the chief Corner-stone and great Master-builder too all the Powers of Heaven did help to carry on the Work I think I need not tell you that the Gospel like the Law was at first proclaimed by the Ministry of Angels that Jacobs dream and vision was made by them true story a Ladder was set up which reach'd from Earth to Heaven and they ascending and descending with sacred Messages to Men. Nay the Holy Ghost himself who foretold this in the old Testament was most busily imployed to fulfill it in the new every Sermon preach'd was attended with a miracle and the Doctrine signed and ratified with holy prodigies and wonders the Preachers all inspired with gifts proportion'd to their Work and enabled by those gifts to go and teach all Nations Nay so sollicitous and careful was this holy Spirit of God to provide fit Successors to those inspired and gifted Teachers that for many years after the first plantation of the Gospel not a Bishop was installed or admitted to his Chair not a Pastor to his Charge not a Deacon to his Table which was not first designed and named and qualified by him And this I might prove to you by several places of the Scripture but none more clear then this which I have chosen for my Text where St. Paul sayes to one of those new consecrated Bishops Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery IN which words you have these considerable Parts First the Person here consecrated to the sacred Office of a Bishop that was Timothy exprest in this word Thee Next his Qualification for that divine and sacred Office he was a Gifted man a man fitted for that Honour exprest in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gift that is in thee Thirdly his Conge D'Eslire or Designation to that Office by the Holy Ghost Author of that Gift 't was given him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the prediction of the Prophets Fourthly the Forme of his Consecration to that Office the holy Ghost designed him but the Church gave him Ordination 't was done by the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery Lastly St. Pauls fatherly Advice to him for his Deportment in that Office in these words Neglect not the Gift which was thus bestowed upon thee Of these in this order and first of the Person that was Timothy exprest in this word Thee As the distance between God and Man was so great that none but one who was compounded of both Natures was fit to reconcile them or to be a Mediator so in reconciling the Jews to the Gentiles to make them piece and joyn in one united Church none was so fit to procure a good liking and agreement as one in whom both parties had an equal Interest claim Now of all the men designed by God to accomplish that great Work I know none in all kinds so well fitted and proportion'd as this holy man the Bishop in this Text whose very birth disposed him to break down Partition-walls and to be a Reconciler of both parties from the womb For if we enquire into his Original or Birth as 't is set down in the Church-book Acts 16. his Mother was a Jewess but a Jewess made a Christian and his Father was a Greek but well-affected to the Jews as you may read in the first Verse of that Chapter not a Greek Hellenist or Jew bred in Greece called so from the Grecian Language which he spoke nor a Greek in the Grecian sense a man opposed to a Barbarian but a Greek in the general acception of the Scripture which divides the whole World of men into two Members Jews and Greeks For if we may give credit to the Syriack Translator he was Aramaeus that is no Greek but Syrian or as the Latine Interpreter more largely hath described him he was Homo Gentilis that is no Jew but Gentile And as his Birth did thus prepare him to preach the Gospel to all Nations so St. Paul who well knew the advantage of this mixture and how readily a Jew would hearken to a Jew and a Gentile be perswaded by one who was a Gentile to make his Capacity more passable and currant thought fit to circumcise him though he were before a Christian as you may read at the fourth Verse of that Chapter That by imploying one to preach who was a baptised Jew and one who withall was a circumcised Believer all prejudices might be stopt and no objection left to hinder or obstruct the free passage of his Sermons For that this was the reason why he circumcised him namely not to oblige him to observe and keep the Law but to remove obstructions from his preaching of the Gospel is evident from the end and close of that Verse which sayes that St. Paul in a holy prudence did it because They all knew that his Father was a Greek And certainly as St. Paul by this action this politick design gained justly to himself the reputation of that style which he bestows upon himself of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A wise Master-builder in the third Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians at the tenth Verse one who knew how to fit his Tools to his Matter to hew rude Subjects to his Ends and to give them shape and form so as to work upon the tempers of disagreeing Minds so no passage more confirms that rare Description of his Art which he makes in the 9. Chapter of that Epistle at the 20. Verse and forwards where he sayes That he became all things to all men as a Jew to the Jews and as a Gentile to the Gentiles to them under the Law as a man lock'd up in shackles to them without Law as at perfect liberty and freedom And all this to compass his great Catholick Design which was to bring if possible both parties to salvation Next then as his Birth did much contribute to his Function so his Education contributed much more He was bred in a Family upon which Religion seem'd entail'd where Piety ran in a bloud and lineally descended like Vertue of Inheritance from the Parents to the Child St. Paul speaking of his Mother Eunice and his Grandmother Lois in the 1. Chapter of his 2. Epistle to him at the 5. Verse sayes It very much rejoyced him to find the same unfeigned Faith in him which in a holy Pedegree he received and took from them And certainly as ill Example hath the power to convey hereditary Vices to infect by being seen and to corrupt by imitation nay as Vice in the Parent hath such an influence on the Child as to think it disobedience where the Parent is a sinner not to be as wicked and as great a sinner too As the young Virgin in the Poet seeing her unchast lascivious Mother write Letters to her loose Adulterer and Servant thought her self obliged to think Chastity a sin and so
PErlegi hanc Concionem eámque dignissimam judico quae publicam lucem aspiciat Geo. Stradling S. Th. D. Reverendi in Christo Patris Gilberti Episc. Lond. Sacellanus domest Feb. 24. Anno Salut 1661. A SERMON Preached at the CONSECRATION OF The Right Reverend Father in God Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford By JASPER MAYNE D. D. Canon of Christ-Church and one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary JOHN 20. 21. As my Father sent Me so send I You. LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1662. To the Right Reverend Father in God BRIAN Lord Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Honourable Order of the Garter and Almoner to His Majesty My Honoured Lord THose learned Jews and Christians who have been curious to find out the reason of some Visions in the Scripture do affirme That the Bush which Moses saw unburnt in the midst of fire was an Embleme of the Israelites then in bondage to the Aegyptians who were not onely preserved in the midst of Persecutions but thrived under their Oppressions hard Tasks and heavy Burthens and grew more numerous from the politick Arts which strived to lessen and destroy them till at length God contrived them a miraculous Deliverance which with their Calamitios concluded in a Song When I look back upon our late suffering Times the saddest which I think any History hath recorded where Oppression backt with Power made the Ruine of our Church the horrid step and ladder to the Usurpation of the Crown and where the name of a Bishop was so criminal and odious as to verifie Tertullian's sad complaint of his brutish Times Nominis vocabuli rei fuimus We were made guilty of a Word and condemned for being Christians and the style was punisht with publick Sales and Sequestrations and when withall I do consider by what unlookt-for way of Providence your Order and Religion like a Treasure snatcht from shipwreck were stupendiously restored after many years Confusion Methinks that Bush which Moses saw was the Embleme of our Church kept safe by Miracle in the midst of hungry fire and the Ship in the Gospel was presented to my eyes where Christ and his Apostles were tost in an hideous Storm but he waked and stilled the Winds and put a calmness to the Sea In these dayes of publick Calamity I was curious to observe how several men behaved themselves in strugling with their dangers I saw some take for their patern the Prophet Jonas in a storm who slept securely and untroubled when his Shipwreck rolled about him I saw others so much Cowards that to preserve their wretched Fortunes they compounded with the Tempest and made a League and Friendship with the Winds nay Servilely revived the Religion of those base timorous Heathens who worshipt every thing they fear'd and sacrificed to Furies and built Altars to their Plagues I saw others of a nobler and more stout and Christian Temper whose just reward is now to shine like Stars of Honour in the Church immovably resolute to maintain their Loyalty and Conscience with the loss of their Lives as they had already with their Fortunes Yet I hope it will be no diminution of their Vertues if I say That your Lordships Carriage in these Times of Persecution was to me most remarkable who by your happy Restitution and addition of more Honour have been made a greater Bishop but not a greater Person then you were in your lowest ebbe of Fortune The payment of your Vow in your building of an Alms-house on the place where you your self so ofter sate not wanting of an Almes but weeping o're the Prospect not then pleasant to your Eye because your proper business there was to aske the passers by If ever there were sorrows like to the sorrows of this Nation Your large Bounty to the College of which I am a Member which if I should name the Summe would make the world believe you meant to found a new College and not complete an old Your dying Liberalities bequeathed to others in your Will even to your meanest Servants who were your servants in distress are things which do proclaim you a great and noble Benefactor But these are but the good deeds of your Fortune done by the Bishop of Winchester the Charities of one possest with plenty and abundance your Rents and Mannors here share with you as Co-founders and your new Almes-house might have it written on the Walls A poor Bishop vow'd this House but a great and wealthy built it That which made you truly great and reverend in my eyes was to look into your noble Heart your large and bounteous Mind where your Good Deeds now were then but Wishes and Designs You were truly great to me when I saw you in your Poverty anticipate your Almes-house and be liberal at your door and the poor people in your House now had then places at your Gate when being reduced to the last Cruse of Oyle you made the drops run to others and when there was but a handful of Meal left in the little Barrel you then dealt your Loaf to those who wanted daily bread In short when you had but two Coats left to give one to the naked when you had hardly more then one Dish to make the poor your Guests to see you walk up your Hill with not much money in your purse and return back with none but then to think of laying up Treasures in Heaven when you had so little left on Earth was a Charity which raised in me a religious Admiration and lookt something like the Miracle wrought by our Saviour in the Gospel where Multitudes were fed with two fishes and five loaves Nor may I without some Injustice to your Vertues forbear to let the world know That I never saw Afflictions born with a more serene and even temper then you did yours who in the worst of Times stood like a firme unshaken Rock in the midst of angry waves your Courage still the same unbroken or undisturbed with any sad Disasters not more publick then your owne The old Church of England still kept up in your House with all its Formes and Rites though publickly forbidden Prayers constantly and twice a day read by you for the King at a time when such Devotions were made Treason by the Tyrant and Weekly Sermons preacht before you filled with so much Loyalty and Truth as would any where else have cast the Preacher into Bonds if not sent him from his Pulpit to the place of Execution To all this your Lordships continued Kindnesses to me by which I can compute my self almost grown aged in your Favours your encouragement of my younger Studies which grew up under your Example your Rescue of me from a Shipwreck in the late undoing Times when being tost and stript of all you were the Plank to save me and threw me out a line which drew me safe to shore are Reasons sufficient to let the World
know that of most sins I think Ingratitude the worst Being therefore fairly invited at first to preach this Sermon and since by several Hearers of it to make it this way publick I beseech your Lordship to allow it the shadow of your Wing and to accept it not as a full payment of my Debts to you for this very Dedication of it sets me deeper on your score but as a Testimony how much greater my Desires are then my Abilities or Parts to let the World know how unfeignedly I am Your Lordships Most obliged and very grateful Servant IASPER MAYNE Feb. 26. 1661. 1 TIM 4. 14. Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery THE PREFACE AS in the raising of the noblest Heights and Buildings that they may be exact and gain a reverence from the Eye great preparations are made towards the Erection of the Pile the best Masters in that Art are taken into counsel and Vitruvius is consulted to assist it with his Rules Platforms are drawn and Models are contrived that what was but a Scheme may be brought into a Structure Which made Aristotle say when he spoke like a Philosopher but so as that his saying holds in Architecture too That a material House or Palace springs from an immaterial and the Pile which is the creature of the Workmans Tool without was first shap'd and form'd by some designing mind within Lastly as when the materials are all ready and prepared some are set on work to hew and square the Stones others to dispose them into their several seats and stations others to oversee that the Workmen doe their Duties and that all things be done regularly as the Surveyors shall direct So God hath proceeded by the same course and method in the designing shaping forming and building of his Church Upon whose rude beginnings if we cast our eyes as it first appeared in the times before the Law though it began with the World and be as ancient as Mankind and had the same Corner-stone laid which now supports the Building in the promised Seed which was to bruise the Serpents head yet that Corner-stone being wrapt up in a Mystery and many thousand years required to remove the Veil and Cloud 't was but then a Church creeping forth out of the Quarrey without a hand to give it its just feature and perfection 'T is true indeed the Light of Nature helpt by the light and guidance of Tradition sufficiently inform'd men that God was to be worship'd but the way or manner how the work and person of the Priest the time when the place where with what holy Forms and Rites was left wholly to their Reason to discover and find out So that in the state of Nature the case stood with Religion as some have observed it did with the first Essayes in Painting unskilful men at first drew faces with a Coale to which after-times found Colours and gave beauty by their Pencil Or if you will hear me speak in the language of a Poet in this imperfect state of Nature the case stood with God in a way of Service and Religion as it did with the first Jupiter at Rome Aedibus exiguis habitabat Jupiter ingens Inque Jovis dextrâ fictile fulmen erat He was so rustickly adored that a Thatcht Cottage was his Temple where he stood holding an Farthen Thunder in his hand To redeem himself from so much rudeness of Devotion and to contrive a Worship some way worthy of his Greatness in the times of the Law he chose unto himself a select peculiar People which he formed into a Church and placed it for some Ages like a City on a Hill to invite the erring World to be its Proselytes and Converts His Service here below was taught to move like the Heavens above in a well-tuned harmony and musick of the Spheres A High-priest was appointed and the Miter set upon his head and inferiour Priests and Levites had their lower Orbs assigned them Sacrifices were prescribed and the business of the Temple proportion'd and cut out to the several Orders and Degrees of those who thus distinguish'd were to wait upon the Altar and the distinction was so sacred and the several bounds so set that as the Levite was not to invade the Office of the Priest so those inferiour Priests who broke beyond their bounds and attempted to invade the Office of the High-priest were not said to offer Sacrifice but strange fire before the Lord and perish'd for their boldness with their Censers in their hands To let us see that God was then the God of Order and turn'd such mens Oblations into their ruine and destruction Yet the Jewish Church thus modelled by Almighty God himself was but the imperfect draught and platform of a much holier Church to come 'T was but like their Tabernacle their House of Offerings and Oblations a moveable Pavilion or Tent fitted for a march towards a Land of Promise not yet discovered to their eye where that transitory Building that Temple made of threds was to be taken down to make way for one more lasting In short as 't is observed and 't is St. Austins Observation That in the forming of the Jewish Church the platform was first drawn and presented in a holy Scheme to Moses in the Mount so when that Scheme or Platform was wrought into a Fabrick when that which was a Pattern became a bodied Truth even that glorious Church in the midst of all its splendour was but a type and shadow of the Christian Church to come Some of the old lines were indeed to be preserved but with the addition of new colours drawing nearer to the life a High-priest was to be retained but with his Robes and Miter changed the Order of Aaron was to pass into the Order of Melchisedeck no longer to remain the Priest of one private single People but to be the publick Priest of all the Nations in the World The inferiour Priests and Levites too were to shift and change their Ephods and to pass into the Christian Presbyter and Deacon And now to hold you no longer in the Porch and Entrance of this Sermon but to draw this large Circle to its intended Point and Centre to reduce those Shadows into Substance and those Platforms into Building to form a new Church out of the ruines of an old stupendious in the raising and eternal in duration to make the Scripture-Prophecy become true authentick Story and the Glory of the second Temple to eclipse and drown the first to break down the Partition-Wall which divided Jews from Gentiles to square disproportion'd Subjects and unite all Nations in one Faith and by one common Gospel to bring them to Salvation was a Work reserved for none but Christ the Son of God himself Who as he was before designed to be the Head of this new Church so that he might be the Founder and Foundation of it