that Ministre which is most dâ—e and necessary for their souls in times of dâ—nger and persecution unless the office be suppliced by some fit Ministers while others by consent or lot fly to preserve a stock of Bishops and Ministers and of absolute necessity or destitution where Christians already baptised and believing cannot have a Minister in a regular way I leave to Gods direction and his speciall dispensation who in Cases extraordinary may extraordinarily manifest his pleasure I am sure in the hottest Persecution which worried and scattered the flock of Christ when it was most innocent the sheep neither chose nor followed any other Shepheards than those which St. Austin calls most necessary for the Church without which it cannot subsist of whose Ordination and due authority they had assurance by constant Succession and according to the true pattern in the Mount but they chose rather to supply the necessitated absences of their true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters by prayer fasting meditation reading Christian conference and mutuall exhortation than to set up among themselves any Minister by their own power of popular Ordination Yea as the Jews would have done in the defect of holy and Consecrated fire Christians rather contented themselves with the Vote and desire or purpose of Sacraments without the actuall perception of them or any other fruits proper to the Ministeriall function and power rather than offer with strange and unholy fire where they could not have those Ministers whose lips had been touched with a ceal from Gods altar that is ordeined by a right Consecration which holy fire hath never yet been quite put out in the Church of Christ nor ever will be however some mens petulancy and presumption seeks to spit or piss it out by their irreligious ingratefull and contemptuous carriages against the office and due Succession of the Ministry Humble and wise Christians willingly look back to the Rock whence they were hewen and the pit whence they were digged There they discern Mat. 28.19 Go therefore and teach all Nations c. Joh. 20.21 As my Father sent me even so send I you Is 65.1 Sub assistentis plebis conscientia Cyp. That it was not the people who made to themselves Ministers but Ministers sent by Christ and the Apostles every where made people Christians They that sate in darkness had light brought to them and were found of God by his messengers as Shepheards sent to the lost sheep who sought not after God That the holy succession of Ministeriall and Church power is indeed for the peoples good and ought in some cases be carried with the peoples approbation but it is not at all from the peoples pleasure will or vertue That Jesus Christ the Apostles and all after Churches ever carried this Ministeriall and Church power in another way distinct and apart from the people yet most convenient for them and most agreeable both to right reason and to the order and honour of true Christian religion which requires that holy things be done with all beautys of holiness by able and wise and worthy men to choose and appoint or ordein whom supposes as able at least if not abler than they are to judge of them yet meer abilities as I have shewed will not serve neither to give to others any commission as Ministers of holy things unless the givers have first a grand Commission or power of so doing committed by others to them which carries the strength of an originall divine Authority ascending to christ Which power especially as to Ordeining of fit Ministers being thus severed from the people for 1600. years without any complaint made by the faithfull or claim of right by reason or religion there is no cause Christians should now listen to that fury folly and faction which would lay all in common since nothing is brought by these Commoners to repeal the first divine enclosure of it by the Institution of Christ or to take away the prejudice of so many Centuries peaceable possession as a peculiar to the Church Officers those of the Ministeriall Function In which there hath never been any cessation or interruption as to legitimate succession and constant Ordination Not that we deny for any thing shall be granted to faithfull Christians People least able or fit to make or Ordein a Minister which is for their good but that Christians of a particular parish or Congregation may if they have not otherwayes tyed themselves and restrained things by Laws with are the publiques and so the Peoples consent as here for the most part in England it was they may orderly choose and desire such a man to be made a Minister or Bishop and to be over them in the Lord as the people of Millan did St. Ambrose yet a Lay-man and Magistrate Yet this is only so far as first to recommend him to those who have power to ordein him a Minister of the Catholick Church of Christ next to acknowledge that power and office Ministeriall to be rightly in him as conferred to him by just hands They may choose him thus Ordeined to exercise his Ministry and Office by particular care mutuall relation and joynt consent among them But still this is as far from any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some interpret it as amounts to peoples giving Ministeriall power or Orders as it is from Souldiers giving a Commission when they only present by way of Commendation and Petition a worthy person to the Generall or Commission officers to be made their Captain which neither his worth nor their willingness makes him to be without express Commission from the Generall under his hand and Seal Nor is this any thing to the diminution of peoples rationall or religious liberties as Christians or men which regulations and restraints they may not grudge to suffer if Christ will have it so as in this his will and command is most clear but it is a fruit of Christs wisdome and care for the faithfull peoples good to avoyd infinite inconveniences and confusions which constantly and unavoidably attend all things that are transacted or touched almost by the common peoples hands and heads who though they mean and begin well as the Sea by modest lickings and slidings over the banks which afterward its fury overbears with horrible inundations yet are they never to be trusted with any thing which a wise and good man would have well done As then we see no Church power especially as to Ordination and Ministry is naturally in Christian people In causis fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris cum judicare debere qui nec munere impar est nec jure dissimilis constantur assero Dictum Imperat Valentini patris quod Ambros vehementer laudat l. 5. Ep. 32. who must be considered after their Ministers in time and that order of nature which is between Effects and Causes Children and Fathers being first made Christians by Ministers whom they never Ordeined nor so much as dreamt
unnecessary rigors and severities may not make the Mass or lump of religion more sowr and heavy than God in his Word hath required who cannot be an enemy to the right and sanctified use of melody or Musick Psal 33.2 2 Cor. 9.7 since he commands singing to his praises and loves a cheerfull temper in his service Certainly Musick is of all sensible humane beauty the most harmless and divine Nor did I ever see any reason why it should be thought to deform us Christians or be wholly excluded from making a part in the beauty of holiness No time or abuse doth prejudice Gods or the Churches rights Quamvis ritus ordinationis in Eccles pontificia multis superstitionibus inutilibus ceremoniis fit vitiatus ex eo tamen ipsius ordinationis essentiae nihil decedit Distinguenda ordinantis infirmitas ab ordinatione quae sit totius Ecclesiae nomine distinguendum divinum ab humano essentiale ab accidentali pium Christianum ab Antichristiano sermentum a doctrina Pharisaeorum Gerard. de Minist pag. 147. Moderatia non tam virtus quam doctrix imperatrix omnium virtutum Auriga ordinâ—trix affectuum Ber. Cant. Tolle hanc virtus vitium erit Nec abligurienda sunt mala cum bonis nec eructanda bona cum malis Vetul Pravi effectus falsi sunt rerum â—stimatores All wise and excellent Christians know this for certain That mans usurpation is no prejudice to Gods dominion nor do humane traditions vacate divine Commands nor Antichrists superstitions cancell Christs Institutions Vain superstructures of mans addition neither demolish nor rase Gods foundations men do not quit their rights to estates for anothers unjust in trusion The heady invasions of one or few or many upon the Churches rights and liberties are no cause to make Christians remove the antient Land-marks and boundaries of true Ministry due order and prudent government which we find fixed by Christ continued by the Apostles and observed by the Churches obedience in all ages although not without tinctures and blemishes of humane Infirmities They are sad Physicians and of no valew who know not how to let their Patients blood unless they stab them to the heart Such are those unhappy leeches who in stead of eating off with fit Corosives the dead flesh of any part do lop off whole arms and legs Some men are too heavy for themselves and while they aim to go down the Hill of reformation they suddenly conceive such an impetuous motion as cannot stop it self till it hath carried all before it and at length dasheth it self in pieces Much more folly it is quite to abolish the use of holy things than to tollerate some abuses with it True reforming is not a starting quite out of the way as shy and skittish horses are wont to do when they boggle at what scares them more than it can hurt them with danger to themselves and their riders too not a flying to new modes and exotick fashions of religion and Churches and Ministers but it is a sober and stayd restauration of those antient and venerable forms which pious Antiquity in the Church of Christ and the antient of dayes in his more sure Word hath expressed to us 'T is easie to pare off what one great Antichrist or the many less have added and to supply what they have by force or fraud detracted from that only complete figure of Extern professional religion which Christ and his Apostles by him so have fashioned and delivered which is never well handled no not by Reformers unless Christians have honest hearts good heads clear eyes and pure hands when all these meet in any undertakers to reform the Church I shall then hope they will seriously sincerely and successfully do Christs and the Churches work as generally men are prone and intent to do their own This then I may conclude against all precipitant and blind zeal which by popular arts seeks to bring an odium on all Ministers and the Ministry of this Church meerly by using the Name of the Pope without giving any account to reason or religion of their Calumny That there is no cause in reason or religion for any Christians to cast off the Ministry of England as it stands Reformed and so restored to its primitive Power and Authority because of any Succession from relation to or communion with the Order and Clergy of the Roman Church and Bishop no more cause I say than for these Anti-ministeriall Cavillers to pull out their eyes because Papists do see with theirs or to destroy themselves because naturally descended from such parents as were in subjection to the Bishop of Rome and in communion with that Church we may as well refuse all leagues and treaties of humanity in common with Papists as all Christianity and all Christianity as all antient lawfull Ministry an holy Succession may descend and Gods elect be derived from such as were true men how ever vitious CAVIL Or CALUMNY V. Against Ministers as Ordeined by Bishops in England I Have done with the first part of this Cavill or Calumny which seeks to bandy the Ministry of the Church of England against the Papall and Romish wall that they may make it either rebound to a popular and Independent side or else fall into the hazard of having no true Christian Ministry at all from both which I shall in like fort endevour to rescue this our holy Function and Succession A second stroak therefore which I am to take is made with great Artifice and popular cunning against the Ministry of this Church as it was derived and continued by the hands of Bishops who were as Presidents or chief Fathers in the work of Ordination among their Brethren and Sons the Presbyters or Ministers within their severall Diocesses These Prelates or Bishops the Objectors protest highly against as being not Plants of Christs planting whose Authority being lately pulled up by power so that they seem to have no more place or influence in this Church or Nation the Presbyterie also and whole order of the former Ministry they say must necessarily also fail and wither which were but branches and slips derived from the stem or root of Episcopall Ordination Thus we see in a few years the Anti-ministeriall fury is cudgelling even Presbyters themselves with that staff which some of them put into vulgar hands purposely to beat their Fathers the grave and antient Bishops and utterly to banish that Venerable and Catholick Order or Eminent Authority of Episcopacy out of the Church what the Dove-like innocency of those fierce and rigid Ministers hearts might be as to their godly intentions I know not but I am sure they wanted that wisdome of the Serpent which seeks above all to preserve its head whence life health motion and orderly direction descending to other parts do easily repair and heal what ever lesser hurt or bruise may befall them It must needs be confessed that as the Events have been very
men I must needs offend as to their distemper I did designe it I ever shall offend them if I will defend this Truth It is my duty and charity by displeasing them to doe them good Apoplectick diseases are incurable till sense be restored some men are benummed and past feeling I cannot live or dye in peace if I should hold my peace when I ought to rebuke and with all authority Ephes 4.19 because with Truth and good conscience in the name of Christ and of all my brethren the intolerable vanity ignorance pride arrogancy and cruelty of those who have set up themselves above and against all those that are the ordained reformed and faithfull Ministers of this or any other Christian Church In whom they list to finde nothing but faults and insufficiencies while they boast of their own rare accomplishments which are no where to be found but in their proud swelling words by which they lie in wait to deceive the simple and unstable soules I could no longer bear their insolent Pamphlets 2 Pet. 2.18 their intolerable practises their uncharitable projects against the glory of Christ and the happinesse of this reformed Church and Nation It grieved me to see so may Shipwrackt soules so many tossed to and fro who are floating to the Romish coast so many overthrown faiths so many willing and affected Atheists so many cavilling Sophisters so many wasted comforts so many scurrilous and ridiculous Saints so many withered graces so many seared consciences so many sacrilegious Christians so many causelesse triumphings of mean persons over learned grave and godly Ministers I was troubled to behold so many fears yet so much silence so many sighes and sorrows yet so much dejection and oppression of spirits such over-awings in those men whom it becomes in a spirituall warfare to encounter with beasts and unreasonable men as being sure to overcome at last Therefore among others I desire this apology may be a monument of my perfect abhorrency and publique protestation against all evil counsels and violent designes used against this reformed Church its Religion and Ministry when posterity shall see the sad effects of some mens agitations I expect no acceptance from any men further than I may doe them good Such as refuse to be healed by this application probably their smart will provoke them to petulant replyes which as I cannot expect from any sober and serious Christian so to the wantonnesse of others who are wofull wasters of paper and inke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Crito I shall never have leisure to attend I have better imployment whereto I humbly devote the short remnant of my pretious moment even to the service of Christ of this Church and of all those excellent Christians in it to whose favour this sudden Apologetick defence is humbly dedicated in the behalf of the Ministry of this Church of England by their humblest servant in the Lord I. G. FINIS A Table of the chief heads handled in this Defense of the Ministery of the Church of ENGLAND THE Addresse pag. 1. The Cause undertaken p. 2 and recommended to excellent Christians p. 3 The honor of suffering in a good cause p. 4 Humble monition to those in power p. 6 Of ingenuous Parrhesie p. 7 Of Apologetick writings p. 8 The Authors integroty and sympathy p. 9 Of Ministers Lapse p. 10 Of their former Conformity p. 11 An account of Mr. Chibalds two books touching Lay Elders p. 13 Weak conjectures at the causes of Ministers Lapse p. 14 Of true Honor. p. 17 The main cause of Ministers lapse or diminution p. 20 Of Ministers as Politicians Pragmaticks Polemicks p. 24 What carriage best becomes Ministers in civill dissensions p. 25 Of Ministers indiscretions and inconstancies p. 28 The way of Ministers recovery p. 29 Vulgar insolencie against Ministers p. 30 Antiministeriall malice and practises p. 34 Ambitious and Atheisticall policies against them p. 35 The joy and triumph of the enemies of the reformed Religion p. 39 The Ministers of the Church of England neither Vsurpers nor Impostors p. 40 The sympathy of good Christians with their afflicted Ministers p. 42 Their plea for them against Novel and unordained Intruders p. 44 The right succession and authority of Ministers a matter of high concernment to true Christians p. 48 Who are the greatest enemies against the Ministry of this Church p. 49 Matters of Religion most considerable to Statesm n. p. 50 The just cause godly Ministers have to fear aâ—d complain p. 52 Ministers case unheard not to be condemned p. 55 The character of a good Minister such as is here pleaded for p. 58 Ministers excellencies are some mens greatest offence p. 61 Ministers infirmities viciate but not vacate their Authority p. 62 I. The first Objection or Quarrell of the Antiministeriall faction against the Ministers of England as being in no true or right Church way p. 65 Answ Vindicating the Church of England p. 66 1. As to Religion internall Ibid. It s power on the heart p. 67 Iâ—s ground and rule as to holinesse p. 68 Of fanatick fancies in Religion p. 69 The Souls true search after God and discoveries of him p. 71 Of the Souls Immortality p 73 Mans improvement to the divine image p. 74 True Religion as internall estates in Christ and in the true Church p. 76 II. Of true Religion as externall or professionall in Church society p. 77 Of the Church as visible and Catholick p. 78 Of a Nationall Church p. 80 The order and charity which befits Christians in all sociall relations p. 82 Papall and popular extreams touching the Church p. 84 The Romane arrogating too much p. 85 Of Infallibility in the Churches Ministry p. 88 Of Churches reduced only to single Congregations or Independent bodies 91 The primitive way of Churches and Christian communion p. 92 The National communion or polity of the Church of Eng. justified p. 95 The mincing or crumbling of the Churches pernicious p. 96 Of Religion as established and protected by Civill power p. 99 Of the subject matter or members of a Church p. 101 Of Parochiall congregations p. 102 Of Communicants p. 103 Of Ministers duty to Communicants p. 104 Ministers in each Parish not absolute Judges but Monitors and Directors Ibid. Good Discipline in the Church most desirable Ibid. Of Jurisdiction and Judicatories Ecclesiasticall p. 105 Of the common peoples power in admitting Communicants p. 106 Of a Church Covenant its Novelty Infirmity Superfluity p. 110 The essentials and prudentials of a true Church in England p. 112 Of being above all Ordinances Ministry and Church society p. 113 Peoples incapacity of gubernative power Civill or Ecclesiasticall p. 115 Of Magistrates and Ministers p. 117 Of the Plebs or peoples judgment in matters of doctrine or scandall p. 119 Tell it to the Church in whom is power of Church discipline and censures p. 121 Of Synods and Councels p. 126 Of prudentiall Liberty and latitudes in Church polity p. 127
Christ and his Church for his and your true Ministers Heb. 11.25 or else to chuse with Moses rather to suffer with them than to be any way assistant to rejoycing in or compliant with the ruine of them that so in all things you may adorn the doctrine of Christ Tit. 2 10. and honor the true Reformed Christian Religion established and professed in this Church of England To your judicious Zeal sincere Piety unbyassed Charity holy Discretion which have no leaven of sinister ends or unworthy policies being got above the vain hopes fears diffidences and designs of meer men I do in all Christian Charity and Humility present this Apology in the behalf of those Pearls the true Ministers of this Church of England whose worth is not abated though their lustre be obscured Matth. 7.11 nor are they less precious when trampled by Swine under their feet Rev. 2.11 nor less Stars in Christs right hand and fixed in the Firmament of the true Church when they are clouded by these Fogs and Vapors Rev. 9.2 which ascend from the Earth or from the bottomless pit from the malice and rage of men or devils Godly Ministers sufferings are their Glory Heb. 5.9 2.10 Luke 22. Nothing more adorned and perfected Christs divine Person and meritorious Patience than his being blinded buffetted scourged mocked reviled stripped crowned with Thorns and Crucified * Inglerii desormes esse non possumus quocunque modo ad Christi imaginem conformamur cujus nunquam magis enituit gloria quam quae sputo sanguine vibicibus operiebatur Chrys Isai 53. 2 Pet. 2.6 1 Cor. 4.13 Matth. 5.11 Phil. 1.29 Col. 1.24 1 Pet. 4.14 Psal 4. Acts 6.15 Jude 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor was he less a King and Saviour when his Purple Robe was taken off and his own Garments divided among the soldiers He was not less the Messias the sent and anointed of God the Great Preacher and fulfiller of Righteousness when he was the scorn and outcast of men nor a less precious Foundation and corner Stone when refused by foolish builders who dashed themselves against him instead of building and resting by Faith upon him In like sort the true Ministers of this Church whom the pride and wantonness of some men glories to account as the filth and off-scouring of all things to speak and do all maner of evil against them falsly and injuriously if they may be so far blest of God and honored as to suffer after Christs example and to make up to their measure the remainder of the sufferings of Christ in his Body the Church there is no doubt but the Spirit of Glory will more rest upon them the power of Christ be more perfected in them and the light of Gods countenance be more shining on them than when their Corn and Wine and Oylincreased their faces will then appear most as Angels of God when with Saint Stephen they are beset with showres of stones overwhelmed with all maner of hard speeches and rude indignities Thus it becomes the proud and petulant world to act and thus it becomes learned able and humble Ministers to suffer Who have then least cause to be ashamed when they are most opposed and oppressed for Christs sake For troden in the wine-press of mans displeasure they may then yield the noblest juyce and most generous expressions of their Zeal Courage and Constancy Wherefore I have adventured although the weakest and unworthiest among many of my Fathers and Brethren the Ministers of this Church of England so far to satisfie the worlds curiosity as to give them some prospect and view of the Ministers of England in their present distresses feare and afflictions that men may see with how stedfast countenances they can look upon their adversaries Acts 6.15 while they stop their ears against them gnash their teeth at them and threaten utterly to destroy them that their causeless and implacable enemies may behold with what divine comfort and assurance they can walk both cheerfully and uprightly amidst their fiery furnaces Dan. 4. into which they are therefore cast because they will not fall down and worship * As Idols so are false Teachers Dolores Vanitates Labores Stultitiae Abominationes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mordii Res vana nihili Mark 3.14 And Jesus ordained twelve that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to Preach Acts 25.11 Toto caelo distant benè operari desperare Sibi conscia virtus Dat animos those Idol-shepherds those False-prophets Zach. 11.17 those Meer-images of Ministers which have set up themselves as gods in the Church of God such as neither they nor their Fore-fathers nor any Church of Christ for One thousand six hundred yeers ever knew or heard of who were ever blessed and thankfully contented in all times either of persecution or peace with those true Ministers who in a right way of due Ordination descended from and succeeded in the place and ordinary power of the Apostles and the other Disciples which were first sent and ordained by Christ Which the true Ministers of the Church of England being conscious to themselves as I shall after prove that they have rightly received they have this confidence still That they are neither so forsaken of God nor destitute of good Consciences nor despised by good men nor do they despair but that they may have leave be able and permitted with just freedom and modest courage to plead their cause before any Tribunal of men not doubting but they may have so fair an hearing as St. Paul their Great Predecessor both in Preaching and Sufferings hoped from Felix Festus Agrippa or Caesar Of whose piety the Apostle having no great perswasion yet he charitably presumed to finde so much equity and common humanity in them as not to be condemned by them being unheard or to be acquitted as to any crimes falsly laid to his charge if he had but the favor of a fair Trial and impartial Hearing So hard it is for a good man ever to despair in a good cause And however my confidence be just and wel-grounded 3. Reason of this Address as to the merit of that Cause which I have by Gods help undertaken yet when I consider my strength which is small my infirmities which are many my defects which are manifest my interest with men of place and power which is very little and the prejudice against whatever I or any other Minister can do in this kinde which may be great and many I have as feeble Creatures Quod deest viribus habent cautelâ conscious to their weakness are wont to do fled to the refuge and assistance first of Gods grace which is sufficient for me and which in the midst of threatnings Acts 27. storms and shipwrack bids me be of good chear Next to that of your mediation O excellent Souls who are every where dispersed in this Nation
Petrus abnegando Jeron silence or reservedness in such a cause and at such a time as this will be your sin as it would have been mine How much more if you use not your uttermost endeavors in all fair and Christian ways to stop this Stygian stream but most of all if you contribute any thing of that power you have whereby to carry on this poysonous and soul-destroying torrent Words are never more due than in Christs behalf who is the Incarnate Word and for his Ministers who are the Preachers of that Word 22. The sense of the best Christians as to the Ministers case 2 Sam. 19.30 Non is this my private sense and horror alone but I know you O excellent Christians who are truly men of pious and publick not of proud or pragmatick spirits cannot but daily perceive That it is the general fear and grief of honest and truly reformed Christians in this Nation Who with one mouth are ready to say to those in place and power as Abraham did to the King of Sodom or Mephibosheth to David Let those cunning cruel and covetous Zibas whose treacherous practises and ingrateful calumnies seek to deprive us of our Houses Goods Lands and Liberties let them take all so as our David the beloved of our souls our Christ our true Religion our glory our true Ministers and Ministry may be safe Let others take the spoils and booties of our labors Gen. 14.21 onely give us the souls of our selves and our posterity for a prey which are like to perish for ever unless you leave us those holy means and that sacred Ministry which the wisdom and authority of Christ onely could as he hath appoint which the Churches of Christ have always enjoyed and faithfully transmitted to us for the saving of our sinful souls This request the very Turks unasked do yet grant in some degree to the poor Christians who live under their dominion And if it may seem to be our error and fondness thus to prise our true and faithful Ministers Illos nimis diligere non possumus Christiani quorum Ministerio Deum diligimus à Deo diligimur Cypr. and that onely divine Authority which is in their Ministry yet vouchsafe to indulge us in the midst of so many epidemical errors this one pious error and grateful fondness which not custom and tradition but conscience and true judgement have fixed in us since we esteem next * Vnicus est modus diligendi Deum nescire modum Aug. God and our blessed Saviour and the holy Scriptures the true Ministry of the Church as that holy necessary ordinance which the divine wisdom and mercy hath appointed whereby to bring us to the saving knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ by the Scriptures That as we ow to our parents under God our Natural and Sinful Being whom yet we are bid to honor so our Christian Mystical and Spiritual Being 1 Cor. 4.15 Though you have ten thousand teachers in Christ yet you have not many fathers For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel we ow to our true Ministers as our holy and spiritual Fathers by whose care we have been truly taught and duly Baptized with divine Authority in the Name of the blessed Trinity both instructed and sacramentally confirmed in that faith which is the onely true way of eternal life By their study pains love and diligence when we would have been otherwise willingly ignorant and wholly negligent of our souls good our darkness by Gods grace and blessing on their labors chiefly hath been dispelled our ignorance enlightned our deadness enlivened our enmity against God and our Neighbor removed our hardness softned our consciences purged our lusts mortified our lives as to an holy purpose prayer and endeavor reformed our terrors scattered our ghostly enemies vanquished our peace and comforts obtained our souls raised and sealed to a blessed hope of eternal life through the mercies of God and the merits of our Redeemer whose Embassadors our true Ministers are â— And indeed we have no greater sign or surer evidence of our faith in Christ and love unfeigned to God than this That we love and reverence those and their calling as men who onely have authority in Chriss name to administer holy things to us And however others who have lately sought to come in 23. Of Praâ—enders to the Ministery not in * Seducunt è via incautos viatores ut securius ipsos perdant lenocinantès lairenes Greg. by the door but ever the wall who seek also like * John 10.8 All that came before me i. e. as Messias or Christ are theeves and robbers John 10.1 He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth some other way is a thief and a robber Vers 7. I am the door of the sheep We can neither come to be of the sheep of Christ but by faith in him nor shepherds of those sheep but by that door of authority which Christ hath set open in the Church by Ordination Bishop Downam Serm. theeves and robbers to lead us plainer people out of the right way that they may the better rob and spoil us pretend they are so rarely gifted that they will teach us the same or higher truths and administer the same holy things in a new and more excellent way than ever the best ordained Ministers of this Church have done Yet truly saving the confident boasting of these new masters we could never hitherto discern in any of them either by their much speech or writing with which they may make a great sound and yet be very empty any such sufficiencies as they lift every where so much to boast of Muchless have they ever produced any shew of Scriptural power Divine authority Mission from Christ or footstep of Apostolical succession in the Church in which every one that can speak tollerably we cannot think is presently sent of God for a publick Minister of holy things no more than every well-spoken Traveller or diligent Factor or Carrier is a Publick Agent Herauld or Embassador to any Prince or State or City although they may know their Princes Masters or Neighbors minde in many things We know it is not what waters men fancy but what God appointeth which will cure the blinde or leprous And we finde by daily sad experience that they whose pride or peevishness forsakes or scorns to use the waters of Jordan the means which Christ hath instituted and the Ministers which by his Church he hath ordained do commonly get no * Sacra mysteria non vi naturaliÌ„ sed voluntate dei supernaturali perficiuntur August In sacâ—â— sine mandato Divino vel maxima virtus deficit cum illo vel minima valescit Jeron more good by their padling 2 Kings 5.12 or dipping in other streams which they fancy better than Naaman would have done if he had gone to his so much extolled Rivers of Damascus and
edification and well-governing of the Church 1 Cor. 14.40 Wherein it had as all particular National Churches have an allowance from God both in Scripture and in Reason 27. Things of Religion ought first and most to be considered by Christian Rulers But as if nothing had been reformed and setled with any wisdom judgement piety or conscience in this Church nor hitherto so carried on by any of the true and ordained Ministers of it infinite calumnies injuries and indignities are daily cast upon the whole Church and the best Ministers of it The cry whereof no doubt as it hath filled the Land so it hath reached up to Heaven and is come up to the ears of the most high God And therefore I hope it will not seem rude unseasonable or importune to any excellent persons of what piety or power soever if it now presseth into their presence who ought to remember that they are but as Bees in the same Hive as Ants on the same Mole-hill and as Worms in the same clods of Earth with other poor inferior Christians whom they have far surmounted in civil and secular respects The swarms and crowds of worldly counsels and designs we hope have not as they ought not overlaid or smothered all thoughts care and conscience of preserving restoring and establishing truth good order and peace in matters of Religion Which are never by those publick persons who pretend to any thing of true Christianity to be so far despised and neglected that those above all other matters of publick concernment should be left like scattered sheaves to the wastings and tramplings upon by the feet of the Beasts of the people Meritò à Deo negliguntur quires Dei secularibus post ponunt negotiis Cypr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primum quod sanctum Plat. Matth. 6.31 Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lie waste V. 5. Now therefore saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arat. Phainom ungathered and unbound by any civil sanction and power agreeable to holy order divine method Christian charity and prudence Possibly it had fared better with all estates in this Church and State if they had learned and followed that divine direction and grand principle in Christian politicks First seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you The neglect of Gods house the Church and its beauty holy order and ministry hath been a great cause of overthrowing so many seiled houses which were covered with Cedar and decked with Vermilion and Gold Certainly no men employed in publick power or counsel have any business of so great concernment or of so urging and crying necessity as this The preservation of the true Evangelical Ministry in its due power and authority Upon which without any dispute among sober and truly-wise men the very life being weight honor and succession of our Religion doth depend both as Christian and as reformed For it is not to be expected that the ignorant prating and confident boasting of any other voluntiers will ever soberly adorn or solidly maintain our Religion which hath so many very eloquent learned and subtile enemies besides the rude and profaner rabble besieging it both learned and unlearned oppose true Religion as the right and left-hand of the Devil the one out of ignorance the other out of crookedness the one as dark the other as depraved the one cannot endure its light nor the other its straitness Against neither of them can these afford help Anserum clangere crepituque alarum excitus Manlius capitolium propugnat Gallos deturbat c. Livi. Dec. 1. l. 5. any more than the confused cackling of a company of Geese could have defended the Roman Capitol Which noise is indeed but an alarm to sober and good Protestants intimating the approach or assault of enemies and should excite the vigilancy and valor of all worthy Magistrates conscientious Soldiers and wise Christians of this Reformed Church to resist the invading danger as by other fit means so chiefly by establishing and incouraging a succession of learned godly and faithful Ministers Nor in any reason of State or of Conscience should those who exercise Magistratick power in this Church and State so far neglect him who is Higher then the highest * Eccles 5.8 He that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they John 19.11 Thou couldst have no power except it were given thee from above Christ to Pilat 1 Cor. 12.1 1 Pet. 4.10 Stewards of the manifold grace of God Luke 1.16 by whom all power is dispenced or so far gratifie the irreligious rudeness the boisterous ignorance and violent profaneness of any who are but Gods executioners the instruments of his wrath and ministers of his vengeance as for their sakes and at their importunity to despise and oppress those who are by Christ and his Church appointed to be Ministers of Gods grace and conveyers of his mercy to men The meanest of whom that do indeed come in his name the proudest mortal may not safely injure or despise because not without sin and reproach to Christ and God himself For he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me is signally and distinctly spoken in favor to true Ministers and for terror to those that are prone to offer insolency to their worldly weakness and meanness Such as despise and oppose the Ministers of Christ are more rebellious than the devils were for of these the seventy returning testifie Luke 10.17 Lord even the devils are subject to us in thy Name If then we have immortal souls which some mockers now question sure they are infinitely to be preferred before our carkases and the instruments which God hath appointed 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe as means to save them are proportionably to be esteemed beyond any that are oft the destroyers at best but the preservers of mens bodies and outward estates Who can dissemble or deny That the banks of equity piety modesty and charity yea of common humanity are already by some men much demolished through the pride presumption insolence scurrility and profaneness of some spirits who are set against the Reformed Religion the Ministers and Ministry of this Church Who sees with honest and impartial eyes and deplores not to behold how the deluge of Ignorance Atheism Profaneness and Sottishness also of damnable Errors devilish Doctrines and Popish Superstitions together with Schismatical fury and turbulent Factions are much prevailed of later years both in Cities and Countreys here in England And this Gaudet in malis nostris diabolus latatur in miseriis dilatatur augustiis delectatur angoribus triumphat ruinis Bern. since men of Antiministerial tempers have studied to act the Devils Comedy and this Churches Tragedy endeavoring to render not onely
the publick Catechism So that a Minister in England both in the name of the Church and in the name of Christ and by the highest authority of God did prohibite denounce against and as it were excommunicate by that part of the power of the Keys which is denunciative and declarative both from the comfort and grace of the Sacrament and from the outward partaking of it every one that presumed being unworthy in any kinde to offer himself to it If after this Communio malorum non maculat aliquem participatione sacramentorum sed consentione factorum Aug. ep 152. See the Rubrick before the Communion concerning scandalous offenders 1 Cor. 11.29 He that eateth and d inketh unworthâ—ly eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not to any other who having examined himself Verse 28. is bid to eat and drink c. See the Rubrick before the Communion The Minister may admit the penitent but not the obstinate in cases of private offences c. any one unworthy did adventure to come yet sure the Minister had done his private duty as far as God or man required it of him having both vindicated the honor of the Sacrament as to the divine Institution and intent also declared the care and order of the Church and so freed both the Congregation and his own soul from stain or blame Who so came after this prohibition unworthily came at the peril of his own soul and not at the sin of either Minister or people that were worthy whose work and duty is not by force of arms to thrust men out by head and shoulders which is a military and mechanick power but by the sword of Christs mouth to smite them and in his name to cast them out from any right to or comfort in the Sacrament which is the power properly ministerial spiritual and divine Where either ignorance or scandal were gross and notoriously known to the Minister in any that offered to come The Minister might and oft did not onely privately but publickly and personally admonish reprove forewarn And in some cases if the impudence of the offender obtruded himself the Minister might refuse to give him the Sacrament yet this not with passion and roughness as by empire but with meekness and discretion as in charity Which present denial or abstention of such an one from receiving the holy Sacrament might afterward be examined by publick and lawful authority which was setled in this Church in case that party had cause or confidence to complain as of an injury 20. Good Ministers not defective in their duty if they make not themselves Judges But where such authority is not seâ—â—ed or not suffered to be exercised in any Church which might and ought to judge in such cases best The party denied and the Minister thus denying upon pregnant and to him notorious causes not upon probabilities suspiâ—ious or general complaints from others onely There matters of publick debate requiring audience and proofs and witnesses and judge and all these due authority It cannot be expected from any private Minister that he should do more than God hath commanded and due authority empowred him which is onely to instruct admonish forbid and in some cases to deny c. according to the duty of his place and the authority he had both from the Church and from the Word of God But he hath nothing to do to assume the publick place of a Judge among his Neighbors or to deny Communion to all those that are by any accused as unworthy or scandalous Luke 12.14 Who made me a judge or a divider over you No Reason allowing or Religion commanding every private Minister or any private Christians to be Judges in those cases wherein they may be parties and through passion do injury and by faction oppress any man A right Discipline and due Authority in the Church most desirable It were to be desired indeed that such Authority were restored to the Church as might judge and decide all cases of publike scandal but while this is denied we must not deny Ministers or people to do their duty in celebrating the Lords Supper according to the Institution though there be defects in discipline as to that particular We must not forbear holy duties when we may rightly enjoy them in point of gracious disposition and claim because they are not so asserted and ordered in point of polâ—ty and extern Discipline as we could wish and as it were convenient but is not absolutely necessary so as to exclude the Minister or others from it who desire and prepare for it by examining themselves whom no Reason or Religion can forbid to partake of their due comforts because of others faults whereof they cannot be guilty because they are no way accessary not failing in any private duty of charity wherein they stand related to another as teaching admonishing reproving forewarning c. 1 Cor. 11.28 The same Apostle who blames the unworthy receivers for not examining themselves and forbids them so to eat c. Commands others to examine themselves and so to eat c. Without regard to any others unworthiness The contagion of whose sin cannot have influence on anothers grace any more than grace can make anothers sin less What sense can there be That children should be starved because there is not power sufficient to keep away all dogs from the childrens bread Yet all men are not presently to be called or counted dogs that are not ever in actual preparedness for the Sacrament Luke 22.32 or who may fall into gross sins as Peter did whose Faith did not fail when he denied Christ after the Sacrament and since they have still relation to the Church and may be penitents I should be glad to see which I heartily pray for this Church so ordered by due order power and authority established in fitting Church-Governors and Judges in such cases Exod. 18.21 Judges ought to be able men such as fear God men of truth hating covetousness c. That none might be admitted to the Lords Supper but such as are both by the Minister and chief of the Congregation who are in the Rowl of Communicants allowed and approved for knowledge and conversation yet so as such allowance or denial may if need be have further hearing and appeal from this private Minister and Congregation which is but just to avoid the factions injuries partialities and oppressions which may fall and oft do among those Neighbors and Rivals who are seldom meet to be Judges of mutual scandals being so oft parties and besides their weak judgments have strong passions and are full of grudges and emulations against each other which if not soberly taken up by other able and indifferent Judges who have authority so to do it brings Congregations to those difficulties which the Independent bodies finde for want of this prudent and orderly remedy of grievances and offences which in a short time as the pitch and fat and hair
good order by a due and decent Authority which for every two or three or seven Christians in their small Bodyings and Independent Churches exlusively of all others to usurp and essay to do is as if of every chip of Noah's Ark or of every rafter of a great Ship they would endeavor to make up a very fit vessel to sail in any Sea and any weather 30. The best method of Church Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But take the true and wholesome Discipline of the Church in those true proportions which pious antiquity setled and used and which with an easie hand by a little condescending and moderation on all sides might have been long ago and still may be happily setled in England Nothing is more desireable commendable and beneficial to the Church of Christ As a strong case to preserve a Lute or Instrument in that so the Church may not be broken disordered or put out of tune by every rash and rude-hand either in its truth or purity or harmony either in Doctrine or Maners or Order But this is a blessing as not to be deserved by us so hardly to be hoped or expected amidst the pride and passions and fractions of our times Nor will it be done till Civil powers make as much conscience to be good as great and to advance Christian Religion no less than to enlarge or establish Temporal Dominion When such Magistrates have a minde first to know and then to set up a right Church polity power and holy order in every part and proportion of it They need not advise with such as creep into corners or seek new models out of little and obscure conventicles nor yet ought they to confine themselves to those feeble proportions which are seen in the little Bodyings of these times which begin like Mushrooms to grow up every where and to boast of their beauties and rare figures when nothing is more indigested and ill compacted as to the general order and publick peace of this or any other noble and ample branch of the Catholick Church Pious and learned Men who reverence antiquity and know not yet how to mock either their Mother the Church or their Fathers the true Bishops Elders and Ministers of it can soon demonstrate how to draw forth that little chain of gold that charity communion and orderly subordination among Christians which at first possibly might onely adorn one single congregation of a few Christians in the primitive paucity and newer plantations to such a largeness amplitude and extension as by the wisdom of Christian charity and humility shall extend to and comprehend in its compass by way of peaceable union and harmony or comly subâ—ection even the largest combinations and furthest spreadings of any branch of the Cathol ke Church Both as to its greater and lesser conventions in several places and times as the matters of Religion and occasion of the Churches shall require according to its several dispersions and distinctions by place or civil polity Matth. 18.19 Which greater yet orderly conventions must needs be as properly a Church and may meet as much in Christs Name and hope for his presence and assistance in the midst of them as any of those Churches could among the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.6 Punâ—shment inflicted by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebuke before all 1 Tim. 5.20 Synodas Antiochena Paulum Samosetanum ab ecclesia quae sub coelo est universo seperabat Eus hist eccl l. 7. c. 28. Autoritas est eminentia quaedam vitae cujus gratia dictis factisve eujuspiam multum deferimus Tul. to which Christ properly refers in that place Yea they must needs be far beyond any thing imaginable in the narrow confinements of Independent Bodies Such Churches then of most select wise and able Christians who have the consent and Representation of many lesser Congregations must needs do all things with more wisdom advice impartiality authority reputation majesty and general satisfaction than any of those stinted Bodies of Congregational Churches can possibly do yea in all right reason they are as much beyond and above them as the power of a full Parliament is beyond any Country Committee Those may with comly order and due authority which ariseth from the consent of many men much esteeming the known worth of others give audience receive complaints consider of examine reprove reform excommunicate and restore where there is cause and as the matters of the Church more private or publick require in the several divisions extending its wings as an Eagle more or less as there is cause with infinite more benefit to the community of Christians than those Pullets the short winged and little bodied Birds of the Independent feather can do Where without any warrant that I know from God or Man Religion or right Reason Law or Gospel Prudence or Charity a few Christians by clucking themselves into a conventicle shall presently seem a compleat body to themselves and presume to separate and exempt themselves from all the world of Christians as to any duty subjection order or obedience and pitching their Tents where they think best within the verge of any other never so well and wisely setled Church presently they shall raise themselves up some small brest works of absolute Authority which they fancy both parts from and defends them against all Churches in the World planting their Wooden or Leathern Guns of imaginary Independent power and casting forth their Granadoes or Squibs rather of passionate censures angry abdications and severe divorces against all Christians Ibidem i. e. praesidentibus probatis Senioribus exhortationes castigationes censura divina Nunc judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu Sumumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis ita deliquerit ut communicatione orationis conventus omnis sancti commercil relegetur Tertul. Apol. c. 39. Qui ab ecclesiae corpore respuuntur quae Christi corpus est tanquam peregrini alieni à Deo Dominatui diaboli traduntur Hil. in Ps 118. Inobediens spirituals mucrone truncatur ejectus de ecclesia rabido Daemonum ore discrepitur Jeron Ep. 1. but those of their own way and party Afterward they turn them it may be against their own body and bowels when once they begin to be at leisure to wrangle and divide As if alas these were the dreadful thunder-bolts of excommunication antiently used with great solemnity caution deliberation and publick consent The great forerunner of Gods terrible hast judgment exercised with unfeigned pity fervent prayers and many tears by those who had due eminency and authority as presidents in chief or seconds and assistants to judge and act in so weighty cases and matters In which transactions and censures Churches Synodical Provincial and National were interessed and accordingly being duly convened they solemnly acted in Christs Name as the offence error or matter required remedy either for
one may read and recite and tell others of an Act or Proclamation and help them to understand it but only an Herald or Officer may publikely proclame it in the name of him that grants it Children or servants in any family may impart of their Provision and Bread to one another in charity and love but this they do not as Stewards and Officers whose place is to give to every one their portion in due season We read the Bereans were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More noble Not for undertaking to Preach but for industrious searching the certainty of the truth duly Preached to them by the Apostles Nothing is more generous and noble than orderly and Religious Industry It were happy for all good Ministers Acts 17.11 if there were every where more of those noble generous and industrious Christians among their hearers who like the Bereans by often meditating searching repeating mutuall conferring applying and if need be by further explaning as they are able and have experience of the word duly Preached to them would as it were break the clods and Harrow in the good Seed after the Ministers Plowing and Sowing Yet still there is a large difference between a true Ministers Preaching in Gods name to the Judges at Assizes and the Judges reciting or applying some points of the Sermon with wisdom and piety so far as suites with the charge he gives not as a Minister but as a Christian Magistrate whose Commission is only civill Spontanea voluntate non sacerdotali antoritate obtulerunt sacrificia Abram Isaac Jacob. Isid Hisp l. 2. off Eccl. c. 3. to do civill Justice according to Law and power given by man between man and man the other as a Minister is sacred to reveale the righteousness of God in Christ to men for the eternall salvation of their souls But why any Christian should affect in peaceable times and in a plentifull soyl to have either any man that lists to imploy himself or no Husbandmen or labourers at all in Gods Field and Vineyard who by speciall care skill and authority should look to its right ordering and improvement most to the encrease of Gods glory and the Churches benefit I can yet see no reason save only those depths and devices of Satan which are hid under the arbitrary speciousness and wantoness of some poor gifts the better to cover those designs which the pride malice hypocrisy Sophillae verborum magis esse volentes quam discipuli veritatis Irenaeus de iis qui successionem Apostolicam deserunt l. 3. c. 40. 1 Cor. 14.32 In docti praepropere docentes plerunque dedocenda docent plus zizanii quà m tritici seminantes culturam Domini inficiunt magis quam perficiunt Aust and profaness of some mens hearts aym at which are not hard to be discerned in many men by that extreme loathness and tenderness which those tumors and inflamed swellings of their gifts and self conceited sufficiencies have to be tried or touched by the laying on of hands that is in a due exact and orderly way of examination approbation and Ordination The fear is lest if such pittifull Prophets Spirits should be subject to the Prophets they should be found to have more need to be taught the mysteries and principles of Religion than any way fit to teach others by a most preposterous presumption whose foolish hast makes but the more wast both of Peace and order truth and charity in the Church The greatest abillities of private Christians being orderly and humbly exercised are no way inconsistent with the function of the Ministry they may be easily and wisely reconciled however some men whose interest lyes in our discords and divisions would fain set them at variance That Ministers should be jealous of their ablest hearers and these emulous of their faithfullest Ministers No hearers are more welcome to able Ministers than such as are in some kind fit to teach reproove admonish and comfort others Nor are any men more humbly willing to be taught and guided in the things of God by their true Ministers than those who know how to use the gifts of knowledge they attain without despising the chiefest means by which they and others do attain it which is by the publike Ministry of the Church This enables them to benefit others in charity but not to bost of their gifts in a factious vanity or to give any grief or disorder to the Ministers of the Church who besides their labours in the Pulpit have so furnished the Church with their writings from the Press that such Christians as can content themselves with safe and easy humility rather than laborious and dangerous pride may upon all occasions I think full as well and for the most part far better make use in their families of those excellent English Treatises Sermons The use of excellent Books of Divinity Printed in English far beyond most mens prophecying and Commentaries which are judiciously set forth in all kinds of Divinity than any way pride and please themselves in that small stock of their own gifts either ex tempore or premeditated which serious reading of those learned and holy Ministers works would do every way as well and far better than this which weak men call prophecying that is reciting it may be by rote some raw and jejune notions and disorderly meditations of their own which must needs come far short of reading distinctly and considering seriously those excellent discourses which learned and wise men have plentifully furnished them with both with less pains and more profit to themselves and others I am sure with less hazard of error froth and vanity than what is incident to those self Ostentations of gifts which have more of the tongue than heart or head and oft-times resemble more the Player than the Preacher So that the late published Patron of the Peoples privilege and duty as to the matter of prophecying needed not to have added to his Book the odious title of the Pulpits and Preachers enoroachment 12. Animadversions on some passages in that Book called The Peoples Privilege and Duty as to prophecying c. For if that Author will undertake to regulate the tryall and exercise of those gifts of Lay people which he finds or fancies in them within such bounds of reall and approved abilities of humble usefull and seasonable exercising of them without any Enter fering with or diminution of the function and authority of the true and ordeâ—ned Ministry which is the aym he seems to propound I wil undertake that no able and good Minister shall forbid the Banes which he hath so publikely asked Finding indeed no cause why these two may not be lawfully joyned together in a Christian and comfortable union the publike gifts of Ministers in a publike way of divine Authority and private gifts of the faithfull in a way of private Christian Charity Nor ever did the Godly Fathers and Ministers of the Church encroach upon put away or give any
have a name to * Revel 3.1 live by the Spirit and covet to be called spirituall who are dead in their lusts and walk after the flesh * Prov. 30 12. They seem pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthinesse Yea there is a generation O how lofty are their eyes yet are their teeth swords and their jaw teeth as knives Nothing is more cruell than supercilious hypocrisie * Ioh. 18.28 They were forward to crucifie Christ who were shy of being defiled by entring into the Judgement Hall They are most zealous to destroy the true Ministers yea the very function and succession who seem most devoted to be Teachers Prophets and Preachers of a new Spirit and form Many seem rich in gifts and increased in spirituall endowments thinking they need nothing of Christs true Ministry Revel 3.17 when they know not that they are poore and naked and blind and miserable Ephes 6.12 There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall wickednesses usurpant in the high places of mens soules as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more sordid and swinish spirits that dwell in the lower region of mens lusts It is expresly stigmatized on the foreheads of some pretenders to the Spirit Iude 19. which was the glory of those first and purest times that they are sensuall not having the Spirit Irenaeus l. 3. c. 1. of the Gnasticks andValentinians Gloriantur se â—mendatores esse Apostolorum perfectam cognitionmen non habuisse Apostolos cap. 2. Dicunt se non tantum Presbyteris sed Apostolis sapientiores sinceram invenisse veritatem So the Circumcelliones Quae non viderunt confingunt opiniones suâ—s habentes pro Deo honores quos non habuerunt se habuisse protestantur Isid Hisp de off Eccl. l. 3. c. 15. Vain and proud ignorance as we see in primitive times is not onely content to be without the true wise humble and orderly Spirit of God but they must also study to cover their follies disorders and hypocrisies with the shews of it as if it were not enough to sin against its manifest rules and examples in the Word which have alwayes been observed in the Church unlesse they impute also to it their simplicities fondnesses impudencies filthy dreams extravagancies and confusions Counting it no shame to ascribe those unreasonable and absurd motions speeches and actions to Gods most wise and holy Spirit which any man of right reason and sober sense or common ingenuity and modesty would be ashamed to owne Our humble prayer is that these new modellers and pretenders to the Spirit may learn not to blaspheme not to grieve resist and doe despite to the Spirit of God which hath been and still is evidently manifest in the true Ministers of this Church and our earnest study shall be that we may be truly endued with such gifts graces and fruits of the Spirit of Christ that we may both speak and doe and suffer as becomes good Christians and true Ministers after the example of holy men and of our great Master Bishop and Ordainer Jesus Christ That so the judicious Charity of those that excell in vertue wisdome faith and humility may have cause to say the Lord hath sent us in the power as well as in the order and office of the Ministry to which we were rightly ordained On the other side we fear that the great earthquakes in the Church and darknesse over the Reformed Religion which may follow the true Ministers being set at naught and crucified by the malice and wantonnesse of men may in after times give too much cause to those Mat. 27.54 that now neglect us or afflict us to say as the Centurion did of Christ Doubtlesse these were the messengers of the most high God the true Ministers of Jesus Christ and of his Gospell to this Church While we have any liberty and leave to live as Ministers it will become us not to be so discouraged by the impotent malice of any enemies as to desert this holy calling whereto the Lord by a right ordination in this Church hath duly called us Not to look back to the world having once put our hands to this plough to consider our persecutors no further than to pity them and pray for them notwithstanding all the injuries and blasphemies not against us so much as against God while they fear not to ascribe the great and good effects which the Lord hath vouchsafed to work by his Ministers upon the hearts of thousands in England to Beelzebub Mat. 12.24 to the spirit of Antichrist or to any thing rather than to own the Spirit of Christ among us which hee hath promised should ever be with his true and faithfull Ministers in an holy succession of authority and power to the end of the world Scandalous inconstancy of Professors Indeed the greatest grief to the Soules of all godly Ministers and which hath brought the greatest scandall and dehonestation on their Ministry next to some of their own grosse failings is this when the world sees so many of those who seemed to be baptized with water and with the Spirit to have been illuminated and sanctified by their teaching to have tasted of the heavenly gift Heb. 6.5 and the powers of the world to come that is of the authority and efficacy of the Evangelicall Ministry which was to come after the Leviticall and Aaronicall order Many who seemed to have rejoiced for many years in those burning and shining lights of this Churches Ministers to have by their Ministry been well instructed reformed washed and escaped from the pollutions of this world That I say some of these like Jesuruâ— should thus lift up the heel and thus kick against the Ministers and Ministry like Demasses thus to forsake them like Judasses thus to betray them whom lately they kissed and followed as Disciples like Swine that they should thus turn and revile those that cast pearl before them returning to the wallowing in the mire and dirt of unjust covetous ambitious erroneous seditious licentious perjurious malicious and sacrilegious courses No more now ashamed of their lusts then those unclean beasts are of their filthinesse in the midst of the fairest Sun-shine day and when they are neerest to the most pure and Crystall streams But the light which they will not see in this their day shining on them and discovering the frauds and evill of their wayes they may after see in that darknesse to which they are hastning and to which they seem even of God to bee condemned But to conclude my answer in this particular 15. Conclusion and resignation of our Ministry if c. wherein the Antiministeriall adversaries pretend to such spirituall gifts and speciall calling beyond the ordained and setled Ministry if any excellent Christians or any of those that have either wisdome to discern or power to dispose of things to the advantage of this Church and State if they doe in
noble and most Christian a work But they had need to be Herculesses men of most divine vertue and resolution that encounter the many headed hydras and various monsters which are at present set against the Ministry of this Church What ever censures any other actions of men may ly under which God will judge and of which they may have more cause at last to repent than to boast yet this the vindicating and establishing of the true Ministry and its authority they shall have of all things the least cause to repent of Nor I hope will any worthy men give me or any other Minister cause to repent that I have presumed to become an humble suites and a faithfull Monitor in a matter of so great and so religious concernment yea peradventure I may find favour which God can only give in the eyes of men as Abigail did in Davids 1 Sam. 25 33â— who blessed God for her seasonable diverting of him from that excesse of vengeance to which immoderate passion had tempted him It is not safe to treat those as enemies which are Gods friends and friends to mens soules It was an action onely fit for Saul whom God had forsaken to destroy the Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 18. as enemies and traitors If any consecrated vessels of the Temple should have soil or decayes on them yet none but Nebuchadnezzars Belshazzars or Antiochusses would quite break them in pieces or melt them and prophane them No time can be too long no counsell too deliberate before Christians put so severe a purpose in execution or gratifie any party without hearing all sides Nor should they that dis-advise from it upon sober and good grounds be lesse acceptable to men in power than any of those that prompt and incite to so hardy and hazardous an adventure This gives me some hope if not of acceptance yet at least of pardon for either that prolixity for which none can doe greater penance than I have or for that plainnesse by which I may exercise any mans patience who vouchsafes to read this my Apologetick defense 17. The Authors excuse for the prolixity of this Apologetick defense wherein I have not forgot that as it is written in a busie and pragmatick age so possibly it may fall into the hands of some persons whose imployments admit of little leisure for such long discourses or tedious addresses But as others in reading may be prone too much to remember their momentaries so I in writing have chiefly considered my owne and others eternities I have weighed with my self how important a businesse God had laid in this upon my heart and my heart upon my hand The vehemency and just zeal for which hath still dictated to my pen both this spurre and excuse That in a Cause of so great consequence it were not onely a sin for me to say nothing but to say little lest shortnesse of speech should detract from the worth of the matter Weak shadowes would argue faint flames either a dimnesse in that light or a chilnesse in that heat which ought to attend a businesse which to my judgement seems of infinite importance to present and future times So pretious a Jewell as the true Ministry of the glorious Gospell of Jesus Christ was not to be set with an unhandsome foil or by a slight and perfunctory hand I know small fires and short puffes will not serve to make great irons malleable No Divell is harder to be unmufled and detected than that which conceals it self under Angelick masks which some weak and credulous soules think a sin to lift up or to suspect 2 Cor. 2.11 But we are not ignorant of Satans devises No drosse or masse of corruption is more untamable and unseparable from mans nature than that of sacrilegious enmity against Christ the Gospell and the Ministry while they have any thing to lose I am sure what ever we or our posterity of this Nation may want we cannot want Christ or the true light of the Gospell in its power and authority without being a most unhappy Nation To which if the preservation of a learned godly and authoritative Ministry in a due ordination and divine succession such as was of late and still is though much wasted and weakned in England be not thought necessary truly no more will the Scriptures nor the Sacraments nor the peace of Conscience nor the pardon of sin nor the saving of soules ere long be thought necessary No nor the excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ whose Name and Worship will shortly be either shamefully abused scurrilously despised as now it is by many yea and cleane forgotten by the profane stupid sensuall and Atheisticall hearts of men unlesse there be some men whose speciall calling and commission from God and man shall both enable and ordain them to preach and administer holy things in Christs Name whose duty and conscience so commands them to serve God and his Church that they cannot be silent or negligent without sin 18. Mens pronenesse to Apostasie without a true Ministry To expect that arbitrary and occasionall Preachers will doe the work of Christ and the Church is as vain at to thinke that passengers or travellers will build and plant and sow and fight for men in their civill occasions The men of this world will finde many other imployments of greater honour credit and content than to preach the Gospell with the crosse of poverty and contempt upon them which is ever crucifying the world and must expect to be crucified by the world It 's rare to finde any generation of men that are truly favourers of Ministers or the Gospel therefore they are ever grudging at all cost laid out on Christs account as lost and going beside their Mill who had rather bee savers than saved by him Nor is the opinion which sober men generally retain of the excellency and necessity of Christian Religion in order to their salvation sufficient to keep it up to a constancy and succession without a true powerfull and authoritative Ministry For we see that although nothing concernâ— men more than to beleeve there is a God the supreme good of whose goodnesse bounty power and protection we have every moment need use and experience and upon whose mercy our sinfull mortality can onely with any reason depend both living and dying for our eternall welfare yet many yea most of men are ready to run out to Atheism To Atheism and to live without God in the world unlesse they have frequent and solemne remembrances besides their owne hearts to put them in minde in their dependance on and duty to God In like manner although nothing should be more welcome to mankinde because nothing more necessary than the news of a Saviour for sinners To Unbeleif yet the bitter root of unbeleif and many sensuall distractions which are in mens hearts and lives are prone to entertain nothing with lesse liking than the hearing and
or at least his will and zeal thinks it a shame to seem ignorant or if he be conscious to his ignorance seeks to cover it over and set it off with forwardness Therefore the wisdom of the Lord Christ upon whose shoulders the Government of his Church is laid Isai 9.7 hath set bounds to mans activity and unquietness by another way of Church power which is setled in and derived by fewer indeed but yet wiser and abler persons than the community of Christians can be presumed to be who in all affairs of Church or State have ever given such experiments of their follies madnesses and confusions where-ever they arrogate power or have much to do beyond ciphers in a sum that all wise men conclude That people are then happiest when they have least to do in any thing that is called Government Nor is it to be believed that Jesus Christ hath ordered any thing in his Churches polity that is contrary to the principles of true wisdom which in man is but a beam of that Sun which is in God But the Bodying men say 28. People not fit to judge of doctrine or scandals in Religion They must and ought to have a Church not onely visible in the profession of Faith but palpable and maniable so as they may at once grasp it and upon every occasion convene it or the major part of it into one place that so they may complain of what they think amiss and remedy by the power of that small fraternity what ever faults any of them list to finde in one another as Fellow Members and Brethren yea and in those too whom they have made to be their Pastors Rulers and Fathers Answ That the best Men and best Ministers may erre and offend in religious respects by error and scandal we make no doubt Nor is it denied but they may and ought both by private charity be admonished and by publick authority be reproved and censured Where this Authority is as it ought to be in the hands of those whom the Lord Christ hath appointed as wise able and authorised by the Church to judge of Doctrine Maners and Differences incident among Christians as such But I appeal to all sober and judicious Christians whether they can finde or fancy almost that venerable Consistory that judicious Senate that grave and dreadful Tribunal which the antients speak of among Christians of those first and best times which is necessary for the honor and good order of Religion and peace of Christians Whether I say there be any face or form of it among those dwarf Bodies those petty Church lets those narrow Conventicles whose Head and Members Pastors and Flock are for the most part not above the Plebeian size of a meer mechanick mould either ignorant or heady or wilful or fierce under words and semblances of zeal gravity and an affected severity I make no quaere Whether these sorts of men be fit persons to whom all appeals in matters of Religion must be made and by whom they must be finally determined to whose judgements prudence and conscience all matters of doctrine and scandal must be referred By whom Religious concernments must be ordered and reformed by whom Ministers must be examined tryed and ordained In eo quisque judex recti constituitur in quo peritus judicatur Reg. Juris first afterward judged and deposed Whether it be fit that those who are guilty of so little learning or experience in divine matters should solely agitate these great things of God which so much concern his truth his glory and Christians good every way which matters both as to Doctrine and Discipline are able to exercise and fully imploy the most learned able and holy men Who dreads not to think that all saving truths stand at such mens mercy the honor of Christ and the good of mens souls too while all degrees of excommunication and censures are irrepealably transacted by them Among whom its hard to finde two wise men and scarce any ten of them if they be twenty of one minde while they boast they are of one Body Again who will not sadly laugh to see that when they differ as they oft do and break in pieces yet like quantitative substances they are always divisible like water and other homogeneous bodies they still drop and divide into as many new Churches and Bodies as they are dissenting or separating parties The miracle is that when like Hypolitus his Limbs they are rent and scattered by Schisms into Factions yet still every leg or arm or hand forms presently into a new distinct compleat Body and subdivided Church Each of which conceives such an integrality of parts and plenitude of power that it puts forth head and eyes and hands all Church Officers Pastors Elders Deacons by an innate principle of Church power which they fancy to be in any two or three godly people At this rate and on this ridiculous presumption they run on as water on a dry ground till it hath wasted it self till they are in small chips and slivers making up Bodies at six and sevens and Churches of two or three Believers These ere long losing one another in the midst of some new opinion some sharp subtilty or some angry curiosity which they cannot reach then and not before this meteor or blasing Star of a popular Independent absolute self-sufficient Church power in the people which threatned Heaven and Earth and strived to out-shine the Sun and Moon and Stars of all antient combined Churches Order and Government for want of matter quite vanisheth and disappears by its Members separating from and excommunicating or unchurching of each other Then the solitary relicts turn Seekers whose unhappy fortune is never to finde the folly of their new errors nor the antient true Church way which they proudly or passionately or ignorantly lost when they so easily forsook communion with the Catholike Church and with that part of it to which they were peaceably orderly and comlily united as was here in England Whose way of serving the true God was privately with knowledge faith love and sincerity publickly with peace order humility and charity Which might still with honor and happiness to this Nation be continued if the proud hearts and wanton heads and rude hands of some novel pretenders had not sought to make the very name of Christian Religion the Reformed Church and Ministry of England a meer sport and may-game to the Popish profane and looser world by first stripping us of all those Primitive Ornaments of gravity order decency charity good government unanimity and then dressing us up and impluming us with the feathers of popular and passionate fancies which delight more in things gay and new than good and old But how shall we do say these Bodying-men 29. Of Church Discipline in whom the Power Matth. 18.17 Tell it to the Church to fulfil that command Dic Ecclesiae for such a Church as may receive complaints hear causes of
scandal speedily reform abuses restore defects execute all power of the Keys in the right way of Discipline without which there is no true at least no compleat and perfect Church for these men think Christians can hardly get to Heaven unless they have power among them to cast one another into Hell to give men over to Satan to excommunicate as they see cause to open and shut Heaven and Hell gates as they think fit Must all things that concern our Church say they lie at six and sevens till we get such Bishops and Presbyters such Synods and Councils such Representatives of Learned men as are hardly obtained and as hard to be rightly ordered or well used when they are met together They had rather make quicker dispatches in Church work as if they thought it better for every family to hang and draw within it self and presently punish every offence than for a whole Country to attend either general Assizes or quarter Sessions Answ Truly good Christians in this Church at present are in a sad and bad case too as well as their Ministers if they could make no work of Religion till they were happy to see all things of extern order and government duly setled Yet sure we may go to Church and to Heaven too in our worst clothes if we can get no better nor may we therefore wholly stay at home and neglect religious duties because we cannot be so fine as we would be Both Ministers and people must do the best they can in their private sphears and particular Congregations to which they are related whereby to preserve themselves and one another as Brethren in Christ from such deformities and abuses as are destructive to the power of godliness the peace of conscience and the honor of the Reformed Religion until the Lord be pleased to restore to this Church that holy Order antient Government and Discipline which is necessary not to the being of a Christian or a true Church as its form or matter which true Believers constitute by their internal union to Christ by Faith and to all Christians by Charity but onely as to the external form and polity for the peace order and well being of a Church as it is a visible society or holy nation and fraternity of men 1 Pet. 2.9 professing the truth of Jesus Christ Yea and Christians may better want that is with less detriment or deformity to Religion that Discipline which some men so exceedingly magnifie as the very Throne Scepter and Kingdom of Christ under Christian Magistracy as they may the office of Deacons where the law by Overseers takes care for the poor where good laws by civil power punish publick offences and repress all disorders in Religion as well as trespasses in secular affairs Better I say than they could have been without it in primitive times when Christians had no other means to repress any disorders that might arise in their societies either scandalous to their profession or contrary to their principles of which no Heathen Magistrate or Humane Laws took then any cognisance or applied any remedy to them Not but that I do highly approve and earnestly pray for such good Order comely Government and exact Discipline in every Church both as to the lesser Congregations and the greater Associations to which all reasons of safety and grounds of peace invite Christian Societies in their Church relations as well as in those of Civil which were antiently used in all setled and flourishing Churches Much after that patern which was used among the Jews both in their Synagogues which they had frequent both in their own Land and among strangers in their dispersions and also in their great Sanhedrim which was as a constant supreme Council for ordering affairs chiefly of Religion to one or both which no doubt our Saviour then referred the believing Jew in that of Tell it to the Church that is after private monition tell it to the lesser Convention or Consistory in the Synagogues which might decide matters of a lesser nature or to the higher Sanedrim in things of more publick concernment both which were properly enough called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetus congregatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Jud. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil hic à Christo novum praecipitur sed mos rectè introductus probatur H. Grot. in loc Ecclesiae i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Every polity hath in it power enough to preserve it happiness Coimus in coâ—tum congregationem Ibidem orationes exhortationes castigationes censura divina Praesident probati quique seniores Tert. Apol. Solebant Judaei res majoris momenti ultimo loco ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multitudinem referre i. e. ad eos qui eadem instituta sestabantur quorum judicia conventus seniores moderabantur tanquam praesidet Grot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Bas in Chrys Beyond this sense none could be made of Christs words by his then Auditors to whom he speaks not by way of new direction and institution of a Soverein Court or Consistory in every Congregation of Christians to come but by way of referring to a well known use and daily practise then among the Jews which was the onely and best means wherein a Brother might have such satisfaction in point of any offence which charity would best bear without flying to the Civil Magistrate which was now a forein power When Jews turned Christians it s very certain they altered not their Discipline and order as Christians in Church society from what they used before in their Synagogues Proportionably no doubt in Christian Churches of narrower or larger extensions and communion among the Gentiles the wisdom of Christ directs and allows such judicatories and iurisdictions to prevent or remove all scandals and offences among Christians to preserve peace and order as may have least of private or pedantick imperiousness and vulgar trifflings of men unable and unfit to be in or to exercise any such holy and divine authority over others who are easily trampled upon and fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil by reason of divers lusts passions weaknesses and temptations but rather Christ commends such grave Consistories solemn Synods and venerable Councils as consisting of wise and able and worthy men may have most as of the Apostolical wisdom eminency gravity so of Christs Spirit Power and Authority among them Such as no Christian with any modesty reason conscience or ingenuity can despise or refuse to submit to the integrity of their censure when it is carried on not with those heats peevishnesses and emulations which are usually among men of less improved parts or ripened years especially if Neighbors Such a way wisely setled in the Church might indeed binde up all things that concern Religion in private or more publick respects to all good behavior in the bonds of truth peace and
relation to the Gospell of Jesus Christ did ever so much as dispute or question the power and succession ministeriall as to its calling peculiar and divinely appropriated to some men in the Church Till of later dayes in Germany and some otherwheres the pride of some mens parts and conceit of their gifts or the opinion of their raptures and Enthusiasms mixed with other lusts and secular designs tempted some weak and fanatick men of the Anabaptistical leaven to adventure the invasion and vulgar prostration of the office before ever they broached their reasons against it Confessores gloriae Christi An. 1543. When they after proved to be Pastoricidae Vilains which conspired to destroy all the Ministers of the Gospel in Germany hanging and drowning many of them casting them into wells An. 1562. Cl. Sanctesius de temp decept Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. Qui absistunt à principali successionâ— Episcoporum Presbyterorum ab Apostolis quocunque locâ— relliguntur suspectos habere oportet vel haereticos vel scindentes vel elatos sibi placentes Oâ—â—eâ—â—i decidunt à veritate Sophistae verborum magis esse volentes quà m discipuli veritatis Iren. lib 3. c. 40. which presumption and disorder the Swenckfeldians who called themselves Confessors of the glory of Christ afterwards the Socinians and others intending to introduce new and heretical doctrines with their new Teachers studied to set forth with some weak shews of reason and Scripture Whereas in all former ages of the Church such as should have abrogated the antient Catholick way or have broached any new way of Evangelical power and Ministry would have been as scandalous as if he had broached a new Messias or a new Gospel and made the old one of none effect as many of those strive to do who seek to cry down the former way of Ministers right Ordination Succession and Authority Who if they had not met with a giddy and credulous and licentious age would have needed new miracles to have confirmed their new and plebeian ways of Ministry or to cashier the old one which was first began and after confirmed as the Gospel was for some years with many infallible signs and wonders wrought by the Apostles and their Successors in that Order and Function 3. What can be the design of any to go contrary or innovate What can it be then but an exceeding want of common understanding or a superfluity of malice or a transport of passion or some secular lust either to deny credit to the Testimony of the best Christians and purest Churches in all times or to go quite contrary to their judgment and practise by seeking to discredit and destroy the Authority and peculiar Function of the antient Catholike Christian Ministry in these or other Churches And since in primitive times it could be no matter of either profit or honor in the world In ea regula incedimus quà m Ecclesia ab Apostolis Apostoli à Christo Christus à Deo accepit Tertul. de Praes c. 37. Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostoloâ—um successioneâ—â—piscoporum certa per o rbem propagatione diffunditur August ep 42. to be a Bishop or Presbyter in the Church who were the first men to be persecuted or sacrificed What motive could there be then but onely Religion Duty and Conscience to undertake and persevere in that holy and dangerous Calling that so the Gospel might be continued And since now in England it can be no great temptation of covetousness or ambition unless it be in very poor and necessitous man to be a Preacher of the Gospel upon the new account of the peoples or self-ordaining which is as none what can it be that provokes so many in a new and pitiful way either of egregious ignorance and popular simplicity to undertake to be Preachers Or in a more refined way of devilish malice and deep design to seek to level cast down and trample under foot all Ministerial power whatsoever which is none if it be common and not peculiar to some men by divine Sanction Certainly this can arise from no other aim but either that of destroying us as a Reformed Church or desolating us quite from being a Church or Christians Which our posterity will easily cease to be as to the very form as many at present are 1 Cor. 15.14 as to any power and conscience of Religion if once they cease to have or begin to think they have not had any true Ministers in this or any Church So that all Preaching of the Gospel all Saâ—â—aments all the Faith of so many Christians Professors Confessors and Martyrs in all Ages together with the fruits of their Faith in Patience Charity and good Works must be in vain Alas these poor revenues and encouragements which are yet left to the Ministers here considered with their burdens of business duties taxes and envy are scarce worth the having or coveting even by vulgar and mechanick spirits who may make a better shift to live in any way almost than now in the Ministry The design then of levelling the Ministry must needs be from greater motives such as seek to have the whole honor and authority of the Reformed Religion here in England utterly abolished or else taken up upon some such odde novel and fanatick grounds which will hold no water bear no weight or stress being built upon the sands of humerous novelty not on the rock of holy antiquity and divine verity That so this whole Church may by the adversaries of it be brought to be a meer shadow of deformed and confused Religion or else be onely able to plead its Christianity upon meer Familistick or Anabaptistick or Enthusiastick or Socinian or Fanatick Principles Upon which must depend all our Christian Privileges Truths Sacraments Ministrations Duties and Comforts Living and Dying all which will easily be proved and appear to a considerate soul as profane and null when he shall see they are performed or administred by those Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus ecclesiastatus in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Episcoporum quibus illi â—am quae est in unoquoque lâ—ci Ecclesiam tradiderunt Ire l. 4. c. 6â— who can produce no Precept Scripture or Practise from Antiquity for their ways either of Christianity or of Ministry but onely their own or other mens wilde fancies and extravagant furies nor can they have better excuses for their errors in forsaking the right and Catholike way but onely a popular levity credulity and madness after novelties So that as to this first part of my answer touching The peculiar Function of the Ministry I do aver upon my Conscience so far as I have read or can learn That there is no Council of the Church or Synod no Father or Historian no other Writer that mentions the affairs of the Church no one of them gives the least cause to doubt but wholly confirms this
assertion That no part of the Catholike Church of Christ in any age or place was ever setled or flourished without a constant peculiar Order and Ordination of Ministers who were consecrated to the receiving and exercise of that power in the Church as from Christ although by man which have continued to this day Theodoret. hist l. 1. c. 22. De Aedesio Frumentio apud Indos dâ—vina Ministeria â—bierunt Laicii cum erant Frumentius postea ab Athanasio ep factus Cap. 23. Captivamulier apud Iberos Evangelium praedicabet miracula edebat His Const M. Episcopos misit There are indeed three or four examples in cases extraordinary of some private unordained Christians in the Primitive times who occasionally trading to Heathens were means first to teach them the Mysteries of Christ so as they desired to be baptized which was after done by such Bishops and Ordained Ministers as were sent them upon their request from other Churches To produce particulâ—r testimonies out of each Author Father Council and Historian in every age to prove the constant succession the high veneration and the unfeigned love which was every where conferred upon the Bishops and Ministers of the Church also to shew forth that devout care and religious regard which the ordainers the faithful people and those to be ordained to the office had in their several relations and duties when Ministers were to be ordained and consecrated such allegations were easie being very many and obvious but I hold the pains needless considering that to learned men they are so well known and all ingenuous Christians will believe my solemn asseveration that as in the presence of God what I write is Truth As for those weak or wilful men who are in this my onely opposers I know they consider not any heaps of authorities which they account onely as humane which they cannot examine nor do they value them when convinced of the certainty and harmony of them were there never so sweet and many flowers gathered from the testimony of Antiquity and Authority of the Fathers these supercilious novellers will not vouchsafe to smell to them It is well if I can make them savor any thing well out of the Scriptures which favors the Function of the Ministry 4. Catholike custom confirmed by Scripture as to the Office of the Ministry 2. So then in the next place This Defence of the Churches clear constant and Catholike Testimony in this point of the peculiar Office of the Ministry as in any other becomes a brazen wall an impregnable bulwark able to break in pieces or to retort all engines and batteries made against it when it appears to be exactly drawn according to the scale line and measure set down in the holy Scripture which are therefore much sleighted by some who despise the Ministry because like well-planted Canons they defend the Church and its constant Ministry as on the other side the Churches fidelity and constancy are the ground-work and platforms on which the Scriptures are planted 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of Christ bearing up as the ground and holding forth as a pillar that divine Truth Power and Authority which from God they have in them of which the Church is the Herald or Publisher but not the Author or Inditer Conferring nothing to their internal Truth which is from their revealer and inspirer God but much to their external credit and historick reception which we have tendered to us daily not as immediately from God or Angels or inspired Prophets but by the veracity and fidelity of the Church chiefly in its publick Ministry which in this point of so necessary constant and universal practise for the good of all faithful people in all Ages and Churches cannot be thought in any reason either to have had no rule divinely appointed or that all Churches have been wholly ignorant of it or knowingly have so wholly swerved from it that never any Church either in its Teachers and Pastors or in its people and believers were followers of the Scripture-Precept and Patern till these last and worst days whereas the clear and pregnant light of the Scripture is in this point of a setled Ministry so agreeing with the use and practice of the Catholike Church that as no error can be suspected in the one so no obscurity can be pretended in the other by any Christians who will allow the divine Authority and infallible Truth of those Scriptures which we call the New Testament In all which nothing is more evident Christ sent of the Father as a Minister of Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.25 Heb. 12.2 Matth. 17.5 Jâ—hn 4.34 5.36 6.57 7.16 Heb. 5.4 No mantaketh this honor to himself but he that is called of God as Aaron V. 5. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest but c. Matth. 3.17 and self-demonstrating beyond any cavil or contradiction than That our Lord Jesus Christ the promised Messias the beloved Son of God the Angel of the new and better Covenant the Minister of Righteousness the great Apostle the chief Bishop and Father of our souls the Author and Finisher of our Faith the supreme Lord and King the eternal and compassionate High Priest the unerring Prophet of his Church whose voice we are onely to hear and obey in all things he commands us That I say this Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to a personal accomplishment of all Prophecies fulfilling of all righteousness to a visible Ministration of holy things for the Churches good That he came not in his own Name as a man to be Mediator and Teacher nor did he as a man take this honor of Prophet Priest or King of his Church upon him but had his mission or appointment from his Father God who gave evident testimonies from Heaven of him not onely before and at his birth but afterward at his solemn and publick inauguration by Baptism into the Work of his Ministry where a voice from Heaven was heard and a visible representation of the Holy Spirit was seen testifying him to be the beloved Son of God the anointed with the gifts of the Spirit above all as Head of the Church These after were followed with infallible signs and wonders while Jesus went about doing good teaching the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven instituting holy rites for the distinguishing of his Church from the world and for the comforting of the faithful in the world by those seals pledges and memorials of his love in dying for the Church and shedding both water and blood upon the Cross Christs sending his Apostles as Ministers Acts 1. Phil. 2.9 Christ having thus personally finished the suffering and meritorious part of his Ministry after his Resurrection being now no more to converse in a visible humane way of presence with his Church on Earth but ascending as was meet to that glory of the Father which as God he had ever with him as man he had