ENGLISH CRETES AND Atheistical CHRISTIANS DESCRIB'D and INSTANCED WITH Directions for the Reformation of all FROM St. PAUL'S Epistle to TITUS the first Bishop of CRETE Wherein is Intimated the Sacred Order and Supreme Power of Episcopacy in the CHURCH with the Inferior Ministry Concluding all With Supplemental Instances AND A Lamentation of the Churches present Miseries Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Heb. xii 14. LONDON Printed for Jos Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1695. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY OR A LETTER TO AN Honourable Member of PARLIAMENT TO THE Honourable Sir W. T. Bar. Ever honoured Sir MAY I presume to lay this at your feet with an humble congratulation of your late honourable unsought for Election at too such distant Places paying you that meritorious esteem and regard which the best of our Gentry and Regular Clergy unanimously bear you in that County whereto you are so great an Honor and ever will be in despight of Ignorance Malice Ill-Nature Self-Interest and Faction however shamefully dividing us c. Your Orthodox Piety admirable Parts and Learning your unbounded Charity Meekness Candour and unbiass'd Judgment and Integrity which has no Interest to serve but the Publick-Good c. We can't but declare as we love and value this was conspicuous to the Nation while you were formerly our truly honourable Representative with general applause and will be now again Therefore your utmost Service for our true Episcopal Church whose Zealous Learned Champion your renowned Father was likewise and Clergy we doubt not of May all honest tender Consciences be Tolerated and Sufferers duly reliev'd may Prophaness Atheism and all manner of Licentiousness so scandalous in and dangerous to a Christian State be severely suppress'd May Sacrilege be shun'd by all and according to the Pious and Learned Sir Henry Spellman in particular may the Church's Divine Rights be well consider'd or at least the Case of poor Vicarages be justly and charitably Redress'd and secur'd from the base encroachments and oppressions of Hypocrisie Pride and Avarice insatiable c. Or finally were these things in such worthy Hands as yours and would all Live and Act like you for the Glory of God and his Church then might be compleated the just Wishes of Your ever oblig'd humble Servant T.W. DEO TRIUNO Aeterno Incomprehensibili Omnipotenti Omniscienti Omnipresenti Infinito Justitiâ Miserecordiâ c. Super in omnibus Gloria COnversionem Mundo Pacem Ecclesiae Fidem Principibus regnis Tranquilitatem Angliae Salutem Benefactoribus Poenitentiam Inimicis Sincerè Vivet Optat Humillimus indignissimus Servus gaudens solummodo confidens in Jesu Christo ipsoque Crucifixo T. W. Psal lxxxii Out of Patrick's Metre THE Rulers of the world that bear God's name and represent him here Know that this Judge among you sits If you enact unrighteous Laws Or Countenance a wicked Cause Your guiltiness no plea admits You act like God when you defend The Poor and your assistance lend To helpless men that Justice crave Absolve the Innocent with speed Obnoxious only by their need And from th' Oppressors power save They cry too oft to you in vain who 'll know no other right but gain Whose Eyes are blind by Bribes you take Thus Justice cannot find its course But Laws neglected lose their force And all the Land's Foundations shake I said y' are Gods but you shall dye And fall tho sons of the most High As other men and King's have done Arise Great Judge of all and Reign Fal'n Justice then will rise again When God doth sit upon his Throne ENGLISH CRETES AND Atheistical Christians described c. TIT. i. 16. They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate or void of judgment As it is in the Margin SAint Paul a Servant of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith and Truth c. ver 1. having ordain'd Titus the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians as he did Timothy of the Ephesians he begins here to shew him in a very solemn and blessed Stile for what end he thus left him in Crete ver 6. As particularly to Ordain and Settle the inferior Ministry the due qualifications whereof he next declares ver 6. and then proceeds to set forth the life of a good Bishop manifesting the necessity of their Faithfulness Ability and Zeal because of Deceivers and that the mouths of those evil corrupt Teachers who crept in Houses and swarm'd about the Church might be stopped to ver 12. Then he gives him some description of the people whom he was set over with admonitions concerning them c. Now these let us briefly consider with parallel Instances of the great Numbers of pretended false Christians among us and the directions here for their reformation concluding with an earnest recommendation of all the Duties laid down in this Epistle as now requir'd indispensibly both of Ministers and People First then The Apostle begins his description of these Cretians with an irrefragible testimony of one of their own Poets ver 12. one of themselves even a Prophet of their own said the Cretians are always Liars evil Beasts slow-bellies i. e. deceitful false sensual carnal and earthly-minded which is plain enough howsoever Poetical and as St. Paul affirms in the next verse this Witness is true whence necessarily follows his admonition wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the Faith not giving heed to Jewish Fables and Commandments of men that turn from the Truth This beastliness or impurity of their lives notwithstanding their Conversion to Christianity polluted and corrupted their Profession of the purest Religion which none but the pure can rightly understand and practice and so continu'd them sinful Brutes and guilty Infidels still For as it follows ver 15. Unto the Pure all things are Pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing Pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled well therefore might there be so many Hereticks Seducers and Hypocrites among such filthy Pretenders yea and Atheists too or worse for so are they who profess as St. Paul here concludes their Character That they know God but in Works they deny him being abominable disobedient c. These are call'd Practical Atheists and are thus far worse than the Speculative in that they act contrary to their declar'd Principles their Lives run contrary to their Creed O they do the greater dishonor to Almighty God Now every customary habitual Sinner particularly is such and such are the common Prophane Unjust Vitious and Uncharitable Wretches of this vilest Age who fill our Church and Nation These unreformed Sinners who make up the generality of our People of all Ranks and Degrees are the English Cretians and the Atheistical Christians whose Lives and Conversations prove
not all Pride Arrogance Ambition Avarice Intemperance and Sensuality tremble hereat Upon these Considerations then are not all Cheats Knaves and Lyars all Robbers Thieves and Murderers all Tyrants Usurpers and devouring Oppressors Are not all spiteful haughty Conceits all perverse Self-Lovers all blood-thirsty encroaching Villains all sorts of Unbelievers and Hypocrites all evil Contriving Crafty Sly or Clandestine Sinners all Debauchees Gluttons Drunkards proud Boasters with all Covetous Persons who are Idolaters and whom particularly God abhoreth Are not all these I say with the others before-mentioned such abominable disobedient and evil reprobate Wretches by leading such wicked Lives so contrary to the whole Divine Nature and to all True Religion while they profess to know God c. That they thus plainly deny their God and Saviour and commence the worst of Infidels and Atheists whatsoever Faith or Knowledge they may pretend to Now the like Instances may be made in reference to all the Sublime Truths and Injunctions of the Gospel or all the Duties of Christianity from which the generality of its Professors so grosly vary and wherein so many do deceive and are deceived but these may be reserv'd for another Season and what has been said may suffice at present for demonstration of the matter in hand So we shall now proceed to the Apostles directions for the Reformation of all and especially for the management of those false Teachers Scepticks and Seducers whom he chiefly aims at and describes here ver 10. and this he lays upon his Bishop particularly to convince such ver 9. Including withal the Offices of the inferior Ministry as I noted in the beginning of this Discourse and may regularly proceed upon having hitherto only cleared the Text at first proposed In all this Epistle it is evident says a Divine Preacher that St. Paul looks upon Titus as advanc'd to the Dignity of a Prime Ruler of the Church and entrusted with a large Diocess containing many particular Cities under the immediate Government of their respective Elders and those deriving Authority from his Ordination as was specified in ver 5. And now looking upon Titus under this qualification he addresses a long Advice and Instruction to him for the discharge of so important a Function it being the peculiar Office of every Bishop within his own Jurisdiction by Prayer and Imposition of Hands as the Apostles did to order and seperate Men for the Offices of Deacon and Elder i. e. Presbyter or Priest in the Church of Christ and in like manner to Confirm all whom the Inferior Ministers admit Members of or receive into the Church-Communion by that initiating Sacrament of Baptism as our Saviour positively Commissioned all his Ambassadors Stewards or Ministers of his Gospel upon Discipling the World Mat. xxviii 19 20. And as Philip the Deacon Baptized the Samaritans and then came the great Apostles Peter and John down from Jerusalem to Confirm them with Prayer and Imposition of Hands Act. viii And as our Bishops the Prime Successors of the Apostles after our Infant-Baptism and Pious Education upon the Promises and Solemn Vows and care of fit Sponsors c. as our Church most Charitably directs have accordingly practised from the very Primitive times which may sufficiently ease and satisfie all Sureties c. both in their Duty and discharge of their Trust and so might equally convince our Antipedobaptists and all other Gainsayers to the Laudable Antient Apostolical Orders of Infant-Baptism Confirmation c. Which with our whole excellent Constitution let us all duly and respectively observe under our Sacred Gospel-Ministry as true sound Members of the best Established Church in the World with particular Reverence of the highest Order of Episcopacy our Spiritual Hierarchy whereto alone it belongs to Govern and Preside over the whole Ecclesiastical Body There is no one thing says a learned Writer more clear and evident in the Christian Religion than that our Saviour invested the whole Apostolical Order not in St. Peter only but all the Apostles with a Supremacy of Power over his Church and that they in pursuance of this his Divine Institution ordained Bishops to succeed them in their Supremacy of Power through all following Ages That the Apostles were Superior to all other Officers in the Church is out of question and granted on all Hands and that the Bishops succeeded them is as unquestionable from all the clearest Records of Antiquity their Succession especially in the most famous Churches being deriv'd by the most Antient Writers from the Apostles themselves and was as easily and certainly know to those Men that have transmitted it to us as any learned Man may know the Succession of the Archbishops of Canterbury from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to this time And also 't is evident that they modell'd the first Settlement of Churches according to the then present State of the Roman Empire But as this Power was at first given to the Apostles so was it equally divided among them so that every one exercis'd Supreme Power within the Bounds of his own Jurisdiction and all together in the Catholick Church or as St. Cyprian states it Epist 52. that as there was but one Church Founded by Christ throughout all the World but this Church was made up of several distinct Members so there was but one Episcopacy and that consists in the agreement and unanimous care of all Christian Bishops so that the whole Body of the Church was govern'd by the whole Body of the Apostles and their Successors but the several parts of it were allotted to the Charge of single Bishops who govern'd them with particular care but so as to have regard to the Peace and Unity of the whole This is the only Notion says my Author that this wise and good Man than whom there is not a more eminent example for both upon Record seems in all his Writings to have had of the Catholick Church and so this he improves to the utter Confutation of the Pope's Supremacy and likewise of all our Dissenters confused wild pretences resembling the Popish Legends Superstitions c. All whose presumptuous covetous Teaching creeping into Houses leading Captive silly Women deluding sinful weak Souls 2 Tim. iii. 6. with all their deceitful hypocritical or insulting rigid greedy devouring ways ought to undergo such Episcopal Judgment and Rebuke and be so silenced c. as these Sceptical lying Cretes and avaritious Jewish Deceivers whom the great Apostle here warns their proper Bishop of that he may proceed against them sharply or as himself judged too obstinate Sinners or Hereticks and Schismaticks as he did the incestuous person before 1 Cor. v. wicked Hymeneus and Alexander whom he deliver'd unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme 1 Tim. i. 20. This is the very power of true Excommunication which with Absolution call'd the power of the Keyes our Saviour delegated immediately to the Supreme Governors of his Church Matth. xvi 18 19. John xx 21 22 23. And thus
him by committing sin to shun some outward Suffering 5. Not trusting on God in Dangers and Distresses Using unlawful means to bring us out of them c. Not looking up for his Blessing on our Honest Endeavours Overcarking c. 6. Not acknowledging his Wisdom in choosing for us but having eager and impatient desires of our own 7. Not honouring God by a reverent usage of the things that relate to him Behaving our Selves irreverently in his House Robbing God by taking things that are Consecrated to him Prophaning Holy Times the Lord's day and the Feasts and Fasts of the Church Placing Religion in hearing of Sermons without Practice Breaking our Vows made at Baptism Prophaning the Lords Supper Prophaning God's Name by Blasphemous Thoughts and Discourse Giving others occasion to blaspheme him by our vile and wicked Lives Taking unlawful Oaths Perjury Swearing in our Ordinary Communication 8. Not Worshipping God Omitting Prayers publick and private Not Praying in Purity Faith Humility Attention nor Reverence 9. Not Repenting Fasting Mortifying nor solemnly Humbling c. 10. Placing our Love and other Affections more on Creatures than the Creator which is inward Idolatry 11. Unthankfulness to our Benefactors especially those that admonish us Not amending upon their reproof Being angry at them for it Not Reverencing our Civil Parent the lawful Magistrate Despising our Spiritual Fathers the Bishops and Pastors of our Churches Not loving them for their Works sake Not obeying those Commands of God they deliver to us Seeking to with-hold from them their Just Maintenance Forsaking our lawful Pastors to follow Factious Teachers Not loving our Spiritual Brethren i. e. our Fellow-Christians Having no Fellow-Feeling of their Sufferings Causelesly forsaking their Communion in Holy Duties Not taking deeply to Heart the Desolations of the Church which are now Calamitous and deplorable indeed 12. Being puft up with high conceits of our selves Carnal and Spiritual Pride greedily seeking the praise of Men. Directing Christian Actions as Prayer Alms c. to that end Committing Sins to avoid the reproach of wicked Men. Anger Inconsideration c. Uncontentedness in our Estates Greedy desires after Honour and Riches Seeking to gain them by sinful means Envying the condition of other Men. Not improving God 's Gifts outward or inward to his Honour Abusing our natural Parts as Wit Memory c. to Sin Neglecting or resisting the motions of God's Holy Spirit Uncleaness Intemperance Pampering the Body not subduing it c. 13. Being Injurious Unjust Cruel and Malicious to our Neighbour Oppressing by Violence and Force or colour of Law Theft Deceit false Witness Lying Ingratitude Want of true Love and Affection in Husbands and Wives Not bearing with the Infirmities of each other So in Friends Tyranny or Remisness in Parents and Masters Disobedience and Stubborness in Children and Servants Ill-nature in all 14. Want of Bowels and Charity to our Neighbours Not heartily desiring their good Spiritual or Temporal Not loving and forgiving Enemies Taking actual Revenges upon them Professing Kindness and acting none Backbiting c. 15. Not loving Peace Going to Law upon slight occasions Bearing inward Enmity to those we Sue Not labouring to make Peace among others Now let this short dismal Catalogue which is all a plain Contradiction to our most Holy Christian Profession with those Instances of Sins and Contrarieties to God and all True Religion before-mentioned be seriously consider'd bewail'd and reform'd in every guilty Soul then shall we soon be happy in our publick and private State here and more hereafter THE LAMENTATION c. BUT alas Since Christendom continues the vilest part of the World a Sink of all those abominable Pollutions which even Barbarians detest Since our Profession and our Practice are always at so wide a distance Since the Disciples of the Holy and Immaculate Jesus be of all others the most Prophane and Impure and the Subjects of the Prince of Peace be of all others the most contentious and bloody Since the Church in general is become an Aceldama a Field of blood and this particular true Catholick Apostolical Episcopal Church is so miserably dissected so shamefully over-run with Blasphemy Sacrilege Hypocrisie Covetousness and all manner of Prophane and beastly Licentiousness Uncharitableness c. is so maliciously undermined every where so cruelly oppressed and insultingly trampled upon in one place and so fatally surrounded with Enemies on all Hands Since her Sabbaths are Polluted her Ministry Contemned her Sacred Ordinances Prophaned and Slighted her Primitive Discipline Despis'd c. by her own sworn Members Since many of these are constant bosome Foes the most treacherous and irreclaimable sensual and worldly making no Conscience of religious Concerns and Duties much less of Defaming Injuring or Defrauding their own lawful Pastors especially the Inferior and most Laborious As if they had neither Divine nor Humane Right to their most reasonable Dues As if neither Christ nor his Apostles had given any Orders about the Reception Reverend Estimation and Maintenance of his Ministers Matth. x. 1 Cor. iv 1. and cap. ix 7. 11.14 Heb. vii to 10. As if Christians were herein allowed to be worse than either Jews or Heathens As if Sacrilege were no Sin As if the Curse of God did not attend it c. though he cursed a whole Nation for the same Mal. iii. 8 9. Since Christianity the best and purest Religion in the World is thus notoriously and uncontroulably scandalized even by the very Devote's and boasting Professors Since Matters are at this dreadful pass among us under the best establishment too What alas Can become of us What Judgments may we not justly hear What sad Calamities expect under such an universal decay of Christian Piety and all true Vertue and good Nature Yet shall we not mourn for Sion And pray for the Peace of Jerusalem This seems to be all left us to do O then let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord herein unite at least and weep between the Porch and the Altar and cry spare thy People O Lord and give not thine Heritage to reproach O Save Cleanse Enlarge and Defend thy Church good God In all time of our Tribulation in all time of our Wealth in the hour of Death and in the day of Judgment Good Lord deliver us Amen FINIS