that has wilfully been adulterated and wilfully defpoiled of its best virtues, what will the vender anfwer? May God grant we may all anfwer well for ourselves, that we may be finally happy. Amen. SERMON XXI. Sanctity of the Apostles. MATTHEW Xi. 6. Bleed is be, that shall not be offended THE in me. HE general prejudices of the Jewish nation concerning the royal ftate and condition of the Saviour, who was to come into the - world, was a ftone of ftumbling, and a rock of offence, to the greatest part of that unhappy and prepoffeffed people, when the promise was actually fulfilled.-Whether it was altogether the traditions of their fathers, or that the rapturous ex-t preffions of the prophets, which re presented the Meffiah's spiritual kingdom in fuch extent of power and dominion, mifled them into it ;-or that their own carnal expectations! turned wilful interpreters upon them,> inclining them to look for nothing but the wealth and worldly grandeur which were to be acquired under their deliverer;-whether thefe,-ori that the fyftem of temporal bleffings helped to cherish them in this grofs and covetous expectation,-it was one of the great caufes for their rejecting him." This fellow, we know not whence he is," was thes popular cry of one part and they who seemed to know whence he was, fcornfully turned it against him, by the repeated quere,-Is not this the carpenter, the fon of Mary, the brother of James and Jofes, and of Juda and Simon ?—and are not his fifters here with us?-And they were offended at him. So that, though it was prepared by God to be the glory of his people Ifrael, yet the circumstances of humility, in which he was manifested, were thought a fcandal to them.-Strange !-that he who was born their king,-fhould be born of no other virgin than Mary, the meaneft of their people; - (for he hath regarded the low eftate of his handmaiden)-and of one of the poorest too:-for fhe had not a lamb to offer, but was purified, |