Office of a Bishop If either be perpetual why not both if not both why either and how can we argue a perpetual power of Ordination in the Church from the Ordination of Timothy and Titus for instance as the Presbyterians do Vide Ius Divin p. 159.167 if the Office they were Ordained to were not perpetual and if it were perpetual then so is Episcopacy which is in nothing different from that which they exercised in their Churches III. That the true Government of the Church is Episcopal is evident also from the Universal Conformity of the Primitive Church thereunto It is objected by the Adversaries of the Episcopal Government that though our Saviour indeed Instituted a superior Order of Church Officers viz. his Twelve Apostles to precide over the rest and Govern his Church yet this was an extraordinary Commission which he never intended they should derive down to the Church as a perpetual Model of Government but was limited to the persons of the Apostles and was to expire with ' em Now that it was not limited to the persons of the Apostles is evident since as it hath been shewn before the Astles derived it to others which they could not have done without violating their trust and exceeding the bounds of their Commission had it been appropriated to their persons so that it must be allowed either that they proceeded irregularly in transferring their superiority to others or that their Commission did impower them to transfer it and therefore if it appear not only that they might transfer it to some for the Government of some Churches by vertue of their Commission of which the above cited instances are a full demonstration but also that they Universally transferred it to others for the Government of all other Churches then it is certain that either they mistook the intent of our Saviours Commission or the intent of it was to impower 'em to transfer it unversally as a standing and perpetual Form of Ecclesiastical Government in short if they understood the intendment of their own Commission as to be sure they did being guided by the Spirit into all Truth to be sure they would never have communicated their Apostolick Superiority to any had it not been our Saviours intention when he Commissioned 'em to Authorize 'em so to do and for the same reason we may be sure that so far forth as they did communicate it it was our Saviours intention that they should now as was shewn before to some they did communicate it for the Government of some Churches as to Timothy and Titus for instance for the Government of the Churches of Ephesus and Crete from whence it is evident that it was our Saviours intention that they should communicate it to some and for the same reason if it be made appear that they did communicate it universally for the Government of all other Churches it will necessarily follow that it was our Saviours intention they should communicate it as an universal form of Church-Government Now whether they did communicate it universally or no is a question about matter of Fact and as such is decidable only by the Testimony of the most competent witnesses and the most competent witness in this case is the Christian Church in the Ages next succeeding the Apostles which Church attests with one universal consent the universal derivation of a Superiour Order of Ecclesiastick Officers from the Apostles to preside over the Churches of Christ. And some Christian Writers we have who were living in the very days of the Apostles and were their immediate Scholars and Disciples others again who lived in their days and were their Disciples who lived in the Apostles and others who immediately succeeded these from all which we have ample Testimonies of the continued Succession of this superiour Order even from the Apostles to whom our Saviour first derived it Out of all which I shall only produce some few instances out of an infinite number that might be given Of the first sort are S. Clement Bishop of Rome and S. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch S. Clement who as Frenaeus tells us saw the Apostles and conversed familiarly with 'em makes mention in his Epistle to the Corinthians of three Orders of Ecclesiastical Officers in his time whom he calls the High Priest the Priests and the Levites which words can be no otherwise understood than of the Bishop Presbyter and the Deacons S. Ignatius who was the Disciple of S. Peter and in his life-time Bishop of Antioch is so full and express in all those six Epistles he wrote on the way to his Martyrdom for the derivation of this superiour Order from the Apostles that the adversaries of this Order have no other way to evade him but by condemning those Epistles for Counterfeits from which injurious sentence they have of late been so triumphantly vindicated by a Learned Pen of our own that I dare say no man of Learning for the future will so far expose the Reputation of his Understanding and Modesty as to call 'em in question again Now in all these Epistles the holy Martyr not only distinguishes the Clergy into Bishops Presbyters and Deacons but strictly injoyns the two latter as well as the Laicks to be Dutiful and Obedient to the former and particularly in his Epistle to the Trallians what is the Bishop saith he but he that hath all Authority and Power what is the Presbytery but a sacred Constitution of Counsellors and Assessors to the Bishop what are the Deacons but imitators of Christ and Ministers to the Bishop as he was to the Father and as he every where enjoyns obedience to the Bishops as to the supreme Order in the Church of Christ so in the beginning of his Epistle to the Philadelphians he tells them that so many as belong to Christ are united to the Bishop and that so many as depart from him and his Communion and associate themselves with the accursed shall be cut off with them And in his Epistle to the Magnesians he tells them that it highly became them to obey their Bishop and not to contradict him in any thing for it is a terrible thing to contradict him because in so doing you do not so much despise him who is visible as the invisible God who will not be despised for his promotion is not from men but from God. And several of his Cotemporary Bishops he mentions by name viz. Onesimus Bishop of the Ephesians Policarp of the Smyrnians Polybius of the Trallians and Damas of the Magnesians and still as he mentions them he highly commends the Presbyters and Deacons for their obedience to them So in the beginning of his Epistle to the Magnesians Having been so happy as to see you by your worthy Bishop Damas and your worthy Presbyters viz. Bassus and Apollinus and Zotion your Deacon whom I cannot but commend for his obedience to the Bishop and the Presbytery you ought not to contemn the youth of your Bishop but to pay him all
and Elutherius Bishops of Rome successively but also tells us that after Iames the Iust who was the first Bishop of Ierusalem had suffered Martyrdom Simeon Cleophae was made Bishop of that Church because he was of the Kindred of our Lord vid. Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 22. Not long after him Dionysius Bishop of Corinth makes mention in several Epistles of several Bishops by name and particularly of Publius and Quadratus successive Bishops of Athens of Dionysius the Areopagite the first Bishop of that Church of Philip Bishop of Gortyna in Crete of Palma Bishop of Amastris in Pontus of Pinytus Bishop of the Gnossians and of Soter Bishop of Rome vid. Euseb lib. 4. cap. 23. About the same time lived Irenaeus Bishop of Lions who as himself tells us in his Epistle to Florinus had often seen Polycarp the Disciple of S. Iohn and did very well remember his person and behaviour when he discoursed to the Multitude the intimate conversation he had with S. John and the rest of the Apostles who had seen our Lord. And from him we have this express Testimony concerning the matter in debate We can reckon up those who were Ordained Bishops by the Apostles in the Churches who they were that succeeded them even down to our times for the Apostles would have them to be in all things perfect and unreprovable whom they left to be their Successors and to whom they delivered their Apostolick Authority And then he goes on and gives us a Catalogue of Eleven Bishops of Rome by name beginning from Linus to whom he tells us S. Peter and S. Paul Episcopatum administrandae Ecclesiae tradiderunt i. e. delivered the Episcopal power of Governing that Church and ending with Elutherius who was the twelfth and did then actually preside in the Episcopal Chair and that by Bishops in this Age was meant such as presided over Presbyters as well as Laicks is evident by the demonstration Clemens Alexandrinus makes who was Irenaeus his Cotemporary between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. 6. i. e. the Processes of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and a little before speaking of the dignity of the Presbytery he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that it was not honoured with the first Seat or placed in the first Class of the Ecclesiastick Orders which plainly shews that then there was an Order above the Presbytery viz. the Bishops whom presently after he mentions as the first Order of Ecclesiasticks And that passage which Eusebius quotes from him out of his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately published is a plain Argument that in his time Bishops were look'd on as a distinct Order from the rest of the Clergy for he tells us that when S. Iohn returned from Patmos to Ephesus he visited the neighbouring Provinces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. partly that he might ordain Bishops and partly that he might set apart such for the Clergy as were pointed out to him by the Holy Spirit by which it is evident that in Clement's time at least and if he be not mistaken in S. Iohn's too the Bishops were a distinct Order from the rest of the Clergy viz. the Presbyters and Deacons Thus both in the Apostolick Age and that succeeding it we have abundant Testimony of the derivation of the superiority of the Apostolick Order from the Apostles to the Bishops of the Churches of Christ. And then for the next Age we have the concurrent Testimonies of Tertullian Origen and S. Cyprian not only of the continuance of this Apostolick superiority in the Church but also of the derivation of it from the Apostles themselves but we need not cite their words it being granted by the most learned Advocates of the Presbyterian Government that for several years before these Fathers viz. about the year of our Lord 140. the Episcopacy was every where received in the Church for they tell us that though the Apostles exercised a superiority over the other Ecclesiastical Orders yet they left none behind to succeed them in that power but the Church was every where governed by a Common Council of Presbyters but this Form of Government being found inconvenient as giving too much occasion for Schisms and Divisions it was at last universally agreed upon that one Presbyter should be chosen out to preside over all the rest and this say they was the beginning of the Episcopacy for which they cite that famous passage of S. Ierom Antequam Diaboli instinctu c. i. e. Before such time as through the instinct of the Devil divisions in Religion began and it was said among the People I am of Paul I am of Apollo and I of Cephas the Churches were Governed by Common Councils of Presbyters but afterwards every Presbyter reckoning such as he baptized to be his and not Christs it was decreed over all the World that one from among the Presbyters should be chosen and set over all the rest to whom should belong all the care of the Churches that so the seeds of Schisms might be destroyed which universal Decree as they guess was made about the year 140. Now not to dispute with them the sense of this passage but allowing it to bear their sense I shall only desire the Reader to consider First That it is the Testimony of one who lived long after the afore-cited Witnesses and so far less capable of attesting so early a matter of fact for some of the Witnesses above-cited were such as lived in the days of the Apostles others such as lived in their days who lived in the days of the Apostles and certainly these were much more competent Witnesses of what was done in the Apostles days than S. Ierom who was not born till about the year 330. almost one hundred years after Origen the latest and three hundred years after Clemens the earliest of the above-cited Witnesses and certainly to prefer the Authority of one single Witness who lived so long after the matter of fact to the unanimous attestations of so many earlier Witnesses is both immodest and irrational II. It is also to be considered that S. Ierom was a witness in his own cause in which case men of his warmth and passion are too too apt to exceed the limits of truth for the design of that passage was to curb the insolence of some Pragmatical Deacons who would needs advance themselves above the Presbyters which Saint Ierom being a Presbyter himself takes in high disdain and as the best of men are too prone to do when their own concerns are at stake bends the stick too much t'other way and depresses the Deacons too low and advances the Presbyters too high For III. In other places where he is not Biassed by partiality to his own Order he talks at a quite different rate so in Dial. advers Luciferian dost thou ask why one that is not Baptized by the Bishop doth not receive the Holy Ghost why it proceeds from hence that the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles
which is the good of the Publick Since therefore the Church by Christs own institution is a governed Society of men we must either suppose its Government to be very lame and defective which would be to blaspheme the Wisdom of our Saviour or allow it to have a Legislative Power inherent in it But that de facto it hath such a Power in it is evident from the Practice of the Apostles who as all agree had the Reins of Church Government delivered into their hands by our Saviour for so in Acts 15.6 we are told that upon occasion of that famous Controversie about Circumcision the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter where by the Elders by the consent of all Antiquity is meant the Bishops of Iudea Vid. Dr. Hammond on Acts 11. Note B. And after mature debate and deliberation this is the result of the Council It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things ver 28. so that those necessary things specified in the next verse were it seems laid upon them as a burthen i. e. legally imposed on them as matter of duty for herein it is plain the Apostles exercised a Legislative Power over those Christian Communities they wrote to viz. in requiring 'em to abstain from some things which were never prohibited before by any standing Law of Christanity and as the Apostles and Primitive Bishops made Laws by common consent for the Church in general so did they also by their own single authority for particular Churches to which they were more peculiarly related Thus St. Paul after he had prescribed some Rules to the Corinthians for their more decent communication of the Lords Supper tells them that other things he would set in order when he came among them 1 Cor. 11.34 but how could he otherwise do this than by giving them certain Laws and Canons for the better regulation of their Religious Offices so also 1 Cor. 16.1 the same Apostle makes mention of an Order or Canon which he gave to the Churches of Galatia which he enjoyns the Church of Corinth also to observe and in 1 Tim. 5. he gives Timothy several Ecclesiastical Rules to give in charge to his Church ver 7. so also Tit. 1.5 he tells Titus that for this cause he left him in Crete with Apostolick or Episcopal power that he might set in order the things that were wanting i. e. that by wholsom Laws and Constitutions he might redress those disorders and supply those defects which the shortness of S. Pauls stay there would not permit him to provide for By all which instances it is abundantly evident that the Governours of the Church have a Legislative Power inherent in them both to make Laws by common consent for the Regulation of the Church in general and to prescribe the rules of Decency and Order in their own particular Churches For what the Apostles and Primitive Bishops did to be sure they had Authority to do and whatsoever Authority they had they derived it down to their Successors And accordingly we find this Ecclesiastick Legislation was always administred by the Apostles Successors the Bishops who not only gave Laws both to the Clergy and Laity in their own particular Churches but also made Laws for the whole Church by common consent in their holy Councils wherein during the first four general Councils no Ecclesiastick beneath a Bishop was ever allowed a Suffrage unless it were by deputation from his Bishop and though in making Laws for their own Churches they generally conducted themselves by the advice and counsel of their Presbyters and sometimes also admitted them into their debates both in their Provincial and General Councils yet this was only in preparing the matter of their Laws But that which gave them the form of Laws was purely the Episcopal Authority and Suffrage and whatsoever was decreed either by the Bishop in Council with his Presbyters or by the Bishops in Council among themselves was always received by the Churches of Christ as Authentick Law. It is true this Legislative Power of the Church as was shewn before extends not so far as to controul the Decrees of the Civil Sovereign who is next to and immediately under God in all Causes and over all Persons Supreme and is no otherwise accountable by the Laws of Christianity than he was by the Laws of natural Religion and therefore as the Civil Sovereign cannot countermand Gods Laws so neither can the Church the Civil Sovereigns but yet as next to the Laws of God the Laws of the Civil Sovereign are to be obeyed so next to the Laws of the Civil Sovereign the Laws of the Church are to be obeyed II. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to Consecrate and Ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices For that those holy Ministries which Christ himself performed while he was on Earth such as preaching the Gospel administring the Evangelical Sacraments c. might be continued in his Church throughout all Generations he not only himself ordained his twelve Apostles a little before he left the World to perform those Ministries in his absence but in their Ordination transferred on them his own mission from the Father deriving upon them the same authority to ordain others that he had to ordain them that so they might derive their Mission to others as he did his to them through all succeeding Generations for this is necessarily implied in the Commission he gave them Iohn 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you that is I do not only send you with full authority to act for me in all things as my Father sent me to act for him but I also send you with the same authority to send others that I now exercise in sending you for unless this be implied in their Mission he did not send them as his Father sent him unless he gave them the same authority to propagate their Mission to others that his Father gave him to propagate his Mission to them how could he say that he sent them as his Father sent him since he must have sent them without that very authority from his Father which he then exercised in sending them Now the Persons whom he sent were the Eleven Apostles as you will see by comparing this of S. Iohn with Luke 24.33.36 Mar. 16.14 Mat. 28.16 in all which places we are expresly told that it was the Eleven he appeared to when he gave this Commission and consequently it must be the Eleven to whom he gave it This Commission therefore of sending others being originally transferred by our Saviour upon the Apostolick Order no others could have right to transfer it to others but only such as were admitted of that Order none could give it to others but only those to whom Christ gave it and therefore since Christ himself gave it to none but Apostles none but Apostles could derive it and accordingly we
find in Scripture that all Ecclesiastick Commissions were either given by the hands of some of those first Apostles who received their Commission immediately from our Saviour or else by some of those secondary Apostles that were admitted into Apostolick Orders by them which secondary Apostles as was shewn before were the same with those whom we now call Bishops for so in Acts 6.3.6 the seven first Deacons we read of were Ordained by the Apostles the whole number of the Disciples being present but the Apostles only appointing and laying their hands on them and in Acts 14.23 we are told that Paul and Barnabas two of the Apostles ordained Elders in every Church that is of Lystra Iconium and Antioch and though these two were Ordained Apostles of the Gentiles by certain Prophets and Teachers in the Church of Antioch Acts 13.1.3 yet there is no doubt but those Prophets and Teachers where such as had received the Apostolick Character being ordained by the Apostles Bishops of the Churches of Syria for otherwise how could they have derived it For so Iudas and Silas are called Prophets Acts 15.32 and yet ver 22. they are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Rulers among the Brethren or Bishops of Iudea and afterwards we find that Ordination was confined to such as had been admitted to the Apostolate for so the power of laying on of hands in the Church of Ephesus was committed by S. Paul to Timothy whom he himself by the laying on of hands had ordained the Apostle or Bishop of that Church 1 Tim. 5.22 1 Tim. 1.6 so also the power of Ordaining in the Church of Crete was by S. Paul committed to Titus whom he had also Ordained the Apostle or Bishop of that Church Tit. 1.5 for this cause left I thee in Crete to ordain Elders in every City Thus all through the whole Scripture History we find the power of Ordination administred by such and none but such as were of the Apostolick Order viz. either by the Prime Apostles or by the secondary Apostles or Bishops And if we consult the Primitive Antiquities which to be sure in matters of fact at least are the best Interpreters of Scripture we shall always find the power of giving Orders confined and limited to Bishops which is so undeniable that S. Ierom himself who endeavours his utmost to equalize Presbyters with Bishops is yet fain to do it with an excepta Ordinatione Ep. ad Evagr. Quid facit excepta Ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat What can the Bishop do except Ordaining that the Presbyter may not do also III. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to execute that spiritual Iurisdiction which Christ hath established in it i. e. to Cite such as are accused of scandalous offences before their Tribunals to inspect and examine the Accusation and upon sufficient evidence of the truth of it to admonish the offender of his fault and in case he obstinately persist in it to exclude him from the Communion of the Church and from all the Benefits of Christianity till such time as he gives sufficient evidence of his Repentance and amendment and then to receive him in again For that Christ hath established such a jurisdiction in his Church is evident from that passage Mat. 18.16 17 18. Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go tell him his fault between him and thee alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gain'd thy Brother but if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established i. e. that thou mayst be able in case he doth not then amend to produce sufficient testimony of his guilt before the Churches Tribunal to which thou art next to apply thy self and if he shall neglect to hear them i. e. to promise amendment upon their admonition take them along with thee and tell it to the Church that so she may examine the matter and upon thy proving his guilt by sufficient witness may Authoritatively admonish him to amend but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican i. e. give him over for a desperate sinner as one that is to be ejected from the Communion of the Church and no longer to enjoy the common benefits of a Christian for verily I say unto you that it is to you of the Church before whom this obstinate Offender is cited and accused for now he speaks no longer in the singular number Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven i. e. whomsoever ye shall for just cause eject from the Communion of the Church into the state of a Heathen man and a Publican I will certainly exclude out of Heaven unless he reconcile himself to you by Confession and promise of amendment and if thereupon you pardon him and receive him into the Churches Communion I will most certainly pardon him too if he perform his promise for that by binding and loosing upon Earth our Saviour means excluding out of the Church and receiving in again is evident from that Parallel passage Mat. 16.19 I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven where by the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven is plainly meant the Authority of a Steward to govern his Church or Family for so Isa. 22.21 22. God promises Eliachim that he would cloath him with the Robe of Shebna who was over the Houshold ver 15. i. e. Steward of the Kings Family and that he would commit Shebna 's Government into his hand c. and then it follows And the Key of the House of David will I lay upon his shoulders so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open that is in short I will make him the Governour of the Family and give him power to admit or exclude what Servants he pleases and accordingly by the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven must be meant the Government of the Church for so Keys denote Authority to Govern vid. Rev. 3.7 and by binding and loosing the power of shutting out of or readmitting into it and therefore in Iohn 20.23 this binding and loosing is thus expressed whose sins ye remit or loose shall be remitted or loosed whose sins ye retain or keep bound shall be retained or kept bound for though the words are different from those in S. Matthew yet they are of the same import and signification and consequently our Saviours meaning must be the same here as there viz. whose sins you loose from the penalty of exclusion from the Church I also will loose from the penalty of exclusion out of Heaven and whose sins
you keep bound or obliged to that Penalty I also will keep bound and obliged to this This is the Spirtual Iurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church to bind or loose suspend or restore excommunicate or absolve and this he hath wholly deposited in the Episcopal Order For in all the above-cited places it was only to his Apostles that he derived this Iurisdiction they alone were the Stewards to whom he committed the Keys and Government of his Family and it was to them alone that he promised that they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is to Rule and Govern the spiritual Israel which is the Christian Church even as the Phylarchae or Chiefs of the Tribes governed the twelve Tribes of natural Israel Mat. 19.28 and hence in that Mystical representation of the Church by a City descending from Heaven Rev. 21. the Wall of it is said to have twelve foundations and upon them twelve names of the twelve Apostles ver 14. and those twelve foundations are compared to twelve precious stones to denote their power and dignity in the Church ver 19 20. and the Wall being exactly meted is found to be 144 Cubits that is twelve times twelve to denote that these twelve Apostles had each of them an equal portion allotted him in the Government and administration of the Church ver 17. This spiritual Iurisdiction therefore of governing the Church and administring the Censures of it being by our Saviour wholly lodged in the Apostolate none can justly claim or pretend to it but such as are of the Apostolick Order and accordingly in the Apostolick Age we find it was always administred either immediately by the Apostles themselves or by the Bishops of the several Churches to whom they communicated their Order for thus in the Church of Corinth it was S. Paul who pronounced the Sentence of Excommunication against the incestuous person for I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged or pronounced Sentence already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed 1 Cor. 5.3 and what he orders them to do ver 4 5. was only to declare and execute his Sentence and 2 Cor. 13.2 he threatens them that heretofore had sinned that if he came again he would not spare them and that by his not sparing them he meant that he would proceed against them with Ecclesiastical Censures is evident from ver 1. In the mouth of two or three Witnesses shall every word be established which are the very words of our Saviour Matt. 18.16 when he instituted the power of Censuring and then ver 10. he tells them that he wrote these things being absent lest being present he should use severity according to the power which the Lord had given them to edification and not to destruction by which it is plain he means the power of Excommunicating and 1 Cor. 4.21 he threatens to come to them with a Rod that is to chastise them with the Censures of the Church and with this Rod as he himself tells he chastised Hymenoeus and Alexander two stickling Hereticks in the Church of Ephesus whom he delivered unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme 1 Tim. 1.20 and as he frequently executed the Censures of the Church in his own Person so he derived this spiritual Iurisdiction to Timothy and Titus whom he Ordained Apostles or Bishops of the Church of Ephesus and Crete for so he orders Timothy against an Elder Receive not an Accusation but before two or three Witnesses which plainly implies his Authority to examine and try the causes even of the Elders themselves when they were accused and to punish them if he found them guilty for so it follows Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear 1 Tim. 5.19 20. so also he exhorts Titus to exercise this his spiritual Jurisdiction A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Tit. 3.10 which plainly implies that he had an Authority inherent in him as he was the Apostle or Bishop of Crete to Cite Examine Admonish and Censure persons of erronious Principles and the same Authority it is evident was inherent in the Angels or Bishops of the seven Churches of Asia Thus the Bishop of Ephesus had Authority to try such as said they were Apostles and were not and to convict them for Liars Rev. 2.2 and the Bishop of Pergamus is blamed for tolerating the Sect of the Nicolaitans in his Church ver 14 15. and so also is the Bishop of Thyatira for suffering that woman Iezebel ver 20. which plainly implies that the Authority of curbing and correcting those profligate Sectaries was inherent in them else why should they be blamed any more than others for not restraining them From all which it is evident that the power of Christian Jurisdiction was Originally seated in the Apostolate and that throughout the Apostolick Age it was always exercised by such and only such as were admitted into that sovereign Order viz. either by the twelve Prime Apostles or by those secondary Apostles whom they ordained Bishops of particular Churches and accordingly we find in the Primitive Ages the Bishops were the sole administrators of this spiritual Iurisdiction and though ordinarily they administred it with the advice and concurrence of their Presbytery yet this was more than they thought themselves obliged to for thus S. Cyprian in the time of his recess did by his own single Authority Excommunicate Felicissimus Augendus and others of his Presbyters Ep. 38 39. and when Rogatianus a Bishop of his Metropolitick Church complained to him in a Synod of a disorderly Deacon he tells him that pro Episcopatus vigore Cathedrae authoritate i. e. by his own Episcopal authority without appealing to the Synod he might have chastised him And the fifth Canon of the first Nicene Council plainly shews that it was then the judgment of the Catholick Church that the power of spiritual Iurisdiction was wholly seated in the Bishops for it decrees that in every Province there should be twice a year a Council of Bishops to examine whether any person Lay or Clergy had been unjustly excommunicated by his Bishop which shews that then this Sentence was inflicted by the Bishop only though afterwards to prevent abuses it was decreed in the Council of Carthage that the Bishop should hear no mans Cause but in the presence of his Clergy and that his Sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by their presence but yet still the Sentence was peculiarly his and not his Clergies In some Churches indeed the Bishops did many times delegatâ— power to their Presbyters both to excommunicate and absolve as perhaps S. Paul himself did in the Church of Corinth but in this case the Presbyter was only the Bishops mouth and his Sentence received all its force from that Episcopal Authority he was armed with IV. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of
of the Principal of the twelve Apostles and S. Iames was not so much as one of that number yet in the Church of Ierusalem he had the Priority of them both now considering that S. Iames is called an Apostle and considering the Preference he had in all these instances above the other Apostles at Ierusalem it is at least highly probable that he was peculiarly the Apostle of the Church of Ierusalem but if to all this evidence we add the most early Testimonies of Christian Antiquity we shall advance the Probability to a Demonstration for by the unanimous consent of all Ecclesiastical Writers S. Iames was the first Bishop of Ierusalem for so Hegesippus who lived very near the times of the Apostles tells us that Iames the Brother of our Lord called by all men the Iust received the Church of Ierusalem from the Apostles vid. Euseb. lib. 2. c. 23. so also S. Clement as he is quoted by the same Author l. 2. c. 1. tells us that Peter Iames and Iohn after the Assumption of Christ as being the men that were most in favour with him did not contend for the Honour but chose Iames the Just to be Bishop of Ierusalem and in the Apostolical Constistitutions that pass under the name of S. Clement which though not so ancient as is pretended yet are doubtless of very early Antiquity the Apostles are brought in thus speaking Concerning those that were ordained by us Bishops in our life time we signifie to you that they were these Iames the Brother of our Lord was Ordained by us Bishop of Ierusalem c. so also S. Ierom. de script Eccles. tells us that S. Iames immediately after the Passion of our Lord was ordained Bishop of Ierusalem by the Apostles And S. Cyril who was afterwards Bishop of that Church and therefore a most Authentick Witness of the Records of it calls Saint Iames the first Bishop of that Diocess Catech. 16. To all which we have the concurrent Testimonies of S. Austin S. Chrysostom Epiphanius S. Ambrose and a great many others and S. Ignatius himself who was an immediate Disciple of the Apostles makes S. Stephen to be a Deacon of S. Iames Ep. ad Trall and therefore since Stephen was a Deacon of the Church of Ierusalem S. Iames whose Deacon he was must necessarily be the Bishop of it Upon this account therefore S. Iames is called an Apostle in Scripture because by being Ordained by the Apostles Bishop of Ierusalem he had the Apostolick Power and Authority conferred on him for since it is apparent he was none of the Twelve to whom the Apostleship was at first confined he could no otherwise become an Apostle than by deriving the Apostleship from some of the Twelve and therefore since that Apostleship which he derived from the Twelve was only Episcopal Superiority over the Church of Ierusalem it hence necessarily follows that the Episcopacy was the Apostleship derived and communicated from the Primitive Apostles The second Instance of the Apostles Communicating their Apostolick Superiority to others is Epaphroditus who in Phil. 2.25 is stiled the Apostle of the Philippians But I suppose it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my Brother and companion in labour and fellow souldier 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but your Apostle for so S. Ierom Com. Gal. 1.19 Paulatim tempore precedente alii ab his quos Dominus elegerat Ordinati sunt Apostoli sicut ille ad Philippenses sermo declarat dicens necessarium existimavi Epaphroditum c. i. e. by degrees in process of time others were ordained Apostles by those whom our Lord had chosen as that passage to the Philippians shews I thought it necessary to send unto you Epaphroditus your Apostle And Theodoret upon the place gives this reason why he is here called the Apostle of the Philippians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. he was intrusted with Episcopal Government as being their Bishop so that here you see Epaphroditus is made an Apostle by the Apostles and his Apostleship consists in being made Bishop of Philippi A third instance is that of Titus and some others with him 2 Cor. 8.23 Whether any do inquire of Titus he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you or our Brethren be inquired of they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostles of the Churches and the glory of Christ where it is plain they are not called the Apostles of the Churches merely as they were the Messengers of the liberality of the Churches of Macedonia for it was not those Churches but S. Paul that sent them vers 22. and therefore since they were not Apostles in relation to those Churches whose liberality they carried it must be in relation to some particular Churches over which they had Apostolical Authority and that Titus had this Authority over the Church of Crete is evident both from S. Pauls Epistle to him and from Primitive Antiquity As for Saint Pauls Epistle there are sundry passages in it which plainly speak him to be vested with Apostolical Superiority over that Church so Chap. 1. vers 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldst set things in order that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I have appointed thee For in the first place S. Paul here gives him the supreme judgment of things that were wanting with an absolute power to reform and correct them which is a plain demonstration of his Superiority in that Church Secondly he Authorizes him to ordain Elders in every City and whether these Elders were Bishops or Presbyters is of very little consequence as to the present debate for first it is of undoubted certainty that there were Presbyters in the Church of Crete before Titus was left there by the Apostle and secondly it is as evident that those Presbyters had no Power to ordain Elders in every City as Titus had for if they had what needed S. Paul to have left Titus there for that purpose What need he have left Titus there with a new power to do that which the Presbyters before him had sufficient power to do For if the Presbyters had before the power of Ordination in them this new power of Titus's would have been not only in vain but mischievous it would have look'd like an invasion of the Power of the Presbyters for S. Paul to restrain Ordination to Titus if before him it had been common to the whole Presbytery and upon that account have rather proved an occasion of strife and contention than an expedient of peace and good order From hence therefore it is evident that Titus had a Power in the Church of Crete which the Presbyters there before him had not and this Power of his extended not only to the establishment of good Order and the Ordaining of Elders but also to rebuking with all authority i. e. correcting obstinate offenders with the spiritual Rod of Excommunication chap. 2. vers 15. and taking cognisance of Heretical Pravity so as first to
do any way fall short of it instead of being our kind and merciful Advocate our Mediator will become our implacable Judge and doom us to a place of dismal torment where we shall live with everlasting horrour and despair so that now we can no longer persevere in our impenitence without trampling at the same time on the highest encouragements and charging headlong through the most amazing danger IV. That as he acts for and in the behalf of God and Men so he partakes of the natures of both For that this high and important Office might be the more effectually executed and performed the eternal Father thought meet to place it in the hands of his own eternal Son the Son of his natural Generation to whom he communicated from all eternity his own Divine Essence and Nature and whom in due time he appointed to assume the Humane Nature into a personal union with his Divinity that so being God-man in one person he might be the better fitted and accomplished to Mediate between God and Men. For in Mediating Authoritatively for God with us he was to perform the Office of a divine King to rule and Govern us as God's Vicegerent and either reduce us under his Authority or chastise us for our Rebellion against him which is a Sphere so vast and so sublime as needs no less than some divine Intelligence to inform and actuate it For to wield the Divine Scepter and Government is a Province that requires a Divine Knowledge and Power for the souls and hearts of men are the principal Seat and Subject of the divine Government and therefore it is very requisite that he who is intrusted with the administration of it should have a through and perfect inspection of all our most secret Thoughts and Intentions and Purposes and Resolutions otherwise how is it possible he should take cognizance of them so as to command and over-rule and reward and punish them But to know the hearts of men is in Scripture always appropriated to the divine Omniscience so 1 Kings 8 3â— Thou even thou only knowest the hearts of the Children of men and if only God's all-searching Eye can penetrate into the hearts of men who but a God can Rule and Govern them And accordingly our Saviour upon whose shoulders this inward and spiritual Government rests challenges to himself this divine Prerogative which is so necessary a qualification for it Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know saith he that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and will give to every one of you according to his works Nor is it less requisite to qualifie him for this spiritual Empire that he should be Almighty than that he should be Omniscient for to enable him to rule the hearts and souls of men it is necessary that he should have the Command and Disposal of all those outward Events and Accidents in which they are any way concerned since it is by these in a great measure that their hearts are swayed their affections formed their intentions and resolutions squared and regulated and in a word their good and evil actions rewarded and punished in this World and to wield and manage moderate and dispose such infinite numbers of Events as concern such infinite numbers of Men so vastly distant from one another in place condition and temper requires a power that can do whatsoever it pleases both in Heaven and Earth which the Psalmist appropriates to the divine Power as its peculiar Prerogative Psal. 135.6 7. and if it be only a divine power that can manage and dispose all the affairs of all men what can be more requisite than that he who rules and governs them should communicate of the divine Omnipotence And accordingly our Saviour upon whom this Government is devolved assures his Disciples that all power was communicated to him both in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 which being the Prerogative of the divine Power seems impossible to have been communicated to any but a divine Person And therefore the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Government of Christ tells us that his name should be called Wonderful Counsellour the mighty God Isa. 9.6 where by Counsellour and mighty God he seems to design his infinite Knowledge and Power whereby he should be qualified for this his divine Government for so Mighty God doth always in the Scripture-phrase signifie Almighty God so in Deut. 7.21 Psal. 50.1 Ier. 32.18 Hab. 1.12 and elsewhere By all which it is evident that to Mediate Authoritatively for God with men is a Province so sublime as that it requires no less than divine perfections in the Person that undertakes and manages it and consequently that it is requisite he should be God. Nor is it less requisite to render his Government more awful and Majestick For though the condition of the Person alters not the nature of the Authority he is vested with yet in the estimation of men the same Authority is more or less venerable according as the quality and condition of â—he Persons cloathed with it is more or less considerable Since therefore the quality of the Person doth always cast a Cloud or Lustre on the Office it was very requisite that he who was Authorized to Mediate for God with men which is the highest Office under God the Father should be a Person of the highest Rank and Dignity next to God the Father himself and consequently that he should be God the Son and hence the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 1. to render his Authority moâ—e awful takes a great deal of pains to imblazon the dignity of his Person in which he gives him such Stiles and Characters as cannot without extreme force be applied to any but a Person divine he stiles him The brightness of his Father's Glory and the express Image of his Person the Founder of the Earth and the Maker of the Heavens and the Vpholder of all things by the word of his power Vers. 3.10 he tells us that he was set far above the Angels and that the Father had ordered all his Angels to worship him declaring him to be God in these terms Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever and then he concludes all with this application Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard of him Chap. 2. v. 1. which shews that in the Apostle's sense to Mediate for God is a station so sublime that it was very fit it should be supplied as it was with a Person of the highest Dignity that so his Person might reflect a Majesty on his Office and render it more awful and venerable in the World. And as to accomplish him for this high Office of Mediating for God with Men it was most fit he should be God so it was no less requisite he should be Man. For Man being naturally a sensitive as well as a rational Creature in this degenerate state of his nature wherein his sensitive part is predominant there are
Christianity which are not so clearly revealed but that the most honest minds may be mistaken about them but then these are such as are far remote from the necessary and fundamental Articles upon which our Salvation depends all which are so clearly and distinctly revealed that there is nothing but a perverse Will that is either prejudiced against them by some sinful affection or through a profane disregard of God and Religion utterly unconcerned about them can hinder men from apprehending them and if when the divine Light shines so clearly round about them men will be so obstinate as to shut their eyes against it it is at their own eternal peril and they are as justly accountable for their ignorance as if they had sinned against the clearest knowledge For this saith our Saviour is the condemnation of the World that light is come into the World and men love darkness more than light If therefore through any wicked prejudice against the truth or through a profane neglect to enquire after it we continue ignorant of it this will be no excuse at all for our sinning against it but we shall be as certainly condemned for our affecting Ignorance and loving darkness more than light as if we had sinned against the clearest light and conviction For what a monstrous instance is it of stupidity and impiety together to shut our eyes against that light which is of such infinite moment to us and which the Son of God thought worth his while to come down from Heaven to reveal to us what is this but to tell him to his face that if he had pleased he might have spared his pains and not have come so far on such an impertinent Errand as is not worth a man's while to listen to O prodigious supineness and stupidity that men who are so inquisitive about the little affairs of this life as that when they receive but a Letter in which they imagine any of their worldly interests are concerned they cannot forbear one moment breaking it open and perusing the Contents of it should yet receive a Message from the God of Heaven by his own Son in which their everlasting happiness or misery is concerned and take no notice of it but let it lie by them day after day without ever enquiring into the Contents of it or taking the least care and pains to inform themselves about it Good God! what reverence have these wretched Creatures for thee or what regard for themselves that can thus receive thy Messages and with them their own Eternal Fate with the same unconcern and indifferency as they would the most impertinent Tales of Bedlam Wherefore as we regard either God or our own Souls let us from henceforth be perswaded seriously to attend to this great and momentous Revelation of our Saviour and throughly to inform our minds with its Doctrines and Precepts for which end let us avoid as much as in us lies busying and entertaining our thoughts with nice and curious Speculations or remote and disputable Opinions and betake our selves to the study of things upon which our Eternal life and happiness depends viz. of the Duties which the Gospel exacts and requires of us and of the Motives by which it presses and inforces them which when once we have digested into a clear and distinct Scheme of practical knowledge that will be a standing light to our Wills and Affections by which we shall always see our way before us and be secured from wandering into dangerous errors and at length safely conducted to eternal light and happiness SECT III. Of Christ's Priestly Office. IN treating of which great and momentous Argument I shall endeavour first to shew what the ancient Priesthood was and in what Acts it consisted Secondly To prove that the ancient Priesthood in its proper Acts was a Type and Figure of the Priesthood of our Saviour Thirdly To explain the Priesthood and Priestly Acts of our Saviour corresponding to that ancient Priesthood in which they were prefigured First What the ancient Priesthood was and in what Acts it consisted In the first Ages of the World it is evident that in matters which concerned himself alone every man was his own Priest. For thus in sacrificing to God upon their own particular accounts both Cain and Abel officiated for themselves but in Family-Sacrifices the Father of the Family was the Priest as is evident by Noah and Iob Gen. 8.22 Iob. 1.5 And when Families were multiplied into Tribes and greater Societies the Prince of each Society was also the Supreme Priest of it and hence before Aaron was consecrated Moses who was the Prince of Israel officiated also as the Priest in that solemn Sacrifice by which the Covenant with Israel was confirmed Exod. 24.6 And long before Moses Melchisedeck King of Salem was also Priest of the most High God Gen. 14.18 And it is evident that originally Kings were the High-Priests of their Countries For so Aristotle observes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Rule and Sacrifice were Offices conjoyned in the same Person Polit. l. 3. So also Virgil Aen. 3. Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos i. e. Anius in the same Person was King of Men and Priest of Phoebus upon which Servius hath this Note Sane majorum haec erat consuetudo ut Rex esset etiam Sacerdos vel Pontifex it was a Custom among the Ancients that the King should be also Priest or High-Priest Which Custom was continued for a long while in Aegypt and from thence was derived to the Greeks and from them to the Romans for so Plut. Quaest. Rom. p. 279. tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Of old Kings performed the most and greatest parts of the Sacred Rites and together with the Priests sacrificed the Victims but upon their exceeding their due bounds and taking upon them to domineer proudly and unjustly many of the Greeks took from them all their Civil Power and only left them their Authority to sacrifice to the Gods but the Romans as he goes on utterly rejecting their Kings appointed anothâ—r to succeed them in the High Priesthood whom they wholly debarred from intermedling with secular Affairs Dionysius Halicarn speaking of the power of Kings expresly tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That they had the Government of all Sacrifices and Sacred Rites and whatsoever was to be done to the holy Gods was done by them And therefore the reason why Melchisedeck here is more particularly taken notice of under the Character of a King and Priest was not because there were no other Kings so but he but perhaps because all other Kings that were Cotemporary with him were revolted to Idolatry so that he only remained a Priest of the most High God. And in being a King and Priest together he was a Type of our Saviour who was a Priest not after the Order of Aaron but after the Order of Melchisedeck Heb. 5.10 For in Aaron the Priestly Office was separated from
hence we are said to have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies that is to draw near by Prayer to God by the Bloud of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh Heb. 10.19 20. And our Saviour himself assures us that whatsoever we shall ask in his name he will do it and again he repeats it If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it John 14.13 14. that is he will procure it for us by joyning his Intercessions with our Prayers for so ver 16. he explains himself I will pray the Father II. The other intent and purpose of his making this Address or Intercession for us to the Father is to obtain of him Power and Authority to bestow on us all those graces and favours which in consideration of his Sacrifice God hath promised us It is not to move the Father to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant immediately with his own hand that our Saviour intercedes but to impower himself as Mediator between the Father and us to bestow them upon us according to the terms and conditions upon which they are proposed to us For though it is most certainly true that every good and perfect gift comes down from above even from the Father of Lights yet it is as certain that they come not down to us from the Father immediately but are all derived to us through the hands of the Son who by his continual Intercession obtains continual power and authority of the Father to derive and confer on us all those heavenly gifts So that as the High Priest when he had presented the bloud of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies was Authorized by God to bless the people vide 1 Chron. 23.13 even so our blessed Saviour by presenting his meritorious Sacrifice in Heaven and in the vertue thereof interceding for us with the Father is continually authorized by him effectually to bless us i. e. to confer on us the blessings of the New Covenant upon the terms and conditions that they are therein proposed For this power he obtains of God by his perpetual Intercession and hence he is said to be able to save all those to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 where his power or ability to save us to the utmost i. e. to confer on us all the blessings of the New Covenant is expresly attributed to his ever living to make intercession for us which is a plain Argument that the intent of his Intercession is to move God to authorize him to save us seeing that in answer to his Intercession he is continually impowered and authorized thereunto For it is to be considered that this power and authority and the exercise of it appertains to his Kingly Office which he first arrived to and still continues in by vertue of his Intercession and indeed herein consists the Royalty of his Priesthood in that by interceding for us as Priest in the vertue of his Sacrifice and continuing to do so he first obtained and still continues vested with Kingly Power and Authority to bestow on us those heavenly blessings he intercedes for and it is to this purpose that he intercedes not that the Father would bestow them on us immediately but that he would put and continue it in his power to bestow them as Mediator between the Father and us so that he acquired and holds his Royalty by his Priesthood and that Kingly Power by which he gives us the blessings of the New Covenant God gave and continues to him by way of answer and return to his Priestly Intercession And hence he is said upon his offering one sacrifice for sin for ever i. e. upon the perpetual Oblation of his Sacrifice in Heaven to have sate down on the right hand of God i. e. in the Throne of his Kingly Power and Authority Heb. 10.12 and accordingly Eph. 4.8 we are told that upon his ascending up on high i. e. to present his sacrificed body in heaven he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men which necessarily implies that he had received power and authority from his Father to give them and so Psal. 68.18 whence these words are quoted expresses it He received gifts for men i. e. upon the presenting his Sacrifice as Priest he received of the Father those Gifts for men which by his Kingly power he afterwards distributed among them So that what he gives by his Kingly power he receives by his Priestly and both the gifts which he gives and the authority by which he gives them are the fruits and returns of that perpetual Intercession which he makes by his Sacrifice And that by his Intercession our Saviour hath acquired this Royal power of giving us the blessings of the New Covenant he himself doth plainly enough intimate for thus of the Spirit which is one of those great blessings he tells his Disciples It is expedient for you that I go away i. e. to Heaven to intercede for you for if I go not away the Comforter will not come i. e. he will not come but upon my Intercession but if I depart I will send him unto you namely by that Royal Authority which upon my Intercession I shall receive from the Father Ioh. 16.7 And accordingly St. Peter tells the Jews that Christ being exalted by the right hand of God and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost i. e. upon his Intercession in Heaven he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear i. e. the miraculous vertues of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.33 And so for remission of sins he tells us that he hath the Keys of hell and death Rev. 1.18 i. e. power to bind or loose to pardon or condemn and lastly for eternal life he expresly tells the Church of Laodicea To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Rev. 3.21 By all which it is abundantly evident that Christ hath a Royal power delegated to him from the Father upon his intercession to grant and bestow all the blessings of the New Covenant upon those that comply with its terms and conditions For so all the graces and favours of God are in Scripture said to be derived in by or through Jesus Christ for so Eph. 1.3 God the Father is said to bless us with all spiritual blessings in or through Christ and Rom. 6.23 Eternal life is said to be the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord and we are said to be heirs of God or inheritors of his blessings through Christ Gal. 4.7 which plainly implies that though it is from God the Father originally that all our mercies are derived yet it is through God the Son immediately that they are all derived to us and that whatsoever God
God himself can give us of his mercy and our happiness hath any force in it to oblige us to repent and amend this our Saviour's Intercession you see fairly proposes to us so that if this proposal doth not effectually influence our hope and thereby excite and animate our endeavours it is impossible that any encouragement should ever move or affect us And thus you see in all these several particulars how effectually this way of God's communicating his Favours to us through the Intercession of our Saviour tends to our reformation and amendment what a fruitful Topick of motives it is to induce us to repentance and how pathetically it addresses to every affection in us that is capable of persuasion what awful and reverential thoughts of Almighty God it suggests to our minds to dispose our stubborn Wills to an humble submission to him what a horrible representation it makes of our sins and of God's wrath and indignation against them and what a dreadful alarm it gives to our fear to rouse and awake us out of our sinful security And in a word how powerfully it encourages us to draw near unto God and to make our addresses to him with an humble and generous freedom and what vast assurances it gives to our hope of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and amend All which considered one would think it were impossible for any man that believes and understands this wonderful method of mercy not to be moved and affected by it and certainly that man who hath obstinacy enough to withstand all its persuasions and finally to defeat and baffle those powerful attempts which it makes to reclaim him is a Creature not to be moved by Reason and Argument For in this he hath conquered the greatest motives of all sorts that can be urged to persuade men and when once he is got beyond the reach of persuasion and no motive of ingenuity or hope or fear can affect him his condition is desperate and his obstinacy incurable Wherefore as we would not finally disappoint this wonderful contrivance of God to reclaim us and thereby render our selves for ever desperate let us at length be persuaded seriously to consider the Motives and Arguments it proposes to us and never to cease urging and pressing them upon our own souls till they have conquered our obstinate Wills and prejudiced Affections and finally captivated us into a free compliance with their powerful persuasions For if through our wilful neglect and inconsideration this mighty project of mercy prove utterly unsuccessful with us it is certain we have sinned our selves past all hope of recovery and it will be in vain to make any farther experiment on us And when we have once baffled this last and most powerful remedy of the divine Goodness what remains but that it should give us up and utterly abandon us to the just desert and dire effects of our own folly and obstinacy SECT VI. Of the Kingly Office of our Saviour WHen I first entred upon this Argument of the particular Offices of our Mediator I proposed to handle them in the same order that he performed and executed them and accordingly as he began with his Prophetick Office of which his whole life was a continued Ministry so I have treated of this Office in the first place and as from his Prophetick he proceeded to his Priestly Office one part of which he executed on the Cross where he offered himself a Sacrifice for the sins of the World and the other upon his Ascension into Heaven where he presented and still continues to present his Sacrifice to the Father by way of intercession for us so I proceeded in the next place to treat of his Priesthood in both the parts of it and now in the last place in pursuit of the same order I proceed to his Regal or Kingly Office which was the last he entered upon after he had finished his Prophecy offered his Sacrifice and presented it to his Father in Heaven For so in Scripture the Regality of Christ is always spoken of as successive to both his Prophetick and Priestly Office and as the fruit and reward of his faithful discharge and execution of them So Phil. 2.8 9 10. it was because he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross that God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And Rom. 14.9 the Apostle tells us that it was for this end that Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living and accordingly the Angels in St. Iohn's Vision attribute his advancement to his Regal dignity to the merit of his Death and Sacrifice Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing And hence his sitting at the right hand of God which is the great Scripture-Metaphor by which his Regal Authority is expressed of the sense and meaning of which Pearson's Exposition of the Creed p. 277 278 279. is mentioned as the fruit and consequence of his Death and Intercession So Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins i. e. by dying for us on Earth and presenting his Sacrifice in Heaven he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high and Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God and so also 1 Pet. 3.22 we are told that it was upon his going into Heaven i. e. to present his Sacrifice to his Father there that he was advanced to the right hand of God and that Angels and Authorities and Powers were made subject to him For his going into Heaven was a Priestly Act corresponding to the Priest's going into the Holy of Holies to present his Sacrifice to God there so that Christ's first arrival into Heaven and presenting his Sacrifice there is the beginning and commencement of his Intercession in answer to which he first received of his Father that Royal Power and Authority which he exercises both in Heaven and Earth and it is by vertue of the continuance of that his Priestly Intercession that this his Royal power is continued and perpetuated to him So that as he is a Royal Priest i. e. a Priest invested with Regal power to bestow the blessings he intercedes for so he is a Sacerdotal King i. e. a King that holds his Regal power in the right and virtue of his Priestly Intercession For it is by the continuance of his Intercession that he obttains the continuance of his Royal Authority to bestow those blessings on us which he intercedes for So that as Christ intercedes in the vertue of his Sacrifice so he rules in the vertue of his Intercession And accordingly you find in
Scripture his Ascension into Heaven there to intercede for us represented as a Triumphal progress to his Coronation wherein after the manner of Princes in that glorious Solemnity he scatters a Royal Largess among his Subjects Ephes. 4.8 It is true before his Ascension he tells his Disciples that all power was given him in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28.18 but this it is evident he spake by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation a very usual Scheme of speech in Scripture which is to express things of certain futurity as if they were actually existing according to which Scheme all power is given me imports no more than all power is shortly to be given me i. e. upon my Ascension into Heaven For so it is evident our Saviour must be understood in that parallel expression Iohn 5.22 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son which words he spake long before his Death when it is evident that all judgment i. e. Vniversal Regal authority was not actually committed to him but there was only a certain futurity of it For so he himself tells us that his sitting down with his Father on his Throne or investiture with that Regal Authority which he now exercises was the reward and consequence of his overcoming or consummate victory on the Cross Rev. 3.21 By all which it is evident that it was upon his Ascension into Heaven and Oblation of his Sacrifice there by way of Intercession that Christ was installed in his Vniversal Mediatorial Kingdom It is true our Saviour had a particular Kingdom in this World viz. the Iewish Church not only before his Ascension but before his Incarnation as I shall shew hereafter but as for that Right of Dominion over the Gentile world too by which he became universal Lord and King he was not invested with it till his Ascension into Heaven And therefore he himself tells us that his Mission into this world was purely to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel Matth. 15.24 and accordingly in the pursuance of this his Mission when he sent forth his Ministers to preach his Gospel he orders them not to go into the way of the Gentiles nor to enter into the City of the Samaritans but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Matth. 10.5 6. which implies that at that time he was not actually authorized to subdue and reduce the Gentiles under his dominion but that his Authority extended only to the Iewish Nation but when he had told his Disciples in that proleptical speech after his Resurrection that all power was given him in Heaven and Earth it immediately follows go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c. as if he had said now my Commission and Authority is inlarged and I am made Vniversal Lord and King go ye therefore in pursuance of it and by your Ministry endeavour to reduce all Nations under my dominion And hence it was that the Mystery of the calling of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Christ was not revealed till after his Ascension vid. Acts 11.18 because it was upon his Ascension that he received his Vniversal Kingly Authority over them and till then it was to no purpose to reveal it So that it was over the Gentile world peculiarly that he received Power and Dominion upon his Ascension into Heaven he was King of the Iews long before but upon his Ascension he was invested with a right of Dominion over the Gentiles too and thereupon became the Vniversal Lord and Monarch of the World under the most High God and Father of all things but this I shall have occasion farther to explain hereafter In the prosecution of this great Argument I shall endeavour these six things First To give an account of the Beginning and Progress of this Kingdom of Christ. Secondly To explain the Nature and Constitution of it Thirdly To shew who are the Ministers of it under Christ. Fourthly To assign and explain the Regal Acts which Christ hath and doth and will hereafter exercise in it Fifthly To give an account of the End and Conclusion of it Sixthly and lastly To shew the reason and wisdom of this method of God's governing sinful men by this his Mediatorial King Christ Iesus SECT VII Of the Rise and Progress of Christ's Kingdom AS for the first viz. the beginning and progress of Christ's Kingdom I shall endeavour to give an account of it in these following Propositions First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded upon the New Covenant Secondly That the new Covenant commenced immediately after the Fall and was afterwards particularly renewed to Abraham and his Posterity Thirdly That upon its first Commencement Christ was the Mediator of it and so he continued all along in that particular renewal that was made of it to the People of Israel Fourthly Therefore that as Mediator of this Covenant Christ was King of all that were admitted into it and particularly of Abraham and his Posterity or the People of Israel with whom it was renewed Fifthly That after his coming into the world he still retained his Title of King of Israel in particular till they finally rejected him and the Covenant in which his Kingdom is founded Sixthly That though the main body of that Nation rejected him yet there was a Remnant of it that received and acknowledged him as their rightful Lord and King. Seventhly That this Remnant still continued the same individual Kingdom of Christ with the former though very much reformed and improved Eighthly That to this individual Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded in the New Covenant For it is by the New Covenant that he engages himself to us to be our gracious and merciful Lord and that we engage our selves to him to be his faithful and obedient Subjects and from these mutual Engagements results the relation of King and Subjects between him and us So that the Church or Kingdom of Christ consists of all those People Nations and Kindreds who have been admitted into this Covenant-relation to him wherein by a solemn Vow of Fealty and Allegiance they have indispensably obliged themselves to serve and obey him but of this I shall have occasion to discourse more largely hereafter Secondly Therefore this new Covenant commenced immediately afâ—er the Fall and was afterwards in a particular manner renewed to Abraham and his Posterity For the New Covenant was a Plank thrown forth to Mankind immediately after that woful Shipwreck that was made by the Fall. For no sooner had God denounced his deserved Doom on our lapsed Parents but to support them from sinking into utter desperation he subjoyns that gracious promise Gen. 3.15 The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head where by the Seed of the woman not only Christian but the ancient Iewish Interpreters understand the
he actually forgave sins Matth. 9.2 compared with the sixth where he doth not only pronounce to one that was sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee but declares that he did it by that power and authority which he had upon earth to forgive sins All which being acts of Regal power do sufficiently manifest that even whilst he was upon Earth he was vested with Royal Authority and that by assuming our nature he did not divest himself of his ancient Royalty but still continued King of the Iews so long as they continued a Church Sixthly That though the main body of the People of Israel rejected Christ and were thereupon rejected by him yet there was a Remnant of them that received and acknowledged him for their rightful Lord and King. For so as S. Paul observes it is foretold of Isaiah concerning Israel Though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea a remnant shall be saved Rom. 9.27 and accordingly it proved in the event For though the much greater part of the Jewish Nation obstinately persisted in their Infidelity and Rebellion against the blessed Iesus their King notwithstanding all those powerful Arts and Methods he had used to reclaim and save them yet there was a great number of them that willingly received and loyally adhered to him For not only the Disciples which he gathered whilst he was upon Earth but also the first Converts after his Ascension into Heaven were generally of the Iewish Nation within which not only his own Personal Ministry was confined but also the Ministry of his Apostles for some time after his Ascension For so S. Paul and Barnabas tell the Jews that it was necessary the Word of God should first have been spoken to them Acts 13.46 But this Proposition is so manifest from the whole Gospel that I shall not need to insist any farther upon it Seventhly Therefore that this Remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with the former though very much reformed and improved For it still remained upon the same basis with the former as having the self-same Covenant for its Charter which is the form that Identifies all Societies and notwithstanding the perpetual change and renovation of their parts still continues them the same individual Politick bodies Since therefore that remnant of Israel who believed in Christ continued still in the same Covenant with that whereupon the old Jewish Church was founded it necessarily follows that they were not a new or distinct Church but still remained the same individual sacred society with the old So that they were the unbelieving Jews that revolted from their old Church by rejecting the Mediator of that Covenant by which it was formed and constituted but as for the believing Jews who imbraced and acknowledged him they still continued in it and so remained the same continued Church as being still united and incorporated by the same Charter But though it was the same continued body with the old Jewish Church yet was it very much reformed and improved by our blessed Saviour For in the first plâ—ce whereas before it was extremely corrupted through the many false glosses and superstitious traditions of their Elders and like an unâ—â—est Garden was all overgrown with Thorns and Weeds its Religion being almost dwindled away into Ceremonies and outward observances and evaporated into a dead shew and formality our blessed Saviour repaired its ruines and decays removed its rubbish and reformed its disorders and restored it to its primitive beauty and purity For the great design of all his Sermons and Parables was to explain the Laws of it into their Genuine sence and to rescue them from the false Glosses and Comments of the Scribes and Pharisees to reprehend and expose its hypocrisie and formality and to refine its Religion from all those corrupt and heterogeneous mixtures with which it was dasht and sophisticated That Remnant of the Jews therefore who believed in Christ and submitted to his Doctrine when all the rest of them finally rejected him were the same individual continued body with the Old Jewish Church as purified and reformed from its errors and corruptions For by submitting to our Saviour's regulations they did not commence into a new Church but still continued the same body only with this difference that whereas before it was distempered with sundry corrupt humours now it was throughly purged and recovered And as our Saviour restored that Church to its ancient purity so secondly he advanced and improved it to a far more perfect state than it was in even under its primitive Constitution It is true as for the Religion of that Church it was for substance the same with that which our Saviour and his Apostles taught it proposed to them the same Covenant and the same Mediator and the very same Doctrines and Articles concerning this Mediator to create in them the same belief and oblige them to the same practice only with this difference that whereas it proposed him to their belief as hereafter to be incarnate and sacrificed to rise and to ascend into heaven it proposes him to ours as actually incarnate and sacrificed and as actually risen and ascended but this is only a circumstantial difference since that as to all the purposes of his Mediation his future Incarnation and Sacrifice c. had the same vertue and influence with his actual But though as to the main the ancient Iewish Religion was the same with ours yet in respect of clearness and easiness and amplitude there is a vast difference between them For first as to clearness it is evident that it was much more darkly and obscurely revealed to the ancient Iews than it is to us for to them it was revealed only either in general Promises out of which they were fain to argue and deduce particulars or in temporal Promises that carried a mystical sence with them and obscurely implied the spiritual blessings which the Gospel proposes or in dark Types and material Figures and Emblems which were Prophetick Pictures or as the Apostle calls them shadows of good things to come For thus in that general Promise In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed was included Christ and all those particular blessings which we receive by and through him under those temporal promises of deliverance from their enemies and peaceâ—ble possession of Canaan was couched their deliverance from sin and hell and their eternal rest and happiness in heaven and under their legal Sacrifices the all-sufficient Sacrifice of the blessed Mediator was exhibited and represented to them and in a word under the High Priest's offering the bloud of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies was intimated the Mediator's intercession for them in heaven Thus both the Promises and Types of the Iewish Religion were all of them obscure revelations of Christianity which is nothing but Mystical Judaism or Judaism explained into its spiritual sence and meaning And accordingly
Bishops is not consined to the Ministry of any particular Church but extends to the Ministry of the Church Catholick for so S. Paul Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas all are yours and you are Christ's that is they are all Ministers of the Catholick Church in common of which you are Members and as such you have all a share in them 1 Cor. 3.22 23. yet it is the particular application of this their general capacity to this or that particular number of Christians or Congregations of Christians that constitutes them particular Churches and being first authorized Ministers of the Catholick Church they carry along with them into the particular Church they are sent to all that church-Church-Authority and Power by which it acts and operates as a Church So that without Pastors or Governours particular Churches are nothing but so many Bodies without Souls to animate and act them and therefore as in natural Bodies the form that acts them doth also constitute their Kind and Species so in these Ecclesistical Bodies the Pastors and Governours that move and act them as Churches do also constitute them Churches What these lawful Pastors and Governours are I shall have occasion to discourse hereafter when I come to treat of the Ministers of Christ's Kingdom it being sufficient at present to shew the necessity of them to the constituting particular Churches Seventhly The Church is one universal Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches holding Communion with each other by holding Communion with each other I mean owning each other as parts of the same body and admitting each others Members as occasion serves into actual Communion with them in all their Religious Offices It is true in the Primitive Churches there were sundry prudential acts of Communion pass'd between them such as their formed and communicatory Letters by which the holy Bishops gave an account to each other of the state and condition of their respective Churches and consulted each others judgment about them but these were not at all essential to that Communion which they were obliged as true Churches to maintain with one another All the Communion which they are obliged to as they are similar parts and distributions of the Catholick Church is that they should not divide into separate Churches so as to exclude each others Members from Communicating in each others Worship when ever they have occasion to travel from one Church to another For so long as there is no Rupture between distant Churches no declared disowning of each other no express refusal of any act of Communion to each others Members they may be truly said to maintain all necessary Communion with each other And that this Communion is absolutely necessary between all those particular Churches into which the Catholick Church is distributed will evidently appear from these four considerations First that by Baptism as was shewed before all Christian People are made Members of the Catholick Church and by being made Members of it they are all obliged to Communicate with it for how can they act as parts of the whole that hold no Communication with the whole They who are Members of any Society have not only a Right to communicate in all the common Benefits of it but also an Obligation to communicate in all common Offices of it and therefore since by Baptism we are made Members of the Catholick Church or Society of Christians we are thereby not only entituled to partake with it in all its Priviledges but also obliged to joyn with it in all its Offices But then secondly it is farther to be considered that the Catholick Church being all distributed into particular Churches we can no otherwise communicate with it than by communicating with some particular Church for how can we communicate with the whole that is all distributed into parts without communicating with some part of the whole And since the whole is nothing but only a Collection of all the parts what Communion can they hold with the whole who hold no Communion with any part of it So long therefore as there is any such thing as a visible Catholick Church upon Earth we are obliged by our Baptism unless necessity hinder us to maintain a visible Communion with it and so long as this Catholick Church is all distributed into so many particular visible Churches we cannot visibly communicate with it unless we communicate with some one of those particular Churches For how can we be in Communion with the whole body when we are out of Communion with all the parts unless we can find a body to communicate with without all its parts or some universal Church without all particular Churches But then thirdly it is also to be considered that as we cannot Communicate with the universal Church without Communicating with some particular one so neither do we Communicate with the universal Church by Communicating with any particular one unless that particular one be in Communion with the Church Universal For if I cannot communicate with the whole without being in Communion with some part of the whole it is impossible I should communicate with the whole unless I communicate with some part that is in Communion with the whole It is as possible for a Finger to communicate with a body by being joyned to an Arm that is separated from the body as it is for a Christian to Communicate with the Church Catholick by being joyned to a Church that is separate from the Church Catholick But then fourthly and lastly There is no particular Church can be in Communion with the Catholick that separates it self from the Communion of any particular Church that is in Communion with the Catholick For they who separate from any part of any whole must necessarily separate from the whole because the whole is nothing but all the parts together and it is a contradiction to say that they who are separated from any one part are yet united to all How then is it possible for any Church to separate it self from the Communion of any other Church which is a true part of the Church Catholick without separating it self from the Communion of the Church Catholick it self since the Church Catholick is nothing but a Collection of all true Churches and to be at the same time united to all true Churches and separated from one true Church is the same absurdity as to be separated from all true Churches and yet united to one In short the Catholick Church is one by the Communion of all its parts and therefore they who break Communion with any one part must necessarily disunite themselves from the whole For when two Churches separate from one another it must be either because the one requires such terms of Communion as are not Catholick or because the other refuses such as are Now that Church which requires sinful or uncatholick terms of Communion doth thereby exclude not only one but all parts of the Catholick Church from its Communion because they
Angel of the same Rank and degree with the Princes or Guardian Angels of Persia and Greece from whence it follows that those Guardian Angels were Archangels as well as he and consequently that they also had their Angels or appropriate Armies of Angels under their Conduct and Command in which Armies of theirs whose Ministry without doubt they always used in the Administration of their respective Guardianships there is no question but there was an exact Order and Regiment which cannot well be supposed without supposing in them particular Officers subordinated to each other under their respective Princes or Archangels and this seems to be implied in that distinction which the Apostle makes between these heavenly Spirits Col. 1.16 Whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers where by Thrones he seems to mean the respective Princes or Archangels of the several Orders by Dominions or Lordships the Reguli or chief Dignitaries under the Archangels by Principalities their Governours of such Provinces or Cities as were within their Guardianships by Powers their inferiour Magistrates or Officers These Archangels therefore who were the Tutelar or Guardian Angels of Countries together with their respective Cohorts or Armies of Angels seem not to have been subjected to the Mediatorial Dominion of our Saviour till after his Ascension into Heaven at which time it seems God totally dissolved those Angelocracies or Angelical Governments of Countries and Nations and subjected both them and the Archangels together with their Armies of Angels that governed them to the Mediatorial Scepter of our Lord and Saviour upon which he who before was King only of the Iews vid. P. 224 225. became universal Lord and Emperour of the World for so Heb. 2.5 we are told That to the Angels God hath not put in subjection the World to come or future Age as it is in the Greek where by the future Age it is evident he means the time of the Gospel for this is the very Phrase used by the Septuagint to express the State of Christianity Isa. 9.6 where Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father of the future Age. This passage therefore of God's not subjecting the future age to the Angels plainly implies that he had subjected the past age to them by constituting them the Guardians of Nations but that now in this age of the Gospel he hath wholly dissolved that Oeconomy by subjecting both the Guardians and the Nations they guarded to the Dominion of our Lord and Saviour so that now the whole world of Angels is in the same subjection to Jesus Christ as it seems Michael and his Angels were before Christ's Exaltation that is they are now no longer subject as Deputy Governours of Provinces and Nations who as such were impowered to do good or hurt to those who were under their Government according to their own discretion but as the immediate attendants of his person to whom nothing is left arbitrary but all they do is determined by the sovereign Will of him who imploys them for thus the Scripture declares that upon his Ascension into Heaven he was vested with a new Dominion over the Angelical World so 1 Pet. 3.22 we are told that it was upon his going into Heaven and sitting down at the right hand of God that Angels and Authorities and Powers were made subject to him and in Eph. 20.21 that God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion i. e. above all Angels of what rank and quality soever and every name that is named not only in this World but also in that which is to come and accordingly Col. 2.10 he is said to be head of all Principality and power i. e. of all the heavenly Hierarchy as well as earthly Dominions thus also the Apostle tells us that upon his Ascension into Heaven God hath given him a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow i. e. that every Being should acknowledge subjection either of things in Heaven or of things on Earth or things under the Earth i. e. whether of Angels or Men or Devils And as all these Angelical Powers are now subjected to Christ so do they all of them minister under him in his Kingdom for so Heb. 1.14 they are said to be all of them ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation and in so doing they must necessarily minister under him who is the Captain of our salvation and accordingly in Rev. 5.6 those seven Angels which in Zâ—ch 4.10 are said to be the seven eyes of the Lord which run to and fro the whole Earth and therefore stiled the Watchers Dan. 4.13 as being the chief Instruments of the divine Providence are called the seven eyes of the Lamb by whose Ministry and Agency he inspects and governs his Kingdom which plainly implies that they now minister to the Exalted Mediator in the same capacity that they heretofore ministred to God Almighty himself 2. And then secondly as the good Angels are subjected to Christ by the Ordination and appointment of God so the bad are subjected to him by just and lawful Conquest for so the Scripture assures us that our blessed Saviour subdued them to his Mediatorial Empire by pure dint of just force and violence for so we find in his life-time he frequently contested with these evil spirits and in despite of all their power and malice continually vanquished and repelled them Thus in his Temptation in the Wilderness with only that powerful Command Get thee hence Satan he put the Devil to flight Matth. 4.10 11. so also upon his approach towards the two possessed Gergesens the Devils that possessed them made a hideous outcry What have we to do with thee Iesus thou Son of God art thou come hither to torment us before the time and were forced to depart immediately upon his Command Matth. 8.29 Nor did he only vanquish them himself in all the personal conflicts he had with them but he also gave his Disciples authority over all Devils Luke 9.1 insomuch that Luke 10.17 his Disciples acquaint him Lord even the Devils are subject unto us through thy Name but these were only so many successful skirmishes with those Powers of darkness in which they fought against him sometimes in single Combate and sometimes in smaller Parties but the main Battel in which they engaged him with all their power and might and by winning of which he compleated his Conquest and finally subdued them to his Empire seems to have been that which he fought in his last Agony wherein after they had reduced him to the utmost distress he struck them with the spiritual Thunderbolts of inward horror and confusion and in a Panick Dread forced them to turn their backs and flee from him For first it is evident that before he entered the Garden where his Agony seized him he expected
their visible profession of Christianity have actually submitted themselves to the Scepter of Christ have yet together with Christianity espoused the Interest of sundry Antichristian Principles in pursuance of which they have been as inveterate Enemies and Persecutors of the truth as it is in Iesus as any of the Heathen Kings or Emperors yet these also notwithstanding their male-administration are the Subjects and Ministers of our Saviour and it is by his Authority and Commission that they Reign and by his Omnipotent Providence that all their wicked designs and actions are over-ruled to gracious ends and purposes so that all the Sovereign Powers of the Earth are subjected by God to the Dominion of our Saviour and in their respective Kingdoms and Empires are only his Substitutes and Vicegerents for so we are told not only that all judgment is committed to him and that all power is committed to him in heaven and earth and that he is Heir of all things and hath power over all flesh but also that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords the only Potentate the head of all Principality and Power and the Prince of all the Kings of the Earth vid. P. 810. and so the Fathers of the Council of Ariminum tell Constantius the Arrian Emperor that it was by Christs Donation that he held his Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him i. e. Christ thou art appointed to Reign over all the World upon which account Liberius advises him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not fight against Christ who hath bestowed this Empire upon thee do not render him Impiety instead of Gratitude and to the same purpose Athanasius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that Christ having received the Throne hath translated it from Heathen to holy Christian Kings to return them back to the House of Iacob So that both from Scripture and the current Doctrine of the Primitive Church it is evident that all the Sovereign Powers upon Earth are subjected to our Saviour and are only the Ministers and Viceroys of his universal Kingdom But for the farther prosecution of this Argument I shall shew in the first place that by this their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty and secondly that they are obliged by it to certain Ministries in the Kingdom of Christ. First That by their subjection they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty for when our Saviour pronounced the Sentence Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars he thereby renewed the Patent of Sovereign Powers and reinvested them in all the natural Rights of their Sovereignty which doubtless are included in the things that are Cesars for upon the Pharisees asking him that captious question Is it lawful to pay Tribute to Cesar He doth not answer yes it is lawful which yet had been a sufficient reply to their Question but calls for a Tribute Peny and having asked them whose Image and Superscription that was upon it and being answered Cesars he returns them an Answer much larger than their Question Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars i. e. it is certain that you are obliged not only to pay Tribute to Cesar but also to render him whatever else is due to him by vertue of his Sovereign Power for Sovereign Power being immediatly founded on the Dominion of God hath from thence these two unalienable Rights derived to it to which all the essential Rights of Sovereignty are Reducible First to Command in all things as it judges most convenient for the publick good where God hath not Countermanded for the Power of Sovereigns descending from God can only be limited by God or themselves for if they are limitable by any other Power they are Subjects to that Power and so can no longer be Sovereigns and if they are limitable only by God or themselves then where they are not limited either by God or themselves they must necessarily have a right to command Secondly The other unalienable Right that is derived to them from God is to be accountable only to God for by deriving to them Sovereign Power God hath exalted them above all Powers but his own and therefore since no Power can be accountable but to a superiour Power and since Sovereigns have no Superiour Power but God it is to God only from whom they received their Power that they are accountable for the administration of it These therefore are the natural Rights of Sovereign Powers and these Rights remain intire and inviolate in them notwithstanding their subjection to the Mediatorial Scepter of our Saviour as I shall endeavour to shew in the particulars First Therefore by this their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of their natural Right of Commanding in all cases as they shall judge most convenient for the publick Good where God hath not countermanded them For the Christian Religion is so far from any way retrenching the power of Princes that it abundantly confirms and enforces it by requiring us to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject to the higher Powers and that not only for wrath but for conscience sake to submit to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates to render Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour i. e. to submit to all the lawful impositions of our Princes whether it be of Taxes or of any other matter whatsoever and in all the New Testament there is only one limitation made of our obedience which is a natural and eternal one and that is that we ought to obey God rather than Man that is when Mans Command and Gods do apparently clash and interfere with each other for in this case the Magistrate hath no Right to be obeyed because his Will is countermanded by a Superiour Authority by which Exception this general Rule is confirmed that in all cases whatsoever whether Temporal or Spiritual Civil or Ecclesiastical Sovereign Powers have an unalienable right to be obeyed For if their Right to be obeyed in the Kingdom of Christ extended only to Civil and Temporal causes their Authority would be very much lessened and Retrenched by their subjection to our Saviour since before their subjection to him it undoubtedly extended to all causes whatsoever because being Sovereign under God it could have no other bounds or limits but what God had set to it and therefore since before their subjection to Christ God had bounded their Authority by no other Law but that of Nature it must either be made appear that the Law of Nature did then limit their Authority only to Civil causes which I am sure is impossible or it will necessarily follow that it extended also to Spiritual and Ecclesiastical and if it did so then it must do so still unless it be made appear that Christianity hath retrenched and lessened it It is true Christ hath erected a standing form of
spiritual Government in his Church and it is as true that all Government whether Spiritual or Temporal includes a Legislative Power in it or a power of commanding its Subjects but this is no limitation of the commanding power of Sovereign Princes who must still be obeyed in all things where Christ hath not countermanded though the Church should command the contrary for Christ never authorized the Governours of his Church to controul the commanding Power of Princes but hath left all matters of indifference as absolutely to their disposal and determination as ever they were before his spiritual Government was erected and matters of indifference are the sole matter both of purely Civil and purely Ecclesiastical Laws and therefore after the Church by its Legislative power hath restrained any matter of Indifference the Civil Sovereign in whose disposal all matters of indifference are may if he see good occasion release and free it again and impose the contrary matter of indifference and if he doth so all Christian People are obliged by the express Commands of Scripture to obey him for the Scripture-commands of obedience to the Temporal Sovereignty have no such exception as this annexed to them except the Church command the contrary and in matters of duty what have we to do to make exceptions where God hath made none And indeed where there are two Legislative Powers the one must necessarily be subject to the other or it will be impossible for the Subject in many cases without sinning to obey either For when ever the Commands of the Civil State do happen to clash with the Commands of the Church either the Church must be obliged to submit to the State or the State to the Church or the Subject cannot possibly obey the one without sinning against the other If it be said that the Church must submit to the State in things appertaining to the State and the State to the Church and so both are supreme in their own Province I would fain know what is to be done when these two Powers differ about the things which appertain to the one and to the other the State saith this appertains to me and so commands it the Church saith this appertains to me and so forbids it now in this case it is certain that one or the other must be obliged to give way or the Subject can neither obey nor disobey either without sinning and which soever of the two it be that is obliged to give way by vertue of that Obligation it must be subjected to the other So that now the Question is only this which of the two Legislative Powers is Supreme and it would be impertinent to say that they are both Supreme in their proper Province the one in Civil and the other in Spiritual causes because it is in suspence whether the cause in which they countermand each other be Civil or Spiritual so that in this case I must either be obliged to obey neither which is notoriously false or whatsoever the cause be in it self to yield obedience to the one and to disobey the other and if I must obey the Civil Power whether the cause be Civil or Spiritual then the Civil Power must be supreme in both as on the contrary if I must obey the Church Power whether the cause be Spiritual or Civil it will as necessarily follow that the Church Power is supreme in both Which later we are as sure is false as the Scripture is true for in 〈◊〉 matters it is agreed on all hands that the Scripture concludes all men as well Clergy as Laity under the obligation of Obedience to the Civil Sovereign and that none are exempt no not the Apostles themselves or the Bishops succeeding them in the spiritual Government whether we consider them separately or conjunctly and if in all Civil Causes I am obliged to obey the command of the Civil Power then it is most certain that if the Cause in contest between that and the spiritual Power be really Civil I am obliged to disobey the countermand of the spiritual Power but if on the contrary I must disobey the Command of the Civil Power supposing the cause to be spiritual which way can I turn my self without danger of sinning so that unless one of these two Powers are Supreme in both causes when ever any cause happens to be contested between them as to be sure many must between two Rival Powers I can neither obey nor disobey without sinning against one or both and can we imagine that God who is the God of Order and not of Confusion would ever involve us in such inextricable difficulties by subjecting us to two supreme Powers that are so subject to clash and interfere with one another Wherefore although as I shall shew by and by the Church is invested with a Legislative Power whereby it can restrain things that were free and indifferent for its own security and decency and order yet this Power is subordinate to the Civil Legislation which is in all causes Supreme and cannot enact against it controul or countermand it in any indifferent matter whether Temporal or Spiritual but stands obliged to recede to the Civil Sovereign who hath the supreme disposal of all indifferent things and in all contested cases to veil its Authority to his And accordingly we find that during the first three hundred years when the Civil Powers were Enemies to Christianity and did no otherwise concern themselves with it than to ruin and extirpate it the Church made Laws for it self and by its own Legislative Power enacted whatsoever it judged convenient or necessary for its own security or edification but yet it never presumed in any indifferent matter to contradict the Laws of the Empire nor did ever any Christian because he was a Subject of the Church refuse to obey his Prince in any case whatsoever where God had not countermanded him as is most evident from hence because in all the History of those times we do not find one instance of any Christian that suffered for so doing In those days there were no Martyrs for indifferent things which to be sure there must have been had the Church then taken upon it to determine indifferences contrary to the Edicts of the Emperour but the only thing they then suffered for was their refusal to disobey the express Will of God in compliance with the wicked Wills of men which is an unanswerable Argument that in those days the Church never assumed to it self any supreme Authority over indifferent things either in Spirituals or Temporals but left that in those hands where God had placed it viz. in the hands of the Civil Sovereign with whose Imperial Laws its Canons never interfered with whose Legislative Power it never justled for the Wall but chearfully submitted to it in all things wherein it was not determined to the contrary by the express Will of God. And when afterwards the Civil Sovereign embraced Christianity he did not thereby devest himself
essentially due to their Sovereignty and whatsoever the Laws and Customs of Nations had before determined to be their Right but also by acknowledging before Pilate the Right of the Civil Tribunal to call him to account Ioh. 19.1 where he confesses that the Power by which Pilate arraigned him was given him from above and by reprehending S. Peter for endeavouring by force to rescue him out of the hands of the Civil Powers Put up thy Sword saith he into his place for all that take the sword shall perish by the sword Matth. 26.52 in which words it was far from his intention to prohibite the use of the Sword either to Governours who as S. Paul tells us bear not the Sword in vain or to private persons in their own lawful defence for he commands his own Disciples to buy them swords to defend themselves against Robbers and lawless Cut-throats who as Iosephus tells did very much abound in those days Luke 22.36 but all that he intended was to forbid drawing the Sword against lawful Authority in any case whatsoever though it were for the defence and security of his own person for this was S. Peter's case who in the defence of his Saviour resisted the High Priests Officers who came armed with a lawful Authority to seize and apprehend him in which our Saviour plainly owns himself accountable to the Civil Authority of his Country for if he had not been so it could be no fault in S. Peter to endeavour to rescue him from its Ministers and if Christ himself while he was upon Earth were subject to the Civil Authority what an high piece of arrogance is it for those who are at most but his Vicars and Ministers to claim or pretend an exemption And if it were so great a fault in S. Peter to draw his Sword against lawful Authority though it were in the defence of his Saviours Person then doubtless it is no less a fault in his Successors to pretend a Right from S. Peter to draw their Swords against Sovereign Princes though it be in the defence of their Saviours Religion And as our Saviour owned himself subject and accountable to the Civil Tribunal so S. Paul's injunction is universal Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers and surely every Soul must include the whole body of the Clergy as well as of the Laity unless we can produce some clear and express exception to the contrary and as the Command extends universally to all so doth the reason of it also for the Powers that are are ordained of God and if we must be subject to them because they rule by God's Authority then it is certain there are none that are subject to God but are under the force and obligation of this Reason And then he goes on Whosoever resisteth the Power of whatsoever Degree or Order of men he be resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and if according to the Law of our Saviour it be a damnable sin for any person or persons whatsoever to resist the Civil Authority then it is a plain case that our Saviour hath not at all depressed the Sovereignty of the Secular Powers by subjecting it to any Superiour Tribunal but hath left it as absolute and unaccountable as ever it was before it was subjected to his Empire And thus having proved that Sovereign Princes are not devested of any natural Right of their Sovereignty by their subjection to the Mediatorial Scepter of our Saviour I proceed in the Second place To shew what those Ministries are which they are obliged to render to our Saviour by vertue of this their subjection to him In general it is foretold that upon their Subjection to Christ they should become nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his Church Isa. 49.23 that is that they should tenderly cherish protect and defend it and liberally minister to it whatsoever is necessary for its support and preservation and to be sure Christ expects of them that they should accomplish this Prediction by doing all those good Offices to his Church which the relation of a foster Father or Mother imports For when God Predicts any good thing of men it is plain that he would have them be what he foretels they shall be so that in this case the Prophesie carries Precept in it and doth not only signifie what shall be but also what ought to be When therefore God Prophesies of Kings that they shall be nursing Fathers to his Church he doth as well declare what they should be as what they shall be and so he foretels of them and commands them in the same breath If therefore we would know what those Ministries are which Christ now requires Sovereign Powers to render to his Church our best way will be to inquire what those Duties are which are implied in the relation of a foster Father to his foster Child Now the Duties of this Relation may be all of them comprehended under these four particulars First To protect and defend it against harms and injuries Secondly To Cultivate its manners with good Precepts and Counsels Thirdly To correct and chasten its faults and irregularities Fourthly To supply it with decent Raiment and convenient Sustenance answerable to which Sovereign Powers being constituted by our Saviour the foster Fathers of his Church are by vertue of this Relation obliged I. To protect and defend it in the Profession and exercise of the true Religion II. To fence and Cultivate its peace and good Order either by wholesom Laws of their own or by permitting and requiring it to make good Laws for it self and if need be inforcing them with Civil Coercions III. To chasten and correct the irregular and disorderly members of it IV. To make provision for the Decency of its Worship and for the convenient Maintenance of its Officers and Ministers which answers to the decent Raiment and convenient Sustenance with which the Foster-Father is oblig'd to supply his Foster-Child These Particulars I shall but very briefly insist on it being none of my Province to instruct Princes and Governors I. One of those Ministries which Princes by virtue of their Subjection to Christ are obliged to render to his Church is to Protect and Defend her in the Profession and Exercise of the true Religion that is not only to permit her openly to Profess the true Religion and to perform the publick Offices of it without disturbance or interruption but also to fence her with legal securities and guard her with the Temporal Sword against the power and malice of such as would disturb and persecute her and therefore Sovereign Powers are concerned above all things impartially to inquire and studiously to examine what the true Religion is lest being imposed upon by false pretences they misemploy that Power in the Patronage of Error which was given 'em for the Protection of the Truth II. Another of those Ministries which Princes are obliged by virtue of their
Subjection to Christ to render his Church is to Fence and Cultivate its Peace and good Order either by wholsom Laws of their own or by permitting and requiring it when occasion requires to make good Laws for it self and if need be by inforcing 'em with Civil Coercions for so when the Church was either broken by Schisms or corrupted by Errors and disorderly Customs it was always the practice of Christian Kings and Emperors even from the time that they became Christians to restrain and give a check to those Divisions and Disorders either by their own Royal and Imperial Edicts or by convening the Ecclesiastical Governors to Councils there to consult and agree upon such good Laws and expedients as the present necessities of the Church required and because these Laws being grounded upon mere Spiritual Authority could as such be inforced by no other Penalties than Spiritual which by bold and obstinate Offenders were frequently despised and disregarded therefore those holy Kings and Emperours thought themselves obliged as they were the Ministers of Jesus to strengthen and reinforce 'em with temporal Sanctions and Penalties by which means they became the Laws of the Empire as well as of the Church Of all which I have given sufficient Instances and all this was no more than what they were obliged to by vertue of their Subjection to Christ for being subjected to him they are his Viceroys in the World and do Reign and Govern by his Authority and since their Authority is his they must be accountable to him if they do not imploy it for him in Ministring to the necessities of his Church and Kingdom and therefore if when it is in their power to check a prevailing Schism or Corruption in the Church by wholsom Laws and Edicts they refuse or neglect to do it they must doubtless answer to him from whom they received their power and who being himself the Supreme Head of the Church hath constituted 'em its Guardians and Nursing-Fathers III. Another of those Ministries which Princes are obliged to render his Church is to Chasten and Correct the irregular and disorderly Members of it for though there are Spiritual Rods and Corrections which Christ hath solely committed to the Spiritual Government and which if men understood and considered the dire effects and consequences of 'em are sufficient to restrain and keep in awe the most obstinate Offenders yet when men are stupified in sin and do feel nothing but only what pains or pleases their bodies these Spiritual Corrections are insignificant to 'em they being such as make no impression on their corporeal Senses and so when men are hardened in Schism or Heresie to be sure they will despise the Ecclesiastical Rods as being confidently perswaded that they cannot be justly applied to 'em and that where they are applied unjustly they are only so many Spiritual scare-crows that can only threaten but not hurt 'em and therefore in these cases the Secular Powers are obliged by vertue of their Subjection to Jesus to second the Spiritual with the Temporal Rod and to awe such offenders with corporeal corrections as are fearless and insensible of the Censures of the Church And conformable hereunto hath been the constant practice of all good Kings and Emperors even from their first Conversion to Christianity as might easily be demonstrated by innumerable Instances out of Ecclesiastical History for they not only made Laws inforc'd with temporal Penalties for the regulation of the Clergy as well as Laity not only commanded and obliged their Bishops in case of notorious neglect to execute the Church Censures on the Schismatical Heretical and disorderly of both sorts but when they found those Spiritual Executions ineffectual they very often seconded 'em with temporal such as pecuniary mulcts Imprisonments and Banishments and though in the case of error and false belief they were always very tender and gentle yet whenever they found men busily propagating their Errors into Sects and Divisions to the disturbance of the Churches peace they thought themselves obliged to restrain their petulancy with temporal Chastisements And indeed as they are the Vice-roys of our Saviour they are ex officio the conservators of the peace of his Kingdom and stand obliged to exert that Authority he hath devolved upon 'em in the defence of its Unity and good Order which in many cases they can no otherwise do but only by restraining the Schismatical and disorderly with the terror of temporal corrections so that as well in the Church as in the Civil State they are the Ministers of God to us for our good and therefore if we do that which is evil we have just cause to be affraid for they bear not the Sword in vain for they are the Ministers of God Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil Rom. 13.14 IV. And lastly Another of those Ministries which Princes are obliged to render to Christ's Church by vertue of their subjection to him is to make good provision for the Decency of its Worship and for the convenient maintenance of its Officers and Ministers to take care that it hath decent and commodious places set apart for the publick Celebration of its Worship and that those places be supplied with such Ornaments and Accommodations as are sutable to those venerable Solemnities that are to be performed in them that so its Worship may not be exposed to contempt by the slovenliness and Barbarity of its outward appendages and this is the clothing of the Church which as it ought not on the one hand to be too Pompous and Gaudy that being naturally apt to distract and Carnalize the minds of its Votaries and to divert their attention from those spiritual exercises wherein the life and soul of its Worship consists so neither ought it on the other hand to be sordid and nasty that being as naturally apt to prejudice and distaste men against it and to create in their minds a loathing and contempt of it Now the furnishing the Church with such decent Places and Ornaments of Worship as do become the grave Solemnities of a spiritual Religion being a matter of Cost and Charge must necessarily belong to the Civil Powers who alone can lay Rates upon the Subject and have the sole Command and disposal of the publick Purse and therefore by vertue of their subjection to Christ they are obliged to take care that such Religious Places and Ornaments be provided as the Decency and convenience of his Worship do require And then as for the Ministers and Officers of his Church they are under the same Obligation to take care that they whose Office it is to serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar and that according to the different stations and degrees wherein they are placed that so they may neither be necessitated for a subsistence to involve themselves in secular affairs and thereby to neglect their spiritual Calling which is Burthen enough of all conscience for any one mans shoulders nor be tempted
admonish Hereticks and in case of Pertinacy to reject them from the Communion of the Church chap. 3. vers 10. from all which it is evident that this Apostolate of Titus consisted in his Ecclesiastical Superiority which was the very same in the Church of Crete that the first Apostles themselves had in the several Churches that were planted by them And accordingly he is declared by the concurrent Testimony of all Antiquity to be the first Bishop of that Church so Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 4. affirms him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have received Episcopal Authority over the Churches of Crete So also Theodoret. in Argum. Ep. ad Tit. tells us that he was ordained by S. Paul Bishop of Crete and so also S. Chrysostom S. Ierom and S. Ambrose and several others of the Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers This Episcopal Authority therefore which S. Paul gave Titus over the Church of Crete is another plain instance of the Apostles making Apostles or deriving to others their Apostolick Power and Superiority over particular Churches The fourth and last Instance I shall give is that of Timothy who as it appears by S. Pauls Epistles to him had Episcopal Authority over the Church of Ephesus and this not only over the Laity to command and teach 'em 1 Tim. 4.11 to receive Widows into the Churches Service or reject and refuse 'em 1 Tim. 5.4.9.16 and to oblige the Women to go modestly in their Apparel and keep silence in the Church 1 Tim. 2.11 12. but also over the Clergy to take care that sutable provision should be made for 'em 1 Tim. 5.17 that none should be admitted a Deacon till after competent trial nor Ordained an Elder till after he had well acquitted himself in the Deaconship 1 Tim. 3.10.13 to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over 'em to receive Accusations against 'em and if he found 'em guilty to put 'em to open shame 1 Tim. 5.19 20. and S. Paul charges him to exercise this his Jurisdiction without preferring one before another and without partiality ibid. ver 21. which if he had no Jurisdiction over 'em had been very impertinent and as he had Jurisdiction over the Clergy concredited to him so had he also the Authority of Ordaining 'em for the due exercise of which S. Paul gives him that necessary rule 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partaker of other mens sins And that this Authority of his in the Ephesian Church over both the Laity and Clergy was given by S. Paul for a standing form of Government there is evident from hence because it was conferred on him after the Presbytery was formed and setled in that Church for in planting and cultivating this large and populous Church which extended it self over all the Proconsular Asia S. Paul had laboured for three years together with incredible diligence which is a much longer time than he spent in any other Church and therefore by this time to be sure he had not only constituted a Presbytery in it as he did in all other Churches Acts 14.23 but also reduced it to much greater perfection than any other that so in the constitution of it it might be a pattern to all other Churches and if so then to be sure the Government which he had now at last established in it was such as he intended should continue viz. by a single Person presiding over both Clergy and Laity And that de facto it was so we have not only the Authority of S. Pauls Epistles to Timothy but also the concurrent Testimony of all Ecclesiastical Antiquity for so Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 4. tells us he was the first Bishop of the Province or Diocess of Ephesus and the Anonimous Author of his life in Photius that he was the first that acted as Bishop in Ephesus and that he was Ordained and Enthroned Bishop of the Metropolis of Ephesus by the great S. Paul and in the Council of Chalcedon twenty seven Bishops are said to have succeeded in that Chair from Timothy who was the first and Saint Chrysostom Hom. 15. in 1 Tim. 5.19 tells us that it is manifest Timothy was intrusted with a Church or rather with a whole Nation viz. that of Asia upon which account he is stiled by Theodoret in 1 Tim. 3.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Timothy the Apostle of the Asiatiques and to name no more of the great numbers of Authorities that might be cited in the Apostolical Constitutions we are expresly told that he was Ordained Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul. This therefore is another evident instance of the Apostles deriving down their Apostolick Authority Other instances might be given but these are sufficient to shew that the Apostles did not look upon our Saviours institution of a superiour Order of Ecclesiastical Officers as a temporary thing that was to expire with 'em but as a standing Model of Ecclesiastical Government since they derived to others that superiority over the Churches of Christ which he communicated to them For from all these instances it is most evident both that the Apostolical Office did not expire with the Twelve but was transferred by 'em to others and that that which is now called the Episcopacy was nothing else but the Apostolical Office derived from the Apostles to their successors for in the Primitive Language of the Church Bishops are generally stiled Apostles for which no other reason can be assigned but that they succeeded in the Apostolical superiority Thus as hath been shewn before S. Iames Epaphroditus Titus and Timothy are stiled Apostles in Scripture and by the Primitive Writers Clemens Bishop of Rome who was a Disciple of the Apostles is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Clemens the Apostle vid. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 4. and Ignatius Bishop of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostle and Bishop by S. Chrysostom and Thaddaeus who was sent b◠S. Thomas to the Prince of Edessa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Eusebius and so are also S. Mark and S. Luke by Epiphanius and Theodoret lays it down for a general rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. those whom we now call Bishops were anciently called Apostles but in process of time the name of Apostle was left to them who were more strictly Apostles viz. the Twelve and the name of Bishop was restrained to those who were anciently called Apostles If therefore the practice of the Apostles proceeding upon the express institution of our Saviour be sufficient to found a Divine Right we have this you see to plead for a superiority and subordination of Ecclesiastical Offices since the Apostles did not only Ordain Presbyters and Deacons in the several Churches they planted but also Apostles or Bishops to preside over 'em and if their Ordaining of Presbyters be an argument of the perpetuity of the Office of a Presbyter as the Presbyterians themselves contend it is why should not their Ordaining Bishops also be as good an Argument of the perpetuity of the
universal conformity of the Primitive Church to the Episcopal Government it remains that if any credit may be given either to those Writers that lived in the Apostolick age or to those who immediately succeeded 'em it is evident from their unanimous Testimonies that the Episcopacy is nothing else but only the Apostolick superiority derived from the hands of the Apostles in a continued succession from one Generation to another and to reject their Testimony is not only very unreasonable there being at least as much reason why we should reject all ancient History but also of very dangerous consequence since 't is from thence that we derive the very Canon of Scripture and so we may as well reject it in this instance as in the other IV. And lastly That the rightful Government of the Church of Christ is Episcopal is evident also from our Saviours declared allowance and approbation of the Primitive practice in this matter viz. in those seven Epistles which he sent by S. Iohn to the seven Churches of Asia all which he directs particularly to the seven Angels of those Churches whom he not only stiles the seven Stars in his own right hand or the seven lights of those seven Churches Vid. Rev. 1.20 and Rev. 2.1 but in every Epistle particularly owns 'em for his Angels or Messengers if therefore we can prove that these seven Angels were at that time the seven Bishops that presided over both the Clergy and Laity of those seven Churches they will be an unanswerable instance of our Saviours allowance and approbation of the Episcopal Order In order therefore to the clearing this matter I shall shew First That they were single persons Secondly That they were persons of great Authority in those Churches Thirdly That they were the Presidents or Bishâ—ps of those Churches First That they were single Persons is evident because they are all along mentioned as such the Angel of the Church of Ephesus in the singular number the Angel of the Church of Smyrna and so of all the rest and so every where in the Body of the Epistles they are all along addrest to in the singular number I know thy works and thy labour nevertheless I have a few things against thee remember whence thou art fallen repent and do thy first works and the like in all which our Saviour plainly writes to 'em as to single persons It is true what he writes to them he writes not only to them personally but also to the People under their Government and inspection and therefore sometimes he mentions the People Plurally so Chap. 2. ver 10. The Devil shall cast some of you into Prison and so ver 13. and ver 23. but this is so far from arguing that these Angels were not single persons that it argues the quite contrary since if they had not what reason can there be assigned why our Saviour should not mention them plurally as well as the People I know it is objected that the Angel of the Church of Thyatira is mentioned Plurally Chap. 2. ver 24. but unto you I say and unto the rest of Thyatira where by you it is supposed must be meant the Angel and by the rest of Thyatira the People To which I answer that in the ancient Greek Manuscripts and particularly in that at S. Iames's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or and is left out and so the words run thus but unto you the rest of Thyatira or to the rest of you at Thyatira which is set in opposition to those of Thyatira that had been seduced into the Sect of Iezebel and therefore cannot be understood of the Angel who is all along mentioned in the singular number wherefore had he not been a single person no account can be given why he should be mentioned singly and the rest of Thyatira Plurally But then Secondly That these single persons were of great Authority in those Churches is evident not only by that honourable title of Angel that is given them which plainly shews them to be persons of Office and Eminence and that not only by our Saviours directing his Epistles to them to be communicated by them to their several Churches but also from that authority which the Angel of Ephesus exercised there and which the Angels of Pergamus and Thyatira ought to have exercised but did not For as for the Angel of Ephesus he is commended for trying them which said they were Apostles and were not and discovering them to be liars which words plainly denote a Iuridical Trial and Conviction of some person or persons who pretended to Apostolical Authority but upon examination were found to be Cheats and Impostors and then as for the Angel of the Church of Pergamus he is blamed for having in his Church those that held the Doctrine of Balaam or of the Nicolaitans which plainly shews that he had power to remedy it by casting them out of the Church for if he had not how could he have been justly blamed for suffering them And the same may be said of the Angel of the Church of Thyatira who is also blamed for suffering the woman Jezebel which was not in his power to prevent unless we suppose him to have Authority to eject her and her Followers But then Thirdly and lastly That these single persons were the Presidents or Bishops of those Churches is also evident from the most Primitive Antiquity for so in the Anonymus Tract of Timothy's Martyrdom recorded in Biblioth Pat. n. 244. we are told that when S. Iohn the Apostle returned from his Exile in Patmos which was two or three years after he wrote his Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that being assisted with the presence of the seven Bishops of that Province he assumed to himself the government of it Now that these seven Bishops were the same with those seven Angels he wrote to in his Revelations is evident because all those seven Churches in which those seven Angels presided lay within the Circuit of the Lydian or Proconsular Asia of which Ephesus was the Metropolis and therefore who else can we so fairly suppose these seven Bishops to be by whom he governed the Province of Ephesus as the seven Angels of those seven Churches which were all of them within that Province and S. Austin expresly calls the Angel of the Church of Ephesus the Proepositus Ecclesiae i. e. the Governour of the Church Ep. 162. and speaking of those seven Angels he stiles them Episcopi sive praepositi Ecclesiarum the Bishops or Governours of the Churches Comment in Revel so also the Commentaries under the name of S. Ambrose referring to these Angels in 1 Cor. c. 11. expresly tells us that by those Angels he means the Bishops and that they were so is most indubitably evident of the Angel of the Church of Smyrna in particular who could be no other than S. Polycarp who was most certainly made Bishop of Smyrna some years before the writing these Epistles and continued Bishop of
the Church is to Confirm such as have been Baptized and instructed in Christianity which Ministry was always performed by Prayer and laying on of hands upon which the Party so Confirmed received the gift of the Holy Ghost It is true upon the first institution of this Imposition of hands the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit such as speaking with Tongues c. were many times consequent but from hence it doth no more follow that it was intended only for an extraordinary Ministry that was to cease with those extraordinary Gifts that accompanied it than that Preaching was so which at first was also attended with miraculous operations The great intendment of those extraordinary effects was to attest the efficacy of the Function and doth it therefore follow that the Function must cease because those extraordinary effects did so after they had sufficiently attested its efficacy and consequently were of no farther use If so then all the other Ministries of Christianity must be expired as well as this And what though those extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit are ceased Yet since our Saviour hath promised a continual Communication of his Spirit to his Church is it not highly reasonable to believe that he still continues to communicate it by the very same Ministry of Prayer and Imposition of hands whereby he communicated it first and that he now derives to us the ordinary operations of it in the same way that he first derived the extraordinary ones Especially considering that this laying on of hands is placed by the Apostle in the same Class with Baptism and made one of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.1 2. and therefore must without all doubt be intended for a standing Ministry in the Church and as such the Church of Christ in all Ages has thought her self obliged to receive and practise it but as for the administration of it it was always appropriated to the Apostles and Bishops So in Acts 19.5 6. it was S. Paul that laid his hands on the Ephesians after they were Baptized in the name of Jesus whereupon it is said that the Holy Ghost came upon them and in Acts 8. we read that when S. Philip by his Preaching and Miracles had converted the Samaritans and afterwards Baptized them S. Peter and S. Iohn two of the Apostles were sent to lay hands on them upon which it is said that they received the Holy Ghost ver 17. by which it appears that this Ministry of Confirmation appertained to the Apostles since S. Philip though a worker of Miracles a Preacher a Prime Deacon and if we may believe S. Cyprian one of the seventy two Disciples would not presume to assume it but left it to the Apostles as their peculiar Province And accordingly in the Primitive Church it was always performed by the hands of the Bishops for though from later Ages some probable instances are produced of some Presbyters that Confirmed in the Bishops absence or by his delegation yet in all Primitive Antiquity we have neither any one Canon nor example of it from whence we may fairly conclude that this imposition of hands for Confirmation was peculiar to the Apostles in the Original and to their Successors the Bishops in the continuation of it SECT X. Of Christ's Regal Acts in his Kingdom HAving in the foregoing Section given an account of the several Ministers which Christ imploys in the Administration of his Kingdom we proceed in the next place to inquire what those Acts of Royalty are which he himself exerts in his Kingdom and by which he perpetually rules and governs it and these may be distributed into three Orders First Such as he hath performed once for all Secondly Such as he hath always performed and will still continue to perform Thirdly Such as are yet to be peformed by him before the surrender of his Kingdom First One sort of the Royal Acts of our Saviour are those which he hath performed once for all and these are reducible to three particulars 1. His giving Laws to his Kingdom 2. His Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue mens minds to the obedience of those Laws and to govern them by them 3. His erecting an External Polity or Form of Government in his Kingdom I. One of those Regal Acts which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all is giving Laws to it and this he performed while he was upon Earth in those excellent Sermons and Discourses which he then preached and delivered to the World. For though he preached as a Prophet yet it was as a Royal Prophet as one that had Regal authority to Enact what he delivered into Laws for he was a King while he was upon Earth vid. p. 853 854 c. so that all his Prophesies were inforced with his Regal Authority and he commanded as he was a King whatsoever he taught as he was a Prophet Indeed had he been a mere Prophet he could not have obliged men by any Legislative Authority of his own to believe and obey him his Declarations had had no farther Force in them than as they expressed the Will and Command of the Almighty Sovereign of the World and if what he declared had not been Law before it could not have been made Law by his declaring it But being a Royal Prophet his words were Laws and all his Declarations carried a commanding power in them And hence the Gospel is called the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 and the Law of the Spirit of life in or by Christ Iesus Rom. 8.2 and that command of loving our Neighbour as our self is called the Royal Law i. e. the Law of Christ our King Iam. 2.8 for this our Saviour calls his Commandment John 15.12 and his new Commandment viz. that ye love one another even as I have loved you Joh. 13.34 and not only this but all other duties of the Gospel are called his Commandments Ioh. 14.21 and Matt. 28.20 by all which it is evident that in revealing his Gospel to the World he did not only perform the part of a Prophet but also of a Legislator and that by his own inherent Authority as he was a King he stamp'd those Doctrines into Laws which he taught and delivered as a Prophet And such as his Kingly power is such are his Laws and Commandments he is a spiritual King a King of Souls of Wills and of Affections and accordingly his Laws are spiritual and do extend their obligation to the Souls and Wills and Affections of his Subjects For they not only oblige our outward man but also the inmost motions of our heart they lay their reins upon our thoughts and desires as well as upon our words and actions and give directions to our inward intentions as well as to our outward actions so that to satisfie their demands it is not sufficient that we do well unless we also intend well that the matter of our actions be good unless the aim and design of them be so also for according
word of my Patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth Rev. 3.10 By which it is plain that the power of protecting and defending his Subjects is inherent in Christ as an essential part of his Regal Authority and this power he continually exercises now he is is heaven for it was for this end among others that he promises to be with his Church to the end of the World Mat. 28.20 namely to guard and defend it by his Providence against the outragious attempts of its numerous enemies For it is for this end that the Father hath put all things in subjection under him and that he hath left nothing that is not put under him Heb. 2.7 8. that so having the Universal Government of all things in his hand he might by his over-ruling Providence render them all subservient to the interest of his Church For so Eph. 1.21 we are assured that the Father hath put all things under his feet and given him to be head over all things to his Church i. e. hath vested him with an universal power over all things that so he might order and direct them all to the interest and advantage of his Church And accordingly now he is in heaven the defence and preservation of his Church is the great business which he intends upon earth there he now sits looking down from his Throne with a watchful eye to observe all the motions and trace out all the dark designs of her enemies and from thence he stretches forth his Almighty hand to guard and defend her against them to repel or over-rule their malice to drive back their venemous Darts upon themselves or to temper their Poyson into Physick and extract a healing Balm out of the Stings of those Scorpions In which how careful and diligent he hath been is abundantly manifest from the glorious success for considering the vast opposition that hath been made against it even from its infancy how is it possible it could ever have subsisted had it not been guarded by an invisible hand No sooner did this light upon a Hill appear in the World but all the four Winds immediately conspired to blow it out yet which is miraculous to consider still the harder they blew the brighter it flamed and though for the first 300 years it was the main and almost constant exercise of the Power and Policy the Wit and Cruelty both of Devils and Men to suppress and ruine it yet still it thrived and encreased under the most powerful means of its extirpation It conquered by suffering gathered strength by bleeding and like a head-strong Floud still the more it was checked the more it swelled and over-flowed till at length it filled the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea. Which if well considered is an amazing instance of the vigilant and powerful Providence of our Saviour which hath not only preserved this burning Bush from consuming but made it spring and flourish in the flames And though since those Primitive Persecutions he hath many times for wise and gracious ends let loose the Wolves upon his Flock and permitted them to worry and sometimes almost to devour it yet still he hath kept a strict and steady Reign upon their Power and Malice and when they have served his ends hath check'd and stop'd them in their savage career and when they have thought the trembling Prey their own hath stretched out his own Almighty Arm and snatched it from their devouring jaws So that while they are clubbing all their Power and Policy against it he that sits in the Heavens laughs them to scorn the Lord hath them in derision and doth contemn their impotent malice which he can manage as he pleases he can either prevent the mischievous effects of it or cause them to recoile upon themselves or make those very persecutions with which they design to destroy his Church the means of its enlargement and propagation and what in his own infallible Wisdom he thinks best that he hath always done and will always do for his Church and People For many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel or the Church of Christ now say many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me the Plowers have plowed upon my back they have made long furrows but the Lord is righteous he hath cut asunder the Cords of the wicked and in his own due time will confound and turn back those that hate Sion And as he exerciseth a most vigilant Providence over his Church in general so doth he also over all the faithful and obedient Subjects of it whose interest is as dear and precious to him as his own bloud for they are not only the purchase of his bloud but also the Trophies and Conquests of his Spirit which makes them his by a double Propriety and more peculiarly entitles them to his care and protection they are living Members of his own Body and as such he feels their pains by a most tender sympathy and therefore his Providence is as much concerned for their defence as his Eye-lid is to defend the Apple of his own Eye Zech. 2.8 and therefore though he exercises a merciful Providence over all men yet these he incloses out of the Common of the World and fences about with a peculiar care These are his Iewels and he keeps them in his Treasury under the strongest and most inviolable security He is always watching over them for good and it is his peculiar and continual concern to protect and defend them to keep off Temptation from their Souls and Calamities from their Bodies and so to over-rule and direct the course of things as that whatever befals them may concenter in their happiness For though he many times corrects them with his own hand and permits them to be oppressed and afflicted by others yet still he doth it with a most gracious intention either to cure or prevent some disease in their minds or to excite and exercise their graces or to wean them from the love of this vain World and discipline them for a blessed Eternity and whatsoever evils happen to them in the course of his Providence still he takes care to extract good out of them and so to contrive and order the whole Scene of Affairs as that in the issue all things may still work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 IV. And lastly Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and doth always continue to perform in his blessing and rewarding all his faithful Subjects in the Life to come for this as he himself declares he hath power to do so Rev. 2.7 To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God i. e. I will admit him in a
those dreadful words Go ye cursed into everlasting fire the persons concerned will immediately perceive the dire effects for all on a sudden they will see the Clouds from above and the Earth from beneath casting forth Torrents of fire upon them which in an instant will set all the World in a Blaze about their ears At the sight of which all this wretched World will be turned into a mournful Stage of Horrours in which the miserable actors being seized with inexpressible amazement to see themselves all on a sudden encompassed on every side with flames will raise a hideous Roar and outcry millions of burning men and women shrieking together and their noise shall mingle with the Archangels Trumpet with the Thunders of the dying and groaning Heaven and the crack of the dissolving World that is sinking into eternal ruins In which miserable state of things whither can the poor Creatures fly or where can they hope to find a Sanctuary If they go up to the tops of the Mountains there they are but more openly exposed to the dreadful lightnings of Heaven if they go down into the holes and caverns of the Rocks there they will be swallowed up in the burning furnaces of the Earth if they descend into the deep there they will soon be overtaken with a storm of fire and brimstone and where-ever they go the vengeance of God will still pursue them with its everlasting burnings And thus having no retreat left them no avenue to escape out of this burning World here they must remain for ever surrounded with smoak and fire and darkness and wrap'd in fierce and merciless flames which like a shirt of burning pitch will stick close to and pierce through and through their passive bodies and for ever prey upon but never consume them And now the Almighty Judg having seen his dread sentence executed will arise from his Throne and from thence return to the Seat of the blessed in a solemn and Glorious Triumph with all his holy myriads of Angels and Saints who as they follow him through the Air and aether will with loud Hosanna's and triumphant acclamations celebrate the praises of their Redeemer Thus shall the Ransomed of the Lord return with him with Songs to the heavenly Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and everlasting praises in their mouths For being arrived into those blissful Regions there in those glorified Bodies which they put on at their Resurrection they shall live for ever in unspeakable pleasures and delights and be entertain'd not only with all that happiness which they enjoyed in the state of their separation when they were only blessed Spirits but also with all the satisfactions and delights that their glorified Bodies can require and enjoy So that now their blessedness shall be consummate and all the capacities of their humane nature compounded of body and soul shall be fulfilled with bliss till they overflow and can contain no more But wherein the happiness of their glorified Bodies shall consist I shall not presume to inquire the Scripture being silent concerning it And what the happiness of their souls shall be hath been shewn at large before Part 1. c. 3 4. So that as to that state of eternal life in which our Saviour shall place his faithful servants in the conclusion of this great Judgment I need say no more of it in this place SECT XI Concerning the conclusion and surrender of the Kingdom of Christ. WHen our Saviour hath finished that last and most glorious act of Royalty viz. Iudging the World and hath finally condemned to everlasting fire the irreclaimable enemies of God and crowned all his faithful subjects with eternal Glory and Beatitude the Apostle tells us He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 For our better understanding of which we are to consider that the Kingdom of Christ is twofold First Essential as he is God Essential and doth subsist in the divine Essence by the supereminent perfections of which he being exalted above all things hath an essential Right of Dominion over all things and this is Co-eternal with himself and is as inseparable to him as his Being this he can no more deliver up than he can his Godhead which without ceasing to be can never cease to be supreme over all things But then in the second place there is his Mediatorial Kingdom which is that of which we have hitherto been treating and this as hath been shewn before was by solemn compact and agreement confâ—r'd upon him by the Father upon condition that he should assume our Nature and therein make expiation for our sins in consideration whereof the Father obliged himself to grant a Covenant of Grace to the sinful World and to constitute him the Mediator of it by which Mediatorial Office he is authorized to rule for God according to the tenour of that gracious Covenant as well as to intercede for us and in ruling for God according to that Covenant he is to crown and reward all such as return to and persevere in their duty with everlasting happiness and to render eternal vengeance to all such as obstinately persist in their rebellion So that when this is done as it will be in the conclusion of the day of Judgment the whole business of his Mediatorial Kingdom is at an end then the Covenant of which he is now Mediator will be completely executed and consequently his Mediation will cease as being of no farther use and having no farther part to act For now God and Man being made completely one the Office of a Mediator ceases of its own accord for a Mediator is not a Mediator of one Gal. 3.20 and therefore the two parties being perfectly united there is no farther use of a Mediator between them Wherefore as our beatifical Vision will supercede the necessity of his prophetick Office to teach and instruct us as our perfection and intire fruition will supercede the necessity of his Priestly Office to offer and intercede for us so the security of our possession of both will supercede the necessity of his Kingly Office to protect and defend us and therefore when our Affairs are once reduced to this happy issue his Kingly Office as well as all other parts of his Mediatorship will for ever cease But since this great Mystery is no where expresly delivered in Scripture but only in that forecited 1 Cor. 15. I shall endeavour to give a brief account of the whole passage which lies in vers 24 25 26 27 28. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall put down all Rule and all Authority and all Power for he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death for he hath put all things under his feet but when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put
all things under him and when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him which did put all things under him that God may be all in all the whole sense and meaning of which passage I shall cast into these Propositions First That the Kingdom or Dominion here spoken of was committed to him by God the Father Secondly That he is to possess this Kingdom and Dominion so long and no longer as till all things are actually subdued to him Thirdly That during his possession of it he is subject to the Father Fourthly That after his delivering it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now Fifthly That he being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall from thenceforth be immediately exercised by the Deity I. That the Kingdom or Dominion here spoken of was committed to him by God the Father and this is expresly affirmed vers 27. For he i. e. the Father hath put all things under his feet which words are a quotation of Psal. 8. ver 6. Thou madest him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet which words are to be understood literally of the first Adam but mystically of the second as is evident not only because 't is here applied to Christ by S. Paul but also by the Author to the Hebrews Heb. 2.7 8. where he expresly tells us that it was God the Father that crowned Christ with Glory and Honour and that did set him over the works of his hands and put all things in subjection under his feet and accordingly our Saviour himself declares that all Power in Heaven and Earth was given him i. e. by the Father and that it was the Father that committed all judgment to him and the Apostle expresly tells us that it was God that exalted him with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5.31 From all which it is evident that the Dominion which the Apostle here treats of is not the Essential Dominion of Christ which as he is God Essential is Co-eternal with him but that Mediatorial Dominion which was committed to him by the voluntary disposal of his Father and which once he had not and will hereafter cease to have II. That he is to possess this Kingdom or Dominion so long as and no longer than till all things are actually subdued unto him So vers 24. you see the time of his delivering up this Kingdom is then when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power i. e. till he shall have converted or destroyed all those Powers of the Earth that oppose themselves against him for so vers 25 26. For he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death which plainly implies that when he hath conquered all Enemies and destroyed Death which is the last Enemy by giving a glorious Resurrection to his faithful Subjects then and not till then his Mediatorial Reign is to conclude For so Psal. 110.1 to which the Apostle here refers the Psalmist brings in Iehovah the Father thus bespeaking Iehovah the Son The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy footstool now to sit at the Right Hand of God when ever 't is applied to our Saviour doth in Scripture always denote his possessing and exercising this his Mediatorial Kingdom so that the meaning of the Psalmist is this the Father hath Commissioned his Son to continue the exercise of his Mediatorial Dominion till such time as either by the dint of his Almighty Vengeance he hath trampled all his Enemies under foot or by the power of his Grace reduced them voluntarily to prostrate themselves before him and indeed the end for which this Kingdom of our Saviour was erected was to subdue the Rebellious World to God and either to captivate men into a free submission to hâ—s Heavenly Will which is its first intention or if they will not yield to make them the Triumph of his everlasting vengeance which end at the day of Judgment will be fully accomplished for then the fate of all the rational World will be fixed and determined then the faithful Subjects will be crowned and the incorrigible Rebels condemned and executed and so one way or t'other all things will be subdued unto him So that from hence-forth the end and reason of this his Mediatorial Dominion will cease and when the end of it ceaseth he who never doth any thing in vain will immediately deliver it up into those hands from whence he received it For when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power i. e. conquered and subdued all that resisted and opposed him then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father III. That during his possession of this Kingdom he is subject to the Father So Ver. 27. But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he i. e. the Father is excepted which did put all things under him As if he should say Do not mistake me for when I say all things are put under him my meaning is all things except God the Father for it was he that did put all things under him and it 's manifest that he who gave him this superiority over all things must himself be superior to him and indeed considering Christ as Mediatorial King he is no more than his Fathers Viceroy and doth only act by deputation from him and rule and Govern for him and hence the Father stiles him his King Psal. 2.6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion So that now he is subject to the Father in the capacity of a Vice-King to a supreme Sovereign and whatsoever he doth in this capacity he doth in his Fathers Name and by his Authority for he Mediates as for men with God in doing which he is our Advocate so for God with men in doing which he is our King. Gods part is to Govern us and our part is to sue to him for favour and protection and both these parts our Saviour acts as Mediator between God and us He acts our part for us in being Advocate and Gods part for him in being King. So that in that Rule and Government which he now exercises over us he is only the supreme Minister of his Fathers Power and Dominion and as the Father reigns by his Ministry so he reigns by the Fathers Authority But tho now while his Mediatorial Kingdom doth continue he is subject to the Father in the Admistration of it yet from this passage of S. Paul it is evident IV. That when he hath delivered it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now for so ver 28. and when all things shall be subdued unto him that
every day spread and increase even in Ierusalem it self where the thing was acted and where the reporters of it lived and that not only for a few days or months but from year to year even till Ierusalem it self was destroyed since I say all this is so evident what greater argument can we desire of the truth and integrity of those that attested it And supposing them to be honest their testimony must be true because it was not matter of opinion in which it is possible for the wisest men to be mistaken but matter of Fact of which they had certain information from their own senses and he who says that he saw such a thing and it 's evident that his senses were not imposed on lies against his own conscience if it be not true that he saw it IV. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that there is no apparent motive to induce the Attestors of it to testifie falsly For whether they are honest or no we cannot well suppose that in a matter of importance they will testifie falsly without some great motive inducing them thereunto but as for the witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection had they not been certain of the truth of it they could have no imaginable motive to induce them to attest it for they could never hope to reap the least advantage from it either here or hereafter not here for their Lord had told them beforehand that if they would be his Disciples they must suffer persecution and they themselves could not but foresee that by testifying his Resurrection they must infallibly alarm all the World against them because the Doctrine which they confirmed by it was extremely opposite both to the present Religion and Interest of the Iews and to the common Theology of the Gentiles and that therefore by going about to establish it they must in effect proclaim War against all the World and consequently expose themselves to the utmost Rigor and Severity that the wit and malice of men could invent or inflict which must be a very sorry motive sure to induce men in their wits to undertake the propagation of a known Imposture But perhaps it may be thought they did all this for the glory and reputation of being the founders of a new Sect. But from whence I beseech you could they promise themselves success not from their Master Iesus who if their testimony was not true they could not but know was still detained under the power of the grave not from God whom if they testified falsly they were conscious they wickedly belyed in suborning his power and veracity to bear witness to a falshood not from the force and charms of their own Eloquence or Sophistry for that they pretended not to not from their Riches for their Staves and Scrips were all the Treasure they carried with them nor from any Authority or Power they had or ever were like to have for how could such poor illiterate persons as they ever expect to arrive to an Authority great enough to contest with all the power and wisdom of the World which was armed against them in a word not from any proneness they found either in Iews or Gentiles to imbrace the Doctrine which they designed by this their Testimony to confirm and assert that being every where gainsaid and opposed by the interests and affections of both and if their Testimony was not believed as 't was very unlikely it should if it had not been true what could they expect but to be branded to all posterity as a company of infamous Cheats and Impostors So that unless they had been assured that their testimony was true they had all the reason in the World to expect that it would prove the most fatal and unprofitable Lye that ever was invented or broached among mankind since it was so far from promising them any worldly advantage that it visibly exposed them to all the miseries and calamities of human life And then if they knew this Story of Christs Resurrection which they attested to be a Lye they had a great deal less reason to expect any advantage from it in the World to come for either they believed that Religion which they sought to confirm by attesting this story or they did not if they did not how could they hope to fare ever the better in the other World for endeavouring to propagate a false Religion in this if they did how would they hope to be made happy hereafter by telling a Lye for that Religion which excommunicates Lyars out of the Kingdom of Happiness Since therefore if their testimony had been false they could expect to reap no advantage from it in either World doubtless they would never have been so mad as to assert and attest it had they not known it to be true for what man in his wits would ever tell a lye that hath no reason to expect any other fruit from it but only to die for it here and to be damned for it hereafter V. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the testifiers of it do give some great security for the truth of what they say and therefore it is required by human Laws that in all great matters of Fact the Witnesses should give the security of their Oaths or of some great pledge to be forfeited by them in case their Testimony prove false But never did any men give greater security of their truth than the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection for they sealed their Testimony with their Blood and rather chose to undergo the most witty and exquisite torments than to recant any part or circumstance of what they had seen and testified concerning it For of all the Apostles who were the chief Witnesses of it there was only one that escaped a violent death and he as the Ecclesiastical Story tells us had not been delivered from it but by a Miracle And doubtless those other Disciples who saw and conversed with our Saviour after he was risen and together with the Apostles bore witness of it to the World did proportionably run the same fate And how is it imaginable that so many men should all turn so mad together as to lay down their lives for a pledge of the truth of a Story which they knew to be all a mâ—re cheat and imposture Some men indeed have suffered Martyrdom for professing Propositions that were false but then they thought them to be true but no man in his wits ever died in the defence of an Assertion which he knew to be false But as for the testifiers of our Saviours Resurrerection they did all of them witness upon certain information and did assuredly know whether their Testimony were true or false so that if Christ did not rise as they reported they died in the defence of a known Lye which is such a piece of folly as doth exceed all instances of extravagance Suppose that Aesop should have died a Martyr to
bound and tremble as miserable Captives under our hands Others of them appeal to the Consciences of the Heathens themselves who had been Spectators of their miraculous Victories over these infernal Spirits So Minutius Faelix All these things are very well known to a great many of your selves that your Gods are forced by us to confess themselves Devils when by the torment of our words and by the fire of our Prayers they are chased out of human Bodies even Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter and the greatest of those Gods you worship being overcome with sorrow are forced to acknowledge what they are and tho it be to their shame especially when you are present yet they dare not lye but being adjured by the true and only God they quake and tremble in the bodies they possess and either leap out immediately or vanish by degrees Others of them offer to make the experiment even before the Tribunals of the Heathen and to answer for the success with their own lives So Tertullian in his Apologetick Let any man that is apparently acted by one of your Gods be brought before your own Tribunals and if that supposed God being commanded by any Christian to speak doth not confess himself to be a Devil as not daring to lye to a Christian take that malepert Christian and pour out his blood immediately Yea how often saith he a little after only upon our touch of and breathing upon possessed persons are these Gods you adore forced to depart out of their Bodies with grief and reluctancy you your selves being present and blushing at it And these things as Origen tells us cont Cels. lib. 7. were ordinarily performed even by the meanest Christians which is a plain Argument that it was done merely by the power of Jesus without any Conjuration or Magical Art. And can we imagine that the Devil without any constraint from some superior power would ever have quitted that Tyranny he had so long exercised over the bodies and consciences of men who had thitherto adored and worshiped him or that he would ever have confessed himself to be a Devil to those men who sought the ruin of his Kingdom and made use of his Confessions to that purpose had he not been forced to it by the Authority of the Father of Spirits Is it likely he would have exerted his power to the ruin of his own interest and the amendment of those Souls he had insnared and captivated as he must necessarily have done should he have impowered the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection to confirm their Testimony by Miracles And since they all along declared they did them in the name and by the power of Iesus to be sure if it had not been so the God of truth would never have impowered them to impose such a cheat upon the World. These Miracles of theirs therefore were plain signs and tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead and that not only as they were so many divine seals by which God himself did confirm their Testimony whose goodness and veracity could never have permitted him to set the seal of his miraculous power to a lye But besides this the Apostles Miracles were so many plain demonstrations that Jesus was risen and alive since they did them all in his name and by his power For how is it possible that Jesus could have impowered them to do Miracles had he been still among the dead and in a state of inactivity A dead man can do nothing himself much less can he impower others to do Miracles So that by those miraculous Works which the Apostles did by the power of Christ they did in effect thus bespeak the World Look here O incredulous World if nothing else will persuade you that our Lord is risen and alive behold the vital operations which he exerts in us his Disciples tho of our selves we are as impotent as you yet no sooner do we invoke our great Masters Name and implore his Aid but we are presently enabled to perform mighty things beyond the power of any mortal Agent without any other Charm but his powerful Name we raise the Dead bind the Devils restore the Blind recover the Lame and cure all manner of Diseases and is not this as plain a token of his being alive as if he were now standing before you in our room and doing all these things in his own Person If he were dead still he could not act in us as you see him do and therefore if nothing else will convince ye that he is alive again behold these mighty powers which he exerts in us and be at length persuaded by these sensible tokens of his activity which we produce before your eyes that he is risen from the dead For it is worth observing that this gift of Miracles was never so plentifully communicated to the Apostles as after Christs Ascension into Heaven for before he ascended he commanded them to tarry at Ierusalem till they had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost or which is the same thing the Gift of Miracles Acts 1.4 5. and this gift as he himself tells them vers 8. was to enable them to bear Testimony to him unto all the World for he being now ascended into Heaven they could no longer produce his person to convince unbelievers of the truth of his Resurrection and therefore to supply this defect Christ gave them the gift of Miracles that that might be instead of his bodily presence a plain and sensible token of his being restored to life again And indeed this was as certain a sign of it as if he had continued upon Earth and openly conversed among men in the view of the World for the most crrtain sign of life is action and by what hath been said it is apparent that Christ did not more visibly act in his own Person when he was upon Earth than he did in the persons of his Apostles after he ascended into Heaven These miraculous Operations therefore which they performed by the Power of Jesus were all of them so many plain and sensible Signs and Tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead So that considering all these circumstances of the Apostles Testimony I dare boldly affirm that from the beginning of the World to this day there never was any matter of Fact more sufficiently and credibly testified than this of the Resurrection of our Saviour and by raising him from the dead God hath bore witness to him before all the World that he really is what he pretended to be the true Messias and only Mediator between himself and us Which brings me to the second Head I proposed to shew what an excellent convincing Argument this is of the truth of our Saviours Doctrine and Mediation and how effectually it justifies his pretence of being the true Messias and only Mediator 'T is true all the Miracles which our Saviour wrought while he
to base Compliances with the lusts of men and the iniquities of times for a maintenance and that so Religion it self may not be exposed to contempt through their wretched Poverty and indigence who are the Ministers of it and who for want of a fair and honourable subsistence can never obtain Credit and Authority enough to do any considerable good in the World. And this is the food and sustenance of the Church without which it cannot long flourish either in true Knowledge or true Piety but must insensibly wither away and degenerate into Barbarity and Ignorance And accordingly if you consult Ecclesiastical History you will find that it was ever the practice of Pious Princes and Emperors to take care both for the erecting of decent and convenient Churches in all parts of their Dominions for the Celebration of Divine Worship and to furnish them with all the decent Accommodations and Ornaments that were proper thereunto and also for the endowing the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with such honourable subsistences as becomes the Port and Dignity of their several Orders and Offices in which they did no more than what they stood obliged to as they were the Viceroys of Jesus and the foster Fathers of his Church by vertue of which Relation to it they are bound in duty to supply it with decent Raiment and convenient Food And now having explained the subjection of the Sovereign Powers of the Earth to our Lord and Saviour and shewn what those Ministries are which they are obliged to render to him in his Kingdom I proceed to the Fourth and last sort of his Ministers by which he governs his Kingdom viz. the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Governours in treating of which I shall endeavor these three things First To shew that Christ hath erected a spiritual Government to minister to him in his Church Secondly To shew in what hands this spiritual Government is placed Thirdly To shew what are the proper Ministries of this Government I. That Christ hath erected a spiritual Government in his Church And indeed supposing the Church to be a regular and formed Society subsisting of it self distinct from all other Societies it must necessarily have a distinct Government in it because Government is essentially included in the very notion of all regular Society which without Rule and Subjection is not a formed Society but a confused multitude for what else do we mean by a Humane Society but only such a company of men united together by such and such Laws and Regulations But how can any company of men be united by Laws without having in it some Governing Power to rule by those Laws and exact obedience to them So that we may as well suppose a compleat Body without a Head as a Regular Society without a Government Now that the Church is a Regular Society utterly distinct from all Civil Society is as evident as the truth of Christianity which all along declares and Recognizes the Law or Covenant upon which it is founded and by which it is united to be Divine and consequently to be superior to and independent upon all Civil Laws and if that which constitutes the Church be Divine Law and not Civil then the Constitution of the Church must be Divine and not Civil for that which makes us Christians at the same time makes us parts of the Christian Church and that which makes all the parts of the Church makes the Church it self which is nothing but the whole or Collection of all the parts together and therefore as we are not made Christians so neither are we made a Christian Church by the Laws of the Commonwealth but by the Laws and Constitutions of our Saviour which were promulgated to the World long before there were any Laws of the Commonwealth to found a Christian Church on for there was a Christian Church for three hundred years together before ever it had the least favour or protection from the Laws of Nations In all which time it subsisted apart from all other Societies and was as much a Church or Christian Society as it is now and as it is now it is only a continued Succession of that Primitive Church and therefore as to the Constitution of it must necessarily be as distinct now from all other Societies as it was then when it subsisted not only apart from but against the Laws and Edicts of all other Societies in the World in short therefore since the Church of Christ is founded on a Charter and incorporated by a Law that is utterly distinct from the Charters and Laws of all Civil Societies it hence necessarily follows that it self is a distinct Society from them all because that which individuates any Society or makes it a distinct body from all other Societies is the Charter or Law upon which it is founded and accordingly our Saviour tells Pilate when he asked him whether he was a King that he was a King indeed but that his Kingdom was not of this world Joh. 18.36 i. e. though my Kingdom be in this World yet is it not of the World for neither are the Laws of it Humane but Divine nor the powers of it external but invisible nor the Rewards and Punishments of it temporal but Spiritual and eternal From the whole therefore these two things are evident First That Government is Essential to formed and regular Societies Secondly That the Church of Christ is in the Nature and Constitution of it a formed and regular Society distinct from all other Societies from both which it necessarily followeth that it must have a distinct Government included in the very essence and being of it And accordingly in the New Testament besides the Civil Magistrates we frequently read of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Governors so Heb. 13.17 there is mention made of the Rulers that watch for our souls and a strict injunction to obey and submit our selves to 'em and so again in the 7th and 24th Verses and in 1 Tim. 5.17 The Apostle speaks of the Elders that Rule well who are to be accounted worthy of double Honour And indeed the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Bishop or Overseer doth in Scripture always import a Ruler or Governour Vid. Hammond Acts 1. Note 1. and therefore being applied as it is frequently in the New Testament to a certain Order of Men in the Christian Church it must necessarily denote 'em to be the Rulers and Governors of it and this power to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Oversee and Rule and Govern the Church was derived to 'em from Christ the Supreme Bishop of our Souls even by that Commission he gave 'em John 20.21 As the Father hath sent me so send I you i. e. so I Commission you with the same Authority in kind to Teach and Govern in my Kingdom as I my self have received from the Father and accordingly as Christ is called the Pastor or Shepherd which name imports Authority to Govern his Flock for
so to feed and to rule are of the same significancy in Psalmâ—8 â—8 72 and Philo tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that the name of Shepherds implyed Ruling and Governing Power so they who were sent and Commission'd by our Saviour are stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishops and Overseers or Shepherds in the Flock to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 and they are elsewhere commanded to feed the Flock of God and to take the oversight thereof 1 Pet. 5.2 And as they are called the Shepherds of Christs Flock so they are also the Stewards of his Family and as such they are constituted by him the Rulers of his Houshold to give them their portion of meat in due Season Luke 12.42 and elsewhere they are called Governments or Governors the Abstract as it is very usual in Scripture being put for the Concrete 1 Cor. 12.28 and their Authority is said to be given from the Lord 2 Cor. 10.8 and they aâ—e said to be our Rulers in the Lord i. e. by the Lords Commission and Authority 1 Thes. 5.12 and as such they are commanded to Rule with diligence Rom. 12.8 from all which it is abundantly evident that the Church of Christ is a formed Society subsisting of it self distinct from all other Societies under a distinct Rule and Government But this I shall make yet more fully appear when I come to treat of the several Ministries which the Governors of the Church of Christ are obliged to render him I proceed therefore at present to the Second thing proposed which was to inquire into the nature of this Government in what hands Christ hath placed it now the two main Rival forms of Church Government pretending to divine Institution are the Presbyterial and Episcopal the Presbyterial is that which is seated in an equality or parity of Church Officers the Episcopal is that which is placed in a superior order of Church Officers called Bishops to whom the other Orders of Presbyters and Deacons are subject and subordinate the latter of which I shall endeavour to prove is the true form of Government instituted by our Saviour and that First from the Institution of our Saviour Secondly From the practice of the Holy Apostles Thirdly From the punctual conformity of the Primitive Church to both Fourthly From our Saviours declared allowance and approbation of the Primitive practice in this matter I. That the Government of the Church of Christ is Episcopal is evident from the Institution of our Saviour who in his life-time instituted two distinct Orders of Ecclesiastical Ministers the one superiour to the other viz. that of the twelve Apostles and that of the seventy or seventy two Disciples for that these two were of distinct Orders is evident from their being always distinguished from one another and mentioned apart by different names and in different Ranks and Classes for to what purpose should the Scripture mention the twelve and the seventy so distinctly as it every where doth if there were not some distinction in their Office and Employment for in Luke 6.13 we are told that Christ called unto him his Disciples and of them he chose twelve whom also be named Apostles and Mark 3.13 14. it is said that he called unto him whom he would that is of his Disciples and ordained twelve that they should be with him and that he might send 'em forth to Preach and what less can this imply than that the twelve were separated by this Call and Ordination of Christ to some distinct Office and Employment from the rest of the Disciples And that the Office of the twelve was superiour to that of the seventy is evident not only from their being still placed first in the Catalogues of Ecclesiastical Officers see Eph. 4.11 1 Cor. 12.28 in the latter of which we are told that God constituted in the Church first Apostles wherein the Primary is attributed to the Apostolical Office and not only from the particular care which Christ took of these twelve above the rest of his Disciples both in praying for and instructing them of which there are a great many notorious instances in the Gospels but also from hence that their immediate Successors were for the most part Chosen out of the seventy for so Simeon the Son of Cleophas succeeded S. Iames at Ierusalem Philip S. Paul at Caesarea Clement S. Peter at Rome and divers others of the seventy according to Dorotheus Eusebius and others of the Fathers succeeded the Apostles after their death in the Government of their several Churches and Matthias who as Eusebius Epiphanius and S. Ierom affirm was one of the seventy that was Chosen and Ordained by the other Apostles to succeed Iudas in the Apostolate Acts 1.26 from whence it is evident that the Apostles were superiour to the seventy otherwise it would have been no advancement to the seventy to succeed 'em for all that Superiority which they acquired by their Succession must necessarily be inherent in the Apostles before they succeeded 'em else how can they be said to succeed 'em in it and if we suppose 'em to be equal with the Apostles in Office before they succeeded 'em it is nonsense to say they succeeded 'em for how can a man be said to succeed another in any Office who is actually vested with the same Office before he succeeds him If therefore the seventy received no more power after the Apostles than they had under 'em they were as much Apostles before they succeeded 'em as after but if they did receive more power then the Apostles to whom they succeeded had more power than they before they received it and consequently were their Superâ—ours because a man can receive no more power by succeeding another in any Office than he to whom he succeeds had before by vertue of the same Office. By all which it is most evident that by the Institution of our Saviour the Apostles were superiour to the seventy and yet it is as evident that the seventy were Ecclesiastical Ministers as well as they for in Luke 10.1 we are told that after these things the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent 'em two and two before his face that is to Preach his Gospel and that by this Mission of his they were authorized to be the Ministers of Religion is evident from what he tells 'em Verse 16. he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me from whence it is plain that they were his Authorized Ministers even as he was Gods because as the despising of him was a despising of God by whom he was sent so the despising of them was a despising of Christ by whom they were sent and accordingly by vertue of this Mission we find 'em acting as Authorized Ministers of the Gospel for so Ananias who was one of 'em Baptized Saul Acts 9.18 and Philip who was another Preached and Baptized at Samaria Acts 8.5
rewarded accordingly with the Government of ten Cities ver 16 17. the other had been faithful though not altogether so diligent and by his one pound had gained five and accordingly he is made Lord of five Cities ver 18 19. By which he plainly declares that by so much as we fall short of those improvements we might have made in Piety and Vertue so much he will substract from our furure reward So that the sense of the Law of perfection is this as you would not incur the forfeiture of some degrees of your happiness in the other life be sure you imploy your utmost diligence in this to improve your selves in every grace and vertue of Religion II. There is the Law of sincerity which requires the being and Reality of all Christian Graces and vertues in us together with the proper Acts and Exercises of them as we have opportunity and doth no farther forbid those gradual defects of them which are within our possibility to supply than as they are the effects of our gross continued and wilful neglect and so inconsistent with sincerity Now the Reality of these Christian Vertues in us consists in the universal and prevailing consent and resolution of our Wills to regulate our practice by them so as not wilfully to admit of any thing that is contrary to them upon any occasion or temptation whatsoever and so long as this resolution continues firm and prevails in our practice we are just in the eye and judgment of this Law of sincerity though we do not always exert it to the utmost of our possibility He therefore who hath so submitted his Will to God as to be throughly resolved without any reserve to obey him and not to do any thing that is contrary to his Will either against knowledge or through affected ignorance or inconsideration hath in this resolution the real being of all Christian vertues in him and so long as this holds he stands uncondemned in the judgment of the Law of sincerity But though this resolution includes in it the being and reality of all Christian vertue yet doth it not include the utmost possibility of it nor doth it at all follow that because I am sincerely resolved to conduct my life by the Laws of Piety and Vertue therefore I must be in all respects as Pious and Vertuous as it is possible for me to be considering my present state and circumstances I may be sincerely resolved and yet not be always equally diligent and active I may now be exceeding vigilant and watchful and what I am now I may always be if I always exert the utmost of my possibility yet it may so happen anon that though I am sincerely resolved still I may be more remiss supine and inadvertent and in this posture a temptation may surprize me before I am aware and hurry me into an action against which I am firmly resolved And there is no doubt but even the best of men might have beâ—n much better than they are had they always 〈…〉 their possibilities and applied themseâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 their utmost skill and diligence to the methods and Ministries of improvement Now though not to exert our utmost power in the avoidance of evil and the improvement of our selves in vertue and goodness is doubtless a sin yet it is only a sin against the Law of perfection the Penalty of which is only deprivation of some degree of our future reward but so long as we keep up a prevailing resolution in our Wills to govern our 〈◊〉 by the Laws of Piety and Vertue we stand â—â—ear in the eye of the Law of sincerity the Penalty of which is no less than everlasting Exile from the presence of God into the dark and horrible Regions of endless misery and despair only this proviso it admits that if after we have sinned against it we reassume our good Resolution and heartily repent and amend we shall be released from the obligation to this dreadful Penalty and be restored to that happy state of grace and favour from whence we fell by our transgression So that the great difference between the Law of Perfection and the Law of Sincerity is this that the penalty of the later is much more severe but the duty of the former much more comprehensive Having thus given this brief account of our Saviours Legislation and Laws I proceed to the II. Of those Regal Acts which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all and that is his Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue Mens minds to the Obedience of his Laws and to govern them by them For so the Apostle makes the Mission of the Spirit to succeed the Triumphal progress of our Saviour to his Coronation in Heaven Eph. 4.8 He ascended up on high he led captivity captive he gave gifts unto Men where by the gifts which he gave we are to understand the Holy Spirit and in him all those extraordinary Gifts which he poured out upon his Church on the day of Pentecost for so Acts 2.33 S. Peter makes the effusion of the Spirit by Christ to be the consequence of his advancement to his universal Royalty therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear Now the end for which he sent his Spirit was to supply his room when he went from earth and in his absence to preside as his Vicegerent in his Kingdom below Since therefore this blessed Spirit acts as our Saviours Agent whatsoever he doth that our Saviour doth by him So that all those operations he performs in order to the subduing us to the obedience of Christ and to the governing of us when we are subdued are truly the operations of Christ himself It is he that conquers and governs us by his Spirit our hearts are the Territories which Christ invades by him and his inspirations are the victorious Arms by which Christ conquers and subdues them Our Wills are the Thrones on which Christ sits and rules and governs by him and his holy suggestions are the awful powers by which Christ himself commands our obedience But what it is that this blessed Spirit doth and hath done in order to the subduing Men to Christs Laws and governing them by them hath been already shewn at large and therefore of this I shall need say no more at present III. And lastly therefore another of those Regal Acts which Christ hath once for all performed in his Heavenly Kingdom is his erecting in it an external Polity and Government What this Polity is and what are the functions of it hath been shewn at large and it is as well by this external Government as by the internal Ministry of his Spirit that Christ now rules his Kingdom for in all just and lawful things the lawful Governours of his Church do act by his Commission and Authority as being substituted by him the visible representatives of his
Person and the Executors and Administrators of his Power and Dominion Whilst therefore they act within the compass of their Commission they act in his stead and as his Vicegerents and whatsoever they bind he binds and whatsoever they loose he looses their Commands are his their Decrees and Sentences are his and all their authoritative Acts carry with them the same force and obligagation as if they had been performed by him in his own person For it is he that wills and speaks and acts by them because they Will and Speak and Act by his Authority For so he himself declares to them Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me i. e. because I speak by you and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me because my Authority is in you even as my Fathers is in me and therefore he who despises mine in you despises my Fathers in me whence mine in you is derived Your Authority is mine and mine is my Fathers and therefore he who rejects yours doth therein reject both my Fathers and mine And this authority is given them by Christ for the same end that his Authority was given him by the Father for he came into the World to seek and to save lost souls Luk. 19.10 He came not to judge the world but to save the world Joh. 12.47 And to call sinners to repentance Mar. 2.17 And upon the very same errand he sent all those whom he appointed to propagate and govern his Kingdom in his absence for he set them up as so many Lights to the benighted World to reduce Men from those dangerous paths in which they were wandering to eternal misery and shew them the way to everlasting happiness and all the power he devolved upon them was for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 and to them he hath committed the care and charge of Souls whose blood he will one day require at their hands if they miscarry through their neglect or default Heb. 13.17 and that he might the better secure these precious beings for whom he shed his blood from miscarrying for ever he placed this spiritual Polity in a subordination of Officers and made the inferior accountable for their charge to the superior Officers as well as both accountable to himself So that whereas had he placed it in co-ordinate hands there had been only one soul accountable to him for each particular Cure or Charge of Souls because then each single Pastor would have been supreme in his particular Cure and consequently no other Pastor or Pastors would have been accountable for not calling him to account now each particular Cure of Souls is under the charge and inspection of several orders and degrees of Pastors who in their several stations are all accountable for it to the Tribunal of Christ. For first the inferior Pastor who hath the immediate Charge of it and is obliged by his Office to teach and instruct it by good Example and Doctrine and to administer to it the holy Ordinances of Christianity stands accountable to Christ for every soul in it that miscarries through his neglect or omission next the Bishop stands accountable for not correcting the neglects and misdemeanours of the inferior Pastor and then the Metropolitan for not taking Cognizance of the default of the Bishop Thus in that excellent form of Government which Christ hath established in his Kingdom he hath made all possible provision for the safety and welfare of Souls for according to this Oeconomy he hath taken no less than a threefold security every one of which is as much as a Soul amounts to that every Soul within every Cure shall be plentifully supplied with the means of Salvation that so none of them might miscarry but such as are incorrigibly obstinate So that now if any Soul within the Dominions of our Saviour perish for want of the means of Salvation there are no less than three Souls one after another besides it self accountable to him for its ruin Having thus shewn what these Regal Acts are which Christ hath once for all performed in his Kingdom I proceed II. To declare what those Regal Acts are which he hath always performed and doth always continue to perform and these are recucible to four particulars First His pardoning penitent sinners Secondly His punishing obstinate Offenders Thirdly His protecting and defending his faithful Subjects in this life Fourthly his blessing and rewarding them in the life to come I. One of the Regal Acts which our Saviour always hath and always continues to perform is his pardoning and forgiving penitent sinners which being one of the Articles of our Creed I shall endeavour to give an account of it more at large the Apostle defines sin to be a transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 Now the Law obliges us under a certain stated Penalty to do and forbear what it commands and forbids whenever therefore we transgress the Law we are thereby obliged to undergo the Penalty it denounces and this is that which we call the guilt of sin viz. its obligation to punishment and it is this guilt which pardon and forgiveness relates to For to pardon is nothing else but only to release the sinner from the obligation he lies under to suffer the penalty of the Law. Now the penalty of the Law of God for every known and wilful sin is no less than everlasting perdition and therefore from this it is that we are released by that pardon and indemnity which the Gospel proposes So that the pardon or remission of sins whereof we are now treating consists in the loosing of sinful men from that obligation to eternal punishment whereunto they have rendered themselves liable by their wilful disobedience to the Law of God. Since therefore this pardon consists in the release of offenders from the penal Obligation of the Law it must be a Regal Act because the Obligation of the Law can be dispenced with by no other Authority but that which made it and therefore since to make the Obligation of the Law is an Act of Regal Authority to release or dispence with it must necessarily be so also and accordingly forgiveness of sin is in Scripture attributed to our Saviour as one of his Regal Rights Acts 5.51 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin So that now it is by Christ immediately that our sins are pardoned and our Souls released from those Obligations to eternal punishment in which they have involved us for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Joh. 5.22 So that now it is by him immediately that the Father judgeth us i. e. absolves and condemns us for so Col. 3.13 the Apostle exhorts them to forbear and forgive one another even as Christ forgave them and Col. 2.13 Christ is said to have forgiven them all trespasses It is true forgiveness