in Optatus lib. 1. Which Name the very Heathen had learnt it was so common as appears by the enquiries they made after Bibles to burn them this being an usual question in the examination of the Martyrs Libros Deificos habetis Which we should look upon therefore as they did as an invaluable Treasure and let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom as the Apostle S. Paul speaks III Colossi 16. Such wisdom as will not indeed make us Philosophers or Rhetoritians c. to use the words of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But gives such instructions that of Mortals it makes us immortal of Men it makes us God-like from the Earth it translates us above the top of Olympus Exhort 2. ad Graecos p 40. And the very same in effect the Holy Scriptures speak concerning themselves when they tell us they are able to make such a Man as Timothy was wise unto salvation being profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. III. 15 16 17. which should move us to follow his Exhortation in the foregoing Epistle 1 Tim. IV. 13 15. Give attendance to reading c. Meditate on these things give your selves wholly to them that your profiting may appear to all or in all things For this end you must joyn with this such other Studies as tend to lead you into a right understanding of the Holy Scriptures Of this you were admonished also at your Ordination when you promised to be diligent in reading the Holy Scriptures and in such studies as help to the knowledg of the same laying aside the study of the World and of the Flesh And chiefly you are to study to understand the Language in which the Holy Scriptures were Originally delivered to the Church especially the New Testament in which we ought to be as perfect as Lawyers are in Littleton's Tenures For this is our standing Rule of Faith and Manners in which if we be not well skilled our selves we shall never be able to direct others And next to this it is necessary to study diligently some approved Commentator upon the Bible especially Dr. Hammond on the New Testament which is not only to be read over but to be digested so that you may be Masters of the sense of our Saviour and his Holy Apostles I shall not lanch out into any further directions about the study of the Fathers and the Church-History which are necessary to accomplish a compleat Divine for that would swell this Book to a much greater bulk than I design it should have To conclude this Section let Ezra that Restorer of Religion among the Jews be your pattern who tells us himself that he was a ready Scribe in the Law of Moses VII Ezra 6. Such we should be well versed in the Holy Scriptures especially in the Laws of Christ so as to have them ready at hand for our purpose And in the 10th Verse he tells us how he came to deserve this Character First he had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD i. e. understand it and then Secondly it follows he prepared his heart to do it that is to act according to his knowledg and so to teach Israel statutes and judgments SECT II. Which that we may be able to do with good success we ought as the Psalmist speaks most emphatically give our selves unto prayer CXIX Psal 4. This is a duty incumbent upon all private Christians whom our Saviour and his Apostles command to pray alway and to pray without ceasing and to watch unto prayer but the Ministers of Christ ought more especially to be instant and incessant in it because they have need of a special assistance and blessing from above upon their labours to make others good Christians Which cannot be done without the blessed presence of God's Holy Spirit with us which must constantly and earnestly be implored to give us a right judgment in all things to fill us with a lively sence of Divine Matters and to enable us to convey it into the Minds and Hearts of others Of this also we are put in mind at our Ordination and therefore should never forget it For in that admirable Exhortation which goes before the Questions to which we are to make Answers the great excellence and the great difficulty of our Office is represented to us to make us sensible what need we have to pray earnestly for God's Holy Spirit without which it is impossible for us to have either a will or ability to perform it as we ought And accordingly this is one of the things which immediately after we promise to God and to his Church That we will be diligent in Prayers as well as in reading the Holy Scriptures Let us therefore as it follows in the forenamed Exhortation Pray continually to God the Father by the Mediation of our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the heavenly Assistance of the Holy Ghost For as the Holy Scriptures are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Door whereby the good Shepherd enters to the performance of his Office as Theophylact I observed before Expounds our Saviour's words X John 1. So the Holy Spirit of God in the opinion of the same Father is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in the third Verse of that Chapter which we translate the Porter or the Door-keeper who opens the Door for us and lets us into the sense of the holy Scriptures So his words are because by the Holy Spirit the Scriptures being opened and understood Christ is made known to us therefore it is called the Door-keeper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By whom he being the Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledg the Scriptures are opened unto us and by that means our Lord the good Shepherd enters to take us into his care and conduct To be Strangers then to this Holy Duty is to be Strangers to God and to all that is good who as He is nigh to all those that call upon him faithfully so he withdraws himself from those who neglect him Of which we cannot be guilty if we remember in what need we stand above all other Men of his blessed Presence with us to guide and strengthen and further us in the discharge of our weighty trust for his Honour and the Salvation of Men. This will stir us up not only to ask and seek but knock also as our Saviour Speaks that is pray with the greatest importunity for the Holy Spirit which our Heavenly Father is more ready to give than Parents are to give food to their hungry Children Let us be awakened by the example of King David who prevented the morning light to pray to God and to meditate in his Statutes as he tells us CXIX Psal 147 148. Though he was a man that had abundance of Cares upon him and was engaged in many Warrs as Theodoret glosses upon
be excellent But then he tells him there is a far more ancient prophetical saying which preceded this many Ages teaching Men briefly and at once not only to desire nothing but to be made good men but also how they may be made truly good viz. Love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind and thy Neighbour as thy self To him who can be perswaded to do this Non ei reliquam facilem sed eam totam esse doctrinam duntaxat utilem salubrem I do not say as Socrates did that all the rest will be easy but that this is the whole only profitable and wholesome Doctrine and there needs no more Epist XX. Keep this therefore perpetually in your Heart which contains in it all things else Love the Lord your God and love your Neighbour and you have done all you need to do for all is included in this You will not be wanting in your Duty to either of them if you heartily Love them SECT III. My next Advice shall be in the words of the blessed Apostle St. Paul who hath left us a wonderful Example of most tender affection to mens Souls read 1 Thes 2 7 8 11. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks unto God and the Father by him III Coloss 17. That is when you are going to perform any part of your Office pray him to be present with you and assist you So St. Chrysostom and out of him Theophylact Expounds these words in the Name of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling upon him to be thy Helper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First making thy prayer to him and so go about thy business When you put on your Surplice for instance think with your selves that you are going to offer up the Prayers of the People to God in the Name of Jesus Christ And then with what Solemnity with what Reverence will you perform that Sacred Office Especially when you have besought him to be with you and believe that he is nigh to all them that call upon him in Truth In like manner when you go up into the Pulpit consider with your selves that you are going to speak in the Name of Christ unto his People beseeching him to assist you and to carry home the Truths you shall deliver to their Hearts and Consciences For dexteriùs loquentur cùm hominibus qui prius tota mente cum Deo fuerunt collocuti as Erasmus excellently speaks they will speak with Men more dextrously who have first of all with their whole Soul spoken with God The like I might say of other parts of your Duty which will then be most successfully discharged when you have engaged our Lord by solemn Prayer to him to go along with you and accompany you Theodoret hath another interpretation or rather a further improvement of the sense of these words which is this adorn all your words and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the remembrance of the Lord Christ That is haveing invoked his blessed presence to be with you think what he would do how he would behave himself and with what Spirit he would perform such things as you are going about For example when you are going to compose a Sermon it would be of great use and efficacy if you would think with your selves what Christ would say to your People if he were to speak to them what he would require of them with what Motives he would excite them and what Compassion he would express to their Souls It would be inpossible then for any Man if he had Christ in his mind to say any thing but what he hath well considered and will tend to make Men good He will not Preach for his own glory but for the glory of Christ pursuing things profitable rather than plausible not affecting in his discourse lenocinia sed remedia such things as may tickle the ears of idle People but such as will cure their Diseases and Distempers They are the Words of Salvian in his Preface to his Book de Gubernatione Dei Which are agreeable to the old Rule which Rittershusius there mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me not Spruce things but such as the City needs They that interpret the words to this sense be so mindful of Christ that you do nothing indecorous nothing unbeseeming the relation you have to him nothing that may dishonour him differ not much from the former And therefore I conclude this Advice as the Apostle doth his Admonition As we ought to begin every thing with a devout remembrance of Christ whose blessing upon us we ought to implore so we ought to end all by giving thanks to God through him That 's as acceptable to him as our Prayers nay is a powerful Prayer for more of his Grace For none are so likely to receive more as those who thankfully acknowledge what they have received already And therefore let all your doings be thus begun and ended in the Name of Christ Whereby you will be preserved in his Love and Favour and partake still more of his grace SECT IV. Especially if you do all this in Sincerity of heart Which is that good Soil wherein if the Seed of the Word be not sown and received it brings forth no Fruit to Perfection and which our Saviour more particularly required in his Apostles who were to sow that good Seed in Mens hearts Such Persons it is manifest he sought for as were plain simple and honest hearted having no worldly end to serve but wholly bent to know the way to Eternal Salvation Andrew and Peter who were first called to follow him it is evident were of this Spirit for they left all they had to attend him and next to them Philip who finding Nathaniel and telling him they had found the MESSIAH Jesus of Nazareth to whom he pray'd him to go along with him as soon as our Saviour saw him he said to shew what kind of Men he delighted in Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile I John 47. which was a surprising Character of him after Nathaniel had made this objection against our Saviour can any good thing come out of Nazareth But as Theophylact well observes those were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of unbelief but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a mind that accurately weighed things and was well studied in the Law which taught him that Christ was to come out of Bethleem in Judaea not out of Nazareth in Galilee By this our Saviour judged of his Sincerity which appeared also in that notwithstanding this seeming prejudice he went along with Philip to be better informed of our Saviour This is one great part of that Sincerity which I am now recommending to you to have your minds free from the power of Prejudice and partial Affections being desirous only to know the truth and understand what the will of the Lord is So St.
the Holy Scriptures and the Ancient Doctors of the Church And they who have not had opportunity to make such improvement in Divine Knowledge may furnish themselves out of their Writings which these Hereticks have occasioned Particularly out of the Bishop of Worcester's Discourse about the Blessed Trinity which is not long but very full and satisfactory 3. Yet I must admonish you when you find it necessary to discourse to your People upon this Subject that you be mindful of His Majesties late Injunctions and not presume to invent any new ways of explaining so sublime a Mystery as the Holy Trinity or use any other terms to express it but such as the Ancient Christians used and are in the Articles of our Religion the Three Creeds and our Liturgy Which teach us that our Blessed Saviour is the Son of God in the highest and most proper sense of these Words by Eternal Generation In like manner we are to believe that the Holy Ghost is God proceeding from the Father and the Son This may be evidently proved out of the Scriptures wherein God hath thus far revealed his own most Blessed Nature as well as his Mind and Will unto us But how the Son is Begotten of the Father and how the Holy Ghost proceeds from both he hath not revealed unto us because it is as incomprehensible as the Divine Essence is and therefore we must not adventure to say any thing about it For though we know that the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet there are not Three Gods but one God in Three Persons because the Holy Scriptures plainly declare the Son to be a distinct Person from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both yet what it is that makes the distinction of the Person of the Son from the Person of the Father c. that is not declared to us by God who only knows it and therefore is not to be enquired into Accordingly the Holy Fathers of the Church frequently admonish us to forbear such enquiries in that Memorable saying of theirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search not into the manner how such things can be but shun such enquiries For the manner of the Sons Generation and the Holy Ghosts Procession can be comprehended by none but themselves But such things being let alone as out of our reach let it be your business to establish the People in this great Truth that Jesus Christ is really the Eternal Son of God begotten of him before all Worlds By representing this to them as the great support of their Souls which may safely rely upon one so mighty to save For he who is perswaded that our Saviour is perfect God as well as perfect Man can no more doubt of his Power to communicate all Divine Grace to us than he can doubt of the Vertue of his Sacrifice to make satisfaction for our Sins and work our Reconciliation with God whereby whatsoever might hinder his Divine Communications to us is taken out of the way We are sure if this be true that he is an Everlasting Spring of Divine Grace to the whole World would they but believe on him Whereas it is inconceivable how any mere Creatures should be so highly exaulted as to be possessed of Omnipotence and Omniscience that is to be able to know all our needs as well as to supply them Which it is easie for our Blessed Saviour to do if he be the Eternal Son of God who hath taken out Nature into a personal Union with himself 4. Which great truth being firmly established in their belief endeavour I beseech you to improve it all you are able to the amendment of their lives Such an amazing love of God ought to have a mighty effect upon us all and will make a great change in us if it be heartily believed and pressed home by serious consideration Let that therefore be the great business of your Preaching to reduce this and all other Christian Truths to Christian Practice Make them sensible what manner of Persons they ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness as St. Peter speaks being so nearly related to the Son of God Whatsoever Sin you know them to be addicted unto lay the heynousness of it before them especially after God hath loved us so much as to give his only begotten Son to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie us to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Whatsoever duty you know them to neg lect or to be remiss in the performance of it represent to them how dangerous it is to disobey our Blessed Saviour who hath made this the test of our love to him that we keep his Commandments Remember them frequently of what he said to his Disciples in his last Discourse he had with them XV John 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you 5. Endeavour to convince their judgment about these things by clear Reasons and then to awaken their Affections by your Zeal and Fervour And that will be excited in you by an inward sence and feeling in your own hearts of that which you deliver to your People It is an admirable observation of Erasmus in his Book De ratione Concionandi upon those words of our Saviour concerning John the Baptist V John 35. He was a burning and a shining Light ARDERE PRIUS EST LUCERE POSTERIUS To burn with Zeal that is for God and fervent affection to the People is the first thing and then we shall shine by Christian instructions Which will be faint and feeble if they do not proceed from an ardent Spirit 6. And there is very much in another thing of which the same great Man put me in mind in another part of his Works Lib. V. Epist 27. Where he tells Jodocus Jonas Non parum ponderis adder orationi tuae si quae doces potissimum ex arcanis voluminibus haurias si vita doctrinae responderit si docendi Officium nullâ gloriae nulla quaestus suspitione vitietur It will add no small weight to thy Sermons if thou draw those things that thou tacheth chiefly out of the Holy Scriptures if thy life be correspondent to thy Doctrine and the Office of instructing be tainted with no suspition of vain glory or worldly advantage The proof of what you say out of the Holy Scriptures rightly expounded and fitly apply'd will certainly make it very powerful For what is there that hath so much force in it as the Authority of God All Believers have a great reverence to his Word which the Ancient Christians thought the highest learning Insomuch that the Abyssines who retain much of the ancient Simplicity are never so pleased as to hear the Word of God alledged and the more Scripture any Man hath in his Sermons the more learned they esteem him So Ludolphus informs us in his late Historica Ethiopica Lib. III. Cap. V. N. 16. 7. And there is nothing in the Holy Scripture that you ought to