Heads, and help to undo fome of your Fellow-Crea tures. That you may therefore anfwer the End of God in affording you greater Advantages of Birth and Educa tion, than many others Enjoy; that your felves may be Bleffed, and that the World may be the better for you, let me humbly advife, and earnestly befeech you to confider and remember, that tho' you are generally exempted from working with your Bodies at any Trade or fettled Calling; yet you are fo much the more obliged to inure your felves to the nobler Labour of the Mind, and to do it betimes, while you are in that Age, which is moft fufceptible of good Impreffions. Let me have the Honour and Favour to prevail with you, to give Attention to thofe by whom you are Inftructed, to fhew an ingenious and tractable Docility in obferving the needful Precepts, and following the good Examples they lay before you. Let me befeech you to caft off Sloth, Liftlessness, and Inadvertency, and to be diligent and affiduous in fuch Exercife and Practice as is moft conformable to wifely chofen and well proportion'd Rules and Patterns, fo fteering the courfe of your Studies, as not to spend your time in Trifles and Curiofities, in idle and empty Speculations, or uncertain aud endless Difquifitions; but in feeking after that Knowledge, which will beft direct you in the Government of your own Lives, and make you most useful to other Men Finally, not to indulge your felves in any immoderate or too early Affection for Liberty and Pleasure, but to bear with fome Restraint, and undergo fome Labour for a Seafon, until you be fit to be at your own Difpofal. For if you will not endure any Confinement, nor take any Pains to learn how to employ your Time, in fomething worthy of you, while you are Young, you will never know how to do it, when you grow up and are wholly Masters of it. We We fee too often the deplorable Effects, with which a neglected and mifs-improved Education is attended in this Life, to fay nothing of its horrible Confequences in the other World. When a Young Man of Quality is headstrong and unteachable, above Difcipline, and over hafty to get out of the Inftitution and Government of his Preceptors and Tutors, before he has acquainted himself with useful Knowledge, and true Merit; how precipitantly does he launch into the World? How unpolished and unfit is he to enter upon any confiderable Employment? How does he indulge the full fwing of his violent and ungovernable Paffions, until they engage him to confume his Eftate, to rifque all for their Gratification, and at the fame time to contemn, if not hate, all that are not as Mad as himself? His Disorders feldom fail to involve him in the most inextricable Troubles, and fometimes his Luxury and Debauchery are carry'd to that height, that he thereby tarnishes the Glory of his Family, deftroys his Health, fhortens his Days, everla ftingly buries his Reputation; and if there be any Truth in the belief af a future State of Retribution, (which all the Atheists in the World can never demonstrate to be a Fable) 'tis much to be feared, that he muft alfo endure the endlefs Torments of the Infernal Regions. On the other fide, if a Young Gentleman of good Genius has a Prudent, Learned, and Religious Educator, to whom he pays a juft Regard; if he hear him patiently, with a fedulous application of Mind, and a willing concurrence of his own Defires and Endeavours to imbibe good Inftructions, his Understanding may thereby be formed, and his Faculties moulded for the receiving and retaining, not only fome plaufible and modifh Embellishments, ornamental to his Behaviour, but the most folid Wisdom, Piety, and Virtue. And when fuch a one comes abroad in the World with the knowledge of Religion and Morality, Politicks 1 1 Politicks, and Hiftory, and with the Liberal Arts and Sciences thronging in his Soul, as much as the Streams of Generous Blood do flow in his Veins; what an univerfal Efteem does he acquire among the Wife and Good? How refpectful to him are all that are but even tolerably Civil? Being advanced from dwelling with Books, to a more free Converfe with Men, he reaps the Fruits of his former Diligence in Reading, Obfervation and Exercife: And by continuing to employ large Portions of his Time in Study and Devotion, as well as Bufinefs and Converfation, he every Day rises to a higher Perfection in the good Inftructions he before received. His Defett, by this means, fhineing forth to all that behold him, he derives a greater Honour on his Family, than he received from it, whilft in every Station he leaves no Stone unturn'd, to promote the Glory of God, and the Peace and Welfare of Mankind. See here the excellent Product of an Ingenuous Education, piously and industriously Cultivated; it cnables a Man in every Condition, whether Publick, or Private, to live Wifely, Honourably, and happily, and after he has had the Satisfaction of doing Good upon Earth, it rewards him with a greater Felicity in Heaven. If your Liberal Education be thus improved in your green and flourishing Age, you cannot tell what rare and lovely Fruits, what admirable Endowments, what profound Wisdom and unerring Conduct it may bring forth in your riper Years, which by their confpicuoufnefs, may powerfully recommend you to Employments of the firft, Rate, to Places and Offices of the highest Honour and Truft; in the prudent and faithful managing of which, you may become eminently Ufeful, and no lefs Illuftrious. Some of you perhaps may be qualified for, and called unto the giving Wife Counsel to your Sovereign; others may be elected to fit in Parliament, and have a fhare in the Legifla ture; others of you may be Commiffion'd to be Gene rals 161 rals and Commanders of Armies, for the Defence of your Country; others may be advanced to be Judges of the Law; and if any among you of fuch excellent Qualifications fhall be piously moved to enter into Holy Orders, and preach the Gofpel, you will undertake an Office not unworthy of the beft and higheft of you, and you may thereby have the Opportunity of doing God and his Church greater Service than can be expected from ordinary Clergy-men. Their Poverty many times renders them contemptible in the Eye of the World, or of little Account, though they be Men truly Reverend, and worthy of all Efteem, for their Ability, Diligence and Faithfulness in their holy Calling. But where Riches and Honour, accompanied with Knowledge and Learning, Wifdom and Virtue, have alfo fuperadded to them a mighty Zeal for God and Religion, and do all meet together in any Perfon of that Sacred Function, being thus joyned they fill up the Character of a truly great and good Man, one that feems compleatly furnished, and divinely raifed up to be a burning and a fhining Light, for the promoting the Spiritual, Temporal, and Eternal Welfare of all that are under the powerful Influence of his univerfally bright and benign Rays. To encourage Young Gentlemen of good Learning and pious Inclinations to enter into Holy Orders, they may confider how many Examples there have been of Perfons of the highest Rank, and the moft illuftrious Families, who yet thought not the Office of the Evangelical Priesthood too mean for their Employment. In our own Nation divers of the Sons and Brothers of English Kings, and many Noblemen, fince the Conqueft and before, went into Holy Orders. Nor is the prefent Age wholly deftitute of this Honour of having Perfons of noble Birth in the Number of its Clergy. Several of them are mentioned by Dr. Chamberlain in his Present State of Great-Britain, and by Mr. Groome in his Dignity and Honour of the Clergy. Amongst which are, M The The Right Honourable the Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham. Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, Uncle to the Earl of Northampton. Dr. Talbot, Bishop of Oxford, defcended from the ancient Earls of Shrewsbury, and not above the fourth or fifth Perfon from the Earldom. Dr. Fane, late Brother to an Earl of Westmorland. Mr. Edward and Mr. Henry Finch, Brothers to the Earl of Nottingham, the younger of which is Dean of York. Dr. Mountague, Uncle to the Earl of Sandwich. Dr. Greenvil, late Dean of Durham, Brother to the Earl of Bath. Mr. Berkley, Brother to the Earl of Berkley. Dr. Booth, Brother to the late Earl of Warrington. Dr. Graham, Brother to the late Lord Viscount Preston. Dr. Verney, Prebendary of Windfor, only Son and Heir apparent to the Lord Willoughby of Brook. Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Baronet, Bifhop of Winchefter. Sir William Dawes, Baronet, Bishop of Chester. Mr. Bridges, one of the younger Sons of the Lord Chandois. Sir Robert Sutton, Her Majefty's Ambaffador to Turky, and nearly related to the Lord Lexington. Sir George Wheeler, Prebendary of Durham, befides many others now living, or lately dead. Thefe noble Perfons have honoured Religion, and cast a Luftre upon the Clergy, by bringing along with them into the Church the Eminency of their Birth. And their Advantage of doing God Service, over what Men of meaner Parentage have, is known to be very confiderable. The Inftructions they give Men, and the Examples they fet before them, are much. more |