that it belonged to Timothy being the Bishop of Ephesus as he is expresly called the First Bishop of Ephesus at the end of the second Epistle to him to whom the Church Treasure made up of the Gifts of the People was entrusted to provide for the Presbyters under him a necessary Maintenance which manner of practice continued in the Church the Bishops having the dispose of the Churches Treasure within their several Precincts during all that time the Church had no Christian Magistrate to Countenance her and long after III. He writes to him as an Ecclesiastick Ruler and Judge that had power to hear and examine Accusations brought against Presbyters and accordingly to judge after due Evidence of two or three Witnesses which plainly shews his Power of Jurisdiction over Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. IV. He gives him a most solemn Charge before God the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that in the exercise of the Power of Judicatory he act impartially without Favour or biass of Affection not preferring one before another ver 21. V. He writes to him as one having Power of Ordination to Ordain Elders by laying on of Hands and cautions him to lay hands suddenly on no Man ver 22. VI. He writes to him in his second Epistle to stir up the gift of God that was in him by the putting on of his Hands together with the Hands of the Presbytery or Eldership viz. some other Apostles that might jointly with St. Paul lay Hands on him 1 Tim. 4. 14. for that the Presbytery here mentioned was a Colledge only of Presbyters is a bare alledgment viz. when he ordained him the first Bishop of Ephesus as appears from the end of the second Epistle 2 Tim. 1. 6. VII He willeth him that he commit to faithful Men who shall be able to teach others also those Things that he had heard of him among many Witnesses which behoved to be some peculiar Things relating in great part to Rules of Discipline and Church Government which were not fit either for Heathens to hear or Novices in the Faith who yet might hear the common Doctrines of the Christian Faith preached in the Christian Assemblies VIII Writing to Titus he presupposeth him Bishop of the Cretians as appears from the end of the Epistle to him and tells him why he left him in Crete That he should set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him I know no reason why these should be thought Lay-Elders i. e. such as were not to Preach I find none such either here or any where else in the New Testament How could Titus exercise this Authority in such a spacious Island where many Cities were and Christian Congregations set up if he had been only a single Presbyter And if the other Presbyters had equal Power with him why did not he write to him and them jointly Whether in the Ordination of Presbyters others jointly did not lay on Hands with the Bishop is not the present question but whether it is to be found in Scripture or Church History that any Number or Colledge of Presbyters Ordained any without a Bishop presiding over them IX He telleth him that the Mouths of such Teachers as were unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers and who taught things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake must be stopped which plainly shews his Authority to depose and silence false Teachers as well as to Ordain Sound and Worthy X. He telleth him of his Authority to judge who is a Heretick and how after the first and second Admonition if he amend not he ought to reject him By these Instances plainly collected out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus it may I think appear to all impartial persons that well and duly consider them that both Timothy and Titus were Bishops and had a Superiority of Power and Jurisdiction over the Presbyters in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete as well as of Ordination I know W. Prynne hath printed a Book which he called the Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus which I have read but I find not that he hath either sufficiently answered the Arguments brought from Scripture to prove that they were Bishops or given any sufficient Arguments to the contrary I have also seen another great Book of his giving a Historical Relation of the evil Practises of many Bishops all which if true saith nothing against the Office But I could write a great Book threefold greater giving a Historical Relation of many good Things Bishops have done in the World Many Bishops both in the early and latter Ages have been eminently exemplary in Holiness of Life and all Christian Virtues and for divers Ages succeeding the Apostle's Days were blessed and happy Instruments to preserve the Truth and Purity of the Christian Doctrine in the World and the Unity and Peace of the many Churches in it hindring Schisms and curing them that did threaten to arise Cutting down with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even the Doctrinal Word outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures as they were mightily assisted by the Holy Spirit so to do the monstrous and vile Heresies that sprung up from time to time oppugning the Christian Faith wherein Almighty God blessed them with great Success and this they did partly by their particular Writings Treatises and Epistles as well as Sermons and partly by their assembling in great Numbers in Synods and Councils to condemn them and that many times to the danger of their Lives under persecuting Kings and Emperours some whereof were Heathen and some Arian and Eutychian Such who are but ordinarily well acquainted with Antiquity and Church History cannot be ignorant that the Government of the Church from the very days of the Apostles in all the famous places of the World where Christianity came to be planted was by Succession the which did lineally descend for four hundred years from the Apostles days and upwards and in divers places to this Age. There are two places of Scripture in the Old Testament which divers of the Fathers understood of Episcopal Government as it was to be set up in the Church under the New Testament as Psal 45. 16. being a Prophecy concerning Christ's Church and his Government in the same by Church Officers Instead of thy Fathers i. e. the Apostles who were the Founders of the New Testament Church and were her Fathers shall be thy Children i. e. their Successors in the Government of the Church after their Decease whom thou maiest make Princes in all the Earth The other Place is in Isaiah 60. 17. I will appoint them Bishops in Righteousness and Deacons or Ministers in Faith as Clemens Bishop of Rome quotes it in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians but as the Septuagint hath it is thus And I will give thy Princes in Peace and thy Bishops in Righteousness Ignatius who conversed with St. 〈◊〉 the Apostle and as his Disciple and Bishop of Antioch being committed by him writeth thus to the Church of Smyrna let the People be subject to their Deacons the Deacons to the Presbyters the Presbyters to the Bishop and the Bishop to Christ as he is to his Bishop Policarp also was constituted by St. John Bishop of Smyrna who both suffered Martyrdom as Church History giveth 〈…〉 saith lib. 3. cap. 3. We have to remember them who were appointed Bishops by 〈…〉 qui ab Apostalis 〈◊〉 sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successoret eorum usque ād nos the Apostles in the Churches and their Successors even 〈◊〉 us This Irenaeus was Bishop at Lyons and lived within about a hundred years after St. John It is acknowledged both by ancient Writers and later yea by some 〈◊〉 and particularly by David Paraeus that the seven Angels of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. John wrote were the seven Bishops set over those seven Churches also it is very probable that St. John himself had planted all these seven Churches and did constitute the Bishops in them Hierom whom the Adversaries of Episcopacy think that he favoureth in opposition to the Episcopal Authority plainly granteth that the Power of Ordination is lodged in the Bishop saying quid enim facis excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat i. e. for what doth the Bishop that the Presbyter may not on ought not to do except Ordination Epist ad Euagrium And the sense affirmeth that from Mark the Evangelist until Heracla 〈…〉 Bishops there the Presbyters of Alexandria did name him Bishop one among themselves elected and placed in a higher degree but he doth not say that they ordained him And both Hierom and Clemens Romanus long before him did make a paralel betwixt the High Priests Priests and Levites in the Jewish Church and Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the New Testament Church what Aaren and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple saith he the same in the Church may Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves Hier. ad Eugr. And how universal the extent of Episcopacy was in all the Churches and to what end it was appointed he further declareth in that same Epist it was decreed in the whole world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the Seeds of Schism be removed Thus far I think I have made it appear that in none of the Particulars above mentioned the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England but that what advantage there is to be found either from Scripture or Church History and Antiquity lieth on her side FINIS
Sentence that he quoted out of a Psalm of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that written Word They say they call the Scripture what it calleth it self to wit a Treatise for which they quote Acts 1. 1. the former Treatise but had they understood or consulted the Greek they would have found it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the former Word whereby he understands the whole Book of the Gospel according to St. Luke Now as to the distinction betwixt a good and evil Conscience of which also the Scripture speaks 1. An evil Conscience is an ignorant Conscience 2. Unfaithfulness and Disobedince to what a Man is convinced of renders the Conscience to be evil 3. Unbelief and want of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes the Conscience evil 4. Not to follow the dictates of Conscience even when it errs is an evidence of an evil Conscience Here that Axiom takes place Conscientia errans ligat sed non obligat an erring Conscience ties but doth not oblige it is a great pinch and strait He 〈◊〉 follows not an erring Conscience sinneth because he acts not in Faith and what is not of faith is sin and when he followeth his erring Conscience he sinneth This is no new Doctrine however possibly it may so seem to some here it is that which every Casuist doth commonly teach I will illustrate it to you by a Similitude that some have given If a Subject be deceived by a counterfeit Messenger from his Prince who brings a counterfeit Message from the King sealed with a counterfeit Seal and he thinks it to be real this Subject sufficiently shews his disrespect and disloyalty to his Prince if he refuse to obey it the application is easie If any object that as Contradictories cannot be both true or both false but the one true and the other false so if to follow an erring Conscience be a sin not to follow it is no sin being Contradictory But I answer they are not Contradictory for they are both affirmative Propositions He that followeth an erring Conscience sinneth this is affirmative He that followeth not an erring Conscience sinneth this is also affirmative But the way to get out of this pinch is to get a well-informed Conscience and to get rid of those Errours of Conscience which prejudice of Education by evil Teachers has led them into read the Holy Scriptures search meditate pray God to give you a good Understanding and let you see your Errours confer with such whom you have good cause to esteem both more holy and more wise and understanding than your selves To the third and last what the Rule of Conscience is according to which it must be directed and guided that so it may be denominated a good Conscience I answer We must distinguish betwixt an inadequate or incomplete Rule of Conscience and that which is adequate and complete The Law writ in the Heart of every Man is an incomplete Rule to a Man's Conscience obliging every Christian to obey it so that whosoever transgresseth against it is guilty of hainous sin and this Law extendeth in some degree to most of all yea in some sort to all the ten Precepts of the Moral Law but our highest Obedience to that Law and Rule cannot denominate the Conscience good or give true peace of Conscience or heal the wound of it that sin hath given for all have sinned and faln short of the Glory of God and whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God The best of our Obedience cannot make atonement for our sins nay not for one sin not the least sin it is only the Lamb of God as he was slain for us that takes away our sins as we have faith in him his Blood cleanseth us 〈◊〉 all sin and the Merit and Value of it hath procured to us the Gift of the Holy Spirit to sanctifie us and therefore we owe both our Justification and Sanctification to the Lamb of God and to his most precious Blood for by our Justification we are cleansed from the guilt of sin and by our Sanctification from the filth of it And though Faith and Repentance are necessary conditions and qualifications to our obtaining Remission of sin Justification and eternal Salvation yet they are not in any wise the meritorious Cause thereof but Christ alone by what he hath done and suffered for us Holiness and our Obedience to God's Laws and Precepts both as writ without in the Holy Scriptures and as writ within in our Hearts is indispensibly necessary to our eternal Salvation but we must not rest nor rely upon it even when it is wrought in us by the help of the Holy Spirit it must not be the foundation or ground of our Faith and hope for remission of Sins and eternal Salvation either in whole or in part but our reliance must be alone on the Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man as he died for us c. and on the Mercy of God through him apprehended by Faith Now the knowledge of this in God's ordinary way is given to us and all who have it by the inward Illumination and Operation of the Holy Spirit in the use of the written Word as it is preached and heard by us or read and meditated upon We feeling the working of the Spirit of Christ to mortifie the works of the flesh and the earthly members and to draw up our mind to high and heavenly things as the 17th Article of the Church of England plainly expresseth The complete and adequate Rule therefore of our Faith and Practice is the whole revealed Will of God as it is declared unto us in the Holy Scriptures the Laws and Precepts whereof are of a far greater extent than those writ in every Man's heart without all Scripture Revelation or antecedent to it as David said I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad that is the whole complex or body of the Divine Laws given us by God and Christ as they are contained in the Holy Scriptures for Doctrine for Correction for Instruction c. It is therefore a great and dangerous Errour in them who hold as many do in these Nations that the Light within and what it dictates in every Man is the full and entire complete and perfect Rule of all Faith and Practice and nothing is absolutely needful to our Salvation but what that Light within teacheth us and all Mankind or will teach us if we hearken to it and obey it without all Scripture and all outward means of Instruction and yet the utmost extent that this Light within goeth to teach Men without Scripture and without the special Illumination and Operation of the Spirit accompanying the Scripture's Testimony is no more than the Righteousness of the Moral Law and Terms of the first Covenant Do and Live which Covenant we have all transgressed and
and living Impression on our hearts and making our hearts that were stony before now to be soft and tender to receive that Impression and yet so solid firm and tenacious as to retain it being as a Nail fixt in a firm place by the Masters of Assemblies given by one Shepherd Eccles 12. 11. But so is not the heart of Unbelievers or Heathen Gentiles whose heart is a heart of stone but the heart of every sincere Believer is a heart of flesh according to Ezek. 11. 19. and 36. 26 27. compared with 2 Cor. 3. 3. But say some cannot the Spirit teach us without Book even without the Scripture Thus some argue for the sufficiency of the Light within without any thing else I answer and so can an able Schoolmaster teach his Scholars without Book but they cannot well learn without Book As the Master condescendeth to the weak capacity of his Scholars to teach them by Books so doth the Spirit condescend to our weak capacity to teach us by the written Word Now as concerning the peculiar positive Laws of the Gospel under the New Testament and the Gospel Precepts some of them are greater and some lesser but all highly valuable and profitable The greater are such that Obedience to them is of absolute and indispensible necessity to our Salvation as to believe in Christ and to love Christ and to rejoyce in Christ whom yet we have neither outwardly heard nor seen according to 1 Pet. 1. 8. and John 20. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed The lesser are such that are not of that absolute and indispensible necessity to Salvation in some cases thought still generally necessary to Salvation as Water-Baptism and the Lord's Supper It would be too uncharitable in us to conclude that all who die without them fall short of Salvation Christ said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he said not he that is not baptized shall be damned but he that believeth not shall be damned Our most mereiful and gracious Lord knew well that by some unavoidable Providences some could neither receive Baptism nor the Supper how much soever they desired it being prevented by Death before they could have them administred to them in which case all good Casuists and Divines say Votum Baptismi i. e. The Desire of Baptism and the Willingness of the Mind to subject to it as the Ordinance of Christ is equivalent to Baptism it self And the like may be said of the Lord's Supper But what shall we say or think of many in our day and time who may have it and yet through woful Ignorance and Errour being deluded by false Teachers and prejudice of Education or otherwise darkned and blinded in their Minds refuse and reject it not only break these two precious Commands of Christ but teach Men so to do And many have lived and died in this opposition to these Precepts of Christ without any sign of Repentance being taught by their false Teachers to believe that they are no Commands of Christ I own to my Grief and Shame that I have been so deceived by them and I thank my gracious God that has spared and prolonged my natural Life until he was pleased to farther enlighten me and give me to see my great Errour and renounce it as I have done and now to practise that which I formerly rejected But to answer directly to the Question what other or better Answer can I give than the words of our Saviour himself Mat. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Some understand it so that he shall have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven which is true if he live and die in wilful Ignorance and Disobedience but I will not be so uncharitable as to think so of many who have in some measure in Faithfulness held the Fundamentals of Christianity and have sincerely endeavoured to obey such of the greater Commands of Christ that they are perished but on the contrary I have the charity to them and so I hope and desire that ye may have the same that God has in mercy received them and has not excluded them from the Kingdom of Heaven notwithstanding they have lived and died not only in the disuse of some of Christ's Commands such as Baptism and the Supper but have even continued in the opposition of them to the last moment not throught any wilful Ignorance but by being imposed upon by the high Pretences of their false Teachers whom they esteemed to be Prophets Yet I think without breach of charity I may say that for their Ignorance and ignorant opposition to these or any of the least of Christ's Commands they shall have a lesser degree of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven than otherwise they should have had I have now done with what I had to say in answer to these weighty Questions I shall only observe one Particular from the words of the Text which is this That it hath oft been and is the Lot of good Men having a good Conscience to be wrongfully judged misrepresented and falsly accused both Scripture and History abounds with Examples to prove this as in the case of Joseph Moses David and Daniel and many of the Prophets and in the case of John Baptist and our Saviour John came neither eating nor drinking and they said he had a Devil Christ came eating and drinking with Publicans and Sinners and they called him gluttonous and a Wine-bibber to which my Case somewhat resembles These four Years past my Adversaries among the Quakers reproached me that I was of no Communion neither Quaker nor Presbyterian nor Independent nor Baptist nor of the Church of England and unless I would declare my self to be of some particular Communion they would not dispute with me nor regard me to answer me though I told them I was a Christian and a Member of the Catholick Church of Christ and have great charity for all the sincere that hold the Head in all the several Communions of Protestants but this would not satisfie but they would insult and sought to trample me under their feet but God supported me But now again when with a good Conscience being farther I bless God enlightned and my Scruples I had being fairly removed after diligent Examination and mature Deliberation I have declared my self to be for the Church of England and have joyn'd in Communion with her they do as much reproach and revile me and falsly accuse me as formerly and so would they have done if I had joyned with any of the Dissenters but I bless God I have a good Conscience and my care hath been is and I hope ever shall be to have Peace with God and my own Conscience and therefore I need not be much concerned what my Adversaries or any other ignorant persons shall say of me I am comforted with the words of
our Blessed Lord to his Disciples Matth. 5. 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake This I thank God is my case I charge my Adversaries to prove any thing against me of evil Conversation I have with Zeal and Resolution which God hath been pleas'd to give me and who has greatly supported and strengthened me opposed and testified against their vile Errours and this is all the cause of their Hatred against 〈◊〉 and that God has been pleased to bless and prosper 〈…〉 with some Success so that both in America many and here in England both in City and Country divers have come from Quakerism and gone over to the Church of England with me yea divers have prevented me and gone before me and divers here I hope will go along with me I also remember what Christ said John 16. 2. The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God Service Persecutors commonly follow an erring Conscience few Persecutors and be sure they are of the worst sort that knowingly and wilfully persecute the Servants of God Having thus far proceeded according to the Doctrine I mentioned at the beginning of this Discourse on the foregoing Verse 1 Pet. 3. 15. I think it my Duty and a weighty Concern lyeth upon me to give to this Auditory the Reason of the Hope that is in me of my Faith and Persuasion in this very particular Why I have joined in Communion with the Church of England although I retain Charity to all the honest-hearted of other Communions hoping that in God's due time the more Sincere will follow my Example and that God will make all the Sincere to be not only of one Faith as many at present are but of one Way and Practice and Uniformity Worship and Church Discipline so as with one mouth and one heart and mind to glorifie God Rom. 15. 16. This will be a Joyful Day which I hope many here and elsewhere pray for Why then will ye not help it forward by your good Examples laying aside all weak and insufficient Scruples which upon due Examination will be found without just ground And why find ye fault with those that begin to give you good Example Though this Change of mine is not so great as some imagine I was never so uncharitable as I find some are though I grant I have been too uncharitable which I have retracted I have been for a considerable time very charitable to all sober and religious Protestants of all sorts and have oft in secret bewail'd their Opposition one to another perceiving that in great part it came more from Prejudice of Judgment and Education than any just Cause I date not my Conversion to Christianity from this Change nay nor from my first turning to the Quakers My gracious God began early to deal with me and turn'd my Heart towards him I was well instituted in the Fundamentals of Christianity by the good Education I had for which I praise God before I knew the Quakers and though in too many things I was misled by them being deceived by their high pretences to Perfection and divine Enjoyments by which they have deceived many as well as me yet I retained a sound Faith of the Fundamentals of Christianity and did constantly profess the same which I can sufficiently prove both by my printed Books from time to time and divers Manuscripts and from my Childhood to this day God has in mercy preserved me from all scandalous Conversation and Practice whereof some of good Credit are ready to give a Testimony who have known me for Fourty six Years past and my manner of Conversation I am the more concerned to give the reason of my said Change chiefly for the sake of some of my good Friends here present who though by the Blessing of God have been by me as an instrument brought off from the Quakers Errours that were opposite to the Fundamentals of Christianity yet have some remaining Scruples that at present hinder them from so cordial a joining with the Church of England and seem to be concerned with my joining with her which I hope God in due time will remove and so far as is possible for me I will endeavour as his instrument to be assisting to them as also for the more confirming of such who are cordially ready to join with me And in the next place to silence the unjust Clamours and false Accusations of my professed Adversaries and others ignorantly prejudiced against me I am desirous to let them know that I have good reason for what I have done and have acted as a rational Christian Man in my so doing A chief Reason therefore which I offer is this Suppose there were a parity or equality in all other respects betwixt the Dissenters and the Church of England I mean the more sound and orthodox among them as in Doctrine and Worship Sacraments and Church-Government Discipline and Constitution of Members yet this with me doth cast the Balance and I think ought to cast the Balance with any rational considerate person that on that supposition the minority or lesser number should yield to the majority or greater number and the younger should yield to the elder and the Daughters to the Mother For certain it is that the Church of England as she was in King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's time and in Queen Mary's time was the Mother Protestant Church The Dissenters Forefathers had their Christianity Baptism and Christian Education and Profession in her Communion and were nursed as it were in her Arms and suckled at her Breasts and the more sober of all Dissenters will say she was a true Church then in all the main things of Religion Now unless they can prove that she is changed from what she then was either in Doctrine or Sacraments or Worship or Discipline or Church-Government in any material thing from better to worse which I think they cannot do how can they justifie their Separation from her And I think I may safely add that the wiser Men and ablest in solid Learning and Piety and in the sound Knowledge of the Scriptures to instruct the Ignorant and convince or put to silence Opposers to refute Antichristian and Popish Errors as well as all other old and late Heresies are much more numerous to be found in the Church of England And what solid Learning the ablest of the Dissenters have had so far as may be acquired by outward means has been originally by means of Church of England Men. She hath been all along and still is the greatest Bulwark against Popery whereof she hath given sufficient Proof from time to time witness the many elaborate and excellent Books and Tracts written by her Members against Popery especially and other old and new Heresies as Deism Atheism c. yea let the Libraries and Closets of the generality of the Dissenters Ministers be searched who