THE English Convocation might, for the Improvement of their CHURCH, felect yearly and every. Year twice two and fifty Sermons or more, as they fee Occafion, out of the Works of the moft celebrated Divines of the Church of England, upon fuch Subjects, and in fuch an Order, as in their Wisdom they should judge the fittest, to inftruct the People in the Doctrines, and confirm them in the Practice of the Chriftian Religion.

WHILST the learned Men among the diffenting Clergy might from their own Writers, which they most approved, be doing something of the fame.

THUS AGREED, and furely this is a Point we might well agree in, the Clergy of all Denominations would have it in their Power to be much more useful to their People, and to themselves, nay, to the World in general, than they are at prefent, at least they might have more Opportunities of being fo, if they would embrace them; when fo much of their Time as is now fruitlefly thrown away upon writing Sermons, would be at their own Difpofal.

For the fame Spiritual Entertainment being every where provided for the People, and that every where good and wholfome, there would remain no Temptation to them to forfake their proper Paftors. The * ITCH in their Ears would be cured, and the Humour of gadding after new Preachers happily stopped.

THE old and vulgar Cry of, † I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, which at Bottom has been the Occafion of this

* For the Time will come, when they will not endure found Doctrine, but after their own Luis wall they heap to themlelors Teachers, having itching Ears. 2 Tim, iv. 3.

† 1 Cor. i. 12.

a 3

continual

continual Scribbling and Haranguing, must cease of course, when PAUL and APOLLOS faid both the fame thing; and none were called upon, as of Neceffity, to preach any other Doctrine, than what the Church or Communion they were of, ordained, and had already supplied them with, unless it were at particular Times, and upon very particular Occafions.

In which Cafe this Method would be fo far from tying the Hands of able Divines from acquitting themselves properly, and making farther Improvements in Divinity, that their Sermons, such as they were ordered, or were at Liberty, upon Occafion, to write, or preach, contrary to what I before obferved of them, inftead of being the worst of their Productions, would perhaps turn out the best.

II. FOR to speak now in the fecond Place upon that Head.

ONE Reason why, among the Learned and Ingenious Part of the Clergy, thefe are the worst of their Performances, is in great Measure owing to the want of Time, and the Neceffity they are under of generating at any Warning the Thing, they call a Sermon.

IT is not otherwife to be fuppofed that Men of Letters, allowing fome of the Clergy to be fuch, would naturally think more negligently, and irregularly, upon divine Subjects, than upon human, unless it were, that they have feldom Time enough allowed them upon these Occafions, by the Populace their Mafters, to think rationally upon any Subject at all, much lefs to lay open, as the Importance of fome Subjects may require, the Receffes of dark and ancient Hiftory, the Depths of Philofophy, and infinite Variety of human Learning; and fomething from one, or all of these Storehouses, the Matter in hand to be properly treated, may

of

of abfolute Neceffity require; and yet I say this will prove' almost impoffible for a Man to furnish, who is a laborious weekly Preacher, were there no other Difficulty in his Way than the fingle Article of Want of Time.

WHEREAS indeed those People, who generally write and preach the moft, are upon other Accounts difqualified for doing it the best. For even fuppofing that they enjoyed Leifure fufficient to range, and methodize their Thoughts, and to read so much upon important Subjects, as to handle them properly, may be required, yet they are generally fo poorly provided for, and fo very ill and injudiciously fituated by their Superiors, that they feldom have the neceffary Books to use, though People of great Ingenuity, and capable of using them to a very good Purpofe.

HENCE arifes another Damp to their Compositions, which, in the Judgment of a great Critic, has a very fatal, and deadly Influence upon fine Writing; that is to fay, a Dejection of Spirits naturally attending People in* fervile and low Circumstances, to which many of the Clergy are neceffarily doomed, without any Profpect of getting out of them, not being allowed to attend at their Leisure to any † creditable Profeffion, whereby to raise them above Contempt,

* Longinus, § 44. His Reflection, which is very juft, I give the English Reader in Mr. Smith's Tranflation.

"Never yet did a Slave become an Orator. His "Spirit being effectually broken, the timorous Vaffal will "ftill be uppermoft; the Habit of Subjection continually overawes and beats down his Genius. For, according to Hamer,

"Jove fix'd it certain, that whatever Day
"Makes Man a Slave, takes half his Worth away."

THOUGH I am the fartheft of any Man in the World from wishing to see Tradesmen turn Farfons, yet I cannot at presen

Contempt, and fecure them from unquiet Reflections, and the Fears of Poverty.

FOR, with regard to the contemptible TRADE of Schoolteaching, the common Refuge upon these Occafions, it is the worft fuited of any to the Purpose, and Bufinefs of a Clergyman. It has in it all the Tameness, Meanness, and Confinement of the lowest Servility; and is fo far from being confiftent with their Studies, that, though it may advance the Learning of a Boy, it is nothing but Deftruction and Distraction to the Learning of a MAN.

Ir must be a melancholic Reflection to a Perfon, who has entered into the Church with the Zeal of an Apofle, lived an exemplary and ftrictly pious Life, in the Midft of ruftic HEATHENS, or HEATHENS of a worse Complection, fee any Reason why Clergymen, who are ill provided with Church-Preferments, and always to remain fo, may not, upon Occafion, turn Tradefmen. St. PAUL, being bred to Trade, as well as Learning, often exercised his CRAFT after he came to the APOSTLESHIP: otherwise the Apoftleship, without a Miracle at every Turn, might have loft an Apofile, and even this chefen Veffel have perifhed in encountring fuch a Variety of Perils and Diftrefs.

FOR the fame good Reafons, and after the Example of the Apoftolic Age, the Church of England, in true English Times, under the Reign of Edgar (when this Nation, for domeftic Power and Politics, made a greater Figure than under an Edward, Harry, or Elizabeth) very prudently enjoined, "That Clergymen fhould learn fome Employment, in order to get their "Livelihood, in Cafe of MISFORTUNE."

THESE Canons were tranflated by Sir Henry Spelman, from the English-Saxon Manufcript, preferved at Cambridge, in Bennet College Library. Thefe Inftances fhew the Lawfulness of fuch a Practice; and the Reafons for it are too many in Number to be repeated here.

exhaufted

exhaufted all the Strength and Vigour of his Youth in the Service of many Churches, continued for ten or twelve Years in moft laborious Cures; and been for this Time too, at Intervals, a noted and approved Preacher in one of the Universities—I fay, it must be a melancholic Reflection to fuch a one, to find, even only for fuch a Term as this, all his Service, all his Piety, all his Innocence of Life, tho' in the Notice, and under the Eye, of his Superiors, pafs quite unregarded.Thefe Circumstances of neglected Worth are not only fufficient to produce a Dif piritedness, and Negligence in a Man's Writings, but also to ftagger his Faith, and lower his Notions of a Religion, which, if efteemed as he imagined, could never have brought forth, in the very Quarter where he thought it was esteemed, Contempt and Negligence upon his Perfon; or, at best, the miferable Harvest of barren Praise, and Beggary, in the room of those Rewards, which, for the Prefervation of its own Being, the CHURCH hath decreed to fuch of its ELDERS, as, by their Services, fhall best deserve them.

THIS Ill-Diftribution of Preferment, to those who diftribute it, is a very serious Point, and ought, if they believe their Religion, to be confidered by them as a Thing, which may affect their Salvation.

FOR, I am afraid, it is but too true, that many, who have come into the Church with an unfeigned Faith, and continued for fome Time worthy Clergymen, and heartily concerned for the Caufe of their Religion, have, by this ftrange Conduct towards them, been turned afide; fome to Vice, fome to a temporal Apoftacy, and others, by Degrees, to a downright and irretrievable Infidelity.

THE Confequence of which is, that, by their Writings and Example, thofe very Men, who might have turned many to Righteousness, are now made the Inftruments of turning many to Deftruction.

THIS