shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." The good Lord of His mercy open the eyes of these men, that they may see their wretched condition before it be too late, and seasonably take the advice of St. James"; "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviHumble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.'

ness.

2. This discourse discovers the vain hope of the careless, negligent, idle, and unprofitable Christian, that rests in a negative religion; who hath no other ground for his hope of heaven, but that he is no scandalous sinner; whilst in the mean time he hath no lively sense of religion, and lives in the ordinary neglect of the manifest duties of Christianity, both those of piety towards God, and of charity towards his neighbour; who, by his carelessness in those matters, declares that religion is none of his main design or business. How much a stranger is this man to frequent, fervent, and serious prayer in private! to the diligent and daily study of the Holy Scriptures! to daily meditation of heaven and heavenly things! In a word, view him in the whole course of his life, and you will think he scarce in good earnest believed a life to come, or had any serious thoughts of his eternal state in the other world. Now surely the worthiness we have been discoursing of, implies another kind of religion than this.

The sum is, no man shall be accounted worthy of the future heavenly glory, but he that, stedfastly believing it, doth before all things desire it, and thinks no labour too much to obtain it. He whose greatest care it is, how he may save his precious and immortal soul, and accordingly makes religion his main busiHe who watches and prays daily, and, in a word, who lives a life fruitful of good works, works of piety towards God, and (according to his ability) of charity towards men. This

ness.

Chap. iv. 8-10.

A a

man, and he only, though indeed unworthy in himself, yet through the rich mercy of God, and the merits of Christ, shall be accounted worthy of the blessed immortality, to live with the holy angels, yea, with God Himself, in the beatific vision and fruition of Him for ever and ever.

To which blessed state, God of His infinite mercy bring us all, through His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

To Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, adoration and worship, now and for ever. Amen.

SERMON X."

THAT THE POVERTY OF THE FIRST PREACHERS OF THE GOSPEL WAS DESIGNED BY PROVIDENCE TO CONVINCE THE WORLD OF THEIR SINCERITY AND THAT EVEN PERSONS DIVINELY INSPIRED, AND MINISTERS OF GOD, DID NOT SO WHOLLY DEPEND UPON DIVINE INSPIRATION, BUT THAT THEY MADE USE ALSO OF THE ORDINARY HELP AND MEANS, SUCH AS READING OF BOOKS, WITH STUDY AND MEDITATION ON THEM, FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR OFFICE.

2 TIM. iv. 13.

The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parch

ments.

THE sacred writings of the Old and New Testament, being penned by holy persons either entirely and immediately inspired, or directed and assisted by the Divine Spirit in what they meditated and wrote, have nothing in them that is frivolous or useless, nothing but what may yield us profitable matter of instruction, if rightly understood.

The seemingly very little things in them are many times, upon farther search and consideration, found to be of no little use. Such is the text I have now read: a place of Scripture which I have made choice of, not so much to shew my skill in improving a seemingly barren text, as because it is the most apposite, and the fittest I could find, whereon to found a discourse, which I think may be of very good use to many in the age wherein we live. To make way whereunto, I must borrow some of your time and patience for the opening and explaining of the text itself.

St. Paul wrote this Epistle from Rome to Timothy in the Lesser Asia, where St. Paul had formerly been, and had in that time thrice, at least, visited Troas, the chief city of a country of that name, the same with the old city of Troy, so famous for the ten years siege of the Grecians against it. At his last being at that city, he had left some things behind him there, which he now desires Timothy, when he came to Rome, to bring with him, as things that he stood in need of, and might be useful to him: and what were they?

First, "The cloke that I left at Troas;" in the Greek it is Tòν þeλóvηy, a word borrowed from the Latins, as appears from the other writing of it often used, Tòv pevóλnv, penulam, which signifies a cloke, or upper garment, such as travellers use to defend themselves with from the cold or bad weather.

"And the books." The sacred books of the Old Testament, say some very confidently; but I must crave leave to dissent from them. For though I question not but that St. Paul was very conversant in those sacred books, and esteemed them above all human writings, yet it is very improbable that these were the books here meant. For the Scriptures of the Old Testament, were to be had in all the Churches of Christ where St. Paul came, being constantly read in the Christian assemblies, as well as in those of the Jews; so that he could not be in such want of them, as to send for them from Rome as far as Troas. Nor is it likely, that he would give the common appellative name of "books" to the divinely-inspired writings, without any other note of distinction.

But it is certain, that St. Paul had read other books besides the Scriptures, which what they were may best be gathered from his education, and from those footsteps and tracings of his reading, which appear in his writings. He was bred a scholar "at the feet of Gamaliel"," a learned and famous doctor among the Jews, very probably the same of whom we read, “Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of law, had in reputation among all the people," &c. But that he was a very learned and celebrated doctor among the Jews of that age is most certain, and confessed by all Christian expositors.

Under this famous tutor, St. Paul, questionless, made a great proficiency in all the learning of his time and country. There were then extant very excellent books of Jewish learning, written by men renowned in their generations, before our Saviour's coming in the flesh; which are now perished, little more than the authors' names surviving;) of which St. Paul, being the pupil of so great a master in that sort of learning, cannot reasonably be supposed to have been ignorant. These were partly exegetical, and explanatory of the mysterious senses veiled under the letter of the Law and the Prophets; and partly historical. The ancient books, containing the mysteries of the Jewish religion, are by the latter Jews stifled and suppressed, as making too much for the Christian cause. Yet we have somewhat of this kind of learning still preserved, especially in the writings of Philo the Jew, though mixed with much trash; like a few thin and slender veins of gold running through a great mass or body of earth and dross. And it is plain to him that hath carefully read St. Paul's Epistles, and is acquainted also with the writings of Philo, that the holy Apostle well understood that cabalistical theology of the Jews, and retained so much of it, as by the direction of the Divine Spirit in him, he found to be sound, good, and genuine. In the tenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul expounds the "manna showered on the Israelites in the wilderness," and "the rock that gave them water to quench their thirst," to be significations of our Saviour Christ; and shews, moreover, that "the angel going before the people of God in that their pilgrimage," and "tempted by them," was our Lord Christ. And all this Philo likewise understands of the Дóyos, the "Word," or Son of God, which we Christians know to have been in the fulness of time made man, and called by the name of Jesus Christ. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (who is supposed by some to have been St. Paul himself, but was questionless, if not St. Paul, yet a contemporary and acquaintance of his,) in the fourth chapter of that Epistle, speaking of the 4óyos, the "Word" of God, useth almost the very same expressions, but altogether the same sense, that Philo hath, discoursing of the same matter in his