Ordain'd his Apostles it was according to the tenor of his own Ordination As my Father sent me so send I you and to shew wherein the Similitude consisted he breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20.21 22. Which clearly implies that as at his Mission from his Father to his Office he was Anointed or Consecrated by the Holy Ghost which visibly descended upon him at his Baptism when he entered upon his Ministry So when the Apostles had their Mission from Christ and were to enter upon their Ministry they also were Consecrated by the Holy Ghost Which they received not only to gift and inable their Persons but also to impower them for their Office as is undeniably evident upon the account of the words immediately following Receive ye the Holy Ghost which actually instate upon them the Power of the Keys 'T is true after they had thus received the Holy Ghost and were Commission'd to all the Offices of the Clergy the Apostles were not immediately to fall upon their Execution but were bid to stay at Hierusalem till they should receive such Miraculous Gifts by the visible descent of the Spirit as should render their entrance upon the Ministry more solemn and remarkable and their performance thereof more efficacious and convincing That men seeing the Wonders done by the Apostles none might have the least occasion to doubt of the truth of their Doctrine or their Authority to Preach it But not only in Christs Authorizing the Apostles for the Clergy but also in their Authorizing others and so forward the work is still ascribed to the Holy Ghost As to the Apostles the matter is evident in the Case of Barnabas and Saul whose separation of them to the Ministry is attributed to the Spirit And we find the same verified of the Presbyters of the Churches of Asia and in Timothy the Bishop of Ephesus Of whom it is said expresly The Holy Ghost made them Overseers Act. 20.28 Which according to some may signifie two things First their Ordination to the Ministerial Office attributed to the Holy Ghost as to the Original by whose descent upon the Apostles they were Authorized to Communicate this Authority to give Commissions to others who were to succeed them in the Dignity and Office of instructing and governing the Church Secondly it may signifie the Act of Designation Election Nomination to the Ministry which at that time was done by the Special Revelation of God and might properly be attributed to the Holy Ghost And after this latter manner Matthias was chosen to succeed Judas in his Office and Saul and Barnabas for the work Act. 1.24 Act. 13.2 And if we have recourse herein to Church Story we shall find how that the Apostles Ordain'd none of their Converts till they were Tryed and Approved by the Holy Ghost And that when St. John was return'd into Asia he ordain'd every where such as were signified by the Spirit And we are generally told by the Greek Fathers that the primitive Bishops did not make Clergy of their own Heads but by the order and command of the Spirit Which being understood according to the distinction now mention'd leaves no place of doubting of the manner or reality of the Spirits concernment in ordaining men for the Clergy especially when it is considered that all the sorts and degrees of Primitive Ecclesiasticks are ascribed to the Appointment of the Holy Ghost Eph. 4.11 And we have no ground of surmising that the Holy Ghost hath quitted his Interest in this great Concern but rather to believe that he doth still preside at Holy and Regular Ordinations Which are that Ecclesiastick Generation whereby the Clergy is propagated the Apostles still survive and Christ is still present with them And we have no reason at all to doubt but that the Spirit doth as Truly though not so Visibly assist at the present Ordering of Ministers as he did at the separation of Barnabas and Saul and that Christ is as really present by the same Spirit as when he breathed Him upon the Apostles and thereby gave them Authority for the Work of the Ministry And to this purpose we are to understand our own Church when she bids the Persons to be Ordain'd and Consecrated Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands c. And Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands c. The Holy Ghost in both forms is I doubt not to be taken in the same sense and imports no more but the conferring of Authority for the Execution of the Offices there Specified Which Authority being convey'd by that we call Orders and Consecration is fitly expressed by the same words which were used by our Saviour in bestowing the same power upon the Apostles at his sending of them forth to Preach the Gospel and gather and constitute a Church I have not as yet met with any thing considerable relating to the Forms of Ordination used in the Ancient Church but I suppose they were all agreeable to that our Saviour used at the Ordination of the Apostles But the Form of Ordination being only of Ecclesiastical Institution the Churches might inoffensively vary therein In the Greek Church the form was to this effect The Divine Grace which always heals our Infirmities and supplies our wants doth create or promote N. the Venerable Deacon to be a Presbyter the Presbyter most beloved of God to be a Bishop In the Western Church they use another Form wherein they confer upon the Presbyter the power of Consecrating the Elements in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and of Binding and Loosing Our own Church hath a Form peculiar to her self yet much resembling the old Greek Form mention'd by St. Clem. in his Constitutions Lib. 8. c. 16. Wherein the power of Preaching also is confer'd upon the Presbyter And though I am not able at present to give a full account of all the Ancient Forms of Ordination yet it sufficeth our purpose that none was ever yet met with wherein the Original and supreme power of Ordaining is not attributed to the Holy Ghost CHAP. VII Of the incommunicableness of the Offices of the Clergy THough what has been said renders the Holy Ghosts Interest and Agency in the Separation of men to the Calling of the Clergy to be undeniable yet there are still some who opine the Ministery to be a thing of Labour rather than Honor and to which Abilities without Authority are sufficient by which position the Concern of the Spirit must be wholly evacuate as to yielding any orderly power and certain Method of attaining unto the Sacerdotal Office And though the Socinian and Enthusiast are the more known and professed Assertors of this Conceit yet it is much to be feared that all Contemners of the Clergy are sowr'd with the
been ambulatory and the Holy Offices consign'd to the First-born or Chief of each Family For the Priesthood did not begin in Aaron but was translated and conferr'd upon his Family before his Consecration For those young men of the Children of Israel which offered Burnt-offerings and sacrificed Peace-offerings of Oxen unto the Lord Exod. 24.5 as they were Priests so without question they were no other than the First-born to whom the Priesthood did belong But as soon as God began to constitute a Church he began also to fix the Priesthood and appointed Aaron to minister the Publick Services And during the Levitical Dispensation the Succession of the Priesthood was continued in Aaron's Posterity and the High-Priesthood tied to the Line of his First-born the rest of his Posterity being simply termed Priests or Priests of the Second Order Now what is here chiefly to be taken notice of is Aarons Call to the Priesthood which we are assured was from God So that neither Aaron did at first nor any after him could legally take this Honour to himself But all were called of God And this Truth we find miraculously attested in the suddain and fearful destruction of those who undervalued the Priests and factiously usurp'd their Office 'T is true Aaron's Priesthood was but temporary and at the appointed Season to expire and determine yet as long as it did continue it was lawful for none but those of his Line to undertake it Because God had so ordain'd And this Divine Ordinance of the Priesthood was such an inviolable observation that even Christ when he came to give himself an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savour and by the Oblation of his own Body made an atonement for our Sins when Christ I say became an Aaronical Priest and put an end to that sort of Priesthood when he also became a Priest according to the Order of Melchizedeck which lasts for ever both were by Divine Appointment As the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews distinctly argues out of the Second and the Hundred and tenth Psalm But here it is worthy our remark that Jesus was anointed with the Unction of Aaron to the Sacerdotal Office and not called after the Order of Aaron for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning Priesthood Heb. 7.14 or that no Priest should come of that Tribe But Jesus was made a Priest after a more ancient Order according to the Prediction of the Psalmist The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedeck But though he were of another Order yet whatsoever Aaron did as a Priest was wholly Typical and to be fulfilled in the Messias as he was a Priest To which he had a double Title the one of Primogeniture as the First-begotten of God the other of Unction as being anointed unto that Office Now if Christ did not glorifie himself to become an High-Priest if as Man he did not advance himself to that Dignity but was thereunto advanced by God then is the Priesthood an Office to whose undertaking more is required than personal Abilities and which none of right can undertake but either by Gods immediate or mediate Call For though the meetness of the Person ought to be looked upon by men yet we cannot prescribe unto God or tell him who are fit to be heard by him in behalf of the people or whom he ought to entertain in Religious Addresses Nor are we able to yield a reason from the nature of the thing why God should accept of Aaron more than of Abiram or the mediation of any one man for many except the free pleasure of him that makes the choice But to return If the more solemn Institution of the Clergy bear date only from the Consecration of Aaron yet it plainly appears to be Divine or of Gods own appointment and during the time of the Mosaical Oeconomy was so Sacred and Inviolable that none could invade it under a gentler Penance than Sudden death or a Leprosie And long before this too I mean before the erecting of the Tabernacle or Temple and Institution of Priesthood when God was served within Private Walls and the right of Priesthood in every Family was annexed to the Primogeniture so that the First-born was Priest we read but of one contrary to custom who aspired unto it whose ambition therein would have been utterly inexcusable if the whole disposal of the matter had not been from God who loved Jacob but hated Esau and made the Elder to serve the Younger Rom. 9.12 13. But though the Levitick or Aaronical Priesthood was of Divine Institution yet being wholly Typical and consequently to determine and because it is already past and gone vve are next to enquire into the Nature and Constitution of that Clergy vvhich succeeded it CHAP. V. Of the Institution of the Evangelical Clergy WHen the Great Fulfiller of the Lavv even the blessed Author of our most Holy Faith in a most excellent manner made good that Title and being dravving to the last Stage of his life and together vvith it to put a full end to the Mosaick Dispensation and abolish both the Sacrifice and Priesthood in that of himself When vvithout a Figure the immutable Clergy of the Gospel vvas to succeed into the mutable Clergy of the Law he called those Apostles of vvhom at first he made choice and gave them Power to erect and constitute a Church and to transmit such Povvers unto others as vvere proper for the continuance and propagation of the same Novv the Commission vvhich Christ gave to the Apostles to impovver them to this end is the chief thing to be considered and vve meet vvith it at large as it vvas signed by our Saviour immediately upon his Ascension in S. Matth. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth 19. Go ye therefore and teach or make all Nations Disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World In vvhich vvords Christ first asserts and declares his ovvn Commission shovving his Apostles that vvhat he did vvas not the result of his ovvn private judgement but the exercise of that Authority vvhich vvas given him of his Father vvho had consign'd unto him a full Povver of ordering and disposing vvhatsoever belong'd to the Church of vvhich he vvas made the Prince and head upon his rising from the Grave and by vertue of that relation stood obliged to provide for the preservation and encrease thereof But hovv this should be done is the doubt to be satisfied For Christ in his ovvn Person could not make this provision for the Church because as to his humane Nature he vvas shortly to remove to Heaven and there to abide until his coming to
judge the quick and dead Novv vvhatever a man cannot do in his ovvn person must be done by deputation if it be done at all And therefore Christ by his Ascension being become uncapable in his ovvn Person to take this care of the Church he deputed his Apostles thereunto appointing them in his Name and Stead to perform all those Offices vvhich vvere required to the Establishing and Advancement of the Gospel Giving them also povver to depute others to succeed them in the same Care and to deliver dovvn the same Povver successively to the end of the World And to the end that the Clergy might not be thought to expire in the Persons of the Apostles nor they to have died vvithout Successors in the Ministry Christ promised upon his Departure to be with them unto the End of the World Which vvords vve vvill take for granted to have been spoken to the Apostles as they vvere the Clergy or Ministers of the Gospel and that they vvere not limited exclusively to their Persons but in them did belong to the vvhole succession of the Clergy For hovvever the Apostles might be vvith Christ he could not be personally vvith them so much as unto their death much less unto the end of the World being so shortly upon the speech of these vvords to ascend up into Heaven vvhereof they themselves vvere Vndeniable Witnesses It is likevvise duly to be considered That Christ by his promise lo I am vvith you alvvay even unto the End of the World intended some benefits to the Church vvhich should be of no less continuance than the Church it self and that the Apostles vvere to be the first dispensers of those benefits And if it be demanded vvhat these benefits vvere it may from the Text be safely replied that they vvere the several functions of the Clergy to vvhich the Apostles vvere Commission'd viz. Preaching Baptism Administration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood the exercise of the Censures c. All vvhich vvere to end vvith the Apostles or they vvere not If they vvere to end vvith the Apostles then has the Church ever since the death of the Apostles been vvithout these Offices vvhich amounts to no less than that there has been no Church since their Decease Or if they vvere not to end vvith the Apostles but have alvvays been and are still to be exercised unto the end of the World then it cannot be denied but there ever have been and ever must be fit Persons vvho like the Apostles must have a just power to dispense these Benefits or exercise these Offices For no less can be conceived to have been intended by Christ in his promise of being with the Apostles alway Even unto the End of the World And we shall have no temptation to suspect this Interpretation of the Promise when we shall consider first that by the End of the World That State of affairs is to be understood which began exactly at Christs Resurrection when all power was given him in Heaven and Earth which was to continue to the end of the World or his coming to Judgment Next that the promise made unto the Apostles had respect unto this State and therefore the Benefits promised namely Preaching Baptism c. were to endure unto the full determination of the same Thirdly That seeing Christ could not possibly be with the Apostles personally nor they upon Earth Vnto the End of the World There must be some other way to verifie Christs presence with the Apostles and their being in the World unto the End thereof both which seem to be implyed in the Text. As to Christs presence with the Apostles it is unanimously concluded of the Vicaria presentia Spiritus in Tertullians phrase or of making the Holy Ghost his Vicar in sending him to be with the Apostles upon his ascension into Heaven Which mission of the Spirit cannot be meant of that that hapned at Pentecost when he sate upon them in bodily appearance and inspired them with such extraordinary gifts as were needful for those first times of the Gospel such as the gift of tongues to inable them to Preach to all Nations in their own Language and of other Miracles to confirm the truth of their Doctrin and to move men to believe it For if the promise of Christs being alway with the Apostles were to be understood of this mission of the Spirit upon them then it would follow that Christ were still to be thus present with the Church and that extraordinary gifts did still continue or that he who promised were not faithful And therefore it is necessary that we understand Christs being with the Apostles of his giving them the Holy Ghost to instate them with Powers not only in their own Persons to plant and govern the Church and to perform all the Offices of the Clergy relating thereunto but also to ordain others unto the same Functions and to give them Authority to do the like Vnto the End of the World So that by this promise made of his presence with the Apostles Christ provided for a successive Clergy in whom the Apostles were to continue or the Ordinary Ministry be preserved unto the Consummation of all things And we have no reason to be jealous of this sense of our Saviours Words when we find it universally agreed upon that one great end of sending the Holy Ghost to the Church was the sanctifying setting apart of Persons for the Work of the Clergy and to convey a standing Authority of Ordination of meet persons to mediate between God and the people to pray for and bless them in the Name of Christ to help their Infirmities by composing for them a Liturgy according to the Pattern of the Apostles of whose Liturgy several passages do yet remain And the Holy Ghost doth still impower the Church to Ordain and Consecrate Persons for the Ministerial Office for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Who when ordain'd are bound to take heed to themselves and unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God CHAP. VI. Of the Spirits Agency in respect of the Clergy c. HAving endeavour'd to demonstrate that the true sense of Christs promise In being with the Apostles doth respect that Authority that the Holy Ghost gave them for appointing a settled Ministry in the Church while militant upon Earth In subserviency to our present purpose it may not be unuseful to observe That among all those Offices which the Holy Ghost performs for the Church there is none wherein he seems to be more interessed or to have a greater agency than in the qualifying and separation of Persons for the Priesthood Which work indeed is so peculiar to the Spirit and so necessary for this purpose that even the Great Pastor and Bishop of Souls became not a Preacher of his own Gospel till he was thereunto Anointed and Consecrated by the Holy Ghost Luke 4.18 And when the same Great Bishop
same leaven For if they were throughly perswaded of the Divine Right of the Clergy and that none can take that Honor unto himself unless he be called of God or by Gods appointment this one thing might be Charm enough both against Contempt and Vsurpation of the same And men would scarce be so hardy as to invade or blaspheme this Calling when they saw it would involve them in the guilt of Sacriledge and Irreligion But unto those who would lay that Holy Function Common which God has placed within a Sept and leave the Priesthood open to all that will enter it without further Ceremony than getting up and Ride to the sober Consideration of such men I would humbly recommend the ensuing particulars to the end they may return to a better mind And first let them duly consider how that St. Paul setting down the Nature of the Church has styled it the Body of Christ Where he means not a Similar Body such as Fire Air and Water where all the parts are alike and perform the same Office but a body consisting of diversity of Organs for several Faculties and Operations such a body as is not one Member but many knit together with Unity and Charity as with a Band of Health St. Aug. Lib. 1. Cap. 16. De Doctr. Christian The whole fourteenth Chap. of 2 Cor. is inspired to this purpose and designed to manifest that in the Church of Christ it is as monstrous impossible for all to be Clergy-men or Teachers and Governors as for the body of a man to be all Tongue and Eye And that it is as preposterous and destructive for all promiscuously to thrust themselves into the Ministry as for the Members of a mans body to desert their Natural Situation and all to press into the same place The same Apostle has likewise term'd the Church a Building Eph. 2.21 wherein the Stones have their several and separate places all being imployed neither in the Foundation nor the Corner which similitude relating to the Congregation of Believers implies they were not all to bear the same Office 'T is true that Christians in general are styled a Royal Priesthood and a peculiar people and a chosen Generation 1 Pet. 2.5.9 Yet it is also true that this was affirm'd of the Hebrew Nation Ex. 19.6 at the same time when God had among them his Levites Priests and High-priests And therefore can be now no more of priviledge and therefore no more Argument to make all Christians properly Priests than it did the Jews among whom the usurpation of the Priesthood was punished to admiration But the words of St. Peter are a clear insinuation of the excellent priviledges procured by our Conversion to Christianity and that like the Priests under the Law who spent all their time in Sacrificing and Religious Offices so we should be constant in the service of God in the publick Assemblies which he requires of us as he did the Sacrifices of the Levitical Priests And in respect of that freedome which true Believers have obtain'd from Sin and Satan and that liberty wherewith they are invested by Christ as also in regard of that daily service they are to pay him they are said to be Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 So that from these Texts such as would intitle all to the Sacerdotal may also instate them with the Regal Office But without a Figure The choice of Persons for the Clergy and the incommunity of that Function is such an express Doctrin of the Scripture that it may seem no less superfluous to prove than it is Sacrilegious to gainsay it And if we duly weigh the words of the first Commission as they occur Mat. 28. they supersede all further confirmation of what we now speak For they so plainly fix the Ministerial Offices and make them such appropriate and Authoritative Acts as that none but the duly order'd can be blameless and undertake them But besides all this if according to some mens Fancies Abilities be all that is requisite to make a Clergy-man then it is but prudent and reasonable to make due enquiry into those Abilities and to be duly inform'd of their Nature and Reality Now what Abilities soever any man can pretend unto must either be Infused or Acquired If men assume unto themselves the Priests Office meerly upon the pretence of Infused Abilities or Extraordinary Gifts then it is just to put them upon the proving such pretences by that sort of Testimony which was ever required in such a case And to make them shew their Extraordinary Gifts by Extraordinary Works For if these pretenders are to be credited upon their own bare word how easily will it then be for every bold facing confident Fellow to rub his Forehead to pretend to Extraordinary Gifts and Abilities and so cozen the World bely the Holy Ghost from whom all such real Gifts do come and consequently to destroy all Order in the Church But if these Abilities are acquired be they never so excellent yet they must undergo Tryal and Examination lest they should be but fancifull and presumptuous and when found in the greatest perfection whereof they are capable yet they can of themselves no more make a Clergy-man than a Judge of Assizes or any Secular Magistrate which is a Power confer'd upon Abilities The next thing which ought herein soberly to be considered is the Charge undertaken by the Clergy which all acknowledge to be no less than the Cure of Souls For we cannot suppose the great Shepherd of the Sheep who loved them so well as to lay down his life for them would after his departure leave them to wander up and down without any to guide or feed them But that upon his own Decease he committed them to a chosen Clergy at whose hands he at last will exact an account of their souls And this his Care we find instanced in that strict command he laid upon Peter to feed his Sheep and Lambs Which the Apostle faithfully executed himself and exhorted his fellow Ministers to do the like 1 Pet. 5.1 2. Now if those who are so forward to take upon them the Ministerial Office would maturely revolve that it brings with it a Charge of Souls of which one day they must give an account this might perhaps not a little cool their heat and the due apprehension of the weightiness of the burden would allay the presumption of their Abilities Nor will it less deserve their Consideration that if all have a Right to the Ministry then have all a Right to be maintain'd by it which St. Paul proves by the Law of Moses forbidding to muzzle the Ox that treads out the Corn by the Law of Natural Reason allowing unto the Plowman and Thresher the hopes of receiving the due Fruits of their Labour and Rewards of their Pains and he concludes that upon terms of common Equity they who labour for the good of others in things Spiritual ought in reason to be rewarded and maintain'd
the Contemners should be so far moved vvith vvhat has been said as to quit this first pretence of their Contempt yet their great desire to finish vvhat they have begun vvill quickly furnish them vvith other Pretences And here it vvill be easie to suppose them assaulting the Credit of the Clergy with the old accusation of Idleness Which I confess is a vice of so debasing a quality that it may justly lessen the Reputation of any man who therewith is infected And it is likewise so inconsistent with the Work or Office of the Ministry that I am perswaded there is none of that Calling can thereof be guilty or at least not to that degree which a Maligning World would render them For if we may suppose the present Clergy to be men of so much understanding as to know the Nature of Idleness and Industry That according to a Prophet of their own There is nothing more troublesome to a good mind than to do nothing That Idleness is no less devoid of comfort than of profit While both are the genâ—â—n incomes of Industry That besides the furtherance of their Estate the mind doth both delight and better it self by Exercise That it fares with most as with the man after Gods own heart whom no temptation durst assail while he was taken up with business of importance and the publick Cares of State c. When this and infinite more becomes the matter of a Clergy-mans thoughts or indeed of any he cannot but have all Idleness and Sloath not only under a jealous but a detestable aspect And yet its sordid Nature doth not render it fitter for our avoidance than its Consequences which though to all are very pernicious yet to none more than to the Clergy As may be collected from those fearful Comminations so frequently denounced against such Pastors as through their Idleness destroy and scatter the Sheep of Gods Pasture To whom the Lord saith expresly I will visit you for the wickedness of your works and the Remnant of my Sheep will I gather together and bring them to their Folds and I will set up Shepherds over them that will feed them And the threatening reaches all those Shepherds who take more care to feed themselves than the Flocks who eat the Fat and Clothe themselves with the Wool but look not to the strengthening of the weak the healing of the sick to binde up the broken to bring home again that which was driven away and to enquire after that which was lost All which Sheep the Lord hath sworn to require at the hands of such careless Shepherds As may be seen in Jer. 23. and Ezek. 34. A great part of which Chapters was inspired to this purpose To this may be added St. Pauls advice to the Asian Clergy Act. 20.28 Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood And 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead when he appears in his Kingdome Preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort vvith all lenity and diligent instruction Novv if it be safe for us to presume the Clergy both to read and vveigh those dreadful Menaces so frequently utter'd from God by the mouths of his Prophets against Sloath and Carelesness in his Messengers or those many earnest Exhortations of the Holy Apostles for its prevention and amendment vve may Charitably conclude that they vvill not dare to take part therevvith not only for fear of mans Contempt but the consuming Wrath of God And if vve may further presume that there is so much understanding yet left in the Clergy as to enable them to apprehend the greatness of their Task and how it is no less than to raise up the faln Kingdome of Christ and to demolish that of Satan c. and how that the fruits of so doing are no meaner than the saving of their own souls and theirs too of whom they have taken the charge and one day must give an account If we may yet further presume that the Clergy do in some tolerable manner comprehend the importance of those several Titles with which the Holy Ghost hath invested them and how that they are as so many Memorials and Monitors of Labour Diligence and Care In short if we may presume the Clergy like other men to wear their eyes in their heads and apprehend and consider such obvious and plain things as we now speak it may be hoped upon the stock of common ingenuity that they will never suffer themselves to run to moss or let Gods House drop through by reason of the Idleness of their hands or indure to see the Flocks depending upon their feeding to grow cold in their zeal drooping in their Courage fainting in their Spiritual Strength and infeebled in all their Graces And all this to please a Vice which is unmanly in it self foully derogatory to the honor of their Calling contradictory of their Titles and in Them of more dreadful Consequences than it can possibly be in any Other In the last place if we may suppose the Clergy to remember and make conscience of that promise of Faithful diligence which they made to God and the Church when they were received into Holy Orders this alone will be sucffiient effectually to binde them to bend their whole Endeavours without fraud or Sophistication to the due discharge of their Office Being well assured that small benefit will accrew to the Church from their Abilities if they be not Faithful For the Clergy cannot be ignorant that their Sufficiency without Endeavours to do that good which their Place requires is no better than wrapping the Talent in a Napkin Industry with lesser Parts is more serviceable to Religion than great Learning without it And an Idle is little better than a Blind Guide And being perswaded that these things are the matter of the Clergies serious meditation I cannot imagin they should ever be guilty of that Idleness which so malapertly is laid at their door But I am rather induced to believe that that which in them bears this Odious Name is nothing else but the regular performance of their duty partly occasion'd by their Carriage who prefer the pleasing of some mens Caprices before the observation of their Rule In which rank it may be no great iniquity to place all those who make all other parts of the Church tributary to the Pulpit By which they have occasion'd a Capricious sort of people to conclude all Publick Service to be preaching and to esteem all those to be dumb dogs who open not as often as they please and in a sense different to the Apostles preach the Word in Season and out of Season But as for mine own Part when I observe our Clergy to pray preach and Catechize as the Church injoyns and directs them
Singular Learning and Piety in his just weights and measures that for any degree or order of the Clergy to increase their Estates out of Church goods was in the better and purer times of Christianity a thing which the Canons did not only prohibit but make void And that the Canons from the Canon of the Apostles to those at this day in force in the Church of Rome disable the Clergy to dispose of Church-goods by Will and Testament In the 25th Session of the Council of Trent and in the first Chapter concerning Reformation among many other things very worthy of remark the Synod expressly forbids the Bishops to augment the incomes of their Kindred and Familiars with those of the Church According to the Canons of the Apostles prohibiting the Goods of the Church which are Gods to be given to Relations but if they are poor to deal with them as with the rest of their rank and not to dissipate them for their sakes Imo quà m maximè potest eos sancta Synodus monet ut omnem humanum hunc erga fratres Nepotes propinquosque carnis affectum unde multorum malorum in Ecclesia Seminarium extat penitus deponant And what is said of the Bishops is also to be understood of the rest of the Clergy 'T is true where the Clergy as in our own Church are authorized to marry the Case seems to be otherwise and the Church as she has given them leave to marry must also give them leave even out of her own Revenues to make provision for their Wives and Children But this doth not abrogate but only relax the Canons and the married Clergy are herein to express a singular moderation and so to provide for Wife and Children out of Church-goods as not to extinguish the interest of the poor therein For I humbly conceive that it is no small mistake in any Clergy-men to imagine that having out of the Goods of the Church soberly disposed of their Children in the World they should also labour to raise them Estates and strive in their own Port to equal that of the higher Laity With whom the Canons never intended them a greater conversation than arose from the Tenor of their Function and requires that their chiefest Hospitality should respect the relief and support of the Indigent and Necessitous As to the last instance of Covetousness in the Clergy which respects their eager hunting after Preferments and Promotions in the Church which the best and wisest have ever esteem'd a notable blemish in them it surpasseth my abilities to vindicate and is against my conscience to excuse And therefore I shall deeply lament what I cannot redress and humbly beseech Almighty God to restore those to a better minde who herein are guilty And that some are guilty in this particular seems undeniable upon that general complaint made against that multiplicity of Church-preferments wherewith not few are ever surcharged Ridente fanatico nec dolente Papista Or rather indeed to the distress and injury of those Clergy-men who would esteem it a good Vintage to have but the gleanings of their Brethren and think themselves well provided for if they had but one of those Numerous preferments which are so venturously piled upon such as are no more laborious in the Word and Doctrin than others But I shall forbear to enlarge lest I should be mistaken in this particular and only make it my humble Supplication that the Canons respecting the Clergy in this Affair may impartially be considered by them to the end that their manifest opposition to this enormous practice may through God somewhat contribute to its amendment or at least so far open their eyes as to let them see the utter inexpediency if not unlawfulness of what they do That which we call Pluralities in this Church has long time been complain'd of as a thorn in her side which some of the Reverend Fathers the Bishops have very lately been projecting to pull out But in stead of the Extirpation of Pluralities I could wish they were well prun'd for till their abuses be retrenched and they be restored to their first design they will scarce be capable of any conscientious Apology And it is to be hoped that those corruptions which tract of time and negligence of some may seem to have brought upon the first Concessions thereof might for the future be prevented if three or four obvious things were duly taken notice of As First That those unto whom the granting of dispensations is committed or which otherwise have any stroke in the disposal of such Preferments as appertain unto Learned Men would bethink themselves what it is to respect any thing either above or beside Merit considering how hard the World taketh it when to men of commendable Note and Quality there is so little respect had or so great unto them whose deserts are very mean that nothing doth seem more strange than the one sort because they are not accounted of and the other because they are It being every mans expectation and hope in the Church of God that the only purchase of greater rewards should be always greater deserts and that nothing should be able to plant a Thorn where a Vine ought to grow Secondly That Honorable Personages and they who by vertue of any principal Office in the Common-wealth are inabled to qualify a certain number and to make them capable of benefices and faculties above others would not suffer their priviledges to be abused contrary to the true intent and meaning of wholesom Laws by men in whom there is nothing notable besides Covetousness and Ambition Ignorance and Idleness Thirdly That the Universities would bestow their degrees not as meer kindnesses by way of Civility but as favours which always imply a Testimony given to the Church and Common-wealth concerning mens sufficiency for Manners and Knowledge Considering that upon the credit of this Testimony sundry Statutes of the Realm are built and that it is so far available that nothing is more respected for the Warrant of Divers mens Abilities to serve both in Church and State And if the Universities shall violate that Religion wherewith this Testimony ought to be given they do not only disparage themselves if it be known but also involve those in error who deem it a thing uncivil to call the Credit of their Testimony in question by doubting either of the Manners or Abilities of those upon whom they have confer'd their Degrees And therefore are never to be granted to any one without due Caution and Advice Fourthly That the Indulgence of Pluralities be restored to its first design by being allowed only to men of Note to signify and reward Eminent Services done for the Church and to encourage a more remarkable progress in Vertue and Science Ends shamefully neglected in the present Indulgence of Pluralities if we consider who they are who most bountifully enjoy them In the last place it would not a little help to the removal of the scandalous
they designed against his Angel-Guests And it was the malicious Supposal of the Jews that if respect was given to Christs Person it would so credit his Doctrine that all would be in danger to believe it and to prevent this they sought to beat down his Reputation by calling him Drunkard Glutton Mad-man and Deceiver of the People And so unreasonable are Lust and Sin and so charmed therewith are mens hearts that those who by the Powerful Countercharm of Gods Word are willing to disinchant them are no better treated than Christ by the Demoniack who when he came to cure cryed out that he was come to torment him The Gospel is quick and powerful Vital and Operative piercing even to the dividing of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and able to discern the Thoughts and Intentions of the Heart And when by this its Ministers rip up those Secret Corruptions in whose Concealment and Fruition so many seem to have placed their Heaven and Felicity it will be easy to foretel what great respect they are like to meet with especially in an Age in which most Offenders are of the same humour with those Beaux Esprits or Virtuosi in Cicero who were not vexed that they offended but took it very haniously to be told thereof And when again by the same Gospel which is a light that makes all manifest the Clergy discover to the Consciences of the Wicked the Shame and Nakedness of their Vices not being able to endure the Tortures naturally arising from such a Detection nor to deny the truth thereof nor yet daring openly to blaspheme the Instrument of the same Detection their only refuge is to lessen both the Efficacy and Credit of the Gospel by lessening the esteem of those who preach it But too rightly apprehending that Gods Word and his Ministers are such near Allies that the disrepute of the one falls upon the other Now when the Clergy according to their Obligation go about to cut the wings of Pride and to take off the wheels of Lust to decry those sinful Courses which corrupt Nature most magnifies and to propagate those Vertues to which these Contemners have the greatest Antipathy and Averseness When in a word the Clergy zealously recommend to our most Cordial Practice those very Duties which we most dislike they cannot hope by this way to procure any great esteem with those against whose Vices they thus directly set themselves But on the contrary they are to expect to be looked upon as the greatest Enemies by all such whom they thus tell the truth And indeed it has ever been the Policy of the Malicious to lessen their Credit whose service they would render insuccessful and to imbibe mean thoughts of all those who interrupt them in their Vices But without driving this particular any further it is undeniably evident to the World that one main cause of the Clergies Contempt may be resolved into that Apology Christ upon the same occasion made for himself viz. The World hateth me because I testifie that the works thereof are evil Nor doth that part of the Clergies Function consisting in the instruction of all men in their respective Duties occasion some of them more obloquy than the execution of the Sacred Discipline doth others For this latter having a direct aim and tendency to suppress our darling sins and to put us to shame for their Commission we labour to beat it down with the same Engine that those Factionists in Numb 16th used against the Priesthood namely as a thing useless and unnecessary they indeed did so upon the pretence of their own Sanctity but we upon the score of our Stubborness I know alas the Power of the Keys Excommunication or Church-Censures are become very contemptible and sunk so low in some mens opinion that they rise not above the Estimate of Artificial Fire or meer noisy Thunder But yet in their Original Institution and Primitive Practice nothing was more high and dreadful and it was look'd upon as a great mercy in God and a singular honour for the Clergy to confer upon them no less a power than to deliver obstinate sinners over unto Satan to take full possession of their Souls and to sentence them to the everlasting pains of Hell and likewise a power to release penitent souls from the Chains of Darkness and Bondage of the Devil and to restore them to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God whereby they are made Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven And yet this power wherof Angels would be ambitious Christ confer'd upon the Clergy when he said unto his Apostles Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as these words give a power of publick exclusion out of the Church for Scandalous Enormities and re-admission into it upon Repentance it undoubtedly belongs to the Governors of the Church as they are purely Clergy and to none else whatsoever as is evident from the first Collation of this power in St. John 20.22 And the exercise of these Censures is so much the work of Church-Governers that St. Paul calls them the Weapons of their Spiritual Warfare by which they cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bring into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And this Power in its first derivations was executed with signal Severities such as this Age will hardly be induced to believe and that too when there was no Temporal Sword to assist these Spiritual Weapons But it is not easie to advise what ought to be done in such a State of the Church as ours is wherein the enormities of some give them a sort of impunity who having separated themselves from the Church are also in their own esteem at least got out of the power of its Censures And as to many of those who stay within the Church through a long forbearance of this Rod they are grown too Heady to be brought under Correction And both Principles of Liberty and a long Vncorrected wickedness are ready to dispute all Ecclesiastical Restraints and would rather have no Church at all than one with Censures But as this doth no way evacuate the Power so neither should it rebate its Exercise but it ought to be the more prudently asserted being thus unjustly gainsaid However it will not unbecome such as are chiefly concern'd in the management of the Church-censures by no luke-warm execution thereof to suffer them to be looked upon as meer Bruta fulmina and no such proper remedies to cure the Offences in Christianity as they are pretended And if Religion could but get such countenance by a watchful menage of Church-censures as to strike the open sinners with fear of being turn'd out of Christian Company and to be avoided as unfit for conversation if not Conscience yet Reputation would in a great measure restrain them Not to be thought Fit