fructed for the Kingdom of Heaven, without a Competency of Judgment, Memory, and Invention, attempts a great Superftructure, where there is no Foundation; and this, surely, is a very prepofterous way to edify either himself or others.

And thus much for the firft of the two Qualifications of our Evangelical Scribe; to wit, a tolerable Ability, or Strength of the Powers, and Faculties of the Mind; particularly of those three, Judgment, Memory, and Invention. I proceed now to the other, and

2d. Qualification: Which was an Habitual Preparation by Study, Exercife, and due Improvement of the fame. Powers act but weakly and irregularly, till they are heightened and perfected by their Habits. A well radicated Habit, in a lively, vegete Faculty, is like an Apple of Gold in a Picture of Silver; 'tis Perfection upon Perfection, 'tis a Coat of Mail upon our Armour, and, in a Word, it is the Raising of the Soul, at least, one Story higher. For take off but thefe Wheels, and the Powers in all their Operations will drive but heavily. Now it is not enough to have Books, or for a Man to have his Divinity in his Pocket, or upon the Shelf; but he muft have

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have mastered his Notions, till they even incorporate into his Mind, fo as to be able to produce, and wield them upon all Occafions; and not when a Difficulty is propofed, and a Performance enjoined, to fay, that he will confult fuch and fuch Authors: For this is not to be a Divine, who is rather to be a walking Library, than a walking Index. As, to go no farther than the Similitude in the Text, we fhould not account him a good or generous House-Keeper, who fhould not have always fomething of ftanding Provifion by him, fo as never to be fo furprized, but that he fhould ftill be found able to treat his Friend at least, though perhaps not always. presently to feast him: So the Scribe here fpoken of fhould have an inward, lafting Fulnefs and Sufficiency, to fupport and bear him up; especially where prefent Performance urges, and actual Preparation can be but fhort. Thus, it is not the Oil in the Wick, but in the Veffel, which muft feed the Lamp. The former indeed may cause a prefent Blaze, but it is the latter which muft give it a lafting Light. It is not the fpending Money a Man has in his Pocket, but his Hoards in the Cheft, or in the Bank, which must make him rich. A dying Man

has

has his Breath in his Noftrils, but to have it in the Lungs is that which must preserve Life. Nor will it fuffice to have raked up a few Notions here and there, or to rally up all one's little Utmoft into one Discourse, which can conftitute a Divine, or give a Man Stock enough to fet up with; any more than a Soldier who had filled his Snapsack, fhould thereupon fet up for keeping House. No; a Man would then quickly be drained, his fhort Stock would ferve but for one Meeting in ordinary Converse, and he would be in Danger of meeting with the fame Company twice. And therefore there must be Store, Plenty, and a Treafure, left he turn Broker in Divinity, and having run the Rounds of a beaten exhaufted Common Place, be forced to stand still, or go the fame Round over again; pretending to his Auditors, that it is profitable for them to hear the fame Truths often inculcated to them; though, I humbly conceive, that to inculcate the fame Truths, is not of neceffity to repeat the fame Words. And therefore to avoid fuch beggarly Pretences, there must be an Habitual Preparation as to the Work we are now speaking of. And that in two refpects.

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I. In

1. In refpect of the Generality of Knowledge required to it. The Truth is, if we confider that great Multitude of Things to be known, and the Labour and Time required to the Knowledge of each Particular, it is enough to difcourage and dash all Attempt, and cause a carelefs Defpair. What Hippocrates faid of the Cure of the Body, is much truer of the Cure of the Soul, That Life is fhort, and Art long. And I might add alfo, that the Mind is weak and narrow, and the Bufinefs difficult and large. And fhould I fay, that Preaching was the least part of a Divine, it would I believe be thought a bold Word, and look like a Paradox, (as the World goes).but perhaps, for all that, never the farther from being a great Truth. For is it not a greater Thing, to untye the Knots of many intricate and perplexing Controverfies? And to bring together all the Ends of a loofe, and hardly cohering Hypothefis? To refute the Opinions, and stop the Mouths of Gainfayers, whereas fome of them are fo oppofite amongst themselves, that you can hardly confute one, but with Arguments taken from the other, though both of them equally erroneous? In which and the like Cafes to carry an Argument

for

for the Defence of Truth fo warily and exactly, that an Adversary fhall not fometimes be able to pervert it to the Support of an Error (fince though the Argument may be materially the fame, yet the different Application and Management of it may produce quite different Inferences from it.) This, no doubt, is a Matter of great Difficulty, and no lefs Dexterity. And the like alfo may be faid of Cafuiftical Divinity for refolving Cafes of Confcience; efpecially where feveral Obligations feem to interfere and (as it were) juftle one another, fo that it feems impoffible to the Confcience to turn either way without Sin, and while it does fo, muft needs be held under great Diftraction. To clear a way out of which, being a Work certainly depending upon much Knowlege of the Canon and Civil Laws, as well as of the Principles of Divinity, it must needs require much Toil and Labour for the Cafuift to provide himself with Materials for this Purpose, and then no lefs Art and Skill to manage and apply them to the Confcience And as it is highly requifite, that this fhould in fome Measure be found in every Divine, and in its Height and Per

fection