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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39854	Two sermons the first preached in Christ-Church, Dublin, Feb. 19, 1681, at the consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, William Lord Bishop of Kildare, William Lord Bishop of Kilmore, and Richard Lord Bishop of Kilalla : the other, preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, at the primary visitation of the most Reverend Father in God, Francis Lord Arch-bishop of Dublin, Apr. 24, 1682 / by S. Foley ...	Foley, Samuel, 1655-1695.; Moreton, William, 1641-1715.; Sheridan, William, 1636-1711.; Tenison, Richard, 1640?-1705.; Marsh, Francis, 1627-1693.	1683 (1683)	Wing F1400; ESTC R2994	25,191	58

made one it may be humbly supposed that these Reverend Persons will labour to reduce Offenders by the Censures of the Church and make some use of Ecclesiastical Discipline so long by the misfortunes of the times disused that we are just upon the point of forgetting that ever there was such a thing and that they will do this with Vigour and Resolution though they know 't will prove as of necessity it must very ungrateful to many and though they thereby procure ever so much ill will and gain for it among us only Curses from the Prophane and graver Reproaches from the Hypocritical This is a Time to shew their Zeal for the House of God a Time to shew their Christian Fortitude and Constancy and seeing they are so well furnish'd with Power by their Lord and Master and so much Countenanced by an Excellent Prince we may expect that they will not like those Children of Ephraim (h) Psal lxxviii of whom King David tells us being harnassed and carrying Bows turn themselves back in the day of Battle And 't will be thought but reasonable that as they ingage themselves in it so they will protect those persons who are Active and Zealous in the Churches Service from the unworthy and vile entertainments of those who hate the Church All this men will make bold and think they may be justly allowed to expect from them In fine They stand in view of many critical and malicious Observers and therefore must Walk Circumspectly because the days are so very Evil. Above all considering that from them as St. Paul (i) Hebr. xiii 17. Canon Apost 40. C●●… Concil Antioch the Canons of the Apostles and of the Council of Antioch teach us God will exact an Account of all the Souls committed unto them And may they imitate the Holiness and Integrity the Justice Charity Temperance Humility and Zeal of their worthy Predecessors in the Primitive Times that so having been thus Wise (k) Dan. xii 3. and such Teachers they may hereafter shine as the brightness of the Firmament and having turned many unto Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And so I come in the Fourth and Last place briefly to consider What Honour and Respect is due to them from us As these Reverend Persons are of God's own Appointment so their Labours are for our great and unspeakable Advantage and therefore we cannot but believe that they ought to be Loved and Honour'd by us Nature dictates to us that God is to be Worshipped and therefore they who are immediately instrumental and assistant to us in holy Services are to have proportionable respect it being one of the principal ways we have of shewing how much we honour God Some call the universal Practice of mankind the Voice of Nature and therefore would time allow I might here take occasion to tell you out of Antient Historians (l) Strabo Geog. Lib. 2. Pag. 346. Pag. 384. Lib. 17. Pag. 566. That among the Albans the Priests had the Honour next to the King Of the great Dignity of the Priests among the Comani and in Meroe and of the Respect pay'd to the Druids That the King of Sparta was Priest of Jupiter That Plutarch tells us that among the Grecians the Priesthood was of equal Dignity with the Kingdom (m) Quaest Rom. 110. That Aristotle testifies the same in many places of his Politicks That the Roman Pontifex Maximus had his Sella Curulis and Lictors as the Consuls had and that the Emperous were often Ambitious of that Office To proceed That Melchisedec was a King and a Priest that the Princes of On and Midian were Priests that great was the Dignity of the High-Priest and of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruler of the Synagogue among the Jews That in the New Testament our Bishops are often peculiarly Entituled Gods Servants and therefore we must Acknowledge that 't will not be for his Honour that they who are his Domesticks and immediate Attendants be trampled on be in want in meanness and disgrace (n) St. Paul speaking of his own being Slandered useth the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Scripture peculiarly signifies Speaking Vnworthily of God which we call Blasphemy as Observ'd by the Reverend Bishop Sanderson on Rom. iii. 8. They are represented to be God's Heralds Embassadors and as it were his Residents among men and such have ever been held honourable and their Persons inviolable among even the most Barbarous People That the good Old Christians (o) Vid. Pet. de Marc. Tom. 2. Pag. 53. Pag. 397. paid their Bishops the greatest Veneration even the Emperour (p) Lib. 3. de Vita Constantini Theod. Hist Eccl. Constantine himself so great honour that this Age will not bear the very mentioning of it That in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries the Learned Fathers both of the Greek and Latin Churches gave to the Bishops the Titles of Principes So St. Hilary in the beginning of his Eighth Book De Trinitate calls them Principes Ecclesiae And Gregory Nazianzen who was so Humble and Pious that rather than that the Peace of the Church should be disturbed he did in the first Constantinopolitan Council resign the great Patriarchate of that City and retire do's challenge these Titles That the good People (q) Greg. Nazianzen Orat. 17. To the Bishop are ascribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave the greatst Expressions of concern for St. Chrysostom when Banish'd for Nazianzen's Father when Sick (r) Chrysost Tom. 4. p. 763. Edit Paris and for Basil Bishop of Caesarea (s) Nazian Orat. 19. pag. 304. Edit Paris 1609. when he lay a Dying Instances of this sort are infinite I might shew at large how great Respect the Foreign Reformed Divines of most Note have payed to our Bishops particularly that Calvin Beza Sadeel nay the whole Consistory of Pastors at Geneva that Danaeus Peter Martyr Gualierus Spanhemius and others do in their Works call our Bishops Lords and Most Reverend Fathers in God enough one would think to secure the Title from being Antichristian and I might mention what ours and all the Wisest Princes of Europe have thought due to them In short we are not to learn our duties from the corrupt practice of a Profane Atheistical Generation nor of some men of late years famous only for being Ill-natur'd and Troublesome We know the evil Consequences of making the Clergy and way Contemptible and may believe King Solomon (t) Eccles ix 16. at least our own Experience that the Poor the despis'd Man's Wisdom is despised and his words are not heard We find that Moses knowing that he was soon to be gathered to his People besought God that he would please to Appoint one to succeed him and thereupon God commanded him to take Joshua and lay his hand upon him and to give him a Charge before all the Congregation and adds (u) Numbers xxvii 20. Insignia potestatis gester

frequenti famulitio cingatur So Tostat Tirin Bonfrer Serrar And thou shalt put some of thine Honour upon him that all the Congregation of the Children of Israel may he Obedient Some of thine Honour This many Learned Commentators suppose to be Ensigns of Authority Attendants extraordinary and other Circumstances that usually procure Respect which we see God himself thought necessary in order to gain their Obedience So that it cannot be Religion which labours to make those Persons Low and Sordid and Mean and Contemptible and Useless whose Contempt and Meanness renders Religion it self so Besides were not Religion were not the publick good so much concerned in their Usage to deal ingenuously and to speak it out plainly it cannot but be thought a hard Case that Men who came into the World with perhaps as good Parts and as fit for Honour and for great Actions as their Neighbours after they have had an Education Liberal and Ingenuous and all the Improvements of Wit and Judgment Reason and Eloquence after many Years exhausting their Spirits and wasting their Vigour in publick Services as our Blessed Saviour after going about and doing good was arrayed in Purple that he might be set nought by Herod and his Men of War should be condemned to a Sacred Station of pretended Dignity and Authority only that they may be the more exposed to Envy and Malice Hatred and Contempt be the more eminently despised and more augustly ridiculous And has this Order deserv'd such usages at our hands How many of it have we had even in this last Century in these Kingdoms who have been of Primitive Piety and True Learning an Honour to their Country and Examples for future Ages Able and Couragious Defenders of the Truth Zealous Opposers of Romish Superstition that I say not the very Bulwarks of Protestancie most admirable Writers and incomparable Preachers And by which one may judge of the unreasonableness of our present Clamours against them I may add That no Anti-Episcopal man of what denomination soever hath in the judgment of unprejudiced Persons written so Learnedly and Solidly against the Romanists though Aspers'd themselves with Popish Inclinations and Designs as the Late Murdered Primate of England in his Book against Fisher the Late Primate of Ireland in several of his Treatises and the Late Bishop of Durham concerning the Canon of the Scripture and Transubstantiation to name no others But we have a sort of men among us from whose Scorn and Reproaches no Innocence no Vertue no Learning no Prudence or Caution can Protect either the Fathers or the Sons of the Church Be they what they will they are all become abominable and gone out of the way there is none that does good no not one As if a man must of necessity be forsaken of God and of all Goodness as soon as he is ingaged in his more immediate Service and lose his Wits at least part with all sense of Piety and Religion as soon as he enters upon any Spiritual Office so it be by Law Established I wish there were no reason for this Complaint But the Injury extends farther than to the present Clergy A Leading-Man among the Dissenters has lately added to his great number of Books with which he had favoured the World One which he calls a Church-History or History of Bishops which the Learned Answerer justly Stiles An Account of all the faults which Bishops have committed in the several Ages of the Church and I may add a great many of their Vertues made Faults And what can be the design of such a Work as this but to supply what is wanting in the Prelates now Living to make the Order odious by relating all the defects of those in former Ages But alass this is a Melancholy Consideration and must needs make a sad impression on any Pious Soul For though we cannot think it strange that Men who are professed Enemies of God and of all Religion and would feign laugh them both out of the World do endeavour to expose and to make ridiculous and odious those persons whose work and study it is to keep up a sense of Religion upon mens hearts yet that men who pretend to be Piously disposed and heartily concerned for the Honour of God and of the Gospel should take much pains to disgrace and to render such vile and abominable this this is a lamentable indication of a degenerate Age of an Age ready to be over-run with Profaneness and Impiety and industrious to force God to take away the Light of the Gospel from among them It must be Acknowledged that the best of men are still but men and therefore liable to some mistakes and defects So that it does not appear fair and equitable that they who it may take no Notice of Great and Extravagant Faults among their own Party should most severely Censure and Aggravate the least Miscarriage in a Prelate as if they disliked the Cause and the Persons and not the Crimes or thought that they stricter Piety of the Bishops like the Offering of the High Priest among the Jews were to make Attonement for the Sins of the People I come not here to flatter any man or to make Apologies for their Vices and think I have not as far as became me spoken too favourably of Vicious Prelates if any happen to be so But 't is absolutely necessary though it will not please all that the People be told their duty plainly in this point and I know not a more proper occasion and therefore omitting to speak of the Zeal and Diligence of some and of the Hastiness Credulity and Uncharitableness of others I shall in a word or two shew how easie a thing it is to slur a false colour on then most innocent Actions of the best men and consequently how little Notice Sober Persons should take of the Invectives we daily hear against our Spiritual Governours How easie a thing is it if they will not by servile compliances Fawn upon and vilely Court those whom they should Command to call them Proud If they will not let their Honour lie in the dust and allow that their Office is as Contemptible as their Enemies would have it be to represent them as Ambitious and how natural is it for those who pretend that making them poor would make them humble to make them look as if they were proud that it may be thought necessary to humble them Be they ever so Charitable to the Poor ever so Just and Generous in their dealings if they will not part with the Churches Right to any litigious Person can they forbear calling them Covetous And which is a very fashionable Calumnie now and almost in the mouth of every one of one sort if they do but perswade the People to Obey Magistrates as Christianity obliges them and will not joyn with the discontented in their unreasonable jealousies of their Prince how easie is it to say that They are for Tyranny and Arbitrary Government As if they had not as true a Property in their Estates and as good a Title in Law as any Freeholder in the Kingdom which all must Acknowledge unless they will have Property so highly magnified to be a word that signifies nothing but in the concerns of a Lay-man and they who stand up for it so warmly mean only their own If they be for a grave and regular devotion is it difficult to say They are Popish and if they would have men reverent in Divine Offices to revile them as Superstitious and if any one venture to say these dealings are not fair and honest to vote him Ambitious and a Flatterer But if these be the Crimes of our Bishops may they ever be guilty of them and if they be under the most invidious Character and with ever so much dis-ingenuity represented to the World upon these Accounts and be ever so much hated and contemned for them They have this Comfort that God from whom they expect their Reward seeth not as man sees and that whilst we regard only the outward appearance he views the heart To make an End of all May I not be allowed to beseech you with some earnestness that if you have any Love for the Truth any Zeal for the Gospel and any Concern for the Peace and Prosperity of the Church That you will not suffer your selves to be prejudiced by the heat and importunities of none of the most knowing and peaceable men against a Government built upon a foundation of Christ's own Institution Exercised by the Holy Apostles and continued from them to us the only Government used in all Ages by the whole Christian Worlds honoured and reverenced by all and administred by many of the Holy Fathers Martyrs and Confessors acknowledged by all Councils honoured by all the worthy English and Learnedest nf the Forreign Reformers and highly Respected and Advanced by all Christian Kings and Princes and never opposed in the Antient Church by any but by one desperate man immediately branded for a Heretick upon that Attempt And let us not be drawn unaccountably into a Kindness for any Novel Uncertain and Arbitrary Form one thing to day and we know not what to morrow to the disturbance of our quiet and for ought as we can tell to the Ruin and Desolation of these three Flourishing Kingdoms to the Eternal Shame and Disgrace of the Protestant nay of the Christian Religion and the great Joy and Triumph of the Enemies of all Religion and of God himself Consider what hath been said and the Lord give You understanding in all things Amen THE END

without any mention of the Pope or Apostolick See 4. We may likewise hence conclude That Bishops have not nor ought to have their Authority from the People That they had in the Apostles days was held by Mr. Hobbes (o) Leviathan Cap. 22. and he says 'T is so declar'd in Scripture But 't is plain that he makes it the same thing to Elect and to Ordain which the (p) Acts vi 5. The whole Multitude Chose Stephen and Philip c. Vers 6. Whom they set before the Apostles who when they had Prayed lay'd their Hands on them Scriptures make very different As to what relates to the People it does indeed appear from Antiquity that They were somewhat concern'd in the Election of Bishops (q) Of this matter see a full and satisfactory Account in the History of the present Separation by the Worthy and most Learned Dr. Stillingfleet Part 3. Sect. 24.25 but 't was only by way of Approbation and that St. Paul's Rule might be the better observ'd That a Bishop be Blameless and of Good Report And that they were of Good Report the People could best testifie But this occasion'd many disturbances so that Christian Magistrates were forced sometimes to interpose and at last upon prudent Considerations 't was quite dis-used Having setled these matters I come now to prove that Bishops by vertue of this Authority which they have from Christ are above Presbyters I must desire to be excused that I do not make the Enquiry Whether Bishops be of a distinct Order from that of Presbyters Jure Divino or not Which by the Advantage of Ambiguous expressions made use of by some unwarily by others on purpose and by the motives of Interest and Envy has been made the subject of much dispute and of many Books in this last Age. This I have designedly declin'd medling with For unless we be willing Eternally to wrangle and dispute and to make the Controversy to last as long as the Order it self even to the end of the World We must state the Question plainly and after some sort that we may find a clear decision of it some way or other And I know none more fair than this Whether the Apostles before their Martyrdoms committed the Authority which Christ gave them of Governing his Church and the inferior Officers of it and of Ordaining others in every Church to single Persons or to several in Conjunction To determine this Let us first consult the Holy Scriptures We find that the first Successor to any of the Apostles who was made by them was Matthias who when Judas had fallen away though he was a Disciple by the direction of the Holy Ghost (r) Acts i. was assm'd to a higher degree to the dignity of an Apostle (s) The Apostles were above the 70 Disciples Philip did Preach Baptise did Miracles and Converted the Samaritans but his Converts did not receive the Holy Ghost till that St. Peter and St. John came down from Jerusalem and laid their hands upon them Acts. viii 14.15 And that Matthias before he was made Successor to Judas was one of the 70. Disciples Vid. Eusebii Hist Eccl. Lib. 1. Cap. 12. St. Peter says To take Judas his Bishoprick We find St. James who was not (t) That James the Brother of our Lord was not one of the Twelve Valesius shews at large in his Notes on the same Chapter Not. Pag. 20. of the Twelve and whom all Ecclesiastical Histonias reckon Bishop of Hierusalem that he resided constantly there and that any matter of importance which hapned was communicated unto him That the Presbyters attended on him that when St. Peter was deliver'd out of Prison by an Angel he bade them whom he first met (u) Acts xii 17. to go and shew those things unto James and unto the Brethren and that St. Paul as soon (w) Acts xxi 18. as he came to Hierusalem after his Fourteen Years Preaching to the Gentiles went in unto James and all the Elders were present Though the Presbyters were all there he made his Application in a particular manner to St. James And in the First Council held there upon occasion of a Controversie about keeping the Law of Moses St. James determin'd as one in Authority in these words (x) Acts. xv 19. Wherefore my Sentence is St. Paul committed his Authority at Ephesus to Timothy we find him give him in Charge That he should not receive an Accusation against a Presbyters but confirm'd by two or three witnesses (y) 1 Tim. v. 19 20. and him that sinned to Rebuke before all that others also might fear So by his Place we see that he might receive an Accusation and summon Witnesses before him and Examine them and give Sentence against Presbyters which he could not have done had they been his Equals Besides he was charged with a solemn adjuration (z) Vers 21. before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels to do these things without Partiality which shews that by his Authority he was able to shew favours to some Presbyters above others and that his Partiality would have been of great Consequence The same St. Paul made Titus Metropolitan of Creet gave him Authority (a) 1 Titus v. To Ordain Elders in every City And as to what cencerns the rest of the Apostles we may beleive They endeavour'd that there should be Uniformity in all Churches which 't is plain (b) 1 Cor. vii 17. 1 Cor. xiv 33. St. Paul labour'd much after and Uniformity could not be had they instituted different Forms of Government in them But no considering Person will think it strange that the particular Form of Government is not more expresly described in the Relation we have in those Sacred Books of what was done by the Apostles immediately after our Saviours Ascension They could not of a sudden settle all matters nor was it necessary that They should appoint Successors long before they were to leave them Besides the Account which we have of what they did is very short St. Luke was the only Person who Compos'd and left to Posterity Commentaries o their Acts. In them we find little of St. Peter but what was transacted within a Year or two after his Masters Ascension little of St. Paul but his Conversion and what St. Luke saw him do in his several journeys less of any other of the Apostles And as to St. Paul's Epistles they do rather suppose the then Establishment whatever it was sufficiently known than undertake to describe it And after all those Books were finish'd we have reason to believe that the Church being so very much enlarged by the Accession of New Converts that they made their form of Government more exact than before Comported with the Circumstances of Affairs However One thing we find in the Revelations which seems plain enough in this matter Our Saviour Commanded St. John to write to the Angels of the Seven Churches of Asia That

Brethren as to rob them of the Authority given them by their Master and yet if we hold either Presbytery or any other way than what they then used to be of Christ's Institution we must conclude these Martyrs these Holy Devout Self-denying Men to have been so Covetous so False so Ambitious such Tyrants such Usurpers One might tremble to think that to maintain a New Conceit and the Credit of some Popular Men among us in a wicked degenerate Age we should labour to prove those Worthies the Basest Falsest Villains that ever lived among Men. But if they were so could they have Agreed all the World over in this Knavery for it admits not of a softer expression were all the rest so tame as to submit to it And why did not the Presbyters then as some of ours did of late rise up against them and say they were Anti-Christian Upon the whole we see that for a Bishop to be above the Presbyters is not late Usurpation but Practis'd in the Purest in all the Ages of the Christian Church not invented by Antichrist nor part of the Mystery of Iniquity but an Apostolick Constitution conformable to our Saviour's own And who can shew a better Title to any Priviledges or Estates upon Earth than a Possession of above Sixteen Hundred Years without the least Fraud or Violence at the beginning This therefore being manifest that in the Ages immediately following the Apostles the Churches were Govern'd by Single Persons who pretended to derive their Authority from them and that we have all the reason imaginable to believe that they would not nay that they could not have pretended so had it been false we may safely conclude That they had and consequently that they who are their Legal Successors now have their Authority from the Apostles and so from Christ I shall just mention a few inferences which we may make from what hath been said and then proceed 1. Hence we see upon what Foundation that part of the Establish'd Doctrine of the Churches of England and Ireland is built which asserts that Episcopal Power in the Sense in which we understand it was exercised by the Apostles and by their Successors made by them by vertue of the Commission which they receiv'd from Christ This we find in the Book of Consecration which is Approv'd of by the Articles of our Churches Art 36. Confirm'd by Act of Parliament and Subscribed to by all who have taken Holy Orders 2. We see what reason the Reformed Churches abroad had to speak so honourably of our English Episcopacy as they have frequently done for which at large I may refer to Dr. Durell's View of the Government of those Churches and to his later Defence of the Church of England in Latin As to their own Practice To urge their having no Bishops which their Superiours who are of another persuasion will not allow of as an Argument against our Bishops is as unreasonable as it would be to perswade us now to Assemble for the Publick Worship of God in Caves and Dens because the good Old Christians being not permitted by their Persecutors to have Churches were forced to do so And we may say to them what a most Reverend Prelate of ours did write to one of their Ablest Divines Non culpa vestra sed injuria temporum abesse Episcopatum (y) Bishop Andrew's Letter to Du Moulin inter Opera Posth You have no Bishops not because you would not but because ye (z) When at the Synod of Dort the Bishop of Landaff had intimated That the want of Episcopacy had occasioned those divisions in the Netherlands Bogerman the President of the Synod stood up and in good allowance of what had been spoken said Domine nos non sumus adeo felices So Bishop Hall cannot have them 3. Hence we see how little foundation there is in Scripture or in Antiquity for any other Forms of Church-Government For to say that the Classical or that the Congregational way which some think Socinus invented was used by the Apostles and by their immediate Successors and yet not the least appearance of them in the Acts or Epistles and that they should never be heard of for Fifteen Hundred Years together is an Assertion so very strange that one might with as much modesty and reason go about to perswade us that the Caesars whom we have hitherto taken for other kind of Officers were but Masters of the Corporations of Rome or Chairmen of their Committees Fourthly and Lastly From hence we may conclude how highly insolent and presumptuous it would be in us to prefer any new fangled Scheme of Government before that which was founded by Christ and exercised by his Apostles and by the whole Church to our days And certainly Generations to come will look upon this last as a very wild Age in which so many People (a) The Solemn League and Covenant Art 2. That without Respect of Persons They would endeavour to Extirpate Papacy Prelacy that is the Government Ecclesiastical by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. bound themselves by an Oath to Extirpate such a Government But yet allowing a great part of what hath been discoursed Two things are supposed by some to make a great difference between ours and the Primitive Episcopacy Their Temporal Jurisdictions and their Titles and Estates To which I shall only say that our Bishops do Claim no Temporal Jurisdiction by an inherent Right as Bishops and Exercise it only by the Favour and Authority of the King And to suppose that a Princes giving great Titles and Honours and Estates to Bishops do's render them not Christian and Apostolical Bishops is very like supposing that the fairly Binding up and Guilding and Enamelling a Bible do's make it cease it to be the Word of God Having discoursed thus largely in order to a Resolution of the First Enquiry Time will not allow that I speak so fully to those that are behind and therefore I shall contract what I conceive necessary into as little compass as I can The Second Enquiry was concerning the Advantages of this sort of Government above others And here two very considerable Advantages are obvious to us both from Reason and Experience First In reference to the Peace of the Church St. Hierom of all the Fathers least favourable to Episcopacy having as he thought been unkindly dealt with by the Bishop of Hierusalem does plainly profess That the Peace of Particular Churches cannot be preserved without this Government His words are (b) In his Dialogue adversus Luciferianos Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors quaedam ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot Sacerdotes Take away the Dignity of the Bishop and you ruin the Church and if you will not allow him a Power above all and in which they have no share you shall have as many Schisms made as there be Presbyters 'T is St.