empowered and charged by the one hundred and thirteenth and following canons to join with them in presenting, if need be; or to present alone, if they refuse. This naturally implies, what the twenty-sixth canon expresses, that the minister is to urge the churchwardens to perform that part of their office. Indeed your first endeavour should be, by due instructions and exhortations, to hinder such offences; your next, by due reproofs, public or private, to amend them. But if both prove ineffectual, what remains is, to get them corrected by authority. I am perfectly sensible, that both immorality and irreligion are grown almost beyond the reach of ecclesiastical power: which having in former times been very unwarrantably extended, hath since been very unjustly and imprudently cramped and weakened many ways. I am sensible also, that sometimes churchwardens, nay even ministers, are so dependent on persons, who deserve to be presented, that they cannot present them without imminent hazard of ruining themselves and farther still, that some offenders, if they were thus exposed, would only become worse, and set themselves to make others worse; while some again, as the Apostle expresses it in this very case, would be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow *. Now surely it cannot have been designed by our gracious Redeemer, or the rulers of his church, that the power of spiritual censures, which the same Apostle hath twice declared the Lord to have given for edification, not for destruction †, should be exercised in circumstances like these. Therefore when circumstances are evidently and undeniably of this kind, I think you should not insist on your churchwardens' presenting. But there is much more danger of their being guilty : VOL. V. • 2 Cor. ii. 7. + 2 Cor. x. 8. and xiii. 10. D d of too great remissness, than running into overmuch rigour. And therefore you must advise and intreat them to make presentments of sinners, where probably it will be useful; and to contemn the displeasure of bad people, when it can have no extremely ill consequences, (of which there is commonly much more fear than is necessary), for the hope of their amendment and the good of others round them. The very office of churchwardens obliges them to this: their oath yet more firmly. If they are backward still, after being told it doth; you must acquaint them, that you are directed by the twenty-sixth canon (in the execution of which however, as in all points of discipline, discretion should be used), to refuse them the holy communion; not indeed for every neglect of presenting offences, but if they wilfully neglect it in desperate defiance of their oath, when they are urged to it by their neighbours, their minister, or ordinary: for so the same canon describes the case: in which case likewise you will inform them, the court is authorized, by canon one hundred and seventeen, to proceed against them for perjury. But, along with these terrors, you will be sure to join fitting encouragements. You will promise to defend them to the parishioners, and even to the person presented, as doing only their duty. You will assure them, as you may, first, that the court will take notice of their presentments, no farther, than is proper; so that they shall not incur the displeasure of the offenders and their friends for nothing; then, that it will proceed, not with a view to gain, but to reformation and example; not with excessive, nor, if it can be avoided, with the utmost rigour, but with equity and moderation. If all this be unsuccessful, you must, in cases that require it, offer to join with them, or even resolve to present without them. But you must never take any step in these matters, much less the more extraordinary steps, from motives of resentment, interest, or party. If such inducements can be with any colour of reason imputed to you, they will so grievously discredit what you do, that probably you had better do nothing. But only take care to shew, that you act merely from good intention, accompanied with temper and prudence, after trying gentler methods in vain: and some will vindicate, and even applaud you: more will inwardly and silently respect you: and the number of the rest will not be formidable. But then whoever brings a complaint, must enable the court to take due cognizance of it: else presentments will be despised; and the consequences be worse, than if they had not been made. Evidence must of necessity be furnished: otherwise there can be no proceeding. Expences, I hope I may promise, will be as low as possible; and they should be cheerfully borne for the good of the parish and the public. It is not reasonable that the court should bear them. Temporal courts never do. And besides, there is room for plausible, though unjust, suspicions of partiality, where the judge appears to be in effect prosecutor too, and is interested in condemning the party accused. Wen persons are presented, you must use your best endeavours to make them sorry, not merely that they are in danger of being punished, but principally that they have sinned: and in proportion as you suceeed in that, recommend them to such favour, as can be shewn them. When persons are excommunicated (which I heartily wish no one ever was but for crimes, though indeed a wilful contempt of authority is a great crime), you must press them to consider se riously, how they would be affected, if a physician or a lawyer of eminence pronounced their case desperate; and of how much greater importance the concerns of eternity are, than those of time. You must also admonish them, that slighting a censure, passed on them for their amendment, will make their condition still more deplorable. And when they have been denounced excommunicate, by the eighty-fifth canon, the churchwardens are to see, that in every meeting of the congregation they be kept out of the church. Nor must you suffer them to be sureties for children in baptism, to receive the holy eucharist, or to have Christian burial. Farther, if they continue without absolution for three months, the sixty-fifth canon directs you to declare them excommunicate in the parish-church every half-year; that others, meaning such as have no necessary connexions with them, may thereby be admonished to refrain their company, and excited the rather to procure out a writ de excommunicato capiendo; that is, if the circumstances of the case make it requisite. Again, when persons do penance, you must be diligent to make them seriously sensible of the usefulness of such discipline; and the unspeakable obligations they have to the Gospel of Christ, which alone assures men of forgiveness on any terms. And lastly, both on all such, and all other fit occasions, you must remind your people, that however the censures of the church may be relaxed or evaded, the final judgment of God on obstinate sinners is both unavoidable and insupportable. Besides the presentment of persons who give offence, you are concerned likewise in that of things belonging to the church, which are not kept in good repair and order. I have already spoken to you concerning the repair of your houses and chancels : and enlarged on the reasons, why both, but especially the latter, should be always preserved not only in a firm and safe, but decent and respectable state. Now the same reasons hold in regard to the rest of the church and after you have set the example in your own part, you may with reputation and weight call on your parishioners to do what is proper in theirs. And indeed you are bound to it. For, as John of Athon hath justly observed*, Licet per consuetudinem exoneretur rector a sumptibus præstandis, non tamen eximitur a curâ et solicitudine impendendá. Thus far even the body of the church is still under your inspection; and if any thing be remarkably amiss there, and you take no notice; good and considerate persons will lament it, as a bad sign and of bad consequence: others will make your indifference a plea to excuse their own; and yet while they are glad of it, will be likely enough to condemn you for it: and perhaps be led by it to think meanly of religion, as well as of you. Besides, churchwardens have often but little sense of propriety in these matters: therefore you should labour to give them a sense of it: convince them, by reason and Scripture, of the honour due to the house of God, shew them, that their own honour too is interested; that a church in a handsome condition is a credit to the whole parish; and in particular to the officers, who have put it in that condition, and whose names will be long remembered on that account. They are often afraid of the expence. Argue with them, that things may be done gradually, and so the expence be rendered almost imperceptible: persuade them to lessen their expences in needless matters; in eating and drinking at visitations, and on other occasions, * Const. Othob. 17. verb. ad hoc tenentur. p. 113. |