more he heaps his favours upon us, become more and more sensible of our own unworthiness, and that we are less than the least of his mercies.

This, as it will give us a due relish and value for the blessing, so it will secure us from vainglory and pride, and oblige us entirely to his service, whose eyes have been thus over us for good; that we may more and more glorify him with those excellent gifts and endowments which we so plentifully have received from him.

For not only the success, but the very ability of doing any thing in order to it, is the gift of God. It is he that assists our meditations, and furnisheth us with such thoughts, such arguments and methods of persuasion, as at any time move our people to be serious and resolve well, and fix and strengthen those their pious resolutions, and excite them to a suitable practice. It is he that puts into our mouths a word in season; and when any man is touched so home in any instance as that he cannot but take it to himself, he ought to look upon it as directed to him by the hand of Heaven, and receive it with suitable humility and thankfulness, and an obedient heart. And therefore those that are the happy instruments of doing good, must have a care, as I said, of forgetting that they are but instruments, able of themselves to do nothing; and that all their sufficiency is of God, who hath made them able ministers of the new covenant, that so all the praise may be his.

And as St. Peter and those that were with him left their ships and their nets to follow Jesus, and that new spiritual fishery to which he called them ;

so should we give ourselves wholly to this great employment, that we may be throughly furnished to every good work, and our profiting may appear to all. Avoiding, as much as is possible, all secular entanglements, that we may study to shew ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truths, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which is committed to our trusth. That, free from the distractions of worldly cares and encumbrances, we may give attendance to reading, to exhortation and doctrine, and be examples to the believers, in word, in conversation and charity, in spirit, (or temper and disposition,) in faith and purity; that those who are of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us1.

These are such great things, and require such a constant application of mind, that no man who desires to make any considerable progress in them will find himself at leisure for other pursuits; and even the necessary cares of life will take up more of his time and thoughts than can well be spared from that vast variety of business, and which is of equal weight too, that is included in the care of souls. Besides, the affairs of the world are of so widely different, nay, contrary a nature to the duties of the ministry, that whoever applies himself heartily to the one, take it either way, will be very unfit for the other; and what our great Master says to all Christians in general, is more especially applicable

to the clergy; Ye cannot serve God and mammon : for either you will hate the one, and love the other; or else hold to the one, and despise the other: for no man can serve two mastersTM.

For this reason it is that so many canons" have been made in all Christian churches, and in our own among the rest, to forbid the clergy growing secular and worldly; and to prevent which, a maintenance is assigned them by the direction of God himself; that without engaging in a life of business, they may have a comfortable subsistence by tithes and offerings. If the clergy, therefore, are to employ all their thoughts and their care in the great work of promoting the salvation of mankind, and to concern themselves as little as is possible with the world, and which in the most solemn manner they promise to do at their ordination; it is the people's duty upon all accounts, both of justice and of gratitude, to provide a competency for them.

Of justice, because, as our Lord says, the labourer is worthy of his hire°; and who goeth a warfare at any time of his own cost? says St. Paul: Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? and who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Do ye not know that they who minister about holy things live of the sacrifice? and they who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospelv.

And no less are they obliged to this in gratitude; for, as it is in the eleventh verse of the chapter last

m Luke xvi. 13. PI Cor. ix. 7. 13.

n Can. 75.

o Luke x. 7.

mentioned, If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things? If we have made ourselves uncapable of all other employments, by entering into the work of the ministry, and make it our great and only business to watch for your souls, that we may be instrumental in God's hand to guide and conduct you to heaven; shall a moderate livelihood be grudged us for so great a service as this? How much rather is every one, that is taught the way to eternal happiness and glory, bound, with a grateful heart and liberal hand, to minister to him that teacheth in all temporal good things!

Nay, it is men's own best interest, if they consider it rightly, to disengage their spiritual guides as much as may be from worldly perplexities, that they may the better discharge those many difficult and weighty duties which belong to their sacred function, and cheerfully lay out all their time and endeavours for their people's good.

For how can he be supposed to study the holy scriptures as he ought, in order to instruct his people in them, and with spirit and freedom press them to an agreeable practice, and rebuke their vices, and reprove their errors; whose scanty, and it may be precarious maintenance, sinks his spirits, confounds his thoughts, distracts his mind with continual care, and too often stops his mouth too when he should lift up his voice like a trumpet, and shew the people their transgressions and sins', for fear of disobliging those upon whose humoursome and uncertain kindness he and his family depend for bread!

q Gal. vi. 6.

r Isa. lviii. I.

And when things are come to this pass, though the minister's case is truly deplorable, yet the people's is infinitely worse, who lose the unspeakable benefit of having such a wise and learned and pious guide of souls, as is able to instruct them in the whole will of God, to ease them of their doubts and scruples, to comfort them in their sorrows, and arm them against temptations; and is not afraid, when there is just occasion, to tell them roundly of their faults too, with a due mixture of authority and affection.

And who, that have any sense of religion, would, to save a very little money, be deprived of such a blessing as this? But it is the custom now to advance every other profession to the height, and reward their services with the greatest bounty; and at the same time to sink the clergy to the very bottom of contempt and poverty, and lay on all the weight they can to keep them down; nay, and sacrilegiously to withhold from them what the laws, both of God and man, have made their due.

No doubt but great indifference, at least to religion, is the cause of this; and no religion would in a little time be the consequence, were not our church supported, as we trust it is, by the arm of God; and it is indeed his Providence alone that can uphold it, amidst so many endeavours to lay it even with the ground.

But those that are in earnest concerned for the honour of their holy profession, and true friends to our most excellent establishment, and who as such must think themselves obliged, as far as in them lies, to espouse the sinking interest of both; can take no better course to do it than to keep up the