others and to pray for them with probable effect I say with probable effect for when the event principally depends upon that which is not within our own election such as are the lives and actions of others all that we can consider in this affair is whether wee be persons fit to pray in the behalf of others that hinder not but are persons within the limit and possibilities of the present mercy When the Emperour Maximinus was smitten with the wrath of God and a sore disease for his cruell persecuting the Christian cause and putting so many thousand innocent and holy persons to death and he understood the voice of God and the accents of thunder and discerned that cruelty was the cause he revoked their decrees made against the Christians recall'd them from their caves and deserts their sanctuaries and retirements and enjoyned them to pray for the life and health of their Prince They did so and they who could command mountaines to remove and were obeyed they who could doe miracles they who with the key of prayer could open Gods four closets of the wombe and the grave of providence and rain could not obtain for their bloudy Emperour one drop of mercy but he must die miserable for ever God would not be intreated for him and though he loved the prayer because he loved the Advocates yet Maximinus was not worthy to receive the blessing And it was threatned to the rebellious people of Israel and by them to all people that should sin grievously against the Lord God would break their staffe of bread and even the righteous should not be prevailing intercessors Though Noah Job or Daniel were there they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousnesse saith the Lord God and when Abraham prevailed very far with God in the behalf of Sodome and the five Cities of the Plain it had its period If there had been ten righteous in Sodom it should have been spared for their sakes but four onely were found and they onely delivered their own souls too but neither their righteousnesse nor Abrahams prayer prevailed any further and we have this case also mentioned in the New Testament If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death At his prayer the sinner shall receive pardon God shall give him life for them to him that prays in their behalf that sin provided it be not a sin unto death For there is a sin unto death but I doe not say that he shall pray for it There his Commission expires and his power is confin'd For there are some sins of that state and greatnesse that God will not pardon S. Austin in his books de sermone Domini in monte affirms it concerning some one single sin of a perfect malice It was also the opinion of Origen and Athanasius and is followed by venerable Bede and whether the Apostle means a peculiar state of sin or some one single great crime which also supposes a precedent and a present state of criminall condition it is such a thing as will hinder our prayers from prevailing in their behalf we are therefore not encouraged to pray because they cannot receive the benefit of Christs intercession and therefore much lesse of our Advocation which onely can prevail by vertue and participation of his mediation For whomsoever Christ prays for them wee pray that is for all them that are within the covenant of repentance for all whose actions have not destroyed the very being of Religion who have not renounc'd their faith nor voluntarily quit their hopes nor openly opposed the Spirit of grace nor grown by a long progresse to a resolute and finall impiety nor done injustices greater then sorrow or restitution or recompense or acknowledgment However though it may be uncertain and disputed concerning the number of sins unto death and therefore to pray or not to pray is not matter of duty yet it is all one as to the effect whether we know them or no for though we intend charity when we pray for the worst of men yet concerning the event God will take care and will certainly return thy prayer upon thy own head though thou didst desire it should water and refresh thy neighbors drynesse and St. John so expresses it as if he had left the matter of duty undetermin'd because the instances are uncertain yet the event is certainly none at all therefore because we are not encouraged to pray and because it is a sin unto death that is such a sin that hath no portion in the promises of life and the state of repentance But now suppose the man for whom wee pray to be capable of mercy within the covenant of repentance and not farre from the Kingdome of heaven yet 2ly No prayers of others can further prevail then to remove this person to the next stage in order to felicity When S. Monica prayed for her son she did not pray to God to save him but to cōvert him and when God intended to reward the prayers and almes of Cornelius he did not do it by giving him a Crown but by sending an Apostle to him to make him a Christian the meaning of which observation is that we may understand that as in the person prayed for there ought to be the great disposition of being in a saveable condition so there ought also to be all the intermediall aptnesses for just as he is disposed so can we prevail and the prayers of a good man first prevail in behalf of a sinner that he shall be invited that he shall be reproved and then that he shall attend to it then that he shall have his heart open'd and then that he shall repent And still a good mans prayers follow him thorough the severall stages of pardon of sanctification of restraining graces of a mighty providence of great assistance of perseverance and a holy death No prayers can prevaile upon an undisposed person For the Sun himself cannot enlighten a blind eye nor the soule move a body whose silver cord is loosed and whose joints are untyed by the rudenesse and dissolutions of a pertinacious sicknesse But then suppose an eye quick and healthfull or apt to be refreshed with light and a friendly prospect yet a glow-worm or a diamond the shels of pearl or a dead mans candle are not enough to make him discern the beauties of the world and to admire the glories of creation Therefore 2. As the persons must be capable for whom we pray so they that pray for others must be persons extraordinary in something 1. If persons be of an extraordinary piety they are apt to be intercessors for others This appeares in the case of Job When the wrath of God was kindled against Eliphaz and his two friends God commanded them to offer a sacrifice but my servant Job shall prey for you for him will I accept and it
burthensome to any where it can be avoided what can be wished to man in relation to others and what can be more beneficial to themselves then that they be such whom other men will value for their interest such whom the publick does need such whom Princes and Nobles ought to esteem and all men can make use of according to their several conditions that they are so well provided for that unlesse a persecution disables them they cannot onely maintain themselves but oblige others to their charity This is a temporal good which all wise men reckon as part of that felicity which recompences all the labours of their day and sweetens the sleep of their night and places them in that circle of neigbour-hood and amity where men are most valued and most secure 4. To this we may adde this material consideration That al those graces which oblige us to do good to others are nothing else but certain instruments of doing advantage to our selves It is a huge noblenesse of charity to give alms not onely to our Brother but for him It is the Christian sacrifice like that of Job who made oblations for his sons when they feasted each other fearing lest they had sinned against God and if I give almes and fast and pray in behalf of my prince or my Patron my friend or my children I do a combination of holy actions which are of all things that I can do the most effectual intercession for him whom I so recommend but then observe the art of this and what a plot is laid by the divine mercy to secure blessing to to our selves That I am a person fit to intercede and pray for him must suppose me a gracious person one whom God rather will accept so that before I be fit to pray and interpose for him I must first become dear to God and my charity can do him no good for whose interest I gave it but by making me first acceptable to God that so he may the rather hear me and when I fast it is first an act of repentance for my self before it can be an instrument of impetration for him And thus I do my Brother a single benefit by doing myself a double one and it is also so ordered that when I pray for a person for whom God will not hear me yet then he will hear me for my self though I say nothing in my own behalf and our prayers are like Jonathans arrows if they fall short yet they return my friend or my friendship to me or if they go home they secure him whom they pray for and I have not onely the comfort of rejoycing with him but the honour and the reward of procuring him a joy and certain it is that a charitable prayer for another can never want what it asks or instead of it a greater blessing The good man that saw his poor brother troubled because he had nothing to present for an offering at the Holy communion when all knew themselves obliged to do kindnesse for Christs poor members with which themselves were incorporated with so mysterious union and gave him mony that he might present for the good of his soul as other Christians did had not onely thereward of almes but of religion too and that offering was well husbanded for it did benefit to two souls for as I sin when I make another sin so if I help him to do a good I am a sharer in the gains of his talent and he shall not have the lesse but I shall be rewarded upon his stock And this was it which David rejoyced in Particeps sum omnium timentium te I am a partner a companion of all them that fear thee I share in their profits If I do but rejoyce at every grace of God which I see in my Brother I shall be rewarded for that grace and we need not envy the excellency of another It becomes mine as well as his and if I do rejoyce I shall have cause to rejoyce so excellent so full so artificial is the mercy of God in making and seeking and finding all occasions to do us good 5. The very charity and love and mercy that is commanded in our religion is in it self a great excellency not onely in order to heaven but to the comforts of the earth too such without which a man is not capable of a blessing or a comfort he that sent charity and friendships into the world intended charity to be as relative as justice to do its effect both upon the loving and the beloved person It is a reward and a blessing to a kinde Father when his children do well and every degree of prudent love which he bears to them is an endearment of his joy and he that loves them not but looks upon them as burdens of necessity and loads to his fortune loses those many rejoycings and the pleasures of kindnesse which they feast withal who love to divide their fortunes amongst them because they have already divided out large and equal portions of their heart I have instanced in this relation but it is true in all the excellency of friendship and every man rejoyces twice when he hath a partner of his joy A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety but he swells my joy and makes it double For so two chanels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets and make it foordable and apt to be drunk up at the first revels of the Sirian star but two torches do not divide but increase the flame and though my tears are the sooner dryed up when they run upon my friends cheeks in the furrows of compassion yet when my flame hath kindled his lamp we unite the glories and make them radiant like the golden Candle-sticks that burn before the throne of God because they shine by numbers by unions and confederations of light and joy And now upon this account which is already so great I need not reckon concerning the collateral issues and little streams of comfort which God hath made to issue from that religion to which God hath obliged us such as are mutual comforts visiting sick people instructing the ignorant and so becoming better instructed and fortified and comforted our selves by the instruments of our Brothers case and advantages the glories of converting souls of rescuing a sinner from hell of a miserable man from the grave the honour and noblenesse of being a good man the noble confidence and the bravery of innocence the ease of patience the quiet of contentednesse the rest of peacefulnesse the worthinesse of forgiving others the greatnesse of spirit that is in despising riches and the sweetnesse of spirit that is in meeknesse and humility these are Christian graces in every sense favours of God and issues of his bounty his mercy but al that I shal now observe further concerning them is this that God hath made these necessary he hath obliged us to have them under pain of damnation
his hand But by the ministery he declares the work of God then wrought in the person suscipient And thus in absolution the Priest declares the act of God pardoning not that he is a Preacher onely of the pardon upon certain conditions but that he is not the principall agent but by his ministery declares and ministers the effect and work of God And this interpretation is clear in the instance of the blessed Sacrament where not onely the Priest but the people doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declare the Lords death not by a Homily but by virtue of the mystery which they participate And in the instance of this present question the consecrator does declare the power to descend from God upon the person to be ordained But thus the whole action being but a ministery is a declaration of the effect and grace of Gods vouchsafing and because God does it not immediately and also because such effects are invisible and secret operations God appointing an externall rite and ministery does it that the private working of the Spirit may become as perceived as it can be that is that it may by such rites be declared to all the world what God is doing and that man cannot doe it of himself and besides the reasonablenesse of the thing the very words in the present allegation doe to this very sense expound themselves for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same thing and expressive of each other the consecrator declares that is he doth not do it by collation of his own grace or power but the grace of God and power from above And this doctrine we read also in S. Cyprian towards the end of his Epistle to Cornelius ut Dominus qui Sacerdotes sibi in ecclesia sua eligere constituere dignatur electos quoque constitutos sua voluntate atque opitulatione tueatur It is a good prayer of ordination that the Lord who vouchsafes to choose and consecrate Priests in his Church would also be pleased by his ayd and grace to defend them whom he hath so chosen and appointed Homo manum imponit Deus largitur gratiam Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram Deus benedicit potenti dextra saith S. Ambrose man imposes his hand but God gives the grace the Bishop layes on his hand of prayer and God blesses with his hand of power The effect of this discourse is plain the grace and powers that enable men to minister in the mysteries of the Gospel is so wholly from God that whosoever assumes it without Gods warrant and besides his way ministers with a vain sacrilegious and ineffective hand save onely that he disturbs the appointed order and does himself a mischief SECT VII BY this ordination the persons ordained are made ministers of the Gospel stewards of all its mysteries the light the salt of the earth the shepheard of the flock Curates of soules these are their offices or their appellatives which you please for the Clericall ordination is no other but a sanctification of the person in both senses that is 1 a separation of him to do certain mysterious actions of religion which is that sanctification by which Jeremy and S. John the Baptist were sanctified from their mothers wombs 2 It is also a sanctification of the person by the increasing or giving respectively to the capacity of the suscipient such graces as make the person meet to speak to God to pray for the people to handle the mysteries and to have influence upon the cure The first sanctification is a designation of the person which must of necessity be some way or other by God because it is a neerer approach to him a ministery of his graces which without his appointment a man must not cannot any more doe then a messenger can cary pardon to a condemned person which his Prince never sent But this separation of the person is not onely a naming of the man for so farre the separation of the person may be previous to the ordination for so it was in the ordinations of Mathias and the seven Deacons The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appointed two before God chose by lot and the whole Church chose the seven Deacons before the Apostles imposed hands but the separation or this first sanctification of the person is a giving him a power to doe such offices which God hath appointed to be done to him and for the people which we may clearly see and understand in the instance of Job and his friends For when God would be intreated in behalfe of Eliphaz and his companions he gave order that Job should make the addresse Goe to my servant he shall pray for you and him will I accept this separation of a person for the offices of advocation is the same thing which I mean by this first sanctification God did it and gave him a power and authority to goe to him and put him into a place of trust and favour about him and made him a minister of the sacrifice which is a power and eminency above the persons for whom he was to sacrifice and a power or grace from God to be in neernesse to him This I suppose to be the great argument for the necessity of separating a certain order of men for ecclesiasticall ministeries And it relies upon these propositions 1. All power of ordination descends from God and he it is who sanctifies and separates the person 2. The Priest by God is separate to be the gracious person to stand between him and the people 3. Hee speaks the word of God and returns the prayers and duty of the people and reconveyes the blessings of God by his prayer and by his ministery So that although every Christian must pray and may be heard yet there is a solemn person appointed to pray in publick and though Gods spirit is given to all that aske it and the promises of the Gospel are verified to all that obey the Gospell of Iesus yet God hath appointed sacraments and solemnities by which the promises and blessings are ministred more solemnly and to greater effects All the ordinary devotions the people may doe alone the solemn rituall and publick the appointed Minister onely must do And if any man shall say because the Priests ministery is by prayer every man can doe it and so no need of him by the same reason he may say also that the Sacraments are unnecessary because the same effect which they produce is also in some degree the reward of a private piety and devotion But the particulars are to be further proved and explicated as they need Now what for illustration of this article I have brought from the instance of Job is true in the ministers of the Gospell with the superaddition of many degrees of eminency But still in the same kind for the power God hath given is indeed mysticall but it is not like a power operating by