And while they looked ftedfaftly toward heaven, as be went up, behold! two men stood by him in white principle amidst all the fraud and force of adverfe times. 3. The fubjects of Chrift, if they would enter into the fpirit of chriftian obedience, muft conftantly attend to thefe four precepts. 1. Seek not earthly honours: but fet your affections on things above. 2. Contend for Chrift not with carnal: but with fpiritual weapons. 3. Affociate with holy perfons, take them for the fubjects, and for the only true fubjects of Jefus Chrift. 4. Prepare for affliction, perfecution, and death; If we fuffer with him we fhall be glorified together. Brochmand. Theol. Syftema. Art. xvii. cap. ix. Caf. Confcientia 3. Qua debeant effe bominis chriftiani meditationes et cura, ut Chriftum, ut Regem fuum vere amet? Tom. i.p.1019. The following example is of the mixed kind. "Prov. xvi. 32. He that ruleth his Spirit, is better than he, that taketh a city. 1. Let us explain what it is to rule one's own fpirit in regard to our natural difpofitions, furrounding objects, and vicious but old babits. 2. Let us prove, that a man, who thus ruleth his own fpirit, excels the greatest conqueror. In order to this, we need only make four obfervations. 1. On the motives, which animate our two heroes. 2. On the ex apparel. ploits, that they perform. 3. On the enemy, whom they attack. 4. On the rewards, which they obtain." Saurin. Ser. Tom. ix. Sur le veritable heroisme. Our divines pursue very different methods of difpofing of the explanatory parts of thofe Sermons, which they compofe of obfervations, and explication. Sometimes the explanation makes the exordium. Thus Dr. Mofs (on Luke xii. 21. So is be, that layeth up treafure for himself, and is not rich towards God.) explains the text in the introduction, and then adds "from the words thus explained, I find ground to raise these two obfervations, which fhall be the fubject of my following difcourfe. 1. A greedy defire of riches, and a fond reliance upon them, is the most wretched kind of folly and improvidence. 2. The beft enjoyment, and wifeft improvement of our worldly wealth, is to be rich towards God; that is, fo to use and employ what we have as to recommend ourselves to his benediction and favour thereby." Serm. before Governors of City Hofpitals at St. Sepulchre's. 1708. Sometimes the explication makes one part of the body of the difcourfe. "Mat. V, (6) apparel. Here it will be neceffary to explain in a few words the cause of their looking ftedfaftly toward heaven; for, by lifting their eyes after their divine mafter, they expreffed the inward emotions of their minds. It will be needful also to explain this other expreffion, as he went up, and to obferve, that it must be taken in its plain popular fenfe, and that it fignifies not merely the removal of his visible prefence, while he remained invisibly upon earth: but the abfolute abfence of his humanity. This is the natural fense of the words, and the observation is neceffary to guard us against that fenfe, which the church of Rome imposes on them for the fake of tranfubftantiation. (4) You may alfo 16. Let your light fo fhine befere men, and fo on. 1. Shew what is implied in the duty of letting our light fhine before men. 2. Lay down fome confiderations proper to enforce the practice of it. 3. Obferve how far thefe confiderations may affect all Christians in general, or fome particular." Dr. Waterland's Serm. bef. Sons of the Clergy at St. Paul's. Dec. 14. 1721. Some mix explication and obfervation all through the fermon, explaining each propofition and obferving and enforcing the inferences, that arife from it. The difcretion of the preacher muft determine the difpofing of thefe elucidations and obfervati ons. (4) Tranfubftantiation. A learned foreigner very properly calls this "the most monstrous doctrine that the frenzy of fuperftition was capable of inventing." It was eftablifhed by Pope Innocent III. in the thirteenth century in the fourth council of Lateran, held in the year 1215. The Greek church adopted it in the feventeenth century. Our author gained the higheft reputation by his controverfy with the famous Nicole on this article. He proved by invincible arguments that the doctrine was not known till the ninth century, nor the word tranfubftantiation until the thirteenth. Vid. Mofheim. Hif. Eccl. Cent. xiii. xvii. Many of the reformers, who rejected the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, or the change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Chrift, retained or invent ed wild, unintelligible no also briefly explain this other expreffion, bebold! two men, and fhew, that they were angels in human fhapes. Here you may difcufs the queftion of angelical appearances under human forms. Notwithstanding thefe brief explications, this is a text, that must be difcuffed by way of obferva tion. Obferve, in general, when explication and obfervation meet in one text, you must always explain the part, that needs explaining, before you make any observations; for obfervations must not be made, till you have eftablished the fenfe plain and clear. (5) tions, or rather inexplicable expreffions, concerning the Lord's fupper. Luther taught that the real body and blood of Chrift were received along with the bread and wine, and that the body of Chrift was joined with the bread as in a red hot iron two diftinct fubftances fire and iron are united; and this he called confubftantiation. The eftablished church of England ufes very doubtful language on this article. "The body of Chrift is given, taken, and eaten in the fupper, only after an heavenly and Spiritual manner, and the mean, whereby the body of Chrift is received and eaten in the fupper, is faith." Article xxviii. The explication of this article renders its meaning till more abftrufe. "The outward part of the Lord's fupper is bread and wine-the in 4. Some ward part is the body and blood of Chrift, which [body and blood] are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's fupper." Catechifm. The reformers thought themselves authorized to use language of this kind by the vi. of John: but this chapter has no more to do with the Lord's fupper than it has with the creation of the world, as feveral of our later divines have shewn. See Dr. Harris's 2d Serm. Tranfubft. at Salters-ball. 1735. The firft proteftants had been fo long accustomed to confider the Lord's fupper as a mystery, that they were not offended at the unintelligibleness of their language and fentiments on this fubjec. 078 4. Sometimes an observation may be made by way of explication, as when you would infer fomething important from the meaning of an original term in the text. For example; Acts xi. 1. And when the day of Pentecoft was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. It will be It will be proper here to explain and enforce the Greek word oμolupadov, which is tranflated with one accord, (6) for it of this rule is common, and a preacher fometimes makes obfervations for an hour without condescending to inform the people what he is teaching. Suppofe faith were the fubject, it would not be enough to obferve-1. faith is a gift of God-2. faith works by love-3. faith is a bumbling grace-4. faith is a Javing grace-and fo on; for the preacher fhould firft fhew what faith itself is. This fault prevails very much in the applications of fermons. Many preachers close their fermons by addreffes to faints -to finners-and to feekers of God, or, as fome love to express themselves, to fenfible finners; and, for want of explaining their meaning, their people go away without knowing to which clafs they belong. Affurances of falvation belong to faints threatnings to finners- and encouragements to feekers, as they are quaintly called: but it minifters great distress to timorous minds to be left in doubt concerning the clafs, to which they belong, and at the fame time it che it fignifies, that they had the fame hope, the fame opinions, the fame judgment; and thus their unanimity is distinguished from an exterior, and negative agreement, which confifts in a mere profeffion of having no different fentiments, and in not falling out: but this may proceed from negligence, ignorance, or fear of a tyrannical authority. The uniformity, of which the church of Rome boasts, is of this kind; for if they have no difputes and quarrels among them on religious matters, (which, however, is not granted.) it is owing to the stupidity and ignorance, in which the people are kept, or to that indifference and negligence, which the greatest part of that community discover towards religion, concerning which they feldom trouble themselves; or to the fear of that tyrannical domination of their prelates, with which the constitution of their church arms them. Now, confider fuch an uniformity how you will, it will appear a false peace. If ignorance or negligence produce it, it resembles the quiet of dead carcafes in a burying-ground, or the profound filence of night, when all are asleep; and, if it be owing to fear, it is the stillness of a galley-flave under the strokes |