for instructing and watching over them, must all be as much higher, and more binding, as this new covenand excels the old one.

CHAP. III.

Passages cut of the New Testament, relating to the same Matter.

This general consideration receives a vast improve

ment 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 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 extraordinary, 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 proselytes to their religion, but they had so depraved it, that they became 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 simp e 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 flattering 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 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 his Father that he would send labourers into his harvest. (Mat. ix. 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 Clergymen stated, in opposition to one another, under the figure of stewards: (Luke xii. 42.) 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 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 delayeth 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 exercise 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 house.

F

hold, to be a king and a priest for ever unto God; whereas the other shall be cut asunder, and shall have his portion with unbelievers

The 10th of St. John 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 the door by whom they must enter; that is, from whom they must have their vocation and mission: But the thief and robber who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, climbeth up some other way; whatever he may do in the ritual way for forms sake, he has in his heart no regard to Jesus 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 through 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 indispensible precept: And even in the council of Trent, though 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 repre-. sented as a hireling that careth not for the flock, that sees the wolf 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 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, though 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 matter. 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, he pursues still the figure of a shepherd; (John xxi. 15.) 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 prefering of that to all other things whatsoever, is a necessary and indispensible qualification for that holy employment; 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.

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 a shepherd, in those often cited words, take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops or overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts xx. 28. &c.) The words are solemn, and the consideration enforcing them