II.

SER M. ed; if to these they will join the Apoftolical Teft, and confefs that Jefus Chrift is come in the Flesh, 1 John iv. 2. and preach the fame Gospel, and the fame Gospel only, that was delivered by him and his Apoftles after him, Gal. i. 8, 9. we fhall be ready to acknowledge their Spiritual Gifts, however meanly they may be furnished with the Endowments of Nature. Nay, we will join Iffue with them upon lower Terms than these ; let them omit the extraordinary Tests of their Miffion, and only speak confiftently with Decency and Senfe, and they will not find us averse to examine their Plea: But the Spirit, we are fure, can never be the Author of Blafphemy and Nonfenfe, which yet most of them vent under Cover of his Name more than he can be guilty of Falfhood and Fraud, which the remaining few would impute to him, who pretend to fpeak those things by Inspiration, which it is plain they have gained by Labour and Study, which they would seem to decry. But

; no

3. Befides thefe Enthusiasts who depreciate Human Learning under pretence of being af fifted by a Divine Illumination, there are not wanting on the other Side those who declaim against the Neceffity of either, under a No

1

II.

tion that the Rule of our Faith is fo intelli. SERM gible and easy, that there is nothing wanting but a good natural Understanding, Integrity and Zeal to qualify a Preacher to teach and explain it. This is a Plea, against which the whole Tenour of my Difcourfe lies ftronger, (if poffible) than it does against the former. For we have seen that those who expected to have their Understandings enlightened by the Holy Ghoft, had ftill Occafion for all the Learning and Knowledge they could attain to by ordinary Means, to fit them for their Office. And therefore much more surely muft they stand in need of all the Helps that Human Knowledge and Industry can fupply, who undertake the Performance of the fame Holy Office, meerly upon the Strength of their own natural Abilities. Accordingly, if we look back into the Practice of the Jews, whofe Methods of educating to the Offices of Religion have already been fo ferviceable upon the former Point, we fhall find they will equally bear us out in the condemning the Prefumption of those forward Pretenders, of whom we are now fpeaking. No illiterate Mechanick was fuffered amongst them to jump immediately from a Shop-board or Stall into a Pulpit or Dek, as Impudence or Folly

would

SER M. would push him on; nor indeed were any II. Perfons allowed to take upon themselves the

Office of preaching, or reading publick Lect tures in Divinity, till after they had been re gularly prepared for it and ordained *, To this end the Cities that were given by Lotto the Levites, Joh. xxi. were as fo many Uni verfities for the training up Students to the Knowledge of the Law, from whence they were afterwards difperfed, as there was Oc cafion, into the several Synagogues to instruc the People. So that the Keeping of Know ledge, (as the Prophet expreffes it) was alr ways committed to the Priest's Lips, Mal. ii, 7. and they who would feek the Law, were to Jeek it at his Mouth; For he was the Mef fenger of the LORD of Hofts; i, e, the Person who was the fitteft, both as to his Qualifications and Authority, to declare and explain the Will of God.

Nor are fuch previous Preparations lefs net ceffary now under the Chriftian Dispensation, than they were formerly under the Jewish, It is true, the New Teftament is in most Parts more easy to be understood than the Old But ftill we are affured by one that writ part

*Lightfoot, Vol. I. p. 612. Vol. II. p. 86. + Lightfoot ut fupra.

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of it, that there are fome Things even in the SER M. New fo hard to be underflood, that they who are unlearned and unstable may wreft them to their own Deftruction, 2 Pet. iii. 16. And St. Paul we find gives Instructions to Timothy; 2 Tim. iii. 15. (notwithstanding he had been verfed in the Holy Scriptures from a Child, and was then esteemed learned enough to be Bishop of a Church) that he would still give Attendance to Reading and Meditation, 1 Tim. iv. 13, 14. that he might be the better qua lified for Exhortation and Doctrine. And furely if Timothy, a Contemporary of the Apostles, and a favourite Difciple of one of the greatest amongst them, of one who not only writ great Part of the New Teftament, but indeed fome of the most difficult Parts of the whole; if such a one, I fay, had still occafion to read and meditate to fit him for the Work of Exhortation and Doctrine; can we imagine, that a Perfon at above fixteen hundred Years Distance from the Time that the latest of the Scriptures were composed, should be able to perform this Work (as he ought to do) without any Reading or Meditationcat all?

. But I need not, I believe, enlarge any fur ther to expose the Abfurdity either of this,

ог

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SERM. or of the former, Pretence: What has al ready been faid is fufficient, I hope, to fhew, that although they differ in Principle, yet in the Result they both agree; and that, though they may feem, like Samfon's Foxes, to pull contrary ways, yet they are both detached from the fame Quarter, and both combine to do Mischief where they go. For whether Learning be decried as infufficient on the one hand, or as fuperfluous on the other; it is plain, that both Sides contribute to obftruct its Advancement; and fo Ignorance or Barbarism is made way for by either. And what Caufe this is defigned to promote, we may eafily conjecture. Ignorance is the fruitful Mother of Superftition: For they who know nothing, are in a ready Difpofition to believe any thing. In the dark Ages of Christianity, the Dregs of Popery were not too gross to be eagerly imbibed: Nor could Men fee their Errors, till Learning revived again, in fome Parts of the Church, about the Time of the Reformation. But as that let in Light, Truth gradually appeared. Nor is it in the Power of our Adverfaries to impose upon us again, so long as we have Sense enough to discover the Cheat. And therefore no wonder

if among fo many Emiffaries that are daily

fent