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A41155 Zions rjghts and babels rvine, or, The Church restored to her primitive lustre a treatise concerning the essence and subsistence of the christian church defecated and purged from the dregges of erroneous humane invention and erected by the vnerrable patterne of the Word of God / by William Fenwick. Fenwick, William, 1616 or 17-ca. 1682. 1642 (1642) Wing F725; ESTC R22447 51,941 79

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qualified with the word of God and by having the Word they are knowne to be sent of God For they 〈◊〉 and preach not themselves but Jesus Christ the Lord and approve themselves messengers and servants to the Saints for Jesus sake For the word of God wee are alwayes to conceive to be the eternall Sonne of God by generation and to proceed from God by spiration in creation and to be communicated unto man since his fall by supernaturall inspiration and united unto man and man unto it by incarnation and ministred unto man by externall dispensation Thus the Word descends unto man by inspiration and dwels in man through the Spirit for the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is the Word for the Word and the spirit cannot be divided nor separated they are one For this cause God useth the externall ministration of his Word and Spirit that he may inspire and regenerate the mind of man After this manner are the ministers and messengers that are sent of God indued with the Word and Spirit of God Therefore let no man say that hee hath the Spirit if hee want the light of the Word neither can any man have the Word but by the Spirit and the Word and Spirit are both made manifest in this that they reveale the hid things of God even the mysterie of God in Christ 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. which in Col. 2. 3. is called a full assurance of understanding in the knowledge of the mysterie of God in Christ for he which commanded light to shine out of darknesse shines into the hearts of the Messengers to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ Of the calling of Ministers As the externall Ministration cannot be without the Word and the Spirit so the Church cannot bee without Ministers and messengers of God and as the ministration is publicke and externall so the visible Church and Congregations have power of divine right to call and appoint such as God hath internally qualified to the externall and publicke exercise thereof For as by internall inspiration they are indued with a more then ordinary measure of the Word and Spirit so they ought to be well knowne and conversant in the Congregation or facietie of that Church wherein they live that by a mutuall consent they may be approved and thought worthy to be called to the publick ministration and dispensation of the VVord This was the practise of the Apostles and primitive Church Acts 1. 21. 22 Wherefore of these men that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out with us beginning from the Baptisme of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witnesse with us of his resurrection and they appointed two Also Act. 6. 1. 3. When the number of the Disciples was multiplied then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples together unto them and said unto them it is not meet that we should leave the ministration of the Word and serve tables wherefore brethren looke you out among you seven men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and of wisedome whom we may appoint ouer this businesse And it is to be observed that nothing was to bee done in the Church either by the Apostles or by those that in the ministration succeeded them without the consent of the whole Church which then at first were called Disciples Of the manner of their externall ordination Touching the manner of their Ordination that we find in the first of the Acts they prayed and said Thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men shew which of these two thou hast chosen and then they gave forth lots and the lot fell upon Matthias And also afterwards in the sixt of the Acts the multitude of the Disciples or brethren chose seven and set them before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands upon them In the first place of Scripture it is said the Disciples appointed two and left the choyce to God and therefore they gave forth lots because it was an extraordinary calling to an Apostleship to succeed Judas But in the second place it is said they chose Stephen a man full of faith and the holy Ghost and Philip and Prochorus and others c. And it is remarkeable that the Church received instruction from the Apostles as a rule to be observed in choosing Deacons and Elders as in the first of the Acts they were admonished by Peter to choose such as were conversant in the Church from their beginning By which I conceive they ought to bee of knowne conversation and men of good report and that they should be full of faith and the holy Ghost as Steven was or men endued with the holy Ghost and with wisedome These are the respects which ought to bee had in choosing Pastors Deacons and Governours in the Church For all gifts of learning and humane Sciences howsoever they be excellent and worthy much praise and honour yet without these Characters of grace they are nothing and not to be esteemed Of the orders and degrees of Pastors and their denominations both under the Law and the Gospell It is evident that the orders and degrees of Ministers and Governours of the Church of God under the Law were Priests Levites and Elders God also sending among them Prophets of extraordinary inspiration for revelation of the VVord to teach admonish and exhort the people The Priests office was figurative prefiguring Christ untill his comming offering sacrifices to figure the sacrifice of his body instructing the people in the promised seed unto the remission of their sinnes whose manifestation in the flesh should be the accomplishment of all figures and shadowes in the law which thereby were abrogated The Levites were given unto Aaron as an addition to his office as in Numb. 3. 6 7 8 9. to minister unto him to keepe his charge and the charge of the whole Congregation to doe the service and to keepe the instruments of the tabernacle of the Congregation The Elders though every Father of a Family bee called Elder and also the twelve tribes of Iacob yet those are properly Elders who are chosen and appointed to be Governours and Rulers both in Church and Common-wealth For the Governours in Pharaohs house were called Elders and the Rulers in the Church as first in the Tabernacle as Numb. 11. 〈…〉 and Temple were also called Elders And the Lord stirred up Prophets among them both of the Levites and Priests and others as occasion required never leaving his Church without a Prophet and Rulers till Shil● came And when that faithfull Prophet of God came into the world whose effectuall power and fulnesse of all divine perfection abolished all figures and darke resembling shadowes then in his owne person and humane presence hee spread abroad the glad tydings of his glorious Gospell