SERMON IV. A CONSECRATION SERMON PREACHED AT DUBLIN1. LUKE Xii. 42, 43. 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. Τίς ἄρα ἐστὶν ὁ πιστὸς οἰκονόμος καὶ φρόνιμος. THESE words are not properly a question, though they seem so, and the particle rìs 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 ὃν κατέστηκεν ὁ Κύριος, so it is in S. Matthew*,ὃν κατα OTHσEL & Kúpios, 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. 1. That which is insinuated only, is who these stewards are whom Christ had, whom Christ would appoint over His family the church: they are not here named, but we shall find them out by their proper direction and indigitation by and by. 2. But that which is expressed is the office itself, in a double capacity. a) In the dignity of it, it is rule and a government; "whom the Lord shall make ruler over His household." B) In the care and duty of it, which determines the government to be paternal pacy, in vol. v.] [See the topics of this sermon more fully handled in the Discourse of Episco [chap. xxiv. 45.] and profitable; it is a rule, but such a rule as shepherds have over their flocks, to lead them to good pastures, and to keep them within their appointed walks, and within their folds; didóvai σitoμéтpiov, that's the work, 'to give them a measure and proportion of nourishment;' тpopǹv èv κaιρê, so S. Matthew calls it, 'meat in the season;' that which is fit for them, and when it is fit; meat enough, and meat convenient; and both together mean that which the Greek poets1 call ἁρμαλίην ἔμμηνον, the strong wholesome diet. 3. Lastly, here is the reward of the faithful and wise dispensation. The steward that does so, and continues to do so till his Lord find him so doing, this man shall be blessed in his deed; "Blessed is the servant whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing." Of these in order. I. Who are these rulers of Christ's family? For though Christ knew it, and therefore needed not to ask; yet we have disputed it so much and obeyed so little, that we have changed the plain hypothesis into an entangled question. The answer yet is easy as to some part of the enquiry the apostles are the first meaning of the text; for they were our fathers in Christ, they begat sons and daughters unto God; and where a spiritual paternity is evident, we need look no further for spiritual government, because in the paternal rule all power is founded; they begat the family by the power of the word and the life of the Spirit, and they fed this family, and ruled it by the word of their proper ministry; they had the keys of this house, the steward's ensign; and they had the rulers' place, for they sat on twelve thrones and judged the twelve tribes of Israel. But of this there is no question. And as little of another proposition, that this stewardship was to last for ever; for the power of ministering in this office and the office itself were to be perpetual: for the issues and powers of government are more necessary for the perpetuating the church, than for the first planting; and if it was necessary that the apostle should have a rod and a staff at first, it would be more necessary afterwards, when the family was more numerous, and their first zeal abated, and their native simplicity perverted into arts of hypocrisy and forms of godliness, when 'heresies should arise,' and 'the love of many should wax cold.' The apostles had also a power of ordination; and that the very power itself does denote, for it makes perpetuity, that could not expire in the days of the apostles; for by it they themselves propagated a succession. And Christ having promised His spirit to abide with His church for ever, and made His apostles the channels, the ministers and conveyances of it, that it might descend as the inheritance and eternal portion of the family; it cannot be imagined that when the first ministers were gone, there should not others rise up in the same places, some like to the first, in the same office and [Theocr. xvi. 35.] [1 Cor. xi. 19; 2 Pet. ii. 1; Matt. xxiv. 12.] 1 m ministry of the Spirit. But the thing is plain and evident in the matter of fact also: Quod in ecclesia nunc geritur, hoc olim fecerunt apostoli, said S. Cyprian"; what the apostles did at first, that the church does to this day, and shall do so for ever:' for when S. Paul' had given to the bishop of Ephesus rules of government in this family, he commands that they should be observed till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: and therefore these authorities and charges are given to him and to his successors; it is the observation of S. Ambrosep upon the warranty of that text, and is obvious and undeniable. Well then, the apostles were the first stewards; and this office dies not with them, but must for ever be succeeded in; and now begins the enquiry, who are the successors of the apostles for they are, they must evidently be the stewards to feed and to rule this family. There are some that say that all who have any portion of work in the family, all the ministers of the gospel are these stewards, and so all will be rulers. The presbyters surely; for say they, presbyter and bishop is the same thing, and have the same name in scripture, and therefore the office cannot be distinguished. To this I shall very briefly say two things, which will quickly clear our way through this bush of thorns. 1. That the word 'presbyter' is but an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews, as alderman' amongst us; but it signifies no order at all, nor was ever used in scripture to signify any distinct company or order of clergy. And this appears not only by an induction in all the enumerations of the offices ministerial in the New testament, where to be a presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct office, or a distinct order; but by its being indifferently communicated to all the superior clergy, and all the princes of the people. 2. The second thing I intended to say is this, that although all the superior clergy had not only one, but divers common appellatives, all being called πρεσβύτεροι and διάκονοι, even the apostolate itself being called a 'deaconship';' yet it is evident that before the common appellations were fixed into names of propriety, they were as evidently distinguished in their offices and powers, as they are at this day in their names and titles. To this purpose S. Paul gave to Titus the bishop of Crete a special commission, command and power, to make ordinations; and in him, and in the person of Timothy, he did erect a court of judicature even over some of the clergy, who yet were called presbyters; "against a presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses;" there is the measure and the warranty of the audientia episcopalis3, the bishop's audience court; and when the accused were found guilty, he gives in charge to proceed to censures, λeyxe ȧttotóμws, and, deî êmioтoμíÇew', you must 'rebuke them sharply,' and you must 'silence' them, 'stop their mouths,' that's S. Paul's word; that they may no more scatter their venom in the ears and hearts of the people. These bishops were commanded to "set in order things that were wanting" in the churches, the same with that power of S. Paul'; "other things will I set in order when I come," said he to the Corinthian churches; in which there were many who were called presbyters, who nevertheless for all that name had not that power, To the same purpose it is plain in scripture that some would have been apostles that were not;' such were those whom the Spirit of God notes in the revelation"; and some did love pre-eminence' that had it not, for so did Diotrephes; and some were judges of questions, and all were not, for therefore they appealed to the apostles at Jerusalem; and S. Philip though he was an evangelist, yet he could not give confirmation to the Samaritans whom he had baptized, but the apostles were sent for2, for that was part of the power reserved to the episcopal or apostolic order. Now from these premises the conclusion is plain and easy. 1) Christ left a government in His church, and founded it in the persons of the apostles. 2) The apostles received this power for the perpetual use and benefit, for the comfort and edification of the church for ever. 3) The apostles had this government, but all that were taken into the ministry, and all that were called presbyters had it not. If therefore this government, in which there is so much disparity in the very nature and exercise and first original of it, must abide for ever; then so must that disparity: if the apostolate in the first stabiliment was this eminency of power, then it must be so; that is, it must be the same in the succession that it was in the foundation. For after the church is founded upon its governors, we are to expect no change of government: if Christ was the author of it, then as Christ left it, so it must abide for ever; for ever there must be the governing and the governed, the superior and the subordinate, the ordainer and the ordained, the confirmer and the confirmed. Thus far the way is straight, and the path is plain. The apostles were the stewards and the ordinary rulers of Christ's family by virtue of the order and office apostolical; and although this be succeeded to for ever, yet no man for his now or at any time being called a presbyter or elder can pretend to it; for besides his being a presbyter, he must be an apostle too; else, though he be called in partem solicitudinis, and may do the office of assistance and under [See below, p. 325.] t T. i. 11 and 13.] u [Tit. i. 5.] [1 Cor. xi. 34.] W [cap. ii. 2.] x [3 John 9.] [Acts viii. 14.] stewardship, yet the Kupos, the government and rule of the family, belongs not to him. But then, τίς ἄρα καὶ σήμερον, who are these stewards and rulers over the household now? To this the answer is also certain and easy. Christ hath made the same governors to-day as heretofore; apostles still. For though the twelve apostles are dead, yet the apostolical order is not; it is ráĝis yevunтikǹa, 'a generative order,' and begets more apostles. Now who these minores apostoli are, the successors of the apostles in that office apostolical and supreme regiment of souls, we are sufficiently taught in holy scriptures; which when I have clearly shewn to you, I shall pass on to some more practical considerations. First, therefore, certain and known it is that Christ appointed two sorts of ecclesiastic persons, twelve apostles, and the seventy-twob disciples; to these He gave a limited commission, to those a fulness. of power; to these a temporary employment, to those a perpetual and everlasting. From these two societies founded by Christ the whole church of God derives the two superior orders in the sacred hierarchy; and as bishops do not claim a divine right but by succession from the apostles, so the presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ but by claiming a succession to the seventytwo. And then consider the difference, compare the tables, and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have; for since the seventy-two had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand, and more than that we hear nothing of them in scripture, but upon the apostles Christ poured all the ecclesiastical power, and made them the ordinary ministers of that Spirit which was to abide with the church for ever; the divine institution of bishops, that is, of successors to the apostles, is much more clear than that Christ appointed presbyters, or successors of the seventy-two. And yet if from hence they do not derive it, they can never prove their order to be of divine institution at all, inuch less to be so alone. But we may see the very thing itself, the very matter of fact. S. James the bishop of Jerusalem is by S. Paule called an apostle, "other apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." For there were some whom the scriptures call the apostles of our Lord;' that is, such which Christ made by His word immediately, or by His spirit extraordinarily; and even into this number and title Matthias and S. Paul and Barnabas were accounted. But the church also made apostles; and these were called by S. Pauld ȧñóσтoλo ÈKKAŋσiv, 'apostles of the churches,' and particularly Epaphroditus was the apostle of the Philippians; properly so, saith Primasius, a [Epiphan. hær. lxxv. § 4. p. 908 A.] b [Sic vers. antiq. et vulg. Luc. x. 1. -Vide Blondel, apol. de sent. Hieron. de episc. et presbyt., sect. iii. p. 99; 4to. Amstel. 1646.] f [Gal. i. 19.] |