[86] SERMON III. The Credibility of Myfteries. SERM. 1 TIM. iii. 16. Without Controversy, great is the Mystery of ST T. Paul, at the writing of this Epiftle to Timothy, was in hopes of an Opportunity of paying him a Visit in Perfon speedily, in order to give him fome Instructions and Advice with Relation to his Government of the Church at Ephesus, over which he himself had appointed him Bishop not long before. But not knowing whether the Holy Spirit (by whom he was abfolutely guided in all his Travels) might not order him fome other Courfe; he thinks proper, whilst he is writing to him, to infert fome Directions concerning the Perfons whorn he would have him make choice of for the Work of the Ministry. These he would have, to III. a good degree, exemplary and knowing. For SER M. fince the Chriftian Religion is a Mystery, and a Myftery of Godliness; fince it contains nothing but what is holy and pure, and yet what it contains is of a Nature immenfely deep and profound; it is not fit the preaching of it fhould be intrufted either with unholy or unfkilful Hands. St. Paul therefore directs that those, who are appointed to this Employment, fhould be blameless as to their Lives, and not Novices as to their Faith; that they have a good Report of them which are without the Church, and be apt in teaching them that are within; that they be fuch, in a Word, as are able to hold the Mystery of Faith, and to hold it alfo in a good Confcience; fince they that lose the one are apt alfo to make Shipwrack of the other. And these things (saith the Apostle) write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee fhortly, to inftruct thee more fully; But if I tarry long, or come not at all, that thou mayft know, from these Hints, how thou oughtest to behave thy felf (and particularly with regard to the choice of Minifters) in the Houfe of GOD, which is the Church, not of Idols, but of the Living GOD, and which is alfo the Pillar and Ground of the Truth; as it is only the Church which, III. SER M. under the Guidance and Influence of the Holy Ghost, can maintain and fupport it *. As the Truth therefore will be propagated either pure or corrupt, according as the Perfons, whom thou deputeft to this Office, shall be qualified and disposed; thou seest what reason I have to press thee to be cautious in the choice of them; efpecially fince without Controversy, fince it is on all hands allowed, that this Truth, this Mystery of Godliness is very great; the Articles of our Religion being of C * Some conceiving that the fame thing cannot properly be called both a House and a Pillar too, and obferving that the Apoftles, and other eminent Members of the Church are called Erúλo, or Pillars in the New Teftamenta; and that Martyrs are alfo fo called by Eufebius b, and that one of them particularly is by the fame Hiftorian called σύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα (the very Expreffion which St. Paul here ufes ;) they therefore conclude that the Apoftle means Timothy by the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, in this Place: So that they would have the 15th verfe, by the help of a Parenthefis, run thus But if I tarry long, that thou mayst know how thou oughteft to behave thy felf in the Houfe of God (which is the Church of the Living God) thou that art the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, I shall leave the Reader to take which Interpretation pleases him beft; and only observe that if the Words are to be understood of Timothy, the Connection must hold thus, Thou that art the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, on whom therefore it lyes to make choice of Perfons fit and able to preach and propagate it; elpecially fince without Controversy, &c, a Gal. ii. 9. Rev. iii. 12. b Hill. Ecclef, 1. 6. c. 4'. p. 306. Edit. Reading. c ibid. 1. 5, c. 1. p. 201, fo III.' fo high a Nature, that the strongest human S ERM. This I apprehend to be the Meaning of the Words, and that the Sense of them is to be thus connected with the foregoing. And if so, one would think three Inferences might be drawn from the whole, not easily to be opposed: viz. First, That the Perfon that was incarnate for our Salvation, was truly, properly, and effently, Divine. For it was GOD (faith my Text) that was manifeft in the Flesh. Secondly, That the Manner of this Incarnation, together with its Confequences, is wholly inexplicable, myfterious, and incomprehenfible. For without Controversy great (faith the Apostle) is the Mystery of Godliness. Notwithstanding which it follows, Thirdly, From the Occafion of the Words, that the Doctrine it felf is neceffary to be preached 2 SERM. preached to, and to be believed by, the Peo III. ple. Thefe things write I unto thee that thou mayeft know how thou oughtest to behave thy felf in the House of God. But now, how naturally foever each of thefe Heads may follow from the Text as I have opened it; it is yet well known that we have Men amongst us, that are ready to controvert every one of them. And indeed it is hard to find a Text entirely free from all Oppofition: though none, I think, has harder Fate than this which I have chofen for the Subject of my Difcourfe. It confifts but of two fhort Propofitions in the whole; and Endeavours are used to wreft both of them from us. In the one they reject, God, entirely from the Text, by which they would deprive us of the firft Inference we would draw from it; in the other they give a Turn to the Sense of the Word, MYSTERY, which · would as effectually overthrow the Foundation of the other two. But the present Reading is fufficiently confirmed, not only by the Unintelligibleness of the Words without it * but alfo by the universal Confent of all Copies of this Epiftle, in the Original Lan See Milbourn's Myfteries in Religion vindicated. p. 66. |