in a clean contrary consideration For our Saviour's election respected not any merit or worth but took them which were farthest off from likelihood of fitness that afterwards their supernatural ability and performance beyond hope might cause the greater admiration whereas in the other mere admiration of their singular and rare vertues was the reason why honours were inforced upon them which they of meekness and modesty did what they could to avoid But did they ever judge it a thing unlawful to wish or desire the Office the onely charge and bare Function of the Ministery Towards which labour what doth the blessed Apostle else but encourage saying He which desireth it is desirius of a good work What doth he else by such sentences but stir kindle and inflame ambition if I may term that desire ambition which coveteth more to testifie love by painfulness in God's service than to reap any other benefit Although of the very honour it self and of other emoluments annexed to such labours for more encouragement of man's industry we are not so to conceive neither as if no affection could be cast towards them without offence Onely as the Wise-man giveth counsel Seek not to be made a Iudge lest thou be not able to take away iniquity and lest thou fearing the person of the mighty shouldest commit an offence against thine uprightness so it always behoveth men to take good heed lest affection to that which hath in it as well difficulty as goodness sophisticate the true and sincere judgement which before-hand they ought to have of their own ability for want whereof many forward mindes have found in stead of contentment repentance But for as much as hardness of things in themselves most excellent cooleth the fervency of mens desires unless there be somewhat naturally acceptable to incite labour for both the method of speculative knowledge doth by things which we sensibly perceive conduct to that which is in nature more certain though less sensible and the method of vertuous actions is also to train Beginners at the first by things acceptable unto the taste of natural appetite till our mindes at the length be settled to embrace things precious in the eye of reason merely and wholly for their own sakes howsoever inordinate desires do hereby take occasion to abuse the Polity of God and Nature either affecting without worth or procuring by unseemly means that which was instituted and should be reserved for better mindes to obtain by more approved courses in which consideration the Emperours Anthemius and Leo did worthily oppose against such ambitious practises that antient and famous Constitution wherein they have these sentences Let not a Prelate be ordained for reward or upon request who should be so farr sequestred from all ambition that they which advance him might be fain to search where he hideth himself to entreat him drawing back and to follow him till importunity have made him yield let nothing promote him but his excuses to avoid the burthen they are unworthy of that Vocation which are not thereunto brought unwillingly notwithstanding we ought not therefore with the odious name of Ambition to traduce and draw into hatred every poor request or suit wherein men may seem to affect honour seeing that Ambition and Modesty do not always so much differ in the mark they shoot at as in the manner of their Prosecution Yea even in this may be errour also if we still imagine them least ambitious which most forbear to stir either hand or foot towards their own Preserments For there are that make an Idol of their great sufficiency and because they surmise the place should be happy that might enjoy them they walk every where like grave Pageants observing whether men do not wonder why so small account is made of so rare worthiness and in case any other man's advancement be mentioned they either smile or blush at the marvellous folly of the world which seeth not where dignities should offer themselves Seeing therefore that suits after spiritual Functions may be as ambitiously forborn as prosecuted it remaineth that the everest line of moderation between both is neither to follow them without conscience not of pride to withdraw our selves utterly from them 78. It pleased Almighty God to chuse to himself for discharge of the legal Ministery one onely Tribe out of twelve others the Tribe of Levi not all unto every divine service but Aaron and his Sons to one charge the rest of that sanctified Tribe to another With what Solemnities they were admitted into their Functions in what manner Aaron and his successours the High-Priests ascended every Sabboth and Festival day offered and ministred in the Temple with what Sin-offering once every year they reconciled first themselves and their own house afterwards the People unto God how they confessed all the iniquities of the Children of Israel laid all their trespasses upon the head of a sacred Goat and so carried them one of the City how they purged the Holy place from all uncleanness with what reverence they entred within the Vail presented themselves before the Mercy-seat and consulted with the Oracle of God What service the other Priests did continually in the Holy Place how they ministred about the Lamps Morning and Evening how every Sabbath they placed on the Table of the Lord those twelve Loaves with pure incense in perpetual remembrance of that mercy which the Fathers the twelve Tribes had found by the providence of God for their food when hunger caused them to leave their natural soyl and to seek for sustenance in Egypt how they imployed themselves in sacrifice day by day finally what Offices the Levites discharged and what Duties the rest did execute it were a labour too long to enter into it if I should collect that which Scriptures and other antient Records do mention Besides these there were indifferently out of all Tribes from time to time some call'd of God as Prophets fore-shewing them things to come and giving them counsel in such particulars as they could not be directed in by the Law some chosen men to read study and interpret the Law of God as the Soones or Scholars of the old Prophets in whose room afterwards Scribes and Expounders of the Law succeeded And because where so great variety is if there should be equality confusion would follow the Levites were in all their Service at the appointment and direction of the Sons of Aaron or Priests they subject to the principal Guides and Leaders of their own Order and they all in obedience under the High Priest Which difference doth also manifest it self in the very Titles that men for Honours sake gave unto them terming Aaron and his Successours High or Great the Antients over the Companies of Priests Arch-Priests Prophets Fathers Scribes and Interpreters of the Law Masters Touching the Ministery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the whole Body of the Church being divided into Laity and Clergy the Clergy are
much prudence and tenderness so happily begun and prosecuted with more zeal then the establishment of Your own Throne The still crazy Church of England together with this Book its great and impregnable Shield do further need and humbly implore Your Majesties Royal Protection under God Nor can Your Majesty by any generous instance and perseverance most worthy of a Christian King more express that pious and grateful sense which God and all good Men expect from Your Majesty as some retribution for his many miraculous mercies to Your Self then in a wise speedy and happy setling of our Religious peace with the least grievance and most satisfaction to all Your good Subjects Sacred Order and Uniformity being the centre and circumference of our Civil Tranquillity Sedition naturally rising out of Schism and Rebellion out of Faction The onely cure and antidote against both are good Laws and Canons first wisely made with all Christian Moderation and Seasonable Charity next duly executed with Iustice and Impartiality which sober Severity is indeed the greatest Charity to the Publique Whose Verity Vnity Sanctity and Solemnity in Religious Concernments being once duly established must not be shaken or sacrificed to any private varieties and extravagancies Where the internals of Doctrines Morality Mysteries and Evangelical Duties being as they are in the Church of England sound and sacred the externals of decent Forms Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies being subordinate and servient to the main cannot be either evil or unsafe neither offensive to God nor good Christians For the attaining of which blessed ends of Piety and Peace that the sacred Sun and Shield of the Divine Grace and Power directing and protecting may ever shine upon Your Majesties Person and Family Counsels and Power is the humble Prayer of Your Sacred Majesties most Loyal Subject and devoted Servant IOH. EXON TO THE READER I Think it necessary to inform my Reader that Doctor Gauden the late Bishop of Worcester hath also lately wrote and publisht the Life of Master Hooker and though this be not writ by design to oppose what he hath truly written yet I am put upon a neccessity to say That in it there be many Material Mistakes and more Omissions I conceive some of his Mistakes did proceed from a Belief in Master Thomas Fuller who had too hastily published what be hath since most ingenuously retracted And for the Bishops Omissions I suppose his more weighty Business and Want of Time made him pass over many things without that due Examination which my better Leisure my Diligence and my accidental Advantages have made known unto me And now for my self I can say I hope or rather know there are no Material Mistakes in what I here present to you that shall become my Reader Little things that I have received by Tradition to which there may be too much and too little Faith given I will not at this distance of Time undertake to justifie for though I have used great Diligence and compared Relations and Circumstances and probable Results and Expressions yet I shall not impose my Belief upon my Reader I shall rather leave him at liberty But if there shall appear any Material Ommission I desire every Lover of truth and the Memory of Master Hooker that it may be made known unto me And to incline him to it I here promise to acknowledge and rectifie any such Mistake in a second Impression which the Printer says he hopes for and by this means my weak but faithful Endeavours may become a better Monument and in some degree more worthy the Memory of this Venerable Man I confess that when I consider the great Learning and Vertue of Master Hooker and what satisfaction and Advantages many Eminent Scholars and Admirers of him have had by his Labours I do not a little wonder that in Sixty years no man did undertake to tell Posterity of the Excellencies of his Life and Learning and the Accidents of both and sometimes wonder more at my self that I have been perswaded to it and indeed I do not easily pronounce my own Pardon nor expect that my Reader shall unless my Introduction shall prove my Apology to which I refer him The Copy of a Letter writ to Mr. Walton by Dr. King Lord Bishop of Chichester Honest ISAAC THough a Familiarity of Forty years continuance and the constant experience of your Love even in the worst times be sufficient to indear our Friendship yet I must confess my affection much improved not onely by evidences of private respect to those very many that know and love you but by your new demonstration of a Publick Spirit testified in a diligent true and useful Collection of so many Material Passages as you have now afforded me in the Life of Venerable Mr. Hooker Of which since desired by such a Friend as yourself I shall not deny to give the Testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned Books but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you that you have been happy in chusing to write the Lives of three such Persons as Posterity hath just cause to honour which they will do the more for the true Relation of them by your happy Pen of all which I shall give you my unfeigned Censure I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable Friend Dr. Donne late Dean of St. Pauls Church who not only trusted me as his Executor but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent Sermons of his which are now made publick professing before Dr. Winniff Dr. Montford and I think your self then present at his bed-side that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the Press together with which as his best Legacy he gave me all his Sermon-Notes and his other Papers containing an Extract of near Fifteen hundred Authors How these were got out of my hands you who were the Messenger for them and how lost both to me and your self is not now seasonable to complain but since they did miscarry I am glad that the general Demonstration of his Worth was so fairly preserved and represented to the World by your Pen in the History of his Life indeed so well that beside others the best Critick of our later time Mr. Iohn Hales of Eaton Colledge affirm'd to me He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the Subject or more reputation to the Writer than that of Dr. Donnes After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne you undertook the like office for our Friend Sir Henry Wolton betwixt which two there was a Friendship begun in Oxford continued in their various Travels and more confirm'd in the religious Friendship of Age and doubtless this excellent Person had writ the Life of Dr. Donne if Death had not prevented him by which means his and your Pre-collections for that Work fell to the happy manage of your Pen A Work which you would have declin'd if imperious perswasions had not
Reasons were not powerful enough to incline him to a willing acceptance of it his wish was rather to gain a better Country Living where he might be free from Noise so he exprest the desire of his Heart and eat that bread which he might more properly call his own in privacy and quietness But notwithstanding this aversness he was at last perswaded to accept of the Bishops Proposal and was by Patent for Life made Master of the Temple the 17th of March 1585. He being then in the 34th year of his Age. And here I shall make a stop and that the Reader may the better judge of what follows give him a Character of the Times and Temper of the people of this Nation when Mr. Hooker had his Admission into this Place A Place which he accepted rather than desired and yet here he promised himself a virtuous quietness that blessed Tranquillity which he always prayed and laboured for that so he might in Peace bring forth the Fruits of Peace and glorifie God by uninterrupted Prayers and praises for this he always thirsted and yet this was denied him For his Admission into this Place was the very beginning of those Oppositions and Anxieties which till then this Good man was a stranger to and of which the Reader may guess by what follows In this Character of the Times I shall by the Readers favour and for his information look so far back as to the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth a time in which the many pretended Titles to the Crown the frequent Treasons the Doubts of her Successour the late Civil War and the sharp Persecution that had raged to the effusion of so much Blood in the Reign of Queen Mary were fresh in the memory of all men and these begot fears in the most Pious and Wisest of this Nation least the like days should return again to them or their present Posterity The apprehension of which Dangers begot an earnest desire of a Settlement in the Church and State believing there was no other probable way left to make them sit quietly under their own Vines and Fig-trees and enjoy the desired Fruit of their Labours But Time and Peace and Plenty begot Self-ends and those begot Animosities Envy Opposition and Unthankfulness for those blessings for which they lately thirsted being then the very utmost of their Desires and even beyond their Hopes This was the temper of the Times in the beginning of her Reign and thus it continued too long For those very people that had enjoyed the desires of their hearts in a Reformation from the Church of Rome became at last so like the Grave as never to be satisfied but were still thirsting for more and more neglecting to pay that Obedience to Government and perform those Vows to God which they made in their days of Adversities and Fear so that in short time theree appeared thre several Interests each of them fearless and restless in the prosecution of their Designs they may for distinction be called The active Romanists The restless Non-conformists of which there were many sorts and The passive peaceable Protestant The Counsels of the first considered and resolved on in Rome the second in Scotland in Geneva and in divers selected secret dangerous Conventicles both there and within the bosom of our own Nation the third pleaded and defended their Cause by Establisht Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil and if they were active it was to prevent the other two from destroying what was by those known Laws happily establisht to them and their Posterity I shall forbear to mention the very many and as Dangerous Plots of the Romanists against the Church and State because what is principally intended in this Digression is an account of the Opinions and Activity of the Non-conformists against whose judgement and practice Mr. Hooker became at last but most unwillingly to be ingaged in a Book-war a War which he maintained not as against an Enemy but with the spirit of Meekness and Reason In which number of Non-conformists though some might be sincere and well-meaning men whose indiscreet zeal might be so like Charity as thereby to cover a multitude of Errors yet of this Party there were many that were possest with an high degree of Spiritual wickedness I mean with an innate restles radical Pride and Malice I mean not those lesser sins that are more visible and more properly Carnal and sins against a mans self as Gluttony and Drunkenness and the like from which good Lord deliver us but sins of an higher nature because more unlike to the nature of God which is Love and Mercy and Peace and more like the Devil who is not a glutton nor can be drunk and yet is a Devil those wickednesses of Malice and Revenge and Opposition and a Complacence in working and beholding Confusion which are more properly his work who is the Enemy and disturber of mankind and greater sins though many will not believe it Men whom a furious Zeal and Prejudice had blinded and made incapable of hearing Reason or adhearing to the ways of Peace Men whom Pride and Self-conceit had made to overvalue their own Wisdom and become pertinacious and to hold foolish and unmannerly disputes against those Men which they ought to Reverence and those Laws which they ought to obey Men that laboured and joyed to speak evil of Government and then to be the Authors of Confusion of Confusion as it is Confusion whom Company and Conversation and Custom had blinded and made insensible that these were Errours and at last became so restless and so hardened in their opinions that like those which perisht in the gain-saying of Core so these dyed without repenting these spiritual wickednesses of which Coppinger and Hacket and their adherents are too sad testimonies And in these times which tended thus to Coâ—fusion there were also many others that pretended a Tenderness of Conscience refusing to submit to Ceremonies or to take an Oath before a lawful Magistrate and yet these very Mâ—n did in their secret Conventicles Covenant and Swear to each other to be assiduous and faithful in using their best endeavours to set up a Church Government that they had not agreed on To which end there was many Select parties that wandered up and down and were active in sowing Discontents and Sedition by venemous and secret Murmurings and a Dispersion of scurrilous Pamphlets and Libels against the Church and State but especially against the Bishops by which means together with very bold and as indiscreet Sermons the Common people became so Phanatick as St. Peter observed there were in his time some that wrested the Scripture to their own destruction so by these men and this means many came to believe the Bishops to be Antichrist and the onely Obstructers of Gods Discipline and many of them were at last given over to such desperate delusions as to find out a Text in the Revelation of St. Iohn that Antichrist was to be
overcome by the sword which they were very ready to take into their hands So that those very men that began with tender meek Petitions proceeded to print publick Admonitions and then to Satyrical Remonstrances and at last having like David numbred who was not and who was for their Cause they got a supposed Certainty of so great a Party that they durst threaten first the Bishops and not long after both the Queen and Parliament to all which they were secretly encouraged by the Earl of Leicester then in great favour with her Majestie and the reputed Cherisher and Patron-general of these Pretenders to Tenderness of Conscience whom he used as a sacreligious snare to further his Design which was by their means to bring such an odium upon the Bishops as to procure an Alienation of their Lands and a large proportion of them for himself which Avaritious desire had at last so blinded his Reason that his ambitious and greedy Hopes had almost flattered him into present possession of Lambeth-house And to thse strange and dangerous Undertakings the Non-conformists of this Nation were much encouraged and heightened by a Correspondence and Confederacy with that Brotherhood in Scotland so that here they became so bold that one told the Queen openly in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heyfer that would not be ruled by Gods people but obstructed his Discipline And in Scotland they were more confident for there they declared Her an Atheist and grew to such an height as not to be accountable for any thing spoken against Her No nor for Treason against their own King if spoken in the Pulpit Shewing at last such a disobedience even to Him that His Mother being in England and then in distress and in prison and in danger of Death the Church denied the King their Prayers for Her and at another time when he had appointed a day of Feasting their Church declared for a general Fast in opposition to his Authority To this height they were grown in both Nations and by these means there was distill'd into the mindes of the common people such other venemous and turbulent Principles as were inconsistent with the safety of the Church and State And these vented so daringly that beside the loss of Life and Limbs the Church and State were both forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an excuse if it had not been to prevent Confusion and the perilous consequences of it which without such prevention would in short time have brought unavoidable ruine and misery to this numerous Nation These Errors and Animosities were so remarkable that they begot wonder in an ingenious Italian who being about this time come newly into this Nation writ scoffingly to a Friend in his own Countrey That the common people of England were wiser then the wisest of his Nation for here the very Women and Shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination and determine what Laws were fit to be made concerning Church Government then what were fit to be obeyed or abolished That they were more able or at least thought so to raise and determine perplex'd Cases of Conscience then the most Learned Colledges in Italy That Men of the slightest Learning and the most ignorant of the common people were mad for a new or Super or Re-Reformation of Religion and that in this they appeared like that man who would never cease to whet and whet his Knife till there was no Steel left to make it useful And he concluded his Letter with this observation That those very Men that were most busie in Oppositions and Disputations and Controversies and finding out the faults of their Governors had usually the least of Humility and Mortification or of the Power of Godliness And to heighten all these discontents and dangers there was also sprung up a Generation of Godless-men Men that had so long given way to their own Lusts and Delusions and had so often and so highly opposed the Blessed Motions of his Blessed Spirit and the inward Light of their own Consciences that they had thereby sinned themselves to a belief of what they would but were not able to believe Into a belief which is repugnant even to Humane nature for the Heathens believe there are many gods but these had sinned themselves into a belief that there is no God And so finding nothing in themselves but what is worse then nothing began to wish what they were not able to hope for That they should be like the Beasts that perish and in wicked company which is the Atheists Sanctuary were so bold as to say so Though the worst of mankinde when he is left alone at midnight may wish but cannot then think it Into this wretched this reprobate condition many had then sinned themselves And now When the Church was pestered with them and with all these other Irregularities when her Lands were in danger of Alienation her Power at least neglected and her Peace torn to pieces by several Schisms and such Heresies as do usually attend that sin When the common people seemed ambitious of doing those very things which were attended with most dangers that thereby they might be punished and then applauded and pittied When they called the Spirit of Opposition a Tender Conscience and complained of Persecution because they wanted power to persecute others When the giddy multitude raged and became restless to finde out misery for themselves and others and the râ—â—ble would herd themselves together and endeavor to govern and act in spight of Authority In this extremity fear and danger of the Church and State when to suppress the growing evils of both they needed a Man of Prudence and Piâ—ty and of an high and fearless Fortitude they were blest in all by Iohn Whitgift his being made Archbishop of Canterbury of whom ingenious Sir Henry Wotâ—on that knew him well hath left this true Character That he was a Man of a Reverend and Sacred Memory and of the Premitive temper A Man of such a temper as when the Church by lowliness of Spirit did flourish in highest examples of Vertue And though I dare not undertake to add to his Character yet I shall neither do right to this Discourse nor to my Reader if I forbear to give him a further and short account of the life and manners of this excellent Man and it shall be short for I long to end this digression that I may lead my Reader back to Mr. Hooker where we left him at the Temple Iohn Whitgift was born in the County of Lincoln of a Family that was ancient and noted to be prudent and affable and gentile by nature He was educated in Cambridge much of his Learning was acquired in Pembroke-Hall where Mr. Bradford the Martyr was his Tutor From thence he was remov'd to Peter-house from thence to be Master of Pembroke-Hall and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity Colledge About which time the Queen made him her Chaplain and not
it sundry things which the very words of the Scripture it self doth seem to allude unto us namely after departure from the Sepulchre unto the House whence the dead was brought it sheweth the manner of their Burial-feast and a consolatory form of Prayer appointed for the Master of the Synagogue thereat to utter albeit I may not deny but it hath also some things which are not perhaps so antsient as the Law and the Prophets But whatsoever the Jewes custom was before the dayes of our Saviour Christ hath it once at any time been heard of the either Church or Christian man of sound belief did ever judge this a thing unmeet undecent unfit for Christianity till these miserable daies wherein under the colour of removing superstitious abuses the most effectual means both to testifie and to strengthen true Religion are plucked at and in some places even pulled up by the very rootsâ— Take away this which was ordained to shew at Burials the peculiar hope of the Church of God concerning the dead and in the manner of those dumb Funerals what one one thing is there whereby the World may perceive we are Christian men 76. I come now unto that Function which undertaketh the publick Ministry of holy things according to the Laws of Christian Religion And because the nature of things consisting as this doth in action is known by the object whereabout they are conversant and by the end or scope whereunto they are referred we must know that the object of this Function in both God and Men God in that he is publickly worshipped of his Church and Men in that they are capable of happinesse by means which Christian Discipline appointeth So that the summe of our whole labour in this kinde is to honour God and to save men For whether we severally take and consider men one by one or else gather them into one Society and Body as it hath been before declared that every man's Religion is in him the Well-spring of all other sound and sincere vertues from whence both here in some sort and hereafter more abundantly their full joy and felicity ariseth because while they live they are blessed of God and when they dye their works follow them So at this present we must again call to minde how the very worldly peace and prosperity the secular happinesse the temporal and natural good estate both of all Men and of all Dominions hangeth chiefly upon Religion and doth evermore give plain testimony that as well in this as in other considerations the Priest is a pillar of that Common-wealth wherein he faithfully serveth God For if these Assertions be true first that nothing can be enjoyed in this present world against his will which hath made all things secondly that albeit God doth sometime permit the impious to have yet impiety permitteth them not to enjoy no not temporal blessings on earth thirdly that God hath appointed those blessings to attend as Hand-maids upon Religion and fourthly that without the work of the Ministry Religion by no means can possibly continue the use and benefit of that sacred Function even towards all mens worldly happiness must needs be granted Now the first being a Theoreme both understood and confest by all to labour in proof thereof were superfluous The second perhaps may be called in question except it be perfectly understood By good things temporal therefore we mean length of daies health of body store of friends and well-willers quietness prosperous success of those things we take in hand riches with fit opportunities to use them during life reputation following us both alive and dead children or such as instead of children we wish to leave Successors and Partakers of our happinesse These things are naturally every man's desire because they are good And on whom God bestoweth the same them we confesse he graciously blesseth Of earthly blessings the meanest is wealth reputation the chiefest For which cause we esteem the gain of honour an ample recompence for the losse of all other worldly benefits But for as much as in all this there is no certain perpetuity of goodnesse nature hath taught to affect these things not for their own sake but with reference and relation to somewhat independently good as is the exercise of vertue and speculation of truth None whose desires are rightly ordered would wish to live to breathe and move without performance of those actions which are beseeming man's excellencyâ— Wherefore having not how to employ it we wax weary even of life it self Health is precious because sickness doth breed that pain which disableth action Again why do men delight so much in the multitude of friends but for that the actions of life being many do need many helping hands to further them Between troublesome and quiet dayes we should make no difference if the one did not hinder and interrupt the other uphold our liberty of action Furthermore if those things we do succeed it rejoyceth us not so much for the benefit we thereby reap as in that it probably argueth our actions to have been orderly and well-guided As for riches to him which hath and doth nothing with them they are a contumely Honour is commonly presumed a sign of more than ordinary vertue and merit by means whereof when ambitious mindes thirst after it their endeavours are testimonies how much it is in the eye of nature to possesse that Body the very shadow whereof is set at so high a rate Finally such is the pleasure and comfort which we take in doing that when life forsaketh us still our desires to continue action and to work though not by our selves yet by them whom we leave behinde us causeth us providently to resign into other mens hands the helps we have gathered for that purpose devising also the best we can to make them perpetual It appeareth therefore how all the parts of temporal felicity are only good in relation to that which riseth them as instruments and that they are no such good as wherein a right desire doth ever stay or rest it self Now temporal blessings are enjoyed of those which have them know them esteem them according to that they are in their own nature Wherefore of the wicked whom God doth hate his usual and ordinary speeches are That blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes that God shall cause a pestilence to cleave unto the wicked and shall strike them with consuming grief with Feavers burning diseases and sores which are past cure that when the impious are fallen all men should tread them down and none shew countenance of love towards them as much as by pitying them in their misery that the sinnes of the ungodly shall beâ—eave them of peace that all counsels complots and practices against God shall come to nothing that the lot and inheritance of the unjust is beggery that the name of unrighteous Persons shall purifie and the posterity of Robbers starve If
either Presbyters or Deacons I rather term the one sort Presbyters than Priests because in a matter of so small moment I would not willingly offend their eares to whom the name of Priesthood is odious though without cause For as things are distinguished one from another by those true essential forms which being really and actually in them doe not onely give them the very last and highest degree of their natural perfection but are also the knot foundation and root whereupon all other inferiour perfections depend so if they that first do impose names did alwayes understand exactly the nature of that which they nominate it may be that then by hearing the termes of vulgar speech we should still be taught what the things themselves most properly are But because words have so many Artificers by whom they are made and the things whereunto we apply them are fraught with so many varieties it is not always apparent what the first Inventers respected much less what every man 's inward conceit is which useth their words For any thing my self can discern herein I suppose that they which have bent their study to search more diligently such matters do for the most part finde that Name 's advisedly given had either regard unto that which is naturally most proper or if perhaps to some other speciality to that which is sensibly most eminent in the thing signified and concerning popular use of words that which the wisedom of their Inventors did intend thereby is not commonly thought of but by the name the thing altogether conceived in gross as may appear in that if you ask of the common sort what any certain word for example what a Priest doth signifie their manner is not to answer a Priest is a Clergy-man which offereth sacrifice to God but they shew some particular Person whom they use to call by that name And if we lift to descend to Grammar we are told by masters in those Schools that the word Priest hath his right place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him whose meer Function or Charge is the service of God Howbeit because the eminentest part both of Heathenish and Jewish service did consist in Sacrifice when Learned-men declare what the word Priest doth properly signifie according to the minde of the first imposer of that name their ordinary Schools do well expound it to imply Sacrifice Seeing then that Sacrifice is now no part of the Church-Ministry how should the name of Priesthood be thereunto rightly applyed Surely even as Saint Paul applyeth the name of Flesh unto that very substance of Fishes which hath a proportionable correspondence to Flesh although it be in nature another thing Whereupon when Philosophers will speak warily they make a difference between Flesh in one sort of living Creatures and that other substance in the rest which hath but a kinde of analogy to Flesh the Apostle contrariwise having matter of greater importance whereof to speak nameth indifferently both Flesh. The Fathers of the Church of Christ with like security of speech call usually the Ministery of the Gospel Priesthood in regard of that which the Gospel hath proportionable to antient Sacrifices namely the Communion of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ although it hath properly now no Sacrifice As for the People when they hear the name it draweth no more their Mindes to any cogitation of Sacrifice than the name of a Senator or of an Alderman causeth them to think upon old age or to imagine that every one so termed must needs be antient because years were respected in the first nomination of both Wherefore to pass by the name let them use what dialect they will whether we call it a Priesthood a Presbytership or a Ministery it skilleth not Although in truth the word Presbyter doth seem more fit and in propriety of speech more agreeable than Priest with the drift of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. For what are they that embrace the Gospel but Sons of God What are Churches but his Families Seeing therefore we receive the Adoption and state of Sons by their Ministery whom God hath chosen out for that purpose seeing also that when we are the Sons of God our continuance is still under their care which were our Progenitors what better Title could there be given them than the reverend name of Presbyters or fatherly Guides The Holy Ghost throughout the body of the New Testament making so much mention of them doth not any where call them Priests The Prophet Esay I grant doth but in such sort as the antient Fathers by way of analogy A Presbyter according to the proper meaning of the New Testament is he unto whom our Saviour Christ hath communicated the power of Spiritual procreation Out of twelve Patriarks issued the whole multitude of Israel according to the flesh And according to the mystery of heavenly birth our Lord's Apostles we all acknowledge to be the Patriarks of his whole Church St. Iohn therefore beheld sitting about the Throne of God in Heaven four and twenty Presbyters the one half Fathers of the old the other of the new Ierusalem In which respect the Apostles likewise gave themselves the same Title albeit that name were not proper but common unto then with others For of Presbyters some were greater some lesse in power and that by our Saviour's own appointment the greater they which received fulness of Spiritual power the less they to whom less was granted The Apostle's peculiar charge was to publish the Gospel of Christ unto all Nations and to deliver them his Ordinances received by immediate revelation from himself Which preheminence excepted to all other Offices and Duties incident unto their Order it was in them to Ordain and Consecrate whomsoever they thought meet even as our Saviour did himself assign seventy other of his own Disciples inferiour Presbyters whose Commission to Preach and Baptize was the same which the Apostles had Whereas therefore we finde that the very first Sermon which the Apostles did publickly make was the conversion of above three thousand Souls unto whom there were every day more and more added they having no open place permitted them for the exercise of Christian Religion think we that Twelve were sufficient to teach and administer Sacraments in so many private places as so great a multitude of People did require This harvest our Saviour no doubt foreseeing provided accordingly Labourers for it before hand By which means it came to pass that the growth of that Church being so great and so sudden they had notwithstanding in a readiness Presbyters enough to furnish it And therefore the History doth make no mention by what occasion Presbyters were instituted in Ierusalem onely we read of things which they did and how the like were made afterwards elsewhere To these two Degrees appointed of our Lord and Saviour Christ his Apostles soon after annexed Deacons Deacons therefore must know