in their obedience and frequenting of the ordinance to the Priest in his ministery and publick and privat offices To which also I adde this consideration that as the Holy Sacraments are hugely effective to spiritual purposes not onely because they convey a blessing to the worthy suscipients but because men cannot be worthy suscipients unlesse they do many excellent acts of vertue in order to a previous disposition so that in the whole conjunction and transaction of affaires there is good done by way of proper efficacy and divine blessing so it is in following the conduct of a spiritual man and consulting with him in the matter of our souls we cannot do it unless we consider our souls and make religion our businesse and examine our present state and consider concerning our danger and watch and designe for our advantages which things of themselves wil set a man much forwarder in the way of Godlinesse besides thath naturally every man will lesse dare to act a sin for which he knows he shall feel a present shame in his discoveries made to the spiritual Guide the man that is made the witnesse of his conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy men ought to know all things from God and that relate to God in order to the conduct of souls and there is nothing to be said against this if we do not suffer the devil in this affaire to abuse us as he does many people in their opinions teaching men to suspect there is a designe and a snake under the plantain But so may they suspect Kings when they command obedience or the Levites when they read the law of tithes or Parents when they teach their children temperance or Tutors when they watch their charge However it is better to venture the worst of the designe then to lose the best of the assistance and he that guides himself hath much work and much danger but he that is under the conduct of another his work is easy little and secure it is nothing but diligence and obedience and though it be a hard thing to rule well yet nothing is easier then to follow and to be obedient Sermon XXII Of Christian Prudence Part III. 7. AS it is a part of Christian prudence to take into the conduct of our soules a spiritual man for a guide so it is also of great concernment that we be prudent in the choice of him whom we are to trust in so great an interest Concerning which it will be impossible to give characters and significations particular enough to enable a choice without the interval assistances of prayer experience and the Grace of God He that describes a man can tell you the colour of his hair his stature and proportions and describe some general lines enough to distingush him from a Cyclops or a Saracen but when you chance to see the man you will discover figures or little features of which the description had produced in you no Phantasme or expectation And in the exteriour significations of a sect there are more semblances then in mens faces and greater uncertainty in the signes what is faulty strives so craftily to act the true and proper images of things and the more they are defective in circumstances the more curious they are in forms and they also use such arts of gaining Proselytes which are of most advantage towards an effect and therefore such which the true Christian ought to pursue and the Apostles actually did and they strive to follow their patterns in arts of perswasion not onely because they would seem like them but because they can have none so good so effective to their purposes that it follows that it is not more a duty to take care that we be not corrupted with false teachers then that we be not abused with false signes for we as well finde a good man teaching a false proposition as a good cause managed by ill men and a holy cause is not alwayes dressed with healthful symptomes nor is there a crosse alwayes set upon the doores of those congregations who are infected with the plague of heresy When Saint John was to separate false teachers from true he took no other course but to remark the doctrine which was of God and that should be the mark of cognisance to distinguish right shepheards from robbers and invaders every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God He that denieth it is not of God By this he bids his schollers to avoid the present sects of Ebion Cerinthus Simon Magus and such other persons that denied that Christ was at all before he came or that he came really in the flesh and a proper humanity This is a clear note and they that conversed with Saint John or believed his doctrine were sufficiently instructed in the present Questions But this note will signify nothing to us for all sects of Christians confesse Jesus Christ come in the flesh and the following sects did avoid that rock over which a great Apostle had hung out so plain a lantern In the following ages of the Church men have been so curious to signifie misbelievers that they have invented and observed some signes which indeed in some cases were true real appendages of false believers but yet such which were also or might be common to them with good men and members of the Catholick Church some few I shall remark and give a short account of them that by removing the uncertain we may fix our inquiries and direct them by certain significations lest this art of prudence turn into folly and faction errour and secular designe 1. Some men distinguish errour from truth by calling their adversaries doctrine new and of yesterday and certainly this is a good signe if it be rightly applyed for since all Christian doctrine is that which Christ taught his Church and the spirit enlarged or expounded and the Apostles delivered we are to begin the Christian aera for our faith and parts of religion by the period of their preaching our account begins then and whatsoever is contrary to what they taught is new and false and whatsoever is besides what they taught is no part of our religion and then no man can be prejudiced for believing it or not and if it be adopted into the confessions of the Church the proposition is alwayes so uncertain that it s not to be admitted into the faith and therefore if it be old in respect of our dayes it is not therefore necessary to be believed if it be new it may be received into opinion according to its probabilitie and no sects or interest are to be divided upon such accounts This onely I desire to be observed that when a truth returns from banishment by a postliminium if it was from the first though the Holy fire hath been buried or the river ran under ground yet that we do not call that new since newnesse is not to be accounted of by a proportion
or to fall by their own crimes so much as is the action of God and so much as is the piety of the man that attends and prayes in the holy place with the Priest so far he shall prevail but no further and therefore the Church hath taught her Ministers to pray thus in her preparatory prayer to consecration Quoniam me peccatorem inter te eundem populum Medium esse voluisti licet in me boni operis testimonium non agnoscas officium dispensationiis creditae non recuses nec per me indignum famulum tuum eorum salutis pereat pretium pro quibus victima factus salutaris dignatus es fieri redemptio For we must know that God hath not put the salvation of any man into the power of another And although the Church of Rome by calling the Priests actuall intention simply necessary and the Sacraments also indispensably necessary hath left it in the power of every Curate to damn very many of his Parish yet it is otherwise with the accounts of truth and the Divine mercy and therefore he will never exact the Sacraments of us by the measures and proportions of an evill Priest but by the piety of the communicant by the prayers of Christ and the mercies of God But although the greatest interest of salvation depends not upon this Ministery yet as by this we receive many advantages if the Minister be holy so if he be vicious we lose all that which could be conveyed to us by his part of the holy Ministration every man and woman in the assembly prays and joynes in the effect and for the obtaining the blessing but the more vain persons are assembled the lesse benefits are received even by good men there present and therefore much is the losse if a wicked Priest ministers though the summe of affairs is not intirely turned upon his office or default yet many advantages are For we must not think that the effect of the Sacraments is indivisibly done at once or by one ministery but they operate by parts and by morall operation by the length of time and a whole order of piety and holy ministeries every man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow-worker with God in the work of his salvation and as in our devotion no one prayer of our own alone prevails upon God for grace and salvation but all the devotions of our life are upon Gods account for them so is the blessing of God brought upon the people by all the parts of their religion and by all assistances of holy people and by the ministeries not of one but of all Gods Ministers and relies finally upon our own faith and obedience and the mercies of God in Jesus Christ but yet for want of holy persons to minister much diminution of blessing and a losse of advantages is unavoidable therefore if they have great necessities they can best hope that God will be moved to mercy on their behalf if their necessities be recommended to God by persons of a great piety of a holy calling and by the most solemn offices Lastly I promised to consider concerning the signs of having our prayers heard concerning which there is not much of particular observation but if our prayers be according to the warrant of Gods Word if we aske according to Gods will things honest and profitable we are to relye upon the promises and we are sure that they are heard and besides this we can have no sign but the thing signified when we feel the effect then we are sure God hath heard us but till then we are to leave it with God and not to aske a sign of that for which he hath made us a promise And yet Cassian hath named one sign which if you give me leave I will name unto you It is a sign we shall prevail in our prayers when the Spirit of God moves us to pray cum fiduciâ quasi securitate impetrandi with a confidence and a holy security of receiving what we aske But this is no otherwise a sign but because it is a part of the duty and trusting in God is an endearing him and doubting is a dishonour to him and he that doubts hath no faith for all good prayers relye upon Gods Word and we must judge of the effect by prudence for he that askes what is not lawfull hath made an unholy prayer if it be lawfull and not profitable we are then heard when God denies us and if both these be in the prayer he that doubts is a sinner and then God will not hear him but beyond this I know no confidence is warrantable and if this be a signe of prevailing then all the prudent prayers of all holy men shall certainely be heard and because that is certain we need no further inquiry into signes I summe up all in the words of God by the Prophet Run to and fro thorow the streets of Jerusalem and see and know and seek in the broad places thereof if you can finde a man if there be any that executeth judgment that seeketh truth virum quaerentem fidem a man that seeketh for faith propitius ero ei and I will pardon it God would pardon all Jerusalem for one good mans sake there are such dayes and opportunities of mercy when God at the prayer of one holy person will save a people and Ruffinus spake a great thing but it was hugely true Quis dubitet mundum stare precibus sanctorum the world it self is established and kept from dissolution by the prayers of Saints and the prayers of Saints shall hasten the day of Judgement and we cannot easily find two effects greater But there are many other very great ones for the prayers of holy men appease Gods wrath drive away temptations resist and overcome the Devill Holy prayer procures the ministery and service of Angels it rescinds the Decrees of God it cures sicknesses and obtains pardon it arrests the Sun in its course and staies the wheels of the Charet of the Moon it rules over all Gods creatures and opens and shuts the storehouses of rain it unlocks the cabinet of the womb and quenches the violence of fire it stops the mouthes of Lions and reconciles our sufferance and weak faculties with the violence of torment and sharpnesse of persecution it pleases God and supplies all our needs But Prayer that can do thus much for us can do nothing at all without holinesse for God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Sermon VII Of godly Fear c. Part I. Heb. 12. part of the 28th and the 29th verses Let us have Grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so our Testaments usually read it from the authority of Theophylact Let us have grace But some copies read it in the indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we
to our short lived memories or to the broken records and fragments of story lest after the inundation of barbarisme and war and change of Kingdoms and corruption of Authors but by its relation to the fountain of our truths and the birth of our religion under our Fathers in Christ the holy Apostles and Disciples a Camel was a new thing to them that saw it in the fable But yet it was created as soon as a cow or the domestick creatures and some people are apt to call every thing new which they never heard of before as if all religion were to be measured by the standards of their observation or country customs Whatsoever was not taught by Christ or his Apostles though it came in by Papias or Dionysius by Arius or Liberius is certainly new as to our account and whatsoever is taught to us by the Doctors of the present age if it can shew its test from the beginning of our period for revelaltion is not to be called new though it be pressed with a new zeal and discoursed of by unheard of arguments that is though men be ignorant and need to learn it yet it is not therefore new or unnecessary 2. Some would have false teachers sufficiently signified by a name or the owning of a private Appellative as of Papist Lutheran Calvenists Zuinglian Socinian think it is enough to denominat them not of Christ if they are called by the name of a man And indeed the thing is in it self ill but then if by this mark we shall esteem false teachers sufficiently signified we must follow no man no Church nor no communion for all are by their adversaries marked with an appellative of separation and singularity and yet themselves are tenacious of a good name such as they choose or such as is permitted to them by fame and the people and a natural necessity of making a distinction Thus the Donatist called themselves the flock of God and the Novatians called the Catholicks traditors and the Eustathians called themselves Catholikes and the worshippers of images made Iconoclast to be a name of scorn and men made names as they listed or as the fate of the market went And if a Doctor preaches a doctrine which another man likes not but preaches the contradictory he that consents and he that refuses have each of them a teacher by whose name if they please to wrangle they may be signified It was so in the Corinthian Church with this onely difference that they divided themselves by names which signified the same religion I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I am of Peter and I of Christ these Apostles were ministers of Christ and so does every teacher new or old among the Christians pretend himself to be Let that therefore be examined if he ministers to the truth of Christ and the religion of his master let him be entertained as a servant of his Lord but if an appellative be taken from his name there is a faction commenced in it and there is a fault in the men if there be none in the doctrine but that the doctrine be true or false to be received or to be rejected because of the name is accidental and extrinsecall and therefore not to be determined by this signe 3. Amongst some men a sect is sufficiently thought to be reproved if it subdivides and breaks into little fractions or changes its own opinions indeed if it declines its own doctrine no man hath reason to beleeve them upon their word or to take them upon the stock of reputation which themselves being judges they have forfeited and renounced in the changing that which at first they obtruded passionately And therefore in this case there is nothing to be done but to beleeve the men so farre as they have reason to beleeve themselves that is to consider when they prove what they say and they that are able to do so are not persons in danger to be seduced by a bare authority unlesse they list themselves for others that sink under an unavoidable prejudice God will take care for them if they be good people and their case shall be considered by and by But for the other part of the signe when men fall out among themselves for other interests or opinions it is no argument that they are in an errour concerning that doctrine which they all unitedly teach or condemn respectively but it hath in it some probability that their union is a testimony of truth as certainly as that their fractions are a testimony of their zeal or honesty or weaknesse as it happens and if we Christians be too decretory in this instance it will be hard for any of us to keep a Jew from making use of it against the whole religion which from the dayes of the Apostles hath been rent into innumerable sects and under-sects springing from mistake or interest from the arts of the Devil or the weaknesse of man But from hence we may make an advantage in the way of prudence and become sure that all that doctrine is certainly true in which the generality of Christians who are divided in many things yet do constantly agree and that that doctrine is also sufficient since it is certain that because in all Communions and Churches there are some very good men that do all their duty to the getting of truth God will not fail in any thing that is necessary to them that honestly and heartily desire to obtain it and therefore if they rest in the heartinesse of that and live accordingly and superinduce nothing to the destruction of that they have nothing to do but to rely upon Gods goodnesse and if they perish it is certain they cannot help it and that is demonstration enough that they cannot perish considering the justice and goodnesse of our Lord and Judge 4. Whoever break the bands of a Society or Communion and go out from that Congregation in whose Confession they are baptized do an intolerable scandal to their doctrine and persons and give suspicious men reason to decline their Assemblies and not to choose them at all for any thing of their authority or outward circumstances and Saint Paul bids the Romans to mark them that cause divisions and offences But the following words make their caution prudent and practicable contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them they that recede from the doctrine which they have learned they cause the offence and if they also obtrude this upon their congregations they also make the division For it is certain if we receive any doctrine contrary to what Christ gave and the Apostles taught for the authority of any man then we call men Masters and leave our Master which is in heaven and in that case we must separate from the Congregation and adhere to Christ but this is not to be done unlesse the case be evident and notorious But as it is hard that the publike doctrine of a Church should be rifled
and misunderstood and reproved and rejected by any of her wilful or ignorant sons and daughters so it is also as hard that they should be bound not to see when the case is plain and evident There may be mischiefs on both sides but the former sort of evils men may avoid if they will for they may be humble and modest and entertain better opinions of their Superiours then of themselves and in doubtful things give them the honour of a just opinion and if they do not do so that evil will be their own private for that it become not publike the King and the Bishop are to take care but for the latter sort of evil it will certainly become universal If I say an authoritative false doctrine be imposed and is to be accepted accordingly for then all men shall be bound to professe against their conscience that is with their mouthes not to confesse unto salvation what with their hearts they believe unto righteousnesse The best way of remedying both the evils is that Governours lay no burden of doctrines or lawes but what are necessary or very profitable and that Inferiours do not contend for things unnecessary nor call any thing necessary that is not till then there will be evils on both sides and although the Governours are to carry the Question in the point of law reputation and publike government yet as to Gods Judicature they will bear the bigger load who in his right do him an injury and by the impresses of his authority destroy his truth But in this case also although separating be a suspicious thing and intolerable unlesse it be when a sin is imposed yet to separate is also accidentall to truth for some men separate with reason some men against reason therefore here all the certainty that is in the thing is when the truth is secured and all the security to the men will be in the humility of their persons and the heartinesse and simplicity of their intention and diligence of inquiry The Church of England had reason to separate from the Confession and practises of Rome in many particulars and yet if her children separate from her they may be unreasonable and impious 5. The wayes of direction which we have from holy Scripture to distinguish false Apostles from true are taken from their doctrine or their lives That of the doctrine is the most sure way if we can hit upon it but that also is the thing signified and needs to have other signes Saint John and Saint Paul took this way for they were able to do it infallibly All that confesse Jesus incarnate are of God said Saint John those men that deny it are hereticks avoid them and Saint Paul bids to observe them that cause divisions and offences against the doctrine delivered Them also avoid that do so And we might do so as easily as they if the world would onely take their depositum that doctrine which they delivered to all men that is the Creed and superinduce nothing else but suffer Christian faith to rest in its own perfect simplicity unmingled with arts and opinions and interests This course is plain and easie and I will not intricate it with more words but leave it directly in its own truth and certainty with this onely direction That when we are to choose our doctrine or our side we take that which is in the plain unexpounded words of Scripture for in that onely our religion can consist Secondly choose that which is most advantageous to a holy life to the proper graces of a Christian to humility to charity to forgivenesse and alms to obedience and complying with governments to the honour of God and the exaltation of his attributes and to the conservation and advantages of the publike societies of men and this last Saint Paul directs Let ours be carefull to maintain goodworks for necessary uses for he that heartily pursues these proportions cannot be an ill man though he were accidentally and in the particular applications deceived 6. But because this is an act of wisdom rather then prudence and supposes science or knowledge rather then experience therefore it concerns the prudence of a Christian to observe the practise and the rules of practise their lives and pretences the designes and colours the arts of conduct and gaining proselytes which their Doctors and Catechists do use in order to their purposes and in their ministery about souls For although many signes are uncertain yet some are infallible and some are highly probable 7. Therefore those teachers that pretend to be guided by a private spirit are certainly false Doctors I remember what Simmias in Plutarch tels concerning Socrates that if he heard any man say he saw a divine vision he presently esteemed him vain and proud but if he pretended onely to have heard a voice or the word of God he listened to that religiously and would enquire of him with curiosity There was some reason in his fancy for God does not communicate himself by the eye to men but by the ear ye saw no figure but ye heard a voice said Moses to the people concerning God and therefore if any man pretends to speak the word of God we will enquire concerning it the man may the better be heard because he may be certainly reproved if he speaks amisse but if he pretends to visions and revelations to a private spirit and a mission extraordinary the man is proud and unlearned vicious and impudent No Scripture is of private interpretation saith S. Peter that is of private emission or declaration Gods words were delivered indeed by single men but such as were publikely designed Prophets remarked with a known character approved of by the high Priest and Sanhedrim indued with a publike spirit and his doctrines were alwayes agreeable to the other Scriptures But if any man pretends now to the spirit either it must be a private or publike if it be private it can but be usefull to himself alone and it may cozen him too if it be not assisted by the spirit of a publike man But if it be a publike spirit it must enter in at the publike door of ministeries and divine ordinances of Gods grace and mans endeavour it must be subject to the Prophets it is discernable and judicable by them and therefore may be rejected and then it must pretend no longer For he that will pretend to an extraordinary spirit and refuses to be tried by the ordinary wayes must either prophecy or work miracles or must have a voice from heaven to give him testimony The Prophets in the old Testament and the Apostles in the New and Christ between both had no other way of extraordinary probation and they that pretend to any thing extraordinary cannot ought not to be beleeved unlesse they have something more then their own word If I bear witnesse of my self my witnesse is not true said Truth it self our Blessed Lord. But secondly they that intend to teach by an
harmlesse and without an evil sting 3. Christian simplicity relates to promises and acts of grace and favour and its caution is that all promises be simple ingenuous agreeable to the intention of the promiser truly and effectually expressed and never going lesse in the performance then in the promise and words of the expression concerning which the cases are several 1. First all promises in which a third or a second person hath no interest that is the promises of kindnesse and civilities are tied to passe into performance secundum aequum bonum and though they may oblige to some small inconvenience yet never to a great one and I will visit you to morrow morning because I promised you and therefore I will come etiamsi non concoxero although I have not slept my full sleep but Si febricitavero if I be in a feaver or have reason to fear one I am disobliged For the nature of such promises bears upon them no bigger burthen then can be expounded by reasonable civilities and the common expectation of kinde and the ordinary performances of just men who do excuse and are excused respectively by all rules of reason proportionably to such small entercourses and therefore although such conditions be not expressed in making promises yet to perform or rescind them by such laws is not against Christian simplicity 2. Promises in matters of justice or in matters of grace as from a superiour to an inferiour must be so singly and ingenuously expressed intended and performed accordingly that no condition is to be reserved or supposed in them to warrant their non-performance but impossibility or that which is next to it an intolerable inconvenience in which cases we have a natural liberty to commute our promises but so that we pay to the interested person a good at least equal to that which we first promised And to this purpose it may be added that it is not against Christian simplicity to expresse our promises in such words which we know the interested man will understand to other purposes then I intend so it be not lesse that I mean then that he hopes for When our Blessed Saviour told his disciples that they should sit upon twelve thrones they presently thought they had his bond for a kingdom and dreamt of wealth and honour power and a splendid court and Christ knew they did but did not disintangle his promise from the enfolded and intricate sence of which his words were naturally capable but he performed his promise to better purposes then they hoped for they were presidents in the conduct of souls Princes of Gods people the chief in sufferings stood neerest to the crosse had an elder brothers portion in the Kingdom of grace were the founders of Churches and dispensers of the mysteries of the kingdom and ministers of the spirit of God and chanels of mighty blessings under mediators in the Priesthood of their Lord and their names were written in heaven and this was infinitely better then to groan and wake under a head pressed with a golden crown and pungent cares and to eat alone and to walk in a croud and to be vexed with all the publick and many of the private evils of the people which is the sum Total of an earthly Kingdom When God promised to the obedient that they should live long in the land which he would give them he meant it of the land of Canaan but yet reserved to himself the liberty of taking them quickly from that land and carrying them to a better He that promises to lend me a staffe to walk withal and instead of that gives me a horse to carry me hath not broken his promise nor dealt deceitfully And this is Gods dealing with mankinde he promises more then we could hope for and when he hath done that he gives us more then he hath promised God hath promised to give to them that fear him all that they need food and raiment but he addes out of the treasures of his mercy variety of food and changes of raiment some to get strength and some to refresh something for them that are in health and some for the sick And though that skins of buls and stagges and foxes and bears could have drawn a vail thick enough to hide the apertures of sin and natural shame and to defend us from heat and cold yet when he addeth the fleeces of sheep and beavers and the spoiles of silk worms he hath proclaimed that although his promises are the bounds of our certain expectation yet they are not the limits of his loving kindnesse and if he does more then he hath promised no man can complain that he did otherwise and did greater things then he said thus God does but therefore so also must we imitating that example and transcribing that copy of divine truth alwayes remembring that his promises are yea and Amen And although God often goes more yet he never goes lesse and therefore we must never go from our promises unlesse we be thrust from thence by disability or let go by leave or called up higher by a greater intendment and increase of kindnesse And therefore when Solyman had sworn to Ibrahim-Bassa that he would never kill him so long as he were alive he quitted himself but ill when he sent an Eunuch to cut his throat when he slept because the Priest told him that sleep was death His act was false and deceitful as his great prophet But in this part of simplicity we Christians have a most especiall obligation for our religion being ennobled by the most and the greatest promises and our faith made confident by the veracity of our Lord and his word made certain by miracles and prophecies and voices from heaven and all the testimony of God himself and that truth it self is bound upon us by the efficacy of great endearments and so many precepts if we shall suffer the faith of a Christian to be an instrument to deceive our brother and that he must either be incredulous or deceived uncharitable or deluded like a fool we dishonour the sacrednesse of the institution and become strangers to the spirit of truth and to the eternall word of God Our Blessed Lord would not have his disciples to swear at all no not in publick Judicature if the necessities of the world would permit him to be obeyed If Christians will live according to the religion the word of a Christian were sufficient instrument to give testimony and to make promises to secure a faith and upon that supposition oathes were uselesse and therefore forbidden because there could be no necessity to invoke Gods name in promises or affirmations if men were indeed Christians and therefore in that case would be a taking it in vain but because many are not and they that are in name oftentimes are so in nothing else it became necessary that man should swear in judgment and in publick courts but consider who it was that invented and made the necessitie of
Bishops did so too and in the highest detestation of their follies thought they might wisely enough imitate their innocent customes and Priestly ornaments and hoped they might better reconcile their mindes to the Christian Religion by compliance in ceremonials then exasperate them by rejecting their ancient and innocent ceremonies for so the Apostles invited and inticed Judaisme into Christianity And Tertullian complains of the Devils craft who by imitating the Christian rites reconciled mens mindes with that compliance to a more charitable opinion of the Gentile superstition The Devill intending to draw the professors of truth to his own portion or to preserve his own in the same fetters he first put upon them imitates the rites of our religion adopting them into his superstition He baptizes some of his disciples and when he initiates them to the worship of Mithra promiseth them pardon of sins by that rite he signes his souldiers in their forehead he represents the oblation of bread and introduces representments of the resurrection and laboriously gets martyrs to his cause His Priests marry but once he hath his virgins and his abstemious and continent followers that what Christians love and the world commends in them being adopted into the rituals of Idolatry may allure some with the beauty and fair imagery and abuse others with colour and phantastick faces And thus also all wise men that intended to perswade others to their religion did it by retaining as much as they innocently could of the other that the change might not be too violent and the persons be more endeared by common rites and the relation and charity of likenesse and imitation Thus did the Church and the Synagogue thus did the Gentiles both to the Jews and to the Christians and all wise men did so The Gentiles offered first fruits to their Gods and their tithes to Hercules kept vigils and anniversaries forbad marriages without the consent of Parents and clandestine contracts these were observed with some variety according as the people were civill or learned and according to the degree of the tradition or as the thing was reasonable so these customes were more or lesse universall But when all wise people nay when absolutely all the world have consented upon a rite it cannot derive from a fountain lower then the current but it must either be a command which God hath given to all the world and so Socrates in Xenophon Quod ab omnibus gentibus observatum est id non nisi à Deo sancitum esse dicendum est or a tradition or a law descending from our common parents or a reason derived from the nature of things there cannot in the world be any thing great enough to take away such a rite except an expresse divine commandement and a man by the same reason may marry his nearest relative as he may deny to worship God by the recitation of his prayses and excellencies because reason and a very common tradition have made almost all the world consent in these two things that we must abstain from the mixtures of our nearest kindred and that we must worship God by recounting and declaring excellent things concerning him I have instanced in two things in which I am sure to finde the fewest adversaries I said the fewest for there are some men which have lost all humanity but these two great instances are not attested with so universall a tradition and practise of the world as this that is now in question For in some nations they have married their sisters so did the Magi among the Persians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Tatianus in Clemens Alexandrinus and Bardisanes Syrus in Eusebius And the Greeks worshipped Hercules by railing and Mercury by throwing stones at him But there was never any people but had their Priests and Presidents of religious rites and kept holy things within a mure that the people might not approach to handle the mysteries and therefore besides that it is a recession from the customes of mankinde and charges us with the disrespect of all the world which is an incuriousnesse next to infinite it is also a doing against that which all the reason of all the wise men of the world have chosen antecedently or ex post facto and he must have a strange understanding who is not perswaded by that which hath determined all the world For religion cannot be at all in communities of men without some to guide to minister to preserve and to prescribe the offices and ministeries What can profane holy things but that which makes them common and what can make them common more then when common persons handle them when there is no distinction of Persons in their ministration For although places are good accessories to religion yet in all religions they were so accidentall to it that a sacrifice might hallow the place but the place unlesse it were naturally impure could not desecrate the sacrifice and therefore Jacob worshipped upon a stone offered upon a turfe and the Arke rested in Obed-Edoms house and was holy in Dagons Temple and hils and groves fields and orchards according to the severall customes of the nations were the places of addresse But a common person ministring was so near a circumstance and was so mingled with the action that since the materiall part and exteriour actions of Religion could be acted and personated by any man there was scarce any thing left to make it religious but the attrectation of the rites by a holy person A Holy place is something a separate time is something a prescript form of words is more separate and solemn actions are more yet but all these are made common by a cōmon person therfore without a distinction of persons have not a natural and reasonable distinction of solemnity exterior religion And indeed it were a great disreputation to religion that all great and publique things and every artifice or profitable science should in all the societies of men be distinguished by professors artists and proper ministers and onely religion should lie in common apt to be bruised by the hard hand of mechanicks and sullied by the ruder touch of undiscerning and undistinguished persons for although the light of it shines to all and so farre every mans interest is concerned in religion yet it were not handsome that every man should take the taper in his hand and religion is no more to be handled by all men then the laws are to be dispensed by all by whom they are to be obeyed though both in religion and the laws all men have a common interest For since all meanes must have some equality or proportion towards their end that they may of their own being or by institution be symbolicall it is but reasonable that by elevated and sublimed instruments we should be promoted towards an end supernaturall and divine now besides that of all the instruments of distinction the
something which others have not or if he be onely imployed in praying and presenting sacrifices of beasts for the people yet that such a person should be admitted to a neerer addresse and in behalf of the people must depend upon Gods acceptation and therefore upon divine constitution for there can be no reason given in the nature of the thing why God will accept the intermediation of one man for many or why this man more then another who possibly hath no naturall or acquired excellency beyond many of the people except what God himself makes after the constitution of the person If a spirituall power be necessary to the ministration it is certain none can give it but the fountain and the principle of the Spirits emanation Or if the graciousnesse and aptnesse of the person be required that also being arbitrary preternaturall and chosen must derive from the divine election For God cannot be prescribed unto by us whom he shall hear and whom he shall entertain in a more immediate addresse and freer entercourse And this is divinely taught us by the example of the high Priest himself who because he derived all power from his Father and all his gratiousnesse and favour in the office of Priest and Mediator was also personally chosen and sent and took not the honour but as it descended on him from God that the honour and the power the ability and the ministery might derive from the same fountain Christ did not glorisie himself to become high Priest Honour may be deserved by our selves but always comes from others and because no greater honour then to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God every man must say as our blessed High Priest said of himself If I honour my self my honour is nothing it is God that honoureth me For Christ being the fountain of Evangelicall ministery is the measure of our dispensations and the rule of Ecclesiasticall oeconomy and therefore we must not arrogate any power from our selves or from a lesse authority then our Lord and Master did and this is true and necessary in the Gospell rather then in any ministery or Priesthood that ever was because of the collation of so many excellent and supernaturall abilities which derive from Christ upon his Ministers in order to the work of the Gospel And the Apostles understood their duty in this particular as in all things else for when they had received all this power from above they were carefull to consign the truth that although it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine grace in a humane ministery and that although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is He that is ordained by men yet receives his power from God not at all by himself and from no man as from the fountain of his power And this I say the Apostles were carefull to consign in the first instance of Ordination in the case of Mathias Thou Lord shew which of these two thou hast chosen God was the Elector and they the Ministers and this being at the first beginning of Christianity in the very first designation of an ecclesiasticall person was of sufficient influence into the religion for ever after and taught us to derive all clericall power from God and therefore by such means and Ministeries which himself hath appointed but in no hand to be invaded or surprized in the entrance or polluted in the execution This descended in the succession of the Churches doctrine for ever Receive the holy Ghost said Christ to his Apostles when he enabled them with Priestly power and S. Paul to the Bishops of Asia said The holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers because no mortall man no Angel or Archangell nor any other created power but the Holy Ghost alone hath constituted this order saith S. Chrysostome And this very thing besides the matter of fact and the plain donation of the power by our blessed Saviour is intimated by the words of Christ otherwhere Pray ye therefore the Lord of the vineyard that he will send labourers into his harvest Now his mission is not onely a designing of the persons but enabling them with power because he never commands a work but he gives abilities to its performance and therefore still in every designation of the person by what ever ministery it be done either that ministery is by God constituted to be the ordinary means of conveying the abilities or else God himself ministers the grace immediately It must of necessity come from him some way or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. James hath adopted it into the family of Evangelicall truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every perfect gift and therefore every perfecting gift which in the stile of the Church is the gift of Ordination is from above the gifts of perfecting the persons of the Hierarchy and ministery Evangelicall which thing is further intimated by S. Paul Now he which stablisheth us with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in order to Christ and Christian Religion is God and that his meaning be understood concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of establishing him in the ministery he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he which anointeth us is God and hath sealed us with an earnest of his Spirit unction and consignation and establishing by the holy Spirit the very stile of the Church for ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was said of Christ Him hath the Father sealed that is ordained him the Priest and Prophet of the world and this he plainly spoke as their Apostle and President in religion Not as Lords over your faith but fellow-workers he spake of himself and Timothy concerning whose Ministery in order to them he now gives account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God anoints the Priest and God consigns him with the holy Ghost that is the Principale quaesitum that is the main question And therefore the Author of the books of Ecclesiasticall hierarchy giving the rationale of the rites of Ordination says that the Priest is made so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of proclaiming and publication of the person signifying That the holy man that consecrates is but the proclaimer of the divine election but not by any humane power or proper grace does he give the perfect gift and consecrate the person And Nazianzen speaking of the rites of ordination hath this expression with which the divine grace is proclaimed And Billius renders it ill by superinvocatur He makes the power of consecration to be declarative which indeed is a lesser expression of a fuller power but it signifies as much as the whole comes to for it must mean God does transmit the grace at or by or in the exteriour ministery and the Minister is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a declarer not by the word of his mouth distinct from the work of