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A70390
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A sermon preach'd at Turners-Hall, the 5th of May, 1700 by George Keith ; in which he gave an account of his joyning in communion with the Church of England ; with some additions and enlargements made by himself.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1700
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Wing K209; ESTC R14185
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28,024
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34
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that it belonged to Timothy being the Bishop of Ephesus as he is expresly called the First Bishop of Ephesus at the end of the second Epistle to him to whom the Church Treasure made up of the Gifts of the People was entrusted to provide for the Presbyters under him a necessary Maintenance which manner of practice continued in the Church the Bishops having the dispose of the Churches Treasure within their several Precincts during all that time the Church had no Christian Magistrate to Countenance her and long after III. He writes to him as an Ecclesiastick Ruler and Judge that had power to hear and examine Accusations brought against Presbyters and accordingly to judge after due Evidence of two or three Witnesses which plainly shews his Power of Jurisdiction over Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. IV. He gives him a most solemn Charge before God the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that in the exercise of the Power of Judicatory he act impartially without Favour or biass of Affection not preferring one before another ver 21. V. He writes to him as one having Power of Ordination to Ordain Elders by laying on of Hands and cautions him to lay hands suddenly on no Man ver 22. VI. He writes to him in his second Epistle to stir up the gift of God that was in him by the putting on of his Hands together with the Hands of the Presbytery or Eldership viz. some other Apostles that might jointly with St. Paul lay Hands on him 1 Tim. 4. 14. for that the Presbytery here mentioned was a Colledge only of Presbyters is a bare alledgment viz. when he ordained him the first Bishop of Ephesus as appears from the end of the second Epistle 2 Tim. 1. 6. VII He willeth him that he commit to faithful Men who shall be able to teach others also those Things that he had heard of him among many Witnesses which behoved to be some peculiar Things relating in great part to Rules of Discipline and Church Government which were not fit either for Heathens to hear or Novices in the Faith who yet might hear the common Doctrines of the Christian Faith preached in the Christian Assemblies VIII Writing to Titus he presupposeth him Bishop of the Cretians as appears from the end of the Epistle to him and tells him why he left him in Crete That he should set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him I know no reason why these should be thought Lay-Elders i. e. such as were not to Preach I find none such either here or any where else in the New Testament How could Titus exercise this Authority in such a spacious Island where many Cities were and Christian Congregations set up if he had been only a single Presbyter And if the other Presbyters had equal Power with him why did not he write to him and them jointly Whether in the Ordination of Presbyters others jointly did not lay on Hands with the Bishop is not the present question but whether it is to be found in Scripture or Church History that any Number or Colledge of Presbyters Ordained any without a Bishop presiding over them IX He telleth him that the Mouths of such Teachers as were unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers and who taught things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake must be stopped which plainly shews his Authority to depose and silence false Teachers as well as to Ordain Sound and Worthy X. He telleth him of his Authority to judge who is a Heretick and how after the first and second Admonition if he amend not he ought to reject him By these Instances plainly collected out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus it may I think appear to all impartial persons that well and duly consider them that both Timothy and Titus were Bishops and had a Superiority of Power and Jurisdiction over the Presbyters in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete as well as of Ordination I know W. Prynne hath printed a Book which he called the Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus which I have read but I find not that he hath either sufficiently answered the Arguments brought from Scripture to prove that they were Bishops or given any sufficient Arguments to the contrary I have also seen another great Book of his giving a Historical Relation of the evil Practises of many Bishops all which if true saith nothing against the Office But I could write a great Book threefold greater giving a Historical Relation of many good Things Bishops have done in the World Many Bishops both in the early and latter Ages have been eminently exemplary in Holiness of Life and all Christian Virtues and for divers Ages succeeding the Apostle's Days were blessed and happy Instruments to preserve the Truth and Purity of the Christian Doctrine in the World and the Unity and Peace of the many Churches in it hindring Schisms and curing them that did threaten to arise Cutting down with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even the Doctrinal Word outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures as they were mightily assisted by the Holy Spirit so to do the monstrous and vile Heresies that sprung up from time to time oppugning the Christian Faith wherein Almighty God blessed them with great Success and this they did partly by their particular Writings Treatises and Epistles as well as Sermons and partly by their assembling in great Numbers in Synods and Councils to condemn them and that many times to the danger of their Lives under persecuting Kings and Emperours some whereof were Heathen and some Arian and Eutychian Such who are but ordinarily well acquainted with Antiquity and Church History cannot be ignorant that the Government of the Church from the very days of the Apostles in all the famous places of the World where Christianity came to be planted was by Succession the which did lineally descend for four hundred years from the Apostles days and upwards and in divers places to this Age. There are two places of Scripture in the Old Testament which divers of the Fathers understood of Episcopal Government as it was to be set up in the Church under the New Testament as Psal 45. 16. being a Prophecy concerning Christ's Church and his Government in the same by Church Officers Instead of thy Fathers i. e. the Apostles who were the Founders of the New Testament Church and were her Fathers shall be thy Children i. e. their Successors in the Government of the Church after their Decease whom thou maiest make Princes in all the Earth The other Place is in Isaiah 60. 17. I will appoint them Bishops in Righteousness and Deacons or Ministers in Faith as Clemens Bishop of Rome quotes it in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians but as the Septuagint hath it is thus And I will give thy Princes in Peace and thy Bishops in Righteousness Ignatius who conversed with St. 〈◊〉 the Apostle and as his Disciple and Bishop of Antioch being committed by him writeth thus to the Church of Smyrna let the People be subject to their Deacons the Deacons to the Presbyters the Presbyters to the Bishop and the Bishop to Christ as he is to his Bishop Policarp also was constituted by St. John Bishop of Smyrna who both suffered Martyrdom as Church History giveth 〈…〉 saith lib. 3. cap. 3. We have to remember them who were appointed Bishops by 〈…〉 qui ab Apostalis 〈◊〉 sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successoret eorum usque ād nos the Apostles in the Churches and their Successors even 〈◊〉 us This Irenaeus was Bishop at Lyons and lived within about a hundred years after St. John It is acknowledged both by ancient Writers and later yea by some 〈◊〉 and particularly by David Paraeus that the seven Angels of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. John wrote were the seven Bishops set over those seven Churches also it is very probable that St. John himself had planted all these seven Churches and did constitute the Bishops in them Hierom whom the Adversaries of Episcopacy think that he favoureth in opposition to the Episcopal Authority plainly granteth that the Power of Ordination is lodged in the Bishop saying quid enim facis excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat i. e. for what doth the Bishop that the Presbyter may not on ought not to do except Ordination Epist ad Euagrium And the sense affirmeth that from Mark the Evangelist until Heracla 〈…〉 Bishops there the Presbyters of Alexandria did name him Bishop one among themselves elected and placed in a higher degree but he doth not say that they ordained him And both Hierom and Clemens Romanus long before him did make a paralel betwixt the High Priests Priests and Levites in the Jewish Church and Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the New Testament Church what Aaren and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple saith he the same in the Church may Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves Hier. ad Eugr. And how universal the extent of Episcopacy was in all the Churches and to what end it was appointed he further declareth in that same Epist it was decreed in the whole world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the Seeds of Schism be removed Thus far I think I have made it appear that in none of the Particulars above mentioned the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England but that what advantage there is to be found either from Scripture or Church History and Antiquity lieth on her side FINIS
in the invisible Creation of Angels and Spirits the Scripture doth plainly inform us as Angels Archangels Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers Cherubim and Seraphim Jethro Moses's Father-in-Law advised him to set Captains over Tens over Fifties over Hundreds and over Thousands of the People of Israel for the better and easier Government of them both in War and Peace and Moses hearkned to his Advice Exod. 18. 24. And we find in Scripture that the Church is compared to an Army and the Members thereof to Soldiers the chief General and Captain whereof is our Lord Jesus Christ who hath appointed divers Officers in his Church under the New Testament distinct not only in degree but in kind as Bishops Presbyters otherwise called Priests and Deacons answerable to the three Officers that were in the Church of the Jews under the Old Testament to wit the high Priest Priests and Levites and because they were but one Nation all living within a small Compass of Ground one High Priest did suffice according to God's Appointment This threefold distinction of Church Government by Bishops Presbyters and Deacons upon a further search into the New Testament I find so very clear as doth fully satisfie me notwithstanding that by prejudice of Education I was formerly Principled against it and also by searching into Church-History and the Writings of the Ancients nearest to the Apostles Times and the succeeding Ages in the purest and best State of the Churches as well as when there was a great declining from that purity yet as many other things both of sound Doctrine and good practice still remained so this distinction of Church Rulers did all along remain generally in all Places as well as in all Ages where God had any Visible Church or where there was any Society of People professing the Christian Religion until the beginning of the Reformation where in divers Countries abroad there was no Protestant Kings the Protestants set up Churches without Bishops not rejecting the Office nor condemning it as unlawful or Antichristian as some in late Times have done but excusing the want of it by that general maxim Necessity has no Law I need not insist to prove the distinction of Presbyters and Deacons out of the New Testament it being in some sort generally acknowledged by the Dissenters But the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters is that which is condemned by some as Antichristian and by some others judged at best unnecessary and no part of Christian Discipline belonging to Christianity either essential or integral But if you will lay aside all prejudice of Education and uncharitableness you will clearly and evidently see it in the Holy Scriptures That the Apostles had a Superiority over not only the LXX but all other Ministers and Pastors or Teachers is very clear from 1 Cor. 12. 28. compared with Eph. 4. 11. That Bishops were to succeed the Apostles and have the like Office both with them as Churches came to be planted in divers parts of the World before their Decease and also after their Decease not with respect to the extraordinary gifts of Prophecy and Miracles but with respect to the Government of the Church by a regular Succession is evident from Mat. 28. 19 20. compared with the above-cited Eph. 4. 11. otherwise all standing or setled Ministry as an Ordinance of Christ may be rejected as Enthusiasts generally do yea what can these Governments be mentioned 1 Cor. 12. 28. but as really the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters as of Presbyters over the Deacons and the People otherwise why Governments in the Plural Number Also what are these Dignities mentioned Jud. 8. that some despised in the Apostles days and 2 Pet. 2. 10 11. And how should any doubt of the Office of Episcopacy being an Ordinance of Christ in the Church when the qualifications requisite to such an Officer are so expresly set down 1 Tim. 3. from v. 1. to v. 8. But whereas it is objected that seeing there is only mentioned in that Chapter a twofold Order 1. Of Bishops 2. Of Deacons it would seem that Presbyters are there understood by Bishops otherwise Presbyters should be wholly excluded from Church Government I answer that will not follow 1. Because Presbyters though not expressed yet may be understood and implied under either the one or the other expresly mentioned the name Deacon being sometimes a general Name in Scripture signifying the most superiour as well as inferiour Officers in the Church 1 Cor. 3. 5. St. Paul called himself and Apollo by the Name of Deacons as it is in the Greek and 2 Cor. 3. 6. he calls all Ministers and Teachers at large by that Name But 2. in the order of things there were but these two Officers at first excepting the Apostles Bishops and Deacons The Churches in many places at first being small the Bishop could both sufficiently teach and rule his Flock and so did without Presbyters only by the assistance of Deacons but the number of the Flock increasing he did chuse and raise up those that had well used the Office of a Deacon to the higher degree of Presbyters which is called by St. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 13. a good degree which they purchased to themselves even as those that well used the Office of a Presbyter were afterwards raised up to the Office of a Bishop as was accordingly practised in the Church so that in priority of Nature and also of Time the Deacon is before the Presbyter though in priority of Dignity the Presbyter is before the Deacon Hence according to the Order established in the Church none is to be ordained a Presbyter until he first be ordained a Deacon nor can he at one and the same time be Ordained to be both The Distinction and Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters or Elders is very clear to me as well as to many out of St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 1. 3. I. St. Paul writes to Timothy to Command or give in Charge to some that were Teachers at Ephesus to teach no other Doctrine than the pure Doctrine of the Gospel such as he had heard of him And had not Timothy had a Superiority of Office above other Teachers which were then at Ephesus why did he direct both his Epistles to him only laying down excellent rules and method of Government for him to follow in the exercise of his Episcopal Function 1 Tim. 3. 15. with respect to several States of Persons both Male and Female II. Why did St. Paul give the Charge to Timothy to count the Elders that ruled well which were no doubt under him worthy of double Honour especially them who laboured in Word and Doctrine but that he was able to confer that double Honour upon them a part of which was an Honourable Maintenance according to what follows ver 18. for the Scripture saith Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward By this it is plain