a Bishop the same paper contains both Characters but sure one Character doth not contain the other A. doth not contain B. nor doth B. contain A. So the same Soul may receive two Characters two Orders but if the two Orders be distinct how can they contain each other I understand no more then I do these Holy Characters If they can paint them out unto me in their proper figures perchance I may understand them better but as yet I ingeniously confess my ignorance I grant in a Metaphysical way of Abstraction the superiour species contains the inferiour genus A Man a rational creature contains the animality of a Horse the inferiour creature but doth not contain a real Horse in his belly nor can a man beget Horses or men when he pleases Nor can you truly say a man is a Horse I believe my Schoolmen would take it in snuff should I affirm any of them to be Horses c. But they affirm that a Bishop doth not only virtually contain the Priesthood but is really a Priest and can make Priests or Bishops as he please Whereby you may see this answer That the Superiour Order virtually contains the inferiour is a meer evasion it sounds as if it were something but really is nothing to our purpose at all for we are not now upon Metaphysical abstractions but real individual subsistencies two actual distinct Orders as they would have it two distinct indelible characters imprinted on mens souls by Ordination as A. and B. which can never be truly affirmed one of the other A. is not B. and B. is not A. a man is not a horse and a Horse is not a man so a Bishop ordain'd only Bishop is not a Priest nor a Priest a Bishop if they be distinct Wherefore I must beleive them one and the same Order especially seeing the Scripture applies the same name promiscuously to both which is the second argument of their identity to be one and the same Acts. 20. St. Paul sends to Ephesus to call the Presbyters of that Ghurch un-him at Miletum and speaking to them he calls them all Bishops in our Translation 't is Overseers Verse 28. So in his Epistle to the Phillippians he directs to all the Saints with the Bishops and Deacons both in the plural number so that by the word Bishops we must needs understand Presbyters for Bishops as we now take the word were never many in one City I pray observe also St. Paul Epis. to Titus 1. 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest ordain Elders in every City if any be blameless for a Bishop must be blameless Is it not here evident that an Elder and a Bishop in St. Paul's Language is one and the same otherwise there were no coherency at all in St. Paul's speech If this be not convincing beyond all possible evasion I understand nothing of discourse Other such places are obvious in Scripture to every one I need mention no more only I desire to inform the Reader of a passage to this purpose in an Epistle of Clemens to the Corinthians This Clemens is mentioned in Scripture and is he whom St. Peter appointed his successor at Rome and who was of so great Authority that as St. Hierome tells us this his Epistle was read in Churches Now in this Epistle Clemens particularly sets forth the constitution of the Church by the Apostles and what Ministers they ordained in the Church to wit Bishops and Deacons he names no other which seems to me as full an evidence as can be that there were no other Orders in the Church in those daies but those two And yet we are sure there was then Presbiters in the Church for Peter and Iohn call themselves Presbyters and St. Peter calls them Presbiters to whom he wrote his Epistle so that if there were but two Orders to wit Bishops and Deacons Presbyters must be one and the same with Bishops or with Deacons not with Deacons therefore one and the same with Bishops One Order called by two names promiscuously in Scripture as hath been shewed before And I desire you to observe that of those two names Presbyter and Bishop if therebe any dignity and eminency exprest in one more then the other sure it is in the name of Presbiter not Bishop because the Apostles themselves and the chief of the Apostles as some would have it who stand highest on their Panâ—ables are in Scripture styled Presbyters or Elders as the word in our English Translation but never Bishops as I remember And therefore I can't but wonder why that haughty head of the Papists should not assume to himself the title of his pretended predecessor St. Peter Presbyter rather then Bishop unless it be by God's providential disposure to shew his blindness in this as well as in other things and make him confute himself by this name of Bishop which was never given to St. Peter no more then St. Peter gave unto him the Headship of the Church As to the interpretations and answers given to these and such like Scripture expressions sure I need not take any pains to confute them for they are so weak as that Petavius a late Writer and great stickler for the superiority of Episcopacy durst not trust to them nor would venture his credit to make use of them but sound out a new and rare conceit as he conceives That these Presters mentioned in Scripture and called by both names were all really Bishops and that the Apostles Ordained them so as most convenient for that time for the Congregations of the Faithful being small there needed no Priests under the Bishops to officiate and yet there was need of a Bishop in those small Congregations because there were several things to be done which were not within the power and capacity of Presbiters to act as he supposes viz. the laying on of hands and confirming the Faithful after Baptisme the veiling of devoted Women the reconciling of penitents the ordaining Deacons where there was need and adds moreover several impertinences as the making of Chrisme consecrating Church-Vessels c. And Petavius mightily applauds himself in this conceit as the only means to clear all difficulties Our Doctor Hammond also finding the usual interpretations of those places of Scripture above mentioned too weak to sustain the arguments builded on them for the Unity of Order goes along after Petavius a great way in the fore cited discourse though not in the later impertinances and affirms that the Presbyters then were all Bishops And so far I go with them that all were Presbyters all Bishops because all was one and one was all several names not several Orders as they would have it and this I humbly conceive firmly proved by my former Argument of one Ordination wherein two distinct Orders could not be conferred so that still I require them to shew me from Scripture where these Presbyter-Bishops were twice Ordained else it cannot be truly affirmed they were really
their Judgments but receive their Opinions as agreeing with their Judgments this is evidently true and clearly rational and fully agrees with the Rules given by some of the Fathers as St. Cyprian and St. Austin two as generally and as deservedly reverenced as any in the Christian Church St. Cyprian tells us that the very Praepositus which we call Bishop is to be guided by his own reason and conscience and is responsible only to God for his Doctrine St. Austin tells us that he submits to no Doctor of the Church ever so learned ever so holy any further than he proves his doctrine by Scripture or reason and desires none should do otherwise by him this is plain and rational dealing had the Evangelical Doctors taken this course in the beginning they had saved themselves from many intricate troubles which their in-bred over-revence to antiquity entangled them in But sure they needed not have been so scrupulous in this matter seeing there is scarce any one Father whose authority the Papists themselves do not in some particular or other reject though other whiles when he speaks for them they try it up to that height as if it were even a matter of damnation not to submit unto it I say not this as if I would have antiquity wholly rejected by no means but to consult the Fathers with great regard as Expositors of Scriptures and attentively observe what they shew us from thence I am not of those who admire the great knowledge in divine matters revealed in this later Age of the world I do not think there are any now so likely to discover the truth of Gospel mysteries as those of antient dayes As for that saying A Pigme set on a Giants shoulder may see more than the Giant pardon me if I call it a shallow and silly fancy nothing to our purpose for our question is not of seeing more but of the clear discerning and judging those things we all see but are in doubt what they mean if a Pigme and a Giant see a Beast at a miles distance and are in dispute whether it be a Horse or an Oxe the Pigme set on the Giant shoulder is never the nearer discerning what it is which depends on the sharpness of sight not the height of his shoulders Now that the antient and holy Fathers of the Church were more spiritual and consequently sharper sighted in spiritual things than we carnal creatures of this later age is evident by their Spiritual holy Lives The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And how natural how carnal how purblind we are is too too visible Besides a purblind man near the object will discern it better than a much sharper sight at greater distance as we are For if you ask those lofty conceited Pigmes why they give more credit to the Fathers of the second and third Century than to those of the sixth or seventh they answer Because those that lived nearer the dayes of Christ and his Apostles are like lyer to know their minds better than those of remoter and corrupted Ages the reason is good but mightily confounds those who live at the very foot of the Hill in the valley of darkness and all Iniquity and therefore not so likely to discern the truth of the doctrine of Christ preach't on the top of Mount Sion as those who lived in higher ascents Wherefore I shall alwayes hearken with due reverence unto what those Primitive Holy Fathers deliver and the more holy and more antient doubtless more to be regarded And yet seeing that Irenaeus and before him Papiâ—â— held to be a Disciple of St. Iohn the Apostle taught the error of the Millenaries rejected now by all the Church why might not others do so as well as they and therefore there can be no certainty of their Doctrine farther than they shew us clearly from Scripture which ought to be our only Rule of Faith as I shewed before But in any point of Religion either of Faith or Discipline if after diligent and humble search of Scripture the matter be doubtful then certainly I would so much reverence antiquity as to embrace what I found approved of by the greater number of antient Fathers and what I found generally approved by them though my own judgement did much incline to the contrary yet I would receive it unless it appeared to me flatly opposite to Scripture which we believe to be the Word of God then it were damnation in me to forsake that and hearken to the words of Fathers on earth or Angels coming from Heaven till they could make me understand their word agreed with Gods Word I must be saved by Faith in God and Christ and not by faith in Men or Angels And now I shall be bold to make this assertion That the Man who reads Scripture humbly and attentively fasts and prayes to God earnestly consults his Pastors and Teachers carefully and modestly and yet after all continues in some error by blind ignorance and mistake of Scripture if such a thing was or ever will be suffered by the infinite goodness of God that Man shall sooner be saved than he who receives a true opinion from the authority of Men which he soberly conceives to be contrary to Scripture for 't is all one to him as if it were really so all things are unclean to him that believes them unclean so all things are damnable to him that believes them damnable as he must do who believes them flatly contrary to Scripture Let no Man count me a libertine in faith because I would neither compel nor be compelled to submit to the Doctrines of Men. I trust in God no Man shall out-go me in zealous contending for the Faith once delivered to the Saints once for all never to receive any new Doctrine any other Gospel than that preached by Christ and his Apostles herein I am no Libertine by God's gracious assistance neither Men nor Angels shall make me recede from one tittle of this nor to embrace with divine faith one tittle more than this for doubtless it is far greater Idolatry to believe in Man than to sacrifice to Man more to give him my heart than my hand And yet notwithstanding all this no Man is forwarder than my self to receive from others humane doctrine as humane that is I believe it is not only possible but probable also that another may have more natural understanding more acquired learning than my self and so may find out that in Scripture or from Scripture or by reason which I cannot do my self but yet I can have no possible assurance that the Doctrine he delivers to me is absolutely true because I have assurance that 't is possible for him to erre and then I can have no assurance but that he may erre in that very Doctrine he now delivers me There is no Man I ever yet heard or read of to
particulars and you will find a small remainder that preach piously and edifying also very few to equal the Compilers of our Homilies and then calmly consider the great use yea the great necessity of such Homilies But if you can furnish all our Churches with pious discreet edifying preaching Pastors I am abundantly satisfied and do you seal up the Book of Homilies till a new dearth of spiritual food which God in his great mercy prevent Amen Concerning Bishops and Priests WHoever unbiass'd reads the Scripture thence proceeds to the first Christian Writers and so goes on from Age to Age can't doubt but that the Church was always governed by Bishops that is by one Elder or Presbyter or President or what else you please to call him set over the rest of the Clergy with authority to Ordain to Exhort to Rebuke to Judg and Censure as he found cause no other form of Government is mentioned by any Authority for Fifteen hundred years from the Apostles downwards Now who can in reason and modesty suspect those Primitive Bishops who lived in the days of the Apostles chosen by them into the Church succeeded them in Church Government yea and in Martyrdom also for the Faith as Clemens Ignatius Polycarpus and others who I say can suspect them to be prevaricators in Church Discipline and take upon them another form of Episcopal Government contrary to Apostolican Institution These great Masters of Self-denyal who gave their Lives for the Truth would they transmit unto Posterity a Church Government contrary to the Truth let who will believe it I can neither believe it nor suspect it And there is yet another thing very observable that all the Orthodox Church dispersed all the world over some parts having no correspondence at all with the other by reason of distance some by Warrs divided and made cruel Enemies yet all agreed in this form of Government and not only the Orthodox but also the Schismaticks and Hereticks who separated from hated and persecuted the Orthodox Church they likewise retained still this form of Government as if all were of necessity compelled to acknowledg this having never known heard nor dream'd of other And therefore nothing but necessity if that can excuse those who first set up another form of Government to their own Masters let them stand or fall I will not presume to censure them I will only say That from the begining it was not so and I thank God 't is not so with us but as it was in the beginning so it is now with us and ever shall be I trust in God Amen But notwithstanding all this yet 't is very much to be doubted whether they were of any distinct superiour order from and above the Presbyters or one of the same order set over the rest with power to ordain Elders to exhort rebuke chastise as Timothy and Titus were constituted by St. Paul For though they were of the same order with the other Elders and Pastors yet there was great reason for some to be placed with greater Authority to rule over the rest The Scripture tells us That even in the days of the Apostles there were several seducing teachers leading the people into errors and heresies and more were to follow after the Apostles times grievous wolves in sheeps clothing and therefore it was very necessary to pick out some of eminent soundness in faith and godliness of life and set them up on high with great Authority as fixed Stars in the Heavens so styled Revel 1. to whom all might have regard in dangerous times as Marriners observe in their Sea-faring journies But the Scripture no where expresses any distinction of order among the Elders we find there but two orders mentioned Bishops and Deacons Of Deacons we shall treat afterwards Let us now proceed to the Order of Bishops and Priests which the Scripture distinguishes not for there we find but one kind of Ordination then certainly but one Order for two distinct Orders can't be conferred in the same instant by the same words by the same actions They who think Deaconship and Priesthood distinct the one subservient to the other though they intend in the same hour to consecrate the same Man Deacon and Priest do they not first compleat him Deacon then Priest I pray let any Man shew me from Scripture as I said Timothy or Titus or any one ordained twice made first Priest then Bishop which is absolutely necessary if they be distinct characters and 't is generally affirmed though I humbly conceive they scarce understand what they affirm I mean they understand not what these characters are whether Greek Hebrew or Arabick or what else But let that pass I desire them only to shew me how a Man can make two characters with one stroke or motion A. and B. at the same instant If then neither Timothy nor Titus nor any other were but once ordained whence can we gather these two distinct characters these two distinct Orders We find the Apostles themselves but once ordained those by the Apostles but once ordained and so on When St. Paul left Titus in Creete to ordain he mentions only one ordination that of Presbyters so the word in Greek no other ther 's no commission given him to ordain Bishops and Presbyters Who then was to ordain Bishops there not Titus he had no such command we do not find that St. Paul himself did And sure you will not grant that the Presbyters which Titus ordained that they could ordain Bishops there for you will not allow them to ordain so much as Presbyters Yet Bishops you will needs have in every City and in Creete were very many who ordained Bishops for them all Truly I can't find nor you neither I believe But you will say The superior order contains in it virtually the inferior order let this pass at present doth Presbyter then virtually cantain Bishop If so then all Presbyters are Bishops No say you Bishop is the superior order and that contains in it Presbyter You say so but by your leave you are to prove so or give me leave to say otherwise especially seeing I have Scripture for my saying and you have none for yours But should I grant Bishop the superior what then we find Titus ordained not any but Presbyters as he was commanded by St. Paul so we are still at a loss for our Bishops we find not their Ordination Or did St. Paul mistake in his expression and meaning Bishops in every City said Presbyters in every City let this pass also and I pray let us see what you mean by this The superior order virtually contains the inferior Do not you say they are two distinct Orders two real distinct indelible characters imprinted in the Soul as the School-men affirm give me leave to talk their Language though I understand it not If I take a fair paper and make an A. upon it for the character of Presbyter and then make a B. upon it for the Character of
restrain and chastise disorderly Pastors Just so when whole Nations were converted and not only the Pastors but the Bishops also who had oversight of the Pastors encreased in number then for the same reason it was thought fit there should be an Overseer of the Bishops and be called an Arch-Bishop when the Arch Bishops were multiplied then another set over them and he called a Patriark and at last one over the Patriarks and he call'd Papa a Pope Catexochen though Papa before was a name attrributed to other Bishops Now as Pope Patriarck Arch-Bishop Bishop are all one and the same Order Papists themselves grant this so Bishop Elder Presbyter Priest all one and the same only one of these set over the rest and he now particularly call'd Episcopus that is Bishop Catexochen because he oversees the Overseers but this last constitution only is Apostolical the other of Arch-Bishop Patriark Pope are meer humane not at all mentioned in Scripture But now another Objection arises Petavius grants that all the Elders which the Apostles Ordained were Bishops and towards the end of the Apostles days they set some eminent amongst them over the rest to govern and ordain Elders in every City as Timothy and Titus and these Elders in every City were Bishops and thus the Apostles left the Church with Bishops only and Deacons And this is evident by what I brought before out of Clemens who lived after the Apostles days and mentions only Bishops and Deacons left by the Apostles This being so I desire to know who after the Apostles days began this new kind of Ordination of Presbyters or Elders not Bishops the Apostles Ordained none such who then and by what authority was this new Order set up the Scripture mentions it not when and by whom came it in A very bold undertaking without Scripture or Apostolical practice I will not boast my conceit as Petavius doth his only I wish the Reader to consider which is most practical most rational or rather most scriptural thereon I frame this wole Fabrick as the Rock and only sure Foundation humane Brain is too weak to erect and to support the Fabrick of the Church of God which the Romanists have made a very Babel with their humane inventions and multiplied Characters and Orders some of them would have nine several holy Orders in God's Church militant here on Earth because there are nine several Orders of Coelestial Spirits in the Church Triumphant in Heaven This is a castle of their own building in the Air a rare foundation for God's Church Others will have seven several Orders and Characters as seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost Hath the Holy Ghost then but seven several Gifts to confer on Men St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. counts unto us nine not as if these were all but only for example sake to shew us that many and divers Gifts are conferred on us by one and the same Spirit and in the conclusion of the same Chapter he mentions eight These things were uttered accidentally according to the occasion not as limiting the Gifts of the Holy Ghost to any set number But if you will further look into their application of these Gifts of the Holy Ghost and see to what kind of several Orders they appropriate them it would make a Man amazed to see sober Learned Men even that great Wit and Scholar Aquinas discourse in such wild manner as did you but stand behind a Curtain to hear and not see them you doubtless would conclude you heard some old Woman in the Nursery telling her Dreams to Children rather than Divine Doctors in School I 'le name but one or two of their Orders The Porter of the Church Door is one and he forsooth hath a Sacred Character imprinted on his Soul and his Gift is the discerning of Spirits that he may judge who are fit to enter into God's Church who to be shut out Another of their Orders is that of Acolouthi who are now antiently they were quite another thing certain Boys carrying Torches and attending on the Bishop saying Mass these have their Character also and their Gift of the Holy Ghost is the interpretation of Tongues signified no doubt on 't by the Light in their Hands but understand no more of Tongues than the Stick of their Torch I will not weary you with more of their Absurdities Our Episcopal Divines rejecting these chymerical fancies of Orders and Characters suppose it to be a certain Faculty and Power conferred by the laying on of hands for the exercise of Ministerial Duties and according to this purpose the Superior Order contains the Inferiour as the greater Power contains in it the less Thus Episcopacy being the superior Order contains in it Priesthood and Deaconship these three are their supposed distinct Orders They may suppose this if they please and. I may suppose the contrary But I would gladly know on what Scripture they ground this discourse that 's the thing I still require and there we find no larger Faculty or Power given to Bishops but rather to Presbyters as I have shewed the Apostles who had the greatest power being stiled Presbyters not Bishops And when our Bishops do Ordain Presbyters do not they use the very same form of words which our Saviour used when he Ordained the Apostles Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye forgive they are forgiven c. Do they not then by the same words conser the same power for I hope they use no Equivocation nor mental Reservation if the Power be the same the Order is the same by their own Rule Again let us examine their own Practice Do they not require a Man should be ordained first Deacon before he be ordained Priest and Priest before Bishop what needs this if the superiour contains the inferiour But in Scripture we find it otherwise Timothy who long officiated under St. Paul as a Presbyter when he was left at Ephesus and so when Titus was left at Creet both to be Bishops we find no new ordination were this requisite sure the Scripture would have given us at least some hint of it but not one tittle there But if the Scripture be defective in expressions you will supply it by the expressions and practice of the Church in first succeeding Ages Before you go on and take much pains to shew me this give me leave to tell you that I shall not easily recede from Scripture in fundamentals either of Faith or Church-discipline in things indifferent of themselves or in more weighty matters very doubtfully express't in Scripture I shall always most readily submit to the interpretation of the Primitive and Universal Church I require both Primitive and Universal for I shewed before that in matters of Faith there were some errors very Primitive yet not continued by the Universal Church but rejected in succeeding Ages And at the time of the Evangelical Reformation by Luther Melancton Calvin c. I can shew some errors generally received in most if
Bishops have the authority of Ordination more than Presbyters A Man may smile to see this used as an Argument for the preheminency of Bishops which is directly against it for St. Hierom having discourst of the equality and Identity of Presbyters and Bishops and having brought many Arguments from Scripture to prove that Bishop and Presbyter was only two names for one and the same Office for a further confirmation hereof asks this question I pray what doth a Bishop do more than a Presbyter except Ordination plainly intimating thereby that this could make no such distinction of eminency in them above Presbyters I beseech you consider Do not Presbyters perform Offices of a higher nature than Ordination Presbyters are ordained Embassadors for Christ to preach his Holy Gospel for the Salvation of Souls they are under Christ Mediators between God and the People to make intercession for them they administer the Sacrament of Baptism wherein the Children of Warth are regenerated and made the Children of God and Heirs of eternal Life yea they administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper also the most transcendent act of Religion and Christian Dignity whereby we are made partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ And what doth a Bishop more than these except Ordination which being no Sacrament sure is inferiour in dignity to the other mentioned Acts and therefore cannot elevate them to a higher degree Judge now I beseech you whether this question makes pro or con Are not such questions always tending to disparagement When any Man is boasting his Power and Authority should I come and ask What can you do more than others unless it be in this or that poor business not worth speaking of would he not take this as an affront Wherefore it cannot enter into my head that St. Hierom intended by this Question to express any superiour Order above the Priesthood but plainly the contrary v z. That Bishops having no other power distinct from Priests but Ordination this could be no Argument for a distinct and superior Order And now I desire my Reader if he understand Latin to view the Epistle of St. Hierom to Evagrius and doubtless he will wonder to see Men have the confidence to quote any thing out of it for the distinction between Episcopacy and Presbytery for the whole Epistle is to shew the Identity of them Before I chanced to read this Epistle I was of the crroneous Opinion that Bishops were a distinct Order but so convinc'd by this Epistle as I was forced to submit to a change And I farther desire my Reader to observe the various fate of St. Hierom and Aerius Aerius is reviled as an Heretick for affirming this Identity of Order Hierom passes for a Saint and a great Doctor of the Church though he affirms the very same as fully as Aerius or any Man can do and therefore it may be my fate to be reviled as Aerius was but our Saviour bids us rejoyce and be exceeding glad when we are reviled for his Names sake or for his Words sake sure all is one for great is our Reward and so I proceed But there lies yet a great Objection made by our good Bishop Hall he tells us how that Collutbus a Presbyter of Alexandria took upon him to ordain others and that afterwards in a Council of a hundred Bishops in Aegypt their Ordination was declared null because ordained by a Presbyter From this and some other such Instances the Bishop would prove that the Order of Presbyters is not capable to ordain therefore Bishops are a distinct Order I am sorry so good a Man had no better a proof for his intended purpose It seems he quite forgot how that the famous Council of Nice consisting of above three hundred made a Canon wherein they declare That if any Bishop should ordain any of the Clergy belonging to another Bishop's Diocess without consent and leave had of that Bishop to whose Diocess they did belong their Ordination should be null You see then the irregular Ordination of a Bishop is as null as the irregular Ordination of a Presbyter therefore the irregular Bishop and the irregular Presbyter are of the same Order of the same Authority neither able to Ordain Is it not most evident by this that 't is not their Order but Commission that makes them capable to Ordain sure an irregular Bishop is of the same Order with the regular Is the Line of his Diocess like a Conjurers Circle within it he is a Bishop without it he is none No but within it he hath Commission given him to Ordain without it no Commission no nor to act in his own Diocess beyond his Commission which is to ordain only the Clergy of his own Diocess and within his own Diocess Can any thing be plainer Cellutbus then being but a Presbyter and under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria his taking upon him to ordain Presbyters was highly irregular and insolent and therefore most justly declared null I desire the Papistical School-Divines with their manifold indelible Characters to observe here how easily the Councils dasht out the indelible Character of Presbyter imprinted on the Souls of these Men irregularly ordained they made a clear rasure not one tittle of it left And could they so easily cancel the Gift of the Holy Ghost I leave my Schoolmen to find out how this rare feat was done And I proceed to add a Canon taken from a Council at Antioch concerning Chorepiscopi much to our purpose When the Apostles had settled Bishops in every City with authority of ordaining and governing the several Churches or Congregations within the Circuits of those Cities some were very large and therefore in process of time when more were converted to the Faith and the Congregations encreased more in number and at greater distance than the Bishop himself could well have the overfight of the Bishop chose some principal Men for his assistance and dividing his great Circuit into several lesser Circuits placed these Men as Overseers under him and these were called Chorepiscopi that is Country Bishops and were much after the manner of our Rural Deans Those Chorepiscopi Country Bishops being thus setled in authority to govern the Pastoral Priests in their Circuits took upon them to ordain more Priests when occasion required which the chief Bishops took very ill at their hands as a great lessening to their Supream Authority And to prevent it for the future a Canon was made in the Council of Antioch about the year 340. to forbid these Country Bishops to ordain any Priests Now I pray you observe These Chorepiscopi were either really ordained in the Order of the Chief Bishop or not if they were as full Bishops as he as really they were why might they not ordain Priests as well as he The Chief Bishop answers Because he gave them no Commission Whereby you see that the power of ordaining Priests was annexed no more to Bishops than to Priests
commited to their management and judicature The Civil Law is that whereby most of the civilized World is govern'd and if we will have commerce with them 't is fit we should have able Civilians to deal with them which will never be unelss they have profitable and honourabl places to encourage them for it all that I beg of them is that they would contain themselves within their own Sphear of activity and not intrude into spiritual and sacred matters committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Priesthood And so I beg of Priests that they would not intermeddle in Lay and Temporol officer In the time of Popery when Spiritual and Temporal affairs were all intermingled and horribly confounded as the Pope took upon him Secular and Imperial authority directly contrary to the Word and Constitutions of Christ so the Bishops and Priests under him intermeddled in all Secular Affairs and offices and in this Nation Bishops were frequently Lord Keepers Treasurers Chief Justices Vice-Royes what not which is strangely un-Apostolical and unlawful their vocation being wholly Spiritual as Men chosen out of the World should have no more to do with it than of meer necessity for food and rayment Wherefore to take upon them any Lay-Office which must needs take them off much from the Ministry of the Word and Prayer is doubtless very sinful For Acts 6. we find the Apostles gave themselves continually to these and would not endure to have these interrupted by that charitable Office of taking care for the Poor certainly then they would have much less endured yea abominated to be taken off by temporal and worldly Offices And on this occasion let me speak a word to those of the inferiour Clergy who take upon them to study and practice Physick for hire this must needs be likewise sinful as taking them off from their spiritual employment had they studied Physick before they entered Holy Orders and would after make use of their skill among their poor Neighbours out of charity this were commendable but being entered on a spiritual and pastoral Charge which requires the whole man and more to spend their time in this or any other study not spiritual is contrary to their vocation and consequently sinful and to do it for gain is sordid and unworthy their high and holy Calling But Necessitas cogit ad turpia the maintenance of many Ministers is so small as it forces them even for food and rayment to seek it by other Employment which may in some measure excuse them but mightily condemn those who should provide better for them Whether this belongs not to King and Parliament I must humbly beseech them in Christs name seriously to consider I crave pardon for this I hope useful Digression and return to the Business of Excommunication This Sacred Authority of Excommunication being committed by Christ to the Apostles by them to their Successors was used in weighty and very scandalous matters very few examples of it in Scripture The incestuous Corinthian Hymenus and Alexander scarce another clearly exprest The Apostles being fully guided by the Holy Ghost in all things did exercise this power singly themselves but the succeeding Bishops having not the Spirit of that full measure used the assistance of the principal Clergy in their Diocess that the act might be more solemn and authentick the person excommunicated if he conceived the act injurious appealed to one or more neighbouring Bishops who assembled together and discussing the matter either confirmed or reversed the Act as they found cause And sometimes the matter proceeded so far as to cause an Assembly of the whole Province But each Bishop or Praepositus as St. Cyprian calls him and declares that he was absolute in his own Diocess to exercise his power and none condemned for using it but only for abusing it contrary to reason and conscience there were the only rules they proceeded by at first Afterwards when Bishops on this or other occasions met in Assemblies Provincial or General they made it divers Canons which passed for Rules and Laws to govern the Church by which doubtless are very good helps to bridle the extravagant passions of particular Men very apt in this corrupt age to prevaricate yet I cannot conceive them so far oblidging but new emergent circumstances may justly cause new and different Decrees yet so as every particular Bishop is oblidged for peace sake to submit to or at least to acquiesce in the General Decree of that Nation where he lives I said They are not bound entirely to submit to the Decrees of former Councils either Provincial or General because as I have shewed before all their Decrees are humane not Divine and all humane Ecclesiastical Laws are alterable according to the time and occasions by other General Councils As to the bounds of each Bishops Diocess they were occasioned several wayes The Apostles for the better spreading of the Gospel Preach't it first in the principal Cities which generally had great influence upon the adjacent parts by reason that the occasions of most call them thither and in these Cities they settled the chief Pastors of the Church with power to ordain Presbyters and Pastors in other lesser Cities and Towns round about as the Congregations of the Faithful encreased and all those Churches that were erected and Pastors establish't in them by these Apostolick Men in the chief Cities I humbly conceive in reverence of their worth and Apostolick authority were freely observant and subject to them which afterwards out of custom grew into a kind of right challenged by their successors Sometimes the authority of the Pastor or Bishop of a City was enlarged according to the temporal authority of the same it being the Metropolitan of this or that Countrey for so we find in the Council of Nice and other Councils the chiefest and largest authority given to the Bishop of old Rome because it was the first Imperial City to Constantinople as the second Imperial City to Alexandria as the chief City of that part of Africa to Antioch Ierusalem Ephesus Corinth Phillipi c. where you see that though Ierusalem were the first City from whence the Gospel issued forth Antioch the second City where the Gospel was planted and where the Faithful were first called Christians yet Rome Constantinople and Alexandria were preferred before them and had far larger Jurisdiction so that it is a meer humane temporal matter and Men have no farther obligation to it in conscience than for Peace sake and Order which in like manner obliges every Man to be subject to all Magistrates within their respective Jurisdictions There are yet two things more to be considered in this business First Where the Apostles first planted the Gospel in Cities with authority over the adjacent part it was in rich populous Countries where Cities were much nearer together than in these Northen parts and the circuit of each City was much less in compass so that the Bishop might well have the inspection
into all and understand the behaviour of each Pastor under him to admonish and chastise when there was cause Whereas with us partly by great distance of Cities partly by the favour of former Princes several Towns being cast into one Diocess they became so large as 't is impossible any one Bishop should have a sufficient inspection into them As I said before of great Parishes so here of Diocesses the Bishop knows not the names nor faces of half or a quarter of them much less their behaviour he may have as well a part of France in his Diocess to govern And as for their Triennial and Circuity Visitations they signifie just nothing as to this 't is a meer money business to pay procurations to the Bishop fees to Chancellors Registers c. the Bishop indeed usually makes a Speech unto them and a Sermon is preach't by some one of them wherein perchance good Admonitions are given but what knowledge can the Bishop by this have of their lives or doctrine or diligence If he continue long there he may learn a few more names or faces scarce any thing more I humbly conceive this ought to be redressed and the Diocess bronght into that compass that each Bishop may be a Bishop in Government as well as in Title and Authority over them But if the Diocesses be divided less and Bishops more encreased where shall we have maintenance for so many Bishops some having too little already When ever I shall see the Clergy of this Nation Congregated by his Majesties Authority resolved in good earnest to reform and establish all according to the holy Constitutions of the Primitive Times and come to this last mentioned contracting the bonds and in number encreasing the Diocesses and Bishops for them I 'le undertake to propose wayes both rational and conscientious of providing convenient maintenanee for all but I desire to be excused at present least greedy Harpies make ill use of my zealous intentions And so I proceed to consider a second abuse in Church Government which is Exempt Jurisdictions a thing altogether unknown to Antiquity and brought in by Papal Tyranny The Popes at the height of their usurped dominion taking upon themselves to be head of the Christian Churches to be the Universal Bishop thereof and all other to be but their Curates took then upon them also among other matters to exempt from the power of â—â—y their under Bishops whomsover they Pleased And out of policy to have the more Creatures and Vassals immediately depending on them in every Kingdom and Nation to stickle for them with Kings and Princes on all occasions did for the most part exempt all Monasteries who with their near Relations and Tenants made a great part of the Kingdom from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop they exempted also several Deans and Chapterss several peculiar Chappels several Arch-Deaconries and other and some of these were endowed with Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction in their Precincts wherein they acted whatever they pleased without controul of any but their Popeships All which would have appeared a confused madness in Primitive times when for any person to have been out of the Jurisdiction of all Bishops was to have been quite out of the Church and would have been lookt upon as a Heathen and Infidel according to the Primitive practice in all Ages till Papal usurpation And therefore all these Exempt Jurisdictions are meer Papal and if duely examined will be found opposite to the established Laws of this Kingdom since the reformation from Popery as they are directly opposite to the Primitive Canons of the Church before Popery was known or heard of And by reason of these Exempt Jurisdictions great disputes and great frauds arise between the Bishop and them and the poor Clergy are so pild and pold by them both that they are forc't to go in threadbare Coats whilst the several Officers of both grow fat and fair by fees extracted from them Wherefore I humbly conceive the Bishops with the rest of the Clergy are bound in conscience to implore the Assistance of both Houses of Parliament to Petition His Majesty for the redress of these abuses by Pious Laws Setling the Church Government in the Primitive purity and authority which most evidently was very great and as greatly reverenced Bishops being the persons to whom Christ and his Apostles committed the Souls of Men bought with the precious blood of Christ to whom be glory and to his holy Spouse the Church be all Sacred Authority for ever Amen A Charitable Admonition to all Non-Conformists MY beloved in Christ you see how earnestly I have pleaded for you to the Fathers and Governors of our Church that they would graciously condescend to abolish some Ceremonies in the Church that they may receive you into it but yet I have no great hopes that they will hearken to me you your selves for whom I plead destroy my hope for they presently dash me in the teeth saying go rather and perswade the Sons in duty to submit to their Fathers then Fathers to yield to Sons and can you deny but of the two you are rather to submit You think to excuse this by saying Were it not against your Conscience you would submit but you dare not for fear of displeasing God his holy Word forbids you I beseech you shew me in his holy Word any one clear sentence against any one Ceremony commanded in our Church you see plainly I am not biast to any one Ceremony and I am sure I have read the Scripture all over several times and I humbly conceive 't is no pride of heart if I think I understand Scripture as well as you and for my part I cannot find any one condemning Sentence in Scripture But you have the Spirit of God enlightening you which I want by this rule you may affirm any thing out of Scripture and I should be as mad in disputing against you as you in affirming it 't is madness for a blind man as you conceive me to be to dispute of colours therefore if you are so void of all reason as to expect your bare affirmation that you have light ought to convince all gain-sayers I shall not trouble my self or you to gainsay you farther but address my self to others who soberly undertake to shew me such Texts as an unbiast Christian willing and desirous to submit to all Scripture Truths as I am sure I am may discover the truth of them and I desire those sober undertakers to show me any one such clear Text to excuse their non-conforming as I show them for their conforming Submit your selves to every ordinance of man c. 1 Pet. 2. 13. and Obey them that have the rule over you and submit Heb. 13. 17. These are as clear as the Sun that you ought to obey Now if the Text you bring be not so clear but doubtful I beseech you is your conscience so bold against a clear Text and so timerous at a doubtful Text is this
both Learned and Religious who would lay down their lives for the truth they profess and yet are divided in opinion meerly by education having in their youth so imprinted their own opinions in their mind as you may sooner separate their body than their opinion from their Soul Nay I have heard that among the Turks there are many wise and moderate persons that are as zealous to maintain their ridiculous Alcaron as we our Bible which cannot proceed from any thing but the strong bias of education which so wheels about and intoxicates their brain And to say somewhat more particular of our own Nation here Those that have been educated in that way as to sit at the Communion and baptize their Children without the Cross had rather omit these Sacraments than use kneeling or the Cross and those that have been educated in kneeling and crossing though they acknowledg they are meer Ceremonies indifferent yet had rather omit the Sacraments than omit the Ceremonies just as if a man had rather starve than eat bread baked in a Pan because he hath used bread baked in an Oven So that Religion in many is really hut their humor fancy passeth for reason and custome is more prevalent than any argument This is the thing which makes me fear I shall meet with very few that will calmly and indifferently consider what I write but will presently startle at it as new and cross to their Genius or to their interest or their reputation which they value above all I mean the esteem and kindness of their best friends and acquaintance whose taunts and reproach they cannot bear but I humbly beseech them to pause a while and lay it by till the passion be over 'till they have mastered all these difficulties I beseech them to set before their eyes the beauty the honour the stedfastness of Truth the comfort the delight the everlasting felicity of a clear and rectified Conscience then resume it and consider again But they cry Pish 't is not worth it 't is a ridiculous toy and savours something of the Sectarian I grant there are some things among the Sectarians I approve of I will not reject and condemn any truth uttered or any good action performed though said and done by the Devil I consider the things and if good embrace them whoever utters them though I detest his errors in other things You will say the same then I heseech you do the same consider what I say simply in it self whether the Papists or Anabaptists say the same it matters not I hope you will not reject Christ because they both profefs him But if after all your serious patient unbiast consideration you find it an erroneous contemptible Pamphlet yet contemn not the person that wrote it in the sincerity of his heart lest you receive the same measure again from Christ who hath assured us that shalt be his rule to meet unto us the like Christ died for the salvation of my poor soul as well as yours contemn it not therefore but endeavour to rectifie it if God hath given you more knowledg and wisdome than me be not high-minded but fear and let him that stands take heed lest he fall Thus I pray for you do you the like for me and however we differ in Opinion let us accord in Charity and in Christ Iesus the Redeemer of us all Amen Concerning Articles of Faith THat which we commonly call the Apostles Creed if it were not Composed by them yet certainly by Primitive and Apostolick Men and proposed as the Summe of Christian Faith the Summe total necessary to Salvation It can't be supposed they lest out any thing which they thought necessary to Salvation they might as well have omitted half or all as one Commandment broken is the same in effect with all so one necessary Principle of Faith denyed Cancels all and shuts outfrom Heaven When I speak of believing the Apostles Creed I do not mean that we believe all there contained with a Divine Faith because it is there contained for we have no assurance that the Apostles Composed that Creed but we are sure all that is in that Creed is evident in Scripture to any common understanding therefore we believe all with a Divine Faith But I mention this Creed onely to shew that the Primitive Church received this as the sum total of Faith necessary to Salvation why not now Is the state of Salvation altered If it be compleat what needs any other Article You would have men improve in Faith so would I but rather intensivè than extensivè to confirm it rather than enlarge it One sound grain of Mustard-seed is better than a bushel of unsound chaffie stuff 'T is good to know all Gospel-Truths and to believe them no doubt of that but the Question is not what is good but what is necessary I pray remember the Treasurer to Candace Queen of Ethiopia whom Philip Instructed in the Faith his time of Catechising was very short and soon proceeded to Baptism But Philip first required a Confession of his Faith and the Eunuch made it and I beseech you Observe it I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and straitway he was Baptized How no more than this No more this little grain of Faith being sound believed with all his heart purchased the Kingdom of Heaven Had he believed the whole Gospel with half his heart it had been of less value in the sight of God 't is not the Quantity but the Quality of our Faith God requireth But sure the Eunuch was more fully Instructed it may be you are sure of it but I could never yet meet with any assurance of it nor any great probability of it I am sure he saw Philip no more and I am sure Philip required no more but baptized him on this and had the Eunuch departed this Life in the same instant that Philip parted from him I believe I have better assurance that this faith would have saved the Eunuch than any Man hath that he ever was taught more See 1 Iohn 4. 2. Every spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God but the more the better still I grant though no more necessary Hast thou more Faith have it to thy self before God happy is he who condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth happy is he who is thankful to God for having received much and despiseth not him that hath received little God dispenseth his gifts and graces according to his free Will and Pleasure nor doth he require more of any Man than according to the proportion he hath given no more should we Nothing hath caused more mischief in the Church than the establishing new and many Articles of Faith and requiring all to assent unto them I am willing to believe that zealous men endeavoured this with pious intentions to promote that which they conceived Truth but by imposing it on the diffenters caused furious Warrs and lamentable
whom I could more readily submit than to St. Austin a Person of wonderful sharpness in understanding and yet of great modesty no way affecting to take new Opinions much less to impose them no others Now I pray consider How can we have assurance of any Doctrine he delivers more than another I mean assurance from his own authority or reason what he delivers from Scripture authority is another matter we believe St. Austin erred in some things whereof he was most confident he believed it absolutely necessary for Children to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as I say'd he believed it a direct heresie to hold there were any Antipodes Lactantius another great Wit and great Scholar believed the like with divers others Who then can doubt but that they might be mistaken in other things also Wherefore let God be true and all Men lyars in this sense to deliver lyes materially that is falsities for truths What I have said of Fathers must certainly hold good of Councels also though ever so general ever so Primitive for this and that Father may and have erred surely then that and that may also erre I can have no assurance in Men nor can I be saved by faith in Men. The general Objection made against this is The promise which Christ made unto his Church That the gates of Hell should not prevail against it and that he would be with the Apostles unto the Worlds end As for that other saying of our Saviour He that will not hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican I can't but wonder that Men of any brains or modesty should so grosly abuse this saying spoken of several differences between Man and Man to be referred to the termination of the Church that is the Congregation of the Faithful which they usually and by order should assemble in and refer this to the Church in general in matters of Faith not in the least pointed at there Wherefore I pass this over as very impertinent and proceed to answer the former Objection of more weight yet no way concluding as they would have it No Man in the Christian World can more firmly believe than I do That the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that Christ will be with his Church unto the end of the World but I do not believe nor am I bound by Scripture to believe such Expositions as the Popish Church makes of this place By what authority doth the Romish Church challenge to themselves to be Expositors of Scriptures more than other Churches I find nothing for it in Scripture which is my Rule of Faith I proceed then to the business of general Councels Whether they may erre in some points of Faith and why not All the Evangelical Doctors grant the later general Councels have erred if so why not the former what promise had the former from Christ more than the later what period is there set in Scripture for their not erring or what promise is there at all for any not to erre The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church I grant what 's this to a General Council not the thousand part of the Clergy not the thousand thousand part of the Church which is Scripture is alwayes put for the whole Body of the Faithful though of late it be translated into quite another notion and taken for the Clergy only But you will say a General Councel is the representative of the whole Church what then what promise is made in Scripture that the representative shall not erre You further urge If the representative erre 't is probable the whole Church will receive their errour I answer We are now treating of matter of Faith which must not depend on humane probabilities but Divine certainties besides 't is not so probable the Church will receive the error of the representative We know the whole Church hath not received a Truth determined by them much loss an errour And I pray have not Councels been against Councels Put then the case a General Councel should erre in some matters you can't therefore say the whole Church hath erred the gates of Hell have prevailed against the Church I pray consider can you truly say the Great Turk hath prevailed against the Christian Army because he hath kill'd the thousand part of it and yet the greatest General Councel holds a less proportion to the whole Church But I will grant yet more Put the case the whole Church should deviate into some erroneous Superstitions had the Devil therefore prevailed against it Can I say I have prevailed against another Man because I gave him some slight hurt in his Leg or Thigh as long as his Head his Heart his Arm are whole he still is able to fight and wound me as bad or worse till the Devil can so wound the whole body of the Church as to destroy the Vitals the Fundamentals and make it no Church the gates of Hell can't be said to have prevailed against it Now God be blessed there have continued all along several Churches as great or greater than the Roman Church which have still maintained in defiance of Satan One God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things and several other sound Doctrines of Christianity how then hath Satan prevailed when so many millions have waged war against him and upheld the Kingdom of God and his Christ The Scripture plainly tells us that in the dayes of Anti-Christ's great power the Church shall be driven into the wilderness scarce visible in the world neither Pope nor Devil hath yet so prevailed but as then Christ shall have so Christ hath still had a Church warring against Satan Sure no learned Papist will deny but that about the second Century the Millenaries were far the greater part of the Church scarce any writing Doctor in those dayes but had this error Did Satan then prevail And in St. Austin's dayes the necessity of Infants receiving the Lords Supper was so general and held so necessary a Principle that it was made use of to prove the necessity of Infant Baptism this Sacrament being to precede the other in those dayes a Lanthorn would have been necessary to find out a Church without this error Did Satan then prevail But say you No General Councel determined those errors why because none was called about them had any been called who can doubt but that they would have avowed that in the Councel which they all taught in their Churches No the Spirit of God would have preserved them from it Shew me that promise in Scripture if Gods Spirit did not preserve them from teaching the whole Church so I fear the Spirit would not have preserved them more in Council than in Congregation where all sucking in this error from their Infancy would hardly have quitted it by a determination in Council I humbly crave pardon for this bold presumption being lead into it
Camelions never make solid sound Christians There are others of a different strain who wanting both Wit and Learning also think to supply all by strength of Lungs by loud and long babling riding hackney from one good Town to another and with fervency of spirit like a boyling pot running over where ever they come Were it a laughing matter who could contain to hear some seeming Zealot Pastors talk so much of their obligation to Preach the Gospel and must forsooâ—h do it in the Pulpit twice a Sunday counting those almost accursed that do not so and yet have many poor Sheep in their flock as ignorant as any Sheep whom they never regard never instruct in the first Principles of the Gospel as if Preaching were tyed to the Pulpit and the Sabboth day Pardon me if I tell you a Story which now comes in my head I chanced to be in a Lords House on a Saturday when a zealous Minister came in after some complements and ceremonious discourse he told the Lord That where ever he was he never failed to Preach the Gospel on the Lords day as his duty and therefore entreated that the Pastor of the Parish might be desired to give place to him next morning I suspecting both his zeal and design which afterwards appeared asked him if he had received any particular command from Christ to Preach at this place and that hour The Minister starding at my Question answered No. I replyed Sure then other Ministers had the same obligation to Preach the Gospel as he had and moreover it was the Pastors particular duty to Preach to his own Congregation on the Lord's day how then could he in conscience desire the Pastor to omit his duty and give place to a stranger who had there no duty incumbent upon him But the Lord pulled me by the elbow and took me off from farther pressing him and told him he would send to the Pastor to give him place But to return to our business Very few are to be found here and there one of Piety and Discretion that demeans himself prudently in his Office and the reason is this It is grown up into a general opinion That none are fit to be admitted into Holy Orders but such as have studied in the University and if he hath learnt a little to chop Logick he is presently deemed fit to divide the Word of Truth and is easily instituted into a Living and if he can bring some nice Metaphysical speculations from Aristotle or some Theological distinctions from Aquinas then he is worthy of two or three Livings or Prebends and thus University Youths and even Boyes of no experience or discretion are made Spiritual Pastors the gravest and most weighty Office in the World I beseech you what have these Sciences falsly so called to do with the Gospel where we find not one tittle of them but rather decryed as enemies to the Gospel as tending to vain jangling strife and contention nothing of Edification We had lately a brave story of the Jesuites in China who finding the King and his Courtiers much delighted with the Mathematicks but not very knowing in them wrote to the General of their Order at Rome to send them some Priests very skilful in that Science to Preach the Gospel there Why did they not send for some also well skilled in Puppit Plays ridiculous crea ures shall I say or rather impious who think to support the dignity the majesty the divinity of the Gospel with such humane toyes Just as if a King having some potent Enemy invading his Countrey should instead of leading on a stout and gallant Army against him lead on a Morice-dance capering and frisking most featly thinking thereby to appease and gain the heart of his Adversary Yea fools and blind we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Ephes. 6. 12. And therefore the weapons of our warfare must not be carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds 2. Cor. 10. 4. We must then take the whole armor of God the helmet of Salvation the brest-plate of Righteousness the sheild of faith the sword of the Spirit Read also St. Paul to Timothy and Titus setting down the required qualifications of Bishops and Deacons see if you can find any such Mathematick Logick Physick no but Gravity Sobriety Meekness Diligence and the like Were such men taken into holy Orders and constituted Pastors the Church of Christ had been far better edified and the Pastors far more reverenced then now they are though Plato Arisstotle Euclid Scotus Aquinas were never known to them so much as by name yet they would want no pastoral knowledge which is compleatly contained in Scripture as St. Paul told Timothy That is was sufficient to make him wise unto Salvation profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction that the man of God might be throughly furnished mark throughly furnished without Logick Physick Mathematick Metaphysick or School Diâ—inity Scripture Divinity throughly furnishes the man of God for â—ll I speak not this in disparagement of Vniversity Learning which I highly value if rightly made use of 't is as useful as honourable to a Nation but much of Vniversity Learning as useless to a Spiritual Pastor as the Art of Navigation to a Physitian the Pastors only requisite and compleatly qualifying Science being according to St. Paul to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and to Preach Christ not with enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power to Preach Christ as well out of Pulpit as in the Pulpit in season and out of season to the poor and to the rich to the simple and ignorant far rather than to the knowing to Rebuke to Correct to edifie both by word and deed Wherefore I most humbly beseech the Church Governours to remember the Original Institution of the Ministry what kind of men the Apostles chose into it grave Elderly men therefore styled Elders and known as well by that name as Bishops who having by long conversation gotten experience and knowledge to govern themselves were made governors of others I grant we have Timothy for an example of younger years that is young by way of comparison to the other Seniors as a man of forty may be called young compared to those of sixty yet no youth simply nor simple youth and 't is plain he was a person no way short of the Elders in gravity though somewhat in years St. Paul's general Rule was not to admit of Novices but all general Rules have some exceptions Timothy was one and a rare one we find not another Next I pray consider what kind of Preaching they used you may easily guess at their Sermons by their Epistles full of short Catechistical Instructions grave Exhortations sober Reproofs discreet Corrections and then tell me whether a raw Novice from
people and honour to the Church then now they are I most humbly beseech all in the spirit of meekness and humility to consider these things laying aside the veil of pomp and vanity which blinds their eyes and hinders them from discovering the naked truth and simplicity of the Gospel I call the Searcher of all hearts to witness I wish unto all Clergy-men both double honour and double maintenance also I can't think any thing too much for those who conscienciously labour in the Ministry But seeing as I said there is no hopes of regaining the Church maintenance we in prudence should seek out such helps as may be had And truly I have great reason to hope that were this rule observed of putting only grave discreet and consciencious persons into the Ministry whether University men or not it matters not so as fully instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel by sound Commentators many persons of good rank and Estate would think it no dishonour but rather a high honour to enter into it as they did in the Primitive time Iulian neerly related to the Roman Emperour and afterwards Emperour himself thought it an honour to be admitted a Reader one of the lowest Offices in the Church And for the better advancing this business and fitting all sorts of men with convenient Knowledge for the Ministry I humbly conceive it very fit there should be one good and brief English Comment of Scripture selected and compiled out of those many voluminous Authors laying asid all impertinent criticismes abstruse questions nice speculations and the like setting down only the plain and most obvious sence in matters of Faith and good life necessary to salvation such a book to be set forth by Authority with a command that no man in Sermons Exhortations or Catechisings teach any thing contrary to it and what ever Learning beyond that is brought into the Pulpit let it rather be exploded then applauded for if any countenance be given to excursions there will be no end the itch men have to shew their Learning will soon bring us again into the vain unedifying practice we now are in I humbly conceive it fit also that the book of Homilies be reviewed not to correct any thing in them for they are most excellent sound Exhortations containing the true Primitive Spirit but to add to them what ever is wanting to the necessary Doctrine of Faith and good manners to teach every person how to behave himself in his several vocation and these commanded to be read once over every year for I have observed several even good and conscientious Preachers to take quite another method and preach on this or that Chapter and so in the whole year yea perchance in two or three years never preach on the duty between Man and Wife Parents and Children Masters and Servants Magistrates and Subjects or omit to treat of Pride or Malice or Cheating or the like by reason of which omissions several in the Congregation are ignorant in necessary duties though rightly instructed in many things unnecessary I expect that many will cry out of this as a means to introduce laziness into the Ministry and a hindrance from exercising those Talents God hath endowed them with To this I answer First That I had rather the Ministers should be lazie then the People ignorant in their duty But secondly I answer That besides Pulpit Preaching the Minister may find enough to do to keep him from laziness and exercise the best that is the most useful Talents of a Minister to visit and comfort the Sick and Afflicted to compose Differences and reconcile Janglers to examine and instruct the meaner and duller part of his Flock who are not capable of Pulpit preaching to whom they must inculcate both Doctrines and Admonitions ten times over and scarcely so make them apprehend any Spiritual matters Experience only can raise a belief how extreamly dull the common people are in the mysteries of Faith and but little quicker in the principles of a good life Christ dyed to save these poor vulgar Souls as well as those of the Gentry and more learn'd yet the labour of most Ministers is to entertain those that know enough and are very lazy in Catechising those poor souls that know nothing let these be fully instructed and then for me let them shew their Talents by preaching as often as they please to others All that I labour for is that those may have it who most want it either by injoyning such Homilies as I mentioned to be yearly read or such Sermons to be yearly preached I am no enemy to true Apostolical preaching God forbid I should but to vain Scholastical useless preaching to have the Pastor who should daily watch over his Flock sit in his Study all the Week long picking from that or this Quaint Author a few beautiful Flowers and then come on Sunday with his Nosegay in his hand to enterâ—ain Ladies and Courtiers for my part I count this far more sinful laziness then to read a Pious Homily on Sunday and all the Week after go up and down from house to house taking pains to instruct and exhort such as I mentioned But these shall be called dumb Dogs yet surely by none but barking Curs who are wholly ignorant in true Apostolick Preaching Pardon me if I return them their due who speak evil of that they understand not They will Object The Apostles and Primitive Disciples did not read Homilies but Preach'd themselves Neither do I desire that any one Homily should ever be read so as we had the true Apostolick preaching both oâ— Sundays in publick and Week-days also in private where there is need But I am sure such pious Homilies as I mentioned are no ways contrary to the Apostolical and primitive practice and are far more useful then such preaching as we have now adays And I am also sure that in the purest and most primitive time Homilies under another name were read in the Churches that is the Epistles of Apostolick godly Bishops written to other Churches were read in the Congregation with great Veneration Shall the name of Epistle make the one applauded the name of Homily make the other reproached the contents and the intent being the same to stirr up the people to godliness If this will satisfy let the Homilies be styled Epistles to such or such a Church and then I hope they will pass for current But you will say The Compilers of our Homilies are not of equal authority to those primitive Epistlers Let that pass but I am sure they are of far more authority then most of our Preachers I pray consider how many giddy Youths are of our Ministry how many of greater age but of as little gravity or discretion how many that vainly preach themselves and their own abilities not Christ and his Gospel how many that preach piously and yet not usefully but as I said before many things unnecessary omitting many necessary Summ up all these
and actually Priests and Bishops As for that answer That though but one Order was conferred viz. Episcopal yet that being superior to the Priesthood contains this virtually in it first you are to prove Bishop to be superior to Presbiter which I deny the Apostles being peculiarly called Presbyters Secondly that one contains the other I suppose is already confuted and fully declar'd that it cannot be And as I mentioned before you do in effect confess it your selves by your practice for if the Superiour Order so contains the inferiour as to enable a Man thereby to act all things belonging to the inferiour it is a very impertinent thing to ordain a Man as you do first a Deacon then a Priest then a Bishop when you design to confer all upon him in the same day and hour And now I pray give me leave to examine a little Petavius his rare conceits which he conceives will satisfy all former objections and will meet with no news ones He confesses the Presbyters of the Apostles times were all of one Order viz. Bishops because the Pastors of each congregations might perform those several acts he mentions which a bare Presbyter is not capable of And why not capable of them how doth he prove this he brings not one tittle of proof for this cut of Scripture where there are good proofs to the contrary St. Peter and St. Iohn Presbyters could do all these and more Ergo Presbyters are capable of all But saith he The Apostles were Bishops also also is impertinent as signifying somewhat else whereas I say and prove 't is one and the same Order only another name it lyes upon him to prove this difference of Orders and how doth he prove it because Presbyters can't do the acts of a Bishop why this is the thing in question and thus he runs round to prove this by that and that by this and not one tittle out of Scripture for either I know full well by several Canons of Councils made some at one time some at another the Bishops reserved many things to themselves whereof most of them had been practised formerly by Presbyters and the Canons were made to prevent the like for the future for had there not been such a pactice there had been no need of such Canons whereby they reserved these things unto themselves and for their own greatness would needs perswade the World that Presbyters were not capable of them I grant that for decency and order in that sence some things may be reserved to some other things to other to perform but that the Order of Priesthood was not capable is even ridiculous that the Priesthood being capable to do the greatest things should not be capable to do the least he can consecrate the Souls of Men by Baptism and the Lords Supper yet for sooth can't consecrate their Oyl and their Cups and their Candlestiks which we never heard the Apostles did or dream'd of but are the fond dreams of doting Men just like the Pharisees washing cups and platters after the doctrines of Men. Really there needs no better confutation of their distinction and superiority of Episcopal Order then the mean ridiculous things which they ascribe unto their Bishops and debar Presbyters of which my thinks a Presbyter should contemn were they offered him and therefore such Arguments as these are not worth the small pains I have taken about them I proceed to somewhat that seems a little better Petavius tells us That the number of Christians encreasing and factions arising in the Church the Apostles at length towards the end of their times chose out of these presbyter-Presbyter-Bishops some chief Men and placed them as Governors over the rest and reserved unto these principal Men the power of ordaining thus far I freely consent the Scripture declares it and it seems most Rational And I humbly conceive these Governors and Ordainers were Men of great prudence and moderation and probably had also that gift of the Holy Ghost The discerning of spirits and judging of Men a gift mentioned in Scripture among others that none might be admitted into the Priesthood but Men of meek and peaceable spirits But now I would ask Petavius when these Governing Ordaining Bishops were set over the rest of the Presbyter-Bishops when Titus was first settled with this Authority in Creete and when Timothy was thus placed at Ephesus where we find before were several Presbyter-Bishops what became of them were they un-Bishop'd and made simple Presbyters they must no more ordain nor govern but be subject to Timothy and Titus I am sure it was thought no small punishment in future Ages when Bishops were thus by decrees of Councel abased and cast down unto the Presbyter form and it was for some notorious crimes I pray what crime were all these Presbyter-Bishops guilty of to be thus handled and tumbled down into a lower form Truly Petavius deals hardly with them unless he can shew us their crime Or will he instead of accusing them excuse himself and say they were not un-Bishopt nor abased but only restrained from exercising that power their order was capable of had they been commissioned thereto Truly I must commend Petavius if he will thus ingeniously confess the truth for I shall by and by fully declare that 't is the diversity of Commission and not of Order that enables Men to act diversly and that a Bishop without commission can do no more than a Presbyter without commission and therefore I farâ—her begg of Petavius that till he can prove the contrary he would confess them also to be all of one single Order called only by divers names Priest or Bishop and one chosen out of the number not the rest abased but he exalted with authority to Govern This is the rational and common practice of all Societies Corporations Colledges Monasteries Conclave of Cardinals what not There is no new Order supposed in any of these but only a new Election and a new Authority given according to the fundamental constitution of each Society The Pope himself with his triple crown and triple dominion over all Patriarchs Arch-Bishops Bishops pretends to have no new order of Popeship but only the new Authority conferred by his Election why then may not Presbyters chosen to preside over the rest without any new Order do the like And for this very reason I conceive Iustin Martyr uses the name of President always for Bishop and St. Cyprian also a Bishop himself and most glorious Martyr he calls himself and other Bishops generally by the name of Praepositus as if this were the main distinction betwixt himself and his Presbyters that he was Praepositus only one of them placed with authority over them no more Nor doth the name of Bishop in the original Greek signify any more then an Overseer of the rest And as for the avoiding of Heresies and Factions they thought it meet to settle some Bishop of great soundness in faith and godliness of life with authority to
not in all the Churches of Christendom but neither approved nor known by the Primitive Church wherefore I require what you produce should be both Primitive and Universal and this to interpret some place of Scripture doubtful in it self not plain Now as to the business in hand I can't yield that the Scripture is very doubtful in it or scarce doubtful at all for though in Scripture 't is not in terminis said Presbytery and Episcopacy are both one and the same Order yet the circumstantial expressions are as I have shewed so strong and many that they are equivalent to a cleer expression in terminis Secondly this is not a matter of any indifferency but of vast and dangerous consequence if mistaken That a Church without such Bishops as you require can't be truly call'd a Church and so we shall exclude many Godly Reformed Churches For if Bishops be of such a superiour and distinct order as you pretend if the power of Ordination be inherent in them only Then where no Bishop no true Priests ordained where no Priests no Sacraments where no Sacraments no Church Wherefore I humbly beseech you be not too positive in this point lest thereby you do not only condemn all the Reformed Churches but the Scripture and St. Paul also who tells us That the Scripture is sufficient to make us wise unto Salvation both in matters of faith and works also to instruct and throughly furnish us to every good work and will any deny this of Ordination to be both a good and necessary work seeing that the powerful preaching the Word and administration of the Sacraments depend upon it Wherefore I dare not by any means suspect the Scripture defective in this weighty affair Yet to shew you our willingness to hear all things let us hear what you can tell us from Antiquity The first you bring is Epiphanius three hundred years after the Apostles from whom the main Objection is drawn against the Indentity of Order and shot as a Cannon Bell against us beyond all possible resistance but you will find it to be a meet Tennis Ball. Epiphanius making a Catalogue of Hereticks puts in Aertius for one who was an Arian and moreover held that Bishops and Priests were all of one Order and of equal Dignity and Authority and that a Presbyter had power to Ordain Confirm and in short to act any thing equal with a Bishop That he was an Heretick is apparent being an Arrian nay I shall not scruple to yeeld unto you that he was an Heretick in this his assertion concerning Episcopacy and Presbytery as we now understand them I say the Assertion contains Heresie in one part but not in every part viz. That the Bishop and other Presbyters are of equal authority and power to act this may in some sense be called Heresie for it is against Apostolical Constitution declared in Scripture therefore an Heresie and if you can shew me from Scripture as much against Identity of Order I shall brand him for an Heretick in that also but being sure there is no such thing in Scripture there can be no Heresie in affirming the Identity I fully agree with Tertullian we can make no judgment de rebus fidei nisi ex literis fidei of matters of Faith but from the writings of Faith that is the Scripture and therefore I shall never be pulled from this Pillar of Truth The Scripture is our compleat Rule of Faith no Opinion is heretical and damnable which is not against that Now Good Reader I pray take notice that Epiphanius was a very godly Bishop in the main but yet a very cholerick Man as appears in that his fierce contest with Iohn Bishop of Constantinople and his bitter expressions therein which I do not mention in disparagement of this holy Man but only to give the Reader a caution to remember that passionate Men do sometimes censure more severely than there is cause Epiphanius being a Bishop and finding the authority and dignity of Episcopacy much disparaged by Aerius being an Arrian Heretick falls upon him sharply for this his Opinion also wherein he was in part much to be condemned as I freely confest before but not in the very Point now in question nor doth Epiphanius himself condemn him in this particular as an Heretick but only in the gross to which I freely give my vote But you will tell me that a Man of a far milder temper St. Austin doth also enrol Aerius among Hereticks I know it well but I desire you to know that St. Austin doth not lay this to his charge as an Heresie for he saith only thus Aereus also was an Heretick for he fell into Arrian Heresie and he added some Opinions of his own then St. Austin recounts several of his Opinions whereof this was one That he affirmed there was no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter where I pray you observe St. Austin gives us the reason why he ranks him with Hereticks viz. because he fell into the Arrian Heresie then follows And he added some Opinions of his own St. Austin calls these Opinions not Heresies for he doth not say he added more Heresies of his own Secondly I pray you observe St. Austin makes no mention of his affirming the Identity of Order but only this That there was no difference at all between Bishop and Presbyter wherein I will condemn Aerius as well as you But as for the Identity of Order 't is well known that St. Austin is noted by Medina a Papist Writer and others to encline to this Opinion but for my part I think the words quoted from St. Austin do not express any Opinion one way or other to this purpose but are only a Complement to St. Hierom who was but a Prespyter yet in humility St. Austin being a Bishop acknowledges him to be his superiour in many things But I desire you to take notice of another very remarkable and most worthy passage of St. Austin who tells us plainly that we are not to read him or any other Author ever so holy or ever so learned with any obligation to submit to his or their Opinions unless they prove their Opinions by Scripture or convincing Reasons So then had Aerius been declared both by Epiphanius and St. Austin also to have been an Heretick in this very particular of Identity of Order yet they bringing neither Scripture nor any reason at all but meerly a bare narrative of Aerius and his Opinions not so much as calling his Opinion in this particular Heresie much less offering proofs for it by St. Austin's rule we may with great civility to them and great confidence in the truth still affirm the Identity of Order But how will I answer that Objection taken out of St. Hierom who say you was as great a leveller of Bishops with Priests as any and therefore whatever comes from him you may be sure is extracted from him by the powerfulness of undeniable truth yet he confesses that
unless the Bishops received a new Commission to ordain as well as a new Ordination If it be answered That these Chorepiscopi were meer Priests sent forth to have inspection only over other Priests Then I pray observe that these Chorepiscopi being meer Priests took upon them to ordain other Priests which certainly had been madness for them to do had they then such a Belief of Bishops as is now required They might as well have undertaken to create Stars in the Heavens For if Bishops only have received a Divine power from Christ and his Apostles to ordain Priests he that hath not this divine power of Ordination can no more ordain a Priest than a Man without the divine power of Creation can create a Star both are impossible in nature from whence it must follow that these Country Bishops were directly mad in undertaking to ordain Priests having received no such divine power from Christ his Apostles or their Successors But if we take these Country Bishops for sober Godly Persons in their right witts as doubtless they were being selected for that Office they must needs believe that being Priests alone they had power to ordain other Priests and also believed that the Bishops having made them Overseers and Governors in their little Circuits they had also received thereby Commission to ordain as well as to govern and were as little Bishops under an Arch-Bishop for such really they were so that I can't in charity censure them so much as of contumacy in taking upon them more then they thought at least they had Commission to act I doubt not but the chief Bishop would be wary enough not to employ any contumacious persons I conclude then first That it was only a meer mistake an easie and pardonable mistake of their Commission Secondly That in those Times it was not thought an impossible thing for bare Priests no Bishops to ordain other Priests for then certainly they would never have undertaken it And I confess my self of their opinion and can't but so continue till I see more reason to the contrary And I hope my Reader will see what weak proofs are brought for this distinction and superiority of Order no Scripture no Primitive General Council no general consent of Primitive Doctors and Fathers no not one Primitive Father of Note speaking particularly and home to our purpose Only a touch of Epiphanius and St. Austin upon Aerius the Arrian Heretick but not declared no not by them an Heretick in this particular of Episcopacy so that I my self declare more particularly against him then these Fathers do accusing him of Heresie in part of his affirmation concerning Bishops though not in every part I shall conclude this business by giving my poor Judgment drawn from the preceeding Arguments I find in Scripture that the Priesthood is a holy Order into which no man is to thrust himself unless he be called I do not find that Deaconship hath an inferiour part in it or Episcopacy above it but that it is compleat and entire in it self and that it may involve many administrrtions in one and the same Order and sometimes many in one and the same person St. Iohn was an Apostle an Evangelist a Prophet a Pastor a Teacher an Ordainer which we call Bishop all these Gifts he had by one and the same Spirit and in one and the same Priesthood Christ himself was of this Order a Priest for ever after the Order of Melcbisedek that is both King and Priest these were his Offices he is called also the Bishop of our Souls Was this in Christ a distinct and superiour Office or Order to his Priesthood who will presume to affirm this And Christ told his Apostles As my Father sent me so send I you Christ therefore made them also Kings and Priests as St. Iohn tells us Rev. 1. Our Saviour's Kingdom was not of this World no more was that of the Apostles Our Saviour's Office of Priest and Bishop was one and the same so was that of the Apostles and they Ordained and sent others as Christ. Ordained and sent them there was no distinction or diversity of Order in Christ and his Apostles no more was there in those who were Ordained and sent by the Apostles though there might be diversity of Gifts or Administrations all were not Evangelists nor Prophets some had the gift of Tongues some of Prophesie some of Miracles some of discerning Spirits and some such Gift I conceive they might have whom the Apostles constituted superintendent Overseers Bishops over the rest endued especially with the Gift of Discerning and Judging of Men and therefore fit to be intrusted with the Ordaining of others for which there needed no new Order but the enlargement only of their Commission to Ordain to oversee and govern those that were Ordained And these as I said before being setled in this eminent manner over the rest were call'd by that name in Greek which signifies as much and which we in English call Bishop and by degrees this name was wholly appropriate to them In this order the Apostles left the Church at their death and in this order their Successors continued it as in duty sure they ought from time to time near one thousand five hundred years without any interruption Wherefore for any to alter this way of Government or to take upon them to Ordain not being chosen this way to it they would be guilty of great rashness and high presumption and I thank God I am as zealous for the preserving this Primitive way as any Man Yet I cannot by any means consent to them who would have Episcopacy to be a distinct Order for the Reasons before given nor can I think the Ordination of a Priest made by Priests invalid for though it ought not be done but only of necessity yet being done 't is valid and certainly may without any crime be done by any Priest by shipwrak or any such chance cast into a Country where there were none Commissionated to Ordain in such a case he might and ought to Ordain other fit Persons for the Service of God and Preaching of the Gospel For who can doubt but that the Substance is to be preferred before Ceremony And as St. Paul approved of the Preaching of Christ out of envy rather than no Preaching so doubtless to Ordain out of order is better than no Ordination and the Church of Christ be deprived of Preaching Praying and Administring the Sacraments and all other Pastoral Duties so great necessity may well excuse any irregularity Yet where Order can possibly be observed it ought to be for God is the God of Order Wherefore he that wilfully transgresses against Order transgresses against God and shall receive to himself damnation for if to resist the Ordinance of Man only in humane and temporal things be damnation much more is it to resist an Apostolick Ordinance in things Spiritual and Divine Concerning Deacons HAving thus stated and united the two pretended distinct
Orders of Episcopacy and Presbytery I now proceed to the third pretended Spitual Order that of Deaconship Whether this of Deaconship be properly to be called an Order or an Office I will not dispute but certainly no Spiriritual Order for their Office was to serve Tables as the Scripture phrases it which in plain English is nothing else but Overseers of the Poor to distribute justly and discreetly the Alms of the Faithful which the Apostles would not trouble themselves withal least it should hinder them in the Ministration of the Word and Prayer But as most matters of this World in process of time deflect much from the original constitution so it fell out in this business for the Bishops who pretend to be successors to the Apostles by little and little took to themselves the Dispensation of Alms first by way of Inspection over the Deacons but at length the total Management and the Deacons who were meer Lay-Officers by degrees crept into the Church-Ministration and became a reputed Spiritual Order and a necessary degree and step to the Priesthood of which I can find nothing in Scripture and the Original Institution not a word relating to any thing but the ordering of Alms for the Poor And the first I find of their officiating in Spiritual matters is in Iustin Martyr who lived in the second Century he relates that when the Bishop had consecrated the Bread and Wine for the Lords Supper the Deacons took it from him and delivered it to the Lay-Communicants there present and carried it also to the Faithful that were absent hindered I guess from coming by sickness or some other good excusing cause In the beginning when the Congregations of the Faithful were small the Bishop himself delivered the Communion to them but at length encreasing to great numbers it would have taken too much of their time for the Bishop to have delivered it to the whole Congregation so the Deacons were made use of as fit Persons for this matter for in those days there was always a Communion in the Assemblies on the Lords-Day and the Laity that Day brought their Alms and Presents with them which were delivered unto the Deacons to dispose of to the Poor by the Bishops direction and therefore the Deacons receiving from their hands their charitable Benevolence were thought the fittest to return again to their hands the consecrated Mysteries being part of their Offerings But 't is evident this was not yet come to be the general practice of all Churches but only in Greece where Iustin Martyr lived for Tertullian who lived in Africk some years after Iustin declares that the custom there was to receive the Blessed Sacrament from the hands of the Bishop only whom he calls the President that is whosoever was chief in the Assembly whether Bishop or Presbyter But yet I confess that this custom of the Deacons delivering the Blessed Sacrament or at least one part of it viz. the Chalice by degrees became the custom in most Churches in after Ages and so passing from one thing to another in time they came to administer the Sacrament of Baptism and at last to the Ministration of the Word the business which the Apostles peculiarly reserved to themselves and which the Bishops also for a long time reserved so entirely to themselves as it was thought a great insolency for any even for the Presbyters to take upon them to preach in presence of the Bishop Valerius Bishop of Hippo as Possidius relates was sharply rebuked by his fellow Bishops for suffering St. Austin then but a Presbyter to preach before him I know sometimes it was suffered also in other Churches but very rarely where the Bishop himself was of weak abilities for the Work and had some Presbyters under him very eminent And so it was with Bishop Valerius and St. Austin a Person of great note in those days And thus you see in process of time how strangely things alter from their original Institution the Bishops omit preaching and become servants of Tables and the Deacons for serving of Tables step up into the Pulpit and became Preachers But Petavius takes upon him to prove Deaconship a Spiritual Order and brings us a more early Author for it than Iustin that noble Martyr mentioned before Ignatius who in his Epistle ad Tralli calls Deacons as Petavius conceives Ministers of the Mysteries of Christ. Here I find that which I often lament Learned Men to go on in a track one after another and some through inadvertency some through partiality take many Passages of ancient Authors quite different from their meaning as here all following the first erroneous Interpreter of Ignatius Whoever first translated this Epistle of Ignatius sure this fancy of Deacons ran much in his head otherwise he could never have found them here for 't is evident the word Diaconus in this place relates to the Presbytery newly before mentioned telling the People they ought to be obedient to the Presbyters as to the Apostles of Christ then follows You must therefore please them in all things being Ministers of the Mysteries of Christ. Mark I beseech you You must therefore Is not Therefore a Particle relating to what went before viz. to the Presbyters otherwise the Speech is very absurd Should I say Presbyters are as the Apostles of Christ therefore you must in all things please the Deacons were it sence no but just Deus in Coele ergo baculus in Angulo but to say the Presbyters are as the Apostles therefore you must please them in all things being the Ministers of the Mysteries of Christ as the Apostles were this is very good coherent sense and so run the words of Ignatius but the weak Interpreter mistaking the word Diacanus ran into this error and many learned Men without any consideration have run after him I grant the word Diaconos is often set for Deacons specifically distinguisht from Presbyters but 't is very often set for all Ministers in general Apostles Bishops Presbyters as you find frequently in Scripture St. Paul in one Epistle viz. the 2d Cor. twice stiles himself and other Apostles Diaconous And I do the more wonder at the Interpreters mistake in this place because by the following words Ignatius here excludes the specifical Deacons saying Not the Ministers of meats and drinks Now we know the specifical Deacons were Ministers of meats and drinks to the Poor it was their proper work for this very end they were chosen and for no other as appears evidently in the Acts and therefore Ignatius saying Not the Ministers of meats and drinks directly excludes such Deacons and the word Diaconous must necessarily be taken in the larger sence and relate to the Presbyters before mentioned therefore please them in all things being the Ministers of the Mysteries of Christ not of meats and drinks for the Poor Whoever understands the Greek and will see must needs see the truth of what I affirm But Petavius intoxicated with this spiritual Order of Deaconship
turns all this round quite another way according to the working of his fancy And so he doth some places of Scripture as little to his purpose as this He tells us out of the Acts that Philip and Stephen both Deacons were Preachers of the Word that is a Spiritual work therefore belongs to a Spiritual Order I would gladly know who informed Petavius that Philip who Preacht to the Eunuch and afterwards went about Preaching to others was Philip the Deacon and not rather Philip the Apostle as seems to me far more probable for Philip the Deacon was by his Office to reside at Ierusalem and take care of the Poor thither the Alms of the Faithful were sent to relieve the Saints at Ierusalem But you farther urge Surely Stephen was a Deacon and let Philip also if you please it signifies little to the purpose Sure I can shew out of Scripture Preachers that were in no Spiritual Order neither Presbyters nor Deacons neither as Aquilla and Priscilla his Wife too and Apollo likewise to whom they both Preached and instructed him more fully sure they did not ordain Apollo a Deacon nor can I believe any of the Apostles ordain'd him Deacon and sent him forth to Preach before he was well catechized in the Word he was not so much as Baptized in Christ but knew only the Baptism of Iohn if not Baptized surely not ordained Deacon yet he prevailed and mightily convinced the Iews It is in reason strange though in practice common to see how Men wedded to an Opinion think whatever they read speaks to that so Fathers Doctors all clink as they think In the Primitive time all both Men and Women did Preach the Gospel taken in a large sence as St. Peter calls Noah a Preacher of Righteousness that is they endeavoured to instruct all they conversed with in the Faith of Christ and Godliness for which many both Men and Women suffered Martyrdom Wherefore though Philip the Deacon and Stephen Preach the Gospel it signifies nothing to the Spirituality of the Deaconship seeing that thousands of Lay-men and Women also did the like And so the Apostles laying their hands on those chosen to be Deacons signifies as little to this purpose Do not we find that Paul laid his hands on the converted Disciples at Ephesus and they received the Holy Ghost and Prophesied yet none of them ordained either Presbyter or Deacon And sometimes the Apostles laid their hands on those that were already ordained both Presbyters and Apostles also as on Barnabas and Paul when they were sent forth to Preach This laying of hands was a Ceremony used on several occasions I need not mention more they are obvious to any that read the Scripture 'T is evident then from Scripture that the first institution of Deacons was a meer Lay-Office I will not say a prophane Office as some too grosly and irreverently have termed it but a pious and honourable Office in the Church of God to serve Tables to take care of God's Poor but as I have shewed in process of time it became quite another thing and so different from the Original Institution as it made Chrysostome and divers other great and good Men doubt whether the Apostles did not constitute two sorts of Deacons some for this Lay-Office some for Spiritual-Offices Had Chrysostome consulted only Scripture he would never have doubted nor dream't of two sorts of Deacons there being no mention at all but of one but he seeing the practice of the Church which he was unwilling to condemn so different from that one Apostolical Institution of Deacons this so confounded the good Man that he knew not well what to make of it and willing to piece Scripture and the present practice together to put a new patch upon an old Garment made the rent the wider rending the Deaconship in two pieces which of old was but one only to serve Tables which Office he that used well purchased to himself a good degree a good esteem and so it might be a recommendation to the degree of Priesthood though no necessary step to it And so we find that holy Deacon and most renowned Martyr St. Lawrence was made a Priest but continued afterwards in that same Office of Deacon unto Death which he suffered in a most cruel manner laid on a Gridiron over Coals rather than he would give up the Treasury of the Church and Alms of the Poor to the covetous cruel Tyrant This holy Deacon Petavius brings to prove that Deacons by virtue of that Order only did minister in holy things telling us that St. Ambrose mentions how he did distribute in the Lords Supper the Blood of Christ to the Communicants under Bishop Xistus Whereas St. Ambrose tells us how he Consecrated the Blood of Christ which plainly shews how untruly Petavius deals with us and that St. Laurence was a Priest not a bare Deacon for neither Petavius nor ever any allowed Deacons the Consecration of these sacred Mysteries Wherefore seeing the Scripture allows Deacons as Deacons no more then serving of Tables for the Poor whatever else Ministration is allowed them is by humane Authority not Divine and their Office or Order which you please to call it being about Temporal things must be Temporal not Spiritual And so I leave them to their proper Office of serving Tables not finding in Scripture any thing more belonging to them Concerning Confirmation Confirmation or some such thing is so necessary that for want of due execution thereof Persons extreamly unfit are admitted to the holy Table of the Lords Supper I fear a quarter of the Communicants of this Nation do not sufficiently understand the true meaning of these holy Mysteries the due preparation for them the benefits the damages in worthily or unworthily receiving them This I affirm upon experience having by way of discourse questioned many both of low and high degree where one would little expect such Ignorance And by reason of this gross Ignorance in due preparing and conscientious receiving this blessed Cordial and Medicine of the Soul of power in it self to cure all our diseases if rightly applied is turned into our destruction and damnation of the Soul For this holy Sacrament rightly apprehended would strike a terror into the Soul and a dread of Sin but Men receiving it without any regard into their sinful souls the beams of Grace which this Sun of Righteousness brings with it harden their dirty hearts and make them afterwards unsensible of any horrid abomination whatsoever And all this is occasioned by the want of some fit Person of authority to examine youth of all degrees ever so high or ever so low before they are admitted to the Lords Table For there being many poor ignorant Curates many unconscientious careless Ministers many over-awed by the superior quality of their Parishioners some cannot some will not some dare not search into the requisite abilities of persons to be admitted All which was prevented in the Primitive times of Christianity
when able and holy Bishops were elected and therefore reverenced and obeyed in all Spiritual matters by the greatest as well as by the least These diligently and publickly before the Congregation at set-times in the year chiefly at Easter examined all those who had been converted to the faith from infidelity that year and all those who baptized in the faith desired admittance to the Lords Table and upon approbation and confirmation of the Bishop fit persons only were publickly Baptized by him and at the Church door assoon as Churches were built where the Baptistery was placed and then brought into the Church and admitted to the Lords Table And no inferiour Minister did either baptize or administer the holy Communion unless it were by the Bishops order on urgent occasions These things are very well known to the Learned who are conversant in Ignatius his Epistles Iust in Martyr Tertullian Cyprian and other succeeding Writers And in short nothing was dore of any moment as is plain in Ignatius but by the Bishops directions But at length the number of Christians growing great and multitudes of Children daily Born and an Opinion growing up also that it was absolutely necessary for the salvation of Children not only to be baptized but also to receive the Holy Communion before death it was impossible for the Bishop to be at hand to perform all or to give particular order for all Necessity forced every Priest in his Cure to perform these Offices Yet in process of time the opinion of the necessity for Children to receive the Holy Communion before death declining and few or none admitted till the age of discretion and the necessity of Baptism for Children still continuing the Bishops suffered still all Ministers to Baptize but resumed to themselves again the power of Confirming and Licensing youth to the Holy Communion And Bishops only for a long time executing this Office it grew by degrees into an Opinion that Bishops only were capable to do it and that Confirmation was a Sacrament and such a Sacrament as inferiour Priests supposed then also to be of an inferiour Order were not to meddle with What errors will Men yea learned Men carried along with a croud slide into not willing to stand in opposition with a multitude especially when countenanced by the Bishop their Superiour And then succeeding learned Men having in their Infancy sucked in the error continue it in their riper learned years and endeavour to desend it as a certain truth and at last it passeth for an Article of Faith necessary to be believed Thus have I laid out before you the true State and Progress of this business of Confirmation Now I pray consider first Suppose Confirmation to be a Sacrament and to be administred by the Bishop only and none to be admitted to the Lords Table till Confirmed How is it possible for a Bishop of so large a Diocess as some of ours are some extended three or fourscore miles many forty or fifty personally to Confirm half the Youth in a Diocess if he duly examine each one as is most fit and necessary We see how this is performed in their Triennial Visitations not a quarter of those who are admitted ever come to the Bishop and yet the croud is great What is then done to those that come They are asked by the Bishop whether they believe and will perform those things their God-fathers and God-mothers affirmed and promised for them at their Baptism they answer Yes and so are confirmed But what those things are whether they understand and can give a good account of those things not a word of this Oh but the Curate who presents those Children to the Bishop assures him that they are fully instructed for it this is the thing we complain of and desire to be redressed that it may not be left to the discretion and care of every Curate seeing what pittiful Creatures are by them admitted And do we not see sometimes the Curate desiring to please the fond Mother Children confirmed so young as cannot without a Miracle be of a capacity to understand those divine Mysteries Besides it may often happen that a pious Child well fitted for the Holy Sacrament and perchance being weak earnestly desires it before his death yet must stay some years 'till next Visitation or take a long Journey to the Bishop for which he may want strength or means to support him But in the Primitive Times the Bishops confirmed every year their Diocess also was very narrow so that access to him was quick and easie and the work was as easie to the Bishop yea and easie also to the inferiour Curate to instruct and prepare them for Parents and Masters did then according to their bounden duty the great neglect whereof in these days will find some punishment at the last day made it their chief care to instruct their Servants and Children from their infancy in the Principles of Religion You see how impossible it is for a Bishop in a large Diocess and Triennial visitation to perform this necessary work as it ought and therefore in the second place consider how necessary it is for the Bishop to appoint some discreet conscientious Ministers as our Dean Rurals should be in several Circuits to examine and license to the Lord's Table For I pass it as granted that Confirmation is no Sacrament and if it were why may not Priests not Bishops perform it Certainly there is not one word in Scripture forbidding it or any colourable pretence against it nor can I discover the least ground of reason to forbid it inferior Ministers performing other Offices superior to it and certainly equal to it though it were a Sacrament which our Church denies There is nothing in the World can be pretended but that in the beginning Bishops did only perform it To this I answer That from the very beginning there were no other Priests but Bishops as I have shewed you and then Bishops did all other Ministerial Duties Preach Pray Baptise Catechise and in succeeding Ages when there were several inferior Priests not Bishops all but Confirming was ever transmitted to them and to Deacons also Preaching Praying and Baptizing nay Baptizing tolerated in necessity to Midwives I would gladly see any such thing in Antiquity and shall Confirming the meanest of all these be denyed Priests You will tell me there have been Decrees in some Councils to forbid it And will you be bound up to all the Decrees of Councils without Scripture or any reason for them If once we leave Scripture and hearken to the Doctrines of Men ever so holy ever so learned ever so Primitive we shall soon be wheedled into the Papists Religion and many other Errors which the Papists themselves now reject as I have declared at large before and therefore I forbear saying more now to this purpose but proceed to a third Consideration What will be the best means to prepare Youth for the receiving the holy Communion in every
Cure and then present them to such as are appointed to License them In the first place I humbly conceive it will be necessary to add unto the Catechism a short and plain Paraphrase upon every sentence in the Creed the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments and particularly to explain every unusual hard word therein For those general Questions at the end of them do not so sufficiently open the understandings of the weaker or duller Youth as that they know how to apply those generals to each particular sentence but many Youths who can most readily say the Catechism to a little yet understand many words no more than if they were Greek and scarce are able to give you the meaning of any Sentence in their own words And although they have all perfectly by heart as we say yet have very little in their heads and understandings and so a Parrot may be well nigh as capable of the Lords Supper as some of those In the next place I must tell you That I fear as much Ministers of the best parts as those of the meanest for this necessary work of Catechizing lest both have the same effect though they act extreamly different the one talking non-sence the other above common sence both of them confounding the brains of the poor Youths who understand neither of them I have heard some Learned Ministers call the Youth together ask a few Catechism-questions which the Boys answering readily are commended and dismissed And then begins this learned Man a profound Lecture shaped according to his own large dimensions at which both Boys and Men also for the most part gaze as at a prodigious Monster of Learning and perchance some of them say to themselves the same that Festus said to St. Paul The Man is besides himself much Learning hath made him mad Sure he doth not know where he is not in an University-School of Divinity but in an Assembly of weak and silly Youth who must be fed with milk and are not capable of strong meat where it were better for him with St. Paut to speak five words with his understanding that by his voice he may teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue or in such English as they understand no more than an unknown tongue I humbly beseech these Men to attend to the Form and Phrase of the Gospel and mark what kind of matter and language the Divine Oracle used in Preaching it even to the learned Scribes and Pharisees and to learn of him who was lowly in heart and came not to seek his own glory but the glory of Him that sent him I desire them also to read the latter end of the first Chapter of 1 Cor. and the beginning of the second and learn from thence to speak the Wisdom of God in the weak and foolish way of Preaching to instruct and gain the weak and foolish yet wise unto God Really no Man that hath not made some experience can believe how strangely weak and dull thousands both of boyes and men also are in apprehending spiritual matters so that a man had need to study much how to fit their weak heads with a sutable discourse and hath as much need of great patience also to repeat every thing again and again and even beat it into their heads I have observed that Plato's manner of many short and plain questions and answers to effect much and likewise familiar similitudes from things within their own occupation and knowledge And now to encourage them to this toilsome work I beseech them to consider that the Souls of these weak simple ones cost our Saviour as dear as those of the Philosophers and therefore are as dear to him yea it seems dearer seeing St. Paul tells us in the place before cited that he calls more of them to Salvation and therefore they ought to be as dear to our Saviours Ministers and to be chiefly called and sought by them and then they shall be sure to have their reward from this our lowly Saviour In the last place I conceive it necessary to consider what course may be taken to bring all to Catechising for I have heard some Pious Ministers much complain that they have used their utmost endeavours yet cannot effect it and it can never be expected that many of the Youth will come unless compelled by Parents and Masters of whom many are so careless many so covetous as they think every hour lost which is not spent on their worldly affairs so that the Parents and Masters need compulsion as well as their Children and Servants And considering how this necessary work of Catechising hath been neglected for many years past it is much to be feared that the aged need it as much as the youth But would Parents and Masters well consider the great advantages that would accrue to them even in their worldly concerns they would be very zealous to come themselves and both see and hear their youth Catechized and bred up in Piety and Godliness the want whereof hath bred that great undutifulness in children that sloth and falseness of servants which we sadly behold in this degenerated age And let me mention once again the strict account Parents and Masters must give to God for so great neglect to those committed to their charge Wherefore unless some fitter expedient can be found I humbly conceive it would have some effect if such careless Parents and Masters were not admitted themselves to the Holy Communion who were faulty in this kind for though many of them are not very zealous of the Holy Communion and could easily pass it by yet for reputation sake they would not easily incur the being rejected and doubtless many of them would be moved thereby and the example of some would be followed by others and so by degrees the number would encrease and when Catechizing by this means begins to grow in fashion it would quickly be taken up by all God be merciful to us that Religion in many is chiefly for fashion sake yet I hope by Gods assisting grace Religion begining though but in fashion would end at last in true Devotion at least in many if not in all However it is good that God should publickly be glorified the publick would sdeed the better for it though the private hypocrites suffer punishment in the end God in his mercy turn their hearts that they may escape Of Church Government MY last particular which remains yet to be handled is that of the Authority of Bishops to govern as well as to ordain And in the first place who can but wonder to see men so zealous in assuming to themselves the sole power of Ordination so much neglect and even wholly abandon the power of the Keys that of Excommunication so high and so dreadful which though by great abuse in latter times is made very contemptible yet in the original institution and Primitive practice was very terrible A power to deliver men over unto Satan that Prince
of darkness to take full possession of their Souls and sometimes of their Bodies also both being sentenced thereby to the everlasting flames of Hell and likewise a power to release penitent souls from the chains of darkness and slavery of the Devil and restore them to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God whereby they are made Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven If there be any thing under Heaven fit to stir up the Ambition of mortal men yea an ambition in Angels themselves sure this is it Who can forgive sins but God alone said the Iews to our Saviour Christ swelling with indignation against him for this though they had seen many divine Miracles wrought by him yet this is so peculiar so transcendent a divine act as not to be offered at by any but the great God Iehovah himself But blessed for ever be this great and gracious God who by his eternal Son Christ Jesus hath given this power unto men As his heavenly Father sent him with this power so sent he his Apostles with this power saying unto them Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Wherefore if there be any thing in the Office of a Bishop to be stood upon and challenged peculiar to themselves certainly it should be this yet this is in a manner quite relinquished unto their Chancellors Lay-men who have no more capacity to sentence or absolve a sinner then to dissolve the heavens and earth and make a new heaven and a new earth and this pretended power of Chancellors is sometimes purchased with a sum of Money their Money perish with them Good God! what a horrid abuse is this of the Divine Authority But this notorious transgression is excused as they think by this that a Minister called the Bishops surrogat but is indeed the Chancellors servant chosen call'd and placed there by him to be his Cryer in the Court no better that when he hath examined heard and sentenced the Cause then the Minister forsooth pronounces the sentence Just as a Rector of a Parish Church should exclude any of his Congregation and lock him out of the Church then comes the Clerk shews and gingles the Keys that all may take notice that he is excluded And by this his authority the Chancellor takes upon him to sentence not only Lay-men but Clergy men also brought into his Court for any delinquency and in the Court of the Arches there they sentence even Bishops themselves This is a common practise in later ages but in St. Ambrose his time so great a wonder as with amazement cryeth out against the Emperour Valentinian when he took upon him to judge in such cases saying When was it ever heard of since the beginning of the World that Lay-men should judge of spirituals he means in spiritual things not in temporal things which by the laws of God and man belongs to the Lay-Magistrate This was that Ambrose of whom the other great Emperour as Good as Great Theodosius Father to this Valeninian affirmed Ambrose onely knew how to act the Bishop and with all Christian humility this great Emperour submitted to the sentence of this godly Bishop denying him entrance into the Church for the cruelty acted by his Souldiers at Thessilonica by his command and upon his great repentance and pennance performed six months together and after publique confession in the Church was again absolved and joyfully received into the Church Oh my Great and Reverend Fathers of the Church the Bishops whom Christ hath cleaved to his high dignity whom he hath made Kings and Princes whom he hath called to sit with him on his Throne there to give sentence of eternal life or eternal death can you so tamely part with this prime flower of your Crown yea the very Apex of it and suffer the Lay-members of the Church to usurp this divine authority Or how can you answer it to the chief Bishop of our Souls if any one Soul by the ill management of the Chancellors should certainly perish shall not his blood be required at your hands But perchance some of you will answer 'T is no fault of yours but of your predecessors who gave such Patents unto them as by vertue thereof they exercise this power will ye nill ye 'T is too true and I remember when the Bishop of Wells hearing of a cause corruptly mannaged and coming into the Court to rectifie it the Chancellor Dr. Duke fair and mannerly bad him be gon for he had no power there to act any thing and there with all pulls out his Patent sealed by the Bishops Predecessor which like Perseus shield with the Gorgons head frighted the poor Bishop out of the Court Where are you Parliament men you great Sons of the Church so zealous for Episcopal Government yet suffer this principal part of it to be thus alienated and usurped by Lay-men If an unordained person take upon him to pray or preach with what outeries and severe Laws and with great reason also you fall upon him but if an unordained person take upon him to judge sentence and excommunicate Bishops themselves you calmly pass it over take no notice of it You will answer me The Bishops themselves pass it over yea and pass it away from themselves and their successors for to gratifie their kinsmen or their friends or perchance for worse why then should you stir in it Truly in this you have reason and the balme most wholly light on them who do not use all possible endeavour and implore your assistance also to rectifie this great abuse which subverts the main Pillar of the Church Government this is no Ceremonial matter but the very substance of it they strain at Gnats and swallow Camels For Chancellors to intermeddle in Probats of Wills payment of Tythes or any other temporal matters there is no scripture nor reason to condemn but rather to condemn Bishops should they interpose in such matters for which they have no commission from Scripture but rather a prohibition from that saying of our Svaiovr Man who made me a judge or a divider over you but then it will be necessary that Chancellors have also power of Temporal punishments and not prophane that high and holy power in sordid earthly things certainly a greater prophanation than to convert a Church into a Chandlers Shop the Church is a bulk of earthly materials and holy only by dedication the power of its Keys is in its own nature and original constitution spiritual and divine If Uzza being no Levite suffered death for laying hold on the Sacred Ark of God to support and hold it up what shall he suffer who being no consecrated person layes hold on the sacred authority of Gnd to pull it down from heaven to earth Let them consider But let not the Civilians for this account me an Enemy to their Profession which no man honours more and I heartily wish much more of our Civil matters were
the Vniversity with all his Sciences and Languages be fit for this or rather a grave sober person of age and experience having a a good natural capacity illuminated by Scripture Instruction and Prayer using also the help of grave and sound Interpreters Really 't is most evident that the Church is run into great contempt by the slightness and giddiness of many Ministers who intend nothing but to make a handsom School-Boyes Exercises in the Pulpit on Sunday but never attend the other Parochial duties no nor their own advance in Spiritual knowledge but give themselves wholly either to idle Studies or idler Recreations and are very children in Divine knowledg and behaviour I do affirm this in the presence of God as a truth and I have known some pass for very good Preachers that could not give a good account of the Athanasian Creed nor scarce of the Childrens Catechisme Masters of Art but School-Boys in true Divinity and so their Parishoners continue very Babes all their life long It would make any true Christian's heart bleed to think how many thousand poor souls there are in this Land that have no more knowledg of God then Heathens thousands of the mendicant condition never come to Church and are never lookt after by any likewise thousands of mean husbandry Men that do come to Church understand no more of the Sermon then Bruites perchance in their infancy some of them learnt a little of their Catechisme that is they could like Parrots say some broken pieces but never understand the meaning of one line this is the common way of Chatechising but afterwards as they grow up to be Men grow more babes in Religion so ignorant as searce to know their Heavenly Father and are admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper before they are able to give account of the Sacrament of Baptisme This it is generally in the Country and in the City as bad partly for the reason before specified and partly by reason the number in many Parishes is far greater then any one Pastor can have a due care of he cannot know half the Names or Faces of them much less their Faith and Behaviour which is requisite that he may both instruct and reprove where there is need Wherefore I humbly conceive 't is necessary to divide these numerous Parishes into several parts but wiâ—hal to provide means out of them for several Ministers for there is no hope to gain it from their Charity or Piety which is plain Hypocrisy seeming so zealous to hear the Word but to contribute nothing towards it the Minister may Preach his heart out and yet not get out of their purses any tolerable Maintenance a poor Husbandman in the Country of twenty pound a year that gets his bread by the swear of his brows pays more to his Minister than a Citizen that gets hundreds a year sitting at great ease in his Shop and spends more in Ribbonds Laces and Perriwigs in one year then he pays to his Minister in ten or twenty I beseech them to consider what account they will give to their Lord and Master at that day But I return to the requisite qualities of a Minister who according to St. Paul is to be a Governor as well as a Preacher to admonish and rebuke as well as instruct and therefore of two evils choose the lesser rather Men defective in parts to preach which may be supplied by Homilies then defective in Wisdom and Discretion to govern which can't be supplied by other means But would Men be content with the true Gospel and Apostolick preaching doubtless there might persons be found out fit for both to Govern and to Preach to preach one God the Creator of all one Christ the Redeemer of all one Holy Ghost the Sanctifier of all to preach the Baptisme of Repentance and the Saâ—rament of the Lord's Supper to preach Godliness Justice Mercy Charity Sobriety Chastity c. All which will be far better performed by a grave and godly conscientious Man well Catechized though he never saw University though he knew no other Language but his Mother Tongue then by any Aristotelist Scotist Aquinatist with all their knacks of quiddities and qualities Syllogismes and Enthymems distinctions and subsumptions c. Not one Greek or Italian or French of a thousand knew any Language but his Mother Tongue when the Gospel first flourished there not one Indian of hundred thousand where St. Thomas planted the Gospel ever heard of Plato or Aristotle and so I may say of many other Nations where the Gospel was planted and Priests ordained When God instituted Aaron and that Priesthood when Christ instituted the Apostles and this Priesthood not a title mentioned of School Sciences or Forreign Languages 'T is true the Apostles by the Holy Ghost received the gift of Tongues because they were to preach to all Nations but we find not any infusion of School learning by the Holy Ghost nor any more gift of Tongues after the Gospel once spread over the world God thought it then needless I pray let 's be no wiser then God and his Christ who converted the world by the foolishness of Preaching but I never yet heard of any one Nation converted by the wisdom of Philosophical Rhetorical Preaching Mistake me not I say that Sciences and Languages are no way necessary for common Parochical Preachers yet I grant that Sciences especially Historical and Languages especially the Oriental are very useful to the perfect understanding of Scripture and very fit for some Ministers to study to whom God hath given parts and means to acquire them who may be helpful to others and the Universities are very good places to train up youths to this purpose but still these faculties are no way necessary to a parochial Cure a small proportion of Learning with a great deal of Piety and Discretion is much better Besides there is another thing much to be considered Were there such grave conscientious persons admitted into the Ministry as the Apostles ordained such Preaching set up as they practised and all other decryed such double honor paid unto the Ministry as St. Paul commanded and primitively was rendred such grave persons would scarce ever fail of it then we might find thousands in the Nation that having means of their own would preach the Gospel to the poor for conscience sake The maintenance for Ministers in most parts is so wretchedly small and so like to be the Tythes being in the hands of Lay-men without hopes of recovery that there is no convenient support for men of Worth and Gravity and therefore Youths and striplings as wretched are put into them of meer necessity that they lye not wholly void whereas if men that had some Estate to help to maintain themselves being persons of conscience and convenient Knowledge were put into the Ministry and such preaching the Gospel accepted of as the Apostles and Primitive Disciples used the Cures wou'd be served with far more edification of the