Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	enemy_n	true_a	zeal_n	759	5	10.9440	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30336	A discourse of the pastoral care written by Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1692 (1692)	Wing B5777; ESTC R25954	115,662	306

a●●●e Business and Labour of their Lives Having known the very good effect that this Method has had on some I dare the more confidently recommend it to all others Before I conclude this Chapter I will shew what Rules our Reformers had prepared with Relation to Non-Residence and Pluralities which tho they never passed into Laws and so have no binding force with them yet in these we see what was the sense of those that prepared our Offices and that were the chief Instruments in that blessed Work of our Reformation The 12 th Chapter of the Title concerning those that were to be admitted to Ecclesiastical Benefices runs thus Whereas when many Benefices are conferred on one Person every one of these must be served with less order and exactness and many learned Men who are not provided are by that means shut out therefore such as examine the Persons who are proposed for Benefices are to ask every one of them whether he has at that time another Benefice or not and if he confesses that he has then they shall not consent to his obtaining that to which he is presented or the first Benefice shall be made void as in case of Death so that the Patron may present any other Person to it Chap 13. is against Dispensations in these Words No Man shall hereafter be capable of any Privilege by virtue of which he may hold more Parishes than one But such as have already obtained any such Dispensations for Pluralities shall not be deprived of the effects of them by virtue of this Law The 14 th Chapter relates to Residence in these Words If any Man by reason of Age or Sickness is disabled from discharging his Duty or if he has any just cause of absence for some time that shall be approved of by the Bishop he must take care to place a worthy Person to serve during his absence But the Bishops ought to take a special Care that upon no regard whatsoever any Person may upon feigned or pretended Reasons be suffered to be longer absent from his Parish than a real necessity shall require These are some of the Rules which were then prepared and happy had it been for our Church if that whole work of the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Law had been then setled among us Then we might justly have said that our Reformation was compleat and not have lamented as our Church still does in the Office of Commination that the godly Discipline which was in the Primitive Church is not yet restored how much and how long soever it has been wished for It is more than probable that we should neither have had Schisms nor Civil Wars if that great design had not been abortive If but the 19 th and 20 th Titles of that work which treat of the publick offices and Officers in the Church had became a part of our Law and been duly executed we should indeed have had matter of glorying in the World In the Canons of the Year 1571. tho there was not then strength enough in the Church to cure so inveterate a Disease as Non-Residence yet she expressed her detestation of it in these Words The absence of a Pastor from the Lord's Flock and that supine negligence and abandoning of the Ministry which we observe in many is a thing vile in it self odious to the People and pernicious to the Church of God therefore we exhort all the Pastors of Churches in our Lord Iesus that they will as soon as is possible come to their Churches and diligently Preach the Gospel and according to the value of their Livings that they will keep House and hospitably relieve the Poor It is true all this is much lessened by the last Words of that Article That every Year they must reside at least Threescore daies upon their Benefices By the Canons made at that time Pluralities were also limited to 20 miles distance But this was enlarged to 30 miles by the Canons in the Year 1597. Yet by these the Pluralist was required to spend a good part of the Year in both his Benefices And upon this has the matter rested ever since but there is no express definition made how far that general word of a good part of the Year is to be understood I will not to this add a long invidious History of all the attempts that have been made for the Reforming these abuses nor the methods that have been made use of to defeat them They have been but too successful so that we still groan under our abuses and do not know when the time shall come in which we shall be freed from them The defenders of those abuses who get too much by them to be willing to part with them have made great use of this that it was the Puritan Party that during Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames the 1 sts Reign promoted these Bills to render the Church odious Whereas it seems more probable that those who set them forward what invidious Characters soever their Enemies might put them under were really the Friends of the Church and that they intended to preserve it by freeing it from so crying and so visible an abuse which gives an offence and scandal that is not found out by much learning or great observation but arises so evidently out of the nature of things that a small measure of common sense helps every one to see it and to be deeply prejudic'd against it But since our Church has fallen under the evils and mischiefs of Schism none of those who divide from us have made any more attempts this way but seem rather to be not ill pleased that such Scandals should be still among us as hoping that this is so great a load upon our Church that it both weakens our strength and lessens our Authority It is certainly the interest of an Enemy to suffer the body to which he opposes himself to lie under as many Prejudices and to be liable to as much censure as is possible whereas every good and wise Friend studies to preserve that body to which he unites himself by freeing it from every thing that may render it less acceptable and less useful Here I will leave this Argument having I think said enough to convince all that have a true Zeal to our Church and that think themselves bound in conscience to obey its Rules and that seem to have a particular jealousie of the Civil Powers breaking in too far upon the Ecclesiastical Authority that there can be nothing more plain and express than that our Church intends to bring all her Priests under the strictest obligations possible to constant and personal Labour and that in this she pursues the designs and Canons not only of the Primitive and best times but even of the worst Ages Since none were ever so corrupt as not to condemn those abuses by Canon even when they maintained them in practice She does not only bind them to this by the Charge she appoints to be given