Diocesses at fit times Correcting and Reforming what was amiss and sowing the Word of Life in the Lord's 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 stir 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. it is strictly enjoined that all Rectors and Vicars should instruct the People committed to their Charge and Feed them Pabulo Verbi Dei with the Food of Gods 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 Jud. 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. I the Offices 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 Friers had got that Work into their hands by particular Privileges 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 hath distinct Provincial Constitutions in the Time of Edw. 4. And here was all they were bound to by these Constitutions But when Wicliff and his Followers had awakened the People so far that there was no satisfying them without Preaching then a new Provinciat 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 Authorised to Preach as 1. The Mendicant Friars were said to be authorised Jure Communi or rather Privilegio Speciali but therefore Lyndwood saith it is said to be Jure 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 Licence 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 Jo. 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 authorised to Preach in their own Parishes Jure Scripto All Persons who had Cures of Souls and legal Titles were said to be missi à jure ad locum Populum Curae suae and therefore might preach to their own People without a special Licence 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 Licence 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 that 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 Plow 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
Faction and Schism and impatience of Contradiction from mere Equals therefore S. Jerom himself grants That to avoid these mischiefs there was a necessity of a Superior Order to Presbyters in the Church of God ad quem omnis Ecclesiae Cura pertineret Schismatum seminatollerentur as he speaks even where he seems most to lessen the Authority of Bishops But whatever some expressions of his may be when the Bishop of Jerusalem and the Roman Deacons came into his head his Reasons are very much for the Advantage of Episcopal Government For can any Man say more in point of Reason for it than that nothing but Faction and Disorder followed the Government of Presbyters and therefore the whole Christian Church agreed in the necessity of a higher Order and that the Peace and Safety of the Church depends upon it that if it be taken away nothing but Schisms and Confusions will follow I wish those who magnifie S. Jerom's Authority in this matter would submit to his Reason and Authority both as to the Necessity and Usefulness of the Order of Bishops in the Church But beyond this in several Places he makes the Bishops to be Successors of the Apostles as well as the rest of the most Eminent Fathers of the Church have done If the Apostolical Office as far as it concerns the Care and Government of Churches were not to continue after their Decease how came the best the most learned the nearest to the Apostolical Times to be so wonderfully deceived For if the Bishops did not succeed by the Apostles own Appointment they must be Intruders and Usurpers of the Apostolical Function and can we imagine the Church of God would have so uniuersally consented to it Besides the Apostles did not die all at once but there were Successors in several of the Apostolical Churches while some of the Apostles were living can we again imagine those would not have vindicated the Right of their own Order and declared to the Church That this Office was peculiar to themselves The Change of the Name from Apostles to Bishops would not have been sufficient Excuse for them for the Presumption had been as great in the Exercise of the Power without the Name So that I can see no Medium but that either the Primitive Bishops did succeed the Apostles by their own Appointment and Approbation which Irenaeus expresly affirms Qui ab Apostolis ipsis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis or else those who governed the Apostolical Churches after them outwent Diotrephes himself for he only rejected those whom the Apostle sent but these assumed to themselves the Exercise of an Apostolical Authority over the Churches planted and settled by them But to let us see how far the Apostles were from thinking that this part of their Office was peculiar to themselves we find them in their own time as they saw occasion to appoin r others to take care of the Government of the Churches within such bounds as they thought fit Thus Timothy was appointed by St. Paul at Ephesus to examine the Qualifications of such as were to be Ordained and not to lay hands suddenly on any to receive Accusations if there were Cause even against Elders to proceed judicially before two or three Witnesses and if there were Reason to give them a publick Rebuke And that this ought not to be thought a slight matter he presently adds I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou observe these things without prefetring one before another doing nothing by partiality Here is a very strict and severe Charge for the Impartial Exercise of Discipline in the Church upon Offenders And although in the Epistle to Titus he be only in general required to set in order the things that are wanting and to ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him yet we are not to suppose that this Power extended not to a Jurisdiction over them when he had ordained them For if any of those whom he Ordained as believing them qualified according to the Apostles Rules should afterwards demeam themselves otherwise and be self willed froward given to Wine Brawlens Covetous or any way 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 Jurisdiction 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 Diocess 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 Joy and not with Grief And we are not merely 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 madeof yourResolution to do yourDuty 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 merely by a Legatine Power but by Consent of the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces wherein it is declared that Bishops ought to visit their
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 Emies 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 outdoing 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 despightfully 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 Tryal 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 persuade 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 refractory 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 grow more headstrong and insolent by the Indulgence which the Law gives them then observe whether they observe those Conditions on which the Law gives it to them For these are known Rules in Law that he forfeits his Privilege who goes beyond the Bounds of it that no Privileges are to be extended beyond the Bounds which the Laws give them for they ought to be observed as they are given I leave it to be considered whether all such who do not observe the Conditions of the Indulgence be not as liable to the Law as if they had none But there is a very profane abuse of this Liberty among some as though it were an Indulgence not to serve God at all Such as these as they were never intended by the Law so they ought to enjoy no Benefit by it For this were to Countenance Profaneness and Irreligion which I am afraid will grow too much upon us unless some effectual Care be taken to suppress it VII There is another Duty incumbent upon you which I must particularly recommend to your Care and that is of Visiting the Sick I do not mean barely to perform the Office prescribed which is of very good use and ought not to be neglected but a particular Application of your selves to the State and Condition of the Persons you visit It is no hard matter to run over some Prayers and so take leave but this doth not come up to the Design of our Church in that Office For after the general Exhortation and Profession of the Christian Faith our Church requires that the sick Person be moved to make special Confession of his Sins if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter and then if the sick Person humbly and heartily desires it he is to be absolved after this manner Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left Power in his Church to absolve all Sinners who truly repent and believe in him c. Where the Power of Absolution is grounded upon the Supposition of true Faith and Repentance and therefore when it is said afterwards And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from the same c. it must proceed on the same supposition For the Church cannot absolve when God doth not So that all the real Comfort of the Absolution depends upon the Satisfaction of the Person 's Mind as to the Sincerity of his Repentance and Faith in Christ. Now here lies the great Difficulty of this Office how to give your selves and the wounded Conscience Satisfaction as to the Sincerity of those Acts I do not mean as to the Sincerity of his present Thoughts but as to the Acceptableness of his Faith and Repentance with God in order to Remission of Sins But what if you
part of common Justice and Honesty so to do And the Lord Coke positively affirms that Dilapidation is a good Cause of Deprivation And it was so Resolved by the Judges in the King's Bench 12. Jac. Not by Virtue of any new Law or Statute but by the old Ecclesiastical Law For which Coke refers to the Year-Books which not only shew what the Ecclesiastical Law then was but that it was allowed by the Common Law of England and we are told that is never given to change but it may be forced to it by a New Law which cannot be pretended in this Case And by the old Constitutions here received the Bishops are required to put the Clergy in mind of keeping their Houses in sufficient Reparations and if they do it not within two months the Bishop is to take care it be done out of the Profits of the Benefice By the Injunctions of Ed. VI. and Queen Elizabeth all Persons having Ecclesiastical Benefices are required to set apart the Fifth of their Revenue to Repair their Houses and afterwards to maintain them in good condition V. Pluralities By the Ecclesiastical Law which was here received the actual receiving Institution into a second Benefice made the first void ipso jure and if he sought to keep both above a Month the second was void too Lyndwood observes that the Ecclesiastical Law had varied in this matter And it proceeded by these steps which are more than Lyndw. mentions I. It was absolutely forbidden to have two Parishes if there were more than ten Inhabitants in them because no Man could do his Duty in both Places And if any Bishop neglected the Execution of it he was to be excommunicated for two Months and to be restored only upon Promise to see this Canon executed II. The Rule was allowed to hold as to Cities but an Exception was made as to small and remote Places where there was a greater Scarcity of Persons to supply them III. If a Man had two Benefices it was left to his Choice which he would have but he could not hold both This kind of Option was allowed by the Ecclesiastical Law then in force IV. That if he takes a second Benefice that Institution is void by the third Council of Lateran under Alexander III. V. That by taking a second the first is void which is the famous Canon of the fourth Lateran Council VI. That if he were not contented with the last but endeavour to keep both he should be deprived of both And this was the Ecclesiastical Law as it was declared in our Provincial Constitutions But the general Practice was to avoid the former according to the Lateran Council These were very severe Canons but that one Clause of the Pope's dispensing Power made them to signifie little unless it were to advance his Power and Revenue For when the Dispensing Power came to be owned the Law had very little force especially as to the Consciences of Men. For if it were a Law of God how could any man dispense with it unless it were as apparent that he had given a Power in some Cases to Dispense as that he had made the Law Those Casuists are very hard put to it who make Residence Jure Divino and yet say the Pope may dispense with it which at last comes only to this that the Pope can authoritatively declare the sufficiency of the Cause so that the whole matter depends upon the Cause whether there can be any sufficient to excuse from Personal Residence It is agreed on all hands that the habitual Neglect of a Charge we have taken upon our selves is an evil thing and that it is so to heap up Preferments merely for Riches or Luxury or Ambition but the main Question in point of Conscience is what is a sufficient Cause to justifie any Man's breaking so reasonable and just a Rule as that of Residence is It cannot be denied that the eldest Canons of the Church were so strict and severe that they made it unlawful for any man to go from that Church in which he first received Orders as well as to take another Benefice in it and so for any Bishop to be translated from that Place he was first Consecrated to as well as to hold another with it But the Good of the Church being the main Foundation of all the Rules of it when that might be better promoted by a Translation it was by a tacit Consent looked on as no unjust violation of its Rules The Question then is whether the Churches Benefit may not in some Cases make the Canons against Non-Residence as Dispensable as those against Translations And the Resolution of it doth not depend upon the voiding the particular Obligation of the Incumbent to his Cure but upon some more general Reason with respect to the State of the Church As being imployed in the Service of it which requires a Persons having not a bare Competency for Subsistence but a sufficiency to provide Necessaries for such Service For those seem to have very little Regard to the flourishing Condition of a Church who would confine the Sufficiency of a Subsistence merely to the Necessaries of Life But it seems to be Reasonable that Clergy-Men should have Incouragement sufficient not only to keep them above Contempt but in some respect agreeable to the more ample Provision of other Orders of Men. And by God's own Appointment the Tribe of Levi did not fall short of any of the rest if it did not very much exceed the Proportion of others We do not pretend to the Privileges they had only we observe from thence that God himself did appoint a plentiful Subsistence for those who attended upon his Service And I do not know what there is Levitical or Ceremonial in that I am sure the Duties of the Clergy now require a greater Freedom of Mind from the anxious Cases of the World than the Imployments of the Priests and Levites under the Law But we need not go so far back if the Church injoyed all her Revenues as entirely as when the severe Canons against Pluralities were made there would not be such a Plea for them as there is too much Cause for in some Places from the want of a competent Subsistence But since that time the Abundance of Appropriations since turned into Lay-Fees hath extremely lessened the Churches Revenues and have left us a great number of poor Vicarages and Arbitrary Cures which would hardly have afforded a Maintenance for the Nethinims under the Law who were only to be Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water But this doth not yet clear the Difficulty for the Question is whether the Subsistence of the Clergy can lawfully be improved by a Plurality of Livings Truly I think this if it be allowed in some Cases lawful to be the least desireable way of any but in some Circumstances it is much more excusable than in others As when the Benefices