A

LETTER*

то

A Young Clergyman

Lately Entered inte

HOLY ORDERS.

Dublin, Jan. 9, 1719-20.

9 IR,

ALTHOUGH it was against my

knowledge or advice, that you entered into holy orders under the present difpofitions of mankind towards the church, yet fince it is now fuppofed too late to recede, (at least according to the general practice and opinion) I cannot forbear offering my thoughts to you upon this new condition of life you are engaged in.

*This ought to be read by all the young clergymen in the three kingdoms, and

VOL. IV.

may be read with pleasure and advantage by the oldest and moft exemplary divines.

B

Orrery's I could

I could heartily wish, that the circumftances of your fortune had enabled you to have continued fome years longer in the university, at least till you were ten years ftanding; to have laid in a competent ftock of human learning, and fome knowledge in divinity, before you attempted to appear in the world: for I cannot but lament the common courfe, which at least nine in ten of those, who enter into the ministry, are obliged to run. When they have taken a degree, and are confequently grown a burden to their friends, who now think themselves fully discharged, they get into orders as foon as they can, (upon which I fhall make no remarks) firft follicit a readership, and if they be very fortunate, arrive in time to a curacy here in town, or else are sent to be affiftants in the country, where they probably continue feveral years (many of them their whole lives) with thirty or forty pounds a year for their fupport: till fome bishop, who happens to be not overftocked with relations, or attached to favourites, or is content to fupply his diocefe without colonies from England, beftows

upon

upon them fome inconfiderable benefice, when it is odds they are already encumbered with a numerous family. I would be glad to know, what intervals of life fuch perfons can poffibly fet apart for the improvement of their minds; or which way they could be furnished with books, the library they brought with them from their college being ufually not the most numerous, or judicioufly chofen. If fuch gentlemen arrive to be great fcholars, it muft, I think, be either by means fupernatural, or by a method altogether out of any road yet known to the learned. But I conceive the fact directly otherwife, and that many of them lofe the greateft part of the small pittance they received at the univerfity.

I take it for granted, that you intend to pursue the beaten track, and are already defirous to be feen in a pulpit; only I hope you will think it proper to pafs your quarentine among fome of the defolate churches five miles round this town, where you may at leaft learn to read and to speak, before you venture to expofe your parts in a city-congregation;

not that these are better judges, but because, if a man must needs expofe his folly, it is more fafe and discreet to do fo before few witneffes, and in a fcattered neighbourhood. And you will do well, if you can prevail upon fome intimate and judicious friend to be your conftant hearer, and allow him with the utmost freedom to give you notice of whatever he fhall find amifs either in your voice or gefture; for want of which early warning many clergymen continue defective, and fometimes ridiculous, to the end of their lives. Neither is it rare to observe among excellent and learned divines a certain ungracious manner, or an unhappy tone of voice, which they never have been able to shake off.

I could likewise have been glad, if you had applied yourself a little more to the ftudy of the English language, than I fear you have done; the neglect whereof is one of the moft general defects among the scholars of this kingdom, who feem not to have the leaft conception of a style, but run on in a flat kind of phrafeology, often mingled with barbarous terms and

expreffions