scorn,

" Do

poets used to be) seeing an alderman with his gold chain, upon his great horse, by way of said to one of his companions, you see yon fellow, how goodly, how big "he looks; why that fellow cannot make a "blank verse."

66

III. Nay we measure the goodness of God from ourselves; we measure his goodness, his justice, his wisdom, by something we call just, good, or wise, in ourselves; and in so doing, we judge proportionably to the country fellow in the play, who said, if he were a King, he would live like a Lord, and have pease and bacon every day, and a whip that cry'd slash..

I. THE difference of men is very great; you would scarce think them to be of the same species, and yet it consists more in the affection than in the intellect: for, as in the strength of body two men shall be of an equal strength, yet one shall appear, stronger than the other; because he exercises and puts out his strength, the other will not stir nor strain himself. So it is the strength of the brain, the one endeavours, and strains, and labours, and studies, the other sits still, and is idle, and takes no pains, and therefore he appears so much the inferior.

MINIS

I. THE imposition of hands upon the minister, when all is done, will be nothing but a designation of a person to this or that office or employment in the church. It is a ridiculous phrase that of the Canonists, Conferre Ordines, it is Coaptare aliquem in Ordinem, to make a man one of us, one of our num ber, one of our order. So Cicero would understand what I said, it being a phrase bor rowed from the Latins, and to be understood proportionably to what was amongst them.

II. Those words you now use in making a minister," receive the Holy Ghost," were used amongst the Jews in making of a lawyer; from thence we have them, which is a villainous key to something, as if you would have some other kind of præfecture than a mayoralty, and yet keep the same ceremony that was used in making the mayor air

III. A priest has no such thing as an indelible character, what difference do you find betwixt him and another man after ordination? Only he is made a priest, as I said, by designation; as a lawyer is called to the bar, then made a serjeant: all men tha that would get power over others, make themselves as unlike them as they can; upon the same ground made themselves unlike the laiety,

the

priests

IV. A minister, when he is made, is ma

teria

teria prima, apt for any form the state will put upon him, but of himself he can do nothing. Like a doctor of law in the university, he hath a great deal of law in him, but cannot use it till he be made somebody's chancellor; or, like a physician, before he be received into a house, he can give nobody physic; indeed after the master of the house hath given him charge of his servants, then he may or, like a suffragan, that could do nothing but give orders, and yet he was no bishop.

V. A minister should preach according to the articles of religion established in the church where he is. To be a civil lawyer, let a man read Justinian and the Body of the Law, to confirm his brain to that way, but when he comes to practise, he must make use of it so far as it concerns the law received in his own country. To be a physician, let a man read Galen and Hippocrates; but when he prac tises, he must apply his medicines according to the temper of those men's bodies with whom. he lives, and have respect to the heat and cold of climes, otherwise that which in Pergamus, where Galen lived, was physic, in our cold climate may be poison. So, to be a divine, let him read the whole body of divinity, the fathers, and the schoolmen; but when he comes to practise, he must use it and apply it according to those grounds and articles of religion

religion that are established in the church, and this with sense.

VI. There be four things a minister should be at: the conscionary part, ecclesiastical story, school divinity, and the casuists.

1. In the conscionary part, he must read all the chief fathers, both Latin and Greek, wholly. St. Austin, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostome, both the Gregories, &c. Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Epiphanius; which last have more learning in them than all the rest, and writ freely.

2. For ecclesiastical story, let him read Baronius, with the Magdeburgenses, and be his own judge, the one being extremely for the papists, the other extremely against them.

3. For school divinity, let him get Javellus's edition of Scotus or Major, where there be quotations that direct you to every schoolman, where such and such questions are handled. Without school divinity, a divine knows nothing logically, nor will he be able to satisfy a rational man out of the pulpit.

4. The study of the casuists must follow the study of the schoolmen, because the division of their cases is according to their divinity; otherwise he that begins with them will know little. As he that begins with the study of the reports and cases in the common law, will thereby know little of the law. Casuists may be of admirable use, if discreetly dealt with, though among them you shall

have

have many leaves together very impertinent. A case well decided would stick by a man, they will remember it whether they will or no; whereas a quaint position dieth in the birth. The main thing is to know where to search; for talk what they will of vast memories, no man will presume upon his own me-mory for any thing he means to write or speak in public.

This

VII." Go and teach all nations." was said to all Christians that then were, before the distinction of clergy and laity; there have been since men designed to preach only by the state, as some men are designed to study the law, others to study physic: When the Lord's Supper was instituted, there were -none present but the disciples; shall none then but ministers receive?

VIII. There is all the reason you should believe your minister, unless you have studied divinity as well as he, or more than he. ? .. IX. It is a foolish thing to say a minister must not meddle with secular matters, because his own profeffion will take up the whole -man; may he not eat, or drink, or rwalk, or learn to sing the meaning of that is, he must seriously attend his calling.

..X. Ministers with the Papists, that is, their priests, have much respect; with the Puritans they have much, and that upon, the same ground, they pretend both of them to come immediately from Christ; but with the Pro

testants