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sideration 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 increase piety, and to give good thoughts and severe rules. In this a man is to employ himself much. This is a book always at hand, and the getting a great 'deal of it always 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 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 Clergyman.

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CHAP. VIII.

Of the Functions and Labours of Clergymen.

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 public 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 Priest's 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; that I may now be the shorter on this article.

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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 ideas into their mind, and tends both to increase their knowledge, and quicken their sense of divine matters. 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; 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, 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; (Mat. xxiii. 1, 2, 3.) 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, then as they saw their minister do before them.

from all indecent

Gaming and plays,

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 tippling, 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 behaviour, and unbecoming raillery. 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 squandering away his time in too much vain and idle discourse. His cheerfulness 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 employments. He must still carry on his study, making himself an absolute master of the few books he has, till his circumstances grow 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 be any books belonging to his church, such as Jewel's 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 Jews 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 them are at it; their Rabbies have it to that perfection, that they have the concordance of their whole bible in their memories; which gives 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 at all. If one can compass it, he ought to begin with the history of the church, and there at the head Josephus, 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 easy 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 later ages have not been able to imitate; Buchanan only excepted, 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 Physic, especially that which is safe and simple, puts the Clergy in a capacity of doing great acts of charity, and of rendering both their persons and labours very acceptable to

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