BRIDPORT, in Dorfet, Sept. 26th, 1738. The SECOND EDITION. By WILLIAM PRIOR. Published at the Defire of the Minifters and People, who were prefent. Μηδε περιμείνης ετερον διδάσκαλον, έχεις τα λογια το θες, ηδείς σε Don't look for any other Teacher, Thou haft the Oracles of God: 36 SHERBORNE : Printed and Sold by WILLIAM BETTINSON, at the A CHARGE Delivered at the ORDINATION of, &c. MY BRETHREN, Y JOU have devoted your felves to ferve Chrift in the Ministerial Character. We are all Witneffes, this Day, to your Solemn Vows, and have offered up our Prayers, that you may obtain Mercy of the Lord to be faithful (a). I am to close the Service with an Exhortation, fuitable to that good Work (b) on which you are entered, with boneft Minds, we believe, on your Part, and with the Approbation of all that know you, and have at Heart the Redeemer's Intereft. As 'tis at your Request I have undertaken this Province, I may hope your Candour will excufe any Defects in the Management of it. To instruct you I pretend not: My highest Aim is only to put you in Mind of a few Things, by a due Regard to which, I apprehend, you will fulfil your Ministry (c), with Honour to your great Mafter, with Ufefulness to others, and with Comfort to your felves. A 2 WHAT (a) 1 Cor. vii. 25. (b) 1 Tim. iii. 1. (c) Col. iv. 17. What I would offer to your Thoughts on this Oc cafion, relates, I. To the Religion of your Minds. THE Divifion of our Thoughts under thefe Three Heads will be of great Ufe to us; as it will lead us more diftinctly to confider the true Measure of our Duty, the Weight of our Office, and our great Concern in the due Performance of it. I obferve, FIRST, That the Religion feated in your Minds fhould be rational, ferious, and exalted. IT is the peculiar Glory of the Chriftian Inftitution, that it treats Men, as Men, as reafonable Creatures. It requires a reasonable Faith (d), and a reasonable Service (e). That there may be a proper Concern here, receive, my Brethren, this Word of Exhortation. BEGIN right. Lay the Foundation deep and firm ; then build on it whatever is juft and good, worthy and noble, till the Structure be complete in Moral Beauty.--Acquaint ( Heb. xi. I. ελεγχος. (e) Rom. xii. 1.- -Angry Invectives against Reafon are no more to be juftified, than extravagant Commendations of it. Reafon is that Faculty of the Mind, by which we difcern the Nature and Relations of things; the Difference between Truth and Falfhood, Right and Wrong; by which we judge of the Evidences, the Expediency, and Advantages of Revelation To this God himself gracioufly appeals, as to the Equity of his Proceedings; O Ho fe of Ifrael, is not my Way equal? Are not your Ways unequal? Ezek. xviii. 25. Elfewhere he fays, Come now and let us reafon together. Ifa. i. 18.-Our Saviour himself is very angry with the Jews for not exerting their Reafon: Why of your felves, fays he, judge ye not what is right? Luke xii. 57. I speak as unto wife Men, fays St. Paul, judge ye what I fay. 1 Cor. x. 15. I may add further, that when the Apostle (who had the Gift of Tongues and of Miracles) forced Felix Acquaint your felves with God (f). Fix in your Minds juft Notions of the Divine Perfections and Government.---Confider carefully the Immutable Nature of Good and Evil; the Certainty of FIRST, ETERNAL PRINCIPLES (g).----Study well the great Evidences of the Gofpel, that nobleft Scheme of Truth and Salvation; its Internal Character; the Excellency of its Doctrine; the Purity of its Precepts, and the Strength of its Motives: The External Proof; the Atteftation by Miracles; the Accomplishment of Prophecies, and its wonderful Progrefs against all Oppofition from the Bigotry of the Vulgar, the Power of the Great, and the Wisdom of Philofophy, without the Affiftance of Authority and Force, or any of the evil Arts of Fraud and Cunning (h). All these Things to tremble, 'tis remarkable, that he applied himself to neither one or the other of these fupernatural Powers, but that he reaJoned from the Nature of Things, and out of the Scriptures. Ats xvii. 2. As xxiv 25 By fo doing that mighty and fuccefsful Preacher has fhewed us that one Sort, indeed the best Sort, of good Preaching confifts in good Arguing.Both Reafon and Revelation are the Gifts, the Voice of God, and God cannot contradict himself. Chriftianity, as it lies in the Gospel, and ftripp'd of every human Mixture, is, queftionless, the moft -reasonable thing in the World: Its Doctrines are all worthy of God, and conducive to the Happiness of Men; and though fome of them could not be difcovered by Reason, and others cannot be fully comprehended by it, yet none of them contradiƐ it.< (f) Job xxii. 21. (g) Communis intelligentia nobis notas res efficit, eafque in animis noftris inchoavit, ut honefta in virtute ponantur, in vitiis turpia. Hæc autem in opinione exiftimare, non in natura pofita, dementis eft. Cic. de Leg. Lib. 1. c. 16. (5) Πως δε, ει μη σημεία εποιον επείθον ; ει μεν γαρ εποιον (εποίον γαρ) θες δυναμις ην το γινομενον ει δε μη εποίεν, και εκρατουν, πολυ θαυμαςότερον ην το συμβαν. Chryf. in I Cor. cap. I. p. 49 - Οταν λεγωσι μη γενεθαι σημεία, μειζόνως εαυτες καταισχυνουσι τουτο γαρ μεγιςον σημείον, το, χωρίς σημείων, την οικουμενην προσδραμειν απάσαν, υπο δωδεκά πλωχων και αγραμματων ανθρωπών αλιευθεισαν. Id. in Αct. cap. 1. p. 8. Edit. Parif. 1636. |