same care one for another Now ye my Sons are the body of Christ and members in particular and God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers are all provided for Oh covet earnestly the best Gifts not the best Livings And yet I could shew you a more excellent way Why is that Preferment engrossed by one which might maintain Twenty Why are those Revenues lost upon the folly vanity and superfluitie of one family which might provide for the honest occasions of five Oh Justice the equal Distributer of Affairs whither art thou fled Oh Equity whither art thou retired 3. If you consider not the sin do you consider the consequences of these miscarriages the envie that you already sink under the occasion given unto them that seek occasion which hath already disgraced you the great discontent that alreadie endangereth you Have not you enemies to your Order Calling and Judgement and must you incense your friends Must you provoke that God that hath hitherto upheld your Order and Function by abusing the maintenance he allows for his service and servants to your own advantage Must you displease his sacred Majesty by appropriating to a few ill beloved persons for whose sake his Majesty is thought the worse of that encouragement which might be equally bestowed upon well-deserving and well-beloved who might in each Parish teach his subjects their duty faithfully perswade them to obedience successfully and settle them in the Doctrine of Government according to the great Principles of Christianity most happily Must you provoke your Brethren of the Clergy to discontent by taking up all the encouragements of their Studies all their employments and hopes How many hopeful young men in City and Country are forced either to want or which is worse to live upon your small Pensions and scant allowance and what is natural for parts and ingenuity in want to dispair their fortunes and envy yours How readily do they now hopeless of any regular favour apply themselves to popular applause that their compliance may gain that among the people which their merit could not among you Do not you see how the people forsake you as Self-Seekers how the Gentry censure you as Unconscionable how the Clergy abhor you as invaders of their places and preferments Do you not see that the Law can hardly secure you that authority can scarcely defend you from all the affronts and baffles that Malice do suggest to an incensed people the adversaries triumph the many friends I have weep the Sober and Serious are amazed to see fourscore or an hundred odious men filling up a whole Church Do you imagine those many active men will rest in a dispirited poor mendicant decayed dejected and vexatious condition Do not you fear their melancholy thought their retired contrivance their forlorn meetings You know there are none so dangerous as the Discontented Scholars Monopolie is the Ruine of the State Pluralities are the ruine of the Church the one necessitates the indigent Subject to dangerous courses and practises the other the poor Scholar to as dangerous discourses and thoughts Is it not enough that mens late malice and insolencie against the Ministry reduced them to want and contempt but that to my shame who am blessed of God with abundance and honour one small part of the Ministry should reduce the other to smal Contributions poor Dependencies so uncertain and so base that men of ingenious spirits and learning must detest them who cannot endure when they do their work to beg for their wages not without forbid compliances and flatteries with vile men in their vilest humours Oh look upon the poor Curates and their Families what is their portion of the prosperity we now enjoy Alas they live by Gods mercy and mens charity How despicable is their Calling How little their Authority how inconsiderable their Instructions How successless their Doctrine how uncreditable their Lives Do not you see that your fellow-Ministers under these necessities will not long be able to assert the honour of their Calling and that no after-Generation will succeed to inherit their poverty and pains unless such as will further debase the Dignity of the Function What must all the ingenious Ministers be Stipendaries The Faction threatned no more Must they have only their allowances Anarchie could have done no more Are you restored to reduce your fellow-servants to that penurie by Law which Fanaticks would have brought them to without Law they wanted only this misery to be undone by their Brethren and perish by them of their own profession Obsect These poor men you will say are provided for answerable to their Parts Answ Have they Parts for the Calling of Ministers and have they not Parts for the Maintenance of Ministers Can they preach the Gospel and can they not live by the Gospel Are they worthy to discharge your Cures and are they not worthy to enjoy them 5. Do you desire the advantage of so many Benefices or do you desire the charge if the advantage then the poor Separatist was in the right when he called you Hirelings then indeed you make merchandise of Souls then you are the greatest Juglers and Deceivers in the world and you laugh among your selves as the Tuscan Sooth-sayers and confer Notes as that Pope with his Cardinal saying How much gain doth this fable of Christ bring us and poor souls should avoid you as the shadow of death What shall I hear him whose godliness is gain whose God is his belly whose faith is his advantage whose hope is only in this world His watchmen are blind they are ignorant they are all dumb dogs they cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber yea they are greedy dogs which can Never have enough and they are shepherds that cannot understand they all look for their own way every one for his gain from his quarter Come ye say they I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundantly Fsai 56. 9 10 11 12. If the Charge do you know what you do do you know that you must watch over the Congregation as they that must give an account so many Benefices so many more hundreds of souls that you must answer for Do you know what it is to answer the great God for an immortal soul do you know what it is to give an account of the purchase of Christs bloud do you know what is the work what is the charge of a Minister Oh poor souls you consider not whether some have not accused you to God whom you never saw whether souls under your charge are not daily going to another world with doleful complaints against you whom you never knew whether any in Hell do not cry out against you whom you never saw thousands have appeared before the Judgement-seat of God excusing themselves with your faults though you lay it not
murmers which I hear What faults of mine have raised those bitter reproaches which I bear What enormities of mine have provoked those imminent dangers which I fear O why is it that ye who own my Saviour who have submitted to my Doctrine as your Rule who have partaked of my Sacrament as your refreshment and comfort O why is it that ye hate and dispise me that ye strip and wound me that ye tear and mangle me that ye impoverish and debase me that ye make me a scorn an abomination an hissing and astonishment to all that see me a derision and a mocking to my enemies round about me Alas all men of weight and worth for parts and piety for judgement and ingenuity for conscience and integrity for grace learning and renown know my innocency thus far that as to the foundation of Faith and Rule of holiness I have only adhered to Gods blessed Word as for the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religion I use in them prudently and charitably that liberty and power which I suppose is allowed here for peace order and decency by that blessed God who is not the Author of Confusion but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints If we may believe the integrity of those Reformers that setled this Church whose learning worth and piety hath been confirmed by the Testimony of so many wise and religious Princes by the approbation of so many learned and reverend Convocations by the applauses of so many other reformd Churches if we may believe the preaching living and dying of so many hundred excellent Bishops and Ministers or the Prayers and proficiencies of so many thousand of godly Christians or if we may believe the wonderful blessings and special graces of a merciful God attesting the verity integrity and sanctity of my Christian Constitution for many happy years or if you will believe all men in England who have by oaths and subscriptions by Vows and Protestations resolved to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was established in the Church of England who dispair any where to find the way of truth and peace of holiness and happiness but in the use of those holy means and in the exercise of those divine graces which accompany salvation within me professed and enjoyed I know nothing excellent in any Church for outward policy inward tranquilitie and eternal felicity nothing that was pious or peaceable moral or vertuous ritual or spiritual orderly or comely or any way conducing to truth and holiness to grace or vertue to the souls edification and comfort which was not by me entertained with competent Maintenance noble Encouragements ingenuous Honours peaceable Serenity and munificent plenty In which I flourished so many years by Gods goodness and mans indulgence Alas whatever I have done in the settlements of the Rites Circumstances and Decencies of Religion I have observed that modesty wisdom and humility that became a Church of Christ in discreetly and ingeniously complying with sober primitive and venerable Antiquity in the Church as far as it observed the Rules of Gods Word and went not beyond the liberty allowed it in point of Order and Decency O you are too knowing to be ignorant and too ingenious to be insensible of your duty to God and your respect to me who was heretofore so much loved by my Children applauded by my Friends reverenced by my Neighbours seared and envyed by mine Enemies for those spiritual Gifts Ministerial Devotional and Practical which were evidently seen in me those heavenly influences which people received from me those gracious examples and frequent good works set forth by me the blessed experiences men enjoyed with me the charitable simplicities exercised by my members the numerous Assemblies the frequent Devotions the reverent Attentions the unanimous Communions the well-grounded hopes and unspeakable comforts which thousands enjoyed both living and dying in obedience to and communion with me which to impartial men were most impregnant evidences and valid demonstrations of true Religion and a true Church setled by the joynt consent and publick piety of a Christian Nation He was a wise holy and reverend Son of my bosome who said That in the greatest maturity of his Judgement and integrity of his Conscience when most redeemed from juvenile Fervours popular Fallacies vulgar Partialities and secular Flatteries he declared to the present Age and posterity that since he was capable to move in so serious a search and weighty a disquisition as that of Religion is as his greatest design was through Gods grace to find out and persevere in such a profession of Christian Religion as hath most of truth and order of power and peace of holiness and solemnity of divine verity and Catholick antiquity of true charity and holy constancy so he could not apart from all prejudices and prepossessions find in any other Church or Church-way ancient or modern either more of the good he desired or less of the evil he would avoid then he had a long time discerned and upon a stricter scrutiny more and more in the frame and form in the Constitution and Dispensation of the Church of England No where saith he diviner Mysteries no where sounder Doctrinals bolier Morals warmer Devotionals apter Rituals or comlier Ceremonials All which together by a meet and happy concurrence of piety and prudence brought forth such Spirituals and Graces both in their Habits Exercises and Comforts as are the Quintessence and Life the Soul and Seal of true Religion those more immediate and special Influences of Gods holy Spirit upon the Soul those joynt Operations of the blessed Trinity for the Justification Sanctification and Salvation of a Sinner 1. Can you blame my Government that ancient and Catholick Government of godly Bishops which is so agreeable to Right Reason so suitable to the Principles of due Order and Policy among men so consonant to Scripture-wisdom both in Rules and Patterns so conforme to the Catholick and Primitive way of all Christian Churches throughout all Ages and in all places of the world Would you have me against all charity modesty humility or equity to fall away from the Apostolical way of all Famous Churches and religious Christians to cast off the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec conciliis institutum sed semper retentum non nisi authoritate Apostolica institutum the Apostolici seminis traduces Episcopos that universam successionem Episcoporum those successiones ab initio decurrentium Episcoporum that ordinem Episcoporum qui in Johannem stat Authorem that toto orbe decretum Shall I not enquire of the former Age and prepare my self to the search of my Fathers for I am but of Yesterday and nothing Shall not they teach me and tell me and utter words out of their hearts Shall not I stand in the way and ask for the old way which is the good way and walk therein Would you have me give offence to the
communicate to them of my children that teach in every good thing 11. Do you envy my just Power and Authority whereby with the wisdom gravity and integrity of such men as are invested with that power I may check all abuses and disorders in the Church and by a well-ordered discipline I may recover my self to my former glory and renown for which I was spoken of throughout the World 12. Do you except against the private infirmities the personal failing of my Bishops and Ministers as less strict and unblameable in their lives less painful in their calling less prudent in their undertakings or less compassionate in their Government though all the world knoweth that within me Learning flourisheth knowledge multiplyeth Grace aboundeth excellent Preaching thriveth Sacraments are duly administred the fruits of Gods spirit are mightily diffused hospitable kindness is exercised Christian Charity is maintained plain heartedness and Good works are eminent though I know the Christian world cannot shew men more eminent then some of my Clergy are for well-weighed knowledge for Christian Courage and Patience for sincere piety for indefatigable industry for Care and Vigilancy for exemplary Vertue for sound Doctrine useful Writing prudent Governing for a firm Constancy for fatherly Instructions charitable Corrrections and imitable conversations who guide the people without any allowed licentiousness in conversation any undecency in Devotion any irregularitie in Administration in all which according to the sacred direction of Gods Word according to the heavenly assistance of Gods spirit through Faith in Jesus Christ they teach them to worship the only true God who is blessed for ever as the admirable instruments of Gods glory and the good of mens souls teaching them a fruitful and effectual Faith a sound and judicious knowledge an hearty and sincere Love a discreet and prudent Zeal a severe and through Repentance fervent and devout Prayers godly and unfeigned Sorrow spiritual and unspeakable Comforts well grounded and firm Hope heavenly and holy Conversation a meek obedience and submission in the general frame of Christian mens carriage Though I have men famous for greatness of Learning soundness of Judgement gravity of Manners and Sanctity of Lives yet among my ten thousand Ministers it 's likely some may do amiss If when there was but three men in the world one was a Murtherer if among Noah's sons one of the three was disobedient If among Jacob's children of two one was prophane if of twelve Apostles one was a Devil another dissembled and a third denyed his Master if among the Asian Angels there is none but was to be reproved if among the few Primitive Preachers there was a Demas that loved the present world a Diotrephes that loved the preeminence among my so many thousand Clergy it 's not likely but that some may fall short of the severe exactness required in all Ministers who ought to be patterns in good works Oh my Clergy are not Angels but men subject to the like infirmities with other men If they should say they have no sin they would deceive themselves and the truth would not be in them but if they confess their sins he is faithful and just to forgive them their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness Be Perfection the glory of other church-Church-members the glory of mine is Sincerity Without all peradventure the most holy and all-seeing God who walketh in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks whose pure eyes are most intent upon the Ministers of the Church hath found iniquity in his servants the Bishops and other Ministers both as to their persons and professions all things being open and naked to him with whom we have to do 1. He observes how many consecrated and set apart to the service of God and his Church in the name place power and authority of Jesus Christ and approaching his gracious presence with Aaron in the holy of holies in the glorious manifestations of God in Christ to his Church by publick Ordinances and spiritual Influences have not so sanctified the Name of the Lord God their God in their Hearts and Lives in their Doctrines and Duties 2. The great Searcher of hearts knoweth how rashly many of his Ministers undertake how carelesly they manage that great and terrible work under which Angels may swoon and great Apostles cry Who is sufficient for these things how vulgarly they converse how lazily they live how loosely they behave themselves how ambitiously they design how covetously they reach how enviously they repine how unexemplarily they walk unworthy of the favour and indulgence shewed them to the amazement of their High-calling the dishonor of their Profession to the forfeiture of their Dignity and Plenty the endangering of their Peace and Safety 3. He that is about our paths and about our dwellings hath observed how unpreparedly negligently and irreverently how partially popularly and passionately how formally and vainly without any power of godliness Life of Religion some perform the work of God the great work of Eternal concernment to our own and other mens souls 4. He whose eyes see whose eye-lids try the children of men hath looked down from heaven and observed the iniquity of some mens holy things their dead and unreasonable instead of a living and acceptable service he hath taken notice of that supine negligence which hath sunk some mens Ministrations below the just majesty solidity and gravity of Gospel-dispensations others by an affected height and depth for want of plain instruction and charitable condescending amuse the poor people who know not what they say nor whereof they do affirm 5. He that will reprove and set mens sins in order before them hath taken notice of some mens remiss compliance and others exact rigours according to their private tempers judgements and passions whereby they swerved too much from that just charity discretion legality and constancy which my Canons intented and my constitution health and peace required especially in the peevish touchinesse of these times when so many subtile and envious ones lie in wait to destroy me Yet my Church-mens exorbitancies are not my constitutions their failings are not my frame their infirmities are not my nature their fall is no more mine who disallows it then the Angels fall may be the Heavens that forbid it their weaknesses are humane my authority is divine that charity which thinketh no evil will not lay upon me those enormities which I forbid by a Law which I restrain by Discipline which I mourn for in mine Humiliation and discountenance in those great patterns that shew a most excellent way These sins O the Christian world are transgressions of my Law affronts to my Authority the baffles of my Cannons and Injunctions O that my Apologie were written yea printed in a book for the satisfaction of the world that the good that I would do that I cannot do and the evil that I would not do that I do I find a law of my members against the law of my mind So
discouraged they divert their studies another way I know your Grace heareth not of these matters and I hope God will work in your gracious heart some remedies against them for otherwise the Schools will be forsaken the Church desolate the People wild and dismayed the Gospel discredited and this noble Realm which ever was famous for the name of Learning likely to come to such ignorance and barbary as hath not been heard of many memory before our time Poor souls are destitute without a Guide the afflicted in conscience have none to quiet them they grow wild and savage as a people that hath no God they are commanded to change their Religion and for lack of instruction they know not whither to turn them Oh if the Kingdom of God be not worthy to be promoted yet the Kingdom of Satan is worthy to be overthrown Oh our Posterity shall rue that ever such Fathers went before them and Chronicles will report this miscarriage they shall leave it written in whose time and in whose reign this was done Or if we grow so barbarous that we consider not this or be not able to draw it into Chronicle yet forreign Nations will not spare to write this and publish it to our everlasting reproach and shame By these means forreign power which by Gods mercy this Realm is delivered from shall be brought upon us the truth of God shall be taken away the holy Scripture burnt and consumed in fire a marvellous darkness and calamity must néeds ensue Oh that your Grace might behold the miserable disorder of Gods Church or that you might see the calamities that will ensue It is a part of your Kingdom and such a part as is a prop and stay to the rest I will say to your Majesty as Cyrillus sometimes said to the godly Emperours Theodorus and Valentinian Ab ea quae erg◠Deum est pietate reip vestrae status pendet You are our Governour you are the Nurse of Gods Church We must open this grief before you and God knoweth whether it may be redressed it is let grown so long it is gone so far but if it may be redressed there is no other but your Highness that can redress it The Definition of Simonie SYmonie is an intentive desire or purpose to buy or sell a spiritual Living or any Corporal thing annexed to the Church Grat. dist 1. p. 2. 91. Zanch. de inter cultu Concil compl Sect. 43. dec cont Nic. can 8. 96. CHAP. V. The Church of Englands Complaint against Encroaching Pluralities IS your portion oh my Sons in this life or is it in another Is the satisfaction your immortal souls look for in the emptie vain low and perishing contents of this world or in the full high and everlasting enjoyments of the other world If in this life you have hope only you are of all men the most miserable the most contemptible and most deceitful if in another why so many Imperial Laws so many Ecclesiastical Canons so many Decrees of Councils so mans severe Reproofs from Fathers and Casuists so many Complaints and Reproaches so many Laws and Injunctions so many Attempts and Endeavours in Parliament these sixtie years against your Monopolie of Livings and Pluralities of Benefices Why do you heap upon your selves this envie why do you provoke these Reproaches I provided for you liberally I checked those that opposed your maintenance seasonablie I encouraged your Industrie and Merit carefully beyond any reformed Church in the world I restored you to your Rights handsomly I secured your Rights legallie will not this satisfie you will not this content you 1. It 's but lately that you were thought uncapable of one Living and now three four five cannot suffice you It 's not long since you wanted necessaries and do you now heap up superfluities Lately you could not provide for your Families Wants and do you now provide for their Excess and Pride have you forgot how lately you grasped all and you lost all Alas Alas 2. And will you eat bread out of your Brethrens mouths and will you starve your fellow-servants Are you Ministers so are they Are you Orthodox so are they Are you Loyal so are they Have you been constant so have they Are you serviceable to the Church they more in labours more abundant Oh how many excellent men who out-lived the late miseries Articles Committees Sequestrations Protestations Covenants Engagements lingring out their lives laden and almost oppressed worn out and quite tired with the burthen of years cares fears labours necessities and afflictions are now fain to die in obscurity want and contempt as if the Sons of the Church of England wanted only this to make up the measure of their sufferings That they should be undone when the Church is restored How many hundreds sober and able men are laid aside and contemned by some as Orthodox and despised by others as poor whom the people would relieve but that they are faithful to me whom I would relieve but that I am swallowed up by you When you look big with your abundance and superfluity and glory in your preferments how many hundred able and sober men are ashamed of their Order and Function are wrapped up in poverty and discontent and lost in poor employments whose faithful labours I want whose sober conversations might honour me whose diligence and care might restore me whose reason and learning might uphold me whose powerful preaching might establish me whose self-denial and devotedness to publick good might save me Alas Sirs let none of you think of himself more highly then he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith for as you have many members in one body and all members have not the same Office so I being made of many am one body in Christ and every one in me is a member one of another You my Sons having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given you whether Prophesie c. why shall not they that prophesie be encouraged according to the proportion of Faith or Ministrie why should not all be encouraged that wait on the Ministrie or they that teach on teaching or they that exhort on exhortation The body is not one member but many now hath God set the members in the bodie as it pleaseth him and if they were all one member where were the bodie the eye cannot say to the head I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessarie and those less honourable upon these we ought to bestow more abundant honour And our uncomely parts have a more abundant comeliness for our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the body together having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the