It is the only visible reason of the Jews adhering so firmly to their religion, that during the ten or twelve years of their education, their youth are so much practised to the scriptures, to weigh every word in them, and get them all by heart, that it is an admiration to see how ready both men and women among them are at it: their rabbies have it to that perfection, that they have the concordance of their whole Bible in their memories; which gives them vast advantages, when they are to argue with any that are not so ready as they are in the scriptures. Our task is much shorter and easier, and it is a reproach, especially to us protestants, who found our religion merely on the scriptures, that we know the New Testament so little, which cannot be excused.

With the study of the scriptures, or rather as a part of it, comes in the study of the fathers, as far as one can go; in these, their apologies and epistles are chiefly to be read, for these give us the best view of those times. Basil's and Chrysostom's sermons are by much the best. To these studies, history comes in as a noble and pleasant addition; that gives a man great views of the providence of God, of the nature of man, and of the conduct of the world. This is above no man's capacity; and though some histories are better than others, yet any histories, such as one can get, are to be read, rather than none at all. If one can compass it, he ought to begin with the history of the church, and there at the head Josephus, and go on with Eusebius, Socrates, and the other historians, that are commonly bound together; and then go to other later collectors of ancient history. The history of our own church and country is to come next; then the ancient Greek and Roman history; and after that, as much history, geography, and books of travels, as can be had, will give an easy and a useful entertainment, and will furnish one with great variety of good thoughts, and of pleasant as well as edifying discourse. As for all other studies, every one must follow his inclinations, his capacities, and that which he can procure to himself. The books that we learn at schools are generally laid aside, with this prejudice, that they were the labours as well as the sorrows of our childhood and education; but they are among the best of books: the Greek and Roman authors have a spirit in them, a force both of thought and expression, that later ages have not been able to imitate; Buchanan only excepted, in whom, more particularly in his Psalms, there is a beauty and life, an exactness as well as a liberty, that cannot be imitated, and scarce enough com

mended. The study and practice of physic, especially that which is safe and simple, puts the clergy in a capacity of doing great acts of charity, and of rendering both their persons and labours very acceptable to their people; it will procure their being soon sent for by them in sickness, and it will give them great advantages in speaking to them of their spiritual concerns, when they are so careful of their persons but in this nothing that is sordid must mix.

These ought to be the chief studies of the clergy. But to give all these their full effect, a priest that is much in his study ought to employ a great part of his time in secret and fervent prayer, for the direction and blessing of God in his labours, for the constant assistance of his holy Spirit, and for a lively sense of divine matters, that so he may feel the impressions of them grow deep and strong upon his thoughts. This, and this only, will make him go on with his work without wearying, and be always rejoicing in it this will make his expressions of these things to be happy and noble, when he can bring them out of the good treasure of his heart, that is ever full, and always warm with them.

From his study, I go next to his public functions. He must bring his mind to an inward and feeling sense of those things that are prayed for in our Offices: that will make him pronounce them with an equal measure of gravity and affection, and with a due slowness and emphasis. I do not love the theatrical way of the church of Rome, in which it is a great study, and a long practice, to learn in every one of their Offices, how they ought to compose their looks, gesture, and voice: yet a light wandering of the eyes, and a hasty running through the prayers, are things highly unbecoming; they do very much lessen the majesty of our worship, and give our enemies advantage to call it dead and formal, when they see plainly, that he who officiates is dead and formal in it. A deep sense of the things prayed for, a true recollection and attention of spirit, and a holy earnestness of soul, will give a composure to the looks, and a weight to the pronunciation, that will be tempered between affectation on the one hand, and levity on the other. As for preaching, I refer that to a chapter apart.

A minister ought to instruct his people frequently of the nature of baptism, that they may not go about it merely as a ceremony, as it is too visible the greater part do; but that they may consider it as the dedicating their children to God, the offering them to Christ, and the holding them

thereafter as his; directing their chief care about them, to the breeding them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There must be care taken to give them all a right notion of the use of godfathers and godmothers, which is a good institution, to procure a double security for the education of children; it being to be supposed, that the common ties of nature and religion bind the parents so strongly, that if they are not mindful of these, a special vow would not put a new force in them: and therefore a collateral security is also demanded, both to supply their defects, if they are faulty, and to take care of the religious education of the infant, in case the parents should happen to die before that is done. And therefore no godfather or godmother are to be invited to that office, but such with whom one would trust the care of the education of his child; nor ought any to do this office for another, but he that is willing to charge himself with the education of the child for whom he answers. But when ambition or vanity, favour or presents, are the considerations upon which those sureties in baptism are chosen, great advantage is hereby given to those who reject infant-baptism, and the ends of the church in this institution are quite defeated; which are both the making the security that is given for the children so much the stronger, and the establishing an endearment and a tenderness between families; this being in its own nature no small tie, how little soever in may be apprehended or understood.

Great care must be taken in the instruction of the youth: the bare saying the Catechism by rote is a small matter; it is necessary to make them understand the weight of every word in it and, for this end, every priest, that minds his duty, will find that no part of it is so useful to his people, as once every year to go through the whole Church-Catechism, word by word, and make his people understand the importance of every tittle in it. This will be no hard labour to himself; for after he has once gathered together the places of scripture that relate to every article, and formed some clear illustrations, and easy similies to make it understood, his catechetical discourses, during all the rest of his life, will be only the going over that same matter again and again. By this means his people will come to have all this by heart; they will know what to say upon it at home to their children; and they will understand all his sermons the better, when they have once had a clear notion of all those terms that must run through them; for those not being understood renders them all unintelligible.

A discourse of this sort would be generally of much greater edification than an afternoon's sermon: it should not be too long; too much must not be said at a time, nor more than one point opened; a quarter of an hour is time sufficient; for it will grow tedious and be too little remembered, if it is half an hour long. This would draw an assembly to evening prayers, which we see are but too much neglected, when there is no sort of discourse or sermon accompanying them. And the practising this, during the six months of the year, in which the days are long, would be a very effectual means both to instruct the people, and to bring them to a more religious observation of the Lord's day; which is one of the powerfullest instruments for the carrying on and advancing of religion in the world.

With catechising, a minister is to join the preparing those whom he instructs to be confirmed, which is not to be done merely upon their being able to say over so many words by rote. It is their renewing their baptismal vow in their own persons, which the church designs by that Office; and the bearing in their own minds a sense of their being bound immediately by that, which their sureties then undertook for them. Now to do this in such a manner, as that it may make impression, and have a due effect upon them, they must stay till they themselves understand what they do, and till they have some sense and affection to it; and therefore till one is of an age and disposition fit 'to receive the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper, and desires to be confirmed, as a solemn preparation and qualification to it, he is not yet ready for it: for in the common management of that holy rite, it is but too visible, that of those multitudes that crowd to it, the far greater part come merely as if they were to receive the bishop's blessing, without any sense of the vow made by them, and of their renewing their baptismal engagements in it.

As for the greatest and solemnest of all the institutions of Christ, the commemorating his death, and the partaking of it in the Lord's supper; this must be well explained to the people, to preserve them from the extremes of superstition and irreverence; to raise in them a great sense of the goodness of God, that appeared in the death of Christ; of his love to us, of the sacrifice he once offered, and of the intercession which he still continues to make for us: a share in all which is there federally offered to us, upon our coming under engagements, to answer our part of the covenant, and to live according to the rules it sets us. On these things he ought to enlarge himself, not only in his

sermons, but in his catechetical exercises, and in private discourses; that so he may give his people right notions of that solemn part of worship, that he may bring them to delight in it; and may neither fright them from it, by raising their apprehensions of it to a strictness that may terrify too much, nor encourage them in the too common practice of the dead and formal receiving, at the great festivals, as a piece of decency recommended by custom.

About the time of the sacrament, every minister that knows any one of his parish guilty of eminent sins, ought to go and admonish him to change his course of life, or not to profane the table of the Lord; and if private admonitions have no effect, then if his sins are public and scandalous, he ought to deny him the sacrament; and upon that he ought to take the method which is still left in the church to make sinners ashamed, to separate them from holy things, till they have edified the church as much by their repentance, and the outward profession of it, as they had formerly scandalized it by their disorders. This we must confess, that though we have great reason to lament oùr want of the godly discipline that was in the primitive church, yet we have still authority for a great deal more than we put in practice. Scandalous persons ought, and might be more frequently presented than they are, and both private and public admonitions might be more used than they are. There is a flatness in all these things among us. Some are willing to do nothing, because they cannot do all that they ought to do; whereas the right way for procuring an enlargement of our authority, is to use that we have well; not as an engine to gratify our own or other people's passions, not to vex people, nor to look after fees, more than the correction of manners, or the edification of the people. If we began much with private applications, and brought none into our courts, till it was visible that all other ways had been unsuccessful, and that no regard was had either to persons or parties, to men's opinions or interests, we might again bring our courts into the esteem which they ought to have, but which they have almost entirely lost. We can never hope to bring the world to bear the yoke of Christ, and the order that he has appointed to be kept up in his church, of noting those that walk disorderly, of separating ourselves from them, of having no fellowship, no, not so much as to eat with them; as long as we give them cause to apprehend, that we intend by this to bring them under our yoke, to sub- due them to us, and to rule them with a rod of iron; for