were the Elei among the Grecians as being sacred to Jupiter safe from the hostility of a professed enemy the same which was observed amongst the Romans Quis homo est tantâ confidentiâ Qui sacerdotem audeat violare At magno cum malo suo fecit Herculè But this is but one instance of advantage The Gentiles having once separated their Priests and affixed them to the ministeries of religion thought nothing great enough either to expresse the dignity of their imployment or good enough to doe honour to their persons and it is largely discoursed of by Cicero in the case of the Roman Augures Maximum autem praestantissimum in Rep. jus est Augurum cum est authoritati conjunctum neque verò hoc quia sum ipse Augur ita sentio sed quia sio existimare nos necesse est Quid enim majus est si de jure quaerimus quà m posse à summis imperiis summis potestatibus comitia tollere concilia vel instituta dimittere vel habita rescindere Quid magnificentius quà m posse decernere ut magistratu se abdicent consules quid religiosius quà m cum populo cum plebe agendi jus aut dare aut non dare It was a vast power these men had to be in proportion to their greatest honour they had power of bidding and dissolving publick meetings of indicting solemnities of religion just as the Christian Bishops had in the beginning of Christianity they commanded publick fasts at their indiction onely they were celebrated Benè autem quod Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent non dico industriâ stipium conferendarum ut vestrae capturae est sed interdum aliquâ sollicitudinis Ecclestasticae causâ The Bishops also called publick conventions Ecclesiasticall Aguntur praecepta per Graecias illas certis in locis concilia ex universis Ecclesiis per quae et altior a quaeque in commune tractantur ipsarepraesentatio totius nominis Christiani magna veneratione celebratur It was so in all religions the Antistites the presidents of rites and guides of consciences had great immissions and influences into the republick and communities of men and they verified the saying of Tacitus Deûm munere summum pontisicem etiam summum hominem esse non aemulatione non odio aut privatis affectionibus obnoxium The chief Priest was ever the chief man and free from the envies and scornes and troubles of popular peevishnesse and contumacy and that I may use the expression of Tacitus utque glisceret dignatio sacerdotum for all the great traverses of the republick were in their disposing atque ipsis promptior animus foret ad capessendas ceremonias the very lower institutions of their religion were set up with the markes of speciall laws and priviledges insomuch that the seat of the Empresse in the Theatre was among the Vestall virgins But the highest had all that could be heaped upon them till their honours were as sublimed as their functions Amongst the Ethiopians the Priests gave laws to their Princes and they used their power sometimes to the ruine of their Kings till they were justly removed Among the Egyptians the Priests were their Judges so they were in Athens for the Areopagites were Priests and the Druids among the Gaules were Judges of murder of titles of land of bounds and inheritances magno apud eos sunt honore nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt and for the Magi of Persia and India Strabo reports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they conversed with Kings meaning they were their counsellours and guides of their consciences And Herodotus in Eustathius tells us of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divine order of Prophets or Priests in Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did eate of the publick provisions together with Kings By these honours they gave testimony of their religion not onely separating certain persons for the service of their Temples but also separating their condition from the impurities and the contempt of the world as knowing that they who were to converse with their Gods were to be elevated from the common condition of men and vulgar miseries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As soon as I was made a Priest of Idaean Jupiter all my garments were white and I declined to converse with mortals Novae sortis oportet illum esse qui jubente Deo canat said Seneca He had need be of a distinct and separate condition that sings to the honour and at the command of God thus it was among the Jews and Heathens SECT II. NOw if Christian Religion should doe otherwise then all the world hath done either it must be because the rites of Christianity are of no mystery and secret dispensation but common actions of an ordinary addresse and cheap devotion or else because we under value all religion that is because indeed we have nothing of it The first is dishonorable to Christianity and false as its greatest enemy The second is shame to us and both so unreasonable and unnaturall that if we separate not certain persons for the ministeries of Christianity we must confesse we have the worst religion or that we are the worst of men But let us consider it upon its proper grounds When Christ had chosen to himselfe twelve Apostles and was drawing now to the last scene of his life he furnished them with commissions and abilities to constitute and erect a Church and to transmit such powers as were apt for its continuation and perpetuity And therefore to the Apostles in the capacity of Church officers he made a promise That he would be with them untill the end of the world they might presonally be with him untill the end of the world but he could not be here with them who after a short course run were to goe hence and be no more seen and therefore for the verification of the promise it is necessary that since the promise was made for the benefit of the Church and to them as the ministers of the benefit so long as the benefit was to be dispensed so long they were to be succeeded to and therefore assisted by the Holy Jesus according to that glorious promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not onely to the Apostles but absolutely and indefinitely to all Christs disciples their successors he promised to abide for ever even to the consummation of the world to the whole succession of the Clergy so Theophylact upon this place And if we consider what were the power and graces Jesus committed to the dispensation of the Apostles such as were not temporary but lasting successive and perpetuall we must also conclude the ministery to be perpetuall I instance first in the power of binding and loosing remitting and retaining sins which Christ gave them together with his breathing on them the holy Spirit and a
legation and a speciall commission as appears in S. John which power what sense soever it admits of could not expire with the persons of the Apostles unlesse the succeeding ages of the Church had no discipline or government no scandals to be removed no weak persons offended no corrupt members to be cut off no hereticks rejected no sins or no pardon and that were a more heresie then that of the Novatians for they onely denyed this ministery in some cases not in all saying Priestly absolution was not fit to be dispensed to them who in time of persecution had sacrificed to idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To these onely pardon is to be dispensed without the ministery of the Priest To these who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrificers and mingled the table of the Lord with the table of devils Against other sinners they were not so severe But however so long as that distinction remaines of sinnes unto death and sinnes not unto death there are a certain sort of sins which are remediable and cognoscible and judicable and a power was dispensed to a distinct sort of persons to remit or retain those sins which therefore must remain with the Apostles for ever that is with their persons first and then with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their successors because the Church needs it for ever and there was nothing in the power that by relating to a present and temporary occasion did insinuate its short life and speedy expiration In execution of this power and pursuance of this commission for which the power was given the Apostles went forth and all they upon whom this signature passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 executed this power in appropriation and distinct ministery it was the sword of their proper ministery and S. Paul does almost exhibite his commission and reades the words when he puts it in execution and does highly verifie the parts and the consequence of this argument God hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Jesus and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation and it followes now then we are Embassadours for Christ. The ministery of reconciliation is an appropriate ministery It is committed to us we are Embassadours it is appropriate by virtue of Christs mission and legation He hath given to us he hath made and deputed certain Embassadours whom he hath sent upon the message and ministery of reconcilement which is a plain exposition of the words of his commission before recorded John 20. 21. And that this also descended lower we have the testimony of S. James who advises the sick person to send for the Elders of the Church that they may pray over him that they may anoint him that in that society there may be consession of sins by the clinick or sick person and that after these preparatives and in this ministery his sins may be forgiven him Now that this power fell into succession this instance proves for the Elders were such who had not the commission immediately from Christ but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were fathers of the people but sons of the Apostles and therefore it is certain the power was not personall and meerly Apostolicall but derived upon others by such a communication as gives evidence the power was to be succeeded in And when went it out when the anointing and miraculous healing ceased There is no reason for that For forgivenesse of sins was not a thing visible and therefore could not be of the nature of miracles to confirme the faith and christianity first and after its work was done return to God that gave it neither could it be onely of present use to the Church but as eternall and lasting as sin is and therefore there could be nothing in the nature of the thing to make it so much as suspicious it was presently to expire To which also I adde this consideration that the Holy Ghost which was to enable the Apostles in the precise office Apostolicall as it was an office extraordinary circumstantionate definite and to expire all that was promised should descend upon them after Christs ascension and was verified in Pentecost for to that purpose to bring all things to their minde all of Christs doctrine and all that was necessary of his life and miracles and a power from above to enable them to speake boldly and learnedly and with tongues all that besides the other parts of ordinary power was given them ten days after the Ascension And therefore the breathing the holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the octaves of the resurrection and this mission with such a power was their ordinary mission a sending them as ordinary Pastors and Curates of souls with a power to govern binding and loosing can mean no lesse and they were the words of the promise with a power to minister reconciliation for so S. Paul expounds remitting and retaining which two were the great hinges of the Gospell the one to invite and collect a Church the other to govern it the one to dispense the greatest blessing in the world the other to keep them in capacities of enjoying it For since the holy Ghost was now actually given to these purposes here expressed and yet in order to all their extraordinaries and temporary needs was promised to descend after this there is no collection from hence more reasonable then to conclude all this to be part of their commission of ordinary Apostleship to which the ministers of religion were in all ages to succeed In attestation of all which who please may see the united testimony of S. Cyrill S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose S. Gregory and the Author of the questions of the old and new Testament who unlesse by their calling shall rather be called persons interest then by reason of their famous piety and integrity shall be accepted as competent are a very credible and fair representment of this truth and that it was a doctrine of Christianity that Christ gave this power to the Apostles for themselves and their successors for ever and that therefore as Christ in the first donation so also some Churches in the tradition of that power used the same forme of words intending the collation of the same power and separating persons for the work of that ministery I end this with the counsell S. Augustine gives to all publick penitents Veniant ad Antistites per quos illis in Ecclesia claves ministrantur a praepositis sacrorum accipiant satisfactionis suae modum let them come to the Presidents of religion by whom the Keys are ministred and from the governours of holy things let them receive those injunctions which shall exercise and signifie their repentance SECT III. THe second power I instance in is preaching the Gospel for which work he not onely at first designed Apostles but others also were appointed for the same work forever to all generations of the Church This Commission was signed
immediately before Christs ascension All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Goe yee therefore and teach all nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you always even unto the end of the world First Christ declared his own commission all power is given him into his hand he was now made King of all the creatures and Prince of the Catholick Church and therefore as it concerned his care and providence to look to his cure and flock so he had power to make deputations accordingly Goe yee therefore implying that the sending them to this purupose was an issue of hispower either because the authorizing certain persons was an act of power or else because the making them doctors of the Church and teachers of the Nations was a placing them in an eminency above their scholars and converts and so also was an emanation of that power which derived upon Christ from his Father from him descended upon the Apostles And the wiser persons of the world have always understood that a power of teaching was a presidency and authority for sinco all dominion is naturally founded in the understanding although civill government accidentally and by inevitable publick necessity relies upon other titles yet where the greatest understanding and power of teaching is there is a naturall preheminence and superiority eatenus that is according to the proportion of the excellency and therefore in the instance of S Paul we are taught the style of the court and Disciples sit at the feet of their Masters as he did at the feet of his Tutor Gamaliel which implies duty submission and subordination and indeed it is the highest of any kinde not onely because it is founded upon nature but because it is a submission of the most imperious faculty we have even of that faculty which when we are removed from our Tutors is submitted to none but God for no man hath power over the understanding faculty and therefore so long as we are under Tutors and instructors we give to them that duty in the succession of which claim none can succeed but God himself because none else can satisfie the understanding but he Now then because the Apostles were created Doctors of all the world hoc ipso they had power given them over the understandings of their disciples and they were therefore fitted with an infallible spirit and grew to be so authentick that their determination was the last addresse of all inquiries in questions of Christianity and although they were not absolute Lords of their faith and understandings as their Lord was yet they had under God a supreme care and presidency to order to guide to instruct and to satisfie their understandings and those whom they sent out upon the same errand according to the proportion and excellency of their spirit had also a degree of superiority and eminency and therefore they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Labourers in the word and doctrine were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyters that were Presidents and Rulers of the Church and this eminency is for ever to be retained according as the unskilfulnesse of the Disciple retains him in the forme of Catechumens or as the excellency of the instructor still keeps the distance or else as the office of teaching being orderly and regularly assigned makes a legall politicall and positive authority to which all those persons are for orders sake to submit who possibly in respect of their personall abilities might be exempt from that authority Upon this ground it is that learning amongst wise persons is esteemed a title of nobility and secular eminency Ego enim quid aliud munificentiae adhibere potui ut studia ut sic dixerim in umbr a educata è quibus claritudo venit said Seneca to Nero. And Aristotle and A. Gellius affirme that not onely excellency of extraction or great fortunes but learning also makes noble circumundique sedentibus multis doctrinâ aut genere aut fortunâ nobilibus viris and therefore the Lawyers say that if a legacy be given pauperi nobili the executors if they please may give it to a Doctor I onely make this use of it that they who are by publick designation appointed to teach are also appointed in some sense to governe them and if learning it self be a faire title to secular opinion and advantages of honour then they who are professors of learning and appointed to be publick teachers are also set above their disciples as farre as the chair is above the Area or floor that is in that very relation of teachers and scholars and therefore among the heathen the Priests who were to answer de mysteriis sometimes bore a scepter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon which verse of Homer Eustathius observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The scepter was not onely an ensigne of a King but of a Judge and of a Prophet it signified a power of answering in judgment and wise sentences This discourse was occasioned by our blessed Saviours illative All power is given me goe yee therefore and teach and it concludes that the authority of Preaching is more then the faculty that it includes power and presidency that therefore a separation of persons is ex abundanti inferred unlesse order and authority be also casuall and that all men also may be Governours as well as Preachers Now that here was a plain separation of some persons for this ministery I shall not need to prove by any other argument besides the words of the Commission save onely that this may be added that here was more necessary then a commission great abilities speciall assistances extraordinary and divine knowledge and understanding the mysteries of the kingdome so that these abilities were separations enough of the persons and designation of the officers But this may possibly become the difficulty of the question For when the Apostles had filled the world with the Sermons of the Gospel and that the holy Ghost descended in a plentifull manner then was the prophecy of Joel fulfilled Old men dreamed dreams and young men saw visions and sons and daughters did prophecy now the case was altered and the disciples themselves start up doctors and women prayed and prophecied and Priscilla sate in the chaire with her husband Aquila and Apollos sat at their feet and now all was common again and therefore although the commission went out first to the Apostles yet when by miracle God dispensed great gifts to the Laity and to women he gave probation that he intended that all should prophecy and preach lest those gifts should be to no purpose This must be considered 1. These gifts were miraculous verifications of the great promise of the Father of sending the holy Ghost and that all persons were capable of that blessing in their severall proportions and that Christianity did descend from God were ex abundanti proved by those extraregular dispensations so that
something which others have not or if he be onely imployed in praying and presenting sacrifices of beasts for the people yet that such a person should be admitted to a neerer addresse and in behalf of the people must depend upon Gods acceptation and therefore upon divine constitution for there can be no reason given in the nature of the thing why God will accept the intermediation of one man for many or why this man more then another who possibly hath no naturall or acquired excellency beyond many of the people except what God himself makes after the constitution of the person If a spirituall power be necessary to the ministration it is certain none can give it but the fountain and the principle of the Spirits emanation Or if the graciousnesse and aptnesse of the person be required that also being arbitrary preternaturall and chosen must derive from the divine election For God cannot be prescribed unto by us whom he shall hear and whom he shall entertain in a more immediate addresse and freer entercourse And this is divinely taught us by the example of the high Priest himself who because he derived all power from his Father and all his gratiousnesse and favour in the office of Priest and Mediator was also personally chosen and sent and took not the honour but as it descended on him from God that the honour and the power the ability and the ministery might derive from the same fountain Christ did not glorisie himself to become high Priest Honour may be deserved by our selves but always comes from others and because no greater honour then to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God every man must say as our blessed High Priest said of himself If I honour my self my honour is nothing it is God that honoureth me For Christ being the fountain of Evangelicall ministery is the measure of our dispensations and the rule of Ecclesiasticall oeconomy and therefore we must not arrogate any power from our selves or from a lesse authority then our Lord and Master did and this is true and necessary in the Gospell rather then in any ministery or Priesthood that ever was because of the collation of so many excellent and supernaturall abilities which derive from Christ upon his Ministers in order to the work of the Gospel And the Apostles understood their duty in this particular as in all things else for when they had received all this power from above they were carefull to consign the truth that although it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine grace in a humane ministery and that although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is He that is ordained by men yet receives his power from God not at all by himself and from no man as from the fountain of his power And this I say the Apostles were carefull to consign in the first instance of Ordination in the case of Mathias Thou Lord shew which of these two thou hast chosen God was the Elector and they the Ministers and this being at the first beginning of Christianity in the very first designation of an ecclesiasticall person was of sufficient influence into the religion for ever after and taught us to derive all clericall power from God and therefore by such means and Ministeries which himself hath appointed but in no hand to be invaded or surprized in the entrance or polluted in the execution This descended in the succession of the Churches doctrine for ever Receive the holy Ghost said Christ to his Apostles when he enabled them with Priestly power and S. Paul to the Bishops of Asia said The holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers because no mortall man no Angel or Archangell nor any other created power but the Holy Ghost alone hath constituted this order saith S. Chrysostome And this very thing besides the matter of fact and the plain donation of the power by our blessed Saviour is intimated by the words of Christ otherwhere Pray ye therefore the Lord of the vineyard that he will send labourers into his harvest Now his mission is not onely a designing of the persons but enabling them with power because he never commands a work but he gives abilities to its performance and therefore still in every designation of the person by what ever ministery it be done either that ministery is by God constituted to be the ordinary means of conveying the abilities or else God himself ministers the grace immediately It must of necessity come from him some way or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. James hath adopted it into the family of Evangelicall truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every perfect gift and therefore every perfecting gift which in the stile of the Church is the gift of Ordination is from above the gifts of perfecting the persons of the Hierarchy and ministery Evangelicall which thing is further intimated by S. Paul Now he which stablisheth us with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in order to Christ and Christian Religion is God and that his meaning be understood concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of establishing him in the ministery he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he which anointeth us is God and hath sealed us with an earnest of his Spirit unction and consignation and establishing by the holy Spirit the very stile of the Church for ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was said of Christ Him hath the Father sealed that is ordained him the Priest and Prophet of the world and this he plainly spoke as their Apostle and President in religion Not as Lords over your faith but fellow-workers he spake of himself and Timothy concerning whose Ministery in order to them he now gives account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God anoints the Priest and God consigns him with the holy Ghost that is the Principale quaesitum that is the main question And therefore the Author of the books of Ecclesiasticall hierarchy giving the rationale of the rites of Ordination says that the Priest is made so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of proclaiming and publication of the person signifying That the holy man that consecrates is but the proclaimer of the divine election but not by any humane power or proper grace does he give the perfect gift and consecrate the person And Nazianzen speaking of the rites of ordination hath this expression with which the divine grace is proclaimed And Billius renders it ill by superinvocatur He makes the power of consecration to be declarative which indeed is a lesser expression of a fuller power but it signifies as much as the whole comes to for it must mean God does transmit the grace at or by or in the exteriour ministery and the Minister is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a declarer not by the word of his mouth distinct from the work of
his hand But by the ministery he declares the work of God then wrought in the person suscipient And thus in absolution the Priest declares the act of God pardoning not that he is a Preacher onely of the pardon upon certain conditions but that he is not the principall agent but by his ministery declares and ministers the effect and work of God And this interpretation is clear in the instance of the blessed Sacrament where not onely the Priest but the people doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declare the Lords death not by a Homily but by virtue of the mystery which they participate And in the instance of this present question the consecrator does declare the power to descend from God upon the person to be ordained But thus the whole action being but a ministery is a declaration of the effect and grace of Gods vouchsafing and because God does it not immediately and also because such effects are invisible and secret operations God appointing an externall rite and ministery does it that the private working of the Spirit may become as perceived as it can be that is that it may by such rites be declared to all the world what God is doing and that man cannot doe it of himself and besides the reasonablenesse of the thing the very words in the present allegation doe to this very sense expound themselves for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same thing and expressive of each other the consecrator declares that is he doth not do it by collation of his own grace or power but the grace of God and power from above And this doctrine we read also in S. Cyprian towards the end of his Epistle to Cornelius ut Dominus qui Sacerdotes sibi in ecclesia sua eligere constituere dignatur electos quoque constitutos sua voluntate atque opitulatione tueatur It is a good prayer of ordination that the Lord who vouchsafes to choose and consecrate Priests in his Church would also be pleased by his ayd and grace to defend them whom he hath so chosen and appointed Homo manum imponit Deus largitur gratiam Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram Deus benedicit potenti dextra saith S. Ambrose man imposes his hand but God gives the grace the Bishop layes on his hand of prayer and God blesses with his hand of power The effect of this discourse is plain the grace and powers that enable men to minister in the mysteries of the Gospel is so wholly from God that whosoever assumes it without Gods warrant and besides his way ministers with a vain sacrilegious and ineffective hand save onely that he disturbs the appointed order and does himself a mischief SECT VII BY this ordination the persons ordained are made ministers of the Gospel stewards of all its mysteries the light the salt of the earth the shepheard of the flock Curates of soules these are their offices or their appellatives which you please for the Clericall ordination is no other but a sanctification of the person in both senses that is 1 a separation of him to do certain mysterious actions of religion which is that sanctification by which Jeremy and S. John the Baptist were sanctified from their mothers wombs 2 It is also a sanctification of the person by the increasing or giving respectively to the capacity of the suscipient such graces as make the person meet to speak to God to pray for the people to handle the mysteries and to have influence upon the cure The first sanctification is a designation of the person which must of necessity be some way or other by God because it is a neerer approach to him a ministery of his graces which without his appointment a man must not cannot any more doe then a messenger can cary pardon to a condemned person which his Prince never sent But this separation of the person is not onely a naming of the man for so farre the separation of the person may be previous to the ordination for so it was in the ordinations of Mathias and the seven Deacons The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appointed two before God chose by lot and the whole Church chose the seven Deacons before the Apostles imposed hands but the separation or this first sanctification of the person is a giving him a power to doe such offices which God hath appointed to be done to him and for the people which we may clearly see and understand in the instance of Job and his friends For when God would be intreated in behalfe of Eliphaz and his companions he gave order that Job should make the addresse Goe to my servant he shall pray for you and him will I accept this separation of a person for the offices of advocation is the same thing which I mean by this first sanctification God did it and gave him a power and authority to goe to him and put him into a place of trust and favour about him and made him a minister of the sacrifice which is a power and eminency above the persons for whom he was to sacrifice and a power or grace from God to be in neernesse to him This I suppose to be the great argument for the necessity of separating a certain order of men for ecclesiasticall ministeries And it relies upon these propositions 1. All power of ordination descends from God and he it is who sanctifies and separates the person 2. The Priest by God is separate to be the gracious person to stand between him and the people 3. Hee speaks the word of God and returns the prayers and duty of the people and reconveyes the blessings of God by his prayer and by his ministery So that although every Christian must pray and may be heard yet there is a solemn person appointed to pray in publick and though Gods spirit is given to all that aske it and the promises of the Gospel are verified to all that obey the Gospell of Iesus yet God hath appointed sacraments and solemnities by which the promises and blessings are ministred more solemnly and to greater effects All the ordinary devotions the people may doe alone the solemn rituall and publick the appointed Minister onely must do And if any man shall say because the Priests ministery is by prayer every man can doe it and so no need of him by the same reason he may say also that the Sacraments are unnecessary because the same effect which they produce is also in some degree the reward of a private piety and devotion But the particulars are to be further proved and explicated as they need Now what for illustration of this article I have brought from the instance of Job is true in the ministers of the Gospell with the superaddition of many degrees of eminency But still in the same kind for the power God hath given is indeed mysticall but it is not like a power operating by
shall be rent into threds of light and scatter like the beards of comets Then shall bee fearfull earthquakes and the rocks shall rend in pieces the trees shall distill bloud and the mountains and fairest structures shall returne unto their primitive dust the wild beasts shall leave their dens and come into the companies of men so that you shall hardly tell how to call them herds of Men or congregations of Beasts Then shall the Graves open and give up their dead and those which are alive in nature and dead in fear shall be forc'd from the rocks whither they went to hide them and from caverns of the earth where they would fain have been concealed because their retirements are dismantled and their rocks are broken into wider ruptures and admit a strange light into their secret bowels and the men being forc'd abroad into the theatre of mighty horrors shall run up and downe distracted and at their wits end and then some shall die and some shall bee changed and by this time the Elect shall bee gathered together from the foure quarters of the world and Christ shall come along with them to judgment These signes although the Jewish Doctors reckon them by order and a method concerning which they had no revelation that appeares nor sufficiently credible tradition yet for the main parts of the things themselves the holy Scripture records Christs own words and concerning the most terrible of them the summe of which as Christ related them and his Apostles recorded and explicated is this The earth shall tremble and the powers of the heavens shall bee shaken the sun shall bee turned into darknesse and the moon into bloud that is there shall bee strange eclipses of the Sun and fearfull aspects in the Moon who when she is troubled looks red like bloud The rocks shall rend and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The heavens shall bee rolled up like a parchment the earth shall bee burned with fire the hils shall be like wax for there shall goe a fire before him and a mighty tempest shall be stirred round about him Dies irae Dies illa Solvet sêclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ The Trumpet of God shall sound and the voice of the Archangell that is of him who is the Prince of all that great army of Spirits which shall then attend their Lord and wait upon and illustrate his glory and this also is part of that which is called the signe of the Son of Man for the fulfilling of all these praedictions and the preaching the Gospel to all Nations and the Conversion of the Jews and these prodigies and the Addresse of Majesty make up that signe The notice of which things some way or other came to the very Heathen themselves who were alarum'd into caution and sobriety by these dreadfull remembrances Sic cum compage solutâ Saecula tot mundt suprema coëgerit hora Antiquum repetens iterum chaos omnia mistis Sidera sideribus concurrent ignea pontum Astra petent tellus extendere littora nolet Excutietque fretum fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit Totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera Mundi Which things when they are come to passe it will be no wonder if mens hearts shall faile them for feare and their wits bee lost with guilt and their fond hopes destroyed by prodigie and amazement but it will bee an extreme wonder if the consideration and certain expectation of these things shall not awake our sleeping spirits and raise us from the death of Sin and the basenesse of vice and dishonorable actions to live soberly and temperately chastly and justly humbly and obediently that is like persons that believe all this and such who are not mad men or fools but will order their actions according to these notices For if they doe not believe these things where is their Faith If they doe believe them and sin on and doe as if there were no such thing to come to passe where is their Prudence and what is their hopes and where their Charity how doe they differ from beasts save that they are more foolish for beasts goe on and consider not because they cannot but we can consider and will not we know that strange terrors shall affright us all and strange deaths and torments shall seise upon the wicked and that we cannot escape and the rocks themselves will not bee able to hide us from the fears of those prodigies which shall come before the day of Judgement and that the mountains though when they are broken in pieces we call upon them to fall upon us shall not be able to secure us one minute from the present vengeance and yet we proceed with confidence or carelesnesse and consider not that there is no greater folly in the world then for a man to neglect his greatest interest and to die for trifles and little regards and to become miserable for such interests which are not excusable in a Childe He that is youngest hath not long to live Hee that is thirty forty or fifty yeares old hath spent most of his life and his dream is almost done and in a very few moneths hee must be cast into his eternall portion that is hee must be in an unalterable condition his finall Sentence shall passe according as hee shall then bee found and that will be an intolerable condition when he shall have reason to cry out in the bitternesse of his soule Eternall woe is to mee who refus'd to consider when I might have been saved and secured from this intolerable calamity But I must descend to consider the particulars and circumstances of the great consideration Christ shall be our Judge at Doomes-day SERMON II. Part II. 1. IF we consider the person of the Judge we first perceive that he is interested in the injury of the crimes he is to sentence Videbunt quem crucifixerunt and they shal look on him whom they have pierced It was for thy sins that the Judge did suffer such unspeakable pains as were enough to reconcile all the world to God The summe and spirit of which pains could not be better understood then by the consequence of his own words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me meaning that he felt such horrible pure unmingled sorrowes that although his humane nature was personally united to the Godhead yet at that instant he felt no comfortable emanations by sensible perception from the Divinity but he was so drenched in sorrow that the Godhead seemed to have forsaken him Beyond this nothing can be added but then that thou hast for thy own particular made all this in vain and ineffective that Christ thy Lord and Judge should be tormented for nothing that thou wouldst not accept felicity and pardon when he purchased them at so dear a price must needs be an infinite condemnation to such persons How shalt thou look upon him that fainted and dyed for love of thee and thou didst
among the Jews yet wee must reckon our pardon by curing the spirituall If I have sinned against God in the shamefull crime of Lust then God hath pardoned my sins when upon my repentance and prayers he hath given me the grace of Chastity My Drunkennesse is forgiven when I have acquir'd the grace of Temperance and a sober spirit My Covetousnesse shall no more be a damning sin when I have a loving and charitable spirit loving to do good and despising the world for every further degree of sin being a neerer step to hell and by consequence the worst punishment of sin it follows inevitably that according as we are put into a contrary state so are our degrees of pardon and the worst punishment is already taken off And therefore we shall find that the great blessing and pardon and redemption which Christ wrought for us is called sanctification holinesse and turning us away from our sins So St. Peter Yee know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation that 's your redemption that 's your deliverance you were taken from your sinfull state that was the state of death this of life and pardon and therefore they are made Synonyma by the same Apostle According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godlinesse to live and to be godly is all one to remain in sin and abide in death is all one to redeem us from sin is to snatch us from hell he that gives us godlinesse gives us life and that supposes pardon or the abolition of the rites of eternall death and this was the conclusion of St. Peter's Sermon and the summe totall of our redemption and of our pardon God having raised up his Son sent him to blesse us in turning away every one of you from your iniquity this is the end of Christs passion and bitter death the purpose of all his and all our preaching the effect of baptisme purging washing sanctifying the work of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the same body that was broken and the same blood that was shed for our redemption is to conform us into his image and likenesse of living and dying of doing and suffering The case is plain just as we leave our sins so Gods wrath shall be taken from us as we get the graces contrary to our former vices so infallibly we are consign'd to pardon If therefore you are in contestation against sin while you dwell in difficulty and sometimes yeeld to sin and sometimes overcome it your pardon is uncertain and is not discernible in its progresse but when sin is mortified and your lusts are dead and under the power of grace and you are led by the Spirit all your fears concerning your state of pardon are causelesse and afflictive without reason but so long as you live at the old rate of lust or intemperance of covetousnesse or vanity of tyranny or oppression of carelesnesse or irreligion flatter not your selves you have no more reason to hope for pardon then a begger for a Crown or a condemned criminall to be made Heir apparent to that Prince whom he would traiterously have slain 4. They have great reason to fear concerning their condition who having been in the state of grace who having begun to lead a good life and give their names to God by solemne deliberate acts of will and understanding and made some progresse in the way of Godlinesse if they shall retire to folly and unravell all their holy vows and commit those evils from which they formerly run as from a fire or inundation their case hath in it so many evills that they have great reason to fear the anger of God and concerning the finall issue of their souls For return to folly hath in it many evils beyond the common state of sin and death and such evils which are most contrary to the hopes of pardon 1. He that falls back into those sins he hath repented of does grieve the holy Spirit of God by which he was sealed to the day of redemption For so the Antithesis is plain and obvious If at the conversion of a sinner there is joy before the beatified Spirits the Angels of God and that is the consummation of our pardon and our consignation to felicity then we may imagine how great an evill it is to grieve the Spirit of God who is greater then the Angels The Children of Israel were carefully warned that they should not offend the Angel Behold I send an Angel before thee beware of him and obey his voyce provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions that is he will not spare to punish you if you grieve him Much greater is the evill if we grieve him who sits upon the throne of God who is the Prince of all the Spirits and besides grieving the Spirit of God is an affection that is as contrary to his felicity as lust is to his holinesse both which are essentiall to him Tristitia enim omnium spirituum nequissima est pessima servis Dei omnium spiritus exterminat cruciat Spiritum sanctum said Hennas Sadnesse is the greatest enemy to Gods servants if you grieve Gods Spirit you cast him out for he cannot dwell with sorrow and grieving unlesse it be such a sorrow which by the way of vertue passes on to joy and never ceasing felicity Now by grieving the holy Spirit is meant those things which displease him doing unkindnesse to him and then the grief which cannot in proper sense seise upon him will in certain effects return upon us Ita enim dica said Seneca sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet bonorum malorúmque nostrorum observator custos hic prout à nobis tractatus est ita nos ipse tractat There is a holy spirit dwels in every good man who is the observer and guardian of all our actions and as we treat him so will he treat us Now we ought to treat him sweetly and tenderly thankfully and with observation Deus praecepit Spiritum sanctum utpote pro naturae suae bono tenerum delicatum tranquillitate lenitate quiete pace tractare said Tertullian de Spectaculis The Spirit of God is a loving and a kind Spirit gentle and easy chast and pure righteous and peaceable and when he hath done so much for us as to wash us from our impurities and to cleanse us from our stains and streighten our obliquities and to instruct our ignorances and to snatch us from an intolerable death and to consign us to the day of redemption that is to the resurrection of our bodies from death corruption and the dishonors of the grave and to appease all the storms and uneasynesse and to make us free as the Sons of God and furnished with the riches of the Kingdome and all this with innumerable arts with difficulty and in despite of our lusts
and that which was private that which fools applauded and that which himself durst not own the secrets of his lust and the criminall contrivances of his thoughts the base and odious circumstances and the frequency of the action and the partner of his sin all that which troubles his conscience and all that he willingly forgets shall be proclaim'd by the trumpet of God by the voice of an Archangell in the great congregation of spirits and just men There is one great circumstance more of the shame of sin which extremely enlarges the evill of a sinfull state but that is not consequent to sin by a naturall emanation but is superinduc'd by the just wrath of God and therefore is to be consider'd in the third part which is next to be handled 3. When the Boeotians asked the Oracle by what they should become happy the answer was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wicked and irreligious persons are prosperous and they taking the Devill at his word threw the inspired Pythian the ministring witch into the sea hoping so to become mighty in peace and warre The effect of which was this The Devill was found a lyar and they fools at first and at last felt the reward of irreligion For there are to some crimes such events which are not to be expected from the connexion of naturall causes but from secret influences and undiscernible conveyances * that a man should be made sick for receiving the holy Sacrament unworthily and blinde for resisting the words of an Apostle a preacher of the Lawes of Jesus and dye suddenly for breaking of his vow and committing sacriledge and be under the power and scourge of an exterminating Angell for climbing his Fathers bed these are things beyond the worlds Philosophy But as in Nature so in Divinity too there are Sympathies and Antipathies effects which we feel by experience and are forewarned of by revelation which no naturall reason can judge nor any providence can prevent but by living innocently and complying with the Commandements of God The rod of God which cometh not into the lot of the righteous strikes the sinning man with sore strokes of veng eance 1. The first that I shall note is that which I called the aggravation of the shame of sin and that is an impossibility of being concealed in most cases of heinous crimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no man suppose that he shall for ever hide his sin a single action may be conveyed away under the covert of an excuse or a privacy escaping as Ulysses did the search of Polyphemus and it shall in time be known that it did escape and shall be discover'd that it was private that is that it is so no longer But no wicked man that dwelt and delighted in sin did ever go off from his scene of unworthinesse without a filthy character The black veile is thrown over him before his death and by some contingency or other he enters into his cloud because few sins determine finally in the thoughts but if they dwell there they will also enter into action and then the thing discovers it self or else the injured person will proclaim it or the jealous man will talk of it before it 's done or curious people will inquire and discover or the spirit of detraction shall be let loose upon him and in spite shall declare more then he knowes not more then is true The Ancients especially the Scholars of Epicurus beleev'd that no man could be secured or quiet in his spirit from being discovered Scelus aliqua tutum nulla securum tulit They are not secure even when they are safe but are afflicted with perpetuall jealousies and every whisper is concerning them and all new noises are arrests to their spirits and the day is too light and the night is too horrid and both are the most opportune for their discovery and besides the undiscernible connexion of the contingencies of providence many secret crimes have been published by dreams and talkings in their sleep It is the observation of Lucretius Multi de magnis per somnum rebus loquuntur Indicióque sui facti persape fuêre And what their understanding kept a guard upon their fancy let loose fear was the bars and locks but sleep became the key to open even then when all the senses were shut and God rul'd alone without the choice and discourse of man And though no man regards the wilder talkings of a distracted man yet it hath sometimes hapned that a delirium and a feaver fear of death and the intolerable apprehensions of damnation have open'd the cabinet of sin and brought to light all that was acted in the curtains of night Quippe ubi se multis per somnia saepe loquentes Aut morbo delirantes protrâxe feruntur Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse But there are so many wayes of discovery and amongst so many some one does so certainly happen that they are well summ'd up by Sophocles by saying that time hears all and tels all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A cloud may be its roof and cover till it passes over but when it is driven by a fierce winde or runs fondly after the Sun it layes open a deformity which like an ulcer had a skin over it and a pain within and drew to it a heap of sorrowes big enough to run over all its inclosures Many persons have betrayed themselves by their own fears and knowing themselves never to be secure enough have gone to purge themselves of what no body suspected them offer'd an Apology when they had no accuser but one within which like a thorn in the flesh or like a word in a fools heart was uneasie till it came out Non amo se nimium purgitantes when men are over-busie in justifying themselves it is a sign themselves think they need it Plutarch tels of a young gentleman that destroyed a swallow's nest pretending to them that repreved him for doing the thing which in their superstition the Creeks esteemed so ominous that the little bird accused him for killing his Father And to this purpose it was that Solomon gave counsell Curse not the King no not in thy thought nor the rich in thy bedchamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that that hath wings shall tell the matter Murder and treason have by such strange wayes been revealed as if God had appointed an Angell president of the revelation and had kept this in secret and sure ministry to be as an argument to destroy Atheisme from the face of the earth by opening the secrets of men with this key of providence Intercepting of letters mistaking names false inscriptions errors of messengers faction of the parties fear in the actors horror in the action the majesly of the person the restlesnesse of the minde distracted looks wearinesse of the spirit and all under the conduct of the Divine wisdome and the Divine vengeance make the covers
patefactus the manifestation of the Spirit ad aedificationem as the Apostle calls it for edification and building us up to be a Holy Temple to the Lord. 2. But when we had been taught all these mysterious articles we could not by any humane power have understood them unlesse the Spirit of God had given us a new light and created in us a new capacity and made us to be a new creature of another definition Animalis homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as S. Jude expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the animal or the naturall man the man that hath not the Spirit cannot discern the things of God for they are spiritually discerned that is not to be understood but by the light proceeding from the Sun of righteousnesse and by that eye whose bird is the Holy Dove whose Candle is the Gospel Scio incapacem te sacramenti Impie Non posse coecis mentibus mysterium Haurire nostrum nil diurnum nox capit He that shall discourse Euclids elements to a swine or preach as Venerable Bede's story reports of him to a rock or talk Metaphysicks to a Bore will as much prevail upon his assembly as S. Peter and S. Paul could do upon uncircumcised hearts and ears upon the indisposed Greeks and prejudicate Iews An Ox will relish the tender flesh of Kids with as much gust and appetite as an unspirituall and unsanctified man will do the discourses of Angels or of an Apostle if he should come to preach the secrets of the Gospel And we finde it true by a sad experience How many times doth God speak to us by his servants the Prophets by his Son by his Apostles by sermons by spirituall books by thousands of homilies and arts of counsell and insinuation and we sit as unconcerned as the pillars of a Church and hear the sermons as the Athenians did a story or as we read a gazet and if ever it come to passe that we tremble as Felix did when we hear a sad story of death of righteousnesse and judgement to come then we put it off to another time or we forget it and think we had nothing to do but to give the good man a hearing and as Anacharsis said of the Greeks they used money for nothing but to cast account withall so our hearers make use of sermons and discourses Evangelical but to fill up void spaces of our time to help to tell an hour with or without tediousnesse The reason of this is a sad condemnation to such persons they have not yet entertained the Spirit of God they are in darknesse they were washed in water but never baptized with the Spirit for these things are spiritually discerned They would think the Preacher rude if he should say they are not Christians they are not within the Covenant of the Gospel but it is certain that the spirit of Manifestation is not yet upon them and that is the first effect of the Spirit whereby we can be called sons of God or relatives of Christ. If we do not apprehend and greedily suck in the precepts of this holy Discipline as aptly as Merchants do discourse of gain or Farmers of fair harvests we have nothing but the Name of Christians but we are no more such really then Mandrakes are men or spunges are living creatures 3. The Gospel is called Spirit because it consists of Spiritual Promises and Spiritual precepts and makes all men that embrace it truly to be Spiritual men and therefore S. Paul addes an Epithete beyond this calling it a quiohening Spirit that is it puts life into our Spirits which the law could not The law bound us to punishment but did not help us to obedience because it gave not the promise of Eternal life to its Disciples The Spirit that is the Gospel onely does this and this alone is it which comforts afflicted mindes which puts activenesse into wearyed Spirits which inflames our cold desires and does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blows up sparks into live coles and coles up to flames and flames to perpetual burnings and it is impossible that any man who believes and considers the great the infinite the unspeakable the unimaginable the never ceasing joyes that are prepared for all the sons and daughters of the Gospel should not desire them and unlesse he be a fool he cannot but use means to obtain them effective hearty pursuances For it is not directly in the nature of a man to neglect so great a good there must be something in his manners some obliquity in his will or madnesse in his intellectuals or incapacity in his naturals that must make him sleep such a reward away or change it for the pleasure of a drunken feaver or the vanity of a Mistresse or the rage of a passion or the unreasonablenesse of any sin However this promise is the life of all our actions and the Spirit that first taught it is the life of our soules 4. But beyond this is the reason which is the consummation of all the faithful The Gospel is called the Spirit because by and in the Gospel God hath given to us not onely the Spirit of manifestation that is of instruction and of Catechisme of faith and confident assent but the Spirit of Confirmation or obsignation to all them that believe and obey the Gospel of Christ that is the power of God is come upon our hearts by which in an admirable manner we are made sure of a glorious inheritance made sure I say in the nature of the thing and our own persuasions also are confirmed with an excellent a comfortable a discerning and a reasonable hope in the strength of which and by whose ayde as we do not doubt of the performance of the promise so we vigorously pursue all the parts of the condition and are mabled to work all the work of God so as not to be affrighted with fear or seduced by vanity or oppressed by lust or drawn off by evil example or abused by riches or imprison'd by ambition and secular designes This the Spirit of God does work in all his Servants and is called the spirit of obsignation or the confirming spirit because it confirms our hope and assures our title to life eternall and by means of it and other it 's collateral assistances it also confirms us in our duty that we may not onely professe in word but live lives according to the Gospel And this is the sense of the Spirit mentiond in the Text ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you That is if ye be made partakers of the Gospel or of the spirit of manifestation if ye be truly intitled to God and have received the promise of the Father then are ye not carnall men ye are spirituall ye are in the Spirit if ye have the Spirit in one sense to any purpose ye have it also in another if the Spirit be
his tears sweeter then the drops of Mannah or the little pearls of heaven that descended upon mount Hermon weeping in the midst of this triumph over obstinate perishing and maliciour Jerusalem For this Jesus was like the rain-bowe which God set in the clouds as a sacrament to confirm a promise and establish a grace he was half made of the glories of the light and half of the moisture of a cloud in his best dayes he was but half triumph and half sorrow he was sent to tell of his Fathers mercies and that God intended to spare us but appeared not but in the company or in the retinue of a shower and of foul weather But I need not tell that Jesus beloved of God was a suffering person that which concerns this question most is that he made for us a covenant of sufferings His Doctrines were such as expressely and by consequent enjoyne and suppose sufferings and a state of affliction His very promises were sufferings his beatitudes were sufferings his rewards and his arguments to invite men to follow him were onely taken from sufferings in this life and the reward of sufferings hereafter For if we summon up the Commandements of Christ we shall finde humility mortification self-deniall repentance renouncing the world mourning taking up the crosse dying for him patience and poverty to stand in the chiefest rank of Christian precepts and in the direct order to heaven He that will be my Disciple must deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me We must follow him that was crowned with thorns and sorrows him that was drenchd in Cedron nailed upon the Crosse that deserved all good and suffered all evil That is the summe of Christian Religion as it distinguishes from all the Religions of the world To which we may adde the expresse Precept recorded by Saint James Be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into weeping You see the Commandements Will you also see the Promises These they are In the world yee shall have tribulation in me ye shall have peace and through many tribulations ye shall enter into heaven and he that loseth father and mother wives and children houses and lands for my Names sake and the Gospel shall receive a hundred fold in this life with persecution that 's part of his reward And he chastiseth every son that he receiveth and if you be exempt from sufferings ye are bastards and not sons These are some of Christs promises will you see some of Christs blessings that he gives his Church Blessed are the poor Blessed are the hungry and thirsty Blessed are they that mourn Blessed are the humble Blessed are the persecuted Of the eight Beatitudes five of them have temporall misery and meannesse or an afflicted condition for their subject Will you at last see some of the reward which Christ hath propounded to his servants to invite them to follow him When I am lifted up I will draw all men after me when Christ is lifted up as Moses lift up the serpent in the wildernesse that is lifted upon the Crosse then he will draw us after him To you it is given for Christ saith Saint Paul when he went to sweeten and to flatter the Philippians Well what is given to them Some great favours surely true It is not onely given that you beleeve in Christ though that be a great matter but also that you suffer for him that 's the highest of your honour And therefore saith Saint James My brethren count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations And Saint Peter Communicating with the sufferings of Christ rejoyce And Saint James again We count them blessed that have suffered And Saint Paul when he gives his blessing to the Thessalonians he uses this form of prayer Our Lord direct our hearts in the charity of God and in the patience and sufferings of Christ. So that if wee will serve the King of sufferings whose crown was of thorns whose seepter was a reed of scorne whose imperiall robe was a scarlet of mockery whose throne was the Crosse We must serve him in sufferings in poverty of spirit in humility and mortification and for our reward we shall have persecution and all its blessed consequents Atque hoc est esse Christianum Since this was done in the green-tree what might we expect should be done in the dry Let us in the next place consider how God hath treated his Saints and servants and the descending ages of the Gospel That if the best of Gods servants were followers of Jesus in this covenant of sufferings we may not think it strange concerning the fiery tryall as if some new thing had happened to us For as the Gospel was founded in sufferings we shall also see it grow in persecutions and as Christs blood did cement the corner stones and the first foundations So the blood and sweat the groans and sighings the afflictions and mortifications of saints and martyrs did make the super structures and must at last finish the building If I begin with the Apostles who were to perswade the world to become Christian and to use proper Arguments of invitation we shall sinde that they never offered an Argument of temporall prosperity they never promised Empires and thrones on earth nor riches nor temporall power and it would have been soon confuted if they who were whipt and imprisoned banished and scattered persecuted and tormented should have promised Sun-shine dayes to others which they could not to themselves Of all the Apostles there was not one that died a naturall death but onely Saint John and did he escape Yes But he was put into a Cauldron of scalding lead and oyl before the Port Latin in Rome and scaped death by miracle though no miracle was wrought to make him scape the torture And besides this he lived long in banishment and that was worse then Saint Peters chains Sanctus Petrus in vinculis Johannes ante portam latinam were both dayes of Martyrdom and Church Festivals and after a long and laborious life and the affliction of being detained from his crown and his sorrows for the death of his fellow-disciples he dyed full of dayes and sufferings And when Saint Paul was taken into the Apostolate his Commissions were signed in these words I will shew unto him how great things he must suffer for my Name and his whole life was a continuall suffering Quotidiè morior was his Motto I die daily and his lesson that he daily learned was to know Christ Jesus and him crucified and all his joy was to rejoyce in the Crosse of Christ and the changes of his life were nothing but the changes of his sufferings and the variety of his labours For though Christ hath finished his own sufferings for expiation of the world yet there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portions that are behinde of the sufferings of Christ which must
be filled up by his body the Church and happy are they that put in the greatest symbol for in the same measure you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ in the same shall ye be also of the consolation And therefore concerning S. Paul as it was also concerning Christ there is nothing or but very little in Scripture relating to his person and chances of his private life but his labours and persecutions as if the holy Ghost did think nothing fit to stand upon record for Christ but sufferings And now began to work the greatest glory of the divine Providence here was the case of Christianity at stake The world was rich and prosperous learned and full of wise men the Gospel was preached with poverty and persecution in simplicity of discourse and in demonstration of the Spirit God was on one side and the Devil on the other they each of them dressed up their city Babylon upon Earth Jerusalem from above the Devils city was full of pleasure triumphs victories and cruelty good news and great wealth conquest over Kings and making nations tributary They bound Kings in chains and the Nobles with links of iron and the inheritance of the Earth was theirs the Romans were Lords over the greatest parts of the world and God permitted to the Devil the Firmament and increase the wars and the successe of that people giving to him an intire power of disposing the great changes of the world so as might best increase their greatnesse and power and he therefore did it because all the power of the Romane greatnesse was a professed enemy to Christianity and on the other side God was to build up Jerusalem and the kingdom of the Gospel and he chose to build it of hewen stone cut and broken the Apostles he chose for Preachers and they had no learning women and mean people were the first Disciples and they had no power the Devil was to lose his kingdom and he wanted no malice and therefore he stirred up and as well as he could he made active all the power of Rome and all the learning of the Greeks and all the malice of Barbarous people and all the prejudice and the obstinacy of the Jews against this doctrine and institution which preached and promised and brought persecution along with it On the one side there was scandalum crucis on the other patientia sanctorum and what was the event They that had overcome the world could not strangle Christianity But so have I seen the Sun with a little ray of distant light challenge all the power of darknesse and without violence and noise climbing up the hill hath made night so to retire that its memory was lost in the joyes and spritefulnesse of the morning and Christianity without violence or armies without resistance and self-preservation without strength or humane eloquence without challenging of priviledges or fighting against Tyranny without alteration of government and scandall of Princes with its humility and meeknesse with tolerations and patience with obedience and charity with praying and dying did insensibly turn the world into Christian and persecution into victory For Christ who began and lived and died in sorrows perceived his own sufferings to succeed so well and that for suffering death he was crowned with immortality resolved to take all his Disciples and servants to the fellowship of the same suffering that they might have a participation of his glory knowing God had opened no gate of heaven but the narrow gate to which the Crosse was the key and since Christ now being our High Priest in heaven intercedes for us by representing his passion and the dolours of the Crosse that even in glory he might still preserve the mercies of his past sufferings for which the Father did so delight in him he also designes to present us to God dressed in the same robe and treated in the same manner and honoured with the marks of the Lord Jesus He hath predestinated us to be conformable to the image of his Son And if under a head crowned with thorns we bring to God members circled with roses and softnesse and delicacy triumphant members in the militant Church God will reject us he will not know us who are so unlike our elder brother For we are members of the Lamb not of the Lion and of Christs suffering part not of the triumphant part and for three hundred yeers together the Church lived upon blood and was nourished with blood the blood of her own children Thirty three Bishops of Rome in immediate succession were put to violent and unnaturall deaths and so were all the Churches of the East and West built the cause of Christ and of Religion was advanced by the sword but it was the sword of the persecutours not of resisters or warriours They were all baptized into the death of Christ their very profession and institution is to live like him and when he requires it to die for him that is the very formality the life and essence of Christianity This I say lasted for three hundred yeers that the prayers and the backs and the necks of Christians fought against the rods and axes of the persecutours and prevailed till the Countrey and the Cities and the Court it self was filled with Christians And by this time the army of Martyrs was vast and numerous and the number of sufferers blunted the hangmans sword For Christ first triumphed over the princes and powers of the world before he would admit them to serve him he first felt their malice before he would make use of their defence to shew that it was not his necessity that required it but his grace that admitted Kings and Queens to be nurses of the Church And now the Church was at ease and she that sucked the blood of the Martyrs so long began now to suck the milk of Queens Indeed it was a great mercy in appearance and was so intended but it proved not so But then the Holy Ghost in pursuance of the designe of Christ who meant by sufferings to perfect his Church as himself was by the same instrument was pleased now that persecution did cease to inspire the Church with the spirit of mortification and austerity and then they made Colleges of sufferers persons who to secure their inheritance in the world to come did cut off all their portion in this excepting so much of it as was necessary to their present being and by instruments of humility by patience under and a voluntary undertaking of the Crosse the burden of the Lord by self deniall by fastings and sackcloth and pernoctations in prayer they chose then to exercise the active part of the religion mingling it as much as they could with the suffering And indeed it is so glorious a thing to be like Christ to be dressed like the prince of the Catholick church who was so a man of sufferings and to whom a prosperous and unafflicted person is very unlike that in all ages
a distinct and a new message Prophets must not offer any doctrine to the people or pretend a doctrine for which they had not a commission from God But which way soever they be expounded they will conclude right in this particular For if they signifie an ordinary mission then there is an ordinary mission of preachers which no man must usurpe unlesse he can prove his title certainly and clearly derivative from God which when any man of the Laity can doe we must give him the right hand of fellowship and wish him good speed But if these words signifie an extraordinary case and that no message must be pretended by Prophets but what they have commission for then must not ordinary persons pretend an extraordinary mission to an ordinary purpose for besides that God does never doe things unreasonably nor will endure that order be interrupted to no purpose he will never give an extraordinary Commission unlesse it be to a proportionable end whosoever pretends to a license of preaching by reason of an extraordinary calling must look that he be furnished with an extraordinary message lest his Commission be ridiculous and when he comes he must be sure to shew his authority by an argument proportionable that is by such a probation without which no wise man can reasonably beleeve him which cannot be lesse then miraculous and divine In all other cases he comes under the curse of the non missi those whom God sent not they goe on their own errand and must pay themselves their wages But besides that the Apostles were therefore to have an immediate mission because they were to receive new instructions these instructions were such as were by an ordinary and yet by a distinct ministery to be conveyed for ever after and therefore did design an ordinary successive and lasting power and authority Nay our blessed Lord went one step further in this provision even to remark the very first successors and partakers of this power to be taken into the lot of this ministery and they were the seventy two whom Christ had sent as probationers of their future preaching upon a short errand into the Cities of Judah But by this assignation of more persons then those to whom he gave immediate commission he did declare that the office of preaching was to be dispensed by a separate and peculiar sort of men distinct from the people and yet by others then those who had the commission extraordinary that is by such who were to be called to it by an ordinary vocation As Christ constituted the office and named the persons both extraordinary and ordinary present and successive so he provided gifts for them too that the whole dispensation might be his and might be apparent And therefore Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts to men to this very purpose and these gifts comming from the same Spirit made separation of distinct ministeries under the same Lord. So S. Paul testifies expresly Now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are different administrations differencies of ministeries it is the proper word for Church offices the ministery is distinguished by the gift It is not a gift for the ministery but the ministery it selfe is the gift and distinguished accordingly An extraordinary ministery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift that is a miraculous calling and vocation and designation by the holy Ghost but an ordinary gift cannot sublime an ordinary person to a supernaturall imployment and from this discourse of the differing gifts of the Spirit S. Paul without any further artifice concludes that the Spirit intended a distinction of Church officers for the work of the ministery for the conclusion of the discourse is that God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers and lest all Gods people should usurpe these offices which God by his Spirit hath made separate and distinguished he addes Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers If so then were all the body one member quite contrary to nature and to Gods Oeconomy And that this designation of distinct Church officers is for ever S. Paul also affirmes as expresly as this question shall need He gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the work of the ministery till we all arrive at the unity of faith which as soon as it shall happen then commeth the end Till the end be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Ministery must goe forwards and is incumbent upon the Pastors and Teachers this is their work and they are the ministers whom the holy Ghost designed 1. For I consider that either to preach requires but an ordinary or an extraordinary ability if it requires an extraordinary they who are illiterate and unlearned persons are the unfittest men in the world for it if an ordinary sufficiency will discharge it why cannot they suppose the clergy of a competency and strength sufficient to doe that which an ordinary understanding and faculties can performe what need they entermeddle with that to which no extraordinary assistance is required or else why do they set their shoulder to such a work with which no strength but extraordinary is commensurate in the first case it is needlesse in the second it is uselesse in both vain and impertinent For either no man needs their help or if they did they are very unable to help I am sure they are if they be unlearned persons and if they be learned they well enough know that to teach the people is not a power of speaking but is also an act of jurisdiction and authority and in which order is at least concerned in an eminent degree Learned men are not so forward and those are most confident who have least reason 2. Although as Homilies to the people are now used according to the smallest rate many men more preach then should yet besides that to preach prudently gravely piously and with truth requires more abilities then are discernible by the people such as make even a plain work reasonable to wise men and usefull to their hearers and acceptable to God besides this I say the office of teaching is of larger extent then making homilies or speaking prettily enough to please the common and undiscerning auditors They that are appointed to teach the people must respondere de jure give account of their faith in defiance of the numerous armies of Hereticks they must watch for their flock and use excellent arts to arme them against all their weaknesses from within and hostilities from without they must streng then the weak confirme the strong compose the scrupulous satisfie the doubtfull and be ready to answer cases of conscience and I beleeve there are not so little as 5000 cases already started up among the Casuists and for ought I know there may be 5000 times 5000. And
same persons be a sacred ministery a Sacrament and a mysterious rite whose very Sacramentall and separate nature requires the solemnity of a distinct order of persons for its ministration yet if the Laity may be admitted to the dispensation of so sacred and solemn rites there is nothing in the calling of the Clergy that can distinguish them from the rest of Gods people but they shall be holy enough to dispense holy offices without the charges of paying honour and maintenance to others to doe what they can doe themselves In opposition to which I first consider that the ordinary minister of baptisme is a person consecrated the Apostles and their successors in the office Apostolicall and all those that partake of that power and it needs no other proof but the plain production of the Commission they who are teachers by ordinary power and authority they also had command to baptize all nations and baptisme being the solemn rite of initiating disciples and making the first publick profession of the institution it is in reason and analogy of the mystery to be ministred by those who were appointed to collect the Church and make Disciples It is as plain and decretory a Commission as any other mysteriousnesse of Christianity and hath been accepted so for ever as the doctrine of Christianity as may appear in Ignatius Tertullian S. Gelasius S. Epiphanius and S. Hierom who affirme in variety of senses that Bishops Priests and Deacons onely are to baptize some by ordinary right some by deputation of which I shall afterwards give account But all the Jius ordinarium they intend to fixe upon the Clergy according to divine institution and commandement So that in case lay-persons might baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon urgent necessity yet this cannot upon just pretence invade the ordinary ministery because God hath dispensed the affairs of his Church so that cases of necessity doe not often occurre to the prejudice and dissolution of publick order and ministeries and if permissions being made to supply necessities be brought further then the case of exception gives leave the permission is turned into a crime and does greater violence to the rule by how much it was fortified by that very exception as to other cases not excepted And although in case of extreme necessity every man may preach the Gospell as to dying Heathens or unbeleeving persons yet if they do this without such or the like necessity what at first was charity in the other case is schisme and pride the two greatest enemies to charity in the world But now for the thing it self whether indeed any case of necessity can transmit to lay persons a right of baptizing it must be distinctly considered Some say it does For Ananias baptized Paul who yet as it is said was not in holy orders and that the 3000 Converts at the first Sermon of S. Peter were all baptized by the Apostles is not easily credible it being too numerous a body for so few persons to baptize and when Peter had preached to Cornelius and his family he caused the brethren that came along with him to baptize them and whether hands had been imposed on them or no is not certain And in pursuance of the instance of Ananias and the other probabilities the Doctors of the Church have declared their opinions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In cases of necessity a lay person may baptize So Tertullian in his book of baptisme Alioqui Laicis jus est baptizandi Quod enim ex aequo accipitur ex aequo dari potest The reason is also urged by S. Hierome to the same purpose onely requiring that the baptizer be a Christian supposing whatsoever they have received they may also give but because the reason concludes not because as themselves beleeve a Presbyter cannot collate his Presbyterate it must therefore rest onely upon their bare authority if it shall be thought strong enough to bear the weight of the contrary reasons And the Fathers in the councell of Eliberis determined Peregrè navigantes aut si ecclesia in proximo non fuerit posse fidelem qui lavacrum suum integrum habet nec sit bigamus baptizare in necessitate infirmitatis positum Catechumenum it a ut si supervixerit ad Episcopum eum producat ut per manus impositionem proficere possit The Synod held at Alexandria under Alexander their Bishop approved the baptisme of the children by Athanasius being but a boy and the Nicene Fathers ratifying the baptisme made by hereticks amongst whom they could not but know in some cases there was no true Priesthood or legitimate ordination must by necessary consequence suppose baptisme to be dispensed effectually by lay-persons And S. Hierome is plain Baptizare si necessitas cogat scimus etiam licere Laicis the same almost with the Canon of the fourth Councell of Carthage Mulier baptizare non praesumat nisi necessitate cogente though by the way these words of cogente necessitate are not in the Canon but thrust in by Gratian and Peter Lombard And of the same opinion is S. Ambrose or he who under his name wrote the Commentaries upon the fourth to the Ephesians P. Gelasius S. Augustine and Isidor generally all the Scholars after their Master But against this doctrine were all the African Bishops for about 150 years who therefore rebaptized persons returning from hereticall conventicles Because those hereticall Bishops being deposed and reduced into Lay communion could not therefore collate baptisme for their want of holy Orders as appears in S. Basils canonicall Epistle to Amphilochius where he relates their reason and refutes it not And however Firmilian and S. Cyprian might be deceived in the thinking heretickes quite lost their orders yet in this they were untouched that although their supposition was questionable yet their superstructure was medled with viz. that if they had been Lay persons their baptizations were null and invalid I confesse the opinion hath been very generally taken up in these last ages of the Church almost with a Nemine contradicente the first ages had more variety of opinion and I think it may yet be considered anew upon the old stock For since absolutely all the Church affixes the ordinary ministery of baptism to the Clergy if others doe baptize doe they sin or doe they not sin That it is no sinne is expresly affirmed in the 16 Canon of Nicephorus of C. P. If the own Father baptizes the child or any other Christian man it is no sinne S. Augustine is almost of another minde si Laicus necessitate compulsus baptismum dederit nescio an pie quisquam dixerit Baptismum esse repetendum Nullâ enim cogente necessitate si fiat alieni muner is usurpatio est si autem necessitas urgeat aut nullum aut veniale delictum est And of this minde are all they who by
frequent using of that saying have made it almost proverbiall Factum valet fieri non debet If they doe not sinne then women Lay men have as much right from Christ to baptize as Deacons or Presbyters then they may upon the same stock and right doe it as Deacons doe for if a Bishop was present it was not lawfull for Deacons as is expresly affirmed by S. Ignatius in his Epistle to Heron the Deacon and S. Epiphanius with the same words denies a sus baptizandi to women and to Deacons and both of them affirme it to be proper to Bishops Further yet Tertullian and S. Hierom deny a power to Presbyters to doe it without Episcopall dispensation Now if Presbyters and Deacons have this power onely by leave and in certain cases then it is no more then women have onely that they are fitter persons to be intrusted with the deputation a lesse necessity will devolve it upon Presbyters then upon Deacons and upon Deacons then Lay men and a lesse yet will cast it upon Lay men then women and this difference is in respect of humane order and positive constitution but in the nature of the thing according to this doctrine all persons are equally receptive of it And therefore to baptize is no part of the grace of Orders no fruit of the holy Ghost but a work which may be done by all and at some times must and if baptisme may then it will be hard to keep all the other rites from the common inrodes and then the whole office wil perish But if Lay persons baptizing though in case of necessity doe sin as S. Augustine seems to say they doe then it is certain Christ never gave them leave so much as by insinuation and then neither can the Church give leave for she can give leave for no man to sin and besides such a deputation were to no purpose Because no person shall dare to doe it for evill is not to be done though for the obtaining the greatest good and it will be hard to state the question so that either the childe shall perish or some other must perish for it for he that positively ventures upon a sin for a good end worships God with a sinne and therefore shall be thank'd with a damnation if he dies before repentance but if the childe shall not perish in such case of not being baptized then why should any man break the rule of institution and if he shall perish without being baptized then God hath affixed the salvation of the childe upon the condition of another mans sinne 3. And indeed the pretence of cases of necessity may doe much towards the excusing an irregularity in an exterior rite though of divine institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it will not be easily proved that God hath made any such necessities it is certain that for persons having the use of reason God hath provided a remedy that no lay persons should have need to baptize a Catechumen for his votum or desire of Baptisme shall serve his turne And it will be unimaginable that God hath made no provision for infants and yet put it upon them in many cases with equall necessity which without breach of a divine institution cannot be supplied 4. If a Lay person shall baptize whether or no shall the person baptized receive benefit or will any more but the outward act be done for that the Lay person shall convey rem Sacramenti or be the minister of sacramentall grace is no where revealed in Scripture and is against the Analogy of the Gospell for the verbum reconciliationis all the whole ministery of reconciliation is intrusted to the Priest Nobis saith S. Paul to us who are Embassadors And what difference is there if cases of necessity be pretended in the defect of other ministeries but that they also may be invaded and cases of necessity may by other men also be numbred in the other Sacrament and they have done so and I know who said that no man must consecrate the Sacramēt of the Lords supper but he that is lawfully called except there be a case of necessity and that there may be a case of necessity for the blessed Sacrament there needs no other testimony then the Nicene councell which calls the Sacrament in the article of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viaticum the most necessary provision for our journey and if a lay person absolves there is as much promise of the validity of one as of the other unlesse it be said that there may be absolute necessity of baptisme but not so of absolution which the maintainers of the other opinion are not apt to professe And therefore S. Augustine did not know whether baptisme administred by a lay person be to be repeated or no Nescio an piè quisquam dixerit he knew not neither doe I. But Simeon of Thessalonica is confident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man baptizes but he that is in holy orders the baptisme is null I cannot say so nor can I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be received Onely I offer this to consideration if a Deacon can doe no ministeriall act with effect but a lay person may doe the same with effect upon the person suscipient what is that supernaturall grace and inherent and indelible character which a Deacon hath received in his ordination If a Deacon can doe no supernaturall act which were void and null if done by him that is not a Deacon he hath no character no spirituall inherent power and that he is made the ordinary minister of it is for order sake but he that can doe the same thing hath the same power and ability by this ground a Lay person and a Deacon are not distinguished by any inherent character and therefore they who understand the spirituall powers and effects of ordination in the sense and expression of an inherent and indelible character will finde some difficulty in allowing the effect of a lay baptisme But I consider that the instances of Scripture brought for the lawfulnesse of lay administration if they had no particular exception yet are impertinent to this question for it is not with us pretended in any case to be lawfull but in extreme necessity And therefore S. Peters deputing the brethren who come with him to Cornelius to baptize his family is nothing to our purpose and best answers it selfe for either they were of the Clergy who came with them or else lay persons may baptize by the right of an ordinary deputation without a case of necessity for here was none S. peter might have done it himself And as for Ananias he was one of the seventy two and if that be nothing yet he was called to that ministration about Paul as Paul himselfe was to the Apostleship even by an immediate vocation and mission from Christ himselfe And if this answer were not sufficient as it is most certainly the argument
way of naturall or proper operation it is not vis but facultas not an inherent quality that issues out actions by way of direct emanation like naturall or acquired habits but it is a grace or favour done to the person and a qualification of him in genere politico he receives a politick publick and solemn capacity to intervene between God and the people and although it were granted that the people could do the externall work or the action of Church ministeries yet they are actions to no purpose they want the life and all the excellency unlesse they be done by such persons whom God hath called to it and by some means of his own hath expressed his purpose to accept them in such ministrations And this explication will easily be verified in all the particulars of the Priests power because all the ministeries of the Gospell are in genere orationis unlesse we except preaching in which God speaks by his servants to the people the minister by his office is an intercessor with God and the word used in Scripture for the Priests officiating signifies his praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were ministring or doing their Liturgy the work of their supplications and intercession and therefore the Apostles positively included all their whole ministery in these two but we will give our selves to the word of God and to prayer the prayer of consecration the prayer of absolution the prayer of imposition of hands they had nothing else to doe but pray and preach And for this reason it was that the Apostles in a sense neerest to the letter did verifie the precept of our blessed Saviour Pray continually that is in all the offices acts parts and ministeries of a dayly Liturgy This is not to lessen the power but to understand it for the Priests ministery is certainly the instrument of conveying all the blessings of the people which are annexed to the ordinary administration of the Spirit But when all the office of Christs Priesthood in heaven is called intercession for us and himself makes the sacrifice of the Crosse effectuall to the salvation and graces of his Church by his prayer since we are ministers of the same Priesthood can there be a greater glory then to have our ministery like to that of Jesus not operating by virtue of a certain number of syllables but by a holy solemn determined and religious prayer in the severall manners and instances of intercession according to the analogy of all the religions in the world whose most solemn mystery was then most solemn prayer I mean it in the matter of sacrificing which also is true in the most mysterious solemnity of Christianity in the holy Sacrament of the Lords supper which is hallowed and lifted up from the common bread and wine by mysticall prayers and solemn invocations of God And therefore S. Dionysius calls the forms of consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers of consecration and S. Cyrill in his 3 mystagogique Catechism says the same The Eucharisticall bread after the invocations of the holy Ghost is not any longer common bread but the body of Christ. For although it be necessary that the words which in the Latin Church have been for a long time called the words of consecration which indeed are more properly the words of institution should be repeated in every consecration because the whole action is not completed according to Christs pattern nor the death of Christ so solemnly enunciated without them yet even those words also are part of a mysticall prayer and therefore as they are not onely intended there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of history or narration as Cabasil mistakes so also in the most ancient Liturgies they were not onely read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as a meer narrative but also with the form of an addresse or invocation Fiat hic panis corpus Christi fiat hoc vinum sanguis Christi Let this bread be made the body of Christ c. So it is in S. James his Liturgy S. Clement S. Marks and the Greek Doctors And in the very recitation of the words of institution the people ever used to answer Amen which intimates it to have been a consecration in genere orationis called by S. Paul benediction or the bread of blessing and therefore S. Austin expounding those words of S. Paul Let prayers and supplications and intercessions and giving of thanks be made saith Eligo in his verbis hoc intelligere quod omnis vel pene omnis frequent at ecclesia ut precationes accipiamus dictas quas fecimus in celebratione sacramentorum antequam illud quod est in Domini mensâ accipiat benedici orationes cum benedicitur ad distribuendum comminuitur quam totam orationem pene omnis ecclesia Dominicâ oratione concludit The words and form of consecration he calls by the name of orationes supplications the prayers before the consecration preces and all the whole action oratio and this is according to the stile and practise and sense of the whole Church or very neer the whole And S. Basil saith that there is more necessary to consecration then the words recived by the Apostles and by the Evangelists * The words of invocation in the shewing the bread of the Eucharist and the cup of blessing who of all the Saints have left to us For we are not content with those which the Apostle and the Evangelists mention but both before and after we say other words having great power towards the mystery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have received by tradition These words set down in Scripture they retained as a part of the mystery cooperating to the solemnity manifesting the signification of the rite the glory of the change the operation of the Spirit the death of Christ and the memory of the sacrifice but this great work which all Christians knew to be done by the holy Ghost the Priest did obtain by prayer and solemn invocation according to the saying of Proclus of C. P. speaking of the tradition of certain prayers used in the mysteries and indited by the Apostles as it was said but especially in S. James his Liturgy By these prayers saith he they expected the coming of the holy Ghost that his divine presence might make the bread and the wine mixt with water to become the body and bloud of our blessed Saviour And S. Justin Martyr very often calls the Eucharist food made sacramentall and eucharisticall by prayer and Origen we eat the bread holy and made the body of Christ by prayer Verbo Dei per obsecrationem sanctificatus bread sanctified by the word of God and by prayer viz. the prayer of consecration prece mystica is S. Austins expression of it Corpus Christi sanguinem dicimus illud tantum quod ex fructibus terrae acceptum pree mystica consecratum ritè sumimus That onely we call the
people not onely by being exemplary to them but gracious and loved by God and those are spirituall graces of sanctification And therefore Ordination is a collation of holy graces of sanctification of a more excellent faith of fervent charity of providence and paternall care Gifts which now descend not by way of miracle as upon the Apostles are to be acquired by humane industry by study and good letters and therefore are presupposed in the person to be ordained to which purpose the Church now examines the abilities of the man before she lays on hands and therefore the Church does not suppose that the Spirit in ordination descends in gifts and in the infusion of habits and perfect abilities though then also it is reasonable to beleeve that God will assist the pious and carefull endeavours of holy Priests and blesse them with speciall ayds and cooperation because a more extraordinary ability is needfull for persons so designed But the proper and great aid which the spirit of ordination gives is such instances of assistance which make the person more holy And this is so certainly true that even when the Apostle had ordained Timothy to be Bishop of Ephesus he calls upon him to stirre up the gift of God which was in him by the putting on of his hands that gift is a rosary of graces what graces they are he enumerates in the following words God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power of love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of a modest and sober mind and these words are made part of the form of collating the Episcopall order in the church of Eng. Here is all that descend from the Spirit in ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power that is to officiate and intercede with God in the parts of ministery and the rest are such as implie duty such as make him fit to be a Ruler in paternal and sweet government modesty sobriety love And therfore in the forms of ordination of the Gr. Church which are therfore highly to be valued because they are most ancient have suffered the least change been polluted with fewer interests the mystical prayer of ordination names graces in order to holiness We pray thee that the grace of the ever holy Spirit may descend upon him Fill him ful of all faith love and power sanctification by the illumination of thy holy life-giving Spirit the reason why these things are desir'd given is in order to the right performing his holy offices that he may be worthy to stand without blame at thy Altar to preach the Gospell of thy Kingdome to minister the words of thy truth to bring to thee gifts spiritual sacrifices to renew the people with the laver of regeneratiō And therefore S. Cyrill says that Christs saying receive ye the Holy Ghost signifies grace given by Christ to the Apostles whereby they were sanctified that by the Holy Ghost they might be absolved from their sins saith Haymo and Saint Austin says that many persons that were snatched violently to be made Priests or Bishops who had in their former purposes determined to marry and live a secular life have in their ordination received the gift of continency And therefore there was reason for the greatnesse of the solemnities used in all ages in separation of Priests from the world insomuch that whatsoever was used in any sort of sanctification or solemn benediction by Moses law all that was used in consecration of the Priest who was to receive the greatest measure of sanctification Eadem item vis etiam Sacerdotem augustum honorandum facit novitate benedictionis à communitate vulgi segregatum Cum enim heri unus è plebe esset repente redditur praeceptor praeses Doctor pietatis mysteriorum latentium Praesul c. Invisibili quadam vi ac gratia invisibilem animam in melius transformatam gerens that is improved in all spiritual graces which is highly expressed by Martyrius who said to Nectarius Tu ô beate recens baptizatus purificatus mox insuper sacerdotio auctus es utr aque autem haec peccatorum expiatoria esse Deus constituit which are not to be expounded as if ordination did conferre the first grace which in the Schools is understood onely to be expiatorious but the increment of grace and sanctification and that also is remissive of sins which are taken off by parts as the habit decreases and we grow in Gods favour as our graces multiply or grow Now that these graces being given in ordination are immediate emanations of the holy Spirit and therefore not to be usurped or pretended to by any man upon whom the holy Ghost in ordination hath not descended I shall lesse need to prove because it is certain upon the former grounds and will be finished in the following discourses and it is in the Greek Ordination given as a reason of the former prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For not in the imposition of my hands but in the overseeing providence of thy rich mercies grace is given to them that are worthy So that we see more goes to the fitting of a person for Ecclesiasticall Ministeries then is usually supposed together with the power a grace is specially collated and that is not to be taken up and laid down and pretended to by every bolder person The thing is sacred separate solemn deliberate derivative from God and not of humane provision or authority or pretence or disposition SECT VIII THe holy Ghost was the first consecrator that is made evident and the persons first consecrated were the Apostles who received the severall parts of the Priestly order at severall times the power of consecration of the Eucharist at the institution of it the power of remitting and retaining sinnes in the octaves of Easter the power of baptizing preaching together with universall jurisdiction immediately before the Ascension when they were commanded to goe into all the world preaching and baptizing This is the whole office of the Priesthood and nothing of this was given in Pentecost when the holy Spirit descended and rested upon all of them the Apostles the brethren the women for then they received those great assistances which enabled them who had been designed for Embassadors to the world to doe their great work and others of a lower capacity had their proportion as the effect of the promise of the Father and a mighty verification of the truth of Christianity Now all these powers which Christ had given to his Apostles were by some means or other to be transmitted to succeeding persons because the severall Ministeries were to abide for ever All nations were to be converted a Church to be gathered and continued the new Converts to be made Confessors and consigned with baptism sins to be remitted flocks to be fed and guided and the Lords death declared represented exhibited and commemorated untill his second coming
a new Ministery One will not be changed without the other God now no more comes in a mighty rushing winde but in a still voice in the gentle homilies of ordinary Prophets and now that the Law by which we are to frame our understandings and our actions is established we must not expect an Apostle to correct every abuse for if they will not hear Moses and the Prophets if one should come from the dead or an Angel come from heaven it is certain they will not be entertained but till the wonder be over and the curiosity of news be satisfied Against this it is pretended that Christ promised to be with his Church for ever upon condition the Church would do their duty but they being but a company of men have power to choose and they may choose amisse and if all should doe so Christs promises may fail us though not fail of their intentions and then in this case the Church failing either there must be an extraordinary calling of single persons or else any man may enter into the ordinary way which is all one with an extraordinary for it is extraordinary that common persons should by necessity be drawn into an imployment which by ordinary vocation they are not to meddle with Against this we can thanks be to God for it pretend the experience of 16 ages for hitherto it hath ever been in the Christian Church that God hath preserved a holy Clergy in the same proportion as he hath preserved a holy people never yet were the Clergy all Antichristian in the midst of Christian Churches and we have no reason to fear it will be so now after so long an experience to expound the promises of our Lord to the sense of a perpetuall Ministery and a perpetual Church by the means of ordinary ministrations And how shall the Church be supposed to fail since God hath made no provisions for its restitution For by what means should the Church be renewed and Christianity restored Not by Scripture For we have no certainty that the Scriptures which we have this day are the same which the Apostles delivered and shall remain so for ever but onely 1. the reputation and testimony of all Christian Churches which also must transmit the same by a continuall successive testimony to the following or else they will be of an uncertain faith and 2. the confidence of the divine providence and goodnesse who will not let us want what is fit for us that without which we cannot attain the end to which in mercy he hath designed us Now the same Arguments which we have for the continuation of Scripture we have for the perpetuity of a Christian Clergy that is besides the so long actuall succession and continuance we have the goodnesse and unalterable sweetnesse of the divine mercies who will continue such Ministeries which himself hath made the ordinary means of salvation he would not have made them the way to heaven and of ordinary necessity if he did not mean to preserve them indeed if the ordinary way should fail God will supply another way to them that doe their duty but then Scripture may as well fail as the ordinary succession of the Clergy they both were intended but as the ordinary ministeries of salvation and if Scripture be kept for the use of the Church it is more likely the Church will be preserved in its necessary constituent parts then the Scripture because Scripture is preserved for the Church it is kept that the Church might not fail For as for the fancy that all men being free agents may choose amisse suppose that but then may they not all consent to the corruption or destroying of Scripture yea but God will preserve them from that or will overrule the event yea but how doe they know that what revelation have they yet grant that too but why then will he not also over-rule the event in the matter of universall Apostasie for both of them are matter of choyce But then that all the Clergy should consent to corrupt Scripture or to loose their faith is a most unreasonable supposition for supposing there is a naturall possibility yet it is morally impossible and we may as well fear that all the men of the world will be vitious upon the same reason for if all the Clergy may then all the people may and you may as well poyson the Sea as poyson all the springs and it is more likely all the Ideots and the ordinary persons in the world should be cousened out of their religion then that all the wise men and Antistites the Teachers Doctors and publick Ministers of religion should And when all men turn Mariners or Apothecaries or that all men will live single lives and turn Monks and so endanger the species of mankind to perish for there is a great fear of that too that is when all the world choose one thing for if two men doe two thousand may doe it if they will and so may all upon this ground then also we may fear that all the Governours of the Church may fail because some doe and more have and all may till then there will be no need of an extraordinary commission but the Church shall goe on upon the stock of the first calling and designation which was extraordinary The Spirit issued out at first miraculously and hath continued running still in the first channels by ordinary conducts and in the same conveyances it must run still or it cannot without a miracle derive upon us who stand at infinite distance from the fountain Since then there is now no more expectation of an extraordinary calling and to do so were an extraordinary vanity it remains that the derivation of the ministeriall power be by an ordinary conveyance The Spirit of God in Scripture hath drawn a line and chalked out the path that himself meant to tread in giving the graces of Evangelicall ministrations At first after that Christ had named twelve one whereof was lost they not having an expresse command for the manner of ordination took such course as reason and religion taught them They named two persons and prayed God to choose one and to manifest it by lot which was a way lesse then the first designation of the other eleven and yet had more of the extraordinary in it then could be reasonably continued in an ordinary succession The Apostles themselves had not as yet received skill enough how to officiate in their ordinary ministery because the Holy Ghost was not yet descended But when the Holy Ghost descended then the work was to begin the Apostles wanted no power necessary for the main work of the Gospel but now also they received Commissions to dispense the Spirit to all such purposes to which he was intended They before had the office in themselves but it was not communicable to others till the Spirit the anointing from above ranne over to the fringes of the Priests
garments they had it but in imperfection and unactive faculties So saith Theophylact He breathed not now giving to them the perfect gift of the Holy Ghost for that he intended to give at Pentecost but he prepared them for the fuller reception of it They had the gift before but not the perfect consummation of it that was reserved for the great day and because the power of consecration is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perfection of the Priestly order it was the proper emanation of this days glory then was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection of what power Christ had formerly consigned For of all faculties that is not perfect which produces perfect and excellent actions in a direct line actions of a particular sort but that which produces the actions and enables others to doe so too for then the perfection is inherent not onely formally but virtually and eminently and that 's the crown of habits and naturall faculties Now besides the reasonablenesse of the thing this is also verified by a certainty that will not easily fail us by experience and ex postfacto For as we doe not find the Apostles had before Pentecost a productive power which made them call for a miracle or a speciall providence by lots so we are sure that immediately after Pentecost they had it for they speedily began to put it in execution and it is remarkable that the Apostles did not lay hands upon Mathias he being made Apostle before the descent of the Holy Ghost they had no power to doe it they were not yet made Ministers of the Spirit which because afterwards presently they did concludes fairly that at Pentecost they were amongst other graces made the ordinary Ministers of Ordination This I say is certain that the holy Ghost descending at Pentecost they instantly did officiate in their ministeriall offices they preached they baptized they confirmed and gave the holy Spirit of obsignation and took persons into the Lot of their Ministery doing of it by an externall rite and solemn invocation and now the extraordinary way did cease God was the fountain of the power but man conveyed it by an externall rite And of this Saint Paul who was the onely exception from the common way takes notice calling himself an Apostle not of man nor by man but by Jesus Christ implying that he had a speciall honour done to be chosen an Apostle in an extraordinary way therefore others might be Apostles and yet not so as he was for else his expression had been all one as if one should say Titius the sonne of a man not begotten of an Angell or Spirit nor produced by the Sunne or Starre but begotten by a man of a woman the discourse had been ridiculous for no man is born otherwise and yet he also had something of the ordinary too for in an extraordinary manner he was sent to be ordained in an ordinary ministery And yet because the ordinary ministery was setled Saint Paul was called to an account for so much of it as was extraordinary and was tyed to doe that which every man now is bound to doe that shall pretend a calling extraordinary viz. to give an extraordinary proof of his extraordinary calling which when he had done in the College of Jerusalem the Apostles gave him the right hand of fellowship and approved his vocation which also shews that now the way of Ordination was fixed and declared to be by humane ministery of which I need no other proof but the instances of Ordinations recorded in Scripture and the no instances to the contrary but of Saint Paul whose designation was as immediate as that of the 11 Apostles though his Ordination was not I end this with the saying of Job the Monk Concerning the Order of Priesthood it is supernaturall and unspeakable He that yesterday and the day before was in the form of Ideots and private persons to day by the power of the Holy Ghost and the voice of the chief Priest and laying on of hands receives so great an improvement and alteration that he handles and can consecrate the divine mysteries of the holy Church and becomes under Christ a Mediator Ministeriall between God and man and exalted to hallow himself and sanctifie others The same almost with the words of Gregory Nyssen in his book De sancto baptismate This is the summe of the preceding discourses God is the Consecrator man is the Minister the separation is mysterious and wonderfull the power great and secret the office to stand between God and the people in the ministery of the Evangelicall rites the calling to it ordinary and by a setled Ministery which began after the descent of the holy Ghost in Pentecost This great change was in nothing expressed greater then that Saul upon his Ordination changed his name which Saint Chrysostome observing affirms the same of S. Peter I conclude Differentiam inter ordinem plebem constituit Ecclesiae authoritas honor per ordin is consessum sanctificatus à Deo saith Tertullian The authority of the whole Church of God hath made distinction between the person ordained and the people but the honour and power of it is derived from the sanctification of God It is derived from him but conveyed by an ordinary Ministery of his appointing Whosoever therefore with unsanctified that is with unconsecrated hands shall dare to officiate in the ministerial office separate by God by gifts by graces by publick order by an established rite by the institution of Jesus by the descent of the holy Ghost by the word of God by the practise of the Apostles by the practise of sixteen ages of the Catholick Church by the necessity of the thing by reason by analogy to the discourse of all the wise men that ever were in the world that man like his predecessor Corah brings an unhallowed Censer which shall never send up a right cloud of incense to God but yet that unpermitted and disallowed smoak shall kindle a fire even the wrath of God which shall at least destroy the sacrifice His work shall be consumed and when upon his repentance himself escapes yet it shall be so as by fire that is with danger and losse and shame and trouble For our God is a consuming fire Remember Corah and all his company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End The Printer to the Reader THe absence of the Author and his inconvenient distance from London hath occasioned some lesser escapes in the impression of these Sermons and the Discourse annexed The Printer thinks it the best instance of pardon if his Escapes be not layd upon the Author and he hopes they are no greater then an ordinary understanding may amend and a little charity may forgive A Table to both the Volumes of Sermons A. WHo shall be the Accusers of sinners that belong not to life in the great judgement Vol. 1. p. 23 Almes wherein and how far our respects to