A SERMON Preached at the Triennial Visitation Of the Right Reverend Father in God, JAMES, Lord Bishop of LINCOLN, Held at HARTFORD, June 12. 1700.  
By PHILIP FALL, Rector of Shenley in the County of Hartford, Prebendary of Durham, and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty.  
Published by his Lordship's Command.  
LONDON: Printed by W. Bowyer, for John Newton, at the Three Pigeons, over-against the Inner-Temple Gate, in Fleetstreet. 1700.   

TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD, JAMES, By Divine Permission Lord Bishop of LINCOLN.  
MY LORD,  
WHEN Your Lordship was pleased, upon a Motion of the Reverend Dr. Stanhop, seconded by the rest of the Clergy who heard this Sermon, to command me to print it, I had nothing left me but to obey, at the hazard of meeting with Readers less equal, or less indulgent, than the Learned Auditory in which I preached it. I was called upon to attend His Majesty into Holland before I could transcribe it for the Press, which is the Excuse I have to plead for its not appearing sooner. And here I must crave leave to acquaint Your Lordship, that the first New Book put into my hands at my Landing on the Other Side, chanced to be the Rotterdam Journal, that gives an account of the Works of the Learned. In the Article relating to England, I found a glut of Printed Sermons amongst us complained of and reflected on in so rude and in so injurious a manner 
* On voit icy (Londres) des Sermons sortir en foule de dessous la Press. Nos yeux ne voyent que Man. En voulez vous sçavoir la raison? C'est que les Ministres ayant la liberté de lire leur Sermons en Chair, en achétent de tout faits, et n'ent d'autre peine que de les lire, & passent ●our habiles gens à peu de frais. Histoire des Ouvrages des Sçavans, par Monsieur B— Docteur en Droit. Mois de Mars, 1700. Art. XIII. pag. 124. , as might well discourage me, and others of my Brethren, from troubling the World any more with our Labours in this kind, could we believe that the Author of that Journal spoke any body's Sense but his own. He chargeth us indiscriminately with a Plagiarism, of which I doubt whether the best Intelligence and Information he could get, if he were put to it, would furnish him many Instances. Indeed we do not usually hear of our Printed Sermons being preached over again among ourselves, but we have heard of their being frequently so by certain Gentlemen abroad, with whom we shall never quarrel for doing us that honour. The committing of Sermons to the Memory, is no such infallible Means to prevent pilfering of other Men's Works, as the Journalist would insinuate; and perhaps the Press has as often helped out at a dead lift those who use that Way, as those who use the other. He might have learned from My Lord of Sarum's excellent History 
* History of the Reformation of the Ch. of England, Vol. l. Book III. pag. 317, 318. , what Reasons set our First Reformers, who were Great and Wise Men, upon Writing and Reading their Sermons, contrary to the general Practice before in England; and what Accuracy and Exactness in those Composures has resulted from the keeping up of that Usage among us ever since. And certainly so long as good Sense, good Method, and good Language, shall make up the Character of good Preaching, that which obtains in the Church of England shall take place of the Declamatory Way, which for the most part has little to recommend it besides the Noise and Heat of Action. Such flashy and frothy Pomp of Words without Matter, shall vanish with the Breath of the Speakers; when the finished and elaborate Discourses of our sanderson's and tillotson's, read from the Pulpit, shall weigh upon the Judgement and the Understanding, and shall convey a Light and Conviction into the Mind that shall make every Man wiser and better who once heard or now reads them. I forbear saying any more, lest while I am endeavouring to right the Learnedest and most deserving Body of Men in the Christian Church, from the Exceptions of a Person who has not treated them with Common Respect or Good Manners, in a Paper designed to fly over all Europe, I should seem to magnify my own Performance. The Meanness of it is, as it happens, the best Apology that can be made for its Publication; for that will render it less liable to the Suspicion of making Plagiaries, as there would be no Robbers if none Traveled but Poor People. Your Lordship knows how willing I was to have the Province assigned me at Hartford transferred to another, who would have discharged in much better: but your Lordship insisting on your first designation and appointment of me, it became me to submit. I than began to think what would be most proper to say at that Meeting, and was determined to the Choice of my Subject, by the Consideration of the State of that Part of Your Lordship's Diocese where the Visitation was to be, abounding with ignorant Fanatical Lay-Teachers, who make a Property of our People. And I entered the more readily upon the Subject, that I was sure to have the best sort of Dissenters on my side, who join with us in declaring against an Anarchy in the Church, and in asserting a Separation from Other Works to Ministerial Functions. Whatever Defects of another nature this Sermon may labour under, I hope it will be found to contain honest and seasonable Truths, and to have Some Things set right in it which peradventure were not altogether so before. Such as 'tis, I lay it at Your Lordship's feet, and gladly embrace this occasion of telling the World, what satisfaction we the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln take, in having a Prelate of so much Candour and Temper, Affability and Goodness, and of such other excellent Qualifications, set by a Great and Just King to preside over us. Your Lordship fills a Chair venerable for Antiquity, for extent of Jurisdiction, and for a long Succession of pious and learned Bishops, in whose steps Your Lordship worthily treads. As Your Lordship goes before us and governs us with the Care and Tenderness of a Father, so in return I dare promise Your Lordship, without fear of being disowned by my Brethren, a Filial Duty and Adherence on our part. I have always thought the Strength and Glory of a Clergy to lie in their being thus united to their Bishop: and of so happy an Union may we, York Lordship's Clergy, ever be an Example and a Pattern to others. As for myself, besides the Ties of a Presbyter to his Diocesan, I have very particular Obligations to Your Lordship, as my Benefactor. I hold my Preferment in Hartfordshire from Your Lordship's Gift; and tho' the Possession of it has been hitherto attended with some Trouble, yet that does in no wise diminish my Gratitude and Thankfulness for the same. That Your Lordship may never blush to have conferred Favours upon a Person wholly unmeriting them, shall be the continual study and endeavours of,  
MY LORD, YOUR LORDSHIP's most humble, most dutiful, and most obliged Servant, Ph. Fall.   
ACTS xviii. 3. 
And because he was of the same Graft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their Occupation they were Tent-makers.  
A Just Vindication of the Sacredness and Prerogatives of our Holy Office, cannot be thought an improper Argument to treat of in this Presence. We scarce have an opportunity of handling it professedly, or with Decency, unless at such a Time and on such an Occasion as this. Faith, Repentance, and the general Duties and Obligations of Christianity, are the trite and repeated Themes of our Discourses to the People, in the progress of our Ministry: But when we solemnly meet together, as we do this Day, something more peculiarly relating to ourselves, and to the Privileges or Exercise of our Function, is (I conceive) expected from him on whom the Command is laid to fill up the Place where I have now the honour to stand. The bold Invasion of the Ministry by Men without Character or Mission, engaged in mean and sordid Occupations, rude and unlearned, destitute of all those Helps and Assistances which can now only be acquired by a liberal and ingenuous Education, is an Evil that spreads in this Nation, and that (as I have with grief observed) too much affects this Part where our Lot is fallen, and our respective Charges lie. When Men divide from the Church, and proceed upon Principles which do not destroy the necessity of a settled and orderly Ministry, there is room left to hope that they will not superinduce Heresy to their Schism, but that at least the Essentials of Christianity will be preserved whole and entire among them. The Case is otherwise, where illiterate Artisans and Mechanics set up for Teachers. The very Foundations of Religion must be subverted by the Unskilfulness of such Guides, who know not how to fix upon rational and coherent Systems of Things. As their Ignorance exposes them to be deceived, so their Presumption leads them on to the deceiving of others. What an overheated Imagination suggests is then confidently delivered, the Ancient Doctrines are laid aside, Monstruous Opinions are set on foot, Errors are accumulated and multiplied without number, and all ends at length in Frenzy and Enthusiasm.  
Whatever some may think, the Evangelical Ministry is no less sacred than the Legal Priesthood was. As then, so now, there is a particular Order of Men appointed by God, who have the Direction and Intendency of Holy Things committed to them, exclusively to others. No man taketh this Honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron 
(a) Heb. v. 4. . Here we have a plain Rule laid down, and upon it are all those succeeding Sanctions grounded which condemn Sacrilegious and Uncanonical Intrusions into the Ministry. But neither Divine nor Humane Laws are proof against Spiritual Pride and Ambition. No Fences can keep it from breaking in upon the Public Establishment and order. Mere Laics 
* Non omit tam ipsius etiam conversationis haereticae descriptionem, quàm futilis, quàm terrena, quàm humana sit; sine gravitate, sine auctoritate, sine disciplinâ; ut fidei suae congruens.— Simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem disciplinae, cujus penès nos curam lenocinium vocant.— Omnes tument, omnes scientiam pollicentur.— Ipsae mulieres haereticae, quàm procaces! quae audeant docere, etc.— Ordinationes eorum temerariae, leves, inconstantes; nurc neophytoes Onlocant, nunc seculo obstrictos, nunc Apostatas noslros.— Alius hodiè Episcopus, cras alius: hodie Diaconus, qui cras Lector body Presbyter, qui cras Laïcus. Name & Laïcis Sacerdotalia munera injungunt. Tertull. de Prescript. Haereticor. cap. xli. pag. 217.  Men without Call, take up the Genser, and usurp an Office which does not belong to them.  
And as the Work into which the Ministers of the Gospel are sent requires a special Designation, so likewise it requires peculiar Qualifications and Endowments. A due Preparation must precede it, and many Degrees of Probation must be passed through, before one presumes to enter upon it. Such a measure of Knowledge in Divine Matters must be treasured up, as may in some sort supply the Defect of those Extraordinary Succours which are now withdrawn, and were never conferred but on the First Preachers of Christianity. Nor is that to be attained but by the same Means by which all other Kind's of useful Knowledge are acquired; viz. by Labour, Application, and Industry. The Sacred Writings, in which the stupendous Mysteries of Divine Wisdom are locked up, aught to be first and chief studied: but then all the necessary Auxiliaries of Humane Science and Learning must at the same time be taken in, so far as they ancillate to the Truths of Religion. To the Use of these Means a Blessing is promised, and such an Assistance of the Holy Spirit as is needful, in the Ordinary Way we are now in. Rash Men, who without these Qualifications assume an Authority to Teach in Separate Congregations, are forced to set up other Pretences. Conscious of their Incapacity, they run back to the Miraculous Ages of the Church, and cite the Example of the Inspired Doctors and Evangelists, who merely through a Divine Power, and without Letters, did with amazing success propagate the Gospel over the whole Earth. They boast of the same Illuminations, and Effusions of the Spirit, which were poured out upon those Ancient Servants of God. But the Vanity of their Claim is sufficiently detected by their shameful Stumbling, by the many palpable Fundamental Errors which they fall and lead others into. 'Tis not difficult to guests that the Spirit of God can never be the Author of Doctrines, that undermine the Faith which he himself did once deliver.  
Further, the Ministry is a State of Life so abstracted from Secular Occupations and Affairs, that it is incompatible with them. It is a State of Retirement and Recess from the Cares and Concerns of the World. He that dedicates himself to God, and to the Services of Religion, is thereby understood to have renounced all other Professions and Ways of Life. It is a Profession distinct of itself, capable of taking up the Whole Man, and of filling up all the Spaces and Intervals of his Time. To attend constantly on Divine Ministrations and Offices, to labour in the Word and Doctrine, to exhort in public and to admonish in private, to be instant in season and out of season, to watch over the Flock, to oppose the growth and to stem the torrent of dangerous and prevailing Errors or of yet more dangerous and prevailing Vices, to visit and comfort the Afflicted in their Sorrows, to assist Dying Men in their last Throws and Agonies, to leave no other Part of the Duty of a faithful diligent Pastor unperformed, is certainly a Task adequate to the longest, the most active, and the most painful Life. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, says the Apostle to his Disciple Timothy 
(b) 1 Epist. iv 15. : But how will he give himself wholly to them, who has a Multitude of Avocations of another nature, that swallow up the best Portions of his Leisure, that divide and distract his Thoughts, and that stifle and deaden that lively Sense of Divine Matters which one engaged in Spiritual Functions ought always to bear warm upon his Mind? From thence it appears, that the Exercise of a Lay-Vocation is irreconcilable with the Dispensation of Sacred Things. And therefore as They to whom a more excellent Work is committed, should not meddle with Cares foreign to their Function, and should be so liberally provided for as to be wholly free and exempt from those Cares; so They whose proper Employment lies another Way, and who have Business more than enough of another Kind cut out for them, aught to look on the Priestly Office as a Trust, which as they have no Right to invade, so they have neither Abilities nor Opportunities to discharge. 'Tis absurd to think that the sacred Depositum should be lodged in hands always paddling in Dirt: so I call earthly mechanic Occupations, opposed to holy and heavenly Ministries.  
But why (are we told) should a Secular Calling be thought inconsistent with a Spiritual Trust and Charge, when 'tis well known that St. Paul, whom God made the glorious Instrument of converting so many Nations, professed a Trade, and actually wrought at it, at the same time that he went about doing the Duties of his Apostolate? Are the present Ministers of Religion greater than St. Paul, or have they Prerogatives above him? Let them, as he did, relieve their necessities by the labour of their hands, or let them confess themselves Hirelings, and those only true Ministers who like him preach the Gospel freely, and seek a Supply not from the Sweat of the people, but from some honest Vocation of their own.  
This Language is frequently in the mouth of those wild Sectaries who overthrew all Rule and Order in the Church, who abolish all Distinction betwixt Profane and Sacred Things, and among whom to sit all day in a Shop incapacitates none to be a Teacher. They are Enemies not to be contemned. Their Numbers, their many Errors in the Faith, and the open defiance they stand in to all regular and instituted Ministry, renders them, if not formidable, yet considerable enough to be took notice of. They become more and more so every day through the countenance and encouragement they receive from Deists, Libertines, and other lose People of the Age; who hating all Religion, will ever be ready to close in with any Side or Party that helps on their Design of destroying it; and which can by no other Method or Means be so effectually accomplished, as by taking away the Credit and Reputation of Holy Functions. It is not therefore our own Cause so much as the Cause of God and Religion that we plead, when we stand up for the Honour and Dignity of our Ministry: which nothing can more depretiate, than to suppose an Obligation, or even (as the State of the Church is now) a Permission to join mechanic Labours with it.  
And to give a reply to the Example said to be set us by so great a Man as St. Paul, I have purposely chosen for my Subject the very Text that mentions his exercising the Ministry and a Trade together. I shall take some pains to consider this Place of Scripture, and to rescue it out of the hands of those who draw Conclusions from it dishonourable and injurious to our Sacred Profession. And forasmuch as I would dispatch this Matter at once, and answer every Objection that carries some Show of Authority, I must bespeak your Patience if peradventure this Discourse exceeds somewhat the usual Length. And because he was of the same Craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their Occupation they were Tent-makers.  
The Persons spoken of here are Aquila and his Wife Priscilla, converted Jews, who formerly dwelled at Rome, but then at Corinth. Claudius' Caesar had by an Edict expelled the Jews our of Italy, as both St. Luke in this Place, and Suctonius in the Life of that Emperor 
* In Claud, cap. xxv. , inform us. Aquila and Priscilla were exiled with the rest. Upon this they withdrew into Greece, and went to live at Corinth, a wealthy and trading City. These Persons had an Occupation and a Calling, which was that of Tentmaking: They were by their Occupation Tent-makers, says the Text. The Word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which whether it be rightly translated or no, I I think it not material to dispute. In shall only observe, that some Critics have rendered the Word otherwise. Now whilst Aquila and Priscilla were at Corinth, St. Paul came thither also, meaning to preach the Gospel in that City, as he had done before in the other Cities of Greece, and more lately at Athens. The Work he came about requiring some stay 
(c) See Vers. 11. and 18. , he took up his habitation in the House of Aquila and Priscilla: and the reason given in the Text why he chose to sojourn and to abide with them, is, because he was of the same Craft; by which is understood, that he likewise was a Tentmaker as they were. And accordingly 'tis said that in fact he wrought and laboured with them in that Occupation. 'Tis added, that every Sabbath he resorted to the Synagogue, where he reasoned with the Jews and Greeks, persuading them, and testifying unto them that Jesus was the CHRIST. This is the full import of the Text, which we now have under consideration.  
In discoursing thereon, I shall do these three Things.  

I. I shall inquire in what sense it can be admitted that St. Paul was a Tentmaker, what Motives induced him to practise that Occupation whilst he traveled about preaching the Gospel, and how far Christian Ministers are concluded by his Example in this Matter.  
II. I shall account for some Passages out of Ancient Constitutions, Councils, and Fathers, which might be turned upon us in the present Controversy.  
III. Having proved that Evangelical Pastors and Ministers, are by the nature of their Function dismissed from Manual Labours and Occupations, and generally from all those Cares with which Secular Persons are taken up and perplexed; I shall show how much they are to blame, if through Love of the World they voluntarily resume and involve themselves in those Cares; if through Levity of Spirit they dissipate their Time in foolish Diversions and Amusements, or even in fruitless and unprofitable Studies; if they do not, in so privileged and recollected a State of Life, bend their utmost application and endeavours, to the enriching of their Minds more and more with the Knowledge of Things excellent and proper for them, to the adorning of their Province, and to the fulfilling of their Ministry; since therefore they enjoy this Exemption and Immunity that they may be enabled so to do.   
I. I shall inquire in what sense it can be admitted that St. Paul was a Tentmaker, what Motives induced him to practise that Occupation whilst he traveled about preaching the Gospel, and how far Christian Ministers are concluded by his Example in this Matter.  
In order to which I must observe, That it was a Custom among the Jews, of what Rank or Quality soever, to teach their Children some ingenious Craft or Art, not only as a remedy against Idleness, but as a reserve in time of Want, whereto their frequent Expulsions from home, and Dispersions abroad, had taught them they might be reduced when they least dreamt of it. A Man born to an Estate, and unacquainted with Labour, if Misfortunes drive him from his Native Country, and divert the Stream that was wont to supply and flow in to him, must needs be very miserable: whereas an Artificer will live any where. Artem quaevis terra alit. This the Jews used to express by saying, in their sententious way, that if there be a six years' Famine, it will not come near the dwelling of an Artificer 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buxtorf. Florileg. Hebr. p. 23. . We have a memorable Instance of this Custom in those two young Jewish Brothers, Chasinai and Chanilai, whose Story Josephus relates at large 
† Antiq. Jud. lib. xviii. cap. 12. . They, with other Jews inhabiting the City of Neardaea in the Province of Babylon, were a remnant of the Captivity planted there by the Kings of Assyria. Chasinai and Chanilai were Persons of note amidst their scattered Tribes. They were nevertheless put with a Weaver to learn the Trade, which, says the Historian, was no disparagement to them 
‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. , for the reason before rehearsed. But their Master handling them one day somewhat too severely, the high-spirited Youths could not brook that usage: They resented it to that degree, that they flew out into Arms, drew many Followers after them, took the Field, and well nigh caused a Revolution in the State of Parthia. Whether this Custom was common from the beginning of all the Oriental Nations, or that they borrowed it from the Jews, as they did many others, I cannot say; but thus much is certain, that it remains in force among divers of those Nations to this day. It makes a part of their Religion, and is passed into so general a Law, that he who fills the Throne is not dispensed from it. Even he also must profess some Trade, and now and then sit and work at it, with those very Hands with which at other times he wields a Sceptre 
* Knolles' Turkish History, Vol. II. pag. 943. . The Lettered Men among the Jews, having like others learned some piece of Mechanism in their Infancy, spent afterwards their interstitiary or spare-Hours therein, and one would wonder what homely Crafts some of them took up with. Thus Rabbi Jose was a Currier or a Leather-dresser; Rabbi Jochanan was a Shoemaker, and from thence was firnamed Sandalar, i. e. one that maketh Sandals or Shoes; and so of others 
† Drus. Prae●erit. lib. v. pag. 188. . What particular Art Rabban Gamaliel Ben Juda (Precedent of the Sa●hedrin, after its translation to Jafne) was versed in, I know not: but of him we have an Apophthegm yet extant, delivered to his Disciples, which says, that the Labour of the Hands ought to be joined with the Study of the Law 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buxtorf. Florileg. pag. 161. Drus. Apophth. lib. 1. pag. 15. . And this seems to have been a common and received Maxim among the Rabbins, handed down from one to another, and so taught uniformly in all their Schools.  
St. Paul was brought up at the feet of the Hebrew Masters 
(d) Acts xxii. 3. , and early imbibed all their Documents and Precepts. The Authority then of the Rabbinical Chair, added to the many Examples before him among his Cotemporaries and Equals, must easily prevail with him to take up a Craft, although his present Circumstances might not require it: and when nothing remained but to make choice of one, his Genius and Inclination, or other Reasons which it concerns us not to know, might as easily determine him to that of Tentmaking. Which after all was none of the despicablest Employment, if we understand the Word in the Original, not of Tents strictly so called, but of Aulaea, that is, rich Tapestries and Canopies, such as were wrought only for the Palaces of Kings and Nobles, the Word admitting of both constructions alike 
* Vid. Critic. S. in loc. . Whatever it was, 'tis plain that St. Paul's Birth and Education were above it. He was born with the Privilege of a Roman Citizen 
(e) Acts xuj. 37, 38.— xxii. 25, etc. , which was a Mark of Distinction in those days, when conferred on single Families or Persons, and not on a Mixed Multitude or City. It was for the most part the Reward of Services done by Strangers and Men of another Country and Nation to the Roman State and Commonwealth, and it ennobled those who had merited to obtain it. And that this was the Case of St. Paul, the excellent Grotius has shown, by observing that Tarsus, the Capital of Cilicia, in which Saint Paul was born, was no Colony nor Municipium of the Romans, having the Jus Civitatis annexed to it, how large Franchises soever it might otherwise be invested with by them: that consequently this Honour which St. Paul challenged as his Birthright, must have been derived to him from one of his Ancestors, that had signalised himself in the Wars of Augustus Caesar against Brutus and Cassius, or in those of the same Augustus against Marc Anthony: from whence is to be collected (pursues that incomparable Person) that St. Paul was issued of a wealthy and opulent Family 
* Tarsus non Colonia erat, sed (solummodò) libera Vrbs, Plinio. tesle, lib. V cap. 27. Concessam Tarsensibus libertatem ab Antonio dicit Appianus, Civil. lib. V Et Dion Crysostomus I. Orat. Tarsens. multa privilegia recitat ab Augusto tributa Tarsensi Civitati, non autem jus Coloniae aut Municipii, qualibus jus Civitatis Romanae competebat, ut diximus D. ad Municipal. Et Vlpianus inter Ciliciae Colonias Tarsum non nominat. Restat ergò ut aliquis majorum Pauli bellis civilibus, quae inter Caesarem Augustum & Brutum Cassiumque, aut etiam inter eundem Caesarem & Antonium intercessere, jus illud sibi comparaverit. Vndè colligas ex opulentâ familiâ fuisse Paulum; neque vana esse quae veteres Graeci ad hunc locum dixêre. Annot. in Act. xxii. 28. . And accordingly Photius brings in our Apostle answering Lysias in Terms, which none could use but one that was well Descended 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Epist. cir. pag. 145. . Now Tarsus was an Academy, which for the Profession of all the Liberal Sciences, contended with the then celebrated Schools of Athens and Alexandria, nay surpassed them, if we may believe Strabo 
‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (scil. Tarfens.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Geograph. lib. xiv. pag. 673. & 675. , a Writer of good credit. There St. Paul laid the first foundations of his Studies; there he furnished himself with the Learning and Wisdom of the Greeks; read, perused, and digested their Books; as appears even now by his Quotations out. of Aratus 
(f) Acts xvii. 28. , Menander 
(g) 1 Cor. xv. 33. , and Epimenides 
(h) Tit. i. 12. , Authors of great name in Ancient Greece. From Tarsus he went to Jerusalem, to the end that under the Discipline of the Hebrew Sages, and of the Doctors of his own Religion, he might acquaint himself thoroughly with the Institutions and Divine Philosophy of Moses. Here is nothing that suits with the Character of a poor Handy craftsman: here are Strains quite beyond it: and to set out upon such a Journey and Expedition, merely for the improving and the perfecting of his Mind, must be confessed to have been an Undertaking of which a mean indigent Person, one servilely bound to a Trade, could not be capable. Such Men's Thoughts as well as Abilities have used to creep a great deal lower. I marvel how this came to be so much overlooked, and this great Apostle, who for the eminency of his Knowledge, and his exquisite Skill in all polite and humane Literature (abstractedly from those admirable Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost, with which he was afterwards endowed) might be compared to the most renowned Philosophers of old; how he, I say, should now be thought to have originally been neither better nor worse than a poor paltry Artisan.  
The great Credit and Esteem which St. Paul was in at Jerusalem, shows him to have been no vulgar and obscure Man. He was known to the Highpriest, and to all the Estate of the Elders 
(i) Acts xxii. 5. , that is, to the whole supreme Council of the Sanhedrin. He had access to them, and we find him entrusted by them with a Power and Commission, which for their own honour, and the honour of their Religion, they would never have put into mean and disreputable hands. For they made him Inquisitor of the Faith, as it were, among them. They authorised him to search after the Christians, and to commit to prison as many as he found of that way 
(k) Acts ix. 2. . Having, in pursuance of that Power, made a cruel havoc of the Church at Jerusalem 
(l) Acts viij. 3. , he was going to do the like at Damascus, when a miraculous voice from Heaven struck him to the earth, and wrought his Conversion 
(m) Acts ix. 3. etc. . My manner of Life, (says he, in his Defence before King Agrippa) which was at the first among mine own Nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews 
(n) Acts xxvi. 4. . He who could boldly appeal to the Testimony of a whole Nation, and call upon it to witness his Conversation and manner of Life, must have made a Figure in it above what a silly Plebeian and Artisan can in reason be presumed to have made. Such a one might perchance be known among his Neighbours, but could not be considerable enough to draw the eyes and observation of a great People upon him. And when we hear Festus crying out from the Tribunal on which he sat with Agrippa, Paul! thou art beside thyself! much Learning doth make thee mad 
(o) Acts xxvi. 24. ! we can never think that he took the Man who stood before him, and to whom he thus spoke, for one of the Common Tribe of Mechanics: but to account rationally for those Words, we must suppose them grounded on an intimation of St. Paul's Learning, and other great Qualifications, given before to the Governor, by some of the Jews themselves, who knew St. Paul, and with implacable malice persecuted him for this very reason, that he, a Pharisee, a Man of such note and reputation, had deserted them, and now turned upon them that very Learning which he had acquired in their Schools.  
St. Paul then was a Tentmaker, and took up that Craft, no otherwise than as the greatest Rabbins and Doctors among the Jews took up some one some another Calling. And as what they did was merely by way of prevention against sudden and surprising Turns of Fortune, to which all Men are subject, so they were not thereby understood to derogate from the Dignity of their Rank, or to debase themselves into the condition of ordinary Mechanics. There is a visible difference betwixt the taking up of a Craft in that Way, and the assuming it as a proper Vocation, and making it one's daily Task and Business. The first may be the effect of Prudence and Caution, but an Idea of Vileness and Contempt is affixed to the last. In a word, it may with as much truth be affirmed, that the most illustrious Professors of Wisdom among the Jews, were all but so many abject Handycraftsmen, as that St. Paul was so. He has been too much lessened by this Notion and Conceit of him, which some heretofore have too easily entertained, and others of late have industriously promoted, because they have had an End to serve in it.  
Thus much being premised, his making Tents at Corinth after he was called to be an Apostle and a Preacher in the Christian Church, is next to be examined: and thereupon the following Considerations will arise, which will demonstrate that his Case was Singular, so that the present Ministers of Religion neither are nor can be concluded by his Example in this Matter. Here then,  
1. We ought to remember how exceedingly zealous and observant he himself says he was of the Prescriptions and Traditions of his Fathers 
(p) Gal. i 14. , which indeed he speaks with reference to the Time that preceded his Conversion: But by what he declares in another Place, touching the very point now in question, that unto the Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews; to them that were under the Law, as under the Law, that he might gain them that were under the Law 
(q) 1 Cor. ix. 20. ; he clearly intimates that in the whole Course of his Ministry he preserved a great regard for the Jews, and (so far as could be done) complied with such Popular Customs as he found among them, that by so doing he might the better ingratiate himself with them, which he judged would facilitate the progress of the Gospel, the noble End he pursued and aimed at in all his Labours. To work sometimes with his hands, and in that to keep up to a conformity with their learned Rabbins and Doctors, was a Method of Insinuation very likely to take with that People, tenacious of their Old Customs even to superstition; and it was, we know, attended with success. This then is no otherwise to be looked on than as an Act of Condescension in the Apostle purely prudential and temporary, accommodated to the Weakness and Prejudices of the Jews, whom he sought to gain, and not designed by him to be a standing perpetual Rule to those that should succeed him in Pastoral Cares and Offices.  
2. The unsettled Condition of the Church at that time, is what ought also to be considered on this occasion. There was no certain Provision as yet made for those who laboured in the Ministry. The voluntary Offerings and Contributions of the Faithful, were the only Fund which the Church then had to answer all Exigencies. And though the Charity of the Apostolic Ages was indeed wonderful, nevertheless since the Apostle tells us that not many Mighty nor Noble were called 
(r) 1 Cor. i 26. , but the far greater part of those Primitive Converts throughout the World, were Persons more remarkable for the piety and sanctity of their Lives, than for the largeness of their Estates, or the splendour of their Fortunes, 'tis evident that the Treasure of the Church could not be great, the small number of the Rich bearing no proportion with the multitude of the Poor. In that state of things, who can wonder if St. Paul, out of mere generosity and nobleness of Mind, chose rather to take up that Craft which in his younger years he had learned in view of such an Incident and Emergency as this, and to draw those Supplies from it which his long and expensive Voyages in the Service of the Gospel might sometimes cause him to want, than to be a Charge to the Churches which he saw already burdened above what they could bear? But where there is not a Parity of Case, nothing can be inferred from such a Practice. He that is called to serve at the Altar in a Nation thoroughly converted to Christianity, and able to afford an honourable Maintenance for the support of Divine Offices, needs not do that for it which St. Paul did for the poor proselyted Jews and Gentiles in his days.  
3. When St. Paul wrought at a Trade, it abated nothing of his Vigilance and Care for the Churches, it obstructed not his attendance on the Duties of his Ministry, and he could have done no more though he had not wrought at all. The Work of God did not stand still, while the other went on. So many Countries traveled o'er and o'er, so many Nations brought to the Knowledge of Christ and to the Obedience of the Cross through his means, are a proof of this Truth. He laboured with his hands, and yet he preached and wrote as if all his Time and Thoughts had been spent in Study and Meditation. And the reason of that is plain. The wonderful assistances of the Holy Ghost, common to him with the other inspired Men of that Age, were to him instead of those. When ye shall be brought before Rulers and Kings for my sake (says our Blessed Saviour to his Apostles) take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost 
(s) Mark xiii. 9, 11. Mat. x. 19, 20. . St. Paul then, relying on this Promise of the Holy Jesus, might very safely bestow some of his Hours of leisure and retirement in working privately for his Necessities, which he could not have spared had he been left destitute of those extraordinary Helps and Succours he trusted to from above, but must have employed them in preparing himself for such Solemn Performances as the nature of his Function required. And can he in this be followed and imitated by the present Preachers of the Gospel? who by unwearied Pains and Toils, by a continual bent and intendment of Thought, by a frequent substraction even of the necessary Refreshments of Life to gain Time, must now endeavour to acquire that, or indeed but a very small measure and proportion of that, which the First Ministers of Christianity received from the immediate Influx of God's Spirit, who enlightened their Minds, and put the very Words into their Mouths that they were to use when they spoke in public.  
4. St. Paul seems to have been ware of the ill use that might be made of the Example he gave, and therefore takes great care, throughout his Writings, to assert the Liberty and Privilege of the Evangelical Ministry, and to free it from any such obligation to Manual Labour. He professes that what he did was purely voluntary, and the result of his own Choice, and ought not to be made a matter of Duty or Necessity in others. he shows the equity of making a Retribution to those who spend themselves, and neglect their own Temporal Concerns, to procure our Spiritual Good. The IXth Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, is a long set Discourse upon that Subject. There he clearly insinuates, that of all the Apostles, truly or falsely so called, he only and Barnabas, the Companion of his Travels 
* Barnabas, Pauli diù comes, multim ab exemplo ipsius traxerat. Grot. , wrought with their hands. He tells the Corinthians, that he and Barnabas had power to forbear working likewise 
(t) Vers. 6. , and to challenge an Honorary from the Churches, as well as others that did so. For, as he argues, Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a Vineyard, and eateth not of the Fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a Flock, and eateth not of the milk of the Flock? If we have sown unto you Spiritual Things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your Carnal Things? If others be partakers of this Power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this Power 
(u)— 7, 11, 12. . The Power he speaks of, is an Exemption from Manual Labour, and a Right of being provided for by the Church, which the other Apostles claimed and used, but which he and Barnabas, of their own accord, and upon particular motives, did decline. As it was a Spontaneous Act of them two, so it could be no Law to the rest of the Apostles, nor to any subsequent Ministers of Religion. Neither would the Reasons always subsist, that had put him and Barnabas upon a Practice in which he owns they stood single and alone. God would soon enlarge the Borders of his Church, and then nothing could hinder Christian People from enlarging themselves also towards their Teachers. Do ye not know (for thus he immediately subjoins) that they which minister about Holy Things, live of the things of the Temple? and they which wait at the Altar, are partakers of the Altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel 
(w)— 13, 14. . Here he refers to that remarkable Saying of our Blessed Saviour, that the Workman (even he who lays himself out on the great Work of Men's Salvation, and is painful and diligent therein) is worthy of his Meat 
(x) Matt. x. 10. , and ought consequently to enjoy a Vacation from other Works and Labours.  
Nor did St. Paul always live by making of Tents. Sometimes he accepted of the Benevolence of the Churches. For in his Epistles, he speaks of supplies sent him once and again from Macedonia 
(y) 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9 Phil. iv. 10, etc. .  
I proceed,  
II. To account for some Passages out of Ancient Constitutions, Councils, and Fathers, which might be turned upon us in the present Controversy.  
1. Such is that cited out of the Apostolical Constitutions (commonly, but untruly so called) in which the Apostles, whom the Fictitious Author personates all along, urge their own Example to stir Men up to Bodily Labours. We are (thus they are made to speak) employed in dispensing the Word of the Gospel; we do not therefore disuse the Labour of the Hand; but are occupied some in making Tents, some in Fishery, some in Husbandry 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lib. II. cap. 63. . If St. Paul made Tents, whilst he went up and down the World planting and gathering Churches, he wrought privately in a House and at his Lodging. 
(z) Text. , and mostly at Night 
(a) 1 Thess. two. 9 two Thess. iii. 8. , after the Day spent in public Exhortation and Teaching: But how Fishery and Husbandry, or the like Rustic Arts, which require the Day, and a settled Residence in a Place, should be consistent with that unfixt ambulatory Life which the other Apostles led no less than he, is not to be comprehended. Fishers some of them we grant to have been at the first, and to have upon occasion practised that Calling, even after our Lord's Resurrection, and until the Day of Pentecost 
(b) Joh. xxi. 3, etc. . But when they had on that Day received the last Seal of their Ministry by the Mission of the Holy Ghost, and thereupon they became (as 'twere) Other Men, entered upon a New Scene, dispersing themselves among all Nations to preach the Kingdom of God, it cannot be shown that from thenceforwards they meddled any more with that or other the like Occupations. In short, the Author of these Constitutions is an Impostor, who to give a reputation to his Dreams would entitle the Apostles to them. And I am deceived if this Passage be not as good an Instance of the Spuriousness and Suppositition of the Book, as any thing that has been observed out of it for that purpose, by learned Men of all Communions.  
2. There is a Canon of the IVth Council of Carthage that is indeed very express, and the Words in which it is conceived are these: Clericus victum & vestimentum sibi, artificiolo, vel agriculturâ, absque officii sui detrimento paret 
† Can. 52. Hùc etiam spectant Canon's 51, & 53, ejusdem Concilii. Clenicus, quantim, libet verbo Dei eruditus, artificio victum quaerat. Can. 51. Omnes Clerici, qui ad operandum validiores sunt, artificiola discant. Can. 53. . But besides that the Clause, absque officii sui detrimento, eludes the force of the Canon, because 'tis not understood how a Clerk can exercise a Trade, or Agriculture, without detriment to his Office, I have this further to answer: That 'tis with great reason doubted whether there ever was such a Council, held (as 'tis said) anno 398. (the learned Justell absolutely denies it 
* Quod fingunt de alio Concilio Carthaginensi, quod IV tum vocant, & Honorio IU. & Eutychiano C●ss. convenisse narrart, planè repudiandum est; nec fides adhibenda Canonibus CIV quos sine auctoritate huic Concilio aseribunt. Praefat. ad Cod. Canon. Eccles. Afric. pag. 317. ) or, if there was, whether the CIV Canons that now go under that name, are the true and genuine Acts of that Council 
‖ Du Pin. Nouvelle Bibliotheque, Tom. II. pag. 356. . This we certainly know, that in the ancient Code of the African Councils, there is not the least mention made either of that Council or of those Canons; although there are no fewer than XVI several Councils of Carthage, all of them held under Aurelius Bishop of that See, from the Year 394 to 419 inclusive, and moreover the two Councils of Hippo and Milevi, taken into that Code. How a Council in which so many Decrees had been made for the Reformation of Church-Discipline, should come to be omitted and left out of that Code, is (if such a Council had been) altogether unaccountable: considering especially, that the same Aurelius, under whom that supposed Council is said to have been held, presided also in the great Council of Carthage of the Year 419, which fixed the African Code. Nay, there is a Canon in this last, directly contrary to that very Canon in the other out of which the Objection is made. 'Tis the XVIth I speak of, which forbids Churchmen to take Farms, or to be other Men's Baylies, or to get their Living by any sordid illiberal Employment; but to remember what is written, that no Man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. . We must think the African Bishops strangely inconsistent with themselves, to believe them capable of approving and disproving, of allowing and condemning, one and the self same thing almost with a breath. Wherefore since the Authority of this last great Council, called the Council of Carthage by way of excellency, and under that name received of old by all the Eastern Churches 
‖ Vid. Inner. dectiss●● Bcveregii in Canon's Conc. Carthag. pag. 202. , is uncontrovertible, that of the other may very justly be suspected and called into question. Neither are those CIV Canons of the IVth Council of Carthage to be found in the ancient Collection of Dionysius Exiguus 
* Ext. ap. Christoph. Justell. Biblioth. Jur. Canon. vet. Tom. 1. pag. 183. & seq. , who exactly transcribes the African Code: nor the least footstep of them to be seen in the no less ancient Abbreviation of the Councils made by Fulgentius Ferrandus 
** Ext. ibid. pag. 447. & seq. , who was Deacon of Carthage in the time of the Emperors Justin and Justinian, and was no doubt perfectly acquainted with the Records and Affairs of that Church. Further, in some Manuscripts they are entitled, Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua; and particularly in one, Statuta Ecclesiae Orientis antiqua 
† Concil. Labb. Tom. II. pag. 1198. ; so uncertain is the account which we have of them. Lastly, in the I st of those Canon's mention is made of the Doctrine of Original Sin, in opposition to the Pelagian Heresy, that was not heard of in afric until the Year 411, that is, 13 Years after the Date of those Canons; which shows that they must be a latter Compilation. All these Remarks put together destroy any Argument deduced from those Canons, and built on no better Authority than that of the Council to which they are attributed. A fit opportunity could not be offered me to declare my sense about that Council, than now when so many Learned Men are met together, part of whose Business it is to inquire into such things. But because,  
3. In the approved Writers of the IVth, Vth, and the next following Centuries, we sometimes meet with Expressions seeming to enjoin Manual Labour to the Clergy, I must likewise consider them; and I shall do it so, as to account for whatever we find of that kind in the Books of those Times. What I have to say amounts in short to this: That where Clerks are exhorted to work and labour with their hands, 'tis meant not of Parochial, but of Conventual and Congregational Clerks. Devout Men began early to form themselves into Religious Communities, and to live under certain Institutes or Rules; which among other Exercices proper to the Ascetic Life, such as Prayer, Fasting, and the like, recommended Manual Labour also, as a means to avoid Idleness, and to keep the Body under. There were two sorts of Persons that entered into those Societies, and embraced that kind of Life, viz. Laymen and ecclesiastics. Of the first, some before their retreat from the World had been trained up in one Calling, some in another: Some had been Husbandmen, some Artificers 
† Multi ex servili conditione, & ex vitâ rusticanâ, & plebeio labour, ad Monasticam vitam transibant. D. Aug. Lib. de Oper. Monach. cap. xxii. . These were not only allowed, but excited to work at their several Crafts, so far as it could be practicable in a Cloister, and they might spare time from their Devotions: and that not for private gain, but for the benefit of the Society, or of the Poor. In process of time, as Sloth and Inaction have ever been the blemish and reproach of the Monastic Orders, these Men refused to work; pretending thereby to fulfil that Saying of our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount, Consider the Lilies of the field how they grow, THEY WORK NOT, neither do they spin 
(c) Matt. vi. 28. . In opposition to these Men, St. Augustin, at the request of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage spoken of before, wrote his Book de Opere Monachorum, as he himself tells us in his Retractations 
‖  de Opere Monachorum Librum conscriberem, illa me necessit as compulit, quod cùm apud Carthaginem Monasteria esse coepissent, alii se su●● manibus transigebant,— alii verò it à ex oblationibus religiosorum vivere volebant, ut nihil operantes— se potiùs implere praeceptum Evangelicum jactarent, ubi Dominus ait, respicite volatilia coeli, & lilia agri, etc. Propter hoc venerabilis senex Aurelius, Ecclesiae ipsius Civitatis Episcopus, ut hine aliquid describerem jussit. Lib. II. cap. 21. ; and much has been said since against the Laziness of those plebeian Lay-Monks by St. Cyril of Alexandria 
* Epist. ad Calosyr. Oper. Ton. 〈◊〉 pag. 365. , St. Isidore of Pelusium 
** Lib. I. Epist. 49. ad Paulum Coenobiarch. & 298. ad Lucam Coenobiarch. , and others, who came after St. Augustin. As for ecclesiastics living in Monasteries, they were subject to the Discipline of those Houses, and so fell likewise under the obligation of labouring with their hands. This is noted by Epiphanius, as a known Practice in the Monasteries of Egypt 
† Advers. Haeres. Lib. III. Tom. 2. Haet. 80. §. 6. . And there is not much to be said against it: Because though these Men might retain their Character, yet they were under no actual, or no full and plenary Exercise of their Function. Some of them were shut up in those Houses by way of Correction and Punishment 
‖ Conc. Agathcan. 50. Conc. Epaon. can. 22. Conc. Aurel. III. can. 7. Conc. Narbon. can. 6. Conc. Tolet. IU. can. 29. & 45. Hortatus sum ut ageres poenitentiam,— ut solitudinem peteres, ut viveres in Monasterio, etc. S. Hieronym. Epist. ad Sabinionum Diaconum, qui virginem ad stuprum sollicitaverat. Oper. Tom. I. pag. 231. Edit. Froben. : and it was not inconvenient that they who had demeaned themselves disorderly, should there be made to expiate the Faults and Errors of their Lives, by hard and severe Labour.  
But now these and the like Cenobitical Constitutions neither did nor could affect the Parochial Clergy, living in the great and open Commerce of Men, attending on the Public Ministries of the Church, busied in Pastoral Cares, obliged to have a constant eye over their Flocks, and in a word taken up with other more weighty Affairs to be able to do that also which recluse and solitary Men might have leisure enough to do. And so St. Augustin tells the Monks, in the Book abovementioned: agnoscite Ecclesiarum quibus servimus talem consuetudinem, ut nos ad illa Opera ad quae vos hortamur, vacare non sinant 
† De Op. Monach. cap. xxv. . But we need only read St. Jerom's Epistles to Nepotianus and to Rusticus, to know the sense of the Church about this matter. In that to Rusticus, who had chosen the Monastic Life, St. Jerom presses the necessity of filling up the Vacancies of his Time with Bodily Labour, so as never to be Idle; and he largely and elegantly describes that great variety of Work of all kinds which might occupy a Man shut up in Solitude 
‖ Facito aliquid operis, ut te semper Diabolus inveniat occupatum.— Velure fiscellam texe junco, vel canistrum lentis plexe viminibus, sarriatur humus, areolae aequo limit dividantur, in quibus c●m olerum jacta fuerint semina, vel plantae per ordinem positae, aquae ducantur irriguae.— Inserantur infructuosae arbores, vel gemmu, vel surculis, ut parvo post tempore laboris tui dulcia poma decerpas. Apum fabricare alvearia,— & Monasteriorum ordinem, ac regiam disciplinam, in parvis disce corporibus. Texantur & lina ●●piendis piscibus; scribantur libri, ut & manus operetur cibum, & animus lectione saturetur. In desideriis est omnis otiosus. Aegyptiorum Monasteria hunc morem tenent, ut nullum absque operis lab●re suscipiant, non tàm propter victûs necessitatem, quàm propter animae salutem. Tom. I. pag. 45. & 46. : whereas in that to Nepotianus, who was a Secular Presbyter, and had a public Charge, he says nothing concerning it. What can his Silence argue, but a concession that Nepotianus would find so much employment in going about to acquit himself honestly and conscientiously of the Duties of his Function, as would supersede the necessity of joining Manual Labour thereunto?  
To bring this Point to a Conclusion: The very Heathens would not suffer the Ministers of their Religion to do any servile handy Work; and therefore Aristotle contends that Rustics and Artisans, and the like labouring and trading People, ought not to be advanced to the Dignity of the Priesthood; and he calls it a disrespect to the Gods that such Men should be appointed to serve at their Altars 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Polit. Lib. seven. cap. 9 . Among the Jews, by God's own special command and direction, the Priests and Levites had no part in the inheritance of the Land 
(d) Numb. xviii. 20, etc. Deut. xviii. 1, etc. , lest a necessary culture thereof should debase their Minds, and defile their Hands, and make them less fit for Sacred Ministrations. They lived upon the Provision which God had reserved for them, Tenths and Offerings; and the other Tribes worked for them, whilst they had nothing to do but in their several Classes and Courses to attend the Service of the Temple. Nor do I find that they took up mechanic Crafts and Arts, though but in the way that I have shown the greatest Rabbins and Doctors among that People took them up. Those Rabbins and Doctors, being indifferently of other Tribes, and having nothing to do with the dispensing of Holy Things, might use their liberty in that matter. But the Priests being the peculiar Servants of the most high God, Men whom he had sanctified, separated from the World, and appropriated to himself, such mechanic Labours would not so well have become them.  
Indeed the Jews did abusively afterwards distinguish betwixt two sorts of Priests, calling the one Sacerdotes clerici, and the others Sacerdotes laici sive plebeij; as our famed Lightfoot observes, out of the Writings of the Masters 
† Hor. Hebr. ad Matt. two. 4. & iterùm, Op. Posthum. pag. 28. . The Sacerdotes laici sive plebeij, were the unlettered and unskilled in the Law, or those whom Bodily Defects and Blemishes had disabled and rendered incapable of executing Priestly Offices. It was never intended that they should be frustrated of a Portion among their Brethren, the Law having declared itself very expressly to the contrary: They shall eat of the bread of their God, both of the most holy, and of the holy: only they shall not come nigh unto the Altar, because they have Blemishes 
(e) Leu. xxi. 22, 23. . And yet through the growth and prevalency of Pharisaism, which in this as in many other instances made the Law of God void, it came to be a Saying in aftertimes, ne detur oblatio Sacerdoti laico 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Lightfoot ut s●pra. ; by which means these Persons fell into neglect and contempt, and were often reduced to Poverty. Among these, 'tis not impossible but some may be found that had recourse to their own Industry, in the way of Arts and Trades, compelled by a Necessity which excused them, but which could not have been urged to excuse those who did eat of the Sacrifices, had they been seen taken up with any other Work than that of their Function.  
The Council of Eliberis, elder by some years than that of Nice, forbade to admit among the Clergy, the Liberti, or affranchized Bondmen of Gentile Masters 
† Can. 80. : by reason (says the learned Aubespine 
* Merito cavebant ne Liberti, querum Patroni essent Gentiles, ordinarentur: nam ab eis fabriles aut officiales operas exigere poterant Patroni, quas soliti erant stipulari c●m eos libertate donarent: tenebanturque Liberti non solùm Patronis eas praestare, sed aliis etiam quibus eae locatae essent. At indignum prors●s neque ferendum, ejusmodi operis, pictoriis puta aut fabrilibus, Cleric●s distrabi & im●ediri, qui nullis aliis rebus quàm sacris vacare aut studere deberent. Gabr. Albaspini Aurel. Episcopi not. in Concil. Eliber. pag. 87. ) of the abject Services and Dependences, which their Patrons continued upon contract to exact from them, even then after their Manumission. It seemed intolerable that the Ministry should be prostituted to Men of that Rank, who might be called back to their old Trades of Painting, Carving, and the like, as oft as it pleased their Patrons to set them thereto, or to hire out their Labour therein to others.  
In the VIIth Year of Queen Elizabeth, all that had any Office or Cure in the Church of England, were obliged to subscribe the following Declaration: I shall not openly intermeddle with any Artificer's Occupation, so as covetously to seek a gain thereby, having in Ecclesiastical Living to the sum of XX Nobles, or above, by Year 
† Bishop Sparrow's Collection of Articles, Injunctions, Canons, etc. of the Church of England. . He must have a great deal of Phlegm that reflects on that which gave occasion to such a Declaration, and keeps his Temper. It was briefly this. The Church had been so impoverished by Sacrilegious Alienations of its Patrimony and Revenues, that many of the Inferior Clergy, not able to live upon the small Remnant that was left and scattered among them, more like an Alms than a Reward proportioned to their Labours, were forced for a Subsistence to betake themselves to Trades, and other mean and vile Occupations 
‖ Bishop of Sarum's Hist. of the Reform. of the Ch. of England. Part II. Book I. pag. 202. Dr. Heylin's Hist. of the Reform. Edw. pag. 61. ; to the manifest neglect of their Charge, and the great disgrace of their Holy Calling. Thereupon the aforesaid Declaration was drawn up: which still gave leave to those whose Live came under such a Value, to get a Supply as well as they could, in some other Way, which they might superadd to the Sacred Employment they were in. With submission, the Credit of the Church and Ministry was not enough consulted and provided for by that Act. Therefore the Convocation which sat in the Year 1603, having thought better thereon, ordained and enacted, that from thenceforth no Ecclesiastical Persons should give themselves to any base or servile Labour 
* Can. 75. . By this Decree the Honour and Sacredness of our Office has been retrieved and asserted: 
☞ This is also to be noted, that at the beginning of our Reformation, such an indigence there was of Ministers, as made it necessary to take in some Artificers, and to fill up Vacant Cures with them. These Men did not demean themselves so decently as became the Character conferred on them. Something still stuck by them, savouring of their former education and manner of living. Therefore anno 1560, a Letter from Matthew Parker, newly consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, was directed to Edmund Grindal Bishop of London, signifying, that whereas lately for want of Ministers, they had ordained several Artificers, who had behaved themselves not to the credit of the Gospel, care should be taken that no more Artificers might be ordained for the futur. Regist. Grindal. MSS. fol. 7. The reputation of our Church suffered upon the occasion of these Men, the Papists not being wanting to upbraid and reproach us with them, as appears from Rastal's Answer to Bishop Jewel's Challenge. See Heylin's Hist. of the Reform. Eliz. pag. 175. But our Church was then in a State of Infancy, and a Generation of better and abler Men quickly sprang up that superseded the necessity of those Ordinations. I cite Bishop Grindal's Register upon the authority of the reverend Dr. Kennet, whose learned account of the Antiquities of his own Parish-Church of Ambrosden, shows him excellently accomplished to go on further in the like curious Researches.  and a Decree it is worthy of them that made it, viz. the Fathers and Representatives of the purest and best constituted Church in the Christian World.  
Upon the whole Matter, let any reasonable Man judge, who are the truest Ministers, and the likeliest to carry on the great and noble Designs of Religion; either They, who have devoted themselves early to this Work, who have beforehand qualified themselves duly for it, and who desire to lay aside other Occupations and Affairs only that they may without distraction attend upon this very thing; or They, who being entangled in various Worldly Callings, trained up in them from the beginning, necessitated to exercise themselves daily in them, and to be always running round and toiling in that Circle, do, merely upon the presumption of a lively Fancy and a voluble Tongue (natural Gifts, which not only very Bad, but very Ignorant Men may have) take upon them to Teach, when they themselves very much need to be Taught. But taking no further notice of these Men, who can deceive those only whom God in his secret and inscrutable Judgement has given up to a Spirit of Error and Delusion, I shall turn the Discourse to ourselves, and show,  
III. That Evangelical Pastors and Ministers, being by the nature of their Function dismissed from Manual Labours, and generally from all those Cares and Occupations with which Secular Persons are taken up and perplexed; they are much to blame, if through Love of the World they voluntarily resume and involve themselves in those Cares; if through Levity of Spirit they dissipate their Time in foolish Diversions and Amusements, or even in fruitless and unprofitable Studies; if they do not, in so privileged and recollected a State of Life, bend their utmost application and endeavours, to the enriching of their Minds more and more with the Knowledge of Things excellent and proper for them, to the adorning of their Province, and to the fulfilling of their Ministry; since therefore they enjoy this Exemption and Immunity that they may be enabled so to do.  
I hope none of my Reverend Brethren will be offended with the Freedom I shall use in speaking to this Head. I must pursue my Subject, and I would be understood to direct my Discourse to none so much as to myself.  
1. They are, I think, not excusable, who having given themselves up to the Ministries of Religion, and being thereby dispensed from Secular Cares, involve themselves in them when they need not. And here are not meant the just and necessary Cares of a Family, but Cares and Occupations in meddling with which Clergymen bewray Habits and Dispositions of Mind too much estranged and alienated from the Spirit of their Calling. We must with shame confess that the Fault I note here is no new evil in the Church: as appears from so many Decrees of General and Provincial Councils, Synodical Letters, Capitulars, and other Ancient Monuments, where loud Complaints are made against it 
† Can. Apostol. 6, 44, 81, & 83. Concil. African. I. de quo S. Cyprian. Ep. 66. edit. Pamel. seu 1. edit. Oxon. Conc. Eliber. can. 18, & 20. Conc. Arelat. I. can. 12. Conc. Nicaen. I. Oecumen. can. 17. Conc. Laodicens. can. 4. Conc. Carthag. I. cap. 6, 8, 9, & 13. Conc. Carthag. III. cap. 15, & 16. Conc. Carthag. an. 419. in causâ Apiarii. can. 17. Conc. Chalcedon. Oecumen. can. 3. Conc. Arelat. II. can. 14. Conc. Tarracon. can. 2. Conc. Constantinop. in Trull. can. 10. Conc. in Palatio Vern. can. 16. Conc. Forojul. ceu Aquileiens. can. 5. Conc. Cabilon. II. can. 5, 8, 12, & 44. Conc. Aquisgran. I. can. 40, 61, 92, & 93. Conc. Rom. an. 826. can. 12. Conc. Paris. an. 829. can. 13, & 28. Conc. Clovesh. can. 8. ap. Spelman. Conc. Angl. Tom. I. pag. 247. Canon's Saxon. Aelfrici, can. 30. ap. eund. Tom. I. pag. 579. Conc. Lond. an. 1102. can. 1. & 8. ap. eund. Tom. II. pag. 22. Synod. Westm. an. 1138. cap. 9 ap. eund. Tom. II. pag. 41, etc. . There, we find Ecclesiastical Persons taxed; some, for taking Lands and Grounds to Farm, and doing that which properly is the Business of Yeomen and such like People; some, for assuming the management and superintendency of Great Men's Estates, as their Stewards and Baylies; some, for accepting of Procurations, Wardships, and Testamentary Trusts, which to execute they were always following Courts, and going to Law; some, for trading and trafficking openly as Merchants, resorting to foreign Markets, buying cheap and selling dear, as the Words of some of those Councils are; some, for making a profit of their Money by Loan and Interest, setting up Banques, and turning downright Usurers and Extortioners; to say nothing of those whom we find no less censured for thrusting themselves into Public Administrations, and ambitioning Posts and Places in the Civil Government. Against these, and such as these, so many Canons and Constitutions have been made, both in former and latter Ages, that if one should undertake to collect them, and reduce them into a Code, they would swell up to a Volume. As they show the zeal and concern of the Church all along, to keep Evangelical Ministries free from profane and unclean Mixtures, so they are all but a larger Comment on that Text of St. Paul, that no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Soldier 
(f) two Tim. two. 4. . Which words of the Apostle are expressly laid down by the I st and IIId Councils of Carthage, and others subsequent to them, as the ground of the Laws they enacted against Clerks busying themselves with Cares that did not belong to them.  
Some Men naturally are more stirring than others, delight more in Business and Action. When such Men come into the Church, it is pity they do not use that Diligence and Industry with which God has endowed them, in matters commendable and proper for them. They would prove admirable instruments of doing good, and they would surpass all others of their Profession. Nor need they fear that their Talon should rust, through want of employment. For there is not a nobler Scene for Business and Action than the Ministry, though in a way different from the Cares and Labours of the World.  
2. They greatly abuse this Exemption and Immunity, who through Levity of Spirit dissipate their Time in foolish Diversions and Amusements. This is a Fault in the other extreme, incident to Men of another Complexion. For this flows from a sauntring and unactive Temper, from a Mind dissolved in Sloth, and averse to every thing that is serious. This Humour is of all others the most opposite to the Ministry, and by being indulged must render a Man useless and unserviceable in it. I would make all the allowance that can be for Humane Infirmities, and for Propensions which perhaps were born with us: But certainly the most innocent Pastimes must become criminal in Men called to a Sacred Trust, who postpone the discharge of their Duty to them. Indeed he who has an awful sense of God and of Holy Things upon his Mind, who is convinced of the infinite value of Souls, and has duly weighed the importance of the Work laid before him, will not think that he has much leisure to spare in the pursuit of Pleasures and Recreations, be they otherwise never so harmless and inoffensive in their own nature. When Synesius was named to fill the vacant See of Ptolemais, the Good Man pleaded a certain inclination he had for Hunting, as a reason for which he conceived himself unapt for so great a Charge: For a Bishop (thus he expresses himself) ought to be a Godlike Man: like the Deity, he must be above all Sports and Divertisements 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Epist. CV ad Fratrem. pag. 247. . St. Isidore will not allow so much as a little Mirth and Laughter to a Priest: saying, that a Priest is the Angel of Almighty God; but Angels know not what Laughter is; those glorious Creatures minister to God with Reverence and Fear 
‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lib. I. Epist. 319. ad Derotheum Presbyterum. pag. 85. . These are the Thoughts which those two excellent Men had of the Ministry, from which they banished every thing that favoured of a light and frivolous Spirit. If we therefore of the Clergy enjoy a demission from Secular Cares and Toils, it is not that we may thereby have an opportunity to be Idle, and to bury ourselves in a soft, easy, and voluptuous Life; but that being freed from all interruptions, we may give the better attendance on our Calling, and labour so much the more sedulously and indefatigably in our own Way: and we should have very ill grace to claim such a Privilege, upon other Terms than these.  
3. Even they make but an ill use of this Exemption and Immunity, who addict themselves to fruitless and unprofitable Studies. In Men who ought to spend their Time to worthier purposes even this is a Fault, and deserves no better name than that of a more laborious sort of Idleness. And verily when we consider the vast number of Books that swell up the accounts in our Libraries, and have been written by Divines on all the various Topics of Profane Learning, we cannot but wonder how Men labouring in God's Vineyard, should find vacant Hours for such Productions and Superfetations as those. Had not the Titles taken care to inform us of the Quality and Profession of the Men, we could never have guessed from the Contents of the Books, in which nothing is found having a taste and relish of that Spirit of Religion which should have animated the Authors, that such Works had been the Lucubrations of Persons in Holy Orders. A Minister's Pen ought to be dedicated to God's Glory, and to the Defence of the Truth. He unhallows it, and desecrates himself, that turns it to light and unbecoming Subjects. The fabulous Relation of the Adventures of Theagenes and Chariclaea, which appeared in the IVth Century, written with all the beauties of Language and Invention, might have passed uncensured, had a Layman been the Author of it. But when that Romance began to walk abroad with the venerable name of Heliodorus Bishop of Trica in Thessaly prefixed to it, the whole Church was offended and scandalised at it, notwithstanding what was said to lessen the Scandal, viz. that it was a Work which Heliodorus had composed in his younger years. A Synod of the Bishops of the Province met, in which Heliodorus was called upon to disown and retract the Book. Upon his refusal, he was deservedly Deprived 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hist. Eccles. Lib. XII. cap. xxxiv. pag. 296, & 297. Vid. etiam Soerat. Hist. Ecc. Lib. V cap. xxii. pag. 287. . The vain Man was so blown up with the pride and conceit of being the Parent of that Fiction, that rather than lose the merit of it, he was contented to see himself degraded of the Episcopal Dignity and Character, which is the glory and perfection of the Evangelical Sacerdoce.  
I would not seem by any thing I have here said to condemn Humane Learning, which at the entrance of this Discourse I have laid down as a necessary Qualification for the Ministry, in opposition to those Ignorant Pretenders who assume the one without any Tincture of the other. But as the best of it ought to be used only as an Accessary to Divine Researches and Inquiries, so there are Studies in that way that are indeed but Trifling. And you will all, no doubt, concur with me, that a Minister of the Gospel, who, when he should be laying himself out in things solid and useful, should be writing Sonnets and Epigrams, or evaporating his Thoughts in Airy Speculations and Theories, that have no subserviency to Religion, and can only conduce to the gratifying of an idle and itching Curiosity, would be able to give but a very ill account of his Time to God. Therefore,  
4. It is they that make a right use of that Leisure which an Exemption from secular Cares and Labours affords them, who bend their utmost application and endeavours to the enriching of their Minds daily more and more with the Knowledge of Divine Things. This is the Knowledge in the acquisition of which it is intended that Christian Ministers should spend their still, quiet, and peaceful Hours. And indeed, how can they find a gust for such Studies as I last spoke of, who have for the proper Objects of their Meditations, the glorious Attributes and Works of God, the wonderful Mysteries of our Redemption by Jesus Christ, the great and saving Doctrines of the Gospel, and all the august Evidences given there concerning a Futur State and our hopes of a better Life after this? Such Matters as these are worthy of the profoundest Contemplation and Incumbency, not only of Men, but of Angels. To these the Clergy are understood to have consecrated their Studies; and could it be supposed that any one of that Sacred Order should prove deficient in the Knowledge of these, so as not to carry a perfect Scheme of them in his Mind, and be able to account readily for them, he knows nothing to any purpose, though otherwise he could number the Sands on the Seashore, or solve the most difficult Phenomena of Nature. 'Tis a noble Thought of St. Isidore 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lib. I. Epist. 151. pag. 47. , as there are many in that Author, that the Priests of God ought to ressemble those Living Creatures attending on the Divine Majesty in a Vision to Ezekiel 
(g) Chap. i 18. and x. 12. , and said to have been full of eyes, to denote their sagacity and insight into Heavenly Revelations and Oracles.  
And if ever it was necessary for the Clergy to excel in that Knowledge and in those Studies which peculiarly belong to their Profession, if ever it concerned them to be conversant about and to strive for a Mastery in the Divine Tactics, it is now. There is a Swarm of Atheists, Deists, Sceptics, Spinozists, Socinians, and other Enemies of our Holy Faith, gone out amongst us: Men with whom a Servant of Jesus Christ will often be called to encounter. It behoves him therefore to be furnished with such Arms, as may enable him to do it with success. Would it not grieve him to see the best Cause in the World baffled and defeated, only because he wants Abilities to defend it? The meanest Christian ought to be ready always to give an answer to every man, that asketh him a reason of the Hope that is in him 
(h) i Pet. three 15. : How much more ought the Ministers of the Church to be mighty in words 
(i) Acts seven. 22. , workmen that need not to be ashamed 
(k) two Tim. two. 15. , able by sound Doctrine to convince gainsayers 
(l) Tit. i. 9 , and to cast down every high thought and imagination that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God 
(m) two Cor. x. 5. ? 'Tis that they may the better qualify and capacitate themselves in this way, that by the Laws of God, the Sanctions of the Universal Church, and under the Protection of Christian States and Governments, the Clergy enjoy an Exemption and Immunity from Secular Cares and Labours.  
5. and lastly: They enjoy this Exemption and Immunity (and those among them are exceedingly to blame, who do not use it to that End) that they may adorn their Province, and fulfil their Ministry in every Part of it. That is, that they may be continually busied and employed in advancing the Honour and Service of the great Maker and Preserver of the World: in reconciling Men to him by Repentance, and the administration of Holy Rites: in teaching and instructing the Ignorant: in relieving anxious and doubting Consciences: in rebuking profligate Sinners, and warning them of the dread and terrors of an approaching Judgement: in composing Differences, and promoting Peace, Charity, and a reciprocal  among all People: in plucking up Sin and Vice, and planting the Seeds of every Christian Grace and Virtue in the Earth: in purifying their own Lives, and giving heed to their own Sanctification, that they may be shining Examples to their Flocks: in praying night and day to God, that he will bless their Endeavours, and afford them such a Measure of his Divine Spirit as may be sufficient to carry them through their Work. The World cannot envy a Vacation from Secular Cares and Labours to the Clergy, nor any other Privilege annexed to their Sacred Function, whilst it sees them intent upon such things as these.  
And praised be God, the Father of Lights, and the Author of every good Gift 
(n) Jam. i. 17. , for that in the midst of so general a Corruption and Degeneracy as prevails in our Age, he has not left his Church destitute of honest and faithful Pastors, who strenuously pursue all the Ends I have named, answer all the Qualifications and Characters I have laid down: That is, who are eminently conspicuous for their contempt of and abstraction from Earthly Things, for their grave and sober Deportment, for their sound and useful Learning, and for their constant Assiduity to their Charge. I cannot better express it than in the Words of St. Cyprian 
* Epist. lxvii. ad Foelicem Presbyterum, etc. pag. 174. Edit. Oxon. , which are so nicely adapted to our Case, that one would think they had been suggested to him by a Prophetic Spirit, and that when he wrote them, he had in view, not the State of the Church in his Time, but in ours. Non sic tamen, quàmvis novissimis temporibus, in Ecclesià Dei, aut Evangelicus vigour cecidit, aut Christianae virtutis aut fidei robur elanguit, ut non supersit portio Sacerdotum, quae minimè ad has rerum ruinas, & fidei naufragia, succumbat; sed fortis & stabilis, honorem Divinae Majestatis, & Sacerdotalem Dignitatem, plenâ timoris observatione, tueatur. Although (says he) we are fallen into the Last Days, nevertheless the Evangelical Spirit and Vigour is not sunk, nor the strength and power of Christian Faith and Virtue enfeebled to such a degree, in the Church of God, as that there should not be yet remaining a Portion of Holy Priests, who amidst all these ruins and shipwrecks of Religion are not unmindful of their Duty, but stand firm and unshaken therein, going on with great zeal and courage to assert the Honour of the Divine Majesty, and to maintain the Dignity and Reputation of Sacerdotal Functions. Praised be God, that no Particular Church upon Earth can boast of a greater number of such Worthy Men, than the Protestant Orthodox Church of England. I reckon it, not the least advantage I have gained from my Attendances abroad, that I have received many Convictions of this Truth, by comparing the Clergy of this and of other Churches. To those who deny them their due Commendation, I shall only say, that I wish them the like opportunities of Conviction.  
May God, in his infinite mercy, keep up a Succession of such Pastors in his Church, so long as there is a Sun in the Firmament. May their Excellent Example quicken Me, and others of their Brethren, who flag behind them. May the World be just to them, and esteem them very highly in love for their Work's sake 
(o) i Thess. v. ●3. . May their People have the wisdom not to withdraw themselves from under their Conduct, to follow Blind Guides and Seducers. May they feel a kind and benign Influence of Heaven going along with them, and prospering every thing they do, or undertake, for the glory of God, and for the benefit and instruction of Mankind. May none of the Enemies of God be able to stand before them. May the great and sacred Truths of Religion, be ever victorious and triumphant in their Discourses and Writings. May they every where beat down the Kingdom of Satan, and on the fall of it build up the glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ our Lord. And from him the Everlasting Highpriest, the supreme Pastor and Bishop of Souls, may they one day receive the Crown and Reward promised to their Holy Labours. Amen.  
THE END.   

BOOKS printed for John Newton, at the Three Pigeons in Fleetstreet.  
MR. Falle's Account of the Isle of Jersey, with a new and accurate Map of the Island. Dedicated to the King. 8ᵒ.  
His Sermon before the Garrison in Jersey, April 10. 1692.  
His Sermon at Whitehall, Decemb. 30. 1694.  
His Sermon before the Lord Mayor, April 21. 1695.  
Mr. D'auvergne's Relations of the Campagnes in Flanders, for the Years 1692, 1693, 1694, 1695, 1696, and 1697.  
New Observations on the Natural History of this World of Matter, and this World of Life: In two Parts. Being a Philosophical Discourse, grounded upon the Mosaic System of the Creation, and the Flood. To which are added, some Thoughts concerning Paradise, the Conflagration of the World, and a Treatise of Meteorology: With occasional Remarks upon some late Theories, Conferences, and Essays. By Tho. Robinson, Rector of Ousby in Cumberland,  
The Anatomy of the Earth. By the same Author.  
A Charge given at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the County of Surrey, holden at Dorking on Tuesday the 5th day of April, 1692. and in the 4th year of their Majesty's Reign. By the Honourable Hugh Hare Esquire, one of their Majesty's Justices of the Peace for that County.  
Pendragon: or, The Carpet Knight's Calendar. A Poem.   

ERROR.  
PAge 46. Line 7. for, They greatly abuse this Exemption, read, They greatly abuse of this Exemption.