LXXXI. The truth is that of all things hitherto mentioned the greatest is that threefold blot or blemish of notable ignorance, unconscionable absence from the cures whereof men have taken charge, and unsatiable hunting after spiritual preferments without either care or conscience of the public good. Whereof to the end that we may consider as in God’s own sight and presence with all uprightness, sincerity and truth, let us particularly weigh and examine in every of them first how far forth they are reprovable by reasons and maxims of common right; secondly whether that which our laws do permit be repugnant to those maxims, and with what equity we ought to judge of things practised in this case, neither on the one hand defending that which must be acknowledged out of square, nor on the other side condemning rashly whom we list for whatsoever we disallow.
Touching arguments therefore taken from the principles of common right to prove that ministers should be learned1, that they ought to be resident upon their livings, and that more than one only benefice or spiritual living may not be granted unto one man; the first2 because St. Paul requireth in a minister ability to teach, to convince, to distribute the word rightly, because also the Lord himself hath protested they3 shall be no priests to him which have rejected knowledge, and because4 if the blind lead the blind they must both needs fall into the pit: the second because teachers are shepherds5 whose flocks can be at no time secure from danger, they are watchmen whom the enemy doth always besiege, their labours in the Word and Sacraments admit no intermission6, their duty requireth instruction and conference with men in private7, they are the living oracles of God to whom the people must resort for counsel, they are commanded8 to be patterns of holiness, leaders9, feeders10, supervisors11 amongst their own, it should be their grief as it was the Apostle’s12 to be absent though necessarily from them over whom they have taken charge: finally the last because plurality and residence are opposite, because the placing of one clerk in two churches is a point of merchandise and filthy gain13, because no man can serve two masters14, because every one should remain in that vocation whereto he is called15; what conclude they of all this? Against ignorance, against nonresidence, and against plurality of livings is there any man so raw and dull but that the volumes which have been written both of old and of late may make him in so plentiful a cause eloquent?
For if by that which is generally just and requisite we measure what knowledge there should be in a minister of the Gospel of Christ; the arguments which light of nature offereth, the laws and statutes which scripture hath, the canons that are taken out of ancient synods, the decrees and constitutions of sincerest times, the sentences of all antiquity, and in a word even every man’s full consent and conscience is against ignorance in them that have charge and cure of souls.
Again what availeth it if we be learned and not faithful? or what benefit hath the Church of Christ if there be in us sufficiency without endeavour or care to do that good which our place exacteth? Touching the pains and industry therefore wherewith men are in conscience bound to attend the work of their heavenly calling even as much as in them lieth bending thereunto their whole endeavour, without either fraud, sophistication, or guile; I see not what more effectual obligation or bond of duty there should be urged than their own only vow and promise made unto God himself at the time of their ordination. The work which they have undertaken requireth both care and fear. Their sloth that negligently perform it maketh them subject to malediction. Besides we also know that the fruit of our pains in this function is life both to ourselves and others.
And do we yet need incitements to labour? Shall we stop our ears both against those conjuring exhortations which Apostles, and against the fearful comminations which Prophets have uttered out of the mouth of God, the one for prevention, the other for reformation, of our sluggishness in this behalf? St. Paul16, “Attend to yourselves and to all the flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Again17, “I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ which shall judge the quick and the dead at his coming, preach the word; be instant.” Jeremy18, “Wo unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, I will visit you for the wickedness of your works, saith the Lord, the remnant of my sheep I will gather together out of all countries and will bring them again to their folds, they shall grow and increase, and I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them.” Ezekiel19, “Should not the shepherds, should they not feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe yourselves with the wool, and the weak ye have not strengthened, the sick ye have not cured, neither have ye bound up the broken nor brought home again that which was driven away, ye have not inquired after that which was lost, but with cruelty and rigour ye have ruled. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will require my sheep at their hands, nor shall the shepherds feed themselves any more, for I will deliver my sheep from their mouths, they shall no more devour them.”
Nor let us think to excuse ourselves if haply we labour though it be at random, and sit not altogether idle abroad. For we are bound to attend that part of the flock of Christ whereof the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers. The residence of ministers upon their own peculiar charge is by so much the rather necessary, for that absenting themselves from the place where they ought to labour they neither can do the good which is looked for at their hands, nor reap that comfort which sweeteneth life to them that spend it in these travails upon their own. For it is in this as in all things else, which are through private interest dearer than what concerneth either others wholly or us but in part and according to the rate of a general regard.
As for plurality it hath not only the same inconveniences which are observed to grow by absence, but over and besides, at the least in common construction, a show of that worldly humour which men do think should not reign so high.
Now from hence their collections are as followeth, first a repugnancy or contradiction between the principles of common right and that which our laws in special considerations have allowed; secondly a nullity or frustration of all such acts as are by them supposed opposite to those principles, an invalidity in all ordinations of men unable to preach, and in all dispensations which mitigate the law of common right for the other two. And why so? Forsooth because20 whatsoever we do in these three cases and not by virtue of common right, we must yield it of necessity done by warrant of peculiar right or privilege. Now “a privilege is said to be that, that for favour of certain persons cometh forth against common right; things prohibited are dispensed with because things permitted are despatched by common right, but things forbidden require dispensations. By which descriptions of a privilege and dispensation it is,” they say, “apparent,” that a privilege must license and authorize the same which the law against ignorance, nonresidence and plurality doth infringe, and so be a law contrariant or repugnant to the law of nature and the law of God, because “all the reasons whereupon the positive law of man against these three was first established are taken and drawn from the law of nature, and the law of God.” For answer whereunto we will but lead them to answer themselves.
First therefore if they will grant (as they must) that all direct oppositions of speech require one and the selfsame subject to be meant on both parts where opposition is pretended, it will follow that either the maxims of common right do enforce the very same things not to be good which we say are good, grounding ourselves on the reasons by virtue whereof our privileges are established; or if the one do not reach unto that particular subject for which the other have provided, then is there no contradiction between them. In all contradictions if the one part be true the other eternally must be false. And therefore if the principles of common right do at any time truly enforce that particular not to be good which privileges make good, it argueth invincibly that such privileges have been grounded upon some error. But to say that every privilege is opposite unto the principles of common right, because it dispenseth with that which common right doth prohibit, hath gross absurdity. For the voice of equity and justice is that a general law doth never derogate from a special privilege, whereas if the one were contrariant to the other, a general law being in force should always dissolve a privilege.
The reason why many are deceived by imagining that so it should do, and why men of better insight conclude directly it should not, doth rest in the subject or matter itself, which matter indefinitely considered in laws of common right is in privileges considered as beset and limited with special circumstances, by means whereof to them which respect it but by way of generality it seemeth one and the same in both, although it be not the same if once we descend to particular consideration thereof. Precepts do always propose perfection, not such as none can attain unto, for then in vain should we ask or require it at the hands of men, but such perfection as all men must aim at to the end that as largely as human providence and care can extend it, it may take place. Moral laws are the rules of politic, those politic, which are made to order the whole Church of God, rules unto all particular churches, and the laws of every particular church rules unto every particular man within the body of the same church. Now because the higher we ascend in these rules the further still we remove from those specialties; which being proper to the subject whereupon our actions must work are therefore chiefly considered by us, by them least thought upon that wade altogether in the two first kinds of general directions; their judgment cannot be exact and sound concerning either laws of churches or actions of men in particular, because they determine of effects by a part of the causes only out of which they grow, they judge conclusions by demipremises and half-principles, they lay them in the balance stripped from those necessary material circumstances, which should give them weight, and by show of falling uneven with the scale of most universal and abstracted rules, they pronounce that too light which is not, if they had the skill to weigh it. This is the reason why men altogether conversant in study do know how to teach but not how to govern; men experienced contrariwise govern well, yet know not which way to set down orderly the precepts and reasons of that they do.
He that will therefore judge rightly of things done must join with his forms and conceits of general speculation the matter wherein our actions are conversant. For by this shall appear what equity there is in those privileges and peculiar grants or favours which otherwise will seem repugnant to justice, and because in themselves considered they have a show of repugnancy, this deceiveth those great clerks which hearing a privilege defined to be “an especial right brought in by their power and authority that make it for some public benefit against the general course of reason21,” are not able to comprehend how the word against doth import exception without any opposition at all. For inasmuch as the hand of justice must distribute to every particular what is due, and judge what is due with respect had no less of particular circumstances than of general rules and axioms, it cannot fit all sorts with one measure, the wills, counsels, qualities and states of men being divers.
For example, the law of common right bindeth all men to keep their promises, perform their compacts, and answer the faith they have given either for themselves or others. Notwithstanding he which bargaineth with one under years can have no benefit by this allegation, because he bringeth it against a person which is exempt from the common rule. Shall we then conclude that thus to exempt certain men from the law of common right is against God, against nature, against whatsoever may avail to strengthen and justify that law before alleged; or else acknowledge (as the truth is) that special causes are to be ordered by special rules; that if men grown unto ripe age disadvantage themselves by bargaining, yet what they have wittingly done is strong and in force against them, because they are able to dispose and manage their own affairs, whereas youth for lack of experience and judgment being easily subject to circumvention is therefore justly exempt from the law of common right whereunto the rest are justly subject? This plain inequality between men of years and under years is a cause why equity and justice cannot apply equally the same general rule to both, but ordereth the one by common right and granteth to the other a special privilege.
Privileges are either transitory or permanent. Transitory such as serve only some one turn, or at the most extend no further than to this or that man22 with the end of whose natural life they expire; permanent such as the use whereof doth continue still, for that they belong unto certain kinds of men and causes which never die. Of this nature are all immunities and preeminences which for just considerations one sort of men enjoyeth above another both in the Church and commonwealth, no man suspecting them of contrariety to any branch of those laws or reasons whereupon the general right is grounded.
Now there being general laws and rules whereby it cannot be denied but the Church of God standeth bound to provide that the ministry may be learned, that they which have charge may reside upon it, and that it may not be free for them in scandalous manner to multiply ecclesiastical livings; it remaineth in the next place to be examined, what the laws of the Church of England do admit which may be thought repugnant to any thing hitherto alleged, and in what special consideration they seem to admit the same.
Considering therefore that to furnish all places of cure in this realm it is not an army of twelve thousand learned men that would suffice, nor two universities that can always furnish as many as decay in so great a number, nor a fourth part of the livings with cure that when they fall are able to yield sufficient maintenance for learned men23, is it not plain that unless the greatest part of the people should be left utterly without the public use and exercise of religion there is no remedy but to take into the ecclesiastical order a number of men meanly qualified in respect of learning? For whatsoever we may imagine in our private closets or talk for communication’s sake at our boards, yea or write in our books through a notional conceit of things needful for performance of each man’s duty, if once we come from the theory of learning to take out so many learned men, let them be diligently viewed out of whom the choice shall be made, and thereby an estimate made what degree of skill we must either admit or else leave numbers utterly destitute of guides, and I doubt not but that men endued with sense of common equity will soon discern that besides eminent and competent knowledge we are to descend to a lower step, receiving knowledge in that degree which is but tolerable.
When we commend any man for learning our speech importeth him to be more than meanly qualified that way; but when laws do require learning as a quality which maketh capable of any function, our measure to judge a learned man by must be some certain degree of learning beneath which we can hold no man so qualified. And if every man that listeth may set that degree himself, how shall we ever know when laws are broken, when kept, seeing one man may think a lower degree sufficient, another may judge them unsufficient that are not qualified in some higher degree. Wherefore of necessity either we must have some judge in whose conscience they that are thought and pronounced sufficient are to be so accepted and taken, or else the law itself is to set down the very lowest degree of fitness that shall be allowable in this kind.
So that the question doth grow to this issue. St. Paul requireth learning in presbyters, yea such learning as doth enable them to exhort in doctrine which is sound, and to disprove them that gainsay it. What measure of ability in such things shall serve to make men capable of that kind of office he doth not himself precisely determine, but referreth it to the conscience of Titus24 and others which had to deal in ordaining presbyters. We must therefore of necessity make this demand, whether the Church lacking such as the Apostle would have chosen may with good conscience take out of such as it hath in a meaner degree of fitness them that may serve to perform the service of public prayer, to minister the sacraments unto the people, to solemnize marriage, to visit the sick and bury the dead, to instruct by reading although by preaching they be not as yet so able to benefit and feed Christ’s flock. We constantly hold that in this case the Apostle’s law is not broken. He requireth more in presbyters than there is found in many whom the Church of England alloweth. But no man being tied unto impossibilities, to do that we cannot we are not bound.
It is but a stratagem of theirs therefore and a very indirect practice, when they publish large declamations to prove that learning is required in the ministry, and to make the silly people believe that the contrary is maintained by the Bishops and upheld by the laws of the land; whereas the question in truth is not whether learning be required, but whether a church wherein there is not sufficient store of learned men to furnish all congregations should do better to let thousands of souls grow savage, to let them live without any public service of God, to let their children die unbaptized, to withhold the benefit of the other sacrament from them, to let them depart this world like Pagans without any thing as much as read unto them concerning the way of life, than as it doth in this necessity, to make such presbyters as are so far forth sufficient although they want that ability of preaching which some others have.
In this point therefore we obey necessity, and of two evils we take the less; in the rest a public utility is sought and in regard thereof some certain inconveniences tolerated, because they are recompensed with greater good. The law giveth liberty of non-residence for a time to such as will live in universities, if they faithfully there labour to grow in knowledge that so they may afterwards the more edify and the better instruct their congregations. The Church in their absence is not destitute, the people’s salvation not neglected for the present time, the time of their absence is in the intendment of law bestowed to the Church’s great advantage and benefit, those necessary helps are procured by it which turn by many degrees more to the people’s comfort in time to come than if their pastors had continually abidden with them. So that the law doth hereby provide in some part to remedy and help that evil which the former necessity hath imposed upon the Church. For compare two men of equal meanness, the one perpetually resident, the other absent for a space in such sort as the law permitteth. Allot unto both some nine years’ continuance with cure of souls. And must not three years’ absence in all probability and likelihood make the one more profitable than the other unto God’s Church, by so much as the increase of his knowledge gotten in those three years may add unto six years’ travail following? For the greater ability there is added to the instrument wherewith it pleaseth God to save souls, the more facility and expedition it hath to work that which is otherwise hardlier effected.
As much may be said touching absence granted to them that attend in the families of bishops, which schools of gravity, discretion and wisdom, preparing men against the time that they come to reside abroad, are in my poor opinion even the fittest places that any ingenuous mind can wish to enter into between departure from private study and access to a more public charge of souls, yea no less expedient for men of the best sufficiency and most maturity in knowledge, than the very universities themselves are for the ripening of such as be raw.
Employment in the families of noblemen or in princes’ courts hath another end for which the selfsame leave is given not without great respect to the good of the whole Church. For assuredly whosoever doth well observe how much all inferior things depend upon the orderly courses and motions of those greater orbs, will hardly judge it either meet or good that the Angels assisting them should be driven to betake themselves unto other stations, although by nature they were not tied where now they are, but had charge also elsewhere, as long as their absence from beneath might but tolerably be supplied, and by descending their rooms above should become vacant. For we are not to dream in this case of any platform which bringeth equally high and low unto parish churches, nor of any constraint to maintain at their own charge men sufficient for that purpose; the one so repugnant to the majesty and greatness of English nobility, the other so improbable and unlikely to take effect that they which mention either of both seem not indeed to have conceived what either is. But the eye of law is the eye of God; it looketh into the hearts and secret dispositions of men, it beholdeth how far one star differeth from another in glory, and as men’s several degrees require, accordingly it guideth them, granting unto principal personages privileges correspondent to their high estates, and that not only in civil but even in spiritual affairs, to the end they may love that religion the more which no way seeketh to make them vulgar, no way diminisheth their dignity and greatness, but to do them good doth them honour also, and by such extraordinary favours teacheth them to be in the Church of God the same which the Church of God esteemeth them, more worth than thousands.
It appeareth therefore in what respect the laws of this realm have given liberty of non-residence; to some that their knowledge may be increased and their labours by that mean be made afterwards the more profitable, to others lest the houses of great men should want that daily exercise of religion wherein their example availeth as much yea many times peradventure more than the laws themselves with the common sort.
A third thing respected both in permitting absence and also in granting to some that liberty of addition or plurality which necessarily enforceth their absence is a mere both just and conscionable regard, that as men are in quality and as their services are in weight for the public good, so likewise their rewards and encouragements by special privilege of law might somewhat declare how the state itself doth accept their pains, much abhorring from their bestial and savage rudeness which think that oxen should only labour and asses feed. Thus to readers in universities, whose very paper and book expenses their ancient allowances and stipends at this day do either not or hardly sustain; to governors of colleges, lest the great overplus of charges necessarily enforced upon them by reason of their place, and very slenderly supplied by means of that change in the present condition of things which their founders could not foresee; to men called away from their cures and employed in weightier business either of the church or commonwealth, because to impose upon them a burden which requireth their absence and not to release them from the duty of residence were a kind of cruel and barbarous injustice; to residents in cathedral churches or upon dignities ecclesiastical, forasmuch as these being rooms of greater hospitality, places of more respect and consequence than the rest, they are the rather to be furnished with men of best quality, and the men for their quality’s sake to be favoured above others; I say unto all these in regard of their worth and merit the law hath therefore given leave while themselves bear weightier burdens to supply inferior by deputation, and in like consideration partly, partly also by way of honour to learning, nobility, and authority, permitteth that men which have taken theological degrees in schools, the suffragans of bishops, the household chaplains of men of honour or in great office, the brethren and sons of lords temporal or of knights, if God shall move the hearts of such to enter at any time into holy orders, may obtain to themselves a faculty or license to hold two ecclesiastical livings though having cure, any spiritual person of the Queen’s council three such livings, her chaplains what number of promotions herself in her own princely wisdom thinketh good to bestow upon them.
But, as it fareth in such cases, the gap which for just considerations we open unto some letteth in others through corrupt practices to whom such favours were neither meant nor should be communicated. The greatness of the harvest and the scarcity of able workmen hath made it necessary that law should yield to admit numbers of men but slenderly and meanly qualified. Hereupon because whom all other worldly hopes have forsaken they commonly reserve ministerial vocation as their last and surest refuge ever open to forlorn men, the Church that should nourish them whose service she needeth hath obtruded upon her their service that know not otherwise how to live and sustain themselves. These finding nothing more easy than means to procure the writing of a few lines to some one or other which hath authority, and nothing more usual than too much facility in condescending unto such requests, are often received into that vocation whereunto their unworthiness is no small disgrace.
Did any thing more aggravate the crime of Jeroboam’s profane apostasy than that he chose to have his clergy the scum and refuse of his whole land? Let no man spare to tell it them, they are not faithful towards God that burden wilfully his Church with such swarms of unworthy creatures. I will not say of all degrees in the ministry that which St. Chrysostom25 doth of the highest, “He that will undertake so weighty a charge had need to be a man of great understanding, rarely assisted with divine grace, for integrity of manners, purity of life, and for all other virtues, to have in him more than a man:” but surely this I will say with Chrysostom, “We need not doubt whether God be highly displeased with us, or what the cause of his anger is, if things of so great fear and holiness as are the least and lowest duties of his service be thrown wilfully on them whose not only mean but bad and scandalous quality doth defile whatsoever they handle.” These eyesores and blemishes in continual attendants about the service of God’s sanctuary do make them every day fewer that willingly resort unto it, till at length all affection and zeal towards God be extinct in them, through a wearisome contempt of their persons which for a time only live by religion and are for recompense in fine the death of the nurse that feedeth them. It is not obscure how incommodious the Church hath found both this abuse of the liberty which law is enforced to grant, and not only this but the like abuse of that favour also which law in other considerations already mentioned affordeth touching residence and plurality of spiritual livings.
Now that which is practised corruptly to the detriment and hurt of the Church against the purpose of those very laws which notwithstanding are pretended in defence and justification thereof, we must needs acknowledge no less repugnant to the grounds and principles of common right than the fraudulent proceedings of tyrants to the principles of just sovereignty. Howbeit not so those special privileges which are but instruments wrested and forced to serve malice.
There is in the patriarch of heathen philosophers this precept, “Let no husbandman nor no handicraftsman be a priest26.” The reason whereupon he groundeth is a maxim in the law of nature, “it importeth greatly the good of all men that God be reverenced,” with whose honour it standeth not that they which are publicly employed in his service should live of base and manuary trades. Now compare herewith the Apostle’s words27. “Ye know that these hands have ministered to my necessities and to them that are with me.” What think we? Did the Apostle any thing opposite herein or repugnant to the rules and maxims of the law of nature? The selfsame reasons that accord his actions with the law of nature shall declare our privileges and his laws no less consonant.
Thus therefore we see that although they urge very colourably the Apostle’s own sentences, requiring that a minister should be able to divide rightly the word of God, that they who are placed in charge should attend unto it themselves which in absence they cannot do, and that they which have divers cures must of necessity be absent from some, whereby the law apostolic seemeth apparently broken, which law requiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so as to charge them with perpetual residence; again though in every of these causes they infinitely heap up the sentences of Fathers, the decrees of popes, the ancient edicts of imperial authority, our own national laws and ordinances prohibiting the same and grounding evermore their prohibitions partly on the laws of God and partly on reasons drawn from the light of nature, yet hereby to gather and infer contradiction between those laws which forbid indefinitely and ours which in certain cases have allowed the ordaining of sundry ministers whose sufficiency for learning is but mean, again the licensing of some to be absent from their flocks, and of others to hold more than one only living which hath cure of souls, I say to conclude repugnancy between these especial permissions and the former general prohibitions which set not down their own limits is erroneous, and the manifest cause thereof ignorance in differences of matter which both sorts of law concern.
If then the considerations be reasonable, just and good, whereupon we ground whatsoever our laws have by special right permitted; if only the effects of abused privileges be repugnant to the maxims of common right, this main foundation of repugnancy being broken whatsoever they have built thereupon falleth necessarily to ground. Whereas therefore upon surmise or vain supposal of opposition between our special and the principles of common right they gather that such as are with us ordained ministers before they can preach be neither lawful, because the laws already mentioned forbid generally to create such, neither are they indeed ministers although we commonly so name them, but whatsoever they execute by virtue of such their pretended vocation is void; that all our grants and tolerations as well of this as the rest are frustrate and of no effect, the persons that enjoy them possess them wrongfully and are deprivable at all hours; finally that other just and sufficient remedy of evils there can be none besides the utter abrogation of these our mitigations and the strict establishment of former ordinances to be absolutely executed whatsoever follow; albeit the answer already made in discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they have built these erroneous collections may be thought sufficient, yet because our desire is rather to satisfy if it be possible than to shake them off, we are with very good will contented to declare the causes of all particulars more formally and largely than the equity of our own defence doth require.
There is crept into the minds of men at this day a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit that the greatest perfection of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other men’s faults, and in wit to discourse of our own profession. When the world most abounded with just, righteous, and perfect men, their chiefest study was the exercise of piety, wherein for their safest direction they reverently hearkened to the readings of the law of God, they kept in mind the oracles and aphorisms of wisdom which tended unto virtuous life, if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of actions which they took in hand, nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had, for fear lest rashly they might offend. We are now more confident, not that our knowledge and judgment is riper, but because our desires are another way. Their scope was obedience, ours is skill; their endeavour was reformation of life, our virtue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice28; they in the practice of their religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands, we especially our ears and tongues. We are grown as in many things else so in this to a kind of intemperancy which (only sermons excepted) hath almost brought all other duties of religion out of taste. At the least they are not in that account and reputation which they should be.
Now because men bring all religion in a manner to the only office of hearing sermons, if it chance that they who are thus conceited do embrace any special opinion different from other men, the sermons that relish not that opinion can in no wise please their appetite. Such therefore as preach unto them but hit not the string they look for are respected as unprofitable, the rest as unlawful and indeed no ministers if the faculty of sermons want29. For why? A minister of the word should they say be able “rightly to divide the word30.” Which apostolic canon many think they do well observe, when in opening the sentences of holy Scripture they draw all things favourably spoken unto one side; but whatsoever is reprehensive, severe, and sharp, they have others on the contrary part whom that must always concern; by which their over partial and unindifferent proceeding while they thus labour amongst the people to divide the word, they make the word a mean to divide and distract the people.
Ὀρθοτομει̑ν “to divide aright” doth note in the Apostles’ writings soundness of doctrine only; and in meaning standeth opposite to καινοτομει̑ν “the broaching of new opinions against that which is received.” For questionless the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere truth. Which whosoever did afterwards oppugn could not choose but divide the Church into two moieties, in which division such as taught what was first believed held the truer part, the contrary side in that they were teachers of novelty erred.
For prevention of which evil there are in this church many singular and well-devised remedies, as namely the use of subscribing to the articles of religion before admission to degrees of learning or to any ecclesiastical living, the custom of reading the same articles and of approving them in public assemblies wheresoever men have benefices with cure of souls, the order of testifying under their hands allowance of the book of common prayer and the book of ordaining ministers, finally the discipline and moderate severity which is used either in otherwise correcting or silencing them that trouble and disturb the Church with doctrines which tend unto innovation, it being better that the Church should want altogether the benefit of such men’s labours than endure the mischief of their inconformity to good laws; in which case if any repine at the course and proceedings of justice, they must learn to content themselves with the answer of M. Curius31, which had sometime occasion to cut off one from the body of the commonwealth, in whose behalf because it might have been pleaded that the party was a man serviceable, he therefore began his judicial sentence with this preamble, “Non esse opus reip. eo cive qui parere nesciret: The commonwealth needeth men of quality, yet never those men which have not learned how to obey.”
But the ways which the church of England taketh to provide that they who are teachers of others may do it soundly, that the purity and unity as well of ancient discipline as doctrine may be upheld, that avoiding singularities we may all glorify God with one heart and one tongue, they of all men do least approve, that most urge the Apostle’s rule and canon. For which cause they allege it not so much to that purpose, as to prove that unpreaching ministers (for so they term them) can have no true nor lawful calling in the Church of God. St. Augustine32 hath said of the will of man that “simply to will proceedeth from nature, but our well-willing is from grace.” We say as much of the minister of God, “publicly to teach and instruct the Church is necessary in every ecclesiastical minister, but ability to teach by sermons is a grace which God doth bestow on them whom he maketh sufficient for the commendable discharge of their duty.” That therefore wherein a minister differeth from other Christian men is not as some have childishly imagined the “sound preaching of the word of God33,” but as they are lawfully and truly governors to whom authority of regiment is given in the commonwealth according to the order which polity hath set, so canonical ordination in the Church of Christ is that which maketh a lawful minister as touching the validity of any act which appertaineth to that vocation. The cause why St. Paul willed Timothy not to be over hasty in ordaining ministers was (as we very well may conjecture) because imposition of hands doth consecrate and make them ministers whether they have gifts and qualities fit for the laudable discharge of their duties or no. If want of learning and skill to preach did frustrate their vocation, ministers ordained before they be grown unto that maturity should receive new ordination whensoever it chanceth that study and industry doth make them afterwards more able to perform the office, than which what conceit can be more absurd? Was not St. Augustine himself contented to admit an assistant in his own church34, a man of small erudition; considering that what he wanted in knowledge was supplied by those virtues which made his life a better orator than more learning could make others whose conversation was less holy? Were the priests sithence Moyses all able and sufficient men learnedly to interpret the law of God? or was it ever imagined that this defect should frustrate what they executed, and deprive them of right unto any thing they claimed by virtue of their priesthood? Surely as in magistrates the want of those gifts which their office needeth is cause of just imputation of blame in them that wittingly choose unsufficient and unfit men when they might do otherwise, and yet therefore is not their choice void, nor every action of magistracy frustrate in that respect: so whether it were of necessity or even of very carelessness that men unable to preach should be taken in pastors’ rooms, nevertheless it seemeth to be an error in them which think that the lack of any such perfection defeateth utterly their calling.
To wish that all men were so qualified as their places and dignities require, to hate all sinister and corrupt dealings which hereunto are any let; to covet speedy redress of those things whatsoever whereby the Church sustaineth detriment, these good and virtuous desires cannot offend any but ungodly minds. Notwithstanding some in the true vehemency, and others under the fair pretence of these desires, have adventured that which is strange, that which is violent and unjust. There are35, which in confidence of their general allegations concerning the knowledge, the residence, and the single livings of ministers, presume not only to annihilate the solemn ordinations of such as the Church must of force admit, but also to urge a kind of universal proscription against them, to set down articles, to draw commissions, and almost to name themselves of the Quorum for inquiry into men’s estates and dealings, whom at their pleasure they would deprive and make obnoxious to what punishment themselves list; and that not for any violation of laws either spiritual or civil, but because men have trusted the laws too far, because they have held and enjoyed the liberty which law granteth, because they had not the wit to conceive as these men do that laws were made to entrap the simple by permitting those things in show and appearance which indeed should never take effect, forasmuch as they were but granted with a secret condition to be put in practice “if they should be profitable and agreeable with the word of God;” which condition failing in all ministers that cannot preach, in all that are absent from their livings, and in all that have divers livings, (for so it must be presumed though never as yet proved,) therefore as men which have broken the law of God and nature they are deprivable at all hours. Is this the justice of that discipline whereunto all Christian churches must stoop and submit themselves? Is this the equity wherewith they labour to reform the world?
I will no way diminish the force of those arguments whereupon they ground. But if it please them to behold the visage of these collections in another glass, there are civil as well as ecclesiastical unsufficiencies, non-residences, and pluralities; yea the reasons which light of nature hath ministered against both are of such affinity that much less they cannot enforce in the one than in the other.
When they that bear great offices be persons of mean worth, the contempt whereinto their authority groweth weakeneth the sinews of the whole state36. Notwithstanding where many governors are needful and they not many whom their quality can commend, the penury of worthier must needs make the meaner sort of men capable37.
Cities in the absence of their governors are as ships wanting pilots at sea. But were it therefore justice to punish whom superior authority pleaseth to call from home38, or alloweth to be employed elsewhere?
In committing many offices to one man39 there are apparently these inconveniences: the commonwealth doth lose the benefit of serviceable men which might be trained up in those rooms; it is not easy for one man to discharge many men’s duties well; in service of warfare and navigation were it not the overthrow of whatsoever is undertaken, if one or two should engross such offices as being now divided into many hands are discharged with admirable both perfection and expedition?
Nevertheless be it far from the mind of any reasonable man to imagine, that in these considerations princes either ought of duty to revoke all such kind of grants though made with very special respect to the extraordinary merit of certain men, or might in honour demand of them the resignation of their offices with speech to this or the like effect: “Forasmuch as you A.B. by the space of many years have done us that faithful service in most important affairs, for which we always judging you worthy of much honour have therefore committed unto you from time to time very great and weighty offices, which offices hitherto you quietly enjoy; we are now given to understand that certain grave and learned men have found in the books of ancient philosophers divers arguments drawn from the common light of nature, and declaring the wonderful discommodities which use to grow by dignities thus heaped together in one: for which cause at this present moved in conscience and tender care for the public good we have summoned you hither, to dispossess you of those places and to depose you from those rooms, whereof indeed by virtue of our own grant, yet against reason, you are possessed. Neither ought you, or any other, to think us rash, light, or unconstant, in so doing. For we tell you plain that herein we will both say and do that thing which the noble and wise emperor sometimes both said and did in a matter of far less weight than this, ‘Quod inconsulto fecimus consulto revocamus,’ ‘That which we unadvisedly have done we advisedly will revoke and undo.’ ”
Now for mine own part the greatest harm I would wish them who think that this were consonant with equity and right, is that they might but live where all things are with such kind of justice ordered, till experience have taught them to see their error.
As for the last thing which is incident into the cause whereof we speak, namely what course were the best and safest whereby to remedy such evils as the Church of God may sustain where the present liberty of the law is turned to great abuse, some light we may receive from abroad not unprofitable for direction of God’s own sacred house and family. The Romans being a people full of generosity and by nature courteous did no way more show their gentle disposition than by easy condescending to set their bondmen at liberty. Which benefit in the happier and better times of the commonwealth was bestowed for the most part as an ordinary reward of virtue, some few now and then also purchasing freedom with that which their just labours could gain and their honest frugality save. But as the empire daily grew up so the manners and conditions of men decayed, wealth was honoured and virtue not cared for, neither did any thing seem opprobrious out of which there might rise commodity and profit, so that it could be no marvel in a state thus far degenerated, if when the more ingenuous sort were become base, the baser laying aside all shame and face of honesty did some by robberies, burglaries, and prostitutions of their bodies gather wherewith to redeem liberty; others obtain the same at the hands of their lords by serving them as vile instruments in those attempts which had been worthy to be revenged with ten thousand deaths. A learned, judicious, and polite historian having mentioned so foul disorders giveth his judgment and censure of them in this sort40: “Such eye-sores in the commonwealth have occasioned many virtuous minds to condemn altogether the custom of granting liberty to any bondslave, forasmuch as it seemed a thing absurd that a people which commanded all the world should consist of so vile refuse. But neither is this the only custom wherein the profitable inventions of former are depraved by later ages, and for myself I am not of their opinion that wish the abrogation of so grossly used customs, which abrogation might peradventure be cause of greater inconveniences ensuing, but as much as may be I would rather advise that redress were sought through the careful providence of chief rulers and overseers of the commonwealth, by whom a yearly survey being made of all that are manumised, they which seem worthy might be taken and divided into tribes with other citizens, the rest dispersed into colonies abroad or otherwise disposed of that the commonwealth might sustain neither harm nor disgrace by them.”
The ways to meet with disorders growing by abuse of laws are not so intricate and secret, especially in our case, that men should need either much advertisement or long time for the search thereof. And if counsel to that purpose may seem needful, this Church (God be thanked) is not destitute of men endued with ripe judgment whensoever any such thing shall be thought necessary. For which end at this present to propose any special inventions of mine own might argue in a man of my place and calling more presumption perhaps than wit.
I will therefore leave it entire unto graver consideration, ending now with request only and most earnest suit: first that they which give ordination would as they tender the very honour of Jesus Christ, the safety of men and the endless good of their own souls, take heed lest unnecessarily and through their default the Church be found worse or less furnished than it might be:
Secondly that they which by right of patronage have power to present unto spiritual livings, and may in that respect much damnify the Church of God, would for the ease of their own account in the dreadful day somewhat consider what it is to betray for gain the souls which Christ hath redeemed with blood, what to violate the sacred bond of fidelity and solemn promise given at the first to God and his Church by them, from whose original interest together with the selfsame title of right the same obligation of duty likewise is descended:
Thirdly that they unto whom the granting of dispensations is committed, or which otherwise have any stroke in the disposition of such preferments as appertain unto learned men, would bethink themselves what it is to respect any thing either above or besides merit; considering how hardly the world taketh it when to men of commendable note and quality there is so little respect had, or so great unto them whose deserts are very mean, that nothing doth seem more strange than the one sort because they are not accounted of, and the other because they are; it being every man’s hope and expectation in the church of God especially that the only purchase of greater rewards should be always greater deserts, and that nothing should ever be able to plant a thorn where a vine ought to grow:
Fourthly that honourable personages, and they who by virtue of any principal office in the commonwealth are enabled to qualify a certain number and make them capable of favours or faculties above others, suffer not their names to be abused contrary to the true intent and meaning of wholesome laws by men in whom there is nothing notable besides covetousness and ambition:
Fifthly that the graver and wiser sort in both universities, or whosoever they be with whose approbation the marks and recognizances of all learning are bestowed, would think the Apostle’s caution against unadvised ordinations not impertinent or unnecessary to be borne in mind even when they grant those degrees of schools, which degrees are not gratiæ gratis datæ, kindnesses bestowed by way of humanity, but they are gratiæ gratum facientes, favours which always imply a testimony given to the Church and commonwealth concerning men’s sufficiency for manners and knowledge, a testimony upon the credit whereof sundry statutes of the realm are built, a testimony so far available that nothing is more respected for the warrant of divers men’s abilities to serve in the affairs of the realm, a testimony wherein if they violate that religion wherewith it ought to be always given, and do thereby induce into error such as deem it a thing uncivil to call the credit thereof in question, let them look that God shall return back upon their heads and cause them in the state of their own corporations to feel either one way or other the punishment of those harms which the Church through their negligence doth sustain in that behalf:
Finally and to conclude, that they who enjoy the benefit of any special indulgence or favour which the laws permit would as well remember what in duty towards the Church and in conscience towards God they ought to do, as what they may do by using to their own advantage whatsoever they see tolerated; no man being ignorant that the cause why absence in some cases hath been yielded unto and in equity thought sufferable is the hope of greater fruit through industry elsewhere; the reason likewise wherefore pluralities are allowed unto men of note, a very sovereign and special care that as fathers in the ancient world did declare the preeminence of priority in birth by doubling the worldly portions of their first-born, so the Church by a course not unlike in assigning men’s rewards might testify an estimation had proportionably of their virtues, according to the ancient rule apostolic, “They which excel in labour ought to excel in honour41;” and therefore unless they answer faithfully the expectation of the Church herein, unless sincerely they bend their wits day and night both to sow because they reap, and to sow as much more abundantly as they reap more abundantly than other men, whereunto by their very acceptance of such benignities they formally bind themselves, let them be well assured that the honey which they eat with fraud shall turn in the end into true gall, forasmuch as laws are the sacred image of his wisdom who most severely punisheth those colourable and subtle crimes that seldom are taken within the walk of human justice42.
I therefore conclude that the grounds and maxims of common right, whereupon ordinations of ministers unable to preach, tolerations of absence from their cures, and the multiplications of their spiritual livings are disproved, do but indefinitely enforce them unlawful, not unlawful universally and without exception; that the laws which indefinitely are against all these things, and the privileges which make for them in certain cases are not the one repugnant to the other; that the laws of God and nature are violated through the effects of abused privileges; that neither our ordinations of men unable to make sermons nor our dispensations for the rest, can be justly proved frustrate by virtue of any such surmised opposition between the special laws of this Church which have permitted and those general which are alleged to disprove the same; that when privileges by abuse are grown incommodious there must be redress: that for remedy of such evils there is no necessity the Church should abrogate either in whole or in part the specialties before-mentioned; and that the most to be desired were a voluntary reformation thereof on all hands which may give passage unto any abuse43.
← Of Ordinations lawful without Title, and wit · Contents · Chapter 1 →
Footnotes
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T. C. lib. i. p. 70. 66. 69. [51, 46, 50; Def. 235-246. T. C. ii. 330-356. The references to the Scriptures here are all from T. C. On Pluralities see also Def. 246-251; T. C. ii. 356-361; Decl. of Disc. 89-100; Eccl. Disc. 68-76, and 30-32.] ↩
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1 Tim. iii. 2; Titus i. 9; 2 Tim. ii. 15. ↩
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Hosea iv. 6. ↩
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Matt. xv. 14. ↩
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Luke ii. 8. ↩
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Acts xx. 2. ↩
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1 Sam. i. 19. [9-18.] ↩
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1 Tim. iv. 12. ↩
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S. John x. 4. ↩
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1 Pet. v. 2. ↩
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Acts xx. 28. ↩
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1 Thess. ii. 17. ↩
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Concil. Nic. can. 15. [i.e. of the second Nicene Council, 787. ed. Labb. vii. 609. Κληρικὸς ἀπὸ του̑ παρὀντος μὴ κατατασσέσθω ἐν δυσὶν ἐκκλησίαις· ἐμπορίας γὰρ καὶ αἰσχροκερδείας ἴδιον του̑το, καὶ ἀλλότριον ἐκκλὴσιαστικη̑ς συνηθείας. ἠκούσαμεν γὰρ ἐξ αὐτη̑ς τη̑ς κυριακη̑ς ϕωνη̑ς, ὅτι οὐ δύναταί τις δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· … ἕκαστος οὐ̑ν κατὰ τὴν ἀποστολικὴν ϕωνὴν, ἐν ᾠ̑ ἐκλήθη, ἐν τούτῳ ὀϕείλει μένειν.] ↩
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Matt. vi. 24. ↩
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1 Cor. vii. 24. ↩
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Acts xx. 28. ↩
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2 Tim. iv. 1. ↩
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Jer. xxiii. 1-4. ↩
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Ezek. xxxiv. 2, 8, 10. ↩
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Abstract, p. 117. [“Whatsoever ratifieth a thing monstrous and against nature, the same may not be privileged by the law of man. But dispensations for pluralities ratify monstrous things, and things against nature. Therefore, &c… . The second proposition … I prove from the etymology or description of a privilege or dispensation: for a privilege and a dispensation in effect signify both one thing. ‘Privilegium dicitur, quod emanat contra jus commune in favorem aliquarum personarum: super prohibitis dispensatur, quia permissa jure communi expediuntur, prohibita vero dispensatione essent.’ [l. egent.] ‘A privilege is said,’ &c. By which descriptions of a privilege and dispensation, it is apparent, that a privilege and dispensation for pluralities must license and authorize that that the law against plurality doth infringe and disallow, and so be a law contrariant and repugnant to the law against pluralities; but the law against pluralities is the law of nature and the law of God. Therefore a privilege or dispensation for pluralities is against the law of nature and against the law of God: a more monstrous law was never established.”] ↩
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“Jus singulare est, quod contra tenorem rationis propter aliquam utilitatem auctoritate constituentium introductum est.” Paulus ff. de Legib. [Dig. lib. 1. tit. iii. 16.] ↩
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“Privilegium personale cum persona exstinguitur, et privilegium datum actioni transit cum actione.” Op. de Regulis, par. 1. 227. [The editor has not been able to verify this reference. In the Digest, l. xvii. 196, is the following: “Privilegia quædam causæ sunt, quædam personæ: et ideo quædam ad hæredem transmittuntur, quæ causæ sunt: quæ personæ sunt, ad hæredem non transeunt.”] ↩
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[“Of almost 10,000 parishes there are not much above 500 that are above 30l. in the Queen’s books.” Sutcliffe, False Semblant, &c. p. 69.] ↩
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Titus i. 9. ↩
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Chrysost. de Sacerd. lib. iii. c. 15. (= c. 7, 15.) [vi. 18. ed. Savile. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἁπλω̑ς τὸ κληθη̑ναι ποιμένα, καὶ μεταχειρίσαι τὸ πρα̑γμα ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἀρκει̑, καὶ κίνδυνος οὐδεὶς, ἐγκαλείτω κενοδοξίας ἡμω̑ν ὁ βουλόμενος· εἰ δὲ πολλὴν μὲν σύνεσιν πολλὴν δὲ πρὸ τη̑ς συνέσεως τὴν παρὰ του̑ Θεου̑ χάριν, καὶ τρόπων ὀρθότητα καὶ καθαρότητα βίου, καὶ μείζονα ἢ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον ἔχειν δει̑ τὴν ἀρετὴν τὸν ταύτην ἀναδεχόμενον τὴν ϕροντίδα, μή με ἀποστερήσῃς συγγνώμης μάτην ἀπολέσθαι μὴ βουλόμενον καὶ εἰκῃ̑. And p. 24. ἔτι οὐ̑ν ζητήσομεν, εἰπέ μοι, του̑ θεου̑ τη̑ς ὀργη̑ς τὴν αἰτίαν, πράγματα οὕτως ἅγια καὶ ϕρικωδέστατα ἀνθρώποις τοι̑ς μὲν πονηροι̑ς τοι̑ς δὲ οὐδενὸς ἀξίοις λυμαίνεσθαι παρασχόντες;] ↩
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Οὔτε γεωργὸν οὔτε βάναυσον ἱερέα καταστατέον· ὑπὸ γὰρ τω̑ν πολιτω̑ν πρέπει τιμα̑σθαι τοὺς θεούς. Arist. Polit. lib. vii. c. 9. ↩
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Acts xx. 34; 1 Cor. iv. 12; 1 Thess. ii. 9; 2 Thess. iii. 8. ↩
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Ἀλλ’ οἱ πολλοὶ ται̑τα μὲν οὐ πράττουσιν, ἐπὶ δὲ τὸν λόγον καταϕεύγοντες οἴονται ϕιλοσοϕει̑ν καὶ οὕτως ἔσεσθαι σπουδαι̑οι· ὅμοιόν τι ποιου̑ντες τοι̑ς κάμνουσιν οἳ τω̑ν ἰατρω̑ν ἀκούουσι μὲν ἐπιμελω̑ς ποιου̑σι δὲ οὐδὲν τω̑ν προσταττομένων· ὥσπερ οὐ̑ν οὐδὲ ἐκει̑νοι εὐ̑ ἕξουσι τὸ σω̑μα οὕτω θεραπευόμενοι, οὐδὲ οὑ̑τοι τὴν ψυχὴν οὕτω ϕιλοσοϕου̑ντες. Arist. Eth. lib. ii. cap. 3. ↩
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[Of unpreaching ministers see Adm. 5; Answ. 83; T. C. i. 50; Def. 251-254; T. C. ii. 363-392.] ↩
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[2 Tim. ii. 15.] ↩
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Valer. lib. vi. cap. 3. [§ 4.] ↩
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[The editor has not been able to find any sentence in St. Augustine having exactly this turn. The following perhaps comes as near the point as any: “Semper est in nobis voluntas libera, sed non semper est bona… Gratia vero Dei semper est bona et per hanc fit ut sit homo bonæ voluntatis, qui fuit prius voluntatis malæ.” De Grat. et lib. Arbitr. c. xv. t. x. 484 F.] (“Certum est nos velle, cum volumus: sed ille facit ut velimus bonum, de quo dictum est,” etc. De Grat. et Lib. Arbitr. c. xvi. § 32. Cf. c. xi. §§ 16, 17.) E. M. ↩
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Oxf. Man, p. 21. [The pamphlet quoted is, “M. Some laid open in his colours, &c.; done by an Oxford man, to his friend in Cambridge.” Of which see some account above, c. xxii. 19, n. 3, p. 112. “Simple reading, in what account soever it be amongst men, yet is it not as I conceive the thing that doth single out a minister from another Christian. It must be only (as I told you before) ‘the sound preaching of the word in a lawful function,’ &c. Bear witness I pray you that I speak here of sound preaching, i. e. of dividing the word aright, which the Apostle calleth ὀρθοτομει̑ν.”] ↩
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[Eraclius; see the account of his election in the Epistles of S. Aug. Ep. 213. t. ii. 788. But his want of erudition is not there mentioned.] ↩
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The Author of the Abstract. [See the Interrogatories proposed by him at the end of his work, p. 262-266.] ↩
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Μεγάλων κύριοι καθεστω̑τες ἂν εἰτελει̑ς ὡ̑σι μεγάλα βλάπτουσι. Arist. Polit. ii. cap. 11. ↩
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“Nec ignoro maximos honores ad parum dignos penuria meliorum solere deferri.” Mamertin. Paneg. ad Julian. [p. 231. ed. Plantin. 1599.] ↩
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“Neque enim æquum visum est absentem reipub. causa inter reos referri dum reipub. operatur.” Ulpian. [Digest. lib. xlviii. tit. v.] leg. 15. “Si maritus.” ad legem Juliam, de adulter. ↩
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Arist. Polit. lib. ii. cap. 11. See the like preamble framed by the Author of the Abstract, where he fancieth a bishop deposing one unapt to preach whom himself had before ordained. [p. 89, 90. “Sithence … . it is not expedient that faith be kept in wicked promises, I conclude the impossibility or iniquity of conditions to be performed by him that is made a minister to make the contract between the Bishop and him merely void and of none effect in law. And that the Bishop, according to the true intent and meaning of the laws whereof he hath the execution, ought to cite and ex officio to proceed and object against him in this sort: ‘You, A. B. parson of C. about twenty-four years past, at what time I had appointed a solemn day for making of Deacons and Ministers, and had called by my mandate men meet to serve the Lord in his holy services, to teach his people and to be examples to his flock, in honest life and godly conversation, came before me, making a great brag, and fair show of zeal and conscience, and of your knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, and that you would instruct them faithfully, and exhort them diligently in the doctrine of salvation by Christ, and in holiness of life: that you would exercise his discipline according to his commandment; and that you would be a peace maker; and all these things you faithfully promised and took upon you to perform, joining yourself openly to the Lord’s people in prayer, with a solemn vow. Now so it is, as I understand by your demeanour ever since, that in truth you had no other end, but to steal a living from the Church, though it were with the murder of many souls. You dishonoured the Lord, you made an open lie in his holy congregation, you circumvented me by guile, and by craft deluded me: you have ever since falsified your word, you have not preached one sermon these many years; you have not instructed one of your parish in the doctrine of salvation by Christ alone, you have not governed your family as became one of your coat, you have not exercised the discipline of Christ against any adulterer, and swearer, any drunkard, any breaker of the Lord’s Sabbaths; you have been and are a quarreller among your neighbours, you cite them to my consistory for toys and trifles, and so abuse my judgment seat; you are an example of evil, and not of goodness unto your flock: you meant no good faith at the first, you wittingly took upon you a charge which in your own conscience you knew was impossible for you to discharge: you profane the Lord’s most sacred name, in praying hypocritically before him: you have not since repented you of these iniquities, but have continued obstinate in the same; and therefore inasmuch as you for your part without any good conscience have gotten you a place in the ministry; I for my part moved by a good conscience, and for the same my conscience’ sake, to discharge my duty to the Lord, have summoned you publicly lawfully and rightly to dispossess you of that place, and depose you from that function, whereof though publicly yet unlawfully and unrightly you are possessed: neither ought you or any other to think me rash light or unconstant in so doing. For I tell you plain that herein I will both say and do that thing which the noble and wise emperor sometimes both said and did in a matter of far less weight than this: ‘Quod inconsulto fecimus, consulto revocamus:’ ‘That which we unadvisedly have done, we advisedly revoke and undo.’ And, sir, for your part, it is very necessary and expedient for you that we depose you indeed, because ‘tanto graviora sunt tua peccata quanto diutius infelicem animam detinent alligatam:’ ‘So much more grievous are your sins, by how much longer they have your unhappy soul fettered with their bolts.’ To do this or the like were in my simple understanding a noble and famous practice of a good and godly Bishop.”] ↩
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Dionys. Halicar. Rom. Antiq. lib. iv. c. 24. [Ἐτύγχανον τη̑ς ἐλευθερίας οἱ μἐν πλει̑στοι προι̑κα, διὰ καλοκἀγαθίαν· … ὀλίγοι δέ τινες λύτρα κατατιθέντες ἐξ ὁσίων καὶ δικαίων ἐργασιω̑ν συναχθέντα· ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐν τοι̑ς καθ’ ἡμα̑ς χρόνοις οὕτω ταυ̑τ’ ἔχει· … οἱ μὲν ἀπὸ λῃστείας, καὶ τοιχωρυχίας, καὶ πορνείας, καὶ παντὸς ἄλλου πονηρου̑ πόρου χρηματισάμενοι, τούτων ὠνου̑νται τω̑ν χρημάτων τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, καὶ εὐθύς εἰσι Ῥωμαι̑οι· οἱ δὲ, συνίστορες καὶ συνεργοὶ τοι̑ς δεσπόταις γενόμενοι … μυρίων ἄξια διαπεπραγμένοι θανάτων· εἰς τούτους μέντοι … ἀποβλέποντες οἱ πολλοὶ δυσχεραίνουσι, καὶ προβέβληνται τὸ ἔθος, ὡς οὐ πρέπον ἡγεμονικῃ̑ πόλει, καὶ παντὸς ἄρχειν ἀξιούσῃ τόπου, τοιούτους πολίτας ποιει̑σθαι. ἔχοι δ’ ἄν τις πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα διαβάλλειν ἔθη, καλω̑ς μὲν ὑπὸ τω̑ν ἀρχαίων ἐπινοηθέντα, κακω̑ς δ’ ὑπὸ τω̑ν νυ̑ν ἐπιτριβόμενα. ἐγὼ δὲ τὸν νόμον οὐκ οἴομαι του̑τον δει̑ν ἀναιρει̑ν, μή τι μει̑ζον ἐκραγῃ̑ τῳ̑ κοινῳ̑ δι’ αὐτου̑ κακόν. ἐπανορθου̑σθαι μέντοι ϕημὶ δει̑ν τὰ δυνατὰ … καὶ μάλιστα μὲν τοὺς τιμητὰς ἀξιώσαιμι ἂν τούτου του̑ μέρους προνοει̑ν. εἰ δὲ μὴ, τοὺς ὑπάτους· … . οἳ τοὺς καθ’ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν ἐλευθέρους γινομένους ἐξετάσουσι… . . ἔπειθ’ οὓς μὲν ἂν εὕρωσιν ἀξίους τη̑ς πολέως ὄντας, εἰς ϕύλας καταγράψωσι… τὸ δὲ μιαρὸν καὶ ἀκάθαρτον ϕυ̑λον ἐκβάλωσιν … εὐπρεπὲς ὄνομα τῳ̑ πράγματι θέντες, ἀποικίαν.] ↩
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[1 Tim. v. 17.] ↩
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For the main hypothesis or foundation of these conclusions, let that before set down in the ninth, be read together with this last, the eighty-first paragraph. ↩
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[The Bodl. MS. adds: Finis. liber quintus. The 1st edition has these words: “To the Reader. Have patience with me for a small time, and by the helpe of Almightie God I will pay the whole. Faults escaped in the printing of this part, especially these ensuing need amendment.” Then follow eight errata.] 1887. ↩