the Saxon times viz. That the Iewish Sabbath doth not oblige us but however to observe the like Proportion of time and devote it to the Service of God Mr. Hooker saith That we are to account the Sanctification of one day in Seven a Duty which God's immutable Law doth exact for ever But what is meant by this Sanctification of One day in Seven If it be understood according to the old Canons it will fill scrupulous Minds with more Doubts and Fears about the right Observation of it Origen saith The Observation of the Christian Sabbath lies in these things 1. A Forbearance of worldly Business 2. Attendance on the Publick Worship 3. Divine Meditation on Things invisible and future Haec est observatio Sabbati Christiani And in another place he requires besides Publick Worship private Meditation and Reading the Holy Scriptures S. Chrysostom insists very much upon the same in several places and on different Occasions And altho' it be in his popular Sermons yet he would certainly not put them upon any thing but what he thought very fit to be done And they must have a mean Opinion of him who think his Eloquence carried him too far in this matter I shall conclude with the Opinion of Lyndwood a Learned and Judicious Canonist and he observes a Threefold Sanctification of the Lord's day 1. By Abstinence from Sin which is necessary at all times 2. By Abstinence from such bodily Labours as hinder the Mind's Attendance upon God's Service 3. By the whole Imployment of our Minds in Divine Matters and this he calls the perfect Observation of it These things I have the more largely insisted upon to shew That the Religious Observation of the Lord's day is no Novelty started by some late Sects and Parties among us but that it hath been the general Sense of the best part of the Christian World and is particularly inforced upon us of the Church of England not only by the Homilies but by the most ancient Ecclesiastical Law among us But this is not all for the Ancient as well as Modern Canons require the Observation of Holy-days likewise The Canons of Egbert require not only Prayers but Preaching then Can. 1. 3. The Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. distinguishes the Holy-days relating to our Saviour from the rest and saith They are to be observed in a solemn and uniform Manner and the rest according to the Roman Martyrology Which I suppose were those repeated then in the Diptychs of the Church which Custom continued longer at Rome than in other Churches but it was generally disused before the time of Charles the Great The Custom in Rome in Gregory's time was to observe the Saints Days with the solemn Service at one Church as appears by his Homilies on the Evangelists which were many of them preached on those Occasions as of S. Felicitas Hom 3. S. Agnes Hom. 11 12. S. Felix Hom. 13. S. Pancrace Hom. 27. c. and of others who were Roman Martyrs and therefore had a particular Solemnity appointed for them But as to other Saints Days it appears by the Antiphonarius and Sacramentary of Gregory I. that they had particular Anthems and Collects proper for them in the Offices of the Day but I do not find that the Generality of the People were so strictly tied up when the Offices were over as they were on the Lord's days and the greater Festivals relating to our Saviour In the Council of Cloveshoo Can. 13. I observe that the Natalitia Sanctorum i.e. the Anniversary Saints Days were observed with particular Psalmody and Anthems and Can. 17. the Days of Gregory and Augustin the Two great Instruments of converting the Nation were only to be kept as Holy-days by the Clergy without any particular Obligation on all the People So that the Holy-days of strict Observation then seem to have been no other than those which relate to our Saviour called Dominicae Dispensationis in carne Festivitates the rest had some proper Offices which were performed on their Days but the People were to attend them as well as they could but after there was not this strictness required as upon the greater Holy-days and as it was in the Church of Rome afterwards when they made the Obligation of Conscience to extend to all Holy-days appointed by the Church But it is observable 1. That this Obligation is taken from those Canons which mention only the Lord's day as appears by Bellarmin 2. That they kept up the Distinction of greater and lesser Holy-days 3. That they allow the Bishop to dispense as to some Works on Holy-days Lyndwood observes that the Abstinence from Work is not alike but as the Church hath required it and that if a Bishop's Licence cannot be had a less will serve Our Church Can. 13. requires Holy-days to be observed with Works of Piety Charity and Sobriety but gives no Rule as to Abstinence from Works or the strict Obligation of Conscience 2. I now come to the particular Duties of the Clergy on the Days which are solemnly devoted to the Service of God 1. The constant and devout Attendance upon and solemn Reading the Prayers of the Church as they are appointed In the old Saxon Canons the Presbyters are required to officiate constantly at Prayers in their Churches so in the Council at Cloveshoo Can. 8. the Canons of Egbert Can. 2. Canons of Edgar Can. 45. But how if the People will not come to the Prayers You ought what lies in you to remove the Causes of such Neglect which arises generally from these things either a gross Stupidity and Regardlesness of Religion which is too common in the World or from Prejudice and Principles of Education or the Interest of a Party or from not Reading the Prayers with that Attention and Devotion which is fit to raise an Esteem of them The other two you ought to do what you can to remove but this is your own Fault if you do it not We are not to please the Fancies of People by an affected Variety of Expressions in Prayers but we ought to do what we can to excite their Affections which is done as much by the due manner of Reading as by Figures in Speaking And the People are uneasie at staying when they see the Minister read them so fast as though he minded nothing so much as to be at the end of them or when he mangles them so as if he had a mind to make the People out of love with them 2. The next Duty is Preaching and truly that need to be looked after when the Esteem of our Profession depends so much upon it We have none of those Methods which those on both sides make so much use of we can neither comply with the People in Gestures and Phrases and Enthusiastick Heats nor with the Superstitious Devotions and Priest-craft of others Of all Churches ours hath the least Reason to be charged
for that of H. 8. was not till five years after that Statute But after that Valuation it was to be judged according to it and not according to the real Value as the Judges declared 12 Car. I. in the Case of Drake and Hill Now here was a regard had to the Poorness of Benefices so far that the Statute doth not deprive the Incumbent upon taking a second Living if the former be under 8 l. The Question that arises from hence is Whether such Persons are allowed to enjoy such Pluralities by Law or only left to the Ecclesiastical Law as it was before It is certain that such are not liable to the Penalty of this Law but before any Person might be deprived by the Ecclesiastical Law for taking a second Benefice without Dispensation of what Value soever the former were now here comes a Statute which enacts That all who take a second Benefice having one of 8 l. without Qualification shall lose his legal Title to the first but what if it be under Shall he lose it or not Not by this Law But suppose the Ecclesiastical Law before makes him liable to Deprivation doth the Statute alter the Law without any Words to that purpose The Bishop had a Power before to deprive where is it taken away The Patron had a Right to present upon such Deprivation how comes he to lose it And I take it for granted That no antecedent Rights are taken away by Implications but there must be express Clauses to that purpose So that I conclude the ancient Ecclesiastical Law to be still in Force where it is not taken away by Statute And thus my Brethren I have laid before you the Authority and the Rules we are to act by I have endeavoured to recommend to you the most useful Parts of your Duty and I hope you will not give me occasion to shew what Power we have by the Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm to proceed against Offenders Nothing will be more uneasie to me than to be forced to make use of any Severity against you And my Hearts desire is That we may all sincerely and faithfully discharge the Duties of our several Places that the blessing of God may be upon us all so that we may save our selves and those committed to our Charge OF THE NATURE OF THE TRUST Committed to the Parochial Clergy At a Visitation at Worcester October 21 st 1696. My Brethren I Have formerly on the like Occasion discoursed to you of the General Duties of your Function and the Obligation you are under to perform them and therefore I shall now confine my Discourse to these Two Things I. To consider the particular Nature of the Trust committed to you II. The Obligation you are under to your Parochial Cures I. The first is necessary to be spoken to for while Persons have only so confused and cloudy Apprehensions concerning it they can neither be satisfied in the Nature of their Duties nor in their Performance of them And there is Danger as well in setting them so high as to make them Impracticable as in sinking them so low as to make not only themselves but their Profession Contemptible For the World let us say what we will will always esteem Men not meerly for a Name and Profession but for the Work and Service which they do There is no doubt a Reverence and Respect due to a Sacred Function on its own Account but the highest Profession can never maintain its Character among the rest of Mankind unless they who are of it do promote the General Good by acting suitably to it And the greater the Character is which any bear the higher will the Expectations of others be concerning them and if they fail in the greatest and most useful Duties of their Function it will be impossible to keep up the Regard which ought to be shew'd unto it We may complain as long as we please of the Unreasonableness of the Contempt of the Clergy in our Days which is too general and too far spread but the most effectual Means to prevent or remove it is for the Clergy to apply themselves to the most necessary Duties with Respect to the Charge and Trust committed to them But here arises a considerable Difficulty which deserves to be cleared viz. concerning the just Measures of that Diligence which is required For there are some who will never be satisfied that the Clergy do enough let them do what they can and it is to no purpose to think to satisfie them who are resolved not to be satisfied But on the other side some care not how little they do and the less the better they are pleased with them and others again have raised their Duties so high that scarce any Man can satisfie himself that he hath done his Duty It is a matter therefore of the highest Consequence to us to understand What Rule and Measure is to be observed so as we may neither wilfully neglect our Duty nor despair of doing it Here we are to consider Two Things 1. How far the Scripture hath determined it 2. What Influence the Constitution of our Church is to have upon us concerning it 1. The Scripture doth speak something relating to it both in the Old and New Testament In the Old Testament we have the Duties enjoyned to the Levitical Priesthood and the extraordinary Commissions given to the Prophets As to the Levitical Priesthood we can only draw some general Instructions which may be of use altho' that Priesthood hath been long since at an end Christ being our High-Priest after another Order viz. of Melchisedeck and our Duty now is to observe his Laws and to offer that Reasonable Service which he requires But even from the Levitical Priesthood we may observe these things 1. That although the main of their Duty of Attendance respected the Temple and Sacrifices yet at other times they were bound to instruct the People in the Law For so Moses leaves it as a special Charge to the Tribe of Levi to teach Iacob his Iudgments and Israel his Law And to incourage them to do it they had a liberal Maintenance far above the Proportion of the other Tribes For by Computation it will be found that they were not much above the Sixtieth part of the People for when the other Tribes were numbred from Twenty years old they made six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty But the Children of Levi were reckoned by themselves from a Month old and they made but Two and twenty thousand so that if the Males of the other Tribes had been reckoned as they were it is agreed by Learned Men who had no Fondness for the Clergy that they did not make above a fiftieth or sixtieth part and yet they had near a fifth of the Profits besides accidental Perquisites as to Sacrifices and Ransoms of the First-born Thus say they God was pleased to enrich that Tribe which was devoted
to his Service But it was not certainly that they should spend their time in Idleness and Luxury but that they might with the greater freedom apply themselves to the Study of the Law that they might instruct the People For the Cities of the Levites were as so many Colleges dispersed up and down in the several Tribes to which the People might upon occasion more easily resort 2. That if the People erred thro' Ignorance of the Law God himself laid the Blame on those who were bound to instruct them My People saith God by the Prophet are destroyed for lack of Knowledge If People are resolved to be ignorant who can help it Had they not the Law to inform them But it is observable that the Peoples Errors are laid to the Charge of the Priests and the Punishment is denounced against them Because thou hast rejected Knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest unto me It seems the Priests were grown careless and negligent as to their own Improvements they did not know to what purpose they should take so much pains in studying the Law and the difficult Points of it they were for a freedom of Conversation and hoped to keep up their Interest among the People that Way Therefore Isaiah call them Shepherds that cannot understand but were very intent upon their Profits they all look to their own Way every one for his Gain from his Quarter But this was not all for the Prophet charges them with a Voluptuous Careless Dissolute Life 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 abundant Was not this a very agreeable life for those who were to instruct the People in the Duties of Sobriety and Temperance It was Death for the Priests by the Law to drink Wine or strong Drink when they went into the Tabernacle of the Congregation and the Reason given is That ye may put a difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean and that ye may teach the Children of Israel all the Statutes which the Lord hath spoken to thee by the Hand of Moses Which implies That those who are given to drinking Wine or strong Drink are very unfit to instruct others in the Law of God And God looked on them as such a Dishonour to his Worship that he threatens immediate Death to them that approached to his Altar when they had drank Wine and the Iews say that was the Reason why Nadab and Abihu were destroyed And then God said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me All Nations have abhorred sottish and drunken Priests as most unfit to approach to God when they were not themselves or to offer Sacrifices for others when they made Beasts of themselves But this was not all for God required from them who were to teach others the Law that they should be always in a Capacity of understanding and practising it themselves But if we proceed to the Prophets nothing can be more dreadful than what God saith to Ezekiel That if he did not warn the People as he commanded them their Blood will I require at thy hand Is this Charge now lying upon every one of you as to every Person under your Care Who would not rather run into a Wilderness or hide himself in a Cave than take such a Charge upon him But we must distinguish what was peculiar to the Prophet's immediate Commission to go to any particular Person in God's Name from a General Charge to inform Persons in their Duties and to tell them the Danger of continuing in their Sins If any fail for want of Information when you are bound to give it the Neglect must fall heavy and therefore you are bound to take all just Opportunities in publick and private to inform those under your Care of such Sins as you know them to be guilty of not with a Design to upbraid but to reform them In the New Testament the Charge is General to feed the Flock of God and to do it willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind and to be Examples to the Flock But St. Peter who gives this Advice doth not determine who belong to the Flock nor within what Bounds it is to be limited and there were many Flocks in the Iewish Dispersion and many Elders scattered up and down among them in Pontus Asia Galatia Cappadocia and Bithynia so that here we have only general and excellent Advice for such who had Care of the several Flocks to carry themselves towards them with great Humility and Tenderness with Charity and Goodness as those that made it their business to do good among them and conduct them in the Way to Heaven St. Paul in his Charge to those whom he sent for to Miletus tells them That they must take heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood It 's possible here might be a particular Designation of the Flock they were to oversee by the Direction of the Holy Ghost but yet the Charge is general to take heed to themselves and to the Flock and to promote the good of the Church of God which Christ hath purchased with his own Blood Which are the most weighty Considerations in the World to excite us to the utmost Care and Diligence in Discharge of our Duties In the Epistle to the Thessalonians they are said to be over them in the Lord and to admonish them In that to the Hebrews to watch for their Souls as they that must give an Account No doubt very great Care and Watchfulness is required in all that take so great and solemn an Office upon them but where are the Bounds and Limits set as to the People and Nature of the Duties required from them Must every Man be left to his own Conscience and Judgment what and how far he is to go Or can we suppose all Men equally careful of doing their Duties if no particular Obligation be laid upon them Some of the Eloquent Fathers of the Church as St. Chrysostom St. Ierom St. Gregory Nazianzen and others have allowed themselves so much in the Flights of Fancy and Figures of speaking about the Height and Dignity of the Sacred Function as if they had a mind to discourage all Men of modest and humble Dispositions from undertaking it I do not wonder that they ran into Solitudes and withdrew from the World upon it but I do wonder how they came from thence and undertook the same Charge afterwards without giving an Answer to their own Arguments For the World remained just as it was when they left it Mankind were still as impatient of being governed or told of their Faults as sickle and humoursom as prone to Evil and untractable to
Archbishop of York and calls Bede the greatest Master of his Time and in another place he saith One Seventh Day is set apart among Christians as another had been among the Iews for the Service of God and that therein we ought to attend to the Care of our Souls and to lead a spiritual Life Bede distinguishes between the Patriarchal and Iewish Sabbath The latter he calls a Carnal and the other a Spiritual Sabbath the former lay in a strict Abistnence from Labour but the other in Prayer and Devotion and Spiritual Contemplations The Iewish Rest he saith was inutile 〈◊〉 luxuriosum For the 〈…〉 â—llowed Recreations and Sports on their Sabbaths vacant ab opere bono saith he non ab opere nugatorio Vacant ad nugas saith S. Augustin but he saith they had better plow or dig than dance on that Day or sit in the Theater And he tells us That the Heathens objected against the Iews That they spent one Day in the Week in Idleness For they supposed the bare Rest to be the Sanctification of the Day which was commanded and the spending any part of it in the publick Worship to be voluntary Devotion But the better sort of the Iews thought the Rest was appointed for the Knowledge of the Law and Spiritual Imployments So Philo Iosephus Aben-Ezra Kimchi and Menasseh ben Israel It seems most reasonable in this Case to distinguish between the Legal Rest strictly required by the Fourth Commandment and the Original Rest in Remembrance of God's resting from the Work of Creation The former was a Sign between God and the People of Israel as it is often called in Scripture and the other was a Commemorative Sign but such as excited them to the Worship of the Creator and therefore the Patriarchal Sabbath as Bede observes was of a spiritual Nature And such a spiritual Sabbath as S. Augustin calls it ought to be observed by Christians in the Duties of God's Worship as well as in spiritual and holy Thoughts But the Iewish Sabbath he often-saith doth not oblige Christians I the rather mention him because Bede followed his Doctrine herein and that of Gregory I. who was the great Instrument of promoting the Conversion of our Ancestors to Christianity And he declares himself fully both as to the Cessation of the Iewish Sabbath and the religious Observation of the Lord's day It seems there were some then as there are among us now who were for the strict Observation of the Saturday-Sabbath But Gregory saith They might as well insist upon Circumcision and Sacrifices as the Iewish Sabbath But yet he adds We ought on the Lord's day to abstain from worldly Imployments and devote our selves unto Prayers that we may make some Amends for the Weeks Negligence by the Devotions on that Day And this devoting the Lord's day to the Service of God is entred into the Body of the Canon Law and taken out of Ivo and by him from the Canons of the Gallican Church as appears by several Councils Our Lyndwood mentions that Canon as in force here Die Dominicâ nihil aliud agendum nisi Deo vacandum And he takes some Pains to explain it by distinguishing 1. Works servile materially and formally as Plowing Sowing Markets Law-days c. these are generally forbidden 2. Acts spiritual materially and finally as all Acts of Piety and Devotion and these we ought to attend upon with Care and Diligence 3. Acts not servile in themselves but done for a servile End as Studies and Designs for Gain 4. Acts servile in themselves but not so in their End as the Man's taking up his Couch on the Sabbath-day whom Christ cured He affirms that there is a Moral Part in the Fourth Commandment which he saith is a spiritual Rest or a Time set apart for God's Service Which he takes from Aquinas who saith the Substance of the Command is Moral but he doth not make it to be One day in Seven but some determinate time which he saith the Church may appoint but then it must be imployed in the Service of God vacare rebus divinis as things were said to be sanctified under the Law which were applied to God's Service But notwithstanding this Judgment of Aquinas some great Men in the Church of Rome have thought One day in Seven Moral and that the Proportion which God himself had appointed cannot be lessened For altho' Mankind could not by natural Reason find out the Proportion yet being once revealed it doth not cease to oblige unless something figurative and symbolical or peculiar to the Iewish Nation be discovered in it Bellarmin makes that the Reason of the Institution of the Lord's day because God's Law required that One day in Seven should be set apart for the Worship of God but the Apostles thought it not fit to observe the Iewish Sabbath and therefore changed it into the Lord's day Covarruvias saith That all Divines agree with Aquinas That there is something Moral in the Fourth Command which continues to oblige and that the Lord's day is of Divine Institution And to him the Roman Editors of the Canon Law referr as to this matter Azorius confesseth That the Observation of the Lord's day hath something of the Divine and Natural Law in it which requires One day in a Week should be consecrated to the Service of God and that it is most agreeable to Reason And he adds That Panormitan Sylvester and other Canonists held the Lord's day to be of divine Institution Suarez saith That the Church doth observe One day in Seven by Virtue of the divine Law that Proportion being so agreeable to Natural Reason that it cannot be altered Thomas Waldensis who lived here in the time of H. 5. observes That even then there were two Extreams in Mens Opinions about the Observation of the Lord's Day some allowed no kind of Work and others any But he shews That the Law of Nature requires some Solemn Days for Divine Worship and that then there ought to be a Rest from other Labours because they hinder the Mind from that Attention necessary to the Service of God And necessary Works are left to a few that others may be more at Liberty In the Saxon Laws we find many against the Profanation of the Lord's day by slavish Imployments by Markets and Trading by Folkmotes and Law-suits c. So that great care was taken then that the Lord's day should be duly observed After the Norman times we have several Constitutions to inforce the strict Observation of the Lord's day In the time of H. 6. Hubert de Burgo saith That Custom may derogate from other Holy-days but not from the Lord's day because they are not commanded by God as that is Since the Reformation our Book of Homilies goes upon the same Grounds which were used in