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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	great_a	time_n	2,069	5	3.0647	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52290	The advantage of a learned education being a sermon preached at the cathedral Church of St. Paul on St. Paul's day 1697/8, before the gentlemen educated at that school, upon the reviving their antient anniversary meeting / by W. Nicholls, D.D.	Nicholls, William, 1664-1712.	1697 (1697)	Wing N1090; ESTC R19888	10,752	30

THE ADVANTAGE OF A Learned Education BEING A SERMON Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul On St. PAUL's Day 1697 8. Before the GENTLEMEN Educated at That School upon the Reviving their Antient Anniversary Meeting By W. Nicholls D. D. LONDON Printed by W. Redmayne for Fran. Saunders at the New Exchange in the Strand and Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1697 8. To my School-Fellows Bred at St. Paul's School Dearest Sirs I Here Present You with a very hasty and a very imperfect Discourse which I had neither Time nor Books about me to make better and I can only attribute it to your kind Affection to me that you have pressed me to the Publishing it And since it has the Fate to go abroad pray God it may do some Good and that it may be Read with as much Candor and Affection as you heard it and then it may possibly somewhat Advance the Cause both of Learning and Religion which it is too much the Fashion of our Age to despise I am Gentlemen Your Most Faithful Servant and Loving School-fellow W. NICHOLLS ACT. XXII III. I verily am a Man which am a Jew born in Tarsus a City of Cilicia yet brought up in this City at the Feet of Gamaliel THIS Day is by the Church set aside to give God thanks for the most excellent Example and blessed Labours of that Glorious Apostle St. Paul And several of us are here met together upon another more particular Account to thank God Almighty for our ingenuous Education in that School which bears the Name and is dedicated to the Honour of that Great Saint And therefore the better to suit my Discourse to both these Occasions I have chosen these Words of that Apostle which he spoke concerning himself The occasion was this as the History of the preceding Chapter informs us When St. Paul came to Preach the Gospel at Jerusalem the Jews fearing great detriment would accrue thereby to their Religion fancying by mistake a mighty indignity to be passed by him upon their Publick Worship by his having brought Trophimus a Gentile into the Temple whom they saw he freely conversed with in the Streets they were presently all over the City in an Uproar The tumultuous Multitude run instantly in Sholes towards the Temple to know the Truth of this heinous Accusation where they find St. Paul Preaching when in a fury they drag him from thence into the Streets and forthwith shut up the Temple Doors And thus he lay at the mercy of the barbarous Multitude which would in a little time have murdered him had not the Chief Captain of the Garison rescued him by a Band of Soldiers which made a shift to get him out of the Hands of the Rabble and carry him Prisoner into the Castle and thither the outragious Multitude follow likewise but when St. Paul found he was now got into an advantageous Place for speaking to the People and whom he saw somewhat aw'd by the Authority of the Captain he obtained leave to make an Apology to them for himself There are several Arguments in this Speech by which he endeavours to justifie his Actions and to recommend himself to their good Opinion as particularly his Miraculous Conversion and his former Sincerity and Zeal for the Jewish Worship but that which I shall particularly insist upon is his being brought up at the Feet of Gamaliel To be brought up at the Feet of any one is to be a Scholar for the Jewish Rabbins were wont to sit in an Upper Bench and their Scholars at their Feet hence came the Jewish Proverb happy is the Man that is dirtied by the Feet of the Wise i. e. has had a literate Education But Gamaliel was a Master of greater Fame and Abilities than other Rabbins he was President of the Sanhedrim and if I may so speak Doctor of the Chair a Person of whom the Jewish Books do at this time speak great things of That he was Grandson of the famous Hillel so renowned in their Story and that at his Death Onkelos the Author of the Chaldee Paraphrase spent Seventy Pound of Frankincense upon his Funeral Such an Education as this under so great a Doctor St. Paul though would sufficiently recommend him to the Jews and give him a Character even above the rest of the Apostles who were all of them besides Men of an illiterate Education Therefore the Subject of my present Discourse shall be to do these three things I. To shew That St. Paul had a peculiar Eminency above the rest of the Apostles II. That the Reason of this Eminency was because of his Learned Education III. To urge some Christian Exhortations upon the present Occasion I. St. Paul had a peculiar Eminency above the rest of the Apostles Which is obvious to any one who considers 1st How excellently this Apostle above the rest was versed in the Jewish Learning how knowing he was in all the Ritual Worship of the Mosaical Law and skilled in their Traditions and Rabbinical Expositions of Scripture as is to be seen in all his Epistles particularly that to the Hebrews where he admirably shews the Analogy between the Law and the Gospel and to the Confusion of the Jews proves That their whole Law were but Temporary and Carnal Ordinances which were only Types and Prefigurations of the Sacrifices the Death and the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ who was to be King and Priest for ever 2. Or if we consider this great Apostle as to his Accomplishments in Profane and Heathen Learning he was far superior to any of the rest see how he bravely confutes the Idolatry of the Athenians by a Verse of Aratus one of their own Greek Poets and shews that it must be by their own Confession unreasonable that the Soul the Off-spring of God should adore a gross Material Image Act. 17.28 And how he reprimands those vain Talkers and Deceivers which had got into the Church of Crete by a smart Character which Epimenides a Poet of that Country had given long before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Cretians are always Lyars Evil Beasts Slow Bellies Titus 1.12 3. Nor was he less eminent in deep Theological Reasoning a judicious stating of controverted Points and in profitable and pressing Exhortations to practical Duties With what strenuous Arguments does he prove the Call of the Gentiles to the Gospel and their non-obligation to the performance of Judaical and abolished Ceremonies How prudently does he state the Point about Faith and Works What noble Aphorisms and Sentences do his Epistles every where abound with what cordial Consolations to the afflicted and persecuted what elegant Descriptions of the vanity and inconsiderableness of this World and the Immortal Joys of the other what brave encouragements to Perseverance and Constancy and what passionate Exhortations to Christian Charity and Unity How may we observe in all his Discourses a particular contempt of Worldly things and the pious Breathings of a Soul brim full