⚫ the final Sentence of Excommunication; • between a Gentleness to Vice on the one Hand, and the driving Men to Despair • and Apoftafy on the other. And he con⚫cludes that Book with Reflections on the vaft Burthen that follows the Care of Souls. In his 4th Book he runs through a Variety of Arts and Profeffions, and • fhews how much Skill and Labour was neceffary for every one of them: From ⚫ whence he concludes ftrongly, that much ⚫ more was neceffary for that which was

the most Important of all others; fo ⚫ that no Confideration whatsoever should 'make a Man undertake it, if he did not ⚫ find himself in fome Sort qualified for it: More particularly he ought to be ready to give an Account of his Faith, and to ⚫ stop the Mouths of all Gainfayers, Jews, Gentiles, and Hereticks; in which the Ignorance of many Bishops, carrying things ⚫ from one Extream to another, had given great Occafion to Errors. A Bishop muft understand the Stile and Phrafe of the • Scriptures well. From this he runs out into a very noble Panegyrick upon St. Paul, in whom a Pattern was fet to all Bishops. His Fifth Book fets out the Labour of Preaching, the Temptations to Vanity in it, the Cenfures that were C apt to be made if there was either too • much

• much or too little Art or Eloquence in Sermons. To this he adds the

6

6

great Ex⚫ actness that a Bishop should use in preferving his Reputation, yet without Vanity, obferving a due Temper between defpifing the Cenfures of the Multitude, and the fervile courting of Applaufes. In his 'Sermons he ought, above all things, to study to edify, but not to flatter his Hear6 ers, or to use vain Arts to raise Efteem or • Admiration from them. Since a Bishop, 'whofe Mind was not purged from this • Disease, must go through many Toffings, • and be much difquieted; and upon that ⚫he runs out fo fully upon the Temptations

6

to defire Applause for Eloquence, and a • Readiness in speaking, that it plainly ap'pears that he felt that to be his own weak • Side. The Sixth Book is chiefly employ'd 'to fhew how much a harder Thing it was to govern the Church, than to live in a Defart under the feverest Mortifications. I will go no further in this Abstract; I hope I have drawn out enough to give à Curiofity to fuch as have not yet read those excellent Books, to do it over and over again: For to any that has a true Relish, they can never be too often read: Every Reading will afford a fresh Pleasure, and new Matter of Inftruction and Meditation. But I go, in the laft Place, to offer St. F 2 Jerom's

Jerom's Senfe in this Matter. I fhall not bring together what lies fcatter'd through his Works upon this Argument, nor shall I quote what he writ in his Youth upon it, when the natural Flame of his Temper, join'd with the Heat of Youth, might make him carry his Thoughts further than what human Nature could bear: But I shall only give an Abstract of that which he writ to Nepotion on this Head in his old Age, as he fays himself, a good Part of that Epiftle being a Reflection upon the different Sense that old Age gives of thefe Things, from that which he felt during the Ardour of Youth.

He begins with the Title Clerk, which fignifying a Lot or Portion, Imports either that the Clergy are God's Portion, or • that God is theirs, and that therefore they ought to poffefs God, and be poffefs'd of him. He that has this Portion must be satisfied with it, and pretend to nothing, but having Food and Raiment, be therewith content, and (as Men carried their Croffes naked, fo) to be ready to carry his. He must not seek the Advantages of this • World in Chrift's Warfare. Some Clerks grew richer under Chrift, who made himfelf poor, than ever they could have been if they had continued in the Service of the God of this World; fo that the

Church

6

.

⚫ Church groaned under the Wealth of those 'who were Beggars before they forfook the World. Let the Strangers and the Poor be fed at your Tables, fays he, and in 'these you entertain Chrift himself. When you fee a trafficking Clerk, who from being poor grows rich, and from being mean becomes great, fly from him as from a Plague. The Converfation of fuch Men ⚫ corrupted good Minds; they fought after Wealth, and loved Company, the publick Places of Converfation, Fairs, and Market-places; whereas a true Clerk 'loves Silence and Retirement. Then he gives him a ftrong Caution against converfing with Women, and in particular against all those mean Compliances which 'fome of thofe Clerks ufed towards rich Women, by which they got not only • Prefents during their Lives, but Legacies by their Wills. That Abufe had grown to fuch an intolerable Excefs, that a Law was made, excluding Priests from having any Benefit by Teftaments. They were the only Persons that were put under that Incapacity. Heathen Priests were not in'cluded in the Law, yet he does not complain of the Law, but of those who had given juft Occafion for making it. The Laws of Chrift had been contemn'd, fo it was neceffary to reftrain them by human F 3 Laws.

6

6

• Exceffes of Wine, and in Opposition to • that, to faft much, but without Supersti'tion, or a Nicety in the Choice of fuch things as he was to live on in the time of fafting. Some fhewed a trifling Superstition in those Matters, as well as Vanity and Affectation that was indeed fcandalous. Plain and fimple Fafting was defpifed, as not fingular nor pompous ⚫ enough for their Pride. For it seems by 'what follows, that the Clergy was then ' corrupted with the fame Disorders, with ' which our Saviour had reproached the Pharifees, while they did not study inward Purity, fo much as outward Appearances; nor the pleafing of God, fo much as the praife of Men. But here he ftops fhort, for it feems he went too near the defcribing fome eminent Man in that Age. From that he turns to the Government of a Prieft's Tongue: He ought neither to detract from any one himself, nor to en' courage fuch as did: The very hearkning to Slander, was very unbecoming. They ought to vifit their People, but not to report in one Place, what they observed in another; in that they ought to be both • difcreet and fecret. Hippocrates adjured 'thofe that came to Study from him, to be fecret, grave, and prudent in their whole Behaviour; but how much more

6

• did