328 ,Msnífters eminency ingills nètd ft, Office, it will neither preferve the honour of our Office, nor attain its ends. When many of the people can open the cafe of their fouls in prayer, m more orderly', clear and congruous expreffì- ons than the Paftor can, it tendeth to bringdown the honour of the Paftor, in the peoples efteem. Some think to repair this, by caning out all pray- er except that which is read out of a book , òr recited by memory alone ; that fo there may be s o obfervable differenceof mens abilities : But this isfo far from curing the peoples difeafe, that t iracreafeth it: And theyRill fay, all this is no 'more than we cando our felves,or then a child of ùen years old can do. And if you extend the cafe to all other partsof the Miniftery, where the reafon is thefame;they will fay [what reverence is due to such? or why fhould we maintain and honour men,, for doingno more than our children can do ? ] And the Popish devife, to make a difparity9 bykeeping the people in ignorance, is the bafeft 2nd rnoft pernicious plot of all. When the Pao nors inítead ofexcelling the people, would keep down the people from increafing in their know hedge and expre(fion, this is fonótorious a difco- veryof envy; pride and malignity conjunó, that the people prefently flye from fach Paftors, as fuppofng them to be minifiers of the Devil, be- caufe they fee them bear his image. What do we teach them for, if we would not have them learn and próf t ? What greater honour can a :Teacher have, ?than to make his Schollars as wife g ad, able as himfelf?: Every: one who is a child ¡if Light, and believeth in him who is the Light 4.f world, will fufpe& that man to be a Min;- sae
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