THis Epistle is one of the three, not unfitly styled the Hierarchical Epistles, de statu Ecclesiastico compositae, asAdv. Mar­cion. l. 5. in sine. Tertullian speaks: being so many Rescripts Aposto­lical to Timothie, and Titus, (the One desired by St. Paul to stay at Ephesus, Primate of Asia; the Other left in Creet, Metropolitan of that, andVide S. Hieron. in Catalog. Script. Eccles. the neighbour Islands;) directing them,1 Tim. iii. 15. how they ought to behave themselves in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God. True, and genuine Decretal Epistles; not like that counterfeit Ware, whichVide D. Blondelli Pseu­do-Isidor. Isidore Merca­tor, under venerable Names, hath had the Hardiness to obtrude upon the World; but of the right stamp, and alloy; and such, as St. Augustine saith,De Doctr. Christian. lib. 4. cap. 16. a Bishop [Page 2] ought always to carry in his Hand, and to have be­fore his Eyes.

The Verse, I have read to you, following immedi­ately upon the Salutation, begins the body of the E­pistle it self; and, like an ingenious, and well-contriv'd Perspective, gives us, from the very Front, a fair Pro­spect into the Contents of the Whole. It is, as it were, a kind of Magical Glass; in which an Eye, not blind with Ignorance, nor blear'd with Passion, may see di­stinctly the face of the Primitive Church, in that Golden Age of the Apostles; the Platform of her Govern­ment; the beautifull Order of her Hierarchie; the Original, and Derivation of her chief Officers, and their subordination both to one another, and to Christ,1. Pet. ii. 25. the great Bishop of our Souls, in the last Re­sort; together with the Manage, and Direction of the most important Acts of the Government, both in point of Ordination, and Jurisdiction too. For here we have [...], Elders, that is Bishops (as shall be shewed in due time) dispos'd of City by City, in every City One: these Bishops both ordained, and ordered; constituted, and corrected; created, and governed by Titus alone; and so He, in right of the Premises, no other, thanVide Reve­rendiss. Arma­chan. de Orig. Metropolit. pag. 71, 72. Metropolitan, or Arch-Bishop there; the Angel, or the Arch-angel rather of the whole Church of Creet. If you ask, who fix'd Him the Intelligence of so large an Orbe; 'twas St. Paul himself, (You have that too in the Text) For this Cause left I thee in Creet. If yet higher, your Curiosity will needs see the Derivation of St. Paul's Power too; He opens his Comm [...]ssion, verse 1. and spreads it be­fore You, styling himself a Servant of God, and an A­postle [Page 3] of Jesus Christ, One sent abroad into the World by His Commission, acted, and assisted by His Spirit, to plant, and to govern Churches after this Scheme, and Model. So that my Text, likeIl. O. Homer's Sym­bolical Chain, consists, you see, of many Links; but the Highest is tyed to the foot of Jupiter's Throne: or rather, like Jacob's mysterious Ladder, the Foot of it stands below in Bethel, the House of God,Gen. xxviii. 12. Versio Lxx. [...], the Head of it is in Heaven; and God himself stands at the top of it, andIb. v. 13. Vulg. Et Domi­num innixum scale. Lxx. [...]. leans upon it, and keeps it firm; Angels ascending, and de­scending upon it in the intermedial degrees; the Bi­shops of the Church, like those blessed Spirits, incessantly bringing down the Commands of God to the Church in their Doctrine, and carrying up the Prayers of the Church before God's Throne, in their holy Offices, and Intercessions. So that, you see, this holy Psal. cxxxiii. 2. Oyl, which without measure was shed upon the Head of our great High Priest, Matth. xxviii. 18. (all Power being given to Him, both in Heaven, and Earth;) runs down in full stream upon the Beard, (for,Joh. xx. 21 As my Father sent me, saith He to his Disciples, even so send I you;) and so by, and through them to their Successours, holy Bi­shops, and Presbyters, even down to the skirts of his Garment: For in this comely, and exquisite Order, we find it in my Text, For this Cause I (Paul an A­postle of Jesus Christ,) left thee (Titus) in Creet, that thou shouldest set in order (or, correct) the things, that are wanting, and ordain Elders in every City, as I had appointed thee.

In which words we have these three Parts.

First, The Erection of a Power in the Person of [Page 4] Titus; a Metropolitical Power over the whole Island of Creet: I left thee in Creet.

Secondly, The end of this Institution, or the Use, and Exercise of this Power, in a double Instance, [...], to Order, and to Ordain; to Cor­rect, and Constitute; to make Bishops, and to govern them;Theophyl. in Hypoth. [...], as the Greek Scholia have it: For this cause—that thou shouldest set in order what was wanting, and ordain Elders in every City.

Thirdly, The Limitation of All to Apostolical Prescript, and Direction; both Ordination, and Ju­risdiction too, the whole Office must be managed, [...], As I had appointed thee. These are the Parts.

Of which that I may so speak, and you so hear, and all of us so remember, and so practice, that God's holy Name may be glorified, and we all built up in the knowledge of that Truth, which is according unto Godliness; We beseech God the Father, in the Name of his Son Jesus Christ, to give us the assistance of his Holy Spirit.

And in these, and all other our Supplications, let us al­ways remember to pray for Christ's holy Catholick Church, i. e. for the whole Congregation of Christian people, dispersed thorough the whole World; That it would please Almighty God to purge out of it all Schism, Errour, and Heresie, and to unite all Christians in one holy bond of Faith, and Charity; that so at length the happy Day may dawn upon us, in which all, that do confess his Holy Name, may agree in the truth of his holy Word, and live in Ʋnity, and godly Love. More especially let us pray for the Churches of En­gland, Scotland, and Ireland: that the God of Peace, who [Page 5] maketh men to be of one mind in a House, would make us All of one Soul, and of one Spirit, that again we may meet together, and praise Him with one Heart, and Mouth, and worship Him with one Accord in the Beauty of Holiness. To this end, I am to require you most especially to pray for the King's most Excellent Majesty, our Sovereign Lord Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governour in these His Realms, and in all other His Domi­nions, and Countries, over all Persons, in all Causes, as well Ecclesiastical, as Temporal: that God would establish His Throne in righteousness, and His Seed to all Generations. Also for our gracious Lady Mary the Queen-Mother, for the most Illustrious Prince James, Duke of York, and for the whole Royal Family: that God would take them all into his Care, and make them the Instruments of his Glory, and the good, and welfare of these Nations. Further let us pray for the Ministers of God's holy Word, and Sacraments, as well Arch-Bishops, and Bishops, as other Pastours, and Cu­rates; for the Lords, and others of his Majestie's most ho­nourable Council; and for all the Nobility, and Magistrates of the Realm: that All, and every of these, in their several Callings, may serve truly, and painfully to the Glory of God, and the edifying, and well-governing of his People, remem­bring the Account, that they must make. Let us also pray for the Ʋniversities of this Land, Cambridg, and Ox­ford: that God would water them with his Grace, and still continue them the Nurseries of Religion, and Learning, to the whole Land. Let us pray for the whole Commons of this Realm: that remembring at last, from whence they are fallen, they may repent, and do the first works, living henceforth in faith, and fear of God, in humble obedience to their King, [Page 6] and in brotherly Charity one to another. Finally, let us praise God for all those, that are already departed out of this life in the Faith of Christ, and pray unto God, that we may have Grace to direct our lives after their good Ex­amples; that, this life ended, we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection in the life Everlast­ing. For which, and for all other needfull Blessings, let us say together the Prayer of our Lord, who hath taught us to say, Our Father, &c.

For this cause left I thee in Creet, &c.

I The Erecting of the Power, that's the first; I left thee in Creet. Where we have these Particulars: The Original of this Power, in Ego; the Subject of it, in Te, Ego Te; the Conveyance in Ego Reliqui; and the Extent, in Reliqui Cretae, or in Creta.

I. I left thee; I the Apostle of Jesus Christ (vers. 1.) left thee Mine: there's the Source, and the Stream; the Original, and the Derivation of All; 'twas from our Lord, by his Apostle: I did it, his Commissioner.

(1) And therefore, First, Not a Suffragan of St. Peter, as some of the Romish Partizans would fain have it:Suar. adv. sect. Angl. l. 3. c. 12 f. Bellarm. de R. Pont. l. 1. c. 11. f. c. 23. Magal. in 1. Tim. Prooem. Sect. 11, & 13. Who, to serve the over-high pretenses of that Court, are not content to Dogmatize, That St. Peter was the Prince, and Sovereign of the Apostles; and his very Successours superiour to the Apostles, that survived Him; and That, they being once All dead, there was never since any Power in the Church, but in Successi­on to Him, and by Derivation from Him; dare yet higher, and with strange confidence pronounce, That, the Apostles themselves were all ordained by St. Peter, and He alone by Christ: and That, when the Holy [Page 7] Ghost said,Act. xiii. 2. Separate me Barnabas, and Saul, for the work, whereunto I have called them, they were thereupon sent up to Jerusalem, to be ordained by St. Peter. Affir­mations so very strange, that I know not what can be more; unless this be, that they should think them passable with us, upon the Authority ofHist. Act. Ap. c. 70. Petrus Co­mesto [...], the Scholastick Historian, and those suspectedAnacleti, Felicis I. Inn. I. Decretals of the false Merchant, I mention'd at the beginning. Whereas for the Imposition of Hands upon Barnabas, and Saul, (were it a Blessing, or were itAs our Church seems to have deter­mined. See the Exhortati­on before the Litany in the Consecration of B B. an Ordination) 'tis plainly inferred, verse 3. to have been perform'd upon the Place by the Persons men­tion'd, verse 1. And St. Paul, for his particular, in the Front of every Epistle, enters his Protestation against all this, as if he had foreseen it; still qualifying himself2 Tim. i. 1. an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God; Gal. i. 1. an A­postle, not of Men, nor by Man, but 1 Tim. i. 1. by the Commandment of God our Saviour; and accordingly you may see him contesting it to the height, both against Peter, and the rest, Gal. 1^st, & 2^d. Chapters throughout: That the Gospel he preach [...]d was not of Man, Ch. i. v. 11. the Apostleship he exercis'd was not from Man;v. 12. v. 15, 16. but the one by immediate Reve­lation, the other by Assignation from Heaven it self. So that, having receiv'd his Mission thence, and his In­structions too,v. 16. he thought it unnecessary to confer with flesh, and blood, to apply himself to any Mortal man, for the enhancing of either.v. 18. He went up indeed to Je­rusalem to visit Peter three years after his Conversion; and yet once again,Ch. ii. v. 1. fourteen years after, he returned thither, and had Conference with James, and Cephas, and John; but these Pillars added nothing to him; v. 6. v. 9. neither established his Authority, nor advanced his [Page 8] Knowledg:v. 1. and Titus himself was present at the enterview, and so an Eye-witness, that in nothing he came behinde the very chiefest Apostles; for they all gave him the right hand of Fellowship, v. 9. far from exacting the right hand of Preheminence: and so Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, not a Deputy of the Apostolical College, much less a Suffragan of St. Peter, or his Legate à la­tere, as was pretended. But,

(2.) Not a Disciple of Gamaliel. For there is a Dis­puter of this World, who having laid it down for a Principle with himself (indeed his [...]) That all pretence of Ecclesiastical Power, as from Christ, is but an Imposture, is thereupon obliged to give such an ac­compt of the Appearances of it in the New Testament, as may suit with this Postulatum: and accordingly; for the particular of Imposition of Hands for Ordination of EldersDe Synedr. lib. 1. cap 14. pag 569; &c. will have it onely the pursuance of a Jewish Custom, which St. Paul learned at the feet of his Master Gamaliel, under whom he Commenc'd El­der, before he was Christian, and thereupon, after, thought good to create his own Disciples to the same Dignity (according toPag. 571. Unusquis{que} ritè creatus potest Discipulos suos ritè creare. the Law of those Scholes) and Titus amongst the rest, whom he left in Crete, to do the like, and to Constitute his Scholars Elders too, in all the Cities, where he should preach. A Discourse so loose, and incoherent, that 'tis not worth your while to stand by, and see it fall in pieces, which it would quick­ly do (were it not already doneSee Dr. H. H. Letter of Re­solut. &c. Quer. 5. to our hands) upon a gentle Examination. I shall onely remind you of what was said before upon the former Particular, and so leave it in Compromise to any Indifferent; Whether St. Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, who so stoutly re­fuseth [Page 9] to Releve of Saint Peter himself, or the rest of the Apostles, as owing his whole Commission to Heaven alone, would yet acknowledg to hold it of R. Gamaliel, the unconverted Jew, as Usher of his Schole, or Graduate in a Rabbinical Academie.

(3.) (Yet further, to vindicate our selves) An Apostle of Jesus Christ, not a Delegate of the Civil Magistrate. ForAdvers. Sect. Angl. lib. 3. cap. 8. num. 12. Suarez, the Spanish Jesuite, that he may have something to confute in the English Sect (as he will needs call us) saith confidently, That the Power of Order with us is nothing else, but a Deputation of certain persons by the Temporal Magistrate to do those Acts, which he himself much more might do; made indeed with some kinde of Ceremonies, but those esteemed Arbitrary, and unnecessary to the Ef­fect, which would follow as well without them, by the King's sole Deputation. A Calumny, which the whole Business of this Day most solemnly refutes: a kinde of a second Nag's-head Fable, a Filly of the same Race, both Sire, and Dam, begotten by the Father of Lies upon a slanderous Tongue, and so sent Post about the World, to tell false Tidings of the English; as credible, as that our Kings Excommunicate, or that Queen Elizabeth Preached. Would they have been just, or ingenuous, they should have laid the Brat at the Physician's door, who was the Father of it: Not the beloved Physician, though his Name comes nigh; (Erastus, but not [...]) no, his Praise was not in the Gospel, but a Physician in Geneva, learned, and Eminent enough. 'Tis remarkable, that, in the same Place, and much about the same Time (so un­lucky an Ascendent hath Errour, and Mistake, upon [Page 10] some Persons!) should Three Conceits be hatched concerning Church-Government, which, like Three Furies, have vext the quiet of the Church ever since. For the Consistorial, and Congregational Pretenses were Twins of the same Birth; though the Younger serv'd the Elder, and, being much over-power'd, sunk in the stream of Time, till it appeared again in this un­happy Age, amongst the Ghosts of so many reviv'd Errours, that have escap'd from their Tombs, to walk up, and down, and disturb the World. And not long after this Physician too, would needs step out of his own Profession, to mistake in two others at once, Policy, and Divinity, running a risque of setting ill-Understanding betwixt them, had not Abler, and Wiser Heads then He, stept in, and so evenly cut the thrid, so exactly stated the Controversie, and asserted the very Due on either side, that there remains now no ground, either of Jealousie among Friends, or, one would think, of Slander fom Enemies. And yet, even some of our own too (which we have reason more deeply to resent) would needs bear the World in hand, when Time was, That the Claim of Episco­pal Power, as from Christ, and his Apostles, was an Assault upon the Right of our Kings, and tended to the Disherison of the Crown. As if the Calling might not stand by Divine Right, and yet the Ad­juncts, and Appendages of it by Humane Bounty: As if the Office it self might not be from Christ, and yet the Exercise of it onely by, and under the Permission of Pious Kings: or, As if the Church might not ow the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven both that of Order, and that of Jurisdiction too (purely Spiritual, I mean, [Page 11] and without any Temporal Effect) to the Donation of Christ, and yet, at the same time, ow all the Co­active Power in the External Regiment (which is one of the Keys of the Kingdoms of this World, for the enforcing of Obedience by constraint) to the Political Sanction. These things thus clearly distinguish'd, I cannot see, why we may not with some Confidence in­fer the Apostolical, and, at least, in Consequence thereupon, the Divine Right of our Ecclesiastical Hierarchie, how harsh soever it sounds, either at Rome, or Geneva; and though the Hills aboutVide Hist. Concil. Trid. lib. 7. Trent resounded loud with the Eccho of that Noise, and stiff Debate, which past upon that Argument within the Walls of that Councel. Howev [...]r they like it, on this side the Hills, or beyond. St. Paul stands firmly by us, and voucheth the Grand Charter of his Apostolate for all: Me, me, adsum, qui feci — 'Twas I, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, that left Titus to ordain Elders in Creet; and what [...] will be found for this Argument? 'Twas the Holy Ghost, that made you Bishops, saith the same Apostle Acts xx. 38. to the Elders at Miletus; so that these are no Milesian Fables, butActs xxvi. 25. the Words of Truth, and Soberness, a part of the Holy, and Divine [...], the real Acts, and Gests of the Apostles of Christ, nay, the Act, and Deed of Christ himself by his Apostles, accord­ing to that Rule of the Hebrews, [...] Talm. in Kid­duschin, fol. 41.2. Apostolus cujus{que} est, ut quisque. And so much for the Original of the Power.

I go on (II) to the Subject, and that is Titus: Ego Te, I left Thee.

(1.) Thee first, mine Host, and of the whole Church. For, when the Jews, at Corinth, Acts xviii. 6. contradicted, and blasphemed the Doctrine, delivered by St. Paul, he shook [Page 12] his Raiment, andv. 7. departed into the house of one Justus (so we read it after the Greek Copies, one that worship­ped God, and dwelt by the Synagogue; v. 11. and there he abode eighteen Moneths. But the Syriack Version saith, it was the House of Titus, (and so [...]. St. Chrysostome seemeth, by his Preface to this Epistle, to have found it in some Copies:) and the Vulgar Latine, and Arabick, reconciling both, The House of Titus Justus, or of Titus the Son of Justus. If you give credit to this Tradition, thus fairly derived; 'twill return you this Lesson; That no man serves God in vain; that none opens the doors of God's House, nor the doors of his own, to receive God's Church in, that loseth his Reward. Obadiah, that secured, and fed an hundred Prophets in Persecution, received a Prophet's Reward, andVide Munst. Vatabl. & alios in Obad. (though but a Proselyte) was himself made one of the Twelve. The house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite, and All, that pertained to him, was blest, for the Ark of God's sake, that occasionally turned in thither. And Titus, a Gentile, who received St. Paul into his House, not onely gains thereby the Lights of Faith, and the Incomparable Advantages of Religi­on; but is himself introduced into the Church, which is the House of God, and set amongst the Princes there; being singled out to this special Honour from a­mongst the many, that attended St. Paul in his Jour­neyings. Hear this, you Noble, and Generous Souls, who, in this time of Calamity, have spread your Wings over the persecuted Prophets of God, and had a Church in your House, when they made a Stable of the Church. Believe it, God, and his Church pay their Quarters, wheree're they come, and there is not One of you shall miss of his Reward.

[Page 13](2.) Thee, who wert so exceedingly Dear, so high­ly Ʋsefull to me,2 Cor. ii. 12. Titus my Brother; Tit. i. 4. mine own Son after the common Faith; two very endearing Titles: And then, so Necessary to me; That2 Cor. ii. 12, 13. when I came to Troas, to preach Christ's Gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord; I had no rest in my Spirit; because I found not Titus my Brother: but taking my leave, went thence into Macedonia. Upon which Place, with some others2 Cor. vii. 6. St. Jerome Epist. 150. ad Hedib. qu 11. hath founded his Conjecture, That Titus was St. Paul's Interpreter to the Grecians. For, though the Apostle understood the Greek Lan­guage, and wrote it too Elegantly enough; yetDivinorum sensuum Maje­statem digno non poterat Graeci e­loquti explicare sermone. S. Hie­ron. ibid. Vide & Baron. Tom. 1. Ann. 45. n. 32, &c. there might be something of Uncouth, and Barbarous in his Pronunciation, which rendred it not so smooth, and passable to a common Greek Ear: (which Jose­phus also, thoughPhotius. [...]. a spruce Greek Writer, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. ult. [...]. com­plains of, as both his own, and the general Infelicity of his Nation.) But, though Titus was so Needfull to St. Paul in this, or some such respect, and so Dear, and Precious in many others; yet the Apostle, most resolvedly, leaves him behinde in Creet; as He, who knew most chearfully to Sacrifice all his own Advan­tages, and the tenderest, and inmost of his Affecti­ons to the Benefit of Christ's Church, and the Interest of Religion. Let us go, and do likewise.

(3.) But Thirdly, and principally; Thee, a single Per­son; not a Consistory of Presbyters, or a Bench of El­ders. But this Observation, together with the next Par­ticular, (III) The Extent of his Power, as it reacheth the whole Island of Creet, I shall have occasion to resume by and by; and so pass on at present.

There is nothing behinde of the first Part of the [Page 14] Text, but (IV) the Conveyance of the Power couched, or supposed, in Ego Reliqui, I left Thee. A close Conveyance, by a word, in which there may be much more under­stood, than exprest; viz. A Derivation, or Transmission of Power from S. Paul to Titus, enabling him for the Discharge of that work, he was entrusted with. Reli­quit vice suâ; as Haymo In locum. well. As if S. Paul had said, I left thee in Creet, my Depuiy, and Ʋice-gerent there, to water, what I had planted; to build up, what I had founded; to perfect, what I had begun. I left thee, to Reside in Creet, (as I be­sought Timothy to abide at Ephesus, [...],) to be Resident there, as fix'd, and ordinary Governour of that Church, while I went on still to preach the Gospel in other Regions, where the Name of Christ had not been heard. In fine, For this Cause was he left, that he should perform such special Acts, (ordain Elders, and reform what was amiss) and therefore certainly left Commissioned, and Authorized after the Apostolical Guise, to do those Acts, viz by Imposition of Hands, and Episcopal Ordination: which is a true Gloss, though of a Pseudo-Ambrose In Titum. Titum Apostolus consecravit Episco­pum: and back'd by Theophylact, and others amongst the Grecians, [...].

II But it will best appear, what the Power was in the Conveyance, (and consequently what the Conveyance it self) by taking notice, what it was to be in the Exer­cise of it: and so I go on to the Second Part of my Text, in which we finde it designed to a double Act, to Order, and to Ordain; [...].

1. In the First there will be some Variety. For [...] being properly toVide Scul­teti Obss. in Tit. 1. cap. 2. Correct, or make Strait that, [Page 15] which is Crooked, (not that, which is wanting, to which it seems not to have so just a Rapport;) and [...] being, in the next Notion, those things, which are wanting, (and therefore not so aptly said to be correct­ed, as supplied, or added:) For the according of the Terms, I cannot see, why the Participle may not have as powerfull Influence upon the Verbe, (to qualifie That,) as That upon the Participle; and shall therefore make this advantage of the Doubt, to take in the con­sideration of both Senses, and suppose, that Titus is here commissioned, both to supply, what was Wanting; and to correct, what was Amiss.

First, To supply, what was Wanting. And then the Nerve, and Emphasis of the Verb will lie in the Prepo­sition; [...], to do something Additionally, and by way of Supplement to what was done before, but was not sufficient. [...], as S. Chry­sostome Homil. 1. to fill up the Vacuities, and Defects, that were left, which probably were not a few, in Creet especial­ly, a Church so lately Founded (butVide Baron. Ann. 58. n. 1. the year before) and in which S. Paul stayed so short a time, in which long Works could not be brought about. Neither let any Church, though of longer continuance, flatter, and sooth up it self, with Laodicea, Apoc. iii. 17. as if it needed no­thing. The Ship of the Church is never so perfectly rigg'd, but something may be added. 'Tis seldom, or never, but some pin, or other is lacking, even in God's Tabernacle, while it sojourns here below. Just as in the Material Church; 'tis scarce known but either the Roof is open, or the Pavement uneven, the Windows broken, or some part, or other, of the Wall mouldring, and dropping away: So in the Spiritual, either the [Page 16] Light is not good, or the Walking is not answerable; 'tis well if the Foundation stands firm, and sinks not; but the Super-structions, most commonly, want some­thing; that must be supplied. And therefore, me­thinks, the Inference is strong, There's need of a Bi­shop in every Church, that mustIsid. Pelus. lib. 1. Ep. 149. [...]. learn his Office in his Name, and look about him, be [...] (as Isidore Pelusiote appositely) and, like a wise Master-builder, have a careful Eye, ever awake, upon all parts, to see what is wanting, and to supply it. That's the first.

But secondly, To correct what is amiss; Things, that are faulty, and defective, and want something, (sc. of their due Rectitude, and Conformity to the Rule;) for so perhaps the [...] may signifie, [...] and Hesychius Hesych. [...]. Lege [...], & [...]. shall warrant me that Gloss. Or else [...], things, that leave their Rank, and start out of their place; and so to be reduc'd, and set in Order again. And of this sort also there was but too much in Creet. For, to say nothing of the evil Beasts with the Nimble Tongues, andTit. i. 10. slow bellies; we finde also in this Chapter Jewish Leaven to be purged out, and, as someDr. H. Hammond, in c. 1.9, 16. have thought, Gnostick Impurity to be resisted,v. 10. unruly, and vain talkers, and deceivers; v. 11. Subverters of whole houses; teachers of things, they ougt not, for filthy lucre's sake; v. 16. Men, that profess to know God, but in works denie him, being abominable, diso­bedient, and to every good work reprobate. So that, for ought we see, they might well enough deserve the black Character, the Proverb brands them with, amongst the [...], the three [...] very infamous Na­tions, that began with C. For such a superfluity of Naugh­tiness S. Paul here designs a proportionate Corrective, [Page 17] and sends Titus, and his Elders, amongst them, to bring them into better order, by a threefold Instrument, Vitâ, Doctrinâ, Censurâ; all in this Epistle, and in this Chapter.

(1) Vitâ first, by the Example of his holy life. Ch. ii. 7. In all things shewing thy self [...], a pattern of good works. For, as S. Ambrose Lib. 10. Epist. 82. ad Eccles. Vercell. excellently, In Episcopo vita formatur omnium; the Life of the Prelate is, as it were, a Form, or mold, in which the Conversation of others is Shap'd, and model'd: Or, asLib. 1. Epist. 319. [...]. Isidore Pe­lusiot conceits it, like a Seal well cut, which stamps the common Christians under his care, as Wax, with the like Impressions. And therefore S. Paul, who well under­stood this, twice within two Verses of my Text, requires it a Qualification in a Bishop, that he be blameless, Inaccusabi­lis: Cajetan. [...], One, that cannot be accused, which yet Inno­cence it self, you know, may be; nay, but a Bishop must be void of Suspicion too, as well as Crime. Ay, that's the way to set all right indeed: For so fair a Co­pie, plac'd in so good a Light, teacheth it self; and eve­ry One, that runs by, will read it, and strive to write after it.

(2) But Secondly, Doctrinâ; by speaking the things, that become sound Doctrine. Ch. ii. 1. For a Bishop must be able bothCh. i.9. to exhort, and to convince the Gainsayers: Ch. ii. 7, 8. In Doctrine shewing Ʋncorruptness, Gravity, Sincerity, sound Speech, that cannot be condemned, that he, that is of the contrary part, may be ashamed, &c.

(3) Censurâ, That must not be forgotten, as being chief in the Ey [...] of the Text. No; the Garden of God must be weeded sometimes, or, like the Sluggard's Vine­yard, Prov. xxiv. 30, 31. 'twill soon be overgrown with Nettles, and [Page 18] Thorns. Even Christ's Vine must be pruned too, or 'twill run out, and spend it self in fruitless Luxury. The Lamps of the Temple will burn faint, and dim, if they be not trimmed, and drest, and snuffed now, and then. And therefore, though the Tables of the Law, and the Pot of Manna be in the Ark; yet 'tis not a perfect Em­bleme of the Church, unless the Rod of Aaron be there too: and without Jurisdiction, and Discipline, we shall quickly finde; the Word, and Sacraments will not have so powerful an Influence upon a loose, and a de­bauched World. Epiphanius Contra Haeres. lib. 3. cap. 1. Contra Aerian. observes, That Moses was sent into Egypt [...]. Some while after he in­stituted the Pass-over, and received the Law, and con­secrated Aaron, and his Sons, to the Priest-hood; but he carried the Rod of God with him in his hand. No bringing up the Israel of God out of Egypt without it. And 'tis that Rod therefore, which S. Paul here puts in­to Titus's hand, when he bids him Correct, what is amiss, in the Text; and Rebuke evil doers [...]. sharply, and se­verely, v. 13. and Stop the mouths of such, as teach, what they ought not; v. 11. Nay, and Rebuke them [...]. with all Authority, not suffering his Monitions to be slighted by any: Let no man contemn thee; Ch. ii. v. 15.

Nay, if Corrigas will not serve the turn, be a Word too low, S. Jerome, upon the place, and, after him, Car­dinal Cajetan, have added a Cubit to its Stature, and ad­vanc'd it into Super-corrigas; which yet perhaps ar­rives not the full Altitude of the Greek. For [...] is a Decompound, and, if [...] be to make strait, or right, [...] is thoroughly to do it, and [...] to do it, not onely exactly, but over, and over again, S. Chrysostom, [Page 19] and S. Jerom In locum. both, take notice of this Emphasis, and state it thus; That, ‘whereas S. Paul had correct­ed some things, and so far; Titus should go on, where he left, and compleat, what he had begun; bringing them yet to another Test, till they came forth, like Gold, more than once tryed in the Furnace.’

An Hint, which will perhaps be too greedily catch'd at by those, to whose Advantage it was never intend­ed. A sort of Men, that are all for Super-corrigas; but 'tis still on the wrong side, and of that, which is not a­miss. The Reformers of the World, and Syndics of all Christendom; Men but of yesterday, yet wiser, and bet­ter, than all the Fathers; that Over-Correct, and Over-Re­form every thing: correct Magnificat it self, before they be out of danger of the rest of the Proverb: Correct, not the Cretans, and their Amisses; but Titus, and his Elders: serving all Antiquity, and Patterns of Primi­tive Government, as [...]. Plat. in Theseo. Procrustes did his Guests, who still reduced them to the Scantling of his Beds: So these; either cutting them short, or forcing them out longer, till they apply to the just Model they have fancied to themselves, and would impose upon others. Thus Ti­tus must be screwed up into an Extraordinary, and so a Temporary Officer, an Evangelist, or a Secondary Apostle, (as Walo Messalinus, and others) not a fix'd, and Ordi­nary Governour of the Church of Creet, lest that come cross to their Designs: and, on the other side, the Elders of the Text must be degraded into common Presbyters, lest we should have Bishops here of S. Paul's, and Titus his own Creation: with how little rea­son in either, we go on to consider in

[Page 20]11. The second Act, to which this Power is here de­signed, and that is [...], to ordain Elders in every City.

Concerning which Elders, whether of the first, or second Rank, I know well, what Variety of Opinion hath past, even amongst mine own Mother's Sons. Nor shall I be nice to acknowledge it; as counting it our Advantage, that we have more, than a single Hy­pothesis, to salve the Phoenomena, and some choice of Answers, each of them sufficiently securing us from the Contradiction of the Gainsayers: to whose Pretensi­ons these Elders will be for ever useless, whether un­derstood Bishops, or common Presbyters, alwaies or­dained, and governed, either by the Apostles them­selves, or by Bishops of their appointment, as they drew off. But, not to leave it wholly in the Clouds, I will not doubt to profess mine own sense too, with due submission; That the Elders in the Text were ve­ry Bishops, appointed One for every City, and the Suburbicarian Region thereof.

1 For this is most agreeable, not onely to the Exposi­tion of the Antient Church, (the best Comment, when all is done, upon doubtfull Places of Scripture;)

2 But to the Context also, which expresly calls them Bishops, in the seventh verse. Were it not for this, and what follows in the next Particular, we were perhaps, at liberty to leave the Word at large in its general ac­ception, as it takes in both Orders, both usefull in e­very City, and so both to be supplied by Titus; in whichArgum. in Tit. [...]. Oecumenius hath gone before us, affirming, That Titus was left in Creet, to ordain Clerks in every Ci­ty? But we are determined: For, though at present [Page 21] I demand not, that [...], whereever it occurs, in the New Testament, should signifie a Bishop; yet, that [...] doth so, I shall not doubt to affirm, till I see the Text produced, that attributes it to some Per­son, otherwise evinced to have been no more, then a single Presbyter.

3 And Thirdly, and lastly, most agreeable also to the Text it self, and the Distribution of these Presbyters by Cities, the Peculiar Seat of Bishops, according to the Scheme of the Antient Church, and the Method the Blessed Apostles thought good to use in the planting, and modelling of it. For, That they Preached the Go­spel not onely in Cities, [...], vel, [...]. Acts xiii. 49. & xiv. 6, 7. but in the Countries adjoyn­ing; yet planted Churches in Cities still, and settled single Persons their Successours there, to govern both the Cities, and the Regions round about, (from whence a City, and a Church come to be equipollent Terms, even in the Apostolical Writings, and [...] in the Acts Acts xiv. 23. & xvi. 4, 5. the same with [...] in the Text) and yet further, That they left the Churches of inferiour Cities, and their Bishops in de­pendance upon the Metropoles, which were the Chief according to the civil Division, (and that the onely true ground of the Superiority of one Church above another) hath been rendred as manifest, as any thing almost in the Ecclesiastick Antiquity, against all Adver­saries, (both those of the Hills, and those of the Lake too) by the Learned, and well-placed Labours of those Excellent Persons in both Pages of the Di­ptychs, whom I shall not need to name, since their own Works praise them in the Gate. Now, I would ask the Question; If these be common Presbyters, why appro­priated [Page 22] to Cities? Were there to be none of this sort in the Villages, or in the Country about? Or, since limit­ed to Cities, why should we not pronounce them Bi­shops? the City being the Bishop's proper Seat, and He the Star of that Orb; the Angel, and the Intelligence of that Sphere. A Truth so Visible, that Calvin, and Beza, and many others after them (so far may Persons otherwise of great Learning be Transported, [...]) to avoid the Inconvenience, were concerned to Translate [...] here Oppidatim, (El­ders in every Town:) not, as some others, less Interessed Persons, may, perhaps, be thought to have done, to gain the advantage of that distributive Termination, which no Adverb from Civitas, or Ʋrbs, could afford them: but,See Mr. Hooker's Pre­face. I fear, for some other Design: perhaps, to make the Interpretation of the Text (a Practice too Usual with them, & others) to lacquay it to the espous­ed Opinions, and to serve the [...], and so to whip Theologie with Grammar's Rods; but so loosely bound up, that at the first stroke they flie in the Air, and prove ineffectual; every Alphabetarian knowing well, that the Latine of [...] is Ʋrbs, or Civitas: and Op­pidum, in the precise propriety of Language (which ought in such cases to be kept) [...] at the most, in middle state betwixt a City, and a Dorp; and in the antient Glosses Gloss. Phi­lox. & Cyrilli. no more then [...], Civitatula at the Highest.

And now, I shall not take upon me, as some have done, to number the Cities under Titus's Jurisdiction, 'Tis true, in Homer's Time Creet was [...],Centum urbium cla­ra samâ. Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12. fa­mous for its hundred Cities: But in Ptolomie's Age they a­rose not to half the Number; and Pliny, having named [Page 23] about fourty, saith plainly, that of the other sixty memo­ria extat; nothing remained but the Memory. In the Times of the Greek Empire, they were about twenty Suf­fragan Bishops, under four Arch-Bishops, as Maginus In Geogr. pag 183. b. reckons them up; but, at this day, under the Veneti­an, not half so many of either sort. So variable are these Proportions, according to the Fate of cities, and the dayly Change of the civil Partition. Who would look now for the Throne of a Primate in Caer-Leon up­on Ʋsk? or rake in the Ruins of Carthage for St. Cypri­an's Mitre? He, that should undertake a Pilgrimage to Creet, to visit Titus his Metropolis, would in vain en­quire for the once-Famous Gortyna, and not finde so much of its Dust together, as would suffice to write its Name in. That renowned Septenary of Asia, of old not onely Episcopal, See the Learned Pri­mate's Ex­cellent Dis­courses of the Original of Me­trop. and the Proconsular Asia. but Metropolitical Churches, where are they? Cities may fail, and Bishops Sees with them: Stars have their Vicissitudes; may rise, and set again: Candlesticks are moveable Ʋtensils, and may be carried from Room to Room: But [...] is the standing Rule, and fails not; a City, and a Bishop, ge­nerally adequate to one another. For as, on the one side, an Ʋniversal Bishop, with the whole World for his Jurisdiction, is a proud Pretense, and too vast for Hu­manity to grasp; so, on the other side, Rural Bishops too is a poor, and mean Design, and not onely retrives the Italian Episcopelli, so scorned at Trent; but worse. As He divided the Stream into so many Rills, that it lost its Name, and Being; so these, by a too minute Di­vision would Cantonize the Dignity, and degrade it into nothing at the last; as the Roitelets, and petty Kings of Ivedot, do but diminish Majesty, and take it down in­to [Page 24] to contempt.Concil. Laodic. Sardic. Tolet. 12. [...] Non in vicis, aut villis, aut q. d. Non in oppido. modicâ civitate; No Bi­shops there,Ne vilescat nomen Episcopi. lest they grow contemptible; so run the Canons of the Antient Church, both Greek, and Latine. And therefore the twelfth Councel of Toledo Ann. 716. unmi­tered one Convildus, formerly an Abbot in a little Vil­lage, and dissolved the Bishoprick, whichOr Wamba. Bamba, the Gothick King, had violently procured to be erected there; and that by authority of this Rule of the Church, and the very [...] of my Text, Inprimis ex Epistola Pauli Tito Discipulo, ut Episcopos per civitates consti­tuere debeat, praecepit, &c. Concil. Mer­lin. Tom. 1. pag 135. b. which they actu­ally plead in the Front of their Decree, to justifie their proceedings.

Amongst these so many Cities in Creet, Gortyna was then the Civil Metropolis, as Solinus, Cap. 17. Ce [...]tum consti­pata Ʋrbibus­quarum princi­patus est penès Gortynam. who lived in that Age, informs us: and in the next Age, we are sure, the Ecclesiastical Metropolis too; there being still extant, in theEuseb. lib. 4. cap. [...]. Church-Story, the Inscription of an Epistle, that plainly infers it. For Dionysius, that renowned Bishop of Corinth, who flourished about the middle of the se­cond Century, and stands so highly commended in Eu­sebius for his Catholick Epistles, (seven of them being there mentioned) to several Churches, and their Bi­shops, or, as S. Jerome In Catalogo Script. Eccles. hath it more distinctly, Ad a­liarum Ʋrbium & Provinciarum Episcopos (some of them being written to inferiour Cities, and Bishops, other to Mother-cities, and their Metropolitans, and so to whole Provinces) amongst the rest sent two into Creet: the One, of the former sort, to Pinytus, Gnossiae urbis Epi­scopum, as S. Jerom, or as Eusebius, [...]. To the Gnossians, and Pinytus, Bishop of that Diocess onely: the Other, of the later sort, and in a different Style, [...]. To the Church about (or, belonging to) Gortyna, together with the rest of [Page 25] the Dioceses in Creet, and in it acknowledgeth Philip their Bishop, that is, not onely of that Church of Gor­tyna, but of all those Dioceses, ( [...], not [...]) whom therefore S. Jerom significantly qualifies Epi­scopum Cretensem, hoc est, urbis Gortynae, Bishop of Gor­tyna, & eo nomine of all Creet too. Enough to make E­vidence, that Gortyna was the Metropolis of Creet, even in the Christian accompt, very early, and long before the Councel of Nice, (whatever hath been pretended to the contrary,) and probably in the Epoch of the Text it self; since even then it was certainly such in the civil Style, most confessedly the Ground of the Christian establishment (for sure, it was not Chance, or Lottery, that produced a perpetual Coincidence) both there, and elsewhere the World over.

And, now, let me lead you up to the top of Mount Ida, the proudest Height in Creet; from whence Geographers tell us, we may descry both Seas, and see all the Cities, like a Crown, in Circle about it. There let us make a stand a while, and look about us, and consider holy Titus, with those numerous Plantations, and Nurseries of Primitive Christianity, distributed, as it were [...]. Areolatim, like so many distinct Beds, and Knots in the Eden of God, planted, and watered, and drest by Apostolical Hands, all under his care, and cu­stody. Consider him (by way of Recollection) under the Variety of Circumstance, wherein the Text hath hitherto presented him to our Meditations. Consider him a single Person; no Collegues, no Compeers, no Co­ordinates. For, as our Lord promised the Keys, (and, doubtless, so gave, as he had promised them) not to a College, but to single Persons,Matth. xvi. 19. Tibi dabo—& quodcun­que [Page 26] (Tu) ligaveris—: So the Apostles, at the next remove, S. Paul here, I am sure, for One entrusts all, not to Communities, and Consistories, but to Individuals; for so runs the Style, Ego Te-ut Tu-sicut ego Tibi, all Perso­nal, and Particular. Consider him determined to a fix'd, and constant Residence, left, and settled in Creet, the Ordinary, and perpetual Governour of that Church. For we ought to have more regard to Reason, and the true Nature of things, than to pronounce him an Ex­traordinary Officer; who, for ought appears, is im­powered to none, but Acts of Ordinary, and conti­nual Importance to the Church: and more Reverence for the blessed Apostle, than to think, he would issue a Commission, full fraught with Rules of Perpetual Use, to a Temporary Delegate, who was perhaps next day to be exauctorated, and never to have any Exercise of them. Consider him, yet further, invested with a Plenitude, and Sufficiency of Power (not onely to Preach, and Baptize, and so to beget Sons to God, and the Church, which is the Presbyter's and, for ought I know, the whole of the Evangelist's Office; but also) both to Or­dain Elders in all the Cities under him, and so to beget spiritual Fathers too, as Epiphanius Contra Haeres. lib. 3. contr. Aërium. distinguisheth; and then (as, in the old Paternal Dominion, they ruled whom they had begotten) to govern, and regulate whom he had thus ordained, even all the Bishops of those numerous Cities. Whence the Question of our Reverend and LearnedApud Rev. Usserium. Jewel most naturally pro­ceedeth, Having the Government of so many Bishops, what may we call him, but an Arch Bishop? (and I add) of so many Cities, what but a Metropolitan? I say, Consider all this soberly, and maturely, and you will not disa­vow [Page 27] me, if I say, That whosoever shall drive us out of this Creet, thus strongly Garisoned by S. Paul, and his Disciples, and slight and dismantle so many Strengths, and Fortresses of the Episcopal cause, as there were Cities in that Island, and extort out of our hands this great Instance of so many Bishops, ordained, and go­verned by their own Metropolitan, so high in the first Age; will be a very Pyrgopolinices indeed,Plaut. in Milite. qui legi­ones Spiritu difflat, and deserve the Sur-name of Creti­cus, better than Metellus the Roman, that subdued the Island.

For our parts, we are not ashamed of our Conformi­ty to so Primitive a Pattern; nay, we glory in so hand­som, and innocent a Syncretism: For we are not bet­ter, than our Fathers; nor wiser, than the Apostles of Christ himself. And, had we been of their Counsel, who not long since pretended to reform us according to the best Examples, we might have bespoke them, as once S. Paul did those over-hasty, and unruly Mari­ners, (who would needs put to Sea, when Sailing was dangerous, and thrive accordingly, being quickly forced to abandon the Helm, and to let the ShipAct. xxvii. 15. drive, being not able to bear up against the Wind)Verse 21. [...] Sirs, you should not have parted from Creet in the Text, and so have gainedIbid. [...]. harm, and disgrace. If really you be in quest of the best Examples of modelling a Church, you may certainly finde here as fair, and as pure Ideas, & as well worth your Imitation, as the more Modern Platform can afford you; whichSee Mr. Hooker's Preface. I have reason to believe the famous Authour of it intended not at first a Pattern to other Churches, but an Expedient to serve [Page 28] the present Exigent of his own, in a Juncture scarce capable of any thing better, and which, I am perswa­ded, the learnedst, and wisest, and most Pious of his Followers would gladly relinquish for something more perfect, and Primitive; would the Necessities of their present Condition (which have no Law, but much of Excuse for those, that really lie under them) permit them the Happiness of so blessed an Ex­change. Which God in mercy send them.

And so much of the Second Act, to which the Power is here designed, and that is the Ordaining of Elders, to­gether with the Distribution of them [...], In e­very City one.

III I have but three words to add of the third Part of my Text, and that was, the Limitation of these Acts to the Apostle's Prescription; All must be so done, even as he had appointed. So, in regard of the Variety of the Offices themselves, and their several Subordinations; So, in regard of the Choice of the Persons, and their requi­site Qualifications; and So also, in regard of the Rites, and Ceremonies, and Manner of Ordaining them: still, [...]. All, as I had appointed thee.

And now, if any demand, Where these [...], these Constitutions Apostolical, are to be found; I shall not send them to Clemens his Book, that bears that Name, but to the Ʋniversal Practice of the Antient. Church, in which they are still in great part Visible; and thence Handed over to Posterity by Tradition, and con­formity of Practice; and by degrees inserted into the Canons of the Old Councels, as occasion was offered, and into the Ordinals of several Churches. Or, if a rea­dier, and more present Answer be required, I know [Page 29] not where to design it you nearer at hand, or more full to your satisfaction, than by dismissing you, to attend the great Action, that is to follow. In which you will see All so Grave, and Solemn; so Pious, and Devout; so Primitive, and Apostolical; and so exactly up to the Level of the Text, and the [...] of S. Paul here: that I know not where to point you out so pregnant, and full a Comment upon my Text, nor what better Amends to make you for my own failings upon it.

And yet, having thus hastily run it over, with all its Parts, and Branches, (Some few Sands still remain­ing of that Heap, the Bounty of Your Patience al­lows me;) I'le crave leave briefly to take a Second View of it in the Auditory it self, and read it over a­gain in the Face of the Assembly. For the better part of it, your own Thoughts have already prevented me; and every Eye hath singled out our most Reve­rend Titus, [...], a Genuine Son, and Suc­cessour of the Apostles, upon the very Act of Con­stituting [...], more, than a whole Pro­vince of Elders at once: Men, able to abide, and pass with Honour the dreadfull Test, that follows upon my Text; as being both, for Life, Blameless; Sober, Just, Holy, Temperate; and in Doctrine sound, hold­ing fast the Faithfull Word, as they have been taught; not­withstanding all the Discouragements, they have met with, from the sad Condition of our common Mother.

But then for the rest; I wish it were not so easie a Task, to finde Creet in England, with all its Wants, and all its Amisses. For, to say nothing of those more in­nocent, [Page 30] and less important Resemblances, in which we Symbolize; (both Islands lying in a kinde ofMagin. pag. 182. 38. Tri­gon betwixt three Points, or Promontories; both styled The Happy Islands by Ancient Writers, ( [...] Solin. cap. 17. and Insulae Fortunatae Camd. Brit. pag. 3. ex Lycoph Cassand.) for the Temper of the Air, and Fertility of the Soil; both denominated from those White, andCreta, ab Insula Creta, ubi melior est. Isidor. lib. 16. cap. 1. Chalkie Cliffs, which bound them on one side,Magin. pag 182, 38. Candia à Candidis, as Albion ab albis rupibus; both famous for their Just Laws, and Ours no less to be valued, then those of Rhadamanthus, and Minos, had we but the Wisdom, to comport our selves to the Obedience of them, as we ought:) I say, to let all this pass, I wish we had not too much of Creet amongst us, whether Morally considered, in regard of their Vices; or Historically, in regard of their then im­perfect Condition.

I would not be mistaken, as One, that delights to Li­bel a whole Nation at once, (especially mine Own) but S. Chrysostome hath dress'd an Apologie for S. Paul in this Particular, by distinguishing,In Tit. Hom. 1. [...] He did it not to injure any, but out of kindness, and pure love to reform them: Just as our Blessed Lord [...], saith the same Father, a thousand times reproached the Scribes, and Pharisees: not because they had wronged Him; but lest they should harm, and destroy others. And so St. Paul, with the same Affections about him, cries, Gal. iii. 1. O insensati Galatae! to one Church; Are you such Fools? and here, ‘v. 12. [...].’

That Poet was, I think, a Prophet indeed (otherwise, than St. Paul meant him) and sang of us too: and in that Verse the present Age may see its Face, and Blush. [Page 31] I appeal to your better Observation, if we have not out­vyed the very Cretans themselves in the first Particu­lar; and in a worse kinde too, lied for God's sake, andJob xiii. 7. talked deceitfully for him. What pious frauds, and holy Cheats? What slandering the footsteps of God's Anointed, when the Interest was to Blacken Him? What false accusing of our Brethren, ay, and of our Fa­thers too; that we might devour the Man more righteous, than our selves? Pliny Lib. 8. cap. 58. hath observed it, Nullum animal maleficum in Creta; and Solinus Cap. 17. adds, Nec ulla Serpens: But they should have excepted the In­habitants; for they were [...] (andv. 13. this Wit­ness, I am sure, is true;) not onely Evil Beasts, as we translate it, but Venemous too: and I wish there were no other Island could shew Vipers too many, that have eat out the Bowels of their Common Mother, and flown in the face of their Political Father, without whose be­nigner Influence their chill and bennumed Fortunes had not Warmth enough, to raise them to so bold an Attempt. 'Tis unwillingly, that I go on to the rest of that Character: but your own Experience shall Justify me, if I say, that the [...], that remains, hath been since exemplified in some other Scene; and our Idleness, and Fulness of Bread, those Sins of Sodom, have, I fear, long since proclaimed it to our faces. And now I cannot wonder, if it be observed from the Records of History, (asIn Tit. iii. 1. Grotius assures us, who knew them well) that the Cretans were (and I wish, there were no other such) a mutinous, and a seditious People; and had but too much need to be put in minde by Titus, to be subject to Pincipalities, and Powers, and to obey Magi­strates: ForJud. ix. 27. the men of Shechem eat, and drink, and [Page 32] (then most naturally go on to) curse Abimelech; (Ay, and David they would have done, had they lived in his Time, and the Flagon held out) for when our Bel­lies, and our Heads, are full, then Wo be to our Govern­ours; and Wealth, and Ease, and Having-nothing-to-do, makes us ripe for any thing, that is Evil. There were, amongst the new Converts of Creet, some false Brethren v. 10. of the Circumcision; for the stopping of whose Mouths, as some have thought, and St. Chrysostom amongst the rest, St. Paul in chief designed this Epistle. And I should be glad to be assured, that there are not some amongst us, who, though they love not to Bleed, yet, I am afraid, are too prone to Judaize in some other Instance, and to retrive some other part of the Mosaical Paedagogie, which, perhaps, suits no better with thatGal. v. 1. Liberty, to which Christ our Lord hath called us, and in which we ought to stand fast. 'Tis with much Reluctance (could I balk it so full in my way) that I shew you the Cretan Labyrinth, that not long since, I am sure, was amongst us (God grant it be not still) that inextricable, and endless Maze of Errours, and Heresies, that every day opened it-self into new Paths, and Allies; dividing, and subdividing into ne­ver-ending Mistakes, till they had abased, and almost destroyed Religon with abominable Heterogeneous Mixtures, and left the little Semblance of Christianity, was left amongst them, an hideous Monster, or Mino­taur, Semibovémque virum, Semivirúmque bovem: — Je­rusalem, and Rome, party per pale; with Geneva, and Cracovia, if you'll have it quarterly; Ay, and Mecca to, I fear, in chief to embellish the Scutcheon.

But, is there no Theseus, no generous Heroe, to [Page 33] attaque this Monster? no courteous, and charitable Ariadne, that will lend a Clew, & help us to disentangle the ruffled Scain, and to evade these perplexed wan­drings? Hath our Creet no Dictamnus in it, to expell the Arrow, which so long hath galled our sides? no Counter-poison for so many Mischiefs? Or rather, in the Prophetical Scheme,Jer. viii. 22. Is there no Balm in Gi­lead? Is there no Physitian there? Yes; there is: And therefore let us hope well of the healing of the Wounds of the Daughter of our People, since they are under the Cure of those very Hands, upon which God hath entailed a Miraculous Gift of Healing, as if it were on purpose to raise up our Hopes into some Confi­dence, that we shall ow one day to those sacred hands, next under God, the healing of the Church's, and the People's Evils, as well, as of the King's. Blessed for ever be that God, who hath restored us such a Gracious Sovereign, to be the Is. lviii. 12. Repairer of the breach, and the Nursing Father of his Church: and hath put it into the King's Heart, to appoint Titus, as this Day, to Ordain Elders for every City, to supply all, that is wanting, and to correct, what ever is amiss. Blessed are our eyes; for they see that, which many a Righteous man (more Righteous, than we) desired so much to see, and hath not seen It. And blessed be this Day,Job iii. 4. (Let God regard it from above, and a more, than common Light shine upon it!) in which we see the Phoenix arising from her Funeral Pile, and taking Wing again; our Holy Mo­ther, the Church, standing up from the Dust, and Ruins, in which she sate so long, takingEs. lxi, 3. Beauty again for Ashes, and the Garments of praise for the spirit of Heavi­ness; remounting the Episcopal Throne, bearing the [Page 34] Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven with her, and armed (we hope) with the Rod of Discipline; her Hands spread abroad, to Bless, and to Ordain, to Confirm the Weak, and to Reconcile the Penitent; her Breasts flow­ing with the sincere Milk of the Word; and girt with a golden Girdle under the Paps, tying up All by a meet Limitation, and Restriction to Primitive Pat­terns, and Prescripts Apostolical. A sight so Venerable, and August, that, me thinks, it should at once strike Love, and Fear into every Beholder, and an awfull Veneration. I may confidently say it, 'Twas never well with us, since we strayed from the due Reve­rence, we ought to Heaven, and Her; and 'tis strange, we should no sooner observe it, but run a Madding after other Lovers, that ruin'd us, till GodHos. ii. 6, 7. hedged in our way with Thorns, that we could no longer finde them, and then we said, I will go, and return to my for­mer Husband; for then was it better with me, then now.

Well; Blest be the Mercies of God, we are at last returned; and Titus is come back into Creet; and there are Elders ordaining for every City. But, Hîc Rhodus, hîc Saltus. Reverend Fathers, this is your Creet; adorn it, as you can. The Province is hard, and the Task weighty, and formidable, even to an Angel's Shoulders. That we mistake not; Titus was not left behinde in Creet, to take his Ease, or to sleep out the storm, which soon after overtook St. Paul at Sea; he might well expect a worse at Land (Naufragium ter­restre) and a more tempestuous Euroclydon. Believe it, a Bishop's Robe isTunicâ Pu­nire molestâ; Juvenal. Sat. 8. Tunica molesta (as theVide Ba­ron. Tom. 1. Ann. 66. n. 4. Mar­tyr's pitch'd Coat was called of old) and sits, perhaps, more uneasie upon the Shoulders. The Miter is not [Page 35] [...], to render invisible, or invulnerable; but rather exposeth to Enemies. The Rotchet, & the Surplice, Em­blems of Innocence indeed, but Marks of Envy too; and 'tis in those Whites, that Malice sticks all her Darts. And therefore St. Paul was fain to entreat Timothy into this Dignity;1 Tim. i. 3. For this cause besought I thee, to abide at E­phesus: for there were Beasts to be fought with there, and the Apostle had tried them,1 Cor. xv. 32. both Tooth, and Paw. So that I cannot wonder, if our Bishops say, Nolo Episcopari, in good Earnest: and if any of ourGenes. xxxviii. 28, 29. Zaras thrust forth a hasty Hand, and be lai'd hold on, and the Scarlet Thrid cast about his Finger; 'tis not strange, if he draw back his hand, and refuse the Primogeniture; choosing rather to lie hid in Ob­scurity, quàm vinctus Purpurâ progredi, as the great Car­dinal Baron. Epist. ad Pa­pam Clem. viii. T. 7. wittily alludes. As in Creet new-Founded, so in England new-Restored, there must needs be many things wanting, and much amiss, not so easily to be supplied, or amended.

When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion, they made their thankfull acknowledgments, and said in the Psalm, Psal. cxxvi. 3. The Lord hath done great things for us already, whereof we will be glad. But then it follows immediately in the next Verse, v. 4. Turn again our Ca­ptivity, O Lord, as the Rivers in the South. It seems, their Captivity (I am sure Ours) is still to turn again, even after 'tis returned. For there are Reliques of it still behinde; and the sad Effects remain, (an Age will hardly be able to Efface them;) and, which is the saddest of All, we are still, I fear, in captivity to the same Sins, that occasioned that; and they are able to bring upon us Ten Thousand Captivities, worse, [Page 36] than the former. Plainly, there are Riddles in our Condition, (and whose Heifer shall we plow withJudg. xiv. 18. to unfold them?) Returned, and not returned: Restored, and yet not so fully restored:— in fine, with them in the Psalm, Pcxxvi. 1. We are like to them, that dream. With St. Pe­ter, Acts xii. 7. &c. the good Angel hath rouzed us, indeed, and our chains are fallen off; we have bound on our Sandals, and begin to finde our Legs again; and we are past the first, and the second Ward: But, me thinks, the Iron-gate, that leads to the City, is not over-apt to open to us of its own accord. So that we wist not well, if it be True, and Real, that is done by the Angel; still apt to think we see a Vision; still like to them, that dream. We have Jerusalem ('tis true) and the Hill of Sion in our Eye: Yet many look back to Babel; and multitudes sit Ca­ptives still by those Waters, encreasing them with their Tears. If any have taken down their Harps from those Willows, they are not strung, nor well in Tune: and we scarce finde how to sing the Lord's Songs, even in our own Land.

And therefore let me advise you, now, in the Close of All; Give not over, but ply your Devotions still: and whenever you sing In Convertendo Dominus, in the midst of those Doxologies, forget not to insert one Versicle of Petition, Converte, Domine; Converte: Turn again, what remains of our Captivity, and perfect our faint beginnings. Ay, that's the way, if we would succeed; Vota dabunt, quae bella negârunt. For God will hear the Prayers of his Church, especially for his Church; as he did those of David, Psal. cxxxii.v. 9. Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness; that's the Petition: and what saith the Answer of God, a few [Page 37] Verses after.v. 16. I (my self) will cloath her Priests (with Righteousness? ay, and) with Salvation (too.) Let thy Saints shout for joy; saith the Psalmist: Her Saints, saith God, shall shout aloud for joy: so that there's more granted in both parts, than was asked. S. Paul knew well, that this was the Method: and therefore, before he took forth his Son Titus, the great Lesson of my Text, he first imparts his Apostolical Benediction;v. 4. To Titus, mine own Son, Grace, and Mercy, and Peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour. S. Chrysostom, and Theophy­lact have observed it to my hand, that he bestows up­on so great a Bishop the same common Blessing, that he is wont to give to All, ( [...],) Grace, and Mercy, and Peace: ay, and no man, as they go on, hath more need of it, than He. Not of Grace; for who hath more Burthens, to bear? more Difficul­ties, to go through with? Not of Mercy: for who in greater danger of offending eith [...]r God, or Man? Not of Peace; having so many Enemies on all sides, and so many Troubles of every sort. OnelyIn locum. S. Je­rome adds, that here's no Multiplicetur, as in other1 Pet. i. 2. 2 Pet. i. 2. Apprecations. Common Christians may have their Peace multiplied. Peace within, and Peace without; Peace with God, and Peace with Men too; But Titus's Peace is sine Multiplicationè. The Bishops, and Gover­nours of the Church must look for none, but Peace with Heaven, and their own Consciences; (and for that single Pearl, Matth. xiii. 46. like wise Merchants, they sell all, that they have;) As for the rest, [...],2 Cor. vii. 58. that's their Lot, and that's their Motto too: they must look for Fightings without. S. Paul, in that divine Valedictory [Page 38] to the Bishops of the Province of Ephesus (Act. xx.) though, as he saith, for the space of three years together he had not ceased to warn every one of them night, and day, with Tears, (as knowing well both the burthen, and the danger, they stood under;) yet (a tender Affection ha­ving never said enough) he resumes the Argument, (verse 8.) Take heed to your selves, and to all the Flock; For I know, that, after my departing, shall grievous Wolves enter in amongst you ( [...], he had almost said [...] Weer­wolves, Loups-garons. Mankind Wolves) that will neither spare the Flock, nor You; but, by a witty and compendious Malice, attaque the Shepherd first, that the Sheep may be scattered, and so gleaned up at leisure. And there­fore, Take heed to your selves in the first place, in whose Welfare that of the Flock is so closely bound up. And yet, after all these Caveats, and very seaso­nable Advertisements, he cannot yet believe them safe, unless he leaves them under a better Guard, then His, or their Own: And therefore, in fine, he kneels down, and prays with them, and for them all, recommending them to God, and to the Word of his Grace. And I know not where better to leave you, than in the Practice, and actual Exercise of a Duty so fairly-recommended: and shall therefore desire you, to turn your wearied Eyes from Me, and lift them up to Heaven, (from whence every good, and perfect Gift descends) to seek from thence the Smoothing of all Difficulties, the Solving of all Doubts, the Calming of all Animosities; and the Uniting of all Affections: and to beg of that Father of Mercies, and God of all Consolations, That he will (every day more, and more) Turn again our Capti­vity, like the Rivers in the South; that they, who sow in [Page 39] Tears, may reap in Joy: That he would send forth his good Spirit, to move upon the Waters of our Massah, and Meribah, to digest that Chaos, and Confusion, and Strife of Opinions into one beautifull, and Harmonious Composure: and finally, That He, who, by the hand of his holy Apostle, founded this Church of Creet in Ti­tus, and his Elders, in a meet, and decent Imparity, and Subordination, would maintain his own Ordinance a­mongst us also, and justifie his Institutions to the ut­most against all Gainsayers; That the Rod of Aaron may again bud, and blossom, and bring forth fruit a­mongst us; That his Urim, and his Thummim, may be with his Holy Ones; That he would bless their Substance, and accept the Work of their Hands, and smite through the Loins of them, that hate them, that they rise not again: That so there may never want a Succession of Holy Bi­shops, and Priests, to shine, as Lights in the World, hold­ing forth the Word of Life; till we all come in the Ʋ­nity of the Faith, and of the Knowledg of the Son of God, unto that Perfection, and Fulness of the everlasting Kingdom: To the which, God in Mercy bring us all, through the Merits of his dear Son. To which most blessed Fa­ther, and Son, with God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed by all the Creatures in Heaven, and Earth, Blessing, Ho­nour, Glory, and Power, both now, and for evermore. AMEN.