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, have made great use of this, that it was the Puritan party that during Queen Elizabeth and King James the First's 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 prejudiced 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 to be liable to as much censure as is possible; whereas every good and wise friend studies to preserve the 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 jealousy of the civil power's 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 condemu those abues 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 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 judgment? This I leave upon all men's 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.

T

HE 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 ideas 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.

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 indispensable 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 employment 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 human nature, or the age we live in, can bear: And after all, if in any thing I may seem to exceed these 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.

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 may stick 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 virtue, 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 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 unblemished 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 men's 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 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 toward 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 ambassador that is

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