pretend to no monument or record to the contrary, yet make unlearned scruples of things they cannot colourably prove; if, I say, they can reasonably account for these things, I, for my part, will be ready to confess that they are not guilty of the greatest, the most unreasonable and inexcusable schism in the world; but else they have no colour to palliate the unlearned crime: for will not all wise men in the world conclude, that the Church of God, which was then holy, not in title only and design, but practically and materially, and persecuted, and not immerged in secular temptations, could not, all in one instant, join together to alter that form of Church government, which Christ and his apostles had so recently established, and, without a Divine warrant, destroy a Divine institution, not only to the confusion of the hierarchy, but to the ruin of their own souls? It were strange that so great a change should be, and no good man oppose it: "In toto orbe decretum est;" so St. Jerome ;-" All the world consented" in the advancement of the episcopal order; and, therefore, if we had no more to say for it, yet in prudence and piety we cannot say they would innovate in so great a matter.

But I shall enter no further upon this inquiry: only I remember that it is not very many months since the bigots of the popish party cried out against

us vehemently, and inquired, Where is your Church of England, since you have no unity? for your ecclesiastic head of unity, your bishops, are gone :' and if we should be desirous to verify their argument, so as indeed to destroy episcopacy, we should too much advantage popery, and do the most imprudent and most impious thing in the world. But blessed be God, who hath restored that government for which our late King, of glorious memory, gave his blood; and that, methinks, should very much weigh with all the King's true-hearted subjects, who should make it religion not to rob that glorious prince of the greatest honour of such a martyrdom. For my part, I think it fit to rest in these words of another martyr, St. Cyprian: "Si quis cum episcopo non sit, in ecclesia non esse; -He that is not with the bishop, is not in the Church :"* that is, he that goes away from him, and willingly separates, departs from God's Church; and whether he can then be with God, is a very material consideration, and fit to be thought on by all that think heaven a more eligible good than the interests of a faction and the importune desire of rule can countervail.

However, I have, in the following papers, spoken

a few things which, I hope, may be fit to persuade them that are not infinitely prejudiced; and although two or three good arguments are as good as two or three hundred, yet my purpose here was to prove the dignity and necessity of the office and order episcopal, only that it might be as an economy to convey notice and remembrances of the great duty incumbent upon all them that undertake this great charge. The dignity and the duty take one another by the hand, and are born together: only every sheep of the flock must take care to make the bishop's duty as easy as it can, by humility and love, by prayer and by obedience. It is, at the best, very difficult; but they who oppose themselves to government, make it harder and uncomfortable : but take heed, if thy bishop hath cause to complain to God of thee, for thy perverseness and uncharitable walking, thou wilt be the loser; and for us, we can only say, in the words of the prophet, "We will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people:" but our comfort is in God: for we can do nothing without him, but in him we can do all things: and, therefore, we will pray, "Domine, dabis pacem nobis: omnia enim opera nostra operatus es in nobis; - God hath wrought all our

* Jerem. ix. 1.

works within us; and therefore he will give us peace,

and give us his Spirit."*

Finally: Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for all men have not faith."+

Isaiah, xxvi. 12.

+ 2 Thess. iii. 1.

A

CONSECRATION SERMON,

PREACHED AT DUBLIN.

SERMON IV.

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.-Luke, xii. 42, 43.

Τίς ἐστιν ἄρα πιστὸς καὶ φρόνιμος οἰκονόμος.

a

THESE words are not properly a question, though they seem so; and the particle is is not interrogative, but hypothetical, and extends who' to 'whosoever :' plainly meaning that whoever is a steward over Christ's household, of him God requires a great care, because he hath trusted him with a great employment. Every steward ἓν καθέστηκεν ὁ Κύριος, so it is in St. Matthew ;^ ἓν καταστήσει ὁ Κύριος, so it is in my text; every steward whom the Lord hath or shall appoint over the family, to rule it and to feed it, now and in all generations of men, as long as this family shall abide on earth; that is, the apostles, and they who were to succeed the apostles in the stewardship, were to be furnished with the same power, and to undertake the same charge, and to give the same strict and severe accounts.

In these words here is something insinuated, and much expressed.

I. That which is insinuated only is, who these stewards

a Cap. xxiv. 25.