ANIMI TENORE USUS NONDUMPAR ANIMO PERICULUM INVENIT Cvl BONAE MALAEQ FAMAE MEDIO PERGENTI NEC AB EA QUAM FIXERAT ECCLESIA VERITATIS LINIA RECEDENTI USPIAM UTPOTE NEC HUJUS CONVITIIS TERRITO NEC ILLIUS ILLECEBRIS DELINITO UBIQ SUI SIMILI UNDIQ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CESSIT TANDEM CALUMNIA NON VICTA SOLUM SED ET TRIUMPHATA ET QUANTUMUIS GARRULA OBMUTUIT HANC CONCIUNCHLAM EIVS JUSSU CONCEPTAM NATAM AVSPICIIS HORTATU ET MANDATO IN LUCEM EDITAM PERPETUAE OBSERVANTIAE PIGNUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. MQ D. D. CQ GUILHELMUS SANCROFT PRESBYTER INDIGNUS PATERNITATI EJUS A SACRIS TIT. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee THis Epistle is one of the three not unfitly styled the Hierarchical Epistles de statu Ecclesiastico compositae as Tertullian speaks being so many Rescripts Apostolical to Timothy and Titus the One desired by St. Paul to stay at Ephesus Primate of Asia the Other left in Creet Metropolitan of that and the neighbour Islands directing them how they ought to behave themselves in the House of God which is the Church of the living God True and genuine Decretal Epistles not like that counterfeit Ware which Isidore Mercator under venerable Names hath had the hardiness to obtrude upon the World but of the right stamp and alloy and such as St. Augustine saith a Bishop ought always to carry in his Hand and to have before his Eyes The Verse I have read to you following immediately upon the Salutation begins the Body of the Epistle it self and like an ingenious and well-contriv'd Perspective give us from the very Front a fair Prospect into the Contents of the whole It is as it were a kind of Magical Glass in which an Eye not blind with Ignorance nor blear'd with Passion may see distinctly the Face of the Primitive Church in that Golden Age of the Apostles the Plat-form of her Government the beautiful Order of her Hierarchy the Original and Derivation of her chief Officers and their subordination both to one another and to Christ the great Bishop of our Souls in the last Resort together with the Manage and Direction of the most important Acts of the Government both in point of Ordination and Iurisdiction toó. For here we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders that is Bishops as shall be shewed in due time dispos'd of City by City in every City One these Bishops both ordained and ordered constituted and corrected created and governed by Titus alone and so He in right of the Premisses no other than Metropolitan or Arch-Bishop there the Angel or the Arch-Angel rather of the whole Church of Creet If you ask who fix'd him the Intelligence of so large an Orbe 't was St. Paul himself You have that too in the Text For this Cause left I thee in Creet If yet higher your Curiosity will needs see the Derivation of St. Paul's Power too He opens his Commission verse 1. and spreads it before You styling himself a Servant of God and an Apostle of Iesus Christ One sent abroad into the World by his Commission acted and assisted by his Spirit to plant and to govern Churches after this Scheme and Model So that my Text like Homer's Symbolical Chain consists you see of many Links but the Highest is tyed to the Foot of Iupiter's Throne or rather like Iacob's Mysterious Ladder the Foot of it stands below in Bethel the House of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Head of it is in Heaven and God himself stands at the top of it and leans upon it and keeps it firm Angels Ascending and Descending upon it in the intermedial degrees the Bishops of the Church like those blessed ministring Spirits incessantly bringing down the Commands of God to the Church in their Doctrin and carrying up the Prayers of the Church before God's Throne in their Holy Offices and Intercessions So that you see this holy Oyl which without measure was shed upon the Head of our great High Priest all Power being given to Him both in Heaven and Earth runs down in full stream upon the Beard for As my Father sent me saith he to his Disciples even so send I you and so by and through them to their Successours holy Bishops and Presbyters even down to the Skirts of his Garment For in this comly and exquisite Order we find it in my Text For this Cause I Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ left thee Titus in Creet that thou shouldest set in order or correct the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee In which Words we have these three Parts First The Erection of a Power in the Person of Titus a Metropolitical Power over the whole Island of Creet I left thee in Creet Secondly The end of this Institution or the Use and Exercise of this Power in a double Instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Order and to Ordain to Correct and Constitute to make Bishops and to govern them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Scholia have it For this cause that thou shouldest set in order what was wanting and ordain Elders in every City Thirdly The Limitation of All to Apostolical Prescript and Direction both Ordination and Jurisdiction too the whole Office must be managed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I had appointed thee These are the Parts Of which that I may so speak and you so hear and all of us so remember and so practice that God's holy Name may be glorified and we all built up in the knoledge of that Truth which is according unto Godliness We beseech God the Father in the Name of his Son Iesus Christ to give us the assistance of his Holy Spirit And in these and all other our Supplications let us always remember to pray for Christ ' s Holy Catholic Church i. e. for the whole Congregation of Christian People dispersed through the whole World That it would please Almighty God to purge out of it all Schism Error and Heresie and to unite all Christians in one Holy Bond of Faith and Charity that so at length the happy Day may draw upon us in which all that do confess his Holy Name may agree in the truth of his Holy Word and live in Unity and godly Love More especially let us pray for the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland That the God of Peace who maketh Men to be of one Mind in a House would make us All of one Soul and of one Spirit that again we may meet together and praise Him with one Heart and Mouth and worship him with one Accord in the Beauty of Holiness To this end I am to require you most especially to pray for
and Theophilact have observed it to my hand that he bestows upon so great a Bishop the same common Blessing that he is wont to give to All 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace and Mercy and Peace Ay and no Man as they go on hath more need of it than He Not of Grace for who hath more Burthens to bear More Difficulties to go through with Not of Mercy For who in greater danger of offending either God or Man Not of Peace having so many Enemies on all sides and so many Troubles of every sort Only St. Ierâ—me adds that here 's no Multiplicitur as in other Apprecations Common Christians may have their Peace multiplied Peace within and Peace without Peace with God and Peace with Men too But Titus's Peace is sine Multiplicatione The Bishops and Governours of the Church must look for none but Peace with Heaven and their own Consciences and for that single Pearl likewise Merchants they sell all that they have As for the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's their Lot and that 's their Motto too They must look for Fightings without St. Paul in that Divine Valedictory to the Bishops of the Province of Ephesus Act. xx though as he saith for the space of three years together he had not ceased to warn every one of them night and day with Tears as knowing well both the burthen and the danger they stood under yet a tender Affection having never said enough he resumes the Argument verse 8. Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock For I know that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had almost said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mankind Wolves that will neither spare the flock nor You but by a witty and compendious Malice attaqâ—e the Shepherd first that the Sheep may be seattered and so gleaned up atâ—leisure And therefore Take heed to your selves in the first place in whose Welfare that of the Flock is so closely bound up And yet after all these Caveats and very seasonable Advertisements he cannot yet believe them safe unless he leaves them under a better Guard than His or their Own And therefore in fine he kneels down and prays with them and for them all recommending them to God and to the Word of his Grace And I know not where better to leave you than in the Practice and actual Exercise of a Duty so fairly recommended And shall therefore desire you to turn your wearied Eyes from Me and lift them up to Heaven from whence every good and perfect Gift descends to seek from thence the Smoothing of all Difficulties the Solving of all Doubts the Calming of all Animosities and the Uniting of all Affections And to beg of that Father of Mercies and God of all Consolations That he will every day more and more Turn again our Captivity like the Rivers in the South that they who sow in Tears may reap in Ioy That he would send forth his good Spirit to move upon the Waters of our Massah and Meribah to digest that Chaos and Confusion and Strife of Opinions into one beautiful and Harmonious Composure And finally That He who by the hand of his holy Apostle founded this Church of Creet in Titus and his Elders in a meet and decent Imparity and Subordination would maintain his own Ordinance amongst us also and justifie his Institutions to the utmost against all Gainsayers That the Rod of Aaron may again bud and blossom and bring forth fruit amongst us That his Urim and his Thummim may be with his Holy Ones That he would bless their Substance and accept the Work of their Hands and smite through the Loins of them that hate them that they rise not again That so there may never want a Succession of Holy Bishops and Priests to shine as Lights in the World holding forth the Word of Life till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God unto that Perfection and Fullness of the everlasting Kingdom To the which God in Mercy bring us all through the Merits of his dear Son To which most blessed Father and Son with God the Holy Ghost be ascribed by all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth Blessing Honour Glory and Power both now and for evermore AMEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LEX IGNEA OR The School of Righteousness A SERMON PREACHED Before the KING Octob. 10. 1666. At the SOLEMN FAST appointed For the late FIRE in LONDON By the Most Reverend Father in God William Sancroft D. D. Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Dean of St. Paul's Published by His Majesty's Special Command LONDON Printed by T. B. 1694. ISAIAH xxvi ver 9. When thy Iudgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness THIS Chapter with the two next before and that which follows are all four parts of the same prophetic Sermon as appears by those words so often repeated in them In that Day fixing and determining All to the same Epoch and Period of Time belong All to the same subject Matter sc. the Destruction of Iudah and Ierusalem whether by the Babylonians or the Romans or both So that the Earth or as we may rather translate the Land or the Country wasted and utterly spoiled and turn'd upside down Chap. xxiv is doubtless the Land of Iewry And the World that languisheth and fadeth away Ver. 4. of that Chapter not much wider that and the neighbouring Regions with whom the Iews had commerce and intercourse of Peace and War Moab and Aegypt and Babylon in a word the Iewish World for so both the Hebrew and Greek words usually translated the Earth and the World are often in Scripture-language contracted and limited by the Matter in hand And consequently the City of Confusion which is broken down a City turn'd Chaos again as the Hebrew imports Chap. xxiv 10. the City turn'd into a Heap or a Ruine nay in tumulum as the Vulgar Latine or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as LXX translate it into one great Sepulchre to it self buried in its own Rubbish Chap. xxv 2. The lofty City laid low even to the Ground and abased in the very Dust Chap. xxvi 5. The City desolate and forsaken and left Wilderness and desert all over Chap. xxvii 10. are but so many variations of the Phrase and signifie all the same thing the burning of Ierusalem by Nebuchadnezzar or Titus or as some will have it by both This sad Devastation the Prophet first beholds in speculo prophetico sees it from far in his prophetic Telescope as clearly and distinctly as if it were before his Eyes and describes it here and there the whole Sermon throughout but chiefly Chap. xxiv in so lofty a Language that many have mistaken it for the End of the World and the Consummation of all things But then to sweeten so sad a Theme he assures them it shall not
Knowledge they must do their Exercises too In Gymnasio Iustitiae be anointed to the Agon and to the Combat as the Champions of old and if they expect the Crown of Righteousness must not only learn Righteousness but learn to do it AND therefore to shut up All and to inforce it a little upon such Topics as the Text and the sad Face of things amongst us suggest Let us no longer trifle with God Almighty now we find to our cost that He is in good earnest with us Be not deceived God I 'me sure is not mock'd 'T is not our fasting and looking demure a little and hanging down the Head like a Bullâ—ush for a Day 'T is not a few Grimaces of sorrow a sad word or two or a weeping Eye will serve the turn Our Hearts must bleed too our Souls must be afflicted and mourn for our old Unrighteousnesses and forsake them too and renounce them all for ever and yet further take forth new Lessons of Righteousness in all holy Conversations and Godlinesses as St. Peter speaks even in all the Instances of Piety and Justice and Charity ye heard of even now or all this holy Discipline of God is lost and spent in vain upon us For this is all the Fruit saith our Prophet to take away sin If that remain still in us Adversity is a bitter Cup indeed To keep our sins and hold them fast even when God's Judgments are upon us for them this is with Copronymus to pollute the Fountain that should wash us to defile the salutary Waters of Affliction to prophane the holy Fires of God's Furnace and to pass through the Fire to Moloch to some reigning and domineering Sin some Tyrant-lust or Mistress-passion Correction without Instruction this is the Scourge of Asses not the Disciplin of Men nor the Rod of the Sons of Men. To suffer much and not to be at all the better for it 't is certainly one of the saddest portions that can befal us in this World if not the fore-boding and prognostic of a far sadder yet to come the very beginnings of Hell here the Fore-tasts of that Cup of bitterness of which the Damned such out the Dreggs And wilt thou after all this hide the sweet Morsel under thy Tongue when thou sensibly perceiv'st it already turning into the Gall of Asps Still long for the delicious portion consecrated and snatch it greedily from God's Altars though thou seest thy Fingers burn and thy Nest on Fire with it Still retain the old Complacence in thy sparkling Cup though thou feel'st it already biting like a Serpent and stinging like an Adder say still Stoln Waters are sweet though like those bitter Ones of Jealousie thou perceiv'st them carry a Curse along with them into thy very Bowels Dare we thus provoke the Lord to Iealousie Are we stronger than He Gird up now thy loyns like a Man thou stoutest and gallantest of the Sons of Earth Hast thou an Arm like God Or canst thou thunder with a Voice like him Wilt thou set the Briars and Thorns of the Wilderness against him in Battle Array Or canst thou dwell with everlasting Burnings Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance not knowing refusing to know that the Long-suffering of our Lord is Salvation and that his Goodness leadeth thee to Repentance If not know assuredly that thy Hardness and Impenitent Heart do but treasure up for thee yet a fiercer and a more insupportable Wrath. And therefore let us not flatter our selves nor think that God hath now emptied his Quiver and spent all his Artillery upon us Let us not come forth delicately with the foolish Agag saying Surely the Bitterness of Death is past No the Dregs of the Cup of Fury are still behind God grant we be not forc'd at last to drink them and suck them up Great Plagues remain for the ungodly saith the Psalmist Vae unum abiit Ecce duo veniunt One Wo is past but behold there come two Woes more for the rest of Men that were not kill'd by the former Plagues repented not Apoc. ix 12 20. When God's Rods and his Ferulaes the Discipline of Children are contemn'd he hath a lash of Scorpions to scourge the obstinate When the ten dreadful Plagues are spent all upon a stubborn Aegypt without effect there 's a Red-Sea yet in Reserve that at last swallows all And if our present Afflictions reform us not that we sin no more take we heed lest yet a worse thing befal us Remember that when the Touch of God's little Finger did not terrifie us he soon made us feel the stroak of his heavy Hand If the more benign and benedict Medicines will not work nor stir us at all he can prepare us a rougher Receipt or a stronger Dose retrive and bring back his former Judgments in a sharper Degree or else send upon us new ones which we never dream of The Devil of Rebellion and Disobedience which not long since possest the Nation rent and tore it till it fom'd again and pin'd away in lingring Consumptions that cast it oft-times into the Fire and oft-times into the Water Calamities of all sorts to destroy it is now through God's Mercies cast out and we seem to sit quiet and sober at the Feet of our Deliverer cloath'd and in our right Minds again But yet this ill Spirit this restless Fury this unquiet and dreadful Alastor the eldest Son of Nemesis and Heir apparent to all the Terrours and Mischiefs of his Mother walks about day and night seeking rest and finds none and he saith in his Heart I will return some time or other to my House from whence I came out O let us take heed of provoking that God who alone chains up his Fury least for our Sins he permit him to return once more with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and so our last Estate prove worse than the former The Sword of the Angel of Death which the last year cut down almost a hundred thousand of us may seem to have been glutted with our Blood and to have put up it self into the Scabbard Quiesce â—ile as the Prophet speaks God grant it may rest here and be still But as it follows there How can it be quiet if the Lord give it a new Commission against us Methinks I see the Hand still upon the Guard and unless we prevent it by our speedy Repentance it may quickly be drawn again more terrible than ever new furbisht and whetted with the keener edge and point our wretched Ingratitude must needs have given it The Sun of Righteousness was ready to rise upon us with healing in his Wings to clear our Heaven again and to scatter the Cloud of the last years unhealthiness But yet methinks this slow-moving Cloud hangs still o're our Heads hovers yet in view with God knows how many Plagues and Deaths in the Bosom of it And without