made the Christian Doctrine ridiculous to found its Fundamental Precepts on extravagant Notions and Mystical Contemplations And so for the Love of our Neighbours to allow only a Love of Benevolence and Charity and not of Delight and Complacency is to make Nice Distinctions where God hath made none But to take away the Love of Complacency in Friends and Relations and the Blessings which God gives for the Comfort of Life is to overthrow the due Sense of God's Goodness in giving them and to take away a great Measure of that Gratitude we owe to God for them But when any seem very fond of such Notions and shew so much Self-Complacency in them it is impossible upon such Principles that they should love their Neighbours as themselves 4. If you would understand the New Testament aright fix in your Minds a true Scheme of the State of the Controversies of that Time which will give you more light into the true knowledge of the Scriptures than large Volumes of Commentators or the best Systems of Modern Controversies As what the Iewish Notions of Justification by Works and Expiation of Sin were and of God's Decrees of Election and Reprobation as to themselves And what the Principles of the Judaizing Christians were as to the joyning the Law and the Gospel and the Pythagorean Superstition together And what the Gnosticks who were professed Libertines held as to Grace Redemption Liberty Government c. All which tend very much to the clearing the Sense of the New Testament 5. Where the Sense appears doubtful and Disputes have been raised about it enquire into the Sense of the Christian Church in the first Ages as the best Interpreter of Scripture as whether the Apostles left Bishops or Presbyters to succeed them in the Government of Churches Whether the Apostles appointed the Lords Day to be observed as the Day of Publick Worship Whether Baptism were not to be Administred to Infants as well as Circumcision both being Seals of God's Covenant Whether Divine Worship doth not belong to Christ and were â—oâ— given to him in the Hymns and Doxologies of the Primitive Church and Whether Divine Worship can be given to any Creature Whether the Form of Baptism was not understood so as to imply a Trinity of Persons and Whether all true Christians were not Baptized into this Faith and consequently Whether denying the Trinity be not renouncing Christian Baptism These and many other such Questions of great Importance receive great Light from the Writings of the first Ages But some Rules may be very useful for right judging the Sense of those Times 1. To distinguish the Genuine and Supposititious Writings of that Time This hath been examined with so much Care by Learned Men of this last Age that it is no hard matter to make a true Judgment about them 2. In those that are Genuine to distingush the Sense of the Church delivered by them from their own particular Opinions the Sense of the Church is best known by Publick Acts as by Creeds Sacraments Hymns Prayers and Censures of such as oppose or contradict them 3. To put a Difference between the Authority of private Persons and of the Bishops and Governours of the Church who may be presumed to understand the Sense of the Church and the Doctrine of the Apostles better than the other And so Clemens Ignatius Polycarp Theophilus and Irenaeus are more to be trusted as to the Sense and Practice of the Christian Church than such as Hermes and Papias and Tatianus who had neither the Judgment nor the Authority of the other 4. That may be justly looked on as the Sense of the Church which is owned both by the Friends and the Enemies of it The Enemies of Christianity charged them with many Things which the Apologists utterly denied Now we find Pliny charging the Christians with singing Hymns to Christ as to God several Christian Writers of that time mention this but never go about to soften or to excuse or deny it And so we find Lucian deriding the Christians for the Doctrine of Three and One which the Apologists of that time are so far from denying that they assert and vindicate it as appears by Athenagoras and others But these things I only touch at to shew how the Sense of the Church is to be taken and how from thence the Sense of the Scriptures may be cleared OF THE Particular Duties OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY AT A VISITATION October 27 th 1696. My Brethren AS often as it pleases God in his wise Providence to bring me among you in the ordinary Course of my Visitation I cannot satisfie my self that I do my own Duty unless I put you in mind of doing yours We live in an Age wherein the Contempt of the Clergy is too notorious not to be observed but the true Reasons are not so well considered as they ought to be Some to increase the Contempt of the Clergy have given such Reasons of it as seem to make it a light and jesting matter but truly it is very far from being so For the Contempt of Religion is oft-times both the Cause and the Effect of it It is not at all to be wondred at that those who hate to be reformed should hate those whose Duty and Business it ought to be to endeavour to reform them But when Religion is struck at through our Sides we ought with Patience to bear the Wounds and Reproaches we receive in so good a Cause Wo be to us if those who are Enemies to Religion speak well of us For it is a strong Presumption that they take us to be of their side in our Hearts and that we are distinguished only by our Profession which they look on only as our Trade And we give too much occasion for such Suspicions of us if we do not heartily concern our selves for the Honour and Interest of true Religion in the World whatever we may suffer as to our Reputation for the sake of it It is possible that if we go about to humour such Persons in their Infidelity and Contempt of Religion we may escape some hard Words for the present but they cannot but have the greatest inward Contempt and Hatred of all those who live upon Religion and yet have not the Courage to defend it And what Satisfaction can such have when they reflect upon themselves and think what Occasion they have given to confirm such Persons in their Infidelity and to make them think the worse of Religion for their sakes The best thing we can do to recover the Honour of Religion and to set our Profession above Contempt is to apply our selves seriously and conscientiously to do our Duties For if others find that we are in earnest and make it our great Business to do all the Good we can both in the Pulpit and out of it if we behave our selves with that Gravity Sobriety Meekness and Charity which becomes so holy a Profession we shall raise our selves above the common
considered and practised by the Clergy of this Diocese For since it hath pleased God by his wise and over-ruling Providence without my seeking to bring me into this Station in his Church I shall esteem it the best Circumstance of my present Condition if he please to make me an Instrument of doing good among you To this end I thought it necessary in the first place most humbly to implore his Divine Assistance that I might both rightly understand and conscientiously perform that great Duty which is incumbent upon me for without his help all our Thoughts are vain and our best Purposes will be ineffectual But God is not wanting to those who sincerely endeavour to know and to do their Duty and therefore in the next place I set my self as far as my Health and other Occasions would permit to consider the Nature and Extent of my Duty with a Resolution not to be discouraged altho I met with Difficulties in the Performance of it For such is the State and Condition of the World That no Man can design to to do good in it but when that crosses the particular Interests and Inclinations of others he must expect to meet with as much Trouble as their unquiet Passions can give him If we therefore consulted nothing but our own Ease the only way were to let People follow their Humours and Inclinations and to be as little concerned as might be at what they either say or do For if we go about to rowze and awaken them and much more to reprove and reform them we shall soon find them uneasie and impatient for few love to hear of their Faults and fewer to amend them But it is the peculiar Honour of the Christian Religion to have an Order of Men set apart not meerly as Priests to offer Sacrifices for that all Religions have had but as Preachers of Righteousness to set Good and Evil before the People committed to their Charge to inform them of their Duties to reprove them for their Miscarriages and that not in order to their Shame but their Reformation Which requires not only Zeal but Discretion and a great Mixture of Courage and Prudence that we may neither fail in doing our Duty nor in the best means of attaining the end of it If we could reasonably suppose that all those who are bound to tell others their Duties would certainly do their own there would be less need of any such Office in the Church as that of Bishops who are to inspect and govern and visit and reform those who are to watch over others But since there may be too great failings even in these too great neglect in some and disorder in others too great proneness to Faction and Schism and impatience of Contradiction from mere Equals therefore St. Ierom himself grants That to avoid these Mischiefs there was a necessity of a Superiour Order to Presbyters in the Church of God ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertineret Schismatum semina tollerentur as he speaks even where he seems most to lessen the Authority of Bishops But whatever some Expressions of his may be when the Bishop of Ierusalem and the Roman Deacons came into his head his Reasons are very much for the Advantage of Episcopal Government For can any Man say more in point of Reason for it than that nothing but Faction and Disorder followed the Government of Presbyters and therefore the whole Christian Church agreed in the necessity of a higher Order and that the Peace and Safety of the Church depends upon it that if it be taken away nothing but Schisms and Confusions will follow I wish those who magnifie S. Ierom's Authority in this matter would submit to his Reason and Authority both as to the Necessity and Usefulness of the Order of Bishops in the Church But beyond this in several places he makes the Bishops to be Successors of the Apostles as well as the rest of the most Eminent Fathers of the Church have done If the Apostolical Office as far as it concerns the Care and Government of Churches were not to continue after their Decease how came the best the most learned the nearest to the Apostolical Times to be so wonderfully deceiv'd For if the Bishops did not succeed by the Apostles own Appointment they must be Intruders and Usurpers of the Apostolical Function and can we imagine the Church of God would have so universally consented to it Besides the Apostles did not die all at once but there were Successors in several of the Apostolical Churches while some of the Apostles were living Can we again imagine those would not have vindicated the Right of their own Order and declared to the Church That this Office was peculiar to themselves The Change of the Name from Apostles to Bishops would not have been sufficient Excuse for them for the Presumption had been as great in the Exercise of the Power without the Name So that I can see no Medium but that either the Primitive Bishops did succeed the Apostles by their own Appointment and Approbation which Irenaeus expresly affirms Qui ab Apostolis ipsis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis or else those who governed the Apostolical Churches after them out-went Diotrephes himself for he only rejected those whom the Apostles sent but these assumed to themselves the Exercise of an Apostolical Authority over the Churches planted and setled by them But to let us see how far the Apostles were from thinking that this Part of their Office was peculiar to themselves we find them in their own time as they saw occasion to appoint others to take care of the Government of the Churches within such bounds as they thought fit Thus Timothy was appointed by St. Paul at Ephesus to examine the Qualifications of such as were to be Ordained and not to lay hands suddenly on any to receive Accusations if there were cause even against Elders to proceed judicially before two or three Witnesses and if there were Reason to give them a publick Rebuke And that this ought not to be thought a slight matter he presently adds I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality Here is a very strict and severe Charge for the Impartial Exercise of Discipline in the Church upon Offenders And although in the Epistle to Titus he be only in general required to set in order the things that are wanting and to ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him yet we are not to suppose that this Power extended not to a Iurisdiction over them when he had Ordained them For if any of those whom he Ordained as believing them qualified according to the Apostles Rules should afterwards demean themselves otherwise and be self-willed froward given to Wine Brawlers Covetous or any way
all Bargains are so repugnant to the Design of it therefore the Ecclesiastical Law hath fixed that detestable Name upon it For all Contractus non gratuiti in these things savour of turpe Lucrum and tend to bring in turpe Commercium into the Church which would really overturn the whole Design of that Ministry which was designed for the Salvation of Souls And therefore it was necessary that when Persons had received by the Favour of Temporal Princes and other Benefactors who were Founders of Churches such Endowments as might encourage them in their Function that severe Laws should be made against any such sordid and mischievous Contracts And such there were here in England long before the excellent Stat. of 31 Eliz. c. 6. although it seems the Force of them was so much worn out as to make that Statute necessary for avoiding of Simony which is there explained to be Corruption in bestowing or getting Possession of Promotions Ecclesiastical In a Council at London under Lanfranc in the Conqueror's time Simony was forbidden under the Name of Buying and selling of Orders And it could be nothing else before the Churches Revenue was setled But in the time of Henry I. Ecclesiastical Benefices were forbidden to be bought or sold and it was Deprivation then to any Clergyman to be convicted of it and a Layman was to be Out-lawed and Excommunicated and Deprived of his Right of Patronage And this was done by a Provincial Synod of that time In the Reign of Henry II. it was decreed That if any Person received any Money for a Presentation he was to be for ever deprived of the Patronage of that Church and this was not meerly a Provincial Constitution but two Kings were present Hen. II. and his Son and added their Authority to it This was not depriving a Man of his Free-hold by a Canon as a Learned Gentleman calls it for here was the greatest Authority Temporal as well as Ecclesiastical added to it But we are told these Canons were of as little Effect as that of Othobon which made all Simoniacal Contracts void but some of the most judicious Lawyers have held that Simony being contractus ex turpi causâ is void between Parties All that I aim at is to shew that by our old Ecclesiastical Law Simoniacus incurred a Deprivation and Disability before the Stat. 31. Eliz. and therein I have the Opinion of a very Learned Judge concurring with me IV. Dilapidations By which the Ecclesiastical Law understands any considerable Impairing the Edifices Woods and Revenues belonging to Ecclesiastical Persons by Virtue of their Places For it is the greatest Interest and Concernment of the Church to have things preserved for the Good of Successors and it is a part of common Iustice and Honesty so to do And the Lord Coke positively affirms That Dilapidation is a good Cause of Deprivation And it was so resolved by the Judges in the Kings Bench 12 Iac. Not by Virtue of any new Law or Statute but by the old Ecclesiastical Law For which Coke refers to the Year-Books which not only shew what the Ecclesiastical Law then was but that it was allowed by the Common Law of England and we are told that is never given to change but it may be forced to it by a New Law which cannot be pretended in this case And by the Old Constitutions here received the Bishops are required to put the Clergy in mind of keeping their Houses in sufficient Reparations and if they do it not within two Months the Bishop is to take care it be done out of the Profits of the Benefice By the Injunctions of Edw. VI. and Queen Elizabeth all Persons having Ecclesiastical Benefices are required to set apart the Fifth of their Revenue to Repair their Houses and afterwards to maintain them in good condition V. Pluralities By the Ecclesiastical Law which was here received the actual receiving Institution into a second Benefice made the first void ipso Iure and if he sought to keep both above a Month the second was void too Lyndwood observes That the Ecclesiastical Law had varied in this matter And it proceeded by these Steps which are more than Lyndwood mentions I. It was absolutely forbidden to have Two Parishes if there were more than Ten Inhabitants in them because no Man could do his Duty in Both Places And if any Bishop neglected the Execution of it he was to be Excommunicated for Two Months and to be restored only upon promise to see this Canon executed II. The Rule was allowed to hold as to Cities but an Exception was made as to small and remote Places where there was a greater Scarcity of Persons to supply them III. If a Man had Two Benefices it was left to his Choice which he would have but he could not hold both This kind of Option was allowed by the Ecclesiastical Law then in force IV. That if he takes a second Benefice that Institution is void by the Third Council of Lateran under Alexander 3. V. That by taking a second the first is void which is the famous Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council VI. That if he were not contented with the last but endeavour to keep both he should be deprived of both And this was the Ecclesiastical Law as it was declared in our Provincial Constitutions But the general Practice was to avoid the former according to the Lateran Council These were very severe Canons but that one Clause of the Pope's Dispensing Power made them to signifie little unless it were to advance his Power and Revenue For when the Dispensing Power came to be owned the Law had very little Force especially as to the Consciences of Men. For if it were a Law of God how could any man dispense with it unless it were as apparent that he had given a Power in some Cases to Dispense as that he had made the Law Those Casuists are very hard put to it who make Residence Iure Divino and yet say the Pope may dispense with it which at last comes only to this That the Pope can authoritatively declare the sufficiency of the Cause so that the whole matter depends upon the Cause whether there can be any sufficient to excuse from Personal Residence It is agreed on all hands that the habitual Neglect of a Charge we have taken upon our selves is an evil thing and that it is so to heap up Preferments meerly for Riches or Luxury or Ambition but the main Question in point of Conscience is What is a sufficient Cause to justifie any Man's breaking so reasonable and just a Rule as that of Residence is It cannot be denied that the eldest Canons of the Church were so strict and severe that they made it unlawful for any Man to go from that Church in which he first received Orders as well as to take another Benefice in it and so for any
Saxon times there were both here There were Ecclesiastical Law which related to Judicial Cases wherein a publick Penance was injoyned in order to the Churches Satisfaction But there were many Cases which were not publick and yet great Care was to be used as to the Direction of Penitents as appears by the Penitentials of Theodore and Bede in the Saxon times Whereby we learn that a Difference was to be observed as to the Nature of Offences and the Circumstances of Persons and Actions and the Measure of Contrition and the particular Method is set down in the penitential Books which was in very material Circumstances different from the Methods used in the Church of Rome But it is a thing necessary for every parochial Minister to be able to settle doubting Consciences and to put them into the best Methods of avoiding Sin for the future without which the Absolution of the Priest signifies nothing For where God doth not absolve the Church cannot 5. Giving a good Example to the People committed to your Charge This is often mentioned in the Saxon Canons Council at Cloveshoo c. 8. Canons of Egbert 14 15 18 19 33. in the Laws of Alfred c. 3. of Edward c. 3. Constit. of Odo c. 4 5. of Edgar 57 58 59 60 61 64. of Canutus c. 26. And in the Conclusion of one Collection of his Laws are these Words Happy is that Shepherd who by his good Life and Doctrine leads his Flock to Eternal and Heavenly Ioys and happy is that Flock that follows such a Shepherd who hath rescued them out of the Devil's Hands and put them into God's 6. Lastly the Performance of all these Duties supposes a constant Residence among your People without which it is impossible to discharge them in such a manner as to give them and your selves full Satisfaction This I am sensible is a very nice and tender Point and the Difficulties of it do arise from these things On one side it is said 1. That there is an Allowance by the Law given to several Persons to hold more Benefices than one and since the Distribution of Benefices is not by the Law of God but by the Law of the Land what Fault is there in making use of the Privileges which the Law gives But there cannot be constant Residence in more Places than one 2. That the general Service of the Church is more to be preferred than taking Care of a particular Parish because the necessary Duties of a Parish may be supplied by persons approved by the Bishop and a single Living seldom affords a sufficient Competency for persons to be capable of publick Service 3. That the way of Subsistence for the Clergy is now much altered from what it was when Celibacy was enjoyned For a Competency was always supposed where Residence was strictly required and what was a Competency to a single person is not so to a Family 4. That the Church hath a power of Relaxing the Severity of Ancient Canons from the different Circumstances of things and when the general Good of the Church may be more promoted therein as in the Removal of Clergymen from one Diocess to another and the Translation of Bishops 5. That the Case is now very different as to Dispensations from what it was in the Church of Rome as to the Number of Benefices and the manner of obtaining them that a great Restraint is laid by our Laws upon Pluralities and our own Metropolitan is the Judge when they are fit to be granted But on the other side it is objected 1. That in the first Constitution of parochial Churches every Incumbent was bound to a strict Residence so in the Canons of Egbert Can. 25. Presbyters are said to be settled in those Churches which had a House and Glebe belonging to them and many Canons were then expresly made That no Person should have more than one Church and it is said in the Capitulars that this had been several times decreed And so it is in Herardus his Collection of Canons Can. 49. in Isaac Lingonensis Tit. 1. c. 24. in Chrodegangus c. 67. in Ivo Carnotensis part 3. c. 51. in Regino l. 1. c. 254. The like we find in the Spanish Churches Concil Tolet. 16. c. 5. and thence in the Canonâ—Law C. 10. Q. 3. c. 3. and in the Greek Churches Concil 7. Can. 15. C. 21. Q. 1. c. 1. And as soon as the Abuse crept in in these Western Churches it was complained of and endeavoured to be redressed Concil Paris 6. c. 49. Concil Aquisgran 2. part 2. c. 5. Concil Metens c. 3. That afterwards not meerly the Mendicant Friars complained of them as some have suggested but some of the greatest Bishops have been zealous against them as Gulielmus Parisiensis Peraldus Archbishop of Lions Iacobus de Vitriaco Bishop of Acon Robert de Câ—orton Cardinal Guiard Bishop of Cambray and Gregory IX declared That he could only dispense with the Penalty of the Law After a solemn Disputation at Paris it was determined against Pluralities if one Benefice be sufficient and all the Divines joyned with the Bishop therein except two so that it seemed to be the current Opinion of the Learned and Pious Men of that Time Aquinas saith It is a doubtful Point but Cajetan is positive against them So that all the Zeal against Pluralities is not to be imputed to the Piques of the Friars against the Secular Clergy although there is no Question but they were so much the more earnest in it but in the Council of Trent the Bishops of Spain were the most zealous as to the Point of Residence and the Friars against it as appears by Catharinus and others 2. Setting aside all Authorities the Argument in Point of Conscience seems the strongest against Non-residence because persons have voluntarily undertaken the Cure of Souls within such Limits and although the Bounds be fixed by Human Authority yet since he hath undertaken such a Charge personally knowing those Bounds it lies upon his Conscience to discharge the Duties incumbent upon him which cannot be done without constant Residence as the Magistrates are bound in Conscience to do their Duty although the Bounds are settled by Human Laws And so in the case of Property Human Laws bind so that it is a Sin to invade what is settled by them And if it be left to a Man's Conscience whether a Man answers his Obligation more by personal Attendance or by a Curate whether the Honour of Religion and the Good of Souls be more promoted and the Peace of his own Mind secured by one or the other it is no hard matter to judge on which side it must go It is impossible to defend all the Arguments used in the old Canons against Pluralities as that Polygamy is unlawful under the Gospel So that as a Bishop hath but one City and a Man but one Wife so a Presbyter ought to have but one
publick Service the Severity of the Ancient Canons is with Reason abated and a person is supposed to undertake the Cure with those Measures which the Law and Canons allow But every Man who regards the doing his Duty out of Conscience will consider how much lies upon himself and that the original Intention of the Church and Laws was That no Man should undertake more than he was willing and ready to discharge as far as one Man's Abilities could go For in great Cities one great Parish requires more than several Churches in the Countrey and in such Cases an equitable Construction must be put upon such Canons which require personal performance of these Duties OF THE MAINTENANCE OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY BY LAW THE Subject I intend now to consider is the Incouragement which the Parochial Clergy have by Law for the doing their Duties Which are the Manse the Oblations and the Tithes I. The Manse or House and Glebe In the Canons of Egbert it is said Can. 25. That an entire Manse ought to belong to every Church without any other than Ecclesiastical Service By a Manse Mr. Selden saith in the old Charters the same is meant as a Casat or Hyde of Land Bignonius and Sirmondus say So much Glebe as was an Imployment for an Husbandman and two Servants Spelman saith It takes in the House too Lyndwood saith As much Land as would Imploy a Yoke of Oxen and so the Gloss on the Canon Law But in another place the Gloss saith The Manse is the original Endowment of the Church without which it cannot be supplied and without which it could not be consecrated For the Endowment was first to be produced before the Building Collatâ primitùs donatione solemni are the Words of the Canon Law And the same appears by Concil Valent. 3. c. 9. Concil Bracar 2. c. 5. Vit. Udalrici c. 7. Regino l. 1. c. 23 24. which is there explained to be a substantial Sustenance for those who were to attend the Service of that Church And in the Acts of Consecration of a parochial Church in Baluzius the Bishop in the first place declares himself satisfied with the Endowment unde dignè domus Dei sustentaretur And upon this the Original Right of Patronage was founded not upon the Soil which gave no Title where there was not a Church built and endowed with a competent Subsistence So that all Advowsons or Rights of Presentation in private Patrons were at first Appendant to Manors and not in Gross because the Right came from the Endowment out of the Manor And the Name of Patron in the Sense of the Feudal Law is the same with Lord of the Fee and so Beneficium is a Feudal Term and till the Feudal Law prevailed the Name of Patrom is rarely used in this Sense And when it came to be used the Patrons in France would have brought those who had their Benefices to a kind of Feudal Service and to have received Investiture from them This Mr. Selden drives at as though the Patrons had the Right of Investiture belonging to them because some such Practice is often complained of in the French Canons and as often condemned not meerly by Ecclesiastical Canons but by as good Laws as any were then made It cannot be denied that bad Practices are the Occasion of making good Laws but doth it follow that those Practices which were against Law were the Law of that time Yet this is Mr. Selden's way of Arguing he grants That there were Laws made but they were little obeyed Must we therefore conclude those illegal Practices to have been the standing Law and the Laws themselves to be illegal There were two things aimed at by those Patrons 1. To keep the Clergy in a sole Dependance on themselves witout Regard to the Bishop's Authority 2. To make such Bargains with them as they thought fit Both these were thought necessary to be redressed by Laws since the Canons were slighted by them And if the Practice be good against Law in one case why not in the other also Why is not Simony justified as well as the Patron 's absolute Power over the Incumbents but the Laws were severe against both For in the time of Lud. Pius A. D. 816. there was a solemn Assembly of the Estates of the Empire where several Ecclesiastical Laws were passed and among the rest these two 1. That no Presbyters should be put in or put out of Churches without the Authority and Consent of the Bishops and that the Bishops should not refuse those who were presented if they were probabilis Vitae Doctrinae i.e. such as the Bishops could not object against either for Life or Learning 2. That every Church should have an entire Manse belonging to it free from any Feudal Service but if they had other Estates of their own for them they were to answer to the Lords of the Manor as others did And from hence this came into the Collections of Ivo Regino Burchardus and Gratian and passed for a Law generally received As to the former a new Sanction was added to it in another Assembly at Worms A. D. 829. c. 1. and repeated in the Capitulars l. 5. c. 98. Addit 4. c. 95. and the like as to the latter l. 5. c. 100. Capit. A. 829. c. 4. But it seems there were some still continued obstinate in their former Practices and therefore these Laws were reinforced in another Assembly A. D. 869. in the time of Carolus Calvus who mentions the Laws of his Father and Grandfather to the same purpose c. 9. and there takes notice of the Contrivances made use of to defeat the Intention of those Laws and the bottom of all is there said to be abominable Simony Which shews what it was which these Patrons aimed at by claiming Investiture without the Bishop And it was then judged necessary that the Bishop's Consent was required to prevent this Mischief But still some Patrons required Feudal Service for the Glebe they had given to the Church but the Law commands them to restore it free from such Service Capit l. 5. c. 100. Addit l. 4. c. 98 163. And after much struggling Hinomarus who lived at that time saith That these Laws were observed The Patron 's Right by Virtue of the Endowment was not disputed but an Arbitrary Power as to the Incumbents was utterly denied them and they were put under the Bishop's Care who was to receive Complaints against them and to proceed according to the Churches Canons But I am apt to think that all this stir in France did not arise from the pretence of Original Donation and Endowment of Churches but from the Infeodation of Church Lands and Titles by Charles Martel as an old MS. in Filesacus saith and others in France whose Custom it was to give them in Recompence to their Souldiers who then looked on them as their
of God So that there can be no doubt of the Custom of paying Tithes in France from the time of receiving Christianity and that this Custom declined as their Religion did In the Council of Nantz about A. D. 658. Oblations and Tithes are mentioned together c. 10. as making up the Churches Stock which was to be divided into Four Parts to the Bishop and to the Clergy and to Repairs and to the Poor But besides the Oblations of the Living it was then common to make Oblations at their Death and these were called Oblationes defunctorum and severe Canons were made against the Detainers of them Concil Vas. I. c. 4. Agath c. 4 13. Q. 2 9 10 11. And so much appears by those Canons which forbid Exactions at Funerals Concil Tribur c. 16. Nannet c. 6. where an Exception is made as to voluntary Gifts either by the Parties deceased or by the Executors But here in the Saxon times there was a Funeral Duty to be paid called Pecunia sepulchralis Symbolum Animae and a Saxon Soul-shot this is required by the Council at Aenham and inforced by the Laws of Canutus c. 14. and was due to the Church the Party deceased belonged to whether he were there buried or not Some take this for the Foundation of Mortuaries but then the Money must be turned into Goods For in Glanvil's time a Freeholder is allowed to make his Will of other things provided that he give his first best thing to his Lord and his second to the Church And this was not originally pro Animâ defuncti as Lyndwood thinks from the Modern Canonists De Consecrat c. 12. but it was a Right of the Church settled on the Decease of a Member of it as appears by the Law of Canutus Others have said That it was in lieu of Tithes substracted and Oblations not duly made So Simon Langham in his Constitution about Mortuaries which was made to explain a former Constitution of Robert Winchelsee because the People were observed not to pay their Tithes and Oblations as they ought But he did not go about to settle a Right which had not been before but to prevent Suits about that which was to be taken for a Mortuary and he declares That where there was a choice of Three or more the Second was to be for the Mortuary De Sepult f. 93. b. So that R. Winchelsee supposes it to be an ancient Right Indeed in the Cotton MS. of the Council of Merton where this Constitution is extant the Reason is given That it was required by way of Compensation for the Neglect of Tithes and Oblations In the Synod of Winchester in his time a Constitution is made for the Uniform Payment of Mortuaries in that Diocess the second best of the Goods or Chattels was to be paid in lieu of Tithes unpaid In the Synod of Exeter of Pet. Quivil 15 E. 1. the Reason is given for the Neglect of all parochial Duties but there it is said That some pleaded Custom against the Payment of them and others as to the Manner and although this Council endeavoured to settle an Uniform Payment yet the Statute of Circumspectè agatis leaves the whole Matter to Custom ubi Mortuarium dari consuevit From whence my Lord Coke inferrs That there is no Mortuary due by Law but only by Custom The true Inference was That the contrary Custom had altered the Law from what it was in the times of Canutus and Glanvil But that the prevailing Custom became the standing Law as to Mortuaries appears by the Statute of 21 H. 8. c. 6. which limits the Payment where the Custom continued but allows Liberty for Free Oblations And this Free Oblation was then called Cors presentè and was distinct from the Mortuary in lieu of Tithes as appears by the Instances in Sir W. Dugdale But I return to other Oblations which Lyndwood distinguisheth into those by way of Gift and such as became due For these latter he insists on c. Omnis christianus in the Canon Law De Consecr D. 1. c. 69. which requires that every one who approaches the Altar make some Oblation Where the Gloss saith it is but Counsel at other times but a Command on the Festivals For this 16 Q. 1. c. 55. is produced quas populus dare debet but it is there interpreted of the case of Necessity Hostiensis thinks all are obliged on great Festivals and that the general Custom lays an Obligation but Lyndwood thinks the Custom of particular Churches is to be observed In the Synod of Exter before-mentioned Oblations are said to be of Divine Right and that every Parishioner is obliged to make them but the Time is limited to Christmas Easter the Saints-day of the Church and the Dedication or All-Saints So that four times in the Year they were required to make Oblations after the Age of Fourteen And so Giles Bishop of Sarum debent offerre ex debito quater in anno In the Synod of Winchester none were so obliged till Eighteen and having Goods of their own But I observe that in the ancient Canons here by the Oblations such things were then understood as were for the Support of the Clergy Thence several Canons were made against those who turned them another way So in the Council of London under Archbishop Stratford Oblations are declared to belong only to Ecclesiastical Persons And so Lyndwood saith The Goods of the Church are called Oblations And in case the Mother-Church were appropriated the Oblations and Obventions made in the Chapel of Ease did not belong to the Convent but to the Persons who officiated there These were called by the Name of the Altarage and were generally expressed under that Name in the Endowment of Vicarages but when these were too small for the Maintenance of the Vicar those small Tithes which were joyned with them were comprehended under that Name and so it hath been resolved in the Courts of Law upon a solemn Hearing Iohn de Burgo in his Pupilla Oculi speaking of Oblations saith That persons may be bound to them four Ways 1. By Contract upon the Foundation of the Church which amounts only to a Pension upon Endowment 2. By Promise either living or dying 3. By Necessity when the parochial Minister cannot be supported without it 4. By Custom in the greater Solemnities but he saith the Proportion and Kind are left to Discretion which made Oblations sink so low that the parochial Clergy must have starved if they had nothing else to support them But besides these he mentions Occasional Oblations upon particular Services as at Marriages Christenings Funerals c. concerning which we have several Constitutions against those who went about to hinder them or to reduce them to a small Quantity The Easter-Offerings are none of these Voluntary Oblations but a Composition for Personal Tithes payable at that time of which I may have occasion
to speak more afterwards But in the Saxon times here were other sorts of Oblations As 1 the Cyrycsceat or First-fruits of Corn payable at S. Martin's day Ina LL. 4. 62. Edmund c. 2. and is often mentioned in Doomsday-book and in Fleta l. 2. c. 47. Malmsb. l. 2. c. 11. and the Oblation of Poultrey at Christmas is mentioned in Doomsday under that Title 2. There was here another kind of Oblation called Plow-Alms which was a Peny for every Plow between Easter and Whitsontide This is mentioned in the Laws of King Ethelred and required to be paid Fifteen days after Easter although it be called Eleemosyna Aratralis In the Endowment of the Vicarage of S. Ives Plow-Alms is mentioned besides the Altarage and Obventions But all these Oblations made a very poor Subsistence for the Parochial Clergy III. And therefore I come to the main Legal Support of the Parochial Clergy which is in Tithes Concerning which I shall proceed in this Method I. To consider the Foundation in Law which they stand upon II. The Rules of Law which are to be observed about them I. As to the Foundation they stand upon in point of Law My Lord Coke not only saith That the Parochial Right of Tithes is established by divers Acts of Parliament but he mentions the Saxon Laws before the Conquest for the Payment of Tithes of Edward and Gathrun Ethelstan Edmund Edgar Canutus and King Edward ' s confirmed by William I. Hobart saith That Tithes are things of common Right and do of Right belong to the Church And since Parishes were erected they are due to the Parson except in spiritual regular Cases or Vicar of the Parish In the Register of Writs a Book of great Authority there is a Writ of Consultation for Tithes wherein they are owned to be of common Right as well as immemorial Custom due to the Rector within the Limits of his Parish Lord Chief Justice Dyer saith That Tithes can never be extinguished because they are of common Right The same is affirmed by Justice Dodderidge in the Case of Fosse and Parker In Pieddle and Napper's Case Tithes are said to be an Ecclesiastical Inheritance collateral to the Estate in Land and of their own Nature due to an Ecclesiastical Person And That all Lands of common Right are to pay Tithes Therefore it is said by Hobart in Slade's Case That no Land can be discharged of Tithes although it may be discharged of the actual Payment In Popham's Reports we read That it is a Maxim in Law that all Persons ought to pay Tithes and all Lands shall be charged with them of common Right So that if the Judgment of some of the greatest Men of the Profession may be taken nothing can be more clear and evident than the Legal Right of Tithes But it falls out unhappily among us that nothing hath been the Occasion of so much Difference and Contention between the Incumbents and their Parishioners than the Point of the Payment of Tithes So that some have wished them changed into some other way of Maintenance but I cannot see any Reason why so ancient so legal so just a Maintenance should be changed into any other which would less answer the End and be liable to as many Difficulties if not far more but every Change of this kind where we cannot be secured of the Event is very dangerous especially when it proceeds from Want of Judgment or Ill-will to the Profession both which are to be suspected in this case If the ill Humours of some People could be changed it would signifie far more to the Quiet of the Clergy than altering their legal Maintenance Therefore the best way is to enquire into the Reasons of this Dissatisfaction that we may find out the proper Methods to remove it and thereby to prevent the troublesom and vexatious Suits about them which make the parochial Clergy so uneasie and their Labour often unsuccessful with the People And there is a twofold Dissatisfaction which lies at the bottom of most of these Contentions about Tithes 1. In Point of Conscience 2. In Point of Law 1. In Point of Conscience There is a sort of People among us who are very obstinate in this Matter and will rather chuse to go to Prison and lie there than pay their Tithes I have often thought whence such a Stiffness should arise in a matter of Legal Right If they had opposed all Determinations of Property by Law they had been more consistent with themselves but to allow the Law to determine the Right as to Nine Parts and not as to the Tenth is not to be reconciled For if the Question be concerning the other parts to whom they do belong may not Men as well dispute the matter of Dominion and Property in them May they not say that the Seed is our own and the Labour and Charges our own why then shall I answer to another for the Profit which arises from my Pains and Expence If it be replied That the Law hath given the Property of the Land to one and the Use to another why may they not pretend this to be an unreasonable Law to separate one from the other since Land was given for the Use and the Original Right of Dominion was from what was necessary for Use therefore the separating Right and Use is an Incroachment on the Natural Rights of Mankind And there seems to be more Colour for this than for any to allow the Laws to determine the Right of Nine Parts to belong to the Lord of the Soil but the Tenth by no means to go that way which the Law of the Land hath long since determined it So that the Lord of the Soil either by Descent or Purchase can claim no Right to it for neither did his Ancestors enjoy it nor those who sold the Land to a Purchaser consider it as his own for then he would have had the Value of it The Tenth Part then is set aside in Valuation of Estates as already disposed of and the Question is Whether the same Law which settled the Right to the other shall determine this likewise Is it not a part of natural Injustice to detain that which by Law belongs to another And is not the Law the Measure of Right in Cases of Difference between Man and Man Why then should not the Law fairly and equally determine this matter to whom the Tenth of the Profits belongs But still they say It is against their Conscience and they cannot do it Is it against their Conscience to do Acts of Natural Justice not to detain that from another which of Right belongs to him But it is in vain to argue with people who do not judge of things by the common light of Reason and Justice but by an unaccountable Light within them which none can judge of but themselves and in matter of Interest Men are the worst Judges in their own Case 2. Therefore
Itinerant Clergy was soon found to be very inconvenient and therefore all Incouragement was given where Christianity most prevailed for the building Churches at a convenient Distance from the Cathedral and setling a Number of Presbyters together there which were after called Collegiate-Churches and the Great and Devout Men of that Time gave them Liberal Endowments that they might the better attend the Service of God there and in the Countrey about them But after that the several Parts grew to be more populous and Lords of Manors for the Conveniency of themselves and their Tenants were willing to erect Churches within their Precincts Laws were then made that they might detain one Share of the Tithes for the Supply of this New Church the other two remaining due to the Mother Church And I can find nothing like any Allowance for the Lords of Manors to appropriate the other Two Parts as they thought fit For those Manors themselves were but Parcels of larger Parishes and the Tithes were due from those Estates which were no part of their Manors and therefore they had nothing to do with them But after the Norman Invasion the poor Parochial Clergy being Saxons and the Nobility and Bishops Normans they regarded not how much they reduced the Inferiour Clergy to enrich the Monasteries belonging to the Normans either at home or abroad And this I take to be the true Reason of the Multitude of Appropriations of Two Thirds of the Tithes in the Norman Times and too often with the Consent of the Bishops who ought to have shewed more Regard to the Interest of the Parochial Clergy than they generally did But of this I have discoursed more at large in one of the following Cases In the latter end of the Saxon Times if we believe those called the Confessors Laws after all the Danish Devastations there were Three or Four Churches where there had been but One before By which it appears that the Parochial Clergy were Numerous before the Conquest And within this Diocess in Two Deanaries of it there are to be found in Doomsday-Book above Twenty Parish-Churches In the Deanary of Warwick Ten and in the Deanary of Kingstone Fifteen But of the former Seven were Appropriated in the Norman Times and of the latter Ten by which we may see to how low a Condition they then brought the Parochial Clergy One Church in the former Deanary I find built in that time and that was at Exhal which was before a Chapel to Salford but was erected in the time of H. 1. by the Lord of the Manor and Freeholders who gave the Glebe and Tithes as appears by the Confirmation of Simon Bishop of Worcester Many other Parochial Churches I doubt not were built and endowed after the same manner although the Records of them are lost And as Churches were new erected the Parochial Bounds were fixed that the People might certainly know whither they were to resort for Divine Worship who were bound to attend them as part of their Charge from whose Hands they were to receive the Holy Sacraments and whose Advice and Counsel they were to take in Matters which related to the Salvation of their Souls Now here lies the main Difficulty with some People they cannot think that Parochial Bounds are to determine them in what concerns the Good of their Souls but if they can edifie more by the Parts and Gifts of another they conclude that it is their Duty to forsake their own Minister and go to such a one as they like I meddle not with extraordinary Occasions of Absence nor with the Case of Scandalous Incumbents because it is the Peoples Fault if they be not prosecuted and the Place supplied by better Men. But the Case as it ought to be put is how far a Regard is to be shewed to a Constitution so much for the General Good as that of Parochial Communion is We do not say That Mens Consciences are bound by Perambulations or that it is a Sin at any time to go to another Parish but we say That a constant fixed Parochial Communion tends more to preserve the Honour of God and the Religion Established among us to promote Peace and Vnity among Neighbours and to prevent the Mischief of Separation And what advances so good Ends is certainly the best Means of Edification Which lies not in moving the Fansie or warming the Passions but in what brings Men to a due Temper of Mind and a holy peaceable and unblameable Conversation And as to these Excellent Ends it is not only your Duty with great Zeal and Diligence to perswade your People to them but to go before them your selves in the Practice of them For they will never have any hearty Regard or Esteem for what any one says if they find him to contradict it in the Course of his Life Suppose it be the Peoples Fault to shew so little Regard to your Profession yet you are bound to consider how far you may have given too much Occasion for it and their Fault can be no Excuse for you if any of your own were the true Occasion of theirs We live in an Age wherein the Conversations of the Clergy are more observed than their Doctrines Too many are busie in finding out the Faults of the Clergy the better to cover their own and among such Priest craft is become the most popular Argument for their Insidelity If they could once make it appear that all Religion were nothing but a Cheat and Imposture of some cunning Men for their own Advantage who believed nothing of it themselves and that all the business of our Profession was to support such a Fraud in the World for our own Interest they were very excusable in their most bitter Invectives against such Priest-craft For nothing is more to be abhorred by Men of Ingenuous Minds and Natural Probity than to be the Instruments of Deceiving Mankind in so gross a manner But thanks be to God this is very far from being the Case among us for our Profession is built upon the Belief of God and Providence the Difference of Good and Evil and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life If these things have no Foundations we are certain that the best and wisest and most disinterested Men in all Ages have been in the same Fundamental Mistakes And it is now somewhat too late for any Persons to set up for Sagacity and true Iudgment in these Matters above all those of foregoing Ages There is a mighty Difference between slight and superficial Reasonings although some may be vain enough to cry them up for Oracles and those which are built on the Nature of Things and have born the Test of so many Ages and remain still in the same Degree of Firmness and Strength notwithstanding all the Batteries of Profane and Atheistical Wits For it cannot be denied that such there have been in former times as well as now but that makes more for the Advantage of Religion that our Modern Pretenders
are fain to borrow from the old Stock and scarce any thing worth Answering hath been said by them but hath been often said and with more Force by their Masters And the best Philosophers of this Age have given up the Cause of Atheism as indefensible so that the Being of God and Providence seems to be established by a General Consent and if any secretly be of another Mind they think it not for their Reputation to own it The main Pretence now is against Revealed Religion but without offering to shew how so great and considerable a Part of Mankind as the Christian Church hath been made up of came to be so imposed upon as to a Doctrine which advances Morality to the greatest Height and gives Mankind the most assured Hopes of a Blessed Immortality when nothing like Interest and Design as to this World could be carried on by the First and Greatest Promoters of it But we are told in a late Complaint made abroad by a Friend of our Deists wherein I am particularly concerned That we make Objections for them which are most easie to answer and pass over their most considerable Difficulties Which is a very unjust Charge and cannot be made good but by producing those Considerable Difficulties which we have taken no Notice of For my part I know of none such and we make no Objections for them however we may think it our Duty to lay open the Weakness of them when we are importuned to do it which was my Case in the Treatise I suppose he refers to If they keep their Considerable Difficulties to themselves I know not how we should be able to answer them But it is the common way in a baffled Cause still to pretend that the main Difficulties were not produced But this is not a proper Occasion to insist lonâ—er on these Matters my present Business is to answer the Objection which immediately regards the Clergy and the Summ of it is That our Profession rather hinders than confirms the Belief of Religion because they who plead for what makes for their Interest are always suspected to be swayed more by Interest than by Reason To give a full and clear Answer to this we must consider That however Mankind are apt to be swayed by Interest yet the Truth and Reason of Things do not at all depend upon them for a Thing is not true or false in it self because it makes for or against a Man and the Measures of judging Truth and Falshood are quite of another Nature and so Mens Interests come not into Consideration So that in this Case they are not to examine whose Turn is served whether such a Thing be true or false but whether there be sufficient Evidence to convince an impartial Mind of the Truth of it for let the Reasons be produced by whom they please the Grounds of Conviction are the same If a Man in a Dispute about Surveying a piece of Land which he claimed a Right to should appeal to the Elements of Geometry in his Case would the Evidence be less because he was concerned in the Land But we proceed farther Suppose it be for the Interest of Religion in a Nation for an Order of Men to be set apart on purpose to attend the Services of it and that there should be great Incouragements for their Education and a Maintenance set apart for their Subsistence afterwards that they may not live in Dependance on the Humours and uncertain Fancies of the People how can such a Constitution take off from the Credibility of that Religion which they are to support Was it any lessening to the Authority of the Law of Moses that the Tribe of Levi was so plentifully provided for by God's own Appointment They were to teach the Law to the People in the Places where they were dispersed among the several Tribes And suppose it had been then said Why should we believe what you say when you live by it You have Cities and Lands and Tithes and Oblations and Dignities among you no wonder you set up this Law as Divine and Holy but we get nothing by it but part with a Share of our Profits to maintain you What then Was the Law therefore false and Moses an Impostor These are hard Consequences but they naturally follow from such a Supposition And if such an Inference were not reasonable then neither will it appear to be so now But we do not pretend that the Parochial Settlement of our Clergy is by such a Divine Law as the Levitical Priesthood was but this we do insist upon That the Christian Religion being owned and established in the Nation there was a necessary Reason from the Nature of it and the Obligation to Preserve and Support it that there should be an Order of Men set apart for that End that they should instruct the People in it and perform the several Offices belonging to it and that a sufficient Maintenance be allowed them by the Law of the Land to support them in doing their Duties And I appeal to any Men of Sense or of common Vnderstanding whether on Supposition that our Religion is true these be not very just and reasonable Things How then can that make a Religion suspected to be false which are very reasonable supposing it to be true If it be true as most certainly it is are not they bound to maintain it to be true And can it be the less so because their Subsistence depends upon it Therefore all the Impertinent Talk of our Profession being a Trade can signifie nothing to any Men that understand the Difference between Scarron and Euclid or the way of Burlesquing and of Demonstration There is still one common Prejudice to be removed and that is That too many of those who preach up our Religion as true do not live as if they believed it to be so We are very sorry there should be any Occasion given for such a Reproach as this and we hope there are not so many Instances of it as some would have it believed Woe be to those by whom such Offences come But supposing the Instances true is there any Religion in the World considering the Follies and Infirmities of Mankind which can secure all the Professors of it from acting against the Rules of it But if such Instances are sufficiently proved there ought to be the greater Severity used in such Cases because Religion it self as well as the Honour of our Church suffers so much by them But it will still be said That these Persons are secret Infidels and believe nothing of what they profess This is another Point how far bad Lives are consistent with sound Opinions Some that think that Men act consistently will not allow that Bad Men can be any other than meer Infidels but others who consider the Prevalency of Mens Lusts and Passions over their Reasons are apt to think that they may retain their good Opinions even when they act contrary to them But then
scandalous to the Church can we believe that Titus was not as well bound to correct them afterwards as to examine them before And what was this Power of Ordination and Iurisdiction but the very same which the Bishops have exercised ever since the Apostles Times But they who go about to Unbishop Timothy and Titus may as well Unscripture the Epistles that were written to them and make them only some particular and occasional Writings as they make Timothy and Titus to have been only some particular and occasional Officers But the Christian Church preserving these Epistles as of constant and perpetual use did thereby suppose the same kind of Office to continue for the sake whereof those excellent Epistles were written And we have no greater Assurance that these Epistles were written by St. Paul than we have that there were Bishops to succeed the Apostles in the Care and Government of Churches Having said thus much to clear the Authority we act by I now proceed to consider the Rules by which we are to govern our selves Every Bishop of this Church in the time of his Consecration makes a solemn Profession among other things That he will not only maintain and set forward as much as lies in him quietness love and peace among all Men but that he will correct and punish such as be unquiet disobedient and criminous within his Diocese according to such Authority as he hath by God's Word and to him shall be committed by the Ordinance of this Realm So that we have two Rules to proceed by viz. The Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm 1 By the Word of God and that requires from us Diligence and Care and Faithfulness and Impartiality remembring the Account we must give that we may do it with Ioy and not with Grief And we are not meerly required to correct and punish but to warn and instruct and exhort the Persons under our Care to do those things which tend most to the Honour of our holy Religion and the Church whereof we are Members And for these Ends there are some things I shall more particularly recommend to you 1. That you would often consider the Solemn Charge that was given you and the Profession you made of your Resolution to do your Duty at your Ordination I find by the Provincial Constitution of this Church that the Bishops were to have their solemn Profession read over to them twice in the year to put them in mind of their Duty And in the Legatine Constitutions of Otho 22 H 3. the same Constitution is renewed not meerly by a Legatine Power but by Consent of the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces wherein i◠is declared That Bishops ought to visi◠their Diocesses at fit times Correcting and Reforming what was amiss and sowing the Word of Life in the Lords Field and to put them the more in mind of it they were twice in the year to have their solemn Profession read to them It seems then that Profession contained these things in it or else the reading that could not sti◠them up to do these things What the Profession was which Presbyters then made at their Ordination we have not so clear an Account but in the same Council at Oxford 8 H. 3. i◠is strictly enjoined That all Rector◠and Vicars should instruct the People committed to their Charge and Fee◠them Pabulo Verbi Dei with the Food of God's Word and it is introduced with that Expression that they might excite the Parochial Clergy to be more diligent in what was most proper for those times And if they do it not they are there called Canes muti and Lyndwood bestows many other hard Terms upon them which I shall not mention but he saith afterward those who do it not are but like Idols which bear the similitude of a Man but do not the Offices proper to Men. Nay he goes so far as to say That the Spiritual Food of God's Word is as necessary to the Health of the Soul as Corporal Food is to the Health of the Body Which Words are taken out of a Preface to a Canon in the Decretals de Officio Iud. Ordinarii inter caetera But they serve very well to shew how much even in the dark times of Popery they were then convinced of the Necessity and Usefulness of Preaching These Constitutions were slighted so much that in 9 Edw. 1. the Office of Preaching was sunk so low that in a Provincial Constitution at that time great Complaint is made of the Ignorance and Stupidity of the Parochial Clergy that they rather made the People worse than better But at that time the Preaching Friars had got that Work into their Hands by particular Priviledges where it is well observed That they did not go to Places which most needed their help but to Cities and Corporations where they found most Incouragement But what Remedy was found by this Provincial Council Truly every Parochial Priest four times a year was bound to read an Explication of the Creed Ten Commandments the Two Precepts of Charity the Seven Works of Mercy the Seven deadly Sins the Seven principal Vertues and the Seven Sacraments This was renewed in the Province of York which had distinct Provincial Constitutions in the time of Edw. 4. And here was all they were bound to by these Constitutions But when Wickliff and his Followers had awakened the People so far that there was no satisfying them without Preaching then a new Provincial Constitution was made under Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury and the former Constitution was restrained to Parochial Priests who officiated as Curates but several others were Authorized to Preach as 1. The Mendicant Friars were said to be Authorized Iure communi or rather Privilegio speciali but therefore Lyndwood saith it is said to be Iure communi because that Privilege is recorded in the Text of the Canon Law these were not only allowed to preach in their own Churches but in Plateis publicis saith Lyndwood out of the Canon Law wherein those words were expressed and at any hour unless it were the time of preaching in other Churches but other Orders as Augustinians and Carmelites had no such general License Those preaching Friars were a sort of Licensed Preachers at that time who had no Cures of Souls but they were then accounted a kind of Pastors For Io. de Athon distinguisheth two sorts of Pastors Those who had Ecclesiastical Offices and those who had none but were such only Verbo Exemplo but they gave very great disturbance to the Clergy as the Pope himself confesses in the Canon Law 2. Legal Incumbents authorized to preach in their own Parishes Iure scripto All Persons who had Cures of Souls and Legal Titles were said to be missi à Iure ad locum populum curae suae and therefore might preach to their own People without a special
Education of Children must lie upon Parents but yet Ministers ought not only to put them in mind of their Duty but to assist them all they can and by publick Catechizing frequently to instruct both those who have not learned and those who are ashamed to learn any other way And you must use the best means you can to bring them into an Esteem of it which is by letting them see that you do it not meerly because you are required to do it but because it is a thing so useful and beneficial to them and to their Children There is a great deal of difference between Peoples being able to talk over a Set of Phrases about Religious Matters and understanding the true Grounds of Religion which are easiest learned and understood and remembred in the short Catechetical Way But I am truly sorry to hear that where the Clergy are willing to take pains this way the People are unwilling to send their Children They would not be unwilling to hear them instructed as early as might be in the way to get an Estate but would be very thankful to those who would do them such a kindness and therefore it is really a Contempt of God and Religion and another World which makes them so backward to have their Children taught the Way to it And methinks those who have any Zeal for the Reformation should love and pursue that which came into Request with it Indeed the Church of Rome it self hath been made so sensible of the Necessity of it that even the Council of Trent doth not only require Catechizing Children but the Bishops to proceed with Ecclesiastical Censures against those who neglect it But in the old Provincial Constitutions I can find but one Injunction about Catechizing and that is when the Priest doubts whether the Children were Baptized or not and if they be born eight days before Easter and Whitsontide they are not to be Baptized till those days and in the mean time they are to receive Catechism What is this receiving Catechism by Children before they are eight days old It is well Exorcism is joyned with it and so we are to understand by it the Interrogatories in Baptism and Lyndwood saith the Catechism is not only required for Instruction in Faith but propter sponsionem when the Godfather answers De Fidei Observantiâ It is true the Canon Law requires in adult Persons Catechizing before Baptism but I find nothing of the catechizing Children after it and no wonder since Lyndwood saith the Laity are bound to no more than to believe as the Church believes nor the Clergy neither unless they can bear the Charges of studying and have Masters to instruct them This was good Doctrine when the Design was to keep People in Ignorance For Learning is an irreconcilable Enemy to the Fundamental Policy of the Roman Church and it was that which brought in the Reformation since which a just Care hath still been required for the Instruction of Youth and the Fifty ninth Canon of our Church is very strict in it which I desire you often to consider with the first Rubrick after the Catechism and to act accordingly IV. After Catechizing I recommend to you the due Care of bringing the Children of your Parishes to Confirmation Which would be of excellent use in the Church if the several Ministers would take that pains about it which they ought to do Remember that you are required to bring or send in Writing with your Names subscribed the Names of all such Persons in your Parish as you shall think fit to be presented to the Bishop to be confirmed If you take no care about it and suffer them to come unprepared for so great so solemn a thing as renewing the Promise and Vow made in Baptism can you think your selves free from any Guilt in it In the Church of Rome indeed great care was taken to hasten Confirmation of Children all they could Post Baptismum quam citius poterint as it is in our Constitution Provincial in another Synodical the Parochial Priests are charged to tell their Parishioners that they ought to get their Children confirmed as soon as they can In a Synod at Worcester under Walter de Cantilupo in the time of Henry III. the Sacrament of Confirmation is declared necessary for Strength against the Power of Darkness and therefore it was called Sacramentum pugnantium and no wonder then that the Parochial Priests should be called upon so earnestly to bring the Children to Confirmation and the Parents were to be forbidden to enter into the Church if they neglected it for a Year after the Birth of the Child if they had opportunity The Synod of Exeter allowed two Years and then if they were not Confirmed the Parents were to Fast every Friday with Bread and Water till it were done And to the same purpose the Synod of Winchester in the time of Edw. I. in the Constitutions of Richard Bishop of Sarum two Years were allowed but that time was afterwards thought too long and then the Priest as well as the Parents was to be suspended from Entrance into the Church But what preparation was required None that I can find But great care is taken about the Fillets to bind their Heads to receive the Unction and the taking them off at the Font and burning them lest they should be used for Witchcraft as Lyndwood informs us But we have no such Customs nor any of the Reformed Churches We depend not upon the Opus operatum but suppose a due and serious preparation of Mind necessary and a solemn Performance of it I hope by God's Assistance to be able in time to bring the Performance of this Office into a better Method in the mean time I shall not fail doing my Duty have you a care you do not fail in yours V. As to the Publick Offices of the Church I do not only recommend to you a due Care of the Diligent but of the Devout Performance of them I have often wondred how a fixed and stated Liturgy for general Use should become a matter of Scruple and Dispute among any in a Christian Church unless there be something in Christianity which makes it unlawful to pray together for things which we all understand beforehand to be the Subject of our Prayers If our common Necessities and Duties are the same if we have the same Blessings to pray and to thank God for in our solemn Devotions why should any think it unlawful or unfitting to use the same Expressions Is God pleased with the change of our Words and Phrases Can we imagine the Holy Spirit is given to dictate new Expressions in Prayers Then they must pray by immediate Inspiration which I think they will not pretend to lest all the Mistakes and Incongruities of such Prayers be imputed to the Holy Ghost but if not then they are left to their own Conceptions and the
grow more headstrong and insolent by the Indulgence which the Law gives them then observe whether they observe those Conditions on which the Law gives it to them For these are known Rules in Law That he forfeits his Privilege who goes beyond the Bounds of it That no Privileges are to be extended beyond the Bounds which the Laws give them for they ought to be observed as they are given I leave it to be considered whether all such who do not observe the Conditions of the Indulgence be not as liable to the Law as if they had none But there is a very profane Abuse of this Liberty among some as tho' it were an Indulgence not to serve God at all Such as these as they were never intended by the Law so they ought to enjoy no Benefit by it For this were to countenance Profaneness and Irreligion which I am afraid will grow too much upon us unless some effectual Care be taken to suppress it VII There is another Duty incumbent upon you which I must particularly recommend to your Care and that is of Visiting the Sick I do not mean barely to perform the Office prescribed which is of very good Use and ought not to be neglected but a particular Application of your selves to the State and Condition of the Persons you visit It is no hard matter to run over some Prayers and so take leave but this doth not come up to the Design of our Church in that Office For after the general Exhoratation and Profession of the Christian Faith our Church requires That the sick Person be moved to make special Confession of his Sins if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter and then if the sick Person humbly and heartily desires it he is to be absolved after this manner Our Lord Iesus Christ who hath left Power in his Church to absolve all Sinners who truly repent and believe in him c. Where the power of Absolution is grounded upon the Supposition of true Faith and Repentance and therefore when it is said afterwards And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from the same c. it must proceed on the same Supposition For the Church cannot absolve when God doth not So that all the real Comfort of the Absolution depends upon the Satisfaction of the person's Mind as to the Sincerity of his Repentance and Faith in Christ. Now here lies the great Difficulty of this Office how to give your selves and the wounded Conscience Satisfaction as to the Sincerity of those Acts I do not mean as to the Sincerity of his present Thoughts but as to the Acceptableness of his Faith and Repentance with God in order to Remission of Sins But what if you find the Persons so ignorant as not to understand what Faith and Repentance mean What if they have led such careless and secure lives in this World as hardly ever to have had one serious Thought of another Is nothing to be done but to come and pray by them and so dismiss them into their Eternal State Is this all the good you can or are bound to do them I confess it is a very uncomfortable thing to tell Men how they are to begin to live when they are liker to die than to live and the People generally have a strange superstitious Fear of sending for the Minister while there is any hope of Recovery But at last you are sent for and what a melancholy Work are you then to go about You are it may be to make a Man sensible of his Sins who never before considered what they were or against whom they were committed or what eternal Misery he deserves by committing them But I will suppose the best I can in this Case viz. That by your warm and serious Discourse you throughly awaken the Conscience of a long and habitual Sinner what are you then to do Will you presently apply all the Promises of Grace and Salvation to one whose Conscience is awakened only with the Fears of Death and the Terrors of a Day of Judgment This I confess is a hard Case on the one side we must not discourage good Beginnings in any we must not cast an awakened Sinner into Despair we must not limit the infinite Mercy of God But on the other side we must have a great care of incouraging presumptuous Sinners to put off their Repentance to the last because then upon Confession of their Sins they can so easily obtain the Churches Absolution which goes no farther than truly Repenting and Believing But here is the difficulty how we can satisfie our selves that these do truly Repent and Believe who are out of a Capacity of giving Proof of their Sincerity by Amendment of Life I do not question the Sincerity of their present Purposes but how often do we find those to come to nothing when they recover and fall into the former Temptations How then shall they know their own Sincerity till it be tried How can it be tried when they are going out of the State of Trial The most we can do is to encourage them to do the best they can in their present Condition and to shew as many of the Fruits of true Repentance as their Circumstances will allow and with the greatest Humility of Mind and most earnest Supplications to implore the infinite Mercy of God to their Souls But besides these there are many Cases of sick Persons which require very particular Advice and Spiritual Direction which you ought to be able to give them and it cannot be done without some good Measure of Skill and Experience in casuistical Divinity As How to satisfie a doubting Conscience as to its own Sincerity when so many Infirmities are mixed with our best Actions How a Sinner who hath relapsed after Repentance can be satisfied of the Truth of his Repentance when he doth not know but he may farther relapse upon fresh Temptations How he shall know what Failings are consistent with the State of Grace and the Hopes of Heaven and what not What Measure of Conviction and Power of Resistance is necessary to make Sins to be wilful and presumptuous What the just Measures of Restitution are in order to true Repentance in all such Injuries which are capable of it I might name many others but these I only mention to shew how necessary it is for you to apply your selves to Moral and Casuistical Divinity and not to content your selves barely with the Knowledge of what is called Positive and Controversial I am afraid there are too many who think they need to look after no more than what qualifies them for the Pulpit and I wish all did take sufficient care of that but if we would do our Duty as we ought we must inquire into and be able to resolve Cases of Conscience For the Priests Lips should keep this kind of Knowledge and the People should seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the
Lord of hosts Mal. 2. 7. If this held in the Levitical Priesthood much more certainly under the Gospel where the Rates and Measures of our Duties are not to be determined by Levitical Precepts but by the general Reason and Nature of Moral Actions VIII Among the Duties of Publick Worship I must put you in mind of a Frequent Celebration of the Lord's Supper There is generally too great a Neglect of this which is the most proper part of Evangelical Worship The Duties of Prayers and Praises are excellent and becoming Duties as we are Creatures with respect to our Maker and Preserver The Duty of hearing the Word of God read and explained is consequent upon our owning it to be the Rule of our Faith and Manners and all who desire to understand and practise their Duty can never despise or neglect it But that solemn Act of Worship wherein we do most shew our selves Christians is the celebrating the Holy Eucharist For therein we own and declare the infinite Love of God in sending his Son into the World to die for Sinners in order to their Salvation and that this is not only a true Saying but worthy of all Men to be credited Therein we lift up our Hearts and give Thanks to our Lord God we joyn with Angels and Archangels in lauding and magnifying his glorious Name Therein we not only commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord but are made Partakers of his Body and Blood after a Real but Sacramental Manner Therein we offer up our selves to God to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice unto him Therein we Adore and Glorifie the ever Blessed Trinity and humbly implore the Grace and Assistance of our ever Blessed Mediator And what now is there in all this which is not very agreeable to the Faith Hope and Charity of Christians Nay what Duty is there which so much expresses all these together as this doth Nor whereby we may more reasonably expect greater Supplies of Divine Grace to be bestowed upon us What then makes so many to be so backward in this Duty which profess a Zeal and Forwardness in many others If we had that Warmth and Fervor of Devotion that Love to Christ and to each other which the primitive Christians had we should make it as constant a part of our publick Worship as they did but this is not to be expected Neither did it always continue in the Primitive Church when Liberty and Ease and worldly Temptations made Persons grow more remiss and careless in the solemn Duties of their Religion S. Chrysostom takes notice in his time of the different Behaviour of Persons with respect to the holy â—â—charist There were some who pretended to greater Holiness and Austerity of Life than others who withdrew from the common Conversation of Mankind and so by degrees from joining in the Acts of publick Worship with them Which did unspeakable Mischief to Christianity for then the Perfection of the Christian Life was not supposed to consist in the Active Part of it but in Retirement and Contemplation As tho' our highest Imitation of Christ lay in following him into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil and not in walking as he walked who frequented the Synagogues and went about doing good But this way of Retirement happening to be admired by some great Men the Publick Worship came to be in less esteem and others upon Reasons of a different Nature withdrew themselves from such Acts of Devotion as required a stricter Attendance and a more prepared Temper of Mind And there were some who did abstain because they were not so well satisfied with themselves as to their own Preparations and such as these S. Chrysostom seems to favour rather than such who came often without due care as to the whole Course of their Lives only out of custom or out of regard to the Orders of the Church From hence many thought it better to forbear as long as they did it not out of Contempt And so by degrees the People were content to look on it as a Sacrifice for them to be performed by others rather than as an Office wherein they were to bear a part themselves at least they thought once or thrice a Year sufficient for them And to this as appears by our old Provincial Constitutions they were forced by severe Canons When the Reformation began this Disuse of this holy Sacrament was looked on by the chief Reformers as a great Abuse and Corruption crept into the Church which ought by all means to be reformed and the frequent Celebration of it set up in the Reformed Churches But unreasonable Scruples in some and Misapprehensions in others and a general Coldness and Indifference as to Matters of Religion have hitherto hindered the Reviving this Primitive Part of Devotion among us I do not go about to determine the Frequency in your Parishes which the Scripture doth not as to the Christian Church but supposes it to be often done but I may require you to take care that Christ's Institution be observed among you and that with your utmost care both as to the Decency and Purity of it The last thing I recommend to you all is To have a great care of your Conversations I do not speak it out of a distrust of you I hope you do it already and your Case will be so much worse if you do it not because you very well know how much you ought to do it For the Honour of God and Religion and the Success of your Ministry as well as your own Salvation depend very much upon it Lead your Flock by your Example as well as by your Doctrine and then you may much better hope that they will follow you for the People are naturally Spies upon their Ministers and if they observe them to mind nothing but the World all the Week they will not believe them in earnest when on the Lords Days they perswade them against it And it takes off the Weight of all Reproof of other Mens Faults if those they reprove have reason to believe them guilty of the same I do not think it enough for a Preacher of Righteousness merely to avoid open and scandalous Sins but he ought to be a great Example to others in the most excellent Virtues which adorn our Profession not only in Temperance and Chastity in Iustice and ordinary Charity but in a readiness to do good to all in forgiving Injuries in loving Enemies in evenness of Temper in Humility and Meekness and Patience and Submission to God's Will and in frequent Retirements from the World not meerly for Study but for Devotion If by these and such things you shine as Lights among your People they will be more ready to follow your Conduct and in probability you will not only stop their Mouths but gain their Hearts For among all the Ways of advancing the Credit and Interest of the Church of England one of the most succesful
Bishop to be translated from that Place he was first Consecrated to as well as to hold another with it But the Good of the Church being the main Foundation of all the Rules of it when that might be better promoted by a Translation it was by a tacit Consent looked on as no unjust Violation of its Rules The Question then is Whether the Churches Benefit may not in some Cases make the Canons against Non-Residence as Dispensible as those against Translations And the Resolution of it doth not depend upon the voiding the particular Obligation of the Incumbent to his Cure but upon some more general Reason with respect to the State of the Church as being imployed in the Service of it which requires a Persons having not a bare Competency for Subsistence but a Sufficiency to provide Necessaries for such Service For those seem to have very little regard to the flourishing Condition of a Church who would confine the Sufficiency of a Subsistence meerly to the Necessaries of Life But it seems to be reasonable that Clergymen should have Incouragement sufficient not only to keep them above Contempt but in some respect agreeable to the more ample Provision of other Orders of Men. And by God's own Appointment the Tribe of Levi did not fall short of any of the rest if it did not very much exceed the Proportion of others We do not pretend to the Privileges they had only we observe from thence that God himself did appoint a plentiful Subsistence for those who attended upon his Service And I do not know what there is Levitical or Ceremonial in that I am sure the Duties of the Clergy now require a greater Freedom of Mind from the anxious Cares of the World than the Imployments of the Priests and Levites under the Law But we need not go so far back if the Church enjoyed all her Revenues as entirely as when the severe Canons against Pluralities were made there would not be such a Plea for them as there is too much Cause for in some Places from the Want of a competent Subsistence But since that time the Abundance of Appropriations since turned into Lay-Fees hath extreamly lessened the Churches Revenues and have left us a great Number of poor Vicarages and Arbitrary Cures which would hardly have afforded a Maintenance for the Nethinims under the Law who were only to be Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water But this doth not yet clear the Difficulty For the Question is Whether the Subsistence of the Clergy can lawfully be improved by a Plurality of Livings Truly I think this if it be allowed in some Cases lawful to be the least desirable way of any but in some Circumstances it is much more excusable than in others As when the Benefices are mean when they lie near each other when great care is taken to put in sufficient Curates with good Allowance when Persons take all Opportunities to do their Duties themselves and do not live at a distance from their Benefices in an idle and careless manner But for Men to put in Curates meerly to satisfie the Law and to mind nothing of the Duties of their Places is a horrible Scandal to Religion and our Church and that which if not amended may justly bring down the Wrath of God upon us For the loosest of all the Popish Casuists look upon this as a very great Sin even those who attributed to the Pope the highest Dispensing Power in this Case But when the great Liberty of Dispensing had made the Ecclesiastical Laws in great measure useless then it was thought fit by our Law-makers to restrain and limit it by a Statute made 21 H. VIII wherein it is Enacted That if any Person or Persons having one Benefice with Cure of Souls being of the yearly Value of Eight Pounds or above accept or take any other with Cure of Souls and be instituted and inducted in Possession of the same that then and immediately after such Possession had thereof the first Benefice shall be adjudged to be void And all Licenses and Dispensations to the contrary are declared to be void and of none effect This one would have thought had been an effectual Remedy against all such Pluralities and Dispensations to obtain them and this no doubt was the primary Design of the Law but then follow so many Proviso's of Qualified Men to get Dispensations as take off a great deal of the Force and Effect of this Law But then it ought well to be consider'd Whether such a License being against the chief Design of a Law can satisfie any Man in point of Conscience where there is not a just and sufficient Cause For if the Pope's Dispensation with the supposed Plenitude of his Power could not satisfie a Man's Conscience without an antecedent Cause as the Casuists resolve much less can such Proviso's do it It is the general Opinion of Divines and Lawyers saith Lessius That no Man is safe in Conscience by the Pope's Dispensation for Pluralities unless there be a just cause for it No Man can with a safe Conscience take a Dispensation from the Pope for more Benefices than one meerly for his own Advantage saith Panormitan and from him Sylvester and Summ. Angelica A Dispensation saith Cardinal To-let secures a Man as to the Law but as to Conscience there must be a good cause for it and that is when the Church hath more Benefit by it than it would have without it But the Pope's Dispensing Power went much farther in point of Conscience in their Opinion than that which is setled among us by Act of Parliament For it is expressed in the Statute of 21 Hen. VIII That the Dispensation is intended to keep Men from incurring the Danger Penalty and Forfeiture in the Statute comprised So that the most qualified Person can only say that the Law doth not deprive him but he can never plead that it can satisfie him in point of Conscience unless there be some Cause for it which is of more Moment to the Church than a Man 's sole and constant Attendance on a particular Cure is But this Statute is more favourable to the Clergy than the Canon Law was before in two Particulars 1. In declaring that no simple Benefices or meer Dignities as the Canonists call them are comprehended under the Name of Benefices having Cure of Souls viz. no Deanary Archdeaconry Chancellorship Treasurership Chantership or Prebend in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church nor Parsonage that hath a Vicar endowed nor any Benefice perpetually appropriate But all these before were within the reach of the Canon Law and a Dispensation was necessary for them Which shews that this Law had a particular respect to the necessary Attendance on Parochial Cures and looked on other Dignities and Preferments in the Church as a sufficient Encouragement to extraordinary Merit 2. That no notice is taken of Livings under the Valuation of 8 l. which I suppose is that of 20 E. 1.
Good as it was before And could they hope it would ever mend by their running away from it Or was their Duty become more easie by declining it I think it was very well for the Church of God that notwithstanding their own many Arguments they took the Sacred Office upon them at last and did God and the Church good Service in it But if Men were to judge by their Writings upon this Argument one would think none but those who had a mind to be damned would undertake it And their great Strains of Wit and Eloquence if they had any Force would keep the best Men out of the Church who were most likely to do God Service in it and we need no other Instances than these very Persons themselves And if all good and humble and conscientious Men should for the sake of the Hardness of the Work decline the Church's Service and take any other lawful Imployment what would become of the Church of God For none that had or intended to keep a good Conscience could undertake the Cure of Souls and so they must be left to such as had no Regard to their own but were either ignorant stupid and senseless Creatures or such as regarded not their own Salvation who durst undertake such a Task as would not only add to their own Guilt but bring the heavy Load of other Mens Faults upon them too What is now to be done in this Case Hath God really imposed such a Task upon all those who enter into this Sacred Function that it is morally impossible for an honest Man to discharge it with a good Conscience How then can any such undertake it But if it may be done what are those Bounds and Rules we are to observe so as a good Man may satisfie himself in a competent Measure that he hath done his Duty II. And this is that which I shall now endeavour to clear For every one who is in Orders hath a double Capacity One with Respect to the Church of God in General another to that particular Flock which is allotted to him by the Constitution of this Church and the Law of the Land For although the Nature of our Duty in general be determined by the Word of God as I have already ready shewed yet the particular Obligation of every one to his own Flock is according to that Power and Authority which by the Rules and Orders of this Church is committed to him and is fully expressed in the Office of Ordination By which it plainly appears that the Care of Souls committed to Persons among us is not an absolute indefinite and unaccountable Thing but is limited as to Place Persons and Duties which are incumbent upon them They are to teach the People committed to their Charge By whom By the Bishop when he gives Institution They are to give private as well as publick Monitions and Exhortations as well to the sick as to the whle What to all No but to those within their Cure They are to banish erroneous Doctrines and to promote Peace and Love especially among them committed to their Charge And last of all they are to Obey those who have the Charge and Government over them These things are so express and plain in the very Constitution of this Church and owned so solemnly by every one that enters into Orders that there can be no Dispute concerning them And from thence we observe several things that tend to the Resolution of the main Point as to the Satisfaction of doing your Duties as Incumbents on your several Places I. That it is a Cure of Souls limited as to Persons and Place i.e. within such a Precinct as is called a Parish II. That it is limited as to Power with Respect to Discipline Therefore I shall endeavour to clear these Two Things I. What the just Bounds and Limits of Parochial Cures are II. What is the Measure of that Diligence which is required within those Bounds As to the former we are to begin with the Limitation as to Place I. That it is a Cure of Souls limited within certain Bounds which are called Parishes which are now certainly known by long Usage and Custom and ought still to be preserved with great Care for otherwise Confusion and Disputes will arise between several Ministers and several Parishes with one another For since the Duties and the Profits are both limited it is necessary that those Bounds should be carefully preserved as they generally are by Annual Perambulations But there are some who will understand nothing of this bounding of Ministerial Duties by distinct Parishes who think they are at liberty to exercise their Gifts where-ever they are called and that it were better that these parochial Inclosures were thrown open and all left at liberty to chuse such whom they liked best and under whom they can improve most These things seem to look plausibly at the first Appearance and to come nearest to the first gathering of Churches before any such thing as Parishes were known But to me this Arguing looks like Persons going about now to overthrow all Dominion and Property in Lands and Estates because it seems not so agreeable with the first natural Freedom of Mankind who according to the Original Right of Nature might pick and chuse what served most to their own Conveniency But although this were the first State of things yet the great Inconveniencies which followed it upon the Increase of Mankind made Division and Property necessary and altho' there be no express Command of God for it yet being so necessary for the Good of Mankind it was not only continued every where but those Persons were thought fit to be punished by severe Laws who invaded the Rights and Properties of others either by open Violence and Rapine or by secret Stealth and Purloining I grant that at first there were no such Parochial Divisions of Cures here in England as there are now For the Bishops and their Clergy lived in Common and before that the Number of Christians was much increased the Bishops sent out their Clergy to preach to the People as they saw Occasion But after the Inhabitants had generally embraced Christianity this Itinerant and Occasional going from Place to Place was found very inconvenient because of the constant Offices that were to be administred and the Peoples knowing to whom they should resort for Spiritual Offices and Directions Hereupon the Bounds of Parochial Cures were found necessary to be settled here by degrees by those Bishops who were the great Instruments of converting the Nation from the Saxon Idolatry But a Work of this Nature could not be done all at once as by a kind of Agrarian Law but several Steps were taken in order to it At first as appears by Bede they made use of any old British Churches that were left standing so Augustin at first made use of St. Martin's near Canterbury and after repaired Christs-Church which were both British Churches But Ethelbert gave all
Incouragement both to repair Old Churches and to build New However the Work went on slowly Augustin consecrated but two Bishops which were setled at London and Rochester where Ethelbert built and endowed two Churches for the Bishops and their Clergy to live together In the Western Parts Bicinus built several Churches about Dorchester where his See was fixed Wilfred converted the South-Saxons and settled Presbyters in the Isle of Wight but they were but two In the Kingdom of Mercia there were five Diocesses made in Theodore's time and Putta Bishop of Rochester being driven from his See he obtained from Saxulphus a Mercian Bishop a Church with a small Glebe and there he ended his Days In the Northern Parts we read of two Churches built by two Noblemen Puch and Addi upon their own Manors And the same might be done elsewhere but Bede would never have mentioned these if the thing had been common But in his Epistle to Egbert Archbishop of York a little before his Death he intimates the great Want of Presbyters and Parochial Settlements and therefore earnestly perswades him to procure more And if Egbert's Canons be genuine of which there are several Ancient MSS. the Duties of Presbyters in their several Churches are set down However the Work went not on so fast but in his Successor Eanbaldus his time the Bishops were required to find out convenient places to build Churches in and the same passed in the Southern Parts by general Consent In the Council of Cloveshoo we read of Presbyters placed up and down by the Bishops in the Manors of the Laity and in several Parts distinct from the Episcopal See and there they are exhorted to be diligent in their Duties In the times of Edgar and Canutus we read of the Mother Churches which had the Original Settlement of Tithes after they were given to the Church by several Laws and of the Churches built upon their own Lands by the Lords of Manors to which they could only apply a third Part of the Tithes But in the Laws of Canutus we find a fourfold Distinction of Churches 1. The Head Church or the Bishop's See 2. Churches of a second Rank which had Right of Sepulture and Baptism and Tithes 3. Churches that had Right of Sepulture but not frequented 4. Field-Churches or Oratories which had no Right of Burial The second sort seem to be the Original Parochial Churches which had the Endowment of Tithes and were so large that several other Churches were taken out of them by the Lords of Manors and so the Parishes came to be multiplied so much that in the Laws of Edward the Confessor c. 9. it is said That there were then Three or Four Churches where there had been but One before In this Diocess I find by an Epistle of Wulston Bishop of Worcester to Anselm that before the Conquest there were Churches in Vills or upon particular Manors that were consecrated And if William the Conqueror demolished Six and thirty Parish Churches in the Compass of the New Forest as is commonly said there must be a very great Number before the Conquest although so few are said to appear in Doomsday Book yet there are many parochial Churches of this Diocess in it above twenty in two Deanaries but the Normans almost ruined the parochial Clergy by seizing the Tithes and making Appropriations of them But in the Saxon times the Number still encreased as Lords of Manors and others were willing to erect new Churches and to have a settled Parochial Minister among them who was to take Care of the Souls of the people within such a Precinct as hath obtained the Name of a Parish But Parishes now are of a very different Extent and Value but the Obligation which the Law puts upon them is the same only where the Maintenance is greater they may have the more Assistants And from hence came the Difference among the Parochial Clergy for those whose Parishes were better endowed could maintain inferior Clerks under them who might be useful to them in the publick Service and assist them in the Administration of Sacraments And this was the true Original of those we now call Parish-Clerks but were at first intended as Clerks-Assistant to him that had the Cure and therefore he had the Nomination of them as appears by the Ecclesiastical Law both here and abroad And Lyndwood saith Every Vicar was to have enough to serve him and One Clerk or more and by the Canon-Law no Church could be founded where there was not a Maintenance for Assisting-Clerks In the Synod of Worcester under Walter Cantelupe in Henry the Third's time they are called Capellani Parochiales and the Rectors of Parishes were required to have such with them And the Canon Law doth allow a Rector to give a Title to another to receive Orders as an Assistant to him and this without any prejudice to the Patron 's Right because but One can have a Legal Title to the Cure But Lyndwood observes very well That those who gives Titles to others as their Assistants or Curates are bound to maintain them if they want These are called Vicarii Parochiales Stipendiarii but Conductitii Presbyteri who are forbidden were those who took Livings to farm without a Title But after Appropriations came in then there were another sort of Vicars called Perpetui and were endowed with a certain Portion of the Temporalities and were admitted ad Curam Animarum But such could not Personam Ecclesiae sustinere in an Action at Law about the Rights of the Church but as to their own Right they might But still there is another sort of Vicars who are Perpetual but not Endowed any otherwise than the Bishop did allow a congrua Portio and this was in Appropriations where the Bishop consented only upon those Terms as they generally were so made till the Neglect made the Statutes necessary 15 R. 2. 6. and 4 H. 4. 12. The Bishops were to make or enlarge the Allowance say the Canonists after Presentation and before Institution and were to see that it were a sufficient Subsistence But there were some Cures which had Chapels of Ease belonging to them and they who offiuated in them were called Capellani and had their Subsistence out of the Oblations and Obventions and were often Perpetual and Presentative And where the Incumbents had several Chapels of Ease and only Assistants to supply them the Canon Law doth not call them Rectores but Plebani who had a sort of peculiar Jurisdiction in lesser Matters but still they were under the Bishops Authority in Visitations and other Ecclesiastical Censures because the Care of the whole Diocess belonged to him Iure Communi and so it was taken for granted in all Parts of the Christian World And especially in this Kingdom where Parochial Episcopacy was never heard of till of late
years For nothing can be plainer in our History than what is affirmed in two of our Laws Stat. of Carlisle 25 E. 1. and the Stat. of Provisors 25 E. 3. That the Church of England was founded in Prelacy or Diocesan Episcopacy For our first Bishops were so far from being confined to one Church or Town that at first in the Saxon-Division of Kingdoms every Bishop had his Diocess equal with the Extent of the Kingdom except in Kent where one Suffragan to the Archbishop at Rochester was confirmed The first Conversion of the English Nation to Christianity from Paganism was by the Diocesan Bishops who were sent hither from several Parts and the Presbyters imployed by them and as the Number of Christians increased the Number of Bishops did so too so that in the Parts of Mercia one Diocess was divided into five that they might the better look after the Government of them and every Bishop as appears by the Saxon-Councils was bound to see parochial Churches built and the Clergy to be settled in them to attend upon the Duties of their Function among the people committed to their Charge That which I have aimed at in this Discourse was to shew That the Original Constitution of this Church was Episcopal but yet that the Bishops did still design to fix a Parochial Clergy under them as Churches could be built and endowed It remains now to shew That this Constitution of a Parochial Clergy is more reasonable than that of an unfixed and unsettled Clergy by Law which will easily appear if we consider 1. The greater Advantage as to Unity and real Edification among the People For this makes them to be as one Body within certain Bounds And the People know whither to resort for publick Worship and Sacraments and the Inconveniencies as to the difference of Mens Abilities is not so great as the Inconveniency of a broken divided people as to Religion which always creates Suspicions and Jealousies and generally Contempt and Hatred of each other And I think every wise and good Christian will consider that which tends to Peace and Unity is really more Edifying than a far better Talent of Elocution or the most moving Way of exciting the Fancies and Passions of Hearers For S. Paul tells us Charity is beyond miraculous Gifts It is easie to observe that the wisest Methods are seldom the most popular because the generality of Mankind do not judge by Reason but by Fancy and Humour and Prejudices of one kind or other From hence the Heats of Enthusiasm and odd Gestures and vehement Expressions with no deep or coherent Sense take much more with ordinary and injudicious people than the greatest Strength and clearness of Reason or the soundest Doctrine and the most pious Exhortation if they be not set off in such a Way as strikes their Imaginations and raises their Passions And this is that which such do commonly call the most Edifying Way of Preaching which is like the coming up of the Tide with Noise and Violence but leaves little Effect whereas the other is like a constant Stream which goes on in a steady and even Course and makes the Earth more fruitful The one is like a Storm of Thunder and Lightning which startles and confounds and amuses more but the other is like a gentle Rain which softens and mellows the Ground and makes it more apt to produce kindly and lasting Fruit. We are to judge of true Edification not by the sudden Heat and Motion of Passions but by producing the genuine Effects of true Religion which are fixing our Minds on the greatest and truest Good and calming and governing our disorderly Passions and leading a godly righteous and sober Life But we too often find violent and boisterous Passions an ungovernable Temper Envy Strife and Uncharitableness growing up with greater Pretences to Zeal and better Ways of Edification I never expect to see the World so wise as to have Persons and Things universally esteemed according to their Real Worth For there will be a Tincture in most persons from Temper and Inclination and the Principles of Education but generally speaking Matters of Order and Decency and Things which tend to a publick Good affect those most who have the best Judgment and Temper and irregular Heats and disorderly Methods of praying and preaching those whose Religion makes more Impression upon their Fancies than their Judgments and is seen more in the inflaming their Passions than in keeping them in their due Order 2. There is a greater Advantage as to Discipline For if among the Teachers they are under no Bounds nor Subjection to a Superiour Authority it is very easie to avoid any kind of Censure for the most corrupt Doctrines or Practices We cannot boast much of the strict Exercise of Discipline among us and one great Reason is That many have more mind to complain of the Want of it than to do their Endeavour to amend it We hear of many Complaints of the Clergy in general and sometimes by those who have more mind to have them thought guilty than to prove them so for fear they should acquit themselves or at least the Church should not bear the blame of their Miscarriages But we cannot proceed arbitrarily we must allow them timely notice and summon them to appear and a just Liberty of Defence but if upon Proof and sufficient Evidence we have not proceeded against them with the just Severity of the Law then we ought to bear the Blame but not otherwise But whatsoever personal Neglects or Faults there have been or may be my Business is to shew that our Way is much better fitted for the just Exercise of Discipline than that of Independant Congregations altho' the Managers of them pick and cull out the best they can for their Purpose and one would think when they had made choice of Members to their mind and bound them together by an Explicit Covenant they should be very easie and tractable and submissive to their own Discipline But they have found the contrary by their sad Experience they grow too heady and wilful to bear any such thing as strict Discipline for when they had the Courage to exercise it their Congregations were soon broken to pieces and the several divided Parts were for setting up new Heads one against another till at last they found it was much easier to be Teaching than to be Ruling Elders And so they have let the Reins of Discipline fall to keep their Congregations together But suppose the Teachers should fall out among themselves as to give a fresh and late remarkable Instance Suppose some set up Antinomianism and preach such Doctrines to the People or Flocks before you which others think of dangerous Consequence What is to be done in such a Case They may send some Brethren to enquire whether the Matters of fact be true Suppose they find them true What then What is to be done next It may be some would have them come up
to their Brethren and answer to the Accusations brought against them But suppose they will not and others of the Brethren say they ought not and so fall into Heats and Disputes among themselves about it and make new Parties and Divisions Is not this an admirable Way of preserving Peace and Order and Discipline in a Church And I am as certain this is not the Way of Christ's appointing as I am that God is the God of Order and not of Confusion and that when Christ left the Legacy of Peace to his Church he left a Power in some to see his Will performed But these things can never be objected against us for all are Members of the same Body and are governed by certain and known Rules and if any be guilty of open Violation of it the Way is open to accuse and prosecute them and if they be found guilty the Censures of the Church will render them uncapable of doing it in such a Station or at least to bring them to Confession of their Fault and Promise of future Amendment And now I leave any one to judge whether the Parochial Clergy are not under greater and better Discipline than the Teachers of the separate Congregations II. But the great Complaint of such Men is That we want Parochial and Congregational Discipline so that Faults should be examined and punished where they have been committed but instead of that all Matters are drawn into the Ecclesiastical Court and there Causes are managed so as looks rather like a Design to punish Men in their Purses than for their Faults and the Delays are so great that the Court it self seems to be designed for Penance and grows very uneasie even to those who are the Members of our Church And some think that the proceeding against Men upon Articles of Enquiry not so agreeable to the Rights and Liberties of Mankind In answer to this I shall consider 1. The Proceedings upon Enquiry at Visitations 2. The Method of Proceeding in the Ecclesiastical Courts 3. The Inconveniencies of parochial Discipline 1. As to Enquiries at Visitations They were grounded upon one of the main Pillars of our Law viz. an ancient immemorial Custom founded upon good Reason In the first Canons that ever were made in this Church under Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury the second is That every Bishop is to look after the Government of his own Diocess and not to invade anothers And that in so doing they went about their Diocesses in order to an Enquiry and Correction of Miscarriages is evident from the Council under Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury Can. 3. 25. the first Council at Calechyth Can. 3. the Constitutions of Odo Archbishop of Canterbury Can. 3. and the Canon of Edgar Can. 3. But in these Saxon times the Visitations were annual which were found inconvenient and therefore in the Norman times the Archdeacons were taken into a part of the Jurisdiction under the Bishop and visited those years the Bishop did not But we meet with no Archdeacons with any kind of Jurisdiction in the Saxon times we read indeed sometimes of the Name of Archdeacons but they had nothing to do in the Diocess but only attended the Bishop at Ordinations and other publick Services in the Cathedral Lanfranc was the first who made an Archdeacon with Jurisdiction in his See And Thomas first Archbishop of York after the Conquest was the first who divided his Diocess into Archdeaconries and so did Remigius Bishop of Lincoln his large Diocess into Seven Archdeaconries saith H. of Huntingdon And so it was with the rest of which there were two Occasions 1. The laying aside the Corepiscopi in the Western Parts as assuming too much to themselves 2. The publick Services which the Bishops were more strictly tied to as the King's Barons in the Norman times Which was the Reason not only of taking in Archdeacons but likewise of Archpresbyters or Rural-Deans who had some Inspection into the several Deanaries and assisted the Bishop in such things as they were appointed to do and then came in the other Ecclesiastical Officers as Vicars General Chancellors Commissaries c. for we read not of them here at all in the Saxon times but about the time of Hen. II. the Bishops took them for their Assistance in Dispatch of Causes when the King required their strict Attendance on the publick Affairs in the Supreme Court of Parliament 2. As to the Method of Proceeding in the Ecclesiastical Courts it is no other than hath been continued here without Interruption till of late years ever since the Conquest For the Consistory-Court and the Rules of Proceeding there were established by a Law in the time of William the First As far as I can find by King Edward's Laws c. 4. the Bishops did then proceed by the Ecclesiastical Laws although they then sat in the County-Court but this caused so much Confusion that William by a general Consent and a Charter directed to all the People of England doth separate the Ecclesiastical from the Temporal Courts which was enrolled as good Law 2 R. 2. upon occasion of a Suit of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln and therefore the Charter of Remigius Bishop of Lincoln is more mentioned than others but the same was to all the Bishops and Counties of England as appears by other Copies of it Thus the Consistory-Court was first established as a distinct Court from the County-Court which it was not in the Saxon times for then the Bishop sate with the Civil Magistrate in the same Court and Ecclesiastical Causes were first heard and decided there It seems the People wer very unwilling to go to a new Place and therefore the Law is inforced with severe Penalties for Contempt And those who object against the Reasonableness of the Method of Proceeding in those Courts must reflect upon some of the wisest Nations in the World who have gone upon the same Grounds in all that have received the Civil Law and upon some of the greatest Courts at this time in the Kingdom as the Chancery and Admiralty which go by the same Fundamental Rules As to any Objections which arise from the personal Faults of those who are imployed in them that reaches I am afraid to all Courts and it ought to be the Work and Business of those who look after them to do what in them lies to reform them that others Faults may not be laid at their Doors 3. But for those who would have a Parochial or Congregational Discipline set up as much better and more effectual I shall desire them to consider that since Matters of Discipline are such as that in them the Reputation and Interest of Persons is very much concerned they ought not to be left to Arbitrary Proceedings of any Persons but they ought to be managed by the certain and common Rules of Justice since every Man hath a Right to defend himself when he is accused And unless there be known and
Archbishop of York and calls Bede the greatest Master of his Time and in another place he saith One Seventh Day is set apart among Christians as another had been among the Iews for the Service of God and that therein we ought to attend to the Care of our Souls and to lead a spiritual Life Bede distinguishes between the Patriarchal and Iewish Sabbath The latter he calls a Carnal and the other a Spiritual Sabbath the former lay in a strict Abistnence from Labour but the other in Prayer and Devotion and Spiritual Contemplations The Iewish Rest he saith was inutile 〈◊〉 luxuriosum For the 〈…〉 â—llowed Recreations and Sports on their Sabbaths vacant ab opere bono saith he non ab opere nugatorio Vacant ad nugas saith S. Augustin but he saith they had better plow or dig than dance on that Day or sit in the Theater And he tells us That the Heathens objected against the Iews That they spent one Day in the Week in Idleness For they supposed the bare Rest to be the Sanctification of the Day which was commanded and the spending any part of it in the publick Worship to be voluntary Devotion But the better sort of the Iews thought the Rest was appointed for the Knowledge of the Law and Spiritual Imployments So Philo Iosephus Aben-Ezra Kimchi and Menasseh ben Israel It seems most reasonable in this Case to distinguish between the Legal Rest strictly required by the Fourth Commandment and the Original Rest in Remembrance of God's resting from the Work of Creation The former was a Sign between God and the People of Israel as it is often called in Scripture and the other was a Commemorative Sign but such as excited them to the Worship of the Creator and therefore the Patriarchal Sabbath as Bede observes was of a spiritual Nature And such a spiritual Sabbath as S. Augustin calls it ought to be observed by Christians in the Duties of God's Worship as well as in spiritual and holy Thoughts But the Iewish Sabbath he often-saith doth not oblige Christians I the rather mention him because Bede followed his Doctrine herein and that of Gregory I. who was the great Instrument of promoting the Conversion of our Ancestors to Christianity And he declares himself fully both as to the Cessation of the Iewish Sabbath and the religious Observation of the Lord's day It seems there were some then as there are among us now who were for the strict Observation of the Saturday-Sabbath But Gregory saith They might as well insist upon Circumcision and Sacrifices as the Iewish Sabbath But yet he adds We ought on the Lord's day to abstain from worldly Imployments and devote our selves unto Prayers that we may make some Amends for the Weeks Negligence by the Devotions on that Day And this devoting the Lord's day to the Service of God is entred into the Body of the Canon Law and taken out of Ivo and by him from the Canons of the Gallican Church as appears by several Councils Our Lyndwood mentions that Canon as in force here Die Dominicâ nihil aliud agendum nisi Deo vacandum And he takes some Pains to explain it by distinguishing 1. Works servile materially and formally as Plowing Sowing Markets Law-days c. these are generally forbidden 2. Acts spiritual materially and finally as all Acts of Piety and Devotion and these we ought to attend upon with Care and Diligence 3. Acts not servile in themselves but done for a servile End as Studies and Designs for Gain 4. Acts servile in themselves but not so in their End as the Man's taking up his Couch on the Sabbath-day whom Christ cured He affirms that there is a Moral Part in the Fourth Commandment which he saith is a spiritual Rest or a Time set apart for God's Service Which he takes from Aquinas who saith the Substance of the Command is Moral but he doth not make it to be One day in Seven but some determinate time which he saith the Church may appoint but then it must be imployed in the Service of God vacare rebus divinis as things were said to be sanctified under the Law which were applied to God's Service But notwithstanding this Judgment of Aquinas some great Men in the Church of Rome have thought One day in Seven Moral and that the Proportion which God himself had appointed cannot be lessened For altho' Mankind could not by natural Reason find out the Proportion yet being once revealed it doth not cease to oblige unless something figurative and symbolical or peculiar to the Iewish Nation be discovered in it Bellarmin makes that the Reason of the Institution of the Lord's day because God's Law required that One day in Seven should be set apart for the Worship of God but the Apostles thought it not fit to observe the Iewish Sabbath and therefore changed it into the Lord's day Covarruvias saith That all Divines agree with Aquinas That there is something Moral in the Fourth Command which continues to oblige and that the Lord's day is of Divine Institution And to him the Roman Editors of the Canon Law referr as to this matter Azorius confesseth That the Observation of the Lord's day hath something of the Divine and Natural Law in it which requires One day in a Week should be consecrated to the Service of God and that it is most agreeable to Reason And he adds That Panormitan Sylvester and other Canonists held the Lord's day to be of divine Institution Suarez saith That the Church doth observe One day in Seven by Virtue of the divine Law that Proportion being so agreeable to Natural Reason that it cannot be altered Thomas Waldensis who lived here in the time of H. 5. observes That even then there were two Extreams in Mens Opinions about the Observation of the Lord's Day some allowed no kind of Work and others any But he shews That the Law of Nature requires some Solemn Days for Divine Worship and that then there ought to be a Rest from other Labours because they hinder the Mind from that Attention necessary to the Service of God And necessary Works are left to a few that others may be more at Liberty In the Saxon Laws we find many against the Profanation of the Lord's day by slavish Imployments by Markets and Trading by Folkmotes and Law-suits c. So that great care was taken then that the Lord's day should be duly observed After the Norman times we have several Constitutions to inforce the strict Observation of the Lord's day In the time of H. 6. Hubert de Burgo saith That Custom may derogate from other Holy-days but not from the Lord's day because they are not commanded by God as that is Since the Reformation our Book of Homilies goes upon the same Grounds which were used in
the Saxon times viz. That the Iewish Sabbath doth not oblige us but however to observe the like Proportion of time and devote it to the Service of God Mr. Hooker saith That we are to account the Sanctification of one day in Seven a Duty which God's immutable Law doth exact for ever But what is meant by this Sanctification of One day in Seven If it be understood according to the old Canons it will fill scrupulous Minds with more Doubts and Fears about the right Observation of it Origen saith The Observation of the Christian Sabbath lies in these things 1. A Forbearance of worldly Business 2. Attendance on the Publick Worship 3. Divine Meditation on Things invisible and future Haec est observatio Sabbati Christiani And in another place he requires besides Publick Worship private Meditation and Reading the Holy Scriptures S. Chrysostom insists very much upon the same in several places and on different Occasions And altho' it be in his popular Sermons yet he would certainly not put them upon any thing but what he thought very fit to be done And they must have a mean Opinion of him who think his Eloquence carried him too far in this matter I shall conclude with the Opinion of Lyndwood a Learned and Judicious Canonist and he observes a Threefold Sanctification of the Lord's day 1. By Abstinence from Sin which is necessary at all times 2. By Abstinence from such bodily Labours as hinder the Mind's Attendance upon God's Service 3. By the whole Imployment of our Minds in Divine Matters and this he calls the perfect Observation of it These things I have the more largely insisted upon to shew That the Religious Observation of the Lord's day is no Novelty started by some late Sects and Parties among us but that it hath been the general Sense of the best part of the Christian World and is particularly inforced upon us of the Church of England not only by the Homilies but by the most ancient Ecclesiastical Law among us But this is not all for the Ancient as well as Modern Canons require the Observation of Holy-days likewise The Canons of Egbert require not only Prayers but Preaching then Can. 1. 3. The Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. distinguishes the Holy-days relating to our Saviour from the rest and saith They are to be observed in a solemn and uniform Manner and the rest according to the Roman Martyrology Which I suppose were those repeated then in the Diptychs of the Church which Custom continued longer at Rome than in other Churches but it was generally disused before the time of Charles the Great The Custom in Rome in Gregory's time was to observe the Saints Days with the solemn Service at one Church as appears by his Homilies on the Evangelists which were many of them preached on those Occasions as of S. Felicitas Hom 3. S. Agnes Hom. 11 12. S. Felix Hom. 13. S. Pancrace Hom. 27. c. and of others who were Roman Martyrs and therefore had a particular Solemnity appointed for them But as to other Saints Days it appears by the Antiphonarius and Sacramentary of Gregory I. that they had particular Anthems and Collects proper for them in the Offices of the Day but I do not find that the Generality of the People were so strictly tied up when the Offices were over as they were on the Lord's days and the greater Festivals relating to our Saviour In the Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. I observe that the Natalitia Sanctorum i.e. the Anniversary Saints Days were observed with particular Psalmody and Anthems and Can. 17. the Days of Gregory and Augustin the Two great Instruments of converting the Nation were only to be kept as Holy-days by the Clergy without any particular Obligation on all the People So that the Holy-days of strict Observation then seem to have been no other than those which relate to our Saviour called Dominicae Dispensationis in carne Festivitates the rest had some proper Offices which were performed on their Days but the People were to attend them as well as they could but after there was not this strictness required as upon the greater Holy-days and as it was in the Church of Rome afterwards when they made the Obligation of Conscience to extend to all Holy-days appointed by the Church But it is observable 1. That this Obligation is taken from those Canons which mention only the Lord's day as appears by Bellarmin 2. That they kept up the Distinction of greater and lesser Holy-days 3. That they allow the Bishop to dispense as to some Works on Holy-days Lyndwood observes that the Abstinence from Work is not alike but as the Church hath required it and that if a Bishop's Licence cannot be had a less will serve Our Church Can. 13. requires Holy-days to be observed with Works of Piety Charity and Sobriety but gives no Rule as to Abstinence from Works or the strict Obligation of Conscience 2. I now come to the particular Duties of the Clergy on the Days which are solemnly devoted to the Service of God 1. The constant and devout Attendance upon and solemn Reading the Prayers of the Church as they are appointed In the old Saxon Canons the Presbyters are required to officiate constantly at Prayers in their Churches so in the Council at Cloveshoo Can. 8. the Canons of Egbert Can. 2. Canons of Edgar Can. 45. But how if the People will not come to the Prayers You ought what lies in you to remove the Causes of such Neglect which arises generally from these things either a gross Stupidity and Regardlesness of Religion which is too common in the World or from Prejudice and Principles of Education or the Interest of a Party or from not Reading the Prayers with that Attention and Devotion which is fit to raise an Esteem of them The other two you ought to do what you can to remove but this is your own Fault if you do it not We are not to please the Fancies of People by an affected Variety of Expressions in Prayers but we ought to do what we can to excite their Affections which is done as much by the due manner of Reading as by Figures in Speaking And the People are uneasie at staying when they see the Minister read them so fast as though he minded nothing so much as to be at the end of them or when he mangles them so as if he had a mind to make the People out of love with them 2. The next Duty is Preaching and truly that need to be looked after when the Esteem of our Profession depends so much upon it We have none of those Methods which those on both sides make so much use of we can neither comply with the People in Gestures and Phrases and Enthusiastick Heats nor with the Superstitious Devotions and Priest-craft of others Of all Churches ours hath the least Reason to be charged
with it since they let go so many Advantages over the People by the Reformation Thanks be to God we have Scripture and Reason and Antiquity of our side but these are dry and insipid things to the common People unless some Arts be used to recommend them But since our main Support lies in the Honesty and Justice of our Cause without Tricks and Devices we ought to look very well to that part of our Profession which keeps up any Reputation among the People and that is Preaching Those who are so weak or lazy as to be glad to have that laid aside too in a great measure never well considered the Design of our Profession or the way to support it It 's true for some time Preaching was an extraordinary thing in the Church and none but Great and Eloquent Men of Authority in the Church were permitted to preach and the greatest Bishops were then the Preachers as appears by the Sermons of S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Augustin c. And even some of the Bishops of Rome whatever Sozomen saith were frequent Preachers as appears by Gregory's Homilies on Ezekiel and the Gospels And if it were not then practised he did very ill to complain of the Burden of it and the Danger of neglecting it But in other Churches while the Bishop and the Presbyters lived together before parochial Cures were settled the Presbyters had no constant Office of preaching but as the Bishops appointed them occasionally But afterwards when the Presbyters were fixed in their Cures they were required to be very diligent and careful in preaching or instructing the people committed to their Charge as may be seen in many early Canons of the Gallican Church and so it was here in England Council of Cloveshoo c. 8. 14. Egbert Can. 3. and that not only in the moving way in the Pulpit but in the familiar and instructing way which we call Catechizing Concil Cloveshoo c. 11. Can. Egbert 6. Both ought to be done because they are both very useful The Principles and Foundations of Religion must be well laid to make the people have any Taste or Relish of preaching otherwise it is like reading Mathematicks to those who understand not Numbers or Figures Erasmus observes that the Sense of Religion grows very cold without preaching and that the Countess of Richmond Mother to H. 7. had such a Sense of the Necessity of it in those times that she maintained many Preachers at her own Charges and imployed Bishop Fisher to find out the best qualified for it And since the Reformation the Church of Rome hath been more sensible of the Necessity of it as appears by the Council of Trent Cardinal Borromeo one of the most Celebrated Saints since that time frequently insists upon it gives Directions about it and speaks of it as a thing which tends very much to the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls And to the same purpose other Great Men among them as Cardinal Palaeotus Godeau Bordenave and others Would it not then be a great Shame for us who pretend to a Zeal for Reformation and the true Religion to neglect or lessen the Reputation of those things which our Adversaries have learnt from us and glory in them and those are Diligence in Preaching and Catechizing Which none can despise who value Religion none can neglect who have any Regard to the Interest or Honour of their Profession 3. The next Duty is the solemn Administration of the Sacraments which ought to be done in the publick Assemblies where there is not a great Reason to the contrary The Saxon Canons are express That Baptism unless in Case of Necessity should be administred only in due Times and Places Egber Can. 10 11. While the Ancient Discipline was kept up and Baptism only celebrated at the great Festivals there was a Necessity of its being publick and the Catechumens underwent several Scrutinies which lasted several days in the Face of the Church as S. Augustin observes after they had been kept under private Examination for some time before But when whole Nations were not only converted but Infants generally baptized the former Method of Discipline was changed But yet the Church retained her Right as to Satisfaction about the due Admission of her Members And that is the true Reason why after private Baptism the Child is required to be brought to the publick Congregation For Baptism is not intended to be done before a select Number of Witnesses but in the Face of the Church which is the regular and solemn Way however the Bishop may dispense in some particular Cases which he judges reasonable At first Baptism was administred publickly as Occasion served by Rivers as Bede saith Paulinus baptized many in the Rivers before Oratories or Churches were built Afterwards the Baptistery was built at the Entrance of the Church or very near it which is mentioned by Athanasius S. Chrysostom S. Ambrose S. Augustin c. The Baptistery then had a large Bason in it which held the Persons to be baptized and they went down by Steps into it Afterwards when Immersion came to be disused Fonts were set up at the Entrance of Churches But still the place was publick But in Case of Necessity there is a Form prescribed and I do not see how any without leave can use the Form of Publick Baptism in private Houses which is against both our Ancient and Modern Canons In the Greek Church it is Deprivation to do it and the Synod under Photius confirms it both as to the Eucharist and Baptism because publick Order is to be preserved But it is there understood to be done in Opposition to the Bishop's Authority whose Consent may make the Case different if they judge it reasonable But Ministerial Officers are not Judges in an equitable Case against a standing Rule 4. Another Duty of the parochial Clergy is to be able and ready to resolve Penitential Cases which relate to the Internal Court of Conscience and not the External and Judiciary Court which respects the Honour of the Church as to scandalous Offences committed by the Members of it And this takes in the Private and Occasional Duties of the parochial Clergy for they ought to inform themselves of the Spiritual Condition of their People that they may be able to give suitable Advice and Directions to them both in Health and Sickness But chiefly to be able to give them safe and seasonable Advice under Troubles of Conscience by reason of wilful Sins Duarenus a very considerable Lawyer thinks the main Business of the Clergy as to the Cure of Souls lies in the Power of Binding and Loosing i. e. in dealing aright with the Consciences of Men as to the Guilt of their Sins And the Rules of the Penitential Court are different from those of the Ecclesiastical Court as well as the End is different In the
own and were hardly brought to any reasonable Allowance for the Clergy which supplied them These were called Beneficia in the Capitulars and they were to pay Nonae Decimae i.e. a Fifth Part out of them which was obtained with much Difficulty as appears by the many Laws made about them In the Council at Leptins A.D. 743. Carolomannus son to Charles Martel owns the letting out some of the Church Lands sub Precario Censu upon a reserved Rent Can. 2. Capit. l. 5. c. 3. but then it was barely for Life But the consequence was That it was very hard to recover either the Lands or the reserved Rents and they put in Clergy-men and put them out as they pleased because they held these Lands as Beneficiary Tenures from the Crown So that it was the Work of more than an Age to put the Church there in any tolerable Condition But this seems to be very much mistaken when it is brought to prove the Right of Patronage from the Endowment as to the Disposal of Benefices But the Right of Patronage by the first building and endowing the Church is owned by the Civil Law in Iustinian's Novels 123. c. 18. and Two Things were there required 1. A sufficient Maintenance for the Clergy who were nominated 2. The Bishop's Satisfaction as to their Fitness about which he speaks in another Novel 56. Tit. 12. c. 2. And he elsewhere requires that before any Churches were built the Bishop should see that there were sufficient Maintenance for those who were to officiate Novel 66. Tit. 22. The same Right obtained here upon the same Grounds as appears by the Barons Answer to Gregory IX who affirm That they had it ever since Christianity was founded here They mean ever since parochial Churches were endowed by their Ancestors for there could be no such Right of Patronage before And such Patrons were here called Advocati Ecclesiae as appears by Ioh. Sarisbur Ep. 6. 119. and the Ius Advocationis as our Lawyers tell us is a Right which a Person hath to present to a vacant Benefice in his own Name which is agreeable to what Bracton and Fleta had said long before But it doth not appear by them how the Names of Patron and Advocate came to be so applied Among the Romans saith Asconius Pedianus the Patron was he that pleaded the cause of another the Advocate he that appeared in Court on his behalf But this doth not reach to the Ius Advocationis which we are now about In the Ninety seventh Canon of the African Code an Allowance is made for the Churches to have Advocates to solicite their Causes at Court. From hence the greater Churches and Monasteries had their proper Advocates appointed them by the King as Bignonius observes and in the old Charters of Aub. Miraeus several such Advocates are appointed and it appears to have been an honorary Title and great Men were pleased with it Miraeus faith it was accounted a considerable Honour at that time And so by degrees the Founders of Parochial Churches came to have the Title of Patrons and Advocates of them and the Right they injoyed the Right of Advowson as well as Patronage not as some ridiculously talk of Advocat se or Advocat alium because the Trust and Care of those Churches endowed by their Ancestors was fallen to them and they were bound to look after and to defend the Rights of them and so Lyndwood explains it II. The next thing to be considered is the Oblations of the People which in those elder times were so free and large that which may seem incredible now there were Persons who would build Churches on their own Land to have a Share in the Oblations as is affirmed in one of the Spanish Councils and there forbidden with great Severity It was not as the Gloss on the Canon Law understands it to make a Bargain for the Right of Patronage but it is expressed to have an equal Share with the Clergy in the Oblations of the People It is observed by Agabardus That the Devotion of Persons in the first Ages was so great that there was no need to make Laws or Canons for the Supplies of Churches since they were so amply provided for by the Liberality of the People Thence we read of the Deposita pietatis in Tertullian which were voluntary Oblations and out of which were made Divisiones Mensurnae in S. Cyprian and the Sportulae which were the Allowances made to the Clergy out of the common Stock and they who received them and not those who gave them as Mr. Selden fancies were called Sportulantes Fratres and the Allowances were then stiled Stipes Oblationes which were so considerable that St. Cyprian blamed some for their setting their Hearts too much upon them Stipes Oblationes Lucra desiderant quibus prius insatiabiles incubabant which could not be said of any meer necessary Subsistence these they received tanquam Decimas ex fructibus as St. Cyprian speaks in lieu of Tithes at that time when the most of the Christian Church inhabited the Cities and gave out of their Stock to maintain the Church and those who attended upon the Service of it But when Christianity came to spread into the Countries then a more fixed and settled Maintenance was required but so as to retain somewhat of the Ancient Custom in voluntary Oblations No sooner was Christianity settled in France but we read of Lands given to the Church by Clodovaeus after his Conversion these are owned by the first Council of Orleans called in his time A. D. 511. and were put into the Bishop's Hands and to be distributed by him for Repairs of Churches Maintenance of the Clergy and other pious Uses Can. 5. 14 15. But besides these we read still of Oblations made by the people on the Altar both in the Mother-Church and in Parochial Churches If in the Mother-Church one Moiety went to the Bishop the other to the Clergy if in the other only the third Part to the Bishop In the second Council of Mascon Can. 4. we find it required That all the People make an Oblation of Bread and Wine at the Altar and this was A. D. 585. but besides the next Canon insists on the Payment of Tithes as founded on the Law of God and the Ancient Custom of the Church which is thereby reinforced unde statuimus decernimus ut mos antiquus reparetur which Words are not fairly left out by Mr. Selden because they shew that there was only in this Canon a renewing of an Ancient Custom which had obtained but was now growing into Disuse For this Council of Mascon was called on purpose to restore what they found too much declining as to Religion and they begin with the Observation of the Lord's Day and after add this wherein they complain of the Neglect of that which their Predecessors observed as founded on the Law
these I shall discourse in order so as to clear the greatest Difficulties with respect to them 1. As to Appropriations By the Statute of Dissolution 31 H. 8. 13. the new Possessors are to enjoy their Parsonages appropriated Tithes Pensions and Portions and all other Lands belonging to them discharged and acquitted of the Payment of Tithes as freely and in as ample a manner as they were enjoyed before 32 H. 8. 7. It is Enacted That no persons shall be compelled or otherwise sued to yield give or pay any manner of Tithes for any Mannors Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments which by Laws or Statutes of this Realm are discharged or not chargeable with the payment of any such Tithes So that we must enquire into the State of Parsonages appropriated before the Dissolution and how the payment of Tithes stood then I will not deny that there were Churches appropriated to Monasteries in the Saxon times but if Mr. Selden's Doctrine hold good as to the Arbitrary Consecration of Tithes till the Twelfth Century those Churches cannot carry the Tithes along with them but only such Glebe and Oblations as belonged to them For how could the Tithes pass with the Churches if they were not then annexed to them But he confesses That the mention of Tithes with Churches in Appropriations was rare or not at all till after the Normans The Reason might be that the Separation of Tithes from the Churches was not known till the Norman times For the Norman Nobility took little notice of the Saxon Laws about Tithes but finding Tithes paid out of the Lands within their Manors they thought they did well if they gave the whole Tithes or a Portion and Share of them as they thought fit to some Monastery either abroad or at home And this I take to be the true Account of the beginning of Appropriations among us It were endless to give an Account of the Appropriations made by the Normans for the Monasticon is full of them William I. gave several Churches with their Tithes to Battle-Abbey William Rufus added more H. 1. to the Monastery of Reading several Churches in like-manner and H. 2. more Hugh Earl of Chester gave the Tithes of several Manors to the Monastery of St. Werburg in the time of William I. Of which kind the Instances are too many to be mentioned instead thereof I shall set down the State of the parochial Clergy under these Appropriations which was very mean and intended so to be being supplied by the English Clergy 1. Where the Churches and Tithes were appropriated to a Monastery the Vicar had only such a Competency as the Bishop thought fit to allow till Vicarages came to be endowed For right understanding this matter of Appropriations as it stood here in England these things are to be considered 1. That there was a parochial Right of Tithes settled in the Saxon times Which I infer from the Laws of Edgar and Canutus where the Tithes are required to be paid to the Mother-Church and if the Lord of a Manor have a Church on his own Free-land he may retain a third part of the Tithes for the Use of it These Laws are so plain and clear that Mr. Selden does not deny them and he confesses the first Limitation of Profits to be contained in them But what is to be understood by the Mother-Church to which the Tithes were given Mr. Selden would have it the Monastery or Mother-Church but afterwards he grants That a Parochial Right to Incumbents was hereby settled Which is the first legal Settlement of Tithes in a parochial Manner But these Laws of Edgar and Canutus were so solemnly Enacted that as Mr. Selden observes they were particularly called Leges Anglicae the old English Laws in the old Latin MSS. It is a commonly received Opinion among the Lawyers of the best Rank That before the Lateran Council there was no Parochial Settlement of Tithes here My Lord Coke found no such Decree of the Lateran Council under Alexander 3. 5 H. 2. A. D. 1179. and therefore he refers it to a Decretal of Innocent 3. As to the Lateran Council which Lyndwood mentions it plainly speaks of Feudal Tithes which a person enjoyed by the Churches Grant and such might before that Council be given to what Church the person pleased But is there no Difference between Feudal and Parochial Tithes And what Proof is there of any Ancient Infeodations of Tithes here Mr. Selden himself thinks Lyndwood applies the Custom of other Countries to his own But as to the parochial Right of Tithes among us it stands thus By the Saxon Laws the parochial was settled After the Norman Invasion these Laws were neglected and slighted by the Normans H. I. by his Charter restored them H. 1. c. 11. and the very Words of the Laws of Edgar and Canutus are repeated The Normans went on notwithstanding and so these Laws were discontinued in Practice But Hadrian 4. who was an Englishman by Birth observing the disorderly Payments of Tithes here published a Constitution to require the parochial Payment of them as is observed by P. Pithaeus a very learned and impartial Man After him Alexander 3. in a Decretal directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Suffragans complains That whereas the Parishioners had formerly paid their Tithes entirely where they ought to pay them the contrary Custom had obtained and some withdrew the Tithe of Wooll Fish and Mills therefore he requires the strict Payment of them to the Churches to which they were due The latter part only is in the Canon Law but the former is added from the Ancient Copies by Pithaeus As to the Decretal of Innocent III. to which my Lord Coke refers and Mr. Selden thinks was mistaken for the Lateran Council being brought into England with it there is such an Epistle extant in the Collection of his Epistles but not put into the Canon Law and was nothing but an Inforcement of the former Laws and a declaring the contrary Custom void which had too much obtained since the Norman times But in a Decretal extant in the Canon Law De Decim c. 29. he acknowledges the parochial payment of Tithes to be due by common Right Cum perceptio Decimarum ad Paroeciales Ecclesias de Iure communi pertineat Can any thing be plainer than that the parochial Right could not depend upon his Decretal Epistle when himself confesses that they were due by common Right We do not deny that he inforced the payment which had been so grosly neglected in the Norman times and the most they would be brought to in many places was to pay only a third part to the Parish-Priest who officiated and gave the rest to Monasteries and often appropriated the whole Tithes to them either at home or abroad as will abundantly appear by the Monasticon from whence it is plain that they
looked on Tithes in general as due to the Church as appears by very many of their Ancient Charters but they thought they did very well when they appropriated them to Monasteries of their own Erection or others as they thought fit But this Humour took so much among the Norman Nobility and served so many Purposes of Honour and Devotion as they thought besides Reason of State that the parochial Clergy were reduced to so poor a Condition that Alexander IV. complained of it as the Bane of Religion and Destruction of the Church and as a Poison which had spread over the whole Nation And it must be very scandalous indeed when the Pope complained of it For the Monks that were able generally got their Appropriations confirmed in the Court of Rome 2. There was a Competency to be settled on the parochial Clergy by the Bishops Consent which was required in order to the confirming an Appropriation as may be seen in Multitudes of them in the Monasticon besides those which are preserved in the Churches Registers Sometimes the Endowment is expressed and at other times it is reserved in the Bishop's power to do it as he sees Cause But the Bishops were either so remiss in those Times or the Monks so powerful at Rome that the poor Vicars fared so hardly that in the time of H. 2. Alexander III. sent a Reprimand to the Bishops for favouring the Monks too much and the Clergy too little and therefore requires the Bishops to take care that the Vicar had a competent Subsistence so as to be able to bear the Burden of his Place and to keep Hospitality This was directed to the Bishop of Worcester for it seems so long since the poor Vicars here were hardly provided for And yet I have seen several Forms of Appropriations made by the Bishops here after the Conquest wherein there is a twofold Salvo one for the Bishop's Right and another for a sufficient Maintenance for the Curate although the Church were appropriated ad communem usum Monachorum as of Wolstan Roger and of William in the time of Hen. II. when Alexander III. lived and of Walter de Grey Sylvester c. But it seems where a competent Subsistence had been decreed the Monks took the first Opportunity to lessen it which occasioned another Decretal in the Canon Law wherein any such thing is forbidden without the Bishop's Consent In other Places they pleaded Custom for it thence came another Decree of the Lateran Council to void all such Customs by whomsoever introduced where there was not a competent Subsistence for him that served the Cure The Monks were still refractary in this matter and because the Bishops had Power to refuse any person presented by the Monks unless they did consent to such a reasonable Allowance as the Bishop thought fit therefore they grew sullen and would not present in which Case another Decretal was made to give the Bishop Power to present And after all Clement V. De Iure Patron c. 1. reinforced the former Decretals and injoyned the Diocesans in the strictest manner not to admit any person presented to a Cure where the Church was appropriated unless sufficient Allowance were made by the Bishop's Consent and Approbation and all Custom and Privileges to the contrary are declared to be void But how far doth this hold among us now since the Appropriations are become Lay-Fees and the Bishop's Power is not mentioned in the Statute of Dissolution To this I shall give a clear Answer but I doubt not satisfactory to all Parties concerned For as Necessity and Power so some Mens Interest and Reason live very near one another 1. The Statute of Dissolution leaves all matters of Right as to persons interested just as they were before For by the Surrender the King was to have the Monasteries and Tithes in as large and ample a manner as the Abbots then had them in Right of their Houses and in the same State and Condition as they then were or of Right ought to have been And so res transit cum suo onere But this is not all For there is an Express Salvo for all Rights Claims Interests c. of all Persons and Bodies Politick So that if by the Law of England there was such an Antecedent Right in the Vicar to his Allowance and in the Bishop to assign it it is not taken away by this Statute nor any other 2. By the Law of England the Bishop had a Right to provide a competent Maintenance for supplying the Cure upon an Appropriation We are told by an unquestionable Authority in point of Law that 9 Car. 1. this Point was brought before the Kings Bench in the Case of Thornburgh and Hitchcot The Vicar complained that the Church was appropriated and that he wanted a competent Maintenance a Prohibition was prayed but denied upon this Reason That the Vicar had Reason for his Suit and that the Ordinary might compel the Impropriator to make it greater because in all Appropriations that Power was reserved to the Ordinary And so in the Year-Books it is allowed That the Ordinary may increase or diminish the Vicar's Portion 40 E. 3. Cas. 15. f. 28. By our Provincial Constitutions the Bishop is to take care that the Vicar have a competent Allowance which at that time was set at Five Marks but Lyndwood observes that as the Price of things rose so the Allowance was increased and in Stipendiaries it was then advanced to Eight or Ten Marks which according to Sir H. Spelman's Computation comes to above Sixty Pounds per Annum But some have told us That by some old Statutes even beneficed Persons were not by Law to have above Six Marks per Annum for this was the Sum allowed to Parish Priests which is so gross a Mistake in any that pretend to Law or Antiquity that it is to be wondred how they could fall into it The Truth of the Case was this the parochial Chaplains or Priests were complained of 36 E. 3. n. 23. that they could not be gotten to attend after the Plague but at excessive Rates upon this a Provincial Constitution was made extant in the Parliament Rolls wherein they are obliged to demand no more than Six Marks But who were these Parish-Priests Not such as had the legal Endowments but those who depended on the Good-Will of the Parson or People and were hired to officiate in Chapels of Ease or to perform Offices for the Dead which were so frequent at that time And these were called Annual Chaplains or Masse Chaplains and were distinguished from Domestick Chaplains who officiated in great Mens Houses in their private Oratories and from Beneficed Persons as appears by many Constitutions But whatever was understood by the Act of Parliament then it was repealed 21 Iac. 1. 28. 3. The Law of England as to a competent Subsistence for the Vicars or
and the more Ancient the more Suspicious But the Lord Chancellor and three Chief Judges declared That by the Common Law of England every Bishop in his Diocess and the Archbishops in Convocation may make Canons to bind within the Limits of their Jurisdiction 3. The subordinate Jurisdiction which was lodged in the Bodies of the Clergy resident in Cathedral Churches and of Archdeacons in the several Diocesses I cannot find either of these to have had any Jurisdiction here before the Conquest neither were there any Courts of Justice out of the several Counties before for all Causes were transacted in the County-Courts and Sheriffs Turns and Appeals lay from them to the Supreme Judicature of the King and the Lords But this doth not hinder but these Courts may be founded on the Law of England And so the original Jurisdiction which of Right belonged to the Bishop might by degrees and a gradual Consent come to be committed as to some parts to the Bodies of Cathedral Churches and to the Archdeacons who are saith my Lord Coke Sixty in England We are told in a late Case of Woodward and Fox That there are Archdeaconries in England by Prescription which have no Dependency on the Bishop but are totally exempt And for this Godolphin is cited who refers to the Gloss on the Legatine Constitutions f. 27. where we read of some Archdeacons having a customary and limited Iurisdiction separate from the Bishop for which a Prescription lies But this is only for some special Iurisdiction as the Archdeacon of Richmond for Institutions which came first by Grant from the Bishops but that not being to be produced they insist upon Custom and Prescription as the Deans and Chapters do where the Ancient Compositions are lost But none who understand the Ancient Constitution of this Church can suppose either of them to have been Original since the Right to the Jurisdiction of the Diocess was in the Bishop before there were here either Archdeacons or Chapters with Jurisdiction In the Case of Chiverton and Trudgeon it was declared That an Archdeacon might have a peculiar Jurisdiction as to Administration c. as the Dean of St. Paul's had at S. Pancras and so the Archdeacon of Cornwall as to Wills In the case of Gastril and Iones the Chief Justice declared That the Archdeacon is the Bishop's Officer and his Authority subordinate to the Bishops and granted by them but if special Custom be pleaded that must be well proved to which Dodderidge agreed But we must distinguish between Archdeaconries by Prescription for which I can find no Foundation being all derived by Grant from the Bishop and Archdeacons having some kind of Iurisdiction by Prescription which others have not which cannot be denied All the Power which the Archdeacons have by virtue of their Office is per modum scrutationis simplicis as Lyndwood speaks tanquam Vicarius Episcopi Whatever Power they have beyond this is not Iure communi but Iure speciali and depends either upon Grant or Custom which the Gloss on the Legatine Constitutions calls a limited Iurisdiction The Archdeacon's Court is declared by the Judges in Woodward ' s Case to have been time out of Mind settled as a distinct Court from which there lies an Appeal to the Bishop's Court by the Statute 24 H. 8. c. 12. And so the Archdeacon's Jurisdiction is founded on an immemorial Custom in Subordination to the Bishops As to Deans and Chapters I observe these things 1. That although Ecclesiastical Bodies in Cathedrals were very ancient yet we read not of any Jurisdiction peculiar to themselves during the Saxon times My Lord. Coke saith There were Chapters as the Bishop's Council before they had distinct possessions And by their Books he saith it appears that the Bishops parted with some of their Possessions to them and so they became Patrons of the Prebends of the Church Such were London York and Litchfield 2. That several of our Chapters were founded and endowed by the Bishops since the Conquest Such was that of Salusbury by Osmund out of his own Estate as appears by his Charter and the Confirmation of H. 2. So was that of Lincoln by Remigius who removed the See from Dorchester thither and placed there a Dean Treasurer Praecentor and Seven Archdeacons as Henry of Huntingdon saith who lived near the time And in following times those of Exeter and Wells were settled as Dean and Chapter for they were Ecclesiastical Bodies before but not under that Denomination 3. That some had the legal Rights of Dean and Chapters as to Election of Bishops and Confirmation of Leases c. but were a Monastick Body consisting of Prior and Convent Such were Canterbury Winchester Worcester after the Expulsion of the Secular Canons for the Monks not only enjoyed their Lands but were willing enough to continue the Name of Dean among them As at Canterbury after Dunstan's time Agelmothas is called Dean in Worcester Wolstan is called Dean when he was Prior and Winsius upon the first Change is said to be placed loco Decani by Florence of Worcester At Norwich Herbert the Bishop founded the Prior and Convent out of his own Possessions in the time of William II. and they became the Chapter of the Bishop by their Foundation Now as to these it is resolved in the Dean and Chapter of Norwich's Case That when the King transferred them from a Prior and Convent the Legal Rights remained the same And in Hayward and Fulcher's Case the Judges declared That an Ecclesiastical Body may surrender their Lands but they cannot dissolve their Corporation but they still remain a Chapter to the Bishop And it was not only then delivered but since insisted upon in a famous Case That it was the Resolution of the Iudges That a Surrender cannot be made by a Dean and Chapter without Consent of the Bishop because he hath an Interest in them 4. That H. 8. endowed some as Chapters to new erected Bishopricks as Chester Bristol Oxford c. 31 H. 8 9. 34 H. 8. 17. and united others as Bath and Wells and Coventry and Litchfield 33 H. 8. 30. 34 H. 8. 15. 5. That where the Custom hath so obtained there may be a Legal-Chapter without a Dean as in the Diocesses of S. David's and Landaff where there is no other Head of the Chapter but the Bishop but they must act as a distinct Body in Elections and Confirmations of Grants by the Bishops 6. That by the Ancient Custom of England there are sole Ecclesiastical Corporations as well as aggregate A sole Ecclesiastical Corporation is where a single Person represents a whole Succession and under that Capacity is impowered to Receive and to Convey an Estate to his Successors As Bishops Deans Archdeacons Parsons c. But Parsons and Vicars are seized only in Right of the Church but as to a Bishop he may have a Writ of
Right because the Fee-simple abideth in him and his Chapter and so may a Dean and Master of an Hospital And these are called Bodies Politick by Littleton That the Exercise of the Bishop's Power may be restrained by ancient Compositions as is seen in the two Ancient Ecclesiastical Bodies of St. Paul's and Litchfield Concerning which it is to be observed That where the Compositions are extant both Parties are equally bound to observe their parts Thus by the Remisness and Absence of the Bishops of Litchfield from their See by going to Chester and then to Coventry the Deans had great Power lodged in them as to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction there After long Contests the matter came to a Composition A. D. 1428. by which the Bishops were to visit them but once in Seven Years and the Chapter had Jurisdiction over their own Peculiars So in the Church of Sarum the Dean hath very large Jurisdiction even out of the Bishop's Diocess which makes it probable to have been very ancient but upon contest it was settled by Composition between the Bishop Dean and Chapter A. D. 1391. But where there are no Compositions it depends upon Custom which limits the Exercise although it cannot deprive the Bishop of his Diocesan-Right 4. The Delegate Jurisdiction which was committed to the several Officers of the Bishops Courts and the Manner of their Proceedings is founded upon immemorial Custom In the Saxon times I find no Delegation of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for the Bishops sate in person in the County-Courts and there heard Ecclesiastical Causes as appears by the Charter of H. 1. when he pretended to restore the Saxon Laws c. 7. But William I. had settled the Consistory-Court by as good a Law as any was made at that time distinct from the County-Court and required all Ecclesiastical Causes to be there heard and his Son H. 1. did but make a shew of restoring the Saxon Laws and the former Law came to be generally received and so Mr. Selden yields that it grew to be a general Law which shews that it obtained the Force of a Law by Consent as well as by Authority The Consistory-Courts being thus settled and Numbers of Causes there depending and the Bishops being then by H. 2. in the Constitutions of Clarendon strictly tied to Attendance upon the Supreme Courts of Judicature with other Barons there came a Necessity of taking in other Persons with a delegated Power to hear Causes and to do such other Acts of Jurisdiction as the Bishops should appoint For it was still allowed that Iure communi the Jurisdiction was in the Bishop but Iure speciali in auxilium Episcopi it might be delegated to others And so it hath been here received and not only here but it hath been the general Practice of Christendom As to the manner of Proceeding in the Ecclesiastical Courts it is the same in all Parts and built on the same Grounds with those of our Courts of Equity and Admiralty which are as different from those of the Common Law 5. The settling Parochial Rights or the Bounds of Parishes depends upon an ancient and immemorial Custom For they were not limited by any Act of Parliament nor set forth by special Commissioners but as the Circumstances of Times and Places and Persons did happen to make them greater or lesser In some places Parishes seem to interfere when some place in the middle of another Parish belongs to one that is distant but that hath generally happened by an Unity of Possession when the Lord of a Manor was at the Charge to erect a new Church and make a distinct Parish of his own Demesns some of which lay in the Compass of another Parish But now care is taken by Annual Perambulations to preserve those Bounds of Parishes which have been long settled by Custom But the Bounds of Parishes is not allowed to belong to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction II. The next Foundation of Law is a General Practice and Allowance i.e. when things of themselves do not oblige by the Authority of those that made them yet being generally received and allowed they thereby become Law to us This we have in an Act of Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 21. wherein it is said That the People of England are only bound to such Laws as are properly their own being in Subjection to no Foreign Legislative Power But were not many things here received for Laws which were Enacted by a Foreign Authority as the Papal and Legatine Constitutions True say they but it is not by Virtue of their Authority but by the free Consent of the People in the Use and Allowance of them And so they are not observed as the Laws of any Foreign Prince Potentate or Prelate but as the customed and ancient Laws of this Realm originally established as Laws of the same by the said Sufferance Consent and Custom and no otherwise So that here we have a full and express Declaration by Parliament That such Canons as have been received and allowed by ancient Custom make a part of our Laws and continue to oblige provided that they be not repugnant to the King's Prerogative nor to the Laws Statutes and Customs of the Realm as it is expressed in another Act of the same Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 19. The Ecclesiastical Laws saith my Lord Coke are such as are not against the Laws of the Realm viz. the Common Law and the Statutes and Customs of the Realm And according to such Laws the Ordinary and other Ecclesiastical Iudges do proceed in Causes within their Conusance So that by the Acknowledgement of this great Oracle of the Common Law there are Laws Ecclesiastical in force among us and Causes to be judged by those Laws and Officers appointed by the Law to proceed according to them The Ecclesiastical Laws and Ordinances are owned by the Statute 27 H. 8. c. 20. 32 H. 8. c. 7. 35 H. 8. c. 19. after the Commission appointed for the Review of them 1 E. 6. c. 2. The Ecclesiastical Courts are appointed to be kept by the King's Authority and Process to be issued out in his Name in all Suits and Causes of Instance between Party and Party where the Causes are particularly mentioned which belong to those Courts and no Alteration is made in them as to their powers but only that the Process should be in the King's Name But some persons in our Age who love to be always starting Difficulties to humour such as bear ill Will to our Constitution have 〈…〉 although this Act was 〈…〉 M. 2. yet that Repeal 〈…〉 â—ac 25. n. 48. therefore 〈…〉 Stat. 1 E. 6. is 〈◊〉 But the plain and short Answer is this That there was no need of any Debate about the Repeal of the Statute of E. 6. after the first of Q. Eliz. because then the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 20. was expresly revived wherein the Bishops were impowered to act as before they might have done according to the Laws and
of the Gentile Gods upon them as Albaspinaeus thinks but because the thing it self was not of good Report even among the Gentiles themselves as appears by Cicero Ovid Suetonius c. as giving too great Occasion for indecent Passions and of the loss of time Hostiensis reckons up Sixteen Vices that accompany it which a Clergyman especially ought to avoid And playing at Dice was infamous by the Civil Law Iustinian forbids Clergymen not only playing but being present at it It was forbidden in the old Articles of Visitation here and in several Diocesan Synods Spelm. II. 192 252 298 367 450. So that there can be no Reason to complain of the Severity of this Canon which so generally obtained in the Christian Church II. The Canons which relate to Ministers discharging the several Duties of their Function in Preaching Praying Administring Sacraments Catechizing Visiting the Sick c. which are intended to inforce an Antecedent Duty which we can never press you too much or too earnestly to considering that the Honour of Religion and the Salvation of your own and the Peoples Souls depend upon it 2. The next way of judging the Church's Intention is by the Words and Sense of the Church Cajetan thinks the general Sense is the best Rule Navarr saith to the same purpose although some Words are stricter than others Suarez That the main Obligation depends on the matter but the Church's Intention may be more expressed by special Words of Command Tolet relies most upon the Sense of the Church But the Sense of the Church must be understood whether it be Approving or Recommending or strictly Commanding according to the Obligation of Affirmative Precepts which makes a reasonable Allowance for Circumstances And so our Church in some cases expresly allows reasonable Impediments And in Precepts of Abstinence we must distinguish the Sense of the Church as to Moral Abstinence i.e. subduing the Flesh to the Spirit and a Ritual Abstinence in a meer Difference of Meats which our Church lays no Weight upon and a Religious Abstinence for a greater Exercise of Prayer and Devotion which our Church doth particularly recommend at particular Seasons which I need not mention 3. By the Penalties annexed which you may find by reading over the Canons which you ought to do frequently and seriously in order to your own Satisfaction about your Duties and the Obligation to perform them But some may think that such Penal Canons oblige only to undergo the Punishment To which I answer That the case is very different in an Hypothetical Law as Suarez calls it when Laws are only conditional and disjunctive either you must do so or you must undergo such Penalty which is then looked on as a legal Recompence and Ecclesiastical Constitutions where Obedience is chiefly intended and the Penalty is annexed only to inforce it and to deterr others from Disobedience For no Man can imagine that the Church aims at any Man's Suspension or Deprivation for it self or by way of compensation for the Breach of its Constitutions And now give me leave not only to put you in mind but to press earnestly upon you the diligent Performance of those Duties which by the Laws of God and Man and by your own voluntary Promises when you undertook the Cure of Souls are incumbent upon you It is too easie to observe That those who have the Law on their side and the Advantage of a National Settlement are more apt to be remiss and careless when they have the Stream with them than those who row against it and therefore must take more pains to carry on their Designs As those who force a Trade must use much more Diligence than those who go on in the common Road of Business But what Diligence others use in gaining Parties do you imploy in the saving their Souls Which the People will never believe you are in earnest in unless they observe you are very careful in saving your own by a conscientious Discharge of your Duties They do not pretend to Fineness of Thoughts and Subtilty of Reasoning but they are shrewd Judges whether Men mean what they say or not and they do not love to be imposed upon by such a sort of Sophistry as if they could think that they can have such a Regard to their Souls who shew so little to their own Therefore let your unblameable and holy Conversations your Charity and good Works your Diligence and Constancy in your Duties convince them that you are in earnest and they will hearken more to you than if you used the finest Speeches and the most eloquent Harangues in the Pulpit to them These the People understand little and value less but a serious convincing and affectionate way of Preaching is the most likely way to work upon them If there be such a thing as another World as no doubt there is what can you imploy your Time and Thoughts and Pains better about than preparing the Souls of your People for a happy Eternity How mean are all other laborious Trifles and learned Impertinencies and busie Inquiries and restless Thoughts in comparison with this most valuable and happy Imployment if we discharge it well And happy is that Man who enjoys the Satisfaction of doing his Duty now and much more happy will he be whom our Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Pag. 277 c. Histoire des Oâ—â—â—ages des Scavans Août 1697. p. 551. Regino l. 2. p. 205. Hispan Concil p. 29. Regino Collect. Canon lib. 2. p. 204. Burchard l. 1. c. 91 92. Gratian 35. q. 5. c. 7. Hieron Comment ad Titum Epist. ad 〈◊〉 Advers Luciferian Hier. in Psal. ad Evagr. Ad Marcel Cyprian Ep. 3 66. Aug. in Ps. 44. 44. Ambros. ad Eph. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Theod. ad 1 Tim. 1. 3. Iren. l. 3. c. 3. 3 Iohn 9 10. 1 Tim. 3. 2 3 c. 5. 22. 19. 20. 21. Titus 1. 5. De voto voti Redempt Lyndw. f. 103. Concil Anglic. vol. 2. f. 182. Constit. Othon f. 292. Concil Angl. vol. 2. f. 227. Constit. Provinc De Officio Archi-Presbyteri f. 33. Concil Anglic. vol. 1. p. 183. Lyndw. v. latratuf 33. V. Pabulo V. Dei * Prov. Constit De Offic. Arch-Presbyt f. 282. Concil Anglic. vol. 2. p. 332. Concil Anglic. vol. 2. p. 700 707. Concil Anglic. 2 vol. p. 649. Constit. de haeret f. 156. Lyndw. f. 156. C. Dudum Clem. de Sepulturis Io. de Athon in Constitut. Othobon f. 46. C. Dudum de Sepulturis Non potest esse Pastoris excusatio si lupus oves comedit Pastor nescit Extr. de Reg. Juris c. 10. Reginald Praxis l. 30. tr 3. c. 5. p. 52. Constit. Provinc de Clericis non Resid c. quum hostis Ioh. Athon ad Constit. Othon f. 14. Reginald ib. n. 53. Can. Relatum Ex. de Cleriâ—is non Resid Lyndw. in c. â—uum hostis Residcant