Dr. _♦Trapp_ gives a reason for his condemning this advice, which is thus expressed: “It is, says he, false to say, that clergymen ought to mind nothing, in any degree, but their profession and duty, as clergymen; they are husbands, parents, men, as well as clergymen, and must in some measure be concerned in the affairs of the world. p. 88.” ♦ “Trap” replaced with “Trapp” Part of this I own to be very true, _viz._ that they are men, and have the wants of human nature which must be supplied; and for proof of this, the Doctor might have appealed to St. _Paul_, who, tho’ miraculously called to be an apostle, and separated from the world to be merely a messenger and apostle of Jesus Christ; yet, after this high apostleship, worked at his trade, and often spent part of the day and the night in making tents: therefore, if all those whom I have exhorted to consider themselves as set apart for the sole service of God, should shew such a degree of worldly care as St. _Paul_ did, when he worked at his trade, they might yet justly be said to act suitably to their station, as the ministers of God, that are wholly devoted to his service; for who can say that St. _Paul_ departed from his character, as a minister of God, when he laboured with his own hands, that he might gloriously and freely preach the gospel? For it was for the sake of the gospel, to promote and recommend the gospel, to make his preaching the more successful; it was to shew that he had fully renounced the world, and desired nothing from it, but for the glory of God. And thus have all the ministers of the gospel an example in St. _Paul_, how they may make their care of a livelihood a part of their service to God. But when the Doctor says, that clergymen are husbands and parents, I must object a little; because no scripture or antiquity shews me, that these characters _must_ belong to a preacher of the gospel; and therefore, when a clergyman excuses himself from any heights of the ministerial service, by saying, _he has married a wife_ and _therefore cannot come_ up to them; it seems to be no better an excuse, than if he had said, _he had hired a farm_, or _bought five yoke of oxen_. I know very well, that the _reformation_ has allowed priests and bishops not only to look out for wives, but to have as many as they please, one after another: but this is only to be considered as a bare allowance, and perhaps granted upon such a motive, as _Moses_ of old made one to the _Jews_, for _the hardness of their hearts_, tho’ _from the beginning it was not so_; and therefore when eulogiums are sometimes made from the pulpit on this matter, I think they had better have been spared; an allowance granted to weakness is but an indifferent subject to be made a matter of glory.