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SERM. ever he was feparated from them, his own Prophefying ceased: After which we read of it no more, till upon a like Occafion, at Naioth in Ramah, the Spirit of the LORD came upon him again: But then it was also fo unexpected and furprizing, that the Text tells us the old Proverb was renewed upon it, viz. Is Saul alfo among the Prophets? chap. xix. 23, 24. Not that it is to be denied that Men fometimes were endued with the Spirit of Prophecy without their seeking it, and that they were called to the Exercise of the Prophetick Office without any previous Preparations of their own: But then it may be urged, that, whenever this happened, the Prophet was expected to be able to alledge an immediate Inspiration and Call from God: Which was

III. The THIRD Obfervation I made upon the Text, which gives us an Inftance of this very Cafe in the Perfon of Amos: I was no Prophet, (faith he) neither was I a Prophet's Son; but I was an Herdman, and a Gatherer of Sycomore Fruit. This we may presume was an Engagement and Employ that left him but little Opportunity of improving himself by Difcipline and Study, and

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lefs Expectations of being called to an Office, SER M which the greatest Preparations did ufually Precede. The Business of an Herdman or an Hufbandman being exprefly mentioned in another Place, as inconfiftent with that of a Prophet. He ball say, I am no Prophet, I am an Husbandman, for Man taught me to keep Cattle from my Youth, Zech, xiii. 5 And yet we find that how unexpected foever it might he to Amos, and how furprizing for ever it might be to others, he is fuddenly removed, from his former Occupation, and undertakes to denounce the heavy Judgments of Gop against Judah and Irgel, against the Syrians and Philistines, and all the neighbouring Nations round him. But was this any fudden Motion of his own? Was it any extraordinary Holiness or Sanctity, or any fuperior natural Abilities that put him upon taking this Office upon himself? Far from it He enters his Proteftation against any fuch Surmife, and folemnly declares, that both the Motion and the Power were entire ly from Gop. The LORD took me (faith he) as I followed the Flack; and the LORD faid unto me, Go, prophesy unto my People Ifrael. And whom the LORD youchfafes fo immediately to call, we may be sure he

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SER M. will fupply, by the extraordinary Influence

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of his Holy Spirit, whatever was wanting from a previous Education. But without fuch a Call, and fo extraordinary a Supply, the Words of Amos feem evidently to fuppofe, that the Exercife of any Part of the Prophetick Office, by one not educated and trained up to it, was befide his Vocation. But I have been too large upon the Firft Head of my Difcourfe (which indeed was the principal one I had in my View) to infift more particularly upon either of the latter. I fhall therefore proceed to draw fome ufeful Obfervations from the Whole, which, with a fuitable Application, will take up more Time than I ought to hope for, after having spent so much already.

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1. First then, We may learn from what has been faid, not only the Expediency, but even the Neceffity of a proper Method of Education and Discipline to qualify Perfons for the Offices of Religion. We have feen that the Difciples in the Prophetick Schools, though they might hope to be affifted by Divine Infpiration, did not neglect to improve themselves, as far as they were able, by Application and Study. And though perhaps

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the Methods of Education are not fo clearly SER M. discerned after the Accounts of thofe Schools begin to fail; yet we may still obferve, that most of the Prophets, of whom we have any Remains in the facred Text, have difcovered themselves to have been Men of a good Education. The Elegance of Ifaiah, the Rhetorick of Jeremiah, and the Skill of Ezekiel in Architecture and Geography, plainly fhew the Education of each of them to have been liberal and ingenuous. And the Wifdom of Daniel was fo famous even in his Youth, that we find it gave Rife to a Chaldean Proverb, Ezek. xxviii. 3. Nor is there any Grounds to imagine, that these Endowments were infpired, or that they received them together with the extraordinary Influence and Operations of the Spirit; fince it appears, that even those, who were actually endued with the Holy Ghoft, ftill used the fame Diligence, or rather more than before, to gain what Knowledge and Affiftance they could, by the Ufe and Help of ordinary Means. The last mentioned Prophet is an Inftance of this, who, though favoured with Vifions and Revelations from the LORD beyond many of those who had lived before him; yet did not take Occafion from these gracious

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SER M. gracious Difpensations to flacken his Study in the Holy Writings but industriously applied himself to the reading and confidering the Mysteries revealed in them. In the first Year (faith he) of the Reign of Darius, I Daniel understood by Books, the Number of the Years whereof the Word of the LORD came to Feremiah the Prophet, that he would accomplish Jeventy Years in the Defolations of Jerufalem, Dan. ix. 2. And for this Industry and Pains to learn what he could by his own Application, he is declared by Gabriel to be greatly beloved, ver. 22, 23. and Chap. x. 11—21. and has the Knowledge of thofe Things re vealed to him by the Angel, which were beyond his own natural Abilities to acquire.

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Nor did Studying grow lefs ufeful, when, under the Christian Dispensation, Revelations grew clearer: Timothy was the darling Disciple of St. Paul, a Man extraordinarily endowed with the Gift of the Spirit, and marked out by Prophecy, 1 Tim. i. 18. as one that Thould prove very useful and eminent in the Work of the Miniftry. And yet this Man St. Paul exhorts to give Attendance to Reading, to Exhortation, and to Doctrine, chap. Where a late judicious Father of

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