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2. Critical obfervations about different readings, different punctuations, &c. must be avoded. Make all the ufe you can of critical knowledge yourfelf: but fpare the people the account, for it must needs be very disagreeable to them. (1)

the text; and the third a verb, the matter and bufinefs we are now about, he died.

"For the coherence, this little et, and, is a tack that holds together the whole life of Adam, fummed up in the beginning of the verfe. All the days Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. For the subject he, and he died, this he is a pronoun I faid, a relative, it has relation to us, be, that is, man; not a man, but mankind, the univerfal of man; he that was the fore-door, and back-door to the world, that let all in, and let all out; he that stood, ftood, nay, fell, for us all; he that has killed thee, and me, and him, he that has killed our brother here- and he died. He died, that includes he lived once. He was once immortal. Adam's firft ftate of immortality confifted on a basis and four props," &c. One would wish to reverence, for his hoary head's-fake, a man, who fays in the dedication of the above fermon, that he was annos jam natus octoginta tres et circiter dimidium; efpecially as he adds, that the printer could not read his hand: but really the fermon would have

I add

edified, and diverted the friends of the deceased, full as much, methinks, had he fimply faid, that Adam and this neighbour had kicked up their heels.

(1) The following criticifm on Mat. xxviii. 19. is a burlesque on Perfian and Syriac, English and Arabic, Greek and Latin, more proper to render critics contemptible than venerable. Goye therefore and teach, Пogevenes εν μαθητεύσαίε, which more properly may be rendered, go ye therefore and difciple all nations, or make the perfons of all nations my difciples, that is, chriftians. That this is the true meaning of the words is plain, and clear, from the right notion of the word here ufed, pablava, which coming from abring, a difciple, it always fignifieth either to be, or to make difciples, wherefoever it occurs in all the fcriptures; as μablaves, Mat. xiii. 52. which is inftructed say we; the Syriac better, bЯ, that is, made a difciple, arphn, that is, not only a scholar or learner, but a follower or profellor of the gofpel, here called the kingdom of heaven. Another place where this word occurs is Mat. xxvii. 57. «paln

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I add 3dly. Avoid philofophical and biftorical obfervations, and all fuch as belong to rhetoric, or if you do use them, do not infift on them, and choofe only thofe, which give either fome light to the text, or heighten its pathos and beauty; all others must be rejected. (2)

TEVOETH Ingoa, where we rightly tranflate it was Jefus' dijciple. Another place is Acts xiv. 21. * μadnlevounos mares, which και μαθητευσανίες ικανός, we improperly render, having taught many, the Syriac and Arabic, more properly, having made many difciples. And thefe are all the places in the new teftament where this word is ufed, except thofe I am now confidering, where all the eaftern languages render it according to its notation, difciple. The Perfian paraphraftically expounds it, go ye and reduce all nations to my faith and religion. So that whofoever pleads for any other meaning of these words, do but betray their ignorance in the original languages, &c.

Beveridge on the Trinity. I believe it would puzzle a whole conclave of jefuits to make a difciple of Chrift, or a chriftian, without teaching. It is a wonder the good bifhop did not render it, go and make all nations mathematicians; from palpalixos, from μαθημα- from How much more eligible is Mr. Pool: "The Greek is padaTevoals, make difciples, but that must be firft by preaching and inftructing them in the chrif

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Laftly.

tian faith. But it doth not therefore follow that children of fuch profeffors are not to be baptized, for the apostles were commanded to baptize all nations."-Pool's annot. on the place. This is honestly rejecting a childish witticism, and placing the argument between the baptifts and pædobaptifts, on its right base.

The baptifts anfwer, that παντα τα έθνη being of the neuter gender, ales, which is of the mafculine, cannot agree with 0, but with palas fuppofed and contained in the word μαθητευσαίε. Dr. Gill on the place.

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(2) Instead of giving light to the fubject, what a vail of ignorance in the following paffage is thrown over what David calls a curious work in the lowest parts of the earth, That is, curious though fecret, becoming the great author and preferver of nature. faid to corruption, Thou art my father. This, with a little logick, we may make good in a literal fenfe. Nutrition (that is, the act of nourishment we speak of) is a kind of generation. "Tis fo, for there is motus a termino a quo, ad terminum ad quem; and 'tis

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Laftly. I fay the fame of paffages from Profane Authors, or Rabbies, or Fathers, with which many think they enrich their fermons. This farrago is only a vain oftentation of learning, and very often they, who fill their fermons with fuch quotations, know them only by relation of others. (3) However, I would not blame a man who fhould use them difcreetly. A quotation not common, and properly made, has a very good effect.

under no other species of motus, but generatio, and therefore fecundum partem, 'tis generation indeed. Well, nutrition is a generation, and confequently concoction is corruption, and 'tis fo; the meat we eat goes into the ftomach and liver, there it chylifies and fanguifies, lofes its form, and that is corruption, and out of this our bodies receive fiefh, and grow in bulk and ftature; fo then out of nutrition, as one parent; and concoction, that is corruption, the other, we are born every day in lumps, and begotten by piece-meals, and we may really fay to corruption, Thou art my father," &c.

Humfrey, ferm. vii. p. 201. What profound erudition! rather, what abfurdity and impertinence!

(3) Bishop Burnet fays, "The impertinent way of needlefs fetting out of the originals and the vulgar verfion is worn out, the trifling fhews of learning in many quotations of paffages, that few could understand, do no more flat the auditory," &c. The bishop faid this in 1692: but had his lordship lived til! 1760 odd, he might have seen a fermon publifhed in English with upwards of fixty fuch quotations.

A medley of literature was formerly much in fashion, and a French writer's remark is not inapplicable. "It required a prodigious deal of learning then to preach ill; now-a-days it requires very little learning to preach well." La Bruyere, charac. de fiecle.

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TH

CHA P. III.

Of CONNECTION.

HE connection is the relation of your text to foregoing or following verfes. To find this confider the fcope of the difcourfe, and confult commentators, particularly exercise your own good fenfe; for commentators frequently trifle, and give forced and far-fetched connections, all which ought to be avoided, for they are not natural, and fometimes good fenfe will difcover the scope and defign of a writer far better than this kind of writers. (1)

(1) Every author proposes fome end in writing, this end muft needs agree with his general character, peculiar circumstances, &c. To obferve this defign is no fmall help towards underftanding the biblical writers. On the contrary, to confider the whole bible as we confider the book of Proverbs, and to ground enormous doctrines on detached fentences, are grofs abfurdities, manifeft abufes of the word of God. The firft verfe of the eighth of Romans feems to have no connection with the last verfe of the feventh but with the laft verfe

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of the fixth chapter. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because S. Paul himfelf with his mind ferved the law of God, but with his fefb the law of fin? no, but because though the demerit of fin was death, yet the gift of God was eternal life. Therefore there is now no condemnation. The whole seventh chapter is then a parenthefis. So in the third of Ephefians, from the beginning of the fecond to the end of the thirteenth verfe is a parenthesis. Such parentheses are very common in fcripture. Now

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