glory, 1 Thess. ii. 12. and therefore ought not to spend our time about such low and paltry trash as riches and wealth.

6. Let them get above the world, let their conversation be in heaven, and then they will soon look down upon all things here below as beneath their concern. "Vilescunt temporalia, cum desiderantur æterna," said St. Gregory. He that seriously thinks upon and desires heaven, cannot but vilify and despise earth. O what fools and madmen do the blessed angels, and the glorified saints in heaven, think us poor mortals upon earth to be, when they see us busying ourselves about getting a little refined dirt, and in the mean while neglecting the most transcendent glories which themselves enjoy, although they be offered to us!

7. Let them never suffer the vanity of all things here below to go out of their minds, but remember still, that get what they can, it is but vanity and vexation of spirit, as Solomon himself asserted upon his own experience, though he had more than any of us are likely to enjoy. And let them not only often repeat the words, but endeavour to get themselves convinced thoroughly of the truth of them, which their own experience, duly weighed and rightly applied, will soon do.

8. Let it be their daily prayer to almighty God, that he would take off their affections from the world, and incline them to himself, as David did, saying, "Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness."

To all these means, let them add the constant and serious consideration of what they have here read,

that the love of money is the root of all evil; assuring themselves, that if they will not believe it now, it is not long before they will all find it but too true, by their own sad and woful experience, when they shall be stripped of their present enjoyments and so turn bankrupts in another world, where they will be cast into prison without having a farthing to relieve themselves, or so much as a drop of water to cool their inflamed tongues.

By these and such like means, none of us but may suppress the love of money in us, which is the root of all evil, and so avoid or prevent all the evil which otherwise will proceed from it. Whether any of my readers will be persuaded to use the means or not, I know not; however let me tell them, that if they are loath to strive to get their affections deadened to the world, it is an infallible sign that they are too much in love with it, and that this root and seed of all manner of evil remains in them; nor can it be expected they will be persuaded to any one duty whatsoever, until they are first prevailed upon to do this, even to mortify their lusts and affections to the things of this world. For so long as those are predominant within us, no grace whatsoever can be exerted, nor duty performed, nor any sin avoided by us.

But O, how happy would it be, if it should please the most high God to set what I have here said home upon any, as to induce them to set themselves seriously for the future to the eradicating or rooting up this love of money out of their hearts! What a holy, what a blessed, what a peculiar people should we then be, and how zealous of good works!

Then we would take all opportunities of performing our devotions to almighty God; then we should have as many to the sacrament as at a sermon; then our churches would be filled all the week, as well as on Sundays, and the eternal God constantly worshipped with reverence and godly fear; then we shall take delight in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and relieving the oppressed; then there would be no such thing as cheating and cozenage, as lying and perjury, as strife and contention amongst us. But we should all walk hand and hand together in the way of piety, justice, and charity upon earth, until at length we shall come to heaven, where we shall be so far from loving and desiring money, that we shall account it as it is, even dross and dirt; where our affection shall be wholly taken up with the contemplation of the chiefest good, and we shall solace ourselves in the enjoyment of his perfections for evermore.

THOUGHTS ON WORLDLY RICHES.

SECTION II.

TIMOTHY, after his conversion to the Christian faith, being found to be a man of great parts, learning, and piety, and so every way qualified for the work of the ministry, St. Paul, who had planted a church at Ephesus, the metropolis or chief city of all Asia, left him to dress and propagate it, after his departure from it; giving him power to ordain elders

or priests, and to visit and exercise jurisdiction over them, to see they did not teach false doctrines, 1 Tim. i. 3. That they may be unblameable in their lives and conversations, 1 Tim. v. 7. And to exercise authority over them, in case they be otherwise, 1 Tim. v. 19. And therefore it cannot in reason but be acknowledged that Timothy was the bishop, superintendent, or visitor of all the Asian churches, as he was always asserted to have been by the fathers of the primitive church, as Eusebius reports, saying, "that Timothy is reported to have been the first bishop of the province of Ephesus." Be sure he had the oversight of all the churches that were planted there; and not only in Ephesus itself, but likewise in all Asia, which was subject to his ecclesiastical power and jurisdic

tion.

And hence it is that the apostle St. Paul, in his first espistle to him, gives him directions how to manage so great a work, and to discharge so great a trust as was committed to him, both as bishop and priest; both how to ordain and govern others, and likewise how to preach himself the gospel of Christ. And having spent the whole epistle in directions of this sort, in the close of it, as it were, at the foot of the epistle, he subjoins one general caution to be observed by him: "Charge them that are rich," &c. Which words, though first directed to Timothy, were in him intended for all succeeding ministers and preachers of the gospel; such I mean, who are solemnly ordained and set apart for this work. We are all obliged to observe the command which is here laid upon us, as without which we are

never likely to do any good upon them that hear us: for so long as their minds are set altogether upon riches, and the things of this world, we may preach our hearts out before we can ever persuade them to mind heaven and eternal happiness in good earnest. This St. Paul knew well enough, and therefore hath left this not only as his advice and counsel, but as a strict command and duty incumbent upon the preachers of the gospel in all ages, that they 66 charge them that are rich," &c. Where it must be observed, in the first place, how we are expressly enjoined to "charge them that are rich," &c. a word much to be observed. The apostle doth not say, desire, beseech, counsel, or admonish the rich, but paragelle tois plousiois, charge and command them that are rich.' The word properly signifies such a charge as the judges at an assize or sessions make in the king's name, enjoining his subjects to observe the established laws and statutes of the kingdom. And so the word is always used in scripture for the strictest way of commanding any thing to be observed or done, as Acts v. 28. ou paraggelia pareggeilamen humin: "Did we not strictly command you," Luke v. 14. pareggeillen auto. He charged him to tell no man. Thus therefore it is that we are here enjoined to charge the rich in the name of the King of kings, not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches, &c.

And this is the proper notion, and the only true way of preaching the word of God, which therefore, in scripture, is ordinarily expressed by the word kerussein, which properly signifies to publish or proclaim, as heralds do, the will and pleasure of the