for a witness that the remedy bears date from the disease even from that time when it was said at Corinth which was surely in the Apostles days I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of Cephas as appears in his Comment upon Titus Surely therefore St. Jerome never dreamt that Episcopacy was Antichristian nor ever designed to effect that from evidence of Scripture which has been since attempted by the power of the Sword Ignatius his advice for the subjection of Presbyters to their Bishop suited well enough with his Principles as indeed it did with those of all Christendom besides till at last mens interest led them on as to urge Presbytery from St. Jerome so to quote St. Paul for Rebellion 3. But thirdly from the consideration of this great variety of Opinions to salve this confusion of names it may perhaps be seasonable to enquire whether there be really found in Scripture such a Communion of names as is pretended I am conscious that herein I advance an Hypothesis against many great and justly venerable Names And therefore I shall only humbly propose a twofold distinction for the clearing those places of Scripture which concern the point in question The first is between the Universal Church and those particular Provinces wherein Churches were planted under their respective Rulers In the former respect I grant that the word Presbyter is indifferently applied to the Chief Governours of the Church and that they are the same persons who are in one place called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which word whether it were Translated into the Church from the Jewish Synagogue or else taken from Age which brings experience and consequently fits for Government was in those days rather an appellative of dignity than a distinctive character of an Office And therefore generally in the Acts of the Apostles while Jerusalem and Christendom were in a manner of the same extent the word Presbyter which in particular Churches was still a title of Honour had hear a more ample and undetermined signification But if any of our adversaries take advantage from this concession I desire him only to consider that the Apostles are oftner called by the name of Deacons than the chief Governours of the Church by the name of Presbyters As Deacons of God and of Christ 1 Thess 3.2 Deacons of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3.6 Deacons of the Gospel Ephes 3.7 Deacons of righteousness 2 Cor. 11.15 Deacons of the Church Col. 1.25 I confess that our Translation in these and other parallel places always read Ministers in stead of Deacons as is observed in thirty places in the vulgar Latin of St. Jerome yet it is the very same word which is rendred Deacons in the Epistles of Timothy and Titus Which containing Apostolical Directions for the management of Particular Churches de statu Ecclesiastia compositae as Tertullian speaks distinguish Church Orders by their Names and Titles as well as their Offices and Powers And therefore thought in respect of the Universal Church the principal Rulers are sometimes stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify their Superiority over the Brethren sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote their immediate Ministration and attendance upon Christ the great Bishop of our Souls and Apostle of our profession Yet nothing will follow from hence but that in particular Churches they might be both limited and restrained the one to the second Order of Priests the other to the Attendants upon the Bishops So that this observation gives the same ground for Deacons to contest with Presbyters as it does for Presbyters with Bishops And thence because the Apostles and the Brethren are indifferently called Disciples they will by this way of arguing strengthen the pretence of the Independents and as 't is worded by a learned Writer hold the stirrop to the Congregations to throw themselves out of the Saddle But secondly If this Communion of names be pretended in particular Churches as at Philippi Ephesus and Creet I shall crave leave with Epiphanius to make another distinction o particular Churches from one another For he in his Refutation of Aerius his Argument drawn from the Communion of names objects to him his not understanding the Histories of the Primitive plantation of Churches asserting That at the first forming of them which could not be perfected in an instant there were in some places Bishops without Presbyters and in other Presbyters without Bishops which could be no inconvenience for a small space of time since those who planted them were sufficiently enabled to supply the defect of either He never observed this confusion of names which has been since pretended as neither did any that went before him but thought this one consideration to be valid enough to convince his adversary both of errour in Interpreting Scripture and of Ignorance in the Monuments of the Church But granting all that we have hitherto asserted and moreover that the objection from the plurallity of Bishops mentioned at Ephesus and Philippi be fully taken off upon this presumption that in the Apostles days there were more Bishops than one in a City 'till a more perfest Coalescence was at length made between the Jewish and the Gentile Converts yet notwithstanding it may be still demanded What is all this to the case before us For here in a particular Church the Church of Ephesus the same persons in the same Speech are called both Presbyters and Bishops To which I answer that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denote the universal Church my first distinction holds good But if not I have the Testimony of Irenaeus an authority next to Apostolical to extend the word Church beyond the City of Ephesus and Bishops and Presbyters beyond one Order of the Clergy For so he writes in his Third Book and Fourteenth Chapter In Mileto enim Convocatis Episcopis presbyteris qui erant ab Epheso a reliquis proximis Civitatibus To which the late Vindicator of Monsieur Daillee seems to return an answer by giving Irenaeus the lye A Divi Lucae narratione seorsim abit But surely when St. Paul says vers 25 All you among whom I have gone Preaching the Kingdom of God he seems to intimate a greater extent than the single City of Ephesus will amount to and consequently to give us some ground for a reconcilement between Irenaeus and St. Luke And therefore I shall make no other use of our Authors reply than to observe another instance of the hard fate of the Fathers of the Church however ancient and Apostolical when they cross mens Interests and Opinions For if we urge them with Ignatius he is spurious and suppositious and therefore to be rejected if with Irenaeus he is false and fabulous and so not to be believed I have thus far explained the difficulty arising from the phrase of the Text and therein justified my dissent from our English Translation in reading Bishops instead of Overseers And as the Reverend Fathers of
A SERMON Preached at the CONSECRATION Of the HONOURABLE Dr. HENRY COMPTON Lord Bishop of OXFORD IN LAMBETH-CHAPPEL On Sunday December 6. 1674. By WILLIAM JANE B.D. Student of christ-Christ-Church and Chaplain to his Lordship LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by R. Littlebury at the Kings-Arms in Little-Britain 1675. To the Right Reverend Father in God HENRY LORD BISHOP of OXFORD My Lord ALthough I am too conscious of the manifold defects of this poor Discourse to lay any claim to your Lordships acceptance as the encouragement of its Publication yet I have had such great experience of your Lordships favour as to conceive some hopes that it may find the same shelter with its Author under your Lordships patronage and protection When I first received your Lordships command which engaged me upon this duty I esteemed it a great Honour than my own ambition could ever have aspired to It was happiness enough for me to bear any part how inconsiderable soever in that days Solemnity which in the judgement of all who have a real kindness for the Church was so signal an argument of Gods Care and Providence over it But since by my intire resignation of this weak performance as I was in duty bound to your Lordships Judgement it is no longer at my own disposal and that which I thought too mean to attend your Lordships CONSECRATION has been thought fit to live with the remembrance of it I have this further favour to request for it that I may be allowed to thrust it forth into the world under your Lordships Name I shall only add my unfeigned desires to the God of Heaven that as he has been pleased in this declining Age to raise up to his People such an able instrument of his Glory so he would go on to give success to your Lordships designs answerable to the expectation of your Country and the necessities of his Church Which shall ever be the daily Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships Most humbly devoted Chaplain WILLIAM JANE ACTS 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood WE read in the 17th vers of this chap. that St. Paul sent from Miletas to Ephesus and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Elders or Presbyters of the Church In this vers which contains a considerable part of his Visitation Sermon he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops This seeming confusion of Names in this and other places of Scripture indiscriminately applied to the Pastors and Officers of the Church was the pretence of Aerius though Pride and Ambition were the reason to inferr a like communion in the dignity of Bishop and Presbyter and a total parity in their Office And though this is surely a very slender argument to any considering men to violate the unity of Christians and to cashier that form of Government which ad been received universally in the Church from the Apostles days unto their own upon a pretence that Antichrist begun betimes yet neither is it so slight and despicable but that it has exercised the greatest Wits in all Ages even those in which it cannot be pretended that Truth was twisted with design in endeavouring a probable solution of it For to omit the interpretation of some that such as were Presbyters when St. Paul sent for them he here consecrates Bishops by telling them that the Holy Ghost had made them so as being a groundless and arbitrary conjecture if we consult those Opinions which carry the greatest vogue and reputation in the World we shall scarce find one in which two have consented when we have excluded those from the number who do not pretend to deliver their own sense but professedly transcribe from others The immediate question wherein our Authors are divided is Whether Bishop and Presbyter were two distinct Orders at the time of the writing the Books of the New Testament or in a small space of time after the one were superadded to the other Those who defend the latter are further subdivided as far as the subject will admit For we are told on the one hand that the names of Bishop and Presbyter were once promiscuously given to the inferiour Order of the Clergy which were afterwards used with distinction when for the future preventing of Schism Episcopacy was introduced upon it◠which seems to be the Judgment of St. Hierome And with greater probability on the other that they were indifferent appellations of the higher Order of Church Officers to whom the name of Bishop became then appropriate when upon the increase of their charge by the multitude of their Proselites inferiour Presbyters were universally admitted in some measure to ease them of the burthen An opinion with infinite accuracy and variety of learning first cleared and defended by the Reverend Dr. Hammond They who have pitcht upon the defence of the former part of the main Question That both Orders were Coaeval and distinguished from one another by their Author at the Primitive institution of them are yet more divided in their explications For some tell us which Dr. Hammond admits for probable that the world Presbyter is the Scripture appellative of the inferiour Order of the Clergy whereas both were common to the Bishop in as much as both Offices designed by them were eminently vested in him St. Chrysostom on the contrary thinks it no inconvenience at all that the distinction of Offices should remain inviolate notwithstanding the confusion of names Whereas a third Opinion sufficiently distinguished from the other two asserts that Bishop and Presbyter were common denominations of the second Order of Priest-hood those whom we now stile Bishops being at that time called Apostles A Comment first suggested by Theodoret and since maintained by the Judicious Hooker in the days of our Forefathers and with a little variation by the learned Thorndike in our own I have not produced these Opinions to compare them with one another or to examin the several claims which each of them pretends to truth but only considering them jointly to make these few remarques upon them all And first our Assertors of the Presbyterian Hierarchy may do well to consider whose Cause it is which is with so great eagerness maintained by them No the Cause of God or of his Church but of a noted Heretick infamous upon the records of Epithanius St. Austin Philastrius and other Fathers of the Church for the point in question and consequently branded for the same by the Church it self whose Judgments those Fathers expressly testifie He who was notorious in his own time for the great disturber of the word is now set up by our pretended Disciplinarians for the great Champion of Truth Nor do they so much help themselves by saying that Arrianism was Aerius his Heresie and indeed Epiphanius calls him an Arrian altogether
as give us occasion further to observe the secret and mystical connexion between Arrius his Doctrin and Aerius his Discipline I do not assert that St. Ignatius was Prophetical in affording the Church throughout his Epistles such signal testimonies against both Yet surely they ought to have been well weighted by those learned men who have rejected the works of that renowned Father before they chose rather than part with a Creature of their own interest and fancy to quit the advantages of those pregnant authorities against the Socinians incomparably clearer than all the Fathers of the Church put together for the first 300 years It is not my purpose to lay the Heresie of Arrius to the charge of Aerius his followers or to inquire into the causal influence of the one upon the other But methinks this one reflection how much Socinianism which is but Arrianism improved has thriven and prospered under the influence of the Presbytery in our neighbour Nation and as 't is greatly to be suspected in our own might prove a motive sufficient to our dissenting Brethren to consider that Heresie and Schism go usually together and to renounce that Schismatical Discipline which we have seen by woful experience so notoriously to shelter an Heretical Doctrin 2. We may observe that however learned men have dissented as to the particular periods of the Commencement of either Order yet in this they all agree that a superiority of the one above the other is of Apostolical institution Which observation if any man think to elude from the authorities of Ignatius Irenaeus Origen St. Ambrose or St. Austin I desire him only to read the learned Spalatensis his Examen of their Testimonies to make him for ever ashamed of obtruding them any more Nay so evident is this in the ancient Records of the Church that the Reverend Bishop Bilson out of Eusebius Hegesippas Socrates St. Jerome Epiphanius and others has given us as exact a Catalogue of the succession of Bishops from the Apostles in the four Apostolical Sees till the first Council of Nice as ever the Roman Archives could at any time give of their Consuls or our common Chroniclers of our Kings since the Conquest From which consideration we have ground for an answer to a twofold pretence of the Advocates of Presbytery the one in taking from us the Testimony of Ignatius the other in urging against us the Authority of St. Jerome As for the first of these it is Monsieur Dailles's principal argument from the Phrase that that blessed Martyr always makes a distinction in the names of Bishop and Presbyter which the Apostolical writings do so confessedly confound with one another But if this be his highest evidence as 't is manifest from his writings that it is it is but a small advantage to his Cause and cannot possibly support it self against any one of those various Hypotheses which we just now mentioned for a solution of the doubt For first those who think that the Christian Priest-hood was originally preserved in one Order and at length by the Apostles distinguished into two though after the writing of their Epistles will rationally presume that the distinction of names took its date from the distinction of the things which Salmasius himself has owned against Petavius and that the ceasing to use the words promiscuously can never take off from our Author the credit of an Apostolical writer notwithstanding the pretended inconformity thereof to the writings of the Apostles themselves But secondly if we admit their opinion who conceive the Orders to be distinct even then when the names were common yet supposing that the Scriptures use them promiscuously there is a visible reason why Ignatius should distinguish For though two different things may sometimes indifferently pass under the same names when either they are used to express some notion or character that holds in common to them both or the subject matter determines the signification yet when in the same proposition they are both to be represented in their proper and distinct Idea according to all the laws of speaking or writing they will necessarily require distinct and proper appellations For how improper had it been to have exprest the peculiarities of several dignities in the same Stile and Character and to make a difference without a distinction How incongruous to common sense to specify three distinct Ecclesiastical Orders under the names of Presbyters Presbyters and Deacons and in inforcing the subjection of the one to the other bid Presbyters be subject to Presbyters So that upon the whole the great quarrel of our adversaries against Ignatius is this that his language is not like their opinion irrational and absurd As to their second refuge to wit the authority of St. Jerome I shall not interpose dogmatically in a Controversy in which the most able School-men and other learned Writers are so much divided It is the confident asseveration of Medina that St. Jerome and other of the Fathers agreed in the Heresie of Aerius but that the Church prudently tolerated that in the one which for different reasons it condemned in the other But upon this principle he will hardly be able to secure himself against the force of Bellarmine's reply How the Church then continued the pillar and ground of truth while She forsted Hereticks in her Bosom And how we can produce the Catholick Fathers as testifiers to the Christian Doctrin who in any one point of it symbolized with Hereticks deserted the sense of the Church and turned aside to the Flocks of the Companions And surely though St. Jerome might differ from others as a private Divine in some Interpretations of Scripture yet he so long kept himself sound as a Catholick Christian while he did not obtrude any of them against the tradition of the Apostles and the unity of the Church And therefore though I do not agree in his particular opinion as holding Church Government settled by our Savour himself in a clear and manifest subordination yet I do not desire among all the Fathers of the Church a more pregnant testimony than St. Jerome will afford us for a like imparity of Church Officers by Apostolical institution For 't is he who in his Epistle to Evagrius expressly calls it an Apostolical tradition and founded in the Old Testament that whatsoever priviledge Aaron and his Sons and the Levites enjoyed in the Temple Bishops Priests and Deacons might justly challenge in the Church 'T is he who informs us on the 23 of St. Matthew of the Apostles practice of ordaining Bishops and Presbyters in the several Provinces where they Preach'd the Gospel 'T is he who stiles the Governours of the respective Churches the Contemporaries of the Apostles by the name of Bishops as Mark of Alexandria Linus Cletus and Clemens of Rome James of Hierusalem Ignatius of Antioch and Policarp of Smyrna And though his opinion were that Bishops were postnate to Presbyters as instituted for the prevention of Schism yet I appeal to himself
our Church at His Majesties Restauration thought fit to change the place which this passage of Scripture formerly had in the Book of Ordination so I have here given some reason why that which was formerly a part of the Epistle for the Ordination of Priests may now be made the Text of a Sermon at the Consecration of a Bishop In which are comprised all the principal arguments which may enforce a Bishops vigilance and circumspection in the management of his Pastoral Charge and urge home the Caution of the Text Take heed therefore The Topicks to perswade a more than ordinary Care in any duty are generally four All which we meet with in this place 1. The excellency of the thing Cared for the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood 2. The Person Concernment in it arising from the peculiar trust reposed in him the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops 3. The danger of miscarriage in the following words For after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you 4. The possibility of preserving the thing Cared for which though not fully exprest is sufficiently implied in these Phrases of Taking heed to your selves of feeding the Church Of these briefly and in the their order as far as the greater business of the day will permit And first of the excellency of the thing Cared for The Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Where we may observe a manifest point of Christian Doctrin by immediate consequence deducible from the words to wit the Divinity of our Savour A truth which offers it self to us with such uncontrollable clearness that the Socinian finding it staring him directly in the face to elude the evidence corrupts the Text reads Christi in stead of Dei which yet in the Syriack Edition whence he takes it seems rather an Exposition than a Version and thereby offers the same violence to the Temporal Word of God as he had done before to the Eternal And as some Barbarous Nations are said to have cut out the Tongues of their abused Captives lest they should disgrace them by publishing their wrongs and injuries having first robb'd Christ of his Divinity he finds himself obliged to rob the Church of the Scriptures which bear witness to the truth of it But this is consistent enough with his Principles For having so loosly settled the notion of a Church as to make an universal Apostacy commence from the very death of the Apostles he had no great reason to over-value the Blood of Christ which had procured such a short lived and uncertain benefit He might justly presume the price was not very great where the purchase was so little regarded But let Socinus go on with as much scorn as he pleases to slight the one and trample upon the other a true Catholick Bishop that knows it cost more to redeem a Soul will hence take an argument to infer that his watchfulness over his Flock ought to rise in some proportion to that esteem and value which his Lord and Master hath set upon it He will not forfeit or betray his trust for the sake of silver and gold and those other corruptible things which he well knows were utterly unable to redeem it But considering it as purchased by the blood of Christ he will judge it worthy to be preserved and cared for though with the expence or hazard of his own It was for the Churches sake that the Son of God came down from Heaven emptyed himself of his Glory exhausted a richer than all the world could afford besides For this end was the great Bishop of our Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the critical importance of the word Consecrated to his Episcopal Office by strong crying and tears by death and blood So costly and chargeable was his Consecration that he seems to decline and deprecate it with a Nolo Episcopari Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me And we may justly thinks his Father would have saved him if a meaner ransom could have saved the World This then Holy Fathers is that Sacred depositum which is committed to your Charge so often repeated in the Office of the Church for this Solemnity even the greatest gift that ever was poured forth upon the Sons of Men the precious blood of the Son of God the unsearchable riches of Christ It lies upon you therefore to testify that the blood of Christ was not spilt in vain and to accomplish that redemption which your Lord hath merited That neither through your miscarriage may Christ be defeated of his purchase which are the Souls of men nor the Church of her price and priviledge the merit of her Saviours Blood But I pass from the invaluable excellency of the thing cared for to the second motive of the Text even your own concernment in it arising from the consideration of the Person by whom you are intrusted The Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops As the gift of the Holy Ghost was the signal prerogative whereby the Church of Christ outvyed the luster of the Temple and which our Saviour at his departure thought and abundant compensation to his Disciples for the defect of his Corporal presence with them so amongst all the noble purposes for which he was then poured forth upon all Flesh there is no one thing represented in Scripture which he seems to have a more visible and immediate concern in than the erecting and authorizing a Ministry commissioning for Church Offices and enabling for the discharge This is that great Work which however meanly esteemed or scornfully treated in this World was in the estimation of our Saviour one of the choicest Largesses which at his Triumphant ascending far above all Heavens he thought fit to shed forth upon his Church And thence we find Matthew 28.28 that when after his ascension he tells his Disciples all power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth the first and great instance wherein he imparts it to his Followers is a Commission for the Ministry Go ye therefore and teach all nations And accordingly that triumphant Psalm which the sweet Singer of of Israel prepared to be Sung at the removal of the Ark whence God did use to deliver his Oracles from between the Cherubins the adumbration of our Saviours removal from Earth to Heaven is by the Apostle repeated and accommodated thereto Ephes 4.8 and completion verified in this that he gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers These were the Gifts he then received for men as a standing Testimony that though himself were departed the Lord God dwelt still among them No wonder therefore to find in the Text the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops since their very employment is one of his peculiar donatives as that of Timothy is expressly called his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in each of his Epistles It were an easie matter to extend this consideration beyond the Church of Ephesus
Spiritus is not said in vain at this great Solemnity nor can we possibly overlook that visible instance of his peculiar Presence in the Consecration of this day For though we live in an Age wherein not only the work of the Ministry is become the derision of Fools but even wise Men pretend to discern the dreadful symptoms of a departing Candlestick and a tottering Church yet it hath pleased him who perfecteth strength in weakness and is nearest at hand in the greatest exigents to raise up the Sons of Nobles to become the Princes of his People to stop the Mouths of the one and to refute the Prognosticks of the other He places over us in the same persons both a glory and a defence by the one to take off scandal by the other to strengthen the Church Blessed therefore be the Name of our great God in whose Hand are the Hearts of Kings that hath stirred up the heart of Ours to make this closer connexion between the Civil and Ecclesiastical interests and in the same choice effectually to provide for the perpetuity of the Church and for the establishment of his Throne We have thus seen that God has not failed hitherto to make good his promise to his Church that the Comforter shall abide with it for ever But since these instances have not proved so successful as to silence the Contradiction of foolish and unreasonable men I shall briefly consider some of the most plausible pretences that are made use of to shake the stability of the Church and turn the Holy Ghost out of his Office First then the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops and therefore not the Civil Magistrate It is an objection of the Romanists against the English Reformation that the power of Order hath ceased in our Church ever since the departure from the Church of Rome as being now utterly dissolved into the Kings deputation of Commissioners for the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs And though the scandal be abundantly refuted by the sacred Rites and Solemnities of this day yet we have had those among our selves who in stead of denying the charge as they justly might have pretended to justifie the Church by owning the accusation For we are told by the Disputers of this World that the Church is nothing else but a Christian Common-wealth and that all pretence of Divine authority and obligation upon Conscience abstracted from the power of the Sword is a meer Imposture and destructive to the State Thus by the old Stratagem of the Enemy of Man-kind is the Church as was once its Author traduced as an enemy to Caesar Though I hope the Case may be so plainly stated between both as to vindicate the Rights of the one without incurring the Jealousie of the other The contrary assertion to what we have laid down can be maintained only upon one of these three Grounds First that there was no right for Christians to associate together for the Worship of God according to the profession of Christianity antecedent to the Command or Allowance of the Civil power Or Secondly supposing a Society of Christians that there was no right of Rule or Government vested in the Officers and Pastors of it Or thirdly supposing a Church power that it escheated to the supream Magistrate when the Church became incorporate into the Civil state The first of these though perhaps the ultimate resolution of the other two resolves it self into Blasphemies beyond the confutation of the Pulpit We must thence pronounce all the Conventions of Christians even those assemblings of themselves together which the Apostle commands his Hebrews not to forsake to be so many unlawful Conventicles and not exempt the first Council at Jerusalem from the accusation which we are sure was managed by the presiding of the Holy Ghost We must affix the blackest note of Infamy upon the Apostles and the Primitive Christians and ascribe a right to the Heathen Magistrates which shall justify the persecution of Christianity We must arraign the Noble Army of Martyrs whose Heroical Courage we hitherto solemnize of foul self-Murther as well as folly in being prodigal of their Blood to no purpose running upon the Sword without a warrant and laying down their lives in the defence of a proposition when they had no obligation to profess it and so execute their Names and Memories as the Heathen did their persons by owning that they suffered deservedly But surely if we have not forfeited our Faith as well as our Charity we may conclude they had hard measure enough at their Persecutors tribunals and therefore may be dismist from ours The second pretence is somewhat more plausible That there is such a Society as a Church and Officers placed in it but such whose only business it is to teach and to declare the will of God without any rule or authority committed to them over those who shal1 receive it Against which we might reason with the Learned Grotius upon Luke 6.22 that there is no necessity of assigning a positive and express Precept in Holy Scripture for granting the Society of the Church established by God all those things are virtually commanded in it which are absolutely necessary to preserve it in its purity and its being Such is the power of Discipline and Government as is evident from the common notion of Societies in general and the peculiar nature of this But not contenting our selves toargue merely from natural Reason in a positive Institution of this kind as transcends the sublimest disquisitions and closest deductions of it if we consult the pattern in the Mount or the settlement of the Church in the New Testament which contains the Covenant of Grace whereupon it is founded we shall find in the Church as in the Ark which was the Type of it the rod of Aaron as well as the Tables of the Law and discover in it the manifest traces of a paternal and imperative though no coercive Jurisdiction We shall there find the Enacting of Laws as in the first Council at Jerusalem a promulgation of the Decrees that were made by the Apostle and Elders which was done by Paul and Barnabas through the Cities Acts 16.4 a Judiciary process against offenders I. Tim. 5.19 a punishment of the guilty as appears in the incestuous Corinthian and in the same instance the absolution of the Penitent and relaxation of the Censure We shall find there the persons with whom the management of these great affairs was intrusted dignified and distinguished by the Titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which import Rule and Authority whereto they were solemnly Sanctified and set apart by a visible and Sacred Rite of Imposition of hands All which if they are duly and impartially considered will sufficiently evidence that these things were something more than Pageantry and Show that there was a Government in the World subsisting upon a different claim from that of the Roman Empire that Christ sent forth his Apostles not only as Sheep among Wolves but
prodigious that if ever the Church hath show'd her self undutiful to the State it is in suffering such a pestilent Enemy to Government to enjoy the benefit of her Communion There is a second pretence against the interest of the Holy Ghost in a Bishops Consecration That Christ gave the fulness of his Spirit only to St. Peter and his Successors but nothing to the other Apostles who seem to be joyned in Commission with him So that whatever power and authority is enjoyed by Bishops who succeed them they hold it not immediately from Christ but only as Suffragans of his pretended Vicar But since this is a point in which the Roman Schools are divided among themselves as appears by the contrary assertions of Soto Victoria Alphonsus à Castro and others and the Dispute seems at last to be resolved rather into the exercise of the Power or as the Schools love to speak the application of the matter of it than the power it self it is properly the subject of another consideration and does not so directly contradict what we have hitherto concluded from the Text. And therefore I shall proceed to raise an inference or two from the Holy Ghosts Concerment in the collation of Episcopal Power which will likewise take in the remaining part of my Division First then if the Holy Ghost has made you Bishops you may hence infer the weight and burden of your Calling It is sure no ordinary employment where the Commission for it comes under the Broad Seal of Heaven 'T was God that gave the Law upon Mount Sinai and therefore Moses who was to deliver it to the People exceedingly quakes and trembles And if St. Paul be rapt up into the third Heaven to receive Instructions for the Gospel we presently hear of his Reproaches and Distresses and the great trouble coming upon him from the care of all the Churches No wonder therefore if when he had acquainted the persons here in the Text with the derivation of their Authority he forthwith presents them with a prospect of their danger His own encounter at Ephesus could not procure that rest and quiet for the Bishops he left behind him but that after his departure there were beasts to be fought with still For this I know that grievous Wolves shall enter in among you I shall not here take upon me the work of an Historian nor give an account how in all Ages of the Church the lusts of the Flesh and the Devils of Hell have with their utmost Malice set themselves against it If we do but open our Eyes and behold the present face of Religion among our selves we shall find arguments enough to call forth your utmost circumspection A great door is open to you and many adversaries For if that turbulent Spirit of Rebellion and Disobedience which not long since possest rent and tore this Nation and was by a Miracle of his Providence a while since cast out walks about night and day seeking to return to the place from whence he came with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself so to make our last estate prove worse than the former If there are so many Tobiahs and Sanballats that envy the remainders of the prosperity of Sion so many Zebahs and Zalmunahs that say to one another Let us take unto our selves the houses of God in possession that seek to alienate or diminish the Churches Rights robbing God in Tithes and Offerings and then say Wherein have we robb'd him If the fiery Jesuit on the one hand and the restless Fanatick on the other bend all their wit and power first to smite the Shepherd and then to scatter and glean up the Sheep compassing Sea and Land to make Proselytes and when they have gained them making them ten times more the Children of Hell than themselves If what St. Paul Prophesied at Ephesus be now fulfilled with us that of our selves men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and stretching the Articles of the Church of England to so much a greater latitude than the Catholick Church allows that for as much as in them lies Pelagius and Socinus shall find here both shelter and encouragement Lastly if there be so many Hereticks in the World that corrupt the Church of Christ Schismaticks that divide it and Atheists that contemn it It is then surely high time for you to look about you to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints to joyn your Heads your Hearts and your Hands together to support the tottering Ark which is now no longer Criminal and keep it from ever returning into the Tents of the Philistins which we have seen so miraculously redeemed from them But secondly notwithstanding all these disadvantages if the Holy Ghost have called you to your Office you may rest assured that he will own and protect you in the discharge If you held your Callings from the World the frowns of the World might discourage you But since 't is God that sets his Seal to your Commission you serve a Master who let the World be never so impatient will assuredly make good your Patent assert and justifie your Authority When God says concerning Cyrus I have called him Isa 48.15 it follows in the Text and I will make his way prosperous If God say to Jacob I have called thee no wonder to hear the encouragement he forth with gives him When thou goest through the water I am with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee It seems to be an opinion among the Ancient Fathers that every Bishop hath two Guardian Angels For besides that which is common to him with every man he has another as he is a Bishop appointed him at his Consecration But the stability of your Function Holy Fathers has a surer ground than in these fancies of men Even the God of Angels vouchsafes to become your peculiar Guardian And if the Church like Jacob's Ladder though the foot of it be on Earth has its head in Heaven there are not only Angels ascending and descending but God himself leans upon the top of it and keeps it firm A consideration this of great weight and moment especially under the apprehensions of publick danger It being usual with men in such exigents as those to betake themselves to their own Counsels and Contrivances and when these fail to despond and give over nay sometimes with a more preposterous piece of Policy to make Ship-wrack of a good Conscience in hopes to escape the storm But surely if we own such a thing as Divine Protection which is never forfeited but by distrust we shall ever find it try it when we will that the best way to secure our selves from danger is to be doing our duty For this infallibly engages God of our side who will be with us as long as we are with him It is safer for the Mariner in a Tempest to ride out the Storm then to strike to Shore And we
need not fear Drowning as long as Christ is in the Ship And therefore let the Heathen rage and the Nations take Counsel together he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision he can shatter their Councils blast their Designs defeat their Purposes and ruin their Confederacies And will never fail openly to demonstrate that his Church is founded upon a Rock too firm to be shaken by the combinations of men even upon the promise of God and the Graces of his Spirit things eternally invincible by the gates of Hell Nor has God ever left himself without witness of this peculiar presence in the greatest distresses of his Church Even at the first founding of it when in all humane probability it was so little enabled to stand out against the machinations of the World yet then did the Almighty reveal his arm and exert his Power and in spite of all the oppositions both of Earth and Hell made his own Counsel to stand and flourish 'T was he of old that upheld an Athanasius contra mundum and effectually rescued his Church from that deluge of Arrianism which to all appearance had swallowed it up and overwhelmed it Lastly to name no more but this Church of ours under those signal instances of his afflicting providence the sinking our gates destroying our palaces and slighting the strong holds of Sion when that dreadful storm had utterly sunk both the Government of our Church and our hopes of its recovery yet even then did the Spirit of God move upon the face of the waters 'till at length the dry land appeared and again reduced it to that beautiful order which has made it ever since the object of Malice and the mark of Envy Surely therefore he who had a favour for Sion when her Stones were in the dust has not left off his concern for it now it stands upon its pillars But rather on the contrary if the present methods o his Providence can give us any rule for a conjecture he seems to have some further work in hand for the establishment of his Church while he singles out persons of such worth and eminence for the undertaking But thirdly if the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops you are entrusted by one who will assuredly take an account of the Administration It appears in the Records of the ancient Church that they never brought a Bishop to publick penance Of which practice this seems to be one reason among others that since there was no spiritual power on Earth above him they reserved him to the future Judgement the tribunal of a Lord who alone was higher than he And therefore though a Religious Constantine thinks fit to cover the faults of his Bishops with his own Purple and the whole Christian World at this day were as forward to hide as they are on the contrary to reveal their Fathers nakedness Yet all these coverings signifie nothing to him who looks through them all to him who pondereth the heart and weigheth the spirits of men All things are naked and open before him with whom you have to do and will one day appear so before the World Angels and Men. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to the flock as those that must give an account And do thou O Lord give that success to their Labours that they may give it with joy and not with grief Let thy Urim and Thummim be still with thy holy ones that their Doctrine may be no other than that whereto thy Holy Spirit hath set his Seal and their Lives and Examples may be as Sacred as their Callings Put Courage into their Hearts and a Terrour upon their Faces that with all boldness they may speak thy word and maintain a constant resolution to withstand the Corruptions of the Times that so in the last day when the great Shepherd of the Sheep shall appear to make his final Visitation they may receive the Blessing which belongs to those whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Well done good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful in a little enter now into the joy of thy Lord. Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be ascribed as is most due by us and by all the World all Power Glory Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen FINIS P. 13. l. 20. suppositious r. supposititious