Christ; if he does the other, he is the hireling,' and intends nothing but his belly, and God shall destroy both it and him.'

7. Lastly; These things I have said unto you, that ye sin not; but this is not the great thing here intended; you may be innocent, and yet not zealous of good works;' but if you be not this, you are not good ministers of Jesus Christ: but, that this is infinitely your duty, and indispensably incumbent on you all, besides the express words of my text, and all the precepts of Christ and his apostles, we have the concurrent sense of the whole church, the laws and expectations of all the world, requiring of the clergy a great and an exemplar sanctity: for, therefore it is, that, upon this necessity, is founded the doctrine of all divines in their discourses of the states and orders of religion; of which you may largely inform yourselves in Gerson's Treatise De perfectione Religionis,' in Aquinas 2, and in all his scholars upon that question; the sum of which is this, that all those institutions of religions, which St. Anselm calls 'factitias religiones,' that is, the schools of discipline in which men, forsaking the world, give themselves up wholly to a pious life, they are indeed very excellent if rightly performed; they are status perfectionis acquirendæ,' they are excellent institutions for the acquiring perfection;' but the state of the superior clergy is status perfectionis exercendæ,' they are states which suppose perfection to be already in great measures acquired, and then to be exercised, not only in their own lives, but in the whole economy of their office: and, therefore, as none are to be chosen but those who have given themselves up to the strictness of a holy life,—so far as can be known; so none do their duty, so much as tolerably, but those who, by an exemplar sanctity, become patterns to their flocks of all good works. Herod's doves could never have invited so many strangers to their dove-cotes, if they had not been besmeared with opobalsamum: but ἐὰν μύρῳ κρίσης τὰς περιστερᾶς, καὶ ἔξωθεν ἄλλας ἄξουσιν, said Didymus *; “ Make your pigeons smell sweet, and they will allure whole flocks;" and if your life be excellent, if your virtues be like a precious ointment, you will soon invite your charges to run 'in odorem

unguentorum,'' after your precious odours:' but you must be excellent, not tanquam unus de populo,' but 'tanquam homo Dei;' you must be a man of God, not after the common manner of men, but after God's own heart;' and men. will strive to be like you, if you be like to God: but when you only stand at the door of virtue, for nothing but to keep sin out, you will draw into the folds of Christ none but such as fear drives in. Ad majorem Dei gloriam,'' To do what will most glorify God,' that is the line you must walk by : for to do no more than all men needs must, is servility, not so much as the affection of sons; much less can you be fathers to the people, when you go not so far as the sons of God: for a dark lantern, though there be a weak brightness on one side, will scarce enlighten one, much less will it conduct a multitude, or allure many followers, by the brightness of its flame. And indeed, the duty appears in this, that many things are lawful for the people, which are scandalous in the clergy; you are tied to more abstinences, to more severities, to more renunciations and self-denials, you may not with that freedom receive secular contentments that others may; you must spend more time in prayers, your alms must be more bounti ful, your hands more open, your hearts enlarged; others must relieve the poor, you must take care of them; others must show themselves their brethren, but you must be their fathers; they must pray frequently and fervently, but you must give yourselves up wholly to the word of God and prayer;' they must watch and pray, that they fall not into temptation,' but you must watch for yourselves, and others too; the people must mourn when they sin, but you must mourn for your own infirmities, and for the sins of others; and indeed, if the life of a clergyman does not exceed even the piety of the people, that life is, in some measure, scandalous and what shame was ever greater than is described in the parable of the traveller going from Jerusalem to Jericho, when, to the eternal dishonour of the Levite and the priest, it is told that they went aside, and saw him with a wry neck and a bended head, but let him alone, and left him to be cured by the good Samaritan? The primitive church in her discipline used to thrust their delinquent clergy in laicam communionem,' even then when their faults were but

small, and of less reproach than to deserve greater censures ; yet they lessened them by thrusting them into the lay communion,' as most fit for such ministers, who refused to live at the height of sacerdotal piety. Remember your dignity, to which Christ hath called you: "Shall such a man as I flee," said the brave Eleazar? shall the stars be darkness, shall the ambassadors of Christ neglect to do their king honour, shall the glory of Christ do dishonourable and inglorious actions? "Ye are the glory of Christ," saith St. Paul; remember that, -I can say no greater thing; unless possibly this may add some moments for your care and caution, that "potentes potenter cruciabuntur," "great men shall be greatly tormented," if they sin; and to fall from a great height is an intolerable ruin. Severe were the words of our blessed Saviour, "Ye are the salt of the earth; if the salt have lost his savour, it is thenceforth good for nothing, neither for land, nor yet for the dunghill :" a greater dishonour could not be expressed; he that takes such a one up, will shake his fingers. I end this with the saying of St. Austin, “Let your religious prudence think, that, in the world, especially at this time, nothing is more laborious, more difficult, or more dangerous, than the office of a bishop, or a priest, or a deacon: Sed apud Deum nihil beatius, si eo modo militetur quo noster imperator jubet;' but nothing is more blessed, if we do our duty, according to the commandment of our Lord ".""

I have always discoursed of the integrity of life, and what great necessity there is, and how deep obligations lie upon you, not only to be innocent and void of offence, but also to be holy; not only pure, but shining; not only to be blameless, but to be didactic in your lives; that as, by your sermons, you preach in season, so, by your lives, you may preach out of season; that is, at all seasons, and to all men, that they, "seeing your good works, may glorify God" on your behalf, and on their own.

b Epist. 148.

SERMON X.

THE MINISTER'S DUTY IN LIFE AND DOCTRINE, SHOWING INCORRUPTNESS, GRAVITY, SINCERITY, &c.

The second Sermon on Titus ii. 7.

Now by the order of the words, and my own undertaking, I am to tell you what are the rules and measures of your doctrine, which you are to teach the people.

1. Be sure that you teach nothing to the people, but what is certainly to be found in Scripture: "Servemus eas mensuras, quas nobis per legislatorem lex spiritualis enunciat;""The whole spiritual law given us by our law-giver, that must be our measures;" for, though by persuasion and by faith, by mis-persuasion and by error, by false commentaries and mistaken glosses, every man may become a law unto himself, and unhappily bind upon his conscience burdens which Christ never imposed; yet you must bind nothing upon your charges, but what God hath bound upon you; you cannot become a law unto them; that is the only privilege of the lawgiver, who, because he was an interpreter of the Divine will, might become a law unto us; and because he was faithful in all the house, did tell us all his Father's will; and, therefore, nothing can be God's law to us, but what he hath taught us. But of this I shall need to say no more but the words of Tertullian; "Nobis nihil licet ex nostro arbitrio indulgere, sed nec eligere aliquid, quod de suo arbitrio aliquis induxerit apostolos Domini habemus autores, qui nec ipsi quicquam de suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt, sed acceptam à Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus assignarunt." Whatsoever is not in, and taken from, the Scriptures, is from a private spirit, and that is against Scripture certainly; "for no Scripture is," idías minúσews, saith St. Peter; it is not, it cannot be "of private interpretation;" that is, unless it come from the Spirit of God, which is that Spirit, that moved upon the waters of the new creation, as well

as of the old, and was promised to all, to you, and to your children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call,' and is bestowed on all, and is the earnest of all our inheritance, and is given to every man to profit withal;' it cannot prove God to be the author, nor be a light to us to walk by, or to show others the way to heaven.

This rule were alone sufficient to guide us all in the whole economy of our calling, if we were not weak and wilful, ignorant and abused: but the holy Scripture hath suffered so many interpretations, and various sounds and seemings, and we are so prepossessed and predetermined to misconstruction by false apostles without, and prevailing passions within, that, though it be in itself sufficient, yet it is not so for us; and we may say with the eunuch, "How can I understand, unless some man should guide me?" And, indeed, in St. Paul's epistles," there are many things hard to be understood ;" and, in many other places, we find that the well is deep; and unless there be some to help us to draw out the latent senses of it, our souls will not be filled with the waters of salvation. Therefore, that I may do you what assistances I can, and, if I cannot in this small portion of time, instruct you, yet that I may counsel you, and remind you of the best assistances that are to be had; if I cannot give you rules sufficient to expound all hard places, yet that I may show how you shall sufficiently teach your people, by the rare rules and precepts, recorded in places that are, or may be made, easy, I shall first give you some advices in general, and then descend to more particular rules and

measures.

1. Because it is not to be expected, that every minister of the word of God should have all the gifts of the Spirit, and every one to abound in tongues, and in doctrines, and in interpretations; you may, therefore, make great use of the labours of those worthy persons, whom God hath made to be lights in the several generations of the world, that a hand may help a hand, and a father may teach a brother, and we all be taught of God: for there are many who have, by great skill, and great experience, taught us many good rules for the interpretation of Scripture; amongst which those that I shall principally recommend to you, are the books of St. Austin, De utilitate credendi' and his 3 lib. De Doctrina