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law; and because they were ufually of the fect of the Pharifees, therefore the Scribes and Pharifees are fo frequently joined together in fcripture: And because they did all their ver. 5. works to be seen of men, because they honor'd God with their lips while their Mat. xv. 8. hearts were far from him, therefore our Saviour calleth them hypocrites. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharifees, hypocrites. He obferves that they v.2, 3. fit in Mofes feat, but then they fay and do not: As perfons in authority they might be obey'd, but as examples they were by no means to be follow'd. He denounces eight fevere woes against them; and I wifh among Chriftians there may not be fome fitting in cathedra too, to whom these woes as properly appertain, as ever they did to the Scribes and Pharifees themselves. Let us take a view of them in the order, wherein they lie in the chapter, and fee whether the vices of thofe times are

not

not to be parallel'd now,

At least it will be of fome use and service to point out the rocks and fhelves upon which the Scribes and Pharifees made, Tim. i. Shipwrack of faith and a good con-19. Science, that fo we may the more cautiously avoid them. For these things were written not for their fakes, but for our admonition upon whom the 1 Cor. x. ends of the world are come.

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1. The first woe denounced against them is for their fhutting up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither ver. 13. going in themselves, nor fuffering them that were entering to go in. They fhut up the kingdom of heaven against men, they did all they could to debar men from the true religion, neither embracing it themselves, nor fuffering others, who would have embraced it, to embrace it. St. Luke expreffeth it more particularly by their taking away the key of know- Luke xi. ledge: they entered not in themselves, and them that were entering in they binder'd.

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52.

Mar. vii.

13.

hinder'd. We must understand, that
at the admiffion of a Jewish doctor
a book and a key were given him,
importing that he fhould unlock and
open, that he fhould interpret and
explain the law of God to the people.
It is in allufion to this ceremony,
that our Saviour faith, that the Scribes
and Pharifees had taken away the key
of knowledge, that they had not duly
opened and explained the law of
God to the people, particularly with
relation to the Meffiah. They had
corrupted the true and genuin sense
of things by their falfe gloffes and
interpretations; and in numberless
instances had made the word of God
of none effect by their traditions. And
now if there be any called Chriftians,
who thus take away the key of know-
ledge, and shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men, neither holding
the truth themselves, nor permitting
others, who would examin things,
to examin them, who would profess

the

the truth, to profefs it; will not this woe as properly belong to them, as ever it did to the Scribes and Pharifees? Every body, who heareth me, must immediately reflect upon the bishops and clergy of the church of Rome, whose practise this is, of not permitting their members, who would examin things, to examin them; a practife notorious to all, and denied by none. They not only perform their public prayers and the fervice of God in an unknown tongue; but will not even allow the people fo much as to read the fcripture without a licenfe from their fuperiors, the bishops or inquifitors. And this license they grant as a particular favor, and never but at the recom mendation of the priest or confeffor, and when they are pretty fecure of the person to whom they grant it. And then, when they allow the scripture to be read, they will allow it to be read only in their own tranf

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tranflations, and guarded and fenced with their own annotations. Here in England perhaps they may be a little more indulgent, where they are only upon fufferance, and have not their people in fuch fubjection: But where their's is the eftablifh'd religion, and they have the power in their hands, there whofoever prefumes to read the fcripture without leave is denied abfolution, and in fome countries it is well if he be not thrown into the prifon of the Inquifition. It would make the people fome amends for fuch a manifeft abufe, if they inftructed them in their duty by other means; but they have nothing of the body and fubftance of morality or divinity in their fermons and difcourfes: They build them (if I may thus apply a meta1 Cor. iii. phor from. St. Faul) with the bay and Stubble of their legends and fchoolmen, and not with the filver and gold of Mofes and the Prophets or

12.

of

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