the same promise can be no security to the Jews or the Posterity of Jacob in their unbelief and disobedience but God can otherwise accomplish his promise made to the Seed of Abraham by accomplishing it to them who walk in the steps of the Faith of Abraham 3. As this true sense is wholly alien from proving Infants not to be members of the Christian Church so the sense imposed upon them by the Anabaptists is neither agreeable to the words themselves and the scope of that place nor to such other expressions of the New Testament as I have above mentioned 8. Secondly This Opinion and Practice of Anabaptism is very uncharitable to Infants born in the Christian Church upon a double account For First The consequence of this Position will be to take away that great hope of Salvation which the true Principles of Christianity do afford concerning Christian Infants dying in their infancy I acknowledge that this consequence concerning all Infants is not owned by those who hold this erroneous opinion in denying Infant-Baptism who run into other errors to avoid this But yet this is deducible from their Assertion and therefore I charge this uncharitableness to be a proper consequent of this opinion For since Christians are Baptized into the Body or Church of Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 and are thereby entred as members thereof if Infants be denied to have any right to Baptism or to be capable of being Baptized they cannot then be owned to be members of the visible Church of Christ and parts of his Body And they who are supposed to be excluded from the visible Church by Gods special institution and to be thereby made uncapable of being received as members thereof cannot well be presumed to be admitted into membership with the invisible Church if we consider what God himself hath declared concerning the power of the Keys and of Binding and Loosing upon Earth And those great priviledges of the New Covenant of which eternal Salvation is the chief belong to that Church which is the Body of Christ and to the lively members thereof For Christ is the Saviour of this body Eph. 5.23 And this Body which is his Church is that which he will present to himself having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing v. 27. And whereas Baptism is the laver of regeneration Tit. 3.5 if Infants are not capable of being partakers of that washing of water whereby the Church is cleansed and sanctified Eph. 5.26 and of the laver of regeneration and of regeneration it self also they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 5. 9. But this opinion is further uncharitable to Infants in denying to them such means of grace as the Gospel of our Saviour doth afford them and the Christian Church hath from the beginning alwayes acknowledged to belong to them All the Ordinances and special Institutions of Christ tend to the great advantage and good of them who do aright partake of them and are useful to their spiritual and eternal welfare and benefit and so particularly is Christian Baptism Of this I have particularly discoursed in (d) Libert Eccles B. 1. c. 5. Sect. 3.4.5 another place And as the Scriptures sufficiently express the great benefit of Baptism with respect to regeneration and remission of sins so whosoever hath a due reverence for our Lord and Saviour can by no means entertain such low thoughts of his Institutions as to think them of no considerable usefulness to them who duly receive them But this piece of uncharitableness to Infants is much worse and more hurtful and prejudicial to them than the former For the opinion from whence the former consequent was deduced being untrue the consequence it self is also false and so hath no real influence or effect upon the state of Infants nor are damaged thereby whereas they are truly prejudiced by being denied the means of grace 10. On this account the Chiristian Church in the first ages thereof and in a continued succession from thence to this time hath admitted Infants to be Baptized and thought it self bound so to do S. Austin (e) de peccar Mer. remis l. 1. c. 26. declares this practice to have authoritatem universae Ecclesiae proculdubio per Dominum Apostolos traditam the Authority of the Vniversal Church without doubt delivered by the Lord and the Apostles and the Doctrine of Infant-Baptism is called by S. Austin (f) Ep. 28. firmissima Ecclesiae fides a Doctrine of Faith most firmly and constantly believed in the Church And much to the same purpose is frequently expressed by S. Austin To this purpose the determination of (g) Ep. 59. ad Fidum S. Cyprian and an African Council with him is very manifest When Fidus had written to Cyprian his opinion that Infants ought not to be Baptized within the second or third day of their Birth or until the eighth day which was the time appointed for Circumcision though this opinion allowed and asserted Infant-Baptism S. Cyprian largely declares that not any one of this Council did agree to this opinion but every one of them judged Nulli hominum nato misericordiam Dei gratiam denegandam That the mercy and grace of God is to be denied to no Child of man i. e. upon account of their age And he there shews that Infants from the time of their Birth are not to be prohibited Baptism And of how great consequence they in those early times judged Infant-Baptism is apparent from this expression relating thereto (h) ibid. quantum in nobis est si fieri potest nulla anima perdenda est as far as is in our power if it be possible no soul is to be lost The plain testimonies of Origen both upon Leviticus and the Epistle to the Romans and of divers other Fathers and Councils might be added to manifest the universal reception of Infant-Baptism in the Catholick Church But this having been clearly and sufficiently evidenced by the Historical Theses of (i) Thes Theolog p. 429 c. Vossius upon this Subject of Paedobaptism I shall refer him thither who would have more large and ample proof hereof 11. But that learned man truly observes that there is something which may seem singular in some expressions of Tertullian and Nazianzen who though they deny not Infant-Baptism yet intimate the usefulness of deferring the Baptism of Infants and incline to perswade the same Now though any singular apprehension of one or two men is not to be laid in the balance against the general sense of the Church I shall however observe something further concerning the sense of both these ancient Writers Gr. Nazianzen doth indeed in his Oration (k) Orat. 40. p. 458. concerning Baptism advise that if Infants be in no danger of death their Baptism may be deferred till they be three years old or somewhat less or more that themselves may hear something of that Mystery and give answer But though he might proceed
various methods and sometimes in a more strange and extraordinary manner Thus the wrath of (c) Jos Ant. Jud. l. 11. c. 8. Alexander who went against Jerusalem with the Spirit of an enraged enemy was fully appeased to the admiration of those who accompanied him when he met Jaddus the High Priest in his Priestly Garments and remembred that before he came out of Macedonia such a person in that habit appeared to him and encouraged him in his enterprize And when a Diploma was signed to create trouble to the Bohemian Church when Maximilian the second was Emperour 1565 (d) Comen Historiolae 109. Comenius acquaints us that he who carried it going over the Bridge of Danubius without the Gates of Vienna the Bridge at that instant broke and though this person was taken up dead by some Fishers the Diploma was never seen after and thereby that Church enjoyed rest and peace And for the preservation and security of his Church in the time of its greatest oppositions he raised up a Constantine and in the same age soon removed a Julian And we have had instances of Gods care towards the Reformation of our Church in defeating many oppositions contrived against it and our Religious Princes and in restoring it again to its former establishment after our late troubles and also in ordering the Reign of Queen Mary to be short and that she should have no issue and that after her there should be a succession of many excellent Princes 35. Ans 3. 3. Religion was never more opposed than when Christ was Crucified Religion can never be opposed with greater enmity and malicious designs than it was when our Saviour suffered Yet then he reviled not nor allowed S. Peters rashness but left us his example for our imitation The Church of God upon earth was never without the enmity of the evil one and those whom he could engage against it but at sometimes their opposition is more vehement than at others When our Lord was crucified the Devil entered into Judas to effect it the Jews aimed utterly to root out the Christian name The power of the Jewish Church and Sanhedrin was then engaged against it and gained both Herod and Pilate into a compliance with them And there were great oppositions against Religion even fiery trials 1 Pet. 4.12 When yet S. Peter requires Christians to follow the example of our Lords patience and meekness and to reverence Superiours But with us blessed be God our Laws establish the true Religion our Clergy defend it and press the practice of it and our Prince whom God preserve upholds the profession of it But the Primitive Christians who lived under Pagan Rulers who persecuted the Church behaved themselves with more honourable respect towards them than many now do towards those Christian Governours and Spiritual Guides who encourage and promote Christianity 36. 4. True zeal hath respect to all duty Ans 4. True zeal for Religion is of excellent use and very desirable but it consists in pious and holy living not in passionate and sinful speaking And it must be uniform in minding all the parts of duty which are incumbent on us But they who are careless and negligent in great and plain duties can have no true love and conscientious regard to Religion and therefore no zeal for it but it is something else which they miscall by that name True zeal will put men on diligent constant and devout attendance on Gods publick worship and the holy Sacraments upon solicitous thoughts and care for the Churches peace and Union upon all the exercises of piety to God and of righteousness charity meekness and due obedience to man And particularly both with respect to the happiness of another world and a comfortable estate in this it will oblige men to curb the rashness and sin of their words and expressions according to that advice of the Psalmist and the Apostle S. Peter 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good dayes let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it 37. Wherefore let every person uncharitable reproaches against all men to be avoided as he values his own happiness and as he would approve himself a true Disciple of Christ beware of this sinful behaviour of slandering or reproaching others And not the speaker only but he that heareth such things with delight is guilty of the same uncharitableness and in like manner serves his own sinful passions and gives encouragement to the practice and spreading of this vice S. (e) Bern. de modo bene vivendi Bernard therefore well adviseth all men to avoid a detractor as a Serpent who casteth forth his poyson because besides his own sin he who willingly gives ear to him becomes guilty also To the same purpose S. Austin S. Hierome and others who sometimes speak of the contumelious ear or that mens ears as well as their tongues may render them justly chargeable with the sin of reproaching He that in this case speaks rashly or uncharitably or that entertains such expressions with pleasure must ordinarily intend a prejudice to another and a blemish to his reputation and this very intention speaks some degree of malice or ill-will contained in this sin and sometimes a very high degree thereof But the main hurt and mischief fal's upon the offender himself being contained in his sin and consequent upon it He like the man whose Spirit is so far envenomed as to take poyson in his mouth to spit it at another is in a direct way to ruine himself whatsoever prejudice the other may sustain by him So S. (f) Hier. in Ps 119. Hierome declared detrahimus illi illi non nocemus sed nostras interficimus animas we speak unworthily of another but the main dammage doth not fall upon him but we destroy our own souls 38. and repented of Let all those therefore who have been guilty of this transgression heartily repent thereof that they may find mercy with God But it must be considered that repentance in matters of injury to men by word or deed doth not only require a desisting from the further practice of the sin with due sorrow for the former miscarriage but also a careful undertaking to make satisfaction for the injury done It is therefore here requisite that the offender do readily freely and ingenuously retract what hath been spoken amiss and vindicate him who hath been injuriously aspersed and also endeavour that his future kindness towards him may be equivalent to his past unkindness And the man who refuseth this is as far from integrity as he who wrongs his Neighbour in his Possession or Estate is from honesty if he only forbear the repeating new acts of theft fraud or violence but still detains without restitution what he injuriously possessed himself of which of right belongeth to another man 39. A candid
mixture of hearty sorrow that so much evil should prevail in the world and that so many persons divers of whom intend well should be led away thereby And I humbly beseech Almighty God of his mercy and goodness to bless and give good success to all those labours which are undertaken to guide men into the right wayes of truth and peace 26. I know that many men account him to be wanting in kindness The nature of true kindness and love to men under mistakes and error and love to others who undertakes to lay open their mistakes and miscarriages how sincere and beneficial soever his intentions be yea though this be managed with the greatest tenderness and prudence even as indiscreet Children have hard and unkind apprehensions of him who openeth their sores though it be for their cure and such a person with many men shall rather be ranked amongst revilers and reproachers than amongst the number of Friends And they account that to be kindness and love when any one is ready to speak in favour of them and their actions and will take care to hide their faults and errors whensoever he discerns them And this kind of behaviour is indeed in a due measure an Office of charity in the case of private failings where the offender is sufficiently sensible of his miscarriage and affected with it But it is much otherwise where things that deserve blame are publickly declared and professed and are justified and vindicated or indeed where they are kept more private but without any penitent resentment of them Yet these cases fall under different Rules and considerations If this were true kindness as it cannot be towards men who themselves do amiss and by their examples and perswasions would engage others to do the like to flatter and complement them and to encourage them that they do well to continue in those practices which are their errors and miscarriages then must our grand adversary the Devil be looked on as our kind friend who is very forward to sooth men in their faults and to perswade and intice them into a resolved continuance in them and to shut their ears and open their mouths against those who would advise them better But this is true Christian kindness love and goodness to follow the example of our Lord and to set our selves to do good and to preserve or reduce others from evil though in so doing we expose our selves to the censure and displeasure of bad men or of them who are misguided CHAP. II. The Principles and Practices maintained in the Church of Rome are such as deserve severe Censure and a note of infamy SECT I. The Romish Church and its Doctrines and the putting them in practice is chargeable with great disturbances mischievous to the peace and order of the World Sect. I 1. IN this Chapter I shall enquire The bad Principles and practices owned in the Church of Rome whether the Church of Rome and the Members thereof who practise upon the Principles they are there taught be not chargeable with things really very evil and infamous and which deserve to be greatly condemned In this discourse I shall not intend to take notice of all the considerable errors in doctrine and practice which are owned and espoused in that Church But I shall instance in so many as may be sufficient to satisfie any unprejudiced and impartial Reader of the great corruption of that Church and how hurtful and dangerous it is to be guided by it I acknowledge there hath been so much said already and so largely and plainly proved by divers Protestant Writers and by many of our own Church and particularly by many learned and worthy Discourses of Dr. Stillingfleet in this Controversie of late years that I do not pretend nor need I to add much that is material and considerable to what they have written nor indeed to say so much as they have done upon those Arguments of which I shall discourse But yet I think such Remarks as I shall make may be of so much use to some persons as to give them a satisfactory account how necessary it is to avoid the Romish gross Errors 2. Several Heads of these proposed And what I shall here consider I shall reduce unto five-Heads First to give some instances of the principles and allowed practices of sedition and disturbance against the peace and good order of the Church and of the world and the violation of the rights both of secular Rulers and of other Churches and Bishops Secondly Of such things as are plain obstacles and hindrances to an holy life Thirdly Of those practices and opinions which derogate from the dignity and authority of our Saviour Fourthly of some things which debase the Majesty of God and deprive him of that glory and worship which is due unto him Fifthly Of such things as represent Religion and the Doctrines thereof as a thing contrived or ordered to serve the interests of worldly designs or human Policy And in treating of the several instances I shall give I desire my Reader to observe that since I use these Heads in part for Method and Order sake that which is to be considered in them is not only how aptly they are digested under these several heads though I think that is sufficiently clear but especially whether they do not manifestly contain what is false evil and opposite to Christianity And therefore it may be further noted that several things which I shall treat of are upon other accounts also evil and blameable besides the respect they bear to those particular Heads under which I do digest them 3. Observ 1. Popish Principles opposite to peace and due order First I shall enquire into the principles and allowed practices of sedition and disturbance against peace and good order of the Church and the world Here I shall not need to prove that true Religion and the Christian temper greatly promotes peaceableness and establisheth justice and righteousness in the earth And that the doing wrong and injury the prosecuting unjust claims and invading the rights and properties of others as also the embroiling any part of the World in discord and confusion in wars and tumults and in Sedition and Rebellion is exceeding contrary to our holy Religion For the true principles of Morality and the light of nature will direct men who are not influenced by interest and passion to condemn and detest such things as these Wherefore taking this for granted I shall in the first place reflect on the injurious demeanour of them at Rome towards secular Princes in claiming to the Romish Bishop an universal Soveraignty over Kings and Princes with a Power to depose them and dispose of their Kingdoms That the Pope makes and hath oft acted upon this claim of Sovereign Supremacy I have shewed (a) Christ Loyalty B. 1. ch 6. Sec. 2. in another Treatise And that the power of deposing Kings is owned as a Doctrine of the Romish Church I have
divers of the Romish Communion (g) Cassand Consult de mer. interces Sanctorum They pretend that they only desire their prayers But 1. It is unknown to us that they know our desires advocationis Christi officio obscurato Sanctos atque imprimis Virginem Mariam in illius locum substituerunt that the Office of Christs Advocateship being obscured by them they substituted the Saints and principally the Virgin Mary in his place 4. But the most considerable men who write in defence of this practice declare that they only invocate the Saints to obtain the assistance of their prayers but First If this was true and no more was either intended by the Church of Rome or practised by its members yet there is no assurance that particular Saints departed know our particular wants and supplications and desires and much more may they be unacquainted with that inward devoutness and pious temper of soul which doth qualifie men for the obtaining the favour of God and his heavenly blessings And a wise man would not think it reasonable to place any considerable dependance in a special case upon the care and assistance of such a friend who is at a distance from him and of whom he hath no sufficient ground of confidence that he knows any thing either of his need or of his special desire from him The ways assigned by the Romanists to declare how the Saints departed are acquainted with things here below especially so far as to discern the special motions of the minds of all particular persons are but expressions of great words without evidence and the speculum Trinitatis may as well serve to shew that the Angels in glory were from the beginning of their confirmation in happiness acquainted with all things future by seeing the face of our heavenly Father when yet our Lord declares they knew not the time of the day of Judgement as that the Saints in glory have such a clear understanding of things and persons in this world Now if they understand not our requests and desires supplications directed to them are not only imprudent but an abuse of Religious Worship by employing a considerable portion of it and of our devotion therein about that which at least signifies nothing but is wholly useless and to no purpose And to perform acts of Religion upon the uncertain supposition of this being true of which we can have no certain knowledge and there is much to be said against it is to shew our selves too forward to run the hazard of being guilty of this miscariage 5. And whereas God and his Gospel doth instruct men Our Religion gives no direction for such prayers in the parts and duties of Religion but hath given neither direction nor encouragement to the invocation of Angels or Saints departed or to perform any Religious Worship to them it is no duty incumbent on men to make such addresses to them and in this case concerning the object of Religious worship it is not their due to receive what is not our duty to perform And we may reasonably fear lest God should account our giving such honour to those glorified creatures in Heaven as to acknowledge them to know the desires of the hearts of men and addressing our selves to them thereupon to be a misplacing that honour which is only due to himself and our blessed Saviour and this might bring us under his displeasure And when I consider how frequently the Apostle desires the prayers of the Christian Churches on earth and directs them to pray for one another and to send to the Elders of the Church to obtain their prayers I cannot but think that he would have been as forward to have directed Christians to seek for the prayers of Saints departed of which he speaks nothing if he had accounted that to be lawful and useful and from hence it may seem highly probable if not certain that the Souls departed do not understand and are not particularly affected with the requests and desires of men here below Besides this though I conceive holy Angels may be frequently present in the Assemblies of the Christian Church I cannot think it allowable though I had special assurance of their presence at any particular time to direct the acts of publick worship in that case sometimes to God and Christ and sometimes to them in the same gesture of adoration and especially in the use of such words of address to the Angels however they be understood as may fitly be applied to Christ For this would give too much of that homage to the Servant which is due unto the Lord. 6. 〈◊〉 greatly honour the Saints departed But we who do not direct our prayers and Religious supplications to Saints departed have a high honour for them endeavouring to follow their good examples praising God for them and hoping to be hereafter with them in the mansions of glory And since their goodness and love is not diminished but increased by their departure and they are still members of the same body I esteem them to have affectionate desires of the good of men upon Earth and especially of pious men who are fellow-members with them And I account it one great priviledge that I enjoy from the Communion of Saints that by reason of membership with the same body I have an interest in the Religious supplications of all the truly Catholick part of the diffusive Church Militant upon Earth and in the holy Services of the triumphant part thereof in Heaven I can also willingly admit what (h) Cyp. de Mortalitate Magnus illic nos charorum numerus expectat parentum fratrum filiorum copiosa turba adhuc de nostra salute sollicita S. Cyprian sometimes expresseth that departed friends have a particular desire of the good of their surviving relations and what in another place he recommends (i) Epist 57. ad Cornel. The Papists do directly pray for blessings to the Saints that departing Christians continue their affectionate sense of and prayers for the distressed part of the Church on Earth But upon the foregoing considerations this will not warrant Religious addresses to be directed to these Saints 7. Secondly The petitions used in the Romish Church in their supplications to the Saints do plainly express more than their desiring them to pray for them I shall not insist on the high extravagances in divers Books of Devotions and in the Offices formerly used in some particular Churches as that in the Missale sec usum Sarum to the Virgin Mary (k) In Nativit B. Matiae Potes enim cuncta ut mundi Regina jura Cum nato omnia decernis in soecla Thou canst do all things as the Queen of the World and thou with thy Son determinest all rights for ever which with many expressions of as high a nature place a further confidence in the Saints and expectation from them than meerly to be helped by their prayers But I shall instance in two or three
expressions in the present Roman Breviary They apply themselves to S. Peter (l) Br. Rom. Jun. 29. in Hymn Peccati vincula Resolve tibi potestate tradita Qua cunctis coelum verbo claudis aperis Loose the bonds of our sins by that power which is delivered to thee whereby by thy word thou shuttest and openest heavent to all men And to all the Apostles they direct their prayers on this manner (m) Br. Rom. in Commun Apost in Festo S. Andr. Qui coelum verbo clauditis Serasque ejus solvitis nos à peccatis omnibus Solvite jussu quaesumus Quorum praecepto subditur Salus languor omnium Sanate aegros moribus nos reddentes virtutibus Ye who by your word do shut up Heaven and loose the barrs thereof we beseech you by your command loose us from all our sins ye to whose command the health and the weakness of all is subject heal those who are sick in their life and practice restoring us to vertue I am apprehensive that many may think these instances the less blameable because the expressions of them have a manifest respect to the commission and authority which Christ gave to his Apostles in the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and the power of remitting and retaining sin and the other Apostles are here owned to have the power of the keys as well as S. Peter But that our Saviours Commission to them referred wholly to the Government of his Church upon Earth is sufficiently manifest from those words both to S. Peter and to all the Apostles whatsoever thou or ye shall bind on earth and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth And though the Apostles are eminently exalted in the glory of the other world yet to acknowledge them in Heaven to acquit or condemn all men and to receive them into Heaven or exclude them from it by their command and by that power which is committed to them must include an owning them to be the full and compleat Judges of the quick and the dead 8. And since the Romish Church asserts all their Bishops to derive and enjoy the same authority which was committed to S. Peter and if this be not only an authority upon earth but in the future state then all their deceased Popes and much to the same purpose may be urged concerning all Priests must still enjoy the same heavenly power which they ascribe to S. Peter though there is great reason to fear that divers of themselves never entred into Heaven To these other numerous instances might be added of their prayers to the Blessed Virgin and to other Saints for grace pardon protection and to be received by them at the hour of death and such instances have been largely and fully produced by some of the worthy Writers of our own Church and Chamier and other Protestant Authors and particularly by Chemnitius in his Examen Conc. Trid. 9. But when Cardinal Bellarmine discoursed of these supplications to the Saints he particularly instanced in some as that to the Virgin Mary Tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe do thou defend us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death but will have them all to be understood as desiring only the benefit of their prayers But because the words they use do not seem to favour this sense of his he tells us (n) Bellarm. de Sanct. Beatitud l. 1. c. 9. Notandum est nos non agere de verbis sed de sensu verborum It must be noted that we dispute not about the words themselves but about the sense and meaning of them Now I acknowledge it fit that words should be taken in their true sense being interpreted also with as much candor as the case will admit Yet I shall observe 1. That it cannot well be imagined that when they expresly declare their hopes of obtaining their petitions to the Saints by their command and by their power which is committed to them which is owned sufficient for the performing these requests as in the instances I mentioned no more should be intended than to desire the assistance of their prayers and this gives just reason to suspect that more is also meant in other expressions and prayers according to the most plain import of the words 2. That though some of the Doctors of the Roman Church would put this construction upon the words of their prayers yet it is manifest the people understand them in the most obvious sense so as to repose their main confidence upon the Saints themselves and their merits This may appear from the words I above cited n. 3. from Cassander who also tells us that (o) Cass Consu t. de Mer. Interc Sanct. homines non mali men who were none of the worser sort did chuse to themselves certain Saints for their Patrons and in eorum meritis atque intercessione plus quam in Christi merito fiduciam posuerunt they placed confidence in their merits and intercession more than in the merits of Christ 10. The invocation of Saints and Angels will appear the more unaccountable No such practice in the Old Testament by considering what is contained in the holy Scriptures and the ancient practice of the Church of God In the Old Testament there is no worshiping of Angels directed though the Law was given by their ministration and that state was more particularly subject to them than the state of the Gospel is as the Apostle declares Heb. 2.5 In the Book of Psalms which were the Praises and Hymns used in the publick Worship of the Jews there is no address made to any departed Saint or even to any Angel though the Jewish Church had no advocate with the Father in our nature which is a peculiar priviledge of the Christian Church since the Ascension of our Saviour That place in the Old Testament which may seem to look most favourably towards the invocation of an Angel Gen. 48.16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the Lads is by many ancient Christian Writers not understood of a created Angel But however it is to be observed that these words were part of the benediction of Jacob to the Sons of Joseph Now a benediction frequently doth not exclude a prayer to the thing or person spoken of but a desire of the good expressed with an implicite application to God that he would grant it Thus in the next words Gen. 48.16 Let my name be named on them and the name of my Fathers Abraham and Isaac which contain no prayer to the names of his Fathers or to his own So Isaac blessed Jacob Gen. 27.29 using these expressions Let People serve thee and Nations bow down unto thee And this Clause of Jacob's Benediction is well paraphrased by one of the (p) Targ. Jonath in Gen. 48.16 Chaldee Paraphrasts Let it be well pleasing before him God that the Angel c. But the Holy Angels themselves declared against the giving to them any
who appointed not this kind of Covenanting established the Christian Church in that way of Unity that it was one Church but these have ordered this method for the dividing it 20. Secondly This casts a disparagement on Christs Institution of Baptism as if this Ordinance of his was not sufficient and effectual for the purposes to which he appointed it whereof one was the receiving Members into his Church and the Communion thereof The Scriptures declare Christians to be Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12.12 and that they who are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and therefore by this Sacramental Ordinance members are received into fellowship with Christ and communion with his Church But these expressions in the Assembly-confession of (i) Conf. c. 27. n. 1. Sacraments being Instituted to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the World And of Baptism being ordained by Christ for the solemn admission of the party Baptized into the visible Church are rejected and left out in the declaration of Faith by them of the Congregational way And we are told by the New England Independents that (k) Answ to 32. Qu. to qu. 4. they do not believe that Baptism doth make men members of the Church and they there say strangely enough that Christ Baptized but made no new Church Wherefore when Christ appointed Baptism to receive members of his Church this Covenant which he never appointed is by them set up thus far in the place and room of it 21. Thirdly By making this Covenant the only right ground of Church-fellowship they cast a high reflexion on the Apostolical and Primitive Churches who neither practised nor delivered any such thing as if the Apostolical Model must give place to theirs and those first Churches must not be esteemed regularly established But this Covenant managed in the dividing way is somewhat like the practice of Novatus who hath been ever reputed guilty of great Schism who ingaged his followers by the most solemn Vow that they should never forsake him nor return to Cornelius their true Bishop only his Covenant had not a peculiar respect to a particular Congregation But this bond of their own promise and vow was intended to keep them in that separation which the more solemn Vow of Baptism and undertaking Christianity ingaged them to reject And it is a great mistake to imagine that the former ought to take place against the latter or that men may bind themselves to act against the will of God and that thenceforth they ought not to observe it 22. Fourthly The confinement of Church-membership to a single Congregation entred under such a particular Covenant is contrary to several plain duties of Christianity For according to this notion the peculiar offices of Brotherly Love as being members one of another and that Christian care that follows thereupon it limited to a narrow compass together with the exercise of the Pastoral care also which ought to be inlarged to all those professed Christians with whom we do converse And it is of dangerous and pernicious consequence that the duties of love and being helpful to one another and provoking to love and good works upon account of our membership with the Church visible though these things be in practice too much neglected should be straitned by false and hurtful notions and opinions It was none of the least miscarriages of the Jews that when God gave them that great Commandment to love their Neighbour as themselves they should satisfie themselves in the performing this duty with a much more restrained sense of the word Neighbour than the Divine Law intended And it must not be conceived that false imaginations concerning the bounds of the Church and fellowship therein will be esteemed in the sight of God a sufficient discharge from the duties he requires men to perform to others nor will this be a better excuse under Christianity than the like mistake was under Judaism 23. Thirdly I shall consider their placing the chief Ecclesiastical power and authority in the Body of the people or the members of the Church To this purpose by some of them we are told that (m) Answ to 32. Qu. to Q. 14. in Peter and the rest the Keys are committed to all Believers who shall join together in the same confession according to the Ordinance of Christ and they give the people the power of (n) Answ to Qu. 15. censuring offenders even Ministers themselves if they be such And on this account at least in part I suppose the Congregational Churches in their Declaration of Faith omitted the whole Chapter of (o) Ch. 30. Church censures contained in the Assembly's Confession in which they had declared the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to be committed to the Church Officers Now besides that the way of Government and Censure by the major Vote of the people hath been the occasion of much confusion in some of their Congregations that which I shall particularly insist on is the great sin of intruding upon any part of the Ministerial Authority or neglecting due regard or reverence thereto How plain is it in the Scripture that the Apostles governed and ordered the state of the Christian Church and that Timothy and Titus and the Angels of the Churches did and were to do the like It was to the Apostles as chief Officers of the Christian Church that Christ declared Joh. 20.23 whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained and Matt. 18.18 whatsoever yet shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose in Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And by these and such like words the power of inflicting Censures and receiving to and conferring of the priviledges of the Church as well as of dispensing all those Ordinances whereby the grace of God and remission of sins are particularly tendered are appropriated to the Officers of the Church as part of their Office 24. In this plain sense were these Christian Laws generally understood by the Primitive Church which practised accordingly which they who read the ancient Canons must necessarily confess And the same is manifest from the particular Writers of the first Ages For instance even (p) Cyp. Ep. 27. S. Cyprian from what our Lord spake to S. Peter of the power of the Keys and of binding and loosing infers the Episcopal honour and that every act of the Church must be governed by those Prefects or Superiors And from those words and what our Saviour spake to his Apostles Jo. 20. about remitting sins he concludes that only the Governours in the Church (q) Ep. 73. can give remission of sins And when Rogatianus a Bishop complained to Cyprian concerning a Deacon who behaved himself contumeliously towards him S. Cyprian commends his humility in addressing himself to him (r) Ep. 65. when he had himself power by virtue of his Episcopacy and the
faithful delivery of Christian truths by word of mouth to be a very useful way to bring many to the Faith or to establish them in it and we doubt not but that very great Multitudes who have not the advantage of using reading or hearing the Scriptures may by this means be brought to believe Such was the case of some barbarous Nations in the Primitive times and of many Pagans in these later times But since the ceasing of the extraordinary gifts of revelation in the Church the most faithful delivery of these truths is that which is guided by the Scripture and takes that for its Rule and such are the sober instructions of knowing and well grounded Protestants and no other delivery can be faithful but that which is agreeable to the Scripture and its ruling Power and this was the commendation Irenaeus gave to Polycarp Eus Hist Eccl. lib. 5. c. 20. that he delivered all things consonant to Scriptures Yet though this way of delivery by word of mouth is very useful yet it was then only a sure Rule of Faith when these truths were delivered of them who were inspired of God and thereby were infallible in their delivery and such was the delivery by the Apostles and Evangelists both in their preaching and in their Writing Next to the Apostles but not equally with them we would value the delivery of Apostolical men But in after-ages we deny any certainty of infallible delivery of truths in the way of Oral Tradition and acknowledge that only a certain delivery which appears such by its accord and agreement with the Scripture Rule And as to the sense of Scripture we doubt not but when God gave the Primitive Church gifts of interpretation there was a delivery of the sense of Scripture not only in plain and necessary things which are obvious from the words but even in many more hard and difficult Texts of Scripture Yet all obscure Scriptures were not even in those times explained and their explications generally received since S. Peter speaks of many things in S Pauls Epistles which were hard to be understood which if the interpretation of them had been generally delivered and received in the Churches in Gods name they could not have been The great and necessary Doctrines were then received and delivered according to the true intent and meaning of Christ and that was agreeable to the Scriptures Hence the delivery of any truth to all Churches in the Apostles times and its being received by them so far as this could be made evident was a very useful way to destroy Heresie yet the Fathers who made use of this way did also shew that these truths were plain in Scripture To these Churches so far as the Doctrine by them received can be manifested we would willingly appeal for a trial of Controversies and do readily imbrace such truths as by sure evidence appear to be the Doctrine held by those Churches Partly as thus delivered and chiefly as clear in Scripture we receive those Articles of Faith contained in the Creed commonly owned in the Catholick Church but the Creed we conceive to be delivered in a much more sure and safe way than Oral Tradition since the words of it have with common consent been agreed on fixed and determined the want of which advantage in the Romish Tradition doth manifest it to be very alterable and uncertain in other Doctrines But that all points of Christian Doctrine or Apostolical interpretations of hard Scriptures are infallibly delivered from the Primitive Churches by the way of Oral and Practical Tradition we deny Nor can there be more reason to perswade us that the present delivery of the Romish Church doth faithfully preserve such Doctrines and interpretations than would also perswade that when Ezra read the Law and caused the people to understand the sense of it we might certainly find the Doctrines by him taught and the interpretations by him given amongst the Traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees as surely as we could have them from Ezra's mouth or from them who heard him and were faithful relaters of his teaching I will only further here observe that Tradition may be considered either as a meer speculation and notion and thus a man may imagine a constant delivery of the self same things truths and actions by the successions of several generations without considering whether there really be any such delivery or whether it can be rationally expected and to treat of such a Tradition as this being a Rule of Faith is but to discourse of aiery fancies and imaginations Or else Tradition may be considered as something reall and in being and thus we may inquire whether such a Tradition as is to be found in the Church or in the World be a sure way to deliver truth infallibly to Posterity This is that we Protestants deny and if this Author intend not the proof of this he will speak nothing to the purpose and will only shew that such Tradition as they of Rome or any other in the World have not might be the Rule of Faith and notwithstanding all this they will be destitute of it I shall now examine his Discourses of Tradition in which every Reader will be able to observe that he hath made no proof considerable unless he hath said more for the Tradition of the Romish Church than can be said to prove Religion not corrupted before the Flood or after the Flood amongst the Gentiles or before the Captivity and at the time of Christ amongst the Jews § 1. Coming to inquire whether that Tradition be the Rule of Faith which he calls Oral and Practical he thus explains it We mean a delivery down from hand to hand by words and a constant course of frequent visible actions conformable to those words of the sense and faith of the fore-Fathers Our business in this Discourse is to inquire whether this can be a Rule of Faith which the Discourser affirms and Protestants deny § 2. To understand this way of Tradition he observes on this manner Children learn the names of Persons Rooms and things they converse with and afterwards to write read and use civil carriage And looking into the thing they gain the notions of several objects either by their own senses or by the help of having them pointed at and this he observes is the constant course of the World continued every Age yea every Year or Month. This is Tradition in Civil matters Concerning this Tradition it may be observed that about matters visible to sense the Objects or Things and the names of the things must be distinctly considered The common notions of Objects visible as of Heaven Earth Sun Moon Rooms Man Trees c. are by common apprehensions even of Children received from Senses not by tradition of a former Generation and those apprehensions are preserved by the view of the visible objects But the words or names are indeed delivered in such a way of Tradition but words thus delivered are not
the Wicked and Evil-doers Even in Aaron's blessing the People God declared that he himself would bless them And the whole intention of the Gospel is a Dispensation of God's Blessing which cometh upon them who serve him The Blessed Jesus was sent to Bless in turning Men from their Iniquities to such he begins his Sermon in the Mount with Blessing Mat. 5.3.4 Luke 24.50 51 and this also was the last action he perform'd immediately upon his Ascension into Heaven Most of the Apostolical Epistles both begin and end with Benedictions which persons partake of according to their pious qualifications For when not only the Apostles but also the Seventy were commanded to pronounce Peace to the House or Place where they came Mat. 10.12 13 Luke 10.5.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Peace being according to the usual Jewish Phrase a comprehension of all Blessing our Saviour tells them that if the Son of Peace be there their Peace shall rest upon it if not it shall turn to them again The ancient Church to this end used particular Benedictions in Confirmation Ordination receiving Penitents Matrimony and to dying Persons but all these the Corruption of Times hath transformed into reputed proper Sacraments And those Blessings in Confirmation and Ordination are most Solemn the former of which was granted even by S. Hierome Hier. adv Luc. according to the custom of the Church all over the World to be performed by the Bishop only And in our Administration thereof the serious renewing the Baptismal Covenant which is a necessary duty of Christian Profession is a good disposition for receiving the Blessing of God and on this account Confirmation is not to be slighted or wilfully neglected by those who have a high esteem for the Blessing of God 3. They who receive this Ministry are to guide the Church and Christian Society that its Members may please God not forfeit his Favour or provoke his Displeasure The most things contained under this head will respect those Ministers of the Church who are the chief Governours thereof and the things established by their consent and agreement The Church of God is a most excellent Society and his Ministers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who are to have the care and ordering of this Family of God Titus 1.7 and such publick Worship as is ordered according to the Will of God being acceptable to him it belongs to them to take care of the performance thereof and also of establishing Order and Decency and the framing and executing such Rules and Canons for Government and Discipline as are meet And though the external Sanction of these things is well ordered by the Secular power yet the directive part and the spiritual Authority belongs to the Guides of the Church who by the Gospel are appointed therein Rulers and Presidents Hence Inferiours are required to obey them that are over them and submit themselves and Titus was sent to Crete to order the things that were wanting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13.7 17.24 Tit. 1.5 1 Tim. 3.5 1 Pet. 5.2 and Bishops in general stand charged by S. Paul and St. Peter to take care of the Church of God And as that is a requisite to Order and due Reverence in Religious Worship to them also belongs the setting apart and consecrating Places for the publick Service of God But because there can be no security for Order where every Officer may act independently at his own Pleasure therefore they have Authority to order Uniformity which is in it self desirable and ought to be observed not only with respect to the secular Sanction but together therewith in compliance also with the Ecclesiastical Authority invested in Synods which hath in all Ages from the Apostles been honoured in the Christian Church of which the observation of the Canons of the several Councels and Codes is an experimental Evidence And as the mutual Consent of Pastors in Synods is according to natural Prudence directly pursueth the great ends of Peace and Unity and by their agreement addeth Weight to their Authority so this Case is eminently included in that Promise of our Saviour Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 Act. 16.4 5. Act. 21.18 24 26. Act. 8.14 And St. Paul himself yielded manifest Obedience both to the Decrees of the Council at Jerusalem Act. 15. And to that other Council Act. 21. And so did S. Peter and S. John to another Council And since Christians being established in the Truth is of great use both to their own and the Churches Peace in order hereunto the Pastors of the Church in Councils have power to abandon Heretical and dangerous Doctrines and to require submission to the Truth they declare This was done in the Synod of the Apostles against the necessity of Circumcision and in the four first general Councils concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Person of the Mediator And such Decisions concerning matters of Doctrine when managed aright have been deservedly reverenced in the Church since one end of God's appointing these Officers is that we should be no more Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine Eph. 4.14 And upon this account a particular Honour is due to the established Doctrine of our Church which hath a high agreement with the Rule of Scripture and the Catholick and Primitive Church Besides these things all particular Officers of the Church in their charge are to watch over those committed to them as much as in them lies with special regard to the Sick and to those also who need to be Catechised in the Principles of Religion John 21.15 it being our Saviour's first charge to S. Peter to feed his Lambs with earnest Prayer for the Grace and Blessing of God upon them all 4. The Ministry of Reconciliation includeth an Authority of rebuking and admonishng Offenders of casting them out of the Church and of restoring them again upon Repentance This hath been the ordinarily received sense of those great words of our Saviour Mat. 18.18 Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven There is indeed a late Objection made that these words speak not of binding and loosing Persons but Things and that it is usual with the Jewish Writers to express the binding and loosing of Things not of Persons meaning thereby the declaring or judging such things prohibited or allow'd But besides what may be otherwise said I think it sufficient at present to observe that the admitting this notion may well enough consist with the true sense of these words which if interpreted by it will import 1. That the power of binding and loosing hath a considerable respect to such things as the Cases Offences and Penitent Performances of persons
Preach the Gospel to every Creature So that this was not a singular Authority committed to St. Peter but he was first made choice of to have a right understanding of the extent of his Commission And it is not to be doubted but that Authority which did belong to all the Apostles of leading Men to the Church receiving them into it governing them in it and excluding them from it doth contain the chief part of the power of the Keys 3. To us not only to the Apostles but even to other Officers of the Church as Bishops and Priests or Presbyters is given this Ministry of Reconciliation for if we consider the nature of this Office the Ministry of Reconciliation or which is all one the Ministry of the Gospel must not cease till the end of it in the Salvation of Men be accomplished And our Saviour both promiseth his Presence and Authority to be with his Ministry unto the end of the World and establisheth them in his Church till we all come in the Unity of the Faith Mat. 28.20 Eph. 4.14 and Knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect Man And we may further observe That in writing this second Epistle to the Corinthians it is manifest from the Inscription thereof that Timothy therein joined with S. Paul Now though he was no Apostle nor a Companion of St. Paul till after the Council of Jerusalem as appears from the History of the Acts yet he here as well as St. Paul hath a share in the Ministry of Reconciliation That Timothy was the first Bishop of Ephesus is generally declared by the Ancient Writers Eusebius attesteth it Eus Hist l. 3. c. 4. and besides others this was expressed by Leontius in the great Council of Chalcedon Conc. Chalc. Action 11. there being then preserved an exact Record and Catalogue of the Bishops of that Church And though Learned Men herein disagree and there is manifest difficulty in fixing the Chronology it is greatly probable from comparing the Epistles to Timothy with the History of the Acts that he was not yet made Bishop of Ephesus when this Epistle to the Corinthians was written And this might then give some fair probability from the instance of Timothy that that Order of Priest or Presbyter as distinct from a Bishop was of an Apostolical and therefore a Divine Original But because several difficulties too large to be here discussed must be obviated for the clearing this particular I shall rather fix upon another Consideration which may be sufficient to perswade the same It is very evident from the History of the Acts and some expressions in the Epistles that for several years after the famous Church of Ephesus was founded by St. Paul Timothy the first Bishop there was usually with St. Paul in his Journeys or by his Command in other places Now it may be acknowledged that the chief Government and power of Censure in several Churches was for some time reserved in the hands of the Apostles themselves though at a distance as is evident from the Epistles to the Corinthians it was concerning the Church of Corinth But he who shall think that in all this time they had no Church-Officer fixed amongst them in that great Church of Ephesus to administer the Holy Communion and celebrate other needful Ministerial Performances must account the Apostles to have had no great care of the Churches they planted nor the Churches to have had any great zeal for the Religion they embraced which no Man can judg who hath any knowledg of the Spirit of that Primitive Christianity But if they had in the Church of Ephesus other fixed Officers distinct from the Bishop to celebrate the Holy Communion and other necessary acts of ordinary Ministration then must the Order of Presbyters be of as early original in the Church as the History of the Acts and then the ordaining Elders in every Church must take in those who are distinctly called Priests or Presbyters To this I add that the Office of Presbyter includeth an Authority to tender in God's Name remission of Sins and as from him to exhibit to his Church the Sacramental Symbols of his Grace and upon that account no such Office could ever have its Original from any lower than Apostolical and Divine Authority 4. To us in different Ranks and Orders in the Church not in a parity and equality Here is S. Paul an Apostle and Timothy in an Order inferiour to him When Christ was upon Earth he appointed the Apostles and the Seventy and when he Ascended he gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers And though most of these were Officers by an extraordinary Commission which are ceased yet when Timothy was fixed at Ephesus where there then were Presbyters as I have shewed the chief power of Government and the care of Ordination was intrusted in his hands singly as is manifest and hath been oft observed from the Epistles to Timothy The like appears concerning Titus as also that the chief care of the Churches of Asia was in the hands of the Angels of those Churches If we consult the Ancient state of the Church this chief Government in a single Person or Bishop in those ancient times took place as far as Christianity it self reached Besides what may be said from particular Writers 1 Can. Ap. 2. Can. Nic. 19. the first General Council of Nice and the more ancient Code called the Canons of the Apostles do both of them not only frequently mention as distinct Offices the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon but also express this distinction between Bishop and Presbyter 1. 2 Can. Ap. 1. Can Nic. 4. 3 Can. Ap. 15 31 32 38. Conc. Nic. c. â— That the peculiar power of Ordaining doth reside in the Bishop 2. That he receiveth his Episcopal Office by a special Ordination thereto 3. That he hath a particular power of governing and censuring the Laiety and other Clergy And he who shall consider that many things in the Scripture may receive considerable Light from understanding the custom of the Jews and even of the Gentiles must needs acknowledg that an account of the practice and customs of the Christian Church may lead us to the true sense of those expressions of Scripture which have relation thereto especially since no Man without this help can give a satisfactory account of the distinct work and business of those ordinary Church-Officers which are particularly mentioned in Scripture Wherefore I doubt not but according to the Scripture and the Universal practice of the ancient Church throughout the World the power of the Keys and of remitting and retaining Sins which takes in the whole Office of the Ministry is in some eminent parts of it wholly reserved to Bishops while other parts thereof are dispensed by Priests and some by Deacons Ignat. ad Smyr Tert. de Bapt. c. 17. yet so that these ever acted with submission to the Bishop as is asserted by Ignatius and Tertullian
I shall only here further observe that in the very beginning of Christianity the distinction of the Officers of the Christian Church was owned and acknowledged to be correspondent and parallel to the distinction of the Officers of the Jewish Temple-Service the observing of which seemeth of considerable moment in this case Even St. Hierome declares That what place Aaron Hieron ad Evagr. Epiph. Haer. 29. 78. Hieronym de scrip Eccles in Jacobo Eus Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 23 gr his Sons and the Levites had in the Temple the same have the Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Church It is related concerning St. James the first Bishop of Jerusalem by Epiphanius out of Clemens that he did wear the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the Septuagint the Plate upon the high Priest's Mitre on which was engraven Holiness to the Lord and he as also S. Hierome and Eusebius from Egesippus relate that to him only it was lawful to enter into the Holy of Holies 〈…〉 Now all these Christian â—â—â—iters with others who use somewhat like expressions as â—â—â—crates concerning St. John must never be thought to â—â—â—â—pire together to impose Fables upon the after-Ages 〈◊〉 â—ould they be so much wanting in the knowledge of Christianity as to imagine that these great Officers of the Christian Church were Jewish High Priests and ministred in their Temple-Service but the sense of these expressions though they may seem at first view obscure is that S. James was acknowledged to have a like eminency of Office above others in the Christian Church of Jerusalem as the Jewish High-Priest had above other Priests in the Jewish Church Naz. Or. 5. And Nazianzen expresseth his being ordained Bishop by these and other like words saith he Thou anointedst me an High-Priest and broughtst me to the Altar of the Spiritual Burnt-Offering sacrificedst the Calf of Initiation and madest me view the Holy of Holies Which words evidence that the Christian Bishop by an Allegorical Allusion was described by words primarily relating to the Jewish High-Priest because of a Parallel eminency in each of them Now this Observation shews the distinction of these Officers of the Christian Church Euseb HIst l. 2. c. 1. Hieron de script Eccles from the very beginning thereof St. James being ordained Bishop of Jerusalem very soon after our Saviour's Ascension And this will further evidence that as the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the Jewish Writers frequently mention the Officers of the Temple-Service only by the names of Priests and Levites including therein the High-Priest whose Office was distinct from the other Priests so it is no prejudice to the like distinction of Offices under the New Testament that in the Scriptures and some other ancient Writers the Officers above Deacons are sometimes expressed by the name of Bishops sometime of Elders Priests or Presbyters whilst yet we have very plain Testimony of the singular eminency of one who hath since been peculiarly called the Bishop I come now to the last thing to be discoursed of the Divine Authority by which this Ministry is established God in Christ hath given to us the Ministry of Reconciliation and this speaketh three things 1. The true Original of this Function God the Father gave the Ministry of Reconciliation our Lord sent his Apostles as his Father sent him and the Holy Ghost made the Elders of Ephesus to be Overseers of the Flock And here not only St. Paul who was called immediately but Timothy also even as those other Elders of Ephesus being called by Men whom God made chief Officers in his Church received this Ministry by Divine Authority and therefore the Administrations thereof are performed in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost This therefore is such a Sanction as every Person upon Earth ought to reverence and whosoever either despise or oppose this Ministry had need seriously and timely to consider whose Authority they undertake to affront When our Saviour appointed the Twelve Apostles and afterwards the Seventy Mat. 10.15 Luke 10 12. he bids them both to shake off the Dust of their Feet against that City that should not receive them and tells them it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in that day than for that City and declares further even to the Seventy who were then of the lowest rank of them whom he sent Luke 10.16 he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me But for all those who are employed about God's Work and are warranted by his Authority if they be faithful in his Service 1 Pet. 5.4 they shall be here under his Care and hereafter partakers of his Reward St. Peter acquaints us that when the chief Shepherd shall appear they shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Rev. l. 16 20. ch 2. l. and St. John assures us That our Lord himself holdeth the seven Stars or the Angels of the seven Churches in his right hand 2. This speaks also the Excellency of this Ministry As it is from God it is properly and eminently a Gift of God even a Gift of that high Nature that when Christ in his glorious Exaltation received Gifts for Men he then gave some Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4 1â— and as Head of his Church established this fixed Ministry And if we consider it as it respects Men the most excellent Designs are thereby pursued to wit the promoting among Men the Glory of God and the Kingdom and Government of Jesus Christ and the conducting Men into the Ways of God and thereby unto Peace and Reconciliation with him and to everlasting Happiness Hereupon they who serve God in this Office 1 Cor. 3.9 2 Cor. 6.1 are owned to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fellow-workers with God himself as under God carrying on the great Design of God and his Goodness in the World And this speaks it an Institution of great Value Worth and Honour And as I above noted this Ministry to excell the Jewish Priesthood which yet was very excellent so St. Chrysostom observes That God hath given this high Honour thereto Chrysost de Sacerdot l. 3. c. 5. which he hath not given to the holy Angels and Archangels themselves to be Ministers of Reconciliation and to dispense in his Name the Pledges of his Grace and Favour unto the Members of his Church 3. This sheweth that no Man may take this Honour unto himself but he that entreth into any Order of this Ministry must do it in that way which God appointeth The Apostles were constituted and commissionated immediatly by Christ himself and as he committed the general Care of his Church to them he therewith endued them with a Power to ordain others which is a chief part of that Care and of great concernment for the present and future Good of the Church The Assistants of the Apostles and the first Bishops and other Officers of the several
but to this Man will I look that is poor and of a contrite Spirit Isa 66.1 2. Now upon this consideration of the Divine Goodness the Ninevites proceeded in their Repentance and tho that was undertaken upon uncertain hopes yet with good success But we have plain Promises and Directions to our Duty and as plain Promises annexed thereunto such as Ezek. 18.20 I will judg you O House of Israel every one according to his Ways saith the Lord God ' Repent and turn your selves from all your Transgressions so Iniquity shall not be your Ruine I come now to consider some peculiar Encouragements from Christianity and shall here mention three 1. From the coming of the Son of God into the World He came to be a Mediator and a Sacrifice and to assure us that God is ready to be reconciled to all them that turn to him and entertain the Terms of his Covenant And therefore those who are truly penitent shall by virtue of the Death and Sacrifice of Christ and the Reconciliation he hath thereby made obtain the Favour of God This was so much designed by our Saviour that Repentance was one of the first things he preached Mat. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and to say Repent And among the last Things which he committed to his Apostles before his Ascension this was one That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations Luke 24.47 And is it not our great Comfort that the Encouragements to true Repentance are assured by the Doctrine of the Gospel and by the Death of Christ and that they are confirmed by both the Sacraments of the New Testament If God had not been willing to receive humble Penitents and to give them his Blessings would he have sent his Son and have given so great a Blessing to the World as to put us upon returning to him And if Christ came to call Sinners to Repentance will he not own and receive them who obey his Call It is true indeed that the Proposals of the Gospel do chiefly relate to God's bestowing spiritual and eternal Blessings and our Care should be especially about these things but even temporal Blessings are not excluded from the Promises of God 2. From the Glory of Christ's Exaltation He who upon Earth proposed the Grace and Doctrine of Repentance hath now in Heaven all Authority and Power to dispense the Blessings he promised to them who obey him And he is faithful and true to perform his Word Would you obtain Remission of Sin and the Favour of God He as our High-Priest is our Intercessor effectually to procure this Blessing from God for them who heartily turn to him And as our King he is himself empowered to dispense this Favour of God For God hath exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Forgiveness of Sins Acts 5.31 And he who took so much pains to seek after the straying Sheep will no doubt embrace them who by his care do return If you seek for the Welfare and Preservation of the Church of God and its being defended against its Enemies as humble pious Christians are the Heirs of Promise these Blessings are the Benefits contained in the Covenant and Promise of God And withal there are special Encouragements from our Saviour's Exaltation for our expecting to receive these Mercies For our Saviour being exalted at God's right-hand is now made an Head over all things to the Church and this includes both his near Relation which he beareth to it and that also he taketh upon himself a very particular Care of it And his Exaltation is so fatal to his and his Churches Enemies that he must reign till all his Enemies be made his Footstool Hereupon he tells Saul going to Damascus that it was hard for him to kick against the Pricks His Enemies must fall before his Power but he will effect what he undertakes to uphold 3. From the more particular Consideration of the State of the Gospel-Church The Christian Church is made up of returning Penitents but these are owned of God as his Children and Heirs and they shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father And such is God's Care of this Society of his Church that if it walk in his Way it shall be supported by him tho Earth and Hell should contrive against it Yet no particular Branch or Part of the Christian Church hath any security of its standing or any assurance from God that it shall be preserved but upon the Conditions of its holding the Faith and practising Piety and Obedience or hearty Repentance And indeed it can have none because there can be no particular Promise from God against the Nature and Terms of the New Covenant which enjoins Faith and Obedience as necessary Conditions of Acceptance with God The Romish Church pretends that she can never fall but must always continue because of that Promise of our Saviour Mat. 16.18 On this Rock I will build my Church But to this all I shall say at this time is That these Words do no way particularly refer to the Roman Church as it would arrogate to it self And our Lord hath plainly declared to us that no Church or Persons whatsoever can be represented by a House built upon a Rock which will stand notwithstanding all Oppositions but those who hear and obey his Doctrine which the Church of Rome doth not But all who neglect this Faith and Practice are as those who build on the Sand their House will fall and great will be the Fall thereof Mat. 7.24 25 26 27. And that there was no particular Privilege of this Nature ever intended to be granted to the Church of Rome is further manifest from that Epistle St. Paul wrote to the Romans For with some particular respect to that Church he lets them know If God spared not the natural Branches take heed lest he also spare not thee and if thou continue not in his Goodness thou also shalt be cut off Rom. 11.21 22. But all particular Churches whatsoever who heartily obey the Doctrine of the Gospel are secured of God's especial Care and Preservation from those Words of our Saviour John 15.2 Every Branch in me that beareth Fruit my Father purgeth it that it may bring forth more Fruit. The fruitful part of his Vineyard will not want his Care And it is our great Comfort that God's Catholick Church stands by his Foundation upon a Rock so that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it or no kind of Destruction shall be able to overcome it So that whatever Enemies it hath in the World they like the proud and mighty Waves if they dash themselves against the Rock will be broken in pieces but the Rock it self and that which is built upon it as an impregnable Fortress standeth firm For the Comfort of the Primitive Christians the Book of the Revelations gave them assurance that God would take care that his Church should not be overwhelmed
of God in it that all his Revelations to the Patriarchs and Prophets and especially that by the Holy Jesus to the Christian Church do greatly insist upon it When the Gentile World went greatly astray by their abominable Idolatries and their gross Impurities even in their pretendedly Religious Rites the Doctrine of the Gospel appears to turn them from the Power of Satan unto God When the Jews had been under a lower Dispensation our Lord gives his Disciples more excellent Rules and enlargeth the Precepts of the Moral Law as was truly asserted by Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus St. Augustine and other ancient Writers And why should it be thought strange that Lawgiver should add to the Precepts already given and extend them further who established many new Duties such as to believe the peculiar Doctrines of the Christian Faith to perform many religious Services in his Name and with an eye to him to attend on the Gospel-Sacraments to reverence the Christian Ministry and the Power of the Keys and to own and embrace Communion with the diffusive Catholick Church in all Nations He laid new Obligations upon his Disciples concerning Divorce and the changing the Zeal of Elias into Christian Meekness And it is but reasonable to expect that under the Instructions and Motives of Christianity there should be required greater Measures of the Love of God and Goodness But when the Jewish Church had in their Principles and Practices grosly degenerated from the great Design of the Law and many Corruptions were introduced our Lord protests against them and gives his Disciples this Admonition That their Righteousness must exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees The Pharisees were the strictest Sect of the Jews at that time the Scribes were their chief Teachers and Guides their Righteousness here intended was what was according to the Rules and Doctrines they delivered and received Against that Leaven of Doctrine our Lord warned his Disciples Mat. 16.12 The out-doing and exceeding this Righteousness is so necessary that it is enjoined under this severe Sanction That otherwise we can in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is a Phrase peculiar to St. Matthew among all the Penmen of the Scripture but hath been observed not to be unusual in the Talmud Hor. Hebr. in Mat. 3.3 and other Jewish Writers It sometimes expresseth in this Evangelist the Kingdom of Christ in his Church on Earth but in this place and others the Kingdom of Glory and eternal Happiness But if any should think these Words directly to assert that none whose Righteousness exceeds not that of the Pharisees and their Teachers the Scribes can be true Members of the Christian Church and Christ's Kingdom upon Earth he must consequently acknowledg that they cannot be Heirs of Heaven Yet these Pharisees were not so wholly irreligious but that they attended the Temple and Synagogues made many Prayers seem'd to have a great Veneration for the Law and a Zeal for the Honour of the God of Israel They were not so grosly dissolute and debauched as to give themselves up to Uncleanness Intemperance and all Unmercifulness but they condemned Adultery fasted and gave Alms. Wherefore it may be needful to enquire I. What were the Miscarriages in their Righteousness and wherein must we exceed them if ever we attain to Happiness II. How stands the Case of those Societies who chiefly pretend to Christianity as to their exceeding or not exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees III. What is the Result of these Enquiries I. Touching their Miscarriages and Defects 1. They placed much Righteousness in their being a peculiar Party and maintaining a kind of Separation They were a particular Sect having and needlesly affecting singular Practices and Opinions different from the other Jews and such as were not enjoined in the Law of Moses The Name Pharisee is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate and divide and themselves were distinguished into seven sorts as the Jewish Writers tell us They did not indeed withdraw themselves from the Synagogue or Temple Publick-Worship since as Josephus saith Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever referred to God both Prayer and other parts of Worship were much ordered by their Model But concerning the Synagogue-Worship there is probable Evidence that the several chief Sects among the Jews and therefore the Pharisees as one of them had their distinct Assemblies And it is certain the Pharisees did reject the best of Men from their Synagogue-Communion meerly for doing their necessary Duty in professing upon the fullest Divine Testimony that Jesus was the Christ and becoming his Followers And in the Temple-Worship the Pharisees were guilty of a kind of Separation under an appearance of Communion For since the daily Sacrifice in the Temple was a Burnt-Offering and therefore appointed for Expiation and Atonement Num. 28.3 the Devotions of them who attended at the Temple at the Hours of Prayer and Sacrifice ought to be conformable thereunto but the Pharisees Prayer there as our Saviour describes it had nothing in it of humble Supplication for God's Mercy and Favour but he thanks God he was not as other Men. And this Spirit of Division was so much the worse in them because it was founded in an high Conceit and great Confidence of their own Righteousness though they had little reason for it and in a contempt of others But now such a proud Temper is inconsistent with Christianity which makes Humility a necessary Qualification for the obtaining everlasting Life And Divisions and Separations are so unaccountable for the Members of the same Body the Church to be engaged in that the Doctrine of Christ gives us frequent Precepts earnest Exhortations and pressing Arguments to Peace and Unity and plainly expresseth the great Danger of Misery in the neglect thereof When 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Contests fierce Heats and Divisions are reckoned among those Works of the Flesh which exclude from the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. can any think the great Discords in the Church unconcerned herein when the Concord of Christians is here chiefly enjoined and the Neglect thereof is every way exceeding hurtful and when all these very Expressions are used by St. Paul to set forth the Divisions of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.3 And therefore where-ever Rents or Schisms in the Church are Works of the Flesh as they must be when they are the Product of Pride Self-will or voluntary Disobedience to or Neglect of the Precepts of Peace and Unity they are destructive The Ancient Church charged an high Guilt upon these Practices Cypr. ep 76. ◠St. Cyprian accounts Schism greatly to deprive Men of the Hope of Christianity And St. Austin maintains against the Donatists that their Separation was as great a Sin as that of the Traditores who gave up the Scriptures into the hands of their Persecutors with which Crime the