[Sidenote:  “De Conscientia”]

Another little story I must not pass in silence, being an argument of Dr. Sanderson’s piety, great ability, and judgment, as a casuist.  Discoursing with an honourable person[1] (whose piety I value more than his nobility and learning, though both be great) about a case of conscience concerning oath and vows, their nature and obligation; in which, for some particular reasons, he then desired more fully to be informed; I commended to him Dr. Sanderson’s book “De Juramento;” which having read, with great satisfaction, he asked me,—­“If I thought the Doctor could be induced to write Cases of Conscience, if he might have an honorary pension allowed him to furnish him with books for that purpose?” I told him I believed he would:  And, in a letter to the Doctor, told him what great satisfaction that honourable person, and many more, had reaped by reading his book “De Juramento;” and asked him “whether he would be pleased, for the benefit of the Church, to write some tract of Cases of Conscience;” He replied, “That he was glad that any had received any benefit by his books:”  and added further, “That if any future tract of his could bring such benefit to any, as we seemed to say his former had done, he would willingly, though without any Pension, set about that work.”  Having received this answer, that honourable person, before mentioned, did, by my hands, return 50_l_. to the good Doctor, whose condition then (as most good men’s at that time were) was but low; and he presently revised, finished, and published that excellent book, “De Conscientia:”  a book little in bulk, but not so if we consider the benefit an intelligent reader may receive by it.  For there are so many general propositions concerning conscience, the nature and obligation of it, explained and proved, with such firm consequence and evidence of reason, that he who reads, remembers, and can with prudence pertinently apply them hic et nunc to particular cases, may, by their light and help, rationally resolve a thousand particular doubts and scruples of conscience.  Here you may see the charity of that honourable person in promoting, and the piety and industry of the good Doctor, in performing that excellent work.

[Sidenote:  A good casuist:]

[Sidenote:  his equipment]

And here I shall add the judgment of that learned and pious Prelate concerning a passage very pertinent to our present purpose.  When he was in Oxon, and read his public lectures in the school as Regius Professor of Divinity, and by the truth of his positions, and evidences of his proofs, gave great content and satisfaction to all his hearers, especially in his clear resolutions of all difficult cases which occurred in the explication of the subject-matter of his lectures; a person of quality (yet alive) privately asked him, “What course a young Divine should take in his studies to enable him to be a good casuist?” His answer was, “That a convenient under of the