Bishops laid the foundation their Successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental but build up the Church in a most holy Faith taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it and above all things that a most holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith So the Apostles laid the foundation and built the walls of the Church and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven For let us talk and dispute eternally we shall never compose the controversies in Religion and establish truth upon unalterable foundations as long as men handle the word of God deceitfully that is with designs and little artifices and secular partialities and they will for ever do so as long as they are proud or covetous It is not the difficulty of our questions or the subtlety of our Adversaries that makes disputes interminable but we shall never cure the itch of disputing or establish Unity unless we apply our selves to humility and contempt of riches If we will be contending let us contend like the Olive and the Vine who shall produce best and most fruit not like the Aspine and the Elm which shall make most noise in a wind And all other methods are a beginning at a wrong end And as for the people the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of Faith and Government is by reducing them to live good lives When the children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness and filthy lusts they quickly fell into abominable idolatries and S. Paul says that men make shipwrack of their Faith by putting away a good conscience for the mystery of Faith is best preserved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a pure conscience saith the same Apostle secure but that and we shall quickly end our disputes and have an obedient and conformable people but else never 2. As Bishops were the first Fathers of Churches and gave them being so they preserve them in being For without Sacraments there is no Church or it will be starved and dye and without Bishops there can be no Priests and consequently no Sacraments and that must needs be a supreme Order from whence Ordination it self proceeds For it is evident and notorious that in Scripture there is no Record of Ordination but an Apostolical hand was in it one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the chief one of the superior and ruling Clergy and it is as certain in the descending ages of the Church the Bishop always had that power it was never denyed to him and it was never imputed to Presbyters and S. Hierom himself when out of his anger against John Bishop of Jerusalem he endeavoured to equal the Presbyter with the Bishop though in very many places he spake otherwise yet even then also and in that heat he excepted Ordination acknowledging that to be the Bishops peculiar And therefore they who go about to extinguish Episcopacy do as Julian did they destroy the Presbytery and starve the Flock and take away their Shepheards and dispark their pastures and tempt Gods providence to extraordinaries and put the people to hard shifts and turn the channels of salvation quite another way and leave the Church to a perpetual uncertainty whether she be alive or dead and the people destitute of the life of their Souls and their daily bread and their spiritual comforts and holy blessings The consequent of this is If Sacraments depend upon Bishops then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials sanctified with a holy Ministry and ministred by holy persons For although it be true that the efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers yet it is as true that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the Receiver but both together relying upon the goodness of God produce all those blessings which are designed The Minister hath an influence into the effect and does very much towards it and if there be a failure there it is a defect in one of the concurring causes and therefore an unholy Bishop is a great diminution to the peoples blessing S. Hierom presses this severely Impiè faciunt c. They do wickedly who affirm that the holy Eucharist is consecrated by the words alone and solemn prayer of the Consecrator and not also by his life and holiness And therefore S. Cyprian affirms that none but holy and upright men are to be chosen who offering their Sacrifices worthily to God may be heard in their prayers for the Lords people but for others Sacrificia eorum panis luctus saith the Prophet Hosea their Sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow whoever eats thereof shall be defiled This discourse is not mine but S. Cyprian's and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically but in the case of duty and caution yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts and consider how we shall give an account of our Stewardship if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands it is of it self a pure nourishment but if it passes through an unclean vessel it loses much of its excellency 3. The like also is to be said concerning Prayer For the Episcopal Order is appointed by God to be the great Ministers of Christs Priesthood that is to stand between Christ and the people in the entercourse of prayer and blessing We will give our selves continually to prayer said the Apostles that was the one half of their employment and indeed a Bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer and in diverting Gods judgments and procuring blessings to the people for in all times the chief of the Religion was ever the chief Minister of blessing Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech and Melchisedeck blessed Abraham and Aaron blessed the people and without all controversie saith the Apostle the less is blessed of the greater But then we know that God heareth not sinners and it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that shall prevail And therefore we may easily consider that a vitious Prelate is a great calamity to that Flock which he is appointed to bless and pray for How shall he reconcile the penitents who is himself at enmity with God How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the Symbols at his Prayer who does perpetually grieve him and quench his holy fires and drive him quite away How shall he that hath not tasted of the Spirit by contemplation stir up others to earnest desires of Coelestial things Or what good shall the people receive when the Bishop layes upon their head a covetous or a cruel an unjust or an impure hand But therefore that I may use the words of S. Hierom Cum ab Episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur mundi totius Ecclesiae totius condimentum sit Episcopus
therefore if you do believe this go to your prayers and go to your guards and go to your labour and try what God will do for you For whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye shall receive them and ye shall have them Now consider Do not we every day pray in the Divine Hymn called Te Deum Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin And in the Collect at morning prayer and grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doing may be ordered by thy governance to do alwayes that which is righteous in thy sight Have you any hope or any faith when you say that Prayer And if you do your duty as you can do you think the failure will be on Gods part Fear not that if you can trust in God and do accordingly though your sins were as scarlet yet they shall be as white as snow and pure as the feet of the holy Lamb. Only let us forsake all those weak propositions which cut the nerves of Faith and make it impossible for us to actuate all our good desires or to come out from the power of sin 2. He that would be free from the slavery of sin and the necessity of sinning must alwayes watch I that 's the point but who can watch alwayes Why every good man can watch alwayes and that we may not be deceived in this let us know that the running away from a temptation is a part of our watchfulness and every good employment is another great part of it and a laying in provisions of Reason and Religion before hand is yet a third part of this watchfulness and the conversation of a Christian is a perpetual watchfulness not a continual thinking of that one or those many things which may indanger us but it is a continual doing something directly or indirectly against sin He either prayes to God for his Spirit or relies upon the Promises or receives the Sacrament or goes to his Bishop for Counsel and a Blessing or to his Priest for Religious Offices or places himself at the feet of good Men to hear their wise sayings or calls for the Churches Prayers or does the duty of his calling or actually resists Temptation or frequently renews his holy Purposes or fortifies himself by Vows or searches into his danger by a daily examination so that in the whole he is for ever upon his guards * This duty and caution of a Christian is like watching lest a man cut his finger Wise men do not often cut their fingers and yet every day they use a knife and a mans eye is a tender thing and every thing can do it wrong and every thing can put it out yet because we love our eyes so well in the midst of so many dangers by Gods providence and a prudent natural care by winking when any thing comes against them and by turning aside when a blow is offered they are preserved so certainly that not one man in ten thousand does by a stroak lose one of his eyes in all his life time If we would transplant our natural care to a spiritual caution we might by Gods grace be kept from losing our souls as we are from losing our eyes and because a perpetual watchfulness is our great defence and the perpetual presence of Gods grace is our great security and that this Grace never leaves us unless we leave it and the precept of a dayly watchfulness is a thing not only so reasonable but so many easie wayes to be performed we see upon what terms we may be quit of our sins and more than Conquerors over all the Enemies and Impediments of Salvation 3. If you would be in the state of the Liberty of the Sons of God that is that you may not be servants of sin in any instance be sure in the mortifications of sin willingly or carelesly to leave no remains of it no nest-egg no principles of it no affections to it if any thing remains it will prove to us as Manna to the sons of Israel on the second day it will breed worms and stink Therefore labour against every part of it reject every proposition that gives it countenance pray to God against it all and what then Why then Ask and you shall have said Christ. Nay say some it is true you shall be heard but in part only for God will leave some remains of sin within us lest we should become proud by being innocent So vainly do men argue against Gods goodness and their own blessings and Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Basil sayes they contrive witty arts to undo themselves being intangled in the periods of ignorant disputations But as to the thing it self if by the remains of sin they mean the propensities and natural inclinations to forbidden objects there is no question but they will remain in us so long as we bear our flesh about us and surely that is a great argument to make us humble But these are not the sins which God charges on his people But if by remains we mean any part of the habit of sin any affection any malice or perverseness of the Will then it is a contradiction to say that God leaves in us such remains of Sin lest by innocence we become Proud for how should Pride spring in a mans heart if there be no remains of Sin left And is it not the best the surest way to cure the Pride of our hearts by taking out every root of bitterness even the root of Pride it self Will a Physitian purposely leave the Reliques of a disease and pretend he does it to prevent a relapse And is it not more likely he will relapse if the sickness be not wholly cured * But besides this If God leaves any remains of Sin in us what remains are they and of what sins Does he leave the remains of Pride If so that were a strange cure to leave the remains of Pride in us to keep us from being proud But if not so but that all the remains of Pride be taken away by the grace of God blessing our endeavours what danger is there of being proud the remains of which Sin are by the grace of God wholly taken away But then if the Pride of the heart be cured which is the hardest to be removed and commonly is done last of all who can distrust the power of the Spirit of God or his goodness or his promises and say that God does not intend to cleanse his Sons and Servants from all unrighteousness and according to S. Pauls prayer keep their bodies and souls and spirits unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus But however let God leave what remains he please all will be well enough on that side but let us be careful as far as we can that we leave none lest it be severely imputed to us and the fire break out and consume us 4. Let
they fed this Family and ruled it by the word of their proper Ministry They had the keyes of this house the Stewards Ensign and they had the Rulers place for they sat on twelve Thrones and judged the twelve Tribes of Israel But of this there is no question And as little of another proposition that this Stewardship was to last for ever for the power of Ministring in this Office and the Office it self were to be perpetual For the issues and powers of Government are more necessary for the perpetuating the Church than for the first planting and if it was necessary that the Apostles should have a rod and a staff at first it would be more necessary afterwards when the Family was more numerous and their first zeal abated and their native simplicity perverted into arts of hypocrisie and forms of godliness when Heresies should arise and the love of many should wax cold The Apostles had also a power of Ordination and that the very power it self does denote for it makes perpetuity that could not expire in the dayes of the Apostles for by it they themselves propagated a succession And Christ having promised his Spirit to abide with his Church for ever and made his Apostles the Channels the Ministers and conveyances of it that it might descend as the inheritance and eternal portion of the Family it cannot be imagined that when the first Ministers were gone there should not others rise up in the same places some like to the first in the same Office and Ministry of the Spirit But the thing is plain and evident in the matter of fact also Quod in Ecclesiâ nunc geritur hoc olim fecerunt Apostoli said S. Cyprian What the Apostles did at first that the Church does to this day and shall do so for ever For when S. Paul had given to the Bishop of Ephesus rules of Government in this Family he commands that they should be observed till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore these authorities and charges are given to him and to his Successors it is the observation of S. Ambrose upon the warranty of that Text and is obvious and undeniable Well then The Apostles were the first Stewards and this Office dies not with them but must for ever be succeeded in and now begins the inquiry who are the successors of the Apostles for they are they must evidently be the Stewards to feed and to rule this Family There are some that say that all who have any portion of work in the Family all the Ministers of the Gospel are these Stewards and so all will be Rulers The Presbyters surely for say they Presbyter and Bishop is the same thing and have the same name in Scripture and therefore the Office cannot be distinguished To this I shall very briefly say two things which will quickly clear our way through this bush of thorns 1. That the word Presbyter is but an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews as Alderman amongst us but it signifies no order at all nor was ever used in Scripture to signifie any distinct company or order of Clergy And this appears not only by an induction in all the enumerations of the Offices Ministerial in the New Testament where to be a Presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct Office or a distinct Order but by its being indifferently communicated to all the Superior Clergy and all the Princes of the People 2. The second thing I intended to say is this that although all the Superior Clergy had not only one but divers common appellatives all being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the Apostolate it self being called a Deaconship yet it is evident that before the common appellations were fixt into names of propriety they were as evidently distinguished in their Offices and Powers as they are at this day in their Names and Titles To this purpose S. Paul gave to Titus the Bishop of Crete a special Commission Command and Power to make Ordinations and in him and in the person of Timothy he did erect a Court of Judicature even over some of the Clergy who yet were called Presbyters against a Presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses there is the measure and the warranty of the Audientia Episcopalis the Bishops Audience Court and when the accused were found guilty he gives in charge to proceed to censures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must rebuke them sharply you must silence them stop their mouths that 's S. Pauls word that they may no more scatter their venom in the ears and hearts of the people These Bishops were commanded to set in order things that were wanting in the Churches the same with that power of S. Paul other things will I set in order when I come said he to the Corinthian Churches in which there were many who were called Presbyters who nevertheless for all that name had not that power To the same purpose it is plain in Scripture that some would have been Apostles that were not such were those whom the Spirit of God notes in the Revelation and some did love preeminence that had it not for so did Diotrephes and some were Judges of questions and all were not for therefore they appealed to the Apostles at Jerusalem and S. Philip though he was an Evangelist yet he could not give confirmation to the Samaritans whom he had baptized but the Apostles were sent for for that was part of the power reserved to the Episcopal or Apostolick Order Now from these premises the conclusion is plain and easie 1. Christ left a Government in his Church and founded it in the persons of the Apostles 2. The Apostles received this power for the perpetual use and benefit for the comfort and edification of the Church for ever 3. The Apostles had this Government but all that were taken into the Ministry and all that were called Presbyters had it not If therefore this Government in which there is so much disparity in the very nature and exercise and first original or it must abide for ever then so must that disparity If the Apostolate in the first stabiliment was this eminency of power then it must be so that is it must be the same in the succession that it was in the foundation For after the Church is founded upon its Governors we are to expect no change of Government If Christ was the Author of it then as Christ left it so it must abide for ever for ever there must be the Governing and the governed the Superior and the subordinate the Ordainer and the ordained the Confirmer and he confirmed Thus far the way is straight and the path is plain The Apostles were the Stewards and the ordinary Rulers of Christs Family by virtue of the order and office Apostolical and although this be succeeded to for ever yet
no man for his now or at any time being called a Presbyter or Elder can pretend to it for besides his being a Presbyter he must be an Apostle too else though he be called in partem sollicitudinis and may do the office of assistance and under-stewardship yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government and Rule of the Family belongs not to him But then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are these Stewards and Rulers over the houshold now To this the answer is also certain and easie Christ hath made the same Governors to day as heretofore Apostles still For though the twelve Apostles are dead yet the Apostolical order is not it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a generative order and begets more Apostles Now who these minores Apostoli are the successors of the Apostles in that Office Apostolical and supream regiment of souls we are sufficiently taught in Holy Scriptures which when I have clearly shewn to you I shall pass on to some more practical considerations 1. Therefore Certain and known it is that Christ appointed two sorts of Ecclesiastick persons XII Apostles and the LXXII Disciples to these he gave a limited commission to those a fulness of power to these a temporary imployment to those a perpetual and everlasting from these two societies founded by Christ the whole Church of God derives the two superiour orders in the sacred Hierarchy and as Bishops do not claim a Divine right but by succession from the Apostles so the Presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ but by claiming a succession to the LXXII And then consider the difference compare the Tables and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have for since the LXXII had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand and more then that we hear nothing of them in Scripture but upon the Apostles Christ powred all the Ecclesiastical power and made them the ordinary Ministers of that Spirit which was to abide with the Church for ever the Divine institution of Bishops that is of Successors to the Apostles is much more clear then that Christ appointed Presbyters or Successors of the LXXII And yet if from hence they do not derive it they can never prove their order to be of Divine institution at all much less to be so alone But we may see the very thing it self the very matter of fact S. James the Bishop of Jerusalem is by S. Paul called an Apostle Other Apostles saw I none save James the Lords Brother For there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our Lord that is such which Christ made by his Word immediately or by his Spirit extraordinarily and even into this number and title Matthias and S. Paul and Barnabas were accounted But the Church also made Apostles and these were called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostles of the Churches and particularly Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians properly so faith Primasius and what is this else but the Bishop saith Theodoret for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who are now called Bishops were then called Apostles saith the same Father The sense and full meaning of which argument is a perfect commentary upon that famous prophecy of the Church Instead of thy Fathers thou shalt have children whom thou mayst make Princes in all Lands that is not only the twelve Apostles our Fathers in Christ who first begat us were to rule Christs Family but when they were gone their Children and Successors should arise in their stead Et nati natorum qui nascentur ab illis their direct Successors to all generations shall be Principes populi that is Rulers and Governours of the whole Catholick Church De prole enim Ecclesiae crevit eidem paternita◠id est Episcopi quos illa genuit Patres appellat constituit in sedibus Patrum saith S. Austin the Children of the Church become Fathers of the faithful that is the Church begets Bishops and places them in the seat of Fathers the first Apostles After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture it will not be amiss to say that this great affair relying not only upon the words of institution but on matter of fact passed forth into a demonstration and greatest notoriety by the Doctrine and Practice of the whole Catholick Church For so S. Irenaeus who was one of the most Ancient Fathers of the Church and might easily make good his affirmative We can says he reckon the men who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in Churches to be their Successors unto us leaving to them the same power and authority which they had Thus S. Polycarp was by the Apostles made Bishop of Smyrna S. Clement Bishop of Rome by S. Peter and divers others by the Apostles saith Tertullian saying also that the Asian Bishops were consecrated by S. John And to be short that Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in the Stewardship and Rule of the Church is expresly taught by S. Cyprian and S. Hierom S. Ambrose and S. Austin by Euthymius and Pacianus by S. Gregory and S. John Damascen by Clarius à Muscula and S. Sixtus by Anacletus and S. Isidore by the Roman Councel under S. Sylvester and the Councel of Carthage and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or succession of Bishops from the Apostles hands in all the Churches Apostolical was as certainly known as in our Chronicles we find the succession of our English Kings and one can no more be denyed then the other The conclusion from these Premises I give you in the words of S. Cyprian Cogitent Diaconi quod Apostolos id est Episcopos Dominus ipse elegerit Let the Ministers know that Apostles that is the Bishops were chosen by our blessed Lord himself and this was so evident and so believed that S. Austin affirms it with a nemo ignorat No man is so ignorant but he knows this that our blessed Saviour appointed Bishops over Churches Indeed the Gnosticks spake evil of this Order for they are noted by three Apostles S. Paul S. Peter and S. Jude to be despisers of Government and to speak evil of Dignities and what Government it was they did so despise we may understand by the words of S. Jude they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah who with his company rose up against Aaron the High Priest and excepting these who were the vilest of men no man within the first 300 years after Christ opposed Episcopacy But when Constantine received the Church into his arms he found it universally governed by Bishops and therefore no wise or good man professing to be a Christian that is to believe the Holy Catholick Church can be content to quit the Apostolical Government that by which the whole Family of God was fed and taught and ruled and beget to himself new Fathers and new Apostles who by wanting succession from the Apostles
Cyril a great and pretious thing in the sight of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Isidor Pelusiot the utmost limit of what is desirable among men But the account upon which it is so desirable is the same also that makes it formidable They who have tryed it and did it conscientiously have found the burden so great as to make them stoop with care and labour and they who do it ignorantly or carelesly will find it will break their bones For the Bishops Office is all that duty which can be signified by those excellent words of S. Cyprian He is a Bishop or Overseer of the Brotherhood the Ruler of the people the Shepherd of the Flock the Governour of the Church the Minister of Christ and the Priest of God These are great titles and yet less than what is said of them in Scripture which calls them Salt of the Earth Lights upon a candlestick Stars and Angels Fathers of our Faith Embassadors of God Dispensers of the Mysteries of God the Apostles of the Churches and the glory of Christ but then they are great burdens too for the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intrusted with the Lords people that 's a great charge but there is a worse matter that follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop is he of whom God will require an account for all their souls they are the words of S. Paul and transcribed into the 40th Canon of the Apostles and the 24th Canon of the Councel of Antioch And now I hope the envy is taken off for the honour does not pay for the burden and we can no sooner consider Episcopacy in its dignity as it is a Rule but the very nature of that Rule does imply so severe a duty that as the load of it is almost insufferable so the event of it is very formidable if we take not great care For this Stewardship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Principality and a Ministry So it was in Christ he is Lord of all and yet he was the Servant of all so it was in the Apostles it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their lot was to be Apostles and yet to serve and minister and it is remarkable that in Isaiah the 70. use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop but there they use it for the Hebrew word nechosheth which the Greeks usually render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the interlineary translation by Exactores Bishops are only Gods Ministers and Tribute gatherers requiring and overseeing them that they do their duty and therefore here the case is so and the burden so great and the dignity so allayed that the envious man hath no reason to be troubled that his brother hath so great a load nor the proud man plainly to be delighted with so honourable a danger It is indeed a Rule but it is paternal it is a Government but it must be neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is neither a power to constrain nor a commission to get wealth for it must be without necessity and not for filthy lucre sake but it is a Rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Luke as of him that ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Mark as of him that is servant of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. John such a principality as he hath that washes the feet of the weary Traveller or if you please take it in the words of our blessed Lord himself that He that will be chief among you let him be your Minister meaning that if under Christs Kingdom you desire Rule possibly you may have it but all that rule under him are Servants to them that are ruled and therefore you get nothing by it but a great labour and a busie employment a careful life and a necessity of making severe accounts But all this is nothing but the general measures I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which Christian Bishops have blessed and built up Christendom for because we must be followers of them as they were of Christ the recounting what they did worthily in their Generations will not only demonstrate how useful how profitable how necessary Episcopacy is to the Christian Church but it will at the same time teach us our duty by what services we are to benefit the Church in what works we are to be employed and how to give an account of our Stewardship with joy 1. The Christian Church was founded by Bishops not only because the Apostles who were Bishops were the first Preachers of the Gospel and Planters of Churches but because the Apostolical men whom the Apostles used in planting and disseminating Religion were by all Antiquity affirmed to have been Diocesan Bishops insomuch that as S. Epiphanius witnesses there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ many Churches who had in them no other Clergy but a Bishop and his Deacons and the Presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater But the Bishops names are known they are recorded in the book of Life and their praise is in the Gospel such were Timothy and Titus Clemens and Linus Marcus and Dionysius Onesimus and Caius Epaphroditus and S. James our Lords brother Evodius and Simeon all which if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith and any truth in their stories and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch Livy and Tacitus think that all Church story is a perpetual Romance and that all the brave men the Martyrs and the Doctors of the Primitive Church did conspire as one man to abuse all Christendom for ever I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted all these whom I have now reckoned were Bishops fixed in several Churches and had Dioceses for their Charges The consequent of this consideration is this If Bishops were those upon whose Ministry Christ founded and built his Church let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be Pillars the Stewards of Christs Family must be wise that Christ requires and if the Order be necessary to the Church wisdom cannot but be necessary to the Order for it is a shame if they who by their Office are Fathers in Christ shall by their unskilfulness be but Babes themselves understanding not the secrets of Religion the mysteries of Godliness the perfections of the Evangelical Law all the advantages and disadvantages in the Spiritual Life A Bishop must be exercised in Godliness a man of great experience in the secret conduct of Souls not satisfied with an ordinary skill in making Homilies to the people and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases but ready to answer in all secret inquiries and able to convince the gainsayers and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect If the first
c. Since it is intended that from the Bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people there is not in the world a greater indecency than a holy office ministred by an unholy person and no greater injury to the people than that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward And therefore it was an excellent Prayer which to this very purpose was by the Son of Sirach made in behalf of the High-Priests the Sons of Aaron God give you wisdom in you heart to judge his people in Righteousness that their good things be not abolished and that their glory may endure for ever 4. All the Offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal Order as is evident in the universal Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 40th Canon of the Apostles Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop but that cafe is known The consequent of this consideration is no other than the admonition in my Text We are Stewards of the manifold grace of God and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful that we preach the word of God in season and out of season that we rebuke and exhort admonish and correct for these God calls Pastores Secundùm cor meum Pastors according to his own heart which feed the people with knowledge and understanding but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart minister the Sacraments with great diligence and righteous measures and abundant charity alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ of S. Peter If thou lovest me feed my sheep if thou hast any love to me feed my lambs And let us remember this also that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head as plants to their roots as rivers to their springs as Children to their Fathers as Disciples to their Masters These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency but they tell us the reason of the Duty The Head gives light and reason to conduct the Body the Roots give nourishment to the Plants and the Springs perpetual emanation of Waters to the Channels Fathers teach and feed their Children and Disciples receive wise Instructions from their Masters and if we be all this to the People they will be all that to us and Wisdom will compel them to submit and our Humility will teach them Obedience and our Charity will invite their compliance our good example will provoke them to good works and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility For all the Lords People are Populus voluntarius a free and willing people and we who cannot compel their bodies must thus constrain their Souls by inviting their Wills by convincing their Understandings by the beauty of fair example the efficacy and holiness and the demonstrations of the Spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake Remember them who have the rule over you whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation There lies the demonstration and those Prelates who teach good life whose Sermons are the measures of Christ and whose Life is a copy of their Sermons these must be followed and surely these will for these are burning and shining Lights but if we hold forth false fires and by the amusement of evil example call the Vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a Rock or an iron Shore instead of a safe Harbour we cause them to make shipwreck of their precious Faith and to perish in the deceitful and unstable water Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m verborum A good Life is the strongest argument that your Faith is good and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained than a voice of thunder but the greatest eloquence in the world is meek spirit and a liberal hand these are the two Pastoral Staves the Prophet speaks of nognam hovelim beauty and bands he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness the ornament of fair example he hath also the staff of bands atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos in vinculis charitatis as the Prophet Hosea's expression is he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man by the bands of a holy charity But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractory we have instead of a Staff an Apostolical Rod which is the last and latest remedy and either brings to repentance or consigns to ruine and reprobation If there were any time remaining I could reckon that the Episcopal Order is the Principle of Unity in the Church and we see it is so by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted I could add how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the Sufferings the Prisons and Flames the Life and Death of Bishop as the principal Combatants that the Fathers of the Church whose Writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World were almost all of them Bishops I could add That the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the Disputings the Writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian and under their Conduct have for so many Ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel I could add also That Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought Experience I could therefore instead of it say That Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt so it is the greatest preservative of the Peoples Liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand the Gentry being little better than Servants while they live under the Presbytery and Anarchy and Licentiousness on the other That it endears Obedience and is subject to the Laws of Princes and is wholly ordained for the good of Mankind and the benefit of Souls But I cannot stay to number all the Blessings which have entered into the World at this door I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops Imployment which is to be busie in the service of Souls to do good in all capacities to serve every mans need to promote all publick benefits to
deceive us and turn Religion into words and Holiness into hypocrisie and the Promises of God into a snare and the Truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of Faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the Law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and an incurious walking in a state of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should pay him a better obedience when he forgives us what is past he intends we should sin no more when he offers us his graces he would have us to make use of them when he causes us to distrust our selves his meaning is we should rely upon him when he enables us to do what he commands us he commands us to do all that we can And therefore this Covenant of Faith and Mercy is also a Covenant of Holiness and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us for so saith the Apostle He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure And when we are so then we are justified indeed this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of faith and by works in this sense that is by the works of faith by faith working by love and producing fruits worthy of amendment of ife we are justified before God And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text you see that a man is justified by works But there is more in it than this matter yet amounts to for S. James does not say we are justified by works and are not justified by faith that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul but we are so justified by works that it is not by Faith alone it is faith and works together that is it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of faith by the works of Faith by the Law of faith by Righteousness Evangelical by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular but because I have but a little time left to say them in I will sum it all up in this Proposition That in the question of justification and salvation faith and good works are no part of a distinction but members of one entire body Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God That is that I may speak plainly justifying faith contains in it obedience and if this be made good then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other and both of them to the necessity the indispensible necessity of a good life Now that justifying and saving faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding appears not only in this that S. Peter reckons faith as distinctly from knowledge as he does from patience or strength or brotherly kindness saying Add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge but in this also because an error in life and whatsoever is against holiness is against faith And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient murderers of Parents man-stealing and such things to be against sound Doctrines for the Doctrine of faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Doctrine that is according to godliness And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men he adds this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all men have not faith meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own that he hath denyed the Faith Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness because all wickedness is infidelity it is an Apostacy from the faith Ille erit ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem he that sins against God he is the enemy to the faith of Jesus Christ and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only it is not that and it does not well there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle the Mystery of faith is kept no where it dwells no where but in a pure conscience For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operation we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does To this purpose hear S. Paul By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt In short the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry whether a man is justified by faith or by works for he is so by both if you take it alone faith does not justifie but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul and then faith does not only justifie but it sanctifies too and then you need to enquire no further obedience is a part of the definition of faith as much as it is of Charity This is love saith S. John that we keep his Commandments And the very same is affirmed of faith too by Bensirach He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments I have now done with all the Propositions expressed and implyed in the Text give me leave to make some practical Considerations and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church she knew no difference of men but good and bad there was no separation made but what was made by piety or impiety or sayes he which is all one by fidelity and infidelity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven and infidelity hath the Character of wickedness and prevarication A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination to kick against the laudable Customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party and to despise Government was but an ill mark and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words but in power the power of godliness though now we are fallen into another method we have turned all Religion into Faith and our faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing it is adhering to a party and a wrangling against all the world beside and when it is asked of what Religion he is of we understand
live well should reasonably put his trust in God To live a wicked life and then to be confident that in the day of our death God will give us pardon is not faith but a direct want of faith If we did believe the promises upon their proper conditions or believe that Gods Commandments were righteous and true or that the threatnings were as really intended as they are terribly spoken we should not dare to live at the rate we do But wicked men have not faith saith S. Paul and then the wonder ceases But there are such palpable contradictions between mens practices and the fundamentals of our faith that it was a material consideration of our Blessed Saviour When the Son of man comes shall he find faith upon earth Meaning it should be very hard and scant every man shall boast of his own goodness sed virum fidelem saith Solomon but a faithful man who can find Some men are very good when they are afflicted Hanc sibi virtutem fractâ facit urceus ansâ Et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus Et teges cimex nudi sponda grabati Fit brevis atque eadem nocte dieque toga When the gown of the day is the mantle of the night and cannot at the same time cover the head and make the feet warm when they have but one broken dish and no spoon then they are humble and modest then they can suffer an injury and bear contempt but give them riches and they grow insolent fear and pusillanimity did their first work and an opportunity to sin undoes it all Bonum militem perdidisti Imperatorem pessimum creasti said Galba you have spoiled a good Trooper when you made me a bad Commander Others can never serve God but when they are prosperous if they lose their fortune they lose their faith and quit their Charity Non rata fides ubi jam melior fortuna ruit if they become poor they become lyars and deceivers of their trust envious and greedy restless and uncharitable that is one way or other they shew that they love the world and by all the faith they pretend to cannot overcome it Cast up therefore your reckonings impartially see what is what will be required at your hands do not think you can be justified by faith unless your faith be greater than all your passions you have not the learning not so much as the common notices of faith unless you can tell when you are covetous and reprove your self when you are proud but he that is so and knows it not and that is the case of most men hath no faith and neither knows God nor knows himself To conclude He that hath true justifying faith believes the power of God to be above the powers of nature the goodness of God above the merit and disposition of our persons the bounty of God above the excellency of our works the truth of God above the contradiction of our weak arguings and fears the love of God above our cold experience and ineffectual reason and the necessities of doing good works above the faint excuses and ignorant pretences of disputing sinners But want of faith makes us so generally wicked as we are so often running to despair so often baffled in our resolutions of a good life But he whose faith makes him more than Conqueror over these difficulties to him Isaac shall be born even in his old age the life of God shall be perfectly wrought in him and by this faith so operative so strong so lasting so obedient he shall be justified and he shall be saved THE END A SERMON Preached at the CONSECRATION Of two arch-Arch-Bishops and Ten Bishops IN THE Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in DUBLIN January 27. 1660. BY Jeremy Taylor D. D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor Sal liquefit ut condiat LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty 1666. To the CHRISTIAN READER MY Obedience to the Commands of the Right Honourable the Lord Justices and the most Reverend and Learned Primate and to the desires of my Reverend Brethren put it past my inquiry whether I ought to publish this following Sermon I will not therefore excuse it and say it might have advantages in the Delivery which it would want in the Reading and the ear would be kind to the Piety of it which was apparent in the design when the eye would be severe in its censure of those arguments which as they could not be longer in that measure of time so would have appeared more firm if they could have had liberty to have been pursued to their utmost issue But Reason lies in a little room and Obedience in less and although what I have here said may not stop the mouths of Men resolved to keep up a Faction yet I have said enough to the sober and pious to them who love Order and hearken to the voice of the Spouse of Christ to the Loving and to the Obedient And for those that are not so I have no argument fit to be used but Prayer and readiness to give them a Reason when they shall modestly demand it In the mean time I shall only desire them to make use of those Truths which the more Learned of their party have by the evidence of fact been forced to confess Rivet affirms that it descended ex veteris aevi reliquiis that Presbyters should be assistants or conjoyned to the Bishops who is by this confessed to be the principal in the imposition of hands for Ordination Walo Messalinus acknowledges it to be rem antiquissimam a most ancient thing that these two Orders viz. of Bishops and Presbyters should be distinct even in the middle or in the beginning of the next age after Christ. Dd. Blondel places it to be 35 years after the death of S. John Now then Episcopacy is confessed to be of about 1600 years continuance and if before this they can shew any Ordination by meer Presbyters by any but an Apostle or an Apostolical man and if there were not visibly a distinction of Powers and Persons relatively in the Ecclesiastical Government or if they can give a rational account why they who are forced to confess the Honour and distinct Order of Episcopacy for about 16 Ages should in the dark interval of 35 years in which they can pretend to no Monument or Record to the contrary yet make unlearned scruples of things they cannot colourably prove if I say they can reasonably account for these things I for my part will be ready to confess that they are not guilty of the greatest the most unreasonable and inexcusable schism in the world but else they have no colour to palliate the unlearned crime for will not all wise men in the world conclude that the Church of God which was then Holy not in title only and design but practically and materially and persecuted and not immerged in secular temptations could not all in one instant joyn together
to alter that Form of Church Government which Christ and his Apostles had so recently established and without a Divine Warrant destroy a Divine Institution not only to the confusion of the Hierarchy but to the ruine of their own Souls It were strange that so great a change should be and no good man oppose it In toto orbe decretum est so S. Hierom All the world consented in the advancement of the Episcopal Order And therefore if we had no more to say for it yet in prudence and piety we cannot say they would innovate in so great a matter But I shall enter no further upon this enquiry only I remember that it is not very many months since the Bigots of the Popish party cryed out against us vehemently and enquired Where is your Church of England since you have no Vnity for your Ecclesiastick head of Vnity your Bishops are gone And if we should be desirous to verifie their Argument so as indeed to destroy Episcopacy we should too much advantage Popery and do the most imprudent and most impious thing in the world But blessed be God who hath restored that Government for which our late King of glorious memory gave his blood And that methinks should very much weigh with all the Kings true hearted Subjects who should make it Religion not to rob that glorious Prince of the greatest honour of such a Martyrdom For my part I think it fit to rest in these words of another Martyr S. Cyprian Si quis cum Episcopo non sit in Ecclesia non esse He that is not with the Bishop is not in the Church that is he that goes away from him and willingly separates departs from Gods Church and whether he can then be with God is a very material consideration and fit to be thought on by all that think Heaven a more eligible good than the interests of a Faction and the importune desire of rule can countervail However I have in the following Papers spoken a few things which I hope may be fit to perswade them that are not infinitely prejudiced and although two or three good Arguments are as good as two or three hundred yet my purpose here was to prove the dignity and necessity of the Office and Order Episcopal only that it might be as an Oeconomy to convey notice and remembrances of the great duty incumbent upon all them that undertake this great charge The Dignity and the Duty take one another by the hand and are born together only every Sheep of the Flock must take care to make the Bishops Duty as easie as it can by Humility and Love by Prayer and by Obedience It is at the best very difficult but they who oppose themselves to Government make it harder and uncomfortable But take heed if they Bishop hath cause to complain to God of thee for thy perversness and uncharitable walking thou wilt be the loser and for us we can only say in the words of the Prophet We will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people But our comfort is in God for we can do nothing without him but in him we can do all things And therefore we will pray Domine dabis pacem nobis omnia enim opera nostra operatus es in nobis God hath wrought all our works within us and therefore he will give us peace and give us his Spirit Finally Brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not Faith A Consecration Sermon Preached at DUBLIN SERM. IV. Luke XII 42. And the Lord said Who then is that faithful and wise Steward whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season verse 43 Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THese words are not properly a question though they seem so and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not interrogative but hypothetical and extends who to whosoever plainly meaning that whoever is a Steward over Christs houshold of him God requires a great care because he hath trusted him with a great employment Every Steward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in S. Matthew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in my Text Every Steward whom the Lord hath or shall appoint over the Family to rule it and to feed it now and in all generations of men as long as this Family shall abide on earth that is the Apostles and they who were to succeed the Apostles in the Stewardship were to be furnished with the same power and to undertake the same charge and to give the same strict and severe accounts In these words here is something insinuated and much expressed 1. That which is insinuated only is who these Stewards are whom Christ had whom Christ would appoint over his Family the Church they are not here named but we shall find them out by their proper direction and indigitation by and by 2. But that which is expressed is the Office it self in a double capacity 1. In the dignity of it It is a Rule and Government whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold 2. In the care and duty of it which determines the Government to be paternal and profitable it is a rule but such a rule as Shepherds have over their flocks to lead them to good pastures and to keep them within their appointed walks and within their folds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the work to give them a measure and proportion of nourishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Matthew calls it meat in the season that which is fit for them and when it is fit meat enough and meat convenient and both together mean that which the Greek Poets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong wholsom dyet 3. Lastly Here is the reward of the faithful and wise dispensation The Steward that does so and continues to do so till his Lord find him so doing this man shall be blessed in his deed Blessed is the Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Of these in order 1. Who are these Rulers of Christs Family for though Christ knew it and therefore needed not to ask yet we have disputed it so much and obeyed so little that we have changed the plain hypothesis into an intangled question The answer yet is easie as to some part of the inquiry The Apostles are the first meaning of the Text for they were our Fathers in Christ they begat Sons and Daughters unto God and were a spiritual paternity is evident we need look no further for spiritual Government because in the Paternal Rule all Power is founded they begat the Family by the power of the Word and the life of the Spirit and
of our Lord have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative Communion with these fountains of our Saviour If ever Lirinensis's rule could be used in any question it is in this Quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus That Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship and that they did always rule the Family was taught and acknowledged always and every where and by all men that were of the Church of God and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this question we shall find our faith to fail in many other Articles of which we yet are very confident For the observation of the Lords day the consecration of the holy Eucharist by Priests the baptizing Infants the communicating of Women and the very Canon of the Scripture it self relye but upon the same probation and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved is a way I do not say to bring in all Sects and Heresies that 's but little but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion for by this means it will not only be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture but the Scripture it self and all the Records of Religion will become useless and of no efficacy or perswasion I am entred into a Sea of matter but I will break it off abruptly and sum up this inquiry with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon which is one of the four Generals by our Laws made the measures of judging Heresies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter It is indeed a rifling the order and intangling the gifts and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the Spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops And I shall say one thing more which indeed is a great truth that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots and other meer Priests special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacy have made this sacred Order to be cheap and apt to be invaded But then adde this If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the gifts and powers of the Apostolical Order what shall we think of them that snatch them away and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles and their Successors will or no This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to belye the Holy Ghost that is the least of it it is rapine and sacrilege besides the heresie and schism and the spiritual lye For the Government Episcopal as it was exemplified in the Synagogue and practised by the same measures in the Temple so it was transcribed by the eternal Son of God who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance it was sanctified by the Holy Spirit who named some of the persons and gave to them all power and graces from above it was subjected in the Apostles first and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks it was received into all Churches consigned in the Records of the Holy Scriptures preached by the universal voice of all the Christian World delivered by notorious and uninterrupted practice and derived to further and unquestionable issue by perpetual succession I have done with the hardest part of the Text by finding out the persons intrusted the Stewards of Christs Family which though Christ only intimated in this place yet he plainly enough manifested in others The Apostles and their Successors the Bishops are the men intrusted with this great charge God grant they may all discharge it well And so I pass from the Officers to a consideration of the Office it self in the next words Whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold to give them their meat in due season 2. The Office it self is the Stewardship that is Episcopacy the Office of the Bishop The name signifies an Office of the Ruler indefinitely but the word was chosen and by the Church appropriated to those whom it now signifies both because the word it self is a monition of duty and also because the faithful were used to it in the dayes of Moses and the Prophets The word is in the Prophecy of the Church I will give to thee Princes in Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Bishops in Righteousness upon which place S. Hierom sayes Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos The Spirit of God calls them who were to be Christian Bishops Principes or chief Rulers and this was no new thing for the chief of the Priests who were set over the rest are called Bishops by all the Hellenist Jews Thus Joel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop over the Priests and the son of Bani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop and Visitor over the Levites and we find at the purging of the Land from Idolatry the High Priest placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops over the House of God Nay it was the appellative of the High Priest himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop Eleazar the Son of Aaron the Priest to whom is committed the care of Lamps and the daily Sacrifice and the holy unction Now this word the Church retained choosing the same Name to her superior Ministers because of the likeness of the Ecclesiastical Government between the Old and New Testament For Christ made no change but what was necessary Baptism was a rite among the Jews and the Lords Supper was but the post-coenium of the Hebrews changed into a mystery from a type to a more real exhibition and the Lords Prayer was a collection of the most eminent devotions of the Prophets and Holy men before Christ who prayed by the same Spirit and the censures Ecclesiastical were but an imitation of the proceedings of the Judaical Tribunals and the whole Religion was but the Law of Moses drawn out of its vail into clarity and manifestation and to conclude in order to the present affair the Government which Christ left was the same as he found it for what Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple that Bishops Priests and Deacons are in the Church it is affirmed by S. Hierom more than once and the use he makes of it is this Esto subjectus Pontifici tuo quasi animae parentem suscipe Obey your Bishop and receive him as the nursing Father of your Soul But above all this appellation is made honourable by being taken by our blessed Lord himself for he is called in Scripture the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls But our enquiry is not after the Name but the Office and the Dignity and Duty of it Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimis ac divina potestos so S. Cyprian calls it a High and a Divine power from God of governing the Church rem magnam preciosam in conspectu Domini so S.
cement Governments to establish Peace to propagate the Kingdom of Christ to do hurt to no man to do good to every man that is so to minister that Religion and Charity publick Peace and Private Blessings may be in their exaltation As long as it was thus done by the Primitive Bishops the Princes and the People gave them all honour Insomuch that by a Decree of Constantine the Great the Bishop had power given him to retract the Sentences made by the Presidents of Provinces and we find in the Acts of S. Nicholas that he rescued some innocent persons from death when the Executioner was ready to strike the fatal blow which thing even when it fell into inconvenience was indeed forbidden by Arcadius and Honorius but the confidence and honour was only changed it was not taken away for the condemned Criminal had leave to appeal to the Audientia Episcopalis to the Bishops Court This was not any right which the Bishops could challenge but a reward of their Piety and so long as the holy Office was holily administred the World found so much comfort and security so much justice and mercy so many temporal and spiritual Blessings consequent to the Ministries of that Order that as the Galatians to S. Paul men have plucked out their eyes to do them service and to do them honour For then Episcopacy did that good that God intended by it it was a Spiritual Government by Spiritual Persons for Spiritual Ends Then the Princes and the People gave them honours because they deserved and sought them not then they gave them wealth because they would dispend it wisely frugally and charitably Then they gave them power because it was sure to be used for the defence of the innocent for the relief of the oppressed for the punishment of evil doers and the reward of the virtuous Then they desired to be judged by them because their Audiences or Courts did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appeased all furious Sentences and taught gentle Principles and gave merciful Measures and in their Courts were all Equity and Piety and Christian Determinations But afterwards when they did fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into secular methods and made their Counsels vain by pride and dirtied their sentences with money then they became like other men and so it will be unless the Bishops be more holy then other men but when our sanctity and severity shall be as eminent as the calling is then we shall be called to Councels and sit in publick meetings and bring comfort to private Families and rule in the hearts of men by a jus relationis such as was between the Roman Emperors and the Senate they courted one another into power and in giving honour strived to out-do each other for from an humble wise man no man will snatch an imployment that is honourable but from the proud and from the covetous every man endeavours to wrest it and thinks it lawful prize My time is now done and therefore I cannot speak to the third part of my text the reward of the good Steward and of the bad I shall only mention it to you in a short exhortation and so conclude In the Primitive Church a Bishop was never admitted to publick penance not only because in them every crime is ten and he that could discern a publick shame could not deserve a publick honor nor yet only because every such punishment was scandalous and did more evil by the example of the crime then it could do good by the example of the punishment but also because no spiritual power is higher then the Episcopal and therefore they were to be referred to the Divine judgment which was likely to fall on them very heavily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord will cut the evil Stewards asunder he will suffer Schisms and Divisions to enter in upon us and that will sadly cut us asunder but the evil also shall fall upon their persons like the punishment of quartering Traitors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishment with the circumstances of detestation and exemplarity Consider therefore what is your great duty Consider what is your great danger The lines of duty I have already described only remember how dear and pretious Souls are to God since for their salvation Christ gave his bloud and therefore will not easily lose them whom though they had sinned against him yet he so highly valued remember that you are Christs Deputies in the care of Souls and that you succeed in the place of the Apostles Non est facile stare loco Pauli tenere gradum Petri You have undertaken the work of S. Paul and the Office of S. Peter and what think you upon this account will be required of us S. Hierom expresses it thus The wisdom and skill of a Bishop ought to be so great that his countenance his gesture his motion every thing should be vocal ut quicquid agit quicquid loquitur doctrina sit Apostolorum that whatever he does or speaks be doctrine Apostolical The ancient Fathers had a pious opinion that besides the Angel guardian which is appointed to the guard of every man there is to every Bishop a second Angel appointed to him at the Consecration and to this Origen alludes saying that every Bishoprick hath two Angels the one visible and the other invisible This is a great matter and shews what a precious thing that Order and those Persons are in the eyes of God but then this also means that we should live Angelick lives which the Church rarely well expresses by saying that Episcopal dignity is the Ecclesiastick state of perfection and supposes the persons to be so far advanced in holiness as to be in the state of confirmation in grace But I shall say nothing of these things because it may be they press too hard but the use I shall make of it upon occasion of the reward of the good and bad Steward is to remind you of your great danger For if it be required of Bishops to be so wise and so holy so industrious and so careful so busie and so good up to the height of best examples if they be anointed of the Lord and are the Husbands of the Churches if they be the Shepherds of the flock and Stewards of the houshould it is very fit they consider their danger that they may be careful to do their duty S. Bernard considers it well in his Epistle to Henry Archbishop of Sens If I lying in my Cell and smoaking under a Bushel not shining yet cannot avoid the breath of the winds but that my light is almost blown out what will become of my Candle if it were placed on a candelstick and set upon a hill I am to look to my self alone and provide for my own salvation and yet I offend my self I am weary of my self I am my own scandal and my own danger my own eye and mine own belly and my own appetite find me work enough and therefore God help
Angel but as God himself For it is the power of God in the hand of a man and he that resists resists God's Ordinance And I pray remember that there is not only no power greater than God's but there is no other for all Power is his The consequent of this is plain enough I need say no more of it It is all one to us who commands God or God's Vicegerent This was the first thing to be observed Secondly there can be but two things in the world required to make Obedience necessary the greatness of the Authority and the worthiness of the Thing In the first you see the case can have no difference because the thing it self is but one There is but one Authority in the world and that is God's as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdoms But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded Yes certainly there is some but nothing to warrant disobedience for whatever the thing be it may be commanded by man if it be not countermanded by God For 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency than that of Obedience What made Abraham the friend of God and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child but only that it was Obedience What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria from the Land of Canaan into Aegypt and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week and how can a man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast or building of a Booth or going to Jerusalem or cutting off the foreskin of a Boy or washing their hands and garments in fair water There was nothing in these things but the Obedience And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptism of Repentance alas he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony for as Tertullian observes he was nullius poenitentiae debitor he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head and crowned that Obedience though it were but a Ceremony Obedience you see may be necessary when the Law is not so For in these cases God's Son and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the Commandment and if we do so in the Instances of humane Laws there is nothing to be said against it but that what was not of it self necessary is made so by the Authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandment But there is more in it than so For 2. We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary if a divine command does interpose but if it be only a commandment of man and the thing be not necessary of it self then we desire to be excused But will we do nothing else We our selves will do many things that God hath not commanded and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to do what we may lawfully do without a commandment Can we become a Law unto our selves and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a Law unto us hath God given more to a private than to a publick hand But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the word of God are the triffling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels are all the rules of decency and all things that are of good report and all the measures of Prudence and the laws of peace and War and the Customs of the Churches of God and the lines of publick honesty are all these described to us by the Laws of God If they be let us see and read them that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience but if they be not and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in general and no otherwise then it follows that the particulars of all these which may be infinite and are innumerable yet may be the matter of humane Laws and then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man The consequent is this that whatsoever is commanded by our Superiors according to the will of God or whatsoever is not against it is of necessity to be obeyed 3. But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God what then Why nothing then but that we must obey God and not man there 's no dispute of that But what then again Why therefore sayes the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresie is preached and I will not acknowledge the Bishops saith the Presbyterian because they are against the Discipline and Scepter of Jesus Christ and the Independent hates Parochial meetings and is wholly for a gathered Church and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical and I will not bring my Child to Baptism saith the Anabaptist because God calls none but Believers to that Sacrament and I will acknowledge no Clergy no Lord no Master saith the Quaker because Christ commands us to call no man Master on the earth and be not called of men Rabbi And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God had set over them they tell you with one voice with all their hearts as far as the Word of God will give them leave but God is to be obeyed and not man and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them they will obey you passively because you are stronger and so long as they know it they will not stir against you but they in the mean time are little less than Martyrs and you no better than Persecutors What shall we do now for here is evidently a great heap of disorder they all confess that Authority must be obeyed but when you come to the tryal none of them all will do it and they think they are not bound but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right and it may be none of them are it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them when all phantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it I hope the Presbyterian will join with the Protestant and say that the Papist and the Socinian and the Independent and the Anabaptist and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side and I am more sure that all these will join
which true wisdom consists Holiness which is the best wisdom is the surest way of understanding them And this 1. Is effected by Holiness as a proper and natural instrument for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as the eye sees visible objects and the understanding perceives the Intellectual so does the Spirit the things of the Spirit The natural man saith S. Paul knows not the things of God for they are Spiritually discerned that is they are discovered by a proper light and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pitifully with an imperfect Idea as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw A good man though unlearned in secular notices is like the windows of the Temple narrow without and broad within he sees not so much of what profits not abroad but whatsoever is within and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God that he sees with a broad inspection But all humane learning without God is but blindness and ignorant folly But when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteousness dipt in the wells of Truth it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment or like the light of Heaven it shews it self by its own splendor What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament if you do not feel the vertue of it and the man that can with eloquence and subtlety discourse of the instrumental efficacy of Baptismal waters talks ignorantly in respect of him who hath the answer of a good Conscience within and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy all that is the proper knowledge and notice of the good man How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by Faith to dwell with him to be united to him to receive him in his heart The good man only understands that the one sees the colour and the other feels the substance the one discourses of the Sacrament and the other receives Christ the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joined to Christ that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone flesh of his flesh and of the same Spirit with his Lord. We talk much of Reformation and blessed be God once we have felt the good of it But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension The Woman that lost her Groat everrit domum not evertit she swept the house she did not turn the house out of doors That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof and broke the Walls and was digging down the Foundation Now among all the pretensions of Reformation who can tell better what is and what is not true Reformation than he that is truly Reformed himself He knows what pleases God and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable saith Solomon He cannot be cousened by names of things and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious himself is humble and obedient and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schism and Disobedience and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing and therefore to be laid aside or if they be complicated with action and are ministeries of practice no man can judge them so well as the spiritual man That which best pleases God that which does good to our Neighbour that which teaches sobriety that which combines with Government that which speaks honour of God and does him honour that only is Truth Holiness therefore is a proper and natural instrument of Divine knowledge and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proposition No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time but that hath been the method ever since There was no Church till then was ever governed without an Apostle or a Bishop and since then they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too Nolumus hunc regnare and when we see men pretending Religion and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy they may upon the stock of holiness easily reprove their own folly by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst the most intollerable parts of Popery For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant Cause and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent if this were the proper season for it 2. Holiness is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holiness but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and useless and contentious and to one of these heads all Questions will return and therefore in all from Holiness we have the best Instructions And this brings me to the next Particle of the general Consideration For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God this new nature this vital principle within us it is that which is worth our learning not vain and empty idle and insignificant notions in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbs and your flesh unfixed from its bones you are no better and no wiser If the Spirit of God be your Teacher he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God and become like to him and enjoy him for ever by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen and what is any man the more learned if he hears the disputes whether Adam should have multiplyed Children in the state of Innocence and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many
spending our time and our talk our heart and our spirits about the Garments and Outsides of Religion And they can ill teach others that do not know that Religion does not consist in these things but Obedience may and reductively that is Religion and he that for that which is no part of Religion destroys Religion directly by neglecting that Duty that is adopted into Religion is a man of Phancy and of the World but he gives but an ill account that he is a man of God and a Son of the Spirit Spend not your time in that which profits not for your labour and your health your time and your Studies are very valuable and it is a thousand pities to see a diligent and a hopeful person spend himself in gathering Cockle-shells and little Pebbles in telling Sands upon the shores and making Garlands of useless Daisies Study that which is profitable that which will make you useful to Churches and Commonwealths that which will make you desirable and wise Only I shall add this to you That in Learning there are variety of things as well as in Religion there is Mint and Cummin and there are the weighty things of the Law so there are Studies more and less useful and every thing that is useful will be required in its time and I may in this also use the words of our Blessed Saviour These things ought you to look after and not to leave the other unregarded But your great care is to be in the things of God and of Religion in Holiness and true Wisdom remembring the saying of Origen That the Knowledge that arises from Goodness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something that is more certain and more divine than all demonstration than all other Learnings of the World 3. That 's no good Religion that disturbs Governments or shakes a foundation of publick Peace Kings and Bishops are the Foundations and the great Principles of Unity of Peace and Government like Rachel and Leah they build up the house of Israel and those blind Sampsons that shake these Pillars intend to pull the house down My Son fear God and the King saith Solomon and meddle not with them that are given to change That is not Truth that loves Changes and the new-nothings of Heretical and Schismatical Preachers are infinitely far from the blessings of Truth In the holy Language Truth hath a mysterious Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet it consists of three Letters the first and the last and the middlemost of the Hebrew Letters implying to us that Truth is first and will be last and it is the same all the way and combines and unites all extreams it ties all ends together Truth is lasting and ever full of blessing For the Jews observe that those Letters which signifie Truth are both in the figure and the number Quadrate firm and cubical these signifie a Foundation and an abode for ever Whereas on the other side the word which in Hebrew signifies a lye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secher is made of Letters whose numbers are imperfect and their figure pointed and voluble to signifie that a Lye hath no foundation And this very Observation will give good light in our Questions and Disputes And I give my instance in Episcopal Government which hath been of so lasting an abode of so long a blessing hath its firmament by the Principles of Christianity hath been blessed by the issues of that stabiliment it hath for sixteen hundred years combined with Monarchy and hath been taught by the Spirit which hath so long dwelt in Gods Church and hath now according to the promise of Jesus that says the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church been reâ—â—ored amongst us by a heap of Miracles and as it went away so now it is returned again in the hand of Monarchy and in the bosom of our fundamental Laws Now that Doctrine must needs be suspected of Error and an intolerable Lie that speaks against this Truth which hath had so long a testimony from God and from the Wisdom and Experience of so many Ages of all our Ancestors and all our Laws When the Spirit of God wrote in Greek Christ is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he had spoken Hebrew he had been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet he is Truth the same yesterday and to day and for ever and whoever opposes this holy Sanction which Christs Spirit hath sanctified his Word hath warranted his Blessings have endeared his Promises have ratified and his Church hath always kept he fights against this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet and Secher is his portion his lot is a Lie his portion is there where Holiness can never dwell And now to conclude to you Fathers and Brethren you who are or intend to be of the Clergy you see here the best Compendium of your Studies the best abbreviature of your Labours the truest Method of Wisdom and the infallible the only way of judging concerning the Disputes and Questions in Christendom It is not by reading multitudes of Books but by studying the Truth of God It is not by laborious Commentaries of the Doctors that you can finish your work but by the Expositions of the Spirit of God It is not by the Rules of Metaphysicks but by the proportions of Holiness And when all Books are read and all Arguments examined and all Authorities alledged nothing can be found to be true that is unholy Give your selves to reading to exhortation and to Doctrine saith St. Paul Read all good Books you can but exhortation unto good life is the best Instrument and the best Teacher of true Doctrine of that which is according to Godliness And let me tell you this The great Learning of the Fathers was more owing to their Piety than to their Skill more to God than to themselves and to this purpose is that excellent Ejaculation of St. Chrysostom with which I will conclude O blessed and happy men whose Names are in the Book of Life from whom the Devils fled and Hereticks did fear them who by Holiness have stopped the mouths of them that spake perverse things But I like David will cry out Where are thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old Where is the blessed Quire of Bishops and Doctors who shined like Lights in the World and contained the Word of Life Dulce est meminisse their very memory is pleasant Where is that Evodias the sweet savour of the Church the Successor and Imitator of the holy Apostles Where is Ignatius in whom God dwelt Where is S. Dionysius the Areopagite that Bird of Paradise that celestial Eagle Where is Hyppolitus that good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that gentle sweet person Where is great St. Basil a man almost equal to the Apostles Where is Athanasius rich in vertue Where is Gregory Nyssen that great Divine and Ephrem
Reward of pregnant Wits and hard Study he was remov'd into York-shire where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he hapned to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order whom he so much worsted in the Conference and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth represented wisely and learnedly that the famous Primate of York Archbishop Matthews a learned and an excellent Prelate and a most worthy Preacher hearing of that Triumph sent for him and made him his Chaplain in whose Service he continued till the death of the Primate but in that time had given so much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs that he grew dear to his Master In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York and then of Rippon the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean he managed the Affairs of that Church so well that he soon acquired a greater fame and entred into the possession of many hearts and admiration to those many more that knew him There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher and by his Wisdom Eloquence and Deportment so gain'd the affections of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of that Country that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough and was so kind as to give them a Visit so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him their joyful Reception of him their great Caressing of him when he was there their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop their trouble at his Departure their unwillingness to let him go away gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust or Lucius Quinctius at the Plough his low Fortune cover'd a most valuable person till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York whom we all knew for his great Excellencies and his great but glorious Misfortunes This rare Person espied the great Abilities of Doctor Bramhall and made him his Chaplain and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit Instrument to serve in that design which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church The Complaints were many the Abuses great the Causes of the Church vastly numerous but as fast as they were brought in so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall who by his indefatigable Pains great Sagacity perpetual Watchfulness daily and hourly Consultations reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition than they had been left in by the schismatical Principles of some and the unjust Prepossessions of others for many years before For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform and did so that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church which by pretended Offices false Informations Fee-farms at contemptible Rents and ungodly Alienations were made low as Poverty it self and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar or the noblest purposes of Religion For Hospitality decayed and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would and they complained but for a long time had no helper till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests and as admirable Abilities as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vice-gerents and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his Skill was great for the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious Memory it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of Derry which he not only adorned with an excellent Spirit and a wise Government but did more than double the Revenue not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands But his care was beyond his Diocese and his zeal broke out to warm all his Brethren and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King James the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate then Bishop of Derry by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct brought in divers Impropriations cancelled many unjust Alienations and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable I say much more tolerable for though he raised them above contempt yet they were not near to envy but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity so Judas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment and so Dionysius told the Priest when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer And for ever since the Church by Gods blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes and Pious Nobility hath been endowed with fair Revenues inim icus homo the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away Gods portion from the Church as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God was their King and Moses his Lieutenant and things were of his management he was pleased by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever That Men as they love God at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests For when himself did it he not only gave the 48 Cities with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way and yet the whole Country was but 140 miles long or thereabouts from Dan to Beersheba but beside this they had the Tithe of all encrease the first Fruits Offerings Vows Redemptions and in short they had 24 sorts of Dues as Buxtorf relates and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble or else as the nature of the thing required brought to the Temple the first to make it more profitable and the second to declare that they received it not from the people but from God not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi which was not the 40th part of the People as the Scripture computes them
had a Revenue almost treble to any of the largest of the Tribes I will not insist on what Villalpandus observes it may easily be read in the 45. of Ezekiel concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and his service but whatsoever it be this I shall say that it is confessedly a Prophecy of the Gospel but this I add that they had as little to do and much less than a Christian Priest and yet in all the 24 courses the poorest Priest amongst them might be esteemed a rich man I speak not this to upbraid any man or any thing but Sacriledge and Murmur nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and Religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did with so much care and assiduous labour endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendor and fulness which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of Religion God himself being the Judge so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us and so this wise Prelate rarely well understood it and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have a gracious King and a Lieutenant Patron of Religion and the Church he improved the deposita pietatis as Origen calls them the Gages of Piety which the Religion of the ancient Princes and Nobles of this Kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable competency that though there be place left for present and future Piety to enlarge it self yet no man hath reason to be discouraged in his duty insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand that at his going into England he gave account to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of 30000 l. a year in the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instrumental But the goods of this World are called waters by Solomon Stollen waters are sweet and they are too unstable to be stopt some of these waters did run back from their proper Channel and return to another course than God and the Laws intended yet his labours and pious Counsels were not the less acceptable to God and good men and therefore by a thankful and honourable recognition the Convocation of the Church of Ireland hath transmitted in Record to posterity their deep resentment of his singular services and great abilities in this whole affair And this honour will for ever remain to that Bishop of Derry he had a Zerubbabel who repaired the Temple and restored its beauty but he was the Joshua the High-Priest who under him ministred this blessing to the Congregations of the Lord. But his care was not determined in the exterior part only and Accessaries of Religion he was careful and he was prosperous in it to reduce that Divine and excellent Service of our Church to publick and constant Exercise to Unity and Devotion and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as the Rule of publick confessions and perswasions here that they and we might be Populus unius labii of one heart and one lip building up our hopes of Heaven on a most holy Faith and taking away that Shibboleth which made this Church lisp too undecently or rather in some little degree to speak the speech of Ashdod and not the language of Canaan and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can dehonestate or reproach but he that is not willing to confess that the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world But when the brave Roman Infantry under the Conduct of Manlius ascended up to the Capitol to defend Religion and their Altars from the fury of the Gauls they all prayed to God Vt quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum ejus concurrissent ita ille virtutem eorum numine suo tueretur That as they came to defend his Temple by their Arms so he would defend their Persons and that Cause with his Power and Divinity And this excellent man in the Cause of Religion found the like blessing which they prayed for God by the prosperity of his labours and a blessed effect gave testimony not only of the Piety and Wisdom of his purposes but that he loves to bless a wise Instrument when it is vigorously employed in a wise and religious labour He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences as were made even from Religion it self to obstruct the better procedure of real and material Religion These were great things and matter of great envy and like the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius might with the very ashes of Consumption have buried another man At first indeed as his blessed Master the most holy Jesus had so he also had his Annum acceptibilem At first the product was nothing but great admiration at his stupendious parts and wonder at his mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zeal in so good and great things but this quickly passed into the natural daughters of Envy Suspicion and Detraction the Spirit of Obloquy and Slander His zeal for recovery of the Church Revenues was called Oppression and Rapine Covetousness and Injustice his care of reducing Religion to wise and justifiable principles was called Popery and Arminianism and I know not what names which signifie what the Authors are pleased to mean and the people to construe and to hate The intermedial prosperity of his Person and Fortune which he had as an earnest of a greater reward to so well-meant labours was supposed to be the production of Illiberal Arts and ways of getting and the necessary refreshment of his wearied spirits which did not always supply all his needs and were sometimes less than the permissions even of prudent charity they called Intemperance Dederunt enim malum Metelli Nevio poetae their own surmises were the Bills of Accusation and the splendour of his great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Doing of good works was the great probation of all their Calumnies But if Envy be the accuser what can be the defences of Innocence Saucior invidiae morsu quaerenda medela est Dic quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem Our Blessed Saviour knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men if their Money or Estates were medled with refused to divide an Inheritance amongst Brethren it was not to be imagined that this great person invested as all his Brethren were with the infirmities of Mortality and yet employed in dividing and recovering and apportioning of Lands should be able to bear all that reproach which Jealousie and Suspicion and malicious Envy could invent against him But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Sophocles And so did he the Affrightments brought to his great Fame and Reputation made him to walk more warily and do justly and act prudently and conduct his affairs by the measures of Laws as far as he understood and indeed that was a very great way but there was Aperta justitia clausa manus Justice was open but his Hand was shut and though every
did worse than divorce him from his Church for in all the Roman Divorces they said Tuas tibi res habeto Take your Goods and be gone but Plunder was Religion then However though the usage was sad yet it was recompenced to him by his taking Sanctuary in Oxford where he was graciously receiv'd by that most incomparable and divine Prince but having served the King in York-shire by his Pen and by his Counsels and by his Interests return'd back to Ireland where under the excellent Conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant he ran the risque and fortune of oppressed Vertue But God having still resolv'd to afflict us the good man was forc'd into the fortune of the Patriarchs to leave his Country and his Charges and seek for safety and bread in a strange Land for so the Prophets were us'd to do wandring up and down in sheeps-cloathing but poor as they were the World was not worthy of them and this worthy man despising the shame took up his Cross and followed his Master Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri Et desiderium dulce levat patriae He was not ashamed to suffer where the Cause was honourable and glorious but so God provided for the needs of his Banished and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted and courage to the persecuted and resolutions to the tempted and strength to that Religion for which they all suffered And here this great man was indeed triumphant this was one of the last and best Scenes of his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last days are the best witnesses of a man But so it was that he stood up in publick and brave defence for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England First by his Sufferings and great Example for Verbis tantùm philosophari non est Doctoris sed Histrionis To talk well and not to do bravely is for a Comedian not a Divine But this great man did both he suffered his own Calamity with great courage and by his wise Discourses strengthened the hearts of others For there wanted not diligent Tempters in the Church of Rome who taking advantage of the Afflictions of His Sacred Majesty in which state Men commonly suspect every thing and like men in sickness are willing to change from side to side hoping for ease and finding none flew at Royal Game and hop'd to draw away the King from that Religion which His most Royal Father the best Man and the wisest Prince in the World had seal'd with the best Blood in Christendom and which Himself suck'd in with His Education and had confirm'd by Choice and Reason and confess'd publickly and bravely and hath since restor'd prosperously Millitiere was the man witty and bold enough to attempt a zealous and a foolish undertaking who addressed himself with ignoble indeed but witty Arts to perswade the King to leave what was dearer to Him than His Eyes It is true it was a Wave dash'd against a Rock and an Arrow shot against the Sun it could not reach him but the Bishop of Derry turn'd it also and made it fall upon the Shooters head for he made so ingenious so learned and so acute Reply to that Book he so discover'd the Errors of the Roman Church retorted the Arguments stated the Questions demonstrated the Truth and sham'd their Procedures that nothing could be a greater Argument of the Bishops Learning great Parts deep Judgment quickness of Apprehension and Sincerity in the Catholick and Apostolick Faith or of the Follies and Prevarications of the Church of Rome He worte no Apologies for himself though it were much to be wished that as Junius wrote his own Life or Moses his own Story so we might have understood from himself how great things God had done for him and by him but all that he permitted to God and was silent in his own Defences Gloriosius enim est injuriam tacendo fugere quà m respondendo superare But when the Honour and Conscience of his King and the Interest of a true Religion was at stake the fire burned within him and at last he spake with his tongue he cried out like the Son of Croesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed and meddle not with the King His Person is too sacred and Religion too dear to him to be assaulted by vulgar hands In short he acquitted himself in this Affair with so much Truth and Piety Learning and Judgment that in those Papers his Memory will last unto very late succeeding Generations But this most Reverend Prelate found a nobler Adversary and a braver Scene for his Contention He found that the Roman Priests being wearied and baffled by the wise Discourses and pungent Arguments of the English Divines had studiously declined any more to dispute the particular Questions against us but fell at last upon a general Charge imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers for they saw the Schism and they saw we had left them and because they consider'd not the Causes they resolv'd to out-face us in the Charge But now it was that dignum nactus Argumentum having an Argument fit to employ his great Abilities Consecrat hic praesul calamum calamique labores Ante aras Domino laeta trophaea suo the Bishop now dedicates his Labours to the service of God and of his Church undertook the Question and in a full Discourse proves the Church of Rome not only to be guilty of the Schism by making it necessary to depart from them but they did actuate the Schisms and themselves made the first separation in the great point of the Popes Supremacy which was the Palladium for which they principally contended He made it appear that the Popes of Rome were Usurpers of the Rights of Kings and Bishops that they brought in new Doctrines in every Age that they impos'd their own Devices upon Christendom as Articles of Faith that they prevaricated the Doctrines of the Apostles that the Church of England only returned to her Primitive purity that she joined with Christ and his Apostles that she agreed in all the Sentiments of the Primitive Church He stated the questions so wisely and conducted them so prudently and handled them so learnedly that I may truly say they were never more materially confuted by any man since the questions have so unhappily disturbed Christendom Verum hoc eos malè ussit and they finding themselves smitten under the fifth rib set up an old Champion of their own a Goliah to fight against the Armies of Israel the old Bishop of Chalcedon known to many of us replyed to this excellent Book but was so answered by a Rejoinder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry in which he so pressed the former Arguments refuted the Cavils brought in so many impregnable Authorities and Probations and added so many moments and weights to his
discourse that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest if the profit to the Church of God were not greater Flumina tum lactis tum flumina nectaris ibant Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella For so Sampson's Riddle was again expounded Out of the strong came meat and out of the eater came sweetness his Arguments were strong and the Eloquence was sweet and delectable and though there start up another combatant against him yet he had only the honour to fall by the hands of Hector still haeret lateri lethalis arundo the headed arrow went in so far that it could not be drawn out but the barbed steel stuck behind And whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions the Bishop of Derry's Book shall be his Oracle I will not insist upon his other excellent writings but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichean Doctrine of Fatal necessity which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor but this excellent Person washed off the Ceruse and the meritricious paintings rarely well asserted the oeconomy of the Divine Providence and having once more triumphed over his Adversary plenus victoriarum trophaeorum betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon sacred Offices and having usefully and wisely discoursed of the sacred Rite of Confirmation imposed his hands upon the most Illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Gloucester and the Princess Royal and ministred to them the Promise of the Holy Spirit and ministerially established them in the Religion and Service of the holy Jesus And one thing more I shall remark that at his leaving those Parts upon the Kings Return some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them he had reason to grant it because they were learned men and in many things of a most excellent belief yet he reproved them and gave them caution against it that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians He thus having served God and the King abroad God was pleased to return to the King and to us all as in the days of old and we sung the song of David In convertendo captivitatem Sion When King David and all his Servants returned to Jerusalem this great person having trod in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine and as an honorary Reward of his great services and abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church In which time we are to look upon him as the King and the Kings great Vicegerent did as a person concerning whose abilities the World had too great testimony ever to make a doubt It is true he was in the declension of his age and health but his very Ruines were goodly and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's Theatre and the crushed Obelisks and the old face of beauteous Philaenium could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures which were venerable in their very dust He ever was used to overcome all difficulties only Mortality was too hard for him but still his Vertues and his Spirit was immortal he still took great care and still had new and noble designs and proposed to himself admirable things He governed his Province with great justice and sincerity Vnus amplo consulens pastor gregi Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil And had this remark in all his Government that as he was a great hater of Sacriledge so he professed himself a publick Enemy to Non-residence and often would declare wisely and religiously against it allowing it in no case but of necessity or the greater good of the Church There are great things spoken of his Predecessor S. Patrick that he founded 700 Churches and Religious Convents that he ordained 5000 Priests and with his own hands consecrated 350 Bishops How true the story is I know not but we were all witnesses that the late Primate whose memory we now celebrate did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two arch-Arch-Bishops and ten Bishops and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland and was greatly instrumental to the Re-endowments of the whole Clergy and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferior to none of his most glorious Antecessours Since the Canonization of Saints came into the Church we find no Irish Bishop canonized except S. Laurence of Dublin and S. Malachias of Down indeed Richard of Armagh's Canonization was propounded but not effected but the Character which was given of that learned Primate by Trithemius does exactly fit this our late Father Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditus secularis Philosophiae jurisque Canonici non ignarus clarus ingenio sermone scholasticus in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industriae He was learned in the Scriptures skill'd in secular Philosophy and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant he was of an excellent spirit a Scholar in his discourses an early and industrious Preacher to the people And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory that he purposed if he had lived to have restored his Monument in Dundalke which Time or Impiety or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth that he loved it in the very memory of the dead and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espie little besides the Ruines of Discipline a Harvest of thorns and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People the Churches possessed by Wolves and Intruders Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly sometimes he confuted them learnedly sometimes he rebuked them sharply He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations Quaerens non nostra sed nos quae sunt Jesu Christi he designed nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion the Honour of God and the King the Restoring of collapsed Discipline and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches And still he was indefatigable and even at the last scene of his life intended to undertake a Regal Visitation Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi said one he was not willing that God should take him unimployed But good man he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces and could go no further for God would have no more work done by that
eminency and singularity Church-men that 's your appellative all are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual men all have received the Spirit and all walk in the Spirit and ye are all sealed by the Spirit unto the day of Redemption and yet there is a spirituality peculiar to the Clergy If any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness you who are spiritual by office and designation of a spiritual calling and spiritual employment you who have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and minister the Spirit of God you are more eminently spiritual you have the Spirit in graces and in powers in sanctification and abilities in Office and in Person the Vnction from above hath descended upon your heads and upon your hearts you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency and praelation spiritual men All the people of God were holy Corah and his company were in the right so far but yet Moses and Aaron were more holy and stood neerer to God All the people are Prophets It is now more than Moses wish for the Spirit of Christ hath made them so If any man prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered or if any woman prophesieth with her head uncovered they are dishonoured but either man or woman may do that work in time and place for in the latter days I will pour out of my Spirit and your daughters shall prophesie and yet God hath appointed in his Church Prophets above these to whose Spirit all the other Prophets are subject and as God said to Aaron and Miriam concerning Moses to you I am known in a dream or a vision but to Moses I speak face to face so it is in the Church God gives of his Spirit to all men but you he hath made the Ministers of his Spirit Nay the people have their portion of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so said S. Paul To whom ye forgive any thing to him I forgive also and to the whole Church of Corinth he gave a Commission in the Name of Christ and by his Spirit to deliver the incestuous person unto Satan and when the primitive Penitents stood in their penitential stations they did Chairs Dei adgeniculari toti populo legationem orationis suae commendare and yet the Keys were not only promised but given to the Apostles to be used then and transmitted to all Generations of the Church and we are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and to us is committed the word of reconciliation And thus in the Consecration of the mysterious Sacrament the people have their portion for the Bishop or the Priest blesses and the People by saying Amen to the mystick Prayer is partaker of the Power and the whole Church hath a share in the power of Spiritual Sacrifice Ye are a royal Priesthood Kings and Priests unto God that is so ye are Priests as ye are Kings but yet Kings and Priests have a glory conveyed to them of which the people partake but in minority and allegory and improper communication But you are and are to be respectively that considerable part of mankind by whom God intends to plant holiness in the World by you God means to reign in the hearts of men and g. you are to be the first in this kind and consequently the measure of all the rest To you g. I intend this and some following Discourses in order to this purpose I shall but now lay the first stone but it is the corner stone in this foundation But to you I say of the Clergy these things are spoken properly to you these Powers are conveyed really upon you God hath poured his Spirit plentifully you are the Choicest of his Choice the Elect of his Election a Church pick'd out of the Church Vessels of honour so your Masters use appointed to teach others authorised to bless in his Name you are the Ministers of Christ's Priesthood Under-labourers in the great Work of Mediation and Intercession Medii inter Deum Populum you are for the People towards God and convey Answers and Messages from God to the People These things I speak not only to magnifie your Office but to inforce and heighten your Duty you are holy by Office and Designation for your very Appointment is a Sanctification and a Consecration and g. whatever holiness God requires of the People who have some little portions in the Priesthood Evangelical he expects it of you and much greater to whom he hath conveyed so great Honours and admitted so neer unto himself and hath made to be the great Ministers of his Kingdom and his Spirit and now as Moses said to the Levitical Schismaticks Corah and his Company so I may say to you Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you to himself to do the Service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister to them And he hath brought thee neer to him Certainly if of every one of the Christian Congregation God expects a holiness that mingles with no unclean thing if God will not suffer of them a luke-warm and an indifferent service but requires zeal of his Glory and that which St. Paul calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love if he will have them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing if he will not endure any pollution in their Flesh or Spirit if he requires that their Bodies and Souls and Spirits be kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus if he accepts of none of the people unless they have within them the conjugation of all Christian Graces if he calls on them to abound in every Grace and that in all the periods of their progression unto the ends of their lives and to the consummation and perfection of Grace if he hath made them Lights in the World and the Salt of the Earth to enlighten others by their good Example and to teach them and invite them by holy Discourses and wise Counsels and Speech seasoned with Salt what is it think ye or with what words is it possible to express what God requires of you They are to be Examples of Good life to one another but you are to be Examples even of the Examples themselves that 's your duty that 's the purpose of God and that 's the design of my Text That in all things ye shew your selves a pattern of good works in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you Here then is 1. Your Duty 2. The degrees and excellency of your Duty The Duty is double 1. Holiness of Life 2. Integrity of Doctrine Both these have their heightnings in several degrees 1. For your Life and Conversation
that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee The words are a sad upbraiding to all ungodly Ministers and they need no Commentary for whatever their Office and Employment be to teach Gods people yet unless they regard the Commandments of God in their heart and practice themselves they having nothing to do with the Word of God they sin in taking the Covenant a Testament of God into their mouth God said to the sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raschaah that is to him that had sinned and had not repented of his sins so the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it Impio a qui non agit poenitentiam orat in praevaricatione dixit Deus Indeed if none could be admitted to this Ministry but those who had never sinn'd the Harvest might be very great but the Labourers would be extremely few or rather none at all but after repentance they must be admitted and not before Iniquitas opilabit os eorum iniquity shall stop their mouths saith David that ought to silence them indeed And this was David's care when he had fallen into the foul crimes of Murder and Adultery he knew himself unfit and unable though he were a Prophet to teach others the Laws of God but when he prayed to God to restore him to a free Spirit he addes Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee till then it was to no purpose for him to Preach But thou when thou art converted said Christ to Peter strengthen the Brethren The Primitive Church had a degree of severity beyond this for they would not admit any man who had done publick Penance to receive holy Orders To which purpose they were excellent words which P. Hormisda spake in his Letters to the Bishops of Spain in which he exhorts them to the observation of the ancient Canons of the Church telling them that They who are promoted to the Clergy ought to be better than others nam longâ debet vitam suam probatione monstrare cui gubernacula committuntur Ecclesiae non negamus c. we deny not but amongst the Laity there are many whose manners are pleasing to God but the faithful Laws of God seek for him Souldiers that are approved and they ought rather to afford to others by themselves an example of a religious life than require it from them ideoque nullus ex poenitentibus debet ordinari quisnam quem paulo antè jacentem viderat veneretur Autistitem None of the publick Penitents must be ordained for who will esteem that Priest venerable whom a little before he saw dishonoured by scandalous and publick Crimes But this is to be understood of them only as the Prophet Amos expresses it qui corripiuntur in portâ who are rebuked in the gate condemned by publick sentence and are blotted with the Reproaches of the Law But in all cases Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum The guilt of the sin which a man reproves quite spoils his Sermon ipsam obmutescere facundiam si aegra sit conscientia said S. Ambrose a sick conscience spoils the tongue of the Eloquent and makes it stammer For how shall any man preach against sin or affright his people from their dangers if he denies Gods justice and if he thinks God is just why is not he confounded that with his own mouth pronounces damnation against himself Nothing confounds a man so much as to be judged out of his own mouth Esse munda studeat manus quae diluere sordes curat said S. Gregory the hand that means to make another clean should not it self be dirty But all this is but in general there are yet considerations more particular and material 1. A Minister of an evil life cannot do so much good to his charges he cannot profit them he is not useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pulls down as fast or faster than he builds up Thalmud absque opere non est magnum Thalmud said the Jews Proverb a good Sermon without a good example is no very good Sermon For besides that such a man is contemptible to his people contemptible not only naturally but by Divine Judgment according to that of the Prophet propter quod dedi vos contemptibiles omni populo for this very reason I have made you to be scorned in the eyes of all the people but besides this it is very considerable what S. Chrysostom says si praedicas non facis opus proponis tanquam impossibile he that preaches mortification and lives voluptuously propounds the duty as if it were impossible for certainly if it be good and if it be possible a man will ask why is it not done it is easie for him that is well to give a sick man counsel verùm tu si hic esses certè aliter sentires when it comes to be his own case when the sickness pinches and when the belly calls for meat where 's the fine oration then omnia quae vindicâris in alio tibi ipsi vehementer fugienda sunt etenim non modo accusator sed ne objurgator ferendus est qui quod in alio vitium reprehendit in eo ipso deprehenditur whatsoever you reprove in others must be infinitely avoided by your self for no man will endure an Accuser no nor so much as a man to chide for that fault in which himself was taken But if your charges see you bear your sickness patiently and your Cross nobly and despise money generously and forgive your Enemy bravely and relieve the poor charitably then he sees your Doctrine is tangible and material it is more then words and he loves you and considers what you say In the East the Shepherds used to go before their sheep to which our Blessed Saviour alludes my sheep hear my voice and follow me but our Shepherds are forced to drive them and affright them with dogs and noises it were better if themselves did go before 3. A Minister of an evil life cannot preach with that fervour and efficacy with that life spirit as a good man does for besides that he does not himself understand the secrets of Religion and the private inducements of the Spirit and the sweetness of internal joy and the unexpressible advantages of a holy peace besides this he cannot heartily speak all that he knows he hath a clog at his foot and a gag in his teeth there is a fear and there is a shame and there is a guilt and a secret willingness that the thing were not true and some little private arts to lessen his own consent and to take off the asperities and consequent troubles of a clear conviction To which if we add that there is a secret envy in all wicked men against the prosperities of goodness and if I should say no more this alone were enough to silence a Boanerges and to make his Thunder still and easie as an
Oaten pipe nonne id flagitium est te aliis consilium dare foris sapere tibi non posse auxiliari That 's a burning shame and an intolerable wickedness that a Minister shall be like Marcotis or the Statue of Mercury shew the way to others and himself stand still like a painted block to be wise abroad and a very fool in his own concerns and unable to do himself good Dicit Reslakis ornate ipsum posteae ornato alios first trim thy self and then adorn thy Brother said the Rabbins but certain it is he that cannot love to see others better than himself it cannot be that he should heartily endeavour it Scilicet expectes ut tradat mater honestos Atque alios mores quam quos habet utile porro Filiolam turpi vetulae producere turpem It is not to be expected that a diseased Father should beget wholsome Children like will come from like whether the principle be good or evil But secondly For this is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is but the least evil there is yet much worse behind A wicked Minister cannot with success and benefit pray for the people of his Charges and this is a great matter for Prayer is the Key of David and God values it at so high a rate that Christ is made the Prince of all Intercession and God hath appointed Angels to convey to his Throne of Grace the Prayers of the Saints and he hath made Prophets and Priests even the whole Clergy the peculiar Ministers of Prayer Orabit pro eo Sacerdos the Priest shall pray for him the Priest shall make an attonement for his sin and it shall be forgiven him And Gods anger is no where more fiercely described than when things come to that pass that he will not hear the Priest or Prophet praying for the people g. pray not thou for this people neither lift up Prayer nor cry for them neither make intercession to me for behold mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place when the Prayers of the gracious and acceptable persons the presidents of prayer are forbidden then things are desperate it is a greater Excommunication the man sins a sin unto death and I say not that thou pray for him that sins unto death This I say is the Priests Office and if the people lose the benefit of this they are undone to Bishop Timothy S. Paul gave it in charge That Supplications and Prayers and Intercessions be made for all men and S. James advised the sick to send for the Elders of the Church the Bishops and Priests and let them pray over them and then their sins shall be forgiven them but how that is supposed the Minister prays fervently and be a righteous man for the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much it is promised on no other terms Qualis vir talis oratio is an old rule as is the man such is his Prayer The Prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord said Solomon he cannot prevail for himself much less for others I remember that Bias being once in a storm and a company of Villains in the Ship being affrighted called upon their Gods for help Cavete said he ne vos Dii interesse sentiunt take heed lest the Gods perceive you to be here lest we all perish for your sakes and upon surer grounds it was that David said If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer And what then do you think will be the event of those Assemblies where he that presents the prayers of all the people is hateful to God Will God receive the oblation that is presented to him by an impure hand The Levitical Priests were commanded to wash before they sacrificed and every man is commanded to repent before he prays My Son hast thou sinned do so no more and then ask pardon for thy former fault and can we hope that the Minister who with wrath and doubting and covetousness presents the peoples prayers that ever those intercessions shall pierce the clouds and ascend to the Mercy-Seat and descend with a blessing Believe it not a man that is ungracious in his life can never be gracious in his Office and acceptable to God we are abundantly taught this by those excellent words of God by the Prophet Micah The Heads of Sion judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us As if God had said nothing is so presumptuous and unreasonable as to lean upon God and think he will be among us when the Priests and the Prophets are covetous and wicked No he declares it expresly v. 7. Then shall the Seers be ashamed and the Divines confounded yea they shall all cover their lips for there is no answer of God God will not answer For sometimes the case is so that though Noah Daniel and Job were there God would not hear that is when the people are incorrigibly wicked and the decree is irrevocably gone out for judgment But there are other times in which the prayers of innocent people being presented by an ungracious Minister and Intercessor are very much hindred in prevailing In such cases God is put to Extraordinaries and Christ and Christs Angels are then the suppletories and at the best the peoples prayers go alone they want the assistance of the Angel of the Church and they get no help or furtherance from him and probably very much hindrance according to that of S. Greg. Cum is qui displicet ad intercedendum mittitur irati animus ad deteriora provocatur Alexander hated to see Zercon and g. if he had interceded for Clytus it would but have hastened his death a mans suit thrives the worse for having a hated Intercessor If g. he that robs a Church of a Patin or a Chalice be a sacrilegious person what is he that steals from the Church of God so far as lies in him the fruit of all their holy Prayers that corrupts the Sacrifice and puts Colliquintida into the Cups of Salvation and mingles death in the pottage provided for the Children and Disciples of the Prophets I can say no more but to expostulate with them in those upbraiding words of God in the Prophet Do they provoke me to anger saith the Lord do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces Confundentur Divini operient vultus suos omnes all such Divines shall be confounded and shall cover their faces in the day of sad accounts Divini sunt non Theologi they are Diviners and not Divines Witches rather than Prophets they are the Sons of Bosor and have no Portion in the Oeconomy of God In short if so much holiness as I formerly described be required of him that is appointed to preach to others to offer spiritual sacrifices
blowing from one point but like light issuing from the body of the Sun it is light round about and in every word of God there is a treasure and something will be found somewhere to answer every doubt and to clear every obscurity and to teach every truth by which God intends to perfect our understandings But then take this rule with you Do not pass from plainess to obscurity nor from simple principles draw crafty conclusions nor from easiness pass into difficulty nor from wise notices draw intricate nothings nor from the wisdom of God lead your hearers into the follies of men your principles are easie and your way plain and the words of faith are open and what naturally flows from thence will be as open but if without violence and distortion it cannot be drawn forth the proposition is not of the family of faith Qui nimis emungit elicit sanguinem he that wrings too hard draws blood and nothing is fit to be offer'd to your charges and your flocks but what flows naturally and comes easily and descends readily and willingly from the fountains of salvation 4. Next to this analogy or proportion of faith let the consent of the Catholick Church be your measure so as by no means to prevaricate in any doctrine in which all Christians always have consented This will appear to be a necessary Rule by and by but in the mean time I shall observe to you that it will be the safer because it cannot go far it can be instanced but in three things in the Creed in Ecclesiastical Government and in external forms of worship and Liturgy The Catholick Church hath been too much and too soon divided it hath been us'd as the man upon a hill us'd his heap of heads in a Basket when he threw them down the hill every head run his own way quot capita tot sentèntiae and as soon as the Spirit of Truth was opposed by the Spirit of Error the Spirit of peace was disordered by the Spirit of division and the Spirit of God hath over-power'd us so far that we are only fallen out about that of which if we had been ignorant we had not been much the worse but in things simply necessary God hath preserved us still unbroken all Nations and all Ages recite the Creed and all pray the Lords Prayer and all pretend to walk by the Rule of the Commandments and all Churches have ever kept the day of Christs Resurrection or the Lords day holy and all Churches have been governed by Bishops and the Rites of Christianity have been for ever administred by separate Orders of men and those men have been always set apart by Prayer and the imposition of the Bishops hands and all Christians have been baptized and all baptized persons were or ought to be and were taught that they should be confirm'd by the Bishop and Presidents of Religion and for ever there were publick forms of Prayer more or less in all Churches and all Christians that were to enter into holy wedlock were ever joined or blessed by the Bishop or the Priest in these things all Christians ever have consented and he that shall prophecy or expound Scripture to the prejudice of any of these things hath no part in that Article of his Creed he does not believe the Holy Catholick Church he hath no fellowship no communion with the Saints and Servants of God It is not here intended that the doctrine of the Church should be the Rule of Faith distinctly from much less against the Scripture for that were a contradiction to suppose the Church of God and yet speaking and acting against the will of God but it means that where the question is concerning an obscure place of Scripture the practice of the Catholick Church is the best Commentary Intellectus qui cum praxi concurrit est spiritus vivificans said Cusanus Then we speak according to the Spirit of God when we understand Scripture in that sense in which the Church of God hath always practis'd it Quod pluribus quod sapientibus quod omnibus videtur that 's Aristotles Rule and it is a Rule of Nature every thing puts on a degree of probability as it is witnessed by wise men by many wise men by all wise men and it is Vincentius Lirinensis great Rule of truth Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus and he that goes against what is said always and every where and by all Christians had need have a new revelation or an infallible spirit or he hath an intolerable pride and foolishness of presumption Out of the Communion of the Universal Church no man can be saved they are the body of Christ and the whole Church cannot perish and Christ cannot be a head without a body and he will for ever be our Redeemer and for ever intercede for his Church and be glorious in his Saints and g. he that does not sow in these furrows but leaves the way of the whole Church hath no pretence for his errour no excuse for his pride and will find no alleviation of his punishment These are the best measures which God hath given us to lead us in the way of truth and to preserve us from false doctrines and whatsoever cannot be prov'd by these measures cannot be necessary There are many truths besides these but if your people may be safely ignorant of them you may quietly let them alone and not trouble their heads with what they have so little to do things that need not to be known at all need not to be taught for if they be taught they are not certain or are not very useful and g. there may be danger in them besides the trouble and since God hath not made them necessary they may be let alone without danger and it will be madness to tell stories to your flocks of things which may hinder salvation but cannot do them profit And now it is time that I have done with the first great remark of doctrine noted by the Apostle in my Text all the Guides of souls must take care that the doctrine they teach be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure and incorrupt the word of God the truth of the Spirit That which remains is easier 2. In the next place it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grave and reverend no vain notions no pitiful contentions and disputes about little things but becoming your great employment in the ministery of souls and in this the Rules are easie and ready 1. Do not trouble your people with controversies whatsoever does gender strife the Apostle commands us to avoid and g. much more the strife it self a controversie is a stone in the mouth of the hearer who should be fed with bread and it is a temptation to the Preacher it is a state of temptation it engages one side in lying and both in uncertainty and uncharitableness and after all it is not food for souls it is the food of contention it is
Slanderer could tell a story yet none could prove that ever he received a Bribe to blind his eyes to the value of a pair of Gloves It was his own Expression when he gave glory to God who had preserved him innocent But because every mans Cause is right in own eyes it was hard for him so to acquit himself that in the Intriques of Law and difficult Cases some of his Enemies should not seem when they were heard alone to speak reason against him But see the greatness of Truth and Prudence and how greatly God stood with him When the numerous Armies of vexed people Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti heaped up Catalogues of Accusations when the Parliament of Ireland imitating the violent procedures of the then disordered English when his glorious Patron was taken from his head and he was disrobed of his great defences when Petitions were invited and Accusations furnished and Calumny was rewarded and managed with art and power when there were above 200 Petitions put in against him and himself denyed leave to answer by word of mouth when he was long imprisoned and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into affrightment and pitiful and low considerations yet then he himself standing almost alone like Calimachus at Marathon invested with enemies and covered with arrows defended himself beyond all the powers of guiltiness even with the defences of Truth and the bravery of Innocence and answered the Petitions in writing sometimes twenty in a day with so much clearness evidence of truth reality of Fact and Testimony of Law that his very Enemies were ashamed and convinced they found they had done like Aesops Viper they licked the file till their tongues bled but himself was wholly invulnerable They were therefore forced to leave their muster-rolls and decline the particulars and fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accuse him for going about to subvert the fundamental Laws the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell which was a device when all reasons fail'd to oppress the Enemy by the bold affirmation of a Conclusion they could not prove they did like those Gladiatores whom the Romans call'd Retiaries when they could not stab their Enemies with their Daggers they threw Nets over him and cover'd him with a general mischief But the Martyr King Charles the First of most Glorious and Eternal Memory seeing so great a Champion likely to be oppress'd with numbers and despair sent what rescue he could His Royal Letter for his Bail which was hardly granted to him and when it was it was upon such hard terms that his very delivery was a persecution So necessary it was for them who intended to do mischief to the Publick to take away the strongest Pillars of the House This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the Tongue of slander which had so boldly spoken that it was certain something would stick yet was so impotent and unarmed that it could not kill that great Fame which his greater Worthiness had procur'd him It was said of Hippasus the Pythagorean that being asked how and what he had done he answered Nondum nihil neque enim adhuc mihi invidetur I have done nothing yet for no man envies me He that does great things cannot avoid the tongues and teeth of Envy but if Calumnies must pass for Evidences the bravest Hero's must always be the most reproached Persons in the World Nascitur Aetolicus pravum ingeniosus ad omne Qui facere assuerat patriae non degener artis Candida de nigris de candentibus atra Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put upon it but God who takes care of Reputations as he does of Lives by the orders of his Providence confutes the slander ut memoria justorum sit in benedictionibus that the memory of the righteous man might be embalm'd with honour And so it hapned to this great man for by a publick Warranty by the concurrent Consent of both Houses of Parliament the Libellous Petitions against him the false Records and publick Monuments of injurious shame were cancell'd and he was restor'd in integrum to that Fame where his great Labours and just Procedures had first estated him which though it was but justice yet it was also such honour that it is greater than the virulence of tongues which his worthiness and their envy had arm'd against him But yet the great Scene of the troubles was but newly opened I shall not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles as remembring that S. Paul when he discourses of the glories of the Saints departed he tells more of their Sufferings than of their Prosperities as being that Laboratory and Crysable in which God makes his Servants Vessels of honour to his glory The storm quickly grew high transitum est à linguis ad gladios and that was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquity had put on arms when it is armata nequitia then a man is hard put to it The Rebellion breaking out the Bishop went to his Charge at Derry and because he was within the defence of Walls the execrable Traitor Sir Phelim ô Neale laid a snare to bring him to a dishonourable death for he wrote a Letter to the Bishop pretended Intelligence between them desir'd that according to their former Agreement such a Gate might be deliver'd to him The Messenger was not advis'd to be cautious nor at all instructed in the art of Secrecy for it was intended that he should be search'd intercepted and hang'd for ought they car'd but the Arrow was shot against the Bishop that he might be accused for base Conspiracy and die with shame and sad dishonour But here God manifested his mighty care of his Servants he was pleased to send into the heart of the Messenger such an affrightment that he directly ran away with the Letter and never durst come neer the Town to deliver it This story was published by Sir Phelim himself who added That if he could have thus ensnar'd the Bishop he had good assurance the Town should have been his own Sed bonitas Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis The goodness of God is greater than all the malice of men and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred Life was to God as his rescue from the dangers Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing unless the roof had fallen upon his head that rescue was a remark of Divine Favour and Providence But it seems Sir Phelim's Treason against the Life of this worthy Man had a Correspondent in the Town and it broke out speedily for what they could not effect by malicious stratagem they did in part by open force they turned the Bishop out of the Town and upon trifling and unjust pretences search'd his Carriages and took what they pleas'd till they were asham'd to take more they