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 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 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 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-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 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 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 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
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 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 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 The first Book contains only the preparatory Discourses according to the Method of such Writings In the 2 d. 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 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 3 d. 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 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 thrâ—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 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
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 Clergy-man'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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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