wifdom. (1) You will meet with an almoft infinite number of texts of this nature. (2) There are sometimes texts of explication, in which we are obliged to explain fome one great and important article confifting of many branches. As for example, predeftination; and efficacious, converting grace. (3) In this cafe you may either reduce (1) Heb. xii. 5, 6. Legenda hæc interrogative. Prov. iii. 12, 11. Quidam in adverfis recalcitrant, alii animum defpondent; neutrum faciendum Chriftianis, quibus eximie competit nomen filiorum Dei. Nam fi vere funt Chriftiani, adverfa talia illis non evenient nifi ex decreto quodam Dei in ipfis benevoli. Nempe ut fi quid fordis adhæret excoquatur, aut ut ipfi per patientiæ exercitia reddantur meliores. Grotii Annot. in locum. Eternity, Immenfity, Omnifcience, &c. 2. That fupreme bounty, that sovereign communication, that intimate relation to our happiness, which is a fecond title of ado ration. 3. An empire over the creatures.---The first of thefe requires the adoration of our mind. The fecond of our heart. The third of our life. The queftion of fact, That Jefus Chrift is fupremely adored by intelligences the moft worthy of being models to us, is answered by Stephen, Acts. vii. 59. By the angels in the text, &c. &c. Saurin Ser. tom. ii. f. quatrieme. (3) Sometimes we are obliged to explain predeftination. There were fome in Auguftine's time, who believed--that all men finned in Adam (2) Many texts require proofs of fact and right. Monf. Saurin (on Christ's divinity, Rev. v. 11, 12, 13, 14.) ufes this method. "Jefus Chrift is fupremely adorable, adorable, and Jefus Chrift is fupremely adored by intelligences the moft worthy of imitation. He is fupremely adorable; is--that man was not faved by a queftion of right. He is good works: but by the refupremely adored; is a quef- generating grace of God--tion of fact. 1. The quef- that falvacion by Jefus Chrift tion of right is decided by the was proposed to all men--idea, which Scripture gives us that whoever believed in him, of Jefus Chrift. It attributes and obeyed him, fhould be three things to him, which faved---and that fuch people must be fuppofed in an object were chofen of God to eterof fupreme adoration : ~ 1. nal felicity. On these prinAn eminence of perfections. ciples, they fuppofed the VOL. I. preach C c duce the matter to a certain number of propofitions, and difcufs them one after another; or you preaching of predeftination unedifying, and even difcouaging to their hearers; and turned all their attention to the producing of faith and repentance in them. Profper and Hilary confulted S. Auftin on this fubject, and he wrote his answer in two books, the one entitled De Prædeftinatione, the other De Dono Perjeverantia. The fum feems to be---that the Holy Ghoft had revealed the doctrine of predeftination----that Chrift and his apostles taught it--that it naturally tended to fubdue the pride of man---that it excited gratitude and love to God---that it inflamed men with zeal for morality---and that therefore it ought to be preached. However, it ought to be preached wifely.---It fhould not be preached indifcriminately and carelefly to thofe, who perhaps would not understand, and therefore would abuse it.-People fhould not be told, Do what ye will, if ye be predeftinated, ye fhall be faved.-Nor fhould they be told, that their acceptance of grace puts them into the number of the elect. -We should rather pray for their converfion; for perhaps they, who have not yet believed, may be in the number of the elect-they should be directed to run, and affured that they fhall obtain.-And may in fhort, the prefcience of God fhould be fo preached as never to indulge the idleness of men: but, on the contrary, to excite them to action. Non dicatur hominibus, five. curratis, five dormiatis, quod vos effe præfcivit, qui falli non potcft, hoc eritis: fed dicendum eft, ficcurrite ut comprehendatis, atque ipfo curfu veftro ita vos effe præcognitos noveritis, ut legitime curreretis et fi quo alio modo Dei præfcientia prædicari poteft, ut hominis fegnitia repellatur. Aug. Op. tom. vii. De Don. Perfev. lib. ii. cap. 27. Some pious men, who believe predeftination, cannot reconcile the preaching of Jefus Chrift to all men indifcriminately with it; much lefs can they address to them thofe convincing arguments, thofe powerful demonftrations, thofe tender expoftulations, thofe authoritative calls, in a word, that moral fuafion, with which Scripture abounds. They can only preach the Gofpel to the elect, in the hearing of the reprobate. To thefe we may juftly address not the jingling language, but the found fentiment of a father. Que Deus occulta effe voluit, non funt fcrutanda; quæ autem manifefta funt, non funt neganda, ne in illis illicite curiofi, in his damnabiliter inve may reduce them to a certain number of questions, and discuss them in like manner: (4) but you inveniamur ingrati. Ambrof. De Vocat. Gentil. cap. 7.. Some have even fcrupled to pray for the conversion of infidels, left they should pray for the non-elect; and others have ventured to affirm, that all the Scriptures are addreffed to good men, and not a word directed to the unregenerate. The last seem incorrigible: but to the former, we would beg leave to propose four questions. 1. Can an unknown decree be a rule of action to us? Deut. xxix. 29. Prov. ii. 13. 2. Is not the christian minifter's commiffion to preach the Gofpel to every creature? Mark xvi. 15. 3. Did not infpired writers perfuade men? 2 Cor. v. 11. Acts xxviii. 23. xxvi. 28. 4. Has not a general addrefs to men's confciences been greatly fuccessful in the converfion. of finners? Acts ii. 23. 36, 37, 38. 40, 41. (4) You may reduce your text to a number of propofitions. The following example feems to me just and beautiful. The text is Numb. xxiv. 11. I thought to promote thee to great bonour: but, lo! the Lord hath kept thee back from hoAfter making an exordium of the hiftory, the preacher lays down these propofitions. nour. ought 1. That the generality of Superiors, by a ftretch of their authority, are willing to demand illegal and unwarrantable things of ecclefiaftical perfons. 2. That the method and artifice, by which they think to prevail over mercenary men, is the fpecious offer of preferment and hononr. 3. That the common way to worldly grandeur is to ftudy the tempers, and conform to the principles of those, who are in a condition to oblige us with them. 4. That plain dealing is the ufual bar and impediment to a good man's advancement. 5. That it is ftill the duty of a good man, notwithstanding the allurements and temptations of this world, to act agreeably to his confcience, and the laws of his God. 6. That a person who acts thus impartially between the commands of his prince and the dictates of his confcience, will find infinite comfort and fatisfaction, although he mifles thofe advantages, which flatterers and temporizers may gain for the prefent. Dr. Coney's Sermon before the Univerfity of Oxford, 1710. Honefly and plain-dealing an ufual bar to honour and preferment. Sometimes the nature of a text requires both propofition Cc 2 and ought (choose which way you will.) to take particular care not to lay down any propofition, or any queftion, which is not formally contained in your text, or which does not follow by a near and easy confequence; (5) for otherwife you would difcufs the matter in a common-place way. (6) and question. Heb. xi. 1. Faith is the fubftance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not feen. It would not be improper to affirm, 1. that there are invifible objects of faith and hope; and, 2. to enquire how faith gives a fubitance, and an evidence to things not feen? This method is proper, when one part of a text is clear and evident, and the other difficult; affirmation is proper in the first, and enquiry in the laft. Thus one of our old divines on Mat. x. 29, 30. "1. I will defcribe providence. z. I will prove that all events are guided by it. 3. I will answer fome doubts concerning it." Bishop Hopkins on Providence. (5) Lay down no propofition, which is not formally contained in the text, or easily inferred from it. Let us try the following example. 2 Tim. iv. 11. Only Luke is with me. "The Holy Ghoft, fays the preacher, hath erected this facred monument, even the text, IN WHICH S. Luke's chriftian valour, his unparallelled conftancy, his mutual correfpondency, with S. Paul, are all engraven in fuch characters, as that neither time nor For envy will be ever able to obliterate, for only Luke is with me. The words are an entire propofition, whereof S. Luke is the fubject.-S. Paul (who is understood in the pronoun me) is the predicate.The Copula, that unites both, is conftancy, included in the phrafe Movos, only is." That the friendship, the courage, and the conftancy of thefe two eminent men may be collected from the whole history of their mutual labours, we allow but that either of thefe is derivable from the text, we deny. Were we to fuppofe, for a moment, that we had nothing remaining of the hiftory of Luke's knowledge of S. Paul but this text, could we indeed affure ourselves that Luke the evangelift was intended-that he was with Paul yesterday-that he would be with him to-morrow— -that he was with him of neceffity or of choice-that he poffeffed qualities to render him worthy of the friendship of a S. Paul? &c. In all fuch fermons as thefe, preachers derive much from other places juftly, more from their own conjectures fancifully, and generally very little from their texts. When a man For example. It is God, who worketh effectually in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. (7) a man would know what is in his text, he should fuppofe the text the whole of his information. Jenner's Sermon on the Life and Death of St. Luke, preached at Great S. Mary's, Cambridge, 1676. Here follows another example from that famous fermon, which Mr. (afterwards archbishop.) Sancroft preached at Westminster-abbey, at the confecration of feven LordBishops at the reftoration. This is the text. "For this caufe left I thee in Crete, that thou fhouldeft fet in order the things, that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. Titusi. 5. The plain meaning of this paffage is this, S. Paul, an extraordinary officer in the primitive church, appoints Titus his deputy, pro hac vice, to officiate in fome affairs which be (S. Paul) had arranged, and particularly to pray with the churches, and to lay his hands on thofe officers, whom they (the churches) by lot fhould elect. See Acts i. 15. -26. vi. 3, 4, 5, 6. Our preacher calls this "a bierarchical epiftle---fays, Titus was a metropolitan, or archbishop of Crete, and of the neighbouring iflands---invefts him with a plenitude of powerand very learnedly concludes, that Crete is a fortrefs of the English epifcopal caufe." Let After << In us hear his reafoning. 2. The end of this inftitution to make bishops and to govern them, &c. 3. The limitation of all to apoftolical refcript, &c. 1. The erecting of the power. I left thee in Crete. Where we have thefe particulars, 1. the original of this power in Ego. 2. The fubject of it in Te: Ego Te. 3. The conveyance in Ego reliqui. 4. The extent in reliqui Creta." I wonder what S. Paul would fay to this expofition. If we look at this claufe of the text only, I left thee in Crete, we may indeed difcover Paul, Titus, and Crete: but who can difcover hierarchical power--conveyance---extent, &c? If we would frame a claufe to ferve the fubject, it should contain thefe particulars. 1. The original of a power in Jefus Chrift. 2. The fubjects of it in fucceffive bishops. 3. A conveyance in fome clear express appointments. 4. An extent in a diocefe confifting of fo many parishes. But there is nothing of this in the text. A man must be very willing to part with his religious liberty, who gives it up to fuch rea foning |