find the Persons so ignorant as not to understand what Faith and Repentance mean What if they have led such careless and secure Lives in this World as hardly ever to have had one serious Thought of another Is nothing to be done but to come and pray by them and so dismiss them into their Eternal State Is this all the good you can or are bound to do them I confess it is a very uncomfortable thing to tell Men how they are to begin to live when they are liker to dye than to live and the People generally have a strange superstitious Fear of sending for the Minister while there is any hope of Recovery But at last you are sent for and what a melancholy Work are you then to go about You are it may be to make a Man sensible of his Sins who never before considered what they were or against whom they were committed or what eternal Misery he deserves by committing them But I will suppose the best I can in this Case viz. That by your warm and serious Discourse you throughly awaken the Conscience of a long and habitual Sinner what are you then to do Will you presently apply all the Promises of Grace and Salvation to one whose Conscience is awakened only with the Fears of Death and the Terrors of a Day of Judgment This I confess is a hard Case on the one side we must not discourage good Beginnings in any we must not cast an awakened Sinner into Despair we must not limit the infinite Mercy of God But on the other side we must have a great care of encouraging presumptuous Sinners to put off their Repentance to the last because then upon Confession of their Sins they can so easily obtain the Churches Absolution which goes no farther than truly Repenting and Believing But here is the Difficulty how we can satisfie our selves that these do truly Repent and Believe who are out of a Capacity of giving Proof of their Sincerity by Amendment of Life I do not question the Sincerity of their present purposes but how often do we find those to come to nothing when they recover and fall into the former Temptations How then shall they know their own Sincerity till it be tryed How can it be tryed when they are going out of the State of Tryal The most we can do is to encourage them to do the best they can in their present Condition and to shew as many of the Fruits of true Repentance as their Circumstances will allow and with the greatest humility of Mind and most earnest Supplications to implore the infinite Mercy of God to their Souls But besides these there are many Cases of sick Persons which require very particular Advice and Spiritual Direction which you ought to be able to give them and it cannot be done without some good Measure of Skill and Experience in Casuistical Divinity As How to satisfie a doubting Conscience as to its own Sincerity when so many Infirmities are mixed with our best Actions How a Sinner who hath relapsed after Repentance can be satisfied of the Truth of his Repentance when he doth not know but he may farther relapse upon fresh Temptations How he shall know what Failings are consistent with the State of Grace and the Hopes of Heaven and what not What Measure of Conviction and Power of Resistance is necessary to make Sins to be Wilful and Presumptuous What the just Measures of Restitution are in order to true Repentance in all such Injuries which are capable of it I might name many others but these I only mention to shew how necessary it is for you to apply your selves to Moral and Casuistical Divinity and not to content your selves barely with the knowledg of what is called Positive and Controversial I am afraid there are too many who think they need to look after no more than what qualifies them for the Pulpit and I wish all did take sufficient Care of that but if we would do our Duty as we ought we must inquire into and be able to Resolve Cases of Conscience For the Priests Lips should keep this kind of Knowledge and the People should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mal. 2. 7. If this held in the Levitical Priesthood much more certainly under the Gospel where the Rates and Measures of our Duties are not to be determined by Levitical Precepts but by the general Reason and Nature of Moral Actions VIII Among the Duties of Publick Worship I must put you in mind of a Frequent Celebration of the Lords Supper There is generally too great a Neglect of this which is the most proper part of Evangelical Worship The Duties of Prayers and Praises are excellent and becoming Duties as we are Creatures with respect to our Maker and Preserver The Duty of hearing the Word of God read and explained is consequent upon our owning it to be the Rule of our Faith and Manners and all who desire to understand and practise their Duty can never despise or neglect it But that solemn Act of Worship wherein we do most shew our selves Christians is the celebrating the Holy Eucharist For therein we own and declare the infinite Love of God in sending his Son into the world to die for Sinners in order to their Salvation and that this is not only a true Saying but worthy of all men to be credited Therein we lift up our Hearts and give Thanks to our Lord God we joyn with Angels and Archangels in lauding and magnifying his Glorious Name Therein we not only commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord but are made Partakers of his Body and Blood after a Real but Sacramental Manner Therein we offer up our selves to God to be a Reasonable Holy and Lively Sacrifice unto him Therein we Adore and Glorifie the ever Blessed Trinity and humbly implore the Grace and Assistance of our ever Blessed Mediator And what now is there in all this which is not very agreeable to the Faith Hope and Charity of Christians Nay what Duty is there which so much expresses all these together as this doth Nor whereby we may more reasonably expect greater Supplies of Divine Grace to be bestowed upon us What then makes so many to be so backward in this Duty which profess a Zeal and Forwardness in many others If we had that Warmth and Fervor of Devotion that Love to Christ and to each other which the Primitive Christians had we should make it as constant a part of our Publick Worship as they did but this is not to be expected Neither did it always continue in the Primitive Church when Liberty and Ease and Worldly Temptations made Persons grow more remiss and careless in the solemn Duties of their Religion S. Chrysostom takes notice in his time of the different Behaviour of Persons with respect to the holy Eucharist There were some who pretended to greater Holiness and Austerity of
of his Work to others can he reasonably look for the same Success Believe it all our Pains are little enough to awake the sleepy and secure Sinners to instruct the ignorant to reclaim the vitious to rebuke the profane to convince the erroneous to satisfie the doubtful to confirm the wavering to recover the lapsed and to be useful to all according to their feveral Circumstances and Conditions It is not to Preach a Sermon or two in a Weeks time to your Parishoners that is the main of your Duty that is no such difficult Task if Men apply their Minds as they ought to do to Divine Matters and do not spend their Retirements in useless Studies but the great Difficulty lies in Watching over your Flock i. e. knowing their Condition and applying your selves suitably to them He that is a Stranger to his Flock and only visits them now and then can never be said to watch over it he may watch over the Fleeces but he understands little of the State of his Flock viz. of the Distempers they are under and the Remedies proper for them The Casuists say That the reason why there is no Command for Personal Residence in Scripture is because the Nature of the Duty it self requires it for if a Person be required to do such things which cannot be done without it Residence is implyed As a Pilot to a Ship needs no Command to be in his Ship for how can he do the Office of a Pilot out of it Let none think to excuse themselves by saying that our Church only takes them for Curates and that the Bishops have the Pastoral Charge for by our old Provincial Constitutions which are still in force so far as they are not repugnant to the Law of the Land even those who have the smallest Cures are called Pastors and Lyndwood there notes that Parochialis Sacerdos dicitur Pastor and that not merely by way of Allusion but in respect of the Care of Souls But we need not go so far back For what is it they are admitted to Is it not ad Curam Animarum Did not they promise in their Ordination To teach the People committed to their Care and Charge The Casuists distinguish a threefold Cure of Souls 1. In foro interiori tantum and this they say is the Parochial Cure 2. In foro exteriori tantum where there is Authority to perform Ministerial Acts as to suspend excommunicate absolve sine Pastorali Curâ and this Archdeacons have by virtue of their Office 3. In utroque simul where there is a special Care together with Jurisdiction this is the Bishops And every one of these say they secundum commune Jus Canonicum is obliged to Residence i. e. by the common Law Ecclesiastical of which more afterwards The Obligation is to perpetual Residence but as it is in other positive Duties there may other Duties intervene which may take away the present force of it as Care of Health necessary Business publick Service of the King or Church c. But then we are to observe that no Dispensation can justifie a Man in point of Conscience unless there be a sufficient Cause and no Custom can be sufficient again the natural Equity of the Case whereby every one is bound from the Nature of the Office he hath undertaken I confess the Case in Reason is different where there is a sufficient Provision by another fit Person and approved by those who are to take Care that Places be well supplied and where there is not but yet this doth not take off the force of the Personal Obligation arising from undertaking the Cure themselves which the Ecclesiastical Law understands to be not merely by Promise but cum effectu as the Canonists speak which implies personal-Residence Not that they are never to be away Non sic amare intelligi debet ut nunquam inde recedat saith Lyndwood but these Words are to be understood civili modo as he expresses it i. e. not without great Reason There must not be saith he Callida Interpretatio sed talis ut cessent fraudes negligentiae i. e. There must be no Art used to evade the Law nor any gross Neglect of it It 's true the Canonists have distinguished between Rectoriēs and Vicarages as to Personal Residence but we are to consider these things 1. The Canon Law strictly obliges every one that hath a Parochial Cure to perpetual Residence and excepts only two Cases when the Living is annexed to a Prebend or Dignity and then he who hath it is to have a perpetual Vicar instituted with a sufficient Maintenance 2. After this Liberty obtained for dignified Persons to have Vicars endowed in their Places the Point of Residence was strictly injoyned to them and we find in the Provincial Constitutions a Difference made between Personatus and Vicaria but this was still meant of a Vicarage endowed This was in the time of Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury and in another Constitution he required an Oath of Personal Residence from all such Vicars altho' the Place were not above the value of five Marks which as appears by Lyndwood else where was then sufficient for Maintenance and Hospitality And to cover the shameful Dispensations that were commonly granted to the higher Clergy under Pretence of the Papal Power the poor Vicars by a Constitution of Otho were bound to take a strict Oath of continual Residence and without it their Institution was declared to be Null But even in that Case the Gloss there saith That they may be some time absent for the Benefit of the Church or State but not for their own particular Advantage 3. The Obligation in point of Conscience remains the same but Dispensing with Laws may take away the Penalty of Non-Residence in some Cases Joh. de Athon Canon of Lincoln who wrote the Glosses on the Legatine Constitutions doth not deny but that Rectors are as well bound to Residence as Vicars but these are more strictly tied by their Oath and because a Vicar cannot appoint a Vicar but a Parson may And altho that Name among some be used as a Term of Reproach yet in former Ages Personatus and Dignitas were the same thing and so used here in England in the Time of Henry II. but afterwards it came to be applied to him that had the Possession of a Parochial Benefice in his own immediate Right and was therefore bound to take Care of it For the Obligation must in Reason be supposed to go along with the Advantage however Local Statutes may have taken off the Penalty II. When you have thus considered the Obligation which lies upon you to take Care of your Elock let me in the next place recommend to you a plain useful and practical Way of Preaching among them I mean such as is most likely to do good upon them which certainly ought to be the just Measure of
our Church will be best answered which appoints the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer daily to be said and used throughout the Year VI. As to the Dissenters from the Church the present Circumstances of our Affairs require a more than ordinary Prudence in your Behaviour towards them It is to no purpose to provoke or exasperate them since they will be but so much more your Emies for it and if you seem to court them too much they will interpret your Kindness to be a liking their Way better than your own so that were it not for some worldly Interest you would be just what they are which is in effect to say you would be Men of Conscience if ye had a little more Honesty For they can never think those honest Men who comply with things against their Consciences only for their temporal Advantage but they may like them as Men of a Party who under some specious Colours promote their Interest For my own part as I do sincerely value and esteem the Church of England and I hope ever shall so I am not against such a due temper towards them as is consistent with the preserving the Constitution of our Church But if any think under a Pretence of Liberty to undermine and destroy it we have reason to take the best care we can in order to its Preservation I do not mean by opposing Laws or affronting Authority but by countermining them in the best way i. e. by outdoing them in those things which make them most Popular if they are consistent with Integrity and a good Conscience If they gain upon the People by an appearance of more than ordinary Zeal for the good of Souls I would have you to go beyond them in a true and hearty Concernment for them not in irregular Heats and Passions but in the Meekness of Wisdom in a calm and sedate Temper in doing good even to them who most despightfully reproach you and withdraw themselves and the People from you If they get an Interest among them by Industry and going from Place to Place and Family to Family I hope you will think it your Duty to converse more freely and familiarly with your own People Be not Strangers and you will make them Friends Let them see by your particular Application to them that you do not despise them For Men love to value those who seem to value them and if you once slight them you run the hazard of making them your Enemies It is some Tryal of a Christians Patience as well as Humility to condescend to the Weaknesses of others but where it is our Duty we must do it and that chearfully in order to the best End viz. Doing the more good upon them And all Condescension and Kindness for such an End is true Wisdom as well as Humility I am afraid Distance and too great Stiffness of Behaviour towards them have made some more our Enemies than they would have been I hope they are now convinced that the Persecution which they complained lately so much of was carried on by other Men and for other Designs than they would then seem to believe But that Persecution was then a Popular Argument for them for the complaining side hath always the most Pity But now that is taken off you may deal with them on more equal Terms Now there is nothing to affright them and we think we have Reason enough on our side to persuade them The Case of Separation stands just as it did in Point of Conscience which is not now one jot more reasonable or just than it was before Some think Severity makes Men consider but I am afraid it heats them too much and makes them too violent and refractory You have more reason to fear now what the Interest of a Party will do than any Strength of Argument How very few among them understand any reason at all for their Separation But Education Prejudice Authority of their Teachers sway them remove these and you convince them And in order thereto acquaint your selves with them endeavour to oblige them let them see you have no other Design upon them but to do them good if any thing will gain upon them this will But if after all they grow more headstrong and insolent by the Indulgence which the Law gives them then observe whether they observe those Conditions on which the Law gives it to them For these are known Rules in Law that he forfeits his Privilege who goes beyond the Bounds of it that no Privileges are to be extended beyond the Bounds which the Laws give them for they ought to be observed as they are given I leave it to be considered whether all such who do not observe the Conditions of the Indulgence be not as liable to the Law as if they had none But there is a very profane abuse of this Liberty among some as though it were an Indulgence not to serve God at all Such as these as they were never intended by the Law so they ought to enjoy no Benefit by it For this were to Countenance Profaneness and Irreligion which I am afraid will grow too much upon us unless some effectual Care be taken to suppress it VII There is another Duty incumbent upon you which I must particularly recommend to your Care and that is of Visiting the Sick I do not mean barely to perform the Office prescribed which is of very good use and ought not to be neglected but a particular Application of your selves to the State and Condition of the Persons you visit It is no hard matter to run over some Prayers and so take leave but this doth not come up to the Design of our Church in that Office For after the general Exhortation and Profession of the Christian Faith our Church requires that the sick Person be moved to make special Confession of his Sins if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter and then if the sick Person humbly and heartily desires it he is to be absolved after this manner Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left Power in his Church to absolve all Sinners who truly repent and believe in him c. Where the Power of Absolution is grounded upon the Supposition of true Faith and Repentance and therefore when it is said afterwards And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from the same c. it must proceed on the same supposition For the Church cannot absolve when God doth not So that all the real Comfort of the Absolution depends upon the Satisfaction of the Person 's Mind as to the Sincerity of his Repentance and Faith in Christ. Now here lies the great Difficulty of this Office how to give your selves and the wounded Conscience Satisfaction as to the Sincerity of those Acts I do not mean as to the Sincerity of his present Thoughts but as to the Acceptableness of his Faith and Repentance with God in order to Remission of Sins But what if you
custom to observance of the same not as to the observance of the Laws of any Foreign Prince Potentate or Prelate but as to the Customs and ancient Laws of this Realm originally estabished as Laws of the same by the said Sufferance Consent Custom and none otherwise All that I have now to do is to shew what Authority the Bishops had over the Clergy by the Ancient Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm and what Censures they were lyable to for some particular Offences I. By the Ecclesiastical Law the Bishop is Judg of the Fitness of any Clerk presented to a Benefice This is confessed by the ord Coke in these Words And the Examination of the Ability and Sufficiency of the Person presented belongs to the Bishop who is the Ecclesiastical Judg and in the Examination he is a Judg and not a Minister and may and ought to refuse the Person presented if he be not Persona idonea But this is plain to have been the Ancient Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm by the Articul Cleri in Edw. 2. time De Idoneitate Personae praesentatae ad Beneficium Ecclesiasticum pertinet Examinatio ad Judicem Ecclesiasticum ita est hactenus usitatum fiat in futurum By the Provincial Constitutions at Oxford in the time of Hen. 3. the Bishop is required to admit the Clerk who is presented without Opposition within two Months dum tamen idoneus sit if he thinks him fit So much time is allowed propter Examinationem saith Lyndwood even when there is no dispute about Right of Patronage The main thing he is to be examined upon is his Ability to discharge his Pastoral Duty as Coke calls it or as Lyndwood saith whether he be commendandus Scientia Moribus As to the former the Bishop may judg himself but as to the latter he must take the Testimonials of others and I heartily wish the Clergy would be more careful in giving them by looking on it as a Matter of Conscience and not merely of Civility for otherwise it will be impossible to avoid the pestering the Church with scandalous and ignorant Wretches If the Bishop refuses to admit within the time which by the modern Canons is limited to twenty eight days after the Presentation delivered he is liable to a Duplex Querela in the Ecclesiastical Courts and a Quare impedit at Common Law and then he must certifie the Reasons of his Refusal In Specot's Case it is said that in 15 Hen. 7. 7 8. All the Judges agreed that the Bishop is Judg in the Examination and therefore the Law giveth Faith and Credit to his Judgment But because great Inconveniencies might otherwise happen the general Allegation is not sufficient but he must certifie specially and directly and the general Rule is and it was so resolved by the Judges That all such as are sufficient Causes of Deprivation of an Incumbent are sufficient Causes to refuse a Presentee But by the Canon Law more are allowed In the Constitutions of Othobon the Bishop is required particularly to enquire into the Life and Conversation of him that is presented and afterwards that if a Bishop admits another who is guilty of the same Fault for which he rejected the former his Institution is declared null and void By the Canon Law if a Bishop maliciously refuses to admit a fit Person he is bound to provide another Benefice for him but our Ecclesiastical Law much better puts him upon the Proof of the Cause of his Refusal But if the Bishop doth not examin him the Canonists say it is a Proof sufficient that he did it malitiosè If a Bishop once rejects a Man for Insufficiency he cannot afterwards accept or admit of him as was adjudged in the Bishop of Hereford's Case If a Man brings a Presentation to a Benefice the Bishop is not barely to examin him as to Life and Abilities but he must be satisfied that he is in Orders How can he be satisfied unless the other produce them How can he produce them when it may be they are lost What is to be done in this Case The Canon is express That no Bishop shall Institute any to a Benefice who hath been Ordained by any other Bishop for if he Ordained him himself he cannot after reject him because the Law supposes him to have examined and approved him except he first shew unto him his Letters of Orders and bring him a sufficient Testimony of his former good Life and Behaviour if the Bishop shall require it and lastly shall appear upon due Examination to be worthy of the Ministry But yet in Palmes and the Bishop of Peterborough's Case it was adjudged that no Lapse did accrue by the Clerk's not shewing his Orders for the Bishop upon his not coming to him again Collated after six Months But the Court agreed that the Clerk ought to make Proof of his Orders but they differed about the manner of their Proof Anderson said the Bishop might give him his Oath But if a Proof were necessary and the Clerk did not come to make Proof it seems to me to be a very hard Judgment II. The Bishop by the Ecclesiastical Law is to visit his Diocess and to take an account of the Clergy how they behaye themselves in the Duties of their Places By the eldest Canons I can find the Bishops Visitation is supposed as a thing implyed in his Office whereby he is obliged to look after the good Estate of his whole Diocess and especially of the Clergy in it In the time of Hubert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the beginning of King Johns time care is taken in the Canons then made That Bishops should not be burdensom to the Clergy in the Number of the Attendants in their Visitations which then were Parochial and the Number allowed of 20 or 30 Horse was too heavy for the Clergy to bear And therefore by degrees it was thought fit to turn that Charge into a Certainty which was the Original of Procurations By the Fourth Council of Toledo the Bishop was to Visit his whole Diocess Parochially every Year The Gloss saith if there were occasion for it and that the Bishop may visit as often as he sees Cause but if he be hindred the Canon saith he may send others which is the original of the Arch-Deacons Visitation to see not only the Condition of the Churches but the Lives of the Ministers The Council of Braca in the latter end of the Sixth Century makes this the first Canon That all Bishops should Visit their Diocesses by Parishes and there should first examin the Clergy and then the People and in another Canon he was required to receive only his Cathedraticum i. e. a certain Sum in lieu of Entertainment which came to be setled by Prescription The Council of Cavailon in France A. D. 831. fixed no Sum but desired the Bishops to be no Burdens to the Clergy in
part of common Justice and Honesty so to do And the Lord Coke positively affirms that Dilapidation is a good Cause of Deprivation And it was so Resolved by the Judges in the King's Bench 12. Jac. Not by Virtue of any new Law or Statute but by the old Ecclesiastical Law For which Coke refers to the Year-Books which not only shew what the Ecclesiastical Law then was but that it was allowed by the Common Law of England and we are told that is never given to change but it may be forced to it by a New Law which cannot be pretended in this Case And by the old Constitutions here received the Bishops are required to put the Clergy in mind of keeping their Houses in sufficient Reparations and if they do it not within two months the Bishop is to take care it be done out of the Profits of the Benefice By the Injunctions of Ed. VI. and Queen Elizabeth all Persons having Ecclesiastical Benefices are required to set apart the Fifth of their Revenue to Repair their Houses and afterwards to maintain them in good condition V. Pluralities By the Ecclesiastical Law which was here received the actual receiving Institution into a second Benefice made the first void ipso jure and if he sought to keep both above a Month the second was void too Lyndwood observes that the Ecclesiastical Law had varied in this matter And it proceeded by these steps which are more than Lyndw. mentions I. It was absolutely forbidden to have two Parishes if there were more than ten Inhabitants in them because no Man could do his Duty in both Places And if any Bishop neglected the Execution of it he was to be excommunicated for two Months and to be restored only upon Promise to see this Canon executed II. The Rule was allowed to hold as to Cities but an Exception was made as to small and remote Places where there was a greater Scarcity of Persons to supply them III. If a Man had two Benefices it was left to his Choice which he would have but he could not hold both This kind of Option was allowed by the Ecclesiastical Law then in force IV. That if he takes a second Benefice that Institution is void by the third Council of Lateran under Alexander III. V. That by taking a second the first is void which is the famous Canon of the fourth Lateran Council VI. That if he were not contented with the last but endeavour to keep both he should be deprived of both And this was the Ecclesiastical Law as it was declared in our Provincial Constitutions But the general Practice was to avoid the former according to the Lateran Council These were very severe Canons but that one Clause of the Pope's dispensing Power made them to signifie little unless it were to advance his Power and Revenue For when the Dispensing Power came to be owned the Law had very little force especially as to the Consciences of Men. For if it were a Law of God how could any man dispense with it unless it were as apparent that he had given a Power in some Cases to Dispense as that he had made the Law Those Casuists are very hard put to it who make Residence Jure Divino and yet say the Pope may dispense with it which at last comes only to this that the Pope can authoritatively declare the sufficiency of the Cause so that the whole matter depends upon the Cause whether there can be any sufficient to excuse from Personal Residence It is agreed on all hands that the habitual Neglect of a Charge we have taken upon our selves is an evil thing and that it is so to heap up Preferments merely for Riches or Luxury or Ambition but the main Question in point of Conscience is what is a sufficient Cause to justifie any Man's breaking so reasonable and just a Rule as that of Residence is It cannot be denied that the eldest Canons of the Church were so strict and severe that they made it unlawful for any man to go from that Church in which he first received Orders as well as to take another Benefice in it and so for any Bishop to be translated from that Place he was first Consecrated to as well as to hold another with it But the Good of the Church being the main Foundation of all the Rules of it when that might be better promoted by a Translation it was by a tacit Consent looked on as no unjust violation of its Rules The Question then is whether the Churches Benefit may not in some Cases make the Canons against Non-Residence as Dispensable as those against Translations And the Resolution of it doth not depend upon the voiding the particular Obligation of the Incumbent to his Cure but upon some more general Reason with respect to the State of the Church As being imployed in the Service of it which requires a Persons having not a bare Competency for Subsistence but a sufficiency to provide Necessaries for such Service For those seem to have very little Regard to the flourishing Condition of a Church who would confine the Sufficiency of a Subsistence merely to the Necessaries of Life But it seems to be Reasonable that Clergy-Men should have Incouragement sufficient not only to keep them above Contempt but in some respect agreeable to the more ample Provision of other Orders of Men. And by God's own Appointment the Tribe of Levi did not fall short of any of the rest if it did not very much exceed the Proportion of others We do not pretend to the Privileges they had only we observe from thence that God himself did appoint a plentiful Subsistence for those who attended upon his Service And I do not know what there is Levitical or Ceremonial in that I am sure the Duties of the Clergy now require a greater Freedom of Mind from the anxious Cases of the World than the Imployments of the Priests and Levites under the Law But we need not go so far back if the Church injoyed all her Revenues as entirely as when the severe Canons against Pluralities were made there would not be such a Plea for them as there is too much Cause for in some Places from the want of a competent Subsistence But since that time the Abundance of Appropriations since turned into Lay-Fees hath extremely lessened the Churches Revenues and have left us a great number of poor Vicarages and Arbitrary Cures which would hardly have afforded a Maintenance for the Nethinims under the Law who were only to be Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water But this doth not yet clear the Difficulty for the Question is whether the Subsistence of the Clergy can lawfully be improved by a Plurality of Livings Truly I think this if it be allowed in some Cases lawful to be the least desireable way of any but in some Circumstances it is much more excusable than in others As when the Benefices
are mean when they lie near each other when great Care is taken to put in sufficient Curates with good Allowance when Persons take all Opportunities to do their Duties themselves and do not live at a distance from their Benefices in an idle and careless manner But for Men to put in Curates merely to satisfie the Law and to mind nothing of the Duties of their Places is a horrible Scandal to Religion and our Church and that which if not amended may justly bring down the Wrath of God upon us For the loosest of all the Popish-Casuists look upon this as a very great Sin even those who attributed to the Pope the highest Dispensing Power in this Case But when the greate Liberty of Dispensing had made the Ecclesiastical Laws in great measure useless then it was thought fit by our Law-makers to Restrain and Limit it by a Statute made 21. H. 8. wherein it is Enacted That if any Person or Persons having one Benefice with Cure of Souls being of the yearly value of eight pounds or above accept or take any other with Cure of Soul and be instituted and inducted in possession of the same that then and immediately after such Possession had thereof the first Benefice shall be adjudged to be void And all Licenses and Dispensations to the contrary are declared to be void and of none effect This one would have thought had been an effectual Remedy against all such Pluralities and Dispensations to obtain them and this no doubt was the Primary Design of the Law but then follow so many Proviso's of Qualified Men to get Dispensations as take off a great deal of the Force and Effect of this Law But then it ought well to be considered whether such a License being against the chief Design of a Law can satisfie any Man in point of Conscience where there is not a just and sufficient Cause For if the Popes Dispensation with the supposed Plenitude of his Power could not satisfie a Mans Conscience without an antecedent Cause as the Casuists resolve much less can such Proviso's do it It is the general Opinion of Divines and Lawyers saith Lessius that no Man is safe in Conscience by the Popes Dispensation for Pluralities unless there be a just Cause for it No Man can with a safe Conscience take a Dispensation from the Pope for more Benefices than one merely for his own Advantage saith Panormitan and from him Sylvester and Summ. Angelica A Dispensation saith Card. Tolet secures a Man as to the Law but as to Conscience there must be a good Cause for it And that is when the Church hath more benefit by it than it would have without it But the Pope's Dispensing Power went much farther in Point of Conscience in their Opinion than that which is setled among us by Act of Parliament For it is expressed in the Stat. 21 Hen. 8. that the Dispensation is intended to keep Men from incurring the Danger Penalty and Forfeiture in this Statute comprised So that the most qualified Person can only say that the Law doth not deprive him but he can never plead that it can satisfie him in Point of Conscience unless there be some Cause for it which is of more moment to the Church than a Man 's sole and constant Attendance on a particular Cure is But this Stat. is more favourable to the Clergy than the Canon Law was before in two Particulars 1. In declaring that no simple Benefices or mere Dignities as the Canonists call them are comprehended under the Name of Benefices having Cure of Souls viz. No Deanery Arch-deaconry Chancellorship Treasurership Chantership or Prebend in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church nor Parsonage that hath a Vicar endowed nor any Benefice perpetually appropriate But all these before were within the reach of the Canon Law and a Dispensation was necessary for them Which shews that this Law had a particular respect to the necessary Attendance on Parochial Cures and looked on other Dignities and Preferments in the Church as a sufficient Encouragement to extraordinary Merit 2. That no notice is taken of Livings under the value of 8l which I suppose is that of 20 E. 1. for that of H. 8. was not till five Years after 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 it 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 now here comes a Statute which enacts that all who take a second Benefice of 8l 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 Regino l. 2. p. 205. Hispan Concil p. 29. Regino Collect. Canon lib. 2. p. 204. Burchrd l. 1. c. 91 92. Gratian. 35. q. 5. c. 7. Hieron Comment ad Titam Epist. ad Evagr. Advers Luciferian Hier. in Psal. Ad Evagr. Ad Marcell Cyprian Ep. 3. 66. Aug. in Ps. 44. 44. Ambros. ad Eph. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Theod. ad 1 Tim. 1. 3 Iren. l. 3. c. 3. 3 John 9 10. 1 Tim. 3. 2 3 c. 5. 22. 19. 20. 21. Titus 1. 5. De voto voti