done. And as John, who pointed to Christ's person, was the greatest prophet that ever was born of woman; and as the least subject in the kingdom of God, after the day of Pentecost, was greater than John; it is plain that the ministry of the spirit is greater than that of the law; Jesus is greater than Moses; things accomplished greater than things predicted; sealing up vision and prophecy better than things foretold; the things provided for us better than the things of the old testament; faithfulness and truth in fulfilling greater than truth alone promising; and, of course, the parchments are more excellent than the books.

5thly. The false apostles had laboured hard to undermine Paul's reputation, to supplant him, and alienate the affections of the saints from him; in order to which they come to them" with excellency of speech, great swelling words of vanity, alluring through the lust of the flesh, and much wantonness; and had crept into houses, and led captive silly women;" yea, though they hated Christ, his gospel, Paul, and the whole gospel church, yet they had preached Christ out of envy, and in pretence, on purpose to add affliction to the apostle's bonds, that, while he was a prisoner confined in chains, they were labouring to pervert both the gospel and the professors of it.

Paul had before this confronted them. “I will come unto you shortly, and will know, not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power; for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. will know the divine power and energy of God upon

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their souls, their mission, and commission, from Christ; what power they have with God in prayer, and what spiritual seals they have got to their ministry. Thus Paul, and the church in his day, are commended of Christ. "Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and for my name sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted, &c."

The apostle having thus confronted and confuted these ministers of Satan, they were obliged to adopt another method of craftiness, and that was to forge epistles, and send them to the churches, as if they came from Paul. Paul soon detects this cheat, and sends the watchword abroad. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, that the day of Christ is at hand; let no man deceive you by any means." 2 Thes. ii. 2. And, to prevent destruction by this snare of the devil, he signs every epistle with his own hand-writing in future. "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." Thess. iii. 17. The sure token in every epistle was his own hand; so he wrote, and all that wanted his signature was counterfeit, or spurious.

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-His manner of writing appears to me to be this. He drew the matter from his great Master by humble prayer, and under the influence of the Holy Spi

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rit he wrote it down; and these were copied by Tr mothy, Epaphroditus, Tychicus, Titus, Lucas, and others; and exact copies of them all were written by Luke, to prevent all counterfeits by Satan and his apostles; in order that the parchments might be handed down to the churches in future ages, neat, pure, untainted, and unadulterated, as the unsearchable riches of Christ, left by will to the churches, that they might flow from our great Aaron's beard to the skirts of his clothing, until the top-stone of mercy's fabric be brought forth with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

And now, as the apostle had long had a proof of the fidelity of Timothy, and of the unfeigned faith of him, and of his mother Eunice, and of his grandmother Lois, and having no fellow-labourer like minded, who would naturally care for the state of the church, he charges him to use all diligence to come to him quickly, fearing he should, die before he came; that he might appoint him the executor of this his last will and testament, that he might be enabled, being both an eye and an earwitness to the bequest of the apostle's whole effects, to detect, and to disprove any forgery that should ever after appear in the apostle's name in the world, or among the churches of Christ; and likewise that Timothy should deliver the same, by copies, to all the churches, and at the same time to keep an exact copy of all the parchments in his own study, and, among the rest, that which contains his own charge,

that he himself might preach no other doctrine.: "This charge I commit thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some: having put away concerning faith have made shipwreek, of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme;" which leads mede

IV. To some improvement of the subject to the present occasion. Some will say, What has Paul's death, his last will and testament, and his books and parchments, to do with the present state of our nation, the war that we are involved in, the hardness of the present times, and with our present appointed fast? Answer. If neither the books nor the parchments grant any warrant to any appointed fasting and prayer, we can have no expectation either of being regarded, heard, or answered, in our prayers put up on the present occasion; for, if no such warrant be granted, nor any such indulgence be allowed, either in the books or the parchments, where are we to find any encouragement to use our interest with God on such an occasion as this?

However, we are not at a loss either for precedents or promises in times of calamity. " Call upon me in time of trouble, saith the Lord, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The kings of Israel often proclaimed a fast, and called upon the subjects of their realm to use their interest with the

God of heaven in behalf of their own families, their own country, the worship of their God, and for the protection and safety of their sovereign.

Moab, Ammon, and the Edomites, combine against Israel under the reign of Jehoshaphat; Jehoshaphat proclaims a fast, and seeks God by prayer; Judah, out of all his cities, unites with him, and seeks the Lord also; and the Lord was found of them. He informed them by a prophet that they need not fight in that battle; the God of armies would win the field, and their work should be first to praise the beauties of holiness, and then to divide the spoil.

When God blesses a nation with his everlasting gospel, he reinforces that nation with an additional army. All nations have some soldiers, and every believer is a good soldier of Christ Jesus. The church is an army with banners, as well as the troops in the field; and sometimes a formidable host has been destroyed by prayer, when they could not attack them in their ranks; prayer is one part of the armour. that equips the christian. Pharaoh and all his host is destroyed, at the cry of Moses, by the Red sea, and in a way not very common. Israel was saved by flying, and Pharaoh was destroyed by pursuing.

Notwithstanding the abounding wickedness of this nation, and the awful spread of damnable heresies in it, I believe in my conscience that God hath more monuments of mercy, and subjects of his special grace, in Great Britain, than he hath in all the world besides. No small number lie in the com