Apostolical as it was an office extraordinary circumstantionate definite and to expire all that was promised should descend upon them after Christs ascension and was verified in Pentecost for to that purpose to bring all things to their mind all of Christs Doctrine and all that was necessary of his life and miracles and a power from above to enable them to speak boldly and learnedly and with tongues all that besides the other parts of ordinary power was given them ten days after the Ascension And therefore the breathing the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the octaves of the Resurrection and this mission with such a power was their ordinary mission a sending them as ordinary Pastors and Curates of Souls with a power to govern binding and loosing can mean no less and they were the words of the promise with a power to minister reconciliation for so Saint Paul expounds remitting and retaining which two were the great hinges of the Gospel the one to invite and collect a Church the other to govern it the one to dispense the greatest blessing in the world the other to keep them in capacities of enjoying it For since the holy Ghost was now actually given to these purposes here expressed and yet in order to all their extraordinaries and temporary needs was promised to descend after this there is no collection from hence more reasonable than to conclude all this to be part of their commission of ordinary Apostleship to which the ministers of religion were in all Ages to succeed In attestation of all which who please may see the united testimony of S. Cyril S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose S. Gregory and the Author of the questions of the old and new Testament who unless by their calling shall rather be called persons interess'd than by reason of their famous piety and integrity shall be accepted as competent are a very credible and fair representment of this truth and that it was a doctrine of Christianity that Christ gave this power to the Apostles for themselves and their successors for ever and that therefore as Christ in the first donation so also some Churches in the tradition of that power used the same form of words intending the collation of the same power and separating persons for that work of that ministery I end this with the counsel S. Augustine gives to all publick penitents Veniat ad Antistites per quos illis in Ecclesia claves ministrantur à praepositis sacrorum accipiant satisfactionis suae modum let them come to the Presidents of Religion by whom the Keys are ministred and from the Governours of holy things let them receive those injunctions which shall exercise and signifie their repentance SECT III. THe second power I instance in is preaching the Gospel for which work he not only at first designed Apostles but others also were appointed for the same work for ever to all generations of the Church This Commission was signed immediately before Christ's Ascension All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world First Christ declared his own commission all power is given him into his hand he was now made King of all the Creatures and Prince of the Catholick Church and therefore as it concerned his care and providence to look to his cure and flock so he had power to make deputations accordingly Go ye therefore implying that the sending them to this purpose was an issue of his power either because the authorizing certain persons was an act of power or else because the making them Doctors of the Church and teachers of the Nations was a placing them in an eminency above their scholars and converts and so also was an emanation of that power which derived upon Christ from his Father from him descended upon the Apostles And the wiser persons of the world have always understood that a power of teaching was a Presidency and Authority for since all dominion is naturally founded in the understanding although civil government accidentally and by inevitable publick necessity relies upon other titles yet where the greatest understanding and power of teaching is there is a natural preheminence and superiority eatenus that is according to the proportion of the excellency and therefore in the instance of S. Paul we are taught the style of the Court and Disciples sit at the feet of their Masters as he did at the feet of his Tutor Gamaliel which implies duty submission and subordination and indeed it is the highest of any kind not only because it is founded upon nature but because it is a submission of the most imperious faculty we have even of that faculty which when we are removed from our Tutors is submitted to none but God for no man hath power over the understanding faculty and therefore so long as we are under Tutors and Instructors we give to them that duty in the succession of which claim none can succeed but God himself because none else can satisfie the understanding but he Now then because the Apostles were created Doctors of all the world hoc ipso they had power given them over the understandings of their disciples and they were therefore fitted with an infallible spirit and grew to be so authentick that their determination was the last address of all inquiries in questions of Christianity and although they were not absolute Lords of their faith and understandings as their Lord was yet they had under God a supreme care and presidency to order to guide to instruct and to satisfie their understandings and those whom they sent out upon the same errand according to the proportion and excellency of their spirit had also a degree of superiority and eminency and therefore they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Labourers in the word and doctrine were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyters that were Presidents and Rulers of the Church and this eminency is for ever to be retained according as the unskilfulness of the Disciple retains him in the form of Catechumens or as the excellency of the instructor still keeps the distance or else as the office of teaching being orderly and regularly assigned makes a legal political and positive authority to which all those persons are for orders sake to submit who possibly in respect of their personal abilities might be exempt from that authority Upon this ground it is that learning amongst wise persons is esteemed a title of nobility and secular eminency Ego enim quid aliud munificentiae adhibere potui ut studia ut sic dixerim in umbra educata è quibus claritudo venit said Seneca to Nero. And Aristotle and A. Gellius affirm that not only excellency of extraction or great fortunes but learning also makes noble circum undique sedentibus multis doctrinâ aut genere
of the Apostle But I suffer not a woman to teach but to be in silence And as for the men who had gifts extraordinary of the Spirit although they were permitted at first in the Corinthian Church before there was a Bishop or a fixed Colledge of Clergy to utter the inspired dictates of the Spirit yet whether they were Lay or Clergy is not there expressed and it is more agreeable to the usual dispensation that the prophets of ordinary ministery though now extraordinarily assisted should prophesie in publick but however when these extraordinaries did cease if they were common persons they had no pretence to invade the Chair nor that we find ever did for an ordinary ability to speak was never any warrant to disturb an order unless they can say the words of S. Paul Whereunto I am ordained a Preacher they might not invade the office To be able to perform an office though it may be a fair disposition to make the person capable to receive it orderly yet it does not actually invest him every wise man is not a Counsellor of State nor every good Lawyer a Judge And I doubt not but in the Jewish religion there were many persons as able to pray as their Priests who yet were wiser than to refuse the Priests advocation apud Deum and reciting offices in behalf of the people Orabit pro eo sacerdos was the order of Gods appointing though himself were a devout person and of an excellent spirit And it had need be something extraordinary that must warrant an ordinary person to rise higher than his own evenness and ability or skill is but a possibility and must be reduced to act by something that transmits authority or does establish order or distinguish persons and separate professions And it is very remarkable that when Iudas had miscarried and lost his Apostolate it was said that it was necessary for some body to be chosen to be a witness of Christs Resurrection Two were named of ability sufficient but that was not all they must chuse one to make up the number of the twelve a distinct separate person which shews that it was not only a work for that any of them might have done but an office of ordinary ministery The ability of doing which work although all they that lived with Iesus might either have had or received at Pentecost yet the authority and grace was more the first they had upon experience but this only by divine election which is a demonstration that every person that can do offices clerical is not permitted to do them and that besides the knowledge and natural or artificial abilities a divine qualification is necessary And therefore God complains by the Prophet I have not sent them and yet they run and the Apostle leaves it as an established rule How shall they preach except they be sent Which two places I shall grant to be meant concerning a distinct and a new message Prophets must not offer any doctrine to the people or pretend a doctrine for which they had not a commission from God But which way soever they be expounded they will conclude right in this particular For if they signifie an ordinary mission then there is an ordinary mission of preachers which no man must usurp unless he can prove his title certainly and clearly derivative from God which when any man of the Laity can do we must give him the right hand of fellowship and wish him good speed But if these words signifie an extraordinary case and that no message must be pretended by Prophets but what they have commission for then must not ordinary persons pretend an extraordinary mission to an ordinary purpose for besides that God does never do things unreasonable nor will endure that order be interrupted to no purpose he will never give an extraordinary Commission unless it be to a proportionable end whosoever pretends to a licence of preaching by reason of an extraordinary calling must look that he be furnished with an extraordinary message lest his Commission be ridiculous and when he comes he must be sure to shew his authority by an argument proportionable that is by such a probation without which no wise man can reasonably believe him which cannot be less than miraculous and divine In all other cases he comes under the curse of the non missi those whom God sent not they go on their own errand and must pay themselves their wages But besides that the Apostles were therefore to have an immediate mission because they were to receive new inctructions these inctructions were such as were by an ordinary and yet by a distinct ministery to be conveyed for ever after and therefore did design an ordinary successive and lasting power and authority Nay our blessed Lord went one step further in this provision even to remark the very first successors and partakers of this power to be taken into the lot of this ministery and they were the Seventy-two whom Christ had sent as probationers of their future preaching upon a short errand into the Cities of Iudah But by this assignation of more persons than those to whom he gave immediate Commission he did declare that the office of preaching was to be dispensed by a separate and peculiar sort of men distinct from the people and yet by others than those who had the commission extraordinary that is by such who were to be called to it by an ordinary vocation As Christ constituted the office and named the persons both extraordinary and ordinary present and successive so he provided gifts for them too that the whole dispensation might be his and might be apparent And therefore Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts to men to this very purpose and these gifts coming from the same Spirit made separation of distinct ministeries under the same Lord. So S. Paul testifies expresly Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are different administrations differences of ministeries it is the proper word for Church-offices the ministery distinguished by the gift It is not a gift of the ministery but the ministery it self is the gift and distinguished accordingly An extraordinary Ministery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift that is a miraculous calling and vocation and designation by the holy Ghost but an ordinary gift cannot sublime an ordinary person to a supernatural imployment and from this discourse of the differing gifts of the Spirit Saint Paul without any further artifice concludes that the Spirit intended a distinction of Church-officers for the work of the ministery for the conclusion of the discourse is that God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers and lest all God's people should usurp these offices which God by his Spirit hath made separate and distinguished he adds Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers If so then were all the body one member quite contrary to nature
chose by lot and the whole Church chose the seven Deacons before the Apostles imposed hands but the separation or this first sanctification of the person is a giving him a power to do such offices which God hath appointed to be done to him and for the people which we may clearly see and understand in the instance of Iob and his friends For when God would be intreated in behalf of Eliphaz and his companions he gave order that Iob should make the address Go to my servant he shall pray for you and him will I accept this separation of a person for the offices of advocation is the same thing which I mean by this first sanctification God did it and gave him a power and authority to go to him and put him into a place of trust and favour about him and made him a Minister of the Sacrifice which is a power and eminency above the persons for whom he was to sacrifice and a power or grace from God to be in nearness to him This I suppose to be the great argument for the necessity of separating a certain order of men for Ecclesiastical ministeries And it relies upon these propositions 1. All power of ordination descends from God and he it is who sanctifies and separates the person 2. The Priest by God is separate to be the gratious person to stand between him and the people 3. He speaks the word of God and returns the prayers and duty of the people and conveys the blessings of God by his prayer and by his ministery So that although every Christian must pray and may be heard yet there is a solemn person appointed to pray in publick and though Gods Spirit is given to all that ask it and the promises of the Gospel are verified to all that obey the Gospel of Jesus yet God hath appointed Sacraments and Solemnities by which the promises and blessings are ministred more solemnly and to greater effects All the ordinary devotions the people may do alone the solemn ritual and publick the appointed Minister only must do And if any man shall say because the Priest's ministery is by prayer every man can do it and so no need of him by the same reason he may say also that the Sacraments are unnecessary because the same effect which they produce is also in some degree the reward of a private piety and devotion But the particulars are to be further proved and explicated as they need Now what for illustration of this Article I have brought from the instance of Iob is true in the Ministers of the Gospel with the superaddition of many degrees of eminency But still in the same kind for the power God hath given is indeed mystical but it is not like a power operating by way of natural or proper operation it is not vis but facullas not an inherent quality that issues out actions by way of direct emanation like natural or acquired habits but it is a grace or favour done to the person and a qualification of him in genere politico he receives a politick publick and solemn capacity to intervene between God and the people and although it were granted that the people could do the external work or the action of Church ministeries yet they are actions to no purpose they want the life and all the excellency unless they be done by such persons whom God hath called to it and by some means of his own hath expressed his purpose to accept them in such ministrations And this explication will easily be verified in all the particulars of the Priests Power because all the ministeries of the Gospel are in genere orationis unless we except preaching in which God speaks by his servants to the people the Minister by his office is an Intercessor with God and the word used in Scripture for the Priests officiating signifies his praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were ministring or doing their Liturgy the work of their supplications and intercession and therefore the Apostles positively included all their whole ministery in these two but we will give our selves to the word of God and to prayer the prayer of consecration the prayer of absolution the prayer of imposition of hands they had nothing else to do but pray and preach And for this reason it was that the Apostles in a sence nearest to the letter did verifie the precept of our Blessed Saviour Pray continually that is in all the offices acts parts and ministeries of a daily Liturgy This is not to lessen the power but to understand it for the Priests ministery is certainly the instrument of conveying all the blessings of the people which are annexed to the ordinary administration of the Spirit But when all the office of Christs Priesthood in Heaven is called intercession for us and himself makes the sacrifice of the Cross effectual to the salvation and graces of his Church by his prayer since we are Ministers of the same Priesthood can there be a greater glory than to have our ministery like to that of Jesus not operating by vertue of a certain number of syllables but by a holy solemn determined and religious prayer in the several manners and instances of intercession according to the analogy of all the religions in the world whose most solemn mystery was their most solemn prayer I mean it in the matter of sacrificing which also is true in the most mysterious solemnity of Christianity in the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is hallowed and lifted up from the common bread and wine by mystical prayers and solemn invocations of God And therefore S. Dionysius calls the forms of Consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers of Consecration and S. Cyril in his third mystagogique Catechism sayes the same The Eucharistical bread after the invocation of the holy Ghost is not any longer common bread but the body of Christ. For although it be necessary that the words which in the Latin Church have been for a long time called the words of Consecration which indeed are more properly the words of Institution should be repeated in every consecration because the whole action is not compleated according to Christs pattern nor the death of Christ so solemnly enunciated without them yet even those words also are part of a mystical prayer and therefore as they are not only intended there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of history or narration as Cabasil mistakes so also in the most ancient Liturgies they were not only read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as a meer narrative but also with the form of an address or invocation Fiat hic panis corpus Christi fiat hoc vinum sanguis Christi Let this bread be made the body of Christ c. So it is in S. Iames his Liturgy S. Clements S. Marks and the Greek Doctors And in the very recitation of the words of institution the people ever used to answer Amen which intimates it to
their Temples but also separating their condition from the impurities and the contempt of the world as knowing that they who were to converse with their Gods were to be elevated from the common condition of men and vulgar miseries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As soon as I was made a Priest of Idaean Iupiter all my garments were white and I declined to converse with mortals Novae sortis oportet illum esse qui jubente Deo canat said Seneca He had need be of a distinct and separate condition that sings to the honour and at the command of God thus it was among the Jews and Heathens SECT II. NOW if Christian Religion should do otherwise than all the world hath done either it must be because the rites of Christianity are of no mystery and secret dispensation but common actions of an ordinary address and cheap devotion or else because we undervalue all Religion that is because indeed we have nothing of it The first is dishonourable to Christianity and false as its greatest enemy The second is shame to us and both so unreasonable and unnatural that if we separate not certain persons for the ministeries of Christianity we must consess we have the worst Religion or that we are the worst of men But let us consider it upon its proper grounds When Christ had chosen to himself twelve Apostles and was drawing now to the last scene of his life he furnished them with commissions and abilities to constitute and erect a Church and to transmit such powers as were apt for its continuation and perpetuity And therefore to the Apostles in the capacity of Church-officers he made a promise That he would be with them to the end of the world they might personally be with him until the end of the world but he could not be here with them who after a short course run was to go hence and be no more seen and therefore for the verification of the promise it is necessary that since the promise was made for the benefit of the Church and to them as the ministers of the benefit so long as the benefit was to be dispensed so long they were to be succeded to and therefore assisted by the Holy Jesus according to the glorious promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not only to the Apostles but absolutely and indefinitely to all Christs disciples their successors he promised to abide for ever even to the consummation of the world to the whole succession of the Clergy so Theophylact upon this place And if we consider what were the power and graces Jesus committed to the dispensation of the Apostles such as were not temporary but lasting successive and perpetual we must also conclude the ministery to be perpetual I instance first in the power of binding and loosing remitting and retaining sins which Christ gave them together with his breathing on them the holy Spirit and a legation and a special Commission as appears in S. Iohn which power what sence soever it admits of could not expire with the persons of the Apostles unless the succeeding ages of the Church had no discipline or government no scandals to be removed no weak persons offended no corrupt members to be cut off no hereticks rejected no sins or no pardon and that were a more heresie than that of the Novatians for they only denied this ministery in some cases not in all saying Priestly absolution was not fit to be dispensed to them who in time of persecution had sacrificed to Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To these only pardon is to be dispensed without the ministery of the Priest To these who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrificers and mingled the table of the Lord with the table of devils Against other sinners they were not so severe But however so long as that distinction remains of sins unto death and sins not unto death there are a certain sort of sins which are remediable and cognoscible and judicable and a power was dispensed to a distinct sort of persons to remit or retain those sins which therefore must remain with the Apostles for ever that is with their persons first and then with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their successors because the Church needs it for ever and there was nothing in the power that by relating to the present and temporary occasion did insinuate its short life and speedy expiration In execution of this power and pursuance of this commission for which the power was given the Apostles went forth and all they upon whom this signature passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 executed this power in appropriation and distinct ministery it was the sword of their proper ministery and S. Paul does almost exhibite his Commission and reads the words when he puts it in execution and does highly verifie the parts and the consequence of this argument God hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Iesus and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation and it follows now then we are Embassadors for Christ. The ministery of reconciliation is an appropriate ministery It is committed to us we are Embassadors it is appropriate by vertue of Christs mission and legation He hath given to us he hath made and deputed certain Embassadors whom he hath sent upon the message and ministry of reconcilement which is a plain exposition of the words of his Commission before recorded Iohn 20. 21. And that this also descended lower we have the testimony of S. Iames who advises the sick person to send for the Elders of the Church that they may pray over him that they may anoint him that in that society there may be confession of sins by the clinick or sick person and that after these preparatives and in this ministery his sins may be forgiven him Now that this power fell into succession this instance proves for the Elders were such who had not the commission immediately from Christ but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were fathers of the people but sons of the Apostles and therefore it is certain the power was not personal and meerly Apostolical but derived upon others by such a communication as gives evidence the power was to be succeeded in And when went it out when the anointing and miraculous healing ceased There is no reason for that For forgiveness of sins was not a thing visible and therefore could not be of the nature of miracles to confirm the faith and christianity first and after its work was done return to God that gave it neither could it be only of present use to the Church but as eternal and lasting as sin is and therefore there could be nothing in the nature of the thing to make it so much as suspicious it was presently to expire To which also I add this consideration that the Holy Ghost which was to enable the Apostles in the precise office
except there be a case of necessity and that there may be a case of necessity for the blessed Sacrament there needs no other testimony than the Nicene Council which calls the Sacrament in the article of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viaticum the most necessary provision for our journey and if a Lay-person Absolves there is as much promise of the validity of the one as the other unless it be said that there may be absolute necessity of Baptism but not so of Absolution which the maintainers of the other opinion are not apt to profess And therefore S. Augustine did not know whether baptism administred by a lay-person be to be repeated or no Nescio anpiè quisquam dixerit he knew not neither do I. But Simon of Thessalonica is confident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man baptizes but he that is in holy orders The baptism is null I cannot say so nor can I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be received Only I offer this to consideration if a Deacon can do no ministerial act with effect but a lay-person may do the same with effect upon the person suscipient What is that supernatural grace and inherent and indelible character which a Deacon hath received in his ordination If a Deacon can do no supernatural act which were void and null if done by him that is not a Deacon he hath no character no spiritual inherent power and that he is made the ordinary minister of it is for order sake but he that can do the same thing hath the same power and ability By this ground a Lay-person and a Deacon are not distinguished by any inherent character and therefore they who understand the spiritual powers and effects of ordination in the sence and expression of an inherent and indelible character will find some difficulty in allowing the effect of a lay-baptism But I consider that the instances of Scripture brought for the lawfulness of lay-administration if they had no particular exceptation yet are impertinent to this question for it is not with us pretended in any case to be lawful but in extreme necessity And therefore Saint Peters deputing the brethren who came with him to Cornelius to baptize his family is nothing to our purpose and best answers it self for either they were of the Clergy who came with them or else lay-persons may baptize by the right of an ordinary deputation without a case of necessity for here was none Saint Peter might have done it himself And as for Ananias he was one of the Seventy two and if that be nothing yet he was called to that ministration about Paul as Paul himself was to the Apostleship even by an immediate vocation and mission from Christ himself And if this answer were not sufficient as it is most certainly the argument would press further than is intended for Ananias tells him he was sent to him that he might lay his hands on him that he might receive the holy Ghost and to do that was more than Philip could do though he was a Deacon and in as great a necessity as this was And yet besides all this this was not a case of necessity unless there was never a Presbyter or Deacon in all Damascus or that God durst not trust any of them with Paul but only Ananias or that Paul could not stay longer without baptism as many thousand converts did in descending ages And for the other conjecture it is not considerable at all for the Apostles might take three or four days time to baptize the three thousand there was no hurt done if they had stayed a week the text insinuates nothing to the contrary The same day about three thousand were added to the Church then they were added to the Church that is by vertue and efficacy of that Sermon who it may be considered some-while of S. Peters discourse and gave up their names upon mature deliberation and positive conviction But it is not said they were baptized the same day and yet it was not impossible for the twelve Apostles to do it in one day if they had thought it reasonable For my own particular I wish we would make no more necessities than God made but that we leave the administration of the Sacraments to the manner of the first institution and the Clerical offices be kept within their cancels that no Lay-hand may pretend a reason to usurp the sacred Ministery and since there can be no necessity for unbaptized persons of years of discretion because their desire may supply them it were well also if our charity would find some other way also to understand Gods mercy towards infants for certainly he is most merciful and full of pity to them also and if there be no neglect of any of his own appointed ministeries so as he hath appointed them methinks it were but reasonable to trust his goodness with the infants in other cases for it cannot but be a jealousie and a suspicion of God a not daring to trust him and an unreasonable proceeding beside that we will rather venture to dispense with divine institution than think that God will or that we should pretend more care of children than God hath when we will break an institution and the rule of an ordinary Ministery of Gods appointing rather than cast them upon God as if God loved this ceremony better than he loved the child for so it must be if the child perished for want of it and yet still methinks according to such doctrine there was little or no care taken for infants for when God had appointed a ministery and fixed it with certain rules and a proper deputation in reason knowing in all things else how merciful God is and full of goodness we should have expected that God should have given express leave to have gone besides the first circumstances of the Sacrament if he had intended we might or should and that he should have told us so too rather than by leaving them fast tyed without any express cases of exception or marks of difference permit men to dispute and stand unresolved between a case of Duty and a point of Charity for although God will have mercy rather than sacrifice yet when both are commanded God takes order they shall never cross each other and sacrifice is to be preferred before mercy when the Sacrifice is in the commandment and the Mercy is not as it is in the present question And if it were otherwise in this case yet because God loves mercy so well Why should we not think that God himself will shew this mercy to this Infant when he hath not expressed his pleasure that we should do it We cannot be more merciful than He is The Church of England hath determined nothing in this particular that I know of only when in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth a Rubrick was inserted permitting Midwives to baptize in cases of extreme danger it was left out in the second Liturgies which is
Presidents set over us in the Lord taking care for us labouring in doctrine spiritual persons restorers of them that were overtaken in a fault curates of souls such as must give an account for them the salt the light of the world shepheards and much more signifying work and rule and care honour But next to the words of Scripture there can no more be said concerning the honour of the Sacred Order of the Clergy than is said by Saint Chrysostome in his books De sacerdotio and Saint Ambrose De dignitate sacerdotali and no greater thing can be supposed communicated to men than to be the Ministers of God in the great conveyances of grace and instruments of God in the pardon of sins in the consecration of Christ's Body and Blood in the guidance and conduct of souls And this was the stile of the Church calling Bishops and Priests according to their respective capacity Stewards of the grace of God leaders of the blind a light of them that sit in darkness instructors of the ignorant teachers of babes stars in the world amongst whom ye shine as lights in the world and that is Scripture too stars in Christ's right hand lights set upon the Candlesticks And now supposing these premisses if Christendome had not paid proportionable esteem to them they had neither known how to value Religion or the mysteries of Christianity But that all Christendom ever did pay the greatest reverence to the Clergy and Religious veneration is a certain argument that in Christian Religion the distinction of the Clergy from the Laity is supposed as a praecognitum a principle of the institution I end this with the words of the seventh General Council It is manifest to all the world that in the Priesthood there is order and distinction and to observe the Ordinations and Elections of the Priesthood with strictness and severity is well pleasing to God SECT VI. AS soon as God began to constitute a Church and fix the Priesthood which before was very ambulatory and dispensed into all Families but ever officiated by the Major domo God gives the power and designs the person And therefore Moses consecrated Aaron agitatus à Deo consecrationis Principe saith Dionysius Moses performed the external rites of designation but God was the Consecrator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moses appointed Aaron to the Priesthood and gave him the Order but it was only as the Minister and Deputy of God under God the chief consecrator And no man taketh upon him this honour but he that was called of God as was Aaron saith S. Paul For in every Priesthood God designed and appointed the Ministery and collates a power or makes the person gracious either gives him a spiritual ability of doing something which others have not or if he be only imployed in praying and presenting Sacrifices of Beasts for the people yet that such a person should be admitted to a nearer address and in behalf of the people must depend upon God's acceptation and therefore upon divine constitution for there can be no reason given in the nature of the thing why God will accept the intermediation of one man for many or why this man more than another who possibly hath no natural or acquired excellency beyond many of the people except what God himself makes after the constitution of the person If a spiritual power be necessary to the ministration it is certain none can give it but the fountain and the principle of the Spirits emanation Or if the graciousness and aptness of the person be required that also being arbitrary preternatural and chosen must derive from the Divine election For God cannot be prescribed unto by us whom he shall hear and whom he shall entertain in a more immediate address and freer entercourse And this is divinely taught us by the example of the high Priest himself who because he derived all power from his Father and all his graciousness and favour in the Office of Priest and Mediator was also personally chosen and sent and took not the honour but as it descended on him from God that the honour and the power the ability and the ministery might derive from the same fountain Christ did not glorifie himself to become high Priest Honour may be deserved by our selves but alwayes comes from others and because no greater honour than to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God every man must say as our blessed High Priest said of himself If I honour my self my honour is nothing it is God that honoureth me For Christ being the Fountain of Evangelical Ministery is the measure of our dispensations and the Rule of Ecclesiastical Oeconomy and therefore we must not arrogate any power from our selves or from a less authority than our Lord and Master did and this is true and necessary in the Gospel rather than in any Ministery or Priesthood that ever was because of the collation of so many excellent and supernatural abilities which derive from Christ upon his Ministers in order to the work of the Gospel And the Apostles understood their duty in this particular as in all things else for when they had received all this power from above they were careful to consign the truth that although it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine grace in a humane ministery and that although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is He that is ordained by men yet receives his power from God not at all by himself and from no man as from the fountain of his power And this I say the Apostles were careful to consign in the first instance of Ordination in the case of Matthias Thou Lord shew which of these two thou hast chosen God was the Elector and they the Ministers and this being at the first beginning of Christianity in the very first designation of an Ecclesiastical person was of sufficient influence into the Religion for ever after and taught us to derive all clerical power from God and therefore by such means and Ministeries which himself hath appointed but in no hand to be invaded or surprized in the entrance or polluted in the execution This descended in the succession of the Churches Doctrine for ever Receive the Holy Ghost said Christ to his Apostles when he enabled them with Priestly power and S. Paul to the Bishops of Asia said The Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers because no mortal man no Angel or Archangel nor any other created power but the Holy Ghost alone hath constituted this Order saith S. Chrysostome And this very thing besides the matter of fact and the plain donation of the power by our blessed Saviour is intimated by the words of Christ other-where Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Vineyard that he will send Labourers into his Harvest Now his mission is not only a designing of the
persons but enabling them with power because he never commands a work but he gives abilities to its performance and therefore still in every designation of the person by whatsoever ministery it be done either that ministery is by God constituted to be the ordinary means of conveying the abilities or else God himself ministers the grace immediately It must of necessity come from him some way or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Iames hath adopted it into the Family of Evangelical truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every perfect gift and therefore every perfecting gift which in the stile of the Church is the gift of Ordination is from above the gifts of perfecting the persons of the Hierarchy and ministery Evangelical which thing is further intimated by Saint Paul Now he which stablisheth us with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in order to Christ and Christian Religion is God and that his meaning be understood concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of establishing him in the ministery he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he which anointeth us is God and hath sealed us with an earnest of his Spirit unction and consignation and establishing by the holy Spirit the very stile of the Church for Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was said of Christ Him hath the Father sealed that is ordained him the Priest and Prophet of the world and this he plainly spoke as their Apostle and President in Religion Not as Lords over your faith but fellow-workers he spake of himself and Timothy concerning whose Ministery in order to them he now gives account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God anoints the Priest and God consigns him with the holy Ghost that is the principale quaesitum that is the main question And therefore the Author of the Books of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy giving the rationale of the Rites of Ordination sayes that the Priest is made so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of proclaiming and publication of the person signifying That the holy man that consecrates is but the proclaimer of the divine election but not by any humane power or proper grace does he give the perfect gift and consecrate the person And Nazianzen speaking of the rites of Ordination hath this expression with which the Divine grace is proclaimed And Billius renders it ill by superinvocatur He makes the power of consecration to be declarative which indeed is a lesser expression of a fuller power but it signifies as much as the whole comes to for it must mean God does transmit the grace at or by or in the exteriour ministery and the Minister is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a declarer not by the word of his mouth distinct from the work of his hand But by the ministery he declares the work of God then wrought in the person suscipient And thus in absolution the Priest declares the act of God pardoning not that he is a Preacher only of the pardon upon certain conditions but that he is not the principal agent but by his ministery declares and ministers the effect and work of God And this interpretation is clear in the instance of the blessed Sacrament where not only the Priest but the people do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declare the Lords death not by a Homily but by vertue of the mystery which they participate And in the instance of this present question the consecrator does declare power to descend from God upon the person to be ordained But thus the whole action being but a ministery is a declaration of the effect and grace of Gods vouch safing and because God does it not immediately and also because such effects are invisible and secret operations God appointing an external rite and ministery does it that the private working of the Spirit may become as perceived as it can be that is that it may by such rites be declared to all the world what God is doing and that man cannot do it of himself and besides the reasonableness of the thing the very words in the present allegation do to this very sence expound themselves for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same thing and expressive of each other the consecrator declares that is he doth not do it by collation of his own grace or power but the grace of God and power from above And this Doctrine we read also in S. Cyprian towards the end of his Epistle to Cornelius ut Dominus qui Sacerdotes sibi in Ecclesia sua eligere constituere dignatur electos quoque constitutos sua voluntate atque opitulatione tueatur It is a good prayer of Ordination that the Lord who vouchsafes to chuse and consecrate Priests in his Church would also be pleased by his aid and grace to defend them whom he hath so chosen and appointed Homo manum imponit Deus largitur gratiam Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram Deus benedicit potenti dextra saith Saint Ambrose Man imposes his hand but God give the grace the Bishop lays on his hand of prayer and God blesses with his hand of power The effect of this discourse is plain the grace and power that enables men to minister in the mysteries of the Gospel is so wholly from God that whosoever assumes it without Gods warrant and besides his way ministers with a vain sacrilegious and ineffective hand save only that he disturbs the appointed order and does himself a mischief SECT VII BY this ordination the persons ordained are made Ministers of the Gospel Stewards of all its mysteries the Light the Salt of the earth the Shepherd of the flock Curates of souls these are their offices or their appellatives which you please for the Clerical ordination is no other but a sanctification of the person in both sences that is 1. A separation of him to do certain mysterious actions of religion which is that sanctification by which Ieremy and S. Iohn the Baptist were sanctified from their mothers wombs 2. It is also a sanctification of the person by the increasing or giving respectively to the capacity of the suscipient such graces as make the person meet to speak to God to pray for the people to handle the mysteries and to have influence upon the cure The first sanctification of a designation of the person which must of necessity be some way or other by God because it is a nearer approach to him a ministery of his graces which without his appointment a man must not cannot any more do than a messenger can carry pardon to a condemned person which his Prince never sent But this separation of the person is not only a naming of the man for so far the separation of the person may be previous to the ordination for so it was in the ordinations of Matthias and the seven Deacons The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appointed two before God
the first part of his sanctification is a separation of the person to the power of intercession for the people and a ministerial mediation by the ministration of such rites and solemn invocations which God hath appointed or designed And now this sanctification which is so evident in Scripture tradition and reason taken from proportion and analogy to Religion is so far from making the power of the holy man less than is supposed that it shews the greatness of it by a true representment and preserves the sacredness of it so within its own cancels that it will be the greatest sacriledge in the world to invade it for whoever will boldly enter within this vail nisi qui vocatur sicut Aaron unless he be sanctified as is the Priest who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen calls him a Minister co-operating with Christ he does without leave call himself a man of God a Mediator between God and the people under Christ he boldly thrusts himself into the participation of that glorious mediation which Christ officiates in Heaven all which things as they are great honours to the person rightly called to such vicinity and endearments with God so they depend wholly upon divine dignation of the grace and vocation of the person 2. Now for the other part of spiritual emanation or descent of graces in sanctification of the Clergy that is in order to the performance of the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the sence of it that God who is the lover of souls may grant a pure and unblameable Priesthood and certainly they who are honoured with so great a grace as to be called to officiate in holy and useful Ministeries have need also of other graces to make them persons holy in habit and disposition as well as holy in Calling and therefore God hath sent his Spirit to furnish his Emissaries with excellencies proportionable to their need and the usefulness of the Church At the beginning of Christianity God gave gifts extraordinary as boldness of spirit fearless courage freedom of discourse excellent understanding discerning of spirits deep judgment innocence and prudence of deportment the gift of tongues these were so necessary at the institution of the Christian Church that if we had not had testimony of the matter of fact the reasonableness of the thing would prove the actual dispensation of the Spirit because God never fails in necessaries But afterward when all the extraordinary needs were served the extraordinary stock was spent and God retracted those issues into their fountains and then the graces that were necessary for the well discharging the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priestly function were such as make the person of more benefit to the people not only by being exemplary to them but gracious and loved by God and those are spiritual graces of sanctification And therefore Ordination is a collation of holy graces of sanctification of a more excellent Faith of fervent Charity of Providence and paternal care Gifts which now descend not by way of miracle as upon the Apostles are to be acquired by humane industry by study and good letters and therefore are presupposed in the person to be ordained to which purpose the Church now examines the abilities of the man before she lays on hands and therefore the Church does not suppose that the Spirit in Ordination descends in gifts and in the infusion of habits and perfect abilities though then also it is reasonable to believe that God will assist the pious and careful endeavours of holy Priests and bless them with special aids and co-operation because a more extraordinary ability is needful for persons so designed But the proper and great aid which the Spirit of Ordination gives is such instances of assistance which make the person more holy And this is so certainly true that even when the Apostle had ordained Timothy to be Bishop of Ephesus he calls upon him to stir up the gift of God which was in him by the putting on of his hands and that gift is a Rosary of graces what graces they are he enumerates in the following words God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power of Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of a modest and sober mind and these words are made part of the form of collating the Episcopal order in the Church of England Here is all that descends from the Spirit in Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Power that is to officiate and intercede with God in the parts of ministery and the rest are such as imply duty such as make him fit to be a Ruler in paternal and sweet government Modesty Sobriety Love And therefore in the forms of Ordination of the Greek Church which are therefore highly to be valued because they are most ancient have suffered the least change and been polluted with fewer interests the mystical prayer of Ordination names graces in order to holiness We pray thee that the grace of the ever holy Spirit may descend upon him Fill him full of all faith and love and power and sanctification by the illumination of thy holy and life-giving Spirit and the reason why these things are desir'd and given is in order to the right performing his holy offices That he may be worthy to stand without blame at thy Altar to preach the Gospel of thy Kingdom to minister the words of thy truth to bring to Thee gifts and spiritual Sacrifices to renew the people with the Laver of Regeneration And therefore S. Cyril says that Christ's saying Receive ye the Holy Ghost signifies grace given by Christ to the Apostles whereby they were sanctified that by the holy Ghost they might be absolved from their sins saith Haymo and S. Austin says that many persons that were snatched violently to be made Priests or Bishops who had in their former purposes determined to marry and live a secular life have in their Ordination received the gift of continency And therefore there was reason for the greatness of the solemnities used in all ages in separation of Priests from the world insomuch that whatsoever was used in any sort of sanctification of solemn benediction by Moses law all that was used in Consecration of the Priest who was to receive the greatest measure of sanctification Eadem item vis etiam Sacerdotem augustum honorandum facit novitate benedictionis à communitate vulgi segregatum Cum enim heri unus è plebe esset repente redditur praeceptor praeses Doctor pietatis mysteriorum latentium Praesul c. Invisibili quadam vi ac gratia invisibilem animam in melius transformatam gerens that is improved in all spiritual graces which is highly expressed by Martyrius who said to Nectarius Tu ô beate recens baptizatus purificatus mox insuper sacerdotio auctus es utraque autem haec peccatorum expiatoria esse Deus constituit which are not to be expounded as if Ordination did
confer the first grace which in the Schools is understood only to be expiatorious but the increment of grace and sanctification and that also is remissive of sins which are taken off by parts as the habit decreases and we grow in God's favour as our graces multiply or grow Now that these graces being given in Ordination are immediate emanations of the holy Spirit and therefore not to be usurped or pretended to by any man upon whom the Holy Ghost in Ordination hath not descended I shall less need to prove because it is certain upon the former grounds and will be finished in the following discourses and it is in the Greek Ordination given as a Reason of the former prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For not in the imposition of my hands but in the overseeing providence of thy rich mercies grace is given to them that are worthy So that we see more goes to the fitting of a person for Ecclesiastical Ministeries than is usually supposed together with the power a grace is specially collated and that is not to be taken up and laid down and pretended to by every bolder person The thing is sacred separate solemn deliberate derivative from God and not of humane provision or authority or pretence or disposition SECT VIII THe Holy Ghost was the first Consecrator that is made evident and the persons first consecrated were the Apostles who received the several parts of the Priestly order at several times the power of consecration of the Eucharist at the institution of it the power of remitting and retaining sins in the Octaves of Easter the power of baptizing and preaching together with universal jurisdiction immediately before the Ascension when they were commanded to go into all the world preaching and baptizing This is the whole office of the Priesthood and nothing of this was given in Pentecost when the holy Spirit descended and rested upon all of them the Apostles the brethren the women for then they received those great assistances which enabled them who had been designed for Embassadors to the world to do their great work and others of a lower capacity had their proportion as the effect of the promise of the Father and a mighty verification of the truth of Christianity Now all these powers which Christ hath given to his Apostles were by some means or other to be transmitted to succeeding persons because the several Ministeries were to abide for ever All Nations were to be converted a Church to be gathered and continued the new Converts to be made Confessors and consigned with Baptism sins to be remitted flocks to be fed and guided and the Lords death declared represented exhibited and commemorated until his second Coming And since the powers of doing these offices are acts of free and gracious concession emanations of the holy Spirit and admissions to a vicinity with God it is not only impudence and sacriledge in the person falsly to pretend that is to bely the Holy Ghost and thrust into these Offices but there is an impossibility in the thing it is null in the very deed doing to handle these mysteries without some appointment by God unless he calls and points out the person either by an extraordinary or by an ordinary Vocation Of these I must give a particular account The extraordinary calling was first that is the immediate for the first beginning of a lasting necessity is extraordinary and made ordinary in succession and by continuation of a fixed and determined Ministery The first of every order hath another manner of constitution than all the whole succession The rising of the spring is of greater wonder and of more extraordinary and latent reason than the descent of the current and the derivation of the powers of the Holy Ghost that make the Priestly order are just like the Creation the first man was made with God's own hands and all the rest by God co-operating with a humane act and there is never the same necessity as at first for God to create man The species or kind shall never fail but be preserved in an ordinary way And so it is in the designation of the Ministers of Evangelical Priesthood God breathed into the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the breath of the life-giving spirit and that breath was to be continued in a perpetual univocal production they who had received they were also to give and they only could Grace cannot be conveyed to any man but either by the fountain or by the channel by the Author or by the Minister God only is the fountain and Author and he that makes himself the Minister whom God appointed not does in effect make himself the Author for he undertakes to dispose of grace which he hath not received to give God's goods upon his own authority which he that offers at without God's warrant does it only upon his own And so either he is the Author or an Usurper either the fountain or a dry cloud which in effect calls him either blasphemous or sacrilegious But the first and immediate derivation from the fountain that only I affirm to be miraculous and extraordinary as all beginnings of essences and graces of necessity must those persons who receive the first issues they only are extraordinarily called all that succeed are called or designed by an ordinary vocation because whatsoever is in the succession is but an ordinary necessity to which God hath proportioned an ordinary Ministery and when it may be supplied by the common provisions to look for an extraordinary calling is as if a man should expect some new man to be created as Adam was it is to suppose God will multiply beings and operations without necessity God called at first and if he had not called man could not have come to him in this nearness of a holy Ministery he sent persons abroad and if he had not sent they could not have gone but after that he had appointed by his own designation persons who should be Fathers in Christ he called no more but left them to call others He first immediately gives the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace and leaves this as a Depositum to the Church faithfully to be kept till Christ's second coming and this Depositum is the doctrine and discipline of Jesus he opens the door and then left it open commanding all to come in that way into the Ministery and tuition of the flock calling all that came in by windows and posterns and oblique ways thieves and robbers And it is observable that the word vocation or calling in Scripture when it is referred to a designation of persons to the Ministery it always signifies that which we term calling extraordinary it always signifies an immediate act of God which also ceased when the great necessity expired that is when the fountain had streamed forth abundantly and made a current to descend without interruption The purpose of this discourse is that now no man should in these days of ordinary Ministery
look for an extraordinary calling nor pretend in order to vainer purposes any new necessities They are fancies of a too confident opinion and over-valuing of our selves when we think the very being of a Church is concerned in our mistakes and if all the world be against us we are not ashamed of our folly but think truth is failed from among the children of men and the Church is at a loss and the current derived from the first emanations is dried up and then he that is boldest to publish his follies is also as apt to mistake his own boldness for a call from God as he did at first his own vain opinion for a necessary truth and then he is called extraordinarily and so ventures into the secrets of the Sanctuary First he made a necessity more than ever God made then himself finds a remedy that God never appointed He that thinks every shaking of the Ark is absolute ruine to it when peradventure it was but the weakness of his own eyes that made him fancy what was not may also think he hears a call from above to support it which indeed was nothing but a noise in his own head And there is no cure for this but to cure the man and set his head right For he that will pretend any thing that is beyond ordinary as he that will say he hath two reasonable Souls within him or three Wills is not to be confuted but by Physick or by the tying him to abjure his folly till he were able to prove it But God by promising that his Church should abide for ever and that the gates of Hell should not prevail against it but that himself would be with her to the end of the world hath sufficiently confuted the vanity of those men who that they might thrust themselves into an office pretend the dissolution of the very being of the Church For if the Church remains in her being let her corruptions be what they will the ordinary Prophets have power to reform them and if they do not every man hath power to complain so he does it with peace and modesty and truth and necessity 2. And there is no need of an extraordinary calling to amend such things which are certain foreseen events and such were heresies and corruption in doctrine and manners for which God appointed an ordinary Ministery to take cognizance and make a remedy for which himself when he had told us Heresies must needs be yet made no provisions extraordinary but left the Church sufficiently instructed by her Rule and guided by her Pastors 3. When Christ means to give us a new Law then he will give us a new Priesthood a new Ministery One will not be changed without the other God now no more comes in a mighty rushing wind but in a still voice in the gentle Homilies of ordinary Prophets and now that the Law by which we are to frame our understandings and our actions is established we must not expect an Apostle to correct every abuse for if they will not hear Moses and the Prophets if one should come from the dead or an Angel come from Heaven it is certain they will not be entertained but till the wonder be over and the curiosity of news be satisfied Against this it is pretended that Christ promised to be with his Church for ever upon condition the Church would do their duty but they being but a company of men have power to chuse and they may chuse amiss and if all should do so Christs promises may fail us though not fail of their intentions and then in this case the Church failing either there must be an extraordinary calling of single persons or else any man may enter into the ordinary way which is all one with an extraordinary for it is extraordinary that common persons should by necessity be drawn into an imployment which by ordinary vocation they are not to meddle with Against this we can thanks be to God for it pretend the experience of sixteen Ages for hitherto it hath ever been in the Christian Churches that God hath preserved a holy Clergy in the same proportion as he hath preserved a holy people never yet were the Clergy all Antichristian in the midst of Christian Churches and we have no reason to fear it will be so now after so long an experience to expound the promises of our Lord to the sence of a perpetual Ministery and a perpetual Church by the means of Ordinary ministrations And how shall the Church be supposed to fail since God hath made no provisions for its restitution For by what means should the Church be renewed and Christianity restored Not by Scripture for we have no certainty that the Scriptures which we have this day are the same which the Apostles delivered and shall remain so for ever but only 1. The reputation and testimony of all Christian Churches which also must transmit the same by a continual successive testimony to the following or else they will be of an uncertain faith and 2. The confidence of the divine providence and goodness who will not let us want what is fit for us that without which we cannot attain the end to which in mercy he hath designed us Now the same Arguments which we have for the continuation of Scripture we have for the perpetuity of a Christian Clergy that is besides the so long actual succession and continuance we have he goodness and unalterable sweetness of the Divine mercies who will continue such Ministeries which himself hath made the ordinary means of salvation he would not have made them the way to Heaven and of ordinary necessity if he did not mean to preserve them Indeed if the ordinary way should fail God will supply another way to them that do their duty but then Scripture may as well fail as the ordinary succession of the Clergy they both were intended but as the ordinary ministeries of salvation and if Scripture be kept for the use of the Church it is more likely the Church will be preserved in its necessary constituent parts than the Scripture because Scripture is preserved for the Church it is kept that the Church might not fail For as for the fancy that all men being free agents may chuse amiss suppose that but then may they not all consent to the corruption or destroying of Scripture yea but God will preserve them from that or will over-rule the event yea but how do they know that what revelation have they yet grant that too but why then will he not also over-rule the event of the matter of universal Apostasie for both of them are matter of choice But then that all the Clergy should consent to corrupt Scripture or to lose their Faith is a most unreasonable supposition for supposing there is a natural possibility yet it is morally impossible and we may as well fear that all the men of the world will be vitious upon the same reason for
sancto baptismate This is the summ of the preceding discourses God is the Consecrator man is the Minister the separation is mysterious and wonderful the power great and secret the office to stand between God and the people in the ministery of the Evangelical rites the calling to it ordinary and by a setled Ministery which began after the descent of the Holy Ghost in Pentecost This great change was in nothing expressed greater than that Saul upon his Ordination changed his name which Saint Chrysostome observing affirms the same of Saint Peter I conclude Differentiam inter ordinem plebem constituit Ecclesiae authoritas honor per ordinis concessunt sanctificatus à Deo saith Tertullian The authority of the whole Church of God hath made distinction between the person ordained and the people but the honour and power of it is derived from the sanctification of God It is derived from him but conveyed by an ordinary Ministery of his appointing Whosoever therefore with unsanctified that is with unconsecrated hands shall dare to officiate in the ministerial office separate by God by gifts by graces by publick order by an established rite by the institution of Jesus by the descent of the Holy Ghost by the word of God by the practice of the Apostles by the practice of sixteen Ages of the Catholick Church by the necessity of the thing by Reason by Analogy to the discourse of all the wise men that ever were in the world that man like his predecessor Corah brings an unhallowed Censer which shall never send up a right cloud of Incense to God but yet that unpermitted and disallowed smoak shall kindle a fire even the wrath of God which shall at least destroy the Sacrifice his work shall be consumed and when upon his repentance himself escapes yet it shall be so as by fire that is with danger and loss and shame and trouble For our God is a consuming fire Remember Corah and all his company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS RULES AND ADVICES TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESSE OF DOWN and CONNOR For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities GIVEN BY IER TAYLOR Bishop of that Diocess at the Visitation at LISNEGARVEY LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1672. RULES AND ADVICES TO THE CLERGY I. Personal Duty REmember that it is your great Duty and tied on you by many Obligations that you be exemplar in your lives and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks lest it be said unto you Why takest thou my Law into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby He that lives anidle life may preach with Truth and Reason or as did the Pharisees but not as Christ or as one having Authority Every Minister in taking accounts of his life must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures than he does of his People and he that ties heavy burthens upon others ought himself to carry the heaviest end and many things may be lawful in them which he must not suffer in himself Let every Minister endeavour to be learned in all spiritual wisdom and skilful in the things of God for he will ill teach others the way of godliness perfectly that is himself a babe and uninstructed An Ignorant Minister is an head without an eye and an Evil Minister is salt that hath no savour Every Minister above all things must be careful that he be not a servant of Passion whether of Anger or Desire For he that is not a master of his Passions will always be useless and quickly will become contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his Parish Let no Minister be litigious in any thing not greedy or covetous not insisting upon little things or quarrelling for or exacting of every minute portion of his dues but bountiful and easie remitting of his right when to do so may be useful to his people or when the contrary may domischief and cause reproach Be not over-righteous saith Solomon that is not severe in demanding or foroing every thing though it be indeed his due Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness by saying you are willing to remit many things but you must not wrong the Church for though it be true that you are not to do prejudice to succession yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions from which the Church shall receive no incommodity but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacity but the same also and more thou art obliged to perform as thou art a publick person Never exact the offerings or customary wages and such as are allowed by Law in the ministration of the Sacraments nor condition for them nor secure them before-hand but first do your office and minister the Sacraments purely readily and for Christs sake and when that is done receive what is your due Avoid all Pride as you would flee from the most frightful Apparition or the most cruel Enemy and remember that you can never truly teach Humility or tell what it is unless you practise it your selves Take no measures of Humility but such as are material and tangible such which consist not in humble words and lowly gestures but what is first truly radicated in your Souls in low opinion of your selves and in real preferring others before your selves and in such significations which can neither deceive your selves nor others Let every Curate of Souls strive to understand himself best and then to understand others Let him spare himself least but most severely judge censure and condemn himself If he be learned let him shew it by wise teaching and humble manners If he be not learned let him be sure to get so much Knowledge as to know that and so much Humility as not to grow insolent and puffed up by his Emptiness For many will pardon a good man that is less learned but if he be proud no man will forgive him Let every Minister be careful to live a life as abstracted from the Affairs of the world as his necessity will permit him but at no hand to be immerg'd and principally imploy'd in the Affairs of the World What cannot be avoided and what is of good report and what he is oblig'd to by any personal or collateral Duty that he may do but no more Ever remembring the Saying of our Blessed Lord In the world ye shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace and consider this also which is a great Truth That every degree of love to the world is so much taken from the Love of God Be no otherwise solicitous of your Fame and Reputation but by doing your Duty well and wisely in other things refer your self to God but if you meet with evil Tongues be careful that you bear reproaches sweetly and temperately Remember that no Minister can govern his people well and prosperously unless
not own never suppose him to be author of sin or the procurer of our damnation For God cannot be tempted neither tempteth he any man God is true and every man a lyar Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another as Prayer with Preaching to the disparagement of either but use both in their proper seasons and according to appointed Order Let no man preach for the praise of men but if you meet it instantly watch and stand upon your guard and pray against your own vanity and by an express act of acknowledgment and adoration return the praise to God Remember that Herod was for the omission of this smitten by an Angel and do thou tremble fearing lest the judgment of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechism EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day before Evening Prayer to instruct all young people in the Creed the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin that all who desire it may be present but let all the more ignorant and uninstructed part of the people whether they be old or young be requir'd to be present that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations of Religion Ever remembring that if in these things they be unskilful whatever is taught besides is like a house built upon the sand Let every Minister teach his people the use practice methods and benefits of meditation or mental prayer Let them draw out for them helps and rules for their assistance in it and furnish them with materials concerning the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus the greatness of God our own meanness the dreadful sound of the last Trumpet the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday let them be taught to consider what they have been what they are and what they shall be and above all things what are the issues of eternity glories never to cease pains never to be ended Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins and a declaration of the state of their Souls to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty for by preaching and catechising and private entercourse all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd but by preaching alone they cannot Let the people be exhorted to keep Fasting days and the Feasts of the Church according to their respective capacities so it be done without burden to them and without becoming a snare that is that upon the account of Religion and holy desires to please God they spend some time in Religion besides the Lords-day but be very careful that the Lords-day be kept religiously according to the severest measures of the Church and the commands of Authority ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification who never fast so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and Religion who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation or other solemn times of his coming to them that they may be confirm'd And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the Principles of Religion their vow of Baptism the excellency of Christian Religion the necessity and advantages of it and of living according to it be fitted and disposed and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop that he may pray over them and invocate the holy Spirit and minister the holy Rite of Confirmation VI. Rules Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the Sick and Afflicted persons of his Parish ever remembring that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need A Minister must not stay till he be sent for but of his own accord and care to go to them to examine them to exhort them to perfect their repentance to strengthen their faith to encourage their patience to perswade them to resignation to the renewing of their holy vows to the love of God to be reconcil'd to their neighbours to make restitution and amends to confess their sins to settle their estate to provide for their charges to do acts of piety and charity and above all things that they take care they do not sin towards the end of their lives For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed When you comfort the afflicted endeavour to bring them to the true love of God for he that serves God for Gods sake it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow In answering the cases of conscience of the sick or afflicted people consider not who asks but what he asks and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul than the conveniency of his estate for no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd only he is to be called upon to finish his duty to do all the good he can in that season to pray for pardon and acceptance but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences neither cast him down in despair nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd In order to these and many other good purposes every Minister ought frequently to converse with his Parishioners to go to their houses but always publickly with witness and with prudence lest what is charitably intended be scandalously reported and in all your conversation be sure to give good example and upon all occasions to give good counsel VII Of ministring the Sacraments publick Prayers and other duties of Ministers EVery Minister is oblig'd publickly or privately to read the Common Prayers every day in the week at Morning and Evening and in great Towns and populous places conveniently inhabited it must be read in Churches that the daily sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving may never cease The Minister is to instruct the people that the Baptism of their children ought not to be ordinarily deferr'd longer than till the next Sunday after the birth of the child lest importune and unnecessary delay occasion that the child die before it is dedicated to the service of God and the Religion of the Lord Jesus before it be born again admitted to the Promises of the Gospel and reckon'd in the account of the second Adam Let every Minister