but also by the Vows and Promises that she demands of such as are Ordained When all this is laid together and when there stands nothing on the other side to balance it but a Law made in a very bad time that took away some abuses but left pretences to cover others Can any man that weighs these things together in the sight of God and that believes he must answer to him for this at the great Day think that the one how strong soever it may be in his favour at an earthly Tribunal will be of any force in that last and dreadful Iudgment This I leave upon all Mens Consciences hoping that they will so judge themselves that they shall not be judged of the Lord. CHAP. VII Of the due preparation of such as may and ought to be put in Orders THE greatest good that one can hope to do in this World is upon young Persons who have not yet taken their ply and are not spoiled with Prejudices and wrong Notions Those who have taken an ill one at first will neither be at the pains to look over their Notions nor turn to new Methods nor will they by any change of Practice seem to confess that they were once in the wrong so that if Matters that are amiss can be mended or set right it must be by giving those that have not yet set out and that are not yet engaged truer views and juster Idea's of things I will therefore here lay down the model upon which a Clerk is to be formed and will begin with such things as ought to be previous and preparatory to his being initiated into Orders These are of two sorts the one is of such preparations as are necessary to give his Heart and Soul a right temper and a true sense of things The other is of such studies as are necessary to enable him to go through with the several parts of his Duty Both are necessary but the first is the more indispensible of the two for a Man of a good Soul may with a moderate proportion of knowledge do great Service in the Church especially if he is suited with an imployment that is not above his Talent Whereas unsanctified knowledge puffs up is insolent and unquiet it gives great scandal and occasions much distraction in the Church In treating of these qualifications I will watch over my thoughts not to let them rise to a pitch that is above what the common frailties of humane Nature or the Age we live in can bear and after all if in any thing I may seem to exceed â—hese measures it is to be considered that it is natural in proposing the Ideas of things to carry them to what is wished for which is but too often beyond what can be expected considering both the corruption of mankind and of these degenerated times First of all then he that intends to dedicate himself to the Church ought from the time that he takes up any such Resolution to enter upon a greater Decency of Behaviour that his Mind may not be vitiated by ill Habits which may both give such bad Characters of him as maystick long on him afterwards and make such ill Impressions on himself as may not be easily worn out or defaced He ought above all things to possess himself with a high Sense of the Christian Religion of its Truth and Excellence of the Value of Souls of the Dignity of the Pastoral Care of the Honour of God of the Sacredness of Holy Functions and of the Great Trust that is committed to those who are set apart from the World and dedicated to God and to his Church He who looks this way must break himself to the Appetites of Pleasure or Wealth of Ambition or Authority he must consider that the Religion in which he intends to Officiate calls all Men to great Purity and Vertue to a Probity and Innocence of Manners to a Meekness and Gentleness to a Humility and Self-denial to a Contempt of the World and a Heavenly Mindedness to a Patient Resignation to the Will of God and a readiness to bear the Cross in the hopes of that everlasting Reward which is reserved for Christians in another State All which was eminently recommended by the unblemish'd Pattern that the Author of this Religion has set to all that pretend to be his Followers These being the Obligations which a Preacher of the Gospel is to lay daily upon all his Hearers he ought certainly to accustom himself often to consider seriously of them and to think how Shameless and Impudent a thing it will be in him to perform Offices suitable to all these and that do suppose them to be Instructing the People and Exhorting them to the Practice of them unless he is in some sort all this himself which he teaches others to be Indeed to be tied to such an Employment while one has not an inward Conformity to it and Complacence in it is both the most unbecoming the most unpleasant and the most uncomfortable State of Life imaginable Such a Person will be exposed to all Mens Censures and Reproaches who when they see things amiss in his Conduct do not only Reproach him but the whole Church and Body to which he belongs and which is more the Religion which he seems to recommend by his Discourses though his Life and Actions which will always pass for the most real Declaration of his inward Sentiments are a visible and continual opposition to it On all these things he whose Thoughts carry him towards the Church ought to reflect frequently Nothing is so odious as a Man that disagrees with his Character a Soldier that is a Coward a Courtier that is Brutal an Ambassadour that is Abject are not such unseemly things as a bad or vicious a drunken or dissolute Clergy-man But though his Scandals should not rise up to so high a pitch even a Proud and Passionate a Worldly Minded and Covetous Priest gives the Lye to his Discourses so palpably that he cannot expect they should have much weight Nor is such a Man's State of Life less unpleasant to himself than it is unbecoming He is obliged to be often performing Offices and pronouncing Discourses in which if he is not a Good Man he not only has no Pleasure but must have a formed Aversion to them They must be the heaviest Burden of his Life he must often feel secret Challenges within and though he as often silences these yet such unwelcome Reflections are uncomfortable things He is forced to manage himself wiâ—h a perpetual constraint and to observe a decorum in his Deportment lest he fall under a more publick Censure Now to be bound to act a Part and live with restraint ones whole Life must be a very Melancholy thing He cannot go so quite out of sight of Religion and Convictions as other bad Men do who live in a perpetual hurry and a total forgetfulness of Divine Matters They have no Checks because they are as seldom
without any success may depend upon this that they shall save their own souls and shall have a distinguished fate if we should happen to fall under a common Calamity they having on them not only the mark of Mourners and Intercessors but of faithful Shepherds Whereas if an overflowing Scourge should break in upon us we have all possible reason both from the Judgments of God and the present scituation of Affairs to believe that it will begin at the Sanctuary at those who have profaned the holy things and have made the daily Sacrifice to be loathed There is another and perhaps yet a more dismal Character of the present state of the Age that calls on the Clergy to consider well both their own deportment and the Obligations that lie upon them which is the growing Atheism and Impiety that is daily gaining ground not only among us but indeed all Europe over There is a Circulation observed in the general Corruptions of Nations sometimes Ignorance and Brutality overruns the World that makes way for Superstition and Idolatry When Mankind is disgusted with these then fantastical and Enthusiastical Principles and under these hypocritical Practises have their course these being seen through give greaâ— occasions to profaness and with that Atheism and a diâ—belief of all Religion at least of all Revealed Religion is nourished and that is very easily received by depraved Minds but very hardly rooted out of them For though it is very easie to beat an Enquirer into things out of all speculative Atheism yet when a disbelief of Sacred Matters and a profane Contempt of them has once vitiated ones mind it is a very extraordinary thing and next to miraculous to see such an one reduced Now this I am forced to declare That having had much free Conversation with many that have been fatally corrupted that way they have very often owned to me that nothing promoted this so much in them as the very bad Opinion which they took up of all Clergy-men of all sides They did not see in them that strictness of life that contempt of the World that Zeal that Meekness Humility and Charity that Diligence and Earnestness with relation to the great Ttuths of the Christian Religion which they reckoned they would most certainly have if they themselves firmly believed it Therefore they concluded that those whose business it was more strictly to enquire into the truth of their Religion knew that it was not so certain as they themselves for other ends endeavoured to make the World believe it was And that tho for carrying on of their own Authority or Fortunes which in one word they call their Trade they seemed to be very positive in affirming the Truth of their Doctrines yet they in their own hearts did not believe it since they lived so little suitable to it and were so much set on raising themselves by it and so little on advancing the Honour of their Profession by an exemplary Piety and a Shining Conversation This is a thing not to be answered by being angry at them for saying it or by reproaching such as repeat it as if they were Enemies to the Church these Words of Heat and Faction signifying nothing to work upon or convince any For how little strength soever there may be in this as it is made an Argument it is certainly so strong a prejudice that nothing but a real Refutation of it by the eminent Vertues and Labours of many of the Clergy will ever conquer it To this as a Branch or Part of it another consideration from the present State of things is to be added to call upon the Clergy to set about the Duties of their Calling and that is the contempt they are generally fallen under the Injustice they daily meet with in being denied their Rights and that by some out of Principle and by others out of downright and undisguised Sacriledge I know a great deal of this is too justly and too truly to be cast on the Poverty of the Clergy But what can we say when we find often the poorest Clarks in the Richest Livings whose Incumbents not content to devour the Patrimony of the Church while they feed themselves and not the Flock out of it are so scandalously hard in their Allowance to their Curates as if they intended equally to starve both Curate and People And is it to be supposed that the People will think themselves under a very strict obligation of Conscience to pay religiously all that is due to one who seems to think himself under no obligation to labour for it And since it is a Maxim founded upon Natural Equity That the Benefice is given for the Office men will not have great Scruples in denying the Benefice where the Office is neglected or ill performed And as for the too common Contempt that is brought on the Clergy how guilty soever those may be who out of hatred to their Profession despise them for their works sake yet we who feel our selves under these Disadvantages ought to reflect on those Words of the Prophet and see how far they are applicable to us The Priests lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the People according as ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in my Law If we studied to honour God and so to do honour to our Profession we might justly hope that he would raise it again to that credit which is due to it and that he would make even our Enemies to be at peace with us or at least afraid to hurt or offend us And in this we have good reason to rest assured since we do not find many Instances of Clergy-men who live and labour who preach and visit as they ought to do that are under any Eminent Degrees of Contempt If some do despise those that are faithâ—ul to their Trust yet they must do â—t secretly they dare not shew â—t as long as their Deportment procures them the Esteem which we must confess does generally follow true Worth and hearty Labours in the Ministry These are things of such consequence that it may seem a Consideration too full of ill Nature of Emulation and of Jealousie if I should urge upon the Clergy the Divisions and Separation that is formed among us though there is a terrible Word in the Prophet that belongs but too evidently to this likewise The Pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered If we led such Exemplary Lives as became our Character if we applied our selves wholly to the Duties of our Profession if we studied to out-live and outlabour those that divide from us we might hope by the Blessing of God so far
to overcome their Prejudices and to gain both upon their Esteem and Affections that a very small matter might go a great way towards the healing of those Wounds which have so long weakned and distracted us Speculative Arguments do not reach the Understandings of the greâ—ter part who are only capable of sensible ones and the strongest Reasonings will not prevail till we first force them to think the better of our Church for what they see in our selves and make them wish to be of a Communion in which they see so much â—â—uth and unaffected Goodness and Worth When they are once brought so far it will be easy to compâ—ss all the rest If we did geâ—eâ—ally mind our Duties and discharge them faiâ—hfully this would prepare such as mean well in their Separation from us to consider better of the Grounds on which they maintain it And that will best enforce the Arguments that we have to lay before them And as for such as divide from us with bad Designs and an unrelenting Spite they will have a small party and a feeble support if there were no more occasion given to work on the Affections of the People by our Errours and Disorders If then either the sense of the Wrath of God or the desire of his Favour and Protection if Zeal for our Church and Countrey if a sense of the progress of Atheism and â—rreligion if the contempt that falls on us and the Injustices that are daily done us if a desire to heal and unite to purifie and perfect this our Church If either the Concerns of this World or of the nexâ— can work upon us and affect us all these things concur to call on us to apply our utmost Care and Industry to raise the Honour of our Holy Profession to walk worthy of it to perform the Engagements that we came under at the Altar when we were dedicated to the Service of God and the Church and in all things both to adorn our Religion and our Church It is not our boasting that the Church of England is the best reformed and the best constituted Church in the world that will signifie much to convince others We are too much Parties to be believed in our own Cause There was a Generation of men that cried The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as loud as we can cry The Church of England the Church of England When yet by their sins they were pulling it down and kindling that Fire which consumed it â—t will have a better grace to see others boast of our Church from what they observe in us than for us to be câ—ying it up with our words when our deeds do decry it Our Enemies will make severe Inferences from them and our Pretensions will be thought vain and impudent things as long as our Lives contradict them It was on design to raise in myself and in others a deep sense of the obligations that we lie under of the Duties of our Functions of the extent of them and of the Rewards that follow them and to observe the proper Methods of performing them so as they may be of the greatest advantage both to our selves and others that I have entred on these Meditations They have been for many years the chief Subjects of my Thoughts If few have writ on them among us yet we have St. Gregory Nazianzen 's Apologetick Saint Chrysostom's Books of the Priesthood Gregory the Great 's Pastoral and Bernard's Book of Consideration among the Ancients and a very great number of Excellent Treatises writ lately in France upon them I began my Studies in Divinity with reading these and I never yet grew weary of them they raise so many Noble Designs they offer such Schemes and carry so much of unction and life in them that I hope an imperfect Essâ—y this way may have some effecâ— For the Searcher of hearts knows I have no Design in it save this of stirring up in my self and others the gift which was giâ—en by the Imposition of hands OF THE Pastoral Care CHAP. I. Of the Dignity of Sacred Imployments and the Names and Designations given to them in Scripture HOW low soever the Esteem of the Clergy may be sunk in a profane and corrupt Age and how much soever the Errors and Disorders of Clergy-men may have contributed to bring this not only upon themselves but upon others who deserve better but are unhappy in being mixed with so much ill Company yet certainly if we either consider the nature of things in themselves or the value that is set on that Profession in the Scriptures it will appear that it ought to be considered at another rate than it is As much as the Soul is better than the Body and as much as the purifying and perfecting the Soul is preferable to all those Mechanical Imployments which relate to the Body and as much as Eternity is more valuable than this short and transitory Life so much does this Imployment excel all others A Clergy-man by his Character and design of life ought to be a man separated from the Cares and Concerns of this World and dedicated to the study and meditation of Divine matters Whose Conversation ought to be a Pattern for others a constant Preaching to his People who ought to offer up the Prayers of the People in their name and as their mouth to God who ought to be praying and interceding for them in secret as well as officiating among them in publick who ought to be distributing among them the Bread of life the Word of God and to be dispensing among them the sacred Rites which are the Badges the Union and the Supports of Christians He ought to admonish to reprove and to comfort them not only by his general Doctrine in his Sermons but from House to House that so he may do these things more home and effectually than can be done from the Pulpit He is to watch over their Souls to keep them from error and to alarm them out of their sins by giving them warning of the Judgments of God to visit the sick and to prepare them for the Judgment and life to come This is the Function of a Clergy-man who that he may perform all these Duties with more advantage and better effect ought to behave himself so well that his own Conversation may not only be without offence but be so exemplary that his People may have reason to conclude that he himself does firmly believe all those things which he proposes to them that he thinks himself bound to follow all those Rules that he sets them and that they may see such a serious spirit of Devotion in him that from thence they may be induced to believe that his chief design among them is to do them good and to save their Souls which may prepare them so to esteem and love him that they may not be prejudiced against any thing that he does and says in publick by any thing that they observe
the Divine Vocation The Grace of God that perfects the feeble and heals the weak promotes this man to be a Deacon a Priest or a Bishop Where nothing is expressed as conferred but only as declared so our Church by making our Saviour's words the form of Ordination must be construed to intend by that that it is Christ only that sends and that the Bishops are only his Ministers to pronounce his Mission otherwise it is not so easie to justifie the use of this Form Receive the Holy Ghost which as it was not used in the Primitive Church nor by the Roman till within these five Hundred Years so in that Church it is not the Form of Ordination but a Benediction given by the Bishop singly after the Orders are given by the Bishop and the other Priests joyning with him For this is done by him alone as the final consummation of the Action But our using this as the form of Ordination shews that we consider our selves only as the Instruments that speak in Christ's Name and Words Insinuating thereby that he only Ordains Pursuant to this in the Ordaining of Priests the questions are put in the name of God and of his Church Which makes the answers to them to be of the nature of Vows and Oaths So that if men do make conscience of any thing and if it is possible to strike terrour into them the Forms of our Ordinations are the most effectually contrived for that end that could have been framed The first question that is put in the Office of Deacons is Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office to serve God for the promoting of his Glory and the edifying of his people To which he is to answer I trust so This is put only in this Office and not repeated afterwards it being justly supposed that where one has had this motion all the other Orders may be in time conferred pursuant to it but this is the first step by which a Man dedicates himself to the Service of God and therefore it ought not to be made by any that has not this Divine Vocation Certainly the Answer that is made to this ought to be well considered for if any says I trust so that yet knows nothing of any such motion and can give no account of it he lies to the Holy Ghost and makes his first approach to the Altar with a lie in his Mouth and that not to Men but to God and how can one expect to be received by God or be sent and sealed by him that dares do a thing of so crying a Nature as to pretend that he trusts he has this motion who knows that he has it not who has made no Reflections on it and when asked what he means by it can say nothing concerning it and yet he dares venture to come and say it to God and his Church If a Man pretends a Commission from a Prince or indeed from any Person and acts in his Name upon it the Law will fall on him and punish him and shall the Great God of Heaven and Earth be thus vouched and his motion he pretended to by those whom he has neither called nor sent and shall not he reckon with those who dare to run without his Mission pretending that they trust they have it when perhaps they understand not the Importance of it nay and perhaps some laugh at it as an Enthusiastical Question who yet will go through with the Office They come to Christ for the Loaves They hope to live by the Altar and the Gospel how little soever they serve at the one or Preach the other therefore they will say any thing that is necessary for qualifying them to this whether true or false It cannot be denied but that this Question carries a sound in it that seems a little too high and that may rather raise Scruples as importing somewhat that is not ordinary and that seems to savour of Enthusiasme and therefore it was put here without doubt to give great caution to such as come to the Service of the Church many may be able to answer it truly according to the Sense of the Church who may yet have great doubting in themselves concerning it but every Man that has it not must needs know that he has it not The true meaning of it must be resolved thus the Motives that ought to determine a Man to dedicate himself to the Ministring in the Church are a Zeal for promoting the Glory of God for raising the Honour of the Christian Religion for the making it to be better understood and more submitted to He that loves it and feels the excellency of it in himself that has a due Sense of God's goodness in it to Mankind and that is entirely possessed with that will feel a Zeal within himself for communicating that to others that so the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he has sent may be more universally glorified and served by his Creatures And when to this he has added a concern of the Souls for Men a Tenderness for them a Zeal to rescue them from endless Misery and a desire to put them in the way to everlasting Happiness and from these Motives feels in himself a desire to dedicate his Life and Labours to those ends and in order to them studies to understand the Scriptures and more particularly the New Testament that from thence he may form a true Notion of this Holy Religion and so be an able Minister of it this Man and only this Man so moved and so qualified can in Truth and with a good Conscience answer that he trusts he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost And every one that ventures on the saying it without this is a Sacrilegious profaner of the Name of God and of his Holy Spirit He breaks in upon his Church not to feed it but to rob it And it is certain that he who begins with a Lie may be sent by the Father of Lies but he cannot be thought to enter in by the Door who prevaricates in the first word that he says in order to his Admittance But if the Office of Deacons offers no other particular matter of Reflection the Office of Ordaining Priests has a great deal indeed the whole of it is calculated to the best Notions of the best Times In the Charge that is given the Figures of Watchmen Shepherds and Stewards are pursued and the places of Scripture relating to these are applied to them They are required to have always printed in their Remembrance How great a Treasure was committed to their Charge The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse and Body Then the greatness of the fault of their Negligence and the horrible Punishment that will follow upon it is set before them in case the Church or any Member of it take any hurt or hinderance by reason of it They are charged never to cease their
have once had a clear Notion of all those Terms that must run through them for those not being understood renders them all unintelligible A Discâ—urse of this sort would be generally of much greater Edification than an Afternoons Sermon it should not be too long too much must not be said at a time nor more than one Point opened a Quarter of an Hour is time sufficient for it will grow tedious and be too little remembred if it is half an hour long This would draw an Assembly to Evening Prayers which we see are but too much neglected when there is no sort of Discourse or Sermon accompanying them And the practising this during the Six Months of the year in which the days are long would be a very effectual means both to Instruct the People and to bring them to a more Religious Observation of the Lord's Day which is one of the powerfullest Instruments for the carrying on and advancing of Religion in the World With Catechising a Minister is to joyn the preparing those whom he Instructs to be Confirmed which is not to be done merely upon their being able to say over so many words by Rote It is their renewing their Baptismal Vow in their own Persons which the Church designs by that Office and the bearing in their own Minds a Sense of their being bound immediately by that which their Sureties then undertook for them Now to do this in such a manner as that it may make Impression and have a due effect upon them they must stay till they themselves understand what they do and till they have some Sense and Affection to it and therefore till one is of an Age and Disposition fit to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and desires to be Confirmed as a solemn Preparation and Qualification to it he is not yet ready for it for in the common Management of that Holy Rite it is but too visible that of those Multitudes that crowd to it the far greater Part come merely as if they were to receive the Bishop's Blessing without any Sense of the Vow made by them and of their renewing their Baptismal Engagements in it As for the greatest and solemnest of all the Institutions of Christ the Commemorating his Death and the Partaking of it in the Lord's Supper this must be well explained to the People to preserve them from the extreams of Superstition and Irreverence to raise in them a great Sense of the Goodness of God that appeared in the Death of Christ of his Love to us of the Sacrifice he once offered and of the Intercession which he still continues to make for us A share in all which is there Federally offered to us upon our coming under Engagements to answer our Part of the Covenant and to live according to the Rules it sets us On these things he ought to enlarge himself not only in his Sermons but in his Catechetical Exercises and in private Discourses that so he may give his People right Notions of that Solemn Part of Worship that he may bring them to delight in it and may neither fright them from it by raising their Apprehensions of it to a strictness that may terrifie too much nor encourage them in the too common Practice of the dead and formal receiving at the great Festivals as a piece of Decency recommended by Custom About the time of the Sacrament every Minister that knows any one of his Parish guilty of eminent Sins ought to go and Admonish him to change his Course of Life or not to profane the Table of the Lord and if private Admonitions have no Effect then if his Sins are Publick and Scandalous he ought to deny him the Sacrament and upon that he ought to take the Method which is still left in the Church to make Sinners ashamed to separate them from Holy things till they have edified the Church as much by their Repentance and the outward Profession of it as they had formerly scandalized it by their Disorders This we must confess that though we have great Reason to lament our want of the Godly Discipline that was in the Primitive Church yet we have still Authority for a great deal more than we put in Practice Scandalous Persons ought and might be more frequently presented than they are and both Private and Publick Admonitions might be more used than they are There is a flatness in all these things among us Some are willing to do nothing because they cannot do all that they ought to do whereas the right way for procuring an enlargement of our Authority is to use that we have well not as an Engine to gratifie our own or other Peoples Passions not to vex People nor to look after Fees more than the Correction of Manners or the Edification of the People If we began much with private Applications and brought none into our Courts till it was visible that all other ways had been unsuccessful and that no regard was had either to Persons or Parties to Men's Opinions or Interests we might again bring our Courts into the esteem which they ought to have but which they have almost entirely lost We can never hope to bring the World to bear the Yoke of Christ and the Order that he has appointed to be kept up in his Church of noting those that walk disorderly of separating our selves from them of having no fellowship no not so much as to eat with them as long as we give them cause to apprehend that we intend by this to bring them under our Yoke to subdue them to us and to rule them with a Rod of Iron For the truth is Mankind is so strongly compounded that it is very hard to restrain Ecclesiastical Tyranny on the one hand without running to a Lawless Licentiousness on the other so strongly does the World love Extreams and avoid a Temper Now I have gone through the Publick Functions oâ— a Priest and in speaking of the last of these I have broke in upon the Third Head of his Duty his private Labours in his Parish He understands little the Nature and the Obligations of the Priestly Office who thinks he has discharged it by performing the Publick Appointments in which if he is defective the Laws of the Church how feeble soever they may be as to other things will have their Course but as the private Duties of the Pastoral Care are things upon which the Cognisance of the Law cannot fall so they are the most important and necessary of all others and the more Praise Worthy the freer they are and the less forc'd by the Compulsion of Law As to the Publick Functions every Man has his Rule and in these all are almost alike every Man especially if his Lungs are good can read Prayers even in the largest Congregation and if he has a right Taste and can but choose good Sermons out of the many that are in Print he may likewise serve them well that way too But
in himself in secret He must also be imploying himself so well in his private Studies that from thence he may be furnished with such a variety of lively thoughts divine meditations and proper and noble expressions as may enable him to discharge every part of his duty in such a manner as may raise not so much his own reputation as the credit of his Function and of the great Message of Reconciliation that is committed to his charge Above all Studies he ought to apply himself to understand the Holy Scriptures aright to have his memory well furnished that way that so upon all occasions he may be able to enforce what he says out of them and so be an able Minister of the New Testament This is in short the Character of a true Clergy-man which is to be more fully opened and enlarged on in the following parts of this Book All this looks so great and so noble that it does not appear necessary to raise it or to insist on it more fully Indeed it speaks its own dignity so sensibly that none will dispute it but such as are open Enemies to all Religion in general or to the Christian Religion in particular and yet even few of these are so entirely corrupted as not to wish that External Order and Policy were kept up among men for restraining the Injustice and Violence of unruly Appetites and Passions which few even of the Tribe of the Libertines seem to desire to be let loose since the Peace and Safety of Mankind require that the World be kept in Method and under some Yoke It will be more sutable to my design to shew how well this Character agrees with that which is laid down in the Scriptures concerning these Offices I shall begin first with the Names and then go on to the Descriptions and lastly proceed to the Rules that we find in them The name of Deacon that is now appropriated to the lowest Office in the Church was in the time that the New Testament was writ used more promiscuously For the Apostles the Evangelists and those whom the Apostles sent to visit the Churches are all called by this name Generally in all those places where the word Minister is in our Translation it is Deacon in the Greek which signifies properly a Servant or one who labours for another Such Persons are dedicated to the immediate Service of God and are appropriated to the Offices and Duties of the Church so this term both expresses the dignity and the labour of the Imployment The nâ—xt â—rder carries now the name of Presbyter or Elder which tho at first it was applied not only to Bishops but to the Apâ—sâ—lâ—s themselves yet in the succeeding Ages it came to be appropriated to the Second Raâ—k of the Officers in the Church Iâ— either signifies a Seniority of Age or of 〈◊〉 in opposition to a Neophite or Novice one newly converted to the Faith but by common Pâ—actice as Senate or Senator being at first given to Councellors by reason of their Age came afterwards to be a Title appropriate to them so the Tâ—tle Presbyter altered in pronunciation to be in English Priâ—st or Elder being a Character of respect denotes the Dignity of those to whom it belongs But since St. Paul divides this Title either into two different Ranks or into two different Performances of the Duties of the same Rank those that rule well and those that labour in Word and Doctrine this is a Title that speaks both the Dignity and likewise the Duty belonging to this Function The Title which is now by the Custom of many Ages given to the highest Function in the Church of Bishop or Inspector and Overseer as it imports a Dignity in him as the chief of those who labour so it does likewise express his obligation to care and diligence both in observing and overseeing the whole Flock and more specially in inspecting the Deportment and Labours of his Fellow Workmen who are subordinate to him in the constitution of the Church yet ought to be esteemed by him in imitation of the Apostles his Brethren his Fellow-Labourers and Fellow-Servants Next to the Names of the Sacred Functions I shall consider the other Designations and Figures made use of to express them The most common is that of Pastor or Shepherd It is to be remembred that in the first simplicity of Mankind for many Ages men looked after their own Cattel or employed their Children in it and when they trusted that care to any other it was no small sign of their Confidence according to what Iacob said to Laban The care of a good Shepherd was a Figure then so well understood that the Prophet expresses God's care of his People by this of his feeding them as a Shepherd carrying his Lambs in his Bosom and gently leading them that were with young Christ also calls himself the Good Shepherd that knew his Sheep and did not as a hireling fly away when the Wolf came but laid down his life for his Sheep This then being so often made use of in both Testaments is an expression of the great Trust committed to the Clergy which likewise supposes a great a constant and a tender care in looking to in feeding or instructing in watching over and guarding the Flock against Errors and Sins and their being ready to offer themselves to the first Fury of Persecution The Title of Stewards or Dispensers which is the most honourable in a Household is also given to them These assign to every one his due share both of Labour and of Provision these watch over them and have the care and order of the other Servants assigned to them So in this great Family of which Christ is the Hâ—ad the Stewards are a Post of great Digniâ—y but also of much Labour they ought to be observing the rest of this Houshold that they may be faithful in the distribution and so encourage admonish reprove or censure as there is occasion for it They are also called Ambassadors and that upon the noblest and desirablest Message for their business is to treat of Pâ—acâ— between God and Man to them is given the Word or Doctrine of Reconciliation they are sent by Christ and do speak in God's Name as if God did beseech men by them so do they in Christ's stead who is the Mediator press men to be reconciled to God Words of a very high sound of great Trust and Dignity but which import likewise great obligations An Ambassador is very solicitous to maintain the Dignity of his Character and his Master's Honour and chiefly to carry on that which is the main business that he is sent upon which he is always contriving how to promote So if the Honour of this Title affects us as it ought to do with a just value for it we ought at the same time to consider the Obligations that accompany it of living suitable to it answering in some sort the Dignity and Majesty
which they had abused to Tyranny and Violencâ— The diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them upon which follows a terrible Expostulation and Denunciation of Judgments against them I am against the Shepherds saith the Lord I will require my Flock at their hands and cause them to cease from feeding the flock neither shall the Shepherds feed themselves any more And in the 44th Chap of that Prophecy one Rule is given which was set up in the Primitive Church as an unalterable Maxim That such Priests as had been guilty of Idolatry should not do the Office of a Priest any more nor come near to any of the Holy Things or enter within the Sanctuary but were still to bear their shame They might minister in some inferior Services such as keeping the Gates or slaying the Sacrifice but they were still to bear their Iniquity I have past over all that occurs in these Prophets which relates to the false Prophets because I will bring nothing into this Discourse that relates to Sins of another Order and Nature In Daniel we have a noble Expression of the value of such as turn men to Righteousness That they shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever In Hosea we find among the Sins and Calamities of that time this reckoned as a main cause of that horrid Corruption under which they had fallen there being no truth no mercy nor knowledge of God in the land which was defiled by swearing lying killing stealing and committing Adultery My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge To which is added Because thou hast rejected knowledge or the instructing the People I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgot the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children That corrupt Race of Priests attended still upon the Temple and offered up the Sin-Offering and feasted upon their Portion which is wrong rendred They eat up the sin of my people for sin stands there as in the Law of Moses for Sin Offering Because of the advantage this brought them they were glad at the abounding of Sin which is expressed by their setting their heart or lifting up their Soul to their iniquity The Conclusion of which is that they should be given up for a very heavy curse of Like Priests like People In Ioel we find the Duty of the Priests and Ministers of the Lord set forth in times of great and approaching Calamities thus They ought to be Intercessors for the People and to weep between the Porch and the Altar and say Spare thy People and give not thine heritage to reproach that the Heathen Strangers and Idolaters should rule over them Wherefore should they say among the people Where is their God There is in Amos a very black Character of a depraved Priesthood Their Priests teach for hire and their Prophets divine for money These were the forer unners of the destruction of that Nation But though it might be expected that the Captivity should have purged them from their dross as it did indeed free them from all inclinations to Idolatry yet other Corruptions had a deeper root We find in Zechary a Curse against the Idol Shepherd who resembled the true Shepherd as an Idol does the Original But he was without sense and life Wo be to the Idol Shepherd that leavâ—th the Flock The Curse is figuratively expressed The sword shall be upon his arm and his right eye the things that he valued most his arm shall be clean dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkned But this is more copiously set out by Malachi in an Address made to the Priests And now O ye Priests this Commandment is for you If you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give Glory unto my Name I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your Blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart Then the first Covenant with the Tribe of Levi is set forth My Covenant was with him of Life and Peace The Law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many from their iniquity For the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts All this sets forth the state of a pure and holy Priesthood But then follow terrible Words But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts Thâ—râ—fore have I also made you contemptible and bâ—sâ— bâ—fore all the people according as ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in the Law Their ill example made many loath both their Law and their Religion They had corrupted their Institution and studied by a gross partiality to bring the people to be exact in those parts of the Law in which their Wealth or their Authority was concerned while they neglected the more essential and indispensible Duties Thus far have I gone over the most important places that have occurred to me in the Old-Testament relating to this matter upon all whcih I will only add one Remark That though some exception might be made to those â—xpressions that import the Dignity and Sanctiâ—ication of those who were then consecrated to the Holy Functions as parts of that instituted Religion which had its period by the coming of Christ yet such Passages as relate to Moral Duties and to the Obligâ—tions that arise out of Natural Religion have certainly a more binding force and ought to be understood and expâ—ained in â— mâ—â—e elevated and sublime sense under thâ— new Dispensation which is Iâ—ternâ—l and Sâ—irâ—â—uaâ— compared to which the Old is câ—lled the Letter and the Flesh Therefore the Obligations of the Priests under the Christian Religion to a holy strictness of Life and Conversation to a diligent attendance on their Flock and for instructing and watching over them must all be as much higher and more binding as this New Covenant cancels the old one CHAP. III. Passages out of the New-Testament relating to the same matter THIS General Consideration receives a vast improvement from the great Example that the Author of our Religion the great Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls has set us who went about ever doing good to whom it was as his meat and drink to do the will of his Father that sent him He was the good Shepherd that knew his Sheep and laid down his Life for them And since he set such a value on the Souls of that Flock which
Religion by making a medly of it and Iudaisme might have no evil thing to say of him and after a glorious but short Abstract of the design of their holy Religion he concludes that part of the Epistle in these words These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority to which he adds a Charge that may seem more proper to be addressed to others then to himself let no man despise thee The same is likewise in his Epistle to Timothy with this Addition let no man despise thy youth but these words do import that it is in a Bishop's own Power to procure due Esteem to himself at least to prevent contempt since a holy and exemplary Deportment and faithful and constant labours never fail to do that In the Conclusion of the Epistle to the Hebrews we find both the Characters of those who had laboured among them and had ruled them but who were then dead and also of such as were yet alive Remember them who had the rule over you who have spoken to you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation they had both lived and died as well as laboured in such a manner that the Remembring of what had appeared in them was an effectual means of perswading the Hebrews to be steady in the Christian Religion for certainly though while a man lives let him be ever so eminent there is still room for ill-nature and jealousie to misrepresent things and to suspect that something lies hid under the fairest appearances which may shew it self in due time all that goes off when one has finished his course so that all appears to be of a piece and that he has died as he had lived Then the Argument from his conversation appears in its full strength without any diminution But the charge given with relation to those who then had the rule over them is no less remarkable Obeâ— them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Here Obedience and Submission is enjoyned upon the account of their Rulers watching over them and for them and therefore those who do not watch like Men that know that they must give account of that Trust have no reason to expect these from their People Of a piece with this is St. Pauls charge to the Thessalonians we beseech you to know or to acknowledge them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake Here both the Submission and Esteem as well as the acknowledgment that is due to the Clergy is said to be for their works sake And therefore such as do not the work and that do not labour and admonish their People have no just claim to them There is another expression in the 2 d Epistle to the Thessalonians that is much urged by those who have writ on this Head That if any will not work he should not eat which if it is a Rule binding all Men seems to lie much heavier on the Clergy I shall conclude all that I intend to bring out of the Scripture upon this Argument with St. Peter's charge to the Elders of the Churches to which he writ which is indeed so full that though in the Course of the New Testament it had not lain last it deserved by the Rules of Method to be kept last for the closing and enforcing all that has gone before and for giving it its full weight St. Peter descends 1 Epistle 5 ch 1 ver to a level with them calling himself no better than a fellow Elder and a Witness of the suffering of Christ And also a Partaker of the Glory which was to be revealed Feed the Flock of God says he which is among you these words will bear another rendring as much as lieth in you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint as forced to it by Rules Canons or Laws but willingly not for filthy â—ucre for though God has ordained that such as preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel yet those who propose that to themselves as the chief Motive in entring into Holy Orders are hereby severely condemned but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over God's Heritage or not using a despotick Authority over their several lots or divisions but being examples to the Flock not tyrannizing it over their People But acquiring their Authority chiefly by their own exemplary conversation The conclusion of the Charge is suitable to the solemnity of it in these words And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall likewise receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away With this I make an end of Citations from Scripture I think it is as plain as words can make any thing that such as are dedicated to the service of God and of his Church ought to labour constantly and faithfully And that in their own Persons For it is not possible to express a personal Obligation in terms that are both more strict and more solemn then these are which have been cited and all the returns of obedience and submission of esteem and support being declared to be due to them on the account of their watching over and feeding the Flock of God those who pretend to these without considering themselves as under the other Obligations are guilty of the worst sort of Sacriledge in devouring the things that are Sacred without doing those duties for which these are due and what right soever the Law of the Land may give them to them yet certainly according to the Divine Law those who do not wait at the Altar ought not to be partakers with the Altar Those who do not minister about holy things ought not to live of the things of the Temple Nor ought those who do not preach the Gospel live of the Gospel If I had a mind to make a great shew of reading or to Triumph in my Argument with the Pomp of Quotations it were very easie to bring a Cloud of Witnesses to confirm the Application that I have made of these passages of Scripture Indeed all those who have either writ Commentaries on the Scriptures ancient and modern or have left Homilies on these subjects have pressed this matter so much that every one that has made any progress in Ecclesiastical learning must know that one might soon stuff a great many Pages with abundance of Quotations out of the Authors both of the best and of the worst Ages of the Church not only the Fathers but even the Schoolmen and which is more the Canonist have carried this matter very high and have even delivered it as a Maxime that all dispensations that are procured upon undue Pretences the chief of which they reckon the giving a Man an easie and large subsistence are null
And before they were meet to be initiated to the divine Vocation were crouding about the Altar not to set patterns to others but designing only a subsistence to themselves reckoning that the holy dignity was not a Trust for which an account was to be given but a state of Authority and Exemption They had neither piety nor parts to recommend them but were the reproaches of the Christian Religion and were the Pests of the Church Which infected it faster than any plague could do the Air since Men did easily run to imitate bad Examples but were drawn off very hardly by the perfectest patterns to the practice of Vertue Vpon which he formed a high Idea of the eminent worth and vertues which became those who governed the Church And of the great Progress that they ought to be duly making not contented with low measures of it as if they were to weigh it critically in nice ballances and not to rise up to the highest degrees possible in it Yet even this was not all For to govern mankind which was so various and so uncertain a sort of Creature seemed to him the highest pitch of knowledge and wisdom as far above that skill and labour that is necessary to the curing of bodily Diseases as the Soul is superiour to the Body and yet since so much Study and Observation was necessary to make a Man a skillful Physician he concluded that much more was necessary for the Spiritual Medicine The design of which was to give Wings to the Soul to raise it above the World and to consecrate it to God here he runs out into a noble rapture upon the excellence and sublimity of the Christian Religion and upon the art of governing Souls of the different methods to be taken according to the diversity of mens capacity and tempers and of dividing the word of God aright among them The difficulties of which he prosecutes in a great variety of sublime Expressions and Figures but concludes lamenting that there was so little order then observed that men had scarce passed their Childhood when before they understood the Scriptures not to say before they had washed off the spots and defilements of their Souls if they had learned but two or three pious words which they had got by heart or had read some of the Psalms of David and puâ— on an outward garb that carried an appearance of piety in it these men were presently pushed on by the Vanity of their minds to aspire to the Government of the Churâ—h To such Persons he addresses himself very Rhetorically and asks them what they thought of the commonest imployments such as the playing on Instruments or of dancing in comparison with Divine Wisdom For acquiring the one they know great pains and muâ—h practice was necessary could they then imagin that the other should be so easily attained but he adds that one may as well sow upon Rocks and talk to the deaf as hope to work upon Persons who have not yet got to that degree of Wisdom of being sensible of their own ignorance This evil he had often with many tears lamented but the pride of such men was so great that nothing under the Authority of a St. Peter or a St. Paul could work upon them Upon this mention of St. Paul he breaks out into a rapture upon his labours and sufferings and the care of all the Churches that lay on him his becoming all things to all men his gentleness where that was necessary and his authority upon other occasions his zeal his patience his constancy and his prudence in fullfilling all the parts of his Ministry Then he cites several of the Passages of the Prophets particularly those of Ieremy and Ezekiel Zachary and Malachi which relate to the corruptions of the Priests and Shepherds of Israel And shews how applicable they were to the Clergy at that time and that all the woes denounced against the Scribes and Pharisees belonged to them with heavy aggravations These thoughts possessed him day and night they did eat out his very strength and substance they did so afflict and deject him and gave him so terrible a Prospect of the Iudgments of God which they were drawing down upon the Church that he instead of daring to undertake any part of the Government of it was only thinking how he should cleanse his own Soul and fly from the wrath which was to come and could not think that he was yet while so young meet to handle the Holy Things Where he runs out into a new Rapture in magnifying the dignity of holy Functions and upon that says that tho' he had been dedicated to God from his Mothers Womb and had renounced the World and all that was charming in it even Eloquence it self and had delighted long in the Study of the Scriptures and had subdued many of his Appetites and Passions yet after all this in which perhaps he had become a Fool in glorying he had so high a Nation of the care and government of Souls that he thought it above his strength especially in such bad times in which all things were out of order Factions were formed and Charity was lost so that the very Name of a Priest was a Reproach as if God had poured out Contempt upon them and thereby impious Men daily blasphemed his Name And indeed all the shew of Religion that remained was in their mutual heats and animosities concerning some matters of Religion they condemned and censured one another they cherished and made use of the worst Men so they were true to their Party they concealed their Crimes nay they flattered and defended some that should not have been suffered to enter into the Sanctuary They gave the holy things to Dogs while they enquired very narrowly into the failings of those that differed from them not that they might lament them but that they might reproach them for them The same faults which they excused in some were declaimed against in others So that the very Name of a good or a bad Man were not now considered as the Characters of their Lives but of their being of or against a side And these abuses were so Vniversal that they were like People like Priest If those heats had arisen upon the great Heads of Religion he should have commended the Zeal of those who had contended for the Truth and should have studied to have followed it But their disputes were about small Matters and things of no consequence and yet even these were fought for under the Glorious Title of the Faith tho the root of all was Men's private Animosities These things had exposed the Christian Religion to the hatred of the Heathen and had given even the Christians themselves very hard Thoughts of the Clergy This was grown to that height that they were then acted and represented upon the Stage and made the Subject of the Peoples scorn So that by their means the name of God was blasphemed This was that which gave him much
over and over again For to any that has a true relish they can never be too often read every reading will afford a fresh pleasure and new matter of Instruction and Meditation But I go in the last place to offer St. Ierom's sense in this matter I shall not bring together what lies scattered through his works upon this Argument nor shall I quote what he writ in his Youth upon it when the natural flame of his temper joyned with the heat of Youth might make him carry his thoughts further than what humane nature could bear But I shall only give an abstract of that which he writ to Nepotion on this Head in his old Age as he says himself a good part of that Epistle being a reflection upon the different sense that old Age gives of these things from that which he felt during the ardour of Youth He begins with the title Clerk which signifying a Lot or Portion Imports either that the Clergy are God's Portion or that God is theirs and that therefore they ought to possess God and be possessed of him He that has this portion must be satisfied with it and pretend to nothing but having Food and Rayment be therewith content and as men carried their Crosses naked so to be ready to carry his He must not seek the advantages of this world in Christ's waâ—fare some Clerks grew richer under Christ who made himself poor than ever they could have been if they had continued in the service of the God of this World So that the Church groaned under the wealth of those who were Beggars before they forsook the World Let the Strangers and the Poor be fed at your Tables says he and in these you entertain Christ himself When you see a trafficking Clerk who from being Poor grows Rich and from being mean becoms great fly from him as from a Plague The conversations of such men corrupted good minds They sought after wealth and loved Company the publick Places of conversation Fairs and Market places whereas a true Clerk loves silence and retirement then he gives him a strong caution against conversing with Women and in particular against all those mean compliances which some Clerks used towards rich Women by which they got not only Presents during their lives but Legacies by their Wills That abuse had grown to such an intolerable excess that a Law was made excluding Priests from having any benefit by Testaments They were the only persons that were put under that incapacity Heathen Priests were not included in the Law yet he does not complain of the Law but of those who had given just occasion for making it The Laws of Christ had been contemned so it was necessary to restrain them by humane Laws It was the Glory of a Bishop to provide for the poor but it was the Reproach of a Priest to study the enriching of himself He reckons up many Instances of the base and abject Flattery of some Clerks to gain upon rich and dying persons and to get their Estates Next he exhorts him to the constant and diligent study of the Scriptures but to be sure to do nothing that should contradict his discourses or give occasion to his Hearers to answer him thus Why do not you do as you say Then he speaks of the Union that ought to be between the Bishop and his Clergy the affection on the one side and the obedience on the other In Preaching he must not study to draw applauses but Groans from his Hearers Their Tears was the best sort of commendation of a Sermon in which great care was to be taken to avoid the methods of the Stage or of common Declamations Great use was to be made of the Scriptures The mysteries of our Faith and the Sacraments of our Religion ought to be well explained Grimaces and solemn Looks are often made use of to give Weight and Authority to that which has none in it self He charges him to use a plain simplicity in his Habit neither shewing too much nicety on the one Hand that savours of Luxury nor such a neglect on the other as might savour of Affectation He recommends particularly the Care of the Poor to him Then he speaks of Clergy-Mens mutually preferring one another considering that there are different Members in one Body and that every one has his own Function and peculiar Talent And that therefore no man ought to over-value his own or undervalue his Neighbours A plain Clerk ought not to value himself upon his Simplicity and Ignorance nor ought a learned and eloquent Man measure his Holiness by his Rhetorick for indeed of the two a Holy Simplicity is much more valuable than Unsanctified Eloquence He speaks against the Affectation of Magnificence and Riches in the Worship of God as things more becoming the Pomp of the Jewish Religion than the Humility of the Spiritual Doctrine of Christ. He falls next upon the high and sumptuous way of living of some Priests which they pretended was necessary to procure them the respect that was due to them and to give them interest and credit but the World at least the better part of it would always value a Priest more for his Holiness than for his Wealth He charges him strictly to avoid all the excesses of Wine and in Opposition to that to fast much but without Superstition or a nicety in the choice of such things as he was to live on in the time of fasting Some shewed a trifling Superstition in those Matters as well as Vanity and Affectation that was indeed Scandalous Plain and simple Fasting was despised as not singular nor pompous enough for their Pride For it seems by what follows that the Clergy was then corrupted with the same disorders with which our Saviour had reproached the Pharasees while they did not study inward Purity so much as outward Appearances nor the pleasing of God so much as the praise of Men. But here he stops short for it seems he went too near the describing some eminent Man in that Age from that he turns to the Government of a Priest's Tongue He ought neither to detract from any one himself nor to encourage such as did The very hearkning to slandeâ— was very unbecoming They ought to visit their People but not to report in one place what they observed in another in that they ought to be both discreet and secret Hippocrates adjured those that came to study from him to be secret grave and prudent in their whole behaviour but how much more did this become those to whom the Care of Souls was trusted He advises him to visit his People rather in their Afflictions than in their Prosperity not to go too often to their Feasts which must needs lessen him that does it too much He in the last place speaks very severely of those who applied the Wealth of the Church to their own private Uses It was Theft to defraud a Friend but it was Sacrilege to rob the Church It was a
This practice brings a reproach on the Christian Religion and a confusion on the Priestly Order The Covetousness of the Clergy is censured by their people the worship of God is not performed in places consecrated to him and as was observed in the former Chapters the Souls of the people are thereby much endangered· Wherefore we do all unanimously appoint that no Bishop suffer this to be done in his Parish or Diocess these words being used promiscuously any more and we Decree that every Church that has a Congregation belonging to it and has means by which it may subsist shall have its proper Priest for if it has a Congregation but has not Means by which it may subsist that matter is left to the Bishop to consider whether it can or ought to be supported or not But it is specially recommended to their care to see that under this pretence no Priest may out of Covetousness hold two or three Churches in which he cannot serve nor perform the worship of God The last provisions in this Canon are the grounds upon which the Canonists found the second just cause of dispensing with Pluralities which is when a Church is so poor that the Profits which arise out of it cannot afford a competent maintenance to a Clark but then the question arises what is a Competent Maintenance this they do all bring very low to that which can just maintain him and they have so clogged it that no pretence should be given by so general a word to Covetousness Voluptuousness or Ambition And indeed while we have so many poor Churches among us instead of restraining such Pluralities it were rather to be wished that it were made easier than by Law it is at present either to unite them together or to make one man capable of serving two Churches when both Benefices make but a tolerable subsistance rather than to be forced to have a greater number of Clerks than can be decently maintained since it is certain that it is more for the Interest of Religion and for the good of Souls to have one worthy man serving two Churches and dividing himself between them than to have Clerks for many Benefices whose scandalous provisions make too many scandalous incumbents which is one of the greatest Diseases and Miseries of this Church But a due care in this matter has no relation to the accumulation of Livings at great distances every one of which can well support an Incumbent upon the same Person merely for the making of a Family for the supporting of Luxury or Vanity or for other base and Covetous designs But I go next to two of the worst Councils that ever carried the name of General ones the third and the fourth of the Lateran that we may see what was the sense of the Twefth and Thirteenth Century in this matter notwithstanding the Corruption of those Ages The Thirteenth Canon of the Third Lateran Council runs thus Forasmuch as some whose Covetousness has no bounds endeavour to procure to themselves divers Ecclesiastical Dignities and several Parish Churches against the Provisions of the Holy Canons by which means tho they are scarce able to perform the Office of one they do claim the Provisions due to many We do severely require that this may not be done for the future And therefore when any Church or Ecclesiastical Ministry is to be given let such a one be sought out for it as shall reside upon the place and shall be able to discharge the Care in his own Person If otherwise he who receives any such benefice contrary to the Canons shall lose it and he who gave it shall likewise lose his right of Patronage This Canon not being found effectual to cure so great an abuse The Twenty Ninth Canon of the Fourth Councel in the Lateran was penned in these Words It was with great Care forbidden in the Council of the Lateran that any one should have divers Ecclesiastical Dignities and more Parish Churches than one which is contrary to the Holy Canons Otherwise he that took them should lose them and he that gave them should lose the right of giving them But by reason of some Mens Presumption and Covetousness that Decree has had little or no effect hitherto we therefore desiring to make a more evident and express Provision against these abuses do appoint that whosoever shall receive any Benefice to which a Care of Souls is annexed shall thereupon by Law be deprived of any other such Benefice that he formerly had and if he endeavours still to hold it he shall lose the other likewise and he to whom the right of the Patronage of his first Benefice did belong is empowered to bestow it upon his accepting another and if he delays the bestowing it above Three months not only shall his right devolve to another according to the Decree of the Council in the Lateran but he shall be obliged to restore to the Church to which the Benefice belongs all that which he himself â—eceived during the vacancy This we do likewise Decree as to Personages and do further appoint that no Man shall presume to hold more Dignities or Parsonages than one in the same Church even though they have no Cure of Souls annexed to them Provided always that Dispensations may be granted by the Apostolical See to Persons of high Birth or eminently learned sublimes literatas personas or dignified in Universities for so the word literati was understood who upon occasion may be honoured with greater Benefices It was by this last Proviso that this as well as all other Canons made against these Abuses became quite ineffectual for this had no other effect but the obliging People to go to Rome for Dispensations so that this Canon instead of reforming the Abuse did really establish it for the Qualifications here mentioned were so far stretched that any Person that had obtained a Degree in any University came within the Character of lettered or learned and all those that were in any dependance upon great Men came likewise within the other Qualification of high Rank and Birth This was the Practice among us during the Reign of Henry the 8 th and he when he was beginning to threaten the See of Rome in the matter of his Divorce got that Act to be passed which has been the occasion of so much Scandal and Disorder in this Church It seems to one that considers it well that the Clauses which qualifie Pluralities were grafted upon another Bill against Spiritual Persons taking Estates to Farm with which that Act begins And that in the carrying that on such a temper shewed it self that the other was added to it It contained indeed a Limitation of the Papal Authority but so many Provisions were made that the Nobility Clergy and the more eminent of the Gentry Knights in particular were so taken Care of that it could meet with no grâ—at Oppoâ—ition in the Parliament but from the state of that Time and from several
Sherlock of Death and Iudgment and Dr. Scot's Books in particular that great distinction that runs through them of the means and of the ends of Religion To all which I shall add one small Book more which is to me ever new and fresh gives always good Thoughts and a Noble Temper Thomas a Kempis of the Imitation of Christ. By the frequent reading of these Books by the relish that one has in them by the delight they give and the Effects they produce a man will plainly perceive whether his Soul is made for Divine Matters or not what suitableness there is between him and them and whether he is yet touched with such a Sense of Religion as to be capable of dedicating himself to it I am far from thinking that no man is fit to be a Priest that has not the Temper which I have been describing quite up to that heigâ—h in which I have set it forth but this I will positively say That he who has not the Seeds of it planted in him who has not these Principles and Resolutions formed to pursue them and to improve and perfect himself in them is in no wise worthy of that Holy Character If these things are begun in him if they are yet but as a Grain of Mustard-seed yet if there is a Life in them and a Vital Sense of the Tendencies and Effects they must have such a Person so moulded with those Notions and Impressions and such only are qualified so as to be able to say with Truth and Assurance that they trust they are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to undertake that Office So far have I dispatch'd the first and chief Part of the Preparation necessary before Orders The other Branch of it relates to their Learning and to the Knowledge that is necessary I confess I look upon this as so much Inferiour to the other and have been convinced by so much Experience that a great Measure of Piety with a very small Proportion of Learning will carry one a great way that I may perhaps be thought to come as far short in this as I might seem to exceed in the other I will not here enter into a Discourse of Theological Learning of the measure that is necessary to make a Compleat Divine and of the methods to attain it I intend only to lay down here that which I look on as the lowest Degree and as that which seems indispensably necessary to one that is to be a Priest He must then understand the New Testament weâ—l This is the Text of our Religion that which we Preach and explain to others therefore a man ought to read this so often over that he may have an Idea of the whole Book in his Head and of all the Parts of it He cannot have this so sure unless he understands the Greek so well as to be able to find out the meaning of every Period in it at least of the Words and Phrases of it any Book of Annotations or Paraphrase upon it is a great help to a beginner Grotius Hammond and Lightfoot are the best But the having a great deal of the Practical and Easie Parts of it such as relate to Mens Livâ—s and their Duties such as strike and awaken direct comfort or terrifie are much more necessary than the more abstruse Parts In short the being able to state right the Grounds of our Hope and the Terms of Salvation and the having a clear and ready view of the New Covenant in Christ Iesus is of such absolute necessity that it is a profaning of Orders and a defiling of the Sanctuary to bring any into it that do not rightly understand this Matter in its whole extent Bishop Pearson on the Creed is a Book of great Learning and profound exactness Dr. Barrow has opened it with more simplicity and Dr. Towerson more practically one or other of these must be well read and considered But when I say read I mean read and read over again so oft that one is Master of one of these Books he must write Notes out of them and make Abridgements of them and turn them so oft in his Thoughts that he must thoroughly understand and well remember them He must read also the Psalms over so carefully that he may at least have a general Notion of those Divine Hymns to which Bishop Patrick's Paraphrase will help to carry him A System of Divinity must be read with exactness They are almost all alike When I was young Wendelin and Maresius were the two shortest and fullest Here is a vast Errour in the first forming of our Clergy that a Contempt has been cast on that sort of Books and indeed to rise no higher than to a perpetual reading over different Systems is but a mean pitch of Learning and the swallowing down whole Systems by the Lump has help'd to possess Peoples Minds too early with Prejudices and to shut them up in too implicite a following of others But the throwing off all these Books makes that many who have read a great deal yet have no intire Body of Divinity in their Head they have no Scheme or Method and so are Ignorant of some very plain things which could never have happened to them if they had carefully read and digested a System into their Memories But because this is indeed a very low Form therefore to lead a man farther to have a freer view of Divinity to examine things equally and clearly and to use his own Reason by balancing the various Views that two great Divisions of Protestants have not only in the Points which they controvert but in a great many others in which though they agree in the same Conclusions yet they arrive at them by very different Premises I would advise him that studies Divinity to read two larger Bodies writ by some Eminent Men of both sides and because the latest are commonly the best Turretin for the whole Calvinist Hypothesis and Limburgh for the Arminian will make a Man fully the Master of all the Notions of both sides Or if one would see how far middle ways may be taken The Theses of Sanmur or Blanc's Theses will compleat him in that These Books well read digested into Abstracts and frequently reviewed or talked over by two Companions in Study will give a Man an entire view of the whole Body of Divinity But by reason of that pest of Atheism that Spreads so much among us the Foundations of Religion must be well laid Bishop Wilkins Book of Natural Religion will lead one in the first Steps through the Principles that he has laid together in a plain and natural Method Grotius his Book of the truth of the Christian Religion with his Notes upon it ought to be read and almost got by heart The whole Controversie both of Atheism and Deism the Arguments both for the Old and New Testament are fully opened with a great variety both of Learning and Reasoning in Bishop Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae There
they are to keep pure and to hand down faithfully according to these words And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who may be able to teach others also upon this he prepares the Bishop for difficulties to endure hardness as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ. And according to that Figure since those that go to war do not carry unnecessary burdens with them which may encumber and retard their march he adds no man that warreth entangleth himself with the Affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him for a Souldier upon this it is that all those Canons which have been made in so many Ages of the Church against Church-mens medling with secular Affairs have been founded than which we find nothing more frequently provided against both in the Apostolical Canons in those of Antioch in those made by the General Council of Calcedon and in divers of the Councils of Carthage but this abuse had too dâ—ep a root in the nature of man to be easily cured St. Paul does also in this place carry on the Metaphor to express the earnestness and indefatigableness of Clergy-mens Zeal that as Officers in an Army were satisfied with nothing under Victory which brought them the Honours of a Triumph so we ought to fight not only so as to earn our pay but for Mastery to spoil and overcome the Powers of darkness yet even this must be done lawfully not by deceiving the People with pious frauds hoping that our good Intentions will atone for our taking bad methods War has its Laws as well as Peace and those who manage this Spiritual warfare ought to keep themselves within the Instructions and Commands that are given them Then the Apostle changing the Figure from the Souldier to the Workman and Steward says study to shew thy self approved unto God not to seek the vain applauses of men but to prefer to all other things the witness of a good Conscience and that in simplicity and godly sincerity he may walk and labour as in the sight of God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth This is according to the Figure of a Steward giving every one his due portion and a little after comes a noble Admonition relating to the meekness of the Clergy towards those that divide from them The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging the Truth This is the Passage that was chiefly urged by our Reformers against the Persecution that the Roman Clergy did every where set on against them The extent of it ought to be well considered that so it may not be said that we are only against persecution when it lies on our selves for if it is a good defence to some it is as good to others unless we own that we do not govern our selves by that rule of doing to others that which we would have otherâ— do to us In the next Chapter we find the right Education of this Bishop and that which furnishes a Clergy man to perform all the duties incumbent on him From a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith in Christ Iesus That is the Old Testament well studied by one that believed Iesus to be the Messias and that was led into it by that Faith did discover to a Man the great Oeconomy of God in the Progress of the Light which he made shine upon the World by degrees unto the perfect day of the appearing of the Sun of Righteousness and to this he adds a noble Character of the inspired Writings All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instructing in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works The Apostle goes on and gives Timothy the most solemn Charge that can be set out in words which if understood as belonging to all Bishops as the whole Church of God has ever done must be read by them with trembling I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his Kingdom preach the Word be Instant in Season out of Season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine that is with great gentleness in the manner and clearness and strength in the matter of their Instructions and a little after watch thou in all things endure affliction do the work of an Evangelist make full proof of or fulfill thy Ministry And as a consideration to enforce this the more he tells what a noble and agreeable prospect he had in the View of his approaching dissolution The time of his departing drew nigh he was ready to be offered up as a Sacrifice for that Faith which he had so zealously and so successfully preached and here we have his two great preparatives for Martyrdom The one was in looking on his past life and labours I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith The other was in looking forward to the Reward that Crown of Righteousness which was laid up for him which the Lord the Righteous Iudge would giâ—e him at that day and not only to him but also to all those that loved his appearing and certainly more especially to those who not only lovâ—d it themselves but who laboured so as to dispose others also to love it To all these considerations though nothing needed to have been added to one upon whom they made so strange an impression as they did upon Timothy yet one comes after all which ought to teach us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling since St. Paul tells Timothy that Demas one of the Companions of his labours had forsaken him and that which prevailed over him was the Love of this present World These are the Rules and Charges given by St. Paul to Timothy and in him to all the Bishops and Pastors that were to come after him in the Church Some of these are again repeated in his Epistle to Titus where we have the Characters set out by which he was to prepare and examine those Elders or Bishops who were to rule the House of God that those being well chosen they might be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince the Gainsayers and that he might do his duty with the more advantage he charges him to shew himself in all things a pattern of goâ—d Works in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity and using such sound Speech as could not be condemned that so those who were of the contrary Party the Iudaizers who were studying to corrupt the Christian
Crime that exceeded the Cruelty of High-way Men to receive that which belonged indeed to the Poor and to withdraw any part of it to ones private Occasions He concludes with this excuse That he had named no Person he had not writ to reproach others but to give them warning And therefore since he had treated of the Vices of the Clergy in general Terms if any was offended with him for it he thereby plainly confessed that he himself was guilty CHAP. V. An Account of some Canons in divers Ages of the Church relating to the Duties and Labours of the Clergy I Will go no further in gathering Quotations to shew the sense that the Fathers had in these matters these are both so full and so express that I can find none more plain and more forcible I shall to these add some of the Canons that have been made both in the best and in the worst Ages of the Church obliging Bishops and other Clerks to Residence and to be contented with one Cure In that at Sardica that met in the Year 347. consisting of above 350. Bishops two Canons were made the 11 th and the 12 th against Bishops who without any urgent necessity or pressing business should be absent from their Church above three weeks and thereby grieve the Flock that was committed to their care And even this provision was made because Bishops had Estates lying out of their Diocesses therefore they were allowed to go and look after them for three weeks in which time they were to perform the divine function in the Churches to which those Estates belonged Many provisions were also made against such as went to Court unless they were called by the Emperors or went by a Deputation from the Church upon a publick account There is not any one thing more frequently provided against than that any of the Clergy should leave their Church and go to any other Church or live any where else without the Bishops leave and consent nor is there any thing clearer from all the Canons of the first Ages than that they considered the Clergy of every Church as a body of men dedicated to its service that lived upon the Oblations of the Faithful and that was to labour in the several parts of the Ecclesiastical Ministry as they should be ordered by the Bishop In the 4 th General Council at Calcedon Pluralities do first appear for they are mentioned and condemned in the 10 th Canon which runs thus No Clerk shall at the same time belong to two Churches to wit to that in which he was was first ordained and that to which as being the greater he has gone out of a desire of vain glory for such as do so ought to be sent back to that Church in which they were at first ordained and to serve there only but if any has been translated from one Church to another he shall receive nothing out of his former Church nor out of any Chapel or Alms-house belonging to it and such as shall transgress this definition of this General Council are condemned by it to be degraded I go next to a worse Scene of the Church to see what provisions were made in this matter about the 8 th Century both in the East and in the West The worse that those Ages and Councils were it makes the Argument the stronger since even bad men in bad times could not justifie or suffer such an abuse In the year 787. the Second Council of Nice was held that setled the worship of Images The 15 Canon of it runs thus No Clerk shall from henceforth be reckoned in two Churches for every Church had a Catalogue of its Clergy by which the dividends were made for this is the Character of Trafficking and Covetousness and wholly estranged from the Ecclesiastical Custom We have heard from our Saviour's own words that no man can serve two Masters for he will either hate the one or love the other or cleave to the one and despise the other Let every one therefore according to the Apostles words continue in the Vocation in which he is called and serve in one Church For those things which filthy Lucre has brought into Church matters are contrary to God There is a variety of imployments for acquiring the necessary supplies of this life Let every one that pleases make use of these for furnishing himself For the Apostle saies these hands Ministred to my necessities and to those that were with me This shall be the rule in this Town which is guarded by God but in remote Villages an Indulgence may be granted by reason of the want of men It is upon this that the Canonists do found the first of the two reasons for which only they allow that a Dispensation for holding two Benefices may be lawful one is the want of fit and sufficient men for the service of the Church The foundation of the other will be found in the Canon which I shall next set down It is the 49 Canon of the sixth Council at Paris under Lewis the Good in the Year 829. this Council came after a great many that had been held by Charles the Great and his Son for purging out abuses and for restraining the Primitive Discipline These Councils sat at Frankfort Ments Aken Rheims Chalons Tours Arles and this of Paris was the last that was held upon that design In these all the Primitive Canons relating to the Lives and Labours and the government of the Clergy were renewed Among others is that of Calcedon formerly mentioned but it seems there was no occasion given to make a special one against Pluralities before this held at Paris which consisted of four Provinces of France Rheims Sens Tours and Rouen The Canon runs thus As it becomes every City to have its proper Bishop so it is also becoming and necessary that every Church dedicated to God should have its proper Priest Yet Covetousness which is Idolatry of which we are much ashamed has so got hold of some Priests and caught them captives in its Fetters that they blinded with iâ— know neither whither they go nor what they ought to be or do so that they being kindled with the fire of Covetousness and forgetful of the Priestly Dignity neglecting the care of those Churches to which they were promoted do by some presents given or promised procure other Churches not only from Clerks but from Lay-men in which they do against Law undertake to perform the Ministry of Christ. It is not known whether their Bishops are consulted in this matter or not if they are without doubt their Bishops become partakers of their sin but if they presume to do it without consulting them yet it is to be imputed to the Bishops negligence There is scarce a Priest to be found who warreth worthily and diligently in that Church in which he is dedicated to the Divine Service but how much less will he be able to do that worthily in two three or more Churches
a Prejudice to Men that are otherwise enclined enough to search for one that can never be removed but by putting an effectual bar in the way of that scrambling for Benefices and Preferments which will ever make the Lay part of Mankind conclude that let us pretend what we will Covetousness and Ambition are our true Motives and our chief Vocation It is true the strange Practices of many Patrons and the Constitution of most Courts give a colour to excuse so great an Indecency Men are generally successful in those Practices and as long as Humane Nature is so strong as all Men feel it to be it will be hard to divert them from a Method which is so common that to act otherwise would look like an affectation of Singularity and many apprehend that they must languish in Misery and Necessity if they are wanting to themselves in so general a Practice And indeed if Patrons but chiefly if Princes would effectually cure this Disease which gives them so much Trouble as well as Offence they must resolve to distribute those Benefices that are in their Gift with so visible a Regard to true Goodness and real Merit and with so firm and so constant an Opposition to Application and Importunity that it may appear that the only way to Advancement is to live well to study hard to stay at home and labour diligently and that Applications by the Persons themselves or any set on by them shall always put those back who make them This would more effectually cure so great an Evil than all that can be said against it One successful suiter who carries his Point will promote this Disorder more than Twenty Repulses of others for unless the Rule is severely carried on every one will run into it and hope to prosper as well as he who they see has got his end in it If those who have the Disposition of Benefices to which the Cure of Souls is annexed did consider this as a Trust lodged with them for which they must answer to God and that they shall be in a great measure accountable for the Souls that may be lost through the bad choice that they make knowing it to be bad if I say they had this more in their Thoughts than so many Scores of Pounds as the Living amounts to and thought themselves really bound as without doubt they are to seek out Good and Worthy Men well qualified and duely prepared according to the Nature of that Benefice which they are to give then we might hope to see men make it their chief Study to qualifie themselves aright to order their Lives and frame their Minds as they ought to do and to carry on their Studies with all Application and Diligence but as long as the short Methods of Application Friendship or Interest are more effectual than the long and hard way of Labour and Study Human Nature will always carry men to go the surest the easiest and the quickest way to work After all I wish it were well considered by all Clerks what it is to run without being either called or sent and so to thrust ones self into the Vineyard without staying till God by his Providence puts a piece of his work in his Hands this will give a man a vast ease in his Thoughts and a great satisfaction in all his Labours if he knows that no Practices of his own but merely the Directions of Providence have put him in a Post. He may well trust the Effects of a thing to God when the Causes of it do plainly flow from him And though this will appear to a great many a hard Saying so that few will be able to bear it yet I must add this to the encouragement and comfort of such as can resolve to deliver themselves up to the Conduct and Directions of Providence that I never yet knew any one of those few too few I confess they have been who were possessed with this Maxim and that have followed it exactly that have not found the Fruit of it even in this World A watchful Care hath hovered over them Instruments have been raised up and Accidents have happened to them so prosperously as if there had been a secret Design of Heaven by blessing them so signally to encourage others to follow their Measures to depend on God to deliver themselves up to his Care and to wait till he opens a way for their being Imployed and settled in such a Portion of his Husbandry as he shall think fit to assign to them These are Preparations of Mind with which a Clerk is to be formed and seasoned And in order to this he must read the Scriptures much he must get a great deal of those Passages in them that relate to these things by heart and repeat them often to himself in particular many of the most tender and melting Psalms and many of the most comprehensive Passages in the Epistles that by the frequent reflecting on these he may fill his Memory with Noble Notions and right Idea's of things The Book of Proverbs but chiefly Ecclesiastes if he can get to understand it will beget in him a right view of the World a just value of Things and a contempt of many Objects that shine with a false Lustre but have no true Worth in them Some of the Books taught at Schools if read afterwards when one is more capable to observe the Sense of them may be of great use to promote this Temper Tully's Offices will give the Mind a noble sett all his Philosophical Discourses but chiefly his Consolation which though some Criticks will not allow to be his because they fansie the Stile has not all the force and beauty in it that was peculiar to him yet is certainly the best Piece of them all these I say give a good â—avour to those who read them much The Satyrical Poets Horace Iuvenal and Persius may contribute wonderfully to give a man a Detestation of Vice and a Contempt of the common Methods of mankind which they have set out in such true Colours that they must give a very generous Sense to those who delight in reading them often Persius his Second Satyr may well pass for one of the best Lectures in Divinity Hieracles upon Pythagoras's Plutarch's Lives and above all the Books of Heathenism Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius contain such Instructions that one cannot read them too often nor repass them too frequently in his thoughts But when I speak of reading these Books I do not mean only to run through them as one does through a Book of History or of Notions they must be read and weighed with great Care till one is become a Master of all the Thoughts that are in them They are to be often turned in ones Mind till he is thereby wrought up to some Degrees of that Temper which they propose And as for Christian Books in order to the framing of ones Mind aright I shall only Recommend The whole Duty of Man Dr.