But oh how happy would it be, if it should please the Most High God to send what I have here said so home upon any, as to induce them to set themselves seriously for the future to the eradicating or rooting up this love of money out of their hearts! What a holy, what a blessed, what a peculiar people should we then be, and how zealous of good works! Then we should take all opportunities of performing our devotions to Almighty God: then we should have as many at the Sacrament as at a sermon; then our Churches would be filled all the week as well as on Sundays, and the Eternal God constantly worshipped with reverence and godly fear: then we should take delight in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and relieving the oppressed then there would be no such thing as cheating and cozenage, as lying and perjury, as strife and contention, amongst us. But we should all walk hand and hand together in the ways of piety, justice, and charity upon earth, until at length we shall come to Heaven, where we shall be so far from loving or desiring money, that we shall account it as it is, even dross and dirt; where our affection shall be wholly taken up with the contemplation of the chiefest Good, and we shall solace ourselves in the enjoyment of His perfections for evermore.

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SECTION II.

Timothy, after his conversion to the Christian faith, being found to be a man of great parts, learning, and piety, and so every way qualified for the work of the ministry, St. Paul, who had planted a Church at Ephesus, the metropolis or chief city of all Asia, left him to dress and propagate it, after his departure from it; giving him power to ordain elders or priests, and to visit and to exercise jurisdiction over 1 Tim. 1. 3. them, to see they did not teach false doctrines, that they be

ch. 5. 7.

ver. 19.

unblameable in their lives and conversations, and to exercise authority over them, in case they be otherwise. And, therefore, it cannot in reason but be acknowledged that Timothy was the bishop, superintendent, or visitor of all the Asian

Churches, as he was always asserted to have been by the Fathers of the Primitive Church; as Eusebius reports, saying, [Hist. Eccles.3.4.] Τιμόθεος τῆς ἐν ̓ Εφέσῳ παροικίας ἱστορεῖται πρῶτος τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν εἰληχέναι, 'that Timothy is reported to have been the first bishop of the province of Ephesus.' Be sure he had the oversight of all the Churches that were planted there; and not only in Ephesus itself, but likewise in all Asia; which was subject then to his ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction.

And hence it is that the Apostle St. Paul, in his first Epistle to him, gives him directions how to manage so great a work, and to discharge so great a trust as was committed to him, both as bishop and priest; both how to ordain and govern others, and likewise how to preach himself the Gospel of Christ. And having spent the whole Epistle in directions of this sort, in the close of it, as it were, at the foot of the Epistle, he subjoins one general caution to be constantly observed by him: "Charge them that are rich in 1 Tim. 6. 17. this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;" which words, though first directed to Timothy, were in him intended for all succeeding ministers and preachers of the Gospel; such I mean who are solemnly ordained and set apart for this work. We are all obliged to observe the command which is here laid upon us, as without which we are never likely to do any good upon them that hear us for so long as their minds are set altogether upon riches, and the things of this world, we may preach our hearts out before we can ever persuade them to mind Heaven and eternal happiness in good earnest. This St. Paul knew well enough, and therefore hath left this not only as his advice and counsel, but as a strict command and duty incumbent upon the preachers of the Gospel in all ages, that they "charge them that are rich," &c.; where it may be observed,

I. In the first place, how we are expressly enjoined to charge them that are rich," &c. a word much to be observed. The Apostle doth not say, desire, beseech, counsel, or admonish the rich, but παράγγελλε τοῖς πλουσίοις, " charge and command them that are rich." The word properly signifies such a charge as the judges at an assize or sessions.

make in the king's name, enjoining his subjects to observe the established laws and statutes of the kingdom. And so the word is always used in Scripture for the strictest way of comActs 5. 28. manding any thing to be observed or done, as où agɑyyskią Taggyysikaper iμi; "Did we not strictly command you?" παρηγγείλαμεν ὑμῖν; Luke 5. 14. agysλe aur," He charged him to tell no man." Thus, παρήγγειλεν αὐτῷ,

Tit. 2. 15.

therefore, it is that we are here enjoined to " charge the rich," in the name of the Kings of kings, "not to be highminded, nor to trust in uncertain riches," &c.

And this is the proper notion, and the only true way of preaching the Word of God, which therefore in Scripture is ordinarily expressed by the word ngócs, which properly signifies to publish or proclaim, as heralds do the will and pleasure of the prince, and in his name to command the people to observe it. Thus we are enjoined to preach the Word of God, by publishing His will and pleasure to men; charging them in His Name to obey and practise it. For we come not to them in our own names, but in His that created and redeemed them; and therefore, although we neither have nor pretend to any power or authority over them from ourselves, yet, by virtue of the commission which we have received from the Universal and Supreme Monarch of the world, we not only lawfully may, but are in duty bound, to charge and enjoin all in His Name to observe what He hath commanded them. Insomuch, that although we pretend not to Divine inspiration, or immediate revelations from God, such as the Prophets had; yet we, preaching the same Word which they did, may, and often ought to use the same authority which they used, saying, as they did, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts;" for whatsoever is written in the Scriptures, is as certainly God's Word now, as it was when first inspired or revealed to them. And therefore it cannot be denied but that we have as much power to charge upon all the observation of what is there written, as they ever had, we being sent to preach and proclaim the will of God unto all, by the same person as they were. Hence it is that the Apostle in the Name of God commands Titus, and in Him all succeeding ministers of the Gospel, to speak or preach the Word of God, to exhort and rebuke with all authority. From whence nothing can be more plain, than that it is our duty to

preach with authority, as those who have received power from God to make known His will and pleasure to all men ; or as the Apostle here expressly words it, to "charge them not to be high-minded," and the like.

But this I fear may be a very ungrateful subject to many, and therefore I should not have insisted so long upon it, but that there is a kind of necessity for it. For I verily believe, that the non-observance of this hath been, and still is, the principal reason why people receive so little benefit by hearing of sermons as they usually do: for they look upon sermons only as popular discourses, rehearsed by one of their fellow-creatures, which they may censure, approve, or reject, as themselves see good. And we ourselves, I fear, have been too faulty, or at least remiss, in this particular; in that when we preach, we ordinarily make a long harangue or oration concerning some point in polemical, dogmatical, or practical divinity, and use only some moral persuasions to press upon our auditors the observance of what we say, without interposing or exercising the authority which is committed to us, so as to charge them, in the Name of the Most High God, to observe and practise what we declare and prove unto them to be His will, and by consequence their duty. But for my own part, did I think that preaching consisted only in explaining some point in divinity, and using only moral arguments to persuade men to perform their duty to God and man, I should not think it worth my while to do it, because I could not expect to do any good at all by it. For all the moral arguments in the world can never be so strong to draw us from sin, as our own natural corruptions are to drive us into it. And therefore we can never expect to do any good upon men either by our logic or rhetoric; but our arguments must be fetched from on high, even from the Eternal God Himself, or else they are never likely to profit or prevail upon them. We must charge and command them in God's Name, or else we had as good say nothing.

It is true, did we, who preach God's word, propose nothing else to ourselves, but to tickle men's ears and please their fancies, and so to ingratiate ourselves into their love and favour, it would be easy to entertain them with dis

courses of another nature, stuffed with such fine words, quaint phrases, and high notions, as would be very pleasing and acceptable unto them. But I must take leave to say, that we dare not do it; for we know that as our auditors must give an account of their hearing, so it is not long before we also must give an account of our preaching too; Heb. 13.17. for so God Himself hath told us beforehand by His Apostle. But how shall we be able to look the Eternal God in the face, yea, or to look our auditors in the face at that time, if instead of charging their duty upon them, in order to their eternal salvation, we should put them off with general discourses, which signify nothing, only to please and gratify them whilst we remain with them? No, we dare not do it, and therefore I wish men would not expect it from us; for we must not hazard our own eternal salvation to gain their temporal favour or applause. And therefore, seeing God hath been pleased to intrust us so far with men's souls, as to direct them in the way to eternal life—howsoever they resent it, we are bound in duty, both to God, to them, and ourselves, to deal plainly with them, and to use the authority which He hath here committed to us, where He hath expressly commanded us in His Name, to "charge them that are rich in this world," &c.

Where I desire the reader to observe, in the next place, that we of the clergy are not only empowered to charge the poorer or meaner sort of people, who, by reason of their extreme poverty and want, may seem inferior to us, but even rich men too; "charge them," saith the Apostle, " that are rich in this world." And the reason is, because we come unto them in His Name, Who gives them all the riches they do enjoy, and can take them away again when He Himself pleaseth; so that He can make the poor rich, and the rich poor, when He pleaseth; and therefore the poor and rich are all alike to Him; His power and authority is the same over both; and therefore we, coming in His Name, are ordered to make no distinction, but to charge the one as well as the other; yea, here we are particularly commanded to "charge them that are rich." Which is the next thing to be considered in these words.

II. Even whom the Apostle means by them that “are