delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not Faith Errata P 1 l 18 lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P 3 l ◠lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P 6 l 10. lege but by its being indiff P 34 transpose these words in the 4 and 5 lines The Gentry being little better then Servants while they live under the Presbyterie to 〈…〉 〈…〉 the Gentry c. P 36 l 17 lege Roman P 37 l 4 for discern lege deserve Luke 12. 42. And the Lord said who then is that faithful and wise Steward whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season 43. Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THese words are not properly a question though they seem so and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not interogative but hypothetical and extends who to whosoever plainly meaning that whoever is a Steward over Christs houshold of him God requires a great care because he hath trusted him with a great imployment Every Steward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in St. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in my text Every Steward whom the Lord hath or shall appoint over the Family to rule it and to feed it now and in all generations of men as long as this Family shall abide on earth that is the Apostles and they who were to succeed the Apostles in the Stewardship were to be furnished with the same power and to undertake the same charge and to give the same strict and severe accounts In these words here is something insinuated and much expressed 1. That which is insinuated onely is who these Stewards are whom Christ had whom Christ would appoint over his Family the Church they are not here nam'd but we shall find them out by their proper direction and indigitation by and by 2. But that which is expressed is the Office it self in a double capacity 1. In the dignity of it It is a Rule and a Government whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his houshold 2. In the care and duty of it which determines the government to be paternal and profitable it is a Rule but such a rule as Shepheards have over their flocks to lead them to good pastures and to keep them within their appointed walks and within their folds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the work to give them a measure and proportion of nourishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Matthew calls it meat in the season that which is fit for them and when it is fit meat enough and meat convenient and both together mean that which the Greek Poets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong wholsom dyet 3. Lastly Here is the reward of the faithful and wise dispensation The Steward that does so and continues to do so till his Lord find him so doing this man shall be blessed in his deed Blessed is the Servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing Of these in order 1. Who are these Rulers of Christs Family for though Christ knew it and therefore needed not to ask yet we have disputed it so much and obeyed so little that we have chang'd the plain hypothesis into an intangled question The Answer yet is easie as to some part of the inquiry The Apostles are the first meaning of the text for they were our Fathers in Christ They begat Sons and Daughters unto God and where a spiritual paternity is evident we need look no further for spiritual Government because in the paternal rule all power is founded They begat the Family by the power of the word and the life of the spirit and they fed this family and rul'd it by the word of their proper Ministery They had the keyes of this house the Stewards 〈◊〉 and they had the Rulers place for they sat on twelve thrones and judged the twelve tribes of Israel But of this there is no question And as little of another proposition that this Stewardship was to last for ever for the powers of Ministring in this Office and the Office it self were to be perpetual For the issues and powers of Government are more necessary for the perpetuating the Church then for the first planting and if it was necessary that the Apostles should have a rod and a staff at first it would be more necessary afterwards when the Family was more numerous and their first zeal abated and their native simplicity perverted into arts of hypocrisy and formes of godliness when Heresies should arise and the love of many should wax cold The Apostles had also a power of Ordination and that the very power it self does denote for it makes perpetuity that could not expire in the dayes of the Apostles for by it they themselves propagated a succession And Christ having promis'd his spirit to abide with his Church for ever and made his Apostles the channels the Ministers and conveyances of it that it might descend as the inheritance and eternal portion of the Family it cannot be imagined that when the first Ministers were gone thereshould not others rise up in the same places some like to the first in the same Office and Ministery of the spirit But the thing is plain and evident in the matter of fact also Quod in Ecclesiâ nunc geritur hoc olim fecerunt Apostoli said St. Cyprian What the Apostles did at first that the Church does to this day and shall do so for ever For when St. Paul had given to the Bp. of Ephesus rules of Government in this Family he commands that they should be observed till the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ and therefore these authorities and charges are given to him and to his Successors it is the observation of St. Ambrose upon the warranty of that text and is obvious and undeniable Well then The Apostles were the first Stewards and this Office dies not with them but must for ever be succeeded in and now begins the enquiry who are the Successors of the Apostles for they are they must evidently be the Stewards to feed and to rule this Family There are some that say that all who have any portion of work in the Family all the Ministers of the Gospel are these Stewards and so all will be Rulers The Presbyters surely for say they Presbyter and Bishop is the same thing and have the same name in Scripture and therefore the Office cannot be distinguished To this I shall very briefly say two things which will quickly clear our way through this bush of thornes I. That the word Presbyter is but an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews as Alderman amongst us but it signifies no order at all nor was ever used in Scripture to signify any distinct company or order of Clergy And this appears not onely by an Induction in all the enumerations of the Offices Ministerial in the
A SERMON Preached at the Consecration of two Archbishops and ten Bishops in the Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in DUBLIN Ianuary 27. 1660. By Ieremie Taylor D. D. Ld. Bishop of Downe and Connor Sal liquefit ut condiat DVBLIN Printed by W. Bladen for Iohn North Bookseller in Castlestreet Anno Dom. 1661. To the Christian Reader MY Obedience to the Commands of the Right Honourable the Lords Iustices and the most Reverend and Learned Primate and to the desires of my Reverend Brethren put it past my inquiry whether I ought to Publish this following Sermon I will not therefore excuse it and say it might have advantages in the Delivery which it would want in the Reading and the eare would be kind to the Piety of it which was apparent in the design when the eye would be severe in its censure of those arguments which as they could not be longer in that measure of time so would have appeared more firm if they could have had liberty to have been pursued to their utmost issue But reason lies in a little room and Obedience in less And although what I have here said may not stop the mouths of Men resolved to keep up a faction yet I have said enough to the sober and pious to them who love Order and hearken to the voice of the Spouse of Christ to the Loving and to the Obedient And for those that are not so I have no argument fit to be used but Prayer and readiness to give them a reason when they shall modestly demand it In the mean time I shall onely desire them to make use of those truths which the more learned of their party have by the evidence of fact been forced to confess Rivet affirms that it descended ex veteris aevi reliquiis that Presbyters should be assistants or conjoyned to the Bishops who is by this confessed to be the principal in the imposition of hands for Ordination VValo Messalinus acknowledges it to be rem antiquissimam a most ancient thing that these two Orders viz of Bishops and Presbyters should be distinct even in the middle or in the beginning of the next age after Christ. Dd. Blondell places it to be 35. years after the death of S. John Now then Episcopacy is confessed to be of about 1600. years continuance and if before this they can shew any Ordination by mere Presbyters by any but an Apostle or an Apostolical man and if there were not visibly a distinction of powers and persons relatively in the Ecclesiastical Government or if they can give a rational account why they who are forced to confess the Honour and distinct Order of Episcopacy for about 16. ages should in the dark interval of 35. years in which they can pretend to no Monument or Record to the contrary yet make unlearned scruples of things they cannot colourably prove if I say they can reasonably account for these things I for my part will be ready to confess that they are not guilty of the greatest the most unreasonable and inexcusable schism in the world But else they have no colour to palliate the unlearned crime For will not all wise men in the world conclude that the Church of God which was then Holy not in title onely and designe but practically and materially and persecuted and not immerged in secular temptations could not all in one instant joyn together to alter that form of Church Government which Christ and his Apostles had so recently established and without a Divine warrant destroy a Divine institution not onely to the confusion of the Hierarchy but to the ruine of their own Souls It were strange that so great a change should be and no good man oppose it In toto orbe decretum est so St. Hierom. All the world consented in the advancement of the Episcopal Order And therefore if we had no more to say for it yet in prudence and piety we cannot say they would innovate in so great a matter But I shall enter no further upon this enquirie onely I remember that it is not very many Months since the Bigots of the Popish party cryed out against us vehemently and inquired VVhere is your Church of England since you have no Vnity for your Ecclesiastick head of Vnity your Bishops are gone And if we should be desirous to verify their argument so as indeed to destroy Episcopacy VVe should too much advantage Popery and do the most imprudent and most impious thing in the world But blessed be God who hath restored that Government for which Our late King of glorious memory gave his blood And that me thinks should very much weigh with all the Kings true hearted Subjects who should make it Religion not to rob that glorious Prince of the greatest honour of such a Martyrdom For my part I think it fit to rest in those words of another Martyr St. Cyprian Si quis cum Episcopo non sit in Ecclesia non esse He that is not with the Bishop is not in the Church that is he that goes away from him and willingly separates departs from Gods Church and whether he can then be with God is a very material consideration and fit to be thought on by all that think heaven a more eligible good then the interests of a faction and the importune desire of rule can countervail However I have in the following papers spoken a few things which I hope may be fit to perswade them that are not infinitely prejudic'd and although two or three good arguments are as good as two or three hundred yet my purpose here was to prove the dignity and necessity of the Office and Order Episcopal onely that it might be as an Oeconomy to convey notice and remembrances of the great duty incumbent upon all them that undertake this great charge The Dignity and the Duty take one another by the hand and are born together onely every Sheep of the Flock must take care to make the Bishops duty as easy as it can by humility and love by Prayer and by Obedience It is at the best very difficult but they who oppose themselves to Government make it harder and uncomfortable But take heed if thy Bishop hath cause to complain to God of thee for thy perversness and uncharitable walking thou wilt be the looser And for Vs VVe can onely say in the words of the Prophet VVe will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people But Our comfort is in God for we can do nothing without him but in him we can do all things And therefore VVe will pray Domine dabis pacem nobis omnia enim opera nostra operatus es in nobis God hath wrought all Our works within Vs and therefore he will give Vs Peace and give Vs his Spirit Finally Brethren pray for Us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorifyed even as it is with you and that we may be
channels of Salvation quite another way and leave the Church to a perpetual uncertainty whether she be alive or dead and the people destitute of the life of their Souls and their daily bread and their spiritual comforts and holy blessings The consequent of this is If Sacraments depend upon Bishops then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials sanctifyed with a holy ministery and ministred by holy persons For although it be true that the efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers yet it is as true that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the Receiver but both together relying upon the goodness of God produce all those blessings which are designed The Minister hath an influence into the effect and does very much towards it and if there be a failer there it is a defect in one of the concurring causes and therefore an unholy Bishop is a great diminution to the peoples blessing St. Hierom presses this severely Impiè faciunt c. They do wickedly who affirm that the Holy Eucharist is consecrated by the words alone and solemn prayer of the consecrator and not also by his life and holiness and therefore St. Cyprian affirms that none but holy and upright men are to be chosen who offering their Sacrifices worthily to God may be heard in their prayers for the Lords people but for others Sacrificia eorum panis luctus saith the Prophet Hosea their Sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow who ever eats thereof shall be defiled This discourse is not mine but St. Cyprians and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically but in the case of duty and caution yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts and consider how we shall give an account of our Stewardship if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands it is of it self a pure nourishment but if it passes through an unclean vessel it looses much of it's excellency 3. The like also is to be said concerning prayer For the Episcopal Order is appointed by God to be the great Ministers of Christs Priesthood that is to stand between Christ and the people in the entercourse of prayer and blessing VVe will give our selves continually to prayer said the Apostles that was the one half of their imployment and indeed a Bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer and in diverting Gods judgments and procuring blessings to the people for in all times the chief of the Religion was ever the chief Minister of blessing Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech and Melchisedek blessed Abraham and Aaron blessed the people and without all controversy saith the Apostle the less is blessed of the Greater But then we know that God heareth not sinners and it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man that shall prevail And therefore we may easily consider that a vitious Prelate is a great calamity to that Flock which he is appointed to bless and pray for How shall he reconcile the penitents who is himself at enmity with God How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the Symbols at his prayer who does perpetually grieve him and quench his holy fires and drive him quite away How shall he that hath not tasted of the spirit by contemplation stir up others to earnest desires of Celestial things Or what good shall the people receive when the Bp. lays upon their head a covetous or a cruel an unjust or an impure hand But therefore that I may use the words of St. Hierom. Cum ab Episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur mundi totius Ecclesiae totius condimentum sit Episcopus c. since it is intended that from the Bp. grace should be diffus'd amongst all the people there is not in the world a greater indecency then a holy office ministred by an unholy person and no greater injury to the people then that of the blessings which God sends to them by the Ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward And therefore it was an exellent prayer which to this very purpose was by the son of Sirach made in behalf of the High Priests the sons of Aaron God give you wisdom in your heart to judge his people in righteousness that their good things be not abolished and that their glory may endure for ever 4. All the offices Ecclesiastical always were and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal order as is evident in the universal doctrine and practise of the primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 40th Canon of the Apostles Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop But that case is known The consequent of this consideration is no other then the admonition in my text VVe are Stewards of the manifold Grace of God and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful that we preach the word of God in season and out of season that we rebuke and exhort admonish and correct for these God calls Pastores secundùm cor meum Pastors according to his own heart which feed the people with knowledge and understanding but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart minister the Sacraments with great diligence and righteous measures and abundant charity alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ to St. Peter If thou lovest me feed my sheep If thou hast any love to me feed my lambs And let us remember this also that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires There is reason in these words of St. Chrysostom It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head as plants to their roots as rivers to their springs as children to their Fathers as Disciples to their Masters These similitudes express not onely the relation and dependency but they tell us the reason of the duty The head gives light and reason to conduct the body the roots give nourishment to the plants and the springs perpetual emanation of waters to the channels Fathers teach and feed their children and Disciples receive wise instruction from their Masters and if we be all this to the people they will be all that to us and wisdom will compel them to submit and our humility will teach them obedience and our charity will invite their compliance Our good example will provoke them to good works and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility For all the Lords people are populus voluntarius a free and willing people and we who cannot compel their bodies must thus constrain their souls by inviting their wills by convincing their understandings by the beauty of fair example the efficacy
and holiness and the demonstrations of the spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake Remember them who have the rule over you whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation There lyes the demonstration and those Prelates who teach good life whose Sermons are the measures of Christ and whose life is a coppy of their Sermons these must be followed and surely these will for these are burning and shining lights but if we hold forth false fires and by the amusement of evil examples call the vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a rock or an iron shore instead of a safe harbour we cause them to make shipwrack of their precious faith and to perish in the deceiptful and unstable waters Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m verborum A good life is the strongest argument that your faith is good and a gentle voice will be sooner entertaind then a voice of thunder but the greatest eloquence in the world is a meek Spirit and a liberal hand these are the two pastoral staves the Prophet speaks of nognam hovelim beauty and bands he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness the ornament of fair example he hath also the staff of bands atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos in vinculis charitatis as the Prophet Hosea's expression is he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man by the bands of a holy charity But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractary We have in stead of a staff an Apostolical rod which is the last and latest remedy and either brings to repentance or consignes to ruin and reprobation If there were any time remaining I could reckon that the Episcopal order is the principle of Vnity in the Church and we see it is so by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted I could adde how that Bishops were the cause that St. Iohn wrote his Gospel that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the sufferings the prisons and the flames the life and the death of Bishops as the principal Combatants That the Fathers of the Church whose writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World were almost all of them Bishops I could adde that the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the disputings the vvritings and the Martyrdom of Bishops That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery That England and Ireland were Governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian and under their conduct have for so many ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel I could adde also that Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy but of this we are convinc'd by a sad and too dear bought experience I could therefore in stead of it say that Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion the Gentry being little better then Servants while they live under the Presbytery That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt so it is the greatest preservative of the peoples liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand and Anarchy and licentiousness on the other That it endears obedience And is subject to the Laws of Princes And is wholly ordained for the good of mankind and the benefit of Souls But I cannot stay to number all the blessings which have entered into the world at this door I onely remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops imployment which is to be buisy in the service of Souls to do good in all capacities to serve every mans need to promote all publick benefits to cement Governments to establish peace to propagate the Kingdom of Christ to do hurt to no man to do good to every man that is so to minister that Religion and Charity publick peace and private blessings may be in their exaltation As long as it was thus done by the Primitive Bishops the Princes and the People gave them all honour Insomuch that by a decree of Constantine the great the Bp. had power given him to retract the sentences made by the Presidents of Provinces and we find in the acts of St. Nicholas that he rescued some innocent persons from death when the executioner was ready to strike the fatal blow which thing even vvhen it fell into inconvenience was indeed forbidden by Arcadius and Honorlus but the confidence and honour was onely chang'd it was not taken away for the condemned criminal had leave to appeal to the Audientia Episcopalis to the Bps Court. This was not any right which the Bishops could challenge but a reward of their piety and so long as the Holy Office was holily administred the World found so much comfort and security so much justice and mercy so many temporal and spiritual blessings consequent to the ministeries of that order that as the Galatians to St. Paul men have plucked out their eys to do them service and to do them honour For then Episcopacy did that good that God intended by it it was a spiritual Government by spiritual persons for spiritual ends Then the Princes and the People gave them honours because they deserv'd and sought them not then they gave them wealth because they would dispend it wisely frugally and charitably Then they gave them power because it was sure to be us'd for defence of the innocent for relief of the oppressed for the punishment of evil doers and the reward of the virtuous Then they desir'd to be judg'd by them because their audiences or Courts did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appeas'd all furious sentences and taught gentle principles and gave merciful measures and in their Courts were all equity and piety and Christian determinations But afterwards when they did fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into saecular methods and made their Counsels vain by pride and durtyed their sentences with money then they became like other men and so it will be unless the Bps be more holy then other men but when our sanctity and severity shall be as eminent as the calling is then we shall be called to Councels and sit in publick meetings and bring comfort to private Families and rule in the hearts of men by a jus relationis such as was between the Roman Emperors and the Senate they courted one another into power and in giving honour striv'd to out do each other for from an humble wise man no man will snatch an imployment that is honourable but from the proud and from the covetuous every man endeavours to wrest it and thinks it lawful prize My time is now done and therefore I cannot speak to the third part of my text the reward of the good Steward and of the bad I shall onely mention it to you in a short exhortation and so conclude In the Primitive