Page:The reason of church-governement urg'd against prelaty - Milton (1641).djvu/16

ons. And that this indeed God hath done for us in the Gospel we shall see with open eyes, not under a vaile. We may passe over the history of the Acts and other places, turning only to those Epistles of S. Paul to Timothy and Titus: where the spirituall eye may discerne more goodly and gracefully erected then all the magnificence of Temple or Tabernacle, such a heavenly structure of evangelick discipline so diffusive of knowledge and charity to the prosperous increase and growth of the Church, that it cannot be wonder'd if that elegant and artfull symmetry of the promised new temple in Ezekiel, and all those sumptuous things under the Law were made to signifie the inward beauty and splendor of the Christian Church thus govern'd. And whether this be commanded let it now be judg'd. S. Paul after his preface to the first of Timothy which hee concludes in the 17 Verse with Amen, enters upon the subject of his Epistle which is to establish the Church-government with a command. This charge I commit to thee son Timothy: according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them might'st war a good warfare. Which is plain enough thus expounded. This charge I commit to thee wherein I now go about to instruct thee how thou shalt set up Church-discipline, that thou might'st warre a good warfare, bearing thy selfe constantly and faithfully in the Ministery, which in the I to the Corinthians is also call'd a warfare: and so after a kinde of Parenthesis concerning Hymenæus he returnes to his command though under the milde word of exhorting, Cap.2.v.I. I exhort therefore. As if he had interrupted his former command by the occasionall mention of Hymenaeus. More beneath in the 14 V. of the 3 C. when he hath deliver'd the duties of Bishops or Presbyters and Deacons not once naming any other order in the Church, he thus addes. These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly (such necessity it seems there was) but if I tarry long, that thou mai'st know how thou ought'st to behave thy selfe in the house of God. From this place it may be justly ask't, whether Timothy by this here written might know what was to be knowne concerning the orders of Church governours or no? If he might, then in such a cleere text as this may we know too without further jangle; if he might not, then did S. Paul write insufficiently, and moreover said not true, for he saith here he might know, and I perswade my selfe he did know ere this was written, but that the Apostle had more regard to the instruction of us, then to the informing of him. In the fifth Chap. after some other Church precepts concerning discipline, mark what

a