timents to your minds. The King of Kings will come to bring all men to an account and thofe who fhould have been Stewards of God must then fettle all their reckonings. It is an awful thought, and therefore I fhall conclude this difcourfe. H 3 SERMON SERMON V. I TIMOTHY, Ch. iii. ver. 2, 3. A Bishop must be blameless,-given to hofpitality, apt to teach ;-not greedy, of filthy lucre ;-not covetous. B LAMELESS! It would be a happy thing for Bishops, as well as for the nation, if they only but half fulfilled this character. It was observed, that it belongs to the office of a Bishop to work; those who bear this office are not to be idle, otherwise they are to blame. Let us inquire into the work and employment of a Chriftian Elder, or Bishop, H 4 and and fee, my Lords, how far you are blameless, or guilty.—And as I mean to keep ftrictly to the Scriptures, I hope your Lordships will give serious attention. 1. A Bishop muft preach the word*; the word of Revelation is to be the fubstance of their preaching. Bifhops must publish to the Churches what has been before taught by Mofes, the Prophets, our Saviour, and his Apoftles; they are not left to pursue their own devices, nor to teach men the dreams of their own imaginations; but to keep strictly to the word of truth. They must work in the Scriptures, collect the various truths therein contained, and exhibit them to the view of all who hear them. The fimple truths in the Scriptures need only to be fairly told, and reprefented in their own native fimplicity, to produce the effects they were intended for. There is no occafion for the trappings of human 2 Tim. iv. 2. oratory eratory to recommend the truths of the Gofpel, my Lords, they need only to be told. The Greek word unpurow, fignifies to publifh or proclaim, as a Herald or Crier does a proclamation: you have nothing to do but to publifh the glad tidings of Heaven to finners, and leave the confequence to the Almighty. The importance of the Preacher adds nothing to the word which is preached. A Right Reverend Father in God has no more authority in preaching than the meanest Curate. The words that are spoken alone are fit to fulfil their own intention. All the fine periods of a Tillotfon, joined with the fwaggering theatrical buffoonery of Whitefield, will ever be infufficient to reform the heart of a finner, or to convert any wicked person from the evil of his way. Preaching is a work which requires much labour and industry; the Bishop muft bring out of the treasure of Revela |