§. 1. INtending to give you some DIRECTI­ONS for your Proceeding in the STU­DIES, upon which you are Entring, that you may be prepared and furnish­ed for the Work of the Evangelical MINISTRY, to which you are designed; I shall not consult the Method which any of the twice Twelve, Dissertationes de Studiis, (Collected by Elzivir in one little Volum.) have given you. But the Contemplation of DEATH shall be the FIRST Point of the Wisdom that my Advice must lead [Page 2]you to. In the FIRST Place, My Son, I advise you to consider yourself as a Dying Person, and one that must shortly put off this Earthly Tabernacle. I move you, I press you, To Remember how short your Time is, yea, though it should reach to the longest that is ordinarily known among the Chil­dren of Men; and how much more short it may be made for ought you know, in the Early Anti­cipations of Mortality. Do this, that you may do nothing like Living in Vain. Place yourself in the Circumstances of a Dying Person; your Breath failing, your Throat rattling, your Eyes with a dim Cloud, and your Hands with a damp Sweat upon them, and your Weeping Friends no longer able to retain you with them: And then enter­tain such Sentiments of this World, and of the Work to be done in this World, that such a View must needs inspire you withal. Such a Numbring of your Days, I hope, will compel you to Apply your Heart unto Wisdom; and Instruct and Excite you to spend your little TIME in such Things, and so Industriously, as may be a Matter of Comforta­ble Reflection at the End of your Days. The Ap­prehension: of a Dying Person are usually so Wise, and so much have the Right Thoughts of the Righte­ous in them, that the best Counsel which can be given you, is, Child, Make haste into them! It can­not be too soon to come into them. They will have a mighty Tendency to make you Serious, Discreet, and Industrious, and every way well­advised; and all that your best Friends would have you to be. You run the hazard of Dying without Wis­dom, if you delay to come into them; and pu [...] far away that which by doing so you will make [Page 3]an Evil Day. It was not a Folly in some of the Ancients, to assign the Contemplation of Death, as the main Foundation, and main Exercise of their Philosophy; And the Young Man will arrive to more Understanding than the Ancients; who does practice upon it. I propose a, Vive memor Mortis, as what will be the Way to the truest Wisdom, and no little Part of it; and as what will contribute as much as possible for any thing to do, unto a Wise Conduct in all your Affairs. May the THOUGHTS OF A DYING MAN come into an Early and Lively Consideration with you, and regulate your Intentions, your Appetites, your Behaviours. My Proposal is, That you would set apart proper Times, [And be sure, The Present Time!] to think, What sort of Life shall I most approve when I come to Dye! In what Work shall I most wish to have lived, when I see that I am to Dye? What Method and Man­ner of Living shall I apprehend the most Eligible, when my Dying Hour is come upon me? Behold, What will give to the Young Man Knowledge and Discretion!

§ 2. The Apprehension of Approaching DEATH, One would think, should make you assoon as may be Begin to Live. But you do not Begin to Live, no, you are Dead while you Live, until you Live unto GOD. Methinks, I have already pre­pared you to consider the Words which before I go any further, I shall transcribe for you, from a Treatise Entituled, The Angel of Bethesda, which is yet, [I may say, lying at the Pool,] un­published. ‘CHRISTIAN, Fill thy Life with most explicit Acknowledgements of the Glorious GOD, and Acts of Obedience to Him. Let even [Page 4]the whole Business of thy Temporal Calling be ex­plicitly designed for an Obedience to GOD. At the same time, Fill thy Life with Good Offices to Mankind, and with Actions that shall be Blessings (and make the Doer a Rich One) unto thy Neighbours. This will be Living. — Caetera Mortis erunt. The Man who does the most of these things is the longest Liver. In Three Sevens of Years, One who lives at this rate may have a longer Life than a Drowsy and Thoughtless Wretch, that should get along to Nine Hundred and Sixty Nine. I may make the more free with the Number in my Expression on this Occasion, because the Jewish Rabbi's venture to tell us, That the Time lost by Methusalah in Imperti­nent Things, being defalked from his Nine Hun­dred and Sixty Nine Years, he will have no more than Ten Years of True Life lest unto him. It is a Maxim of Truth, Non Annu sed Factis vivunt mortales. And, They have lived longest in the World, who have done the most Good in the World.’ So my Angel.

And now, My Son, though I began with Re­commending to you the Thoughts of a Death at Hand; yet, what I mean, is, to make a long Live [...] and in Order to it, a True Liver, of you.

The true END of Life must therefore assoon as may be, come to be stated and fixed with you, and the false Ways of Sin be no longer walked in. And what can this END be, but, The SERVICE OF THE GLORIOUS GOD? Or, as you have been taught from your Infancy, TO GLO­RIFY GOD AND ENJOY HIM FOREVER. When you have considered the Matter with the [Page 5] deepest Meditation, you can settle no where but here, and you can see nothing worthy to be the END of Living, but This. May my Life be such a continual Homage to the Glorious GOD, as He may, thro' His CHRIST look down with Delight upon. If you Terminate in any Inferiour End, and rise no Higher in your Aims, than to have your SELF accommodated with such Things as a Carnal Mind calls, comfortable Circumstances. Your Life, what is it but a perpetual Folly, on which you may cry out, O me nunquam sapientem! All your At­chievements, though they should be never so pomp­ous, are but empty Futilities. Nay, How little Higher do you Aim, than the Beasts that Perish? And how much will you deserve the Name of Brutish, which is the Denomination with which your Herd is branded in the Oracles of GOD? A little more Hair, and crawling upon all Four. — and, what the Difference! But, O Star fallen and choaked in the Dust, Arise and shine, and let thy Light come, and the Glory of the Lord be risen upon thee! It is brought about, and the True Light shines, when you come to make Choice of This, as the main Scope of your Living in the World; It shall be that the Glorious GOD may be gra­tified, in beholding through His CHRIST the Homage which I pay unto Him; rendering and procuring Ac­knowledgements to Him in all my Ways! And wise­ly subordinate all your Actions, and all your En­joyments unto it: Govern your Actions by it, and consider them, as Parts of that Homage; Relish your Enjoyments from it, and consider them as Helps for that Homage; and often have your Ex­plicit Thoughts upon it. Come into those Right [Page 6]Thoughts of the Righteous, with which the Ancients were illuminated, when they determined that, Uti Deo et frui Creaturis, does in short and at once express all the Disorder and Confusion that Mankind is thrown into. Having such a single Eye, your whole Conduct will be full of Light. But if you have none but some Inferiour End, in your Eye, you will have an Evil Eye; Your very Light will be Darkness; and how great your Darkness! From that Hour that you come into this Life of GOD, and thus dwell in GOD, it is inexpressible how Comfortably you will Walk with GOD, and have the Blessed GOD ever dwelling in you. The GOD who forms the Spirit of Man within him, has imprinted on your Spirit, a Tendency of Return unto Him. This Impression is wretchedly Suppressed, and Sinned away, in your Fall from GOD, and the Tendency wofully diverted and enfeebled. The Faculty, which we call, The Conscience, is the Tes­timony of this Impression, and is, The Work of the Law written in the Heart. If it must continue un­der its Depravations and Encumbrances, what re­mains of it, will be only to inflict the Eternal Scourges, and Scorches of a Self condemning Mind upon you. Such a Recovery of it, as will restore the MOST HIGH, unto His Throne in your Soul, so that nothing shall be Above HIM there, nor shall there be any Denial of the GOD that is Above, but the INTENTION of a grateful HOMAGE unto the Glorious GOD, shall command your whole Conduct; THIS is the Highest Felicity that you can aspire unto. The very Top of what our Great REDEEMER has proposed for us, is; An UNION with GOD!

[Page 7] Many things there are that pass for Wisdom among the Children of this World. But THIS is the GRAND POINT, whereof it may be assert­ed, Here is WISDOM; Let him that hath Understand­ing pass a Judgment upon it. The Syrname of old put upon our Gildas, belongs unto the Children of this Wisdom, and unto none but those. Until this Point be gained, nothing that is truly Wise, is to expected from you. But let your Accom­plishments be what they will, you stand in the List of those, that must have it said of them, What Wisdom is there in them? Nay, since the Ob­ject which a Man makes his last End, the same he makes his GOD, so many low and base, and wrong Ends, as those wherein you terminate, un­til you thus live unto GOD, are your Gods; your Life is a course of Detestable and Abominable Idol­atrics; your Portion will be among the Idolaters, who shall not inherit the Kingdom of GOD.

It is with the utmost Importunity, that I press to have this Matter well settled with you. Yea, Entreat me not to leave you, nor to return from follow­ing after you, until you are brought into this Way of Living, which distinguishes the Excellent of the Earth, from those who are but so many Carcases falling in the Wilderness.

That you may not fall into the Hypocrisy of many Books, which wear the Motto of, Soli Deo Gloria, upon them, while the Author in reality never aim'd any higher than his own ad­mired self, but as a truly learned Writer detects him, Scrip [...]itat sibi ipsi, ac Famae suae, interdum et Fami; Let me labour a little more to explain this most Rational Mystery of Godliness.

[Page 8] GOD is Glorified, when His Infinite Perfection; are Beheld and Confess'd, with a suitable Venera­tion; and His Glorious CHRIST is considered with the Regards which GOD has required for Him.

The Service of GOD lies in this Veneration; and in the Doing and Using of those things, that shall be Subservient unto it.

Hence, Whatever contributes unto the Welfare of Mankind, and such a Relief of their Miseries, as may give the Children of Men better Opportu­nities to Glorify Him, This also is to Glorify Him.

In Glorifying of GOD, there must be a, Legiti­ma scoporum Subordinatio; and you are perpetually to discern, and to design, the Subordination.

But see what Provision I shall make for you. I purpose anon to lead you into an Acquaintance with various Tongues and Arts; but I can do no­thing until you are acquainted first of all, with what I may call, much more justly than that which has been commonly called, The Universal Discipline.

Wherefore, I will here lay before you, A Plan of Real and Regular Living, exhibited in an IN­STRUMENT, in which One whose Purpose and Manner of Life has been known unto you, stated his Method of living unto GOD. It will be no Vanity to say, That if the Instrument could be shown in as many Languages, as Grotius, his, De Veritate, has ap­peared in, or as many as paid their Obsequies unto Peireskius, yea, or as many as they say are spoken in the City of Cairo, it could meet with no consi­derate Reader, that would not find something with­in him, that would compel him to Justify it.

[Page 9] Here you have, what may challenge the Title of, Jmre Binah, with you.

Sic Vivitur.

As an Epilogue unto this Instrument, I would subject the weighty Words, which a dear Brother of mine, a Professor in the Frederician University, who understands this Way of Living, has upon it. Omnia ita facienda sunt, respectu habito ad GLORI­AM DEI; ut, etsi non semper Actus adsit hujus Inten­tionis, omnia tamen fiant ex habitu et generali propo­sito nunquam mutando. Sed tamen actualis Intentio, et crebra ejus Repetitio, plurimum prodest. Conscien­ciam enim conservat tranquillam, animum (que) ob since­ram Intentionem bene sibi conscium, reddit Laetum, et in Opere ipso Alacriorem ac circumspectiorem.

§. 3. But you will not come to This, until the Glorious GOD of all Grace, give you a New Heart, and cause a Regenerating Work of His Grace to pass upon you, and by Sanctifying Impressions of [Page 16]His Holy SPIRIT upon you, call you to His Glory by CHRIST JESUS. A Carnal Mind in you, full of Enmity against GOD, will have a perpetual Aversl [...]n for this Living to Him, till He shall by His Verticordious Influences, Heal the Distempers which you have contracted in and by your De­parture from Him. Your Conversion to GOD, must be accomplished, or else you will have no Heart, nor Skill, nor Strength, for that Life of PI­ETY, which must be laid in the Foundation of all the Good, that is to be expected by you, or from you. Now that you may arrive to all the Bles­sedness of a Sinner converted from the Error of his Way, and a Soul saved from Death, I will briefly de­scribe to you that Process of Repentance which you must go thorough, and which every Man that lives, and knows that he shall, but not when he shall, see Death, is out of his Wits, if he do not immediately come into. For this Purpose, I need not alter the Direction that my Caelestinus has already given you; You have in unalterable Strains had the Sum of the Matter.

THIS, with ardent and constant Cries to the [Page 19]Gracious GOD, who giveth Wisdom to them that Ask it of Him, is the Way to come into the Ex­perience of a PRINCIPLE infused from Above into you, that shall be indeed CHRIST formed in you; and CHRIST Living in you, will enable you to Do and to Bear what you shall in the Christian Life be called unto. A PRINCIPLE of PIETY, even, the Love of GOD, thus produced in you, shall be the Root of the Righteous, in you, perpetual­ly bringing forth Fruits of Righteousness, which are by JESUS CHRIST unto the Glory of GOD. This PRINCIPLE will incline you to endeavour all possible Conformity to your SAVIOUR, in Hating and Shunning every thing that the Light of GOD in you shall condemn as an Evil Thing; and in filling your Life with Acts of Devotion towards GOD, and Benignity towards Men; and in Be­having yourself as Remembring the Eye of Heaven always upon you; and in approving yourself ever a Good Steward of the Manifold Favours that Heaven bestows upon you; and in suffering Af­flictions after a Becoming Manner; and in Hop­ing and Waiting for the Joy set before you in the Heavenly World. A PRINCIPLE and an At­tainment and a Blessedness, infinitely preferrible, not only to all the Wealth in the World, but also to all Intellectual Accomplishments and Embellish­ments: And without which, all the Ornaments on which the Great Men of the Earth value themselves are but guilded Vanities: Nor will you, being destitute thereof, have any other Advantage of the Lustres you are seeking after, than to have your Lamp go out in Obscure Darkness, and expire with such a woful Ejulation as that; Qualis Arti­fex [Page 20]Pereo! The meanest Labourer with his Hands, even a John Urich, having the Fear of GOD in him, will be more excellent than you, or indeed than one who has carried a Batoon in his Hands, but has gone on without GOD in the World; and he will come to a better End, than that wherein you must mourn at the Last, with him who said, Surgunt Indocti et rapiunt Coelum; nos cum nostris Doctrinis mergimur in Infernum.

I am inexpressibly concerned, That you may have an Unblemished Youth, and not be left unto such Falls now in your Youth, as may cause you to go halting all your Days: Yea, that you may be such a Pure Nazarite, and preserved more particularly from Criminal and Abasing Unchasti­ties, and most particularly from Detestable Onanism, that you may be able to say, Ah, Lord GOD, my Soul has not been polluted from my Youth up. I can­not think of a more effectual Preservative, than such a CONVERSION to GOD, as I now ex­hort you to.

§. 4. Certainly, you will be brought now with­out much Difficulty, to what I next proceed un­to! Being thus brought into an Happy State of Reconciliation to GOD, you are prepared, yea, you cannot but be disposed, now to hearken unto such Subordinate Counsels as I am now to offer you: Whereof the First will be, That ESSAYS TO DO GOOD, may fill your Life, and be the very Spirit and Business of it, and the principal Delight. The Motto which an English Lord has upon his Coat of Arms, is what I propose to your conti­nual Ambition; UT PROSIM. And, My Son, [Page 21]My Advice to you, is, Begin betimes to take that Noble QUESTION into |Consideration, What Good may I be capable of doing in the World? Have stated and proper Times for it, and these as often as may be, to consider on the QUESTION; and keep a Record of your Purposes. First with an humble and mournful Sense of your own Barren­ness, and sensible how much you want that Wisdom, which is to find out well-advised Inventions, Look up to GOD your SAVIOUR, that by Him (who is the Wisdom of GOD) living in you, and leading of you, you may obtain a fair View of the Op­portunities to do Good, which He has put into your Hand, that they may not be a Price in the Hand of a Fool; and a clear View of the Methods to be ta­ken that this Good may be prosecuted, and your Desire sweetly accomplished. Then proceed and Enquire.

Enquire; First, What shall I do for MY SELF, that I may MY SELF Improve in Knowledge and Goodness; and the Ends of those Means, which the Divine Cultivation employs upon me?

Enquire, next; What shall I do for my several RELATIVES, my Kindred according to the Flesh; That I may prove a Blessing in each of my Relations? Take a Catalogue of them; and successively be­stow distinct Thoughts upon them all.

Then go on to take some Cognisance of the several SOCIETIES to which you stand related; Especially the Church whereof you are a Member, [and the College, if you belong to That!] Yea, the Town, and the Land, whereof you are an Inhabitant.

[Page 22] Think, What Good is to be proposed and promoted here! To what an Extent, O dear Son, and pleasant Child, may thy Projections carry thee!

Particular Persons in your Neighbourhood may now also, be found out, as Objects that Good may be done unto; The Poor for to be relieved; The Sick for to be visited; The Sad for to be com­forted; and those that are out of the Way, to be reclaimed from the Error of their Way. Many of those whom you have distinguished in thus doing of Good unto them, you will find prove Monsters of Ingratitude. But let not this dishearten you. GOD is now trying of you, Whether you will do Good for the pure sake of Good; And you will this way have Recompences ascertained unto you, in the Harvest, when, Whatsoever Good Thing any Man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord.

But, because your own Capacities to Do Good may be greatly limited, you should also have a Time to think; What Good lying out of my Reach may I see others capable of doing more than I? And hereupon become an Humble Adviser unto them. Yea, I could wish, You would betimes make it a Rule for your Conduct; That you will as far as you can, always endeavour a Profitable Conver­sation; and in every Company, think, whether you may not with Decency let fall some Word, which they may be the Wiser or the Better for; and every one go from you, Aut Doctior, aut Me­lior, for you.

Your Opportunities to do Good, may at first be ve­ry small, and under very narrow Limitations. Nevertheless I press you to begin Betimes, your [Page 23] Enquiries after them, and your Actions upon them; and expect, that tho' the Beginning be but small the latter End shall greatly increase. That Word, Habenti dabitur, will be Remarkably and Conspi­cuously fulfilled unto you, by the all-governing Providence of Him, who has all Opportunities to do Good, entirely at His Disposal. Your Circles will grow wider and wider; and anon expand unto Dimensions beyond what you could at first have imagined. And, I hope, you will esteem your Opportunities, as your Incomparable Treasures. While others are hunting and grasping after the sordid Wealth of this World, which will presently be found all Vanity, Vanity! You will reckon your Advantages to promote the Kingdom of GOD, and the Welfare of Men, as much more valuable Riches. You will be as Thankful to any One, who informs you of a Point wherein you may Do some Good, as if he had presented you with a Wedge of Gold: And your Maxim will be, Divi­tiis abundet per me lieet, qu [...]squis voluerit; In Operi­bus mea sit Abundantia.

But then, you must n [...] be so weak as to ima­gine, that this Way of Living will recommend you to the Favour of This World. A sedulous Doer of Good will certainly find himself more exposed than other Men, to be Ill-spoken of; greatly Ma­ligned, Reviled, Slandered. Here, Patience must have its perfect Work. I may say, Here is the Patience of the Saints. Yea, I must say, Be very Courage­ous.

I will conclude this Matter with the Words of One who knew what he Wrote. ‘Were a Man [Page 24]able to write in seven Languages: Could he con­verse daily with the sweets of all the Liberal Sciences, that Polite Men ordinarily pretend unto; Did he entertain himself with all the Ancient and Mo­dern Histories: And could he feast continually on the Curiosities, which all sorts of Learning may bring unto him; None of all this will afford the Ravishing Satisfaction; much less would any grosser Delights of the Senses do it: which he might find in relieving the Distresses of a poor, mean, miserable Neighbour; and which he might much more find in doing any Extensive Service for the Kingdom of our Great SAVIOUR in the World, or any Thing to redress the Miseries under which Mankind is generally Languishing.’

§ 5. You are now in the Pursuit of that Learn­ing, and those Ingenuous and Mollifying Arts, which which may distinguish you from the more Un­cultivated Part of Mankind, and may accomplish you to claim a Place among them, who are the Blessings and Beauties of their Generation. Con­cerning This, what I do in the First Place Advise you to, is, To fix the END of all your Studies, and let This be what it ought to be. Let Vives's Motto, Oculus ad Scopum, have its Influence upon you in your whole Course of all your Studies. If you Aim no Higher nor Better, than to render yourself Considerable, and make a Figure among your Fellow-Mortals, or, perhaps, to gain a com­fortable Subsistence in the World, All you do is Wrong and Mean, and Vile, and the Holy GOD looks down with Abhorrence upon you. A Ber­nard is not the only Christian, who has had a [Page 25]true Sight of the Vanity, with which the Studies of the most that seek after Knowledge, are carried on, and pronounced those the only Right Students, Qui ad hoc volunt Intelligere ut Benefaciant. I hope it would not be unintelligible unto you, if I should recommend unto your Emulation, a Flight of One, who tho' I find him in the Cursed City, herein spoke like One of ours; Lord, I had rather, could it be without Sin, that all should hate me, than that they should Love me for myself: If all the World hate me, I should have but what is mine; if they should Love me for myself, they would usurp what is Thine. But thus much I cannot but wish for; That you may betimes be inspired with Senti­ments, by which the Idol that has more Votaries than that on the Plain of Dura, that is to say, SELF, may be dethroned with you. Be aware of it, that the most of People who shall Honour you, and Admire you, and Applaud you, will Termi­nate in you, and look no further than the Worm they look next upon: GOD will not have His Praises in what is done for you, and by you. GOD, without whom, and Before whom, you are as nothing, will not be Remembred; And all will be as nothing, in Remembrances of none but Ashes. A Sacrilegious Idolatry will be committed! But a true Servant of GOD, will even deprecate it, as an Infelicity, to be made the Object of this Idolatry: And wish, Lord, Let those that Fear thee, [and will see Thee thro' me,] be those that shall turn unto me. The Love of GOD, must make you chuse rather to be left unregarded in the World, than to have those Regards paid unto you, wherein the Infinite GOD, the First and the Last, shall be [Page 26]Robb'd of His Glory, which He will not give unto another. Yea, Be prepared for Obscurities, and for Indignities, and be Reconciled unto them upon this Account, I am now delivered from any Danger that the Robbers of GOD may make an Idol of me! But having thus forbidden you the Wrong ones, I will tell you, what is the RIGHT END unto which it were to be wished, that your Studies may be Consecrated.

When you are upon seeking an Acquaintance with any Languages; Let your Aims be these. I Desire to come at those Treasures, which these Tongues may be Keys unto; And this, that so I may be the bet­ter furnished for that SERVICE OF GOD, which I may be called unto.

When you are upon seeking an Acquaintance with any Sciences, Let your Aims be these; I De­sire to gain those Illuminations which may be necessary for an Instrument of Good unto others; And this, that so I may be the better Qualified for that SERVICE OF GOD, which will require a Workman that need not be ashamed.

When you are upon Reading any Book, Let your Aims, for ever be of the same Importance.

To Strengthen my Advice, I will transcribe some Words of the Celebrated Lord Chief Jus­tice Hale; who in his Account of the Good Steward, says, ‘I carried along with me, in all my Studies, this Great Design, of improving them, and the Knowledge acquired by them, to the Honour of GOD's Name, and the greater Discovery of His Wisdom and Power and Truth, and so transla­ted my Secular Learning into an Improvement [Page 27]of Divine Knowledge. And had I not practised this Design in my Acquists of Humane Learning, I had concluded my Time mispent; because I ever thought it unworthy of a Man that had an Everlasting Soul, to furnish it only with such Learning, as would either Dye with his Body, and so become un [...]seful for his Everlasting State, or that in the nex [...] Moment after Death would be attained with­out Labour or Toll in this Life.’

Having thus fixed the RIGHT END of your Studies, Let the View of it make such an Impres­sion upon you, as to produce a Marvellous Indus­try in your Prosecution of it: And Quicken you to observe that Maxim, Do with thy Might, what thy Hand finds to do. Remember this; There ne­ver was an Eminent, who was not an Industrious Man. You must be Diligent in your Business, if you would hope to stand in any Desireable Cir­cumstances before that Great KING, unto whose Holy Service you are Dedicated.

That you may not suffer a Vile Impediment in your Studies, and Avocation from them, I do now particularly warn you against the senseless Folly of an Entanglement in any foolish Amour, while you are yet a Student at the College. 'Tis time enough, to think of Marriage, when your Con­dition in other Circumstances as well as that of Age, will qualify you to make a Wise Choice, in a Point, which a very great Felicity, or a very great Calamity, for the rest of your Days, will turn upon.

§. 6. The Regulation of your Studies, is what I would now proceed unto. And for this, though [Page 28]the Regulae Studiorum, Written by Chytraeus, be a Book which I can heartily commend unto your Perusal, yet, it being Written an Hundred and Twenty Years ago, I shall not think the Per­usal of That sufficient for a Student in our Days. I must further Accommodate you. And here, Humanity would complain of me, if I should for­bear to tell you, That the LATIN Tongue, which is more known and used than any upon Earth, except the Arabic, is what you should for many Reasons labour to be Ready at; and Able not only to Write, but also to Speak in it, with Fluency as well as Purity; and confute the com­mon Observation, that tho' Englishmen do often Write [call Spencer and Burnet, for Two Witnesses,] the best Latin in the World, yet they often Speak it but indifferently. For this Purpose you will do well frequently, both to employ your Pen, for composing Discourses or Epistles in it; and like­wise to maintain frequent Conferences in it, with such as understand the Phrases and Beauties of it. Indeed, I know not a prettier Way, than this; Translate into English the Paragraphs of some Au­thor who writes very good Latin [say, the Enchi­ridion Precum of a Boehm;] and then again, Laying aside your Author, turn your own English into La­tin; and so compare That with, and correct it from, your Authors. But at the same time, you should familiarize yourself with the Style of some Authors, whose Latin cannot but ever Charm you with its Elegancies. On this Occasion, I am as far from inviting you into the Gust of Linacre, as great a Critic as most we have had for the Latin Tongue, who, Ciceronis dictionem, nunquam probare po­tuit, [Page 29]nec sine fastidio audire; As I am, from invit­ing you into the Ciceronian Bigotry of a Bembo, or, to be as afraid as Longolius was of using the Word, Possibile. But yet I will presume upon so much of Paradox, as to offer you my Opinion, (tho' I know what Censure a Quintilian would pass upon me, for saying) That the Latin of an Erasmus, of a Calvin, or of a Witsius, is preferrible unto Ci­cero's; yea, to make up the Mess, I am content that poor Castellio too be introduced.

From Rome you must needs pass to Greece. And I cannot but wish you so much a GRECIAN, as not only to understand your Greek Testament, better than they do ordinarily at this Day in Athens, in which, of all Places, it seems they now speak the worst Greek that is any where spoken; but also, that you may at least be able to Read a Chrysostom of the Savilian Edition; and not enjoy the Fathers only in the Latin Translations, in which alone, the Roman Catholicks, (agreeably indeed unto the Name of their Church,) now generally chuse to publish them and peruse them. However, I can't encourage you, to throw away much Time, up­on an Accurate Skill in the Greek Accents: But rather wholly to drop them, when your Quill comes to convey any Greek into your Pages. For, as the Writing of Greek otherwise than in Capitals, was introduced in later Ages by the Monks of Egypt, who borrowed the smaller Letters now used from the Copric; So, One shall hardly find any Accents on the Greek, in any Manuscripts written above Eight Ages ago: Nor was the Invention of the Accents, with which our Greek is now en­cumbred, [Page 30]of any other than a Musical Intention. And, Vossius, with Henninius after him, are not the only Gentlemen, who have declared earnestly a­gainst pronouncing the Greek according to the Accents: I pray, how would a Verse of Homer sound, if it were so pronounced?

But for the HEBREW, I am importunate with you. And the more so, because 'tis one Remark­able Instance of the Depraved Gust, into which we are of later Years degenerated, that the Know­ledge of the Hebrew is fallen under so much Dis­repute, as to make a learned Man almost afraid of owning that he has any thing of it, lest it should bring him under the Suspicion of being an Odd, Starv'd, Lank sort of a thing, who had lived only on Hebrew Roots all his Days. What would an Amama, and the rest of the brave Men, who shone in the former Age, and had Souls like the Gates of a Temple, say, if they might Rise and see the Men of this Generation! 'Tis true, the Know­ledge of the Hebrew is, contrary to the old Max­im, Difficilia quae Pulchra, with very little Difficul­ty attain'd unto. Even our little Damsels, like Blaesilla, the Daughter of Paula, (concerning the Mother of whom Jerom reports the same, that he does of the Daughter,) make nothing of coming at this Uncommon Ornament. And Cooper says, truly, that if Students would spend as much Time at it in a Morning or an Evening as they mispend on an unprofitable Pipe of Tobacco, they would in a few Days be Masters of it. It is also to be owned, that there appears nothing more impertinent, than a little Hebrician, Vapouring and Swaggering, as [Page 31]if he had all the Learning in the World; and laying hold on all Occasions to throw out an He­brew Clause or Word, for nothing but the Osten­tation of his mighty Accomplishment. Nevertheless, the Knowledge of the Hebrew, is to be valued and pursued, on this Design; 'Twill enable you to penetrate further into the deep Things which the Spirit of GOD has laid up in His Oracles, than you could possibly do, by seeing them only in some Translation. Tho' with much more Cause than the modest Melancthon, I may confess Me vix primis Labiis degustasse Hebraicas Literas, yet as he declared, what Hebrew he had helped him so much in his Judgment of the greatest Matters, he prefer'd it before all the Wealth of a Kingdom, so, I may hum­bly declare, I scarce ever take an Hebrew Bible into my Hands, but I am gratefully surprized with something I never thought of; I ever have some new View, and see something I never saw be­fore. So that I do not wonder at Luther for mak­ing a serious Protestation, that what Knowledge he had of the Hebrew, was of more Use and more Price to him, than the greatest Heap of Gold that could be set before him.

Indeed, I cannot but wish, that a Knowledge of the SYRIAC may come in, as an Appendix to your Knowledge of the Hebrew: Not meerly be­cause it was the Mother-Tongue unto the Writers of the New Testament, [which is the Reason that we have no Greek Word of the Dual Number in all the New Testament; For that Number is what the Syriac is a Stranger to:] But chiefly because the most Valuable and Serviceable Version that [Page 32]we have of the Divine Oracles, and what may be of most Authority in many Important Points to clear up the Sense of them, is the Syriac. And having once got the Hebrew, you'l find the Syriac easily come-at-able.

For the Living Tongues, 'tis a Matter of some Speculation, that almost all the Protestants in the World, speak the Teutonic and what is derived from it; almost all the Romanists are found in the Derivations from the Latin; the Greek Church is mostly in the Sclavonic. If you intend any Ser­vice to the Kingdom of GOD abroad, you may here take your Choice. But if you have any Time in your Short Life to spare for the Living Tongues, the French will be sure in the first Place to Court you. And, tho' the Complement which the Nations of Europe have paid unto that Lan­guage, has look'd like a paving of the Way, (which doubtless, the French Academy have had in their Eye) for the extending of a Covetous and Ambiti­ous Monarchy, To what will never be accomplished; yet, for the sake of your Admission to the Read­ing of many French Books that may be worth your Perusal, I do not forbid your Learning of it. This, the rather, for that albeit the English Tongue is ca­pable of being made the most Expressive, and the most Copious in the World, and is in these Re­gards much Superiour to the French; neverthe­less, it may be observed, There is no Man who has the French Tongue, but ordinarily he speaks the neater English for it.

And yet, concerning the Languages in general; The Time allowed for them, should certainly be [Page 33]proportion'd unto the Use you are like to make of them▪ Dr. More governing himself in the Study of the Oriental Tongues by that Rule, pleasantly and modestly compared himself unto the Man who passed by a Garrison, with an Horse Shoe at his Girdle; which received and repelled the Bul­let shot upon him: On which he observed, That a little Armour, if well placed, will be sufficient. I have known One who has been able to compose and publish Things in Seven Languages; and yet con­fessed to his Friends, That he could never get the Time to furnish himself with much more than the Armour of his well placed Horse Shoe. But be sure, so much of the Armour as you cannot but foresee you may have Occasion for, — So much I insist upon. I am far from urging you to study so many Lan­guages as the Epitaph of that Great and Good Physician Kirstenius, asribed unto him the Know­ledge of.

§. 7. The Languages you will consider, but as Instruments to come at the Sciences, wherewith you would propose to go Skilfully about the Work which your GOD shall call you to. And esteem­ing them as rather Helps to Exudition than any Parts of it, you will no more Value yourself as a Scholar for Them, than the Bare having of Tools would make one to boast himself an Artist.

If you would make a short Work of all the Sci­ences, and find out a North-West Passage to them, I cannot think of any One Author, that would answer every Intention so well as ALSTED. I take him, to have been as learned a Man as ever was in the World; and there being so little Use [Page 34]made of his Concise Exhibitions, is to me, One of the Things that I can't but wonder at, and scarce know what to make of.

Instead of Squandering away your Time, on the RHETORIC, whereof no doubt, you tho't, your Dugard gave you enough at School; and up­on all the Tropes and Schemes whereof a just Cen­surer well observes, Possunt una at (que) altera Hora ita notari, ut corum Notitia per omnem Aetatem sufficiat; And the very Profession whereof usually is little more than to furnish out a Stage-Player; My Ad­vice to you, is, That you observe the Flowres and Airs of such Writings, as are most in Reputation for their Elegancy. Yet I am willing that you should attentively Read over Smith, his, Mystery of Rhetoric Unveiled, that you may not be Ignorant of what Figures they pretend unto.

But I will take this Opportunity to tell you, That there is no where to be found any such Rhe­toric, as there is in our Sacred Scriptures. Even a Pagan Longinus himself, will confess, The Sublime, shining in them. There can be nothing so Beau­tiful, or so Affectuous as the Figures every where used in them. They are Life. All meer Humane Flourishes are but Chaff to the Wheat that is there. Yea, they are an Hammer that breaks the Rocks to Pieces. In them the GOD of Glory Thunders, yea, does it very marvellously! There is in them that Voice of the Lord which is full of Majesty. For the Pulpit-Oratory, which is what you have in View, there can be nothing more adviseable, than to be a Master of Scripture-Phrases, and employ them with an agreeable Ingenuity, on all fit Occasions. [Page 35]I will add, I know not but a Lamy, in his L'Art de Parler, may give you some hints that may be not unuseful to you.

Nor can I encourage you to spend very much Time, in that which goes under the Name of LOGIC. If my excellent Friend Langius, in his Noble Medicina Mentis, [which I commend unto you, to be diligently perused, as an Introduction to all your Studies of the Sciences,] had not com­pelled me to a Contempt of the Vulgar Logic, learnt in our Colleges, as a sort of meer Morology, yet a little serious Recollection would have brought me to it. What is there usually got by the Vulgar Logic, but only to be furnished with a Parcel of Terms, which instead of leading the Mind into the Truth, enables one rather to carry on Altercations, and Logomachies, by which the Force of Truth may be at Pleasure, and by some little Trick, evaded. The Power and Process of Reason is Natural to the Soul of Man; And those Masters of Reason, who argue the most Rationally, and make the most Rational Researches into the true State of Things, and who take the most Rea­sonable Measures for their Conduct, and who in all things arrive to the most notable Discoveries, I pray, what sort of Logicians are they? Either they never once read a Page of any Burgesdicius, or else they have unlearnt and forgot all their Vulgar Logic. I am sure, they rarely trouble their Heads to recall the Old Rules which they have recited unto their Tutors. To exhibit in the pompous Form of an Art, what every One does by meer Nature and Custom, and fabricate it into such a [Page 36]shape as that of the Vulgar Logic, and with such trifling Applications and Illustrations, as 'tis usu­ally done, appears as impertinent, as if one should with much Formality teach the Art of Eating or Drinking or Walking. And it might with equal Solemnity be shown, what Points of Regular Ma­nagement are exemplified by the Boys playing at their Marbles. The most Valuable Thing in Lo­gic, and the very Termination of it, is, The Doc­trine of Syllogisms. And yet it is notorious, that as all Syllogizing is only to confirm you in a Truth which you are already the Owner of, so, no Lo­gic has yet given us all the several Ways of Syllo­gizing that may be run into; And it is as notori­ous, that while an expanded Syllogizing is rec­koned no other than an Indecency in ordinary Writing as well as Talking, our only Syllogizing is that which we call, An Enthymeme: Such a thing is evident, and therefore such a Thing to be infer­red from it, is also evident. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go dip into your Logic. But count it enough, if you have gone through a Milton, or a Gutberleth, or a Watts. Indeed, some Treatises, that clear up the Maxims of Reason, and may Strengthen you and Sharpen you in the Use of it, you may do well to look into. The Ars Cogitendi, may pass for One of those: And tho' for some Reasons, I would be excused from Re­commending an Essay of Humane Understanding, which is much in Vogue, yet I can approve your perusing of Oldfield, his Improvement of Reason. But for the Vulgar Logic, I must freely say, you lose Time, if you steer any otherwise in it, than, Touch and Go.

[Page 37] What I say of Logic, I say of Metaphysicks; which a learned Man too justly calls, Disciplinarum Omnium Excrementum, tho' she would set up for the Queen of Sciences. If you have got a Maccovi­us, or a Jacchaeus into your Head, you have as much as I should care for: To which indeed some Acquaintance with a Castanaeus, or some such Fencer for Distinctions, may be added. But then to Weave any more Cobwebs in your Brains; to what Purpose is it? This however, is one of the Things, which I will Affirm constantly; That as a Suarez, than whom you cannot easily find a greater dealer in Metaphysicks, after all declared, The Hours which he took in Studying and Ex­amining and Rectifying his own Heart, were of infinitely more Use and Worth to him than all his Metaphysical and Voluminous Lucubrations; you shall in like manner find, that you may easily employ your Hours to better Purpose, than in Metaphysical and Imaginary Disquisitions.

As for ETHICS, tho' such Things as the, Ethi­ca Christiana of a Daneus, be among the Things which cannot be spoken against, yet of That whereon they employ the Plough so long in many Acade­mies, I will venture to say, 'tis a Vile Thing; and no other than what honest Vockerodus has justly called it; Impietas in Artis formam redacta. It is all over a Sham; It presents you with a Mock-Happiness; It prescribes to you Mock Vertues for the coming at it: And it pretends to give you a Religion without a CHRIST, and a Life of PIE­TY without a Living Principle; a Good Life with no other than Dead Works filling of it. It is not [Page 38]amiss for you, to know what this Paganism is; and therefore you may, if you please, bestow a short Reading upon a Golius, or a More: But be more of a Christian, than to look on the Enchiri­dion of the Author last mentioned, as, Next the Bible, the best Book in the World. Study no other Ethics, but what is in the Bible; and consult such Books, as the, Verus Christianismus of an Arndt, whereby Hundreds of Thousands have been bro't into the Life of GOD.

So much Ethics as treats, De Decorc, and may instruct you in the, Rules of Behaviour, I bearrily commend unto you. And yet, even these are best learnt by a Wise Observation of what you see passes in the Conversation of Politer People: And by wisely considering how they are indeed all Embryo'd in that one Word, MODESTY; which Renders every one his Due, and assumes nothing undue to ones self: Or, comprized in that one Maxim, Do and Say nothing that may be justly offensive to the Company. The Truth is; The most exact and constant Rules of Behaviour, will be found Rules of Christianity: For which Cause it pleased our Glorious Redeemer more than once to give them. Every Christian as far as he keeps to his own Rules will be so far a Gentleman. And for this Cause, I again advise you to a Careful Study of them.

§. 8. POETRY, whereof we have now even an Antediluvian Piece in our Hands, has from the Beginning been in such Request, that I must needs recommend unto you some Acquaintance with it. Though some have had a Soul so Unmu­sical, [Page 39]that they have decried all Verse, as being but a meer Playing and Fiddling upon Words; All Versi­fying, as if it were more Unnatural than if we should chuse Dancing instead of Walking; and Ryme, as if it were but a sort of Morisco Dancing with Bells: Yet I cannot wish you a Soul that shall be wholly Unpoetical. An Old Horace has left us an Art of Poetry, which you may do well to bestow a Perusal on. And besides your Lyrick Hours, I wish you may so far understand an Epic Poem, that the Beauties of an Homer and a Virgil may be discerned with you. As to the Moral Part of Ho­mer, 'tis true, and let me not be counted a Zoilus for saying so, that by first exhibiting their Gods as no better than Rogues, he set open the Flood­gates for a prodigious Inundation of Wickedness to break in upon the Nations, and was one of the greatest Apostles the Devil ever had in the World. Among the rest that felt the Ill Impressions of this Universal Corrupter, (as Men of the best Sen­timents have called him,) One was that over­grown Robber, of execrable Memory, whom we celebrate under the Name of Alexander the Great; who by his continual Admiring and Studying of his Iliad, and by following that false Model of Heroic Virtue set before him in his Achilles, be­came one of the worst of Men, and at length in­flated with the Ridiculous Pride of being himself a Deity, exposed himself to all the Scorn that could belong unto a Lunatick. And hence, notwith­standing the Veneration which this Idol has had, yet Plato banishes him our of a Common-Wealth, the Welfare whereof he was concerned for. Never­theless, Custom or Conscience obliges him to bear [Page 40]Testimonies unto many Points of Morality. And it is especially observable, That he commonly pro­pounds Prayer to Heaven as a most necessary Pre­face unto all Important Enterprizes; and when the Action comes on too suddenly for a more ex­tended Supplication, he yet will not let it come on without an Ejaculation; and he never speaks of any Supplication but he brings in a Gracious Ans­wer to it. I have seen a Travesteering High-Flyer, not much to our Dishonour, Scoff at Homer for this; as making his Actors to be like those whom the English call Dissenters. But then, we are so much led into the Knowledge of Antiqui­ties, by reading of this Poet, and into so many Parts of the Recondite Learning, that notwithstand­ing some little Nods in him, not a few Acute Pens besides the old Bishop of Thessalonica's, have got a Reputation by regaling us with Annotations upon him. Yea, Tho' One can't but smile at the Fan­cy of Croese, who tries with much Ostentation of Erudition, to show, That Homer has all along ten­dred us in a Disguise and Fable, the History of the Old Testament, yet many Illustrations of the sacred Scriptures, I find are to be fetched from him; who indeed had probably read what was Extant of them in his Days; Particularly, Our Eighteenth Psalm is what he has evidently imitated. Virgil too, who so much lived upon him, as well as after him, is unaccountably mad upon his Fate, which he makes to be he knows not what himself, but Superiour to Gods as well as to Men, and thro' his whole Composures he so asserts the Doctrine of this Nonsensical Power, as is plainly inconsistent with all Virtue. And what fatal Mischief did [Page 41] Fascinator do to the Roman Empire, when by Dei­fying one Great Emperor, he taught the Succes­sors to claim the Adoration of Gods, while they were perpetrating the Crimes of Devils? I will not be a Carbilius upon him; nor will I say any thing, how little the Married State owes unto One who writes as if he were a Woman hater: Nor what his Blunders are about his poor-spirited and inconsistent Hero, for which many have taxed him. Nevertheless, 'tis observed, That the Pagans had no Rules of Manners, that were more Laudable and Regular than what are to be found in him. And some have said, It is hardly possible seriously to Read his Works without being more disposed unto Good­ness, as well as being agreeably entertained. Be sure, had Virgil wri [...] before Plato, his Works had not been any of the Books prohibited. But then, This Poet also has abundance of Rare Antiquities for us: And such Things, as others besides a Servius, have imagined that they have instructed and obliged Mankind, by employing all their Days upon. Wherefore if his Aeneis, which tho' it were once near twenty times as big as he has left it, yet he has left it unfinished, may not appear so valuable to you, that you may think Twenty seven Verses of the Part that is the most finished in it, worth One and Twenty Hundred Pounds and odd Money, yet his Georgicks, which he put his last Hand unto, will furnish you with many things far from Des­picable. But after all, when I said, I was willing that the Beauties of these Two Poets, might become Visible to your Visive Faculty in Poetry, I did not mean, that you should Judge nothing to be Ad­mittable into an Epic Poem, which is not Autho­rised [Page 42]by their Example; but I perfectly concur with One who is inexpressibly more capable to be a Judge of such a Matter than I can be; That it is a false Critic who with a petulant Air, will insult Reason itself, if it presumes to oppose such Authority:

I proceed now to say, That if (under the Gui­dance of a Vida) you try your young Wings now and then to see what Flights you can make, at least for an Epigram, it may a little sharpen your Sense, and polish your Style, for more important Performances; For this Purpose you are now e­ven overstock'd with Patterns, and — Poemata Passim. You may, like Nazianzen, all your Days, make a little Recreation of Poetry in the midst of your more painful Studies. Nevertheless, I can­not but advise you, Withhold thy Throat from Thirst. Be not so set upon Poetry, as to be always poring on the Passionate and Measured Pages. Let not what should be Sauce rather than Food for you, En­gross all your Application. Beware of a Bound­less and Sickly Appetite, for the Reading of the Poems, which now the Rickety Nation swarms with­al: And let not the Circaean Cup intoxicate you. But especially preserve the Chastity of your Soul from the Dangers you may incur, by a Conversa­tion with Muses that are no better than Harlots: Among which are others besides Ovid's Epistles, which for their Tendency to excite and foment Impure Flames, and cast Coals into your Bosom, deserve rather to be thrown into the Fire, than to be laid before the Eye which a Covenant should be made withal. Indeed, not meerly for the Impu­ [...] which they convey, but also on some other [Page 43]Accounts, the Powers of Darkness have a Library a­mong us, whereof the Poets have been the most Numerous as well as the most Venemous Authors. Most of the Modern Plays, as well as the Roman­ces and Novels and Fictions, which are a sort of Poems, do belong to the Catalogue of this cursed Library. The Plays, I say, in which there are so many Passages, that have a Tendency to over­throw all Piety, that one whose Name is Bedford, has extracted near Seven Thousand Instances of them, from the Plays chiefly of but Five Years preceeding; and says awfully upon them, They are National Sins, and therefore call for National Plagues; And if GOD should enter into Judgment all the Blood in the Nation would not be able to atone for them. How much do I wish that such Pestilen­ces, and indeed all those worse than Egyptian Toads, [the Spawns of a Butler, & a Brown, and a Ward, and a Company whose Name is Legion!] might never crawl into your Chamber! The unclean Spi­rits that come like Frogs out of the Mouth of the Dra­gon, and of the Beast; which go forth unto the young People of the Earth, and expose them to be dealt withal as the Enemies of GOD, in the Battle of the Great Day of the Almighty. As for those wret­ched Scribbles of Madmen, My Son, Touch them not, Taste them not, Handle them not: Thou wilt perish in the using of them. They are, The Dragons whose Contagious Breath Peoples the dark Retreats of Death. To much better Purpose will an Excellent but an Envied Blackmore feast you, than those Vile Rap­sodies (of that Vinum Daemonum) which you will find always leave a Taint upon your Mind, and a­mong other ill Effects, will sensibly indispose you [Page 44]to converse with the Holy Oracles of GOD your SAVIOUR.

But there is, what I may rather call a Parenthe­ss, than a Digression, which this may be not alto­gether an Improper Place for the introducing of.

[There has been a deal of a do about a STYLE; So much, that I must offer you my Sentiments upon it. There is a Way of Writing, wherein the Author endeavours, that the Reader may have something to the Purpose in every Paragraph. There is not only a Vigour sensible in every Sentence, but the Paragraph is embellished with Profitable Refer­ences, even to something beyond what is directly spoken. Formal and Painful Quotations are not studied; yet all that could be learnt from them is insinuated. The Writer pretends not unto Read­ing, yet he could not have writ as he does if he had not Read very much in his Time; and his Composures are not only a Cloth of Gold, but also stuck with as many Jewels, as the Gown of a Russian Embassador. This Way of Writing has been decried by many, and is at this Day more than ever so, for the same Reason, that in the old Story, the Grapes were decried, That they were not Ripe. A Lazy, Ignorant, Conceited Sett of Au­thors, would perswade the whole Tribe, to lay a­side that Way of Writing, for the same Reason that one would have perswaded his Brethren to part with the Encumbrance of their Busby Tails. But▪ however Fashion and Humour may prevail, they must not think that the Club at their Coffee-House is, All the World; but there will always be those, who will in this Case be governed by In­disputable Reason: And who will think, that the [Page 45]real Excellency of a Book will neverly in saying of little; That the less one has for his Money in a Book, 'tis really the more Valuable for it; and that the less one is instructed in a Book, and the more of Superfluous Margin, and Superficial Ha­rangue, and the less of Substantial Matter one has in it, the more tis to be accounted of And if a more Massy Way of Writing be never so much disgusted at This Day, a Better Gust will come on, as will some other Things, quae jam Cecidere. In the mean time, Nothing appears to me more Imper­tinent and Ridiculous than the Modern Way, [I cannot say, Rule; For they have None!] of Criti­cising. The Blades that set up for Criticks, I know not who constituted or commission'd 'em! — they appear to me, for the most part as Contemptible, as they are a Supercilious Generation. For indeed no Two of them have the same Style; and they are as intollerably Cross-grain'd and severe in their Censures upon one another, as they are upon the rest of Mankind. But while each of them, con­ceitedly enough, sets up for the Standard of Perfec­tion, we are entirely at a Loss which Fire to fol­low. Nor can you easily find any one thing wherein they agree for their Style, except perhaps a perpetual Care to give us Jejune and Empty Pages, without such Touches of Erudition (to speak in the Style of an Ingenious Traveller) as may make the Discourses less Tedious, and more Enrich­ing, to the Mind of him that peruses them. There is much Talk of a Florid Style, obtaining among the Pens, that are most in Vogue; but how often would it puzzle one, even with the best Glasses to find the Flowres! And if they were to be Chas­tized [Page 46]for it, it would be with much what as much of Justice, as Jerom was, for being a Cic [...]ronian. Af­ter all, Every Man will have his own Style, which will distinguish him as much as his Gate: And if you can attain to that which I have newly des­cribed, but always writing so as to give an Easy Conveyance unto your Idea's, I would not have you by any Scourging be driven out of your Gate, but if you must confess a Fault in it, make a Confessi­on like that of the Lad, unto his Father while he was beating him for his Versifying.

However, since every Man will have his own Style, I would pray, that we may learn to treat one another with mutual Civilities, and Condescen­sions, and handsomely indulge one another in this, as Gentlemen do in other Matters.

I wonder what ails People, that they can't let Cicero write in the Style of Cicero, and Seneca write in the (much other!) Style of Seneca; and own that Both may please in their several Ways. — But I will freely tell you; what has made me consider the Humcurists that set up for Criticks upon Style, as the most Unregardable Set of Mortals in the World, is This! Far more Illustrious Criticks than any of those to whom I am now bidding Defi­ance, and no less Men than your Erasmus's, and your Grotius's, have taxed the Greek Style of the New Testament, with I know not what Sol [...]ecisms and Barbarisms; And, how many learned Folks have Obsequiously run away with the Notion! Whereas 'tis an Ignorant and an Insolent Whimsey; which they have been guilty of. It may be (and particularly by an Ingenious Blackwal, it has been) Demonstrated, That the Gentlemen are [Page 47]mistaken in every one of their pretended Instances; All the Unquestionable Classicks, may be brought in, to convince them of their Mistakes. Those Glorious Oracles are as pure Greek as ever was written in the World; and so Correct, so Noble, so Sublime is their Style, that never any thing un­der the Cope of Heaven, but the Old Testament, has equall'd it.]

§ 9. What we call NATURAL PHILOSO­PHY, is what I must encourage you to spend much more Time in the Study of.

Do it, with continual Contemplations and agree­able Acknowledgements of the Infinite GOD, whose Perfections are so display'd in His Works before you, that from them, you cannot but be perpetu­ally ravished into the Acclamations of, How Great is His Goodness and His Beauty!

Do it, with a Design to be led into those Views wherewith you will in Ways most Worthy of a Man effectually Show yourself a Man, and may with Unutterable Satisfaction answer the main END of your Being, which is, To Glorify GOD; and therein also Discharge the Office of a Priest for the Creation; which, how sweet a, Token for Good, must it be unto you!

When I said, Natural Phylosophy, you may be sure, I did not mean, the Peripatetic: For I hear­tily subscribe to the Censure of Christianus Thomasius upon it; Omne Tempus pro Perdito judicandum, quod in Physicam Peripateticor [...]m impenditur; ita inepta et stulta ibi sunt Omnia. It is indeed amazing to see the Fate of the Writings which go under the Name of Aristotle. First falling into the hands of [Page 48]those who could not Read them, and yet for the sake of the Famous Author were willing to keep them; they were for a long while hid under Ground, where many of them deserved a Lodging. And from this Place of Darkness the Torn or Worn Manuscripts were anon fetched out; and imperfectly and unfaithfully enough transcribed, and conveyed from Athens to Rome, where Copies were in like Manner taken of them. The Sara­cens by'nd by got them, and (the Concise and Broken Style a little suiting them) they spoke Arabic; and even in Africa there were many A­ristotelean Schools erected. They were from thence brought over into Spain, and Exhibited with such Translations and Commentaries as it pleased the Ara­bians to bestow upon them. When Learning re­vived under Charlemaigne, all Europe turned Aristo­telean; yea, in some Universities they swore Alle­giance to him; and, O Monstrous! if I am not misinformed, they do in some Universities at this Day foolishly and profanely on their Knees con­tinue to do so. With the Vile Person that made himself the Head of the Church at Rome, this Muddy-headed Pagan divided the Empire over the Christian World; but extended his Empire further than he, or ever any Tamerlane. For the very Jews themselves became his Vassals, with a Tra­dition of his having some Relation to, or at least some Acquaintance with, their Fathers. And tho' Europe has, with fierce and long Struggles about it, begun to shake off the Shackles, he does to This Day, under the Name of Aplis, continue to Ty­rannize over Humane Understanding in a great Part of the Oriental World. No Mortal else ever [Page 49]had such a Prerogative to Govern Mankind, as this Philosopher; who after the prodigious Cartloads of Stuff, that has been Written to explain him [For within a few Centuries after Albertus Mag­nus, there were Twelve Thousand Authors that wrote upon him; or followed him and defended him; and by a probable Computation, there have since been more than as many more!] he yet remains in many other Things besides his Entelechia sufficiently Unintelligible, and forever in almost all things Unprofitable. Avicen, after he had read his Metaphysicks Forty times over, and had them all by Heart, was forced after all, to lay them aside, in Despair of ever Understanding them. Have done then, with your Magirus, and your Eustachius, and your Heereboord; and the rest of the Jargon-Writers. Just so far as to see a little what they say, you may look into them; Whatsoever is more, cometh of Evil, and Evil will Come of it.

Some Eminent Persons, besides a Sennertus and a Val [...]sius, tired with the Academical Futilities, have at length betaken themselves to the best School for Philosophy as well as for Theology. The Mosaic Philosophy in the Scheme that Comenius has given of it, is much admired and embraced in some Re­forming Universities; and you will do well to bestow a deliberate Reading upon it. The, Phi­losophia Vetus ac Vera, of the rare Dickinson, has given us a yet finer Piece of Mosaic Work, which must always be honourably spoken of. But, tho' it be true, that the Sacred Scriptures have a wondrous Philosophy in them, and a Memorable Dutchman has lately demonstrated, that, according to what every Day makes more and more Evident, the [Page 50] Prophetic Spirit from whose Inspiration they are given to us, knew and own'd, the now most indis­puted Things which occur in the Discoveries of our Modern Philosophy; yet it is now plain, the First Chapter of Genesis, (as well as the rest of the Bible, which refers to the System of the World,) has not been well understood by most of the Gentlemen that have writ upon it. However, because of the Regard therein paid unto Moses, and the Tra­duction of our Philosophy from the Holy Fountains, (tho' Plato be advanced with him) I do particularly approve your perusing of the, Philosophia generalis, written by our equally Modest and Learned Gale, so as to make yourself a Master of it. I cannot but confess, that the Hypotheses which the more Ingenious and Inquisitive Sons of the Wild Asses Colt, have hitherto mostly valued themselves up­on, have been too justly called, Philosophical Ro­mances, and it may be, what is now most in Vogue, may [...]non be refuted and refused like its Predeces­sors. Nevertheless, I would have you take wha [...] may appear least likely to prove Romantic: And therefore, as thorough an Insight as you can get into the Principles of our Perpetual Dictator, the Incomparable Sr. Isaac Newton, is what I mighti­ly commend unto you.

Be sure, The Experimental Philosophy is that, in which alone your Mind can be at all establish­ed. For this Purpose, besides your more occasio­nally Conversing with such things as, our Philo­sophical Transactions, and several Communications of our Illustrious Boyl, and of Hook, and of Grew, and Cheyne, and Keil, and those also that have writ­ten the Natural History of several Places, [and [Page 51]such Outlandish Writings as those of Bartholinus, and Borellus, and the German Ephemerides] I would Commend unto you, The Religious Philosopher, of the Admirable Nieuentyt; and what has been com­municated by our Industrious Ray, and our Inge­nuous Derham, who still nobly serve Religion as well as Philosophy. And whatever it might be for me to say so unto any One else, I hope, it will be no Indecency for me to say so unto you; That if you desire to see the largest Collection, I have yet seen of the Discoveries which the last Age has made in Philosophy, adapted unto the general Capa­city of Readers; and short Essays upon every Article, to Show and Raise those Dispositions of PIETY, wherein the Works of the Holy and Bles­sed GOD invite us to Live unto Him; together with the First Claim that I have ever yet seen so explicitly made on the behalf of a Glorious CHRIST, and the Consideration due to him in our Philosophy; you have this prepared for you in a Book Entituled, THE CHRISTIAN PHILO­SOPHER.

Above all, I would have you see to it, that you be not, like some haughty, and short-sighted, and half-witted, Smatterers in Philosophy, seduced into the Folly of doubting the Existence or Provi­dence of a Glorious GOD, by a Study, which, if well-pursued, would Compel you to come in to a Strong Faith, wherewith you would give Glory to Him, on all Occasions. I hope, every step of your Study, will give you more and more Satis­faction, of what One of our Best Philosophers, the Author of, The Natural History of the Earth, ad­heres unto; That as the World was at first Created, [Page 52]so it has been ever since preserved, by the Immediate Hand of GOD. You will see, That the Influences of one thing upon another in the Course of Nature are purely from the Omnipotent and Omnipresent GOD, actually forever at Work, according to His own Laws, and putting His Laws in Execu­tion, and as the Universal Cause producing those Effects, whereof the Creatures are but what One may call, The Occasional Causes. You will also be often and quickly carried up into those Immechan­ical Principles, from whence, The next step is into GOD! The Gravitation of Bodies is One of them; For which No Cause can be assigned, but the Will of the Glorious GOD, who is the First Cause of all. Child, See GOD in every Thing! Own Him, Fear Him, Love Him; Study Philosophy with a perpetual Intention to do so. Remember, GOD is to Spirits, what Center is to Bodies. And, A Mind that from the View of the Glorious GOD in his Works, is carried into Acknowledgements of a GOD infinitely Worthy to be Loved and Praised and Served and Relied upon, becomes a Temple filled with the Glory of the Lord. Visit for this Purpose the several Classes of the Creatures: Walk thro' the World; [and be so far a Peripatetic!] and in this generous Exercise, Fear GOD and give Glory unto Him.

§ 10. The MATHEMATICKS will be, next unto Philosophy, a noble Study for you; The most Essential Parts whereof, you have in the Cursus Mathematious of an Ozanam so delivered unto you, that indeed you will hardly need any more. Tho' you are shaping for a Divine, yet I should not be sorry to see you as Exquisite a Mathematician as [Page 53]the Excellent Pitiscus, who, tho' he were a Divine, yet without a Tutor became such an High Attain­er in this Real Learning, that Melchior Adam cries out, Illud Mirandum! upon it: And it caused the Noble Tycho Brahe to say, Optarem plures ejus­modi Concionatores reperiri: forte plus esset in iis Cir­cumspecti et Solidi Judicii. I should not be sorry to see a Wallis, or a Wilkins, or a Barrow, revived in you, if your Genius lead you to it.

Besides the other Uses of ARITHMETIC and GEOMETRY, [wherein an Hill and an Euclid, or, The Young Mathematicians Guide of a Ward, in­stead of Both, may singularly be commended for you,] you will find this Benefit by the Study of them; They will Necessitate and Habituate your Mind unto that Strong Attention, which will mar­vellously Qualify you for more Important Services, and make a Strong Reasoner of you, and a very Regular and Cohaerent Speaker. They were dis­tinguished by the Name of Mathesis, and made the First Learning in some Ancient Schools, for this very Reason. And you may be sure, I should reckon it a further Encouragement unto the Study, if the General Rule might hold without any Ex­ception, That Great Mathematicians use to be Men of Good Morals; It seems that their Intense Appli­cations and Speculations are inconsistent with De­baucheries. While you are thus employed, Me­thinks, it might be a pretty Diversion to go thro' some of Leybourn's Mathematical Recreations.

But you must also soar Upwards, to the Attain­ments of ASTRONOMY. For though of later Ages, the Voluminous Tostatus whom they comple­mented as having all the Learning in the World, [Page 54]were no better an Astronomer, than Justin Martyr, and Ambrose, and Theodoret, and Chrysostom, and Austin himself, who in the more Early Ages de­claimed violently against the Spherical Figure of the Heavens; I should be loth you should thro' Igno­rance in Astronomy, ever fall into what even a Jerom would call Stultiloquium in Ecclesia. Where­fore, I cannot but advise you to be well instruc­ted in the Astronomical Lectures, as of an Accurate Keill, so of the Acute Whiston; while we are Mourning, that he who so excellently serves us in Astronomy, should so unhappily hurt us in Divinity, and call into Question, (as a Dubious Problem) the Infinite and Eternal Godhead of Him FOR whom, as well as BY whom, the Sun and the Stars were created.

At the same time, I hope, there is no need of my saying any thing to disswade you from the Study of JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY: The most Injudicious Thing in the World: All Futility; All Impiety; All of a Piece with the ridiculous Whim of a Gaffarel, who maintains, That the Stars in the Heavens do stand ranged in the form of Hebrew Letters, and that it is possible to Read there whatever is to happen of Importance throughout the Universe. And yet perhaps, there may be some Need for me to Caution you against being Dismay'd at the Signs of the Heavens, or having any Superstitious Fancies upon Eclipses and the like Occurrences, or thinking that if there were a Con­junction of all the Planets in Pisces, it would por­tend that the World should be Drowned. Yea, I am willing that the Cometomancy which has hither­to so much reigned, even in the most Honest [Page 55]Minds, be laid aside with you; and that you be apprehensive of nothing Portentous in Blazing Stars, except it should be apprehended, that in their El­liptic Motions they may make so near an Appulse unto this Globe as to bring some Confusion upon it. For my Part, I know not whether all our Worlds, and even the Sun it self, may not fare the better for them. Some, that know more than I, do think so. Indeed, if you perswade a World, here lying in Wickedness, there to see a Praesage, and to take a Warning, from the tremendous View of a World in a State of Punishment, I will say, Go on and Prosper.

But I will now so far fetch you down from the Stars, and set you down on your Native Soyl, as to tell you, That there is nothing Mathematical to which I more advise you, than the easy Study of GEOGRAPHY. Perhaps the Scituation of Pa­radise and of Palestine, and of the Places mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, may be what you would be willing to be first of all acquainted with. And for this, Let the Admirable Bochart be your princi­pal Instructor. What has been chiefly taken from him, and from two or three more, in three or four Octavo's under the Title of Sacred Geogra­phy, [by one W [...]lls,] may herein also be of some Use to you. The Pisgah Sight of a Fuller, will be read with a Pleasure equal to the Profit; and the Palestina Illustrata of a Reland, perhaps with a Profit greater than the Pleasure. But you will not give over, till more of the World, has come into your Knowledge, than the Decree of an Augustus could reach unto. Wherefore, after a Morden or a Gor­don, [together with a Varenius,] has given you a [Page 56]more Compendious View of the World, I say no thing of a Work Entituled, Geography Rectified, because 'tis not easy to find a Work that more wants to be Rectified; but what I say next, is, that the Atlas Geographus, will be a yet more instructive Guide for you, in your taking the Tour of the seve­ral Regions in it. You may then, as your Inclinati­ons may carry you, with Delight and Safety make your Visits to particular Countrys and Citys, in the Descriptions given of them. And here, while I suppose, that what a Cambden has given you in his Britannia, will be no unacceptable Entertain­ment for you, I cannot but notify it unto you, that, The English Empire in America, described by One Oldmixon, is the most foolish and faithless Performance in this Kind, that ever Mankind was abused withal. I am desirous, that you proceed and peruse many of the Travels that have been published; and (if you dare not venture upon a Purchas) by conversing with many more than what are exhibited in that Rich Collection which goes under the Name of, Itinerantium atque Navi­gantium Bibliotheca, you may with little Expence or Hazard become a notable Traveller. In your thus Riding a Circuit, you will especially inform yourself about, The State of Religion, in the World: [And methinks, Pagets Christianography, and Brier­wood's Enquiries, may particularly deserve a Read­ing with you:] And you will have your Heart thereupon raised in Sentiments of Gratitude unto a Sovereign GOD, who has cast your Lot among a People whom He has known above most of the Fa­milies of the Earth: Even so Righteous Father, for so it pleases thee! — and Compassion for a World over [Page 57]so much of which the Powers of Darkness continue to Tyrannize: Disposed like an Owner of, Sellers New System of Geography, whom I found inserting with his Pen this Note at the End of it; Peccantis et Perditi tam vasti Mundi, miserere Deus! Yea, In fine, Let me tell you, This Easy Study will not on­ly furnish you to maintain a Profitable Conversation, and a Communication that may minister Grace, and be ever Acceptable, to the Hearers: But if you prove a Man of Concern for the Kingdom of GOD in the World, it may bring you to form those Projec­tions, by which, as little as you are in your own Eyes, whole Nations may anon come to fare the better for you.

For MUSIC, I know not what well to say. — Do as you please. If you Fancy it, I don't Forbid it. Only do not for the sake of it, Alienate your Time too much, from those that are more Impor­tant Matters. It may be so, that you may serve your GOD the better, for the Refreshment of One that can play well on an Instrument. However, to accomplish yourself at Regular Singing, is a thing that will be of Daily Use to you. For I would not have a Day pass you without Singing, but so as at the same time to make a Melody in your Heart unto the Lord; Besides the Part you may bear, In Hymnis suavisonantis Ecclesi [...]e.

I will conclude this Article, with a Remark made by Perault, in his Account of Illustrious Men. Some Reproached Gassendus, for not knowing e­nough certain parts of the Math maticks. Where­upon he says; ‘Whether he was actually Ignorant of what was most Abstruse in these Sciences, or whether he Neglected [...] he could not but be the [Page 58]more Commendable for it. There is something of Little, in tying ones self up too much to lit­tle Things; and even of Imprudence too, to con­sume therein a Time, which may be employed more usefully on other Knowledge.’

§. 11. If the Emperor Basil had not in his In­structions to a Son, recommended unto him HIS­TORY, as a Way of Travelling without Fatigue, yet you may be sure, My SON, I should have recom­mended unto you an Acquaintance with HISTO­RY, as one of the most Needful and Useful Accom­plishments, for a Man that would serve GOD as you Propose to do. The Praises of that Me­thod which they that handle the Pen of the Writer, have taken to stop the Flood of things, and give a Consistency and a Duration unto them, that Histori­ans usually begin their Works withal, and the Flourishes about, Lux Veritatis, Vita Memoriae, Ma­gistra Vitae, and I know not what, are as unneces­sary on this Occasion, as they are on that whereon we commonly have them. And tho' perhaps we cannot meet with such Historians, as Le Moyne pleases to require, but such as he says, Will not appear until the Year when the Philosophers Stone shall be discovered; yet I would not have you discourag­ed from Reading the Best we have. But for this Purpose, I shall be far from advising you to im­pose on yourself, the tedious Task of Reading o­ver the Hundreds of Histories, which Degory Whear, or the Frenchman who has more lately written, L'Histoire des Histoires, may obtrude upon you, ex­cept you were to have the long Life of an Ante­diluvian; and even then also, to Read them all [Page 59]would be to spend much Time impertinently. Pehaps a Concise Body of Universal History, may be very properly laid in the Foundation of your His­torical Studies. And tho' Hornius, his Arca Noae, be Admirable, and Sleidans little Book, De quatuor summis Imperiis, be far from Despicable; yet I can't presently think of a Better, than Matthias Prideaux, his Easy and Compendious Introduction for the Reading all sorts of Histories. Proceed then, to some Volumns of larger Dimensions; Among which I can tell of none that I could more hearti­ly commend unto you, than Howel, his Institution of General History: And upon this, add, Pussendorf's Introduction. But I will here Betimes lay in for this; In Reading of all History, ever now and then make a convenient Pause; to think, What can I see of the Glorious GOD in these Occurrences? And always remember, The Providence of the Glori­ous GOD in governing the World, is now under my Contemplation.

Doubtless you will have a Desire, if you can find a Leisure, to Read some Histories of Particular Countrys. And here, as I know none better than Mezeray, for France; Mariana, for Spain; Grotius, for Holland; Knoles with Rycaut, for the Ottoman Empire; Ludolphus, for Abyssinia; Crull, for Russia; [there are several small Story-tellers for Persia, and Indoustan,] Martinius, and some other Jesuites [but you must Remember, they are Jesuites!] for China; Martyr, or Acosta, or Ogilby, for America; Bucha­nan, for Scotland; and Cox for Ireland; So, I would prefer Baker, for England; especially, if you could come at an Edition that was printed before what they call, The Restauration. The Memorials of Eng­lish [Page 60]Affairs, from the supposed Expedition of Brute into the Island, until the coming of K. James, I. [Don't something in the Title sound a little oddly?] writ­ten by Whitlock, or the little, Medulla Historiae An­gelicanae, may also be to you a pretty Abstract of our English History.

But the mention of English Affairs pushes me, even with some Anticipation, into the Caution which I am to give you, about Reading all our Common Histories, but none more than the English ones; That is, To believe with Discretion. Alas, The Vanity which attends Humane Affairs! As there are many Men and Things that are scarce mentioned in True History, which deserve a men­tion more than some that are universally celebrat­ed; What Hero's are buried among those who liv­ed before the Days of Agmemnon? And Walter Plettenberg is less known than a Turkish Pyrate: What has been ponderous has (as my Lord Bacon expresses it) been sunk to the Bottom in the Stream of Time, while we have Straw and Stubble swimming a top: So, 'tis a thing, that may be too truly, but can't be too sadly, complained of; That the Instances wherein False History has been imposed upon the World, are what cannot be num­bred. Historians have generally taken after their Father Herodotus: And even One of themselves, Vopiscus by Name, has expresly said of them, They are all them Lyars: This Witness is True! Tho' they have not all of them always been such Mercenary Villains as Bishop Jovius, or that scandalous Fel­low, who more lately so hired himself out as an History Writer for the highest Bidder, that his Coun­trymen, the Italians, fixed that Motto on him, [Page 61] Not according to the History but the Salary; yet One who gently enough Criticises on them, too Justly questions, Whether any Modern Historian has thought of any more than pleasing the Prince or Party for which he wrote. The Ancient are not much better than the Modern; Whereof we have a notorious and amazing Example in Josephus. It would be too long a Digression to relate his Vile Prevarications; which have compelled us to concur unto the Cen­sure passed by our Gregory upon him; That being Ambitious to have his Work find Acceptance a­mong the Heathen, he did so compose his History as to propose nothing that might appear Incredi­ble to them, and not have some Congruity with what had been, and was likely again to be among them. Indeed all honest Men are scandalized, no less than Castrius, at the Pains he takes to make his Court unto the Roman Princes by his Heathen Judaism; wherein, as One says, he was more Im­pious than the Philistines who placed the Ark by Dagon.

What a fine Story are we like to have, of as Infamous a Reign as ever was in the World, and a Tyranny all made up of Treacheries, and Rob­berries, and Cruelties that cannot be parallel'd, when it comes from Three Poets, each of them, with a Pension of Twelve Thousand Livres a Year, to give us a Panegyric instead of an History, and outdo a Paterculus blanching his Tiberius! How little many Representations of Matters in Histories are to be relied upon, methinks, it may be a little illustrated from the Two chief Command­ers in a Memorable Battle of Belgrade, both of which, wrote the History of the Battle, without [Page 62]the least mention made by the one of the other each assuming to himself the entire Honour of the Day. You will certainly say, Who can under­stand his Errors? — When the Admirable Erasmus himself mistakes one Man for two, in writing of what was a great while ago; and three professed and eminent Historians give us a very wrong Ac­count of the Gentleman who a much less while ago, founded the Charter-House,; and tho' no Writer of History ever were more Meritorious, than the Incomparable Thuanus, yet Learned Men have said of his Performance, that it contained, Multa falsissima et indigna. Yea, there are Histori­ans, of whom one can scarce tell which to admire most, the Nature of their Lies, or their Manner of telling them; I mean, the Impudence with which they tell them. For Instance, it is pretty well, that Hozier the French King's Genealogift, has discovered no less than Four Thousand wrong Things in Varillas, the same King's Historian; And ano­ther observes, every single Page in him, has almost as many Errors, as a Printers ordinary Table of Errata. But then, what an Impudent Fellow was Philanax Anglicus, when he accused Calvin of De­licacy, and Epicureanism in his Way of Living; and quotes Florimond de Remond for a Witness of it; who, he says, has left us a lively Image of him. Whereas, if you consult this Florimond de Remond, the lively Image which he gives of Calvin, is, That from his Youth he macerated his Body with Fasting, and that hardly could be found a Man that equalled him for his Laboriousness. Be sure, the late Historians, that pretend unto an, History of England, for us, write with such flagrant Partialities, and are such evident [Page 63] Leasing-makers, and palm upon you so very wrong and base Exhibitions, especially of late Occurrences, that one may as well believe the True History of a Lucian, as yield any Credit unto them. If you must read them, yet as to things that passed in the former Century, I would hardly so much as look upon many of them. And among These, tho' several are bad enough, yet there is none that has done so Ill as an Eachard, (I mean, in his English, and not in his Roman History,) who should not be admitted into the Library of a Gentleman that has any Concern for Truth; except he'll assign him a Place on the same Shelf, with the Grand Cyrus, or, Cleopatra. A late Critical History of England, has done some Justice upon him. In­deed the Historians never keep closer to the Way of Lying, than in the Relation they give of those Twenty Years, which passed after the Beginning of our Civil Wars, and afforded a very ample and fertile Field, for their Faculty to work upon. A­mong these, the Romance that goes under the Ti­tle of, The History of the Grand Rebellion, and is fa­thered on the Earl of Charendon, I would have you more particularly treat with the Disregard that is proper for it. If you would come at all near to the Truth of what Concerns those Times, you must look for it, in Whitlock, his Memorials of Eng­lish Affairs, from the Beginning of K. Charles I. to the Restoring of K. Charles II. And Rushworth his Collections. And yet even there, some of the greatest Persons and Actions have not always Full Justice done them. I do particularly Advertise you, That the Mighty Man, whom not only our King William (as Fleming reports) had a very [Page 64]high Esteem for, but also his most bigotted and bitterest Enemies confess to have been a Matchless Hero, and (as even Sr. Roger Manly himself, as well as many more of his Bran, acknowledges) Not unworthy of the Supreme Heighth of Empire which he attain'd to, has never yet had his History fairly and fully given; and when you read it given (as they are now Approaching towards it) with the greatest Impartiality wherein you have hitherto seen it, you may bear [...]is in your Mind, that the Principal Stroke in his Character, and the Principal Spring of his Con­duct, is forever defectively Related.

As for such Abominable Pens, as what the A­thenae Oxonienses of a Wood have been Excretions from, you cannot sufficiently Despise them & Abhor them. And I will further tell you, That if in a­ny History, you happen to find any Vindicating or Favourable Passages of old A Bishop Laud, Let these be Shibboleth enough with you, to do the Office which the Rattle does for the Serpent, which our Country is no Stranger to. Yea, and when you Read, even such Consciencious Historians, as a Baxter, and a Burnet, you must make Allowances for some Hearsays, which led them into Mistakes; and for certain Prejudices, the Tincture whereof a little influenced their Views of what they were disaffected to.

Having thus armed you, for a Walk among the Woods of Civil History, I must now propose CHURCH-HISTORY, with a yet more earnest Wish, to have you well-acquainted with it. For, altho' Grotius observes, Qui legit Historiam Ecclesi­asticam, quid legit, nisi Episcoporum Vitia? And o­thers have been so Satyrical as to say, Ecclesiastical [Page 65]History is nothing but many large Volumns, containing some few of the Squabbles of the Bishops, and Inferiour Clergy, with One another, and all the World. Never­theless a Divine has a Blemish upon him, almost as Disqualifying as any of the Hundred and Forty which the Jews reckon to bring a Priest of theirs under Incapacities, if Church-History has not in­structed him for the Business of the Sanctuary.

Now, for a Regular System of Church-History, I know not that I can tender you a Better, than Spanheim, his Introductio ad Historiam et Antiquitates Sacras; To which, by all means add, Hornius, his Historia Ecclesiastica: And Usher, his, De Christiana­rum Ecclesrarum Successione et Statu. If you would have what is English, and Easy, 'tis done to your Hand by a Scotchman, that is to say, Patrick Symp­son, in his History of the Church. Somewhat larger than these, and never enough to be commended, is, Hottinger, his, Historia Ecclesiastica Novi Testa­menti But then, I would have you, if you don't wholly Peruse, yet by all means Possess, and often Visit, the Ecclesiastical History of the Magdeburgensian Centuriators; Of which noble Work I will say, what Spanheim said before me; That it is, Biblio­theca totius Christianae Antiquitatis. — incredibili cum Studio, Fide optima, Meth do utilissima, cong [...]sta.

There have been also more particular Essays of Church History, which you may do well to find some time for Conversation with. Such more especially are what we have had from Eusebius, whom they call The Father of Church History; Together with, The Tripartite History, of Socrates, and Theodoret, and Sozomen, continued by Evagri [...]s. [Page 66]As a kind of a Postscript whereunto, you can scarce Read a more profitable Thing than, Vedeli­us, his, Prudentia Veteris Ecclesiae. But you may prudently Join with it, Millar, his, History of the Pro­pagation of Christianity. And with how much Edi­fication run over, Illyricus, his Catalogus Testium Ve­ritatis! Coming lower down, I am fond of your Familiarity with a Book, very little known among us; 'Tis Regenvolscius, his, Systema Historico-Chro­nologicum Ecclesiarum Sclavonicarum. But you will do well also to read Sleidan, his, Commentaries; Moreland, his History of the Waldenses; Calderwood, his Church-History of Scotland; Fuller, his Church-History of England: And Burnet, his History of the Reformation Therein make wise Reflections on the Providence of Him, who has all Power in Heaven and Earth, for the upholding of His Kingdom in the World. Nor should our Martyrologies be left unconsulted. But in them you will behold the Cup given to CHRIST Mystical, in the Suffer­ings of His Faithful People; and admire the Ope­rations of the SPIRIT that strengthened the Suf­ferers with such Patience, and such Fortitude: The Grace given to the Children of Men! As for the Histories of Councils, if Angelocrator's brief Epitome Conciliorum do not content you, I cannot wish you to go beyond Coriolanus. The more Elephantine Books of them, I won't so much as give you the Titles; But instead of them, I pray read Baxter, his, Church-History of the Government of Bishops and their Councils. Nevertheless, The History of the Council of Trent, and the, Acta of the Synod of Dort, I could be glad, if you could give some Win­ter-Evenings to. And what an Illustrious Person [Page 67]has offered as a KING upon, The Discipline of the Primitive Church; and, The History of the Creed; must by no means be forgotten in the Visits of your Studies.

But Cicero is not the only Gentleman, who has been able to say, That in History they have espe­cially studied the Pourtraiture of Wise Men, who have been before them, to imprint on themselves as far as might be, the Resemblance of them. I hope you will do so too; and read the Lives, especially of them who have done worthily in Israel: Not only on the Intention of rendring Praises to the Glorious GOD, who did such Things as you will see done For and By these notable Men, but also Intending in as many Points as may be, to Go and Do likewise. Be sure, that whatever you see Great, and Good, and Bright, in any Excellent Person, whose Life you have in your Hands, you look off to the Glo­rious JESUS, as having in HIM all these Excel­lencies after a Transcendent Manner, and as being the Author and Giver of them to the Distin­guished Gloworm. And when you read of any imi­table PIETY in any of them, think with your self; The Virtues of this Man, were first i [...] the JE­SUS that called him into this marvellous Light, and from him it was derived unto this Believer. O my SAVIOUR, Let me also feel such Influences of thy Ho­ly SPIRIT as may change me into the same Image from Glory to Glory! More particularly, There are two little Octavo's Entituled, Biographia Ecclesiastica, or, The Lives of the most Eminent Fathers of the Christian Church, which you must needs make yourself Own­er of. And if you go into Cave, his, Lives of the Fathers, you will be well entertained there. The [Page 68] Lives written by Melchior Adam, may be very Edi­fying for the Latin as well as the Matter of them. So are the Vitae Selectorum aliquot Virorum, which One (they say, a Bates) has bound up in a Bundle for us. In Witten, his Memoriae Renovatae, you may ever now and then find an Oration, which an Hour will not be unprofitably thrown away, that shall be afforded to. Indeed, Frehe [...]us, his Thea­trum, has in it such an Abbreviation of Lives, that his Pictures will give you almost as much Pleasure as his Accounts, of them that have been Men of Renown in the Congregation of the learned: Yet I can tell you of Theatres much less worthy to be gone unto. And tho' there hardly ever was a more Dull & Lifeless Transcriber than our S. Clark, yet in the Collections of Lives that go under his Name, there are very many highly worth, not only your Considering of, but also your Conforming to them: And you may read his Collections, with another sort of Reliance, than you can the Romances of a Simeon Metaphrastes; whom even a Baronius himself is ashamed of. Of the many Lives that have been published since those Col­lections, there are so many, which you won't be either Weary or the Worse, for casting your Eye upon, that if I should go to tell you which, I shall tire you with too long a Catalogue. If I should enter upon it, I hope, I should steer clear, of Bel­larmine's Disingenuity, for which our Prideaux well taxes him, who in his Book, Of Ecclesiastical Wri­ters, has not the Honesty to Name one of our Side; But I would encourage you to read the Life of a William Burkitt, as well as of a Philip Henry; and what you have in Fuller, his Worthies [Page 69]of England, and what a Walton has Collected, as w [...] as what you have in the Life of a Guthry, an Angier a Flavel, and a Dorney; a Dr. More, as well as a Dr. Manton; a Dr. Horneck, as well as well as a Dr. Owen. I had left unmentioned the Parent [...]tor which gives the Life of Dr. Mather, if the Old Usage it has met withal, had not com­pelled me to mention it. But now, I have Rea­son more than ever to say, Let that History be taken in among those, that (particularly for Vari­ety) may have some Consideration with you.

In fine: 'Tis possible you may find a Church-History, wherein the Lives of Good Men may be the most significant Ingredients of the Composition. If you do, I wish you the Satisfaction of Time well spent in such harmless Company.

I have nothing to add, but that you must have the Clock of Time set right with you, by CHRO­NOLOGY, if you would be an Understanding Traveller in History. For the Chronology of the Bible, I can refer you to none so well as to a Whiston, whose Decisive Searches do supersede all the Trouble of repairing to those who have writ before him. And for the Chronology of all Ages, our Tallents has by his Tables prepared such a Feast for you, that you will have little Need of repair­ing to any other Quarter. An Usher, a Calvisius, a Baily, will enrich your Library; and it may be worth your while to have them at hand upon Oc­casion. But for a Daily Recourse, you can have nothing at hand more Expeditious, or more Com­prehensive, than the Thesaurus Chronologiae of the Gentleman, whose Name was very truly Anagram­matized [Page 70]into Sedulitas; in which Quality I wish you may make a Pattern of him.

That your Library may be furnished with a Magazine of History, to which you may continually go for every thing that your Mind may lead you to, the, Theatrum Humanae Vitae, of a Zuinger, in the last and large Edition, is one of the Best that I can advise you to. For Occasional Readings, you may do well to divert yourself with Camerarius his Horae Subcesivae; with Prideaux, his Connection; and with such Things as Wanly, his History of Man; and Cambdens Remains. I would have added, a Montfaucon his Antiquities Explained, if I could have told you, how to come at so costly a Col­lection. But I may add, Lewis's Hebrew, Ken­net's Roman, and Potter's Greek Antiquities as wor­thy your Having and Reading.

But for a yet more Immense Treasure of History and of all that belongs unto it, Hofman has a Lex­icon for you in Four stately Folio's, which alone may be called, A Library. The Great Historical Dictionary now appearing in English, has been growing from Stephens's Time, thro' the Hands of Loyd, and Moreri, and others, till at last, an odd Man by hurting and mangling of it, and making some Additions (whereof many are none of the best,) unto it, has obtained that it must go un­der the Name of Collier: A Fate quite the Re­verse of what has befallen Calepine. It should with all its Faults be in your Library; But then, The Critical History of Bayle, if you can be enriched with it, will not only correct many of the Faults in that, but also be for you almost another Library. 'Tis a Work to be wondred at! Only guard a­gainst [Page 71]the Manichaean Sophistry, sometimes ap­pearing in it.

And here it may be a proper Time for me to say; When you see such astonishing Effects of Erudition and Application, produced from the Sons of Men, as you will find in some that have been (and others that might be) mentioned, Let the Sight still produce from you some due Acknow­ledgements of the Glorious GOD; My GOD, I a­dore thy Power, thy Wisdom, thy Goodness, Conspicuous in these Wonderful Performances!

But for the Close of all, I will give you this One Hint of a more general Importance. There are Books, which for the Grateful Stores of Learn­ing amass'd in them, I can't but wish, that you would in the Parentheses of your Studies, often repair unto. Those which among these, I would more particularly single out for a Recommendation to you, are, the, De Veritate Religionis Christianae, of a Grotius: The Demonstratio Evangelica, of a Huetius; The Theologoumena, of an Owen; Every Thing of an admirable Hospinian; or Heidegger; The Apolo­gy of an Hakewel; The Miscellanea, and Meletemata, of a Witsius; Parker on, The Cross: Basnage his History of the Jews: Adding, the Origines Sacrae of a Stillingfleet; the Court of the Gentiles, of a Gale; and the, Antiquitates Biblicae, of a Diete­nious.

§. 12. Even while you are yet in your Early [...]uth, and but in your Course towards the Fair Havens of Theology, at which I am now quickly to Land you, I would advise to Two Things, [Page 72]whereof you will certainly find an inexpressible and almost incredible Advantage.

One Thing that I advise you to, is This. Keep your QUOTIDIANA. I mean Have your Blank Books, in which Note with your Pen, for the most Part Every Day, [Let there be, Nulla Dies sine Li­nea!] Some Notable Thing, which in Reading you have newly met withal. By this Action you will fix the Valuable Notion in your Mind: And in a few Years, you will have a Treasure, from whence as a Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven, you may bring out Things New and Old, and have agree­able Grains of Salt for all your Discourses. You will not for this, Use the Unequal Way, of entring the Riches, of your Quotidiana, in Pages with the Titles of a Common-Place at the Tops of them, whereof some will be soon Crammed, and others remain Empty, perhaps all your Days: But, Enter the Things as they come, with only affixing the Num­ber to them: And have, at the End of the Books an Alphabetical Index, of the Matter, with the Num­ber at which it is to be met withal. Here you will anon have an inexhaustible Magazine; and if you live to Old Age, you will find, that, like Old Photius, you have prepared an Hive then to live upon. I will not say, you will be quickly as rich as Craesus; for poor Craesus will have no Riches comparable to what you will have in your Col­lections.

Another Thing that I advise you to, is This. Form a SODALITY. What I mean, is, Prevail with a Fit Number, [ Six or Seven may be a Com­petency, or Fewer, if you can't find so many,] of Sober, Ingenious, and Industrious Young Men, [Page 73]to Associate with you, and meet One Evening in a Week, for the spending of Two or Three Hours, in a Profitable Conversation. At this Interview, Let there be always a sort of Director, who shall pro­pose this Question, (and see, that without need­less Digressions and Excursions it be kept close un­to,) What Remarkable and Memorable Matter has occurr'd in late Studies, that is thought now to be of­fered? Let the Question be Articulated, and more particularly and successively turn upon these Ar­ticles. I. What in Philology? II. What in Phi­losophy? III. What in Geography, and the rest of the M thematicks? IV. What in History? V. What in Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures; Or, Biblical Curiosities? Let each Person, in what Order they shall agree upon, give his Report as Concisely as may be. But it will not be expected, that each Person should be prepared, at every Time, with something on every Head: It is enough, that he bring in, for that Cell, which he happens to be best furnished for. All Altercations, and all Imper­tinencies, are to be forever banished from those Communications of the Sodality. But how much could I wish, that you could gain one Quarter of an Hour in the close of all, to relate, What rare Flight or fine Stroke of the Christian Asceticks, has been met withal; and what for the Animation of Prac­tical PIETY? Behold, a way to clench the Nails that have been struck into your Minds; and a Compendious and Charitable Course to come at the Wealth, which the Diligence of your Brethren has made them the Owners of; together with the generous Pleasure of making them the Partakers of yours. 'Twill have a Tendency also to quali­fy [Page 74]you for Useful Conference in other Company; and make you a Speaker, whose Words may always be as the Choicest Silver, and as Fruits from the Tre [...] of Life to such as you Converse withal. It was a Remark that Plato made a good while ago; That the true Manner of Teaching Sciences, is by Con­versation. And, We never well understand a Truth, if we are not in a Condition on all Occasions to make it known unto such as are for the receiving of it.

Because of its being somewhat Akin to This, and because we are just now entring upon the Study of DIVINITY, I will, tho' there may seem almost some Anticipation in it, here Transcribe a Passage from the PATERNA, of One whom it may be, you are not wholly a Stranger to; and who was himself but a very Young Man, when he was engaged in the Projection referr'd unto.

‘I singled out a Number of Students, who had passed thro' their Cursus, in Philosophical and Academical Studies, and were just entring into the World. These Young Gentlemen met once a Week at my Study; where we carried on a Course of Disputation upon the Body of Divinity. In the several Common Place Heads of Divinity, where any notable Controversy had been manag­ed in the Church of GOD, we had a Solemn Disputation on the Controverted Question. In this Disputation, I was always the Moderator, and still concluded with a Discourse, which by Argu­ment established the Truth, defended by the Respondent. But, because upon every Head of Divinity there were Multitudes of Questions, not so worthy of a Solemn Disputation, These I labo­riously gathered up, and giving them to the [Page 75] Society, at some [...] our Meetings, we came all pre­pared, with Brief, but Strong and Proved Answers to them; which we accordingly delivered in our Order. The Benefit of these Exercises, we found Unspeakable!’

§. 13. All this while I have been proposing to bring you on towards the Evangelical Ministry, and the Study of THEOLOGY for it and in it, after such a Manner, as to render you a Skilful Artist for the Work of your GOD.

Now, Surely it is not at all Congruous to Study Divinity upon any other than Divine Principles: But when you are in the Approaches of THEO­LOGY, more particularly fixing your Purpose, to be [ If the Lord will!] a MINISTER of the Gospel, it is necessary, that since you Desire a Good Work, it may be upon a Good End that you do it. Let such Noble Considerations as these, have their Influence upon you.

Unto this WORK, as a Work that indeed car­ries its own Wages in it, and a Work which on these Illustrious Accounts, no other Calling may be compared unto, you will now bring yourself under a most Solemn DEDICATION. With an Heart marvellously set upon this Work of GOD, Humbly thus Declare unto Him. Glorious GOD, Owning myself utterly unworthy of such a Favour, I desire to Devote myself unto the Service of my SAVI­OUR; and I entreat of Thee graciously to Accept of me. Sensible that I can do nothing, I Resign myself up unto thy Holy SPIRIT, O my GOD, and my SAVIOUR, that He may Possess me, and Furnish me, and Quicken me for Thy Service; and carry me thro' all that I may be called unto. And since all Opportunities to Serve [Page 77]Thy Kingdom in the World are entirely at thy Dispose, I Rely upon thy Providence to find out Opportunitios for my doing of Good; Resolving with thy Help, to be sa­tisfied with what I shall see the Thing appointed for me.

Being brought under such a Consecration to GOD, Now proceed in your Preparation for the Service o [...] the Sanctuary. In which, as you pass along, I cannot but wish, that the Admirable Wit­sius, his Oration, De Vero Theologo, might be so con­siderately Read by you, as to leave a deep Im­pression upon you.

It is a Speech of Jacob Alting, with which I am Willing your Mind should be deeply tinctured; Majus est in Ecclesia aliquid dixisse, quod ad ejus Edi­ficationim pertineat, quam summa inter Homines Gloria, et Potestate gavisum fuisse. And I will hereupon mind you of it, That One of the greatest Perso­nages (an Archbishop and a Lord-keeper) in the English Nation once uttered this Memorable Speech; I have passed thro' many Places of Honour and Trust, both in Church and State, more than any of my Order in England, for Seventy Years before. But were I assured, that by my Preaching I had Converted but one Soul unto GOD, I should herein take more Com­fort, than in all the Honours and Offices that have ever been bestowed upon me. You are entring upon a Work, that will keep you continually in the Way of this Incomparable Satisfaction; And, I hope, that you will Rejoyce in the Way of bearing Testimonies for GOD, more than in all Riches; and that the Saving, or Enlightening and Edifying of One Soul at any Time, will be a Matter of more Joy unto you, than if all the Wealth of Ophir should [Page 78]flow in upon you. If such Men of Quality, as George the Prince of Anhal [...], and the Lord of Chan­dieu who goes under the Hebrew Name of Sadeel, and the Noble John Alasco, (to say nothing of Titus, to whom they assign a Noble Extraction among the Cretians,) counted themselves gloriously Enriched in Opportunities to Preach the Unsearchable Riches of CHRIST; Yea, Or if the most Opulent Monarch that ever Israel had, even Solomon in all his Glory, has assumed the Title of, The Preacher; It was no Diminution unto their Quality, to be employed in a Work of this Importance. I will not say, You are taken in among the great Men of Achaia, but more than so, GOD raises the Poor out of the Dust, and sets you with the Princes of His People, when He thus employs you. It pleases me, when I read such a Passage as this drop from the Pen of, a Person of Quality, in his, View of the Soul. ‘It is certainly, the Highest Dignity, if not the Great­est Happiness, that Humane Nature is capable of, here in this Vale below, to have the Soul so far enlightened, as to become the Mirrour, or Con­duit, or Conveyer of GOD's Truth to others.’

But then, Be Arm'd! Be Arm'd, as a Good Soldier of JESUS CHRIST, for an Employment, wherein Grievcus Discouragements, Heavy Difficulties, more than can be Numbred, are to be looked for; and Things to be endured, whereof 'tis well for you that you may say, I know not the Things that shall befal me!

Be Armed, for a Warfare, wherein you will have Wonderful Temptations assaulting of you, re­peated on you. I need not quote an Ecclesiasticus, [Page 79]to tell you so. What Low, and Mean, and Streight Circumstances for this World, must you probably be confined unto? What Mischiess from the Un­godly and Unrighteous Men that fill this World, will your Appearances for the Cause of GOD, pro­bably bring upon you? In short, you will find yourself entred into a Wine- [...]; and I must give you Austin's Advice, [...]repara [...]te [...]ad Pressuras: But let every One of your [...]ressures fetch Good Liquor from you. Yea, I will Fore-warn you of it, That if you move at all out of the Common Road with singular Activities, I believe, you will hardly ever be engaged in any special Service for the Kingdom of GOD, but you shall either just before it, or after it, meet with some special Trouble; Either in some shock upon your Health; Or, in some Storm of Groundless and Senseless Obloquies among the People; Or, (which is often, the Worst of all,) some horrid Colaphisations from the Wicked Spirits on your Mind, strangely filling you with Conster­nations, and Confusions, which be they never so un­reasonable, yet will be Intolerable. There may be some special Reven [...]e [...] Satan in these Molestations upon you, for the special Service to CHRIST, at which he is enrag [...]d; But there is the Wisdom of our Faithful REDEEMER for Holy Ends permit­ing and ordering of them; Especially to keep you in the Dust, & in the midst of continual Anni­bilations, that the Strength of your Glorious Lord, may be Conspicuous in the Weakness which you find yourself reduced unto. But now, in the Fore­sight of all this, can you bravely Resolve; O my SAVIOUR, Tho' I foresee that I shall be exposed unto many Things as uneasy as many Deaths, if I go on to [Page 80]lay myself out for the Service of thy Kingdom, yet with thy Help, I will go on; I will do it unto the Uttermost. And I will cheerfully Rely upon Thee, to make me a Conqueror, and more than a Conqueror, over all. I Be­lieve and I am sure, that the Issue will be Glorious!

My Son, The Spirit of Martyrdom is upon thee: Thou shalt be crowned among the Martyrs of the Lord.

§. 14. Can a Man be a Thorough Divine with­out Reading the SACRED SCRIPTURES? No, Verily; Not so much as a Common Christian. Read them, Child; I say, Read them, with an Uncommon Assiduity. To Dig in these Rich Mines, make it your Daily Exercise. Hold on doing so, until you are, I will not say, Bonus Tex­tuarius, but until you are, An Eloquent Man, and Mighty in the Scriptures.

To this Purpose, My Advice to you is, That it be your Practice, to Read the Sacred Scriptures in the Porismatic Way; Or, with a Labour to ob­serve and educe, the Doctrines of Godliness, which this inexhaustible Store-House of Truth, will yield unto them that are seeking after it. Make a Pause upon every Verse, and see what Lessons of Piety are to be learnt from every Clause. Turn the Lessons into Prayers, and send up the Prayers unto the GOD, who is now Teaching of you: As Arrows from the Hand of a mighty Man, send them up with Lively Ejaculations unto the Heavens. What Ex­ercise can be more Enlightening, more Sanctify­ing, more Comfortable, than such an Intercourse, of GOD uttering His Voice, and, Lo, a mighty Voice! — unto you, and your Holy Returning of it, unto Him, in such Echo's of Devotion! I will [Page 81]say this for your Encouragement. In your Search­ing of the Scriptures, you will forever have some­thing that is New to entertain you. They are a Treasury, which (beyond that at Venice) you can­not reach to the Bottom of. Austin in his Epistle to V [...]lusius has not said a Thousandth Part of what may be said, about fetching still every Day fresh Entertainments and Advantages from them, after one has already Spent an Age in the Study of them. The Jews have Reason on their Side, when they say of the Scripture, Versa eam, et Versa eam, nam onmia sunt in ea.

I will Refine yet a little further upon this Pro­posal; And, I will shew you an Excellent Way, how in Reading of the Sacred Scriptures, you may make an Admirable and Effectual Application of the Leaves, which are for the Healing of the Nations; and have the inestimable Blessings of, An Healed S [...]ul, conveyed unto you What I intend is my Speners Direction: Praemissis Plis Precibus, Affectum Scriptorum Sacrorum Devota Attentione observent, eumque Affectum assumere studeant. The Holy Men of GOD who wrote this astonishing BOOK, were moved by His Holy Spirit, in it, and for it; and the Spirit of Holiness at the Time of the Inspirati­on made suitable Impressions on the Affections of His Faithful Servants. When the Holy SPIRIT with His Afflations, disposed them to write what we have in our Hands, He doubtless produced in their Hearts, those Motions of PIETY, which were agreeable and answerable to the Matter then flow­ing from their Pens: They are very Legible, and an ordinary Capacity may discover them These Motions of PIETY, in the Soul; — By these Things [Page 82]Men live, and in all these Things is the Life of your Spirit. Now, Do you lay One Sentence, and then Another, and so a Third, of your Pible be­fore you. Find out, which of these Affections is Obvious and Evident, in the Sentence under Con­sideration. Try, Strive, Do your Best, that the same Affections may Stir, yea, Flame in your Soul. Be Restless, till you find your Soul Harmonizing and Symphonizing, with what the Holy SPIRIT of GOD raised in His Amannensis at the time of His Writing. Be not at Rest, until you find your Heart-strings quaver at the Touch upon the Heart of the Writer, as being brought into an Unison with it, and the Two Souls go up in a Flame to­gether. Consider what Affections of PIETY are plainly discernible in the Word that is before you; and then, with a Soul turning unto the Lord, assay to utter the Language of the like Affections. E're you are aware, you will be caught up to Pa­radise; you will mount up as with the Wings of Ea­gles! I have had Opportunity elsewhere to say, ‘If I constantly affirm this, That all the Commen­tators in the World, are poor Things to interpret the Bible, in Comparison of an Illiterate Christi­an, thus coming with a sanctified Soul, to make his Practical Commentary; I could quote a very great Person, who will not leave me alone, but will affirm, Commentarius sine hoc Adminiculo (pio Sacrorum Motuum scrutinio) Conscriptus, est Vere Commentarius, et Nomine, et Omine talis, id est, Commentis cerebri refertus. Among all the Hermeneutic Instruments for the opening of the Scriptures, We may say of This; There is none like it.’

[Page 83] The Commentaries of our Henry on the Bible, have out-done most that we have yet had, in this Regard: The SPIRIT which dictated the Sacred Scriptures, operating on the Mind of the Commen­tator, in the Dispositions and Observations of Ex­perimental Piety. The Erudition also appearing, without Affectation of Appearance, in them, is far from Contemptible. I wish you furnished with them. What is done by Pool and his Continua­tors, is highly Valuable; and may be of Use, not only for Occasional Inspection, but also for Diurnal Meditation. How Happy should we have been, if an Hutcheson who has done so well on Job, and on the Smaller Prophets, and on John, had left us the like Operations on the rest of the Bible? Or, if a Caryl on Job, a Greenhil on Ezekiel, a Bur­roughs on Hosea, an Owen on the Hebrews, a Man­ton on James, and a Jenkins on Jude, were ac­companied with others like them on the rest of Sacred Pandects?

Being upon your Daily Exercise, I will add no more; But this I would advise you, Wherever you in any Reading meet with a curious Illustration of a Text, Prize it, Sieze it, Enter it in Papers where you may design a Lodging for such inesti­mable Jewels. Like Hezekiah, have your Treasures for Precious Stones: And let these be such unto you. Get such an Amassment of them, that a­mong them you may be like the King of Tyrus; and Walk up and down in the midst of the Stones of Fire, when you are upon the Holy Mountain of GOD. One of these may be worth an Ingot of Gold, and a whole Discourse may be rendred Ac­ceptable, by having such a Jewel studded in it.

[Page 84] §. 15. Let the Men who Corrupt the Earth, and have nothing but their Cassocks, to claim the Name of Divines for them, Sit in the Seat of the Scorner, and Laugh, and Scoff, at all Systematical Divines as long as they please, there are SYSTEMS OF DIVINITY, which I most seriously advise you, to be most intimately acquainted with.

And here, Either a Wollebius, his, Manuductio ad Theologiam, or, an Amesius his, Medulla Theologiae, or, a Marckius, his, Compendium Theologiae; I would have you to get so into your Head [and, Heart!] as to be a perfect Master of the System.

Go on then, to Read with a strong Attention, the, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, of the Leyden Di­vines. Usher's Body of Divinity is Orthodox and Excellent; and is accommodated with the most agreeable Texts of Sacred Scripture upon every Article. For this, and all good Theological Purposes, get as much of, and be as much with, H. Alting, as ever you can. He has been called, Theologus Scripturarius, and every thing of his is Va­luable: All that is done by that Hund, has much of Heaven in it. Tuckney, his Prelectiones, are an inestimable Treasure. So are those of Prideaux. The Works of an Hemingius deserve a greater Title than that of Opus [...]ula. The Loci Communes of Are­tius, have uncommon Riches in them. Edwards, his Theologia Reformata, also will be no Contempti­ble Treasure for you, on all Occasions. You might Wonder at me, if I should forget Calvin's Institutions, to which the Concurrent Opinion of them that wished well to the Reformed Religion assigned a Preference before all the Writings that [Page 85]the Church of GOD has enjoyed since the Aposto­lical; as the well known Distich has informed you. Some that have written on, The Creed, are highly Worthy of being your Instructors. Parti­cularly, a Pearson, and a Witsius. But after all, there, is nothing that I can with so much Plero­phorie Recommend unto you, as a Mastricht, his Theologia Theoretico practica. That a Minister of the Gospel may be Thoroughly furnished unto every Good Work, and in one or two Quarto Volumns enjoy a well furnished Library, I know not that the Sun has ever shone upon an Humane Composure that is equal to it: And I can heartily Subscribe unto the Commendation which Pontanus, in his Laudatio Funebris upon the Author, has given of it. De hoc Opere confidenter affirmo, quod eo Ordine sit digestum, tanto rerum pondere praegnans et tumidum, tanta et tam varia Eruditione refertum, ut nescio an in illo genere usquam Gentium exstet aliqnid magis accura­tum et elaboratum. I hope, you will next unto the Sacred Scripture, make a Mastricht the Store-house to which you may resort continually. But above all things remember the Dying Words of this true Divine; which he uttered Altissima Voce, [And, I wish, all that study Divinity might hear it!] Se nulla Loco et Numero habere Veritatis Defensionem, quam sincera Pietas et Vitae Sanctitas, individuo nexu non comitetur.

But, if you are laying in for a Library, there are Two or Three Divines, whose Works alone, will afford you a Copious Library, and you may on almost every Subject repair unto them, and see what almost every Writer has offered upon it. Such more particularly are, Gerhard, his, Loci [Page 86]Communes; and, Voetius, his, Selectae Disputationes, et politia Ecclesiastica.

That you may have a general Insight into POLEMIC DIVINITY, and at once make a short Visit with Safety, to the Camp in the Valley of Elah, and see the Men of Israel fighting with the Philistines, you have much done for you in Pri­deaux, his, Fasciculus: But there are two little Duo­decimo's, which for this Purpose are worth more than Twelve times their Weight in Gold; These are the, Turris David, and the, Turris Babel, of the Wondrous Alsted. There is also a little Book in the English Tongue, Sinclare, his, Truths Victory over Error, which is worthy to be called, Enchiri­dion Militis Christiani. I will say nothing of a lit­tle Book published among ourselves under the Title of, Supplies from the Tower of David.

As for more particular Controversies in Religion, I will not perplex you with a Tedious Catalogue of what has been best Written on the several Con­troverted Points. You will not much trouble yourself with them, till the Providence of GOD call you to the Wars, and bring the Occasions for it.

However. that I may leave nothing untouched that you may look for, I will just say thus much. To encounter the Romanists, you will be admira­bly furnished in the Panstratia of a Chamier, or the Synopsis Papismi of a Willet, or the very learned Works of a Jackson. To confute the Arians, I commend unto you, a Waterland, and a Guise, and a Pike. To confute the Socinians, I commend an Owen, an Abbady, and a Cloppenburg, and a Stilling, [Page 87]fleet, and a Bisterfield. Upon the Quinquarticular Controversies, you'l see who's to Friend, in Prin, his Antiarminianism. To which, I would have you add, the Veritas Redux, of an Edwards. The Antipedo­baptists have been confuted by such an Army of Writers, that except I should single out a Baxter, I can scarce tell whom to pitch upon for your Assistance. A little Conference Entituled, Baptistes, reprinted among us, will give you the Sum of the Matter. Faldo has done enough against the Quakers. For the Theologia Gubernetica, as 'tis cal­led, I will only mention to you, The, Politia Ecclesiastica of a Parker; The Altare Damascenum of a Didoclavius; The Fresh Suit of a Gillespy; A Baxter, of Episcopacy; and a Pierce, his Vindication of the Dissenters; and an Owen, Of the Nature of the Gospel Church.

But it is of the last Importance, that you be a GOOD CASUIST: And an Ames, in his Casus Conscientiae, an Alsted, in his Theologia Casuum, a Baxter in his Directory, and a Baldwin, in his Book, De Casibus Conscientiae, have done what will abun­dantly Qualify you to pass a Judgment upon the Cases, that may ly before you, and well distin­guish the Clean from the Unclean, in your Dis­charge of your Ministry.

Abundance has been written, to recommend, The Study of the FATHERS: And it has been re­commended by none more than some Neotericks and Innovators, who have had very Indirect Inten­tions in it, and hoped that the Fathers might help them with some Traditions, where the Scriptures failed them. What Attempts have there been therefore to set the Epistles of Ignatius almost on [Page 88]the Level with the Epistles of our Inspired Apostles; while after all the learned Impertinencies, where­with some would maintain the larger, and some the lesser Copies of those Epistles, and painful Disputations, on the Problem, How many of them are Genuine; They are all of them Impostures, and not worthy of any Notice with you. What ado has there been, to set up, The Apostolical Constitu­tions as the most Valuable Part of the New Testa­ment; when they are evidently despicable and detestable Forgeries; and the Collections of some Ignorant Arian in the Fifth Century? You may be sure, that in the Study of the Fathers, I shall at least advise you to so much Knowledge of them, as Daille in his Excellent Book of, The Use of the Fathers, will instruct you in. But, tho' the Fa­thers had such Errors, that we may most sensibly Bless GOD, for His granting us the Scriptures, to be on all Accounts Better and Safer Guides unto us, and the Fathers themselves do times without Number urge us to take none but the Scriptures for our Guides, and their notorious Deficiences in several Points of Literature, laid them under Dis­advantages enough to pall and spoil our Adorati­on of them! Nevertheless, there are those Writings of the Fathers, which I would have you no Strang­er to. If you bestow a Perusal upon, the Epistles of Clemens Romanus, and the Apologies of Justin Martyr, and of Tertullian, and the Book of Origen against Celjus, you will do what I would have you to do. And I am willing you should look upon the Dialogue of Minutius Faelix as one of the most celebrated Monuments of Antiquity. But how can I perswade you to peruse all the Folio-Vo­lumns, [Page 89]of both the Greek and Latin Fathers? In­deed. I look on Theodoret, as the best Expositor of the Bible among all the Fathers; and there are very Notable and Refined Expositions often occurring in him; Yet I shall direct you to do little more than Consult him upon Occasion. I value Chrysostom al­most as much as much as they tell us Aquinas did: Yet I shall only wish you to attend upon him in some Select Homilies; and, Consult him upon Occasion. I am not so enamoured on Austin, as (like Jan­senius) to Read over all his Works ten times, and his Book, De Gratia, thirty times; I shall count it enough, if you go thro' his, Confessions, and his Meditations, and his De Civitate Dei, and some Numbers of his Letters. Scultet in his, Medulla Theologiae Patrum, have given you such Abstracts of what has been written by many of the Fathers, as your Eye to good Purpose may dwell upon. But for a more agreeable and profitable Study of the Fathers, I shall propose, That you go thro' Dupin, his Ecclesiastical History: And where you find an Account of any Subject handled by any Father, which you have a particular Inclination to see what they say upon: Then turn to the Author, and seek for further Satisfaction.

§. 16. After all this Preparation for the Sanctuary, you are now coming to feed the Flocks on the High Mountains of Israel; Coming into an Em­ployment among the People of GOD, in which, I wish you may prove like the Angel, in the Revelation, that came down from Heaven, and the Earth was ligh­tened with his Glory. I am now going to bring you into the PULPIT: Which I hope, you [Page 90]will ascend [as Luther, when he was much older than you, says, he still always did!] with a Trem­bling Soul; and remembring that you are to stand, where, that which the Jewish Senator said unto the greatest Person among them, is what the Peo­ple of GOD may say unto you; Non stas coram nobis, sed coram eo qui dixit, Fiat, et factus est Mundus.

There is a Troop of Authors, and even an Host of GOD, who have written on, The Pastoral Care, from the Days of Gregory, down to the Days of Gilbert; Yea, and since these, every Year some to this very Day. I cannot set you so tedious a Task, as to Read a Tenth Part, of what has been offered on the Art, and the Gift, and the Method of PREACHING. If you Read, the Pastor E­vangelicus, of a Bowles; Or, The Preacher, of an Edwards; you will do as much this Way, as I shall at present ask you to do.

The First Thing, which I have to demand of you, is, That you entertain the People of GOD, with none but Well-Studied Sermons; and employ none but well beaten Oil, for the Lamps of the Golden Candlestick: And be nothing like him, who was among the Jews called, The Plagiary Prophet, and whose Punishment was not an easy one. Heaven forbid, that you should be one of those Pitiful Parsons, to whom there has been that Ad­vice given for the Discharge of their Pastoral Care; That they should use other Men's Sermons, rather than make any of their own: But in the Choice of these, use great Judgment, and not take an Author that is too much above themselves; for by that, Compared with [Page 91]their ordinary Conversation, it will too evidently ap­pear that they are not the Authors of their Sermons. Tis true; The Composures of them that have gone before you, may be of Use unto you, to sup­ply you with Useful Hints for the Composing of your Sermons. And some have ingeniously assert­ed it, ‘That a Man of Mean Abilities, may come to fall very little short of the Ablest Preachers, if he so carefully Peruse their Sermons, as entirely to digest them, and then, laying them out of his View, proceed in his own Way, and in his own Style, to deliver them.’ Let that be as Men please; This I insist upon; That when you are to Preach, you should go directly from your Knees in your Study to the Pulpit; and when you are thus on your Knees in your Study, you should be­wayl the Faulty Defects in your Life, which the Subject you are to treat upon should lead you to a pentient Confession of: Humbly bewayling it also, that your Sermon is no better fitted for the awful Service that is before you. Your Sermon must al­so be such, that you may hope to have the Blood of your SAVIOUR sprinkled on it, and His Good SPIRIT breathing in it. A Sermon likewise it must be, that shall discover you to be a Workman; and be, like the Peace-Offerings of old, an Oblation, which, as the People of GOD have their share in it, so, 'tis presented unto the Glorious GOD Himself, the Great King, whose Name is Venerable. How such things as these, can be Compatible to stolen Sermons, or Concomitant with them, I can­not imagine!

I pass on, to advise you, That when you be­come a settled Prcacher the Subject of your Sermens [Page 92]may be so well chosen, as to do therein the part of a Prudent and Faithful Steward, who dispenses to every one their Food in the Season thereof; and a Vigilant Watchman, contriving such Words in Sea­son, as will be fitly spoken. You may do well to go thro' the whole Body of Divinity, in a proper Method, and therein declare the whole Counsel of GOD. There are also some Rich Portions, and Paragraphs of the Sacred Scriptures, wherein the SPIRIT of GOD lays together an admirable Variety of im­portant Subjects, which you may do well to han­dle, in the Order wherein He has provided them for you. But still, notwithstanding the Connec­tion of your Discourses, I would have you leave Room for Occasional Subjects; and have your Pa­rentheses of Sermons on such Things, as you may apprehend the Necessities of the People may more immediately and importunately call for. So, be­ing as a Thick Cloud that has Water bound up in it, you shall (as the Ancients expounded that Passage in Job) distil it in Drops, Juxta Exigentiam Audi­torum. That you may be led from time to time unto such Subjects as may best answer the Designs with which your Ministry is to be carried on, you must have your Eyes ever towards the Lord, and with Solemn Supplications look up to Him, who Ministreth Seed to the Sower. But let me particu­larly commend one piece of Discretion unto you; which is, That you may be so laid in Aforehand, as never to be at a Loss, what Subject your Stu­dies are to proceed upon. From the Want of this Provision, how often have I known a Preach­er spend almost as much Time in determining what Subject he should preach upon, as there [Page 93]need go for the making of a Sermon upon it! But I very much Object against your being too long up­on a Subject: Which way of tedious Amplification, must needs leave much of the sacred Field un­plough'd upon, that is too rich to ly always neg­lected; and produce many Sermons as little to the Text, as I suspect many of that German Divine's were, who undertook to go over the whole Book of Isaiah, and was no less than Twenty Years on the First Chapter of it.

And here, I cannot go any further, until I have given you my Sentiments upon something that calls for a great Consideration with you.

Among all the Subjects, with which you Feed the People of GOD, I beseech you, Let not the true Bread of Life be forgotten; but exhibit as much as you can of a Glorious CHRIST unto them: Yea, Let the Motto upon your whole Ministry, be, CHRIST IS ALL. It has been among the Grievous Things, which I have seen in the Days of my Pilgrimage, that not only in some of the most celebrated Sermons, which we have seen published on the most Illustrious and Memo­rable Occasions, a CHRIST is (not one Tenth Part so often mentioned, as He is only in the Ten first Verses of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, I say) not so much as once mentioned; but also some of your Great Men have it related of them as an Instance of their Wisdom, that they gave it as their Advice unto Ministers, That they should not Preach much about the Person of CHRIST. I have thought; Would a Blessed PAUL have uttered such a Word! A PAUL, who said, I determined [Page 94]to know nothing among you, save JESUS CHRIST, and Him Crucified. It is reported by some Tra­vellers, That in the Mah [...]metan Moschs, there are sometimes whole Sermons on the Glories of a JE­SUS. And shall they who call themselves Christi­ans, and would be honoured as Ministers of the Christian Religion, preach as if they were ashamed of making the Glories of a JESUS, the Subject of their Sermons; and so rarely introduce Him, as if it were an Indecent Stoup to speak of Him! GOD forbid! I make no Doubt of it, That the almost Epidemical Extinction of True Christianity, or what is little short of it, in the Nations that pro­fess it, is very much owing to the inexcuseable Impiety of overlooking a Glorious CHRIST, so much in the Empty Harangues, which often pass for Sermons. Alas, That there should be so many Preachers, (I can't say of the Gospel!) to whom there might be commended as proper for them, the Treatise Entituled, Paraenesis ad Pseudo-Evange­licos nostri Saeculi, de CHRISTO DEO ipsis IGNOTO! The Holy SPIRIT of GOD forever aims at no­thing more, than what our SAVIOUR has de­clared in that Word; He will Glorify me: And that Holy SPIRIT withdraws from the Ministry, which has in it little Concern to Glorify Him; and it is therefore an Unsuccessful Ministry. Let your Performance in the Pulpit be what it will, I must freely tell you, Non sapit mihi, nisi sonuerit ibi JE­SUS. What I wish for and urge to, is This; That your Knowledge of the Mystery of CHRIST, may Conspicuously shine in your Sermons; and that it may be esteemed by you, as a Matchless Grace given you, if you may Preach the Unsearchable [Page 95]Riches of CHRIST unto the World. The Heavens do Praise that Wonder; the Angels in the Heavens are swallowed up in the Praises of that Wondrous ONE! Be, like Them, never so much in your Ele­ment, as when the Person, the Offices, the Benefits, the Example, the Abasement, and Advancement of a Glorious CHRIST, are the Subjects of your Ser­mons; yea, r [...]ckon that the Truth is not well dis­cerned, nor the Word of Truth well divided, until you have the Truth as it is in JESUS; HE is that Light of GOD, in which you will See Light, and every Truth will be set in its True Light before you. In every Article of the Treatises which you bring into the Assemblies of Zion, ponder upon This; What Aspect a Glorious CHRIST has upon the Truth now before you, and let your Hearers be made sensible of it. Yea, Whatever Point you are upon, Think, What is there in my SAVI­OUR, which this Point leads me to think upon! If you Preach on the Evil of Sin, and the Misery of Man fallen by Sin, still carry your Hearers to their mighty and only SAVIOUR; When you Preach on the Duties of a Godly, and Sober, and Righteous Life, still carry your Hearers to their SAVIOUR, as not only affording a Pattern for all those things, but also as Offering to live, and act, and work in them, as a Principle of Life, by which alone they can live unto GOD. Let me tell you, to take the Way of Norris and Company, to come at the Love of GOD, without a CHRIST by the Law of the Spirit of Life in us making us free from the Law of Sin and of Death; Verily, 'Twill never do! A Mahometan Abubeker, in a Self taught Philosopher, has as high Flights of Divinity as many of these [Page 96] Divines. Be a Star, to lead Men unto their SA­VIOUR, and stop not until you see them there: Be assured of this; The Infinite SON of GOD is ineffably dear to His Eternal FATHER; And our SAVIOUR has given us this Assurance, If any Man serve me, him will my Father Honour. If you set yourself above all things, to Glorify the CHRIST of GOD, and affect yourself and others with His, — How great Goodness and Beauty! And use all the Methods you can devise, that He may be Exalted, and be Extolled, and be very High; you will be taken in among the Favourites of Heaven, and be a Man greatly Beloved. The Angels who with a perpetu­al Veneration and A [...]onishment, stand about His Glorious High Throne; the Ministers who Do His Pleasure, and are never so well pleased, as when they see Him Glorified; These will with Delight look upon you as their Fellow Servant, and will at His Orders be on the Wing to do marvellous Kind­nesses for you.

But then, I must herewithal advise you, That the Genuine Doctrines of Grace, be all of them al­ways with you, as the very Salt and Soul of your Sermons: They will be Putrified Things without them! Assert always the Necessity of Turning, and Living unto GOD; and yet such an Impotency in the wounded and corrupt Faculties of Man, as renders a Supernatural and Regenerating Work of Sovereign Grace, necessary for it. Show People how to plead the Sacrifice of our SAVIOUR, that they may be Forgiven, and how to lay hold on His Righteousness, that they may be Accepted with GOD. Show People how to Overcome, [Page 97]and Mortify, and Crucify their Evil Appetites, by repairing to the Cross of our SAVIOUR; and how to derive Strength from Him for the Doing, and the Bearing of all that they are called unto. Show the People of GOD, how to take the Comfort of their Eternal Election, and Special Redemption, and Ensured Perseverance; and at the same Time fetch mighty Incentives to Holiness, from those Hopes, which will forever Cause those that have them to purify themselves. Gospellize to them all the Com­mandments of the Law, and show them how to obey upon the Principles of the Gospel: And how the Precepts of the Gospel are also so many Promi­ses of it. With a strong Application Study the Covenant of Grace, and let the Spirit of that Cove­nant animate and regulate all your Performances, when you Bless the Lord in the Congregations. In these Truths there are the Articles, which the Church either stands or falls withal. They will be the Life of your Ministry: Nor can the Power of Godliness be maintained without them. The Loss of these Truths will render a Ministry Insipid and Unfruitful; and procure this Complaint a­bout the Shepherds, The diseased ye have not streng­thened, neither have ye brought again, that which was driven away.

That you may be well versed in these Truths, it will be requisite, that your Main Reading may not be of such Books that have been much in Vogue, [...]nce Real and Vital PIETY has been so much Banished out of the World, but are as Lame in these Points, as that which is [ unjustly and unsafe­ly enough] Entituled, The Whole Duty of Man. There is a Set of Books which of late Years have [Page 98]brought in a Fashionable Divinity; with the Au­thors whereof, I cannot but be in as Ill Terms, as Gildas was with his British Clergy, when with him a Man was, Non eximie Christianus, who did not call them rather the Betrayers, than the Mi­nisters of the Gospel. I can by no means wish you to take your Divinity from them; or to be unac­quainted with the Castigations, which GOD has raised up one of their Church [an Edwards, I mean,] to bestow upon them. In short, If a Book that pretends to describe the Way of a Sinners Reconcilia­tion unto GOD, says nothing of, By the Obedience of One, many made Righteous: If a Book that pre­tends to direct a Christian Life, says nothing of a Conversion to GOD, and of being Joined unto the Lord, thro' His One Spirit Quickening of us: And if a Book [that shall be written perhaps by One who hath subscribed our Thirty Nine Articles,] dresses up our Doctrine of Predestination in the Fallacious and Invidious Terms, and the Bearskins in which it is now commonly Exploded, and proclaims the Author did not Believe in his Heart, the Articles and Homilies, which his Prevaricating Hand made a Subscription to, [Or if it be a Book that shall any where spitefully link Rome and Ge­neva together:] Hunc tu, studiose, caveto. I had as good plainly say, Let not Scott, and Company, be the Men of your Counsel.

You may Expect, that I should more Positively say, What English Treatises of Practical Divinity, I would commend unto you. But here I am en­cumbred as Hevelius was, when he would have so partitioned his accurate Selenography as to have [Page 99]done Justice unto the Names of all the more Il­lustrious Astronomers. Yea, so Great is the Army of them who have published the True Gospel, that I can­not pretend unto the long List of them that have come to the Help of the Lord. However, there are a few that must be particularized for you. More particularly then, If you would see the Covenant of GOD and the Gospel in an Evangelical Exhibi­tion of it, Let Strong on the Covenant (tho' under the Disadvantages of a Posthumous Work) be precious to you as the Golden Wedge of Ophir. If you would see Sound Doctrine, the Works of an Owen have it for you: And I am glad to see, how much esteemed they are in the North-British Universities. You have a Goodwin that will place you among the Children of Light, and will give you the very Marrow of the Doctrine which is accord­ing to Godliness: He often soars like an Eagle; Perhaps, you would have been content, if some­times a little more Concisely. Every thing of a Pol­hil, is Evangelical and Valuable: Especially his, Speculum Theologiae in Christo. When your Heart and your Pen want the Holy Fire to be quickened with you, a Baxter will bring you a Coal from the Altar for it. Yea, to fetch a Metaphor from ano­ther Element, he may be called, as you may re­member who was of old, An Ocean of Divinity. To say of that very Great Man, That if he had not meddled in too many things, he would have been esteem­ed one of the Learned Men of the Age, 'tis to speak a Thing which I don't well understand: For his meddling in so many Things, and writing more lear­nedly upon the most of them (except his Exposi­tions) than the most of them who have written [Page 100]upon perhaps but one or two of the Things, to me renders him One of the most Learned of the Age. In a Charnock you will have Substantial Divinity, and of the Right sort. A Bates will treat you with Angels Food. An How will set Manly Religi­on before you. In a Flavel, you will find the true Savour of Plain, Lively, Useful Preaching. What a Collings has written on Providence, is well per­formed. And what a Ford has written on, The Spirit of Bondage and Adoption, is as fine as any thing I have seen for, the Experimental And, tho' a Doolittle may not pass for one of our Greatest Men, yet having in his Book on the Catechism, given us the Body of Divinity all in a Flame, I am willing that it should be, [what Zoroaster called his famous Book, Zundavesta, which, tho' written above two and twenty Hundred Years ago, we still have in our Hands,] a Fire Kindler for you, and put you in the Way after an Awakening Manner, to set Conscience about its Work, when you come to that Application, with which your Sermons are still to be enlivened. If you go further back, and e­ven up to a Perkins, you will find in many Trea­tises, that Good old Puritan Divinity, which the Ho­nours of, The old Way, belong unto: And, No Man having drunk that old Wine, and such Books, as the Christians Daily Walk, of a Scudder, will much desire the new, but he will say, The old is Better. If we mean to go to Heaven, we shall not miss our Way by having Isaac Ambrose in our Compa­ny. I say nothing of a Preston, and a Bolton, and a Capel, and a Fenner, and a Rogers, and a Sibbs, and an Hall: All highly Valuable. But I cannot for­bear saying, the Writings of the Dyke's, (both [Page 101] Daniel and Jeremiah) have a singular Flavour and Vigour in them. Every thing of an Arrowsmith, is admirable. A Gurnal will furnish you with a Magazine, of Good Things. Of an A. Burgess, I may say, He has written for thee Excellent Things. A Reinolds too must be taken into the List of them, who have written what none will Repentt he Reading of. His Preparations are Fat things full Marrow, Wines from the Lees well refined. And some things of a Burroughs, especially his, Moses's Choice, will not make you complain, that you have lost your Time in Conversing with them.

In fine; The Six Volumns of, The Morning Ex­ercises, will give you such a Variety, both of Mat­ters and of Talents, that I could wish you may not be without them.

I may not omit giving you the best Encourag­ment I can, to allow unto a Box of North-British Authors, a standing in your Library, and often re­sort unto it. The Jews have a Fancy, that when our Almighty Creator, bespangled the Heavens with the Stars of Light, He left a space near the Northern Pole, unfinished and unfurnished, that if any After-God should lay claim to Deity, a Chal­lenge to fill up that space might Eternally con­fute it. But in the Firmament of the Church, that Northern Part which belongs to Scotland, has been illuminated with Stars, even enough to make a Galaxy. And tho' the assiduous Employments of the Parish and the Pulpit, which are enough to take up all the Time of their Pastors, have prevent­ed, [which, 'tis a Pity!] the appearing of so ma­ny Writers, among them, as might otherwise have [Page 102]dispensed their sweet Influences to us; yet their Pens have not been Idle. Of these we have seve­ral Commentators on the Sacred Scriptures: [A­mong which, a Durham, — especially on the Com­mandments! And a Weemse long before him has gi­ven us a rich Amassment of Biblical Treasures, well worth your having.] We have several who have enriched us with Bodies of Theology; [Among which, a Scharpius.] We have several Champions for the Doctrines of Grace; [Among which, a Ru­therford.] We have several Historians; [Among which, I will not say, a Spotswood, so much as a Calderwood: and very lately, a Woodrow.] We have several Defenders of the Gospel-Worship, and the Gospel Church-State; [Among which, a Gelaspy, a Lauder, a Willison, and a Jameson. The Eagle-Ey'd and Miraculous Man last mentioned, has also obliged us, with, Spicilegia Antiquitatum, which are invaluable, and preferrible to a Whole Vintage of many other Literators.] We have several Practical Tractators; [Among which, a Guthry, and a Clark, and that Wondrous Youth, whose Green Years could not withhold from him the Wisdom and Esteem, as he wore the Name, of, Gray!] It had been some Injustice as well as Ingratitude in me, to have left these unmentioned. And if a Burnet might not have been thought a little too much Anglified for it, he should also have had a mention among the Illustrious Pens of Scotland.

About the Way of Studying a Sermon, I exhort you, That all be with a Spirit of PIETY, and therefore very Prayerfully, carried on. 'Tis no more than what the Nature and Intent of the Ser­vice [Page 103]highly calls for. First look up to Heaven, with Dependence upon a Glorious CHRIST, for His Influences and Assistences to carry you thro' what you have in Hand. Yea, Repeat the Invo­cations, with fresh Elevations of your Eyes to Him from whom comes all your Help, whenever you Re­turn, after any Intermission of your Study upon it: O my GOD and SAVIOUR, without Thee I can do nothing; Help me, Help me! Send forth thy Light and thy Truth unto me! This will be equivalent un­to the Practice of such Devout Men, as a Bradford and a Cartwright, Of whom they report, They studied their Sermons on their Knees. And when you have dis­patched a Paragraph of a Sermon, I wish it might be a frequent Practice with you, To make a Pause upon it; and get your Sermon by Heart, I mean, get your Heart suitably touched with what you have pre­pared, before you go any further, and cast into the Mould of the Sanctifying Truths, by such Confes­sions and such Petitions, as you may Dart up to Heaven upon them. At least, let this be done, in your Perusing of your Whole Sermon before your Preaching of it. Some celebrated Preachers have piously declared, They never durst preach a Sermon to others, till they have got some good by it themselves. To feel what you speak, how wondrously will it qualify you to be a Lively Speaker! 'Twill bring you to deserve the Title of a Rabbi Hadarsan.

Be careful evermore to Preach Scripturally; and employ the Sword of the Spirit, if you would hope to do Execution. Pertinent Scriptures Demonstrat­ing and Embellishing every Article, will well be­come one, who would Speak as the Oracles of GOD. [Page 104]For your Aid in this, I cannot but recommend un­to your Use, Ravenellus, his Bibliotheca Sacra, as one of the most Useful Books in the World for a Preacher, that would at once have in one Regular, Orderly, Advantageous View, before him, the Sum of what the Scriptures have said on every Subject: A Work, that is moreover full of Ex­positions and Illustrations. There is also a Book Entituled, A Common Place Book to the Holy Bible; worth being always at Hand with you.

It would be well, if you could likewise come to say with the Prophet, I have used Similitudes: And accustom yourself to find out Similitudes, where­with you may cloath your Ideas, and make them sensible to the lowest and meanest Capacities, yea, to all Flesh. Thus to seek out Acceptable Words, would render you a most Profitable as well as Agree­able Preacher. It would marvellously fasten the Nails, and be some Imitation of the Preaching, which He that spake so as never Man spake, has gi­ven you a Pattern for.

In your Preaching that you may Save them that hear you, I wish you may with all possible Dexte­rity spread the Nets of Salvation for them. And therefore often exhibit the Terms of Salvation, and the Proposals of the Gospel, in such a Manner, and so importunately solliciting their Consent unto them, that by the hearty Speaking One Word, in the Echo's of Devotion thereupon, they may be brought into them. Exhibit unto them, the De­sires of PIETY, in such a Manner, that they must have their Hearts burn within them, & they must be Hearts of Stone indeed, if they take not Fire immediately. When you also describe the Graces of the New [Page 105]Creature, give the Description in the Language of PIETY, acting those Graces; wherein, if they come into a Consort with you, their Souls are gain­ed unto GOD, at the very Moment of your In­structing them. Oh! That you may be a Wise Winner of Souls! And while you are Preaching, may the Holy SPIRIT fall on them that hear the Word!

For this Purpose I would have you usually Try, as much as with Good Judgment you can, to set the Truths on Fire, before you part with any Head that you are upon; and let them come Flaming out of your Hand with Excitations to some De­votion and Affection of Godliness, into the Hearts of those whom they are address'd unto. The Tongues with which the Holy SPIRIT made His Descent, on the first and best Preachers of the Gospel that ever were in the World, were Flames, and had the Appearance of an Heavenly Fire up­on them.

'Tis Pity but a Well prepared Sermon should be a Well pronounced One. Wherefore, Avoid for­ever, all Inanes sine Mente Sonos; and all Indecencies, every thing that is Ridiculous. Be sure to speak Deliberately. Strike the Accent always upon that Word in the Sentence which it properly belongs unto. A Tone that shall have no Regard unto This, is very Injudicious; and will make you talk too much in the Clouds. Don't Begin too High. Ever Conclude with Vigour. If you must have your Notes before you in your Preaching, and it be needful for you, De Scripto dicere, what even some of the most famous Ora [...]ors both among the Grecians, and among the Romans did, [ Pliny says, [Page 106] Orationes, et nostri quidam et Greci Lectitaverunt] yet let there be with you a Distinction between the Neat using of Notes, and the dull Reading of them. Keep up the Air and Life of Speaking, and put not off your Hearers with an heavy Reading to them. How can you demand of them to Re­member much of what you bring to them; when you Remember nothing of it yourself? Besides, By Reading all you say, you will so cramp and stunt all Ability for Speaking, that you'l be unable to make an handsome Speech on any Occasion. What I therefore advise you to, is; Let your Notes be little other than a Quiver, on which you may cast your Eye now and then, to see what Arrow is to be next fetch'd from thence; and then, with your Eye as much as may be on them whom you speak to, Let it be shot away, with a Vivacity becoming One in Earnest, for to have the Truths well entertained with the Auditory.

Optimus est Orator, qui dicendo, Animos Audientium, et d [...]cet, et delecta [...], et permovet.

Finally; Let your Perorations [from which, Nos­citur Orator] often be, lively Expostulations with the Conscience of the Hearer; Appeals made, and Questions put, unto the Conscience, and Consign­ments of the Work over into the Hands of that flaming Preacher in the Bosom of the Hearer. In such Flames you may Do wondrously!

§. 17. Upon the due Discharge of the Pastoral Duties, in which you must labour to know the State of your Flock, and lay hold on all Occasions to drop the Lessons of PIETY upon them; and, how to manage the Pastoral Visits with an admirable [Page 107] Dexterity and Fidelity; and therein to be forever scattering Books among them, which may be last­ing Monitors unto them, and a Salt for their Pre­servation; Yea, and be scattering Alms, like the liberal Showers from above, upon the Indigent among them: I suppose, I need now do no more than give a short Hint unto you, That such Things are to be thought upon. All that I will now say to you upon this Pastoral Watchfulness is This; That when certain Shepherds were Keeping Watch over their Flocks, Lo, The Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the Glory of the Lord shone round about them!

Among the Employments of a Vigilant Pastor, I cannot avoid saying of something, De Catechi­zandis Rudibus; and putting you in mind, That Great Things may be done in the Way of Cate­chizing. A Work this is, for which the Greatest Men in the Church of GOD, have not thought themselves too Great: And some Eminent Persons comingtowards a Superannuation for other Services, have by applying themselves almost wholly to This, continued very Serviceable to the last. In this Exercise, to break the Answer now and then into Smaller Questions, and so drop it into narrow­mouthed Understandings; and thereupon to graft Exhortations, which may draw the Catechumens into the declared Resolutions of PIETY; and more particularly show them, the Blessings for which they are to make their Supplications, and gain a Promise from to do so: This is one of the Things, where an Abundance of Wisdom and Pru­dence, may be demonstrated. Among the many Hundreds of Catechisms, which have made their [Page 108]Way into the World, What is now most in Use, is, The Assemblies; which was composed by Dr. Tuck­ney, Dr. Arrowsmith, and Mr. Newcomen, and A­dopted and Emitted by the most Venerable Con­vention of Divines, that was ever seen in our Nation. But some have thought, that This, like all other Humane Composures, might be capable of some Amendment. And I could myself particular­ly wish; That among the Articles of, The Misery of the Estate into which Man fell, there might be in­serted, And enslaved unto the Powers of Darkness: And that among the Articles of, CHRIST Exe­cuting the Office of a Priest, there might be this Clause inserted; In performing perfect Obedience to the Law of GOD, the Everlasting Rule of Righteous­ness: And that among, The Benefits which in this Life do accompany Justification — there might be inserted, The Ministry of Good Angels for our Good, and Succour against the Temptations of the Devils. Tho' it is not for you to correct the Catechism, yet you may in your Catechising do Justice to these Important Articles. Up, and be Doing; and be thus, An Instructor of the Young; Yea, an Angel to the Little Ones.

But no Good is to be any further expected from you, than it may be Reported of you, Behold, He PRAYS! You must, like the Camel, receive all your Burdens on your Knees: And your whole Work must be carried on, with a continual Pray­ing over it.

For your Secret Prayers, I can bate you nothing of David's, and of Daniel's Number, Three times in a Day: For your Pious Ejaculations, I have no­thing against the Number, which they report of [Page 109]the Apostle Bartholomew, [One Hundred in a Day!] Yea, Or that which they report of a Father whose Name was Paulus; [Three Hundred in a Day!] If you can attain so far to have your Eyes ever to­wards the Lord. Excellent is the Counsel of Lans­bergius, in his Enchiridion Militis Christiani, [And by the Way, Erasmus, his Golden Book of the same Title, I earnestly advise you to the Reading of!] Ex Omnibus quae vides, quaequae audis, disce orandi sumere Occasionem, mentemque ad Deum elevan­di. Besides your stated Prayers for every Day, you will also have Numberless Errands to Heaven, which will oblige you frequently to make your Occasional Addresses thither upon Emergencies. But what in a very particular Manner I advise you to, is, Now and then to set a part WHOLE DAYS for Interviews with Heaven; and this with such Fasting as you may find you are able to bear, and may be for the Help of your Devotions. On such Days, go thro' a Process of Repentance, which can­not be too often Repeated. Renew your Flights unto your SAVIOUR, that you may be more Quickened in the Life of GOD. Present the Sa­crifices wherein you shall offer up your All unto Him, and embrace and enjoy a CHRIST instead of All. Carry to Him all your Concerns; and let all your Desire be before Him, and none of your Groaning be hid from Him. Let your Petitions for Others, and for all the Societies you belong unto, Ex­press the true Spirit of Grace in your Supplications, and be like those of the Man greatly Beloved. Soar up as high as you can towards an Union with GOD. Intermix all along, the Reading of proper Things, wherein GOD from the Holy [Page 110]Oracle may Commune with you; and you may Assist and Inflame the Work wherein you are en­gaged. Let the Minutes of Spaces between your Devotions, be filled with Reflections, that may have a Tendency to bring you into Abasements of your self, or into Adorations of your GOD; and from your Heart within you, Let them go up silently unto the Lord. Conclude all, with Holy Projec­tions and Purposes, for further Improvements in a Careful, Fruitful, Humble Walk with GOD. But how much could I wish, That in this Religion of the Closet, you may know what it is to keep Days of Thanksgiving too? Such Days, you may fill with Contemplations on the Perfections of the Infi­nite GOD, and the Glories of your Almighty RE­DEEMER, and the wondrous Things which He has done; and the Ministry of His Angels: And with Enumerations of the Favours, which both on Spiritual, and on Temporal Accounts you have received from Him; Whereof you should make Explicit Acknowledgements unto your Powerful and Merciful Benefactor, and particularly see and own how Undeserved they have been, and how Distinguishing they have been, and how the contra­ry Sufferings of CHRIST have purchased them. You will upon Trial find a Day of the Summer Sol­stice too short for the Pleasa [...] Work now before you. Here you may intermix the Songs of the Re­deemed; adding the Perusal of what you may find written for the Help of the Heavenward Salleys, wherein you are mounting up as with the Wings of Eagles. You will do well, to keep the Holy Fire alive all the Day, by making all the Objects which occur to you in the Intervals of your De­votions, [Page 111]but a Fuel that your Praises to GOD shall seize upon, and go up in short Motions of Soul un­to Him. Conclude all, with an Ingenuous Medi­tation on that Question, What shall I render to the Lord for all His Benefits? These Days will not only obtain marvellous Blessings for you, but also leave a Caelestial Flavour and Grandeur on your Mind, and infuse a becoming Discretion and Gra­vity into all your Conversation.

One Consequent of these Things will be, what I am very sollicitous you should arrive unto, That is to say, An Ability to express yourself in Prayer to the Glorious GOD, and spread the Cases of the People before Him, on all Occasions: An Ability without which, I shall not Judge you Qua­lified for an Ordination to the Pastoral Care of a Flock, among the Churches of GOD: But wor­thy to have an ANAXIOS, cried out upon you.

In your doing This, you will have notable Op­portunities to bring them into the Frames of PIE­TY, which are to be wished for them.

Whatever Truths at any time you would most efficaciously Preach unto them, you may make them hear you Pray down these Truths into them, with a most surprizing and most subduing Efficacy.

I can by no means approve of your Leaning on the Tool of a Foolish Shepherd, and your Living on the Lifeless Forms of any Liturgy. I cannot com­mend any Liturgy to you, except that which Ba­ronius, taxed good old Agobardus for keeping to. I can do no other than tell you so, after a Bellarmine himself has confessed, ‘That in old times, there was no Form of Prayer prescribed, for all to be [Page 112]bound unto, but every One might make what Prayer he pleased, if but the Analogy of Faith were kept unto.’ And Chemnitius with a whole Army of Protestants, have irrefragably proved, That this Confession of Bellarmine is true; and, Apud Veteres Ordinem Celebrandi fuisse Arbitrarium. The Ancients all agree to it, That in the Earlier Days of Christianity, the Ministers prayed every where, As they were Able. Indeed, there was no General Imposition of any Service Beok, until the Emperor Charlemaigne at the Sollicitation of the Pope, introduced it, with Persecution; which was not until the Entrance of the Ninth Century, when all manner of Superstitious Usages were brought into the Temple of GOD. Some Judicious Men have complained of the French Liturgy composed by the Excellent Calvin, for not having sufficient Collects of Thanksgiving, but being all Petition. And whereas these three Things, Confession, and Petition, and Thanksgiving belong to every complete Prayer, I have heard some enquire whether ac­cording to this Rule, there can be readily found One complete Prayer, in another Liturgy, which I cannot commend unto you, for such a Model of Perfection, as its admirers have esteemed it. But waving here those many and weighty Exceptions against the English Common Prayer-Book, which will for­ever cause Myriads of Considerate Christians to be dissatissied with it, I will only Quote some Words that I find falling from the Pen of an Eng­lish Nobleman. ‘There may be too great a Re­straint, [ he says] put upon Men, whom GOD hath distinguished by giving them not only good Sense, but a Powerful Utterance too. When [Page 113]a Man so Qualified, endued with Learning too, and above all, adorned with a Good Life, breaks out into a Warm and Well-delivered Prayer be­fore his Sermon, it has the Appearance of a Di­vine Rapture; He raises and leads the Hearts of the Assembly in another Manner, than the most composed or best studied Form of Set Words, can ever do: And the Pray Wee's, who serve up all their Sermons with the same Garnishing, would look like so many Statues, or Men of Straw in the Pulpit, compared with those who speak with such a Powerful Z [...]al that Men are tempt­ed at the Moment to believe, that Heaven itself has dictated these Words unto them.’ I cannot but think, that good Sense was that which dictated these Words unto the Marquess of Halifax. And I hope, your Prayers will be such as he has there­in described unto you.

I am sorry, that I must, [But I must!] con­clude my Advice for your Diligence in the Dis­charge of the Pastoral Duties, with a Warning, That you must not wonder at it, if you find, that you serve many Ungrateful People, and may be many Ways Mal-treated by them, who are under the strongest Obligations to support you, and reduced unto the humbling and creepling Circumstances of a, Res Angusta Domi: Yea, be oppress'd with grievous Defraudations from them, whom GOD will many Ways punish for their Ingratitude. If it should be so, yet Remember, you are in the Ser­vice of a Glorious LORD, who not only says, I know thy Service, but orders those Things to fall out, upon which He may with Infinite Pleasine also say, I know thy Patience. Be not now discou­raged [Page 114]from still devoting yourself to the public and private Labours of your Ministry: Be wholly in them; and therein Labour to Overcome Evil with Good. Suffer any thing, rather than in the Me­thods of the Law, do that which will ruin the Suc­cess of the Gospel, and utterly extinguish the Hope of your doing any more Good by your Ministry among them. Cause them to feel, that you are travailing with Agony for the Eternal Salvation of them and theirs; and that the Gaining of one Soul to GOD by your Ministry, will be of more Account with you than any Gain of this World; than all the Wealth in the World. Be they never so Unjust, yet nobly hold on Raining the Blessed Showers of Heaven upon them! Thus with a Strong Faith which gives Glory to GOD go on with a Watchful, Painful, Faithful Ministry, keeping your Eye on the Sixth Chapter of Matthew, and Relying on your SAVIOUR for your Subsistence: And, Never Fear! Never Fear! He will with strange Interpositions of His Providence, yea, with Conspicuous & Marvellous Operations of the Angelical Ministry, send in Seasonable Supplies for you; and often make the Season of them such as notably to add unto the Comfort of them.

— Yea, sooner than Starve, the Ravens will bring Food unto you. Regenvolscius relates it, in his, History of the Sclavonic Churches; ‘It was a wretched Custom of the Papists, that when they had run One of the Holy People into Prison, they would there, by a progressive Substraction of all Subsistence from him, starve him to Death. Matthias Dolanscius was a Prisoner de­signed for such Circumstances, in the City of [Page 115] Prague, — and at length all the Attempts of the Godly People, and of a gracious Matron a­mong the rest, secretly to relieve him, had a total stop given to them. Now, One Day, when he was on the very point of Starving, he cast his Eye towards the Grate of the Prison, and saw a little Bird sitting there, with some­thing in his Bill. His Curiosity leading him thither, the Bird flew away: but left a bit of Cloth, in which, when he took it up, he found a piece of Gold: And with this piece of Gold, he found Ways tolleraby to furnish himself with Bread, until the Death of the King: On and by which he obtained his full Deliverance.’

This I will say to you; Hold on, Hold on, Always at Work for a Glorious CHRIST; and rather than you should starve, Matthias Dolanscius's Bird shall be sent unto you! And unto that Question, Lacked ye any thing? You shall be able to give a Comfortable Answer.

§. 18. Too Weighty are the Words of the pious Hen. Will. Ludolf, to be left untranscribed, when I am treating you, with the Things which I am desirous to have greatly considered with you. ‘It a great unhappiness, that the greatest part of the Clergy of all Communions, do not perceive, that GOD is upon His Way to break down all the false Draughts and Schemes, which the An­tichristian Spirit of Sectarism hath contrived in­stead of Substantial Christianity, which is, The Re­storing of the Image of GOD in the New Creature, or, The Kingdom and Life of GOD within us.’ I press you to employ the deepest Meditation on this [Page 116]Important Matter. When the Lord GOD Omni­potent comes to shake not the Earth only, but also Heaven, it is, That those Things that cannot be shak­en may remain. What are those Things that cannot be shaken? But those MAXIMS of the Everlasting Gospel, wherein all Good and Wise Men are United, and all Men become Good and Wise, when they come into that Union with them: The MAX­IMS, which the more they are studied, and the Wiser, and the Better, they are who study them, the more they will be approved of: The MAX­IMS which are directly calculated for the Grand Intentions of, Glory to GOD in the Highest, and Peace on Earth from a Good Will in Men towards one another. 'Tis even the First born of my Wishes for you, That you may be one of those Angels, that shall fly through the midst of Heaven, with this Everlasting Gospel, to preach it unto them who dwell on the Earth, and move all the People of GOD, tho' of different Perswasions in lesser Points, to embrace one another upon the Generous Max­ims of it, and keep lesser Points in a due Subordina­tion unto the Superiour Maxims, and manage their Differences upon those lesser Points with another Spirit, than what the Disputers of this World in the several Sects of Christians keep commonly Cut­ting One another withal.

To assist you in the Discovering and Deter­mining of these Everlasting MAXIMS, I will not meerly refer you to the Sentiments of a Judi­cious Davenant, in his, Adhortatio ad Fraternam Communionem inter Evangelicas Ecclesias, or those of a Sharpsighted Baxter, who was a Pen in the Hand [Page 117]of GOD, when he wrote his Catholic Unity, and, The True and Only Way of Concord: Much less, will I prosecute the Proposal of our celebrated Usher, ‘That if at this Day we take a Survey of the several Professions of Christianity, that have any large Spread in any Part of the World, and should put by the Points wherein they differ from One another, and gather into One Body the rest of the Articles, wherein they all general­ly Agree; we should find, That in those Propo­sitions, which without Controversy are so Uni­versally received in the whole Christian World, so much Truth is contained, as, being joined with Holy Obedience, may be sufficient to bring a Man unto Everlasting Salvation. Neither have we Cause to doubt, but that as many as do Walk according to this Rule, (neither overthrowing that which they have built, by superinducing any Damnable Heresies, thereupon, nor otherwise Vitiating their Holy Faith with a lewd and wic­ked Conversation) Peace shall be upon them.’ I will rather exhibit the MAXIMS in such a Manner, as to make the best Provision, against that loath­some thing, A Lifeless Religion; whereof an Irreli­gious Life, will be the Natural Consequence. In short, I may as with a Burning Glass, [Oh! That with an Irresistible Heat from Heaven upon you!] Contract into a little Room, the Sum of the Mat­ter, and the PIETY, which will be sound a Sure Foundation for an UNION among all Parties of true CHRISTIANS, however they may be De­nominated or Distinguished. As our SAVIOUR, whom His FATHER heareth always, has prayed, for His People, that they all may be ONE, so, it is [Page 118]impossible, that all the Genuine People of GOD should not Unite with one another in much great­er Things, than those in which it is possible for them to Dissent from one another. Such Things are those Graviore Evangelii, which to cut short the Work in Righteousness, I shall in these Three MAX­IMS compendiously set before you.

The Foundation of GOD is in these Holy Moun­tains. While these Glorious MAXIMS are [as, [Page 119]why should they not be? I am sure much more Questionable Ones, are daily required for to be] subscribed unto, it is to be wished, that these Two [I can scarce call them. Two more] may in Sub­serviency to the First Three, be also brought into the Subscription.

‘I adhere to the Sacred SCRIPTURES, as the sufficient Rule, for Belief, and Worship, and Manners, among the People of GOD, and I would maintain a Brotherly Fellowship with all Good Men, in the Things wherein I apprehend them to follow these Divine Directions.’

And,

‘I Declare for the just Liberties of Mankind, and of our Nations: And for a Christian En­couragement in the Church for all that observe the Grand MAXIMS of PIETY, accompanied with a free Indulgence of Civil Rights in the State, unto all that approve themselves Faithful Subjects and Honest Neighbours, and such Inof­fensive Livers, that Humane Society cannot com­plain of Disturbance from them.’

I will not now suppose a Quinquarticular Con­troversy, but rather propose a Ternarticular Period of all Controversies. And the very first Thing, that I offer upon it, is, That in these MAXIMS, of Godliness, which are all without Controversy, you behold all Controversies of Religion, as coming to an Amicable and a Comfortable Period. My Ad­vice to you, is; That when you make some Fi­gure in the Field of the Church-Militant, you be drawn as little as may be, into any Eristic Writ­ings; wherein you shall be surprized unawares [Page 120]into the Errors of Passion, and into the Follies of taking Pains to convince a few Readers that you have more Wit than your Antagonist. Every Man who pulls at the Polemic Saw, and manages any Controversy in Religion, always pretends a Zeal to uphold in the Issue of the Disputation, some certain Point of Practical PIETY, which is in these Indisputable MAXIMS declared for. If it were not from a zealous Concern which the Contenders have that the Practice of Piety, may not suffer in such a Point, they profess, that they would not contend so earnestly for the Faith. If they can't sincerely make this Profession, they are but Litigious, and Vexatious, and the Gladiators are to be hiss'd off the Theatre, by all that wish well to Christianity. Now, how commonly are both Parties well agreed, in the Point of PIETY, which the One says, can't be preserved but upon his Positions; and the other says, can't be preser­ved if his be denied? Be sure, All the Truly Pi­ous are so! But, if both Parties are agreed for that PIETY, which is the Main, and the Scope of all, how much Good may you do, if you can so Sy­ringe the Odoriferous Water of the confessed MAX­IMS upon them, that the Quarrelling Hives in the Loss of their Distinction may give over their Quarrels, and the Children of Jacob not fall out by the Way, or be so angry about the Way, seeing they are Brethren? Or, if the Brethren will yet fall out, and the Controversies must go on, and you are called forth to bear a Part in them, yet, My Son, continue to play these Engines, for the extinguish­ing of the Fires; Govern your Mind, and your Pen, by the MAXIMS of PIETY; perswade [Page 121]others what you can to do so too; and carry not on any but the Wars of the Lamb in your Contes­tations. What I could most of all wish for is, That for your Defence of the Truth, which is always for PIETY, you do what you have to do, mostly in that Positive Way, of asserting, and evincing, and advancing the PIETY, which the Truth you would have to be defended, is to animate. Con­science will quickly come in, with a Testimony on the behalf of that PIETY; and the Truth which appears necessary to support that PIETY, will easily be taken in, and not easily parted with. This is for the most part better than the Elenctic Way of sheltering the Truth from the Assaults which they that corrupt the Earth would make up­on it: Instead of Swords, it is to employ Plough-Shares; Instead of Spears, it is to employ Pruning-Hooks; and the State and Work of Paradise is a little emulated and anticipated.

But, if the Elenctic Way become necessary to be taken, and if you must go down into the Battel, and smite the Enemies in the Valley of Salt, I a­gain, and again say, Take heed unto your Spirit: Let the Designs of PIETY Regulate your whole Proceeding. Furnish no new Matter for the old Complaint of, — Sibi ferales plerique Christiani; and add nothing to the Instances of such Outrages, as the Jesuites have with Derision censured in the Controversal Writings of the mutual Firings between the Lutherans and the Calvinists.

Lutherans, and Calvinists! — Inasmuch as I have thus unawares mentioned These, I will up­on these make the Experiment, [whether with any [Page 122]better Success, than my dear Pitiscus did, I know not!] how far a Syneretism of PIETY will Unite the People of GOD, or Abate their Cursed Anger, and Cruel Wrath against One another in pursuing of Religious Controversies. The Sagacious Baron Pussendorf, while he despairs not of breaking down the Partition Wall between those two mighty Par­ties of Protestants, in other Parts of it, yet it ap­pears unto him little short of Desperate, when the Sublime and Obscure Doctrines of Predestina­tion (wherein Luther and Calvin themselves, were better agreed than their Followers,) come to be considered. However, even here also at last he takes Courage, and says, If ever there is to be a Better Condition of Mankind, and an Happier State of the World, it is not to be Expected, but from a serious and universal Practice of Christian PIETY. Let us then with a little Patience hear both Parties de­clare themselves.

Say, Master Lutheran, What is the PIETY, for the maintaining whereof you so eagerly advance your Principles? His Answer is; ‘I would not have the most Holy and Sin-hating Lord, Re­proached as the Impeller of the Sin whereof he is the Revenger. I would not have our Merciful Father blasphemed, as dealing after an Illusory Manner with Men, when He invites them to His Mercy. I would not have any among the fallen Race of the First Adam, shut out from the just Hopes of Life in the Death of the Second A­dam. I would not have Impenitent Unbeliever; cast upon GOD the Blame of their Impenitency; but the Wicked lay wholly on themselves the [Page 123]Fault of their own Destruction. I would have Men Work about their own Salvation, with a much Diligence and Vigilance, as if all turned upon their own Will and Care whether they shall be Saved or no.’ The pious Calvinist hears all this with Pleasure; and can say, My Brother, In all these Things my Heart is with you.

But now, Master Calvinist, it is your Turn. Say, what is the PIETY, for the maintaining whereof you so eagerly Prefer your Principles? His Answer is; ‘I would have our good GOD, forever adored, as the Original of all the Good, that we Have, or that we Do. If Men arrive to any Good Spiritual as well as Temporal, I would have our GOD praised for it; and I would have His Favours confessed as most Un­merited by us in all our Praises. I would not ad­mit the least Insinuation, as if the King Eternal, who is the Only Wise GOD, had not an Infallible Foreknowledge from all Eternity of whatever comes to pass in Time. I would have all that come unto Everlasting Life, to admire the Ever­lasting Love of GOD unto them; and with Endless Admirations own, That their SAVIOUR has done more for them, than for others. I would have Men look up to GOD, with ardent Prayers for His Gracious, and Enlightening, and Sanc­tifying Influences, and Pray unto Him as the GOD of all Grace, and the GOD who gives Re­pentance, and Remember that Faith is the Gift of GOD. I would have Man to be very Humble, and humbly to Annihilate himself before the Glorious GOD, with whom there is terrible Majesty.’ [Page 124]The pious Lutheran hears all this with Delight; and can say, My Brother, My Heart cannot but con­cur with you, in such Things as these.

At the same time, they both find that the seve­ral Schemes, with which they would have this PI­ETY served, are encumbred with Insuperable Diffi­culties; and the Lutheran may have retorted upon him those very Difficulties which he thinks he sees the Calvinist overwhelmed withal. The old Law, Qui non vetat cum potest Jubet, Encumbers Armini­us with as hard Consequences as he charges on Go­marus. Maimonides will tell you, how much the Jewish World, and Cicero how much the Pagan, has been divided, in their Opinions, De Fato. Among the Papists, how do the Dominicans, and after these, the Jansenists, and their Opposites, keep in the dark, buffeting one another upon them? So that after all, Tis PIETY that must bring all to rights: and Melancthons Resolution; Officium agamus, et Disputationes de Predestinatione seponamus.

The Experiment may be made on many other Doctrines, [Among which, I pray, take notice, you'l never find me mentioning the Damnable Heresies, of the Arian, and the Socinian!] wherein they that have the true Fear of GOD, and Love of CHRIST, may have their Differing Sentiments; — Incolumi semper Amicitia.

Instead of my going on to do That, I rather pass now to say, That I would have you lay aside all Thoughts, of any Foundation for an Union a­mong the Professors of Christianity, but what shall be in the Unity of the Spirit; or that Work of the Holy SPIRIT on the Hearts of Men, that [Page 125]inclines them to Glorify GOD with an Obedience to His Will revealed in His Word, and Glorify CHRIST with a Dependence on Him for all their Happiness; and Love their Neighbour as themselves. Other Foundation can no Man lay! All Attempts to build the Tower of Zion on any other Foundation, will come to nothing; You'l prosper no better in them, than they who go to build a Tower of Babel. But then, Let ALL that are by Visible PIETY qualified for it, find a due and a kind Reception with you. Let your Feet stand in a large Place, and, Add unto your Faith, Godliness, and unto your Godliness, Brotherly-kindness, and unto your Brotherly-kindness, Charity: And, Pay the Regards of Brethren in CHRIST, unto all those, who by owning and living the Everlasting MAXIMS of PIETY, may claim what the true Citizen of Zi­on will yield unto them that Fear the Lord. Allow to, yea, Challenge for, this People, the Rights which belong unto them, and the Liberties with which the SON of GOD has made them free. The People, who Worship GOD in the Spirit, and who Rejoyce in CHRIST JESUS, and who have no Confidence in the Flesh, or, value not themselves up­on a Religion which is nothing but Flesh, and ex­teriour; THESE are the true People of GOD: The PEOPLE, which have the Promises in the Cove­nant of GOD pertaining to them; and whereto the Kindnesses, or the Injuries that are done, are done unto their Glorious Head, in the Heavens. Be not such a Donatist, as to dream, that the Peo­ple of GOD are no where to be found, but in One Party, which you have your greatest Esteem for. But, look for them, as to be found under various [Page 126] Forms; and let your Judgment, how it fares Well or Ill with the People of GOD in the World, fetch its Measures not from the Good or Bad Circumstances of One Party only, but from the Prevailing or the Suppressing of true PIETY, and what has a Tendency to That, wherever it is to be met with­al.

Challenge for this People, a Power to Associate, or form Assemblies for the Worship of GOD our SAVIOUR, according to the Directions which they apprehend his Gospel has given them. Chal­lenge for the Societies of this People, the Power to elect their own Pastors; which was one of the Last Things lost in the Robberies which the Man of Sin committed on the Temple of GOD. Challenge for these particular Churches, the Rights of Sacred Corporations, that have all the Needful Power of Self-Preservation, and Self-Reformation: Yet obliged in Things of common Concern, so far to act in Conjunction with other Churches Walk­ing in the Faith and Order of the Gospel, as to Con­sult them, and be Directed and Restrained by them, on just Occasions.

For Communion in these Churches, and Admis­sion to all the Priviledges and Advantages of the Evangelical Church-State, I would have you insist upon it, That no Terms be imposed, but such Ne­cessary Things, as Heaven will require of all, who shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, and stand in His Holy Place. Be sure to stand by that Golden Rule, Receive ye one another, as CHRIST has received us unto the Glory of GOD; That is to say, Those of whom it is our Duty to Judge, that our SAVI­OUR will Receive them to His Glory in the Heaven­ly [Page 127]World, we ought now to Receive unto all the Enjoyments of our Christian Fellowship: And let the Table of the Lord have no Rails about it, that shall hinder a Godly Independent, and Presbyterian, and [...]piscopalian, and Antipedobaptist, and Lutheran, from sitting down together there. Corinthian Brass would not be so bright a Composition, as the Peo­ple of GOD in such a Coalition, feasting together on His Holy Mountain. I wish, they do not see the Fate of Corinth, to compel them to it!— Tho' in the Church that I serve, I have seen the grate­ful Spectacle! — This I must say; A Church that shall banish the Children of GOD from His Holy Table, and shall exclude from its Communion those that shall be Saved, meerly for such Things as are Consistent with the Maxims of PIETY, does not exhibit, The Kingdom of GOD, unto the World, as a Church ought to do. Churches that will keep up Instruments of Separation, which will keep out those that have the Evident Marks and Claims of them that are One with CHRIST upon them, are in Reality but Combinations of Men, who under Pretence of Religion, are pursuing some Carnal In­terests. Their Diana is very Visible! Tis a Com­plicated Profanity and Hypocrisy, that these Churches are to stand indicted for. It is to be lamented, That more Churches than One have the Guilt of a very sinful Schism to be charged upon them, for their Chasing from their Communion, and the an­nexed Encouragements and Emoluments, many of the Righteous Nation, which have the Gates of Heaven standing open for them: and yet such is the Mystery of Iniquity, that at the same time they make Out­cries of Schism, against the Consciencious People, [Page 128]for keeping out, while they violently shut the Doors upon them. Yea, There has been One Church [Tho' I have never heard of but One!] which has punished and even destroyed Multi­tudes of Godly Men, for not Conforming to things which the Imposers themselves have confessed Indifferent.

I hope, I have said enough, to disengage you from all Schismatical Combinations, and Intimate the Catholic Spirit, which I would have to be ex­ercised, in the whole Progress of your Ministry. Cath [...]licism without Popery, is the Title of an Essay, which therefore I particularly commend unto a Perusal with you.

Finally. As it must be the Grand Aim of your Ministry, to propagate the PIETY of the Ever­lasting Gospel; And tho' vain Men may boast what they will of this or that being the Best con­stituted Church in the World, and celebrate their own Admirable Constitution, yet that should be esteemed by you the Best constituted Church, in which the PIETY of the Grand Evangelical Maxims, is most Animated and Exhibited; and That the Best Con­stitution, which is most calculated for the Cultiva­tion of this Indisputable PIETY: So, I would have you go forth to it, under a strong Tincture of this Apprehension, That a Church which makes the Terms of Communion very different from the Terms of Salvation, and excludes from any Means of Salvati­on, or from any due Expressions of Brotherly-kindness, those whom it is a Duty to acknowledge as Brethren in CHRIST, is guilty of an Iniquity, against which all Good Men ought to hear a Testimony.

[Page 129] There are Concurring with you, Hundreds of Thousands of Generous Minds, in which this Ap­prehension lies now shut up as an Aurum Fulmi­nans: But it will break forth more and more, As the Day approaches, and as Men improve in Manly Religion, in Explosions that will carry all before it: And the Mean, Little, Narrow Souls, that know no Religion, but that of a Party, and their Secular Interest, will become deserted Objects for the Disdain and Pity, of them who have taken the Way that is above them. I hope, You will do all you can, to strengthen your Brethren, as GOD shall give you, [ And may He give you!] Opportunities.

To have done: My Concern to see you a Divine of the Right Stamp, will not permit me to conclude, without One little peece of Over-weight added unto the Advice that has been given you.

Having established your self in Sound Theology, by Reading such Systemes as I have already told you of; unto which, I cannot but now tell you, an admirable Turretine should be annexed, as one hardly to be equalled; Nor is, Cocceius de Faedere, to be omitted: [If I said nothing of P. Martyr, and of Polanus, and of Musculus, and of Bucanus, and of Ursinus, and of Essenius, and of the Theses Sal­murienses, and several more, it was not because I despised them, nor would I have you to do so. However I allow you to make that Interpretation of my Silence about those they call, The School-Men: Among whom, if you have The Sum of Aquinas, you have the Sum of all that I shall commend unto you:] Now bestow some Reading on a few Books, which refer to the Christian Asce­ticks; [Page 130]and which teach the Orthodox Pietism; and which are designed peculiarly to kindle and che­rish the Life of GOD in the Soul of Man. Read particularly T. Akempis, his, De Imitatione Christi; Gerhard, his, Meditationes; Besoldus, his Axiomata Philosophiae Christianae; Spener, his, De Natura & Gratia; And, Voetius, his, DeExercitijs Pietatis. I stop here, as I have done heretofore, for that Reason, Discentem Onerat Librorum Turba, non Instruit. I wish that you may feel good Impressions from these; and that what has been called, The Apothe­osis Christiana, may be what you shall thus arrive unto.

§ 19 I have yet more to do; I may not leave you, till I leave a few RULES OF HEALTH with you; which I shall do with the utmost Bre­vity.

Having first encouraged you to cultivate an in­timate Acquaintance with some Wise and Good Physician, who may have the continual Inspection of your Health, in your Friendly Conversation with him, I will defend you with the ensuing Admo­nitions.

I. The most Acute Physicians, find themselves compelled, with our Cheyne, unto this General Direction. The Grand Secret and Sole Method for Long Life, and so for the Health which will be­friend and sweeten it, is, To keep the Blood and Juices in a State of due Fluidity. And nothing will do this, but keeping much to a Spare, Lean, Fluid sort of a Diet. All who live long, and with­out much Pain, and after such a Life at length Die easily, are such as Live Abstemiously.

[Page 131] II. Borellus has a Remark on many Students falling into a Consumption, That it often proceeds, A Fumo candelarum hausto in Musaeis undi (que) Clau­sis.

You will undergo the less of this Hazard, if you mind the Report of Manlius; Ego multos Periculosos Morbos et Miserias hujus Corpusculi mei Vito, hac unica Ratione, quod semper utor Diligentia, cito eundi cubitum.

III. The Medicina Gymnastica has done Mira­culous Things. Bodily Exercise profits; But no Exercise comparable to that of moderate Riding; whereof, the Reason why we find no more in the Prescriptions of the Ancients, (tho' Galen has a Chapter about it) for the Recovery of the Feeble, is because they were so simple as to Ride without Stirrups. The Saddle is the Seat of Health. As for the Games, which Exercise the Spirit and not the Body, particularly, the Noble and Ancient Game of Chess; These are by no Means proper for a Student.

IV. 'Tis an Observation of that Great Man, the Lord Verulam, Nihil magis conducit ad Sanita­tem et Longaevitatem, quam Crebrae et Domesticae Pur­gationes. A Family-Purge now and then taken, may be of Service to you. Pillulae Ruffi, especial­ly when Chalybeated with adding about a third part of Sal Martis: Or else; A Bottle of Anniseed Water, with a Dram or two of Rhubarb steeped in it; These you may conveniently have always at hand for this Purpose.

V. Vander Heidan, has not related an hundredth part of the Vertues, in Cold Water. I tender you the Advice which the Aged Servant of GOD gave to his Valued Son, Drink not only Water; but [Page 132]use a little Wine for thy Stomachs sake. And yet I would say, upon Drinking a Glass of Generous Wine, often take a Glass of Water. And if the Beer they bring you, be too Strong, dilute it with put­ting a sufficient Quantity of Water into it. But never take Water, or any thing else, Cold, when you are Hot with Labour. There is Death in the Pot.

When you have run the hazard of disturbing your Stomach, with Ingurgitations from a Full Table, a Draught of Cold Water, will do Good like a Medicine.

Going to Bed, and Sweating from a large Draught of Cold Water, not only stops and cures a Cold, but also often extinguishes a Fever at the Beginning.

Daily to wash your Head and Mouth with Cold Water, is a Practice that cannot be too much commended; If it were only for saving you from the Toothache.

For a Frequency in the Use of the Liquors, which they call Spirits, be as afraid of it, as you would be of a Familiarity with Evil Spirits.

VI. When you go to Infectious Places, one of the best Things you can do, is to hold and chew a bit of Myrrh in your Mouth.

VII. To feed much on Salt-Meats, won't be for your Safety. Indeed, if less Flesh were eaten, and more of the Vegetable and Farinaceous Food were used, it were better. The Milk-Diet is for the most part some of the wholesomest in the World! And not the less wholsome, for the Cocoa-Nutt giving a little Tincture to it.

[Page 133] VIII. Shall I smoke Tobacco? Answer; Be sure Not, if I can help it. Or let Alsted answer for me. Maximus Tabaci Abusus est, quotidiano ejus usu, se­metipsos, et bonas Horas perdere, et ex cerebro, mentis nobilissima sede, caminum et cloacam efficere. In the Dutchy of Berguen, People may not Smoke, with­out purchasing a License for it. If you were to purchase of me a License for it, I know not how high Terms I should hold you to. If you want an Hydragogue, there is one preferrible in chewing some such Thing as a bit of Mastich; which would also whiten your Teeth, and sweeten your Breath, which Tobacco poisons. If once you get into the way of Smoking, there will be extreme hazard, of your becoming a Slave to the Pipe; and ever Insatiably craving for it. People may think what they will; But such a Slavery, is much be­low the Dignity of a Rational Creature; and much more of a Gracious Christian. I am sure, what the Great Voetius writes upon it, is very true; Minime convenit viris honest is et gravibus; nominatim Mini­stris et Ministerii Candidatis. There can be no Apo­logy for your taking up the slovenly Practice, and the Pains that must be taken to conquer the Poison, if you are not well advised and assured, That your Health requires it. But I shall only recite what you will find in Two very considerable Writers, that you may form the better Judgment upon it. The One of these Writers is Magnenus; who tho' he be a mighty Friend to the Use of Tobacco, yet acknowledges, ‘That it is not easy to relate, what are the Damages, which the In­ordinate and Immoderate Use of this Fume does bring with it; for besides the insatiable and [Page 134]greedy Lust of taking it, by its daily Use, the Memory is impaired, the Stomach violated, the Brain exiccated, and the Life shortened; and the Offspring damnified.’ Yea, he lays this down as an undoubted Assertion; That the frequent and fa­miliar Use of it, can be good for no Man. The Other is our Gale, who from his own Experience taxes the Smoke of Tobacco with very Noxious Qualities: He says, ‘He found it made more Humours than it brought away; and tho' it opened his Body for the present, it proved in that very thing a Pre­judice afterwards; and Nature was but the more Sluggish and Feeble anon, for the Force in this way put upon it.’ He says, At last I came under a fixed Resolution to deliver my self from this Vassalage; And this I account not the least Deliverance of my Life. And yet, after all, I am not so Inflexibly sett, as utterly to deny you the Use of Tobacco, if you are sure of any Benefit from it. Only I insist up­on it, That you be, [If I may use a Phrase, that if it may seem to trespass upon Good Sense, it shall yet have as much as the Thing I write against] Excessively Moderate in it. And if you are growing so Wise as to Retrench and Reform any Intempe­rance in it, which you may have been unawares drawn into, do it not at Once, but by Degrees, lest by too quick a stop to an usual Discharge, your Health may be endangered. But, upon the whole; If you have hitherto escaped this Epidemical Con­tagion, and are not yet a settled Inhabitant of the Terra del Fuogo, I cannot advise you in better Terms than those; It is Good for you to abide even as you are; And, If you may be kept free, chuse it ra­ther. Yea, My Son, If Smokers entice thee, consent [Page 135]thou not. It is good Advice; and if you take it, you will one Day Thank him that gave it.

But if I am against your taking Tobacco in Smoke, you may be sure, I shall not approve your taking it in Snuff. How shameful a thing it is, for People of Reason to confess, that they can't live easily half an Hour together, without a Delight so Sensual, so Trivial, so very Contemptible, as that of Tickling their Olfactory Nerves a little? And even bury themselves alive, in pungent Grains of titilla­ting Dust? A Learned Physician of the French Na­tion, will tell you, how many Diseases of the Genus Nervosum, do issue out of that Pandora's Box, from whence the Pinch of Snuff is taken. A Quincy will tell you, how wretchedly it spoils the Appetite. And a Cheyne will tell you, how much the Eyes as well as the Stomach fare the worse for it. You may dream, that the Passage thro' the Os Cribri­forme will not permit the Gross Powder of your Snuff to enter into your Brain; yet some very thin and fine Parts of it will find their way thither. And what Mischiefs must needs follow a Brain so poisoned? Nay, One would think, that the great Snuff-takers had their Brain already touch'd; or they could not be so obstinately and incurably at­tach'd unto an Evil Habit, which their Folly has brought upon them. A very just Motto for the Snuff-box might be, A LEADER TO THE COFFIN. If it be offer'd you, Away with it! I say again, Away with it!

IX. A Knight of my Acquaintance visiting the famous Dr. Lower, in his last Sickness, ask'd him for the best Advice he could give him, How to [Page 136]preserve his Health, and prolong his Life; the Doctor only answered him, Don't eat too much! After some other Discourse, the Knight not imagining that the Doctor had thoroughly answered his Enquiry, repeated it. The Doctor thereupon only repeted his Answer; Why, Didn't I tell you; Don't eat too much!— And, further said not. Sr. Theodore Mayern on his Death-bed gave this Advice to a Noble Friend, that ask'd his Counsil for the pro­servation of of his Health. Be moderate in your Diet; Use much Exercise, and little Physic. I would have added, Guard against injurious Changes of the Wea­ther; and especially be exposed unto the Night-Airs as little as may be.

X. Baglivi is not the only Gentleman, who has observed, how much Tranquillity and Serenity of the Mind, contributes unto the Health. Hofman in his Treatise, Des Moyens de vivre Longtemps, has observed, That in the way of keeping the Mind Quiet, the Fear of the Lord tends unto Life. An Holy and an Easy Mind, is the most Healthful Thing under Heaven: The most potent Pro­phylactic in all the World. I need say no more.

Only This. Forever Obsta Principijs.— If any Sickness come upon you, be sure to be Sick soon enough. Maladies taken at the Beginning may be easily and presently conquered; when— Delays are dangerous. And if you are upon a Recovery from any Malady, Ben't Well too soon [...]

20. I have now no more to do; but only single out a Few RULES OF PRUDENCE, the Ob­servation whereof may be your Preservation from very many Wrong Steps, in the Way you have [Page 137]now before you. It cost the Prussians, the Trou­ble of a War, before they could oblige their Neigh­bours, to call them no longer Brutos, which they did before the Tenth Century, but, Prusses, which signifies, it seems, A Prudent People. I wish it may cost you no more Trouble, than only a little Rea­ding of, and Thinking on, certain Maxims of Pru­dence to render you one of that People. I shall not say, how much it has cost me, and what a Dear-bought Experience it is, that has enabled me to recommend them.

I will first suppose, That you take that Course of PIETY, If any lack Wisdom, let him ask it of GOD: And, That you study the Book of The PROVERBS, which our Bible is enriched withal. I will also wish you to read, the Lord Verulam, his Essays. And I will mind you, That one has lately written a Book, to show, That Wisdom lies in the not doing that which may any way prejudice Hu­mane Society, of which we are a part, but on the con­trary make all our Actions tend to the Benefit of it. Then, I will offer you such Hints as these.

I. The Italian Maxims are no Imprudent ones. One must not Spend all he hath; nor Do all he can; nor Tell all he knows; nor Believe all he hears.

And there is a Sentence of a Greek Poet, wor­thy to be remembred with you; which in plain English will tell you, No wise Man will be taken a second Time, in an Error he hath suffered for.

II. It is a Lesson worth more than an Ingott of Gold, which one who saw many Things, has left, for what is to be uttered in Company; Bis prius ad Limam quam semel ad Linguam. Think be­fore [Page 138]you Speak; Think before whom you Speak; Think why as well as what you Speak. And Re­member, In multiloquio Stultiloquium; And, Least said soonest mended.

It is a very prudent Remark; If one observes these Three small Imperatives, Audi, Cerne, Tace, he will need no other Passport for Travelling o­ver the World. You will have a good Note of Wisdom, with two Satellits to it, in my reciting to you the Observations of a very Discrete Man, who said; He had often got hurt by by eating too much; rarely, by eating too little; Often got hurt by wearing too few Cloaths; rarely, by wearing too many: Of­ten got hurt by Speaking; rarely, by holding his Tongue.

III. You find Homer assigning That as the Rea­son, which made his Patroclus to be Universally Lamented at his Death, He knew how to be Good­natured unto all Men. You may come to be almost Universally Beloved while you Live, if your Good Nature, [and Good Humour; what no Nation or Language but ours, has a proper Term for!] ap­pear in continual Demonstrations, which will sa­tisfy every one; That you shall Delight in doing all Good Offices which they can Desire of you; and, That if you see or hear any thing Disreputable in them, you will generously cast and keep a Mantle over it.

IV. I have heard one say, That there was a Gentleman in the Nineteenth Chapter of the Acts, to whom he was more endebted, than to any Man in the World. This was he, whom our Tran­slation calls the Town-Clerk of Ephesus; whose Counsil it was, To do nothing Rashly. Upon any [Page 139]Proposal of Consequence, it was an usual Speech with him, We'l first advise with the Town-Clerk of Ephesus. One in a fond Compliance with a Friend, forgetting the Town-Clerk, may do that in Haste, which he may Repent at Leisure; may do what may cost him several Hundreds of Pounds, besides Troubles which he would not have under­gone for Thousands.

V. Let the Judges Motto be yours, Prudens qui Patiens. You will for ever find, The Wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God. And, There is nothing done so well in a Passion, but what may be done better out of it. There is a Conspicuous Wisdom in Meekness. If you find your Spirit heated in Discourse at any Time, Now, Now, is a Time for the Bridle; I will take heed to my Ways, that I Sin not with my Tongue. There is Danger lest a Moses himself Speak unadvisedly with his Lips, when his Anger is moved. Suppress rather than Express too warm Resentments, whatever be the Provocati­ons. There will be nothing lost by doing so. — Motos praestat componere fluctus.

VI. If you feel a Violent Impulse hurrying you into an eager pursuit of any Matter, be Jealous, be Afraid, lest you be led into Temptation. Examine it over and over again; and be upon a most sedate weigh­ing of the Matter, well-assured, That it is what will not be Repented of.

VII. Let it be as a Law of the Medes and Per­sians with you, That you will never sacrifice any Hours of a short Life, in Contentions: Especially in Perso­nal Contentions, and Quarrels and Squabbles, and Vitilitigations. Abundance of Sin will be unavoid­ably committed in them; And, The Game will not [Page 140]pay for the Candle. Remit rather of much Right, which you may have a Claim unto, than Contend for it. This is the meaning of, Let your Moderation be known unto all Men. In using an uncommon Lenity and Forbearance, and Condescension, under unfair Usages, you will find, The Lord u at hand; Ready in strange Ways to make you Reparation for the Wrongs that Men may have done you. Yea, Why may you not look on the Peace you purchase by it, as a sufficient Reparation?

VIII. Sometimes a Vindication may be necessa­ry. In what Cases— Wisdom will be profitable to direct you. But, if it be at any Time whispered unto you, that any one has Despised you, Derided you, spoken Diminutively of you; the Best way, for the most part, is, For you to take no more No­tice of it, than a greater Man [a Theodosius] would have done of such a Contempt cast upon him. Let them that have abused you, know nothing that you know any thing of the matter. For such is the Baseness of many People, that (measuring you by themselves) they will hate you, because you know that they have hurt you; and they will per­sist in their Hatred, which they must Justify, be­cause they imagine, that you can't Forgive them. Whereas, If you be Silent, and as one that hears not, GOD will probably Reward your Patient Silence, by making those very Persons anon prove some of the most cordial and useful Friends you have in the World.

IX. Don't Use your Pen, and Lose your Time, in Eristic Writings, any more than unquestionable Duty and Prudence makes to be absolutely Necessa­ry. Writing upon a Point, and in the Way and [Page 141]Strain of Controversy, will not only have a Ten­dency to discompose the Peace of your Mind, but miserably Divert the Studies of a short Pilgrimage, from such things as would be much more Profi­table for your self and others. Anon, the Grand Point of the Controversy will be, only Who has most Wit or Grace of the Two, you, or your Antagonist. A mighty Business! If Jerom were pleased in an Hectoring way to forewarn his Opponents, that he was, Cornuta Bestia; I hope you won't be so.

X. If Calumnious Quills have publickly scratch'd you,— An Respondendum semper Calumniis? — No. Look as far back as Two Thousand Years ago, and you will find even a Plato giving a Pattern to a Christian, in his declining to take any Notice of the Invectives which a Xenophon had used upon him. — It may be, the Scribblers, are sorry Scoun­drels, and such vile Children of Sheth, as it is be­neath you to let them know that you have so much as read their Follies. — Or be they what they will, for the most part, the best way will be to, Shine on, Regardless of what the Batts and Owls may mutter against you. Or, if that Metaphor be too Sublime, let me say, At least As the Moon a­mong the lesser Fires, keep a steddy Pace, Walking in your Brightness, notwithstanding the unregardable Allatrations of your Adversaries. If they perse­cute you with Libels, 'tis a notable Hint, that Le Clero has given you. Instead of answering them, write such learned and useful Books, as will be of perpetual Service to Mankind. These will procure such a casting and lasting Testimony for you, that there will need no more to make a Man ill tho't of, than this; That he was a Thersites to you, and [Page 142]one that wrote against you. These Books will be durable Monuments of your Valuable and Ho­nourable Character, when the Libels of these poor Animalculicuncles will perish among the Wast-Paper, which the Haberdashers of small Wares have occasi­on for.

And if any Preacher should be so impertinent as to have any Girds at you in the Pulpit, remember the Advice of the sweet-spirited Melancthon to Vitus Theodorus, when the hot-spirited Osiander had preached against him; I charge you, Don't Answer the Man; Hold your Peace; Go on in your Ministry as if you had heard nothing!— The Gentleman soon found his Account in hearkening to his Can­did Adviser.

That what I am driving may stick, you shall have it in the Form of two old Rusty Nails; The One, Magnum Contumeliae Remedium Negligen­tia; The other, Sile, et funestam dedisti Plagam.

As wicked a Fellow as ever polluted a Pen, yet has this Passage worth transcribing from him, while his Name is not worth mentioning. ‘The Malice of Ill Tongues cast upon a Good Man, is only like a Mouthful of Smoke, blown upon a Diamond, which tho' it clouds its Beauty for the present, yet it is easily rubb'd off, and the Gem restored with little Trouble to its Genuine Lustre.’ But an Honester Pagan than he, has told you, Perditi Hominis profligatique Maledictis, nullius Gloria dignitas (que) Violatur. Old Cicero tells you so.

XI. Be Sociable. But throw away as little Time as ever you can, upon the Temporis Fures; especial­ly [Page 143]upon Impertinent Company. Keep Company; but let it be chiefly with such as are your Superiours; your Familiarity with whom, will be Reputable and Serviceable to you.

XII. While you are yet in your Younger Years, be always furnished with a Stock of Weighty and Useful Questions. By wisely and humbly offering These, and with the Modesty of One desiring to be Instructed, you may commonly lead the Con­versation, even with your Superiours, & almost ne­cessitate a Profitable Conversation. You may be, as R. Jeremy was called, The Master of the Questions. A Discretion in this point, is a distinguishing Thing. But whenever you are Arguing, ordinarily propose every Thing rather Socratically than Dogmatically. Be not Positive; much less Clamorous; least of all Furious. But keep up an Air of Modesty, and car­ry on your Discourse, in the form of proper Ques­tions; and as one willing to be instructed by him whom you are disputing with. 'Tis an Excellent Wisdom, this; To Argue Handsomely.

XIII. Find out some very Wise, and some very Good Person, whom you may chuse to make, what we call, A Bosom Friend. But be very care­ful of your Choice; For, A Faithful Friend, who can find? When you have such an One, ask his Ad­vice in all Matters of Importance. Nevertheless, even here, keep your Stops, as to trusting him, with such Secrets as may put it into his Power to Hurt you. At least, rarely commit any Secrets to any Persons, but such as may have it as much [Page 144]for Their Interest as it is for Yours, to keep them so.

XIV. Lay Hands suddenly on no Man! — There is in the Wisdom of the Ancients, a Caution against, Blessing a Friend with a loud Voice, Rising early in the Morning. There is a marvellous Wisdom as well as Goodness, in speaking Well of every One, as far as we can, on all Occasions, and even watch­ing for all Occasions to do so. And Evil speak­ing has an Indiscretion as well as Indecency in it; for the very Birds of the Air strangely report the Mat­ter. But yet there is often a Want of Wisdom, in our being either too Copious, or too Early in our Commendations: Too High, or too Quick. You may sooner than you think for, see your Commen­dations Consuted; and be obliged [as even Calvin once,] to Revoke your Dedications.

XV. Let no Man of Quality engage you, and attach you so far to his Interests, that you shall run the hazard of Abating the Success of your Ministry, and Abridging your Opportunities to Do Good unto many, upon his Account. You will find such Men, what the Oracles of GOD foretell you shall, when you put your Trust in them. They will soon fall out with you, if you don't keep Touch with them, in all their Designs; and when you cease to be their Tool, they will most Forget­fully and Ungratefully abandon you. Nor will it be Wisdom in you, to go any further in appear­ing [Page 145]for any Government, [As the World now goes!] than Duty calls you to it.— If you do,— I can tell, How you shall be Requited for it! If any Factions arising in the Commonwealth, sollicit your Imbarcation in them, keep close to the Business of your Ministry, and say, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you? To be a State-Martyr,— 'tis what I can't advise you to be ambitious of. I have nothing to say, for such a Crown of Martyrdom. Yet thus much I insist upon. Besure to keep forever Loyal and Faithful to the Protestant Line, for the British Scepter.

XVI. Gain by every Thing! Let Reproaches make you consider, To what Excellent Vertue and Action, would He that has bidden this to befal me, thereby Awaken me? Yea, Let all Disasters make you consider, What Admonition does my GOD now send unto me?

XVII. If you have laid up an Inexhaustible Store of Stories, accommodated unto all the Pur­poses of the Profitable and the Agreeable, and have the Skill of telling them Handsomely, and with a Deliberate, Expressive, Unstumbling Brevity, and pro­duce them on many Occasions, you may not only Ingratiate yourself wherever you make your Appearance, but also obtain almost any Request that you shall make one of them a witty Introducti­on to. The Precious Stones that every one sets a Value on, are called, Pleasant Stones. But let not your Pleasancy, degenerate into any unbecoming Levity. Forever so Regulate it, and so Moderate it, that it may Gracefully Terminate in the most Serious [Page 146]Discourse, and if it may be, in the Inculcation and Insinuation of some serious Maxim, which may be Good for the Use of Edifying.

XVIII. In Publick Transactions, and especially when any thing is driving, about which the Peo­ple of GOD may be divided in their Sentiments, let there be a continual Terror of GOD upon you, lest you unawares fall in with something that may be Inimical or Detrimental to the Kingdom of GOD: Continually suspicious, lest some Strata­gem of Satan may draw you into something that may gratify that Great Adversary. For Example; Things may look very plausibly, and there may seem a laudable Regard paid unto Peace, and Love, and Charity in them; and yet it may be a prosti­tuted Charity, which going so far as to embrace those for Brethren in CHRIST, who are Enemies to Him, it may prove a Treachery to the most Glorious Cause in the World. And so, there was once in the Low Countrys, that press'd under the Name of Moderation, which others found and call'd, Mnr­deration.

Be very Thoughtful, and very Prayerful on such Occasions.

XIX. It may not be amiss for you to have Two Heaps. An Heap of UNINTELLIGIBLES; and an Heap of INCURABLES. Ever now and then you will meet with something or other, that may pretty much distress your Thoughts; But the shortest Way with the Vexations will be, To [Page 147]throw them into the Heap they belong to, and be no more distress'd about them.

You will meet with some Unaccountable and In­comprehensible Things; particularly, in the Conduct of many People. Throw them into your Heap of Unintelligibles; leave them there. Trouble your Mind no further; Hope the Best, or Think no more about them.

You will meet with some Unperswadeable Peo­ple; No Counsel, no Reason will do any Thing upon the Obstinates: Especially, as to the making of due Submissions upon Offences. Throw them into the Heap of Incureables. Leave them there. And so do you go on to do as well as you can, what you have to do. Let not the Crooked Things that can't be made streight, encumber you

XX. 'Tis a Trespass on the Rules of Prudence, never to know, when to have done. Wherefore, I have done!

And now, Go thy Way, O thou SON Greatly Beloved; and Work in thy Lot Livelily, and Pray­erfully, and Cheerfully to the End of thy Days; And Wait and Look for what the Glorious LORD will do for thee at the End of thy Days; in those Endless Joys, wherein thou shalt shine as the Bright­ness of the Firmament, and as the Stars forever and ever.