appointment In the text they were sent by him upon his Bestowing that Power which the Prophets at Antioch bid them receive at their laying on of hands So then from the Holy Ghost comes all Power to exercise any sacred Ministerial Office in the Church of God This was the chiefest business of God the Father and God the Sons breathing forth or sending down the Holy Ghost from Heaven to qualify and make some fit for the performance of Church-work with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts according to their several stations and capacities for when Christ gave the gifts of the Holy Ghost to men Ephes 4.8 He gave some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery verse the 11 And as a learned observer says very well All the reason in the world that he should have a special hand in giving where himself is to be received Receive ye the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 Whosoever therefore undertakes this Warfare for so the work of the Levites is often call'd in the book of Numbers without a Commission from him viz. the Holy Ghost though he make pretence of never so plausible Intentions is but a Traytor to the Holy Ghost and can look for no better thanks than Uzzah had for his Officious Prophanation For though there be mention here of Apostles only receiving the Holy Ghost 't is evident they receiv'd not this Gift as Apostles but as entring into an Ecclesiastical Ministery else why did they impart the same afterwards to Bishops and Presbyters which St. Pauls History and Writings do abundantly witness The text then doth as nearly concern Us at present in the Christian Church as if Paul and Barnabas had been now ordained Priests So that I may without offence I hope to the scope of the History take a view of it especially as it represents us with the Priests Ordination the chief business of this present solemnity And that we may be the better ascertain'd that it is the Holy Ghost who gives this Power let us enquire so far as we may what the Power is and how distinguished from other Gifts of the Holy Ghost who thus commissions Not to run too far backwards but to begin with the Apostles themselves You may observe in the Gospel that the Holy Ghost is twice promised by our Saviour to his Apostles once under the promise of the Keys in the 16 of St. Matthew v. the 18. about two years before his Passion afterwards under the promise of a Comforter or as the learned Grotius translates it an Advocate Luke 24.49 after his Resurrection though ye shall find the same Promise made unto them and often repeated the Day before his Passion in the 14 15 and 16. chapters of St. John and some moneths before that to all Beleevers St. John 7.38 and yet sooner to his Apostles in the 10. of St. Mat. v. the 20 The Former of these was performed after his Resurrection S. John 20.22 when he said unto them Receive ye the holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained The Latter was performed upon the day of Pentecost as appears in the second of the Acts of the Apostles when the holy Ghost came down from Heaven in the shape of cloven fiery Tongues which came as it were in a windy rushing Chariot and sate upon each of them yea and inspired them with the Gift of Tongues verse 1 2 3 c. Now Both these gifts had a Power annex'd unto them With the First was a Power of the Keys The Other was a Power from on high a Power of conviction by Miracles When the Comforter is come he shall convince the world of Sin of Righteousness of Judgment St. John 16.8 A Power of Answering for themselves without taking thought before hand When they should be brought before Governours for the name and the cause of Christ St. Mat. 10.18 19 20. And a Power of knowledge of the truth St. John 14.26 The Comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things You shall find a third Power given by Christ to his Apostles immediately upon having created them Apostles a power of Miracles St. Mat. 10.1 He gave them Power against unclean Spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of Sickness and all manner of Disease There is Lastly another sort of Gifts of the Holy Ghost which though they were always in the Church of God yet Now first came under that name And those are such as the Apostle reckons up in the 12 of his Epistle to the Rom. v. the 8. He that giveth let him do it with simplicity He that ruleth with diligence He that sheweth mercy with cheerfulness Together with several other graces which he reckons up and calls Gifts in the 6. verse Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us and Fruit of the Spirit in his 5. to the Gal. v. the 22. That these Ghostly Gifts of the fourth kind of Sanctifying Graces are perpetually to be enjoyed by the faithful is confess'd on all hands That the Power of Miracles which the Apostles exercised while Christ was upon the Earth was a Gift Extraordinary and not to out-last their own times will be easily admitted among us and the same of that which was given at the Feast of Pentecost excepting that part of it mentioned in the 14. of St. John The Gift of knowledge which we must warily distinguish what it was in the Apostles and what in the succeeding Church They had in its Fulness they were taught all things by it but after ages had only that Proportion which seemed good to the Author and Disposer of it For Should we leave this wholly among the Extraordinary Gifts of the Apostles we had quite relinquishd our interest in the Comforter and should have no more reason to look for him at our Veni Creator than to expect the mighty rushing Wind or the Sound from Heaven or the Cloven Tongues as of Fire The controversie then lies in the Gift first named which is the same we enquire after some making it the same with Sanctifying Grace some the same with Grace Enabling for the Performance which I take to be nothing else but that Gift of Knowledge under the second kind of Graces mentioned and of these some there are in our own Church I mean who think it nothing inferiour to that which the Apostles had A plain Infallibility The rest confound it with that Gift of the Comforter as it belongs to the Universal Church They that think it the same with Sanctifying Grace to say no more must needs forget that Judas Iscariot in whom was little or no sign rather of Sanctifying Grace when he betrayed his Master was one of the twelve and if we may draw any parallel from the Law that Caiaphas the High Priest prophesied St.
a Blessing upon the expedition they were now about to be imployed in So our Annotator upon the Rhemists interprets it which we might suspect done out of too much heat of contention and that because They had expounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the second verse Saying of Mass He would needs find fault too with their construing Imposition of hands in the next verse Giving of orders but that we find the same opinion in some of the Romanists too all of them grounding it upon St. Pauls assertion in the beginning of his Epistle to the Galatians chap. 1. v. the 1. Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ For answer to which it is confess'd not only that Paul had an Immediate calling from God but also that such a Mission was altogether as essential to the Apostleship as to the Prophets in the Old Testament But this Calling or Sending was nothing else properly but the Designation and Appointment of fit persons which while the High-Priest of the New-Covenant was present with them had perhaps annex'd unto it their Inauguration Both however were received immediately from him After his Ascension this latter must needs be left in the hands of the Church Nor doth it any way blemish their Prerogative above the after-Fathers of the Church to own Ordination By man since their Master had vouchsaf'd to receive the sacrament of Baptism from one who he himself had pronounced less than the least of these Prophetical Ordainers So then our Apostle was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receiving his authority from Men nor is any Presbyter For all are sent by the Holy Ghost neither was he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 designed or chosen by man to this Ministery as all ordinary Pastors are but he might nevertheless be ordained by man and so to omit late Interpreters St. Chrysostom tells us he was in his Homily upon my text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having no authority to exercise his Apostleship to which he was called by special Direction from the Holy Ghost till he was ordained to it by the laying on of hands So that there is no reason why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the text urged should be any more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 1. to Timothy by the commandment of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in almost all the rest of his Epistles by the will of God Nor is it worth the while for them to urge the Letter of the Syriack translation which renders it Not of the sons of man nor by the hand of the son of man for it follows but by the hand of Jesus Christ which is enough methinks to make them forsake the argument and look better into the Propriety of the Language It seems then not improbable that all Apostles after Christs Ascension into Heaven received their Apostleship by Imposition of hands from the Church That Timothy had his office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the designation of the Spirit is not to be denied 1 Tim. 4.14 But yet that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the laying on of hands is clear from the same place and more expresly and particularly from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the laying on of my hands 2 Tim. 1.6 And do we not read that Timothy was plac'd at Ephesus as Titus was left at Grete to ordain others after the same manner Tit. 1.5 Even Matthias himself of whose choice we find mention without any of his Ordination For though our English in translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was numbred with make the text seem to imply him sufficiently instated in his Apostolate by having the lot fallen upon him yet the Original will better bear Erasmus's Cooptatus est or Beza's Communibus calculis allectus after which implying only a Nomination might well follow a solemn Admission though we have no mention of it in this sacred History Here you see we have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Holy Ghost for Barnabas and Saul the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them at the second verse Which to say was no more than send away Barnabas and Saul to Cyprus betrayes so much Ignorance in the use of that expression in both Testaments that I think it cannot find much entertainment with any Person of Reason This Separation therefore was nothing else but their Ordination and the conferring that power upon them which the Holy Ghost now call'd them to by an External Extraordinary Call and afterwards ratified by an Internal Ordinary Calling at their laying on of hands upon them And so I come to the First part of my text which represents unto us their Commission and that first from the Holy Ghost expresly given us in these words Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost This is the first particular namely that the Holy Ghost is the Superintendent or the Unction they receiving their Commission from him That by the Holy Ghosts sending is rather to be understood his Inward giving them that Power which their Ordination intituled them unto than either his Extraordinary Calling of them before mentioned in the second verse or the Secret Instinct of the Spirit directing them whither they should go though both expositions have their throngs of Assertors I am for my part induced to think because the former Interpretation seems to impose a needless repetition upon the text the latter besides that this Cyprus whither they went was Barnabas's own Countrey as appears plainly at the latter end of the 4. chap. so that he might in all probability be carried thither by his own Affection hath none or very few Parallels in this History or elsewhere either Historical or Grammatical For first how many Journeys of S. Paul and others do we here meet withall without the least mention of the Holy Ghosts sending it being sufficiently known and elsewhere to be collected that they were directed by him in almost all their undertakings And then secondly The spirit of Prophesie except where in general those Extraordinary gifts are express'd in one as St. John 7.39 and the like is not usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but barely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Holy Ghost but the Spirit as you may see in the 11 19 20 and 21. chap. of this book to name no more whereas this power of Orders is styled the holy Ghost in that very form which the greatest part of the Western Church hath taken up from our Saviours own mouth And in the 20. of this book v. 28. the Presbyters which were ordained by the Apostles are charged by S. Paul at Miletus to take heed unto the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers These had no Extraordinary Mission as our Apostle here and yet They were sent by the Holy Ghost and therefore why not These in the same sense For In the 2. v. they were sent by him upon his Immediate choice and
is an Article not denied by any but such who have so far renounc'd their Understanding that they are resolved to hearken to none but their own Schismatical Fanatick Teachers I conceive it more pertinent and of greater concernment and more advantagious to the Fathers and Sons of the Church to clear the Text from giving Patronage to that opinion so magnified of late that the power of Ordination belongs of right to the Presbytery a Position condemned by the Council of Trent Sess 23. can 7. and is but usurped by the Bishop If I would enter upon a discourse of the Bishops Right in Ordination I might tell them It was a very Ancient Usurpation if it be one even within one year after Christs Ascension into Heaven as Chronologers reckon it For we find at the 6. of this book which treats of things done within the 33. year of Christ the Apostles laying on their hands upon the seaven Deacons without any challenge from the Seventy two of being excluded But to keep to the Text It will suffice to enquire by what Title these Prophets of Antioch exercised this Power and so consequently whether their practice be a sufficient ground for this Opinion That it is not the same Power to Ordain a Priest and to Ordain an Apostle is true But it makes the more for them since it is far more plausible to say that Priests have a power to ordain a Priest than that they have so to consecrate a Bishop Some therefore to avoid this say there were Bishops among these Prophets three at least Others say that the Prophets themselves did not lay their hands on them but sent them to the Apostles at Jerusalem and that it was they that layed their hands on them A learned Divine among us with far greater probability affirms they were more than meer Presbyters in that they were Prophets reckoned at the 4. of S. Pauls Epistle to the Ephes v. the 11 in the next rank to the Apostles before Evangelists they themselves being even Apostles Secundi Ordinis if I mistake not his meaning The two former Opinions have no countenance at all from the Text and so I leave them The Last Interpretation though very probable may admit of some dispute since the Scripture seems to evidence that this Spirit of Prophecy which is thought chiefly to consist in Interpreting the word of God by Immediate Inspiration was at this first breaking forth of the Sun-beams of the Gospel communicated to far greater numbers of men than were likely to have any Precedence or Authority in the Church above Presbyters Read the 14. of the 1 Epistle to the Corinthians and you shall find the Apostle exhorting all his Corinthians to desire especially the Gift of Prophecying and at the 34. v. of the same chapter he commands Women to keep silence in the Church implying that They also sometimes had this Gift of Prophecying as we see Acts 21.9 Phillips Daughters were Prophetesses agreeable to Gods promise repeated out of the Prophet Joel at the second of the Acts verse the 17. your Daughters shall Prophecy The result of which will be that these Prophets were rather Inferiour to Presbyters in Authority than above them though perhaps sometimes Fuller of the Holy Ghost that is better enabled by the Spirit for the performance of that part of the Presbyters charge which consisted in Preaching And therefore since we cannot conclude they had the Power of Ordaining Apostles unless we acknowledge them at least equal to Apostles which this Interpretation doth not make good with submission to the Reverend Author or any other who shall otherwise instruct me I think we need not contend for their Superiority above Presbyters but rather be contented with this that whatever they were they did not this by any Power tranferr'd upon them in ordinary no not even as they were Prophets but by Particular Extraordinary Appointment and Revelation from the Holy Ghost For so much St. Luke tells us expresly in the next verse save one before my Text As they ministred to the Lord and Fasted the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them What then will this advantage them towards the grounding a perpetual practice on it Durst the Jews do you think consecrate an High-Priest without those Ceremonies mentioned in the 8. or 9. chap. of Levit. because God himself did dispense with them in the Consecration of Eleazer upon Mount Hor Num. 20 Or Might the Priests presume to use any other Altar for Burnt Offerings than that in the Tabernacle because God for the Conviction of Baals Prophets approved of Elijahs Sacrifice which he offered upon stones that we do not read where were ever Hallowed 1 Kings 18 Why did not They who had so many Judgements denounc'd against them for letting their children passe through the fire make this reply for their Innocency Lord why dost thou lay thine heavy hand upon us Didst not thou command the Father of the Faithful thy servant Abraham to offer up his Son his only Son Isaac for a burnt Sacrifice If the Prophets at Antioch ordained some upon a special command from the Holy Ghost Let not Presbyters challenge to themselves the same Power till they can shew the same Patent for it But If it were absolutely necessary nay only lawful to follow all Examples recorded in Holy Writ and which too perhaps are not therein condemn'd we should quickly dash the first against the second Table and cast off our Service to God our Obedience to the Church and our Love to one another The Consequences would be such as this there were but twelve that Christ administred the Blessed Sacrament unto before he departed this world and they were all Men and his Disciples yea Apostles and it was after Supper in an upper chamber and in Jerusalem together with many other circumstances the least whereof if any omitted would look but of a bad complection There must be no more nor any other now But to the business in hand Without all question it is not over safe for any Presbyters to venture upon the conferring of Orders upon any where there are no Bishops For though Those Churches beyond Sea not to meddle with our Neighbours urge the Example of the Levites executing the Priests Office when the Priests were too few at the 29 of the 2 book of Chron. yet if they did well consider that this was done but till the other Priests were Sanctified certainly they would long before now have provided themselves of Bishops Indeed the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas had Bishops once and where is the advantage which any of them have received by Rejecting them Alass they are so few that you can scarce name any Indeed if Toleration and promiscuous Indulgence of Heresies which are no where so rife as where there are no Bishops be an advantage then Amsterdam is as happy yea happier now than ever it was or any other place can be I find
indeed in the best of our performances an Affiance in the Merits of Christ That Gospel or Doctrine they Preach'd which came down from Heaven which was inspired and sealed by the Holy Ghost and confirmed by Miracles And this they did by immediate Inspiration of God We live in an age whose Religion dwells altogether in their Ears so little are we for the Practice They think now a days that Preaching as they call it not as the Scriptures mean it and Pulpit Extemporary Discourses are the sum total of the Priestly duty and the best of Christian Privileges But this is a gross Abuse both of the thing the Preachers and themselves For let it be granted as most true it is that Preaching is an holy excellent Ordinance of God appointed by him for the salvation of Souls if warrantably undertaken and rightly managed and performed It may be a Comfort to the Conscience that is Comfortlesse a Relevation to Souls that are Afflicted a Deletory for Sin an helpful means to a good life and an excellent instrument tending to promote all the parts of Gods service and at last to bring us to Salvation It pleaseth God saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 1.21 by the foolishness of Preaching to save some and saving true Faith comes by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God and how shall they hear without a Preacher says the same Apostle to the Romanes chap. 10. v. the 14. But then we must not mistake but warily distinguish what is meant by the Word of God which is The Doctrine of the Gospel and what by Preaching which is Not the manner of delivering but the matter delivered For notwithstanding all the wonderfull and rare Effects which may be wrought by Preaching yet Preaching and Sermons such as are now in use are not the Word of God in the properest and strictest sense Though yet the English Puritan will not believe this insomuch that he magnifies any Pulpit Discourse above the written Word of God comprehended in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles daily read in Churches at the set time of Divine Service and which he makes of little or no esteem or use in the conversion of Soules unto God Beleeving it to be much inferiour to that of Preaching upon a Text by the sandy Clock Certainly That thing which sweetens others must be far sweeter of it self And if the waters in the channels or the veyns of the Earth be so pure and pleasant how much more excellent and wholesome must the Spring it self be and the place from whence those Waters flow In the one there is no fear of the Spawn of Toads or the Vipers venome no destructive soul-damning Tenents of Hereticks to be found in the Scriptures imposed on us whereas by too sad experience we have known and find it that the pestiferous breath of some Pulpit-men hath been that which hath first given life to the Factions and Heresies in this our Church and then by their laying about with their Hands and Tongues hath fired the Church and Kingdom nay almost burn'd it to ashes had not God in his mercy as well as in his Justice removed the Incendiaries who because they cannot daringly go on and prosper lay all the Private trains they can to disturb our Peace the Peace of the Church and Kingdome too and to break our Unity I shall not inveigh here against the secular ends and Ungodly Interests which of late were introduced by this their Pharisaical kind of piety nor tell you how they corrupted the savour of life into a savour of death Corruptio optimi est pessima You well know the Seditions and Disturbances the Cheats and Treasons Murders Plunders Sequestrations Imprisonments Banishments c. which were caused and acted by some mens publick as well as private Insinuations whose Calling gave them too great an opportunity and all under the notion of Painful Soul-saving Godly Preachers superseminare haeresin to scatter tares in the Field of God and sow that which Preaching ought to Root up And as one says very well for me Preaching and Thirsting after the Word are so good things that the very Names of them may mislead good People if they be misapplyed And so they are very often For a great many there are that most vainly and impertinently apply to Sermons or popular Orations all those glorious things which are spoken of the Word of God and of Preaching as Faith and Salvation Ro. 10.14 1 Cor. 1.21 Man by the Fall got a crack in his Understanding his Wil grew Perverse and his Affections dull and heavy All the Faculties of his Soul are depraved and he is ready to comply with any thing but the commands of God and Obedience to the truth and therefore indeed upon this consideration it may it must be granted that there is more need of humane Artifice witty Complyings sober Insinuations and Ingenious devices to recover men from the errors of their ways and to keep them right when they are so But this may be done by other ways would men admit of the Tryal as well nay better and with more ease than by the Pulpit For I do beleeve for I know no reason to the contrary as many souls went to Heaven Before as do Now that we have so much Vulpit Preaching And yet mistake me not For I do not say this to decry and undervalue Preaching that ancient Ecclesiastical Ordinance but to magnifie the Reading and Hearing of the Scriptures which are indeed the Word of God and to teach you that the Scriptures are the best of Sermons That Word which came down from Heaven and was sealed by the Spirit of God That Word which has been spoke by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets and Apostles That Word which has been watered with the Blood of Martyrs confirmed by Miracles and strangely preserved even beyond all Miracle and Believed in all ages And which Word which way or in what manner soever it be conveyed unto us whether by Reading in Lessons or Epistles or Gospels is the same thing still and ought to have the highest estimate in our Affecti-and challenges as greedy an ear as any thing can doe That the Reading of the Scriptures in the Church is Preaching to the People I shall give you some unquestionable Testimonies of Councils and Fathers and if this be not sufficient or whether it be or no produce the Supreme Authority of the Scriptures themselves Let the first be that of Justin Martyr in his second Apology to the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say On the Day called Sunday all that abide in Towns or the Countreys about meet in one place and the Records of the Apostles or the Writings of the Prophets are read as far as occasion serveth Then the Reader having done the President in a speech instructeth and exhorteth to the imitation of such excellent things and in another place he says that In their Writings the Judgment to come is Preached Take another from