those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horsemen and Charioteers these were but in lanienam for spoil and prey for slaughter and captivity till after-ages from the Roman stoutness and Arms learned to fight more like men on foot trusting more to their own strength of which they were more Masters and could better manage it than to the fierceness of horses who take up half the man to rule them and is a vain thing to save by his much strength Psalm 33.17 as the Psalmist tells us The Scripture gives us many historical instances The weakness of secular Chariots and horses alone what great Expeditions and executions were begun and carried on by multitudes of chariots and horsemen what great defeats the Lord of hosts had given them Exod. 1â— 7 9. as Paroah with his Chariots and Horses which pursued the Israelites into the red Sea by a most presumptuous malice which no miracle could moderate or humble So Sisera with his nine hundred iron chariots â—ud 4.3 that is falcati currus armed with iron sithes and instruments of execution no less than with plates or shields of iron for defence were scattered and destroyed at the blasting of Gods displeasure both the horses and riders did fall Hence David a great and good Souldier ever great when good and prosperous while pious who received more wounds and detriment by one woman and his own wanton lust than by all the Gyants and Armies the horse and chariots he ever encountred he by long experience tells us how far the pride and confidence of the world was from true safety Some put their trust in horses and some in chariots Psalm 25.7 but we in the name of the Lord our God It is better to trust in the Lord Psalm 118.8 than in Princes and their Armies which easily are discomfited when God ariseth against them one of his heavenly Militia an Angel Isa 37.36 can smite in one night an Hundred fourscore and five thousand to the ground stark dead of Senacheribs insolent Souldiery yea and one of his earthly spiritual Militia his Prophets and Ministers as Eliah and after him this Elisha so Micaiah and others by lifting up their hands and prayers as Moses and Jehosaphat to heaven were able to strike terror and confusion to an host of men chariots and horses 2 Chron. 20.22 when they were a million of men and horses For these fight in virtute Dei altissimi in the power and name of the most High and Almighty God these Angels both in heaven and earth God useth as he did Elisha afterwards to give check to the counsels and powers of Kings 2 Kings 18.14 as the King of Assyria confessed and the King of Israel found it true while he had mountains full of Horses and chariots of fire attending of Elisha 2 King 26.17 and under his command so that the King gives him this same honor dying sensible what a loss it was to Church and State to lose such a Prophet more than to have lost all his chariots and horsemen § God that is on the side of his true Prophets and faithful servants as the visible Fathers and Guardians of his Church and Family hath his great Militia and thus sets it forth to humane capacity Psalm 68.17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai when he appeared in terror to give the Law even so will he execute it and avenge the breaches of it by the Ministry of Angels at the last day And our Lord Jesus Christ who is trumphantly ascended on high is now Lieutenant General of all power in heaven and earth Psalm 8.18 Heb. 2.10 for the good of his Church the Captain of whose salvation he is who hath conquered and is still to conquier till all enemies are subdued to him even he takes care to furnish his Church in all ages with some that are as the chariots and horsemen of Israel either such Christian Kings and Princes or such Bishops and Ministers or such religious Noblemen and learned Gentlemen or such honest yeomen and humble Pesants yet good Christians that they are as the Soldiers and Armies of God in their several ranks and orders some as the chariots and horsemen others as the infantry or footmen The highest honor in the Churches Militia is given to the Prophets and Ministers because they have most power with God they open and shut heaven they bind and loose souls by Gods command and commission As every good Christian so those of the Clergy above others are either publicum lucrum or damnum as they live or die As it was said of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millan he was both ornamentum munimentum urbis orbis O what gallant chariots and horsemen were those Primitive Bishops and other eminent both Preachers and Writers such as Iraeneus Cyprian Athanasius Austin the Cyrils Basils Gregories Chrysostom Epiphanius Origen Clemens Jerom and others innumerable who did so stoutly incounter and rout those Amalekites of Heathen Idolaters and Philosophers of Hereticks and Schismaticks which pestred the Church as Grashopers and Locusts or oppressed it as Tyrants and Persecutors Two things from these honorable names which Elisha gives to Eliah we may observe First What the Prophets and Ministers of the Church ought to be according to their eminency in parts or place Secondly how they ought to be esteemed and treated First 1 What Warriers the Prophets and Ministers ought to be in the Church 1 Their courage What they ought to be to the Church and to their Country fortes animosi pugnaces ordinati bold as Lyons in Gods cause valiant couragious ready and orderly to fight the battels of the Lord the good fight of faith but bello incruento sanctis non sanguineis praeliis by an holy but harmless war saintly not sanguinary unbloody unless their own blood be to be shed they must make no wounds but on mens consciences They must be undaunted by any greatness policy or power that opposeth it self against God as St. Stephen was so was Apollos Act. 6. and 7 so St. Paul so Timothy and others who as good Soldiers sought to please not themselves or men by ease and idleness by flattery and chmpliance but him that had called them to his Ensign and Standard Their armature and weapons were that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelical harness 2 Their Armour which the Apostle prescrbes of the helmet of salvation Eph. 6.12 13 14 15 16. the sword of the Spirit and Word of God the shield of Faith and the brestplate of righteousness their fighting must be by preaching convincing praying reproving by doing good and suffering evill Their Enemies are to be not only flesh and blood that is 3 Their Enemies not the persons of men but the ignorances errors malice policy pride and prophaness of the evil world yea of Principalities and Powers of Devils and evil Angels
fair pots then was God their more immediate Prophet and Instructer The Patriarchal succession in families in dreams and night-visions in ocular and sensible apparitions by day in audable and articular expressions or in mental illuminations So to Enoch and Noah and Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet so as the holy Fathers of those families were at once as successive Princes Priests and Prophets to their families taking care to teach their posterity children and servants the true fear and worship of God Gen. 18.19 which the Lord promiseth himself from Abraham Iosh 24.15 and Joshua promiseth to God for himself and his house Afterward After successioning eater Polities when the Church of God multiplied from a family to a grand Polity or community which required those Laws and constitutions both Civil and Ecclesiastical together with the execution of them by Princes Priests and prophets which might best preserve humane society within those bounds of honesty and holiness and within the enjoyment of those blessings which might answer all just and good desires either as to the enjoyment of their lives estates and liberties in peace or as to the serving of God and keeping communion with him in those holy ways of his worship and service which he required of them for their good as well as his own glory then was it that the Lord either by special designation or by setled succession furnished his Church with such Princes Judges Priests and Prophets as he saw necessary for them Yea Ecclesiastical order and succeâ—â—â—on most necessary whatever scambling and confusion in Civil and Regular Magistracy mens ambition brought on the state of the Jews yet the Church order and polity of Religion was so fixed in Aarons family as to the constant Primacy of the Priesthood and in the Tribe of Levi as to the inferior offices and services that it continued many hundred of years after their Kings and after their Captivity inviolated among the Jews nor was that sacred Order and Succession quite depraved in Israel till a most unreasonable and detestable reason of state policy laying aside all true sense and conscience of piety 1 King 12.31 set up golden calves for gods to the silly people and consecrated the meanest of the people to serve them Meet Priests indeed for such bruitish gods When the great Prophet Moses was to leave the world Moses his care for succession yet he leaves the Church this legacy of comfort as to the divine care and providence for a succession The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him you shall hearken which as it was most eminently and consummatively fulfilled in our blessed Saviour as Philip tells Nathanael Iohn 1.45 Acts 3.22 Acts 7.37 and as St. Peter with St. Stephen convince the Jewes who was the great inspirer and compleater of the Prophets and their Prophesies so it was also fulfilled in those intermediate Prophets which followed Moses even to John Baptist whom God sent successively to preserve reform and restore true Religion in the Church The Priestly Prophetick Ministerial successive authority as necessary as magistratick and Ministerial Office is not less necessary in the Church than the Princely and Magistratick power is in the State unless men judge their souls eternal interests less precious than those of their bodies and estates Yea for the most part Gods Providence hath so distinguished them that when there were the best Princes yet there were added to them eminent Prophets besides the constant Priests as in Davids time where Samuel Gad and Nathan were imployed And here in the great revolt and sad Apostacy of Israel from Gods and Davids house yet the Lord is not wanting to send an Eliah and when he is to be gone order is taken for the appointing Elisha to succeed him the Ordinances of heaven 1 Kings 16 1â—.1â— of night and day summer and winter of Spring and Harvest Gen. 8 22. are not more necessary by the successive motions of Sun and Moon and Stars than those Ministers and Ministrations are by which true Religion and an autoritative order in the Church are maintained in present and duly derived to posterity Hence our blessed Saviour Our blessed Saviours care of succession in the Church Iohn 20.20 the great Minister and Fulfiller of all righteousness before his ascention took care for the Apostolick confirmation Consecration Mission and Commission as Stewards and Ambassadors in his stead to be sent by him as he was by his Father The Apostles also before their departure had the like care as is evident in the history of the Acts and in the charge that St. Paul gives to Timothy and Titus within their respective Provinces and Diocesses to commit the Evangelical spiritual power and Ministry as a sacred depositum to faithful and able men that may as Bishops and Pastors 2 Tim. 2.2 as Presbyters and Teachers both instruct and rule the Church or flock of Christ committed to their charge according to the several proportions and combinations of those Ecclesiastical Societies over which not only many Teachers were ordained but also some one Father or Angel was constituted and owned by the Spirit of Christ as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 2 3 chap. chief President over them the head or centre of order and union the principal Conservator and Dispenser of all Ecclesiastical power and authority which Irenaeus Tertullian St. Cyprian Origen and all the Antients counted Successiones successores Apostolorum having the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gift and character in ordinary which the Apostles had either as Presbyters or Presidents in the Church § Succession signalised by some visible ceremony That this might be done the more signally and conspicuously so as all might take notice of the solemn trausaction in a business of so sacred and great importance to the Church there was not onely due trial to be made of mens abilities inward and outward for such undertakings but they were to be invested with the Ecclesiastical power and admitted to the exercise of those sacred Ministrations by some evident ceremonies as tokens of Gods Ordination the Clergies approbation and the peoples acceptance of them So little is God an enemy as some have strongly fancied to all decent ceremonies in Religion which are shadows indeed of good things with whose substance they well agree We see that not only Sacramental mysteries even in the Gospel as well as under the Law are set forth by them and cloathed all over with them as to the outside or sign but also the Ordination of Priests Prophets and all Church Ministers ordinary and extraordinary have been adorned by them Elisha is first annointed by Eliah â— Kings 19.19 after this Eliah casts his mantle upon him even that mantle which afterward fell from Eliah ascending and was as an emblem of his spirit with which Elisha was
any Parents It was stoning to death Deut. 21.20 by which God would have the honor of the meanest Parents though poor and old weak and simple asserted against their sturdy and proud children while yet under their roof and discipline § Next these Princes and Magistrates have the name as of Gods and Lords so of Fathers Patres Patriae and of nursing Mothers after these the Priests and Prophets of old were called Fathers So the King of Israel returns the very same compellation to Elisha dying which he gives here to Eliah thus in the Gospel St. 1 Cor 4.15 Paul owns his merit so far though you have had many teachers or instructers yet not many Fathers for he had first begotten them to the faith by his preaching the Gospel to them so in the antient Christian-Churches though they had many Presbyters as Instructers or Consecrators yet the Bishops were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a special honor as Successors to the Apostles in paternal inspection and authority as begetting Sons to the Church by instruction and patres minores lesser Fathers or Presbyters by Ordination called Patres then also Patriarchs were Patres patrum which by way of gemination brought in the two first syllables Pa Pa not from the Syriack Abba transposed but from the first syllables of Pater and Patriarcha or Pater Patrum into the Church as before into the Imperial State from Pater Patriae to make up Papa which title the Bishop of Rome hath monopolized when of old it was given to other Patriarchs and Bishops § This is certain The duty as well as dâ—gnity implyed in the name Father God that communicates the name of Father to Magistrates in State or Pastors or Bishops in the Church doth withal teach and exact the duties imported in the name Father First Father in Magâ—stracy Both Governors in Church and State should delight rather in that exercise which is Paternal than despotical fatherly than imperious or Lordly much less tyrannick to remember they govern sons not slaves and for Gods glory not for their own profit pomp and pleasure their design and work must be to glorifie God and by doing good with a fatherly freedom and indulgence to deserve the love of others Although they cannot have it from ingrate and ungracious children yet they shall finde God a Father to them when they have carried themselves as Fathers to others Specially Church Governors which were of old in England Fathers in the ministry of the Church and in all Christian Churches Bishops as chief Fathers chosen by the Presbyters approved by the people and endowed with estate and civil honor by Christian Princes these as such must not in their greatest eminency affect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.3 to exercise dominion after the way of the secular sword and severity over Ministers or people but only as Fathers and Spiritual Lords for edification not destruction with gravity not austerity with meekness of wisdom not rigidness of passion yea and as to that civil Dominion which is consistent with spiritual jurisdiction when any are both Bishops and Soveraign Princes which may very well meet in one man for what hinders a Prince as George of Anhalt to be a Bishop or Preacher of his Gospel who is Prince and Priest of his Church here they must the more make the world to see they bear the double name of Father to their people such paternal Bishops we had heretofore in England and such indeed was this worthy Prelate and such Fathers we might have had still if that had not been fulfilled among us Filius ante diem c. some Sons are impatient not to antidate their Fathers death and destinies or longer to expect the reversion of their estates § It is true that double honor which the piety and munificence of Christian Princes and States had bestowed on Bishops as Fathers in chief and other Ministers of the same relation though a lower station in the Church both as to ample revenues and some secular jurisdiction or dignity to give them greater advantages to improve their spiritual and paternal authority more to the glory of God and the good of Christian people as to instruction protection and relief these ought not in any sort to leaven or overlay those condescending Graces and paternal tendernessse which are the greatest eminencies of any Church-man and which may with all pious industry humility charity and hospitality be maintained and exercised by them without any diminution of their civil dignity or ecclesiastical authority as was frequently evidenced by our learned religious hospitable charitable and honorable Bishops in England when they lived both as Lords and as Fathers governing and doing good § Of civil honour added the Fathers the Church So that it cannot be other than a most partial and sinister perverseness in men of evil eyes and envious hearts to fancy that no learning study devotion diligence and prudence in any Minister or Clergyman is capable to merit or enjoy either such honorable estates and salaries or such eminent places and dignities as Counsellors and Senators as Lords and Peers in Parliament to which we see many mens meer riches and worthless money or their lower abilities and industries in legal and civil affairs or their military hardiness and prowess may actually advance them yea and this in a civil intestine War where victory it self is sad and untriumphant yet we have lived to see many short-lived Gourd-Lords created in a chaos of times from very small principles or preexistency of birth estates breeding or worth and this in one day by a kinde of superfetation of honor and these to sit as right honorable ones in another House and to supply the vacant Seats of the antient Barons of England which were Peers in Parliament and consisted of Lords Spiritual and Temporal who had not either forfeited their honor or deserted their places and duties but were driven out by such power as they could not withstand § But not to touch that harsh string too hard we see the Bishops of England have had no great cause to envy those that cast them out as to that honor of having a place in Parliaments since from that time the Nation hath scarce enjoyed one good day nor themselves that fulness and freedom that honor and happiness which of old belonged to the majesty of English Parliaments § This is certain that the name of Lord did not as it ought not to make a venerable Bishop of the Church forget his former name and softer relation of a Father the first is now confined much to denote civil order and secular dignity but the second implies not only natural temporal and humane but spiritual divine and eternal endearments importing that plentitude of paternal love and goodness as is never to be exhausted scarce obstructed for what such unworthiness was ever in children which the benignity and bowels of a Father is not ready to forgive and
overcome yea and to deplore the justest miseries which fall upon them 2 Sam. 18.33 as David did his Son Absoloms death when by a most popular and prodigious rebellion he sought to take away both his Kingdom and his life Of Bishops as Fathers if not Lords § If we may not enjoy Bishops as Lords in the State I wish we might enjoy them as Fathers in the Church if they be truly venerable for their vertues and graces they will not much want honorable Titles nor that real love and value which all good Christians and ingenuous persons are more ambitious to pay to real worth and useful merits for Quis tam perditus ut dubitet Senecam praeferre Neroni Si libera dentur suffragia than to supercilious vanity empty formality and an idle kind of pompous luxury which are but the rust and excrements of hydropick and sick estates or of diseased and dwindling honors The eased and dwindling honors The name of Lord hath more of vulgar and secular pomp but the name of Father more of spiritual power and divine authority the first hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Gods name or in Christs stead for the good of the Church § To wind up the thread of this discourse no doubt Elisha's humility and obsequiousness to Eliah was such as he would willingly have called him his Lord and Master as the Sons of the Prophets call him but he rather chose the name of My Father as more suitable to Eliahs comportment both to him and to all the Church of God First Because in this one name Magistrates and Ministers Princes Bishops Priests and Prophets were as in the fairest letter or print to read or learn their duty in their dignity and so to be more sollicitous to do what becomes them than to exact the respects of others which best follow where they are best deserved as water flows easiest when the channel is clearest and a little descendent or falling Paternum est docendi munus The Officers of Fathers c. the duty of Fathers is to teach and educate their children that they may be Fathers of souls as well as of bodies to feed and provide for to defend and protect to be bountiful and munificent to give good counsel and example which are the best pillars to bear up authority to reprove and correct yet with love and moderation having always an intercessor in their own brests Gen. 27.4 Lastly Father are to bless their children in the name of the Lord and to transmit or deliver that by their hands and mouths to their children which is truly Gods act and deed but these are to God as the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal is to the King the King grants but the other legally conveys or passeth the blessing § Secondly The duty of Sons Such Sons and Subjects in Church and State as well as nature that hope with Elisha to be the inheritors of their Fathers blessing and Gods by that means will from this name see their happiness in that divine indulgence which hath set over them in Church or State not Pharoahs and Nero's hard Masters and severe Lords but tender and compasvionate Fathers whose power and authority they will justly value rejoycing in the Fathers superiority and their own subjection humbly desiring and defending their paternal care benediction and comprecation for them and also dreading their sad imprecations or deserved curses for oft as Plato observes the divine hand sets to the seal and says fiat to Parental curses as well as blessings § As the lives of all Fathers natural civil and spiritual ought to be a Commentary on the name and a compendium of the divine goodness that every thing they do or say may have a relish and tincture or politure and guilding of this sacred sweet and divine name so ought inferiors to learn their duty also by it to reverence those for Gods sake who bear the Name and Office of Fathers in Church and State to love and honor them if worthy to pray for them and bear with them if bad and froward Vt parentum sic principum ferenda sunt ingenia saith Tacitus Parents are forbidden to provoke causelesly their children to wrath Eph. 6.4 much more ought children to avoid provoking their Parents rather wink at hide conceal excuse palliate and cover as Noah's more pious and blessed Sons did Cen. 9.23 a Fathers nakedness and infirmity as Constantine the Great professed he was ready to do the failing of any Bishop or Churchman Be not curious to be conscious to their faults nor forward to complain of them never reproach them rudely but intimate thy sense to them with respect and reverence We read of some parents by a barbarous superstition making their children pass through the fire to Moloch but we never read of children casting their parents alive into the fire as an acceptable sacrifice to any gods Had we all done our duties in England on all hands we had had I believe better dayes and not onely our tranquillity civil peace and plenty but our religious piety order and charity which are the life of our lives and the honor of all honors had been prolonged in the land of the living where now our neglect of duty as Fathers and Sons hath divided and destroyed us so far that like wretched children we cannot see the things which belong to our peace unless it be to avoid them much less can we peaceably and chearfully enjoy them they are for our sins and by our undutiful doings Luke 19.42 so hidden from our eyes § Of a Fatherly condition in Church and State How this penal and sad providence of God hath deprived us of our nursing Fathers in Church and State exposing us either to be Orphans and Fatherless vagabonds under no setled Orders or safe protection or else betraying us to such various strange and numerous Step-Fathers not fathers in Law but without all Law as have more of Lordly tyranny and Soldierly insolency by meer power than fatherly benignity or authority by any relation I leave it to wise men to judge and to God in time to teach us our errors and defects when our eyes are more open by another twenty years mutations miseries burdens exactions Wars terrors and confusions possibly we may with the Prodigal so arise from our husks and go to our Father and return to the duty we owe to God and man § If God had taken away the Fathers or Prophets of any people as Eliah to himself they had been excusable but for Sons to destroy and extirpate their deserving Fathers this seems to be not Turbo de coelo a whirlwind or fire from heaven but rather the effect of Turba gravis paci c. a fire and tempest from a lower region § I fear the end of our fatherless condition in Church and State will only turn at