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
established Methods of Proceeding agreeable to natural Justice and the Laws of the Land nothing would be more grievous and intolerable than the common Exercise of a Parochial Discipline For 1. It cannot be presumed that there will be competent Judges For every one who hath a Faculty of Preaching hath not a Faculty of Judging in such Cases And where Discretion and a Judgment of Circumstances is wanting an honest Mind will not secure Men from doing Injury and exposing their Judicature to Contempt 2. They have no fixed and established Rules of proceeding as there are in the Ecclesiastical Courts which have been continued down from time to time and allowed by the Laws of the Land And what miserable Disorder must follow an Arbitrary Method when Humour and Will and Passion may over-rule Justice and Equity and Conscience 3. They are not under the Check of the Law as the Ecclesiastical Courts are For if they exceed their Bounds either as to the Nature of the Cause or the Manner of proceeding they are liable to Prohibitions from the King's Courts of Justice but the Law can take no notice of Parochial or Congregational Judicatures and so Men may suffer without Remedy 4. They have no way to judge of Legal Evidence which is very material when a person is accused It is one of the nicest Points in all criminal Proceedings to determine what is good and sufficient Evidence For several things are to be weighed before either Witnesses or Testimonies can be allowed As to Witnesses it is required that they be persons of Reputation and free from Infamy of Law and Fact that they be disinterested and so not liable to the just Suspicion of Partiality that they be Men of Discretion and sane Memory and all reasonable Exceptions are to be allowed against them As to Testimonies they must be by our Law upon Oath and what Authority have such Persons to give an Oath and why shall a Man be liable to suffer by a Testimony without one when the Law requires it They must be deliberate and not given in Passion consistent as to Time Place and other Circumstances They must be certain and positive and not upon Hear-say or the Believing of other persons They must be free from any just Suspicion of Contrivance and Conspiracy or any sort of Corruption or Partiality And now is every parochial Minister or select Congregation fit to judge of these Matters whereon the Reputation and consequently the Interest of every person may be so deeply concerned 5. They have no way to prevent a percipitate and hasty Sentence Suppose a Man be accused by one of Interest and Passion who possesses others with the same Opinion before-hand and the Judges are all prejudiced before the Matter comes to be heard and in popular Assemblies some few men sway the rest what a Case is a person accused unjustly in He hath no Liberty for others that are not of the Congregation altho' more disinterested either to come in to judge or to plead for him He can have no Advocate to defend him or to shew the Weakness or Inconsistency of the Evidence against him In all Ecclesiastical Courts they may sometimes proceed summarily but even then the Fundamental Rules of the Court must be observed as to Proofs and Witnesses or else the Sentence is void but here the Sentence will take place altho' there hath not been the least Colour of Justice in the whole Proceedings 6. Here is no settled Course of Appeals in Case of a wrong Sentence But where Men are liable to Mistake and Passion a Right of Appeal is one of the Fundamental parts of Justice And therefore Independent and Arbitrary Courts of Judicature as all Congregational Churches are are inconsistent with the common Rights of Mankind and that due Subordination which ought to be in all Societies in order to the preserving Order and Justice among Men. But suppose parochial Discipline so settled among us as to allow a Liberty of Appeal how would the Trouble and Vexation and Expence be increased by going from the parochial Sentence to the Bishop's Court and from thence still further So that if there be some Inconveniencies in point of Distance for persons to be summoned to appear at first so far from Home yet there is some Compensation by the less Trouble and Charges if due Care be taken to prevent Delays and unnecessary Expences which ought to be done And those who do make the greatest Clamour against our Courts are rather willing they should continue such as they may have Cause to complain of than to do their Endeavours to reform them Thus I have endeavoured to shew the just Bounds and Limits of parochial Cures II. I now come to consider the just Measure of that Diligence which is required under those Limits For our Church requires Faithful Diligence in Preaching and Sacraments and Prayers and Reading the Holy Scriptures If then we can understand what this Faithful Diligence implies we may come to satisfie our selves whether we do our Duty or not 1. Faithful Diligence implies serious Application of our Minds to the main End and Design of our Holy Function Which is to do good to the Souls of Men especially to those committed to your Charge And an idle careless santering Life or one too busie and distracted with the Cares of the World are not consistent with it I do not go about to take you off from necessary Business and reasonable Allowances as to Health and Studies but that the doing good to your peoples Souls ought to be the principal and chief Design of your Thoughts Studies and Endeavours And if the people be satisfied that this is really your Design among them you will find that your Doctrine will be easier received your Persons esteemed and your Labours valued It is possible you may meet with a froward peevish self-willed people and it is hard when a Man is only set to water and mend a Hedge made up of Briars and Thorns the more pains he takes the more Scratches he may meet with but if it be your Lot be not discouraged from doing your Duty Remember what sort of people the Prophets were sent to and what Usage they had from them what Hardships and Reproaches Christ and his Apostles underwent from a very unkind World but a patient Continuance in well-doing gave them inward Satisfaction in the midst of all and did by degrees gain the Christian Doctrine Access to the Hearts of those who most opposed it 2. It implies an honest and conscientious Care of discharging the known and common Duties of your Function as Preaching Praying Catechizing Administring Sacraments Visiting the Sick c. A diligent Person is one who neglects no good Opportunities of doing his Business but watches for them and studies to improve them to the best Advantage Can those satisfie themselves that they use Faithful Diligence who shamefully neglect their Cures and care not how seldom they come at them nor how they are supplied
if they make a good Bargain for their own Advantage I cannot deny but that according to the Laws of the Land and the Canons of this Church some Persons are allowed to have two several Cures which must imply a Non-residence for some time at least upon one of them But they still suppose that there are persons Resident upon them who are allowed by the Bishop to be sufficient to discharge the necessary Duties of the place and not to be taken up like Post-horses the next that comes and to be turned off at the next Stage I think it a very great Fault in those who have Pluralities that they look no more after the Curates they imploy and that they do not bring them to the Bishop to be approved and to have their Allowance fixed before they imploy them They think no more is required but to pay the Fees for a Licence but I have and shall endeavour to convince the Clergy of this Diocess that Licences are not to be taken as St. Peter took the Fish that first came with Money in the Mouth of it I hope to be able to satisfie them that it is not the Fees that we aim at but at Persons doing their Duties And our Canons are express That no Curate is to be allowed in any Cure of Souls that hath not been examined and admitted by the Bishop or Ordinary having Episcopal Jurisdiction and attested by the Hand and Seal of the Bishop How then come Curates to officiate without ever coming to the Bishop at all or undergoing any Examination by him This is a plain Breach of the Canon and ought to be reformed I do not say that such Licences as have customarily passed without the Bishop's Hand and Seal are void but I do say That they are irregular and voidable and none ought to be allowed which are not according to the Canon and that no Incumbent ought to take any one for his Curate till the Bishop hath allowed and approved him under his Hand and Seal And this Remedy the Law gives us against the Inconveniencies which attend Pluralities by weak and insufficient Curates But no Man is excused either by Law or Canons from attending the Duties of his Place at some times in his own Person and that good Part of the Year in which time he ought to do the Duties of his Place with Diligence and Care and to acquaint himself with his Parishioners in order to the better Discharge of his Duty towards them They have very mean Thoughts of their holy Function that think the main Part of it lies only in the Pulpit I wish even that were minded more but all the Ways you can do good among your People is within the Compass of your Duty not meerly to instruct them in Religion but to prevent Quarrels and Contentions and Meetings for Debauchery which tend to corrupt Mens Minds and draw them off from the Principles as well as Practice of true Religion It is your Duty to endeavour to make them live like good Christians and good Neighbours and to set Patterns your selves of Sobriety Meekness Charity and of every thing Praise-worthy 3. Faithful Diligence implies filling up your vacant Hours with the most useful Studies as to the main End of your Function For in your Ordination you solemnly promise to lay aside the Study of the World and the Flesh and to apply your selves to the Study of the Scriptures and such Studies as help to the Knowledge of the same But it may be seasonably asked by some What Method and Course of Studies will best conduce to that End To this I shall endeavour to give a short Answer so far as it concerns the main End of your Function which it is most proper for me to consider at this time 1. Look well to the Temper of your Minds that it be humble sober and religious For a vain affected and self-opinionated Person can never have an inward and hearty Relish of Divine Truths The Scriptures will appear to him either too plain and easie or too obscure and intricate some things will seem low and flat and others too lofty and Poetical Those who read not with a good Mind will have always something or other to cavil at It is a mighty Advantage in all Spiritual Knowledge to come to it with an unbiassed Mind free from the Power of Prejudice and evil Inclinations For these give a strange Tincture to the Mind and hinder the clear and distinct Perception of Revealed Truths as above the Natural Faculties which God hath given us Some are therefore so fond of Philosophical Speculations that unless the Letter of the Scripture suits with them they are ready to despise it and only Shame and Fear keep up any Reverence for it in them Some are altogether for Mathematical Evidence and Demonstration as though the Way to Salvation were to be shewed by Lines and Figures Why do they not first run down all Laws and History because they are not capable of Mathematical Evidence And it argues a far greater Measure of true Understanding to know when to be satisfied than to be always disputing and cavilling The plainness of Scripture in some places is no more an Offence to one that wisely considers the Design of it than a beaten Road is to a Traveller who desires to know which is the true Way to his Journeys End and the plainer it is the more he is satisfied with it But the Scripture wants not its Depths which require a very Attentive and Considering Mind and will afford Matter for Exercise of Thoughts and frequent and serious Meditation The Excellency of the Scripture is That all necessary things are plain and such as are not so although they are not necessary to be known for Salvation yet require our Diligence to understand them and give great Satisfaction as far as we can know them 2. Not to perplex your Minds with Difficulties above your Reach as in what relates to the Eternal Decrees and the particular Manner of that Unity of the Godhead which is consistent with the Trinity of Persons For since the Scripture doth assert both we may safely be contented with what the Scripture reveals although the Manner of it be incomprehensible And as to the other the Scripture is clear and positive as to the Moral Parts of our Duties and if we are to seek how to reconcile them with Gods Decrees we have this certain Rule to go by That without doing our Duty we cannot be happy but we may without understanding how the Freedom of our Wills is consistent with the Divine Prescience and Decrees 3. Not to fix plain and necessary Duties upon new and unaccountable Theories As for instance There are no Duties of greater Consequence than the Love of God and our Neighbour But it would be unspeakable Mischief to Religion to fix the Love of God upon so absurd a Principle as his being the immediate Cause of all Sensation in us And it would have
made the Christian Doctrine ridiculous to found its Fundamental Precepts on extravagant Notions and Mystical Contemplations And so for the Love of our Neighbours to allow only a Love of Benevolence and Charity and not of Delight and Complacency is to make Nice Distinctions where God hath made none But to take away the Love of Complacency in Friends and Relations and the Blessings which God gives for the Comfort of Life is to overthrow the due Sense of God's Goodness in giving them and to take away a great Measure of that Gratitude we owe to God for them But when any seem very fond of such Notions and shew so much Self-Complacency in them it is impossible upon such Principles that they should love their Neighbours as themselves 4. If you would understand the New Testament aright fix in your Minds a true Scheme of the State of the Controversies of that Time which will give you more light into the true knowledge of the Scriptures than large Volumes of Commentators or the best Systems of Modern Controversies As what the Iewish Notions of Justification by Works and Expiation of Sin were and of God's Decrees of Election and Reprobation as to themselves And what the Principles of the Judaizing Christians were as to the joyning the Law and the Gospel and the Pythagorean Superstition together And what the Gnosticks who were professed Libertines held as to Grace Redemption Liberty Government c. All which tend very much to the clearing the Sense of the New Testament 5. Where the Sense appears doubtful and Disputes have been raised about it enquire into the Sense of the Christian Church in the first Ages as the best Interpreter of Scripture as whether the Apostles left Bishops or Presbyters to succeed them in the Government of Churches Whether the Apostles appointed the Lords Day to be observed as the Day of Publick Worship Whether Baptism were not to be Administred to Infants as well as Circumcision both being Seals of God's Covenant Whether Divine Worship doth not belong to Christ and were â—oâ— given to him in the Hymns and Doxologies of the Primitive Church and Whether Divine Worship can be given to any Creature Whether the Form of Baptism was not understood so as to imply a Trinity of Persons and Whether all true Christians were not Baptized into this Faith and consequently Whether denying the Trinity be not renouncing Christian Baptism These and many other such Questions of great Importance receive great Light from the Writings of the first Ages But some Rules may be very useful for right judging the Sense of those Times 1. To distinguish the Genuine and Supposititious Writings of that Time This hath been examined with so much Care by Learned Men of this last Age that it is no hard matter to make a true Judgment about them 2. In those that are Genuine to distingush the Sense of the Church delivered by them from their own particular Opinions the Sense of the Church is best known by Publick Acts as by Creeds Sacraments Hymns Prayers and Censures of such as oppose or contradict them 3. To put a Difference between the Authority of private Persons and of the Bishops and Governours of the Church who may be presumed to understand the Sense of the Church and the Doctrine of the Apostles better than the other And so Clemens Ignatius Polycarp Theophilus and Irenaeus are more to be trusted as to the Sense and Practice of the Christian Church than such as Hermes and Papias and Tatianus who had neither the Judgment nor the Authority of the other 4. That may be justly looked on as the Sense of the Church which is owned both by the Friends and the Enemies of it The Enemies of Christianity charged them with many Things which the Apologists utterly denied Now we find Pliny charging the Christians with singing Hymns to Christ as to God several Christian Writers of that time mention this but never go about to soften or to excuse or deny it And so we find Lucian deriding the Christians for the Doctrine of Three and One which the Apologists of that time are so far from denying that they assert and vindicate it as appears by Athenagoras and others But these things I only touch at to shew how the Sense of the Church is to be taken and how from thence the Sense of the Scriptures may be cleared OF THE Particular Duties OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY AT A VISITATION October 27 th 1696. My Brethren AS often as it pleases God in his wise Providence to bring me among you in the ordinary Course of my Visitation I cannot satisfie my self that I do my own Duty unless I put you in mind of doing yours We live in an Age wherein the Contempt of the Clergy is too notorious not to be observed but the true Reasons are not so well considered as they ought to be Some to increase the Contempt of the Clergy have given such Reasons of it as seem to make it a light and jesting matter but truly it is very far from being so For the Contempt of Religion is oft-times both the Cause and the Effect of it It is not at all to be wondred at that those who hate to be reformed should hate those whose Duty and Business it ought to be to endeavour to reform them But when Religion is struck at through our Sides we ought with Patience to bear the Wounds and Reproaches we receive in so good a Cause Wo be to us if those who are Enemies to Religion speak well of us For it is a strong Presumption that they take us to be of their side in our Hearts and that we are distinguished only by our Profession which they look on only as our Trade And we give too much occasion for such Suspicions of us if we do not heartily concern our selves for the Honour and Interest of true Religion in the World whatever we may suffer as to our Reputation for the sake of it It is possible that if we go about to humour such Persons in their Infidelity and Contempt of Religion we may escape some hard Words for the present but they cannot but have the greatest inward Contempt and Hatred of all those who live upon Religion and yet have not the Courage to defend it And what Satisfaction can such have when they reflect upon themselves and think what Occasion they have given to confirm such Persons in their Infidelity and to make them think the worse of Religion for their sakes The best thing we can do to recover the Honour of Religion and to set our Profession above Contempt is to apply our selves seriously and conscientiously to do our Duties For if others find that we are in earnest and make it our great Business to do all the Good we can both in the Pulpit and out of it if we behave our selves with that Gravity Sobriety Meekness and Charity which becomes so holy a Profession we shall raise our selves above the common
License but if any one preached in other parts of the Diocess or were a Stranger in it then he was to be examined by the Diocesan and if he were found tam Moribus quam Scientia idoneus he might send him to preach to one or more Parishes as he thought meet and he was to shew his License to the Incumbent of the Place before he was to be permitted to preach under the Episcopal Seal And thus as far as I can find the Matter stood as to Preaching before the Reformation After it when the Office of Ordination was reviewed and brought nearer to the Primitive Form and instead of delivering the Chalice and Patten with these words Accipe potestatem offerre Deo Sacrificium c. the Bishop delivered the Bible with these words Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God and to Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation c. The Priests Exhortation was made agreeable thereto wherein he exhorts the Persons in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to consider the Weight and Importance of the Office and Charge they are called to not barely to instruct those who are already of Christ's Flock but to endeavour the Salvation of those who are in the midst of this naughty World And therefore he perswades and charges them from a due regard to Christ who suffered for his Sheep and to the Church of Christ which is so dear to him to omit no Labor Care or Diligence in instructing and reforming those who are committed to their Charge And the better to enable them to perform these things there are some Duties especially recommended to them viz. Prayer and Study of the Holy Scriptures according to which they are to instruct others and to order their own Lives and of those who belong to them And that they might the better attend so great a Work they are required to forsake and set aside as much as they may all worldly Cares and Studies and apply themselves wholly to this one thing that they may save themselves and them that hear them After which follows the solemn Profession wherein they undertake to do these things This is that my Brethren which I earnestly desire of you that you would often consider You are not at liberty now whether you will do these things or not for you are under a most solemn Engagement to it You have put your Hands to the Plough and it is too late to think of looking back and you all know the Husbandman's Work is laborious and painful and continually returning It is possible after all his Pains the Harvest may not answer his Expectation but yet if he neither plows nor sows he can expect no Return if he be idle and careless and puts off the main of his Work to others can he reasonably look for the same Success Believe it all our Pains are little enough to awake the sleepy and secure Sinners to instruct the Ignorant to reclaim the Vitious to rebuke the Profane to convince the Erroneous to satisfie the Doubtful to confirm the Wavering to recover the Lapsed and to be useful to all according to their several Circumstances and Conditions It is not to preach a Sermon or two in a Weeks Time to your Parishioners that is the main of your Duty that is no such difficult Task if Men apply their minds as they ought to do to Divine Matters and do not spend their Retirements in useless Studies but the great Difficulty lies in Watching over your Flock i. e. knowing their Condition and applying your selves uitably to them He that is a Stranger to his Flock and only visits them now and then can never be said to watch over it he may watch over the Fleeces but he understands little of the State of his Flock viz. of the Distempers they are under and the Remedies proper for them The Casuists say That the Reason why there is no Command for Personal Residence in Scripture is because the Nature of the Duty requires it for if a Person be required to do such things which cannot be done without it Residence is implied As a Pilot to a Ship needs no Command to be in his Ship for how can he do the Office of a Pilot out of it Let none think to excuse themselves by saying that our Church only takes them for Curates and that the Bishops have the Pastoral Charge for by our old Provincial Constitutions which are still in force so far as they are not repugnant to the Law of the Land even those who have the smallest Cures are called Pastors and Lyndwood there notes that Parochialis Sacerdos dicitur Pastor and that not meerly by way of Allusion but in respect of the Care of Souls But we need not go so far back For what is it they are admitted to Is it not ad curam Animarum Did not they promise in their Ordination To teach the People committed to their Care and Charge The Casuists distinguish a threefold Cure of Souls 1. In foro interiori tantum and this they say is the Parochial Cure 2. In foro exteriori tantum where there is Authority to perform Ministerial Acts as to suspend excommunicate absolve sine Pastorali Curâ and this Archdeacons have by Virtue of their Office 3. In utroque simul where there is a special Care together with Jurisdiction this is the Bishops And every one of these say they secundum commune Ius Canonicum is obliged to Residence i. e. by the common Law Ecclesiastical of which more afterwards The Obligation is to perpetual Residence but as it is in other positive Duties there may other Duties intervene which may take away the present force of it as care of Health necessary Business publick Service of the King or Church c. But then we are to observe that no Dispensation can justifie a Man in point of Conscience unless there be a sufficient Cause and no Custom can be sufficient against the natural Equity of the Case whereby every one is bound from the Nature of the Office he hath undertaken I confess the case in Reason is different where there is a sufficient Provision by another fit Person and approved by those who are to take care that Places be well supplied and where there is not but yet this doth not take off the force of the Personal Obligation arising from undertaking the Cure themselves which the Ecclesiastical Law understands to be not meerly by Promise but cum effectu as the Canonists speak which implies personal Residence Not that they are never to be away Non sic amarè intelligi debet ut nunquam inde recedat saith Lyndwood but these Words are to be understood civili modo as he expresses it i. e. not without great Reason There must not be saith he callida Interpretatio sed talis ut cessent fraudes negligentiae i. e. There must be no Art used to evade the Law nor any gross Neglect of
Education of Children must lie upon Parents but yet Ministers ought not only to put them in mind of their Duty but to assist them all they can and by publick Catechizing frequently to instruct both those who have not learned and those who are ashamed to learn any other way And you must use the best means you can to bring them into an Esteem of it which is by letting them see that you do it not meerly because you are required to do it but because it is a thing so useful and beneficial to them and to their Children There is a great deal of difference between Peoples being able to talk over a Set of Phrases about Religious Matters and understanding the true Grounds of Religion which are easiest learned and understood and remembred in the short Catechetical Way But I am truly sorry to hear that where the Clergy are willing to take pains this way the People are unwilling to send their Children They would not be unwilling to hear them instructed as early as might be in the way to get an Estate but would be very thankful to those who would do them such a kindness and therefore it is really a Contempt of God and Religion and another World which makes them so backward to have their Children taught the Way to it And methinks those who have any Zeal for the Reformation should love and pursue that which came into Request with it Indeed the Church of Rome it self hath been made so sensible of the Necessity of it that even the Council of Trent doth not only require Catechizing Children but the Bishops to proceed with Ecclesiastical Censures against those who neglect it But in the old Provincial Constitutions I can find but one Injunction about Catechizing and that is when the Priest doubts whether the Children were Baptized or not and if they be born eight days before Easter and Whitsontide they are not to be Baptized till those days and in the mean time they are to receive Catechism What is this receiving Catechism by Children before they are eight days old It is well Exorcism is joyned with it and so we are to understand by it the Interrogatories in Baptism and Lyndwood saith the Catechism is not only required for Instruction in Faith but propter sponsionem when the Godfather answers De Fidei Observantiâ It is true the Canon Law requires in adult Persons Catechizing before Baptism but I find nothing of the catechizing Children after it and no wonder since Lyndwood saith the Laity are bound to no more than to believe as the Church believes nor the Clergy neither unless they can bear the Charges of studying and have Masters to instruct them This was good Doctrine when the Design was to keep People in Ignorance For Learning is an irreconcilable Enemy to the Fundamental Policy of the Roman Church and it was that which brought in the Reformation since which a just Care hath still been required for the Instruction of Youth and the Fifty ninth Canon of our Church is very strict in it which I desire you often to consider with the first Rubrick after the Catechism and to act accordingly IV. After Catechizing I recommend to you the due Care of bringing the Children of your Parishes to Confirmation Which would be of excellent use in the Church if the several Ministers would take that pains about it which they ought to do Remember that you are required to bring or send in Writing with your Names subscribed the Names of all such Persons in your Parish as you shall think fit to be presented to the Bishop to be confirmed If you take no care about it and suffer them to come unprepared for so great so solemn a thing as renewing the Promise and Vow made in Baptism can you think your selves free from any Guilt in it In the Church of Rome indeed great care was taken to hasten Confirmation of Children all they could Post Baptismum quam citius poterint as it is in our Constitution Provincial in another Synodical the Parochial Priests are charged to tell their Parishioners that they ought to get their Children confirmed as soon as they can In a Synod at Worcester under Walter de Cantilupo in the time of Henry III. the Sacrament of Confirmation is declared necessary for Strength against the Power of Darkness and therefore it was called Sacramentum pugnantium and no wonder then that the Parochial Priests should be called upon so earnestly to bring the Children to Confirmation and the Parents were to be forbidden to enter into the Church if they neglected it for a Year after the Birth of the Child if they had opportunity The Synod of Exeter allowed two Years and then if they were not Confirmed the Parents were to Fast every Friday with Bread and Water till it were done And to the same purpose the Synod of Winchester in the time of Edw. I. in the Constitutions of Richard Bishop of Sarum two Years were allowed but that time was afterwards thought too long and then the Priest as well as the Parents was to be suspended from Entrance into the Church But what preparation was required None that I can find But great care is taken about the Fillets to bind their Heads to receive the Unction and the taking them off at the Font and burning them lest they should be used for Witchcraft as Lyndwood informs us But we have no such Customs nor any of the Reformed Churches We depend not upon the Opus operatum but suppose a due and serious preparation of Mind necessary and a solemn Performance of it I hope by God's Assistance to be able in time to bring the Performance of this Office into a better Method in the mean time I shall not fail doing my Duty have you a care you do not fail in yours V. As to the Publick Offices of the Church I do not only recommend to you a due Care of the Diligent but of the Devout Performance of them I have often wondred how a fixed and stated Liturgy for general Use should become a matter of Scruple and Dispute among any in a Christian Church unless there be something in Christianity which makes it unlawful to pray together for things which we all understand beforehand to be the Subject of our Prayers If our common Necessities and Duties are the same if we have the same Blessings to pray and to thank God for in our solemn Devotions why should any think it unlawful or unfitting to use the same Expressions Is God pleased with the change of our Words and Phrases Can we imagine the Holy Spirit is given to dictate new Expressions in Prayers Then they must pray by immediate Inspiration which I think they will not pretend to lest all the Mistakes and Incongruities of such Prayers be imputed to the Holy Ghost but if not then they are left to their own Conceptions and the
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
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
scandalous to the Church can we believe that Titus was not as well bound to correct them afterwards as to examine them before And what was this Power of Ordination and Iurisdiction but the very same which the Bishops have exercised ever since the Apostles Times But they who go about to Unbishop Timothy and Titus may as well Unscripture the Epistles that were written to them and make them only some particular and occasional Writings as they make Timothy and Titus to have been only some particular and occasional Officers But the Christian Church preserving these Epistles as of constant and perpetual use did thereby suppose the same kind of Office to continue for the sake whereof those excellent Epistles were written And we have no greater Assurance that these Epistles were written by St. Paul than we have that there were Bishops to succeed the Apostles in the Care and Government of Churches Having said thus much to clear the Authority we act by I now proceed to consider the Rules by which we are to govern our selves Every Bishop of this Church in the time of his Consecration makes a solemn Profession among other things That he will not only maintain and set forward as much as lies in him quietness love and peace among all Men but that he will correct and punish such as be unquiet disobedient and criminous within his Diocese according to such Authority as he hath by God's Word and to him shall be committed by the Ordinance of this Realm So that we have two Rules to proceed by viz. The Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm 1 By the Word of God and that requires from us Diligence and Care and Faithfulness and Impartiality remembring the Account we must give that we may do it with Ioy and not with Grief And we are not meerly required to correct and punish but to warn and instruct and exhort the Persons under our Care to do those things which tend most to the Honour of our holy Religion and the Church whereof we are Members And for these Ends there are some things I shall more particularly recommend to you 1. That you would often consider the Solemn Charge that was given you and the Profession you made of your Resolution to do your Duty at your Ordination I find by the Provincial Constitution of this Church that the Bishops were to have their solemn Profession read over to them twice in the year to put them in mind of their Duty And in the Legatine Constitutions of Otho 22 H 3. the same Constitution is renewed not meerly by a Legatine Power but by Consent of the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces wherein i◠is declared That Bishops ought to visi◠their Diocesses at fit times Correcting and Reforming what was amiss and sowing the Word of Life in the Lords Field and to put them the more in mind of it they were twice in the year to have their solemn Profession read to them It seems then that Profession contained these things in it or else the reading that could not sti◠them up to do these things What the Profession was which Presbyters then made at their Ordination we have not so clear an Account but in the same Council at Oxford 8 H. 3. i◠is strictly enjoined That all Rector◠and Vicars should instruct the People committed to their Charge and Fee◠them Pabulo Verbi Dei with the Food of God's Word and it is introduced with that Expression that they might excite the Parochial Clergy to be more diligent in what was most proper for those times And if they do it not they are there called Canes muti and Lyndwood bestows many other hard Terms upon them which I shall not mention but he saith afterward those who do it not are but like Idols which bear the similitude of a Man but do not the Offices proper to Men. Nay he goes so far as to say That the Spiritual Food of God's Word is as necessary to the Health of the Soul as Corporal Food is to the Health of the Body Which Words are taken out of a Preface to a Canon in the Decretals de Officio Iud. Ordinarii inter caetera But they serve very well to shew how much even in the dark times of Popery they were then convinced of the Necessity and Usefulness of Preaching These Constitutions were slighted so much that in 9 Edw. 1. the Office of Preaching was sunk so low that in a Provincial Constitution at that time great Complaint is made of the Ignorance and Stupidity of the Parochial Clergy that they rather made the People worse than better But at that time the Preaching Friars had got that Work into their Hands by particular Priviledges where it is well observed That they did not go to Places which most needed their help but to Cities and Corporations where they found most Incouragement But what Remedy was found by this Provincial Council Truly every Parochial Priest four times a year was bound to read an Explication of the Creed Ten Commandments the Two Precepts of Charity the Seven Works of Mercy the Seven deadly Sins the Seven principal Vertues and the Seven Sacraments This was renewed in the Province of York which had distinct Provincial Constitutions in the time of Edw. 4. And here was all they were bound to by these Constitutions But when Wickliff and his Followers had awakened the People so far that there was no satisfying them without Preaching then a new Provincial Constitution was made under Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury and the former Constitution was restrained to Parochial Priests who officiated as Curates but several others were Authorized to Preach as 1. The Mendicant Friars were said to be Authorized Iure communi or rather Privilegio speciali but therefore Lyndwood saith it is said to be Iure communi because that Privilege is recorded in the Text of the Canon Law these were not only allowed to preach in their own Churches but in Plateis publicis saith Lyndwood out of the Canon Law wherein those words were expressed and at any hour unless it were the time of preaching in other Churches but other Orders as Augustinians and Carmelites had no such general License Those preaching Friars were a sort of Licensed Preachers at that time who had no Cures of Souls but they were then accounted a kind of Pastors For Io. de Athon distinguisheth two sorts of Pastors Those who had Ecclesiastical Offices and those who had none but were such only Verbo Exemplo but they gave very great disturbance to the Clergy as the Pope himself confesses in the Canon Law 2. Legal Incumbents authorized to preach in their own Parishes Iure scripto All Persons who had Cures of Souls and Legal Titles were said to be missi à Iure ad locum populum curae suae and therefore might preach to their own People without a special
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
for that of H. 8. was not till five years after that Statute But after that Valuation it was to be judged according to it and not according to the real Value as the Judges declared 12 Car. I. in the Case of Drake and Hill Now here was a regard had to the Poorness of Benefices so far that the Statute doth not deprive the Incumbent upon taking a second Living if the former be under 8 l. The Question that arises from hence is Whether such Persons are allowed to enjoy such Pluralities by Law or only left to the Ecclesiastical Law as it was before It is certain that such are not liable to the Penalty of this Law but before any Person might be deprived by the Ecclesiastical Law for taking a second Benefice without Dispensation of what Value soever the former were now here comes a Statute which enacts That all who take a second Benefice having one of 8 l. without Qualification shall lose his legal Title to the first but what if it be under Shall he lose it or not Not by this Law But suppose the Ecclesiastical Law before makes him liable to Deprivation doth the Statute alter the Law without any Words to that purpose The Bishop had a Power before to deprive where is it taken away The Patron had a Right to present upon such Deprivation how comes he to lose it And I take it for granted That no antecedent Rights are taken away by Implications but there must be express Clauses to that purpose So that I conclude the ancient Ecclesiastical Law to be still in Force where it is not taken away by Statute And thus my Brethren I have laid before you the Authority and the Rules we are to act by I have endeavoured to recommend to you the most useful Parts of your Duty and I hope you will not give me occasion to shew what Power we have by the Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm to proceed against Offenders Nothing will be more uneasie to me than to be forced to make use of any Severity against you And my Hearts desire is That we may all sincerely and faithfully discharge the Duties of our several Places that the blessing of God may be upon us all so that we may save our selves and those committed to our Charge OF THE NATURE OF THE TRUST Committed to the Parochial Clergy At a Visitation at Worcester October 21 st 1696. My Brethren I Have formerly on the like Occasion discoursed to you of the General Duties of your Function and the Obligation you are under to perform them and therefore I shall now confine my Discourse to these Two Things I. To consider the particular Nature of the Trust committed to you II. The Obligation you are under to your Parochial Cures I. The first is necessary to be spoken to for while Persons have only so confused and cloudy Apprehensions concerning it they can neither be satisfied in the Nature of their Duties nor in their Performance of them And there is Danger as well in setting them so high as to make them Impracticable as in sinking them so low as to make not only themselves but their Profession Contemptible For the World let us say what we will will always esteem Men not meerly for a Name and Profession but for the Work and Service which they do There is no doubt a Reverence and Respect due to a Sacred Function on its own Account but the highest Profession can never maintain its Character among the rest of Mankind unless they who are of it do promote the General Good by acting suitably to it And the greater the Character is which any bear the higher will the Expectations of others be concerning them and if they fail in the greatest and most useful Duties of their Function it will be impossible to keep up the Regard which ought to be shew'd unto it We may complain as long as we please of the Unreasonableness of the Contempt of the Clergy in our Days which is too general and too far spread but the most effectual Means to prevent or remove it is for the Clergy to apply themselves to the most necessary Duties with Respect to the Charge and Trust committed to them But here arises a considerable Difficulty which deserves to be cleared viz. concerning the just Measures of that Diligence which is required For there are some who will never be satisfied that the Clergy do enough let them do what they can and it is to no purpose to think to satisfie them who are resolved not to be satisfied But on the other side some care not how little they do and the less the better they are pleased with them and others again have raised their Duties so high that scarce any Man can satisfie himself that he hath done his Duty It is a matter therefore of the highest Consequence to us to understand What Rule and Measure is to be observed so as we may neither wilfully neglect our Duty nor despair of doing it Here we are to consider Two Things 1. How far the Scripture hath determined it 2. What Influence the Constitution of our Church is to have upon us concerning it 1. The Scripture doth speak something relating to it both in the Old and New Testament In the Old Testament we have the Duties enjoyned to the Levitical Priesthood and the extraordinary Commissions given to the Prophets As to the Levitical Priesthood we can only draw some general Instructions which may be of use altho' that Priesthood hath been long since at an end Christ being our High-Priest after another Order viz. of Melchisedeck and our Duty now is to observe his Laws and to offer that Reasonable Service which he requires But even from the Levitical Priesthood we may observe these things 1. That although the main of their Duty of Attendance respected the Temple and Sacrifices yet at other times they were bound to instruct the People in the Law For so Moses leaves it as a special Charge to the Tribe of Levi to teach Iacob his Iudgments and Israel his Law And to incourage them to do it they had a liberal Maintenance far above the Proportion of the other Tribes For by Computation it will be found that they were not much above the Sixtieth part of the People for when the other Tribes were numbred from Twenty years old they made six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty But the Children of Levi were reckoned by themselves from a Month old and they made but Two and twenty thousand so that if the Males of the other Tribes had been reckoned as they were it is agreed by Learned Men who had no Fondness for the Clergy that they did not make above a fiftieth or sixtieth part and yet they had near a fifth of the Profits besides accidental Perquisites as to Sacrifices and Ransoms of the First-born Thus say they God was pleased to enrich that Tribe which was devoted
Good as it was before And could they hope it would ever mend by their running away from it Or was their Duty become more easie by declining it I think it was very well for the Church of God that notwithstanding their own many Arguments they took the Sacred Office upon them at last and did God and the Church good Service in it But if Men were to judge by their Writings upon this Argument one would think none but those who had a mind to be damned would undertake it And their great Strains of Wit and Eloquence if they had any Force would keep the best Men out of the Church who were most likely to do God Service in it and we need no other Instances than these very Persons themselves And if all good and humble and conscientious Men should for the sake of the Hardness of the Work decline the Church's Service and take any other lawful Imployment what would become of the Church of God For none that had or intended to keep a good Conscience could undertake the Cure of Souls and so they must be left to such as had no Regard to their own but were either ignorant stupid and senseless Creatures or such as regarded not their own Salvation who durst undertake such a Task as would not only add to their own Guilt but bring the heavy Load of other Mens Faults upon them too What is now to be done in this Case Hath God really imposed such a Task upon all those who enter into this Sacred Function that it is morally impossible for an honest Man to discharge it with a good Conscience How then can any such undertake it But if it may be done what are those Bounds and Rules we are to observe so as a good Man may satisfie himself in a competent Measure that he hath done his Duty II. And this is that which I shall now endeavour to clear For every one who is in Orders hath a double Capacity One with Respect to the Church of God in General another to that particular Flock which is allotted to him by the Constitution of this Church and the Law of the Land For although the Nature of our Duty in general be determined by the Word of God as I have already ready shewed yet the particular Obligation of every one to his own Flock is according to that Power and Authority which by the Rules and Orders of this Church is committed to him and is fully expressed in the Office of Ordination By which it plainly appears that the Care of Souls committed to Persons among us is not an absolute indefinite and unaccountable Thing but is limited as to Place Persons and Duties which are incumbent upon them They are to teach the People committed to their Charge By whom By the Bishop when he gives Institution They are to give private as well as publick Monitions and Exhortations as well to the sick as to the whle What to all No but to those within their Cure They are to banish erroneous Doctrines and to promote Peace and Love especially among them committed to their Charge And last of all they are to Obey those who have the Charge and Government over them These things are so express and plain in the very Constitution of this Church and owned so solemnly by every one that enters into Orders that there can be no Dispute concerning them And from thence we observe several things that tend to the Resolution of the main Point as to the Satisfaction of doing your Duties as Incumbents on your several Places I. That it is a Cure of Souls limited as to Persons and Place i.e. within such a Precinct as is called a Parish II. That it is limited as to Power with Respect to Discipline Therefore I shall endeavour to clear these Two Things I. What the just Bounds and Limits of Parochial Cures are II. What is the Measure of that Diligence which is required within those Bounds As to the former we are to begin with the Limitation as to Place I. That it is a Cure of Souls limited within certain Bounds which are called Parishes which are now certainly known by long Usage and Custom and ought still to be preserved with great Care for otherwise Confusion and Disputes will arise between several Ministers and several Parishes with one another For since the Duties and the Profits are both limited it is necessary that those Bounds should be carefully preserved as they generally are by Annual Perambulations But there are some who will understand nothing of this bounding of Ministerial Duties by distinct Parishes who think they are at liberty to exercise their Gifts where-ever they are called and that it were better that these parochial Inclosures were thrown open and all left at liberty to chuse such whom they liked best and under whom they can improve most These things seem to look plausibly at the first Appearance and to come nearest to the first gathering of Churches before any such thing as Parishes were known But to me this Arguing looks like Persons going about now to overthrow all Dominion and Property in Lands and Estates because it seems not so agreeable with the first natural Freedom of Mankind who according to the Original Right of Nature might pick and chuse what served most to their own Conveniency But although this were the first State of things yet the great Inconveniencies which followed it upon the Increase of Mankind made Division and Property necessary and altho' there be no express Command of God for it yet being so necessary for the Good of Mankind it was not only continued every where but those Persons were thought fit to be punished by severe Laws who invaded the Rights and Properties of others either by open Violence and Rapine or by secret Stealth and Purloining I grant that at first there were no such Parochial Divisions of Cures here in England as there are now For the Bishops and their Clergy lived in Common and before that the Number of Christians was much increased the Bishops sent out their Clergy to preach to the People as they saw Occasion But after the Inhabitants had generally embraced Christianity this Itinerant and Occasional going from Place to Place was found very inconvenient because of the constant Offices that were to be administred and the Peoples knowing to whom they should resort for Spiritual Offices and Directions Hereupon the Bounds of Parochial Cures were found necessary to be settled here by degrees by those Bishops who were the great Instruments of converting the Nation from the Saxon Idolatry But a Work of this Nature could not be done all at once as by a kind of Agrarian Law but several Steps were taken in order to it At first as appears by Bede they made use of any old British Churches that were left standing so Augustin at first made use of St. Martin's near Canterbury and after repaired Christs-Church which were both British Churches But Ethelbert gave all
years For nothing can be plainer in our History than what is affirmed in two of our Laws Stat. of Carlisle 25 E. 1. and the Stat. of Provisors 25 E. 3. That the Church of England was founded in Prelacy or Diocesan Episcopacy For our first Bishops were so far from being confined to one Church or Town that at first in the Saxon-Division of Kingdoms every Bishop had his Diocess equal with the Extent of the Kingdom except in Kent where one Suffragan to the Archbishop at Rochester was confirmed The first Conversion of the English Nation to Christianity from Paganism was by the Diocesan Bishops who were sent hither from several Parts and the Presbyters imployed by them and as the Number of Christians increased the Number of Bishops did so too so that in the Parts of Mercia one Diocess was divided into five that they might the better look after the Government of them and every Bishop as appears by the Saxon-Councils was bound to see parochial Churches built and the Clergy to be settled in them to attend upon the Duties of their Function among the people committed to their Charge That which I have aimed at in this Discourse was to shew That the Original Constitution of this Church was Episcopal but yet that the Bishops did still design to fix a Parochial Clergy under them as Churches could be built and endowed It remains now to shew That this Constitution of a Parochial Clergy is more reasonable than that of an unfixed and unsettled Clergy by Law which will easily appear if we consider 1. The greater Advantage as to Unity and real Edification among the People For this makes them to be as one Body within certain Bounds And the People know whither to resort for publick Worship and Sacraments and the Inconveniencies as to the difference of Mens Abilities is not so great as the Inconveniency of a broken divided people as to Religion which always creates Suspicions and Jealousies and generally Contempt and Hatred of each other And I think every wise and good Christian will consider that which tends to Peace and Unity is really more Edifying than a far better Talent of Elocution or the most moving Way of exciting the Fancies and Passions of Hearers For S. Paul tells us Charity is beyond miraculous Gifts It is easie to observe that the wisest Methods are seldom the most popular because the generality of Mankind do not judge by Reason but by Fancy and Humour and Prejudices of one kind or other From hence the Heats of Enthusiasm and odd Gestures and vehement Expressions with no deep or coherent Sense take much more with ordinary and injudicious people than the greatest Strength and clearness of Reason or the soundest Doctrine and the most pious Exhortation if they be not set off in such a Way as strikes their Imaginations and raises their Passions And this is that which such do commonly call the most Edifying Way of Preaching which is like the coming up of the Tide with Noise and Violence but leaves little Effect whereas the other is like a constant Stream which goes on in a steady and even Course and makes the Earth more fruitful The one is like a Storm of Thunder and Lightning which startles and confounds and amuses more but the other is like a gentle Rain which softens and mellows the Ground and makes it more apt to produce kindly and lasting Fruit. We are to judge of true Edification not by the sudden Heat and Motion of Passions but by producing the genuine Effects of true Religion which are fixing our Minds on the greatest and truest Good and calming and governing our disorderly Passions and leading a godly righteous and sober Life But we too often find violent and boisterous Passions an ungovernable Temper Envy Strife and Uncharitableness growing up with greater Pretences to Zeal and better Ways of Edification I never expect to see the World so wise as to have Persons and Things universally esteemed according to their Real Worth For there will be a Tincture in most persons from Temper and Inclination and the Principles of Education but generally speaking Matters of Order and Decency and Things which tend to a publick Good affect those most who have the best Judgment and Temper and irregular Heats and disorderly Methods of praying and preaching those whose Religion makes more Impression upon their Fancies than their Judgments and is seen more in the inflaming their Passions than in keeping them in their due Order 2. There is a greater Advantage as to Discipline For if among the Teachers they are under no Bounds nor Subjection to a Superiour Authority it is very easie to avoid any kind of Censure for the most corrupt Doctrines or Practices We cannot boast much of the strict Exercise of Discipline among us and one great Reason is That many have more mind to complain of the Want of it than to do their Endeavour to amend it We hear of many Complaints of the Clergy in general and sometimes by those who have more mind to have them thought guilty than to prove them so for fear they should acquit themselves or at least the Church should not bear the blame of their Miscarriages But we cannot proceed arbitrarily we must allow them timely notice and summon them to appear and a just Liberty of Defence but if upon Proof and sufficient Evidence we have not proceeded against them with the just Severity of the Law then we ought to bear the Blame but not otherwise But whatsoever personal Neglects or Faults there have been or may be my Business is to shew that our Way is much better fitted for the just Exercise of Discipline than that of Independant Congregations altho' the Managers of them pick and cull out the best they can for their Purpose and one would think when they had made choice of Members to their mind and bound them together by an Explicit Covenant they should be very easie and tractable and submissive to their own Discipline But they have found the contrary by their sad Experience they grow too heady and wilful to bear any such thing as strict Discipline for when they had the Courage to exercise it their Congregations were soon broken to pieces and the several divided Parts were for setting up new Heads one against another till at last they found it was much easier to be Teaching than to be Ruling Elders And so they have let the Reins of Discipline fall to keep their Congregations together But suppose the Teachers should fall out among themselves as to give a fresh and late remarkable Instance Suppose some set up Antinomianism and preach such Doctrines to the People or Flocks before you which others think of dangerous Consequence What is to be done in such a Case They may send some Brethren to enquire whether the Matters of fact be true Suppose they find them true What then What is to be done next It may be some would have them come up
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
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
the Saxon times viz. That the Iewish Sabbath doth not oblige us but however to observe the like Proportion of time and devote it to the Service of God Mr. Hooker saith That we are to account the Sanctification of one day in Seven a Duty which God's immutable Law doth exact for ever But what is meant by this Sanctification of One day in Seven If it be understood according to the old Canons it will fill scrupulous Minds with more Doubts and Fears about the right Observation of it Origen saith The Observation of the Christian Sabbath lies in these things 1. A Forbearance of worldly Business 2. Attendance on the Publick Worship 3. Divine Meditation on Things invisible and future Haec est observatio Sabbati Christiani And in another place he requires besides Publick Worship private Meditation and Reading the Holy Scriptures S. Chrysostom insists very much upon the same in several places and on different Occasions And altho' it be in his popular Sermons yet he would certainly not put them upon any thing but what he thought very fit to be done And they must have a mean Opinion of him who think his Eloquence carried him too far in this matter I shall conclude with the Opinion of Lyndwood a Learned and Judicious Canonist and he observes a Threefold Sanctification of the Lord's day 1. By Abstinence from Sin which is necessary at all times 2. By Abstinence from such bodily Labours as hinder the Mind's Attendance upon God's Service 3. By the whole Imployment of our Minds in Divine Matters and this he calls the perfect Observation of it These things I have the more largely insisted upon to shew That the Religious Observation of the Lord's day is no Novelty started by some late Sects and Parties among us but that it hath been the general Sense of the best part of the Christian World and is particularly inforced upon us of the Church of England not only by the Homilies but by the most ancient Ecclesiastical Law among us But this is not all for the Ancient as well as Modern Canons require the Observation of Holy-days likewise The Canons of Egbert require not only Prayers but Preaching then Can. 1. 3. The Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. distinguishes the Holy-days relating to our Saviour from the rest and saith They are to be observed in a solemn and uniform Manner and the rest according to the Roman Martyrology Which I suppose were those repeated then in the Diptychs of the Church which Custom continued longer at Rome than in other Churches but it was generally disused before the time of Charles the Great The Custom in Rome in Gregory's time was to observe the Saints Days with the solemn Service at one Church as appears by his Homilies on the Evangelists which were many of them preached on those Occasions as of S. Felicitas Hom 3. S. Agnes Hom. 11 12. S. Felix Hom. 13. S. Pancrace Hom. 27. c. and of others who were Roman Martyrs and therefore had a particular Solemnity appointed for them But as to other Saints Days it appears by the Antiphonarius and Sacramentary of Gregory I. that they had particular Anthems and Collects proper for them in the Offices of the Day but I do not find that the Generality of the People were so strictly tied up when the Offices were over as they were on the Lord's days and the greater Festivals relating to our Saviour In the Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. I observe that the Natalitia Sanctorum i.e. the Anniversary Saints Days were observed with particular Psalmody and Anthems and Can. 17. the Days of Gregory and Augustin the Two great Instruments of converting the Nation were only to be kept as Holy-days by the Clergy without any particular Obligation on all the People So that the Holy-days of strict Observation then seem to have been no other than those which relate to our Saviour called Dominicae Dispensationis in carne Festivitates the rest had some proper Offices which were performed on their Days but the People were to attend them as well as they could but after there was not this strictness required as upon the greater Holy-days and as it was in the Church of Rome afterwards when they made the Obligation of Conscience to extend to all Holy-days appointed by the Church But it is observable 1. That this Obligation is taken from those Canons which mention only the Lord's day as appears by Bellarmin 2. That they kept up the Distinction of greater and lesser Holy-days 3. That they allow the Bishop to dispense as to some Works on Holy-days Lyndwood observes that the Abstinence from Work is not alike but as the Church hath required it and that if a Bishop's Licence cannot be had a less will serve Our Church Can. 13. requires Holy-days to be observed with Works of Piety Charity and Sobriety but gives no Rule as to Abstinence from Works or the strict Obligation of Conscience 2. I now come to the particular Duties of the Clergy on the Days which are solemnly devoted to the Service of God 1. The constant and devout Attendance upon and solemn Reading the Prayers of the Church as they are appointed In the old Saxon Canons the Presbyters are required to officiate constantly at Prayers in their Churches so in the Council at Cloveshoo Can. 8. the Canons of Egbert Can. 2. Canons of Edgar Can. 45. But how if the People will not come to the Prayers You ought what lies in you to remove the Causes of such Neglect which arises generally from these things either a gross Stupidity and Regardlesness of Religion which is too common in the World or from Prejudice and Principles of Education or the Interest of a Party or from not Reading the Prayers with that Attention and Devotion which is fit to raise an Esteem of them The other two you ought to do what you can to remove but this is your own Fault if you do it not We are not to please the Fancies of People by an affected Variety of Expressions in Prayers but we ought to do what we can to excite their Affections which is done as much by the due manner of Reading as by Figures in Speaking And the People are uneasie at staying when they see the Minister read them so fast as though he minded nothing so much as to be at the end of them or when he mangles them so as if he had a mind to make the People out of love with them 2. The next Duty is Preaching and truly that need to be looked after when the Esteem of our Profession depends so much upon it We have none of those Methods which those on both sides make so much use of we can neither comply with the People in Gestures and Phrases and Enthusiastick Heats nor with the Superstitious Devotions and Priest-craft of others Of all Churches ours hath the least Reason to be charged
with it since they let go so many Advantages over the People by the Reformation Thanks be to God we have Scripture and Reason and Antiquity of our side but these are dry and insipid things to the common People unless some Arts be used to recommend them But since our main Support lies in the Honesty and Justice of our Cause without Tricks and Devices we ought to look very well to that part of our Profession which keeps up any Reputation among the People and that is Preaching Those who are so weak or lazy as to be glad to have that laid aside too in a great measure never well considered the Design of our Profession or the way to support it It 's true for some time Preaching was an extraordinary thing in the Church and none but Great and Eloquent Men of Authority in the Church were permitted to preach and the greatest Bishops were then the Preachers as appears by the Sermons of S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Augustin c. And even some of the Bishops of Rome whatever Sozomen saith were frequent Preachers as appears by Gregory's Homilies on Ezekiel and the Gospels And if it were not then practised he did very ill to complain of the Burden of it and the Danger of neglecting it But in other Churches while the Bishop and the Presbyters lived together before parochial Cures were settled the Presbyters had no constant Office of preaching but as the Bishops appointed them occasionally But afterwards when the Presbyters were fixed in their Cures they were required to be very diligent and careful in preaching or instructing the people committed to their Charge as may be seen in many early Canons of the Gallican Church and so it was here in England Council of Cloveshoo c. 8. 14. Egbert Can. 3. and that not only in the moving way in the Pulpit but in the familiar and instructing way which we call Catechizing Concil Cloveshoo c. 11. Can. Egbert 6. Both ought to be done because they are both very useful The Principles and Foundations of Religion must be well laid to make the people have any Taste or Relish of preaching otherwise it is like reading Mathematicks to those who understand not Numbers or Figures Erasmus observes that the Sense of Religion grows very cold without preaching and that the Countess of Richmond Mother to H. 7. had such a Sense of the Necessity of it in those times that she maintained many Preachers at her own Charges and imployed Bishop Fisher to find out the best qualified for it And since the Reformation the Church of Rome hath been more sensible of the Necessity of it as appears by the Council of Trent Cardinal Borromeo one of the most Celebrated Saints since that time frequently insists upon it gives Directions about it and speaks of it as a thing which tends very much to the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls And to the same purpose other Great Men among them as Cardinal Palaeotus Godeau Bordenave and others Would it not then be a great Shame for us who pretend to a Zeal for Reformation and the true Religion to neglect or lessen the Reputation of those things which our Adversaries have learnt from us and glory in them and those are Diligence in Preaching and Catechizing Which none can despise who value Religion none can neglect who have any Regard to the Interest or Honour of their Profession 3. The next Duty is the solemn Administration of the Sacraments which ought to be done in the publick Assemblies where there is not a great Reason to the contrary The Saxon Canons are express That Baptism unless in Case of Necessity should be administred only in due Times and Places Egber Can. 10 11. While the Ancient Discipline was kept up and Baptism only celebrated at the great Festivals there was a Necessity of its being publick and the Catechumens underwent several Scrutinies which lasted several days in the Face of the Church as S. Augustin observes after they had been kept under private Examination for some time before But when whole Nations were not only converted but Infants generally baptized the former Method of Discipline was changed But yet the Church retained her Right as to Satisfaction about the due Admission of her Members And that is the true Reason why after private Baptism the Child is required to be brought to the publick Congregation For Baptism is not intended to be done before a select Number of Witnesses but in the Face of the Church which is the regular and solemn Way however the Bishop may dispense in some particular Cases which he judges reasonable At first Baptism was administred publickly as Occasion served by Rivers as Bede saith Paulinus baptized many in the Rivers before Oratories or Churches were built Afterwards the Baptistery was built at the Entrance of the Church or very near it which is mentioned by Athanasius S. Chrysostom S. Ambrose S. Augustin c. The Baptistery then had a large Bason in it which held the Persons to be baptized and they went down by Steps into it Afterwards when Immersion came to be disused Fonts were set up at the Entrance of Churches But still the place was publick But in Case of Necessity there is a Form prescribed and I do not see how any without leave can use the Form of Publick Baptism in private Houses which is against both our Ancient and Modern Canons In the Greek Church it is Deprivation to do it and the Synod under Photius confirms it both as to the Eucharist and Baptism because publick Order is to be preserved But it is there understood to be done in Opposition to the Bishop's Authority whose Consent may make the Case different if they judge it reasonable But Ministerial Officers are not Judges in an equitable Case against a standing Rule 4. Another Duty of the parochial Clergy is to be able and ready to resolve Penitential Cases which relate to the Internal Court of Conscience and not the External and Judiciary Court which respects the Honour of the Church as to scandalous Offences committed by the Members of it And this takes in the Private and Occasional Duties of the parochial Clergy for they ought to inform themselves of the Spiritual Condition of their People that they may be able to give suitable Advice and Directions to them both in Health and Sickness But chiefly to be able to give them safe and seasonable Advice under Troubles of Conscience by reason of wilful Sins Duarenus a very considerable Lawyer thinks the main Business of the Clergy as to the Cure of Souls lies in the Power of Binding and Loosing i. e. in dealing aright with the Consciences of Men as to the Guilt of their Sins And the Rules of the Penitential Court are different from those of the Ecclesiastical Court as well as the End is different In the
Saxon times there were both here There were Ecclesiastical Law which related to Judicial Cases wherein a publick Penance was injoyned in order to the Churches Satisfaction But there were many Cases which were not publick and yet great Care was to be used as to the Direction of Penitents as appears by the Penitentials of Theodore and Bede in the Saxon times Whereby we learn that a Difference was to be observed as to the Nature of Offences and the Circumstances of Persons and Actions and the Measure of Contrition and the particular Method is set down in the penitential Books which was in very material Circumstances different from the Methods used in the Church of Rome But it is a thing necessary for every parochial Minister to be able to settle doubting Consciences and to put them into the best Methods of avoiding Sin for the future without which the Absolution of the Priest signifies nothing For where God doth not absolve the Church cannot 5. Giving a good Example to the People committed to your Charge This is often mentioned in the Saxon Canons Council at Cloveshoo c. 8. Canons of Egbert 14 15 18 19 33. in the Laws of Alfred c. 3. of Edward c. 3. Constit. of Odo c. 4 5. of Edgar 57 58 59 60 61 64. of Canutus c. 26. And in the Conclusion of one Collection of his Laws are these Words Happy is that Shepherd who by his good Life and Doctrine leads his Flock to Eternal and Heavenly Ioys and happy is that Flock that follows such a Shepherd who hath rescued them out of the Devil's Hands and put them into God's 6. Lastly the Performance of all these Duties supposes a constant Residence among your People without which it is impossible to discharge them in such a manner as to give them and your selves full Satisfaction This I am sensible is a very nice and tender Point and the Difficulties of it do arise from these things On one side it is said 1. That there is an Allowance by the Law given to several Persons to hold more Benefices than one and since the Distribution of Benefices is not by the Law of God but by the Law of the Land what Fault is there in making use of the Privileges which the Law gives But there cannot be constant Residence in more Places than one 2. That the general Service of the Church is more to be preferred than taking Care of a particular Parish because the necessary Duties of a Parish may be supplied by persons approved by the Bishop and a single Living seldom affords a sufficient Competency for persons to be capable of publick Service 3. That the way of Subsistence for the Clergy is now much altered from what it was when Celibacy was enjoyned For a Competency was always supposed where Residence was strictly required and what was a Competency to a single person is not so to a Family 4. That the Church hath a power of Relaxing the Severity of Ancient Canons from the different Circumstances of things and when the general Good of the Church may be more promoted therein as in the Removal of Clergymen from one Diocess to another and the Translation of Bishops 5. That the Case is now very different as to Dispensations from what it was in the Church of Rome as to the Number of Benefices and the manner of obtaining them that a great Restraint is laid by our Laws upon Pluralities and our own Metropolitan is the Judge when they are fit to be granted But on the other side it is objected 1. That in the first Constitution of parochial Churches every Incumbent was bound to a strict Residence so in the Canons of Egbert Can. 25. Presbyters are said to be settled in those Churches which had a House and Glebe belonging to them and many Canons were then expresly made That no Person should have more than one Church and it is said in the Capitulars that this had been several times decreed And so it is in Herardus his Collection of Canons Can. 49. in Isaac Lingonensis Tit. 1. c. 24. in Chrodegangus c. 67. in Ivo Carnotensis part 3. c. 51. in Regino l. 1. c. 254. The like we find in the Spanish Churches Concil Tolet. 16. c. 5. and thence in the Canonâ—Law C. 10. Q. 3. c. 3. and in the Greek Churches Concil 7. Can. 15. C. 21. Q. 1. c. 1. And as soon as the Abuse crept in in these Western Churches it was complained of and endeavoured to be redressed Concil Paris 6. c. 49. Concil Aquisgran 2. part 2. c. 5. Concil Metens c. 3. That afterwards not meerly the Mendicant Friars complained of them as some have suggested but some of the greatest Bishops have been zealous against them as Gulielmus Parisiensis Peraldus Archbishop of Lions Iacobus de Vitriaco Bishop of Acon Robert de Câ—orton Cardinal Guiard Bishop of Cambray and Gregory IX declared That he could only dispense with the Penalty of the Law After a solemn Disputation at Paris it was determined against Pluralities if one Benefice be sufficient and all the Divines joyned with the Bishop therein except two so that it seemed to be the current Opinion of the Learned and Pious Men of that Time Aquinas saith It is a doubtful Point but Cajetan is positive against them So that all the Zeal against Pluralities is not to be imputed to the Piques of the Friars against the Secular Clergy although there is no Question but they were so much the more earnest in it but in the Council of Trent the Bishops of Spain were the most zealous as to the Point of Residence and the Friars against it as appears by Catharinus and others 2. Setting aside all Authorities the Argument in Point of Conscience seems the strongest against Non-residence because persons have voluntarily undertaken the Cure of Souls within such Limits and although the Bounds be fixed by Human Authority yet since he hath undertaken such a Charge personally knowing those Bounds it lies upon his Conscience to discharge the Duties incumbent upon him which cannot be done without constant Residence as the Magistrates are bound in Conscience to do their Duty although the Bounds are settled by Human Laws And so in the case of Property Human Laws bind so that it is a Sin to invade what is settled by them And if it be left to a Man's Conscience whether a Man answers his Obligation more by personal Attendance or by a Curate whether the Honour of Religion and the Good of Souls be more promoted and the Peace of his own Mind secured by one or the other it is no hard matter to judge on which side it must go It is impossible to defend all the Arguments used in the old Canons against Pluralities as that Polygamy is unlawful under the Gospel So that as a Bishop hath but one City and a Man but one Wife so a Presbyter ought to have but one
Church That no Man can serve two Masters c. but all their Reasons were not of this sort For the Council of Toledo speaks home That one Man cannot perform his Duty to more than one Charge To the same purpose the Sixth Council at Paris and withal That it brings a Scandal on the Christian Church and an Hinderance to Publick Worship and the Good of Souls and savours too much of a worldly Mind which are weighty Arguments The only considerable thing on the other side is That the Bishops are to take care that the Places be duly supplied but whether it be done by Parson Vicar or Curate is not material But this will not hold For 1. the Care of Souls is committed personally to him that doth undertake it And a Regard is had to the Qualifications of the Person for such a Trust by the Patron that presents and the Bishop who admits and institutes the Person so qualified 2. The old Canons were very strict as to personal Residence so as to fix them in their Cures from which they could not go away when they pleased which they called Promissionem stabilitatis Our Saxon Canons are clear as to the personal Cure Can. Egbert 1. 4 6. Populo sibi commisso and no Presbyter could leave his Cure and go to another only for Honour or Profit Can. 13. And none could go from one Bishop to another without his Diocesan's Leave Concil Herudford c. 5. Egbert de Eccles. Instit. p. 97 100. And when the Bishop gives Institution he commits the Care of Souls to the Incumbent and not meerly the Care that Divine Offices be there performed But yet it is well observed by Aquinas That if the having more Benefices than one were a thing evil in it self it could in no case be dispensed with but there are some Actions which in general are irregular yet in some cases may be justified especially if they be extraordinary as to Publick Service and Usefulness c. And to the same purpose Cajetan speaks but he saith The Cases that make it lawful must relate to a Publick and not a Private Good but he mentions these things which excuse from Residence 1. Lawful Impediments as to Health c. 2. Publick Service And others say a Geometrical Proportion ought to be observed in the Distribution of Ecclesiastical Benefices and not an Arithmetical i. e. A Regard ought to be had to the Merits and Capacities of Persons as a Commander hath more Pay than many common Souldiers but this reaches only to the Value and not to the Number of Benefices But the Question still remains Whether a Legal Dispensation take not off the Obligation in Point of Conscience since it is allowed by Law and the Curate appointed by the Bishop who committed the Cure of Souls to him In answer to this we must consider 1. That the Law proposes in Dispensations very allowable Ends as Publick Service Incouragement of Learning Reward of Merit and therefore Doctors by Favour have not the Privilege which others have and in case of Incompetency as it was then judged no Legal Dispensation was needful 2. Some Ancient Canons took care of the Supply of the Place by competent Persons and in that case abated the Rigour of the Canon For Sirmondus saith in the Canon of the Council of Nantz against Pluralities this Clause was added Unless he hath Presbyters under him to supply the Duties of his Place And the same Clause is in Regino l. 1. c. 254. and Regino puts it among the Articles of Enquiry as to the Clergy If any had more Churches than one without Presbyters to assist him And in their old Admonition to them at Visitations it is to the same purpose but in others it is left out Thomassin is of Opinion That the former Enquiry related to those who had Chapels and not to more Churches because then there were none that had Titles upon anothers Benefice but these Words are express as to more Churches It 's true there were no such Titles then for a Title in the old Canon Law was the Relation which a Clergyman stood in to the Bishop of his Diocess being one of his Clergy and so the Greek Canonists understand a Man 's not being ordained without a Title and not having two Churches i. e. not to have Relation to two Diocesses and so sine Titulo is without being owned by some Bishop and this was that which they thought ought to be strictly observed and to which purpose many Canons were made both ancient and later and if any deserted their Bishop they were liable to Deprivation Afterwards the Word Title came to be applied to parochial Churches but there were some who found out that the Ancient Canons had another Sense Thence in the Council of Placentia in the Canon Sanctorum Dist. 70. c. 2. it was decreed That one might have two Churches in the same Diocess but not two Preferments in several Cathedrals And in the Council of Clermont A. D. 1095. the Reason is given because according to the Canons no Man could have-two Titles and every one was bound to hold to the Title to which he was first ordained But after all the Council of Nantz shews plainly that more parochial Titles were then allowed if well provided for by such persons as the Bishop of the Diocess approved Now this very much alters the State of the case for then the Obligation is Real and not Personal 3. It was agreed by the Ancient Canons That where there was an Incompetency of Maintenance they allowed an Union for support now that is but the Bishop's Act in joyning what had been divided supposing a sufficient Subsistence And a reasonable Distance with the Bishop's Allowance hath the same Equity i.e. the Bishop's Act may unite two small Benefices for a Support not by a perpetual Union but so long as he sees cause which our Law doth still allow under such a Value But it is rather a Dispensation than an Union for the Rights continue distinct In the Court of Rome there were Prerogative Unions ad Vitam which were very scandalous and are owned by the best Canonists to be destructive of all Order and invented to defeat the Canons against Pluralities But the Unions which the Law allows are only those where two distinct Benefices are made one for a competent Subsistence and then if the Union be reasonable the Dispensation within due Distance is so too Balsamon saith In the Greek Church Pluralities are not forbidden if they be near and under the same Bishop but they did not allow the same Man to be under two Bishops In the Capitulars that Clause is added That no Man shall have more Livings than one si Facultas suppetit if it affords a reasonable Subsistence And therefore in case of Incompetency of Maintenance of a good Provision for Curates and of
publick Service the Severity of the Ancient Canons is with Reason abated and a person is supposed to undertake the Cure with those Measures which the Law and Canons allow But every Man who regards the doing his Duty out of Conscience will consider how much lies upon himself and that the original Intention of the Church and Laws was That no Man should undertake more than he was willing and ready to discharge as far as one Man's Abilities could go For in great Cities one great Parish requires more than several Churches in the Countrey and in such Cases an equitable Construction must be put upon such Canons which require personal performance of these Duties OF THE MAINTENANCE OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY BY LAW THE Subject I intend now to consider is the Incouragement which the Parochial Clergy have by Law for the doing their Duties Which are the Manse the Oblations and the Tithes I. The Manse or House and Glebe In the Canons of Egbert it is said Can. 25. That an entire Manse ought to belong to every Church without any other than Ecclesiastical Service By a Manse Mr. Selden saith in the old Charters the same is meant as a Casat or Hyde of Land Bignonius and Sirmondus say So much Glebe as was an Imployment for an Husbandman and two Servants Spelman saith It takes in the House too Lyndwood saith As much Land as would Imploy a Yoke of Oxen and so the Gloss on the Canon Law But in another place the Gloss saith The Manse is the original Endowment of the Church without which it cannot be supplied and without which it could not be consecrated For the Endowment was first to be produced before the Building Collatâ primitùs donatione solemni are the Words of the Canon Law And the same appears by Concil Valent. 3. c. 9. Concil Bracar 2. c. 5. Vit. Udalrici c. 7. Regino l. 1. c. 23 24. which is there explained to be a substantial Sustenance for those who were to attend the Service of that Church And in the Acts of Consecration of a parochial Church in Baluzius the Bishop in the first place declares himself satisfied with the Endowment unde dignè domus Dei sustentaretur And upon this the Original Right of Patronage was founded not upon the Soil which gave no Title where there was not a Church built and endowed with a competent Subsistence So that all Advowsons or Rights of Presentation in private Patrons were at first Appendant to Manors and not in Gross because the Right came from the Endowment out of the Manor And the Name of Patron in the Sense of the Feudal Law is the same with Lord of the Fee and so Beneficium is a Feudal Term and till the Feudal Law prevailed the Name of Patrom is rarely used in this Sense And when it came to be used the Patrons in France would have brought those who had their Benefices to a kind of Feudal Service and to have received Investiture from them This Mr. Selden drives at as though the Patrons had the Right of Investiture belonging to them because some such Practice is often complained of in the French Canons and as often condemned not meerly by Ecclesiastical Canons but by as good Laws as any were then made It cannot be denied that bad Practices are the Occasion of making good Laws but doth it follow that those Practices which were against Law were the Law of that time Yet this is Mr. Selden's way of Arguing he grants That there were Laws made but they were little obeyed Must we therefore conclude those illegal Practices to have been the standing Law and the Laws themselves to be illegal There were two things aimed at by those Patrons 1. To keep the Clergy in a sole Dependance on themselves witout Regard to the Bishop's Authority 2. To make such Bargains with them as they thought fit Both these were thought necessary to be redressed by Laws since the Canons were slighted by them And if the Practice be good against Law in one case why not in the other also Why is not Simony justified as well as the Patron 's absolute Power over the Incumbents but the Laws were severe against both For in the time of Lud. Pius A. D. 816. there was a solemn Assembly of the Estates of the Empire where several Ecclesiastical Laws were passed and among the rest these two 1. That no Presbyters should be put in or put out of Churches without the Authority and Consent of the Bishops and that the Bishops should not refuse those who were presented if they were probabilis Vitae Doctrinae i.e. such as the Bishops could not object against either for Life or Learning 2. That every Church should have an entire Manse belonging to it free from any Feudal Service but if they had other Estates of their own for them they were to answer to the Lords of the Manor as others did And from hence this came into the Collections of Ivo Regino Burchardus and Gratian and passed for a Law generally received As to the former a new Sanction was added to it in another Assembly at Worms A. D. 829. c. 1. and repeated in the Capitulars l. 5. c. 98. Addit 4. c. 95. and the like as to the latter l. 5. c. 100. Capit. A. 829. c. 4. But it seems there were some still continued obstinate in their former Practices and therefore these Laws were reinforced in another Assembly A. D. 869. in the time of Carolus Calvus who mentions the Laws of his Father and Grandfather to the same purpose c. 9. and there takes notice of the Contrivances made use of to defeat the Intention of those Laws and the bottom of all is there said to be abominable Simony Which shews what it was which these Patrons aimed at by claiming Investiture without the Bishop And it was then judged necessary that the Bishop's Consent was required to prevent this Mischief But still some Patrons required Feudal Service for the Glebe they had given to the Church but the Law commands them to restore it free from such Service Capit l. 5. c. 100. Addit l. 4. c. 98 163. And after much struggling Hinomarus who lived at that time saith That these Laws were observed The Patron 's Right by Virtue of the Endowment was not disputed but an Arbitrary Power as to the Incumbents was utterly denied them and they were put under the Bishop's Care who was to receive Complaints against them and to proceed according to the Churches Canons But I am apt to think that all this stir in France did not arise from the pretence of Original Donation and Endowment of Churches but from the Infeodation of Church Lands and Titles by Charles Martel as an old MS. in Filesacus saith and others in France whose Custom it was to give them in Recompence to their Souldiers who then looked on them as their
Case of Hitchcock and Hitchcock there was a Contract between the Vicar and Parishioners but it was denied to be a real Composition although confirmed by the Ordinary and affirmed not to be binding to the Successors A Composition by a meer verbal Agreement in the Case of Hawles and Bayfield was declared to be neither binding to the Party nor his Successors But in the Case of Tanner and Small it was declared to hold for Years but not for Life My Lord Coke seems to be of Opinion That if it be a Prescription it must be time out of Memory of Man but that a real Composition may be either before or within Memory of Man but then it must be by Parson Patron and Ordinary It is well observed by Sir Simon Degge in his useful Book about these matters that although real Compositions are supposed in Law to be the Foundation of Prescriptions de Modo decimandi where the Patron Ordinary and Parson did consent to them yet that the most of them have grown up by the Negligence and Carelesness of the Clergy themselves which I am afraid is too true And he is of Opinion That no real Composition can be made now to bind the Successor since the Statute 13 Eliz. c. 10. which restrains all binding Grants to One and twenty Years or Three Lives and if so then the Consent of Patron and Ordinary cannot make it good 2. It must be reasonable and therefore it hath been rejected in these Cases 1. If it be a Prescription to pay a certain Tithe without the Parson's View of the Nine Parts because saith Hobart it is against the Law of Partition in the Case of Wilson and the Bishop of Carlisle 2. If there be no Recompence to the Parson as in the Case of Scory and Barber the Prescription was founded on the Parishioners finding Straw for the Body of the Church 3. If it be for paying only what was due in lieu of other Tithes as in the Case of Ingoldsby and Iohnson that they paid their other Tithes in lieu of Tithes of dry Cattel or in Case a Load of Hay be prescribed for in lieu of Tithe-Hay or Ten Sheafs of Corn for the Tithe of all the rest 4. If it be not for something certain and durable For this saith Hobart shews an Original Weakness in the Composition being of a thing certain and durable for that which is not so IV. The last Exemption or Discharge that is pleaded as to the payment of Tithes is Unity of Possession That is where a Monastery had the Right of Tithes by Appropriation and had other Lands which did not pay Tithes because the owners were to receive them these were actually free at the time of Dissolution and the Question is Whether they are legally so by Virtue of the Statute It cannot be denied that Unity of Possession is in it self no legal Discharge but whether by the Words of the Statute the Judges were divided in Opinion But afterwards in the Case of Green and Bosekin the Judges allowed it so it were not a meer Unity of Estate but of Occupation Hobart saith That after it had been long controverted it was received as the common Opinion Coke That where Unity of Possession gives a Discharge the Title must be clear the Non-payment general and the Prescription time out of Memory but if the Appropriation were made in the time of Ed. 4. H. 6. it could not be discharged by Unity nor if it were a late Abby-prescription Thus I have endeavoured to lay this matter before you as briefly and clearly as I could from the best Light I could get that I might give you such Directions that you may neither run into needless and vexatious Suits nor be run down by frivolous Pretences It is your great Advantage that you have the Law of your side if you understand it a right but have a care of being set on by such whose Interest it is to promote Suits and I am sure it is yours to prevent them if it be possible and as much as lies in you The Church's Right is not to suffer by your Negligence and you are not to make the Church to suffer by your Contentions He that loves going to Law seldom fails of having enough of it he suffers in his Purse in his Reputation in his Interest and the Church suffers by his Means Endeavour to gain as much as may be the Love of your People by a kind modest courteous and peaceable Behaviour which is the best way to prevent or to compose Differences If you are forced to sue for your Maintenance let them see that you are forced to it and that you are always willing to put an end to all such Disputes if the Church's Right be secured which you are bound to preserve OF THE OBLIGATION To observe the Ecclesiastical CANONS AND CONSTITUTIONS AT A VISITATION October 29 th 1696. IN speaking clearly and distinctly to this Case there are these two Things to be considered I. By what Authority they do oblige II. In what Way and Manner they oblige I. The first thing to be considered is the Authority by which Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions do oblige For if there be not sufficient Authority there cannot be that Obligation on Conscience which supposes a legal Exercise of Power or a just Right to command Our Obedience to the Orders of our Superiours is due by Virtue of that Divine Law which requires us to be subject for Conscience-sake But our Obedience is to be regulated by the Order of Iustice i.e. it ought to be according to Law Therefore it is necessary in the first place to enquire Whether there be among us any such things as Ecclesiastical Laws i.e. such Rules which according to the Constitution of our Government we are bound to observe For we are Members of a Church established by Law and there are legal Duties incumbent on us with respect not only to the Laws of God but of the Realm For although our Office and Authority as Church-men hath a higher Original yet the Limitation of the Exercise of it is within such Bounds as are allowed and fixed by the Law of the Land It is therefore a matter of great Consequence to us to understand how far our Ecclesiastical Constitutions are grounded upon the Law of the Land which cannot be done without searching into the Foundations of our Laws Which lie in three Things 1. Immemorial Custom 2. General Practice and Allowance 3. Authority of Parliament And I shall endeavour to shew how far our Ecclesiastical Constitutions are founded on these 1. Immemorial Custom Our greatest Lawyers allow Ancient Custom to be one of the Foundations of our Laws and my Lord Coke calls it one of the main Triangles of the Laws of England I suppose he means Foundations And another saith That the Common Law of England is
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