the King ' s most Excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and Supream Governor in these His Realms and in all other his Dominions and Countries over all Persons in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal That God would Establish His Throne in Righteousness and His Seed to all Generations Also for our gracious Lady Mary the Queen-Mother for the most Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and for the whole Royal Family That God would take them all into His Care and make them the Instruments of His Glory and the good and welfare of these Nations Further let us pray for the Ministers of God ' s Holy Word and Sacraments as well Arch-Bishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curates for the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Council and for all the Nobility and Magistrates of the Realm That All and every of these in their several Callings may serve truly and painfully to the Glory of God and the edifying and well governing of his People remembring the account that they must make Let us also pray for the Universities of this Land Cambridge and Oxford That God would water them with his Grace and still continue them the Nurseries of Religion and Learning to the whole Land Let us pray for the whole Commons of this Realm That remembring at last from whence they are faln they may repent and do the first works living henceforth in Faith and Fear of God in humble Obedience to their King and in Brotherly Charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are already departed out of this Life in the Faith of Christ and pray unto God we may have Grace to direct our Lives after their good Examples that this Life ended we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection in the Life Everlasting For which and for all other needful Blessings let us say together the Prayer of our Lord who hath taught us to say Our Father c. For this Cause left I thee in Creet c. The Erecting of the Power that 's the first I left thee in Creet Where we have these Particulars The Original of this Power in Ego the subject of it in Te Ego Te the Conveyance in Ego Reliqui and the Extent in Reliqui Cretae or in Creta I. I left thee I the Apostle of Iesus Christ vers 1. left thee Mine There 's the Source and the Stream the Original and the Derivation of All 't was from our Lord by his Apostle I did it his Commissioner 1. And therefore First Not a Suffragan of St. Peter as some of the Romish Partizans would fain have it Who to serve the over-high pretences of that Court are not content to Dogmatize That St. Peter was the Prince and Sovereign of the Apostles and his very Successors superior to the Apostles that survived Him and That they being once All Dead there was never since any Power in the Church but in Succession to him and by Derivation from him dare yet higher and with strange confidence pronounce That the Apostles themselves were all ordained by St. Peter and He alone by Christ And That when the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them they were thereupon sent up to Ierusalem to be ordained by St. Peter Affirmations so very strange that I know not what can be more unless this be that they should think them passable with us upon the Authority of Petrus Comestor the Scholastic Historian and those suspected Decretals of the false Merchant I mention'd at the beginning Whereas for the Imposition of Hands upon Barnabas and Saul were it a Blessing or were it an Ordination 't is plainly inferred verse 3. to have been perform'd upon the Place by the Persons mention'd verse 1. And St. Paul for his particular in the Front of every Epistle enters his Protestation against all this as if he had foreseen it still qualifying himself an Apostle of Iesus Christ by the will of God an Apostle not of Men nor by Man but by the Commandment of God our Saviour and accordingly you may see him contesting it to the height both against Peter and the rest Gal. 1. and 2. Chapters throughout That the Gospel he Preached was not of Man the Apostleship he exercis'd was not from Man but the one by immediate Revelation the other by Assignation from Heaven it self So that having receiv'd his Mission thence and his Instructions too he thought it unnecessary to confer with Flesh and Blood to apply himself to any Mortal Man for the enhancing of either He went up indeed to Ierusalem to visit Peter three Years after his Conversion and yet once again fourteen Years after he returned thither and had Conference with Iames and Cephas and Iohn but these Pillars added nothing to him neither established his Aâ—thority nor advanced his Knowledge And Titus himself was present at the enterview and so an Eye-witness that in nothing he came behind the very chiefest Apostles for they all gave him the right-hand of Fellowship far from exacting the right-hand of Preheminence And so Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ not a Deputy of the Apostolical College much less a Suffragan of St. Peter or his Legate a latere as was pretended But 2. Not a Disciple of Gamaliel For there is a Disputer of this World who having laid it down for a Principle with himself indeed his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all pretence of Ecclesiastical Power as from Christ is but an Imposture is thereupon obliged to give such an accompt of the Appearances of it in the New Testament as may suit with this Postulatum And accordingly for the particular of Imposition of Hands for Ordination of Elders will have it only the pursuance of a Iewish Custom which St. Paul learned at the Feet of his Master Gamaliel under whom he Commenc'd Elder before he was Christian and thereupon after thought good to create his own Disciples to the same Dignity according to the Law of those Schools and Titus amongst the rest whom he left in Creet to do the like and to Constitute his Scholars Elders too in all the Cities where he should Preach A Discourse so loose and incoherent that 't is not worth your while to stand by and see it fall in pieces which it would quickly do were it not already done to our hands upon a gentle Examination I shall only remind you of what was said before upon the former Particular and so leave it in Compromise to any Indifferent Whether St. Paul the Apostle of Iesus Christ who so stoutly refuseth to Releve of St. Peter himself or the rest of the Apostles as owing his whole Commission to Heaven alone would yet acknowledge to hold it of
ANIMI TENORE USUS NONDUMPAR ANIMO PERICULUM INVENIT Cvl BONAE MALAEQ FAMAE MEDIO PERGENTI NEC AB EA QUAM FIXERAT ECCLESIA VERITATIS LINIA RECEDENTI USPIAM UTPOTE NEC HUJUS CONVITIIS TERRITO NEC ILLIUS ILLECEBRIS DELINITO UBIQ SUI SIMILI UNDIQ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CESSIT TANDEM CALUMNIA NON VICTA SOLUM SED ET TRIUMPHATA ET QUANTUMUIS GARRULA OBMUTUIT HANC CONCIUNCHLAM EIVS JUSSU CONCEPTAM NATAM AVSPICIIS HORTATU ET MANDATO IN LUCEM EDITAM PERPETUAE OBSERVANTIAE PIGNUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. MQ D. D. CQ GUILHELMUS SANCROFT PRESBYTER INDIGNUS PATERNITATI EJUS A SACRIS TIT. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee THis Epistle is one of the three not unfitly styled the Hierarchical Epistles de statu Ecclesiastico compositae as Tertullian speaks being so many Rescripts Apostolical to Timothy and Titus the One desired by St. Paul to stay at Ephesus Primate of Asia the Other left in Creet Metropolitan of that and the neighbour Islands directing them how they ought to behave themselves in the House of God which is the Church of the living God True and genuine Decretal Epistles not like that counterfeit Ware which Isidore Mercator under venerable Names hath had the hardiness to obtrude upon the World but of the right stamp and alloy and such as St. Augustine saith a Bishop ought always to carry in his Hand and to have before his Eyes The Verse I have read to you following immediately upon the Salutation begins the Body of the Epistle it self and like an ingenious and well-contriv'd Perspective give us from the very Front a fair Prospect into the Contents of the whole It is as it were a kind of Magical Glass in which an Eye not blind with Ignorance nor blear'd with Passion may see distinctly the Face of the Primitive Church in that Golden Age of the Apostles the Plat-form of her Government the beautiful Order of her Hierarchy the Original and Derivation of her chief Officers and their subordination both to one another and to Christ the great Bishop of our Souls in the last Resort together with the Manage and Direction of the most important Acts of the Government both in point of Ordination and Iurisdiction toó. For here we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders that is Bishops as shall be shewed in due time dispos'd of City by City in every City One these Bishops both ordained and ordered constituted and corrected created and governed by Titus alone and so He in right of the Premisses no other than Metropolitan or Arch-Bishop there the Angel or the Arch-Angel rather of the whole Church of Creet If you ask who fix'd him the Intelligence of so large an Orbe 't was St. Paul himself You have that too in the Text For this Cause left I thee in Creet If yet higher your Curiosity will needs see the Derivation of St. Paul's Power too He opens his Commission verse 1. and spreads it before You styling himself a Servant of God and an Apostle of Iesus Christ One sent abroad into the World by his Commission acted and assisted by his Spirit to plant and to govern Churches after this Scheme and Model So that my Text like Homer's Symbolical Chain consists you see of many Links but the Highest is tyed to the Foot of Iupiter's Throne or rather like Iacob's Mysterious Ladder the Foot of it stands below in Bethel the House of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Head of it is in Heaven and God himself stands at the top of it and leans upon it and keeps it firm Angels Ascending and Descending upon it in the intermedial degrees the Bishops of the Church like those blessed ministring Spirits incessantly bringing down the Commands of God to the Church in their Doctrin and carrying up the Prayers of the Church before God's Throne in their Holy Offices and Intercessions So that you see this holy Oyl which without measure was shed upon the Head of our great High Priest all Power being given to Him both in Heaven and Earth runs down in full stream upon the Beard for As my Father sent me saith he to his Disciples even so send I you and so by and through them to their Successours holy Bishops and Presbyters even down to the Skirts of his Garment For in this comly and exquisite Order we find it in my Text For this Cause I Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ left thee Titus in Creet that thou shouldest set in order or correct the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee In which Words we have these three Parts First The Erection of a Power in the Person of Titus a Metropolitical Power over the whole Island of Creet I left thee in Creet Secondly The end of this Institution or the Use and Exercise of this Power in a double Instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Order and to Ordain to Correct and Constitute to make Bishops and to govern them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Scholia have it For this cause that thou shouldest set in order what was wanting and ordain Elders in every City Thirdly The Limitation of All to Apostolical Prescript and Direction both Ordination and Jurisdiction too the whole Office must be managed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I had appointed thee These are the Parts Of which that I may so speak and you so hear and all of us so remember and so practice that God's holy Name may be glorified and we all built up in the knoledge of that Truth which is according unto Godliness We beseech God the Father in the Name of his Son Iesus Christ to give us the assistance of his Holy Spirit And in these and all other our Supplications let us always remember to pray for Christ ' s Holy Catholic Church i. e. for the whole Congregation of Christian People dispersed through the whole World That it would please Almighty God to purge out of it all Schism Error and Heresie and to unite all Christians in one Holy Bond of Faith and Charity that so at length the happy Day may draw upon us in which all that do confess his Holy Name may agree in the truth of his Holy Word and live in Unity and godly Love More especially let us pray for the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland That the God of Peace who maketh Men to be of one Mind in a House would make us All of one Soul and of one Spirit that again we may meet together and praise Him with one Heart and Mouth and worship him with one Accord in the Beauty of Holiness To this end I am to require you most especially to pray for
R. Gamaliel the unconverted Iew as Usher of his School or Graduate in a Rabbinical Academy 3. Yet further to vindicate our Selves An Apostle of Iesus Christ not a Delegate of the Civil Magistrate For Suarez the Spanish Jesuite that he may have something to confute in the English Sect as he will needs call us saith confidently That the Power of Order with us is nothing else but a Deputation of certain Persons by the Temporal Magistrate to do those Acts which he himself much more might do made indeed with some kind of Ceremonies but those esteemed Arbitrary and unnecessary to the Effect which would follow as well without them by the King 's sole Deputation A Calumny which the whole Business of this Day most solemnly refutes a kind of a second Nag's-Head Fable a Fill of the same Race both Sire and Dam begotten by the Father of Lies upon a slanderous Tongue and so sent post about the World to tell false Tidings of the English as credible as that our Kings Excommunicate or that Queen Elizabeth Preached Would they have been just or ingenious they should have laid the Bra◠at the Physicians door who was the Father of it Not the beloved Physician though his Name comes nigh Erastus but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no his Praise was not in the Gospel but a Physician in Geneva learned and eminent enough 'T is remarkable that in the same Place and much about the same Time so unlucky an Ascendent hath Errour and Mistake upon some Persons should three Conceits be hatched concerning Church-Government which like three Furies have vext the quiet of the Church ever since For the Consistorial and Congregational Pretences were Twins of the same Birth though the Younger serv'd the Elder and being much over-powred sunk in the stream of Time till it appeared again in this unhappy Age amongst the Ghosts of so many reviv'd Errors that have escap'd from their Tombs to walk up and down and disturb the World And not long after this Physician too would needs step out of his own Profession to mistake in two other at once Policy and Divinity running a risque of setting ill-Understanding betwixt them had not Abler and Wiser Heads than He stept in and so evenly cut the thred so exactly stated the Controversie and asserted the very Due on either side that there remains now no Ground either of Jealousie among Friends or one would think of Slander from Enemies And yet even some of our own too which we have reason more deeply to resent would needs bear the World in hand when Time was That the Claim of Episcopal Power as from Christ and his Apostles was an Assault upon the Right of our Kings and tended to the Disherison of the Crown As if the Calling might not stand by Divine Right and yet the Adjuncts and Appendages of it by Human Bounty As if the Office it self might not be from Christ and yet the Exercise of it only by and under the Permission of Pious Kings Or As if the Church might not owe the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven both that of Order and that of Jurisdiction too purely Spiritual I mean and without any Temporal Effect to the Donation of Christ and yet at the same time owe all the Coactive Power in the External Regiment which is one of the Keys of the Kingdoms of this World for the enforcing of Obedience by constrain◠to the Political Sanction These things thus clearly distinguish'd I cannot see why we may not with some Consequence infer the Apostolical and 〈◊〉 in Consequence thereupon the Divine Right of our Ecclesiastical Hierarchy how harsh soever it sounds either at Rome or Geneva and though the Hills about Trent resounded loud with the Eccho of that Noise and stiff Debate which past upon that Argument within the Walls of that Council However they like it on this side the Hills or beyond St. Paul stands firmly by us and voucheth the Grand Charter of his Apostolate for all Me me adsum qui feci 'T was I the Apostle of Iesus Christ that left Titus to ordain Elders in Creet and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be found for this Argument 'T was the Holy Ghost that made you Bishops saith the same Apostle to the Elders at Miletus so that these are no Milesian Fables but the Words of Truth and Soberness a part of the Holy and Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the real Acts and Gests of the Apostles of Christ nay the Act and Deed of Christ himself by his Apostle according to that Rule of the Hebrews Apostolus cujusque est ut quisque And so much for the Original of the Power I go on II to the Subject and that is Titus Ego Te I left Thee 1. Thee first mine Host and of the whole Church For when the Iews at Corinth contradicted and blasphemed the Doctrine delivered by St. Paul he shook his Raiment and departed into the house of one Justus so we read it after the Greek Copies one that worshipped God and dwelt by the Synagogue and there he abode eighteen Months But the Syriack Version saith it was the House of Titus and so St. Chrysostom seemeth by his Preface to this Epistle to have found it in some Copies and the Vulgar Latine and Arabick reconciling both The House of Titus Justus or of Titus the Son of Justus If you give credit to this Tradition thus fairly derived 't will return you this Lesson That no man serves God in vain that none opens the Doors of God's House nor the Doors of his own to receive God's Church in that looseth his Reward Obadiah that secured and fed an hundred Prophets in Persecution received a Prophet's Reward and though but a Proselyte was himself made one of the Twelve The House of Obed-Edom the Gittite and all that pertained to him was blest for the Ark of God's Sake that occasionally turned in thither And Titus a Gentile who received St. Paul into his House not only gains thereby the Lights of Faith and the Incomparable Advantages of Religion but is himself introduced into the Church which is the House of God and set amongst the Princes there being singled out to this special Honour from amongst the many that attended St. Paul in his Journeyings Hear this you Noble and Generous Souls who in this time of Calamity have spread your Wings over the persecuted Prophets of God and had a Church in your House when they made a Stable of the Church Believe it God and his Church pay their Quarters wheree're they come and there is not One of you shall miss of his Reward 2. Thee who wert so exceedingly Dear so highly Useful to me Titus my Brother mine own Son after the common Faith two very endearing Titles And then so necessary to me That when I came to Troas to preach Christ's Gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord I
Metropolis of Creet even in the Christian Accompt very early and long before the Councel of Nice whatever hath been pretended to the contrary and probably in the Epoch of the Text it self since even then it was certainly such in the Civil Style most confessedly the Ground of the Christian Establishment for sure it was not Chance or Lottery that produced a perpetual Coincidence both there and elsewhere the World over And now let me lead you up to the top of Mount Ida the proudest Height in Creet from whence Geographers tell us we may descry both Seas and see all the Cities like a Crown in Circle about it There let us make a stand a while and look about us and consider holy Titus with those numerous Plantations and Nurseries of Primitive Christianity distributed as it were Areolatim like so many distinct Beds and Knots in the Eden of God planted and watered and drest by Apostolical Hands all under his care and custody Consider him by way of Recollection under the Variety of Circumstance wherein the Text hath hitherto presented him to our Meditations Consider him a single Person no Collegues no Compeers no Co-ordinates For as our Lord promised the Keys and doubtless so gave as he had promised them not to a College but to single Persons Tibi dabo quodcunque Tu ligaveris So the Apostles at the next remove St. Paul here I am sure for One entrusts all not to Communities and Consistories but to Individuals for so runs the Style Ego Te-ut Tu sicut ego Tibi all Personal and Particular Consider him determined to a fix'd and constant Residence left and settled in Creet the Ordinary and perpetual Governour of that Church For we ought to have more regard to Reason and the true Nature of things than to pronounce him an Extraordinary Officer who for ought appears is impowered to none but Acts of Ordinary and continual Importance to the Church And more Reverence for the blessed Apostle than to think he would issue a Commission full fraught with Rules of Perpetual Use to a Temporary Delegate who was perhaps next day to be exaâ—ctorated and never to have any Exercise of them Consider him yet further invested with a Plenitude and Sufficiency of Power not only to Preach and Baptize and so to beget Sons to God and the Church which is the Presbyter's and for ought I know the whole of the Evangelist's Office but also both to Ordain Elders in all the Cities under him and so to beget spiritual Fathers too as Epiphunius distinguisheth and then as in the old Paternal Dominion they ruled whom they had begotten to govern and regulate whom he had thus ordained even all the Bishops of those numerous Cities Whence the Question of our Reverend and Learned Iewel most naturally proceedeth Having the Government of so many Bishops what may we call him but an Arch-bishop And I add of so many Cities what but a Metropolitan I say Consider all this soberly and maturely and you will not disavow me if I say That whosoever shall drive us out of this Creet thus strongly Garrisoned by S. Paul and his Disciples and flight and dismantle so many Strengths and Fortresses of the Episcopal Cause as there were Cities in that Island and extort out of our Hands this great Instance of so many Bishops ordained and governed by their own Metropolitan so high in the first Age will be a very Pyrgopolinices indeed qui legiones Spiritu difflat and deserve the Sur-name of Creticus better than Metellus the Roman that subdued the Island For our parts we are not ashamed of our Conformity to so Primitive a Pattern nay we glory in so handsom and innocent a Syncretism For we are not better then our Fathers nor wiser than the Apostles of Christ himself And had we been of their Counsel who not long since pretended to reform us according to the best Examples we might have bespoke them as once S. Paul did those over hasty and unruly Mariners who would needs put to Sea when Sailing was dangerous and thrive accordingly being quickly forced to abandon the Helm and to let the Ship drive being not able to bear up against the Wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sirs you should not have parted from Creet in the Text and so have gained harm and disgrace If really you be in quest of the best Examples of modelling a Church you may certainly find here as fair and as pure Ideas and as well worth your Imitation as the more Modern Platform can afford you which I have reason to believe the famous Author of it intended not at first a Pattern to other Churches but an Expedient to serve the present Exigent of his own in a Iuncture scarce capable of any thing better and which I am perswaded the learnedst and wisest and most Pious of his Followers would gladly relinquish for something more Perfect and Primitive would the Necessities of their present Condition which have no Law but much of Excuse for those that really lie under them permit them the Happiness of so blessed an Exchange Which God in Mercy send them And so much of the Second Act to which the Power is here designed and that is the Ordaining of Elders together with the Distribution of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In every City one I have but three Words to add of the Third Part of my Text and that was the Limitation of these Acts to the Apostles Prescription All must be so done even as he had appointed So in regard of the Variety of the Offices themselves and their several Subordinations So in regard of the choice of the Persons and their requisite Qualifications and so also in regard of the Rites and Ceremonies and Manner of ordaining them still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All as I had appointed thee And now if any demand where these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Constitutions Apostolical are to be found I shall not send them to Clemens â—his Book that bears that Name but to the Universal Practice of the Antient Church in which they are still in great part Visible and thence handed over to Posterity by Tradition and conformity of Practice and by Degrees inserted into the Canons of the old Councels as occasion was offered and into the Ordinals of several Churches Or if a readier and more present Answer be required I know not where to design it you nearer hand or more full to your satisfaction than by dismissing you to attend the great Action that is to follow In which you will see All so Grave and Solemn so Pious and Devout so Primitive and Apostolical and so exactly up to the Level of the Text and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of S. Paul here that I know not where to point you out so pregnant and full a Comment upon my Text nor what better Amends to make you for my own failings upon it And yet having thus