renounce all doctrines and practices of Rebellion sedition or Schism I believe not that subjects may take up Arms or use any force or conspiracy to violate the Rights Authority or Persons of those in supreme Power over them I believe not that by any Laws of God or Man the Bishop of Rome hath the right of Governing all the world or all Christian Kings and Kingdomes nor the King or Kingdome of England in particular in matters secular or religious Nor that it is the duty of this Kingdome or the King to subject themselves unto him and obey him Nor that the said Bishop of Rome hath any true authority or right to impose oaths on Kings or other temporal Lords or otherwise oblige them to judge their subjects to be Hereticks who deny the Popes universal Supremacy over all the Churches on earth or who deny that the universal Church hath any Visible Head but Christ or who believe that the truly consecrated Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper remain true Bread and Wine after the Consecration or that believe they are not to be adored as their God nor the Wine to be denyed to the Laity communicating Nor may the Pope oblige Kings or any others to exterminate burn or kill or punish any such as hereticks nor excommunicate Kings or temporal Lords for not doing it nor depose them being excommunicated nor give their Kingdomes or Dominions to others nor authorize any to kill them or to raise arms against them and to invade their Countreys by hostility Nor hath he right or authority to forbid Kingdomes or Countreys the publick celebration of Gods worship or holy Christian Communion Nor to oblige any Rulers or others to destroy any as Hereticks or judge them such because they are so judged by the Pope or Councils And I believe not that the Clergy are exempted from obedience to the Secular Powers or from being judged and punished by them by any Laws of God or any valid Laws of man not made or consented to by the said Powers And I unfeignedly believe that if any Pope or Council how great soever do decree or assert any of these things which I have hereby renounced and disclaimed or shall hereafter decree or assert any of them they err and sin against God in so doing and are not to be believed therein nor do oblige any thereby to obey them And all this I profess as in the sight of God my Judge without fraud or dissimulation in the sincerity of my heart THe errours which men should be restrained from preaching or propagating are innumerable and not necessary to be all put into a subscribed or professed renunication so they be actually forborn I will recite part of a Catalogue of false and doubtful dangerous points not fit to be published by preachers I. Of the nature and acts of God 1. The God is corporeal or material 2. That God is essentially only in Heaven or in some finite space 3. That God hath parts and is divisible 4. That God hath the parts or shape of humane bodies head face eyes hands feet c. properly so called 5. That God is the Universe or whole world or that he is meerly or properly the soul of the world as his body and so but a part of the world 6. That God or any essential of God is really new changeable or finite 7. The God can suffer hurt or hath proper real grief and passion 8. That God knoweth not all that hath been is or will be and all that is intelligible 9. That Gods own essential perfection goodness and love is not the ultimate and chief object of mans love to be loved chiefly for himself as most amiable and above our selves and all things created but that he is only or chiefly to be loved as our Benefactor or as good to the creature And so that man is Gods end and his own chief and ultimate end and not God mans chief and ultimate end 10. That God is the first and chief or any proper cause of sin or that God doth by efficient premotion as the first cause predetermine every mans mind will tongue and members to every forbidden act that is done as it is determined to and specifyed by the object with all its forbidden circumstances and modes and so to every lie perjury hatred of God and goodness murder c. that is committed 11. That God ruleth the world only as an engine by physical motion and doth not rule any free agents by moral means as precepts prohibitions promises c. in any acts saving as these are parts of his physically necessitating motion 12. That God may or ever doth lie or by his inspiration or his works of nature or providence necessitate innocent persons de facto or oblige any as a duty to believe that which is false 13. That God hath so committed the affairs of this world to Angels or any creatures or natural means as not to mind them or particularly govern and dispose of them himself 14. That God is essentially or virtually absent from the effects which he causeth 15. That God hath not power to do any more or otherwise than he doth though he would 16. That Gods will is not the fountain and the measure of all created good or that things are not good because they are willed by God 17. That Gods proper and absolute will desire and decree may be disappointed and not come to pass 18. That somewhat of or in the creature may be a true or proper cause of somewhat not only relative but real in God or make a real change on God 19. That God hath no vindictive or punishing and no rewarding justice 20. That God may be formally conceived of and comprehended by man and not only known analogically and as in a glass II. Of the Blessed Divine Trinity 1. That there are three Gods or three divine essences or substances 2. That the Trinity are but Three Names of God or three relations of him to the creature 3. That they are Three parts of God 4. That the three Persons are one God only in specie as Abraham Isaac and Jacob are One man because they have but one humane sort of nature 5. That one person in the Trinity is in time or dignity before or after other or greater or less than other 6. That in the Trinity there are three Fathers three Sons or three Holy Ghosts 7. That the doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory or impossible to be true 8. That it is unnecessary to be believed or preached 9. That there are no Impressions or notes of the Trinity on the soul of man or any other known works of God 10. That the works of Creation Redemption or Sanctification are no more eminently or otherwise ascribed in Scripture to any one Person in the Trinity than to the other That Creation is no otherwise ascribed to the Father than to the Son and Holy Ghost nor Redemption to the Son than to
THE TRUE AND ONLY WAY OF CONCORD Of all the Christian Churches The desirableness of it and the detection of false dividing Terms Opened by RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for John Hancock at the Three Bibles in Popes-head-alley over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1680. Act. 15. 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things Rom. 14. 17 18. The Kingdome of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome Preach the word be instant in season and out of season Act. 4. 19. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judge ye 1 Thes 2. 15 16. They please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sin alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost Mr. Jones of the 〈…〉 Soveraign p. 344. Id fit quod jure fit 〈…〉 but great Lords of Nullities by the exemption of the Will and soul from and the frown of Heaven upon all bruitish injustice and force Read him also p. 23. THE PREFACE To the Honourable and Reverend Dr. George Morley late Lord Bishop of Worcester and now of Winchester and Dr. Peter Gunning Lord Bishop of Ely IT is now about eighteen years since you and many others were appointed by his Majesties commission with divers of us who desired some Reformation of the Church Discipline and worship to consider what Alterations of the Liturgy were necessary and expedient for the satisfaction of tender consciences and the restoring and continuance of peace and Vnity to the Churches under his Majesties protection and government His Majesties Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs had before shewed so much of his Wisdome and care to attain this Unity as we thought had almost done the cure the differences about Church Government and most of the rest being thereby as we hoped fairly ended As with the help of the Reverend Dr. Sparrow now Bishop of Norwich and Dr. Pierson now Bishop of Chester you maintained that no Alteration was necessary to these ends so I with others endeavoured to prove the contrary But since the said Declaration being dead such Alterations were made as greatly increased our Impossibility of Conforming we never treated with you for Presbyterian Government or Independent but for Vnity and peace Nor did we herein offer you any worse than Arch-bishop Vshers Form of the Primitive Episcopal Government which I had declared my judgement of before in print And I never heard of the name of Episcopal Presbyterians or Presbyterian Archbishops till of late And we thankfully accepted much less than that Form as granted in his Majesties foresaid Declaration As I doubt not but you still think that your way was best for the healing of the Church and Land so I know that I have greatly incurred both your displeasures for what I have said and done against your way One of you shewed it in a Printed Letter long ago which when I had answered I cast that aside for Peace believing that the opening of so many mistakes in matter of fact would not be easily born The other of you since told me that he would Petition authority that we might be compelled to give our Reasons as if we kept up a Schism and would not tell why I rejoiced at the motion and offered to beg leave on my knees to do it Since then your Mr. Walton in his Life of Bishop Sanderson hath called me by name to remember our debate aforesaid I know not of any two men living that I am now more obliged to give an account to of my continued dissent than unto you My judgement is not in my own power nor in yours Many are dead who were in that consultation You and I by Gods great mercy are yet alive and may review our actions before we come to the Bar of God which is like to be speedily to me and to you it cannot be far off especially to the elder of you so that I suppose that all three of us are really beyond the motives of any personal worldly interest what is this world to us who are taking our farewel of it for ever All the doubt then remaining is whether your terms or those desired by us are the true way of Love and Concord and which are the true causes of Schisms and the attendant evils I doubt not but you still think that the good which you have done doth far weigh down all the direct and accidental hurt What that Good is you know better than I Dr. Heylin in the Life of Arch-Bishop Laud tells us what some accounted then most desirable And how much more desirable it is to open the Church doors so wide as that moderate Loyal Romanists may come in as they did in Queen Elizabeths first years and to reconcile them by nearer approaches or concessions rather than to go further from them to unite with a few inconsiderable Puritans whose principles are against the Power and Wealth of the Church we have often heard from others As also that the ejection of the near two thousand non-conforming Ministers was the Churches deliverance from them that would have done more hurt within than they can do without The converted Priest Mr. Smith in his Narrative of the Popish Plot dedicated to the King nameth more reasons which I will not name which some were moved by For my part as with fear I foresaw so with grief I see so many hundred Ministers under the restraints and penalties which you know of of whom I have better thoughts than you have believing from my heart by the acquaintance which I have had with very many that notwithstanding the faulty former actions of some few of them and the unjustifiable scruples of others you cannot name that Nation under heaven out of our Kings Dominions which hath this day so many Ministers more sound in doctrine heart and life and liker to further mens salvation than those that in England have been silenced and cast out Name that countrey if you can And I believe that Christ hath given us no supernumeraries of such useful men but if all faithful Ministers Conformists and Non-conformists were employed and encouraged they would be still too few to do the work upon the ignorant ungodly and vicious which is to be done And considering how many souls a faithful Minister may hope to edifie and save I consider then how many thousands are like to be losers where such are lost and wanting It grieveth my soul to see what advantage Satan hath got in England against that Christian Love which is the
Presbyters chose the Bishop and the Bishop and people consenting chose the Presbyters III. The Magistrate was judge whom he would countenance or tolerate But Gods Law was the Rule which all these were to observe in judging § †But all men are corrupt and some more than others And they like those best that are likest themselves or at least most agreeable to their interest and desires This chain hath been long broken sometimes the Bishop of Rome hath claimed the choice of Bishops and given the Bishops the choice of the Presbyters sometime he hath given the people the choice of their Bishops but claimed to himself the power of investing and instituting them Sometime Emperours and Kings have used this investing power leaving still the people to choose In England now the King really chooseth all Bishops commending them to the Dean and Chapter pro formâ And the Bishop only chooseth whom he will ordain a Minister in specie And one called the Patron chooseth who shall be the Parish Priest and the Bishop must institute and induct him but according to the Law and the choosing and consenting liberty is wholly taken from the people § 5. 1. How the Popes formerly chose and yet choose where it is in their power I need not tell them that know history and the world nor yet what Presbyters such Bishops chose nor is it any wonder that such choosers served their own interest nor that the chosen serve it 2. How Princes and Patrons and Prelates have chosen history tells us And Christ who saith How hard it is for the Rich to enter into the Kingdom of heaven teacheth us to expect that ordinarily Rich men should not be the best to speak softly And the Rich will rule and will choose according to their interests and their appetites 3. And when the people had their choice in some places they chose hereticks or ignorant men In other places they chose vitious men In most places they followed the Court or Great men whenever they interposed and too often divided from each other by disagreement or caused tumults in the choice And then what wonder if the sacred office was corrupted to the doleful detriment and danger of the Churches when the choosers were but such as these § 6. The things necessary to the sacred Ministry Bishops or Presbyters are I. Either to the Being II. Or to the Well-being III. Or to the Exercise § 7. I. To the Being are Necessary I. A true efficient cause II. The true constitutive causes III. A due Terminus or End § 8. I. The true efficient cause here is necessary to the effect it being the Fundamentum of the Relation And this is 1. Primary or Principal which is Jesus Christ the Lord Redeemer and the Churches King and Head 2. Instrumental and that is The Law of Christ which is as a Charter to the Church first telling the Choosers and receiver what to do and then Giving the Power and Imposing the Obligation on the person chosen consenting and ordained § 9. II. The necessary Constitutive Causes are I. Matter or the subject II. The necessary Disposition of that Matter III. The form as in Physical beings it is so so Relations have somewhat answerable § 10. I. The Subject or Matter is A Man II. The necessary Disposition is 1. That it be a Male and not a Woman 2. That he have the use of Reason or natural wit and speech 3. That he be a Christian 4. That he have necessary abilities for the essentials of the office-work And those are 1. The understanding at least of the Essentials of Religion and Ministry 2. A Will to perform the work of the Ministry 3. Ability of utterance to do it and all the necessary executive power § 11. III. The Form of the Office is 1. In general AUTHORITY and OBLIGATION conjunct 2. In special Authority to perform the Office-work and obligation to perform it Which work is 1. To be a Teacher under Christ the chief Teacher 2. To be a Priest or Intercessor to guide the Church in worship and speak in their name and on their behalf to God and intercede for them and as from God to administer his Seals or Sacraments 3. To Rule the Church and particular Believers in things spiritual not by force or sword but by opening and directive applying Gods Word and exercising the Church Keyes as Judges who is to be received or cast out loosed or bound according to the Word of God The Form consisteth of these parts § 12. III. The End or Terminus of the Sacred Office that is of the Authority and Obligation is 1. Proximately the Work to be done 2. the necessary objects of that work 1. Particular persons 1. Infidels and ungodly men to be converted 2. Christians and godly men to be edified 2. Societies 1. The Churchâ—Universal to be increased and edified 2. Particular Churches to be taught and guided and led in worship and discipline 3. The necessary effects here named to be intended All that I have named and no more is necessary to the Being § 13. About all these there are divers errours brought in by the arrogance and ignorance of men which hinder the concord and peace of Christians And I. About the Efficient Cause Too many falsly perswade the world that the ORDAINERS are the efficient Causes of the Power or Office yea that their Intention can alter the species instituted by Christ in the conveyance of it to this or that person As if when Christ and his Apostles have described the office in its parts and commanded that a Bishop or Presbyter be chosen and ordained to such particular work and ends an Ordainer might now give him half this power without the rest And when he maketh Bishops or Presbyters they shall have no more power than the Ordainer was willing or intended or did particularly express Than which nothing is more false For it is Gods Law that is the specifier and donation and the Ordainer doth but ministerially invest and deliver possession of what the Law gave and commanded him to deliver The Kings Law or Charter giveth power to the Citizens to choose a Major and describeth all his power and work and ordereth the Recorder to Swear him and deliver him the insignia Here now 1. The Electors do but determine of the person to receive the power but do not at all give it 2. The King by his Charter as the instrument giveth it It results hence as every Jus à titulo seu fundamento juris 3. The Recorder only Ministerially delivereth possession by investiture Now if the Recorder or Choosers shall say We choose you or deliver you power as Major according to the Kings Charter but you shall have but so much less than the Charter giveth this diminution is a nullity For they have no power to choose another kind of Major than that described in the Charter nor to make his power more or less but he may exercise what the Charter
us that they were settled only in One Empire and not in the rest of the World 5. And that the Emperour and Councils of that Empire made them 6. And therefore when they were at first but three they added at their pleasure two more Constantinople and Jerusalem 7. And none of all these pretend to Apostolical Institution and Succession but Antioch that claimeth to be St. Peters first Seat and Rome to be his second and that but as Bishops when that also is a frivolous pretense Alexandria claimeth succession but from St. Mark and Jerusalem from that St. James who saith Dr. Hammond and others was none of the Apostles and Constantinople from none at all though above the rest Councils as Constant and Chalced. professing that the Fathers and Princes made them what they were Sect. IV. It is certain that the Christian World is not now united in Patriarchs nor ever was nor ever will be The Patriarchs of the rest of the Empire are all now broken off from the Church of Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem are all against him The East had four and the West but one and are now at odds condemning each other The rest of the world have none and had none And it is commonly confessed that as men set them up so men may pull them down again Yea even in the old Empire many Churches were from under all the Patriarchs as is commonly known Sect. V. And how should these Patriarchs unite all the Church It must be either by meeting or at distance As for their meeting Princes that are some Mahometans and some Christians of divers Interests and Minds will not suffer it And neither by meeting or distance can we be secured that they will agree when even under one Emperour that laboured to unite them they were among their Clergy like the Generals of so many Armies distracting and at last destroying the Empire by hereticating and persecuting one another Those that have divided and undone that Empire are never like to unite the Christian World Sect. VI. And what I say of Patriarchs I say of all humane Forms of Churches or Church-government and so of such an Episcopacy as is not necessary to the being of the Church There are here three distinct questions before us 1. Whether the Pastoral Office be necessary to Church-unity 2. Whether Parochial Episcopacy be necessary to it 3. Whether Diocesan Bishops distinct from Archbishops be necessary to it And you may adde a fourth Whether Archbishops be necessary to it not disputing now the lawfulness of any of all these Sect. VII 1. Of the first I have spoken before No doubt but Christs universal Church hath ever had Teachers and Pastors as the most noble organical part And a Body may as well be without a Stomack Liver or Lungs as the Church be without them And to a particular Church as political organized or Governed they are a constitutive part But I have before shewed reasons to doubt whether yet it be necessary to salvation to every individual Christian to know that the Ministry is an instituted Office and to own such But this little concerneth our Cause Sect. VIII 2. Parochial Episcopacy that is the preeminence and government of one Presbyter called a Bishop over the rest in every single Church was early introduced to avoid the discord of the Presbyters and the Flock In the time when Ignatius's Epistles were written he tells us That every Church had One Altar and one Bishop with his fellow-Presbyters and Deacons Whether this was of Apostolical Institution or a humane Corruption is disputed in so many Volumes by Petavius Sancta Clara Faravia Whitenitto Downham Hammond Hooker Bilson c. on one side And Gersom Bucer Beza Cartwright Salmasius Didoclane Jacob Blondel Parker Paul Baine c. on the other that I think it not meet here to interpose my thoughts But that it is not essential to a Church and that all the Church will not unite in it appeareth as followeth Sect. IX 1. They are not united in it now The Reformed Churches in France Belgia Helvetia and many other parts are against such Bishops as necessary and a distinct Order And in England Scotland and Ireland New-England c. they are by some approved and by others not 2. Former Ages have had many pious Christians against them especially in Scotland and among the Waldenses 3. The School-men and other Papists are not themselves agreed whether Bishops and Presbyters are distinct Orders 4. The Church of England even while Popish denyed it and said they were but one Order as you may see in Spelman Aelfreds Laws or Canons 5. Hierome and Eutychius Alexandrinus tell us how and why Episcopacy was introduced at Alexandria and that the Presbyters made them there 6. The Scots were long governed without them as Major and Beda tell us And their Presbyters made the first Bishops in Northumberland as Pomeranus a Presbyter made those in Denmark 7. Almost all the Churches in East and West as far as I can learn have cast off Parochial Bishops of single Churches and in their stead set up Diocesans over multitudes of Parishes without any Bishops under them but Curats only 8. While there is no hope of all agreeing whether it be a Divine Institution and that of essential necessity there is no probability that ever the Universal Church will unite in them 9. The Diocesans we find will never yield to them 10. The reception of them will not unite the Church were it agreed on it being more and greater matters that they differ about I confess that the ancient reception of them was so general and the reason of the thing so fair that I am none of those that accuse such Episcopacy as unlawfull or Schismatical but rather think it conduceth to prevent Schisms But 1. I am satisfied that it will not be agreed to by all 2. Nor serve for universal Concord were it agreed on 3. And that it is Schismatical to make them more necessary than God hath made them and to cut off Christians or Churches that cannot receive them Sect. IX Diocesan Episcopacy by which I mean a single Bishop over many hundred or score Parishes and sacred Assemblies that have Altars and are large enough to be single Churches or at least Many such without any Bishops under him of those Churches will much less ever unite the Universal Church however it hath obtained over very much of the Christian world For first more Churches by far at this day are against it than against Parochial Episcopacy and more Volumes are written against it and Men have a far greater aversness to it as more dangerous to the Church Sect. X. 2. It is contrary to the Scripture Institution which set up Bishops in all single Churches whether the same with Presbyters I now dispute not but they were such as then were received And those that think such Single or Parish or City Bishops necessary will never agree to put them all
with the People or that he must worship Bread and Wine as his God or that he may give a half-Sacrament of Bread without Wine contrary to Christs Institution the Apostles Doctrine 1 Cor. 11. and all the Churches constant practice till of late And that instead of a Commemoration he offereth a real present Sacrifice for the quick and dead Will all agree to their Image-worship Why then did so many Councils condemn it Will all agree that the Assemblies pray in an unknown tongue He is mad with errour who believeth that ever the Church Universal will receive all these and the rest which pretended Infallibility maketh to be uncurable Errours in the impenitent Roman Sect. 3. And briefly as to the rest there is no Calvinist believeth that ever all the Churches will receive the Lutherane Consubstantiation or Church-Images Nor any Lutherane that believeth that ever all the Church will be of the way called Calvinism a Name even here in England honoured by many that yet disown it as a note of Schism and reproached with the bitterest scorn and accusations by others Indeed the Behmenists the Quakers and some Anabaptists have said that all the Churches would at last and shortly be of their mind But few others believe them nor have cause Sect. IV. That which hath divided the Churches will never be the cement of their Concord But every one of these parties as Sects by that whence others denominate and oppose them have done something to divide the Churches what the Greeks Armâ—â—ans Nestorians Eutychians or Jacobites have done the Papists and others tell you at large what the Abassines do by their Baptizings and other Fopperies I need not declare What the Papists do above all oâ—â—ers I have opened before What the Anabaptists do by differing from almost all other Christians is known What the Diocesans have done in Councils and by silencing others c. enow have shewed What Independents and their way have done towards Divisions and Separations it is in vain in this Age in England to recite And many wise men think that the Presbyterians over violent rejecting of all Episcopacy setting up unordained Elders and National Churches as headed by National Assemblies c. are divisive and unwarrantable As the same men think their making by the Scots Covenant the renouncing of the Prelacy to be the test of National Concord also was And who can think that Erastianism deposing the true use of Church-Government as it hath begun will not still more divide than heal Sect. V. I deny not but Universal Concord may take in almost all such parties but not as such by receiving any of their Errours but as Christians who agree in the common Essentials of Faith and Piety We can unite with sober Anabaptists but not by becoming Anabaptists Christïanity is our Religion and with all that hold the Essentials of Christianity we can hold essential Unity And with those that hold the Integrals most purely we have more and neerer Concord than with the rest that have more errours And if any of these parties be sounder than the rest we love and honour them above the rest and preferre their Assemblies for our local Communion But though my Parlour or Bed-chamber be a cleaner part of my house than my Kitchin or my Coâ—-house I will not say therefore that the whole house must be a Parlour or Bed-chamber or that the hand and the foot are no parts of the body because they are not the head or heart or that all the body must be an Eye or one of the Noblest parts St. Paul hath taught me better than so 1 Cor. 12 We must expect that each party should labour to propagate that which they take to be the truth But to force all to their sayings or persecute or cast off all Dissenters is schismatical whatever be pretended CHAP. IX The pretended Necessity of an uninterrupted Canonical or Episcopal Ordination will never unite the Church but is Schismatical Mr. Henry Dodwells Sâ—hismatical Treatise against Schism considered and confuted § 1. BEcause the City of Rome hath not been conquered and kept by Infidels nor Christianity thence ejected the Papists think that they excell other Churches in an uninterrupted Succession of ordained Pastors and therefore they bend their wits to prove this necessary to every true Church and then to prove others to be no true Churches or Ministers of Christ that want it And because they think that our Pastors can prove no such continued Succession unless as derived to us from Rome and that to acknowledge such a derivation is to acknowledge them a true Church on which we have and must depend therefore they most earnestly manage this Argument against us as their strength Sect. II. And there is lately a young unordained Student of Trinity-Colledge neer Dublin come out of Ireland to propagate this and such like Doctrines in London to which end he hath lately written a large and wordy Volume as if it were only against the Non-conformists Which being new and the most audacious and confident attempt that ever I knew made against the reformed Churches by one that saith himself he is no Papist and being the moâ—t elaborate enforcement of the Papists grand Argument on which of late they build their cause I think it needful to the Readers satisfaction not to pass it by though it will not stand with the order of this undertaken work nor with my want of leisure to write a particular Answer to all the words of so exceeding prolix and tedious a discourse Sect. III. I have oft handled this case already especially in my Disput of Church-Government Disp of Ordination and in my Ecclesiastical Cases in my Christian Directory and that more largely than I must here doe And the Reader that would see more may read the Protestants Cause fully vindicated against Cornelius Jansenius a stronger adversary by Gisb. Voetius in a full Volume de desperata causa Papatus But I shall here first briefly assert the Truth Sect. IV. 1. Christ and his Spirit in his Apostles have already instituted and described the Office of the sacred Ministry and determined what Power and what Obligations to the work it doth contain and what the work is to which they are designed so that it is not left to any Church now to make or amend or change the Oâ—â—â—ce what it is I have described in the Second â—art Sect. V. 2. Christ also and his Spirit in his Apostles have told us what are the necessary qualifications of such as shall receive this Office and be received into it viz. what is necessary to the Being and what to the Well-being of a Minister of Christ And consequently who are utterly uncapable so that Men may by Canons enforce the Execution of these Canons of Christ and may instruct each other how to understand them but they cannot make a Pastor of an uncapable unqualified person no more than they can make currant Coin of forbidden Mettal or Meat of