Selected quad for the lemma: country_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	bishop_n	city_n	diocese_n	1,568	5	11.4499	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35632	The case of pluralities & non-residence rightly stated in a letter to the author of a book called, A defence of pluralities, &c. shewing the false reasonings and evil doctrines therein contained / by an impartial hand, and a hearty well-wisher to the Church of England.	Impartial hand and a hearty well-wisher to the Church of England.	1694 (1694)	Wing C966; ESTC R16560	28,436	93

talk as if you thought Residence to be so Thus Sir I have endeavoured truly to state the Case of Plurality and Non-residence And tho' I have not done it with so much Art and Cunning as you yet I am satisfied that I have placed it upon a better foundation and used much more impartiality than you though I have written some things with a just resentment But before I part with you I must take leave to reflect on some passages in your Book which I have not yet touch'd upon You say pag. 134. Certainly it conduceth more to the Interest Honour and support of Religion in general and the good of the whole Diocese in particular that ten or more Prebendaries Persons of extraordinary merit should constantly attend at the Cathedral Church seated in the chief City of the Diocese to see the Worship of God performed with decent solemnity to instruct the Inhabitants of a Populous City and to advise the Bishop upon all occasions than that ten little Country Villages should be supplied by the constant personal attendance of the Incumbents of their Churches This may all be very well allowed except the supposition that these extraordinary persons must needs be Incumbents of Country Churches For why should these excellent men who are capable of doing more good elsewhere encumber themselves with Rectories or Vicarages so far remote from the Cathedral that they cannot attend them both It is very requisite that City-Churches should be supplied by the most able and Eminent of the Clergy But then why do these great men usually decline City Cures For 't is not the Dean and Chapter but the Incumbents of the several Parish-Churches who are generally interested in the Cure of Souls in Cities By supplying the City Churches they might indeed do great service to Religion But this is not to be effected by only officiating and that rarely in the Cathedral If you object that the Livings in lesser Cities are usually very mean and unworthy of such deserving men it may be answered that their Prebends would make good amends for that generally speaking And though Country-Livings are oftentimes of greater value yet it must be considered that when the Curate is paid the remainder will very little exceed the usual allowance of a City-Minister And I do not know any one thing wherein the High-Court of Parliament could do a greater Benefit to the Church than in annexing a Church or two of the Neighbouring City to every Prebend of the Cathedral and indispensably obliging the Clergymen who injoyed them to perform personal Service in them For I cannot believe that faction could lead Captive so great numbers of men in these populous Cities if such deserving men as many Dignitaries are did but bestir themselves and do their best in countermining the designs of our adversaries by their Zeal and industry in watching over the People And if we look into such places we shall find very little sign of care and pains that hath been used by the Clergy in retaining or reducing men to the sober principles of the Church of England for Dissenters are scarce any where more numerous than in these Cities And though I know several other reasons may be given for it yet I cannot help believing that one great occasion of it is that such Parish-Churches are not generally served by the ablest men and oftentimes by good Choristers rather than good Ministers A good Song or Antheme may render a man very agreeable company and a good neighbour but such persons cannot usually compose themselves to that seriousness of mind and earnestness of Piety and Study as to make themselves successful in their labours in populous and censorious Cities I shall not take further notice of those particular good designs which our reformers had in continuing these Corporations you reckon them up well enough and I wish you could say that these great ends were served by them at this time And till they are I am sure that they had better be doing good in their Rural Benefices if they have any than spend their time in the Cathedral in doing nothing at all or at most in only seeing Divine Worship perform'd with decent Solemnity That nothing can excuse them from personal labours in their Cures but some invincible Necessity I have already show'd and few of them think themselves obliged to reside in the Cathedral above two months in the year or thereabouts And for the remaining part of their time I do not know where they can better be disposed of than amongst their Parishioners Another passage is pag. 138 139. It is more for the Interest of the Church and Religion in general that men of eminent Learning should attend in the Courts of Princes c. This may very well be allowed of but doth it from thence follow that these men must undertake other charges inconsistent with this attendance But if you hereby mean the King's Chaplains I do not think that the time of their attendance will be any great impediment to the Cure of Souls elsewhere And if these eminent men vouchsafe to take on them the charge of a few Rusticks as you in contempt call them who should be your care and Crown surely they will not think it below themselves to take care of them too What tho' they may learn as much as they are capable of from the meanest Curate Yet it may be well supposed that such great and good men as you speak of may have a greater Influence over them that what they say may make more impression may be received with a more attentive mind and fall with a greater weight and by doing more good amongst them than a poor Curate can they may more effectually win and reconcile them to their Duty And they may do this and yet not be wanting to their Prince at the stated times and courses of attendance But if they affect to be at Court when they have no business there but their own and when that is nothing else but to solicite for preferment to wriggle into the favour of great men to injoy better company or indulge their Genius more than they can amongst their Rusticks it must be acknowledged that this will be a great hinderance to the serving their Cures and doing their real business And is it not pity that men should not be dispensed with for thus prosecuting the good of the Church elsewhere As for Noblemen's Chaplains who being beneficed do actually attend the number of them is so small that you might have sav'd your self the trouble of apologising for them If they have Benefices or Cures they are generally so near their Lords Houses that they may attend both together And Noblemen generally are unwilling to take men off from the business of their Cures and make more conscience of being the occasion of Ministers not residing than perhaps you would have them You give us some Instances of Great Men and Honourable Personages who retained Domestick Chaplains in times of old

with them there is no reason to think that any other men should be punished in another World for the Non-performance of any other obligation whatsoever And yet that you are guilty of doing this appears from what you say in reference to the Spanish Bishops in the Council of Trent who would have had Residence of Bishops to be declared necessary Jure Divino Upon which if the Spanish Bishops ●ag 24 25. say you had been asked whether the Residence which they asserted to be of Divine Right included the whole year or only part of it they could not have agreed in it If Residence of the whole Year were required by the Law of God by what Authority did they appear in that place out of their Dioceses c. If only partial Residence were required who should define how much God would accept or how much might lawfully be spent out of their Dioceses It might have been alleged against them that since God himself had revealed nothing as to this matter it was an evident Argument that he intended no such obligation So that according to your wise way of arguing to reside even any the least part of a year in ones Bishoprick is not necessary Jure Divino And you do yet more openly assert this Doctrine when you bring the Incumbent before the great Tribunal at the last day and like a trusty Advocate for the Non-resident Pluralist you plead thus for him Pag. 33 34. And then as to a Proxy if the Priest allegeth that the same Authority of the Bishop which committed the Care of the Parish to him did disburden him of that Care and imposed it in whole or in part upon a Substitute there is no reason to believe that God will not accept this plea. Here you speak out indeed and all at once For if a Cure may be wholly served by a Substitute and if God at the day of Judgment will accept of such a Plea then 't is plain that all personal care and labour is unnecessary But Sir 't is to be hoped before that great and terrible day of the Lord's comes you will learn more Seriousness and Modesty than to think of preferring so thin and false an excuse to so great a Judge A false Excuse I say For what Statute or Canon of the Realm or Church of England doth authorize a Bishop to disburden an Incumbent of the Care of his Parish and impose it in whole upon a Substitute I know that Dispensations may be had for Local Non-residence But I challenge you or any Man else to produce any Authority that the Bishop hath either by our Canon or Statute-Law to transferr the Cure of Souls wholly from the Incumbent to another Though when I consider you as an Antiquary I have a good mind to revoke my challenge For you may have Rods in Brine and Canons perdue which a Countrey Gentleman never heard of before And we need not despair of having any thing made out by Men vers'd in such Studies since we have had such Doctrines published as the genuine Product of the Church of England represented in Convocation which the hundredth part of the Clergy themselves knew nothing of till they had layn in the dark about 80 years and were at last published either to prove some new Doctrine or else for nothing at all But let me as a Friend once more remind you of that wretched Plea which it seems you intend to make for your self and Brethren at the last day consider of it again and tell me whether you think it can pass in that great Court nay whether your own Conscience if you would let it speak out can vouch it or rely upon it I am so far from thinking that it will be accepted by him who is greater than our Consciences and knoweth all things That a Civil or Ecclesiastick Judge would or at least ought to reject it For 't is certain if any Bishop should pretend to a power beyond Law and Canon and the Nature of things all such pretensions would be vain both as to this World and another And I believe 't is as certain and true that no Bishop of the Church of England as now established did ever assume such a sort of Authority If any Prelate had a faculty of loosing Men from the obligations to their People I doubt not but he might have as much Custom amongst some of your Friends as 't is usually said that Priest might have who could procure a Commission for unmarrying People And for ought I could ever yet learn any Priest may as well and legally do the latter as a Bishop the former The Notion of transferring the Charge from the Incumbent to the Curate is new and I hope your own I do believe that 't was never heard of in General Council Parliament or Convocation And if you have no better thoughts to communicate to that Reverend Body last mentioned I hope you will never have the Vote of an honest Clergyman to sit in it But when you write again pray let us know by what Instruments Letters or Faculties a Bishop doth or can release an Incumbent wholly from his charge or in what Court such Letters Dispensatory can be procured For I believe I know some who would give money for them tho' I do not imagine any good Man would For I do not think that any Humane Power can take off that obligation which every Minister hath upon him of personal Labour amongst his People I shall reduce what I have to say on this subject to these following Propositions I. Tho' Plurality of Benefices be not in it self contrary to the Law of God yet for any one to take on himself such Charges as he cannot or will not perform is II. Tho' Curates may be used for the more full and perfect discharge of Duty yet the whole Care of the people is not intrusted with them III. Tho' perpetual Local Residence be not injoined by God yet to live so near the Cure and to be actually resident so far forth as effectually to answer all the ends of the Ministry is IV. Vicars by reason of their Oaths are obliged to Local Residence unless they be dispensed with by the Bishop I. Tho' Plurality of Benefices be not in it self contrary to the Law of God yet for any one to take on himself such Charges as he cannot or will not perform is It cannot indeed with any appearance of Truth be asserted that 't is unlawful to serve or have more Benefices than one The Scriptures do neither in express Terms nor by any Consequence fairly to be drawn from them prohibit it And thus far we are agreed I say as to the Conclusion tho' not as to the Premises For one of the arguments by which you would prove this is a meer Cavill I mean that pag. 37 c. where you undertake to conclude the Lawfulness of Pluralities from the Authority and Example of the primitive Church and that 't is lawful to