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church_n	authority_n	bishop_n	episcopal_a	2,779	5	10.6212	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94109	A sermon preached at the consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of London, Humphry Lord Bishop of Sarum, George Lord Bishop of Worcester, Robert Lord Bishop of Lincolne, George Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. On Sunday 28. October, 1660. at S. Peters Westminster. By John Sudbury, one of the prebendaries of that church.	Sudbury, John, 1604-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing S6136; Thomason E1048_10; ESTC R203686	23,261	45

this conformity in the Government of the Church to that of the State was so much the better because that kind of Government in the State was best for the State and the like Government in the Church was best for the Church It were easie here to shew how all Government is so much the better as the Power and Authority of it is more united in one man unless the Piecincts of it be so great that it is above the proportion of any one mans ability That where it is divided though it be but between two it is very apt to destroy it self That a Family is best ordered where there is but one Pater-familias a Ship where there is but one Master who commands all the Officers under him a Castle where there is but one Governour to whom all obey an Army where there is but one General that commands all the Officers in their several charges a City where there is one Mayor though many Aldermen a Kingdom where there is but one King though many inferiour Magistrates And after this it were as easie to shew that such an orderly Government is as decent and necessary in a Church as in any of these It were likewise easie to shew how agreeable this order is to that which God himself established in the Church of the Jews what a fit resemblance there is between the Levites Priests and High-priests in the one and the Deacons Presbyters and Bishop in the other how careful Christ was to retein in his Church whatsoever he found commendable in that and how wary of introducing any innovation where there was no necessity And after this I could shew you how all Religions have had their Priests and their High-priests the light of natural Reason teaching them that they must have some Religion that Religion cannot be publickly exercised without Priests nor by them so well unless they be under some High-priest it being necessary for the good of order that there be a subordination and that to hold many together in one they must be all under one But what need all this to justifie this order in the Church of which we speak when it is a thing so clear that Irenaeus calls it Traditionem Apostolicam toti mundo manifestam an Apostolical tradition manifest to all the world and writes that many of the Bishops in his time could derive their succession from the Apostles And the most ancient and best Writers of the History of the Church have left us the names of them in some of the principal Cities of the world together with the time and order of their succession from the Apostles There is not a Council not a Father which might not be produc'd as a witness of this Truth Yea those Hereticks who would have unchurch'd all the world but themselves the Novatians and the Donatists had Bishops of their own as thinking them so necessary to the being of a well-form'd Church that to be without them were to unchurch themselves One ambitious Presbyter there was Aerius by name who because he could not be a Bishop would have none because he could not raise himself to the Dignity of that Office studied to bring down that Office and levell it with his own But he was condemn'd by the whole Church and remains upon the Catalogue of Hereticks To all these Testimonies we may adde one which is more than all these the testimony of Christ from heaven in an Epistle sent by an Angel to his beloved Disciple and Apostle St. John bearing witness both of the antiquity of this Order and of his own approbation of it Rev. 1. ult where interpreting the mystery of the seven stars in his right hand he saith the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches Where by the seven Churches he means the seven famous Churches which are mentioned afterward to whom his Epistles are directed and by the seven Stars and the seven Angels he must mean the seven Bishops of those seven Churches for if he had meant seven Presbyteries or Classes it had been more proper to have call'd them seven Constellations than seven Stars and seven Quire of Angels than seven Angels Other Offices there are in the Church but the Office of a Bishop is the highest to which all other Offices are as steps or degrees according to that which we read in the 13 Verse of this Chapter They who have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree or as we may render it a fair ascent or step i. e. to a higher degree of Office in the Church But there is no Office in the Church to which the Office of a Bishop may be call'd a step or degree One Bishop may have a greater Diocese than another which is not by Divine but Ecclesiastical right limiting not the power and authority but the exercise of it for the good of order and to avoyd confusion but he that hath the least Diocese is as much a Bishop as he that hath the greatest as he that hath a little Flock is as much a Shepherd as he that hath a greater Every Bishop is as much a Bishop as the Bishop of Rome or as St. Peter for he is a successor of the Apostles in the whole Episcopal Office which is all that in which they have or were to have any successors The differences between an Apostle and a Bishop are onely in such accessories as do not belong to the Office of a Bishop but onely to the Time in which they exercised that Office The Apostles were eye-witnesses of Christ which none could be but such as were conversant with him during the time that he went in and out among them unless it were by vision from Heaven Acts 1.21 as St. Paul But as they were testes oculati eye-witnesses so the Bishops their successors were and are testes instructi witnesses instructed and taught They who were first were indued with extraordinary Gifts and Graces of the Spirit of God which was pour'd forth upon the Church like the holy Oyle upon the head of Aaron but the same Spirit of God which was pour'd forth upon them runs down upon the Bishops their successors as truly though not so plentifully They had their Calling immediatly from Christ the Bishops their successors have their Calling as truly from Christ though not so immediatly The Apostles chose their successors and they others after them but they did not bestow that Power and Authority upon them but were onely the Ministers of God and Christ It was by them that the Episcopal power was given but not from them but from him from whom all Powers are ordain'd And therefore all Bishops anciently were wont to write themselves Bishops of such or such a City not by the constitution of the Apostles or their successors nor by the favour of those who elected them to their Office but by the grace of God The Apostles were Bishops of the whole Church so is every Bishop by Divine

right the limitation of them to such or such a Diocese which is by Ecclesiastical constitution is not a limitation of their power and authority but of the exercise of it not to lessen them but to preserve peace and unity in the Church In a word the Apostles were the chief Governours of the Church which was in their time the Bishops of the Church in their time And what need we say more for the Dignity of an Office which is so much the same with that of an Apostle But because I have said thus much of it it is the more needfull before I passe from this particular to speak something of the difference between this Power and Authority which is the highest in the Church and that which is the highest in the Kingdoms of the world Both are powers ordained of God not to oppose or confront but to assist each other The Power of the one is the power of his Sword which is a rod of iron the Power of the other is the power of his Sword which is the sword of the Spirit the Word of God The Power of the one serves to punish them that will not be subject to him with banishment imprisonment confiscation death c. The Power of the other banisheth no man out of his Country but only out of the Church it cuts off no man from the land of the living but only from the communion of Christians it deprives no man of any right that belongs to him either as a man or as a member of any Common-wealth Kingdom or other Society in them but only that which belongs to Christians In which it deprives him of nothing but that to which he hath no right And as the Powers are distinct so likewise are the Ends of them the End of the one being the civill and temporall good of them that are under it the End of the other the spirituall and eternall good But these two distinct Powers with their different Ends do not hinder but help each other For while the Bishop useth his power to make men good Christians he makes them so much the better Subjects it being a part of their Christianity to be good Subjects their Allegiance is bound up in their Religion so as they cannot depart from the one unlesse they likewise renounce the other a Christian cannot be a Rebell but he must depart from his Faith and turn infidel if not in word yet in deed So that the Spirituall Sword doth not clash with the Temporall but joyn with it in the same work and so assists and strengthens it as that it doth that work which belongs properly to the temporall Sword better than it self The King with his Sword commands all that are under him to live in obedience to him and to his Lawes for fear of incurring his displeasure and falling under his power which can but kill the Body The Bishop with his power commands subjects to be obedient to their Soveraigns and their Lawes out of Conscience towards God whose Ministers they are for fear of his displeasure and falling under his power who can cast both Soul and Body into hell And as the Spirituall Sword doth not clash with the Temporall so neither doth the Temporall Sword clash with the Spirituall as I could shew you but that I must remember that my Text speaks not of the Office of a King but of a Bishop and there be other particulars in it for which I must reserve some time and therefore I passe on to the next Particular which is the Work belonging to this Office The Office of a Bishop is an Office not of Dignity only but of Work the Dignity is annex'd to it for the Works sake partly as necessary for the better exercise and discharge of it and partly as a due for the worthiness of the Work 1 Thes 5.12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake He doth not say for their Office and Dignity but for their Works sake For the Office and Dignity were not made for the Bishop that he might have an Office but the Bishop was made for the Office and the Office for the Work This is the end of all the Offices which Christ hath set in the Church Eph. 4.11 He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Not for the dignity of a Magistracy but for the work of the Ministry for every one of these Offices is a ministry even the highest of them all For who is Paul and who is Apollo 1 Cor. 3.5 but ministers and a ministry is a Work As therefore in the Church of the Jews God ordained Priests not that they might have the Office of Priesthood but that they might minister to the Lord in the Priests Office Levit. 7.35 So in the Christian Church he hath ordained severall Officers but all of them to this end that every one of them might minister to him in his Office When our Saviour committed this Office to St. Peter he did not say to him Be thou a Bishop or a Pastor but he said unto him Feed my sheep John 21.15 to mind him chiefly of his Work for which he put him in Office And S. Peter in like manner minds the Elders or Bishops not to stand so much upon their Dignity as to look well to their Work 1 Pet. 5.1 c. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not as being lords over God's heritage c. For they are not the lords Luke 12.42 but the Stewards whom the Lord hath set over his houshold not to exercise dominion like the Princes of the Gentiles but to give them their portion of meat in due season It is not their flock but the flock of God over which they are set not to feed themselves with the fat and to cloth themselves with the wooll but to feed and oversee the flock of God it is not their heritage but the heritage of God which is committed to them not as a principality to have a dominion in it but as a charge to have the care and inspection over it The Work which belongs to the Office of a Bishop must needs be greater then that which belongs to the Office of a Priest or Presbyter for every Bishop is a Priest but every Priest is not a Bishop as much greater as the Office is higher and the sphere in which his work lies of a larger compasse A Priest or Presbyter is over his flock inasmuch as it is his Office to minister to them the things that are holy and to instruct and teach them the word of God but his flock is but a

A SERMON PREACHED At the Consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of London HUMPHRY Lord Bishop of Sarum GEORGE Lord Bishop of Worcester ROBERT Lord Bishop of Lincolne GEORGE Lord Bishop of St. Asaph On Sunday 28. October 1660. at S. Peters WESTMINSTER By JOHN SUDBURY One of the Prebendaries of that Church LONDON Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1660. To the Right Honourable EDVVARD Lord HYDE Baron of Henden Lord high Chancellor of England Chancellor of the University of Oxford one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council MY LORD HAving sent this Sermon to the Press in obedience to Your Command I have taken the boldness to shelter it under the protection of Your Name in hope that when the Readers shall see it hath had Your approbation they will be the better inclined to afford it their own I wish it may have this effect upon such as have any prejudice against the Truth which I assert and maintain because it is of so much concernment to the publick good that I cannot think it would have any Adversaries but such as are the enemies of Mankind if it were not through some mis-understanding which I have endeavoured to remove I hope at least some will lay aside that envy with which they look upon the Bishops for the height and dignity of their Office and esteem them very highly in love for their Work sake 1 Thes 5.13 when they shall have seen here that it is not onely an Office of dignity but of work and that work as good as the Office is great I will say no more to them here than that the peace and safety of the Kingdome is so bound up with that of the Church that he that is a friend to the one cannot be an enemy to the other And that the Office and Dignity of a Bishop is so necessary to the peace and safety of the Church that the opposing of the one must needs beget disorder and confusion in the other But I will pray That God who hath restored us to a better Understanding of the Royall Office and Dignity will likewise give us a right Apprehension of the Episcopall Psal 77. ult And as He led his People like a Flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron so He will make us all the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hands and lead us like a Flock in the right and good way which will make us as happy as we can be in this World and finally bring us to the perfection of our Happinesse in his Eternall Kingdome And herein I doubt not but Your Lordship is ready to joyne Your Devotions with those of Your LORDSHIPS Most humble and most faithful Servant JOHN SUDBURY 1 TIM 3.1 This is a true saying If a man desire the Office of a Bishop he desireth a good work THere needs no other Preface or Introduction to commend this saying to our attention then this which the Apostle hath set before it This is a true saying For seeing there is not any saying in this book which is not as true as this we may be sure there is some difference between the truth of this and other sayings which made the Apostle so particularly commend it to us And though it be not easie to determine positively what it is it is not hard to say what it might be For first it is easie to perceive what great need there was to arm and fence it well against the contradiction of such as would oppose and gainsay it For there is not any saying in this book which hath met with more and greater opposition and contradiction The Office of a Bishop hath been the mark at which not onely the profess'd Enemies of the Church have bent their bows and shot their arrows but likewise they who have the greatest contention with each other which of them should be the better if not the only Christian Church they on the one side contending for one Bishop over the whole Church and making all the rest but his Ministers the other would have as many Bishops as there are Ministers which is in effect to have none But secondly the truth of this saying is likewise a matter of great importance worthy of more then ordinary regard which might move the Apostle to commend it to a more then ordinary attention For there is not a word in it which will not require and deserve a distinct and particular consideration First here is the Office of a Bishop secondly the Work belonging to that Office thirdly the Goodness of that Work fourthly the Desire of the Office and of the good Work the one set down by way of supposition If a man desire the Office of a Bishop the other by way of inference or conclusion thereupon he desireth a good work These are the particulars in the Text of which I shall speak in the same order that I have proposed them beginning first with the Office of a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated the Office of a Bishop signifies not the bare Office or Function of a Bishop as it is an Office of work but the Office together with the Dignity and preeminence the Power and Authority which is so essential to it and so necessary for the due exercise and discharge of that Office that it cannot be without it As likewise the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not the bare Office but the Office together with the Dignity of an Apostle Which Dignity the Apostle St. Paul was carefull to assert and maintain as well as to discharge the Office And it is the more remarkable in him because he was a man so far from all manner of arrogance and vain-glory that no man could have more humble thoughts of himself Insomuch that when he speaks of himself 1 Cor. 15.9 he calls himself the least of the Apostles though he knew he was not inferiour to the chiefest Apostles and not only the least of Apostles but lesse then the least of all Saints Eph. 3.8 but when he speaks of his Office he saith In as much as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles Rom. 11.13 I magnifie mine Office And truly we likewise have great reason to magnifie the Office of a Bishop so great that St. Hierom who was not partial to the Dignity of that Order confesseth that the safety of the Church depends upon it Ecclesiae salus pendet in dignitate summi Sacerdotis cui si non exors quaedam ab omnibus emine is detu potestas tot in ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes Hieron ad Lucif The safety of the Church saith he depends upon the dignity of the high Priest to whom unlesse there be given an extraordinary and eminent power there will be as many Schisms in the Church as there be Priests And we have seen the truth hereof by so sad experience of late years that it will be

the more seasonable at this time and especially upon this occasion to speak something of the Dignity of this Office The word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly an over-seeing or superintendency for a Bishop is an Overseer or Superintendent And we know that he that is set to oversee must be in a higher station then they are whom he is set to oversee There be many other names and titles by which they are describ'd in Scripture and in the best Writers of the ancient Church which are names and titles not onely of Office but likewise of Dignity and Authority Rev. 1.10 They are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Luke 12.42 the Angels of the Churches the Stewards whom the Lord hath set over his family the Pastors or Sheepherds of the flock which he hath purchased with his own blood the successors of the Apostles the Vicars of Christ the high Priests the Rulers and Princes of the Church All these are names and titles of no small Dignity and some of them likewise of Power and Authority wherein the Office of a Bishop differs from that of a Priest or Presbyter not only as Celsior gradus a higher degree the Bishop among the Priests being as it is said of the high Priest among his brethren Ecclus 50.12 like the Cedar among the Palm-trees but it is likewise potestas alterius ordinis a power of another Order a power to ordain other Officers in the Church and to oversee them that they may do their work as they should or if they will not to put them beside their Office This Power and Authority of the Bishop was so well known to St. Hierom whom I mention the rather because he himself was no Bishop and is thought by such as would have no Bishops to be a friend to them I say St. Hierom when Vigilantius broach'd his Heresie wonders that the Bishop in whose Diocese he was a Priest did not withstand his madnesse Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus parochia esse Presbyter dicitur acquicscere furori ejus non v●rgâ Apostolicâ virgâque ferr●â confringere vas inutile tradere in int●ritum c●rnis ut sp●ritus salvus fiat S H●eron Epist ad Riparium Et tu quidem honor●fice circa nos pro solitaria hum litate fecisti ut malles de eò nobis conqueri cum pro episcopatûs vigore cathedrae au●horitate haberes pot●statem qu● posses de illo sta●…m v●●d●●art Cypr. Epist 65. ad R●gationum and break in pieces that unprofitable vessel and deliver him up to the destruction of the flesh that his spirit might be saved By virtue of the same power St. Cyprian punish'd the delinquent Clergy of his Diocese by depriving them of their monethly Dividends and writing to Rogatianus a Bishop who had made his complaint to him of a Deacon that behaved himself injuriously toward him he tells him it was a great humility in him to complain of one over whom he himself had Authority and Power to right himself by virtue of his Episcopal Office and the Authority of his Chair And herein likewise the Hierarchy of the Church differs from that of the Angels for though there be degrees among them some are of a higher Order and others of a lower yet we do not find that they of the higher Order have power to depose or degrade those of the lower there is no need of any such power where all are regular and orderly but such a power there is in the Hierarchy of the Church and must be because it cannot be supposed that men will be so orderly as Angels There is therefore a necessity of this Office with this Power and Authority to preserve Truth and Peace and Vnity and to prevent the manifold and great mischiefs which Parity the Mother of Anarchy and Confusion would soon produce which must needs be greater in the Church then in the State For there is nothing that so effectually rules the Multitude as Religion the name whereof is so venerable that they are more apt to follow their Preachers then their Princes because they look upon them as the Ministers of God whose Office it is to teach them his word and will and are afraid to think amisse of any thing which they hear from them lest in so doing they should set themselves against God whereby it comes to passe that there is scarce any Errour so grosse which some of them will not believe or any Wickedness so great which some of them will not practice and think thereby to do God service if it be preach'd to them as a matter and duty of Religion And how much this may tend to the disturbance of the publick Peace and Government is easie to be seen For remedy whereof if the sovereign Prince interpose his power only he runs the hazard of being reputed an enemy of God and of Religion then which nothing can be more prejudicial to him not only in point of reputation but of safety likewise There is no better Remedy against all this mischief then that wise and good grave and learned men such as are able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers Tit. 1.9 should be set up over the rest with Power and Authority to charge them that they teach no other Doctrine as St. Paul writes to Timothy whom he left at Ephesus to this end 1 Tim. 1.3 and to stop the mouths of such unruly and vain talkers who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not as the same Apostle writes to Titus whom he left at Creet to do this Office Tit. 1.10 11. This is too great an Office for one man to exercise over the whole Church as therefore Christ chose not one onely but twelve Apostles to whom he committed this Office and trust so his Apostles John 20 21. whom he sent as his Father sent him i.e. with a power to send others after them with the like power ordained not one B●shop onely in the City of Rome but one in every City But as it is too great a power and trust to be committed to one man over the whole Church so likewise it was not for the good of unity and order that it should be committed unto every one that was fit to bear some Office in the Church As therefore Christ who had so many Disciples John 4.1 that the Pharisees had heard that he made more Disciples than John did not make them all Apostles and though he gave diversity of Gifts and Graces to divers men yet among all these he chose but twelve Apostles so the Apostles after him ordained Elders or Bishops not in every Village but onely in every City making the Government of the Church herein conformable to that of the State where the Praefect or Governour of a Province or Country had his residence in the City but his Jurisdiction in the Country round about And