ut apud Christianos veteres apud prisca secula de eorum scriptis edoceas adhiberi nomen Pastoris ubi de Episcopo non loquuntur And if Bishops be the Prophets and Pastors and Doctors of the Church to whom should the Office of Preaching chiefly and primarily belong but them The practice of the ancient Church confirms this In Justin Martyr the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stood up and made the exhortation i. e. the Bishop In the 19. Canon of the Council of Laodicea the style of the Church shews this was the practice of the Church at that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the Homilies of the Bishops in Alexandria Soromon writes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop alone of the City does teach St. Chrysostom in 1. ad Tim. cap. 4. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the dignity of the Priesthood and teaching was great referring to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priesthood Timothy was chosen to and that was the high Priesthood of Episcopacy Thom. Aquin. supplem 3. par quaest 36. artic 2. in prim argum calls Preaching opus Episcopalissimum the most Episcopal work Estius upon the Sentences speaking of Preaching saith verùm hoc munus principaliter Episcopis incumbit qui propriè secundum Apostolum Ephes 4.11 in Ecclesia constituti sunt Pastores Doctores Secundariò autem Parochis qui Episcopis in hoc subsidiariam navant operam But this Office of Preaching is primarily incumbent upon the Bishops who properly according to the Apostle are ordained Pastors and Doctors Secondarily the Parish Priests are to be subservient to the Bishop in this the Office of Preaching primarily belongs to the Bishop a subsidiary labour as the Bishops substitute belongs to the Presbyter Estius tom 4. lib. 4. cap. 20. But here there may be a question moved how the Presbyter hath the power of Preaching derived to him whether ex vi ordinis or ex licentia Episcopi by virtue of his order or from the Bishops licence But granting that all Presbyters receive a power to preach by their Orders as in the Church of England yet it is onely in actu primo not in actu secundo though they have a power conferred upon them yet the exercise of that power is restrained by the Canons till they have a Licence from the Bishop I have not met with any thing concerning the forms of Ordination used in the ancient Church but I suppose howsoever the matter of Ordination and Imposition of hands by a Bishop be an Apostolical Tradition yet the form of words used in Ordination is not so but of Ecclesiastical institution whence it comes that most Churches vary in their forms of Ordination In the Greek Church the form is divina gratia quae semper infirma sanat quae desunt supplet creat seu promovet N. venerabilem Diaconum in Presbyterum Dei amabilissimum Presbyterum in Episcopum The divine Grace which alwayes heales our infirmities and supplies our wants doth create or promote N. the Venerable Subdeacon to be a Deacon the Venerable Deacon to be a Presbyter the Presbyter most beloved of God to be a Bishop In the Western Church they use another form and in that confer a double power upon the Presbyter potestatem conficiendi corpus Domini potestatem ligandi solvendi power of Consecrating the Elements in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and power of binding and loosing Our Britanick Church which is a part of the Western hath a form peculiar to her self yet very much like the old Greek form mentioned by S. Clem. in his Constitutions l. 8. c. 16. wherein the power of Preaching also is conferred upon the Presbyter And yet I have reason enough to believe that actual Preaching especially according to the common understanding of that word now-a-days is not so essential to the Order of a Presbyter but that he may sometimes upon good grounds be debarred from it First because if a Presbyter be suspended ab officio from his Office of Preaching he remains a Presbyter still The Character is indeleble Nay if a Presbyter be suspended not only from the Office of Preaching but of Consecrating or Baptizing or in any kind Officiating in the Church nay if he be excommunicated yet his Character is indeleble he remains a Presbyter still and whatsoever he doth by vertue of that Character is valid de facto though contra jus This St. Jerom proves at large in his Book against the Luciferians that a Presbyter cannot lose his Order And St. Augustine in his Book de bono conjugali cap. 24. saith expresly Si siat Ordinatio cleri ad plebem congregandam etiamsi plebis congregatio non subsequatur manet tamen in ordinatis ordinationis sacramentum Et si ob aliquam culpam quispiam ab officio removeatur Sacramento Domini non carebit If their be an Ordination of the Clergy for the Congregation of the people although they have not a Corgregation or a Parish to attend upon yet the Sacrament of Ordination remaines in them once ordained And if for some fault any one be removed from his Office yet he wants not the Sacrament of the Lord. Secondly because I find that the Church in prudence anciently did not suffer all Presbyters to Preach but onely such as were eminent for their Prudence Gravity Piety and Abilities Presbyters and Deacons saith Grotius in his Annot. upon S. Luke 10.1 did not all Preach but they alone quibus docendi populum potestas ab Episcopo facta est to whom the power of teaching the people was granted by the Bishop which Presbyters therefore he saith were called by Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyters entrusted with the explication of the word of God Thirdly because I see in the ancient Church there were Presbyteri Monachi Presbyters Monks Presbyters in Monasteries which had no cure of souls St. Hierome in his Epistle ad Dammachium tells us of five Presbyters they had in the Monastery of Bethlehem on purpose to administer the Sacrament to devout people there Such a Presbyter was Saint Hierome himself who preached not officio vocis by Sermons but by writing and did as many others quiescere in monasterio Lastly because I know the Church of England hath ordained allowed imployed many Presbyters who were no Preachers In the beginning of the Reformation 't is well known we had many Presbyters that never preach'd at all Within this 50 or 60 years amongst ten Presbyters there was not one Preacher In our Cathedralls at this day there are divers Singing-men Presbyters no Preachers And Presbyters they must be by the rules and statutes of their respective Churches wherein they serve and attend the Quire But if Preaching be not essentiall to the order of a Presbyter what office or duty is incumbent on him in case he be not qualified or licensed to preach Gulielmus Lunicensis in his book before alledged enumerates divers branches of the Presbyters office besides Preaching
oppressions and persecutions and then to destroy the Priesthood by seizing upon the Church-revenue Thus they served the Clergy at last for their preaching As the Fox did the Crow in the Fable commended their voices till they got away their morsels Lastly by overthrowing the study of Divinity for since preaching came to be of such high esteem with the people that they measure all mens worth by their sides and lungs many of the Clergy give over the difficulties of Theology and content themselves with such superficial knowledge therein as will qualifie them for popular Preachers and no more The Critical Polemical Scholastical Casuistical parts of Divinity crown'd with the admirable Learning of Fathers Councils Ecclesiastical History in all which or at least in some Ministers should excell or be competently versed are now laid aside as superfluous and no way requisite to the accomplishment of a Preacher Whence it comes to pass that in a Church abounding with Preachers there is a great scarcity of Divines Abundance of Preachers but few Divines These considerations with others have moved me to search into the bottom of this art of Preaching to see upon what foundation it stands how it was used in the ancient Church what boundaries should be set to it assuring my self it would be impossible ever to deliver the Church from these Confusions till Preaching the design of all former Reformations were reformed it self and reduced to the just rule purged from the dross and restored to their hands to whom of right it belongs For as in all natural and ordinate mutations there must be removens prohibens so that there should be in moral mutations Prudence dictates If there be any thing hinders the Peace and Welfare of Gods Church even that should be removed But how this can be done without the interposing of Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority without some Canons and Laws first deliberately made and then faithfully executed is not to be imagined For though prudent and considerate men cannot but see the horrible inconvenience that comes upon the Church by this liberty of prophecying yet the Silver-smiths that get their living by this Craft and have made of this preaching artem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophers Stone will cry up this Diana And then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the many on the other side who were carryed meerly by opinion and what they have once imbibed hold as Pilate quod scripsi scripsi they having received an opinion that this preaching is the Alpha and Omega of all Religion It will be more then an Herculean labour to dispossesse them of their darling fancy It was an ingenious device of him that to express the love of preconceived opinions elegantly painted in the gate of humane infelicity a greater number of men in prison loaden above measure and oppressed with heavy chains and fetters who yet were so far from grieving at their misery that they strove amongst themselves every one for the Prerogative of his shackles while some licked them some gently touched them some measured them some covered them with rags from the injury of the air all gloried of their imprisonment and if any had less irons then another he envyed the others happiness The World is governed all by opinion and as every Crow thinks his own bird fairest so every man his own opinion though thereby he is miserably imprisoned and the fetters whereby he is holden be iron impolish'd burthensome grievous to be born yet he hugs them as Ornaments not Impediments as Golden Chains and Bracelets not Iron gyves and by them lies fast bound in the Dungeon of ignorance From which if a man goes about to deliver them they complaine of signall injury done them as the Devil did of Christ Why art thou come to torment us before the time With these kind of men I can promise little successe to this paper when I behold the huge mountains of prejudice that oppose themselves to truth and reason But when I look again upon the grand Impostures and cheats practised upon poor weak souls by these new Quacks in Divinity I consider though it be not in my power to remove or cure so great an evil yet it will be some discharge of Conscience to testifie against it some step and furtherance to the cure to lay open the sore and to shew the necessity of the generous Medicaments his Sacred Majesty hath used for the healing of our breaches in the Church As certainly 't is a thing of huge concernment for the publick peace to look unto the regulation of the Pulpit from whence such innumerable evils have broke in upon us and so many inconveniencies may arise for the future if there be no stop to the insolence of some so there can be no more soveraign remedies to prevent them then the directions of our Dread Soveraign recommended to the Reverend Fathers of the Church I know Regium est bona facere mala audire The best actions of Princes are obnoxious to censure and calumnie Ignorant persons may derogate from them malicious persons may traduce them but none can propound a better Catholicon for the cure of this Epidemical Disease in this juncture of affaires then His Majesty hath done And I hope in this ensuing Treatise to make it appear to every unprejudiced Reader that His Majesties directions are highly prudential and agreeable to the Principles of sound Theology and the practice of the golden age of the Church If it be demanded why I have not confined my self to them alone in the treatise I Answer First because they being not prime verities evident of themselves it was requisite I should search out some antecedent truth from which these doe follow by good consequence Secondly because in this disquisition many Homogeneal things offer themselves which may be of some moment to the right understanding of the matter If I answer not the expectation of any in this my undertaking I shall satisfie my self with the intention of doing good and that I have according to my poor talent contributed the best I can to the justification of his Sacred Majesty and the Peace of my poor labouring Mother the Church of England to whose judgement I submit my self and this poor conception And all that I have to say I shall for orders sake reduce to these four Heads 1. Of Preaching in generall 2. To whom this Office of Preaching primarily belongs 3. How it was managed in the ancient Church 4. What Innovations have been introduced in these latter times CHAP. I. Of Preaching in general THe first thing I am to treat on is Preaching in generall And to doe that I am in Justice bound to give some account of the importance of the word Forasmuch as words are the garments of things and notionall words make us understand the natures of things As Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of knowledge is the consideration of words Now the word to Preach is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is
in unoquoque genere est regula sequentium the first and best of every kind is the rule of all that follows Now the Fathers of the Church were the first and best Preachers for their Learning for their Integrity for their Freedom from secular Interests for their Wisdom and Zele in saving Souls as appears by the happy success of their labours in bringing so many Heathens to Christianity so many Christians to Mortification and contempt of the World and Martyrdom it self But to give a perfect account of their practice I confess requires a man better versed in Antiquity than my self who through want of time books and other encouragements have been kept from those flights which others have made into the lofty Regions of Antiquity where the great Lights of the Church the Stars of the first Magnitude moved and shined yet some few beams of their prudence I have observed which may serve to shew His Majesties late Directions in their genuine Colours and render them more Illustrious And one act of prudence in them observable was a careful and wise provision that Sermons should not perk up into the Tribunal with the Word and sit in the same Throne with it To preserve the Authority of the word of God entire and inviolate they distinguished betwixt the word of God and Sermons They did not call their Sermons the word of God as now but used terms of diminution to denominate them by as Homilies Allocutions Disputations mostly they were called Tractatus by the Latine Fathers Thus Possidonius in the life of St. Augustine calls all his Sermons Tractatus Treatises And thus St. Augustine calls his own Sermons upon the Gospel and Epistles of St. John Tractatus And as they called their Sermons Tractatus so they called the Preachers Tractatores insomuch that St. Jerome who Preached not officio vocis seems to reckon himself amongst the Tractators Non sum tantae faelicitatis quantae plerique hujus temporis Tractatores I am not of so much dexterity as most Tractators of these times are It is very certain that as they opposed these Tractators in respect of their Authority to the Pen-men of holy Writ so they did their Sermons and Writings to the holy Scripture which they esteemed as the infallible dictate of the holy Spirit but the Sermons of the wisest Tractators fallible and obnoxious to errour And therefore when S. Jerome was taxed for reading of Origen an Heterodox Author he excuseth himself that he read him as he did other Tractators obnoxious to errour Epistola 75. adversus Vigilant A second act of Prudence as I take it was this that they kept the Pulpit from quarrelling with the Desk Their Sermons did not interfere or clash with their Liturgy though Preaching was frequent and had its due place and esteem yet it was not so magnified as the Liturgy was laid aside or curtailed to make way for a Sermon There was no antipathy then betwixt Sermons and Common Prayers they did not then walk as Antipodes contrary one to another nor were they as contraries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destructive one to another but did afford one another their mutual help and walk in the House of God as Friends as may be demonstrated diverse wayes First by the constant imployment of other Officers in Gods publick service besides Tractators Namely Deacons Psalmists Lectors The Preacher did not begin till the Reader had done 'T is observed in Justin Martyr Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Reader had done the Preacher made the Exhortation Secondly by the time when the Sermons came in which was post recitationem Evangelii after the rehearsal of the Gospel whence in after-times Sermons were called Postills I conjecture quasi post ille because they were after the Epistles and Gospels Thirdly by the solemn service after the Sermon every Lords-day There were ever two parts of the Liturgy the first and second service The second service consisted of the Venerable Mystery of Christs Body and Bloud and the Supplications Interpellations Thanksgivings wherewith it was Celebrated which were standing forms and some of them derived from the Apostles as sursum corda aequum bonum c. And if this Service did constantly follow the Homily then the Sermon did not shoulder out the Liturgy nor the Liturgy the Sermon Fourthly by the singular respect the most famous Pulpit-men had for Liturgy in general Not to speak of St. James an Apostolical Preacher who compiled a Liturgy as the Council of Trullo acknowledged long ago and the Greek Church to this very day It is well known that St. Basil and St. Chrysostom were two incomparable Preachers in their times and yet both lovers and compilers of Liturgies 'T is recorded by Proclus Patriark of Constantinople that St. Basil and St. Chrysostom finding men through slothfulness and profaneness begin to nauseate the length of the holy Liturgies composed by St. James and St. Clemens two Apostolical men they contracted their Liturgies and made them shorter that people might not through the subtilty of Satan apostatize from the Divine and Apostolical Tradition of Liturgy Biblioth Patr. tom 4. pag. 15 16. Now let the impartial Reader recollect all these Arguments and judge whether in the opinion and practice of the ancient Church the Sermon did quarrel with the Liturgy and cast it out of the Church And whether His Sacred Majesty had not just cause to take care in His Directions that they should fairly correspond and agree together and for that purpose to enjoyn the use of one aswell as the other A third act of Prudence in the ancient Church was the confining of themselves and the Preachers to the occasion of their meeting If it were a Festival to the commendation of that Saint in whose Memory the day was observed If it were a greater Celebrity the Nativity Epiphany Passion or Resurrection of Christ alwayes they handled something fit to explain the Mystery If it were not upon such a Festival day they kept themselves to the Lesson read for the day This Justin Martyr seems to intimate in the forementioned place When the Reader hath done saith he the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Bishop in a Speech instructs and exhorts the people to the imitation of such Excellent things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these good things signanter rehearsed in the Lessons That this was the manner of after-ages Optatus signifies in his writings against the Donatists it was the manner of the Donatists saith he and of Parmenian by name when they had begun to Preach upon the Lessons for the day to fall from a due explication of them to the railing upon the Orthodox Nullus vestrum qui non aliud initiet aliud explicet Lectiones dominicas incipitis tractatus vestros ad nostras injurias explicatis If the Authority of Optatus be not sufficient we have St. Augustines own practice recorded by himself to second it who in his Sermons de verbis Domini does
not only handle the Gospels read but refers to them as the subject he was obliged to treat on Audivimus Evangelium in eo c. Serm. 1. Sancti Evangelii capitulum quod modo cum legeretur audivimus valde me vexavit Serm. 4. De lectione Sancti Evangelii hortatus est nos Dominus Serm. 5. Happily the Gospels read then were not the same with ours read now in our second Service before the Communion 'T is certain that the use of Dominicâ—ls Epistles and Gospels for the day was very ancient Walafridus Strabo will have them as ancient as St. Jerom cap. 22. and not without some ground for St. Jerom himself does make mention of them in his Book against Vigilantius Per totas orientis Ecclesias quando legendum est Evangelium accenduntur luminaria jam sole rutilante non utique ad fugandas tenebras sed ad signum laetitiae demonstrandum In all the Churches of the East when the Gospel is read Candles are lighted not to drive away darkness but by this sign to testifie our joy By this 't is evident that in S. Hieroms time some Gospel was read and 't is probable some Gospel in the second Service at the Altar because there Candles were lighted and used Rabanus Maurus goes higher and saith they obtained from the beginning Sed enim initio mos iste cantandi non erat qui nunc in Ecclesia ante sacrificium celebratur sed Epistolae Pauli recitabantur sanctum Evangelium lib. 2. cap. 32. de Institut Cleric But that manner of singing which is now used before the celebration of the Eucharist was not from the beginning yet the Epistles of S. Paul and the Gospel were read The use of those Dominicals was very ancient no question and so was the Preaching upon them and it were a happy thing if Preachers as anciently were still confined unto them First to hold correspondency with the ancient Catholik Church whose example layes a moral obligation upon us of imitation in things lawful and laudable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. To hold Conformity with some eminent reformed Churches The Lutherans retain the custom of Preaching upon the Dominicals 3. To prevent wild Vagaries and Excursions when men are left to themselves 4. To acquaint the people with those parts of Scripture and the meaning of them which most concern their salvation For such singular wisdom is used in the Epistles and Gospels for the day that as the Gospel lays before them the mysteries of our Redemption so the Epistles all the Rules of holy life The Gospel is a Record of the Life and Death of our blessed Saviour the Epistles are Instructions for the edification of the Church in pious and Christian Conversation The Gospel represents unto us the prime Principles and Foundations of Christianity the Epistles contain Superstructures upon the Foundation And if those were duly and faithfully explained to the People the knowledge of them were sufficient to guide them in the way to Life Eternal and would prevent an horrible abuse of the Scriptures by peoples petulancy in meddling with Obscure Prophetical Apocalyptical parts of Scripture which they understand not and for want of understanding wrest to their own destruction A fourth Act of Prudence it was in the ancient Church That in order to the preservation of Peace and Piety they would not susser all men that were licensed to preach out of their own stock and abilities but required them to preach ex thesauro Ecclesiae out of the treasures of the Church All men that did preach did not undertake it of their own store of their own judgment and invention making and composing Sermons as they pleased but they borrowed out of the treasures of the Church and read the Homilies of the Fathers Thus it was ordered in the Council of Vase can 4. Power being granted to the Presbyters to preach in every City in case they were hindered by any infirmity the Deacons were enjoyned to read the Homilies of the Fathers Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae recitentur And the reason follows Si enim digni sunt Diaconi quae Christus in Evangelio locutus est legere quare indigni judicentur sanctorum Patrum expositiones publicè recitare If the Deacons be worthy to read the Gospel of Christ why should they be thought unworthy to rehearse publickly the Expositions of the Fathers And this gives us some ground of conjecture that the Presbyters read Homilies of the Fathers too for certainly not onely Deacons and Presbyters but even Bishops themselves did so Gennadius in his book de illustribus Ecclesiae scriptoribus testifieth that Cyril Bishop of Alexandria had written Homilies which many Fishops of Greece used afterwards Cyrillus saith he Alexandrinae Ecclesiae Episcopus Homilias composuit plurimas quae ad declamandum à Graecis Episcopis memoriae commendantur cap. 57. Sixtus Senens lib. 4. pag. 222. Cyril Bishop of Alexandria composed many Homilies which the Greek Bishops getting by heart preached unto the People This may haply seem a dishonourable thing to some men to be thus limited but if it may tend to the peace of the Church it ought not to be grievous How requisite some such Order is in this Church where so many are imployed in Preaching who through faction do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make merchandise of the Word of God or through want of Learning turn Plagiaries and do vivere ex rapto preach Sermons in Print and oftentimes according to their prepossessions take the worst and leave the best is easie to discern For had they not better be appointed where they should borrow stuff for their weekly tasks be limited and confined to the Homilies of the Church and the Fathers of the Church than be suffered to rake into the kennels of Faction and Schism out of which they first suck poison themselves and then propine it to their hearers A fifth Act of Prudence in the ancient Church was A wise Accommodation of themselves to the capacity of their hearers avoiding in their Sermons the discussion of sublime and subtil Questions which conduced not to the Edification of their Auditory They generally distinguished betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things to be published and things to be kept secret they did not think it meet to publish all the mysteries of Christianity to them who were not Initiati Initiate in the school of Christ as Heathens c. Neither did they judge it expedient to handle high and difficult Questions before the unskilful Multitude though Initiati Initiate in the school of Christ but condescended in their Sermons to the understanding of the Vulgar From hence it was that they called their Sermons Homilies An Homily is a familiar Sermon or Speech accommodated to the sense and understanding of the Vulgar It is a memorable and grave sentence of the Emperour Constantine recorded by Eusebius lib. 2. de vita Constant cap. 67. Such Questions as no Canon or Law
vain oftentation of their Learning to embroil the Church and State And we have found it true by experience for as we read of a great King destroyed by the counsel of young men so we may remember a great and good King also destroyed by these young Divines and their young Divinity A third Innovation as I take it is the Preaching of Lecturers but by Lecturers I do not understand all that go under that name but such as are merely of the Peoples setting up against the mind and without the special License of the Governours of the Church These Lecturers are a new order of Ecclesiasticks that like Cartesius Philosophy are made up of rare Principles but all Novelties Their Ordination if they have any is a Novelty for 't is either by Presbyters sine Episcopo or by Bishops sine titulo If it be by Presbyters without a Bishop 't is a Novelty as being against Tradition Apostolical the Practice and Constitution of the ancient Church and of the universal Church for the space of 1500. years after Christ Ordination ever was the Bishops peculiar and all Ordinations without the Bishop were esteemed uncanonical and pronounced null and void Vide Concil Constantinop 1. can 6. If it be by Bishops without a Title 't is a Novelty too against a Canon of our own Churhc can 33. and against the Canons of the ancient Church Nullum absolutè ordinaridebere Presbyterum c. Concil Chalced. can 6. No Presbyter is absolutely to be ordained And I doubt such a Lecture of the peoples setting up will never prove a Title in Law nor in the Churches esteem and if it be not their Ordination is a Novelty and a Nullity also Their Congregation is a Novelty as being against the Doctrine Practice and Canons of the ancient Church too by which no Presbyter is suffered to hold Meetings or Conventions by himself contrary to the Bishops mind and order We find it very early in the Canons of the Apostles Si quis Presbyter contemnens Episcopum suum seorsim collegerit altare aliud erexerit nihil habens quod reprehendat Episcopum suum in causa pietat is justitiae deponatur quasi principatus amator existens est enim tyrannus caeteri clerici quicunque tali consentiunt deponantur laici verò segregentur Can. 32. If any Presbyter despising his Bishop shall hold a Meeting by himself and erect another Altar having nothing in the mean time to accuse the Bishop of in matter of piety and justice let him be deposed as one that loves Preeminence for he is a Tyrant and other Clergy-men that joyn with him are to be deposed and the Laicks excommunicate To this agrees a Canon of the Council of Carthage Si quis Presbyter ab Episcopo suo correptus tumore vel superbia inflatus putaverit separatim sacrificia Deo offerenda vel aliud erigendum altare centra eccle siasbicam fidem vel disciplinam crediderit non exeat impunitùs If any Presbyter being rebuked and censured by the Bishop shall in a separation offer sacrifice to God or erect another Altar against the Ecclesiastical Faith and Discipline let him not go unpunish'd But these Lecturers hold Conventions and Meetings in the Church without the Bishops License and against the Canons of the Church and all Ecclesiastical Discipline therefore their Congregation is a Novelty Their Election is a Novelty as being by the suffrage of the People onely though sometimes the Bishops anciently did consult the People before their Ordination ad testimonium for their testimony yet never ad electionem for their suffrage in the choice of them much less after Ordination did they leave it to the People to make choice of their own Curates but they themselves appointed and sent out fit men to their several Cures There are several Canons wherein the People are barr'd this liberty of Election in the ancient Church the 13. can of the Council of Laodicea may serve alone to give us a taste Non est populis concedendum Electionem facere corum qui altaris ministerio sunt applicandi It is not to be left to the people to make choice of those who are to serve at the altar But these Lecturers come in all by popular Election and maintain the peoples election an authentick Call and sufficient without any Mission or Commission from the Bishop and therefore their Election is a Novelty Their Maintenance is a Novelty as being Elemosinary of the peoples benevolence they live not upon any Church revenue of tithes or glebe or oblations but upon the peoples contributions Whereas the maintenance of the Clergy was ever of tithes or some Church revenue or before the settlement of tithes by secular powers certain honourable stipends distributed at the discretion of the Bishop according to the merits of the person weekly or monthly out of the Churches treasure whereupon Presbyters were call'd by St. Cyprian Sportulantes fratres Epist 66. and those stipends sportulae Epist 34. Caeterum Presbyterii honorem nos designasse illis jam sciatis â—t et sportulis eisdem cum Presbyteris honorentur But you may know we have designed the honour of the Presbyterate for them that they may be dignified with the same stipends Presbyters are As amongst the Romanes the word sportulae was used for a certain allowance of food or mony given by great men to their followers so in Saint Cyprian it signifies the allowance or stipends which the Bishop out of the Church treasure paid to the Priests that depended upon him For as the Churches treasure was solely at the Bishops disposing so the Clergy depended upon the Bishop for their maintainance out of that treasure And therefore t is provided in the 7 Can. of the Council of Gangres Siquis oblationes ecclesiae accipere vel dare voluerit praeter conscientiam Episcopi vel ejus cui hujusmodi officia commissa sunt nec cum ejus voluerit agere consilio Anathema sit That if any should presume to take or give the oblations of the Church without the knowledge or consent of the Bishop he should be Anathema whereby it appears that the Priests and other orders of the Clergy depended upon the Bishop for their maintenance But these Lecturers depend upon the people for their maintenance And therefore their maintenance is a novelty Their Doctrine is a novelty As they are the peoples creatures so they are the peoples servants and take great care to please them populo ut placerent quas fecissent fabulas and forasmuch as people are lovers of novelties they must be sure to bring new things to their ears daily It is not enough for them to preach novè after a new manner but they must preach nova and not bona nova but mala nova nay nova mala new Gods in Israel nova dogmata sunt novi dii saith Vineentius new opinions are new Gods And if these be not new opinions new doctrines That the government of the Church
REX THEOLOGVS THE PREACHERS Guard and Guide In his double Duty of PRAYER and PREACHING Deduced from Scripture Reason and the best Examples In III. Parts 1. A Vindication of the Kings Letter to the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Regulation of Preachers 2. A Demonstration that Forms of Prayer do best suit with Publick Worship 3. An Antidote to the virulent Clamours of the Non-conformists LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1664. To the Right Worshipful Sir RALPH HARE Knight and Baronet and Sir EDWARD WALPOOLE Knight of the Bath Two worthy Members of the Honourable House of Commons Honoured Gentlemen AS you were in your Capacities highly instrumental to the Restauration of His Sacred Majesty to His Crown so I know there is nothing you desire more than the happy settlement of His Majesty with the Church and State under His Dominion upon the foundations of Peace and Piety Amongst other things that hinders such a desired Establishment one is the Exorbitancy of the Pulpit though you have done great things already in the Parliament which we acknowledge to your everlasting Honour in order to the correcting of those Irregularities yet something you left undone as a work proper for an Intelligence of an higher Orb wherefore His Sacred Majesty hath made a further progress in His late DIRECTIONS recommended to the Reverend Fathers of the Church wherein at once He hath approved Himself Episcopum extra Ecclesiam a Bishop without the Church and Theologum intra Ecclesiam a Divine within the Church But forasmuch as His Majesty's DIRECTIONS meet not with that general Reception and Approbation they deserve but are traduced by some as contrary to the Doctrine of the Church my design is in this ensuing Treatise to defend Theologiam Regis the Kings Divinity shining in them I am conscious of my own Defects and therefore implore your Patronage I fear I have presumed too far in sheltering my self under your Names and therefore beg your Pardon and withall your Acceptance of this Testimony of my Observance promising what I fall short of in this Expression of my Gratitude I shall make up with my daily Prayers for you both and the Branches of your Honourable Families to whom I am A most devoted Servant in all Observance Robert Seppens DIEV ET MON DROIT To the Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury CHARLES R. MOst Reverend Father in God We greet you well Whereas the hold abuses and extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have not onely by the experience of former Ages béen found to tend to the dishonour of God the scandal of Religion and disturbance of the peace both of Church and State but have also through the licentiousness of the late times much increased to the inflaming fomenting and heightning of the sad distempers and confusions that were among us And whereas even at this present notwithstanding the merciful providence of God so signally manifested in restoring Vs to Our Crown and Our pious care and endeavours to govern Our Realms in peace and tranquillity the said Abuses do yet continue in a very high measure in sundry parts of this Realm through the busie diligence of some unquiet and factious Spirits who instead of preaching the pure Word of God and building up the People in Faith and Holiness have made it a great part of their business to beget in the minds of their Heaters an evil opinion of their Governours by insinuating fears and jealousies to dispose them to discontent and to season them with such unsound and dangerous Principles as may lead them into Disobedience Schism and Rebellion And whereas also sundry young Divines and Ministers either out of a spirit of contention and contradiction or in a vain ostentation of their Learning take upon them in their popular Sermons to handle the déep points of Gods Eternal Counsels and Decrées or to meddle with the affairs of State and Government or to wrangle about Forms and Gestures and other fruitless Disputes and Controversies serving rather to amuse than profit the Hearers which is done for the most part and with the greatest confidence by such persons as least understand them We out of Our Princely Care and Zele for the honour of God the advancement of Piety Peace and true Religion and for the preventing for the future as much as lieth in Vs the many and great Inconveniencies and Mischiefs that will unavoidably ensue if a timely stop be not given to these and the like growing Abuses Do according to the Examples of several of Our Predecessours of blessed memory by these Our special Letters straitly charge and command you to use your utmost care and diligence that these Directions which upon long and serious consideration We have thought good to give concerning Preachers and which We have caused to be Printed herewith sent unto you be from henceforth duly and strictly observed by all the Bishops within your Province And to this end Our Will and Pleasure is That you forthwith send them Copies of these Our Directions to be by them spéedily communicated to every Parson Vicar Curate Lecturer and Minister in every Cathedral Collegiate and Parish-Church within their several Dioceses And that you eaâ—nestly require them to imploy their utmost endeavour for the due observation of the â—ame whereof We shall expect a strict accompt both of you and every one of them And these Our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf Given at Our Court at Whitehall the 14. day of October in the 14. year of Our Reign 1662. By His Majesties Command ED. NICHOLAS Directions concerning Preachers I. THat no Preachers in their Sermons presume to meddle with matters of State to model new Governments or take upon them to declare limit or bound out the Power and Authority of Soveraign Princes or to state and determine the differences betwéen Princes and the People but that upon all good occasions they faithfully instruct the People in their bounden duty of Subjection and Obedience to their Governours Superiour and Subordinate of all sorts and to the established Laws according to the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Church of England as it is contained in the Homilies of Obedience and the Articles of Religion set forth by publick Authority II. That they be admonished not to spend their time and study in the search of abstruse and speculative Notions especially in and about the déep points of Election and Reprobation together with the incomprehensible manner of the concurrence of Gods Frée Grace and Mans Frée Will and such other controversies as depend thereupon but howsoever that they presume not positively and doctrinally to determine any thing concerning the same III. That they forbear in their Sermons ordinarily and causlesly to enter upon the handling of any other controversies of less moment and difficulty but whensoever they are occasioned by invitation from the Text they preach
daily experience teacheth That Christianity it self the onely true and excellent religion is against her nature made a mother of a spurious off-spring contention war rebellion The Scripture that admirable Systeme of divine revelations is polluted by the prophane usage of every bold Dogmatizer Every institution of Christ is adulterated and turned to his dishonour The Publick service of God which if rightly performed would come before him as incense and as the Morning Sacrifice by vain repetitions extemporary boldnesse and tumultuary effusions of late became the Sacrifice of Fools the sacred Eucharist that is ordained as a bond or ligament to knit us together in unity is by Satans malice the golden apple of contention an occasion of wofull distraction amongst Christians and the fuell of endlesse and irreconcileable controversie The Love-feasts used in the Apostles times for the procreation and conservation of charity did soon degenerate into nurseries of riot and dissention The Publick Vigills upon the Evens of Festivals Tertul. lib. 2 ad ux Aug. ep 64. at first so advantagious to Christian piety and observed with so much zeal and devotion in time were changed into publike disorders It were endlesse to reckon up all the sacred rites of Christianity the Devil hath made use of to promote his own Kingdome and weaken Christs But amongst all those there is none more visibly and dangerously abused then the Ordinance as they call it of Preaching which at first was the organ in the hand of Christ and his Apostles for the conversion of the world but now by Satans malice and subtilty is become a great instrument for the disturbance of Christian Churches and Nations That it may be a question whether the excesse of Preaching in later times hath not done more hurt then the want of it heretofore T is certain in Morality that the vice in Excesse is sometimes as opposite to the middle virtue as the vice in Defect We have lived to see by sad experience that vitious and excessive Preaching hath been both opposite and fatall to the most excellent Church in Christendome and that diverse and sundry wayes First by abetting of Heresie Schisme Sacrilege Rebellion Rapine and all manner of villany Howsoever this bullion was digg'd out of a lower region yet it was minted stamped made authentical in the Pulpit Though those impes of the Devil had their conception elsewhere yet here they had their Birth Legitimation and Christendome From this quarter blew the wind that raised the rageing of the Sea and the madnesse of the people It was a saying of old that Athenas oratorum eloquentia perdidit I will not say that the eloquence of our Preachers destroyed us but their bawling their clamorous obstreperousnesse did For while these Demagogues had the peoples ears tyed to their tongues they conveyed all manner of poyson into their hearts They who remember the glory of the first Temple know how first it came to be Eclipsed and afterwards invelop'd in universall darknesse And they who live to see the building of the second Temple know what mighty opposition it finds from the fierce and warlike nation of the Pulpiteers Secondly by deletion and extinction of all the parts of Gods worship whereas Gods worship is the end of preaching and preaching is but medium cultus And the means is no further such then it serves unto the end The matter was so handled that preaching had engrossed and monopolized all the parts of Gods worship and was become the sole worship of God Cartwright and his disciplinarians were modest in respect of these Empiricks They allowed of no Sacraments without Sermons These made Sermons alone all-sufficient without Sacraments They held that the administration of the Sacraments without Sermons was damnable Sacrilege These by a more damnable Sacrilege destroyed the Sacraments themselves so that all the worship of God was turned to Preaching much the most part whereof hath been little better then vain babling Thirdly by eclypsing and disparaging of Gods word contained in the holy Scripture for not only Gods Worship was laid aside but the Bible it self was turned out of doors The reading of the Scripture which obtained in the Jewish and Christian Churches in all ages and was generally found to be of singular use and benefit was abandon'd and esteemed of no efficacy without some of their new descants upon it That as the Superstitious Rabbins proverbially said Plus est in verbis scribarum quam in verbis legis so they thought there was more efficacy in the words of men then in the words of God And thereupon imparted the peculiar glory of his word unto that which is not his word For Sermons are not the word of God but equivocally because the word of God is the subject and should be the rule whereby they are framed But forasmuch as in Sermons there is a mixture of Mans wit and invention sometimes a tincture of Errour and Malice For men to lay aside the immemorial and profitable custom of reading the holy Scripture and obtrude upon the people in the place of it their Sermons as the pure word of God is a sacrilegious diminution of its Authority If the Romanist be obnoxious to so much censure for ranking the Traditions of the Church in equipage with the word of God written what insolence is it in men to prefer their fancies and inventions not only before the Traditions of the Church but also the undoubted word of God it self Fourthly by the bringing in a new kind of Idolatry we are told of diverse kinds of Idolatry in the Roman Church worshipping of Images worshipping of Saints and Angels worshipping of the Host But now there is a new kind of Idolatry brought into the Reformed Church worshipping of Sermons No ignorant Papists idolize any Image or Saint departed more then some people do these Sermons They adore them they attribute an omnipotency to them in saving Souls ex opere operato they place their affiance in them They go on pilgrimage with as much devotion to worship this imagination as the Papists do to the Image of the Lady of Loretto They spare no cost nor charges in their oblations to these Idol shepheards though like the Idols of the Heathen they have eyes and see not As the people of Israel made a Calf in Horeb and then fell down and worshipped it so these misguided zelots set up Calves for their Teachers and then fall down and worship them Fifthly by the destruction of the Priesthood it self when once by this new and monstrous Divinity they had made us believe that Preaching was the sole and onely office of a Minister and observed that insolent Laicks pretending to inspiration could perform that well enough to peoples satisfaction They saw there was no need of Priests nor any provision for their maintenance and therefore laid about them to rid themselves of that chargeable order of Ecclesiasticks for which purpose first they attempted to cut off their persons by various injuries
Praeesse subesse orare offerre baptizare benedicere reconciliare communicare animas Deo commendare corpora sepelire It is his office to be subordinate to the Bishop and to obey him from the heart in all things lawful It is his office to govern his flocks to know the state of them and to direct them in their repentance It is his office to pray for the people It is his office to bless people in marriage It is his office to reconcile men in articulo mortis It is his office to communicate all the faithful It is his office to commend the Souls of the faithfull going out of their bodies to God by prayer It is his office to bury the bodies of Christian people So there are you see many offices of a Presbyter besides preaching and those not despicable but honourable and sufficient to take a great part of a mans time in greater Parishes And yet preaching is incumbent on him by the Canons of our own and the ancient Church also but still with this proviso that it be cum licentia Episcopi And by vertue of that a Deacon as in the Church of England may preach as well as a Presbyter For certain Origen did before he was a Presbyter Origenes licet nondum Presbyterii gradu positus ab Episcopis qui ibi erant non ad disputandum solum sed etiam ad Scripturas explicandas magnopere in ecclesiastico consessu rogatus est Euseb lib. 6. cap. 13. Origen though he had not yet attained the degree of a Presbyter yet he was earnestly intreated by the Bishops who were there present not onely to dispute but to explain the Scriptures in a Church-assembly Well then having advanced so far though with much weaknesse yet I hope with some evidence of truth That primarily Preaching belongs to a Bishop and but secondarily to the Presbyter ex licentia Episcopi There is one difficulty behind to remove before I leave this part of my undertaking concerning the non-preaching of Bishops For if they be properly the Doctors and Pastors of the Church it seems altogether inexcusable that they preach not at all or very seldome To this I offer three things to be seriously considered First that if they be hindred by Sicknesse old age or some other natural or even accidental defects that I suppose will be easily confest a sufficient reason to excuse them from it Secondly If they shall be encumbred with multiplicity of businesse in the Government of the Church as surely since the encrease of Christians and the enlarging of Parishes and Dioceses they find daily more than enough that also cannot but be allowed to be a most just and reasonable excuse Else why doth St. Paul make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Governments an office in the Church An office which all must grant is of as great use as any in the Church of God and which the same Apostle appropriates to a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how shall he take care of the Church of God To take care of the Church of God is Essential to that superiour order as the very name imports Thirdly supposing there be no such Impediment yet if they send others as their Curates to instruct Christian people in all things necessary for Salvation they Preach by their Proxies as the Apostles Preached when they came not themselves by the Evangelist Valerius Bishop of Hippo being a Greek born and not skilled in the language of the Africans could not Preach to the people himself but imployed St. Augustine being then but a Presbyter to Preach in his stead And that was then contra morem Ecclesiae for a Presbyter to Preach in the presence of a Bishop And yet Valerius was an excellent good Bishop Possidon in vit August Fourthly that if they write Confutations of Errours or Comments upon the Scripture or Directions of holy Life as Epistles to their people for the admonition of them in their duty they Preach by so doing Many of the Primitive Bishops because they could not through distance of place instruct their people viva voce did it per Epistolas Encyclicas circular or orbicular Epistles of this sort were the Epistles of Clemens Romanus St. Ignatius St. Cyprian in whom are frequent Epistles to be found to the Clergy and people of his Diocese And of this sort were the Epistles of St. Paul and the Catholick Epistles of St. Peter St. James St. John and St. Jude But if none of these be satisfactory take for a full and final answer the Apology of Gregory Nazianzen a Learned and holy Bishop who being taxed by Keleusius the Governour for his silence and retiredness In an Epistle told him this Parable The Swallows upon a time derided and scoffed at the Swans because they did flie the converse of men and betook themselves to Lakes Rivers and Desert places were such enemies to Musick that they sung but little and when they did they sung to themselves alone and no body heard them as if they were ashamed of their Melody whereas they the Swallows affected the company of men and lived about Houses and Cities and sung continually The Swans at first would not vouchsafe to answer but when they did they thus excused themselves If any come when we lift up our wings to the West and warble out our harmonious Ditties they may perceive though we do not sing much yet our Musick is artificial But you make such continual chattering that you are grievous to them that hear you you enter into mens Houses and molest them with your daily obstreperousness and this is the cause why you dislike us because your selves are over-garrulous Thou understandest what I mean as Pindarus saith thou mayest find my silence better than thy garrulity For Conclusion I le tell thee a Proverb very short but true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the Swans shall sing when the Jack-dawes hold their peace vid. Greg. Naz. Epist prima ad Keleusium Praesidem By this time the Judicious Reader may easily perceive how many things in His Majesties Directions concerning the Person employed in Preaching are taken out of the Archives of the Church and derived from Venerable Antiquity as First that actual Preaching by forming Discourses of their own upon the Scriptures was not anciently the work of every Priest being not simply necessary to their order Secondly that Preaching was restrained to the choicest persons for Gravity Prudence and Learning Thirdly that no Priest might Preach without a Licence Fourthly that none can justly give a Licence to a Priest to qualifie him for Preaching but the Archbishop or Bishop they being the sole Pastors of the Church CHAP. III. How it was managed in the ancient Church THe third part of my undertaking is to shew the prudent managery of this Preaching in the ancient Church And this thing if it were accurately done might serve as a pattern upon the Mount for us all to conform unto 'T is a rule in Metaphysicks that primum
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
a right understanding of them they begin to scuffle about them and quarrel one with another even to Daggers-drawing The other is the late Lord Bishop of Norwich Dr. Hall who in his Clerum to the Synod of Dort tells them that there was Duplex Theologia Scholastica Popularis haec teligionis basin spectare videtur illa tectorii formam ornamenta respicit hujus cognitio Christianum facit illa Disceptatorem There is a twofold Divinity one Scholastical another Popular Popular Divinity concerns the foundation of Religion Scholastical the superstructures and ornaments the knowledge of Popular Divinity makes a man a Christian of Scholastical a Disputant And having afterward sharply snibb'd the curiosity and presumption of common people for prying into Gods Decrees and discoursing of the manner of Predestination he adds Neque tam plebem incuso isthic quam Doctores ipsos qui hac tam parum tempestivè populi auribus animÃsque oggessenint Imprudenter sanè factum ita haec abstrusissima mysteria à suggestis palam sonuisse quasi in iis solis Christianorum res unica constitisset Neither do I accuse the People so much for this as the Teachers themselves who so unseasonably infused those things into the ears and minds of the People It is an high act of Imprudence certainly that those most abstruse Mysteries should be handled openly in the Pulpit as if the life and soul the substance of Christianity consisted in them alone And a little after he saith That there were two things very much infested the Batavian Churches Nimium acumen nimia prophetandi libertas Too much Curiosity and too great liberty of Prophesying I wish to God the Britannick Churches had not cause to complain of these evils also But if we look upon the present face of things or trace our late Confusions to the original we shall find that Liberty of Prophesying and Dogmatizing about Predestination hath had no small influence into our miseries Just cause then had His Sacred Majesty to set bounds to the Liberty of Prophesying and to prohibit the itch of Disputing or handling those high speculations of Gods Decrees in popular Sermons from which as from a source or fountain such waters of Marah and waters of Meribah of Contention have continually flowed And moreover to confine Preachers to Catechetical Doctrine more fit to edifie men in faith and holy life as the manner was in former times Lindwood tells us in lib. 1. de officio Archidiaconi That the Arch-deacon by his office was to see that every Presbyter who had a cure of souls should preach to his people the Articles of the Apostles Creed the Ten Commandments the Two Commandments of Love and against the Seven deadly Sins c. And if people would still content themselves with such salutary Doctrine and Ministers would confine themselves to such safe and profitable Divinity no doubt but truth and piety would flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth The sixth and last act of prudence I shall mention was their constant and faithful preaching of obedience to all superiours in Church and State whereby they kept the people in an admirable subordination gained a huge repute to Christianity and prevailed much upon the gainsaying world For superiors in the Church they taught people to be subject to their Priests and both Priest and People to their Bishop and that with so much zeal and earnestness that t is wonderful to see how St. Ignatius a holy Martyr and a Father contemporary with some of the Apostles and one of those 500 that saw Christ in the flesh after his resurrection in his genuine Epistles does in every page almost inculcate this Doctrine of peoples Subjection to their Deacons Priests and Bishops And St. Hierom who when angred though touchy and something unequal to that superiour order yet when pacifick and undisturbed how gravely does he admonish his Friend Nepotian to be subject to his Bishop and to receive him as the parent of his soul seeing what Aaron and his Sons were in the time of the Law that the Bishop and his Priests are in the time of the Gospel For their superiors in the State they taught as St. Paul and St. Peter Christian people to be Subject to the higher powers for the Lords sake not onely when they were Christians but when they were Heathens Tyrants Persecutors of Christians And this they did when Christians were numerous and strong enough to have cast off the yoke of obedience if it had been lawful They condemn'd Rebellion not onely as inconsistent with Christianity but also destructive to the doctrine of the cross whereby it came to pass that instead of raising an army of Rebels against their Emperors they raised an holy army of Martyrs who resisted unto bloud striving against sin and by their bloud did sow the seeds of Christianity and conquer'd the Heathen World Their Doctrines to this purpose are collected by Hugo Grotius de jure belli lib. 1. cap. 4. I shall therefore supersede the trouble of presenting the Reader with those luculent testimonies and onely inferr from hence How much Ministers are beholding to His Sacred Majesty for calling them out of their by-paths and new wayes into the good old ways wherein the Apostles and Apostolical preachers walked in taking all occasions faithfully to instruct Christian people in their bounden duty of subjection and obedience to their governours superiour and subordinate of all sorts And how much Christianity it self owes to his Majesty for taking care that no fowle spots by the Antichristian Doctrines of rebellion should be cast upon the face of that beautiful Virgin CHAP. IV. What Innovations have been introduc'd in these latter times THe fourth and last part of my undertaking Is to exhibit a Scheme of some Innovations introduced concerning preaching It cannot be denyed but preaching hath arrived to as much perfection amongst us in this Church as in any Church of Christendome since the Knowlege of arts and tongues have flourished and artificial methods have been devised and these improved by srequent practise many have approved themselves excellent preachers But as time and chance happen to all things so they have done to this preaching By the lovers of novelty and change some accessions have been made to this practise which have much altered the face and complexion of it And though people discern them not when once made legitimate by general custom and observance yet surely as Tertullian quod primum verum and as St. Hierom sine istis mundus Christianus fuit The world was Christian without these for the space of 1500 years and so may be still It would be too long to enumerate all the Novelties of this kind that are insensibly crept in upon us and insist upon them at large As profanas as vocum novitates which St. Paul admonisheth us to avoid the affectation of new forms of words canting language c. The preaching sometimes half a year upon
a text nay upon one Doctrine sometimes The cogging of doctrines out of a text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by sleight of hand as Gamesters do their Dice to cheat and deceive These and many more might be rehearsed But I shall onely insist upon some few which are more general and of dangerous consequence And one of these I take to be the use of conceiving long prayers of our own before Sermon A thing so novel that howsoever it be looked upon as an essential part of a Sermon and finds general favour and patronage amongst the many yet it is but of yesterday born into the world some years since the Reformation it self and can scarce yet write fourscore years old It were happily prejudice enough against this usage that in a Church where Liturgy is establish'd for Gods publick worship and a Liturgy so well stored with Divine and Heavenly Collects for all occasions necessary these Pulpit-conceptions are altogether needless But besides this if it be brought to the touch it will be found a meer novelty For whereas the great Patrons of this Liberty pretend Gospel-antiquity for all they do here they are at a loss and can shew neither Command nor Example to justifie their practise There is no Command for it in the Gospel nor any Example of Christ or his Apostles though there be many of their Sermons upon Record yet no mention of any praying before them Nay which is more there is no Church-antiquity for it neither I know t is avouch'd by some very learned men as Ferrarius de ritu concionum Lib. 1. cap. 8. Mr. Thorndike in his book of religious assemblies cap. 7. pag. 228. That the Fathers begun their Homilies with prayers But what manner of prayers were they Some vota pacis or benedictions of the people or implorations of Gods assistance in some short ejaculations Ferrarius exemplifieth in the practise of St. Paul who begun and ended his Epistles with short prayers And moreover testifieth that the Fathers used such kind of prayers not onely in the beginning of their Sermons but sometimes in the midst of them also when they were about to treat of a matter of difficulty they did in a short prayer implore Gods assistance as may be seen frequently in the Homilies of S. Chrysostom Ferrar. lib. 1. cap. 23. There is a prayer 't is confess'd that S. Ambrose used before his Sermon extant but it was a short prayer a form of prayer constantly used without variation And there is something may justifie S. Ambrose in this practice which extends not to all he was an Archbishop and invested with power to regulate and order the publick prayers of the Church in all his Diocese and so had singular Authority to compose a Collect for himself upon some exigent of the Church It will not follow from hence that every green-headed fellow may take a liberty of conceiving prayers before his Sermon thirty or forty times as long as S. Ambrose's prayer was and very every Lords day nay twice a day sometimes and obtrude those upon the World as all the Common prayers requisite in a Church But they have another Plea I see in Mr. Bernard for the Antiquity of these Conceptions before Sermon from the Authority of S. Augustine who in his fourth book de Doctrina Christiana cap. 3. saith Si enim regina Esther oravit pro suae gentis temporaria salute loquutura apud regem ut in os ejus Deus congruum sermonem daret quanto magìs orare debet ut tale munus accipiat qui pro aeterna hominum salute in verbo doctrina laborat If Queen Esther prayed for the temporal safety of her Nation when she was to speak before the King that God would put into her mouth congruous words how much more ought he to pray for such a gift who labours in the Word and Doctrine for the eternal salvation of Mens souls But whether S. Augustine intend publick or private prayer is not here exprest 'T is certain Esthers prayer was private If publick prayer whether he intends a prayer of the Churches composing or of our own conceiving is not mentioned In the 15. cap. of the same book we have another passage to the same purpose Ipsa jam hora ut dicat accedens priusquam exerat proferentem linguam ad Deum levet sitientem animam The hour being come that he should speak before he opens his mouth let him lift up his thirsting soul But this may be done by a mental prayer and it seems the Father speaks of that for he saith Before he makes use of his tongue let him lift up his thirsting soul That he could not intend a publick vocal prayer I think is manifest by the 12. Canon of the Milevitan Council wherein S. Augustine himself was present when it was by him and other Fathers decreed That no prayers should be used in the Church Nisi quae à prudentioribus tractatae vel comprobatae fuerint in Synodo nè fortè aliquid contra fidem per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum But such as were first examined by the more prudent or appointed in an open Synod lest haply something against the Faith either through ignorance or carelesness fall from any If any man question whether S. Augustine were present in this Council and had a hand in this Canon let him hear what Micrologus saith cap. 5. de authenticis or ationibus Nam octavum Africanae provinciae concilium cui sanctus Augustinus immo ducenti quatuordecim sancti Patres interfuerunt cap. 12. ita constituit Nullae preces vel orationes dicantur nisi quae in concilio fuerint probatae The eighth Council of the Province of Africa wherein S. Augustine and two hundred Fathers more were gathered together ordained That no prayers should be used but such as were approved of in the Council And the third Council of Carthage wherein S. Augustine also was present made a Canon to the same purpose If S. Augustine himself and so many Fathers in two Councils interdicted the use of all prayers in publick but such as were approved of in open Synod then S. Augustine cannot be understood of prayers of our own conceiving but either private prayers or publick prayers of the Churches composing It is no vain conjecture therefore of Walafridus Strabo upon S. Augustines own practice for he observing that S. Augustin concluding many of his Homilies with this clause Conversi ad dominum used to subjoyn a Common prayer Sicut etiamnum solent sacerdotes in conclusionibus nocturnae vel diurnae Synaxews orationes breves collect as subjungere Strabo 22. In Strabo his judgment then it was nothing but a short Collect such as the Priests used in the conclusion of their Nocturnal or Diurnal Office They that have read S. Augustines Homilies have taken notice I doubt not of that prayer but because all have not the opportunity to observe it I have here transcribed it
were privileged to decide matters of Controversie in the Law till they were learned in the School of a Doctor and forty years of age Our Lord and Saviour Christ and John Baptist begun not to preach till they were thirty years of age For which cause the Church afterwards in several Canons forbad that any should be made a Presbyter till he was thirty years of age The Canons are extant in Gratian. distinct 78. I shall name onely the 11. Can. of the Neocaesarian Council Presbyter ante triginta annorum aetatem non ordinetur quamvis sit probabilis vitae sed observet usque ad praefinitum tempus Dominus enim trigesimo anno babtizatus erat praedicavit Let no Presbyter though he be of a good life be ordained till he be thirty years but let him wait till the time appointed For our Lord and Saviour was baptized the Thirtieth year of his age and then began to Preach If there were no Canon upon Record to attest the sense and practise of the Church yet the very title of Presbyter which belongs to men of that order were enough to doe it For the word Presbyter is not onely Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a name of dignity but of age and infinuates that they were all men of years admitted into that order Erasmus in the life of St. Jerom testifieth that when Paulinianus Brohter to St. Hierome upon his singular merit was made Presbyter before those canonical years Hoc nomine posteà calumniam struxit Jeronimo Joannes Hierosolymitanus quod infra legitimam aetatem ad hoc honoris esset evectus olim enim ante tricesimum annum nullus erat maturus honori Presbyteri John B. of Jerusalem afterwards went about to detract from S. Hierom because his Brother was promoted to that order being under age For anciently saith he before the thirtieth year none were ripe for the honour of a Presbyter In which words Erasmus acknowledgeth both the antiquity of that custome of the Church and the great censure St. Heirom lay under for promoting or suffering his Brothers Ordination before the legitimate age And though happily our Church in the beginning of the reformation through scarcity of men to serve in those Sacred offices was forced to abate something of the rigour of those Canons and admit men into the order of Presbyterate before they were arrived to that maturity of years yet there was no necessity of suffering them to preach ex proprio out of their own stocks and abilities If in the ancient Church where none were Presbyters till they were thirty years of age all Presbyters were not suffered to preach but only such as gave good security for the prudent managery of the office it may seem an oversight to suffer young men to preach and then leave them to their liberty in preaching The Church of England hath paid dear for her indulgence in this thing Nothing hath been more detrimental to the peace order and government of the Church than the preaching of these youngsters who not being rightly biass'd at their first setting out through the fervour of youth and some youthful lusts as pride vain glory popularity have often faln into the snare of the Devil and proved desperate Sect-Masters trumpets of Schism and Sedition If any have escaped this Charybdis yet they have dash'd their foot against another Scilla through their ungroundedness and unskilfulness in Divinity for howsoever young men may be of pregnant parts excell in subordinate Arts and Sciences yet for want of years and maturity of judgment they cannot be masters of such a sound body of Divinity as is requisite for the undertaking so weighty a province Divinity is a vast and comprehensive Science full of depths and profundities a great part of it Polemical the very Practicals incumbred with many difficulties Besides to the right interpretation of Scripture a duty incumbent on the Preacher there is required acquaintance with the Writings of the Fathers for in a Canon of our own Church the Expositions of the Fathers are to be the rule of our Expositions and how can such young men make this the Canon of their Interpretation when they scarce know their Names much less are conversant in their Writings As every Man is not fit to make a Scholar no more is every Scholar fit to make a Preacher Men should be Divines before they are Preachers and to be Divines there is time and pains and maturity of judgment required Whereupon S. Jerom adviseth his friends Nepotian and Pammachius diu discere before they did docere He tells Nepotian De vita Cleric Nolo te declamatorem esse rabulam garrulúmque sine ratione sed mysteriorum peritum I would not have you a declaimer a jangler and garrulous without reason but skilful in Divine mysteries He admonisheth Rusticus the Monk Si clericatus titillat de siderium disce quod poss is docere ne miles antequam tyro ne priùs magister sis quà m discipulus If the desire of being a Clergy-man tickled him he should learn himself what to teach others lest he should take upon him to be a souldier before he handled a weapon and a master before he was a scholar Anciently it was required men should be Divines before they were Preachers but since men have turned Preachers before they were Divines their Preaching hath been but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a backward forwarding of the matter though Preaching hath gained yet Religion hath lost and people have been led aside into Sects and Factions It was a memorable passage that Erasmus relates of S. Jerom in his Life S. Jerom once undertook to interpret allegorically the Prophecy of Obadiah when he did not himself understand the literal meaning of it this Comment of his was by many very highly extoll'd when he himself was ashamed to own it whereupon afterwards he writes thus merrily of himself Fateor miratus sum quod quantumvis aliquis malè scripserit invenit similem sui lectorem Ille praedicabat ego erubescebam ille my sticos sensus ferebat ad coelum c. I confess I wonder that though a man writes never so ill yet he finds a Reader like himself He highly commended it I blush'd at it he extoll'd the mystical sense unto the skies I hung my head and secretly condemn'd it What he ingenuously acknowledged of his juvenile Writings young Preachers may of their youthful Sermons It was the saying of a reverend Prelate of this Church Young Divines must have young Divinity And though young Divines have the luck to be Men-pleasers yea and Women-pleasers too yet young Divinity will never conduce to the peace and happiness of Gods Church no nor to the edification of men in piety and holiness It is the observation of His Sacred Majesty in his Letter to the Lords Grace of Canterbury That 't is the work of young Divines and Ministers either out of a spirit of contention and contradiction or in a
by Bishops is Antichristian That murdering of Kings is lawful That Rebellion and Schism are no sins That Christs Gospel as Mahumetanism is to be propagated by the Sword That the greatest disturbers and violaters of the publick peace are the onely Saints and most godly Men Let them that know any thing of antiquity judge And yet this is the Systeme of their Divinity Lastly they themselves are the greatest Novelty of all I find no order of Clergy-men in former times that resembles them but the Mendicant Fryars in the Romane Church an order set up by St. Dominick and St. Francis about the time of Innocent the third and Innocent the fourth Bishops of Rome and with them they hold correspondency in two things As the Mendicant Friars being exempted from the jurisdiction of Bishops brought the Bishops into contempt with the people so these Lecturers exempting themselves from the jurisdiction of Bishops do all they can to the diminution of their Order and honour that they may become the scorn of the vulgar As the Mendicant Fryers having Charters from the Pope to preach in every Parish without the license of the proper Curate to take confessions to visit the sick and bury the dead rendred the secular Clergy contemptible and by that means brought all the Grist to their own Mills so these Lecturers by their industrious preaching of novelties bring the regular Clergy who live in subordination to the King and the Bishops into contempt with the people But as omne simile est etiam dissimile though these Mendicant Fryers were in some things exorbitant yet in the main they were true and faithful to the interest of the Church But these Lecturers are ever false and perfidious to the Church that gave them Christendom ever bandying publickly against her Doctrine and Discipline or undermining privately her walls and bulwarks An army of Turks could not have made a greater devastation in the Church and Nation than they did of late by their seditious Doctrines They poisoned all the corporations of England with their principles of Schism and Rebellion They blew the trumpets to war in the pulpit before they were sounded in the field When they could not slay their two enemies Kingship and Episcopacy gladio or is with the Sword of their mouth they did it ore gladii with the edge of the Sword They are ever at defiance with their lawfull superiours but damnable flatterers of the people and verifie that maxim of Tertullian nusquam mag is proficitur quam in castris rebellium ubi esse est promereri There is no such proficiency as in the tents of Schismaticks where the very being is meritorious If any will but follow them and hear their Lectures they canonize them for Saints before they are Christians and make them sure of salvation before they understand the first principles of the oracles of God in a word they are the false Prophets of the Nation by whom God tries us whether we will love him or obey him as we ought to do and whom he forbids us to harken unto for though they come to us in Sheeps-clothing yet inwardly they are ravening Wolves Gulielmus de Sancto Amore a Learned Theologue who lived about the first rising of these Mendicant Fryars writ a Book upon that occasion de periculis Ecclesiae and in that a Treatise de signis pseudoprophetarum If any will take the pains to read over that treatise which he may find transcribed and translated in the book of Martyrs he shall find that in most of them they agree to these Lecturers O that people would but see their sin and danger in following such false lights O that these deceivers would consider of the judgments of God threatned against them for abusing of the people renting of the Church and embroyling of the State And at last become obedient Sons of an Indulgent Mother the Church that we might all say and sing quam bonum et quam jucundum FINIS