[_county_]. Or should there be, it is
no such complaining matter: seeing that the same happens in other
professions, in Law and Physic: in both [of] which, there be many a
contemptible creature.

Such therefore as these, may be pleased to know that, if there had been
need, I could have told them, either the book (and very page almost) of
all that has been spoken about Preaching, or else the When and Where, and
the Person that preached it.

As to the second, viz.: that the Clergy are all mightily furnished with
Learning and Prudence; except ten, twenty, or so; I shall not say
anything myself, because a very great Scholar of our nation shall speak
for me: who tells us that "such Preaching as is usual, is a hindrance of
Salvation rather than the means to it." And what he intends by "usual," I
shall not here go about to explain.

And as to the last, I shall also, in short, answer, That if the
Advancement of true Religion and the eternal Salvation of a Man were no
more considerable than the health of his body and the security of his
estate; we need not be more solicitous about the Learning and Prudence of
the Clergy, than of the Lawyers and Physicians. But we believing it to be
otherwise, surely, we ought to be more concerned for the reputation and
success of the one than of the other.

I come now, Sir, to the Second Part that was designed, viz.: _the Poverty
of some of the Clergy_. By whose mean condition, their Sacred Profession
is much disparaged, and their Doctrine undervalued. What large
provisions, of old, GOD was pleased to make for the Priesthood, and upon
what reasons, is easily seen to any one that but looks into the _Bible_.
The Levites, it is true, were left out, in the Division of the
Inheritance; not to their loss, but to their great temporal advantage.
For whereas, had they been common sharers with the rest, a Twelfth part
only would have been their just allowance; GOD was pleased to settle upon
them, a Tenth, and that without any trouble or charge of tillage: which
made their portion much more considerable than the rest.

And as this provision was very bountiful, so the reasons, no question!
were very Divine and substantial: which seem chiefly to be these two.

First, that the Priesthood might be altogether at leisure for the service
of GOD: and that they of that Holy Order might not be distracted with the
cares of the world; and interrupted by every neighbour's horse or cow
that breaks their hedges