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stitutions of Christ; for they had added the traditions of the elders to the writings of Moses. Saith he, "Give no heed to fables, and endless genealogies; refuse profane and old wives' fables; avoid doting about questions, and strifes of words: shun profane and vain babblings, and foolish and unlearned questions; rebuke Jewish fables and commandments of men, and avoid contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain." Agreeably to all which he speaks in the text, "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called; which some professing, have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee."

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It is not worth while to trouble you with what are said to be the "vain questions" of these men, nor with the "vain janglings," which were occasioned by them: but I shall address myself to the subject, as it concerns you; and lest you should "err concerning the faith," I shall endeavour to convince you that the Christian religion should not be mixed with that of the Jews. It will be necessary to explain this subject, for the Jewish religion. is a compound of religion itself, and the modes in which it was practised among the Jews: the first is Christianity, the last is Judaism. It will be further necessary to enforce our doctrine, and to show you the reasons why we say the Jewish religion ought not to be mixed with the Christian. 66 God grant, we may remember the words spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, and be built up in our most holy faith."

I divide the religion of the Jews into four parts, and by distinguishing these parts I explain our apostle, who expressly saith, Christians are "under the law," and Christians are " not under the law;" understanding by the law the whole Jewish œconomy, or disposition of things among that people before the coming of Jesus Christ.

Observe, first, the Jews had a body of doctrine containing truths, first principles, or grounds on which the whole of their worship was built. These are the same doctrines as we have; and our doctrine only differs from theirs as broad day light differs from twilight, or

as a man differs from himself when he was a boy. Jesus Christ placed all these doctrines in a light more clear, and more striking, than that in which the prophets had set them; and for this reason "the appearing of our Saviour" is said to "make the purpose of God manifest," to "abolish death, and to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel."

The Jews believed one living and true God, a wise, a just, a kind, a powerful, an independent, an everlasting Being, who created the world, and all things therein, and "before whom all nations were less than nothing and vanity." This is a first principle of the Christian religion," for though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many, and lords many, yet to us" Christians "there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him."

The Jews believed the doctrine of Providence, the care of God to forecast, to direct, and to provide for all his creatures. In their history every thing is ascribed to God, and génerally to God immediately, without taking any notice of second causes, and means, by which he governed events. Thus Job saith, "The Lord hath taken away," though it was lightning that burnt his sheep, the Sabeans who stole his oxen, and a great wind which overset the house that killed his children by its fall. Thus an act ascribed in one place to God, is in another place attributed to Satan: one saith, The Lord moved David to number Israel: another saith, Satan provoked David to number Israel. In the same manner we are to expound the Lord's hardening the heart of Pharaoh, and many such places, agreeably to the true and real doctrine of Providence, as it lies in the Jewish Scriptures, in which God is made the first cause: "I have given you want of bread, I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew; I have taken away your horses, the worm hath devoured your vineyards." How did I cause all this drought, insects, famine, and death? By "forming the mountains and creating the wind," and at the creation, disposing

the powers of nature so that they should produce these effects at an exact time, in an exact proportion; and all which I foresaw, as you foresee, when you construct a machine, what it will do, and where, and when. This doctrine of Providence is a first principle in the Christian religion; from the ravens and sparrows, lilies and grass, Jesus Christ hath taught us, that we, as well as Israel, have a keeper, who will "neither slumber nor sleep, a shade to preserve us from all evil."

The Jews had in their religion, in their prophecies, the doctrine, and in their ceremonies a pattern of the Mediator: hence they "died in faith, having seen the promises," and being persuaded of the truth of them so as to "embrace them, and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Hence the sufferings of Moses were esteemed by him afflictions for Christ. He knew God had promised, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head," and that this extraordinary person should be of the tribe of Judah; and he considered it necessary for him to submit to all the difficulties of bringing a people out of slavery, settling them in a land of their own, and giving them a religion to serve till the appearance of this person, the " prophet like unto himself," as introductory to this most desirable event. This Mediator is come, and to us is the good news sent. "Behold," said the angel to the shepherds, "unto you is born a Saviour; good tidings of great joy to all people."

The Jews had also the same kind of law, or rule of action, as we have; for they had a written revelation of the mind and will of God; and by this they were obliged to act in all cases of religion, and it was never safe, however good the intention, to act without it. David, full of riches, honour, and piety, observed that his own house was of cedar, while God was worshipped in a tent. He proposed to a prophet to build a temple for Divine worship; and the good prophet thought the Lord was with him, and bade him go, and do all that was in his heart. The principle was good; and even God said to him, "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart;" but God would not suffer him to build the temple, for two

reasons, the one because "he had been a man of war, and had shed blood;" and the other because he acted without express order; and so his well-meant action would have subverted the great principle of all actions in a revealed religion, which is conducted by a set of servants under the direction, in writing, of one master, from whose precepts it is a crime to depart. "In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israei, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar? I have not dwelt in a house unto this day, but I have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another. Go tell David, my servant," said the Lord to Nathan; go and unsay what you have said; you have been too complaisant; go tell David, "Thou shalt not build me an house." This is the great rule of faith and practice in the Christian church. The Lord Jesus came by commission from the Father; the apostles acted by commission from him; and they had from him no warrant to teach men to observe any thing except what he commanded them, and to teach "all things whatsoever he had commanded." They accounted themselves only stewards, and required other men so to account of them, and with fidelity, which they declared was the chief virtue of a man in trust; they "kept back nothing, but declared all the counsel of God." On this principle goes our text, which is the language of an apostle to a private Christian; so I call Timothy, to distinguish him from those public characters, the apostles, who were inspired to write the Gospel for the use of Timothy, Titas, Philemon, Theophilus, and other uninspired Christians. Our doctrines, then, were those of the Jews; but with this difference, we have the same truths in a higher state of improvement.

A second part of the Jewish religion was morality; that is, the doctrine of the duties of life. We have often observed to you, that all religious duties, the performance of which is called morality, are contained in these words of the apostle Paul, "Live soberly yourselves, live righteously with your neighbours, live

godly towards your Maker." These are the three branches into which the duties of life divide; and these were so necessary to the Jews, that their prophets not only dissuaded them from idolatry, because idolatry was, so to speak, a wicked religion, or rather wickedness under the name of religion; but they reprobated the ceremonies of their own religion, when the performance of them was not accompanied with pure morality: "he that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol." Why? What makes idolatry and Divine ordinances, murder and sacrifice, alike? Because the worshippers "do evil before mine eyes, and choose that in which I delight not, saith the Lord." Morality is the glory of the Christian religion; and though that of the Jews is incorporated, every branch of it, into our religion, and makes a principal part of it, yet it is in a state far more refined than it was among the Jews. I need not enlarge on this article, because each may fully inform himself, by reading the Sermon of our Lord upon the Mount, in which he saith, "I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil;" that is, to explain and enforce it. Ye have heard, that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto you, Thou shalt not be angry. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself; but I say unto you, Swear not all. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour; but I say unto you, Love your enemies." The morality of the Jewish religion was the same with ours, only not in such a high degree of improvement. The Old Testament resembles a goodly tree in full blossom in the spring; the New Testament, the same tree loaded with all its mellow fruits in autumn.

The third part of the Jewish religion is experience, and this also is incorporated into Christianity, and improved by it. By experience I mean those effects which the truths of religion produce in the heart. It must be granted there were many truths and many events in the Jewish religion adapted to give pleasure and pain, and the pious Jews had great experiments tried among them

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