are the more knowing and judicious and of best repute among them either for Piety or Learning and it will be found that they have more Books of Church of England Divines and other forraign Divines who own Communion with her than of any others And yet for all this shall I be so uncharitably judged and my Friends who go along with me as a sort of Apostates and as having bad Ends and Designs and as some of them I hear suggest against me that I do it for a Living I pray God forgive their uncharitable Judgment I neither was nor yet am so hard put to it for a worldly Living as some imagine and as others wish and desire I mean of my Adversaries among the Quakers who have Prophecied of my outward as well as inward Ruine and longed to have their false Prophecies accomplished against me but God hath hitherto disappointed them and preserved me and mine from Ruine both inwardly and outwardly for which I bless his Name and I hope he will preserve me to the End Why should the Expectation of a Living incline me more to the Church of England than to the Dissenters Had I joyned with them I might have got a Living among them perhaps more plentiful by the Peoples Gratuities than by a Set maintenance in the Church of England Which last way of living I think is the more Honourable and less obnoxious to many great Temptations and every way as suitable to the Gospel I find that the Church of God in Scripture is compared to an Army whose Captain is our blessed Lord Jesus Christ called the Captain of our Salvation Now suppose there were two Armies in the Field the one very great and numerous the other far less in Number as suppose the one Thirty thousand the other Ten pray tell me whether it is not more safe for us all who are concerned in one common Cause against the common Enemy to keep within the Body of the Army then in several Parties to straggle and keep asunder from it or Entrench by themselves The like is our present Case both the Church of England and all called Protestant Dessenters profess to be concerned in one common Cause against Papists Turks and Jews Deists and Atheists and others guilty of vile Heresies in a Spiritual Warfare Is it not therefore more prudent and safe to unite together in one Body of Christian Society and Communion against the common Enemy that we may be the stronger especially seeing the differences betwixt the Church of England and the more judicious and moderate of the Dissenters are not in any Materials either of Doctrine or Worship but the very same as they have Confessed Have not these Divisions and Separations had bad Effects weakned the Protestant Interest strengthned the Papists yea and Deists and Atheists and loose and scandalous Persons who take occasion to say there is no true Religion on either side by observing the great Heats and Annimosities and bitter Prejudices of the differing Parties I will now come to answer what I think they will object mainly against my Reason above given They will tell us that if the parity or equality on both Sides were the same my Reason would be good but they will alledge there is a great disparity and inequality the Dissenters having the Advantage in several Particulars as 1st in Doctrines 2dly in manner of Worship 3dly Administration of the Sacraments 4thly Church Governments which say the Dissenters is more agreeable to Scripture among them than in the Church of England To every one of which I think to say something as briefly as I can And First as to the Doctrine as touching the Articles of Faith the Quakers excepted they profess to be one with the Church of England and have signed or profess themselves willing to sign to her Articles Secondly as to the manner of Worship which the Dissenters contend for should be wholly by an extempore Gift of the Spirit whereas the Church of England though she alloweth that Ministers before and after Sermon may Pray without a Set Form either read or repeated from the bare Memory by using their sanctified Parts and Gifts of Understanding to Conceive Prayer by the Help of the Spirit yet She is not only for the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer composed by Pious Men of Spiritual Abilities both ancient and late but for the great Conveniency and Profitableness of them yea and Necessity of them in many respects in the Publick Worship of God leaving every one to their Christian Freedom whether to use or not use Set Forms in their Closet and Private Devotions But to this I say The most Pious as well as Judicious whom the Dissenters esteem so and repute as their Fathers and others that repute them not so yet will allow that they were very holy and spiritual Men have owned the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer yea not only the Lawfulness but the great Conveniency and Necessity of them in the Publick Worship of God Calvin one of the most famous of the Protestant Reformers was for them as I proved to you some time ago Quod ad formulam precum c. As to the Form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Rites Note that I greatly approve that it be certain from which it may not be lawful for Pastors to depart in their Function both to guard against the Simplicity and Unskilfulness of some and also that the Consent of all the Churches among themselves may be more certainly known And lastly to Put a Check to the insolent Liberty of some who affect certain Innovations So then it behoveth there be a Set or fixed Catechism a Set Admininistration of Sacraments also a Set Form of Prayers out of his express words in his Letter to the Protector of England Epist 87. The Protestant Churches abroad in Germany Holland Poland Sweden Denmark and France from the beginning of the Reformation to this very day have used Set Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving in their Publick Worship And yet I think the Dissenters here will not conclude that their Worship was wholly carnal dead and without Life or Spirit as many of them do now argue against the publick Prayers of the Church of England The Life and Spirituality of Prayer doth not consist in the Mode or Form of the words whether Set or Extempore say all sound and judicious Christians but in the Purity and Fervour of the Affections And therefore an Extempore Prayer may be very Formal dead and dry and a Prayer in a Set Form may be very lively powerful and effectual as the experience of Thousands daily confirm And suppose the Dissenters would be so uncharitable to judge that Calvin's Prayers at Geneva in Set Forms and Luther's in Wittenberg and all the other Protestants Prayers in Set Forms were barely Formal Carnal Dead and Dry and the blessed Protestants Prayers who died Martyrs in Queen Mary's Reign that used Set Forms yea many of these now in use which would
that it belonged to Timothy being the Bishop of Ephesus as he is expresly called the First Bishop of Ephesus at the end of the second Epistle to him to whom the Church Treasure made up of the Gifts of the People was entrusted to provide for the Presbyters under him a necessary Maintenance which manner of practice continued in the Church the Bishops having the dispose of the Churches Treasure within their several Precincts during all that time the Church had no Christian Magistrate to Countenance her and long after III. He writes to him as an Ecclesiastick Ruler and Judge that had power to hear and examine Accusations brought against Presbyters and accordingly to judge after due Evidence of two or three Witnesses which plainly shews his Power of Jurisdiction over Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. IV. He gives him a most solemn Charge before God the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that in the exercise of the Power of Judicatory he act impartially without Favour or biass of Affection not preferring one before another ver 21. V. He writes to him as one having Power of Ordination to Ordain Elders by laying on of Hands and cautions him to lay hands suddenly on no Man ver 22. VI. He writes to him in his second Epistle to stir up the gift of God that was in him by the putting on of his Hands together with the Hands of the Presbytery or Eldership viz. some other Apostles that might jointly with St. Paul lay Hands on him 1 Tim. 4. 14. for that the Presbytery here mentioned was a Colledge only of Presbyters is a bare alledgment viz. when he ordained him the first Bishop of Ephesus as appears from the end of the second Epistle 2 Tim. 1. 6. VII He willeth him that he commit to faithful Men who shall be able to teach others also those Things that he had heard of him among many Witnesses which behoved to be some peculiar Things relating in great part to Rules of Discipline and Church Government which were not fit either for Heathens to hear or Novices in the Faith who yet might hear the common Doctrines of the Christian Faith preached in the Christian Assemblies VIII Writing to Titus he presupposeth him Bishop of the Cretians as appears from the end of the Epistle to him and tells him why he left him in Crete That he should set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him I know no reason why these should be thought Lay-Elders i. e. such as were not to Preach I find none such either here or any where else in the New Testament How could Titus exercise this Authority in such a spacious Island where many Cities were and Christian Congregations set up if he had been only a single Presbyter And if the other Presbyters had equal Power with him why did not he write to him and them jointly Whether in the Ordination of Presbyters others jointly did not lay on Hands with the Bishop is not the present question but whether it is to be found in Scripture or Church History that any Number or Colledge of Presbyters Ordained any without a Bishop presiding over them IX He telleth him that the Mouths of such Teachers as were unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers and who taught things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake must be stopped which plainly shews his Authority to depose and silence false Teachers as well as to Ordain Sound and Worthy X. He telleth him of his Authority to judge who is a Heretick and how after the first and second Admonition if he amend not he ought to reject him By these Instances plainly collected out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus it may I think appear to all impartial persons that well and duly consider them that both Timothy and Titus were Bishops and had a Superiority of Power and Jurisdiction over the Presbyters in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete as well as of Ordination I know W. Prynne hath printed a Book which he called the Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus which I have read but I find not that he hath either sufficiently answered the Arguments brought from Scripture to prove that they were Bishops or given any sufficient Arguments to the contrary I have also seen another great Book of his giving a Historical Relation of the evil Practises of many Bishops all which if true saith nothing against the Office But I could write a great Book threefold greater giving a Historical Relation of many good Things Bishops have done in the World Many Bishops both in the early and latter Ages have been eminently exemplary in Holiness of Life and all Christian Virtues and for divers Ages succeeding the Apostle's Days were blessed and happy Instruments to preserve the Truth and Purity of the Christian Doctrine in the World and the Unity and Peace of the many Churches in it hindring Schisms and curing them that did threaten to arise Cutting down with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even the Doctrinal Word outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures as they were mightily assisted by the Holy Spirit so to do the monstrous and vile Heresies that sprung up from time to time oppugning the Christian Faith wherein Almighty God blessed them with great Success and this they did partly by their particular Writings Treatises and Epistles as well as Sermons and partly by their assembling in great Numbers in Synods and Councils to condemn them and that many times to the danger of their Lives under persecuting Kings and Emperours some whereof were Heathen and some Arian and Eutychian Such who are but ordinarily well acquainted with Antiquity and Church History cannot be ignorant that the Government of the Church from the very days of the Apostles in all the famous places of the World where Christianity came to be planted was by Succession the which did lineally descend for four hundred years from the Apostles days and upwards and in divers places to this Age. There are two places of Scripture in the Old Testament which divers of the Fathers understood of Episcopal Government as it was to be set up in the Church under the New Testament as Psal 45. 16. being a Prophecy concerning Christ's Church and his Government in the same by Church Officers Instead of thy Fathers i. e. the Apostles who were the Founders of the New Testament Church and were her Fathers shall be thy Children i. e. their Successors in the Government of the Church after their Decease whom thou maiest make Princes in all the Earth The other Place is in Isaiah 60. 17. I will appoint them Bishops in Righteousness and Deacons or Ministers in Faith as Clemens Bishop of Rome quotes it in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians but as the Septuagint hath it is thus And I will give thy Princes in Peace and thy Bishops in Righteousness Ignatius who conversed with St. 〈◊〉 the Apostle and as his Disciple and Bishop of Antioch being committed by him writeth thus to the Church of Smyrna let the People be subject to their Deacons the Deacons to the Presbyters the Presbyters to the Bishop and the Bishop to Christ as he is to his Bishop Policarp also was constituted by St. John Bishop of Smyrna who both suffered Martyrdom as Church History giveth 〈…〉 saith lib. 3. cap. 3. We have to remember them who were appointed Bishops by 〈…〉 qui ab Apostalis 〈◊〉 sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successoret eorum usque ād nos the Apostles in the Churches and their Successors even 〈◊〉 us This Irenaeus was Bishop at Lyons and lived within about a hundred years after St. John It is acknowledged both by ancient Writers and later yea by some 〈◊〉 and particularly by David Paraeus that the seven Angels of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. John wrote were the seven Bishops set over those seven Churches also it is very probable that St. John himself had planted all these seven Churches and did constitute the Bishops in them Hierom whom the Adversaries of Episcopacy think that he favoureth in opposition to the Episcopal Authority plainly granteth that the Power of Ordination is lodged in the Bishop saying quid enim facis excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat i. e. for what doth the Bishop that the Presbyter may not on ought not to do except Ordination Epist ad Euagrium And the sense affirmeth that from Mark the Evangelist until Heracla 〈…〉 Bishops there the Presbyters of Alexandria did name him Bishop one among themselves elected and placed in a higher degree but he doth not say that they ordained him And both Hierom and Clemens Romanus long before him did make a paralel betwixt the High Priests Priests and Levites in the Jewish Church and Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the New Testament Church what Aaren and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple saith he the same in the Church may Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves Hier. ad Eugr. And how universal the extent of Episcopacy was in all the Churches and to what end it was appointed he further declareth in that same Epist it was decreed in the whole world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the Seeds of Schism be removed Thus far I think I have made it appear that in none of the Particulars above mentioned the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England but that what advantage there is to be found either from Scripture or Church History and Antiquity lieth on her side FINIS
our Blessed Lord to his Disciples Matth. 5. 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake This I thank God is my case I charge my Adversaries to prove any thing against me of evil Conversation I have with Zeal and Resolution which God hath been pleas'd to give me and who has greatly supported and strengthened me opposed and testified against their vile Errours and this is all the cause of their Hatred against 〈◊〉 and that God has been pleased to bless and prosper 〈…〉 with some Success so that both in America many and here in England both in City and Country divers have come from Quakerism and gone over to the Church of England with me yea divers have prevented me and gone before me and divers here I hope will go along with me I also remember what Christ said John 16. 2. The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God Service Persecutors commonly follow an erring Conscience few Persecutors and be sure they are of the worst sort that knowingly and wilfully persecute the Servants of God Having thus far proceeded according to the Doctrine I mentioned at the beginning of this Discourse on the foregoing Verse 1 Pet. 3. 15. I think it my Duty and a weighty Concern lyeth upon me to give to this Auditory the Reason of the Hope that is in me of my Faith and Persuasion in this very particular Why I have joined in Communion with the Church of England although I retain Charity to all the honest-hearted of other Communions hoping that in God's due time the more Sincere will follow my Example and that God will make all the Sincere to be not only of one Faith as many at present are but of one Way and Practice and Uniformity Worship and Church Discipline so as with one mouth and one heart and mind to glorifie God Rom. 15. 16. This will be a Joyful Day which I hope many here and elsewhere pray for Why then will ye not help it forward by your good Examples laying aside all weak and insufficient Scruples which upon due Examination will be found without just ground And why find ye fault with those that begin to give you good Example Though this Change of mine is not so great as some imagine I was never so uncharitable as I find some are though I grant I have been too uncharitable which I have retracted I have been for a considerable time very charitable to all sober and religious Protestants of all sorts and have oft in secret bewail'd their Opposition one to another perceiving that in great part it came more from Prejudice of Judgment and Education than any just Cause I date not my Conversion to Christianity from this Change nay nor from my first turning to the Quakers My gracious God began early to deal with me and turn'd my Heart towards him I was well instituted in the Fundamentals of Christianity by the good Education I had for which I praise God before I knew the Quakers and though in too many things I was misled by them being deceived by their high pretences to Perfection and divine Enjoyments by which they have deceived many as well as me yet I retained a sound Faith of the Fundamentals of Christianity and did constantly profess the same which I can sufficiently prove both by my printed Books from time to time and divers Manuscripts and from my Childhood to this day God has in mercy preserved me from all scandalous Conversation and Practice whereof some of good Credit are ready to give a Testimony who have known me for Fourty six Years past and my manner of Conversation I am the more concerned to give the reason of my said Change chiefly for the sake of some of my good Friends here present who though by the Blessing of God have been by me as an instrument brought off from the Quakers Errours that were opposite to the Fundamentals of Christianity yet have some remaining Scruples that at present hinder them from so cordial a joining with the Church of England and seem to be concerned with my joining with her which I hope God in due time will remove and so far as is possible for me I will endeavour as his instrument to be assisting to them as also for the more confirming of such who are cordially ready to join with me And in the next place to silence the unjust Clamours and false Accusations of my professed Adversaries and others ignorantly prejudiced against me I am desirous to let them know that I have good reason for what I have done and have acted as a rational Christian Man in my so doing A chief Reason therefore which I offer is this Suppose there were a parity or equality in all other respects betwixt the Dissenters and the Church of England I mean the more sound and orthodox among them as in Doctrine and Worship Sacraments and Church-Government Discipline and Constitution of Members yet this with me doth cast the Balance and I think ought to cast the Balance with any rational considerate person that on that supposition the minority or lesser number should yield to the majority or greater number and the younger should yield to the elder and the Daughters to the Mother For certain it is that the Church of England as she was in King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's time and in Queen Mary's time was the Mother Protestant Church The Dissenters Forefathers had their Christianity Baptism and Christian Education and Profession in her Communion and were nursed as it were in her Arms and suckled at her Breasts and the more sober of all Dissenters will say she was a true Church then in all the main things of Religion Now unless they can prove that she is changed from what she then was either in Doctrine or Sacraments or Worship or Discipline or Church-Government in any material thing from better to worse which I think they cannot do how can they justifie their Separation from her And I think I may safely add that the wiser Men and ablest in solid Learning and Piety and in the sound Knowledge of the Scriptures to instruct the Ignorant and convince or put to silence Opposers to refute Antichristian and Popish Errors as well as all other old and late Heresies are much more numerous to be found in the Church of England And what solid Learning the ablest of the Dissenters have had so far as may be acquired by outward means has been originally by means of Church of England Men. She hath been all along and still is the greatest Bulwark against Popery whereof she hath given sufficient Proof from time to time witness the many elaborate and excellent Books and Tracts written by her Members against Popery especially and other old and new Heresies as Deism Atheism c. yea let the Libraries and Closets of the generality of the Dissenters Ministers be searched who
in the invisible Creation of Angels and Spirits the Scripture doth plainly inform us as Angels Archangels Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers Cherubim and Seraphim Jethro Moses's Father-in-Law advised him to set Captains over Tens over Fifties over Hundreds and over Thousands of the People of Israel for the better and easier Government of them both in War and Peace and Moses hearkned to his Advice Exod. 18. 24. And we find in Scripture that the Church is compared to an Army and the Members thereof to Soldiers the chief General and Captain whereof is our Lord Jesus Christ who hath appointed divers Officers in his Church under the New Testament distinct not only in degree but in kind as Bishops Presbyters otherwise called Priests and Deacons answerable to the three Officers that were in the Church of the Jews under the Old Testament to wit the high Priest Priests and Levites and because they were but one Nation all living within a small Compass of Ground one High Priest did suffice according to God's Appointment This threefold distinction of Church Government by Bishops Presbyters and Deacons upon a further search into the New Testament I find so very clear as doth fully satisfie me notwithstanding that by prejudice of Education I was formerly Principled against it and also by searching into Church-History and the Writings of the Ancients nearest to the Apostles Times and the succeeding Ages in the purest and best State of the Churches as well as when there was a great declining from that purity yet as many other things both of sound Doctrine and good practice still remained so this distinction of Church Rulers did all along remain generally in all Places as well as in all Ages where God had any Visible Church or where there was any Society of People professing the Christian Religion until the beginning of the Reformation where in divers Countries abroad there was no Protestant Kings the Protestants set up Churches without Bishops not rejecting the Office nor condemning it as unlawful or Antichristian as some in late Times have done but excusing the want of it by that general maxim Necessity has no Law I need not insist to prove the distinction of Presbyters and Deacons out of the New Testament it being in some sort generally acknowledged by the Dissenters But the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters is that which is condemned by some as Antichristian and by some others judged at best unnecessary and no part of Christian Discipline belonging to Christianity either essential or integral But if you will lay aside all prejudice of Education and uncharitableness you will clearly and evidently see it in the Holy Scriptures That the Apostles had a Superiority over not only the LXX but all other Ministers and Pastors or Teachers is very clear from 1 Cor. 12. 28. compared with Eph. 4. 11. That Bishops were to succeed the Apostles and have the like Office both with them as Churches came to be planted in divers parts of the World before their Decease and also after their Decease not with respect to the extraordinary gifts of Prophecy and Miracles but with respect to the Government of the Church by a regular Succession is evident from Mat. 28. 19 20. compared with the above-cited Eph. 4. 11. otherwise all standing or setled Ministry as an Ordinance of Christ may be rejected as Enthusiasts generally do yea what can these Governments be mentioned 1 Cor. 12. 28. but as really the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters as of Presbyters over the Deacons and the People otherwise why Governments in the Plural Number Also what are these Dignities mentioned Jud. 8. that some despised in the Apostles days and 2 Pet. 2. 10 11. And how should any doubt of the Office of Episcopacy being an Ordinance of Christ in the Church when the qualifications requisite to such an Officer are so expresly set down 1 Tim. 3. from v. 1. to v. 8. But whereas it is objected that seeing there is only mentioned in that Chapter a twofold Order 1. Of Bishops 2. Of Deacons it would seem that Presbyters are there understood by Bishops otherwise Presbyters should be wholly excluded from Church Government I answer that will not follow 1. Because Presbyters though not expressed yet may be understood and implied under either the one or the other expresly mentioned the name Deacon being sometimes a general Name in Scripture signifying the most superiour as well as inferiour Officers in the Church 1 Cor. 3. 5. St. Paul called himself and Apollo by the Name of Deacons as it is in the Greek and 2 Cor. 3. 6. he calls all Ministers and Teachers at large by that Name But 2. in the order of things there were but these two Officers at first excepting the Apostles Bishops and Deacons The Churches in many places at first being small the Bishop could both sufficiently teach and rule his Flock and so did without Presbyters only by the assistance of Deacons but the number of the Flock increasing he did chuse and raise up those that had well used the Office of a Deacon to the higher degree of Presbyters which is called by St. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 13. a good degree which they purchased to themselves even as those that well used the Office of a Presbyter were afterwards raised up to the Office of a Bishop as was accordingly practised in the Church so that in priority of Nature and also of Time the Deacon is before the Presbyter though in priority of Dignity the Presbyter is before the Deacon Hence according to the Order established in the Church none is to be ordained a Presbyter until he first be ordained a Deacon nor can he at one and the same time be Ordained to be both The Distinction and Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters or Elders is very clear to me as well as to many out of St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 1. 3. I. St. Paul writes to Timothy to Command or give in Charge to some that were Teachers at Ephesus to teach no other Doctrine than the pure Doctrine of the Gospel such as he had heard of him And had not Timothy had a Superiority of Office above other Teachers which were then at Ephesus why did he direct both his Epistles to him only laying down excellent rules and method of Government for him to follow in the exercise of his Episcopal Function 1 Tim. 3. 15. with respect to several States of Persons both Male and Female II. Why did St. Paul give the Charge to Timothy to count the Elders that ruled well which were no doubt under him worthy of double Honour especially them who laboured in Word and Doctrine but that he was able to confer that double Honour upon them a part of which was an Honourable Maintenance according to what follows ver 18. for the Scripture saith Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward By this it is plain