IV.

SER M. tirely of themselves at the University for which he was defigned, is much disappointed and difheartened himself, and becomes a Discouragement to the Parents of others, to venture their Children at a School where they may ftudy, and labour, and hope fo long in vain.

This Difcouragement, not very many Years ago, was removed pretty well by the handsome Collections that used to be made at the anniversary Meetings which then were held: And now it begins to be removed again by the happy and fuccessful Revival of them. The Contributions of the three laft Years have now been actually applied this Way: And feveral deserving super-annuated Youths feel and enjoy the Benefit of them: And others, I hope, will bless your Hands for the additional Supplies you will this Day make. And when you are forwarding fo good a Design, you won't, I perfuade my felf, want Arguments to excite you to do it with chearful and liberal Hearts. You will think of your felves, when the Bafon is held to you, that you are raifing perhaps another fhining Ornament to your School: You are going, as we say, to make a Man; and I hope it won't leffen what you defign, if I should add, that perhaps it may be a Man of GOD.

SERMON

SERMON V.

The Qualifications and Blessings of a
good Magistrate.

Preached before the Right Honourable the LORD
MAYOR, &c.

DEUT. i. II.

Take ye wife Men, and understanding, and known among your Tribes, and I will make them Rulers over you.

I

N this Book of Deuteronomy (or of the SER M.
Second Law, as that Greek Word figni-

fies) Mofes repeats to the Children of Ifrael before he left them, (which he knew he was to do about two Months afterwards) the chief Laws which GOD had given them, during their Journyings in the Wilderness for forty Years paft, in their Paffage from Egypt to the Land of Canaan. And this he does, because all that were of Age and Understanding, when the Law was firft given, were now dead And a new Generation, that VOL. I.

M

were

V.

SERM.

V,

were speedily to enter and take Poffeffion of
the promised Land, were fprung up in their
Room. And Mofes being not permitted to
live and enter it with them; he therefore ac-
quaints them, before he dies, with the prin-
cipal Statutes and Ordinances, which GoD
had given them, and by many warm and af-
fectionate Exhortations endeavours to awaken,
and to excite them to a ftrict Obfervance of
them. Introductory to this he premises, in
the three first Chapters of the Book, a short
Narrative of all that had paffed fince their
coming from the Mount of Horeb to the Time
of his fpeaking. And one of the
very firft
Things he recounts, was a Proposal that he
had made to their Fathers foon after their De-
parture from Egypt, concerning the Appoint-
ment of a Number of fubordinate Magistrates
and Judges; that fo the Burthen of govern-
ing every individual Perfon in fo great a Mul-
titude might not lye upon him. This he had
done upon Counfel given him by his Father-
in-Law, Jethro, Prieft or rather Prince of
Midian, Exod. xviii, 13, &c. Though in the
Recital of it here he fays nothing of Jethro,
left the Ifraelites perhaps, always a proud and
-conceited People, fhould have the less Opi-
nion of the Advice, becaufe proceeding from
a foreign Advifer,

He

to

you

V.

He therefore only relates what had paffed SER M between himself and the People. Ifpake unat that Time, Deut. i. 9. (i. e. I fpake unto your Fathers) faying, I am not able to bear you myself alone. The Lord your GoD bath multiplied you; and behold, you are this Day as the Stars of Heaven for Multitude, Verse 10. And indeed fo GOD had promifed Abraham his Seed fhould be, Gen. xv. 5. And therefore, though, all the Souls of the Houfe of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were but threescore and ten*, Gen. xlvi. 27. yet at their leaving Egypt, 215. Years afterwards, the Number of the Men only, of those that were able to go forth to War, exclufive of Women, and all in general under 20 Years old, amounted to fix hundred and three thoufand, five hundred and fifty Souls, Exod. xxxviii. 26. Num. i. 46. Too many indeed for any one Man to bear the Government of alone. Not that Mofes was troubled at this great and vaft Increase: He bleffed God for it. (The Lord GoD of your Fathers (faith he) make you a thousand Times fo many more as ye are, and bless you, as he had promifed you,) Deut. i. 11. But How can I myself alone bear your Cum

*The lxx. here and in Deut. x. 22. read threefcore and fif teen Souls, (agreeably with St. Stephen, A&ts vii. 14.) including five Names which they infert at the End of Gen. xlvi. 20. ·

SER M. brance, and your Burthen, and your Strife?

V.

ver. 12. How fhall I be able of myself, how poffibly can my Time fuffice, to hear every fingle Complaint, which fuch a Multitude must have to make? How can any one Man alone remedy all the Grievances, and decide all the Controverfies which muft unavoidably arife among you? The laft Word fignifies Suits at Law, as we commonly speak: The two former Words fignify other Differences which would neceffarily arise between one Man and another, about fuch Things as are mentioned in the 21 ft, and two following Chapters of Exodus, which contain the Laws relating to them. The first Word which our English Tranflation renders Cumbrance, fignifies the vexatious Proceedings of too many who get into their Hands the Management of Caufes before a Judge: It means what, were I to explain it now, would require a thousand hard Words, all fignifying harder Things, fuch as would difcourage the patientest Man from bearing the Impertinencies, and indeed fuch as are beneath any one to practife, but Barreters, and those who have Meannefs of Soul, to fubfift upon the Gall and Spleen of Mankind, upon Enmities and Malice, upon Quarrels and Litigations, and who delight in inftructing Men, how to worry and devour one another.

But