of preachers themselves, and who ought to use great discretion in the management of that 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 Lastly, It is incumbent upon great men to sup- press conventicling schools or academies, and to 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- 1. The qualities, human accomplishments, and 2. The gradual preparations to such a murder, a factious ministry, and a covenant, and their rebellious 3. The actors in this tragical scene. 4. Their manner of procedure in it, openly, cruelly, and with pretences of conscience, and pro- 5. The fatal consequences of it, such as were of a civil, or a religious concern. Lastly, Hereupon we ought to take advice, and SATAN HIMSELF TRANSFORMED INTO AN ANGEL OF "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 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- 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 3dly, Certain principles, whereby he is like to repeat his cheats upon the world, 1. By making Therefore we ought not to cast the least pleasing 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." - The resurrection of a body, before its total dis- solution, is easier to be believed, than after it; and 1st, The constant, uniform affirmation of such |