1. A SECLUSE and retired Life has many great Advantages in it both to improve and adorn the Faculties of the Mind It gives a Man an Opportunity of much reading, and deep Contemplation; but then it deprives him of the Knowledge of the World, and by this means makes him fometimes a Pedant and Mifanthrope, instead of a Man of Letters and Civility. FOR this Reafon, fome have obferved, that Men, who have lived long a collegiate Life, feldom appear in the World with the best of Tempers; they imbibe, and are fo fond of the Discipline of the Place, as to think to apply it to all the Purposes of Life: Their Inferiors must be kept under the fame Subordination, and their Curates taught the fame Obeifance that they themselves once obferved to their Mafters and Profeffors; and this, not out of any Spirit of Lordlinefs or Affumption, but merely because they think it the belt Form of Government, and fuch as ought to take Place wherever they prefide. By which means it comes to pafs, that the Man is thought to opprefs, where he only meant to govern; and is called a Tyrant, where he only intended to be a Difciplinarian. THIS Indifcretion (for we call it no more) is farther increafed by Succefs in Life, and an hafty Accumulation of Preferments. Preferments by Collation, and Eftates by Hereditage and Acquifition, may have this Difference in their Effects upon us; that the one, coming leifurely and after fome Expectance, are ufually received with Temper, and occafion no great Alteration in the Mind; the other, coming all at once, and fometimes furprizingly and unexpectedly, fwell the Heart, and make the Head turn C 2 giddy. giddy. What the Man gets in this Way, he imputes to his own Merits; what he fees others want, he imputes to their Defect: and thus he estimates things, in his Opinion, according to their proper Value; thofe that are before him in the Race of Wealth and Honour, he emulates; but those that are behind him, he despises *: Ecclef. ix. Never confidering, that the Race is not always to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong, neither yet Bread to the Wife, nor yet Riches to the Men of Understanding, nor yet Favour to Men of Skill; but Time and Chance happen to them II. all. 2. THERE is something more gross that contributes to our Disesteem, and what I fhould be afham'd to mention, were there not too much Reason for it. And that is, the vile Mifconception of our being their Servants, because we do their Work, and receive our Wages from them. This, I verily believe, rises in their Stomachs, and is, as it were, the Oil of their Thoughts, whenever they think themselves provoked to use us ill. "What! Shall fuch a Scoun"drel as this, that I feed, and clothe, and “maintain, that I fend upon my Errands, and employ in my Drudgery every Day, pretend to "treat me thus; to controul my Will, or rival "me in any thing? I'll fhew him who is his Mafter, and what it is to affront a Man of my Spirit, and Power, and Authority over him. WHETHER We are to be bor'd thro' the Ears, or us'd as the Royal Slaves are, which your Lordship has seen in Sweden, (because there is * Ut cum carceribus miffos rapit ungula currus, HOR. Serm. Lib. 1. Sat. 1. fome. * Collar fomething pretty and fymbolical in a and a Bell) time will discover. But while we have the Liberty of Speech, I cannot but affirm, that, if receiving a Sum of Money, and that no immense Sum neither in Confideration of the Labour and Time we expend upon onr Principals, denominates us their Servants; then are all the Profeffions in the World under the same Predicament, and who is the Man that can call himself free? Lawyers and Physicians, that receive their Fees, (or their Wages, if you please to call them fo) are, upon this Suppofition, Servants to all the Clients and Patients that employ them. Nay, this mighty Man, that is fo fond of bringing other People under his Dominion, is, upon his own Principles, the greatest Slave in the Parish. What he calls his Dues, are no more than his Wages; and confequently he is a Servant to every one that pays him any; and ten times more a Servant, than any of us, because the Bulk of his Wages is commonly ten times bigger. IF this Reasoning feems offenfive and dangerous to fome, as I conceive it may, let thofe anfwer for it that gave the Occafion, and to aggrandize themfelves, are content to fee us degraded among the lowest Class of Men; thereby inverting that Order which God has made between the Priest and People; thereby denying that Authority which he hath granted for the Edification of his Church; and thereby deftroying that honourable Relation we have to the divine Majefty, and to whofe Service alone we are devoted. "And therefore for any † Pa"tron (or any other Man we may fay) to ac * Vid. Account of Sweden, p. 19. + Vid. Collier's Effays, p. 207. C 3 "count "count fuch a confecrated Perfon his Servant, " is in effect to challenge divine Honours, and "to fet up himself for a God: For if he is any thing lefs, he muft acknowledge that the Ser"vice of a Prieft does not belong to him; for "that, in the very Terms and Notion of it, is "intended for no Being inferior to that which is fuppofed to be divine." UPON this Occafion I cannot forbear, (let the Conftruction be what it will) not fo much to lament the Misfortune of thofe that live at the Will of fuch imperious Mafters, (for Lamentation cures no Sores) as to encourage and exhort them to maintain their Freedom, and not betray the Privileges of their Function by any fervile Carriage or Submiffion. "Overmuch Ceremony, fays the above"cited Author, and then I am fure over"much Submiffion in a Clergyman is frequently "mifinterpreted; and fuppofed to proceed not "from his Breeding or Humility, but from a "Consciousness of his Meannefs: And others c are willing to allow him fo much Senfe as to "be a complete Judge of his own Inconfiderableness; and fince he confeffes himself concontemptible in his Carriage, they think it "but juft to treat him accordingly." Were this the worft Confequence, much might be fuffered; but when the Contempt defcends from our Perfons to our Profeffions, and flides and infinuates itself into our very Difcourfes and Exhortations, much Care fhould be taken (how free foever we may make with ourselves) not to fuffer our holy Office to be traduced, and the Word of God blafphemed by our Cowardice and Servility. Pag. 230. God God has not given us the Spirit of Fear, fays 2 Tim. i, the Apostle, fo as to be afraid of Men; but of 7. Power, i. e. of chriftian Courage and Magnanimity. And therefore let them know, (and know it by the Steadincfs of our Actions, more than any cavilling or litigious Words) that, how eminent foever they may think themselves in their Station, we have a Precaution given us not to call any Man Mafter upon Earth; and how fubfervient foever we may be in the Course of our Ministry, even as to become all things to all 1 Cor. ix. Men, yet we have an Example fet us, not to be 22. brought into Bondage by any one. 4.. 2 Cor. xi. THE Conftitution of the Government has 20. fet us upon the fame Cround with them, and upon the fame Level with the inferior Gentry, as a Reward of our Education, and a Furtherance of our Function. Let not this Advantage then, (whatever becomes of our fpiritual Dignity) be fcandaloufly parted with for Handfuls of Barley, and Pieces of Bread. Ezek. xiii. We have a Power to eat and drink, i. e. a Right 19. to a competent Maintenance out of the Eftates I Cor. ix. of thofe that we inftruct, as well as they; and tho' we receive this Maintenance directly from their Hands, yet the Apostle, I think, has fettled that Matter pretty juftly, if we have fown 1 Cor. ix. unto them, much more if we have fown for them, 11. Spiritual things, it is a great thing, i. e. a Favour fo extraordinary, a Confideration that ought to fubject us to fo much Homage and Obeifance, that we reap their carnal things. The Apostle certainly infinuates, that the Obligation lies on their fide; as much as carnal are exceeded by fpiritual, and temporal by eternal Bleffings. BUT not to infift on all Advantages. If in the Matter of being beholden to one another C 4 (as I |