bouring to confine it to the Model of past Times, we learn rather with the great Apoftle, to forget thofe Things which are behind, reaching forward unto thofe Things that are before, and preffing toward the Mark *.

* Phil. 3. 13, &c.-I fhall here add the Sentiments of an illuftrious Writer, and an excellent Judge of the World; who, had I met with him fooner, would have faved me the trouble of faying any thing upon the prefent Subject; and whofe whole Treatife is fo curious as to make the length of this, and fome other Specimens cited from it very excufeable. It is an extra⚫ ordinary Improvement that Divine and Human Learning hath attained to, fince Men have looked upon the Ancients 'as fallible Writers, and not as upon thofe Ne plus ultra that could not be exceeded. We retain, as I have faid before, a juft Reverence for them as great Lights, which appeared in very dark Times; and we read them rather to ⚫ vindicate them from thofe Impofitions which confident Men frequently make them liable to, to ferve their own corrupt Ends, than that we cannot attain to as much clear Knowledge by reading later Writers in lefs Time than turning over their Volumes will require; fo that we may modeftly enough (which more Men think than fay) believe that of the Fathers, which one of Tully's Orators faid of the Latin Language, Non tam præclarum eft fcire,-quam turpe eft nefcire; it is more fhame to Scholars not to have read the Fathers, than profitable to them to have read them. And I do in truth believe (with a very true Refpect to the Writers of the 3d, 4th, and 5th Ages) that there have been many Books ⚫ written and publifhed within these last hundred years, in which much more useful Learning is not only communi'cated to the World than was known to any of those Ancients; but in which the moft difficult and important Points which have been handled by the Fathers, are more clearly stated, and more folidly illuftrated, than in the original Treatifes and Difcourfes of the Ancients themselves.-If then in truth ⚫ all kind of Learning be in this Age in which we live, at leaft in our own Climate, and in fome of our Neighbours, I very much improved beyond what it ever was; and that many Errors, and fome of no fmall Importance, have been ⚫ difcovered in the Writings of the Ancients; why should we refort and appeal to Antiquity for any other Teftimony than

for

And, to use the fame Apostle's Advice, Let us therefore, as many as defire to be perfect, be thus

for Matter of Fact, and thereto without reftraining our own Enquiry or rational Conjectures. The Time is come which the Philofopher foretold in his Difcourfe of Comets, Multa funt qua effe concedimus, qualia funt ignoramus; veniet tempus quo pofteri noftri tam aperta nos nefciffe mirentur. We may indeed well wonder at their grofs Ignorance in all things be⚫ longing to Aftronomy, in which many of the Fathers knew no more than they, and fo could not understand many places ⚫ in the Scriptures; and whofoever reads their Commentaries upon the several Books of Scripture, cannot be blamed for want of Modefty, if he differs with them very often; which learned Men of all Opinions always have and always will do. We do not flatter ourselves, if we do believe that we have or may have as much Knowledge in Religion as they had, and we have much to answer, if we have not more; and if our Practice of the Duties of Religion be not as great and as fincere as theirs (which we have too much reafon to fufpect) our Advantage and Knowledge will turn to our Reproach and Damage."

Let us then in God's name, appeal to and imitate the Simplicity, Humility, and Charity of fome Primitive Chriftians, upon whom neither Ambition, nor Riches, nor Love of Life could prevail to decline the ftrict path of Virtue, or to fwerve in any Degree from the Profeffion of the Truth (that Truth by which they were fure they might be faved.) Let us learn of them to defpife thofe Temptations of the • World, which perplex, and distract, and obftruct our Journey to Heaven. Let us imitate their Courage and Contancy in adhering to what is right, and to what is juft, to which their Examples fhould encourage us; and those primitive Times did yield us many fuch Examples worthy of Cour Imitation; tho' I must still fay, it was not the Purity of the Times, but the Integrity of fome Perfons: the Times were at least as wicked as any which have followed, and • none have followed fo bad in which there have not been fome Perfons eminent for Virtue and Piety, who would mend the very Times if their Examples had been imitated: nor have we reafon to believe, that the very Time in which we live is deftitute of fuch Perfons, but that it abounds as plentifully in fuch as any Age that hath been before it, tho they are never fo much as talk'd of whilft they are alive,

" and

minded. As we have the beft Means of effecting this within our Power; as we live under the

and it may be there is not fo much care taken to preferve the Memory of them when they are dead, as there hath been heretofore. It is great pity that there is not fome Collection made of the Lives and Actions of heroical and virtu'ous Men in feveral Ages, and of feveral Qualities and Qualifications, that there might be as well Monuments of the ⚫ Virtue and Piety of all Ages, as there will infallibly be of their Folly and their Vice; and then it may be, there would be as many true Hiftories of very extraordinary Men of the latter and even of the prefent Age, which would inflame ' others to imitate them, as there are fabulous Narrations of ⚫ thofe excellent Men who lived in the Primitive Times, of whom we know of very few whofe Lives were not writ till many hundred years after their Decease. And it may be justly wondered at, that both Greece and Rome, in their flourishing Time, took more care to derive to Pofterity the Lives of fuch glorious Pagans who lived amongst them, and who, by the lively Reprefentation and Transmission of them, ftill live amongst us, and who it may be have improved many Chriftians by the Wisdom and Virtue they have learned from them; and that there hath been fo great a Negligence fince Chriftianity hath been received, in tranf mitting the particular Lives of great and meritorious Men in that Manner, as to inflame others to follow and imitate ⚫ their Examples. And of all Hiftories which have been yet writ, those of Ecclefiaftical Affairs are much the worst, and yield leaft credible Information, and leaft Pleasure to the Reader, in the Importance of the Subject, or in the Acute nefs of the Delivery; which may reasonably be looked upon as a Defect in former Ages, and very worthy to be reformed and repaired in this.

ty,

It would be a good fpur to raise our Induftry, if we did believe that God doth expect a greater Perfection from the 'prefent Age in Learning, in Virtue, in Wisdom, and in Pie from the Benefit and Obfervation which he hath afforded us in all the precedent Ages: From their Defects, we have Argument to be wary, and to reform; and from what they did well, we have their Counfel and Affiftance, and may the more easily improve what they did; and we have all the "Obligations upon us to mend the Patterns we have receiv ed, and leave them with more Luftre to our Pofterity, who

mildest, most indulgent of all Governments, and enjoy the Bleffing of Liberty in that Perfection,

are bound to exceed us again in Knowledge, and all De-' grees of Perfection: Whereas a looking back, and prefcribing Rules to ourselves from Antiquity, retards and leffens even our Appetite to that which we might easily attain; we may as well refort to old men to teach us to run, and to 'throw the bar; if our bodily ftrength grows and increases 'when theirs decays, the Vigour of our Mind doth as much exceed theirs; and fince we fet out after they reft, we ought to travel farther than they have done, when we carry all the Land-Marks with us. It is a Caution near as old as Christianity, Nihil magis præftandum eft, quam nè pecorum ritu, fequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua eundum eft, fed qua itur; it hath always been a Difeafe in the • World too much to adore those who have gone before, ⚫ and like fheep to tread in their steps, whether the way they ' went were the beft, or not. Seneca thought that nothing • involved Men in more Errors, quam quod ad rumorem componimur, nec ad rationem fed ad fimilitudinem vivimus; that we confider more what other men have thought or done, ⚫ than whether they did think or do reasonably. Nor is it out of Modefty that we have this Refignation, that we do in truth think those who have gone before us to be wifer than ourfelves; we are as proud and as peevish as any of our Progenitors: but it is out of Laziness; we will rather take their • Words, than take the pains to examine the Reafon they governed themfelves by. But there is hope the prefent Age will buoy itself up from this Abyfs of Servitude, and by their avowed Endeavours to know more than the former have 'done, will teach the next to labour that they may know 'more than we do; which virtuous Emulation fhould continue and grow to the End of the World.

It may be, the common Proverbial Saying, that the World grows every day worfe and worse, prevails with many to believe that we have a good Title to be fo, and that it is in vain to strive againft our Fate; nay, fome Men think, that there is Prescription enough in the Scripture, as if there was fuch a general Decay, that the laft Age fhall be worfe than any that have gone before: in which I conceive men are very much mistaken. It is very true that both St. Paul and St. Peter have foretold, that in the laft Days perilous • Times fhall come; for men fhall be lovers of their own felves, • covetous,

which has been unknown to former Ages, and is fo ftill to moft other Nations; a Bleffing [fuffer me once more to remind us of it] which includes every thing valuable in Life, and above all things tends moft to accelerate the Progress abovementioned: Let us, inftead of making it ei

covetous, boafters, proud, blafphemous, &c. without natural affection, truce-breakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, defpifers of thofe who are good, &c. Yet they do not tell us, that these men which have made a great Party in the World in every Age, fhall prevail and corrupt the reft; nay, they fay the contrary, They shall proceed no farther, for their folly hall be manifeft to all men. So that we may hope and endeavour to accomplish this Prophecy, that the graver and the modefter, the humble, the pious, and the chafte Part fhall be able to discountenance, to fupprefs, to convert, or to extirpate the other. We may as warrantably take a meafure of thofe Times from that Declaration of St. Peter, in the 24 of the Acts; It shall come to pass in the last Days, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh, and your Sons and your Daughters fhall prophefy, and your young Men fhall fee Vifions, and your old Men fhall dream Dreams. Here is no Decay attends this Fulnefs of Time; no Refort to Antiquity, to chalk us out the Way to Knowledge and Understanding. We are not fure that those last Days, to which both those Prophecies refer, are not already paft; but we may be fure that if we spend that Time which God fhall vouchsafe to give us in this World, in that manner as he expects we 'fhould, and as he hath enabled us to do if we will, we 'fhall leave as fair Examples of Wisdom, Virtue, and Reli"gion to those who fhall fucceed us, as any have been left to us by thofe who have gone before us; and our Pofterity purfuing the fame Method, the laft Age will appear at the Day of Judgment lefs undaunted than any that hath gone be'fore it,'-Lord Clarendon of the Reverence due to Antiquity. Eff. Mor. and Div. p. 228, &c. dated, Montpellier 1670.

a, Remarkably ingenuous is the Teftimony which a celebrated Foreigner, the Author of L'Esprit de Loix, bears to the Excellency of our Civil Conftitution in this refpect, which deferves to be reflected on by every intelligent English Man, and will, 'tis hoped, in time produce the fame amiable Spirit in the Ecclefiaftical.