Ordain'd his Apostles it was according to the tenor of his own Ordination As my Father sent me so send I you and to shew wherein the Similitude consisted he breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20.21 22. Which clearly implies that as at his Mission from his Father to his Office he was Anointed or Consecrated by the Holy Ghost which visibly descended upon him at his Baptism when he entered upon his Ministry So when the Apostles had their Mission from Christ and were to enter upon their Ministry they also were Consecrated by the Holy Ghost Which they received not only to gift and inable their Persons but also to impower them for their Office as is undeniably evident upon the account of the words immediately following Receive ye the Holy Ghost which actually instate upon them the Power of the Keys 'T is true after they had thus received the Holy Ghost and were Commission'd to all the Offices of the Clergy the Apostles were not immediately to fall upon their Execution but were bid to stay at Hierusalem till they should receive such Miraculous Gifts by the visible descent of the Spirit as should render their entrance upon the Ministry more solemn and remarkable and their performance thereof more efficacious and convincing That men seeing the Wonders done by the Apostles none might have the least occasion to doubt of the truth of their Doctrine or their Authority to Preach it But not only in Christs Authorizing the Apostles for the Clergy but also in their Authorizing others and so forward the work is still ascribed to the Holy Ghost As to the Apostles the matter is evident in the Case of Barnabas and Saul whose separation of them to the Ministry is attributed to the Spirit And we find the same verified of the Presbyters of the Churches of Asia and in Timothy the Bishop of Ephesus Of whom it is said expresly The Holy Ghost made them Overseers Act. 20.28 Which according to some may signifie two things First their Ordination to the Ministerial Office attributed to the Holy Ghost as to the Original by whose descent upon the Apostles they were Authorized to Communicate this Authority to give Commissions to others who were to succeed them in the Dignity and Office of instructing and governing the Church Secondly it may signifie the Act of Designation Election Nomination to the Ministry which at that time was done by the Special Revelation of God and might properly be attributed to the Holy Ghost And after this latter manner Matthias was chosen to succeed Judas in his Office and Saul and Barnabas for the work Act. 1.24 Act. 13.2 And if we have recourse herein to Church Story we shall find how that the Apostles Ordain'd none of their Converts till they were Tryed and Approved by the Holy Ghost And that when St. John was return'd into Asia he ordain'd every where such as were signified by the Spirit And we are generally told by the Greek Fathers that the primitive Bishops did not make Clergy of their own Heads but by the order and command of the Spirit Which being understood according to the distinction now mention'd leaves no place of doubting of the manner or reality of the Spirits concernment in ordaining men for the Clergy especially when it is considered that all the sorts and degrees of Primitive Ecclesiasticks are ascribed to the Appointment of the Holy Ghost Eph. 4.11 And we have no ground of surmising that the Holy Ghost hath quitted his Interest in this great Concern but rather to believe that he doth still preside at Holy and Regular Ordinations Which are that Ecclesiastick Generation whereby the Clergy is propagated the Apostles still survive and Christ is still present with them And we have no reason at all to doubt but that the Spirit doth as Truly though not so Visibly assist at the present Ordering of Ministers as he did at the separation of Barnabas and Saul and that Christ is as really present by the same Spirit as when he breathed Him upon the Apostles and thereby gave them Authority for the Work of the Ministry And to this purpose we are to understand our own Church when she bids the Persons to be Ordain'd and Consecrated Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands c. And Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands c. The Holy Ghost in both forms is I doubt not to be taken in the same sense and imports no more but the conferring of Authority for the Execution of the Offices there Specified Which Authority being convey'd by that we call Orders and Consecration is fitly expressed by the same words which were used by our Saviour in bestowing the same power upon the Apostles at his sending of them forth to Preach the Gospel and gather and constitute a Church I have not as yet met with any thing considerable relating to the Forms of Ordination used in the Ancient Church but I suppose they were all agreeable to that our Saviour used at the Ordination of the Apostles But the Form of Ordination being only of Ecclesiastical Institution the Churches might inoffensively vary therein In the Greek Church the form was to this effect The Divine Grace which always heals our Infirmities and supplies our wants doth create or promote N. the Venerable Deacon to be a Presbyter the Presbyter most beloved of God to be a Bishop In the Western Church they use another Form wherein they confer upon the Presbyter the power of Consecrating the Elements in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and of Binding and Loosing Our own Church hath a Form peculiar to her self yet much resembling the old Greek Form mention'd by St. Clem. in his Constitutions Lib. 8. c. 16. Wherein the power of Preaching also is confer'd upon the Presbyter And though I am not able at present to give a full account of all the Ancient Forms of Ordination yet it sufficeth our purpose that none was ever yet met with wherein the Original and supreme power of Ordaining is not attributed to the Holy Ghost CHAP. VII Of the incommunicableness of the Offices of the Clergy THough what has been said renders the Holy Ghosts Interest and Agency in the Separation of men to the Calling of the Clergy to be undeniable yet there are still some who opine the Ministery to be a thing of Labour rather than Honor and to which Abilities without Authority are sufficient by which position the Concern of the Spirit must be wholly evacuate as to yielding any orderly power and certain Method of attaining unto the Sacerdotal Office And though the Socinian and Enthusiast are the more known and professed Assertors of this Conceit yet it is much to be feared that all Contemners of the Clergy are sowr'd with the
been ambulatory and the Holy Offices consign'd to the First-born or Chief of each Family For the Priesthood did not begin in Aaron but was translated and conferr'd upon his Family before his Consecration For those young men of the Children of Israel which offered Burnt-offerings and sacrificed Peace-offerings of Oxen unto the Lord Exod. 24.5 as they were Priests so without question they were no other than the First-born to whom the Priesthood did belong But as soon as God began to constitute a Church he began also to fix the Priesthood and appointed Aaron to minister the Publick Services And during the Levitical Dispensation the Succession of the Priesthood was continued in Aaron's Posterity and the High-Priesthood tied to the Line of his First-born the rest of his Posterity being simply termed Priests or Priests of the Second Order Now what is here chiefly to be taken notice of is Aarons Call to the Priesthood which we are assured was from God So that neither Aaron did at first nor any after him could legally take this Honour to himself But all were called of God And this Truth we find miraculously attested in the suddain and fearful destruction of those who undervalued the Priests and factiously usurp'd their Office 'T is true Aaron's Priesthood was but temporary and at the appointed Season to expire and determine yet as long as it did continue it was lawful for none but those of his Line to undertake it Because God had so ordain'd And this Divine Ordinance of the Priesthood was such an inviolable observation that even Christ when he came to give himself an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savour and by the Oblation of his own Body made an atonement for our Sins when Christ I say became an Aaronical Priest and put an end to that sort of Priesthood when he also became a Priest according to the Order of Melchizedeck which lasts for ever both were by Divine Appointment As the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews distinctly argues out of the Second and the Hundred and tenth Psalm But here it is worthy our remark that Jesus was anointed with the Unction of Aaron to the Sacerdotal Office and not called after the Order of Aaron for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning Priesthood Heb. 7.14 or that no Priest should come of that Tribe But Jesus was made a Priest after a more ancient Order according to the Prediction of the Psalmist The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedeck But though he were of another Order yet whatsoever Aaron did as a Priest was wholly Typical and to be fulfilled in the Messias as he was a Priest To which he had a double Title the one of Primogeniture as the First-begotten of God the other of Unction as being anointed unto that Office Now if Christ did not glorifie himself to become an High-Priest if as Man he did not advance himself to that Dignity but was thereunto advanced by God then is the Priesthood an Office to whose undertaking more is required than personal Abilities and which none of right can undertake but either by Gods immediate or mediate Call For though the meetness of the Person ought to be looked upon by men yet we cannot prescribe unto God or tell him who are fit to be heard by him in behalf of the people or whom he ought to entertain in Religious Addresses Nor are we able to yield a reason from the nature of the thing why God should accept of Aaron more than of Abiram or the mediation of any one man for many except the free pleasure of him that makes the choice But to return If the more solemn Institution of the Clergy bear date only from the Consecration of Aaron yet it plainly appears to be Divine or of Gods own appointment and during the time of the Mosaical Oeconomy was so Sacred and Inviolable that none could invade it under a gentler Penance than Sudden death or a Leprosie And long before this too I mean before the erecting of the Tabernacle or Temple and Institution of Priesthood when God was served within Private Walls and the right of Priesthood in every Family was annexed to the Primogeniture so that the First-born was Priest we read but of one contrary to custom who aspired unto it whose ambition therein would have been utterly inexcusable if the whole disposal of the matter had not been from God who loved Jacob but hated Esau and made the Elder to serve the Younger Rom. 9.12 13. But though the Levitick or Aaronical Priesthood was of Divine Institution yet being wholly Typical and consequently to determine and because it is already past and gone vve are next to enquire into the Nature and Constitution of that Clergy vvhich succeeded it CHAP. V. Of the Institution of the Evangelical Clergy WHen the Great Fulfiller of the Lavv even the blessed Author of our most Holy Faith in a most excellent manner made good that Title and being dravving to the last Stage of his life and together vvith it to put a full end to the Mosaick Dispensation and abolish both the Sacrifice and Priesthood in that of himself When vvithout a Figure the immutable Clergy of the Gospel vvas to succeed into the mutable Clergy of the Law he called those Apostles of vvhom at first he made choice and gave them Power to erect and constitute a Church and to transmit such Povvers unto others as vvere proper for the continuance and propagation of the same Novv the Commission vvhich Christ gave to the Apostles to impovver them to this end is the chief thing to be considered and vve meet vvith it at large as it vvas signed by our Saviour immediately upon his Ascension in S. Matth. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth 19. Go ye therefore and teach or make all Nations Disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World In vvhich vvords Christ first asserts and declares his ovvn Commission shovving his Apostles that vvhat he did vvas not the result of his ovvn private judgement but the exercise of that Authority vvhich vvas given him of his Father vvho had consign'd unto him a full Povver of ordering and disposing vvhatsoever belong'd to the Church of vvhich he vvas made the Prince and head upon his rising from the Grave and by vertue of that relation stood obliged to provide for the preservation and encrease thereof But hovv this should be done is the doubt to be satisfied For Christ in his ovvn Person could not make this provision for the Church because as to his humane Nature he vvas shortly to remove to Heaven and there to abide until his coming to
judge the quick and dead Novv vvhatever a man cannot do in his ovvn person must be done by deputation if it be done at all And therefore Christ by his Ascension being become uncapable in his ovvn Person to take this care of the Church he deputed his Apostles thereunto appointing them in his Name and Stead to perform all those Offices vvhich vvere required to the Establishing and Advancement of the Gospel Giving them also povver to depute others to succeed them in the same Care and to deliver dovvn the same Povver successively to the end of the World And to the end that the Clergy might not be thought to expire in the Persons of the Apostles nor they to have died vvithout Successors in the Ministry Christ promised upon his Departure to be with them unto the End of the World Which vvords vve vvill take for granted to have been spoken to the Apostles as they vvere the Clergy or Ministers of the Gospel and that they vvere not limited exclusively to their Persons but in them did belong to the vvhole succession of the Clergy For hovvever the Apostles might be vvith Christ he could not be personally vvith them so much as unto their death much less unto the end of the World being so shortly upon the speech of these vvords to ascend up into Heaven vvhereof they themselves vvere Vndeniable Witnesses It is likevvise duly to be considered That Christ by his promise lo I am vvith you alvvay even unto the End of the World intended some benefits to the Church vvhich should be of no less continuance than the Church it self and that the Apostles vvere to be the first dispensers of those benefits And if it be demanded vvhat these benefits vvere it may from the Text be safely replied that they vvere the several functions of the Clergy to vvhich the Apostles vvere Commission'd viz. Preaching Baptism Administration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood the exercise of the Censures c. All vvhich vvere to end vvith the Apostles or they vvere not If they vvere to end vvith the Apostles then has the Church ever since the death of the Apostles been vvithout these Offices vvhich amounts to no less than that there has been no Church since their Decease Or if they vvere not to end vvith the Apostles but have alvvays been and are still to be exercised unto the end of the World then it cannot be denied but there ever have been and ever must be fit Persons vvho like the Apostles must have a just power to dispense these Benefits or exercise these Offices For no less can be conceived to have been intended by Christ in his promise of being with the Apostles alway Even unto the End of the World And we shall have no temptation to suspect this Interpretation of the Promise when we shall consider first that by the End of the World That State of affairs is to be understood which began exactly at Christs Resurrection when all power was given him in Heaven and Earth which was to continue to the end of the World or his coming to Judgment Next that the promise made unto the Apostles had respect unto this State and therefore the Benefits promised namely Preaching Baptism c. were to endure unto the full determination of the same Thirdly That seeing Christ could not possibly be with the Apostles personally nor they upon Earth Vnto the End of the World There must be some other way to verifie Christs presence with the Apostles and their being in the World unto the End thereof both which seem to be implyed in the Text. As to Christs presence with the Apostles it is unanimously concluded of the Vicaria presentia Spiritus in Tertullians phrase or of making the Holy Ghost his Vicar in sending him to be with the Apostles upon his ascension into Heaven Which mission of the Spirit cannot be meant of that that hapned at Pentecost when he sate upon them in bodily appearance and inspired them with such extraordinary gifts as were needful for those first times of the Gospel such as the gift of tongues to inable them to Preach to all Nations in their own Language and of other Miracles to confirm the truth of their Doctrin and to move men to believe it For if the promise of Christs being alway with the Apostles were to be understood of this mission of the Spirit upon them then it would follow that Christ were still to be thus present with the Church and that extraordinary gifts did still continue or that he who promised were not faithful And therefore it is necessary that we understand Christs being with the Apostles of his giving them the Holy Ghost to instate them with Powers not only in their own Persons to plant and govern the Church and to perform all the Offices of the Clergy relating thereunto but also to ordain others unto the same Functions and to give them Authority to do the like Vnto the End of the World So that by this promise made of his presence with the Apostles Christ provided for a successive Clergy in whom the Apostles were to continue or the Ordinary Ministry be preserved unto the Consummation of all things And we have no reason to be jealous of this sense of our Saviours Words when we find it universally agreed upon that one great end of sending the Holy Ghost to the Church was the sanctifying setting apart of Persons for the Work of the Clergy and to convey a standing Authority of Ordination of meet persons to mediate between God and the people to pray for and bless them in the Name of Christ to help their Infirmities by composing for them a Liturgy according to the Pattern of the Apostles of whose Liturgy several passages do yet remain And the Holy Ghost doth still impower the Church to Ordain and Consecrate Persons for the Ministerial Office for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Who when ordain'd are bound to take heed to themselves and unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God CHAP. VI. Of the Spirits Agency in respect of the Clergy c. HAving endeavour'd to demonstrate that the true sense of Christs promise In being with the Apostles doth respect that Authority that the Holy Ghost gave them for appointing a settled Ministry in the Church while militant upon Earth In subserviency to our present purpose it may not be unuseful to observe That among all those Offices which the Holy Ghost performs for the Church there is none wherein he seems to be more interessed or to have a greater agency than in the qualifying and separation of Persons for the Priesthood Which work indeed is so peculiar to the Spirit and so necessary for this purpose that even the Great Pastor and Bishop of Souls became not a Preacher of his own Gospel till he was thereunto Anointed and Consecrated by the Holy Ghost Luke 4.18 And when the same Great Bishop
refreshment whether the Pipe be of Lead or Gold that conveys it The Jewel suffers no diminution in its real worth or value because it is lodged in a wooden Casket And the Gospel of Christ is still the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth though never so great unworthiness attend their Persons who declare it It fares with Christs Embassadors as with those of Earthly Princes whose deportment though it sink below their Character yet that doth no way evacuate the power of their Commission or render ineffectual what according to their Masters Order they transact in his Name And that this is the plain Case of the Clergy we may learn from the Blessed Author of Christianity in Mat. 23.2 3. And if God whose ways are past finding out should set over us as Bad Guides as those our Saviour there speaks of men who live not at all according to their own Prescriptions yet we are to respect their Office and Doctrin and not their Actions and Manners to observe and do what they teach but not to do after their works and to laud and praise God that he hath so far considered the frailties of men and worth of his own Ordinances as not to tye the Efficacy thereof to anything in their Dispensers but to his own Institution St. Augustin in his Prologue to his Books of Christian Doctrin observes that Paul though at first he was instructed by Advice from Heaven vvas aftervvard sent to a Man to receive the Sacraments and to be joyned to the Church And that though 〈◊〉 Angel declared the approbation of Cornelius's prayers and Alms-deeds yet he vvas not to rest there but to send to Peter both to receive Baptism from him and to be instructed what he vvas to believe Hope and Love If all things should have been transacted by Angels hovv mean and abject vvould this have render'd the Condition of men Or if God should not vouchsafe to speak to Men by Men hovv could that be true that Man is the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3. seeing Responses are not given out of that Temple but that all mans instruction should immediately sound from Heaven Charity vvhich doth bind men vvith the Bond of Unity and as it vvere mix and blend minds together would have no occasion or opportunity for this excellent work if there were nothing that one man might learn of another but that all were to be done by Angels And the same Father justly makes it a singular Act of Divine Wisdome to send the Eunuch to Philip or appoint men and not Angels to instruct the Church to constitute Teachers of our own Passions and to dispense this heavenly treasure out of Earthen Vessels that the whole excellency of the power might be of God But to proceed Grant that the Clergy were as faulty in their Conversation as we are willing to represent them yet this may move us to reflect upon our selves and to consider whether it may not be our own fault that our Spiritual Guides are so faulty and that if we are faln under the inconvenience of bad Shepherds whether it is not because we deserve no better For when God told Israel that he would give them Pastors according to his own mind who should feed them with knowledge and understanding if they would cease to be disobedient Children and turn from the evil of their ways Jer. 3.13 He plainly show'd that the way to have faultless Teachers was to reform our selves and to endeavour to deserve better at Gods Hand if in this Case he deals strictly with us However we cannot but surcease to contemn our Pastors upon the account of their failings unless that we are either innocent our selves or being guilty can be content to be despised upon that Score But yet seeing that a worse Use is made of the Clergies than of any other mens irregularities and that we are generally prone to follovv them in the steps that are foulest And seeing that there is a Set of Men who are not only curious to Observe but greedy to suck up the very dregs of their actions and vvho strive to imitate their Spiritual Guides as the Greeks did their Orators and Philosophers only in their Weaknesses and Imperfections Seeing likevvise that men are apt to make choice of the vvorst part of the Example and to take more notice of one single miscarriage than of a thousand good actions And vvhat is yet more deplorable seeing that contrary to all sobriety duty not a fevv are forvvard to expose the Nakedness of their Fathers and contrary to all equity and justice as in the Case of Eli's Sons to abhor the service of God for the faults of the Priest After these considerations I cannot be so blinded vvith affection to the men I speak of as not to think it their bounden duty to give all diligence to shovv themselves patterns of good works Incorruptness Gravity and Sincerity and to be Examples in Word in Conversation in Charity in Faith in Purity That in so doing they may both save themselves and them that hear them And at the same time make those asham'd who speak against them as having no evil to say of them or lay to their Charge And as for those as doubtless some there may be who do otherwise I would in the sense and Language of the Holy Ghost they were even cut off But as for mine own part when I see him that binds up my wounds to be careless of his own that he walks in darkness by whose Candle I am enlightned or that he becomes a Cast-away who is the Instrument of my Salvation I will pity his Condition and use his Ministry as God has appointed leaving him to receive as he deserves and to stand or fall to his own Master For I dare not reproach the hand be it never so Leprous by which I am help'd to Cleansing nor insult over their wanderings by whose directions I walk aright And though the miscarriages of my Guide be never so hainous I shall neither answer nor be punished for them if I have no way contributed to their Commission CHAP. X. A Survey of the Pretences of the Contempt of the Clergy Secondly Idleness WHat has been spoken in the Antecedent Chapter may both help to rectifie a common and usual mistake concerning Examples in general and also suggest a little more Sobriety to those who so eagerly manage the supposed want thereof in the Clergy to their irreparable Disparagement Because it lets them see how that every tittle of their Argument may recoyle upon themselves And how we all Caeteris paribus are as much obliged to an Exemplary Conversation and wanting it are as much to be blamed as those from whom vve so rigourously exact it But because we are herein to deal vvith men vvho usually esteem all serious consideration meer dulness and drudgery it cannot be hop'd that vvhat has been spoken should prove much Operative upon them or that if it should happen that
they designed against his Angel-Guests And it was the malicious Supposal of the Jews that if respect was given to Christs Person it would so credit his Doctrine that all would be in danger to believe it and to prevent this they sought to beat down his Reputation by calling him Drunkard Glutton Mad-man and Deceiver of the People And so unreasonable are Lust and Sin and so charmed therewith are mens hearts that those who by the Powerful Countercharm of Gods Word are willing to disinchant them are no better treated than Christ by the Demoniack who when he came to cure cryed out that he was come to torment him The Gospel is quick and powerful Vital and Operative piercing even to the dividing of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and able to discern the Thoughts and Intentions of the Heart And when by this its Ministers rip up those Secret Corruptions in whose Concealment and Fruition so many seem to have placed their Heaven and Felicity it will be easy to foretel what great respect they are like to meet with especially in an Age in which most Offenders are of the same humour with those Beaux Esprits or Virtuosi in Cicero who were not vexed that they offended but took it very haniously to be told thereof And when again by the same Gospel which is a light that makes all manifest the Clergy discover to the Consciences of the Wicked the Shame and Nakedness of their Vices not being able to endure the Tortures naturally arising from such a Detection nor to deny the truth thereof nor yet daring openly to blaspheme the Instrument of the same Detection their only refuge is to lessen both the Efficacy and Credit of the Gospel by lessening the esteem of those who preach it But too rightly apprehending that Gods Word and his Ministers are such near Allies that the disrepute of the one falls upon the other Now when the Clergy according to their Obligation go about to cut the wings of Pride and to take off the wheels of Lust to decry those sinful Courses which corrupt Nature most magnifies and to propagate those Vertues to which these Contemners have the greatest Antipathy and Averseness When in a word the Clergy zealously recommend to our most Cordial Practice those very Duties which we most dislike they cannot hope by this way to procure any great esteem with those against whose Vices they thus directly set themselves But on the contrary they are to expect to be looked upon as the greatest Enemies by all such whom they thus tell the truth And indeed it has ever been the Policy of the Malicious to lessen their Credit whose service they would render insuccessful and to imbibe mean thoughts of all those who interrupt them in their Vices But without driving this particular any further it is undeniably evident to the World that one main cause of the Clergies Contempt may be resolved into that Apology Christ upon the same occasion made for himself viz. The World hateth me because I testifie that the works thereof are evil Nor doth that part of the Clergies Function consisting in the instruction of all men in their respective Duties occasion some of them more obloquy than the execution of the Sacred Discipline doth others For this latter having a direct aim and tendency to suppress our darling sins and to put us to shame for their Commission we labour to beat it down with the same Engine that those Factionists in Numb 16th used against the Priesthood namely as a thing useless and unnecessary they indeed did so upon the pretence of their own Sanctity but we upon the score of our Stubborness I know alas the Power of the Keys Excommunication or Church-Censures are become very contemptible and sunk so low in some mens opinion that they rise not above the Estimate of Artificial Fire or meer noisy Thunder But yet in their Original Institution and Primitive Practice nothing was more high and dreadful and it was look'd upon as a great mercy in God and a singular honour for the Clergy to confer upon them no less a power than to deliver obstinate sinners over unto Satan to take full possession of their Souls and to sentence them to the everlasting pains of Hell and likewise a power to release penitent souls from the Chains of Darkness and Bondage of the Devil and to restore them to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God whereby they are made Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven And yet this power wherof Angels would be ambitious Christ confer'd upon the Clergy when he said unto his Apostles Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as these words give a power of publick exclusion out of the Church for Scandalous Enormities and re-admission into it upon Repentance it undoubtedly belongs to the Governors of the Church as they are purely Clergy and to none else whatsoever as is evident from the first Collation of this power in St. John 20.22 And the exercise of these Censures is so much the work of Church-Governers that St. Paul calls them the Weapons of their Spiritual Warfare by which they cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bring into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And this Power in its first derivations was executed with signal Severities such as this Age will hardly be induced to believe and that too when there was no Temporal Sword to assist these Spiritual Weapons But it is not easie to advise what ought to be done in such a State of the Church as ours is wherein the enormities of some give them a sort of impunity who having separated themselves from the Church are also in their own esteem at least got out of the power of its Censures And as to many of those who stay within the Church through a long forbearance of this Rod they are grown too Heady to be brought under Correction And both Principles of Liberty and a long Vncorrected wickedness are ready to dispute all Ecclesiastical Restraints and would rather have no Church at all than one with Censures But as this doth no way evacuate the Power so neither should it rebate its Exercise but it ought to be the more prudently asserted being thus unjustly gainsaid However it will not unbecome such as are chiefly concern'd in the management of the Church-censures by no luke-warm execution thereof to suffer them to be looked upon as meer Bruta fulmina and no such proper remedies to cure the Offences in Christianity as they are pretended And if Religion could but get such countenance by a watchful menage of Church-censures as to strike the open sinners with fear of being turn'd out of Christian Company and to be avoided as unfit for conversation if not Conscience yet Reputation would in a great measure restrain them Not to be thought Fit
Company for Christians would surely make them scorn their Vices and Shame one designed effect of the Censures would prevail upon those by whom nobler Motives are Contemn'd We need not be told how the Censures of the Church were not only laid aside in the Vastations of the Arrian Heresie and Persecution and before that in Diocletian's daies against the Lapsi but we find that things were come to that extremity in St. Pauls time that he was reduced to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would they were even cut off that trouble you Gal. 5.12 Sedition and Schism were grown so obstinate and spreading that neither his Power could reach nor his methods cure them and he was only able to Excommunicate the guilty in a Wish and cut them off in Desire And much of the same distemper seems to be spread through our own Age for though the necessity of the times interest of Religion and welfare of the Church loudly call for the severities of Discipline yet there appear no small discouragements against it whether we consider the Popularity of Vices or the Power and Greatness of the Vitious especially when we see that they whose Lives and Judgments are chiefly to be cured with the Censures have either had the reins so long upon their Necks that they are grown too Head-strong for Discipline or they have adopted such Principles as serve to adjust their Obstinacy and enable them to withstand both Christ and his Church And in this profligate State of Affairs chiefly occasion'd by the late and long overthrow of Government and Discipline it is no easie matter for Church-Rulers to proceed However we ought to be so far from contemning them upon this score that it is our bounden duty humbly to bow our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would direct and strengthen the Reverend Fathers of Our Church that they may support and keep up the small remainder of that Ecclesiastick Discipline which Schism Atheism and Profaneness have not yet quite trampled under foot And that by their paternal endeavours the whole Discipline may in some good measure be restored to its primitive Efficacy and Credit and so be able to accomplish the Ends for which it was at first designed CHAP. XIV A Further Examination of the Grounds of the Contempt of the Clergy respecting their Condition in the World and Extraction ANother occasion of the Clergies contempt may be imputed to the indiscreet measuring of their Credit according to their outward Fortunes which generally being but small their Veneration is proportionate For men deal herein with the Ministers of the Gospel as the scoffing Jews dealt with its Blessed Author when they judged of him according to secular Circumstances and weighed him in the false Ballance of the World Is not this the Carpenters Son and they were offended at him Their Probe pierced no deeper than the Skin and their judgment of Christ being only according to the outward appearance of his Person it could not be Righteous They saw the Messias to be destitute of external Royalty and Grandeur that his Administration was not Lordly and Imperious but humble and perswasive and his Carriage not Big and Haughty but Meek and Lowly and that he wanted those exteriour accoutrements wherein they expected him and which the blind world doth still esteem only worthy Admiration and Regard And it was upon these terms that they rejected the Lord of Life and prefered one who murdered before one who came to save them And the condition of present Circumstances renders the Allusion but too obvious For we find the same objections brought by some to vilify the Clergy which were urged against Christ And Extraction or Genealogy which of all things is in it self the most insignificant if there either be or want personal worth is by some warmly made use of in this Contrast But the Clergy need not herein to Apologize while there are other things that ennoble besides Parentage and Patrimony For among wise Persons Learning was ever thought a sufficient Title to Nobless and Secular Eminence And A. Gellius affirms that not only excellency of Extraction and great Fortunes but also Learning makes Noble For coming saith he to visit Fronto Cornelius as he was lying sick of the Gout I found him lying upon his Scimpodium Graeciense circumundique sedentibus multis Doctrina aut Genere aut Fortuna Nobilibus viris And the Lawyers affirm expresly that if a Legacy be given Pauperi Nobili the Executours may give it to a Doctor And the respect given to letters hath occasion'd the dispute for precedency between Knights and Doctors of the Law as may appear both by the Comparison that Tully maketh betwixt Lucius Murena a Knight of Rome and Pub. Sulpitius a Lawyer either of them standing for the Consulship in his Eloquent Oration for Murena and many other disputes arguing the Case to and fro And in foreign COuntries where the Civil Law is in Credit it is still disputable though this precedency is not so dubitable among us where the professors of the Civil Law are shut up saith Doctor Ridley into a narrow corner of their Profession I produce this only to show that Learning and the degrees of the Schools which are still supposed to be in the Clergy have ever been thought as fair Titles to the advantages of Secular Opinion and Honor as any other But as for such as would lessen the Priesthood for the meanness of their Descent who bear it they would do well to consider that the Laws of the Land render a Fils des prestres or Base-born uncapable of that Sacred Office unless by the interposition of the Royal Prerogative And that in the Ancient qualifications of those who were to be admitted to Holy Orders all Bondmen Accomptants and men distorted or deform'd in body as also Bigamists were excluded Next that in all Orders of men it is the Office Authority and Calling that are chiefly to be looked upon In respect of all which the Clergy are undeniably as considerable as any Rank of men whatsoever And lastly that Learning and Manners are chiefly required for admission into Holy Orders It is true that eminence of Birth gives no small lustre to the Clergy and when Persons of Quality enter upon the Priesthood they become as greater Stars which brighten up the less And though Birth and Descent c. be inconsiderable in respect of God yet Vertue Learning and Religion are rendred more Illustrious when therewith accompanied And though likewise the Sacerdotal Office be in it self and alone sufficient to give Credit and Repute to the lowest Descent of men who duly undertake and discharge it yet it is no little Honor and Felicity for the Church not only to have Kings for her Nursing-Fathers but also Nobles for her Priests But yet still none are either too High or too Low for Holy Orders whose Graces and Abilities qualify to undertake them And albeit those are more to be honor'd