semper valuit ut quae cunque ab hoc consensu confirmata videam mihi sacrosancta immutabilia videantur Bishop Carleton de Consen eccles cap. 11. cap. 277. and humble Christians do and ever did the constant clear and concurrent which is the truly Catholick testimony of the Church in which so much of the truth Spirit and grace of God hath alwaies appeared amidst the many cloudings of humane infirmities to be far beyond any meer humane record or authority in point of establishing a Christians judgement or conscience in any thing that is not contrary to the evident command of the written word of God However some mens ignorance and self conceited confidence like bogs and quagmires are so loose and false that no piles never so long well driven and strongly compacted by the consent and harmonious testimonies of the most learned writers in the Church can reach any bottom or firm ground in them whereon to lay a foundation of humane belief or erect a firm bank and defense against the invasion of daily novelties which blow up all and break in upon the antient and most venerable orders practises and constitutions of the Church where ever they are yet continued which being evidently set forth to me by witnesses of so great credit for their piety diligence fidelity harmony integrity constancy and charity I know not how with any face of humanity or Christianity to question disbelieve or contradict Under which cloud of unsuspected witnesses I confess I cannot but much acquiesce and rest satisfied in those things which others endlessly dispute because they have not so literal and preceptive a ground in Scripture Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec consiliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi autoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur August cont Donat. l. 4. In Concil Loodic Melito Episc Sard. missus ut autographa ubique decernat c. Constabit id ab Apostolis traditum quod apud ecclesias fuerit sacrosanctum Tert. ad Mar. l. 4. however they have a very rational exexemplary analogical and consequential authority from thence which is made most clear as to the minde of God by that sense which the Primitive Doctors and Christians who lived with or next to the Apostles had of them and by their practise accordingly in the ways of Religion Thus the Canonical Books of the Scripture especially those of the New Testament which no where are enumerated in any one Book nor as from divine oracle any where commanded to be believed or received as the writings of such holy authors guided by the dictates or directions of Gods Spirit we own and receive as they were after some time with judgment and discretion rejecting many other pretended Gospels and Epistles antiently received by the Catholike Church and to this day are continued So also in point of the Church Government How in right Reason Order and Religion the Churches of Christ either in single Congregations and Parishes or in larger Associations and Fraternities ought to be governed in which thing we see that sudden variations from the Churches constant patern in all ages and places hath lately cost the expence not onely of much Ink but of much blood and have both cast and left us in great scandals deformities and confusions unbeseeming Christian Religion The like confirmation I have for Christians observing the Lords day as their holy Rest or Sabbath to the Lord and their variating herein upon the occasion of Christs Resurrection from the Seventh day or Jewish Sabbath which is not so much commanded by Precept as confirmed by Practise in the Church so in the baptising of the Infants of Christian Parents who profeâ—s to believe in Jesus Christ onely for the means of salvation to them and their children which after Saint Cyprian Saint Jerom and Augustine affirm to have been the custom of the Catholike Church in and before their days so as no Bishop or Council or Synod began it Cypr. ep ad Fidum Aust ep 28. And no less in this of the peculiar distinct calling order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afric in Con. Carth. 1. anno 419. Some things in the Church are setled by Canon others by custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nicoen office and succession of the Ministry Evangelical In all which if the Letter and Analogy of Scripture were less clear than â—t is so that the doctrines of those particulars which are among Christians counted divine were â—ike Vines and Honey-suckles less able to bear up themselves in full authority by that strength and vertue which they receive from the Scripture Precept where undoubtedly their root is and from whence they have grown shooted out so far and flourished in all Churches yet the constant judgment and practise of the Church of Christ which is called the pilâ—ar and ground of truth are stayes and firm supports to such sweet and usefull plants which have so long flourished in the Church of Christ whose custom may silence perverse disputes of corrupt and contentious minds And indeed doth fully satisfy and confirm both my believe and my religious observation of those particulars as sacred and unalâ—erable Nor hath any of those things Eucharistia sacramentum non de aliorum manu quaÌ„ prasidentium sumimus Tertul de Coro Mil. Impositionem manuuÌ„ qua Ecclesiae mininistri in suum manus initiantur ut non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum ita inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 14. sect 2. Amb. l. 5. ep 32. ad Valentin Commends that sentence which the Emperours Father had wrote touching judicatories and Judges in Church matters In causa fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris eum judicare debere qui nec munere impar nec jure dissimilis constanter assero more clear evidence from Scripture or Catholick practice than this of the calling and succession of the Ministry of the Gospell hath wherein some men after due tryall and examination of their gifts and lives made by those who are of the same function and are in the Church indued with a derivable Commission and Authority to ordein an holy succession of men in the Ministry for the Churches use are by fasting prayer and solemn imposition of hands in the presence of the faithfull people publikely and peculiarly ordained consecrated set apart sent and authorised in the power and name of Christ to preach the Gospell to all men to administer the holy Sacraments and respectively to dispense all those holy duties and mysteries belonging to Christian Religion among Christian people that is such as profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of Sinners Which holy and most necessary custom of ordaining some fit men by others of the same function to be Ministers in the Church hath not only the unanimous consent and practise of the Orthodox Christians and purest Churches in all ages from the Apostles times But no Hereticks or Schismaticks who owned any
Mendacia mendicabula and slow to teach as St. James adviseth As for those Histrionick Players and vaporing Preachers who with a Theatricall impudence in many places seek to fill the world with meer noise and clamor crying down all the antient Ministry as Antichristian and the Ministers as no way called sent or authorised by God or the Church turning all either into spirituall or new prophetick gifts to which they highly pretend certainly their vanity can move wise Christians no more than those cheats and wanderers do who swear they have found out and can sell you the true Elixar the Philosophers stone which will turn baser metals into gold while yet poor men their raggs sords and beggery sufficiently confutes their rare skill proclaiming to all but fools their lying and proud beggery which more needs anothers charity than is any way able to relieve any mans necossities If this Gentleman be in good earnest for a duty and office of prophecying besides and not against the order of the Ministry let him study how to restore to us the reall and usefull gifts of primitive Prophets Of the primitive prophetick gifts in the Church which may serve worthily to demonstrate beyond what is already done by excellent Writers the true sense of the Scriptures as to the great mysteries of Jesus Christ the Messias God forbid such should not have a primitive use and esteem in the Church But let us not be abused with such triflers as shall either darken what others have well explaned or shall only produce old protrite and stoln notions of other mens works as if these were the rare and new fruits of their own private prophetick gifts Possibly with this Gentlemans good leave the Church of Christ neither hath now nor needs any such prophetick gifts as were primitive and may truly be so called No more than it doth tongues miracles Chrysost orat 88. Gives reasons why Miracles are now ceased in the Church So Isid Pel. l. 4. Ep. 8. Rev. 2. and healings which it had and wanted too in those first times and dispensations when the Gospell of Christ was strange and new to the world and to the Churches which were but newly planted or in planting which now it is not specially in England after the Church hath enjoyed those plentifull diffusions of Evangelicall light from Christ and the Stars in his right hand for many hundred of years so that knowledge hath abounded as the waters of the Sea It is very probable the Churches in ages succeeding the Apostles gave over the form of the exercise of prophesying when once they saw the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or speciall gift ceased I remember no mention of this Prophecying among the publique officers duties or privileges of the Church No Councill no Father that I find regulates it or reckons upon it nor doth this Gentleman produce any one testimony for it out of the Churches after-practice in Ecclesiastick Histories and antient Records which may best distinguish for us Tacito omnium consensu per desuetudinem abrogantur Blond what things were of temporary what of perpetuall use in the Church It is evident that all things that were primitive and occasionall are not therefore to be made perpetuall or after long cessation to be restored many things used in the infancy and minority of some or all Churches have soon after been disposed as the collections on the first day Those collections for the poor on the Lords day Cyp. calls Gazophylacium and Corbona de Eleemos And St. Chrysost endeavoured to restore them in Constantinople See Bero. Ann. Anno Christi 44. In Tertul. time Christians abstained from blood Nec animalium sanguinem in esculentis habemus Apol. c. 9. yet in St. Austins time they did not abstain from blood or things strangled Aust cont Faust l. 3. c. 13 Mat. 2.20 1 Cor. 16. So the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Agapae or love feasts 1 Cor. 11.20 were by divers Councills forbidden when they degenerated from the Primitive simplicity and purity Jude 12. Spots in your feasts feeding themselves without fear So the Holy Kisses or salutings Rom. 16.16 1 Thes 5.26 The common stock of goods Acts 4.32 publikely dedicated to the relief of the Church in which the poorest believer had as much interest in what was given though they contributed nothing as he that gave most of his estate So the annointing of the sick James 5.14 So the Celebration of the Lords Supper every Lords day The peoples Amen 1 Cor. 14.16 which Jerom sayes was in his time as a Clap of Thunder such consent lowdness and alacrity was in that voice of Christian Assemblies The observation of the Jewish Sabbath with the first day of the week The abstinence from blood and things strangled and the like Nothing is more ridiculous in Religion than as some fond or fraudulent Papists do their exercisings and shews of daily Miracles to continue the ordinary use of all those things in the Church which we read were practised in Primitive times upon some extraordinary account either of necessity or charity or speciall gifts then only conferred Which when they were at the highest tide among professors yet were never wont to ouerflow the constant banks of the divinely established calling of the Ministry but still were kept within those modest holy and humble bounds which became the Christian flocks toward those Guides and Pastors which were to be constantly over them in the Lord with whom Christ promised to be as by his Authority and blessing so by his Spirit and assisting gifts to the end of the world As for this Gentleman whose devotion and charity hath raised him to so good hope and expectation of finding or making fit Prophets among the common people truly if he can bring forth any Gentlemen either Lawyers or others of so pregnant parts so ready in Scriptures and of so good utterance as in him appears together with so much gravity candor and equanimity as for the most part he expresses to the Ministry as a peculiar Calling and divinely instituted office such Prophets will be so far welcome as they shall be usefull to the Church Both Ministers and others wouâ—d be gâ—ad to see the Inns of Court or Chancery come in like Zilpah and Bilhad to supply the feared barrenness and decayes of Rachel and Leah Gen. 30. the two Universities which were wont to be the fruitfull Mothers and carefull Nurses of the true Prophets and Ministers Nor would it be a less acceptable wonder to all true Christians and Ministers to see such Zenasses 2 Tim. 4.10 devout Lawyers run cross to Demas his steps and forsaking this present world to follow after St. Paul than once it was to see Saul also among the Prophets 1 Sam. 19.24 Talis cum sis utinaÌ„ noster esses Ages ad Farnabasum inimicum ac mobilem Men that can write I presume speak too after so serious and Spiritual a way as that
with most charity to any others that have for the foundation of their faith the Scriptures and the Sacraments for the seals and a true Ministry for the ordering and right dispensing of holy things professing such latitudes of charity always as exclude no such Christians from communion with them Notwithstanding they have many and different superstructures in lesser things Without this Christian charity it is evident all ostentations of true Religion of Churches purity and of Reformation though accompanied with tongues miracles and martyrdoms 1 Cor. 14.1 3 c. are in vain and profit men nothing As it is not enough to make men of the true Church to say They are the onely true Church and in the onely Church-way or to censure condemn and exclude all other Christians who may be in the same path-way to Heaven though the paving be different of grass or gravel or stone c. So it is enough to exclude any party sect or faction of seeming Christians from being any sound part of the true Church to say in a Schismatical pride and uncharitable severity That they are the onely true Church Excidisti ab ecclesia ubi à charitate excideris quum à Christo ipso inde excidisti Aug. as the ring-leaders of the Novatians and Donatists did excommunicating by malicious proud and passionate principles or in any other novelizing ways vexing and disturbing the quiet of those Christians and Churches who have the true Means and Ministry the true Grounds and Seals of Faith with other holy and orderly Ministrations though with some different rites yet professing holiness of life and this with Christian charity to all others Col. 3.14 which is the very bond of perfection The want of which cannot consist with those other graces of true faith and love repentance and humility by which men pretend to be united to Christ The ready way not to be any part or true Member of the Catholike Church is Isai 65.4 They eat abominable things yet they say Stand by thy self come not neer me for I am holier than thou These saith the Lord are a smoke in my nose and a fire that burneth all the day To chalenge to be the onely true Church and to separate from all others both by non-communion with them and a total condemning or abdicating of them As the way for any branch to wither and come to nothing is To break it self off by a rude Schism or violent fraction from the Tree that it may have the glory to grow by it self and to say with a Pharisaick pride to all others stand by I am holier than you Thus parting from that Root and Body Christ and the Catholike Church in the communion with which by Truth and Charity its Life and Beauty did consist However then the unholy love of novelty proud curiosity cold charity and distempered zeal of some men dare cast off unchurch and anathematise not onely single persons and private Congregations but even greater associations of Christians bound together by the bonds of civil as well as Church societies in Nations and Kingdoms yea and to despise that Catholike form of all the Churches in the World 2 Cor. 10.12 They measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise of antient as well as present times Yet this vain-glorying through a verbal ignorant proud and uncharitable confidence of themselves and contempt of all others seems to have more in it of Belial and Antichrist than of Jesus Christ more of Lucifer than of the Father of Lights who also is the Father of Love who hath therefore shined on men with the light of his grace and love of Christ that he might lead them by this powerful patern of divine love to love one another as men and as Christians with all meekness and charity with all good hope forbearance and long-suffering toward those especially that profess to be of the houshold of faith who hold the foundation Christ crucified though they may have many additions of hay 1 Cor. 3.15 straw and stubble since Those may save though these suffer loss God will easily discern between his gold and our dross between the errors rising from simplicity and the truths joyned with charity and humility He will easily distinguish between the humble ignorance of many upright-hearted Christians who are seduced to wandrings and the subtilty pride or malice of Arch-hereticks and Schismaticks who seduce others for sinister ends All wise humble and charitable Christians should so order their judgements and censures if at any time they are forced to declare them that they must above all things take heed that they nourish not nor discover any uncharitable fewds or distances and antipathies against any Churches or Christians after the rate of those passions which are the common source both of Schisms and Heresies whose ignorance and pride like water and ice mutually arise from and are resolved into each other Therefore proud because ignorant and the more ignorant because so proud Nor yet may they follow those defiances and distances in Religion Tantum distat à vera charitate quorundam zetotarum praeceps intemperatus â—â—dâ— quantum maligna sebricitantium flamâ—ae à native vitali corporis calore Cas which Reason of State or the Interests of Princes or Power of Civil Factions or the Popular fierceness of some Ministers and eager Sticklers for sides and parties do nourish and vulgarly commend as high expressions of zeal and the onely ways of true Religion Where there is scarce one drop of charity in a sea of controversie or one star of necessary truth in the whole clouded Heaven of their differing opinions and ways which set men as far from true Christian temper as burning Feavers do from native heat and health 10. Extremes touching the Church I know no point hath used more liberal and excellent Pens than this concerning the true Church as it is visible or professional before men which is the proper subject of this dispute Some mens Pens flow with too much gall and bitterness as the rigid Papists on the one side and the keener Separatist on the other Denying any to be in a right Church-way save onely such as are just in their particular mold and form Either joyned in communion with the Roman profession and being subject to its head the Pope pleading antiquity unity universality visibility c. or else embodied with those new and smaller Incorporations which count themselves the onely true and properly so called Churches pretending more absolute Church-power more exact constitution and more compleat Scripture-Reformation than any antient National dilated and confederated Churches could or ever did attain too Herein there is a strong excess on both sides 1. By the Romanists Baron Anno Christi 45. p. 376. Haereticum esse qui à Romanae Cathedrae communione divisuâ— sit So Bellarm. dâ— Rom. Pont. l. 2.12 Vetusta coâ—suetudo servetur ut hic Episcopus Rom.
the Law Quicquid deficiunt aliae unica supplet charitatis gratio qua in aeternum non de ficiet Bern. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nis Prius chari quaÌ„ proximi Min. Fael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just M. Tâ—ypl o. and all Churches was Scripture Truth the Cement Charity the Beauty Unity and the Strength orderly and social Government O thou fairest of ten thousands Christian Charity which were the wonder of the World in the Primitive times Which didst so spread thy wings over all the Earth like the Spirit of God on the face of the great deep the ocean of mankinde that every man might and every Christian did enjoy the vital heat and diviner influence of thy fosterings on their souls So far that what weaker Christians came short of in believing or failed in understanding or were defective in doing they made up in loving of Christ and for his sake one another Yea what the very enemies and persecutors of Christians wanted of that humanity which is as the morn and dawning of Christian Charity true Christians sought to relieve them by their prayers and to cover their horrid cruelties with their own kindness to them while killed by them and devotions for them while they were dying under them as the bâ—essed Martyr Stephen did and the Crown of Martyrs Christ Jesus They forgat not to pray for those that persecuted them which made Christians in their furthest dispersions greatest distances and grievousest sufferings still admired by all men though hated by them still endeared well acquainted and united in love to each other before they had seen or were personally known to each other O thou potent flame of celestial fire which the love of Christ Charitas est oleum unde clara virtutuÌ„ omnium lampas sustentatur Religio sine charitate est lampas sine oleo Bern. ep 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 28. So Just Martyr Ep. ad Diog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 14. stronger than death had kindled in the souls of the first and best Christians No Seas no solitudes no poverty no pains no sufferings no torments no offences no injuries were able to damp or quench thee of old but still thou didst gloe to so fresh an heat that it warmed and melted the hardest Rocks of Heathen persecutors and tormentors Who before they believed the Gospel or love of God in Christ covered to be of that Christian society where they saw men love one another so dearly so purely so constantly as to be ready to die with and for each other Alas now every small drop of fancy every novelty of fashion in Religion every atome of Invention every dust of Opinion every mote of Ceremony every shadow of Reformation every difference of Practice damps rakes up buries puts out thy sacred sparks and embers in Christians hearts yea and kindles those unholy cruel and dreadful fires of contrariety jealousies scorn hatred enmity revenge impatience of union and zeal for separation to so great heights of all-devouring flames that nothing but the flesh of Christians will serve for fuel to maintain them and nothing but the blood of Believers to extinguish them So that no Christians now love further than they conspire and contend to destroy and conquer all but their own party and faction Thus the want of this holy grace of charity wastes us by the fires of unchristian fewds and even presages the approaching of those last dreadful conflagrations which shall consume the world and those eternal flames which shall revenge this sin of sins among Christians the want of charity which sins against the love of God the blood of Christ the Churches peace and our own souls How shall we uncharitable wretches not dread the coming of our Judge or how can we love his appearance in flaming fire who have thus singed and burnt that livery of Christs love wherewith we were clothed which was dipped and died in his own blood that so it might stanch the further effusions of blood among Christians and cover the stayns of that bloud which had been passionatly shed among them How can we hope our souls should be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus when we spend our dayes in damming and destroying each other and scarce suffer any to possess their souls in patience or in any degree of charity amidst the wasts and troubles of this conflicting and tottering Church Which like a great tree whose roots are loosned round and almost cut through stagger too and fro threatning to fall on every side being nothing now but weakness over-laden with weight and labouring with the burthen of it self is ready to destroy both it self and others by the suddenness and violence of its fall O you excellent Christians hasten as Lot should have done out of Sodom to withdraw your selves from the interests designs zeal devotion and Religion of this uncharitable and self destroying world wrap your selves in the mantle of charity peaceableness and patience hasten to hide your selves in the holes of this rock the love of Christ your Redeemer till he come who is at the dore and will not tarry Charitas sanctitatis Custos Chrysol ser 94. O pretious and inestimable grace of Charity the only Jewel of our lives the viaticum for our Deaths the greatest ornament of a Christian profession the sweetness of our bitterness the Antidote of our poysons the Cordiall in our infirmities the comforter under our dejections the supplyer of our defects the joy in our sorrows the witness of our sincerity the Crown of our graces the Seal of our hopes 1 Joh. 3.14 the stay and Pillar of our Souls amidst the tears tossings Dilectio suÌ„muÌ„ fidei sacramentum Christiani nomini thesaurus Tertul lib. de Patientia Mat. 5.44 Humanum est amicos Christianum inimicos diligere Hilar. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. de Christian dissid or 14. fears and conflicts of our mortall Pilgrimage In which we then only joy when we either love or are loved by others but then we have most cause of pious joy when being hated and cursed and persecuted by others we can yet love them and pray for them and bless them for Christs sake Thou that madest Martyrs and Confessors and all true Christians more than Conquerors of death and enemies men and Devils O how have we lost thee how have we banished thee how have we not injured thee yea how have we grieved thee more in this that we are loth to find thee But most in this that we seek thee among Heresies Schisms Apostacies seditions furies perjuries tyrannies superstitions sacrileges causeless disputes endless janglings yea cruell murthers of bodies and Anathemaes of souls But the highest indignity and greater than the greatest insolency offerd thee is That we boast and proclaim we have found thee in what we have most lost thee that we have raised thee by what we have ruined thee that we are most Churches when we are least Christians or most
bill of Divorce to the humble and usefully gifted Christians Liberty Only finding by experience that like Dinah it is prone to gad abroad run out through wantonness pride or weakness to much disorder vanity and confusion besides foolish and corrupt opinions and of late to a petulancy contempt and emulating of the publike Ordinance of the Ministry the wisdom of the Church in all ages for ought I can see did think fit to keep it within those safe and privater bounds of families or at most within such friendly meetings as are short of publike solemn Church assemblys Nor was the modesty of any humble Christian ever grieved that his abilities should be so wisely restrained While yet it had all private freedom and due encouragements And in publike far better and more orderly supplies from Gods rich treasury than from its own purse and penury As for the publike use of that Liberty and gifts of prophecying which that Gentleman so much crys up and magnifies I do not think him so much a puny in discretion but that he must needs see it will be incumbred with many and hardly evitable inconveniences Inconveniences attending that prophecying of the people on the Lords Day so that it will be easy for a wise man to see the Quare impedit For first most good Christians are commonly well satisfied with those solemn publike exercises and duties upon the Lords-Day as praying oft reading oft expounding the Scriptures Catechising many times and twise Preaching alwaies besides the ceâ—ebrating of one or both Sacraments All which are the blessings which the bounty of God hath plentifully provided for Christian people and powreth on them every Lords Day by the Labours of their faithfull and able Ministers whom Christ and the order of the Church have undoubtedly set over them in the way of Divine Authority And to whom all serious Christians attend as of duty and conscience affording means sufficient by Gods blessing on their devout attentions judicious understandings retentive memorys fervent affections and suitable conversations to save their souls For whom it were infinitely better to have every where such a Minister duly setled and competently maintained by those Revenews which are in all Law both divine and humane due as given for this service of God and the Church than for Christians to be fobbed off with new projects of Prophets gifted Brethren and modern Itinerant inconstant and Mendicant Preachers which will amount to nothing but mischief however they may make a shew for a while as if there needed no constant resident Ministers or other setled and ordeined Ministry That so a way may be made to ignorance superstition Atheism and profaness First And in time that sacred Revenew which is given to God for the maintenance of his publike service and Ministry may be turned to some secular uses and come into private purses It is most evident that what prophecying exercise is by any gifted Brethren added in publike on the Lords Day to this sufficiency of the Ministry will for the most part come very short of that weight worth and Authority which usually is in the Ministers learned pains So that it will seem but as a Churl upon the Gentleman as tedious and nauseating as small Beer and Water after men have drank well of the best Wine Or as the scraps of coarse and plain Country fare after men have been filled with a feast of marrow and fat things Besides this exercise of prophecying which that Gentleman so pleads for will hardly find any convenient time or temper in Christians minds on the Lords Day either among or after the publike duties of the Ministry It must needs seem as unseasonable flat and tedious Cavenda vel maxime in sacris ne sit satietus Ne minimum devorando fastidiosa sit regurgitatio cibi Cui digerendo vacare debes ut salubriter nutriare Greg. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Solonis dict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Instantur potius ad morbos vanitatem quam superfluis ferculis nutriuntur ad sanitatem vires Ber. Amarat nimietas quod poterat condire mensura Chrysost p. 125. Pro. 27.7 The full soul loathes the Hony comb Mal. 2.7 Heb. 13.7 as all superfluities and excesses in matter of Religion easily do when they border never so little upon the Nimiety or too much It is great wisdom to keep people short from a surfet of holy things and to leave them with appetites and give vacancy for digestion rather than to cram and cloy them with matters either of superfluity or curiosity when indeed men do scarce with chearfulness and intention bear the holy duties of clear divine use and most absolute necessity In all which common people by this super-addition of a prophecying exercise on the Lords Day will be but hindred from that profitable Meditation and carefull remembrance of what they have already plentifully heard from the Minister whose lips ought to preserve knowledge and on which the people ought to wait as those that must give account of their souls It will then be neither convenient nor usefull as it is not necessary to bring up Prophesying thus in the rear of preaching as to the common peoples capacities or occasions yea rather it will be to the injury and hindrance both of Minister and godly people on the Lords day unless you be sure to provide the people seldom any Minister and none constantly resident or else such weak and short-winded Preachers that they may be sure to give time and room enough to these eager Prophets and to be only as foyls to set off their fresh and more glistring gifts or as an antepast of coarser meats to whet on the appetite for that more delicate fare which these prophets will pretend to bring forth we see already many of them stickle for the Pulpits and are smart rivals against the Ablest Ministers whom either small maintenance or some factious and ingratefull people have almost quite dis-spirited Upon whom the Cryers up and admirers of these new prophetick gifts look but as the forlorn hope which is to make way all this while for the main body of those gifted prophets Many of whom have so great an activity and confidence joyned with their weakness Ignorantiae imbecilitati proxima est Temeritas that they had need be very well-disciplined and kept carefully in their due ranks and posts or else they will soon rout all order and honour of Religion in this or any Church Notwithstanding all the good hopes all the soft bespeakings of esteem and gentle insinuations for their acceptan for made by that Charitable writer who hath so largely pleaded ce them at the common peoples bar And who merited indeed to have bestowed his pains so publikely upon a subject that had a better title in the Scripture and the Church than this of peoples prophecying seems to have Besides this which I have alleged for inconvenient
Donatists of old were who so challenged the title of the Church to their factions as to exclude all others and refuse the offers and means of accord As Cyprian Ep. 95. and Aust Ep. 164. tell us To which brands of Schism we are then lyable only when we recede or separate from visible communion with any Church without just and weighty cause shewn out of the word or when we go further from them than there is just cause and that too without charity refusing the good which they have while we withdraw from the evill we suspect Which would be the case of the Church of England in this point of immoderate Reformation if we should as some would have us therefore separate from all Scriptures Sacraments Ministry Primitive Government and order because all these were retained used and after abused much by the Roman Church and Papall party we are bid to come out of Babylon Rev. 18.4 but not to run out of our wits to act as Gods people with meekness moderation and Charity not with that fierceness passion and cruelty which makes us as Sons of Belial inordinatly run from one Antichrist to another Many Christians in the Roman Church may have in them much of Antichrist in some kinds and so God knows may many others in other kinds either in Doctrine or manners in endless innovations and unsetled confusions or in rigor and uncharitableness All which may betray us to what we seem most to abhor in Antichrist for if nothing have more of Christ than Charity nothing can have more of Antichrist than that uncharitableness Uncharitableness is as Antichristâ—an as error A ChristianoruÌ„ dissidiis venturus Antichristus occasionem accipiet Naz. Orat. 14. which many men nourish for zeal mistaking a Cockatrice for a Dove and a firy Serpent for a Phenix Which may be as Anti-Christian in popular furies as in papall tyrannies in confusions as in oppressions It is strange how some men cry out against the cruelty of some Papists which indeed hath been very great when yet Qui Christi non est Antichristi est Jeron Ep. 57. ad Damas they have the same Spirit of destruction in their own breast both against the Papists and others longing for such a Kingdom of Christ as they call it and such a downfall of Antichrist which shall consist in War and Blood and Massacres against and among all Christians which are not of their mind and side We think that in charity we ought not to impute the faults and errors of every Pope or Doctor of the Roman side to all those of that profession Nor ought we take those learned men among them alwaies at their worst finding there is great difference between what they may hold in the heat of publike disputes and what they opine and practise in a private way noâ— are their death-bed tenets alwaies the same with those of their Chayrs and Pulpits Besides many of the more devout and learned men among them are now both in opinions and lives much more modest holy and Reformed than some were heretofore whose Reformation in judgement or manners in verity purity and charity we do really congratulate and joy in And for the Body of the common people among the Romanists many are ignorant of those disputes wherein the mistaking is most dangerous which if they do hold yet it is under the perswasion and love of truth Qui à seductis parentibuus erâ—oâ—em acceperunt quaerunt autem cauta solicitudine veritatem corrigi paâ—ati cum invenerint hi nequaquam sunt inter haereticos deputandi Aust Ep. 162. 1 Cor. 3.12 retaining still the foundation of Christ Crucified and hoping for salvation only by his merits as many now profess to do and living in no known sin but striving to lead an holy and charitable life in all things Charity commands us to think that in such the mercy of God accepting their sincere love to the truth and their unfeigned obedience to what they know pardons particular errors which they know not to be such wherein no lust of pride or covetousness c. either obstructs or diverts them from the way of Truth Though the superstructures may be many of straw and stubble which shall perish yet holding the foundation Christ crurcified in a pure conscience they shall be saved in the day of the Lord Though the vessell be leaky in many places yet by great care in steering and frequent pumping that is true faith and repentance it may keep the soul from Shipwrack and drowning in perdition which is embarked in the bottom of Christian Religion and which steers alwaies by the compass of conscience setting all the points of conscience by the Chart or rules of Scripture as neer as he can attain by his teachers or his own industry We are sorry for our necessary differences from the Romanists or others which yet our consciences so far command us as we think our selves enlightned by the word of God contrary to which we cannot and ought not to be forced actually to conform or to comply with any men in things Religious Yet have we no lust of faction no delight in separation no bloody principles or tenets against any Christians of any particular Church desiring the same charity from them to us which may in lesser differences from each other yet unite us to Christ and to the Catholick Church as true parts of it though infirm or diseased This temper we should not despair of in the devouter and humbler Romanists if they were not daily enflamed by politick Spirits and violent Bigots among them who will endure no Religion as Christian which doth not kiss the Popes Pantofle or hold his stirrop or submit to that pride flattery and tyranny which some of them have affected when indeed it ill becomes those that chalenge a chief place in Christs Church to be so vastly different from the example of the crucified Saviour of Christians Such talents then as have been once divinely delivered to the Roman as to all other Christian Churches we have all aright to as believers in private and as Christians or Churches in publike communion and profession nor can these Jewels be so embezeled by being buried or abused but that we may safely take them up clear and use them together with those other which we have obteined through the grace and bounty of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ In whose name and right we as a part of his Catholick Church received them first and enjoy them now only Reformed according to what we first received of them without any prejudice or diminution to their true and intrinsecall worth which is divine by reason of our fellow servants former or present idle imperious impure or injurious use of them We accept and use the holy vessels which belong to the temple and the Lord of the Church Ezra 7. without scruple when they are graciously restored out of the profane hands of revelling Balshazzers The remaining silver censers
businesse as that is which concernes the setled support of Ministers and in them of all learning and religion in this Nation makes me sometimes prone to think it almost a vain unseasonable and uncomely labour in me or any other Ministers who pretend to something of more ingenuous spirits thus to plead and that publiquely with any earnestnesse which seems to draw somewhat of the dregs of meannesse for their very bread which in the unequall distributions of humane affaires we see is not alwayes to men of worth and understanding Eccles 9 11. whom Christian principles and patterns teach to live above earthly things to minde things that are above Col. 3.1 to learn to want and to abound to be content in any condition Phil. 4.11 And truly in this the Ministers of England I think ought to have been prevented by some other advocates than men of their own coat As lately my worthy friend Mr. Edward Waterhouse hath done in his Apology for learning and learned men a work so honest and so seasonable as well became the candor piety and ingenuity of a Gentleman and a Christian who hath the honour to have made one of the first and bravest adventures in this kinde against these modern English Saracens And possibly many good men have a good minde so to doe even publiquely but they thinke it is conclamata res a forlorne and desperate cause as may bee offensive and unacceptable I almost think so too if some men may have their will and therefore the rather I have been excited to it if it be displeasing to some yea to many yet I doe not think it is so to the most or the greatest part of Christians I am sure it is not to the best of this Nation of what condition soever they be they cannot be so destitute of and unaffected with all reason Religion grounds of Conscience rules of Prudence considerations both of piety honour and honest policy In all which they are related by their own interests to the good and welfare of their true Ministers As Socrates when he was reproached for having no preferment in Athens answered It was enough for him to have fitted himselfe for preferment It was other mens work to bestow it on him So the studious learned modest and pious Ministers of England might well have thought it enough for them to have merited imployment and decent entertainment having with much paines and study and prayer furnished themselves for every good word and work within the bounds of their calling It seems hard thus to be put many of them after many yeares sore labour and travaile of their soules to plead for their wages or livelyhood yea and for their liberty but to worke while it is day in the Lords Vineyard of this Church wherein Christ hath set and ordained them Although there be a generation lately sprung up of degenerate Christians and ungenerous English who would make this whole Nation like themselves unworthy of the very bones of those excellent Ministers Ingrata patria ne ossa quidem mea habes Liv. an ur 566. which have lived here and merited so well of the publique as Scipio Africanus said of his bones when he died banished by his ungratefull countrey which he had so preserved yet we hope neither the most nor the best of men can be so stupid as not to consider how much they are concerned in the continuance and incouragement of such Ministers among them wherein no Nation or Church under heaven hath exceeded this However Ministers be earthen vessels and many have had both heretofore and lately great flawes and many faylings yet they ought in this Nation to be still highly regarded if not for their learning civility ingenuity and good society which is to be valued in any Nation that covets not to be barbarous yet for their work sake for that Gospell that God that Saviour that blessed Jesus his sake whom they truely teach for the holy Scriptures sake which they so frequently and so fully explain for those holy Sacraments which they duely administer both for the admission and augmentation birth and nourishment of Christians in the Church of Christ for the holy and good counsels and spirituall comforts which they oft give for the many wise stops and grave restraints to sin and error which they frequently put for the publique and good examples which most of them afford and all should by their place and calling These are cords of love enough to draw and binde all excellent Christians to them these are places of Oratory sufficient to make even any ordinary speaker an eloquent and potent Orator in their behalf And for my owne part having taken some serious view of the estate of this Church and the Ministers of it both in reference to the present and after times both as to that reall worth which hath been and still is in them the excellent use of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 52. and the miserable want which will be of them I cannot but at present be extremely sensible of and very much pity those sharp sad and unjust necessities which already have and must presse dayly more upon many worthy men of them and their families if some mens envyous and malicious designes take place onely I hope better things of those whose wisdome piety and publique influence hath hitherto under God restrained those Fountaines of the great deep from breaking in with all sacrilegious violence upon the whole Ministry whose wisdome power or counsell I doe not any way by this Apology seek to obstruct or prejudice as to any thing that may be better disposed of to the advantage of true Religion and the Church of England which are inseparable from a right and setled Ministry nor can that be had without such maintenance as is worthy of worthy men If no men will be with us but all forsake us 17. Good Ministers hopes in their desertions from men and some oppose us as Ministers yet we have one remedy besides the sympathy and charity of you O excellent Christians which is patience and prayer * Greg. Nis tels of St. Ephraem Though he was very poor yet he had a mine of rich prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Nis in vita S. Ephraem He that allowes us to pray for our dayly bread and commands us to labour honestly for it even in this function of the Ministry he teacheth us to beleive that he will either give it or the grace to want it There may be some good * 1 King 18.4 Obadiahs who will feed the outed and impoverished Prophets of the Lord by fifties in their caves and obscure retirements as some have already done and it may be good Ministers shall then speak lowdest when their mouths are stopped and be as well liking in all true grace and comforts of Religion with * Dan. 1. their pulse as those that feed dayly on Kings provisions However if we must
laid of the edifice I have otherwhere endevoured to lead them out of the labyrinth of their rubbidge who have disputed more about constituting Church than ever they studied to be lively and orderly members either of the highest sense of a Church the mysticall body of Christ which is made up by faith and charity or of that lower sense of a sociall Church which yet is most proper to us and fals neerest under mans consideration which consists of a visible polity of men on earth professing to beleive in the name of Jesus Christ and partaking of those holy Institutions which he hath appointed both to gather and distinguish to plant and propagate to build and preserve to guide and govern such an holy fraternity of religious professors in such truth order and unity as to have a professionall relation to Christ the head and a communion of Charity with each other as members of one body which is that Catholick Church all over the world in its severall parts and branches In these and some other the like ambiguities about a Church as greater or lesse they please themselves spending much time to instruct their silly auditors how much difference there is between these Churches of Christ which are spirituall or rationall and those Steeple-houses which we other weaker ones call most absurdly as they pretend Churches O how devout a thing is ignorance How Saraphick men and women grow by having no skill in any language but their own mother tongue which yet in this is of our side and being the rule of speech every where justifies our calling those places Churches by the authority of the best writers in humanity law history or divinity But that they say was an errour of speech which men sucked in with their milk which to spend and evaporate these men are every day making issues in their auditours eares that they may unlearn that dangerous errour and scandalous word of calling the meeting places Churches I know these Rabbies scorne to be brought to their Grammars or to any Etymologicall authours or makers of Dictionaries Church Kâ—rch or Kerck Sax. quasi Kuriack i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords house for these they reckon among the cursed spawn of learned men and look on them as if they were Negroes of Chams posterity yet I cannot but make a little stay here that I may shew them the way to that locall Church where some of them have not been these many years unlesse it be to make a wrangling rate For however these be not the main Ulcers which I desire to cure yet they are a strange kinde of itch and scurfe of Religion which makes many Christians oft scratch very unquietly and unhandsomely It is very easie and very true to tell them that it is no more unproper to call these places where Christians as the Lords people publiquely meet to worship the Lord Psal 74.8 Churches than it was to call the Synagogues among the Jews Psal 83.12 the Houses of God for the building of which we read no precise command from God which was but for one house namely the Temple at Jerusalem The Saxon Scottish British and Dutch names These places called by the ancients Ecclesia Dei Domus Tertul. de velan Virg Orig. in Psal 36. Dominicum Aust which are all from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Latin Dominicum as the Lords Table and the Lords day signifies no more than this That such a place time or table is set apart for the Lords service or for the Lords people Doth not Joshua say I and my house will serve the Lord meaning the rationall family not the materiall pile Senate and City are used for both the persons and the place so is the Parliament house for both These Metonymies are no soloecismes but elegancies and aptitudes of speech and if they were lesse proper yet sure Collecta locus Cyp. it is no sin for Christians to speak after the vulgar use and common language True Religion hath set no such pedantique bounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euse de laud. Const as these captious Criticks would pretend which scrupulosity of speaking is among the other pedling superstitions and popular trifles which they pin on the sleeve of piety Affecting to be knowne by such small differences of speech as their Shiboleths from other Christians Indeed their great penury both of knowledge and discretion makes them no more fit Masters to teach men how to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. hist l. 9. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 2. Ep. 246. or what to doe then how to give their learning and their liberality are much alike 2. 21. Of Churches as consecrated As it is easie to help these Infant-wits over the straw of the name Church applyed to the place which they will needs make a stumbling block so with as much ease we may relieve them from that rock of offence on which they dash against the places we call Churches in regard of their dedication or consecration to sacred or religious uses This they have onely heard This subject is learnedly and gravely handled as all things he undertook by the incomparable Mr. Hocker l. 5. Pol. Sec. 14 15 16. it may be they never either saw or read it yet they abominate the places for the report counting them desecrated and execrable Here they may please to know Vide Hospin de Templorum Origine Quid lapides isti petuerunt sanctitatis habere Ber. vid. Ser. 6. That wise men look upon that ancient custome among Christians of setting solemnly apart some place for the service of God not as any affixing inherent holinesse to them or deriving any communicative or virtuall holynesse from them but meerly a publique and solemn owning appointing and declaring those houses or places to be erected and dedicated by common consent for those holy ends uses and duties which Christians ought to intend when they meet in those places Non locus hominem sed homines locum sanctificant Nemo se blandiatur de loco qui sanctus dicitur Bern. 182. not for common civill profane or uncomely affaires which appropriating or dedicating is an act of right Reason flowing from the light of Nature and that common notion of reverence to be externally expressed to God which is in all men that owne any God which right Reason is most agreeable to true Religion and alwayes as servient to it as Deacons and Church-wardens ought to be to the Ministers in holy things as both these Reason and Religion distinguish ends duties and commands which are divine as coming from God or relating to him so likewise they distinguish times places persons actions and other things which are separated from meere humane naturall and civill uses to such as are both preceptively and intentionally divine that is from God and for God Nor can the God of order who hath
or dubious in uncertainties or intangled with subtilties as Deer in acorn time they forget their food grow lean and fall into divers snares and temptations into many lusts and passions yea into the grave and pit of destruction whence there is no redemption Many as leaves from trees in Autumn every day drop away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. and dye in their mazes and labyrinths of Religion by wearying themselves in which they advance no more than birds in a cage and blinde horses in a mill whereas a true Christian should every day grieve to see himself nothing advanced in true holynesse or solid knowledge with grand steps he should be dayly going onward and upward with ample progresses and mighty increases of sound knowledge indisputable verities unquestionable practises of ly duties and heavenly conversation these are the steps by which holy men and women have ascended to heaven and conquered the difficulties of salvation That thus al the world might blesse themselves to see the happy improvements of true Christians beyond other men and the inestimable blessing of true and excellent Ministers paines among the filliest and worst of men in the dissolutest and worst of times O let not us then of the Ministry stand still and look on our own and the Churches miseries as the Lepers or mothers did in sieges till their children and themselves grew black with famine You that pretend to stand before the Lord of the whole world and the King of his Church you that bear the name of the most compassionate Redeemer who shed his bloud for his Church and laid down his life for his sheep Doe you never hear in the sounding of your own bowels the tears sighes and fears of infinite good Christians nor the voice of this English Sion lamenting and expecting pity at least from Ministers Is it worth thus much misery to root up Episcopacy to set up Presbytery and to undermine both with Independency All which might be fairly composed into a threefold cord of holy agreement such as was in primitive times between Bishops Presbyters and people whose passions have now ravelled out peace by sad divisions and weakned Religion by uncharitable contentions Though Parliaments and Assemblies and Armies and people should be miserable comforters passing by without regard and remorse yea though some be stripping the wounded and robbing this desolated Church yet doe not you forsake her now she is smitten of God Lamen 1.12 and despised of men Is it nothing to you O you that are more politicians than Preachers that passe by Stand and see if there be any sorrowes like the sorrowes of this reformed Church of England wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger It concernes no men more than Ministers to succour her which hath received these wounds most-what in the house and by the hands of her friends O give the Lord no rest untill he hath returned to this Church in mercy if you can by counsels and prayers reform nothing in the publique yet let nothing be unreformed in your private if you must be laid aside as to the peculiar office of Ministers yet you may mourn and pray the more in secret That the Lord would breath upon us with a Spirit of Truth and Peace of love and holy union of order and humility whereby none having any pride or ambition to govern every one may be humbly disposed to be governed For the great crisis of all Ministers distempers is in this not what Truths we shall beleive what doctrine we shall preach what holynesse we shall act but who shall govern whether Bishops or Presbyters or people yea the Keyes of some mens pretended power hangs so at the peoples girdle that it is too neer the apron-strings even of mechanicks and silly women When a right temper of Christian humility and love shall be restored to every part then will the spirits of Religion be recovered and aptly diffused into every member of this Church which blessed temperament as Christian Churches enjoyed in their primitive and florid strength nor is it lesse necessary now in their more aged and so decayed constitution O let not after ages say the Ministers of England were more butchers then Surgeons That they were Physitians of no value neither curing themselves nor others If any of us have not by malice so much as mistake given stronger physick and more graines of violent drugs than the constitution of this or any well reformed Church can well bear let us not be lesse forward to apply such cordials lenitives antidotes and restoratives of love moderation concession and equanimous wisedome as may recollect the dissipated and re-inforce the wasted spirits which yet remain in this reformed Church and the Ministry of it On which the enemies round about doe already look with the greedy eyes of ravens and vultures expecting when its languishing spirits shall be quite exhausted and its fainting eyes quite closed that so they may draw away the pillow and remaining supports of civill protection from under its head and violently force it to give up the ghost that the reformed Religion and Ministry of this Church may be at length quite cast out and buried with the buriall of an Asse that neither the place of reformed Bishops nor reformed Presbyters nor reformed people may know them any more in these British Islands In the last place therefore 13. Humble addresse to those in power in the behalf of Ministers I humbly crave leave to remind those that act in highest places and power who are thought no slight or shallow Statesmen That if neither piety to God nor conscience of their duty while they undertake to govern nor charity to mens soules both in present and after ages nor zeal for the reformed Religion move them as Christians nor yet justice and common equity to the encouragement and preservation of so many learned and godly men the lawfull Ministers of this Church in their legall rights and liberties nor yet common pity and charity to relieve so many pious men and their families If I say none of these should sway them as men or Christians the least of which should and I hope greatly will Yet worldy policy and right reason of State seems to advise the preservation and establishment of the so much shaken reformed Religion here in England which hath still deep root and impressions in the mindes and affections of the most and best people in this Nation Nor can this be done by more idoneous means than by giving publique favour incouragement and establishment to the true and ancient Ministry as to its main support and to godly Ministers as its head-most Professors If it be not absolutely necessary yet sure it is very convenient in order to the quiet and satisfaction of mens mindes who generally think themselves most concerned in matters of Religion either to confirm and restore to its pristine honour order and stability the ancient Ministry of the Church
and enabled to effect those things which none other can presume to perform without vanity sin and presumption who hath not that gift power or authority consigned to him The right Ordination then of Ministers in the way of an holy succession in the Church of Christ hath in Religion and among true Christians these holy uses and clear advantages peculiar to it 1. 1. It confirms the truth of the Gospel 2 Cor. 8.23 First as to the main end the Glory of God and the saving of mens souls by their believing and obeying this testimony of all true Ministers that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world Nothing gives a more clear and credible testimony to the glory and honour of Jesus Christ and to truth of the Gospel than this uniform and constant succession of Ministers Multi barbarâ—rum in ChristuÌ„ credunt sine charactere vel attramento scriptam babenter in cordibus sum per spiritum salutem et veterum traditionem diligentes custodientes quam Apostoli tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias cui ordinationi assentiunt multa gentes c. Iren. l. 3. c. 4. by a peculiar Ordination and authority even from Christ himself in person who at first began this Ministry and sent some speciall men as his messengers to bear witness of him in all the world that so men might believe not only what is written in the word before it was or as it is now written but also as that glorious truth hath been thus testified every where and in every age by chosen and peculiar men as a cloud of most credible witnesses whom thousands at first did and to this day do hear preaching and see them Celebrating the holy mysteries of Christs Gospell who never had or used any written word nor ever read it and for the most part believed before ever they saw any part of the Bible which the constant Ministry of the Church hath under God hitherto preserved chiefly upon the testimony and tradition or record of those that were ever thought and alwayes ought to be most able and faithfull men specially appointed by Christ in his Church as a perpetuall order and succession of Witnesses to testifie of him and to minister in his Name to the end of the world This walking Gospel and visible Ministry consisting as it ought of wise and worthy men Minister est verbum visibile ambulans Evangelium who have good reputation for their piety learning and fidelity running on to all generations is as a continued stream from the blessed Apostles who were the first witnesses immediatly appointed by Christ to hold forth his name and Gospell to the world Acts 1.8 which though never so far off in the decurrence of time from the fountain yet still testifies and assures all wise men that there is certainly a divine fountain of this ministeriall power and so of Evangelicall mysteries and truth which rose first from Christ and which hath constantly run as may appear by the enumeration or induction of particular descents in all ages in this Channel of the Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Presbyters of the Church for the better planting confirming and propagating of the Gospell to all Nations and times As a duty charge or office injoyned by divine command to some men and lying ever as a calling on their consciences Hereby evidently declaring the divine wisdom and Fatherly care of Christ for the good instruction and order of his Church in his personall absence In that he hath not left the Ministry of the Gospell and his holy Institutions which he would have alwaies continued for the gathering edifying of his Church to a loose and arbitrary way among the rabblâ— and promiscuous heards of men which would soon have made Evangelicall truths seem but as vagrant fables and generall uncertain rumors which run without any known and sure authority in the common chat and arbitrary report of the vulgar by which in a short time both the order beauty honour purity and credit of Truth is easily lost among men This holy and successionall ordination of the Evangelicall Ministry gives great proof and demonstration as of Christs personall presence as chief Bishop and Minister of his Church so of the fulfilling of Christs word and the veracity of his promise Mat. 28. after his departure to be with them that were sent and went in his name to the end of the world That the gates of hell neither yet have nor ever shall prevail against the Church While it carefully preserves a right succession holy order and authority of true Ministers the devill despairs of ever overthrowing Christian Religion in its reformed profession in any Country Down with the order Mat. 16.28 and sacred power and succession of the Ministry and all will in a short time be his own 2. 2. Evidenceth the Churches care Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus Ecclesia status in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Apostolorum quibus illi eam quae est in unoquoque loco Ecclesiam tradiderunt Scripturarum sine fictione custodita tractatio plenissima lâ—ctio sine salsatione secundum scripturas expositio legitima diligens sine periculo sine blasphemia Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. In Ecclesia Catholica bacte nus inviolabili observatione tenetar qua potissimum Catholici ab Haereticis discriminantur nimirum ut cujusvis meriti atque praestantiae â—ir fuerit non sua sponte praedicationis munus suscipiat sed expectet donec ab Ecclesia mittatur ab eaque sacris functionibus initietur siâ—que initiatus praedicationi Evangelii mancipetur Baronius An. Anno Christi 44. It is also a notable evidence of the Churches care and fidelity in all ages not only in the preservation of the oracles of the word which it hath done but also of a constant holy Ministry to teach and explain them Also to celebrate those holy mysteries which are divinely annexed to the word as seals to confirm the faith of Christians And lastly to exercise that wholsome discipline for terror or comfort the power of which is chiefly in the Pastors and Rulers of the Church As it is then for the honour of the wisdom of Christ in the originall to have instituted such holy mysteries and such a Ministry so it is for the honour of the Church in the succession of all ages to have thus preserved them and it self in that order which becomes the family of Christ which had come far short of any well ordered family if the Father and Master of it Jesus Christ had left every servant to guess at his duty and all of them to scramble what part they list of employment aliment and enjoyment but the Lord Christ as every wise Master doth hath appointed and his Church hath preserved to this day constant Stewards and dispensers of holy things in his house-hold whose duty t is to
be faithfull to their Masters profit and credit to do their duty and to maintain that place and authority in which the Lord hath set them nor is it any thing of a pious easiness but an impious baseness in them as Bishops and Ministers voluntarily to desert their station and to suffer every one to usurp upon them and to do what they list Nor is any thing more intolerable than the rudeness riot and impudence of those inferior servants who pretending Christian liberty and not induring those officers and Ministers whom the Master hath orderly placed over them neither will they long indure the Lord or Master himself to rule over them we read Mat. 21.38 They kill the Son who first beat and shamefully intreated the servants which were sent But thirdly as to the persons duly ordeined This holy Ordination gâ—ves a reall divine power which is necessarily to be delegated and derived from Christ since no man hath it in and of himself or of any will of men by which he is enabled to perform those duties which Christ only hath injoyned in his word to be done and to be thus done by such men and in such a manner and no other 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddainly on no man i. e. by way of Ordination Ergo no man is of that office or hath that authority and power till ordeined be his parts and gifts never so great and good So 2 Tim. 2.2 These things commit to faithfull men who may be able to teach others ergo some peculiar Commission must be given to these and to no other to perform Ministeriall duties with authority Such are those of making Disciples by Preaching the Gospell by distinguishing from others and also confirming and uniting together among themselves in holy Communion those Disciples with the holy seals of Baptism and the Lords Supper To edify confirm and preserve them by teaching reprooving praying for them comforting guiding governing binding and loosing by the use of that power of the Keys which is committed only to them both in doctrine and discipline doing all things toward penitents and impenitents believers and unbelievers Tit. 2.15 not magisterially but ministerially as from Christ and for the Churches good yet not precariously and arbitrarily oâ— depending on mans pleasure Iren. l. 4. c. 43. Episcopalus sucâ—essionâ—m ab Apostolis habentes Charisma veritatis certuÌ„ acceperunt Ubi charisâ—ata domini posita sunt ibi discere oportet veritatem apud quos est successio ab Apostoliâ— sanum ac irreprobabile sermonis Cap. 45. 1 Tâ—m 4.14 but autoritatively and conscientiously as doing the work of the Lord knowing the power they have received of the Lord the duties enjoyned them the care required in them the account to be exacted of them as to the Stewardship of the souls solemnly committed to their care which is done by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ministeriall gift of the holy Ghost which Christ gave to the Apostles John 20.22 and by their hands as by St. Pauls to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.6.14 to others and so to a perpetuall succession For without this gift or power of the holy Spirit of Truth 18. The holy Spirit given in right Ordination how whose property it is to lead the faithfull into all truth no man is truly a Minister of holy things in the Church So that it is a pittifull piece of ignorance or putid scurrility and profaness for any that profess Christianity much more for those that pretend to be Ministers in the Church to slight and expose to vulgar scorn that passage used as of antient times in all Churches so in the Church of Englands manner of ordeining Ministers Receive ye the holy Spirit As if this were a meer mockery and insignificancy in point of any sanctity conferred When it is expressed to be meant as it ever was in the Church understood not of sanctifying graces infused qualities or habits of inward holiness which are immediatly from God and not by man to be conferred nor from man to be communicated to another nor do they invest any one that hath them in any Church office or publick power over others for then every holy man and woman should have this power but it is only meant of those peculiar gifts or powers of the holy Spirit Eph. 4.8 which are properly ministeriall and officiative as from Christ and in his name not by internall infusion but by externall separation or sanction not endâ—ing with grace but investing in a new relation and authority distinct from the common Christians duty place and officers of charity c. which are as parchment wax and writing usefull in their kind but not valid as to any conveyance till sealed subscribed delivered and witnessed as the act and deeâ— of the conveyer who lawfully hereby confers to an other his right and power of acting possessing or enjoying c. So by a form of such Commission or delegation as Christ instituted that power and ministeriall gift of the holy Spirit is continued which was first committed to the Apostles by Christ who only would do it Nor can this power be understood so much for extraordinary miracles which were to cease as for that ordinary Ministry which was to continue as necessary for the Church in all ages This power or gift of the Holy Ghost as ministeriall and officiating in Christs name as that of miracles may be where there is no sanctifying grace as was in Judas and probably in Demas and others who might be sheep as to their profession Acts 1.17 and shepheards as to their office or Episcopacy of which Judas had a part and fell from it and yet wolves as to the inward habits and graces 1 Cor. 5.4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ c. When the Spirit of Paul was joyned with the Corinthian Ministers and believers in excommunicating the incestuous persons it was not the sanctifying Spirit or grace of the Apostle but that ministeriall power which he had eminently in and joyntly with the Church The power and Spirit of Christ as it is given so received in right Ordination by every true Minister that is worthily promoted not as to grace and inward vertue of which man judgeth not but as to office and relative power from Christ in the publike service or Ministry to his Church As every officer civill or military that hath commission acts in the Spirit name and power of those by whom authority is primarily derived to them In this sense and to this use the Spirit of Moses was put on the 70. Elders Num. 11.25 and Elias on Elisha 2 Kings 11.9 3. Yea further I doubt not but the solemn and right manner of Ordination by fasting Deus largitur gratiam homo imponit manus Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram Deus benediâ— potents dentre Episcopus initiat ordinem Deus tribuit