2. Because of its close, inseparable nearness to the soul; being, as it were, ingrafted into it, and thereby made connatural to it, 186.

3. Because of its dearness to us; there being nothing we prosecute with a more affectionate tenderness, than our bodies; and sin being our darling, the queen-regent of our affections, 188.

Hence is inferred,

1. The deplorable estate of fallen man, 191.

2. The great difficulty of the duty of mortification, 191. 3. The mean and sordid employment of every sinner, 192. II. What is imported by the crucifixion of the flesh: under which is shewn;

1. What is the reason of the use of it in this place: it is used by way of allusion to Christ, of whose behaviour and sufferings every Christian is to be a living copy and representation, 199.

2. The full force and significancy of the expression: it imports four things: (1.) The death of sin, 196. (2.) Its violent death, 198. (3.) Its painful, bitter, and vexatious death, 199. (4.) Its shameful and cursed death, 201.

3. Some means prescribed for the enabling us to the performance of this duty: viz.

(1.) A constant and pertinacious denying our affections and lusts in all their cravings for satisfaction, 203.

(2.) The encountering them by actions of the opposite virtues, 204.

IV. What may be drawn, by way of consequence and deduction, from what has been delivered: and,

1. We collect the high concernment and absolute necsity of every man's crucifying his carnal, worldly affections, because, without it, he cannot be a Christian, 205.

2. We gather a standing and infallible criterion to distinguish those that are not Christ's from those that are, 206.

An objection, that " it is an hard and discouraging asser❝tion, that none should be reputed Christ's, unless he has fully crucified and destroyed his sin," answered by ex

plaining the doctrine to mean, an active resolution against sin, 206.

SERMON LIV.

PREACHED JANUARY 30th.

HABAKKUK ii. 12.

Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood. P. 209.

A short account being given of this whole prophecy, which foretells the great event of the Babylonish captivity, 209. the words of the text are prosecuted in five particulars.

I. The ground and cause of this woe or curse; which was the justly abhorred sin of blood-guiltiness, 212.

II. The condition of the person against whom this curse is denounced: he was such an one as had actually established a government and built a city with blood, 214.

III. The latitude and extent of this woe or curse; which includes the miseries of both worlds, present and future: and, to go no further than the present, is made up of the following ingredients:

1. A general hatred and detestation, fastened upon such men's persons, 217.

2. The torment of continual jealousy and suspicion, 219. 3. The shortness and certain dissolution of the government, that he endeavours so to establish, 220.

4. The sad and dismal end that usually attends such sons, 222.

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IV. The reasons, why a curse or woe is so peculiarly denounced against this sin. Among many, these are produced:

1. Because the sin of bloodshed makes the most direct breach upon human society, of which the providence of God owns the peculiar care and protection, 224.

2. For the malignity of those sins, that almost always go in conjunction with it; particularly the sins of fraud, deceitfulness, and hypocrisy, 226.

V. An application of all to this present occasion, 227. by

shewing how close and home the subject-matter of the text comes to the business of this annual solemnity.

1. In the charge of unjust effusion of blood, considered, 1. As.public, and acted by and upon a community, as in war, 228. or, 2. Personal, in the assassination of any particular man, 229.

2. In the end or design for which it was shed; namely, the erecting and setting up of a government, 230.

3. In the woe or curse denounced, which is shewn to have befell these bloody builders. 1. In the shortness of the government so set up, 231. 2. In the general hatred that followed their persons, 232.

SERMON LV.

1 JOHN iii. 8.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil. P. 234.

This divine apostle endeavours to give the world a right information about this so great and concerning affair in this chapter, and particularly in these words; wherein we have,

I. An account of Christ's coming into the world, in this expression; the Son of God was manifested. Which term, though it principally relates to the actual coming of Christ into the world, yet is of a larger comprehension, and leads to an enumeration and consideration of passages before and after his nativity, 234.

II. The end and design of his coming, which was to destroy the works of the Devil. In the prosecution of which is shewn,

1. What were those works of the Devil that the Son of God destroyed, 238. and these works are reduced to three: 1. Delusion, his first art of ruining mankind; which is displayed by a survey of the world lying under gentilism, in their principles of speculation and practice, 239. 2dly, Sin. As the Devil deceived men only to make them sinful, some account is given of his success herein, 243.

3dly, Death: the inseparable concomitant of the former, 247.

2dly, The ways and means by which he destroys them. Now as the works of the Devil were three, so Christ encounters them by those three distinct offices belonging to him as mediator. Ist, As a prophet, he destroys and removes that delusion, that had possessed the world, by those divine and saving discoveries of truth, exhibited in the doctrine and religion promulged by him, 248. 2dly, As a priest, he destroyed sin, by that satisfaction that he paid down for it, and by that supply of grace that he purchased, for the conquering and rooting it out of the hearts of believers, 250. 3dly, As a king he destroys death by his power: for it is he that has the keys of life and death, opening where none shuts, and shutting where none opens, 251.

SERMON LVI.

MATTHEW ii. 3.

And when Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. P. 253.

It having been the method of divine Providence, to point out extraordinary events and passages with some peculiar characters of remark; such as may alarm the minds and engage the eyes of the world, in a more exact observance of, and attention to, the hand of God in such great changes; no event was ever ushered in with such notable prodigies and circumstances as the nativity of our blessed Saviour, 253. Some of them the apostle recounts in this chapter; which may be reduced to these two heads:

I. The solemn address and homage made to him by the wise men of the east. Under which passage these particu lars are considered:

1. Who and what these wise men were, 255.

2. The place from whence they came, 258.

3. About what time they came to Jerusalem, 260. 4. What that star was that appeared to them, 262.

5. How they could collect our Saviour's birth by that star, 263.

II. Herod's behaviour thereupon, 266. Herod is discoursed of,

1. In respect of his condition and temper, in reference to his government of Judæa; which are marked out by three things recorded of him, both in sacred and profane story. 1st, His usurpation, 266. 2d, His cruelty, 267. 3d, His magnificence, 268.

2. In respect of his behaviour and deportment, upon this particular occasion, which shews itself, 1. In that trouble and anxiety of mind that he conceived upon this news, 270. 2. In that wretched course he took to secure himself against his supposed competitor, 271.

3. In respect of the influence this his behaviour had upon those under his government.

The question, why Christ, being born the right and lawful king of the Jews, yet gave way to this bloody usurper, and did not assume the government to himself, answered:

1. Because his assuming it would have crossed the very design of that religion that he was then about to establish; which was, to unite both Jew and Gentile into one church or body, 273.

2. Christ voluntarily waved the Jewish crown, that he might hereby declare to the world the nature of his proper kingdom; which was, to be wholly without the grandeur of human sovereignty, and the splendour of earthly courts, 274.

SERMON LVII.

MATTHEW X. 37.

He that loves father or mother better than me is not worthy of me. P. 275.

Our Saviour here presents himself and the world together, as competitors for our best affections, challenging a transcendent affection on our parts, because of a transcendent worthiness on his, 275.