semper valuit ut quae cunque ab hoc consensu confirmata videam mihi sacrosancta immutabilia videantur Bishop Carleton de Consen eccles cap. 11. cap. 277. and humble Christians do and ever did the constant clear and concurrent which is the truly Catholick testimony of the Church in which so much of the truth Spirit and grace of God hath alwaies appeared amidst the many cloudings of humane infirmities to be far beyond any meer humane record or authority in point of establishing a Christians judgement or conscience in any thing that is not contrary to the evident command of the written word of God However some mens ignorance and self conceited confidence like bogs and quagmires are so loose and false that no piles never so long well driven and strongly compacted by the consent and harmonious testimonies of the most learned writers in the Church can reach any bottom or firm ground in them whereon to lay a foundation of humane belief or erect a firm bank and defense against the invasion of daily novelties which blow up all and break in upon the antient and most venerable orders practises and constitutions of the Church where ever they are yet continued which being evidently set forth to me by witnesses of so great credit for their piety diligence fidelity harmony integrity constancy and charity I know not how with any face of humanity or Christianity to question disbelieve or contradict Under which cloud of unsuspected witnesses I confess I cannot but much acquiesce and rest satisfied in those things which others endlessly dispute because they have not so literal and preceptive a ground in Scripture Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec consiliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi autoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur August cont Donat. l. 4. In Concil Loodic Melito Episc Sard. missus ut autographa ubique decernat c. Constabit id ab Apostolis traditum quod apud ecclesias fuerit sacrosanctum Tert. ad Mar. l. 4. however they have a very rational exexemplary analogical and consequential authority from thence which is made most clear as to the minde of God by that sense which the Primitive Doctors and Christians who lived with or next to the Apostles had of them and by their practise accordingly in the ways of Religion Thus the Canonical Books of the Scripture especially those of the New Testament which no where are enumerated in any one Book nor as from divine oracle any where commanded to be believed or received as the writings of such holy authors guided by the dictates or directions of Gods Spirit we own and receive as they were after some time with judgment and discretion rejecting many other pretended Gospels and Epistles antiently received by the Catholike Church and to this day are continued So also in point of the Church Government How in right Reason Order and Religion the Churches of Christ either in single Congregations and Parishes or in larger Associations and Fraternities ought to be governed in which thing we see that sudden variations from the Churches constant patern in all ages and places hath lately cost the expence not onely of much Ink but of much blood and have both cast and left us in great scandals deformities and confusions unbeseeming Christian Religion The like confirmation I have for Christians observing the Lords day as their holy Rest or Sabbath to the Lord and their variating herein upon the occasion of Christs Resurrection from the Seventh day or Jewish Sabbath which is not so much commanded by Precept as confirmed by Practise in the Church so in the baptising of the Infants of Christian Parents who profeâ—s to believe in Jesus Christ onely for the means of salvation to them and their children which after Saint Cyprian Saint Jerom and Augustine affirm to have been the custom of the Catholike Church in and before their days so as no Bishop or Council or Synod began it Cypr. ep ad Fidum Aust ep 28. And no less in this of the peculiar distinct calling order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afric in Con. Carth. 1. anno 419. Some things in the Church are setled by Canon others by custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nicoen office and succession of the Ministry Evangelical In all which if the Letter and Analogy of Scripture were less clear than â—t is so that the doctrines of those particulars which are among Christians counted divine were â—ike Vines and Honey-suckles less able to bear up themselves in full authority by that strength and vertue which they receive from the Scripture Precept where undoubtedly their root is and from whence they have grown shooted out so far and flourished in all Churches yet the constant judgment and practise of the Church of Christ which is called the pilâ—ar and ground of truth are stayes and firm supports to such sweet and usefull plants which have so long flourished in the Church of Christ whose custom may silence perverse disputes of corrupt and contentious minds And indeed doth fully satisfy and confirm both my believe and my religious observation of those particulars as sacred and unalâ—erable Nor hath any of those things Eucharistia sacramentum non de aliorum manu quaÌ„ prasidentium sumimus Tertul de Coro Mil. Impositionem manuuÌ„ qua Ecclesiae mininistri in suum manus initiantur ut non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum ita inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 14. sect 2. Amb. l. 5. ep 32. ad Valentin Commends that sentence which the Emperours Father had wrote touching judicatories and Judges in Church matters In causa fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris eum judicare debere qui nec munere impar nec jure dissimilis constanter assero more clear evidence from Scripture or Catholick practice than this of the calling and succession of the Ministry of the Gospell hath wherein some men after due tryall and examination of their gifts and lives made by those who are of the same function and are in the Church indued with a derivable Commission and Authority to ordein an holy succession of men in the Ministry for the Churches use are by fasting prayer and solemn imposition of hands in the presence of the faithfull people publikely and peculiarly ordained consecrated set apart sent and authorised in the power and name of Christ to preach the Gospell to all men to administer the holy Sacraments and respectively to dispense all those holy duties and mysteries belonging to Christian Religion among Christian people that is such as profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of Sinners Which holy and most necessary custom of ordaining some fit men by others of the same function to be Ministers in the Church hath not only the unanimous consent and practise of the Orthodox Christians and purest Churches in all ages from the Apostles times But no Hereticks or Schismaticks who owned any
non Anathemate dignos fatear si qui erunt qui non reverentur summâ—que obedientia observâ—nt Hierarchiam in qua sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur ejus veritate colligati fraternam chariâ—atem colant Beza in Apoca. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem nimirum oportuit imprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum cateros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam Pet. Mar. loc com Zanchius Hoc minime improbari posse judicamus ut unus inter multos Presbyteros praesit Epis conf c. 5. th 10. Vedelius notis in Igna. Ex actis Epistolis Apostolicis atque ex Eccl. histoâ—icis colligitur ipsos Apostolos eorum successores hunc ritum observasse ut unus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomine Presbyterii Ministros legitimè ab Ecclesia electos per manuum impositionem preces publicas ordinareâ— Gerard. de min. p. 372. Grotius inter propriè dictas Aposto traditiones esse â—sserit Episcopalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vot propace Peter du Moulin Epist ad Episc Winto Deodate in his Epistle to the late Assembly Pâ—imis beatis illis temporibus politeia Ecclesia admirabili Aristocratia mixta Epis Presbyt plebi sua jura tribuit Alsted de min. So Gerardus pag. 232. Retinendum Episcopalem ordinem asserit Propter 8. rationes 1. Varia dona dat Deus 2. Exempla Apostolica Primitivae Eccl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 propter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae 4 Naturae congruus est ordo rationi in omni caetu 5. Alit concordiam 6. repâ—imit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arrogantiam 7. Nulli gravis ubi sit electione per suffragia Presbyterorum peragit officium 8. Tollit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schisma seditiones For the avoyding of Scandall giving to so many Christian Churches remayning in all the world who for the far major part are still governed by Bishops in some respect distinct from and eminent above the Presbyters It is not the work of Christian prudence or charity to widen differences between us and other Churches Greek Eastern African or Western yea we owe this Charity to the Romanists and to our selves rather who seem to have gained this great advantage against us by the offence given them in utter abolishing the Antient and Catholick order and succession of Episcopacy that they will less now esteem us Christians or to be in any true Church since they will not allow us any right and compleat Ordination of Ministers and so no Sacraments and no Christianity as to extern profession and administration without Bishops yea the best reformed Churches must needs be offended who approve such a Presidency of Bishops among Presbyters where it is continued with the doctrinall Reformation many enjoy Bishops stil as we did No learned and godly men ever thought it cause enough to separate from any Church because it had Bishops Such as have them not in a constant Presidency yet count this no part of their Reformation but rather deplore it as a defect involuntary pleading the Law of necessity or some grand inconveniencies and difficulty to excuse thereby their inconformity so far to other Churches and to all Antiquity yea the most learned and wise among their Presbyterians abroad oft wish they had the honour and happiness of reformed and reforming Bishops Nor ever did heretofore the most learned and godly people in England Ministers or others any more than the Princes Nobility and Gentry generally desire the abolition of right Episcopacy however now at last they had not either opportunity to plead for it or such power and influence as to preserve it against those inundations which God hath been pleased to suffer to overflow in this Church But rocks are not presently removed when over-flown what is of God will stand and out-live the deluge Corepiscopi forbidden to ordain without the Bishops licence by the Council of Ancyra which was before the 1. Nicaene So Concil Nicaenum owns and confirms the antient custom So Concil Arelat c. 19. So Concil Laod c. 56. Presbyteri sine conscientia Episcoporum nihil faciant Blondel Test Hier. p. 255. So Jerom excepta orditatione quid facit Episcopus quod Presbyter non facit Ad Evag. Inschismatis remedium factum est quod postea unus electus est qui caeteris praepontretur ne unusquisque adse trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Jeron ad Evag. Quod Alexandria post Marcum Evangelâ—stam factum est à Presbyteris quomodo exercitus imperatorem faceret Cyprian Ep. 55. Non aliunde haereses abortae aut nata schismata quam inde quod sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur Thirdly I prefer a Primitive Episcopacy as the best way of union and happy satisfaction to all learned wise and good men especially in that so shaken and disputed a point of Ordination for the right succession and conferring of power Ministeriall which the most learned and sober Presbyterians confess not to be weakned by Episcopall Presidency And very many no less considerable men for number learning and piety as Da. Blondell among others do think the right Ordination of Ministers to be much more strengthened adorned and compleated where it passeth through the hands of the Episcopall power and order if for no other reason yet for this that it was the Apostolicall Primitive and universall way used in the Church and by which the Authority and Office of the Ministry hath ever been together with Christianity derived to us from the Apostles times It s evident that the sudden and violent receding of many men from their former judgement and practise in this point hath occasioned many great scandals scruples and schisms troubles and confusions in matters both of Church and State giving great advantages to all that list to cavil at question and despise the Ordination and Ministry of even those Presbyters yea their very Christianity as to the outward form order and profession who so easily renounced and eagerly cast quite away that order and power as unlawfull and un-Christian Triumphati magis quam victi sunt Tac. de Germ. Nehem. 11.14 22. Sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento Quod Aron filii ejus atque Levita fuerint in templo hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri diaconis vendicent in Ecclesia Jeron ad Eva. et ad Nepotianum So St. Cyprian l. 3. Ep. 9. ad Rogationum Fourthly A right Episcopacy seems yet never to have had so free full and fair an hearing as is requisite in so great a matter so as to have been evicted to be against the Scriptures as some pretended 1. When as 't is most evident in most learned and godly mens judgements antient and modern that it hath the neerest resemblance to that
and most for religious administrations where not only the credit but the conscience of the Church is engaged and ought to be very much considered in order to the honour of Christ and of his Church It were a very blasphemous reproach I think to the wisdom of Christ for any to imagine that he had delegated the highest power of his Church to men incompetent and generally incapable without daily miracles Besides this if they were supposable to have those gifts which were fit to try and judge rightly of a Ministers sufficiency yet they cannot have power to authorise or ordein a Minister of Jesus Christ no more than every judicious man hath power to send an Embassador in his Princes name or to make such arbitrators and Judges as he thinks fit in other mens business This is a power only to be used and enjoyed by those to whom it is given from him who is supreme as in the Church Jesus Christ is in whom the grand power of Ordination which confers on man authority to dispense holy mysteries in Christs name is originally seated and from him derived and granted as a grand Charter or Commission to his Apostles first and by them afterward exemplified and delivered to others who being found fit for it were assumed into and invested with the same delegated authority as from Christ and never given to the community of the people at any time or derivable from him in any degree of power Ministeriall be their gifts and graces never so good Since this is a fruit of Christs wisdom munificence and power toward his Church an appointment full of holy order and divine polity depending on no private mens gifts or graces but upon the good will pleasure and power of Jesus Christ himself as he stands in the relations of King Priest and Prophet to his Church Now to whom Christ committed this great and sacred power of ordeining a constant succession of Ministers in his name and in what manner it was by them derived to others Pag. 143. c. in the answer to the first Objection See Dr. Hammond and Dr. Tailor of Ordination Correxerunt manus psephisma natum est Tull. I have already cleared I hope and other late writers have done it too by Scripture reason and Ecclesiasticall Catholick Custom In all which it is evident That the so much urged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly indeed signifies peoples suffragating by stretching forth of hands in publike and popular elections is not to be urged by a Criticall severity from the Ethnick sense of the word to the Churches injury and confusion Since the same word in sacred and Ecclesiasticall writings as well as in others is oft used in a sense which signifies nothing else but an appointment or designation made by any one or more to some speciall work and service to which God or Christ Jesus Acts 14.22 or the Apostles joyntly or severally or their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in their severall precincts are said to ordein or appoint a part from any such suffrage or autoritative influence of the people Further than their sometimes nominating and recommending fit men to be ordeined as Acts 6.5 or else their comprobation and acceptance of those who were by the Apostles Elders and Rulers of the Church ordeined as Ministers over them and this in Christs name by a divine authority which is for the peoples good but not from them as a fountain nor by them as any fit Pipes or Conduict through which this holy stream of the Ministry Ordinationes eorum quam temerarie tam inconstantes Hodie Episcopus cras alius bodiâ— Presbyter qui cras laicus Nam laicis Sacerdotolia munera injungunt Tertul. ad Haerâ—â— c. 42. Ad hac opera blandi sub missi sunt Caetâ—rum nec suit praesidibus reverentiam exhibere naverunt Id. ubi integra non est veritas me â—â—o tolis est disciplina Tertâ—l or the pure waters of the Sanctuary are to flow So that I cannot look upon this late arrogant claim of the power of ordeining Ministers as primarily belonging to the common people or to other Laymen as other than a fashion or opinion only befitting and extremely resembling those giddy proud and preposteous fancies to which vulgar minds are subject as Tertullian tels us when once the reigns of Church Discipline are let loose or some head-strong Schismaticks get the bridle between their teeth yea and it daily confutes it self while the Authors and followers of it are continually dividing and self confounding So inconsistent is error not only with Truth but with it self easily mouldring with its own weight and weakness And no wonder if the Lord prosper not projects arising from popular pride and presumption and tending to the shame and confusion of true Religion which no right reason or order no Scripture precept or patern no Ecclesiasticall custom or learned and godly mans judgement did ever allow or can with any reason as carrying with it all manner of rusticall unreasonable and irreligious absurdities which are never wanting where vulgar passions dwell as infallibly they do in the meaner sorts of men pretend they to what sanctity they will It will soon appear in how many and great defects they come short of that wisdom gravity unpassionateness and impartiality which is necessary to manage and order publike holy actions 2 Cor. 5.20 and to confer a solemn Religious power to any in Christs name to do Christs work and in some sense to be in Christs stead Wise humble and truly gracious Christians Best Christians are most modest are of all men most remote from such bold and unsuitable undertakings whereto having no call from God or the Church they can never expect blessing on their adventures and rash endeavours It satisfies them that they have as much influence in the ordeining and choosing of Ministers as they are capable of and is best for them and the Church Yet if it will please these Christians to fancy that they have some degree of power even in making their Ministers here in this Church they may consider Ministers in England ordeined with the peoples consent that neither Bishops nor Presbyters in England made any Ministers without the peoples generall consent expressed by those Laws and civill sanctions which confirmed here that divine order and constitution which they saw Christ had setled and the Church alwaies followed in ordeining lawfull Ministers by that wisdom and authority which from the Apostles was derived in a constant succession of Bishops and Presbyters who were for gifts of knowledge and judgement best able and for lawfull power only able by examination benediction and imposition of hands to consecrate any man a Minister and confer the power of Holy Orders on him who yet did and doe this as Delegates for the Church but from Christ If the power of choosing and ordeining Ministers were wholy left in
Iur. Illud decitum quod logibus definitum Reg. jur is not true and vertuous liberty but inordinatenesse and excesse Yea and in some cases of severer restraints Prudenter aliquando liciâ—a prohibenâ—tur ne si permitterentur eorum ocâ—â—sâ—â—â—e ad illicita perveniatur Reg. Iur. Ioh. 8.30 Free Indeed Libertâ—â— verâ— Christianae â—â—ferâ—â— aut extrinsecus spoliari nescit quum non minus parâ—endo quam agendo exercetur Aust by which Governors doe indeed trench upon those rationall or religious liberties which God hath allowed to men and Christians yet in these cases a true Christian onely wraps himself up in that liberty of patience which knowes when and how to suffer without injury to the publique tranquillity or to his private peace of conscience still keeping a * 1 Pet. 3.4 meek and quiet spirit with the love zeal and profession of that which he conceives to be the truth of God these are the fruits of that * 2 Cor. 3.17 free Spirit of Christ in Christians which appeared most eminently in Christ which makes us free to all things but not to sin in thought word or deed Looking upon sin as the great * Eo sumus liberiores quo a peccato â—â—â—â—â—â—niores Gibeuf tyrant usurper and waster of the true liberty of every man and Christian It is then as farre from Christian liberty 4. Divels Liberty as sicknesse is from health madnesse or drunkennesse from sobriety rottennesse from beauty or putrefaction from perfection for any Christian to beleeve what he lists though it be a lye or to disbeleeve and deny it Libertas omni servitute servilior Ber. Ep. 47. though it be a truth of God to take up what opinions and wayes of religion he most fancies and to refuse what ever he please to disaffect upon light popular and untryed grounds or openly to speak and dispute what ever he lists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. and publiquely to act according as his private perswasions passions lusts or interests or other mens tempt and carry him wherein neither right reason nor common order nor publique peace nor conscience of duty nor * 1 Pet. 2.17 reverence of men nor fear of God have any such serious and holy ties upon men as are necessary for the common good In which regard private Christians are never so free as to have no yoake of Christ upon them Haretica conversatio quam futilis quam terrena quam humana sine gravitate sine autoritate sine disciplina cujus penes nos curam lenocinium vocant pacem cum omnibus miscent dum ad unius veritatis expugnationem conspirant Tertul de praes ad Hae. c. 41. no exercise of patience self-denyall mortification meeknesse charity modesty and sobriety together with that comelinesse and decorum which beseemes Religion and a Christian spirit beyond which the most transporting zeal may not expatiate For that is no other than such freedome as water enjoyes when it overbears and overflowes all its banks and bounds or as fire seising on the whole house Such as drunken men in their roarings and mad men in their ravings contend for such as wild beasts and untamed Monsters struggle for yea such as the envious and malicious divels affect and are most impatient not to enjoy In whose nostrils and jawes the mighty * Ezek. 38.4 Esa 37.29 wisdom and goodnesse of God who is Potentissimum liberrimum agens the fountain of all true rationall morall religious and divine freedome hath his hooke of power and bridle of terror not of love Such are those liberties which those * As St. John called Corinthus who was of this sect of Libertines Irenae l. 1. Congredere mecum ut te ad principem deducam vox lascivientium Gnosticorum Nicolaitarum aliorum Haeret. Iren. l. 1. primogeniti Diaboli prime birds of the Divels brood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Nis v. M. some impudent Libertines and dissolute wretches now as of old aim at who have cast off all sense of justice order shame and humanity while they clamour and act for liberty that is that their blasphemies profanenesses impudicities scurrilities impudencies and violences against all publique civill peace as well as against all religion order and Ministry of the Church of England may be tolerated if not countenanced notwithstanding they professe to hold with us some common grounds of Christian Religion and stand responsible to civill duties and relations True Christians should be as fearfull to enjoy the divels freedome not which he hath but which he desires that is to will and to doe whatever he lists And as they should be zealous for their own true holy and humble liberties which lead them quietly to doe or suffer Gods will in Gods way so they should bee tender of encroaching upon those publique liberties which are by right reason order and Scripture granted to some men as Magistrates and Ministers for the generall good of Christians Men must not so please themselves in any thing they fancy of liberty as to injure others No mans liberty may be anothers injury Nullius emolumentum jure nescitur exalterius damno injuria Reg. Iur. since no mans right can consist in the detriment or damage of anothers rights or dues As then no man rationally can think it a liberty denyed him when he is forbid upon idle visits to goe to infected houses or being infected with the plague to goe among others that are sound or to drink poison and propine it to others no more can any Christian religiously plead for a liberty to broach and publish to others any opinion he pleaseth or to invade any place and office he hath a minde to or to disturb others in their duties and power or to contemne with publique insolence or violently to innovate against established laws and orders in Church or State much lesse hath he any freedome openly to blaspheme or disturb that religion and way of devotion wherein sober and good Christians worship God by that authority and order which is setled in publique according to their consciences and best judgements Here neither Christian Magistrates 5. True Liberty and good government in Church and State agree well together nor Ministers are to regard such pleas for private Liberties as overthrow the publique order and peace nor are they to regard those clamours against them and the Laws as persecuting when they doe but oppose and restrain such pernicious exorbitancies nor are they in this infringers of the peoples freedome but preservers of Liberties which are bound up onely in the laws nor are they oppressours of others mens consciences but dischargers of their own duties * Leges sunt corporis politici nervi sine quibus luxata infirma fient omnia membra Verul and consciences which they bear to Gods glory and the publique good whereto as they stand highly related by their place and power so
and ampler mercies than ever yet we enjoyed as Ministers in this Church who have always lain under and contended since the Reformation not onely with the burthen of our own infirmities and defects but also with the evil eyes the envious hearts the sacrilegious hands the prophane maners the superstitious and factious humors of many men both open enemies and seeming friends Some mens innate leudness and pravity endures any thing easier than an able and faithful Minister others Cynical sourness grudges at any thing less than to see Ministers enjoy either honor or estate beyond the vulgar Both are ready to be severe censurers of Ministers faults that so they may justifie their hatred or envy but neither are likely to judge righteous judgement nor shall we I hope ever stand to these mens sentence For my particular I desire both my self 6. What is conceived the true cause and others of my minde and Profession may by an ingenuous acknowledgement of our failings be fitted for Gods and mans absolution both in present and after ages that it may not be said The Ministers of England erred greatly and were punished sharply yet knew not how to repent humbly and truly every one palliating their own errors Nihil pudori esse debet paenitenti nisi non fateri Ambr. de Poen Of true Honor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg Dial 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. and transferring the blame and guilt still upon others when themselves were in somethings more blamable than any men and merited in their own censure to be esteemed the chief of sinners You then O excellent Christians know in general That all true honor from man is but the agnition or reflexion of those Virtues and Graces by which men are or appear likest to God that is truly good and useful to others From God honor bestowed on any men is a testifying before men in some way of his providence his approbation of those graces and endeavors in us by which we draw neerest to that resemblance of the Divine goodness and holiness which is lively set forth in the Word of God and the example of Jesus Christ who is the visible express image of the fathers glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. H. b. 1. 1. 2 Pet. 1.4 By the gracious imitation of which glory human nature attains and partakes somthing of the divine and by a kinde of transfiguration both of minde and maners as Moses and Elâ—as in Christs company on the Mount both Christian Magistâ—ates and Ministers acting in holy and good ways cannot fail by sincere honoring of God 1 Sam. 2.30 Those that honor me I will honor to attain that honor which God hath promised which consists not so much in those preferments and applauses of the world which are for the most part vain like it self but in that holy wisdom gravity and constancâ— which becomes a Christian either in wel-doing or in comly suffering according to the clear will of God in his Word which gives both precepts and paterns of all true excellencies The robes of true honor are not made of the slight and thin Cob-webs of popular opinions and practises but are teâ—â crassiore of more solid and substantial virtues as Gonsalvo said Worthy actions do always not onely joy the soul calm the conscience and strengthen the heart but also they make the face of good men to shine conciliating such a majesty to virtue and such beauty to true holiness that even those who hate and persecute them as to the interests of their worldly lusts cannot in their judgements but approve reverence and esteem them even in the midst of their sufferings Phil. 1.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To you it is given as a free favor not onely to believe but to suffer Pati pro Christo honorarium Christiani Ber. which do not less honor and adorn them than their wel-doings For nothing discountenanceth a Christian but the conscience of vile actions and Gods displeasure In the judicious and constant way of holy walking and honorably suffering no man can lightly speak evil of another without a secret shame and reproach to himself nor injure or despight them without some inward regret and pain And certainly the Christian World here in England which owed and owned as much to their Ministers heretofore and esteemed them as highly and treated them as honorably and ingenuously as any people under Heaven could do their Teachers in Religion would never have so much opened their mouths and withdrawn their love and respects from many if not most Ministers nor would some men have dared so far to meditate and endeavor their total ruine and extirpation if we Ministers had not in some things beyond the venials of common infirmity either much exceeded or come very short of those due bounds wherein true Christian virtues and especially Ministers excellencies do consist 7. The ordinary failings of Ministers not the cause of their lapse Nor is it to be thought here that the eyes of men are so severely fixt onely or chiefly upon the ordinary defects of Ministers either in gifts or industry proper to their calling Although God knows even herein too many of us may be justly blamed and without injury despised as either wanting those ministerial abilities which we might by prayer and study attain wherewith competently to discharge and adorn that sacred Work and redeem it from vulgar invasion which brings the highest contempt of it The ignorance idleness indiligence and needless non-residency of some of us from our charges is not to be concealed In others the neglect of our studies both in Divinity and in all kindes of good learning by which our profiting might appear to all men 1 Tim. 4.15 is to be deplored It is not expectable that Ministers should increase in favor with God and man Luke 2.52 unless as Ch ist did they grow in wisdom too as well as in age or stature And alas what f uit of honor to Ministers or glory to God or good to mens fouls can be reaped either from those that Preach and Pray chiefly for applause and popular air Bonorum ingeniorum insignis est indoles in verbis verum amare non verba August Planctum mabâ— quà m plausum taking much pains to little or no purpose or yet from that contrary descending of others in their preaching to such a popular flatness which stretcheth forth dead sermons and spiritless prayers meerly to an excessive length as if the Pulpits were their Coffins with so much insipidness vain repetitions vulgar flattery senseless oratory yea and sometimes with strange figures of Blasphemies which maner of somer mens preaching hath given we see the very meanest sort of hearers who heretofore were wonted to more useful and more sober preaching and praying if they have any thing of parts or pragmaticalness in them not so much a presumption as a just confidence that they can both preach and pray as well
Petrus abnegando Jeron silence or reservedness in such a cause and at such a time as this will be your sin as it would have been mine How much more if you use not your uttermost endeavors in all fair and Christian ways to stop this Stygian stream but most of all if you contribute any thing of that power you have whereby to carry on this poysonous and soul-destroying torrent Words are never more due than in Christs behalf who is the Incarnate Word and for his Ministers who are the Preachers of that Word 22. The sense of the best Christians as to the Ministers case 2 Sam. 19.30 Non is this my private sense and horror alone but I know you O excellent Christians who are truly men of pious and publick not of proud or pragmatick spirits cannot but daily perceive That it is the general fear and grief of honest and truly reformed Christians in this Nation Who with one mouth are ready to say to those in place and power as Abraham did to the King of Sodom or Mephibosheth to David Let those cunning cruel and covetous Zibas whose treacherous practises and ingrateful calumnies seek to deprive us of our Houses Goods Lands and Liberties let them take all so as our David the beloved of our souls our Christ our true Religion our glory our true Ministers and Ministry may be safe Let others take the spoils and booties of our labors Gen. 14.21 onely give us the souls of our selves and our posterity for a prey which are like to perish for ever unless you leave us those holy means and that sacred Ministry which the wisdom and authority of Christ onely could as he hath appoint which the Churches of Christ have always enjoyed and faithfully transmitted to us for the saving of our sinful souls This request the very Turks unasked do yet grant in some degree to the poor Christians who live under their dominion And if it may seem to be our error and fondness thus to prise our true and faithful Ministers Illos nimis diligere non possumus Christiani quorum Ministerio Deum diligimus à Deo diligimur Cypr. and that onely divine Authority which is in their Ministry yet vouchsafe to indulge us in the midst of so many epidemical errors this one pious error and grateful fondness which not custom and tradition but conscience and true judgement have fixed in us since we esteem next * Vnicus est modus diligendi Deum nescire modum Aug. God and our blessed Saviour and the holy Scriptures the true Ministry of the Church as that holy necessary ordinance which the divine wisdom and mercy hath appointed whereby to bring us to the saving knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ by the Scriptures That as we ow to our parents under God our Natural and Sinful Being whom yet we are bid to honor so our Christian Mystical and Spiritual Being 1 Cor. 4.15 Though you have ten thousand teachers in Christ yet you have not many fathers For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel we ow to our true Ministers as our holy and spiritual Fathers by whose care we have been truly taught and duly Baptized with divine Authority in the Name of the blessed Trinity both instructed and sacramentally confirmed in that faith which is the onely true way of eternal life By their study pains love and diligence when we would have been otherwise willingly ignorant and wholly negligent of our souls good our darkness by Gods grace and blessing on their labors chiefly hath been dispelled our ignorance enlightned our deadness enlivened our enmity against God and our Neighbor removed our hardness softned our consciences purged our lusts mortified our lives as to an holy purpose prayer and endeavor reformed our terrors scattered our ghostly enemies vanquished our peace and comforts obtained our souls raised and sealed to a blessed hope of eternal life through the mercies of God and the merits of our Redeemer whose Embassadors our true Ministers are â— And indeed we have no greater sign or surer evidence of our faith in Christ and love unfeigned to God than this That we love and reverence those and their calling as men who onely have authority in Chriss name to administer holy things to us And however others who have lately sought to come in 23. Of Praâ—enders to the Ministery not in * Seducunt è via incautos viatores ut securius ipsos perdant lenocinantès lairenes Greg. by the door but ever the wall who seek also like * John 10.8 All that came before me i. e. as Messias or Christ are theeves and robbers John 10.1 He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth some other way is a thief and a robber Vers 7. I am the door of the sheep We can neither come to be of the sheep of Christ but by faith in him nor shepherds of those sheep but by that door of authority which Christ hath set open in the Church by Ordination Bishop Downam Serm. theeves and robbers to lead us plainer people out of the right way that they may the better rob and spoil us pretend they are so rarely gifted that they will teach us the same or higher truths and administer the same holy things in a new and more excellent way than ever the best ordained Ministers of this Church have done Yet truly saving the confident boasting of these new masters we could never hitherto discern in any of them either by their much speech or writing with which they may make a great sound and yet be very empty any such sufficiencies as they lift every where so much to boast of Muchless have they ever produced any shew of Scriptural power Divine authority Mission from Christ or footstep of Apostolical succession in the Church in which every one that can speak tollerably we cannot think is presently sent of God for a publick Minister of holy things no more than every well-spoken Traveller or diligent Factor or Carrier is a Publick Agent Herauld or Embassador to any Prince or State or City although they may know their Princes Masters or Neighbors minde in many things We know it is not what waters men fancy but what God appointeth which will cure the blinde or leprous And we finde by daily sad experience that they whose pride or peevishness forsakes or scorns to use the waters of Jordan the means which Christ hath instituted and the Ministers which by his Church he hath ordained do commonly get no * Sacra mysteria non vi naturaliÌ„ sed voluntate dei supernaturali perficiuntur August In sacâ—â— sine mandato Divino vel maxima virtus deficit cum illo vel minima valescit Jeron more good by their padling 2 Kings 5.12 or dipping in other streams which they fancy better than Naaman would have done if he had gone to his so much extolled Rivers of Damascus and
all Prophets are all Teachers c. 18. All are not nor are any such as they are Christians or gracious c. 1 Cor. 12. ought to minister holy things to others to challenge the Keys of Heaven to themselves to be as in Christs stead to rule and oversee his house which cannot avoide as the Apostle proves abominable absurdities and detestable confusions no way beseeming the wisdom of Christ the majesty of Christian Religion or that order and decency which ought to be in Church-Assemblies being as contrary to reason as if every servant in an house should chalâ—enge the power of the Keys and the Stewards place or every member the office of the eyes tongue and hands by vertue of that common relation it hath as well as these parts to the same body the same soul and head As then right reason tells us beyond all reply That neither natural nor civil nor religious common gifts endowments or abilities instate any person in the office of Magistrate Judge Ambassador Herald Notary or publick Sealer Fraus est injuria quic quid agitur sub alterius persona sine debita ab illo autoritate Reg. Jur. Matth. 28.18 All power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or authority is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth that is in order to perfect Christs design his Churches good Acts 1.8 Autoritas delegata ab altâ—rius voluntate pendet tam quoad ipsam potestatâ—m quam ad derivandi modum Reg. Jur. 1 Cor. 4.19 I will know not the speech of them that are puffed up but the power V. 20. For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power i. e. That holy polity and orderly Kingdom which Jesus Christ hath set up and governs in his Church is not managed by confident praters but by authoritative Preachers Matth. 7.28 As Christ Jesus so his true Ministers teach and administer holy things as men having authority and not as the Scribes which places require not onely personal sufficiencies for the office but an orderly designation and induction to it from the fountain of civil power either mediately or immediately The same right reason which is most agreeable and servient to true Christian Religion requires a right derivation or conveyance of all supernatural Ministerial Church power which is in and from Jesus Christ as the sole supreme head and divine origin of it either immediately as they and none others had to whom Christ first consigned it and both by miraculous gifts and works confirmed it to be in them or mediately as those Bishops and Presbyters had it who without force fraud or any sinister way of usurpation or bold intrusion received this power from the Apostles by prayer and benediction with imposition of their hands in the name of Christ and from them their successors have lawfully derived it without interruption to the true Ministers of the Gospel even to this day as I have proved which not onely the Scriptures of undisputable verity but even those other very credible Histories of the Church and other Records of learned and holy Men in all ages to these times which the providence of God hath afforded us do abundantly declare all which to deny with a morose perverseness or rustical indiffereâ—cy is as if a Hog should answer all arguments with grunting And to act contrary to so strong a stream of concurrent Authorities both as to the judgment and practise of the Church in all ages is a work onely fit for Ranters and Seekers and Fanaticks or for Jews Turks and Heathen Infidels but not for any sober Christian that owns in the least kinde the Name of Jesus Christ or desires to be a member of any true Christian Church In which as all true and humble Christians have always enjoyed and with thankfulness owned the rightful succession and authority of their oâ—dained Ministers Pastors and Teachers so the Lord from Heaven in all ages hath witnessed to them by his blessings of truth and peace on the hearts of his people and by their means chiefly continuing the light of the Gospel to these days amidst those Heathenish persecutions Heretical confusions and Schismatical fractions which have sought to overthrow the Being or the Purity or the Order and Unity of the true Church To this judgment and testimony of Scriptures and antient Writers both in right and fact I might adde a cloud of witnesses from later reformed Divines which were very learned and very holy men far above the vulgar spirits both in other Churches and in this of England all agreeing with our excellent Bishop Jewel Bishop Jewels Apology Ministrum Ecclesiae legitime vocari oportere rectè atque ordine praefici ecclesiae Dei Neminem autem ad sacrum Ministerium pro suo arbitrio ac ibidine posse se intrudere That no may may intrude himself into the Ministry by his own will and pleasure or by any others who are not of that Order and Calling but he ought to be lawfully called and duly ordained by those in whom the lawful succession of ordinative power ever hath been and still is rightly placed and continued Agreeable to which there is a whole Jury of eminent Modern Divines alleged by a late industrious and ingenuous * See Master Halls Pulpit guarded Author who hath spared me that pains 9. The Priestly order among the Jews Joel 2.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niss de vita Mos Aronis Virga 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 3. ep 20. Philo. Judaeus de sacerdotâ—o Aaronis calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 16. Exod. 19.6 2 Chro. 26 20. Vzziah ceased to be fit to rule as a King being smitten with Leprosie who usurped the office of the Priest 1 King 13.33 4. I may adde by way of confirmation of that common equity and rules of order which must be among men in all things and most necessarily in things truly religious The inviolable Function and peculiar Office or Order of the Priests and Levites which were the Ministers of the Lord in his antient Church of the Jews which is a most convincing instance to prove not the sameness and succession of that Order but the equity comliness and exemplariness of a peculiar Ministry for holy things among Christians under the Gospel since that Levitical Ministry was not more holy or honorable nor more distinguished in power and authority and office from the people than this in the Christian Church which is more immediately derived from Christ as clearly instituted and ordained by him and more fully exhibitive of him both in the Historical Truths and in the Mystical gifts and graces of his Spirit Yet we see who so despised or violated that Order and Ministry among the Jews under pretence of a common holiness in Gods people who were in a spiritual sense indeed called an holy Nation and a royal Priesthood so as to confound the Functions and Offices divinely distinguished either the earth from beneath devoured them
are managed by men This government then by a fatherly president or chief Bishop among Presbyters seeming to have not equall 4. The advantages of Episcopacy against any other but far superiour grounds from Scripture both as to the Divine wisdome so ordering the form of his antient Church among the Jews also by the example precept and direction evident from Christ Jesus and the holy Apostles in the New Testament No wonder that many yea far the most of godly and learned upright men do rather approve a Primitive and right Episcopacy than any other new fashion which is rather conform to secular interest than to any thing of the Churches or true religions advantages especially when 't is evident that Episcopacie hath the great and preponderating addition of the Antient sole and Vniversall government approved and used by all the Churches of Christ in the purest and most impartiall times To which neither of the other can with any face pretend for themselves nor with any truth contradict it being averred by all Antiquity in the behalf of right and regular Episcopacy which never failed to succeed the Apostles authority and eminency either by their own immediate appointment in many places even while they yet lived or by the election and Votes of the Colleges and Fraternities of Presbyters after the Apostles decease who still chose one man eminent for his faith piety zeal and holy gravity to be duly consecrated in power and place above them as a Father among sons Aust Ep. 148. ad Valeriâ—â— Jerom. ad Nepotianum Ad Evagriuâ—â— Crysost hom 3 in Act. Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crysost Hom. 3. in Acta or an elder Brother among brethren or as a Master or Provost in a College or as a Generall in an Army as St. Jerom himself tells us If any man ask me then what kind of Bishop I would have Vid. Synes l. 3. Ep. 21◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Epist c. Vid. Bern. ad Eug. l. 4. Opâ—rtet te esse formam justiâ—ia sanctimoâ—a speculum pietatis exemplat veriâ—atiâ— assertoâ—em fidei defensorem Christianorum ducem amicum sponsae c. I answer Such an one for Age as may be a Father for wisdome a Senator for gravity a Stoick for light an Angel for innocency a Saint for industry a Labourer for constancy a Confessor for zeal a Martyr for charity a Brother for humility a Servant to all the faithfull Ministers and other Christians under his charge I would have him venerable for those severall excellencies which are most remarkable in the antient and most imitable Bishops The devotion of St. Gregory the indefatigableness of St. Austin the courage of St. Ambrose the learning of Nazianzen the generosity of Basil the Eloquence of Chrysostom the gentleness of Cyprian the holy flames of Ignatius the invincible constancy of Polycarp That so be may come neerest to the Apostolicall pattern and resemble the most of any Christian or Minister the grace and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ Quod in aliis sacerdotibus deest per Antistitem surpleri debet Elotus ad Aug. cp August ad extremam senectutem impraetermissè praedicavit Possid vita Aug. Et successores incitatores Apostolorum Et zelum ac locum sortiti tam igitur ad curam quam alacres ad cathedram Bern. ser 77. Cant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pet. l. 2. Jerom ad Heliadorum Naz. orat lat tom a. Grandis dignitaes sed grandis ruina si peccent Ieron Vt nihil Episcopo excellentius sic nihil miserabilius si in crimine teneatur Amb. de dig Sa. I would have him yet not I but the vote of all pious Antiquity requires a Bishop to be among men the most morall among Christians the most faithful among Preachers the most painful among Orators the most perswasive among Governours the most moderate among Devotionaries the most fervent among Professors the most forward among Practisers the most exact among sufferers the most patient among perseverants the most constant He should be as the Holy of holyes was both to the inward court of those that are truly sanctified and converted and to the outward court of those that are called Christians only in visible profession I would have nothing in Him that is justly to be blamed or sinisterly suspected And all things that are most deservedly commended by wise and sober Christians I would have a Bishop of all men the most compleat as having on him the greatest care namely that of the Church and of souls And this in a more publike and eminent inspection as one daily remembring the strictness of Gods account and expecting either a most glorious Crown or a most grievous Curse to all Eternity I would have him most deserve and most able to use well but yet least esteeming Vid. Bern. Ep. 42. Vid. Amb. tom 3. ep 82. Qualis eligendus sit Epis Quis ferat Eligi divitem ad sedem honoris Ecclesiastici contempto paupere instructiore sanctiore Aust ep 29Vt Episcopus non sit quod Libanius dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Res unde â—grè aliquid emolumenti eâ—â—ngatur Basil in ep 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Carm. 4. de Epis coveting or ambitionating the riches pomp glory and honour of the world One that knows how to own himself in Persecution as well as in Prosperity and dares to do his duty as a Bishop in both estates I do not much consider the secular Parade and Equipage further than as publike incouragements of Merit as excitations to excell as noble rewards of Learning and as catern decencies or solemnities which do much set off and Embroider Authority in the sight of the vulgar I wish him duly chosen with judgement accepting with modesty esteemed with honour reverenced with love Overseeing with vigilance ruling with joynt-Counsel not levelled with younger Preachers and novices nor too much exalted above the graver and elder Presbyters neither despised of the one nor despising of the other I wish him an honourable competency if it may be had with his eminency that he may have wherewith to exercise a large heart and a liberall hand which every where carry respect and conciliate love If this cannot be had yet I wish him that in true worth which is denyed him in wealth That his vertue and piety may still preserve the authority of his place and this in the Order Peace and Dignity of the Church That he may be the Touchstone of Truth the Loadstone of Love the Standard of Faith the Patern of holiness the Pillar of stability and the Center of Unity in the Church Nor are these to be esteemed as Characters of an Eutopian Prelate only to be had in the abstract of fancy and speculation Many such Bishops have been antiently in the Church and not a few here in England some still are such in their merits a midst their ruines and obscurings and more might constantly and easily be
vindicator defended not more to the honour of Ignatius than of himself whom providence hath chosen and so enabled to be a Patron to so glorious a Martyr and in so just a cause as to redeem one of the first Fathers from that Presbyterian Limbo How uncomly and petulant some other mens carriages have been and are daily toward the antient Fathers of the Church I need not tell when 't is too evident how they put them oft on the rack to make them speak somthing in favour for either an Headlesse Presbyterie or a confused Independency Indeed it is a shame to see young men and novices so to make those antient holy and learned Writers to scratch or blot their own faces with their own Pens and to put out their Eyes with their own stiles wringing as it were their noses till they bleed a drop or two for those new Modes and exotick formes of Church-government which neither they nor their forefathers even up to the Apostles times ever saw or knew And this tyrannie of quotations must be exercised upon the works of the Fathers though never so much against the clear judgement and practise of those holy men who were themselves either eminent Bishops as most of the Antients were whose Works are extant or humble and peaceable Presbyters who universally owned and submitted to the authority of their Bishops yea some men have the forehead to urge a few obscurer passages in a few them against clear places which are a hundred to one wherein they express their own judgements or the whole Churches practise in their times to be without any dispute for Episcopacy and Bishops with Presbyters as succeeding the Apostolicall eminencie in the ordinary power of Ordination and Church-government Indeed I have oft wondred how men of learning and piety had the confidence to cite testimonies even out of Ignatius Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Cyprian Clemens of Alexandria Ambrose Austin and others in favour of a Presbytery without and against a Bishop or President when all of them as all others of the Fathers are most clear both in their own judgements and as to the Churches Catholick practise yea and so is St. Jerom too for the right use of regular Episcopacy 5. Regulation of Episcopacy Omni actu ad me perlato placuit contrahi presbyterium Cornel. ep Rom. ad Cyp. Epist 46. In the absence sickness or death of the Bishop the Preâ—byters some me govâ—rnâ—d the Church So in Cyprians absence Epist 26.30.31 So Theod. l. 4. c. 22. when the Orthodox Bishop banished the Presbyters Flavianus and Dioderus c. guided the Church o â—nno 1194. hen the â—rks prevaiâ—d over the Greek Churches Balsamon tels they had no Bishops in many places a long time De Petro Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crysost hom 3. in Act. Apost Florentissimo illic clero tecum praesidents ad Cornel. Episcopus nullius causam audiat absque praesentia Clericorum suorum alioquin irrita eâ—â— sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum praesentia confirmetur Con. Carth. 4. can 23. such as all sober men plead for and approve What ever the Fathers are brought in as speaking for the Ministers rights in a joynt Presbyterie or the people 's as for Independency amount to no more but either to repress the arrogancy ambition and tyranny of some Bishops who in more favourable times usurped or used their power against or with neglect of the Counsell and assistance of Presbyters which in all reason ought and in Antiquity were ever joyned with the Bishop in weighty matters or else when the insolence and scorn of some Ecclesiastick governours arose to the oppression of the faithfull people To whom in Primitive times great regard was had both by Bishops and Presbyters in all publick transactions which concerned their and the Churches good government that so all things might be done with charity good liking and approbation of all Christians This was not only very comly and convenient but almost necessary in point of Christian prudence in those times when Christians of all degrees were full of humility and Charity kept short and low by persecution and much depended upon the love and union between Pastor and people Afterward indeed in times of peace and plenty there oft appeared so much of levity fury and faction in the common people that it was the wisdom of Governours to withdraw much of that liberty and indulgence which formerly people enjoyed but afterward abused to Sedition Fury and Murthers in their tumultuary motions and clamorous Elections This is all that ever I observed from the Antients in favour of the Presbyters power in common with Bishops or of the faithfull people Namely that they would have after the pattern of the Apostolike love wisdome and humility all things of publike concernment in the Church to be so managed by the chief Governour or Bishop as neither Presbyters nor People should think themselves neglected wherein their suffrage consent or approbation was fit to be had but the one should be used as brethren the other as sons which temperance I greatly approve It were endless and needless to answer or excuse personall Errors in Bishops Bishops personal errors no argument but of envy and malice against the office or those common inconveniences which are prone to attend all Power and superiority among men For those are the fruits of Power perverted of Authority degenerating of Governors ill governing themselves through personall errors and passions or the corruptions and indulgencies of times but they are not by any wise and impartiall man to be reckoned as the genuine and proper effects of that order government and proportion which is in right Episcopacy and which all reason as well as Religion allows to all sorts of men and Christians no more than sickness is to be imputed as a fault to health or deformity to comliness since both are incident in humane nature to the greatest strength or beauty Yea 't is most certain that there is nothing usefull or commendable in any other way of governing the Church in small parcells or in greater bodies which is not inclusively eminently and consummatively in a well-ordered Episcopacy such as was not only in primitive times but in our dayes As all Oeconomick vertues are in a good Father or Master and all politick excellencies are in an excellent Prince or Magistrate which cannot be found in any other short of and inferiour to those eminent relations All other lower and incompleater forms are as defective in point of advancing a common and publike good as they come short of that main end for with Episcopacy as the Crown and perfectest degree of order was by Apostolicall and primitive wisdome and piety setled in the Church which was to avoid Schisms to preserve the Unity of the faith and peace of the Churches to keep good correspondencies by Synods and Councills which could not be done by multitudinous meetings which no place could hold nor wise men manage to any order
sincere amendment of them hence it brings to a quiescency and comfort in no way but such as is conform to the Word of Christ burning with an unfaigned charity toward all men most fervently to the Churches service and welfare with an * In humili spiritu pura mente spaciose habitat immensus Deus high esteem of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his Institutions and Ministry his Word and Spirit and Grace with a gratefull value and high respect of those * Phil. 3.7 1 Thes 15.12.12 13. Heb. 13.17 by whose Ministry they have been called baptized taught converted and are still guided in the paths light and breathings of the Spirit to the hopes of salvation the blessed expectation of which in Christs way raiseth them up many times to high yet holy resolutions to deny themselves and suffer any thing for Christs sake and the testimony of the Truth These and such like I conceive are the best fruits of Gods Spirit which are not the lesse excellent because they are common Gods children are not oft entertained with novelties and never pleased with such new toyes and ratles or hobbey horses in Religion which some men bragge of The wandering clouds which some mens fancies exhale of spirituall Motions and Manifestations beyond plain and ordinary Christians either for private comfort Iude 12. or for publique benefit are for the most part without water they darken but moisten not the Church or the soul they have so much of earthy or fiery exhalations in them that they have little of the dew of heaven with them Nor may they without great injury and high indignity be imputed to the Spirit of Christ Nor doe such sorry flowers which grow in every dunghill adorn the Garden of God the Soul or the Church not justly crown any with the most honourable name of holy or spirituall Which titles vain men much affect and boldly challenge sober and humble Christians do earnestly desire and seriously endeavour to merit Being an honour so farre above the naturall capacity of sinfull mortality that nothing but a Divine bounty and supernaturall power can conferre the Truth of that Beauty which is in holinesse and the right to that glory which is in every True Saint who are often hid as orient Pearles in rough shels in great plainnesse lowlinesse and simplicity which makes such as are truly Saints and spirituall as ashamed to challenge the name as they are afraid to come short of the grace Studying not applause and admiration from men but the approbation of a sincere and good conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 Iam. 1.17 Him they look upon as the father of every good and perfect gift the sender of the blessed Spirit by the due Ministry of the Word into mens hearts The searcher also of all hearts and tryer of the spirits of men far beyond what is set out in paints and outward appearances of extraordinary gifts of the Spirit under which mask and disguises Achitophel Heb. 4.13 and Jehu and Judas and Simon Magus and the sons of Sheva and Demas and the self-made Prophetesse Jezebel and Diotrephes all false Christs false Prophets and false Apostles all true Antichrists and true Ministers of Satan grievous Wolves studied to appear and did so for a while till the Lord stirred up the Spirit of discerning in his true Ministers and true Saints Which Spirit of Wisdome teacheth us to measure and judge of spirituall gifts and true holinesse 6. Reall power of the Spirit how discerned 2 Tim. 3 5. not by bare and barren forms but by the power and practise of godlinesse not by soft-expressions and gentle insinuations or melancholy sowrenesse and severer brows not by Ahabs sackcloth or Jehus triumphs or Pharisaick frownes Not by bold assertions lowd clamours confident calumnies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teâ—ico aut tristi vulus vultuosi Pharisai Simplicissima est spiritus sancti virtus sine suco sine fraude omnia agit nulli gravis piis suavis omnibus utilis Ber. Nil tamâ— metuit quam ne dubitare de aliqua re videretur de Vellcio Quomodo certissimi esse possunt quum nihil certius est quam certos illos non esse de salute Ber. Certi non sunt qui solliciti non sunt Cyp. Sola integra fides secura esse potest Tertul. de Ba. precipitant zeal audacious adventures successefull insolencies Not by heaps of Teachers popular Sermonings long Prayers wrested Scriptures crowds of Quotations high Notions Origenick Allegorizings Not by admired Novelties vulgar satisfactions splendid shews of Religion empty noises of Reformation Nor yet by arrogant boastings uncharitable despisings confident presumptions hasty assurances proud perswasions pretended Revelations fanatick confusions All these either in affected Liberties or Monastick rigors oft bear up mens fancie of the Spirit and sanctitie like bladders meerly by their emptinesse Nothing being more prone to dispose a vain mind to fancy strongly that it hath Gods Spirit than the not having it indeed * 2 Tim. 3.13 Deceiving and being deceived To make men presume they are Saints than the not serious considering what true holinesse is Splendore magis quam fervore delectantur hypocritae Ber. Dum fallunt maxime falluntur and the way of the Spirit of Christ is In its infallible rule the Scripture in its noblest pattern Jesus Christ in its foundation Humility in its beauty Order and Symmetry in its perfection Sincerity in its glory Love and Charity in its transcendent excellency the Divine Nature The Devils Piracles are made as much by the frauds and fallacies of hanging out Gods colours the flags of the Spirit Hypocritae sanctitatis tineae cui adhaerere videntur v stâ—m tu piter viciant remedia in morbos sanctitatem in crimen vertunt Chrysost and shews of holinesse as by the open defiances of persecution and batteries of profanenesse Delusions in Religion as Dalilahs charms on Samson are oft stronger than the Philistins force against the Church Else our blessed Saviour would not have so carefully fore-warned and fore-armed his little flock against those grand Impostors whose deceit is no lesse than this * Luk. 17.21 Loe here is Christ and there is Christ As if he were no where in England or in all the former Catholick Church but only in the corners and Conventicles of new Donatists Loe here is Christ a most potent and plausible pretention indeed able by its native force and mans credulous frailty to deceive even the very Elect Mark 13.22 whom would it not move and tempt strongly to hear of a new Christ in New lights and new Gospels new Church wayes new Manifestations new Ministry and new Ministers Yea to heare of a Christ without means above means beyond the Scriptures deadnesse the old Sacramentall forms the Ministeriall Keyes and Authority Christ in the Spirit risen from the grave of dead duties of expired Ordinances and from the Carkuses of ancient Churches A
Answ Truly this is the onely tender part the undipped heel where it may be some of these Achillesses able and good Ministers may be hurt In which I humbly crave leave without offence to the power or prejudice to the wisdome of any men to offer thus much in the behalf of peaceable Ministers That 1. It is not true of all many Ministers have shewed by their taking it in such a sense of passivenesse under and non-activity against the present establishment as is satisfactory to the Imposers and inoffensive to their own consciences what others would doe if they could Perjurio maculare vitam suam magis timere debet quam finire Christianus Aust Ep. 224. Judg 8. 2 Sam. 12.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juramenta vereri religiosius Pythag. dict Mat. 5.33 2 Sam. 21. Zach. 8.17 Jer. 34.18 with inward peace And if there were no other excuse or Apology for these peaceable and painfull Mâ—nisters who have not subscribed but onely those many pleas of Conscience which have been humbly tendred to publique view these ought not to be unconsidered by such as professe to be Christians who remember how cruell a thing it is to make mens consciences passe as Gideon did the men of Succoth or David the Ammonites under briars and thorns under saws and harrows of either sharp contradictions or prickly distinctions unsafe Salvoes which if they may seem evasions before men in matter of Oathes lawfully taken yet possibly may not prove full absolutions before God who hath oft severely exacted the forfeitures of perjury as of Saul and Zedekiah And how ever God in his providence may put suspensions of oathes as to their actuall execution yet they cannot find any absolution from the obligation which goes with inconditionate Oathes so long as they are within our morall possibility of keeping them How any man can swear or promise to be true and faithfull to two different interests without being forsworne or false and unfaithfull to the one or the other seems a Gordian knot which onely the sword dissolves by cutting not untying And who can wonder that seriously considers the state of humane affaires which are most fully represented in the glasse of our times with as many variating faces as the Moon if some Ministers whom both grace and experience age and manners have made grave and calm are tender and wary of further hampering their consciences on any State cables Jurandi facilitate in perjurium prolabimur Aust since they have seen that the former threefold cords of Oathes Protestation and Covenant could not resist those tides and stormes which have driven the whole Nation as to extern events and affaires from those grounds of fidelity and allegiance both as to Civill and Ecclesiasticall obedience whereon they thought they had conscienciously safely and quietly cast anchor according to laws Furthermore some mens non-engaging cannot be any great weakning to power however it may so seem to some mens jealousies and policies since no mans engaging seems to be any great fortifying of it For experience hath taught us how easily men are absolved from such publick ties seem they never so strict Nor is there any reason to think they will be stronger for the future than they were in former times Publique security doth not much consist in any verball formalities but in that efficacious power which men have by the sword and which they exercise as long as the Lord of all the world is pleased to execute his will Dan. 4.17 and pleasure by any men Next to power publique authority and safety riseth from the satisfaction of mens judgements as to the justice of mens proceedings winning respect and love by that equity in government and moderation which is according to Laws setled and known not by arbitrarines of will and meer force which as to the principle is tyrannous be it never so tempered in the exercise Under any such orderly Government wise Christians and Ministers know how with humility peace and patience to submit as farre as is agreeable to piety and necessary for the publique peace no lesse than for their private safety Last of all Possibly those men whose interests made them most forward at first to goe in these new and untrodden wayes found them not so smooth without any rub or scruple in their own judgements and consciences that they should greatly wonder if others who are onely driven that way without their choice counsell or consent doe fear or finde something in it which makes them startle or stumble And truly in this point without any further arguing which is neither safe nor discreet as to publique resolutions of State in any private man it must be freely confessed that some Ministers as well as other sober men doe humbly cast themselves on the mercy of God and the * Novum imperium inchoantibus utilis clementiae famae Tacit. h. â—4 clemency of those in power hoping for such toleration and connivence in this particular as many did plead for and injoy in their former non-conformities which favour they may best deserve because they will least abuse it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their quiet and godly carriage being as great security to Governours as any oath can be from others Viri boni constans vita vim habet juramenti Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. Behaving themselves within those bounds of discretion peaceablenesse and civill subjection which becomes them and all truly wise and godly men in the many tossings and changes to which they are subjected as other mortals in this mutable world In all which if the strictnesse of religion terrifies any good Christians with the fear of any thing Zach. 8.16 7. that lookes like false Oathes or perjury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Car. 158. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocat Thucid. l. 1. quos infoederibus pangendis invocabant one of the blackest stains most indeleble spots and unpardonable sins of the soul being a blaspheming denying and defying of God yet certainly it allowes the most consciencious men whereever their worldly necessities and livelihoods force them to live under any power such latitudes of honest and peaceable subjection in things meerly civill and externall as may not alwayes force them upon banishments prisons and persecutions or else evermore embroile them with civill wars and open hostilities even there where they cannot hope to preserve themselves without a miracle A wise and humble Christian is never far from his refuge And when pursued or urged beyond what he thinkes agreeable to a good conscience he is not to seek for base and Foxes shifts subtill windings or sinfull coverts He is alwayes ready either fairly to obey or fairly to suffer He needes not wiredraw his conscience till it fits every State passage if the way of the world be strait yet Gods is still inlarged to him if the worlds be large yet he still keeps to Gods strictnesse Certainly good men ought not too rashly to
but cruell actors in their distresses whose necessities must needs be some reproach of the Nation even a publique sin and shame never to be expiated Will it not be the height of barbarity to compell such persons to Bellisarius his Obolum After so many learned victories and triumphs to force them to turn their bookes into bread or to be their own Cannibals to feed on their owne bowels or to starve upon others uncharitablenesse O how sad and sordid is it for such learned worth to be tryed with want and such piety be exercised by penury O prodigy of covetous cruelty capable to astonish heaven and earth which seekes to hide its wickednesse by its enormity and to make its selfe incredible by its monstrosity and excesse men will think it a fable which humanity much more Christianity should so much abhor to act or suffer to be done when it is in their power to help O Divine Providence which art indisputable unsearchable uneffable how dost thou thus chuse darknesse for the garment of thy glorious lights and thick clouds of obscurity wherein to wrap up thy brightest beames among mankinde Art thou preparing Ravens for such Eliasses and working wonders for the nourishment of such Prophets or shall their retirednesse poverty and patience be thy greatest wonder and their Martyrdome thy highest miracle by which to convince and convert this crooked and adulterous generation Truly O excellent Christians it is infinite pity grief and shame that so deserving vertues and most reverend years should be so much obscured and neglected whose great learning and excellent gifts in all kindes no men or Christians would despise or not use and incourage save onely such as are afraid that either the true reformed Religion or true Ministers should have any lustre put upon them or so much as any competent livelyhood afforded to them here while forain Churches and Universities admire them and would gladly entertain them There are also some fair Plantations of young and thrifty trees yet left in this Church whose luxuriant floridnesse wants nothing but a right Church government to culture prune and order them These rightly planted out by due ordination and preserved by wise discipline would in time bear store of good fruits if the coldnesse and spowinesse of the soil and inclemency of the English climate ever since our Northern blasts did not make them dwindle grow mossy and shrubbed by popular and plebeian adherencies or if a violent hand doe not pluck them up by the root or so bark them round and circumcise their maintenance that no fair fruit can be expected from them when there is no sap derived to them who if they were duly ordered and incouraged would still make the vain and erratick genius of this age see That true Religion is to be preserved and the Kingdom of Christ in mens hearts advanced and the power of godlinesse maintained in Christians lifes not by new modes and fancifull fashion but by old truths and the old Ministry of whose line and measure these new pretenders coming far short they strive by their calumniating activity to supply their defects after the same arts that the ungrateful sons of Sophocles did who that they might get their fathers estate of whose longaevity they were impatient complained that hee doted and was past the use of those admired parts which formerly had got him the love and applause of all Athens beseeching the Magistracy that they might make their father their pupill and manage that estate for him to which he was superannuated The old man hearing of this practise of his unnaturall sons made and publiquely recited the famous Oâ—â—ipus Coloneus and last of his Tragedies which gave the people so great assurance of his still remaining reason and sufficiency that they caused the former unjust grant to be revoked and his unworthy sons worthily punished 18. The impertinency and insufficiency of the Antiministerial pretenders I must in like manner leave it to the judgement and conscience of all excellent Christians whether there be any compare betweene the gifts labours and successes of those goodly Trees the true Ministers who have had the right power and succession derived to them from the Apostolicall root and these new shooters or suckers who seek to starve the ancient trees which so far exceed them and over drop them Are they not like vines and brambles thorns and figtrees set together Is not the comparison uncomely and disparaging not onely to Christians judgements but to their very religion Can the exchange passe without infinite losse injury and indignity to all true Christians of this and all other reformed Churches And therefore I shall presume such a commutation can never be desirable or acceptable to any that are soberly religious and truly consciencious who have no secular interest wrapped up under specious pretensions of piety Wise and worthy Christians cannot but remember and be extreamly sensible of those many great benefits which their forefathers themselves and their countrey have evidently received and enjoyed many years by the labors of the true Ministers of this Church equall or like to which they cannot with any probability nor by any experience yet had expect from the sorry simplicity and extravagant ignorance of those Antiministeriall adversaries who have as little ability as authority to carry on the great and holy work of saving soules either by dispelling ignorance errours or prejudices out of mens mindes or by setling mens judgements in truth or satisfying mens consciences in doubts or by reforming mens manners in a way of due reproof and discreet counsell or by vindicating the reformed Religion against learned cunning and powerfull opposers or by preserving any decency order and honor in the outward form and profession of Christian Religion which will soon deform to all contrary effects if other Ministry or Ministers be applyed than such as Christ hath instituted and the Church alwayes ordained and sent in Christs Name No man then can desire or design the change of this Ministry as to the authority order rule and succession who doth not also aime at the change of the whole Ministration and work Indeed those rude and unchristian novelties which some men seeme to agitate carry the aspect not onely of Papists and other collaterall adversaries against us as reformed but of Jews and Turks and Heathens such as would most diametrally oppose the name of any Christian Church or which is as bad or worse they seeme to prepare the way for some great Antichrists 2 Thes 2.10 11. whose coming must be by strong pretensions and presumptions of some new wayes of Ministry Sanctity and Piety in which are hidden the strongest delusions most probable to overthrow the true Ministry and Churches of Christ while they shall speciously cry up such new wayes of Ministry and spirit and gifts and Churches which neither we nor our forefathers nor primitive Christians nor the Church Catholick ever knew or were acquainted with either by
Christ who is already come to judgement with whom his Saints are now risen and dayly rising seeing him not as in a glasse of means darkly but by immediate Visions glorious Manifestations speciall Inspirations plenary Inhabitations thus fitting on Thrones and Reigning with Christ in his Kingdom Whom would not these Trumpets awake and these alarms call forth if we were not forewarned by Christ and if we had not seen such follies formerly acted and manifested to all the Christian world and sufficiently confuted in all ages which never amounted to more than Religious Tragedies Gâ—miâ—a deformitas at nocumentum tragicum miserorum religiosa delicta for when the masks of personated Prophets and necessâ—tous Saints and hungry Enthusiasts and idle Seraphicks were taken off which they put on either by the power or presumptions they had among the Vulgar presently there appeared the horns of the Beast in pride ambition luxury polygamy cruelty Cyp. Ep. 2. Sleidan Com. l. 4. tyranny confusion That those who seemed to have come down from heaven in the shews of the Spirit and pretentions of Sanctity were but Satans lightnings falling down from heaven and his most abominable eructations out of the bottomelesse pit If we other poor Christians who still remain on the other side of this Jordan which those Spiritosoes pretend to have passed if wee who creep on the ground as worms and no men who have dayly cause to abhor our selves in dust and ashes who are forced dayly to strengthen our faith to renew our repentance to poure forth our souls oft in sighs tears prayers with broken hearts and contrite spirits contending with corruptions wresting with temptations having enough to doe to fortifie our selves with the compleat armour of Gods Word in Precepts and Promises and of his Spirit in gracious habits excitations to and assistances in duties 2 Pet. 1.10 Thus giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure not counting our selves to have comprehended but pressing on to the mark of the price of the high calling in Christ Jesus Glorying in nothing but in the crosse of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.14 Gal. 6.14 by which we are crucified to the honours riches policies successes flatteries and glories of this inglorious world yea to the Liberties Religions Devotions Sanctities new Churches new Reformations and new Ministers of this world who forsaking the wayes of Christ and the holy Apostles and the ancient Churches and the true succession of Ministers and all Power have turned grace into wantonnesse liberty into licentiousnesse godlinesse into gain and very much embraced the present world falling down before Mammon and worshipping the false gods of this world If we who when we have suffered much and done something in our endeavours and purposes of holinesse yet find cause to cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Rom. 7.24 if we could indeed believe or find by experience that the exaltations and Raptures of these new pretenders to the Spirit were more comfortable than the bufferings of those good old Christians That their triumphs in the world were beyond the others sufferings from the world that there were more of Christ in their new Crowns of glory which they boast of than in the others Crosses which they patiently bare If we could discern a more self-denying Spirit a more Christ-enjoying Sanctity That they were Saints that is Not crucifiers of the world but crucified to the world If we could see the wounds of Christ in these glorious apparitions these Christ-like phantasms as Antony the Hermite required Non credam esse Christum nisi vulnera videam crucifixi in vita Anâ— when Satan appeared to him like Christ in glory If that Purity Chastity Justice Honesty Contentednesse Patience Charity Meeknesse Humility Peaceablenesse Fidelity Constancy and Orderlinesse shined in them wherein those holy men and women of old the Professors Confessors and Martyrs not getting but loosing Saints imitated the holy Lord Jesus and the most holy God according to the lively characters of true holinesse set down in the Scriptures If we saw such fruits of reall holinesse in their words pens and actions in their Doctrines and duties in their self-denials and Mortifications in their meetings and Fraternities in their Church Orders and Ministrations as might convince us that these pretenders to the Spirit and despisers of the Ministers have indeed more oâ— that light life and power of the holy Spirit of God than either true Christians or godly Ministers formerly had or now have in this or any other true Church of Christ How should we envy their blessednesse with an holy emulation How should we as Saint John to the Angell whom it may be he took for Jesus Christ be even ready to fall at their feet Revel 19 10. to kisse their footsteps to attend their directions to imitate their examples to partake of their raptures to pry into their third heavens to rise ascend reign and triumph to enjoy the holy Spirit and Christ and God with them to all which they in word and fancy pretend 7. Fallacies in this kind frequent among Enthusiasts But the triple Crown of meer titular and verball holinesse which is but copper gilded over moves us not further than to pity the sinner and to scorn the pride The Gnosticks Montanists Catharists of old the later rude and cruell phanaticks in Germany cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy holy holy to their parties and factions As if there were holy ambitions holy seditions holy covetousnesses holy sacriâ—edges holy obscenities holy cruelties holy confusions in the conversations of true Christians and spirituall men Or holy ignorances holy errours holy darknesses holy heresies holy schisms holy hypocrisies in their hearts and spirits As if no duties no Scriptures no Sacraments no Ministry or Ministers no Government or Governours of the Church were heretofore holy which were primitively and universally and constantly owned and observed in the Church of Christ as derived from him As if private fancies and solitary dreams and single imaginations of weak and silly men or women were now holyer or had more in them of the Spirit than the publique Oracles of the sure Word of God which the Catholick Church hath received from God by the hands of holy men and by a constant succession of an holy Ministry hath delivered to us with constancy and fidelity as to the main however particular branches or members of this Church may have failed and withered If these Antiministeriall Novellists have nothing whereby to set off their pretended gifts of the Spirit and singular holinesse but only novelty fancy and uncertain Inspirations nothing to cry down all former holy ways of the Church but this that they are conform to all Antiquity and Scripture regulations The least beam of whose glorious light alwayes either equalls or far exceeds their new either superfluous or dubious illuminations Truly they must give all learned and godly Ministers together