the Apostles themselves would in all likelihood throw the Power of Ordination out of the Church of God at this day especially if we stand upon the due Election and Qualification of Persons so claiming Succession from the Apostles themselves And because due Qualifications and Election is as necessary to a true Minister of Christ as Ordination seeing it 's most certain that unless God do first make Men Ministers it 's impossible for the Church rightly to make them Ministers We shall here add That besides his moral Vertues and Spiritual Gifts he that is regularly called to the Ministry must first be a true Member of the Church and chosen by a true Church to that sacred Employment And then we may boldly yet modestly suppose that true Ordination at least in some part of it is only found in the Congregations of Baptized Believers at this day For where true Baptism is not Ordination cannot be regular Again due Election is found amongst them whilst neglected both by Papists and Prelatists And further the true Form and Order of Ordination is found in our Churches The first is evident of it self No Baptism no due Ordination is a Truth without exception among all that own Ordination And for the second 't is certain none are ordained to any Office in the Baptized Churches till elected by the consent of the Church or the Major part to whom they are to minister And herein they follow the Footsteps of the Apostles Acts 1. when one must be chosen in the room of Judas the 120 which was the whole Assembly allowed the choice of two and good reason there is that where all are equally concerned they should all be satisfied in the choice of such as to whom they commit the care and feeding of their Souls When the seven Deacons were to be ordained the whole Church is consulted Acts 6. and the Election made by them who knew the qualification of the Persons And as holy Scripture so Antiquity stands with us in this case The Nicene Council writing their minds to the Church at Alexandria concerning some that were to succeed other Bishops gives these Directions If so be they shall seem to be worthy and the People shall chuse them What Rules were to be observed in respect of their worthiness for Ministerial Employment may be gathered from Clement Epist ad Corinth Having saith he made trial of them by the Spirit to be Bishops and Deacons And again Others well approved of should succeed into the Office and Ministry who therefore have been constituted by famous and discreet Men with the good liking and consent of all the Church and who withal have of a long time had a good Testimony from all Men. Leo gives the same direction Epist 84. c. 5. charging That none be ordained against the Wills and Petitions of the People And again Epist 49. The Custom was that he should be chosen of all that was to be over all and wills that the liking of the People and their Testimony be sought That in Ordinations the Rules of the Apostles and Fathers ought to be observed that he that is to be over the Church should not only have the Allowance of the Faithful but the Testimony also of them that are without Cyprian is as clear for us Ep. l. 1. The People who full well and perfectly know the Life of him that is to be ordained Bishop are to be present and to be chosen with their allowance who know the Conversation of every one And he brings Salinius his Colleague for Instance who was chosen by the Voice of the whole Brotherhood and the Judgment of the Bishops which came together Each Church stands free saith Dr. Bilson Perpet Govern by God's Law to admit maintain and obey no Man as their Pastor without their liking and that the Peoples Election dependeth on humane Fellowship and first Principles of humane Society and Assemblies Dr. Field informs us That this Right of the People hath been invaded many ways 1. By great Personages and Magistrates 2. When the Bishops grew to great Pomp and the Clergy began to be enriched by Benefices Elections were and to this day are made according to the Interests of the Rich and Strong whilst the People are not only deprived of but become ignorant that any Right remains in them to chuse their own Ministers or Pastors Now this Privilege tho lost in most National Churches is restored and maintained in the Baptized Churches where none are elected Messengers Bishops or Deacons without the free Choice of the Brotherhood where such Elections are made And after such Election of Persons of known Integrity and competent Ability we proceed to Ordination with Fasting and Prayer and the laying on of Hands according to the Scripture Acts 13. 3. When they had fasted and prayed they laid their Hands on them and sent them away Thus for the Ordination of Messengers which after the manner of some are called Bishops Acts 14. 23. And when they had ordained them Elders in every Church and prayed with Fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed Acts 6. 5 6. And they chose Stephen a Man full of Faith and of the Holy-Ghost and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas whom they set before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their Hands on them Thus for the Ordination of Deacons All which Apostolical Practices are religiously restored and observed in the Churches of the Baptized Believers without any devised Adjuncts of our own or others By all which it may appear they have a lawful Call to the Work of the Ministry Here I meet with an Objection 'T is doubted by some whether a Man having received Ordination as a Presbyter may afterward have Ordination as a Messenger of the Churches of Christ the Objector supposing that the first Ordination is sufficient only the Church must give him another Commission This Objection I answer three ways 1. By Antiquity 2. By Reason 3. By Scripture 1. Antiquity is directly against this Objection being rather for a threefold Ordination than only one as I shall shew by and by But first I marvel how the Objector would give a Man a Ministerial Commission without Ordination the Church having no other way at all to give Commissions but by Ordination nor can any Man tell us how she can give her Commissions Ministerial but by the very Act of her Ordination and according to the Nature of her Ordination such and no other is her Commission Now our Ancients understood this and therefore did usually bring Men gradually to the degree of a Bishop i. e. a Messenger according to the Scripture Bishop or Overseer being a Name common to Elders in the Primitive Times Thus Chrysostom was first ordained a Deacon then a Presbyter after that he was ordained Bishop of Constantinople by Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria And saith the learned Bilson In the Primitive Church they were first Deacons and upon Trial when they had ministred well and were found blameless they were admitted to be Elders and after that if their Gifts and Pains so deserved they were called to an higher degree so that every one by the ancient Discipline of Christ's Church before he could come from ministring to governing in the Church of God received thrice or at least twice Imposition of Hands 2. Reason tells us that every Man that is called to the Work of the Ministry ought to have a Commission that is an Ordination commensurable to his Ministry It is Christ's peculiar to give Commission by the Word of his Mouth only the Church cannot do so she must confer Ministerial Authority in some solemn Rite or Ceremony This is plain in the case of Deacons it was not sufficient for the Apostles to say of Persons eminently qualified we order or appoint them to serve Tables or look ye to the Poor But besides their great Qualifications and Election they must receive their Commission or Authority by Prayer with the laying on of hands else they have no Commission In like 〈…〉 be solemnly ordained before the Holy-Ghost hath made him an Overseer of the particular Flock committed to his Charge And then in reason if he have a far greater Charge afterward committed to him he has need of a Commission that is an Ordination for other Commission there is none to enable him to take care of many Churches and to plant new Churches in the World We read not of any Messengers that acted as such in that great Trust without an Ordination agreeable to their Work and it is ill venturing to send Men out with a Commission too short for their Employment it being irrational so to do and without any good Example Let us see then what the Scripture will say in favour of our Answers 3. The Apostles had a twofold Apostleship the one limited to the Jewish Nation Mat. 10. the other of extent to all Nations Mat. 28. If they were ordained to either then they were ordained to both and the latter seems to be the more solemn and formal Ordination not only for that when Christ had given them Order what to do he lift up his Hands and blessed them Luk. 24. 50. but also gave them Order to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endowed with Power from on high When their Work was particular or limited they had a limited Commission when their Work was universal they had an universal Commission Sure the Church who hath no way to give Commissions but by Ordination shall do well and wisely to follow Christ the Author of all her Power when she delegates or gives it forth to any of her Ministers This Answer may suffice yet we add Barnabas is confessed to have been one of the Seventy Disciples and had a divine Authority from Christ to preach the Gospel to the Jews but when he is sent to preach to the Gentiles he hath a new Commission even an Ordination as appears Acts 13. FINIS Psal 90. 2. Rev. 4. 10. 1 Tim. 1. 17. Psal 147. 5. Prov. 15. 3. i See the 35th of Elizabeth Luk. 2. 22 23 24. Exod. 13. 2. Lev. c. 12. Socrat. l 6 c. 12 13.
teach Thus these two Pillars of the Protestant Reformation are so far from deriving their Call to the Ministry through the Papacy as some late Protestants pretend to do that they do utterly reject any Ordination which comes from them Nor was Luther and Beza ordained after they came from the Papists Mr. Stub's Occas Quaer But Beza is said to defend his Call to the Ministry by Instances of those that were called extraordinarily as Isaiah Daniel Amos Zecharias c. These things premised we may assume that either of these ways as approved by our Reformers respectively could we go to defend our Call to the Ministry as well as they Being first many of us ordained by those who received Ordination from you and some may run with you to Bishop Cranmer who was ordained by the Papacy and then proceed till we come up to Clemens or Lucius and so to St. Peter And as for the pretence of Beza or Luther about their extraordinary Call it 's not impossible for us to give as fair a Demonstration of it as either of them specially if we take the Rules given by Mr. Beza to judg of such a Call by to be cogent viz. good Life sound Doctrine and the Election of the People But to be plain we do not very well like either of these ways Not the first it is so sordid as that the Papists themselves in deriving their Call through the Papacy are forced to take it from so many false pretended Popes or Diabolical Popes even Witches and Devils incarnate by their own confession that they make but a lamentable Succession of it in the end And especially if Stapleton may be regarded tho a Papist who tells us That it is not a bare and personal Succession but lawful Succession which is a note of a true Church and defineth that to be lawful Succession when not only the latter succeeds into the void rooms of those that went before them being lawfully called thereunto but also hold the Faith which their Predecessors did Now let this Rule be honestly stood by and we are sure the Papists shall never be able to prove a Succession of many points of their Faith and Doctrines from the Apostles whilst the World stands and consequently neither can the Protestants derive a lawful Succession from them We like not the second way for we will not compare with Isaiah Daniel Amos nor Zechariah in respect of their immediate Mission But this we say That our Call to the Ministry is no otherwise extraordinary than our Call to believe the Gospel is so or as it stands clear from all the idle Ceremonies used by Papists or others in their Ordinations or as it is ordered as near as we can according to the Word of God And is the sacred Word of Power to beget us to God and by the assistance of his Spirit to make us his Children or Christians and is it not of Power or Authority sufficient to enable us to worship God in his own Ordinances which were made for Christians and not Christians for them This seems justly ridiculous We make no doubt but that it 's easy with God and no extraordinary thing to raise a People to himself in a Nation where all have corrupted the way of Christianity or lost the State and Praise of a true Church meerly through his Blessing upon the reading and diligent searching of the Scriptures I speak of a Nation where the Scriptures are received as that is our case The Truth is all the ways of God's Worship are in the Word made ready for us and laid at our Doors and we do but take up gladly what others let lie as useless things that they may hug their own Devices But now to silence a Papist for ever which some will think to be a difficult undertaking do they not allow even by the Pen of the Learned Bellarmine chap. 7. that even an Heathen that is not baptized may administer Baptism in case of Necessity And this they esteem a valid Baptism And why then may not we when God hath opened our Eyes to see any other Truth as well as that enter upon the dutiful observance of it in the best way we can our Circumstances especially the case of Necessity being considered For is not Necessity as good a Warrant to take up the practice of or to restore one Truth as well as another Certainly one Ordinance is as sacred as another and where Churches are setled ought to be dispensed in the most honourable way and by the most fit Instruments even Christ's Ministers Wherefore till the Papists shall recal their opinion about Baptism and prove a Succession as necessary to Baptism as Ordination they can with no shew of reason insist upon the necessity of Ordination to be founded upon Succession But further It 's evident from the Scriptures Acts 13. that a Succession is not necessary to true Ordination for tho the Apostles were yet living it was not thought necessary that they should impose Hands upon Barnabas and Paul but this is done by gifted Men or the Prophets that were in the Church at Antioch The only question here to be resolved is Whether this laying on of Hands was for Ordination The Papists do hold it was some Protestants deny it but some Protestants do affirm it Mr. Churchman in his History of Episcopacy tells out of Chrysostom That tho Paul was an Apostle neither of Men nor by Men yet as for the Work to which he was separated ask the said Father saith he and he will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was the Office of an Apostle and that he was ordained an Apostle here that he might preach the Gospel with greater Pewer And certainly that he had not the Apostleship before may be made manifest by that which followed after But tho some Protestants doubt whether this were Paul's Ordination tho the matter is clear of it self yet here is the Ordination of Barnabas without all question and then it is evident that there was an Interruption of Succession in the case of Ordination even in the Apostles Days and therefore by no means to be held to be necessary in our Days who are so far removed from the times of the Holy Apostles that in vain do Men think to find a clear and undoubted Succession of any one Ordinance from them Wherefore we may safely conclude that where the Truth of the Gospel is received with the Gifts of God's Spirit as that was the case at Antioch there is a sufficiency of Power on the Persons so gifted with the advice of the Church to send forth or appoint Men to the work of the Ministry altho 't is true this course is most warrantable in the case of necessity and in no wise to be done in contempt or wilful neglect of that way which is more ordinary and regular Howbeit to tye all Power of Ordination so strictly to the Persons of Men ordained by such as were ordained by
be restrain'd from Seditious Practices as well as others and we do by as good Right think it unlawful for us to be so restrained We hope our Legislators did not intend at all to exalt their Authority against the Lord whose Power is above all But yet when these Laws come to be executed upon good Men by the Industry of mercenary Fellows meerly for worshipping God then are they turned into Snares to the ruin of the Innocent and dishonour of that Power which gave them being And all this falls out for want of better provision in the said Laws to convict Men of Sedition than only because they were observ'd to preach or pray 4. Wherefore being fully satisfied that our Assemblies are true Church-Assemblies and that upon the strictest enquiry we are able to make into the due Nature and Order of such Assemblies we conceive our selves indispensibly bound by the Word of God the Examples of the first and best Churches and the Tie of Conscience as regulated by a sincere Love of Religion to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering or changing by reason of the Change of Times or Man's Laws Being also rationally persuaded that the more publick and free Men are to serve the Lord the less danger of Sedition Wherefore with innocent Hearts and pure Hands as to any Design of Sedition in the strength of Christ we will keep his Way and let the Lord do with us as seemeth him good SECT V. Of the Baptized Believers Call to Christianity and to the Work of the Ministry WHen our Saviour commanded his Apostles to teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel to every Creature We do not doubt but their performance of this his gracious Will may truly be said to be the calling of the Gentiles or Nations And that Men enjoy a great Mercy for which they ought to be very thankful to be born in a Nation to whom the Gospel has been preached and received by their Progenitors And that it is also a great Blessing to be born under the Government of Christian Princes and we believe we ought to love and honour our Nation and the Rulers of it upon this very account as well as for the Obligation of Nature and Laws viz. because they assert the Interest of Christ Jesus in general as well as we Nor is it our Business to destroy the State of Christianity received in any Nation nor at all to despise the Ministry that conscientiously upholds it but only to labour that Christianity may be delivered from the Errors that have encumbred it by reason of the change of Governments and Interests or Corruptions of the Ages past And in this Consideration as we look upon our Nation to be a Christian Nation so we count our selves much more happy in being Members of a Nation that owns the true God Christ Jesus to be the Saviour of the World the Scriptures to be holy and true and that Faith and Holiness is the way to true Blessedness than to have been of any other Nation whatsoever But yet for all this there is a great Truth in the Words of Tertullian i. e. We are not born but made Christians And therefore we do not think that our meer Birth of Christian Parents does qualify us or give us an actual Right to Christ's Ordinances but to this end we believe and know that every Person ought to have the Gospel preached or some way made known to them and that a work of real Grace or the new Birth at least by a solemn Profession must precede our Baptismal Covenant to this the Scriptures give full consent John 1. 12 13. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 23. And thus we and ours so many of them as the Lord our God does call by the preaching of the Gospel are actually incorporate with the Church of Christ Militant and engaged thenceforth in the high and holy Calling and actual Profession of the Christian Religion 2. But now Whether we have any lawful Call to the work of the Ministry is the business to be a little considered partly for that some of our late Persecutors were pleased to suggest the contrary and partly to put our selves upon the strictest Trial even in this case where we are supposed to be the most deficient The Questions in this case to be resolved are 1. Whether a succession of Ordination from Man to Man down from some of the Apostles be absolutely necessary to a due Call to the Ministry or 2. Whether the same Means that is of Authority sufficient to make Men Christians be not also sufficient to make Ministers In answer to these Questions we shall do little more than offer what we have formerly written upon this Subject And tho the Papists are the Men who stand most stifly for Succession as necessary yet of late we find our Friends of the Church of England looking that way as if they would justify their Ordination in a successive Line from Man to Man through the Papacy which thing is disclaimed by Dr. Luther with the greatest vehemency in these words Whoso loveth Christ ought to endure any thing rather than to be ordained by the Papists because in their Ordinations all things are carried with such wicked preposterousness that if they were not mad and blind they would perceive how they mock God to his Face being stricken with an universal blindness they do not so much as know the Word of God specially the Bishops who ordain Let me be counted a Fool a Knave a Lyer if there be any one of them ordain'd by them who dare say that at such time as he received Orders he was commanded to dispense the Mysteries of Christ or to teach the Gospel but they ordain Sacrificers of the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass and to hear Confessions c. Thus far Luther And the Oath which they take at their Ordination as set down by Mr. Bullinger is very un-gospel-like the sum of it is in these Words That the Priest will be a true Subject to the Pope obey the Decrees of the Fathers and of the Church i. e. the Roman Church and that he will persecute Hereticks Beza censures all Ordination taken from the Papists Let us hear him speak What ordinary Vocation is that which you say the first Reformers had excepting some few of them is it not the Pall Shall we think then that the Popish Orders are valid in which there is not any preceding enquiry into manners No such Enquiry or Procedure as is inviolably to be made or observed by Divine Right in Elections and Ordinations Shall we think so highly of their Ordinations that as often as any false Bishops are converted to true Christianity immediately all the Filth Uncleanness and Impurity collated is washed away Nay but with what Face or Conscience will he be able to forsake Popery and not abjure his irregular Ordination or if he do abjure it how can he by virtue thereof claim Authority to