Archbishop of York and calls Bede the greatest Master of his Time and in another place he saith One Seventh Day is set apart among Christians as another had been among the Iews for the Service of God and that therein we ought to attend to the Care of our Souls and to lead a spiritual Life Bede distinguishes between the Patriarchal and Iewish Sabbath The latter he calls a Carnal and the other a Spiritual Sabbath the former lay in a strict Abistnence from Labour but the other in Prayer and Devotion and Spiritual Contemplations The Iewish Rest he saith was inutile 〈◊〉 luxuriosum For the 〈…〉 â—llowed Recreations and Sports on their Sabbaths vacant ab opere bono saith he non ab opere nugatorio Vacant ad nugas saith S. Augustin but he saith they had better plow or dig than dance on that Day or sit in the Theater And he tells us That the Heathens objected against the Iews That they spent one Day in the Week in Idleness For they supposed the bare Rest to be the Sanctification of the Day which was commanded and the spending any part of it in the publick Worship to be voluntary Devotion But the better sort of the Iews thought the Rest was appointed for the Knowledge of the Law and Spiritual Imployments So Philo Iosephus Aben-Ezra Kimchi and Menasseh ben Israel It seems most reasonable in this Case to distinguish between the Legal Rest strictly required by the Fourth Commandment and the Original Rest in Remembrance of God's resting from the Work of Creation The former was a Sign between God and the People of Israel as it is often called in Scripture and the other was a Commemorative Sign but such as excited them to the Worship of the Creator and therefore the Patriarchal Sabbath as Bede observes was of a spiritual Nature And such a spiritual Sabbath as S. Augustin calls it ought to be observed by Christians in the Duties of God's Worship as well as in spiritual and holy Thoughts But the Iewish Sabbath he often-saith doth not oblige Christians I the rather mention him because Bede followed his Doctrine herein and that of Gregory I. who was the great Instrument of promoting the Conversion of our Ancestors to Christianity And he declares himself fully both as to the Cessation of the Iewish Sabbath and the religious Observation of the Lord's day It seems there were some then as there are among us now who were for the strict Observation of the Saturday-Sabbath But Gregory saith They might as well insist upon Circumcision and Sacrifices as the Iewish Sabbath But yet he adds We ought on the Lord's day to abstain from worldly Imployments and devote our selves unto Prayers that we may make some Amends for the Weeks Negligence by the Devotions on that Day And this devoting the Lord's day to the Service of God is entred into the Body of the Canon Law and taken out of Ivo and by him from the Canons of the Gallican Church as appears by several Councils Our Lyndwood mentions that Canon as in force here Die Dominicâ nihil aliud agendum nisi Deo vacandum And he takes some Pains to explain it by distinguishing 1. Works servile materially and formally as Plowing Sowing Markets Law-days c. these are generally forbidden 2. Acts spiritual materially and finally as all Acts of Piety and Devotion and these we ought to attend upon with Care and Diligence 3. Acts not servile in themselves but done for a servile End as Studies and Designs for Gain 4. Acts servile in themselves but not so in their End as the Man's taking up his Couch on the Sabbath-day whom Christ cured He affirms that there is a Moral Part in the Fourth Commandment which he saith is a spiritual Rest or a Time set apart for God's Service Which he takes from Aquinas who saith the Substance of the Command is Moral but he doth not make it to be One day in Seven but some determinate time which he saith the Church may appoint but then it must be imployed in the Service of God vacare rebus divinis as things were said to be sanctified under the Law which were applied to God's Service But notwithstanding this Judgment of Aquinas some great Men in the Church of Rome have thought One day in Seven Moral and that the Proportion which God himself had appointed cannot be lessened For altho' Mankind could not by natural Reason find out the Proportion yet being once revealed it doth not cease to oblige unless something figurative and symbolical or peculiar to the Iewish Nation be discovered in it Bellarmin makes that the Reason of the Institution of the Lord's day because God's Law required that One day in Seven should be set apart for the Worship of God but the Apostles thought it not fit to observe the Iewish Sabbath and therefore changed it into the Lord's day Covarruvias saith That all Divines agree with Aquinas That there is something Moral in the Fourth Command which continues to oblige and that the Lord's day is of Divine Institution And to him the Roman Editors of the Canon Law referr as to this matter Azorius confesseth That the Observation of the Lord's day hath something of the Divine and Natural Law in it which requires One day in a Week should be consecrated to the Service of God and that it is most agreeable to Reason And he adds That Panormitan Sylvester and other Canonists held the Lord's day to be of divine Institution Suarez saith That the Church doth observe One day in Seven by Virtue of the divine Law that Proportion being so agreeable to Natural Reason that it cannot be altered Thomas Waldensis who lived here in the time of H. 5. observes That even then there were two Extreams in Mens Opinions about the Observation of the Lord's Day some allowed no kind of Work and others any But he shews That the Law of Nature requires some Solemn Days for Divine Worship and that then there ought to be a Rest from other Labours because they hinder the Mind from that Attention necessary to the Service of God And necessary Works are left to a few that others may be more at Liberty In the Saxon Laws we find many against the Profanation of the Lord's day by slavish Imployments by Markets and Trading by Folkmotes and Law-suits c. So that great care was taken then that the Lord's day should be duly observed After the Norman times we have several Constitutions to inforce the strict Observation of the Lord's day In the time of H. 6. Hubert de Burgo saith That Custom may derogate from other Holy-days but not from the Lord's day because they are not commanded by God as that is Since the Reformation our Book of Homilies goes upon the same Grounds which were used in
Lord of hosts Mal. 2. 7. If this held in the Levitical Priesthood much more certainly under the Gospel where the Rates and Measures of our Duties are not to be determined by Levitical Precepts but by the general Reason and Nature of Moral Actions VIII Among the Duties of Publick Worship I must put you in mind of a Frequent Celebration of the Lord's Supper There is generally too great a Neglect of this which is the most proper part of Evangelical Worship The Duties of Prayers and Praises are excellent and becoming Duties as we are Creatures with respect to our Maker and Preserver The Duty of hearing the Word of God read and explained is consequent upon our owning it to be the Rule of our Faith and Manners and all who desire to understand and practise their Duty can never despise or neglect it But that solemn Act of Worship wherein we do most shew our selves Christians is the celebrating the Holy Eucharist For therein we own and declare the infinite Love of God in sending his Son into the World to die for Sinners in order to their Salvation and that this is not only a true Saying but worthy of all Men to be credited Therein we lift up our Hearts and give Thanks to our Lord God we joyn with Angels and Archangels in lauding and magnifying his glorious Name Therein we not only commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord but are made Partakers of his Body and Blood after a Real but Sacramental Manner Therein we offer up our selves to God to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice unto him Therein we Adore and Glorifie the ever Blessed Trinity and humbly implore the Grace and Assistance of our ever Blessed Mediator And what now is there in all this which is not very agreeable to the Faith Hope and Charity of Christians Nay what Duty is there which so much expresses all these together as this doth Nor whereby we may more reasonably expect greater Supplies of Divine Grace to be bestowed upon us What then makes so many to be so backward in this Duty which profess a Zeal and Forwardness in many others If we had that Warmth and Fervor of Devotion that Love to Christ and to each other which the primitive Christians had we should make it as constant a part of our publick Worship as they did but this is not to be expected Neither did it always continue in the Primitive Church when Liberty and Ease and worldly Temptations made Persons grow more remiss and careless in the solemn Duties of their Religion S. Chrysostom takes notice in his time of the different Behaviour of Persons with respect to the holy â—â—charist There were some who pretended to greater Holiness and Austerity of Life than others who withdrew from the common Conversation of Mankind and so by degrees from joining in the Acts of publick Worship with them Which did unspeakable Mischief to Christianity for then the Perfection of the Christian Life was not supposed to consist in the Active Part of it but in Retirement and Contemplation As tho' our highest Imitation of Christ lay in following him into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil and not in walking as he walked who frequented the Synagogues and went about doing good But this way of Retirement happening to be admired by some great Men the Publick Worship came to be in less esteem and others upon Reasons of a different Nature withdrew themselves from such Acts of Devotion as required a stricter Attendance and a more prepared Temper of Mind And there were some who did abstain because they were not so well satisfied with themselves as to their own Preparations and such as these S. Chrysostom seems to favour rather than such who came often without due care as to the whole Course of their Lives only out of custom or out of regard to the Orders of the Church From hence many thought it better to forbear as long as they did it not out of Contempt And so by degrees the People were content to look on it as a Sacrifice for them to be performed by others rather than as an Office wherein they were to bear a part themselves at least they thought once or thrice a Year sufficient for them And to this as appears by our old Provincial Constitutions they were forced by severe Canons When the Reformation began this Disuse of this holy Sacrament was looked on by the chief Reformers as a great Abuse and Corruption crept into the Church which ought by all means to be reformed and the frequent Celebration of it set up in the Reformed Churches But unreasonable Scruples in some and Misapprehensions in others and a general Coldness and Indifference as to Matters of Religion have hitherto hindered the Reviving this Primitive Part of Devotion among us I do not go about to determine the Frequency in your Parishes which the Scripture doth not as to the Christian Church but supposes it to be often done but I may require you to take care that Christ's Institution be observed among you and that with your utmost care both as to the Decency and Purity of it The last thing I recommend to you all is To have a great care of your Conversations I do not speak it out of a distrust of you I hope you do it already and your Case will be so much worse if you do it not because you very well know how much you ought to do it For the Honour of God and Religion and the Success of your Ministry as well as your own Salvation depend very much upon it Lead your Flock by your Example as well as by your Doctrine and then you may much better hope that they will follow you for the People are naturally Spies upon their Ministers and if they observe them to mind nothing but the World all the Week they will not believe them in earnest when on the Lords Days they perswade them against it And it takes off the Weight of all Reproof of other Mens Faults if those they reprove have reason to believe them guilty of the same I do not think it enough for a Preacher of Righteousness merely to avoid open and scandalous Sins but he ought to be a great Example to others in the most excellent Virtues which adorn our Profession not only in Temperance and Chastity in Iustice and ordinary Charity but in a readiness to do good to all in forgiving Injuries in loving Enemies in evenness of Temper in Humility and Meekness and Patience and Submission to God's Will and in frequent Retirements from the World not meerly for Study but for Devotion If by these and such things you shine as Lights among your People they will be more ready to follow your Conduct and in probability you will not only stop their Mouths but gain their Hearts For among all the Ways of advancing the Credit and Interest of the Church of England one of the most succesful
Reproaches of a spiteful World and do what lies in us to stop the Mouths at least if not to gain the Hearts of our Enemies For the Real Esteem which Men have of others is not to be gained by the little Arts of Address and Insinuation much less by complying with them in their Follies but by a steady and resolute Practice of our own Duties joyned with a gentle and easie and obliging Behaviour to others so far as is consistent with them But a proud supercilious morose Behaviour towards our greatest Enemies doth but make them much more so if any thing softens them and makes them more tractable it will be joyning a Firmness of Mind as to our plain Duties with Humility and Kindness in other Matters But what are these Duties we are obliged to so much Care in the Performance of There is a Twofold Obligation lying upon us I. That which is more General from the Nature and Design of our Imployment which is the Cure of Souls and that requires great Diligence and Faithfulness frequent Recollection and Consideration serious Application of our selves to Divine Studies and Imployments a prudent Use of the best Methods for the convincing Reproving Directing and Assisting those who are committed to our Care And all these are implied in the Nature of our Office as it is set forth in holy Scripture wherein we are described as Laborers and therefore must take Pains and not spend our time in vain and idle Company As Teachers and therefore ought to be stored with a good Stock of Knowledge our selves and be ready to communicate it to others As Pastors and so we ought to look after our Flock and not leave them to the careless Management of others who are not so concerned for their Welfare as we ought to be As Ambassadors from Christ and therefore we are bound to look after the Business we are sent upon and the great Weight and Importance of it as to your own Salvation as well as others As Stewards of the Mysteries of God and the first thing required in them is to discharge their Trust honestly and faithfully remembring the Account they must give to God But these you may say are only general Things and do not determine and limit our Duties within certain Bounds what is there which doth fix and determine our Duties as to the Station we have in this Church II. I come therefore to the Special Duties which by the Ancient Constitution of this Church and the Ecclesiastical Laws of it are incumbent upon you And you are to consider that as the Law hath taken Care for your Maintenance and Subsistence in doing your Duties so it doth suppose your careful Performance of them not only in regard to the general Rule of Conscience but to that particular Obligation you are under as Members of this Church And therefore I shall enquire into Two things I. The Duties you are under this Obligation to II. The Incouragement which the Law gives in Consideration of it I. The Duties are of two sorts 1. Publick and Solemn 2. Private and Occasional 1. Publick and Solemn and those either respect the Time or the Duties themselves 1. As to the times of Solemn and Publick Worship which are the Weekly Lord's Days and the other Holy-days 1. I begin with the Observation of the Lord's Days which I shall now make appear to have been set apart for the solemn Worship and Service of God especially by the Clergy from the first Settlement of a Parochial Clergy in this Church In a Provincial Council held at Cloveshoo or Cliff A. D. 747. the King and Nobility being present where the Archbishop and Bishops Assembled for Regulating the Worship of God in Parochial Churches then newly erected in many places the Fourteenth Canon is express That the Lord's Day ought to be celebrated with due Veneration and devoted only to Divine Worship Divino tantum cultui dedicatus and the Presbyters are required to officiate in their several Churches both in Preaching and Praying and the People are required to let alone their common worldly Affairs and to attend the publick Worship of God The Canons of Egbert Archbishop of York are as clear and full for the Northern Province as the other for the Southern Can. 104. That nothing is to be done on the Lord's Day but what tends to the Worship and Service of God And Can. 36. That Christ sanctified the Lord's Day by his Resurrection But because these Canons of Egbert will be often used something ought to be observed to clear their Authority Sir H. Spelman saith there are several Ancient MSS. of them Mr. Selden owns the Cotton MS. to be of the time of H. 1. but he suspects that another made the Collection and put it under his Name But it was no strange thing for the great Bishops to make such a Collection of Canons for so it was done by Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury by Theodulphus of Orleans Isaac Lingonensis Chrodegangus Herardus Hincmarus c. And Egbert was not only a great Man Brother to the King of the Northumbrians but a great Promoter of Learning and Ecclesiastical Discipline as appears by his Dialogue about the latter and the other by Alcuin's Epistles about him and Bede's Epistle to him a little before his death And the Agreement between the Capitulars and these Canons might come from Alcuin's carrying them over into France with him In the Saxon Canons c. 24. it is said that the Lord's Day on which our Saviour rose from the dead is to be devoted wholly to the Service of God excepting only Works of Necessity and Charity These Canons are translated from those of Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans A. D. 786. And it is observable that as the Christian Religion prevailed in these Northern Parts so the Religious Observation of the Lord's Day was enforced as appears by the Canons of the Gallican Church as well as this As in the famous Canon of the Council of Mascon A. D. 585. where the Bishops Assembled complain of the Neglect of the Lord's Day and agree to put the People upon a stricter Observance of it And so before in the Council of Orleans A. D. 538. But in both these Canons they avoid a Iewish Superstition as well as profane Neglect They allowed both Works of Necessity and Conveniency and did not place the Observation in a bare Rest but in Attendance on the Worship of God and forbad all manner of Secular Imployments which were inconsistent with it Nay Theodulphus his Canon goes higher Tantummodo Deo vacandum the whole Day ought to be spent in Religious and Charitable Imployments The greatest Men in our Saxon Churches asserted the same Bede saith That the Apostles appointed the Lord's Day to be observed with Religious Solemnity and therein we ought to devote our selves to the Worship of God tantum divinis cultibus seviamus And to the same purpose speaks Alcuin who was bred up under Egbert
Ecclesiastical Cases Relating to the DUTIES and RIGHTS OF THE Parochial Clergy STATED and RESOLVED According to the PRINCIPLES OF Conscience and Law By the Right Reverend Father in GOD EDWARD Lord Bishop of Worcester LONDON Printed by I. H. for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. To the Reverend CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER My Brethren THE following Discourses do of Right belong to You the Substance of them being contained in what I delivered to You in several Times and Places in the Course of my Visitations In which I endeavoured to lay open the Nature and Dignity of your Function the Rules you are to observe in the Discharge of it and to state and resolve the most Important Cases which Relate to your Duties and Rights according to the Principles both of Law and Conscience For I observed that some had spoken very well of the General Nature of the Ecclesiastical Function without a particular Regard to the Limitations of the Exercise of it by our Laws Others had endeavoured to give Advice and Counsel in Point of Law who meddle not with the Obligation of Conscience And therefore I thought it necessary to joyn both these together that you might have a clear and distinct View of your Duties in both Respects For in a Matter of Positive Institution where only the General Duties are prescribed in Scripture and the Bounds of the Exercise of them depend upon the Laws of the Land I could not see how any Person could satisfie himself in the Discharge of his Duty without a Regard to both For the Care of Souls in General is a Matter of wonderful Weight and Importance and can never be sufficiently considered by those who are concerned in it But no Man among us takes upon him an Indefinite Care of Souls without Regard to Persons or Places for that would produce Confusion and endless Scruples and Perplexities of Conscience about the Nature and Obligation to Particular Duties Which cannot be prevented or removed without a right understanding the different Respect all that have taken our Holy Function upon them do stand in both to the Church in General and to that Particular Cure of Souls which they are admitted to The best way I know to represent them is to consider the Case of Dominion and Property and how far the Vniversal Obligation of Mankind to promote each others Good is consistent with the Care of their own and Families Welfare Adam had in himself the Entire and Original Dominion over all those Things which after became the Subject of particular Property when his Posterity found it necessary to make and allow several Shares and Allotments to distinct Families so as they were not to incroach or break in upon one another But the Law of Nature did not prescribe the Way and Method of Partition but left that to Occupancy or Compact And so the Heads of Families upon their Settlement in any Countrey had a twofold Obligation upon them the first was to preserve the Interest of the whole Body to which they still were bound and were to shew it upon such Occasions as required it The next was to take particular Care of these Shares which belonged to themselves so as to improve them for their Service and to protect them from the Invasion of others And Although this Division of Property was not made by any Antecedent Law yet being once made and so useful to Mankind the Violation of it by taking that which is anothers Right is a manifest Violation of the Law of Nature I do not think that the Distribution of Ecclesiastical Cures for the greater Benefit of the People is of so strict a Nature because the Matter of Property doth not extend to this Case in such a manner But since an Vniversal Good is carried on by such a Division far better than it could be without it there is an Obligation lying on all Persons who regard it to preserve that Order which conduces to so good an End And I cannot see how any Persons can better justifie the Breach of Parochial Communion as such than others can justifie the Altering the Bounds of Mens Rights and Properties because they apprehend that the common Good may be best promoted by returning to the first Community of all things If our Blessed Saviour or his Holy Apostles in the first founding of Churches had determined the Number of Persons or fixed the Bounds of Places within which those who were ordained to so holy a Function were to take care of the Souls committed to them there could have been no Dispute about it among those who owned their Authority But their Business was to lay down the Qualifications of such as were fit to be imployed in it to set before them the Nature of their Duties and the Account they must give of the Discharge of them and to Exhort all such as under took it to a Watchfulness and Diligence in their Places but they never go about to limit the Precincts within which they were to Exercise the Duties incumbent upon them When Churches were first planted in several Countries there could be no such things expected as Parochial Divisions for these were the Consequents of the General spreading of Christianity among the People As is evident in the best Account we have of the Settlement of the Parochial Clergy among us after Christianity was received by the Saxons Which was not done all at once but by several Steps and Degrees It cannot be denied by any that are conversant in our Histories that the Nation was gradually converted from Paganism by the succesful Endeavours of some Bishops and their Clergy in the several Parts of England Not by Commission from one Person as is commonly supposed but several Bishops came from several Places and applied themselves to this Excellent Work and God gave them considerable Success in it Thus Bizinus did great Service among the West Saxons and Felix the Burgundian among the East-Saxons and the Northern Bishops in the Midland-Parts as well as Augustin and his Companions in the Kingdom of Kent And in these Midland-parts as Christianity increased so the Bishops Sees were multiplied Five out of One and placed in the most convenient Distances for the further inlarging and establishing Christianity among the People The Bishops were Resident in their own Sees and had their Clergy then about them whom they sent abroad as they saw cause to those Places where they had the fairest Hopes of Success And according thereto they either continued or removed them having yet no fixed Cures or Titles All the first Titles were no other than being entred in the Bishops Register as of his Clergy from which Relation none could discharge himself without the Bishop's Consent But as yet the Clergy had no Titles to any particular Places there being no fixed Bounds of Parishes wherein any Persons were obliged to be Resident for the better Discharge of their Duties This State of an Vnfixed and
Spirits Assistance is only in the exciting the Affections and Motions of the Soul towards the things prayed for and if this be allowed it is impossible to give a Reason why the Spirit of God may not as well excite those inward Desires when the Words are the same as when they are different And we are certain that from the Apostles times downwards no one Church or Society of Christians can be produced who held it unlawful to pray by a Set-Form On the other side we have very early Proofs of some common Forms of Prayer which were generally used in the Christian Churches and were the Foundations of those Ancient Liturgies which by degrees were much enlarged And the Interpolations of later times do no more overthrow the Antiquity of the Ground-work of them than the large Additions to a Building do prove there was no House before It is an easie matter to say that such Liturgies could not be St. Iames's or St. Mark 's because of such Errors and Mistakes and Interpolations of Things and Phrases of later times but what then Is this an Argument there were no Ancient Liturgies in the Churches of Ierusalem and Alexandria when so long since as in Origen's time we find an entire Collect produced by him out of the Alexandrian Liturgy And the like may be shewed as to other Churches which by degrees came to have their Liturgies much enlarged by the devout Prayers of some extraordinary Men such as S. Basil and S. Chrysostom in the Eastern Churches But my Design is not to vindicate our use of an excellent Liturgy but to put you upon the using it in such manner as may most recommend it to the People I mean with that Gravity Seriousness Attention and Devotion which becomes so solemn a Duty as Prayer to God is It will give too just a cause of prejudice to our Prayers if the People observe you to be careless and negligent about them or to run them over with so great haste as if you minded nothing so much as to get to the end of them If you mind them so little your selves they will think themselves excused if they mind them less I could heartily wish that in greater places especially in such Towns where there are People more at liberty the constant Morning and Evening Prayers were duly and devoutly read as it is already done with good Success in London and some other Cities By this means Religion will gain ground when the publick Offices are daily performed and the people will be more acquainted with Scripture in hearing the Lessons and have a better esteem of the Prayers when they become their daily Service which they offer up to God as their Morning and Evening Sacrifice and the Design of our Church will be best answered which appoints the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer daily to be said and used throughout the Year VI. As to the Dissenters from the Church the present Circumstances of our Affairs require a more than ordinary Prudence in your Behaviour towards them It is to no purpose to provoke or exasperate them since they will be but so much more your Enemies for it and if you seem to court them too much they will interpret your Kindness to be a liking their Way better than your own so that were it not for some worldly Interest you would be just what they are which is in effect to say you would be Men of Conscience if ye had a little more Honesty For they can never think those honest Men who comply with things against their Consciences only for their temporal Advantage but they may like them as Men of a Party who under some specious Colours promote their Interest For my own part as I do sincerely value and esteem the Church of England and I hope ever shall so I am not against such a due temper towards them as is consistent with the preserving the Constitution of our Church But if any think under a pretence of Liberty to undermine and destroy it we have Reason to take the best care we can in order to its preservation I do not mean by opposing Laws or affronting Authority but by countermining them in the best way i.e. by out-doing them in those things which make them most popular if they are consistent with Integrity and a good Conscience If they gain upon the People by an Appearance of more than ordinary Zeal for the good of Souls I would have you to go beyond them in a true and hearty Concernment for them not in irregular Heats and Passions but in the Meekness of Wisdom in a calm and sedate Temper in doing good even to them who most despitefully reproach you and withdraw themselves and the People from you If they get an Interest among them by Industry and going from Place to Place and Family to Family I hope you will think it your Duty to converse more freely and familiarly with your own People Be not Strangers and you will make them Friends Let them see by your particular Application to them that you do not despise them For Men love to value those who seem to value them and if you once slight them you run the hazard of making them your Enemies It is some Trial of a Christians Patience as well as Humility to condescend to the Weaknesses of others but where it is our Duty we must do it and that chearfully in order to the best End viz. doing the more good upon them And all Condescension and Kindness for such an End is true Wisdom as well as Humility I am afraid Distance and too great Stiffness of Behaviour towards them have made some more our Enemies than they would have been I hope they are now convinced that the Persecution which they complained lately so much of was carried on by other Men and for other Designs than they would then seem to believe But that Persecution was then a popular Argument for them for the complaining side hath always the most Pity But now that is taken off you may deal with them on more equal Terms Now there is nothing to affright them and we think we have Reason enough on our side to perswade them The Case of Separation stands just as it did in Point of Conscience which is not now one jot more reasonable or just than it was before Some think Severity makes Men consider but I am afraid it heats them too much and makes them too violent and refractary You have more Reason to fear now what the Interest of a Party will do than any Strength of Argument How very few among them understand any Reason at all for their Separation But Education Prejudice Authority of their Teachers sway them remove these and you convince them And in order thereto acquaint your selves with them endeavour to oblige them let them see you have no other Design upon them but to do them good if any thing will gain upon them this will But if after all they
to his Service But it was not certainly that they should spend their time in Idleness and Luxury but that they might with the greater freedom apply themselves to the Study of the Law that they might instruct the People For the Cities of the Levites were as so many Colleges dispersed up and down in the several Tribes to which the People might upon occasion more easily resort 2. That if the People erred thro' Ignorance of the Law God himself laid the Blame on those who were bound to instruct them My People saith God by the Prophet are destroyed for lack of Knowledge If People are resolved to be ignorant who can help it Had they not the Law to inform them But it is observable that the Peoples Errors are laid to the Charge of the Priests and the Punishment is denounced against them Because thou hast rejected Knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest unto me It seems the Priests were grown careless and negligent as to their own Improvements they did not know to what purpose they should take so much pains in studying the Law and the difficult Points of it they were for a freedom of Conversation and hoped to keep up their Interest among the People that Way Therefore Isaiah call them Shepherds that cannot understand but were very intent upon their Profits they all look to their own Way every one for his Gain from his Quarter But this was not all for the Prophet charges them with a Voluptuous Careless Dissolute Life Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Was not this a very agreeable life for those who were to instruct the People in the Duties of Sobriety and Temperance It was Death for the Priests by the Law to drink Wine or strong Drink when they went into the Tabernacle of the Congregation and the Reason given is That ye may put a difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean and that ye may teach the Children of Israel all the Statutes which the Lord hath spoken to thee by the Hand of Moses Which implies That those who are given to drinking Wine or strong Drink are very unfit to instruct others in the Law of God And God looked on them as such a Dishonour to his Worship that he threatens immediate Death to them that approached to his Altar when they had drank Wine and the Iews say that was the Reason why Nadab and Abihu were destroyed And then God said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me All Nations have abhorred sottish and drunken Priests as most unfit to approach to God when they were not themselves or to offer Sacrifices for others when they made Beasts of themselves But this was not all for God required from them who were to teach others the Law that they should be always in a Capacity of understanding and practising it themselves But if we proceed to the Prophets nothing can be more dreadful than what God saith to Ezekiel That if he did not warn the People as he commanded them their Blood will I require at thy hand Is this Charge now lying upon every one of you as to every Person under your Care Who would not rather run into a Wilderness or hide himself in a Cave than take such a Charge upon him But we must distinguish what was peculiar to the Prophet's immediate Commission to go to any particular Person in God's Name from a General Charge to inform Persons in their Duties and to tell them the Danger of continuing in their Sins If any fail for want of Information when you are bound to give it the Neglect must fall heavy and therefore you are bound to take all just Opportunities in publick and private to inform those under your Care of such Sins as you know them to be guilty of not with a Design to upbraid but to reform them In the New Testament the Charge is General to feed the Flock of God and to do it willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind and to be Examples to the Flock But St. Peter who gives this Advice doth not determine who belong to the Flock nor within what Bounds it is to be limited and there were many Flocks in the Iewish Dispersion and many Elders scattered up and down among them in Pontus Asia Galatia Cappadocia and Bithynia so that here we have only general and excellent Advice for such who had Care of the several Flocks to carry themselves towards them with great Humility and Tenderness with Charity and Goodness as those that made it their business to do good among them and conduct them in the Way to Heaven St. Paul in his Charge to those whom he sent for to Miletus tells them That they must take heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood It 's possible here might be a particular Designation of the Flock they were to oversee by the Direction of the Holy Ghost but yet the Charge is general to take heed to themselves and to the Flock and to promote the good of the Church of God which Christ hath purchased with his own Blood Which are the most weighty Considerations in the World to excite us to the utmost Care and Diligence in Discharge of our Duties In the Epistle to the Thessalonians they are said to be over them in the Lord and to admonish them In that to the Hebrews to watch for their Souls as they that must give an Account No doubt very great Care and Watchfulness is required in all that take so great and solemn an Office upon them but where are the Bounds and Limits set as to the People and Nature of the Duties required from them Must every Man be left to his own Conscience and Judgment what and how far he is to go Or can we suppose all Men equally careful of doing their Duties if no particular Obligation be laid upon them Some of the Eloquent Fathers of the Church as St. Chrysostom St. Ierom St. Gregory Nazianzen and others have allowed themselves so much in the Flights of Fancy and Figures of speaking about the Height and Dignity of the Sacred Function as if they had a mind to discourage all Men of modest and humble Dispositions from undertaking it I do not wonder that they ran into Solitudes and withdrew from the World upon it but I do wonder how they came from thence and undertook the same Charge afterwards without giving an Answer to their own Arguments For the World remained just as it was when they left it Mankind were still as impatient of being governed or told of their Faults as sickle and humoursom as prone to Evil and untractable to
Incouragement both to repair Old Churches and to build New However the Work went on slowly Augustin consecrated but two Bishops which were setled at London and Rochester where Ethelbert built and endowed two Churches for the Bishops and their Clergy to live together In the Western Parts Bicinus built several Churches about Dorchester where his See was fixed Wilfred converted the South-Saxons and settled Presbyters in the Isle of Wight but they were but two In the Kingdom of Mercia there were five Diocesses made in Theodore's time and Putta Bishop of Rochester being driven from his See he obtained from Saxulphus a Mercian Bishop a Church with a small Glebe and there he ended his Days In the Northern Parts we read of two Churches built by two Noblemen Puch and Addi upon their own Manors And the same might be done elsewhere but Bede would never have mentioned these if the thing had been common But in his Epistle to Egbert Archbishop of York a little before his Death he intimates the great Want of Presbyters and Parochial Settlements and therefore earnestly perswades him to procure more And if Egbert's Canons be genuine of which there are several Ancient MSS. the Duties of Presbyters in their several Churches are set down However the Work went not on so fast but in his Successor Eanbaldus his time the Bishops were required to find out convenient places to build Churches in and the same passed in the Southern Parts by general Consent In the Council of Cloveshoo we read of Presbyters placed up and down by the Bishops in the Manors of the Laity and in several Parts distinct from the Episcopal See and there they are exhorted to be diligent in their Duties In the times of Edgar and Canutus we read of the Mother Churches which had the Original Settlement of Tithes after they were given to the Church by several Laws and of the Churches built upon their own Lands by the Lords of Manors to which they could only apply a third Part of the Tithes But in the Laws of Canutus we find a fourfold Distinction of Churches 1. The Head Church or the Bishop's See 2. Churches of a second Rank which had Right of Sepulture and Baptism and Tithes 3. Churches that had Right of Sepulture but not frequented 4. Field-Churches or Oratories which had no Right of Burial The second sort seem to be the Original Parochial Churches which had the Endowment of Tithes and were so large that several other Churches were taken out of them by the Lords of Manors and so the Parishes came to be multiplied so much that in the Laws of Edward the Confessor c. 9. it is said That there were then Three or Four Churches where there had been but One before In this Diocess I find by an Epistle of Wulston Bishop of Worcester to Anselm that before the Conquest there were Churches in Vills or upon particular Manors that were consecrated And if William the Conqueror demolished Six and thirty Parish Churches in the Compass of the New Forest as is commonly said there must be a very great Number before the Conquest although so few are said to appear in Doomsday Book yet there are many parochial Churches of this Diocess in it above twenty in two Deanaries but the Normans almost ruined the parochial Clergy by seizing the Tithes and making Appropriations of them But in the Saxon times the Number still encreased as Lords of Manors and others were willing to erect new Churches and to have a settled Parochial Minister among them who was to take Care of the Souls of the people within such a Precinct as hath obtained the Name of a Parish But Parishes now are of a very different Extent and Value but the Obligation which the Law puts upon them is the same only where the Maintenance is greater they may have the more Assistants And from hence came the Difference among the Parochial Clergy for those whose Parishes were better endowed could maintain inferior Clerks under them who might be useful to them in the publick Service and assist them in the Administration of Sacraments And this was the true Original of those we now call Parish-Clerks but were at first intended as Clerks-Assistant to him that had the Cure and therefore he had the Nomination of them as appears by the Ecclesiastical Law both here and abroad And Lyndwood saith Every Vicar was to have enough to serve him and One Clerk or more and by the Canon-Law no Church could be founded where there was not a Maintenance for Assisting-Clerks In the Synod of Worcester under Walter Cantelupe in Henry the Third's time they are called Capellani Parochiales and the Rectors of Parishes were required to have such with them And the Canon Law doth allow a Rector to give a Title to another to receive Orders as an Assistant to him and this without any prejudice to the Patron 's Right because but One can have a Legal Title to the Cure But Lyndwood observes very well That those who gives Titles to others as their Assistants or Curates are bound to maintain them if they want These are called Vicarii Parochiales Stipendiarii but Conductitii Presbyteri who are forbidden were those who took Livings to farm without a Title But after Appropriations came in then there were another sort of Vicars called Perpetui and were endowed with a certain Portion of the Temporalities and were admitted ad Curam Animarum But such could not Personam Ecclesiae sustinere in an Action at Law about the Rights of the Church but as to their own Right they might But still there is another sort of Vicars who are Perpetual but not Endowed any otherwise than the Bishop did allow a congrua Portio and this was in Appropriations where the Bishop consented only upon those Terms as they generally were so made till the Neglect made the Statutes necessary 15 R. 2. 6. and 4 H. 4. 12. The Bishops were to make or enlarge the Allowance say the Canonists after Presentation and before Institution and were to see that it were a sufficient Subsistence But there were some Cures which had Chapels of Ease belonging to them and they who offiuated in them were called Capellani and had their Subsistence out of the Oblations and Obventions and were often Perpetual and Presentative And where the Incumbents had several Chapels of Ease and only Assistants to supply them the Canon Law doth not call them Rectores but Plebani who had a sort of peculiar Jurisdiction in lesser Matters but still they were under the Bishops Authority in Visitations and other Ecclesiastical Censures because the Care of the whole Diocess belonged to him Iure Communi and so it was taken for granted in all Parts of the Christian World And especially in this Kingdom where Parochial Episcopacy was never heard of till of late
of the Gentile Gods upon them as Albaspinaeus thinks but because the thing it self was not of good Report even among the Gentiles themselves as appears by Cicero Ovid Suetonius c. as giving too great Occasion for indecent Passions and of the loss of time Hostiensis reckons up Sixteen Vices that accompany it which a Clergyman especially ought to avoid And playing at Dice was infamous by the Civil Law Iustinian forbids Clergymen not only playing but being present at it It was forbidden in the old Articles of Visitation here and in several Diocesan Synods Spelm. II. 192 252 298 367 450. So that there can be no Reason to complain of the Severity of this Canon which so generally obtained in the Christian Church II. The Canons which relate to Ministers discharging the several Duties of their Function in Preaching Praying Administring Sacraments Catechizing Visiting the Sick c. which are intended to inforce an Antecedent Duty which we can never press you too much or too earnestly to considering that the Honour of Religion and the Salvation of your own and the Peoples Souls depend upon it 2. The next way of judging the Church's Intention is by the Words and Sense of the Church Cajetan thinks the general Sense is the best Rule Navarr saith to the same purpose although some Words are stricter than others Suarez That the main Obligation depends on the matter but the Church's Intention may be more expressed by special Words of Command Tolet relies most upon the Sense of the Church But the Sense of the Church must be understood whether it be Approving or Recommending or strictly Commanding according to the Obligation of Affirmative Precepts which makes a reasonable Allowance for Circumstances And so our Church in some cases expresly allows reasonable Impediments And in Precepts of Abstinence we must distinguish the Sense of the Church as to Moral Abstinence i.e. subduing the Flesh to the Spirit and a Ritual Abstinence in a meer Difference of Meats which our Church lays no Weight upon and a Religious Abstinence for a greater Exercise of Prayer and Devotion which our Church doth particularly recommend at particular Seasons which I need not mention 3. By the Penalties annexed which you may find by reading over the Canons which you ought to do frequently and seriously in order to your own Satisfaction about your Duties and the Obligation to perform them But some may think that such Penal Canons oblige only to undergo the Punishment To which I answer That the case is very different in an Hypothetical Law as Suarez calls it when Laws are only conditional and disjunctive either you must do so or you must undergo such Penalty which is then looked on as a legal Recompence and Ecclesiastical Constitutions where Obedience is chiefly intended and the Penalty is annexed only to inforce it and to deterr others from Disobedience For no Man can imagine that the Church aims at any Man's Suspension or Deprivation for it self or by way of compensation for the Breach of its Constitutions And now give me leave not only to put you in mind but to press earnestly upon you the diligent Performance of those Duties which by the Laws of God and Man and by your own voluntary Promises when you undertook the Cure of Souls are incumbent upon you It is too easie to observe That those who have the Law on their side and the Advantage of a National Settlement are more apt to be remiss and careless when they have the Stream with them than those who row against it and therefore must take more pains to carry on their Designs As those who force a Trade must use much more Diligence than those who go on in the common Road of Business But what Diligence others use in gaining Parties do you imploy in the saving their Souls Which the People will never believe you are in earnest in unless they observe you are very careful in saving your own by a conscientious Discharge of your Duties They do not pretend to Fineness of Thoughts and Subtilty of Reasoning but they are shrewd Judges whether Men mean what they say or not and they do not love to be imposed upon by such a sort of Sophistry as if they could think that they can have such a Regard to their Souls who shew so little to their own Therefore let your unblameable and holy Conversations your Charity and good Works your Diligence and Constancy in your Duties convince them that you are in earnest and they will hearken more to you than if you used the finest Speeches and the most eloquent Harangues in the Pulpit to them These the People understand little and value less but a serious convincing and affectionate way of Preaching is the most likely way to work upon them If there be such a thing as another World as no doubt there is what can you imploy your Time and Thoughts and Pains better about than preparing the Souls of your People for a happy Eternity How mean are all other laborious Trifles and learned Impertinencies and busie Inquiries and restless Thoughts in comparison with this most valuable and happy Imployment if we discharge it well And happy is that Man who enjoys the Satisfaction of doing his Duty now and much more happy will he be whom our Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Pag. 277 c. Histoire des Oâ—â—â—ages des Scavans Août 1697. p. 551. Regino l. 2. p. 205. Hispan Concil p. 29. Regino Collect. Canon lib. 2. p. 204. Burchard l. 1. c. 91 92. Gratian 35. q. 5. c. 7. Hieron Comment ad Titum Epist. ad 〈◊〉 Advers Luciferian Hier. in Psal. ad Evagr. Ad Marcel Cyprian Ep. 3 66. Aug. in Ps. 44. 44. Ambros. ad Eph. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Theod. ad 1 Tim. 1. 3. Iren. l. 3. c. 3. 3 Iohn 9 10. 1 Tim. 3. 2 3 c. 5. 22. 19. 20. 21. Titus 1. 5. De voto voti Redempt Lyndw. f. 103. Concil Anglic. vol. 2. f. 182. Constit. Othon f. 292. Concil Angl. vol. 2. f. 227. Constit. Provinc De Officio Archi-Presbyteri f. 33. Concil Anglic. vol. 1. p. 183. Lyndw. v. latratuf 33. V. Pabulo V. Dei * Prov. Constit De Offic. Arch-Presbyt f. 282. Concil Anglic. vol. 2. p. 332. Concil Anglic. vol. 2. p. 700 707. Concil Anglic. 2 vol. p. 649. Constit. de haeret f. 156. Lyndw. f. 156. C. Dudum Clem. de Sepulturis Io. de Athon in Constitut. Othobon f. 46. C. Dudum de Sepulturis Non potest esse Pastoris excusatio si lupus oves comedit Pastor nescit Extr. de Reg. Juris c. 10. Reginald Praxis l. 30. tr 3. c. 5. p. 52. Constit. Provinc de Clericis non Resid c. quum hostis Ioh. Athon ad Constit. Othon f. 14. Reginald ib. n. 53. Can. Relatum Ex. de Cleriâ—is non Resid Lyndw. in c. â—uum hostis Residcant
grow more headstrong and insolent by the Indulgence which the Law gives them then observe whether they observe those Conditions on which the Law gives it to them For these are known Rules in Law That he forfeits his Privilege who goes beyond the Bounds of it That no Privileges are to be extended beyond the Bounds which the Laws give them for they ought to be observed as they are given I leave it to be considered whether all such who do not observe the Conditions of the Indulgence be not as liable to the Law as if they had none But there is a very profane Abuse of this Liberty among some as tho' it were an Indulgence not to serve God at all Such as these as they were never intended by the Law so they ought to enjoy no Benefit by it For this were to countenance Profaneness and Irreligion which I am afraid will grow too much upon us unless some effectual Care be taken to suppress it VII There is another Duty incumbent upon you which I must particularly recommend to your Care and that is of Visiting the Sick I do not mean barely to perform the Office prescribed which is of very good Use and ought not to be neglected but a particular Application of your selves to the State and Condition of the Persons you visit It is no hard matter to run over some Prayers and so take leave but this doth not come up to the Design of our Church in that Office For after the general Exhoratation and Profession of the Christian Faith our Church requires That the sick Person be moved to make special Confession of his Sins if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter and then if the sick Person humbly and heartily desires it he is to be absolved after this manner Our Lord Iesus Christ who hath left Power in his Church to absolve all Sinners who truly repent and believe in him c. Where the power of Absolution is grounded upon the Supposition of true Faith and Repentance and therefore when it is said afterwards And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from the same c. it must proceed on the same Supposition For the Church cannot absolve when God doth not So that all the real Comfort of the Absolution depends upon the Satisfaction of the person's Mind as to the Sincerity of his Repentance and Faith in Christ. Now here lies the great Difficulty of this Office how to give your selves and the wounded Conscience Satisfaction as to the Sincerity of those Acts I do not mean as to the Sincerity of his present Thoughts but as to the Acceptableness of his Faith and Repentance with God in order to Remission of Sins But what if you find the Persons so ignorant as not to understand what Faith and Repentance mean What if they have led such careless and secure lives in this World as hardly ever to have had one serious Thought of another Is nothing to be done but to come and pray by them and so dismiss them into their Eternal State Is this all the good you can or are bound to do them I confess it is a very uncomfortable thing to tell Men how they are to begin to live when they are liker to die than to live and the People generally have a strange superstitious Fear of sending for the Minister while there is any hope of Recovery But at last you are sent for and what a melancholy Work are you then to go about You are it may be to make a Man sensible of his Sins who never before considered what they were or against whom they were committed or what eternal Misery he deserves by committing them But I will suppose the best I can in this Case viz. That by your warm and serious Discourse you throughly awaken the Conscience of a long and habitual Sinner what are you then to do Will you presently apply all the Promises of Grace and Salvation to one whose Conscience is awakened only with the Fears of Death and the Terrors of a Day of Judgment This I confess is a hard Case on the one side we must not discourage good Beginnings in any we must not cast an awakened Sinner into Despair we must not limit the infinite Mercy of God But on the other side we must have a great care of incouraging presumptuous Sinners to put off their Repentance to the last because then upon Confession of their Sins they can so easily obtain the Churches Absolution which goes no farther than truly Repenting and Believing But here is the difficulty how we can satisfie our selves that these do truly Repent and Believe who are out of a Capacity of giving Proof of their Sincerity by Amendment of Life I do not question the Sincerity of their present Purposes but how often do we find those to come to nothing when they recover and fall into the former Temptations How then shall they know their own Sincerity till it be tried How can it be tried when they are going out of the State of Trial The most we can do is to encourage them to do the best they can in their present Condition and to shew as many of the Fruits of true Repentance as their Circumstances will allow and with the greatest Humility of Mind and most earnest Supplications to implore the infinite Mercy of God to their Souls But besides these there are many Cases of sick Persons which require very particular Advice and Spiritual Direction which you ought to be able to give them and it cannot be done without some good Measure of Skill and Experience in casuistical Divinity As How to satisfie a doubting Conscience as to its own Sincerity when so many Infirmities are mixed with our best Actions How a Sinner who hath relapsed after Repentance can be satisfied of the Truth of his Repentance when he doth not know but he may farther relapse upon fresh Temptations How he shall know what Failings are consistent with the State of Grace and the Hopes of Heaven and what not What Measure of Conviction and Power of Resistance is necessary to make Sins to be wilful and presumptuous What the just Measures of Restitution are in order to true Repentance in all such Injuries which are capable of it I might name many others but these I only mention to shew how necessary it is for you to apply your selves to Moral and Casuistical Divinity and not to content your selves barely with the Knowledge of what is called Positive and Controversial I am afraid there are too many who think they need to look after no more than what qualifies them for the Pulpit and I wish all did take sufficient care of that but if we would do our Duty as we ought we must inquire into and be able to resolve Cases of Conscience For the Priests Lips should keep this kind of Knowledge and the People should seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the