SERMONS. 319 



dwelt by the Synagogue ; and *there he abode 

 eighteen months. But the Syriac version saith, 

 it was the house of Titus, (and so -fSt. Chry- 

 sostom seemeth, by his preface to this epistle, to 

 have found it in some copies;) and the Vulgar 

 Latin and Arabic, reconciling both, the house of 

 Titus Justus, or of Titus the son of Justus. If 

 you give credit to this tradition, thus fairly de- 

 rived, it will return to this lesson — that no man 

 serves God in vain ; that none opens the doors of 

 God's house, nor the doors of his own to receive 

 God's church in, that loseth his reward. Oba- 

 diah, that secured and fed an hundred prophets in 

 persecution, received a prophet's reward, and '^ 

 (though but a proselyte) was himself made one 

 of the twelve. The house of Obed-Edom, the 

 Gittite, and all that pertained to him was blessed, 

 for the Ark of God's sake, that occasionally turned 

 in thither. And Titus, a Gentile, who received 

 St. Paul into his house, not only gains thereby 

 the lights of faith, and the incomparable advan- 

 tages of religion ; but is himself introduced into 

 the church, which is the house of God, and set 

 amongst the princes there ; being singled out to 

 this special honour from amongst the many that 

 attended St. Paul in his journey ings. Hear this, 

 you noble and generous souls, who, in this time 



* Acts, xviii. 1 1 . 



X Vide Munst. Vatabl. et alios in Obad. 



