Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A64125
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Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of [blank] for their deportment in their personal and publick capacities. Given by the Bishop at the visitation.
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Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing T387; ESTC R222418
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12,560
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52
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RULES AND ADVICES To the CLERGY Of the DIOCESSE OF _____ For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities Given by the Bishop at the Visitation DUBLIN Printed by John Crook Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by John North Book-seller in Castle-Street 1661. RULES AND ADVICES To the CLERGY I. Personal Duty REmember that it is your great Duty and tied on you by many Obligations that you be exemplar in your Lives and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks least it be said unto you Why takest thou my Law into thy moâ—h seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby He that lives an evil Life may preach with Truth and Reason or as did the Pharisees but not as Christ or as one having Authority Every Minister in taking accompts of his Life must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures than he does of his People and he that ties heavy Burdens upon others ought himself to carry the heaviest end and many things may be lawful in them which he must not suffer in himself Let every Minister endeavor to be learned in all spiritual wisdom and skilful in the things of God for he will ill teach others the way of godliness perfectly that is himself a babe and uninstructed An ignorant Minister is an head without an eye and an evil Minister is salt that hath no savour Every Minister above all things must be careful that he be not a servant of passion whether of anger or desire For he that is not a master of his passions will always be useless and quickly will becom contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his parish Let no Minister be litigious in any thing not greedy or covetous not insisting upon little things or quarreling for or exacting of every minute portion of his dues but bountiful and easie remitting of his right when to do so may be useful to his people or when the contrary may do mischief and cause reproach Be not over rightous saith Solomon that is not severe in demanding or forcing every thing though it be indeed his due Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness by saying you are willing to remit many things but you must not wrong the Church for though it be true that you are not to do prejudice to succession yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions from which the Church shall receive no incommodity but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacitie but the same also and more thou art oblig'd to perform as thou art a publick person Never exact the offerings or customary wages and such as are allowed by law in the ministration of the Sacraments nor condition for them nor secure them before-hand but first do your office and minister the Sacraments purely readily and for Christs sake and when that is done receive what is your due Avoid all pride as you would flee from the most frightful apparition or the most cruel enemie and remember that you can never truly teach humility or tell what it is unless you practise it your selves Take no measures of Humility but such as are material and tangible such which consist not in humble Words and lowly Gestures but what is first truly radicated in your Souls in low opinion of your selves and in real preferring others before your selves and in such significations which can neither deceive your selves nor others Let every Curate of Souls strive to understand himself best and then to understand others Let him spare himself least but most severely judge censure and condemn himself If he be learned let him shew it by wise teaching and humble manners If he be not learned let him be sure to get so much knowledge as to know that and so much Humility as not to grow insolent and puffed up by his Emptiness For many will pardon a good man that is less learned but if he be proud no man will forgive him Let every Minister be careful to live a life as abstracted from the Affairs of the World as his necessity will permit him but at no hand to be immerg'd and principally imploy'd in the Affairs of the World What cannot be avoided and what is of good report and what he is oblig'd to by any personal or collateral Duty that he may do but no more Ever remembring the Saying of our blessed Lord In the world ye shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace and consider this also which is a great Truth That every degree of love to the World is so much taken from the Love of God Be no otherwise sollicitous of your Fame and Reputation but by doing your duty well wisely in other things refer your self to God but if you meet with evil Tongues be careful that you bear reproaches sweetly and temperately Remember that no Minister can govern his people well and prosperously unless himself hath learn'd humbly and cheerfully to obey his Superior For every Minister should be like the good Centurion in the Gospel himself is under Authority and he hath people under him Be sure in all your Words and Actions to preserve Christian simplicity and ingenuity to do to others as you would be done unto your self and never to speak what you do not think Trust to Truth rather than to your Memory for this may fail you that will never Pray much and very fervently for all your Parishioners and all men that belong to you and and all that belong to God but especially for the Conversion of Souls and be very zealous for nothing but for Gods glory and the salvation of the World and particularly of your Charges Ever remembring that you are by God appointed as the Ministers of Prayer and the Ministers of good things to pray for all the World and to heal all the World as far as you are able Every Minister must learn and practise patience that by bearing all adversity meekly and humbly and cheerfully and by doing all his duty with unwearied industry with great courage constancie and Christian magnanimity he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses and overcoming their difficulties He that is holy let him be holy still and still more holy and never think he hath done his work till all be finished by perseverance and the measures of perfection in a holy Life and a holy Death but at no hand must he magnifie himselfby vain separations from others or despising them that are not so holy II. Of Prudence requir'd in Ministers 1. REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles and without this all Graces perish to a mans self and without that all Graces are useless unto others 2. Let no Minister be governed by the Opinion of his People and destroy his duty by unreasonable compliance with their humours least as the Bishop
God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness than by the noise of a flies wing or the chirping of a Sparrow Brethren do well for your selves do well for your selves as long as you have time you know not how soon death will come 13. Entertain no persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes unless upon great occasion or in the destitution of a Minister or by contingency and seldom visits or with leave least the labours of thy Brother be discouraged and thy self be thought to preach Christ out of envie and not of good will 14. Never appeal to the judgement of the people in matters of controversie teach them obedience not arrogancie teach them to be humble not crafty For without the aid of false Guides you will finde some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome and a question put into their Heads and a power of judging into their Hands is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next for much longer you cannot escape 15. Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony Rites or Gestures though with some seeming Piety and Devotion but what are commanded by the Church and established by Law and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience but let there be no more introduc'd least the people be burdened unnecessarily and tempted or divided IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching 1. LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God according to the ability that God gives him ever remembring that to minister Gods Word unto the People is the one half of his great Office and Employment 2. Let every Minister be careful that what he delivers be indeed the word of GOD that his Sermon be answerable to the Text for this is Gods Word the other ought to be according to it that although in it self it be but the word of Man yet by the purpose truth and signification of it it may in a secondary sense be the Word of God 3. Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ to be united to Christ and things of the like unlimited signification but tell them in every duty what are the measures what circumstances what instruments and what is the particular minute meaning of every General Advise For Generals not explicated do but fill the peoples Heads with empty notions and their Mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk but their Hearts remain empty and Themselves are not edified 4. Let not the humours and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions Let them know from you what they ought to do but if you learn from them what you ought to teach you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgement of the souls committed to you He that receives from the people what he shall teach them is like a Nurse that asks of her sick Child what Physick she shall give him 5. Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present but not of the absent nor in reproof of the times for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition publique Murmur and private Discontent besides this it does nothing but amuze the people in the faults of others teaching them to revile their Betters and neglect the dangers of their own Souls 6. As it looks like flattery and design to preach nothing before Magistrates but the Duty of their people and their own Eminencie so it is the begining of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiors and Supreme it can neither come from a good Principle nor tend to a good end Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish and urge their Duty St. John the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees 7. In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please and spare no mans sin but meddle with no mans person neither name any man nor signifie him neither reproach him nor make him to be suspected he that does otherwise makes his Sermon to be a Libel and the Ministry of Repentance an instrument of Revenge and so doing he shall exasperate the man but never amend the sinner 8. Let the business of you Sermons be to preach holy life obedience peace love among neighbours hearty love to live as the old Christians did and the new should to do hurt to no man to do good to every man For in these things the honour of God consists and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus 9. Press those Graces most that do most good and make the least noise such as giving privately and forgiving publiquely and describe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good Words nor yet by good Works but it is a great building and many Materials go to the structure of it It is worth your study for it is the fulfilling of the Commandments 10. Because it is impossible that charity should live unless the lust of the tongue be mortified let every Minister in his charge be frequent and severe against slanderers detractors and backbiters for the crime of backbiting is the poyson of charity and yet so common that it is past into a Proverb After a good dinner let us sit down and backbite our neighbours 11. Let every Minister be carefull to observe and vehement in reproving those faults of his Parishioners of which the Laws cannot or do not take cognizance such as are many degrees of intemperate drinkings gluttony riotous living expenses above their ability pride bragging lying in ordinary conversation convetousness peevishness and hasty anger and such like For the Word of God searches deeper than the Laws of men and many things will be hard to prove by the measures of Courts which are easie enough to be observ'd by the watchful and diligent eye and ear of the Guide of Souls 12. In your Sermons to the people often speak of the four last things of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ of Gods mercie to repenting sinners and his severity against the impenitent of the formidable Examples of Gods anger powr'd forth upon Rebbels Sacrilegious Oppressors of Widdows and Orphanes and all Persons guilty of Crying Sins These are useful safe and profitable but never run into Extravagancies and Curiosities nor trouble your selves or them with Mysterious Secrets for there is more laid before you than you can understand and the whole Duty of Man is To fear God and keep his commandments Speak but very little of the secret and high things of God