THEY are the words of St. Paul, the Apostle for whose Doctrine and Ex­ample we this day peculiarly give God thanks; They are his words to Timothy, whom, after he had planted the Church of Ephesus, he did by the Laying on of his Hands Conse­crate and appoint Bishop of that Church: Of which St. Paul, Theodoret tells us, De Cur. Graec. Affe [...]t. Serm. 9. That he like­wise planted this Church of Ours: And if so, (Most Reverend Fathers) You bear a Relation to the very Hands in the Text, from which through a long and venerable Succession you derive your Authority; However, you bear an equal Relation to the Advice of the Text; and [Page 2] Favour me therefore, I beseech you, while I make some Reflections upon it, with an Humi­lity as great as is my Unworthiness for such an Undertaking.

The words do, 1. Offer to our Considera­tion The Solemnity of Laying on of Hands, that Ancient Rite of Blessing by Prayer; and thence accommodated by Divine Authority to the Designing of Men to any peculiar Charge in the Service of God.

2. They offer to our Consideration the Charge or Office confer'd by this Solemnity, and that is the Office Episcopal; St. Paul Consecrating a Bishop and Investing Him with such Rights and Powers as we never find committed to a Simple Priest.

3. The Person on whom hands were layd, Timothy, whose Character is given in the fore­going Verse, That He was a Man of unfeigned Faith. But these are Heads I shall not insist on; I shall only take occasion from them to bless God for the great Happiness and Glory of our Church, in the Legitimate Mission of Her Clergy; The Due Distinction of Her Orders; and the Virtue and Worthiness of Her Gover­nours: And in (that which, under Providence is the great occasion of all this) the Pious care of Her Sovereign Guardian the King; Whose [Page 3] eyes are upon such as are Faithful; Who, as God made choice of Ioshuah to lead the Israe­lites into Canaan, because he had dar'd, against the wishes of the People, to give a True Report of that Good Land; So He (by whom Provi­dence has designed to make us Happy, if we will be Happy) chooseth such to lead us, as by Their ardent Love and Zealous Contention to­wards Heaven, have given a True Report of the Desirableness of that Good Land: A Truth which, were it not for some few such Reports, the World lies always under a propension to distrust.

I shall pass over these several Heads, and in­sist only on the remaining matter of the words, and that is, the Gift confer'd on Timothy at his Consecration: Stir up the Gift of God that is in thee by the laying on of my Hands.

The word here render'd, Gift, does, in its Ge­neral sense, signifie any thing that God does gra­ciously bestow upon Men; But in this place it signifies that which we more peculiarly call Grace, i. e. the Sanctifying Gift of God; and so the Fathers interpret it, or rather so our A­postle interprets himself in the following words; where he specifies the Gift he means to be The Spirit of Might, o [...] Love, and of a sound Mind.

[Page 4]Grace then is the Subject; concerning which I propose these Three things.

• 1. To shew the Importance of it to Chri­stian Practice.
• 2. Its Distribution to Men and the Mea­sures thereof. And
• 3. Mans Relative Duty towards it, in stirring of it up.

I begin with the Importance of Grace, to Christian Practice: All that I shall say thereon being designed to confirm this Proposition, ( viz.) That the Grace of God is absolutely ne­cessary towards the discharge of every mans Christian Duty.

That there is a Sanctifying Principle com­municated from Christ unto Believers preparing and assisting them to the fruits of Holiness, and therefore called the seed of God: 1 Ioh. 3. 9. That this Principle is mo [...]e than all Natural Endowments, or any Improvements of Nature, that are meerly Human, and therefore called the Gift: That it is more than the Objective Influence of all Revealed Truths, or of all the outward Actings of Providence, and therefore called the Gift within Us: That this Principle is wrought in us by the Operation of the Holy Spirit, and therefore all Virtues are called the Works of the Spirit, and Christians the Temples of the [Page 5] Holy Ghost, are Truths that will appear to any indifferent Enquirer as evident as any that are written in the Book of God.

And, it being the manner of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures to bring down sublime Truths to our Understanding by familiar resemblances, and to convey them more strongly to our minds by the Images of sensible things, Eph. 4. 16. Col. 2. 19. Our Apostle has in Two several places of his Epistles repre­sented this Communication from Christ to Be­lievers by the resemblance of those Spirits and Animal Iuyces that are communicated from the the Head to the several Members of our natural Body; from which Spirits every Member de­rives its vigour, and sensation, and power to ex­ecute those functions which are due to the com­mon service; insomuch that if this influence from the head to any Member be casually ob­structed, that Member must necessarily languish and grow useless, and retain no more than the Figure of a part: And thus it is in the Mystical body of Christ, the Visible Church; There is a like variety and subordination of Members, some Eyes, some Hands, some Feet, &c. some of more curious contexture and more noble Offices than others; but the Grace from the Head is the common Soul and animation of them all; insomuch that whosoever is any way obstructed [Page 6] from the participation of this Divine Influence, he must in the same proportion languish and fall off from his Duty, and degenerate into the bare figure of a Member of Christ.

Thus the Holy Scriptures do instruct us in the Existence of Grace, as they do, (2.) In the necessity of it.

And the necessity of Grace is founded in the Scriptures, upon Mans weakness and insuffici­ency to do his own Duty: So our Saviour has laid down this Truth, as the first step to Practi­cal Wisdom, St. Ioh. 15 5. (viz.) That without Him we can do nothing. For although it may undoubtedly appear from the lives, both of Heathens and Hy­pocrites, That Man is not without a considerable Talent of Natural power to do Good; though it may be demonstrated, to the Reproach of Christian Professours, That All men may advance farther into the state of Goodness, by the bare conduct of Civil Prudence, and the force of such Resolutions as are meerly Human, than most Christians do arrive, amidst the great, but neg­lected advantages of Divine Grace: Yet when we consider that in Religion, it is not enough to do Good, unless it be done well in its Cir­cumstances, and Uniformly in its parts; when we consider that Religion is not satisfyed with many good Acts, no nor many Good Habits, [Page 7] but only with an Integrity of Goodness, and equal respect to all that is commanded; when we consider that our Partial Understandings are never well reconciled to the Principal du­ties of Christianity, I mean the Duties of the Cross, but are apt to look upon them some­times [...]s Needless, sometimes as Indiscreet, some­times as Cruel, and so are always ready to shift their Obligation; when we consider how ha [...]d it is for weak unsteady Souls to refine themselves to such a pitch as to Love God a­bove all those Idols after which we naturally go astray from the Womb, and yet if we do not Love God so, we have no Principle in us that can either support or recommend our services: When we consider all these difficulties, the great Task before us, the great indispositions within us, and the Avocations, seductions, sna [...]es and violences that are alway ready to di­vert us from our work; we must confess that they are Difficulties purely insuperable by our own strength; Nature must start aside from their Level like a Bow broken with too strong intention; we must confess that in Equi­valence to our Duty, and in proportion to Acceptance We can do nothing. 'Tis true indeed that there are other Graces of God beside this inward Operation we now treat of: There is [Page 8] soundness of faculties, Happiness of Temper, a sober Education Choice of Imployments and Friends, the light of the Holy Scriptures, the prospect of future Punishments and Rewards, the opportunities of Religious Advices, and the Monitions of Providential Events, all these are mighty Graces of God in their kinds, and we speak of Men as living under the possible advantages of all these; and yet nevertheless when we consider (in ballance to these) How the Tempers even of the Best Men are not exempt from treacherous propensions to ill; How the Presence of things does work much more forcibly upon our Affections than any Reasonings about things distant can; How strong and delusive the Injections of Satan are, and how stupifying and deliriative every Act of Sin; How great a distance there is between keeping our selves from scandalous sins, and Raising our selves to the height of a fervent Pie­ty and Resigned Will: When we consider how our Saviour, amidst all his Preaching and Mi­racles, St. Ioh. 6. 44. crys our None can come to Me except the Father draw him, that is, He himself could not draw men as a Prophet, but only as a God; we must still conclude that, without this Inward Principle of Sanctification supernatural­ly aiding us, we can do nothing.

[Page 9]'Tis true indeed, and we readily acknowledge, that there is an Obscurity fitting upon the face of this Dispensation of Grace: For we cannot feel the Impressions nor trace the footsteps of its distinct working in us: The Measures of our Proficiency in Goodness seem to depend entire­ly upon those of our Own Diligence; And God requires as much Diligence as if he gave no Grace at all: All this we acknowledge, and that it renders the Dispensation obscure: But then, on the other side, it is as plain That there is the same obscurity upon every dispensation of Gods Temporal Providence; and so there is no more Reason for doubting of the one than of the other. They that will not allow that God does by any inward efficacy confer a sound Mind, allow nevertheless that he gives Temporal good things; but how, in the mean time, does this Dispensation appear more than the former? For when God intends to bless a Man with Riches, he does not open Windows in Heaven, and pour them into his Treasure; he does not enrich him with such distinguishable Provi­dences as that wherewith he water'd Gideon's Fleece, when the Earth about it was dry; but he endows such a Man with Diligence and frugality, or else adorns him with such accep­table qualifications, as may recommend him to [Page 10] the opportunities of advancement, and thus his Rise to Fortunes, is made purely Natural, and the distinct working of God in it does not ap­pear: When God intends to deliver or enlarge a people, he does not thereupon destroy their Enemies, as he did once the Assyrians, by an Angel, or the Moabites by their own Sword; but he inspires such a people with a Couragious Virtue, and raises up among them Spirits fit to command, and abandons their Enemies to lux­ury; and softness, and so the method of their Raising, becomes absolutely Natural, and the distinct work of God in it does not appear: And, in the same manner, when God does by the inward Operation of his Grace promote a Man to Spiritual Good, and bring him to the state of undefiled Religion, he does not there­upon suddenly change the whole frame of his Temper, and chain up all the movements of his natural affections, and infuse into him such a System of Virtuous habits as may make him Good without application and pains; but he works his Spiritual work by a gradual process, and human methods; instilling into such a Man, first a considering mind, and then a sober Reso­lution, and then a diligent use of all such mo­ral means as conduce to the forming and per­fecting of every particular virtue: And now [Page 11] while God, in all these Instances does work in a human and ordinary way, and never supersedes the power of Nature, but requires her ut­most Actings, and only moves and directs, and assists her where she is weak, and incompetent for her work; both his Grace and his Provi­dence are like a little spring, covered with a great Wheel, though they do all, they are not commonly seen to do any thing, and Man when he pleases to be vain and ungrateful may im­pute all Events to his own power and application. Now 'tis certain that God leaves this obscurity upon his Dispensations on purpose to admini­ster an advantage and commendation to our Faith, not an opportunity or Argument to our Doubting; but yet if we will Doubt, the Case is plain, that we may as well doubt of any act of his Ordinary Providence as of his Sanctifying Grace; and so (by this method of Reasoning) God will have no share left him in the managment of the world.

We allow again that there is another Obscu­rity upon the face of this Dispensation; we know not the Philosophy of Sanctifying Grace; not unto what Class of Beings to reduce it, nor under what Modes to conceive its Operati­ons: And this is a speculation that our Saviour himself argues us Ignorant of, as much as we [Page 12] are of the Issues and Retreats of the wind; and yet he thought fit to leave us so: Whether the knowledge of it were too Excellent for us; or whether it were too useless, as no way conducing to the ends of Practical wisdom: For we may observe of our Saviour, that in all his Discourses, he never entertained his Audito­ry with any Doctrine that was purely specula­tive; because such kind of Knowledge is apt to make us more Vain than Wise: Had he led our Understandings through the whole Theory of Grace, we could not have accommodated it better to our uses, than an honest heart now can without any farther insight; No more than if he had stoopt to teach us the Philosophy of the Wind, any Mariner could have gathered it more commodiously into his Sheet. It is not then our Emulation to determine How the work of Sanctification is done; our only care is that it be done: We pretend not to declare, but thankfully to admire; By what Ray the Divine Grace opens and shines in upon our understan­ding, clearing it from worldly prejudices and the impostures of Flesh, and rendring it Teach­able, Considerative and Firm; By what Motion it inspires Good thoughts, excites good pur­poses, and suggests wholesome Counsels and Expedients; By what welcome violence it [Page 13] draws our Wills, steers our Appetites, and checks our Passions; By what Heat it kindles Love and Resolution and Chearfulness of En­deavours; By what Discipline it extinguishes sinful Imaginations and loose Desires; By what Power it aws the Devil, and foils Temptations, and removes Impediments, and strengthens and exhilarates amidst all difficulties; And finally, by what patient Art it turns, moulds, and trans­forms our stubborn Nature into new Notions, new Savours, new Powers, new Acts, new Aims, new Ioys; as if we were entirely new Creatures, and descended from another Race: All these effects do as well by their wonder as their Benefit render Grace, as our Apostle calls it, the Unspeakable Gift; 2 Cor. 9.15. a Gift surmounting our Apprehensions as well as it does our Merit. That these are all the Esfects of Gods Grace we know, because he has declared them to be so; That they are so, we know, because many of them are wrought beside our Thinking, ma­ny without our Seeking, and all beyond the reach of our too well Known and experienced infirmity; That they are so, we know, because their being so, comports best with the great end of all things, (that is,) the Glory of their Maker; For it tends much more to the Glory of the Mercy of God, to watch over and lead [Page 14] and assist Infirm Creatures than to have made them strong.

And so I pass to my Second Head, the di­stribution of Grace unto Men and the Mea­sures of it; The Doctrine whereof I shall form into this Proposition: ( Viz.) That God distributes his Grace to every Man in propor­tion to the measures of his Necessary Duty.

God, who has laid our burden upon us, and commanded us to be strong, mocks us not; but so far as we are weak, offers us strength out of his own treasure, with this prospect, that re­ceiving it thence, we might behave our selves more reverently and thankfully under the sense of the Obligation. To every one therefore that considers his want, and values the supply, and applies himself for the Gift, with a worthy af­fection, and through appointed Means, God gives it liberally, and the measure of his giv­ing to each, is that Rule of the Friend, St. Luke 11. As much as he needeth. For as Gods Provi­dence has ordered a diversity of States in hu­man life, producing a diversity of Duty; so the same Good Providence has ordained divers Sanctifying Gifts, and divers Measures of the same gifts to be distributed respectively among Men; that no man might Necessarily be want­ing to the Duty of his particular state. The [Page 15] Prophet Isaiah ( Cap. 11. 2.) Speaking of that fulness of the Spirit, that was to rest upon our Saviour, distributes the Holy Spirit (according to its operations) into the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Might, the Spirit of Knowledge and the Fear o [...] the Lord: Which the Church looks upon as a proper Enumeration of the Sanctifying Gifts of the Holy Spirit; which God does diversly distribute unto men, in order to the Common Salvation: There is Wisdom for those that Teach, and Understanding for those that Learn, and Counsel for such as are in Perplexity, and Might for such as are in Difficulty, and Know­ledge for them that Err, and the fear of the Lord or Piety, (as other Versions read it) for all that will be Pious. Now of these Gifts God giveth such Kinds and Measures to every Man as he has need of: To every Private per­son so much as is necessary for a private Salva­tion; and to every one of a publick Character so much as is necessary to promote Salvation in the publick: Salvation of Souls, and the Ad­vancement of Christs Kingdom being the only scope of all his Distributions. We may take an Instance of the whole, from our Bishop in the Text: He was a Good Man and en­dowed with Grace sufficient for a private Sal­vation [Page 16] before the laying on of Hands, as the foregoing Verse implies; but being now by that Sacramental Rite to enter upon a new Station of life, where greater measures of the Divine assistance were but necessary for the discharge of his duty, God confers greater mea­sures of his Grace upon him through the same Rite; God confers (I say) both Grace and Duty through the same Rite, to put us in mind that they are Two things morally inseparable; For he that does more Duty shall have more Grace; and he that receives more Grace, receives an Obligation to do more Duty.

But here it is of importance to observe the Restriction of the Proposition, I say it is Neces­sary Duty to which God apportions the mea­sures of his Grace: Where by necessary Duty, I mean the Duty of that State or those Cir­cumstances, which Gods Providence does as­sign us: For instance; If a man shall fall under an unavoidable perplexity of Wordly affairs, such a state does bring new Difficulties upon his Duty, and requires new measures of Grace to support him under it; and accordingly such a person may safely depend upon God for such measures: Or supposing a Man to want the [...], the happiness of Natural temper, and to lay under complexional indispositions to Virtue; [Page 17] this state brings unavoidable difficulties upon his Duty, and requires greater Measures of Grace to be able to live well; and accordingly such a person may safely depend upon God for such measures: God Almighty taketh plea­sure to manifest the strength of his Grace in such opportunities of humane weakness: But, on the other hand; if a man shall affect such Difficulties, and run himself by choice into such Indispositions, such a one certainly brings a check upon the Divine assistance: For, in all the dispensations of Gods mercy the Wise Man's Rule is to be observed, Wisd. 1. 2. That God is found of those that tempt him not. And so likewise in the Case of publick Charges, (which necessarily enlarge both the difficulty and the measures of human Duty) the Conduct of Providence is always to be regarded: We may safely follow Providence through any Difficulties; for there God shall be with us, and his right hand shall help us: But if we ad­vance to Difficulties, as Ahab did to Ramoth Gilead, onely directed by some false Prophet of our own Passions, we Tempt God be­yond a reasonable assurance of finding him in our Undertaking. And this is the Reason why Pious Men, of all Ages, have trem­bled at the thoughts of seeking the Episcopal [Page 18] Charge; lest by running officiously into the obligation of a mighty Duty, they might tempt God and provoke him to withold that measure of Grace which was necessary for the due discharge of it. I know that Our Apostle has said; 3 Tim. 3. 1. If a man desire the Office of a Bishop, be desireth a Good Work; Imply­ing that it sometimes may lawfully be desi­red: And without doubt it has sometimes been so, and possibly may be so still: It was so in those Times when Persecution ra­ging against the Church fell always most severely upon her Bishops, When the Of­fice was accounted a Degree of Martyrdom, when there were no splendid advantages an­next to it, which might tempt the carnal affections of Men to regard them more than they did the Duty: At that time to desire it, was to deserve it: and a sufficient proof of an Inward Call or rather Animation to the Charge: But as soon as it came to be baited with Honours and advantages; then all Good Men became Iealous of themselves, lest in desiring the Office of a Bishop they might not so much desire a Good Work as a Good Accom­modation; lest their Passions should draw them more prevalently than their Consciences: which must necessarily have brought a check [Page 19] upon the Divine Blessing; for the want where­of no Parts, nor Wisdom, nor Industry in their Administration could ever compensate. From this pious Iealousie of theirs it follow­ed that the Greatest Bishops have been not only Wisht and Nominated, but Sought, Woo'd, and Commanded, out of their Retirement to the Undertaking of their Charge: Where, after they had Undertaken it, we find them bewailing themselves upon the Tremendous prospect of its duty, St. August. Ep. 148. ad Valer. and Crying that it was in punishment to their sins, that God had com­mitted the Helm of a Diocess into their hands. Teaching the World what Caution is need­ful, lest in a Charge of the most important service of God, where it is impossible for a Man to acquit himself well without Gods par­ticular Blessing, and yet if he does not acquit himself well, the miscarriage must needs be damnable, any one should enter upon such a Charge, with any other Motives, than such as were conciliative of Gods Blessing and as­sistance. 2 Cor. 2.16. For Who is sufficient for these things? Says our Apostle; and having left the Questi­on undetermined, he has left men under the obligation of a long suspense, before they deter­mine it in their own behalfs.

But when God who makes those, whom [Page 20] he pleases, sufficient, shall determine it for any Man; then Compliance is safe, and the Bles­sing indubitable. And thus it was in the In­stance of our Bishop in the Text, upon whom this discourse is grounded; Of whom you may observe, that he had a Providential designati­on to his Charge, before Hands were laid up­on him to Invest him in it: He had his De­signation from Prophecy, 1 Tim. 4.14. Says the Text, that is, from the declaration of the Holy Ghost through the Mouth of some inspired Christi­ans: Now, what was extraordinary in this Instance, and proper only for an Age of Miracles, we must not draw into Precedent; but from what was Ordinary in it we must form our Rule; and that Rule is this, viz. That when the Authority, to whom the out­ward care of the Church is committed by God, shall from the good Report of a Person, as of One of Unfeigned Faith, call such a Per­son to the Charge, this is a Providential de­signation; and such a Person going in the Conscience of his Duty, to the subsequent Rite of Laying on of Hands, needs not doubt of such an Effusion of Grace as shall enable him to give a cheerful account of his Duty: This only Caution being born in Remem­brance, That the Grace so given must be stirr'd [Page 21] up, Which is my third and last Head.

The Original word signifies primitively the stirring up of Fire; Grace being sometimes, in the Scripture, compared to Fire; which, by reason of its properties of Lighting, Warming and Purging, bears a just Analogy to those Aids that Grace brings in to reform the dis­order of each faculty of our Souls: But be­side these, Grace resembles Fire in another property, and that is, Unless it be stirr'd up, and blow'd, and Matter rightly apply'd, it will go out: The Natural Agency of the Fire, and the Moral Agency of Grace agreeing in this, That neither will serve our uses, unless we work with them. We may therefore receive the Heavenly gift in vain; 2 Cor. 6. 1. Nay the Negli­gent do always do so; but if we stir it up by exercise and use, we make it spread and improve, and secure it's Aids to the full ac­complishing of our Duty. So that Grace and the Soul are like two Free Agents combining dis­c [...]etionally to the same effect; the one acting out of Duty, and the other out of Compas­sion, and both requiring mutual excitements, and mutual endeavours: Humane Diligence engages Grace; because it is not consistent with the Laws of Mercy, that they who are sincere, should miscarry for want of as­sistance; [Page 22] and Grace engages diligence, be­cause it is not consistent with the Laws of Vir­tue, that they who are slothful should either succeed or be assisted. I shall exemplifie the Doctrine in the Instance of the Text. Where we are inform'd that Timothy at his Conse­cration received a Gift or Effusion from the Holy Ghost; and this Effusion our Apostle distributes (in the following Verse,) into three particular Graces, all necessary for the discharge of the Episcopal Office, ( viz.) Might, Love, and a sound mind: We may con­ceive his Soul was at that time touched with some supernatural Motion, that carried it forth in a strong ardor after these Episcopal Graces, and likewise that it was then en­dowed with such a Virtual power, as if stirr'd up, should render him eminent in the Practice of them: And now I will shew what Timo­thy was particularly obliged to do in order to the stirring up of this His Gift; begin­ning with the first Branch of the Effusion, Might.

By Might here is meant no other than Re­ligious fortitude and Courage to do our Duty; the First Requisite of a Good Governour: Whence it is that we hardly meet with any Commissionated by God for any special ser­vice, [Page 23] but that he has this given him in princi­pal charge, To be strong. To be Courageous, Iosh. 1. 7. and 2 Chron. 18. 10. Our Apostle-here opposes it to Fear or Pusil­lanimity, that most Treacherous of all Vices; entangling Men into such necessities of sinning, that the Fearful are therefore set by St. Iohn in the head of all those who have their part in the Fiery Lake. Rev. 21. 8. And now if Timothy will stir up this Spirit of Courage, he must (in the first place,) bethink himself well of his Un­dertaking; He must imagine himself a Cham­pion of War, enter'd into the Lists, as Da­vid heretofore into the Valley of Elah, where he must either Conquer or Die, not a single Man, but an Army: Both the Israelites and Philistines surveying him in the mean time, with different Hopes and Censures, whereof the most (as Envy will always have it) are against Him; Some blame his Youth, some his Confidence, some his want of Arms, and some (like Goliah) curse him by their Gods: But as these casual forms of popular breath cannot in themselves affect his Success, so neither must he suffer them to affect his Thoughts; he must wisely Keep them beneath his concern, while he composes his behaviour to the approbation of God, and rests in his Providence, whom he considers with awful [Page 24] joy not to be a bare Spectator of what he does; but a helper and Deliverer, a Horn of Salvation and a Refuge; as that Royal Cham­pion speaks him from experience in his own affairs. The next step is to bring his Courage into action; He must set himself to work, to check the Range of Satan in the World; to awe Men out of ill manners; to oppose Vice Vigorously and Impartially, without any glozing or fear of the Great, without any Unthankful Indulgence to Benefactor or Friend: He must awe it out of Countenance, and beat it off the Stage, with his Looks, Intimations, Discourses, Interests, Monitions, and Re­bukes; and if it bear up head against all these, He must then separate the Leaper from the Camp, and turn the Sacred Key against the Refractory Sinner. And he that on this man­ner is strong, God shall strengthen his heart: Psal. 27.14. As the Psalmist has exprest the Doctrine of this point.

Arist. ad Nicom. l. 3. cap. 8.But the Philosopher in his Ethicks, treating of Courage, has observ'd, That Anger, though it be very like Courage, and incites Men to vigor in undertakings, yet it is a pure De­pravation of Courage, and makes it lose both its Honesty and its Ends; And for this rea­son it is that the Courage which is inspired [Page 25] from God is never mixt with Anger, it is always accompanyed and temper'd with Love; which is therefore the second Branch of the E­piscopal Effusion. Advices, when without Love, seem only Reproaches, and Rebukes, Peevishness, and Censures, Tyranny; Like vi­tiated Oyntments they have fum'd out all their healing qualities; and retain those only that fret and exasperate. And hence it has come to pass in the Church, that when that most aw­ful Iudgment of Excommunication came to be executed in such manner and Circumstances, as that a great mixture of human Passions ap­pear'd in the executing of it; The Censure lost its awe, and never reach't the Consciences of Men; and all the Terrour implor'd from the Secular Arm, could never make it otherwise, than more contemptible: Whereas when a sin­cere Godly Love, and a Paternal Commisera­tion appears at the head of such a Censure, it cannot but make the Correction sink deep into the Conscience, and make Men believe it to be (as it is) a Delivery unto Satan. And if Timothy will stir up this Divine Gift of Love, he must daily contemplate the value of all those for whom Christ died; He must espouse them into the Intimacy of his bosom, his Care, his Affa­bility, his Provision, his Prayers; Considering [Page 26] with himself what a mighty advantage he has from the height of his place to recommend and endear his Love; For Love in an Inferi­our station may possibly look more mercenary, and so affect less; but Love condescending from such a height of place, wins and capti­vates, and makes a Man look like God, both in Temper and Beneficence; Like God (I say) whose most amiable and endearing Character to the Sons of Men is this, That He is a Lover of Souls: Wisd. 11. 26. And he that thus Loves, Love shall be perfected in him, 1 Ioh. 4.12. As St. Iohn has expressed the Doctrine of this point.

And yet Courage and Love are but like the Inferiour Faculties, the [...], Psal. 51.12. The Prin­cipal Spirit is still wanting, and follows in the third Branch of this Holy Effusion, a sound Mind. Apud septu­eg. & Vulga. If we consider the Native sense of the word [...], and how the Greek Authors do use it to signifie, Actively, such a Castiga­tion as does naturally produce a sound mind, rather than the effect it self produced; it will seem that the sense of it in this place may be not unhappily exprest by The Discipline of Wis­dom; That Blessing which the Son of Sirach prays for ( Cap. 23. 2.) Where he cry's, who will set the Discipline of Wisdom over my Heart? That Discipline that does both castigate and re­form, [Page 27] both Purge and Illuminate, both make Good and make Wise at the same Act: For it clears the Understanding by dispelling all Mists of the lower Appetite; It renders the mind sound and discreet by possessing it with awful sentiments of God, and of Duty and of a Fu­ture Account; and it makes a Man fit to Go­vern in the Church, because it makes him Free and unbyast by the World: These are the fruits of the Wisdom from above; and if Timothy will stir up this part of his Gift, He must be Diligent and Exemplary; he must take care that the Light of his Life, Matt. 5. 13, 14. and Col 4. 5. and the Salt, the Grace of his Lips do render his Authority ve­nerable, and such as cannot easily be despised: He must be Watchful, Sagacious and Prudent; While his Hands are upon the Helm, his Eyes must be upon the Needle and the Chart; He must observe the Pointings of Providence, the Opportunities of Action, the Seasons of Counsel, the differences of Place, the Varieties of Tem­per, and the accommodations of Address, that he may ever be gaining some: 1 Cor. 9. 22. And in the mean time he must keep his Soul steady by the fre­quent Recourse of this Thought, That all is Foolishness but the Doing of our Duty. And he that takes care thus to insist in the Offices of Wisdom, God will make him consummately [Page 28] wise; For, the Eyes of them that see shall not be dimm; as the Prophet Isaiah has expressed the Doctrine of this Point.

And now (O Timothy) see, here are the Arts of thy Government; Continue in These, and thou needest no other Policy; God will take all the other care that is necessary for the establishment of his own Church. Do thou stir up the Gift of God that is in Thee; Isa. 6. 6. Do thou quicken and Divine Coal that Toucheth thee, and thy Coal shall blaze into a Flame, and thy Flame shall be enobled into a Star, Dan. 12. 3. a vast Orb of Glory, such as shall Crown the heads of all those happy Men, who by their Conduct and Example, Turn many unto Righ­teousness.