Effect Why nothing less than death and the desolution of the Man Besides 't is an omission that can proceed from nothing but a disingenious and base Ingratitude unworthy of a rational Being or of the Nature of Man And I beseech God to lay it home to all our Hearts for an universal Reformation §. V. Prop. 3. That there is a necessity for a settled Ministry in order to perform the same Prop. 3. To assist us in our religious Addresses as well as to invite us to them there is a necessity that there should be a sort of Men selected from others and ordained for that purpose These we call usually the Ministry the more proper Instruments of Divine Worship And the necessity of these appears from hence Man is generally immers'd in Cares and the Affairs of this World and the Business of this Life is apt to take up all his Thoughts and bank his Resolutions of Duty Besides he is blinded by Self-love and apt to flatter himself so that he cannot make a true judgment of his Spiritual Estate and wants upon both Accounts a daily Monitor as to the things of God Add to this he is carried headlong with the fury of his Passions beyond all moderation and loves and hates without measure His Appetites cheat and delude him and the Devil is ready to improve them to evil Acts and the Admonitions of his Conscience cannot be harkned to And all these unite to make him not capable at all times to exhibit a due and seasonable worship to his Maker And therefore God by the Law of Nature as well as by his revealed Will hath taught Men to have standing Ministers of Religion who at once should be Monitors and Assistants in our religious Applications who shou'd at the same time call upon us to pray and pray with us and for us who shou'd exhort and rebuke with all Authority and keep us as far as those means can prevail with us in our way to Heaven Hence it is that in all Nations where there was any Notion of a God and Religion and that was every where there was also a separate sort of Men call'd Priests to assist them as to the things of God and their well-in tended tho' mistaken Devotions Thus it has been from the beginning and so it continues to this day even amongst the Heathens Pagans and Indians who have no other Law but that of Nature to guide them So it was amongst the Patriarchs before the giving of the Jewish Law where the chief of each Family did this Office as having in all probability the most Wisdom as well as the most Authority During the Jewish Oeconomy in that Nation this Office was annext to one Tribe but this was but a National and Temporal Constitution and under that of the Christian these are usually called the Clergy A sort of Men begun by Christ himself the chief Corner-Stone continued from him to the Apostles and from them to others down to us These receive a derivative Power to intercede for their several Flocks instruct and build them up in the most Holy Faith and administer to them the Pledges of Grace and Salvation These things cannot be denied as to matters of Fact or the reason of the Thing and he that shall have the forehead to do it will at the same time impeach the Wisdom of God in the Holy Scriptures as well as in the Law of Nature and is no better than a proud conceited Atheist or Enthusiast And so I leave him to proceed to the Fourth Proposition which follows §. VI. Prop 4. That the Ministry ought to have a competent and sufficient Maintenance Prop. 4. This sort of Men thus set apart for the Purposes of Religion and the Service of God are to be maintain'd with a Competency sufficient for that Purpose And here I desire not to be mistaken for I dream not of Greatness and worldly Pomp. And what an envious sort of People amongst us have to object shall be taken into Consideration in its due place I shall only plead for a Competency that may enable them to attend upon their Office without distraction or worldly Avocations And if that were allowed it were sufficient and under such a Sufficiency it cannot he performed The only Question will be what ought to be accounted such a Sufficiency And here let me not be thought impertinent if I enquire into two Things First What the Supreme Wisdom did heretofore think so and shew how plentifully they were then provided for both under Judaism and Christianity how the Church came to be impoverished and what were the Consequences of the same Secondly What by Parity of Reason may be thought such a Sufficiency now 1. If we enquire of former Times What God himself heretofore assign'd for a Competency What amongst the Patriarchs and the Days that are now long past we shall easily perceive what the Wisdom of God thought necessary for the Support of so holy and abstracted an Office From the beginning of the World till the giving of the Jewish Law from Mount Sinai which was above 2400 Years the Priesthood was executed by the Head of each Family and the Princes were also Priests the Sacred and Secular Powers being united But after God had entail'd the Priesthood on the Family of Aaron instead of the First-born Exod. 13. which were always accounted his he chose the Tribe of Levi of which Aaron was a Branch to Numb 3. attend the Priests and the Service of the Tabernacle So that the Ministry of that Nation was divided into Priests and Levites Those the Principals these the Assistants Those to perform the most solemn Acts of Worship these to attend them and to perform the inferior and they were answerable to our Priests and Deacons And amongst the Priests there were then as there be now several Degrees as the High-Priests the Chief of the several What amongst the Jews and God's large Provision for them Courses and ordinary Priests each dignified and distinguished and endow'd with Estates equal to their several Stations The lowest of that Ministry were the Levites And as to them if we consider their Number they were not the fortieth part of the whole Congregation and yet it is observed by learned Men that have computed it that their Portion what by Cities and the Glebe round about to One thousand Cubits every way according to the Cubit of the Sanctuary which was as big again as the ordinary Cubit and what by the Tythes of all Israel was four times as much as that of any other the greater Tribes So liberal was God in those Days to the Inferior Clergy that tho' their Number was far smaller yet their Portion was far greater than the rest of the Peoples and they lost nothing but got much by having God to be their Pay-Master who allowed them Estates seven or eight times as much as he did to those of other Tribes Then for the Priests of the particular
such must be the happy Condition of the Founders and Benefactors of Colleges Halls Hospitals and other religious and charitable Foundations whose Reward shall not only continue but be increased daily in proportion to the Good it doth and shall do daily till the consummation of all Things §. XVII The Conclusion shewing the difference betwixt the Desert and Reward of the ordinary and charitable Disposals And here give me leave to observe to you the difference betwixt Self-serving on the one Hand and Liberality and Charity on the other and desire you to consider the different Methods of Distribution and the different Deserts and Rewards by which you may judge which is the more prudent way of Disposal in our lives-time or Settlement at our death And for once let us suppose That every rich Man has a Son to be Heir of his Estate and Fourtunes yet even in that Case there is this to be said 1. We think our selves happy That of the Ordinary consider'd when we can beget our like and transmit our Nature to another and so preserve it from the common fate of Mortality And yet indeed it is no more ours when we die than anothers for then all Relations cease and Kindred is at an end And even while we live here considering the constant Flux of Matter there 's very little of us in our Children unless the Soul also cou'd be prov'd to be ex traduce However we call them ours we give them an Original and Nature by Nutrition and Increase But then we communicate to them our evil and corrupt Nature and Disposition and commonly our Customs and Habits If there be any Imperfection it is usually propagated and we may view our sinful selves in them An Object of Grief more than Joy And so much the more when by the want of Education or a depraved one when by Fondness and Lenity we make him twofold more the Child of Wrath than our selves But if we cou'd be secure of his happy and prosperous Life in respect of all his Capacities yet this like wise must be taken into Consideration That Families as well as single Men have their period and two or three Generations usually put an end to our Place and Name and then where 's the effect of all our Cares Projects Designs Joys and Griefs when Strangers shall inherit our Labours Well but what 's the present or future Reward for all our Cares and Troubles in providing Estates for our Heirs or Heirs for our Estates Verily nothing at all We have here but our Labour for our Pains and the thin aery Pleasure of thinking we shall leave an Estate to our Children or rather to we know not whom Sometimes we have the mortification to foresee that all shall be spent and wasted in a short time as 't is said of an eminent Person in a former Reign to have made this sorrowful Bequest Scelera omnia Edoardo Primogenito meo dissipanda neque unquam melius speravi religo c. And if Souls departed have any Account of the Affairs of their Successors here on Earth it must be most commonly a very sorrowful one but if they have none at all it will not concern us who they are and what they do Thus for our present and then for our future Reward we can expect nothing For this is the Effect only of self-love to support our selves first and then our second selves our Heirs and Assigns when we can hold it no longer and so do the Heathens and then what Reward can we expect more than they Or rather what Punishment may we not expect above them who have a greater Light Promises and Encouragements and yet manage our earthly Talent mostly worse than they And this is in short the Account of our ordinary Disposals of the Goods of Fortune as they are commonly called and Deserts and Rewards consequent thereunto §. XVIII That of the Charitable Persons c. 2. Let us now in the second place consider those of the Charible Person and for Instance sake that of the Founder of a College or School in particular He cannot be suppos'd to be Childless but has a numerous Family and that selected out of the best Wits and Humours in the Nation and the greatest Persons are glad to part with the most ingenious of their Sons to become his and serve under his Rules He prescribes Laws which they willingly bind themselves by Oath to observe with a greater Reverence and Care than the Commands of their natural Parents and they leave their Fathers and Mothers to become his Children Their continual Practice is that of Vertue Learning and Religion And thus the worst Natures are rectified and the best improv'd and all are mended And when this Work is perfected some go out into the World and are fitted to serve God in his Church the King and their Country and others succeed in their Places and Advantages So that his Family is a Seminary of Religion and Learning and there is a succession of it as long as the Sun and Moon endureth And when these have finished their Courses and the end of all Things is come he may present himself and them to his Maker with the Words of the Prophet Behold Lord I and the Children that thou hast given me §. XIX In Summ Charity hath the preference of any other Disposal of Estate and that in these Three Respects following First The Charitable Person doth Good to others and not to his own Family only and I wou'd not be so understood as if I pleaded for the neglect of them but the Good of others also and therefore his Work is more Heroick Diffusive and remov'd from private Good and so is more excellent And he may say out of the Mouth of Wisdom Behold I have not laboured Ecclus 24. 34. for my self only but for all them that seek Wisdom Secondly He doth the best Good not only in supporting the Bodies but dressing up the Souls and cultivating of the Minds of Men for Religion and Vertue And so the End of his Endeavours is the acquisition of the greatest present and future Happiness of Mind and Body here on Earth and afterwards in Heaven Thirdly Others Labours cease and rest as well as they from their Labours but his continue increase and produce new Advantages daily and so will continue to do till the end of the World unless the Supreme Providence suffers them to be invaded and diverted And even in that Case the Pious Donor may reasonably expect from the just God Rewards in proportion to the presumptive Effects of his Work and the Intention of the Benefactor So that let things happen how they will he cannot miss of his Reward If his Charity remains his Reward increaseth with its Fruits but if it be obstructed by Fraud or Violence yet it will be remunerated according to the uprightness of his Intention §. XX. In a word Every Action of Charity we do here is recorded above and hath its
Reward apportion'd there even to Interest upon Interest and all the possible Degrees of Improvement which the Divine Prescience can easily foresee and will adjust according to the Measures of his Mercies And this Reward is as far above the inherent Worth of the Work as Heaven is above the Earth or the Regions of Bliss above this Vale of Tears Whatsoever we do for our selves or our Relations we leave behind us as Duties we owe to Nature for which she pays us here But what we do for God and his Servants for his sake follow us into the state of the dead and into the Tribunal of our Judge and plead for us where they cannot but have a benign Audience from him who is the Father of the Fatherless and who pleads the Cause of Orphans and Widows even God in his Holy Habitation And with this I will conclude the second Head of this Discourse and prepare to speak of the Third in that which follows AN ESSAY TO Revive the Necessity OF Ancient Piety Honoured SIR §. I. Why the Author treats of Works of Piety in the last place THE Subject of this Second Address is the Third End for which it pleases the Divine Bounty to entrust us with an Earthly Portion and that is the Promotion of the Honour of God and the making his Perfections and particularly his Goodness known to Mankind that they may with us be induc'd to render him the Honour due to his Name and the Tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving And this by the order of Nature and Reason ought to have claimed the first Place in these Discourses as his Dues were to be first offered up and separated amongst his own People before they were to make use of the remainder Besides this is the End of the Enjoyment of our own Part and the End of our Distribution to others of Self-preservation and Charity both ought to aim at his Glory and therefore it ought first to be treated of But in this ungrateful Age in which we take like the Beast of the Field what is bestowed upon us without ever looking up to Heaven and acknowledging the Hand that distributes it in this prophane Age in which our Pleasures and Profits are only considered and God's Honour not at all or not often in this bigotted and yet irreligious Age in which 't is thought Superstition and Priest-Craft to plead for any thing towards the continuance of God's Service because they are to be his Receivers wherein such Doctrines as these are quite out-dated and strange to our Ears and Men think their Estates not concern'd at all to maintain the Worship of God In an Age wherein 't is thought that Church-men have too much still and a covetous Eye is cast upon the large Revenues of Bishops Deans and Chapters wherein all chargeable Worship is thought needless and so many inspir'd Ignorants set up for Ministers and tender a cheap Worship or such as will cost nothing I say in such an Age as this is I must be content that God's Cause shou'd come on last and that he have the least share in our Estates rather than none at all And yet tho' it comes last yet it shall not be least treated of but be the Subject of the following Papers in which I shall endeavour to maintain this Assertion §. II. That every Man is bound to the utmost of his Power to promote the Honour of his Master and maintain his Service and for the sake of that and to that purpose those that are to officiate in the same and that with his Estate and Fortunes And that he that is able to do it which is the Case of most Men more or less and doth it not mis-imploys his Talent answers not the End for which it was committed to his Charge and must give an Account of that Neglect at the last Day That this Truth may appear I must first define what I mean by the Object of our Piety the Glory of God and then distinguish concerning the Ways of promoting of it The Glory and Honour of God What is meant by the Glory of God or Divine Worship or Divine Worship is the humble and reverential Agnition of his Being and of all his Glorious Attributes his Supremacy Power Goodness and other infinite Perfections And the Acknowledgment that we are his Creatures depend upon him for Life and Motion and receive all the good things necessary thereunto at his Bounty which is the subject-matter of our Prayers and Praises The act of exhibiting those Acknowledgments How this is exhibited is either mediate or immediate We glorifie God mediately 1. Mediately By mediate as that tends to his Honour when we do any thing that naturally tends to these Acknowledgments Thus the doing of every good Work is for his Glory because it may and doth naturally tend to set it forth Thus all the Works of Nature and Art the Knowledge of the great System of the World and Natural Philosophy teach his Praises Thus all Moral As Moral and Matural Philosophy Works of Vertue as Equity or Justice Comity Urbanity Liberality Fortitude Temperance and such like tend to his Glory in their exercise for the Good of Mankind and in the Subject where they are found because of his planting there Even Polity the well-institution of Kingdoms and Reciprocal Duties of Governors and Subjects leads us to the Providential Care of God for our Good and consequently to his Praises In a word whatsoever doth naturally incline us to think upon God and reflect upon his Power or Goodness is a mediate Act of glorifying him And thus the Psalmist having considered the several Acts of Providence over the several sorts of Men in the varieties of their Lives reflects very naturally upon his Goodness and thence takes occasion to exhort Men to praise him O that men Psal 107. wou'd therefore praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men. And as natural and moral Philosophy tend in their consequences and mediately to the Divine Service which we owe our Maker so do all Foundations Societies and The Founders of Schools of Learning and the Vniversities how they tend to the advancing Divine Service c. Seminaries of Learning and Religion design'd for the same uses And here I cannot but remember and at the same time celebrate those Nurseries of every thing that is Good and Commendable The two flourishing Vniversities of our Land and that with all Thankfulness to God and Acknowledgments of the Munificence of the Founders and Benefactors of each Society that compose those August and Illustrious Bodies That God was pleased to incline the Hearts of those good Men to employ their Riches to such Advantages of Religion and preserve such Foundations to the Good of Mankind amongst the Dissolutions of so many pretended Houses of Religion in these three Kingdoms Places founded at first without all question with sincere Intentions of extraordinary Piety