A Priest to the Temple, Herbert's handbook of practical wisdom for the country parson, is justly praised for directness and common sense. But there is one chapter in it which seems to belong to another kind of discourse–to belong to the hterature not of wisdom but of wit. This chapter, ‘The Parson's Library,’ has provoked the editorial comment that the contents ‘correspond so little with the title, except for elaborating a paradox, that the chapter is possibly misnamed.’ The paradox, however, is not restricted to the title, but is elaborated in the chapter itself:
The Countrey Parson's Library is a holy Life: … For the temptations with which a good man is beset, and the ways which he used to overcome them, being told to another, whether in private conference, or in the Church, are a Sermon. Hee that hath considered how to carry himself at table about his appetite, if he tell this to another, preacheth; and much more feelingly, and judiciously, then he writes his rules of temperance out of bookes. So that the Parson having studied, and mastered all his lusts and affections within, and the whole Army of Temptations without, hath ever so many sermons ready penn'd, as he hath victories.