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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55769	Confirmation confirmed and recommended from Scripture, antiquity, and reason in a sermon preached in the Cathedrall Church of St. Mary in Sarum, at a solemn confirmation there administered by the Right Reverend Father in God Humphrey, Lord Bishop of Sarum / by John Priaulx ...	Priaulx, John, 1614?-1674.	1662 (1662)	Wing P3330; ESTC R9213	31,118	42

Confirmation Confirmed AND RECOMMENDED FROM Scripture Antiquity and Reason IN A SERMON PREACHED In the Cathedrall Church of St. MARY in SARUM at a solemn Confirmation there Administred by the Right Reverend Father in God HUMPHREY Lord Bishop of SARUM By JOHN PRIAULX D. D. one of the Canons Residentiary of that Church LONDON Printed by I. R. for Iohn Courtney Bookseller in Salisbury M.DC.LXII To the Right Reverend Father in God HUMPHREY By Divine Providence Lord Bishop of SARUM Right Reverend Father in God IN obedience to your Lordships injunctions this plain Sermon is surrendred to the Presse which not long since was presented in the Pulpit upon your Lordships Summons to that Service The acceptance it then met with and the hopes it might survive in the perswasions of the Auditory were as much as I could wish for from it I must deprecate if it be a fault my own backwardnesse that it should have gone farther Which backwardnesse arose not from any consciousnesse that ought therein contained was contrary to the form of sound words or the judgement of the Primitive Church or more particularly of our own which ob consanguinitatem doctrinae as Tertullian speaks may stand as near to the esteem of the Primitive as any other in Christendome Indeed these were the Guides by which I steer'd my course and if any thing should be found here differing from them dictum nolo I disclaim Idisown it before hand Nor was it out of any unwillingnesse to doe service to God and his Church in the present generation how crooked and froward soever it may be through his mercy I am not afraid of their terrour But it was onely out of a jealousie of my own conceptions as too crude and weak either to bear or bear up the Publick or to be considerably usefull to it Your Lordship hath been pleased to judge otherwise whether for the encouragement of the Preacher or for the seasonablenesse of the Discourse though not for any great strength or beauty in it And when I found you were resolved that way I was not willing to be any farther guilty of what in my Sermon I had condemned in others I began to think there was no prudence in Inferiours like to that of obedience unto lawfull Commands and to remember that Precept of S. Hierome to Rusticus in refernce to his Superiour Credas tibi salutare quicquid ille praeceperit nec de majorum sententiâ judices cujus officii est obedire implere quae jussa sunt dicente Moyse Audi Israel tace and therefore resolved cheerfully so to doe and have now in pursuance of that resolution exposed this Discourse to the publick view which I humbly desire your Lordship to Patronize sith you were pleased first to command it The main substance of the Sermon is the same that was Preached before you onely with your Lordships leave I have here and there inserted some enlargements which were at first designed but the straits of time allowed not room for their delivery And now if the publication of it may any way prove serviceable to the advancement of Gods glory or the satisfaction of dissenters whom I have laboured rather to convince then exasperate or may in the least contribute towards the Churches peace amongst us I shall have reason to rejoyce in and to blesse God for it Vnto the promoting of which holy ends both by your self and others as God hath given your Lordship a large heart and a double portion of his Spirit so that the Work of the Lord may prosper in your hands and the fruit of it redound to your account in all blessings temporall spirituall and eternall shall be the daily Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant John Priaulx Confirmation Confirmed Acts viii xvii Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost THe words and the work of this day are I suppose not unequally yoaked Confirmation is the businesse of both whereof the Text holds forth the first recorded instance and in the judgement of the Church of old a full precedent for the practice of it An ordinance of late too long and as those which perhaps were no friends to it at first by sad experience afterwards have been driven to confesse too unhappily with-held in unrighteousness to the great detriment and distraction of this Church whose Piety and a The not practising of this hath cast us into Confusions the practise of it must be it that must restore our Church order and heal most of our divisions Mr. Baxter of Confirmation p. 224 Peace were so much and so nearly concerned in it Happy then are our eyes which see the joyful return of it again We cannot but cry Grace Grace to its re-establishment May their feet be ever beautifull which bring such glad tidings and their hands never wither nor grow faint which reach out so great a blessing to us And may the Crown still flourish with the Gratitude and Obedience Love and Loyalty of all his Subjects upon the head of the Lords Annointed who like a second Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop without the Church hath not thought it below his Princely care b See His Majesties Declaration to present this Church and Nation with so promising an Olive branch of Peace after that Deluge of Confusion under which we have layn and to commend it to the strictest observance and improvement of those which were intrusted with the Administration of it A Blessing for which not onely the present generation but the children yet unborn will be bound to rise up and praise him And then under so general I hope a cordial concurrence such obligatory Precedents and Inducements give me leave for the retrival of this Ordinance not onely into your practise but your affections too to present you this day with the first and that an exact and Apostolick Patterne of it as it will appear in the opening of the words which are these Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost Which words may be sorted into these severalls first the Action it self laying on of hands the Ceremony of Confirmation Secondly the method or order of proceeding to this Action in the particle Then Thirdly the Agents or Ministers of this Action They viz. the Apostles in particular St. Peter and St. John Fourthly the objects on which this Ceremony was exercised in the Pronoun Them i.e. the Samaritans which believed and were baptized Fiftly the end of this Action or the effect following on it They received the Holy Ghost These are the particulars we begin 1. With the Action which is here set down as the Ceremony of Confirmation and that is laying on of hands Now this was the Concomitant or Appendix to another more principal which was Prayer which also had the same design with this Ceremony here as you may read v. 15. Indeed no blessing is bestowed at any time in and by

the gift is lost and so the Ceremony may be well left too to this purpose Mr. o Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 19. Sect. 6 7. Calvin Institut lib. 4. cap. 19. Sect. 6. in which Section and that which follows he inveighs against the Ceremony and the Administratours of it to say no worse with more intemperance then became the wisedome of so Learned a person in so grave a matter For answer whereunto we grant that it is true that in those times miraculous gifts did commonly follow the laying on of the Apostles hands but that was not all that was thereby designed nor all that was meant by the Holy Ghost nor perhaps was common to all that are said to receive him and in those that were partakers of them those gifts were commonly but the splendor and efflorescencies or as Letters testimoniall of better to be sure of greater value and benefit to the Receiver though they carried lesse pomp and shew in the worlds eye There were more purposes of the effusion of the Spirit then one and he that receives him to any of those purposes especially the chief though not in some Accidental transitory particular may be as truly said to receive him as another which hath that also Indeed as St. p Augustin Tract 6. in Epistol Iohan. Augustine speaks those were signa tempori opportuna signes very usefull for those times q August lib. 3. de baptismo contra Donatistas c. 16. neque temporalibus sensibilibus miraculis attestantibus per manus impositionem modo datur Spiritus Sanctus sicut antea dabatur ad commendationem rudis fidei Ecclesiae primordia dilatanda the Holy Spirit now given by imposition of hands is not accompanied with temporall and sensible miracles as then he was for the first establishing of the Faith and the enlargement of the Church at its beginning sed invisibiliter latenter intelligitur but yet secretly and invisibly Charity through the bond of peace as he speaks is still inspired into mens hearts so as they may say that the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us thus that holy Father Indeed as the Apostle speaks There are diversity of gifts gratiae gratis datae gifts for edification and gratiae gratum facientes graces for sanctification but the same Spirit that worketh both 1 Corin. 12.11 And these last were mainly had respect to in this donation as will appear if we consider first the promise of Christ concerning the gift it self secondly the Characters of the Receivers of it 1. John 7.38 39. The promise of Christ you have it John 7. where in the 38 verse he speaks of some eminent but inward gracious effects to be wrought upon and in the hearts of Believers for that is meant by these words Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters i. e. He shall have such an abundance of grace that it shall break forth into all manner of Christian actions and then ver 39. the Evangelist tells us that This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe in him should receive for as yet the Holy Ghost was not i. e. among them or in them in so powerfull a manner because Jesus was not yet glorified Where you see that inward grace was the main of Christs promise and that also to be fulfilled upon the descent of the Spirit See S. Peter to the same purpose Acts 2.38 Act. 2.38 where he wisheth his Hearers to repent and believe telling them they should receive the Holy Ghost he gives the reason in the next verse for saith he the promese is to you and your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord your God shall call which words imply that the gift was to be permanent in the Church the promise being that the Holy Ghost should be given to all which at any time should be converted this could not possibly be true if meant onely of miraculous gifts which it 's plain soon after ceased 2. The Characters of those which received the Holy Ghost seeme to speak no lesse so Acts 4.31 Act. 4.31 The Character of those that were filled with the Holy Ghost is that they speak the word with boldnesse that is courage and Christian resolution i and so Acts 6.3 Wisedome Act. 6.3 5. and v. 5. Faith is made the Character of such a one as had received the Holy Ghost and so Acts 11.24 Act. 11.24 it is said of Barnabas that he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and Faith and then Christian courage Wisedome Faith and the like abide still I hope and if the Spirit be given in these the main gift is not yet ceased Hence S. t Augustin Tract 6. in Epistol Ioh. Augustine very smartly asks the question ita perverso corde aliquis vestrum Is any of you of so perverse an heart as to deny that these speaking of some on whom he had newly laid hands have received the Holy Ghost because they have not the gift of speaking with Tongues and afterwards he addes Si vis nosse quia accepisti Spiritum sanctum If thou wilt certainly know whether thou hast received the Holy Ghost Interroga cor tuum ask thy heart that will tell thee unlesse perhaps thou hast received Confirmation and not the virtue of it if thou find the love of the Brethren there thou mayest be sure thou hast received the Holy Ghost thus S. Augustine So that by the Holy Ghost not onely the gift of miracles but the internall graces of the Spirit are to be understood which being really the greater and chiefly intended in the gift of the Holy Ghost if these still continue in the Church so may the means of their conveyance too though miracles be ceased We know that Preaching at the first was attended with miraculous events and so was Excommunication which had not onely influence upon the soul or the Church-state of a man but an habeas corpus for the body too and so Faith was the great engine to work miracles in those times and we think these ought not to have vanished out of the Church with the miracles which sometimes accompanied them Yea but may some further say with him in ſ Euseb Emissenus Homil. in Pentecost Euseb●us Emissenus If this be so that Baptized persons have yet need that the Spirit be given to them quantum video non totum de fonte suscepimus si post fontem adjectione novi generis indigemus it seems we have not received all we ought at the Font if afterwards wee need a supply of another kind will not this derogate from the honour and perfection of Baptism is not the Holy Ghost then received shall wee empty the Font to fill the hands of the Bishop I answer no we doe not Baptisme we allow as perfect in its kind and as to the present condition of the Receiver and

it And then though the Spirit he not included in the outward Ceremony yet that being in fair appearance of Gods own appointment b Calvin in Act. 13.3 haec Signorum est utilitas efficacia quod in illis Deus operatur tamen unus manet gratiae autor This is the benefit and effect of Signs that God works in them and yet there is but one Authour of grace God himself thus Calvin 2. Let me tell you that Ordinances are duties in which we must wait Gods pleasure for the blessing we leave not off to pray because we are not certain what we pray for shall be presently granted to us 3. I answer if you come prepared as you ought you may be sure of a blessing in some degree otherwise the Eucharist may prove a judgement to unmeet Receivers Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis it will be to thee according to thy Faith And thus I have at last past through the Doctrinal part of the Text on which I have stayed the longer as fearing lest under the great desuetude of this Ordinance the true notion of it may have grown somewhat obscure too And now to deduce the several Uses which would naturally flow from the reviewall of the past particulars it would be a task perhaps too unmerciful for your I fear almost tired patience and therefore I shall take a shorter course and having proved to you the Right Catholick use of this Ordinance together with the high ends and aime of it give me leave to close up all with a passionate Exhortation and request to all those who desire the good of this National Church that they would endeavour their uttermost in carrying on this blessed means of retriving the piety and exemplary Lives of all it's members now God by restoring peace to us hath opened so wide a door for its full entrance And here this Exhortation might 1. Make its humble address to the Dispensers of this Ordinance into whose hands God and the Church have put it And then if need were and it became my place and rank in a matter of such weight to advise my Superiour I could not doe it more pithily and succinctly then in his own words Epistola praedicta that this ministration be carried on Curatè Augustè Severè a due care taken as to the preparation for a becoming gravity and sacred solemnity with all circumspection and impartiality in the administration of it But blessed be God we find all this done in so Apostolick a manner that as there is great cause of our joy and thankfulnesse so there is little reason to importune him with our needlesse counsell and advice Onely I wish that this holy example may provoke all that are any way concerned in this work to come on chearfully to the help of the Lord in it Here then my businesse will mainly lie with those of an inferiour rank and First With you my Reverend Brethren of the Ministry on whom the care for preparing Candidates for this Ordinance mainly lies who are as so many c Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto which it is conceived that S. Paul alludes 2 Cor. 11.2 Guides and Tutours in this businesse Whose taske it is to instruct them to endeavour to winne their consents to Christ to inspect their lives and their sufficiency and meetnesse for this Ordinance and accordingly to give the Bishop information The truth is there will not easily be any miscarriages in this matter but it will lie at your doors as arising from your want of care or faithfulnesse in this businesse In preparation for it upon which notwithstanding all the clamours rise you have as much liberty to act as any godly sober-minded man can wish for There is nothing reserved from you but the administration of it unto which as I have shewed you have neither a capacity nor just pretence for which also the Order of the Church have and I question not the Piety of those which are intrusted will so provide that there shall be no ground of complaint on that account and then I hope that those a least will not shrink from the burden which have so stifly claimed that that and more belongs to them My Brethren I question not but many of you in the midst of our confusions have been heretofore the Lords Remembrancers earnestly entreating him to arise and to have mercy upon Sion and to make our Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth and now Beloved the Lord hath arisen and 〈◊〉 appeared in his glory for the raising of this poor Church out of its ruinee and whosoever fears the Lord and is willing may go up in his rank and place to build the House of the Lord and in such a time as this shall we withhold our hand or discourage the Master-builders by our backwardnesse or negligence who have rather reason to bless God who hath reserved us to see this day and hath honoured us with such an opportunity of being usefull in so great a work and I beseech you therefore in the Lord let us faithfully and rejoycingly set our hands and shoulders to it Here then in order thereunto give me leave to recommend some few duties to you I shall but name them 1. Prov. 27.23 Be diligent to know the state of your flock Prov. 27.23 to find their wants and weaknesses that so you may apply seasonable succours and suitable remedies unto them 2. As a Key to this adde Personall conference and private instruction We have many weak and sickly Parishes and therefore you ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk your Circuits in the Visitation of them not to think all your businesse lies in the Pulpit but to be instant in season out of season exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine Remember S. Act. 20.20 Paul's example Acts 20.20 he went about from house to house to teach them and if S. Paul who had the care of all the Churches held himself obliged to this duty how much more we that have but a small Parish to look to And then in the carrying on this Instruction in especiall manner to work up their hearts and apprehensions to a due esteem of their Baptismall Vow which is the Contract for their Christianity that when they come publickly to professe it their professions may be serious and well grounded 3. Adjoyn to this the publick use of Catechising those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those discourses which are as Midwives to bring in living members into the Church of God as d Dionys Areopag Ecclesiasticae Hierarchiae cap. 6. Sect. 1. Dionys Areop calls the Catechisme Eccles Hierarch cap. 6. Sect. 1. The people have more need of it and if rightly managed may profit more by it then by many of our Sermons which also are therefore the lesse beneficiall to them because these grounds are wanting whil'st we go to build them up the foundations shrink from under