produce are of no value in the sight of God; and that upon the account of a double defect:

1. In respect of the cause, from which they flow; inasmuch as they proceed only upon the apprehension of a present interest, which when it ceases, the fountain of such actions is dried up, 295.

2. In respect of the end to which they are directed; which end is self, not the glory of God, 296.

In both these respects, the most sublime moral performances of the heathens were defective, and therefore have been always arraigned and condemned by Christian divinity, 297.

Two things inferred, by way of corollary and conclusion: 1. The worth and absolute necessity of religion in the world, even as to the advantage of civil society; and the mischievous tendency of atheistical principles, 297.

2. The inexcusableness of those persons who, professing religion, yet live below a principle inferior to religion, 298. SERMON XVII.

2 COR. i. 24.

For by faith ye stand, P. 300.

Faith more usually discoursed of by divines than explained, 300. Three sorts of faith mentioned in scripture. 1. A faith of simple credence, or bare assent, 300. 2. A temporary faith, and a faith of conviction, 301. 3. A saving, effectual faith, (which here only is intended,) wrought in the soul by a sound and real work of conversion, 301.

Two things considerable in the words.

I. Something supposed, viz. that believers will be encountered and assaulted in their spiritual course, 302. In every spiritual combat are to be considered,

1. The persons engaged in it, 303. which are believers on the one side, and the Devil on the other.

2. The thing contended for by it, 304. This assault of the Devil intended to cast believers down from their purity and sanctity of life, 304. and from their interest in the divine favour, 305.

3. The means by which it is carried on, 307. The Devil's own immediate suggestions, 307. The Devil assaults a man, by the infidelity of his own heart, 308. by the alluring vanities of the world, 309. and by the help of man's own lusts and corruptions, 311.

II. Something expressed; viz. that it is faith alone that in such encounters does or can make believers victorious, 313. For making out which, is shewn,

1. How deplorably weak and insufficient man is, while considered in his natural estate, and void of the grace of faith, 313.

2. The advantages and helps faith gives believers for the conquest of their spiritual enemy, 315. It gives them a real union with Christ, 316. It engages the assistance of the Spirit on their behalf, 317. And lastly, gives them both a title to, and a power effectually to apply, God's promises through Christ, who is the rock of ages, the only sure station for poor sinners, and able to save, to the uttermost, all those that by faith rely upon him, 319.

SERMON XVIII.

PSALM CXlV. 9.

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. P. 323.

Mercy, as it is ascribed to God, may be considered two ways, 323.

I. For the principle itself, 323.

II. For the effects and actions flowing from that principle, which, in the sense of the text, are such as are general and diffusive to all, 324.

The words are prosecuted by setting forth God's general mercy and goodness to the creature in a survey of the state and condition,

1. Of the inanimate part of the creation, 324.

2. Of plants and vegetables, 325.

3. Of the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, 328. 4. Of man, 329.

5. Of angels: in respect of their nature, 331. of their place of habitation, and of their employment, 333.

A deduction from the precedent discourse, to settle in the mind right thoughts of God's natural goodness to men, 334. with arguments against the hard thoughts men usually have of God, drawn from two qualities that do always attend them, 336.

1. Their unreasonableness, 337.

2. Their danger, 339.

SERMON XIX.

JAMES i. 14.

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. P. 342.

The explication of these two terms being premised, 1. What the apostle means here by being tempted, 342. 2. What is intended by lust, 343.

The prosecution of the words lies in these particulars: I. To shew the false causes upon which men are apt to charge their sins. And that,

1. The decree of God concerning things to come to pass is not a proper cause for any man to charge his sins upon, 344. Objection to this stated, and answered, 345.

2. The influences of the heavens and of the stars imprint nothing upon men that can impel or engage them to do evil, 347.

3. Neither can any man charge his sins upon the constitution and temper of his body, as the proper cause of them, 349.

4. No man can justly charge his sins upon the Devil, as the cause of them, 350.

Though these be not the proper causes of sin, they are observed to be very often great promoters of it, where they meet with a corrupt heart, 352.

II. To shew, that the proper cause of sin is the depraved will of man; which being supposed sufficiently clear from scripture, is farther evinced by arguments and reasons. 1. From the office of the will, 354.

2. From every man's experience of himself and his own actions, 354.

3. From the same man's making a different choice of the same object at one time from what he does at another, 355. 4. From this, that even the souls in hell continue to sin, 355.

III. To shew the way by which a corrupt will, here expressed, is the cause of sin. And,

1. It draws a man aside from the ways of duty, 356.

2. Entices him, by representing the pleasure of sin, stript of all the troubles and inconveniencies of sin, 357. and by representing that pleasure that is in sin greater than indeed it is, 359. But

The exceeding vanity of every sinful pleasure is made to appear by considering,

1. The latitude or measure of its extent.

2. The duration or continuance of it, 360.

SERMON XX.

ISAIAH Xxvii. 11.

For it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour. P. 362.

The prophet, after eloquently describing a severe judgment to be inflicted on the Jews in the deplorable destruction of Jerusalem, 362. does in the next words assign a reason for it: For it is a people of no understanding. This ignorance is here explained to be not that of an empty understanding, but of a depraved heart and corrupt disposition, and therefore the highest aggravation, 363.

From the words of the text are deduced two observations;

I. The relation of a Creator strongly engages God to put forth acts of love and favour towards his creature, 365. The strength of which obligement appears,

1. Because it is natural, 366. 2. Because God put it upon himself, 366.

There are three engaging things, implied in the creature's relation to God, that oblige him to manifest himself in a way of goodness to it:

1. The extract or original of the creature's being, which is from God himself, 366. which includes in it two other endearing considerations. (1.) It puts a likeness between God and the creature, 367. (2.) Whatsoever comes from God, by way of creation, is good, and so there naturally does result an act of love, 368.

2. The dependence of its being upon God, 368.

3. The end of the creature's being is God's glory, 370. II. How sin disengages, and takes off God from all those acts of favour that the relation of a Creator engaged him to, 371.

1. It turns that which, in itself, is an obligation of mercy, to be an aggravation of the offence, 371.

2. It takes away that similitude that is between God and the creature, which (as has been observed) was one cause of that love, 373.

3. It takes off the creature from his dependence upon God; that is, his moral dependence, which is a filial reliance and recumbency upon him, 375.

4. It renders the creature useless, as to the end for which it was designed, 376.

In an application of the foregoing, the first use is to obviate and take off that common argument, in the mouths of the ignorant, and in the hearts of the knowing, that God would never make them to destroy them; and therefore, since he has made them, they roundly conclude that he will not destroy them, 378.

Now the reasons upon which men found their objections may be these two:

1. A self-love, and a proneness to conceive some extraordinary perfection in themselves, which may compound for their misdemeanours, 380.

2. Their readiness to think that God is not so exceeding jealous of his honour, but he may easily put up the breach of it, without the ruin of his creature, 381.