But this is not the way that pleases them! They must bring into the sermon, to no purpose at all! a vast heap of places of Scripture, which the Concordance will furnish them with, where the word new is mentioned.

And the Observation must be that "GOD is for new things. GOD is for a new creature. St. John xix, 41, Now in the place when he was crucified, there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There they laid JESUS. And again St. Mark xvi. 17. CHRIST tells his disciples that they that are true believers, shall cast out devils, and speak with new tongues. And likewise, the prophet teaches us, Isaiah xlii. 10, Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise to the end of the earth.

"Whence it is plain that CHRIST is not for old things. He is not for an old sepulchre. He is not for old tongues. He is not for an old song. He is not for an old creature. CHRIST is for a new creature! Circumcision and Uncircumcision availeth nothing, but a new creature. And what do we read concerning SAMSON? Judges xv, 15. Is it not that he slew a thousand of the Philistines with one new jawbone? An old one might have killed its tens, its twenties, its hundreds! but it must be a new jawbone that is able to kill a thousand! GOD is for the new creature!

"But may not some say, 'Is GOD altogether for new things?' How comes it about then, that the prophet says, Isaiah i. 13, 14, Bring no more vain oblations! &c. Your new Moons, and your appointed Feasts, my soul hateth! And again, what means that, Deuteronomy xxxii. 17, 19, They sacrificed unto devils, and to new gods, whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up…. And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them! To which I answer, that GOD indeed is not for new moons, nor for new gods; but, excepting moons and gods, He is for the new creature."

It is possible, Sir, that somebody besides yourself, may be so vain as to read this Letter: and they may perhaps tell you, that there be no such silly and useless people as I have described. And if there be, there be not above two or three in a country [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.