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❝ of truth, and convinced of error. Again, therefore, and "again, I injoin and charge the zealous followers of the "true religion, no wife to injure, moleft, or affront, the " Galilean people."

"These were the fentiments of this Emperor, whom the "clergy make fuch a monfter, and whofe very clemency "they make a handle of for flander, complaining, that, by "his mildness and unlimited toleration, he had done more "prejudice to the church than others with perfecution. He "was a politic prince, yet the clergy proved too hard for "him, and never ceased plotting against him, till at last, to "the great joy of the orthodox, he was affaffinated by one "of his own Chriftian foldiers."

Thus far my author. And, as his ftory tells, if the devil was teaching Julian this method with the Chriftians of those days, you may fee he was not his only scholar at that time: for, according to the fcripture-account of the devil's teaching and influence, the Heathens, whom Julian was restrain. ing from injuring, molefting, or affronting the Chriftians, and not they only, but the Chriftian clergy efpecially, seem to have been very good proficients at his fchool, for the time they had been at it; and Julian did not think they de ferved to be fo treated by their fellow-difciples of another class. The mystery of iniquity began to work, even among the illiterate men that were set apart to the office of the miniftry, in the days of the apoftles; but when they got these things from Conftantine that Julian took from them, you fee how they behaved.

Your warning of the danger of an illiterate miniftry begins with an advice to your brethren to be as the well-furnished fcribe, that bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. Where you point to our Lord's faying to his disciples, after he had been inftructing them in the nature of the kingdom of heaven by parables, and inquiring, if they understood them, Matth. xiii. 51. 52. when they answered, that they did, he fays to them, "Therefore every scribe, which is in"ftructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man "that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his "treasure things new and old." You give us fome explication of this text, fo far as you quote it; the scribes treasure you fay, is a flock of neceffary and useful knowledge, out of which variety of provifion may be brought for the entertainment of people's fouls: "The priests lips fhould preferve

"know

"knowledge." But this explication is more general, and lefs clear than the text itself, as it stands in connection with the context: the text fays, "Therefore every scribe which "is inftructed (or taught) unto the kingdom of heaven." And you alfo go about to enlarge the text of the Old Testament that you cite in confirmation of your glofs, by forbearing to mention the latter part of it, which, as it stands in that context, Mal. ii. would have told what knowledge it is that the "pricfts lips fhould preferve." If by the law there you will not understand only "the law of truth, the law of "the Lord;" but will extend it to fignify the law of the Roman empire, and the municipal laws of the nations, then you ought to have given that law a place among the sciences, your handmaids to fcripture knowledge: and I am fure it deferved a place in your catalogue as well as any of them. Next, for an explication of " things new and old,” you have a variety of provifion for the entertainment of people's fouls, which variety you distribute under two heads. 1. Their fouls must be entertained with fcripture-knowledge, the knowledge of God, his perfections, the mystery of the Trinity and of Jefus Chrift our furety and facrifice. Here you are a little more particular, but take care never to mention "the kingdom of heaven," of which the text speaks. 2. The people's fouls must be entertained with the knowledge of human arts and sciences, and of the languages, especially these in which the Bible was firft written. And here again you are more copious than on the first head: you have a great variety here of provifion for the entertainment of people's fouls; history, philofophy, mathematics, geography, a ftronomy, and polemic divinity. And thus we have your fenfe of the things new and old," which ferve to fhew, that illiterate men cannot be "the scribes" of whom the Lord there speaks. But, after all you have faid, the illiterate may find you very lame, both in quoting and explaining the words of this text; and that you have wrested this fcripture in fuch a manner as to bring a fort of scribes out of it that was never in it. The fcribe of whom the text speaks is a "fcribe inftructed in or unto the kingdom of heaven;" but this is not once mentioned in the inftruction of your scribe. The" things new and old" that the text speaks of are the things of "the kingdom of heaven," which "be"gan to be spoken by the Lord himself," and were preached by his apofiles to the nations, and committed to writing in the books of the New Teftament. These were the scribes whom Chrift told the Jews he would "fend to them,"

Matth.

Matth. xxiii. 34. 35. And when they came to them, their doctors" perceived, that they were unlearned and ignorant "men," but "took knowledge of them that they had been "with Jefus," Acts iv. 13. as the Jews before marvelled. when they heard himself teach, "how he knew the scriptures" (pamuara comp. 2 Tim. iii. 15.) "being unlearned," John vii. 15. They knew he could read the fcriptures as other Jews did in the fynagogues, but how could the "fon of the "carpenter," without the education of the scribes, take upon him to do their office; or, in a more modern ftile, jump from his trade into the pulpit? Now these scribes, whom he first inftructed and fent forth to make out the New-Teftament revelation, and commit it to writing, "faid none other "things than these which the prophets and Mofes did fay "fhould come," Acts xxvi. 22. And thus the "things "brought forth out of the treasure," committed to these "earthen veffels," were new, and they were old. These "fcribes brought forth the knowledge of the glory of God,, "in the face of Jefus Chrift," that had been of old shewed through a veil" by Mofes and the prophets. Thefe "stewards of the myfteries of God spake the wisdom of God, "that was hid in myftery, and not the wisdom of this "world, nor of the princes of this world, who knew not "the wisdom of God" that was "hid in mystery;" which wisdom these scribes fpake, "not in the words which man's "wisdom teacheth," but, with great plainnefs and fimplicity, took the words of the Holy Ghoft in the Old Teftament, from a translation then in common use, and applied them to the things of the kingdom of heaven in the New Testament, according to the prime intent of these words, which was "revealed to them by the Holy Ghost" that indited them. The Lord fpake by figures concerning the kingdom of heaven, and explained these to his fcribes; and the New-Teftament revelation, which he gave them to bring forth to the world, is the plain declaration of the fame things that had been forefhewed of old in the dark prophecies and figures of the Old Teftament: wherefore he fays, "Every fcribe in"structed unto the kingdom of heaven, bringeth forth out "of his treasure things new and old." Whofoever is skilled in this wisdom that is taught in the New Teftament, fo as to be able to teach it to others, is now the Chriftian scribe; and what a difference is there betwixt this and the knowledge of your fcribe? which is "the wifdom of words, the wif "dom of this world, the wisdom of the Jewish scribe," and VOL.I.

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of "the difputer of this world, and mans wisdom," which is "foolishness with God," and was manifested by him to be foolishness, before he brought forth his wifdom that was hid in mystery to the view of the world, in that preaching which was a ftumbling block to the Jewish fcribe, and foolishness to the Grecian difputers and orators: but unto all whom " he called, the wisdom of God, and the power of God." Whatever difference the fcriptures make betwixt these two kinds of wisdom, you ftill affirm the "wisdom of the Jewish "fcribe and the wifdom of the difputer of this world," is a good handmaid to fcripture-knowledge, and ferves to pro mote the welfare of your church. Your reafon is as wide as the explication of your text. For, fay you, an ignorant ministry is a reproach to any church. If you be punning on the word ignorant, and punning be reasoning, you have hit it; but if you indeed fay, that ignorance of the human arts and sciences before mentioned is a reproach to any church, this will need another reafon to confirm it. I hope you do not mean," that the man Chrift Jefus, (fuffer the expreffion, because it is fcripture), the head of his body the church,” (without which he could not be its head), is a reproach to that church, because he never was taught, nor did teach in his church, these arts and sciences taught in your schools, wherein you would have your expectants to be trained for fcripture-knowledge. Neither can I perfuade myself, that you think the fishers of Galilee, who were not skilled in these fciences, were a reproach to the church that is built on their doctrine, or Paul, a Jewish fcribe, but a babbler at Athens, where Jefus fent him, when he did not allow him to stay and preach in Jerufalem, the place where his learning would have ferved him beft, and who "came not with excellency of

fpeech or of man's wifdom, declaring the teftimony of "God;" yea, whatever force was in his infpired writings, fome that were Chriftians and teachers in his day reckoned "his bodily prefence weak, and his fpeech contemptible." By your skill in ecclefiaftic hiftory, you can tell us, if the minifters that the apoftles left behind them in the churches, and who lived in the age next to them, were generally men fkilled in the arts and fciences of which you give us a catalogue; and if they were not for the most part knowing in thofe fciences, I have reason to think you will not call them a reproach to the church. Neither can I believe that you think it a reproach to the Chriftian law giver, that, in condefcending on the particular qualifications of that ministry,

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which he inftituted to continue to the end of the world, he does not so much as mention the knowledge of these arts and fciences, the ignorance of which, you fay, is a reproach to any church. And therefore I must reckon you mean churches have been reproached with this ignorance of their ministers. This is true in fact: the " difputers of the world" laughed at the preaching of the gospel, till there came up a philofophical ministry but then they departed from the "fimplicity that "is in Chrift, and corrupted" the gospel, and fo they gained that esteem in the world which they could not have "till "the glory departed" from them. If it be your mind, that your expectants fhould avoid the old reproach, and feek that esteem which has come in place of it, by qualifying themselves for the miniftry with thefe fciences; it is my mind, on the other hand, that these illiterate ministers should be content it be perceived "they are unlearned and ignorant "men," and to be called babblers, that God's name may be "excellent, in ordaining strength out of the mouth of babes," while "he confounds the wisdom of the wife," and, "by the "foolishness of preaching, faves them that believe."

After all that you have faid of the neceffity of these sciences, are you well skilled in them yourself? And if you be, is it not a great neglect in you, that the fouls of your people are not entertained with that knowledge? I only wonder, that when you commend fo many arts, wherein you have not inftructed your people, and wherein few have perceived you to be very knowing, you have not mentioned the politics, or rather that which by itself poffeffes the name art? I plead for a room to this in your catalogue of fciences; because it is, at least, as neceffary to a governor of your church as any of them for at no time was it governed without it; yea, you know how useful it is to you in the conduct of your flock in Dundee. All your collections from your orthodox books, in the difputes you have had with Epifcopals and Independents, and your collections from practical writers and the fermons of your brethren, will not manifest you to be fo far above the illiterate in the knowledge of human arts and fciences, as you are in art. The very rife of that sect of which you now complain, was owing to your art, as one mean in the hand of holy Providence, and after an application of all your art in the rife of that fect, your filence and forbearance of open opposition to it, was a piece of art, that, for ought I know, you learned from Julian: for no man will believe it was intended for the profperity of that

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