Burgess - Houston-Packer Collection BT715 .B85 1652

çá gaffe Signs ofGrace. Sac T. III. it** MO**2**41*.$ SERMON XXVI. I Declaring that many refi upon afriEl vay of `Deli_ gion, vhichyetcometh not up to, but often it befade.r the appointment ofthe word. ACTS 26.5. Which knew=from the daginning (if they would teItifse) that after she me flraiteftSea ofour Religion, Hiveda Pharifee. THe Text ispart of`PaulsApologetical oration to Agrippa , wherein we have theexordium,or Preface , , and the Narration, or fubitanrial matter fummarilycontained therein. In the PrefacePaul Bothwith great Rheto. rique captare benevelentiam,endeavour to foclinethe affelions of Agrippa tohim , accounting it an happinefs to Apologize before him, whoWas fo expert ofall the yewifbcufoms : In the Narration, we have, First , The hiftoryof hisformer life. Secondly, Ofhisprefent fine andconverfation. The Text is partofthat Narrative which relates to hisby-path converfation, whereinhe defcribed himfelf from the religious condition he then was in,and that fill}more generally, then more particularly Generally , He was.after the roofl frill way of Religion aQaoxdx the Originali for Religion. Plutarch tells us, cometh from the Thracian:, eminently taken,potice offor their devotion : and it is ufedfometimes ina good fence,, fometimes in a bad fence-, as it degenerateth into fuperthition. The Originalfor Sell, is ärpso,r, Herefse and fo the kveral fells among Philotophers werecalled Herefies. Iris the opinion of Gerhard, a. learned man, That this word is alwaies taken in an ill fence in the Scripture : but this place with two or three more in theeillls ofthe Apoffles , feem to imply the ale of it ina middle, or indifferent fence,any particular way that a mad (hall chute dif ferent from the rode, alehough in the Epittles it is ufed in an ill fence : Therefore Terminate called itSeEta Chriflianoram , The Sell of the Chriiians. Now this wayTax/ walked in, is aggravated with this adjunct, dxvgs54 in the fuperta- rive fence : and to yofephus (peaks oft he.harifees, as thofe that were moil accu- rate in the obtervance ofinftituted and Traditional obedience : more particularly, his way is deicribed byits denomination, a PbariJ'ee. There werethree Sells flatting up among the 7ewr, the 'Pharifies,Sadducees, and Effones; the Scripture fpeaketh nothing at all of the latter, becaufe asforce fay, They lovedlike Hermits,in remote folitary places, and fo the Evangelichad no occafionco mention them : Now the Pbariilees werecalled, either as force fay, froma wordto open and explain;becaufe they expounded the Scripture ; orfrom a wordtoSeparate and Segregate; and Ca- meronupon this place makes theHebrew word trID not to liignifie every kind of Divifionor feparation, but that which is after a moth fubtile,and minutemanner: Hence .0. 28. 29. It is applied to the teethof a rake, and Horfe riders lvauoírws, are

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