obligation upon the Apostles of preaching under the pain of incurring Gods heavy displeasure as Act. 4.19 20. 1 Cor. 9.16 are of Personal concernment to the Apostles and to be understood of the prime promulgation of the Gospel to unbelievers and concern not us Presbyters unless we think our selves obliged by the Commission Christ gave his Apostles to go preach to the Americans and Indians The words Bishop and Presbyter are words of relation relating to the several Provinces and Flocks under their charge Though they have a duty incumbent on them of instructing them in Christianity yet not of preaching the Gospel to every creature as the Apostles had they have not those extraordinary enablements of Tongues and Miracles and immediate Inspiration simply necessary unto that work and whereby their Doctrine became Authentick and Divine as that the Faith of the Hearers was without further inquiry to be resolved into it as into a divine Revelation In which sense alone St. Pauls words are verifiable Rom. 10.14 17. Faith comes by Hearing and Hearing by the Word How shall they hear without a Preacher c. I desire to know what man dares the Pope excepted to whom some of his vain Flatterers presume to attribute Infallibility assume to preach in such a notion as to make his Doctrine that whereinto Auditorum sides ultimo resolvitur which if not then there is not par ratio nor par obligatio nor par potestas between us and the Apostles as to the strict notion and office of a Preacher in Scripture language But whatsoever the importance of the word is in the Gospel notion yet now the word Preaching is become a word of Art and is used to signifie that act of the Ministerial Function which consists of instructing Christians in their duty and in that sense from henceforward I shall take it and for the more distinct understanding of the thing make some little enquiry into the kindes of Preaching mentioned in the Gospel And first there we find a Preaching by Inspiration and a Preaching by Pains and Industry A preaching by Inspiration such as I now intimated Of this sort was the preaching of Christ and his Apostles and those who were endued with extraordinary gifts of Prophecying in the Apostles times They all spake with Tongues as the spirit gave them utterance they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God It is not you that speake but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you And the Spirit speaking in them after their inauguration to their Apostleship and Ministry on the day of Pentecost gave St. Paul reason to call that their Ministry the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. Then there is a Scripture-preaching by Pains and Industry at least not without it altogether After this manner it seems Timothy preached and therefore is exhorted to give attendance to reading and to study to shew himself a workman c. Again there is a Preaching by Writing and a Preaching by Sermons one that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Clem. Alexan. in lib. 1. stro The Apostles themselves did not Preach altogether by Sermons By writing of the Gospel they were Evangelists and did preach the Gospel to unbielevers by writing of their Epistles they did teach the Church and therefore Saint Paul doth call his Epistle to the Romanes his Gospel Rom. 2.16 Solomon was a famous Preacher yet we are not certain that he Preached otherwise then by writing The Prophets were Preachers too but they did not preach altogether by Sermons The Prophet Jeremy is commanded to write his Visions and Revelations imparted to him Chap. 30.2 Mr. Calvin saith in his Preface to Isaiah Prophet is mos fuit postquam justi sunt aliquid populo nunciare paucis summam rerum complecti valvis templi praefigere It was the manner of the Prophets when they were commanded to deelare any thing to the people to contract the summe of the matter in writing and fix it upon the doors of the Temple Lastly there is a Preaching in ones own person and a Preaching by Proxy A Preaching in ones own person Thus Christ himself Preached while he dwelt amongst us and thus the Apostles Preach'd where they came themselves Then there is a preaching by Proxy And thus Christ himself preach'd after his Ascension into Heaven Ephes 2.17 He came and preached peace unto you i. e. by his Apostles And thus the Apostles preached where they came not themselves by the Evangelists there substitutes From these kinds of preaching I shall deduce two or three Corollaries more and so conclude this part of my undertaking First That that frequency of preaching cannot be expected from us that was used by the Prophets and Apostles because they preach'd by inspiration we by pains and industry only Secondly That men may preach in a Gospel-notion and yet never make a Sermon in a vulgar Notion They may Preach by Writing and Preach by Proxy Preach by their Hand as well as by their Tongue See Dr. Holdsworth in praelect prima non procul ab Initio Thirdly That seeing our Preaching is not by immediate inspiration of the Spirit 't is infallible and subject to errour and therefore is ordinable by our Superiours and reducible to such directions and rules as most conduce to the promotion of Peace and Piety CHAP. II. To whom this Office of Preaching primarily belongs THe second thing I stand charged withal See Dr. Casaubon in his treatise of preaching pag. 1◠17. is to enquire and resolve to whom this office of preaching primarily belongs Forasmuch as 't is Gods will that nothing should be done in his service either rashly or disorderly Ubi etiam à quibus peragi vult ipse excelsissima sua voluntate definivit Clem. Rom. pag. 52. He hath defined by his most Heavenly will both in what place and by what persons he will have divine offices performed It stands us in hand then to know to whom this office belongs And the examination and resolution of this will open a fair way to the justification of many things in his Sacred Majesties late Directions But for the Indagation of this I must premise certain Principles and Maximes The first is that the foundation of all Authority is in Christ All Ecclesiasticall Authority or Authority to any Ecclesiasticall Office is in Christ originally in others but Derivately For as it was foretold That the Government should be upon his shoulders Isa 9.6 So that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and anointed him to preach glad tidings Isa 62.1 And this trust which his Father committed to him he discharged in his own person while he was upon the Earth He Preached the Gospel converted Sinners made Disciples Hence he is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Shepheard and Bishop of our souls
of the Church hath prescribed but are the products of dissolute Idleness though they may serve to exercise the sharpness of the wit we are to lock up in the closet of our Breasts and neither rashly broach them in the Conventions of the People nor inconsiderately commit them to the ears of the People For what man is there amongst many that can accurately understand them or worthily explane the meaning of such Mysteries involved in so much obscurity And if any man be so conceited of himself as he thinks he can do it who are they amongst the People that can understand them Or who is he at length who can meddle in the indagation of such curious Questions without danger of Lapsing Wherefore Loquacity in such things is to be restrained lest that we either through imbecillity of wit fail of the true explication of them or the hearers through the tardity of understanding come short of a right apprehension of them and so fall into a necessity or blaspheming or dissention among themselves So far the Emperour And that Rule of Prudence he commends was carefully observed by the Ancients in their popular Sermons Gregory Nyssen writes of his Father Basil in the beginning of his Hexameron that he did not Verborum contentiones aucupari nec facilè sese quastionibus implicabat sed simplici verborum expositione audientium simplicitati sic orationem suam accommodabat ut variam tamen externae philosophiae doctrinam redolens peritioribus etiam satisfaceret Latin edit pag. 284. excus anno 1562. The summe whereof is this that he did not seek after contentions of words nor lightly involve himself in hard Questions but by a simple exposition of the Text applied himself to the capacity of the hearers Metaphrastes writes of S. Chrysostom that having once soared aloft in a Sermon above the reach of his hearers a certain woman met him and reprehended him openly for his unprofitable Sermon which being above her understanding she had not gained that by it she expected at her coming Whereupon that holy Father afterwards descended from that sublimity of matter to such simplicity and plainness in the course of his Preaching as he might be understood of all that heard him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Savil. pag. 383 384. He resolved to apply himself to the instruction and care of the weak S. Augustine in his 11. Sermon de verbis Domini treating of the sin against the Holy Ghost saith Semper in Sermonibus quos ad populum habui hujus quaestionis difficultatem molestiámque vitavi Always in my Sermons which I had to the People I avoided that difficult question And in 157. Epist ad Optatum touching upon that nice question Whether the Souls were traduced by generation or infused by creation he writes In tam multis opusculis meis nunquam me fuisse ausum de hâc quaestione definitam proferre sententiam In so many Works of mine I never durst publish my Opinion in that point Thus for the matter of his Doctrine this Father was careful it should not consist of Curiosities and so he was for the manner of his Style whence he had that as a Proverb in his mouth Malo ut me reprehendant Grammatici quam non intelligant populi Sixtus Senens lib. 4.205 If any shall object That S. Augustine notwithstanding this in his books de bono perseverantiae does contend earnestly for the preaching of Predestination a profound intricate and abstruse point of Divinity That this may seem no diminution to the prudence of the ancients I return three things by way of answer First That he does it with some limitation where the Auditory were capable of it He would not have it preach'd promiscuously to all Dicatur ergo verum maximè ubi aliqua quaestio ut dicatur impellit et capiunt qui possunt Facile est enim imo stabile ut taceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Nam utile est illud domini Adhuc multa habeo vobis dicere sed non potestis ista portare modo et illud Apostoli Non potui vobis loqui quasi spiritalibus sed quasi carnalibus Let truth be spoken when necessity requires it and men are able to receive it It is obvious that and certain that some truth is to be concealed for the incapacity of the hearers For that is profitable which our Lord and Saviour saith I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now And that of the Apostle I could not speak unto you as unto Spiritual but as unto Carnal even as unto Babes in Christ Secondly That St. Augustine's design was not to have the speculative part of Predestination preach'd or that abyss of Gods counsell dived into but to have the effect of that decree as he had conceived on 't maintained in Sermons namely Free grace that grace was not given secundùm merita For we must know that St. Austin was singular in using that weapon of Predestination against the Pelagians for the defence of Grace He defined Predestination to be a preparation of Grace and Grace to be an effect of Predestination and thereupon opin'd that they mutually inferr'd one another and that wheresever Free grace was preach'd Predestination was preach'd also This is evident by an ocular demonstration in that book of the Fathers for he avoucheth considently That St. Cyprian preach'd Predestination in those words In nullo gloriandum est quando nostrum nihil est We must glory in nothing because nothing is ours His Cypriani verbis proculdubio praedestinatio praed catur In those words saith the Father of Cyprian without all doubt Predestination was preach'd by this it should seem that S. Augustine onely intended the preaching of Free grace But whatsoever his intention was and how innocent soever his meaning yet Thirdly I answer That this was apprehended in S. Augustine as a great Novelty not onely by the Massilians who ceased not to clamour against him for it but by them also who were as great Assertors of all kinds of Grace in opposition to the Pelagians as he himself For thus saith Hillary The Orthodox complain what necessity was there hujusmodi disputationis incerto tot minùs intelligentium corda turbari c. That the minds of so many Christian people should be troubled with this doubtful disputation The Catholick Faith hath been defended so many years by so many Tractators by so many books of yours and others as well against other Hereticks as against the Pelagians without this Definition And Prosper in an Epistle to S. Augustine complained that the Massilians charged this Doctrine of Predestination with contrariety to the Doctrine of the Fathers before and the sense of the Church And again obstinationem suam vetustate defendunt they defend their obstinacy by Antiquity For certain he himself was so puzzled with this Objection concerning the Novelty of S. Augustines Doctrine that he begs the favour of a pertinent Question Illud qualiter diluatur quaesumus
patienter insipientiam nostram ferendo demonstres 'T is certain though S. Augustine was a most renowned Champion of the Church at that time in the propugnation of Grace and his Doctrine in the defence of Grace against the Pelagians was generally owned approved of authorized as Orthodox yet that way of maintaining by the new Topick of Predestination was not esteemed of all hands either necessary or safe but looked upon as Additamentum Augustinianum and an intercurrent question Happy was the Christian World when the Pulpit was delivered from the perplexities of that Doctrine and so it remained for the space of three or four hundred years till Gotteschalk an irregular Monk in France out of his Hypocondriack Zele fell a preaching it amain and thereby raised a new violent storm in the Church which for the space of eleven years miserably tossed rent and shaked the Ark of Christs Church even to the danger of shipwreck Gotteschalk himself escaped not the fury of the Tempest for by two Synods he was condemned one at Mentz another at Rhemes and when in the last he malapertly behaved himself towards the Bishops there he was ordered to be whipp'd and lest he should draw away Disciples after him he was committed to prison But Remigius Bishop of Lyons moved with commiseration towards this miserable Monk called another Synod at Valentia in France wherein as Gotteschalk found some favour so by a Christian moderation and a wise accommodation of things the heats were allayed yet in the explication of the first Canon they do acknowledge that the questions of Prescience and Predestination were such as thereby the minds of Christian people were scandalized and therefore ordered that for the future men should preach ex maternae Ecclesiae visceribus Thus ended the tragedy of Gotteschalk But as Euphorbus was born again in Pythagoras and as the mind of Jovinian was revived in Vigilantius according to S. Jerom so was the spirit of Gotteschalk revived in Luther who in the heat of opposition maintained not onely that Predestination was to be preached but Predetermination also that all things came by necessity Erasmus a person of incomparable learning and moderation applied an Expedient to the growing of this Evil but Luther as a phrenetick Patient threw away the physick and flew upon the face of the Doctor that prescribed it and yet afterwards in cool bloud considering the scandal might be taken at the absurdity of this Doctrine he retracts leaves an Antidote upon record against the poison of it in enarrat ad cap. 26. Gen. Haec studiosè accuratè monere tradere volui c. These things I desired purposely to give warning of because after my death many may bring forth my books and from thence confirm all manner of Errours and Madness I did write indeed amongst other things That all things were absolute and necessary but I added withall That God was to be looked upon as he had revealed himself in his Word Vos ergo qui nunc me audistis memineritis me hoc docuisse non esse inquirendum de Dei absconditi Praedestinatione You therefore which now hear me I pray remember that I taught this That we ought not to search into the Predestination of God But howsoever Luther faultred in the matter yet Zanchy will stand to his tackling and he undertakes to maintain Miscell de praedestin Sanctorum cap. 5. That the Preaching of Predestination was not onely lawful and profitable but necessary But thank God he begins with a good Caution Though Predestination is to be preach'd saith he yet Sobriè prudenter juxta ea quae de hâc re in Scriptura revelata sunt hoc est sermone ita attemperato ut neque ad licentiam neque ad desperationem adducat sed ad aedificationem faciat Soberly and prudently according to what is revealed in the Scripture i. e. in such a manner as may neither lead men to licentiousness nor desperation but promote their Edification Strict Terms and hard to be performed by men of all Persuasions if not impossible yet in the Demonstration he is more cautelous still for there explaining what Predestination it was which was taught in the Gospel and ought to be preached he thus describes it Praecipua pars Evangelii est doctrina de incommutabili electione eorum qui credunt in Christum ad vitam aeternam aeterna incommutabili reprobatione corum qui nunquam in Christo verè credunt The principal part of the Gospel is the Doctrine of the immutable Election of them who believe in Christ to life eternal and the eternal and immutable Reprobation of them who never believe truly in Christ Whatsoever the meaning of the Author be in this Argument yet his words are capable of such a sense as make for the preaching of a Conditional Election and a Conditional Reprobation but we must bear with Zanchy at this time who was upon a design of calling in Luther and Melanchthon as Auxiliaries to help him at a dead lift against Erasmus and therefore was forced to state the Question in such a latitude as might admit of them his Parties though they differed as much from Zanchy in their judgments about Predestination as Erasmus himself It skills not much how that learned Theologue discharged himself of his Undertaking nor what he opin'd in the matter we have the judgment of two great Lights of our Church to confront him and balance his Authority in the Reformed Churches one is the learned and reverend Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Davenant who in his Epistle to John Duraeus commending of some soveraign Remedies for composing the differences betwixt the Lutherans and the Calvinists one whereof is occasioned by the diversity of judgment about Predestination he writes thus p. 117. A popularibus concionibus ac vernaculo sermone conscriptis tractatibus removeantur arduae omnes indecisae controversiae habeantur potiùs inter exercitamenta scholarum quà m alimenta animarum Nullo enim incommodo subtiles quaestiones perplexae controversiae à pulpitis abesse possunt at charitas quae ex talium quaestionum ventilatione laedi solet absque extremo animarum periculo à cordibus Christianorum abesse non potest Ludit illis animus vulgi non proficit cùm ludere desierint hisce controversiis minimè intellectis pugnare inter se incipiunt digladiari Let all hard and undecided Controversies be far removed from popular Sermons and Treatises written in the Vulgar Tongue and let them rather be accounted the Exercitation of the Schools than the Food of Christian Souls For subtil and perplexed Controversies may without any detriment at all be absent from the Pulpit but Charity which is broken by the ventilation of such Questions can without extreme danger be wanting to Christian souls The minds of the Vulgar are not edified by them they do but play and make a sport of them and when they have ceased to play with them for want of