CHAP. I. Of the Dignity of Sacred Imployments, and the Names and Designations gi­ven to them in Scripture.

HOW low soever the Esteem of the Clergy may be sunk in a pro­fane and corrupt Age, and how much soever the Errors and Disor­ders of Clergy-men may have contributed to bring this not only upon themselves, but upon others who deserve better, but are unhappy in being mixed with so much ill Company; yet [Page 2] certainly if we either consider the nature of things in themselves, or the value that is set on that Profession, in the Scriptures, it will appear that it ought to be consider­ed at another rate than it is. As much as the Soul is better than the Body, and as much as the purifying and perfecting the Soul is preferable to all those Mechanical Imployments which relate to the Body, and as much as Eternity is more valuable than this short and transitory Life; so much does this Imployment excel all o­thers.

A Clergy-man, by his Character and design of life, ought to be a man separa­ted from the Cares and Concerns of this World, and dedicated to the study and me­ditation of Divine matters. Whose Con­versation ought to be a Pattern for others; a constant Preaching to his People: who ought to offer up the Prayers of the People in their name, and as their mouth to God; who ought to be praying and inter­ceding for them in secret, as well as of­ficiating among them in publick: who ought to be distributing among them the Bread of life, the Word of God; and to be dispensing among them the sacred Rites, which are the Badges, the Union, and the Supports of Christians. He ought [Page 3] to admonish, to reprove, and to comfort them, not only by his general Doctrine in his Sermons, but from House to House; that so he may do these things more home and effectually, than can be done from the Pulpit. He is to watch over their Souls, to keep them from error, and to alarm them out of their sins, by giving them warning of the Judgments of God; to visit the sick, and to prepare them for the Judgment and life to come.

This is the Function of a Clergy-man; who that he may perform all these Duties with more advantage, and better effect, ought to behave himself so well, that his own Conversation may not only be with­out offence, but be so exemplary, that his People may have reason to conclude, that he himself does firmly believe all those things which he proposes to them: that he thinks himself bound to follow all those Rules that he sets them; and that they may see such a serious spirit of De­votion in him, that from thence they may be induced to believe, that his chief design among them, is to do them good, and to save their Souls: which may pre­pare them so to esteem and love him, that they may not be prejudiced against any thing that he does and says in publick, by [Page 4] any thing that they observe in himself in secret. He must also be imploying him­self so well in his private Studies, that from thence he may be furnished with such a variety of lively thoughts, divine meditations, and proper and noble expres­sions, as may enable him to discharge every part of his duty, in such a manner, as may raise not so much his own reputa­tion, as the credit of his Function, and of the great Message of Reconciliation that is committed to his charge: Above all Stu­dies, he ought to apply himself to under­stand the Holy Scriptures aright; to have his memory well furnished that way, that so upon all occasions, he may be able to enforce what he says out of them, and so be an able Minister of the New Testa­ment.

This is in short the Character of a true Clergy-man, which is to be more fully opened and enlarged on in the following parts of this Book. All this looks so great and so noble, that it does not ap­pear necessary to raise it, or to insist on it more fully. Indeed it speaks its own dignity so sensibly, that none will dispute it, but such as are open Enemies to all Religion in general, or to the Christian Religion in particular; and yet even few [Page 5] of these, are so entirely corrupted, as not to wish that External Order and Po­licy were kept up among men, for re­straining the Injustice and Violence of un­ruly Appetites and Passions; which few, even of the Tribe of the Libertines, seem to desire to be let loose; since the Peace and Safety of Mankind, require that the World be kept in Method, and under some Yoke.

It will be more sutable to my design, to shew how well this Character agrees with that which is laid down in the Scrip­tures concerning these Offices. I shall begin first with the Names, and then go on to the Descriptions, and lastly proceed to the Rules that we find in them. The name of Deacon, that is now appropriated to the lowest Office in the Church, was in the time that the New Testament was writ, used more promiscuously: For the Apostles, the Evangelists, and those whom the Apo­stles sent to visit the Churches, are all called by this name. Generally in all those places where the word Minister is in our Translation, it is Deacon in the Greek, which signifies properly a Servant, or one who labours for another. Such Persons are dedicated to the immediate Service of God; and are appropriated to the Offices [Page 6] and Duties of the Church: so this term both expresses the dignity and the labour of the Imployment.

The n [...]xt [...]rder carries now the name of Presbyter, or Elder; which tho at first it was applied not only to Bishops, but to the Ap [...]s [...]l [...]s themselves; yet in the succeeding Ages, it came to be appropriated to the Se­cond Ra [...]k of the Officers in the Church. I [...] either signifies a Seniority of Age, or of [...], in opposition to a Neophite or Novice, one newly converted to the Faith; but by common P [...]actice▪ as Senate or Se­nator, being at first given to Councellors, by reason of their Age, came afterwards to be a Title appropriate to them; so the T [...]tle Presbyter (altered in pronunciati­on to be in English, Pri [...]st) or Elder being a Character of respect, denotes the Digni­ty of those to whom it belongs: But since St. Paul divides this Title either into two different Ranks, or into two different Per­formances of the Duties of the same Rank, those that rule well, and those that labour in Word and Doctrine;1 Tim 5.1 [...]. this is a Title that speaks both the Dignity, and likewise the Duty belonging to this Function.

The Title which is now by the Custom of many Ages given to the highest Functi­on in the Church, of Bishop, or Inspector, and [Page 7] Overseer, as it imports a Dignity in him, as the chief of those who labour; so it does likewise express his obligation to care and diligence, both in observing, and over­seeing the whole Flock, and more special­ly in inspecting the Deportment and La­bours of his Fellow Workmen, who are sub­ordinate to him in the constitution of the Church, yet ought to be esteemed by him in imitation of the Apostles, his Brethren, his Fellow-Labourers, and Fellow-Servants. Next to the Names of the Sacred Functi­ons, I shall consider the other Designati­ons and Figures, made use of to express them.

The most common is that of Pastor or Shepherd. It is to be remembred, that in the first simplicity of Mankind for many Ages, men looked after their own Cattel, or employed their Children in it; and when they trusted that care to any other, it was no small sign of their Confidence, according to what Iacob said to Laban. The care of a good Shepherd was a Figure then so well understood, that the Prophet expresses God's care of his People, by this, of his feeding them as a Shepherd, Isa. 40.11. carrying his Lambs in his Bosom, and gently leading them that were with young. Christ also calls himself the Good Shepherd, Joh. 10.1. that knew his [Page 8] Sheep, and did not as a hireling, fly away when the Wolf came, but laid down his life for his Sheep. This then being so often made use of in both Testaments, is an expression of the great Trust committed to the Clergy, which likewise supposes a great, a con­stant, and a tender care in looking to, in feeding or instructing, in watching over, and guarding the Flock against Errors and Sins, and their being ready to offer themselves to the first Fury of Persecu­tion.

The Title of Stewards, or Dispensers, which is the most honourable in a House­hold, is also given to them. These assign to every one his due share, both of La­bour and of Provision; these watch over them, and have the care and order of the other Servants assigned to them. So in this great Family, 1 Cor 4.1, [...]. of which Christ is the H [...]ad, the Stewards are a Post of great Digni [...]y, but also of much Labour, they ought to be observing the rest of this Hous­hold, that they may be faithful in the di­stribution, and so encourage, admonish, reprove or censure, as there is occasion for it.

They are also called Ambassadors, and that upon the noblest and desirablest Mes­sage,2 Cor. 5.19, 20. for their business is to treat of P [...]ac [...] [Page 9] between God and Man; to them is given the Word or Doctrine of Reconciliation; they are sent by Christ, and do speak in God's Name; as if God did beseech men by them; so do they in Christ's stead, who is the Me­diator, press men to be reconciled to God; Words of a very high sound, of great Trust and Dignity, but which import likewise great obligations. An Ambassa­dor is very solicitous to maintain the Dig­nity of his Character, and his Master's Honour; and chiefly to carry on that which is the main business that he is sent upon, which he is always contriving how to promote: So if the Honour of this Title affects us as it ought to do, with a just value for it, we ought at the same time to consider the Obligations that accom­pany it, of living suitable to it, answering in some sort, the Dignity and Majesty of the King of kings, that has committed it to us; and of labouring with all possible diligence, to effectuate the great Design on which we are sent; The reconciling Sinners to God: The Work having in it self a proportion to the Dignity of him that imploys us in it.

Another, and yet a more Glorious Ti­tle, is that of Angels, who as they are of a pure and sublime Nature, and are called [Page 10] a Flaming Fire, Rev. 2.3. ch. 2 Cor. 8.23. so they do always behold the face of our Heavenly Father, and ever do his will, and are also Ministring Spirits, sent forth to minister to them that are appointed to be the Heirs of Salvation: This Title is given to Bishops and Pastors; and as if that were not enough, they are in one place called not only the Messengers or Angels of the Churches, but also the Glory of Christ. The Natural Importance of this is, that men to whom this Title is applied, ought to imitate those Heavenly Powers, in the e­levation of their Souls; to contemplate the Works and Glory of God, and in their constant doing his will, more particularly in ministring to the Souls of those, for whom the great Angel of the Covenant made himself a Sacrifice.

I do not among these Titles reckon those of Rulers or Governours, that are al­so given to Bishops,3. Heb. 7, 17. because they seem to be but another Name for Bishops, whose Inspection was a Rule and Government, and so carried in its signification, both Authority and Labour. To these Desig­nations▪ that carry in them Characters of Honour, but of Honour joyned to Labour, and for the sake of which the Honour was due, according to that, esteem them very highly for their works sake; I shall add [Page 11] some other Designations, that in their sig­nifications carry only Labour without Ho­nour, being borrowed from Labours that are hard, but no way Honourable.

They are often called Watchmen, who used to stand on high Towers,3. Ezek. 17. and were to give the Alarm, as they saw occasion for it: These Men were obliged to a con­stant attendance, to watch in the Night, as well as in the Day: So all this being applied to the Clergy, imports that they ought to be upon their Watch-Tower, ob­serving what Dangers their People are ex­posed to, either by their Sins, which pro­voke the Judgments of God; or by the Designs of their Enemies; they ought not by a false respect, suffer them to sleep and perish in their Sins; but must denounce the Judgments of God to them, and ra­ther incur their displeasure by their free­dom, than suffer them to perish in their Security.

St. Paul does also call Church-men by the Name of Builders, and gives to the Apostles the Title of Master-builders;1 Cor. 3.10. this imports both hard and painful Labour, and like­wise great care and exactness in it, for want of which the Building will be not only exposed to the injuries of Weather, but will quickly tumble down; and it [Page 12] gives us to understand, that those who carry this Title, ought to study well the Great Rule, by which they must carry on the Interest of Religion, that so they may build up their people in their most holy Faith, so as to be a Building fitly framed to­gether.

They are also called Labourers in God's Husbandry, 1 Cor 3.9 St. Matth. 20 1. St. Matt. 9.37, 38. 1 Cor. 3.6. Labourers in his Vineyard, and Harvest, who are to sow, plant and water, and to cultivate the Soil of the Church. This imports a continual return of daily and hard Labour, which requires both Pain and Diligence. They are also cal­led Soldiers, men that did war and fight against the Powers of Darkness. The Fa­tigue,2. Philip. 25. the Dangers and Difficulties of that State of Li [...]e ar [...] so well understood, that no Application is necessary to make them more sensible.

And thus by a particular enumeration of ei [...]her the more special names of these O [...]ces, such as Deacon, Priest and Bishop, Rul [...]r and Governour, or of the designa­ [...]ions given to them of Shepherds or Pastors, Stewards, Ambassadors and Angels, it ap­pears that there is a great Dignity belong­ing to them, but a Dignity which must carry labour with it, as that for which the honour is due: The other Titles of [Page 13] Watchmen, Builders, Labourers and Sol­diers, import also that they are to decline no part of their duty, for the labour that is in it, the dangers that may follow, or the seeming meanness that may be in it, since we have for this so great a Rule and Pat­tern set us by our Saviour, who has given us this Character of himself, and in that a Rule to all that pretend to come after him, The son of man came not to be mini­stred unto, but to minister. St. Matth. 20.28. This was said upon the proud Contentions that had been among his Disciples, who should be the greatest: two of them presuming upon their near relation to him, and pretend­ing to the first Dignity in his Kingdom; upon that he gave them to understand, That the Dignities of his Kingdom were not to be of the same nature with those that were in the World. It was not Rule or Empire to which they were to pretend; The Disciple was not to be above his Lord: And he that humbled himself to be the last and lowest in his Service, was by so doing, really the first.

He himself descended [...]o the washing his Disciples feet;John 13.5. which [...] proposeth to their imitation; and that came in latter Ages to be taken up by Princes, and acted by them in pageantry: But the plain account [Page 14] of that Action, is, That it was a Propheti­cal Emblem; of which sort we find seve­ral Instances both in Isaiah, Ieremy and Eze­kiel: the Prophet doing somewhat that had a mystical signification in it, relating to the Subject of his Prophecy: So that our Saviour's washing the feet of his Dis­ciples, imported the Humility, and the descending to the meanest Offices of Cha­rity, which he recommended to his Fol­lowers, particularly to those whom he ap­pointed to preach his Gospel to the World.

CHAP. II. Of the Rules set down in Scripture for those that minister in Holy things; and of the Corruptions that are set forth in them.

I Intend to write with all possible simpli­city, without the affectations of a strict­ness of Method: and therefore I will give one full view of this whole matter, without any other order than as it lies in the Scrip­tures: and will lay both the Rules and the Reproofs that are in them together, as things that give light to one another. In the Law of M [...]ses we find many very parti­cular Rules given for the washing and consecration of the Priests and Levites, Levit. 8. chiefly of the Holy Priest. The whole Tribe of Levi was sanctified and separated from the common Labours, either of War or Tillage: and tho they were but one in twelve, yet a tenth of all was appointed for them: they were also to have a large share of another tenth; that so they might be not only delivered from all cares, by that large provision that was made for them, but might be able to relieve the ne­cessities [Page 16] of the Widows and Fatherless, the Poor and the Strangers, that sojourned a­mong them; and by their bounty and cha­rity, be possessed both of the love and esteem of the People. They were holy to the Lord; they were said to be sanctified or dedicated to God; and the Head of their Order carried on his Mitre this Inscription, Holiness to the Lord. The many washings that they were often to use, chiefly in doing their Functions, carried this signification in them, that they were appropriated to God, and that they were under very strict obli­gations to a high degree of purity; they might not so much as mourn for their dead Relations,Levit. 21▪ 1. to shew how far they ought to rise above all the concerns of flesh and bloo [...], and even the most excusable passions of hu­man nature. But above all things, these Rules taught them, with what exactness, de­cency and purity they ought to perform those Offices that belonged to their Fun­ction;Le [...]it [...] and therefore when Aaron's two Sons, Nadab and Abihu transgressed the Law that God had given,L [...]it. 10. [...] fire came out from the Lord, and devoured them; and the reason given for it, carries in it a per­petual Rule. [...] I will be sanctified in all them that dr [...]w near to me, and before all the peo­ple I will be glorified: Which import, that [Page 17] such as minister in Holy things, ought to behave themselves so, that God's Name may be glorified by their means; otherwise, that God will glor [...]fy himself by his severe Judgments on them. A signal Instance of which we do also find in Eli's two Sons, whose Impieties and Defilements,1 Sam. 2d & 3d Ch. as they made the People to abhor the offe­ring of the Lord: so they also drew down, not only heavy Judgments on themselves, but on the whole House of Eli; and in­deed on the whole Nation.

But besides the attendance which the Priests and Levites were bound to give at the Temple, and on the Publick Service there, they were likewise obliged to study the Law, to give the People warning out of it, to instruct them in it, and to con­duct them, and watch over them: And for this reason they had Cities assigned them in all the Corners of the Land; that so they might both more easily ob­serve the Manners of the People, and that the People might more easily have re­course to them. Now when that Nation became corrupted both by Idolatry and Immorality, God raised up Prophets to be extraordinary Monitors to them; to de­clare to them their Sins, and to denounce those Judgments which were coming up­on [Page 18] them, because of them; we find the silence, the ignorance, and the corrup­tion of their Pastors, their Shepherds, and their Watchmen, is a main Article of their Charge;Isa. 56.10. so Isaiah tells them, that their Watchmen were blind, ignorant, dumb dogs, that could not bark; sleeping, ly­ing down, and loving to slumber: Yet these careless Watchmen were covetous and insatiable, They were greedy dogs, which could never have enough; Shep­herds they were, that could not under­stand; but how remiss soever they might be in God's Work, they were care­ful enough of their own: They all looked to their own way, every one to his own gain from his quarter. They were, no doubt, exact in levying their Tythes and First-fruits, how little soever they might do for them, bating their bare atten­dance at the Temple, to officiate there; so guilty they were of that reigning Abuse, of thinking they had done their duty, if they either by them­selves, or by Proxy, had performed their Functions without minding what was incumbent on them, as W [...]tch­men, or Shepherds. In opposition to such careless and corrupt Guides, God promises to his People, To set [Page 19] Watch-men over them that should never hold their peace day nor night.

As the Captivity drew nearer, we may easily conclude, That the Cor­ruptions both of Priest and People in­creased, which ripened them for the Judg­ments of God, that were kept back by the Reformations which H [...]zekiah and Iosiah had made: but at last, all was so depraved that though God sent two Prophets, Ieremy and Ezekiel, to prepare them for that terrible Calami­ty, yet this was only to save some few among them; for the Sins of the Nation were grown to that height, that though Moses and Samuel, Noah, [...]er 5.2. Ezek. 14.14. Iob and Daniel, had been then alive, to intercede for them, yet God de­clared that he would not hear them; nor spare the Nation for their sakes: so that even such mighty Intercessors could only save their own Souls. In this deplorable state we shall find that their Priests and Pastors had their large share. The Priests said not, Wh [...]re is the Lord? Jer. 2.8. They that handled the Law, knew me not, the Pastors also transgressed against me; and their Corruption went so far, that they had not only false Prophets to [Page 20] support them, but the People, who, how bad soever they may be them­selves, do generally hate evil Priests, grew to be pleased with it. The Pro­phets prophecy falsely; Jer. 5.32. and the Priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: Jer. 6.13. From the Prophet even to the Priest, every one dealt falsly. And upon that, a wo is denounced a­gainst the Pastors that destroyed and scat­tered the sheep of God's pasture. Jer. 23.22. They by their Office ought to have fed the People;v. 11. but instead of that, they had scattered the flock, and driven them away, and had not visited them: both Prophet and Priest was profane; their wickedness was found even in the house of God. In opposition to all which, God promises by the Prophet, that he would set Shepherds over them, that should feed them; v. 48. so that the people should have no more reason to be afraid of their Pastors, or of being mis-led by them; and he promised upon their return from the Captivity, to give them Pastors ac­cording to his own heart, Jer. 3.15. who should feed them with knowledge and under­standing.

[Page 21]In Ezekiel we find the solemn and se­vere charge given to Watch-men, twice repeated; that they ought to warn the wick­ed from his wickedness; otherwise, though he should indeed die in his sin, Ezek. 3.17. Ezek. 33.7. God would re­quire his blood at the Watchman [...] hand; but if he gave warning, he had by so doing, delivered his own soul. In that Prophecy we have the guilt of the Priests set forth very heinously.Ezek. 22.26. Her Priests have violated my Law, and profaned my holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, the clean, and the unclean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths; the effect of which was, that God was profaned among them. This is more fully prosecuted in the 34th Chap. which is all addressed to the Shepherds of Israel, [...]ek. 34 2. Wo be to the Shep­herds of Israel, that do feed themselves: Should not the Shepherds feed the Flock? Ye eat the fat, and ye cloath you with the Wool, ye kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the Flock: v. 3. Then follows an enumeration of the several sorts of troubles that the peo­ple were in, under the Figure of a Flock, to shew how they had neglected their Du­ty, in all the parts and instances of it; and had trusted to their Authority, which they had abused to Tyranny and Violenc [...] ▪ [Page 22] The diseased have ye not strengthened, v. 4. neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, nei­ther have ye brought again that which was dri­ven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force, and with cruelty have ye ruled them; upon which follows a ter­rible Expostulation, and Denunciation of Judgments against them: I am against the Shepherds, saith the Lord, I will require my Flock at their hands, v. 10. and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the Shepherds feed themselves any more. And in the 44th Chap of that Prophecy, one Rule is given, which was set up in the Primitive Church, as an unalterable Max­im, That such Priests as had been guilty of Idolatry, should not do the Office of a Priest any more, nor come near to any of the Holy Things, or enter within the Sanctuary, but were still to bear their shame: They might minister in some inferior Services, such as keeping the Gates, or slaying the Sacri­fice; but they were still to bear their Iniquity.

I have past over all that occurs in these Prophets, which relates to the false Pro­phets, because I will bring nothing into [Page 23] this Discourse, that relates to Sins of a­nother Order, and Nature. In Daniel we have a noble Expression of the value of such as turn men to Righteousness, That they shall shine as the Stars, Dan. 12.3. for e­ver and ever. In Hosea we find among the Sins and Calamities of that time, this reckoned as a main cause of that horrid Corruption, under which they had fallen, there being no truth, no mercy, Hos. 4.1, 2, 6. nor know­ledge of God in the land, which was defiled by swearing, lying, killing, stealing and com­mitting Adultery. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: To which is added, Because thou hast rejected knowledge (or the instructing the People) I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no Priest to me; see­ing thou hast forgot the Law of thy God; I will also forget thy children. That corrupt Race of Priests attended still upon the Temple, and offered up the Sin-Offering, and feasted upon their Portion; which is wrong rendred, They eat up the sin of my people; for sin stands there as in the Law of Moses, for Sin Offering: Because of the advantage this brought them, they were glad at the abounding of Sin; which is expressed by their setting their heart, or lif­ting up their Soul to their iniquity: The [Page 24] Conclusion of which is, that they should be given up for a very heavy curse, of, Like Priests, like People. In Ioel we find the Duty of the Priests and Ministers of the Lord, set forth in times of great and ap­proaching Calamities, thus, They ought to be Intercessors for the People, and to weep between the Porch and the Altar; and say, Joel 2.17. Spare thy People, and give not thine he­ritage to reproach, that the Heathen (Stran­gers and Idolaters) should rule over them: Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? There is in A­mos, a very black Character of a depraved Priesthood, Their Priests teach for hire, ch. 3. v. 11. and their Prophets divine for money.

These were the forer unners of the de­struction of that Nation: But though it might be expected, that the Captivity should have purged them from their dross, as it did indeed free them from all incli­nations to Idolatry; yet other Corrupti­ons had a deeper root. We find in Zecha­ry, a Curse against the Idol Shepherd, who resembled the true Shepherd, Zech. 11.15. as an Idol does the Original: But he was without sense and life. Wo be to the Idol Shepherd that leav [...]th the Flock: The Curse is figurative­ly [Page 25] expressed, The sword shall be upon his arm, and his right eye: (the things that he valued most) his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkned: But this is more copiously set out by Ma­lachi, in an Address made to the Priests; And now, O ye Priests, Mal. 2.1. this Commandment is for you; If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give Glory unto my Name, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your Blessings; yea I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart — Then the first Covenant with the Tribe of Levi is set forth; My Cove­nant was with him, of Life and Peace: The Law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many from their iniquity: For the Priests lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts: All this sets forth the state of a pure and holy Priesthood: But then follow terrible Words; But ye are departed out of the way, ye have caused many to stumble at the Law: Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. Th [...]r [...]fore have I also made you contemptible, and b [...]s [...] b [...]fore all the people; according as ye [Page 26] have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the Law. Their ill example made many loath both their Law, and their Religion: They had corrupted their Institution, and studied by a gross partiality, to bring the people to be exact in those parts of the Law, in which their Wealth, or their Authority was concerned; while they neglected the more essential and indispen­sible Duties.

Thus far have I gone over the most important places, that have occurred to me in the Old-Testament, relating to this matter; upon all whcih, I will only add one Remark, That though some excepti­on might be made to those [...]xpressions, that import the Dignity and Sancti [...]icati­on of those who were then consecrated to the Holy Functions, as parts of that instituted Religion, which had its period by the coming of Christ; yet such Passa­ges as relate to Moral Duties, and to the Oblig [...]tions that arise out of Natural Re­ligion, have certainly a more binding force, and ought to be understood and exp [...]ained in [...] m [...]e elevated and sublime sense, under th [...] new Dispensation, which is I [...]tern [...]l and S [...]ir [...]ua [...], compared, to which, the Old is c [...]lled the Letter and the [Page 27] Flesh: Therefore the Obligations of the Priests, under the Christian Religion, to a holy strictness of Life and Conversation, to a diligent attendance on their Flock, and for instructing and watching over them, must all be as much higher, and more binding, as this New Covenant cancels the old one.

CHAP. III. Passages out of the New-Testa­ment, relating to the same mat­ter.

THIS General Consideration re­ceives a vast improvement from the great Example that the Author of our Religion, the great Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls has set us; who went about, ever doing good, to whom it was as his meat and drink, to do the will of his Father that sent him: He was the good Shepherd that knew his Sheep, and laid down his Life for them: And since he set such a value on the Souls of that Flock which he hath redeemed, and purchased with his own Blood; certainly those to whom he has committed that work of re­conciliation which stood himself so dear, ought to consider themselves under very strict Obligations, by that charge of which they must give a severe account at the great day, in [Page 29] which the Blood of all those who have perished through their neglect and default, shall be required at their hands. Yet because I will not aggravate this Argument unreasona­bly, I will make no use of those pas­sages which relate immediately to the Apostles: For their Function being ex [...]raordinary, as were also the Assistances that were given them for the discharge of it, I will urge nothing that belongs properly to their Mission and Duty.

In the Character that the Gospel gives of the Priests and Pharisees of that time, we may see a just and true Idea, of the Corruptions into which a bad Clergy is apt to fall; they studied to engross the know­ledge of the Law to themselves; and to keep the People in Igno­rance, and in a blind dependance upon them: They were zealous in lesser matters, but neglected the great things of the Law: They put on an outward appearance of strict­ness, but under that there was much rottenness: They studied to make Proselites to their Religion, but they had so depraved it, that they became [Page 30] thereby worse men than before: They made great shews of Devotion, of Praying, and Fasting much, and giving Alms: But all this was to be seen of men, and by it they devoured the E­states of poor and simple people: They were very strict in observing the Tra­ditions and Customs of their Fathers, and of every thing that contributed to their own Authority or Advantage; but by so doing they made void the Law of God: In a word, they had no true worth in themselves, and hated such as had it: They were proud and spiteful, false and cruel, and made use of the cre­dit they were in with the people, by their complying with them in their Vi­ces, and flatterring them with false hopes to set them on to destroy all those who discovered their Corrupti­ons, and whose real and shining worth, made their counterfeit shew of it the more conspicuous and odi­ous. In this short view of those enor­mous Disorders, which then reign­ed amongst them, we have a full Picture of the corrupt state of bad Priests, in all Ages and Religi­ons, with this only difference, That the Priests in our Saviour's time were more [Page 31] careful and exact in the External and Vi­sible parts of their Conversation, than they have been in other times: in which they have thrown off the very decencies of a grave and sober Deportment.

But now to go on with the Characters and Rules that we find in the New Testa­ment: our Saviour as he compared the Work of the Gospel, in many parables to a Field and Harvest, so he calls those whom his Father was to send▪ the Labourers in that Harvest, and he left a direction to all his Followers to pray to his Father that he would send Labourers into his Har­vest. 9 S. Matth. 37. Out of which both the Vocation and Divine Mission of the Clergy, and the Prayers of the Church to God for it, that are among us fixed to the Ember Weeks, have been gathered by many pious Wri­ters. In the warnings that our Saviour gives to prepare for his second coming, we find the Characters of good and bad Clergy-men stated,12 St. Lu [...]e 42. in opposition to one a­nother, under the Figure of Stewards, the good are both wise and faithful, they wait for his coming, and in the mean while are dividing to every one of their fellow Servants his portion to eat in due Season, that is their proportion both of the Doctrine and My­steries of the Gospel, according to their [Page 32] several capacities and necessities: but the bad Stewards are those who put the evil day far from them, and say in their heart the Lord declareth his coming, upon which they eat, drink, and are drunken: they in­dulge their sensual Appetites even to a scandalous excess, and as for their fellow Servants, instead of feeding, of instructing, or watching over them, they beat them: they exerci [...]e a Violent and Tyrannical Au­thority over them. Their state in the next World is represented as different as their behaviour in this was, the one shall be exalted from being a Steward to be a Ruler over the Houshold, to be a King and a Priest for ever unto God, whereas the other shall be cut asunder, and shall have his portion with Vnbelievers.

The 10th. of St. Iohn is the place which both Fathers, and more modern Writers have chiefly made use of to shew the diffe­rence between good and bad Pastors. The good Shepherds enter by the Door, and Christ is this Door by whom they must enter; that is from whom they must have their Vocation and Mission: but the Thief and Rober who comes to kill, steal, and de­ [...]roy, climbeth up some other way: whatever he may do in the ritual way for forms sake, he has in his Heart no regard to Iesus [Page 33] Christ, to the Honour of his Person, the Edification of his Church or the Salvati­on of Souls; he intends only to raise and enrich himself: and so he compasses that, he cares not how many Souls perish by his means, or thorough his neglect. The good Shepherd knows his Sheep so well, that he can call them by name, and lead them out and they hear his voice: but the Hireling careth not for the Sheep, he is a Stranger to them, they know not his voice and will not follow him. This is urged by all, who have pressed the obligation of Residence, and of the personal Labours of the Clergy, as a plain divine and indispensable precept: and even in the Council of Trent, tho' by the Practices of the Court of Rome, it was diverted from declaring Residence to be of Divine Right, the decree that was made to enforce it, urges this place to shew the Obligation to it. The good Shepherd feeds the Flock, and looks for Pasture for them; and is ready to give his Life for the Sheep: but the bad Shepherd is represented as a Hireling that careth not for the Flock; that sees the Wolfe coming, and upon that leaveth the Sheep and flieth. This is, it is true a Figure, and therefore I know it is thought an ill way of reasoning to build too much upon figurative Discourses: yet [Page 34] on the other hand our Saviour having de­livered so great a part of his Doctrine in Parables, we ought at least to consider the main Scope of a Parable: and may well build upon that, tho' every particular Cir­cumstance in it cannot bear an Argu­ment.

I shall add but one passage more from the Gospels, which is much made use of, by all that have writ of this ma [...]er. When our Saviour confirmed St. Peter in his Apostleship, from which he had fallen by his denying of him, as in the Charge which he thrice repeated of feeding his Lambs and his Sheep, 12 St. Io. 15. he pursues still the Figure of a Shepherd; so the question that he asked preparatory to it, was Simon lovest thou me more than these, from which they justly gather, that the Love of God, a Zeal for his Honour, and a preferring of that to all other things whatsoever, is a necessary and indispensible qualification for that Holy Imployment; which distin­guishes the true Shepherd from the Hire­ling: and by which only he can be both animated and fortified, to go through with the labours and difficulties, as well as the dangers and sufferings which may ac­company it.

[Page 35]When St. Paul was leaving his last charge with the Bishops that met him at Ephesus, he still makes use of the same Metaphor of Shepherd in those often cited words, Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers, 20 Acts 28. to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own Blood. The words are solemn, and the consideration enforcing them is a mighty one; they import the Obligations of the Clergy, both to an exactness in their own Deportment, and to earnest and constant labours, in imitation of the Apostle, who during the three Years of his stay among them,V. 19. had been serving God with all humi­lity of mind with many tears and temptations, and had not ceased to warn every one both night and day, with tears: and had taught them both publickly, and from House to House:V. 20. Upon which he leaves them, calling them all to witness that he was pure from the Blood of all Men. V. 26. There has been great disputing concerning the Persons to whom these words were addressed; but if all Parties had studied more to follow the Example here proposed, and the Charge that is here given; which are plain and easie to be un­derstood, then to be contending about things that are more doubtful; the good [Page 36] Lives and the faithful Labours of Apostoli­cal Bishops, would have contributed more both to the edifying and healing of the Church, than all their Arguments or Rea­sonings will ever be able to do.

St. Paul reckoning up to the Romans the s [...]veral Obligations of Christians, of all ranks to assiduity and diligence, in their callings and labours, among others he numbers these, [...] Ministers let us wait on our ministring▪ or he that teacheth on teaching, he that ruleth with diligence: In his Epistle to the Corinthians, as he states the Dignity of the Clergy in this, that they ought to be accounted of as the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God. 1 Cor. 4.2. He adds that it is required in Stewards that a Man be found faithful. In that Epistle, he sets down that perpetual Law, which is the Foun­dation of all the Provision that has been made for the Clergy,1 Cor. 9.14. That the Lord hath ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. But if upon that, the Laity have looked on thems [...]lves as bound to appoint so plentiful a Supply, that the Clergy might have whereon to live at their ease and in abundance; then certainly this was intended that they being freed from the troubles and cares of this World, [...]ct [...] 6. [...]. might attend continually on the Ministry of [Page 37] the Word of God and on Prayer. Those who do that Work negligently, provoke the Laity to repent of their bounty and to defraud them of it. For certainly there are no such Enemies to the Patrimony and Rights of the Church, as those who eat the Fat but do not preach the Gospel, nor feed the Flock. Happy on the [...]ther hand are they, to whom that Character, which the Apostle assumes to himself, and to Timothy, 2 Cor. 4.1.2 does belong; Therefore seeing we have re­ceived this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not: but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the Truth, commending our selves to every man's Consci­ence in the sight of God. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, we have the ends of the Institution of all the Ranks of Clergy-men set forth in these words.4 Eph. 11▪ 12.13. He gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evan­gelists, and some Pastors and Teachers: for the perfecting of the Saints▪ for t [...]e Work of the Ministry, for the edifying the Body of Christ: till we all come i [...] the Vnity of the Faith, and of the Knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. In these words we see something that is so vast and [Page 38] noble, so far above those slight and poor performances, in which the far greater part do too easily satisfie themselves; that in charity to them we ought to suppose that they have not reflected sufficiently on the Importance of them. Otherwise they would have in some sort proportioned their labours to those great designs for which they are ordained; and would re­member the Charge given to the Colossians, to say to Archippus, who it seems was re­miss in the discharge of his duty, Take heed to the Ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, [...] Col. 17. that thou fullfil it.

The Epistles to Timothy and Titus are the Foundation of all the Canons of the Church, in these we have the Characters of Bishops, and Deacons, as well as the duties belong­ing to those Functions, so particularly set forth that from the [...]ce alone every one who will weigh them well, may find sufficient Instruction, how he ought to behave himself in the House of God. In these we see what patterns those of the Clergy ought to be in Word (or Doctrine) in Conversation, 1 Tim. 4.12, 13, 14, 15, 16. in Charity, in Spirit, in Faith, and in Purity, they ought to give at­tendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, that is both to the instructing and exhorting of their People. They ought not [Page 39] to neglect that gift that was given to them, by the laying on of hands, they ought to meditate on these things, to give themselves wholly to them, that so their profiting may appear unto all: and to take heed to themselves and their Doctrine; and to continue in them: for in so doing they shall both save themselves and those that hear them. Those that govern the Church are more particularly charged▪ before God, 1 Tim. 5.21.22. the Lord Iesus and the Holy Angels, that they observe these things with­out preferring one before another, doing no­thing by parti [...]lity, by Domestick regards, the considerations of Friendship, Interces­sion, or Importunity: and above all that they lay hand suddenly on no man; to which are added words of great terror, neither be thou partaker of other mens sins: keep thy self pure. Which ought to make great Impression, on all those with whom the Power of Ordination is lodged: since they do plainly import, that such as do ordain any rashly without due enquiry, and a strict examination, entitle them­selves to all the scandal they give; and become partners of their guilt▪ which if well considered, must needs make all such, as are not past feeling, use great care and caution in this sacred Trust. Bishops are the Depositaries of the Faith, which they are to keep pure; and to hand down [Page 40] faithfully according to these words, And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, 2 Tim. [...].2, [...], 4. the same commit thou to faith­ful men who may be able to teach others also: upon this he prepares the Bishop for diffi­culties to endure hardness as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ. And according to that Figure, since those that go to war, do not carry unnecessary burdens with them, which may encumber and retard their march, he adds, no man that warreth en­tangleth himself with the Affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him for a Souldier; upon this it is that all those Canons, which have been made in so many Ages of the Church, against Church-mens medling with secular Affairs, have been founded; than which we find nothing more frequently provided against, both in the Apostolical Canons, in those of An­tioch, in those made by the General Coun­cil of Calcedon, and in divers of the Coun­cils of Carthage: but this abuse had too d [...]ep a root in the nature of man, to be easily cured. St. Paul does also in this place carry on the Metaphor to express the earnestness and indefatigableness of Clergy-mens Zeal, that as Officers in an Army were satisfied with nothing under Victory, which brought them the Honours of a Triumph, so we ought to fight, not [Page 41] only so as to earn our pay, but for Ma­stery to spoil and overcome the Powers of darkness; yet even this must be done law­fully, not by deceiving the People with pious frauds, hoping that our good In­tentions will atone for our taking bad methods:V. 5. War has its Laws as well as Peace, and those who manage this Spiri­tual warfare, ought to keep themselves within the Instructions and Commands that are given them. Then the Apostle changing the Figure from the Souldier to the Workman and Steward, says, study to shew thy self approved unto God (not to seek the vain applauses of men, but to prefer to all other things the witness of a good Conscience,V. 15. and that in simplicity and godly sincerity, he may walk and labour as in the sight of God) a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of Truth: This is according to the Figure of a Steward, giving every one his due portion; and a little after comes a noble Admonition, relating to the meek­ness of the Clergy towards those that di­vide from them:V. 24, 25, 26. The Servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradven­ture God will give them repentance, to the [Page 42] acknowledging the Truth. This is the Pas­sage that was chiefly urged by our Refor­mers against the Persecution that the Roman Clergy did every where set on a­gainst them: The extent of it ought to be well considered, that so it may not be said, that we are only against persecution when it lies on our selves; for if it is a good defence to some, it is as good to o­thers; unless we own that we do not govern our selves by that rule of doing to others that which we would have other [...] do to us. In the next Chapter, we find the right Education of this Bishop, and that which furnishes a Clergy man, to perform all the duties incumbent on him: From a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 2 Tim. 3.15. which are able to make thee wise unto Salva­tion, through faith in Christ Iesus: That is the Old Testament well studied, by one that believed Iesus to be the Messias, and that was led into it by that Faith, did discover to a Man the great Oeconomy of God in the Progress of the Light, which he made shine upon the World by degrees, unto the perfect day of the appearing of the Sun of Righteousness) and to this he adds a noble Character of the inspired Writings: All Scripture is given by inspi­ration of God, V. 16.17. and is profitable for Doctrine, [Page 43] for reproof, for correction, for instructing in righteousness, that the Man of God may be per­fect, throughly furnished unto all good works. The Apostle goes on and gives Timothy the most solemn Charge that can be set out in words; which if understood, as belonging to all Bishops, as the whole Church of God has ever done, must be read by them with trembling.2 Tim. 4.1.2. I charge thee therefore be­fore God, and the Lord Iesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing, and his Kingdom, preach the Word, be In­stant in Season out of Season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine (that is with great gentleness in the manner, and clearness and strength in the matter of their Instructions) and a little after, watch thou in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an Evangelist: V. [...]. make full proof of (or fulfill) thy Ministry: And as a consideration to enforce this the more, he tells what a noble and agreea­ble prospect he had in the View of his approaching dissolution:V. 6. The time of his departing drew nigh, he was ready to be offered up, as a Sacrifice for that Faith which he had so zealously and so success­fully preached: and here we have his two great preparatives for Martyrdom: The one was in looking on his past life [Page 44] and labours:V. 7. I have fought a good Fight, I have finished my Course, I have kept the Faith. The other was in looking forward to the Reward that Crown of Righteousness which was laid up for him, which the Lord the Righteous Iudge would gi [...]e him at that day: V. 8. and not only to him, but also to all those that loved his appearing, and certain­ly more especially to those who not only lov [...]d it themselves, but who laboured so as to dispose others also to love it. To all these considerations, though nothing needed to have been added, to one upon whom they made so strange an impressi­on, as they did upon Timothy, yet one comes after all, which ought to teach us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling since St. Paul tells Timothy that Demas, one of the Companions of his la­bours, had forsaken him, and that which prevailed over him was the Love of this present World. V. 20.

These are the Rules and Charges given by St. Paul to Timothy, and in him to all the Bishops and Pastors that were to come after him in the Church. Some of these are again repeated in his Epistle to Titus, where we have the Characters set out; by which he was to prepare and examine those Elders or Bishops, who [Page 45] were to rule the House of God: that those being well chosen, they might be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince the Gainsayers, 1 Tit. 6. and that he might do his duty with the more advantage; he charges him to shew himself in all things a pattern of go [...]d Works: 2 Tit. 7.8. in Doctrine, shewing uncorrupt­ness, gravity, sincerity; and using such sound Speech as could not be condemned: that so those who were of the contrary Party (the Iudaizers who were studying to corrupt the Christian Religion by making a medly of it and Iudaisme) might have no evil thing to say of him; and after a glorious but short Abstract of the design of their holy Religion; he concludes that part of the Epistle in these words, These things speak and exhort, and rebuke with all authority: to which he adds a Charge, that may seem more proper to be addressed to others, then to himself, let no man despise thee: The same is likewise in his Epistle to Timothy, V. 15. with this Addition, let no man despise thy youth:1 Tim. 4.12. but these words do import that it is in a Bishop's own Power, to procure due Esteem to himself; at least to prevent contempt; since a holy and exemplary Deportment, and faithful and constant labours never fail to do that. In the Conclusion of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Page 46] we find both the Characters of those who had laboured among them, and had ruled them but who were then dead; and also of such as were yet alive.13 Heb. 7. Remember them who had the rule over you; who have spoken to you the Word of God, whose Faith follow, considering the end of their conversation: they had both lived and died, as well as la­boured in such a manner, that the Remem­bring of what had appeared in them, was an effectual means of perswading the He­brews to be steady in the Christian Reli­gion: for certainly, though while a man lives let him be ever so eminent, there is still room for ill-nature and jealousie to misrepresent things, and to suspect that something lies hid under the fairest ap­pearances; which may shew it self in due time; all that goes off, when one has finished his course, so that all appears to be of a piece, and that he has died as he had lived. Then the Argument from his conversation appears in its full strength, without any diminution. But the charge given with relation to those who then had the rule over them is no less remarkable, Obe [...] them that have the rule over you; V. 17. and submit your selves, for they watch for your Souls; as they that must give account: that they may do it with joy and not with grief: for [Page 47] that is unprofitable for you: Here Obedi­ence and Submission is enjoyned, upon the account of their Rulers watching over them, and for them: and therefore those who do not watch like Men that know that they must give account of that Trust, have no reason to expect these from their Peo­ple: Of a piece with this is St. Pauls charge to the Thessalonians, we beseech you to know (or to acknowledge,) them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love, for their works sake: Here both the Submission and Esteem, as well as the acknowledgment that is due to the Clergy, is said to be for their works sake: And therefore such as do not the work and that do not labour and admonish their People, have no just claim to them. There is another expression in the 2d E­pistle to the Thessalonians, that is much urged by those who have writ on this Head, That if any will not work he should not eat, which if it is a Rule binding all Men, seems to lie much heavier on the Clergy.

[Page 48]I shall conclude all that I intend to bring out of the Scripture upon this Argument, with St. Peter's charge to the Elders of the Churches, to which he writ; which is in­deed so full, that though in the Course of the New Testament, it had not lain last, it deserved by the Rules of Method, to be kept last; for the closing and enforcing all that has gone before, and for giving it its full weight. St. Peter descends 1 Epistle ▪ 5 ch▪ 1 ver. to a level with them, calling himself no better than a fellow Elder and a Witness of the suffering of Christ: And also a Partaker of the Glory which was to be revealed. Feed the Flock of God (says he) which is among you, (these words will bear another rendring as much as lieth in you) taking the oversight thereof not by constraint (as forced to it by Rules, Canons, or Laws) but willingly not for filthy [...]ucre (for though God has ordained that such as preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel; yet those who propose that to themselves as the chief Motive in entring in­to Holy Orders, are hereby severe­ly [Page 49] condemned) but of a ready mind, neither as being Lords over God's Heritage (or not using a despotick Authority over their several lots or di­visions) but being examples to the Flock, not tyrannizing it over their People: But acquiring their Authority chiefly by their own exemplary conversati­on. The conclusion of the Charge, is suitable to the solemnity of it in these words: And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall likewise receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away.

With this I make an end of Cita­tions from Scripture: I think it is as plain as words can make any thing, that such as are dedicated to the service of God and of his Church, ought to labour constantly and faithfully: And that in their own Persons. For it is not possible to express a personal Obligation, in terms that are both more strict and more solemn then these are which have been cited, and all the returns of obedience and submission, of esteem and support, being declared to be due to them on the account of their watch­ing [Page 50] over and feeding the Flock of God, those who pretend to these, without considering themselves as under the other Obligations, are guilty of the worst sort of Sacriledge, in devour­ing the things that are Sacred, with­out doing those duties for which these are due, and what right so­ever the Law of the Land may give them to them, yet certainly accor­ding to the Divine Law those who do not wait at the Altar, ought not to be partakers with the Altar: Cor. 9 [...]3, 14. Those who do not minister about holy things, ought not to live of the things of the Temple: Nor ought those who do not preach the Gospel, live of the Gospel. If I had a mind to make a great shew of reading, or to Triumph in my Argument with the Pomp of Quo­tations, it were very easie to bring a Cloud of Witnesses, to confirm the Application that I have made of these passages of Scripture: Indeed all those who have either writ Commentaries on the Scriptures, ancient and mo­dern, or have left Homilies on these subjects, have pressed this matter so much, that every one that has [Page 51] made any progress in Ecclesiastical learning, must know that one might soon stuff a great many Pages with abundance of Quotations out of the Authors, both of the best, and of the worst Ages of the Church: not only the Fathers, but even the School­men, and which is more the Canonist have carried this matter very high, and have even delivered it as a Maxime, that all dispensations that are procured upon undue Pretences, the chief of which they reckon the giving a Man, an easie and large subsistence, are null and void of themselves: And conclude that how strong soever they may be in Law, yet they are nothing in Conscience: And that they do not free a Man from his Obligations to Residence and Labour: And they do generally conclude that he who upon a Dispensa [...]ion, which has been obtained upon Carnal accounts, such as Birth, Rank or great▪ Abilities, (and qualifications are not yet so good, as these) does not Reside, is bound in Conscience to restore the Fruits of a Bene [...]ice which he has thus enjoyed with a bad Conscience without per­forming [Page 52] the duty belonging to it, in his own Person. But though it were very easie to bring out a great deal to this purpose, I will go no further at present upon this Head: The words of God, seem to be so express and positive; that such as do not yield to so undisputable an Authority, will be little moved by all that can be brought out of Authors of a lower Form, against whom it will be easie to muster up many exceptions, if they will not be determined by so many of the Oracles of the living God.

CHAP. IV. Of the Sense of the Primitive Church in this Matter.

I will not enter here into any Histo­rical Account of the Discipline of the Church, during the first and best Ages of Christianity. It is the glory of this Church, that in her disputes of both han [...]s, a [...] well with those of the Church of Rome, as with those that separate from her▪ she has both the Do­ctrine and the C [...]nstitution of the Pri­mitive Church of her side. But this Plea would be more entire and less disputable, if our Consti [...]ution were not only in its main and most essenti­al parts, formed upon that glorious Model; but were also in its Rules and Administrations, made more ex­actly conformable to those best and purest times. I can never forget an advice that was given me above thirty years ago, by one of the worthiest Clergy-men now alive; while I was [Page 54] studying the Controversie relating to the Government of the Church, from the Primitive Times, he desires me to joyn with the more Speculative Dis­coveries▪ that I should make, the Sense that they had of the Obligations of the Clergy, both with relation to their Lives, and to their Labours: And said that the Argument in favour of the Church, how clearly soever made out, would never have its full effect upon the World, till abuses were so far corrected, that we could shew a Primi­tive Spirit in our Administration, as well as a Primitive pattern for our Con­stitution. This made even then, deep Impressions on me, and I thank God the Sense of it has never left me in the whole course of my Studies.

I will not at present enter upon so long and so Invidious a work as the descending into all the particulars, into which this matter might be branched out; either from the Writings of the Fathers, the Decrees of Councils, the Roman Law and the Capitulars, or even from the dreg of all, the Canon Law it self, which though a Collection made in one of the worst Ages, yet carries many rules in it, that would seem excessively severe, even to [Page 55] us, after all our Reformation of Doctrine and Worship. This has been already done with so much exactness, that it will not be necessary to set about it after the Harvest, which was gathered by the learned Bishop of Spalato in the last Book of his great Work: which the Pride and Inconstancy of the Author, had brought under a disesteem, that it no way deserves: For whatever he might be, that work was certainly one of the best productions of that Age. But this de­sign has been prosecuted of late with much more exactness and learning, and with great honesty and fidelity, where the interest of his Church did not force him to use a little Art, by F. Thomasin, who has compared the modern and the ancient Discipline, and has shewed very copiously, by what steps the Change was made; and how abuses crept into the Church. It is a work of great use, to such as desire to understand that matter truly. I will refer the curious to these, and many other lesser Treaties, writ by the Iansenists in France, in which abuses are very honestly complained off, and pro­per Remedies are proposed; which in many places being entertained by Bishops▪ that had a right Sense of the Primitive [Page 56] Rules, have given the Rise to a great Reformation of the French Clergy.

Instead then of any Historical de­duction of these matters, I shall con­tent my self with giving the Sense of two of the Fathers of the Greek Church, and one of t [...]e Latin upon this whole business, of the Obligations of the Clergy. The first is Gregory of Nazianze whose Father ordained him a Presbyter, not­withstanding all his hum [...]le Intercessions to the contrary, according to the custom of the best Men of that Age; who instead of pressing into Orders, or aspiring to them, fled from them, excused them­selves, and judging themselves unwor­thy of so holy a Character and so high a Trust, were not without difficulty prevailed on to submit to that, which in degenerate Ages Men run to as to a subsistance, or the mean of pro­curing it, and seem to have no other Sense of that Sacred Institution, then Mechanicks have of obtaining their Freedom in that Trade or Company in which they have passed their Appren­ticeship. It were indeed happy for the Church, if those who offer themselves to Orders ▪ had but such a Sense of them as Tradesmen have of their Freedom: Who [Page 57] do not pretend to it till they have finished the time prescribed; and are in some sort qualified to set up in it: Whereas, alas! men who neither know the Scriptures, nor the body of Divinity, who have made no progress in their Studies, and can give no tollerable ac­count of that holy Doctrine, in which they desire to be Teachers, do yet with equal degrees of confidence, and impor­tunity, pretend to this Character, and find the way to it too easie, and the access of it too free. But this Holy Father had a very different sense of this matter. He had indeed submitted to his Fathers Authority, he being his Bishop as well as his Father. But immediately after he was ordained, he gives this account of himself in his Apologetical Oration, That he judging he had not that sublimity of Vertue, nor that familiar acquaintance with divine matters, which became Pastors and Teachers; he therefore intending to purifie his own Soul to higher degrees of Vertue, to an Exaltation above sensible Objects, above his Body and above the World, that so he might bring bis mind to a recollected and divine State, and fit his Soul that as [Page 58] a polished mirrour it might carry on it the Impressions of divine Ideas unmixed with the allay of earthly Ob­jects, and might be still casting a bright­ness upon all his Thoughts, did in or­der to the raising himself to that, re­tire to the Wilderness. He had obser­ved that many pressed to handle the holy Mysteries, with unwashed hands, and defiled Souls: And before they were meet to be initiated to the divine Vocation, were crouding about the Al­tar, not to set patterns to others, but designing only a subsistence to them­selves: reckoning that the holy dignity, was not a Trust for which an account was to be given, but a state of Authority and Exemption. They had nei­ther piety nor parts to recommend them, but were the reproaches of the Chri­stian Religion, and were the Pests of the Church: Which infected it faster than any plague could do the Air, since Men did easily run to imitate bad Examples, but were drawn off very hardly by the perfectest patterns to the pra­ctice of Vertue. Vpon which he formed a high Idea of the eminent worth and vertues which became those who governed [Page 59] the Church: And of the great Pro­gress that they ought to be duly making, not contented with low mea­sures of it, as if they were to weigh it critically in nice ballances; and not to rise up to the highest degrees possible in it. Yet even this, was not all: For to govern mankind which was so various, and so uncertain a sort of Crea­ture, seemed to him the highest pitch of knowledge and wisdom, as far above that skill and labour that is necessary to the curing of bodily Diseases as the Soul is superiour to the Body, and yet since so much Study and Observation was necessary to make a Man a skillful Physician, he concluded that much more was necessary for the Spiritual Medicine: The design of which was to give Wings to the Soul, to raise it above the World, and to consecrate it to God, here he runs out into a noble rapture, upon the excellence and sublimity of the Christian Religion, and up­on the art of governing Souls, of the different methods to be taken, according to the diversity of mens capacity and tempers: and of divi­ding the word of God aright, a­mong [Page 60] them. The difficulties of which he prosecutes in a great variety of sublime Expressions and Figures: but concludes lamenting that there was so little order, then observed, that men had scarce passed their Child­hood when, before they understood the Scriptures, not to say before they had washed off the spots and de­filements of their Souls, if they had learned but two or three pious words, which they had got by heart, or had read some of the Psalms of David, and pu [...] on an outward garb that carried an appearance of piety in it, these men were presently pushed on by the Vanity of their minds, to aspire to the Government of the Chur [...]h. To such Persons he addresses himself very Rhetorically and asks them, what they thought of the commonest imployments such as the play­ing on Instruments or of dancing, in comparison with Divine Wisdom: For acquiring the one they know great pains and mu [...]h practice was necessary: could they then imagin that the other should be so easily attained: but he adds that one may as well sow upon Rocks, and [Page 61] talk to the deaf, as hope to work upon Persons, who have not yet got to that degree of Wisdom, of being sensible of their own ignorance. This evil he had often with many tears lamented, but the pride of such men was so great, that nothing under the Authority of a St. Peter or a St. Paul, could work upon them. Up­on this mention of St. Paul, he breaks out into a rapture, upon his labours and sufferings, and the care of all the Churches that lay on him; his becoming all things to all men, his gentleness where that was necessary, and his authority upon other occasions, his zeal, his patience, his con­stancy, and his prudence in full­filling all the parts of his Ministry. Then he cites several of the Passages of the Prophets, particularly those of Ieremy and Ezekiel, Zachary and Malachi, which relate to the cor­ruptions of the Priests and Shepherds of Israel. And shews how applica­ble they were to the Clergy at that time, and that all the woes de­nounced [Page 62] against the Scribes and Pharisees belonged to them, with heavy aggravations. These thoughts possessed him day and night; they did eat out his very strength and sub­stance; they did so afflict and deject him, and gave him so terrible a Prospect of the Iudgments of God, which they were drawing down upon the Church, that he instead of dar­ing to undertake any part of the Go­vernment of it, was only thinking how he should cleanse his own Soul and fly from the wrath, which was to come, and could not think that he was yet while so young, meet to handle the Holy Things. Where he runs out into a new Rapture in mag­nifying the dignity of holy Functi­ons, and upon that says, that tho' he had been dedicated to God from his Mothers Womb, and had renounced the World and all that was charming in it, even Eloquence it self, and had delighted long in the Study of the Scriptures, and had subdued many of his Appe­tites and Passions, yet after all this, in which perhaps he had become a Fool in glorying, he had so high a [Page 63] Nation of the care and government of Souls, that he thought it above his strength; especially in such bad times in which all things were out of order: Facti­ons were formed, and Charity was lost; so that the very Name of a Priest was a Re­proach, as if God had poured out Contempt upon them: and thereby impious Men daily blasphemed his Name. And indeed, all the shew of Religion that remained was in their mutual heats and animosities, concerning some matters of Religion; they condemned and censured one another, they cherished and made use of the worst Men, so they were true to their Party; they concealed their Crimes, nay, they flattered and defended some that should not have been suffered to enter into the Sanctuary: They gave the holy things to Dogs, while they en­quired very narrowly into the failings of those that differed from them, not that they might lament them, but that they might reproach them for them. The same faults which they excused in some, were declaimed against in others: So that the very Name of a good or a bad Man were not now considered, as the Characters of their Lives, but of their be­ing of or against a side. And these abuses were so Vniversal, that they were like Peo­ple like Priest: If those heats had arisen [Page 64] upon the great Heads of Religion, he should have commended the Zeal of those who had contended for the Truth, and should have studied to have followed it. But their di­sputes were about small Matters, and things of no consequence; and yet even these were fought for, under the Glorious Title of the Faith, tho the root of all was Men's pri­vate Animosities: These things had exposed the Christian Religion to the hatred of the Heathen, and had given even the Christians themselves very hard Thoughts of the Cler­gy: This was grown to that height, that they were then acted and represented upon the Stage; and made the Subject of the Peo­ples scorn. So that by their means, the name of God was blasphemed: This was that which gave him much sadder Apprehen­sions, than all that could be feared from that wild Beast, that was then beginning to vex and persecute the Church, (by which pro­bably Iulian is meant,) the comfortable prospect of dying for the name of Christ, made that a Persecution was not so dread­ful a thing, in his account, as the Sins, the Divisions, and Distractions of Christians. This then was the reason that had made him fly to the Wilderness, for the state of the Church had made him despond, and lose all his courage: He had also gone thi­ther, [Page 65] that he might quite break himself to all his Appetites and Passions, and to all the Pleasures and Concerns of this Life, that did darken the shinings of the Divine Image upon his Soul; and the emanations of the Heavenly Light. When he considered the Judgments of God upon bad Priests and many other strict Rules in the old Dispensation, and the great Obligations that lay upon those who were the Priests, of the living God, and that ought before they presumed to offer up other Sacrifices, to begin with the Oblation of themselves to God; he was upon all these Reasons moved to prepare himself, by so long a Retreat.

I have given this long Abstract of his Apologetical Oration, not only to set be­fore my Reader the Sense that he had of the sacred Functions, but likewise to shew what were the Corruptions of that Age, and with how much Freedom this Holy Father laid them open. If there is any occasion for applying any part of this to the present Age, or to any Per­sons in it, I chose rather to offer it in the Words of this great Man, than in any of my own. I wish few were concerned in them; and that such as are, would make a due Application of them to them­selves, [Page 66] and save others the trouble of do­ing it more severely.

I go next to another Father of the Greek Church, S. Chrysostome, whose Books of the Priesthood, have been ever rec­koned among the best pieces of Anti­quity. The Occasion of writing them, was this: He had lived many years in great Friendship with one Basil; at last, they having both dedicated themselves to sacred Studies, the Clergy of Antioch had resolved to lay hold on them, and to use that Holy Violence, which was in those times often done to the best Men, and to force them to enter into Orders. Which when Basil told Chry­sostome, he concealed his own Intentions, but pressed Basil to submit to it, who from that, believing that his Friend was of the same Mind, did not go out of the way, and so he was laid hold on; but Chrysostome had hid himself. Basil, see­ing he could not be found, did all that was possible to excuse himself: but that not being accepted of, he was ordained: Next time that he met his Friend, he ex­postulated severely with him for having forsaken him upon that Occasion: This gave the Occasion to those Books, which are pursued in the way of a Dialogue.

[Page 67]The first Book contains only the pre­paratory Discourses, according to the Method of such Writings. In the 2d. he runs out to shew from our Saviour's Words to St. Peter, Simon lovest thou me? ‘What tender and fervent Love both to Christ and to his Church, a Priest ought to feel in himself before he en­ters upon the feeding those Sheep, which Christ has purchased with his own Blood. To lose the Souls of the Flock first, and then ones own Soul, for his Remissness, was no light matter. To have both the Powers of Darkness, and the Works of the Flesh to fight against, required no ordinary measure both of strength and courage. He pursues the Allegories of a Shepherd and a Phy­sician, to shew by the Parallel of these laid together; the labours and diffi­culties of the Priesthood, especially, when this Authority was to be main­tained only by the strength of Per­swasion; and yet sometimes severe methods must be taken; like Incisions to prevent Gangrenes, or to cut off a Part already corrupted. In the ma­naging this, great Art and Prudence was necessary: a Bishop ought to have a great and generous, a patient and [Page 68] undaunted Mind: Therefore, Chry­sostome says that he found, tho he truly loved his Saviour, yet he was so afraid to offend him, that he durst not undertake a Charge, that he did not yet judge himself quali­fied for. It was not enough that a Man was tolerably well esteemed by others: He ought to examine himself; for that of a Bishop's being well re­ported of, is but one of many Cha­racters, declared necessary by S. Paul. He complains much that those who raised Men to Orders, had more re­gard to rank and wealth, and to much time spent in a vain search into pro­fane Learning (tho Christ chose Fish­er-men and Tent-makers) than to true Worth, and an earnest Zeal for the real good of the Church. In the 3d. Book, he runs out with a great compass on the praises of the Priest­ly Function; he looked upon it as a dignity raised far above all the Honours of this VVorld, and approaching to the Angelical Glory. A Priest ought to aspire to a Purity above that of other Mortals, answering that of An­gels. VVhen a Priest performs the Holy Functions, is sanctifying the Ho­ly [Page 69] Eucharist, and is offering a Cru­cified Christ to the People, his thoughts should carry him Heavenwards, and as it were translate him into those upper Regions. If the Mosaical Priest was to be Holy that offered up Sa­crifices of a lower Order, how much Holier ought the Priests of this Re­ligion to be, to whom Christ has given the Power both of retaining and forgiving of Sins: But if S. Paul, after all his Visions and La­bours, after all his Raptures and Suf­ferings, yet was inwardly burnt up with the concerns of the Church, and laboured with much fear and trembling, how much greater Appre­hensions ought other Persons to have of such a Trust. If it were enough to be called to this Function, and to go thr [...]ugh with the Duties incum­bent on it in some tolerable man­ner, the danger were not great; but when the Duty as well as Dignity, together with the Danger belonging to it, are all laid together, a Man is forced to have other Thoughts of the matter. No Man that knows he is not capable of conducting a Ship, will undertake it, let him be pressed [Page 70] to it never so much: Ambitious Men that loved to set themselves forward, were of all others the most exposed to Temptations: They were apt to be inflamed by the smallest Provo­cations, to be glad at the faults of others, and troubled if they saw any do well; they courted Applause, and aspired to Honour; they fawned on great Persons, and trod on those that were below them; they made base Submissions, undecent Addresses, and often brought Presents to those in Authority; they durst not in any sort reprove them for their Faults, tho they reproached the poor out of mea­sure for their failings. These were not the natural Consequences of the Dignity of the Priesthood; but un­worthy and defiled Persons, who with­out true Merit, had been advanced to it, had brought it under Reproach. There had been no due care used in the choice of Bishops; and by the means of bad choices, the Church was al­most ruined, through the gross Igno­rance and Unworthiness of many in that Post. Certainly, a worthy Priest has no ambitious aspirings: Those who fly to this Dignity from that base Princi­ple, [Page 71] will give a full vent to it, when they have attained it. If Submissions, Flatteries, and Money it self, are ne­cessary, all will be employed: There­fore it was an indispensable Preparation to it, that one should be duly sensible of the greatness of the Trust, and of his own Unfitness for it; that so he might neither vehemently desire it, nor be uneasie if he should happen to be turned out of it. A Man may desire the Office of a Bishop, when he considers it as a VVork of toyl and labour, but nothing is more pestiferous than to de­sire it, because of the Power and Au­thority that accompanies it: Such Per­sons can never have the Courage that ought to shew it self in the Discharge of their Duty, in the reproving of Sin, and venturing on the Indignation of great Men; he confesses he had not yet been able to free his Mind from that Dis­ease, and till he had subdued it, he judged himself bound to fly from all the steps to Preferment; for the nearer he should come to it, he reckoned the appetite to it, would rage the higher within him; whereas, the way to break it quite, was to keep himself at the greatest distance from it: nor had he [Page 72] that vivacity, or lively activity of tem­per, which became this Function; nor that softness and gentleness of mind, that was necessary to prepare him to bear in­juries, to endure contempt, or to treat People with the mildness that Christ has enjoined his followers, which he thought more necessary to a Bishop than all Fastings, or bodily Mortifications whatsoever: And he runs out into a long Digression upon the great Mischiefs that a fretful and spiteful temper did to him that was under the power of it, and to the Church, when a Bishop was soured with it. It will often break out, it will be much observed, and will give great scandal: For as a little Smoke will darken and hide the clearest Object: so if all the rest of a Bishop's Life were brighter than the Beams of the Sun, a little Blemish, a Passion, or Indiscretion, will darken all, and make all the rest be forgotten: Allowances are not made to them, as to other Men; the VVorld expects great things from them, as if they had not Flesh and Blood in them, not a Humane but an Angelical nature; therefore, a Bishop ought by a constant watchfulness, and a perpetual strictness, to be armed with Armour of Proof of [Page 73] all sides, that no wound may hurt him. Stories will be easily believed to his dis­advantage, and his Clergy about him will be ready to find them out, and to spread them abroad. He laies this down for a certain Maxim, That every man knows himself best: and therefore what­soever others might think of him, he who knew well that he had not in him­self those qualifications, that were neces­sary for this Function, ought not to suffer himself to be determined by that. After this he lays open the great Dis­orders, Factions, Partialities, and Ca­lumnies, with which the Popular Ele­ctions were at that time managed: and the general Corruption that had over­run the whole Church; so that the Strictness and Authority, the Gentleness and Prudence, the Courage and Pati­ence, that were necessary to a Bishop were very hard to be found all together. He instances to make out the difficulty of discharging the duty of a Bishop, in that single point, of managing the Widows: who were so medling, so immoral, so factious and so clamorous, that this alone was enough to imploy a Bishop's prudence, and to exercise his patience: from that and another Arti­cle [Page 47] relating to it concerning the Virgins, he goes to consider the Trouble, the Difficulties, and Censures that Bishops were subject to, by the hearing of Causes, that were referred to them: Many pretending they were wronged by their Judgments, made shipwrack of the Faith, in revenge: and they pres­sed so hard upon the Bishops time, that it was not possible for him to content them, and discharge the other parts of his Duty. Then he reckons up the ma­ny Visits that were expected from Bi­shops: the several Civilities they were obliged to, which it was hard to ma­nage so, as not to be either too much or too little in them: Matter of censure would be found in both extreams. Then he reflects on the great temper that ought to be observed in the final sentence of Excommunication; be­tween a gentleness to Vice on the one hand, and the driving men to Despair and Apostasie on the other. And he con­cludes that Book with Reflections on the vast Burthen that follows the care of Souls. In his 4th. Book he runs through a variety of Arts and Professions; and shews how much skill and labour was necessary for every one of them: from whence he con­cludes [Page 75] strongly, that much more was necessary for that which was the most important of all others; so that no consideration whatsoever, should make a man undertake it, if he did not find himself in some sort qualified for it: more particularly he ought to be rea­dy to give an account of his Faith, and to stop the mouths of all gainsaiers, Iews, Gentiles, and Hereticks: in which the Ignorance of many Bishops, carry­ing things from one extream to ano­ther, had given great occasion to Er­rours. A Bishop must understand the stile and phrase of the Scriptures well. From this he runs out into a very No­ble Panegyrick upon St. Paul, in whom a pattern was set to all Bishops. His 5th Book sets out the labour of preach­ing the tentations to Vanity in it; the censures that were apt to be made if there was either too much or too little Art or Eloquence in Sermons: to this he adds the great exactness that a Bishop should use in preserving his Reputation; yet without Vanity: observing a due temper between despising the censures of theMultitude, and the servile courting of applauses: In his Sermons he ought above all things to study to edifie; [Page 76] but not to Flatter his Hearers: or to use vain arts to raise esteem, or admiration from them. Since a Bishop whose mind was not purged from this disease, must go through many tossings and be much disquieted: and upon that he runs out so fully, upon the tentations to desire ap­plause for Eloquence, and a readiness in speaking, that it plainly appears that he felt that to be his own weak side. The 6th Book is chiefly imployed to shew how much a harder thing it was to govern the Church, than to live in a Desart, under the severest mortifications.’

I will go no further in this abstract, I hope I have drawn out enough to give a Curiosity to such as have not yet read those Excellent Books, to do it over and o­ver again. For to any that has a true relish, they can never be too often read: eve­ry reading will afford a fresh pleasure, and new matter of Instruction, and Me­ditation. But I go in the last place to offer St. Ierom's sense in this matter. I shall not bring together, what lies scat­tered through his works, upon this Ar­gument, nor shall I quote what he writ in his Youth upon it, when the natural flame of his temper joyned with the heat of Youth might make him carry his [Page 77] thoughts further, than what humane na­ture could bear: But I shall only give an abstract of that which he writ to Nepotion on this Head, in his old Age, as he says himself: a good part of that Epistle be­ing a reflection upon the different sense that old Age gives of these things, from that which he felt during the ardour of Youth.

He begins with the title Clerk, which signifying a Lot or Portion. ‘Imports ei­ther that the Clergy are God's Portion, or that God is theirs, and that there­fore they ought to possess God, and be possessed of him. He that has this por­tion, must be satisfied with it, and pre­tend to nothing, but having Food and Rayment, be therewith content: and (as men carried their Crosses naked, so) to be ready to carry his. He must not seek the advantages of this world in Christ's wa [...]fare; some Clerks grew richer un­der Christ, who made himself poor, than ever they could have been, if they had continued in the service of the God of this World: So that the Church groaned under the wealth of those, who were Beggars before they forsook the World: Let the Strangers and the Poor be fed at your Tables, says he, [Page 78] and in these you entertain Christ him­self. When you see a trafficking Clerk, who from being Poor grows Rich, and from being mean becoms great, fly from him as from a Plague. The conversa­tions of such men corrupted good minds: They sought after wealth, and loved Company, the publick Places of con­versation, Fairs and Market places: whereas a true Clerk loves silence, and retirement: then he gives him a strong caution against conversing with Women: and in particular against all those mean compliances, which some Clerks used towards rich Women; by which they got not only Presents during their lives, but Legacies by their Wills. That a­buse had grown to such an intolerable excess, that a Law was made excluding Priests from having any benefit by Te­staments: They were the only persons that were put under that incapacity: Heathen Priests were not included in the Law, yet he does not complain of the Law, but of those who had given just occasion for making it. The Laws of Christ had been contemned, so it was necessary to restrain them by humane Laws. It was the Glory of a Bishop to provide for the poor, but it was the [Page 79] Reproach of a Priest to study the en­riching of himself. He reckons up ma­ny Instances of the base and abject Flattery of some Clerks, to gain up­on rich and dying persons, and to get their Estates. Next he exhorts him to the constant and diligent study of the Scriptures; but to be sure to do nothing that should contradict his dis­courses or give occasion to his Hear­ers to answer him thus, Why do not you do as you say? Then he speaks of the Union that ought to be be­tween the Bishop, and his Clergy: the affection on the one side, and the obedience on the other. In Preaching he must not study to draw applauses but Groans from his Hearers. Their Tears was the best sort of commen­dation of a Sermon, in which great care was to be taken to avoid the methods of the Stage, or of common Declamations. Great use was to be made of the Scriptures. The mysteries of our Faith and the Sacraments of our Re­ligion ought to be well explained: Gri­maces and solemn Looks are often made use of to give Weight and Authority to that which has none in it self. He [Page 80] charges him to use a plain simplicity in his Habit, neither shewing too much nicety on the one Hand, that savours of Luxury, nor such a neglect on the other, as might savour of Af­fectation. He recommends particular­ly the Care of the Poor to him. Then he speaks of Clergy-Mens mu­tually preferring one another; con­sidering that there are different Mem­bers in one Body, and that every one has his own Function, and pecu­liar Talent: And that therefore no man ought to over-value his own, or undervalue his Neighbours. A plain Clerk ought not to value him­self upon his Simplicity and Igno­rance, nor ought a learned and elo­quent Man measure his Holiness by his Rhetorick; for indeed of the two, a Holy Simplicity is much more valuable, than Unsanctified Eloquence. He speaks against the Affectation of Magnificence and Riches, in the Worship of God, as things more becoming the Pomp of the Jewish Religion, than the Humility of the Spiritual Doctrine of Christ. He falls next upon the high and sumptuous way of living of some Priests, which they [Page 81] pretended was necessary to procure them the respect that was due to them; and to give them interest and credit: but the World, at least the better part of it, would always value a Priest more for his Holiness, than for his Wealth. He charges him strictly to avoid all the ex­cesses of Wine, and in Opposition to that to fast much, but without Supersti­tion, or a nicety in the choice of such things as he was to live on in the time of fasting. Some shewed a trifling Su­perstition in those Matters, as well as Vanity and Affectation; that was in­deed Scandalous. Plain and simple Fa­sting was despised as not singular nor pompous enough for their Pride. For it seems by what follows, that the Cler­gy was then corrupted with the same dis­orders, with which our Saviour had re­proached the Pharasees, while they did not study inward Purity, so much as outward Appearances; nor the pleasing of God, so much as the praise of Men. But here he stops short, for it seems he went too near the describing some emi­nent Man in that Age; from that he turns to the Government of a Priest's [Page 82] Tongue: He ought neither to detract from any one himself, nor to encourage such as did: The very hearkning to slande [...], was very unbecoming. They ought to visit their People, but not to report in one place, what they observed in another; in that they ought to be both discreet and secret. Hippocrates adjured those that came to study from him, to be secret, grave, and prudent in their whole behaviour; but how much more did this become those, to whom the Care of Souls was trusted. He advises him to visit his People rather in their Afflictions, than in their Pro­sperity; not to go too often to their Feasts, which must needs lessen him that does it too much. He, in the last place, speaks very severely of those who ap­plied the Wealth of the Church to their own private Uses. It was Theft to de­fraud a Friend, but it was Sacrilege to rob the Church. It was a Crime that exceeded the Cruelty of High-way Men, to receive that which belonged indeed to the Poor, and to withdraw any part of it to ones private Occasions. He concludes with this excuse, That he had [Page 83] named no Person, he had not writ to reproach others; but to give them war­ning. And therefore since he had trea­ted of the Vices of the Clergy in gene­ral Terms, if any was offended with him for it, he thereby plainly confessed that he himself was guilty.’

CHAP. V. An Account of some Canons in divers Ages of the Church rela­ting to the Duties and Labours of the Clergy.

I Will go no further, in gathering Quo­tations to shew the sense that the Fathers had in these matters: these are both so full and so express, that I can find none more plain and more forcible. I shall to these add some of the Canons that have been made both in the best and in the worst Ages of the Church, obliging Bishops and other Clerks to Re­sidence and to be contented with one Cure. In that at Sardica that met in the Year 347. consisting of above 350. Bishops two Canons were made, (the 11th and the 12th) against Bishops who without any urgent necessity, or pressing business, [Page 85] should be absent from their Church above three weeks, and thereby grieve the Flock, that was committed to their care: And even this provision was made because Bishops had Estates lying out of their Diocesses; therefore they were allowed to go and look after them, for three weeks, in which time they were to per­form the divine function in the Churches to which those Estates belonged.

Many provisions were also made a­gainst such as went to Court, unless they were called by the Emperors, or went by a Deputation from the Church upon a publick account. There is not any one thing more frequently pro­vided against, than that any of the Clergy should leave their Church, and go to any other Church, or live any where else without the Bishops leave and consent: nor is there any thing clearer from all the Canons of the first Ages, than that they considered the Clergy of every Church as a body of men dedicated to its service, that lived upon the Oblations of the Faithful, and that was to labour in the several parts of the Ecclesiastical Ministry, as they should be ordered by the Bishop.

[Page 86]In the 4th General Council at Calce­don Pluralities, do first appear: for they are mentioned and condemned in the 10th Canon, which runs thus, No Clerk shall at the same time belong to two Chur­ches; to wit, to that in which he was was first ordained, and that to which as being the greater, he has gone, out of a desire of vain glory; for such as do so, ought to be sent back to that Church in which they were at first ordained, and to serve there only; but if any has been translated from one Church to another, he shall receive nothing out of his former Church; nor out of any Chapel or Alms-house be­longing to it: and such as shall trans­gress this definition of this General Coun­cil are condemned by it, to be degraded. I go next to a worse Scene of the Church to see what provisions were made in this matter about the 8th Century, both in the East and in the West: The worse that those Ages and Councils were, it makes the Argument the stronger, since even bad men in bad times, could not justifie or suffer such an abuse.

In the year 787. the Second Council of Nice was held that setled the wor­ship of Images. The 15 Canon of it runs [Page 87] thus. ‘No Clerk shall from henceforth be reckoned in two Churches, (for eve­ry Church had a Catalogue of its Cler­gy, by which the dividends were made) for this is the Character of Trafficking, and Covetousness, and wholly estranged from the Ecclesiastical Custom. We have heard from our Saviour's own words, that no man can serve two Ma­sters: for he will either hate the one or love the other, or cleave to the one and despise the other: Let every one therefore according to the Apostles words, con­tinue in the Vocation in which he is cal­led, and serve in one Church: For those things which filthy Lucre has brought into Church matters are con­trary to God. There is a variety of im­ployments, for acquiring the necessary supplies of this life: Let every one that pleases, make use of these, for furni­shing himself: For the Apostle saies these hands Ministred to my necessities, and to those that were with me. This shall be the rule in this Town, which is guarded by God, but in remote Vil­lages an Indulgence may be granted by reason of the want of men.’ It is upon this that the Canonists do found the [Page 88] first of the two reasons, for which only they allow that a Dispensation for hold­ing two Benefices may be lawful, one is, the want of fit and sufficient men for the service of the Church. The foun­dation of the other will be found in the Canon, which I shall next set down.

It is the 49 Canon of the sixth Coun­cil at Paris, under Lewis the Good, in the Year 829. this Council came after a great many, that had been held by Charles the Great, and his Son for purging out abuses, and for restraining the Primitive Discipline. These Councils sat at Frank­fort, Ments, Aken, Rheims, Chalons, Tours, Arles, and this of Paris was the last that was held upon that design. In these, all the Primitive Canons relating to the Lives and Labours, and the government of the Clergy, were renewed. Among others is that of Calcedon formerly men­tioned: but it seems there was no occa­sion given to make a special one against Pluralities, before this held at Paris, which consisted of four Provinces of France, Rheims, Sens, Tours, and Rouen. The Canon runs thus: As it becomes e­very City to have its proper Bishop; so it [Page 89] is also becoming and necessary that every Church dedicated to God, should have, its proper Priest. Yet Covetousness which is Ido­latry (of which we are much ashamed) has so got hold of some Priests and caught them captives in its Fetters, that they, blinded with i [...], know neither whither they go nor what they ought to be or do; so that they being kindled with the fire of Co­vetousness, and forgetful of the Priestly Dignity, neglecting the care of those Church­es, to which they were promoted, do by some presents given or promised, procure other Churches not only from Clerks, but from Lay-men, in which they do against Law undertake to perform the Ministry of Christ. It is not known whether their Bishops are consulted in this matter, or not; if they are, without doubt their Bi­shops become partakers of their sin: but if they presume to do it without consulting them, yet it is to be imputed to the Bi­shops negligence. There is scarce a Priest to be found who warreth worthily, and di­ligently in that Church in which he is dedicated, to the Divine Service: but how much less will he be able to do that worthily in two, three or more Churches? This practice brings a reproach on the Chri­stian [Page 90] Religion, and a confusion on the Priestly Order. The Covetousness of the Clergy is censured by their people; the worship of God is not performed in places consecrated to him; and as was obser­ved in the former Chapters, the Souls of the people are thereby much endangered· Wherefore we do all unanimously appoint, that no Bishop suffer this to be done in his Pa­rish (or Diocess, these words being u­sed promiscuously) any more, and we Decree, that every Church that has a Congregation belonging to it, and has means by which it may subsist, shall have its proper Priest: for if it has a Congregation but has not Means by which it may subsist, that matter is left to the Bishop, to consider whether it can or ought to be supported or not. But it is specially recommended to their care to see that under this pretence, no Priest may out of Covetousness hold two or three Churches, in which he cannot serve, nor perform the worship of God. The last provisions in this Canon are the grounds upon which the Canonists found the se­cond just cause of dispensing with Plu­ralities, which is when a Church is so poor, that the Profits which arise out of [Page 91] it cannot afford a competent mainte­nance to a Clark: but then the que­stion arises what is a Competent Main­tenance: this, they do all bring very low, to that which can just maintain him: and they have so clogged it, that no pretence should be given by so ge­neral a word, to Covetousness, Voluptu­ousness, or Ambition. And indeed while we have so many poor Churches a­mong us, instead of restraining such Pluralities, it were rather to be wish­ed that it were made easier than by Law it is at present; either to unite them together, or to make one man ca­pable of serving two Churches, when both Benefices make but a tolerable subsistance, rather than to be forced to have a greater number of Clerks, than can be decently maintained; since it is certain, that it is more for the Interest of Religion and for the good of Souls, to have one worthy man serving two Churches, and dividing himself between them; than to have Clerks for many Benefices, whose scandalous provisions, make too many scandalous incumbents, which is one of the greatest Diseases and Miseries of this Church.

[Page 92]But a due care in this matter has no relation to the accumulation of Livings, at great distances, (every one of which can well support an Incumbent) up­on the same Person merely for the making of a Family, for the support­ing of Luxury or Vanity, or for other base and Covetous designs. But I go next to two of the worst Councils that ever carried the name of General ones, the third and the fourth of the Lateran that we may see what was the sense of the Twefth and Thirteenth Century in this matter; notwithstanding the Corruption of those Ages. The Thir­teenth Canon of the Third Lateran Coun­cil, runs thus. ‘Forasmuch, as some whose Covetousness has no bounds, en­deavour to procure to themselves divers Ecclesiastical Dignities, and several Pa­rish Churches, against the Provisions of the Holy Canons; by which means, tho they are scarce able to perform the Of­fice of one, they do claim the Provi­sions due to many: We do severely re­quire, that this may not be done for the future: And therefore, when any Church or Ecclesiastical Ministry is to be given, let such a one be sought out [Page 93] for it, as shall reside upon the place, and shall be able to discharge the Care in his own Person: If otherwise, he who receives any such benefice, contrary to the Canons, shall lose it, and he who gave it shall likewise lose his right of Patronage.’ This Canon not being found effectual to cure so great an abuse. The Twenty Ninth Canon of the Fourth Coun­cel in the Lateran, was penned in these Words. ‘It was with great Care forbid­den in the Council of the Lateran, that any one should have divers Ec­clesiastical Dignities, and more Parish Churches than one, which is contrary to the Holy Canons. Otherwise, he that took them should lose them, and he that gave them should lose the right of giving them: But by reason of some Mens Presumption and Covetousness, that Decree has had little or no effect hitherto; we therefore desiring to make a more evident and express Provision against these abuses, do appoint that whosoever shall receive any Benefice, to which a Care of Souls is annexed, shall thereupon by Law be deprived of any other such Benefice, that he for­merly had; and if he endeavours still [Page 94] to hold it, he shall lose the other like­wise; and he to whom the right of the Patronage of his first Benefice did be­long, is empowered to bestow it upon his accepting another; and if he delays the bestowing it, above Three months, not only shall his right devolve to another, according to the Decree of the Council in the Lateran, but he shall be obliged to restore to the Church, to which the Benefice belongs, all that which he him­self [...]eceived during the vacancy. This we do likewise Decree as to Personages; and do further appoint that no Man shall presume to hold more Dignities or Parsonages than one in the same Church, even though they have no Cure of Souls annexed to them. Provided always that Dispensations may be grant­ed by the Apostolical See, to Persons of high Birth, or eminently learned (sub­limes & literatas personas) or digni­fied in Universities, for so the word lite­rati was understood, who upon occa­sion may be honoured, with greater Benefices.’ It was by this last Proviso, that this as well as all other Canons, made against these Abuses became quite inef­fectual; for this had no other effect, but [Page 95] the obliging People to go to Rome for Dispensations; so that this Canon in­stead of reforming the Abuse, did re­ally establish it, for the Qualifications here mentioned were so far stretched, that any Person that had obtained a Degree in any University, came with­in the Character of lettered or learned, and all those that were in any depen­dance upon great Men, came likewise within the other Qualification of high Rank and Birth.

This was the Practice among us, du­ring the Reign of Henry the 8th. and he when he was beginning to threaten the See of Rome, in the matter of his Divorce, got that Act to be passed, which has been the occasion of so much Scandal and Disorder in this Church. It seems to one that considers it well, that the Clauses which qualifie Pluralities were grafted upon another Bill against Spiritual Persons taking Estates to Farm, with which that Act begins: And that in the carrying that on, such a temper shewed it self, that the other was added to it. It contained indeed a Limitation of the Papal Authority, but so many Provisions were made, that the Nobility, [Page 96] Clergy, and the more eminent of the Gentry, Knights in particular, were so taken Care of, that it could meet with no gr [...]at Oppo [...]ition in the Parliament; but from the state of that Time, and from several Clauses in the Act it self, it appears, it was only intended to be a Provisional Act; tho it is conceived in the Style of a perpetual Law. By it then, and by it only (for I have not been able to find that any such Act ever passed in any Kingdom or State in Chri­stendom, many having been made plainly to the contrary in France, declaring the Obligation to Residence to be of Divine Right) were the Abuses, that had arisen out of the Canon of one of the worst Councils that ever was, authorised and settled among us; as far as a Law of the Land can settle them. But after all, it is to be conside­red that a Law does indeed change the Legal and Political Nature of things, it gives a Title to a Free-hold and Pro­perty: But no Humane Law can change the Moral or Divine Laws, and cancel their Authority. If a false Re­ligion is settled by Law, it becomes in­deed the legal Religion; but is not a [Page 97] whit the truer for that. And there­fore, if the Laws of the Gospel oblige Clerks to Personal Labour, as was formerly made out; An Act of Parlia­ment may indeed qualifie a Man, in Law, to enjoy the Benefice, whether he labours in it or not, but it can never dis [...]olve his Obligation to Residence and Personal Labour.

But to bring this Chapter to an end, I shall only add Three Decrees that were made by the Council of Trent, in this matter, that so it may appear what Provisions they made against Abuses, which are still supported by Laws a­mong us: A part of the 1st: Chap. of Reformation that past in the Sixth Session, runs thus: ‘This Synod ad­monishes all that are set over any Cathedral Churches, by what Title so­ever, that they taking heed to them­selves, and to all the Flock, over which the Holy Ghost has set them, to Govern the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own Blood, do watch and labour and fullfil their Ministry, as the Apostle has com­manded: And they must know that they cannot do this, if as Hirelings [Page 98] they forsake the Flock committed to them, and do not watch over those Sheep, whose Blood will be required at their Hands, in the last Day. Since it is certain that no excuse will be received, if the Wolfe devours the Sheep, when the Shepherd does not look after them. Yet since to our great Grief it is found, that some at this time neglect the Salvation of their own Souls, and preferring Earthy things to Heaven­ly, are still about Courts, and forsa­king the Fold, and the Care of the Sheep trusted to them, do give them­selves wholly to Earthly and Temporal Cares; therefore all the Ancient Ca­nons, which by the Iniquity of Times, and the Corruptions of Men were fal­len into desuetude, are renewed against Non-residents.’ To which, several com­pulsory Clauses are added, which are indeed slight ones, because the Execu­tion of them was intirely put in the Pope's Power, and the Punishment did only lie, if a Bishop was absent Six Months in a Year.

This Decree did not satisfie those who moved for a Reformation; so a fuller one was made in the 23d. Session, 1st. Chap. [Page 99] in these Words: ‘Whereas, by the Law of God, all those to whom the Care of Souls is committed, are commanded to know their Sheep, to offer Sacri­fice for them, to feed them by the Preaching of the Word of God, the Administration of the Sacraments, and by the Example of a good Life, to have a tender Care of the poor, and all other miserable Persons, and to lay themselves out upon all the other Functions of the Pastoral Care; which cannot be performed by those, who do not watch over, nor are present with their Flock: Therefore this Sy­nod does admonish and exhort them, that they remembring the Divine Pre­cepts, and being made an Example to their Flock, may feed and govern them in Righteousness and Truth. Upon this they declare that all Bishops, even Cardinals themselves, are obliged to Personal Residence, in their Church and Diocess, and there to discharge their Duty: Unless upon some special Provisions.’ By which indeed a Door is opened to as many Corruptions as the Court of Rome thinks fit to dispense with. Yet without this, none may [Page 100] be absent above two, or at most, three Months, in the whole Year; and even that must be upon a just reason, and without any prejudice to the Flock; ‘and they leave this upon the Conscien­ces of such as withdraw for so long a time, which they hope will be Reli­gious and Tender in this matter, since all Hearts are known to God, and it is no small Sin to do his Work negligently.’ They declare the breaking this Decree to be a Mortal Sin, and that such as are guilty of it, cannot with a good Con­science enjoy the mean Profits, during such their Absence; but are bound to lay them out on the Fabrick, or give them to the Poor: and all these Provisi­ons and Punishments, they do also make against the inferior Clergy, that enjoyed any Benefice, to which the Cure of Souls was annexed, and the execution of that, is put in the Bishop's Hands, who is requi­red not to dispense with their Residence, unless upon a very weighty occasion, above two Months; and in this they give the Bishop so full an Authority, that no Appeal or Prohibition was to lie against his Sentence, upon non-Residents, even in the Court of Rome. In these [Page 101] Decrees, tho the Papal Party hindred a formal Declaration of the Obligation to Residence, by Divine Right, that so room might still be left for the Dispensing Pow­er; yet they went very near it, they ap­plied Passages of Scripture to it, and laid the charge of mortal Sin upon it.

In the last place, I shall set down the Decree that was made in the 24th. Ses­sion, Chap. 17. against Pluralities, in these Words: ‘Whereas the Ecclesiasti­cal Order is perverted, when one Clerk has the Offices of many committed to him, it was therefore well provided by the Holy Canons, that no Man should be put in two Churches. But many led by their depraved Covetousness, de­ceiving themselves, but not God, are not ashamed to elude those good Con­stitutions, by several Artifices, and ob­tain more Benefices than one at the same time: Therefore the Synod being desirous to restore a proper Discipline for the Government of Churches, does, by this Decree, by which all Persons, of what Rank soever, even Cardinals themselves, shall be bound; appoint, that for the future, one Man shall be capable of receiving only one Ecclesi­astical [Page 101] Benefice. But if that is not suf­ficient for the decent maintenance of him that has it, then it shall be lawful to give him another simple Benefice, pro­vided that both Benefices do not require Personal Residence. This Rule must be applied not only to Cathedrals, but to all other Benefices whether Secular, Re­gular, or such as are held by Commen­dam, or of what sort or order soever they may be. And as for such as do at present possess either more Parish-Churches than one, or one Cathedral, and another Parish-Church, they shall be forced notwithstanding of any Di­spensations or Unions that may have been granted them, for term of Life, to resign within the space of Six Months, all that they do now hold, except one Cathedral, or one Parochial Church; otherwise, all their Benefices, whether Parochial, or others, shall be by Law esteemed void; and as such they shall be disposed of to others. Nor may those who [...]ormerly enjoyed them, receive the mean Profits, after the term of Six Months, with a good Conscience. But the Synod wishes that some due Provi­s [...]on might be made, such as the Pope [Page 103] shall think fit, for the necessities of those who are hereby obliged to Re­sign.’

These were the decrees that were made by that pretended general Council: And wheresoever that Council is received, they are so seldom dispensed with, that the Scandal of Non-Residence, or Plura­lity, does no more cry in that Church. In France, tho that Council is not there received, yet such regard is had to Primitive Rules, that it is not heard of among them. Such Examples are to us Reproaches indeed: And that of the worst sort, when the Argument from the neglect of the Pastoral Care, which gave so great an Advantage at first to the Re­formers, and turned the Hearts of the World so much from their Careless Pa­stors to those who shewed more Zeal and Concern for them, is now against us, and lies the other way. If the Nature of Man is so made, that it is not possible, but that Offences must come, yet, woe be to him, by whom they come.

CHAP. VI. Of the declared Sense and Rules of the Church of England in this matter.

WHatsoever may be the practice of any among us, and what­soever may be the force of some Laws that were made in bad times, and per­haps upon bad ends, yet we are sure the Sense of our Church is very different; She intended to raise the obligation of the Pastoral Care higher than it was before: and has laid out this matter more fully and more strictly, than any Church ever did, in any Age; as far at least as my Enquiries can carry me. The truest Indication of the Sense of a Church is to be taken from her Lan­guage, in her Publick Offices: This is that which she speaks the most fre­quently, [Page 105] and the most publickly: even the Articles of Doctrine are not so much read and so often heard, as her Litur­gies are: and as this way of Reasoning has been of late made use of with great advantage, against the Church of Rome, to make her accountable, for all her Publick Offices in their plain and literal meaning; so I will make use of it on this occasion: It is the stronger in our case, whose Offices being in a Tongue understood by the people, the Argument from them does more evidently conclude here.

In general then this is to be obser­ved, that no Church before ours, at the Reformation, took a formal Sponsion at the Altar, from such as were ordain­ed Deacons and Priests. That was in­deed always demanded of Bishops, but neither in the Roman nor Greek Ponti­fical, do we find any such solemn Vows and Promises demanded or made by Priests or Deacons, nor does any print of this appear in the Constitutions, the pretended Areopagite ▪ or the antient Ca­nons of the Church. Bishops were asked many questions, as appears by the first Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage. [Page 106] They were required to profess their Faith, and to promise to obey the Ca­nons, which is still observed in the Greek Church. The questions are more express in the Roman Pontifical, and the first of these demands a promise that they will instruct their people in the Christian Doctrine, according to the Holy Scriptures: which was the Foundation up­on which our Bishops justified the Reformation; Since the first and chief of all their Vowes binding them to this, it was to take place of all others; and if any other parts of those Spon­sions, contradicted this, such as their Obedience and Adherence to the See of Rome, they said that these were to be li­mited by this.

All the account I can give of this general practice of the Church in de­manding Promises only of Bishops, and not of the other Orders is this, that they considered the Government of the Priests and Deacons, as a thing that was so entirely in the Bishop, as it was in­deed by the first Constitution, that it was not thought necessary to bind them to their Duty by any Publick Vowes or Promises (though it is very [Page 107] probable that the Bishops might take private engagements of them, before they ordained them) it being in the Bi­shop's power to Restrain and Censure them in a very Absolute and Summary way. But the case was quite different in Bishops, who were all equal by their Rank and Order: None having any Authority over them, by any Divine Law or the Rules of the Gospel: the power of Primates, and Metropolitans having arisen out of Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws, and not being equally great in all Countries and Provinces: and therefore it was more necessary to proceed with greater caution, and to demand a further security f [...]m them.

But the new face of the Constituti­on of the Church, by which Priests were not under so absolute a subje­ction to their Bishops, as they had been at first, which was occasioned partly, by the Tyranny of some Bishops, to which bounds were set by Laws and Canons, partly by their having a speci­al Propety and Benefice of their own, and so not being maintained by a Dividend out of the common-stock of the Church [Page 108] as at first; had so altered the state of things, that indeed no part of the E­piscopacy was left entrirely in the Bi­shop's hands, but the power of Ordina­tion. This is still free and unrestrained: no Writs, nor Prohibitions from Civil Courts; and no Appeals have clogged or fettered this, as they have done all the other parts of their Authority. Therefore our Reformers observing all Office of Ordination, and they made both the Charge that is given, and the Promises that are to be taken, to be very express and solemne, that so both the Ordain­ers and the Ordained might be rightly instructed in their Duty and struck with the awe and dread, that they ought to be under in so holy and so impor­tant a performance: and though all mankind does easily enough agree in this, That Promises ought to be Reli­giously observed, which men make to one another, how apt soever they may be to break them; yet to make the sense of these Promises go deeper, they are ordered to be made at the Altar, and in the nature of a Stipulation or Co­venant, the Church conferring Orders, [Page 109] or indeed rather, Christ by the Mini­nestry of the Officers that he has con­stituted, conferring them upon those Promises that are first made. The Forms of Ordination in the Greek Church, which we have reason to believe are less changed, and more conform to the Primitive pattenrs, than those used by the Latins, do plainly import that the Church only declared the Divine Vo­cation. The Grace of God, that perfects the feeble, and heals the weak, promotes this man to be a Deacon, a Priest or a Bishop: Where nothing is expressed as conferred but only as declared, so our Church by making our Saviour's words, the form of Ordination, must be con­strued to intend, by that that it is Christ only that sends, and that the Bishops are only his Ministers to pronounce his Mission; otherwise it is not so easie to justifie the use of this Form, Re­ceive the Holy Ghost: which as it was not used in the Primitive Church nor by the Roman, till within these five Hundred Years, so in that Church, it is not the Form of Ordination but a Benediction given by the Bishop singly, after the Orders are given by the Bi­shop [Page 110] and the other Priests joyning with him. For this is done by him alone as the final consummation of the Acti­on. But our using this as the form of Ordination shews, that we consider our selves only as the Instruments that speak in Christ's Name and Words: Insinuating thereby that he only Or­dains. Pursuant to this in the Ordain­ing of Priests, the questions are put in the name of God and of his Church. Which makes the answers to them to be of the nature of Vows and Oaths. So that if men do make conscience of any thing, and if it is possible to strike terrour into them, the Forms of our Ordinations are the most effectually contrived for that end that could have been framed.

The first question that is put in the Office of Deacons, is, Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office, to serve God for the promoting of his Glory, and the edifying of his people? To which he is to answer I trust so. This is put only in this Office, and not repeated after­wards: it being justly supposed that where one has had this motion, all the [Page 111] other Orders may be in time conferred pursuant to it; but this is the first step, by which a Man dedicates him­self to the Service of God; and therefore it ought not to be made by any, that has not this Divine Voca­tion. Certainly, the Answer that is made to this, ought to be well consi­dered; for if any says, I trust so, that yet knows nothing of any such motion, and can give no account of it, he lies to the Holy Ghost; and makes his first approach to the Altar, with a lie in his Mouth; and that not to Men, but to God; and how can one expect to be received by God, or be sent and sealed by him, that dares do a thing of so crying a Nature, as to pretend that he trusts he has this motion, who knows that he has it not, who has made no Reflections on it, and when asked, what he means by it, can say nothing concerning it, and yet he dares venture to come and say it to God and his Church: If a Man pre­tends a Commission from a Prince, or indeed from any Person, and acts in his Name upon it, the Law will fall on him, and punish him, and shall [Page 112] the Great God of Heaven and Earth, be thus vouched, and his motion he pretended to, by those whom he has neither called nor sent? and shall not he reckon with those who dare to run without his Mission, pretend­ing that they trust they have it, when perhaps they understand not the Importance of it, nay, and per­haps some laugh at it, as an Enthu­siastical Question, who, yet will go through with the Office? They come to Christ for the Loaves: They hope to live by the Altar, and the Gospel, how little soever they serve at the one, or Preach the other; therefore they will say any thing, that is ne­cessary for qualifying them to this whether true or false. It cannot be denied, but that this Question car­ries a sound in it, that seems a little too high, and that may rather raise Scruples, as importing somewhat that is not ordinary, and that seems to savour of Enthusiasme; and therefore it was put here, without doubt, to give great caution to such as come to the Service of the Church; many may be able to answer it truly ac­cording [Page 113] to the Sense of the Church, who may yet have great doubting in themselves concerning it; but e­very Man that has it not, must needs know that he has it not.

The true meaning of it must be resolved thus; the Motives that ought to determine a Man, to dedi­cate himself to the Ministring in the Church, are a Zeal for promoting the Glory of God, for raising the Honour of the Christian Religion, for the making it to be better under­stood, and more submitted to. He that loves it, and feels the excellency of it in himself, that has a due Sense of God's goodness in it to Mankind, and that is entirely possessed with that, will feel a Zeal within him­self, for communicating that to others; that so the only true God, and Iesus Christ whom he has sent, may be more universally glorified, and served by his Creatures: And when to this he has added a concern of the Souls for Men, a Tenderness for them, a Zeal to res­cue them from endless Misery, and a desire to put them in the way to everlasting Happiness, and from [Page 114] these Motives feels in himself a de­sire to dedicate his Life and Labours to those ends; and in order to them studies to understand the Scriptures, and more particularly, the New Testa­ment, that from thence he may form a true Notion of this Holy Religion, and so be an able Minister of it; this Man, and only this Man, so moved and so qualified, can in Truth, and with a good Conscience answer, that he trusts he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost. And every one that ventures on the saying it, without this, is a Sacrilegi­ous profaner of the Name of God, and of his Holy Spirit. He breaks in upon his Church, not to feed it but to rob it: And it is certain that he who begins with a Lie, may be sent by the Father of Lies, but he cannot be thought to enter in, by the Door, who prevaricates in the first word that he says in order to his Admit­tance.

But if the Office of Deacons offers no other particular matter of Reflection, the Office of Ordaining Priests, has a great deal; indeed the whole of it, is cal­culated to the best Notions of the [Page 115] best Times. In the Charge that is given, the Figures of Watchmen, Shep­herds, and Stewards, are pursued, and the places of Scripture relating to these are applied to them: They are required to have always printed in their Remembrance; How great a Treasure was committed to their Charge: The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse and Body. Then the greatness of the fault of their Neg­ligence, and the horrible Punishment that will follow upon it, is set before them, in case the Church or any Mem­ber of it take any hurt or hinderance by reason of it: They are charged ne­ver to cease their Labour, Care and Diligence, till they have done all that lieth in them, according to their boun­den Duty, towards all such, as are, or shall be committed to their Care, to bring them to a Ripeness and Perfect­ness of Age in Christ. They are a­gain urged to consider with what care and study, they ought to apply them­selves to this; to pray earnestly for Gods Holy Spirit, and to be studious in Reading and Learning of the Scrip­tures; and to forsake and set aside, [Page 116] as much as they may, all Worldly Cares and Studies. It is hoped that they have clearly determined by Gods Grace, to give themselves wholly to this Vo­cation: and as much as lieth in them to apply themselves wholly to this one thing; and to draw all their Cares and Studies this way, and to this end; and that by their daily reading and weighing the Scriptures, they will study to wax riper and stronger in their Mi­nistry. These are some of the words of the preparatory Charge given by the Bishop, when he enters upon this Office; before he puts the questions that follow to those, who are to be ordained. What greater force or ener­gy could be put in Words, than is in these? Or where could any be found that are more weighty and more express; to shew the intire Dedication of the whole Man, of his Time and Labours, and the separating himself from all other Cares to follow this one thing with all possible Application and Zeal? There is nothing in any Office, Ancient or Modern, that I ever saw which is of this force, so serious and so solemn; and it plainly [Page 117] implies not only the Sense of the Church upon this whole matter, but likewise their design who framed it, to oblige Priests, notwithstanding any Relaxa­tion that the Laws of the Land had still favoured, by the firmest and sacredst bonds possible to attend up­on their Flocks; and to do their Du­ties to them▪ For a bare Residence, without labouring, is but a mock Residence, since the obligation to it, is in order to a further end; that they may watch over, and feed their Flock, and not enjoy their Benefices only as Farms, or as Livings, according to the gross, but common abuse of our Language, by which the Names of Cures, Parishes, or Benefices, which are the Ecclesiastical Names, are now swallowed up into that of Living, which carries a carnal Idea in the very sound of the word, and I doubt a more carnal effect on the minds of both Cler­gy and Laity.

What ever we may be, our Church is free of this Reproach: since this Charge carries their Duty as high, and as home, as any thing that can be laid in Words. And it is further to [Page 118] be considered, that this is not of the Nature of a private Exhortation, in which a Man of lively thoughts, and a warm fancy, may be apt to carry a point too high: It is the constant and uniform voice of the Church. Nor is it of the nature of a Charge, which is only the Sense of him that gives it, and to which the Person to whom it is given, is only Passive: He hears it, but cannot be bound by another Man's Thoughts or Words, further than as the Nature of things binds him. But Or­ders are of the nature of a Covenant between Christ and the Clerks; in which so many Privileges and Powers are granted on the one part, and so many Duties and Offices are promised on the other; and this Charge being the Pre­face to it, it is stipulatory. It declares the whole Covenant of both sides; and so those who receive Orders upon it, are as much bound by every part of it, and it becomes as much their own Act, as if they had pronounced or pro­mised it all, in the most formal Words that could be, and indeed the Answers and Promises that are afterwards made, are only the Application of this, to [Page 119] the particular Persons, for giving them a plainer and livelier Sense of their Ob­ligation, which yet, in it self, was as intire and strong, whether they had made any promise by Words of their own or not.

But to put the matter out of doubt, let us look a little further into the Of­fice, to the Promises that they make, with relation to their Flock, even to such as are, or shall be committed to their Charge. They promise, That by the Help of the Lord they will give their Faithful Diligence, always so to Minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Realm hath received the same, according to the Commandment of God; so that they may teach the People committed to their Care and Charge with all Diligence to keep and observe the same. This does plainly bind to personal Labour, the mention that is made of what this Realm has received, being limited by what follows according to the command­ment of God, shews that by this is meant the Reformation of the Doctrine and Worship that was then received, [Page 120] and established by Law; by which these general Words, The Doctrine and Sacra­ments and Discipline of Christ, to which all Parties pretend, are determined to our Constitution; so that tho there were some Disorders among us, not yet provided against by the Laws of the Land; this does not secure a reserve for them. This is so slight a remark, that I should be ashamed to have made it, if it had not been urged to my self, slight as it is, to justifie in point of Conscience, the claiming all such Privileges, or Qualifications, as are still allowed by Law. But I go on to the other Promi­ses: The Clerk says he will, by the help of God, be ready with all Faithful Dili­gence, to banish and drive away all erro­neous and strange Doctrines, contrary to God's Word, and to use both publick and private Admonitions, and Exhortations, as well to the sick, as to the whole, within his Cure, as need shall require, and as occasion shall be given: This is as plain­ly personal, and constant, as Words can make any thing. And in this is expres­sed the so much neglected, but so ne­cessary Duty, which Incumbents owe their Flock, in a private way, visiting, [Page 121] instructing, and admonishing them, which is one of the most useful, and important parts of their Duty, how generally soever it may be disused or forgotten: These being the chief instan­ces and acts of watching over and feed­ing the Flock, that is committed to their Care. In the next place they promise, That they will be diligent in Prayers, and in reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in such Studies as help to the Knowledge of the same, laying aside, the study of the World and the Flesh: This still carries on that great Notion of the Pastoral Care, which runs through this whole Office; that it is to be a Man's intire Business, and is to possess both his thoughts and his time. They do further promise That they will maintain, and set forward, as much as lieth in them, quietness, peace, and love among all Christian People, and especially among them, that are, or shall be committed to their Charge.

These are the Vows and Promises that Priests make before they can be Ordained: And to compleat the Stipu­lation, the Bishop concludes it, with a Prayer to God who has given them the will to do all these things, to give them [Page 122] also strength, and power to perform the same: that he may accomplish his Work, which he hath begun in them, until the time that he shall come▪ at the latter day, to judge the quick and the dead. Upon the whole matter either this is all a piece of gross and impudent Pageantry, dressed up in grave and lofty Expressi­ons, to strike upon the weaker part of Mankind, and to furnish the rest with matter to their profane and impious Scorn; or it must be confessed that Priests come under the most formal and express Engagements, to constant and diligent labour, that can be possibly con­trived or set forth in Words. It is upon this, that they are Ordained: So their Ordination being the consummation of this compact, it must be acknowledged that according to the nature of all mu­tual compacts; a total failure on the one side, does also dissolve all the Obligati­on that lay on the other: And there­fore those who do not perform their part, that do not Reside and Labour, they do also in the sight of God, for­feit all the Authority and Privileges that do follow their Orders, as much as a Christian at large, that does not perform [Page 123] his Baptismal Vow, forfeits the Rights and Benefits of his Baptism, in the sight of God; tho both in the one, and in the other, it is necessary that for the prevent­ing of disorder and confusion, a Sentence Declaratory of Excommunication, in the one, as of Degradation in the other, pass before the Visible Acts and Rights, pursuant to those Rites, can be denied.

To all this I will add one thing more, which is, that since our Book of Ordi­nation, is a part of our Liturgy, and likewise a part of the Law of the Land, and since constant Attendance, and di­ligent Labour is made necessary by it, and since this Law is subsequent to the Act of the 21st. of Henry the 8th. that qualifies so many for Pluralities, and Non-Residence, and is in plain Terms contrary to it, this as subsequent does repeal all that it contradicts: It is upon all this, a matter that to me seems plain, that by this Law, the other is Repealed, in so far, as it is incon­sistent with it. This Argument is by this Consideration made the stronger, that the Act of King Henry does not enact that such things shall be, [Page 124] but only reserves privildeges for such as may be capable of an Exemption from the common and general rules. Now by the Principles of Law, all Priviledges or Exemptions of that sort, are odious things; and the Constructi­ons of Law lying hard and heavy against odious Cases, it appears to me according to the general grounds of Law, very probable (I speak within bounds, when I say only probable) that the Act of Uniformity which makes the Offices of Ordination a part of the Law of England, is a Repeal of that part of the Act of King Hen­ry, which qualifies for Pluralities. To conclude, Whatsoever may be the strength of this Plea in Bar to that Act, if our Faith given to God and his Church, in the most express and plainest words possible, does bind, if Promises given at the Altar do ob­lige, and if a Stipulation, in the con­sideration of which Orders are given, is sacred and of an indispensible ob­ligation, then, I am sure, this is.

To make the whole matter yet the stronger, this Office is to be complea­ted with a Communion: So that upon [Page 125] this occasion, that is not only a piece of Religious Devotion, accompanying it; but it is the taking the Sacrament upon the Stipulation that has been made, between the Priest and the Church: So that those who have framed this Office, have certainly intended by all the ways that they could think on, and by the weightiest words they could choose, to make the sense of the Priestly Function, and of the Duties belonging to it, give deep and strong impressions to such as are Ordained. I have compared with it, all the Ex­hortations that are in all the Offices I could find, Ancient and Modern, whether of the Greek or the Latin Church, and this must be said of Ours, without any sort of partiality to our own Forms, that no sort of compa­rison can be made between Ours and all the others: and that as much as ours is more simple than those as to its Rites and Ceremonies, which swell up other Offices, so much is it more grave and weighty in the Exhortations, Col­lects and Sponsions that are made in it. In the Roman Pontifical no pro­mises are demanded of Priests, but [Page 126] only that of Obedience: Bishops in a corrupted state of the Church, ta­king care only of their own Authority, while they neglected more important obligations.

In the Office of Consecrating Bishops; as all the Sponsions made by them, when they were ordained Priests, are to be considered as still binding, since the Inferiour Office does still subsist in the Superiour; so there are new ones superadded, proportioned to the exal­tation of Dignity and Authority that accompanies that Office. In the Ro­man Pontifical, there are indeed que­stions put to a Bishop, before he is Con­secrated: but of all these the first on­ly is that which has any relation to his Flock: which is in these words: Wilt thou teach the people over whom thou art to be set, both by thy Example and Doctrine: those things that thou learnst out of the Holy Scripture? All the rest are general, and relate only to his Conversation; but not at all to his Labours in his Diocess: Whereas on the contrary, the engagements in our Office do regard not only a Bishop's own Conversation, but chiefly his Duty to [Page 127] his People: he declares that he is de­termined to instruct the People committed to his Charge, out of the Holy Scriptures: That he will study them, so as to be able by them, to teach and exhort, with wholsome Doctrine; and withstand and convince the Gain-sayers: That he will be ready with all faithful Diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange Doctrine, contrary to God's word: And both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to the same: That he will maintain and set forward as much as lies in him; quietness, love, and peace among all Men; and correct and punish such as be unquiet, disobedient, and criminous, within his Diocess: Ac­cording to such Authority as he has. In particular, He promises to be Faithful in ordaining, sending, or laying Hands upon others: He promises also to shew him­self to be gentle, and merciful for Christ's sake, to poor and needy People, and to all Strangers destitute of Help. These are the Covenants and Promises under which Bishops are put, which are again reinforced upon them, in the Charge that is given immediately after their Consecration, when the Bible is [Page 128] put in their Hands; Give heed to Read­ing, Exhortation, and Doctrine: Think upon the things contained in this Book; be diligent in them, that the increase co­ming thereby may be manifest unto all Men. Take heed unto thy Self, and to Doctrine, and be diligent in doing them, for by doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee. Be thou to the Flock of Christ, a Shepherd, not a Wolf; feed them, devour them not: Hold up the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring again the out-casts, seek the lost: Be so merciful that you be not too remiss: So Minister Discipline that you forget not Mercy: That when the chief Shepherd shall appear, you may receive the never fa­ding Crown of Glory, through Iesus Christ our Lord. In these Words, the great Lines of our Duty are drawn, in very expressive and comprehensive Terms. We have the several Branches of our Function, both as to Preaching and Go­verning very solemnly laid upon us: And both in this Office as well as in all the other Offices that I have seen, it ap­pears that the constant sence of all Chur­ches, in all Ages, has been that Preach­ing was the Bishops great Duty, and [Page 129] that he ought to lay himself out in it most particularly.

I shall only add one advice to all this, before I leave this Article of the Sence of our Church in this matter; both to those, who intend to take Or­ders, and to those who have already taken them. As for such as do intend to dedicate themselves to the service of the Church, they ought to read over these Offices frequently; and to ask themselves solemnly, as in the presence of God, Whether they can with a good Conscience, make those answers which the Book prescribes, or not? and not to venture on offering themselves to Oders, till they know that they dare and may safely do it. Every person who looks that way, ought at least on eve­ry Ordination Sunday, after he has once formed the resolution of dedica­ting himself to this work, to go over the Office seriously with himself, and to consider in what disposition or prepa­ration of mind he is; suitable to what he finds laid down in it. But I should add to this, that for a Year before he comes to be ordained, he should every first Sunday of the Month read over [Page 130] the Office very deliberately; and frame resolutions, conform to the several parts of it, and if he can, receive the Sacra­ment upon it, with a special set of pri­vate Devotions relating to his intentions. As the time of his Ordination draws near, he ought to return the oftner to those exercises. It will be no hard task for him to read these over every Sun­day, during the last Quarter before his Ordination; and to do that yet more solemnly, every day of the week in which he is to be ordained: and to joyn a greater earnestness of fasting and prayer with it on the Fast-days of his Ember Week.

Here is no hard imposition. The per­formance is as easie in it self, as it will be successful in its effects. If I did not consider, rather what the Age can bear, than what were to be wished for, I would add a great many severe Rules calculated to the Notions of the Primi­tive times. But if this advice were put in practice, it is to be hoped, that it would set back many who come to be ordained, without considering duly, ei­ther what it is that they ask, or what it is that is to be asked of them: which [Page 131] some do with so supine a negligence, that we plainly see that they have not so much as read the Office, or at least that they have done it in so slight a manner, that they have formed no clear Notions upon any part of it, and least of all, upon those parts to which they themselves are to make answers. And as such a method as I have proposed would probably strike some with a due awe of Divine matters, so as to keep them at a distance, till they were in some sort prepared for them; so it would oblige such as came to it, to bring along with them a serious temper of mind, and such a preparation of soul as might make that their Orders should be a blessing to them, as well as they them­selves should be a blessing to the Church. It must be the greatest joy of a Bishops life, who truly minds his duty in this weighty trust of sending out Labourers into Gods Vineyard; to Ordain such persons of whom he has just grounds to hope, that they shall do their duty, faith­fully, in reaping that Harvest. He reckons these as his Children indeed, who are to be his strength and support, his fellow Labourers and Helpers ▪ his [Page 132] Crown and his Glory. But on the other hand, how heavy a part of his Office must it be to Ordain those against whom, perhaps there lies no just objection, so that according to the Constitution and Rules of the Church, he cannot deny them; and yet he sees nothing in them that gives him courage or cheerfulness. They do not seem to have that love to God, that zeal for Christ, that tender­ness for souls, that meekness and humi­lity, that mortification and deadness to the world, that becomes the Character and Profession which they undertake; so that his heart fails him, and his hands tremble when he goes to Ordain them.

My next advice shall be to those, who are already in Orders, that they will at least four times a year, on the Ordi­nation Sundays, read over the Offices of the Degrees of the Church in which they are: and will particularly consider the Charge that was given, and the An­swers that were made by them; and then ask themselves as before God, who will Iudge them at the Great-day, upon their Religious performance of them, whether they have been true to them or [Page 133] not that so they may humble themselves for their Errours, and Omissions, and may renew their Vows for the future, and so to be going on from Quarter to Quarter, through the whole course of their Ministry observing still what ground they gain, and what progress they make, to such as have a right Sense of their Duty, this will be no hard perfor­formance. It will give a vast joy to those that can go through it with some measure of assurance, and find, that tho in the midest of many tentations and of much weakness, they are sincerely and seriously going on in their work to the best of their skill, and to the utmost of their power: So that their Consci­ences say within them, and that without the partialities of self love and flattery, Well done, good and faithful servant. The hearing of this said within, upon true grounds, being the certainest Evidence possible that it shall be publickly said at the Last and Great-day. This exer­cise will also offer checks to a man that looks for them; and intends both to understand his errours, and to cleanse himself from them. It will upon the whole matter, make Clergy Men go on [Page 134] with their Profession, a [...] [...]e Business and Labour of their Lives.

Having known the very good effect that this Method has had on some, I dare the more confidently recommend it to all others.

Before I conclude this Chapter, I will shew what Rules our Reformers had prepared with Relation to Non-Residence, and Pluralities; which tho they never passed into Laws, and so have no bind­ing force with them, yet in these we see what was the sense of those that pre­pared our Offices, and that were the chief Instruments in that blessed Work of our Reformation. The 12th. Chap­ter of the Title, concerning those that were to be admitted to Ecclesiastical Bene­fices, runs thus. Whereas, when many Benefices are conferred on one Person, every one of these must be served with less order and exactness, and many learned Men, who are not provided, are by that means shut out; therefore, such as examine the Persons who are proposed for Benefices, are to ask eve­ry one of them, whether he has at that time another Benefice or not, and if he con­fesses that he has, then they shall not con­sent to his obtaining that to which he is [Page 135] presented, or the first Benefice shall be made void, as in case of Death, so that the Pa­tron may present any other Person to it. Chap 13. is against Dispensations, in these Words. No Man shall hereafter be capable of any Privilege, by virtue of which he may hold more Parishes than one. But such as have already obtained any such Di­spensations for Pluralities, shall not be de­prived of the effects of them, by virtue of this Law. The 14th. Chapter relates to Residence, in these Words. If any Man by reason of Age or Sickness, is disabled from discharging his Duty, or if he has any just cause of absence for some time, that shall be approved of by the Bishop, he must take care to place a worthy Person, to serve during his absence. But the Bishops ought to take a special Care, that upon no regard whatsoever, any Person may, upon feigned or pretended Reasons, be suffered to be lon­ger absent from his Parish, than a real ne­cessity shall require.

These are some of the Rules which were then prepared, and happy had it been for our Church, if that whole work of the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Law, had been then setled among us. Then we might justly have said, that [Page 136] our Reformation was compleat, and not have lamented as our Church still does in the Office of Commination that the god­ly Discipline which was in the Primitive Church is not yet restored, how much, and how long soever it has been wished for. It is more than probable that we should neither have had Schisms, nor Civil Wars, if that great design had not been abortive. If but the 19th. and 20th. Titles of that work, which treat of the publick offices, and Officers in the Church, had became a part of our Law, and been duly executed, we should in­deed have had matter of glorying in the World.

In the Canons of the Year 1571. tho there was not then strength enough in the Church, to cure so inveterate a Dis­ease, as Non-Residence, yet she expressed her detestation of it, in these Words. The absence of a Pastor from the Lord's Flock; and that supine negligence and a­bandoning of the Ministry, which we observe in many, is a thing vile in it self, odious to the People, and pernicious to the Church of God; therefore, we exhort all the Pa­stors of Churches, in our Lord Iesus, that they will as soon as is possible, come to their [Page 137] Churches, and diligently Preach the Gospel, and according to the value of their Livings, that they will keep House, and hospitably relieve the Poor. It is true, all this is much lessened by the last Words of that Arti­cle, That every Year they must reside at least Threescore daies upon their Benefices. By the Canons made at that time, Plurali­ties were also limited to 20 miles distance. But this was enlarged to 30 miles, by the Canons in the Year 1597. Yet by these the Pluralist was required to spend a good part of the Year in both his Benefi­ces. And upon this, has the matter rest­ed ever since; but there is no express definition made how far that general word of a good part of the Year is to be understood.

I will not to this add a long invidious History of all the attempts that have been made for the Reforming these abuses, nor the methods that have been made use of to defeat them. They have been but too successful, so that we still groan under our abuses; and do not know when the time shall come in which we shall be freed from them. The defend­ers of those abuses, who get too much by them, to be willing to part with them, [Page 138] have made great use of this, that it was the Puritan Party, that during Q. Eliza­beth, and K. Iames the 1sts. Reign, pro­moted these Bills, to render the Church odious: Whereas, it seems more probable, that those who set them forward, what invidious Characters soever their Ene­mies might put them under, were really the Friends of the Church; and that they intended to preserve it, by freeing it from so crying, and so visible an abuse: which gives an offence and scandal, that is not found out by much learning, or great observation; but arises so evident­ly out of the nature of things, that a small measure of common sense, helps every one to see it, and to be deeply prejudic'd against it. But since our Church has fallen under the evils and mischiefs of Schism, none of those who divide from us, have made any more attempts this way; but seem rather to be not ill pleased, that such Scandals should be still among us, as hoping that this is so great a load up­on our Church, that it both weakens our strength, and lessens our Authority. It is certainly the interest of an Enemy to suffer the body to which he opposes him­self to lie under as many Prejudices, and [Page 139] to be liable to as much censure, as is possible; whereas every good and wise Friend studies to preserve that body to which he unites himself, by freeing it from every thing that may render it less acceptable, and less useful.

Here I will leave this Argument, ha­ving I think said enough, to convince all, that have a true Zeal to our Church, and that think themselves bound in con­science to obey its Rules, and that seem to have a particular jealousie of the Ci­vil Powers, breaking in too far upon the Ecclesiastical Authority, that there can be nothing more plain and express, than that our Church intends to bring all her Priests under the strictest obligations pos­sible, to constant and personal Labour, and that in this she pursues the designs and Canons, not only of the Primitive, and best times, but even of the worst Ages, Since none were ever so corrupt as not to condemn those abuses by Canon, even when they maintained them in practice. She does not only bind them to this, by the Charge she appoints to be given, but also by the Vows and Promises that she demands of such as are Ordained. When all this is laid together, and when there [Page 140] stands nothing on the other side, to ba­lance it, but a Law made in a very bad time, that took away some abuses, but left pretences to cover others; Can any man that weighs these things together, in the sight of God, and that believes he must answer to him for this at the great Day, think, that the one, how strong soever it may be in his favour at an earthly Tribunal, will be of any force in that last and dreadful Iudgment. This I leave upon all Mens Consciences; ho­ping that they will so judge themselves, that they shall not be judged of the Lord.

CHAP. VII. Of the due preparation of such as may and ought to be put in Or­ders.

THE greatest good that one can hope to do in this World is upon young Persons, who have not yet ta­ken their ply, and are not spoiled with Prejudices, and wrong Notions. Those who have taken an ill one at first, will neither be at the pains to look over their Notions, nor turn to new Methods; nor will they by any change of Practice, seem to confess that they were once in the wrong; so that if Matters that are amiss, can be mended or set right, it must be by giving those that have not yet set out, and that are not yet engaged, truer views, and juster Idea's of things. I will therefore here lay down the model, upon which a Clerk is to be formed, and will begin with such things as ought to be previous and preparatory to his being initiated into Orders.

[Page 142]These are of two sorts, the one is of such preparations as are necessary to give his Heart and Soul a right temper, and a true sense of things: The other is of such studies as are necessary to enable him to go through with the several parts of his Duty. Both are necessary, but the first is the more indispensible of the two; for a Man of a good Soul, may with a moderate proportion of knowledge do great Service in the Church, especially if he is suited with an imployment, that is not above his Talent: Whereas unsanctified knowledge puffs up; is insolent and unquiet, it gives great scandal, and occasions much distraction in the Church. In treating of these qualifications, I will watch o­ver my thoughts, not to let them rise to a pitch that is above what the com­mon frailties of humane Nature, or the Age we live in, can bear: and after all, if in any thing I may seem to exceed [...]hese measures, it is to be considered, that it is natural in proposing the Ideas of things, to carry them to what is wished for, which is but too often be­yond what can be expected; consider­ing both the corruption of mankind and of these degenerated times.

[Page 143]First of all then, he that intends to dedicate himself to the Church, ought, from the time that he takes up any such Resolution, to enter upon a greater De­cency of Behaviour, that his Mind may not be vitiated by ill Habits; which may both give such bad Characters of him, as maystick long on him afterwards, and make such ill Impressions on himself, as may not be easily worn out or defaced. He ought, above all things, to possess himself with a high Sense of the Christian Reli­gion, of its Truth and Excellence, of the Value of Souls, of the Dignity of the Pastoral Care, of the Honour of God, of the Sacredness of Holy Functions, and of the Great Trust that is committed to those who are set apart from the World, and dedicated to God and to his Church. He who looks this way, must break himself to the Appetites of Pleasure, or Wealth, of Ambition, or Authority; he must consider that the Religion, in which he intends to Officiate, calls all Men to great Purity and Vertue; to a Probity and Innocence of Manners, to a Meek­ness and Gentleness, to a Humility and Self-denial, to a Contempt of the World and a Heavenly Mindedness, to a Patient Resignation to the Will of [Page 144] God, and a readiness to bear the Cross, in the hopes of that everlasting Reward, which is reserved for Christians in another State: All which was eminently recom­mended, by the unblemish'd Pattern that the Author of this Religion, has set to all that pretend to be his Followers. These being the Obligations which a Preacher of the Gospel is to lay daily upon all his Hearers, he ought certainly to accustom himself often to consider seriously of them; and to think how Shameless and Impudent a thing it will be in him, to perform Of­fices suitable to all these, and that do sup­pose them, to be Instructing the People, and Exhorting them to the Practice of them, unless he is in some sort all this him­self, which he teaches others to be.

Indeed to be tied to such an Employ­ment, while one has not an inward Conformity to it, and Complacence in it, is both the most unbecoming, the most unpleasant, and the most uncom­fortable State of Life imaginable. Such a Person will be exposed to all Mens Cen­sures and Reproaches, who when they see things amiss in his Conduct, do not only Reproach him, but the whole Church and Body, to which he belongs; and which is more, the Religion which he [Page 145] seems to recommend by his Discourses, though his Life and Actions, which will always pass for the most real Declarati­on of his inward Sentiments, are a vi­sible and continual opposition to it. On all these things, he whose Thoughts car­ry him towards the Church, ought to reflect frequently: Nothing is so odious as a Man that disagrees with his Cha­racter, a Soldier that is a Coward, a Cour­tier that is Brutal; an Ambassadour that is Abject, are not such unseemly things, as a bad or vicious, a drunken or dissolute Clergy-man. But though his Scandals should not rise up to so high a pitch, even a Proud and Passionate, a Worldly Minded and Covetous Priest, gives the Lye to his Discourses so palpa­bly, that he cannot expect they should have much weight. Nor is such a Man's State of Life less unpleasant to himself, than it is unbecoming. He is obliged to be often performing Offices, and pro­nouncing Discourses, in which if he is not a Good Man, he not only has no Plea­sure, but must have a formed Aversion to them. They must be the heaviest Burden of his Life; he must often feel se­cret Challenges within; and though he as often silences these, yet such unwel­come [Page 146] Reflections are uncomfortable things. He is forced to manage himself wi [...]h a perpetual constraint, and to ob­serve a decorum in his Deportment, lest he fall under a more publick Censure: Now to be bound to act a Part, and live with restraint ones whole Life, must be a very Melancholy thing. He cannot go so quite out of sight of Religion, and Convictions, as other bad Men do, who live in a perpetual hurry, and a total for­getfulness of Divine Matters: They have no Checks, because they are as seldom in the way to find them, as is possible. But a Clerk cannot keep himself out of their way; he must remember them, and speak of them, at least upon some occa­sions, whether he will or no: He has no other way to secure himself against them, but by trying what he can do, to make himself absolutely disbelieve them. Ne­gative Atheism, that is, a total neglect of all Religion, is but too easily arrived at; yet this will not serve his turn, he must build his Atheism upon some Bottom, that he may find quiet in it. If he is an Ignorant Man, he is not furnished with those flights of Wit, and shews of Learn­ing, that must support it: But if he is really Learned, he will soon be beaten [Page 147] out of them; for a Learned Atheism is so hard a thing to be conceived, that un­less a Man's Powers are first strangely vitiated, it is not easie to see how any one can bring himself to it. There is nothing that can settle the quiet of an ill Priest's Mind and Life, but a stupid Formality, and a Callus that he Contracts, by his insensible way of handling Divine Matters; by which he becomes hardn [...]d against them. But if this settles him by stupifying his Powers, it does put also him so far out of the reach of Convicti­on, in all the ordinary methods of Grace, that it is scarce possible he can ever be awakned; and by Consequence that he can be saved; and if he perishes, he must fall into the lowest degree of Misery, even to the Portion of Hypo­crites: For his whole Life has been a course of Hypocrisie in the strictest Sence of the Word, which is the Acting of a Part, and the Counterfeiting another Person. His Sins have in them all pos­sible Aggravations; they are against Knowledge and against Vows, and con­trary to his Character; they carry in them a deliberate Contempt of all the Truths and Obligations of Religion; and if he perishes, he does not perish alone, [Page 148] but carries a Shoal down with him, ei­ther of those who have perished in Igno­rance, through his neglect; or of those who have been hardned in their Sins, through his ill Example: And since all this must be put to his Account, it may be justly inferred from hence, That no man can have a heavier share in the mi­series of another State, than profane and wi [...]ked Clerks. On all these things he ought to imploy his thoughts frequently, who intends to dedicate himself to God, that so he may firmly resolve not to go on with it, till he feels such Seeds and Begin­nings of good things in himself, that he has reason to hope, that through the Grace and Assistance of God, he will be an Example to others.

He ought more particularly to examine himself, whether he has that Soft and Gentle, that Meek and Humble, and that Charitable and Compassionate Tem­per, which the Gospel does so much press upon all Christians; that shined so emi­nently through the whole Life of the Blessed Author of it; and which he has so singularly recommended to all his Fol­lowers; and that has in it so many Charms and Attractives, which do not only com­mend those who have these amiable Ver­tues, [Page 149] but which is much more to be re [...]garded, they give them vast advantag [...] in recommending the Doctrine of [...] Saviour to their People. They are th [...] true ground of that Christian Wisdo [...] and Discretion, and of that grave and calm Deportment, by which the Clergy ought to carry on and maintain their Authority. A haughty and huffing Hu­mour, an Impatient and insolent Tem­per, a loftiness of Deportment, [...]nd a peevishness of Spirit, rendring the Lives of the Clergy, for the most part, bitter to themselves, and their Labours, how va­luable soever otherwise they may be, unacceptable and useless to their People. A Clergyman must be prepared to bear Injuries, to endure much unjust Cen­sure and Calumny, to see himself of­ten neglected, and others preferred to him, in the esteem of the People. He that takes all this ill, that resents it, and complains of it, does thereby give himself much disquiet▪ and to be sure, he will, through his Peevishness, rather encrease than lessen that Con­tempt, under which he is so uneasie; which is both better born, and sooner overcome, by a meek and a lowly Tem­per. A Man of this Disposition affects [Page 150] no Singularities, unless the faultiness of those about him, makes his doing his Du­ty to be a Singularity: He does not study to lessen the value that is due to others, on design to encrease his own: His low thoughts of himself, make that he is nei­ther aspiring, nor envying such as▪ are advanced: He is prepared to stay till God in his Providence thinks fit to raise him: He studies only to deserve Prefer­ment, and leaves to others the wringing Posts of Advantage out of the Hands of those that give them. Such a Preparati­on of Mind in a Clergy-man, disposes him to be Happy in whatsoever Station he may be put, and renders the Church happy in him; for Men so moulded, even though their Talents should be but mean, are shining Lights, that may perhaps be at first despised, as Men of a low size, that have not Greatness of Soul enough to aspire, but when they have been seen and known so long, that all appears to be sincere, and that the Principle from whence this flows, is rightly considered, then every thing that they say or do, must have its due weight: The plainest and simplest things that they say have a Beauty in them, and will be hearkned to as Oracles.

[Page 151]But a Man that intends to prepare himself right for the Ministry of the Church, must indeed above all things, en­deavour to break himself to the love of the World, [...]ither of the Wealth, the Pomp, or the Pleasures of it. He must learn to be content with plain and sim­ple Diet; and often even abridge that, by true Fasting: I do not call Fasting, a trifling distinction of Meats, but a lessening of the quantity, as well as the quality, and a contracting the time spent at Meals, that so he may have a grea­ter Freedom both in his Time, and in his Thoughts; that he may be more a­lone, and pray and meditate more, and that what he saves out of his Meals, he may give to the Poor. This is, in short, the true Measure and right Use of Fast­ing. In cold Climates, an abstinence till Night, may create Disorders, and raise such a Disturbance both in the Ap­petite, and in the Digestion; that this managed upon the practices of other Countries, especially in young Persons, may really distract instead of furthering those who do it Indiscreetly. In short Fasting unless joyned with Prayer and Alms-giving, is of no Value in the sight of God. It is a vast Advantage to a Man to be [Page 152] broken to the Niceties of his Palate, to be content with plain Food, and even to dislike Delicacies and studied Dishes. This will make him easie in narrower Circumstances; since a plain Bill of Fare is soon discharged. A lover of his Ap­petites, and a slave to his Taste, makes but a mean Figure among Men, and a very scurvy one among Clergy-men.

This deadness to the World must raise one above the Affectations of Pomp and State, of Attendance and high Living. Which to a Philosophical Mind will be heavy, when the Circumstances he is in, seem to impose and force it on him. And therefore he who has a right Sense, finds it is almost all he can do, to bear those things which the Tyranny of Custom or false Opinions put upon him: So far is he from longing for them. A Man that is truly dead to the World, would chuse much rather to live in a lowly and nar­row Figure; than to be obliged to enter into the Methods of the greatness of this World; into which, if the Constitutions and Forms of a Church and Kingdom put him, yet he feels himself in an un­natural and uncouth Posture: It is con­trary to his own Genius and Relish of things; and therefore he does not court [Page 153] nor desire such a situation, but even while he is in it, he shews such a Neglect of the State of it, and so much Indifference and Humility in it, that it appears how little power those things have over his Mind, and how little they are able to subdue and corrupt it. This mortified Man must likewise become dead to all the Designs and Projects of making a Fa­mily, or of raising the Fortunes of those that are nearly related to him: He must be Bountiful and Charitable; and tho' it is not only lawful to him, but a necessary Duty incumbent on him, to make due provision for his Family, if he has any, yet this must be so moderated that no vain nor sordid Designs, no in­direct nor unbecoming Arts, may mix in it; no excessive Wealth nor great Pro­jects must appear; he must be contented with such a proportion, as may set his Children in the way of a vertuous and liberal Education; such as may secure them from Scandal and Necessity, and put them in a Capacity to serve God and their Generation in some honest Em­ployment. But he who brings along with him, a Voluptuous, an Ambitious, or a Covetous Mind, that is Carnal and Earthly minded, comes as a Hireling to [Page 154] feed himself and not the Flock, he comes to Steal and to Destroy. Upon all, this great Reflection is to be made concern­ing the Motives that determine one to offer himself to this Employment.

In the first beginnings of Christianity, no Man could reasonably think of ta­king Orders, unless he had in him the Spirit of Martyrdom. He was to look for nothing in this Service, but Labour and Persecution: He was indeed to live of the Altar, and that was all the Porti­on that he was to expect in this World. In those Days an extraordinary Measure of Zeal and Devotion was necessary, to engage Men to so hard and difficult a Province, that how great soever its Reward might be in another World, had nothing to look for in this, but a nar­row Provision, and the first and largest share of the Cross: They were the best known, the most exposed, and the soon­est fallen upon in the Persecution. But their Services and their Sufferings did so much recommend that Function in the succeeding Ages, that the Faithful thought they could never do enough to express their Value for it. The Church came to be Richly endowed; and tho' Superstiti­on had raised this out of measure, yet [Page 155] the Extreme went as far to the other hand at the Reformation, when the Church was almost stript of all its Pa­trimony, and a great many Churches were left so poor, that there was not in most Places, a sufficient; nay, not so much as a necessary Maintenance, reserved for those that were to minister in Holy Things. But it is to be acknowledged that there are such Remnants preserved, that many Benefices of the Church still may, and perhaps do but too much, work upon Mens corrupt Principles, their Am­bition, and their Covetousness: And it is shrewdly to be apprehended, that of those who present themselves at the Al­tar, a great part comes, as those who followed Christ, for the Loaves: Be­cause of the good Prospect they have of making their Fortunes by the Church.

If this Point should be carried too far, it might perhaps seem to be a pitch above Humane Nature; and certainly very far above the degeneracy of the Age we live in: I shall therefore lay this matter, with as large an allowance, as I think it can bear. It is certain, that since God has made us to be a Compound of Soul and Body, it s not only lawful but suitable to the order of Nature, for us in the [Page 156] Choice we make of the state of Life that we intend to pursue, to consider our Bodies, in the next place after our Souls: Yet we ought certainly to begin with our Souls, with the Powers and Faculties that are in them, and consider well of what Temper they are; and what our Measure and Capacity is; that so we may chuse such a course of Life, for which we seem to be fitted, and in which we may probably do the most good both to our selves and others: From hence we ought to take our Aims and Measures chiefly: But in the next place, we not only may, but ought to consider our Bodies, how they shall be maintained, in a way suitable to that state of Life, into which we are en­gaged. Therefore tho' no Man can with a good Conscience, begin upon a world­ly Account, and resolve to dedicate him­self to the Church, merely out of Car­nal regard; such as an Advowson in his Family, a Friend that will Promote him, or any other such like Prospect, till he has first consulted his Temper and Disposition, his Talents and his Capacities; yet, tho' it is not Lawful to make the Regards of this World his first Consideration, and it cannot be denied to be a perfecter state, if a Man should offer himself to [Page 157] the Church, having whereon to support himself, without any Assistance or Re­ward out of its Patrimony; and to be nearer to S. Paul's practice, whose hands ministred to his necessities, and who reckoned that in this he had whereof to glory, that he was not burthensome to the Churches: Yet it is, without doubt, Law­ful for a Man to Design that he may subsist in and out of the Service of the Church: But then these Designs must be limited to a Subsistence, to such a mode­rate Proportion, as may maintain one in that state of Life. And must not be let fly by a restless Ambition, and an insa­tiable Covetousness, as a ravenous Bird of prey, does at all Game. There must not be a perpetual Enquiry into the Va­lue of Benefices; and a constant Impor­tuning of such as give them: If Laws have been made in some States restrain­ing all Ambitus and aspirings to Civil Imployments, certainly it were much more reasonable to put a stop to the scandalous Importunities, that are every where complained of; and no where more visible and more offensive than at Court. This gives a Prejudice to Men that are otherwise enclined enough to search for one, that can never be remo­ved, [Page 158] but by putting an effectual bar in the way of that scrambling for Bene­fices and Preferments; which will ever make the Lay part of Mankind conclude, that let us pretend what we will, Co­vetousness and Ambition are our true Mo­tives, and our chief Vocation. It is true, the strange Practices of many Patrons, and the Constitution of most Courts, give a colour to excuse so great an Indecency. Men are generally successful in those Practices, and as long as Humane Nature is so strong, as all Men feel it to be, it will be hard to divert them from a Me­thod which is so common, that to act otherwise would look like an affectation of Singularity; and many apprehend, that they must languish in Misery and Necessity if they are wanting to them­selves, in so general a Practice. And, in­deed, if Patrons, but chiefly if Princes would effectually cure this Disease which gives them so much Trouble, as well as Offence, they must resolve to distribute those Bene­fices that are in their Gift, with so visible a Regard to true Goodness and real Me­rit, and with so firm and so constant an Opposition to Application and Importuni­ty, that it may appear that the only way to Advancement, is to live well, to study [Page 159] hard, to stay at home, and labour dili­gently; and that Applications by the Per­sons themselves, or any set on by them, shall always put those back who make them: This would more effectually cure so great an Evil, than all that can be said against it. One successful suiter who carries his Point, will promote this Dis­order, more than Twenty Repulses of o­thers; for unless the Rule is severely car­ried on, every one will run into it; and hope to prosper as well as he, who they see has got his end in it. If those who have the Disposition of Bene­fices, to which the Cure of Souls is an­nexed, did consider this as a Trust, lodg­ed with them, for which they must answer to God, and that they shall be in a great measure accountable for the Souls, that may be lost through the bad choice that they make, knowing it to be bad; if, I say, they had this more in their Thoughts, than so many Scores of Pounds, as the Living amounts to; and thought themselves really bound, as without doubt they are, to seek out Good and Worthy Men, well qualified and duely prepared, according to the Nature of that Benefice which they are to give; then we might hope to [Page 160] see men make it their chief Study, to qualifie themselves aright; to order their Lives, and frame their Minds, as they ought to do, and to carry on their Studies with all Application and Dili­gence; but as long as the short Me­thods, of Application, Friendship, or Interest, are more effectual than the long and hard way, of Labour and Study; Human Nature will always carry men to go the surest, the ea­siest, and the quickest way to work.

After all I wish it were well con­sidered, by all Clerks, what it is to run without being either called or sent; and so to thrust ones self into the Vineyard, without staying, till God by his Pro­vidence puts a piece of his work in his Hands; this will give a man a vast ease in his Thoughts, and a great satisfacti­on in all his Labours, if he knows that no Practices of his own, but merely the Directions of Providence, have put him in a Post. He may well trust the Effects of a thing to God, when the Causes of it do plainly flow from him. And though this will appear to a great many a hard Saying, so that few will be able to bear it, yet I must add this to the encouragement and comfort of [Page 161] such as can resolve to deliver them­selves up to the Conduct and Directi­ons of Providence, that I never yet knew any one of those few (too few I confess they have been) who were pos­sessed with this Maxim, and that have followed it exactly, that have not found the Fruit of it even in this World. A watchful Care hath hovered over them: Instruments have been raised up, and Accidents have happened to them so prosperously, as if there had been a secret Design of Heaven by blessing them so signally, to encourage others to fol­low their Measures, to depend on God, to deliver themselves up to his Care, and to wait till he opens a way for their being Imployed, and settled in such a Portion of his Husbandry, as he shall think fit to assign to them.

These are Preparations of Mind, with which a Clerk is to be formed and sea­soned: And in order to this, he must read the Scriptures much, he must get a great deal of those Passages in them, that relate to these things, by heart, and repeat them often to himself; in particu­lar many of the most tender and melt­ing Psalms, and many of the most com­prehensive Passages in the Epistles; that [Page 162] by the frequent reflecting on these, he may fill his Memory with Noble Noti­ons, and right Idea's of things: The Book of Proverbs, but chiefly Ecclesiastes, if he can get to understand it, will be­get in him a right view of the World, a just value of Things, and a contempt of many Objects that shine with a false Lustre, but have no true Worth in them. Some of the Books taught at Schools, if read afterwards, when one is more ca­pable to observe the Sense of them, may be of great use to promote this Temper. Tully's Offices will give the Mind a noble sett; all his Philosophical Discourses, but chiefly his Consolation; which though some Criticks will not allow to be his, because they fansie the Stile has not all the force and beauty in it that was pe­culiar to him, yet is certainly the best Piece of them all; these, I say, give a good [...]avour to those who read them much. The Satyrical Poets, Horace, Iuvenal and Persius may contribute wonderfully to give a man a Detestation of Vice, and a Contempt of the common Methods of mankind; which they have set out in such true Colours, that they must give a very generous Sense to those who delight in reading them often. Persius [Page 163] his Second Satyr, may well pass for one of the best Lectures in Divinity. Hi­eracles upon Pythagoras's Verses, Plutarch's Lives; and above all the Books of Hea­thenism, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, contain such Instructions, that one cannot read them too often, nor repass them too frequently in his thoughts. But when I speak of reading these Books, I do not mean only to run through them, as one does through a Book of History, or of Notions; they must be read and weighed with great Care, till one is become a Ma­ster of all the Thoughts that are in them: They are to be often turned in ones Mind, till he is thereby wrought up to some Degrees of that Temper, which they propose: And as for Christian Books, in order to the framing of ones Mind aright, I shall only Recommend The whole Duty of Man, Dr. Sherlock of Death and Iudgment, and Dr. Scot's Books, in particular that great distincti­on that runs through them, of the means and of the ends of Religion. To all which I shall add one small Book more, which is to me ever new and fresh, gives always good Thoughts and a Noble Temper, Thomas a Kempis of the Imi­tation of Christ. By the frequent read­ing [Page 164] of these Books, by the relish that one has in them, by the delight they give, and the Effects they produce, a man will plainly perceive, whether his Soul is made for Divine Matters or not, what suitableness there is between him and them; and whether he is yet touch­ed with such a Sense of Religion, as to be capable of dedicating himself to it.

I am far from thinking that no man is fit to be a Priest, that has not the Tem­per which I have been describing, quite up to that heig [...]h in which I have set it forth; but this I will positively say, That he who has not the Seeds of it planted in him, who has not these Principles, and Re­solutions formed to pursue them, and to improve and perfect himself in them, is in no wise worthy of that Holy Cha­racter. If these things are begun in him, if they are yet but as a Grain of Mustard­seed, yet if there is a Life in them, and a Vital Sense of the Tendencies and Effects they must have; such a Person, so moulded, with those Notions and Im­pressions, and such only are qualified, so as to be able to say with Truth and Assu­rance, that they trust they are inwardly mo­ved by the Holy Ghost to undertake that Office.

[Page 165]So far have I dispatch'd the first and chief Part of the Preparation necessary before Orders. The other Branch of it, relates to their Learning, and to the Knowledge that is necessary. I confess I look upon this as so much Inferiour to the other, and have been convinced by so much Experience, that a great Mea­sure of Piety, with a very small Propor­tion of Learning, will carry one a great way, that I may perhaps be thought to come as far short in this, as I might seem to exceed in the other. I will not here enter into a Discourse of Theological Learning, of the measure that is neces­sary to make a Compleat Divine, and of the methods to attain it. I intend on­ly to lay down here, that which I look on as the lowest Degree, and as that which seems indispensably necessary, to one that is to be a Priest. He must then understand the New Testament we [...]l. This is the Text of our Religion, that which we Preach and explain to others; therefore a man ought to read this so of­ten over, that he may have an Idea of the whole Book in his Head, and of all the Parts of it. He cannot have this so sure, unless he understands the Greek so well, as to be able to find out the mean­ing of every Period in it, at least of the [Page 166] Words and Phrases of it; any Book of Annotations or Paraphrase upon it, is a great help to a beginner▪ Grotius, Ham­mond, and Lightfoot are the best. But the having a great deal of the Practical and Easie Parts of it, such as relate to Mens Liv [...]s and their Duties, such as strike and awaken, direct, comfort, or terrifie, are much more necessary than the more abstruse Parts. In short, the being able to state right the Grounds of our Hope, and the Terms of Salvation, and the ha­ving a clear and ready view of the New Covenant in Christ Iesus, is of such abso­lute necessity, that it is a profaning of Or­ders, and a defiling of the Sanctuary, to bring any into it, that do not rightly un­derstand this Matter in its whole extent. Bishop Pearson on the Creed is a Book of great Learning, and profound exactness. Dr. Barrow has opened it with more sim­plicity; and Dr. Towerson more practi­cally; one or other of these must be well read and considered: But when I say read, I mean read and read over again, so oft that one is Master of one of these Books; he must write Notes out of them, and make Abridgements of them; and turn them so oft in his Thoughts, that he must thoroughly understand, and well remember them. He must [Page 167] read also the Psalms over so care­fully, that he may at least have a general Notion of those Divine Hymns; to which Bishop Patrick's Para­phrase will help to carry him.

A System of Divinity must be read with exactness. They are almost all alike: When I was young Wendelin and Mare­sius were the two shortest and fullest. Here is a vast Errour in the first form­ing of our Clergy, that a Contempt has been cast on that sort of Books; and in­deed to rise no higher, than to a perpe­tual reading over different Systems is but a mean pitch of Learning; and the swal­lowing down whole Systems by the Lump, has help'd to possess Peoples Minds too early with Prejudices, and to shut them up in too implicite a following of others. But the throwing off all these Books, makes that many who have read a great deal, yet have no intire Body of Divinity in their Head; they have no Scheme or Method, and so are Ignorant of some very plain things, which could never have happened to them, if they had carefully read and digested a Sy­stem into their Memories. But because this is indeed a very low Form; there­fore to lead a man farther, to have a freer view of Divinity, to examine things [Page 168] equally and clearly, and to use his own Reason, by balancing the various Views, that two great Divisions of Protestants have, not only in the Points which they controvert, but in a great many others, in which though they agree in the same Conclusions, yet they arrive at them by very different Premises; I would advise him that studies Divinity, to read two larger Bodies, writ by some Eminent Men of both sides; and because the latest are commonly the best; Turretin for the whole Calvinist Hypothesis, and Limburgh for the Arminian, will make a Man ful­ly the Master of all the Notions of both sides. Or if one would see how far middle ways may be taken; The Theses of Sanmur, or le Blanc's Theses, will com­pleat him in that. These Books well read, digested into Abstracts, and fre­quently reviewed or talked over by two Companions in Study, will give a Man an entire view of the whole Body of Divinity.

But by reason of that pest of Atheism, that Spreads so much among us, the Foundations of Religion must be well laid: Bishop Wilkins Book of Natural Religion, will lead one in the first Steps through the Principles that he has laid together in a plain and natural Method. [Page 169] Grotius his Book of the truth of the Christian Religion, with his Notes up­on it, ought to be read and almost got by heart. The whole Controver­sie both of Atheism and Deism, the Arguments both for the Old and New Testament, are fully opened, with a great variety both of Learning and Reasoning, in Bishop Stillingfleet's Ori­gines Sacrae.

There remains only to direct a Student how to form right Notions of Practi­cal Matters; and particularly of Preaching. Dr. Hammond's Practical Ca­techism, is a Book of great use; but not to be begun with, as too many do: It does require a good deal of previous Study, before the force of his Reasonings is apprehended; but when one is ready for it, it is a rare Book, and States the Grounds of Morality, and of our Duty, upon true Principles. To form one to understand the right Method of Preaching, the Extent of it, and the proper ways of Application, Bishop Sanderson, Mr. Faringdon, and Dr. Barrow, are the best and the fullest Models. There is a vast variety of o­ther Sermons, which may be read with an equal measure of Advantage and [Page 170] Pleasure. And if from the time that one resolves to direct his Studies to­wards the Church, he would every Lords day read two Sermons of any good Preacher, and turn them a little over in his Thoughts, this would insen­sibly in two or three years time, carry him very far, and give him a large view of the different ways of Preach­ing, and furnish him with Materials for handling a great many Texts of Scripture when he comes to it.

And thus I have carried my Stu­dent through those Studies, that seem to me so necessary for qualifying him to be an able Minister of the New Testament, that I cannot see how any Article of this can be well abated. It may seem strange, that in this whole Direction, I have said nothing con­cerning the Study of the Fathers or Church History. But I said at first, that a great distinction was to be made between what was necessary to prepare a Man to be a Priest, and what was necessary to make him a Compleat and Learned Divine.

The knowledge of these things is ne­cessary to the latter, though they do not seem so necessary for the former: [Page 171] There are many things to be left to the Prosecution of a Divine's Study, that therefore are not mentioned here, not with any design to disparage that sort of Learning; for I am now on­ly upon that measure of Knowledge, under which I heartily wish that no Man were put in Priests Orders; and therefore I have pass'd over many other things, such as the more accurate Un­derstanding of the Controversies be­tween us and the Church of Rome, and the unhappy Disputes between us and the Dissenters of all sorts; though both the one and the other, have of late been opened with that perspicui­ty, that fulness of Argument, and that clearness as well as softness of Stile, that a Collection of these may give a Man the fullest Instructions, that is to be found in any Books I know. O­thers, and perhaps the far greater num­ber, will think that I have clogged this Matter too much. But I desire these may consider how much we do justly reckon, that our Profession is preferrable either to Law or Medicine. Now, if this is true, it is not unrea­sonable, that since those who pre­tend to these, must be at so much [Page 172] Pains, before they enter upon a Practice which relates only to Men's Fortunes, or their Persons, we whose Labours relate to their Souls and their eternal State, should be at least at some considerable Pains, before we enter upon them. Let any young Divine go to the Chambers of a Student in the Inns of Court, and see how many Books he must read, and how great a Volume of a Common-Place-Book he must make, he will there see through how hard a Task one must go, in a course of many Years, and how ready he must be in all the Parts of it, before he is called to the Barr, or can manage Business. How exact must a Physician be in Anatomy, in Simples, in Pharmacy, in the Theory of Diseases, and in the Observations and Counsels of Doctors, before he can ei­ther with Honour, or a safe Conscience, un­dertake Practice? He must be ready with all this, and in that infinite number of hard Words, that belong to every part of it, to give his Directions and write his Bills by the Patient's Bed-side; who can­not stay 'till he goes to his Study and turns over his Books. If then so long a course of Study, and so much exactness and rea­diness in it, is necessary to these Professi­ons; nay, if every mechanical Art, even [Page 173] the meanest, requires a course of many Years, before one can be a Master in it, shall the noblest and the most important of all others, that which comes from Hea­ven, and leads thither again; shall that which God has honoured so highly, and to which Laws and Governments have added such Privileges and Encou­ragements, that is employ'd in the sub­limest Exercises, which require a pro­portioned worth in those who handle them, to maintain their Value and Digni­ty in the Esteem of the World; shall all this, I say, be esteemed so low a thing in our Eyes, that a much less degree of Time and Study, is necessary to arrive at it, than at the most sordid of all Trades whatsoever? And yet after all, a Man of a tolerable Capacity, with a good degree of Application, may go through all this well, and exactly, in two Years time. I am very sure, by many an Experiment I have made, that this may be done in a much less compass: But because all Men do not go alike quick, have not the same force, nor the same application, therefore I reckon two Years for it; which I do thus divide: One Year before Deacons Orders, and ano­ther between them and Priests Orders. [Page 174] And can this be thought a hard Imposi­tion? Or do not those, who think thus, give great occasion to the Contempt of the Clergy, if they give the World cause to observe, that how much soever we may magnifie our Profession, yet by our pra­ctice, we shew that we do judge it the meanest of all others, which is to be ar­rived at upon less previous study and pre­paration to it, than any other whatsoever? Since I have been hitherto so minute, I will yet divide this matter a little lower into those parts of it, without which, Deacons Orders ought not to be given, and those to be reserved to the second Year of study. To have read the New Testament well, so as to carry a great deal of it in one's Memory, to have a clear notion of the several Books of it, to understand well the Nature and the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace, and to have read one System well, so as to be Master of it, to understand the whole Catechetical matter, to have read Wilkins and Grotius; this, I say, is that part of this Task, which I propose before one is made Deacon. The rest, though much the larger, will go the easier, if those Foundations are once well laid in them. And upon the Article [Page 175] of Studying the Scriptures, I will add one Advice more.

There are two Methods in reading them, the one ought to be merely Critical, to find out the meaning and coherence of the several Parts of them, in which one runs easily through the greater Part, and is only obliged to stop at some harder Passages, which may be marked down and learned Men are to be consulted upon them: Those that are really hard to be ex­plained, are both few, and they relate to Matters that are not so essential to Christianity; and therefore after one has in general seen what is said upon these, he may put off the fuller Con­sideration of that to more leisure, and better opportunities. But the other way of reading the Scriptures, is to be done merely with a view to Practice, to raise Devotion, to encrease Piety, and to give good Thoughts and severe Rules. In this a Man is to imploy him­self much. This is a Book always at hand, and the getting a great deal of it by heart, is the best part of a Clergy­man's Study; it is the Foundation, and lays in the Materials for all the rest. This alone may furnish a Man with a [Page 176] noble Stock of lively Thoughts, and sublime Expressions; and therefore it must be always reckoned as that, with­out which all other things amount to nothing; and the chief and main Sub­ject of the Study, the Meditation and the Discourses of a Clergy-man.

CHAP. VIII. Of the Functions and Labours of Clergy-men.

I Have in the former Chapter laid down the Model and Method, by which a Clerk is to be formed and pre­pared; I come now to consider his Course of Life, his Publick Functions, and his Secret Labours. In this as well as in the former, I will study to consi­der what Mankind can bear, rather than what may be offered in a fair Idea, that is far above what we can hope ever to bring the World to. As for a Priests Life and Conversation, so much was said in the former Chapter; in which as a preparation to Orders, it was proposed what he ought to be, [Page 177] that I may now be the shorter on this Article.

The Clergy have one great advan­tage, beyond all the rest of the World, in this respect, besides all others, that whereas the particular Callings of o­ther Men, prove to them great Di­stractions, and lay many Temptations in their way, to divert them from minding their high and holy Calling of being Christians, it is quite otherwise with the Clergy, the more they follow their private Callings, they do the more certainly advance their general one: The better Priests they are, they be­come also the better Christians: every part of their Calling, when well per­formed, raises good Thoughts, brings good Idea's into their Mind, and tends both to encrease their Knowledge, and quicken their Sense of Divine Mat­ters. A Priest therefore is more ac­countable to God, and the World for his Deportment, and will be more severely accounted with than any other Person whatsoever. He is more watched over and observed than all others: Very good men will be, even to a Censure, jealous of him; very bad men will wait for his halting, and Insult upon it; [Page 178] and all sorts of Persons, will be wil­ling to defend themselves against the Authority of his Doctrine and Ad­monitions; by this he says but does not; and though our Saviour charged his Disciples and Followers,Math. 23.2, 3. to hear those who sat in Moses his Chair, and to ob­serve and do whatsoever they bid them observe, but not to do after their works, for they said and did not; the World will reverse this quite, and consider rather how a Clerk Lives, than what he Says. They see the one, and from it conclude what he himself thinks of the other; and so will believe them­selves not a little justified, if they can say that they did no worse, than as they saw their Minister do before them.

Therefore a Priest must not only ab­stain from gross Scandals, but keep at the furthest distance from them: He must not only not be drunk, but he must not sit a Tipling; nor go to Taverns or Ale-houses, except some urgent occasion requires it, and stay no longer in them, than as that oc­casion demands it. He must not only abstain from Acts of Lewdness, but from all indecent Behaviour, and un­becoming [Page 179] Raillery. Gaming and Plays, and every thing of that sort, which is an approach to the Vanities and Dis­orders of the World, must be avoided by him. And unless the straitness of his Condition, or his Necessities force it, he ought to shun all other Cares, such as, not only the farming of Grounds, but even the teaching of Schools, since these must of necessity take him off both from his Labour and Study. Such Diversions as his Health, or the Temper of his Mind, may render proper for him, ought to be Manly, Decent and Grave; and such as may neither possess his Mind or Time too much, nor give a bad Cha­racter of him to his People: He must also avoid too much Familiarity with bad People; and the squandring a­way his time in too much vain and idle Discourse. His chearfulness ought to be frank, but neither excessive nor licentious: His Friends and his Garden ought to be his chief Diversions, as his Study and his Parish, ought to be his chief Imployments. He must still carry on his Study, making himself an absolute Master of the few Books he has, till his Circumstances grow [Page 180] larger, that he can purchase more. He can have no pretence, if he were ever so narrow in the World, to say, that he cannot get, not only the Col­lects, but the Psalms, and the New Testament by heart, or at least a great part of them. If there are any Books belonging to his Church, such as Iew­els Works, and the Book of Martyrs, which lie tearing in many Places, these he may read over and over again, till he is able to furnish himself better, I mean with a greater variety; but let him furnish himself ever so well, the reading and understanding the Scrip­tures, chiefly the Psalms and the New Testament, ought to be still his chief Study, till he becomes so conversant in them, that he can both say many Parts of them, and explain them with­out Book.

It is the only visible Reason of the Iews adhering so firmly to their Religion, that during the Ten or Twelve years of their Education, their Youth are so much practised to the Scriptures, to weigh every word in them, and get them all by heart, that it is an Admiration, to see how ready both Men and Women among [Page 181] them are at it; their Rabbi's have it to that Perfection, that they have the Concordance of their whole Bible in their Memories, which give them vast Advantages, when they are to argue with any that are not so ready as they are in the Scriptures: Our Task is much shorter and easier, and it is a Reproach, especially to us Protestants, who found our Religion merely on the Scrip­tures, that we know the New Testa­ment so little, which cannot be ex­cused.

With the Study of the Scriptures, or rather as a part of it comes in the Study of the Fathers, as far as one can go; in these their Apologies, and Epistles, are chiefly to be read; for these give us the best view of those Times: Basil's and Chrysostom's Ser­mons, are by much the best. To these Studies, History comes in as a noble and pleasant Addition; that gives a Man great views of the Providence of God, of the Nature of Man, and of the Conduct of the World. This is above no Man's Capacity; and though some Histories are better than others; yet any Histories, such as one can get, are to be read, rather than none [Page 182] at all. If one can compass it, he ought to begin with the History of the Church, and there at the Head Iosephus, and go on with Eusebius, Socrates, and the other Historians, that are commonly bound together; and then go to other later Collectors of Ancient History; the History of our own Church and Country is to come next; then the Ancient Greek and Ro­man History, and after that, as much History, Geography, and Books of Travels as can be had, will give an easie and a useful Entertainment, and will furnish one with great variety of good Thoughts, and of pleasant, as well as edifying Discourse. As for all other Studies, every one must fol­low his Inclinations, his Capacities, and that which he can procure to himself. The Books that we learn at Schools are generally laid aside, with this Prejudice, that they were the La­bours as well as the Sorrows of our Childhood and Education; but they are among the best of Books. The Greek and Roman Authors have a Spirit in them, a force both of Thought and Expression, that l [...]ter Ages have not been able to imitate: Buchanan only ex­cepted, [Page 183] in whom, more particularly in his Psalms, there is a Beauty and Life, an Exactness as well as a Liberty, that cannot be imitated, and scarce enough commended. The Study and Practice of Physick, especially that which is safe and simple, puts the Clergy in a capa­city of doing great Acts of Charity, and of rendring both their Persons and Labours very acceptable to their People; it will procure their being soon sent for by them in Sickness, and it will give them great advantages in speaking to them, of their Spiritual Concerns, when they are so careful of their Persons, but in this nothing that is sordid must mix.

These ought to be the chief Studies of the Clergy. But to give all these their full effect, a Priest that is much in his Study, ought to Imploy a great part of his Time in secret and fervent Prayer, for the Direction and Blessing of God in his Labours, for the con­stant assistance of his Holy Spirit, and for a lively Sense of Divine Matters, that so he may feel the Impressions of them grow deep and strong upon his Thoughts. This, and this only, will make him go on with his work, with­out [Page 184] wearying, and be always rejoycing in it: This will make his Expressions of these things to be Happy and No­ble, when he can bring them out of the good Treasure of his Heart; that is, ever full, and always warm with them.

From his Study, I go next to his Publick Functions: He must bring his Mind to an inward and feeling Sense of those things that are prayed for in our Offices: That will make him pro­nounce them with an equal measure of Gravity and Affection, and with a due Slowness and Emphasis. I do not love the Theatrical way of the Church of Rome, in which it is a great Study, and a long Practice, to learn in every one of their Offices, how they ought to Compose their Looks, Gesture and Voice; yet a light wandring of the Eyes, and a hasty running through the Prayers, are things highly unbecoming; they do very much lessen the Majesty of our Worship, and give our Ene­mies advantage to call it dead and for­mal, when they see plainly, that he who officiates is dead and formal in it. A deep Sense of the things prayed for, a true Recollection and Attention of [Page 185] Spirit, and a holy Earnestness of Soul, will give a Composure to the Looks, and a weight to the Pronunciation, that will be tempered between affectati­on on the one hand, and Levity on the other. As for Preaching, I referr that to a Chapter apart.

A Minister ought to Instruct his Peo­ple frequently, of the nature of Bap­tism, that they may not go about it merely as a Ceremony, as it is too visible the greater part do; but that they may consider it as the Dedicating their Chil­dren to God, the Offering them to Christ, and the holding them thereafter as his, directing their chief care about them, to the breeding them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There must be Care taken to give them all a right Notion of the use of God-fathers and God-mothers, which is a good Institution, to procure a double Security for the Education of Chil­dren; it being to be supposed, that the common Ties of Nature and Reli­gion, bind the Parents so strongly, that if they are not mindful of these, a Spe­cial Vow would not put a new force in them, and therefore a Collateral Se­curity is also demanded, both to supply [Page 186] their Defects, if they are faulty, and to take care of the Religious Education of the Infant, in case the Parents should happen to die before that is done; and therefore no God-father or God-mother are to be invited to that Of­fice, but such with whom one would trust the care of the Education of his Child, nor ought any to do this Office for another, but he that is willing to charge himself, with the Education of the Child for whom he answers. But when Ambition or Vanity, Favour or Presents, are the Considerations upon which those Sureties in Baptism are cho­sen; great advantage is hereby given to those who reject Infant Baptism, and the Ends of the Church in this Insti­tution are quite defeated; which are both the making the Security that is gi­ven for the Children so much the stron­ger, and the establishing an Endear­ment and a Tenderness between Fa­milies; this being, in its own Nature, no small Tye, how little soever it may be apprehended or understood.

Great care must be taken in the In­struction of the Youth: The bare saying the Catechism by Rote is a small Matter; it is necessary to make them understand [Page 187] the weight of every Word in it: And for this end, every Priest, that minds his Duty, will find that no Part of it is so useful to his People, as once every year to go through the whole Church Cate­chism, Word by Word, and make his People understand the Importance of every Tittle in it. This will be no hard labour to himself; for after he has once gathered together the Places of Scrip­ture that relate to every Article, and formed some clear Illustrations, and ea­sie Similies to make it understood; his Catechetical Discourses, during all the rest of his Life, will be only the going over that same Matter again and again; by this means his People will come to have all this by heart; they will know what to say upon it at home to their Children; and they will understand all his Sermons the better, when they have once had a clear Notion of all those Terms that must run through them; for those not being understood, renders them all unintelligible. A Disc [...]urse of this sort would be generally of much greater Edification than an Afternoons Sermon; it should not be too long; too much must not be said at a time, nor more than one Point opened; a [Page 188] Quarter of an Hour is time sufficient; for it will grow tedious and be too little remembred, if it is half an hour long. This would draw an Assembly to Eve­ning Prayers, which we see are but too much neglected, when there is no sort of Discourse or Sermon accompanying them. And the practising this, during the Six Months of the year, in which the days are long, would be a very effectual means, both to Instruct the People, and to bring them to a more Religious Observation of the Lord's Day; which is one of the powerful­lest Instruments for the carrying on, and advancing of Religion in the World.

With Catechising, a Minister is to joyn the preparing those whom he In­structs to be Confirmed; which is not to be done merely upon their being able to say over so many words by Rote. It is their renewing their Baptismal Vow in their own Persons, which the Church designs by that Office, and the bearing in their own Minds, a Sense of their being bound immediate­ly by that, which their Sureties then undertook for them: Now to do this in such a manner, as that it may make [Page 189] Impression, and have a due effect upon them, they must stay, till they them­selves understand what they do, and till they have some Sense and Affecti­on to it; and therefore till one is of an Age and Disposition fit to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Sup­per, and desires to be Confirmed, as a solemn Preparation and Qualificati­on to it; he is not yet ready for it; for in the common Management of that Holy Rite, it is but too visible, that of those Multitudes that crowd to it, the far greater Part, come merely as if they were to receive the Bi­shop's Blessing, without any Sense of the Vow made by them, and of their renewing their Baptismal Engagements in it.

As for the greatest and solemnest of all the Institutions of Christ, the Com­memorating his Death, and the Par­taking of it in the Lord's Supper; this must be well explained to the People, to preserve them from the extreams of Superstition and Irreverence; to raise in them a great Sense of the Goodness of God, that appeared in the Death of Christ; of his Love to us, of the Sacrifice he once offered, [Page 190] and of the Intercession which he still continues to make for us: A share in all which is there Federally offered to us, upon our coming under Engage­ments, to answer our Part of the Co­venant, and to live according to the Rules it sets us: On these things he ought to enlarge himself, not only in his Sermons, but in his Catechetical Ex­ercises, and in private Discourses; that so he may give his People right Noti­ons of that Solemn Part of Worship, that he may bring them to delight in it; and may neither fright them from it, by raising their Apprehensions of it to a strictness that may terrifie too much, nor encourage them in the too common Practice of the dead and for­mal receiving, at the great Festivals, as a piece of Decency recommended by Custom.

About the time of the Sacrament, every Minister that knows any one of his Parish guilty of eminent Sins, ought to go and Admonish him to change his Course of Life, or not to profane the Table of the Lord; and if private Ad­monitions have no Effect; then if his Sins are Publick and Scandalous, he ought to deny him the Sacrament; [Page 191] and upon that he ought to take the Method which is still left in the Church, to make Sinners ashamed, to separate them from Holy things, till they have edified the Church as much by their Repentance, and the outward Pro­fession of it, as they had formerly scandalized it by their Disorders. This we must confess, that though we have great Reason, to lament our want of the Godly Discipline that was in the Pri­mitive Church, yet we have still Autho­rity for a great deal more than we put in Practice. Scandalous Persons ought, and might be more frequently present­ed than they are, and both Private and Publick Admonitions might be more used than they are. There is a flatness in all these things among us. Some are willing to do nothing, because they can­not do all that they ought to do; whereas the right way for procuring an enlargement of our Authority, is to use that we have well; not as an Engine to gratifie our own or other Peoples Passions, not to vex People, nor to look after Fees, more than the Cor­rection of Manners, or the Edification of the People. If we began much with private Applications, and brought [Page 192] none into our Courts, till it was visible that all other ways had been unsuc­cessful, and that no regard was had ei­ther to Persons or Parties, to Men's Opinions or Interests, we might again bring our Courts into the esteem which they ought to have, but which they have almost entirely lost: We can ne­ver hope to bring the World to bear the Yoke of Christ, and the Order that he has appointed to be kept up in his Church, of noting those that walk disor­derly, of separating our selves from them, of having no fellowship, no, not so much as to eat with them, as long as we give them cause to apprehend, that we in­tend by this to bring them under our Yoke, to subdue them to us, and to rule them with a Rod of Iron: For the truth is, Mankind is so strongly compound­ed, that it is very hard to restrain Ec­clesiastical Tyranny on the one hand, without running to a Lawless Licenti­ousness on the other; so strongly does the World love Extreams, and avoid a Temper.

Now I have gone through the Pub­lick Functions o [...] a Priest, and in speak­ing of the last of these, I have broke in upon the Third Head of his Duty, [Page 193] his private Labours in his Parish. He understands little the Nature and the Obligations of the Priestly Office, who thinks he has discharged it, by per­forming the Publick Appointments, in which if he is defective, the Laws of the Church, how feeble soever they may be as to other things, will have their Course; but as the private Du­ties of the Pastoral Care, are things upon which the Cognisance of the Law cannot fall, so they are the most impor­tant and necessary of all others; and the more Praise Worthy, the freer they are, and the less forc'd by the Com­pulsion of Law. As to the Publick Functions, every Man has his Rule; and in these all are almost alike; every Man, especially if his Lungs are good, can read Prayers, even in the largest Congregation; and if he has a right Taste, and can but choose good Ser­mons, out of the many that are in Print, he may likewise serve them well that way too. But the difference between one Man and another, shews it self more sensibly in his private Labours, in his prudent Deportment, in his modest and discreet Way of procuring Respect to himself, in his Treating his Parish, ei­ther [Page 194] in reconciling such Differences as may happen to be among them, or in Admonishing Men of Rank, who set an ill Example to others, which ought al­ways to be done in that way, which will probably have the best effect upon them; therefore it must be done secret­ly, and with Expressions of Tender­ness and Respect for their Persons; fit times are to be chosen for this; it may be often the best way to do it by a Letter: For there may be ways fallen upon, of reproving the worst Men, in so soft a manner, that if they are not reclaimed, yet they shall not be irrita­ted or made worse by it, which is but too often the Effect of an indiscreet Reproof. By this a Minister may save the Sinners Soul; he is at least sure to save his own, by having discharged his Duty towards his People.

One of the chief Parts of the Pastoral Care, is the visiting the sick; not to be done barely when one is sent for: He is to go as soon as he hears that any of his Flock are ill; He is not to satisfie him­self with going over the Office, or gi­ving them the Sacrament when desired: He ought to inform himself of their Course of Life, and of the Temper of [Page 195] their Mind, that so he may apply him­self to them accordingly. If they are insensible, he ought to awaken them with the Terrours of God; the Judg­ment and the Wrath to come. He must endeavour to make them sensible of their Sins; particularly of that which runs through most Men's Lives, their forgetting and neglecting God and his Service, and their setting their Hearts so inordinately upon the World: He must set them on to examine their deal­ings, and make them seriously to con­sider, that they can expect no Mercy from God, unless they restore whatso­ever they may have got unjustly from any other, by any manner of way, e­ven though their Title were confirmed by Law: He is to lay any other Sins to their charge, that he has reason to su­spect them guilty of; and must press them to all such Acts of Repentance as they are then capable of. If they have been Men of a bad Course of Life, he must give them no encouragement to hope much from this Death-bed Re­pentance; yet he is to set them to Im­plore the Mercies of God in Christ Iesus, and to do all they can to obtain his Fa­vour. But unless the Sickness has been [Page 196] of a long continuance, and that the Person's Repentance, his Patience, his Piety has been very extraordinary, du­ring the Course of it, he must be sure to give him no positive ground of Hope; but leave him to the Mercies of God. For there cannot be any greater Treachery to Souls, that is more fatal and more pernicious, than the giving quick and easie hopes, upon so short, so forced, and so imperfect a Repen­tance. It not only makes those Per­sons perish securely themselves, but it leads all about them to destruction; when they see one, of whose bad Life and late Repentance they have been the Witnesses, put so soon in hopes, nay by some unfaithful Guides, made sure of Sal­vation; this must make them go on very secure in their Sins; when they see how small a measure of Repentance sets all right at last: All the Order and Ju­stice of a Nation, would be presently dissolved, should the howlings of Cri­minals, and their Promises of Amend­ment, work on Iuries, Iudges, or Princes: So the hopes that are given to Death-bed Penitents, must be a most effectual means to root out the Sense of Religion of the Minds of all that see it; [Page 197] and therefore though no dying Man is to be driven to Despair, and left to die obstinate in his Sins; yet if we love the Souls of our People, if we set a due value on the Blood of Christ, and if we are touched with any Sense of the Honour or Interests of Religion, we must not say any thing that may encourage others, who are but too apt of themselves to put all off to the last Hour. We can give them no hopes from the Nature of the Gospel Covenant; yet after all, the best thing a dying Man can do, is to Repent; if he recovers, that may be the Seed and Beginning of a new Life and a new Nature in him: Nor do we know the Measure of the Riches of God's Grace and Mercy; how far he may think fit to exert it beyond the Condi­tions and Promises of the New Covenant, at least to the lessening of such a Per­sons Misery in another State. We are sure he is not within the New Covenant; and since he has not repented, according to the Tenor of it, we dare not, unless we betray our Commission, give any hopes beyond it. But one of the chief Cares of a Minister about the Sick, ought to be to exact of them Solemn Vows and Promises, of a Renovation of Life, [Page 198] in case God shall raise them up again; and these ought to be demanded, not only in general Words, but if they have been guilty of any scandalous Disorders, or any other ill Practices, there ought to be special Promises made with Relation to those. And upon the Recovery of such Persons, their Mini­sters ought to put them in mind of their Engagements, and use all the due free­dom of Admonitions and Reproof, up­on their breaking loose from them. In such a Case they ought to leave a terri­ble denunciation of the Judgments of God upon them, and so at least they ac­quit themselves.

There is another sort of sick Persons, who abound more in Towns than in the Country; those are the troubled in Mind; of these there are two sorts, some have committed enormous Sins, which kindle a Storm in their Conscien­ces; and that ought to be cherished, till they have compleated a Repentance proportioned to the Nature and Degree of their Sin. If Wrong has been done to another, Reparation and Restitution must be made to the utmost of the Par­ty's Power. If Blood has been shed, a long course of Fasting and Prayer; a [Page 199] total abstinence from Wine; if Drunken­ness gave the rise to it, a making up the loss to the Family, on which it has fallen, must be enjoyned. But alas, the greater part of those that think they are troubled in Mind, are Melan­choly hypochondriacal People, who, what through some false Opinions in Religi­on, what through a foulness of Blood, occasioned by their unactive Course of Life, in which their Minds work too much, because their Bodies are too little imployed, fall under dark and cloudy Apprehensions; of which they can give no clear nor good Account. This, in the greatest Part, is to be removed by strong and Chalybeate Medicines; yet such Persons are to be much pitied, and a little humoured in their Distemper. They must be diverted from thinking too much, being too much alone, or dwelling too long on Thoughts that are too hard for them to Master.

The Opinion that has had the chief Influence in raising these Distempers, has been that of Praying by the Spirit; when a flame of Thought, a melting in the Brain, and the abounding in tender expressions, have been thought the Effects of the Spirit, moving all those Symp­toms [Page 200] of a warm Temper. Now in all People, especially in Persons of a Me­lancholy Disposition, that are much a­lone, there will be a great diversity, with relation to this at different times: Sometimes these Heats will rise and flow copiously, and at other times there will be a damp upon the Brain, and a dead dryness in the Spirits. This to men that are prepossessed with the O­pinion, now set forth, will appear as if God did sometimes shine out, and at o­ther times hide his face; and since this last will be the most frequent in men of that Temper; as they will be apt to be lifted up, when they think they have a fulness of the Spirit in them, so they will be as much cast down when that is withdrawn; they will conclude from it, that God is angry with them, and so reckon that they must be in a very dan­gerous Condition: Upon this, a vast variety of troublesom Scruples will a­rise, out of every thing that they either do or have done. If then a Minister has occasion to treat any in this Condi­tion, he must make them apprehend that the heat or coldness of their Brain, is the effect of Temper; and flows from the different State of the Animal Spirits, [Page 201] which have their Diseases, their hot and their cold Fits, as well as the Blood has; and therefore no measure can be taken from these, either to Judge for or against themselves. They are to consi­der what are their Principles and Reso­lutions, and what's the settled Course of their Life; upon these they are to form sure Judgments, and not upon any thing that is so fluctuating and in­constant as Fits or Humours.

Another part of a Priest's Duty is, with relation to them that are without, I mean, that are not of our Body, which are of the side of the Church of Rome, or among the Dissenters. Other Churches and Bodies are noted for their Zeal, in making Proselytes, for their restless En­deavours, as well as their unlawful Me­thods in it, they reckoning, perhaps, that all will be sanctified by the en­creasing their Party, which is the true name of making Converts, except they become at the same time Good Men, as well as Votaries to a Side or Cause. We are certainly very remiss in this, of both hands, little pains is taken to gain either upon Papist or Nonconformist; the Law has been so much trusted to; that that method only was thought sure; it [Page 202] was much valued, and others at the same time as much neglected; and whereas at first, without force or violence, in Fourty years time, Popery from being the pre­vailing Religion, was reduced to a hand­ful, we have now in above twice that number of years, made very little Pro­gress. The favour shew'd them from our Court, made us seem, as it were, unwil­ling to disturb them in their Religion; so that we grow at last to be kind to them, to look on them as harmless and inoffensive Neighbours, and even to che­rish and comfort them; we were very near the being convinc'd of our mistake, by a terrible and dear bought Experi­ence. Now they are again under Hatches; certainly it becomes us, both in Charity to them, and in regard to our own Safe­ty, to study to gain them by the force of Reason and Persuasion; by shewing all kindness to them, and thereby disposing them to hearken to the Reasons that we may lay before them. We ought not to give over this as desperate upon a few unsuccessful Attempts, but must follow them in the meekness of Christ, that so we may at last prove happy Instruments, in delivering them from the Blindness and Captivity they are kept under, and the [Page 203] Idolatry and Superstition they live in: We ought to visit them often in a Spirit of Love and Charity, and to offer them Conferences; and upon such Endea­vours, we have reason to expect a Bles­sing, at least this, of having done our Du­ty, and so delivering our own Souls.

Nor are we to think, that the Tolera­tion, under which the Law has settled the Dissenters, does either absolve them from the Obligations that they lay under be­fore, by the Laws of God and the Go­spel, to maintain the Vnity of the Church, and not to rent it by unjust or causeless Schisms, or us from using our endea­vours to bring them to it, by the me­thods of Perswasion and Kindness: Nay, perhaps, their being now in Circumstan­ces, that they can no more be forced in these things, may put some of them in a greater towardness to hear Reason; a Free Nation naturally hating Constraint: And certainly the less we seem to grudge or envy them their Liberty, we will be thereby the nearer gaining on the ge­nerouser and better Part of them, and the rest would soon lose Heart, and look out of Countenance; if these should hearken to us. It was the Opinion ma­ny [Page 204] had of their strictness, and of the looseness that was amongst us, that gain­ed them their Credit, and made such numbers fall off from us. They have in a great measure lost the Good Character that once they had; if to that we should likewise lose our bad one; if we were stricter in our Lives, more serious and constant in our Labours; and studied more effectually to Reform those of our Communion, than to rail at theirs; If we took occasion to let them see that we love them, that we wish them no harm, but good, then we might hope, by the Blessing of God, to lay the Obligations to Love and Peace, to Unity and Con­cord before them, with such Advanta­ges, that some of them might open their Eyes, and see at last upon how flight Grounds, they have now so long kept up such a Wrangling, and made such a Rent in the Church, that both the Power of Religion in gene­ral, and the strength of the Prote­stant Religion, have suffered extreamly by them.

Thus far I have carried a Clerk through his Parish, and all the several Branches of his Duty to his People. [Page 205] But that all this may be well gone a­bout, and indeed as the Foundation upon which all the other Parts of the Pastoral Care may be well managed, he ought frequently to visit his whole Parish from House to House; that so he may know them, and be known of them. This I know will seem a vast Labour, especially in Towns, where Parishes are large; but that is no excuse for those in the Country, where they are generally small; and if they are larger, the going this Round will be the longer a doing; yet an hour a day, Twice or Thrice a Week, is no hard Duty; and this in the Compass of a Year will go a great way, even in a large Parish. In these Visits, much Time is not to be spent; a short Word for stirring them up to mind their Souls, to make Conscience of their Ways, and to pray earnestly to God, may begin it, and almost end it. After one has asked in what Union and Peace the Neighbourhood lives, and en­quired into their Necessities, if they seem very Poor, that so those to whom that Care belongs, may be put [Page 206] in mind to see how they may be re­lieved. In this course of visiting, a Minister will soon find out, if there are any truly Good Persons in his Parish, after whom he must look with a more particular regard. Since these are the Excellent ones, in whom all his delight ought to be. For let their Rank be ever so mean, if they are sincerely Religious, and not Hy­pocritical Pretenders to it, who are vainly puffed up with some Degrees of Knowledge, and other outward Appearances, he ought to consider them as the most valuable in the sight of God; and indeed, as the chief Part of his Care; for a living Dog is better than a dead Lion. I know this way of Parochial Visitation, is so worn out, that, perhaps, neither Priest nor People, will be very desirous to see it taken up. It will put the one to Labour and Trouble, and bring the other under a closer Inspection, which bad Men will no ways desire, nor per­haps endure. But if this were put on the Clergy by their Bishops, and if they explained in a Sermon before they began it, the Reasons and Ends of doing it; [Page 207] that would remove the Prejudices which might arise against it. I confess this is an encrease of Labour, but that will seem no hard matter to such as have a right Sense of their Ordination-Vows, of the value of Souls, and of the Dignity of their Function. If Men had the Spirit of their Calling in them, and a due measure of Flame and Heat in carrying it on; Labour in it would be rather a Pleasure than a Trouble. In all other Professions, those who follow them, labour in them all the Year long, and are hard at their Business every Day of the Week. All Men that are well suted in a Profession, that is agree­able to their Genius and Inclination, are really the easier and the better pleased, the more they are employed in it. Indeed there is no Trade nor Course of Life, ex­cept Ours, that does not take up the whole Man: And shall Ours only, that is the Noblest of all others, and that has a cer­tain Subsistence fixed upon it, and does not live by Contingencies, and upon Hopes, as all others do, make the labouring in our Business, an Objection against any part of our Duty? Certainly nothing can so much dispose the Nation, to think o [...] the relieving the Necessities of the many small Livings, as the seeing the Clergy [Page 208] setting about their Business to purpose; this would, by the Blessing of God, be a most effectual Means, of stopping the Progress of Atheism, and of the Contempt that the Clergy lies under; it would go a great way towards the healing our Schism, and would be the chief step that could possibly be made, towards the pro­curing to us such Laws as are yet want­ing to the compleating our Reformation, and the mending the Condition of so many of our poor Brethren, who are languishing in Want, and under great Straits.

There remains only somewhat to be added concerning the Behaviour of the Clergie towards one another. Those of a higher Form in Learning, Dignity and Wealth, ought not to despise poor Vi­cars and Curates; but on the contrary, the poorer they are, they ought to pity and encourage them the more, since they are all of the same Order, only the one are more happily placed than the others: They ought therefore to cherish those that are in worse Circumstances, and en­courage them to come often to them; they ought to lend them Books, and to give them other Assistances in order to [Page 209] their progress in Learning, 'Tis a bad thing to see a Bishop behave himself super­ciliously towards any of his Clergy, but it is intolerable in those of the same Degree. The Clergy ought to contrive Ways to meet often together, to enter into a bro­therly Correspondence, and into the Con­cerns one of another, both in order to their progress in Knowledg, and for con­sulting together in all their Affairs. This would be a means to cement them into one Body: hereby they might understand what were amiss in the Conduct of any in their Division, and try to correct it either by private Advices and Endea­vours, or by laying it before the Bishop, by whose private Labours, if his Clergy would be assisting to him, and give him free and full Informations of things, ma­ny Disorders might be cured, without rising to a publick Scandal, or forcing him to extream Censures. It is a false Pity in any of the Clergy, who see their Brethren running into ill Courses, to look on and say nothing: it is a Cru­elty to the Church, and may prove a Cruelty to the Person of whom they are so unseasonably tender: for things may be more easily corrected at first, before they have grown to be publick, or are [Page 210] hardned by Habit and Custom. Upon all these Accounts it is of great advantage, and may be Matter of great Edification to the Clergie, to enter into a strict U­nion together, to meet often, and to be helpful to one another: but if this should be made practicable, they must be ex­treamly strict in those Meetings, to ob­serve so exact a Sobriety, that there might be no Colour given to censure them, as if these were merry Meetings, in which they allowed themselves great Liberties: it were good, if they could be brought to meet to fast and pray; but if that is a strain too high for the present Age, at least they must keep so far within bounds, that there may be no room for Calumny. For a Disorder upon any such Occasion, would give a Wound of an extraordinary Na­ture to the Reputation of the whole Clergy, when every one would bear a Share of the Blame, which perhaps be­longed but to a few. Four or five such Meetings in a Summer, would neither be a great Charge, nor give much Trouble: but the Advantages that might arise out of them, would be very sensible.

I have but one other Advice to add, but it is of a thing of great consequence, though generally managed in so loose [Page 211] and so indifferent a Manner, that I have some reason in Charity to believe, that the Clergy make very little Reflection on what they do in it: And that is, in the Testimonials that they sign in favour of those that come to be Ordained. Many have confessed to my self, that they had signed these upon general Reports, and Importunity; tho the Testimonial bears personal Knowledg. These are instead of the Suffrages of the Clergy, which in the Primitive Church were given before any were Ordained. A Bishop must de­pend upon them; for he has no other way to be certainly informed: and therefore as it is a Lie, pass'd with the Solemnity of Hand and Seal, to affirm any thing that is beyond one's own Know­ledg, so it is a Lie made to God and the Church; since the design of it is to pro­cure Orders. So that if a Bishop trusting to that, and being satisfied of the Know­ledg of one that brings it, ordains an un­fit and unworthy Man, they that signed it, are deeply and chiefly involved in the Guilt of his laying Hands suddenly upon him: therefore every Priest ought to charge his Conscience in a deep particu­lar Manner, that so he may never testify for any one, unless he knows his Life to [Page 212] be so regular, and believes his Temper to be so good, that he does really judg him a Person fit to be put in Holy Or­ders. These are all the Rules that do occur to me at present.

In performing these several Branches of the Duty of a Pastor, the trouble will not be great, if he is truly a good Man, and delights in the Service of God, and in doing Acts of Charity: the Pleasure will be unspeakable; first, that of the Conscience in this Testimony that it gives, and the Quiet and Joy which arises from the Sense of one's having done his Duty: and then it can scarce be supposed [...] by all this, some will be wrought on; some Sinners will be reclaimed; bad Men will grow good, and good Men will grow better. And if a generous Man feels to a great degree, the Pleasure of having delivered one from Misery, and of making him easy and happy; how so­veraign a Joy must it be to a Man that believes there is another Life, to see that he has been an Instrument to rescue some from endless Misery, and to further others in the way to everlasting Happi­ness? and the more Instances he sees of this, the more do his Joys grow upon him. This makes Life happy, and Death [Page 213] joyful to such a Priest, for he is not terri­fied with those words, Give an Account of thy Stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer Steward: He knows his Reward shall be full, pressed down, and running over. He is but too happy in those Spiritual Children, whom he has begot in Christ, he looks after those as the chief part of his Care, and as the principal of his Flock, and is so far from aspiring, that it is not without some Uneasiness that he leaves them, if he is commanded to arise to some higher Post in the Church.

The Troubles of this Life, the Cen­sures of bad Men, and even the prospect of a Persecution, are no dreadful Things to him that has this Seal of his Ministry; and this Comfort within him, that he has not laboured in vain, nor run and fought as one that beats the Air; he sees the Tra­vel of his Soul, and is satisfied when he finds that God's Work prospers in his hand. This comforts him in his sad Reflections on his own past Sins, that he has been an Instrument of advancing God's Honour, of saving Souls, and of propagating his Gospel: Since to have saved one Soul, is worth a Man's coming into the World, and richly worth the Labours of his whole Life. Here is a Subject that might [Page 214] be easily prosecuted by many warm and lively Figures: But I now go on to the last Article relating to this Matter.

CHAP. IX. Concerning Preaching.

THE World naturally runs to Ex­treams in every thing. If one Sect or Body of Men magnify Preaching too much, another carries that to another Extream of decrying it as much. It is cer­tainly a noble and a profitable Exercise, if rightly gone about, of great use both to Priest and People; by obliging the one to much Study and Labour, and by setting before the other full and copious Discoveries of Divine Matters, opening them clearly, and pressing them weightily upon them. It has also now gained so much Esteem in the World, that a Clergy­man cannot maintain his Credit, nor bring his People to a constant Atten­dance on the Worship of God, unless he is happy in these Performances.

I will not run out into the History of Preaching, to shew how late it was before [Page 215] it was brought into the Church, and by what steps it grew up to the pitch it is now at: How long it was before the Roman Church used it, and in how many diffe­rent shapes it has appeared. Some of the first Patterns we have, are the best: for as Tully began the Roman Eloquence, and likewise ended it, no Man being able to hold up to the pitch to which he raised it; so St. Basil and St. Chrysostom brought Preaching from the dry pursuing of Al­legories that had vitiated Origen, and from the excessive Affectation of Figures and Rhetorick that appears in Nazianzen, to a due Simplicity; a native Force and Beauty, having joined to the Plainness of a clear but noble Stile, the Strength of Reason, and the Softness of Persuasion. Some were disgusted at this Plainness; and they brought in a great deal of Art into the Composition of Sermons: Mysti­cal Applications of Scripture grew to be better liked than clear Texts; an Accu­mulation of Figures, a Cadence in the Periods, a playing upon the Sounds of Words, a Loftiness of Epithets, and of­ten an Obscurity of Expression, were ac­cording to the different Tastes of the se­veral Ages run into. Preaching has past through many different Forms among [Page 216] us, since the Reformation. But without flattering the present Age, or any Persons now alive, too much, it must be confes­sed, that it is brought of late to a much greater Perfection, than it was ever before at among us. It is certainly brought nearer the Pattern that S. Chrysostom has set, or perhaps carried beyond it. Our Language is much refined, and we have returned to the plain Notions of simple and genuine Rhetorick.

We have so vast a number of excellent Performances in Print, that if a Man has but a right understanding of Religion, and a true relish of good Sense, he may easily furnish himself this way. The im­pertinent Way of dividing Texts is laid aside, the needless setting out of the O­riginals, and the vulgar Version, is worn ou [...]. The trifling Shews of Learning in many Quotations of Passages, that very few could understand, do no more flat the Auditory. Pert Wit and luscious Elo­quence have lost their relish. So that Ser­mons are reduced to the plain opening the Meaning of the Text, in a few short Illustrations of its Coherence with what goes before and after, and of the Parts of which it is composed; to that is joined the clear stating of such Propositions as [Page 217] arise out of it, in their Nature, Truth and Reasonableness: by which, the Hear­ers may form clear Notions of the seve­ral Parts of Religion; such as are best suted to their Capacities and Apprehen­sions: to all which Applications are ad­ed, tending to the Reproving, Directing, Encouraging, or Comforting the Hear­ers, according to the several Occasions that are offered.

This is indeed all that can be truly be intended in Preaching, to make some Por­tions of Scripture to be rightly under­stood; to make those Truths contain'd in them, to be more fully apprehended; and then to lay the Matter home to the Consciences of the Hearers, so directing all to some good and practical end. In the choice of the Text ▪ care is to be ta­ken not to chuse Texts that seem to have Humour in them; or that must be long wrought upon, before they are under­stood. The plainer a Text is in it self, the sooner it is cleared, and the fuller it is of Matter of Instruction; and therefore such ought to be chosen to common Au­ditories. Many will remember the Text, that remember nothing else; therefore such a choice should be made, as may at least put a weighty and speaking Sen­tence [Page 218] of the Scriptures upon the Memo­ries of the People. A Sermon should be made for a Text, and not a Text found out for a Sermon; for to give our Dis­courses weight, it should appear that we are led to them by our Texts: such Ser­mons will probably have much more Ef­ficacy than a general Discourse, before which a Text seems only to be read as a decent Introduction, but to which no regard is had in the Progress of it. Great Care should be also had both in opening the Text, and of that which arises from it to illustrate them, by concurrent Passa­ges of Scripture: a little of this ought to be in every Sermon, and but a little: for the People are not to be over-charged with too much of it at a time; and this ought to be done with judgment, and not made a bare Concordance Exercise, of citing Scriptures, that have the same Words, though not to the same purpose and in the same sense. A Text being o­pened, then the Point upon which the Sermon is to run is to be opened; and it will be the better heard and understood, if there is but one Point in a Sermon; so that one Head, and only one is well stated, and fully set out. In this, great regard is to be had to the Nature of the [Page 219] Auditory, that so the Point explained may be in some measure proportioned to them. Too close a Thread of Rea­son, too great an Abstraction of Thought, too sublime and▪ too metaphisical a Strain, are sutable to very few Auditories, if to any at all.

Things must be put in a clear Light, and brought out in as short Periods, and in as plain Words as may be: The Rea­sons of them must be made as sensible to the People as is possible; as in Vertues and Vices; their Tendencies and Ef­fects; their being sutable or unsutable to our Powers, to both Souls and Bodies, to the Interests of this Life as well as the next; and the Good or Evil that they do to Humane Societies, Families and Neighbourhoods, ought to be fully and frequently opened. In setting these forth, such a Measure is to be kept, that the Hearers may perceive, that things are not strained in the Way of a Declamation, into forced Characters, but that they are set out, as truly they are, without ma­king them seem better by imaginary Per­fections, or worse by an undue Aggra­vation. For the carrying those Matters beyond the plain Observation of Man­kind, makes that the Whole is looked [Page 220] on as a piece of Rhetorick; the Prea­cher seeming to intend rather to shew his Skill, is raising his Subject too high, or running it down too low, than to lay before them the native Consequences of things; and that which upon Reflection they may be all able to perceive is really true. Vertue is so good in it self, that it needs no false Paint to make it look bet­ter: and Vice is so bad, that it can never look so ugly, as when shewed in its own natural Colours. So that an undue Sub­lime in such Descriptions, does hurt, and can do no good.

When the Explanatory Part of the Sermon is over, the Application comes next: and here great Judgment must be used, to make it fall the heaviest, and lie the longest, upon such Particulars as may be within the compass of the Auditory: Directions concerning a high Devotion, to a stupid ignorant Company; or of Generosity and Bounty, to very poor People; against Pride and Ambition, to such as are dull and low minded, are ill suted; and so must have little effect up­on them. Therefore care must be taken that the Application be useful and pro­per; that it make the Hearers apprehend som of their Sins and Defects, and see how [Page 221] to perform their Duty; that it awaken them to it, and direct them in it: and therefore the most common Sins, such as Mens neglecting their Duty to God, in the several Branches of it; their setting their Hearts inordinately upon the World; their Lying in Discourse, but chiefly in Bargaining; their evil Speaking, and their Hatred and Malice, ought to be very of­ten brought in. Some one or other of thes [...], ought to be in every Application that is made, by which they may see, that the whole design of Religion lies a­gainst them. Such particular Sins, Swear­ing, Drunkenness, or Leudness as abound in any place, must likewise be frequently brought in here. The Application must be clear and short, very weighty, and free of every thing that looks like the Affecta­tions of Wit and Eloquence; here the Preacher must be all Heart and Soul, designing the good of his People. The whole Sermon is directed to this: there­fore as it is fit that the chief Point which a Sermon drives at, should come often o­ver and over, that so the Hearers may never lose sight of it, but keep it still in view; so in the Application, the Text must be shewed to speak it; all the Parts of the Explanation must come in, to en­force [Page 222] it: the Application must be opened in the several Views that it may have, but those must be chiefly insisted on that are most sutable both to the Capacities and the Circumstances of the People. And in conclusion, all ought to be sum­med up in a weighty Period or two; and some other signal Passage of the Scriptures relating to it may be sought for, that so the Matter may be left upon the Auditory in the solemnest manner pos­sible.

Thus I have led a Preacher through the Composition of his Sermon; I will next lay before him some Particulars rela­ting to it. The shorter Sermons are, they are generally both better heard, and bet­ter remembred. The custom of an Hour's length, forces many Preachers to trifle a­way much of the Time, and to spin out their Matter, so as to hold out. So great a length does also flat the Hearers, and tempt them to sleep; especially when, as is usual, the first part of the Sermon is languid and heavy: In half an Hour a Man may lay open his Matter in its full extent, and cut off those Superfluities which come in only to lengthen the Dis­course: and he may hope to keep up the Attention of his People all the while. As [Page 223] to the Stile, Sermons ought to be very plain; the Figures must be easy, not mean, but noble, and brought in upon design to make the Matter better understood. The Words in a Sermon must be simple, and in common use; not savouring of the Schools, nor above the understanding of the Peo­ple. All long Periods, such as carry two or three different Thoughts in them, must be avoided; for few Hearers can follow or apprehend these: Niceties of Stile are lost before a common Auditory. But if an easy Simplicity of Stile should run through the whole Composition, it should take place most of all in the explanatory part; for the thing being there offered to be understood, it should be stript of all garnishing: Definitions should not be offered in the Terms, or Method, that Logick directs. In short, a Preacher is to fancy himself, as in the room of the most unlearned Man in his whole Parish; and therefore he must put such parts of his Discourse as he would have all under­stand, in so plain a form of Words, that it may not be beyond the meanest of them: This he will certainly study to do, if his desire is to edify them, rather than to make them admire himself as a learned and high-spoken Man.

[Page 224]But in the Applicatory part, if he has a true taste of Eloquence, and is a Master at it, he is to employ it all in giving some­times such tender Touches, as may soften; and deeper Gashes, such as may awaken his Hearers. A vain Eloquence here, is very ill plac'd; for if that can be born any where, it is in illustrating the Matter: but all must be grave, where one would per­swade: the most natural but the most sensi­ble Expressions come in best here. Such an Eloquence as makes the Hearers look grave, and as it were out of Countenance, is the properest. That which makes them look lively, and as it were smile upon one another, may be pretty, but it only tickles the Imagination, and pleases the Ear; whereas that which goes to the Heart, and wounds it, makes the Hearer rather look down, and turns his Thoughts inward, upon himself: For it is certain that a Sermon, the Conclusion whereof makes the Auditory look pleased, and sets them all a talking one with another, was either not right spoken, or not right heard; it has been fine, and has probably delighted the Congregation, rather than edified it. But that Sermon that makes every one go away silent and grave, and hastning to be alone, to meditate or pray [Page 225] over the matter of it in secret, has had its true effect.

He that has a Taste and Genius for Eloquence, must improve it by reading Quintilian, and Tully's Books of Oratory; and by observing the Spirit and Method of Tully's Orations: or if he can enter into Demosthenes, there he will see a much better Pattern, there being a simplicity, a shortness, and a swiftness, and rapidity in him, that could not be heard without putting his Auditors into a great Com­motion. All our Modern Books upon those Subjects, are so far short of those great Originals, that they can bear no Comparison: yet F. Rapin's little Book of Eloquence is by much the best, only he is too short. Tully has so fully opened all the Topicks of Invention, that a Man who has read him, will, if he has any In­vention of his own, and if he knows throughly his Matter, rather have too much than too little in his view, upon every Subject that he treats. This is a Noble Study, and of great use to such as have Judgment to manage it; for Artifi­cial Eloquence, without a Flame within, is like Artificial Poetry; all its Producti­ons are forced and unnatural, and in a great measure ridiculous. Art helps and [Page 226] guides Nature; but if one was not born with this Flame, Art will only spoil him, make him luscious and redundant. To such Persons, and indeed to all that are not Masters of the Body of Divinity, and of the Scriptures, I should much rather re­commend the using other Mens Sermons, than the making any of their own. But in the choice of these, great Judgment must be used; one must not take an Au­thor that is too much above himself, for by that, compared with his Ordinary Conversation, it will but too evidently appear, that he cannot be the Author of his own Sermons; and that will make both him and them lose too much of their weight. He ought also to put those printed Sermons out of that strength and closeness of Stile, which looks very well in print; but is too stiff, especially for a common Auditory. He may reverse the Method a little, and shorten the Expla­nations, that so he may retain all that is practical; and that a Man may form him­self to Preaching, he ought to take some of the best Models, and try what he can do upon a Text handled by them, with­out reading them, and then compare his Work with theirs; this will more sensibly, and without putting him to the Blush, [Page 227] model him to imitate, or if he can, to excel the best Patterns: and by this Me­thod, if he will restrain himself for some time, and follow it close, he may come to be able to go without such Crutches, and to work without Patterns: till then, I should advise all to make use of other Mens Sermons, rather than to make any of their own.

The Nation has got into so good a Taste of Sermons, from the vast number of those excellent ones that are in print, that a mean Composition will be very ill heard; and therefore it is an unseasonable piece of Vanity, for any to offer their own Crudities, till they have well dige­sted and ripened them. I wish the Maje­sty of the Pulpit were more looked to; and that no Sermons were offered from thence, but such as should make the Hear­ers both the better, and the wiser, the more knowing, and the more serious.

In the Delivering of Sermons, a great Composure of Gesture and Behaviour is necessary, to give them Weight and Au­thority: Extreams are bad here, as in e­very thing else; some affect a light and flippant Behaviour; and others think that wry Faces and a tone in the Voice, will set off the Matter. Grave and composed [Page 228] Looks, and a natural, but distinct Pro­nunciation, will always have the best Effects. The great Rule which the Ma­sters of Rhetorick press much, can ne­ver be enough remembred; that to make a Man speak well, and pronounce with a right Emphasis, he ought throughly to un­derstand all that he says, be fully persua­ded of it, and bring himself to have those Affections, which he desires to infuse in­to others. He that is inwardly persuaded of the Truth of what he says, and that has a Concern about it in his Mind, will pro­nounce with a natural Vehemence, that is far more lively, than all the Strains that Art can lead him to. An Orator, if we hear­ken to them, must be an honest Man, and speak always on the side of Truth, and study to feel all that he says; and then he will speak it so as to make others feel it like­wise. And therefore such as read their Sermons, ought to practise Reading much in private, and read aloud, that so their own Ear and Sense may guide them, to know where to raise or quicken, soften or sweeten their Voice, and when to give an Articulation of Authority, or of Con­viction; where to pause, and where to languish. We plainly see by the Stage, what a Force there is in Pronunciation: [Page 229] the best Compositions are murdered, if ill spoken; and the worst are acceptable, when well said. In Tragedies rightly pro­nounced and acted, though we know that all is Fable and Fiction; the tender Parts do so melt the Company, that Tears cannot be stop'd, even by those who laugh at themselves for it. This shews the power of apt Words, and a just Pronunciation. But because this depends in a great mea­sure, upon the present Temper of him that speaks, and the lively Disposition in which he is, therefore he ought by much previous Seriousness, and by earnest Prayer to God, to endeavour to raise his Mind to as warm a sense of the Things he is to speak of, as possibly he can, that so his Sermons may make deep Impressi­ons on his Hearers.

This leads me to consider the Diffe­rence that is between the Reading and the Speaking of Sermons. Reading is peculiar to this Nation, and is endured in no other. It has indeed made that our Sermons are more exact, and so it has pro­duced to us many Volumes of the best that are extant; but after all, though some few read so happily, pronounce so truly, and enter so entirely into those Affections which they recommend, that in them we see both the Correctness of [Page 230] Reading, and the Seriousness of Speaking Sermons, yet every one is not so happy: some by hanging their Heads perpetual­ly over their Notes, by blundring as they read, and by a cursory running o­ver them, do so lessen the Matter of their Sermons, that as they are generally read with very little Life or Affection, so they are heard with as little regard or esteem. Those who read, ought certainly to be at a little more pains, than for most part they are, to read true, to pronounce with an Emphasis, and to raise their Heads, and to direct their Eyes to their Hearers: and if they practis'd more alone the just way of Reading, they might deliver their Sermons with much more advantage. Man is a low sort of Creature; he does not, nay nor the greater part cannot con­sider things in themselves, without those little Seasonings that must recommend them to their Affections. That a Dis­course be heard with any Life, it must be spoken with some; and the Looks and Motions of the Eye do carry in them such Additions to what is said, that where these do not at all concur, it has not all the Force upon them, that otherwise it might have: besides, that the People, who are too apt to censure the Clergy, are ea­sily [Page 231] carried into an obvious Reflection on Reading, that it is an Effect of Lazi­ness.

In pronouncing Sermons, there are two Ways; the one is when a whole Discourse is got by heart, and delivered word for word, as it was writ down: this is so vast a Labour, that it is scarce possible that a Man can be able to hold up long to it: Yet there is an Advantage even in this to Beginners; it fills their Memories with good Thoughts, and regular Medi­tations: and when they have got some of the most important of their Sermons by heart in so exact a manner, they are thereby furnished with Topicks for Dis­course. And therefore there are at least two different Subjects, on which I wish all Preachers would be at the pains, to form Sermons well in their Memories: the one is the Grounds of the Covenant of Grace, of both sides, God's offers to us in Christ, and the Conditions that he has required of us, in order to our Reconci­liation with him. This is so important a Point, in the whole course of our Mini­stry, that no Man ought to be to seek in the opening or explaining it: and there­fore that he may be ripe in it, he ought to have it all rightly laid in his Memory, [Page 232] not only as to the Notions of it, but to have such a lively Description and Il­lustration of it all, as to be able to speak of it sensibly, fully, and easily upon all Occasions. Another Subject in which every Minister ought also to be well fur­nished, is concerning Death and Iudg­ment; that so when he visits the Sick, and, as is common, that the Neighbours come in, he may be able to make a grave Exhortation, in weighty and fit Words, upon those Heads. Less than this, I think no Priest ought to have in his Memory. But indeed, the more Sermons a young Beginner gets by heart, he has still there­by the more Discourse ready upon those Heads; for though the whole Contexture of the Sermon will stick no longer than as he has occasion for it, yet a great deal will stay with him: the Idea of the Whole, with the most important Parts of it, will remain much longer.

But now I come to propose another Method of Preaching, by which a Priest may be prepared, after a right View of his Matter, a true Understanding his Text, and a Digesting of his Thoughts upon it into their natural and proper Order, to deliver these both more easily to himself, and with a better Effect both [Page 233] upon Himself and his Hearers. To come at this, he must be for some Years at a great deal of pains to prepare himself to it: yet when that is over, the Labour of all the rest of his Life, as to those Per­formances, will become very easy and ve­ry pleasant to him. The Preparations to this must be these; First he must read the Scriptures very exactly, he must have great Portions of them by heart; and he must also in reading them, make a short Concordance of them in his Memory; that is, he must lay together such Passages as belong to the same Matter; to consi­der how far they agree or help to illu­strate one another, and how the same thing is differently expressed in them; and what various Ideas or Ways of re­commending a thing rise out of this Con­cordance. Upon this a Man must exer­cise himself much, draw Notes of it, and digest it well in his Thoughts. Then he must be ready with the whole body of Divinity in his Head; he must know what Parts come in as Objections to be answered, where Difficulties lie, how one Part coheres with another, and gives it Light. He must have this very current in his Memory, that he may have things lie before him in one full view; and upon [Page 234] this, he is also to work, by making Tables, or using such other Helps as may lay Matters clearly before him. He is more particularly to lay before him, a System of Morality, of all Vertues and Vices, and of all the Duties that arise out of the se­veral Relations of Mankind; that he m [...]y have this Matter very full in his eye, and know what are the Scriptures that be­long to all the Parts of it: he is also to make a Collection of all such Thoughts, as he finds either in the Books of the An­cien [...] Philosophers, (where Seneca will be of great use to him) or of Christian Au­thors: he is to separate such Thoughts as are forced, and that do become rather a strained Declamation made only to please, than a solid Discourse designed to per­suade. All these he must gather, or at least such a number of them, as may help him to form a distinct Notion of that Matter, so as to be able both to open it clearly, and to press it with Affection and Vehe­mence.

These are the Materials that must be laid together, the Practice in using them comes next; He that then would prepare himself to be a Preacher in this Method, must accustom himself to talk freely to himself, to let his Thoughts flow from [Page 235] him, especially when he feels an edg and heat upon his Mind; for then happy Ex­pressions will come in his Mouth, things will ventilate and open themselves to him, as he talks them thus in a Soliloquy to himself. He must also be writing ma­ny Essays upon all sorts of Subjects; for by writing he will bring himself to a cor­rectness both in thinking and in speaking: and thus by a hard practice for two or three Years, a Man may render himself such a Master in this Matter, that he can never be surprised, nor will new Thoughts ever dry up upon him. He must talk o­ver to himself the whole Body of Divini­ty, and accustom himself to explain, and prove, to clear Objections, and to apply every part of it to some practical use. He must go through Human Life, in all the Ranks and Degrees of it, and talk o­ver all the Duties of these; consider the advantages or disadvantages in every one of them, their Relation to one another, the Morality of Actions, the common Vertues and Vices of Mankind; more particular­ly the Duties of Christians, their Obliga­tions to Meekness and Humility, to for­give Injuries, to relieve the Poor, to bear the Cross, to be patient and contented in every State of Life, to pray much and [Page 236] fervently, to rejoice ever in God, and to be always praising him, and most parti­cularly to be applying seriously to God through Jesus Christ, for Mercy and Par­don, and for his Grace and Spirit; to be worshipping him devoutly in publick, and to be delighting frequently to com­memorate the Death of Christ, and to partake of the Benefits of it. All these, I say, he must talk over and over again to himself; he must study to give his Thoughts all the Heat and Flight about them that he can: and if in these his Meditations, happy Thoughts, and noble and tender Expressions, do at any time offer themselves, he must not lose them, but write them down; and in his pro­nouncing over such Discourses to him­self, he must observe what Words sound harsh, and agree ill together; for there is a Musick in Speaking, as well as in Singing; which a Man, tho not other­wise critical in Sounds, will soon disco­ver. By a very few Years practice of two or three of such Soliloquies a Day, chiefly in the Morning when the Head is clear­est, and the Spirits are liveliest, a Man will contract a great easiness both in thinking and speaking.

[Page 237]But the Rule I have reserved last, is the most necessary of all, and without it all the rest will never do the Business; it is this, That a Man must have in himself a deep sense of the Truth and Power of Religion; he must have a Life and Flame in his Thoughts, with relation to those Subjects: He must have felt in himself those things which he intends to explain and recommend to others. He must ob­serve narrowly the motions of his own Mind, the good and bad Effects that the several sorts of Objects he has before him, and Affections he feels within him, have upon him; that so he may have a lively Heat in himself, when he speaks of them; and that he may speak in so sensible a manner, that it may be almost felt that he speaks from his Heart. There is an Au­thority in the simplest Things that can be said, when they carry visible Characters of Genuineness in them. Now if a Man can carry on this Method, and by much Meditation and Prayer draw down Di­vine Influences, which are always to be expected, when a Man puts himself in the way of them, and prepares himself for them; he will often feel, that while he is musing, a Fire is kindled within him, and then he will speak with Authority, and with­out [Page 238] Constraint; his Thoughts will be true, and his Expressions free and easy: Some­times this Fire will carry him, as it were, out of himself; and yet without any thing that is Frantick or Enthusiastical. Discourses brought forth with a lively Spirit and Heat, where a composed Ge­sture, and the proper Motions of the Eye and Countenance, and the due Modula­tions of the Voice concur, will have all the effect that can be expected from any thing that is below immediate Inspiration: and as this will be of use to the Hearers, so it will be of vast use to the Preacher himself, to oblige him to keep his Heart always in good Tune and Temper; not to suffer irregular or forbidden Appe­tites, Passions, or Projects to possess his Mind: these will both divert him from going on in the course of Meditation, in which a Man must continue many Years, till all his Thoughts are put in order, po­lish'd and fixed; they will make him like­wise speak much against the grain, with an Aversion that will be very sensible to himself, if not to his Hearers: If he has Guilt upon him, if his Conscience is re­proaching him, and if any ill Practices are putting a damp upon that good sense of Things, that makes his Thoughts sparkle, [Page 239] upon other occasions, and gives him an Air and Authority, a Tone of Assurance, and a Freedom of Expression.

Such a Method as I have been opening, has had great Success with all those that I have known to have tried it. And tho every one has not that swiftness of Imagi­nation, nor that clearness of Expression, that others may have, so that in this Men may differ as much as they do in their written Compositions; yet every Man by this Method may rise far above that which he could ever have attained to any other way: It will make even ex­act Compositions easier to him, and him much readier and freer at them. But great care must be used by him, before he suffers himself to speak with the liberty here aimed at in publick; he must try himself at smaller Excursions from his fix­ed Thoughts, especially in the Applica­tory part, where Flame and Life are more necessary, and where a mistaken Word, or an unfinished Period are less observed, and sooner forgiven, than in the Expla­natory part, where Men ought to speak more severely. And as one succeeds in some short Excursions, he may give him­self a farther Scope; and so by a long practice, he will at last arrive at so great [Page 240] an easiness, both in thinking and speak­ing, that a very little Meditation will serve to lay open a Text to him, with all the Matter that belongs to it, together with the o [...]der in which it ought to be both explained and applied. And when a Man has attained to a tolerable degree in this, he is then the Master of his Business; he is Master also of much Time, and of ma­ny noble Thoughts, and Schemes that will arise out of them.

This I shall prosecute no further; for if this opening of it, does not excite the Reader to follow it a little, no enlarge­ments I can offer upon it, will work up­on him. But to return to Preaching, and so conclude this Chapter. He that in­tends truly to preach the Gospel, and not himself; he that is more concerned to do good to others, than to raise his own Fame, or to procure a following to him­self, and that makes this the measure of all his Meditations and Sermons, that he may put things in the best Light, and re­commend them with the most advantage to his People; that reads the Scriptures much, and meditates often upon them; that prays earnestly to God for direction in his Labours, and for a Blessing upon them; that directs his chief endeavours [Page 241] to the most important, and most indis­pensible, as well as the most undeniable Duties of Religion; and chiefly to the inward Reformation of his Hearers Hearts, which will certainly draw all other lesser Matters after it; and that does not spend his Time, nor his Zeal, upon lesser or disputable Points; this Man so made, and so moulded, cannot miscarry in his Work: He will certainly succeed to some degree, The Word spoken by him, shall not return again. He shall have his Crown, and his Reward from his La­bours: And to say all that can be said, in one Word, with St. Paul, He shall both save himself, and them that hear him.