Secondly, ' Having done all, to stand ;' that is, both able to fight, and able to conquer. As for the first general, 'the exhortation,' we shall wave it as to the substance of it, being the same with what we have handled, ver. 11. Only there are two observables which we shall lightly touch. The one from the repetition of the very same exhortation so soon, one verse only interposed. The other from the verb the apostle useth here ; which being not the same with ver. 11, affords a different note. There it is, endiisasthe, here, analaiii- hanele.
CHAPTER I.
THE REASON WHY THE APOSTLE RENEWS THE SAME EXHORTATION ; AND ALSO WHAT TRUTHS MINISTERS ARE OFTEN TO PREACH TO THEIR PEOPLE.
First, of the first, the repetition of the same exhortation, and that in so short a space. Sure it was not for want of matter, but rather out of abundance of zeal, that he harps the second time on the same string. Indeed, he is the better workman, who di-ives one nail home with reiterated blows, than he which covets to enter many, but fastens none. Such preachers are not likely to reach the conscience, w'ho hop from one truth to another, but dwell on none. Every hearer is not so quick as the preacher, to take a notion as it is first darted forth ; neither can many carry away so much of that sermon, which is made up all of varieties, where a point is no sooner named, but presently pulls back its hand, and another makes a breach and comes forth, before the first hath been opened and hammered upon the conscience by a powerful application, as where the discourse is homogeneal, and some one necessary truth is cleared, insisted on, and urged home with blow upon blow ; here the whole matter of the discourse is akin, and one part remembered, brings the memory acquainted with the other; whereas in the former, one puts out the other in a weak memory. Short hints and away, may please a scholar, but not so profitable for others ; the one more fit for the schools, but the other for the pulpit. Were I to buy a garment in a shop, I should like him better that lays one good piece or two before me that are for my turn, which I may fully examine, than him who takes down all his shop, and heaps piece upon piece, merely to shew his store, till at last for variety I can look attentively on none, they lie so one upon another.
Again, As it is profitable thus to insist on truths, so it is not unbecoming a minister to preach the same truths again and again : Paul here goes over and over the same exhortation, ver. 11 and 13 ; and elsewhere tells us, ' this is not grievous to him, but to them it is safe,' to hear the same thing over and over, Phil. iii. 1. There are three sorts of truths must in our ministry be preached oft. First, Fundamental truths, or, as we call them, catechism points, that contain truths necessary to be known and believed. The weight of the whole building lies on these ground-cells more than on superstructory truths. In a kingdom there are some staple commodities and trades, without which the com- monwealth could not subsist, as wool, corn, &c., in our country ; and these ought to be encouraged above others, which though they be an ornament to the nation, ■ yea, add to the riches of it, yet are not so necessary to the subsistence of it. Thus here, there is an excellent use of our other ministerial labours, as they tend to beautify and adorn, yea, enrich the Christian with the knowledge of spiritual mysteries ; l)ut tliat which is chiefly to be regarded, is the constant faithful opening of those main truths of the gospel ; these are the landmarks, and shew us the bounds of truths; and as it is in towns that abut one upon another, if the inhabitants do not sometimes perambulate, and walk the bounds, to shew the youth what they are, when the old studs are gone, the next gene- ration may lose all their privileges by their encroaching neighbours, because
"m 2
Ig4' WHEREFORE TAKE UNTO YOU
not able to tell what is their own. There is no fundamental truth, but hath some evil neighbour (heresy I mean) butting on it ; and the very reason why a spiri of error hath so encroached of late years upon truth, is, because we have not walked the bounds with our people, in acquainting them with, and esta- blishing their judgments on these fundamental points, so frequently and carefully as is requisite. And people are so much in fault, because they cast so much contempt upon this work, that they count a sermon on such points next to lost, and only child's meat.