Circumstances in this World are not so plentiful as to enable them to purchase large Libraries yet their Industry is by no means to be discouraged nor their Zeal in pursuing this Holy Skill abated I will open to you my own simple Apprehensions in this Matter with Submission still to better Judgements My Opinion is That altho' without question all manner of Secular or Ecclesiastical Learning can never be more usefully employ'd than in this search and is all little enough for it and too little to compleat it yet when all is done the Scripture it self is the best Expositor the best Commentator on it self It is apparent that the whole New Testament is so to the whole Old Testament that being the real Light of the others figurative Darkness and Mysteries the very Consummation of the others Prophecies and Shadows of good Things to come But I will also aver that every Part every Book every Sentence almost both of the Old and the New Testament well-compared and judiciously set one over against the other in their right View and Reflection cannot but prove by GOD's Blessing an inestimable Explanation of each other If a due and accurate Care I say be taken to interpret their difficult Texts by others of their own that are easier and to collate their Words Phrases and Sense that may seem dark or doubtful in some Places with the same or the like in other Places where they are clearer and more intelligible I cannot forbear as I go along to declare my Meaning a little fuller in this Matter by one special Instance For consider I pray how is it possible for any the most learned or sagacious Student in Divinity to conceive the true and genuine Sense of the Eloquent and Divine Epistle to the Hebrews except he has been also throughly conversant in the Writings of Moses Or where can there be found a clearer a more Spiritual and more illustrious Commentary on the whole Ritual Part of the Pentateuch than the Epistle to the Hebrews The like also may be proved of all other Portions of the Holy Book of GOD. And indeed to manifest what mutual Brightness and Splendor the Scripture gives to and takes from it self by comparing its several Parts I need only urge the frequent Practice of our Saviour himself and the inspired Pen-men of the Gospel in thus expounding the Old Law by the New and the New by the Old So that now I may with greater Freedom propound my humble Conceptions in this Matter That where Multitudes of Fathers Councils Schoolmen Histories are wanting which are all very beneficial Helps where they can be had but where they cannot be come at if a Clergy-man shall resort immediately to the Fountain it self first and always imploring the Assistance of that Divine Spirit by which the Scriptures were written and then with a sincere Love of the Truth and Resolution to live according to it without which GOD will neither hear our Prayers nor bless our Endeavours and also with an humble Heart a devout Mind and unquenchable Fervour of Spirit and a right unbyass'd Judgement join'd with a sufficient Skill in the Original Languages and in those other Introductory Studies which no Man in Holy Orders if it be not the Bishop's Fault as well as his own can possibly be altogether to seek in And if withal he shall be assisted with some of the ancient and some few of the modern sound and Orthodox Commentaries he will in all human Probability by an incessant daily and nightly meditating upon and revolving in his Mind the Divine Text it self become in time tho' not perhaps as Apollos is said to have been Eloquent and Mighty in the Scriptures yet a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth The more to incourage your Studies in this Method if you shall be necessitated to it give me leave to present you with one Example of a great Divine and Bishop in the Time of King Charles the First who was one of the most Eminent Confessors then and survived those Calamities to die in Peace and Tranquillity several Years after the Return of King Charles the Second In the common Persecution which then happened to the whole Episcopal Order this Reverend Person was exposed to a more than ordinary Degree of popular Malice and Rage so that without ever being once brought to his Tryal he was closely imprisoned in the Tower for almost twenty Years and was not only despoil'd of his annual Revenue and Personal Estate in the first Fury of the Civil Wars but was also plunder'd of most of the Collections of his former Labours and a very considerable Library Wherefore being thus laid up in Prison without any prospect of Liberty having also a numerous Family to maintain so that he was not able in any sort to repair the Loss of his Books and Papers he betook himself to this course of Study Well-knowing that he could have no faithfuller Companion for his Solitude nor surer Consolation in his Afflictions than the Holy Scriptures he applied himself to them immediately with little other help but what he had within himself and the best Prints of the Originals in the Learned Tongues and their Translations in the Learned and Modern in both which he was a great Master Thus however he firmly and vigorously proceeded so far in the single Study of the Scriptures that long before his Enlargement he had composed a great Mass of Annotations on divers Parts of the Bible What is become of them I know not If they are either imbezill'd or suppress'd no doubt it is to the great Damage of the Church since the Native Thoughts of a Great Man are generally at least as good as the most Artificial Perhaps you will say he might be able to do all this by the Strength of his Memory and the Variety of Learning he had laid up in it before-hand And I make no doubt but those were an exceeding great Assistance to him But what was very remarkable and for which I am bold to produce him as an Instance worthy your Imitation in this Particular I know he was often heard to profess solemnly that in all his former Studies and various Reading and Observations he had never met with a more useful Guide or a surer Interpreter to direct his Paths in the dark Places of the lively Oracles to give Information to his Understanding in the obscure Passages or Satisfaction to his Conscience in the experimental Truths of them than when he was thus driven by Necessity to the assiduous Contemplation of the Scripture alone and to weigh it by it self as it were in the Ballance of the Sanctuary Had I not been already so tedious there is one Particular behind on which I ought most justly to have expatiated which now I can only name And it is that touching the Manner of your Conversation that it be such as may render you Vessels not only sanctified but meet for your Masters Vse and
THE L d Bishop of Rochester's DISCOURSE TO His Clergy c. A DISCOURSE Made by the L d Bishop OF ROCHESTER TO THE Clergy of his Diocese AT His Visitation in the Year 1695. Published at their Request In the SAVOY Printed by Edw. Iones MDCXCVI A DISCOURSE MADE BY The L d Bishop of Rochester TO THE CLERGY c. I Can scarce think it worth my while or yours my good Brethren that I should now spend much time in any long general Exhortation to your Diligent and Conscientious performing the Duties incumbent on you as you are the Ministers of GOD duly called according to the Will of of our Lord Christ and the Order of this Excellent Church of England Did I find there were here any absolute need to use many Words towards the exciting your Care in the several Administrations of your Holy Calling yet I am persuaded I my self might well spare my own Labour and your Patience on this Subject since all that kind of wholesome Advice has been already so very sufficiently and so much better given you in Arguments deduced out of the Holy Scriptures and most fitly applied to this Purpose by the venerable Compilers of our Public Liturgy in the Forms appointed for the Ordering of Deacons and Priests There you know this Work has been so wisely and so fully long ago done to a Bishop's hands there all the Parts of your weighty Office are so judiciously laid before you the high Dignity and great Importance of it towards the Salvation of Mankind is so substantially urg'd the blessed Fruits and everlasting Rewards of well-attending it and the extreme Dangers of neglecting it are so justly amplified the Necessity of adorning your Doctrine by an innocent virtuous and pious Life of your own towards the rendring it efficacious on the Lives of others is so pathetically inforc'd that I am confident the very best Charge a Bishop could give to his Clergy were to recommend seriously to all their Memories as I now do most affectionately to yours those very same Questions and Answers those very same Promises and Vows as you ought to esteem them where-with every one of you did most solemnly charge his Conscience at the time of your Admission into Holy Orders I profess I cannot nor I believe can the the Wit of Man invent any more proper Method of Instruction to Men in your Circumstances from a Man in mine than to exhort you all to a continual Recollection of and Meditation upon those many and great Obligations you then seem'd voluntarily and cheerfully to lay on your selves Whence there could not but ensue by GOD's Blessing a firm Resolution in your Minds to endeavour the performance of them and a Holy Perseverance in those Endeavours and in Conclusion the happy Effects of all on your selves and the Flocks committed to you That by thus Meditating on these Things and giving your selves wholly to them your profiting may appear to all and that by taking heed to your selves and your Doctrines and continuing in them you may both save your selves and those that hear you Wherefore seeing that which else had been a Bishop's proper Business in such Meetings as this I hope is or may be so easily shorten'd for me by you your selves by your having recourse to a Rule so well known and so obvious to you in a Book which ought scarce ever to be out of your hands I shall the rather at this time purposely omit the prescribing you many Admonitions touching the matter and substance of the Duties of your Sacred Function Instead of them I shall only offer you some few familiar Considerations which may serve as so many friendly and brotherly Advices concerning chiefly the Manner and Way of performing some of the principal Offices of your Ministry And I trust in GOD that if these Advices shall be as carefully examin'd and if you find them useful as industriously observed by you as they are honestly intended by me they may in some sort enable you to do laudably and with Commendation the same Things which I hope you already do without just Exception Only in this place let me premise once for all that whatever Instructions I shall now give you I intend them not only as Directions to you but especially to my self As indeed in all Matters that come under Deliberation he ought to be esteem'd no good Counsellor who is very ready and eager in giving but averse from receiving the same Counsel as far as it may be also proper for himself The first Advice I presume to set before your view shall relate to the Manner of doing your part in all the ordinary Offices of the Public Liturgy As to that it is my earnest Request that you would take very much Care and use extraordinary Intention of Mind to perfect your selves in a true just sensible accurate becoming way of Reading and administring them as you have occasion A Suggestion which some perhaps at first hearing may think to be but of a slight and ordinary Concernment Yet if I am not much deceiv'd it will be found of exceeding Moment and Consequence in its Practice and of singular Usefulness towards the raising of Devotion in any Congregation piously inclined When your weekly or rather daily labours of this kind shall be thus performed I mean not with a meer formal or artificial but with such a grave unaffected Delivery of the Words as if the defect be not in our selves will indeed naturally flow from a right and serious considering of their Sense I pray therefore take my Mind a-right in this particular I do not only mean that you should be very punctual in reading the Common Prayer Book as the Law requires that is not only to do it constantly and entirely in each part without any maiming adding to or altering of it that so Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks may be made by you for all Men For Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty If you do not so you are liable to a Legal Punishment and Censure But my aim now is not meerly to prevent that or to provide only against your breaking the Law What I intend is something higher and more excellent something that you cannot be punish'd for tho' you do it not but if you shall do it in any reasonable Perfection it will redound to the unspeakable Benefit of your Congregations The purpose then of this my plain Motion to you is in short to beseech you all to employ much serious Pains in practising the public and private Reading of all your Offices as the Use of any of them shall occur distinctly gravely affectionately fervently so as every where to give them all that Vigour Life and Spirit whereof they are capable Which certainly is as great as in any human Writings whatsoever if we be not wanting to them in the Repetition The Truth is whatever some may imagine
to the contrary such a compleat and consummate Faculty of reading the Common Prayer Quam nequeo monstrare sentio tantum is of so great difficulty as well as use that I am fully convinced it very well deserves to have some place among our constant Studies at least in the first Initiation into our Ministry if not throughout the whole course of it I could heartily wish it were altogether needless for me to lay so much stress on this Advice as I do Yet I hope I may do it without Offence since it is not with design of censuring any particular Mens Failings or Deficiencies but only for the public Good that we may all strive to attain not only to a Mediocrity but to an Excellency in this kind Which in my small Judgment can never be done unless we shall make this Duty a Business by it self and assign it a special Place among our other Ecclesiastical Studies It cannot be denied but the Church it self has provided for this with all imaginable Circumspection having solemnly enjoin'd every Clergy-man besides the Times of his public Ministry to read some very considerable Parts of his Office once a day at least to himself except he shall be excused by indispensable Business By which wise Injunction tho' no doubt the Church intended primarily to produce and increase in the Minds of all its Ministers a frame of Spirit perpetually serious and devout Yet if that be also accompanied with a proportionable Regard to the Manner as well as to the Matter of our Public Prayers this other Advantage of well-reading what is so often to be read will follow of course and by necessary Consequence It seems indeed to me that the very way of performing all the outward Acts of Religion has so wonderful an Influence towards obtaining the inward Effects of it on our Hearts and Consciences that I cannot but think we can never be too laborious in preparing and exercising our Thoughts and even our very Voices in private for a public Service of so great Importance 'T is true we generally value and esteem Preaching as our great Privilege and Honour And so far we are in the right But we are not so if we look on the reading of Prayers only as our Task and Burthen and as such shall be willing to get rid of it altogether or to get thro' it in any undecent Manner with such Heaviness or Precipitation as in any Affairs of worldly Interest we would never be content with A preposterous Custom which if due Care be not taken may be very prejudicial and mischievous to our Church by quenching the Spirit of Devotion in our own People and giving occasion to our Adversaries to throw Scorn and Contempt on our otherwise-incomparable Liturgy Consider I pray you How can we expect that others should revere or esteem it according to its true worth if we our selves will not keep it so much in Countenance as to afford it a fair Reading If we will not do it so much common Justice as to contribute as much as lies in our Power that it may have an impartial Hearing equal at least to any other Divine Ordinance If we shall refuse to lay as much weight on those Devotions which our whole Church has injoin'd us to pour out before the Throne of Grace for the People as we do on those Discourses which we make on our own Heads to the People Wherefore I say again this very commendable Skill of devout and decent Reading the Holy Offices of the Church is so far from being a perfunctory or superficial Work a mean or vulgar Accomplishment or a subordinate lower Administration only fit for a Curate that it deserves to be placed among your Ministerial Endowments of greater Superiority and Praeeminence as being one of the most powerful Instruments of the Holy Spirit of GOD to raise and command Mens Hearts and Affections of the Holy true Spirit of GOD I say which tho' in our inward Ejaculations or private Supplications towards Heaven it often helpeth our Infirmities and maketh Intercession for us with Groanings that cannot be uttered Yet in the public Worship is most frequently pleased to operate by such Words and Sounds as are express'd with the best Utterance So that now with a just Assurance I may assert this to be a very proper Qualification of a Parochial Minister that he has attain'd to an habitual Faculty of setting forth the public Prayers to all their due Advantage by pronouncing them leasurably fitly warmly decently with such an Authority in the Speaker as is in some degree suitable to the Authority of what is spoken Thus much I may safely say that the Reader of the Prayers if he does his part in the manner I have mention'd by such a vigorous effectual fervent Delivery of the Words and Conceptions put into his Mouth by the Church it self may give a new enlivening Breath a new Soul as it were to every Prayer every Petition in it He may quicken and animate those Confessions Intercessions and Thanksgivings which when read coldly and indifferently with irreligious Carlesness or ignorant Flatness will seem to some to be but a dead Letter He may make every Hymn every Psalm every Lesson Epistle and Gospel to become well nigh a new Sermon at least he may give to the old standing Text of the Bible a very good clear Exposition even by his very way of reading it to the Congregation This upon Experience you will find to be apparently true For if as is usually observed by Men of Learning in printed Books the very accurate and critical pointing of the Copy is one of the best kinds of good new Commentaries on any old Author how much more in all the Offices of Devotion would that which consists not only in good Pointing and observing all due Stops but in so much more besides I mean a good distinct forcible yet easie and unforced reading of every Prayer and Portion of the Holy Scriptures how much more would all this really serve for a good new Paraphrase and Illustration of every Sentence in them It is indeed almost incredible how quite another thing the daily morning and evening Prayers will appear what new Figures and Beauties and hidden Treasures of sacred Eloquence they will continually discover when thus pronounc'd how much apter they will be to kindle in us and our Auditors all manner of Heavenly Affections of Spiritual Grief and Contrition of Love and Gratitude of Faith Hope and Charity and Joy in the Holy Ghost When the Harmony of the Tongue shall be tuned as it were to the Harmony of the Matter When the Zeal of the Reader shall keep Company with his Voice and his Voice shall be adapted to and varied together with every Sense and Expression When by long Use and Imitation of the best Masters or the best we can come at we shall know familiarly how to give every Word and Sentence its due poise Where to lay a greater or smaller weight