sufficient Revenue for a Clergy-Man imposing a Tax in the nature of a mulct upon Pluralists possessing more would contribute very little And if the necessary helps to Learning be denied to the Clergy they cannot maintain the Honour and Well-being of the Church nor defend the cause of Christianity in general or of the reformed Religion in particular as it ought to be What can be expected from a Clergy-man however Learned and Industrious when through want of a proportionable Estate he shall not be able to obtain the Instruments of doing good of performing eminent Service to the Church or to the World when his Library must be reduced to a Concordance a Postil and a Polyanthea and his Purse will reach no further Of these indeed Mr. Selden hath said the Library of a Clergy-man doth consist and from thence taketh occasion to upbraid them of Ignorance The Charge indeed then was false for the Clergy were then in a flourishing condition and had arrived to as great an height of Learning as was ever known in the Christian Church But if by the diminution of the encouragements and revenues of the Clergy their Libraries should be indeed reduced to such a condition they would soon give just occasion to the Enemies of the Church to upbraid them of Ignorance and to make their advantage of it If we call to mind all the famous Writings of our Clergy published since the Reformation to the increase and support of Religion the advancement of Knowledge and the honour of the Nation We shall find that they were almost all written by those who were well preferred in the Church A Soul oppressed with Poverty can never raise itself to attempt any great design in this Nature or if it should attempt it in a condition unable to purchase the necessary helps of Learning the attempt would be but vain I know that the Case of Mr. Hooker will be objected against this Assertion But it is a vulgar Errour which the Author of his Life hath also taken up that he was but meanly preferred For to my certain knowledge at the time when he wrote his celebrated Books of Ecclesiastical Polity he had very great preferments of which he died possessed It is no less necessary to the support of Religion that a Clergy-man be able to give Alms liberally and to maintain some sort of Hospitality in the place where he liveth as well to give Example to the Laity as to oblige the Poorer sort to the Practice of their Duty by that Influence which the Application of Charity to them shall obtain The necessity of this is not indeed so obvious in great Cities But whoever knows the state of Country Parishes and the Conditions and Humours of the Poorer sort there will confess that a sense of Religion can hardly be kept up among them unless it be in the Power of the Parish-Priest to oblige them by Charity and Hospitality Above all it is necessary to the preservation of Religion that the Clergy do not want those helps which will give to them Respect and Authority among the People which a bare Competence can never do unless they be able to maintain themselves in a condition above the common Rank of Men. It is certain that it is not so much the force of Reason or the sense of Duty which maintains Religion among many of the meaner and unlearned sort as the Opinion which they have of their Pastors and the deference which they are taught to pay to their Judgment and Direction If the Clergy should be reduced to a bare Subsistence all this authority would fall to the Ground and their Persons thereby becoming contemptible to the People Religion would be despised with them Even among Persons of greater Knowledge and better Education Piety and Vertue in that case could scarce be maintained when such would scorn to converse with those whose Poverty made them far Inferiour to their Quality Men may frame to themselves what Systems they please in their Closets and in Speculation and imagine that the Clergy however poor will still be honoured for their Works sake that Vertue and a conscientious Discharge of their Duty will procure to them everlasting respect and Authority But when these Systems are reduced to practice Experience demonstrates the Folly of them If an Angel should descend from Heaven and take upon him the Ministerial Office if he abstained from working Miracles he would never be able to procure any great Respect to himself or do eminent Service to the Church and to Religion unless he might converse with the Gentry upon equal ground and were raised a degree above the Commonalty Let any Gentleman fancy himself stript of his large Possessions and reduced to a bare subsistence and then let him imagine if he can that his Vertue will secure that Authority among his Neighbours which a large Estate and Power delegated to him for the sake of it did before procure to him In the last place it is necessary that additional Provisions be made for the Reward of those Clergy-men who by extraordinary Learning and Industry shall deserve more than others For without this the Church would be deprived of the benefit of almost all the extraordinary Labours of her Clergy since scarce any would be found willing to undertake any unnecessary pains if after all there were no hopes of being distinguished from others who labour not so much as well by their Preferment as by their Merit It is commonly said indeed that Prebends and other Dignities in Cathedral Churches were intended for Rewards of extraordinary Merit and are sufficient to that purpose But it is to be considered that those are given promiscuously as Benefices are to Men of ordinary as extraordinary worth and that it never did or can happen otherwise that the Persons of extraordinary worth to whom they are given are generally those who ply next at Court that Rewards of extraordinary Merit ought to be provided for the Clergy of other Diocesses as well as for them that many Bishops have not the gift of one Prebend wherewith to Reward their Chaplains and deserving Clergy and the Arch-Bishop himself of no more than three and consequently that no constant Provision can be made for extraordinary Merit otherwise than by Pluralities Other great inconveniencies which would arise from confining the Revenues of the Clergy to a bare Subsistence might be urged as that it would reflect dishonour upon Religion that it would soon introduce a general Ignorance that it would induce them to follow a Secular Life that it would tempt them to prevaricate to flatter Vice in Rich Men and to betray the Cause of Religion in times of Tryal such as we lately saw These and the above-mentioned Considerations make it absolutely necessary that the Clergy should be endowed with and permitted to enjoy ample Possessions and Revenues God therefore foretold it as the great Blessing of his Church which should be founded among the Gentiles that Kings should be her
A DEFENCE OF Pluralities OR Holding two BENEFICES WITH Cure of Souls As now Practised in the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. A DEFENCE OF Pluralities Or Holding Two Benefices with Cure of Souls As now Practised in the Church of ENGLAND INTRODUCTION THE Use and Continuance of Pluralities in the Church of England since the Reformation hath been much inveighed against ever since the rise of Puritanism and represented as injurious to Religion and subservient only to the Avarice and Ambition of the Clergy That the Puritans should with so much heat oppose it is not much to be wondered because it was allowed by the Church and the opposition carried with it an apparent shew of religious Zeal To that waspish Generation it was a sufficient ground of opposing any thing if it were practised or permitted by the Church however lawful and indifferent or perhaps decent and necessary and no Artisice was thought unlawful which might create to them an opinion of Sanctity among the People But that an Accusation raised against the Church by her professed Enemies should be continued and prosecuted by her own Members we should have just cause to wonder if we did not know by frequent Examples to what Intemperancies Mankind may be betrayed by the use of false Principles None can be ignorant what Clamours have in late years been raised and carried on against Pluralities what Accusatious have been formed against them in the Writings and Discourse of many otherwise deservedly eminent how they are represented as the great Scandal of the Reformation and the most pernicious Relique of Popery that they are traduced as the Cause of many Evils and Inconveniencies in the Church affirmed to be sinful in the nature of them or little less than such obstructing the good of Souls and destroying the honour and welfare of the Church And to lay the greater load upon them all the violent Exclamations brought formerly by good and zealous men against those enormous Pluralities which obtained in the Church of Rome are applied to the present permission and practice of them in the Church of England as if the same thing were practised among us without any restraint or limitation The Clergy in the mean while assured of the justice of their Cause and impertinence of these Exclamations have remained silent expecting that this unreasonable Accusation should cease with time or at least make no impression upon those whom the solly of Puritanism hath not yet infected But when many Persons of our own Communion engage themselves in the same quarrel and publickly desame the Church upon this account it is not fit the injured Clergy should any longer continue their silence lest it should be thought to imply a Confession of Guilt or give way to all those Inconveniencies which a hasty and imprudent change in this matter might probably produce to the Church I am not insensible what a difficult Province I have undertaken what Opposition and Censures will attend it Many will esteem it a Paradox and most will conclude it a rash Undertaking to oppose Reason to a Popular Cry and to endeavour to defend what almost all men by hearing only one side have been long since induced to condemn Many good men really zealous and concerned for the honour of Religion will perhaps suppose it to be a Scandal to apologize for what they have hitherto believed to be no less than Evil. To these I doubt not to give intire satisfaction if they will judge with Candour and Indifferency Others who are farr the most violent Adversaries only zealous in pretence affecting to gain the Reputation of Extraordinary Piety not really concerned for the Honour of Religion but endeavouring to recommend themselves by the pretence of it will decry the Author of this Apology as an Enemy to Religion and Purity as an ungodly Pluralist who prefers his Interest to the honour of God and the good of others nor will perhaps stop here the effects of their Anger if he be so unfortunate as to be discovered Indeed it is so easy and withal so advantageous a Subject to expose the Faults of others and especially the supposed corruptions of a National Church that the Inclination of Ambitious men to oppose this innocent practice of the Church may easily be accounted for It seems to unwary persons to be an evident Argument of exalted Sanctity to oppugn the received Discipline of any Communion since this insinuates as if they were more religious and knowing than a whole Nation To such men nothing is more grievous than to be tied down to the ordinary Rules of Religion and Government since to be religious in the common way would never distinguish them from other men Somewhat must be continually attempted by them which may make the credulous part of Mankind cry out See a man more religious than all the Clergy who went before or are contemporary with him They all practised or at least allowed a scandalous Custom This man's Piety is extraordinary and qualifieth him beyond others to be a Governour of the Church It is lamentable indeed to consider that the credulity of Mankind should be so easily wrought upon by designing men and that Impostors of this kind should seldom want success Such Exclamations against the received Order and Discipline of the Church have ever since the first Foundation of it been the Common-place to all ambitious Clergy-men desiring to appear zealous Nothing is more easy than to discover vices in another or corruptions in a Society This is a Subject which will afford constant matter to publick Harangues and can never be exhausted At the same time nothing is more popular in that it qualisteth the perverse nature of men who generally love to hear things and persons of publick esteem decried and secureth to the pretended Zealot the reputation of a more elevated Piety than that which appears in any of those whom he opposeth With this Artifice a man may not only create Authority to himself but cover his own Faults however gross and numerous by diverting and fixing the eyes of men upon the Faults of others or if his own Crimes be too notorious to be dissembled compensating for them by a wonderful appearance of Zeal He that will vehemently exclaim against Pluralities and the other supposed Imperfections of the Church may safely neglect all the parts of his own duty may be Non-resident may â—ordidly enrich himself and his Relations may injure his Equals oppress his Inferiours and all this shall be easily forgiven in consideration of his Zeal If I would recommend my self to a Lecture in the City I could take no more successful method than to inveigh against Pluralities to accuse the Clergy of negligence and covetousness The name of a zealous Reformer would set me beyond all competition of real Worth and Learning If I desired to excuse any scandalous Immoralities which cannot be dissembled I would arraign all the Corruptions of the
Prelates in the Council of Trent is produced with ostentation against Pluralities yet I make use of the same History of that Council and therein I find these words The wiser sort of Prelates agreed uniformly to inhibit all of what condition soever to have more than three Befices It is acknowledged that the Pope formerly gave Dispensations for 〈◊〉 without number or measure and presently added that it is not much better now nay far worse Of the truth of this let every man judge Our Church hath confined her Dispensations to the number of two Benefices and the measure to the distance of 30 miles The number is never exceeded the distance very rarely and that only when the Archbishops are over-ruled by an express command from Court which hath not been done in late years Father Paul could have told the Author of this Objection that in the Church of Rome 30 or 40 Benefices in divers places of Christendom were often united in favour of some one person that Bishopricks were often given to men not having the Episcopal Order and that Pope Clement VII did in the year 1534 grant to this Nephew the Cardinal de Medicis all the Benefices and Spiritual Preferments of the whole Christian World Secular and Regular with and without cure being vacant for six months together Or if these Examples will not satisfie let the Practice of Plurality in Archbishop Peckham's time as it was before set down be remembred Will any one now say that such exorbitancy of Pluralities is now practised in our Church After the conviction of this principal article of accusation it will not be necessary to pass on to the consutation of lesser mistakes as that formerly in this Kingdom many Bishopricks and Abbies were injoyed by Foreigners who never saw them Whereas there never were in England above four such Bishops and not one Abbot that I could ever find That Dispensations were then few because they must be had from Rome came slowly c. whereas their Legates and Procurators here resident were wont to grant them That there are ten Dispensations for Pluralities now for one then which is affirmed without any proof or ground and that few of those dispensed with were Non-resident upon both their Livings as now whereas then Bishops and Noblemen were wont to retain in their Families five times as many Chaplains and Clergymen as they do now The last occasion of Scandal pretended to be administred by Pluralities is that it causeth the Clergy to appear worldly-minded whereas they ought rather in imitation of the first Preachers of the Gospel to affect or at least sit down contented with Poverty that they ought only to propose to themselves the glory of God and not their own interest and that it is unevangelical to desire increase of possession These Topicks appear very plausible indeed and were therefore employed against the Secular Clergy formerly by the Mendicant Friers and lately by their successours in hypocrisie the Puritans Yet it was always observed of them that they were more greedy of riches and at the same time more sordid than any other generation of men Whether the Observation be not true of these also let the world judge But to come to the merits of the cause it is a very fallacious argument to infer from the Poverty and Simplicity of the first planters of the Gospel that their Successours ought to be so It may with as much reason be deduced from the community of possessions which obtained among all Christians in the Apostolick times that the goods of all Christians ought to be common now In the beginning of Christianity the Laity as well as Clergy were generally poor For not many wise not many mighty not many noble were called Yet no man thinks it reasonable that the Laity should be now concluded by this example To the first Preachers of the Gospel the Miracles wrought by them created a sufficient regard and reverence but after the ceasing of Miracles that was to be obtained to the Clergy by their Learning and Authority neither of which can be got or maintained without competent riches Certainly God best understood what was fit to be done herein when he founded the Church and State of the Jews Yet he commanded the Clergy to be endowed far in proportion above the Laity Whereas now all that the Clergy desire is that the small remaining part of what was anciently given to them by the munificence of our Princes and which after all raiseth them not equal level with ingenuous persons of the Laity should not be taken from them The envy and malignity wherewith almost all sorts of men look upon the possessions of the Clergy is indeed unaccountable It cannot be denied that they are Englishmen and free-born Subjects as well as others that they have the same Rights and Priviledges with others that what they possess was given to them by the same Authority if not greater by which any Laymen hold their Estates that out of their possessions they contribute as much as any others to the support of the publick nay far more than any others in proportion that they live as soberly and inoffensively to say no more as others do yet a competent Estate invested in them shall be envied and maligned which in the most vicious Layman of the Nation would have escaped without envy or murmur As if a man must be made incapable of all the comforts and blessings of life only because he peculiarly attends the publick Service of God and instructs other men in piety and virtue But it is pretended that they are obliged by their profession to seek only the glory of God and to despise the riches of this World All this other Christians are obliged to do as well as they to seek the glory of God in the first place and to despise Riches when they are not consistent with the preservation of Religion But to imagine that a Clergyman ought in no wise to seek his own temporal good or the encrease of possession is Fanatical Non-sense which no man that ever pretended to it would abide by in his own concern It is not contrary to the Gospel nor the design of the Sacred Office simply to desire riches or encrease of possessions but only by sinister methods to procure or to make an ill use of them Now Pluralists are no more inclined by the nature of Plurality to make an ill use of their revenues or possessions than Unalists are by the nature of one Benefice to do the same Any one may perform the duties of a good Clergy-man and a good conscience or he may neglect them in either case It is therefore the ill use not the being of riches which ought to be blamed in Clergymen But I hope the Clergy are not yet so corrupt that it can be justly said that they make not generally as good use of their revenues as other men I have answered all the pretended inconveniencies of Pluralities and shewn