and void of themselves And conclude that how strong soever they may be in Law yet they are nothing in Conscience And that they do not free a Man from his Obligations to Residence and Labour And they do generally conclude that he who upon a Dispensaâ—ion which has been obtained upon Carnal accounts such as Birth Rank or great Abilities and qualifications are not yet so good as these does not Reside is bound in Conscience to restore the Fruits of a Beneâ—ice which he has thus enjoyed with a bad Conscience without performing the duty belonging to it in his own Person But though it were very easie to bring out a great deal to this purpose I will go no further at present upon this Head The words of God seem to be so express and positive that such as do not yield to so undisputable an Authority will be little moved by all that can be brought out of Authors of a lower Form against whom it will be easie to muster up many exceptions if they will not be determined by so many of the Oracles of the living God CHAP. IV. Of the Sense of the Primitive Church in this Matter I will not enter here into any Historical Account of the Discipline of the Church during the first and best Ages of Christianity It is the glory of this Church that in her disputes of both hanâ—s aâ— well with those of the Church of Rome as with those that separate from her she has both the Doctrine and the Câ—nstitution of the Primitive Church of her side But this Plea would be more entire and less disputable if our Constiâ—ution were not only in its main and most essential parts formed upon that glorious Model but were also in its Rules and Administrations made more exactly conformable to those best and purest times I can never forget an advice that was given me above thirty years ago by one of the worthiest Clergy-men now alive while I was studying the Controversie relating to the Government of the Church from the Primitive Times he desires me to joyn with the more Speculative Discoveries that I should make the Sense that they had of the Obligations of the Clergy both with relation to their Lives and to their Labours And said that the Argument in favour of the Church how clearly soever made out would never have its full effect upon the World till abuses were so far corrected that we could shew a Primitive Spirit in our Administration as well as a Primitive pattern for our Constitution This made even then deep Impressions on me and I thank God the Sense of it has never left me in the whole course of my Studies I will not at present enter upon so long and so Invidious a work as the descending into all the particulars into which this matter might be branched out either from the Writings of the Fathers the Decrees of Councils the Roman Law and the Capitulars or even from the dreg of all the Canon Law it self which though a Collection made in one of the worst Ages yet carries many rules in it that would seem excessively severe even to us after all our Reformation of Doctrine and Worship This has been already done with so much exactness that it will not be necessary to set about it after the Harvest which was gathered by the learned Bishop of Spalato in the last Book of his great Work which the Pride and Inconstancy of the Author had brought under a disesteem that it no way deserves For whatever he might be that work was certainly one of the best productions of that Age. But this design has been prosecuted of late with much more exactness and learning and with great honesty and fidelity where the interest of his Church did not force him to use a little Art by F. Thomasin who has compared the modern and the ancient Discipline and has shewed very copiously by what steps the Change was made and how abuses crept into the Church It is a work of great use to such as desire to understand that matter truly I will refer the curious to these and many other lesser Treaties writ by the Iansenists in France in which abuses are very honestly complained off and proper Remedies are proposed which in many places being entertained by Bishops that had a right Sense of the Primitive Rules have given the Rise to a great Reformation of the French Clergy Instead then of any Historical deduction of these matters I shall content my self with giving the Sense of two of the Fathers of the Greek Church and one of tâ—e Latin upon this whole business of the Obligations of the Clergy The first is Gregory of Nazianze whose Father ordained him a Presbyter notwithstanding all his humâ—le Intercessions to the contrary according to the custom of the best Men of that Age who instead of pressing into Orders or aspiring to them fled from them excused themselves and judging themselves unworthy of so holy a Character and so high a Trust were not without difficulty prevailed on to submit to that which in degenerate Ages Men run to as to a subsistance or the mean of procuring it and seem to have no other Sense of that Sacred Institution then Mechanicks have of obtaining their Freedom in that Trade or Company in which they have passed their Apprenticeship It were indeed happy for the Church if those who offer themselves to Orders had but such a Sense of them as Tradesmen have of their Freedom Who do not pretend to it till they have finished the time prescribed and are in some sort qualified to set up in it Whereas alas men who neither know the Scriptures nor the body of Divinity who have made no progress in their Studies and can give no tollerable account of that holy Doctrine in which they desire to be Teachers do yet with equal degrees of confidence and importunity pretend to this Character and find the way to it too easie and the access of it too free But this Holy Father had a very different sense of this matter He had indeed submitted to his Fathers Authority he being his Bishop as well as his Father But immediately after he was ordained he gives this account of himself in his Apologetical Oration That he judging he had not that sublimity of Vertue nor that familiar acquaintance with divine matters which became Pastors and Teachers he therefore intending to purifie his own Soul to higher degrees of Vertue to an Exaltation above sensible Objects above his Body and above the World that so he might bring bis mind to a recollected and divine State and fit his Soul that as a polished mirrour it might carry on it the Impressions of divine Ideas unmixed with the allay of earthly Objects and might be still casting a brightness upon all his Thoughts did in order to the raising himself to that retire to the Wilderness He had observed that many pressed to handle the holy Mysteries with unwashed hands and defiled Souls
in their Hands Give heed to Reading Exhortation and Doctrine Think upon the things contained in this Book be diligent in them that the increase coming thereby may be manifest unto all Men. Take heed unto thy Self and to Doctrine and be diligent in doing them for by doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Be thou to the Flock of Christ a Shepherd not a Wolf feed them devour them not Hold up the weak heal the sick bind up the broken bring again the out-casts seek the lost Be so merciful that you be not too remiss So Minister Discipline that you forget not Mercy That when the chief Shepherd shall appear you may receive the never fading Crown of Glory through Iesus Christ our Lord. In these Words the great Lines of our Duty are drawn in very expressive and comprehensive Terms We have the several Branches of our Function both as to Preaching and Governing very solemnly laid upon us And both in this Office as well as in all the other Offices that I have seen it appears that the constant sence of all Churches in all Ages has been that Preaching was the Bishops great Duty and that he ought to lay himself out in it most particularly I shall only add one advice to all this before I leave this Article of the Sence of our Church in this matter both to those who intend to take Orders and to those who have already taken them As for such as do intend to dedicate themselves to the service of the Church they ought to read over these Offices frequently and to ask themselves solemnly as in the presence of God Whether they can with a good Conscience make those answers which the Book prescribes or not and not to venture on offering themselves to Oders till they know that they dare and may safely do it Every person who looks that way ought at least on every Ordination Sunday after he has once formed the resolution of dedicating himself to this work to go over the Office seriously with himself and to consider in what disposition or preparation of mind he is suitable to what he finds laid down in it But I should add to this that for a Year before he comes to be ordained he should every first Sunday of the Month read over the Office very deliberately and frame resolutions conform to the several parts of it and if he can receive the Sacrament upon it with a special set of private Devotions relating to his intentions As the time of his Ordination draws near he ought to return the oftner to those exercises It will be no hard task for him to read these over every Sunday during the last Quarter before his Ordination and to do that yet more solemnly every day of the week in which he is to be ordained and to joyn a greater earnestness of fasting and prayer with it on the Fast-days of his Ember Week Here is no hard imposition The performance is as easie in it self as it will be successful in its effects If I did not consider rather what the Age can bear than what were to be wished for I would add a great many severe Rules calculated to the Notions of the Primitive times But if this advice were put in practice it is to be hoped that it would set back many who come to be ordained without considering duly either what it is that they ask or what it is that is to be asked of them which some do with so supine a negligence that we plainly see that they have not so much as read the Office or at least that they have done it in so slight a manner that they have formed no clear Notions upon any part of it and least of all upon those parts to which they themselves are to make answers And as such a method as I have proposed would probably strike some with a due awe of Divine matters so as to keep them at a distance till they were in some sort prepared for them so it would oblige such as came to it to bring along with them a serious temper of mind and such a preparation of soul as might make that their Orders should be a blessing to them as well as they themselves should be a blessing to the Church It must be the greatest joy of a Bishops life who truly minds his duty in this weighty trust of sending out Labourers into Gods Vineyard to Ordain such persons of whom he has just grounds to hope that they shall do their duty faithfully in reaping that Harvest He reckons these as his Children indeed who are to be his strength and support his fellow Labourers and Helpers his Crown and his Glory But on the other hand how heavy a part of his Office must it be to Ordain those against whom perhaps there lies no just objection so that according to the Constitution and Rules of the Church he cannot deny them and yet he sees nothing in them that gives him courage or cheerfulness They do not seem to have that love to God that zeal for Christ that tenderness for souls that meekness and humility that mortification and deadness to the world that becomes the Character and Profession which they undertake so that his heart fails him and his hands tremble when he goes to Ordain them My next advice shall be to those who are already in Orders that they will at least four times a year on the Ordination Sundays read over the Offices of the Degrees of the Church in which they are and will particularly consider the Charge that was given and the Answers that were made by them and then ask themselves as before God who will Iudge them at the Great-day upon their Religious performance of them whether they have been true to them or not that so they may humble themselves for their Errours and Omissions and may renew their Vows for the future and so to be going on from Quarter to Quarter through the whole course of their Ministry observing still what ground they gain and what progress they make to such as have a right Sense of their Duty this will be no hard perforformance It will give a vast joy to those that can go through it with some measure of assurance and find that tho in the midest of many tentations and of much weakness they are sincerely and seriously going on in their work to the best of their skill and to the utmost of their power So that their Consciences say within them and that without the partialities of self love and flattery Well done good and faithful servant The hearing of this said within upon true grounds being the certainest Evidence possible that it shall be publickly said at the Last and Great-day This exercise will also offer checks to a man that looks for them and intends both to understand his errours and to cleanse himself from them It will upon the whole matter make Clergy Men go on with their Profession
which I have writ with all the sincerity of Heart and purity of Intention that I should have had if I had known that I had been to die at the Conclusion of it and to answer for it to God To him I humbly offer it up together with my most earnest Prayers That the Design here so imperfectly offered at may become truly effectual and have its full Progress and Accomplishment which whensoever I shall see I shall then with Joy say Nunc Dimittis c. FINIS Books Sold by Richard Chiswell BOOKS written by GILBERT BURNET D. D. now Lord Bishop of Sarum THE History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Volumes Folio Abridgment of the said History Octavo Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England Quarto History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-Lands Octavo Life of William Bedel D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland together with the Copies of certain Letters which passed between Spain and England in matter of Religion concerning the general Motives to the Roman Obedience Between Mr. Iames Wadsworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition in Sevil and the said William Bedel then Minister of the Gospel in Suffolk Octavo Some Passages of the Life and Death of Iohn late Earl of Rochester Octavo Examination of the Letter writ by the late Assembly-General of the Clergy of France to the Protestants inviting them to return to their Communion together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Octavo A Collection of seventeen Tracts and Discourses written in the Years 1678 to 1685 inclusive Quarto A Second Volume or a Collection of eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of K. Iames the Second With twelve others published a little before and since the late Revolution to Christmas 1689. Fast-Sermon at Bow-Church March 12 1689. on Luke 19.41 42. Fast-Sermon before the Queen Iuly 16 1690. On Psal. 85.8 Thanksgiving-Sermon before the King and Queen Octob. 19 1690. On Psal. 144.10 11. Fast-Sermon before the King and Queen April 19 1691. On Psal. 12.1 Thanksgiving-Sermon before the King and Queen Nov. 26. 1691 On Prov. 20.28 Sermon at the Funeral of Robert Boyle Esq Ian. 7. 1691. On Eccles. 11.26 Dr. Alix's Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont and the Albigenses In Two Parts Quarto The Jesuits Memorial for the intended Reformation of England under their first Popish Prince Written by Father Parsons 1596 and prepared to be proposed in the first Parliament after the Restoration of Popery for the better Establishment and Preservation of that Religion Published from the very Manuscript Copy that was presented to the late King Iames the Second and found in his Closet With an Introduction and some Animadversions by Edward Gee Chaplain to Their Majesties Octavo Dr. Câ—mberland now Lord Bishop of Peterborough his Essay towards the Recovery of the Jewish Measures and Weights comprehending their Monies by help of Antient Standards compared with Ours of England useful also to state many of those of the Greeks and Romans and the Eastern Nations Octavo Dr. Stratford now Lord Bishop of Chester his Disswasive from Revenge Octavo The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto A Discourse concerning the Popes Supremacy Quarto Dr. Cave's Dissertation concerning the Government of the Antient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs Octavo Two Letters betwixt Mr. Rich. Smith and Dr. Hâ—n Hammond concerning the Sense of that Aâ—ticle in the Creed He descended into Hell Octavo Dr. Puller's Moderation of the Church of England Octavo Jacobi Usserii Historia Dogmatica Controvers inter Orthodoxos Pontificios de Scripturis Sacris Vernaculis Quarto 1690. Tho. Pope-Blunt Censura Celebriorum Authorum sive Tractatus in quo varia Virorum Doctorum de clariss cujusque saeculi Scriptoribus judicia traduntur Fol. 1690. Gul. Camdeni Illustrium Virorum ad Gul. Camdenum Epistolae Quarto 1691. Anglia Sacra sive Collectio Historiarum antiquitus scriptarum de Archiepisc. Episcopis Angliae a prima Fidei Christianae susceptione ad Annum 1540. Opera Hen. Whartoni in 2 Vol. Folio 1691. Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections the Third Part in two Volumes never before printed from the beginning of the Long Parliament 1640 to the end of the Year 1644 Wherein is a particular account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period Folio 1692. Stephani Chauvin Lexicon Rationale sive Thesaurus Philosophicus 1692. Folio Sam. Basnagii Exercitationes Historico-Criticae de rebus Sacris Ecclesiasticis Quarto 1692. Tho. Crenii Collectio Consiliorum de Studiis optime instituendis Quarto 1692. Ejusdem Fasciculâ—s Dissertationum Hist. Critico-Philologicarum Octavo 1691. Basilii Fabri Thesaurus eruditionis Scholasticae cum innumeris additionibus per Aug. Buchnerum Christoph. Cellarium Lips Folio 1692. Ludov. Seckendorf Historia Lutheranismi Folio 1692. Laurentii Begeri Observationes Conjecturae in Numismata quaedam Antiqua Quarto 1691. 1 Phil. 16. Malach. 2.7 8 9. Jer. 10.21 1 Tim 5 1â— Isa. 40.11 Joh. 10.1 1 Cor 4.1 â— 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Rev. 2.3 ch 2 Cor. 8.23 3. Heb. 7 17. 3. Ezek. 17. 1 Cor. 3.10 1 Cor 3.9 St. Matth. 20 1. St. Matt. 9.37 38. 1 Cor. 3.6 2. Philip. 25. St. Matth. 20.28 John 13.5 Levit. 8. Levit. 21 1. Leâ—it 〈…〉 Lâ—â—it 10. ◠〈…〉 1 Sam. 2d 3d Ch. Isa. 56.10 â—er 5.2 Ezek. 14.14 Jer. 2.8 Jer. 5.32 Jer. 6.13 Jer. 23.22 v. 11. v. 48. Jer. 3.15 Ezek. 3.17 Ezek. 33.7 Ezek. 22.26 â—â—ek 34 2. v. 3. v. 4. v. 10. Dan. 12.3 Hos. 4.1 2 6. Joel 2.17 ch 3. v. 11. Zech. 11.15 Mal. 2.1 9 S. Matth. 37. 12 St. Luâ—e 42. 12 St. Io. 15. 20 Acts 28. V. 19. V. 20. V. 26. 〈…〉 1 Cor. 4.2 1 Cor. 9.14 â—ctâ— 6. â— 2 Cor. 4.1.2 4 Eph. 11 12.13 â— Col. 17. 1 Tim. 4.12 13 14 15 16. 1 Tim. 5.21.22 2 Tim. â— 2 â— 4. V. 5. V. 15. V. 24 25 26. 2 Tim. 3.15 V. 16.17 2 Tim. 4.1.2 V. â— V. 6. V. 7. V. 8. V. 20. 1 Tit. 6. 2 Tit. 7.8 V. 15. 1 Tim. 4.12 13 Heb. 7. V. 17. Cor. 9 â—3 14. Math. 23.2 3.
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 Discâ—urse of this sort would be generally of much greater Edification than an Afternoons 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 remembred 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 joyn 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 extreams 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 terrifie 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 Publick 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 our 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 Publick 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 gratifie our own or other Peoples 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 our selves 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 subdue them to us and to rule them with a Rod of Iron For the truth is Mankind is so strongly compounded that it is very hard to restrain Ecclesiastical Tyranny on the one hand without running to a Lawless Licentiousness on the other so strongly does the World love Extreams and avoid a Temper Now I have gone through the Publick Functions oâ— a Priest and in speaking of the last of these I have broke in upon the Third Head of his Duty his private Labours in his Parish He understands little the Nature and the Obligations of the Priestly Office who thinks he has discharged it by performing the Publick Appointments in which if he is defective the Laws of the Church how feeble soever they may be as to other things will have their Course but as the private Duties of the Pastoral Care are things upon which the Cognisance of the Law cannot fall so they are the most important and necessary of all others and the more Praise Worthy the freer they are and the less forc'd by the Compulsion of Law As to the Publick Functions every Man has his Rule and in these all are almost alike every Man especially if his Lungs are good can read Prayers even in the largest Congregation and if he has a right Taste and can but choose good Sermons out of the many that are in Print he may likewise serve them well that way too But
not to be spent a short Word for stirring them up to mind their Souls to make Conscience of their Ways and to pray earnestly to God may begin it and almost end it After one has asked in what Union and Peace the Neighbourhood lives and enquired into their Necessities if they seem very Poor that so those to whom that Care belongs may be put in mind to see how they may be relieved In this course of visiting a Minister will soon find out if there are any truly Good Persons in his Parish after whom he must look with a more particular regard Since these are the Excellent ones in whom all his delight ought to be For let their Rank be ever so mean if they are sincerely Religious and not Hypocritical Pretenders to it who are vainly puffed up with some Degrees of Knowledge and other outward Appearances he ought to consider them as the most valuable in the sight of God and indeed as the chief Part of his Care for a living Dog is better than a dead Lion I know this way of Parochial Visitation is so worn out that perhaps neither Priest nor People will be very desirous to see it taken up It will put the one to Labour and Trouble and bring the other under a closer Inspection which bad Men will no ways desire nor perhaps endure But if this were put on the Clergy by their Bishops and if they explained in a Sermon before they began it the Reasons and Ends of doing it that would remove the Prejudices which might arise against it I confess this is an encrease of Labour but that will seem no hard matter to such as have a right Sense of their Ordination-Vows of the value of Souls and of the Dignity of their Function If Men had the Spirit of their Calling in them and a due measure of Flame and Heat in carrying it on Labour in it would be rather a Pleasure than a Trouble In all other Professions those who follow them labour in them all the Year long and are hard at their Business every Day of the Week All Men that are well suted in a Profession that is agreeable to their Genius and Inclination are really the easier and the better pleased the more they are employed in it Indeed there is no Trade nor Course of Life except Ours that does not take up the whole Man And shall Ours only that is the Noblest of all others and that has a certain Subsistence fixed upon it and does not live by Contingencies and upon Hopes as all others do make the labouring in our Business an Objection against any part of our Duty Certainly nothing can so much dispose the Nation to think oâ— the relieving the Necessities of the many small Livings as the seeing the Clergy setting about their Business to purpose this would by the Blessing of God be a most effectual Means of stopping the Progress of Atheism and of the Contempt that the Clergy lies under it would go a great way towards the healing our Schism and would be the chief step that could possibly be made towards the procuring to us such Laws as are yet wanting to the compleating our Reformation and the mending the Condition of so many of our poor Brethren who are languishing in Want and under great Straits There remains only somewhat to be added concerning the Behaviour of the Clergie towards one another Those of a higher Form in Learning Dignity and Wealth ought not to despise poor Vicars and Curates but on the contrary the poorer they are they ought to pity and encourage them the more since they are all of the same Order only the one are more happily placed than the others They ought therefore to cherish those that are in worse Circumstances and encourage them to come often to them they ought to lend them Books and to give them other Assistances in order to their progress in Learning 'T is a bad thing to see a Bishop behave himself superciliously towards any of his Clergy but it is intolerable in those of the same Degree The Clergy ought to contrive Ways to meet often together to enter into a brotherly Correspondence and into the Concerns one of another both in order to their progress in Knowledg and for consulting together in all their Affairs This would be a means to cement them into one Body hereby they might understand what were amiss in the Conduct of any in their Division and try to correct it either by private Advices and Endeavours or by laying it before the Bishop by whose private Labours if his Clergy would be assisting to him and give him free and full Informations of things many Disorders might be cured without rising to a publick Scandal or forcing him to extream Censures It is a false Pity in any of the Clergy who see their Brethren running into ill Courses to look on and say nothing it is a Cruelty to the Church and may prove a Cruelty to the Person of whom they are so unseasonably tender for things may be more easily corrected at first before they have grown to be publick or are hardned by Habit and Custom Upon all these Accounts it is of great advantage and may be Matter of great Edification to the Clergie to enter into a strict Union together to meet often and to be helpful to one another but if this should be made practicable they must be extreamly strict in those Meetings to observe so exact a Sobriety that there might be no Colour given to censure them as if these were merry Meetings in which they allowed themselves great Liberties it were good if they could be brought to meet to fast and pray but if that is a strain too high for the present Age at least they must keep so far within bounds that there may be no room for Calumny For a Disorder upon any such Occasion would give a Wound of an extraordinary Nature to the Reputation of the whole Clergy when every one would bear a Share of the Blame which perhaps belonged but to a few Four or five such Meetings in a Summer would neither be a great Charge nor give much Trouble but the Advantages that might arise out of them would be very sensible I have but one other Advice to add but it is of a thing of great consequence though generally managed in so loose and so indifferent a Manner that I have some reason in Charity to believe that the Clergy make very little Reflection on what they do in it And that is in the Testimonials that they sign in favour of those that come to be Ordained Many have confessed to my self that they had signed these upon general Reports and Importunity tho the Testimonial bears personal Knowledg These are instead of the Suffrages of the Clergy which in the Primitive Church were given before any were Ordained A Bishop must depend upon them for he has no other way to be certainly informed and therefore as it is a Lie