labour, and requires them to beg. That there should be a body of a hundred thousand Christians, and there are many such bodies, whose conscience will not suffer them to work, and whose impudence to beg is justifiable, is such a contempt of scripture, and rebellion against the politic laws of all government, that less than the believing that our Saviour himself gave the rule from a mountain in Italy, as God himself gave the law to Moses from Mount Sinai, cannot excuse; which no other begging order but that of St Francis pretends to do. Little did King David think, who was a prophet, and a poet, and an orator, when he poured out his complaint and curse against the greatest enemies of God, many believe upon the foresight of Judas; "Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek their bread also out of desolate places;" that there would ever be a race of God's children, who should continually beg their bread without being vagabonds, and seek to find it too in the most desolate places, amongst people much poorer than themselves, who beg, and it may be steal, that they may give to a begging friar. We may lawfully enquire what spell there is in begging; a thing so infamous in the law and the gospel, that it should be thought the way to heaven. That infamous steward, who had the impudence to cheat his lord and to waste his estate, when he was call

ed to an account, had yet the modesty to be ashamed to beg; there was such a universal brand upon begging, that he would make any other shift rather than be reduced to beg; it seems he was weak and impotent, which is the common excuse, he could not, he was not able to dig, yet he was ashamed to beg. Begging hath often found an excuse, often met with compassion in many countries, but was never made or allowed to be a profession by any well-ordered government; it hath even been infamous; and though there was a certain beggar that got into heaven, it was a metaphorical beggar, but a beggar in a parable. I confess, it is a very hard matter to handle this mystery of iniquity with that gravity that any thing that relates to religion would require; especially since so many very eminent men for learning, and truly, I believe, of pious and devout lives, have grown up in several ages amongst them who have observed those rules and orders; but we may lawfully believe, that they would have been more learned, and probably have been as pious and devout, if they had been educated according to those collegiate constitutions, which were the proper seminaries of learning and religion, in all ages be fore they, their rules, or their vows were heard of in the world. We may believe that there is not that universal contagion covers those gardens, that

no wholesome plant for food and medicine can be planted or grow near it; and yet we may believe too, that the soil is not so fertile, nor the air so pure, that it nourishes all it feeds to such a wonderful lustre in religion, that by observing his vows he is as sure to go to heaven as if he were there already, as every novice of the order of St Francis is, when he hath made his vows; when the superior who admits him, declares, Et ego, ex parte Dei, si has regulas observaris, promitto tibi vitam æternam. It is not at all to be wondered at, it would be in truth a great wonder if it were otherwise, that amongst so many millions of the regular clergy there should not sometimes a man of eminence in learning and virtue appear; for there must be many millions, when the general of St Francis's order alone can bring into the field one hundred thousand subjects, and leave every altar sufficiently supplied and provided for; what numbers then must arise of monks and friars, and other regular orders, which swarm in every kingdom? and when any such man appears, the world is sure to hear of him; but of the multitude of those, who, having made those vows, are put to death for the most odious crimes and wickednesses that can be committed; of those who, out of sorrow and desperation for having made those vows, have made themselves away, and become their

own executioners; of those who, continuing all their lives in the same professions, have never produced any fruit that is the effect of study or industry, or done any worthy action whereby to be remembered; of those who, for notorious vice and debauchery (which must be very notorious and infamous) are ejected and expelled out of those corporations and fraternities, after they have made their vows; and, lastly, of those, who have been and are sheltered under those vows to be lazy and useless to mankind, under the stile of lay-brothers, fruges consumere nati: I say of all those there is no inventory, no record kept; and if there were, every nation would blush to behold what a rabble of wretches they have nourished, for every single man who hath been an honour to the church or state. And after all this, the old collegiate institution, the nurseries and schools of the too much neglected secular clergy in all kingdoms, have in all times brought out more men of extraordinary parts in knowledge, and eminency of good life, than all the monasteries in the country; and by the computation the world can make, the single college of Sorbonne produces more of that kind in every age, than all the regular foundations in France, though you reckon the Jesuits in the number, as you ought to do; though they have no mind to be comprehended under that appellation, but would

rather be thought collegiate, if that did not imply too much subjection to the bishop.

Let us, in the next place, take a short view of the mortifications and constraints, not voluntary, but enjoined and imposed; and so cannot be so properly called mortification, as that which is the effect of a devout mind, and from thence imposed upon a man's self by himself; and consider whether the knowledge or practice of Christianity is advanced, or improved, by those rigorous severities. Why those antique, uneasy, unhandsome, and unwholesome clothes? why no linen, no shoes, or such as are no more guard against cold than none? why to this uncomely and uncleanly wardrobe, so little meat, as cannot satisfy nature, and less sleep than it requires? It is not natural to believe that there can be great fervour of devotion from these cold ingredients; nor can men who believe the way to heaven to be full of briars and thorns chuse to walk thither bare-foot. Is health the greatest benefit and blessing that God can bestow upon us in this world? insomuch as he cannot commend the love of himself to us under a more conjuring and prevalent expression, than because "it shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones," Prov. iii. 8. Whatsoever he would endear to us, that we may set a true value and price upon it, he describes by what we do or ought to value most;