loose 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 myself, that they had signed these upon general reports, and importunity; though the testimonial bears personal knowledge. 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, passed with the solemnity of hand and seal, to affirm any thing that is beyond one's own knowledge, 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 knowledge 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 be so regular, and believes his temper to be so good, that he does really judge 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 but, 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 sovereign 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 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 hands. 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 be easily prosecuted by many warm and lively figures: But I now go on to the last article relating to this matter.

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CHAP. IX.

Concerning Preaching.

HE world naturally runs to extremes in every thing. If one sect or body of men magnify preaching too much, another carries that to another extreme 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 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. Chrysostome brought preaching from the dry pursuing of allegories that had vitiated Origen, and from the excessive affectation of figures and rhetoric that appears in Nizianzen, to a due simplicity; a native force and beauty; having joined to the plainness of a clear but noble style, 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 applictions 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 passed through many different forms among 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 St. Chrysostome has set, or perhaps carried beyond it. Our language is much refined, and we have returned to the plain notions of simple and genuine rhetoric.

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 out. 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 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 suited to their capacities and apprehensions: To all which applications are added, tending to the reproving, directing, encouraging or comforting the hearers, according to the several occasions that are offered.

This is indeed all that can truly be intended in preaching, to make some portions of scripture to be rightly understood; to make those truths contained 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 itself, 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 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 effi

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