the Design was to keep People in Ignorance For Learning is an irrecøncileable Enemy to the Fundamental Policy of the Roman Church and it was that which brought in the Reformation since which a just Care hath still been required for the Instruction of Youth and the fifty ninth Canon of our Church is very strict in it which I desire you often to consider with the first Rubrick after the Catechism and to act accordingly IV. After Catechizing I recommend to you the due Care of bringing the Children of your Parishes to Confirmation Which would be of excellent use in the Church if the several Ministers would take that Pains about it which they ought to do Remember that you are required to bring or send in Writing with your Names subscribed the Names of all such Persons in your Parish as you shall think fit to be Presented to the Bishop to be Confirmed If you take no Care about it and suffer them to come unprepared for so great so solemn a thing as renewing the Promise and Vow made in Baptism can you think your selves free from any Guilt in it In the Church of Rome indeed great Care was taken to hasten Confirmation of Children all they could Post Baptismum quam citius poterint as it is in our Constitution Provincial in another Synodical the Parochial Priests are charged to tell their Parishioners that they ought to get their Children Confirmed as soon as they can In a Synod at Worcester under Walter de Cantilupo in the time of Henry III. the Sacrament of Confirmation is declared necessary for Strength against the Power of Darkness and therefore it was called Sacramentum pugnantium and no wonder then that the Parochial Priests should be called upon so earnestly to bring the Children to Confirmation and the Parents were to be forbidden to enter into the Church if they neglected it for a Year after the Birth of the Child if they had opportunity The Synod of Exeter allowed two Years and then if they were not Confirmed the Parents were to Fast every Friday with Bread and Water till it were done And to the same purpose the Synod of Winchester in the time of Edw. I. in the Constitutions of Richard Bishop of Sarum two Years were allowed but that Time was afterwards thought too long and then the Priest as well as the Parents was to be suspended from entrance into the Church But what Preparation was required None that I can find But great Care is taken about the Fillets to bind their Heads to receive the Unction and the taking them off at the Font and burning them lest they should be used for Witchcraft as Lyndwood informs us But we have no such Customs nor any of the Reformed Churches We depend not upon the Opus operatum but suppose a due and serious Preparation of Mind necessary and a solemn Performance of it I hope by God's Assistance to be able in time to bring the Performance of this Office into a better Method in the mean time I shall not fail doing my Duty have you a care you do not fail in yours V. As to the Publick Offices of the Church I do not only recommend to you a due Care of the Diligent but of the Devout Performance of them I have often wondered how a fixed and stated Liturgy for general Use should become a matter of Scruple and Dispute among any in a Christian Church unless there be something in Christianity which makes it unlawful to pray together for things which we all understand beforehand to be the Subject of our Prayers If our common Necessities and Duties are the same if we have the same Blessings to pray and to Thank God for in our solemn Devotions why should any think it unlawful or unfitting to use the same Expressions Is God pleased with the Change of our Words and Phrases Can we imagine the Holy Spirit is gi ven to dictate new Expressions in Prayers Then they must pray by immediate Inspiration which I think they will not pretend to lest all the Mistakes and Incongruities of such Prayers be imputed to the Holy Ghost but if not then they are left to their own Conceptions and the Spirits Assistance is only in the Exciting the Affections and Motions of the Soul towards the things prayed for and if this be allowed it is impossible to give a Reason why the Spirit of God may not as well excite those inward Desires when the Words are the same as when they are different And we are certain that from the Apostles times downwards no one Church or Society of Christians can be produced who held it unlawful to pray by a set Form On the other side we have very early Proofs of some common Forms of Prayer which were generally used in the Christian Churches and were the Foundations of those Ancient Liturgies which by degrees were much enlarged And the Interpolations of latter times do no more overthrow the Antiquity of the Ground-work of them than the large Additions to a Building do prove there was no House before It is an easie matter to say that such Liturgies could not be S. James's or S. Mark 's because of such Errors and Mistakes and Interpolations of things and Phrases of latter times but what then Is this an Argument there were no ancient Liturgies in the Churches of Jerusalem or Alexandria when so long since as in Origen's time we find an entire Collect produced by him out of the Alexandrian Liturgy And the like may be shewed as to other Churches which by degrees came to have their Liturgies much inlarged by the Devout Prayers of some extraordinary Men such as S. Basil and S. Chrysostom in the Eastern Churches But my design is not to vindicate our use of an excellent Liturgy but to put you upon the using it in such manner as may most recommend it to the People I mean with that Gravity Seriousness Attention and Devotion which becomes so solemn a Duty as Prayer to God is It will give too just a Cause of Prejudice to our Prayers if the People observe you to be careless and negligent about them or to run them over with so great haste as if you minded nothing so much as to get to the end of them If you mind them so little your selves they will think themselves excused if they mind them less I could heartily wish that in greater places especially in such Towns where there are People more at liberty the constant Morning and Evening Prayers were duly and devoutly read as it is already done with good Success in London and some other Cities By this means Religion will gain ground when the publick Offices are daily performed and the People will be more acquainted with Scripture in hearing the Lessons and have a better esteem of the Prayers when they become their daily Service which they offer up to God as their Morning and Evening Sacrifice and the design of
THE BISHOP OF WORCESTER'S CHARGE To the CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE IN HIS Primary Visitation BEGUN At WORCESTER Sept. 11. 1690. LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phenix in S. Paul's Church-Yard M DC XC I. To the Reverend CLERGY Of the DIOCESE Of WORCESTER My BRETHREN WHat I lately delivered among you in the several Places of my Visitation and what I have since thought fit in some particulars to add I have here put together and sent it to you that it might remain with you not only as an Instance of my Duty but as a Monitor of your own And I may reasonably hope as well as desire that the frequent Reading and Considering the Things I here recommend to you will make a deeper Impression on your Minds than a mere transient Discourse for I know nothing will more effectually preserve the Honor and Interest of the Church of England than a diligent and conscientious Discharge of the Duties of our several Places In this time of general Liberty our Adversaries of all kinds think themselves let loose upon us and therefore we have the more reason to look to our selves and to the Flock committed to our Charge Yet I do not question but through the Goodness of God and the serious and vigorous Application of our Minds to the great Business of our High and Holy Calling that Church which we so justly value will escape sinking in the Quick-Sands as it hath hitherto being dashed against the Rocks If we behave our selves with that Prudence and Zeal and Circumspection which becomes us I hope the Inclinations of the People will never be made use of as an Argument against us For although in a Corrupt Age that be one of the weakest Arguments in the World if it be true and only shews the Prevalency of Folly and Faction Yet there is no such Way to prevent the spreading of both as our constant Care to instruct our People in the main Duties of Religion and going before them in the Ways of Holyness and Peace In the following Discourse I have first endeavoured to Assert and Vindicate the Authority of Bishops in the Christian Church and in as few Words and with as much Clearness as I could I have proved their Apostolical Institution And the Judgment and Practice of the Universal Church from the Apostles Times will prevail with all unbyas'd Persons above any modern violent Inclinations to the contrary In the next place I have recommended to you such things which I am sure are much for the Churches Service and Honour as well as our own and therefore I hope you will the more regard them In the last place I have made it my Design to clear several Parts of the Ecclesiastical Law which concerns Church-Men and have shewed the Nature Force and Extent of it and how agreeable it is to the Common Law of England In these things my aim was to do something towards the Good of this Church and particularly of this Diocese And that the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls and Holiness and Peace may be Promoted therein is the hearty Prayer of Westminst Jan. 33. 1690 1. Your Affectionate Brother and Fellow-Servant to Our Common Lord ED. Wigorn. My BRETHREN THIS being my Primary Visitation I thought it fitting to acquaint my self with the Ancient as well as Modern Practice of Episcopal Visitations and as near as I could to observe the Rules prescribed therein with respect to the Clergy who are now Summon'd to appear And I find there were Two principal Parts in them a Charge and an Enquiry The Charge was given by the Bishop himself and was called Admonitio Episcopi or Allocutio wherein he informed them of their Duty and exhorted them to perform it The Enquiry was made according to certain Articles drawn out of the Canons which were generally the same according to which the Juratores Synodi as the Ancient Canonists call them or Testes Synodales were to give in their Answers upon Oath which was therefore called Juramentum Synodale for the Bishop's Visitation was accounted an Episcopal Synod The former of these is my present business and I shall take leave to speak my mind freely to you this first time concerning several things which I think most Useful and fit to be considered and practised by the Clergy of this Diocess For since it hath pleased God by his wise and over-ruling Providence without my seeking to bring me into this station in his Church I shall esteem in the best Circumstance of my present Condition if he please to make me an Instrument of doing good among you To this End I thought it necessary in the first place most humbly to implore his Divine Assistance that I might both rightly understand and conscientiously perform that great Duty which is incumbent upon me for without his help all our Thoughts are vain and our best Purposes will be ineffectual But God is not wanting to those who sincerely endeavour to know and to do their Duty and therefore in the next place I set my self as far as my Health and other Occasions would permit to consider the Nature and Extent of my Duty with a Resolution not to be discouraged altho I met with Difficulties in the performance of it For such is the State and Condition of the World That no man can design to do good in it but when that crosses the particular Interests and Inclinations of others he must expect to meet with as much Trouble as their unquiet Passions can give him If we therefore consulted nothing but our own Ease the only way were to let People follow their Humors and Inclinations and to be as little concerned as might be at what they either say or do For if we go about to rowze and awaken them and much more to reprove and reform them we shall soon find them uneasie and impatient for few love to hear of their Faults and fewer to amend them But it is the peculiar Honour of the Christan Religion to have an Order of Men set apart not merely as Priests to offer Sacrifices for that all Religions have had but as Preachers of Righteousness to set Good and Evil before the People committed to their Charge to inform them of their Duties to reprove them for their Miscarriages and that not in order to their Shame but their Reformation Which requires not only Zeal but Discretion and a great mixture of Courage and Prudence that we may neither fail in doing our Duty nor in the best means of attaining the end of it If we could reasonably suppose that all those who are bound to tell others their Duties would certainly do their own there would be less need of any such Office in the Church as that of Bishops who are to inspect and govern and visit and reform those who are to watch over others But since there may be too great failings even in these too great neglect in some and disorder in others too great proneness to
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
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
Faction and Schism and impatience of Contradiction from mere Equals therefore S. Jerom himself grants That to avoid these mischiefs there was a necessity of a Superior Order to Presbyters in the Church of God ad quem omnis Ecclesiae Cura pertineret Schismatum seminatollerentur as he speaks even where he seems most to lessen the Authority of Bishops But whatever some expressions of his may be when the Bishop of Jerusalem and the Roman Deacons came into his head his Reasons are very much for the Advantage of Episcopal Government For can any Man say more in point of Reason for it than that nothing but Faction and Disorder followed the Government of Presbyters and therefore the whole Christian Church agreed in the necessity of a higher Order and that the Peace and Safety of the Church depends upon it that if it be taken away nothing but Schisms and Confusions will follow I wish those who magnifie S. Jerom's Authority in this matter would submit to his Reason and Authority both as to the Necessity and Usefulness of the Order of Bishops in the Church But beyond this in several Places he makes the Bishops to be Successors of the Apostles as well as the rest of the most Eminent Fathers of the Church have done If the Apostolical Office as far as it concerns the Care and Government of Churches were not to continue after their Decease how came the best the most learned the nearest to the Apostolical Times to be so wonderfully deceived For if the Bishops did not succeed by the Apostles own Appointment they must be Intruders and Usurpers of the Apostolical Function and can we imagine the Church of God would have so uniuersally consented to it Besides the Apostles did not die all at once but there were Successors in several of the Apostolical Churches while some of the Apostles were living can we again imagine those would not have vindicated the Right of their own Order and declared to the Church That this Office was peculiar to themselves The Change of the Name from Apostles to Bishops would not have been sufficient Excuse for them for the Presumption had been as great in the Exercise of the Power without the Name So that I can see no Medium but that either the Primitive Bishops did succeed the Apostles by their own Appointment and Approbation which Irenaeus expresly affirms Qui ab Apostolis ipsis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis or else those who governed the Apostolical Churches after them outwent Diotrephes himself for he only rejected those whom the Apostle sent but these assumed to themselves the Exercise of an Apostolical Authority over the Churches planted and settled by them But to let us see how far the Apostles were from thinking that this part of their Office was peculiar to themselves we find them in their own time as they saw occasion to appoin r others to take care of the Government of the Churches within such bounds as they thought fit Thus Timothy was appointed by St. Paul at Ephesus to examine the Qualifications of such as were to be Ordained and not to lay hands suddenly on any to receive Accusations if there were Cause even against Elders to proceed judicially before two or three Witnesses and if there were Reason to give them a publick Rebuke And that this ought not to be thought a slight matter he presently adds I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou observe these things without prefetring one before another doing nothing by partiality Here is a very strict and severe Charge for the Impartial Exercise of Discipline in the Church upon Offenders And although in the Epistle to Titus he be only in general required to set in order the things that are wanting and to ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him yet we are not to suppose that this Power extended not to a Jurisdiction over them when he had ordained them For if any of those whom he Ordained as believing them qualified according to the Apostles Rules should afterwards demeam themselves otherwise and be self willed froward given to Wine Brawlens Covetous or any way scandalous to the Church can we believe that Titus was not as well bound to correct them afterwards as to examine them before And what was this Power of Ordination and Jurisdiction but the very same which the Bishops have exercised ever since the Apostles Times But they who go about to Unbishop Timothy and Titus may as well Unscripture the Epistles that were written to them and make them only some particular and occasional Writings as they make Timothy and Titus to have been only some particular and occasional Officers But the Christian Church preserving these Epistles as of constant and perpetual Use did thereby suppose the same kind of Office to continue for the sake whereof those excellent Epistles were written And we have no greater Assurance that these Epistles were written by St. Paul than we have that there were Bishops to succeed the Apostles in the Care and Government of Churches Having said thus much to clear the Authority we act by I now proceed to consider the Rules by which we are to govern our selves Every Bishop of this Church in the Time of his Consecration makes a solemn Profession among other things That he will not only maintain and set forward as much as lies in him quietness love and peace among all Men but that he will correct and punish such as be unquiet disobedient and criminous within his Diocess according to such Authority as he hath by God's Word and to him shall be committed by the Ordinance of this Realm So that we have Two Rules to proceed by viz. the Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Law of this Realm 1. By the Word of God and that requires from us Diligence and Care and Faithfulness and Impartiality remembring the Account we must give that we may do it with Joy and not with Grief And we are not merely required to correct and punish but to warn and instruct and exhort the Persons under our Care to do those things which tend most to the Honour of our Holy Religion and the Church whereof we are Members And for these Ends there are some things I shall more particularly recommend to You. 1. That you would often consider the Solemn Charge that was given you and the Profession you madeof yourResolution to do yourDuty at your Ordination I find by the Provincial Constitution of this Church that the Bishops were to have their solemn Profession read over to them twice in the year to put them in mind of their Duty And in the Legatine Constitutions of Otho 22 H. 3. the same Constitution is renewed not merely by a Legatine Power but by Consent of the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces wherein it is declared that Bishops ought to visit their
Diocesses at fit times Correcting and Reforming what was amiss and sowing the Word of Life in the Lord's Field and to put them the more in mind of it they were twice in the year to have their solemn Profession read to them It seems then that Profession contained these things in it or else the reading that could not stir them up to do these things What the Profession was which Presbyters then made at their Ordination we have not so clear an Account but in the same Council at Oxford 8 H. 3. it is strictly enjoined that all Rectors and Vicars should instruct the People committed to their Charge and Feed them Pabulo Verbi Dei with the Food of Gods Word and it is introduced with that Expression that they might excite the Parochial Clergy to be more diligent in what was most proper for those times And if they do it not they are there called Canes muti and Lyndwood bestows many other hard Terms upon them which I shall not mention but he saith afterward those who do it not are but like Idols which bear the similitude of a Man but do not the Offices proper to Men. Nay he goes so far as to say That the Spiritual Food of God's Word is as necessary to the Health of the Soul as Corporal Food is to the Health of the Body Which words are taken out of a Preface to a Canon in the Decretals De Officio Jud. Ordinarii inter Caetera But they serve very well to shew how much even in the dark times of Popery they were then convinced of the necessity and usefulness of Preaching These Constitutions were slighted so much that in 9 Edw. I the Offices of Preaching was sunk so low that in a Provincial Constitution at that time great complaint is made of the Ignorance and Stupidity of the Parochial Clergy that they rather made the people worse than better But at that time the Preaching Friers had got that Work into their hands by particular Privileges where it is well observed that they did not go to places which most needed their help but to Cities and Corporations where they found most Incouragement But what Remedy was found by this Provincial Council Truly every Parochial Priest four times a year was bound to read an Explication of the Creed Ten Commandments the Two Precepts of Charity the Seven Works of Mercy the Seven deadly Sins the Seven principal Vertues and the Seven Sacraments This was renewed in the Province of York which hath distinct Provincial Constitutions in the Time of Edw. 4. And here was all they were bound to by these Constitutions But when Wicliff and his Followers had awakened the People so far that there was no satisfying them without Preaching then a new Provinciat Constitution was made under Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury and the former Constitution was restrained to Parochial Priests who officiated as Curates but several others were Authorised to Preach as 1. The Mendicant Friars were said to be authorised Jure Communi or rather Privilegio Speciali but therefore Lyndwood saith it is said to be Jure Communi because that Privilege is recorded in the Text of the Canon Law These were not only allowed to Preach in their own Churches but in Plateis publicis saith Lyndwood out of the Canon Law wherein those words were expressed and at any Hour unless it were the Time of Preaching in other Churches but other Orders as Augustinians and Carmelites had no such general Licence Those Preaching Friars were a sort of Licensed Preachers at that time who had no Cures of Souls but they were then accounted a kind of Pastors For Jo. de Athon distinguisheth Two sorts of Pastors Those who had Ecclesiastical Offices and those who had none but were such only Verbo Exemplo but they gave very great Disturbance to the Clergy as the Pope himself confesses in the Canon Law 2. Legal Incumbents authorised to Preach in their own Parishes Jure Scripto All Persons who had Cures of Souls and legal Titles were said to be missi à jure ad locum Populum Curae suae and therefore might preach to their own People without a special Licence but if any one Preached in other Parts of the Diocess or were a Stranger in it then he was to be examined by the Diocesan and if he were found tam Moribus quam Scientia idoneus he might send him to Preach to one or more Parishes as he thought meet and he was to shew his Licence to the Incumbent of the Place before he was to be permitted to Preach under the Episcopal Seal And thus as far as I can find the Matter stood as to Preaching before the Reformation After it when the Office of Ordination was reviewed and brought nearer to the Primitive Form and instead of delivering the Chalice and Patten with these words Accipe potestatem offerre Deo Sacrificium c. the Bishop delivered the Bible with these words Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God and to minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation c. The Priests Exhortation was made agreeable thereto wherein he exhorts the Persons in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to consider the weight and importance of the Office and Charge they are called to not barely to instruct those who are already of Christ's Flock but to endeavour the Salvation of those who are in the midst of this naughty World And therefore he perswades and charges them from a due regard to Christ who suffered for his Sheep and to the Church of Christ which is so dear to him to omit no Labor Care or Diligence in instructing and reforming those who are committed to their Charge And the better to enable them to perform these things there are some Duties especially recommended to them viz. Prayer and Study of the Holy Scriptures according to which that they are to instruct others and to order their own Lives and of those who belong to them And that they might the better attend so great a Work they are required to forsake and set aside as much as they may all worldly Cares and Studies and apply themselves wholly to this one thing that they may save themselves and them that hear them After which follows the solemn Profession wherein they undertake to do these things This is that my Brethren which I earnestly desire of you that you would often consider You are not at liberty now whether you will do these things or not for you are under a most solemn Engagement to it You have put your hands to the Plow and it is too late to think of looking back and you all know the Husbandman's Work is laborious and painful and continually Returning It is possible after all his pains the Harvest may not answer his expectation but yet if he neither plows nor sows he can expect no Return if he be idle and careless and puts off the main