* What awakening instructions are here given to us of the clergy, in a matter of the greatest moment! How ought every one to be frighted at the thought of desiring or seeking a second living, or of rejoicing at great pay where there is but little duty, when the apostle’s rejoicing consisted in this, that he had passed thro’ all the fatigues and perils of preaching the gospel without any pay at all! How _cautious_, nay, how _fearful_ ought we to be, of going so far as the _secular_ laws permit us, when the apostle thought it more desirable to lose his life, than to go so far as the general laws of the gospel would have suffered him! * It is _looked upon_ as _lawful_, to get several preferments, and to make a gain of the gospel, by hiring others to do duty for us at a lower rate.――It is looked upon as lawful, to quit a cure of souls of a small income, for no other reason but because we can get another of a greater.――It is looked upon as lawful, for a clergyman to apply the revenue of a church, which he serves, to his own use, tho’ he has more than a sufficient competency of his _own_, and much more than the apostle could get by his labour.――It is looked upon as lawful, for the clergy to live in state and equipage, to buy purple and fine linen out of the revenue of the church.――It is looked upon as lawful, for clergymen to enrich their families, and bring up their children in the fashionable vanities of a worldly and expensive life, by money got by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. * But now _supposing_ all these to be _lawful_, what _comfort_ and _joy_ might we treasure up for ourselves, what benefit and edification should we give to our neighbour, if we wholly abstained from all these things, not by working day and night with our hands, as the great apostle did, but by limiting our wants and desires according to the plain demands of nature, and a religious self-denial? The other instance of the apostle’s I appeal to is that, where he says, it is good neither to eat “flesh, nor drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth and is offended. And again, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, that I may not offend my brother.” Hence it appears, that to abstain from things indifferent, as if they were in themselves sinful, is wrong; but to _abstain_ from them upon other motives, may be matter of necessary duty and edification. But since the Doctor has not looked at this matter in the twofold view in which only it can be justly apprehended, he cannot well be excused from that _half thinking_, which he so much reproaches in others.