another Parish-Church they shall be forced notwithstanding of any Dispensations or Unions that may have been granted them for term of Life to resign within the space of Six Months all that they do now hold except one Cathedral or one Parochial Church otherwise all their Benefices whether Parochial or others shall be by Law esteemed void and as such they shall be disposed of to others Nor may those who â—ormerly enjoyed them receive the mean Profits after the term of Six Months with a good Conscience But the Synod wishes that some due Provisâ—on might be made such as the Pope shall think fit for the necessities of those who are hereby obliged to Resign These were the decrees that were made by that pretended general Council And wheresoever that Council is received they are so seldom dispensed with that the Scandal of Non-Residence or Plurality does no more cry in that Church In France tho that Council is not there received yet such regard is had to Primitive Rules that it is not heard of among them Such Examples are to us Reproaches indeed And that of the worst sort when the Argument from the neglect of the Pastoral Care which gave so great an Advantage at first to the Reformers and turned the Hearts of the World so much from their Careless Pastors to those who shewed more Zeal and Concern for them is now against us and lies the other way If the Nature of Man is so made that it is not possible but that Offences must come yet woe be to him by whom they come CHAP. VI. Of the declared Sense and Rules of the Church of England in this matter WHatsoever may be the practice of any among us and whatsoever may be the force of some Laws that were made in bad times and perhaps upon bad ends yet we are sure the Sense of our Church is very different She intended to raise the obligation of the Pastoral Care higher than it was before and has laid out this matter more fully and more strictly than any Church ever did in any Age as far at least as my Enquiries can carry me The truest Indication of the Sense of a Church is to be taken from her Language in her Publick Offices This is that which she speaks the most frequently and the most publickly even the Articles of Doctrine are not so much read and so often heard as her Liturgies are and as this way of Reasoning has been of late made use of with great advantage against the Church of Rome to make her accountable for all her Publick Offices in their plain and literal meaning so I will make use of it on this occasion It is the stronger in our case whose Offices being in a Tongue understood by the people the Argument from them does more evidently conclude here In general then this is to be observed that no Church before ours at the Reformation took a formal Sponsion at the Altar from such as were ordained Deacons and Priests That was indeed always demanded of Bishops but neither in the Roman nor Greek Pontifical do we find any such solemn Vows and Promises demanded or made by Priests or Deacons nor does any print of this appear in the Constitutions the pretended Areopagite or the antient Canons of the Church Bishops were asked many questions as appears by the first Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage They were required to profess their Faith and to promise to obey the Canons which is still observed in the Greek Church The questions are more express in the Roman Pontifical and the first of these demands a promise that they will instruct their people in the Christian Doctrine according to the Holy Scriptures which was the Foundation upon which our Bishops justified the Reformation Since the first and chief of all their Vowes binding them to this it was to take place of all others and if any other parts of those Sponsions contradicted this such as their Obedience and Adherence to the See of Rome they said that these were to be limited by this All the account I can give of this general practice of the Church in demanding Promises only of Bishops and not of the other Orders is this that they considered the Government of the Priests and Deacons as a thing that was so entirely in the Bishop as it was indeed by the first Constitution that it was not thought necessary to bind them to their Duty by any Publick Vowes or Promises though it is very probable that the Bishops might take private engagements of them before they ordained them it being in the Bishop's power to Restrain and Censure them in a very Absolute and Summary way But the case was quite different in Bishops who were all equal by their Rank and Order None having any Authority over them by any Divine Law or the Rules of the Gospel the power of Primates and Metropolitans having arisen out of Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws and not being equally great in all Countries and Provinces and therefore it was more necessary to proceed with greater caution and to demand a further security fâ—â—m them But the new face of the Constitution of the Church by which Priests were not under so absolute a subjection to their Bishops as they had been at first which was occasioned partly by the Tyranny of some Bishops to which bounds were set by Laws and Canons partly by their having a special Propety and Benefice of their own and so not being maintained by a Dividend out of the common-stock of the Church as at first had so altered the state of things that indeed no part of the Episcopacy was left entrirely in the Bishop's hands but the power of Ordination This is still free and unrestrained no Writs nor Prohibitions from Civil Courts and no Appeals have clogged or fettered this as they have done all the other parts of their Authority Therefore our Reformers observing all Office of Ordination and they made both the Charge that is given and the Promises that are to be taken to be very express and solemne that so both the Ordainers and the Ordained might be rightly instructed in their Duty and struck with the awe and dread that they ought to be under in so holy and so important a performance and though all mankind does easily enough agree in this That Promises ought to be Religiously observed which men make to one another how apt soever they may be to break them yet to make the sense of these Promises go deeper they are ordered to be made at the Altar and in the nature of a Stipulation or Covenant the Church conferring Orders or indeed rather Christ by the Mininestry of the Officers that he has constituted conferring them upon those Promises that are first made The Forms of Ordination in the Greek Church which we have reason to believe are less changed and more conform to the Primitive pattenrs than those used by the Latins do plainly import that the Church only declared
the Divine Vocation The Grace of God that perfects the feeble and heals the weak promotes this man to be a Deacon a Priest or a Bishop Where nothing is expressed as conferred but only as declared so our Church by making our Saviour's words the form of Ordination must be construed to intend by that that it is Christ only that sends and that the Bishops are only his Ministers to pronounce his Mission otherwise it is not so easie to justifie the use of this Form Receive the Holy Ghost which as it was not used in the Primitive Church nor by the Roman till within these five Hundred Years so in that Church it is not the Form of Ordination but a Benediction given by the Bishop singly after the Orders are given by the Bishop and the other Priests joyning with him For this is done by him alone as the final consummation of the Action But our using this as the form of Ordination shews that we consider our selves only as the Instruments that speak in Christ's Name and Words Insinuating thereby that he only Ordains Pursuant to this in the Ordaining of Priests the questions are put in the name of God and of his Church Which makes the answers to them to be of the nature of Vows and Oaths So that if men do make conscience of any thing and if it is possible to strike terrour into them the Forms of our Ordinations are the most effectually contrived for that end that could have been framed The first question that is put in the Office of Deacons is Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office to serve God for the promoting of his Glory and the edifying of his people To which he is to answer I trust so This is put only in this Office and not repeated afterwards it being justly supposed that where one has had this motion all the other Orders may be in time conferred pursuant to it but this is the first step by which a Man dedicates himself to the Service of God and therefore it ought not to be made by any that has not this Divine Vocation Certainly the Answer that is made to this ought to be well considered for if any says I trust so that yet knows nothing of any such motion and can give no account of it he lies to the Holy Ghost and makes his first approach to the Altar with a lie in his Mouth and that not to Men but to God and how can one expect to be received by God or be sent and sealed by him that dares do a thing of so crying a Nature as to pretend that he trusts he has this motion who knows that he has it not who has made no Reflections on it and when asked what he means by it can say nothing concerning it and yet he dares venture to come and say it to God and his Church If a Man pretends a Commission from a Prince or indeed from any Person and acts in his Name upon it the Law will fall on him and punish him and shall the Great God of Heaven and Earth be thus vouched and his motion he pretended to by those whom he has neither called nor sent and shall not he reckon with those who dare to run without his Mission pretending that they trust they have it when perhaps they understand not the Importance of it nay and perhaps some laugh at it as an Enthusiastical Question who yet will go through with the Office They come to Christ for the Loaves They hope to live by the Altar and the Gospel how little soever they serve at the one or Preach the other therefore they will say any thing that is necessary for qualifying them to this whether true or false It cannot be denied but that this Question carries a sound in it that seems a little too high and that may rather raise Scruples as importing somewhat that is not ordinary and that seems to savour of Enthusiasme and therefore it was put here without doubt to give great caution to such as come to the Service of the Church many may be able to answer it truly according to the Sense of the Church who may yet have great doubting in themselves concerning it but every Man that has it not must needs know that he has it not The true meaning of it must be resolved thus the Motives that ought to determine a Man to dedicate himself to the Ministring in the Church are a Zeal for promoting the Glory of God for raising the Honour of the Christian Religion for the making it to be better understood and more submitted to He that loves it and feels the excellency of it in himself that has a due Sense of God's goodness in it to Mankind and that is entirely possessed with that will feel a Zeal within himself for communicating that to others that so the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he has sent may be more universally glorified and served by his Creatures And when to this he has added a concern of the Souls for Men a Tenderness for them a Zeal to rescue them from endless Misery and a desire to put them in the way to everlasting Happiness and from these Motives feels in himself a desire to dedicate his Life and Labours to those ends and in order to them studies to understand the Scriptures and more particularly the New Testament that from thence he may form a true Notion of this Holy Religion and so be an able Minister of it this Man and only this Man so moved and so qualified can in Truth and with a good Conscience answer that he trusts he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost And every one that ventures on the saying it without this is a Sacrilegious profaner of the Name of God and of his Holy Spirit He breaks in upon his Church not to feed it but to rob it And it is certain that he who begins with a Lie may be sent by the Father of Lies but he cannot be thought to enter in by the Door who prevaricates in the first word that he says in order to his Admittance But if the Office of Deacons offers no other particular matter of Reflection the Office of Ordaining Priests has a great deal indeed the whole of it is calculated to the best Notions of the best Times In the Charge that is given the Figures of Watchmen Shepherds and Stewards are pursued and the places of Scripture relating to these are applied to them They are required to have always printed in their Remembrance How great a Treasure was committed to their Charge The Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his Spouse and Body Then the greatness of the fault of their Negligence and the horrible Punishment that will follow upon it is set before them in case the Church or any Member of it take any hurt or hinderance by reason of it They are charged never to cease their
which I have writ with all the sincerity of Heart and purity of Intention that I should have had if I had known that I had been to die at the Conclusion of it and to answer for it to God To him I humbly offer it up together with my most earnest Prayers That the Design here so imperfectly offered at may become truly effectual and have its full Progress and Accomplishment which whensoever I shall see I shall then with Joy say Nunc Dimittis c. FINIS Books Sold by Richard Chiswell BOOKS written by GILBERT BURNET D. D. now Lord Bishop of Sarum THE History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Volumes Folio Abridgment of the said History Octavo Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England Quarto History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-Lands Octavo Life of William Bedel D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland together with the Copies of certain Letters which passed between Spain and England in matter of Religion concerning the general Motives to the Roman Obedience Between Mr. Iames Wadsworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition in Sevil and the said William Bedel then Minister of the Gospel in Suffolk Octavo Some Passages of the Life and Death of Iohn late Earl of Rochester Octavo Examination of the Letter writ by the late Assembly-General of the Clergy of France to the Protestants inviting them to return to their Communion together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Octavo A Collection of seventeen Tracts and Discourses written in the Years 1678 to 1685 inclusive Quarto A Second Volume or a Collection of eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of K. Iames the Second With twelve others published a little before and since the late Revolution to Christmas 1689. Fast-Sermon at Bow-Church March 12 1689. on Luke 19.41 42. Fast-Sermon before the Queen Iuly 16 1690. On Psal. 85.8 Thanksgiving-Sermon before the King and Queen Octob. 19 1690. On Psal. 144.10 11. Fast-Sermon before the King and Queen April 19 1691. On Psal. 12.1 Thanksgiving-Sermon before the King and Queen Nov. 26. 1691 On Prov. 20.28 Sermon at the Funeral of Robert Boyle Esq Ian. 7. 1691. On Eccles. 11.26 Dr. Alix's Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont and the Albigenses In Two Parts Quarto The Jesuits Memorial for the intended Reformation of England under their first Popish Prince Written by Father Parsons 1596 and prepared to be proposed in the first Parliament after the Restoration of Popery for the better Establishment and Preservation of that Religion Published from the very Manuscript Copy that was presented to the late King Iames the Second and found in his Closet With an Introduction and some Animadversions by Edward Gee Chaplain to Their Majesties Octavo Dr. Câ—mberland now Lord Bishop of Peterborough his Essay towards the Recovery of the Jewish Measures and Weights comprehending their Monies by help of Antient Standards compared with Ours of England useful also to state many of those of the Greeks and Romans and the Eastern Nations Octavo Dr. Stratford now Lord Bishop of Chester his Disswasive from Revenge Octavo The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto A Discourse concerning the Popes Supremacy Quarto Dr. Cave's Dissertation concerning the Government of the Antient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs Octavo Two Letters betwixt Mr. Rich. Smith and Dr. Hâ—n Hammond concerning the Sense of that Aâ—ticle in the Creed He descended into Hell Octavo Dr. Puller's Moderation of the Church of England Octavo Jacobi Usserii Historia Dogmatica Controvers inter Orthodoxos Pontificios de Scripturis Sacris Vernaculis Quarto 1690. Tho. Pope-Blunt Censura Celebriorum Authorum sive Tractatus in quo varia Virorum Doctorum de clariss cujusque saeculi Scriptoribus judicia traduntur Fol. 1690. Gul. Camdeni Illustrium Virorum ad Gul. Camdenum Epistolae Quarto 1691. Anglia Sacra sive Collectio Historiarum antiquitus scriptarum de Archiepisc. Episcopis Angliae a prima Fidei Christianae susceptione ad Annum 1540. Opera Hen. Whartoni in 2 Vol. Folio 1691. Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections the Third Part in two Volumes never before printed from the beginning of the Long Parliament 1640 to the end of the Year 1644 Wherein is a particular account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period Folio 1692. Stephani Chauvin Lexicon Rationale sive Thesaurus Philosophicus 1692. Folio Sam. Basnagii Exercitationes Historico-Criticae de rebus Sacris Ecclesiasticis Quarto 1692. Tho. Crenii Collectio Consiliorum de Studiis optime instituendis Quarto 1692. Ejusdem Fasciculâ—s Dissertationum Hist. Critico-Philologicarum Octavo 1691. Basilii Fabri Thesaurus eruditionis Scholasticae cum innumeris additionibus per Aug. Buchnerum Christoph. Cellarium Lips Folio 1692. Ludov. Seckendorf Historia Lutheranismi Folio 1692. Laurentii Begeri Observationes Conjecturae in Numismata quaedam Antiqua Quarto 1691. 1 Phil. 16. Malach. 2.7 8 9. Jer. 10.21 1 Tim 5 1â— Isa. 40.11 Joh. 10.1 1 Cor 4.1 â— 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Rev. 2.3 ch 2 Cor. 8.23 3. Heb. 7 17. 3. Ezek. 17. 1 Cor. 3.10 1 Cor 3.9 St. Matth. 20 1. St. Matt. 9.37 38. 1 Cor. 3.6 2. Philip. 25. St. Matth. 20.28 John 13.5 Levit. 8. Levit. 21 1. Leâ—it 〈…〉 Lâ—â—it 10. ◠〈…〉 1 Sam. 2d 3d Ch. Isa. 56.10 â—er 5.2 Ezek. 14.14 Jer. 2.8 Jer. 5.32 Jer. 6.13 Jer. 23.22 v. 11. v. 48. Jer. 3.15 Ezek. 3.17 Ezek. 33.7 Ezek. 22.26 â—â—ek 34 2. v. 3. v. 4. v. 10. Dan. 12.3 Hos. 4.1 2 6. Joel 2.17 ch 3. v. 11. Zech. 11.15 Mal. 2.1 9 S. Matth. 37. 12 St. Luâ—e 42. 12 St. Io. 15. 20 Acts 28. V. 19. V. 20. V. 26. 〈…〉 1 Cor. 4.2 1 Cor. 9.14 â—ctâ— 6. â— 2 Cor. 4.1.2 4 Eph. 11 12.13 â— Col. 17. 1 Tim. 4.12 13 14 15 16. 1 Tim. 5.21.22 2 Tim. â— 2 â— 4. V. 5. V. 15. V. 24 25 26. 2 Tim. 3.15 V. 16.17 2 Tim. 4.1.2 V. â— V. 6. V. 7. V. 8. V. 20. 1 Tit. 6. 2 Tit. 7.8 V. 15. 1 Tim. 4.12 13 Heb. 7. V. 17. Cor. 9 â—3 14. Math. 23.2 3.
what can we think of the breach made in the Churches of Africk by Donatus and his Followers upon so inconsiderable a Point as whether Cecilian and his Ordainers had denied the Faith in the last Persecution or not which grew to that height that almost in every Town of Africk there were divided Assemblies and separating Bishops upon that Account Nor was this Wound healed but with the utter ruine of those Churches St. Ierom though partial enough to his own side as appears by his espousing Damasus's Interests notwithstanding that vast effusion of blood that had been at his Election which was set on by him and continued for four days with so much violence that in one night and at one Church a hundred and seven and thirty were killed yet he could not hold from laying open the Corruptions of the Clergy in a very severe style He grew so weary of them and they of him that he went and spent the rest of his days at Bethlehem Those Corruptions were so much the more remarkable because the Eminent Men of those times procured a great many Canons to be made both in Provincial and General Councils for correcting Abuses as soon as they observed them creeping into the Church but it is plain from St. Chrysostom's Story that tho bad men did not oppose the making good Rules while they were so many dead Letters in their Registers yet they could not bear the rigorous Execution of them so that those good Canons do shew us indeed what were the growing Abuses of the Times in which they were made and how good men set themselves against them but are no sure indications of the Reformation that was effected by them The Tottering state of the Roman Empire which had then fallen under a vast Dissolution of Discipline and Manners and coming into feeble hands was then sinking with its own weight and was become on all sides an easy Prey to its Invaders who were either Pagans or Arians ought to have awakened the Governours of the Church to have apprehended their approaching Ruin to have prevented it by their Prayers and Endeavours and to have corrected those Abuses which had provoked God and weakned and distracted both Church and Empire But if we may believe either Gildas here in Britain or Salvian in France they rather grew worse more impenitent and more insensible when they saw the Judgments of God coming upon the Empire Province after Province rent from it and over-run by the Barbarians When that great Wound was in some sort healed and a Second Form of Christianity rose up and prevailed again in the Western Parts and the World became Christian with the allay that dark and superstitious Ages had brought into that holy Doctrine Then all the Rules of the former Ages were so totally forgotten and laid aside that the Clergy universally lost their esteem And tho' Charles the Great and his Son held a great many Councils for correcting these Abuses and published many Capitulars on the same design yet all was to no purpose There was neither Knowledge nor Vertue enough left to reform a Corruption that was become universal The Clergy by these Disorders fell under a general Contempt and out of that rose the Authority as well as the Wealth of the Monastick Orders and when Riches and Power had corrupted them the Begging Orders took away the Credit from both yet even their Reputation which the outward severity of their Rule Habit and Manner of Life did both establish and maintain long was at last so generally lost that no Part or Body of the Roman-Clergy had Credit enough to stop the Progress of the Reformation which was in a great measure occasion'd by the scorn and hatred that fell on them and which was so spread over all the parts of Europe that to it even their own Historians do impute the great Advances that Luther's Doctrine made for about Fifty Years together whole Kingdoms and Provinces embracing it as it were all of the sudden It has now for above an Hundred Years made a full stand and in most places it has rather lost ground than gained any The true account of this is not easily given the Doctrine is the same and it has been of late defended with greater Aâ—vantages with more Learning and better Reasoning than it was at first yet with much less Success The true reason of the slackning of that Work must be imputed to the Reformation made in several Points with relation to the Manners and the Labours of the Clergy by the Church of Rome and the Depravation under which most of the Reformed Churches are fallen For the Manners and the Labours of the Clergy are real Arguments which all people do both understand and feel they have a much more convincing force they are more visible and perswade more universally than Books can do which are little read and less considered And indeed the Bulk of Mankind is so made that there is no working on them but by moving their Affections and commanding their Esteem It cannot be denied but that the Council of Trent established the Errors of Popery in such a manner as to cut off all possibility of ever treating or reuniting with them since those Decisions and their Infallibility which is their Foundation are now so twisted together that they must stand and fall together Yet they established such a Reformation in Discipline as may make Churches that pretend to a more Glorious Title justly ashamed For tho there are such Reserves made for the Plenitude of the Papal Authority that in great instances and for a Favourite all may be broke through yet the most notorious Abuses are so struck at and this has been in many places so effectually observed chiefly where they knew that their Deportment was looked into and watched over by Protestants that it must be acknowledged that the cry of the Scandals of Religious Houses is much laid And tho' there is still much Ignorance â—mong their Mass-Priests yet their Parish-Priests are generally another sort of men They are well instructed in their Religion lead regular Lives and perform their Parochial Duties with a most wonderful diligence They do not only say Mass and the other publick Functions daily but they are almost perpetually imploying themseves in the several parts of their Cures Instructing the Youth hearing Confessions and visiting the Sick and besides all this they are under the constant obligation of the Breviary There is no such thing as Non-residence or Plurality to be heard of in whole Countries of that Communion and though about Cathedrals and in Greater Cities the vast number of Priests gives still great and just occasion to censure yet the Parish-Priests have almost universally recovered the Esteem â—f the People They are no more disposed to think ill of them or to hearken to any thing that may give them a just cause or at least a plausible colour for departing from them So that the Reformation that Popery hath been forced
in himself in secret He must also be imploying himself so well in his private Studies that from thence he may be furnished with such a variety of lively thoughts divine meditations and proper and noble expressions as may enable him to discharge every part of his duty in such a manner as may raise not so much his own reputation as the credit of his Function and of the great Message of Reconciliation that is committed to his charge Above all Studies he ought to apply himself to understand the Holy Scriptures aright to have his memory well furnished that way that so upon all occasions he may be able to enforce what he says out of them and so be an able Minister of the New Testament This is in short the Character of a true Clergy-man which is to be more fully opened and enlarged on in the following parts of this Book All this looks so great and so noble that it does not appear necessary to raise it or to insist on it more fully Indeed it speaks its own dignity so sensibly that none will dispute it but such as are open Enemies to all Religion in general or to the Christian Religion in particular and yet even few of these are so entirely corrupted as not to wish that External Order and Policy were kept up among men for restraining the Injustice and Violence of unruly Appetites and Passions which few even of the Tribe of the Libertines seem to desire to be let loose since the Peace and Safety of Mankind require that the World be kept in Method and under some Yoke It will be more sutable to my design to shew how well this Character agrees with that which is laid down in the Scriptures concerning these Offices I shall begin first with the Names and then go on to the Descriptions and lastly proceed to the Rules that we find in them The name of Deacon that is now appropriated to the lowest Office in the Church was in the time that the New Testament was writ used more promiscuously For the Apostles the Evangelists and those whom the Apostles sent to visit the Churches are all called by this name Generally in all those places where the word Minister is in our Translation it is Deacon in the Greek which signifies properly a Servant or one who labours for another Such Persons are dedicated to the immediate Service of God and are appropriated to the Offices and Duties of the Church so this term both expresses the dignity and the labour of the Imployment The nâ—xt â—rder carries now the name of Presbyter or Elder which tho at first it was applied not only to Bishops but to the Apâ—sâ—lâ—s themselves yet in the succeeding Ages it came to be appropriated to the Second Raâ—k of the Officers in the Church Iâ— either signifies a Seniority of Age or of 〈◊〉 in opposition to a Neophite or Novice one newly converted to the Faith but by common Pâ—actice as Senate or Senator being at first given to Councellors by reason of their Age came afterwards to be a Title appropriate to them so the Tâ—tle Presbyter altered in pronunciation to be in English Priâ—st or Elder being a Character of respect denotes the Dignity of those to whom it belongs But since St. Paul divides this Title either into two different Ranks or into two different Performances of the Duties of the same Rank those that rule well and those that labour in Word and Doctrine this is a Title that speaks both the Dignity and likewise the Duty belonging to this Function The Title which is now by the Custom of many Ages given to the highest Function in the Church of Bishop or Inspector and Overseer as it imports a Dignity in him as the chief of those who labour so it does likewise express his obligation to care and diligence both in observing and overseeing the whole Flock and more specially in inspecting the Deportment and Labours of his Fellow Workmen who are subordinate to him in the constitution of the Church yet ought to be esteemed by him in imitation of the Apostles his Brethren his Fellow-Labourers and Fellow-Servants Next to the Names of the Sacred Functions I shall consider the other Designations and Figures made use of to express them The most common is that of Pastor or Shepherd It is to be remembred that in the first simplicity of Mankind for many Ages men looked after their own Cattel or employed their Children in it and when they trusted that care to any other it was no small sign of their Confidence according to what Iacob said to Laban The care of a good Shepherd was a Figure then so well understood that the Prophet expresses God's care of his People by this of his feeding them as a Shepherd carrying his Lambs in his Bosom and gently leading them that were with young Christ also calls himself the Good Shepherd that knew his Sheep and did not as a hireling fly away when the Wolf came but laid down his life for his Sheep This then being so often made use of in both Testaments is an expression of the great Trust committed to the Clergy which likewise supposes a great a constant and a tender care in looking to in feeding or instructing in watching over and guarding the Flock against Errors and Sins and their being ready to offer themselves to the first Fury of Persecution The Title of Stewards or Dispensers which is the most honourable in a Household is also given to them These assign to every one his due share both of Labour and of Provision these watch over them and have the care and order of the other Servants assigned to them So in this great Family of which Christ is the Hâ—ad the Stewards are a Post of great Digniâ—y but also of much Labour they ought to be observing the rest of this Houshold that they may be faithful in the distribution and so encourage admonish reprove or censure as there is occasion for it They are also called Ambassadors and that upon the noblest and desirablest Message for their business is to treat of Pâ—acâ— between God and Man to them is given the Word or Doctrine of Reconciliation they are sent by Christ and do speak in God's Name as if God did beseech men by them so do they in Christ's stead who is the Mediator press men to be reconciled to God Words of a very high sound of great Trust and Dignity but which import likewise great obligations An Ambassador is very solicitous to maintain the Dignity of his Character and his Master's Honour and chiefly to carry on that which is the main business that he is sent upon which he is always contriving how to promote So if the Honour of this Title affects us as it ought to do with a just value for it we ought at the same time to consider the Obligations that accompany it of living suitable to it answering in some sort the Dignity and Majesty
of the King of kings that has committed it to us and of labouring with all possible diligence to effectuate the great Design on which we are sent The reconciling Sinners to God The Work having in it self a proportion to the Dignity of him that imploys us in it Another and yet a more Glorious Title is that of Angels who as they are of a pure and sublime Nature and are called a Flaming Fire so they do always behold the face of our Heavenly Father and ever do his will and are also Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister to them that are appointed to be the Heirs of Salvation This Title is given to Bishops and Pastors and as if that were not enough they are in one place called not only the Messengers or Angels of the Churches but also the Glory of Christ. The Natural Importance of this is that men to whom this Title is applied ought to imitate those Heavenly Powers in the elevation of their Souls to contemplate the Works and Glory of God and in their constant doing his will more particularly in ministring to the Souls of those for whom the great Angel of the Covenant made himself a Sacrifice I do not among these Titles reckon those of Rulers or Governours that are also given to Bishops because they seem to be but another Name for Bishops whose Inspection was a Rule and Government and so carried in its signification both Authority and Labour To these Designations that carry in them Characters of Honour but of Honour joyned to Labour and for the sake of which the Honour was due according to that esteem them very highly for their works sake I shall add some other Designations that in their significations carry only Labour without Honour being borrowed from Labours that are hard but no way Honourable They are often called Watchmen who used to stand on high Towers and were to give the Alarm as they saw occasion for it These Men were obliged to a constant attendance to watch in the Night as well as in the Day So all this being applied to the Clergy imports that they ought to be upon their Watch-Tower observing what Dangers their People are exposed to either by their Sins which provoke the Judgments of God or by the Designs of their Enemies they ought not by a false respect suffer them to sleep and perish in their Sins but must denounce the Judgments of God to them and rather incur their displeasure by their freedom than suffer them to perish in their Security St. Paul does also call Church-men by the Name of Builders and gives to the Apostles the Title of Master-builders this imports both hard and painful Labour and likewise great care and exactness in it for want of which the Building will be not only exposed to the injuries of Weather but will quickly tumble down and it gives us to understand that those who carry this Title ought to study well the Great Rule by which they must carry on the Interest of Religion that so they may build up their people in their most holy Faith so as to be a Building fitly framed together They are also called Labourers in God's Husbandry Labourers in his Vineyard and Harvest who are to sow plant and water and to cultivate the Soil of the Church This imports a continual return of daily and hard Labour which requires both Pain and Diligence They are also called Soldiers men that did war and fight against the Powers of Darkness The Fatigue the Dangers and Difficulties of that State of Liâ—e arâ— so well understood that no Application is necessary to make them more sensible And thus by a particular enumeration of eiâ—her the more special names of these Oâ—â—â—ces such as Deacon Priest and Bishop Rulâ—r and Governour or of the designaâ—ions given to them of Shepherds or Pastors Stewards Ambassadors and Angels it appears that there is a great Dignity belonging to them but a Dignity which must carry labour with it as that for which the honour is due The other Titles of Watchmen Builders Labourers and Soldiers import also that they are to decline no part of their duty for the labour that is in it the dangers that may follow or the seeming meanness that may be in it since we have for this so great a Rule and Pattern set us by our Saviour who has given us this Character of himself and in that a Rule to all that pretend to come after him The son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister This was said upon the proud Contentions that had been among his Disciples who should be the greatest two of them presuming upon their near relation to him and pretending to the first Dignity in his Kingdom upon that he gave them to understand That the Dignities of his Kingdom were not to be of the same nature with those that were in the World It was not Rule or Empire to which they were to pretend The Disciple was not to be above his Lord And he that humbled himself to be the last and lowest in his Service was by so doing really the first He himself descended â—o the washing his Disciples feet which 〈◊〉 proposeth to their imitation and that came in latter Ages to be taken up by Princes and acted by them in pageantry But the plain account of that Action is That it was a Prophetical Emblem of which sort we find several Instances both in Isaiah Ieremy and Ezekiel the Prophet doing somewhat that had a mystical signification in it relating to the Subject of his Prophecy So that our Saviour's washing the feet of his Disciples imported the Humility and the descending to the meanest Offices of Charity which he recommended to his Followers particularly to those whom he appointed to preach his Gospel to the World CHAP. II. Of the Rules set down in Scripture for those that minister in Holy things and of the Corruptions that are set forth in them I Intend to write with all possible simplicity without the affectations of a strictness of Method and therefore I will give one full view of this whole matter without any other order than as it lies in the Scriptures and will lay both the Rules and the Reproofs that are in them together as things that give light to one another In the Law of Mâ—ses we find many very particular Rules given for the washing and consecration of the Priests and Levites chiefly of the Holy Priest The whole Tribe of Levi was sanctified and separated from the common Labours either of War or Tillage and tho they were but one in twelve yet a tenth of all was appointed for them they were also to have a large share of another tenth that so they might be not only delivered from all cares by that large provision that was made for them but might be able to relieve the necessities of the Widows and Fatherless the Poor and the Strangers that sojourned
the question that he asked preparatory to it was Simon lovest thou me more than these from which they justly gather that the Love of God a Zeal for his Honour and a preferring of that to all other things whatsoever is a necessary and indispensible qualification for that Holy Imployment which distinguishes the true Shepherd from the Hireling and by which only he can be both animated and fortified to go through with the labours and difficulties as well as the dangers and sufferings which may accompany it When St. Paul was leaving his last charge with the Bishops that met him at Ephesus he still makes use of the same Metaphor of Shepherd in those often cited words Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood The words are solemn and the consideration enforcing them is a mighty one they import the Obligations of the Clergy both to an exactness in their own Deportment and to earnest and constant labours in imitation of the Apostle who during the three Years of his stay among them had been serving God with all humility of mind with many tears and temptations and had not ceased to warn every one both night and day with tears and had taught them both publickly and from House to House Upon which he leaves them calling them all to witness that he was pure from the Blood of all Men. There has been great disputing concerning the Persons to whom these words were addressed but if all Parties had studied more to follow the Example here proposed and the Charge that is here given which are plain and easie to be understood then to be contending about things that are more doubtful the good Lives and the faithful Labours of Apostolical Bishops would have contributed more both to the edifying and healing of the Church than all their Arguments or Reasonings will ever be able to do St. Paul reckoning up to the Romans the sâ—veral Obligations of Christians of all ranks to assiduity and diligence in their callings and labours among others he numbers these Ministers let us wait on our ministring or he that teacheth on teaching he that ruleth with diligence In his Epistle to the Corinthians as he states the Dignity of the Clergy in this that they ought to be accounted of as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God He adds that it is required in Stewards that a Man be found faithful In that Epistle he sets down that perpetual Law which is the Foundation of all the Provision that has been made for the Clergy That the Lord hath ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel But if upon that the Laity have looked on themsâ—lves as bound to appoint so plentiful a Supply that the Clergy might have whereon to live at their ease and in abundance then certainly this was intended that they being freed from the troubles and cares of this World might attend continually on the Ministry of the Word of God and on Prayer Those who do that Work negligently provoke the Laity to repent of their bounty and to defraud them of it For certainly there are no such Enemies to the Patrimony and Rights of the Church as those who eat the Fat but do not preach the Gospel nor feed the Flock Happy on the â—ther hand are they to whom that Character which the Apostle assumes to himself and to Timothy does belong Therefore seeing we have received this ministry as we have received mercy we faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the Truth commending our selves to every man's Conscience in the sight of God In the Epistle to the Ephesians we have the ends of the Institution of all the Ranks of Clergy-men set forth in these words He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for tâ—e Work of the Ministry for the edifying the Body of Christ till we all come iâ— the Vnity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. In these words we see something that is so vast and noble so far above those slight and poor performances in which the far greater part do too easily satisfie themselves that in charity to them we ought to suppose that they have not reflected sufficiently on the Importance of them Otherwise they would have in some sort proportioned their labours to those great designs for which they are ordained and would remember the Charge given to the Colossians to say to Archippus who it seems was remiss in the discharge of his duty Take heed to the Ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fullfil it The Epistles to Timothy and Titus are the Foundation of all the Canons of the Church in these we have the Characters of Bishops and Deacons as well as the duties belonging to those Functions so particularly set forth that from theâ—ce alone every one who will weigh them well may find sufficient Instruction how he ought to behave himself in the House of God In these we see what patterns those of the Clergy ought to be in Word or Doctrine in Conversation in Charity in Spirit in Faith and in Purity they ought to give attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine that is both to the instructing and exhorting of their People They ought not to neglect that gift that was given to them by the laying on of hands they ought to meditate on these things to give themselves wholly to them that so their profiting may appear unto all and to take heed to themselves and their Doctrine and to continue in them for in so doing they shall both save themselves and those that hear them Those that govern the Church are more particularly charged before God the Lord Iesus and the Holy Angels that they observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiâ—lity by Domestick regards the considerations of Friendship Intercession or Importunity and above all that they lay hand suddenly on no man to which are added words of great terror neither be thou partaker of other mens sins keep thy self pure Which ought to make great Impression on all those with whom the Power of Ordination is lodged since they do plainly import that such as do ordain any rashly without due enquiry and a strict examination entitle themselves to all the scandal they give and become partners of their guilt which if well considered must needs make all such as are not past feeling use great care and caution in this sacred Trust. Bishops are the Depositaries of the Faith which
they are to keep pure and to hand down faithfully according to these words And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who may be able to teach others also upon this he prepares the Bishop for difficulties to endure hardness as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ. And according to that Figure since those that go to war do not carry unnecessary burdens with them which may encumber and retard their march he adds no man that warreth entangleth himself with the Affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him for a Souldier upon this it is that all those Canons which have been made in so many Ages of the Church against Church-mens medling with secular Affairs have been founded than which we find nothing more frequently provided against both in the Apostolical Canons in those of Antioch in those made by the General Council of Calcedon and in divers of the Councils of Carthage but this abuse had too dâ—ep a root in the nature of man to be easily cured St. Paul does also in this place carry on the Metaphor to express the earnestness and indefatigableness of Clergy-mens Zeal that as Officers in an Army were satisfied with nothing under Victory which brought them the Honours of a Triumph so we ought to fight not only so as to earn our pay but for Mastery to spoil and overcome the Powers of darkness yet even this must be done lawfully not by deceiving the People with pious frauds hoping that our good Intentions will atone for our taking bad methods War has its Laws as well as Peace and those who manage this Spiritual warfare ought to keep themselves within the Instructions and Commands that are given them Then the Apostle changing the Figure from the Souldier to the Workman and Steward says study to shew thy self approved unto God not to seek the vain applauses of men but to prefer to all other things the witness of a good Conscience and that in simplicity and godly sincerity he may walk and labour as in the sight of God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth This is according to the Figure of a Steward giving every one his due portion and a little after comes a noble Admonition relating to the meekness of the Clergy towards those that divide from them The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging the Truth This is the Passage that was chiefly urged by our Reformers against the Persecution that the Roman Clergy did every where set on against them The extent of it ought to be well considered that so it may not be said that we are only against persecution when it lies on our selves for if it is a good defence to some it is as good to others unless we own that we do not govern our selves by that rule of doing to others that which we would have otherâ— do to us In the next Chapter we find the right Education of this Bishop and that which furnishes a Clergy man to perform all the duties incumbent on him From a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith in Christ Iesus That is the Old Testament well studied by one that believed Iesus to be the Messias and that was led into it by that Faith did discover to a Man the great Oeconomy of God in the Progress of the Light which he made shine upon the World by degrees unto the perfect day of the appearing of the Sun of Righteousness and to this he adds a noble Character of the inspired Writings All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instructing in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works The Apostle goes on and gives Timothy the most solemn Charge that can be set out in words which if understood as belonging to all Bishops as the whole Church of God has ever done must be read by them with trembling I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his Kingdom preach the Word be Instant in Season out of Season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine that is with great gentleness in the manner and clearness and strength in the matter of their Instructions and a little after watch thou in all things endure affliction do the work of an Evangelist make full proof of or fulfill thy Ministry And as a consideration to enforce this the more he tells what a noble and agreeable prospect he had in the View of his approaching dissolution The time of his departing drew nigh he was ready to be offered up as a Sacrifice for that Faith which he had so zealously and so successfully preached and here we have his two great preparatives for Martyrdom The one was in looking on his past life and labours I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith The other was in looking forward to the Reward that Crown of Righteousness which was laid up for him which the Lord the Righteous Iudge would giâ—e him at that day and not only to him but also to all those that loved his appearing and certainly more especially to those who not only lovâ—d it themselves but who laboured so as to dispose others also to love it To all these considerations though nothing needed to have been added to one upon whom they made so strange an impression as they did upon Timothy yet one comes after all which ought to teach us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling since St. Paul tells Timothy that Demas one of the Companions of his labours had forsaken him and that which prevailed over him was the Love of this present World These are the Rules and Charges given by St. Paul to Timothy and in him to all the Bishops and Pastors that were to come after him in the Church Some of these are again repeated in his Epistle to Titus where we have the Characters set out by which he was to prepare and examine those Elders or Bishops who were to rule the House of God that those being well chosen they might be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince the Gainsayers and that he might do his duty with the more advantage he charges him to shew himself in all things a pattern of goâ—d Works in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity and using such sound Speech as could not be condemned that so those who were of the contrary Party the Iudaizers who were studying to corrupt the Christian
and void of themselves And conclude that how strong soever they may be in Law yet they are nothing in Conscience And that they do not free a Man from his Obligations to Residence and Labour And they do generally conclude that he who upon a Dispensaâ—ion which has been obtained upon Carnal accounts such as Birth Rank or great Abilities and qualifications are not yet so good as these does not Reside is bound in Conscience to restore the Fruits of a Beneâ—ice which he has thus enjoyed with a bad Conscience without performing the duty belonging to it in his own Person But though it were very easie to bring out a great deal to this purpose I will go no further at present upon this Head The words of God seem to be so express and positive that such as do not yield to so undisputable an Authority will be little moved by all that can be brought out of Authors of a lower Form against whom it will be easie to muster up many exceptions if they will not be determined by so many of the Oracles of the living God CHAP. IV. Of the Sense of the Primitive Church in this Matter I will not enter here into any Historical Account of the Discipline of the Church during the first and best Ages of Christianity It is the glory of this Church that in her disputes of both hanâ—s aâ— well with those of the Church of Rome as with those that separate from her she has both the Doctrine and the Câ—nstitution of the Primitive Church of her side But this Plea would be more entire and less disputable if our Constiâ—ution were not only in its main and most essential parts formed upon that glorious Model but were also in its Rules and Administrations made more exactly conformable to those best and purest times I can never forget an advice that was given me above thirty years ago by one of the worthiest Clergy-men now alive while I was studying the Controversie relating to the Government of the Church from the Primitive Times he desires me to joyn with the more Speculative Discoveries that I should make the Sense that they had of the Obligations of the Clergy both with relation to their Lives and to their Labours And said that the Argument in favour of the Church how clearly soever made out would never have its full effect upon the World till abuses were so far corrected that we could shew a Primitive Spirit in our Administration as well as a Primitive pattern for our Constitution This made even then deep Impressions on me and I thank God the Sense of it has never left me in the whole course of my Studies I will not at present enter upon so long and so Invidious a work as the descending into all the particulars into which this matter might be branched out either from the Writings of the Fathers the Decrees of Councils the Roman Law and the Capitulars or even from the dreg of all the Canon Law it self which though a Collection made in one of the worst Ages yet carries many rules in it that would seem excessively severe even to us after all our Reformation of Doctrine and Worship This has been already done with so much exactness that it will not be necessary to set about it after the Harvest which was gathered by the learned Bishop of Spalato in the last Book of his great Work which the Pride and Inconstancy of the Author had brought under a disesteem that it no way deserves For whatever he might be that work was certainly one of the best productions of that Age. But this design has been prosecuted of late with much more exactness and learning and with great honesty and fidelity where the interest of his Church did not force him to use a little Art by F. Thomasin who has compared the modern and the ancient Discipline and has shewed very copiously by what steps the Change was made and how abuses crept into the Church It is a work of great use to such as desire to understand that matter truly I will refer the curious to these and many other lesser Treaties writ by the Iansenists in France in which abuses are very honestly complained off and proper Remedies are proposed which in many places being entertained by Bishops that had a right Sense of the Primitive Rules have given the Rise to a great Reformation of the French Clergy Instead then of any Historical deduction of these matters I shall content my self with giving the Sense of two of the Fathers of the Greek Church and one of tâ—e Latin upon this whole business of the Obligations of the Clergy The first is Gregory of Nazianze whose Father ordained him a Presbyter notwithstanding all his humâ—le Intercessions to the contrary according to the custom of the best Men of that Age who instead of pressing into Orders or aspiring to them fled from them excused themselves and judging themselves unworthy of so holy a Character and so high a Trust were not without difficulty prevailed on to submit to that which in degenerate Ages Men run to as to a subsistance or the mean of procuring it and seem to have no other Sense of that Sacred Institution then Mechanicks have of obtaining their Freedom in that Trade or Company in which they have passed their Apprenticeship It were indeed happy for the Church if those who offer themselves to Orders had but such a Sense of them as Tradesmen have of their Freedom Who do not pretend to it till they have finished the time prescribed and are in some sort qualified to set up in it Whereas alas men who neither know the Scriptures nor the body of Divinity who have made no progress in their Studies and can give no tollerable account of that holy Doctrine in which they desire to be Teachers do yet with equal degrees of confidence and importunity pretend to this Character and find the way to it too easie and the access of it too free But this Holy Father had a very different sense of this matter He had indeed submitted to his Fathers Authority he being his Bishop as well as his Father But immediately after he was ordained he gives this account of himself in his Apologetical Oration That he judging he had not that sublimity of Vertue nor that familiar acquaintance with divine matters which became Pastors and Teachers he therefore intending to purifie his own Soul to higher degrees of Vertue to an Exaltation above sensible Objects above his Body and above the World that so he might bring bis mind to a recollected and divine State and fit his Soul that as a polished mirrour it might carry on it the Impressions of divine Ideas unmixed with the allay of earthly Objects and might be still casting a brightness upon all his Thoughts did in order to the raising himself to that retire to the Wilderness He had observed that many pressed to handle the holy Mysteries with unwashed hands and defiled Souls
Merit had been advanced to it had brought it under Reproach There had been no due care used in the choice of Bishops and by the means of bad choices the Church was almost ruined through the gross Ignorance and Unworthiness of many in that Post. Certainly a worthy Priest has no ambitious aspirings Those who fly to this Dignity from that base Principle will give a full vent to it when they have attained it If Submissions Flatteries and Money it self are necessary all will be employed Therefore it was an indispensable Preparation to it that one should be duly sensible of the greatness of the Trust and of his own Unfitness for it that so he might neither vehemently desire it nor be uneasie if he should happen to be turned out of it A Man may desire the Office of a Bishop when he considers it as a VVork of toyl and labour but nothing is more pestiferous than to desire it because of the Power and Authority that accompanies it Such Persons can never have the Courage that ought to shew it self in the Discharge of their Duty in the reproving of Sin and venturing on the Indignation of great Men he confesses he had not yet been able to free his Mind from that Disease and till he had subdued it he judged himself bound to fly from all the steps to Preferment for the nearer he should come to it he reckoned the appetite to it would rage the higher within him whereas the way to break it quite was to keep himself at the greatest distance from it nor had he that vivacity or lively activity of temper which became this Function nor that softness and gentleness of mind that was necessary to prepare him to bear injuries to endure contempt or to treat People with the mildness that Christ has enjoined his followers which he thought more necessary to a Bishop than all Fastings or bodily Mortifications whatsoever And he runs out into a long Digression upon the great Mischiefs that a fretful and spiteful temper did to him that was under the power of it and to the Church when a Bishop was soured with it It will often break out it will be much observed and will give great scandal For as a little Smoke will darken and hide the clearest Object so if all the rest of a Bishop's Life were brighter than the Beams of the Sun a little Blemish a Passion or Indiscretion will darken all and make all the rest be forgotten Allowances are not made to them as to other Men the VVorld expects great things from them as if they had not Flesh and Blood in them not a Humane but an Angelical nature therefore a Bishop ought by a constant watchfulness and a perpetual strictness to be armed with Armour of Proof of all sides that no wound may hurt him Stories will be easily believed to his disadvantage and his Clergy about him will be ready to find them out and to spread them abroad He laies this down for a certain Maxim That every man knows himself best and therefore whatsoever others might think of him he who knew well that he had not in himself those qualifications that were necessary for this Function ought not to suffer himself to be determined by that After this he lays open the great Disorders Factions Partialities and Calumnies with which the Popular Elections were at that time managed and the general Corruption that had over-run the whole Church so that the Strictness and Authority the Gentleness and Prudence the Courage and Patience that were necessary to a Bishop were very hard to be found all together He instances to make out the difficulty of discharging the duty of a Bishop in that single point of managing the Widows who were so medling so immoral so factious and so clamorous that this alone was enough to imploy a Bishop's prudence and to exercise his patience from that and another Article relating to it concerning the Virgins he goes to consider the Trouble the Difficulties and Censures that Bishops were subject to by the hearing of Causes that were referred to them Many pretending they were wronged by their Judgments made shipwrack of the Faith in revenge and they pressed so hard upon the Bishops time that it was not possible for him to content them and discharge the other parts of his Duty Then he reckons up the many Visits that were expected from Bishops the several Civilities they were obliged to which it was hard to manage so as not to be either too much or too little in them Matter of censure would be found in both extreams Then he reflects on the great temper that ought to be observed in the final sentence of Excommunication between a gentleness to Vice on the one hand and the driving men to Despair and Apostasie on the other And he concludes that Book with Reflections on the vast Burthen that follows the care of Souls In his 4th Book he runs through a variety of Arts and Professions and shews how much skill and labour was necessary for every one of them from whence he concludes strongly that much more was necessary for that which was the most important of all others so that no consideration whatsoever should make a man undertake it if he did not find himself in some sort qualified for it more particularly he ought to be ready to give an account of his Faith and to stop the mouths of all gainsaiers Iews Gentiles and Hereticks in which the Ignorance of many Bishops carrying things from one extream to another had given great occasion to Errours A Bishop must understand the stile and phrase of the Scriptures well From this he runs out into a very Noble Panegyrick upon St. Paul in whom a pattern was set to all Bishops His 5th Book sets out the labour of preaching the tentations to Vanity in it the censures that were apt to be made if there was either too much or too little Art or Eloquence in Sermons to this he adds the great exactness that a Bishop should use in preserving his Reputation yet without Vanity observing a due temper between despising the censures of theMultitude and the servile courting of applauses In his Sermons he ought above all things to study to edifie but not to Flatter his Hearers or to use vain arts to raise esteem or admiration from them Since a Bishop whose mind was not purged from this disease must go through many tossings and be much disquieted and upon that he runs out so fully upon the tentations to desire applause for Eloquence and a readiness in speaking that it plainly appears that he felt that to be his own weak side The 6th Book is chiefly imployed to shew how much a harder thing it was to govern the Church than to live in a Desart under the severest mortifications I will go no further in this abstract I hope I have drawn out enough to give a Curiosity to such as have not yet read those Excellent Books to do it
Crime that exceeded the Cruelty of High-way Men to receive that which belonged indeed to the Poor and to withdraw any part of it to ones private Occasions He concludes with this excuse That he had named no Person he had not writ to reproach others but to give them warning And therefore since he had treated of the Vices of the Clergy in general Terms if any was offended with him for it he thereby plainly confessed that he himself was guilty CHAP. V. An Account of some Canons in divers Ages of the Church relating to the Duties and Labours of the Clergy I Will go no further in gathering Quotations to shew the sense that the Fathers had in these matters these are both so full and so express that I can find none more plain and more forcible I shall to these add some of the Canons that have been made both in the best and in the worst Ages of the Church obliging Bishops and other Clerks to Residence and to be contented with one Cure In that at Sardica that met in the Year 347. consisting of above 350. Bishops two Canons were made the 11 th and the 12 th against Bishops who without any urgent necessity or pressing business should be absent from their Church above three weeks and thereby grieve the Flock that was committed to their care And even this provision was made because Bishops had Estates lying out of their Diocesses therefore they were allowed to go and look after them for three weeks in which time they were to perform the divine function in the Churches to which those Estates belonged Many provisions were also made against such as went to Court unless they were called by the Emperors or went by a Deputation from the Church upon a publick account There is not any one thing more frequently provided against than that any of the Clergy should leave their Church and go to any other Church or live any where else without the Bishops leave and consent nor is there any thing clearer from all the Canons of the first Ages than that they considered the Clergy of every Church as a body of men dedicated to its service that lived upon the Oblations of the Faithful and that was to labour in the several parts of the Ecclesiastical Ministry as they should be ordered by the Bishop In the 4 th General Council at Calcedon Pluralities do first appear for they are mentioned and condemned in the 10 th Canon which runs thus No Clerk shall at the same time belong to two Churches to wit to that in which he was was first ordained and that to which as being the greater he has gone out of a desire of vain glory for such as do so ought to be sent back to that Church in which they were at first ordained and to serve there only but if any has been translated from one Church to another he shall receive nothing out of his former Church nor out of any Chapel or Alms-house belonging to it and such as shall transgress this definition of this General Council are condemned by it to be degraded I go next to a worse Scene of the Church to see what provisions were made in this matter about the 8 th Century both in the East and in the West The worse that those Ages and Councils were it makes the Argument the stronger since even bad men in bad times could not justifie or suffer such an abuse In the year 787. the Second Council of Nice was held that setled the worship of Images The 15 Canon of it runs thus No Clerk shall from henceforth be reckoned in two Churches for every Church had a Catalogue of its Clergy by which the dividends were made for this is the Character of Trafficking and Covetousness and wholly estranged from the Ecclesiastical Custom We have heard from our Saviour's own words that no man can serve two Masters for he will either hate the one or love the other or cleave to the one and despise the other Let every one therefore according to the Apostles words continue in the Vocation in which he is called and serve in one Church For those things which filthy Lucre has brought into Church matters are contrary to God There is a variety of imployments for acquiring the necessary supplies of this life Let every one that pleases make use of these for furnishing himself For the Apostle saies these hands Ministred to my necessities and to those that were with me This shall be the rule in this Town which is guarded by God but in remote Villages an Indulgence may be granted by reason of the want of men It is upon this that the Canonists do found the first of the two reasons for which only they allow that a Dispensation for holding two Benefices may be lawful one is the want of fit and sufficient men for the service of the Church The foundation of the other will be found in the Canon which I shall next set down It is the 49 Canon of the sixth Council at Paris under Lewis the Good in the Year 829. this Council came after a great many that had been held by Charles the Great and his Son for purging out abuses and for restraining the Primitive Discipline These Councils sat at Frankfort Ments Aken Rheims Chalons Tours Arles and this of Paris was the last that was held upon that design In these all the Primitive Canons relating to the Lives and Labours and the government of the Clergy were renewed Among others is that of Calcedon formerly mentioned but it seems there was no occasion given to make a special one against Pluralities before this held at Paris which consisted of four Provinces of France Rheims Sens Tours and Rouen The Canon runs thus As it becomes every City to have its proper Bishop so it is also becoming and necessary that every Church dedicated to God should have its proper Priest Yet Covetousness which is Idolatry of which we are much ashamed has so got hold of some Priests and caught them captives in its Fetters that they blinded with iâ— know neither whither they go nor what they ought to be or do so that they being kindled with the fire of Covetousness and forgetful of the Priestly Dignity neglecting the care of those Churches to which they were promoted do by some presents given or promised procure other Churches not only from Clerks but from Lay-men in which they do against Law undertake to perform the Ministry of Christ. It is not known whether their Bishops are consulted in this matter or not if they are without doubt their Bishops become partakers of their sin but if they presume to do it without consulting them yet it is to be imputed to the Bishops negligence There is scarce a Priest to be found who warreth worthily and diligently in that Church in which he is dedicated to the Divine Service but how much less will he be able to do that worthily in two three or more Churches
This practice brings a reproach on the Christian Religion and a confusion on the Priestly Order The Covetousness of the Clergy is censured by their people the worship of God is not performed in places consecrated to him and as was observed in the former Chapters the Souls of the people are thereby much endangered· Wherefore we do all unanimously appoint that no Bishop suffer this to be done in his Parish or Diocess these words being used promiscuously any more and we Decree that every Church that has a Congregation belonging to it and has means by which it may subsist shall have its proper Priest for if it has a Congregation but has not Means by which it may subsist that matter is left to the Bishop to consider whether it can or ought to be supported or not But it is specially recommended to their care to see that under this pretence no Priest may out of Covetousness hold two or three Churches in which he cannot serve nor perform the worship of God The last provisions in this Canon are the grounds upon which the Canonists found the second just cause of dispensing with Pluralities which is when a Church is so poor that the Profits which arise out of it cannot afford a competent maintenance to a Clark but then the question arises what is a Competent Maintenance this they do all bring very low to that which can just maintain him and they have so clogged it that no pretence should be given by so general a word to Covetousness Voluptuousness or Ambition And indeed while we have so many poor Churches among us instead of restraining such Pluralities it were rather to be wished that it were made easier than by Law it is at present either to unite them together or to make one man capable of serving two Churches when both Benefices make but a tolerable subsistance rather than to be forced to have a greater number of Clerks than can be decently maintained since it is certain that it is more for the Interest of Religion and for the good of Souls to have one worthy man serving two Churches and dividing himself between them than to have Clerks for many Benefices whose scandalous provisions make too many scandalous incumbents which is one of the greatest Diseases and Miseries of this Church But a due care in this matter has no relation to the accumulation of Livings at great distances every one of which can well support an Incumbent upon the same Person merely for the making of a Family for the supporting of Luxury or Vanity or for other base and Covetous designs But I go next to two of the worst Councils that ever carried the name of General ones the third and the fourth of the Lateran that we may see what was the sense of the Twefth and Thirteenth Century in this matter notwithstanding the Corruption of those Ages The Thirteenth Canon of the Third Lateran Council runs thus Forasmuch as some whose Covetousness has no bounds endeavour to procure to themselves divers Ecclesiastical Dignities and several Parish Churches against the Provisions of the Holy Canons by which means tho they are scarce able to perform the Office of one they do claim the Provisions due to many We do severely require that this may not be done for the future And therefore when any Church or Ecclesiastical Ministry is to be given let such a one be sought out for it as shall reside upon the place and shall be able to discharge the Care in his own Person If otherwise he who receives any such benefice contrary to the Canons shall lose it and he who gave it shall likewise lose his right of Patronage This Canon not being found effectual to cure so great an abuse The Twenty Ninth Canon of the Fourth Councel in the Lateran was penned in these Words It was with great Care forbidden in the Council of the Lateran that any one should have divers Ecclesiastical Dignities and more Parish Churches than one which is contrary to the Holy Canons Otherwise he that took them should lose them and he that gave them should lose the right of giving them But by reason of some Mens Presumption and Covetousness that Decree has had little or no effect hitherto we therefore desiring to make a more evident and express Provision against these abuses do appoint that whosoever shall receive any Benefice to which a Care of Souls is annexed shall thereupon by Law be deprived of any other such Benefice that he formerly had and if he endeavours still to hold it he shall lose the other likewise and he to whom the right of the Patronage of his first Benefice did belong is empowered to bestow it upon his accepting another and if he delays the bestowing it above Three months not only shall his right devolve to another according to the Decree of the Council in the Lateran but he shall be obliged to restore to the Church to which the Benefice belongs all that which he himself â—eceived during the vacancy This we do likewise Decree as to Personages and do further appoint that no Man shall presume to hold more Dignities or Parsonages than one in the same Church even though they have no Cure of Souls annexed to them Provided always that Dispensations may be granted by the Apostolical See to Persons of high Birth or eminently learned sublimes literatas personas or dignified in Universities for so the word literati was understood who upon occasion may be honoured with greater Benefices It was by this last Proviso that this as well as all other Canons made against these Abuses became quite ineffectual for this had no other effect but the obliging People to go to Rome for Dispensations so that this Canon instead of reforming the Abuse did really establish it for the Qualifications here mentioned were so far stretched that any Person that had obtained a Degree in any University came within the Character of lettered or learned and all those that were in any dependance upon great Men came likewise within the other Qualification of high Rank and Birth This was the Practice among us during the Reign of Henry the 8 th and he when he was beginning to threaten the See of Rome in the matter of his Divorce got that Act to be passed which has been the occasion of so much Scandal and Disorder in this Church It seems to one that considers it well that the Clauses which qualifie Pluralities were grafted upon another Bill against Spiritual Persons taking Estates to Farm with which that Act begins And that in the carrying that on such a temper shewed it self that the other was added to it It contained indeed a Limitation of the Papal Authority but so many Provisions were made that the Nobility Clergy and the more eminent of the Gentry Knights in particular were so taken Care of that it could meet with no grâ—at Oppoâ—ition in the Parliament but from the state of that Time and from several
Clauses in the Act it self it appears it was only intended to be a Provisional Act tho it is conceived in the Style of a perpetual Law By it then and by it only for I have not been able to find that any such Act ever passed in any Kingdom or State in Christendom many having been made plainly to the contrary in France declaring the Obligation to Residence to be of Divine Right were the Abuses that had arisen out of the Canon of one of the worst Councils that ever was authorised and settled among us as far as a Law of the Land can settle them But after all it is to be considered that a Law does indeed change the Legal and Political Nature of things it gives a Title to a Free-hold and Property But no Humane Law can change the Moral or Divine Laws and cancel their Authority If a false Religion is settled by Law it becomes indeed the legal Religion but is not a whit the truer for that And therefore if the Laws of the Gospel oblige Clerks to Personal Labour as was formerly made out An Act of Parliament may indeed qualifie a Man in Law to enjoy the Benefice whether he labours in it or not but it can never disâ—olve his Obligation to Residence and Personal Labour But to bring this Chapter to an end I shall only add Three Decrees that were made by the Council of Trent in this matter that so it may appear what Provisions they made against Abuses which are still supported by Laws among us A part of the 1 st Chap. of Reformation that past in the Sixth Session runs thus This Synod admonishes all that are set over any Cathedral Churches by what Title soever that they taking heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost has set them to Govern the Church of God which he has purchased with his own Blood do watch and labour and fullfil their Ministry as the Apostle has commanded And they must know that they cannot do this if as Hirelings they forsake the Flock committed to them and do not watch over those Sheep whose Blood will be required at their Hands in the last Day Since it is certain that no excuse will be received if the Wolfe devours the Sheep when the Shepherd does not look after them Yet since to our great Grief it is found that some at this time neglect the Salvation of their own Souls and preferring Earthy things to Heavenly are still about Courts and forsaking the Fold and the Care of the Sheep trusted to them do give themselves wholly to Earthly and Temporal Cares therefore all the Ancient Canons which by the Iniquity of Times and the Corruptions of Men were fallen into desuetude are renewed against Non-residents To which several compulsory Clauses are added which are indeed slight ones because the Execution of them was intirely put in the Pope's Power and the Punishment did only lie if a Bishop was absent Six Months in a Year This Decree did not satisfie those who moved for a Reformation so a fuller one was made in the 23 d. Session 1 st Chap. in these Words Whereas by the Law of God all those to whom the Care of Souls is committed are commanded to know their Sheep to offer Sacrifice for them to feed them by the Preaching of the Word of God the Administration of the Sacraments and by the Example of a good Life to have a tender Care of the poor and all other miserable Persons and to lay themselves out upon all the other Functions of the Pastoral Care which cannot be performed by those who do not watch over nor are present with their Flock Therefore this Synod does admonish and exhort them that they remembring the Divine Precepts and being made an Example to their Flock may feed and govern them in Righteousness and Truth Upon this they declare that all Bishops even Cardinals themselves are obliged to Personal Residence in their Church and Diocess and there to discharge their Duty Unless upon some special Provisions By which indeed a Door is opened to as many Corruptions as the Court of Rome thinks fit to dispense with Yet without this none may be absent above two or at most three Months in the whole Year and even that must be upon a just reason and without any prejudice to the Flock and they leave this upon the Consciences of such as withdraw for so long a time which they hope will be Religious and Tender in this matter since all Hearts are known to God and it is no small Sin to do his Work negligently They declare the breaking this Decree to be a Mortal Sin and that such as are guilty of it cannot with a good Conscience enjoy the mean Profits during such their Absence but are bound to lay them out on the Fabrick or give them to the Poor and all these Provisions and Punishments they do also make against the inferior Clergy that enjoyed any Benefice to which the Cure of Souls was annexed and the execution of that is put in the Bishop's Hands who is required not to dispense with their Residence unless upon a very weighty occasion above two Months and in this they give the Bishop so full an Authority that no Appeal or Prohibition was to lie against his Sentence upon non-Residents even in the Court of Rome In these Decrees tho the Papal Party hindred a formal Declaration of the Obligation to Residence by Divine Right that so room might still be left for the Dispensing Power yet they went very near it they applied Passages of Scripture to it and laid the charge of mortal Sin upon it In the last place I shall set down the Decree that was made in the 24 th Session Chap. 17. against Pluralities in these Words Whereas the Ecclesiastical Order is perverted when one Clerk has the Offices of many committed to him it was therefore well provided by the Holy Canons that no Man should be put in two Churches But many led by their depraved Covetousness deceiving themselves but not God are not ashamed to elude those good Constitutions by several Artifices and obtain more Benefices than one at the same time Therefore the Synod being desirous to restore a proper Discipline for the Government of Churches does by this Decree by which all Persons of what Rank soever even Cardinals themselves shall be bound appoint that for the future one Man shall be capable of receiving only one Ecclesiastical Benefice But if that is not sufficient for the decent maintenance of him that has it then it shall be lawful to give him another simple Benefice provided that both Benefices do not require Personal Residence This Rule must be applied not only to Cathedrals but to all other Benefices whether Secular Regular or such as are held by Commendam or of what sort or order soever they may be And as for such as do at present possess either more Parish-Churches than one or one Cathedral and
shall be committed to their Charge These are the Vows and Promises that Priests make before they can be Ordained And to compleat the Stipulation the Bishop concludes it with a Prayer to God who has given them the will to do all these things to give them also strength and power to perform the same that he may accomplish his Work which he hath begun in them until the time that he shall come at the latter day to judge the quick and the dead Upon the whole matter either this is all a piece of gross and impudent Pageantry dressed up in grave and lofty Expressions to strike upon the weaker part of Mankind and to furnish the rest with matter to their profane and impious Scorn or it must be confessed that Priests come under the most formal and express Engagements to constant and diligent labour that can be possibly contrived or set forth in Words It is upon this that they are Ordained So their Ordination being the consummation of this compact it must be acknowledged that according to the nature of all mutual compacts a total failure on the one side does also dissolve all the Obligation that lay on the other And therefore those who do not perform their part that do not Reside and Labour they do also in the sight of God forfeit all the Authority and Privileges that do follow their Orders as much as a Christian at large that does not perform his Baptismal Vow forfeits the Rights and Benefits of his Baptism in the sight of God tho both in the one and in the other it is necessary that for the preventing of disorder and confusion a Sentence Declaratory of Excommunication in the one as of Degradation in the other pass before the Visible Acts and Rights pursuant to those Rites can be denied To all this I will add one thing more which is that since our Book of Ordination is a part of our Liturgy and likewise a part of the Law of the Land and since constant Attendance and diligent Labour is made necessary by it and since this Law is subsequent to the Act of the 21 st of Henry the 8 th that qualifies so many for Pluralities and Non-Residence and is in plain Terms contrary to it this as subsequent does repeal all that it contradicts It is upon all this a matter that to me seems plain that by this Law the other is Repealed in so far as it is inconsistent with it This Argument is by this Consideration made the stronger that the Act of King Henry does not enact that such things shall be but only reserves privildeges for such as may be capable of an Exemption from the common and general rules Now by the Principles of Law all Priviledges or Exemptions of that sort are odious things and the Constructions of Law lying hard and heavy against odious Cases it appears to me according to the general grounds of Law very probable I speak within bounds when I say only probable that the Act of Uniformity which makes the Offices of Ordination a part of the Law of England is a Repeal of that part of the Act of King Henry which qualifies for Pluralities To conclude Whatsoever may be the strength of this Plea in Bar to that Act if our Faith given to God and his Church in the most express and plainest words possible does bind if Promises given at the Altar do oblige and if a Stipulation in the consideration of which Orders are given is sacred and of an indispensible obligation then I am sure this is To make the whole matter yet the stronger this Office is to be compleated with a Communion So that upon this occasion that is not only a piece of Religious Devotion accompanying it but it is the taking the Sacrament upon the Stipulation that has been made between the Priest and the Church So that those who have framed this Office have certainly intended by all the ways that they could think on and by the weightiest words they could choose to make the sense of the Priestly Function and of the Duties belonging to it give deep and strong impressions to such as are Ordained I have compared with it all the Exhortations that are in all the Offices I could find Ancient and Modern whether of the Greek or the Latin Church and this must be said of Ours without any sort of partiality to our own Forms that no sort of comparison can be made between Ours and all the others and that as much as ours is more simple than those as to its Rites and Ceremonies which swell up other Offices so much is it more grave and weighty in the Exhortations Collects and Sponsions that are made in it In the Roman Pontifical no promises are demanded of Priests but only that of Obedience Bishops in a corrupted state of the Church taking care only of their own Authority while they neglected more important obligations In the Office of Consecrating Bishops as all the Sponsions made by them when they were ordained Priests are to be considered as still binding since the Inferiour Office does still subsist in the Superiour so there are new ones superadded proportioned to the exaltation of Dignity and Authority that accompanies that Office In the Roman Pontifical there are indeed questions put to a Bishop before he is Consecrated but of all these the first only is that which has any relation to his Flock which is in these words Wilt thou teach the people over whom thou art to be set both by thy Example and Doctrine those things that thou learnst out of the Holy Scripture All the rest are general and relate only to his Conversation but not at all to his Labours in his Diocess Whereas on the contrary the engagements in our Office do regard not only a Bishop's own Conversation but chiefly his Duty to his People he declares that he is determined to instruct the People committed to his Charge out of the Holy Scriptures That he will study them so as to be able by them to teach and exhort with wholsome Doctrine and withstand and convince the Gain-sayers That he will be ready with all faithful Diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange Doctrine contrary to God's word And both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to the same That he will maintain and set forward as much as lies in him quietness love and peace among all Men and correct and punish such as be unquiet disobedient and criminous within his Diocess According to such Authority as he has In particular He promises to be Faithful in ordaining sending or laying Hands upon others He promises also to shew himself to be gentle and merciful for Christ's sake to poor and needy People and to all Strangers destitute of Help These are the Covenants and Promises under which Bishops are put which are again reinforced upon them in the Charge that is given immediately after their Consecration when the Bible is put
in their Hands Give heed to Reading Exhortation and Doctrine Think upon the things contained in this Book be diligent in them that the increase coming thereby may be manifest unto all Men. Take heed unto thy Self and to Doctrine and be diligent in doing them for by doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Be thou to the Flock of Christ a Shepherd not a Wolf feed them devour them not Hold up the weak heal the sick bind up the broken bring again the out-casts seek the lost Be so merciful that you be not too remiss So Minister Discipline that you forget not Mercy That when the chief Shepherd shall appear you may receive the never fading Crown of Glory through Iesus Christ our Lord. In these Words the great Lines of our Duty are drawn in very expressive and comprehensive Terms We have the several Branches of our Function both as to Preaching and Governing very solemnly laid upon us And both in this Office as well as in all the other Offices that I have seen it appears that the constant sence of all Churches in all Ages has been that Preaching was the Bishops great Duty and that he ought to lay himself out in it most particularly I shall only add one advice to all this before I leave this Article of the Sence of our Church in this matter both to those who intend to take Orders and to those who have already taken them As for such as do intend to dedicate themselves to the service of the Church they ought to read over these Offices frequently and to ask themselves solemnly as in the presence of God Whether they can with a good Conscience make those answers which the Book prescribes or not and not to venture on offering themselves to Oders till they know that they dare and may safely do it Every person who looks that way ought at least on every Ordination Sunday after he has once formed the resolution of dedicating himself to this work to go over the Office seriously with himself and to consider in what disposition or preparation of mind he is suitable to what he finds laid down in it But I should add to this that for a Year before he comes to be ordained he should every first Sunday of the Month read over the Office very deliberately and frame resolutions conform to the several parts of it and if he can receive the Sacrament upon it with a special set of private Devotions relating to his intentions As the time of his Ordination draws near he ought to return the oftner to those exercises It will be no hard task for him to read these over every Sunday during the last Quarter before his Ordination and to do that yet more solemnly every day of the week in which he is to be ordained and to joyn a greater earnestness of fasting and prayer with it on the Fast-days of his Ember Week Here is no hard imposition The performance is as easie in it self as it will be successful in its effects If I did not consider rather what the Age can bear than what were to be wished for I would add a great many severe Rules calculated to the Notions of the Primitive times But if this advice were put in practice it is to be hoped that it would set back many who come to be ordained without considering duly either what it is that they ask or what it is that is to be asked of them which some do with so supine a negligence that we plainly see that they have not so much as read the Office or at least that they have done it in so slight a manner that they have formed no clear Notions upon any part of it and least of all upon those parts to which they themselves are to make answers And as such a method as I have proposed would probably strike some with a due awe of Divine matters so as to keep them at a distance till they were in some sort prepared for them so it would oblige such as came to it to bring along with them a serious temper of mind and such a preparation of soul as might make that their Orders should be a blessing to them as well as they themselves should be a blessing to the Church It must be the greatest joy of a Bishops life who truly minds his duty in this weighty trust of sending out Labourers into Gods Vineyard to Ordain such persons of whom he has just grounds to hope that they shall do their duty faithfully in reaping that Harvest He reckons these as his Children indeed who are to be his strength and support his fellow Labourers and Helpers his Crown and his Glory But on the other hand how heavy a part of his Office must it be to Ordain those against whom perhaps there lies no just objection so that according to the Constitution and Rules of the Church he cannot deny them and yet he sees nothing in them that gives him courage or cheerfulness They do not seem to have that love to God that zeal for Christ that tenderness for souls that meekness and humility that mortification and deadness to the world that becomes the Character and Profession which they undertake so that his heart fails him and his hands tremble when he goes to Ordain them My next advice shall be to those who are already in Orders that they will at least four times a year on the Ordination Sundays read over the Offices of the Degrees of the Church in which they are and will particularly consider the Charge that was given and the Answers that were made by them and then ask themselves as before God who will Iudge them at the Great-day upon their Religious performance of them whether they have been true to them or not that so they may humble themselves for their Errours and Omissions and may renew their Vows for the future and so to be going on from Quarter to Quarter through the whole course of their Ministry observing still what ground they gain and what progress they make to such as have a right Sense of their Duty this will be no hard perforformance It will give a vast joy to those that can go through it with some measure of assurance and find that tho in the midest of many tentations and of much weakness they are sincerely and seriously going on in their work to the best of their skill and to the utmost of their power So that their Consciences say within them and that without the partialities of self love and flattery Well done good and faithful servant The hearing of this said within upon true grounds being the certainest Evidence possible that it shall be publickly said at the Last and Great-day This exercise will also offer checks to a man that looks for them and intends both to understand his errours and to cleanse himself from them It will upon the whole matter make Clergy Men go on with their Profession
aâ—â—â—e Business and Labour of their Lives Having known the very good effect that this Method has had on some I dare the more confidently recommend it to all others Before I conclude this Chapter I will shew what Rules our Reformers had prepared with Relation to Non-Residence and Pluralities which tho they never passed into Laws and so have no binding force with them yet in these we see what was the sense of those that prepared our Offices and that were the chief Instruments in that blessed Work of our Reformation The 12 th Chapter of the Title concerning those that were to be admitted to Ecclesiastical Benefices runs thus Whereas when many Benefices are conferred on one Person every one of these must be served with less order and exactness and many learned Men who are not provided are by that means shut out therefore such as examine the Persons who are proposed for Benefices are to ask every one of them whether he has at that time another Benefice or not and if he confesses that he has then they shall not consent to his obtaining that to which he is presented or the first Benefice shall be made void as in case of Death so that the Patron may present any other Person to it Chap 13. is against Dispensations in these Words No Man shall hereafter be capable of any Privilege by virtue of which he may hold more Parishes than one But such as have already obtained any such Dispensations for Pluralities shall not be deprived of the effects of them by virtue of this Law The 14 th Chapter relates to Residence in these Words If any Man by reason of Age or Sickness is disabled from discharging his Duty or if he has any just cause of absence for some time that shall be approved of by the Bishop he must take care to place a worthy Person to serve during his absence But the Bishops ought to take a special Care that upon no regard whatsoever any Person may upon feigned or pretended Reasons be suffered to be longer absent from his Parish than a real necessity shall require These are some of the Rules which were then prepared and happy had it been for our Church if that whole work of the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Law had been then setled among us Then we might justly have said that our Reformation was compleat and not have lamented as our Church still does in the Office of Commination that the godly Discipline which was in the Primitive Church is not yet restored how much and how long soever it has been wished for It is more than probable that we should neither have had Schisms nor Civil Wars if that great design had not been abortive If but the 19 th and 20 th Titles of that work which treat of the publick offices and Officers in the Church had became a part of our Law and been duly executed we should indeed have had matter of glorying in the World In the Canons of the Year 1571. tho there was not then strength enough in the Church to cure so inveterate a Disease as Non-Residence yet she expressed her detestation of it in these Words The absence of a Pastor from the Lord's Flock and that supine negligence and abandoning of the Ministry which we observe in many is a thing vile in it self odious to the People and pernicious to the Church of God therefore we exhort all the Pastors of Churches in our Lord Iesus that they will as soon as is possible come to their Churches and diligently Preach the Gospel and according to the value of their Livings that they will keep House and hospitably relieve the Poor It is true all this is much lessened by the last Words of that Article That every Year they must reside at least Threescore daies upon their Benefices By the Canons made at that time Pluralities were also limited to 20 miles distance But this was enlarged to 30 miles by the Canons in the Year 1597. Yet by these the Pluralist was required to spend a good part of the Year in both his Benefices And upon this has the matter rested ever since but there is no express definition made how far that general word of a good part of the Year is to be understood I will not to this add a long invidious History of all the attempts that have been made for the Reforming these abuses nor the methods that have been made use of to defeat them They have been but too successful so that we still groan under our abuses and do not know when the time shall come in which we shall be freed from them The defenders of those abuses who get too much by them to be willing to part with them have made great use of this that it was the Puritan Party that during Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames the 1 sts Reign promoted these Bills to render the Church odious Whereas it seems more probable that those who set them forward what invidious Characters soever their Enemies might put them under were really the Friends of the Church and that they intended to preserve it by freeing it from so crying and so visible an abuse which gives an offence and scandal that is not found out by much learning or great observation but arises so evidently out of the nature of things that a small measure of common sense helps every one to see it and to be deeply prejudic'd against it But since our Church has fallen under the evils and mischiefs of Schism none of those who divide from us have made any more attempts this way but seem rather to be not ill pleased that such Scandals should be still among us as hoping that this is so great a load upon our Church that it both weakens our strength and lessens our Authority It is certainly the interest of an Enemy to suffer the body to which he opposes himself to lie under as many Prejudices and to be liable to as much censure as is possible whereas every good and wise Friend studies to preserve that body to which he unites himself by freeing it from every thing that may render it less acceptable and less useful Here I will leave this Argument having I think said enough to convince all that have a true Zeal to our Church and that think themselves bound in conscience to obey its Rules and that seem to have a particular jealousie of the Civil Powers breaking in too far upon the Ecclesiastical Authority that there can be nothing more plain and express than that our Church intends to bring all her Priests under the strictest obligations possible to constant and personal Labour and that in this she pursues the designs and Canons not only of the Primitive and best times but even of the worst Ages Since none were ever so corrupt as not to condemn those abuses by Canon even when they maintained them in practice She does not only bind them to this by the Charge she appoints to be given
remains only to direct a Student how to form right Notions of Practical Matters and particularly of Preaching Dr. Hammond's Practical Catechism is a Book of great use but not to be begun with as too many do It does require a good deal of previous Study before the force of his Reasonings is apprehended but when one is ready for it it is a rare Book and States the Grounds of Morality and of our Duty upon true Principles To form one to understand the right Method of Preaching the Extent of it and the proper ways of Application Bishop Sanderson Mr. Faringdon and Dr. Barrow are the best and the fullest Models There is a vast variety of other Sermons which may be read with an equal measure of Advantage and Pleasure And if from the time that one resolves to direct his Studies towards the Church he would every Lords day read two Sermons of any good Preacher and turn them a little over in his Thoughts this would insensibly in two or three years time carry him very far and give him a large view of the different ways of Preaching and furnish him with Materials for handling a great many Texts of Scripture when he comes to it And thus I have carried my Student through those Studies that seem to me so necessary for qualifying him to be an able Minister of the New Testament that I cannot see how any Article of this can be well abated It may seem strange that in this whole Direction I have said nothing concerning the Study of the Fathers or Church History But I said at first that a great distinction was to be made between what was necessary to prepare a Man to be a Priest and what was necessary to make him a Compleat and Learned Divine The knowledge of these things is necessary to the latter though they do not seem so necessary for the former There are many things to be left to the Prosecution of a Divine's Study that therefore are not mentioned here not with any design to disparage that sort of Learning for I am now only upon that measure of Knowledge under which I heartily wish that no Man were put in Priests Orders and therefore I have pass'd over many other things such as the more accurate Understanding of the Controversies between us and the Church of Rome and the unhappy Disputes between us and the Dissenters of all sorts though both the one and the other have of late been opened with that perspicuity that fulness of Argument and that clearness as well as softness of Stile that a Collection of these may give a Man the fullest Instructions that is to be found in any Books I know Others and perhaps the far greater number will think that I have clogged this Matter too much But I desire these may consider how much we do justly reckon that our Profession is preferrable either to Law or Medicine Now if this is true it is not unreasonable that since those who pretend to these must be at so much Pains before they enter upon a Practice which relates only to Men's Fortunes or their Persons we whose Labours relate to their Souls and their eternal State should be at least at some considerable Pains before we enter upon them Let any young Divine go to the Chambers of a Student in the Inns of Court and see how many Books he must read and how great a Volume of a Common-Place-Book he must make he will there see through how hard a Task one must go in a course of many Years and how ready he must be in all the Parts of it before he is called to the Barr or can manage Business How exact must a Physician be in Anatomy in Simples in Pharmacy in the Theory of Diseases and in the Observations and Counsels of Doctors before he can either with Honour or a safe Conscience undertake Practice He must be ready with all this and in that infinite number of hard Words that belong to every part of it to give his Directions and write his Bills by the Patient's Bed-side who cannot stay 'till he goes to his Study and turns over his Books If then so long a course of Study and so much exactness and readiness in it is necessary to these Professions nay if every mechanical Art even the meanest requires a course of many Years before one can be a Master in it shall the noblest and the most important of all others that which comes from Heaven and leads thither again shall that which God has honoured so highly and to which Laws and Governments have added such Privileges and Encouragements that is employ'd in the sublimest Exercises which require a proportioned worth in those who handle them to maintain their Value and Dignity in the Esteem of the World shall all this I say be esteemed so low a thing in our Eyes that a much less degree of Time and Study is necessary to arrive at it than at the most sordid of all Trades whatsoever And yet after all a Man of a tolerable Capacity with a good degree of Application may go through all this well and exactly in two Years time I am very sure by many an Experiment I have made that this may be done in a much less compass But because all Men do not go alike quick have not the same force nor the same application therefore I reckon two Years for it which I do thus divide One Year before Deacons Orders and another between them and Priests Orders And can this be thought a hard Imposition Or do not those who think thus give great occasion to the Contempt of the Clergy if they give the World cause to observe that how much soever we may magnifie our Profession yet by our practice we shew that we do judge it the meanest of all others which is to be arrived at upon less previous study and preparation to it than any other whatsoever Since I have been hitherto so minute I will yet divide this matter a little lower into those parts of it without which Deacons Orders ought not to be given and those to be reserved to the second Year of study To have read the New Testament well so as to carry a great deal of it in one's Memory to have a clear notion of the several Books of it to understand well the Nature and the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace and to have read one System well so as to be Master of it to understand the whole Catechetical matter to have read Wilkins and Grotius this I say is that part of this Task which I propose before one is made Deacon The rest though much the larger will go the easier if those Foundations are once well laid in them And upon the Article of Studying the Scriptures I will add one Advice more There are two Methods in reading them the one ought to be merely Critical to find out the meaning and coherence of the several Parts of them in which one runs easily
not to be spent a short Word for stirring them up to mind their Souls to make Conscience of their Ways and to pray earnestly to God may begin it and almost end it After one has asked in what Union and Peace the Neighbourhood lives and enquired into their Necessities if they seem very Poor that so those to whom that Care belongs may be put in mind to see how they may be relieved In this course of visiting a Minister will soon find out if there are any truly Good Persons in his Parish after whom he must look with a more particular regard Since these are the Excellent ones in whom all his delight ought to be For let their Rank be ever so mean if they are sincerely Religious and not Hypocritical Pretenders to it who are vainly puffed up with some Degrees of Knowledge and other outward Appearances he ought to consider them as the most valuable in the sight of God and indeed as the chief Part of his Care for a living Dog is better than a dead Lion I know this way of Parochial Visitation is so worn out that perhaps neither Priest nor People will be very desirous to see it taken up It will put the one to Labour and Trouble and bring the other under a closer Inspection which bad Men will no ways desire nor perhaps endure But if this were put on the Clergy by their Bishops and if they explained in a Sermon before they began it the Reasons and Ends of doing it that would remove the Prejudices which might arise against it I confess this is an encrease of Labour but that will seem no hard matter to such as have a right Sense of their Ordination-Vows of the value of Souls and of the Dignity of their Function If Men had the Spirit of their Calling in them and a due measure of Flame and Heat in carrying it on Labour in it would be rather a Pleasure than a Trouble In all other Professions those who follow them labour in them all the Year long and are hard at their Business every Day of the Week All Men that are well suted in a Profession that is agreeable to their Genius and Inclination are really the easier and the better pleased the more they are employed in it Indeed there is no Trade nor Course of Life except Ours that does not take up the whole Man And shall Ours only that is the Noblest of all others and that has a certain Subsistence fixed upon it and does not live by Contingencies and upon Hopes as all others do make the labouring in our Business an Objection against any part of our Duty Certainly nothing can so much dispose the Nation to think oâ— the relieving the Necessities of the many small Livings as the seeing the Clergy setting about their Business to purpose this would by the Blessing of God be a most effectual Means of stopping the Progress of Atheism and of the Contempt that the Clergy lies under it would go a great way towards the healing our Schism and would be the chief step that could possibly be made towards the procuring to us such Laws as are yet wanting to the compleating our Reformation and the mending the Condition of so many of our poor Brethren who are languishing in Want and under great Straits There remains only somewhat to be added concerning the Behaviour of the Clergie towards one another Those of a higher Form in Learning Dignity and Wealth ought not to despise poor Vicars and Curates but on the contrary the poorer they are they ought to pity and encourage them the more since they are all of the same Order only the one are more happily placed than the others They ought therefore to cherish those that are in worse Circumstances and encourage them to come often to them they ought to lend them Books and to give them other Assistances in order to their progress in Learning 'T is a bad thing to see a Bishop behave himself superciliously towards any of his Clergy but it is intolerable in those of the same Degree The Clergy ought to contrive Ways to meet often together to enter into a brotherly Correspondence and into the Concerns one of another both in order to their progress in Knowledg and for consulting together in all their Affairs This would be a means to cement them into one Body hereby they might understand what were amiss in the Conduct of any in their Division and try to correct it either by private Advices and Endeavours or by laying it before the Bishop by whose private Labours if his Clergy would be assisting to him and give him free and full Informations of things many Disorders might be cured without rising to a publick Scandal or forcing him to extream Censures It is a false Pity in any of the Clergy who see their Brethren running into ill Courses to look on and say nothing it is a Cruelty to the Church and may prove a Cruelty to the Person of whom they are so unseasonably tender for things may be more easily corrected at first before they have grown to be publick or are hardned by Habit and Custom Upon all these Accounts it is of great advantage and may be Matter of great Edification to the Clergie to enter into a strict Union together to meet often and to be helpful to one another but if this should be made practicable they must be extreamly strict in those Meetings to observe so exact a Sobriety that there might be no Colour given to censure them as if these were merry Meetings in which they allowed themselves great Liberties it were good if they could be brought to meet to fast and pray but if that is a strain too high for the present Age at least they must keep so far within bounds that there may be no room for Calumny For a Disorder upon any such Occasion would give a Wound of an extraordinary Nature to the Reputation of the whole Clergy when every one would bear a Share of the Blame which perhaps belonged but to a few Four or five such Meetings in a Summer would neither be a great Charge nor give much Trouble but the Advantages that might arise out of them would be very sensible I have but one other Advice to add but it is of a thing of great consequence though generally managed in so loose and so indifferent a Manner that I have some reason in Charity to believe that the Clergy make very little Reflection on what they do in it And that is in the Testimonials that they sign in favour of those that come to be Ordained Many have confessed to my self that they had signed these upon general Reports and Importunity tho the Testimonial bears personal Knowledg These are instead of the Suffrages of the Clergy which in the Primitive Church were given before any were Ordained A Bishop must depend upon them for he has no other way to be certainly informed and therefore as it is a Lie
pass'd with the Solemnity of Hand and Seal to affirm any thing that is beyond one's own Knowledg so it is a Lie made to God and the Church since the design of it is to procure Orders So that if a Bishop trusting to that and being satisfied of the Knowledg of one that brings it ordains an unfit and unworthy Man they that signed it are deeply and chiefly involved in the Guilt of his laying Hands suddenly upon him therefore every Priest ought to charge his Conscience in a deep particular Manner that so he may never testify for any one unless he knows his Life to be so regular and believes his Temper to be so good that he does really judg him a Person fit to be put in Holy Orders These are all the Rules that do occur to me at present In performing these several Branches of the Duty of a Pastor the trouble will not be great if he is truly a good Man and delights in the Service of God and in doing Acts of Charity the Pleasure will be unspeakable first that of the Conscience in this Testimony that it gives and the Quiet and Joy which arises from the Sense of one's having done his Duty and then it can scarce be supposed 〈◊〉 by all this some will be wrought on some Sinners will be reclaimed bad Men will grow good and good Men will grow better And if a generous Man feels to a great degree the Pleasure of having delivered one from Misery and of making him easy and happy how soveraign a Joy must it be to a Man that believes there is another Life to see that he has been an Instrument to rescue some from endless Misery and to further others in the way to everlasting Happiness and the more Instances he sees of this the more do his Joys grow upon him This makes Life happy and Death joyful to such a Priest for he is not terrified with those words Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou mayest be no longer Steward He knows his Reward shall be full pressed down and running over He is but too happy in those Spiritual Children whom he has begot in Christ he looks after those as the chief part of his Care and as the principal of his Flock and is so far from aspiring that it is not without some Uneasiness that he leaves them if he is commanded to arise to some higher Post in the Church The Troubles of this Life the Censures of bad Men and even the prospect of a Persecution are no dreadful Things to him that has this Seal of his Ministry and this Comfort within him that he has not laboured in vain nor run and fought as one that beats the Air he sees the Travel of his Soul and is satisfied when he finds that God's Work prospers in his hand This comforts him in his sad Reflections on his own past Sins that he has been an Instrument of advancing God's Honour of saving Souls and of propagating his Gospel Since to have saved one Soul is worth a Man's coming into the World and richly worth the Labours of his whole Life Here is a Subject that might be easily prosecuted by many warm and lively Figures But I now go on to the last Article relating to this Matter CHAP. IX Concerning Preaching THE World naturally runs to Extreams in every thing If one Sect or Body of Men magnify Preaching too much another carries that to another Extream of decrying it as much It is certainly a noble and a profitable Exercise if rightly gone about of great use both to Priest and People by obliging the one to much Study and Labour and by setting before the other full and copious Discoveries of Divine Matters opening them clearly and pressing them weightily upon them It has also now gained so much Esteem in the World that a Clergy-man cannot maintain his Credit nor bring his People to a constant Attendance on the Worship of God unless he is happy in these Performances I will not run out into the History of Preaching to shew how late it was before it was brought into the Church and by what steps it grew up to the pitch it is now at How long it was before the Roman Church used it and in how many different shapes it has appeared Some of the first Patterns we have are the best for as Tully began the Roman Eloquence and likewise ended it no Man being able to hold up to the pitch to which he raised it so St. Basil and St. Chrysostom brought Preaching from the dry pursuing of Allegories that had vitiated Origen and from the excessive Affectation of Figures and Rhetorick that appears in Nazianzen to a due Simplicity a native Force and Beauty having joined to the Plainness of a clear but noble Stile the Strength of Reason and the Softness of Persuasion Some were disgusted at this Plainness and they brought in a great deal of Art into the Composition of Sermons Mystical Applications of Scripture grew to be better liked than clear Texts an Accumulation of Figures a Cadence in the Periods a playing upon the Sounds of Words a Loftiness of Epithets and often an Obscurity of Expression were according to the different Tastes of the several Ages run into Preaching has past through many different Forms among us since the Reformation But without flattering the present Age or any Persons now alive too much it must be confessed that it is brought of late to a much greater Perfection than it was ever before at among us It is certainly brought nearer the Pattern that S. Chrysostom has set or perhaps carried beyond it Our Language is much refined and we have returned to the plain Notions of simple and genuine Rhetorick We have so vast a number of excellent Performances in Print that if a Man has but a right understanding of Religion and a true relish of good Sense he may easily furnish himself this way The impertinent Way of dividing Texts is laid aside the needless setting out of the Originals and the vulgar Version is worn ou◠The trifling Shews of Learning in many Quotations of Passages that very few could understand do no more flat the Auditory Pert Wit and luscious Eloquence have lost their relish So that Sermons are reduced to the plain opening the Meaning of the Text in a few short Illustrations of its Coherence with what goes before and after and of the Parts of which it is composed to that is joined the clear stating of such Propositions as arise out of it in their Nature Truth and Reasonableness by which the Hearers may form clear Notions of the several Parts of Religion such as are best suted to their Capacities and Apprehensions to all which Applications are aded tending to the Reproving Directing Encouraging or Comforting the Hearers according to the several Occasions that are offered This is indeed all that can be truly be intended in Preaching to make some Portions of Scripture to be rightly understood to make
that a very little Meditation will serve to lay open a Text to him with all the Matter that belongs to it together with the oâ—der in which it ought to be both explained and applied And when a Man has attained to a tolerable degree in this he is then the Master of his Business he is Master also of much Time and of many noble Thoughts and Schemes that will arise out of them This I shall prosecute no further for if this opening of it does not excite the Reader to follow it a little no enlargements I can offer upon it will work upon him But to return to Preaching and so conclude this Chapter He that intends truly to preach the Gospel and not himself he that is more concerned to do good to others than to raise his own Fame or to procure a following to himself and that makes this the measure of all his Meditations and Sermons that he may put things in the best Light and recommend them with the most advantage to his People that reads the Scriptures much and meditates often upon them that prays earnestly to God for direction in his Labours and for a Blessing upon them that directs his chief endeavours to the most important and most indispensible as well as the most undeniable Duties of Religion and chiefly to the inward Reformation of his Hearers Hearts which will certainly draw all other lesser Matters after it and that does not spend his Time nor his Zeal upon lesser or disputable Points this Man so made and so moulded cannot miscarry in his Work He will certainly succeed to some degree The Word spoken by him shall not return again He shall have his Crown and his Reward from his Labours And to say all that can be said in one Word with St. Paul He shall both save himself and them that hear him The CONCLVSION I have now gone over all that seemed to me most important upon this Head of the Pastoral Care with as much Shortness and Clearness as I could so now I am to conclude The Discourse may justly seem imperfect since I say nothing concerning the Duties incumbent on Bishops But I will upon this occasion say very little on that Head The Post I am in gives me a Right to teach Priests and Deacons their Duty therefore I thought that without any great Presumption I might venture on it but I have been too few Years in the higher Order to take upon me to teach them from whom I shall ever be ready to learn This is certain that since as was formerly said the Inferiour Orders subsist in the Superior Bishops must still be under all the Obligations of Priests They are then take the Matter at lowest bound to live to labour and to preach as well as they But why are they raised to a higher Rank of Dignity and Order an encrease of Authority and an Extent of Cure And why have Christian Princes and States given them great Revenues and an Accession of Secular Honours All this must certainly import their Obligation to labour more eminently and to lay themselves out more entirely in the Work of the Gospel in which if the greatest Encouragements and Assistances the highest Dignities and Priviledges belong to them then according to our Saviour's Example and Decision who came not to be ministred unto but to minister and who declared that he who is first shall be last and he who is the greatest must be the Servant of all then I say the higher that any are raised in this Ministry they ought to lay themselves out the more entirely in it and labour the more abundantly And as our Obligations to Christ and his Church tie us to a greater Zeal and Diligence and to a more constant Application of our Care and Thoughts so the Secular Supports of our Honours and Revenues were given us to enable us to go through with that extent of Care and Iurisdiction that lies upon us We are not only Watchmen to watch over the Flock but likewise over the Watchmen themselves We keep the Door of the Sanctuary and will have much to answer for if through our Remissness or feeble Easiness if by trusting the Examination of those we ordain to others and yielding to Intercession and Importunity we bring any into the Service of the Church who are not duly qualified for it In this we must harden our selves and become inexorable if we will not partake in other Mens Sins and in the Mischiefs that these may bring upon the Church It is a false Pity and a cruel Compassion if we suffer any Considerations to prevail upon us in this Matter but those which the Gospel directs The longer that we know them before we ordain them the more that we sift them and the greater variety of Trials through which we make them pass we do thereby both secure the Quiet of our own Consciences the more as well as the Dignity of holy Things and the true Interest of Religion and the Church for these two Interests must never be separated they are but one and the same in themselves and what God has joined together we must never set asunder We must be setting constantly before our Clergie their Obligations to the several Parts of their Duty we must lay these upon them when we institute or collate them to Churches in the solemnest Manner and with the weightiest Words we can find We must then lay the Importance of the Care of Souls before them and adjure them as they will answer to God in the great Day in which we must appear to witness against them that they will seriously consider and observe their Ordination-Vows and that they will apply themselves wholly to that one Thing We must keep an Eye upon them continually and be applying Reproofs Exhortations and Encouragements as occasion offers We must enter into all their Concerns and espouse every Interest of that Part of the Church that is assigned to their Care We must see them as oft as we can and encourage them to come frequently to us and must live in all things with them as a Father with his Children And that every thing we say to stir them up to their Duty may have its due weight we must take care so to order our selves that they may evidently see that we are careful to do our own We must enter into all the Parts of the Worship of God with them not thinking our selves too good for any piece of Service that may be done visiting the Sick admitting poor and indigent Persons or such as are troubled in mind to come to us Preaching ofâ— Catechising and Confirming frequently and living in all things like Men that study to fulfil their Ministry and to do the Work of Evangelists There has been an Opinion of late much favoured by some great Men in our Church that the Bishop is the sole Pastor of his whole Diocess that the Care of all the Souls is singly in him and that all the
Incumbents in Churches are only his Curates in the different parts of his Parish which was the Ancient Designation of his Diocess I know there are a great many Passages brought from Antiquity to favour this I will not enter into the Question no not so far as to give my own Opinion of it This is certain that such as are persuaded of it ought thereby to consider themselves as under very great and strict Obligations to constant Labour and Diligence otherwise it will be thought that they only favour this Opinion because it encreases their Authority without considering that necessary Consequence that follows upon it But I will go no further on this Subject at this time having said so much only that I may not seem to fall under that heavy Censure of our Saviour's with relation to the Scribes and Pharisees That they did bind heavy Burdens and grievous to be born upon others and laid them upon Mens Shoulders when they themselves would not move them with one of their Fingers I must leave the whole Matter with my Readers I have now laid together with great Simplicity what has been the chief Subject of my Thoughts for above thirty Years I was formed to them by a Bishop that had the greatest Elevation of Soul the largest compass of Knowledg the most mortified and most heavenly Disposition that I ever yet saw in Mortal that had the greatest Parts as well as Vertues with the perfectest Humility that I ever saw in Man and had a sublime Strain in Preaching with so grave a Gesture and such a Majesty both of Thought of Language and of Pronunciation that I never once saw a wandring Eye where he preached and have seen whole Assemblies often melt in Tears before him and of whom I can say with great truth that in a free and frequent Conversation with him for above two and twenty Years I never knew him say an idle Word that had not a direct Tendency to Edification and I never once saw him in any other Temper but that which I wished to be in in the last Minutes of my Life For that Pattern which I saw in him and for that Conversation which I had with him I know how much I have to answer to God and though my reflecting on that which I knew in him gives me just cause of being deeply humbled in my self and before God yet I feel no more sensible Pleasure in any thing than in going over in my Thoughts all that I saw and observed in him I have also another Reason that has determined me at this time to prepare this Discourse and to offer it to the Publick from the present posture of our Affairs We arenow brought very near the greatest Crisis that ever Church or Nation had And as on the one Hand if God should so far punish us for our Sins for our Contempt of his Gospel and Neglect of our Duties as to deliver us over to the Rage of our Enemies we have nothing to look for but a Persecution more dreadful than any is in History So if God hears our Prayers and gives us a happy Issue out of all those Dangers with which the Malice of our Enemies threaten us we have in view the greatest Prospect of a blessed and lasting Settlement that even our Wishes can propose to us Now nothing can so certainly avert the one or prepare us to glorify God in it if he in his Justice and Wisdom should call us to a Fiery Trial of our Faith and Patience as the serious minding of our Functions of our Duties and Obligations the confessing of our Sins and the correcting of our Errors We shall be very unfit to suffer for our Religion much less to die for it and very little able to endure the hardships of Persecution if our Consciences are reproaching us all the while that we have procured these Things to our selves and that by the ill use of our Prosperity and other Advantages we have kindled a Fire to consume us But as we have good Reason from the present State of Affairs as well as from the many eminent Deliverances and happy Providences which have of late in so signal a manner watched over and protected us to hope that God according to the Riches of his Mercy and for the Glory of his Great Name will hear the Prayers that many good Souls offer up rather than the Cry of those Abominations that are still among us So nothing can so certainly hasten on the fixing of our Tranquillity and the compleating our Happiness as our lying often between the Porch and the Altar and interceding with God for our People and our giving our selves wholly to the Ministry of the Word of God and to Prayer These being then the surest Means both to procure and to establish to us all those great and glorious Things that we pray and hope for this seemed to me a very proper Time to publish a Discourse of this Nature But that which made it an Act of Obedience as well as Zeal was the Authority of my Most Reverend Metropolitan who I have reason to believe employs his Time and Thoughts chiefly to consider what may yet be wanting to give our Church a greater Beauty and Perfection and what are the most proper Means both of purifying and uniting us To which I thought nothing could so well prepare the way as the offering to the Publick a plain and full Discourse of the Pastoral Care and of every Thing relating to it His Grace approved of this and desired me to set about it Upon these Motives I writ it with all the Simplicity and Freedom that I thought the Subject required and sent it to him by whose particular Approbation I publish it as I writ it at his Direction There is indeed one of my Motives that I have not yet mentioned and on which I cannot enlarge so fully as I well might But while we have such an invaluable and unexampled Blessing in the Persons of those Princes whom God hath set over us if all the Considerations which arise out of the Deliverances that God has given us by their Means of the Protection we enjoy under them and of the great hopes we have of them If I say all this does not oblige us to set about the reforming of every Thing that may be amiss or defective among us to study much and to labour hard to lead strict and exemplary Lives and so to stop the Mouths and overcome the Prejudices of all that divide from us this will make us look like a Nation cast off and forsaken of God which is nigh unto cursing and whose end is burning We have reason to conclude that our present Blessings are the last Essays of God's Goodness to us and that if we bring forth no Fruit under these the next Sentence shall be Cut it down why cumbreth it the Ground These Things lie heavy on my Thoughts continually and have all concurred to draw this Treatise from me