Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the Generalissimo chief Captain and Prince of our Salvation who having in former times delivered his Servants the true and faithful Ministers from the paws of the Lions and the Bears Heathenish force and Heretical furies will also deliver them out of the hands of these uncircumcised Philistims who having received from their Ministry what ever honor and privilege they can pretend to as Christians yet now carry themselves as if they were aliens from the Israel of God and had never had relation to or blessing from this or any other true Church where hath been a constant Ministry not more famous for Learning and Industry than blessed with all Evangelical excellencies and happy successes To which now the Lord is pleased to adde this crown of patience under great tribulations and of perseverance in suffering much evil discâ—uragement wheâ—e it hath deserved so well CAVIL III. Or Objection about Christian gifts and exercising in common as Preachers or Prophets ALl impartiall spectators may hitherto behold the salvation of God how the insolent opposers of the Ministeriall function the men of Gath are in their first encounter so deeply smitten and woun ed that they ly groveling on the ground The remayning motions which they may seem to have Inconditi morientium motus invalidi expirantium conatus Sym. are but the inordinate strokes of hands and heels the last batteries and weak struglings which attend impotent revenge and exspiring malice It will be no hard matter to set my foot upon their prostâ—ate power and to sever their Heads from their Shoulders that they rise up no more by the means of that two edged and unparalleld Sword of the Scriptures rightly applyed which hath both sharpness weight and brightness the clearest reason potentest conviction and divinest Authority with which they thought to arm themselves against the peculiar Office of the Ministry Yet there are some seconds and recruits who seem to have less fury and malice against the Ministry who seeing the chief Champion of the Antiministeriall faction thus Levelled come in either as to the spoyl or rescue as Ajax to Ulysses holding before them the shield of manifold Scriptures Alleging That notwithstanding there may be granted some peculiar Office and Institution of the publike Ministry yet as to the power of preaching or liberty of prophecying the promise is common to all believers Joâ—l 2.28 cited Acts 2.17 for the powring out of the spirit upon all flesh in the later dayes for the Annointing from above which shall lead every believer into all Truth so that they shall not need any man should teach them 1 Joh. 2.27 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 14.1 1 Thes 5.19.20 1 Cor. 12.7.39 Acts 18.26 being all taught of God That the manifestation and gifts of the spirit are given to every one for the good of the Church in teaching exhorting prophecying c. Which every one is to covet and may communicate to others for their conversion or confirmation as Aquila and Priscilla did to Apollos and other Christians in Primitive dispersions exercising and employing their talents received if not as Ministers in Office and ordeined yet as Prophets and gifted Brethren if not as Pastors yet as Teachers 1 Per. 4.11 In like sort Christians now find their gifts of knowledge and utterance to great and good that they cannot smother them nor suffer them to be restrained and oppressed by the Ministers encroachment and Monopoly Thus they who would seem to be somewhat more civill and equanimous to the calling and Office of the Ministry Answ 1. Gifts in others no prejudice to the Office of the Ministry nor warrant to any man publike arrogancy My Answer first in generall is That all these and the like small shot which Infaustus * Socinno lib. de Eccl. Socinus * Osterâ—d Inst c. 42. Osterodius * Smaltzius de Ord. Ecc. Smaltzius * Radeccius de Eccl. Radeccius * Theoph. Nicolaides defens Socin c. 1. Acts 14 23. When they had ordained them elders in every Church Acts 13.2 Separate to me Paul and Barnabas 1 Tim. 4.14 5.22 Acts 18.28 Heb. 14.17 2 Tim. 2 4. 1 Thes 5.12 13. 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 12.18 c. 1 Cor. 14.32 V. 33. 40. Rom 16 17. 2 Thes 3.6 2 Tim. 4.3 Primitive prophecying what 1 Pet. 1.19 Prophetae Scâ—pturacum interpretes erant maximè propheticarum obscurarum Ambr. Theoph. Chrysost Prophetarum munus erat mysticum Scripturarum sensum ad salutem auditorum explanare Erasm in 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 4.30 1 Cor. 14.29 c. Nicolaides and others of the revived Arians have afforded these Semiant iministeriall adversaries have been oft discharged and received without any hurt as to the divinely established Office of the Ministry Having been either satisfied with all ingenuous concessions as far as order modesty and charity will carry them or refuted with just replyes against all vanity arrogancy and confusion by those learned men who formerly or lately have given very sober solid and liberall satisfaction to any pleas urged or scruples alleged out of Scripture which will in no sort maintain idleness vanity pride and confusion in the Church under the specious names of liberty gifts and prophecying There are indeed many places exciting Christians to labour to abound in every good gift and work but yet as many to keep them within due order and holy bounds becomming the honour of Religion All those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts were never more eminent and common in the Church of Christ than in those times when the Ministeriall power was by peculiar marks ceremonies and duties distinctly and undoubtedly conferred on some peculiar persons as the Apostles and 70. Disciples on Timothy Titus and others who were separated and ordeined by fasting praying examination and imposition of hands to be Bishops or Presbyters in the respective Churches as they came to be capable of setled order and Ministry And notwithstanding the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were then conferred upon many not yet ordeined Ministers we see the Office and honour of the Ministry was never more clearly asserted as divine being set over the flocks by the Lord so to be owned and esteemed as distinct from secular intanglements as an retire and compleat imployment even for the best and ablest men to which they should once ordeined wholy give themselves and attend on it Never was order and peace and proportion in the Church more enjoyned and duly observed never were disorderly and unruly walkers false Apostles self-obtruders house-creepers heaps of teachers who caused divisions more severely repressed than in those Primitive times when believers enjoyed most eminent gifts and graces for some ends either in miracles or toungs or prophecying which was not that eminentest sense of prophecying that is foretelling things to come but the opening and applying the places of the Prophets in the old Testament which was then
antient Patern at least which God setled the Government of his Church among the Jews who had the heads of their Fathers as Bishops and rulers over their brethren the Priests and Levites Numb 3.24 Now 't is manifest that our Lord Christ and the Apostles had great regard to the Judaick customs in Christian Institutions As in the Baptising with water In the use of the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper In the Sabbatising on the Lords Day and in the giving the power of the Keys to the Pastors and Teachers of the Church to open and shut to bind and loose expressing thereby Ministeriall Authority In all which there was some like or parallell precedents among the Jews in making their Rabbins and in celebrating holy mysteries and governing those of that Church and Religion 2. For the new Testament nothing either of precept or example seems against a right Episcopacy commanding a parity or forbidding order and subjection among Presbyters as well as other men what Christ forbids his Apostles of exercising dominion after the manner of Princes of the world excludes indeed First from the twelve who were pares in Apostolatu equally Apostles and were not long to live in one society but to lay the foundations of Religion in all the world by a parity of power coordinate but not subordinate to any but Christ who chose them and proportionably forbids all Bishops and Church-men the secular methods of gaining or using any Ecclesiasticall power and eminency in the Church as by ambition force usurpation tyranny by the sword and severities penally inflicted on the Bodies Estates Liberties and lives of men which was the way of the world but not of Christ or his Ministers yet these tyrannies which attend mens lusts and passions as men are as incident besides factions and emulations to the Presbyterian way where some are alwaies heady and leaders as to that of a right and regular Episcopacy whereto Presbyters are joyned The plain meaning of our Lord Jesus who owned himself as chief among his Apostles Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 2. Saith Episcopall eminency is the best way to prevent Schisms and to keep peace in the Church Luke 22.26 But ye shall not be so But he that is greatest among you let him be as the youngest and he that is chief as he that doth serve Mat. 24. There may be a wise servant whom the Lord may set over his house Timothy is taught how to behave himself in the Church as a Governour no less than a Minister or Teacher 1 Tim. 3.15 Remis non sceper is guberuent Episcopi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost de Episc Tom. 4. p. 627. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is pel l. 2. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Liban to Basil says Bishops were c. Basil Ep. 154. yet condescended to serve them is That what ever excellency any Christian Minister or other had above others in age estate parts place power gifts graces or civill honors for what hinders a Prince or Nobleman to be a Minister of the Gospell and yet retain both his honour and estate temporall all these should be used and enjoyed without the leaven of pride insolency or oppression and only be turned to greater advantages of serving Christ and the Church with all humble Industry As Christ himself did And after him the Apostles who had undoubtedly as some order and precedency among themselves in the equality of their Apostolicall power so also priority both of place superiority of Church jurisdiction and authority and power over all other Disciples and beleivers And this not from any personall gifts temporary and privileges so much as from that wisdom and peaceable order which Christ would have observed alwaies in his Church after the Apostolicall example By some of whom as the antients tell us Some Ministers were clearly constituted as Bishops with an eminency of personall power over others to ordein censure rebuke silence even Presbyters and Deacons D. Blondell confesseth p. 183. None can be dispensed witâ— as tâ— the violating or neglect of that Chu ch ordâ—r and Government wh ch is pâ—esc ibed to Timothy and Titus which rule is of Divine right and perpetuall This is undeniably evident by Scripture in Timothy and Titus The validity and authority of which examples were esteemed by Antiquity and followed as warrantable divine precedents and obligatory examples to after ages in the like cases at least for imitation By preserving such an ordinary succession of power in Bishops among and above Presbyters both in ordination and jurisdiction Nor is this clear instance to be any way in reason avoyded by saying that Timothy and Titus w re Evangelists what ever that Office were in the Church either temporary and personall or common to other chief Ministers and perpetually to succeed for it makes nothing against a personall superiority of power and authority in them over their respective Churches which was to succeed to others in all reason as well as their Ministry did both these being alwaies necessary for the Church and indeed their ordinary power as to Government had no dependance on their being Evangelists 2 Tim. 2.15 1 Tim. 4.13 2 Tim. 4.2 no more than their Preaching and other Ministeriall acts had which we may not argue from these two persons to be incompatible to any Ministers now Unless they be Evangelists For then no Presbyters that are not Evangelists in their sense might study or Preach in season and out of season rebuke exhort c. or shew themselves Workmen that need not to be ashamed c. Now if these acts and Offices of Ministry are derivable to other single persons in a Ministeriall way why not also that Gubernative power too which was from the Apostle signally committed to Timothy and Titus and no where so expresly to any fraternity of Ministers or Presbytery in common 2 Cor. 11.5.12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 21.15 After that rate of arguing we may conclude that none but the very chief Apostles might feed the Lambs and Sheep of Christ because that command was thrice given to Peter who was reckoned among the chiefest of the Apostles which Conclusions were as absurd and ridiculous being by all the practise and sense of the Primitive Churches confuted as this that the power of proving and ordeyning Presbyters 1 Tim. 5.19.22 Tit. 1.5 by laying on of hands of receiving accusations against them of rebuking censuring excommunicating silencing and restoring all Acts gubernative may not be eminently in any single person unless they be Apostles or Evangelists when as not only the use of such order and power is in all reason necessary for Church societies no less than for civill but the succession of it in such sort as it began in them to all times after seems clearly intimated by that vehement charge layd on Timothy 1 Tim. 5.21 2 Tim. 4.5 to keep those things unpartially and unblameably untill the comming of our Lord Jesus
might rule and reign in Christs stead It is upon other accounts than this of being a Bishop or Prelate in a part of the Church that the Pope is by many charged with the odious character of Antichristian namely in reference to that ambition pride and usurpation which by fraud and force the Bishops of Rome have obtained and chalenge or exercise over all the world and specially over these Western Bishops and Churches in later times Greg. in Epist. 32. Mauritio 600. years after Christ namely since Gregory the greats dayes who was an humble devout and holy Bishop and had many pious martyrs his Predecessors as Popes or Fathers in that See of Rome who abhorred the name of Universall Bishops affirming they were Antichrist who ever arrogated that name of Universall Bishop Also for those gross abuses errors tyrannies superstitions and persecutions which many Popes have made in the Churches of Christ contrary to the word and example of Christ and the Canons of generall Councils From all which we had a Church and Ministry happily reformed even by the care and constancy of many holy and learned men who were Bishops and Martyrs in this Church of England As then we do not abhor to be men or Christians because the Pope is a man and professeth to be a Christian So neither may we dislike Bishops because the Pope is one nor Presbyters and Deacons because there be many of that title and office in the Church of Rome True Epispacy may consist without secular and civil advantages But in the last place if primitive Episcopacy and Apostolicall Bishops now poor and devested of all secular power and ornaments of honour and estate and in this conform to their Predecessors in primitive and persecuting times may not in reason of state with publick honour be restored and established in this Church of England yet it may be hoped that the Indulgence and liberty of times will give so much tolleration That those whose judgements and consciences bind them either to be so ordeined Ministers or to receive the comfort of divine Ministrations only from such as are in holy orders by the safe and antient way of Episcopall Ordination may have and enjoy that liberty without perturbing the publick peace which both Presbyterians and Independents doe enjoy in their new wayes For nothing will savour more of an imperious and impotent spirit whose faith and charity are slaves to secular advantages and interests than for those who have obtained liberty for their novelties to deny the like freedom to other mens Antiquity which hath the Ecclesiasticall practise and precedency of 1600. years besides the preponderancy of much reason Scripture and holy examples All which to force godly grave and learned men Ministers or people to renounce or to comply with other wayes against their judgements or else to deprive them of all holy orders employments and ministrations in the Church as Christians cannot but be a most crying and self-condemning sin in those men who lately approved that antient and Catholick way and after dissenting at first desired but a modâ—st tolleration Since then the Pope as a Bishop is not Antichristian as I have proved neither can it be affirmed with any sense or truth that either Episcopacy it self or Bishops Pastors and Governours in the Church are Antichristian It will easily appear to sober Christians how poor popular and passionate a calumny that is which some weak minds please themselves to object against the Ministry of the Church of England as if it were Antichristian because the Ministers received their Ordination and Induction both to the office and exercise of their Ministry by the hands and authority of Bishops with those Presbyters assistant who were present which was the Universall practise of all Churches antiently in Ordeining Presbyters and is at this day of most This false and odious reproach of Antichristian Ministry many Presbyters preposterously seek to wipe off from the face of their Ministry as they are Presbyters while yet with the same hand they make no scruple to besmear the faces of Bishops and Episcopacy Not considering that while they poorly gratifie the vulgar malice of some men against all Bishops they still sharpen their spitefull objections against themselves as Presbyters As then this solemn and holy Ordination of Ministers by Bishops herein England by prayer fasting and imposition of hands 7. Bishops in England ordeining Presbyters did but their duty according to law was Antient and Catholick no way against Reason or Scripture yea most conform to both in order to Gods glory and the Churches welfare which I have already demonstrated So I am sure in so doing Bishops did no more than what their place office and duty required of them here in England according to the Laws established both in Church and State which had the consent of the whole Church and Nation both Presbyters and people as well as Prince and Peers No wise man may blame that act Aequum est 〈◊〉 quâ—m feceris susserisve legem feras Reg. Jur. or exercise of government and authority in an other which he was invested with did enjoy and acted in by publick consent declared in the Laws wherein each mans particular will is comprehended nor may that be sayd to be a private fault which is done in obedience to a publick Law Bishops then duly ordeyning Ministers in the Church of England had the approbation of this Church and State no less than of all Antiquity and of all the Modern forein Churches even those that have not Bishops who yet ever commended and applauded that Venerable Order here in England As for Scripture which some pretend against Bishops and for other wayes I never read any place commanding any one or two or more Presbyters to ordein or govern in any Church without a Bishop Nor do I find any place forbidding a Bishop to ordein and rule among and with the Presbyters According to that appointment of Timothy and Titus which is of all most clear for investing both Ordination and Church jurisdiction at that time eminently though perhaps not solely in one man and if that Constitution in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete carry not a Precept or binding exemplariness with it to after-times which Antiquity judged and followed Universally yet sure it redeems true Episcopacy sufficiently and all good Bishops in their right and moderate government of the Church especially in this point of Ordeining Ministers from being any way Antichristian to which we may be sure the blessed Apostle Paul would never have given any such countenance or patern as that Jurisdiction and power given to Timothy and Titus must needs be Nor are indeed the reproaches of popish and Antichristian added by vulgar ignorance or envy to Episcopacy any other than devillish false and detestable Calumnies invented by wicked men to the reproach and blasphemy not only of so many holy and worthy Bishops in all ages and Churches as well as in England but
many sinfull evils and snares while they forsake or cast out and despise their rightly Ordeined and duly placed Ministers and either follow and incourage such seducers as are very destructive both to the Churches peace and to mens souls both in the present and after ages or else fall to a neglect indifferency yea and abhorrency of all Religion The Order Power 20. Summary Conclusion of the power and efficacy of right Ordination and Authority then by which right Ordination is conferred on the true Ministers of the Gospel as was here in England although they seem to proud scorners to unstable minds to ignorant and unbelievers as frivolous as the Gospel seems foolishness yet to the humble eye of Faith it appears as the wisdome holy order and commission of God for the continuall teaching well guiding and edifying of the Church of God by truth and peace to Salvation The blessed and great effects of which depend as I have shewed not upon any naturall power or vertue tranfused from the Ordeiners to the Ordeined but upon the Word Promise and appointment of Christ sending them in this method of the Churches triall approbation and ordination In which by the judgement and conscience of those who are of the same function and so best able to examine and judge of gifts and abilities the examined and approved is publickly authorised and declared to be such a Minister as the Lord hath chosen to be sent such as the Spirit of Christ hath anointed and consecrated by meet gifts and graces for the service of Christ and the Church in that great work of the Ministry One who is thus ordeined the Church may in any part of it comfortably receive and own in Christs name One who is partaker duly of the comfort of that promise from Christ Mat. 28. to be with his true Ministers to the end of the world which could not be verified as interpreters observe of the persons of those then living and first sent by Christ who were long since at rest in the Lord but of their lawfull Successors rightly following them in the same office and power Non sunt successores in officio qui ad officium accedunt alio modo quam institutum est Reg. Jur. without which they are not truly their Successors in the Ministry and authority from Christ No more than they can be Embassadors Deputies and Messengers from or to any one from or to whom they have no assignment of any power by letters or other way of commission which when most legally and formally done by deeds and instruments of writing yet these receive no naturall change of their qualities nor is any inherent vertue conveyed to them when they are made instruments to testifie the Will and convey the power of any to another but they have such a change in relation to their appointed use and end as alters them from what they were before in common and unlimited nature The like is as to religious ends and uses where some men are specially ordeined to be Ministers having all their efficacy and authority as to that work from the will of Jesus Christ from whom alone such power is derivable and that not in every way which the vanity of men list but in such as the Church hath constantly used according to the Scripture Canons and directions which are clear to Timothy and Titus which are the great paterns and evident commissions for right Ordination and Succession to the Ministry besides other places Against the undoubted Authority and pregnant testimony of which Epistles and Scriptures joyned to the Churches Catholick custome it will not be easie for any Novelist to vacate and abolish that holy Succession and due Ordination which the true Ministers of England have generally had in this Church which in my own experience I cannot but with all truth and thankfulness testifie to the glory of God to the honour of this Church and those reverend Bishops as Fathers of it who not only with great decency and gravity but with much conscience and religious care ordeined Ministers as very many so very worthy Nor on the other side will these Novellers easily perswade judicious Christians That any upstarts and pretenders in any other way which as it is poor and popular so it comes very short and unproportionate to what is required in and of a Minister can have the power and Authority of true Ministers Habentes cum iis consortium praedicationis habeant necesse est consortium damnationis Tertul. de Haeret. auditoribus Jo. 2.8 having no right Ordination to which no mans pragmatick pride and self-confidence nor the ostentation of his gifts to others by a voluble tongue nor the admiration and desire of his si ly and flattering auditors can contribute any thing either as to the comfort of the one or the other but much to the sin and shame of them both as perverters of Christs order and the Churches peace forsaking their own mercies while they follow lying vanities which cannot profit them 17. Yet meer form of Ordination makes not an able Minister Not that every man that is Ordeined a Minister as to the meer outward form in a right and orderly way is presently of the essence and truth of a Minister in Christs esteem or in the comfort of his own conscience The ordeined may be such hypocrites as Simon Magus was when baptised as have neither reall abilities nor honest purposes aiming at Gods glory or the Churches good but meerly at their own worldly ends and base advantages The Ordeiners also may be either deceived in the judgement of Charity or corrupted by humane lusts and frailties so as greatly to pervert and prophane this holy Institution No man hath further comfort of his being Ordeined a Minister than he hath reall gifts and competent abilities together with an holy and honest purpose of heart to glorifie God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baz M. ep 187. The antient custom of the Church receives none to be Ministers but upon strickt examination before they are ordeined Concil Nic. 1. and â—he Concil Caâ—ib 1. c 9. takes care that none be Ordeined Presbyters without due examination in the discharge of that holy office and power to which he is by the Church appointed Nor can on the other side the Ordeiners more highly offend in piety against God and charity against the Church than in a superficiall and negligent way of ordeining Ministers which antiently was not done but with solemn publick fasting prayer and great devotion Indeed nothing should be done in the Church of Christ with greater exactness both for inward sincerity and outward holy solemnity than this weighty and fundamentall work of carrying on the Ministeriall power and authority in a fit and holy Succession Abuses here are prone to creep in the Devill coveting nothing more than to undermine weaken and overthrow this main Pillar on which the Church and house of God doth stand Ministers either
and shews by the examples in holy Scripture and other holy writers what holy use is to be made of the learning of heathens by Christians See Tom. 2. pag. 331. St. Paul cites three testimonies out of heathen Poets Epimenides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aratâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So Jannes and Jambres out of Jewish Records and Talmuds Plures sine dubio legerat B. Paulus poetas quam quos recitavit recitando aliques laudavit omnes in quantum divinoris veritatis scintillias saepius produnt Erasm Tarsis a famous University and after at the feet of Gamaliel or Attick Luke or eloquent Apollos ever despised or decryed or disused those acquired gifts of humane learning wherewith they were endued in the ordinary wayes of education no not when they were exâ—raordinarily inspired Their common gifts served them still in their ordinary Ministry as to understanding memory utterance or writing by which they endevoured to set forth that Jesus was the Christ the promised Messias So that in their arguments disputes reasonings and allegations out of humane Authours also in the style phrase and manner of their speaking and writing it might and may easily bee that the difference of Prophets Evangelists and Apostles naturall acquired or studied gifts did still remain when their extraordinary and infused might be equall yet these did not equall them in their either more strict and Logicall reasonings or their more Oratorious expressions or more elegant phrase and proper language which appear very different in those holy Writers and Penmen of the Scriptures which had the same Spirit directing or dictating as to the matter revealed to them but they used their own ordinary abilities to expresse them by word or pen to others And certainly when the Apostle Paul bids Timothy as a grand and lasting pattern for all Bishops and Ministers of the Church to study to meditate to give himselfe wholly to those things 1 Tim. 4.13 14.15 that his profiting may appear to stir up the gift that is in him still more fitting himselfe to the work of the Ministry notwithstanding he had some speciall and extraordinary gifts Sure the same Apostle gave Timothy no example of idlenesse in himself but both studied and prayed Ephes 6.18 yea desires the prayers of others for him that he might as an able Minister and as a Master builder finish the course of his Ministry with joy This blessed Apostle needed not have been so solicitous for the parchments 2 Tim. 4.13 which he left at Troas if his memory had been alwayes supplyed with miraculous assistance he needed not to have committed any thing to writing for his owne use It is very probable that those parchments were no deeds for conveying any land or temporall estate but rather some Scheme or draught of divine Truths and mysteries methodically digested which he had fitted for his own 1 Cor. 4.6 and transferred to the use of others as Apollos or Timothy or Titus So little doth the speciall gifts of the Spirit in the Apostles or other holy men justifie or plead for those odde and mishapen figures of those mens Divinity whether discovered by their tongues or hands of whose deformity and unpolitenesse compared to the fashion of all learned mens judicious methodicall and comely writings and discourses these crafty men being conscious would have no Sun or light of arts and learning shining among Christians by which their ridiculous monstrosity might appear 2 Col. 1.8 1 Tim 6.20 In tantum vana est quantum perversae felicitatis est doctrina gentium Philosophia Tertul. l. de Anima The same Apostle who bids us beware of vain Philosophy and wisdom falsly so called while it opposed the divine or was preferred before the word and truth of God in Christ which onely can attaine the end of all true wisdome to make a man happy to eternity yet he could be no enemy to any part of true and usefull Philosophy which is but the knowledge of God in the creature of which he gives severall touches in his most divine writings He commands us no lesse to beware of * Rom. 1.21 2 Tim. 4.3 Imperitissima est setentia scire quid senserint Philosophi nescire quid Châ—istus docuit Aust Ep. 56. Cum Philosophiae nidore purum veritatis aerem infuscant Tertul. false Teachers of heaps of Teachers of deceitfull workers of unruly walkers of unstable and unlearned spirits who by vaine bablings endlesse janglings high presumptions and private interpretations wrest the Scriptures corrupt both religious Doctrine sound speech and Christian communication Such who are * Col. 2.18 vainly puffed up in their fleshly minde whose glory is to lead Disciples after them desirous to be * 1 Tim. 1.7 Teachers when they know not what they say nor whereof they affirme Comparing themselves with themselves and abhorring all higher patterns they can * 1 Cor. 10.12 never be wise but in their own conceits and there is * Prov. 16.9 little hope of them But O you that excell in learning or humility or both 16. Monument of learning how excellent and usefull I should fear to write too much for good learning if I did not consider that I write to those chiefly who can never think too much said or wrote for it because they know the many beauties and excellencies of it both in reference to the glory of God and the good of mankind both for souls and bodies their religious and secular concernments their temporall and eternall interest Indeed no minde is able to conceive but such as enjoy them Aegrescit ingenium nisi fugiactione reparetur Cito expenduntur horrea quae assidua non fuerint adjectione fulcita Thesaurus ipse facile profunditur si nullis iterum pecuniis compleatur Cassiod nor can any tongue expresse them since they exceed the greatest eloquence of those that most enjoy them those bright heavenly and divine beams of Reason and Religion which with severall preparatory glories shine from the daily reading of those excellent writings and durable monuments of learned men in former ages as rayes of light falling from the Sun on this inferiour world breaking in upon all the regions of the soul dissipating its darknesse discovering its disorders supplying its defects filling it with the sweet and silent * Jucundissima est vita indies sentire se fieri doctiorem pleasure of daily knowing something more excellent in the creature or the Creator which before it knew not This secret and unspeakable contentment is more welcome to the now improving soul than the beauty of a fair morning which shows a safe haven to one that hath suffered the horrour of blind and midnight tempests more rejoicing the heart of a true man than liberty and light doe him that is redeemed from a dungeon I should but profane if I should too much unfold the sacred and sweet
this was chiefly done by the able and accurate pens of the godly and learned Ministers who needed in those times no other defence on their part either for order government maintenance Ministry or doctrine All which were then preserved from vulgar injuries and insolencies by the same power and sword which defended those civill sanctions and lawes which established and preserved all things of sacred and Ecclesiastick as well as of civill and secular concernment Untill these last fatall times which pregnant with civill wars and dissensions have brought forth such great revelations and changes in Church and State wherein Scholars and Churchmen in stead of pens and bookes have to contend with swords and pistols Which weapons of carnall warfare were unwonted to be applyed either to the planting propagating or reforming of Christian Religion onely proper to be used for the preservation of what is by law established from seditious and schismaticall perturbations For it was not the vinegar but the oil of Christian Religion not its fierinesse but its meeknesse not its force but its patience that ever made its way through the hardest rocks and hearts And by these strange Engines these new armes of flesh we have hitherto onely seen acted and fulfilled with much horror misery and confusion those things in this Church and Nation which were foreseen and foretold by two eminent and learned persons yet of different opinions as to the extern matters of Ecclesiasticall polity Mr. Richard Hooker and Mr. Thomas Brightman the one in the preface to his Ecclesiasticall polity the other in his comment on the third chapter of the Revelations Who many years agoe in times of peace and setlednesse in this Church of England foretold not by any infallible spirit of prophecy for then the later of them would not have been so much mistaken in the fate of his dear Philadelphia of Scotland but meerly out of prudence conjecturing what was probable to come to passe according to the fears of the one and the hopes of the other in case the then spreading though suppressed differences and parties in Religion which they then saw made many Zealously boldly discontented came to obtain such power as every side aims at when they pretend to carry on matters of Religion and Reformation wherein immoderation being usually stiled Zeal and moderation lukewarmnesse it was easie for sagacious men to foresee and foretell what excesses the transports of inferiours would in all probability urge upon superiours if ever these managed power so weakly and unadvisedly that any aspiring and discontented party might come to gain power in a way not usuall which at the very first rupture and advantage would think it self easily absolved from all former ties of obedience and subjection to governours in Church or State without which liberty and absolution it is not possible to carry on by force any Novelties and pretended amendments of Religion contrary to what is established in any Church or Nation Indeed we see to our smart and sorrow that the deluge foretold would break in hath so overflowed this and the neighbour Churches that not only Mr. Brightmans blear-ey'd Leah his odious Peninnah his so abhorred Hierarchy the Episcopall order and eminency but even his beloved Rachel his admired Hannah his divine Presbytery it self yea the whole function of the Ministry feels and fears the terror of that inundation which far beyond his divination hath prevailed not only over his so despised Laodicea which he made to be type of the Church of England truly not without passion and partiality as I think with far wiser men He not calmly distinguishing between the constitution and execution of things between the faults of persons and the order of places between what was prudentiall and what is necessary what is tolerable and what is abominable in any Church as to its extern form and polity but also over his darling and so adored Philadelphia which he makes to answer to the Scottish Palatinate or Geneva form of Presbyterian government and discipline as if that Church of Philadelphia in its primitive constitution under the presidency and government of its Angell had any thing different from or better than the other neighbour Churches which is no way probable nor appears either in Scripture or Ecclesiasticall histories However it might be commendable in its Angell or President for its greater zeal and exacter care to preserve that doctrine discipline and order which it had lately received from the Apostles and which no doubt was the same in each Church who had their severall Angels or Overseers alike which all Antiquity owned for those Pastors Presidents or Bishops to whose charge they were respectively committed As for that evomition or Gods spewing this Church of England out of his mouth which Mr. Brightman so dreadfully threatens It must be confessed that the sins of all sorts of Christians in this Church and of Ministers as much as any have made them nauseous and burthensome to the Divine patience both in their lukewarm formalities and fulsome affectations of Religion in their empty pompes and emptier popularities So that Gods patience once turned into just fury hath indeed terribly powred out his vengeance on all degrees and estates in this Nation by suffering flouds of miseries and billows of contempt to overwhelm for a time the face of this Church as of old wars heresies and schisms wasted the Asiatick African and Latin Churches not more it may be upon the account of Ministers weaknesse and unworthinesse than upon that of peoples levity pride and ingratefull inconstancy which hath been a great means to bring on and continue these overflowing streams Which nothing but the mighty power of God by the help of good and wise men can rebuke and asswage so that the face of this Church and its Ministry may yet appear in greater beauty and true Reformation after it s so great squallor and deformity which is not to be despaired of through Gods mercy yet in a farre other way than ever Mr. Brightman foresaw But when and by what means this shall be done the Authour of this Apology doth not as a Prophet undertake to foretell onely he observes the usuall methods of Gods Providence in the midst of judgement to remember mercy and after he hath sorely afflicted to repent of the evill and return to an humble penitent people with tender mercies so that we may hope his wrath will not endure for ever nor that he hath quite forgotten to be gracious or shut up his loving kindenesse in displeasure Also hee considers the wonted vicissitudes of humane affairs arising from the changes incident to mens mindes who weary of those disorders and pressures necessarily attending all forcible changes in Church or State and long frustrated with vain expectations of enjoying those better conditions in things civill and religious which are alwayes at first liberally promised and expected at last they are prone with the same impetuosity to retire as the ebbing Sea from those
dubious in their rise and prone to be exorbitant in their progress and most injurious in their success have most of Love Patience and Christian Charity which are indisputably commendable in the Christian Psal 15.4 though they be to the mans own hinderance It will not be asked of Ministers of the Gospel at the last account who fought and slew and spoiled c. but who fasted and prayed and mourned for the sins and judgements on the Nation and Church nor will they easily be found in Gods Book of Martyrs who died upon disputable quarrels in Civil Wars while they neglected the indisputable duty of their Office and Ministery Levit. 10.19 Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed Incongruam non probat mixturam Deus bonitate simplicissimus simplicitate optimus August Ministers never reap less crops of love or respect from men than when they sow that forbidden mislane the Tares and Cockle of passionate novelties unproved opinions and civil dissentions among the seeds of Religion and essays of Reformation From which mixtures those Ministers whose gravity wisdom and humility have most withheld or soonest withdrawn their hearts and hands are the likeliest men by their piety moderation patience and constancy in holy and justifiable ways to recover and restore the dignity of their Calling Who in the midst of those great and wide inrodes which have much broken down the fence and occasioned the letting in all sorts of wilde beasts upon the Lords Vineyard of this Church while others like dead stakes formerly making a great shew in the hedg are found rotten weak and unsound These are evidenced to all true Christians to be as living standards well rooted in their pious principles and not easily removed from that stedfastness and meekness of their practises in ways of judicious constancy which they have hitherto with patience maintained in the midst of those tempests which have not so utterly overwhelmed them but that in many places they appear fixed and unmoved in their pious integrity and patient charity which makes them looked upon with some eye of pity love and honor by all ingenuous spectators while yet they generally reflect with scorn and laughter on many others who in the publick storm thought themselves gallant sailers and skilful steersmen yet having made great waste of their patience obedience and discretion they seem also much crackt in their conscience credit and reputation For seeking inconsiderately to pull down or to possess themselves of others Cabins who as Pilots had a long time safely steered the Ship they have almost split and sunk the whole Vessel wherein they and others were embarqued Nor will they any way be able to buoy it up again or stop the daily increasing and threatning leaks till forsaking those soft and shameful compliances with factious novelties and immoderate ways of vulgar reformings they return to that primitive firmness and indisputable simplicity of the Antient which were the putest and best formed Churches both as to Doctrine Discipline and Government which no learned and unpassionate man needs go far to finde out either in Scripture paterns or in the Churches after-imitation by which the dignity of the Ministry and Holy Mysteries of the Gospel always preserved themselves amidst the hottest persecutions both in the love and obedience of all sound and sober Christians So that in my judgement who know how hard it is to play an after-game in point of Reputation and who have no design but a Publick and Common good writing thus freely as under the favor so without the offence I hope of any good man The Ministers of this Church will never be able to stand before those men of Ai their many adversaries who are daily scattering them into many feeble factions and pursuing them every where so divided with scorn and afflicting them with many affronts and injuries until having taken a serious review of their late extravagancies and making a serious scrutiny into their consciences and finding as they needs must if they be not wilfully blinde or obstinate some accursed thing some Babylonish garment and wedg of Gold something wherein proud or ambitious or covetous or revengeful or injurious emulations or other more venial errors have tempted tâ—◠〈◊〉 to offend they cast them quite away and so humbly re'ally themselves to that Primitive Harmony that Excellent Discipline Order and Government wherein was the honor beauty and consistency of the Church and Christian Religion even when least protected and most opposed by secular powers Of whom Christian Bishops Ministers and People never asked leave either to believe in Jesus Christ or to live after that holy form and publick order wherein Jesus Christ and the blessed Apostles after him established and left them which obtained universal imitation and use in all Churches for many hundred of years from true Christians both Pastors and People in the midst of persecutions 14. Jere. 6.16 Thus saith the Lord Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therin and ye shall finde rest for your souls Out of which old and good way of Primitive Vnity Order Government Discipline and holy Ministrations if those immoralities be kept as they may most easily to which we see the lusts and passions of men are prone to run even in all * Non datur reditus ad unitatem nisi per veritatem nec ad veritatem nisi per vetustatem Quum illud est antiquissimum quod verissimum Cypr. novel forms and inventions pretend they never so much at first to glorious Reformations Nothing can be a more present and soverein restorative for this Church and the true Reformed Religion to settle with truth and peace among us both to the comfort of all able Ministers and the satisfaction of all sober Christians who study the truth and unity of the Faith not the power and prevalency of any faction We need not go far to seek the root and source of our miseries present or impendent which have brought forth so bitter fruits whereby God at once would shew and satisfie vain men with their own delusions * Isai 66.4 In which heady and high-minded men trusting more to their own wits or tongues and to the * Jere. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. arm of flesh in politick machinations than to the living God in holy and humble ways of truth and peace have soon found them to be both vain and cursed things As it is evident at this day in the sad fate which some Ministers folly presumption and precipitancy together with other sinful frailtiles and excesses have brought upon themselves and their whole Function in this Church Who first despising then destroying the Antient and Catholike conduits of their Order and Ministry which derived from Christ by his Apostles went on in an after constant succession of true
Ministerial Power and Authority have digged to themselves Jere. 2.13 empty broken cisterns of novel and divided ways which can hardly hold any water Jude 12. but like wandring clouds without water affecting Supremacy or Parity or Popularity in Church power they have almost brought it to a nullity through the incroaching and over-bearing of Blebeian Insolence who finding Ministers thus divided among themselves and scrambling for Church power in common without any order or distinction either of Age or gifts and parts the common people being the most begin to conceit and challenge to themselves first a share next the supremacy and original of all Church power as if in the illiterate heads illiberal hearts and mechanick hands of the common sort of Christians and without reproach the most part of them and the forwardest of them against the Function of the Ministry have been and ever will be of no higher rank breeding or capacity Jesus Christ had placed the Keyes of Heaven the power eminent and paramount of all Church authority and holy administrations which Christ eminently and his Apostles ministerially had and exercised afterward committing them to able and faithful men such as doubtless were many degrees raised above the vulgar and distinguished in gifts and power Ministerial both ordinary and extraordinary Thus from the head and shoulders and arms Jesus Christ the Apostles the succeeding Bishops and Presbyters which were of Gold and Silver Church power is by some forced to descend to the belly thighs and feet of the people which are part of Iron Dan. 2.32 and part of miry-clay Most of whom so much stickling to be controlers of Christs houshold the Church are not in any discreet and sober mans judgement fit to be stewards or scarce in any degree of ingenuous service in a well ordered family They may make good Gibeonites for the house of God but very ill Levites or Priests Thus I have shewed how the sparks of many Ministers passionate opinions and violent practises flying up and down in their many disorderly breathings and extravagant Motions both in Church and State they at last lighting upon the thatched houses the combustible stuff of common peoples mindes and maners have set their own houses on fire to the deformity discontent and danger of all that dare own themselves and their holy Function as delivered to them from a better and diviner hand And indeed it is of the Lords mercies that we have not been ere this utterly consumed both root and branch for our follies and strange fires by the malice cruelty and despight of those to whose rage as to the Seas the Lord hath hitherto set bounds who are our enemies not for our sins and failings but for the reformed truths and Gospels sake which we preach and profess Amidst the sequestrings plunderings silencings wastings affronts calumnies indignities and discouragements cast upon or threatned by some against those of the Ministry above any other calling as if the Crosses taken down from Steeples and Churches were to be laid on the necks and shoulders of Ministers It is a wonder that any remnant of godly able and true Ministers hath hitherto escaped through the indulgence of God and the favor or moderation of some in power who know not it seems how to reprobate all those as Antichristian by whose Ministry they may hope themselves and others either are or may be brought to the saving faith of Jesus Christ and to the hope of Gods elect Exod. 2.8 Nor can they yet be perswaded to act as Pharaohs that knew not Joseph So that we cannot but wonder with thankfulness to God and to those who now exercise civil power among us that the Reformed Ministers and Ministry in this Church have not been made like Sodom and Gomorrah when we consider how many showres of fiery darts from violent and cruel men like thick clouds pregnant with thunders and lightnings hang over our heads Jâ—lian took away from the Clergy all immunities honors and provisions of corn formerly by Emperors given to them he abrogated all Laws in favor of them Sozonen l. 5. c. 5. Who like Julian the Apostate are impatient of nothing so much as this That their should be any true Ministers or Ministry in due order holy Authority Evangelical succession and setled maintenance continued in this or any other Reformed Church Who seeking to joyn the Lyons skin to the Fox's would fain leven Military spirits against the Ministry that so the Soldiery might use or rather abuse their Helmets as Bushels * Matth. 5.15 under which they may put the Candles of the Ministry thereby to overwhelm and extinguish those lamps of true Religion pretending that some Troopers flaming swords as the guard of Cherubims will be more useful to keep the way of the tree of life than all those burning and shining lights of the true Ministers who are rightly called and ordained in the Church whose learned labors and patient sufferings in all ages from the Apostles times have undoubtedly planted watered propagated and under God preserved the true Christian Religion either from Heathenish ignorance Idolatry Atheism Prophaneness and Persecution on the one side or from Antichristian Errors Superstitions Corruptions and Confusions on the other 16. Politick and Atheistical Engines used by some against the Ministry Yet are there now not onely secret underminings but open engines used by which some men endeavor utterly to overthrow these great boundaries firm supports and divine constitutions of Christian Religion the Authority Office Power and Succession of the true Ministers and Ministry of the Gospel Which plots and practises can be nothing else but the devils high-way either to utter Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness or to the old grosser Popery Error and Superstition or at best to those detestable and damnable formalities in matters of Religion which our late Seraphick Sadduces or Matchiavellian Christians have learned and confidently profess Some of whom like Jezebel Rev. 2.20 that made her self a Prophetess or like the old * Irenaeus l. 1. c. 35. Carpecratis Gnosticorum dectrina per fidem operationem salvari homines reliqua indifferentia secundum opinionem hominum bona aut mala vocari cum nihil natura malum fit Gnosticks Montanists Moniehes Carpocratians Circumsellians Valentinians and the like rabble of wretches have their wilde speculations beyond what is written in the holy Scriptures or ever believed and practised in the Churches of Christ who teach men to think say and write That God Christ Jesus the holy Spirit good Angels and Devils the Scriptures Law and Gospel Ministry and Sacraments the Souls immortality and eternity the Resurrection and Judgement to come all Virtue and Vice Good and Evil Heaven and Hell all are but meer fanciful forms of words fabulous imaginations feigned dreams empty names being nothing without us or above us That all this which men call Religion is nothing else but the issues of humane inventions which by the
suburbicaniarum ecclesiarum solicitudinem gerâ—â— Ruffin hist l. 1. c. 6. Concil Nicen. both Papal and Popular First The Romanists extend the cords of their Churches power and its head or chief Bishop so far as if it were properly Catholike and Oecumenical that is by divine appointment invested with sovereign Authority to extend and exercise Ecclesiastical polity and dominion over all other particular Churches in all ages and in all parts of the World So that it is say they necessary to salvation to be under this Roman jurisdiction c. Whereas it is certain That the Roman Church antiently was and still is properly speaking distinct from others in place as well as name and had antiently its limited power and jurisdiction extending to the suburbicanian Provinces which were Ten seven in Italy and three in Sicily Corsica and Sardinia Accoâ—ding to those like bounds which occasionally from civil titles both named and distinguished all other Churches from one another in both the Asiaes in Africa and in Europe as the Gallican German British c. Nor hath ever any thing either of Reason or Scripture been produced by any more than of true Antiquity whereby to prove That we are bound to any communion that is in the true meaning of proud and politick Romanists to that subjection to the Pope and his party which may be most for his and their honor and profit with the Church of Rome further than the rule of Christian charity obligeth every Christian and every part of the Catholike Church to communicate in truth and love with all those that in any judgement of charity are to be counted true Christians so far as they appear to us to be such Nor is it less evident That many Churches and Christians have scarce ever known much less owned any claim of subjection upon them by the Roman Church Which however they had antiently a priority of order and precedency yielded to it and its chief Bishop for the eminency of the City the honor of the Empire and the excellency of the reputed Founders and Planters Saint Peter and Saint Paul also for the renown of the faith patience and charity of that Church which was famous in all the World Yet Rom. 1. â— all this Primacy or Priority of Order which was civilly by others granted and might modestly be accepted by the chief Bishop in the Roman Province as to matter of place and precedency or Votes in publick Counscis and Synods This I say is very far from that * Greg. Mag. ep 30. ad Mauri Aug. Fidenter dico quia quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vel Episcopum vocat vel vocari desiderat in elatione suâ Antichristum praecurrit quia superbiendo se caeteris praeponit De Cyriaco Constantinop Episcope hunc frivoli nominis superbia typhum affectante Greg. M. l 4. ep 32 36. Antichristian Supremacy of usurped power tyrannick dominion and arbitrary jurisdiction the very suspition and temptation to which the holy and humble Bishops of Rome were ever jealous of and avoided especially Gregory the Great who was in nothing more worthy of that title than in this That he so greatly detested protested against and refused the title of Vniversal Bishop when it was offered to him by the Councel of Chalcedon Which both name and thing was in after times gained and chalenged by the pride policy covetousness and ambition of those Bishops of Rome who by some of their own sides confession as * Baronius an 912. tom 10. Foedissima nunc Romanae ecclesia facies cùm Romae dominarentur potentissima ac sordidissima merâ—â—rices Baronius * See Genebrard ad Sec. 10. Pontifices per an 150. à virtute majorum prorsus desecerunt Genebrard and others were sufficiently degenerated from that Primitive humility and sanctity which were eminent in the first Bishops of Rome in those purer and primitive times who never thought of any one of those Three Crowns which flatterers in after ages have fully hammered and set on the heads of the Bishops of Rome in a Supremacy not of Order but of Power and plenary Jurisdiction above all Christians or Churches or Councils in the Christian World which hath justly occasioned so many parts of the Catholike Church in that regard to make a necessary separation not from any thing that is Christian among them but from the usurpation tyranny and superstition of those bishops of the Roman Church and their Faction who unjustly claim and rigorously exercise dominion over the Consciences and Liberties of all other Churches and Christians With whom the Roman pride now refuseth to hold such peaceable communion as ought universally to be among Christians in respect of order and charity unless they will all submit to that tyranny and usurpation which hath nothing in it but secular pride vain pomp and worldly dominion Yet still those of the Roman Church know That all the Reformed Churches as well as we of England ever did and do hold a Christian communion in charity with them so far as by the Word of God we conceive they hold with the head or root of the Church Christ Jesus with the ground and rule of Faith the Scriptures and with all those holy Professors in the purest and primitive Churches Of whose faith lives and deaths having some Monuments left us by the writings of eminent Bishops and others we judge what was the tenor both of the Faith Maners and Charity of those purer times which we highly venerate and strive to imitate Possibly we might now subscribe to that Letter which the Abbot and Monks of Bangor sent to Austin whom some report to be a proud and bloody Monk when he came to this Nation and required obedience of them and all Christians here to the Pope which Letter is thus translated out of Saxonick by that grave and learned Gentleman Sir Henry Spelman Sir Henry Spelman Concil Brit. Anno Christi 590. out of the Saxon Manuscript a lover and adorner of this Church of England by his life and learned Labors Be it known to you without doubt that every one of us are obedient and subject to the Church of God and to the Pope of Rome and to every true godly Christian to love every one in his degree in perfect charity and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience than this we know not due to him whom you call Pope nor do we own him to be Father of Fathers Isca one of the three Metropolis in Britain Caerusk in Monmouthshire Antiq. Brit. This obedience we are ever ready to give and pay to him and every Christian continually Beside we are under our own Bishop of Caerleon upon Usk who is to oversee us under God and to cause us to keep the way spiritual Nor will this benefit of the Popes pretended Infallibility 11. The pretended Infallibility in the Pope or Church of Rome
so poor and feeble an engine as this of private compacts and covenantings by which they threaten with severe pens and tongues and brows to batter and demolish the great and goodly Fabrick and Communion of this and all other National Churches which are cemented together by excellent Laws and publick Constitutions so as to hold an honorable union with themselves and the whole Catholike Church That we rather wonder at the weakness and simplicity of those inventers and abetters who in common reason cannot be ignorant that as in civil respects and polity so in Ecclesiastical no private fraternities in families nor Corporations as in Towns and Cities can vacate those more publick and general relations or those tyes of duty and service which each Member ows to the Publick whereof it is but a part and it may be so inconsiderable an one that for its sake the greater good of the publick ought not in Reason or Religion to be prejudiced or any way neglected No more ought it to be in the Churches larger concernments for Peace Order and Government Nay we dare appeal to the Consciences of any of those Bodying Christians whom charity may presume to be godly and judicious Whether they finde in Scripture or have cause to think That the blessed Apostles ever constituted such small Bodies of Covenanting Churches when there were great numbers and many Congregations of Christians in any City Province or Country so as each one should be thought absolute Independent and no way subordinate to another Whether ever the Apostles required of those lesser handfuls of Christians which might and did convene in one place any such explicite Forms or Covenants besides those holy bonds which by believing and professing of the Faith by Baptism and Eucharistical communion were upon them Or Whether the blessed Apostles would have questioned or denied those to be true Christians and in a true Church or have separated from them or cast them off as not ingrafted in Christ or growing up in him who without any such bodying in small parcels had professed the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the due use of Word Sacraments and Ministry who endeavored to lead a holy and orderly life themselves and sought by all means which charity order or authority allowed them to repress the contrary in others No doubt the Apostles wisdom and charity was far enough from the wantonness and uncharitableness of some of these mens spirits who do not onely mock our Church and its Ministers 2 Kings 2.23 as the children did Elisha the Prophet but they seek to destroy them as the she-bears did the children Sure enough the Apostles instead of such severe censures peevish disputes and rigorous separations would have joyned with and rejoyced in the Faith Order and Vnity of such Churches such Christians and such Ministers where-ever they had met with them in all the World without any such scruple or scandal for their not being first broken into Independent Bodies and then bound up by private covenantings which are indeed no other than the racking distorting and dislocations of parts to the weakning and deforming of the whole VVe covet not a better or truer constituted Church than such as we are most confident Col. 2.5 Joying and beholding the order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ the wisdom and charity of the Apostles would have approved in the main however in some lesser things they might gently reprove and reform them as they did divers famous and flourishing Churches And such a Church we have enjoyed in England by Gods mercy before ever we knew those mens unhappy novelties or cruelties who seek now to divide and utterly destroy us unless we conform to their deforming principles and practises And however we have not been wholly without the spots of humane infirmities yet we have professed Jesus Christ in that truth order purity and sincerity which gives us comfort and courage to claim the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privilege of being true Christians and a true Church that is a very considerable famous and flourishing part branch or Member of that Catholike Church which professeth visibly or believes savingly in the Name of Jesus Christ the Head of the whole Body and of every part to whom we are united by the same common Faith and by Charity to one another Certainly the best Churches and Christians were antiently like the goodly bunches of Grapes Numb 13.24 which the Spies brought between them as an emblem of Christ crucified hanging on a staff so fair so full so great and united clusters From which no small slips did ever willingly divide or rend to Schism but presently they became not as the fruit of Canaan but as sowr Grapes fit onely to set mens teeth on edge wheting them to bite and devour one another For the maner of each particular holy Administration in our Church to answer all the small cavils which men list to make 23. The great shield of the Church of England is to encourage too much their petulancy and to make them too much masters of sober mens time and leisure Onely this great and faithful shield * See those Reverend and Learned Writers Bishop Bilson Bishop Cowper Doctor Field Master Richard Hooker Master Mason and others Learned men heretofore have and we do still hold forth to repel all their darts and arrows That both in the Ordination of our Ministers and in their celebration of holy things and in its Government Order and Harmony the Church of England hath followed the clearest rules in Scripture and the best paterns of the antient Churches onely enjoying those Christian liberties of prudence order and decency which we see the gracious wisdom of Christ hath allowed his Church and which particular Churches have always used and enjoyed in their extern rites and customs with variety yet without blemish as to the Institutions of Christ or to the soundness in the Faith or to any breach of Charity or any prejudice and scandal to each others liberties in those things So that those busie flies upon the Wheels of this Chariot the Reformed Church of England in which the Gospel of Jesus Christ hath hitherto been carried among us for many years with great triumph and success have stirred up very little dust so as might blinde any eyes that are not full of motes and beams or blood-shotten from seeing clearly and evidently a true Christian Church a true Ministry and truly religious Administrations among us Blessed be God though these sowr Momusses finde or make some faults and flaws in lesser matters the mending of which they most oppose and hinder yet their strength cannot shake the foundations of our Jerusalem which are of pretious pearls and solid stones nor can their malice overthrow our grand and goodly pillars the true and able Ministers and their holy Ministrations of Word and Sacraments among Professors of the Faith who do as unquestionably constitute a true Church as a reasonable
scandal speedily reform abuses restore defects execute all power of the Keys in the right way of Discipline without which there is no true at least no compleat and perfect Church for these men think Christians can hardly get to Heaven unless they have power among them to cast one another into Hell to give men over to Satan to excommunicate as they see cause to open and shut Heaven and Hell gates as they think fit Must all things that concern our Church say they lie at six and sevens till we get such Bishops and Presbyters such Synods and Councils such Representatives of Learned men as are hardly obtained and as hard to be rightly ordered or well used when they are met together They had rather make quicker dispatches in Church work as if they thought it better for every family to hang and draw within it self and presently punish every offence than for a whole Country to attend either general Assizes or quarter Sessions Answ Truly good Christians in this Church at present are in a sad and bad case too as well as their Ministers if they could make no work of Religion till they were happy to see all things of extern order and government duly setled Yet sure we may go to Church and to Heaven too in our worst clothes if we can get no better nor may we therefore wholly stay at home and neglect religious duties because we cannot be so fine as we would be Both Ministers and people must do the best they can in their private sphears and particular Congregations to which they are related whereby to preserve themselves and one another as Brethren in Christ from such deformities and abuses as are destructive to the power of godliness the peace of conscience and the honor of the Reformed Religion until the Lord be pleased to restore to this Church that holy Order antient Government and Discipline which is necessary not to the being of a Christian or a true Church as its form or matter which true Believers constitute by their internal union to Christ by Faith and to all Christians by Charity but onely as to the external form and polity for the peace order and well being of a Church as it is a visible society or holy nation and fraternity of men 1 Pet. 2.9 professing the truth of Jesus Christ Yea and Christians may better want that is with less detriment or deformity to Religion that Discipline which some men so exceedingly magnifie as the very Throne Scepter and Kingdom of Christ under Christian Magistracy as they may the office of Deacons where the law by Overseers takes care for the poor where good laws by civil power punish publick offences and repress all disorders in Religion as well as trespasses in secular affairs Better I say than they could have been without it in primitive times when Christians had no other means to repress any disorders that might arise in their societies either scandalous to their profession or contrary to their principles of which no Heathen Magistrate or Humane Laws took then any cognisance or applied any remedy to them Not but that I do highly approve and earnestly pray for such good Order comely Government and exact Discipline in every Church both as to the lesser Congregations and the greater Associations to which all reasons of safety and grounds of peace invite Christian Societies in their Church relations as well as in those of Civil which were antiently used in all setled and flourishing Churches Much after that patern which was used among the Jews both in their Synagogues which they had frequent both in their own Land and among strangers in their dispersions and also in their great Sanhedrim which was as a constant supreme Council for ordering affairs chiefly of Religion to one or both which no doubt our Saviour then referred the believing Jew in that of Tell it to the Church that is after private monition tell it to the lesser Convention or Consistory in the Synagogues which might decide matters of a lesser nature or to the higher Sanedrim in things of more publick concernment both which were properly enough called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetus congregatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Jud. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil hic à Christo novum praecipitur sed mos rectè introductus probatur H. Grot. in loc Ecclesiae i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Every polity hath in it power enough to preserve it happiness Coimus in coâ—tum congregationem Ibidem orationes exhortationes castigationes censura divina Praesident probati quique seniores Tert. Apol. Solebant Judaei res majoris momenti ultimo loco ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multitudinem referre i. e. ad eos qui eadem instituta sestabantur quorum judicia conventus seniores moderabantur tanquam praesidet Grot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Bas in Chrys Beyond this sense none could be made of Christs words by his then Auditors to whom he speaks not by way of new direction and institution of a Soverein Court or Consistory in every Congregation of Christians to come but by way of referring to a well known use and daily practise then among the Jews which was the onely and best means wherein a Brother might have such satisfaction in point of any offence which charity would best bear without flying to the Civil Magistrate which was now a forein power When Jews turned Christians it s very certain they altered not their Discipline and order as Christians in Church society from what they used before in their Synagogues Proportionably no doubt in Christian Churches of narrower or larger extensions and communion among the Gentiles the wisdom of Christ directs and allows such judicatories and iurisdictions to prevent or remove all scandals and offences among Christians to preserve peace and order as may have least of private or pedantick imperiousness and vulgar trifflings of men unable and unfit to be in or to exercise any such holy and divine authority over others who are easily trampled upon and fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil by reason of divers lusts passions weaknesses and temptations but rather Christ commends such grave Consistories solemn Synods and venerable Councils as consisting of wise and able and worthy men may have most as of the Apostolical wisdom eminency gravity so of Christs Spirit Power and Authority among them Such as no Christian with any modesty reason conscience or ingenuity can despise or refuse to submit to the integrity of their censure when it is carried on not with those heats peevishnesses and emulations which are usually among men of less improved parts or ripened years especially if Neighbors Such a way wisely setled in the Church might indeed binde up all things that concern Religion in private or more publick respects to all good behavior in the bonds of truth peace and
errors or publike disorders and scandals which it concerned all Christians and Churches to see repressed or amended Of Excommunication and censures Praesident prolati quique seniores honorem islam non pretio sed testimonio adepti Tertul. Apol. c. 39. The â—do Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 10. Quod sacris Episcoporum conciliis constitutum fuerit id ad divinam voluntatem est referendum Const M. dictum Euseb vit Const Episcopi in Synodo Sardicensi Dei amantissimi Reges adjuvantâ— divina gratia nos congregaverunt In illa concilla totus desiderio feror in istis devotione immoror amore condeleâ—tor inhaereo consensu emulatione persisto in quibus non hominum traditiones obstinatius defensantur aut superstitiosius observantur sed diligentur humiliterque inquiritur quae sit voluntas Dei bona bene placens Bern. Ep. 19. The wise and excellent Discipline of the Church and the power of using and applying of it which so many now either vainly arrogate or ambitiously Court was not of old as a bodkin put into every mechanicks hands or as a sword committed to every brawny arm nor yet was it such a brutum fulmen a thunder-bolt which the confident hand of every factionist might take to himself and Grasp or use to his private revenge or to the advantage of his party and design But Discipline together with Government in the Church was only committed and concredited after the example of the ApostolicÌ„all times by the wisdom humility consent and subjection of all good Christians in their severall stations either as Princes or Subjects to those learned grave and godly men Bishops and Presbyters who were ablest for gifts eminentest for their labours and highest in place and Ministeriall authority in the Churches of Christ whose assemblies or convenings were greater or smaller and their influence accordingly obliging valid and effectuall for the good of those Churches over which they were ascending from the first and least Country Congregations as the smallest yet considerable branches of a visible Church till it arose like Ezekiels waters from the Anckles to the Knees and Loyns and Head to such large plenary and powerfull an Authority as represented many famous Churches and sometimes the greatest and conversable parts of the Catholick Church throughout the whole world as in generall Councils called Oecumeniall Of Synods and Councils Out of which Synods and Councils however disorders and inconveniences as Nazianzene and others complain cannot be wholy kept out they still consisting of sinfull and so frail men yet they were subject to far less evils Cyp. Nazi orat 19. Ruffin Hist l. 1. c. 19. 18. In causa Athenasii Factionis macula sociavit concilium non judicandi sed opprimendi causa agebatur sub Constantio Concil Nicae secundum ab Artianis coactuÌ„ terrae motu impeditum Theod. l. 2. c. 19. and Errataes than attend the small scattered and separate bodies of there later decimo sexto editions In multitude of Counsellors there is wisdom safety and honour Prov. 11.14 Nor may we cast away those goodly large Robes which the prudence and piety of the antients made because they are subject to be soyled or rent by the hands of folly It is better for the Church to enjoy the gleanings of the antients Integrity Wisdom and Charity in ordering of the Church than to have the whole harvest of later mens sowings which have large straw of promises and shews but little grain of solid benefit yea much cockle too and many thistles of most choaking and offensive consequences The very rags of true antiquity doe better cover the nakedness and more adorne thee body of any Church than any of those cobweb-garments of later making which are torn in pieces while they are putting on and fitting to these new bodies of odd shapen Churches All reason and experience teacheth that those grand communicative wayes of Christian Churches in the joynt Counsels of grave learned and Godly men drawing all into union harmony and peace for the publike and generall good were far more probable though perhaps not absolutely necessary means to preserve both the doctrine of Faith and good manners unblameable among Christians than any of those small and broken Potsheards of private Independency can be which carry little ability and as little authority or vertue with them appearing like the Serpents teeth sown by Cadmus every where rising up in armed parties divided against and destroying one another till they have cleared the Field as of all such new and angry productions so of all those antient and excellent constitutions of Christian Churches which were bound up as Bibles in greater or lesser volumes It being so naturall to all men to affect what they call liberty and power if once mean men can by any arts obtein any shadow of them they are out of the shew of much zeal and conscience most pragmaticall And first begin to think no Church well reformed unless they bring them to their models Then their modell must be new lest their Authors should seem to have been idle being alwaies more concerned for the reformation of any men than of themselves God grant that while temerity and confidence pretends to plant none but new and rare flowers and to root up all old ones as ill weeds in the Church that themselves and their odd inventions with their rash abolitions prove not at last the most noxious plants that ever pestered the Garden of this Church To what some men urge by abusing that text against the good Orders Canons and Constitutions or Customs of the Church 31. Of prudence in ordering the Church affairs Mat. 15.13 That every plant which the Father hath not planted shall be pulled up therefore say they nothing of humane prudence is tolerable in the ordering of any Church I answer first none of those that quarrelled at the Church of Englands Motes but are thought by many learned and Godly men to have beams in their own eyes if Scripture right reason and antiquity may judge for nothing is alleged as more different from any of these amongst us than what may be found among the new Modellers who as they were in number and quality much inferior so they were never thought more wise or learned nor so calm and composed nor so publike and unpassionate in their Counsels and determinations as those many excellent men and Churches were both antient and modern to whose examples agreeable to the Canon of the Scriptures the Church of England was conformed n his rebus in quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura mos populi Dei vel instituta majorum pro lege tenendi sunt Aug. Ep. 89. Disciplina nulla est melior gravi prudentique viro in his quae liberas habent observationes quam ut co modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quam cunque forte divenerit Quod enim neque contra fidem neque bonos more 's injungitur indâ—fferenter est habendum
and all possible means of Historical belief or faith among men For which the wisdom and providence of the Creator hath afforded to mankinde no other ordinary ground or inducement but onely that of a charitable and rational perswasion which we have That neither the most nor to be sure the best ablest and worthiest men in all Ages and these in several places would conspire in a lie or give testimony to a falshood contrary to their own consciences and the evidence of things as to matter of fact whereof themselves and their forefathers were eye-witnesses beyond any possibility of ignorance or mistake Nor can any thing be alleged or supposed as matter of self-interest or partiality there being in the first Three hundred years no temptation of secular profit or honor to blinde or corrupt their judgment and testimony whereby they should not either fully and clearly see what was judged and acted in the Church or that any thing should so bribe their tongues and pens as not to give a true record and faithful report to posterity Since many of them sealed their love to the truth and charity to mankinde by their blood in Martyrdom At the same rate of obstinate disbelieving and supercilious denying whatever is delivered by writing or tradition to after Ages men may foolishly and madly question the works of every Author the facts and records of all former times Ubi charismata domini posita sunt ibi discere oportet veritatem apud quos est ea quae ab Apostolis successio id quod est sanum irreprobabile sermonie â—â—nstat Iren. l. 4. c. 45. Edant origines Ecclesiaâ—um suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentium ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis viris habuerit autoreÌ„ antecessoâ—em Tert. de prae ad Hae. c. 32. left us in History Christians may doubt of their Baptism in their Infancy yea and question their own Natural Fathers and Mothers refusing to own or pay any duty and obedience to them since of these they can have no other assurance than what is told them by others as also of all their forefathers and predecessors from whom these Sceptical Infidels are certainly descended although they never saw them and possibly they enjoy the benefit of their forefathers labors and estates to this day which from those is derived in an orderly succession to these their ungrateful successors Nor is indeed the Series and Genealogy of Natural Parents more necessary and certain in reason that they have been and are gone before us however their several names and successions may be unknown from Noah or from Adam than is the constant and uninterrupted succession of Spiritual Fathers and Predecessors in the Ministry of the Church derived by the holy Apostles from Jesus Christ the second Adam the Everlasting Father of a better Generation Of which there are besides the apparent present succession in this Church of England and all other Churches-Christian now in all the World which lately had or still have a peculiar order of Bishops and Presbyters as holy Ministers in the Church so clear and constant and undeniable Histories from those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all men or writers the most worthy to be believed for their love to God their zeal for the truth their charity to all men but especially for their care of the houshold of Faith the Church of Christ Non fides ex peâ—sonis sed personae ex fide sunt probandae Ter. lib. de prae ad Haer. c. 3. Cum Episcopatus successione Charisma veritatis certum accipiunt Iren. l. 4. c. 43. Catholici â—â—verint se cum Eeclesia doctores recipere non cum Doctoribus Ecclesiae fidem deserere debere Vinc. Lirin c. 23. Haeretici sunt posteriores Episcopis quibus Apostoli tradiderunt Ecclesias Irenae l. 5. Audivi à quodam Presbytero qui audierat ab his qui Apostolos videraâ—t Irenae l. 4. c. 45. Eph. 4.11 1 Cor. 12.28 Wherein however it be most true that a bare descent or succession of persons following each other in time and place be not sufficient to carry on the being and honor of a true Church Christian which title is not entailed to any place or any race of people unless withal there be a succession in Christian Doctrine and Institutions according to the Scripture yet it is as true that the custody and tradition of the Scriptures the succession of true doctrine believed in the Church and divine Institutions celebrated never have been nor ever can possibly be in Christs ordinary way to his Church carried on to after generations but only by such a personall succession of Bishops Pastors and Ministers in the Church such as were in the beginning of the Goâ—pell appointed by Christ and ever since hath been orderly and constantly derived from one to another agreeable to the divine constitution Nor are Câ—ristians to expect or presume of daily miracles speciall revelations or Angelick missions to carry on Christian Religion but humbly to content themselves with that once setled Ministry and holy order which God by Jesus Christ hath given to the Church after which example some are still duly tryed ordained set apart and sanctified to this office the dispensation of the Gospell and those mysteries which goe with it Indeed I cannot but esteem as all good wise 2. The esteem to be had of the Catholick custom in the Church Vincent Lyr. Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus tenetur Ecclesiis id demum Catholicum cap. 3. Pro magno teste vetustas Creditur acceptam parce movere fidem Claudian Ratio veritas consuetudini praeponenda sunt sed si consuetudini veritas suffragatur nihil oportet firmius retineri Aust l. 4. cont Donat. de Bapt. c. 4. In his de quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura divina mos populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt si nec fidei nec bonis moribus sint contratia Aust ad Casulan Traditiones Ecclesiasticae quae fidei non officiunt ita observandae ut à majoribus tradita â— nec aliorum consuetudo aliorum contrario more subvertenda Jeron ad Lucian Si nulla Scriptura determinavit certe consuetudo roboravit quae sine dubio de Apost traditione manavit Tertul. de cor M. Sanctae Ecclesiae sacerdotes Catholicae veritatis haeredes Apostolica decreta definita sectante maluerunt se ipsos quà m vetustae universitatis fidem prodere Vinc. Lyrin c. 8. Si quid hodie per totum orbem frequentat ecclesia hoc quin ita faciendum sit disputare insolentissimae st insanâ—ae August ep 118. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas M. Cont. Aâ—ium Sabel c. Otherways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. de Apollâ—nario Post sacrarum Scripturarum canonicam autoritatem Ecclesiae Catholicae consensus tantum apud mâ—
semper valuit ut quae cunque ab hoc consensu confirmata videam mihi sacrosancta immutabilia videantur Bishop Carleton de Consen eccles cap. 11. cap. 277. and humble Christians do and ever did the constant clear and concurrent which is the truly Catholick testimony of the Church in which so much of the truth Spirit and grace of God hath alwaies appeared amidst the many cloudings of humane infirmities to be far beyond any meer humane record or authority in point of establishing a Christians judgement or conscience in any thing that is not contrary to the evident command of the written word of God However some mens ignorance and self conceited confidence like bogs and quagmires are so loose and false that no piles never so long well driven and strongly compacted by the consent and harmonious testimonies of the most learned writers in the Church can reach any bottom or firm ground in them whereon to lay a foundation of humane belief or erect a firm bank and defense against the invasion of daily novelties which blow up all and break in upon the antient and most venerable orders practises and constitutions of the Church where ever they are yet continued which being evidently set forth to me by witnesses of so great credit for their piety diligence fidelity harmony integrity constancy and charity I know not how with any face of humanity or Christianity to question disbelieve or contradict Under which cloud of unsuspected witnesses I confess I cannot but much acquiesce and rest satisfied in those things which others endlessly dispute because they have not so literal and preceptive a ground in Scripture Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec consiliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi autoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur August cont Donat. l. 4. In Concil Loodic Melito Episc Sard. missus ut autographa ubique decernat c. Constabit id ab Apostolis traditum quod apud ecclesias fuerit sacrosanctum Tert. ad Mar. l. 4. however they have a very rational exexemplary analogical and consequential authority from thence which is made most clear as to the minde of God by that sense which the Primitive Doctors and Christians who lived with or next to the Apostles had of them and by their practise accordingly in the ways of Religion Thus the Canonical Books of the Scripture especially those of the New Testament which no where are enumerated in any one Book nor as from divine oracle any where commanded to be believed or received as the writings of such holy authors guided by the dictates or directions of Gods Spirit we own and receive as they were after some time with judgment and discretion rejecting many other pretended Gospels and Epistles antiently received by the Catholike Church and to this day are continued So also in point of the Church Government How in right Reason Order and Religion the Churches of Christ either in single Congregations and Parishes or in larger Associations and Fraternities ought to be governed in which thing we see that sudden variations from the Churches constant patern in all ages and places hath lately cost the expence not onely of much Ink but of much blood and have both cast and left us in great scandals deformities and confusions unbeseeming Christian Religion The like confirmation I have for Christians observing the Lords day as their holy Rest or Sabbath to the Lord and their variating herein upon the occasion of Christs Resurrection from the Seventh day or Jewish Sabbath which is not so much commanded by Precept as confirmed by Practise in the Church so in the baptising of the Infants of Christian Parents who profeâ—s to believe in Jesus Christ onely for the means of salvation to them and their children which after Saint Cyprian Saint Jerom and Augustine affirm to have been the custom of the Catholike Church in and before their days so as no Bishop or Council or Synod began it Cypr. ep ad Fidum Aust ep 28. And no less in this of the peculiar distinct calling order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afric in Con. Carth. 1. anno 419. Some things in the Church are setled by Canon others by custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nicoen office and succession of the Ministry Evangelical In all which if the Letter and Analogy of Scripture were less clear than â—t is so that the doctrines of those particulars which are among Christians counted divine were â—ike Vines and Honey-suckles less able to bear up themselves in full authority by that strength and vertue which they receive from the Scripture Precept where undoubtedly their root is and from whence they have grown shooted out so far and flourished in all Churches yet the constant judgment and practise of the Church of Christ which is called the pilâ—ar and ground of truth are stayes and firm supports to such sweet and usefull plants which have so long flourished in the Church of Christ whose custom may silence perverse disputes of corrupt and contentious minds And indeed doth fully satisfy and confirm both my believe and my religious observation of those particulars as sacred and unalâ—erable Nor hath any of those things Eucharistia sacramentum non de aliorum manu quaÌ„ prasidentium sumimus Tertul de Coro Mil. Impositionem manuuÌ„ qua Ecclesiae mininistri in suum manus initiantur ut non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum ita inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 14. sect 2. Amb. l. 5. ep 32. ad Valentin Commends that sentence which the Emperours Father had wrote touching judicatories and Judges in Church matters In causa fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris eum judicare debere qui nec munere impar nec jure dissimilis constanter assero more clear evidence from Scripture or Catholick practice than this of the calling and succession of the Ministry of the Gospell hath wherein some men after due tryall and examination of their gifts and lives made by those who are of the same function and are in the Church indued with a derivable Commission and Authority to ordein an holy succession of men in the Ministry for the Churches use are by fasting prayer and solemn imposition of hands in the presence of the faithfull people publikely and peculiarly ordained consecrated set apart sent and authorised in the power and name of Christ to preach the Gospell to all men to administer the holy Sacraments and respectively to dispense all those holy duties and mysteries belonging to Christian Religion among Christian people that is such as profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of Sinners Which holy and most necessary custom of ordaining some fit men by others of the same function to be Ministers in the Church hath not only the unanimous consent and practise of the Orthodox Christians and purest Churches in all ages from the Apostles times But no Hereticks or Schismaticks who owned any
relation to the Gospell of Jesus Christ did ever so much as dispute or question the power and succession ministeriall as to its calling peculiar and divinely appropriated to some men in the Church Till of later dayes in Germany and some otherwheres the pride of some mens parts and conceit of their gifts or the opinion of their raptures and Enthusiasms mixed with other lusts and secular designs tempted some weak and fanatick men of the Anabaptistical leaven to adventure the invasion and vulgar prostration of the office before ever they broached their reasons against it Confessores gloriae Christi An. 1543. When they after proved to be Pastoricidae Vilains which conspired to destroy all the Ministers of the Gospel in Germany hanging and drowning many of them casting them into wells An. 1562. Cl. Sanctesius de temp decept Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. Qui absistunt à principali successionâ— Episcoporum Presbyterorum ab Apostolis quocunque locâ— relliguntur suspectos habere oportet vel haereticos vel scindentes vel elatos sibi placentes Oâ—â—eâ—â—i decidunt à veritate Sophistae verborum magis esse volentes quà m discipuli veritatis Iren. lib 3. c. 40. which presumption and disorder the Swenckfeldians who called themselves Confessors of the glory of Christ afterwards the Socinians and others intending to introduce new and heretical doctrines with their new Teachers studied to set forth with some weak shews of reason and Scripture Whereas in all former ages of the Church such as should have abrogated the antient Catholick way or have broached any new way of Evangelical power and Ministry would have been as scandalous as if he had broached a new Messias or a new Gospel and made the old one of none effect as many of those strive to do who seek to cry down the former way of Ministers right Ordination Succession and Authority Who if they had not met with a giddy and credulous and licentious age would have needed new miracles to have confirmed their new and plebeian ways of Ministry or to cashier the old one which was first began and after confirmed as the Gospel was for some years with many infallible signs and wonders wrought by the Apostles and their Successors in that Order and Function 3. What can be the design of any to go contrary or innovate What can it be then but an exceeding want of common understanding or a superfluity of malice or a transport of passion or some secular lust either to deny credit to the Testimony of the best Christians and purest Churches in all times or to go quite contrary to their judgment and practise by seeking to discredit and destroy the Authority and peculiar Function of the antient Catholike Christian Ministry in these or other Churches And since in primitive times it could be no matter of either profit or honor in the world In ea regula incedimus quà m Ecclesia ab Apostolis Apostoli à Christo Christus à Deo accepit Tertul. de Praes c. 37. Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostoloâ—um successioneâ—â—piscoporum certa per o rbem propagatione diffunditur August ep 42. to be a Bishop or Presbyter in the Church who were the first men to be persecuted or sacrificed What motive could there be then but onely Religion Duty and Conscience to undertake and persevere in that holy and dangerous Calling that so the Gospel might be continued And since now in England it can be no great temptation of covetousness or ambition unless it be in very poor and necessitous man to be a Preacher of the Gospel upon the new account of the peoples or self-ordaining which is as none what can it be that provokes so many in a new and pitiful way either of egregious ignorance and popular simplicity to undertake to be Preachers Or in a more refined way of devilish malice and deep design to seek to level cast down and trample under foot all Ministerial power whatsoever which is none if it be common and not peculiar to some men by divine Sanction Certainly this can arise from no other aim but either that of destroying us as a Reformed Church or desolating us quite from being a Church or Christians Which our posterity will easily cease to be as to the very form as many at present are 1 Cor. 15.14 as to any power and conscience of Religion if once they cease to have or begin to think they have not had any true Ministers in this or any Church So that all Preaching of the Gospel all Saâ—â—aments all the Faith of so many Christians Professors Confessors and Martyrs in all Ages together with the fruits of their Faith in Patience Charity and good Works must be in vain Alas these poor revenues and encouragements which are yet left to the Ministers here considered with their burdens of business duties taxes and envy are scarce worth the having or coveting even by vulgar and mechanick spirits who may make a better shift to live in any way almost than now in the Ministry The design then of levelling the Ministry must needs be from greater motives such as seek to have the whole honor and authority of the Reformed Religion here in England utterly abolished or else taken up upon some such odde novel and fanatick grounds which will hold no water bear no weight or stress being built upon the sands of humerous novelty not on the rock of holy antiquity and divine verity That so this whole Church may by the adversaries of it be brought to be a meer shadow of deformed and confused Religion or else be onely able to plead its Christianity upon meer Familistick or Anabaptistick or Enthusiastick or Socinian or Fanatick Principles Upon which must depend all our Christian Privileges Truths Sacraments Ministrations Duties and Comforts Living and Dying all which will easily be proved and appear to a considerate soul as profane and null when he shall see they are performed or administred by those Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus ecclesiastatus in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Episcoporum quibus illi â—am quae est in unoquoque lâ—ci Ecclesiam tradiderunt Ire l. 4. c. 6â— who can produce no Precept Scripture or Practise from Antiquity for their ways either of Christianity or of Ministry but onely their own or other mens wilde fancies and extravagant furies nor can they have better excuses for their errors in forsaking the right and Catholike way but onely a popular levity credulity and madness after novelties So that as to this first part of my answer touching The peculiar Function of the Ministry I do aver upon my Conscience so far as I have read or can learn That there is no Council of the Church or Synod no Father or Historian no other Writer that mentions the affairs of the Church no one of them gives the least cause to doubt but wholly confirms this
assertion That no part of the Catholike Church of Christ in any age or place was ever setled or flourished without a constant peculiar Order and Ordination of Ministers who were consecrated to the receiving and exercise of that power in the Church as from Christ although by man which have continued to this day Theodoret. hist l. 1. c. 22. De Aedesio Frumentio apud Indos dâ—vina Ministeria â—bierunt Laicii cum erant Frumentius postea ab Athanasio ep factus Cap. 23. Captivamulier apud Iberos Evangelium praedicabet miracula edebat His Const M. Episcopos misit There are indeed three or four examples in cases extraordinary of some private unordained Christians in the Primitive times who occasionally trading to Heathens were means first to teach them the Mysteries of Christ so as they desired to be baptized which was after done by such Bishops and Ordained Ministers as were sent them upon their request from other Churches To produce particulâ—r testimonies out of each Author Father Council and Historian in every age to prove the constant succession the high veneration and the unfeigned love which was every where conferred upon the Bishops and Ministers of the Church also to shew forth that devout care and religious regard which the ordainers the faithful people and those to be ordained to the office had in their several relations and duties when Ministers were to be ordained and consecrated such allegations were easie being very many and obvious but I hold the pains needless considering that to learned men they are so well known and all ingenuous Christians will believe my solemn asseveration that as in the presence of God what I write is Truth As for those weak or wilful men who are in this my onely opposers I know they consider not any heaps of authorities which they account onely as humane which they cannot examine nor do they value them when convinced of the certainty and harmony of them were there never so sweet and many flowers gathered from the testimony of Antiquity and Authority of the Fathers these supercilious novellers will not vouchsafe to smell to them It is well if I can make them savor any thing well out of the Scriptures which favors the Function of the Ministry 4. Catholike custom confirmed by Scripture as to the Office of the Ministry 2. So then in the next place This Defence of the Churches clear constant and Catholike Testimony in this point of the peculiar Office of the Ministry as in any other becomes a brazen wall an impregnable bulwark able to break in pieces or to retort all engines and batteries made against it when it appears to be exactly drawn according to the scale line and measure set down in the holy Scripture which are therefore much sleighted by some who despise the Ministry because like well-planted Canons they defend the Church and its constant Ministry as on the other side the Churches fidelity and constancy are the ground-work and platforms on which the Scriptures are planted 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of Christ bearing up as the ground and holding forth as a pillar that divine Truth Power and Authority which from God they have in them of which the Church is the Herald or Publisher but not the Author or Inditer Conferring nothing to their internal Truth which is from their revealer and inspirer God but much to their external credit and historick reception which we have tendered to us daily not as immediately from God or Angels or inspired Prophets but by the veracity and fidelity of the Church chiefly in its publick Ministry which in this point of so necessary constant and universal practise for the good of all faithful people in all Ages and Churches cannot be thought in any reason either to have had no rule divinely appointed or that all Churches have been wholly ignorant of it or knowingly have so wholly swerved from it that never any Church either in its Teachers and Pastors or in its people and believers were followers of the Scripture-Precept and Patern till these last and worst days whereas the clear and pregnant light of the Scripture is in this point of a setled Ministry so agreeing with the use and practice of the Catholike Church that as no error can be suspected in the one so no obscurity can be pretended in the other by any Christians who will allow the divine Authority and infallible Truth of those Scriptures which we call the New Testament In all which nothing is more evident Christ sent of the Father as a Minister of Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.25 Heb. 12.2 Matth. 17.5 Jâ—hn 4.34 5.36 6.57 7.16 Heb. 5.4 No mantaketh this honor to himself but he that is called of God as Aaron V. 5. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest but c. Matth. 3.17 and self-demonstrating beyond any cavil or contradiction than That our Lord Jesus Christ the promised Messias the beloved Son of God the Angel of the new and better Covenant the Minister of Righteousness the great Apostle the chief Bishop and Father of our souls the Author and Finisher of our Faith the supreme Lord and King the eternal and compassionate High Priest the unerring Prophet of his Church whose voice we are onely to hear and obey in all things he commands us That I say this Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to a personal accomplishment of all Prophecies fulfilling of all righteousness to a visible Ministration of holy things for the Churches good That he came not in his own Name as a man to be Mediator and Teacher nor did he as a man take this honor of Prophet Priest or King of his Church upon him but had his mission or appointment from his Father God who gave evident testimonies from Heaven of him not onely before and at his birth but afterward at his solemn and publick inauguration by Baptism into the Work of his Ministry where a voice from Heaven was heard and a visible representation of the Holy Spirit was seen testifying him to be the beloved Son of God the anointed with the gifts of the Spirit above all as Head of the Church These after were followed with infallible signs and wonders while Jesus went about doing good teaching the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven instituting holy rites for the distinguishing of his Church from the world and for the comforting of the faithful in the world by those seals pledges and memorials of his love in dying for the Church and shedding both water and blood upon the Cross Christs sending his Apostles as Ministers Acts 1. Phil. 2.9 Christ having thus personally finished the suffering and meritorious part of his Ministry after his Resurrection being now no more to converse in a visible humane way of presence with his Church on Earth but ascending as was meet to that glory of the Father which as God he had ever with him as man he had
merited of him by suffering on the Cross and enduring the shame for his Churches salvation yet he left not his Disciples comfortless but as he promised sent his Spirit publickly and eminently upon the Twelve principal Apostles Acts 2. John 20.21 whom he had formerly chosen and appointed in his and his Fathers Name to Preach the Gospel to whom he gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as to the Stewards and chief Deputies or Ministers of his houshold in his absence instructing them what to do on what foundation of faith in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Authority i. e. Legitima potentia Matth. 28.18 19 20. Mark 16.15 to build his Church by what Sacramental seals to confirm believers giving them full power and commission to go into all the world by Teaching and Baptising to make Disciples confirming this power to them by breathing on them and conferring farther Ministerial gifts of the Spirit upon them promising also to be with them to the end of the world which could not be meant of their persons who soon died but of their successors in that Office and Ministry that the same power authority and assistance should be with them in that holy way to which he thus ordeined and sent them by a divine charter and durable commission After all this for further publication of this great Authority and Ministerial power given to the Apostles and their Successors and for the confirmation of it both to their own consciences John 14.17 Acts 2. and to all the world the holy Spirit as was promised came upon them in the shape of fiery cloven tongues filling them with miraculous gifts and all Ministerial power both extraordinary in their persons and ordinary derivable to their Successors such as the wisdom of Christ thought most fit both for the first planting of the Church with miraculous gifts attending the Ministry of the Gospel and the after propagating of it by the same Ministry confirmed by the constancy of the Martyrs and Confessors which were in stead of daily miracles This whole frame polity and divine constitution of the order power and Ministry that should succeed Christ Jesus in his Church was no other than the proper effects of Christs prophetick power and wisdom for the instructing his Church an act or ordinance of his Kingly power for the governing of it and a fruit of his Priestly power and care for a right Liturgy or officiating to be continued in his Church thus furnishing it with an holy Succession of Evangelical Priests and Ministers in his name and authority who might always teach guide and govern also supplicate for consecrate and offer holy things with the faithful and for them namely the sacrifices of prayers thanksgiving and praises especially Heb. 9.14 10.12 that Eucharistical memorial of that one great oblation of himself once made on the Altar of the Cross for the Redemption of the World which is the great accomplishment of the Jewish Prophecies the abolishing of their Types and Ceremonies the main foundation of the Christians Religion and the chief subject of that Evangelical Ministry which Jesus Christ himself hath thus evidently instituted and sealed in his Church For whose sake he hath given those Ministerial gifts with a distinct power and authority making some not all either Apostles or Prophets or Evangelists or Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 12. 1 Cor. 12.4 5 21 28. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. And this by as manifest a distinction both for gifts and place and use as is in the parts of the body between the eyes and the hands the head and the feet Vers 29. So that all are not Apostles nor Prophets nor Teachers that are Believers and Members of the Body of Christ his Church no more than every part is an eye in the natural body however it partake of the same Soul as Believers do of the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.6 7. yet in different manifestations of which difference of gifts and office those onely are to judge whom the Spirit of Christ hath enabled with gifts and indued successively in the Church with power from Christ to judge of them and accordingly to invest them 1 Cor. 14.32 The spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Propheâ—â— V. 33. For God is not the Author of confusion c. by solemn and holy ordination into the orderly power of exercising those gifts which they are judged to have received from the Spirit of Christ for the good of the Church both for Instruction and for Government of it Without which divinely-constituted Order and Office of Ministry began in Christ by him derived to the Apostles and by them and their successors constantly and duly observed to these days the Church of Christ had long ere this been a monster made up of confused excrescencies a very heap and huddle of Ignorance Heresies Schisms all maner of erroneous blindness and extravagant madness like those mishapen prodigies which we may often see among those who having cast off the lawful succession the sacred and antient order of the Ministry do in their varieties exceed even the mixtures and productions of Africa After Christs Ascension 5. The Apostles ordain and command other to ordain Ministers we have no less evidence of Scripture for the undoubted practise of the blessed Apostles when they had by a divine lot first filled up that place and part of the Ministry from which Judas had faln Acts 1.25 For having received power Ministerial immediately from Christ they did duly conscientiously orderly and effectually fulfil their own Ministry and also took care to ordain others that might do so too both in their times and after them distributing their own labors into several Countreys and to several sorts of people Gal. 2.7 some to the Circumcision of the Jews others to those of the uncircumcised Gentiles Among whom they exercised their Office and Ministry 1 Coâ— 5.20 As Aâ—â—â—â—sadors â—oâ— Christ as though God did be eech you by us we pray y u in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 1 Cor. 3.9 2 Cor. 11.2 Esth 7.8 Eph. 4.11 Acts 14.23 And when they had ordained them Presbyters in every Church in Lystra Iconium Antioch c. Acts 20.28 Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or overseers to feed the Church of God c. Pauls speech to the Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus V. 17. 1 Tim. 3. 5.22 Lay hands i. e. by way of ordination to the Ministry 2 Tim. 2.2 The things thou hast heard of me commit thou the same to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Tit. 1.5 I left thee in Creet that thou shouldst ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Non tam solicitus de cura Timothei sed propter successores ejus ut
exemplo Timothei ecclesiae ordinationem custodirent Ambr. in 1 Tim. 6. not arbitrarily and precariously but as a trust and duty of necessity out of conscience and with all divine power authority and fidelity as Ambassadors from Christ for God as Heralds as Angels or Messengers sent from God as Laborers together with God in his Husbandry the Church as Woers and Espousers having Commission or Letters of credence to treat of and make up a marriage and espousals between Christ and the Church which sacred office of trust and honor none without due authority delegated to him from Christ might perform any more than Haman might presume to court Queen Esther before the King Ahasuerus During these Primitive times of the Apostles Ministry of the Gospel before they had finished their mortal pilgrimage we read them careful to ordain Presbyters in every City and Church to give them charge of their Ministry to fulfil it of their flocks to feed and guide them in Christs way both for truth and orders over whom the Lord had made them over-seers by the Apostles appointment who not onely thus ordained others to succeed them immediately but gave command as from the Lord to these as namely to Timothy and Titus to take great care for an holy succession of Ministers such as should be apt to teach able and faithful men to whom they should commit the Ministry of the Word of life so as the Word or Institution of Christ might be kept unblamable till the coming of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 by an holy order and office of Ministers duly ordained with the solemn imposition of hands as a visible token to men of the peculiar designiation of them and no others but those to this Office and Function who must attend on the Ministry give an account of their charge and care of souls to God Thus we finde beyond all dispute for Three Generations after Christ First in the Apostles secondly from them to others by name to Timothy and Titus thirdly from them to others by them to be ordained Bishops and Deacons the holy Ministry instituted by Christ is carried on in an orderly succession in the same Name with the same Authority to the same holy ends and offices as far as the History of the New Testament extends which is not above thirty years after Christs Ascension And we have after all these the next Succession testifying the minde of the Lord and the Apostles Clemens the Scholar of Saint Paul mentioned Phil. 4.3 who in his divine Epistle testifies That the Apostles ordained every where the first-fruits or prime Believers for Bishops and Deacons Pag. 54. And pag. 57. the Apostles appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinct Offices as at present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That when these slept with the Lord others tried and approved men should succeed and execute their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy Ministry than which testimony nothing can be more evident After that he blames the Corinthians for raising sedition for one or two mens sake against all the Presbytery Pag. 62. And exhorts at last Let the flock of Christ be at peace with the Presbyters ordained to be over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after Be subject to the Presbyters c. Thus the excellent methods of Christs grace and wisdom toward his Church appear as to this peculiar Office and constant Function of the Evangelical Ministry commanding men to work the work of God that they may have eternal life John 6.29 which is to believe in him whom the Father hath sent sealed and anointed with full power to suffer to satisfie to merit to fulfil all Righteosness Also to declare and confirm this to his Church constantly teaching guiding and sanctifying it He hath for this end taken care that faithful able and credible men should be ordained in an holy constant succession to bear witness or record of him to all posterity that so others might by hearing believe without which ordinarily they cannot Rom. 10.14 15. Nor can they hear with regard or in prudence give credit and honor to the speaker or obey with conscience the things spoken unless the Preacher be such an one as entreth in by the door John 10.1 into the sheepfold such as is sent by God either immediately as the Apostles or mediately as their Successors from them and after them who could never have preached and suffered with that confidence conscience and authority unless they had been conscious that they were rightly sent of God Rom. 10.14 15. Psal 68.11 Isai 53.1 1 Cor. 1.18 and Christ At whose Word onely this great company of Preachers were sent into the world who so mightily in a short time prevailed as to perswade men every where to believe a report so strange so incredible so ridiculous so foolish to flesh and blood and to the wisdom of the world Thus far then the tenor of the whole New Testament 6. Distinct Characters and Notes of the Ministerial Office John 15.19 and that one Apostolike Writer Clemens witnesseth that as Jesus Christ the great Prophet and chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5.4 was sent and impowred with all power from the Father to carry on the great work of saving sinners by gathering them out of the world into the fold and bosom of his Church So he did this and will ever be doing it till his comming again by ordeining and continuing such means and Ministry Mat. 28.20 as he saw fittest to bring men into and to guide them in Joh. 21.15 Feed my Lambs my Sheep Acts 20.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To feed as Shepheards the flock 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God c. 2 Tim. 4.1 2. 2 Tim. 4.5 Acts 20.29 1 Tim 4.11 Mat. 28. ult Heb. 13.14 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account c. Luke 12.43 Blessed is that servant the faithfull and wise Steward set over the house-hold whom his Master comming shall find so doing Dan. 12.3 1 Cor. 9.17 If I do this willingly I have a reward c. the wayes of saving truth of Religious orders and of holy lives Investing as we have seen particular persons whose names are recorded with peculiar power to teach to gather to feed and govern his Church by Doctrine by Sacraments and by holy Discipline Setting those men in peculiar relations and Offices to his Church as Fathers Stewards Bishops Shepheards Rulers Watchmen calling them by peculiar names and distinct titles as light of the world Salt of the earth Mat. 5.13 Fishers of men Mat. 4.19 Stars in his right hand Rev. 2.1 Angels of the Churches Requiring of them peculiar duties as to Preach the word in season and out of season to feed his Lambs and Sheep to fulfill the work of their Ministry to take care of the flock against grievous Wolves
abilities and willingness would make a Minister of Christ which they will not Certainly no men are so good natured of themselves without hopes of gain or some benefit as of their own good will to undertake and constantly to persevere in so hard and hazardous besides so holy a service as this of holding forth to a vain proud carnal hypocritical Vera cruce digni qui crucifixum adorant Insana religio Cecil Exitiabilis supeâ—stitio Tacit. Annal. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julius Imp. ep 7. 1 Cor. 2.14 Exitiabilis superstitio Author ejus Christus qui Tiberio imperantâ— per procuratorem Pontiuâ— Pilatum supplicio affectus Tac. l. 15. Annal. Miranda etiam pudenda credit Christianus cujus fides impudens esse debet Tert. de Bapt. Sacra sacrilegiis omnibus tetriâ—ra Cecil de Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb hist l. 4. c. 14. Else Christian Religion would have failed Multi barbarorum in Christum credunt sine charactere vel atramento scriptum habentes per spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterum traditionem diligenter custodientes quà m Apostoli tradiderunt iis quibus committebant ecclesias cui ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes Tren l. 4. c. 4. persecuting and devilish world so de picable and ridiculous a doctrine as this of a crucified Saviour at first was and still seems to the natural or onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rational man unless there were by the wisdom and authority of Christ such ties of duty and calling laid upon some mens consciences as onely the mission and mandate of God can lay upon men who are not naturally more disposed to go on Gods errand than Moses or Jeremy or Jonah were And however now the peace warmth and serenity of times hath made the Ministry of the Gospel a matter of covetousness or popular ambition or curiosity or wantonness to many of these new Preachers who with rashness levity and a kinde of frolickness undertake that work which the best men and Angels themselves would not without much weeping as Saint Austine that day when he was ordained a Presbyter or with fear and trembling undertake yet the rigor and storms of primitive times it is very probable would have quenched the now so forward heats and flashes of these mens spirits When to Preach the Gospel and to preside as a Bishop or Presbyter in the Church was to expose a mans self to the front of persecution to stand in the gap against the violent incursions of malicious men and cruel devils To be a Minister of Jesus Christ was presently to forsake all and to take up the Cross and follow Christ to adopt with holy orders famine and nakedness banishment prisons beasts racks fires torments many deaths in one so that unless there had been divine authority enjoyning power enabling and special grace assisting the Ordainers in the Name of Christ sending and so in conscience binding together with gracious promises of a reward in Heaven incouraging the ordained doubtless the glorious Gospel of mans salvation had ere this been buried in oblivion none had believed that report nor heard of it if none had dared to preach it and none would of his own good will have been so hardy or prodigal of all worldly interests honor liberty safety estate and life as to adventure all needlessly and spontaneously on such a message to others so unwonted so unwelcome so offensive to the ears and hearts of men unless he had been conscious to a speâ—ial dâ—ty laid upon him by divine authority which was always derived in that holy and solemn Ordination which was the inauguration of Ministers to that great and sacred Work This indeed gave so great confirmation and courage to the true and ordâ—ined Ministers of the Gospel that believing what they preached of a crucified Saviour and knowing whose work it was in whose Name they were ordained by whose power they were sent to how great ends their labors were designed even to save souls they willingly bare the Cross of Christ Acts 5.41 and counted it a crown and honorary addition to their Ministry to be thought worthy to suffer for the Name of Christ that what any of them wanted in the power of miracles was made up in the wonder of their patience when no Armies no State favored them and both opposed them when they had no temptations of getting a better living by preaching than any other way but rather losing of what they had when they expected few applauders of their boldness and forwardness many persecutors and opposers of their consciencious endeavors to do the duty which Christ by the Church had laid on them when they might not grow restive and lazy and knock off when they pleased but a wo and a necessity and an heavy account to be given to the great Pastor of the Church Christ Jesus always founded in their ears and beat upon their mindes These put them upon those Heroick resolutions to endure all things for Christs sake 2 Tim. 2.10 I endure all things for the elects sake c. 2 Cor. 11. 12. Phil. 1. Tit. 1.11 1 Tim. 6.5 Rom. 16.17 I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Vers 18. For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple 1 Cor. 4.1 2. John 10.1 2. and the Churches sake and the good of those souls committed to their charge Nor did they remit their care or slacken the conscience of their duty in preaching diligently the Gospel because of the forwardness and seeming zeal of those that were false Brethren and false Apostles who out of envy or spight or for filthy lucre or any vain-glory among Christians set up the trade of preaching upon their own stock of boldness without any mission from Christ or those to whom he had delegated that power to ordain fit and able men Their seeming good will and readiness to preach did not free them from the brand of false Apostles and deceitful workers Satans ministers and messengers sent to buffet not to build the Church Wolves in sheeps clothing serving their bellies and not the Lord Christ or the Churches good whose order and authority they despise Nor can they be faithful to Gods work unless they keep to his word both as to the truths delivered and the order prescribed and the duties enjoyned and the authority established Christ doth not onely provide food for his family but stewards also and dispensers of it who may and must see to give every one their portion in due season rightly dividing the Word of truth There is not onely plenty but order and government in Christs house nothing less becomes the servants of Christ than this sharking and scrambling way of these new men who will snatch and carve for themselves and dispence to others what when
by Christ committed to our charge as Ministers of and for Jesus Christ whose work is to see that the sufferings of Christ be not in vain that the soveraign salves and balms of his blood may be duly applied to the benummed to the tender to the wounded consciences to the broken and bleeding to the stony and hardned to the fleshy and flinty hearts This so prodigious a work and more than humane undertaking to be a Minister of the Gospel either as a Bishop or Presbyter for neither the difference nor the distance was great in point of the main work either of teaching or governing onely the higher place had the greater care and the more honor drew with it the greater burden of duty made those holy men of old so loth and unwilling to yield themselves to the desires importunities and even violencies of those Christians who looked upon them Ambr. off l. 1. c. 1. Ego invitus de tr bunalibus atque administrationis infulis ad sacerdotium Vita B. Ambrosii as fit for so great a work in the Church they said Nolo Episcopari in good earnest Saint Ambrose was for his learning integrity piety and eloquence so esteemed in his secular employment as a Judge that the faithful people of Millan otherways divided by the Arrian faction thought none more fit to be their Bishop and chief Pastor to guide by teaching and governing them in matters of Religion They in a maner forced him from the Tribunal to the Throne or Cathedral with pious compulsions which to avoid he fled by night and after a nights wandring found himself next morn at Millan He put on the face of cruelty and bloodiness invited loose and leud people to haunt his house that he might seem unworthy of that dignity and deter them from the choice Which he tel s us he suffered not without an holy impatience complaining of the injury done him and he would not have yielded if he had not been perswaded that the impulse and motion of the people so resolute so zealous and so unanimous was from God whose pleasure was thereby signified to him That leaving secular affairs he had work for him to do in his Church which he discharged with great diligence courage and fidelity after he was baptized duly ordained a Presbyter and consecrated to be a Bishop To whose learned and holy eloquence the Church oweth besides other excellent fruits the happy conversion of Saint Austine In like sort Saint Jerome tells us of Nepotian That when his holy learning and life had so recommended him that he was generally desired to be made a Minister of the Church Nepotianus eo dignioâ— erat quo se clamabat indignum populus quaerebat c. Humilitate superabat invidiam Jer. ad Holiodorum Ammonius fugiens aurem dextram praecidit cùm ad Episcopatum quae thatur ut deformitate impediretur electio Zozom l. 6. c. 30. Socâ—at l. 4. c. 18. Nihil in hae vita difficilius laboriosius periculosius Episcopi aut Presbyteri aut Diaconi officio sed apud deum nihil beatius si eo modo militetur quo imperator noster jubet Hinc lacrymae illae quas ordinationis meae tempore effundebam August epist 148. Greg. Nis in viâ—â— Thaumat tells how Greg. Thaum omni cura fugiebat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 25. Tells how unwillingly he was brought to be a Bishop which others hastned to so ambitiously he first hid himself When he was found they brought him to Ordination as it were to execution weeping deprecating and deploring with unfeigned earnestness protesting how unfit how unworthy he was for that great work whom nothing could have made more fit and worthy than so great humility with so great holiness and ability Some as Ammonius did maim and deform themselves to avoid this great undertaking Saint Austine a man of incomparable abilities professeth That he esteems nothing more difficult laborious and dangerous in this world than the office of a Bishop or Presbyter though nothing be more glorious and accepted before God if the work be discharged so as we have in charge from our chief commander and Bishop the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence saith he were those tears which he could not forbear to shed plentifully on the day of his Ordination which others wondred at then and he after gives the world an account of them O humble holy happy well-placed tears which watered on that occasion one of the most devout diligent and fruitful souls that ever the Church of Christ enjoyed Saint Chrysostome also a great and glorious star of the first magnitude in the Firmament of the Church who filled the Orb in which he was placed and equalled by his eloquent worth the eminency of the City Constantinople where he sate as Bishop passionately bemoans his condition and all of his order as Bishops and Ministers of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost In act 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. in 1. c. act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes ep 11. Thuanus Anno 1555. tells of Marcellus a wise and sober man When the Scâ—ipture was read before him of the office of a Bishop he with earnestness protested He could hardly see how any man in the eminency of his place could be intent to the salvation of his own soul professing That he thinks the work the danger and the difficulties so great that a Bishop and Minister had need have an hundred hands and as many eyes to avoid scandals and to dispatch the employment So that he protesteth That he cannot see how many Bishops or Ministers can be saved yea and believes far more are damned than saved Synesius also professeth Had he been aware of the vastness of the work and charge of souls he would have chosen many deaths rather than have been a Bishop or Presbyter in the Church as he was and a ve y worthy one too from an eloquent and learned Philosopher Thus and to this tune generally all those antient Bishops and most eminent Ministers of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis vita Thaum Quanto in praecipitio stant illi qui tot mortibus sunt obnoxii quot habent in tutela animas Cleman Spel. and this not out of restiveness cowardise or want of zeal piety and charity but meerly out of unfeigned humility as Moses Jeremiah Isaiah Ezekiel and others abasing themselves out of the high esteem they had of the glory of Christ the honor of his Religion the dignity of his Ministry and the pretiousness of souls for which he had shed his sacred blood 9. Nor is the work God knows less or easier now 14. The Work not now easier than it was requires as able Ministers on our hands nor the burden lighter nor are our arms and shoulders stronger in these days than in former times that any mens confidence in undertaking or forwardness in obtruding on that calling should
For which necessity a relief was long ago hoped for and expected if not promised from the piety and nobleness of the Parliaments of England who could not but see that in many if not most parts either the Ministers abilities and pains exceeded the Benefice or the starving tenuity of the Benefice like an hungry and barren soyl Innovercante solo satae arbores quamvis generosiores feraces cito sterilescunt Varro Tenuitatem beneficiorum necessariâ— sequitur ignorantia sacerdotum Bishop Jewel eat up and consumed the Ministers gifts and parts which at first were florid and very hopeful and so would have thrived had they not been planted in a soyl that was rather a dry nurse than a kinde mother Nor was there then or is there now any way to avoid the mischief of admitting such minute offerers of their selves to the Ministry in places of so minute maintenance unless the entertainment were enlarged as is requisite in many Livings where the whole salary is not so much as the interest of the money bestowed in breeding of a Scholar would amount to which an able Minister cannot live upon so as to do his duty yet this fault of ordaining and instituting weak Ministers which arose from the hardness of Laymens hearts was better committed than omitted by the Ordainers for it was better that such small timber if as strait and sound as can be had be put in the wall than the house in that place lie quite open and decayed Better the poor people be taught in some measure the Mysteries and Truth of Religion than left wholly wilde and ignorant I know that as in a building it is not necessary that all pieces should be great and massie timber less will serve in their place and proportion yet the principal parts ought to be so substantial that they might relieve the weaker studs and rafters of the burden so that no danger might be to the whole Fabrick from their feebleness so assisted The state of the Church ought indeed to be so ordered that there should be a competency for all and a competency in all Ministers but in some there ought to be an eminency as in employment so in entertainment upon whom the greatest recumbency of Churches may be laid whose learning courage gravity tongue and pen may be able to sustain the weight of Religion in all controversies and oppositions which assertings and vindications require not onely good will and courage but great strength and dexterity The ablest Minister if he well ponders what he hath to do hath no cause to be very forward nor should the meanest that is honest and congruous have cause to despond or be discouraged in his good endeavors Great care ought to be had for Ordination of able Ministers and for augmentation of their Means to competency To restore the Reformed Christian Ministry in this Church to its true honor there should be greatest care had in the matter of ordination before which antiently the Church had solemn Fasting Prayer and Humiliation But in vain as to many places which all need able Ministers will this care be unless there be also some necessary augmentation of Ministers maintenance As the ablest men should be invited to the work so none unable should be admitted and none once admitted should have cause by the incompetency of their condition to be ashamed and by their poverty contract inabilities as Trees grow mossie and unfruitful in barren soyls Nor would this pious munificence be thought much by any Christian Nation to which God hath been so liberal in his earthly bounty if they did indeed value his heavenly dispensations and the necessity work or worth either of true Ministers or of poor mens souls whom itinerant Preachers cannot feed sufficiently with a bit and a way but they require constant and resident Ministers to make them thrifty and well-liking I conclude this Paragraph touching the great work of the Ministry with that Character of an able Minister which St. Bernard hath admirably set forth to Eugenius the then Bishop of Rome by which we may see what sense was in those days Four hundred and fifty years ago of the duty of Ministers and what kinde of ones holy men then required in the Church from whom our succession without any disparagement from mens personal faults is derived Such saith Saint Bernard are to be chosen Tales eligendi sunt Ministri qui sunt compositi ad mores probati ad sanctimoniam para â— ad obedientiam subjecti ad diciplinam rigid ad censuram Catholici ad fidem fideles ad dispensationem concordes ad pacem conformes ad unitatem Qui regibus Johannem exhibeant Egyptsis Mosen fornicatibus Phineam Heliam idolatris Helisaum avâ—â—is Petrum mentientibus Pauluâ— blasphemantibus Christum negoâ—tantibus Qui vulgus non spernant sed doceâ—nt non gravent sed foveant Minas principum non paveant sed contemnant qui marsupia non exhauriant sed corda reficiant De omni re orationi plus fidant quà m industriae sua O si videam in vita mea Ecclesiam tatibus niâ—aâ—â— columnis O si Domini sponsam cernerem tantae commissaâ—â— fidei tanta creditam puritati quid nec â—â—aâ—iâ—s quidve securius Bern. l. 1. ad Eugenium and ordained for Ministers of the Church who are composed for their maners approved for their sanctimony ready to obey their Superiors subject to Discipline strict in their Censures Catholike for their Faith faithful in their Preaching conform to the peace and unity of the Church Who to Kings may be as John Baptist to Egyptians as Moses to Fornicators as Phineas to Idolaters as Elias to Covetous as Elisha to Lyars as Peter to Blasphemers as Paul to Symonaical and Sacrilegious Trafickers in the Church as Christ to the Buyers and Sellers in the Temple Such as may not burthen or despise the poor but nourish and instruct them not flatter and fawn on the rich but rather rouze and affright their proud security not terrified by threats of Princes but living and acting above them not exhausting mens purses but comforting their consciences and filling their hungry souls with good things who in every duty may trust more to their Prayers than their Studies to Gods grace than their own gifts and industry O saith he that I might in my days see the Church of Christ set and built on such Pillars O that I might see the pure Spouse of Christ committed to the eare of such pure and faithful Guardians Nothing would make me so securely happy Thus this devout and holy man in his times to whose pious and earnest desire I could heartily say Amen if I did but hope that ever the request might be heard and granted in my time but though all men be liers yet we have a true God to trust in As for that Liberty which some Christians plead 16. Private Liberty of gifts and publick Ministry not inconsistent not upon a Socinian or fanatick
Cyclopes Non tam spectandum quid agat quisque quam quo ordine nec tam quo animo quam quâ disciplina Ep. Wint. Andrews Ordo postulat ut virtute eminentiores sint loco superiores qui habeant rationum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 1. V d. Clem. Ro. Epist ad Corinth Numb 11.17 they cannot but daily see a necessity of exact order and distinct power which must be observed among themselves as soldiers without which Armies will be but heaps upon heaps confused crouds and noises of men if any one who fancies his own or an others sufficiencies shall presently usurp the power and intrude into the office of Captain and Commander whose work is not onely to use a few good words now and than but to fight valiantly and yet to keep both himself and others in good order No less is order necessary to the Church in its Societies over which able and fit Ministers duly placed have not onely the work of Preaching lying on their Consciences which requires more than ordinary and vulgar abilities but they have many other great and weighty affairs which they are to discharge both publickly and privately as workmen that need not to be ashamed as those that are meet instruments and workers together with God and Christ in the great work of saving souls to which if onely memory and a voluble tongue and an oratorious confidence would have served there needed not so great preparations and power of the Spirit from on high to come on the Apostles which not onely furnished them with Matter what to say and Languages wherein but with just and full authority to preach Christs Gospel in Christs Name and to settle a like constant Authority Order and Power Ministerial in all Churches for holy Administrations putting upon their Successors whom they ordained in every place as the spirit of Moses was put on the seventy Elders of that Spirit that is of that same power Ministerial which they had immediately from Christ Nor was any one not rightly ordained antiently esteemed as any Minister of the Church nor any thing he did valid nor were any that adhered to such disorderly walkers and impostors ever reckoned among good Christians or as sound Members in the Church Cypr. Epist 76. De Baptisandis Novatianis ad Magnum Novatianus in Ecclesia non est nec Episcopus â—â—mputari potest qui Evangelica Apostolica autoritate contempta nemini succedens à se ipso ortus est Habere enim aut tenere Ecclesiam nullo modo potest qui ordinatus in Ecclesia non est Quomodo gregi Christi annumerari potest qui legitimum non sequitur pastorem quomodo pastor haberi debet qui manente vero pastore in Ecclesia Dei ordinatione succedanea praesidente nemini succedens à seipso incipiens alienus sit dominicae pacis divina veritatis inimicus As Saint Cyprian most eloquently and zealously writes concerning Novatianus who usurped the office of a Bishop and Pastor among some credulous and weak people despising the Ordination of the Church How can he be counted a Bishop or Minister in the Church who thus like a Mushroom grows up from himself How can he have any office in the Church who is not placed there by the officers in the Church which hath ever had in it true Pastors who by a successive Ordination have received power to preside in the Church He that sets up of his own new score and succeeds none formerly ordained is both an alien to and an enemy of the peace and truth divine Nor can that sheep be reckoned as one of Christs flock who doth not follow a lawfully ordained Pastor Thus Saint Cyprian a Learned holy Bishop and after a Martyr for Christ testifies the sense of the Church and all true Christians in his time who flourished in the third Century after Christ I will onely adde one place more out of Tertullian Tertul. lib. de Praescrip adv Haereses Edant Haeretici origines Ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentium ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis virâ— qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraverint habuerit autorem antecessorem Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae tensus suos deferunt Sicut Smyrnaeorum Ecclesia habeus Polycarpum à Johanne Collocatum resert Sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro Ordinatum c. Traditionem itaque Apostolorum in toto mundo manifestatam in Ecclesia adest perspicere omnibus qui verè velius audere Et habemus enumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores eorum usque ad nos Quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias remittebant suum ipsorum locum Magisterii tradentes Qui nihil tale cognoverunt neque docuerunt quale ab his deliratur Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 3. De iis quâ— decedunt ab Apostolica Successione who lived before Saint Cyprian in the end of the second Century whom Cyprian usually called his Master for the learning warmth force and eloquence which were in his works till his defection Let these new Masters saith he and their Disciplies set forth to us the Original of their Churches the Catalogue and Succession of their Bishops and Ministers so running upward without interruption that it may appear their first Bishop or Presbyter had some Apostle or some that persevered with the Apostle for their predecessor and ordainer For thus the true and Apostolically planted Churches do ever make their reckonings as the Church of Smyrna had their first Bishop Polycarpus placed among them by St. John the Apostle So the Church of Rome and Antioch had their Pastors or Bishops setled by the Apostle Peter Thus Tertullian and with him Irenaeus and all the antients who sought to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 The purity of doctrine and power of holy Discipline in the Church of Christ These holy men never dreamed of Self-ordainers or of gifted yet unordained Ministers nor did they own any Christians in Church Society or Ecclesiastick Order and holy Communion where there was not an evident distinct and personally demonstrable Succession of Bishops Pastors and Teachers in Ministerial Authority so constituted by holy Ordination lineally descended and rightly derived from the Apostolical Stem and the Root Jesus Christ. Nor is this so divine an Institution so solemn an Ordination 17. Peculiar Officers as Ministers most necessary for the common peoples good as to Religion so sacred a Mission and so clear and constant a Succession of Ministers whose office it is to bear witness of the Name of Christ in his love and sufferings and merits to the end of the World till the number of Saints be perfected till the work of the Ministry is finished and the Body of Christ his Church fully edified Eph. 4.12 This I say is not of more concernment
are transported with ariseth from the like ground as was in the hearts of Tobias and Sanballat Nehem. 4. Solatiam est malorum bonos Ca pere Ieron ut improbi suo malo delectantur ita invidi alienâ— bonâ— terquentur Amb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amb. and that scornfull crue against the Jews that by their means this Church of God as the Temple is built repayred clensed reformed That by their valiant courage learned skill and vigilant Industry the truth faith holy Ordinances and good manners of this Reformed Church are asserted vindicated preserved and restored from those ruines rubbige sords and demolishings by which erroneous ambitious covetous and licentious minds seek to waste infest and quite abolish the Reformed Religion both in England and every where else In order to which grand design the Anti-ministeriall Adversaries are not wanting to bring all manner of rayling accusationâ— and indign Calumnies against both the Ministers and Ministry of this Church Some of which I think it a shame for me by reciting of them to pollute either my Pen or the purer eyes of those readers who excell in Civility as much as those evill Speakers do in insolency and scurrility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 27.34 both for carriage and language against the best Ministers in England But it is no wonder if they give us the gall and vinegar of bitter reproaches to drink when they intend shortly to crucifie us All is less than was sayd and done to Christ himself It is part of our honour and blessing to have men speak all manner of evill of us Mat. 5.11 if we can but make it appear to be most falsly and and injuriously as well as most indignly and ungratefully Such manner of speaking becomes no mens mouths but those whose hearts abound with so much malice against the best Ministers who ought to be the best of men and generally are the best of speakers In honour to whose many reall and excellent gifts becomming the dignity of their holy place and function as also in charity to all others chiefly those who most despise and hate the Ministers of this Church I shall endevour to let all men see in the following part of this Apology the malice futility and falsity of those evill speakings wherewith some men please themselves the more because they think they please some others whom they fancy to have a very evill eye and an heavy hand toward such Ministers as most study to please God and to preserve the Reformed religion in this Church of Christ CAVIL or CALUMNY IV. Against the Ministry of England as Papal and Anti-Christian THe fourth Cavil or Calumny then wherewith the office and function of the Ministers of England is battered and defamed among the credulous weak and vulgar minds is this That if there be such a peculiar order and office of the Ministry established in Scripture by a Divine Institution and so continued in the Church by a right Ordination for some times of Primitive purity to a holy succession yet the present Station Calling and Authority of the Ministers of England is apparently Antichristian as derived from Episcopall Ordination and that descended from the Papall or Roman authority which was but of late years abolished as that of Episcopie they think now is neither of them seeming to them to be of Christs appointment or according to Scripture-rule and patern So that if it be necessary to have peculiar Ministers by office it is also necessary to cast off the former order and standing which is degenerated and to begin upon some new account which shall appear to be neerest to the pattern of Divine Institution and primitive practise how ever it may fail of a constant succession for above these 1600. years from Christ during all which time it is evident indeed that Bishops have had a chief place and influence in the Ordination of Ministers and for 1000. the Pope hath chalenged something of Supremacy and Jurisdiction in these Western Churches over all the Clergy both Bishops and Presbyters None of which are fit to serve in Gods house as Ministers while they are not clensed from that leprosie which they have contracted from the Pope and Prelates Answ I will first endevour to take off from the face of our Ministry this scandalous visard of the Papall authority 1 The Papal Usurpation no prejudice to the true Ministry of England more than to all other Christian Institutions which scares some people so very much that they are afraid to medle with any thing that ever passed the Popes fingers except only the lands and revenews of the Clergy Having removed this veil or covering which was sometime over these Western Churches we shall easily see the face of the holy Ministry no less than of other Christian Institutions restored without any Disfiguration or Essentiall change by any such mask as might sometimes be upon it through the policy and folly of many It were a very weak and injurious Conâ—ession no less prejudiciall to the Reformed Churches than pleasing to all the Romish party if the Pope could perswade us Protestants and other Christians to cast quite away and utterly abhor what ever the Papall usurpation hath abused or the Romish devotion hath used in matter of Christian religion Sure then we must seek for other Apostles and Saints other Scriptures and Sacraments another Gospel and Messias than Jesus Christ no less than other Bishops and Ministers For over all these the Popes of Rome have spread the skirts of their usurped authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. 67. Plato All things handled by men are subject to be sâ—yied 2 Thes 2.4 Antichristus ChristuÌ„ mentitur turpitudinem vitae falso nominis honore convestit Jerom. ad Geront Amara erat Ecclesia in nece martyrum amarior in conflictu haereticorum amarissima in moribus domesticorum Ber. â— 33. in Cant. Petri CathedraÌ„ occupat tanquam Leo paratus ad praedam bestia Apocalyptica cui datum est os loqueus blasphemias bellum gerere cum sanctis Ber. ep 125. Maâ— 21.13 Christus Templum Dei cauponibus latronibus deturpatum non diruit aut penitus detestatur sed purgamenta ista faeces ejiciendo Dei domum in diviniorem usum asserit hoc modo in pristinum honoram restituit Chem. Mat. 23.2 Mat. 15.6 their impure mixtures their corrupt doctrines and superstitious manners Who as far as they are Antichristian that is go in any wayes contrary to the holy rule and humble patern of Jesus Christ yet might yea and ought to sit in the Temple of God as all Antichristian spirits indeed do who cannot properly be but where there is a Profession of Christianity yet it doth not follow that the Catholique Church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail so as to extinguish the name of Christ was either wholly ruined by Antichristian superstructures or that the whole fabrick of it must be pulled down
by us and all parts of it made Nehustan in stead of cleansing repayring and reforming which is not a novelty of nvention but a sober restitution of all things in Religion to the primitive mode and pattern which is authorised and ordained by Christ Who did no more himself as to the outward restoring of Religion and worship of God Chalenging Gods right to his own House of prayer when covetousness had made it a den of theeves The priesthood of old failed not by reason of the immoralities of the Priests among the Jews nor did the Didacticall or Teaching authority cease from Moses his Chair and succession because the Scribes and Pharisees who were men of corrupt doctrine and hypocriticall manners sate therein and taught the Traditions and inventions of men mixt with the commands of God No more did or doth the Evangelicall Ministry and Sacraments cease by reason of any Papall arrogatings or other human additions Inordinatio aliqua non invalidam reddit ordinationem vitio â—elicto rem ad legitimum modum revocarunt Alsted sâ—ppl Gerar. de Reform Luther owned no other call or Ordination as a Minister but that which he had as he was made a Presbyter in the Romish communion Gerard. de Ministerio pag. 70. Ab Episcopo suo ordinatus Lutherus anno 1507. Nec aliam quaesivit ordinationem Gerard 147. Multum d ssert inter causam culpam inter statum excessum Tert. l. 2. adv Marc. Non negandum est bonum quod remansit propter malum quod praecessit Aust Ep. 48. Therefore the wisdome and piety of the learned and godly Reformers of these Western Churches especially here in England contented themselves with casting out what ever corrupt doctrines impure mixtures vain customes and superstitious fancies the Papall vanitie and novelty had built upon those divine and antient foundations of Christian religion which were layd by the Apostles and Primitive master-builders all over the world Whose Canon the Scriptures together with sound Doctrine holy Ministry comly Government Sacramentall seals and other Christian duties of prayer fasting c. they restored with all gravity moderation and exactness with due regard both to the clear sense of Scriptures and the Catholick practise of Churches Conforming of all things either to the express Precepts and Institutions of the word of God or to those generall directions which allow liberty of Prudence and difference in matters Circumstantiall in all which the Primitive Church had gone before them Herein they were not so weak and heady as to be scandalized with and insolently to reject all things that the Papall or Romish party had both received and retained in religious uses from former and better times either as Christians or Bishops or prudent men for so they had very sillily deprived themselves and all the Reformed Churches of all those Scriptures Sacraments holy duties Order rites and good customs which the Pope and Romish party had so long used not as Popes by any Antichristian policy power and pride but as they were Christians having received them in a due succession at first though after much depraved from those holy Predecessors which had been Martyrs and Confessors in that famous antient Roman Church No judicious Protestant or truly reformed Christian 2 How far necessary and safe to be separated from the Romanists Ad quamcunque Ecclesiam veneritis ejus morem servate si pati scandalum aut facere nolitis Aug. Ep. 86. responsum B. Ambrosii whose conscience is guided by Science and his reforming zeal tempered with true charity either doth or ought to recede farther from Communion with the Roman Church than he sees that hath receded from the rule of Christ and the Apostolicall Precepts or binding examples expressed in the Scriptures so far as concerns the true faith in its Doctrines Seals and fruits of good works In matters of extern and prudentiall order every Church hath the same liberty which the Roman had to use or refuse such ceremonials as they thought fit and to these every good Christian may conform In many things we necessarily have communion with the Pope and Papists as in the nature and reason of men In some things we safely may as in rules and practises politick civill just and charitable as Governours either Secular or Ecclesiastical In many things we ought in conscience and religion to have communion with them so far as they profess the truths of Christian religion and hold any fundamentals of faith And however they do by mis-interpretation of Scriptures or any Antichristian additionals of false doctrines of impious or superstitious practises seem to us rather to overthrow or bury the good foundations than rightly and orderly to build upon them for which superstructures and fallacious consequences we recede from them and dispute with them yet we do not renounce all they hold or do in common with us as Christians In the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat this Bread 28. So let him eat of that bread Sâ—let res quae significat ejus res nomine quam significat nuncupari hinc dictum est Petra erat Christus Aust Q. 57. in Levit For instance it being not now a place to dispute them We cannot own as the Catholick sense of Christ of the Scriptures or the Primitive fathers that sense which they in later times have given of the words in the Sacramental Consecration of the Lords Supper by which they raise that strange doctrine of Transubstantiation unknown to the first Fathers And which seems to us 1. contrary to the way of Gods providence both in naturall and in religious things which changeth not the substances and natures of things but the relation and use of them from naturall and common to mysticall and holy 2. Contrary also to the usuall sense of all Scripture phrases and expressions of the like nature where things are mystically related by religious institution and so mutually denominâ—ted without essentiall changes 3. Contrary to the common principles of right reason 4. And contrary to the testimony of four senses sight taste smelling and hearing which are the proper organes by whose experience and verdict of things sensible we judge in reason what their nature is 5. Contrary also to the way and end that Christ proposed to strengthem a Christian receivers faith which is not done by what is more obscure and harder to be believed than the whole mysterie of the Gospell as recorded to us in the Scripture There being nothing less imaginable than that Christ gave his Disciples his own very body each man to eat him whole and entire and so ever after when he was then at table with them and is now by an Article of faith believed to be as man in heaven These and the like strange fancies of men which draw after them many great absurdities and contradictions both in sense and reason and the nature of things being no way advantageous to the religious use end and comfort of the
Sacrament we reject together with the consequentiall Idolatry of worshiping the bread Also the sacrilege of detaining the Cup of the Lord from the people we cannot allow as being contrary both to the primitive practise of the Church and to the express command of Christ in the Institution which was after also revealed to St. Paul by Christ himself Yet still we use and observe the Sacramentall Elements with the same high estimation and veneration which pious and purest antiquity ever did bear to that Sacred mysterie how ever we forbear to use some of their expressions whose Oratory occasioned in part the after error which mistook that as spoken of the Bread in its nature which magnified it only in the Sacramentall use and mysterie which is indeed very high retaining both the Elements words and holy form which Christ instituted and Christians alwayes used not so much disputing and determining the manner of Sacramentall union as endevouring after those graces which may make us worthy Communicants and reall partakers of the Body and Bâ—ood of Jesus Christ when we do receive that dreadfull yet most desirable seal of our Faith which consigns fuller to us and confirms in us those comforts which as sinners we want and may have most really and only from Christ not by eating his flesh in a bodily and gross way with our mouths but by receiving him by a true and lively faith into our souls as he is set forth to us in the Scriptures to be God incarnate the only Saviour of the world of whose merit death passion body and blood we are by the same faith though in less degrees of strength really partakers and nourished to eternall life before we receive him in that Sacrament of the Lords Supper yea though we never should have opportunity so to receive him which is but the same object received by the same faith to the same end though in a different manner and with different degrees So for Baptism Baptism we retain the substance of that holy Sacrament as we find it in the Scriptures rejecting only those superfluous dresses of Salt Spittle Oyl Insufflation and the like which cumber and deform that duty and Ordinance but they do not destroy it nor do ever any Protestants that are of any name or honour for Religion re-baptise those who were baptised in the Roman Church Concil Laodicenum omits only the Apocal. Apocrypha Books Hieron in Prolog Galaten Josephus l. 1. cont Appio we i. e. the Jews have not infinite and diffâ—rent Books but only 22. which are justly called Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mosis 5. Prophet 13. Psal 4. The rest from Artaxereâ— to these times have not the like credit because not a certain succession of Prophets The Apocryphall additions of the Romish Church to the Canon of the Scriptures we reject from being rules of faith however we approve their excellent morals And this we do upon the same grounds that the Jewish Church of old and the Primitive Christian for the most part ever did yet we retain those books as oracles of God which we have received with and from the Romish Church as of divine inspiration according to that testimony which both the Jewish and Christian Churches fidelity have given us of them The eâ—une dull and spiritless and formall devotions Prayers in a language not vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis de Placilla orat Funcb Delinquens soli Deo cognitus de reatis nudare apud homines verecunda conscientia non cogitur Ser. 34. Chrysol So Ber. s 42. Non expedit omnibus omnia inâ—â—tescere quae scimus de nobis in Cant. Liturgies and prayers used by the Romanists in any tongue unknown to the most and with so many vain repetitions we refuse yet still we retain the holy custom of Christians assembling in publike and worshipping God by publike Liturgies prayers and praises In somethings we hold nothing common with them either in opinion or practise as in the profitable fancy of purgatory the popular fashion of worshipping Images or adoring God in and by Images of oblations and prayers for the dead of praying to Saints and Angels of Auricular confession of dispensing by Indulgences the merits or supperogating righteousness of some Christians to others Since in these and the like matters which I only touch it being not my work now to handle those controversies which have been so fully discussed by many learned men of this Church of Engand whose works praise them We find no Scripture ground either for precept or permission So likewise in the ambitious claim of the Popes Infallible judgement His universall jurisdiction and Supreme Authority over all Churches and Councils We deny it as un usurpation gotten by indulgences of some times and Princes also by the flatteries frauds cruelties power and policies of severall Popes in their successions but not grounded on any Law or right either humane or divine neither by the Institution of God nor by the consent of all Churches Yet we deny not to the Pope such a primacy of place or priority of order and precedency as is reasonable and just either in the Roman Diocess as a Bishop or in a Councill as Bishop of that famous City In like manner for the sacred order and function of the Ministry we reject what ever imaginary power or will-worship is annexed to the office by humane superstition but we approve the antient form of Commission and Divine Authority derived by them to Presbyters and Bishops for Preaching the word celebrating the Sacraments reconciling penitents use of the Keys in doctrine or jurisdiction and Government In the Roman Pontificall The Bishop to be consecraâ—ed is charged after many Ceremonâ—es and pompous modes with this as his office and duty To judge to interpret to consecrate to confer holy orders to offer to Baptize aâ—d to confirm after that the Consecratorâ— laying the Bible on his shoulder and their hands on his head say these words Receive the holy Spirit i. e. the gifts and power to be a Bishop or chief Pastor to teach and rule in the Church So the Presbyter is by the Bishop ordeyning and otheâ—s with him imposing their hands on the head enjoyned To offer to bless to govern to Preach and to Baptise as becomes his place and Office Mar. 13.25 Also of the continued power of Ordination for a succession of Ministers in the Church In all these and the like what ever we find to be spurious issues of meer humane invention of Scripture-less opinions of groundless traditions obtruded as matters of Religion upon the consciences of Christians we use that just severity which we think the Apostles and Primitive fathers would have done to dash these Babylonish brats against the stones yet still we redeem and preserve alive the legitimate succession the Sons of Sion the Israel of God and justify the Children of true wisdom and of the Heavenly Jerusalem that is the divine and truly religious
Institutions upon Scripture grounds although we find them to have been led Captive and a long time deteined Prisoners by any unrighteousness policy superstition tyranny covetousness or ambition in the Walls and Suburbs of Babylon Though tares were sown among the good Seed in the Field of the Church while men slept yet we must not be such wasters as to destroy the Corn with the weeds or to refuse both because we like not one Though our Fathers ate sour grapes and our teeth were an edge we must not therefore pull all our teeth out of our heads Divine institutions are incorruptible nor can any corruption of mens minds or matters cease on them any more than * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt Aurum â—t geâ—â—a itâ— res Diviâ—â— non corrumpâ—ntâ—â— quamvis opprimuntur non vitiantur natura quum polluntur consuetudine Non rei ipsae ut nec veritas erroribus sed nos malè utendo pucrescimus Eras putrefaction on the Sun beams when it shines on a Carkass or Dunghil We may be corrupted but holy Ordinances are like God alwaies the same when restored to their Primitive Institution which is their State of Integrity Riches and honour are not unwelcom though they descend to men from unworthy Ancestors Nor should Religion so far as its title is good by the word of God either in strickt precept and institution or in prudence joyned with piety and decency Good pictures will recover the beauty when the soyl is washed off In a word we retain the truth faith holy mysteries Catholick orders constant Ministry and commendable manners which the later Romanists have derived and continued from the first famous Church in that place nor do we think it either conscience or prudence to deprive our selves of any thing Divine though delivered to us by the less pure hands of men or to cast away the provision which God sends us though it be by Ravens or to Anathematise all the Romish Church hoâ—ds of saving Truths because it hath in the Councill of Trent Anathematised some Truths The Bishops of Rome were alwaies more cunning than to abrogate or cast away those essentials the main foundations and pillars of true Christian Religion as the word the Sacraments the Ministry and Government of the Church on which they knew the vast moles and over grown superstructure of the Pontifician pomp profit pride reputation policy and power through the credulity Vt in reficiendis domibus sic iâ— moribus non destruenda omnia sed repuâ—ganda non diruenda sed resâ—cienda Ber. Ep. ad Abb. of peopâ—e and blind devotion of most men in these Western Churches was built and sustained Nor can any thing more contribute to the Popes depraved content or repair his particular interest in this Western world than to see any so heady rash and mad Reformers as shall resolve to quarrell with and to cast quite away all those things of Christian Religion which ever passed through the hands of the Romish Church or any other never so erronious and superstitious He well knows how meager a Sceleton how miserable a shadow Christian Religion must needs remain to those furious and fanatick Reformers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Ep. Eudoxâ— Being as much reduced to poverty and meer nothing in the very essentials of Christianity both for Doctrine Duties Sacraments Scriptures order and manners as it would be in the matter of maintenance and Church Revenews where some mens covetous and cruell Reformation is resolved if they may have their will to leave nothing to maintain Religion or its Ministry but the meer scraps of arbitrary and grudging contributions Such will our Religion be if we reject all that was used by those who abused many things and we must afâ—er only adhere to the beggery of Seekers attending new Instructions from Heaven instead of following antient Christian and Catholick Institutions Certainly Church Reformations 3. Of Church Reformations with moderation and charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg 3. Nothing is just but what was wisely moderated in things Religious should be carried on with all acurate strictness and rigor in clear points of saving truths and in things of divine Institution so confessed by all yet also with much charity candor moderation and discretion toward any Christians in other things wherein we must differ from them Yet no further than they seem to us to derogate from the truth and word of God and so become detrimentall to mens souls It is a commendable Schism which separates the Corn from the chaff and the Gold from the Dross neither retaining both in a confusion nor casting away both in a passion In thus doing all things with meekness of wisdom Christians may not only be able upon sober and judicious grounds from Scripture and the Catholick consent of the Fathers to maintain what they do as wise Reformers of abuses but also the better invite others to embrace and to approve our â—ust and well-tempered Reformation in the unpassionate purity whereof others will the easier see as in a smooth and true Glass their yet remaining spots and deformities Reformation of Churches is best done not by cutting off the head of Religion but by taking off those masks and visards which hide its face and beauty Men will best see their errors not by force pulling their eyes out of their heads but by fairly taking away the motes or beams of prejudice error and pertinacy which are in their eyes which hinder them not from seeing at all but from seeing so we l as we in truth think they may and in charity wish they would 1 Thes 5.21 Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moderation is the medium between the excess and defect Neither taking nor refusing all but trying all and holdâ—ng the good True Reformation free from Schism By this shield of moderation and charity proving all things and retaining what is good in all with our pitty and prayers for any Christians wherein we think they erre as differing therefore from us because from the rule which God hath set for his Church in things pertaining to Divine worship we justly defend our selves in this and other reformed Churches that are of the same temper and charity in their Reformations from the sin and scandall of Schism when we fairly and freely declare that we separate no further from the Church of Rome or any other particular Church or Christian man than we are by the word of God perswaded that they separate from Christs holy rule and from the custom and Doctrine of the Catholick Church whose bounds and marks are the samenes of divine truths and the unity of the Spirit in Charity which we retain to all Christians as far as such with whom while we desire such communion of true faith holy order and obedience together with love as they do with Christ and all true Christians we cannot in our own consciences nor other mens censures be esteemed Schismaticks as the Novatians and
are holy Numb 16. though the hand and fire were unholy which were applyed to them Our Ministery then may be and certainly is very good holy 4. Our Ministry not from nor of the Pope and divine as well as the Scriptures and Sacraments or other holy Ministrations and duties are when duly restored to their primitive purity order and authority which go along with their right succession notwithstanding they are derived to us through or by the Romish Church or the Popes dispensation yet do they not therefore descend from them but only from Christ the first institutor of his Church and of this Ministry with a perpetuall power of succession Possunt esse pastores Lupi alio respectu Pastores in veritate quam profitentur in potestate quaÌ„ ritè obtinuerunt Lupi in erroribus quos admiscent in corruptelis morum c. ut Scribae Pharisaei in Cathedra Mosis panem veritatis proponebant sed non sine fâ—â—mento errorum officium distinguendum à persona potestas à moâ—ibus Gerrard de Minist Rev. 2.4 Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with thy lovers yet return to me saith the Lord. Rev. 3.2 Our Lord Jesus Christ the gracious Spouse of the Church as of every Soul that truly believes and obeys though with much unbelief and frailty disdains not to own his relation to any Church or Christians though they are not so faithfull to him though they lose their first love yet they may be still his by what still remains of soundness and outward profession Yea and Christ will vouchsafe to admit us again to the communion and covenant of his love even after long wandrings and unkind absences when ever we wash our selves and return to him from our disloyall adulteries and pollutions He doth not utterly divorce any Church when the substance and essentials of Religion which are but in a few things do remain notwithstanding the many meretricious paints and disguisings which the wantoness of humane inventions may have put upon it thereby disfiguring its Primitive beauty and simplicity Mans vanity and arrogancy against God or men doth no whit abrogate either the right which Christ or any Church and Christian posterity hath to the purity and power of his gifts and institutions in the right way of his Mâ—nistry All which may remain with a blessing in the root and Seed though they be much pestered over-dropped choked and almost starved by humane additions which keep them for some time from their full glory vigor and extension Therefore the learned and godly Reformers of this Christian Church in England did not dig any new fountain of Ordination or ministeriall power as some Romanists calumniated at first and were afterward convinced of the contrary by Master Masons learned defence of the Ministry of England as to its right succession but they only cleared that which they saw was divine in the first broaching or Institution by Christ and as in the purest derivation by the Apostles however in time it became foul by humane feculencies and dregs as it passed rightly though not purely through the hands of some Bishops and Presbyters even to their dayes Nor was ever any thing required by the best Reformed Churches further to confirm and validate the Authority or power Ministeriall which any had received when he was first ordeined Presbyter in the Romish Church Contaminarunt non sustulerunt Ministerium Ecclesiae Alsted but only this to renounce not his Baptism but his errâ—rs and former superstitions to profess the Reformed Truths of the Gospell and accordingly to exercise that Ministeriall power which he had received truly as to the substance and duly as to the succession both as to the Office conferred and the persons conferring it Howsoever the sword of the Ministry had through the neglect of those to whom it was committed been suffered to contract the rust of superstitions and to lose much of its beauty and sharpness yet it was still that true and same two-edged sword which came out of the mouth of Jesus Christ Rev. 2.12 the first ordeiner of a peculiar setled Ministry in his Church Nor may it be broken or cast away when it hath been rightly delivered but only cleared whetted and furbished from its rust bluntness and dulness That Pen which now writes blottingly might be well made at first and will write fairâ—y again if once the hairs or blurs which its neb hath contracted be but cleared from it It is still Gods Field and Husbandry with good Wheat in it though the enemy hath while men slept sowen many tares Bishops and Ministers reformed may be Gods true labourers and appointed Husbandmen though they have some time loytered as the Disciples were Christs when their eyes were so heavy to sleep that they could not watch with him that one hour of his most horrid agony Mat. 26.40 It were then but a passionate scuffling with mad men a most impertinent disputing with unreasonable minds further to argue about the Popes usurped or abused Authority in any kind over Churches or Bishops or holy Ordinances and Ministry For which he had as little grounds of Scripture or reason as these Anti-Ministeriall Obâ—ectors have now against this Church of England and the function of the Ministry in it against which these cunning cavillers have not so much pretence to argue from the Popes usurpation that our Ministry and Religion are all Antichristian as they have both Scripture Reason and Experience besides the consent of all Reformed Churches to conclude them to be truly Christian if anger or envie or covetousness had not blinded their blood-shotten eyes they might easily see some of those mighty works Mat. 11.20 which have been wrought on mens Souâ—s by the Ministry of England since the Reformation and without this efficacious Ministry I believe neither these Calumniators had been so much Christian as they pretend nor so able spightfully to contend with shewes of Piety and popular falacies against the true Ministry of this Church and the best Ministers with whose Heifer they have plowed We know well that not only the reformed Churches 5. Of the Popes pretended Supremacy in England but even the Gallican and Venetian which keep communion with the Romish Church and Papall party besides the Greek Asian and African Churches do generally oppose and vehemently deny the Popes abusive usurpations both in things Ecclesiasticall and Secular And this upon most pregnant grounds not only from Scripture whence nothing was ever fairly and pertinently urged as some places are fouly wrested and yet but little to the Popes advantage but also from * Caeteri Apostoli par consortium honoris potestatis acceperunt qui in toto orbe dispersi Evangelium praedicaverunt quibusque decedentibus successerunt Episcopi Is Hisp l. 2. off Eccl. c. 5. Qui sunt constituti in toto mundo in sedibus Apostolorum non ex genere carnis ut filii Aron sed pro unius cujusque
vita merito iis c. Id. Ubicunque fuerit Episcopus sive Romae sive Eugubii c. ejusdem est merâ—ti qusdem est sacerdotii Jeron ad Evagr. Celebri urbi frigidum oppidulum opponit Eras verba Jeron Omnes Apostolorum successores sunt Id. Concil Nicaen 1. Gregory the Great oft protests against any Bishops or Patriarchs usurping and chalenging the title ofVniversalis Episcopus aut Pastor as a token of Antichristian pride Concil Hipponensc Anno 393. de primae sedis Episcopo i. e. Romano 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Af. pag. 119. pag. 318. can 123. They Excommunicated all that appealed beyond the Sea to other Province and Bishop Concil Chalced. anno 451. Can. 9.11.17 Nec quisquam nostrum Episcopum se Episcoporum constituat c. Quando omnis habeat Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium ut nec judicari ab altero nec judicare possit Cyp. tom 2. in fine Hoc erant utique coeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis Sed exordium ab unitate proficiscitur pâ—imatus Petro datur ut una ChristiÌ„ Ecclesia una Cathedra monstretur Cyp. Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis Episcopis in solidum pars tenetur Cypr. de uni Eccl. ep 27. all Antiquity after that Churches were increased and setled where the Fathers and first famous generall Councills make clearly to the Popes disadvantage as to any power or jurisdiction in point of divine authority which he claims beyond or above other Bishops and Presbyters further than the Roman Diocess first and the Patriarchate afterward extended which division and power for order sake was agreed unto by some generall Councils where other four Patriarchs of Jerusalem Antioch Constantinople and Alexandâ—ia had also a limited yet equall power in their respective Dioceses and Provinces with the Bishop of Rome Galf. monum l. 11. c. 12. See Bishop Godwin SuccessioÌ„ of English Bishops Lucius rex in Anglia conversus ad fidem Christi anno Christi 164. Thâ—ee Bishops out of England Eborius of York Restitutus of London Adolphias of Colchester were of the Councill of Arles in France eleven years before the Nicane which was anno 330. See the Letter to Austin the Monk cited before sent from the Clergy and Monk of Bangor Sir Hen. Spelman Concil Brit. pag. 108. ad an 590. Omnium provinciarum primae Britania publicitus Christi nomen recepit Sabel Enn. 7 l 5. Beda l. 2. c. 2. Nor had the Pope then for the first six hundred years after Christ any authority scarce any name in these British Churches which were undoubtedly converted by some Apostles or Apostolicall men who left after King Lucius his time a famous and flourishing succession of Bishops Presbyters and Christians long before any pretensions of the Pope over these British Churches To which the British Bishops in Wales were strangers nor would they own at that time when Austin the Monk came from Gregory the Great who sent hither more out of Christian charity than any Authority to convert the Saxons who had by war and barbarity quite extinguished Christianity with all Bishops and Ministers out of England and had forced the former holy Bishops and Ministers to fly into Wales Ireland and Scotland from whence afterwards in a gratefull vicissitude the English replanted Churches received for the most part both their Conversion and establishment by a Succession of rightly Ordeined Bishops and Presbyters for Austin the Monks Plantation and preaching extended not beyond Kent Surrey and the adjacent places as Venerable Bede tells us and our learned Country-man Sir Henry Spelman The ambitious Usurpation and Antichristian Tyranny then of the Papall power and supremacy afterward over Bishops and Ministers here in England to which the title of Christ St. Peter or the Catholick Churches establishment is poorly begged and falsly pretended we the Ministers of the Church of England ever did and do as much abhor as any of these men can who are so against the now Reformed and established Ministry which we have vindicated from Papal and superstitious additaments and asserted or restored to it Primitive and Scripturall dignity and divine authority which it never lost but only not so clearly discovered during the times of darkness and oppression Our jealousie now is lest the malice and activity of those that now dispute and act against our thus reformed and prospered Ministry should prove ere long the Popes best Engines and factors that ever he had in this Church since the Reformation if they can as they have begun and go on apace but so far prepare the way for the reintroduction of the Papall power and Romish party as to cashier all the learned reformed and duly Ordeined Ministers in England both as to their order authority and government will not this Church in a few more years of confusion and neglect become as a fallow and unfenced field fit for the Papal subtilty and Romish activity which he will plow with an Ox and an Asse together the learned Jesuit joyned to the fanatick Donatist The Seminary Priests with the gifted brethren Friers predicant with Prophets mendicant So that no wise man that loves the Reformed religion and the Church can think others than that the hand of Joab is in this matter Achitophel is in Counsell with Absalom The Conclave of Rome is wanting to its interest if it conspires strongly with this Antiministeriall faction I should be glad to be as Hushai the Archite a means to discover bâ—ast and bring to nought all those desperat counsells and machinations which are layd by any against this reformed Church and its true Ministry The happy and seasonable defeat of which by Gods blessing to this Church and Nation I do yet hope may be such In vitium ducit cuâ—pae fuga fi caret arte Hor. as shall make all Apostatising and ungratefull Politicians rather repent of their Apostacies and see their folly than follow the fate of that disloyall renegado a traitor at once to his friend and sovereign I confess I am not for such Reformations 6. Reformation ought to reverence Antiquity Maltem cum sanctis errare quà m cum sacâ—ilegis rectè sentire as too much suspect the prudence or vilifie the piety of our forefathers therby to extoll some mens after zeal and skill The errors and defects of the Antients joyned with their charity and sincerity I believe were far more pardonable with God than the late furies and cruelties of some men pretending to mend those errors and supply those defects Not that it is safe for us to return to what we now see by the word of God to be an error But we may in charity excuse their ignorance in some things of old while yet we commend and imitate that wisdom honesty order and gravity of religious profession which was in them far beyond the Modern transports of some mens
unnecessary rigors and severities may not make the Mass or lump of religion more sowr and heavy than God in his Word hath required who cannot be an enemy to the right and sanctified use of melody or Musick Psal 33.2 2 Cor. 9.7 since he commands singing to his praises and loves a cheerfull temper in his service Certainly Musick is of all sensible humane beauty the most harmless and divine Nor did I ever see any reason why it should be thought to deform us Christians or be wholly excluded from making a part in the beauty of holiness No time or abuse doth prejudice Gods or the Churches rights Quamvis ritus ordinationis in Eccles pontificia multis superstitionibus inutilibus ceremoniis fit vitiatus ex eo tamen ipsius ordinationis essentiae nihil decedit Distinguenda ordinantis infirmitas ab ordinatione quae sit totius Ecclesiae nomine distinguendum divinum ab humano essentiale ab accidentali pium Christianum ab Antichristiano sermentum a doctrina Pharisaeorum Gerard. de Minist pag. 147. Moderatia non tam virtus quam doctrix imperatrix omnium virtutum Auriga ordinâ—trix affectuum Ber. Cant. Tolle hanc virtus vitium erit Nec abligurienda sunt mala cum bonis nec eructanda bona cum malis Vetul Pravi effectus falsi sunt rerum â—stimatores All wise and excellent Christians know this for certain That mans usurpation is no prejudice to Gods dominion nor do humane traditions vacate divine Commands nor Antichrists superstitions cancell Christs Institutions Vain superstructures of mans addition neither demolish nor rase Gods foundations men do not quit their rights to estates for anothers unjust in trusion The heady invasions of one or few or many upon the Churches rights and liberties are no cause to make Christians remove the antient Land-marks and boundaries of true Ministry due order and prudent government which we find fixed by Christ continued by the Apostles and observed by the Churches obedience in all ages although not without tinctures and blemishes of humane Infirmities They are sad Physicians and of no valew who know not how to let their Patients blood unless they stab them to the heart Such are those unhappy leeches who in stead of eating off with fit Corosives the dead flesh of any part do lop off whole arms and legs Some men are too heavy for themselves and while they aim to go down the Hill of reformation they suddenly conceive such an impetuous motion as cannot stop it self till it hath carried all before it and at length dasheth it self in pieces Much more folly it is quite to abolish the use of holy things than to tollerate some abuses with it True reforming is not a starting quite out of the way as shy and skittish horses are wont to do when they boggle at what scares them more than it can hurt them with danger to themselves and their riders too not a flying to new modes and exotick fashions of religion and Churches and Ministers but it is a sober and stayd restauration of those antient and venerable forms which pious Antiquity in the Church of Christ and the antient of dayes in his more sure Word hath expressed to us 'T is easie to pare off what one great Antichrist or the many less have added and to supply what they have by force or fraud detracted from that only complete figure of Extern professional religion which Christ and his Apostles by him so have fashioned and delivered which is never well handled no not by Reformers unless Christians have honest hearts good heads clear eyes and pure hands when all these meet in any undertakers to reform the Church I shall then hope they will seriously sincerely and successfully do Christs and the Churches work as generally men are prone and intent to do their own This then I may conclude against all precipitant and blind zeal which by popular arts seeks to bring an odium on all Ministers and the Ministry of this Church meerly by using the Name of the Pope without giving any account to reason or religion of their Calumny That there is no cause in reason or religion for any Christians to cast off the Ministry of England as it stands Reformed and so restored to its primitive Power and Authority because of any Succession from relation to or communion with the Order and Clergy of the Roman Church and Bishop no more cause I say than for these Anti-ministeriall Cavillers to pull out their eyes because Papists do see with theirs or to destroy themselves because naturally descended from such parents as were in subjection to the Bishop of Rome and in communion with that Church we may as well refuse all leagues and treaties of humanity in common with Papists as all Christianity and all Christianity as all antient lawfull Ministry an holy Succession may descend and Gods elect be derived from such as were true men how ever vitious CAVIL Or CALUMNY V. Against Ministers as Ordeined by Bishops in England I Have done with the first part of this Cavill or Calumny which seeks to bandy the Ministry of the Church of England against the Papall and Romish wall that they may make it either rebound to a popular and Independent side or else fall into the hazard of having no true Christian Ministry at all from both which I shall in like fort endevour to rescue this our holy Function and Succession A second stroak therefore which I am to take is made with great Artifice and popular cunning against the Ministry of this Church as it was derived and continued by the hands of Bishops who were as Presidents or chief Fathers in the work of Ordination among their Brethren and Sons the Presbyters or Ministers within their severall Diocesses These Prelates or Bishops the Objectors protest highly against as being not Plants of Christs planting whose Authority being lately pulled up by power so that they seem to have no more place or influence in this Church or Nation the Presbyterie also and whole order of the former Ministry they say must necessarily also fail and wither which were but branches and slips derived from the stem or root of Episcopall Ordination Thus we see in a few years the Anti-ministeriall fury is cudgelling even Presbyters themselves with that staff which some of them put into vulgar hands purposely to beat their Fathers the grave and antient Bishops and utterly to banish that Venerable and Catholick Order or Eminent Authority of Episcopacy out of the Church what the Dove-like innocency of those fierce and rigid Ministers hearts might be as to their godly intentions I know not but I am sure they wanted that wisdome of the Serpent which seeks above all to preserve its head whence life health motion and orderly direction descending to other parts do easily repair and heal what ever lesser hurt or bruise may befall them It must needs be confessed that as the Events have been very
sad so the advantages have been great which the Anti-ministeriall party have gained by the preposterous zeal of some Anti-Episcopall spirits which transported them not only beyond and against all bounds or rules of Reason Order Scripture Ecclesiasticall Custome and Laws here in England but even contrary to their own former and some of their present judgements touching Episcopall Presidency which they never did nor do yet hold to be unlawfull in the Church how ever it might be attended with some inconveniencies and mischiefs too not arising from the nature of that Order and power which is good but from the corruption of those men that might manage it amiss This makes many of these Ministers have now so much work to take off that leprosie from their own heads which they told the people had so much infected the Bishops hands by the Imposition of which they yet own their Ministeriall power and holy Orders to have been rightly derived to them in that Ordination by Bishops which was used here in the Church of England as in all antient Churches It is never too late to rectifie and repent of any mistakes and miscarriages incident to us as poor sinfull mortals Although Primitive Episcopacy which ever was as a grand pillar of the Churches Ministry Order and Government hath been much shaken and thrust aside by mans power or passion to the great weakning and indangering of the whole Fabrick and Function of the Ministry together with the peace and polity of this Church yet wise men may possible see after these thick clouds and dust of dispute what is of God in true Episcopacy yea and they may be perswaded to preserve and restore what is necessary and comly in it however they pare off what is deformed superfluous and Combersome in the behalf of which I am neither a pleader nor an approver It is now no time in England either to flatter or fear the face of Episcopacy or sinisterly to accept the persons of Bishops There is nothing now can be suspected to move me to touch with respect those goodly ruines from which the glory of riches and honour are now so far removed but only matter of conscience and the integrity of my judgement And therefore I here crave leave without offence to any that are truly godly either Ministers or others who may differ from me in this point freely yet as briefly as I can to discover my judgement touching this so controverted point of Episcopacy in which from words men have faln to blows and from wasting of ink to the shedding of blood I see that other men of different sense daily take their freedom to vent themselves against all Bishops and all Episcopacy some of them so rudely and unsavorily as if they hoped by their evill breath to render that venerable name and order ever abhorred and execrable to Christian minds which to learned and sober Christians ever was and still is as a sweet Oyntment poured forth nor doth it lose of its divine and antient fragrancy by the fractures of these times which have broken it may be not with devotion and love so much as with hatred and passion that Alabaster-box of civill protection and Sanction in which it was here for many hundreds of years happily preserved from vulgar insolency and Schismaticall contempt Why may not I presume to enjoy my freedome too yet bounded with all modesty and sobriety without any prejudice or reproach reflecting upon the Counsels or actions of any men my Superiours whose power and practise as to secular mutations neither can nor ought to have any influence on mens opinions and consciences further than way is made for them by the Haâ—bingâ—rs of Reason and Religion which are best set forth and disce ned in innate principles of Order and Polity also in Scripture precepts and precedents and lastly by the Catholick Custome and practise of the Church of Christ. Ans In my answer therefore to this Cavill or Calumny touching Bishops which many Ministers are as afraid to name or own with honour as they are to call any holy man either Apostle Evangelist Father or Martyr by the title of Saints my intent is not largely to handle that late severe and unkind Dispute in England about Episcopacy or Prelacie for this having been learnedly and fully done by others would be as superfluous so extremely tedious both to the Reader and my self Nor is it my purpose to justifie all that might be done or omitted by some Bishops in their government But my design chiefly is 1. to remove that popular odium to allay that Plebeian passion to rectifie those unlearned prejudices and to take away those unjust â—ealousies which are by some weak and possibly well-meaning Christians taken up and daily urged against all Bishops in a Presidentiall eminencie among Presbyters or above other Ministers 2. My next is to justifie that holy Ordination and Ministeriall authority which by the imposition of their hands chiefly was with probation prayer and meet Consecration duly conferred upon the Ministers of this Church according to Scripture rule and Ecclesiasticall custome in all setled Churches But before I handle the first thing proposed I must seek to remove that prejudice which sticks deep in some ordinary minds against Bishops and their Authority meerly arising from the darkness and sufferings of late so plentifully cast upon them if arguments and words could not yet Arms and Swords have they say convinced Bishops and subdued them notwithstanding all their learning Sed quid berba Remi sequitur fortunam ut semper edit â—â—mnatos Juv. their gravity their piety their protection which they pleaded from the Churches Catholick custome and the Lawes of this Church The vulgar are prone to think those wicked who are unprosperous and accursed who are punished Yet in true judgement of things those great and many impressions of worldly diminution and supposed Miseries made upon Bishops are more just arguments against the innocency of their persons place Job 1. and lawfull power than Jobs afflictions were which the Devil never urged against his integrity but sought thereby to overthrow it as God did prove and exercise it I believe there are too many that would be content there should be neither Bishops nor Presbyters but such as are great sufferers Nor yet any Word or Sacrament or holy Ministrations nor any marks of Christianity in this or any other Reformed Church But the measures of religious matters are never to be taken from the passions or prevalencies of men nor from any secular decrees or human acts and civill sanctions Godly and famous Bishops in eminency among and above the e Presbyters were many ages before any civill power protected them and so they may continue if God will in his true Church even then when as of old most persecuted and sought to be destroyed Worldly Counsells and forces which commonly are levelled to mens secular ends and civill interests signifie little or nothing indeed to a true
Christians judgement or conscience in the things of Christ and true Religion which must never be either refused or accepted according as they may be ushered in or crowded out by Civil Authority Christ doth not steer his Church by that Compass Things the more divine and excellent the more probable to be rejected by men of this world At the same rate of worldly frowns and disfavours Christians long ere this time should have had nothing left them of Scriptures Sacraments sound doctrine or holy Ministrations All had been turned into Heathenish barbarity Hereticall errors or Schismatical confusions if conscience to God and love to Christ and his Church had not preserved by the constancy and patience of Christian Bishops and Ministers those holy things which the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iâ—qâ—it Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. wanton and vain world was never well pleased withall and often persecuted seeking to destroy both root and branch of Christianity Weare to regard not what is done by the few or the many the great or the small but what in right reason and due order after the precepts and patterns of true Religion ought to be done in the Church As for the Government of Bishops Episcopal power not Antichristian so far as it referred to the chief power and office of Ordeining Ministers in a right succession for due supplies to this Church of England Truly I am so far from condemning that Episcopall authority and practise as unlawfull and Antichristian after the rate of popular clamor ignorance passion and prejudice That contrarily very learned wise and godly men have taught me to think and declare That as the faults and presumptions of any Bishops through any pride ambition and tyranny or other personall immoralities are very Antichristian because most Diametrally contrary to the Precept and patern of our holy and humble Saviour Jesus Christ whose place Bishops have alwayes as chief Pastors and Fathers among the Presbyters since the Apostles times eminently supplyed in the extern order and Polity of the Church So that above all men they ought to be most exactly conform to the holy rule and example of Jesus Christ Episcipale â—ffiâ—â— a maximè oâ—nanâ— nobilitant gravitas moâ—um inâ—turitas Consiliorum actuum honest as Bern. Ep. 28. Câ—in honoâ—is p aeâ—ogativa etiam congrue â—â—â—iâ—a requirimus Amb. de dig Sa. Ne sit honor sublimis vita deformis Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 19. Cogito me jam Episcopum principi pastoâ—um de commissi ovibus rationem redditurum Non Ecclesiasticis honoribus tempora ventosa transigeâ—e debere Aust Ep. 203. both in doctrine and manners So withall they have taught me to esteem the Antient and Catholick government of godly Bishops as moderators and Presidents among the Presbyters in any Diocess or Precincts in its just measure and constitution for power Paternall duty exercised such as was in the persecuting purest and Primitive times to be as much if not more Christian than any other form and fashion of government can be yea far beyond any that hath not the charity to endure Catholick primitive and right Episcopacy which truly I think to be most agreeable to right reason and those principles of due order and polity among men also no less suitable to the Scripture wisdome both in its rules and paterns to which was conform the Catholick and Primitive way of all Christian Churches throughout all ages and in all places of the world Blondel Apol. pag. 177. 179. Et in praefatio ne Absit à me ut siniâ—trum de piâ—ssiâ—ae illius antiquiâ—atis consilio consensu quae Episcopalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primum in Ecclesiam invexit mentâ— quippiam suspicer So Ego Episcopos quodam modo Apostolorum locum in Ecclesia tenere largior non munere divinitus instituto sed lâ—beâ—è ab Ecclesia collata illa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blondel test Jeron pag. 306. Which things very learned men and friends to Presbytery joyned with Episcopacy have confessed both lately as Salmatius Bochartus and Blondellus and also formerly as Calvin Beza Moulin with many others so far was ever any learned and unpassionate man from thinking Episcopacy unlawfull in the Church Indeed after all the hot Canvasings and bloody contentions which have wearied and almost quite wasted the Estates spirits and lives of many learned men in this Church of England as to the point of true Epiâ—copacy I freely profess that I cannot yet see but that that antient and universall form of government in due conjunction with Presbytery and with due regard to the faithfull people is as much beyond all other new invented fashions as the Suns light glory and influence is beyond that of the mutable and many-faced Moon or any other Junctos of Stars and Planets however cast into strange figurations or new Schemes and Conjunctions by the various fancies of some Diviners and Astrologers D. Bâ—chartus Eâ—ist ad D. Moâ—leium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat â—â—â—n in Epist Which free owning of my judgement in this point may serve to blot out that Character etiam ipse Presbyterianus added to my name by the learned Pen of Bochartus For although I own with all honour and love orderly Presbytery and humble Presbyters in the sense of the Scriptures and in the use of all pious Antiquity for sacred and divine in their office and function as the lesser Episcopacy or inspectors over lesser flocks in the Church yet not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Ep. 62. Eccles Neocaes The holy consistory of Presbyters desires their chief or President to be among them as abhorring and extirpating all order and presidency of Bishops among them as if it were Antichristian wicked and intollerable Nor do I think that an headless or many headed Presbytery ought to be set up in the Church as of necessity and divine right in this sense that learned writer himself is no Presbyterian nor ever had cause to judge me to be of that mind I confess after the example of the best times 2. Reasons for Episcopacy rather than other Government and judgement of the most learned in all Churches I alwayes wished such moderation on all sides that a Primitive Episcopacy which imported the Authority of one grave and worthy person chosen by the consent and assisted by the presence counsell and suffrages of many Presbyters might have been restored or preserved in this Church and this not out of any factious design but for these weighty reasons Ignat. ad Antiochenos Bids the Presbyterâ— feed the flock till God shews who shall be their Bishop or Ruler He salutes Onesimus the Bishop of Ephesus Ep. ad Ephes cited by Euseb l. 3. c. 35. Hist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Chil. which prevail with me 1. For the Reverence due from posterity Ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constituti Apostolici seminis
traduces Episcopi Tert. de Praes c. 32. anno 300. Cornelius Bishop of Rome sayes the Church committed to his charge had 46 Preâ—byters and â—ught to have but one Bishop Euseb hist l. 6. c. 22. Vidimus nos Policarpum in prima nostra aetate qui ab Apostolis non solum edoctus sed ab Apostolis in Asia in ea quae est Smyrnis Ecclesis institutus est Episcopus Irenaeus l. 3. c. 3. So in many places he testifies Lib. 4. ca. 43. 45. Omnes haeretici posteriores sunt Episcopis quibus Apostoli tradiderunt Ecclesias l. 5. c. 20. Cyprian Ep. 67. Adulteram Cathedram collocare aut alium Episcopum facire contra Apostolicae institutionis â—â—tatem necfas est nec licet The Generall Council of Chalcedon reckons 27. Bishops in Ephesus from Timothy Can. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con Cholced Diotrephes a factious Presbyter is branded by Saint John for not enduring the preheminence of that Apostle 3 Joh. 9. Quod universalis tenuit Eccleâ—â— nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Autoritate Apostolica traditum Rectissimè crediâ—â—r Aust de Baptis l. 4. c. 24. None among the Antients was against the Order and Presidency of Bishops but Aerius who was wholly an Arian and upon envy and hatred against Euâ—athius who was preferred before him in the Episcopall place which he sought he urged Parity against Prelacy contrary to the good order and peace of the Chu ch See St. Austin Haeres c. 59. Epist hae 69 to the Venerable piety and wisdome of all Antiquity which alwayes had President Bishops in all setled and compleated Churches together with the Colleges or Fraternities of Presbyters yea 't is very likely that before there were many Presbyters in one City so as to make up a Presbytery the Bishop and Deacons were all that officiated among those few Christians which the Apostles left in that City who afterward increasing to many Congregations had so many Presbyters Ordeined placed and governed by the Eminency of his vertue and authority who was Bishop there or Pastor before them as in time so some in speciall Authority and Office by Apostolicall appointment And certainly in things that are not so clearly and punctually set down in express commands of Scripture a sober and modest regard ought to be had in matters of externall polity and Church society to the patern of Primitive times Agnitio vera est Apâ—stolâ—rum dâ—ctâ—ina â—t antiquiâ—s Ecclesiae status in uâ—iverso mundo secundum successiones Episcoporum quibus illi eam quae in unoquâ—que loco est Ecclesiâ—m tradiderunt Iren. l. 4. c. 63. Cyprâ—an l 4. â— p. 9. Omnes praeposiâ—i Apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt Edant origines Ecclesia um suarum evelvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentium ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis viris habuerit autorem antecessorem Tertul. de prae ad Hae. c. 32. So contra Marcion l. 4. Ordo Episcoporum ad originem recensus in Johannem stabit autorem Con. Nic. calls the precedency of the Bishop of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An antient custom and tradition Can. 7. It is not to be beleived that in Tertul. times any mistake in the Church could be Catholick living 200. after Christ When he tels us Cathed ae Apostol rum adhuc suis locis praesidentur apud quas ipsae authentica eorum liâ—eâ—ae recitantur ibid. c. 34. Epiphan Haer. 75. Sayes its next to Haeresy to abâ—ogate the holy order instituted by the Apostles and used by all the Churches it brings â—n Schism scandalls and conâ—usions Toto oâ—be decretum Jero à Marco Evangelista Presbyteri unum ex se electum in excisâ—â—ri gâ—adu collocatum Episcopum nominabant Id. Ep. ad Evag. Theod. in 1 Tim. 3. Eosdem olim vocabâ—nt Presâ—â—teros et Episcopos eos autem qui nunc vocantur Episcopi nominabant Apostolos ut Epaphrum Titum Timotheum prâ—cedente autem tempore Apostolatus nomen reliquerunt iis qui proprie erant Apostoli Dâ—mâ—n Episcopatus vero nomen imposuerunt iis qui olim asâ—labantur Apostoli Ecclesia non potest esse sâ—nâ— Episcopis nec esse possunt Ministri nec fideles Bellar. de Eccles which could not follow so soon and so universaâ—ly any way but from Apostolicall precept or direction from which the Catholick Church could not suddainly erre in all places being so far in those times from any passion or temptation either of covetousness or ambition which had then no fewell from the savour of Princes and as little sparks of ambition in the hearts of those holy men who were in all the great and Mother Churches both ever owned and reverenced in antiquity as Bishops in a priority of place and presidency of authority both by the humble Presbyters and all the rest of the faithfull people It is not among the things comely or praise worthy Phil. 4.8 Either in charity modesty humility or equity for us in after and worse times to cast upon all those holy Primitive Christians and famous Churches either the suspition of a generall Apostacy by a wilfull neglect or universally falling away from that Apostolicall way or a running cross to it Neither may we think that all Churches did lightly and imprudently abuse that occasionall liberty which might be left them in prudence whereby further to establish what might seem the best for order and peace as to the matter of Government wherein if the Churches were free to choose it is strange they all agreed in this one way of Episcopall Government All over the Christian world till these later times It becomes us rather to be jealous of our own weak and wanton passions and to return rather from our later transports popular wandrings to the neerest conformities with those first and best times who universally had Bishops either because they were so divinely commanded or in holy wisdom they chose that way as best so far as there was left a Christian liberty of prudence to those who were by the Apostles set as Pastors and Rulers over the severall Churches and however the name at first was common to all Church Ministers Apostles and Presbyters to be called Bishops yet afterward when the Apostles were deceased their successors in the eminency of place among the Presbyters were called peculiarly Bishops Secondly So the Augustane CoÌ„fession So Luther oft Camerarius in vitaâ— Philippi Maximè optandum est t EpiscoporuÌ„ magna sit autoritas Melancton Epist 〈◊〉 Lutherum ad Bellaium Ep. Par. Bucer de animarum cura A temporibus ApostoloruÌ„ Episcopus à Presbyteris electus iisque impositus quemadmodum Jacobus Hierosolymitanus Et de disciplina clericali Episcopalem potestatem restituendam optat Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 4. S. 2. Calvin Epist ad Sadoletum Instit l. 14. c. 4. S. 2. Calv. de neces ref Ecc. Nullo
non Anathemate dignos fatear si qui erunt qui non reverentur summâ—que obedientia observâ—nt Hierarchiam in qua sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur ejus veritate colligati fraternam chariâ—atem colant Beza in Apoca. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem nimirum oportuit imprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum cateros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam Pet. Mar. loc com Zanchius Hoc minime improbari posse judicamus ut unus inter multos Presbyteros praesit Epis conf c. 5. th 10. Vedelius notis in Igna. Ex actis Epistolis Apostolicis atque ex Eccl. histoâ—icis colligitur ipsos Apostolos eorum successores hunc ritum observasse ut unus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomine Presbyterii Ministros legitimè ab Ecclesia electos per manuum impositionem preces publicas ordinareâ— Gerard. de min. p. 372. Grotius inter propriè dictas Aposto traditiones esse â—sserit Episcopalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vot propace Peter du Moulin Epist ad Episc Winto Deodate in his Epistle to the late Assembly Pâ—imis beatis illis temporibus politeia Ecclesia admirabili Aristocratia mixta Epis Presbyt plebi sua jura tribuit Alsted de min. So Gerardus pag. 232. Retinendum Episcopalem ordinem asserit Propter 8. rationes 1. Varia dona dat Deus 2. Exempla Apostolica Primitivae Eccl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 propter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae 4 Naturae congruus est ordo rationi in omni caetu 5. Alit concordiam 6. repâ—imit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arrogantiam 7. Nulli gravis ubi sit electione per suffragia Presbyterorum peragit officium 8. Tollit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schisma seditiones For the avoyding of Scandall giving to so many Christian Churches remayning in all the world who for the far major part are still governed by Bishops in some respect distinct from and eminent above the Presbyters It is not the work of Christian prudence or charity to widen differences between us and other Churches Greek Eastern African or Western yea we owe this Charity to the Romanists and to our selves rather who seem to have gained this great advantage against us by the offence given them in utter abolishing the Antient and Catholick order and succession of Episcopacy that they will less now esteem us Christians or to be in any true Church since they will not allow us any right and compleat Ordination of Ministers and so no Sacraments and no Christianity as to extern profession and administration without Bishops yea the best reformed Churches must needs be offended who approve such a Presidency of Bishops among Presbyters where it is continued with the doctrinall Reformation many enjoy Bishops stil as we did No learned and godly men ever thought it cause enough to separate from any Church because it had Bishops Such as have them not in a constant Presidency yet count this no part of their Reformation but rather deplore it as a defect involuntary pleading the Law of necessity or some grand inconveniencies and difficulty to excuse thereby their inconformity so far to other Churches and to all Antiquity yea the most learned and wise among their Presbyterians abroad oft wish they had the honour and happiness of reformed and reforming Bishops Nor ever did heretofore the most learned and godly people in England Ministers or others any more than the Princes Nobility and Gentry generally desire the abolition of right Episcopacy however now at last they had not either opportunity to plead for it or such power and influence as to preserve it against those inundations which God hath been pleased to suffer to overflow in this Church But rocks are not presently removed when over-flown what is of God will stand and out-live the deluge Corepiscopi forbidden to ordain without the Bishops licence by the Council of Ancyra which was before the 1. Nicaene So Concil Nicaenum owns and confirms the antient custom So Concil Arelat c. 19. So Concil Laod c. 56. Presbyteri sine conscientia Episcoporum nihil faciant Blondel Test Hier. p. 255. So Jerom excepta orditatione quid facit Episcopus quod Presbyter non facit Ad Evag. Inschismatis remedium factum est quod postea unus electus est qui caeteris praepontretur ne unusquisque adse trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Jeron ad Evag. Quod Alexandria post Marcum Evangelâ—stam factum est à Presbyteris quomodo exercitus imperatorem faceret Cyprian Ep. 55. Non aliunde haereses abortae aut nata schismata quam inde quod sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur Thirdly I prefer a Primitive Episcopacy as the best way of union and happy satisfaction to all learned wise and good men especially in that so shaken and disputed a point of Ordination for the right succession and conferring of power Ministeriall which the most learned and sober Presbyterians confess not to be weakned by Episcopall Presidency And very many no less considerable men for number learning and piety as Da. Blondell among others do think the right Ordination of Ministers to be much more strengthened adorned and compleated where it passeth through the hands of the Episcopall power and order if for no other reason yet for this that it was the Apostolicall Primitive and universall way used in the Church and by which the Authority and Office of the Ministry hath ever been together with Christianity derived to us from the Apostles times It s evident that the sudden and violent receding of many men from their former judgement and practise in this point hath occasioned many great scandals scruples and schisms troubles and confusions in matters both of Church and State giving great advantages to all that list to cavil at question and despise the Ordination and Ministry of even those Presbyters yea their very Christianity as to the outward form order and profession who so easily renounced and eagerly cast quite away that order and power as unlawfull and un-Christian Triumphati magis quam victi sunt Tac. de Germ. Nehem. 11.14 22. Sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento Quod Aron filii ejus atque Levita fuerint in templo hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri diaconis vendicent in Ecclesia Jeron ad Eva. et ad Nepotianum So St. Cyprian l. 3. Ep. 9. ad Rogationum Fourthly A right Episcopacy seems yet never to have had so free full and fair an hearing as is requisite in so great a matter so as to have been evicted to be against the Scriptures as some pretended 1. When as 't is most evident in most learned and godly mens judgements antient and modern that it hath the neerest resemblance to that
Christ Which Timothy in his infirm person could not do but in his care to transmit the holy patern to posterity and to his successors he might as he was enjoyned be said to do For what is once well done in a regular publike way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Perenâ—â—s est aeterna praeclari exemplaris virtus Jeron Quadratus Atheniensis Eccl. Episcopus Apostolorum Discipulus Jeron Ep. ad Mag. St. Jerom tels us that St. John wrote his Gospell at the intreaty of the Bishopâ— of Asia Catal. Script Eccl. c. 9. Rev. 2. Angels i. e. Apostoli nuntii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Bibl. è Diod. Sic. l. 40. Austin Sub Angeli nomine Laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae So Beza Annot. The chief teacher in the Synagogue was called the Angell of the Congregation Anisw in Deut. 31.11 So Malachi 2.7 The Priests lips shall preserve knowledge for he is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord of Hosts is ever after done as to the permanency of that vertue which is in a good and great example What other Churches did observe after the Apostles times Ordo Episcoporum ad originem recensus in Johannem stabit autorém Tertul. l. 4. c. 5. ad Marcio So Clem. Alex. testifies that S. John made Bishops in Asia Ignatius Epist ad Ephâ—s but twelve years after the Revelation written Dionysius Polycarpus Placed by St. John for the Bishop of â— Smyrna Iren. l. 3. c. 3. Before the Revelation So the Epistle of the Smyrnenses justify of him calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 4. Hist 116. Anno 1450. Fratres Bohemi lib. de fide moribus eorum as to the manner of their Government when they grew numerous and spread to many Congregations and Presbyteries we may easily be resolved both by the testimony and practise of all Antiquity Fathers Councils Historians who have registred the uninterrupted succession of Bishops from the Apostles both in the seven Asiatick Churches mentioned in the Revelation whose * Angels were generally taken for their Presidents or Bishops and some of Apostles then living when as Archippus Evodius and Onesimus and Polycrates were Bishops c. What after times observed is evident to this day among all Christians even those of the Eastern and Abyssine Church have still their Bishops so the Greek and Muscovitish Churches so the furthest Asians which are thought to have been first converted by St. Thomas who furthest from believing did the penance of travelling furthest to Preach the Gospell in India And I observe the Fratres Bohemi in their persecuted state and poverty for a long time still retained a very happy and comly order of Episcopall Government Truly I never found so much light of Scripture patern and precept enjoyning any one or more Presbyters to do all those works of power and jurisdiction Nor ever did they without the presence of an Apostle or some Apostolicall successor and Bishop regularly ordein excommunicate silence c. so far as I can yet learn There are but two texts that mention the Presbytery and but one which can be pretended for ruling Lay-Elders which yet these are not preceptive or institutive but meerly narrative and touching without expressing any joynt power Office or Authority of Presbyters with any President or Bishop much less without them and against them Yea I read in St. Judes Epistles v. 8. foul marks put upon those in the Church that despise dominions and speak evill of dignities Against whose proud and seditious practises a woe is denounced Vers 11. as against men cruell like Cain covetous like Balaam ambitious as Korah factious disturbers of that order which God hath set in his Church as well as in civill societies after the mutinous example of Korah and his company Numb 16.3 who rose against both Moses and Aaron parallel to whose evill manners and disorderly practises 2 Pet. 2.10 these men had not been against whom St. Jude here and St. Peter in his second Epistle so sharply inveighs as presumptuous self-willed despisers of dignities c. unless there had been some eminencies in the Church Christian as well as was among the Jews which these men were most bold to oppose and contemn As for the civill powers Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 that then were in the world humble Christians made conscience as God commanded them to submit to them in all honest things And those hypocrites were no doubt too wary to adventure any thing against them whose power was terrible by the sword But the Orders Governments Dignities and Dominions in the Church were exposed by their weakness to the scorn and affronts of any such proud and tumultuating Spirits which covered themselves under the veil of Christian Religion yea and pretensions of the Spirit too Jâ—d 19. the better to set off their Schisms and separatings from that authority power and order which God had by the Apostles setled in the Church even in those times 5 If there were not thus much of Scripture patern and precept pleading fairly for a right Episcopacy yet since there is nothing against it in Scripture or Reason in Religion or morals yea and so much for it in common reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg Nihil sit in rep sine ordinis regiminis custodia So Lycurgus o dered ut nullus in repub ordo sine proprio esset Magisterio true polity and almost necessitie in Church societies no less than in either families Cities armies or any fraternities and Corporations of men No doubt the Lord of his Church hath not deprived or denyed that liberty and benefit of good order and rationall Government to his Church which in all civill societies may lawfully be used according to wisdom and discretion Truly we may as well think it unlawfull for one Minister to excell another or many others in age parts learning prudence gravity and gubernative faculties which if they may lawfully he had and are found in some by the especiall gift of God to so great differences from and excellencies above others what Reason or Religion can forbid them to be accordingly used and publikely employed in answerable differences of place and power for the Churches good only Christ â—equires humility in priority Ministry in their majority and service in their superiority proportioned to their gifts and endowments which God never gave in vain Nor doth there ever want indeed a plebs and vulgarity among many Presbyters thought honest and able men some of whom are still young and prone to be passionate imprudent factious and schismaticall whose folly is not yet decocted nor youthfull heats abated c. For the good ordering of whom beyond a contemptible and heady parity a right Episcopall presidency may be as usefull lawfull and necessary as a little Wine was for Timothy in regard of his frequent infirmities 1 Tim. 5.23 which St. Jerom every where owns as the ground of the
first constitution of Bishops after the Apostles Nor can such a paternall presidency be injurious to others If rightly ordered Epist ad Evagrium adversus Luciferianos Ecclâ—siae salus in summi sacerdotis i. e. Episcopi dignitate pendet cui si non eximia quadam ab omnibus eminens datur potestas tot in Ecclestis efficientur schismata quae sacerdotes Propter Ecclesiae honorem quo salvo salva pax est Tertul. de Bapt. Presbyteri diaconi jus habent Baptisandi non tamen sine Episcopi autoritate c. Jeron Aliqui de Presbyteris nec Evangelii nec loci sui memores neque futurum Dei judicium neque nunc sibi prapositum Episcopum cogitantes quod nunquam omnino sub antecessoribus factum est cum contumelia contemptu prapositi sui totum sibi vendicant quorum immoderata abrupta praesumptio temeritate sua honorem martyrum confessorum pudorem universae plebis tranquillitatem turbare conatur Thus Cyprian complains in his time who was one of the meekest and humblest Bishops that ever were of the Arrogancy of Presbyters acting without their Bishop Cyp. Ep. 67. Mutua at faeda sibi praestat errorum patrocinia errantium multitudo Cecil in M. F. Desipit qui ad vulgi normam sapit Sen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 24. contra Arianos qui suis numeris gaudebant in the due choosing and preferring of a worthy and tryed person who cannot be said to be imperious or to exercise any forbidden dominion over those by whose suffrages and consent he is worthily placed in that power and place for the good of them all which priority and eminency ought to be kept within those bounds of Christian authoriry which may consist with Charity and Humility And after all this we see by wofull experience that the want of that right Episcopall Government hath occasioned so many and great mischiefs in this and other Churches as do sufficiently shew the use and worth of it which was alwaies the greatest conservator of the Churches peace and purity in the best and Primitive times If any Object the vulgar prejudices and disaffections in many mens minds 3. Answer to vulgar unsatisfactions against Episcopacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instar navis tempestatibus â—actatae est Episcopi anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in Act. Ap. hom 3. Ethi against any thing that is called Prelacy or like to Episcopacy I answer 1. The best observation to be made as from the vote and sense of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most men is this what they most dislike and oppose is most by wise men to be desired and approved It s no rule for good men to walk by in matters of Religion above all 2. I believe the generality of sober Christians in this Nation do so much see the misery of change and the want of right Church Government that they are both the most and best of them rather desirous of a restored and regulated Episcopacy than any other way which hath been tryed in vain 3. Neither headless Presbytery nor scattered Independency are without many great dislikes already in the minds of many good Christians who finding these remedies worse than the disease are prejudiced against them both 1. For their novelty being unheard of in the Christian world for 1500. years Nobis nihil ex nostro arbitrio inducere licet fed nec eligere quod aliquis ex suo arbitrio induxâ—â—iâ— Apostolâ—s domini habemus autores qui nec ipsi quidquam ex suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt sed acceptam à Christo disciplinam fideliter rationibus administrarunt Tertul. de Praes ad Haer. Livi Dec. 1. l. 1 Hieron in Epist ad Titum and the last of not above ten years standing in England both brought in but abruptly as rising from private mens interests passions and policies with which Episcopall Government did not well agree Neither of them ever having had either the vote of any generall councill or the practise of any considerable part of the Catholick Church 2. Suspected they are by many for their prevaling upon this Church by a kind of force against the consent of the supreme Magistrate and this in broken and bleeding times Planted not by Preaching and patience but by the Sword and watered with civill blood Each driving their Chariot as Tullia the wise of Tarquinus Superbus did over their Fathers As if they brought in Armatum Evangelium Christian Religion in compleat armor and Christ marching like Alexander Hannibal or Caesar when as Episcopacy was toto orbe decretum with wisdom charity and peace by consent of all Churches in all the world approved as St. Jerom tels us and established even in those times when persecution kept the Church most in purity and unity with self and when prayers and tears were the only arms used in the Church to set up any part of the Kingdom of Christ either in Doctrine or Discipline 3. Because neither of those new ways ever yet had such plenary and peaceable approbation after due debate from the publike reason prudence and piety of this nation comparable to what the Government by Bishops alwaies had in all Parliaments and Synods for many hundreds of years since we had any Princes or Parliaments Christian 4. Neither of them carry yet any promising face of more truth peace order and honour to the Christian reformed Reâ—igion to this Church or Nation nor yet of more morall strictness and holiness in mens lives nor of more grace in mens hearts nor of more love and union as to mens affections yet in no degree so much as Episcopacy did in the Primitive and best times yea and in these last times too since the Reformation for although it might have some sharp prickles with it yet it bare sweeter and fairer Râ—ses than these last have done or are like to do and with far less offense 5. The same or worse inconveniences which are by any objected against Episcopacy in its age and decays discover themselves in the very bud and infancy of these new ways As much pride ambition tyranny vanity incharitablenese more Prophaness Atheism Heresie Blasphemy Licentiousness far more faction bitterness vulgarity deformity and confusion besides the needless offence and scandall given to most Christian Churches in all the world who retain the government by Bishops being as antient as their being Christians and descended from the same origin the Apostles and Apostolicall men 6. Neither of the new modes ever produced either Precept or holy example or any divine direction for them in any degree so clearly and so fully as Episcopacy hath alwayes done Nor yet have they produced any promise from God that they shall be freed from those inconveniencies which were reall or odiously objected against Episcopacy and which may be incident in time to all things that
are managed by men This government then by a fatherly president or chief Bishop among Presbyters seeming to have not equall 4. The advantages of Episcopacy against any other but far superiour grounds from Scripture both as to the Divine wisdome so ordering the form of his antient Church among the Jews also by the example precept and direction evident from Christ Jesus and the holy Apostles in the New Testament No wonder that many yea far the most of godly and learned upright men do rather approve a Primitive and right Episcopacy than any other new fashion which is rather conform to secular interest than to any thing of the Churches or true religions advantages especially when 't is evident that Episcopacie hath the great and preponderating addition of the Antient sole and Vniversall government approved and used by all the Churches of Christ in the purest and most impartiall times To which neither of the other can with any face pretend for themselves nor with any truth contradict it being averred by all Antiquity in the behalf of right and regular Episcopacy which never failed to succeed the Apostles authority and eminency either by their own immediate appointment in many places even while they yet lived or by the election and Votes of the Colleges and Fraternities of Presbyters after the Apostles decease who still chose one man eminent for his faith piety zeal and holy gravity to be duly consecrated in power and place above them as a Father among sons Aust Ep. 148. ad Valeriâ—â— Jerom. ad Nepotianum Ad Evagriuâ—â— Crysost hom 3 in Act. Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crysost Hom. 3. in Acta or an elder Brother among brethren or as a Master or Provost in a College or as a Generall in an Army as St. Jerom himself tells us If any man ask me then what kind of Bishop I would have Vid. Synes l. 3. Ep. 21◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Epist c. Vid. Bern. ad Eug. l. 4. Opâ—rtet te esse formam justiâ—ia sanctimoâ—a speculum pietatis exemplat veriâ—atiâ— assertoâ—em fidei defensorem Christianorum ducem amicum sponsae c. I answer Such an one for Age as may be a Father for wisdome a Senator for gravity a Stoick for light an Angel for innocency a Saint for industry a Labourer for constancy a Confessor for zeal a Martyr for charity a Brother for humility a Servant to all the faithfull Ministers and other Christians under his charge I would have him venerable for those severall excellencies which are most remarkable in the antient and most imitable Bishops The devotion of St. Gregory the indefatigableness of St. Austin the courage of St. Ambrose the learning of Nazianzen the generosity of Basil the Eloquence of Chrysostom the gentleness of Cyprian the holy flames of Ignatius the invincible constancy of Polycarp That so be may come neerest to the Apostolicall pattern and resemble the most of any Christian or Minister the grace and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ Quod in aliis sacerdotibus deest per Antistitem surpleri debet Elotus ad Aug. cp August ad extremam senectutem impraetermissè praedicavit Possid vita Aug. Et successores incitatores Apostolorum Et zelum ac locum sortiti tam igitur ad curam quam alacres ad cathedram Bern. ser 77. Cant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pet. l. 2. Jerom ad Heliadorum Naz. orat lat tom a. Grandis dignitaes sed grandis ruina si peccent Ieron Vt nihil Episcopo excellentius sic nihil miserabilius si in crimine teneatur Amb. de dig Sa. I would have him yet not I but the vote of all pious Antiquity requires a Bishop to be among men the most morall among Christians the most faithful among Preachers the most painful among Orators the most perswasive among Governours the most moderate among Devotionaries the most fervent among Professors the most forward among Practisers the most exact among sufferers the most patient among perseverants the most constant He should be as the Holy of holyes was both to the inward court of those that are truly sanctified and converted and to the outward court of those that are called Christians only in visible profession I would have nothing in Him that is justly to be blamed or sinisterly suspected And all things that are most deservedly commended by wise and sober Christians I would have a Bishop of all men the most compleat as having on him the greatest care namely that of the Church and of souls And this in a more publike and eminent inspection as one daily remembring the strictness of Gods account and expecting either a most glorious Crown or a most grievous Curse to all Eternity I would have him most deserve and most able to use well but yet least esteeming Vid. Bern. Ep. 42. Vid. Amb. tom 3. ep 82. Qualis eligendus sit Epis Quis ferat Eligi divitem ad sedem honoris Ecclesiastici contempto paupere instructiore sanctiore Aust ep 29Vt Episcopus non sit quod Libanius dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Res unde â—grè aliquid emolumenti eâ—â—ngatur Basil in ep 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Carm. 4. de Epis coveting or ambitionating the riches pomp glory and honour of the world One that knows how to own himself in Persecution as well as in Prosperity and dares to do his duty as a Bishop in both estates I do not much consider the secular Parade and Equipage further than as publike incouragements of Merit as excitations to excell as noble rewards of Learning and as catern decencies or solemnities which do much set off and Embroider Authority in the sight of the vulgar I wish him duly chosen with judgement accepting with modesty esteemed with honour reverenced with love Overseeing with vigilance ruling with joynt-Counsel not levelled with younger Preachers and novices nor too much exalted above the graver and elder Presbyters neither despised of the one nor despising of the other I wish him an honourable competency if it may be had with his eminency that he may have wherewith to exercise a large heart and a liberall hand which every where carry respect and conciliate love If this cannot be had yet I wish him that in true worth which is denyed him in wealth That his vertue and piety may still preserve the authority of his place and this in the Order Peace and Dignity of the Church That he may be the Touchstone of Truth the Loadstone of Love the Standard of Faith the Patern of holiness the Pillar of stability and the Center of Unity in the Church Nor are these to be esteemed as Characters of an Eutopian Prelate only to be had in the abstract of fancy and speculation Many such Bishops have been antiently in the Church and not a few here in England some still are such in their merits a midst their ruines and obscurings and more might constantly and easily be
supplied to the Churches good order peace and honour If Reason and not Passion Religion and not Superstition Judgement and not Prejudice Calmness and not fierceness Learning and not Idiotism Gravity and not Giddiness Wisdome and not Vulgarity Prudence and not Precipitancy impartiall Antiquity and not interessed novelty may be the judge of true Episcopacy I think nothing further from a true Bishop Vid. Bern. ep 28. 152. 42. ad Ep. Senonum Aug. ep 203. in Ecclesiasticâ—â— honoribus tempora ventosa transigere c. Amb. de dig Sacerd. Cum honoris praerogativa etiam congrui merita requirimus c. than Idleness set off with pomp than Ignorance decked with solemnity than Pride blazoned with power than Covetousness guilded with Empire than Sordidness smothered with state than Vanity dressed up with great formalities Bishops should not be like blazing Comets in their Diocesse having more of distance terror and pernicious influence than of light or Celestiall vertue But rather as fixed Stars of the prime magnitude shining most usefully and remarkably in the Church during this night of Christs absence who is the only Sun for his light and Spouse for his love to the Church yet hath he appointed some proxies to woo for him and Messengers to convey love tokens from him among whom the holy Bishops of the Church were ever accounted as the chiefest Fathers next the Apostles when they were indeed such as evill men most feared good men most loved Schismaticks most envied and Hereticks most hated Right Episcopacy is so great an advantage to the Churches happiness and so unblamable in its due constitution and exercise that it is no small blemish to any godly mans judgement not to approve it and nothing as to imprudence is I think more blame-worthy than not to desire esteem love and honour it Since such Prelature is as lawfull as it is usefull and it is as usefull as either Reason or Religion polity or piety can propound in any thing of that nature which if not absolutely necessary yet certainly most convenient for the Church and commendable in the Church so far as it stands in a visible Pâ—lâ—â—y and society being no way either sinfull in it self or contrary to any positive Law of God any more than it is for Christians in civill governmenâ— to have Maiors in their Cities Colonels in their Armies Masters in their Colleges Wardens in their Fraternities Captains or Pilots in their Ships or Fathers in their Families Nor is indeed the venerable face of true Episcopacy so deformed by some mens late ridiculous dresses and disguises but that wise and learned men still see the many reverend and excellent lineaments of it not only of pious and prime antiquity but of beauty order symmetry In plebe nec veritas nec judicium inter saedam potentium adulationem praceps prostratorum odium inanibus studiis inconditis motibus omnia miscent Tacit. and benefit such as flow from both humane and divine wisdome if popular contempt and prejudices in some of the vulgar be any measure of things or any argument against any thing in Religion or in the Church of Christ it will serve as well to vilifie and nullifie all Presbytery and all Ministry as all Episcopacy Indeed neither of them can preserve their honor use and comliness if they exceed their proportions and either dash against or incroach upon each other contrary to those bounds and methods which primitive wisdom observed between power and counsell Order and Authority Community and Unity It is very probable that a few years experience of the want of good Bishops will so reconcile the minds of sober and impartiall Christians to them that few will be against them save only such who think the best security for some of their estates to be the utter exploding and perpetuall extirpation of Episcopacy A thing which one of the wisest of mortalls so much abhorred and for which he was able to give so good an account in Reason Piety and true Polity that it appears to have been not pertinacy and interest but judgement and conscience that so long sustained that unhappy Controversie which I have no mind to revive but only if possible to reconcile which is no hard matter where clear truths meet with moderate affections and peaceable inclinations For I find by the proportion of all Polity and Order that if Episcopall eminency be not the main weight and carriage of Ecclesiasticall government yet it is as the Axis or wheel which puts the whole frame of Church society and communion into a fit order and aptitude for motion especially in greater associations of Christians which make the most firm and best constituted Churches This being then the true figure of a learned grave godly and industrious Bishop there need not more be sayd to redeem Episcopacy from prejudices or to assert it against those triviall objections which are not with truth and judgement so much as with spight and partiality made against it Those light touches which are by some men produced from the antient Writers in the Church for the countenancing of the power of Presbyteries without any Bishop and President or for the Independency of power in Congregations are indeed but as the dust of the balance or drops of a full bucket compared to those full and weighty testimonies which they every where give for the use of Episcopacy unless men be allowed the confidence and liberty to bastardise the works of the Fathers as they list and by a new purgatorian Index tâ— antiquate all Records after 1500. years legitimation by the consent of all Churches as one lately hath endevoured to do D. Blondell a person indeed of great reading and learning but in this not of equall candor and impartiality who endevouring to find some foundation whereon to build his Presbyterie seeks to cast away as rubbidg and trash all the Epistolary writings of holy Ignatius Ignatius called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if he had wrote nothing yet the fame of his piety and sufferings made him sufficiently renowned in those Primitive times and after ages both for a Bishop and a Martyr his seat Episcopall being at Antioch and his grave at Rome But his writings being never so far questioned by Antiquity By Euseb Clem. Alex. Jerom. Phâ—tit bibl See the Lord Prim. of Arm. edition of Ignatius as to reject those Epistles which we urge in this point of Episcopacy for genuine and which are oft mentioned with honour and in part the very words which we now read so that it seems a passion and boldness too servile to the cause which that learned man undertook so to endevour at once to expunge those testimonies and remains of Ignatius which indeed are very weighty and many for the distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons even in the first century after Christ which our learned and industrious Country-man Dr. Hammond hath lately as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a valiant
vindicator defended not more to the honour of Ignatius than of himself whom providence hath chosen and so enabled to be a Patron to so glorious a Martyr and in so just a cause as to redeem one of the first Fathers from that Presbyterian Limbo How uncomly and petulant some other mens carriages have been and are daily toward the antient Fathers of the Church I need not tell when 't is too evident how they put them oft on the rack to make them speak somthing in favour for either an Headlesse Presbyterie or a confused Independency Indeed it is a shame to see young men and novices so to make those antient holy and learned Writers to scratch or blot their own faces with their own Pens and to put out their Eyes with their own stiles wringing as it were their noses till they bleed a drop or two for those new Modes and exotick formes of Church-government which neither they nor their forefathers even up to the Apostles times ever saw or knew And this tyrannie of quotations must be exercised upon the works of the Fathers though never so much against the clear judgement and practise of those holy men who were themselves either eminent Bishops as most of the Antients were whose Works are extant or humble and peaceable Presbyters who universally owned and submitted to the authority of their Bishops yea some men have the forehead to urge a few obscurer passages in a few them against clear places which are a hundred to one wherein they express their own judgements or the whole Churches practise in their times to be without any dispute for Episcopacy and Bishops with Presbyters as succeeding the Apostolicall eminencie in the ordinary power of Ordination and Church-government Indeed I have oft wondred how men of learning and piety had the confidence to cite testimonies even out of Ignatius Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Cyprian Clemens of Alexandria Ambrose Austin and others in favour of a Presbytery without and against a Bishop or President when all of them as all others of the Fathers are most clear both in their own judgements and as to the Churches Catholick practise yea and so is St. Jerom too for the right use of regular Episcopacy 5. Regulation of Episcopacy Omni actu ad me perlato placuit contrahi presbyterium Cornel. ep Rom. ad Cyp. Epist 46. In the absence sickness or death of the Bishop the Preâ—byters some me govâ—rnâ—d the Church So in Cyprians absence Epist 26.30.31 So Theod. l. 4. c. 22. when the Orthodox Bishop banished the Presbyters Flavianus and Dioderus c. guided the Church o â—nno 1194. hen the â—rks prevaiâ—d over the Greek Churches Balsamon tels they had no Bishops in many places a long time De Petro Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crysost hom 3. in Act. Apost Florentissimo illic clero tecum praesidents ad Cornel. Episcopus nullius causam audiat absque praesentia Clericorum suorum alioquin irrita eâ—â— sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum praesentia confirmetur Con. Carth. 4. can 23. such as all sober men plead for and approve What ever the Fathers are brought in as speaking for the Ministers rights in a joynt Presbyterie or the people 's as for Independency amount to no more but either to repress the arrogancy ambition and tyranny of some Bishops who in more favourable times usurped or used their power against or with neglect of the Counsell and assistance of Presbyters which in all reason ought and in Antiquity were ever joyned with the Bishop in weighty matters or else when the insolence and scorn of some Ecclesiastick governours arose to the oppression of the faithfull people To whom in Primitive times great regard was had both by Bishops and Presbyters in all publick transactions which concerned their and the Churches good government that so all things might be done with charity good liking and approbation of all Christians This was not only very comly and convenient but almost necessary in point of Christian prudence in those times when Christians of all degrees were full of humility and Charity kept short and low by persecution and much depended upon the love and union between Pastor and people Afterward indeed in times of peace and plenty there oft appeared so much of levity fury and faction in the common people that it was the wisdom of Governours to withdraw much of that liberty and indulgence which formerly people enjoyed but afterward abused to Sedition Fury and Murthers in their tumultuary motions and clamorous Elections This is all that ever I observed from the Antients in favour of the Presbyters power in common with Bishops or of the faithfull people Namely that they would have after the pattern of the Apostolike love wisdome and humility all things of publike concernment in the Church to be so managed by the chief Governour or Bishop as neither Presbyters nor People should think themselves neglected wherein their suffrage consent or approbation was fit to be had but the one should be used as brethren the other as sons which temperance I greatly approve It were endless and needless to answer or excuse personall Errors in Bishops Bishops personal errors no argument but of envy and malice against the office or those common inconveniences which are prone to attend all Power and superiority among men For those are the fruits of Power perverted of Authority degenerating of Governors ill governing themselves through personall errors and passions or the corruptions and indulgencies of times but they are not by any wise and impartiall man to be reckoned as the genuine and proper effects of that order government and proportion which is in right Episcopacy and which all reason as well as Religion allows to all sorts of men and Christians no more than sickness is to be imputed as a fault to health or deformity to comliness since both are incident in humane nature to the greatest strength or beauty Yea 't is most certain that there is nothing usefull or commendable in any other way of governing the Church in small parcells or in greater bodies which is not inclusively eminently and consummatively in a well-ordered Episcopacy such as was not only in primitive times but in our dayes As all Oeconomick vertues are in a good Father or Master and all politick excellencies are in an excellent Prince or Magistrate which cannot be found in any other short of and inferiour to those eminent relations All other lower and incompleater forms are as defective in point of advancing a common and publike good as they come short of that main end for with Episcopacy as the Crown and perfectest degree of order was by Apostolicall and primitive wisdome and piety setled in the Church which was to avoid Schisms to preserve the Unity of the faith and peace of the Churches to keep good correspondencies by Synods and Councills which could not be done by multitudinous meetings which no place could hold nor wise men manage to any order
and decency but all was easily effected by the conventions of the chief heads and Fathers of the Churches the Bishops and Presbyters in any Province Patriarchate yea and in all the world which had commerce with the Roman Empire where the chief overseers of the Flock and representers of the Clergy met and so were best able to give an account of the state of the Church past and present or to advise for the future welfare of it So that many wise men think it may be sayd of Episcopall government in its right constâ—â—ution and use Platins in vita Pii 2. as Piâ—â— the second said of the marriages of Clergy-men He saw some reason why Marriage should be denied to them as to the honour of their Order and the redemption of them from secular cares c. But he saw much more reason to allow them that liberty which not only Nature Reason and Religion gives them as well as any men but even the honor of the Church required to avoyd the mischiefs and enormities which followed the contrary And beyond all dispute it appears after long dispute that if it be not necessary by Divine prescript and direction to have such Bishops among the Clergy yet there is no necessity made to appear against them either in Reason or Scripture Nor doth either Presbytery or Independency shew any so good title to divine right as Episcopacy doth which includes the good of both those and superads some thing of Order Unity and Excellency beyond them both for the good of Presbyters and people too Yea I have known some Ministers of good repute for Learning and Piety who were sometime great sticklers for the parity of Presbyterie yet they have since the mischiefs ensuing the change have confuted and quenched those former vain hopes and excessive heats confessed to me That they see nothing in an Episcopall priority or Presidency unlawfull as against Scripture or Religion only it was thought by many godly men inconvenient It may be so but those men did not foresee the after inconveniences which grow greater by many degrees So that I perceived that this long hot and bloody dispute which seemed to hold forth the question and title of Divine right for Presbytery without a Bishop was now referrable to the judgement of Prudence rather than of Conscience a matter of policie rather than piety Answer to what is urged in the Covenant against Episcopacy Tyrannicum Episcoporum regimen This calmness at last abates much of that rigor which some men superstitiously urge and impose from the Covenant against Episcopacy in any kind or form as if when Scripture and Reason and Antiquity and Catholique custome are all for a right Episcopacy it were of any force to be battered and Abolished by the Covenant the sense of which was sometime declared to be only against the Tyrannicall abusive and corrupt government of Bishops or those inconveniences which were conceived to be in the present Constitution exercise or use here in England which one that had great influence in composing the Covenant assured others was the meaning of the Composers and the Covenants intent was only to remove what was decayed in that antient Fabrick and so preserve what was sound and good in it The only lawfull and honest sense of this Covenant is sufficiently kept if the former Constitution of Episcopacy in England be so reformed as it easily may be and in reason ought to be in what ever it needed alteration or amendment However that Covenant being no infallible Oracle dictated from heaven but a politique Engine continued and carried on by a company of poor sinfull and fallible men upon whose heads we have lived to see that arrow fall which they thought to shoot only against the face of Episcopacy all its words and senses are certainly to be brought to the rules of every mans place and calling of a good conscience of right reason and of Scriptures Not may these with all Antiquity and the Fathers be forced to bow their sheafes and to do homage to that one Sheaf of humane Combination and novell Erection which holds forth as nothing for a headless Presbytery or Independency So nothing of Reason Scripture or Conscience against a right and primitive Episcopacy Against which to make a Covenant of extirpation must needs be so much a sin as it is against all reason and religion to abjure the use of any thing which is lawfull good and usefull And if it be not necessary as of Apostolike and divine Institution if there be not Precept divine commanding yet there is clear practise directing the Church that way of Episcopall government as best which some men wel knowing to have bin antiently approved and constantly followed by the Catholike Church they used in the Covenant that art against Episcopacy to soder Popery and Prelacy together thereby to bring the greater odium on Episcopacy â— Prelacy to Popery implying that they were both intollerable and inseparable whereas in truth there is nothing more ridiculously false and absurd than to think the Pope to be the Father or Fountain of Episcopacy or to affirm Prelacy to be Popery as now the word is commonly understood to signifie Error joyned with pride and superstition with tyranny There were many godly Bishops and holy Prelates in the primitive Churches which were equal or preceding in time as at Antioch Jerusalem Alexandria c. Episcopatus unus est cujus ingulis in sâ—â—idum pars temtur Cyp. de un Ecc. to any Bishop or Pope of Rome Many afterwards were equall to him in authority as to their severall Provinces Independent also as to any derivation of power from the Bishop of Rome As there are now many in the Christian world and were in the English Church both long before and ever since the Reformation Nor is the Pope by any wise men called Antichristian in any sense as he is a Bishop or Prelate of one Diocesse or Province Nor was he ever thought to be so by any judicious Protestant for then all Bishops in all the world as Bishops had ever been Antichrists and then the whole Church of Christ from the Apostles times must have had no other government ordination or Ministry but Antichristian which is a most impudent and intollerable blaspheming of God and the Lord Jesus and his blessed Spirit and of the whole Church As if Joh. 14.16 in stead of the Spirit of Truth it had received only the spirit of Error and lying in stead of Christs being alwayes with it by the Ministeriall gifts of his Spirit and the Apostles and their Successors Mat. 28.20 Ps 2.6 only Satan had presided in it by falsity and usurpation and as if in stead of all the ends of the earth given to Christ for his possession in the way of an Evangelicall kingdome and Ministry where truth and righteousness charity and order are his Throne and Scepter all had been exposed to Antichrists invasion that he
also of that holy Spirit of truth and Ministeriall power which Christ gave to the Apostles and they to their chief successors the Bishops by whose learned piety and industry such mighty works have been done in all ages and in all parts of the Church and in none more I think than in this Church of England chiefly since the Reformation of Religion whereto godly and learned Bishops contributed the greatest humane assistance by their preaching writing living and dying as became holy Martyrs Can. 6. Concil Nicaeni I am vehemently for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 antient and holy customs of the Catholick Church 8. Primitive Customs how far alterable in the Churches Polity Consuetudo major non est veritate aut tatione Cyp. Ep. 73. Valeat consuetudo ubi non praevalet Scriptura aut ratio Reg. Jur. Praesracti est ingenii contra omnem consuetudinem disputare morosi nimis pertinaciter adhaerere so far as they may be fitted to the state and stature of any Christian societies Not that I think all things of external Polity discipline and government by which Christians stand tyed in relations publique to one another were at first so at once prescribed or perfected by Christ or the B. Apostles as might not admit after addition variations or completions in any Church or Congregation Christian according to those dictates of reason and generall rules of Prudence which are left to the liberty of Churches by which so to preserve particular Churches as not to offend the generall rules of order and charity which bind them by conformity in the main to take care of the Catholick Communion We are not I think tyed so strictly to all the precise paterns of primitive and Apostolicall practise which might well vary in the severall states conditions and dimensions of the Church I read no command for Presbyters to choose a Bishop or President among them and in so not doing they are defective not as to the Precepts of Scripture 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man lâ—st to be contentious we have no such Custom nor the Churches of Christ In his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura mos populi dei vel instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt Aug. Ep. 89. ad Cal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 37. but to the rules of right reason and the imitation of usefull example in primitive times Nor do I find any Precept to one or more Presbyters to ordein others after them who yet ought to take care both of their own being rightly Ordeined and of after succession according to that patern Analogy and proportion of holy order and government which was at first wisely observed by the Apostles and the after Ministers of the Church either as Bishops or Presbyters The same Coat would not serve Christ a man grown which did fit him a Child or Youth Only it is neither safe comely nor comfortable for any Christians wantonly and without great and urging reasons next dore to necessity to recede from or to cast off the antient and most imitable Catholick customs of the Church which truly is seldom done upon conscientious and reall necessities pressing but most what upon factious humours and for secular designs carried on under the colour of Church alterations For how ever the alteration may at present please some mens activity and humour whose turn it serves yet it cannot but infinitely scandalise grieve and oppress far more and better Christians who are of the old yet good way Hence many wee see are at a loss now in England how to justifie their past religion shaken by changes as if they had had no true Ministry nor holy Ministrations and Sacraments hitherto while some mens zeal without knowledge cries down Bishops and that whole government with the Ministry for Antichristian others are extremely unsatisfied and solicitous for the future succession Not seeing any ground for any Presbyters in this Church so to challenge to themselves a sole divine power of Ordination and Jurisdiction without any President Bishops which was the antient way in England ever since we were Christians as in all other Churches And it is most sure that neither power of Ordination nor Jurisdiction was ever conferred by Bishops on any Presbyters here either verbally or intentionally as without and against Bishops Nor did the Laws or Canons ever so mean or speak Nor was it I believe in any of the Presbyters own thoughts that they received any such power to Ordein other Presbyters without a Bishop when they were Ordeined Ministers And sure though acts of state and civil Magistracy may regulate the exercise yet they cannot confer the holy power and order of a Presbyter or Bishop on any man which flows from a spiritual head even Jesus Christ as I have proved and not from any temporall Authority Ordinances of Parliament can hardly with justice or honour batter or dismount the Canons of generall Councils the Catholick laws or constant Customes of the Church If it be supposed that the two Houses of Parliament lately did but restore and the Presbyters resume that power of Ordination which was only due to them as such and deteined by Bishops usurpation from them Boâ—a consuetudo velut vinum generosum vetustate valescit Tert. It is very strange they should never here nor elsewhere have made claim to it for 1600. years in no ages past till these last broken factious tumultuary and military times If it were their right only in common with and subordinate to Bishops they needed not then to complain for they did or might have enjoyed as much joynt power as was for their conveniency and the Churches peace The eminent power at least for Order sake was even by their consents lawfully placed in and exercised by the Bishops The levity and ambition of ingrossing all to themselves without and against Bishops hath almost lost all power both of Bishops and Presbyters too since Presbytery alone is but as Pipe-staves full of cracks warpings and unevenness which will not easily hold the strong liquor of power and government unless they be well hooped about and handsomly kept in order by venerable and fatherly Episcopacy which carried a greater face of majesty and had those ampler and more august proportions which ought to be in government beyond what can be hoped for or in reason expected from the parity and puerility of Presbyters in common many of whom have more need to be governed than they are any way fit to bear any great weight of government on their shoulders however they may discharge some works of the Ministry very well 9. Calm mediations between Episcopacy and Presbytery As it hath never yet been shewen any where so it is least to be hoped for now in England that any better fruits should arise from Presbyterie thus beheaded cropped and curtayled of its crown Episcopacy which it might not stil have as formerly it
hath brought forth If the honour and order of the highest branch the Episcopall eminency had been preserved with it Not so as to over-drop and oppress all other boughs and branches which are of the same root but so as to adorn them all and to be most eminent in Christian graces and Ministeriall gifts no less than in priority of place superiority of power and amplitude of honour and estate As many Excellent Bishops both antient and modern were against whose incomparable worth while some young and petty Presbyters do scornfully declame and disgracefully insult they appear like so many Jackdaws perking on the top of Pauls steeple or like living Dogs snarling at and trampling upon dead Lions Petulantissima est insaniae paucorum malorum odio in bonos omnes dehacâ—hari Nor do indeed such impotent tongues and miserable partialities of some men tuned to the most vulgar ears and humours against all even good Bishops and against a right or regulated Episcopacy such as was for the main and substance here in England they do not in any sort become men that pretend to any true piety learning gravity or civility I neither approve nor excuse the personall faults of any particular Bishops as to the exercise of their power and authority which ought not in weighty matters to be managed without the presence counsell and suffrages of Presbyters such as are fit for that assistance The neglect of this St. Ambrose and St. Jerom and all sober men justly reprove as unsafe for the Bishops the Presbyters and the whole Church For in multitude of counsell is safety and honour too Rom. 11.14 I am sure much good they might all have done as many of them did whom these touchy times were not worthy of No wonder if the very best of them displeased some mens humours who were impatient to be kept any longer in order but like waters Hieron Communi concilio Praesbyterorum Ecclesiae regebantur Concilio Carthag 4. c. 3. Nil faciat Episcopus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not other Concil Ancyran assisted the Bishop in government long pent up they sweld to such discontents as disdaining to pass the allowed bounds and floudgates of publick Lawes they resolved to blow up and bear away the whole head and sluce of Government Bishops had three Enemies to contend with some Presbyters ambition some Laymens covetousness and their own Infirmities And it may be Bishops faults had been less in some mens eyes if their estates and honours had not been so great I write not thus to reproach any of my Fathers or Brethren the Ministers who begin many of them no doubt to be of my mind for moderate Episcopacy if they have not alwayes been so finding that the fruit of the Summer doth not alwayes answer the blossoms of the Spring cruell frosts may nip and blast those pregnant hopes of bettering which men are prone secretly to nourish whereby to excuse or justifie their desires of change and novely In which truly I never saw any thing of right reason or religion produced for the extirpation of primitive Episcopacy The main things that pressed upon it were Forein power domestick pride the failings of some Bishops the envious angers of some Presbyters and the wonted inconstancy of the vulgar If any men Ministers or others are as loth to see and recant their excesses and errors as they were forward to run into them but still resolve to keep that partiall bias on their judgement which shall sway all their learning and other excellent Ministeriall gifts against their own true interests and this Church with all reformed Religion which consisted in due moderation and peace I shall yet with my pity of their wilfulness or weakness alwayes love and reverence what I see in them of Christ and only wish that temper and moderation from them which may most contribute in common to the vindication of the Order and Function of learned grave and peaceable ministers This they may at last easily see That every soft gratification of vulgar ignorance envy and inconstancy set forth with the forms of zeal and reformation is usually returned with vilifyings and diminutions of their betters who did vouchsafe to flatter them as if they indeed feared them I heartily wish a greater harmony a sweet moderation and Fraternal accord among all true and godly Ministers who dare to own and do still adorn their office and calling I should be glad to see the counsell and assistance of well setled Presbyters crowned with the order and lustre of Episcopall presidency which was antiently as the Jewel wel set in a ring of Gold or as a fair guard and handle to a good Sword adding to its compleatness comliness and usefulness Alas the ordinary Ministers seem now like younger brethren who sometimes lived handsomly under their Fathers or elder Brothers care and inspection so scattered and divided that they are extremely weakned and exposed to all injuries Pro. 16.18 Pride goes before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall yea many of them like Prodigall sons having riotously wasted their own and their Fathers portion begin to consider what husks of popular favour they may feed on So is Insolency the high way to indigence and arrogancy soon knocks at the dore of contempt Ministers must not wonder or repine at the measure they measured to others when offered to themselves Secundas habeat poenitentiae tabulas qui non habuit primas impeccantiae Amb. I am far from reproaching any mens defeats or Calamities wherein the Justice of divine vengeance is seen retaliating I am glad if the occasioners of our common shipwrack may have any fair planks or rafters to save themselves and the honour of their Ministry either by recanting the errors of their judgements or repenting the transports of their manners If they retein their Antiepiscopall opinion with modesty and charity yet I am not disposed to fly in any godly mans face because he is not exactly like me or to pull out his eyes Multa tolleramus quae non probamus Aust because they are not just of the colour of mine I pray to be of that Christian temper for moderation and charity which can allow many latitudes of Prudence in extern things of religion where no evident sins for their immoralities nor evident errors against the fundamentals of Christianity nor evident confusions against charity and order which is necessary for the Churches peace do appear I wish that while Ministers or other Christians differ in things of extern mode and order they may all find and walk in that holy way by which we may with one shoulder of truth and charity carry on that great work of saving Souls both our own and those that hear us that while we dispense saving truths to others we may not for want of humility and charity be cast-aways our selves More of those calming and moderating graces on all sides had no doubt preserved both Bishops and
Presbyters in their due place regard and honour so that they should not have been put thus to plead for their Ordination and Ministry or to play this after game much to the hazard of their very Function and succession of Ministeriall authority The despising or abolishing of which threatens the annihilating of the very being of this reformed Church in which the right Ministry is as the Ark in Israel 1 Sam. 4. a visible token of Gods presence among Christians And though the Philistins may for the sins of this Church take it captive and detein it for a while yet I believe 1 Sam 6. the Lord will bring it back again with shame to his enemies and joy to all true Israelites In the mean time this trouble and terror may be a means to a mend the personall faults both of Bishops and Presbyters which formerly might viciate but they could not totally vacate the Religion reverence and conâ—cience which is to be had of Christs institution as to the Ministry Personall faults of Bishops or Presbyters may viciate but not vacate divine duties 1 Sam. 2.12 nor yet could they make voyd the honour of Religion nor the authority vertue and efficacy of hoâ—y Ministrations Where the persons duâ—â— ordeined did administer and the holy things themselves were according to Scripture right y administred which alwaies remain holy whatever is objected against mens persons administring as sickness lameness or deformity deprive no man of the privileges of humane nature nor his actions of rea on nor his civill interest of the benefit of the Laws Ely's scandalous sons unworthy indeed of but yet rightly invested into the Priests office did not take away the necessity and sanctity of the services and sacrifices much less of the Priestly function which depended not on the morality of the persons administring but on the authority of the Lord commanding and the right investiture into the office The miscarriages of Bishops or Ministers may take away the beauty but not the being of Religious duties or of that holy power which they duly received no more than lapses after Baptism do unbaptise any Christian No Christian thinks the series of Christs genealogy broken or blemished corrupted or interrupted stayned or maymed by the names of Tamar Rahab and Bathsheba which are links in that h ly chain which hath its verity in the history but its sanctity from Christ to whom it relates as to the holy seed So in the succession of Ministeriall order and authority we dispute not by what personall vertues it was continued but we are sure it hath been continued successively from Christ and tends to him as to the compleating of his second incarnation in his body the Catholick visible Church In which Christ is daily begotten and formed by the means of a right Ministry and duly ordeined Ministers 10. Of Ordination of Ministers Where Bishops are Orthodox and may be had Ordination cannot regularly be had without them Vbi Episcopi desunt nec haberi possent Orthodoxi Preâ—byteri in necessitate ordinare possunt Sarav de grad Mi. So Bishop Dâ—wnham Con. in Apocal. Or by the Bishops authority delegated as to the Chorepiscopi who were but Presbyters Isid Hippa de Eccl. off Whether Bishops ordeined Presbyters as Prelates in a superiority of divine power and peculiar order as succeeding the Apostolicall eminency which antiquity for the most part thought looking on Episcopacy in ordination confirmation and jurisdiction not as the only but as the highest branches of Church power lineally descended from the Apostolicall ordinary power of ruling and governing the Church or whether they did those acts of power and authority only as chief by Ecclesiasticall right in degree and order of place among the Presbyters as chosen or approved by them and placed in a precedency of place and presidency of action and inspection but still of the same intrinsecall power and order Ministeriall as to the first act or originall I need not further gratify any mans curiosity in setting down my opinion Ego vero à Presbyteris solis administrata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regularem ad EcclesiasticaruÌ„ regularuÌ„ amussim factam non dixerim Aut in ea institutum ab Ecclesia post Apostolorum transitum ordinem per omnia servare Blondel test Hierom pag. 255. St. Pauls Epistle to Tim. and Tit. This I am sure What ever dirt and mire the restless hearts of wicked men cast up against the calling of the Ministry in England The Gospell and the holy Institutions of it appointed by Christ to be dispensed to all the world have never in any other way been derived to this long succession save only by the power of ordination which never was in ordinary cases believed or owned in the Church to be valid and effectuall in any men or from any hands but those who were formerly consecrated Bishops or ordeined Ministers Nor was this custom ever esteemed as the act of any generall Councill or Ecclesiasticall Canon but it had both example and precept and constant succession from Christ to the Apostles and from them to others with a command of continuation which was necessary for the Church and ever most conscienciously observed in the Church which never flourished better than when the modesty humility and wisdom of Presbyters joyning with and submitting to their Bishop as fellows to the Master of a College carried on that order peace and comly proportion in the Church before all the world that they were in the first century compared by Ignatius for their harmony to the strings well set and tuned on the Harp Ignat. Ep. ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyrn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea in an higher strain he compares them to the blessed accord between the Father and the Son Christ as man mediator and God where in the sameness of the divine nature yet there is the order and priority of relation These were the antient pipes and conduicts of Ministeriall Ecclesiasticall power which were first layd in the head and fountain Christ Jesus after branched to all places by a continuall order and derivation of Ministeriall authority Where the pipe is once broken there the stream of living waters must needs fail If any foulness flows or obstructions have befaln these pipes of due ordination as all that passeth through earthen vessels is prone to do in time which Christ and his Apostles have layd to serve his Church with the living waters of grace and truth and which have flowed these sixteen hundred years to the refreshing of infinite souls yet we must not cut them off nor quite stop them or turn the waters another way as choosing rather Independent wells and broken Buckets but we ought to cleanse those pipes and repayr those conduicts which only can hold and convey that holy water as the vessels of the Temple restoring them to their Primitive use and integrity Which by Gods help is easily done where pride passion
and most for religious administrations where not only the credit but the conscience of the Church is engaged and ought to be very much considered in order to the honour of Christ and of his Church It were a very blasphemous reproach I think to the wisdom of Christ for any to imagine that he had delegated the highest power of his Church to men incompetent and generally incapable without daily miracles Besides this if they were supposable to have those gifts which were fit to try and judge rightly of a Ministers sufficiency yet they cannot have power to authorise or ordein a Minister of Jesus Christ no more than every judicious man hath power to send an Embassador in his Princes name or to make such arbitrators and Judges as he thinks fit in other mens business This is a power only to be used and enjoyed by those to whom it is given from him who is supreme as in the Church Jesus Christ is in whom the grand power of Ordination which confers on man authority to dispense holy mysteries in Christs name is originally seated and from him derived and granted as a grand Charter or Commission to his Apostles first and by them afterward exemplified and delivered to others who being found fit for it were assumed into and invested with the same delegated authority as from Christ and never given to the community of the people at any time or derivable from him in any degree of power Ministeriall be their gifts and graces never so good Since this is a fruit of Christs wisdom munificence and power toward his Church an appointment full of holy order and divine polity depending on no private mens gifts or graces but upon the good will pleasure and power of Jesus Christ himself as he stands in the relations of King Priest and Prophet to his Church Now to whom Christ committed this great and sacred power of ordeining a constant succession of Ministers in his name and in what manner it was by them derived to others Pag. 143. c. in the answer to the first Objection See Dr. Hammond and Dr. Tailor of Ordination Correxerunt manus psephisma natum est Tull. I have already cleared I hope and other late writers have done it too by Scripture reason and Ecclesiasticall Catholick Custom In all which it is evident That the so much urged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly indeed signifies peoples suffragating by stretching forth of hands in publike and popular elections is not to be urged by a Criticall severity from the Ethnick sense of the word to the Churches injury and confusion Since the same word in sacred and Ecclesiasticall writings as well as in others is oft used in a sense which signifies nothing else but an appointment or designation made by any one or more to some speciall work and service to which God or Christ Jesus Acts 14.22 or the Apostles joyntly or severally or their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in their severall precincts are said to ordein or appoint a part from any such suffrage or autoritative influence of the people Further than their sometimes nominating and recommending fit men to be ordeined as Acts 6.5 or else their comprobation and acceptance of those who were by the Apostles Elders and Rulers of the Church ordeined as Ministers over them and this in Christs name by a divine authority which is for the peoples good but not from them as a fountain nor by them as any fit Pipes or Conduict through which this holy stream of the Ministry Ordinationes eorum quam temerarie tam inconstantes Hodie Episcopus cras alius bodiâ— Presbyter qui cras laicus Nam laicis Sacerdotolia munera injungunt Tertul. ad Haerâ—â— c. 42. Ad hac opera blandi sub missi sunt Caetâ—rum nec suit praesidibus reverentiam exhibere naverunt Id. ubi integra non est veritas me â—â—o tolis est disciplina Tertâ—l or the pure waters of the Sanctuary are to flow So that I cannot look upon this late arrogant claim of the power of ordeining Ministers as primarily belonging to the common people or to other Laymen as other than a fashion or opinion only befitting and extremely resembling those giddy proud and preposteous fancies to which vulgar minds are subject as Tertullian tels us when once the reigns of Church Discipline are let loose or some head-strong Schismaticks get the bridle between their teeth yea and it daily confutes it self while the Authors and followers of it are continually dividing and self confounding So inconsistent is error not only with Truth but with it self easily mouldring with its own weight and weakness And no wonder if the Lord prosper not projects arising from popular pride and presumption and tending to the shame and confusion of true Religion which no right reason or order no Scripture precept or patern no Ecclesiasticall custom or learned and godly mans judgement did ever allow or can with any reason as carrying with it all manner of rusticall unreasonable and irreligious absurdities which are never wanting where vulgar passions dwell as infallibly they do in the meaner sorts of men pretend they to what sanctity they will It will soon appear in how many and great defects they come short of that wisdom gravity unpassionateness and impartiality which is necessary to manage and order publike holy actions 2 Cor. 5.20 and to confer a solemn Religious power to any in Christs name to do Christs work and in some sense to be in Christs stead Wise humble and truly gracious Christians Best Christians are most modest are of all men most remote from such bold and unsuitable undertakings whereto having no call from God or the Church they can never expect blessing on their adventures and rash endeavours It satisfies them that they have as much influence in the ordeining and choosing of Ministers as they are capable of and is best for them and the Church Yet if it will please these Christians to fancy that they have some degree of power even in making their Ministers here in this Church they may consider Ministers in England ordeined with the peoples consent that neither Bishops nor Presbyters in England made any Ministers without the peoples generall consent expressed by those Laws and civill sanctions which confirmed here that divine order and constitution which they saw Christ had setled and the Church alwaies followed in ordeining lawfull Ministers by that wisdom and authority which from the Apostles was derived in a constant succession of Bishops and Presbyters who were for gifts of knowledge and judgement best able and for lawfull power only able by examination benediction and imposition of hands to consecrate any man a Minister and confer the power of Holy Orders on him who yet did and doe this as Delegates for the Church but from Christ If the power of choosing and ordeining Ministers were wholy left in
that Ministre which is most dâ—e and necessary for their souls in times of dâ—nger and persecution unless the office be suppliced by some fit Ministers while others by consent or lot fly to preserve a stock of Bishops and Ministers and of absolute necessity or destitution where Christians already baptised and believing cannot have a Minister in a regular way I leave to Gods direction and his speciall dispensation who in Cases extraordinary may extraordinarily manifest his pleasure I am sure in the hottest Persecution which worried and scattered the flock of Christ when it was most innocent the sheep neither chose nor followed any other Shepheards than those which St. Austin calls most necessary for the Church without which it cannot subsist of whose Ordination and due authority they had assurance by constant Succession and according to the true pattern in the Mount but they chose rather to supply the necessitated absences of their true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters by prayer fasting meditation reading Christian conference and mutuall exhortation than to set up among themselves any Minister by their own power of popular Ordination Yea as the Jews would have done in the defect of holy and Consecrated fire Christians rather contented themselves with the Vote and desire or purpose of Sacraments without the actuall perception of them or any other fruits proper to the Ministeriall function and power rather than offer with strange and unholy fire where they could not have those Ministers whose lips had been touched with a ceal from Gods altar that is ordeined by a right Consecration which holy fire hath never yet been quite put out in the Church of Christ nor ever will be however some mens petulancy and presumption seeks to spit or piss it out by their irreligious ingratefull and contemptuous carriages against the office and due Succession of the Ministry Humble and wise Christians willingly look back to the Rock whence they were hewen and the pit whence they were digged There they discern Mat. 28.19 Go therefore and teach all Nations c. Joh. 20.21 As my Father sent me even so send I you Is 65.1 Sub assistentis plebis conscientia Cyp. That it was not the people who made to themselves Ministers but Ministers sent by Christ and the Apostles every where made people Christians They that sate in darkness had light brought to them and were found of God by his messengers as Shepheards sent to the lost sheep who sought not after God That the holy succession of Ministeriall and Church power is indeed for the peoples good and ought in some cases be carried with the peoples approbation but it is not at all from the peoples pleasure will or vertue That Jesus Christ the Apostles and all after Churches ever carried this Ministeriall and Church power in another way distinct and apart from the people yet most convenient for them and most agreeable both to right reason and to the order and honour of true Christian religion which requires that holy things be done with all beautys of holiness by able and wise and worthy men to choose and appoint or ordein whom supposes as able at least if not abler than they are to judge of them yet meer abilities as I have shewed will not serve neither to give to others any commission as Ministers of holy things unless the givers have first a grand Commission or power of so doing committed by others to them which carries the strength of an originall divine Authority ascending to christ Which power especially as to Ordeining of fit Ministers being thus severed from the people for 1600. years without any complaint made by the faithfull or claim of right by reason or religion there is no cause Christians should now listen to that fury folly and faction which would lay all in common since nothing is brought by these Commoners to repeal the first divine enclosure of it by the Institution of Christ or to take away the prejudice of so many Centuries peaceable possession as a peculiar to the Church Officers those of the Ministeriall Function In which there hath never been any cessation or interruption as to legitimate succession and constant Ordination Not that we deny for any thing shall be granted to faithfull Christians People least able or fit to make or Ordein a Minister which is for their good but that Christians of a particular parish or Congregation may if they have not otherwayes tyed themselves and restrained things by Laws with are the publiques and so the Peoples consent as here for the most part in England it was they may orderly choose and desire such a man to be made a Minister or Bishop and to be over them in the Lord as the people of Millan did St. Ambrose yet a Lay-man and Magistrate Yet this is only so far as first to recommend him to those who have power to ordein him a Minister of the Catholick Church of Christ next to acknowledge that power and office Ministeriall to be rightly in him as conferred to him by just hands They may choose him thus Ordeined to exercise his Ministry and Office by particular care mutuall relation and joynt consent among them But still this is as far from any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some interpret it as amounts to peoples giving Ministeriall power or Orders as it is from Souldiers giving a Commission when they only present by way of Commendation and Petition a worthy person to the Generall or Commission officers to be made their Captain which neither his worth nor their willingness makes him to be without express Commission from the Generall under his hand and Seal Nor is this any thing to the diminution of peoples rationall or religious liberties as Christians or men which regulations and restraints they may not grudge to suffer if Christ will have it so as in this his will and command is most clear but it is a fruit of Christs wisdome and care for the faithfull peoples good to avoyd infinite inconveniences and confusions which constantly and unavoidably attend all things that are transacted or touched almost by the common peoples hands and heads who though they mean and begin well as the Sea by modest lickings and slidings over the banks which afterward its fury overbears with horrible inundations yet are they never to be trusted with any thing which a wise and good man would have well done As then we see no Church power especially as to Ordination and Ministry is naturally in Christian people In causis fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris cum judicare debere qui nec munere impar est nec jure dissimilis constantur assero Dictum Imperat Valentini patris quod Ambros vehementer laudat l. 5. Ep. 32. who must be considered after their Ministers in time and that order of nature which is between Effects and Causes Children and Fathers being first made Christians by Ministers whom they never Ordeined nor so much as dreamt
of or desired So nor can it in any reason be thought by Christ afterward committed to them least of all may they arrogate it to themselves or involve it in any inferiour kind of civill and sociall power which they may in some cases have Since this power of sending and Ordeining Ministers to teach and rule the Church is as far divided from that of peoples choosing approving recommending or accepting one rightly ordeined as the waters above the firmament are from those beneath in the Sea or Earth what faithfull people may prudently do in private Church-matters within their sphere is rather a power subâ—ective obedientiall and conformative as that of the matter to the form than Mandatory Operating and Authoritative what they do discreetly as to advise chuse or agree with any Minister is rather a common act of reason and polity as men than proper to them as Christians in piety and is so far commendable as they advise chuse or agree in things of externall use for their own good yet no way troubling the Churches common welfare order and peace nor arrogating that spirituall and internall power Ministeriall either to make or act as Ministers which is from an higher principle than Nature Reason or the will of man People having no more power to Ordein send and Consecrate true Ministers or Invest them in that Authority Joh. 20.21 A my Father sent me so send I you than they had to Anoint or appoint the Messias and they may as well set up a new Christ and new Gospell as a new Ministry and new Ordination which Christ only hath once done for all places and times to the end of the world at least as to ordinary cases when right succession of power Ministerial may be had and this without troubling or interessing the common people in the business to whom Ministers dispense not the people 's own but the grace of Christ 1 Pet. 4.10 As good stewards of the manifold grace of God Eph. 4.11 Christ gave some Apostles and Pastors and Teachers People may as well make Apostles as ordinary Pastors or Ministers which are all from Christ of which among other gifts and graces as means this is one To give Apostles c. Pastors and Teachers to the Church How can people primarily give power to celebrate Mysteries to Consecrate Elements to confer Graces which are so much above their thoughts desires and merits And who have no other way to order regulate and manage any of their Elections undertakings and affairs civill and secular in what ever they pretend to have power which I think best when it is least but only that of the major part of numbred voyces or by the Pole If this doth not suffice to decide their affairs then the more hands and stronger party which is oft the worst carries it against the other fewer and weaker which may be and most-what are the best and wisest Neither of which wayes of decisions which are oft worse than that of blind Lots and Chance which many wise men rather chose than otherwaies to determine matters by the uncertain and dangerous way of popular suffrages can seem so Infallible and divine as to induce a wise man to acquiesce in them as Gods appointment when very oft they come far short of those rationall and morall proportions which a good man would require in judging of and preferring alwayes the best and most deserving men sober men would never have matters of Consequence left to the most voyces of the vulgar or to their Counter-scufflings and brutish contentions As among the Cyclops where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which oft shew that there is little of God in their heards and crowds and clamors more than may be in storms and tempests How unlikely is it that Jesus Christ should intrust these Plebs or people every where with power to chuse and ordein Ministers of his Church in order to save souls when the community have no other way in this Sacred concernment of mens souls but such as they use in their most trivial transactâ—ngs of humane affairs As if it were all one power which enables them to make a Minister of Christs Church with that which makes a Maior a Bayliff or a Constable in a Corporation In those few experiments which the wisdome of this Church or the lenity of some Patrons hath thought fit to give men of Popular Elections of their Minister I have known where a Parish rejecting a very able man offered them have with great earnestness desired and with as much greediness as the Whale did swallow Jonah received a Minister of far less worth who was of their own choise yet within two or three years they have cast him out on dry land and with scorn reproached and rejected him who was so lately their delight and darling The greatest enemy of the Gospell of Christ and of the reformed Religion would wish no greater advantages against true Religion than to have the Ordination choyce and appointment of Ministers left to the Common people in every place which will soon be filled with as much ignorance fury faction error and confusion as either Devills or Antichrists would desire whereby to make Bethel Bethaven and to set up Babylon in the midst of Jerusalem Yea the peoples very bare Election of one rightly Ordeined to be their Minister oft occasioneth very great thoughts of heart and uncomfortable divisions between both the people in their parties and the Minister so chosen by some but not by others To prevent which inconveniences and somtime mischiefs the wisdome both of Church and State had by consent of all estates People Peers and Prince setled that in a far quieter and safer way of Presentations to the content of Patrons Ministers and all sober Christians I may then conclude that as Bishops and Presbyters joyntâ—y ordeining others to that holy Office whereto themselves were formerly Consecrated did as much and no more than was their duty to Christ and the Church So neither the Pope of old had beyond his Diocess nor the People now have any thing to do with this Ordinative power which duly is in the Ministeriall order of the Church by which an holy succession of able true and faithfull Ministers Bishops and Presbyters hath been continued in all Churches and as yet is in this Church What ever the Papall pride and usurpation as any way eminently Antichristian in former or later times or Schismatick and unruly people now as the many Antichrists in the Diametral distances of their errors being the two poles of Church pride but not the axis of Church power have or do pretend as if all Church power were in them or from them it was and is all nothing else but vain shadows and meer mistakes arising from the ignorance darkness connivence licentiousness and superstition of times and is no more prejudiciall to the true power of Ordeining Ministers which is from Christ only committed to the order and fraternity of Pastors and
Governours in every Church as hath been proved than if some one or more cunning fellows should perswade credulous and silly people whom they find or lead into the dark or else blind them that they were indeed stark blind and had no power of themselves to see or open their eyes but must wholly be led by their guidance without having any sight or benefit of the Sun These poor seduced men have no more to do in point of relieving themselves and confuting so gross Impostors but only to open their eyes freely and to use the light of that Sun which they easily and clearly see shining over all the world which is not more evident to sense than this Truth is to judicious Christians That the power of Ordeining Ministers hath alwayes and only been in the Pastors Bishops and Guides of the Church who both ruled well and also laboured diligently in the Word and doctrine And since true Christians in this Reformed Church of England both Ministers and people have been so happy in this Church as to be delivered from the Romish superstitions and Papall usurpations they have now no cause to be less cautious or more patient to be gulled and deluded by popular seductions lest the second error be worse than the first Inasmuch as the furies and confusions of the vulgar are more dangerous than any errors of Popes or Bishops or Presbyters are like to be as Earthquakes are more dreadfull and pernicious than Eclipses or the Cloudings of the lights of Heaven The lights of the Church may recover their lustre and vigour in due time nor do they ever shine so dark but they afford a competent light to shew the way to Heaven But popular precipitancies and licentious extravagancies of the vulgar are likest to overthrow all religion and bury all Christianity by Gothick and Mahumetan methods in Atheism Illiterateness Confusion and Barbarity For as they have least skill in them and no authority given them to order and rule Church affairs so they have most passion and unbridled violence in them least able to distinguish between the abuse and use of things between gold and dross between what is of God or of Man when once they have got power and say that they know not what is become of their Mosesses Exod. â—6â— their divinely appointed guides their duly ordeined Bishops and Ministers the first thing they do is to make themselves molten Images and contribute both their Earings and their Ears their hearts and hands to those Calves which they set us for Tamuzzes Ezek. 8.3 or Images of jealousie and abominations whereby to provoke the God of heaven to wrath to reproach the honour of Christ to affront the true Ministers and to make the Reformed religion and this Church to become an hissing and astonishment to all round about A wise man of Spain saâ—d It is better in Church as well as in places of Civill power and Judicature to prefer corrupt men than weak and foolish The one is as a thief in a Vineyard who will only take ripe grapes till he is satisfied the other as an Asse which eats ripe and green crops the Vines treads down much with his heels and when his belly is full tumbles among them But our Antiministeriall Adversaries are still ready with scorn and laughter to demand What can Ministers 13. The vertue of holy Ordination Object either as Bishops or Presbyters confer more than other Christians in the point of Ordination What vertue or charm is there in the imposing of their hands or in their prayers by which to add to any mans ministeriall gifts and graces or to invest any man in a way of Church power more than is in any other Christians whose gifts and graces may be equall or exceeding their Infirmities far less than many Ministers are What power can they have to give the holy Ghost as they express in the form of Ordination yea whence do they challenge as of right the Name of Clergy-men as peculiar to their tribe and Calling where as all the Lords people are his lot and his inheritance and God is theirs Nor ought they contemptuously as by way of diminution to be called Lay-men or the Laity Since they are all spiritually anointed and chosen of God to be Kings Priests and Prophets I Answer Answ Of the Laity and Clergy Clem. Rom. ep ad Cor. p. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lay-man is bound up by Lay commands 〈◊〉 keâ— hâ— rank Igâ—â— epist frâ—quently Tertul. Hoâ—â—â— Presbyter qui cras Laicus Laicâ— Sacerdotaliâ— munera injungunt De prae ad haer c. 42. saepe alibi St. Cyprian often So Clemens of Alexand. Differentiam inter ordinem plebem constituit Ecclesiae autoritas honor per ordinis câ—nsessum sanctificatus à Deo Tertul. de exh ad Cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Const Apost l. 3. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Vid. Dr. Prideaux Praelect Consuetudo certissiâ—a loquendi magistra utendumque planè sermone ut nummo cui publica est forma Quintil. Jnst l. 1. c. 6. Sermo constâ—t ratione vetustate authoritate consuctudine Id. Vetera verba majestas religio quaedam commendat Id. to this last scruple first as least being not so much a beam as a mote in some mens tender eyes which like Leahs are easily offended As for the names then of Clergy and Laity in which the Nasuter Criticks of this age sent something of pride in the Ecclesiasticks or Ministers and of despiciency toward the faithfull people who are to be animated and flattered any way against the Ministry of the Church They may know that this distinction between the Clergy and Laity hath been used in the Church from the very first Primitive times as the antient Fathers Councils and the Histories of the Churches both Greek and Latin do testifie nor was the one ever intended or upbraided for a badge of vanity to the Ministry nor the other imputed for a brand of scorn to the people The piety and charity of those times were not at leisure thus to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stumble at straws I am sure as they antiently were so they still are usuall notes of difference in point of office and duty between Ministers and people not only in our ordinary Language yea in the exacter stile of our Laws which give both reall and nominall distinctions with the greatest authority Nor are they at all against the Scripture sense and meaning if they be not just to its words since the word of Christ hath evidently placed as limits of office so Marks and names of distinction between the one and the other as Pastor and Flock Doctor and Disciple Ruler and ruled c. Yea and we may easiâ—y gather from the Scripture dialect that as the faithfull people are in generall Clerus Ecclesia the lot or portion and heritage of the Lord So the Ministers are Clerus Ecclesiae A lot heritage and portion given by
the Lord to the Church and set apart or Consecrated by the Church to the Lords speciall service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. to serve the Lord and the Church in holy publick ministrations as the Apostles first did into whose order Mathias was by Lot chosen to supply the place of Judas Iscariot Acts 1. To which end Ministers in an holy Succession have ever been placed over the people in the name of Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit yet Good Ministers disdain not to be reckoned among Gods People as children of the same Spirituall Father and brethren in the same Family or houshold of Faith nor will any humble Christians being not in holy orders affect to be called Clergy men by a confusion of language or disdain to be called Gods commons or Lay-men which hath a sober Christian and charitable sense in the dialect of those Christians who know how to call and account their true Bishops and Ministers as Fathers Instructers Overseers and Guides of the Church c. These names then or distinctive titles do but fairly follow according to the use and nature of words and decently express those things which the mind of Christ in the Scripture and all Custom or use of the Church have distinguished for order sake De verbis contendere non est curare quomodo error veritate vincatur sed quomodo tua dictio alterius dictioni praeferatur Aust de doct Christ l. 4. c. 28. Quid est conteâ—tiosius quam ubi constâ—t dâ—re certare de nomine â—ust cp 1. 74. De verbis syllabis intemperantius litigare solent qui res ipsas Ecclesia pâ—cem negligunt Sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umbra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suam occultâ—re dissimulare student quod et Arrianorum pertinaâ— astutiâ— olim fecit Amb. lib. de fide Jeron de Arrian Hyp. Insignis est indolis in verbis verum amare non verba Aust Sic vigeat humilitas ut non minuatur Autoritas Aust 1 Cor. 12.23 Error est bonestuâ— magnos in loquendo duces sequi Quintil. Orat. Inst l. 1. c. 6. The same supercriticall men will boggle at the words Trinity Three Persons and Sacraments which are not in the letter but in the sense and truth of the Scripture And certainly no religion forbids us to adopt convenient and compendious words to the Churches use since we do safely translate the whole originall Scriptures to any ordinary languages in which most Christians may best use them not in the literall words but in the Intellectuall sense or mind of God A strife about words and syllabicall scruples fits only women or children or peevish passionate men As the Arrians of old who caviled much at the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose syllables were new but their sense old orthodox and sound expressing the same divine Nature in Christ the Son with the Father and that our Emanuel who was born of the virgin Mary was both God and Man But this quarrel about names and words is a very tedious impertinency to those Christians whose serious piety studies only this by apt and usuall words to comprehend and express the truths and orders of Religion who are ready alwayes so to give to each other the right hand of Charity and Unity as members of the same body whose head is Christ as yet to preserve that order and authority in the Church which is divinely Instituted and is as necessary for the Church as it is for the body to have head eyes and mouth distinct from other parts of less honour yet not less usefull in their place As for this pretended grievance then of these words Clergy and Laity We desire not to quarrell farther with our Adversaries and we shall not need to dispute with others that are wise and humble only we pitty the simplicity of people who are thus easily cheated and scared by some sophistry when they are told by their great scrupulosity and censorian gravity that words are as bad as Spels that what ever tearms or Names are not in the Scriptures as they have them translated are not the speech of Canaan but the language of the beast Thus these severe Momusses Thus the Antiministeriall factors for error ignorance and confusion These are among the other small artifices used by those miserable Rabbyes who to ingratiate with the vulgar and lead dâ—sciples after them are content to take away the antient marks of bounds and known distinction of names between Minister and People that so people may take the greater confidence to cast quite away both the name and thing the holy Ordination with all distinction of Office and Function Ministeriall in the Church which if I can solidly maintain against these underminers of Religion despisers of Ordination and vastators of all true ministry I doubt not but I and others may still use these Names of Clergy and Laity without sin or scandall to any sober and good Christians To the main therefore of the Objection which is made against the vertue and efficacy of Ordination 16 Prophane minds prone to cavil at all holy mysteries aswel as the Ordination of Ministers 2 Pet. 3.4 by the Catholick and Antient way of Bishops and Presbyters which they so slight I answer That at the same rate of prophane and Atheisticall reasonings they may as well dispute as Julian would have done and those Scoffers daily do which are foretold should be in the later dayes What vertue is there in the water of Baptism more than any other by which to regenerate a sinner to wash away sins to seal comforts to confer grace to represent the blood of Christ of which a man may meditate every time he sees any water or washeth his hands Hence the mean esteem and contempt indeed with proud and presumptuous Catabaptists have against that holy Mysterie of Baptism which all Churches in all ages have used with reverence and comfort according to Christs Institution and the Apostolicall custome So also the spirituall pride of those prophane Cavillers will argue what efficacy can there be in the Bread and Wine at the Lords Supper more than in other of the same Elements at our ordinary Tables and in every Tavern What doth the form of Consecration by the words of Christ and prayers add to them or alter them Nay since the blasphemous boldness of proud and wicked men will count nothing of outward form sacred no wonder if by the same contradictive spirit they quarrel at not only the Humanity or flesh but also the Majesty and divinity of our Saviour Jesus Christ and seeing the outward meanness poverty and ingloriousness of his life and death many of them scarce own him for a Saviour or for the true Messias And no further than is agreeable to their Seraphick fancies Against whom Irenaus d sputes by which they labour after the like fondness of some in antient times to
and enabled to effect those things which none other can presume to perform without vanity sin and presumption who hath not that gift power or authority consigned to him The right Ordination then of Ministers in the way of an holy succession in the Church of Christ hath in Religion and among true Christians these holy uses and clear advantages peculiar to it 1. 1. It confirms the truth of the Gospel 2 Cor. 8.23 First as to the main end the Glory of God and the saving of mens souls by their believing and obeying this testimony of all true Ministers that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world Nothing gives a more clear and credible testimony to the glory and honour of Jesus Christ and to truth of the Gospel than this uniform and constant succession of Ministers Multi barbarâ—rum in ChristuÌ„ credunt sine charactere vel attramento scriptam babenter in cordibus sum per spiritum salutem et veterum traditionem diligentes custodientes quam Apostoli tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias cui ordinationi assentiunt multa gentes c. Iren. l. 3. c. 4. by a peculiar Ordination and authority even from Christ himself in person who at first began this Ministry and sent some speciall men as his messengers to bear witness of him in all the world that so men might believe not only what is written in the word before it was or as it is now written but also as that glorious truth hath been thus testified every where and in every age by chosen and peculiar men as a cloud of most credible witnesses whom thousands at first did and to this day do hear preaching and see them Celebrating the holy mysteries of Christs Gospell who never had or used any written word nor ever read it and for the most part believed before ever they saw any part of the Bible which the constant Ministry of the Church hath under God hitherto preserved chiefly upon the testimony and tradition or record of those that were ever thought and alwayes ought to be most able and faithfull men specially appointed by Christ in his Church as a perpetuall order and succession of Witnesses to testifie of him and to minister in his Name to the end of the world This walking Gospel and visible Ministry consisting as it ought of wise and worthy men Minister est verbum visibile ambulans Evangelium who have good reputation for their piety learning and fidelity running on to all generations is as a continued stream from the blessed Apostles who were the first witnesses immediatly appointed by Christ to hold forth his name and Gospell to the world Acts 1.8 which though never so far off in the decurrence of time from the fountain yet still testifies and assures all wise men that there is certainly a divine fountain of this ministeriall power and so of Evangelicall mysteries and truth which rose first from Christ and which hath constantly run as may appear by the enumeration or induction of particular descents in all ages in this Channel of the Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Presbyters of the Church for the better planting confirming and propagating of the Gospell to all Nations and times As a duty charge or office injoyned by divine command to some men and lying ever as a calling on their consciences Hereby evidently declaring the divine wisdom and Fatherly care of Christ for the good instruction and order of his Church in his personall absence In that he hath not left the Ministry of the Gospell and his holy Institutions which he would have alwaies continued for the gathering edifying of his Church to a loose and arbitrary way among the rabblâ— and promiscuous heards of men which would soon have made Evangelicall truths seem but as vagrant fables and generall uncertain rumors which run without any known and sure authority in the common chat and arbitrary report of the vulgar by which in a short time both the order beauty honour purity and credit of Truth is easily lost among men This holy and successionall ordination of the Evangelicall Ministry gives great proof and demonstration as of Christs personall presence as chief Bishop and Minister of his Church so of the fulfilling of Christs word and the veracity of his promise Mat. 28. after his departure to be with them that were sent and went in his name to the end of the world That the gates of hell neither yet have nor ever shall prevail against the Church While it carefully preserves a right succession holy order and authority of true Ministers the devill despairs of ever overthrowing Christian Religion in its reformed profession in any Country Down with the order Mat. 16.28 and sacred power and succession of the Ministry and all will in a short time be his own 2. 2. Evidenceth the Churches care Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus Ecclesia status in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Apostolorum quibus illi eam quae est in unoquoque loco Ecclesiam tradiderunt Scripturarum sine fictione custodita tractatio plenissima lâ—ctio sine salsatione secundum scripturas expositio legitima diligens sine periculo sine blasphemia Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. In Ecclesia Catholica bacte nus inviolabili observatione tenetar qua potissimum Catholici ab Haereticis discriminantur nimirum ut cujusvis meriti atque praestantiae â—ir fuerit non sua sponte praedicationis munus suscipiat sed expectet donec ab Ecclesia mittatur ab eaque sacris functionibus initietur siâ—que initiatus praedicationi Evangelii mancipetur Baronius An. Anno Christi 44. It is also a notable evidence of the Churches care and fidelity in all ages not only in the preservation of the oracles of the word which it hath done but also of a constant holy Ministry to teach and explain them Also to celebrate those holy mysteries which are divinely annexed to the word as seals to confirm the faith of Christians And lastly to exercise that wholsome discipline for terror or comfort the power of which is chiefly in the Pastors and Rulers of the Church As it is then for the honour of the wisdom of Christ in the originall to have instituted such holy mysteries and such a Ministry so it is for the honour of the Church in the succession of all ages to have thus preserved them and it self in that order which becomes the family of Christ which had come far short of any well ordered family if the Father and Master of it Jesus Christ had left every servant to guess at his duty and all of them to scramble what part they list of employment aliment and enjoyment but the Lord Christ as every wise Master doth hath appointed and his Church hath preserved to this day constant Stewards and dispensers of holy things in his house-hold whose duty t is to
dignitatem Amb. de dign Sacerd. c. 5. prayer and imposition of hands wherein the Spirit of the ordeiners and the Christians present with the ordeined joyn together in his behalf to God is a very great and effectuall means to indue the ordeined in some sense with an other Spirit not only as to power but as to the increase of ministeriall gifts which fit him to receive and use that authority yea and for the strengthning exciting and enlarging those sanctifying graces by which he is more fitted for and prospered in the work of the Ministry than he was before or any other can ordinarily be without this due Ordination whereby his wisdom humility charity zeal devotion industry purity exactness and constancy are increased so as are most requisite for the great work and office of a Minister 4. It binds the conscience of the ordeined more strictly to the duty and office as to discharge it so to endeavour by all holy means of study prayer conference meditation c. to preserve use and augment those gifts faculties or graces naturall acquired or infused for the right discharge and fulfilling of his Ministry to the glory of God and the Churches welfare D. Origine dicunt eum sine vocatione se ingessisse in efficium docendi inde factum est quod in tot errores prolapsus sit Chem. de Ecclesia Res Dei ab bomine dari non possunt Synod Rom. both in true peace and holiness Hence the great learning of Origen and admired gifts were thought by some less prospered and blessed of God because he presumed to do the work of a Minister before he was blessed ordeined and authorised by the Church 5. Due Ordination gives comfort countenance Quomodo valebit secularis homo sacerdotis ministerium adimplere cujus nec officium tenuit nec disciplinam agnovit Is Hisp off l. 2. c. 3. Qui infideliter introivit quid ni infideliter agat Bern. Tit. 2.15 Acts 4.20 John 10.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Niss de Scop. Christia Aug. Ep. ad Honorarum 2 Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 19 Origen Preached before he was ordeined Presbyter before Alexa Bishop of Jerusalem and Theod. Bishop of Cesaria for which Demet. Bishop of Alexand reproves them But they excuse it as a custom there for probation of such as they found Idoneous for their learning and gifts As common placing is in Colleges and divine courage to true Ministers as the anointing did to the Prophets of old and the solemn mission of Christ did to the holy Apostles to Preach not as popular Scribes and precarious Pharisies but as St. John the Divine having authority from Christ whose Ministry like John Baptists is not from men on earth however transmitted by men but from God in Heaven In this confidence they can rebuke with all authority With this conscience they cannot but speak in the name of the Lord They do not fear the face of men or devils in Christs way They forsake not as hirelings the flock when the Wolf comes as having no relation or tye to the flock which is not committed to those self intruders but usurped by force or invaded by stealth True Pastors in time of generall not personall persecution dare not leave their flock destitute but choose to be examples to them of suffering cheerfully for Christ expecting Christs promise and assistance in his way The righteous Minister is as bold as a Lion for he that walks uprightly in the Spirit and power and way of Christ walks seemly But all usurpers are cowards and are ready to insinuate and crouch to all wayes of mean and vulgar complyances giving the Belfry leave to swallow up the Church and Chancel too Falsely and vilely flattering the people as if ministeriall power were in them and from them And this some do purely for filthy lucre where there is a miserable dependance for maintenance upon peoples good will and chiefly to prevent any question or scrutiny which may be made by some nimbler sophisters touching their precatious usurped and beggarly authority as Ministers which is truly none This keeps them justly so in aw that those popular Preachers dare not use that just rigor and severity in cases of most apparent crying sins in people which a true Minister having good conscience and good authority knows how seasonably and discreetly yet freely and effectually to use not to his own pomp Empire or advantage but to Christs glory the Churches good and the honour of Religion though it be to his own detriment and danger as St. Chrys stom St. Basil Naz. and other holy Bishops and Presbyters oft did 6. Right Ordination preserves Order and Decorum in the Church and holy administrations also it fortifies the function of a Minister with due respect and decent regard even before men so that neither the persons nor function and office of Ministers are easily to be despised when publike Ordination is duly performed with that solemnity and holy manner as was of old in this and all true Churches and which ought to be so still It likewise conciliates in Christs name and for his sake much love reverence esteem patience and obedience toward Ministers in their places and duty from all true Christians yea and it raiseth a just veneration to duties Mat. 10.40 thus rightly celebrated among the faithfull by those of whom Christ says He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me Constantine the Great alwaies treated the Bishops and true Ministers of the Church with all observance and pious respect Euseb â—iâ—a Câ—â—sl l. 1. c. 35. Mat. 10.14 2 Tim. 4.3 This makes them received in the name of Prophets as Apostles or Angels sent from God valued by true Christians as their right eyes This makes Christ sensible of their inâ—uries as his and the very dust of their feet becomes a dreadfull witness against wicked and proud rejecters of them who thinking them to be Ministers but of courtesy or civility cannot regard them with conscience and duty But imagine that they may at the pleasure of any passion lust or secuâ—ar design be mocked despised degraded cast off and quite abolished That so their liberty may prefer a heap of teachers of their own raking and making before any of Christs sending and the Churches ordeining Such being most fit for their sinister ends who come in the peoples name and have no higher or nobler Spirit acting all things in their Levelled Ministry by the same irreverent irregular inconstant rude insolent and uncomly Spirit of popularity which is most prevalent in those that are most enemies to and afraid of the true ministeriall power and due ordination Cujus ordinatio despicitur ejus praedicatio contemnitur Ber. Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creations of the people when men list are easily rejected cast off with scorn yet without any sin and shame yea they cannot be regarded or
which they have of the fruits which they bring forth What truths of God have these Antiministeriall adversaries ever brought forth or further cleared and illustrated than was before What weighty controversie or other question in Divinity polemicall or practicall have they learnedly and solidly stated What part of obscurer Scripture have they well interpreted What body of Divinity have they blest this Age withall beyond what it formerly enjoyed in great variety and plenty What cases of Conscience have they more cleared or better decided Is either Law or Gospell beholding to them yea rather how have some men studied to make void the Law by immorall licentiousnesse and the Gospell too by such not free but rather profuse and prodigall grace as excludes those holy conditions of repentance Jam. 2.17 and good workes which the Gospell requires as necessary concommitants and fruits of true and lively Faith What Scripture have they handled which they have not tortured mangled and broken the very bones of it What controversie have they not more studied to pester and entangle What truth have they not darkened with their cloudy words and senselesse notions which they call glorious heights What heresie have they not revived What poysonous Error have they not tampered with What sin and enormity have they not palliated or excused or applauded as the effect either of Christian liberty or necessity How many simplier Christians Faith have they subverted perswading them they never had Christ rightly preached to them nor were in any saving Church-way till these Inspired Teachers came to direct them how to cast off and despise their Ministers and the whole Office of the Ministry 10. How short they come of that Spirit which shews it self in true Ministers Neither then the Word of God nor right Reason not sober Sense will give testimony of any speciall gifts of the Spirit in these men either in knowledge or in wisdome or in utterance or in any grace or vertue In all which they are nothing in regard of many Ministers and others who as far excell them as gold doth brasse and silver lead Nor are their fruits to the publique and to others any way proportionable to their boasting against the Ministers which is as far from truth as it is from humility if these may be measured and esteemed not by proud swelling words of themselves or by high scorns and rude contempts of others but by the exactnesse of holy walkings and the fruitfulnesse of publique labours on the hearts or lives of others Hanc habet invidia in seipsa poenam aut non videre aut nolle videre aut maligne videre virtutem alienam quam nescit imitati Gerson Herein no ignorance or envy or calumny can be so wilfully or resolvedly blind but onely in these men as not to see and acknowledge That God hath given witnesse from heaven against the crooked and perverse generation of these detractors from and destroyers of the honor of the Ministry of England by the eminent Learning Piety Zeal Industry Fidelity Charity Patience Constancy and vigilancy of many centuries yea many thousands of able and godly Ministers both in the restauration and preservation of Truth Purity and Power of the Christian Reformed Religion in this Church others have sought the goods of this Church but these the good of it I could here fill many Volumes as many Ministers both godly Bishops and Presbyters in this Church have done by their acute solid devout and most profitably pleasant writings with the histories of many of their lives some of which are registred to posterity by commendable pens others by tolerable ones whose gratefull design is good but their historique faculty far short of those merits which they seek to eternize How eminent have they been as Moses in all good learning how indefatigable in their labours how dear usefull and desireable to all good and excellent Christians in their lives and deaths What Trophies they have not gained over the adversaries of our Christian and reformed Religion by their Prayers Sermons and most incomparable Writings No lesse have been their many and renowned Victories which they have obtained over the very Devils whom a long time they kept as it were in awe and in a chain How many sinners have been redeemed from his snares and converted from the evill and errours of their wayes by their powerfull Ministry How many fiery darts of Satan have they quenched How many weak hands and feeble knees have they strengthened How many remorselesse soules have they wounded piercing between the scales of Leviathan by the two-edged sword of God in their mouths How many wounded Consciences have they like good Samaritans healed with the balm of Gilead How many doubting and despairing spirits have they revived and established How many mouthes of aliens have they stopped by the unanswerable pregnancy of the truths which they have cleared and mightily maintained In fine before ever the croaking Frogs of Egypt spread over the land and filled every place with their importune and insignificant noises against the Ministers and Ministry of this Church seeking by their muttering clamours to contend with the Nightingales and to silence the sweet fingers of Israel how were the excellent Ministers of this Church and the famous Ministry hereof esteemed at home and abroad among the chiefest blessings for use and noblest beauties for ornament which this or any Nation and Church ever enjoyed Being as the two goodly pillars of Solomons Temple sustaining the burthen and adding to the beauty of Religion being sacred Oracles for holy direction and great examples for vertuous imitation In what part of good learning have not some of the Ministers of England excelled and some of them in all What divine or humane truth have they not handled cleared and asserted What controversie in Religion have they not rightly stated fully disputed and solidly determined What part of practicall piety and Devotion have they not illustrated and adorned in their Writings with most sweet suasive and pathetick flowers of holy Oratory mixed with truths gathered out of the gardens of God the Scriptures and their own pure Consciences What Scripture have they not commented upon learnedly methodically clearly and succinctly Yea what Text almost in the whole Bible Old or New Law or Gospell History or Prophesie Psalmodicall or Epistolicall have not the Ministers of England preached and printed upon with accuratenesse and judgement So that the quintessence of the Sermons set forth by them in this Church would in the judgement of the learned Lord Verulam make one of the most exact and absolute Commentaries on the Bible that ever was It were endlesse to enumerate the names the excellencies the learned works the holy fruits and blessed successes which have attended the Ministers of this Church whom one would have thought to have been set so above any such envy and malice and sacriledge never any Reformed Christians would ever have so maligned and despised as to have sought to
pretious and the vile Mean time Gods husbandmen the true and Ordained Ministers 13. The patience and constancy of Ministers will best confute these pretenders must have patience but not slacken their diligence after the holy example of those godly Bishops and Presbyters of the Church in the times of the Arrian Novatian Donatistick and others prevalencies and persecutions The fierce and fiery spirit in the old hereticks and schismaticks could least of all endure with temper and moderation those Bishops and Ministers which were soundest in their judgements faithfullest in their places and holyest in their lives * Socrat. l. 1. c. 7. l. cap. 17. Can. African Theod. l. 4 c. 12. So that not only they destroyed and drove away most of the orthodox Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters out of many Provinces in Africa and so in Asia as in Europe but they sought with all fraud and force to destroy that great Colosse of Christian Religion the most renowned Bishop of Alexandria * Omnes quos factionis macula sâ—ciavit in Athanasium conspirabant Ruff. hist l. 1. Toto orbe prosugus M. Athanasius sex annos in cisterna sine sole vixit Id. Athanasius who was the wonder and astonishment of all the world for his learning piety and constancy standing like an unshaken rock of Truth amidst the troubled Sea of Arrian Errors If the hand of Secular power will not maintain the antient order of the true Ministers of England in their Ministry liberties and lives which we humbly crave and expect * Vbicunque a perditis mala ista commissa sunt ibi ferventius atquae perfectius Christiana unitas profecit Aust Ep. 50. de persâ— yet we hope the Spirit of Christ and the power of heaven will preserve us with good Consciences amidst the trialls losses contempts and deaths which we may encounter And however the * Rev. 12.4 Rev. 2. Tail of the Dragon with many windings and insinuations hath drawn after him many stars from the heaven of their formerly seemingly sober orderly and godly profession to the Earth of temporary successes worldly applauses secular complyances and irregular motions for vain glory or for filthy lucres sake yet Christ will still preserve * Brightman in Apoc. Rev. â—3 10 in his right hand those stars which shine by his light and are placed by his Name Power and Authority in the Firmament of his Church * Heb. 11.37 Persecutio Christiani nominis in crementum Lact. Quanto magis premitur magis augetur Id. Although this may be the houre of temptation which must come upon this Reformed Church and the power of darknesse which may for a time have leave to deny betray set at naught and crucifie afresh the Lord of Glory in his true Ministers and faithfull servants yet good men may be confident * that their bonds and scourges their revilings and cruell mockings their being sawn asunder between ignorance and error schism and heresie profanenesse and hypocrisie superstition and licentiousnesse The very indignities restraints injuries and ruines of the godly Ministers shall tend to the honour Velut auâ—um non vâ—rbis sed exiliis caâ—ceâ—â—bus probatur fides ad potioâ—is metalli fulgâ—â—em teâ—â—â—det Ruff. Hist l. 2. c. 6. Crudelâ—as fectae est â—llecebâ—a s men est sanguis Christianorum Tertul. Apol. propagation and more glorious restauration of the Reformed Religion which of later times hath wanted nothing so much whereby to set forth its primitive lustre and power as the constancy and patience of the Ministers and Professours of it in the point of comely suffering for the Truth In which way the brightest beams of the Spirit of Glory are wont to appear The base cowardly avoiding of sufferings hath brought great reproaches upon many Ministers and other Christians who Proteus-like by mean compliances and palliations suiting themselves to a disorderly and variating world have much eclipsed and deformed the beauty and dignity of their holy Function and Profession both as Ministers and as Christians As it is far harder to suffer persecution and to bear the burning coales of mens displeasure in our bosomes than to make long prayers or to preach soft and smooth Sermons and to bandy safe disputes in the Sun shine of Peace plenty favour and prosperity so more glory will then redound to God and more honour to the Reformed Religion from those sparkling rayes and effusions of grace P oâ—um virtutes ut Aromaâ—â— quâ— magis câ—nteruntur eo frangratius redâ—lent Ieror which shall flow from excellent Ministers when they are red hot in the forge of affliction and hammered on the Anvile of the worlds malice than ever did from those faint and weaker beams by which they shined in the easie and ordinary formalities of Religion Nor will any thing more assure them and the uncharitable world that they have the Spirit of Christ in them of a Truth than when they shall find they have holy and humble resolutions to suffer with Christ and his Church rather than to reign with a wicked and irregular world whose Jesuitick joys will then be fulfilled and crowned with garlands when they shall see the learning piety order government and honour of that Ministry which sometime flourished to the great regret of all its enemies in this reformed Church utterly prostrated vilified impoverished and expulsed On the other side the spirituall joyes of true and faithfull Ministers will be encreased by their being beaten and evill intreated and cast out of their Synagogues by their being reproached scorned and wounded unjustly not onely from their professed enemies of the Romish party but even from those who were of their own household who seemed to be their familiar friends It is happier to have the least measure of Christs Spirit in patience truth and power than to make the greatest boasts and to enjoy the loudest vulgar applauses which those Chenaniahs seem to affect and aim at 1 King 22. who dare now to smite every where the true Prophets the plain dealing Micaiahs on the mouth designing to feed al the true able and faithfull Ministers with the bread and water of affliction because they will not comply with or yeeld to that novel lying proud and disorderly spirit with which their hearts and mouths are so filled with malice not onely against the Ministry but against the prosperity of this and all other reformed Churches which folly or fury they would have styled and esteemed to be in them the speciall gifts and inspirations of the Spirit of God Proud and presumptuous men doe not consider what is most true 14. False pretentions to the Spirit * Nulla erroris secta jam contra Châ—â—sti veritatem nisi nomine câ—opeâ—ta Christâ—ano ad pugnandâ—m pâ—osilire auâ—et Aust Ep 56. That the greatest blasphemies against Gods Spirit and his Truth are oft coloured over with greatest ostentation of the Spirit as is evidently shewed both in former and later times Many
who presume to be better acquainted with the mind of religion than any Ministers or other able Christians it doth now utterly abhor and to ashamed of yea and would faiâ—â— quite cast away all those glasses and wimples and crisping pins and powders and paâ—ills and dressings and curlings and strange apparell which she had borrowed of humane learning even as the Jewish women were weary of their toyes and trinckets which they had from the heathen by which they provoked God against their vanity pride Isai 3. and folly Thus are these men ready with their rude hands to witnesse Divinity who being very bâ—nd and boisterous Answ Yet the benefit of learning is more than the danger are not able to distinguish between pulling off the patches or wiping away those spots and paints which a fair face needs not and the shaving off that hair which is given to Religion for an ornament and covering Or the plucking out of those eyes indeed which it needs not onely for beauty but for direction The learning of hereticke and schismaticks doth not so much defoâ—â— the Church and true Religion as the learning of Orthodox professors adorns and reformes it which as fullers earth is the best means to take out those kennel spots which noisome spirits and foul mouths cast upon true Religion There is the more need of wise and able Physitians to make wholesome Antidotes and confections by how much there are so many whose malice is cunning as the divels Empericks and empoisoners to mixe pestilent drugs and infusions with Religion 1 Cor. 11 19. There must be heresies and hereticks too not as necessary effects anâ— consequents of learning and religion but rather from the defects of them in mens hearts and mindes When men are not either able rightly to understand or not accurately to divide or not exactly to distinguish or not rationally to conclude from Scripture grounds and principles of truth Or else when they are prone grossely to mistake and easily to yeeld to any semblances of truth and fallacies of error which are incident to credulous incautions unstable and unlearned soules or to proud passionate and heady men though never so learned Hence follows their not onely forsaking the right way and resolute persisting in their dangerous and damnable mistakes as sheep gone astray seldome ever returning of themselves to the fold and unity of the Church but they would also draw others after them that they may not seeme to erre alone and by numbers at least and force at last carry on the evill opinions which always tend to evill practises unlesse the Lord had always furnished his Church with some learned and godly men as able for reduction as others were for seduction as potent to cure as others are to infect whose learning defensive was more mighty than any offensive ever was The flock of Christ was alwayes happily furnished with Mastives whose teeth were as sharp and strong as the Wolves With Davids whose valour was always as great as the ravening strength of Bear or Lyon whom nothing else would have curbed and overawed nor have without miracle been able to have preserved the flock of Christ from dayly scatterings and tearings So then in all right reason either wholly remove these offensive enemies and such weapons out of their heads and hands or else give true Christian Religion leave to keep her defensive Arms and those worthy men who are able to use them namely the learned and godly professors both Ministers and others of this and other Churches both Christian and reformed Whose learning courage and honesty together makes them impregnable Whom otherwayes even these pitiful pygmies who now thus oppose them would hope to be too hard for if once matters of religion were reduced onely to tongues and hands for Ignorance makes men violent and for want of reason to flye to force * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. Possibly these professors of ignorance and rusticity may be lowder speakers and bolder fighters though they be weaker disputants and flatter writers yea we commonly see that hereticall pride and schismaticall passion in men that neither love the Truth nor the peace of the Church when worsted by arguments fly to Arms as the Arians and Donatists and Novavatians did when refusing fair disputations which the Orthodox Bishops and Presbyters desired Vide Ca â— Afric Concil Carth. An. 410 offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orderly and peaceable disquisitions for the determining of differences so that Christian union might follow They presently ran furiously to meere brutish and tumultuary violences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad immaes violentias Invading Churches by force driving away the Orthodox and holy Bishops and Presbyters who had not varied nor would yeeld to change that Faith and holy order of Religion and Ministry which still remained in all the Christian Churches as descended from the Apostles and primitive Christians and which had lately been confirmed and declared by the first famous Councell of Nice which consisted of 318 Bishops besides other many learned assistants holy Presbyters and Deacons together with some chief men of the laity who were so all of a minde that there were but 17 dissenters in the vote against Arius After the same riotous fashion also was that ignorant and abominable rable as it 's called of the Circumcelliones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afâ—i Genus hominum agreste famosissimae audaciae Aust cont Cresco l. 3. c. 42. Leniora tarrenum praedonum facta quam Circumcellionum a subsection of the Donatists who were wont to ramble idly up and down like squibs with fire and force among the plain and pagane Christians in the country till after great ostentations of piety devotion and zeale for Martyrdome calling themselves * St. Aust de Haeret. Optatus Duces Sanctorum Captaines of the Saints and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contenders for the faith they fell at length to pilfering then to plundering and wasting whole countreys opposing in an hostile manner the Vicegerents Pacelus and Mocatius till at length they were by the Emperour himself * An. 348. Honorius repressed and destroyed That many men abuse learning to abet errors and religion to colour hypocrisie and the name of the Spirit to indulge the flesh and heaven to carry on earthly designes I make no question nor will these objecters I beleive yet I doe not think their morosenesse is such as presently to conclude they must part with what they can well use because they see others daily abuse good things as health beauty strength riches preferment meat drink cloathing c. all which oft nourish vanity lusts excesse The aking of these mens heads or teeth makes them not willingly to lose them no more may the abuse of learning take away the use of it Wise men know how to keep a mean between starving and surfeiting between drunkennesse and cutting up all vines condemning all men to drink nothing but
more than is needfull for their place and the Churches edification or safety and preservation And much I think is needfull to give a right sense of Scripture from the originall proprieties or emphasis of words 10. Wherein learning is necessary to Ministers Si ad humara perdiscenda â—ta hominis vita brevis est quid temporis sufficere potest ad intelligentiam divinum Chrysol To open the many allusions referring to Judaick rites and Ethnick customes in severall ages To clear and unfold the Scriptures by short paraphrases or larger Commentaries To analyse severall passages so as to reduce them to their proper place and order of reasoning wherein their force consists as the parts and joints of the body set in their due posture For the method of the reasoning and the strength of the argument or main scope in Scripture is oft very different from the series and order of the words in the Text Many times the ambiguity of the words the variety of stops the incoherence and independence of the sense as to the letter makes the method more obscure and the meaning very intricate yea the very text of Scriptures were in many copies of Bibles anciently as in St. Jeromes time Jeronymus in libris Jobi Danielis aliis and before him in Origens much altered by addition to or detraction from the pure and authentick Scripture untill those and other learned men the Bishops and Ministers of the Church with more accurate diligence reduced the Bible to its purity and integrity as much as is attainable by humane industry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basan hâ—m 24. de Leg. Ethn. or necessary to mans salvation In these and the like cases I suppose these objectors who are very simple but not with a dove-like simplicity must needs confesse unlesse they wholly trust to the reed of their Enthusiasms which they have very little cause to doe that there is a great need of learned Criticks of good Linguists of methodicall Analysts judicious Commentators accurate distinguishers and harmonious reconcilers that the truth purity and unity of the sacred Oracles may be preserved and vindicated against Jews Heathens Atheists Hereticks and capricious Enthusiasts who are ready to strike with contempt and passion any part of Scripture as uselesse or corrupted if it slow not as the rock with an easie sense and obvious interpretation to their weak and sudden capacities They are instantly prone with an high disdain and choler to prefer their most impertinent imaginations sudden fancies and addle raptures Or if they be ashamed of those being too weak grosse and impudent to be vended at noon day and in so faithfull a light as yet shines in this Church then they are crying up the book of the creatures and God in them or they applaud some easier morall heathens And I should think nothing should fit their fancies so well as the Turkish Alcoran or Jewish Talmuds and Cabals for these if any thing can have already out done them in toyes and incredible fables which may save them the labour of further inventions Swine will prefer the filthiest puddle before the fairest springs so will wanton proud and vain men take any light exception against the Scripture which they hate the more perfectly by how much they see it is a most perfect rule and fully contrary to their proud 2 Tim. 3.16 unjust and unruly passions And however the shell of those holy and unparelleld writings the blessed Scriptures be in many places rugged and hard so that every one cannot handle or break it yet blessed be God others can nor is the kernell of saving Truth lesse sweet and smooth because it is not easily explained but by the help of other mens better gifts whom the Lord raiseth up and fitteth for this very end with variety of gifts even in humane learning Who for the most part have been of the order of the Clergy although in these later times especially divers others both Nobility Gentry and Commoners have been as excellent pioners who have by their private studies very chearfully and industriously assisted and helped the Churches chiefest Champions and Leaders the Ministers who have not indeed every one those sharp tools of steel which can work at the hardest places of this rock and holy Mine the Scriptures yet have they generally such skill and leisure beyond the Vulgar as enables them to try the Ore to gather and refine the grains to cast them into fit wedges or ingots of Gold Truths reduced to some body method or common place of Divinity Thus assisted by their own and other studies method and industry they are well able to make plain yet learned and judicious Sermons with pathetick homilies fitted to the common peoples capacity memory and disposition whom neither leisure nor necessities of life and the hard labours under the Sun nor abilities of minde would suffer or serve one of a thousand to attain to any competent measure of religious knowledge if holy and learned men Ministers of the Church were not enabled by God approved by the Church and ordained by both to that constant service of the Ministry for the good of the plainer Christians who enjoy in every point of true doctrine or solid Divinity which is as a weighty piece of gold stamped with the clear testimony of the Scripture as people doe in every piece of current money the extract of the labour and the result of the art of many mens heads and hands who have thus fitted it for their ordinary use Besides this when common people are once well stored and inriched in their honest plainnesse with competent and sound knowledge in Religion by the care and faithfulnesse of their able and honest Ministers yet how easily would the cheats of Religion delude and impose on these poore Souls these plain and single hearted Christians abasing or changing counterfeit with truths cropt opinions and round-headed tenets for full weight of Christian doctrines Still cogging with religious * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.14 dice and cheating with plausible fallacies seemingly brought out of the Scripture untill those poore beleevers like the * Gal. 3.1 bewitched Galatians had lost all or their most part of their sound Religion yea some of these Impostors doe not leave poore Christians whom they have consened with fair shews of the Spirits revelations and new Gospels so much faith as to beleive the main Articles of the Christian Faith or the Scriptures to be the Word of God or that there is any true Church or any order and authority of true Ministry And whither would not this cousenage and deceit of these hucksters proceed 2 Cor. 2.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to overthrow whole houses Parishes and Churches if there were not some learned and able Ministers in the Church who are as Gods and the Churches publique Officers to detect these jugglers to discover these deceitfull workers 2 Cor. 2.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set
of fixation as to the publique profession else there will hardly be any civill peace preserved among men who least endure and soonest quarrell upon differences in Religion each being prone to value his own and contemn anothers Nulla res efficâ—cius homines regit quam religio Curt. l. 4. These things of publique piety thus once setled by Scripture upon good advice ought by all swasive rationall and religious means to be made known by the publique Ministry to the people for so Christ hath ordained and the Church alwayes observed to which Ministry which I have proved to be of Gods institution Separatim nemo habessit Deos neve novos Tul. de leg Rom. and so most worthy of mans best favour and encouragement publique and orderly attendance for time place and manner ought to bee enjoyned upon all under that power for their necessary catechi and instruction And this with some penalties inflicted upon idle wilful and presumptuous neglects Nihil ita facit ad dissidium ac de Deo dissensio Naz. orat 8. Solos credit habendos Quisque Deos quos ipse colit Iuv. Sat. 15. Aegypti cum diversi cultus Deâ—â— habeâ—ant mutuis bellis se impâ—tebant Dio. l. 42. when no ground of conscience or other perswasion or reason is produced by those that are not yet of years of discretion if any of riper years and sober understanding plead a dissent they ought in all charity and humanity be dealt with by religious reasonings and meeknesse of wisdome if so be they may so be brought to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 1.25 But if either weaknesse of capacity or wilfulnesse and obstinacy suffer them not to be convinced What toleration becomes Christians and so to conform to the publique profession of Religion I doe not think that by force and severities of punishment they ought to be compelled to professe or to do that in Religion of which they declare an unsatisfaction in judgment yet may they both in justice and charity be so tyed to their good behaviour that they shall not under great penalties either rudely speak write or act against or openly blaspheme profane and disturb or contradict and contemn the Religion publiquely professed and established And however the welfare of this publique is not so concerned in what men privately hold as to their judgement and opinion thoughts being as the Embryos of another freer world yet when they come to be brought forth to publique notice in word or deed they justly fall under the care Facientis culpant obtiner qui quod poterit corrigere negligeremendare Reg. Iur. and censure both of the Magistrate to restrain them as relating to the good of community and of the Minister to reprove them as his duty and authority is in the Church If in lesser things which are but the lace and fringe of the holy vestment the verge and Suburbs of Religion established Christians doe so dispute and differ Ordo Evangelici Ministerii est cardo Christianae religionis Gerard. Tolle Ministerium tolle Christum is one of the divels politick maximes as not to trench upon fundamentall truths neither blaspheming the Majesty of God or of the Lord Jesus Christ or of the blessed Spirit or the authority of the holy Scriptures nor breaking the bounds of clear morals nor violating the order of the holy Ministry of Christs Church which is the very hinge of all Christian Religion nor yet wantonly dissolving that bond of Christian communion in point of extern order peace and comely administrations of holy things other private differences and dissentings no doubt may be fairly tolerated as exercises of charity and disquisitions of truth wherein yet even the lesser as well as greater differences which arise in Religion are far better to be publiquely and solemnly considered of prudently and peaceably composed if possible than negligently and carelesly tolerated as wounds and issues are better healed with speed than tented to continued Ulcers and Fistulas I am confident wise humble and charitable Christians 8. The mean between Tyranny and Toleration in publique eminency of power and piety would not finde it so hard a matter as it hath been made through roughnesse of mens passions and intractablenesse of their spirits raised chiefly by other interests carryed on than that of Christ true Religion and poor people soules if they would set to it in Gods name to reconcile the many and greatest religious differences which are among both Christian and reformed Churches if they would fairly separate what things are morall clear and necessary in Religion from what are but prudentiall decent or convenient and remove from both these what ever is passionate popular and superfluous in any way which weak men call and count Religion if the many headed Hydra of mens lusts passions and secular ends were once cut off so that no sacriledge or covetousnesse or ambition or popularity or revenge should sowre and leaven reformation or obstruct any harmony and reconciliation sure the work would not be so Herculean but that sober Christians might be easily satisfied and fairly lay down their uncharitable censures and damning distances Instances in Church Government It is easie to instance in that one point of Church government as to the extern form what unpassionate stander by sees not but it might easily have been composed in a way full of order counsell and fraternall consent so that neither Bishops as fathers nor Presbyters as brethren nor people as sons of the Church should have had any cause to have complained * ubi metus in deum ibi gravitas honesta diligentia attonita cura solicita adlectio explorata communicatio deliberata promotio emerita subjectio religiosa apparitio devota profâ—ssio modesta Ecclesia unita Dei omnia Tertul. ad Haer. c. 43. or envyed or differed So in the election triall and ordination of Ministers also in the use and power of the keyes and exercise of Church discipline who in reason sees not that as these things concern the good of all degrees of the faithfull in the Church so they might as in St. Cyprian's and all primitive times have beeen carried on in so sweet an order and accord as should have pleased and profited all both the Ordainers and the ordained with those for whose sakes Ministers are ordained So in the great and sacred administration of the mysterious and venerable Sacraments especially that of the Lords Supper which concerns most Christians of years how happily and easily might competent knowledge an holy profession of it and an unblameable conversation be carried on by both pastors and people with Christian order care and charity so as to have satisfied all those who make not Religion a matter of gain revenge State policy or faction but of conscience and duty both to God and their neighbour Secular interests the pests of the Church and their own soules
which was the harmonious way of primitive Christians in persecution when no State factions troubled the purer streams of that doctrine government and discipline which the Churches had received from the divine fountaines and had preserved sweet amidst the bitter streams and great stormes of persecution when no interest was on foot among Christians but that of Christ's to save soules which did easily keep together in humble and honest hearts piety and humanity zeale and meeknesse mens understandings and affections constancy in fundamentall truths and tolerancy in lesser differences That Truth and Peace Order and Unity might kisse each other and as twins live together the foundations remain unviolable while the superstructures might be varied as much as hay and stubble are from gold and silver 1 Cor. 3.12 That the faith of Christians might not serve to begin or nourish feuds nor Christians who are as lines drawn from severall points of saiths circumference yet to the same center Christ Jesus might ever crosse and thwart one another to the breach of charity but still keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace The same Faith invariable Ephes 4.3 as once delivered to the Saints yet with those latitudes of private charity which Gods indulgence had allowed to true wisdome and which an inoffensive liberty grants in many things to sober Christians I doe not despair but that such bloud may one day yet run in the veins of this Church of England which is now almost faint and swooning by the losse of much bloud which civil wars and secular interests have let out which may recover it to strength and beauty both in doctrine and discipline Yet will it never be the honour of those men to effect it who trust onely to military force or intend either to set up any one violent saction or a loose toleration in religion It will be little lesse indeed than a miracle of divine mercy and Christian moderation which must recover the spirit and life the purity and peace of this Church In the best setled Church or State Christian 9. An excellent way for unity and peace in the Church I conceive it were a happy and most convenient way for calming and composing all differences rising in Religion to have as the Jews had their Sanhedrin or great Assembly if we in England had some setled Synod or solemn Convocation of pious grave and learned men before whom all opinions arising to any difference Twise a year Synods were in primitive times appointed where the Bishops and other chief Fathers of the Church met to consider of Doctrines and disputes in religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Apoc. 36. Which undoubtedly shew the practise and minde of the primitive times soon after the Apostles from what is once setled should be debated publiquely deliberated of seriously and charitably composed if not definitively determined that so the main truths may be preserved unshaken which concern faith and holinesse on which grounds peace and charity in every Church ought to be continued So that none under great penalty should vent any doctrine in publique by preaching or printing different from the received and established way before he had acquainted that Consistory or Councell with it and had from them received approbation so that no man should be punishable for his error what ever he produced before them but might either * Vtili terrori doctrina salutaris adjungatur Aust Et deâ—â— ipse nos sâ—â—oite dâ—ceâ— salâ—bâ—i tâ—r â—â—rrâ—â— receive satisfaction from them or only this charge and restraint that he keep his opinion to himselfe till God shew him the truth and that he presume not to divulge it save onely in private conference to others and that in a modest and peaceable manner In matters of judgement and opinion where no man is accountable for more than he can understand and upon grounds of right reasoning either beleive or know much prudence tendernesse and charity is to be used which will easily distinguish between honest simplicity privately dissenting upon plausible grounds or harmlesly erring without design and that turbulent pertinacy by which pride is resolved as a dry nurse to bring up by hand at the charge and trouble of others every novell and spurious opinion which an adulterous or wanton fancy lists to bring forth though there be no milk for it in the breasts of Reason or Scripture rightly understood The first is as Joseph out of his way wandring and desiring to be directed whom it is charity to reduce to the right way The second is like sturdy Vagabonds who are never out of their way but seek to seduce others that they may rob or murther them these ought to be justly punished and restrained The first is as cold water which may dabble and disorder one that fals into it yea and may drown him too but the other is as falling into scalding hot water which pride soone boyles up to malice and both to publique trouble unlesse it be thus wisely prevented before it have like fire a publique vent for commonly pertinacy of men ariseth more from the love of credit and applause which they think they have got or may lose or from some other advantage they aim at than barely from any esteem they have of the opinions wherein they innovate which brats of mens brains not their beauty but their propriety and relation commends to an eager maintaining Mallent semper errare quam semel errasse videri which in a publique debate by wise and impartiall men of high credit and reputation for their learning gravity and integrity will be so blasted that they will hardly ever after thrive or spread De Nerva dictum Res insociabiles miscuit Imperium liberitatem Tacit. This or the like care of Christian Magistrates by way of rationall restraints charitable convictions and just repressings of all factious and â—â—rbulent innovations in Religion being full of wisedome 〈◊〉 charity and just policy for the publique and private good of men may not be taxed with the least suspicion of tyranny nor may wise and good men startle at the name and outcry of persecution which some proud or passionate opiniasters may charge upon them any more than good Pati non est Christianae justitiae certum documentum ut Donatistae meritò repressi â—ociferabent Aust Ep. 163. Physitians or Chirurgeons should be moved from the Rules of their art and experiences by the clamors and imputations of cruelty from those that are full of foolish pity when they are forced to use rougher Physick Matth. 5.10 Blessed are they that are persecuted but it must be for righteousnesse sake and such severer medicines which the disease and health of the Patient doth necessarily require of them unlesse they would flatter the disease to destroy the man or spare one part to ruine the whole body It is indeed an * Lev. 19.17 hating of our brother and partaking of his sin
indifferency in the Angels of the Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira tolerating any thing and condemning nothing the one suffering those that held the doctrine of Balaam and the impure Nicolaitans who taught all libidinous impudicities to be free for Christians the other for tolerating Jezebel under the colour of a Prophetesse to seduce the servants of God The Apostle Paul commands some mens mouths should be stopped Tit. 1.11 Gal. 5.12 1 Tim. 2.20 who speak perverse things in the Church wisheth those cut off that troubled them He gives over to Satan Hymenaeus and Philetus that they might learn not to blaspheme Gal. 1.8 Denounceth a grievous curse or Anathema to any that should presume to teach any other Doctrine than the Gospell that form of sound words once delivered to the Church which is according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 1 Cor. 4.2 He tels us that there is not onely a word but a rod or power of coercion left to the Church and its lawfull Pastors or Ministers for the edification not for the destruction of the Church And however this power Ecclesiasticall which is from God Magistratick and Ministeriall power when united as that other Magistratick be wholly severed and divided in their courses while the Civill Magistrate is unchristian yet when he embraceth the profession of Christianity these two branches of power which flowed severall ways yet from the same fountaine God doe so farre meet again and unite their amicable streams 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Magistratick and Ministeriall Civill and Church power as not to * As those of old that thought Herod to be the Mâ—ssias Terâ—de pras ad Haâ—c 5. confound each other nor yet to crosse and stop one the other but rather to increase strengthen and preserve mutually each other while the Minister of Christ directs the Magistrate and the Christian * As Eusebius tels in Constantine the Greats time who joined with the Bishops and Ministers of the Church in good government Magistrate protects the Minister both of them with a single eye regarding that great end for which God in his love to mankinde and to his Church hath established both these powers in Christian Churches and Societies That neither the bodies nor the soules of Christians should want that good which God hath offered them in Christ nor suffer those injuries in society for the prevention or remedy of which both Magistracy and Ministry are the Ordinances of God for enjoying the benefit of both which blessings as every Christian hath a sociall capacity so every lawfull Magistrate and Minister hath according to their places and proportions a publique duty and authority upon them to see justice and holinesse truth and peace civill sanctions and divine institutions purely and rightly dispensed to inferiours for whose good they aâ—e of God ordained 11. In what case onely toleration of any thing in Religion were lawfull If there were indeed no rule of the written Word of God which Christians owned as the setled foundation of Faith the sure measure of doctrine and guide of good manners in religion both publiquely and privately or if there were no credible Tradition delivered by word of mouth and parents examples which men might imitate for the way of Religion revealed to them by God which was the way before the flood but every one were to expect dayly either new inspirations or to follow the dictates of his own private fancy and reason Nothing then would be more irreligious then to deny all freedom publique as well as private nothing more just than to tolerate any thing of opinion and speculation which any one counted his religion yet even in that liberty of walking and wandering in the dark when no Sun of certain Revelation divine had shined on mankinde Rom. 1.32.2 14. the very light of Nature taught men as among Heathens that some things in point of practise are never tolerable in any humane society But since the wisdome and mercy of God hath given to mankinde which the Church alwayes injoyes the light of his holy Word and a constant order of Ministry to teach from it the wayes of God in truth peace and holinesse not onely every Christian is bound to use all religious means which God hath granted to settle his own judgement and live accordingly in his private sphear without any Scepticall itch or lust of disputing alwayes in Religion But both Magistrate and Minister whose severall duties are set forth and different powers ordained over others in Scripture for a sociall and publique good must take care to attain that good of a setled Religion and preserve it in always of verity equity and charity which may all well consist with the exercise of due authority Nor is it any stinting or restraining of the Spirit of God in any private Christian to keep his Spirit within the bounds of the Word of God Deut. 29.29 wherein the things revealed belong to us and our children Nor is it any restraint to the Spirit of God in the Scripture to keep our opinions and judgements and practises within the bounds of that holy faith and good order which is most clearly set forth in the câ—ncurrent sense of the Scriptures and explained by the Confessions of Faith and practise of holy Discipline which the Creeds and Councels and customes of the Catholick Church hold forth to them Nor is it any limiting or binding up of the Spirit of God in private men for the Christian Magistrate and Minister to use all publique means both for the information conviction and conversion of those under their charge as to the inward man and also of due restraint and coercion as to the outward expressions in which they stand related to a publique and common good But if the negligence of Governours in Church and State 12. What a Christian must doe in dissolute times should at any time so connive and tolerate out of policy or fear or other base passion if through the brokennesse and difficulties of times the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for Magistrates and good Ministers so as the vulgar fury corrupted by factious and unruly spirits are impatient of just restraits but carry on all things against Laws and wiser mens desires to a licentious Anarchy and all confusions in the outward face and publique Ministrations of Religion yet must no good Christian think this any dispensation for any private errours in his judgment or practise In maxima rerum licentia minima esse debet veri Christiani libertas Gib Lex sibi severissima est pura conscientia dei amor Ber. he must be the more circumspect and exact in his station and duty as a Christian when the publique course runs most to confusion tolerating least in his own conscience when most is tolerated by others The love of God and Christ and of the truth of Religion and the respect and reverence borne the order of the Ministry and to the Churches
8.3 divers that had been cured ministred to Christ and his family of their substance and Matth. 10.10 he declares the Ministers right to be as good as the labourers to his hire If he that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth mee and he that giveth to a Prophet a cup of cold water in my name gives it to me if these be true and Evangelicall why is it not as true and Evangelicall He that payeth Tithes to you as my Ministers payes them to me Whether it be by private and solitary or by publique and joint gift and dedication Sure the highest right and claim Paramount must be eminently in Christ who is Lord of all more then in Melchisedeck and so either the obligation to pay them or the lawfulnesse to accept them in Christs name as a right to him or as a free gift offered from beleevers to the honour and service of Christ must needs be evident in all justice and religion As water is purest in the Fountain and light clearest in the Sun so is Melchisedeks right most in Christ Nay I think in good earnest that a Christian Jew would hence draw an argument although he were of that tribe of Levi to which Tithes were after commanded to be paid among the Jews that he ought now to pay them to the Christian Ministers Heb. 7.4.8 9 c. or to Christ as in relation to his service and as an agnition of him to be Lord and God since even Levi in Abrahams loins paid Tithes to Melchisedek that is to the type and representer of Christ And since the Lord Jesus Christ is the perfection and sum of the Priesthood and order of Melchisedek he may justly claim what ever was typified as a due or honour to be done to him of which this is one that he should receive Tithes who never dyeth Heb. 7.8 15. So that this Evangelicall right of Christ as those promises to Abraham being before the Legall establishment is not to be annulled by that law of the Jews Gal. 3.17 which was 400. years after As to the intervenient appointment and after custom of paying Tithes divinely setled by a positive Law among the Jews as the then onely Church of God it carries not any frown in its face against Christian Ministers now receiving Tithes or others paying them under the Gospell if there were no Law of the Land devoting Tithes to God and enjoyning the payment of them to Ministers as a rent charged upon lands and estates what sin could it be for any Christian as many primitive Christians spontan ously did to devote set apart and give yearly the tenth of all his encrease to the Ministers of the Gospell Sure nothing of right reason Scripture or true Religion which onely should rule the conscience of any sober man doth teach any Christian to abhor what ever was instituted or practised among the Jews if it be but after the law of common equity gratitude piety or civility toward God or man Else these Antidecimists must think they sinned if they should but cover their excrements Deut. 23.13 which was once a law of cleanlinesse among the Jews yea the example of God so confirming by a positive law in that his ancient Church of the Jews those generall dictates of nature and the preceeding practise of Abraham paying Tithes to Melchisedek as to the Priest of the most High God and a type of Christ according to grounds of common equity and naturall piety or gratitude to God and man This consideration I say should have the greater inducement to assure Christians that what is neither meerly Typicall nor Ceremoniall as Tithes were never thought to be by any learned or wise men but rather a thing of common equity and piety confirmed by a divine positive command and the choice of God this cannot but be as acceptable to God now when dedicated by the consent of any Christian people to his Evangelicall service and Ministry as it was before either from the hand of Abraham or his posterity since it is no where forbidden in the Gospell and by Gods wisdome hath been chosen as the fittest proportion under the Law Yea and to those that have not the loosest but the liberallest consciences among Christians it seems expressely recommended after that pattern Even so hath the Lord ordained Cor. 9.14 v. 13. that they that preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell Even so as they did who served at the Altar so far as the imitation can now hold which though it cannot in the Sacrifices yet it may in the Tithes and in first fruits and free-will offerings which were frequently and plentifully brought to the Bishops and Ministers of the Churches in primitive times for their own support and the Deacons with the poor If the Tenth or quantum How much be not here expressed yet it is vehemently implyed Else the Apostle had proved nothing nor given any directions either for Ministers fitting support or for Christians regulating of their retributions if he doth not command them to pay at least a Tenth sure he doth not condemn their paying a Tenth part which they may freely doe if there were no such divine right pleadable as this indeed is to all Christians whose covetousnesse doth not teach them to cavill against reason and Scripture too However this is the least that we can make of that place if in difficult times such as the primitive were something were left to the gratitude ingenuity love and largenesse of Christians hearts towards their Ministers wherein sometime they even exceeded their power and estate in munificence yet in quiet times and in a plentifull land it may well be expected by God at least it cannot be blameable for any Nation Church or private Christian to give and settle such a portion as the Tenths of the increase upon those that serve the Lord and the Church in the Ministry of the Gospell It is easily computed that Tithes were not one half of the Leviticall maintenance What reason can these men give beyond their will and despite why the Christian Ministry should fare worse or have lesse honour than the Jewish since it is in many things Heb. 7.19.22 Heb. 8.6 a better Ministry 1. Clearer in the light of Doctrine promises and prophesies 2. As venerable in the Mysteries 3. Far more glorious in its chief Minister and Mediator Jesus Christ Heb. 3.5 the Son of God the other by servants 4. Much easier in the burthen both of labour ceremony and charges to beleivers and worshippers 5. Yet not lesse painfull to the Ministers whose spirits are more exhausted by studies preaching and other Ministeriall duties than the Jewish Priests by more grosse and bodily labours 6. Not lesse comfortable to devout and pious soules 7. More universally diffused as more convenient for all mankind 8. And never esteemed lesse necessary to the Church or lesse acceptable to God save onely by Atheists or Niggards who
had rather read that most blasphemous and no lesse irrationall than irreligious book De Tribus Impostoribus than the four Evangelists valuing a cheap Alcoran before a costly Bible 5. Tithes not Popish or Antichristian So then I think I have with a very soft and sober fire quite decocted the Jew out of Tithes and with as much or more ease will Antichrist as they call it or any dregs of Popery evaporate out of them Some mens teeth are so set on edge by too much chewing of the Pope that they cannot bite or taste any thing but it relisheth of Antichrist to them if the Romish Church and Bishops did ever use it If any thing as I have said be suspicable for Popish or Antichristian in Tithes sure it goes with the Impropriations for if it were blameable to alien Tithes from the Ministry and cure of souls by annexing them to Regular and Monastick uses and if it were not commendable to alien them from both to meer secular uses where they are usually expended with more luxury and vanity as with lesse piety and charity sure the best way was to have kept them in their originall design which was for the maintenance of the Ministers Nor is the Popes traffiquing or disposing of them during his usurpation here any prejudice to them no more than a blear eye eclipseth the Sun by looking on it or a foul hand abuseth a Jewell by touching it That the Popes of Rome invented Tithes is as true as a learned Rubbi of these new wayes and a great Preacher too once told me with most unhistoricall confidence St. Aust Ep 28. B. Cyprianus non aliquod novum decretum condens sed Ecclesiae fidem firmissimamservans corrigit eos qui ante 8. diem purvulum non esse baptizandum putabant That Pope Gregory the great first invented Infant baptism which 't is sure enough St. Jerome and St. Austin Cyprian and others mention as a Catholick custome in their dayes which was some hundred of yeares before Gregory and they oft declare it to have been an antient primitive and Apostolical practise which no Father no Bishop no Councell ever began but was generally used as we finde in St. Cyprian from the first plantation of Christianity and the making Disciples to Christ Initiating them by water as the Jews formerly had done Proselytes in their Church But this is onely in passant to shew how great confidence attends grosse ignorance in these men As to this of tithes so farre as the Pope had to doe with them at any time Cypr. Ep. 59. ad Fidum an 250. A baptismo post Christum prohiberi non debet infant recens natus c. I have taken away the foolish scandall and vulgar prejudice giving in another place sufficient account to all that are capable of sober truth That nothing in Christian Religion either in Scriptures Sacraments and doctrines or in the order power succession government and maintenance of Ministers in the Church are therefore burnt with Antichristianism or with any thing which the Vulgar cals Popery because the Pope set his foot sometime in them For truely then our Parliaments which are accounted sacred in their essence and honour should be Antichristian too for time was when they did own the authority yea and reconcile and submit themselves to the power of the Pope and See of Rome If any men reply Parliaments have long agoe purged themselves of the Pope and Popery Truely so have all things else in this Church and Tithes among others which these mens mouths so much water after and sure such squeamish stomachs as theirs would never desire and digest them as they doe if there were the least grain of Antichrist or Pope either in Lay or Clergy mens Tithes for they vehemently pretend to have vomited up all that savours of the Pope or Popery But it 's lost labour to seek further to pull this prating worm out of some mens tongues when the root of it is in their brains if they had but the tithe of common reason and sober sense they would easily see how little the Ministers of England or any Christian Church of the like way is beholden to the Popes of Rome in the matter of tithes It had been better for us that the Pope had never medled with them which occasioned so many Impropriations and these so many beggerly livings which can hardly expect or make a rich and able Minister if these men would really reform they should promote the restoring by some convenient way those Impropriate Tithes to the Church But their reformation is alwayes on the taking not on the giving hand like the footsteps to the Lions den all are towards none frowards It 's very probable the Popes made little of their owne lands any where Tithable if when they saw the charity of Christians grow cold and their luxury in peacefull times great the Bishops of Rome perswaded others to settle the maintenance of the Ministery and to provide for the double honour of the Clergy by this way of Tithes which might not be arbitrary but legall and certain Truly it was one of the most prudent and pious works that ever any of the best Popes did for the Church And truly many of them were so wise and holy men that they might in great part cover and expiate the lesser errours of others if too much of secular pride and humane passions had not afterward transported them beyond all bounds becoming Christian Prelates It were a madnesse onely worthy of these Antidecimists to abhorre to doe any thing never so sober which others now become frantick and disordered sometime did in their better moodes 6. Of turning tithes into a Lay Channell for the ease of some tender consciences But there is a late writer who hath projected how to percolate Tithes so through Lay hands in a publique Exchequer or Tith-office which will effectually purge away all that is Jewish Antichristian or uncircumcised in them as sure as a Monks cowle will recommend a dead man to heaven I am as solicitous for those officers danger as that writer is for the Ministers lest they prove tithe-coveters when they shall have pregnant hopes to make their fees better for dispensing those Tithe-pensions to their poore pensioners and humble suppliants than any one Ministers maintenance will be out of them unlesse he be a strange favorite of that Court I suppose those Officers for gathering receiving and distributing of Tithes in such pensions to the remnant of those poore dependent and most patient Ministers will be more sincere and conscientious for a time than to take any bribes or rewards for expedition But it is very probable they will not be men of such metall as will never be corrupted And O how sad a project will this be in a short time if these Lay exactors should be more heavy and grievous not onely to the poore Ministers but also to the common people in their rigorous
deliberation humble resolution and good experience of that gift obtained which is able so to subject nature to the Empire of grace the body to the soule the flesh to the spirit carnall and sensuall imaginations to divine and spirituall * 1 Cor. 7.7 contemplations repressing innate flames by holy servencies so as preserves the purity both of body and minde together with the title of virginity so that votaries not strict and presumptuous or peremptory and absolute but conditionate upon humble and modest suppositions of that gift and mistery which * Mat. 9.11 12. God only can give them over themselves in order to an holy Celibacy have yet power of that Liberty in some cases to be enjoyed which the great and wise Creator hath allowed to humane infirmity without any reproach either to Himself who is the God of Nature as of Grace of the Body as of the Soul of the flesh as of the Spirit also without any uncomely or dishonourable reflexion upon any of his servants who thankfully and holily use that his divine indulgence Nil predest carnem habere virginem fimente mipseris Jeron ad Heliod We like the golden chain of Celibacy when it is sincere not copper gilded over but pure gold throughout when it is as an ornament or bracelet which may be taken off if need require and not as fetters or manacles so strait so heavy and so severely sodered on as weak nature cannot bear and true Religion doth not impost There have not been wanting many learned holy and excellent Bishops and Presbyters in this Church of England since the reformation who have glorified God not in a clâ—istered and vowed but yet in an unspotted and voluntary Celibacy Pura perpetua virginitas est perseverans infantâ—a Cyp. de Bo. Pudic. as others have in an holy and allowed Matrimony Both of them abhorring those preposterous presumptions rash affectations necessitous snares and rigid impositions of a single life upon our selves or others which make many votaries like fair apples splendid to the eye but rotten at the core We find that of ten Virgins Matth. 25. Non carnis solum sed mentâ—s integritas virginem facit Amb. 1 Cor. 7.39 five were foolish Flesh will putrifie in a close cupboard as well as if it be abroad unlesse it be throughly seasoned with salt A Cloister is no security to chastity unlesse there be such a measure of grace as may keep from secret pollutions no lesse then from publique putrefactions wherein who so findes himself so frail and defective that he cannot conquer and command himself it is both wisdome and piety for him or her rather to chuse Gods Purgatory of marriage than the divels Paradise of a Monastery rather to sleep on Gods holster stuffed with thornes or hard as Jacobs stone at Bethel than to repose on the divels pillow stuffed with doun Fulnesse ease and idlenesse breeding and nourishing infinite swarms of lusts which may be hived up as so many Drones Wasps or Hornets in those receptacles which pious munificence intended only for piety and purity not onely in the title but truth of Virginity Experience of later ages hath much abated the glory of enforced Virginity and vowed celibacy restoring to Christians and to Ministers as well as others the honour and liberty of holy marriage which is by the * Heb. 13.4 1 Tim. 3.2 1 Tit. 1.6 Apostoâ—icall oracle asserted as honourable among all men and by Scripturall Canons granted to Bishops and Presbyters as well A bishop must be the husband of one wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 3. p. 329. Ed. Lugd. Floruit cent 2. olim discipulus Clem. Romani quem Apost Paulâ—â— salutavit as to any other Christians and so used and taught in Primitive times as Clem. Alexandr telleth us Against which by a preposterous imitation of that celibacy or single life to which the persecuting extremities of primitive times drave many holy men and women that so the Gospel in its first planting and propagating should not want among other Miracles this of holy mens and womens chastity and severer virginity in desert cels and solitudes first after that in Convents and Monastick societies some mens after zeal and emulations so superstitiously cryed up virginity as injuriously to cry down the honour of marriage especially among Churchmen Which yet was not done without much opposition and remonstrance to the contrary by many holy men in those times Among which Socrat. hist eccl l. 1. c. 8. most remarkable was that of Paphnutius a Confessor and worker of Miracles who had lost his right eye for Christs sake whom Constantine the Great the more loved and reverenced for that glorious defect He in the Councell of Nice where many holy men out of no ill minde but thinking it would tend much to the honour of Christian Religion to continue those strictnesses of Virginity in the Church in the times now of peace and prosperity which had so adorned it in times of persecution that so it might not seem a matter of necessity compelling but of devotion choosing a single life he vehemently opposed what was proposed touching making of Decrees and Canons against the marriage of the Clergy shewing by Scripture and ancient practise the lawfulnesse of marriage in Ministers of the Church and the many not inconveniencies onely but mischiefs also which would follow such prohibitions whose holy and weighty reasons then swayed the Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. Ep. l. 3. that they made no such injunctions touching the Celibacy of the Clergy which after times plentifully cast upon them as so many chaines and snares which proved no lesse to the dishonour and stain as of the Ecclesiasticall order so of all Christianity than the primitive freedome of virginity or marriage had advanced the honour of both In both conditions of life we think a pure and chast minde the best rule or measure Ut Ecclesia ita foemana virgo esse potest de castitate quae mater est de prole Amb. ad Mesal de virg and a good conscience the highest crown or reward We are not at all taken with gilded frames and titles of * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 16. celibacy and virginity put to ill wrought and uncomely pictures of vitiated and deformed chastity which is a double imparity and of the divels deepest dye when it is but a colour and artifice of those that speak * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Carm. lies in hypocrisie forbidding both meats and marriage Nor yet doe we any whit dispise or undervalue any excellent modern piece of * Tim. 4.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil M. ad Lap. Virg. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysp Ep. 2. ad Olymp. holy Virginity wrought after those primitive patterns and pristine originals of sublime severities in holy retirements yet withall we give that due honor which holy antiquity the
superstitio in divinis Verul Religionis siâ—ia quo similior eo deformior Mimick and Ape or the wen and excrescency of Religion an Hydropick holinesse a nimiety of piety an overboyling devotion which at length quencheth it self that this should put true Reformation to the blush * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. Prov. 19.4 Poverty is alwayes attended with shame or impudence among the vulgar and though it have no cloak yet it needs one to cover its own confusion and to keep it from vulgar contempt O how large hearted and liberall handed in former times and at present in other Churches and Countries is that Religion which is commendable as it is Christian and liberall however reformable as it is blameable for the taints of errour and superstition which have in many things infected it What hath more splendor what more plenty what more superfluity than those that are of the Roman Clergy who have more vacancy to their studies Qui mirantur opâ—s qui nulla exempla beati Pauperis essè putant Iuven. Sat. 14. devotion and publique duties than their Ecclesiasticks or Church men of all degrees who have learned to use now those things far better than it may be former luxury and dissolution did which occasioned many worthy mens complaint of the abuses and faults but not their envy at the enjoyments The moderation of the English Church in this part of Reformation was at first very nobly commendable and most worthy of the generous piety of this Nation which did not deny or grudge Church men to have good and great maintenance or honour but only required that such means should still have good Ministers They never applauded as these new Projecters do for a most heavenly Oracle that voice which is faigned to have been offended with Constantines munificence to the Church Hodie venemum cecidit in Ecclesiam as if it had been poysoned when inriched Nor did they thinke Religion throughly reformed till it was starved nor Ministers mended enough till they were stark naked or flead Nor had heretofore the common and plain hearted people those pestilent principles which now the dregs of men have here in England taught them That an hundred pound a year is more than any Minister can well spend or deserve It were good that these men would first try themselves that measure which they mete to Ministers Certainly nothing is too little for Church men if they lead men to falâ—e gods or to a false worship but nothing too much for them if they teach men to serve the true God in a true way Nor may these poor spirited men object against Ministers 10. Answer to the poverty of the Primitive Clergy the poverty of the primitive Apostles Bishops and Presbyters when the times and the estates of Christians are now much changed from those difficulties and necessities which then pressed upon all sorts of Christians To be sure if Christian people gave not then much of their own estates to their Ministers yet they never thought of taking away what their Ministers had as being too much for them But there is no doubt that one beam of Christian love bounty and respect in after setled and plentifull times which were very pure and primit ve too was more warm and comfortable to their Bishops and Presbyters than all the large streaming tayles of these modern comets and meteors of Reformation whose malign and dâ—refull aspect against Ministers and all Church men is no way recompensed by those prodigious shews and pretensions of propagating the Gospell or furnishing the world with purer and brighter shinings than ever were in the Church who shall be lamps without oil and shine without sustenance Ministers are stars in Christs right hand Revel 2. but not in that sense that they need no fewell to nourish them in a naturall and civill life Such interpretations of Scripture and such entertainment of Ministers in the Church will soon eclipse or extinguish truth and charity honour and gratitude in the reformed Churches and in all Christian professors not onely to man but even toward God who as he hath ordained Ministers to impart to the people of their spirituall things so also he hath commanded people to * Rom. 15.27 communicate to them that are their * 1 Cor. 9.11 Gal. 6.6 Let him that is taught in the Word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things V. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked c. true Pastors and Ministers of all their temporall good things But it is in vain to urge Scriptures to covetous hearers and Sacrilegiâ—us mockers of God and man Nothing is more Apocrypha to those misers than such texts as command honourable maintenance for the Ministers of the Gospell first recover the primitive bounty and charity of peoples hearts and hands to the Clergy before you reduce the Clergy to primitive uncertainty But why doe not these muck-worms and no men who would gnaw the very bones and carkases of Ministers with the same teeth bite at other mens estates as well as Ministers which are far greater every way who yet doe lesse service to the publique either to God or man to Church or State than the able and faithfull Ministers doe since these whining objectors have such a pain and wringing colick in their bowels against Ministers having any setled competent and decent way of maintenance why doe they not as well complain that the Captains Commanders and Military officers who draw more immediately from the peoples purses have too much for their pay why doe not these men propound that there should be nothing but parity and poverty among the souldiery That they should depend on peoples benevolence for their salary and pay Yet they see that even to these military mens entertainment the poore Ministers must pay not a tenth but of a fifth part of their small hardly earned and hardly gotten meanes arising from their ill paid tithes which are but the wages of their work yet they are rated in taxes as if their livings were their inheritance when all is but for life and to many of them not so good as an ordinary troopers pay few so ample as an ordinary Foot Captains And as for higher Commanders and Colonels all men know they have Military Denaries and armed Bishopricks enjoying much more than is by some men thought fit for any Bishop and Clergy man who with their leaves and without disparagement to any of those sons of thunder had and have as much learning true worth and industry to merit their large entertainments of the publique and they had no lesse grace and true wisdom to use them to the glory of God and the benefit of others than any of these who are so much the favorites of Bellona as to get what they merit and to keep what they have gotten But these Antidecimists who seek to eat through the Bowels of their Mother the Church dare be bold and shew their teeth
pretend amendment before God Studiis in umbra educatis Sen. Want of experience in worldly affairs which is hardly gained within mens Study wals oftentimes prompts warm spirited men first easily to approve then passionately to desire afterwards weakly and unproportionably to agitate Consilia callida inhonesta prima fronte laeta tractatu dura eventu tristia Tacit. those precipitant counsels and specious designes which oft prove to the shame and ruine of themselves and their seduced party Indeed few Ministers of more pragmatick heads and popular parts but think themselves fit to be and take it ill if they be not Counsellours of State Members of Synods or moderators and determiners of all affaires both Ecclesiasticall and Civill hardly acquiescing in any thing as well setled either in Church or State wherein regard is not had to their judgement party and perswasion of which they are alwayes so very well perswaded that when they cry most down others as Churchmen from having any foot or hand in any civill businesses themselves can presently step in over head and ears so far implunged in State troubles and secular commotions that they hardly ever get out of them with honour and safety or with inward peace and comfort Nor can they easily lick off that bloud which may lye upon them when they have no weapon left them but their tongues The truth is no men are more violently and superstitiously devoted to their own fancies and opinions than some Ministers are none more unfeigned Idolaters of those little Idols which their owne or others imaginations have figured and which they would fain set up as Gods both in Church and State To these they preach it necessary that all Christians should bow down that without this mark of conformity to their way none should either buy or sell Rev. 13.17 And when they have once so far flattered themselves in their own well meaning projects that they proclaim God and Christ to be engaged on their side then they conclude that Hee can by no means be so wanting to his own glory as not to give all speedy and effectuall assistances to all their purposes and designes which are verbally as much to his honour as they would be really to their own advantages if they should prevail and succeed If they be defeated both God and all good Christians of a different minde from them are prone to fall under their hard censures and if they doe not charge him foolishly yet they doe blame their brethren and betters for want of zeal to Christ and to what they list to call his cause Such great counsails are oft agitated in the small conclaves of Clergy men And what they blame in Cardinals abroad or Bishops at home themselves are eager to practise even beyond Richelieu himself For they lay designes not for one Church or Nation but for the whole world Isa 55.8 Iob. 16.2 Forgetting that Gods thoughts are not as mans who may be never more mistaken than when they think they doe God very good service even by killing of others Nor are indeed the thoughts of the wisest and most learned Ministers or the humblest Christians such as those mens pragmatick projects are who by easie perswasions and popular presumptions do so much slight all ancient wayes and Catholick customes of the Churches of Christ which are the great seales of Religion both evidencing and confirming those holy orders and institutions which were appointed by Christ and his Apostles Pretending to follow some new Scripture rules and patterns in things of extern order and discipline which can never by any sound interpretation of the places alledged be supposed or proved to be either diverse from or contrary to the universall way and use of the primitive Churches who without doubt were as carefull to act in their outward order and government of the Church according to Apostolicall patterns and traditionall institutions which were first the rule of the Churches practise as they were faithfull to preserve the Canon of the Scriptures which were after written and to deliver them without variation or corruption to posterity But specious novelties in Religion or Church forms once formed in some mens heads are prone to move their hearts with very quick excitations and zealous resolutions Soon after like salt-rhewms they descend and fall upon their lungs provoking them to continuall coughs so that they cannot be silent or suppresse their desires of new things in Church and State Then they are violently carried on to the spreading of their opinion and way to others who are easily made drunk with any new wine At length they run giddily and rashly to some rude precipice where if they go on they are destroyed if they retreat it is not without shame from others and regret in themselves Together with after jealousies of State brought upon their whole function or that faction at least it being a case sufficiently known that most men are so much self-flatterers and self-lovers that they are impatient of any defeats ready to study and watch oportunities of revenge when they see the children of their brains which soon become the darlings of their devotion to prove meer abortions or to be violently dashed in pieces when indeed they never had the due formations of Scripture nor conceptions of Reason nor productions of Prudence Hence in Politicks many times sharp examples have chastened severely the preposterous machinations and motions even of Churchmen and Ministers when they forsake the ancient refuges of Christians and Ministers especially which were preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. prayers and tears and betake themselves to swords and helmets to plots and conspiracies If those Ministers of hotter spirits doe not yet others do finde themselves sufficiently taught that wiser temper and modest behaviour which becomes Ecclesiasticks in all civill relations and affaires especially if they carry any face of change and novelty or have the least lineament of factious non-conformities to the established laws and customes in Church or State wise men have sufficiently seen those miseries obscurities and disgraces which as black shadowes have attended even Churchmen in that shame and those defeats by which God hath quenched the rash heats and over boylings of their fancies hopes and activities 3. 3. Some Ministers errors not imputable to all Therefore my answer to the main of this Calumny is by way of humble request to all excellent Christians that the jealousies which some Ministers weaknesse rashnesse or folly may have occasioned may not reflect upon the whole function of the Ministry nor the sins and errours of any mens persons be imputed to their profession as if it were among the principles of all Ministers never to rest quiet from civill combustions till they have their wils That Ministers may have many failings is not denyed if you would have them wholly without fault you must have none of humane race and kinde Not onely Gods exactnesse but sober
the substance of them nor any lessening of Christs right to them And for this I have produced not weak opinions not light conjectures not partiall customes not bare prepossession 3. A summary of what makes for the function of the Ministry not uncertain tradition not blind antiquity not meer crowds or numbers of men much lesse do I solemnly alledge my own specious fancies devout dreams uncertain guessings Seraphick dictates and magisteriall Enthusiasms But 1. evident grounds out of the Word of God for a divine Ordination and institution at first 2. Scripture history for succession to four generations actually 3. Promises and precepts for perpetuity of power Ministeriall and assistance which was derived by the solemn ceremony of the imposition of hands by such only as had been ordained and so enabled with successionall power till the coming of Christ 4. This primitive root and divine plantation of the Ministeriall office and power we finde oft confirmed by miraculous gifts besides the innocency humility simplicity piety and charity of those Apostles primitive Bishops and Presbyters set forth in the holinesse of their lives and the glorious successes of their Ministeriall labours converting thousands by preaching the Gospell and by their Ministeriall power and authority planting Churches in all the then known and reputed world oft crowning their doctrines and Ministry with Martyrdome 5. After this I produce what is undenyably alleadged from authours of the best credit learned and godly men famous in the Church through all the first ages shewing the Catholick and uncontradicted consent the constant and uninterrupted succession by Bishops and Presbyters in every City and Countrey which all Christians in every true Church owned received and reverenced as men indued with such order and power Ministeriall as was divine supernaturall and sacred as from Christ and in his Name though by man as the means and conduit of it This is made good to our dayes in the persons and office of those Ministers who were and are duely ordained in this Church 6. Next I plead with the like evident and undenyable demonstrations the great abilities in all sorts of ministeriall gifts the use and advancement of all good learning the vindicating of true Christian and reformed religion the manifold discoveries of sound judgement discreet zeal holy industry blamelesse constancy and all other graces wherein the Ministers of England have not been inferiour to the best and most famous in any reformed Christian Church and incomparably beyond any of their defamatory adversaries 7. I add to these as credentiall Letters the testimonies and seales which God hath given of his grace and holy Spirit accompanying the Ministry in England upon the hearts of many thousands both before and eminently since the Reformation by which men have been converted to and confirmed in Faith Repentance Charity and holy life the tryall of which is most evident in that patience and constancy which many Ministers as other Christians in this Church have oft shewen in the sufferings which they have chosen rather then they would sin agaist their Conscience and that duty which they owed to God and man 8. Last of all if any humane consideration may hope for place in the neglect of so many divine the civill rights and priviledges which the piety of this Nation and the Laws of this Land have alwayes given to Ministers of the Gospell by the fullest and freest consent of all Estates in Parliament that they might never want able Ministers nor these all fitting support and incouragements These I say ought so far to be regarded by men of justice honour and conscience as not suddenly to break all those sacred sanctions and laws asunder by which their forefathers have bound them to God to his Church and Ministers for the perpetuall preservation of the true Christian Religion among them and their posterity Furthermore 4. The fruits of Ministers labours in England if the godly Ministers of this Church of England whom some men destine to as certain destruction and extirpation as ever the Agagite did the Jews if they be the messengers of the most high God the Prophets of the Lord the Evangelicall Priests those by whom Salvation hath been brought and continued to this part of the world If they have like the good Vine and Figtree been serviceable to God and man to Church and State If they have laboured more aboundantly and been blessed more remarkably than any other under heaven If they have preached sound doctrine in season and out of season if they have given full proof of their Ministry not handling the Word of God deceitfully nor defrauding the Church of any Truth of God or divine Ordinance If many of them have fought a good fight and finished their course with joy and great successe against sin errour superstition and profanenesse If they have snatched many firebrands out of hell pulled many souls out of the snares of the divell If they have fasted and mourned and watched and prayed and studyed and taught and lived to the honour of the Gospell and the good of many soules If they have like Davids Worthies stood in the gap against those Anakims and Zanzummins who by lying wonders learned sophistries and accurate policies have to this day from the first reformation and coming out of Egypt sought to bring us thither again or else to destroy the very name of Protestants and reformed Religion from under heaven If almost all good Christians and not a few of these renegadoes their ungratefull enemies doe owe in respect of knowledge or grace to the Ministers of England as Philemon to St. Paul even their very selves If they have oft in secret wept over this sinfull Nation and wantonly wicked people as Christ did over Jerusalem and as Noah Daniel and Job oft stood in the gap to turne away the wrath of God from this self-destroying Nation If now they have no other thoughts or practises but such as become the truth and peace of that Gospell which they preach and that blessed example which Christ hath set them whom in all things they desire to imitate in serving God edifying the Church doing good to all men praying for their enemies and paying all civill respects which they owe to any men If all true and faithfull Ministers have done and designe onely to doe many great and good works in this Church and Nation for which of these is it that some men seek and others with silence suffer them to be stoned as the Jews threatned Christ and the inconstant Lystrians acted on St. Paul who after miracles wrought by him among them and high applauses of him from them was after dragged as a dead dog out of their City by them Act. 14.19 supposing him to be dead If all true and worthy Ministers being conscious to their own Integrity a midst their common infirmities after their escaping the late stormes in which many perished are easily able without any disorder to them to shake off those
these new trafiquers intend to trade for nothing but the Apes and Peacocks toyes of new opinions Shall Noahs Ark the Churches purity which is the Conservatory of Christs little flock of the holy seed of a Christian succession both for fathers and children be broken up or dashed in pieces against the rocks of sacrilegious envy and policy for these Antiministerial projects will never be the mountaines of Ararat on which the Church or true Religion may rest * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 4. Ep. 210. Shall this Island whose safety consists so much in the guard of the Seas be lesse carefull to guard the coasts of the Church and the reformed Christian Religion whose narrow frete or strait runs between the rocks of Atheisme and Superstition of Parity and Profanenesse of Heresie and Schism of Tyranny and Toleration Will ever these new dwindling Divines the Propheticall pygmies of this age which oppose the able Ministers and true Ministry of the Church of England will they ever bring forth for the service of God 7. Eminent Bishâ—ps and Presbyters of former days in the Church of England or for the maintenance of the true Christian reformed Religion such a race and succession of mighty men of excellent Ministers of incomparable Heroes worthily renowned in their own and after generations whose workes yet praise them in the gates of whom none but evill tongues can speak evill such as this later age or century hath brought forth to looke no further back to those excellent men of former and obscurer times Can you expect Crammers Latimers Bradfords Ridleys Hoopers Grindals Whitgifts Fletchers Sands Elmers Jewels Kings Abbots Lakes Bilsons Babbingtons Andrews Feltons Fields Cowpers Whites Davenants Potters Prideauxes and Westfields with many others now at rest in the Lord all venerable in their Episcopall order and eminency as fathers of the Church and as elder brothers among their brethen the other Ministers whose humility disdained not to be subject to those reverend Bishops although some of them might be equall to them in eminent gifts Animi nil magnae laudis egentes Virg. Aen. Such as were Gilpin Fox Knewtubbs Perkins Whitaker Reinolds Willet White Richard Hooker Vmphry Overall Greenham Rogers Dent Dod Heron Bifield Smith Bolton Taylor Hildersham Crakanthorp Donne Stoughton Ward Holsworth Shutes Featly and Doctor Sibs which last fragrant name I may not mention without speciall gratitude and honour due to the memory of that venerable Divine not onely for the piety learning devotion and politenesse of his two genuine writings The bruised Reed and Soules conflict but also for that paternall love care and counsell by which hee much oblieged mee to him in my younger yeares Indeed that holy man I found altogether made up of sweetnesse and smoothnesse oil and honey As his actions so his gifts and graces were set in a kinde of Mosaick work admirable for that meeknesse and humility which while they sought to conceal and shadow over his vertues they gave the greatest lustre to them Besides these there were an innumerable company of other immortall Angels but yet Ministring spirits to this Church of England who are now made perfect and whom nothing would so probably afflict in heaven as to see the degenerate succession both of Ministers and Christians now likely to follow in this age Many of these and other Worthies of this function in former times as now living and dying in countrey obscurities were buried in those sepulchers which they had made in the Gardens that is those Dioceses or Parishes which they had planted or diligently watered and disposed by pious industry to a pleasant peaceable and happy fertility Men however different in some externall lineaments as may be among Brethren yet all of excellent features and some of the first three both in beauty and strength for piety learning judgement acutenesse eloquence depth devotion charity gravity industry and a kinde of Angelick majesty at once both amiable and venerable both in their preaching writing and practice These great men and greater Ministers have indeed left us behinde them Ministers of the present age Nos ingentium exemplâ—rum parvi imitatetes Sal. ad Agr. a generation far inferiour to them for the most part more feeble and unable to work or warr having more enemies enjoying lesse incouragements scarce any now considerable as to this world bearing greater crosses and heavier burthens every way for charge duty and reproach who are oft forced to lay out in publique taxes a great part of that little they have to buy themselves bookes or bread Who have onely this advantage of our troublesome envious and evill times that we may learn to be more humble in our selves more diligent in our duties more charitable to others and more valiant for the Truth hoping that while we have after the primitive pattern nothing left to glory in but the Crosse of Jesus Christ both our afflictions and infirmities may prove opportunities to exercise discover and increase the graces of God and true Ministeriall gifts in us whose power can perfect it selfe and us too in the midst of our infirmities and support us under the many unjust oppressions which threaten us There are indeed yet left through Gods mercy in the field or forest of this Church and Nation some goodly old Trees both venerable Bishops and worthy Presbyters here and there Some shrewdly battered and strangely neglected which yet retain something that is very goodly and gracefull amidst their battered tops and shattered arms being yet stately monuments or reliques of that former benignity which was in this English soil toward Churchmen and Ministers many of whom grew to so tall a procerity as of learning and worth so of wealth and honour in some degree answerable to their worth and becoming that reall dignity which was in them far more usefull and considerable by wise men than any bare descent of titular honor These I must be so civill to as not to name any of them that I may avoid suspicion either of envy or flattery two most detestable distempers in mens spirits and full of malignity Indeed I need not name some of them for although they are left as cottages in a wildernesse and as beacons on a hill yet they are still such burning and shining lights as cannot be quite hid Some of whose fame is in all the reformed Churches and their eminency renowned in all the learned world being indeed the beauty and glory of these British Nations the pillar and honor of the Protestant party the grand examples of pious Prelacy learned humility holy industry the great lights of this Northern climate Which alone might serve to fulfill Which wonder in heaven occasioned the learned studies of Ticho Brahe and did as he sayes foretell extraordinary light of learning and Religion Tich Brahe Astro Restius what the Cassiopeian flames did portend by that new star in the year 1572. Shall this age be not onely guilty spectators
something different from their primitive majesty beauty and simplicity by putting on what was superfluous rather than pernicious But if there should not be in our dayes so just and noble recantations from this Church and Nation yet as Ministers of Christ it 's fit for us to deserve it we are reduced but to the primitive posture of those holy Bishops and Presbyters who more sought to gain men to Christ than honour and maintenance to themselves Better we cease to be men than cease to be Christs Bishops and Ministers we must do our duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost de Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. till we dy having any opportunities though we have no incouragements from men our lean wasted and famished carkasses such as St. Chrysostome saith the Apostle Paul carryed about the world so much subdued by himself and neglected as if he had not been battered and persecuted enough by others those will serve to be Temples of the Holy Ghost and lively stones or pillars to the reformed Church of Christ as well as if they had the fatnesse of Monkes and the obeseness of Abbots whose fulnesse you will lesse have cause to envy when the pious industry of your poverty shall exceed the lazy dulnesse and uselesse fogginesse of many of them amidst their plenty which no true reformed Christian grudges them when they imploy in industry humility mortification devotion and holy contemplation as some of them doe and thereby shew that plenty is no enemy to piety in them Let us shew that neither is poverty an enemy to vertue in us Though the Roman Clergy rejoice at our penury let not us repine at their superfluity but wish them truth and holinesse as ample as their revenues Above all take heed you doe not gratifie them or any others of meaner spirits with any desertion or abasing of your holy calling and Ministry either in word or in deed Neither adopting a spurious Ministry of novell and popular production nor giving over the consciencious exercise of that which you have received here by an holy and right succession your religious constancy in it will be the highest vindication of it to be of no mean and cravenly kinde which preacheth more out of duty and conscience to God than from secular rewards from them Many of your afflictions have been still are and are like to be as great so of long continuance Such as to which God no doubt hath proportioned his gifts and graces in you that so by this great honorary of suffering as becomes you both God may be glorified further in you and you may be more sensibly comforted and amply crowned by him your losses will turn to your greatest gains and your desertions as from men to your happiest fruitions of God The highest and spring tides of grace usually follow the lowest ebbes of estate Then are holy men at their best and most when they seem least and nothing to man as those stars whose obscurity is recompensed with their vicinity to heaven Your restraints will be your enlargements and your silencings will proclaime the worlds folly and unhappinesse to deprive it self of your excellent gifts and also set forth your humility who know how to be silent with meeknesse and patience no lesse than to speak with wisedome and eloquence I should not need nor would presume here to make any particular addresse to those reverened Bishops learned and godly fathers as yet surviving and almost forgotten in this Church whose worth I highly venerate towards whose dignity I never was nor am either an envious diminisher or an ambitious aspirer whose eminency every way hath made good that abstract and character which I formerly gave of a true Christian Bishop if I did not observe how little they are for the most part considered by any ordinary minds who generally admire the ornaments more than the endowments of vertue Vulgar spirits seldome salute any Deity whose shrines and Temples are ruined Few men have that gallantry of minde which M. Petronius expressed to Julius Caesar when he led Cato to prison whom he with other Senators followed out of the Senate telling him He had rather be with Cato's vertue in a prison * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xiphilin in Pompeio than with Caesars violence in a palace The worlds vanity is prone to judge those the greatest sinners who are the greatest sufferers whereas thousands perish eternally by their prosperous successes few by their calamitous sufferings The methods and riddles of divine dispensation and love are far different from plebeian censures and flatteries God suffers his Peters to be winnowed and his Pauls to be buffeted yea he grindes in the sharpest mils as holy Ignatius desired the corn he most esteemes casting his gold into the hottest furnaces Absit ut hoc argumento religiosos putemus a Deo negligi per quod confidimus plus amari Sal. l. 1. Gub. de Aff. to make it at once more pure in it self and more precious to himself It is necessary as * Plato in Phado 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato saith for the divinest minds to be abstracted from and elevated above and even dead unto the very best of things mundane and sensible although good lawfull and laudable which a wiser than Plato tels us are to be accounted by Apostolick and Episcopall piety but * Phil. 3.8 as losse and dung in comparison of Jesus Christ which honour and treasure of your souls no envy malice fury or force can deprive you of This no doubt makes it seem not a strange thing to you that the Lord hath thus dealt even with you who have suffered the losse of all things as to those publique legall and temporary rewards of your studies learning and labourers while yet you were uncondemned for any sin that ever I have heard of committed either against the laws of God or man only upon this account because you were Bishops or chief Presidents in the order government and care of this reformed Church * See the judgment of Bishop Cowper a learned and holy Bishop in Scotland in his life written by himself according to the present Laws then in force anâ— agreeable for the main to the practise of all pious Antiquity I need not put your learned piety in minde of that voice from heaven wâ—ich was audible to blessed Polycarp a primitive Bishop and Martyr at Smyrna when he was haled at fourescore years old to exeâ—ution the tumultuous rable crying after him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Away with these wicked ones c. But the celestiall eccho was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Polycarp be of good courage * Euseb l. 4. hist c. 14. and quit thy self like a valiant man a faithfull Christian and worthy Bishop of the Church None merit more to be preserved many times than they whom vulgar fury and faction seeks to crucifie and destroy Nor are any lesse meriting than those who are by such easie
Idolaters commonly adored I well know that there needs not greater incitations to constancy in vertue or patience in afflictions especially if for no evill doing than those which innocency suggests to good consciences by which the grace of God hath no doubt enabled many of you to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great agonies and victories of faith which you have as Job sustained in and obtained over the world by your meeknesse and to such as observe it admired patience Enduring at once even from those of whom you had deserved either as Brethren or Fathers better things so great contradictions and so many diminutions as not onely to have been despised yea and by some contumeliously used in your persons venerable for age learning piety and gravity but also to be quite dejected from that height and utterly ejected from the enjoyment of those ancient places to which both high honours and ample revenews were anciently annexed wherewith your selves were justly invested and which your predecessors peaceably injoyed many hundreds of years past in this Church and Nation Herein you have excelled most of the ancient Bishops who although great and commendable sufferers as Martyrs or Confessors yet seldome from those who were of the same faith and orrhodox profession Gregory Naz. indeed was stoned and reviled when he came to Constantinople and rejoyced to be so entertained because they were of the Arian faction enemies of Christs glory and godhead which is the Churches greatest glory and comfort Naz. orat Lat. In like sort divers godly and Orthodox Bishops were molested banished imprisoned and destroyed by prevalent Hereticks and Schismaticks who yet ever set up Bishops of their own leaven and faction For however men dared much against severall truths and fundamentall doctrines of Christianity yet never till of later times did they rise to the boldnesse of denying and destroying the evident Catholick custome of the Churches government by Bishops as chief among the Presbyters how ever single Tenets might be dark and disputable yet this was so clear by universall practise and consent that none ever gainsayed it that were of any repute for learning or piety among the ancients Your sufferings are the more strange and remarkable in this that they are from those who solemnly protested to maintain the Protestant reformed Religion as it was established in the Church of England in the extern order and policy of which you then were and had at all times been chief pillars and ornaments In this so strange and sudden alteration men soberly learned and peaceably pious and uncovetously Christian doe still with all respect and reverence to you and your Order consider not onely that great and undenyable justification which you have from the Lawes wisdome and piety of this Church and State ever since they were Christians as also from the Catholick and undoubted practise of all ancient Churches blest every where with the excellent lives learned labours and glorious sufferings of many your famous predecessors to whose care and fidelity the Church owes for the most part under God as the lawfull succession of Ministers so the preservation of the Scriptures of good learning and of all holy administrations But also they lay to heart that great humility moderation meeknesse candor and charity most worthy of you and most observable in you By which you have been as sheep before the Shearers not opening your mouths yea you were in order to publique peace content so far to gratifie your enemies and displease your friends as in many things to have been lessened in those rights and preheminences you had according to the Laws and ancient customes of this Church and State hereby hoping to have drawn others from their exorbitancies to such a peaceable temperament as might have been happy for us all Nor is it unobserved by wise men how great a justification the providence of God hath soon given even to your order and office which some Ministers were so impatient not to root out not onely by the preservation of it and by it a constant Ministry and holy order in his Church every where for 1600 years but also by that notable confutation and speedy defeat given to the vast hopes and violent projects of those for other mens counsels and results upon a secular account I neither examine nor censure Ministers who being of your own tribe were your sharpest rivals in a Presbyterian excesse who have now as little cause to rejoice in the so much endeavoured extirpation not of any Tyrannique and Papall but of all Presidentiall or Paternall Episcopacy that they have great cause to repent and be ashamed of those immoderate counsels and precipitant actions which knew not how to distinguish between the failings of persons and the benefit of order between the rectitude of a Canon or rule and the crookednesse of depraved manners which are incident to all sorts and degrees of men whatsoever and to Presbyters no lesse than to Bishops So that in such severities which ruined at a dear and dangerous rate what they might have repaired safely and easily they shewed themselves neither good Church-men nor wise States-men neither very pious nor greatly politick For by snuffing Episcopacy too close they have almost extinguished Presbytery and occasioned this ruine threatning the order honour maintenance and succession of the whole function and calling of the Evangelicall Ministry Their zeal not to leave an hoof in Egypt as some violent spirits pretended is probable to bring us back again to Egypt or so lose us in the wildernesse of Sin as few heads in after ages shall enter into Canaan No wonder if the branches wither when the root is wasted It is comely in your piety and gravity that you have not rejoiced in these so sudden defeats and speedy frustrations of their so bitter and implacable adversaries whose tongues it seems dividing their building ceased and soon decayed But rather you pitie these confusions incident to poor mortals who so oft bruise themselves very sorely by the fall and ruines which they maliciously or unadvisedly bring upon others as those violenter Presbyters have done even upon Presbytery it self who in its due place and decent subordination is also an ancient honorable and Catholick order of the Church of Christ by their hasty demolishing of all moderate Episcopacy where one Minister is preferred before another agreeable to the eminency of his gifts and graces the priority of his age the rules of all right reason and order which ownes any government in any society of men The gobdly height and orderly strength of which Prelacy was not onely as the root for right derivation and succession but also as the shelter stay and protection besides a great beauty and ornament to the whole Ministry of this and all Churches yea and to the reformed Religion here as established as not with lesse piety so without boasting with as much if not not more prudence and moderation as to the externe policy of it as in any
Church under heaven The want of that great benefit and those many blessings which the Churches of Christ both in primitive and postern times have enjoyed by the learning wisdome authority care circumspection and good example of excellent Bishops whom no men will want more than the commonalty of Presbyters may in time according to the usuall methods of humane folly and passions late and costly repentings make men the more esteeme them and desire their just restauration Servil de Mirand The ancient Persians are reported when their King dyed to have allowed five dayes interregnum during which time every man might doe what seemed good in his own eyes That so by the experience of those five dayes rudenesse riot injuries and confusions wherein rich and poore suffered they might learn more to value the necessity and benefit of lawfull orderly and setled government Want doth oft reconcile men to those things Carendo magis quaem fruendo de bonis recte judicamus which long use hath made nauseous and so offensive to them when wanton novelty hath glutted and defiled it self with its pudled waters possibly it may grow so wise by an after wit as ashamed of it selfe to returne to the primitive springs and purer fountaines where was both farre more clearnesse and far wholesomer refreshings Your charity forgiving and pitying your enemies and your humility digesting your injuries and indignities offered you by any men will invest you in more than all you ever enjoyed or lost as to reall comfort and gracious contentment By how much you now have lesse to be envyed of secular splendor the more you will be now and in after ages admired for your meeknesse and contentednesse in every estate Primitive poverty of Bishops will but polish and give lustre to your Primitive piety Humane disgraces are oft the foils and whetstones of divine graces The highest honour as of all good Christians so chiefly of godly Bishops and Ministers is not onely to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 2. 133. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. At. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and rule but to suffer also as becomes the eminency of their places and graces Christ is for the most part on the suffering side and oftner to be found not onely in the Temple but in the furnace and wildernesse than in Courts and Palaces I may not I hope I cannot flatter any of you so as to tempt you to boast of your Innocency to glory in your merits or your crosses before God His exactnesse findes drosse in the purest vessels and defects in the weightiest shekels of the Sanctuary shewing the most innocent and meritorious persons as to men so much of sinfull infirmity in themselves as may both justifie Gods inflictings and provoke the afflicted to true repentings either for any excesses to which they might be transported as men or defects whereto they might be subject as Bishops and chief Ministers in the Church of Christ whose holy industry and pious vigilancy before God ought to be proportioned to those eminencies which they enjoyed above others in the eye of the world All that I aim at in this Paragraph is by this touch of Christian sympathy to expresse a sense of duty gratitude honour and love which I owe to God and for his sake to your Paternity Also to deprecate any offence which I either really have or may seem to have given any of you To whose hands chiefly I owe what I count my greatest honour my being duely ordained to be a Minister of the glorious Gospell of Jesus Christ in this Church of England You are still your selves and not to be lessened by any mutations of men or times while you possesse your learned and gracious soules in patience Ad coelestia invitamur cum a seculo avellimur Tertul. l. 3. advers Marc. Your sufficiency hath lost nothing while you enjoy God and your Saviour in faith and love your friends in charity your enemies in pity your honours in knowing how to be * Phil. 4.12 abasâ—d and your Estates in knowing how to want as well as to abound You have by experience found the Episcopall throne and eminency to be as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis de Greg. Thaum Gregory Nazianzen and Nissen call it a sublimity fuller of envy and danger than of glory and dignity A dreadfull Precipice hard in the ascent laborious in the station hazardous in the descent of which Chrysostome expresseth so great an horrour that he thinkes few men fit for it and few saved under it the charge is so great the care so exact and the account so strict * Chrysost in Act. hom 3. Nor doth he think it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preheminency so much as paines rather a burthen and oppression than any honour or exaltation And indeed to great and excellent mindes there was nothing in your former height and splendor truly worthy of your ambition or others emulation save onely the larger opportunities they afforded you not of being better in your selves but of doing more good to others Of which conveniencies being now deprived as you will have lesse to account for to God so the noblest revenge you can take of the present age is by patience under so profuse afflictions by your prayers for your most unjust and unplacable enemies by your constancy in studious industry and holy gravity to let the world see how impossible it is for true Christian Bishops not to be doing or desiring good while they live to all men and even to those from whom they have suffered much evill without a cause Your experienced piety knows better how to act than I can write as to true contentment in the world contempt of the world triumphing over the world and expectations above the world your storms and distresses though decumani great and vast cannot be long And to be sure will never be beyond your Pilots skill who looks on you as sufferers if not for the fundamentall saving Truths yet for the comely order and ancient government of his Church Many of you are already in prospect of that fair and happy haven of eternall tranquillity To which I beseech our God and Lord Jesus Christ the chief Bishop of his Church safely to conduct you by the wisdome and power of his Spirit As for your fatherly solicitude and Christian care of this Church and posterity God will relieve you by assuring you that he hath so vigilant and tender care as will cause all to work together for good Nor shall the insolency of enemies forain or domestick who are pleased with your disgraces and enriched with your spoiles alwayes triumph in the ruines of the Bishops Ministers and this Church of England Since then nothing is more apposite than the words of one of your own degree and order Gregory Nazianzen famous for his piety and learning zeal and patience I crave leave with all
Matth. 20.22 but of bloud Are we ashamed of Christs wounds and thorns and reeds or of Saint Pauls chains or Saint Peters prison Euseb l. 4. c. 15. or Ignatius his beasts or Polycarps torments from whose body in the flames a sweet odour dispersed to the spectators Doe we abhor to live as Cyprian did first banished then martyred Or as great Athanasius sixe years in a well without the light of the Sun forsaken of friends and every where hunted by enemies Or as Chrysostome Ruffin l. 1. Eccles hist c. 14. whose eloquent and learned courage exempted him not from much trouble and banishment Martyres ad Coeli januam poenarum gradibus ascendentes de equule is catastis scalas sibi fecerunt Salv. l. 3. Gub. where he dyed You will want comforts if you want trials and afflictions Saint John had his glorious revelation in his exile Those will be but probations and increases of your graces and gifts too which may be rusty with much ease and warped by the various turnings wherewith many Ministers think to shift off persecution and to grinde with every winde * Theodorus juvenis tristior ab equuleo depositus inter cruciatus cantabat Ruffin hist l. 1. c. 30. If you be indeed conscious to your selves of any fraud and falsity of any sinister and unsincere way by which your predecessours and you after them have either attained or maintained your Ministry and function in this Church if you know any thing unreasonable unscripturall uncomely immorall irreligious or superstitious in the way or work in the means manner or end of your Ministry if you are guilty of any thing different from or contrary to the rule and way of Christ his Churches good his Fathers glory dangerous to your own or others mens soules In Gods name repent of your sin betimes recant your learned folly renounce your ancient standing Doe this as most worthy of you heartily ingenuously publiquely that by the foyle of your shame the lustre of Gods glory may be more set off Gratifie at length not now your enemies but your friends because your Monitors and reformers the Papists Socinians Separatists Brownistâ— Anabaptists c. with what they have so long and so earnestly desired to such an impatience as you see now threatens to cudgell you to a recantation of your Ministry if you will not doe it by fair meanes and plausible allurements O how joyfull and welcome news will it be at home and abroad to hear that you as Ministers of the Church of England have not onely helped to put down Bishops and abolish Episcopacy but you have to perfect your repentance and to cumulate the courtesie abjured your Office renounced your standing abdicated your calling prostrated your Ministry at the feet of any that list to kick at it or tread upon it Calcaâ—e me saelem insipidum Euseb and upon you too as Ecebelians as unsavory salt that is good for nothing unlesse it be new boyled in an Independent Gauldron over a Socinian Furnace with a popular fire O hasten to remove your selves from that rock of ages the Catholick ordination and succession on which the Church and Ministry hath so long stood in all places as a City on a hill both in peace and persecutions and levell your selves to those smoother quick-sands which would fain levell you to themselves You will never be able to suffer what threatens you as Ministers of the old standing and way with chearfulnesse and comfort where your constancy is but pertinacy as it is unlesse you have solid grounds sound mindes and sincere hearts if you have any scruples or thornes in your feet your motions must needs be painfull tedious and uncomely When you are converted help to redeem us the remnant of your poore seduced brethren from our errors and mistakes from our mists of ignorance our chaines of darknesse from our Catholick customes from our Ecclesiasticall Canons from our historicall testimonies from that holy succession that Apostolicall practise that Scripture foundation that divine institution by all which we fancy our selves both solidly built and strongly supported And this we have done in the simplicity of our souls both we and our Forefathers for many generations not onely since the last reformed century but for a thousand and half a thousand yeares before even ever since the Christian Religion hath beene planted propagated and continued by such consecrated Bishops and such ordained Ministers in all the world If you have found nothing of God goe along with your Ministry either in your own breasts or your peoples hearts or your Predecessors labours if you are justly unsatisfied in that Ordination and succession by which not only the Ministeriall authority but all Christian priviledges and rites have been derived to you in this Church if you never found it confirmed to you by Gods blessing on your owne or others Ministry in your way if you doe indeed finde a brighter light a warmer heat and a sweeter influence from those new Parelii which of late have appeared in our sky Parelii are the seeming or mock-sunnes which sometime appear with the true Sun as there did two here in England an 1640. as rivals in brightnesse to our old Sun in number exceeding it yea now threatning to eclipse it and utterly expell it out of its ancient orb and sphear if you really judge that you have cause to * Rom. 3.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. blaspheme or to speak evill of those seemingly holy and reputedly excellent Bishops and Ministers of this Church as if they had hitherto to been lyars for God deceivers for Christ done evill that good might come thereby if you judge that you have cause to reproach traduce and despise all those Christians whose profession full of order humilitie and holinesse hath been the crown and glory of this Church and the Ministrie of it as if they had beene silly soules whom Ministers smooth tongues had onely deceived If you can or dare to reprobate all those both godly Pastors and people to annull their Ministry to overthrow their Faith to wash off their baptism to cast out their Sacraments to despise their Sermons to laugh at their prayers to cancell their writings to detest their examples to vilifie their graces as fancifull hypocriticall spurious supposititious superstitious imaginary unauthoritative antichristian If you finde in your consciences good grounds for this boldnesse of censure and consequently for a separation profanation and abnegation of your former way both as Ministers and as Christians for renounce one and you must needs begin both If you had no true Ministers then you were no true Christians and if no true Christians you could be no true Ministers if so follow by all meanes with speed your later and diviner dictates please your selves in your happy inconstancy hasten to disabuse the people of this Nation whom so many holy seducers the Bishops and Ministers of old have abused O undeceive the miserable
enemies as a matter of pomp and scandall that he rode in the City upon an Asse to ease his age It will be lesse offence when the world shall see holy Bishops and deserving Presbyters go on foot Psal 45.16 Eccles 10.7 and asses riding upon them Princes which Saint Jerome interprets Bishops on foot and servants on horseback Though we be never so low let us doe nothing below the dignity of our Ministry which depends not on externall pomp but inward power the same faith which shewes to a true beleiver the honour and excellency of Christ sets forth also the love and reverence due to his true Ministers of the Gospell who are in Christs stead when they are in Christs work and way and need not doubt of Christs and all good Christians love to them An high point of wisdome For Verity and piety would be in all true Ministers of what degree soever * As Constantine the Great burned all the bils of complaints exhibited by the Bishops and Churchmen one against another Euseb vit Const Privatae simultates publicis utilitatibus condonandae Tac. would be to take the advantage of this Antiperistasis by the snow and salt as it were of papall and popular ambition they should be the more congealed and compacted together into one body and fraternity Having so many unjust enemies on every side against every true Minister of this Church whether Bishop or Presbyter all prudence invites us to compose those unkinde jealousies breaches and disputes which have been among us because we own our selves as brethren among whom some may be elder in nature or superior in authority without the injury of any This subordination if Scripture doe not precisely command yet it exemplarily proposeth Reason adviseth and Religion alloweth and certainly Christ cannot but approve the more because the pride of Papall Antichrists on one side and the unrulinesse of popular Antichrists on the other side studies to overthrow it and are the most impatient of it I know some mens folly will not depart from them though they be brayed in a morter But sober men will think it time to bury as * Salvae fidei Regula de disciplina contendentibus suprema lex est Ecclesiae paex Blondel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 14. Vincamur ut vincamus de dissid Christianorum Constantine the Great burned all unkinde disputes breaches and jealousies which have almost destroyed not onely the Government but the very Ministry it self of this Church No doubt passions have darkened many of our judgements earthly distempers have eclipsed our glory secular and carnall divisions have battered our defenses discovered our weaknesses and invited these violent assaults from enemies round about that none is so weak as to despaire of his malices sufficiency to doe us Clergy men some mischief the most tatling Gossips the sillyest shee s who are ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth undertake * Clemens in his Apostolike Epistle advised any one to depart if he findes for his sake the dissension is in the Church Ruffin Eccles hist l. 1. c. 2. Discordiae in unitatem trahant plagae in remedia vertantur unde metuit Ecclesia periculum inde sumat augmentum Amb. voc gen l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Ipsae mulieres eorum quam procaces quae endeant docere contendere for fitan tinguere Tertul. praef ad Haer. cap. 41. not only to be teachers but to teach their teachers as Tertullian observed yea and to Ordain their Ministers such no doubt as they do deserve having such Preachers for their greatest punishments The kinde closing and Christian composing of passionate and needlesse differences among learned and pious Ministers by mutuall condescending about matters of sociall prudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 13. order and government to be used in the Church which have chiefly if not onely brought so great misgovernment upon us in Enggland would be a great and effectuall means to recover the happinesse of this Church and the honour of the Ministry which consists in an holy fraternity and godly harmony of love no lesse than in truth of doctrine and holynesse of manners By our own leaks and rents we first let in these waters which have sunk us so low that every wave rakes over us No man that is truly humble wise and holy will be ashamed to retract any errour and transport whereof he hath been guilty and of which he hath cause to be most ashamed Greg. Nazianzem offered himself to be the Jonas to the Church then troubled with sedition in vita Naz. Ingenuous offers of fraternall agreement and mutuall condescendings to each other had beene exceedingly worthy of the best Ministers both of the Episcopall Presbyterian and Independent way whose wisdome and humility might easily have reconciled and united the severall interests which they pretend to support of Bishops Presbyters and Christian people But who sees not that secular designes and civill interests have too much leavened the dissensions of many Ministers though in the conclusion they have not on any side much made up their cake by the match while Church men Bishops and Presbyters had no such worldly concernments to engage them they had no such disputes and mutinies as to the order and government of the Church which no Councell no particular Bishops nor Presbyters no one Church or Congregation of Christians began of themselves but all by Catholick and undisputed consent conformed themselves to that order Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. c. 45. which the Apostles and Apostolicall men left in common to the Churches in every place most sutable to their either beginning or increasing to their setling or their setlednesse It is easie to see what Christ would have in the Church as to extern order and policy if Christians would look with a single eye at Christs ends You may easily see how the worlds various interests which are as hardly commixt with Christ's and true religion's as oil with water serve themselves with Ministers tongues pens and active spirits who should rather serve the Lord Jesus and his Church in truth simplicity peace and unity without any adherences to secular policies parties and studies of sides by which sudden and inconsiderate rowlings to and fro as foolish and fearefull passengers in a tottering boat some Ministers of England have welnigh overturned the Vessell of this reformed Christian Church which might easily as the most famous and flourishing Churches anciently were have been uprightly ballanced and safely steered by a just fitnesse and proportion of every one in their place either for Ministry or Government and Discipline where of old the paternall presidency of Bishops stood at the helm the grave and industrious Presbyters rowed as it were at the Oares and the faithfull people as the passengers kept all even by keeping themselves in quietnesse order and due subjection Nor was
or dubious in uncertainties or intangled with subtilties as Deer in acorn time they forget their food grow lean and fall into divers snares and temptations into many lusts and passions yea into the grave and pit of destruction whence there is no redemption Many as leaves from trees in Autumn every day drop away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. and dye in their mazes and labyrinths of Religion by wearying themselves in which they advance no more than birds in a cage and blinde horses in a mill whereas a true Christian should every day grieve to see himself nothing advanced in true holynesse or solid knowledge with grand steps he should be dayly going onward and upward with ample progresses and mighty increases of sound knowledge indisputable verities unquestionable practises of ly duties and heavenly conversation these are the steps by which holy men and women have ascended to heaven and conquered the difficulties of salvation That thus al the world might blesse themselves to see the happy improvements of true Christians beyond other men and the inestimable blessing of true and excellent Ministers paines among the filliest and worst of men in the dissolutest and worst of times O let not us then of the Ministry stand still and look on our own and the Churches miseries as the Lepers or mothers did in sieges till their children and themselves grew black with famine You that pretend to stand before the Lord of the whole world and the King of his Church you that bear the name of the most compassionate Redeemer who shed his bloud for his Church and laid down his life for his sheep Doe you never hear in the sounding of your own bowels the tears sighes and fears of infinite good Christians nor the voice of this English Sion lamenting and expecting pity at least from Ministers Is it worth thus much misery to root up Episcopacy to set up Presbytery and to undermine both with Independency All which might be fairly composed into a threefold cord of holy agreement such as was in primitive times between Bishops Presbyters and people whose passions have now ravelled out peace by sad divisions and weakned Religion by uncharitable contentions Though Parliaments and Assemblies and Armies and people should be miserable comforters passing by without regard and remorse yea though some be stripping the wounded and robbing this desolated Church yet doe not you forsake her now she is smitten of God Lamen 1.12 and despised of men Is it nothing to you O you that are more politicians than Preachers that passe by Stand and see if there be any sorrowes like the sorrowes of this reformed Church of England wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger It concernes no men more than Ministers to succour her which hath received these wounds most-what in the house and by the hands of her friends O give the Lord no rest untill he hath returned to this Church in mercy if you can by counsels and prayers reform nothing in the publique yet let nothing be unreformed in your private if you must be laid aside as to the peculiar office of Ministers yet you may mourn and pray the more in secret That the Lord would breath upon us with a Spirit of Truth and Peace of love and holy union of order and humility whereby none having any pride or ambition to govern every one may be humbly disposed to be governed For the great crisis of all Ministers distempers is in this not what Truths we shall beleive what doctrine we shall preach what holynesse we shall act but who shall govern whether Bishops or Presbyters or people yea the Keyes of some mens pretended power hangs so at the peoples girdle that it is too neer the apron-strings even of mechanicks and silly women When a right temper of Christian humility and love shall be restored to every part then will the spirits of Religion be recovered and aptly diffused into every member of this Church which blessed temperament as Christian Churches enjoyed in their primitive and florid strength nor is it lesse necessary now in their more aged and so decayed constitution O let not after ages say the Ministers of England were more butchers then Surgeons That they were Physitians of no value neither curing themselves nor others If any of us have not by malice so much as mistake given stronger physick and more graines of violent drugs than the constitution of this or any well reformed Church can well bear let us not be lesse forward to apply such cordials lenitives antidotes and restoratives of love moderation concession and equanimous wisedome as may recollect the dissipated and re-inforce the wasted spirits which yet remain in this reformed Church and the Ministry of it On which the enemies round about doe already look with the greedy eyes of ravens and vultures expecting when its languishing spirits shall be quite exhausted and its fainting eyes quite closed that so they may draw away the pillow and remaining supports of civill protection from under its head and violently force it to give up the ghost that the reformed Religion and Ministry of this Church may be at length quite cast out and buried with the buriall of an Asse that neither the place of reformed Bishops nor reformed Presbyters nor reformed people may know them any more in these British Islands In the last place therefore 13. Humble addresse to those in power in the behalf of Ministers I humbly crave leave to remind those that act in highest places and power who are thought no slight or shallow Statesmen That if neither piety to God nor conscience of their duty while they undertake to govern nor charity to mens soules both in present and after ages nor zeal for the reformed Religion move them as Christians nor yet justice and common equity to the encouragement and preservation of so many learned and godly men the lawfull Ministers of this Church in their legall rights and liberties nor yet common pity and charity to relieve so many pious men and their families If I say none of these should sway them as men or Christians the least of which should and I hope greatly will Yet worldy policy and right reason of State seems to advise the preservation and establishment of the so much shaken reformed Religion here in England which hath still deep root and impressions in the mindes and affections of the most and best people in this Nation Nor can this be done by more idoneous means than by giving publique favour incouragement and establishment to the true and ancient Ministry as to its main support and to godly Ministers as its head-most Professors If it be not absolutely necessary yet sure it is very convenient in order to the quiet and satisfaction of mens mindes who generally think themselves most concerned in matters of Religion either to confirm and restore to its pristine honour order and stability the ancient Ministry of the Church
The rash and injurious defaming of the Church of England riseth from want of judgement humility or charity p. 129 A pathetick deploring the losse and want of charity among Christians p. 131 II. Grand Objâ—ction against the Ministry as no peculiar Office or distinct Calling p. 143 Answ The peculiar Calling of the Ministry asserted 1. By Catholick testimony both as to the judgement and practise of all Churches p. 144 The validity of that testimony p. 146 2. The peculiar Calling or Office of the Ministry confirmed by Scripture p. 152 1. Christs Ministry in his Person p. 153 2. Christs instituting an holy succession to that power and Office p. 154 3. The Apostles care for an holy succession by due ordination p. 155 4. Peculiar fitnesse duties and characters of Ministers p. 157 5. Peculiar solemnity or manner of ordaining or authorising Ministers p. 158 6. Ministers and Peoples bounds set down in Scripture p. 160 3. The peculiar Office of the Ministry confirmed by principles of right reason and order p. 162 4. By the proportions of divine wisdome in the Church of the Jewes p. 164 5. By the light of Nature and Religion of all Nations p. 165 6. The Office of the Ministry necessary for the Church in all ages as much as at the first p. 166 7. The greatnesse of the work requires choyce and peculiar workmen p. 169 What opinion the Ancients had of the Office of a Bishop or Minister p. 172 8. The work now as hard as ever requires the best abilities of the whole man p. 175 9. Vse of private gifts will not suffice to the work of the Ministry p. 179 10 Ministers as necessary in the Church as Magistrates in Cities or Commanders in Armies p. 180 Christian liberty expels not order p. 181 11. Peculiar Office of Ministry necessary for the common good of mankinde p. 183 12. Necessary to prevent Errors and Apostasies in the best Churches and Christians p. 185 To which none more subject than the English temper p. 186 Conclusion of this Vindication of the Evangelicall Ministry as a peculiar Office p. 187 III. The third Objection against the Ministry and Ministers of this Church from the ordinary gifts of Christians which ought to be exercised in common as Preachers or Prophets p. 189 Answ The gifts of Christians no prejudice to the peculiar Office of the Ministry p. 190 Reply to the many Scriptures alledged p. 191 Of right interpreting or wresting the Scriptures p. 194 The vanity and presumption of many pretenders to gifts p. 197 Their arrogancy and insolency against Ministers p. 199 Gifted men compared to Ministers p. 201 The ordinary insufficiency of Antiministeriall pretenders to gifts p. 202 Gifts alone make not a Minister p. 204 Of St. Paul's rejoycing that any way Christ was preached p. 205 Providentiall permissions not to be urged against divine precepts or Institutions p. 206 Antiministeriall Character p. 209 Churches necessities how to be supplyed in cases extraordinary p. 210 Of Christians use of their gifts p. 211 * Answer to a Book called The peoples priviledge and duty of Prophecying maintained against the Pulpits and Preachers encroachment p. 214 Of peoples prophecying on the Lords day p. 215 Or on the Weekday p. 218 Of primitive Prophecying p. 220 Ministers of England neither Popish nor superstitiously pertinacious as they are charged in that book p. 221 The folly of false and faigned Prophets p. 227 The sin and folly of those that applaud them p. 228 The Author of this Defense no way disparaging or damping the gifts of God in any private Christians p. 230 Ablest Christians most friends to true Ministers p. 231 Ordinary delusions in this kinde p. 232 The plot of setting up Pretenders to gifts against true Ministers p. 233 IV. Objection The first Cavill or Calumny Against the Ministers of England as Papall and Antichristian p. 237 Answ Papall Vsurpations no prejudice to Divine Institutions p. 238 The moderation and wisdome of our Reformers p. 239 What separation is no sinfull Schisme p. 244 Of Antichristianisme in Errors and uncharitablenesse p. 245 Our Ministry not from Papall authority p. 247 True reforming is but a returning to Gods way p. 248 Of the Popes pretended Supremacy in England p. 249 Of our Reforming p. 251 Of extreames and vulgarity in Reformation p. 253 The holy use of Musick p. 254 Divine Institutions incorruptible p. 256 V. Objection The second Cavill or Calumny Against Ministers as ordained by Bishops in the Church of Eng. p. 259 Answ Of ordination by Bishops p. 260 Of Bishops as under affliction p. 261 Of right Episcopall order and government in the Church of Christ p. 262 Reasons preferring Episcopall government before any other way p. 263 Vulgar prejudices against Episcopacy p. 271 The other new modes unsatisfactory to many learned and godly men p. 272 The advantages of Episcopacy against any other way p. 273 The Character of an excellent Bishop p. 273 Of Regulated Episcopacy p. 278 Bishops personal Errors no argument against the Office p. 279 What is urged from the Covenant against Episcopacy Answered p. 280 Prelacy no Popery p. 281 Bishops in England ordaining Presbyters did but their duty p. 283 Alterations in the Church how and when tolerable p. 284 Episcopacy and Presbytery reconciled p. 286 Personal faults of Bishops or Presbyters may viciate but not vacate divine duties p. 289 Ordination by Bishops and Presbyters p. 289 Of the Peoples power in Ordination p. 291 People have no power Ministeriall p. 292 Peoples presence and assistance in Ordination p. 296 The virtue of holy Ordination p. 303 Of Clergy and Laity p. 303 Right judgement of Christian Mysteries p. 305 Efficacy of right Ordination p. 308 The Holy Ghost given in right Ordination how p. 311 Of Ordination misapplyed p. 318 Insolency of unordained Teachers p. 319 VI. Object The third Calumny or Cavill Pretending speciall Inspirations and extraordinary gifts beyond any Ordained Ministers p. 361 Answ Of the holy Spirit of God in men by way of speciall Inspirations p. 363 The triall of it 1. By the Word written p. 365 2. By the fruits of it p. 369 The Influence of Gods Spirit how discerned p. 371 The vanity and folly of specious pretences p. 372 Of true holinesse and reall Saints p. 375 Vulgar mistakes of Inspirations p. 377 These Inspirators compared to Ministers p. 382 The blessings enjoyed by ordinary gifts in good Ministers p. 386 The danger and mischief of pretenders to speciall gifts p. 388 Blasphemies against the Spirit under the pretence of special Inspirations p. 391 The scandalous inconstancy of sâ—me professors p. 392 Conclusion resigning our Ministry to these inspired ones if they be found really such p. 393 VII Objection The fourth Cavill or Calumny Against humane learning acquired and used by Ministers p. 395 Answ The craft yet folly of this Objection p. 396 Humane learning succeeded Miracles and extraordinary gifts in the Church p. 397 The excellent and holy use of it in
its severall parts as to Chr. Religion p. 398 Ferity and Barbarity without Literature p. 400 The Devils despight against good learning in the true Church p. 401 The glory of the Gentiles tribulary to Christ p. 402. Enemies to learning are enemies to Religion both as Christian and as Reformed p. 405 Learned defenders of true Religion of ancient and later times p. 407 Illiteratenesse betrayes a Nation to brutishnesse p. 413 Of gracious Christians that are not Book learned p. 415 431 Learning in Ministers necessary p. 416 1. for the work 2. for the benefit of the unlearned Answer to the Objection that Christ and the Apostles were unlearned p. 419 The Objectors have no Apostolicall gifts p. 420 Holy men inspired yet used acquired gifts of learning p. 423 Of Books or monuments of learning their excellent use in the Church p. 425 A plea for the nurseries of good learning specially the two famous Vniversities of England p. 432 VIII Objection The fifth Cavill or Calumny Against Ministers as Incroachers upon Liberty and Conscience as Monopolisers of Religion and denyers of that toleration which is desired p. 436 Answ Of true Christian Liberty p. 437 The true Liberty of the creature how limited by God p. 439 Of false Liberty p. 441 Liberty of Superiors and Inferiors p. 442 The Devils affected Liberty p. 444 True Christian Liberty consists with and is conserved by good government in Church and State p. 445 False liberty destruct to the true p. 447. Of licentiousnesse and intolerable toleration p. 448 Coercive wayes in Civil and religious societies appointed by God p. 450 How Christian moderation differs from loose and profane toleration p. 451 Christians must not be Scepticks and unsetled p. 452 True temper between Tyranny and Toleration p. 453 A means to preserve Truth and Peace amidst different opinions p. 455 Some toleration is but a subtiler persecution p. 458 Best Christians strictest in loose times p. 460. IX Objection The sixth Cavill or Calumny Against the maintenance of Ministers setled by way of Tithes p. 463 Answ The Antidecimal spirit p. 464 Of Sacriledge p. 465 Of Tithes as given to God and his Ministers by the devotion and law of this Nation p. 466 Of Tithes as Judaical Ceremonial Typical p. 469 Of Tithes before the Mosaick Law p. 472 Of Tithes as due to Christ and his Evangelical Ministry p. 473 Tithes not Popish nor Antichristian p. 474 Of Tithes put into Lay tenure and pensions p. 476 Of Tithes as too much for Ministers p. 478 Plea for the married Clergy p. 478 Antidecimists factors for Romish Celibacy or single life of Ministers p. 479 The Romish policy to overthrow the setled maintenance of Ref. Ministers p. 483 Covetousnesse a gâ—eat hinderance of Reformation p. 484 True piety large hearted and open handed p. 487 Of the poverty and unsetled maintenance of primitive Bishops and Presbyters p. 489 The honest Farmer satisfied in pâ—int of Tithes p. 491 Sacriledge a wound to Conscience and pest to Estates p. 494 The work and honâ—r of the Ministry recommended to the Gentry p. 496 The burden and mischief likely to follow the taking away of setled maintenance from Ministers p. 499 The plot to starve the Reformed Religion p. 501 Of Ministers support by Mechanick trades p. 502 Sordid spirits are most against Ministers p. 503 Generosity of good Christians to the Clergy p. 504 The Jesuitick genius is Antidâ—cimall p. 505 The insolency of avarice it chiefly against Ministers p. 506 Worthy Ministers merit their maintenance p. 507 Ministers comfort in poverty p. 509 Their plea for their rights by law and merit is no Tithe-coveting nor uncomely p. 510 Their trust in Gods all-sufficiency p. 512 Digression Answer to scruples touching Churches locall or places set apart to holy uses p. 513 Of Ministers using some solemn forms in holy duties p. 518 X. Objection The seventh Calumny or Cavill Against Ministers as seditions turbulent factionâ— p. 520 Answ Of Ministers civil conformity p. 521 Pragmatick Ministers injurious to themselves and their calling p 524 The errors of some not imputable to all p. 525 The peaceable temper of the best Ministers p. 526 A touch of the Engagement p. 528 Just protection requires due subjection in piety prudence and gratitude p. 530 The courage and freedom of Ministers in their proper sphear and calling p. 531 Ministers the lest they flatter men the more they love them and deserve to be loved and protected by them p. 535. XI Objection The eight Cavill or Calumny It is dangerous now to plead for or protect the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England p. 537 Answ Mans cowardise in Religious concernments p. 537 Ministers submit their persons and calling to the vote and sentence of this Nation p. 538 The merits which the Ministry hath upon this Church and Nation p. 539 Eight particulars summarily alledged for Ministers p. 540 Ministers hope and expect better measure from this Nation than extirpation or oppression p. 545 Ministers infirmities beyond their adversaries strength p. 547 Eminent Bishops and Presbyters formerly in this Church p. 549 The hopefull succession yet remaining p. 550 Antiministeriall boasting and insufficiency p. 547. 552 Addresse to those of the Military order wise and valiant souldiers cannot bee enemies to the Ministry p. 553 Ministry to be preserved in reason of State p. 554 Pathetick to true and worthy Ministers in their sufferings or fears p. 556 Sympathetick with godly Bishops and Ministers p. 561 Excitation to primitive constancy and patience p. 568 Ministers ought to recant publiquely if conscientious to fraud or falsity p. 570 Exhortations of Ministers to unity p. 575 To speciall diligence and exactnesse p. 578 Peroration recommending the Ministry to publique love and protection p. 580 1. From true policy p. 582 2. From the light of Nature p. 583 3. From its excellency and necessity p. 586 Conclusion Excusing the Authors prolixity freedome and fervour p. 587 Deprecating offence and craving acceptance of all execellent Christians p. 590 FINIS Christian Reader these and some other Errata's have escaped the care used in Printing and are against the Authors and Printers will left as exercises of thy judgment and candor in reading and amending Errata in the Epistle pag. line read for p. l. r. f. 1. 12. r. distempers for enemies  28. beyond for being 5. 30. motive for motion 6. 7. outvied for outvived 10. 12. Prince f. Princesse  25. soon for far 21. 1. revolutions for Revelations 24. 23. support f. wisdom 28. 4. dele by esteem  22. gentle for great 42. 7. their for the  8. setling for setting 43. 15. wantonly Errata in the Book pag. line read for margent p. l. r. f. m. 3. m. explorant for explicant 5  Non dii f. mordii 9. 36. r. conscientiously 19. m. putredo 21. 19. Add so much as the law c. 25. 26. pathetick for politick 49. 23. formation for sumation 59. 25. piercing for pitifull   〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 62. m. Reg. Jur. f. Reg. Jacob. 107. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 114. 23 peculiar f. popular 117. 43. body for badge 120. 41. del men 123. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 223. 14. looseness f. baseness 225. 28. adultery for adulterate 233. 8. than their gifts can doe good 237. The first Cavill 236. m. m. Stob. f. Amb. 241. m. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 243. 10. their beauty 251. 6. add not strongly 260. m. turba Remi 260. 41. Add no more just arguments 274. m Imitarores f. incitatores vigiles for igitur 275. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congrua 278. 3. add of them 279. 3. temperament for temperance 287. Prov. 11.14 f. Rom. 273 7. wrestling f. wresting  20. power Ministeriall 378. m. Artibus 384. 22. Inspiratoes 388. 9. tine weed for true weed  r. shewing for shining 400. m. cum non c. 406. 8. beleever for unbeleever 493. 3. yet it were for if it were 430 1. ashes for ages 431. 36. del not and read can be good 440. 41. sinfull bondage 463. 2. bends for binds  35 terrier  43. thifty 466. men for mention 469. 25. del with a good will and 470. 25. in piety f. impiety 477. 37. collections for customes 481. 12. impurity for imparity 492. 18. ad give him 520. 93. add most promising c. 538. 7. r. vain babling for vain blessings 539. 37. fervent prayers 541. 21. terrors for errors 547. 11. r. odde pieces 549. 35. r. mortal Angels 575. m. unity for verity  2. dele would be 577. 24. undertaking for understanding 578. 18 spread for spend 584. 16. medling f. mudling 590. 5. mee for men 593. 25. Censure f. answer 594 27. so many f. so may