"the Lord went before them by day, in a pilllar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night, in a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by 'day and night," the first appearance struck them for a while with an holy fear, with additional veneration for the commands of Moses, and for the duties of their state; every thing promised, on their part, a persevering fidelity; but perceiving every day that miraculous appearance, they considered it merely as an ordinary sight, and it made upon them, at last, no impression: reverence for Moses, zeal for the duties of the sacred office, grew weaker, and they were soon mingled with the murmurers and the worshippers of the molten calf, entirely degenerated from the holiness of their function. This is a representation of our revolt, and especially of our dislike to study: we preserved, for a certain time, a sincere desire to advance in the knowledge indispensable to the right discharge of our duty; but indolence, dissipation, the example of many of our brethren, have insensibly cooled that first zeal: we thought that we knew enough; and our previous study, far from serving as a foundation of knowledge, to enable us to acquire all necessary subsequent information, has become extinct, and we have forgotten the little we had once learned. Would God, the experience of every day did not warrant the assertion! The priesthood is, for the most part, the fatal termination of study: we first endeavour to acquire sufficient know : ledge, to undergo the examination necessary to qualify us for holy orders. Are we invested with the sacerdotal character? we are delighted in having no account, in future, to give to men, of our ignorance, or our attainments; we reckon as nothing, the account we are to give before the tribunal of God, nor the dishonour of the Church, on whom we have imposed, by presenting ourselves candidates for the ministry; there we continue. Thus the sacred character becomes the sole and universal title, which authorizes ignorance and idleness but it is then-that taking upon us the profession of the holy ministry-wisdom and knowledge, as we are constituted Pastors for the service of the Church, become more necessary: the sacred character does not confer learning: it supposes, that we are possessed of whatever is requisite or rather, we enter into a new engagement to acquire it: but you lay down the arms of the holy warfare, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, at the very season the Church expects you to undertake the combat: whereas, the priesthood, which puts these holy arms into our hands, makes us unwilling to retain them-we have no more love for study-we no longer read-books are useless appendages-we are sometimes without any-and it is not without a degree of surprise, that we meet, in some of the houses of those Clergymen I am describing, with a single Bible.* * What a description of the established Clergy of France! No wonder that a Church, thus supported, should fall. It was said of many of those who sought refuge in this country, that they were deplorably ignorant. It is not expected, that study should become your sole occupation, and that, devoted continually, to your books, you should lose sight of the wants of the souls committed to your care: it is solely to be useful to them, that you ought to acquire knowledge; it is to distribute among them, openly, the riches which you obtain in secret. So that when we exhort you to study, it is not to a study which renders you invisible to your parishioners; but which enhances the value of your presence, and renders your attentions more useful to them. In giving yourselves up to curious and speculative enquiries, which have no regard to their salvation, you would make a wrong application of that time, which is not your own, and which you owe to your flock it is not required of you, to investigate the most abstruse subjects, and profound mysteries in theology: talents requisite for such investigations, are the portion of a chosen few, whom the Almighty from age to age, raises up, in order to oppose them to the enemies of the gospel, and to dispel, by their wisdom, the clouds, which the petulence of pride, and the subtilty of error, attempt to cast upon the purity of its heavenly doctrines. All are not prophets, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost are not communicated to all with the same splendour, and in the same abundance; but all ought to know the evidences, and understand the doctrines, of Christianity: we ought all to be acquainted with the nature, extent, and mean-, ing of the evangelical precepts; to "meditate upon them," as the Psalmist speaks, " day 6.6 and night;" to make them, after his example, our support, and "the very joy of our heart;" and to draw from the divine source of revelation, such remedies as may always be applied to the wants, and the various maladies, of the flock, which are entrusted to us, The Scribes and Priests of the Law, persuaded that a knowledge of its precepts, and of its ordinances, was inseparable from the priesthood, displayed, with pompous ceremony, their phylacteries, which were no other than large rolls of the law, with which they bound the lower parts of their robes-" They make broad their philacteries, "and enlarge the borders of their garments." This, indeed, was a Pharisaical and ridiculous ostentation; it teaches us, however, that a Pastor should never, any where, appear without carrying with him the law, I do not mean, displayed on his garments, but deeply engraven on his mind, and on his heart. Even in the darkness of paganism, the "idol priests" had no other employment, than a diligent study of the fables and extravagances of their mythology. And we, my brethren, ordained for the purpose of informing ourselves clearly of the nature of a religion, in its origin divine, in its effects transcendent, commanded to contemplate, continually, this blessed revelation, "which hath brought life and immortality to light," feel no desire to be instructed in it, to read in it by day, to meditate on it by night: we regret the moments, in which we are, sometimes, obliged to consult it: we feel no shame at being igno norant, not only of the most sublime and abstruse parts, but even those the most essential to the discharge of our ministry; we content ourselves with a slight and superficial knowledge: we do not, by any serious application, enter into the full and comprehensive meaning of the holy doctrine, of which we are the interpreters; how then, shall we engage those whose instruction is committed to our care, in the contemplation of it? Are now those to whom we preach, acquainted with the spirit of Christianity, and with the sincere and vital piety, which is to impress the hearts, and direct the steps, of its professors? Of the genius of the Gospel they know but little of some of its ordinances, indeed, they are not altogether ignorant : but with the real nature of it, with its grand doctrines, with the obligations it imposes, with the consolations it affords, with the promises it holds out, they have no acquaintance: and how should they know its evidences, appreciate its doctrines, and apply its precepts, when the Pastors, whose duty it is to explain and enforce them, have never felt disposed to study them themselves? But many of the Clergy, are, you say, possessed of such small revenues, that they are not in a sitution to purchase all the books necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge. Alas! did they love, and were they desirous of books, did they feel a real want of them, they would not find it so difficult to acquire them. And besides, are so many books requisite to acquaint a Clergyman |