A

SERMON

PREACHED at

St. Mary's Church in Oxon,

Before the

UNIVERSITY,

ON

The 29th of July 1660,

Being the Time of the KING's Commiffioners meeting there, foon after the Reftauration, for the Vifitation of that University.

The Scribe inflructed,&c.

A

SERMON

Ο Ν

St. MATTH. xiii. Ver. 52.

Then faid he unto them, therefore every Scribe which is inftructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven, is like unto a Man that is an Houfholder,which bringeth forth out of his. Treasure Things new and old.

I

N this Chapter we have a large Discourse from the great Preacher of Righteousnefs; A Difcourfe fraught with all the commending Excellencies of Speech; delightful for its B 2 Variety,

Variety, admirable for its convincing Quickness, and argumentative Clofenefs, and (which is feldom an Excellency in other Sermons) excellent for its Length.

For that, which is carried on with a continued unflagging Vigor of Expreffion, can never be thought tedious, nor confequently long. And Chrift, who was not only the Preacher, but Himfelf alfo the Word, was undoubtedly furnished with a Strain of Heavenly Oratory, far above the Heights of all human Rhetorick whatsoever: His Sermons being of that Grace and Ornament, that (as the World generally goes) they might have prevailed even without Truth, and yet pregnant with fuch irresistible Truth, that the Ornament might have been fpared; and indeed it ftill feems to have been used, rather to gratify, than perfuade the Hearer. So that we may (only with a reverential Acknowledgment both of the Difference of the Perfons, and of the Subject) give that Testimony of Chrift's Sermons, which Cicero (the great Master of the Roman Eloquence) did of De-. mofthenes's Orations, who being asked, which of them was the beft, answered the longest.

Accordingly, our Saviour having in the Verse here pitched upon for my Text, fi

nished

nifhed His foregoing Discourse, he now closes

up

all with the Character of a Preacher, or Evangelift; ftill addreffing Himself to His Disciples, as to a defigned Seminary of Preachers, or rather indeed, as to a Kind of little itinerant Academy (if I may fo call it) of fuch as were to take His Heavenly Doctrines for the fole Rule of their Practice, and His excellent way of Preaching, for the standing Pattern of their Imitation; thus lying at the Feet of their Blessed Lord, with the humblest Attention of Scholars, and the lowest Proftration of Subjects. The very Name and Notion of a Disciple implying, and the Nature of the Thing itself requiring both these Qualifica

tions.

Now the Difcuffion of the Words before us fhall lie in these following Particulars.

Ift, To fhew, What is here meant by the Scribe.

2dly, What by being inftructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven. And

3dly and Lastly, What by bringing out of his Treafure Things new and old; and how upon this Account he ftands compared to an Houfholder.