hat purpose this sermon is set forth? I answer, To
let such as satan has not altogether blinded, see upon how small occasions
great offence is now conceived. This sermon is it, for which, from my bed,
I was called before the council; and after long reasoning, I was by some
forbidden to preach in Edinburgh, so long as the king and queen were in
town. This sermon is it, that so offends such as would please the court,
and will not appear to be enemies to the truth; yet they dare affirm, that
I exceeded the bounds of God's messenger. I have therefore faithfully
committed unto writing whatsoever I could remember might have been
offensive in that sermon; to the end, that the enemies of God's truth, as
well as the professors of the same, may either note unto me wherein I have
offended, or at the least cease to condemn me before they have convinced
me by God's manifest word."]

A SERMON ON ISAIAH XXVI.

ISAIAH XXXVI. 13, 14, 15, 16, &c.--_O Lord our God, other lords
besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we
make mention of thy name._

_They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall
not rise; therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made
all their memory to perish._

_Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the
nation, thou art glorified; thou hast removed it far unto the ends
of the earth._

_Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer
when thy chastening was upon them, &c._

As the skilful mariner (being master,) having his ship tossed with a
vehement tempest, and contrary winds, is compelled oft to traverse, lest
that, either by too much resisting to the violence of the waves, his
vessel might be overwhelmed; or by too much liberty granted, might be
carried whither the fury of the tempest would, so that his ship should be
driven upon the shore, and make shipwreck; even so doth our prophet Isaiah
in this text, which now you have heard read. For he, foreseeing the great
desolation that was decreed in the council of the Eternal, against
Jerusalem and Judah, namely, that the whole people, that bare the name of
God, should be dispersed; that the holy city should be destroyed; the
temple wherein was the ark of the covenant, and where God had promised to
give his own presence, should be burnt with fire; and the king taken, his
sons in his own presence murdered, his own eyes immediately