Upon all which things I conclude, that the residence of the Pastor is necessary, & to doubt whe∣ther the Pastor ought to be resident amongest his flocke, is to doubt whether the watchman should be in his towre, the eye should be in the head, or the soule in the body, or the shephard amongest hys flocke, especally where the sheepe are continually in daunger of wolues, as in the land of Iurie, frō whence this similitude or maner of speach was taken, where they watched their flockes night and day, as I obserued before out of S. Luke.
The question is not whether the pastor ought to be resident or no, but of the time, the maner and kind of residence. No man must continually be absent, for that were alto∣gether to neglect his flocke: neither is it required that he be continually present, for that can not be. But if he neglect not his duetie in preaching, & performe other things requisite, although he be sundry times absent vpon the occasions before specified, yet is he not to be condemned, seyng it often times commeth to passe, yt such kind of men do most good, both in their Churches particularly, and in the Church generally.
Of the watchman and of the shephard I haue spoken before, and shewed wherin the si∣militude* 1.1 holdeth, & wherin it holdeth not: no one watchman is continually in ye towre, neither is it possible that he should be: it is sufficient if the towre be watched, & the chiefe watchman neglect not his duetie: the shephard also is not alwayes present wyth his shéepe, but sometime he leaueth them alone, when he hath folded thē, or brought them into a safe pasture, & sometimes he cōmitteth thē to his seruaunt, or to some o∣ther to be kept in his absence. The similitude of the eye and of the soule, in some pointes may be aptly applyed, but not in this of residence, for if either the eye be plucked out of the head, or the soule separated from the body, neither of them both can be restored again. But you must confesse that there be causes why a pastor may be absent frō his flocke without any such vncurable daunger: and therfore these similitudes in these cases of absence holde not.