it be made long, is a very
handsome garment, though it be never paid for; that the Desk is clearly
the best, and the Pulpit, the highest seat in all the parish; that they
shall take place [_precedence_] of most Esquires and Right Worshipfuls;
that they shall have the honour of being spiritual guides and
counsellors; and they shall be supposed to understand more of the Mind of
GOD than ordinary, though perhaps they scarcely know the Old Law from the
New, nor the _Canon_ from the _Apocrypha_. Many, I say, such as these,
there be, who know not where to get two groats, nor what they have to say
to the people: but only because they have heard that the office of a
Minister is the most noble and honourable employment in the world;
therefore they (not knowing in the least what the meaning of that is),
Orders, by all means, must have! though it be to the disparagement of
that holy function.

Others also there be who are not so highly possessed with the mere
dignity of the office and honourableness of the employment; but think,
had they but licence and authority to preach, O how they could pay it
away! and that they can tell the people such strange things, as they
never heard before, in all their lives! That they have got such a
commanding voice! such heart-breaking expressions! such a peculiar method
of Text-dividing! and such notable helps for the interpreting all
difficulties in Scripture! that they can shew the people a much shorter
way to heaven than has been, as yet, made known by any!

Such a forwardness as this, of going in Holy Orders, either merely out of
an ambitious humour of being called a Priest; or of thinking they could do
such feats and wonders, if they might be but free of the Pulpit, has
filled the nation with many more Divines than there is any competent
maintenance for in the Church.

Another great crowd that is made in the Church is by those that take in
there only as a place of shelter and refuge. Thus, we have many turn
Priests and Deacons, either for want of employment in their profession of
Law, Physic, or the like; or having been unfortunate in their trade, or
having broken a leg, or an arm, and so disabled from following their
former calling; or having had the pleasure of spending their estate, or
being (perhaps deservedly) disappointed of their inheritance. The Church
is a very large and good "Sanctuary"; and one Spiritual shilling is as
good as three Temporality shillings. Let the hardest come to