THE Bishop of LONDON's CHARGE TO THE Clergy of his Diocese AT HIS VISITATION Begun Ann. 1693 AND Concluded Ann. 1694. LONDON Printed by Benj. Motte 1696. THE Bishop of London's Charge TO THE CLERGY of his Diocess c. BRETHREN I Have always thought it my Duty upon these solemn Meetings to say something that might be most proper for your Notice And I believe there has rarely been a Time that afforded greater Variety of unhappy Circumstances than these we now labour under For we are divided into so many and such pernicious Principles that without the gracious Assistance of the Almighty to our utmost Care for the rooting of them out they will inevitably ruin both Church and State Obedience Truth and Sincerity Quietness Peace and Love are no longer the measures of Civil and Religious Behaviour but a noisie pretence of Liberty has with too many broken both the Tables If therefore I entertain you a little longer than ordinary with such Discourse as may call to your minds those good but forgotten Rules of former Times to encounter so universal a Depravation as we are at present involved in I hope you will bear with me For it is absolutely necessary where ye have so many obstinate Enemies to encounter that ye muster up all your Forces and put them in the best posture of Service for all Occasions I shall direct what I have to say by St. Paul's words to Timothy Take heed unto thy self and unto thy Doctrine Which tho' written to a Bishop are as justly applicable to any who minister about holy things I. The first of which words Take heed unto thy self directs 1. To your Vertuous and Godly Conversation in general as well as 2. To your special duty of walking orderly in the House of God 1. And reason good Since a sober and good Life is so extreamly necessary for the Edification of your Flocks For what an Awe and Reverence do we find an Upright Man to gain upon those that behold his Conversation The shining Light of a Righteous Man so discovers the shamefulness of the ways of Sinners that they are confounded to see their own Filthiness and from that time often commence true Penitents Therefore St. Peter seems to take it for granted that it was the sure and tryed way to win the Wicked to a Holy Life by leading such a one themselves Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles That whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of Visitation According to the words of our blessed Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven And it stands to all Reason in the World that it should be so For it puts Life into the Commandment and makes Religion truly active it raises it from the dead Letter to a living Sacrifice and cloaths it through the sanctifying Spirit with the Beauty of Holiness Besides it is natural for them that are habituated to do Evil to fancy it an impossible thing to observe the Law they having never experienced the Practice and their minds having been always alienated from the knowledge and understanding of it In which opinion they would be mightily confirmed should they find the Teachers of the Gospel not walking according to their own Rules For they will then cheerfully conclude that the Precepts of Holiness were given only for a Testimony of the Gospel Purity and to hold forth the Perfection and Excellence of Gods Law not in the least to oblige Men to the Observation of it And they have this ready Answer to put off all such unsanctified Teachers Physician heal thy self Tho' ye should lay Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept if you should not live up to your own Doctrine there would be as small hopes of Success as of Gods Blessing For since all things turn by Providence with what face can a sinner a persevering sinner expect that either his Prayers should be heard or his Endeavours prosper For the Lord is far from the wicked but he heareth the prayer of the righteous I leave it therefore to you my Brethren to consider with your selves whether you find people in these days so meek so gentle so easie to be intreated as not to need the best instructed and disposed Teachers and the most artificial in that Guile with which St. Paul tells the Corinthians he craftily caught them And if ye do not meet with so tractable a Generation as may tempt you to be remiss I beseech you for your own sakes and for theirs that are committed to your Charge not to faint in well doing since your Reward is certain Especially since there is no surer a way to put to silence those that dissent from us who are too apt to judge of the sincerity of our Doctrine from that of our Lives II. But this is not all your Task to set an Example of a vertuous and sober Life Ye have attained to a good degree when ye get so far yet if it be not attended with an orderly and conformable Behaviour ye will be in danger of turning your Righteousness into Sin by making it serve for a Cloak to Disorderliness and Schism which are always attended with Uncharitableness and for the most part with Confusion and every evil Work For should ye live never so strictly up to the general Rules of Morality yet if ye submit not your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake ye are Transgressors of the Word by breaking the Unity of the Spirit and the Bond of Peace For it is a Duty of that Importance I mean the Discipline of the Church that if it should not be observed it would be impossible to preserve Religion it self For Discipline consists of Decency and Order which two concur as the Fashion of a Frame does with the Frame it self The Word by which Order is expressed in Scripture is used by the Inspired Writers sometimes in a confin'd Sense and sometimes in a large one When they use it in a confin'd Sense they take it either for an appointed Time or for degrees of Men or for a set Course of performing any Office or for the Constitution of the Office it self When they take it in a large Sense they mean the Rule by which the Church directs and governs her Members and preserves Order within the Sanctuary the discreet and modest Observation of which gives a Lustre to that Decency in which Order is constituted And of the Word taken in this Sense ye have several Instances in Scripture which at the same time set forth the Value of the thing it self Let all things be done decently and in order Ioying and beholding your order We exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly Now we
command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us We behaved not our selves disorderly among you For by all this ye see what weight the Apostle puts upon the Order or Discipline of the Church The measure of which is expressed by the Word Canon Let us walk by the same Rule There are two sorts of Proofs that are enough to convince any Man that the Apostle had an eye in a great measure at least to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church when he made use of these words First The first is from Reason and that a Negative one which is the great Mischiefs that attend a remiss Conformity in You especially I. For it shakes the minds of your Flocks and either encourages them to have an ill opinion of your Constitution or at least to think very indifferently of it and to observe it accordingly II. It affords great matter of Triumph to those that are without when they find how little ye regard those very things for the retention of which too often they are separated from you III. Whoever is guilty of this Neglect and yet continues in the Communion of our Church must needs expose himself to the Censure of all sorts of Men. For what can be imagined to induce him to this Disorderliness but either that he is not satisfied in his own Mind to observe the Injunctions of the Church and is therefore a Knave for undertaking to do that which he thinks in Conscience he ought not to do or that he fears to displease some People lest their Favour and Contributions should fail whereby he becomes a Traditor in selling his Duty for a Morsel of Bread And in both Cases he is a perjur'd Person by breaking his Canonical Oath IV. But the certain effect of drawing several ways in our course of Worship will be a coldness of Affection from the difference of Minds and that soon improves into Strife and Contention For when Men set their Hearts upon any thing that meets with Opposition they are presently in a Flame as not enduring to be thought in the Wrong This is so evident through the whole Conversation of Mankind that he must wink very hard that sees it not What Heats what Animosities nay many times what Enmities what Contentions what Wars have ensued upon Differences in very Trifles Now by how much the greater the Consequence is of the Matter in debate so much the warmer prove the train of Passions raised upon it and the more in earnest a Man is the apter is he to be froward especially if he get into a Wrong way For Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Secondly The Second Proof is from Authority and such an Authority so clear and plain that one would wonder how ever it could enter into the heart of Man to question the Observation of an innocent Ceremony or Rite in Worship 1. For the Holy Scripture is so clear in this Point that even the Old Testament which is made up of Types and Figures Rites and Ceremonies and of Gods own Appointment yet admitted of Changes Additions and Alterations the Authority of which Practice our Saviour himself confirms by his own Communion with them The several Orders and Classes of the Priests and Levites appointed by the Kings of Iuda continued till that day The change of Posture in keeping the Passover was observed by him and he honoured the Feast of Dedication a new Feast with his own Presence When the Shadows were vanished away and the Substance was come then were Rites and Ceremonies no more a part of Religion but only so far in use as the necessity of Decency and Order required in the Judgment of those who had the Rule over the Church so that from a direct Obligation upon the Conscience they became only relatively so For now it is purely in obedience to our Superiours and to avoid the scandal of Irregularity and the duty of the Observation is no longer lived than the Will of Man But if ye will do your Duty throughly ye must do your diligence to keep your Flocks to the same Regularity ye observe your selves And give me leave here to make a Moral Application of some Texts which I have already made a critical use of Ye know how frequently in other words St. Paul urges this Doctrine Let all things be done decently and in order With what Earnestness I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same things and that there be no divisions Schisms among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment For tho this cannot be observed in a Literal and Overt Sense yet in a Moral one it may by Silence and Forbearance for the sake of Peace and just deference to Authority And to what an excellent End If it be possible as much as lyeth in you live peaceably with all men To the same purpose is that Exhortation to the Hebrews Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works And that the Opportunity of doing this so necessary a Performance may not be lost this Warning is given them in the next Words Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another And to prevent the counterfeit Pretence of Modesty in keeping back from the Congregation till a more perfect Knowledge be attained to the Apostle St. Paul says Nevertheless whereunto we have attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing For while one says I am of Paul another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal Therefore I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned And why is he so earnest in giving caution against such Men Because such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their own bellies and by fair words and soft speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And so Deceive them as to draw them into Envy and Strife For this the Apostle takes for granted to be the inevitable issue of Schism For whereas there is envying and strife and division among you For when one says I am of Paul another I am of Apollos c. And we know the constant Companions of Strife and Envying For There is confusion and every evil work But God is not the author of confusion I cannot tell that stronger Words may be given either by Admonition or from Reason than what are here alledged out of Scripture tho' much more might be drawn from the same Fountain at least as home to the same Purposes For we see how carefully the Holy Spirit directs to Union and Unanimity and with what severe Characters he stigmatizes the
best of Pretences to the contrary The specious colour of Edification and a more holy Worship is blown off with the plain Discovery of having Mens Persons in admiration and the shameful minding of Earthly Things And yet lest neither Admonition nor Warning with evidence of Reason should prevail St. Paul fortifies his Commands from the Example of his own Practice Now we command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received from us For your selves know how ye ought to follow us for we behaved not our selves disorderly among you The word Disorderly in the Original is borrowed from the Military Discipline as may be seen in the Martial Laws of Athens amongst which I cannot forbear to mention Three because they do so exactly square with the Constitution of Ecclesiastical Affairs For if we consider the Church as it is Militant the Laws need only be mentioned to shew their fitness for either Discipline The first puts a badge of Disgrace upon those that take the Profession upon them without being sent The next punishes those that break their Ranks and do not observe Order In the same Law and under the same Penalties are comprehended such as run away from their Colours and will serve in their Place no longer but it may be betake themselves to some other Calling being mentioned under the Title of Desertens The third Law is against such as cast away their Arms and will not Labour in their Calling And Disorderliness seems to take in all the Faults where the Law in general prescribes to all Behaviour Good and Bad. Let those that have behaved themselves well be advanced and the disorderly degraded Thus much I have said to demonstrate that whilst we are in the Flesh we must take such Measures as are best suited to our Infirmities and which are so absolutely necessary to our Condition here below that no Proposition in Euclid can be better made out For all Vocations and Professions are Practised by some agreed and set Rules which cannot be Transgressed without hurt to the Constitution and a great part of this consists in the Behaviour of such Members as make up the Corporation who for this end ought every one to keep to his proper Station and to mind his own Business and not anothers In Matters of Speculation we all agree in the common Rules for supporting the Truth of Propositions and look upon it as a Jest when any one goes about to question them The Data in Geometry and the Propositions deduced from them have remained uncontested unless by some vain or wanton Scepticks from their first Assertion to this day Now I think the best Thought why Moral Maxims and Proofs do not pass so current has been not that these are less evident in themselves than those other but they are engaged with the Affections and Interests of Men which oftentimes stifle the most flaming and unquestionable Truths with the gross Mists of corrupt Prejudices After all a Man may no doubt and ought to withdraw himself from the Communion of a Church which exacts a Consent to false and pernicious Doctrines or a Compliance with unlawful Practices But then he must be sure to go upon a good Bottom and not out of a weak and crazy Humour make that Sinful which is Indifferent nor make the Faults of others an Occasion of his committing a greater by Separation Ye know St. Paul's Opinion in the case of receiving the blessed Sacrament and let us see what was the Practice of the greatest and best Men in after-Times By no means are we to quit the Unity of the Church for fear of Communion with wicked men St. Cyprian was fully persuaded that the Church was under a great Mistake and that it did grievously err in not Rebaptizing of Hereticks which Opinion he pursued so far as to call a Provincial Council about it and there Establish it and yet all this could not induce him to a Separation from the rest of the Churches Ye are used says St. Augustin to the Donatists to urge Cyprian ' s Letters Cyprian ' s Opinion Cyprian ' s Council Why do ye make use of Cyprian ' s Authority to justify your Schism and reject his Example in preserving the peace of the Church Nay he quotes his Authority as well as Practice For says he when writing to Antoninus he held forth to him that by no means before the time of the last Separation of the Iust and Unjust are we to depart from the Unity of the Church by reason of mixt Communion whereby he shew'd what a Holy Man he was and how most worthy the renown of that Martyrdom which he attained to He then says What a swelling of Arrogance is it what a forgetfulness of Humility and Gentleness and how great a boasting of his Arrogance that any one should dare or believe that he could do what the Lord did not allow so much as to his Apostles that he should think himself able to discern between the Tares and the Wheat Ye may see then Brethren what manner of Spirit they are of who wittingly Promote the scandal of Schism For a great Difference must be made between poor Simple Souls seduced and them that pretend to Knowledge These latter are those to whom St. Cyprian addresses himself and who are so remote from the Meek and Lowly Temper of our blessed Lord from that Humility upon which God bestows his Grace Were we really cloathed with Humility we should be Subject one to another and not blow our selves up with Imaginary Reasons and Self pleasing Principles to the subverting of the Churches Peace for Things that are entirely in the disposal of Authority being in themselves Indifferent So that he must have a very strong Bias let him make what Grimace he pleases that can be Troublesome upon this account purely for Conscience sake But ye have so full Discussions of this Point in Dr. Whitgift's Answer to an Admonition to the Parliament and his Vindication of that Answer Dr. Morton of the Three Ceremonies and Dr. Burges his Vindication and Cassander Anglicanus written by Mr. Sprint 1618. who had been formerly a Non-Conformist that ye will find better and sounder Store in your Studies than I can pretend to furnish you with Only give me leave to quote to you one Passage in an Account of the Habassin Religion and Customs composed by Zaga Zaba the King of Ethiopia's Ambassador at Lisbon We do observe nothing but what we find in the Law and the Prophets and in the Books of the Synods of the Apostles or if any thing else is observed by us it is done only for the sake of Order and for the Peace of the Church so as not to reckon it a Sin not to observe it that is simply in it self abstract from Scandal or perverse
Intention II. And to your Doctrine Which is the other part of the Charge and is that Depositum which the Apostle so carefully minds him of O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust Which Trust is not only generally agreed by Commentators to be the Doctrine of the Gospel but is I think evidently so explain'd from the Words of the same Apostle to the same Person The things that thou hast heard of us among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Now this is the Foundation of our whole Religion For upon this we build our Faith our Works and the whole Frame of our Righteousness By the sound Expression of this we square all our Religious Thoughts and Actions avoiding prophane and vain janglings and opposition of Science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Our Office for Ordaining Priests takes a just and a wise course to prevent running after every Spirit and taking up Doctrines upon too easie Terms when it exacts this Promise of those that are to be Ordained To teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal Salvation but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture All other Writings derive their Authority from the Author's Veracity or Judgment the former qualifies him for a good Witness and the second for a good Judge but yet so as to be Tryed by the Touchstone of the Holy Scripture The four first General Councils have a particular Weight 1. From the great Credit of those that sate in them and 2. From the Universal Deference paid to them by all Churches in all Ages Therefore our Constitutions give no Authority or Power to order determine or adjudge any Matter or Cause to be Heresie but only such as heretofore have been determined ordered and adjudg'd to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scripture or by the first Four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same have been declar'd Heresie by the express and plain Words of the said Canonical Scripture or such as hereafter shall be ordered judged or determined to be Heresie by the High Court of Parliament of this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation By which Words ye see 1. The sure Foundation our Church is built upon the Holy Scripture and what is Authoritatively delivered from it and agreeable to it 2. The just Method for Establishing any Doctrine so delivered not by the confus'd way of setting up private Spirits but according to the Mind of that God who is the God of Peace by submitting to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme c. that is by the most Publick General and Authentick Consent that a Nation is capable of which with us is that of Parliament and Convocation What had the Apostles to justify St. Paul against the Complaints of the Iews but by convincing them that he walk'd orderly and kept the law However there is a Just and Decent Liberty due to all Christians whereby to Judge for themselves in the Essentials of Religion But yet such a Liberty it is as is beset on each hand with most dangerous Rocks such as threaten Shipwrack to any Vessel that shall Strike upon them For if on the one hand we run into that Popish Extreme to take away all Liberty by an absolutely blind Obedience and implicite Faith swallowing down all that is given without Tasting or Chewing upon it we act more like Beasts than Men and as easily take down Poyson as wholesom Food but on the other hand if with the Fanatick we assume to our selves an unlimited Power of following the Wild-goose-Chase of our wanton and uncertain Imaginations we shall Tear the Church in Ten Thousand Pieces and expose it to all Uncharitableness And therefore a Sober Christian tempers all his Proceedings with Modesty and Humility and has that discreet Jealousie of himself as wherever he breaks Communion to do it upon so certain Grounds that the Grievousness of the Error imposed or the Wickedness of the Fact commanded shall be Notoriously evident Otherwise in the Meekness of Wisdom he defers to the Judgment of his Neighbours rather than to his own and thinks himself in Modesty in common Discretion and in Duty bound for the sake of Peace Unity and Concord to submit to the Determination of his Superiours especially in Authoritative Assemblies For in the multitude of counsellors there is safety And we have a Proverb which is deriv'd from its Authority He that is his own adviser has a fool to his counsellor Indeed it is want either of Judgment or Honesty that makes Men give in so much to their own Opinions and so little to those of others For it is certain the chief End of our being Conversable and Sociable Creatures was that we might be Assisting one to another and the more Important and Universal the Subject is the greater regard ought to be had to its Determination So that not only in Things Indifferent where it is absolutely our Duty to submit but much more in the Weightiest Matters of the Law where our Eternal Welfare is so immediately concerned we ought with the greatest Care and Caution to Proceed and never think we can take too much Advice That Noted Mark of Catholick Truth which Vincentius Lirinensis Prescribes to Submit to that which has been believed in all places at all times and by all goes a great way with every Modest and truly Humble Christian. Because the Starting of Doubts and Questions so Confound the Apprehensions of Men oftentimes that it is very hard for them to come to a Resolution of themselves And in that Case there is no other way to come to the Acknowledgment of the Truth but by a Prudent Deference to Authority For we cannot well imagine it Consistent with the Divine Goodness and Wisdom to suffer an Error so to Prevail or rather to Reign so absolutely in his Church as to bear these three Atchievments I question whether ever any Heresie attained completely to any one of them St. Ierom ye know indeed says The World wondred to find it self become Arian But this Expression must be taken as generally such are by a Trope of the whole for the greatest or at least most Noisie Part. For it it evident from all the Accounts given us of those Days that there were many bore Witness for the Truth even to the Death and more would have done so if their Courage would have served Besides that at all Times was wanting It was an Upstart Heresie that lasted no longer than Supported by Force and Violence which bears no great Analogy with Gods Methods in Propagating the Gospel But Popery seems to lay the greatest Claim to this Character of Orthodoxy and yet when thoroughly consider'd the largest Part of it goes