without any success may depend upon this that they shall save their own souls and shall have a distinguished fate if we should happen to fall under a common Calamity they having on them not only the mark of Mourners and Intercessors but of faithful Shepherds Whereas if an overflowing Scourge should break in upon us we have all possible reason both from the Judgments of God and the present scituation of Affairs to believe that it will begin at the Sanctuary at those who have profaned the holy things and have made the daily Sacrifice to be loathed There is another and perhaps yet a more dismal Character of the present state of the Age that calls on the Clergy to consider well both their own deportment and the Obligations that lie upon them which is the growing Atheism and Impiety that is daily gaining ground not only among us but indeed all Europe over There is a Circulation observed in the general Corruptions of Nations sometimes Ignorance and Brutality overruns the World that makes way for Superstition and Idolatry When Mankind is disgusted with these then fantastical and Enthusiastical Principles and under these hypocritical Practises have their course these being seen through give greaâ— occasions to profaness and with that Atheism and a diâ—belief of all Religion at least of all Revealed Religion is nourished and that is very easily received by depraved Minds but very hardly rooted out of them For though it is very easie to beat an Enquirer into things out of all speculative Atheism yet when a disbelief of Sacred Matters and a profane Contempt of them has once vitiated ones mind it is a very extraordinary thing and next to miraculous to see such an one reduced Now this I am forced to declare That having had much free Conversation with many that have been fatally corrupted that way they have very often owned to me that nothing promoted this so much in them as the very bad Opinion which they took up of all Clergy-men of all sides They did not see in them that strictness of life that contempt of the World that Zeal that Meekness Humility and Charity that Diligence and Earnestness with relation to the great Ttuths of the Christian Religion which they reckoned they would most certainly have if they themselves firmly believed it Therefore they concluded that those whose business it was more strictly to enquire into the truth of their Religion knew that it was not so certain as they themselves for other ends endeavoured to make the World believe it was And that tho for carrying on of their own Authority or Fortunes which in one word they call their Trade they seemed to be very positive in affirming the Truth of their Doctrines yet they in their own hearts did not believe it since they lived so little suitable to it and were so much set on raising themselves by it and so little on advancing the Honour of their Profession by an exemplary Piety and a Shining Conversation This is a thing not to be answered by being angry at them for saying it or by reproaching such as repeat it as if they were Enemies to the Church these Words of Heat and Faction signifying nothing to work upon or convince any For how little strength soever there may be in this as it is made an Argument it is certainly so strong a prejudice that nothing but a real Refutation of it by the eminent Vertues and Labours of many of the Clergy will ever conquer it To this as a Branch or Part of it another consideration from the present State of things is to be added to call upon the Clergy to set about the Duties of their Calling and that is the contempt they are generally fallen under the Injustice they daily meet with in being denied their Rights and that by some out of Principle and by others out of downright and undisguised Sacriledge I know a great deal of this is too justly and too truly to be cast on the Poverty of the Clergy But what can we say when we find often the poorest Clarks in the Richest Livings whose Incumbents not content to devour the Patrimony of the Church while they feed themselves and not the Flock out of it are so scandalously hard in their Allowance to their Curates as if they intended equally to starve both Curate and People And is it to be supposed that the People will think themselves under a very strict obligation of Conscience to pay religiously all that is due to one who seems to think himself under no obligation to labour for it And since it is a Maxim founded upon Natural Equity That the Benefice is given for the Office men will not have great Scruples in denying the Benefice where the Office is neglected or ill performed And as for the too common Contempt that is brought on the Clergy how guilty soever those may be who out of hatred to their Profession despise them for their works sake yet we who feel our selves under these Disadvantages ought to reflect on those Words of the Prophet and see how far they are applicable to us The Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the People according as ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in my Law If we studied to honour God and so to do honour to our Profession we might justly hope that he would raise it again to that credit which is due to it and that he would make even our Enemies to be at peace with us or at least afraid to hurt or offend us And in this we have good reason to rest assured since we do not find many Instances of Clergy-men who live and labour who preach and visit as they ought to do that are under any Eminent Degrees of Contempt If some do despise those that are faithâ—ul to their Trust yet they must do â—t secretly they dare not shew â—t as long as their Deportment procures them the Esteem which we must confess does generally follow true Worth and hearty Labours in the Ministry These are things of such consequence that it may seem a Consideration too full of ill Nature of Emulation and of Jealousie if I should urge upon the Clergy the Divisions and Separation that is formed among us though there is a terrible Word in the Prophet that belongs but too evidently to this likewise The Pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered If we led such Exemplary Lives as became our Character if we applied our selves wholly to the Duties of our Profession if we studied to out-live and outlabour those that divide from us we might hope by the Blessing of God so far
own Ear and Sense may guide them to know where to raise or quicken soften or sweeten their Voice and when to give an Articulation of Authority or of Conviction where to pause and where to languish We plainly see by the Stage what a Force there is in Pronunciation the best Compositions are murdered if ill spoken and the worst are acceptable when well said In Tragedies rightly pronounced and acted though we know that all is Fable and Fiction the tender Parts do so melt the Company that Tears cannot be stop'd even by those who laugh at themselves for it This shews the power of apt Words and a just Pronunciation But because this depends in a great measure upon the present Temper of him that speaks and the lively Disposition in which he is therefore he ought by much previous Seriousness and by earnest Prayer to God to endeavour to raise his Mind to as warm a sense of the Things he is to speak of as possibly he can that so his Sermons may make deep Impressions on his Hearers This leads me to consider the Difference that is between the Reading and the Speaking of Sermons Reading is peculiar to this Nation and is endured in no other It has indeed made that our Sermons are more exact and so it has produced to us many Volumes of the best that are extant but after all though some few read so happily pronounce so truly and enter so entirely into those Affections which they recommend that in them we see both the Correctness of Reading and the Seriousness of Speaking Sermons yet every one is not so happy some by hanging their Heads perpetually over their Notes by blundring as they read and by a cursory running over them do so lessen the Matter of their Sermons that as they are generally read with very little Life or Affection so they are heard with as little regard or esteem Those who read ought certainly to be at a little more pains than for most part they are to read true to pronounce with an Emphasis and to raise their Heads and to direct their Eyes to their Hearers and if they practis'd more alone the just way of Reading they might deliver their Sermons with much more advantage Man is a low sort of Creature he does not nay nor the greater part cannot consider things in themselves without those little Seasonings that must recommend them to their Affections That a Discourse be heard with any Life it must be spoken with some and the Looks and Motions of the Eye do carry in them such Additions to what is said that where these do not at all concur it has not all the Force upon them that otherwise it might have besides that the People who are too apt to censure the Clergy are easily carried into an obvious Reflection on Reading that it is an Effect of Laziness In pronouncing Sermons there are two Ways the one is when a whole Discourse is got by heart and delivered word for word as it was writ down this is so vast a Labour that it is scarce possible that a Man can be able to hold up long to it Yet there is an Advantage even in this to Beginners it fills their Memories with good Thoughts and regular Meditations and when they have got some of the most important of their Sermons by heart in so exact a manner they are thereby furnished with Topicks for Discourse And therefore there are at least two different Subjects on which I wish all Preachers would be at the pains to form Sermons well in their Memories the one is the Grounds of the Covenant of Grace of both sides God's offers to us in Christ and the Conditions that he has required of us in order to our Reconciliation with him This is so important a Point in the whole course of our Ministry that no Man ought to be to seek in the opening or explaining it and therefore that he may be ripe in it he ought to have it all rightly laid in his Memory not only as to the Notions of it but to have such a lively Description and Illustration of it all as to be able to speak of it sensibly fully and easily upon all Occasions Another Subject in which every Minister ought also to be well furnished is concerning Death and Iudgment that so when he visits the Sick and as is common that the Neighbours come in he may be able to make a grave Exhortation in weighty and fit Words upon those Heads Less than this I think no Priest ought to have in his Memory But indeed the more Sermons a young Beginner gets by heart he has still thereby the more Discourse ready upon those Heads for though the whole Contexture of the Sermon will stick no longer than as he has occasion for it yet a great deal will stay with him the Idea of the Whole with the most important Parts of it will remain much longer But now I come to propose another Method of Preaching by which a Priest may be prepared after a right View of his Matter a true Understanding his Text and a Digesting of his Thoughts upon it into their natural and proper Order to deliver these both more easily to himself and with a better Effect both upon Himself and his Hearers To come at this he must be for some Years at a great deal of pains to prepare himself to it yet when that is over the Labour of all the rest of his Life as to those Performances will become very easy and very pleasant to him The Preparations to this must be these First he must read the Scriptures very exactly he must have great Portions of them by heart and he must also in reading them make a short Concordance of them in his Memory that is he must lay together such Passages as belong to the same Matter to consider how far they agree or help to illustrate one another and how the same thing is differently expressed in them and what various Ideas or Ways of recommending a thing rise out of this Concordance Upon this a Man must exercise himself much draw Notes of it and digest it well in his Thoughts Then he must be ready with the whole body of Divinity in his Head he must know what Parts come in as Objections to be answered where Difficulties lie how one Part coheres with another and gives it Light He must have this very current in his Memory that he may have things lie before him in one full view and upon this he is also to work by making Tables or using such other Helps as may lay Matters clearly before him He is more particularly to lay before him a System of Morality of all Vertues and Vices and of all the Duties that arise out of the several Relations of Mankind that he mâ—y have this Matter very full in his eye and know what are the Scriptures that belong to all the Parts of it he is also to make a Collection of all
that a very little Meditation will serve to lay open a Text to him with all the Matter that belongs to it together with the oâ—der in which it ought to be both explained and applied And when a Man has attained to a tolerable degree in this he is then the Master of his Business he is Master also of much Time and of many noble Thoughts and Schemes that will arise out of them This I shall prosecute no further for if this opening of it does not excite the Reader to follow it a little no enlargements I can offer upon it will work upon him But to return to Preaching and so conclude this Chapter He that intends truly to preach the Gospel and not himself he that is more concerned to do good to others than to raise his own Fame or to procure a following to himself and that makes this the measure of all his Meditations and Sermons that he may put things in the best Light and recommend them with the most advantage to his People that reads the Scriptures much and meditates often upon them that prays earnestly to God for direction in his Labours and for a Blessing upon them that directs his chief endeavours to the most important and most indispensible as well as the most undeniable Duties of Religion and chiefly to the inward Reformation of his Hearers Hearts which will certainly draw all other lesser Matters after it and that does not spend his Time nor his Zeal upon lesser or disputable Points this Man so made and so moulded cannot miscarry in his Work He will certainly succeed to some degree The Word spoken by him shall not return again He shall have his Crown and his Reward from his Labours And to say all that can be said in one Word with St. Paul He shall both save himself and them that hear him The CONCLVSION I have now gone over all that seemed to me most important upon this Head of the Pastoral Care with as much Shortness and Clearness as I could so now I am to conclude The Discourse may justly seem imperfect since I say nothing concerning the Duties incumbent on Bishops But I will upon this occasion say very little on that Head The Post I am in gives me a Right to teach Priests and Deacons their Duty therefore I thought that without any great Presumption I might venture on it but I have been too few Years in the higher Order to take upon me to teach them from whom I shall ever be ready to learn This is certain that since as was formerly said the Inferiour Orders subsist in the Superior Bishops must still be under all the Obligations of Priests They are then take the Matter at lowest bound to live to labour and to preach as well as they But why are they raised to a higher Rank of Dignity and Order an encrease of Authority and an Extent of Cure And why have Christian Princes and States given them great Revenues and an Accession of Secular Honours All this must certainly import their Obligation to labour more eminently and to lay themselves out more entirely in the Work of the Gospel in which if the greatest Encouragements and Assistances the highest Dignities and Priviledges belong to them then according to our Saviour's Example and Decision who came not to be ministred unto but to minister and who declared that he who is first shall be last and he who is the greatest must be the Servant of all then I say the higher that any are raised in this Ministry they ought to lay themselves out the more entirely in it and labour the more abundantly And as our Obligations to Christ and his Church tie us to a greater Zeal and Diligence and to a more constant Application of our Care and Thoughts so the Secular Supports of our Honours and Revenues were given us to enable us to go through with that extent of Care and Iurisdiction that lies upon us We are not only Watchmen to watch over the Flock but likewise over the Watchmen themselves We keep the Door of the Sanctuary and will have much to answer for if through our Remissness or feeble Easiness if by trusting the Examination of those we ordain to others and yielding to Intercession and Importunity we bring any into the Service of the Church who are not duly qualified for it In this we must harden our selves and become inexorable if we will not partake in other Mens Sins and in the Mischiefs that these may bring upon the Church It is a false Pity and a cruel Compassion if we suffer any Considerations to prevail upon us in this Matter but those which the Gospel directs The longer that we know them before we ordain them the more that we sift them and the greater variety of Trials through which we make them pass we do thereby both secure the Quiet of our own Consciences the more as well as the Dignity of holy Things and the true Interest of Religion and the Church for these two Interests must never be separated they are but one and the same in themselves and what God has joined together we must never set asunder We must be setting constantly before our Clergie their Obligations to the several Parts of their Duty we must lay these upon them when we institute or collate them to Churches in the solemnest Manner and with the weightiest Words we can find We must then lay the Importance of the Care of Souls before them and adjure them as they will answer to God in the great Day in which we must appear to witness against them that they will seriously consider and observe their Ordination-Vows and that they will apply themselves wholly to that one Thing We must keep an Eye upon them continually and be applying Reproofs Exhortations and Encouragements as occasion offers We must enter into all their Concerns and espouse every Interest of that Part of the Church that is assigned to their Care We must see them as oft as we can and encourage them to come frequently to us and must live in all things with them as a Father with his Children And that every thing we say to stir them up to their Duty may have its due weight we must take care so to order our selves that they may evidently see that we are careful to do our own We must enter into all the Parts of the Worship of God with them not thinking our selves too good for any piece of Service that may be done visiting the Sick admitting poor and indigent Persons or such as are troubled in mind to come to us Preaching ofâ— Catechising and Confirming frequently and living in all things like Men that study to fulfil their Ministry and to do the Work of Evangelists There has been an Opinion of late much favoured by some great Men in our Church that the Bishop is the sole Pastor of his whole Diocess that the Care of all the Souls is singly in him and that all the