vast compass, grasping within it all the perfections and dimensions of human science, does not worthily claim all the preparations, whereby the wit and industry of man can fit him for it? All other sciences are accounted but handmaids to divinity; and shall the handmaid be richer adorned, and better clothed and set off, than her lady? In other things, the art usually excels the matter, and the ornament we bestow, is better than the subject we bestow it upon: but here we are sure, that we have such a subject before us, as not only calls for, but commands, and not only commands, but deserves, our utmost application to it; a subject of that native, that inherent worth, that it is not capable of any addition from us, but shines both through and above all the artificial lustre we can put upon it. The study of divinity is indeed difficult, and we are to labour hard and dig deep for it; but then we dig in a golden mine, which equally invites and rewards our labour. And thus much for the second general head at first proposed, for the handling of the words; which was to shew, the reasons of the necessity of the preparations spoken of to the study of divinity. Of which we have assigned three.

And so we pass at length to the third and last general head proposed, which was, to shew what useful inferences may be drawn from the foregoing particulars. And the first shall be a just and severe reproof to two sorts of men.

1st, To such as disparage and detract from the grandeur of the gospel, by a puerile and indecent levity in their discourses of it to the people.

2dly, To such as depreciate and (as much as in them lies) debase the same, by a coarse, careless, rude, and insipid way of handling the great and invaluable truths of it.

Both of them certainly objects of the most deserved reproof. And

1. For those who disparage and detract from the gospel, by a puerile and indecent sort of levity in their discourses upon it, so extremely below the subject discoursed of. All vain, luxuriant allegories, rhyming cadencies of similary words, are such pitiful embellishments of speech, as serve for nothing but to embase divinity; and the use of them, but like the plastering of marble, or the painting of gold, the glory of which is to be seen, and to shine by no other lustre but their own. What Quintilian most discreetly says of Seneca's handling philosophy, that he did " rerum pondera minutissimis sententiis frangere," break, and, as it were, emasculate the weight of his subject by little affected sentences, the same may with much more reason be applied to the practice of those, who detract from the excellency of things sacred by a comical lightness of expression: as when

their prayers shall be set out in such a dress, as if they did not supplicate, but compliment Almighty God; and their sermons so garnished with quibbles and trifles, as if they played with truth and immortality; and neither believed these things themselves, nor were willing that others should. For is it possible, that a man in his senses should be merry and jocose with eternal life and eternal death, if he really designed to strike the awful impression of either into the consciences of men? No, no; this is no less a contradiction to common sense and reason, than to the strictest notions of religion. And as this can by no means be accounted divinity, so neither indeed can it pass for wit; which yet such chiefly seem to affect in such performances. For these are as much the stains of true human eloquence, as they are the blots and blemishes of divinity; and might be as well confuted out of Quintilian's Institutions, as out of Saint Paul's Epistles. Such are wholly mistaken in the nature of wit: for true wit is a severe and a manly thing. Wit in divinity is nothing else, but sacred truths suitably expressed. It is not shreds of Latin or Greek, nor a Deus dixit, and a Deus benedixit, nor those little quirks, or divisions into the or, the diór, and the xador, or the egress, regress, and progress, and other such stuff, (much like the style of a lease,) that can properly be called wit. For that is not wit which consists not with wisdom. For can you think that it had not been an easy matter for any one, in the text here pitched upon by me, to have run out into a long, fulsome allegory, comparing the scribe and the householder together, and now and then to have cast in a rhyme, with a quid, a quo, and a quomodo, and the like? But certainly it would then have been much more difficult for the judicious to hear such things, than for any, if so inclined, to have composed them. The practice therefore of such persons is upon no terms to be endured. Nor,

2. Is the contrary of it to be at all more endured in those who cry up their mean, heavy, careless, and insipid way of handling things sacred, as the only spiritual and evangelical way of preaching, while they charge all their crude incoherences, saucy familiarities with God, and nauseous tautologies, upon the Spirit prompting such things to them, and that as the most elevated and seraphic heights of religion. Both these sorts, as I have said, are absolutely to be exploded; and it is hard to judge which of them deserves it most. It is indeed no ways decent for a grave matron to be attired in the gaudy, flaunting dress of youth; but it is not at all uncomely for such an one to be clothed in the richest and most costly silk, if black or grave: for it is not the richness of the piece, but the gaudiness of the colour, which exposes to censure. And there

fore, as I shew before, that the T's and the dióri's, the Deus dixit, and the Deus benedixit, could not be accounted wit; so neither can the whimsical cant of "issues, products, tendencies, breathings, indwellings, rollings, recumbencies," ,"* and scriptures misapplied, be accounted divinity. In a word, let but these new lights, (so apt to teach their betters,) instead of all this and the like jargon, bring us, in their discourses, strength of argument, clearness of consequence, exactness of method, and propriety of speech, and then let prejudice and party (whatsoever they may mutter against them) despise and deride them if they can. But persons of light, undistinguishing heads, not able to carry themselves clear between extremes, think that they must either flutter, as it were, in the air, by a kind of vain, empty lightness, or lie grovelling upon the ground, by a dead and contemptible flatness; both the one and the other, no doubt, equally ridiculous. But, after all, I cannot but believe, that it is the bewitching easiness of the latter way of the two which chiefly sanctifies and endears it to the practice of these men; and I hope it will not prove offensive to the auditory, if, to release it (could I be so happy) from suffering by such stuff for the future, I venture upon some short description of it; and it is briefly thus,-First of all, they seize upon some text, from whence they draw something, which they call a doctrine, and well may be it said to be drawn from the words, forasmuch as it seldom naturally flows or results from them. In the next place, being thus provided, they branch it into several heads, perhaps twenty, or thirty, or upwards. Whereupon, for the prosecution of these, they repair to some trusty concordance, which never fails them; and by the help of that, they range six or seven scriptures under each head; which scriptures they prosecute one by one, first amplifying and enlarging upon one, for some considerable time, till they have spoiled it; and then, that being done, they pass to another, which, in its turn, suffers accordingly. And these impertinent and unpremeditated enlargements, they look upon as the motions and breathings of the Spirit, and therefore much beyond those carnal ordinances of sense and reason, supported by industry and study; and this they call a saving way of preaching, as it must be confessed to be a way to save much labour, and nothing else that I know of. But how men should thus come to make the salvation of an immortal soul such a slight, extempore business, I must profess I cannot understand; and would gladly understand upon whose example they ground this way of preaching; not upon that of the apostles, I am sure. For it is said of Saint Paul, in his sermon before Felix, that he "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, *Terms often and much used by one J. O, a great leader and oracle in those times.

and judgment to come." The words being in Acts, xxiv. 25, διαλεγομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ, and, according to the natural force and import of them, signifying, that hediscoursed or reasoned dialectically, following one conclusion with another, and with the most close and pressing arguments from the most persuasive topics of reason and divinity. Whereupon we quickly find the prevalence of his preaching in a suitable effect, that "Felix trembled." Whereas, had Paul only cast about his arms, spoke himself hoarse, and cried, "You are damned," though Felix (as guilty as he was) might have given him the hearing, yet possibly he might also have looked upon him as one whose passion had, at that time, got the start of his judgment, and accordingly have given him the same coarse salute which the same Paul afterwards so undeservedly met with from Festus. But his zeal was too much under the conduct of his reason to fly out at such a rate. But, to pass from these indecencies to others, as little to be allowed in this sort of men, can any tolerable reason be given for those strange new postures used by some in the delivery of the word? such as shutting the eyes, distorting the face, and speaking through the nose, which I think cannot so properly be called preaching, as toning of a sermon. Nor do I see why the word may not be altogether as effectual for the conversion of souls, delivered by one who has the manners to look his auditory in the face, using his own countenance and his own native voice, without straining it to a lamentable and doleful whine, (never serving to any purpose, but where some religious cheat is to be carried on.) That ancient, though seemingly odd saying, "Loquere ut te videam," in my poor judgment, carries in it a very notable instruction, and peculiarly applicable to the persons and matter pointed at. For, supposing one to be a very able and excellent speaker, yet, under the forementioned circumstances, he must, however, needs be a very ill sight; and the case of his poor suffering hearers very severe upon them, while both the matter uttered by him shall grate hard upon the ear, and the person uttering it, at the same time, equally offend the eye. It is clear, therefore, that the men of this method have sullied the noble science of divinity, and can never warrant their practice either from religion or reason, or the rules of decent and good behaviour, nor yet from the example of the apostles, and least of all from that of our Saviour himself. For none surely will imagine, that these men's speaking as never man spoke before, can pass for any imitation of him. And here, I humbly conceive, that it may not be amiss to take occasion to utter a great truth, as both worthy to be now considered, and never to be forgot, namely, that if we reflect upon the late times of confusion which passed upon the ministry, we shall find that

the grand design of the fanatic crew was to persuade the world, that a standing, settled ministry, was wholly useless. This, I say, was the main point which they then drove at. And the great engine to effect this, was by engaging men of several callings, (and those the meaner still the better,) to hold forth and harangue the multitude, sometimes in streets, sometimes in churches, sometimes in barns, and sometimes from pulpits, and sometimes from tubs; and, in a word, wheresoever and howsoever they could clock the senseless and unthinking rabble about them. And with this practice well followed, they (and their friends the Jesuits) concluded, that in some time it would be no hard matter to persuade the people, that if men of other professions were able to teach and preach the word, then to what purpose should there be a company of men brought up to it, and maintained in it, at the charge of a public allowance? especially when, at the same time, the truly godly so greedily gaped and grasped at it for their self-denying selves. So that preaching, we see, was their prime engine. But now, what was it which encouraged these men to set up for a work, which, if duly managed, was so difficult in itself, and which they were never bred to? Why, no doubt it was that low, cheap, illiterate way, then commonly used, and cried up for the only "gospel, soul-searching way," (as the word then went,) and which the craftier sort of them saw well enough, that with a little exercise, and much confidence, they might, in a short time, come to equal, if not exceed; as it cannot be denied but that some few of them (with the help of a few friends in masquerade) accordingly did. But, on the contrary, had preaching been made and reckoned a matter of solid and true learning, of theological knowledge, and long and severe study, (as the nature of it required it to be,) assuredly no preaching cobbler amongst them all would ever have ventured so far beyond his last as to undertake it. And consequently, this their most powerful engine for supplanting the church and clergy had never been attempted, nor perhaps so much as thought on; and therefore, of most singular benefit, no question, would it be to the public, if those who have authority to second their advice, would counsel the ignorant and the forward to consider what divinity is, and what they themselves are, and so to put up their preaching tools, their medullas, note-books, their mellificiums, concordances, and all, and betake themselves to some useful trade, which nature had most particularly fitted them for. This is what I thought fit to offer and recommend; and that not out of any humour of opposition to this or that sort of men, (for, whatsoever they may deserve, I think them below it,) but out of a dutiful zeal for the advancement of what most of us profess, divinity, as likewise

for the honour of that place which we belong to, the University; and which, of late years, I have, (with no small sorrow) heard often reflected upon for the meanness of many performances in it, no ways answerable to the ancient reputation of so noble a seat of knowledge. For, let the enemies of that and us say what they will, no man's dulness is or can be his duty, and much less his perfection.

And thus, having considered the two different, or rather contrary, ways of handling the word, and most justly rejected them both, I shall now briefly give the reasons of our rejection of them; and these shall be two,—

1. Because both these ways, to wit, the light and comical, and the dull and heavy, extremely expose and discredit the ordinance of preaching; and,

2. Because they no less disgrace the church itself.

1. And first, we shall find how much both of them expose and discredit the ordinance of preaching; even that ordinance which was originally designed for the two greatest things in the world, the honour of God, and the conversion of souls. For if to convert a soul, even by the word itself, and the strongest arguments which the reason of man can bring, (as being no more than instruments, or rather mere conditions in the case,) if, I say, this be reckoned a work above nature, (as it really is,) then surely to convert one by a jest would be a reach beyond a miracle. In short, it is this unhallowed way of preaching which turns the pulpit into a stage, and the most sovereign remedy against sin, and preservative of the soul, into" the sacrifice of fools;" making it a matter of sport to the light and vain, of pity to the sober and devout, and of scorn and loathing to all, and I believe never yet drew a tear or a sigh from any judicious and welldisposed auditor, unless perhaps for the sin and vanity of the speaker: so sad a thing it is, when sermons shall be such, that the most serious hearer of them shall not be able to command, or keep fixed, his attention and his countenance too. For, can it be imagined excusable, or indeed tolerable, for one who owns himself for God's ambassador to the people, to speak those things, as by his authority, of which it is hard to judge whether they detract from the honour or honesty of an ambassador most? But, in a word, when the professed dispensers of the weighty matters of religion shall treat them in a way so utterly unsuitable to the weight and grandeur of them, do they not come too near the infamous example of Eli's two sons, who managed their priestly office (as high and sacred as it was) in so wretched a manner, that it is said, in 1 Sam. ii. 17, that "the people abhorred the offering of the Lord?" and if so, we may be sure that they abhorred the offerers much

more.

2. As the two forementioned ways of handling the word, namely, the light and comical, and the heavy and dull, do mightily discredit the great ordinance of preaching, so they equally discredit the church itself. It is the unhappy fate of the clergy, above all men, that their failures and defects never terminate in their own persons, but still redound upon their function-a manifest injustice certainly, where one is the criminal, and another must be the sufferer; but yet as bad as it is, from the practice of some persons, to take occasion to reproach the church, so, on the other side, to give the occasion, is undoubtedly much worse. And therefore, whatsoever relation to, or whatsoever interest in, or affection to, the church, such may or do pretend to, they are really greater enemies and fouler blots to her excellent constitution, than the most avowed opposers and maligners of it; and consequently, would have disobliged her infinitely less, had they fallen in with the schismatics and fanatics in their bitterest invectives against her; and that even to the renouncing her orders, (as some of them have done,) and an entire quitting of her communion besides, the greatest kindness that such could possibly have done her. For better it is to be hissed at by a snake out of the hedge or the dunghill, than to be hissed at, and bitten too, by one in one's own bosom. But, I trust, that when men shall seriously and impartially consider how and from whence the church's enemies have took advantage against her, there will be found those whose preaching shall both answer and adorn her constitution, and withal, make her excellent instructions from the pulpit so to suit, as well as second, her incomparable devotions from the desk, that they shall neither fly out into those levities and indecencies (so justly before condemned) on the one hand, nor yet sink into that sordid, supine dulness, on the other, (which our men of the Spirit so much affect to distinguish themselves by, and which we, by no means, desire to vie with them in.) In sum, we hope that all our church performances shall be such, that she shall as much outshine all those about her in the soundness and sobriety of her doctrines, as she surpasses them all in the primitive excellency of her discipline.

And thus having finished the first of the two general inferences from the foregoing particulars, which was for the reproof of two contrary sorts of dispensers of the word, and given reasons against them both, I shall now, in the

Second place, pass to the other and concluding inference from this whole discourse; and that shall be, to exhort and advise those who have already heard what preparations are required to a "gospel scribe instructed to the kingdom of heaven," and who withal, design themselves for the same employment,

VOL. I.

with the utmost seriousness of thought to consider the high reasonableness, or rather absolute necessity, of their bestowing a competent and sufficient time in the universities for that purpose. And to dissuade such from a sudden and hasty relinquishment of them, (besides arguments, more than enough, drawn from the great inconveniencies of so doing, and the implicit prohibition of Saint Paul himself, declaring," that he who undertakes a pastoral charge must not be a novice,") there is still a more cogent reason for the same, and that from the very nature of the thing itself; for how (naturally speaking) can there be a fitness for any great thing or work without preparation? and how can there be preparation without due time and opportunity? It is observed of the Levites, though much of their ministry was only "shoulder work," that they had yet a very considerable time for preparation. They were consecrated to it by the imposition of hands at the age of fiveand-twenty; after which they employed five years in learning their office, and then, at the thirtieth year of their age, they began their Levitical ministration, at which time also our blessed Saviour began his ministry. But now, under the gospel, when our work is ten times greater, (as well as twice ten times more spiritual than theirs was,) do we think.to furnish ourselves in half the space? There was lately a company of men called triers, commissioned by Cromwell, to judge of the abilities of such as were to be admitted by them into the ministry; who, forsooth, if any of that Levitical age of thirty presented himself to them for their approbation, they commonly rejected him with scorn and disdain, telling him, that if he had not been lukewarm, and good for nothing, he would have been disposed of in the ministry long before; and they would tell him also, that he was not only of a legal age, but of a legal spirit too; and as for things legal, (by which we poor mortals, and men of the letter, and not of the spirit, understand things done according to law,) this they renounced, and pretended to be many degrees above it; for otherwise, we may be sure that their great master of misrule, Oliver, would never have commissioned them to serve him in that post. And now, what a kind of ministry (may we imagine) such would have stocked this poor nation with, in the space of ten years more? But the truth is, for those whose divinity was novelty, it ought to be no wonder if their divines were to be novices too; and since they intended to make their preaching and praying an extemporary work, no wonder if they were contented also with an extemporary preparation; and after two or three years spent in the university, ran abroad, under a pretence of "serving God in their generation," (a term in mighty request with them,) and that for reasons (it is supposed) best known

X

to themselves. But as for such mushroom divines, who start up so of a sudden, we do not usually find their success so good as to recommend their practice. Hasty births are seldom long lived, but never strong; and therefore, I hope that those who love the church so well, as not to be willing that she should suffer by any failure of theirs, will make it their business so to stock themselves here, as to carry from hence both learning and experience to that arduous and great work, which so eminently requires both. And the more inexcusable will an over-hasty leaving this noble place of improvement be, by how much the greater encouragement we now have to make a longer stay in it than we had some years since, Providence having broken the rod of (I believe) as great spiritual oppression, as was ever before exercised upon any company or corporation of men whatsoever; when some spiritual tyrants, then at the top and head of it, not being able to fasten any accusation upon men's lives, mortally maligned by them, would presently arraign and pass sentence upon their hearts, and deny them the proper encouragement and support of scholars, because, forsooth, they were not (in their refined sense) godly and regenerate; nor allowed to be godly, because they would not espouse a faction, by resorting to their congregational, house-warming meetings, where the brotherhood (or sisterhood rather) used to be so very kind to "their friends and brethren in the Lord." Besides the barbarous, raving insolence, which those spiritual dons from the pulpit were wont to shew to all sorts and degrees of men, high and low; representing every casual mishap as a judgment from God upon such and such particular persons, who, being implacably hated by the party, could not, it seems, be otherwise by God himself. For, "Mark the men," said Holderforth,* (as I myself, with several others, frequently heard him.) And then, having thus fixed his mark, and taken aim, he would shoot through and through it with a vengeance. But, I hope, things are already come to that pass, that we shall never again hear any, especially of our own body, in the very face of loyalty and learning, dare, in this place, (so renowned for both,) either rail at majesty, or decry a standing ministry, and, in a most unnatural and preposterous manner, plant their batteries in the pulpit for the beating down of the church. In fine, therefore, both to relieve your patience and close up this whole discourse, since Providence, by a wonder of mercy, has now opened a way for the return of our laws and our religion, it will concern us all seriously to consider, that as the work before us is the greatest and most important, both with reference to this world and the next, so likewise * Dr H. W. violently thrust in canon of Christ Church, Oxon, by the parliament visiters, in the year 1647.

to remember and lay to heart, that this is the place of preparation, and now the time of it; and consequently, that the more time and care shall be taken by us to go from hence prepared for our great business, the better, no doubt, will be our work, and the larger our reward.

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be rendered and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might, majesty, and dominion, both now and for Amen.

evermore.

SERMON XXXVIII.

PROSPERITY EVER DANGEROUS TO VIRTUE.

"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them."-PROV. i. 32.

Ir is a thing partly worth our wonder, partly our compassion, that what the greatest part of men are most passionately desirous of, that they are generally most unfit for: for they look upon things absolutely in themselves, without examining the suitableness of them to their own conditions; and so, at a distance, court that as an enjoyment, which, upon experience, they find a plague, and a great calamity. And this peculiar ill property has folly, that it widens and enlarges men's desires, while it lessens their capacities. Like a dropsy, which still calls for drink, but not affording strength to digest it, puts an end to the drinker, but not the thirst.

As for the explication of the text, to tell you, that, in the dialect of Scripture, but especially of this Book of the Proverbs, wicked men are called fools, and wickedness folly, as, on the contrary, that piety is still graced with the name of wisdom, would be as superfluous as to attempt the proof of a self-evident and first principle, or to light a candle to the sun. By fools, therefore, are here represented all wicked and vicious persons-such as turn their backs upon reason and religion, and wholly devoting themselves to sensuality, follow the sway and career of their corrupt affections.

The misery of which persons is from hence most manifest, that when God gives them what they most love, they perish in the embraces of it, are crushed to death under heaps of gold, stifled with an overcoming plenty : like a ship fetching rich commodities from a far country, but sinking by the weight of them in its return. Since, therefore, wicked men are so strangely out in the calculating of their own interest, and account nothing