pass'd with the Solemnity of Hand and Seal to affirm any thing that is beyond one's own Knowledg 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 Knowledg 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 judg 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 〈◊〉 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 soveraign 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 hand 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 CHAP. IX Concerning Preaching THE World naturally runs to Extreams in every thing If one Sect or Body of Men magnify Preaching too much another carries that to another Extream 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 Clergy-man 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. Chrysostom brought Preaching from the dry pursuing of Allegories that had vitiated Origen and from the excessive Affectation of Figures and Rhetorick that appears in Nazianzen to a due Simplicity a native Force and Beauty having joined to the Plainness of a clear but noble Stile 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 Applications 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 past 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 S. Chrysostom has set or perhaps carried beyond it Our Language is much refined and we have returned to the plain Notions of simple and genuine Rhetorick 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 ou◠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 suted to their Capacities and Apprehensions to all which Applications are aded tending to the Reproving Directing Encouraging or Comforting the Hearers according to the several Occasions that are offered This is indeed all that can be truly be intended in Preaching to make some Portions of Scripture to be rightly understood to make
to overcome their Prejudices and to gain both upon their Esteem and Affections that a very small matter might go a great way towards the healing of those Wounds which have so long weakned and distracted us Speculative Arguments do not reach the Understandings of the greâ—ter part who are only capable of sensible ones and the strongest Reasonings will not prevail till we first force them to think the better of our Church for what they see in our selves and make them wish to be of a Communion in which they see so much â—â—uth and unaffected Goodness and Worth When they are once brought so far it will be easy to compâ—ss all the rest If we did geâ—eâ—ally mind our Duties and discharge them faiâ—hfully this would prepare such as mean well in their Separation from us to consider better of the Grounds on which they maintain it And that will best enforce the Arguments that we have to lay before them And as for such as divide from us with bad Designs and an unrelenting Spite they will have a small party and a feeble support if there were no more occasion given to work on the Affections of the People by our Errours and Disorders If then either the sense of the Wrath of God or the desire of his Favour and Protection if Zeal for our Church and Countrey if a sense of the progress of Atheism and â—rreligion if the contempt that falls on us and the Injustices that are daily done us if a desire to heal and unite to purifie and perfect this our Church If either the Concerns of this World or of the nexâ— can work upon us and affect us all these things concur to call on us to apply our utmost Care and Industry to raise the Honour of our Holy Profession to walk worthy of it to perform the Engagements that we came under at the Altar when we were dedicated to the Service of God and the Church and in all things both to adorn our Religion and our Church It is not our boasting that the Church of England is the best reformed and the best constituted Church in the world that will signifie much to convince others We are too much Parties to be believed in our own Cause There was a Generation of men that cried The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as loud as we can cry The Church of England the Church of England When yet by their sins they were pulling it down and kindling that Fire which consumed it â—t will have a better grace to see others boast of our Church from what they observe in us than for us to be câ—ying it up with our words when our deeds do decry it Our Enemies will make severe Inferences from them and our Pretensions will be thought vain and impudent things as long as our Lives contradict them It was on design to raise in myself and in others a deep sense of the obligations that we lie under of the Duties of our Functions of the extent of them and of the Rewards that follow them and to observe the proper Methods of performing them so as they may be of the greatest advantage both to our selves and others that I have entred on these Meditations They have been for many years the chief Subjects of my Thoughts If few have writ on them among us yet we have St. Gregory Nazianzen 's Apologetick Saint Chrysostom's Books of the Priesthood Gregory the Great 's Pastoral and Bernard's Book of Consideration among the Ancients and a very great number of Excellent Treatises writ lately in France upon them I began my Studies in Divinity with reading these and I never yet grew weary of them they raise so many Noble Designs they offer such Schemes and carry so much of unction and life in them that I hope an imperfect Essâ—y this way may have some effecâ— For the Searcher of hearts knows I have no Design in it save this of stirring up in my self and others the gift which was giâ—en by the Imposition of hands OF THE Pastoral Care CHAP. I. Of the Dignity of Sacred Imployments and the Names and Designations given to them in Scripture HOW low soever the Esteem of the Clergy may be sunk in a profane and corrupt Age and how much soever the Errors and Disorders of Clergy-men may have contributed to bring this not only upon themselves but upon others who deserve better but are unhappy in being mixed with so much ill Company yet certainly if we either consider the nature of things in themselves or the value that is set on that Profession in the Scriptures it will appear that it ought to be considered at another rate than it is As much as the Soul is better than the Body and as much as the purifying and perfecting the Soul is preferable to all those Mechanical Imployments which relate to the Body and as much as Eternity is more valuable than this short and transitory Life so much does this Imployment excel all others A Clergy-man by his Character and design of life ought to be a man separated from the Cares and Concerns of this World and dedicated to the study and meditation of Divine matters Whose Conversation ought to be a Pattern for others a constant Preaching to his People who ought to offer up the Prayers of the People in their name and as their mouth to God who ought to be praying and interceding for them in secret as well as officiating among them in publick who ought to be distributing among them the Bread of life the Word of God and to be dispensing among them the sacred Rites which are the Badges the Union and the Supports of Christians He ought to admonish to reprove and to comfort them not only by his general Doctrine in his Sermons but from House to House that so he may do these things more home and effectually than can be done from the Pulpit He is to watch over their Souls to keep them from error and to alarm them out of their sins by giving them warning of the Judgments of God to visit the sick and to prepare them for the Judgment and life to come This is the Function of a Clergy-man who that he may perform all these Duties with more advantage and better effect ought to behave himself so well that his own Conversation may not only be without offence but be so exemplary that his People may have reason to conclude that he himself does firmly believe all those things which he proposes to them that he thinks himself bound to follow all those Rules that he sets them and that they may see such a serious spirit of Devotion in him that from thence they may be induced to believe that his chief design among them is to do them good and to save their Souls which may prepare them so to esteem and love him that they may not be prejudiced against any thing that he does and says in publick by any thing that they observe
in the way to find them as is possible But a Clerk cannot keep himself out of their way he must remember them and speak of them at least upon some occasions whether he will or no He has no other way to secure himself against them but by trying what he can do to make himself absolutely disbelieve them Negative Atheism that is a total neglect of all Religion is but too easily arrived at yet this will not serve his turn he must build his Atheism upon some Bottom that he may find quiet in it If he is an Ignorant Man he is not furnished with those flights of Wit and shews of Learning that must support it But if he is really Learned he will soon be beaten out of them for a Learned Atheism is so hard a thing to be conceived that unless a Man's Powers are first strangely vitiated it is not easie to see how any one can bring himself to it There is nothing that can settle the quiet of an ill Priest's Mind and Life but a stupid Formality and a Callus that he Contracts by his insensible way of handling Divine Matters by which he becomes hardnâ—d against them But if this settles him by stupifying his Powers it does put also him so far out of the reach of Conviction in all the ordinary methods of Grace that it is scarce possible he can ever be awakned and by Consequence that he can be saved and if he perishes he must fall into the lowest degree of Misery even to the Portion of Hypocrites For his whole Life has been a course of Hypocrisie in the strictest Sence of the Word which is the Acting of a Part and the Counterfeiting another Person His Sins have in them all possible Aggravations they are against Knowledge and against Vows and contrary to his Character they carry in them a deliberate Contempt of all the Truths and Obligations of Religion and if he perishes he does not perish alone but carries a Shoal down with him either of those who have perished in Ignorance through his neglect or of those who have been hardned in their Sins through his ill Example And since all this must be put to his Account it may be justly inferred from hence That no man can have a heavier share in the miseries of another State than profane and wiâ—ked Clerks On all these things he ought to imploy his thoughts frequently who intends to dedicate himself to God that so he may firmly resolve not to go on with it till he feels such Seeds and Beginnings of good things in himself that he has reason to hope that through the Grace and Assistance of God he will be an Example to others He ought more particularly to examine himself whether he has that Soft and Gentle that Meek and Humble and that Charitable and Compassionate Temper which the Gospel does so much press upon all Christians that shined so eminently through the whole Life of the Blessed Author of it and which he has so singularly recommended to all his Followers and that has in it so many Charms and Attractives which do not only commend those who have these amiable Vertues but which is much more to be reâ—garded they give them vast advantagâ—â— in recommending the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 Saviour to their People They are thâ— true ground of that Christian Wisdoâ— and Discretion and of that grave and calm Deportment by which the Clergy ought to carry on and maintain their Authority A haughty and huffing Humour an Impatient and insolent Temper a loftiness of Deportment â—nd a peevishness of Spirit rendring the Lives of the Clergy for the most part bitter to themselves and their Labours how valuable soever otherwise they may be unacceptable and useless to their People A Clergyman must be prepared to bear Injuries to endure much unjust Censure and Calumny to see himself often neglected and others preferred to him in the esteem of the People He that takes all this ill that resents it and complains of it does thereby give himself much disquiet and to be sure he will through his Peevishness rather encrease than lessen that Contempt under which he is so uneasie which is both better born and sooner overcome by a meek and a lowly Temper A Man of this Disposition affects no Singularities unless the faultiness of those about him makes his doing his Duty to be a Singularity He does not study to lessen the value that is due to others on design to encrease his own His low thoughts of himself make that he is neither aspiring nor envying such as are advanced He is prepared to stay till God in his Providence thinks fit to raise him He studies only to deserve Preferment and leaves to others the wringing Posts of Advantage out of the Hands of those that give them Such a Preparation of Mind in a Clergy-man disposes him to be Happy in whatsoever Station he may be put and renders the Church happy in him for Men so moulded even though their Talents should be but mean are shining Lights that may perhaps be at first despised as Men of a low size that have not Greatness of Soul enough to aspire but when they have been seen and known so long that all appears to be sincere and that the Principle from whence this flows is rightly considered then every thing that they say or do must have its due weight The plainest and simplest things that they say have a Beauty in them and will be hearkned to as Oracles But a Man that intends to prepare himself right for the Ministry of the Church must indeed above all things endeavour to break himself to the love of the World â—ither of the Wealth the Pomp or the Pleasures of it He must learn to be content with plain and simple Diet and often even abridge that by true Fasting I do not call Fasting a trifling distinction of Meats but a lessening of the quantity as well as the quality and a contracting the time spent at Meals that so he may have a greater Freedom both in his Time and in his Thoughts that he may be more alone and pray and meditate more and that what he saves out of his Meals he may give to the Poor This is in short the true Measure and right Use of Fasting In cold Climates an abstinence till Night may create Disorders and raise such a Disturbance both in the Appetite and in the Digestion that this managed upon the practices of other Countries especially in young Persons may really distract instead of furthering those who do it Indiscreetly In short Fasting unless joyned with Prayer and Alms-giving is of no Value in the sight of God It is a vast Advantage to a Man to be broken to the Niceties of his Palate to be content with plain Food and even to dislike Delicacies and studied Dishes This will make him easie in narrower Circumstances since a plain Bill of Fare is soon discharged A lover of his Appetites and a slave to
the difference between one Man and another shews it self more sensibly in his private Labours in his prudent Deportment in his modest and discreet Way of procuring Respect to himself in his Treating his Parish either in reconciling such Differences as may happen to be among them or in Admonishing Men of Rank who set an ill Example to others which ought always to be done in that way which will probably have the best effect upon them therefore it must be done secretly and with Expressions of Tenderness and Respect for their Persons fit times are to be chosen for this it may be often the best way to do it by a Letter For there may be ways fallen upon of reproving the worst Men in so soft a manner that if they are not reclaimed yet they shall not be irritated or made worse by it which is but too often the Effect of an indiscreet Reproof By this a Minister may save the Sinners Soul he is at least sure to save his own by having discharged his Duty towards his People One of the chief Parts of the Pastoral Care is the visiting the sick not to be done barely when one is sent for He is to go as soon as he hears that any of his Flock are ill He is not to satisfie himself with going over the Office or giving them the Sacrament when desired He ought to inform himself of their Course of Life and of the Temper of their Mind that so he may apply himself to them accordingly If they are insensible he ought to awaken them with the Terrours of God the Judgment and the Wrath to come He must endeavour to make them sensible of their Sins particularly of that which runs through most Men's Lives their forgetting and neglecting God and his Service and their setting their Hearts so inordinately upon the World He must set them on to examine their dealings and make them seriously to consider that they can expect no Mercy from God unless they restore whatsoever they may have got unjustly from any other by any manner of way even though their Title were confirmed by Law He is to lay any other Sins to their charge that he has reason to suspect them guilty of and must press them to all such Acts of Repentance as they are then capable of If they have been Men of a bad Course of Life he must give them no encouragement to hope much from this Death-bed Repentance yet he is to set them to Implore the Mercies of God in Christ Iesus and to do all they can to obtain his Favour But unless the Sickness has been of a long continuance and that the Person 's Repentance his Patience his Piety has been very extraordinary during the Course of it he must be sure to give him no positive ground of Hope but leave him to the Mercies of God For there cannot be any greater Treachery to Souls that is more fatal and more pernicious than the giving quick and easie hopes upon so short so forced and so imperfect a Repentance It not only makes those Persons perish securely themselves but it leads all about them to destruction when they see one of whose bad Life and late Repentance they have been the Witnesses put so soon in hopes nay by some unfaithful Guides made sure of Salvation this must make them go on very secure in their Sins when they see how small a measure of Repentance sets all right at last All the Order and Justice of a Nation would be presently dissolved should the howlings of Criminals and their Promises of Amendment work on Iuries Iudges or Princes So the hopes that are given to Death-bed Penitents must be a most effectual means to root out the Sense of Religion of the Minds of all that see it and therefore though no dying Man is to be driven to Despair and left to die obstinate in his Sins yet if we love the Souls of our People if we set a due value on the Blood of Christ and if we are touched with any Sense of the Honour or Interests of Religion we must not say any thing that may encourage others who are but too apt of themselves to put all off to the last Hour We can give them no hopes from the Nature of the Gospel Covenant yet after all the best thing a dying Man can do is to Repent if he recovers that may be the Seed and Beginning of a new Life and a new Nature in him Nor do we know the Measure of the Riches of God's Grace and Mercy how far he may think fit to exert it beyond the Conditions and Promises of the New Covenant at least to the lessening of such a Persons Misery in another State We are sure he is not within the New Covenant and since he has not repented according to the Tenor of it we dare not unless we betray our Commission give any hopes beyond it But one of the chief Cares of a Minister about the Sick ought to be to exact of them Solemn Vows and Promises of a Renovation of Life in case God shall raise them up again and these ought to be demanded not only in general Words but if they have been guilty of any scandalous Disorders or any other ill Practices there ought to be special Promises made with Relation to those And upon the Recovery of such Persons their Ministers ought to put them in mind of their Engagements and use all the due freedom of Admonitions and Reproof upon their breaking loose from them In such a Case they ought to leave a terrible denunciation of the Judgments of God upon them and so at least they acquit themselves There is another sort of sick Persons who abound more in Towns than in the Country those are the troubled in Mind of these there are two sorts some have committed enormous Sins which kindle a Storm in their Consciences and that ought to be cherished till they have compleated a Repentance proportioned to the Nature and Degree of their Sin If Wrong has been done to another Reparation and Restitution must be made to the utmost of the Party's Power If Blood has been shed a long course of Fasting and Prayer a total abstinence from Wine if Drunkenness gave the rise to it a making up the loss to the Family on which it has fallen must be enjoyned But alas the greater part of those that think they are troubled in Mind are Melancholy hypochondriacal People who what through some false Opinions in Religion what through a foulness of Blood occasioned by their unactive Course of Life in which their Minds work too much because their Bodies are too little imployed fall under dark and cloudy Apprehensions of which they can give no clear nor good Account This in the greatest Part is to be removed by strong and Chalybeate Medicines yet such Persons are to be much pitied and a little humoured in their Distemper They must be diverted from thinking too much being too much alone or
such Thoughts as he finds either in the Books of the Ancienâ— Philosophers where Seneca will be of great use to him or of Christian Authors he is to separate such Thoughts as are forced and that do become rather a strained Declamation made only to please than a solid Discourse designed to persuade All these he must gather or at least such a number of them as may help him to form a distinct Notion of that Matter so as to be able both to open it clearly and to press it with Affection and Vehemence These are the Materials that must be laid together the Practice in using them comes next He that then would prepare himself to be a Preacher in this Method must accustom himself to talk freely to himself to let his Thoughts flow from him especially when he feels an edg and heat upon his Mind for then happy Expressions will come in his Mouth things will ventilate and open themselves to him as he talks them thus in a Soliloquy to himself He must also be writing many Essays upon all sorts of Subjects for by writing he will bring himself to a correctness both in thinking and in speaking and thus by a hard practice for two or three Years a Man may render himself such a Master in this Matter that he can never be surprised nor will new Thoughts ever dry up upon him He must talk over to himself the whole Body of Divinity and accustom himself to explain and prove to clear Objections and to apply every part of it to some practical use He must go through Human Life in all the Ranks and Degrees of it and talk over all the Duties of these consider the advantages or disadvantages in every one of them their Relation to one another the Morality of Actions the common Vertues and Vices of Mankind more particularly the Duties of Christians their Obligations to Meekness and Humility to forgive Injuries to relieve the Poor to bear the Cross to be patient and contented in every State of Life to pray much and fervently to rejoice ever in God and to be always praising him and most particularly to be applying seriously to God through Jesus Christ for Mercy and Pardon and for his Grace and Spirit to be worshipping him devoutly in publick and to be delighting frequently to commemorate the Death of Christ and to partake of the Benefits of it All these I say he must talk over and over again to himself he must study to give his Thoughts all the Heat and Flight about them that he can and if in these his Meditations happy Thoughts and noble and tender Expressions do at any time offer themselves he must not lose them but write them down and in his pronouncing over such Discourses to himself he must observe what Words sound harsh and agree ill together for there is a Musick in Speaking as well as in Singing which a Man tho not otherwise critical in Sounds will soon discover By a very few Years practice of two or three of such Soliloquies a Day chiefly in the Morning when the Head is clearest and the Spirits are liveliest a Man will contract a great easiness both in thinking and speaking But the Rule I have reserved last is the most necessary of all and without it all the rest will never do the Business it is this That a Man must have in himself a deep sense of the Truth and Power of Religion he must have a Life and Flame in his Thoughts with relation to those Subjects He must have felt in himself those things which he intends to explain and recommend to others He must observe narrowly the motions of his own Mind the good and bad Effects that the several sorts of Objects he has before him and Affections he feels within him have upon him that so he may have a lively Heat in himself when he speaks of them and that he may speak in so sensible a manner that it may be almost felt that he speaks from his Heart There is an Authority in the simplest Things that can be said when they carry visible Characters of Genuineness in them Now if a Man can carry on this Method and by much Meditation and Prayer draw down Divine Influences which are always to be expected when a Man puts himself in the way of them and prepares himself for them he will often feel that while he is musing a Fire is kindled within him and then he will speak with Authority and without Constraint his Thoughts will be true and his Expressions free and easy Sometimes this Fire will carry him as it were out of himself and yet without any thing that is Frantick or Enthusiastical Discourses brought forth with a lively Spirit and Heat where a composed Gesture and the proper Motions of the Eye and Countenance and the due Modulations of the Voice concur will have all the effect that can be expected from any thing that is below immediate Inspiration and as this will be of use to the Hearers so it will be of vast use to the Preacher himself to oblige him to keep his Heart always in good Tune and Temper not to suffer irregular or forbidden Appetites Passions or Projects to possess his Mind these will both divert him from going on in the course of Meditation in which a Man must continue many Years till all his Thoughts are put in order polish'd and fixed they will make him likewise speak much against the grain with an Aversion that will be very sensible to himself if not to his Hearers If he has Guilt upon him if his Conscience is reproaching him and if any ill Practices are putting a damp upon that good sense of Things that makes his Thoughts sparkle upon other occasions and gives him an Air and Authority a Tone of Assurance and a Freedom of Expression Such a Method as I have been opening has had great Success with all those that I have known to have tried it And tho every one has not that swiftness of Imagination nor that clearness of Expression that others may have so that in this Men may differ as much as they do in their written Compositions yet every Man by this Method may rise far above that which he could ever have attained to any other way It will make even exact Compositions easier to him and him much readier and freer at them But great care must be used by him before he suffers himself to speak with the liberty here aimed at in publick he must try himself at smaller Excursions from his fixed Thoughts especially in the Applicatory part where Flame and Life are more necessary and where a mistaken Word or an unfinished Period are less observed and sooner forgiven than in the Explanatory part where Men ought to speak more severely And as one succeeds in some short Excursions he may give himself a farther Scope and so by a long practice he will at last arrive at so great an easiness both in thinking and speaking