therefore how it can seem reasonable to any man that understandeth Baptism and especially to our learned Teachers that one should enter a Covenant in Baptism of beleeving when the things to be confessed and beleeved are not at all rehearsed or mentioned And yet more strange it is that although they have changed the old form of singing with the signe of the Cross into singing with the signe of the Covenant yet the words of the Covenant are not at all by them rehearsed Whereas it is evident in Scripture that a confession of faith and so a Covenant of beleeving is required in Baptism for when the Noble Eunuch desired Baptism he was first required to beleeve and thereupon made a confession of his faith thus I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Act. 8. 37. so he was baptized As for the reforming of great Fonts into little Basons and the like lesser matters wherein how much the amendment is better then the supposed fault or defect we dispute not but we are heartily sorry that in many Congregations the Incumbents do often refuse to baptize at all except it be the children of the Rich of their own fraternity Fourthly We have also lost the grave and venerable Order Episcopal which may justly seem to argue a dis-belief or a disparagement of the Holy-Ghost of whom it is said Acts 20. 28. Spiritus sanctus posuit Episcopos for if it be indeed beleeved that the holy spirit did plant or place them it must also be believed that some contrary Ghost or Anti-spirit it is that supplanteth them Our Lord Jesus himself now since he sate at the right hand of God in Heaven yet there sitting is called a Bishop 1 Pet. 2. 25. The Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and the chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the great Shepherd of the sheep Heb. 13. 20. The Appellation of Pastor belonged only to Bishops in the Primitive Church but but now every young Curat though but an intruder will write himself Pastor too arrogantly St. John in his Revelation saw four and Rev. 4. 10. twenty Presbiters so is the original fall down before this great Bishop but our new Revelations have shewen us twenty four Bishops falling before Presbyters I suppose that the greatest adversaries of Episcopacy will not deny the Title of Bishop to be a scriptural word as it is and not an extraordinary or temporary word or appellation as some others are but a positive and fixed name and office and if it be indeed so planted by the Holy Ghost in the holy Scriptures men should be afraid to raze it out if they consider that Moses charged his Israelites neither to add nor diminish ought from the word that he had Deut. 4. 2. taught them and so St. John at the very close of the Gospel hath left a terrible threatning which surely extendeth to all holy writ If any man shall add to it God shall add plagues to him Rev. 22. 18. And if any shall take away from it God shall take away his part out of the book of life The greatest Sticklers and Dogmatical opposers and enemies to Episcopacy for I meddle not with Authoritative power are those men who would have Presbyters to be the Supream Sacerdotal order but I firmly beleeve that in the Scripture the word Presbyter was not intended to signifie any order at all of Sacerdocy but only to signifie a jurisdictive Authority annexed to the two only Orders of Bishop and Minister for Bishops are therefore called Presbyters in the Scripture because of their jurisdiction only Presbyter is an appellation of the Office or work of a Bishop but not of his Order as St. Paul doth evidently distinguish them 1 Tim. 3. 1. If a man desire the Office of a Bishop he desireth a good Work Here is 1. The Office or Work 2. The Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Afterwards inferior Ministers were called Presbyters and that very early in the Primitive Church And now all Ministers are generally called Presbyters which is improper and abusive except there be first a faculty of some part of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction annexed to the Minister which jurisdiction in due form should be derived on them by grant of the Superiour Order of the Bishop for although it is very true that in the Primitive Church a new Order was set up and called Presbyters and placed between Bishops and Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet this Order was onely Ecclesiastical but not Scriptural For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Presbyter in Scripture is promiscuously used to signifie both Ecclesiastical and civil Governours because it signifieth only a jurisdictive Authority and not a sacerdotal Order In the new Testament Presbyters of the people Mat. 21. 23. and 26. 47. and 27. 1. are mentioned And Presbyters of the Church Act. 15. 4. 6. and 1 Tim. 5. 17. And Tit. 1. 5. in all which places our English renders the word Elder But Beza varies in in the Translation of it for when it is said of the Laity he renders it Seniores i. e. Elders But when it is said of Ecclesiastical persons there he renders it Presbyteri i. e. Presbyters In the old Testament we find but two Sacerdotal Orders viz. 1. The High-Priest Aaron and his Successors 2. Inferior Priests called the Sons of Aaron So in the new-Testament we finde but two Orders of Sacerdocy viz. * Bishops the inferiour Ministers or Presbyters are both called Sacerdotes by St. Augustin de civ l. 20. c. 10. 1. Bishops 2. Ministers who are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So St. Paul reckons them more then once as Phil. 1. 1. The Bishops and Deacons and so 1 Tim. 3. 2. 8. So St. Jerome in that Epistle to Evagrius which hath been so tugged and stretched to make it speak for the Presbyterian design doth propound this sure rule concerning Ecclesiastical Orders a Hier. Epist 84. To. 2. Sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento i. e. What the Apostles have delivered or written concerning Ecclesiastical Orders was by them taken from the patterns of Sacerdotal Orders in the old Testament which certainly is true because the same Immutable God is the Authour of Orders both in the old and new Testament St. Jerome goes on thus b Id. ibid. Quod Aaron filii ejus atque Levitae in Templo fuerunt hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi vindicent in Ecclesia i. e. That which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were during the Temple The same may Bishops Presbyters and Deacons claim in the Church But every learned man knoweth that the Levites were not Priests therefore those that St. Jerome calls Presbyters must needs be the same that St. Paul calls Deacons or Ministers Now if Presbyters must be the highest Order in the Church by the same proportion Aarons Sons sholud have been the High-Priests in the Temple but
paenitentiam The vices of one party are not the vertues of the other therefore t' were best for both to amend But yet the sins of those that profess such great holiness are more abominable in them then in others and especially when they are dogmatically asserted as if they were warranted and approved by God St Jerome mentions a Hier. Epi. 22. Virgil Aen. 3. Sanctam Superbiam and in the Poet there is Aura sacra fames i. e. holy covetousness The Pelugians twitted the Cat holicks as if they taught b Aug cont Iul l. 6 c 6. Piae fraudes apud Ambros de Jacob lib 2 c 3. Concupiscentiam sanctificatam but falsly for no outward profession of Saintship can Sanctifie Rapine Murther Sacriledge and the like but these sins are represented far worse in the sight of God when they are found in professors of heavenliness and mortification It is said that the Fox will fain himself to be dead c Epiph. in Physiol c. 19. that so he may catch and deavour birds that come within his reach and we know what great mischiefs have been acted by some seeming mortified men even to the deavouring of the Estates of Orphans and Widows when they have been trusted as fiduciaries We read of a foul d Aug ad frat in Erem hom 48. found in a dead mans Skull and of late we are informed e Mr Hoels Epist that a Serpent was found in the heart of a dead English man an ill sign as that learned and industrious Gentleman thought of venemous and Serpentine designs in the hearts of some seeming-mortified men that is the sin which the Apostle calls Ephes 6. 12. Spiritual wickedness in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavenly places Astronomers tell us of a Serpent in Heaven and of the Head Eph 6 12. and Tail of the Dragon there So doth the Apocalips mention a Dragon seen in Heaven Rev. 12 3. whose Tail arew the third part of the Stars of Heaven Surely no under-moon earthly or under-earth plot is so likely to take effect as an Heavenly pretence and Holy wickedness as one saith Parva sunt mala Sen. in Medea Act. 4. Et vile telum est ima quod tellus creat Caelo petam venena Descendat Anguis c. How easily are poor people deceived when Satan appears like an Angel of Heaven or like an Holy Prophet and in the mouth of his false Prophets a Zech. 13. 3. speaketh lies in the Name of the Lord how plausible are the promises of Reformation of Religion in Doctrine and manners and this with a Sacred Covenant with solemn fasts and humiliations how acceptable is the expectation of the extirpation of Popery and superstition of the establishment of a learned Godly and painful ministery of the propagation of the Gospel and of new light But how will men be deceived if instead of new lights they must have lightnings and the Sons of lightning instead of the Sons of Thunder Thunders do no harm lightnings do all the mischief Christ saith I beheld Satan as lightning Luc. 10. 18. fall from Heaven new lights in Heaven or new Stars are false Stars and but blazing Comets which Wisemen say do alwayes portend Calamities we have many true Stars fallen or drawn from Heaven by the Dragon's Tail as if that particular sign of Christs coming to judgment were already fulfilled St Jerome calls the Apostles b Hier. Epi. Exeget 14â— Excussores from those Scripture passages Mat. 10. 14. and Act. 13. 15. Never in this Land were seen so many Reverend Godly Learned and truly Apostolical Preachers that now may justly shake the dust off their feet which surely will one day without Repentance be laid to the charge of the occasioners The Britans in old time used to say that the Speed in Hen. 3. Sect. 71. Irish Saints were very angry and implacable Saints because 5 Earles of Pembrok the Sacrilegious Sons of a Sacrilegious Father who had robbed a Bishoprick in Ireland all dyed issueless But what may the Irish say of English Saints who have taken all Bishops Lands from them and from others and have already made entry upon earthly possessions as if they did really believe this millinarian Fable This may perhaps be the cause of such uncharitableness as these Saints practise against others in hating oppressing and spoiling them and excluding them from admission into Society with these Saints as if they were affraid to have too many Saints of their Communion least their earthly Land of Promise should not be large enough for all indeed our English Zediack or rather this Epicycle of our British Orbe may seem too little for their vast appetites because the present He and she-Saints will surely beget other young Saints who they say must partake in this inheritance Arnobius writing against the Heathens conceit of Male Female Deities tells them that if it be so indeed then doubtless they will still beget some young Gods and Goddesses for Nondum Senuerunt Jupiter and Mars i. e. Gods cannot be disabled by age Iuven. Sat. 6. and then a Arnob. con Gent. l. 3. Dijs plena essent omnia nec Caelicaperâ—nt multitudinem eorum i. e. Not only this Earth but Heaven also would be too little for them The Roman Satyrist also though an heathen derideth this error for saith he in the Golden age before Saturn left his Kingdome there were fewer Gods then now Nec turba deorum Talis ut est hodié contentaque sidera paucis Iuvena Sat. 13. Numinibus misérum urgebant Atlanta minori Pondere c. i. e. That the multitude of new begotten Gods was a great incumbrance to Heaven it self and so will be the multiplying of reigning Saints to the Earth Augustus Caesar made a sumptuous Feast but for twelve Persons hee s and shee s and himself sate down with them apparrelled in such robes as the Roman Gods then ware and this Feast was therefore called b Suet. in Aug. c 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Feast of twelve Gods yet the people murmured and said frumentum omne Dij comederunt that these few had consumed all provisions it seems the heathens Goddifying was very chargable as also was the Romish Canonizing of Saints in later times for the old Romans were so provident as to forbear Consecrating or Sainti-fying any of their Emperors untill they were dead as when Basianus the Emperor had slain his Brother Geta to cover the murther he gave order that Geta should be Goddifyed using these words b Spartian in Geta c 1 Sit Divus dum non sit vivus and this also is the now-Roman Policy not to Canonize any until they be dead for living Saints would be chargable and therefore it may be thought great prudence not to take in too many into the Communion of living Saints least the Commons should be Gal. 6 10. too scant for them all for the Charity of new Saints
plura quam scio and Non me pudet ut fatear nescire quae nescio i. e. Those things which we understand not in holy Scripture are far more then what we do understand Neither are we ashamed to acknowledg our ignorance Neither should any Christian be abashed to acknowledg his ignorance in these profound Mysteries lest by falsly boasting of knowledge they may truly discern blindness as some who because they would not be thought to be pur-blind pretend to see what they do not S. Paul saith 1 Cor. 14. 38. If any be ignorant let him be ignorant This he said not to discourage ignorant people from acquiring knowledge but to restrain the ignorant from boasting of more knowledg then they have So Beza very pertinently expoundeth those words Ignarus suam ignorantiam Bâ—za in loc agnoscat nos imperiti locum peritorum occupent i. e. That ignorant and unlearned men should hold and esteem themselves to be so and not usurp the places and Offices of the skilful This is good Counsel for some in these times I wish our gifted-Donatist-Sermon-makers would consider it Now what particular Doctrines the Christian Doctors confessed to be too hard for them and incomprehensible by their learning is next to be shewed CHAP. 3. More concerning our ignorance in Points Theological Of Predestination and of the Trinity The presumption of some men in their over-much boldness in handling those Mysteries SAint Peter tells us that in S. Pauls Epistles some things are hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. Rom. 11. 16. and so S. Paul himself acknowledged when he cryed O the aepths of the riches and wisedom of God that his judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out it is evident also that the Apostles themselves were both ignorant and unbeleeving for a long time concerning the Mystery of the Death and of the Resurrection and of the Kingdom of Christ until the Holy Ghost descended on them at the Feast of Pentecost No marvel then if the greatest Theologs in the world are yet to seek in many matters of our Religion Who knows in what state place or condition souls departed are although some confidently talk of Lymbus and Purgatory who can tell when Christ will return from Heaven unto earth except our new Millenarians will teach us What man living understandeth the Apocalyps Bodinus tells that when Calvin was asked his opinion of it he answered that he knew not what so obscure a Writer meant for though Bod. Method c. 7. it be called a Revelation as having been made known to the holy Writer thereof yet by others it is accounted Obvelatio a veiling of Mysteries Some are confident that there shall be a general conversion of the Jews and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some indeavours are now in hand in order to it because the Apostle saith All Israel shall Rom. 11. 26. be saved yet how many Millions of Jews have departed this life in their infidelity since St. Paul wrot As for the meaning of those words learned Origen thus writeth a Orig. in Ro. lib. 8. cap. 1â— Quis ille Israel sit Deus solus novit unigenitus ejus si qui amici ejus sunt ad quos dicat i. e. None knoweth but God and those to whom he telleth it Concerning the grievous passions of Martyrs and the Pressures of other holy men Salvinus saith b Salv. de â—ub lib. 1. Quare Deus talia patiatur non est humane imb cilitatis cognoscâ—re i. e. Why God permiteth such oppression man cannot finde out How have those words of Christ Joh. 6. and Mat. 26. Except ye eat the flesh of Son of the man c. And Take eat this is my body how have they exercised and posed the Christian world both of reformed and unreformed Catholicks and so have even the words and form of Consecration of the Eucharistical Elements Finally how hath the Doctrine of the Sabbath in the fourth Commandment tortur'd both our own and other Theologues which Epiphanius and Austia expounded so as to be understood of Christ and verily except Christians do so apprehend it we cannot render a sufficient reason of our rejecting the Jewish Sabbath but if therein we understand Christ to be the Sabbath Then we may boldly say with Austin c Aug. cont Adimant c. 3. Sabbatum non est repudiatum a Christianis sed intellectum i. e. That Christians do not reject the Sabbath but do more truly understand it then the Jews do or did which I wonder that our Reforming Teachers do not hint now especially when we are become so strict Sabbatizers on the eighth day Touching the difficulties in the Doctrine of the holy Trinity and of Predestination and other Misteries Let us see what the ancient and most learned Divines thought Austin saith d Aug. confes l. 13. De Tem. Ser. 189. Soliloq c. 31. De verb. Apost Ser. 20. Trinitatem quis non loquitur quis intelligit Angeli in caelo Trinitatem scire non possunt diunt Quis est Rex gloriae And Trinitas tua tibi soli integre nota est quis cognovit te nisi tu te and so he concludeth Tu ratiotinare ego mirer tu disputa Ego credam i. e. Many talk of the Trinity but who understands it The Angels in Heaven do not comprehend it for they said Who is the King of glory The Trinity is known only to God for who hath known him but himself therefore Psal 24. 8 whilst others argue and dispute I will only admire and beleeve Thus he As concerning the Mystery of Gods Predestination and Election Origen inquiring why Jacob was loved and Esau hated before they Ro. 9. 13. were born thus answereth e Orig. in Gen. Homil. 12. Supra linguam nostram est dicere supra auditum vestrum i. e. That it was above his Eloquence to declare and his Auditors knowledg to understand Thus this Learned man acknowledged his insufficiency in these high Mysteries although at another time he tells us f Rapit nos desiderium ad ea quae magis obscura sunt disserenda Orig. in Num. ho. 13. That he had a more earnest desire to study and handle the greater difficulties in Scripture then the easier parts So we finde in Austin and Prosper many such passages whereby they acknowledg their nescience in such high matters As 1. Why an Infant at the very birth of it was found to be possessed with a Devil 2. Why one obtaineth the grace of Christianity and Baptism and another not 3. Why God punisheth one and forbeareth another when both are in the same fault 4. Why God granteth not the grace of Perseverance to some unto whom he hath given the grace of Christian Charity 5. Why he suffereth the children of some holy men to depart out of this life without Baptism or any knowledg of Christianity and yet so disposeth that the children of his very enemies and
i. e. Three Subsistencies therefore the Latine Church called them Three Persons for they durst not say they were Three Substances left they should be thought to acknowledge Three Gods As touching the Scriptural word Hypostasis Heb. 1. 3. which divers of the Fathers Translated Substances as namely Hilary and Jerome and Austin rendring those words thus Qui cum sit splendor gloriae figura Substantiae ejus i. e. Who being the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance The later writers did more accurately and critically translate the word Hypostasis by Subsistence and Person so that now the Reader may take notice that when Divines would express the Trinity they call it three Subsistencies or Existencies or Persons but when they would express the God-head Nature or Divinity of the Three Persons then they call it The Essence and Substance of God But of the word Hypostasis which is of very great moment in Order to apprehend the Mystery of the Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons More in the next Chapter CHAP. VI. Of the word Hypostasis what it signifieth Grammatically That the Three Persons are called Hypostases because the God-Head resideth only in the Three Divine Persons The Ubiquity of all these Persons The Coeternity of the Father and the Son IN the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews we find three words which may afford Heb. 1. 2. us some direction in this mysterious Discourse of the Divine Person of Jesus Christ First He is called The Son of God This word implies also a Father-hood in God and Verse 3. as all natural Sons are of the same nature and Essence with their natural Fathers so must this Son of God be Coessential and Con-Substantial with God the Father Secondly He is called The Brightness of his Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just as light is of the Sun and this word may teach us the Coeternity of the Person of the Son with the Person of the Father as the light of the Sun is Coetanious with the Sun it self Thirdly He is called the Character or the express Image of his Fathers Person or Hypostasis This word declareth the Sons Coequality with the Father as the Impression fully answereth the Seal in all Dimensions The Reader may here further observe that the Son is not called the Character or Image of the God-head of the Father because he is the same God with the Father but he is called the Character of the Person only of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as the Seal and the Impression are two distinct things so are the Persons of the Father and the Son And as the Impression Image or Character represents fully the Sculpture of the Seal So the Son fully represents the Person of the Father therefore the Son saith If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and Joh. 14. 7. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father Now although the Son be the Image of the Father yet he is not the same Person with the Father which Person is here called the Hypostasis or Subsistence of the Father This word Hypostasis which our English commonly rendreth Person and the Latines sometime Substance and sometimes Subsistence or Existence is originally from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to place or establish and it is compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which literally and Grammatically to the Letter signifieth a Sub-station i. e. that whereon or wherein one standeth that which beareth sustaineth or carrieth a Station a Stand a Mansion of abiding a Receptacle and the words Substance Subsistence and Existence are all from the original word Sto i. e. to stand And hence it is that some of the Fathers rendred this word Hypostasis Sub-stans as signifying a Suppositum or Substratum i. e. that which beareth another That Souldier which forsook his Standard or standing was called an Apostate The solemn Assemblies of Ancient Christians for Devotions because they were appointed to be at set times and in appointed places were called Stationes as a In lib. de Coron Militis Rhenanus noteth upon Tertullian Stationes Christianorum sunt Conventus ubi Stantes precarentur So the imperial Stations were places where the Emperour and his Army made a stand and rested after a March and Stativi signifyed places of Lodgings or Inns where Travellers stayed and rested From hence it may with great reason be collected that when the Divine Persons are called Hypostases the Scriptures do hereby intimate that the Three Persons are the Stations Mansions Abidings Rests and Receptacles of the God head wherein the God-head doth for ever stand and wherein only it is sustained and supported For the posture of the God-head is in the Scripture described by the word Stand as Psal 82. 1. God standeth in the Congregation And Amos 9. 1. I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar In Philo the Jew God is called for his Eternal Constancy b Philo. de Confus ling p. 324. Semper Stans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words are and St. Austin in that pious book of his Confessions calleth God c Aug. conf l. 4. c. 11. Semper stantem i. e. Standing for ever and we are told in Clemens Romanus often that when Simon Magus boasted that himself was God he would be called Stans d Clem. Ro. Recog l. 2. 3. and we are also informed by the other learned Clemens of Alexandria that the Sectaries or Followers of this Simon worshipped him under the name Stans e Clem. Alex. stro lib. 2. Stantem Colebant It must be confessed that our most Holy and True God may justly be called Stans for his eternity immutable Constancie which is and which was which is to come who standeth Rev. 1. 4. for ever when all other false gods either are fallen already or shall fall and if we would know where to find this our God and where he resideth and where to address our selves unto him we must consider him in these Three Heb. 9. 24. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Presence and Conspectus and Vultus Dei by the English and Latine Transl glorious Persons as in the Stands Stations or Receptacles of the God head as an Heavenly Tri-Parelion or three Golden Lamps wherein the One and Onely Light of the God-head abideth and from whence it shineth nor can we otherwise find our God but by the illumination which proceedeth from One or all these Persons The first Person is called the Father of Lights And No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Jam. 1. 17. Father save the Son and he to whom the Son Mat. 11. 27. will reveal him And both these Persons reveal unto us by the Holy Ghost He shall teach you Joh. 14. 26. and 16. 13. all things And He will guide you into all truth These are the
then what must Aaron himself be a Cipher a nothing The truth is that neither in the time of the Synagogue before nor since in the time of the Church Presbyter or Elder were to be accounted the Appellations of Orders but only of an Office and now to call Presbyters a distinct Order of Sacerdocy is as if we should call Apostles Prophets 1 Cor. 12. 28. Ephes 4. 11. Doctors Evangelists and Pastors so many several Orders which are but only Offices for the Apostleship it self is but an Office but the Order of the Apostles is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1. 20. i. e. Bishoprick It may therefore seem very uncomely that the Presbytery which of it self is no Order should be advanced over the undoubted Scriptural Judg. 9. 15. order of Bishops as is in the Parable The Bramble is not a tree but was made the King of Trees as Pliny also tells of a Shrub which he calls Viscum we call it Missleto c Plin. hist l. 16. c. 44. Cum sedem suam non habeat in aliena vivit i. e. because it hath no land of its own upon which it can grow therefore it grows upon another Tree but this is not all for some of that rank have proceeded too far even to bitterness and open Pulpit-rayling against that high Order wherein they have been called Tyrants and the dissolving of them said to be a greater deliverance then that of Eighty eight or the powder Treason This was said when neither any intelligent Auditor beleeved it and it may charitably be thought that the Preacher did not himself believe it A Jesuit he was who once Emman Sa. said A lye in a Sermon is no Mortal sin but friend without repentance it will prove an immortal sin I crave leave of thy patience Good Reader to tell thee another piece of great partiality that I say no worse against that high Order which I have heard often related by persons Religious of great quality and of eminent prudence and sobriety and also by a Person of Honour who were present Auditors when a grave Minister of the Presbyterian perswasion reading in the Church the second Chapter of St. Peters first Epistle when he came to those words in the last verse For ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls this Minister read it thus But are now returned to the Shepherd and Presbyter of your souls whereas not only our English Translation but the Original Greek hath the word Bishop But such men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2. 25. may say any thing impune so it be to the nulling Bishops because it hath pleased some wiser-heads to make use of Malevolent hearts and Venal tongues to prepare the game for a more politick and profitable reason of state for I cannot imagine that the dissolving of Episcopacy was noted only for their ill management of the Jurisdiction but also for the good use which others might make of their Temporalties and if all the excesses of them in their jurisdictions were now collected since primo Elizabethae until Mar. 25. 1654. The moderate administration thereof by some Presbyters since that time will not rise up in judgment against the Bishops CHAP. IX Of Scandalous Ministers Scandals by dis-use of the Lords Prayer Christs Kingdom on earth and of his comming before the last judgement Successes in unjust causes are no signs of Gods approbation The Regal stile Gratia Dei. Of Thanks-givings THere hath been much adoe with us about scandalous Ministers and the right Character of them that are so indeed is that they are the men which lay stumbling-blocks in our way to retard us from going toward Heaven and to make us fall into Hell But those godly those godly studious and laborious Ministers who endeavour both day and night to direct our souls in the right way toward Heaven and to sufflaminate them which are too swiftly running towards Hell are quite contrary to scandalous Ministers except this word scandalous be understood in that sence as it is used Rom. 9. 33. and 1 Cor. 1. 23. where Christ himself was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jezabels Priests were indeed scandalous Ministers for they seduced the people by magnifying Baal but was Elias a scandalous Prophet for shewing the true God to that people Verily many Reverend Religious persons such as Elias was are now by the Canting Language of these days nick-named Scandalous Malignant and ill-affected by those that call other men by names proper to themselves but I wish that they would consider that as there is a woe Matt. 18. 7. to that man by whom the scandal or offence cometh So there is the like Wo unto them that call Isa 5. 29. evil good and good evil a Diod. lib. 1. Diodorus Siculus tells us of an Aegyptian Queen Isis that gave the third part of her Land to Priests to hire them to cry up her deceased Husband for a God And we are told by b Eus de Praep. lib. 1. c. 1. Eusebius of an Aegyptian King that set up several Religions in the several Provinces of that Country that thereby the people might be divided and so despise and hate one another for Religion least they should agree in one and so conspire against their King whereby it seems that Divide Impera was an old Egyptian-Heathenish policy but surely Dilige Impera is the better and more Christian There are also many Religions among us I cannot say for what policy and many old revived Heresies brought in as Arianism by Socinians Donatism by Anabaptists Aerianism by the Anti-prelaticals And Judaism by some Sabbatarians And Millinarism by our new Chiliasts or Millers as our Country people call them whilst the true Christian and English-Catholick Religion is by all those parties contemned and depraved as is shewed before in divers particulars to which I must add one more which is a great scandal also against the Person of Christ Fifth The Lords Prayer is now in many places omitted and quite dis-used whereby some people have taken occasion most impiously and cursedly to blaspheme both it and also the Author of it they call it the Devils Faggot-bond and they say that Christ if he were now on earth would be ashamed of it c. surely those Demagogues that do thus principle their Disciples are the right scandalous Ministers and no good teachers as one saith c Plaut in Bach. Pejor Magister te ista docuit it must be such a Preacher as Irenaeus speaks of d Iren. lib. 1. c. 29 Serpens praeconiavit in Marcion i. e. either Marcions Chaplain or he that in the Serpent Preached to Eve For this Prayer was taught us by that God to whom we are to pray as if the Prince himself should pen our Petition wherewith he would be petitioned that so he might the more cheerfully and unscrupulously grant it Wherein we are
is extended only to The houshould of faith that is of their own faith their Charity begins at home and there it ends also just as was the practise of the old Manichees who accounted it a capital crime c Aug. conf lib. 3. c. 10. de Morib Man lib. 2 c 15. To communicate so much as a morsel of bread or a cup of Water to any indigent person except he were a Manichean as is shewed before But uncharitableness is not all there is also in some an Hypocritical and Pharisaical pride so as not to admit any peers of whom our learned Bish Mountague hath left us this Character a Act. Mon. cap. 7 sect 29. Hypocrita est qui amat se sine rivali for now the Apostles themselves are not by these men vouchsafed the title of Saint which yet they assume to themselves King James observed in a Sermon preached at Court that the Preacher as oft as he named Saint Paul called him Paul but when he mentioned Calvin he called him Master Calvin whereupon the King asked his attendants I pray who made Calvin a Gentleman and Paul a yeoman and we are informed by many Writers of a Calvinist of Geneva that professedly preferred Calvin before St Paul and said that if St Paul were there Preaching at the same time when Calvin Preached he would leave St Paul to hear Calvin Neither were the Lutheran Surius Commentar ad An 15 0. behind in this point for when the Augustan Confession was brought in at Ausburg a Lutheran said he would rather doubt of St Pauls Doctrine then of Luthers and that Confession Neither are the Romanists behind hand in preferring their own new Saints before the old ones our late right learned and famous Professor Doctor Collins of Cambridge reporteth b Cont. Eud. pag. 2. 6. That in a Church Window in Italy under the picture of St Paul was written Per istum itur ad Christum but under the picture of their Saint Dominicus in the same window was written Sed magis per istum So highly do people magnify Saints of their own making We know that our English Saints are professedly opposite to the late Roman Saints and they have sufficiently declared it It is related by a Spanish Writer c Alfonso Viegas p. 798. In the life of St Francis that when this Saint was attending Pope Innocent the third to get his Franciscan Order confirmed The Pope dreamed that the Lateran Church in Rome was falling and that he saw this poor Saint under propping it with his shoulders to keep it from falling for which his Order was confirmed the same Story is told by the same Writer of their Saint Dominicus and verily these two Orders did much advance the Church of Rome by their Preaching We should be glad if our new English Preaching Saints would so by their true Doctrine and Preachments support the Church of England which some of their Brethren have much laboured to demolish and have too too much prevailed as all our Cathedrals and some Collegiate Churches shew and our very Parecial Churches are tottering And this surely by the just judgment of God is come upon this Land for our sins for therefore was the Arke of God taken by the Philistines as Prosper observeth d Prosper de Promis part 2. c. 24. Sic Deus Israel Israscitur peccantibus sacerdotibus ut etiam Sacratis locis suis vasisque non parcat When God is angry for the sins of his Ministers he doth not spare his own Consecrated places or Vessels it follows Metuan Reges Gentâ—s quae Dei Sacrata vasa captiva 1 Sam. 5. retinent i. e. he wisheth both Rulers and People by the examples of the plagued Philistines to beware that they detain not such Holy Captivated spoils a good lesson for Church-Land and Lead-buyers indeed Judgment 1 Pet. 4. 17. must begin at the House of God which is with us come to pass by the assistance of many of our Nobility Gentry and Commonalty who came in cheerfully with mony and Arms to pull down the pride of Bishops as was pretended But alio fastus e Diog. Laer. in Diog. Plato said and this War was called by their then Dear Brethren of Scotland Bellum Episcopale Now by this time I believe they perceive by their own far greater pressures that The Judgement which began at the House of God neither did or will end there especially if this Millinarian design of Saint-reigning or Saint-Levelling take place for so that will be performed for which the long Parliament at the beginning thereof was petitioned viz. That they would pull down the mighty from their Seat and exalt the humble and meek for these are the Meek ones who say they must inherit this Earth If they will needs be Saints yet they are but Earthly Saints and may without breach of Charity be suspected to be counterfeit If the Scriptures tell us of false Prophets false Apostles false Brethren yea and false Christs too and if the Ancient Church observed such as Austin called a Aug. in Psal 132. falsos fideles and b in Ps 139. falsos Justos and he gives us an item how to discern them thus Falsi justi invident veris justis i. e. Those are but false Saints who envy true Saints So if we find the qualities of such counterfeits in our new Saints we have good reason to suspect them to be pseudo-Sancti and Hypocrites Many moderate and prudent men are of opinion that these new Saints themselves do not really believe this pretended reigning of Christ with them on this Earth They think that this Doctrine is now set on foot by some parties on purpose only to be a preparative for their seizing on the Estates of great Possessors because they observe that many Preachers have of late published this Millinarism in their pulpits and all at the same time who formerly medled not therewith and also that the new risen Quakers do harp upon the same string shrew'd signs that they are directed and inspired by some Montanistical and earthly paraclete But if these Saints will with patience stay for this Soveraignity untill the time which the great Apostle hath described 2 Thes 1. 7 8. viz. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire Then let them take all they can get no man will resist or gain-say them The Lord prepare us all by grace so that we may love his appearing and meet him with joy and in the mean time may wish and hartily pray Come Lord Jesus The Conclusion THE Church of England is at this day much dissetled by many Scandals and revivals of old Errors and it is also disfurnished of many ancient and laudable usances as hath been shewed and moreover many other rites of great concernment are either quite gone or much out of use For now the Administration of the Holy Supper the grand comfort of