and therefore the first distribution of it was into several Congregations which in Scripture are called by the name of Churches as being similar parts of the Catholick Church even as every breath of Air is called Air and every drop of water water For thus those Believers who were wont to assemble in any one particular house to worship God together are frequently called Churches as for instances the Church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila Rom. 16.5 The Church in the house of Nymphas 1 Cor. 16.19 The Church in the house of Philemon Col. 4.15 In which houses in all probability there was an upper Room Consecrated and set apart according to the Custom of the Jews for divine Worship in which upper Rooms not only the Believers of the Family but several other neighbouring Christians were wont to assemble for the publick exercise of Divine Worship And so where ever the Scripture speaks of several Churches in the same Country as for instances the Churches of Iudea Gal. 1.22 of Samaria and Galileâ— Acts 9.31 it is evident that by these Churches no more is meant but only the several Congregations of Believers in those several Churches But these Congregations growing numerous there was a second distribution made of them by which many of those Congregations neighbouring upon one another were collected into one body under one head or Bishop who was the common guide and Pastor of all the Members whether Lay or Clergy appertaining to them And these Collections of several Congregations under their several Bishops or Governours are in Scripture also frequently called Churches for thus for instance the Church of Corinth contained in it several Congregations and therefore though in the Dedication of his Epistle the Apostle calls it the Church of God in the singular number which is at Corinth 1 Cor. 1.2 yet in the Epistle he enjoyns that the women should keep silence in the Churches 1 Cor. 14.34 which is a plain Evidence that in that Church there were several Churches or Congregations and so also we read of the Churches of Asia and Syria Cilicia and Macedonia all which were large Countries and did without doubt contain in them several Congregations of Christians and thus also we read of the Church of Ierusalem in the singular number and so of Antioch Ephâ—sus c. which Churches doubtless consisted of several Congregations in and about thâ—se Populous Cities which were all united into one body under the care and inspection of one Bishop or Governour Now as the first distribution of the Catholick Church into distinct Congregations was made for the convenience of Worship it being impossible for the whole Church when it began to encrease and enlarge it self to celebrate the divine Offices by the Ministry of one and the same Pastor so this second dâ—stribution of it into particular Churches consisting of several Congregations was made for the convenience of Government and Discipline it being impossible for the whole Church to maintain its Order Government and Discipline under the single inspection of any one Bishop or Governour But yet notwithstanding thâ—se distributions the Churches unity still remains for as the Empire was but one notwithstanding that for the convenience of Society and Government it was distributed into several Cities and Regions and those into several Provinces because they were all incorporated together under one Civil head the Emperor so the Church is but one though for the convenience of Worship and Government it be distributed into several Congregations and those into several particular Churches or Episcopacies because they are all incorporate under one spiritual Head even Jesus Christ the supreme Bishop and Pastor of our Souls Sixthly It is the universal Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches under lawful Governours and Pastors and it is this indeed that constitutes them distinct Churches viz. their being joyned and united together under distinct Pastors and Governours For thus a single Congregation is a distinct Church because all the Members of it do locally Communicate together in all the Offices of Divine Worship administred to them by a distinct Pastor and so also a Collection of several Congregations is a distinct Church because they all participate together of the direction and conduct of a distinct Governour For as I shewed before the reason of these distributions of the Catholick Church first into single Congregations was the Convenience of Worship and then into several Collections of several Congregations was the Convenience of Government and therefore since that which serves the convenience of Worship is the having distinct Pastors to administer it and that which serves the convenience of Government is the having distinct Rulers to exercise it it hence necessarily follows that that which makes a Congregation a distinct distribution of the Catholick Church must be its worshipping together under a distinct Pastor and that which makes a Collection of Congregations a distinct distribution of the Catholick Church must be its being united together under a distinct Governour because without their Pastor or their Governour they want the formal reason of their being distributed into distinct Churches And indeed there is no Church whatsoever whether it be a single Congregation or a Collection of Congregations can act as a Church without a Pastor or Governour No Congregation can lawfully communicate in the publick Offices of Divine Worship without a lawful Pastor to administer it no Collection of Congregations can lawfully exert any act of Church-Government without having an authorized Governour to exercise it For the administration of all Church-Offices is committed by our Saviour into the hands of the Churches Officers it is to them that he hath given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. Authority to admit or exclude or readmit men into the Communion of the Church It is they alone whom he hath made the Keepers of the Seals of the New Covenant viz. Baptism and the Lord's Supper they alone whom he hath authorized to teach the Gospel to bless the People and to offer up the Publick Prayers of Christian Assemblies And these are the proper acts of a Church considered as a Church so that without Pastors or Governours there is no Church can perform any of those acts that are proper to a Church and therefore since all action proceeds from the Essence of the Agent Pastors and Governours without which Churches as such cannot act must necessarily be essential to Churches and hence the Apostle tells us that the great purpose for which Christ ordained Apostles Prophets Evangelists and Pastors and Teachers was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the compacting or joyning together the Saints as one body in Church-Communion and Society Eph. 4.11 12. and hence also you find the Churches of Asia following the number of the Angels or Rulers of them Rev. 1.20 which plainly implies that therefore they were seven distinct Churches because they had seven distinct Rulers or Bishops and therefore though the Ordination of Pastors and
Essentials of Christian Worship 307 c. Thirdly In all the Essentials of Christian Regiment and Discipline 309. SECT X. Concerning the Ministers of the Kingdom of Christ. Which are of a fourfold Rank and Order First The supreme Minister of it is the Holy Ghost p. 315. Secondly next to him are the whole world of Angels both good and bad and as for the good they are subjected to Christ by the Order and appointment of God the Father ibid. That the good Angels were not subject to him as Mediator till his ascension into Heaven but had their distinct regencies over the several Gentile Nations 316 c. But upon Christs ascension these their distinct regencies were all dissolved and they subjected to Christs Mediatorial Scepter 320 c. And as for the bad Angels they were subjected to him by just and lawful Conquest 322. That this Conquest he obtained while he was upon Earth but especially in his last agony 323 c. Seven particular instances of the Ministry of good Angels under Christ first they declare upon occasion his mind and will to his Church and People 331 c. Secondly they guard and defend his subjects against outward dangers 333 c. Thirdly they support and comfort them upon difficult undertakings and under great and pressing calamities 334 c. Fourthly they protect them against the rage and fury of evil spirits 336 c. Fifthly they further and assist them in their religious Offices 340 c. Sixthly they conduct their separated spirits to the Mansions of Glory 342 c. Seventhly they are hereafter to attend and minister to him at the general Iudgment 345 c. The Ministry of evil Angels to Christ in four particulars First they try and exercise the vertues of his subjects 347 c. Secondly they chasten and correct their faults and miscarriages 351 c. Thirdly they harden and confirm incorrigible sinners 354 c. Fourthly they execute the vengeance of Christ on them in another world 357 c. The third sort of the Ministers of Christs Kingdom are the Kings and Governors of the world 361 c. by their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty 363 c. But in the first place have the same commanding Power over all indifferent things and that in Ecclesiastical Causes as well as Civil that they had under the Law of Nature 364 c. And secondly are as unaccountable and irresistible as they were before 365 c. What thâ—se Ministries are which Kings are obliged to render our Saviour shewn in general from Isa. 49.23.476 c. Particularly first they are to protect and defend his Church in the profession and exercise of the true Religion 377.378 secondly they are to fence and cultivate its peace and good order 378 c. they are to chasten and correct the irregular 379 c. they are to provide for the decency of its worship and for the convenient maintenance of its Officers and Ministers 381 c. The fourth sort of Ministers of Christs Kingdom are the spiritual or Ecclesiastical Governors 383. That Christ hath erected a spiritual Government in his Church 384 c. That this Government is Episcopal proved from four Arguments first from the institution of our Saviour 388 c. secondly from the practice of the Apostles upon it 393 c. thirdly from the Vniversal Conformity of the Primitive Church to this Apostolick practice 404. fourthly from our Saviours declared allowance and approbation of both 421 c. Of the Ministers of this spiritual Government which are either such as are common to the Bishops together with the inferiour Officers of the Church as first to teach the Gospel 427 c. secondly to administer the Evangelical Sacraments 429 c. thirdly to offer up the publick Prayers and intercessions of Christian Assemblies 431 c. Or such as are peculiar to the Bishops as first to make Laws for the peace and good order of the Church 433. secondly to ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices 436. thirdly to exercise that spiritual jurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church 439. fourthly to confirm such us have been Baptized and instructed in Christianity 446 c. SECT XI Of Christs Regal Acts in his Kingdom Which are of three sorts First such as he hath performed once for all of which there are four first his giving Laws to his Kingdom 449 c. That what Christ taught as a Prophet had the force of Law ibid. His Law spiritual 450. His Laws reduced under two heads first his Law of perfection 452 c. secondly his Law of sincerity 455 c. The second of those Regal Acts which he hath performed once for all is his mission of the Holy Spirit 457. A third is his erecting an external Polity and Government 458 c. Another sort of Christs Regal acts are such as he hath always performed and doth always continue to perform of which there are four first his pardoning penitent Offenders the nature of which is explained 461 c. the Scripture attributes it both to Christ and God the Father 462. that both of them have an appropriate part in it 463. The part of God the Father is first to make a general Grant of Pardon 464 c. secondly to make it in consideration of Christs death and sacrifice 466 thirdly to limit it to believing and penitent sinners ibid. c. The part which Christ performs in it is to make an actual and particular application of this general Grant of his Father to particular sinners upon their faith and repentance 474 c. The second of these Regal Acts of Christ is his punishing obstinate Offenders 476. A third is his protecting and defending his People and Kingdom in this world 479 c. The fourth is his rewarding his faithful subjects in the life to come 483 c. The third last sort of Christs Regal Acts are those which are yet to be performed by him of which there are three first he is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of his Enemies 485 c. secondly he is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection 492 c. this proved from his own Resurrection ibid. The Objections against this argument and the Doctrine of the Resurrection answered 494 c. The manner of the Resurrection described at large from 1 Cor. 15.42.501 First this mortal body is to be the seed or material principle of our resurrection 502. secondly this seed must die and be corrupted before it is to be raised and quickened 503. thirdly this dead seed is to be raised and quickened by the Power of God 505. fourthly it is to be raised and quickned into the proper form and kind of a human body 508. fifthly this human body is to be very much changed and altered 510. the change that will be made in the bodies of good men is
Bishops is not consined to the Ministry of any particular Church but extends to the Ministry of the Church Catholick for so S. Paul Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas all are yours and you are Christ's that is they are all Ministers of the Catholick Church in common of which you are Members and as such you have all a share in them 1 Cor. 3.22 23. yet it is the particular application of this their general capacity to this or that particular number of Christians or Congregations of Christians that constitutes them particular Churches and being first authorized Ministers of the Catholick Church they carry along with them into the particular Church they are sent to all that Church-Authority and Power by which it acts and operates as a Church So that without Pastors or Governours particular Churches are nothing but so many Bodies without Souls to animate and act them and therefore as in natural Bodies the form that acts them doth also constitute their Kind and Species so in these Ecclesistical Bodies the Pastors and Governours that move and act them as Churches do also constitute them Churches What these lawful Pastors and Governours are I shall have occasion to discourse hereafter when I come to treat of the Ministers of Christ's Kingdom it being sufficient at present to shew the necessity of them to the constituting particular Churches Seventhly The Church is one universal Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches holding Communion with each other by holding Communion with each other I mean owning each other as parts of the same body and admitting each others Members as occasion serves into actual Communion with them in all their Religious Offices It is true in the Primitive Churches there were sundry prudential acts of Communion pass'd between them such as their formed and communicatory Letters by which the holy Bishops gave an account to each other of the state and condition of their respective Churches and consulted each others judgment about them but these were not at all essential to that Communion which they were obliged as true Churches to maintain with one another All the Communion which they are obliged to as they are similar parts and distributions of the Catholick Church is that they should not divide into separate Churches so as to exclude each others Members from Communicating in each others Worship when ever they have occasion to travel from one Church to another For so long as there is no Rupture between distant Churches no declared disowning of each other no express refusal of any act of Communion to each others Members they may be truly said to maintain all necessary Communion with each other And that this Communion is absolutely necessary between all those particular Churches into which the Catholick Church is distributed will evidently appear from these four considerations First that by Baptism as was shewed before all Christian People are made Members of the Catholick Church and by being made Members of it they are all obliged to Communicate with it for how can they act as parts of the whole that hold no Communication with the whole They who are Members of any Society have not only a Right to communicate in all the common Benefits of it but also an Obligation to communicate in all common Offices of it and therefore since by Baptism we are made Members of the Catholick Church or Society of Christians we are thereby not only entituled to partake with it in all its Priviledges but also obliged to joyn with it in all its Offices But then secondly it is farther to be considered that the Catholick Church being all distributed into particular Churches we can no otherwise communicate with it than by communicating with some particular Church for how can we communicate with the whole that is all distributed into parts without communicating with some part of the whole And since the whole is nothing but only a Collection of all the parts what Communion can they hold with the whole who hold no Communion with any part of it So long therefore as there is any such thing as a visible Catholick Church upon Earth we are obliged by our Baptism unless necessity hinder us to maintain a visible Communion with it and so long as this Catholick Church is all distributed into so many particular visible Churches we cannot visibly communicate with it unless we communicate with some one of those particular Churches For how can we be in Communion with the whole body when we are out of Communion with all the parts unless we can find a body to communicate with without all its parts or some universal Church without all particular Churches But then thirdly it is also to be considered that as we cannot Communicate with the universal Church without Communicating with some particular one so neither do we Communicate with the universal Church by Communicating with any particular one unless that particular one be in Communion with the Church Universal For if I cannot communicate with the whole without being in Communion with some part of the whole it is impossible I should communicate with the whole unless I communicate with some part that is in Communion with the whole It is as possible for a Finger to communicate with a body by being joyned to an Arm that is separated from the body as it is for a Christian to Communicate with the Church Catholick by being joyned to a Church that is separate from the Church Catholick But then fourthly and lastly There is no particular Church can be in Communion with the Catholick that separates it self from the Communion of any particular Church that is in Communion with the Catholick For they who separate from any part of any whole must necessarily separate from the whole because the whole is nothing but all the parts together and it is a contradiction to say that they who are separated from any one part are yet united to all How then is it possible for any Church to separate it self from the Communion of any other Church which is a true part of the Church Catholick without separating it self from the Communion of the Church Catholick it self since the Church Catholick is nothing but a Collection of all true Churches and to be at the same time united to all true Churches and separated from one true Church is the same absurdity as to be separated from all true Churches and yet united to one In short the Catholick Church is one by the Communion of all its parts and therefore they who break Communion with any one part must necessarily disunite themselves from the whole For when two Churches separate from one another it must be either because the one requires such terms of Communion as are not Catholick or because the other refuses such as are Now that Church which requires sinful or uncatholick terms of Communion doth thereby exclude not only one but all parts of the Catholick Church from its Communion because they
of Religion for that is no more in our power than it is to be all of one stature or complexion but that we should all unanimously consent in all those fundamental Articles of which that one Faith consists which is the common Creed of Christians So that it is not the differing of one Church from another in Doctrines that are either remote from or near the foundations of Christianity that dissolves their Communion in the Christian Faith but so long as the essential Doctrines of the Gospel are secured on both sides no corrupt Doctrines on either side can warrant a breach of Communion between them It is true if the erring Church imposes the belief of its errors as a Condition of its Communion no Church or Christian that believes them to be errors can lawfully Communicate with it be those errors never so small or inconsiderable not that in themselves they are a sufficient cause of separation but because they who do not believe them cannot profess they do without telling a lie which is a condition that is simply unlawful And so also when the errors are such as do corrupt the vital and essential parts of her Worship so that there is no communicating with her in her Worship without communicating in her corruptions all Churches and Christians are obliged to abstain from its Communion not because of the errors simply considered in themselves but because they profane and desecrate her Worship with those sinful intermixtures they infuse into it so that we cannot joyn with her in her Worship without joyning with her in her sin so that there is no error can separate any Church or Christian from the Catholick Communion of Faith but only Heresie which is a perverse renunciation of some essential part or fundamental Article of that Faith. Secondly The Communion which the particular Churches of which the Catholick Church consists hold with each other is in all the Essentials also of Christian Worship By the Essentials of Christian Worship I mean the Invocation of the one Eternal God through the one Mediator Jesus Christ and the participation of the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Hence the Apostle tells us that as there is but one common Faith wherein all true Christians communicate with each other so there is but one Lord Eph. 4.4 and but one God for us to address to and one Mediator between God and man for us to address by 1 Tim. 2.5 and therefore to address to this one God by this one Mediator is an essential part of Christian Worship And the same Apostle tells us that there is but one Baptism Eph. 4.4 and but one bread of which we are all partakers 1 Cor. 10 17. and therefore to participate of these Sacraments must also be essential to Christian Worship so that all those particular Churches that admit each others Members upon lawful terms to communicate with them in worshipping this one God through this one Mediator and in this one Baptism and one Eucharistical Bread and Cup are so far in Communion with the Church Catholick For in these acts of Christian Worship consists the principal part of Christian Communion and therefore that Church which refuses either to admit other Churches to communicate with her in these acts of Worship or to communicate with them in them upon lawful terms doth so far separate it self from the Christian Communion I say upon lawful terms because if it either require unlawful or refuse lawful ones it utterly excludes all other Churches from its Communion If on the one hand it hath sophisticated its Worship with any unlawful intermixtures so that there is no participating with her in the one without partaking with her in the other If we cannot pray with her to the one God by the one Mediator without praying to Creatures too or praying by other Mediators also If we cannot partake with her in her Baptism without partaking with her in some sinful and impure Rites of Baptism In a word if we cannot be admitted to receive the Lord's Supper with her without receiving it by halves or being obliged to pay divine homage to its Elements in this case I say all Christians and Christian Churches are utterly excluded by her from communicating with her in the Essentials of Christian Worship And so on the other hand if a Church forbid its Members to Communicate upon occasion with any other Church in these acts of Christian Worship upon lawful terms in so doing it divides it self from the Communion of the Church Catholick and though that Church it refuses to communicate with should through the neglect of its Discipline have a great many bad men as well as good in it though it should require the observation of a great many indifferent Rites Customs and Ceremonies yea and of contrary Rites and Customs to its own yet so long as the Essentials of its Worship are kept pure and entire and are not so blended with unlawful intermixtures but that we may safely partake of them without being at all obliged to partake of any sin in this case I say to refuse to Communicate with it is to separate from the Communion of the Catholick Church For for the same reason that any Church refuses to Communicate with this Church it must refuse to Communicate with all other Churches in the World because we cannot to this day nor ever could Communicate with any Church in the World in which there was not some defect of Discipline some intermixture of bad men with good and some indifferent Modes and Ceremonies of Worship Thirdly and lastly Another thing wherein those particular Churches into which the Catholick Church is distributed do communicate with each other is in the Essentials of Christian Regiment and Discipline for though the particular Modes and Circumstances of Christian Government and Discipline are not determined by divine Institution but left for the most part free to the prudent ordering and disposal of the Governours of particular Churches yet there is a standing form of Government and Discipline in the Church instituted by our Saviour himself which as I shall shew hereafter is this that there should be an Episcopacy or Order of men authorized in a continued Succession from the Apostles who were Authorized by himself to oversee and govern all those particular Churches into which the Church Catholick should be hereafter distributed to Ordain inferiour Ministers to teach and instruct and administer the holy Offices to particular Congregations and having Ordained them to guide and direct them in the discharge of their Functions to prescribe the particular Rules of outward Order and Decency to the People of the respective Churches committed to their Charge to confirm the weak and admonish the disorderly and correct the obstinate by excluding them from the Communion of the Church of Christ. These things therefore being all of divine Institution are the Essentials of Christian Government and Discipline in which all Christian Churches are obliged to Communicate
the Church is to Confirm such as have been Baptized and instructed in Christianity which Ministry was always performed by Prayer and laying on of hands upon which the Party so Confirmed received the gift of the Holy Ghost It is true upon the first institution of this Imposition of hands the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit such as speaking with Tongues c. were many times consequent but from hence it doth no more follow that it was intended only for an extraordinary Ministry that was to cease with those extraordinary Gifts that accompanied it than that Preaching was so which at first was also attended with miraculous operations The great intendment of those extraordinary effects was to attest the efficacy of the Function and doth it therefore follow that the Function must cease because those extraordinary effects did so after they had sufficiently attested its efficacy and consequently were of no farther use If so then all the other Ministries of Christianity must be expired as well as this And what though those extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit are ceased Yet since our Saviour hath promised a continual Communication of his Spirit to his Church is it not highly reasonable to believe that he still continues to communicate it by the very same Ministry of Prayer and Imposition of hands whereby he communicated it first and that he now derives to us the ordinary operations of it in the same way that he first derived the extraordinary ones Especially considering that this laying on of hands is placed by the Apostle in the same Class with Baptism and made one of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.1 2. and therefore must without all doubt be intended for a standing Ministry in the Church and as such the Church of Christ in all Ages has thought her self obliged to receive and practise it but as for the administration of it it was always appropriated to the Apostles and Bishops So in Acts 19.5 6. it was S. Paul that laid his hands on the Ephesians after they were Baptized in the name of Jesus whereupon it is said that the Holy Ghost came upon them and in Acts 8. we read that when S. Philip by his Preaching and Miracles had converted the Samaritans and afterwards Baptized them S. Peter and S. Iohn two of the Apostles were sent to lay hands on them upon which it is said that they received the Holy Ghost ver 17. by which it appears that this Ministry of Confirmation appertained to the Apostles since S. Philip though a worker of Miracles a Preacher a Prime Deacon and if we may believe S. Cyprian one of the seventy two Disciples would not presume to assume it but left it to the Apostles as their peculiar Province And accordingly in the Primitive Church it was always performed by the hands of the Bishops for though from later Ages some probable instances are produced of some Presbyters that Confirmed in the Bishops absence or by his delegation yet in all Primitive Antiquity we have neither any one Canon nor example of it from whence we may fairly conclude that this imposition of hands for Confirmation was peculiar to the Apostles in the Original and to their Successors the Bishops in the continuation of it SECT X. Of Christ's Regal Acts in his Kingdom HAving in the foregoing Section given an account of the several Ministers which Christ imploys in the Administration of his Kingdom we proceed in the next place to inquire what those Acts of Royalty are which he himself exerts in his Kingdom and by which he perpetually rules and governs it and these may be distributed into three Orders First Such as he hath performed once for all Secondly Such as he hath always performed and will still continue to perform Thirdly Such as are yet to be peformed by him before the surrender of his Kingdom First One sort of the Royal Acts of our Saviour are those which he hath performed once for all and these are reducible to three particulars 1. His giving Laws to his Kingdom 2. His Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue mens minds to the obedience of those Laws and to govern them by them 3. His erecting an External Polity or Form of Government in his Kingdom I. One of those Regal Acts which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all is giving Laws to it and this he performed while he was upon Earth in those excellent Sermons and Discourses which he then preached and delivered to the World. For though he preached as a Prophet yet it was as a Royal Prophet as one that had Regal authority to Enact what he delivered into Laws for he was a King while he was upon Earth vid. p. 853 854 c. so that all his Prophesies were inforced with his Regal Authority and he commanded as he was a King whatsoever he taught as he was a Prophet Indeed had he been a mere Prophet he could not have obliged men by any Legislative Authority of his own to believe and obey him his Declarations had had no farther Force in them than as they expressed the Will and Command of the Almighty Sovereign of the World and if what he declared had not been Law before it could not have been made Law by his declaring it But being a Royal Prophet his words were Laws and all his Declarations carried a commanding power in them And hence the Gospel is called the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 and the Law of the Spirit of life in or by Christ Iesus Rom. 8.2 and that command of loving our Neighbour as our self is called the Royal Law i. e. the Law of Christ our King Iam. 2.8 for this our Saviour calls his Commandment John 15.12 and his new Commandment viz. that ye love one another even as I have loved you Joh. 13.34 and not only this but all other duties of the Gospel are called his Commandments Ioh. 14.21 and Matt. 28.20 by all which it is evident that in revealing his Gospel to the World he did not only perform the part of a Prophet but also of a Legislator and that by his own inherent Authority as he was a King he stamp'd those Doctrines into Laws which he taught and delivered as a Prophet And such as his Kingly power is such are his Laws and Commandments he is a spiritual King a King of Souls of Wills and of Affections and accordingly his Laws are spiritual and do extend their obligation to the Souls and Wills and Affections of his Subjects For they not only oblige our outward man but also the inmost motions of our heart they lay their reins upon our thoughts and desires as well as upon our words and actions and give directions to our inward intentions as well as to our outward actions so that to satisfie their demands it is not sufficient that we do well unless we also intend well that the matter of our actions be good unless the aim and design of them be so also for according
rewarded accordingly with the Government of ten Cities ver 16 17. the other had been faithful though not altogether so diligent and by his one pound had gained five and accordingly he is made Lord of five Cities ver 18 19. By which he plainly declares that by so much as we fall short of those improvements we might have made in Piety and Vertue so much he will substract from our furure reward So that the sense of the Law of perfection is this as you would not incur the forfeiture of some degrees of your happiness in the other life be sure you imploy your utmost diligence in this to improve your selves in every grace and vertue of Religion II. There is the Law of sincerity which requires the being and Reality of all Christian Graces and vertues in us together with the proper Acts and Exercises of them as we have opportunity and doth no farther forbid those gradual defects of them which are within our possibility to supply than as they are the effects of our gross continued and wilful neglect and so inconsistent with sincerity Now the Reality of these Christian Vertues in us consists in the universal and prevailing consent and resolution of our Wills to regulate our practice by them so as not wilfully to admit of any thing that is contrary to them upon any occasion or temptation whatsoever and so long as this resolution continues firm and prevails in our practice we are just in the eye and judgment of this Law of sincerity though we do not always exert it to the utmost of our possibility He therefore who hath so submitted his Will to God as to be throughly resolved without any reserve to obey him and not to do any thing that is contrary to his Will either against knowledge or through affected ignorance or inconsideration hath in this resolution the real being of all Christian vertues in him and so long as this holds he stands uncondemned in the judgment of the Law of sincerity But though this resolution includes in it the being and reality of all Christian vertue yet doth it not include the utmost possibility of it nor doth it at all follow that because I am sincerely resolved to conduct my life by the Laws of Piety and Vertue therefore I must be in all respects as Pious and Vertuous as it is possible for me to be considering my present state and circumstances I may be sincerely resolved and yet not be always equally diligent and active I may now be exceeding vigilant and watchful and what I am now I may always be if I always exert the utmost of my possibility yet it may so happen anon that though I am sincerely resolved still I may be more remiss supine and inadvertent and in this posture a temptation may surprize me before I am aware and hurry me into an action against which I am firmly resolved And there is no doubt but even the best of men might have beâ—n much better than they are had they always 〈…〉 their possibilities and applied themseâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 their utmost skill and diligence to the methods and Ministries of improvement Now though not to exert our utmost power in the avoidance of evil and the improvement of our selves in vertue and goodness is doubtless a sin yet it is only a sin against the Law of perfection the Penalty of which is only deprivation of some degree of our future reward but so long as we keep up a prevailing resolution in our Wills to govern our 〈◊〉 by the Laws of Piety and Vertue we stand â—â—ear in the eye of the Law of sincerity the Penalty of which is no less than everlasting Exile from the presence of God into the dark and horrible Regions of endless misery and despair only this proviso it admits that if after we have sinned against it we reassume our good Resolution and heartily repent and amend we shall be released from the obligation to this dreadful Penalty and be restored to that happy state of grace and favour from whence we fell by our transgression So that the great difference between the Law of Perfection and the Law of Sincerity is this that the penalty of the later is much more severe but the duty of the former much more comprehensive Having thus given this brief account of our Saviours Legislation and Laws I proceed to the II. Of those Regal Acts which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all and that is his Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue Mens minds to the Obedience of his Laws and to govern them by them For so the Apostle makes the Mission of the Spirit to succeed the Triumphal progress of our Saviour to his Coronation in Heaven Eph. 4.8 He ascended up on high he led captivity captive he gave gifts unto Men where by the gifts which he gave we are to understand the Holy Spirit and in him all those extraordinary Gifts which he poured out upon his Church on the day of Pentecost for so Acts 2.33 S. Peter makes the effusion of the Spirit by Christ to be the consequence of his advancement to his universal Royalty therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Now the end for which he sent his Spirit was to supply his room when he went from earth and in his absence to preside as his Vicegerent in his Kingdom below Since therefore this blessed Spirit acts as our Saviours Agent whatsoever he doth that our Saviour doth by him So that all those operations he performs in order to the subduing us to the obedience of Christ and to the governing of us when we are subdued are truly the operations of Christ himself It is he that conquers and governs us by his Spirit our hearts are the Territories which Christ invades by him and his inspirations are the victorious Arms by which Christ conquers and subdues them Our Wills are the Thrones on which Christ sits and rules and governs by him and his holy suggestions are the awful powers by which Christ himself commands our obedience But what it is that this blessed Spirit doth and hath done in order to the subduing Men to Christs Laws and governing them by them hath been already shewn at large and therefore of this I shall need say no more at present III. And lastly therefore another of those Regal Acts which Christ hath once for all performed in his Heavenly Kingdom is his erecting in it an external Polity and Government What this Polity is and what are the functions of it hath been shewn at large and it is as well by this external Government as by the internal Ministry of his Spirit that Christ now rules his Kingdom for in all just and lawful things the lawful Governours of his Church do act by his Commission and Authority as being substituted by him the visible representatives of his
to his Church was nothing but what he himself had first received from the Father so that though it was from the Father that the Son had his authority to send the Holy Ghost yet it was from the Son that the Holy Ghost had his Mission immediately And accordingly you may observe that after Christ's departure from this World the Holy Ghost acted immediately under Christ as the supreme Vicegerent of his Kingdom For next and immediately under Christ he Authorized the Bishops and Governours of the Church and constituted them overseers of the flock of Christ Acts 20.28 it was he that chose their Persons and appointed them their Work Acts 13.2 and gave them their several Orders and Directions Acts 15.28 Acts 16.6 in all which it is evident he acted under Christ and still continues to act as his supreme Substitute and Vicegerent and accordingly he is stiled by Tertullian the Vicarious vertue or power as he was the supreme Vicar and Substitute of Christ in mediating for God with Men so that now the Holy Ghost is subordinated to the Son not only by vertue of his procession from him together with the Father but also by vertue of his being purchased and obtained by him of the Father by his meritorious Death and Intercession I proceed III. To shew what it is that this Holy Spirit hath done and still continues doing in order to the effectuating this his Mediation For there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and some things which he hath always done and will still continue doing to the end of the World of both which I shall give some brief account in order to the fuller explication of the Ministry of the Holy Ghost under Jesus the great Mediator First therefore there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and of this sort were those extraordinary operations he performed in order to the Planting and Propagating Christ's Gospel in the World upon and after that his Miraculous Descent of which we read in Acts 2. For when Christ was departing from his Disciples into Heaven he ordered them to stay at Ierusalem and not to undertake that mighty work of Planting his Gospel through the World till they were endued with power from on high Luke 24.49 which power from on high was no other than that miraculous assistance which upon his Descent the Holy Ghost did afterwards vouchsafe them upon which Order they return to Ierusalem and there continue till the day of Pentecost fasting and praying together in an Upper Room when all of a sudden the Holy Ghost descended upon them in a visible body of bright shining fire and endowed them with all those Heavenly powers which were requisite to qualifie them for the propagation of Christ's Gospel through the World. For as they were to be the first Planters of the Gospel it was requisite First that they should be able to speak the several Languages of those Nations to whom they were to preach Secondly that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrines which they were to preach Thirdly that they should be able to give the most convincing evidence of the truth and divinity of their Doctrines Fourthly that they should be conducted by Infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry against all which necessities the Holy Ghost abundantly supplied them For First He inspired them with the gift of Languages without which they must have spent a great part of their lives before they could have been capable of preaching the Gospel to the World in learning the several Languages of the several Nations they were to preach to which must have very much retarded the progress of the Gospel And therefore the Holy Ghost upon this his miraculous Descent did in an instant infuse into them the Habit of speaking several Languages insomuch that all of a sudden and without any Rules of Grammar or previous instructions they were heard to speak to the great astonishment of their Auditors in the fifteen several Tongues of fifteen several Nations Acts 2.4 c. And though they were immediately dispersed abroad in the World and some of them into remote Countries whose names perhaps they had never heard of yet still where-ever they came they were inspired with the Language of the Country which they spake as freely as their own Mother Tongue And this was a vast advantage to them in their Ministry because they were not only enabled by it to preach the Gospel to all Nations but were enabled in such a manner as gave a mighty confirmation to their Doctrine For their very gift of speaking being a miraculous effect of divine power was an undeniable demonstration that what they spake was divine Secondly The Holy Ghost fully and clearly instructed them in the Doctrines which they were to preach and this was no more than what was necessary For what they preached who were the first Planters of the Gospel was to be the standard of truth and falshood to all succeeding Generations and therefore it was highly necessary that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel that so their Successors in all Ages might safely relie on their Authority But whilst they were under the Personal Discipline of our Saviour who instructed them by Humane Methods i. e. by proposing his Doctrine to their Ears and through their Mediation to their Vnderstandings it is plain they made but very slow and slender improvements For after all his pains with them they continued very ignorant of some of the most material Articles of Faith and at best they had but gross Apprehensions of the nature of Christ's Kingdom and of the ends and reasons of his Death and were very diffident even of his Resurrection and the reason was that Christ taught them as a man doth a man i. e. by words which are only the audible Images and Representations of things which being liable to misapprehension and oblivion some of them they utterly foâ—got and some of them they grosly misunderstood But when the Spirit came upon them a wondrous Light broke all of a sudden into their Vnderstandings by which they discovered farther into the Gospel Mysteries in an instant than they had done under all our Saviour's teaching For though the Spirit taught them no new Doctrines but did only repeat and explain to them what our Saviour had taught them before for he shall receive of mine saith Christ i. e. of my Doctrine and shall shew or explain it unto you yet it is evident he taught them much more effectually than our Saviour For he spoke not to their Ears but to their Minds and represented things more nakedly and immediately to their understandings he conversed with their spirits even as Spirits do with Spirits without involâ—ing his sense in articulate sounds or material representations but objected it to them in its own naked light and characterized it immediately on their understandings And as he immediately
atomes so the Holy Spirit by diffusing himself throughout this mystical body joyns and unites all its parts together and makes it one separate and individual Corporation So that when by Baptism we are once incorporated into this body we are intitled to and do at least de jure participate of the vital influence of the Holy Ghost who is the Soul of it and accordingly as Baptism joyns us to that body of which this divine Spirit is the Soul so it also conveys that divine Spirit to us So that as in natural bodies those Ligaments which unite and tie the parts to one another do also convey life and spirit to them all so also in this mystical body those federal rights of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which are as it were its Nerves and Arteries that joyn and confederate its members to one another are also the conveyances of that spiritual life from the Holy Ghost which moves and actuates them all And hence the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost the being born of water and of the Holy Ghost are put together as concurrent things and in Acts 2.38 Baptism is affirmed to be necessary to our receiving the Holy Ghost and if by Baptism we receive the Holy Ghost that is a right and title to his Grace and Influence then must the Holy Ghost be still supposed vitally united to the Church whereof we are made members by our Baptism and like an Omnipresent Soul to be diffused all through it and to move and actuate every part of it by his heavenly Grace and Influence It is true he doth not move and actuate us by meer force and irresistible power so as to necessitate us or to determine our natural liberty one way or t'other nor doth he ordinarily work upon men in such a strange and miraculous way as he did in the first Ministration of the Gospel when he frequently transformed men in an instant from Beasts and Devils into Saints and as it were at one act turned the whole Tide of their natures into a quite contrary Current For so Origen against Celsus very often triumphs in these sudden and miraculous Conversions wrought by the Christian Religion so lib. 1. p. 21. should any man saith he release men's Souls from all sorts of wickedness from Lust and Unrighteousness and Contempt of God and this but in a hundred instances surely no man would imagine that he could ever have inspired so many men with reasons strong enough to conquer so many Vices without a divine assistance but if you enquire into the lives of those that have imbraced Christianity you will find that whereas before they lived in all impurities and lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. from that very time wherein they received the Word how much more equal and temperate serious and constant are they grown So again li. 2. p. 78. in answer to Celsus who calls Christianity a pestilent Doctrine neither Jew saith he nor any one else can ever make it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that a pestilent Doctrine should so wonderfully convert the most profligate persons that embraced it to a life most sutable to Nature and Reason and all manner of Vertue Such were the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost in those days as to transport men in an instant from an inveterate habit of wickedness to a habit of Piety and Vertue For so Lactantius de fals sup lib. 3. c. 26. what a mighty influence the divine Precepts have upon mens Souls daily experience shews for saith he Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus maledicus effraenatus paucissimis Dei Verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam da cupidum avarum tenacem jam tibi eum liberalem dabo pecuniam suam plenis manibus largientem da timidum doloris ac mortis jam cruces ignes Taurum contemnet da libidinosum Adulterum Ganeonem jam sobrium castum continentem videbis da crudelem sanguinis appetentem jam in veram clementiam furor ille mutabitur da injustum insipientem peccatorem continuò aequus prudens innocens erit i. e. Give me a man who is wrathful reproachful ungovernable and with a few words of God I will render him as placid as a Lamb give me a covetous a niggardly and tenacious man I will return him to thee liberal and distributing his money with a bountiful hand give me one that is timorous of grief and death he shall despise all manner of torment give me one that is lustful adulterous and a Buffoon you shall presently see him sober chaste and continent give me one that is cruel and thirsty of bloud his fury shall be immediately converted into pity and clemency give me one that is unjust foolish and criminal and he shall be presently rendred just prudent and innocent which wondrous Changes were so very frequent in the Primitive times that the Heathen as St. Austin hath observed were very much amazed at them and therefore attributed them to the power of Magick thinking it impossible they should ever be effected without the assistance of some very powerful Spirit But since Christianity hath been spread through the World and prevailed so far as to be the Religion of Nations the divine Spirit doth not ordinarily work upon men in such a strange and miraculous way nor produce in them such sudden Changes and instantaneous Conversions but proceeds more gradually and more suitably to the Methods of Humane Nature by joyning in with our understandings and leading us on by reason and persuasion from Acts to Dispositions and from Dispositions to Habits of Piety So that whatsoever Grace he now affords us it ordinarily works on us in the same way and after the same manner as if all were performed by the strength of our own reason so that in the Renovation of our natures we cannot certainly distinguish what is done by the Spirit from what is done by our natural Reason and Conscience co-operating with him only this we do most certainly know that in this blessed work the Spirit is the main and principal Agent that without him we can do nothing and that he is the Author and Finisher of our faith who worketh in us to will and to do according to his own pleasure but yet that he doth not work upon us as a Mechanick upon dead materials but as upon living and free Agents that can and must cooperate with him that he acts not on us by any necessary causality but in such a way as is fairly consistent with the natural liberty of our Wills and doth not renew us whether we will or no but takes our free consent and endeavour along with him and that having done all on his part that is necessary to perswade us he expects that we should consider what he saith and upon that consent to his gracious Motions and express this consent in a constant course of holy and vertuous endeavour and
admonish Hereticks and in case of Pertinacy to reject them from the Communion of the Church chap. 3. vers 10. from all which it is evident that this Apostolate of Titus consisted in his Ecclesiastical Superiority which was the very same in the Church of Crete that the first Apostles themselves had in the several Churches that were planted by them And accordingly he is declared by the concurrent Testimony of all Antiquity to be the first Bishop of that Church so Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 4. affirms him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have received Episcopal Authority over the Churches of Crete So also Theodoret. in Argum. Ep. ad Tit. tells us that he was ordained by S. Paul Bishop of Crete and so also S. Chrysostom S. Ierom and S. Ambrose and several others of the Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers This Episcopal Authority therefore which S. Paul gave Titus over the Church of Crete is another plain instance of the Apostles making Apostles or deriving to others their Apostolick Power and Superiority over particular Churches The fourth and last Instance I shall give is that of Timothy who as it appears by S. Pauls Epistles to him had Episcopal Authority over the Church of Ephesus and this not only over the Laity to command and teach 'em 1 Tim. 4.11 to receive Widows into the Churches Service or reject and refuse 'em 1 Tim. 5.4.9.16 and to oblige the Women to go modestly in their Apparel and keep silence in the Church 1 Tim. 2.11 12. but also over the Clergy to take care that sutable provision should be made for 'em 1 Tim. 5.17 that none should be admitted a Deacon till after competent trial nor Ordained an Elder till after he had well acquitted himself in the Deaconship 1 Tim. 3.10.13 to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over 'em to receive Accusations against 'em and if he found 'em guilty to put 'em to open shame 1 Tim. 5.19 20. and S. Paul charges him to exercise this his Jurisdiction without preferring one before another and without partiality ibid. ver 21. which if he had no Jurisdiction over 'em had been very impertinent and as he had Jurisdiction over the Clergy concredited to him so had he also the Authority of Ordaining 'em for the due exercise of which S. Paul gives him that necessary rule 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partaker of other mens sins And that this Authority of his in the Ephesian Church over both the Laity and Clergy was given by S. Paul for a standing form of Government there is evident from hence because it was conferred on him after the Presbytery was formed and setled in that Church for in planting and cultivating this large and populous Church which extended it self over all the Proconsular Asia S. Paul had laboured for three years together with incredible diligence which is a much longer time than he spent in any other Church and therefore by this time to be sure he had not only constituted a Presbytery in it as he did in all other Churches Acts 14.23 but also reduced it to much greater perfection than any other that so in the constitution of it it might be a pattern to all other Churches and if so then to be sure the Government which he had now at last established in it was such as he intended should continue viz. by a single Person presiding over both Clergy and Laity And that de facto it was so we have not only the Authority of S. Pauls Epistles to Timothy but also the concurrent Testimony of all Ecclesiastical Antiquity for so Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 4. tells us he was the first Bishop of the Province or Diocess of Ephesus and the Anonimous Author of his life in Photius that he was the first that acted as Bishop in Ephesus and that he was Ordained and Enthroned Bishop of the Metropolis of Ephesus by the great S. Paul and in the Council of Chalcedon twenty seven Bishops are said to have succeeded in that Chair from Timothy who was the first and Saint Chrysostom Hom. 15. in 1 Tim. 5.19 tells us that it is manifest Timothy was intrusted with a Church or rather with a whole Nation viz. that of Asia upon which account he is stiled by Theodoret in 1 Tim. 3.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Timothy the Apostle of the Asiatiques and to name no more of the great numbers of Authorities that might be cited in the Apostolical Constitutions we are expresly told that he was Ordained Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul. This therefore is another evident instance of the Apostles deriving down their Apostolick Authority Other instances might be given but these are sufficient to shew that the Apostles did not look upon our Saviours institution of a superiour Order of Ecclesiastical Officers as a temporary thing that was to expire with 'em but as a standing Model of Ecclesiastical Government since they derived to others that superiority over the Churches of Christ which he communicated to them For from all these instances it is most evident both that the Apostolical Office did not expire with the Twelve but was transferred by 'em to others and that that which is now called the Episcopacy was nothing else but the Apostolical Office derived from the Apostles to their successors for in the Primitive Language of the Church Bishops are generally stiled Apostles for which no other reason can be assigned but that they succeeded in the Apostolical superiority Thus as hath been shewn before S. Iames Epaphroditus Titus and Timothy are stiled Apostles in Scripture and by the Primitive Writers Clemens Bishop of Rome who was a Disciple of the Apostles is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Clemens the Apostle vid. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 4. and Ignatius Bishop of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostle and Bishop by S. Chrysostom and Thaddaeus who was sent b◠S. Thomas to the Prince of Edessa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Eusebius and so are also S. Mark and S. Luke by Epiphanius and Theodoret lays it down for a general rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. those whom we now call Bishops were anciently called Apostles but in process of time the name of Apostle was left to them who were more strictly Apostles viz. the Twelve and the name of Bishop was restrained to those who were anciently called Apostles If therefore the practice of the Apostles proceeding upon the express institution of our Saviour be sufficient to found a Divine Right we have this you see to plead for a superiority and subordination of Ecclesiastical Offices since the Apostles did not only Ordain Presbyters and Deacons in the several Churches they planted but also Apostles or Bishops to preside over 'em and if their Ordaining of Presbyters be an argument of the perpetuity of the Office of a Presbyter as the Presbyterians themselves contend it is why should not their Ordaining Bishops also be as good an Argument of the perpetuity of the
it a great many years after for so Ignatius who was his Cotemporary in his Epistle to that Church stiles him Polycarp your Bishop and earnestly exhorts his Presbyters and Deacons as well as the Laity to be subject to him and Irenaeus who personally knew him hath this passage concerning him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Polycarpus was not only instructed by the Apostles and did not only converse with many of those who had seen our Lord but by the Apostles who were in Asia was made Bishop of Smyrna Euseb. Hist. l. 4. c. 15. and in their Encyclical Epistle of his Martyrdom the whole Church of Smyrna stile him Bishop of the Catholick Church of Smyrna ibid. So also Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus who was thirty eight years old when Polycarp suffered tells us that he was Bishop and Martyr in Smyrna Euseb. Hist. l. 5. c. 24. And the same is attested by Tertullian Eusebius and S. Ierom and indeed by all Ecclesiastick antiquity so that it is a plain case that one of these Angels to whom S. Iohn writes was Bishop of the Church whereof he stiles him the Angel and since one was so to be sure all were so especially considering that very near if not at the very time when these Epistles were written we have certain accounts that there were Bishops actually presiding in these seven Churches So within twelve years after these Epistles were written Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians makes mention of Onesimus their Bishop whom he exhorts them all as well Presbyters and Deacons as Laity to obey That there was also at the same time a Bishop in Philadelphia is abundantly evident from Ignatius his Epistle to that Church though he doth not name him and about the same time Carpus was Bishop of Thyatira as the ancient Roman Martyrology testifies and Segasis of Laodicea Vid. Euseb. Hist. lib. 4. c. 25. And Melito Bishop of Sardis ibid. And as for the Church of Pergamus Paraeus in his Commentary on Chap. 2. of the Revelations proves out of Aretas Caesariensis that Antipas that faithful Martyr mentioned Rev. 2.13 was Bishop of it immediately before the Angel of that Church to whom S. Iohn wrote and that that Angel was one Gaius who as he proves out of Clemens immediately succeeded Antipas in the Episcopal Chair Since therefore it is apparent that at the writing these Epistles to these seven Churches there was a Bishop actually presiding in one of them and that about the same time there were Bishops presiding also in all the rest there can be no colour of Reason to doubt but that all those Churches had Bishops in them when S. Iohn wrote to them and if so to be sure those Bishops being the Governours of those Churches and having the charge of them committed to them were those very Angels whom S. Iohn wrote to because he all along writes to them as to those who were the Overseers and Governours of their respective Churches and if those Angels were Bishops then in them our Saviour expresly allows and approves of the Episcopal Order since he not only dignifies them with the name of Angels but calls them stars in his own right hand The sum of all therefore is this If our Saviours own institution seconded by the practice of his Apostles upon it and succeeded by the Conformity of all the Primitive Churches to it and this Conformity of theirs authorized by the express approbation of our Saviour be a sufficient argument of the Divine Right of any form of Church-Government then must the Episcopal form which hath all these things you see to plead for it self be of Divine Right and Ordination Having thus shewn at large what that Ecclesiastick or spiritual Government is which Christ hath established in his Church I proceed Thirdly and lastly To shew what are the proper Ministries of this Government in the Kingdom of Christ and these are of two sorts First such as are common to the Bishops or Governours of the Church with the inferiour Officers and secondly such as are peculiar to the Bishops or Governours First Such as are common to the Bishops together with the inferiour Officers of the Church and these are 1. To teach the Gospel 2. To administer the Evangelical Sacraments 3. To offer up the Publick Prayers and Intercessions of Christian Assemblies I. To teach the Gospel which is the first Ministerial Act mentioned by our Saviour in the Commission which he gave his Apostles Go teach all Nations Mat. 28.19 and accordingly the Apostles declare Acts 6.2.4 that preaching the Word was one of the principal imployments appertaining to their Office but yet it is evident that it never was restrained to their Office for not only the Apostles but the seventy Disciples also were Commissioned to Preach the Gospel by our Saviour Luke 10.9 10 11. and even in the Apostles days not only they but Philip also and Stephen and Lucius of Cyrene who were no Apostles did yet preach the Gospel to the World and besides the Apostles there were Prophets Teachers and Evangelists that preached the Gospel as well as they But yet as for the Office of Preaching it is plain that none were ever admitted to it but either by immediate Commission from our Saviour or by Apostolick Ordination or by an immediate Miraculous Unction of the Holy Ghost by which they were inspired with the gift of Preaching and enabled freely and readily and without any study of their own to explain and prove and apply the Doctrines of the Gospel to their Hearers and that either in their own or other Languages as occasion required which gift was the same with that which is called in Scripture the gift of utterance and it being bestowed upon them for the publick benefit and edification of the Church the very bestowing it without any other Ordination was an immediate Mission from the Holy Ghost only they who pretended to it were to be tried by such as had the gift of discerning of Spirits vid. 1 Cor. 12.10 compared with 1 Cor. 14.29 and if upon that trial their pretence was found real they were owned and received without any more ado as authorized Preachers sent by the Holy Ghost and it was upon this extraordinary Mission as it seems very probable that those extraordinary Offices of Prophets and Evangelists were founded both which included Authority to preach the Gospel and therefore upon the Cessation of this extraordinary Mission those Offices ceased immediately with it as depending wholly upon it and from thenceforth none were ever admitted to the Office of Preaching but by ordinary Mission and Ordination from the Apostolate derived to the Bishops and Governours of the Church For though there are some very early instances of learned Lay-men that were admitted to preach upon some emergent occasions and upon special license from the Bishop yet can there no one instance be produced of any that were admitted to the Office of Preaching without Episcopal Ordination II. Another of the
Ministries Common to the Bishops with the inferiour Clergy is the administration of the Evangelical Sacraments for it was to his Apostles and in them to their Successors that our Saviour gave the Commission of Baptizâ—ing all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of doing this i. e. of consecrating and administring the holy Eucharist in remembrance of me but yet it is evident that this Ministry was not so confined to the Apostolick Order as that none but they were allowed to exercise it for even in the Apostles days Philip and Ananias who were no Apostles Baptized and S. Peter commanded the Brethren with him who were no Apostles neither to Baptize those Gentile Converts upon which the Holy Ghost descended Acts 10.48 and there is no doubt but when those three thousand Souls Acts 2. were all Baptized at one time there were a great many other Baptizers besides the Apostles and that passage of S. Paul 1 Cor. 1.13 14 15 16 17. where he tells us that he baptized none in the Church of Corinth though it were of his own planting except Crispus Gaius and the Houshold of Stephanus is a plain Argument that when the Apostles had converted men to the Christian Faith they generally ordered them to be baptized by the inferiour Ministers of the Church that attended them and then as for the Consecration of the holy Eucharist though when any of the Apostles were present it was doubtless ordinarily performed by them yet considering how fast Christianity encreased and how frequently Christians did then partake of this Sacrament it is not to be supposed that the Apostles could be present in all places where it was administred nor consequently that they could consecrate it in every particular Congregation For though it was a very early Custom for the Bishop to consecrate the Elements in one Congregation and then send them abroad to be administred in several others yet this was only upon special occasions but ordinarily they were consecrated in the same places where they were administred in all which places it was impossible either for the Apostles at first or after them for their Successors the Bishops to be present at the same time and therefore there can be no doubt but the Consecration as well as the Administration was ordinarily performed by the inferiour Presbyters in the absence of the Apostles and Bishops But it is most certain that none were ever allowed in the Primitive Church to consecrate the Eucharist but either a Bishop or a Presbyter And as for Baptism because it is in some degree more necessary than the Eucharist as being the sign of admission into the New Covenant by which we are first intitled to it not only Bishops and Presbyters but in their absence or by their allowance Deacons also were Authorized to administer it for so even in the Apostles days Philip the Deacon baptized at Samaria Acts 8.12 and afterwards not only Deacons but Lay-men too were allowed to administer it in case of necessity when neither a Deacon nor Presbyter nor Bishop could be procured that so none might be debarred of admission into the New Covenant that were disposed and qualified to receive it but the Churches allowing this to Lay-men only in cases of necessity is a plain Argument that none had a standing Authority to administer it but only persons in holy Orders For that authority which a present necessity creates is only present and ceases with the necessity that created it III. And lastly Another of the Ministries common to the Bishops with the inferiour Clergy is to offer up the Publick Prayers and intercessions of Christian Assemblies For to be sure none can be authorized to perform the publick Offices of the Church but only such as are set apart and ordained to be the publick Officers of it Now Prayer is one of the most solemn Offices of Christian Assemblies and therefore as in the Jewish Church none but the High Priest and Priests and Levites who were the only publick Ministers of Religion were authorized to offer up the publick Prayers of the Congregation vid. 2 Chron. 39.27 so in the Christian none but Bishops Priests and Deacons who alone are the publick Ministers of Christianity are authorized to offer up the publick addresses of Christian Assemblies it is their peculiar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to perform the publick Offices to the Lord Acts 13.2 for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Publick Service and is used to denote those publick services of which one was offering up the Common Prayers of the People which the Priests in their turns performed in the Temple Vid. Luk. 1.23 and hence it is that the Ministers of Christian Religion are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15.16 because it is their proper business to officiate the publick services of the Christian Church and accordingly in Rev. 5.10 the four and twenty Elders that is the holy Bishops of the Church as appears by their having Crowns of Gold or Mitres on their heads in allusion to the High Priests Mitre Chap. 4. ver 4. are said to have every one of them Harps and golden Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints referring to the Incense which the Priests were wont to offer in the Sanctuary which Oblation was a mystical offering up the Prayers of the People vid. Luk. 1.10 which plainly intimates that as it was one part of the Office of those Iewish Priests to offer the Incense and therewithall the Prayers of the People so is it also of the Publick Ministers of Christianity to offer up the Prayers of Christian Assemblies And as in the Jewish Church not only the Priests but the Levites also Communicated with the High Priest in this Ministry of offering up the Prayers of the Congregation so in the Christian Church not only the Presbyters but the Deacons also always Communicated in it with their Bishop Having thus given an account of those Religious Ministries which are common to the Bishops with the inferiour Officers of the Church I proceed in the next place to shew what those Ministries are which are peculiar to the Bishops or Governours of the Church all which are reducible to four particulars 1. To make Laws for the peace and good order of the Church 2. To Ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices 3. To execute that spiritual Jurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church 4. To confirm such as have been instructed in Christianity I. One peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to make Laws and Canons for the security and preservation of the Churches peace and good order and this is implied in the very Essence of Government which necessarily supposes a Legislative power within it self to command and oblige the Subject to do or forbear such things as it shall judge conducive to the preservation or disturbance of their Common-weal without which power no Government can be enabled to obtain its end
which is the good of the Publick Since therefore the Church by Christs own institution is a governed Society of men we must either suppose its Government to be very lame and defective which would be to blaspheme the Wisdom of our Saviour or allow it to have a Legislative Power inherent in it But that de facto it hath such a Power in it is evident from the Practice of the Apostles who as all agree had the Reins of Church Government delivered into their hands by our Saviour for so in Acts 15.6 we are told that upon occasion of that famous Controversie about Circumcision the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter where by the Elders by the consent of all Antiquity is meant the Bishops of Iudea Vid. Dr. Hammond on Acts 11. Note B. And after mature debate and deliberation this is the result of the Council It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things ver 28. so that those necessary things specified in the next verse were it seems laid upon them as a burthen i. e. legally imposed on them as matter of duty for herein it is plain the Apostles exercised a Legislative Power over those Christian Communities they wrote to viz. in requiring 'em to abstain from some things which were never prohibited before by any standing Law of Christanity and as the Apostles and Primitive Bishops made Laws by common consent for the Church in general so did they also by their own single authority for particular Churches to which they were more peculiarly related Thus St. Paul after he had prescribed some Rules to the Corinthians for their more decent communication of the Lords Supper tells them that other things he would set in order when he came among them 1 Cor. 11.34 but how could he otherwise do this than by giving them certain Laws and Canons for the better regulation of their Religious Offices so also 1 Cor. 16.1 the same Apostle makes mention of an Order or Canon which he gave to the Churches of Galatia which he enjoyns the Church of Corinth also to observe and in 1 Tim. 5. he gives Timothy several Ecclesiastical Rules to give in charge to his Church ver 7. so also Tit. 1.5 he tells Titus that for this cause he left him in Crete with Apostolick or Episcopal power that he might set in order the things that were wanting i. e. that by wholsom Laws and Constitutions he might redress those disorders and supply those defects which the shortness of S. Pauls stay there would not permit him to provide for By all which instances it is abundantly evident that the Governours of the Church have a Legislative Power inherent in them both to make Laws by common consent for the Regulation of the Church in general and to prescribe the rules of Decency and Order in their own particular Churches For what the Apostles and Primitive Bishops did to be sure they had Authority to do and whatsoever Authority they had they derived it down to their Successors And accordingly we find this Ecclesiastick Legislation was always administred by the Apostles Successors the Bishops who not only gave Laws both to the Clergy and Laity in their own particular Churches but also made Laws for the whole Church by common consent in their holy Councils wherein during the first four general Councils no Ecclesiastick beneath a Bishop was ever allowed a Suffrage unless it were by deputation from his Bishop and though in making Laws for their own Churches they generally conducted themselves by the advice and counsel of their Presbyters and sometimes also admitted them into their debates both in their Provincial and General Councils yet this was only in preparing the matter of their Laws But that which gave them the form of Laws was purely the Episcopal Authority and Suffrage and whatsoever was decreed either by the Bishop in Council with his Presbyters or by the Bishops in Council among themselves was always received by the Churches of Christ as Authentick Law. It is true this Legislative Power of the Church as was shewn before extends not so far as to controul the Decrees of the Civil Sovereign who is next to and immediately under God in all Causes and over all Persons Supreme and is no otherwise accountable by the Laws of Christianity than he was by the Laws of natural Religion and therefore as the Civil Sovereign cannot countermand Gods Laws so neither can the Church the Civil Sovereigns but yet as next to the Laws of God the Laws of the Civil Sovereign are to be obeyed so next to the Laws of the Civil Sovereign the Laws of the Church are to be obeyed II. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to Consecrate and Ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices For that those holy Ministries which Christ himself performed while he was on Earth such as preaching the Gospel administring the Evangelical Sacraments c. might be continued in his Church throughout all Generations he not only himself ordained his twelve Apostles a little before he left the World to perform those Ministries in his absence but in their Ordination transferred on them his own mission from the Father deriving upon them the same authority to ordain others that he had to ordain them that so they might derive their Mission to others as he did his to them through all succeeding Generations for this is necessarily implied in the Commission he gave them Iohn 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you that is I do not only send you with full authority to act for me in all things as my Father sent me to act for him but I also send you with the same authority to send others that I now exercise in sending you for unless this be implied in their Mission he did not send them as his Father sent him unless he gave them the same authority to propagate their Mission to others that his Father gave him to propagate his Mission to them how could he say that he sent them as his Father sent him since he must have sent them without that very authority from his Father which he then exercised in sending them Now the Persons whom he sent were the Eleven Apostles as you will see by comparing this of S. Iohn with Luke 24.33.36 Mar. 16.14 Mat. 28.16 in all which places we are expresly told that it was the Eleven he appeared to when he gave this Commission and consequently it must be the Eleven to whom he gave it This Commission therefore of sending others being originally transferred by our Saviour upon the Apostolick Order no others could have right to transfer it to others but only such as were admitted of that Order none could give it to others but only those to whom Christ gave it and therefore since Christ himself gave it to none but Apostles none but Apostles could derive it and accordingly we
find in Scripture that all Ecclesiastick Commissions were either given by the hands of some of those first Apostles who received their Commission immediately from our Saviour or else by some of those secondary Apostles that were admitted into Apostolick Orders by them which secondary Apostles as was shewn before were the same with those whom we now call Bishops for so in Acts 6.3.6 the seven first Deacons we read of were Ordained by the Apostles the whole number of the Disciples being present but the Apostles only appointing and laying their hands on them and in Acts 14.23 we are told that Paul and Barnabas two of the Apostles ordained Elders in every Church that is of Lystra Iconium and Antioch and though these two were Ordained Apostles of the Gentiles by certain Prophets and Teachers in the Church of Antioch Acts 13.1.3 yet there is no doubt but those Prophets and Teachers where such as had received the Apostolick Character being ordained by the Apostles Bishops of the Churches of Syria for otherwise how could they have derived it For so Iudas and Silas are called Prophets Acts 15.32 and yet ver 22. they are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Rulers among the Brethren or Bishops of Iudea and afterwards we find that Ordination was confined to such as had been admitted to the Apostolate for so the power of laying on of hands in the Church of Ephesus was committed by S. Paul to Timothy whom he himself by the laying on of hands had ordained the Apostle or Bishop of that Church 1 Tim. 5.22 1 Tim. 1.6 so also the power of Ordaining in the Church of Crete was by S. Paul committed to Titus whom he had also Ordained the Apostle or Bishop of that Church Tit. 1.5 for this cause left I thee in Crete to ordain Elders in every City Thus all through the whole Scripture History we find the power of Ordination administred by such and none but such as were of the Apostolick Order viz. either by the Prime Apostles or by the secondary Apostles or Bishops And if we consult the Primitive Antiquities which to be sure in matters of fact at least are the best Interpreters of Scripture we shall always find the power of giving Orders confined and limited to Bishops which is so undeniable that S. Ierom himself who endeavours his utmost to equalize Presbyters with Bishops is yet fain to do it with an excepta Ordinatione Ep. ad Evagr. Quid facit excepta Ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat What can the Bishop do except Ordaining that the Presbyter may not do also III. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to execute that spiritual Iurisdiction which Christ hath established in it i. e. to Cite such as are accused of scandalous offences before their Tribunals to inspect and examine the Accusation and upon sufficient evidence of the truth of it to admonish the offender of his fault and in case he obstinately persist in it to exclude him from the Communion of the Church and from all the Benefits of Christianity till such time as he gives sufficient evidence of his Repentance and amendment and then to receive him in again For that Christ hath established such a jurisdiction in his Church is evident from that passage Mat. 18.16 17 18. Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go tell him his fault between him and thee alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gain'd thy Brother but if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established i. e. that thou mayst be able in case he doth not then amend to produce sufficient testimony of his guilt before the Churches Tribunal to which thou art next to apply thy self and if he shall neglect to hear them i. e. to promise amendment upon their admonition take them along with thee and tell it to the Church that so she may examine the matter and upon thy proving his guilt by sufficient witness may Authoritatively admonish him to amend but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican i. e. give him over for a desperate sinner as one that is to be ejected from the Communion of the Church and no longer to enjoy the common benefits of a Christian for verily I say unto you that it is to you of the Church before whom this obstinate Offender is cited and accused for now he speaks no longer in the singular number Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven i. e. whomsoever ye shall for just cause eject from the Communion of the Church into the state of a Heathen man and a Publican I will certainly exclude out of Heaven unless he reconcile himself to you by Confession and promise of amendment and if thereupon you pardon him and receive him into the Churches Communion I will most certainly pardon him too if he perform his promise for that by binding and loosing upon Earth our Saviour means excluding out of the Church and receiving in again is evident from that Parallel passage Mat. 16.19 I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven where by the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven is plainly meant the Authority of a Steward to govern his Church or Family for so Isa. 22.21 22. God promises Eliachim that he would cloath him with the Robe of Shebna who was over the Houshold ver 15. i. e. Steward of the Kings Family and that he would commit Shebna 's Government into his hand c. and then it follows And the Key of the House of David will I lay upon his shoulders so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open that is in short I will make him the Governour of the Family and give him power to admit or exclude what Servants he pleases and accordingly by the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven must be meant the Government of the Church for so Keys denote Authority to Govern vid. Rev. 3.7 and by binding and loosing the power of shutting out of or readmitting into it and therefore in Iohn 20.23 this binding and loosing is thus expressed whose sins ye remit or loose shall be remitted or loosed whose sins ye retain or keep bound shall be retained or kept bound for though the words are different from those in S. Matthew yet they are of the same import and signification and consequently our Saviours meaning must be the same here as there viz. whose sins you loose from the penalty of exclusion from the Church I also will loose from the penalty of exclusion out of Heaven and whose sins
Person and the Executors and Administrators of his Power and Dominion Whilst therefore they act within the compass of their Commission they act in his stead and as his Vicegerents and whatsoever they bind he binds and whatsoever they loose he looses their Commands are his their Decrees and Sentences are his and all their authoritative Acts carry with them the same force and obligagation as if they had been performed by him in his own person For it is he that wills and speaks and acts by them because they Will and Speak and Act by his Authority For so he himself declares to them Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me i. e. because I speak by you and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me because my Authority is in you even as my Fathers is in me and therefore he who despises mine in you despises my Fathers in me whence mine in you is derived Your Authority is mine and mine is my Fathers and therefore he who rejects yours doth therein reject both my Fathers and mine And this authority is given them by Christ for the same end that his Authority was given him by the Father for he came into the World to seek and to save lost souls Luk. 19.10 He came not to judge the world but to save the world Joh. 12.47 And to call sinners to repentance Mar. 2.17 And upon the very same errand he sent all those whom he appointed to propagate and govern his Kingdom in his absence for he set them up as so many Lights to the benighted World to reduce Men from those dangerous paths in which they were wandering to eternal misery and shew them the way to everlasting happiness and all the power he devolved upon them was for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 and to them he hath committed the care and charge of Souls whose blood he will one day require at their hands if they miscarry through their neglect or default Heb. 13.17 and that he might the better secure these precious beings for whom he shed his blood from miscarrying for ever he placed this spiritual Polity in a subordination of Officers and made the inferior accountable for their charge to the superior Officers as well as both accountable to himself So that whereas had he placed it in co-ordinate hands there had been only one soul accountable to him for each particular Cure or Charge of Souls because then each single Pastor would have been supreme in his particular Cure and consequently no other Pastor or Pastors would have been accountable for not calling him to account now each particular Cure of Souls is under the charge and inspection of several orders and degrees of Pastors who in their several stations are all accountable for it to the Tribunal of Christ. For first the inferior Pastor who hath the immediate Charge of it and is obliged by his Office to teach and instruct it by good Example and Doctrine and to administer to it the holy Ordinances of Christianity stands accountable to Christ for every soul in it that miscarries through his neglect or omission next the Bishop stands accountable for not correcting the neglects and misdemeanours of the inferior Pastor and then the Metropolitan for not taking Cognizance of the default of the Bishop Thus in that excellent form of Government which Christ hath established in his Kingdom he hath made all possible provision for the safety and welfare of Souls for according to this Oeconomy he hath taken no less than a threefold security every one of which is as much as a Soul amounts to that every Soul within every Cure shall be plentifully supplied with the means of Salvation that so none of them might miscarry but such as are incorrigibly obstinate So that now if any Soul within the Dominions of our Saviour perish for want of the means of Salvation there are no less than three Souls one after another besides it self accountable to him for its ruin Having thus shewn what these Regal Acts are which Christ hath once for all performed in his Kingdom I proceed II. To declare what those Regal Acts are which he hath always performed and doth always continue to perform and these are recucible to four particulars First His pardoning penitent sinners Secondly His punishing obstinate Offenders Thirdly His protecting and defending his faithful Subjects in this life Fourthly his blessing and rewarding them in the life to come I. One of the Regal Acts which our Saviour always hath and always continues to perform is his pardoning and forgiving penitent sinners which being one of the Articles of our Creed I shall endeavour to give an account of it more at large the Apostle defines sin to be a transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 Now the Law obliges us under a certain stated Penalty to do and forbear what it commands and forbids whenever therefore we transgress the Law we are thereby obliged to undergo the Penalty it denounces and this is that which we call the guilt of sin viz. its obligation to punishment and it is this guilt which pardon and forgiveness relates to For to pardon is nothing else but only to release the sinner from the obligation he lies under to suffer the penalty of the Law. Now the penalty of the Law of God for every known and wilful sin is no less than everlasting perdition and therefore from this it is that we are released by that pardon and indemnity which the Gospel proposes So that the pardon or remission of sins whereof we are now treating consists in the loosing of sinful men from that obligation to eternal punishment whereunto they have rendered themselves liable by their wilful disobedience to the Law of God. Since therefore this pardon consists in the release of offenders from the penal Obligation of the Law it must be a Regal Act because the Obligation of the Law can be dispenced with by no other Authority but that which made it and therefore since to make the Obligation of the Law is an Act of Regal Authority to release or dispence with it must necessarily be so also and accordingly forgiveness of sin is in Scripture attributed to our Saviour as one of his Regal Rights Acts 5.51 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin So that now it is by Christ immediately that our sins are pardoned and our Souls released from those Obligations to eternal punishment in which they have involved us for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Joh. 5.22 So that now it is by him immediately that the Father judgeth us i. e. absolves and condemns us for so Col. 3.13 the Apostle exhorts them to forbear and forgive one another even as Christ forgave them and Col. 2.13 Christ is said to have forgiven them all trespasses It is true forgiveness
his continual intercession in Heaven Royal Authority to dispense that Promise to us doth by vertue of that Authority actually pardon us upon our actual repentance So that as soon as ever we perform the condition of Gods grant of pardon our Saviour who knows the inmost thoughts of our hearts and perfectly discerns our sincerity immediately pronounces our sentence of pardon and by a particular application of that general grant to us absolves us from our obligation to eternal punishment and freely receives us into Grace and Favour For though the completion and publication of our pardon is reserved for the day of judgment when we shall be absolved from all punishment i. e. not only of eternal misery but also of corporal death and temporal sufferings in the publick view and audience of the World yet it is certain that every penitent Believer in Jesus is actually pardoned by him in Heaven as soon as ever he believes and repents that is he is in foro Christi and before the Tribunal of his Royal Judgment Absolved from the obligation to suffer eternal misery which he lay under during his state of impenitence and Christ in his own mind judgment and estimation hath Judicially thus pronounced concerning him By vertue of my Fathers grant to all penitent offenders and of that Royal Authority which he hath committed to me I freely release thee from all that vast debt of everlasting punishment which thou hast too justly incurr'd by sinning against him Thus as the Father forgives us vertually by that publick grant of mercy which for Christs sake he hath made to all penitent offenders so the Son forgives us actually by that Royal Authority which the Father hath given him to make a particular application of that his general grant to us upon our actual repentance and as it is by the Fathers grant that the Son pardons us so it is by the Sons application of it that the Father pardons us and therefore we are said in or by Christ to have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Col. 1.14 i. e. to be forgiven for the sake of his blood in consideration whereof God the Father hath given him power to forgive us for so he himself tells us that all power in Heaven and Earth was given him Matth. 28.18 and there is no doubt but in all power the power of forgiving sins was included for so S. Peter tells us that through his Name i. e. by his Authority or judicial sentence Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 10.43 And thus you see what the first Regal act is which our Saviour hath always performed and will always continue to perform viz. forgiving of sins II. Another of his Regal acts of this kind is punishing obstinate offenders For as he mediates for his Father in ruling and governing us he must be the Minister of his Fathers providence and being so whatsoever divine punishments are inflicted upon offenders are to be look'd upon as the stroaks of his hand and the Ministries of his power for he hath the Keys of Death and Hell i. e. the power of punishing both here and hereafter Rev. 1.18 and accordingly he threatens the corrupt Churches of Asia that he would remove their Candlestick and that he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth that he would come upon them as a Thief and that he would spew them out of his mouth Rev. 2.5.3.16 and Chap. 3. Vers. 16. all which is a sufficient proof that the punishment of offenders both here and hereafter is committed to him as a branch of that Royal Authority with which he is invested by the Father in the execution of which Commission he many times Chastens bad men in this life in order to their reformation and amendment for as many as I love saith he i. e. wish well to I rebuke and chasten Heb. 3.19 and many times he persecutes them with exterminating judgments thereby hanging them up in Chains as it were as publick examples of his vengeance to warn and deter the World from treading in their impious footsteps For so he threatens Iezebel and her followers I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not behold I will cast her into a bed i. e. into a Bed-rid and irrevocable condition and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation and I will kill her Children with death and all the Church shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Rev. 2.21 22 23. And though for wise and gracious ends he oftentimes spares bad men in this life and sometimes shines upon them a continued day of prosperity without any cloud or interruption yet he always overtakes them with the fearful storms of his vengeance in the life to come For no sooner do their souls depart from their bodies but they are immediately consigned by his warrant into the hands of evil Angels those skilful spiteful and powerful executioners of his justice under whose savage Tyranny they indure all the tortures and Agonies that the wrath and power of Devils together with their own awakened consciences and furious and unsatisfied affections are able to inflict Of which see Part 1. Ch. 3. For that the souls of bad men are transmitted into a state of wretchedness and misery immediately upon their separation from their bodies is evident from the Parable of Dives and Lazarus wherein in the first place Dives immediately after his death is said to be in great torment in Hell and this while his body lay buried in the grave Luk 16.22 23. which is a plain argument that in all that interval between death and the resurrection of the body the souls of bad men abide in a state of torment for secondly this torment of Dives's soul in hell was then when his Brethren were living upon earth and under the teaching of Moses and the Prophets ver 27. and 28 29 30 31. which shews that our Saviour supposes it to be at that very time when he delivered this Parable and consequently he supposes all bad men who were then dead and whose condition he represents by that of Dives to be then in Hell and there suffering unspeakable Agonies and Torments and if so then it 's plain that when ever impenitent souls leave their bodies they are carried by Devils into some dismal abode and there kept under a perpetual discipline of torment and in this deplorable state they remain expecting that fearful day of accounts when their condition through their reunion to their bodies and that dread bodily Torment they must then be condemned to will be rendered yet far more intolerable III. Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and always will continue to perform is his protecting and defending his Kingdom in this World. For thus he promises his faithful Church of Philadelphia Because thou hast kept the
word of my Patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth Rev. 3.10 By which it is plain that the power of protecting and defending his Subjects is inherent in Christ as an essential part of his Regal Authority and this power he continually exercises now he is is heaven for it was for this end among others that he promises to be with his Church to the end of the World Mat. 28.20 namely to guard and defend it by his Providence against the outragious attempts of its numerous enemies For it is for this end that the Father hath put all things in subjection under him and that he hath left nothing that is not put under him Heb. 2.7 8. that so having the Universal Government of all things in his hand he might by his over-ruling Providence render them all subservient to the interest of his Church For so Eph. 1.21 we are assured that the Father hath put all things under his feet and given him to be head over all things to his Church i. e. hath vested him with an universal power over all things that so he might order and direct them all to the interest and advantage of his Church And accordingly now he is in heaven the defence and preservation of his Church is the great business which he intends upon earth there he now sits looking down from his Throne with a watchful eye to observe all the motions and trace out all the dark designs of her enemies and from thence he stretches forth his Almighty hand to guard and defend her against them to repel or over-rule their malice to drive back their venemous Darts upon themselves or to temper their Poyson into Physick and extract a healing Balm out of the Stings of those Scorpions In which how careful and diligent he hath been is abundantly manifest from the glorious success for considering the vast opposition that hath been made against it even from its infancy how is it possible it could ever have subsisted had it not been guarded by an invisible hand No sooner did this light upon a Hill appear in the World but all the four Winds immediately conspired to blow it out yet which is miraculous to consider still the harder they blew the brighter it flamed and though for the first 300 years it was the main and almost constant exercise of the Power and Policy the Wit and Cruelty both of Devils and Men to suppress and ruine it yet still it thrived and encreased under the most powerful means of its extirpation It conquered by suffering gathered strength by bleeding and like a head-strong Floud still the more it was checked the more it swelled and over-flowed till at length it filled the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea. Which if well considered is an amazing instance of the vigilant and powerful Providence of our Saviour which hath not only preserved this burning Bush from consuming but made it spring and flourish in the flames And though since those Primitive Persecutions he hath many times for wise and gracious ends let loose the Wolves upon his Flock and permitted them to worry and sometimes almost to devour it yet still he hath kept a strict and steady Reign upon their Power and Malice and when they have served his ends hath check'd and stop'd them in their savage career and when they have thought the trembling Prey their own hath stretched out his own Almighty Arm and snatched it from their devouring jaws So that while they are clubbing all their Power and Policy against it he that sits in the Heavens laughs them to scorn the Lord hath them in derision and doth contemn their impotent malice which he can manage as he pleases he can either prevent the mischievous effects of it or cause them to recoile upon themselves or make those very persecutions with which they design to destroy his Church the means of its enlargement and propagation and what in his own infallible Wisdom he thinks best that he hath always done and will always do for his Church and People For many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel or the Church of Christ now say many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me the Plowers have plowed upon my back they have made long furrows but the Lord is righteous he hath cut asunder the Cords of the wicked and in his own due time will confound and turn back those that hate Sion And as he exerciseth a most vigilant Providence over his Church in general so doth he also over all the faithful and obedient Subjects of it whose interest is as dear and precious to him as his own bloud for they are not only the purchase of his bloud but also the Trophies and Conquests of his Spirit which makes them his by a double Propriety and more peculiarly entitles them to his care and protection they are living Members of his own Body and as such he feels their pains by a most tender sympathy and therefore his Providence is as much concerned for their defence as his Eye-lid is to defend the Apple of his own Eye Zech. 2.8 and therefore though he exercises a merciful Providence over all men yet these he incloses out of the Common of the World and fences about with a peculiar care These are his Iewels and he keeps them in his Treasury under the strongest and most inviolable security He is always watching over them for good and it is his peculiar and continual concern to protect and defend them to keep off Temptation from their Souls and Calamities from their Bodies and so to over-rule and direct the course of things as that whatever befals them may concenter in their happiness For though he many times corrects them with his own hand and permits them to be oppressed and afflicted by others yet still he doth it with a most gracious intention either to cure or prevent some disease in their minds or to excite and exercise their graces or to wean them from the love of this vain World and discipline them for a blessed Eternity and whatsoever evils happen to them in the course of his Providence still he takes care to extract good out of them and so to contrive and order the whole Scene of Affairs as that in the issue all things may still work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 IV. And lastly Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and doth always continue to perform in his blessing and rewarding all his faithful Subjects in the Life to come for this as he himself declares he hath power to do so Rev. 2.7 To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God i. e. I will admit him in a
participation of the blessed immortality of Heaven so also Rev. 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Throne And he promises the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in particular Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 In all which places he expresly declares his Royal Authority to reward his faithful Subjects when they leave this World with the joys and felicities of the World to come and this Authority he is continually exercising in his heavenly Kingdom For when ever any faithful and obedient Souls depart from their bodies he presently sends forth his Angelick Messengers to conduct them safe to the immortal Regions and there to lodge them in some one of those blissful Mansions in his Fathers House which he went before to prepare for them where free from all the disturbances of flesh and blood and of a vexatious and tumultuous World they live in continued ease content and joy wrapt up with the ever-growing delights of contemplating loving and imitating God and of the most wise and amicable Society and Communication with each other in the enjoyment of an endless bliss and pleasure for so we are assured from Scripture that the happiness of the righteous doth commence from the moment of their departure hence So Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them and with St. Paul it was the same thing to depart from hence and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 which necessarily implies that upon his departure he expected to be immediately with Christ and elsewhere he teaches that to be at home in the body was to be absent from the Lord and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. neither of which can be true if the Souls of good men go not to Heaven immediately when they go from hence but that they do so is as plain as words can express it in that promise of our Saviour to the Penitent Thief Verily verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 From whence it evidently follows that even in the very Article of a true Penitents death Heavens joys do attend his departing Soul to receive it immediately when it is dislodged from the body Thus in the very moment of its departure hence the Pious Soul is transported to those blessed abodes beyond the Stars which are the proper seat and pure Element of Happiness where the blessed inhabitants live in a continued fruition of their utmost wishes being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing Scenes of pleasure where all their happiness is eternal and all their eternity nothing else but only one continued Act of Love and Praise and Ioy and Triumph where there are no sighs or tears no intermixtures of sorrow or misery but every heart is full of joy and every joy is Quintessence and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment But of this blessed state I have given an account at large Part. 1. Chap. 1. and 3. And this is that blessed reward with which our Saviour crowns his faithful Subjects immediately upon their departure hence so that he doth not permit them to lie sleeping in the dust unrewarded till the end of the World but as soon as they have finished their work upon Earth admits them to the joy of their Master to all the felicities that their separated spirits are capable of in those several degrees and measures of perfection which they there arrive to in which happy state they remain during their separation from the body expecting the farther completion of their happiness in a glorious Resurrection by which their Bodies and Souls being reunited their whole Humane Nature shall be filled with bliss to the utmost stretch of its Capacity And now having shewn what those Regal Acts are which Christ hath always performed and doth always continue to perform I proceed in the III. And last place To shew what those Regal Acts are which are yet to be performed by him before he surrenders up his Kingdom and these are reducible to three Heads First He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by the Conquest of its enemies Secondly He is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection Thirdly He is yet to judge the World. I. He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of its Enemies For if we consult the ancient Prophesies concerning the vast extent of our Saviours Kingdom we shall find that there are a great many of them which as yet were never accomplished So Psal. 2.8 9. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel whereas hitherto it is certain Christ was never possessed of the uttermost parts of the earth nor did he ever yet break his incorrigible opposers with a Rod of Iron or dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel so also Dan. 7.4 it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominionâ— should serve and obey him ibid. ver 27. so also Dan 2.34 35 44 45. that the stone cut out without hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ should become a great Mountain and fill the whole earth and that it should break in pieces and consume all those other Kingdoms Thus also it is foretold that the Lord should be King over all the Earth Mich. 5.4 and that there should be but one Lord and his name one Zech. 14.9 and that he should have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the Rivâ—r to the 〈◊〉 of the Earth Psal. 72.8 and that all Kings should fall down before him and all Nations serve him ibid. ver 11. and that all the ends of the earth should remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him because the Kingdom shall be the Lords and he shall govern among the Nations These and sundry other such like Prophesies there are which as yet it is certain were never accomplished according to the full import and intent of them Wherefore we may certainly conclude that there is a time yet to come before the consummation of all things wherein our Saviour will yet once more display the victorious Banner of his Cross and like a mighty man of War march on conquering and to conquer till he hath confounded or converted his Enemies and finally consummated his victories in a glorious Triumph over all the Powers
of the Earth For the Scripture not only foretels this universal conquest of his but also describes and delineates the whole method and progress of it which upon laying the Scripture Prophesies together in their proper Train and Series seems to me to be this that the opening of this great Scene of Providence will be the conversion of the Iewish Nation those obstinate and hitherto implacable Enemies of our Saviour whom notwithstanding they have been a thousand times over conquered slaughtered and oppressed and do to this day continue scattered over the face of the whole Earth he hath preserved by a strange and unparalleled Providence for above sixteen hundred years together a distinct and separate people from all the Nations of the Earth to shew his mighty power in them and once more render them what they have always been the Subjects of his miraculous conduct For by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon them such as that was on the day of Pentecost though far more extensive he will all of a sudden and in a most surprizing manner open the eyes of this blinded Nation and powerfully convince them of the error and wickedness of their infidelity and malice against him whereupon with one heart and one mind they shall return to the Lord and with penitent tears wash off the guilt of the blood of their Saviour which like an Heir-loom hath hitherto descended upon them from one Generation to another for thus Rom. 11.25 26. I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is hapned to Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer c. From whence it is plain that that blindness which then hapned to Israel and which continues on them to this day shall one day be removed viz. about that time when the Conversion of the Gentiles shall be compleated and that then all Israel and not a small remnant of them as at first shall be saved so also 2 Cor. 3.14 16. But their minds are blinded meaning the People of Israel for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away where he first supposes that Israel that till then was blinded and that till now remains so should turn unto the Lord and then asserts that then the vail of ignorance which hindered 'em from discerning Christ in the Figures and Prophesies of the Old Testament should be removed from before their eyes And now the Jews being thus converted by the power of our Saviour shall under his victorious Banners be conducted into the Holy Land and repossessed of their ancient native Country whither they shall be close pursued with mighty Hosts of the Eastern Infidels and be reduced by them into imminent danger of utter desolation in which extremity of theirs our blessed Saviour will make bare his Almighty Arm and in a most miraculous manner confound and scatter those mighty swarms of Infidels and crown his Israel with Victory and Triumph The fame of which miraculous events spreading far and wide even to the utmost ends of the Earth shall in a little time convince all the Heathen World of the truth of Christianity and prevail with the Kingdoms of the earth to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ And now the Kingdom of Christ in this World being arrived to its full extent and growth Truth and Peace Charity and Justice shall reign and flourish over all the Earth Now all the World shall be Christendom and Christendom shall be restored to its ancient Purity For now he who is to come with the Fan in his hand will throughly purge the Floor of his Church from all that Chaff of Superstition and Idolatry Schism and Heresie Irreligion and Immorality with which it is almost totally covered and the true Faith the sincere Piety the generous and unaffected Vertue which Christianity teaches and prescribes shall be the universal livery and cognisance of the Christian World For much about the time of this Conversion of the Iews and that glorious Call of the Gentiles thence ensuing that corrupt and degenerate Faction of Christians whom the Scripture calls the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist and which for several Ages hath been the great Nuisance of Christendom will in these Western parts of the World muster up all its Forces to destroy and extirpate the purer Professors of Christianity by a general persecution in which attempt for some time this Faction will be very prevalent and successful when all of a sudden the Kings and Princes of the Earth who have thitherto been partakers with it in its foul Impostures and corruptions being either awakened by those miraculous Conversions of the Jews and Eastern Gentiles or convinced of their errors by the powerful impressions of his Spirit in whose hands the hearts of Kings are will turn their Swords upon this Antichristian Faction whose Cause they have hitherto espoused and conspire to root it out from off the face of the Earth which being effected the Western Church will universally reform it self according to the Standard of the Church of Ierusalem which will then be in a literal sense the Mother of us all Thus partly by destroying and partly by converting its Enemies our Saviour will yet mightily enlarge the borders of his Kingdom and advance it to the utmost pitch of purity and splendour that this state of mortality will admit and in this happy state he will preserve and continue it for several Ages till a little before the commencement of the General Iudgment at which time the Devil who had been hitherto chained up will be loosed again to work in the Children of disobedience to excite them to delude and deceive the World again and to persecute the sincere Professors of Christianity with incessant cruelties when all of a sudden and while they are securely triumphing in the success of their Villanies they shall be surprized with the Day of Judgment which like a Thief in the night shall come upon them and put an end to all their mischiefs for ever II. Another of those Regal Acts which he is yet to perform is to destroy Death the last Enemy by causing a general Resurrection of the Dead which being one of the great Articles of our Creed I shall insist more largely upon it and endeavour First To prove the certainty of the Fact and Secondly To explain the manner how it will be performed I. I shall endeavour to prove the certainty of the Fact viz. that our Saviour shall raise the dead which is as plainly and frequently asserted in holy Scripture as any Proposition contained in it for so 2 Cor. 4.14 we are assured that God will
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after