received largely at the hands of God it will and ought to be expected that you make suitable returns And though as our great Apostle says in another sense when you were Children you spake and thought and understood and acted as Children yet remember that now you write Men and such too as by virtue of your ingenuous Education have had greater Advantages than many others of improving your Reason and Understanding Wherefore forgetting what is behind reach forward towards that which is before you that you may prove as Eminent in your several ways as the Nature and Quality of your Employment will bear To shut up all Let your Garments as the Preacher Advises Eccles 9. v. 8. be white and let your Heads upon this Solemn Festival lack no Oyntment and carry along with you a chearful Countenance and all the civil marks and signatures of an Innocent and inoffensive joy to the place whither you are going Innocence and true Mirth are near Allyed and it is pity they should ever be asunder 'T is a good Conscience a welcome Remembrance that you have in some measure answered the Ends of your Liberal Institution at that Royal Foundation where you were Bred which will be the best relish and give the highest taste not only to your publick Entertainment this day but be a continual Feast to you afterwards And let us all it being a Duty which my Text and our own Obligations require of us retain a Venerable Esteem for those Wise Learned and Good Men who were the careful and painful Instructors of our Youth who brought us from Darkness unto Light who by bearing with our Infirmities complying with our several Dispositions informing our Judgments and filling up the Blanks and empty spaces of our Souls distinguish'd us from the Common Herd who being void of Knowledge are like the Beasts that perish Let us likewise praise the Lord for those Excellent Kings and Queens whom he raised in several Ages to be the Nursing-Fathers and the Nursing-Mothers of his Church especially let us return our hearty and unfeigned Thanks unto Almighty God for putting those good Thoughts into the Heart of our Religious Founder Henry the Sixth of Blessed Memory to erect that Famous Seminary and Nursery of good Learning Eton Colledge our Common and Indulgent Mother from whose full and overflowing Breasts we suck'd that wholsome and kindly Nourishment which hath added to the stature of our Knowledge and increased the growth of our Understanding Finally seeing Et spes ratio studiorum in Caesare Seeing we enjoy not only the Freedom but the Benefits and Advantages of our Studies by the Protection and under the Peaceable and Auspicious Government of our Gracious Sovereign Charles the Second who is not only the Promoter and Encourager of all Ingenious Learning but a great Master of all those useful Arts and Sciences which are worthy a Prince's knowledge And seeing he vouchsafes to own us in a particular manner as his own and to Grace this our Meeting with peculiar Marks of his Royal Favour let us all unanimously as our Duty and Allegiance binds us pray for the long and Prosperous Reign of His Most Sacred Majesty and that there may be still a continued Succession of Princes from that Ancient Stock to Rule these Nations in Peace and Quietness till the Dissolution of all Humane Authority and that they may continue to be still Defenders of the true Primitive Faith till Faith it self be no more and the Church which is now Militant become Triumphant And I hope in putting up this Address to the Throne of Grace I shall meet with no Dissenters in this Congregation Let all the Lucky Signs of a favourable Providence attend his Sacred Person Let the Sun offer him his Beams the Earth her Fruits and all his Subjects their Loyal Hearts Let the Poor Bless him and his very Enemies be forced to praise him Let Peace remain in his Dwellings and Integrity dwell in his Bosom Let true Religion and the welfare of the Church be ever dear unto him Let all his Laws and Commands be duly Executed and Religiously Observed Let Wisdom be the Supporter of his Throne and let her carry for him as she usually does in her Right Hand length of Days and in her left Hand Riches and Honour Let Patience a Virtue he hath but too much occasion to make use of possess his Royal Heart Let Majesty sit still upon his Brow and yet Mercy continue to couch between his Eye-lids Let the Angels of God be his Guardians and his particular Providence his Shield of Defence Let the many Headed Hydra that hisses and spits its Venom in Libels and Pamphlets against the Government be destroyed and those that speak evil of Dignities receive their just Reward and let him trample all Rebellion and Conspiracies wherever they be under his Feet And after a long and happy Reign let the Glorious Spirits those Winged Chariots of God convey him to that Blessed place of Rest that is prepared for all true Believers Where may all his Loyal Subjects who fear God and Honour their King meet him and amongst them we who are met together this Day And that for the sake and through the Merits of our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit Three Persons and One God be all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS
during their own time but to be Patterns and Examples to all succeeding Generations these supernatural Illuminations by degrees vanished and disappeared Now the Foundation was not only laid but a superstructure raised these Scaffolds which were only erected for the more easie and safe finishing of it were taken down He therefore who from this example of our Saviour will argue for a necessity of Enthusiastick Inspirations for the Interpretation of Scripture may by the same Rule maintain that a Christian Prince with an hundred Men may encounter a Pagan Enemy coming against him with Twenty Thousand because once by the especial Command of God Gideon reduced his great Army to three hundred and with them Vanquished the Host of the Midianites which were as the Sand of the Sea for multitude We are to Guide and Govern the several Periods and Circumstances of our Lives by those stated Rules and Measures which God in his Infinite Wisdom hath appointed for us not to propose one or two extraordinary Examples for our Patterns and Imitation We must make use of those plain easie and natural Methods which are laid down before us for the Improvement of our Reason and the Information of our Judgments not expect that our Understanding which the Wise Man calls The Candle of the Lord should be lighted as the Wood upon his Altar sometimes was by an immediate fire from Heaven And how necessary it is for all those who are designed to be the Ministers and dispenfers of the Word of God to apply themselves betimes to those means which are most proper for the attainment of that Knowledge which may prepare them for the through discharge of their Duty will sufficiently appear by the great damage the Church hath in all Ages sustained by the Ignorance of foolish and unlearned Men. He must not pretend to understand the Scriptures or to be conversant in the Style and Language of them who does not acknowledge that they abound in Tropes and Figures in Parables and dark Speeches and that there are divers weighty and important verities couch'd under those Allegorical and Enigmatical forms of Speech which cannot be discovered till that Vail and Covering be done away by the Skill and Industry of those whose Education entitles them to that sort of Learning What Monstrous Opinions what Prodigious Absurdities what Pernitious Doctrines hath this want of Art to distinguish between what is to be taken in a proper and literal what in a Forein and borrowed sense begat in the Christian World To this the Error of the Millenaries which began so early and hath continued so long more or less in the Church owes its first rise and Original Unskilful and unwary Men looking no farther than the bare letter of the Text applying those Glorious and specious Metaphors under which the Prophets of Old shadowed the Spiritual Riches and Happiness of Christs Kingdom to their down-right Natural meaning made such a Plat-form and Idea of that State as best suited with their Fancy and Imagination And how hard a matter it was even for our Saviour himself the great Teacher of Truth to wean his own Disciples from that false Opinion they had in the time of their Ignorance suck'd in of his Earthly and Temporal Kingdom the Evangelical History does abundantly demonstrate This sort of Ignorance begat the Follies and idle Dreams of the Anthropomorphites whilst taking those things which were spoken Figuratively in favour to the weakness of our shallow Understandings concerning the Essence of the Invisible God in their Natural Capacity they have represented him as a Corporeal Visible Substance consisting of Humane Members and even such a one as themselves And truly one would almost think that those of the Romish Church who stick so close to the literal sense of that Sacramental expression This is my Body had forgotten that our Saviour ever made use of any Figures of Speech in the several Discourses which he made whilst he was conversant here on Earth And when their great Bellarmine crouds in that Text Blessed are the Poor in Spirit to Patronize the Order of their Mendicant Friers I should almost judge him to be of the same Opinion had we not more Reason to believe that he and the rest of them do rather endeavour to bend the Scriptures to their Designs than to accommodate their Designs to the Rules of Scripture And as the inconveniences are many which have accrued to the Church by the Ignorance and Impudence of those who have presumed to touch the Mysteries of the Sanctuary with unwash'd and unhallowed Hands so on the other side she must acknowledge her self to owe the Defence of her Religion the Propagation of her Faith and the Confutation of her Adversaries to the Learned Pens and the Eloquent Discourses of those Wise Master-Builders which God raised up in all Ages for her Security and Preservation The Ancient Fathers and Writers who spent themselves and their time to serve the Church not only in their own Age but to succeeding Generations had lost much of their aim and the People of God much of the Benefit was intended them had their Learnned Apologies for the Christian Religion their Pious Explanations of the same Faith their useful Commentaries their strong and solid Arguments layen moulding in Libraries without a Key to unlock the meaning of them their Books had long since undergone the same Fate with themselves and become as they have done a prey for Moths and Worms But now by us though dead they yet speak and become profitable like the Scriptures of which they treat for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness Who unless he attain to the Knowledge of the Greek Tongue by the Advantages of a happy Education can discover the Golden Mines of St. Chrysostom's Eloquence For where is that Excellent Fluent Comprehensive Language Naturally now spoken Even Greece her self once the great Nurse and Favourer of Arts that labours as well under the sad and deplorable Fate of Barbarism and Ignorance as the Yoke of Turkish Slavery needs the help of acquired Learning to enable her to understand the great Masters of her own Attick Elegance I might Instance in the other Famous Language which like a Vagabond hath no certain home for Rome her self hath lost her Ancient Tongue as well as her first Faith Both whatever some pretend to say in the defence of them are Corrupted and her Language as well as Manners in the decay and declination of her Empire degenerated into a soft and effeminate Delicacy Should I pursue this Argument as far as it would go I might tire both my self and you but I must remember that I told you that that Learning which is the product of a Liberal Education was not only though chiefly necessary for those who wait at the Altar but also serviceable to all Persons in those several stations and Professions to which the Divine Providence hath assigned them which was the second Proposition I laid down Setting aside
Ancient Foundations were Built upon a firm Basis and ground of Reason Such exact Methods of Teaching such regular Discipline such free and open Communication of Notions such generous Emulations as are common and usual in Publick Schools cannot be expected in those small and inconsiderable Laboratories as I may call them that are set up in Countrey Villages Indeed it is not every ones good Fortune to go to Corinth or to be brought up at the feet of a Gamaliel but it were to be wish'd that we had more Publick Nurseries and so conveniently Situated that none of those who are designed for the Study of good Letters might want the benefit of a Liberal Education nor be exposed to the hazards which divers run by being tampered with in their first years by those little Mountebanks those Dabblers in Grammar who like other Quacks Kill more than they Cure who by infusing their unsound and Sophisticate Notions into their easie and tender Minds fix such ill habits upon the several Faculties as are scarce ever to be eradicated by the most potent Remedies of a contrary Institution Like Diseased Nurses they Infect those Children they should nourish and by conveying their unwholsome Juices into the empty veins of their Young Pupils they not only weaken and corrupt the before Healthy Constitution of the Soul but leave such Marks and Characters of their own Imperfections upon them as are never to be obliterated and worn out Those raw Beginners who it may be have made a transient Visit to the University for Fashion-sake cannot have those Qualifications that are requisite in those to whom the Government of wild and unbridled Youth ought to be committed They want that Discretion Prudence and Moderation to say no more which are the most commendable Qualities in those who take that difficult but withal most useful Profession upon them And not being able to Govern their own Passions nor having Judgment to proportion their Corrections to the measure of the Fault committed nor to distinguish between the several dispositions of Youth by their unreasonable and exorbitant Cruelties they force their little Flock to take Sanctuary at their own home or else create such an aversion and prejudice against all manner of Learning in their Minds which is never to be removed And indeed what else can be expected when the Young Orbilius who hath scarce the sound of the Ferula out of his Ears nor the smart of it out of his Hands having gotten that wooden Sceptre into his power begins to Rule Arbitrarily in his little Aedileship and thinks it but just to deal with others as he was served himself Whereas the grave Rector of the Publick School takes his measures from the Capacities and Dispositions of those who are under his Care whose Inclinations he knows as well as their Faces and from thence suits his demeanour towards them he knows how to quicken the Slothful and to reclaim the Extravagant by shaming them into better Manners and reduces more to Obedience by Stratagem than by Force He knows by proposing little Praemio's to make all so run as to strive for the Mastery and by mixing some few grains of pleasure with those useful Principles he instills into them he makes his Scholars in love with himself and their Books at the fame time But alas nothing of this Nature is to be expected from the Countrey Chancel which seldom produces any thing fit for the Use and Service of the Church Indeed some of us may remember and may we never see such days again when divers of the choicest of Gods Servants some of the Chief and most Eminent Pastors of our Church whose only Crime was their Loyalty were forced for the Testimony of a good Conscience to wander up and down in Desarts to bide themselves in Dens and Caves of the Earth destitute and Afflicted of whom our English World was not worthy These I say were glad to Teach Youth in some private corner for a mean Livelyhood to retire into some by unfrequented place to shelter themselves from the Tyranny of those Oppressors which then rid on the Necks of Gods People Under those shades did those great Shepherds feed their Lambs being driven from their Sheep in the Noon-day in the heat and fury of that Persecution that then raged amongst us Amongst those were many of our Loyal Nobility and Gentry bred and by their wholsom Doctrines kept stedfast in the Purity of that Worship and in those just and honest Principles for which their Worthy Parents then Suffered either by Death or Banishment or Consiscation of Goods or else Imprisonment But he that will urge this as an Argument for the countenancing of private Schools may as well make the secret Meetings and Nocturnal Assemblies of the Primitive Christians in Dens and Caves during the heat of Persecution an Argument to uphold those unlawful Conventicles which are but too frequent amongst us at this day Neither do I Condemn all private places which are made use of for the Breeding of Youth in some of which without question divers Worthy and Eminent Men have been Educated who either have met with some extraordinary Master or else who by the strength of their Natural parts have conquered the Malignity of those ill Principles wherewith they were first tainted But still give me leave as our Learned Apostle St. Paul says upon another account to tell you That I shew unto you a more excellent way And thus having shewn you the Usefulness of Humane Learning as to the several Occasions and Emergencies wherein we can be concerned in the World and the most probable way of attaining that Knowledge by an early Education in publick Schools Suffer me in the last place that I may conclude my Discourse with something pertinent to the Solemnity of this present Day to offer somewhat in behalf of that Royal Foundation of Eton Colledge the Pious and Charitable Work of Henry the Sixth one of the best though most unfortunate of our Princes at which we received the better part of our Education and from which divers of us amongst whom I my self which I shall ever gratefully acknowledge though the most unworthy derived other secular Advantages I will not say that though her Sisters of which she hath many and of great Renown but few of the same Noble extract with her self have all done virtuously that yet she hath excelled them all But I think I may affirm that which our Apostle does of himself That she comes not behind the very chiefest of them all If Experience which cannot lye be a sure Rule to go by I have many living Instances before me at this time to Witness those great and extraordinary Improvements and Accomplishments which are the result and effect of those many hours they carefully spent under the happy Tuition of the several Masters of that Famous and well Disciplin'd School and who do Naturally commend the same Education to others which they found so useful and beneficial to