II.

Our Church * obferves the Order of the SER M.
Words to be very remarkable: He is advised
to give Attendance to Reading FIRST, and
THEN to Exhortation and Doctrine; i. e. to
be himself a well-read Divine, before he un-
dertakes to inftruct and teach others. The
very Words too of the Apostle, he observes
to be emphatical: For he advifes Timothy not
only to read and ftudy, that he might be a-
ble to exhort and teach with Profit; but to
give Attendance to Reading, and not to ne-
glect the Gift that was in him; but to medi-
tate on the Things that he had read and learn-
ed, and to addict and give himself wholly to
them. All which Phrases evidently fignified,
that the greatest Industry and Diligence were
to be used by him in Reading and Study,
and the other Exercises that are there menti-
oned. The fame Thing (faith the fame Re-
verend Father) which St. Paul intends when
he admonishes him afterwards to fir up the
Gift of God which was in him, 2 Tim. i. 6.
where the Greek Word ava(wπups fignifies
to cherish and rekindle a Fire, by blowing
and fupplying it with new Fuel, which o-
therwise would be apt to die, and be extin-
guished.

Bishop Bull's Sermon on 2 Tim. iv. 13. p. 114.
F 4

Nay,

II.

SERM. Nay, even St. Paul himself, who gave this Advice to his Difciple Timothy, and who was taught in the Mysteries of Religion by the Lord JESUS himself, and could boast of Vifions and Revelations, 2 Cor. xi, xii. and of Spiritual Gifts, 1 Cor. xiv. 18. beyond all the Apoftles; even this great Apostle, I fay, thinks it an Advantage that he had been educated and brought up at the Feet of Gamaliel, Acts xxii. 3. The Proficiency he then made in all the Parts of Human Literature under fo eminent a Master, he found to the laft of great Ufe and Service to him in his Preaching and Writing both to Gentiles and Jews *. Nor did his Infpiration afterwards by the Holy Ghoft fuperfede his further Reading and Study: On the contrary, we may infer, that he purfued them both, with the fame Industry and Diligence that he had done before. To what End elfe doth he write to Timothy to bring him his BookCafe, bis Books, and his Parchments? 2 Tim. What indeed I render by Book-Cafe, is in our English Translation called a Cloke : But the original Word may be interpreted a Book-Cafe or Scriptore; and fo it is rendered

1

iv. 13.

See Bishop Bull, ut fupra, p. 401.

+ Dións, as in fome Copies, or ovns, as in others.

Upon

II.

dered in the old Syriack Verfion *, and foS ER M. it would agree better with the other Things St. Paul writes for here, viz. His Books and his Parchments: By the first of which are understood a few choice Books which the Apostle had collected; by the other he is fuppofed to mean his Common Place-Book, wherein he had noted what he thought might be of Use to him out of the many Books he had read; which therefore being the Fruit of fome Years Study, he charges Timothy especially to bring with him †. So that let paixóns fignify what it will, it is plain from the Text, that our Apoftle, though infpired, had still Occafion for his Parchments and Books, and that he fent for them in order to read and make use of them, fince otherwise he fent for them to no Purpose,

Upon which Words fee Phavarinus, Hefychius, and Leigh's Critica Sacra. See also Eftius upon the Place. Phavorinuș allo fays, that Φελόνης fignifies εἰλητὸν τομάριον μέμβρανον, folded Vellum or Parchment, which perhaps (faith Dr. Hammond) may be all one with the mugavas, hereafter mentioned; because they being mentioned with a paaira dì, but efpecially, feem to denote fomewhat which had been formerly mentioned, rather than any new Thing.

* So alfo Tremellius's Verfion (which is a Translation of the Syriack) reads Domum Scriptorum, &c.

+ See Eflius and Grotius and Pool's Synopfis on the Placer and Bull, ut fupra.

2. This

SERM.

II.

J

2. This is the firft Obfervation which na-i turally arifes from the Subject of my Difi courfe: And this as naturally fuggefts an other not less pertinent or proper: "And that is in relation to the Folly and Madhefs of fome Enthufiafts amongst us, who, under the Pretence of a Light within (which they blafphemously affert to fupply the Want of Human Learning) despise and renounce those ordinary Means for the attaining of Knowledge, which GOD affords. We have seen, that in the Times of the extraordinary Dif penfation of it, the Spirit of GOD was never given but to the Diligent and Industrious, and to fuch as did their best to attain it. E ven those who expected and depended upon the Illumination of the Holy Ghoft, did not expect that the Spirit fhould render their Studies needlefs; but rather used the greater Diligence in the one, in order to obtain a greater Portion of the other. The Affiftance vouchsafed by the Holy Ghoft is well expreffed by St. Paul, where he fays, that the Spirit HELPETH our Infirmities, Rom. viii. 26. It helps, not by doing every Thing for us, but by affording it's Affiftance where our own Power fails. The original Word is very expreffive and fignificant : Συναλιλαμ

βάνεται :

II.

Cávila: It helps together with and over-against SER M. us: As when one Man joins his Shoulders to help another in the lifting of a Burthen. So that even the Extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghoft, whenever they are vouchsafed, are not defigned to fuperfede our natural Fa culties, but to affift them; not to flacken our Industry, but to encourage it. And there→ fore" the Divine Affiftance and Human In

duftrý must always go together, and an "Anathema is due to that Doctrine which feparates and divides them *."

Some few Inftances indeed may be given of Men that have been infpired immediately and of a fudden, without any Application or Endeavours of their own: As was the Cafe of Amos in the Text, and perhaps of others of the Prophets, and of most of the Apostles and Difciples of our Lord; But then this always happened upon emergent Occafions, and fo is not to be expected ordinarily in the Church, However, if our modern Pretenders to Inspiration will fhew the fame Power and Demonstration of the Spirit as the Prophets and Apostles did; if they will confirm their Miffion by Miracles and Signs, or by fpeaking in Tongues which they never learn