A Just Vindication of the Sacredness and Prerogatives of our Holy Office, cannot be thought an improper Argument to treat of in this Presence. We scarce have an opportunity of handling it professedly, or with Decency, unless at such a Time and on such an Occasion as this. Faith, Repentance, and the general Duties and Obligations of Christi­anity, are the trite and repeated Themes of our Discourses to the People, in the progress of our Ministry: But when we solemnly meet together, as we do this Day, something more peculiarly relating to our Selves, and to the Pri­vileges or Exercice of our Function, is (I con­ceive) expected from him on whom the Com­mand is laid to fill up the Place where I have now the honour to stand. [Page 2]The bold Invasion of the Ministry by Men without Character or Mission, engaged in mean and sordid Occupations, rude and unlearned, destitute of all those Helps and Assistances which can now only be acquired by a liberal and in­genuous Education, is an Evil that spreads in this Nation, and that (as I have with grief observed) too much affects this Part where our Lot is fallen, and our respective Charges lie. When Men divide from the Church, and pro­ceed upon Principles which do not destroy the necessity of a settled and orderly Ministry, there is room left to hope that they will not superinduce Heresy to their Schism, but that at least the Essentials of Christianity will be preserved whole and entire among them. The Case is otherwise, where illiterate Artisans and Mechanicks set up for Teachers. The very Foundations of Religion must be subverted by the Unskilfulness of such Guides, who know not how to fix upon rational and coherent Sy­stems of Things. As their Ignorance exposes them to be deceived, so their Presumption leads them on to the deceiving of others. What an over-heated Imagination suggests is then confi­dently delivered, the Ancient Doctrines are laid aside, Monstruous Opinions are set on foot, [Page 3]Errors are accumulated and multiplied without number, and all ends at length in Frenzy and Enthusiasm.

Whatever some may think, the Evangelical Ministry is no less sacred than the Legal Priest­hood was. As then, so now, there is a parti­cular Order of Men appointed by God, who have the Direction and Intendency of Holy Things committed to them, exclusively to o­thers. No man taketh this Honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron Heb. v. 4.. Here we have a plain Rule laid down, and upon it are all those succeeding Sanctions grounded which condemn Sacrilegious and Un­canonical Intrusions into the Ministry. But nei­ther Divine nor Humane Laws are proof against Spiritual Pride and Ambition. No Fences can keep it from breaking in upon the Public Esta­blishment and order. Mere Laicks Non omit tam ipsius etiam conversationis haereticae descri­ptionem, quàm futilis, quàm terrena, quàm humana sit; sine gravitate, sine auctoritate, sine disciplinâ; ut fidei suae congruens.—Simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem disciplinae, cujus penès nos curam lenocinium vocant.—Omnes tument, omnes scientiam pollicentur.—Ipsae mulieres haereticae, quàm procaces! quae audeant docere, &c.—Ordinationes eorum temerariae, leves, inconstantes; nurc neophytos Onlocant, nunc seculo obstrictos, nunc Apostatas noslros.—Alius hodiè Episcopus, cras alius: ho­die Diaconus, qui cras Lector bodie Presbyter, qui cras Laïcus. Nam & Laïcis Sacerdotalia munera injungunt. Tertull. de Praescript. Haereticor. cap. xli. pag. 217. Men without Call, take up the Genser, and usurp an Office which does not belong to them.

And as the Work into which the Ministers of the Gospel are sent requires a special Desig­nation, so likewise it requires peculiar Qualifi­cations and Endowments. A due Preparation must precede it, and many Degrees of Probati­on must be passed through, before one presumes to enter upon it. Such a measure of Know­ledge in Divine Matters must be treasured up, as may in some sort supply the Defect of those Extraordinary Succours which are now with­drawn, and were never conferred but on the First Preachers of Christianity. Nor is that to be attained but by the same Means by which all other Kinds of useful Knowledge are acqui­red; viz. by Labour, Application, and Indu­stry. The Sacred Writings, in which the stu­pendous Mysteries of Divine Wisdom are lock'd up, ought to be first and chiefly studied: but then all the necessary Auxiliaries of Humane Science and Learning must at the same time be taken in, so far as they ancillate to the Truths of Religion. To the Use of these Means a Blessing is promised, and such an Assistance of the Holy Spirit as is needful, in the Ordinary Way we are now in. Rash Men, who with­out these Qualifications assume an Authority to Teach in Separate Congregations, are forced to [Page 5]set up other Pretences. Conscious of their In­capacity, they run back to the Miraculous Ages of the Church, and cite the Example of the Inspired Doctors and Evangelists, who merely through a Divine Power, and without Letters, did with amazing success propagate the Gospel over the whole Earth. They boast of the same Illuminations, and Effusions of the Spirit, which were poured out upon those Ancient Servants of God. But the Vanity of their Claim is suf­ficiently detected by their shameful Stumblings, by the many palpable Fundamental Errors which they fall and lead others into. 'Tis not dif­ficult to guess that the Spirit of God can never be the Author of Doctrines, that undermine the Faith which he himself did once deliver.

Further, the Ministry is a State of Life so ab­stracted from Secular Occupations and Affairs, that it is incompatible with them. It is a State of Retirement and Recess from the Cares and Concerns of the World. He that dedicates him­self to God, and to the Services of Religion, is thereby understood to have renounced all other Professions and Ways of Life. It is a Professi­on distinct of it self, capable of taking up the Whole Man, and of filling up all the Spaces and Intervals of his Time. To attend constant­ly [Page 6]on Divine Ministrations and Offices, to la­bour in the Word and Doctrine, to exhort in pub­lick and to admonish in private, to be instant in season and out of season, to watch over the Flock, to oppose the growth and to stem the torrent of dangerous and prevailing Errors or of yet more dangerous and prevailing Vices, to visit and comfort the Afflicted in their Sorrows, to assist Dying Men in their last Throws and Agonies, to leave no other Part of the Duty of a faithful diligent Pastor unperformed, is cer­tainly a Task adequate to the longest, the most active, and the most painful Life. Meditate up­on these things, give thy self wholy to them, says the Apostle to his Disciple Timothy 1 Epist. IV. 15.: But how will he give himself wholy to them, who has a Multitude of Avocations of another nature, that swallow up the best Portions of his Lei­sure, that divide and distract his Thoughts, and that stifle and deaden that lively Sense of Di­vine Matters which one engaged in Spiritual Functions ought always to bear warm upon his Mind? From thence it appears, that the Exer­cice of a Lay-Vocation is irreconcilable with the Dispensation of Sacred Things. And therefore as They to whom a more excellent Work is committed, should not meddle with Cares for­reign [Page 7]to their Function, and should be so libe­rally provided for as to be wholy free and exempt from those Cares; so They whose pro­per Employment lies another Way, and who have Business more than enough of another Kind cut out for them, ought to look on the Priestly Office as a Trust, which as they have no Right to invade, so they have neither Abi­lities nor Opportunities to discharge. 'Tis ab­surd to think that the sacred Depositum should be lodged in hands always paddling in Dirt: so I call earthly mechanick Occupations, op­posed to holy and heavenly Ministries.

But why (are we told) should a Secular Calling be thought inconsistent with a Spiritual Trust and Charge, when 'tis well known that St. Paul, whom God made the glorious Instru­ment of converting so many Nations, professed a Trade, and actually wrought at it, at the same time that he went about doing the Duties of his Apostolate? Are the present Ministers of Religion greater than St. Paul, or have they Prerogatives above him? Let them, as he did, relieve their necessities by the labour of their hands, or let them confess themselves Hire­lings, and those only true Ministers who like him preach the Gospel freely, and seek a [Page 8]Supply not from the Sweat of the people, but from some honest Vocation of their own.

This Language is frequently in the mouth of those wild Sectaries who overthrow all Rule and Order in the Church, who abolish all Di­stinction betwixt Profane and Sacred Things, and among whom to sit all day in a Shop inca­pacitates none to be a Teacher. They are Ene­mies not to be contemned. Their Numbers, their many Errors in the Faith, and the open defiance they stand in to all regular and insti­tuted Ministry, renders them, if not formida­ble, yet considerable enough to be took notice of. They become more and more so every day through the countenance and encouragement they receive from Deists, Libertines, and other loose People of the Age; who hating all Reli­gion, will ever be ready to close in with any Side or Party that helps on their Design of de­stroying it; and which can by no other Me­thod or Means be so effectually accomplished, as by taking away the Credit and Reputation of Holy Functions. It is not therefore our own Cause so much as the Cause of God and Reli­gion that we plead, when we stand up for the Honour and Dignity of our Ministry: which nothing can more depretiate, than to suppose [Page 9]an Obligation, or even (as the State of the Church is now) a Permission to joyn mecha­nick Labours with it.

And to give a reply to the Example said to be set us by so great a Man as St. Paul, I have purposely chosen for my Subject the very Text that mentions his exercising the Ministry and a Trade together. I shall take some pains to consider this Place of Scripture, and to rescue it out of the hands of those who draw Con­clusions from it dishonourable and injurious to our Sacred Profession. And forasmuch as I would dispatch this Matter at once, and answer every Objection that carries some Shew of Au­thority, I must bespeak your Patience if per­adventure this Discourse exceeds somewhat the usual Length. And because he was of the same Craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their Occupation they were Tent-makers.

The Persons spoken of here are Aquila and his Wife Priscilla, converted Jews, who for­merly dwelt at Rome, but then at Corinth. Clau­dius Caesar had by an Edict expelled the Jews our of Italy, as both St. Luke in this Place, and Suctonius in the Life of that Emperor In Claud, cap. xxv., in­forme us. Aquila and Priscilla were exiled with the rest. Upon this they withdrew into Greece, [Page 10]and went to live at Corinth, a wealthy and trading City. These Persons had an Occupation and a Calling, which was that of Tent-making: They were by their Occupation Tent-makers, says the Text. The Word in the Original is [...], which whether it be rightly translated or no, I I think it not material to dispute. In shall only observe, that some Criticks have rendered the Word otherwise. Now whilst Aquila and Pris­cilla were at Corinth, St. Paul came thither also, meaning to preach the Gospel in that City, as he had done before in the other Cities of Greece, and more lately at Athens. The Work he came about requiring some stay See Vers. 11. and 18., he took up his habitation in the House of Aquila and Priscilla: and the reason given in the Text why he chose to sojourn and to abide with them, is, because he was of the same Craft; by which is under­stood, that he likewise was a Tent-maker as they were. And accordingly 'tis said that in fact he wrought and laboured with them in that Occupation. 'Tis added, that every Sabbath he resorted to the Synagogue, where he reasoned with the Jews and Greeks, perswading them, and testifying unto them that Jesus was the CHRIST. This is the full import of the Text, which we now have under consideration.

In discoursing thereon, I shall do these three Things.

• I. I shall inquire in what sense it can be ad­mitted that St. Paul was a Tent-maker, what Motives induced him to practise that Occupation whilst he travelled about preaching the Gospel, and how far Chri­stian Ministers are concluded by his Ex­ample in this Matter.
• II. I shall account for some Passages out of Ancient Constitutions, Councils, and Fa­thers, which might be turned upon us in the present Controversy.
• III. Having proved that Evangelical Pastors and Ministers, are by the nature of their Function dismissed from Manual Labours and Occupations, and generally from all those Cares with which Secular Persons are taken up and perplexed; I shall shew how much they are to blame, if through Love of the World they voluntarily re­sume and involve themselves in those Cares; if through Levity of Spirit they dissipate their Time in foolish Diversions and Amusements, or even in fruitless and unprofitable Studies; if they do not, in so [Page 12]priviledged and recollected a State of Life, bend their utmost application and endea­vours, to the enriching of their Minds more and more with the Knowledge of Things excellent and proper for them, to the adorning of their Province, and to the fulfilling of their Ministry; since there­fore they enjoy this Exemption and Immu­nity that they may be enabled so to do.

I. I shall inquire in what sense it can be ad­mitted that St. Paul was a Tent-maker, what Mo­tives induced him to practise that Occupation whilst he travelled about preaching the Gos­pel, and how far Christian Ministers are con­cluded by his Example in this Matter.

In order to which I must observe, That it was a Custom among the Jews, of what Rank or Quality soever, to teach their Children some ingenious Craft or Art, not only as a remedy against Idleness, but as a reserve in time of Want, whereto their frequent Expulsions from home, and Dispersions abroad, had taught them they might be reduced when they least dream­ed of it. A Man born to an Estate, and un­acquainted with Labour, if Misfortunes drive him from his Native Country, and divert the [Page 13]Stream that was wont to supply and flow in to him, must needs be very miserable: where­as an Artificer will live any where. Artem quaevis terra alit. This the Jews used to express by saying, in their sententious way, that if there be a six years Famine, it will not come near the dwelling of an Artificer [...] Buxtorf. Flori­leg. Hebr. p. 23.. We have a memorable Instance of this Custom in those two young Jewish Brothers, Chasinai and Chanilai, whose Story Josephus relates at large Antiq. Jud. lib. xviii. cap. 12.. They, with other Jews inhabiting the City of Neardaea in the Province of Babylon, were a remnant of the Captivity planted there by the Kings of Assyria. Chasinai and Chanilai were Persons of note amidst their scattered Tribes. They were nevertheless put with a Weaver to learn the Trade, which, says the Historian, was no disparagement to them [...], &c., for the rea­son before rehearsed. But their Master hand­ling them one day somewhat too severely, the high-spirited Youths could not brook that usage: They resented it to that degree, that they flew out into Arms, drew many Followers after them, took the Field, and well nigh caused a Revolution in the State of Parthia. Whether this Custom was common [Page 14]from the beginning of all the Oriental Na­tions, or that they borrowed it from the Jews, as they did many others, I cannot say; but thus much is certain, that it remaines in force among diverse of those Nations to this day. It makes a part of their Religion, and is passed into so general a Law, that he who fills the Throne is not dispensed from it. Even he also must profess some Trade, and now and then sit and work at it, with those very Hands with which at other times he weilds a Scepter Knolles's Turkish Histo­ry, Vol. II. pag. 943.. The Lettered Men among the Jews, having like others learnt some piece of Mechanism in their Infancy, spent afterwards their interstitiary or spare-Hours therein, and one would wonder what homely Crafts some of them took up with. Thus Rabbi Jose was a Currier or a Leather-dresser; Rabbi Jochanan was a Shoe-maker, and from thence was fir­named Sandalar, i. e. one that maketh Sandals or Shoes; and so of others Drus. Prae [...]e­rit. lib. v. pag. 188.. What particu­lar Art Rabban Gamaliel Ben Juda (President of the Sa [...]hedrin, after its translation to Jaf­ne) was versed in, I know not: but of him we have an Apophthegm yet extant, deliver­ed to his Disciples, which says, that the La­bour [Page 15]of the Hands ought to be joined with the Study of the Law [...] Buxtorf. Florileg. pag. 161. Drus. Apophth. lib. 1. pag. 15.. And this seems to have been a common and received Maxim among the Rabbins, handed down from one to another, and so taught uniformly in all their Schools.

St. Paul was brought up at the feet of the Hebrew Masters Acts xxii. 3., and early imbibed all their Documents and Precepts. The Authority then of the Rabbinical Chair, added to the many Examples before him among his Cotem­poraries and Equals, must easily prevail with him to take up a Craft, although his pre­sent Circumstances might not require it: and when nothing remained but to make choice of one, his Genius and Inclination, or other Rea­sons which it concerns us not to know, might as easily determine him to that of Tent-making. Which after all was none of the despicablest Employment, if we understand the Word in the Original, not of Tents strictly so called, but of Aulaea, that is, rich Tapestries and Canopies, such as were wrought only for the Palaces of Kings and Nobles, the Word admitting of both [Page 16]constructions alike Vid. Critic. S. in loc.. Whatever it was, 'tis plain that St. Paul's Birth and Education were above it. He was born with the Privilege of a Roman Citizen Acts xvi. 37, 38.—xxii. 25, &c., which was a Mark of Di­stinction in those days, when conferred on single Families or Persons, and not on a Mixt Multitude or City. It was for the most part the Reward of Services done by Strangers and Men of another Country and Nation to the Roman State and Commonwealth, and it en­nobled those who had merited to obtain it. And that this was the Case of St. Paul, the excellent Grotius has shewn, by observing that Tarsus, the Capital of Cilicia, in which Saint Paul was born, was no Colony nor Municipium of the Romans, having the Jus Civitatis an­nexed to it, how large Franchises soever it might otherwise be invested with by them: that consequently this Honour which St. Paul chal­lenged as his Birth-right, must have been deri­ved to him from one of his Ancestors, that had signalized himself in the Wars of Augustus Caesar against Brutus and Cassius, or in those of the same Augustus against Marc Anthony: from whence is to be collected (pursues that in­comparable Person) that St. Paul was issued of [Page 17]a wealthy and opulent Family Tarsus non Colonia erat, sed (solummo­dò) libera Ʋrbs, Plinio. tesle, lib. V. cap. 27. Con­cessam Tarsen­sibus liberta­tem ab Antonio dicit Appianus, Civil. lib. V. Et Dion Cryso­stomus I. Orat. Tarsens. multa privilegia reci­tat ab Augusto tributa Tarsensi Civitati, non autem jus Colo­niae aut Munici­pii, qualibus jus Civitatis Ro­manae compete­bat, ut diximus D. ad Munici­pal. Et Ʋlpia­nus inter Ciliciae Colonias Tarsum non nominat. Restat ergò ut aliquis majorum Pauli bellis civili­bus, quae inter Caesarem Augustum & Brutum Cassiumque, aut etiam inter eundem Caesarem & An­tonium intercessere, jus illud sibi comparaverit. Ʋndè colligas ex opulentâ familiâ fuisse Paulum; ne­que vana esse quae veteres Graeci ad hunc locum dixêre. Annot. in Act. xxii. 28.. And accor­dingly Photius brings in our Apostle answering Lysias in Terms, which none could use but one that was well Descended ^†. Now Tarsus was an Academy, which for the Profession of all the Liberal Sciences, contended with the then celebrated Schools of Athens and Alexandria, nay surpassed them, if we may believe Strabo ^‖, a Writer of good credit. There St. Paul laid the first foundations of his Studies; there he furnished himself with the Learning and Wis­dom of the Greeks; read, perused, and dige­sted their Books; as appears even now by his Quotations out. of Aratus ^(f), Menander ^(g), and Epimenides ^(h), Authors of great name in [Page 18]Ancient Greece. From Tarsus he went to Jeru­salem, to the end that under the Discipline of the Hebrew Sages, and of the Doctors of his own Religion, he might acquaint himself thoroughly with the Institutions and Divine Philosophy of Moses. Here is nothing that sutes with the Character of a poor Handy craftsman: here are Strains quite beyond it: and to set out upon such a Journey and Expedition, merely for the improving and the perfecting of his Mind, must be confessed to have been an Un­dertaking of which a mean indigent Person, one servilely bound to a Trade, could not be capa­ble. Such Men's Thoughts as well as Abilities have used to creep a great deal lower. I mar­vel how this came to be so much overlooked, and this great Apostle, who for the eminency of his Knowledge, and his exquisite Skill in all polite and humane Literature (abstractedly from those admirable Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost, with which he was afterwards endow­ed) might be compared to the most renowned Philosophers of old; how he, I say, should now be thought to have originally been neither better nor worse than a poor paltry Artisan.

The great Credit and Esteem which St. Paul was in at Jerusalem, shews him to have been no [Page 19]vulgar and obscure Man. He was known to the High-Priest, and to all the Estate of the El­ders Acts xxii. 5., that is, to the whole supreme Coun­cil of the Sanhedrin. He had access to them, and we find him intrusted by them with a Power and Commission, which for their own honour, and the honour of their Religion, they would never have put into mean and disreputable hands. For they made him Inquisitor of the Faith, as it were, among them. They autho­rized him to search after the Christians, and to commit to prison as many as he found of that way Acts ix. 2.. Having, in pursuance of that Power, made a cruel havock of the Church at Jerusa­lem Acts viii. 3., he was going to do the like at Da­mascus, when a miraculous voice from Heaven struck him to the earth, and wrought his Con­version Acts ix. 3. &c.. My manner of Life, (says he, in his Defence before King Agrippa) which was at the first among mine own Nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews Acts xxvi. 4.. He who could boldly appeal to the Testimony of a whole Nation, and call upon it to witness his Conversation and manner of Life, must have made a Figure in it above what a silly Plebeian and Artisan can in reason be presumed to have made. Such a one might perchance be known among his Neigh­bours, [Page 20]but could not be considerable enough to draw the eyes and observation of a great Peo­ple upon him. And when we hear Festus cry­ing out from the Tribunal on which he sate with Agrippa, Paul! thou art beside thy self! much Learning doth make thee mad Acts xxvi. 24.! we can never think that he took the Man who stood before him, and to whom he thus spake, for one of the Common Tribe of Mechanicks: but to account rationally for those Words, we must suppose them grounded on an intimation of St. Paul's Learning, and other great Qualifica­tions, given before to the Governour, by some of the Jews themselves, who knew St. Paul, and with implacable malice persecuted him for this very reason, that he, a Pharisee, a Man of such note and reputation, had deserted them, and now turned upon them that very Learning which he had acquired in their Schools.

St. Paul then was a Tent-maker, and took up that Craft, no otherwise than as the greatest Rabbins and Doctors among the Jews took up some one some another Calling. And as what they did was merely by way of prevention a­gainst sudden and surprizing Turns of Fortune, to which all Men are subject, so they were not thereby understood to derogate from the Dig­nity [Page 21]of their Rank, or to debase themselves in­to the condition of ordinary Mechanicks. There is a visible difference betwixt the taking up of a Craft in that Way, and the assuming it as a proper Vocation, and making it one's dai­ly Task and Business. The first may be the effect of Prudence and Caution, but an Idea of Vileness and Contempt is affixed to the last. In a word, it may with as much truth be affirmed, that the most illustrious Professors of Wisdom among the Jews, were all but so many abject Handycraftsmen, as that St. Paul was so. He has been too much lessened by this Notion and Conceit of him, which some here­tofore have too easily entertained, and others of late have industriously promoted, because they have had an End to serve in it.

Thus much being premised, his making Tents at Corinth after he was called to be an Apostle and a Preacher in the Christian Church, is next to be examined: and thereupon the following Considerations will arise, which will demon­strate that his Case was Singular, so that the pre­sent Ministers of Religion neither are nor can be concluded by his Example in this Matter. Here then,

1. We ought to remember how exceedingly zealous and observant he himself says he was of the Prescriptions and Traditions of his Fa­thers Gal. i. 14., which indeed he speaks with refe­rence to the Time that preceded his Conversi­on: But by what he declares in another Place, touching the very point now in question, that unto the Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews; to them that were under the Law, as under the Law, that he might gain them that were under the Law 1 Cor. ix. 20.; he clearly intimates that in the whole Course of his Ministry he pre­served a great regard for the Jews, and (so far as could be done) complied with such Po­pular Customs as he found among them, that by so doing he might the better ingratiate him­self with them, which he judged would facili­tate the progress of the Gospel, the noble End he pursued and aimed at in all his Labours. To work sometimes with his hands, and in that to keep up to a conformity with their learned Rabbins and Doctors, was a Method of Insinu­ation very likely to take with that People, te­nacious of their Old Customs even to supersti­tion; and it was, we know, attended with success. This then is no otherwise to be look­ed on than as an Act of Condescension in the [Page 23]Apostle purely prudential and temporary, ac­commodated to the Weakness and Prejudices of the Jews, whom he sought to gain, and not designed by him to be a standing perpetual Rule to those that should succeed him in Pasto­ral Cares and Offices.

2. The unsettled Condition of the Church at that time, is what ought also to be consider­ed on this occasion. There was no certain Pro­vision as yet made for those who laboured in the Ministry. The voluntary Offerings and Contributions of the Faithful, were the only Fund which the Church then had to answer all Exigencies. And though the Charity of the Apostolic Ages was indeed wonderful, never­theless since the Apostle tells us that not many Mighty nor Noble were called 1 Cor. i. 26., but the far greater part of those Primitive Converts through­out the World, were Persons more remarkable for the piety and sanctity of their Lives, than for the largeness of their Estates, or the splen­dor of their Fortunes, 'tis evident that the Trea­sure of the Church could not be great, the small number of the Rich bearing no proportion with the multitude of the Poor. In that state of things, who can wonder if St. Paul, out of mere generosity and nobleness of Mind, chose [Page 24]rather to take up that Craft which in his youn­ger years he had learnt in view of such an Inci­dent and Emergency as this, and to draw those Supplies from it which his long and expensive Voyages in the Service of the Gospel might sometimes cause him to want, than to be a Charge to the Churches which he saw already burdened above what they could bear? But where there is not a Parity of Case, nothing can be inferred from such a Practice. He that is cal­led to serve at the Altar in a Nation thorough­ly converted to Christianity, and able to afford an honourable Maintenance for the support of Divine Offices, needs not do that for it which St. Paul did for the poor proselyted Jews and Gentiles in his days.

3. When St. Paul wrought at a Trade, it a­bated nothing of his Vigilance and Care for the Churches, it obstructed not his attendance on the Duties of his Ministry, and he could have done no more though he had not wrought at all. The Work of God did not stand still, while the other went on. So many Countries travelled or'e and or'e, so many Nations brought to the Knowledge of Christ and to the Obedi­ence of the Cross through his means, are a proof of this Truth. He laboured with his hands, [Page 25]and yet he preached and wrote as if all his Time and Thoughts had been spent in Study and Meditation. And the reason of that is plain. The wonderful assistances of the Holy Ghost, common to him with the other inspired Men of that Age, were to him instead of those. When ye shall be brought before Rulers and Kings for my sake (says our Blessed Saviour to his Apostles) take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost Mark xiii. 9, 11. Mat. x. 19, 20.. St. Paul then, relying on this Promise of the Holy Je­sus, might very safely bestow some of his Hours of leisure and retirement in working privately for his Necessities, which he could not have spared had he been left destitute of those extra­ordinary Helps and Succours he trusted to from above, but must have employed them in pre­paring himself for such Solemn Performances as the nature of his Function required. And can he in this be followed and imitated by the pre­sent Preachers of the Gospel? who by unwea­ried Pains and Toils, by a continual bent and intendment of Thought, by a frequent substra­ction even of the necessary Refreshments of Life to gain Time, must now endeavour to acquire [Page 26]that, or indeed but a very small measure and proportion of that, which the First Ministers of Christianity received from the immediate Influx of God's Spirit, who inlightned their Minds, and put the very Words into their Mouths that they were to use when they spake in publick.

4. St. Paul seems to have been aware of the ill use that might be made of the Example he gave, and therefore takes great care, through­out his Writings, to assert the Liberty and Privi­lege of the Evangelical Ministry, and to free it from any such obligation to Manual Labour. He professes that what he did was purely volun­tary, and the result of his own Choice, and ought not to be made a matter of Duty or Ne­cessity in others. he shews the equity of ma­king a Retribution to those who spend them­selves, and neglect their own Temporal Concerns, to procure our Spiritual Good. The IXth Chap­ter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, is a long set Discourse upon that Subject. There he clearly insinuates, that of all the Apostles, truly or falsely so called, he only and Barnabas, the Companion of his Travels Barnabas, Pauli diù co­mes, multim ab exemplo ip­sius traxerat. Grot., wrought with their hands. He tells the Corinthians, that he and Barnabas had power to forbear working like­wise Vers. 6., and to challenge an Honorary from the [Page 27]Churches, as well as others that did so. For, as he argues, Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a Vineyard, and eateth not of the Fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a Flock, and eateth not of the milk of the Flock? If we have sown unto you Spiritual Things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your Carnal Things? If others be partakers of this Power over you, are not we ra­ther? Nevertheless, we have not used this Pow­er — 7, 11, 12.. The Power he speaks of, is an Ex­emption from Manual Labour, and a Right of being provided for by the Church, which the other Apostles claimed and used, but which he and Barnabas, of their own accord, and upon particular motives, did decline. As it was a Spontaneous Act of them two, so it could be no Law to the rest of the Apostles, nor to any subsequent Ministers of Religion. Neither would the Reasons always subsist, that had put him and Barnabas upon a Practice in which he owns they stood single and alone. God would soon enlarge the Borders of his Church, and then nothing could hinder Christian People from enlarging themselves also towards their Teach­ers. Do ye not know (for thus he immediately subjoins) that they which minister about Holy Things, live of the things of the Temple? and [Page 28]they which wait at the Altar, are partakers of the Altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel — 13, 14.. Here he referrs to that remark­able Saying of our Blessed Saviour, that the Workman (even he who lays himself out on the great Work of Men's Salvation, and is painful and diligent therein) is worthy of his Meat Matt. x. 10., and ought consequently to enjoy a Vacation from other Works and Labours.

Nor did St. Paul always live by making of Tents. Sometimes he accepted of the Benevo­lence of the Churches. For in his Epistles, he speaks of supplies sent him once and again from Macedonia 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9. Phil. iv. 10, &c..

I proceed,

II. To account for some Passages out of An­cient Constitutions, Councils, and Fathers, which might be turned upon us in the present Controversy.

1. Such is that cited out of the Apostolical Constitutions (commonly, but untruly so called) in which the Apostles, whom the Fictitious Au­thor personates all along, urge their own Ex­ample to stir Men up to Bodily Labours. We are (thus they are made to speak) employed in [Page 29]dispensing the Word of the Gospel; we do not there­fore disuse the Labour of the Hand; but are occu­pied some in making Tents, some in Fishery, some in Husbandry [...]. Lib. II. cap. 63.. If St. Paul made Tents, whilst he went up and down the World planting and gathering Churches, he wrought privately in a House and at his Lodging. Text., and mostly at Night 1 Thess. ii. 9. ii Thess. iii. 8., after the Day spent in public Ex­hortation and Teaching: But how Fishery and Husbandry, or the like Rustic Arts, which re­quire the Day, and a settled Residence in a Place, should be consistent with that unfixt am­bulatory Life which the other Apostles led no less than he, is not to be comprehended. Fishers some of them we grant to have been at the first, and to have upon occasion practised that Calling, even after our Lord's Resurrecti­on, and until the Day of Pentecost Joh. xxi. 3, &c.. But when they had on that Day received the last Seal of their Ministry by the Mission of the Holy Ghost, and thereupon they became (as 'twere) Other Men, entred upon a New Scene, dispersing themselves among all Nations to preach the Kingdom of God, it cannot be shewn that from thenceforwards they meddled any more with that or other the like Occupa­tions. In short, the Author of these Constitu­tions [Page 30]is an Impostor, who to give a reputation to his Dreams would intitle the Apostles to them. And I am deceived if this Passage be not as good an Instance of the Spuriousness and Suppositition of the Book, as any thing that has been observed out of it for that purpose, by learned Men of all Communions.

2. There is a Canon of the IV ^th Council of Carthage that is indeed very express, and the Words in which it is conceived are these: Cle­ricus victum & vestimentum sibi, artificiolo, vel agriculturâ, absque officii sui detrimento paret Can. 52. Hùc etiam spectant Ca­nones 51, & 53, ejusdem Concilii. Cle­nicus, quantim, libet verbo Dei eruditus, arti­ficio victum quaerat. Can. 51. Omnes Clerici, qui ad operandum va­lidiores sunt, artificiola dis­cant. Can. 53.. But besides that the Clause, absque officii sui de­trimento, eludes the force of the Canon, because 'tis not understood how a Clerk can exercise a Trade, or Agriculture, without detriment to his Office, I have this further to answer: That 'tis with great reason doubted whether there ever was such a Council, held (as 'tis said) anno 398. (the learned Justell absolutely denies it Quod fin­gunt de alio Concilio Car­thaginensi, quod IV tum vocant, & Honorio IV. & Eutychiano C [...]ss. convenisse narrart, planè repudiandum est; nec fides adhibenda Canonibus CIV quos sine auctoritate huic Concilio aseribunt. Praefat. ad Cod. Canon. Eccles. Afric. pag. 317.) or, if there was, whether the CIV Ca­nons that now go under that name, are the true and genuine Acts of that Council Du Pin. Nouvelle Bibliotheque, Tom. II. pag. 356.. This we certainly know, that in the ancient Code of the African Councils, there is not the least mention [Page 31]made either of that Council or of those Canons; although there are no fewer than XVI several Councils of Carthage, all of them held under Aurelius Bishop of that See, from the Year 394 to 419 inclusive, and moreover the two Coun­cils of Hippo and Milevi, taken into that Code. How a Council in which so many Decrees had been made for the Reformation of Church-Dis­cipline, should come to be omitted and left out of that Code, is (if such a Council had been) altogether unaccountable: considering especial­ly, that the same Aurelius, under whom that supposed Council is said to have been held, presided also in the great Council of Carthage of the Year 419, which fixed the African Code. Nay, there is a Canon in this last, directly con­trary to that very Canon in the other out of which the Objection is made. 'Tis the XVI ^th I speak of, which forbids Churchmen to take Farms, or to be other Men's Baylies, or to get their Living by any sordid illiberal Employment; but to remember what is written, that no Man that warr­eth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life [...].. We must think the African Bishops strangely [Page 32]inconsistent with themselves, to believe them capable of approving and disproving, of allow­ing and condemning, one and the self same thing almost with a breath. Wherefore since the Authority of this last great Council, called the Council of Carthage by way of excellency, and under that name received of old by all the Eastern Churches Vid. Ann [...]r. dectiss [...] Bc­veregii in Ca­nones Conc. Carthag. pag. 202., is uncontrovertible, that of the other may very justly be suspected and called into question. Neither are those CIV Canons of the IV ^th Council of Carthage to be found in the ancient Collection of Dionysius Exiguus Ext. ap. Christoph. Justell. Bibli­oth. Jur. Ca­non. vet. Tom. 1. pag. 183. & seq., who exactly transcribes the African Code: nor the least footstep of them to be seen in the no less ancient Abbreviation of the Coun­cils made by Fulgentius Ferrandus Ext. ibid. pag. 447. & seq., who was Deacon of Carthage in the time of the Empe­rors Justin and Justinian, and was no doubt perfectly acquainted with the Records and Af­fairs of that Church. Further, in some Manu­scripts they are intituled, Statuta Ecclesiae anti­qua; and particularly in one, Statuta Ecclesiae Orientis antiqua Concil. Labb. Tom. II. pag. 1198.; so uncertain is the account which we have of them. Lastly, in the I ^st of those Canons mention is made of the Doctrine of Original Sin, in opposition to the Pelagian Heresy, that was not heard of in Africk until the [Page 33]Year 411, that is, 13 Years after the Date of those Canons; which shews that they must be a latter Compilation. All these Remarks put together destroy any Argument deduced from those Canons, and built on no better Authori­ty than that of the Council to which they are attributed. A fitter opportunity could not be offered me to declare my sense about that Coun­cil, than now when so many Learned Men are met together, part of whose Business it is to in­quire into such things. But because,

3. In the approved Writers of the IV ^th, V ^th, and the next following Centuries, we some­times meet with Expressions seeming to injoin Manual Labour to the Clergy, I must likewise consider them; and I shall do it so, as to ac­count for whatever we find of that kind in the Books of those Times. What I have to say a­mounts in short to this: That where Clerks are exhorted to work and labour with their hands, 'tis meant not of Parochial, but of Conventual and Congregational Clerks. Devout Men be­gan early to form themselves into Religious Communities, and to live under certain Insti­tutes or Rules; which among other Exercices proper to the Ascetic Life, such as Prayer, Fast­ing, and the like, recommended Manual La­bour [Page 34]also, as a means to avoid Idleness, and to keep the Body under. There were two sorts of Persons that entred into those Societies, and embraced that kind of Life, viz. Lay-men and Ecclesiasticks. Of the first, some before their retreat from the World had been trained up in one Calling, some in another: Some had been Husbandmen, some Artificers Multi ex ser­vili conditione, & ex vitâ ru­sticanâ, & ple­beio labore, ad Monasticam vi­tam transibant. D. Aug. Lib. de Oper. Mo­nach. cap. xxii.. These were not only allowed, but excited to work at their several Crafts, so far as it could be practicable in a Cloyster, and they might spare time from their Devotions: and that not for private gain, but for the benefit of the Society, or of the Poor. In process of time, as Sloth and In­action have ever been the blemish and reproach of the Monastic Orders, these Men refused to work; pretending thereby to fulfill that Saying of our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount, Consider the Lillies of the field how they grow, THEY WORK NOT, neither do they spin Matt. vi. 28.. In opposition to these Men, St. Augu­stin, at the request of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage spoken of before, wrote his Book de Opere Mona­chorum, as he himself tells us in his Retractations Ʋt de Opere Monachorum Librum conscri­berem, illa me necessit as compulit, quod cùm apud Carthaginem Monasteria esse coepissent, alii se su [...] manibus transigebant,—alii verò it à ex oblationibus religiosorum vivere volebant, ut nihil operantes—se potiùs implere praeceptum Evangelicum jactarent, ubi Dominus ait, respicite volatilia coeli, & lilia agri, &c. Propter hoc venerabilis senex Aurelius, Ecclesiae ipsius Civitatis Episcopus, ut hine aliquid describerem jussit. Lib. II. cap. 21.; [Page 35]and much has been said since against the Lazi­ness of those plebeian Lay-Monks by St. Cyril of Alexandria Epist. ad Calosyr. Oper. Ton. [...] pag. 365., St. Isidore of Pelusium Lib. I. Epist. 49. ad Paulum Coe­nobiarch. & 298. ad Lucam Coenobiarch., and others, who came after St. Augustin. As for Ec­clesiasticks living in Monasteries, they were sub­ject to the Discipline of those Houses, and so fell likewise under the obligation of labouring with their hands. This is noted by Epiphani­us, as a known Practice in the Monasteries of Egypt Advers. Hae­res. Lib. III. Tom. 2. Haet. 80. §. 6.. And there is not much to be said a­gainst it: Because though these Men might re­tain their Character, yet they were under no actual, or no full and plenary Exercice of their Function. Some of them were shut up in those Houses by way of Correction and Punishment Conc. Agath­can. 50. Conc. Epaon. can. 22. Conc. Aurel. III. can. 7. Conc. Narbon. can. 6. Conc. Tolet. IV. can. 29. & 45. Hortatus sum ut ageres poenitentiam,—ut solitudinem peteres, ut viveres in Monasterio, &c. S. Hie­ronym. Epist. ad Sabinionum Diaconum, qui virginem ad stuprum sollicitaverat. Oper. Tom. I. pag. 231. Edit. Froben.: and it was not inconvenient that they who had demeaned themselves disorderly, should there be made to expiate the Faults and Errors of their Lives, by hard and severe Labour.

But now these and the like Cenobitical Con­stitutions neither did nor could affect the Paro­chial Clergy, living in the great and open Com­merce of Men, attending on the Public Mini­stries of the Church, busied in Pastoral Cares, [Page 36]obliged to have a constant eye over their Flocks, and in a word taken up with other more weigh­ty Affairs to be able to do that also which re­cluse and solitary Men might have leisure e­nough to do. And so St. Augustin tells the Monks, in the Book abovementioned: agnos­cite Ecclesiarum quibus servimus talem consuetu­dinem, ut nos ad illa Opera ad quae vos hortamur, vacare non sinant De Op. Mo­nach. cap. xxv.. But we need only read St. Jerom's Epistles to Nepotianus and to Rusticus, to know the sense of the Church about this matter. In that to Rusticus, who had chosen the Monastic Life, St. Jerom presses the necessi­ty of filling up the Vacancies of his Time with Bodily Labour, so as never to be Idle; and he largely and elegantly describes that great vari­ety of Work of all kinds which might occupy a Man shut up in Solitude Facito ali­quid operis, ut te semper Dia­bolus inveniat occupatum.—Vel fiscellam texe junco, vel canistrum lentis plexe vimini­bus, sarriatur humus, areolae aequo limite dividantur, in quibus c [...]m olerum jacta fuerint semina, vel plantae per ordinem positae, aquae ducantur irriguae.—Inserantur infructuosae arbores, vel gemmu, vel surculis, ut parvo post tempore laboris tui dulcia poma decerpas. Apum fabricare alvearia,—& Monasteriorum ordinem, ac regiam disciplinam, in parvis disce corporibus. Texantur & lina [...] ­piendis piscibus; scribantur libri, ut & manus operetur cibum, & animus lectione saturetur. In de­sideriis est omnis otiosus. Aegyptiorum Monasteria hunc morem tenent, ut nullum absque operis lab [...]re suscipiant, non tàm propter victûs necessitatem, quàm propter animae salutem. Tom. I. pag. 45. & 46.: whereas in that to Nepotianus, who was a Secular Presbyter, and had a public Charge, he says nothing con­cerning it. What can his Silence argue, but a concession that Nepotianus would find so much [Page 37]employment in going about to acquit himself honestly and conscientiously of the Duties of his Function, as would supersede the necessity of joyning Manual Labour thereunto?

To bring this Point to a Conclusion: The very Heathens would not suffer the Ministers of their Religion to do any servile handy Work; and therefore Aristotle contends that Rusticks and Artisans, and the like labouring and trading People, ought not to be advanced to the Dig­nity of the Priesthood; and he calls it a dis­respect to the Gods that such Men should be appointed to serve at their Altars [...]. Polit. Lib. vii. cap. 9.. Among the Jews, by God's own special command and direction, the Priests and Levites had no part in the inheritance of the Land Numb. xviii. 20, &c. Deut. xviii. 1, &c., lest a neces­sary culture thereof should debase their Minds, and defile their Hands, and make them less fit for Sacred Ministrations. They lived upon the Provision which God had reserved for them, Tenths and Offerings; and the other Tribes worked for them, whilst they had nothing to do but in their several Classes and Courses to attend the Service of the Temple. Nor do I find that they took up mechanick Crafts and Arts, though but in the way that I have shewn the greatest Rabbins and Doctors among that People [Page 38]took them up. Those Rabbins and Doctors, being indifferently of other Tribes, and having nothing to do with the dispensing of Holy Things, might use their liberty in that matter. But the Priests being the peculiar Servants of the most high God, Men whom he had sanctified, separated from the World, and appropriated to himself, such mechanick Labours would not so well have become them.

Indeed the Jews did abusively afterwards di­stinguish betwixt two sorts of Priests, calling the one Sacerdotes clerici, and the others Sacerdotes laici sive plebeij; as our famed Lightfoot ob­serves, out of the Writings of the Masters Hor. Hebr. ad Matt. ii. 4. & iterùm, Op. Posthum. pag. 28.. The Sacerdotes laici sive plebeij, were the unlet­tered and unskilled in the Law, or those whom Bodily Defects and Blemishes had disabled and rendered incapable of executing Priestly Offices. It was never intended that they should be frustra­ted of a Portion among their Brethren, the Law having declared it self very expresly to the con­trary: They shall eat of the bread of their God, both of the most holy, and of the holy: only they shall not come nigh unto the Altar, because they have Blemishes Lev. xxi. 22, 23.. And yet through the growth and prevalency of Pharisaism, which in this as in many other instances made the Law of God [Page 39]void, it came to be a Saying in after-times, ne detur oblatio Sacerdoti laico [...] Vid. Lightfoot ut s [...]pra.; by which means these Persons fell into neglect and contempt, and were often reduced to Poverty. Among these, 'tis not impossible but some may be found that had recourse to their own Industry, in the way of Arts and Trades, compelled by a Neces­sity which excused them, but which could not have been urged to excuse those who did eat of the Sacrifices, had they been seen taken up with any other Work than that of their Fun­ction.

The Council of Eliberis, elder by some years than that of Nice, forbade to admit among the Clergy, the Liberti, or affranchized Bondmen of Gentile Masters Can. 80.: by reason (says the learned Aubespine Merito cave­bant ne Liber­ti, querum Pa­troni essent Gen­tiles, ordina­rentur: nam ab eis fabriles aut officiales operas exigere poterant Patro­ni, quas soliti erant stipulari c [...]m eos liber­tate donarent: tenebanturque Liberti non solùm Patronis eas praestare, sed aliis etiam quibus eae locatae essent. At in­dignum prors [...]s neque ferendum, ejusmodi operis, pictoriis puta aut fabrilibus, Cleric [...]s distrabi & im­ [...]ediri, qui nullis aliis rebus quàm sacris vacare aut studere deberent. Gabr. Albaspini Aurel. Epis­copi not. in Concil. Eliber. pag. 87.) of the abject Services and Depen­dances, which their Patrons continued upon con­tract to exact from them, even then after their Manumission. It seemed intolerable that the Ministry should be prostituted to Men of that Rank, who might be called back to their old Trades of Painting, Carving, and the like, as oft as it pleased their Patrons to set them [Page 40]thereto, or to hire out their Labour therein to others.

In the VII ^th Year of Queen Elizabeth, all that had any Office or Cure in the Church of England, were obliged to subscribe the follow­ing Declaration: I shall not openly intermeddle with any Artificer's Occupation, so as covetously to seek a gain thereby, having in Ecclesiastical Living to the sum of XX Nobles, or above, by Year Bishop Spar­row's Collecti­on of Articles, Injunctions, Canons, &c. of the Church of England.. He must have a great deal of Flegm that reflects on that which gave occasion to such a Declaration, and keeps his Temper. It was briefly this. The Church had been so impove­rished by Sacrilegious Alienations of its Patri­mony and Revenues, that many of the Inferior Clergy, not able to live upon the small Rem­nant that was left and scattered among them, more like an Alms than a Reward proportioned to their Labours, were forced for a Subsistence to betake themselves to Trades, and other mean and vile Occupations Bishop of Sarum's Hist. of the Reform. of the Ch. of England. Part II. Book I. pag. 202. Dr. Heylin's Hist. of the Reform. Edw. pag. 61.; to the manifest neglect of their Charge, and the great disgrace of their Holy Calling. Thereupon the aforesaid Decla­ration was drawn up: which still gave leave to those whose Livings came under such a Value, to get a Supply as well as they could, in some other Way, which they might superadd to the [Page 41]Sacred Employment they were in. With sub­mission, the Credit of the Church and Ministry was not enough consulted and provided for by that Act. Therefore the Convocation which sate in the Year 1603, having thought better there­on, ordained and enacted, that from thenceforth no Ecclesiastical Persons should give themselves to any base or servile Labour Can. 75.. By this Decree the Honour and Sacredness of our Office has been retrieved and asserted: This is also to be no­ted, that at the beginning of our Refor­mation, such an indigence there was of Ministers, as made it necessary to take in some Artificers, and to fill up Vacant Cures with them. These Men did not demean themselves so decently as became the Character conferred on them. Some­thing still stuck by them, savouring of their former education and manner of living. There­fore anno 1560, a Letter from Matthew Parker, newly consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, was directed to Edmund Grindal Bishop of London, signifying, that whereas lately for want of Ministers, they had ordained several Artificers, who had behaved themselves not to the credit of the Gospel, care should be taken that no more Artificers might be ordained for the futur. Regist. Grindal. MSS. fol. 7. The reputation of our Church suffered upon the occasion of these Men, the Papists not being wanting to upbraid and reproach us with them, as appears from Rastal's Answer to Bishop Jewel's Challenge. See Heylin's Hist. of the Reform. Eliz. pag. 175. But our Church was then in a State of Infancy, and a Generation of better and abler Men quickly sprang up that superseded the necessity of those Ordinations. I cite Bishop Grindal's Register upon the autho­rity of the reverend Dr. Kennet, whose learned account of the Antiquities of his own Parish-Church of Ambrosden, shews him excellently accomplished to go on further in the like curious Researches. and a Decree it is wor­thy of them that made it, viz. the Fathers and Representatives of the purest and best constitu­ted Church in the Christian World.

Upon the whole Matter, let any reasonable Man judge, who are the truest Ministers, and the likeliest to carry on the great and noble Designs of Religion; either They, who have de­voted [Page 42]themselves early to this Work, who have beforehand qualified themselves duely for it, and who desire to lay aside other Occupations and Affairs only that they may without distra­ction attend upon this very thing; or They, who being entangled in various Worldly Callings, trained up in them from the beginning, neces­sitated to exercise themselves daily in them, and to be always running round and toiling in that Circle, do, merely upon the presumption of a lively Fancy and a voluble Tongue (natural Gifts, which not only very Bad, but very Ig­norant Men may have) take upon them to Teach, when they themselves very much need to be Taught. But taking no further notice of these Men, who can deceive those only whom God in his secret and inscrutable Judg­ment has given up to a Spirit of Error and De­lusion, I shall turn the Discourse to our selves, and shew,

III. That Evangelical Pastors and Ministers, being by the nature of their Function dismissed from Manual Labours, and generally from all those Cares and Occupations with which Secular Persons are taken up and perplexed; they are much to blame, if through Love of the World [Page 43]they voluntarily resume and involve themselves in those Cares; if through Levity of Spirit they dissipate their Time in foolish Diversions and Amusements, or even in fruitless and unprofi­table Studies; if they do not, in so priviledged and recollected a State of Life, bend their ut­most application and endeavours, to the en­riching of their Minds more and more with the Knowledge of Things excellent and proper for them, to the adorning of their Province, and to the fulfilling of their Ministry; since there­fore they enjoy this Exemption and Immunity that they may be enabled so to do.

I hope none of my Reverend Brethren will be offended with the Freedom I shall use in speaking to this Head. I must pursue my Sub­ject, and I would be understood to direct my Discourse to none so much as to my self.

1. They are, I think, not excusable, who having given themselves up to the Mini­stries of Religion, and being thereby dispensed from Secular Cares, involve themselves in them when they need not. And here are not meant the just and necessary Cares of a Family, but Cares and Occupations in meddling with which Clergy-men bewray Habits and Dispositions of Mind too much estranged and alienated from the [Page 44]Spirit of their Calling. We must with shame confess that the Fault I note here is no new evil in the Church: as appears from so many De­crees of General and Provincial Councils, Sy­nodical Letters, Capitulars, and other Ancient Monuments, where loud Complaints are made against it Can. Apostol. 6, 44, 81, & 83. Concil. Afri­can. I. de quo S. Cy­prian. Ep. 66. edit. Pa­mel. seu 1. edit. Oxon. Conc. Eliber. can. 18, & 20. Conc. Arelat. I. can. 12. Conc. Nicaen. I. Oecumen. can. 17. Conc. Laodi­cens. can. 4. Conc. Carthag. I. cap. 6, 8, 9, & 13. Conc. Carthag. III. cap. 15, & 16. Conc. Carthag. an. 419. in causâ Apia­rii. can. 17. Conc. Chalce­don. Oecu­men. can. 3. Conc. Arelat. II. can. 14. Conc. Tarracon. can. 2. Conc. Constantinop. in Trull. can. 10. Conc. in Palatio Vern. can. 16. Conc. Forojul. ceu Aquileiens. can. 5. Conc. Cabilon. II. can. 5, 8, 12, & 44. Conc. Aquisgran. I. can. 40, 61, 92, & 93. Conc. Rom. an. 826. can. 12. Conc. Paris. an. 829. can. 13, & 28. Conc. Clovesh. can. 8. ap. Spelman. Conc. Angl. Tom. I. pag. 247. Canones Saxon. Aelfrici, can. 30. ap. eund. Tom. I. pag. 579. Conc. Lond. an. 1102. can. 1. & 8. ap. eund. Tom. II. pag. 22. Synod. Westm. an. 1138. cap. 9. ap. eund. Tom. II. pag. 41, &c.. There, we find Ecclesiastical Per­sons taxed; some, for taking Lands and Grounds to Farm, and doing that which properly is the Business of Yeomen and such like People; some, for assuming the management and superinten­dency of Great Men's Estates, as their Stewards and Baylies; some, for accepting of Procurations, Wardships, and Testamentary Trusts, which to execute they were always following Courts, and going to Law; some, for trading and traffick­ing openly as Merchants, resorting to forreign Markets, buying cheap and selling dear, as the Words of some of those Councils are; some, for making a profit of their Money by Loan and Interest, setting up Banques, and turning downright Usurers and Extortioners; to say nothing of those whom we find no less cen­sured [Page 45]for thrusting themselves into Public Ad­ministrations, and ambitioning Posts and Places in the Civil Government. Against these, and such as these, so many Canons and Constituti­ons have been made, both in former and latter Ages, that if one should undertake to collect them, and reduce them into a Code, they would swell up to a Volume. As they shew the zeal and concern of the Church all along, to keep Evangelical Ministries free from profane and unclean Mixtures, so they are all but a larger Comment on that Text of St. Paul, that no man that warreth intangleth himself with the af­fairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Soldier ii Tim. ii. 4.. Which words of the Apostle are expresly laid down by the I ^st and III ^d Councils of Carthage, and others sub­sequent to them, as the ground of the Laws they enacted against Clerks busying themselves with Cares that did not belong to them.

Some Men naturally are more stirring than others, delight more in Business and Action. When such Men come into the Church, it is pity they do not use that Diligence and Industry with which God has endowed them, in matters commendable and proper for them. They would prove admirable instruments of doing good, and [Page 46]they would surpass all others of their Professi­on. Nor need they fear that their Talent should rust, through want of employment. For there is not a nobler Scene for Business and Action than the Ministry, though in a way different from the Cares and Labours of the World.

2. They greatly abuse this Exemption and Immunity, who through Levity of Spirit dissi­pate their Time in foolish Diversions and A­musements. This is a Fault in the other ex­treme, incident to Men of another Complexi­on. For this flows from a sauntring and un­active Temper, from a Mind dissolved in Sloth, and averse to every thing that is serious. This Humour is of all others the most opposite to the Ministry, and by being indulged must ren­der a Man useless and unserviceable in it. I would make all the allowance that can be for Humane Infirmities, and for Propensions which perhaps were born with us: But certainly the most innocent Pastimes must become criminal in Men called to a Sacred Trust, who postpone the discharge of their Duty to them. Indeed he who has an awful sense of God and of Holy Things upon his Mind, who is convinced of the infinite value of Souls, and has duely weighed the importance of the Work laid before him, [Page 47]will not think that he has much leisure to spare in the pursuit of Pleasures and Recreations, be they otherwise never so harmless and inoffen­sive in their own nature. When Synesius was named to fill the vacant See of Ptolemais, the Good Man pleaded a certain inclination he had for Hunting, as a reason for which he concei­ved himself unapt for so great a Charge: For a Bishop (thus he expresses himself) ought to be a God-like Man: like the Deity, he must be above all Sports and Divertisements [...]. Epist. CV ad Fra­trem. pag. 247.. St. Isidore will not allow so much as a little Mirth and Laugh­ter to a Priest: saying, that a Priest is the An­gel of Almighty God; but Angels know not what Laughter is; those glorious Creatures minister to God with Reverence and Fear [...]. Lib. I. Epist. 319. ad Derotheum Presbyterum. pag. 85.. These are the Thoughts which those two excellent Men had of the Ministry, from which they banished eve­ry thing that favoured of a light and frivolous Spirit. If we therefore of the Clergy enjoy a demission from Secular Cares and Toils, it is not that we may thereby have an opportunity to be Idle, and to bury our selves in a soft, casie, and voluptuous Life; but that being freed from all interruptions, we may give the better [Page 48]attendance on our Calling, and labour so much the more sedulously and indefatigably in our own Way: and we should have very ill grace to claim such a Privilege, upon other Terms than these.

3. Even they make but an ill use of this Ex­emption and Immunity, who addict themselves to fruitless and unprofitable Studies. In Men who ought to spend their Time to worthier purposes even this is a Fault, and deserves no better name than that of a more laborious sort of Idleness. And verily when we consider the vast number of Books that swell up the accounts in our Libraries, and have been written by Di­vines on all the various Topics of Profane Learning, we cannot but wonder how Men la­bouring in God's Vineyard, should find vacant Hours for such Productions and Superfetations as those. Had not the Titles taken care to in­form us of the Quality and Profession of the Men, we could never have guessed from the Contents of the Books, in which nothing is found having a tast and relish of that Spirit of Religion which should have animated the Au­thors, that such Works had been the Lucubra­tions of Persons in Holy Orders. A Minister's Pen ought to be dedicated to God's Glory, and [Page 49]to the Defence of the Truth. He unhallows it, and desecrates himself, that turns it to light and unbecoming Subjects. The fabulous Rela­tion of the Adventures of Theagenes and Chari­claea, which appeared in the IV ^th Century, writ­ten with all the beauties of Language and In­vention, might have passed uncensured, had a Lay-man been the Author of it. But when that Romance began to walk abroad with the vene­rable name of Heliodorus Bishop of Trica in Thes­saly prefixed to it, the whole Church was of­fended and scandalized at it, notwithstanding what was said to lessen the Scandal, viz. that it was a Work which Heliodorus had composed in his younger years. A Synod of the Bishops of the Province met, in which Heliodorus was cal­led upon to disown and retract the Book. Up­on his refusal, he was deservedly Deprived [...]. Hist. Eccles. Lib. XII. cap. xxxiv. pag. 296, & 297. Vid. etiam Soerat. Hist. Ecc. Lib. V. cap. xxii. pag. 287.. The vain Man was so blown up with the pride and conceit of being the Parent of that Fiction, that rather than lose the merit of it, he was contented to see himself degraded of the Epis­copal Dignity and Character, which is the glory and perfection of the Evangelical Sa­cerdoce.

I would not seem by any thing I have here said to condemn Humane Learning, which at the entrance of this Discourse I have laid down as a necessary Qualification for the Ministry, in opposition to those Ignorant Pretenders who as­sume the one without any Tincture of the other. But as the best of it ought to be used only as an Accessory to Divine Researches and Enquiries, so there are Studies in that way that are indeed but Trifling. And you will all, no doubt, con­curre with me, that a Minister of the Gospel, who, when he should be laying himself out in things solid and useful, should be writing Son­nets and Epigrams, or evaporating his Thoughts in Airy Speculations and Theories, that have no subserviency to Religion, and can only conduce to the gratifying of an idle and itching Curio­sity, would be able to give but a very ill ac­count of his Time to God. Therefore,

4. It is they that make a right use of that Leisure which an Exemption from secular Cares and Labours affords them, who bend their ut­most application and endeavours to the enrich­ing of their Minds daily more and more with the Knowledge of Divine Things. This is the Knowledge in the acquisition of which it is in­tended that Christian Ministers should spend [Page 51]their still, quiet, and peaceful Hours. And in­deed, how can they find a gust for such Studies as I last spoke of, who have for the proper Ob­jects of their Meditations, the glorious Attri­butes and Works of God, the wonderful My­steries of our Redemption by Jesus Christ, the great and saving Doctrines of the Gospel, and all the august Evidences given there concerning a Futur State and our hopes of a better Life after this? Such Matters as these are worthy of the profoundest Contemplation and Incumbency, not only of Men, but of Angels. To these the Clergy are understood to have consecrated their Studies; and could it be supposed that any one of that Sacred Order should prove deficient in the Knowledge of these, so as not to carry a per­fect Scheme of them in his Mind, and be able to account readily for them, he knows nothing to any purpose, though otherwise he could number the Sands on the Sea-shore, or solve the most difficult Phenomena of Nature. 'Tis a no­ble Thought of St. Isidore [...]. Lib. I. Epist. 151. pag. 47., as there are many in that Author, that the Priests of God ought to ressemble those Living Creatures attending on the Divine Majesty in a Vision to Ezekiel Chap. i. 18. and x. 12., and said to have been full of eyes, to denote [Page 52]their sagacity and insight into Heavenly Reve­lations and Oracles.

And if ever it was necessary for the Clergy to excell in that Knowledge and in those Stu­dies which peculiarly belong to their Profession, if ever it concerned them to be conversant a­bout and to strive for a Mastery in the Divine Tactics, it is now. There is a Swarm of A­theists, Deists, Sceptics, Spinozists, Socinians, and other Enemies of our Holy Faith, gone out amongst us: Men with whom a Servant of Jesus Christ will often be called to encounter. It be­hooves him therefore to be furnished with such Arms, as may enable him to do it with success. Would it not grieve him to see the best Cause in the World baffled and defeated, only because he wants Abilities to defend it? The meanest Christian ought to be ready always to give an answer to every man, that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him i Pet. iii. 15.: How much more ought the Ministers of the Church to be mighty in words Acts vii. 22., workmen that need not to be asha­med ii Tim. ii. 15., able by sound Doctrine to convince gain­sayers Tit. i. 9., and to cast down every high thought and imagination that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God ii Cor. x. 5.? 'Tis that they may the better qualify and capacitate themselves in this [Page 53]way, that by the Laws of God, the Sanctions of the Universal Church, and under the Protec­tion of Christian States and Governments, the Clergy enjoy an Exemption and Immunity from Secular Cares and Labours.

5. and lastly: They enjoy this Exemption and Immunity (and those among them are excee­dingly to blame, who do not use it to that End) that they may adorne their Province, and fulfill their Ministry in every Part of it. That is, that they may be continually busied and employed in advancing the Honour and Service of the great Maker and Preserver of the World: in recon­ciling Men to him by Repentance, and the ad­ministration of Holy Rites: in teaching and in­structing the Ignorant: in relieving anxious and doubting Consciences: in rebuking profligate Sinners, and warning them of the dread and terrors of an approaching Judgment: in com­posing Differences, and promoting Peace, Cha­rity, and a reciprocal Good-Will among all People: in plucking up Sin and Vice, and plan­ting the Seeds of every Christian Grace and Vir­tue in the Earth: in purifying their own Lives, and giving heed to their own Sanctification, that they may be shining Examples to their Flocks: in praying night and day to God, that he will [Page 54]bless their Endeavours, and afford them such a Measure of his Divine Spirit as may be sufficient to carry them through their Work. The World cannot envy a Vacation from Secular Cares and Labours to the Clergy, nor any other Privilege annexed to their Sacred Function, whilst it sees them intent upon such things as these.

And praised be God, the Father of Lights, and the Author of every good Gift Jam. i. 17., for that in the midst of so general a Corruption and De­generacy as prevailes in our Age, he has not left his Church destitute of honest and faithful Pas­tors, who strenuously pursue all the Ends I have named, answer all the Qualifications and Characters I have laid down: That is, who are eminently conspicuous for their contempt of and abstraction from Earthly Things, for their grave and sober Deportment, for their sound and useful Learning, and for their constant Assi­duity to their Charge. I cannot better express it than in the Words of St. Cyprian Epist. lxvii. ad Foelicem Presbyterum, &c. pag. 174. Edit. Oxon., which are so nicely adapted to our Case, that one would think they had been suggested to him by a Pro­phetick Spirit, and that when he wrote them, he had in view, not the State of the Church in his Time, but in ours. Non sic tamen, quàmvis no­vissimis temporibus, in Ecclesià Dei, aut Evan­gelicus [Page 55]vigor cecidit, aut Christianae virtutis aut fi­dei robur elanguit, ut non supersit portio Sacerdo­tum, quae minimè ad has rerum ruinas, & fidei naufragia, succumbat; sed fortis & stabilis, hono­rem Divinae Majestatis, & Sacerdotalem Dignita­tem, plenâ timoris observatione, tueatur. Al­though (says he) we are fallen into the Last Days, nevertheless the Evangelical Spirit and Vigour is not sunk, nor the strength and pow­er of Christian Faith and Virtue enfeebled to such a degree, in the Church of God, as that there should not be yet remaining a Portion of Holy Priests, who amidst all these ruins and shipwracks of Religion are not unmindful of their Duty, but stand firm and unshaken therein, going on with great zeal and courage to assert the Honour of the Divine Majesty, and to maintaine the Dignity and Reputation of Sacerdotal Functions. Praised be God, that no Particular Church upon Earth can boast of a greater number of such Worthy Men, than the Protestant Orthodox Church of England. I rec­kon it, not the least advantage I have gained from my Attendances abroad, that I have received ma­ny Convictions of this Truth, by comparing the Clergy of this and of other Churches. To those who deny them their due Commendation, I shall [Page 56]only say, that I wish them the like opportuni­ties of Conviction.

May God, in his infinit mercy, keep up a Succession of such Pastors in his Church, so long as there is a Sun in the Firmament. May their Excellent Example quicken Me, and others of their Brethren, who flag behind them. May the World be just to them, and esteem them very highly in love for their Work's sake i Thess. v. [...]3.. May their People have the wisdom not to withdraw themselves from under their Conduct, to follow Blind Guides and Seducers. May they feel a kind and benign Influence of Heaven going a­long with them, and prospering every thing they do, or undertake, for the glory of God, and for the benefit and instruction of Mankind. May none of the Enemies of God be able to stand before them. May the great and sacred Truths of Religion, be ever victorious and triumphant in their Discourses and Writings. May they every where beat down the Kingdom of Satan, and on the fall of it build up the glorious King­dom of Jesus Christ our Lord. And from him the Everlasting High-Priest, the supreme Pastor and Bishop of Souls, may they one day receive the Crown and Reward promised to their Holy Labours. Amen.