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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46373	Jus divinum ministerii evangelici. Or The divine right of the Gospel-ministry: divided into two parts. The first part containing a justification of the Gospel-ministry in general. The necessity of ordination thereunto by imposition of hands. The unlawfulnesse of private mens assuming to themselves either the office or work of the ministry without a lawfull call and ordination. The second part containing a justification of the present ministers of England, both such as were ordained during the prevalency of episcopacy from the foul aspersion of anti-christianism: and those who have been ordained since its abolition, from the unjust imputation of novelty: proving that a bishop and presbyter are all one in Scripture; and that ordination by presbyters is most agreeable to the Scripture-patern. Together with an appendix, wherein the judgement and practice of antiquity about the whole matter of episcopacy, and especially about the ordination of ministers, is briefly discussed. Published by the Provincial Assembly of London.	London (England). Provincial Assembly.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1654 (1654)	Wing J1216A; ESTC R213934	266,099	375

all things I have kept my self from being burdensome to you and so will I keep my self and what I do in this kinde that I will do and the ground of this practise he declareth to avoid scandall that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion and that he might stop the boastings of those false Apostles dececeifull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ that wherein they gloried they may be found even as we 3. When Paul was neeessitated to labour with his hands he numbers it in the Catalogue of his sorrows as part of his sufferings To this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and buffeted and have no certain ●welling-place and labour working with our own hands 4. Though Paul refused maintenance yet he still taught Beleevers that it was a Gospel-Ordinance to maintain their Ministers for Who goeth to warfare at his own charges Shall Souldiers have no pay because when they are lawfully called forth they offer themselves freely to serve the publike Who planteth a Vineyard and doth not eat thereof 5. When Paul in the cases and for the persons above-mentioned refused maintenance yet he telleth the Corinthians that he received much from others I robbed other Churchss taking wages of them to serve you for that which was lacking to me they which came from Macedonia supplied and he abundantly commendeth the Philippians who were careful for his outward subsistence And their supply sent unto him he calleth an Odour of sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God and that hereby fruit did abound to their account The sixth Argument is drawn from the Promises If God hath made particular Promises to them that work in this Ministry then this Office is by Divine Institution For God did never promise to keep up that Office in the Church which he hath not set up but hath said the contrary that every Plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be plucked up But God hath made peculiar Promises to them that work in the Ministry 1. That his speciall presence shall be with them Lo I am with you in this work of Teaching and baptizing though many or most may be against you 2. His speciall assistance God alone is alsufficient to make them who are insufficient of themselves to think one good thought able Ministers of the New Testament not only of the Letter but of the Spirit God alone continues these abilities from the perpetuall supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. From this speciall assistance it is that they which have this Ministry faint not under all affronts and discouragements totally and universally because they receive new supplies of Mercy from the Lord. 3. His speciall protection of them in all assaults He is present with all his Saints to protect and preserve them He is in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks and he walks in the midst of them These seven Golden Candlasticks are declared to be the seven Churches of Asia But God doth more then so to the Ministers of those Churches He is not only in them and walks in the midst of them but he holds the Stars in his right hand 4. Unto them he promiseth the power of the Keys and engageth himself that whatsoever they ministerially binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And this promise first made to P●ter was not limited to Peters person alone for Christ after his Resurrection makes good the same promise to all the other Apostles Whose sins soever ye remit are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain are retained And that this promise was not liimted to the Apostles as Apostles but was given to the Apostles as Ministers of the Gospel is evident from Mat. 18.17 18. where the same power is given to the ordinary Church-Officers that was given to the Apostles and the same encouragement given to them to exercise that censure 5. Christ Jesus promiseth speciall sympathy with them whatsoever entertainment they meet withall in the discharge of this Office He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me And when the Ministers are despised hated and contemned Christ tels us he takes it is to himself as if these contempts were done to himself in his own person He that hateth them in reference to the r work hateth me He that despiseth them despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent m● which great promises though eminently given to the Apostles yet are not limited to the Apostles as Apostles but extended to all the Ministers sent to preach the Gospel for so Christ himself expounds these Promises Verily Verily I say unto you He that receiveth whomsoever I shall send receiveth me Now if the promise be to all whomsoever Christ sends then not only to the Apostles for besides them Christ sent other Pastors who were not immediatly called and sent as the 12. and the 70. yet they were proved before to have been sent and set in the Church by Christ. 6. Christ is so tender of the good or bad usage of his Ministers that he hath undertaken to recompence all that good done to them He that receiveth a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward And though this be true also of every righteous man and Disciple in his proportion yet our Lord doth evidently there distinguish betwixt the Prophet by Office and the righteous man or disciple as he doth also betwixt a Prophets reward and a righteous mans reward And so in all ages God hath taken it kindely when his faithfull Ministers have been protected and countenanced It stands upon record as a token of the sincerity of Obadiah that in that general persecution by Iezabel he had a hundred of the Lords Prophets and hid them fifty in a Cave and fed them with bread and water And of Hezekiah that good King who walked before the Lord with a perfect heart there is this testimony recorded that he spake comfortably unto all the Levites which taught the good knowledge of the Lord But those Kings and Rulers that abused the Ministers are noted as enemies to God himself Ahab and Amazia c. And contempt of Ordinances and Ministers sent from God is made the saddest fore-runner of ruine and desolation When they mocked the Messengers of God despised his Word and misused his Prophets Then the wrath of the Lord rose up against his people till there was no remedy The Lord was tender of the Ministry of the Law because glorious Now doth not the holy Ghost tell us that the Ministry of the Gospel doth exceed in Glory That among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater then Iohn Baptist Notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater then he not

despise the balm of Gilead and reject all healing medicines It is in the number of those sins which go before us unto judgement when people put away the Ministry of the Word from them they are said by the holy Ghost before the day of Judgement come to judge themselves unworthy of eternall Life And thus we have done with the Arguments proving the perpetuity of the Ministry there remains one great Objection to be Answered CHAP. III. Wherein the grand Objection Asserting the Loss of the Ministry under Antichrist is Answered WE confesse that there was a Ministry Ordained of Christ and continued all the daies of the Apostles and some Centuries after yet the Mystery and Ministry of the Man of Sinne was then working which at length so farre prevailed that all the world wondered af●er the Beast and power was given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations so that be caus●d all both great and small rich and poor bond and free to receive his M●rk in their Right hand or in their Foreheads In this Apostacy the Church which had been a chaste Virgin became the Mother of Harlots and Abominations and not only the Kings and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the Wine of her Fornications but especially the Priests in all Nations were the abominable Pandors to promote the filthinesse of her Whoredoms they were the Merchants made rich by her Fornications Now under this Reign of Antichrist Bethel was turned into Bethav●n the Ministry was wholly lost being only in pretence for Christ but in reality for Antichrist And therefore we look upon all Ministers now as Members of that notorious Strumpet as Locusts from the bottomlesse Pit as Priests of Baal and Limbs of Antichrist and so account it not a sinne but a duty to contemn their persons and abhorre their Ministry We acknowledge first that the Apostacy under Antichrist was exceeding dreadfull Secondly That not only the people and the Princes but the Priests also had a great hand and were chief agents in this defection Thirdly That its the duty of Gods people to come out of Babylon that they partake not of their sins nor receive of their plagues But yet we need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in Christ that we may know the things that differ that we may not call good evil and evil good but according to the Word of truth judge righteous judgement And therefore we intreat the Reader or this Objector conscientiously to ponder these Considerations 1. Consider as there have been many false Christs so there are and have been many mistaken Antichrists and the holy Ghost bids us not to beleeve every Spirit but to try the spirits when many shall say Loe here is Christ and loe there is Christ And it s as true of Antichrist some say Lo here is Antichrist Some Lo there yet the Lord commands us saying beleeve them not The Truths Ordinances Servants and Ministers of Christ do not therefore cease to be of Christ because some either by mistake or by design shall say they are of Antichrist The Doctrine of the Deity of Christ who is God blessed for ever will not cease to be a most precious Truth because Michael Servetus Georgius Blandatra Franciscus David Laelius Socinus and his adherents condemn it as an Antichristian Errour Was Valentinus Gentilis therefore a friend and Martyr to God the Father because he died as an enemy to God the Son Were the Valdenses who appeared against the Romish errours the limbs of Satan because some of the Romanist affirm that Satan was let loose in Berengarius and his Disciples How luxuriant and confident are the fancies of many concerning the things contained in the Revelations wherein modest Christians would chuse rather to be humbly inquisitive then Dogmatically positive Was Innocent the third the lesse nocent or was Pope Calixtus the more holy because some of their followers make them to be the Angel coming down from heaven having the Key of the bottoml●sse pit to binde Satan as if the binding of Satan were nothing else but to Excommunicate Emperours and to depresse the Imperial power under the Papal Shall Dominicus or Franciscus those two great Founders of the Orders of the Friars Dominican and Franciscan the great upholders of Papacy shall they be lesse suspected because some of their disciples admired them and confidently averred them to be that Angel ascending from the East having the Seal of the living God Rev. 7.2 Men have no power to make Christian Unchristian or Antichristian either persons or things according to their pleasure The Word of God is established in the heavens and his Truths do not vary after the variety of mens mistaking fancies Therefore we have great need to be sober and humble and to beg of the Lord the spirit of love and of a sound minde that we may neither justifie the wicked nor condemn the Righteous 2. Consider concerning Antichrist Though we grant it that Antichrist is not an individual person as Bellarmine and the Papists generally affirm But the state and succession of men which with one and the self same spirit oppose Christ. 2. That the seat of this great Whore is not as some intimate Constantinople nor Ierusalem as others affirm but Rome that great City that then reigned over the Kings of the earth spiritually called Sodom and Egypt And 3. that the Antichrist is not the Turk and Mahumetanism in the East But the Pope and Papism in the West yet there is no ground to condemn every thing in that Antichristian Synagogue for Antichristian for without all question the Books of the Old and New Testament were wonderfully preserved even in mystical Babylon As formerly when the Oracles of God were committed to Israel the Lord continued the holy Scripture in the Jewish Church notwithstanding their spiritual Apostacy and Babylonish Captivity The good Word of the Lord is no lesse the Word of Truth because the false Antichristian Synagogue do acknowledge it no more then the Scripture ceaseth to be the Scripture because Satan the father of lies did alledge it Gold is gold wherever you finde it Truth is truth however men either accept it or contradict it It 's a vast comprehensive Errour to reject all Tenents though never so true for errours because an erroneous Society doth confesse them For all is not false which the false Church asserteth Every errour is founded upon the mistake of some truth as every evil doth usually arise from the abuse of some good In this mixture of good and evil light and darknesse where there are many precious truths yet many abominable falshoods it 's our duty to sever between the righteous and the vile that we neither swallow down all for truth because there is a mixture of truth nor reject all for false because there is superadded a redundancy of falshood Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God and his coming is

man what may we say of those that intrude upon the work of the Ministry if they miscarry they destroy souls and this is indeed to destroy the man Si navem poscat sibi peronatus arator non meritò exclamet frontem melicerta perisse de rebus In brief shall an exact scrutiny passe upon such as are to feed the bodies of poor men and not upon such as feed the souls Act. 20.28 The work of the Ministry the preaching of the Word is a work of the highest consequence and importance that ever God committed to the sons of men The reconciling of men to God 2 Cor. 5.19 Even an heavenly Embassy of infinite and eternall consequence Now if God allow not these works which are of an inferiour nature to be done by men untried and unappointed to the Office how shall he approve of such as adventure upon this work of preaching the Word which is negotium negotiorum the work of works without any trial or commission If none may administer the Sacrament but he that is lawfully called and ordained thereunto then neither may any preach but he that is lawfully called and ordained But none may administer the Sacraments but he that is lawfully called and ordained thereunto Therefore The minor is easily granted and proved from the nature of the Sacraments They are Seals of the righteousnesse by faith If it be an intolerable usurpation amongst men for a private man to take the broad seal of the Kingdom and put it to what instruments he pleaseth much more intolerable is it for a private man to usurp the dispensation of the broad Seal of the Kingdom of heaven As in all States there are Keepers of the Seals appointed whose office it is to dispose them according to Law Even so it is in the Church of God Jesus Christ hath appointed Keepers of his Seals those whom he cals Stewards of the mysteries of God to whom he hath committed the word of Reconciliation and to whom he hath given power to baptize and to administer the Lords Supper The connexion is clear because that these two works are joyntly in the same Commission Mat. 28.19 20. and of the two the preaching of the Word is the greater work This the Apostle intimates 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel The negative particle is here as in many other places taken for the comparative he was sent rather to preach then to baptize and by this manner of expression it appears that to preach was his more proper and especiall work This account all the rest of the Apostles had of it therefore they did put off ministring to Tables that they might give themselves to the Word and Praier In the consideration of the greatnesse of this work the Prophet Isaiah being sent about it cries out Wo is me I am undone the Prophet Ieremiah Ah Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a childe and Paul also Who is sufficient for these things Of this account it hath been alwaies had in the Church of God ancient and modern till these unhappy times of licentiousnesse And therefore we humbly entreat all those that do conscienciously and as we beleeve justly scruple to have their Children baptized by or receive the Lords Supper from the hands of any un-ordained person that they would seriously consider upon what warrant they hear un-ordained men preach Seeing there is the same Commission for preaching and for baptizing and that preaching is the great if not the greatest work of a Minister To usurp authority over the Church is a sin But to preac● without calling and Ordination to the work is to usurp authority over the Church Therefore The first Proposition is clear by its own light the other is easily proved by asserting Preaching to be an act of authority which is evident both in that the Apostle 1 Thes. 5.12 gives this charge Know them that are over you in the Lord and admonish you where to admonish is to be over Heb. 7. without controversie the lesser is blessed of the greater and this is further evi●enced in that the Apostle suffers not women to preach because they may not usurp authority over the man 1 Tim. 2. but is commanded to be in subjection upon which place Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very act of teaching is to usurp authority over the man Besides them the publike work of the Ministry of the Word is an authoritative administration like unto that of Criers Heralds and Embassadors to be performed in the name of the Lord Jesus and therefore may not be performed by any but such as are authorized and immediatly or mediatly deputed by him 2 Cor. 5.19 20. appears because in preaching the key of the Kingdom of Heaven is used to take men in or shut men out and this key is in the hand of ordinary Teachers as well as extraordinary yea the power of binding and loosing is exercised For though to preach be no act of jurisdiction strictly so called yet it is an act not only of order but of power not such as is common to every member of the Church but peculiar to such as are in publike Office Now to perform any authoritative act without authority what is it other then to usurp authority Gifts conferre the faculty of administration but not the power The Question which the Pharisees put to our Saviour being propounded to these men By what authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this authority Could they answer as Christ Ioh. 7.28 I am not come of my self That which the Scripture reproves may no man practice but the Scripture reproves uncalled men for preaching Therfore The major will not be denied The minor appears in that the false Prophets are reproved Ier. 23.21 32. not only for their false doctrine telling their own dreams and stealing the Word of God from his people but also for running when they were not sent I am against them saith the Lord a fearfull commination If God be against them who shall be with them if they finde not acceptance with God all that approbati●n and applause which they finde from men what will it profit He is not approved whom man approves but he whom God approves The false Prophets themselves accuse Ieremiah Jer. 29.27 for making himself a Prophet which though it was a most unjust and false imputation yet it holds forth this truth That no man ought to make himself a Prophet the false Prophets themselves being witnesses It is very observable that Shemaiah the Nehelamite a false Prophet and a dreamer writes to Zephaniah the sonne of Maasiah the Priest and to all the Priests and accuseth Ieremiah for a mad man in making himself a Prophet and tells them that upon this account they ought to put him in prison and in the stocks It seems by this that it was no little sin and deserves no little punishment even in the judgement of false Prophets

the Universal Church yet we are far from thinking that he is actually an Universal Minister The Apostles had the actual care of the Church Universal committed unto them and wheresoever they came had actual power to perform all Ministerial Offices without the consent or call of particular Churches And besides they were not fixed to any particular charge but were Ministers alike of all the Churches of Christ. But it is far otherwise with ordinary Ministers They are fixed to their particular Congregations where they are bound by divine right to reside and to be diligent in preaching to them in season and out of season All that we say concerning their being Ministers of the Church universall is That they have power by their Ordination in actu primo as M. Hudson saith to administer the Ordinances of Christ in all the Churches of the Saints yet not in actu secundo without a speciall Call which is farre differing from the Apostolicall power Object If a Minister may act as a Minister out of his own Congregation why do you your selves ordain none but such as have a title to some particular charge Answ. It is true We say in our Government That it is agreeable to the Word of God and very convenient That they that are to be ordained be designed to some particular Church or Ministerial employment not hereby limiting their Office but the ordinary exercise of their Office We distinguish between a Minister of Christ and a Minister of Christ in such a place between the Office it self and the ordinary ●xercise of it to such or such a people And yet notwithstanding we ordain none without a Title thereby to prevent 1. A vagrant and ambulatory Ministry For we conceive it far more edifying for the people of God to live under a fixt Ministry 2. A lazy and idle Ministry For when men shall have an office and no place actually to exercise it this might in a little space fill the Church with unpreaching Ministers 3. A begging and so a contemptible Ministry For when Ministers want places they are oftentimes wholly destitute of means and thereby come to great poverty even to the very contempt of the office it self So much for the sixth Argument Arg. 7. If the whole essence of the Ministeriall Call consisteth in Election without Ordination then it will necessarily follow that when a Minister leaves or is put from that particular charge to which he is called that then he ceaseth to be a Minister and becomes a private person and that when he is elected to another place he needs a new Ordination and so toties quoties as often as he is elected so often he is to be ordained which to us seems a very great absurdity That this consequence doth necessarily follow is confessed by the Reverend Ministers of New-England in their Platform of Church-Discipline where they say He that is clearly loosed from his Office-relation unto that Church whereof he was a Minister cannot be looked upon as an Officer nor perform any act of Office in any other Church unlesse he be again orderly called unto Office which when it shall be we know nothing to hinder but Imposicion of hands also in his Ordination ought to be used towards him again For so Paul the Apostle received Imposition of hands twice at least from Ananias Act. 9.17 and Act. 13.3 4. But this seems to us to be a very great absurdity and contrary to sound doctrine which we prove 1. Because every Minister hath a double relation one to the Church-Catholique indefinitely another to that particular Congregation over which he is set And when he removes from his particular Congregation he ceaseth indeed to be a Minister of that place but not from being a Minister of the Gospel And when called to another he needs no new Ordination no more as M. Hudson well saith then a Physician or Lawyer need a new License or Call to the Barre though they remove to other places and have other Patients and Clients For Ordination is to the essence of the Ministeriall Office and not only in reference to a particular place or charge The Reverend Assembly of Divines in their Advice to the Parliament concerning Church-government say That there is one generall Church visible held forth in the New Testament and that the Ministry was given by Iesus Christ to the génerall Church-visible for the gathering and perfecting of it in this life until his second coming which they prove from 1 Cor. 12.28 Eph. 4.4 5. compared with ver 10 11 12 13 15 16. of the same Chapter Now if Ministers be seated by Christ in the Church-Catholique as well as in their particular Churches then it followeth That they have a relation as Ministers to the Church-Catholique and though their relation to their particular Church ceaseth yet their Ministeriall relation ceaseth not because they were Officers of the Church-Catholique and there doth still remain in them a power in actu primo to dispense all the Ordinances of Christ though their Call ad actum secundum sive exercitum pro hic nunc as M. Hudson phraseth it ceaseth Even as every private Christian hath also a double relation one to the Church generall another to the particular place whereof he is a member And when he removes from his Congregation he doth not cease to be a member of the visible Church for then his Baptism should cease for every baptized person is a member of the Church but only of that particular Church And when he joyns with any other Congregation he needs not to be baptized again but is received by vertue of his former Baptism So it is with a Minister of the Gospel When he leaves his particular Congregation he continueth still to be a Minister though not their Minister and needs no more to be ordained anew then a private Christian to be baptized anew because neither Ordination nor Baptism do stand in relation to the particular Congregation but to the Church-Catholique Secondly If a Minister when he removes or is removed from his particular Congregation ceaseth to be a Minister then it will follow 1. That if the Church that called him prove hereticall and wickedly separate from him that then the sin of the people should nullifie the Office of the Minister Or. 2. If the Church refuse to give him competent maintenance and starve him out from them or if the major part unjustly combine together to vote him out for such power our brethren give to particular Churches that then the covetousnesse and injustice of the people should make void the Function of their Minister Nay 3. By this doctrine there will be a door opened for the people of a City or Nation to un-minister all their Ministers which things are very great absurdities and contrary to sound doctrine Thirdly Because there is no Scripture to warrant the iteration of Ordination in case of removall The Apostles went about Ordaining Elders in every Church And Titus was