THIS Epistle was written by St. Paul (the great Apostle of the Gentiles) to the Church of Corinth ( [...]; or as he interpreteth himself in his second Epistle, [...]:) that is to say, To all and every one of the Christians, in, and thoroughout the whole Province of Achaia, whereof Corinth was then the Metropolis, or Mother City and Church: Insomuch that it seemeth to me to be a Circular Epistle, sent by the Apostle (the first Converter of them) to the Metropolitan or Bishop of Corinth; to be communicated by him to the Bi­shops and Presbyters of the Province, and by them to the People, in all their respective Churches and Congregations throughout the whole Graecian Dio­cess. The drift whereof is,

1. To advise them to reform the manifold disor­ders and corruptions, that were got in among them, from the time that he had first established them into a Church. And such were their Schisms and Facti­ons [Page 2] (ch. 1. & 2.); The contempt of their established Ministers (ch. 4.); Their neglect of Ecclesiastical discipline (ch. 5.); their light regard of incest (ch. 6.); their irreverent and indecent behaviour in the Church, and at the Service and Worship of God (ch. 11.); and more especially their slighting and profaning the newly instituted Sacrament of Christ's Supper; Some by not coming to it, others by being drunken at it (as in the words immediately precede­ing my Text): Crimes! so highly offensive unto God, so scandalous to his Church, and so destructive to every Man's soul therein, that it is high time for God's Bishop to rowze, and to require and call for an amendment of them. And that this advice of his might not be thrown off without taking its de­sired effect,

2. He sheweth his Pastoral rod to, and shaketh it over them; to let them know, that if they would not reform and amend upon his Epistle and Letter, he would soon in Person come among them himself; and by vertue of his Apostolical Authority lay them under such Ecclesiastical censures and inflictions, as that thereby they should become better Christians within the Church, or else for the future be turned out of the Church to herd with Heathens and sin­ners. I will come unto you shortly, (saith he, ch. 4. 19.) but, What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? The latter, most suitable to my own disposition, most grateful to my Function, most acceptable to God, most honourable to the Church, and more for your own reputation and credit; But a rod I have, put into my hands by Christ, to be used upon the back of sinners, and he [Page 3] that altogether spareth the rod, often spoileth the child; Wherefore amend before I come, at least of these your crimes (whereof by letter you are fore­admonished); And as for the rest I will set in order when I come. Let me but lodge an inference or two by the way, and I shall speedily go on; The first shall be this,

1. That a Church, be it the Church of an Apostle, and a Church never so well at first constituted, so as to want neither Essentials nor Superstructures, nei­ther present Overseers, nor future Managers; yet if it happen not to be resided upon, and duly visited by its Superintendent and chief Governour, it will soon contract, and unawares be over-run with ma­nifold irregularities and disorders. Witness the Church before us; It was founded by an Apostle, it was furnished and fenced with Bishops and Mini­sters of his own nomination and appointment; and it would be too great a detraction to his name, merit and care, to suspect, that he had not sufficiently pro­vided (before he departed from them) both for their present settlement, and their future conservation: And yet he was not long gone, but behold all man­ner of disorders; in so much that a letter from him, without his Personal presence, will not, cannot pos­sibly reform them.

2. That irreligiously to throw off, or irreverently to attend the Service of God's Church; and therein to neglect or abuse the blessed Sacrament of the Sup­per, (the highest and most adorable part of that Ser­vice) are such uncouth and unchristian disorders in a Church, as that they not only require an Episco­pal admonition, but an authoritative inspection and [Page 4] correction. And yet these were the faults of many in the Church of Corinth (this Apostolical and early Church); which if they be ours also (as most cer­tainly they are) we must either hereupon amend, or reasonably expect (the day of Visitation being come) to be, as well as they, Apostolically censured for them. And so for a while dismissing his letter (which with­out doubt was piously by the Apostle designed, grate­fully by the Church received, and effectually by the sounder Members thereof complyed with); we come now to consider the reason and end of his per­sonal coming among them; which we find to be, not only to visit and enquire what success that his Letter met with, and to punish the obstinate and wilful contemners of it; but likewise to regulate and reform whatever was further wanting in that Church. And the rest will I set in order when I come. Where we have,

• I. The Person that was to visit, and that is St. Paul; President or chief Minister in that Church.
• II. The work he comes about, and that is to re­form and set in order, what shall be found by him amiss in that Church.
• III. The time when this reformation and regu­lation is to be wrought; and that is, at his Visita­tion or coming: And the rest will I set in order when I come. Begin we,

I. With the Person that maketh the Visitation; and that is St. Paul, the Apostle and chief Minister of that Church. It's true, when he wrote this E­pistle to them he was absent from them, exercising his office in some other place; but without doubt [Page 5] before he left them, he had sufficiently furnished them with Pastors and Ministers, it being his pra­ctice so to do in all places where-ever he came: And accordingly he did it at Lystra, Iconium, Antioch; for it is said of him there (Acts 14. 23.) that he preached the Gospel among them, and ordained them Elders in every Church; The like he did in Pisidia, Pamphylia, Perga, Attalia (v. 26.); And as certain it is, that before he departed from Corinth, he did the same there, else why doth he chide them for mutinying against, and throwing off the Ministers which he had planted among them? such were Apollos and Cephas (ch. 1. v. 12.), such were Stepha­nas, Fortunatus and Achaicus (ch. 16. v. 17.); But still he kept his regency and superintendency over them, never out-travelling that, nor suffering himself ei­ther by the remoteness of his distance, or by the length of his absence, to be in the least divested of that authority, which he originally had (by being their Apostle) obtained over them. Hence he gi­veth them to know (ch. 3. v. 10.), That he was the [...], or Master-workman, who laid the foun­dation; and that all others (how great and learned soever in that Church) did but [...], and build thereupon: Nay, he kept not this regency and superintendency over the Church of Corinth only, but likewise over most or all of the Churches of the Gentiles that were of his Plantation. Where­upon he telleth us, (2 Cor. 11. 28.) That the care of all the Churches was upon him: The care! not barely to plant them, for that he had done before; nor to water them, for for that end he had left Ministers among them; but in a superior and commanding [Page 6] way to direct and govern them; It being his right so to do, in as much as he was their Apostle, and had the immediate guidance of the holy Spirit upon him. And here Two things will be further neces­sary to be enquired into,

• 1. How St. Paul, and the rest of the Apostles came unto this power.
• 2. How this power was conveyed from them to others, and from them again to others, down unto the Bishops of our days.

1. How St. Paul, and the rest of the Apostles came unto this power; and here we must consider the rest of the Apostles by themselves, and St. Paul by himself: And,

1. As to the rest of the Apostles; It is most certain, and on all hands agreed, that they had their authority from Christ; and the very same au­thority to carry on a Church in the World, as he himself had from his Father at first to begin a Church in the World: Wherefore (saith he) to them, when he first made them his Apostles and Delegates in that affair (Matt. 28. 19.), All power is given to me in heaven and in earth, go ye therefore [...], and disciple all Nations. Nay, as my Father sent me, so send I you (John 20. 21.); plain­ly thereby declaring, that he sent them upon the same errand, and every way commission'd them with the same authority, and to the same mini­stration and government as his Father commission'd him: And from hence we find, that as the Father gave judgment to the Son (Joh. 5. 22.), so now the Son giveth judgment to the Apostles (Matt. 19. 28.); as the Father gave the Son power to forgive [Page 7] sins upon earth (Matt. 9. 6.), so now the Son gi­veth power to his Apostles to remit sins upon earth also (Joh. 20. 23.); as the Father gave the Son to be the foundation or corner-stone of the Church (Matt. 21. 42.), so now the Son giveth the Apo­stles to be foundations upon a foundation (Eph. 2. 20.); And in short, as the Father gave the Son to be the Teacher and Lord of his Church (Joh. 13. 13), To be the great Shepherd of his sheep, (Heb. 13. 20.), To be the Bishop of our souls, (1 Pet. 2. 25.); so now the Son giveth the Apostles to be teachers and leaders of his Church (Matt. 28. 19.), to be the Shepherds of his sheep (Joh. 21. 16.), To be the Bishops of our souls (Acts 1. 20.); for speaking of Judas (the Apostate Apostle) in order to the choo­sing another into his Apostleship and Ministery, it is said of him, His Bishoprick let another take. All which (laid together) evidently demonstrate, that whatever power Christ had from his Father, when he was upon earth, in order to the beginning of a Church in the World; The same power (yea, and all that power) he gave unto his Apostles, before he left the World; That they when he was gone, might by a due exercise of the same, continue and enlarge that his Church. And thus much for the rest of the Apostles;

2. As for St. Paul himself, He was [...], as an abortive, or one born out of due time (1 Cor. 15. 8.); And yet though out of time born, he had the same dimensions and full propor­tions of an Apostle, as the rest of them had: for he was really called by Christ himself; was an eye­witness of his being risen, was endow'd with all [Page 8] manner of Apostolical gifts, and had the whole World given him for his Diocess, which were the discriminating properties of an Apostle, as they are to be differenced from the Bishops that succeeded them in their Office and Ministery. And there­fore it is often said of this St. Paul, That he was an Apostle not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, called by Jesus Christ himself unto the office (as the rest of the Apostles were) though somewhat later, and not by Man, as all the following Bishops were; though that very Call (as hereafter will appear) was in a remoter sence, of God also. And hereupon we ever after find him stiled an Apostle, and owned by the rest of the Apostles to be so: Nay, they give him the right hand of fellowship, as if (according to his own words) he was more than an Apostle. All which sufficiently proveth (especially if here­with you take in his after-practice, which was ne­ver blamed by the rest) that as he was an Apostle, so he had the same power and authority from Christ, for the planting, ruling and managing a Church among the several Nations of the World, as the rest of the Apostles had. And thus having briefly dis­covered, how this power at first came unto St. Paul, and to the rest of the Apostles; My next work will be as briefly to shew,

2. How this their power was conveyed from them to others, and from them again to others, down unto the Bishops of our days. And indeed no sooner were they instated into it themselves, but (as need required) they communicated it unto o­thers; Thus the whole Body of them, upon the failure of Judas, chose Matthias into his room, to [Page 9] partake of his lost Apostleship and Ministry (Acts 1. 25.); Thus St. Paul, (being himself Apostolated) conferred the like office upon Timothy, by the lay­ing on of his hands (2 Tim. 1. 6.); and left him at Ephesus, to be President of the Church there, with a like power to elect, ordain and constitute others (1 Tim. 5. 22.); The like he did by Titus, leaving him at Crete; and as for other reasons, so for this, to ordain Elders or Bishops in every City (Tit. 1. 5.): From whence it is clear, that as this power was first given by God unto Christ, and by Christ unto his Apostles; so it was in like manner afterwards given by the Apostles to others, and by them to others. And accordingly St. Clemens (who is said Phil. 4. 3. to be St. Paul's Fellow-labourer; and who afterwards, as St. Jerome, and others inform us, became Successor to St. Peter, in the admini­stration of the Church of Rome) in his Epistle to these Corinthians, telleth us, (cap. 42. & 44.) That Bishops were constituted in the Church by the A­postles, through the ordination and fore-appoint­ment of Christ himself; and order thereupon given, [...], that when they (who were A­postles) should expire and go off the Stage, [...], other able and experienced Christians should be admitted and taken into their Place and Office. And I am confident, should en­quiry be made into the several Ages of the Church from the Apostles days to our own, there would not be found a Church till of late, but what had a Bishop upon the going off of the Apostle, to suc­ceed him in his Apostleship and Ministery: not as if all the Privileges given by Christ unto the A­postles [Page 10] were to descend, and be communicated to their Successors; for they had the gifts of Tongues and of Miracles; a power of discerning Spirits, and of inflicting Temporal punishments (even of death it self) upon Offenders; a direct and immediate conduct of the holy Spirit, toge­ther with an infallibility and unerring guidance (as occasion required or needed) not into truth only, but into all truth; which properly and per­sonally belonged to themselves, as Apostles, and in a great measure dyed with them: But then as for their power to frame a Church, and when framed, to plant it with Bishops and Ministers; and when planted, to direct and govern it; so as to see that it be not afterwards corrupted with heresie, nor over-run with debauchery, nor disordered by Schisms; but that all things in it may be done decently and in order, and be every way so ma­naged, as that the Church it self may multiply, and the several Members thereof be secured and forwarded in their attainment of Salvation; This power was purely Episcopal, and not to perish with them, but to be communicated by them to others, and by them to others (that were to suc­ceed them in their office) unto the Worlds end; according to that promise of our Saviour (Matt. 28. 20.) Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. So that in truth, unless we will presume to charge Christ with ignorance, either of the Apostles, or of the Worlds end, we must be forced to confess, that he could not by that his promise intend any thing less, than that their order should be continued, by their taking others [Page 11] unto, and investing them into the same plenitude of power with, themselves; that thereby he might be assisting to them and theirs; to them during their regency, and to their Successors after them, during theirs; and so in fine, to the whole off­spring and Posterity of Apostles, which they, or theirs should take into the office unto the Worlds end. And so much for the Person Visiting; my next and second offer will be to shew,

II. The work that this authoritative Man comes about, and that is to reform and set in order what shall be found by him to be amiss in the Church; The rest will I set in order. And here considering, that the Church before us, had been founded by himself in the truth of Doctrine and good Manners; and by him duly planted and fur­nished with regular Bishops and Ministers; His work cannot possibly be extended further, than to these Two following Particulars.

• 1. To examine and punish all deviations from the first establishment, made in that Church.
• 2. To constitute new Orders and Canons for future expediency, and the farther regulation of the Church, inasmuch as they were wanting in the first establishment.

1. To examine and punish all the deviations from the establishment already made; be they of Doctrine, of Manners, or of Discipline; be they in the Priest or in the People; The one being no less subject to deviate and go aside from his duty [Page 12] than the other. And indeed a Church is not only to be well planted and ordered at first, but care must be afterward taken by the respective Bishops and Governours thereof, that it be pre­served and continued in the same beauty, lustre and order that it was begun in: So that if either Hereticks arise to pervert her Doctrine, or Schis­maticks to disturb her order, or vitious and irreli­gious Libertines to defame and scandalize her Pu­rity, the Bishop must call for an amendment; and if that will not do, He must betake himself unto his Rod and his Keys, and proceed to censure a­gainst them. This method was first directed unto by our Saviour, as a standing Rule to the Church for ever. Wherefore (saith he, Matt. 18. 15.) If thy brother trespass, go and tell him his faults; and if he will not hear thee, tell it to the Church. [...], to the Prelates and Governours of the Church, as St. Chrysostom Hom. 61. in 18. cap. Mat. hath it; and if he will not hear them, let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican. Thus St. Paul (for want of an amendment) excommunicated the incestuous Person, and shut him out of the Church (1 Cor. 5. 5.); threatning the rest (if they also not amend­ed) with the same discipline and severity (ch. 4. v. 21.): Thus St. John setteth himself against the Seditious and ever-prating Diotrephes, telling him, That when he came he would remember his deeds (1 Joh. 3. 10.); and commandeth all good Christians not to receive such Enemies of the Christian Faith in­to their Houses, nor so much as to bid them God speed (epit. 2. v. 10.). From whence I gain these Two points.

[Page 13] 1. That there is an Ecclesiastical censure to be inflicted upon wilful, obstinate and incorrigible Of­fenders, even to excommunication and excision.

2. That when the Bishop cometh to Visit, none ought more to be enquired after, or sooner censured, than those who before-hand (by letter or otherwise) have been admonished by him to a­mend; And therefore saith our Apostle to these Corinthians, (2 Cor. 13. 2.) I told you before, and now foretell you the second time, That if I come, I will not spare. Not as if the Churches censures were to be scattered like dust, and thrown into the eyes of every trivial offender to blind, or to enrage him; Certainly the declaration is too so­lemn, the infliction too great, the power too Sa­cred to be prostituted to the humour, interest or passion of any Man: But if there be a sinner that is rampant, and his sin flaming; if neither private correption nor publick admonition can lay hold upon him; if he will neither hear the Church, nor be advised by it; but remain in­corrigible, and persevere in his sin; and if no­thing else will do, then ense recidendum, then the Sword must be drawn for the cutting him off, and for the making him an Example: But and if upon all slighty occasions that Sword be used when drawn, it will either wound too many, or terrifie none. The second end of his coming, is,

2. To erect new Constitutions and Canons for future expediency, and the further regulation of the Church, inasmuch as they were wanting in [Page 14] the first establishment; The rest will I set in order. He was (as you find) the Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. 11. 13.), and therein equal in commission to the rest of the Apostles, who (Matt. 28. 19.) were to teach all Nations; whereupon we shall seldom meet with him long in a place; no lon­ger, than as it was needful to plant a Church, and to establish Ministers therein, keeping the Superintendency of them mostly unto Himself; which caused him to say, That the supervision and care of all the Churches was upon him: Upon him, so far forth at least, as to enquire af­ter their conformity to what (when present) he had taught and enjoyned; and to what further touching order and decency, should upon daily experience and practise be found to be deficient among them. The rest will I set in order. And here,

1. Some apply the words purely to matters touching the holy Eucharist (of which the Apo­stle immediately before had treated) as if what was further to be ordered, was all to relate to that affair only. And thus (as we are informed by Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others) many of the Writers and Doctors of the Roman Church do; making the words before us the great Palla­dium and foundation Text not only for their Tra­ditions, but for the Rubrick, Canon and Rituals of their present Mass; and as à Lapide hath it (upon the Text) for the very Vestments of the Priest, and Furniture of the Altar. But if the Mass, or any one part of it (as now it standeth) [Page 15] was here ordered, How cometh it to pass, that the most ancient Writers of the Church, (and even they that immediately followed the Apo­stles) say nothing of it? or that their own, and most bigotted friends ascribe the composition of it not to any one Author, but to many; not to any one, but to divers Ages and Centuries? Gavantus (their great Ritualist) in his Commen­taries upon the Mass Gav. com. par. 1. Tit. 8. telleth us (citing Pope Gre­gory for it) that in primordiis Ecclesiae, in the very beginning of the Church it consisted barely (and that by order of St. Peter and St. Paul) of the words of Consecration and the Lord's Prayer; afterwards (citing Innocent the 3^d.) he telleth us, That St. Peter (whilst at Antioch) added three other Prayers unto it; and then (as Religion en­creased) other things (saith he) were added, as seemed most proper and decent; and sometimes some of them taken away, and others again changed for the better. Bellarmine Bell. de miss. l. 2. c. 16. ascribeth the Introit, to Pope Celestin the first; The Gloria Pa­tri, to Pope Damasus; The Gloria in excelsis, to Pope Telesphorus; The following Collects to an­cient Popes, but brought into the Mass by Pope Gregory. Gavantus saith Par. 1. Tit. 10, 11, 12., That the Gradual was made by St. Ambrose; The Sequence by Nogerus, the Tract by Celestin, Gelasius, or Telesphorus; The Creed added by Damasus; The Offertory by Ce­lestin, Eutychian, or Gregory. The five follow­ing Prayers (saith Bellarmine Bel. de missa. lib. 2. cap. 17.) neque antiquae ad­modum, were neither ancient, nor used in the Ro­man Church for five hundred years: The Pre­faces (according to Gavantus Part. 1. tit. 12.) are ascribed by some [Page 16] to St. Clemens; by others to Dionysius; and by others to Pope Leo. And as for the Canon it self, non est unius authoris, It is not (saith Bel­larmine De missâ lib. 2. cap. 19.) of one Man's composition, the form of Consecration, with some few prayers being as­cribable to St. Peter, the rest to following Popes, and the structure of the whole to St. Gregory. Gavantus goeth on with the Post-communion, and saith Part. 1: tit. 13. much the same of all therein, to the ite missa est. And then as for the Garments of the Priest, they are (saith he Par. 1. tit. 18.) by frequent aug­mentation encreased to the number and beauty they are now of; nam primis temporibus communi indumento vestiti missas agebant, as having at the first their own common Vestments to say Mass in. And as simple and plain was their Altar dress, which occasioned that after Sarcasme, Au­rei Sacerdotes ligneis calicibus utebantur, nunc lignei Sacerdotes aureis calicibus, ascribed by Durantus De rit. ecc. cath. lib. 1. cap. 7. to Boniface the Martyr. And hereupon our afore­mentioned Ritualist telleth us, Par. 1. tit. 20. That the Altar was first ordered to be of stone by St. Sylvester, to be covered with three linnen cloaths by Bo­niface the 3d, to be beset with Candlesticks, and lighted Candles by Telesphorus. It were endless to run thorough all particulars; but enough (and more than enough) hath been said to shew, That the most that the Writers of the Church of Rome can pretend to out of Scripture for their Mass, is no more than the form of Consecration, and the Lord's Prayer; and that most or all of the other parts of it, had much later authors than either Christ or his Apostles; Insomuch that (for [Page 17] the future) they must either quit this Text, and find out a better, or else be forced to own, that it is an ill patch'd Garment of their own; of which our Saviour forewarneth us, (Matt. 9. 16.) saying, That no man putteth new cloth into an old Garment, lest that which is put in, taketh from the Garment, and the rent be made worse. But passing this,

2. Others apply the words more generally, to all matters of order and decency (thoroughout all the Ministrations of the Church) that were then wanting; and for which, the Apostle (be­fore his departure from them) had given no par­ticular nor positive direction: and so they make them a conclusion, not so much to the discourse about the Eucharist immediately preceding, as to the whole Chapter, and▪ the matters therein trea­ted of. And thereby they give us an account of a further power in the Apostles, than barely of planting a Church: to wit, a power of enacting Laws and Constitutions for it; a power of regu­lating the service of it; and (in short) of esta­blishing such Discipline and Rituals in it, as should seem most expedient for the edification and good ordering of the Church. And this the Apostle calleth a superordering; for for this cause, saith he (Tit. 1. 5.) left I thee in Crete, [...], (ut supercorrigas) that thou mayst superadd such san­ctions to the former, as at any time hereafter shall be found useful to the Church and wanting in it: And this (as Grotius upon the place insinuates) [Page 18] gave birth to those early Canons called the A­postles; not as if by them composed, but because they are a collection of those Orders and Decrees, that were enacted in or about the Apostles days for regulating the Church, at or upon its first plantation. And indeed for Christians not to yield obedience to them, puts an affront and baffle upon the Pastors of the Church and their Au­thority, whose voice we are to hear as the voice of Christ. In Scripture-phrase they are called [...], Rulers and Governours (1 Tim. 5. 17.); yea, and such Rulers and Go­vernours, who must have their Decrees and Ca­nons: Obey them (saith the Apostle, Heb. 13. 17.) that have the rule over you. Ignatius Epist. ad E­phes. cap. 6. would have us honour and regard them, [...], as we do him that sent them; and to yield obedience to them Epist. ad Smyrn. c. 8., [...], as Christ did unto his Father. Nay, he that disobeyeth them (saith Epist. ad Trall. c. 7. he) [...], is no better than a profligate or an Atheist, one that despiseth Christ, and contem­neth his Ordinance. It is not for me at pre­sent to set forth the extent of this their power; and yet certainly whatever is of precise and es­sential duty; nay, whatever is of such advan­tage and conveniency to the Church, as to pre­serve or rescue the same from confusion, must necessarily pertain to their legislation to enact, and to their Jurisdiction to execute: for if any thing less than so be allowed, it would be im­possible to preserve Religion, or secure a perse­cuted [Page 19] Church from ruine; Christ must yield to Mahomet, the Gospel to the others Alcoran, and all for want of sufficient power in it self to con­tinue Christianity in the World. And so I pass from the consideration of the Apostles work,

III. To the time when this Reformation and Regulation is to be wrought, and that is at his Visitation or Coming; The rest will I set in order when I come. A method practised by the Apostle in other Churches, as well as in this of Corinth; for saith he to Barnabas (Acts 15. 36.) Let us now go again and visit our brethren in every City where we have preached the word, and see how they do: [...], let us exercise the office of a Bi­shop among them (and from thence [...]) as if the main part of the Bishops work in his Visitation, was to enquire after the welfare and regularity of the brethren; [...], how they do; that is, how they advance in the knowledge of Christ, that they may be confirmed; how they lead and order their lives, that they may be cor­rected or censured; yea, and how they conform to the prescriptions and injunctions of the Church, that Uniformity may be improved, and Schism put by. And therefore it is said of St. Paul, (v. 41.) That he went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches; and commanding them (as some Zegerus in locum. Latine Copies have it) Custo­dire praecepta Apostolorum & Seniorum, to ob­serve the Decrees and Constitutions of their A­postles and Bishops. So that here I have a fair [Page 20] occasion offered to speak something of that ne­cessary office of Confirmation; But my Text cal­leth me off, and will make me disorderly, unless I press for the setting in order the things that were there wanting. And therefore before I move; Let me,

1. Bespeak the attention of the Churchwardens and Sides▪men, who are here this day summoned into a Spiritual Inquest, to detect and present whatever is amiss in the Church, and against the Canons and Constitutions of the same: And in­deed unless you present and make known to the Bishop, what disorders there are in the Church, How can the Bishop (now he is come) set things in order? Unless you set forth the sinner and his crimes, that he may take cognizance of them, the Church must still bare the sinner, and par­take of the scandal of his crimes; Certainly a­mongst so many Criminals that are in the Church, there are others besides your selves; and some­thing further to be found for the Bishop to ani­madvert upon, than that crying, wasting, dam­ning sin of Perjury. As for the information a­gainst these Corinthians here, it was exhibited to the Apostle by some of the house of Cloe (1 Cor. 1. 11.); but whether by them as the Churches Guardians, doth not to me appear, how be it in this Chapter (where the Apostle reproveth them for their contempt, offered to the newly institu­ted Sacrament of Christ's Supper) I do find them highly commended for such their information; [Page 21] Now I praise you brethren, that you remember me in all things (v. 2.): And howbeit other irre­gularities may possibly at this time slip you, yet still (for the good of the Church, and for the reclaiming so gross a misdemeanour in it) you ought to keep your eye full upon what (before, and now by letter) you have been pre-admoni­shed; and in all respects to answer by yours, your Bishop's zeal. A zeal! truly Christian, be­coming a Bishop, and not to be check'd by any faithful Member of the Church, seeing he is now on purpose come among us to enquire about it. A zeal! conversant about the highest Ordinance in the Church; yea, and so necessary and essen­tial an one, that if we faulter therein we cannot be Christians; at least not Christians of the pri­mitive stamp and fervour, who never celebrated a religious Solemnity without it. Hence it is recorded of the Apostles (Acts 2. 42.) that they continued daily in breaking of bread; Yea, and of so great an esteem was that office above the rest, that it gave the name and denomination to the rest; for so it is said (Acts 20. 7.) That on the first day of the week (which was the set day for their Meetings) the Disciples came together to break bread: Not as if all other offices were then o­mitted (for it is most certain, that St. Paul both preached and prayed at the same time) (v. 7. 10.), but that the main and chief end of all was to eat together. And thus the Successors of the Apostles both practised and pressed; Hence Ig­natius Epist. ad Eph: cap. 20. (speaking of the Ephesians) telleth us, [Page 22] [...], that they did all of them meet together in common, breaking that one bread; and Justin Martyr Apol. 2. p. 97. after him saith, [...], that it was usual upon the Sunday for those that were Christians to meet together, and to eat the bread that was then and there consecrated: Nay, the primitive Christians were so heartily devoted to this piece of service, that they did it every day they met; esteeming that day and the worship of the day little better than lost, if they had not therein partook of those so­lemn and heavenly mysteries. Hunc autem panem dari nobis quotidiè postulamus, We desire (saith St. Cyprian De orat. Dom.) to eat daily of that bread, lest by our forbearing and not communicating, we be forbid the heavenly bread, and separated from the Body of Christ; [...], To communicate daily (saith St. Basil Epist. ad Caesar. Patric.) and to partake of the Body and Bloud of Christ, is both safe and profitable; inasmuch as Christ himself hath expresly said, He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Bloud hath eternal life; Nay, it be­hoveth all those, say the ancient Canons Sanct. Apost. can. 9. & Anti­och. can. 2., who enter the Church to hear the Scriptures, and will not stay the Holy Communion, [...], to be cast out of the Church, as breeders of confusion, and disturbers of the Congregation. And in all probability this frequency of Communion kept pace with their Meetings, and went along with most or all of their Assemblies, for some Centuries of Years; St. Jerome Apol. ad Pam. adv. Jov. pag. 108. Tom. 1. (who flourished about the year 390.) [Page 23] telleth us, that the custome prevailed, according to his own knowledge, unto his own days, and reporteth Epist. ad Lu­cin. Tom: 2. the same by good hear-say of the Churches of Spain; St. Basil Ad Caesar Pa­tric. epist. 289. (speaking of the Christians under his inspection) saith, we do constantly communicate four times in a Week; yea, and on other days too, if the memory of a Martyr happeneth to be celebrated thereon; St. Austin Epist. 118. ad Januar. is no less conclusive for the Age he lived in, Some (saith he) communicate every day of the Week, others on set days only; In some Churches no day passeth without a Communion, in others it is celebrated on the Saturdays only, and on the Lord's Day; and in others, on the Lord's Day only. And though this primitive Ambro. lib. 5. cap. 4. Tom 4. Chrysost. ad Heb. 17. fervour afterwards languished into coldness and indifferency, in the Greek Church sooner, in the Latine later; yet the holy Fathers and Bishops Cypr. de orat. dom. Chrys. ad eph. Hom. 3. ad Hebr. 17. of both endeavoured, (as much as in them lay) by their Exhortations and Sermons, by their Decrees and Censures, to maintain and keep up that primitive ardour and zeal; declaring all such unworthy to have their Names preserved in the Diptychs Conc. Antioch. can. 2. Concil. Elib. can. 81. of the Church, who should presume (though perhaps at other times remiss) to pass over the holy times of Easter, Pentecost, and the Nativity, without communicating in them. And without doubt, upon this account, and in conformity to this Apostolical and primitive usage, the Reverend Reformers of our Church not only prepared, but appointed a Communion-Service Rub. before the Nic. Creed, and for the se­veral days. for every Publick Solemnity of the Year; be it [Page 24] on the Sundays or other Holy-days, Festivals or Fasts; ordering not only the Priest himself to communicate, (as it is usual for them to do in the Church of Concil. Trid. Sess. 6. cap. 6. can. 8. Rome, though alone) but the se­veral Parishioners in their courses to attend, that Person more especially, to whom by course it ap­pertained to offer for the Rubr. post com. lib. 1. Edv. 6. charges of the Com­munion: And though in a short while after, it was found by too sad an experience, that the zeal of the People would not answer the zeal of their Priests; yet in such places still, where there are many Priests to be had, (as in Cathedrals and Colleges) the same order is duly and constantly to be observed; as likewise in all Parochial Churches and Chappels, so often as the Mini­ster thereof shall think fit to give notice of a Communion, provided he can but obtain a con­venient number to communicate with him, which in the smaller Rub. post com. Parishes must be three at the least. And this invitation by him to be often Rub ant. com. for the Sick, & ant. 2. exhort. in com. given; and upon the neglect of the People to be reite­rated and further pressed; Insomuch that every Parishioner, who either hath been confirmed, or being of competent Age, is desirous to be confirmed, Rubr. post conf. & post Catech. item. can. 112. must communicate at least three times in the Year, of which Easter to be one, or else suffer the Penalty and censure of the Canon. Three Can. 22. times in the Year at least; a zeal! though inferiour to that in the Primitive, yet superiour to that at present in the Papal, or (if you'l suffer it to be so called) in the Presbyte­rian, Church: The first Conc. Later. Can. 21. contenting her self with [Page 25] once in the Year; and that too, rather Con. Trident. de Sacr. Euch. Can. 9. juxta praeceptum matris Ecclesiae, out of obedience to the commands of the Church, than to the institution of Christ; the other Directory of the Sacr. pa. 48. so far degenerating, as wholly to leave it to the consideration and deter­mination of the Ministers, and other Church-Governours of each Congregation, how careless soever they might happen to be; which (God wot) was seldom enough celebrated, and in some places (though a thousand communicable Persons were in them) not so much as once, from the time that the Directory took footing, to the time that (its Sire) the Covenant was burnt by the hands of the common Hang-man; as a due re­ward for all the mischief, Sacrilege, Perjury, In­justice, Disloyalty, Oppression, Prophaneness, Ir­religion, Atheism, it brought along with it. In short, the Church by its daily Service minds us of the duty, the Priests often and often invite unto it, there are proper Prefaces for proper days assign'd; Nay, there are Officers appointed, and (some of you) sworn to present the negligence and default of those who do not communicate: Insomuch that though this zeal of our Church be not altogether so high and culminant, as was the zeal of the first Primitive Christians, yet it giveth sufficient check to the remisness of the Pa­pal, and to the aversation and shiness of the Pha­natical Congregations; and may evidently con­vince the religious examiner, That it is her aim and endeavour to be as like the primitive Church in her Zeal and Devotion, as she is truly like [Page 26] her in her Methods and Constitutions. Argu­ment enough (provided you love your Religion) to make you faithful to your trust, and to assist your Bishop's zeal, by being no less zealous in the case your selves. My second advice shall be,

2. To you, my Brethren of the Clergy; and it is, (1.) That we would be orderly our selves; and (2.) that we would practise order in the Church.

1. That we would be orderly our selves; I know there are some that weed our lives, and make use of our infirmities, to the Churches dis­grace; like Flies, they dwell upon our sores, or rather like the Kite they'l fasten no where, but upon the ribs of carrion; The fairest Meadows and the most pleasant Fields will not at all stay them, but passing over what would invite and enamour others, they scent a Carrion, and there they light. Let our Zeal be otherwise never so active, our Charity never so comprehensive, our Light never so bright; yet if there be but one Amasa dropt dead in the way, one object of Scorn for their Eyes to behold, they will more glare upon it themselves, and more blazen it abroad to others for the discrediting our way, than if other­wise we should undermine or deny the very Fun­damentals of our Faith, provided we would but speak the language of Ashdod with them. And thus for the defects and inordinacies of some, they blemish the whole Order and Function; [Page 27] though for my part I can see no reason why the fall of some Angels, may not as well be im­putable to the whole Hierarchy of Heaven, as some few Mens faults chargeable to the whole Order and establishment of our Church. What a Monster (I pray you) might be made out of the best Beauties in the World? Nay, what a mis-shapen ugliness would the very face of Venus afford? if a malicious ill-minded Painter should leave what is lovely, and collect only such fea­tures out of her, as he shall find most unpropor­tionable and amiss in her. Erasmus telleth us of one, who balking the more noble and manly Verses of Homer, gathered only those that were lame and defective, out of which he made his Poem: Certainly when under this disguise none could be more ugly, none so blind as Homer; Sa­tyrs might be made out of Nymphs, Devils out of Angels, lame Mephibosheths (I mean) limping Scazonticks, out of the most heroick Hexameters, if either Poet or Painter (quibus quidlibet audendi) should be so disingenuous: But withal we are charged (as in Subordination to our Bishops) to be Examples to our Flock (1 Pet. 5. 3.), and told (1 Tim. 3. 5.) That if we cannot govern our Families, and much more our selves, we are not fit to govern the Church; to be Rectors or Vi­cars there. My next Advice is,

2. That we would practice order in the Church (I mean, in that Church we pretend unto); St. Paul in this Epistle of his, command­eth [Page 28] the Corinthians, (ch. 14. v. 14.) that all things be done decently and in order; and in his Epistle to the Colossians, (ch. 4. v. 17.) he giveth special charge to Archippus to fulfil his Ministry: To the one, to do all the Offices, and perform all the Ministrations belonging to his Place and Functi­on; and to the other, to do them according to the usages and customes, the appointed Orders and Rules established in the Church for them: and without doubt to prevaricate in either, is to make us false to God, unfaithful to our trust, scandalous to the Church, forgetful of our oaths, unmindful of our subscriptions, not fit to be Mi­nisters in the Church at all, as to the one; not of the Church of England, as to the other; and duly punishable by the Bishop, as to both. It would be tedious to insist upon these things in particular; But (and if) our Ministery be to be fulfilled, then let me in a more especial manner (before I conclude) commend unto your care, that despised and too much neglected office of Cate­chizing: An office! so necessary in the Church, that we cannot have our Baptized taught, our Youth confirm'd, our Communions fill'd, nor our Church supply'd without it; an office! that first brought Knowledge into the Land, and must keep it there. And however it hath been thrust out of late by too much, or at least by too un­seasonable preaching (as if there were no means of Knowledge, scarce of Salvation out of the Pulpit), yet I find it to have been in use among the first Christians; and with great diligence and [Page 29] zeal continued thoroughout the purest Ages of the Church; the greatest Scholars, and the ablest Divines, (such as Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, St. Cyril of Jerusalem) being assigned to the office of the Catechist; and the adult and aged never disdaining the place or station of the Catechu­mens. Though alas! now (to our shame I speak it) so much disgusted, and so ill resented by the croud, that you may almost as soon perswade them to offer their Children in Sacrifice to Mo­loch, as to their industrious, conscientious Mini­ster to be Catechised by him. And yet I do ve­rily believe, that the generality of Christians would really edifie more by one Hours sober Catechising, than by many hours Sermons; and that no grea­ter cause can be assigned for the vast ignorance of our Nation, and the small number of our Com­municants, (amidst so great a manifestation of the Gospel) than the present neglect of this kind of preaching: Nay, I am confident, could we take down our pride, and humbly submit hereunto, not only Knowledge, but Religion it self would more flourish in the Land; for experience will tell us, That where this kind of preaching is in use, there is less couzening and defrauding, less hating and damning one another; more Piety and Charity, more Humility and Modesty, more Peace and quietness, and so more true Christiani­ty; than in other places, where there are perad­venture more Sermons and Pulpit-talk. But a­mongst the many Preachings that are often out of season, I hope this kind of preaching (that is [Page 30] almost always in season) will not at this time be forgot; for out of order we shall be, till this thing be set in order.