be Confirmed or be ready and desirous to be Confirmed One of these is plainly here made a Preparation for the other And as none should be admitted to the Communion till they be Confirmed so being Confirmed or ready for it and desirous of it I take it none are to be refused the Communion It is of the greatest Concernment therefore that young People be discreet and serious before they be brought to be Confirmed Of the Necessity of which King James before-mentioned was as sensible as he was of the Necessity of Catechetical Instruction For his Son who was afterwards King Charles the Martyr was not Confirmed till the thirteenth year of his Age. Then he was Confirmed on Easter Monday 1613. in Whitehall-Chappel after a long and strict Examination by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Bath and Wells as Dr. George Hackwell who was an Ear-witness of the Satisfaction he gave tells us in a little Tractate he wrote upon that Occasion concerning Confirmation I conclude this Section with these remarkable Words of a famous Divine of our Church Dr. Jackson in his X Book upon the Creed Chap. 50. which I have mentioned with a great deal more upon this Subject in a little Book about Baptism near Forty Years ago Whether the solemn Baptizing of all Infants which are the Children of presumed Christian Parents throughout this Kingdom without solemn Astipulation that they shall at years of Discretion personally ratify their Vow in Baptism in Publick in such manner as the Church requires be not rather more lawful or tolerable than expedient I leave with all submission to the consideration of higher Powers In like manner may I be bold to put this Question Whether it be to any purpose to admit those to this solemn Act of Ratifying and Confirming their Vow in Baptism who are not arrived at such Years of Discretion as understandingly to consent thereunto and to remember it all the Days of their Life For I fear many have been Confirmed who have no more Memory of what they then did than they have of what was done to them in Baptism SECT IX The next Office wherein you are concerned is the Solemnization of Matrimony Which though it be not a Sacrament yet is such an Holy State that as there is the greatest reason it should be solemnized with publick Rites and Forms by the Ministers of Christ so they ought to take care to perform it in a very solemn manner It may be demonstrated that no Marriage anciently was ever made among Christians which the Church did not allow and the Benediction of Marriage by the Priest was a sign of that allowance Nay among the Jews it is manifest from the Story of Boaz and Ruth that Marriage was Celebrated before the Elders IV Ruth 11. And Epiphanius was of Opinion that our Lord was invited to the Marriage of Cana in Galilee that as a Prophet he might bless the Marriage And therefore it ought to be lebrated in the Church in as publick a manner as may be and with such Gravity and seriousness as becomes the Place and the Priestly Function and the State it self which is Holy and Honourable In order to this the People are to be instructed often with what Advice Deliberation and Reveence such a weighty matter is to be undertaken Of which they are excellently admonished in our Liturgy at the time of Marriage and should be admonished before-hand that they may not lightly or wantonly enterprise it but discreetly soberly and in the fear of God For the better security of this keep strictly to LXII Canon which requires you to marry none except the Banns of Matrimony have been first Published in time of Divine Service three several Sundays or Holy-days Or a License have been obtained to do it without according to the Canons C. CI. CII CIII Which most reasonably constitute that none be Married either with License or after Banns Published under the Age of One and Twenty Years compleat without the consent of their Parents or of their Guardians and Governours if their Parents be deceased Remember also that Marriage is to be celebrated publickly in the Parish Church or Chappel where one of the Parties dwelleth and in no other place and that between the hours of Eight and Twelve in the Forenoon For which reason care is taken by the Second Rubrick in the Office of Matrimony that if the Persons that are to be Married dwell in divers Parishes the Banns must be asked in both Parishes and the Curate of the One Parish shall not Solemnize Matrimony betwixt them without a Certificate of the Banns being thrice asked from the Curate of the other Parish These Laws are the more Sacredly to be observed because they are for the preservation of Human Society Which made Plato say in the beginning of his Book de Legibus that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Laws for the regulating Marriage should be the very first which a Law-giver should establish because the Propagation of Mankind is the support of Cities and Kingdoms of which if due care be not taken all other Laws are in Vain This very consideration that Marriage is Seminarium generis humani as Tertullian calls it Lib. 1. ad Uxorem cap. 2. was sufficient to make our Church so very cautious in its Constitutions about this important affair that those many mischiefs might be prevented which have insued from the neglect of them in many places Which have been no less than incestuous Mixtures together with the ruin of several Families great grief of Parents by the disobedience of their Children which hath quite alienated their Affections one from another not to mention the contempt and reproach it hath brought upon those of the Clergy or others that have had a hand in these irregular actions I question not but all imaginable care will be taken in my Diocess that no License be granted but according to the Canon and none of My Clergy I perswade my self can be so mean as to let a little Money prevail with them to dishonour their Holy Calling by violating those Wise and Pious Constitutions of our Church which they have sworn as I take it to observe in their Oath of Canonical Obedience SECT X. The next Office which follows in our Liturgy is that of Visitation of the Sick which ought to be attended very seriously as much if not more than any else For Men are never so sensible of the everlasting concerns of their Souls as they are when they lye on a sick Bed If they had no thought of God before no reflections on their ways they can scarce avoid them in that condition Pliny tells us he learnt this by the Sickness of a Friend of his Optimos nos esse dum infirmi sumus that we are then the best Men when we are sick Read a most pithy Epistle of his which is wholly upon this Subject Lib. VII Epist XXVI Where among other things he tells Maximus to whom it is
once a Year on the first day of Lent though the Prayers then appointed are to be used at other times as the Ordinary shall appoint This if done solemnly though it seem a thing of no great labour yet might have a great effect For every one knows or ought to know that the Lent Fast was Instituted to be a time of Repentance and to bring Men to it what can be more effectual than this Denunciation of Gods Anger and Judgments against Sinners with most comfortable assurances of Grace and Mercy to the Penitent I know it is hard as the World goes to get a Congregation together upon that day when this is required to be read in the Church You may therefore read it on the First Sunday in Lent and then put the Sense of it into your Sermon where it may be proper to press them to weigh every part of it distinctly And in order to it remove that foolish Objection which I have heard some have in their Mouths that they cannot endure to Curse their Neighbours by showing them plainly that they are not the Curses of the People but of God himself which he hath denounced against Sinners To which when the People are ordered to say AMEN they only consent to the truth of that which God saith The very Office teaches this when it declares the end of reading those Curses gathered out of the XXVII of Deuteronomy and other places of Scripture and the Peoples saying Amen to them that they may flee from such vices for which they affirm with their own mouth the Curse of God to be due And represent to them also that whether they will affirm these Curses to be due or no they will fall upon them if they be such Sinners as are there named and the sooner because they refuse to say Amen to the Words of God that is affirm what he affirms who is the Faithful and the True This Cavil being taken away it will be easie to make them sensible how useful it is for them to joyn with you in this Commination which may awaken drousy Souls to consider and amend their evil doings that they may escape those Judgments that are threatned to them which are unavoidable if they go on still in their Sins There was something like this among the ancient Jews who at certain stated times were wont to denounce a general Anathema against all the Israelites who knowingly and willingly violated such and such Laws A Form of which Mr. Selden hath given us out of their Ritual called Colho Lib. IV. De Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 7. This it is likely the Christian Church thought fit to imitate not by denouncing a formal Anathema but only by a solemn recital of the Threatnings in God's Laws against impenitent Sinners And their affirming the truth and certainty of them Which in the Romish Church came at last to such an Anathema as I now mentioned in the Jewish Ritual call'd The greater Excommunication which here in England was denounced by every Bishop twice a year and by every Parish-Priest four times a year against certain Persons A Form of which great Curse the same most Learned Person hath given us out of the Ritual according to the use of the Church of Sarum in his first Book De Synedriis Cap. X. where he observes that in the room of this our first Reformers only ordered this Maledictory Commination as he well stiles it to be used once a Year In the beginning of which Commination there is mention made of a godly Discipline in the Primitive Church whereby such Persons as stood Convicted of notorious sins were in the beginning of Lent put to open Pennance This Discipline we there wish might be restored again but seem to suppose that for the present we can only instead of it denounce God's anger and judgments against sinners and make them say Amen thereunto whereby they may stand Convicted in their own Consciences that they are under the Curse of God and so be brought to Repentance Had we not need then do this very seriously if it be all that we can do of this kind Yet let it be considered whether we may not be able to do something more if we will attempt it For may not scandalous Persons be more frequently presented than they are May not private Admonitions if not publick be more used Let us not then think fit to do nothing because we cannot do all that we would The right way to enlarge our Authority of the want of which we complain is to use that which we have uprightly and faithfully That is if we presented none in the Ecclesiastical Court till private Applications had been made to them with seriousness and earnestness unsuccessfully and if it were done without respect to Persons Parties or Interests we might bring our Courts into that just esteem and credit which they ought to have And having mentioned private Admonition let me in a few words remember you that at your Ordination you promised to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole within your Cures as need shall require and occasion shall be given And perhaps more good might be done this way than any other if it were done at fitting times with as much secrecy as may be and with apparent affection to them In some Cases perhaps it may be done most effectually by Letter which may be sent when you cannot have opportunity to speak to them And here it may be proper to admonish you that Dissenters from our Church are thus to be dealt withal by some way of private Conference with them not by Preaching against them for they are not there to hear it Our own People indeed are by publick Discourses as well as otherways to be confirmed and established in our Communion But there is no way to reduce them but by private arguing with them Which is not to be omitted because the present act of Indulgence doth not justify them in their separation but only suspends the Punishments to which they were before liable Still they are in a state of Schism out of which you should endeavour to recover them by kind Perswasions and Arguments which may work more upon them than all the Penalties formerly inflicted which made them Angry but did not Convert them For the Conclusion of this part of my Treatise I should upon the mention of LENT have said something concerning that Fast and other days of Fasting or Abstinence appointed by the Church which if Men could be perswaded to observe as times of Recollection and Examination of themselves and Prayer they would find great benefit thereby to the encrease of Christian Piety I wrote a little Book about it in the beginning of the late Reign which had the Approbation of my Superiours But I have not room to say more of it here Nor of the Festivals which are ordered to be kept in Commemoration of great Blessings God hath bestowed
THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY Represented to The Clergy of the Diocese of ELY By SYMON Lord Bishop of ELY LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's-Church-Yard 1698. ERRATA PAg. 23. lin 2. r. Temple and to p. 29. l. ult r. though not in every p. 34. l. 11. r. peculiarly p. 46. l. 16. r. mere creature p. 49. l. 24. r. teachest p. 50. l. 21. r. Historia p. 52. l. 13. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 56. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. l. 17. r. celebrated The WORK OF THE MINISTRY REPRESENTED To the CLERGY OF THE Diocese of ELY Dear Brethren TO shorten my own Labour and your attendance at my approaching Visitation I send you this little Treatise beforehand which may serve in stead of the Exhortation which is wont to be made on that occasion You will read it I hope with as serious consideration as you would have heard it had it been spoken with due attention By which means you will receive a greater benefit than you could have done the other way for you may read that often and imprint it in your minds which you could have heard but once and might have slipt out of your memory You see by the Title of it that it treats of the Duties which belong to that Function in which it hath pleased the Most High to do you the honour to employ you A Function so truly noble that it is not in my power to set forth the Dignity of it For the Blessed Apostle St. Paul thought it so great an honour to be made a Christian that he thought no words too lofty to express the dignity of their state which he calls not only our High Calling III Philip. 14. but our Heavenly Calling in Christ Jesus III Heb. 1. Which I cannot think of but it makes me reflect what an honour then it is to be made a Minister of Jesus Christ whose business it is to bring others into this glorious state of Christianity and to breed them up keep them in it What preferment is there comparable to this to be constituted a Servant and a Minister of the King of Glory a Steward of the Heavenly Mysteries an Embassador for Christ a Labourer in his Vineyard or Harvest which implies indeed great pains but carries in it also the great honour of sowing the Seed of Eternal Life in Mens Souls and cultivating that is preparing and making them fit to be carried into Christ's Heavenly Kingdom I do not name all the places in the Holy Writings where you find your selves described under these Characters because you cannot but be well acquainted with them I shall only add that we do not assume too much to our selves when we call our selves the Clergy i. e. God's Portion or Inheritance being peculiarly separated to his Service as our Famous Mr. Mede hath most judiciously observed Discourse XXXVI p. 270. For the prime Ministers of our Lord Christ are called by himself The Angels of the Churches over which they presided I Revel 20. And therefore St. Chrysostome in his third Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feared not to say That the Priesthood is a Dignity raised far above all the honours of this World and approaching to the Angelical Glory Which if it be duly weighed and laid to heart we can never cease to give God thanks who hath advanced us to such a noble Station nor be unmindful of the service he expecteth from us but both study all the duties belonging it and endeavour to perform them with a Spirit suitable to our Function What those Duties are it is the principal business of this small Treatise to lay before you And with what Spirit they ought to be performed I shall in the Conclusion of it briefly admonish you These Two will comprehend all that I have to recommend to your Consideration For there is no necessity sure to prove that they whom God hath set apart to himself for a peculiar service and therefore have a special relation to him and have received a special favour from him have a singular Obligation to do all they can to express their gratitude to him by discharging faithfully that great trust which he hath commited to them PART I. NOW as to the Duties which are incumbent upon the Ministers of Christ I shall First treat of those which are to be performed in Private and then of those which are of Publick concernment SECT I. The Private Duties being to qualifie them for the right discharge of all Publick Offices are principally the Study of the Holy Scriptures and Prayer We profess at our Ordination that we are Perswaded the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all Doctrine required of necessity for Everlasting Salvation c. and we declare that we are determined out of the aid Scriptures to instruct the People committed to our charge c. Which supposes that above all things we ought to apply our selves to the serious study of these Holy Books that there we may learn our own duty and the duty of those whom we are to instruct in the Christian Religion And accordingly a solemn Exhortation is made to those who are to be admitted to the Order of Priesthood to consider how studious they ought to be in reading and weighing and learning the Scriptures that they may wa◠riper and stronger in their Ministry And more than this we promise before God and his Church that we will be diligent herein which no Man can think of if he have any Conscience and live in the neglect of this Sacred Study For after we have given our Faith 〈◊〉 God and to his Church to be careful in this matter we Seal it by receiving the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood Which one would think should be of mighty force and will be so if duly weighed to stir us up to this part of our duty that we may not be guilty of the breach of such solemn promises as were made to God at his Altar And here it may be proper briefly to remember you that this is so conformable to the Doctrine and practise of the Ancient Church that Theophylact upon the X St. John 1 c. saith the Scriptures are the door by which the true Pastor enters and that he is a Thief who comes not in by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for he doth not use the Scriptures as witnesses and vouchers for what he says By these saith he we are brought to God these will not permit Wolves to enter they keep out Hereticks placing us in safety and security These give us right notions of all things wherein we desire to be infomed And therefore My Brethren apply your selves devoutly to the Study of these Divine Books or rather of these Books which will make you Divine For so they were called in the Ancient Christian Language Deificos libros and Deificas Scripturas and Instrument a Deifica as Aelianus Proconsul of Africa calls them
whosoever considers the Condition of the Cities of London and Westminster as they were formerly and as they are now will not despair of Success For before our unnatural Civil War I have been informed by a Reverend Divine there were few Churches in those Cities where daily publick Prayers were read and where they were very few People to joyn with the Minister in them But now there are very few Churches that want them or a Congregation to attend them And though such Assemblies were but thin when this first begun a little after the happy Restauration of our Monarchy and Church yet I my self can witness that their Numbers daily encreased in so much that in some places there are publick Prayers four times a day and good Congregations where in my Memory there were none at all This is a great Encouragment to try what may be done in other great Towns where People are not far distant from the Church Begin with perswasions to come at least upon Litany days And so by degrees they may be induced to wait upon God constantly at his House to make their Prayers and Acknowledgments to him Represent to them frequently how much the publick Service of God excels all that we can perform in Private Because then God appears more glorious in Praises when his People joyn together to set them forth Bid them mark how David and other inspired Persons have in the Book of Psalms stirred up the Affections of the whole Body of God's People to meet together for his Divine Service saying O praise the LORD all ye nations praise him all ye people CXVII 1. O magnify the LORD with me and let us exalt his name together XXXIV 3. Praise ye the LORD Sing unto the LORD a new song and his praise in the congregation of Saints CXLIX 1. Or as it is in the Hymn appointed every day after the second Lesson at Morning Prayer C Psal 4. O go your way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name In short instruct them that every Hallelujah they meet withal in the Holy Scriptures or Praise ye the LORD suppose publick Assemblies to which all the foregoing Exhortation are directed where many met together for Divine Worship not contenting themselves to praise God alone by themselves but with all those who were Members of the same Body with them But if by all your endeavours you cannot bring this to pass yet there is one thing of which I must admonish you that I am sure is in your power It is this That all Priests and Deacons are bound by the Law of this Realm and of this Church to say daily Morning and Evening Prayer privately when they cannot openly Not being let by sickness or some other urgent Cause See the first Rubrick in the Common-Prayer Book after the Preface concerning the Service of the Church Do not fail therefore I beseech you to read the daily Prayers Morning and Evening privately in your own Family That the Divine Service according to Law may be performed daily in every Parish though not every Church There cannot be constantly nor commonly urgent Causes much less Sickness I hope to hinder this And when there is not look upon your selves as bound in Conscience to read the Prayers at home And when you do officiate Publickly on the Lord's Days or other times in the Church let it be in such a solemn manner that it may move the People to attend and make them in love with our Prayers There is a careless overly way of reading them so fast and with such little Devotion as hath exceedingly disgraced them and given great offence to the better sort of People among us and hardned the bad in Prophaness and Irreligion I hope none of you are guilty of this but it becomes me to admonish you of the danger of it and to beseech you constantly to compose your selves with the greatest seriousness and reverence and affection to perform Divine Service in the Church This will keep up the Majesty of our Worship and preserve it from Contempt For I can see nothing that should move those that Dissent from us to call it dead and formal but only the deadness and formality that hath appeared too often in him that Officiates Stir up your selves therefore to Officiate in every part of the Divine Service with a becoming Gravity and Deliberation and yet with such Life and Affection as may express your Concern to have your Petitions Granted and the word of God Regarded Avicenna as he is vulgarly called an Arabian Philosopher hath an excellent Discourse upon this Subject in the third part of his Metaphysicks Where having said that they who instruct the People ought to teach them Forms of Prayer wherein to address themselves to God He adds this Direction to them As a Man uses to prepare himself to come to the King in purity and cleanness with graceful Language and an humble Gravity with a comely Deportment of Body ceasing from all disorderly Motions there as well as from perturbation of mind so it is fit there should be laudable Modes and Forms of serving God at all times For these do highly conduce to imprint on the minds of the People a sense of the most high and to confirm them in their Devotion to the Laws and Rules of Life Which if they were not preserved by this solemn Commemoration Men would quite forget in one or two Generations Thus I find him quoted by Mr. Selden in his Comment in Eutichii Origines fol. 57. And he doth but express the sense of the Ancient Christians from whom the Mahometans derived that solemnity and seriousness which they use in their Divine Service It is no small part of the Study of Priests in the present Roman Church to learn how to compose their Looks and Gestures and Voices in the several Offices which they are to perform Which as it hath too much of the Theatre in it so that pains may all be spared by possessing our Minds with a deep sense and feeling of the Majesty of God to whom we speak and of our great need of the things which we pray him to bestow upon us This will naturally compose our Countenances and regulate the tone of our Voice and make us pronounce the Prayers as gracefully as we would a Petition to the greatest Majesty on Earth The Organs of Speech indeed in several Men are of a very different Frame and Figure so that all cannot speak no more than sing alike But some more harshly some more sweetly Yet an awful Sense of God upon our Minds and an hearty Love to him would form every Man's Voice to as good an Accent as his natural Capacity will permit SECT IV. The next Office in our Liturgy is The Order for the Administration of the Holy Communion which being the highest Duty of our Religion that which is most peculiar Christian Worship the greatest Care ought to
directed then a Man remembers that there are Gods that you know is the Pagan Language and that he himself is but a Man Then he envies no Man admires no Man despises no Man Riches signifie nothing to him nor Honours Lust is extinguished c. all that he desires is that he may recover his Health purposing then to lead an innocent and happy Life So that whatsoever Philosophers indeavour to teach in many words and many Volumes that I may teach the e and my self in this short Precept Ut tales esse sani perseveremur quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi that we continue such when we are well as we promise to be when we are sick So he concludes that Epistle By which you cannot but see what an opportunity the Sickness of any of your Parishoners assords you to help forward the Salvation of their Souls by your Prayers Instructions and Exhortations when they are most disposed to receive them and to be tenderly affected with them Do not stay therefore till notice be sent you by those about them of any ones Sickness for they are too apt to defer it till there be no hope of life left but when you hear of it repair to such Persons and apply your selves to them in such discourses as are proper to their condition Examine them as the Office directs about their belief in God and in Jesus Christ and all the rest of the Articles of the Christian Faith If they have led a bad Life contrary to their belief represent to them how highly it concerns them to repent and resolve to become new Men. Bid them consider how much they have neglected God and his Divine Service which is a common Sin and also what wrong they have done to any of their Neighbours that they may make them what Satisfaction they are able If they have lived in most things regularly but been negligent in some Duties comfort and support them with this perswasion that God hath sent this Sickness to perfect what was wanting in them As for such as have led truly Pious Lives void of Offence towards God and towards Man they are to be strengthened with all the Consolations that are in Christ and raised in their hope of Remission of Sin and Eternal Life which will banish all fear of Death By this means not only the sick Person may receive great Benefit but all the By-standers also who hear your Discourse Which may raise such a sense of things in you as will much improve your selves And here I shall admonish you only of one thing more leaving you to the directions in the Office for the rest That Absolution of Penitents is a thing of great moment which may alone be sufficient to convince you both of the Dignity and the Difficulty of your Holy Function For what an high Honour is it to be made a Judge of the state of Mens Immortal Souls and to pronounce a Sentence upon them according as you find them upon Examination But how industriously then ought you to labour to understand the Gospel of Christ whereby you are to Judge that you may not pass a wrong Sentance through ignorance of the Conditions of Salvation by Christ Whose promises are made plainly to an Holy Life which if it hath not been minded till a Man come to die let him not despair of God's Mercy but take heed how you absolve him in his Name For we can make no certain judgment of Men by what they resolve in their Sickness when they have no Temptation to run on in their former Wicked course of Life but must stay to see how they will keep their Resolutions which they too often break when they are well If they do not live to give a proof of their Sincerity God notwithstanding who knows the Secrets of all Hearts if he see them to be sincere and that they would be stedfast should they have recover'd their Health will undoubtedly absolve them though they depart the World without our Absolution In short this may well as the Pythagoraeans were wont to admonish their Schollars make you reverence your selves so as to live up to this Dignity and high Authority he hath committed to you and this very Power if you use it well will procure you reverence from others who understand any thing of Religion At the end of this Office is annexed the Order of Administring the Communion to the Sick which Mr. Calvin himself thinks though it was not the usage of Geneva should not be deny'd to them if they desired it and understood what they did and were disposed with solemn Resolutions to renew their Covenant with Christ But timely notice ought to be given of this desire with a signification how many there are to communicate with the Sick Person which must be three or two at the least unless it be in the time of a Plague or other Contagious Disease when the Minister may Communicate with him alone SECT XI Concerning the next thing in our Liturgy which is The Order for the Burial of the DEAD there needs not much to be said But that commonly Men and Women are apt to be very serious when they see their Friends and Neighbours laid in their Graves and therefore what you are then ordered to say either when you meet the Corps or in the Church or at the Grave should be pronounced with great Gravity Earnestness and Affection that the Hearts of those who are present may be moved with it If you are desired to come to the House of the Deceased and thence to accompany the Corps to the Grave you may have an opportunity to put those in mind who sit near to you of preparation for Death which should never be out of our thoughts but then especially be sensibly reflected on when we have a Spectacle of Mortality before our Eyes Who was as strong and healthy perhaps as any there present and yet on a sudden snatch'd away Such things piously represented are apt for the present at least to touch Mens Hearts and make deep impressions there SECT XII Of the Churching of Women after Child-birth I shall say only this that the First Rabrick directs that the Woman at the usual time after Delivery shall come into the Church decently Apparelled and there kneel down in some convenient place as hath been accustomed Now the accustomed place it appears by our Old Common-Prayer Book before the Restauration was nigh to the Communion Table To put her in mind I suppose that she should take the next opportunity to receive the Holy Communion if there be none that day when the last Rubrick declares it is convenient she should partake of it Unto this therefore you are to Exhort her that she may perfect her acknowledgments of Gods goodness by the highest Thanksgiving the Church can offer and which is proper and peculiar to Christian People SECT XIII The last Office wherein you are concerned is the Reading the Commination which is to be done but
and our fault be laid upon our Religion There is a remarkable Precept to this purpose which the Apostle gives both to Timothy and to Titus 1 Tim. IV. 12. II Tit. 15. Let no Man despise thee Which some may fancy as Theodoret observes to be a command belonging to others rather than to us who cannot hinder Mens despisals But that 's a mistake in the Apostles opinion who would have Timothy to know that he who commands and teaches others may preserve himself from contempt by this means though he was a young Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Be thou a living Law show in thy self the perfect work of the Law lead such a life as will bear witness to thy words Which life he describes in the words immediately following be thou an example of the Believers in Word in Conversation in Charity in Spirit in Faith in Purity He that thus makes himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Oecumenius expresses it as it were a living Image and Rule of a good Life will preserve himself from contempt and not lose but maintain his Authority To conclude this there is nothing the Devil more desires and endeavours than to alienate the hearts of the People from their Ministers and therefore they should take the greatest care to do nothing that may give the least occasion of it And here I cannot forbear to mind you of one thing which hath given no small Scandal which is the not keeping your Houses and that part of the House of God which belongs to the care of some Ministers in good Repair and leaving them so to their Successors This argues a very careless or covetous sordid Spirit minding nothing but a Mans self and the present World and having no consideration of the future I hope I need not exhort you to observe the LXXV Canon of our Church which requires you not to resort to any Taverns or Ale houses at any time other than for your honest necessities c. Which occasions cannot be frequent nor of any long continuance I shall only tell you that Julian the Apostate in his famous Letter to Arsacius the High Priest of the Pagan Religion in Galatia having commended the Exemplary Charity of Christians to the imitation of his Priests adds after some other good Admonitions of governing their Families well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Exhort a Priest that he neither go into the Theatre nor drink in a Tavern nor exercise any base or ignominoius art Honour those that obey these Orders and put the disobedient out of their Office Fpist XLIX This showes how sensible he was of the necessity of the Apostolical Precept that he who ministred to God should have a good report of them which are without i. e. are not of his Religion 1 Tim. III. 7. To Conclude think often what an honour it is to serve the Lord Jesus and what Care he took of his Flock How invaluable the Souls of Men are which he purchased with his Blood What an inestimable Treasure the Gospel of Christ is wherewith you are intrusted in what an high Station God hath placed you and then you will never submit to so much as any mean Action but do such things as may procure you esteem or at least prevent contempt And to keep this Good Spirit in you which I have described it would be of singular Use to read every Lord's day at least every Ordination Sunday the Vows and Promises you made when you were admitted into Holy Orders Which are so Solemn that it is impossible not to be moved by them if they be not merely read but seriously weighed and considered These Instructions I have Written in the midst of great variety of Business and with many interruptions which may make them defective in many Particulars and less accurate than they might otherwise have been But what they want in that will be made up I hope by the sincere desire I have to do good and by the Grace of God accompanying all honest endeavours Unto which Grace I most heartily commend you and rest Your Affectionate Brother Sy. Eliens March 19. 1697. Books Written by the R. R. Symon Patrick D. D. now Lord Bishop of Ely and Printed for Richard Chiswell THE Parable of the Pilgrim written to a Friend The 6 Edition 4to 1681. Mensa Mystica Or a Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper In which the Ends of its Institution are so manifested our Addresses to it so directed our Behaviour there and afterward so composed that we may not lose the Profits which are to be received by it With Prayers and Thanksgivings inserted To which is annexed Aqua Genitalis A Discourse concerning Baptism In which is inserted a Discourse to perswade to a confirmation of the Baptismal Vow 8vo Jewish Hypocrisie A Caveat to the present Generation Wherein is shewn both the false and the true way to a Nations or Persons compleat Happiness from the sickness and recovery of the Jewish State To which is added A Discourse upon Micah 6. 8. belonging to the same matter 8vo Divine Arithmatick A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Samuel Jacomb Minister of St. Mary-Woolnoth-Church in Lombard-street London With an Account of his Life 8vo A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Mr. Tho. Grigg Rector of St. Andrew-Vndersharft London 4to An Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8vo Heart's Ease Or a Remedy against all Troubles With a Consolatory Discourse particularly directed to those who have lost their Friends and Relations To which is added Two Papers printed in the time of the late Plague The sixth Edition corrected 12mo 1695. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in 1 Tim. 3. 15. 4to An Examination of Bellarmin's Second Note of the Church viz. ANTIQVITY 4to An Examination of the Texts which Papists cite out of the Bible to prove the Supremacy of St. Peter and of the Pope over the whole Church In Two Parts 4to An Answer to a Book spread abroad by the Romish Priests Entituled The Touchstone of the Reformed Gospel wherein the True Doctrine of the Church of England and many Texts of the Holy Scripture are faithfully explained 8vo 1692. A private Prayer to be used in difficult times A Thanksgiving for our late wonderful Deliverance A Prayer for Charity Peace and Unity chiefly to be used in Lent A Sermon Preached upon St. Peter's Day printed with Enlargements 4to A Sermon Preached in St. James's Chappel before the Prince of Orange Jan. 20. 1688. on Isaiah 11. 6. A Second Part of the Sermon before the Prince of Orange on the same Text. Preached in Covent-Garden A Sermon Preached before the Queen in March 1688 9. on Colos 3. 15. A Sermon against Murmuring Preached at Covent-Garden in Lent 1688 9. on 1 Cor. 10. 10. A Sermon against Censuring Preached at Covent-Garden in Advent 1688. on 1
Cor. 4. 10. Fast-Sermon before the King and Queen April 16. 1690. on Proverbs 14. 34. A Thanksgiving-Sermon before the Lords Nov. 26. 1691. for reducing of Ireland and the King 's safe Return On Deut. 4. 9. A Fast-Sermon before the Queen April 8. 1692. On Numb 10. 9. A Sermon before the Lords Nov. 5. 1696. on Dan. 4. 35. Sermon before the Lord Mayor at St. Brides Church on Easter-Munday 1696. on 2 Tim. 2. 8. A Commentary on the First Book of Moses called Geneses 4to 1695. A Commentary on the Second Book of Moses called Exodus 4to 1697. A Commentary on the Third Book of Moses called Leviticus 4to 1697. Commentary on the Fourth Book of Moses called Numbers now in the Press Dr. THOMAS TENISON now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his Sermon concerning Discretion in giving Alms. 1688. Sermon against Self-love before the House of Commons 1689. Sermon of doing Good to Posterity before Their Majesties 1689 90. Sermon concerning the Wandring of the Mind in God's Service before the Queen Feb. 15. 1690. Sermon of the Folly of Atheism before the Queen Feb. 22. 1690. Sermon Preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Clergy-mens Sons Decemb 3. 1691. Sermon concerning the Celestial Body of a Christian before the Queen on Easter-day 1694. Ser Sermon concerning Holy Resolution before the King at Kensington Decemb. 30. 1694. on Psal 129. 106. His Sermon at the Funeral of Queen Mary in the Abby-Church Westminster On Eccles 7. 14. A Vindication of Their Majesties Authority to fill the Sees of the deprived Bishops in a Letter occasioned by Dr. B 's Refusal of the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells 4to A Discourse concerning the Unreasonableness of a new Separation on Account of the Oaths to the present Government With an Answer to the History of Passive Obedience so far as relates to them 4to A Vindication of the said Discourse concerning the Unreasonableness of a new Separation from the Exceptions made against it in a Tract called A brief Answer to the said Discourse c. 4 to Rushworth's Historical Collections The Third Part in Two Volumes Containing the Principal matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. to the end of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that period Fol. 1692. in 2 Vol. A Discourse of the Pastoral Care By Gilbert Burnet D. D. Ld. Bishop of Sarum 1692. Origo Legum Or a Treatise of the Origine of Laws and their Obliging Power as also of their great Variety and why some Laws are immutable and some not but may suffer change or cease to be suspended or abrogated In seven Books By George Dawson Fol. 1694. Bp. Burnet's Four Discourses delivered to the Clergy of the Diocess of Sarum Concerning I. Truth of the Christian Religion II. The Divinity and Death of Christ III. The Infallibility and Authority of the Church IV. The Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church A Brief Discourse concerning the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common-Prayer in answer to a Book intituied A brief Discourse of the Vnlawfulness of the Common-Prayer-Worship By John Williams D. D. 4to 1694. A true Representation of the absurd and mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the Name of the Muggletonians 4to 1694. Memoirs of the most Reverend THOMAS CRANMER Archbishop of Canterbury Wherein the History of the Church and the Reformation of it during the Primacy of the said Archbishop are greatly illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now first published In Three Books Collected chiefly from Records Registers Authentick Letters and other Original Manuscripts By John Strype M. A. Fol. 1694. The History of the Troubles and Trial of WILLIAM LAVD L. Archbishop of Canterbury wrote by himself during his Imprisonment in the Tower To which is prefixed the Diary of his own Life faithfully and entirely Published from the Original Copy and subjoined a Supplement to the preceding History The Archbishop's Last Will His large Answer to the Lord Say's Speech concerning Liturgies His Annual Accounts of his Province delivered to the King and some other things relating to the History Published by Henry Wharton Chaplain to Archbishop Sancroft Fol. Bishop of Sarum's Sermon at the Funeral of Archbishop Tillotson 1694. Archbishop Tillotson's Sermons of Sincerity and Constancy in the Faith and Profession of the True Religion being the First Volume Published from his Originals by his Chaplain Dr. Barker 2d 3d. and 4th Volumes of Seamons of the said Archbp. Published by Dr. Barker A Fifth Volume of the same now in the Press Dr. W. Outram's 20 Sermons the 2d Edition 1697. Dr. Hezik Burton's Discourses in Two Vol. in 8vo Published by Dr. Tillotson Mr. Hen. Wharton's Sermons Preached in Lambeth Chappel In Two Vol. 8vo With an Accout of his Life