sence Every such is a Priest to his own family that is it is his duty to teach them the great things of Religion according to the best of his skill and knowledg This is one way to provide for our families and 't is the most necessary Men had better neglect the getting their Children and Servants Bread and Cloaths than to omit the care about this greater and more needed provision 'T is noted to the honour of the holy Patriarch That he would teach his Children Timothy was taught the Scriptures from a youth and all Parents are required to bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Were not this duty so much neglected Ministers would find their people more teachable and less uncapable of the greater and stronger truths that they yet know not more tenacious of and better setled in those that they know already and more able to shame and to resist the attempts of Gain-sayers Among all the Preaching we have this is very much needed and the great defect that is the occasion of most of our Churchmaladies lyes here We are very apt to catch at any thing that may fasten a blame on our Ministers when there is the least shew of neglect on their parts I wish we could be sensible of and reform this great one of our own C. But what think you of the Homilies Are not they very useful and fit to be read in Churches instead of so much other Preaching For my part I should like that A. The Homilies contain very good pious and wholsom instructions and doctrines and in due place and time may be used with great profit and advantage But I suppose you do not pretend to have them in to exclude all other Preaching For that would render the abilities of learned Ministers as to this part of their office useless There are many occasions which those discourses make no provision for and by such a practice the people in all likelyhood would be very much discontented if not inflamed I suppose therefore you mean not that the Homilies should thrust out all other Preaching but that in some places and times they might be profitably used C. No I think it would be well if they were generally enjoyn'd and such others added to them as should be thought seasonable and fit A. I have as great a reverence for that Book as you and as great a sense of the inconveniences that arise from the defects of many Preachers But we must not always judge of things as they are nakedly in their natures but circumstances must be weigh'd Publick Governours are not only to consider the goodness but expediency and in reference to a due judgment in that many extrinsecal matters are to be taken into the account Now as our case is we have blessed be God plenty of learn'd and most excellent Preachers as many I believe as any Age or Nation ever had Those have bestowed much time pains and cost for the furnishing themselves with abilities for the Pulpit and after all to suppress their excellent and useful labours and to set them upon the same level with those that can but read would be a great discouragement to them and loss to the Church it would dishearten and divert young Students in the Universities be a great damp upon learning and in all likelyhood destroy the glory of those venerable Fountains of Piety and Literature Besides which the People you know are so prejudiced that it would possess them with rage against their Governours and contempt of their Ministers fill the Conventicles and 't is to be fear'd make our breaches and divisions incurable So that certainly you are not in earnest in this or if you are I suppose there are but very few of your mind I have heard some talk indeed that they thought it might do well if only some select men in every Diocess and those to be seated in the most eminent places should be allow'd to Preach and the fame enjoyned to make every year so many Sermons to be deliver'd to the Bishop as in the whole should come to fifty two besides some for the anniversary dayes that a Volume of those Sermons should be printed yearly That each Minister of those not licensed to Preach their own should have a Copy and no more be printed than would suffice for them That they should read or recite one of these by heart every Sunday till they should arrive to such Age and Ability as to be thought fit to be intrusted with the instructing the people with their own Sermons What this would do and how practicable it is I shall not pretend to determine It looks I confess plausibly enough But I am no proposer of new projects these matters must be left to our Governours and I mention this only by the by C. You are resolv'd to have your own opinion in all things we have talked on and you shall for me But notwithstanding all you have said I shall not be persuaded to have so good an opinion of Preaching as you seem to have till I have reason to think that the Preachers believe their own Doctrines A. By that you seem to intimate that you think they do not A very hard thought that should not be entertain'd lightly What any man believes we cannot tell but by his professions and the Clergy make zealous and earnest profession of the Christian truths and therefore 't is great injustice and uncharitableness to judge otherwise of them except upon clear evidence Charity thinketh no evil it makes the best and most candid interpretations of things that are capable of wrong construction But to judg and surmise evil where there is no appearance of it this is to exercise a lawless and brutish force upon the names of men and to rejoyce in iniquity as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1. 13. No ones reputation can be safe from any aspersion if men may take this lewd liberty of fastening the worst they can phancy on them so that except you can make out what you say which I am sure you cannot you manifestly incurr the guilt of being an accuser of the Brethren To asperse any private Christian in this manner is a great sin how much more is it so to slander an whole order of publick persons that bear a Sacred Character For you do not only injure them in their persons but mischief others by it whom by such reproaches you prejudice against them and so hinder the good that otherwise they might do by their labours On which account the reputation of Ministers is and ought to be dear to those that are truly honest and conscientious and where men love to pickeer and to find faults with Ministers 't is a plain case that they have some corrupt byas that sways them in those Censures C. For my part I thank God I have none But by their fruits ye shall know them Their actions preach contrary to their Sermons and are too plain indications of
reason that the most learned men are not the best Preachers for they speak in a scholar-like way and cannot descend to ordinary capacities A. I have indeed often heard that spoken as a maxim but though it hath some shew of truth yet there is much mistake if not malice against Learning in it There are a sort of learned men who have spent most of their time and pains upon Languages and Antiquities things in their kind very good and useful others whose chief employment hath been School-Divinity and the spinosities of controversie and these of each kind generally get great fame for learning But then perhaps they do not exercise themselves in Preaching which is a faculty very distinct from those studies and requires proper helps and indeavours and therefore it happens when such Preach that their Sermons are dry and harsh savouring of the crabbedness of their studies and having little of the genius of moral and practical Divinity This I know is the case of some I say not of all the learned men of those sorts And this I think is the occasion of the observation But then there is another sort of learned men whose design hath been to study things to furnish their minds with clear and right conceptions to make observations on human nature the manners and actions of men to turn their thoughts after due preparations towards practical Theology to take parochial charges and to exercise themselves in frequent Preaching And these are by their learning and knowledge inabled to speak with the most judgment propriety and plainness For as I intimated before it requires parts and understanding to be plain He must think distinctly and clearly that would teach so and the true useful learning is the proper instrument to inable a man for that D. But if so much knowledg and understanding is necessary to the constituting a true and plain Preacher methinks we should not have so many in that business for the maintenance of Ministers is in most places so small that it will not afford encouragement for such men and others that are unqualified disparage the profession and do mischief to the publick A. If I should speak to the thing it self I should say that as the maintenance for Ministers and the consequents are possibly a much less number of Preachers might suffice But our circumstances must be considered The common people count almost nothing else Service and discharge of duty in supply of a Cure but Preaching and the Dissenters carry all by that so that as our affairs are general indifferent Preaching may be more expedient than much better when more limited and restrained But as to this the Governours of the Church are the best Judges of what is fit and we are to acquiesce in what they ordain C. I think that neither they nor we need make so much adoe about it for Preaching is no part of Divine Worship A. I believe you are out in that for pray what do you call Divine Worship C. Prayer and Thanksgiving and Sacramental Communion A. You name me some of the parts of Worship but what is the general nature and notion of it Is it not the solemn acknowledging and honouring of God in the ways he hath appointed C. Well! and what then A. Then it follows that Preaching is Worship and so is hearing For Preaching is publishing Gods mind and will that the people may know his truth and obey his laws and are not his Wisdom Holiness and Legislative Authority thereby glorified If they are not known how shall they be believ'd if not believ'd how can they be honoured and how can they be either known or believ'd without being publisht how can they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how can they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10. 14. This is part of his Homage and Worship he is sent to Preach the Gospel And Publick Hearing Gods word preacht is part of the peoples Worship since thereby we solemnly acknowledge that he is our Lord and that we desire to know how we may acceptably serve him That he is our teacher and we are willing to be instructed by his word declared and explained by his messengers That in him is our supream happiness and that we are desirous to know how we may enjoy him and all this is doing solemn honour to God our maker and why this should be denyed to be Worship I cannot tell C. This I have often heard as I suppose you have also A. It is true but we should not receive every bold saying to the prejudice of our duty There are many such that pass for current among those that are willing to entertain them that would not bear the tryal and we ought to examine the things we hear before we admit them C. I shall not differ from you in that But pray don't you think that Catechising is better and more useful than so much Preaching A. Such comparisons are odious One duty should not be commended to the disparagement of an other each ought to have its place And indeed Catechising is a sort of Preaching it is but another way of teaching the principles of Christian Religion and is no doubt very useful and much needed so that the Pulpit-Preaching should not exclude this both because the Church hath required it and because that will enter and make impression one way that will not another And Catechising hath been used in the best ages of the Church with very good success This you know our Minister doth perform one season of the Year till all the youth is gone over that he can get to that exercise and during all that time he Preacheth also in the afternoon upon some Catechistical head in order for the instruction of the Men and Women as well as Children So that as Preaching doth not exclude Catechising neither doth Catechising exclude that 〈◊〉 is double labour I confess for the Preacher so to do but the People at least in great Towns will not be contented without the afternoon Sermon and a Minister cannot do his duty to the Church and his charge without the other in fit times On this occasion I must take notice to you that generally the people are very cold negligent and wanting to their children in this matter in that they do not duly catechise them at home and do their parts for the instructing them in the principles of Religion without something of this kind what is done in publick will not signifie much And 't is through the want of domestick instruction that people grow up so much in ignorance and are thereby so apt to be blown about by every wind of vain doctrine and to be drawn away from the Church by every pretender that whistles them either to the Church of Rome on the one hand or the Sects on the other C. But Catechising you say is Preaching and what would you have private men Preach A. Yes every private Christian may and ought to Preach in this
A Seasonable DEFENCE OF Preaching AND THE Plain Way of it LONDON Printed by M. Clark for H. Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXVIII A DIALOGUE A. MY Friends you are well met here I suppose your business now is walking and I am for a turn or two with you B. You may well guess so for you seldom meet us here in the Church upon any other occasion A. I wish you had spoken that Penitently So I am sure you ought to have done And if you had come a little sooner you had learnt that duty from a very good Sermon B. A Sermon 'T was never well with the world since we have had so much Preaching A. To the same purpose said the Idolatrous Jews to the Prophet Jeremiah that since they had left to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven they had wanted all things and had never seen good days All times have afforded matter enough of complaint and I must confess there hath been a sort of Preaching that hath greatly contributed to the evils of ours but in this place and such like there is I hope no danger of hearing any of those pestilential Doctrines that once poysoned the publick Air. I am sure the true Primitive Christianity teacheth things that would cure all our maladies were they duly heeded and put in practice I need not tell you how earnestly it every where presseth Humility and Modesty Patience and Self-denyal Charity and Peace Mortification to the world and Conscientious submission to Governours These our Ministers preach and I suppose you will not say that such Preaching promotes the evils of the times if it do 't is very accidentally and so as the Grace of God is turn'd into lasciviousness and the strivings of his Spirit may contribute to mens greater hardness B. I speak not against Preaching but we have too much on 't A. We have more reason to thank God for the plenty than to quarrel at the abundance It would be very humorsome and foolish to complain that the Rivers run with more water than is necessary for our occasions and 't would have been absurd perversencss in the Israelites to have murmured because more Manna fell than they could use B. Do you not think then that there may be over-doing in this A. Yes doubtless when all religious offices are run into Preaching when that excludes the publick Prayers and Catechising when private Preaching days are set apart without Authority to humor the wantonness of vain people all these are over-doing B. But is not constant Preaching twice every Sunday besides occasional weekly Sermons too much A. It may be too much for the strength and health of the Minister it may be too much where the people will not frequent those afternoon Sermons or are prejudiced against them it may be so in Country Parishes and where no remarkable inconvenience ariseth from the omission of them But in Cities and great Towns as the times are they are in a manner necessary since without them people would idle more about and more would run to the Conventicles and 't would occasion the reproach of laziness on our Ministers and turn divers off from the Church that are kept in tolerable order by this double diligence There is not just so much Preaching set and stated by the Laws of Christ and the Church as must not be exceeded but so much is due as Edification Peace and Order require now this is more or less according as circumstances of times are and ours are such as make it very behooveful for Ministers to abound in this work what is grievous in it is to them who have much more labour imposed on them than former times expected and in stead of being advanced in proportionable maintenance and encouragement that is faln as much or more than their work is increast So that 't is indeed very hard upon them but wee the people have no reason to complain B. But Preaching being so frequent and common becomes contemptible by it and is so much the less heeded A. This is too true and 't is a great evil and discouragement to those that labour in the Word and Doctrine but what help fo rit To restrain and put a stop to the course of Preaching to cure this abuse would in likelyhood be followed with a train of greater Evils and as circumstances are it could not be done without manifest danger to the great Interests both of Church and State If the regular Clergy should leave frequent Preaching the Conventicle-meetings would swallow all and therefore upon the whole whatever is to be thought of the thing it self nakedly and abstractedly considered it is not I think any matter of just complaint that there is so much Preaching where the fault is not in the quality the plenty is no grievance C. For my part I must confess I seldom hear Sermons I love the Prayers of the Church and I care not much for Preaching A. It is a great unhappiness to mankind that we are so apt to run from one extreme into another In the late times and still among some Preaching and Hearing were in a manner all the Religion and the Prayers of the Church despised and excluded and now some on the quite contrary pretend to magnifie the publick prayers but vilifie Preaching and make Hearing nothing So that one duty and part of Religion is set up to conflict and destroy another And I observe that usually people of this pretence do in good earnest care for neither Preaching is an Evangelical Institution and the Commission given the Apostles was that they should go and teach all Nations and Saint Paul saith 't was necessary for him to Preach the Gospel and woe to him if he did it not and that he was not sent to Baptise but to Preach 1 Cor. 1. 17. viz. not to do the former chiefly Faith comes by hearing and how shall they hear without a Preacher This was the way whereby God conveyed his mind unto men in all times Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness and God spake unto them of old by the preaching of the Prophets I need not Preach more on this plain and well known Subject C. But ours I suppose is not like the Apostolical and Prophetical Preaching A. It is not indeed like theirs in respect of the immediate inspiration which the Prophets and Apostles had but our Ministers have not It is not like in respect of the Authority of an immediate mission assisted by the miracles they were inabled to perform it is not like in respect of the persons Preacht to who were chiefly Infidels or the circumstances of the action without the setled forms of decency which now are used but could not be then But as to the matter and the ends which are the main things our Preaching is as theirs was our Ministers Preach the same Jesus in the circumstances of his Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension Mediation and all the rest the same doctrines duties incouragements rewards