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power_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	2,914	5	9.7351	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15824	A modell of divinitie, catechistically composed Wherein is delivered the matter and method of religion, according to the creed, ten Commandements, Lords Prayer, and the Sacraments. By Iohn Yates, Bachelour in Diuinitie, and minister of Gods word in St Andrewes in Norvvich.	Yates, John, d. ca. 1660.; Yates, John, d. ca. 1660. Short and briefe summe of saving knowledge. aut; Richardson, Alexander, of Queen's College, Cambridge.	1622 (1622)	STC 26085; ESTC S103644	253,897	373

This is eternall life to know the father reconciled in his sonne Retire thy selfe daily into some secret place of meditation and prayer such as Cornelius his leaddes Dauids closet c. and thou shalt finde with Iacob the sweete vision of Angels climbing vp and downe this sacred ladder which stands betwixt heauen and earth at the top of it is the father the whole length of it is in the sonne and the spirit doth firmely fasten vs thereunto that so we may be transported vnto blisse Q. What is here to be obserued A. The names in Scripture that expresse this mystery as Elohim and Adonai Gen. 1.1 Mal. 1.6 Both which words being plurall are ioyned with words of the singular number to shew the vnitie of the persons both in essence and action It is not for euery proflygate professor that liues as he list to be dealing with this divinitie These pearles are not for swine who will laugh at such congruitie as makes one of three and three of one but hee that findes and feeles the conioyned working of the Trinitie will adore it in vnitie ascribing to father sonne and holy Ghost equall authoritie and power in all their workes This as well as the whole rule of well-liuing belongs to the sealed fountaine the spouse of Christ A doctrine not fit to be preached in Gath Askelon to vncircumcised and prophane hearts that will turne euery good thing to their owne destruction The Lord that hath the teaching of all hearts make vs ready for this transcendent learning Q. What secondly is to be obserued A. That the subsistences or persons being the same essence are God and one God Ioh. 1.1 1. Ioh. 5.7 Cut but the hayre from the eye brow saith Augustine and how disfigured will the face looke there is but a small thing taken from the body but a greater matter from the beautie so in these honourable wayes of wisedome wee may not derogate the least iot of Deitie or dignitie from any person Q. What in the third place A. That whatsoeuer Attribute is giuen to the essence may so farre forth be giuen to the subsistences as euery person is infinite eternall incomprehensible c. Exod. 23.20 with 1. Cor. 10.9 Christ hath the same name and authoritie with his Father Ioh. 1.1.2 and 14.1 and 21.17 Phil. 2.6 Heb. 1.3.1 Ioh. 5.20 Rev. 1.11 In all these places the essentiall Attributes of the divine nature are giuen to Christ So likewise to the Spirit Psal 139. Act. 5.3.4 1. Cor. 3.16 Iob 33.4 2 Cor. 13.13 Mat. 18.19 O that we had but in vs the internall principles of faith to rest vpon these three worthies infinitely great and gracious This I am sure as a spring or oyle to the wheeles of our Soules would make them goe smoothly and currantly Make all other yokes light and easie Vndoubtedly the Pipe of Faith would here draw in so much sweete ayre from the precious promises of life that thereby wee should be able to renue our strength and with chearefull spirits lift vp the wing as the Eagle runne and not be weary walke and not faint What shall idle Guls with a Pipe of Tobacco or Cup of Sacke silly smoakie helpes giue life againe to their dull and deadly Spirits And shall not the Saints and servants of three so infinite exhilerate and cheare their hearts with the feeling of their new life so mercifully begun by the father powerfully dispenced by the sonne and perfectly finished by the spirit Where were all this grace if it were not stronger then any Ellebore to evacuate the minde of all feares and griefes It is for nature to be subiect to extremities that is eyther too dull in want or wanton in fruition but grace like a good temper is not sensible of alteration O then that euery easie occasion of pleasure profit or preferment should interrupt vs in these religious intentions and draw vs to gaze like children which if a bird doe but flie in their way cast their eye from their Booke Nay what a shame is it to thinke how hardly we are drawne to learne or listen to this lesson As a beare to the stake as a slaue to the mill or a dullard to the Schoole are wee brought to these studies Q. What in the fourth place A. That all the three persons are God of themselues for an absolute first cannot no not in order be the second or third of any other but a first in all The Sonne because he hath his person from the Father is a second person but not a second God Deut. 6.4 1. Tim. 2.5 1 Ioh. 5.7 All those places that proue God to be one exclude all derivation of essence for one cannot bee multiplied without number Heb. 1.3 The sonne is the image of the person not the essence it were an absurditie to say Christ is the image of himselfe but apt and proper the expresse image of his Father For tho he be no other thing from his Father yet another person Hence wee learne how to expound that speech very God of very God that is the subsistence of the sonne is verily and truly from the subsistence of the father The person begetts not the essence for to beget and be begotten are relatiues yet the essence is absolute But Ioh 5.26 It is giuen to Christ to haue life in himselfe If life then essence c. I answere Christ speakes of life in the text by way of dispensation as he was the Messias and so it is explained ver 27. He hath giuen him authoritie to execute Iudgement because he is the sonne of man The very text makes this common to both persons to haue life in themselues which is the property of the God-head and yet Christ hauing life in himselfe as God hath the same giuen him as Mediator and sonne of man but you will say so he had power to giue himselfe life and therefore the fathers giuing respects his person as well as his office I answere it is true for as the sonne of man receiues subsistence from the sonne of God so the sonne of God receiues subsistence from his father Now working is according to subsisting therefore the life of grace spoken of verse 25. is wrought by the humane nature of Christ as it is sustained by his person and his person being from the father worketh the same life from him so then it is giuen to the sonne in regard of his manner of subsisting to bee the dispenser and disposer of the life of grace whereof the father is the beginner c. But as God he quickeneth whom he will v. 21. and that as he hath life in himselfe Life will and vnderstanding are Attributes of the essence and so simply one in them all Here may the sicke finde a Physitian the broken a balme of Gilead the fearefull a shelter the flyer a refuge and the breath-lesse spirit a blessed rest The sonne of God hath wedded to himselfe our humanitie without all possibilitie of devorce the

wee are his off-spring Act. 17.28 The head of nature is God who of his owne will of nothing begate all things I say of his will not of himselfe for so should he and all his creatures be simply one And so wee should need no other reckoning the number would be soone told But he must be sedulous that will learne this secret and by telling a multitude or an heape of vnities finde out one simply first But why say I so seeing two will proue one let him then finde any number in being and it will proue a God Q. What is Gods infinitenesse A. Whereby he is without all limits of essence As Gods eternitie riseth from this that hee hath neither beginning nor ending so his infinitenesse from this that he hath neither matter nor forme which are the proper limites of essence as being most essentiall to euery finite being Indeed the limitation of any cause makes the effect finite Gen. 1.2 the earth is said to be voyd and without forme It was of nothing for matter and it was all things for forme yet wanting both these it was finite as hauing his beginning and ending from God who alone sits vpon the circle of it Isa 40.22 and aboue it stretcheth the heavens inclosing both being inclosed by neither Psal 147.5 The Lord is of great power his vnderstanding is infinite And here may we ever be striuing to perfection and as the kine of the Philistimes which drew the Arke of God though they were milch and had calues at home the one to weaken them the other to withdraw them yet without turning to the right hand or the left they kept on their way till they came to Bethshemesh so hauing once ioyned our selues to the yoake of Christ and drawing forward towards this infinite essence and the fruition of our blisse in him let vs chearefully beare the Arke of his Law vpon our shoulders in the way of holinesse and in spite of all hinderances keepe on in our tract till wee bee gotten where our everlasting house and mansion is provided for vs and that by the hands of this vnlimited God Q. What followes from hence A. First The Immensitie of God whereby he is without all dimensions that is of length breadth or thicknesse Hee is higher then heaven deeper then hell longer then the earth broader then the Sea c. Iob 11.8.9 Isa 40.12 Ier. 23.23 A God at hand and a God a farre off He that is freed from dimensions may pierce and penetrate enter and passe whither he pleaseth without probabilitie or possibilitie of resistence A sonne feeling the loue of his father creepes neerer vnder his wings or elbow how easie is it for God to enter our stony and steely hearts and draw them after him They that resist the holy Ghost doe it by gain-saying his word not by frustrating his worke for hee shall conuince the world Io. 16.8 either to conversion or confusion The altitude of pride longitude of power and profunditie of policie are trampled vpon by God Proud Belshazzar Dan. 5.27 was weighed and found too light Gods wand soone found him wanting and alas how easily did God penetrate the hard walls of his heart to the horrour of his whole soule and hastning of his death Now as a Ship in the midst of a storme tossed with tempests and beaten on every side with windes and waues and dangerously driuen not by direction of the Master but by the fury of vnbridled violence so in this extraordinary agitation Reason which is the Pilote could beare no Rule but affection and affliction as a storme tosse and driue him to vtter despaire Thus all the wicked whose hearts the Lord doth not pearse and boare by his word he enters by force to stirre vp that raging Sea whose waters foame nothing but mire and gravell Isa 57.20 Q. What in the second place may be obserued A. His incomprehensiblenesse whereby hee is without all limits of place and from this flowes his omnipresence or vbiquitie whereby he is wholly without and within all and euery place no where included no where excluded and that without all locall motion or mutation of place Hee fils al places without compression or straitning of another or the contraction extension condensation or rarefaction of himselfe A Candle may bee contracted for his light within the hand or hatte extended to a whole roome A spunge may be thrust into a narrow compasse and yet by swelling fill a larger space But God neither moues to come into any place as doe the Angels or standing still fills it by thrusting out another as liquor into a vessell or else in larging and contracting himselfe like light or by any thickning or thinning of pores and parts as Ice and water c. but purely and simply by his essence and presence is euery where 1. Ksng. 8.27 Psal 139.7 Isa 66.1 Ier. 23.23.24 Act. 17.27 By this it appeares that no place can hinder God from doing vs good Distance or difficultie may be impediments to all the creatures to stay their helpe but God at a blush fills all places to comfort or confound as it pleaseth him He moueth or changeth all things without eyther motion or change in himselfe who is in euery place present in euery place intire within all things and contained in nothing without all things and sustained by nothing but containeth sustaineth and maintaineth all things O infinite goodnesse passing all humane both search and sight thou both fillest and includest all things thou art in euery place present without either seat or motion Giue me therefore grace that in all places I may both feare and feele thy power Q. What is Gods eternitie A. That whereby he is before and after all not beings that is not onely the world but the very nothing of it Reason will teach me that nothing was before the world and that nothing may be after it but it cannot teach mee any such apprehension before or after God For I cannot so much as conceiue a nothing before an absolute being the reason is because nothing is apprehended by way of contrarietie to something Psal 90.2 Before the mountaines were made c. God is not onely before the creature but the making of it and that from an everlasting before it to an everlasting after it Psal 139.16 God sees the creature in his non entitie or nothing Isa 57.15 He inhabiteth eternitie 1. Tim. 1.17 The King of ages Heb. 1.2 The maker of times The Hebrew word comes of a roote to he hid because there is no knowledge where to beginne or end Alas how doe wee affect a thousand things that cannot be effected miserably afflicting the soule because they are wanting And of all things wee doe obtaine the pleasure doth forth with eyther vanish or cloy they doe no more satisfie the appetite then salt water quencheth thirst Onely this eternall God giues it all contentment Eternitie is eyther an admirable blessing or a miserable curse If

the spirit Ioh. 15.26 I will send from the father the Comforter even the spirit of truth The same is said to proceed Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the spirit of his sonne into your hearts Ioh. 16.8 As the sonne comes from the father to take our nature vpon him so the spirit comes from them both to apply Christ effectually vnto vs and vs vnto Christ But this comming sending proceeding is a worke of counsell not of nature for the Spirit by an imminent act as he comes from father son so he hath his residence in them both and no creature is capable of him but as by a transient act hee passeth the worke of Redemption to vs by application hee is sayd to come to vs and we receiue him in graces and operations By nature he comes from the same persons and rests in them by counsell not by command he comes to vs and is said to dwell with vs and that in spite of Satan all his temptations As fierce Mastiues tyed in a chaine which although they both barke and haue perhaps a good will to bite yet they can make no neerer approach then the chaine doth permit so that Cerberus of hell is chained vp of God and though his malice be great to labour to enter where he is expulsed yet the spirit keepes him out by his presence and safegards our hearts in peace against all his molestations Q. What is the Father A. The first person who by nature begets his sonne who must needs be an onely sonne because the Father cannot haue many images of himselfe Christ is the first begotten Heb. 1.6 and the onely begotten Ioh. 3.16.18 1 Ioh. 4.9 Ioh. 1.14.18 And therefore the relation betwixt the Father and Christ is a speciall and peculiar respect Heb. 1.5 I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a sonne Man was made in the image and likenesse of God and of the three persons by a divine consultation but Christ is the image of his Father or first person by an eternall and everlasting generation Luk. 3.38 Adam is called the sonne of God which is a most free and voluntary act of the Creator in producing man in his owne image This I insist vpon the more that wee may be wary in our conceits in apprehending Gods act vpon vs and the fathers act vpon his sonne It is happinesse enough for vs to come so neare God that his onely sonne may stand betwixt vs him and that wee may be called his brethren by the Fathers choice of vs in him Q. What is the Fathers relatiue propertie A. To beget and not to be begotten and therefore he is the first person in order Psal 2.7 Thou art my sonne this day haue I begotten thee Heb. 1.5 The same words are repeated to proue Christ aboue the Angels who Iob. 2.1 are called the sonnes of God and therefore in another sense that is in regard of Creation and grace both which they obtained by the will and counsell of their Creator who made them and ordained them to stand in that favour from which the reprobate Angels fell but Christ is a naturall and an eternall sonne Prov. 8.25 And therefore to day is as some Fathers expound it put for eternitie seeing all times are present to God to whom a thousand yeares are as one present day Or rather this day being the day of Christs resurrection and exaltation in which he was mightily declared to be the sonne of God Rom. 1.4 is the manifestation of that eternall generation by which hee is preferred before all creatures His conception and natiuitie as he was man belong to his humiliation which as S. Augustine speakes of his passion was the sleepe of his divinitie as his death was the sleepe of his humanitie Yet as the fathers of Chalcedon say truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indivisibly inseparably is the God-head of the second person with the whole humane nature and euery part of it still and for ever one and the same person The soule in the agony and vpon the Crosse feeles not the presence of the God-head the body in the graue feeles not the presence of the soule yet vpon the third day both bodie and soule did feele the power of his divine nature death being too weake to dissolue the eternall bonds of this heauenly coniunction And therefore vpon the day of Christs resurrection was there a manifest declaration of the eternall generation of the second person Q. What is the Sonne A. The second person begotten of his father Ioh. 1.14 We beheld his glory the glory of the onely begotten of the Father Vers 18. No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten sonne which is in the bosome of the father he hath declared him Q. What is the relatiue propertie A. To be begotten and not to beget and because he is from the father alone therefore the second person in order 1. Ioh. 4.9 God sent his onely begotten sonne into the world Heb. 1.5 I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a sonne therefore by the force of relation he must be begotten no begetter otherwise contrary things should bee the same Q. What is the holy Ghost A. The third person proceeding from the Father and the Sonne Ioh. 14.26 The comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the father will send in my name Ioh. 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send vnto you from the father c. Ioh. 20.22 Christ breathed on them and saith vnto them receiue yee the holy Ghost he that hath power to breath on his members the gifts of the holy Ghost according to his owne will and counsell hath by nature together with his father an ineffable manner of breathing the spirit for as the three persons worke by counsell so they subsist in the divine essence by nature Q. What is the spirits relatiue propertie A. To proceed and because he is both from the Father and the Sonne therefore the third person in order of subsistence Ioh. 15.26 even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the father c. Ioh. 16.7 It is expedient for you that I goe away for if I goe not away the comforter will not come vnto you but if I depart I will send him vnto you till the second person haue fully dispensed the worke of Redemption the third person cannot so fully apply it no marvaile then if the times before the death of Christ had more weake meanes of application then now we haue the spirit being more fully giuen Ioh. 12.32 And I if I be lifted vp from the earth will draw all men vnto mee Peter Act. 2.41 conuerted more at one Sermon then Christ did all his life not because he was the better or more powerfull Preacher but because the spirit was then more fully sent both from the father and the sonne to accomplish that which they had begun for the redemption both of Iew and Gentile Q. What is

Father had none to speake vnto but his Sonne let there be is that the word spoken might be done by the Spirit who finisheth what is spoken by both And here we see by what kind of motion the world was made by the least stirring for what is lesse then to effect all by a word And yet what greater then to effect by such a word and spirit Iob 26.13 The Spirit is said to garnish the worke of creation Ioh. 14.26 and 15.26 All that the word hath said or Father promised shall bee taught testified and remembred vnto vs by Gods spirit Rom. 8.10.11 13.14.15.16.26 c. A Spirit of life quickens those mortall bodies that are redeemed by Christ by whom they liue againe and are led in prayer as children of adoption c. 1. Cor. 12.11 All gifts and graces wee haue from the Spirit Rom. 8.9 1. Cor. 3.16 the Spirit is said to dwell for as the Father makes choice of his house and the sonne purchaseth it so the holy Ghost takes possession in casting out Satan and sinne and in keeping and holding the same in spite of all Satans assaults Act. 5.3 A lie against the truth is a speciall sinne against the holy Ghost whose proper worke is to testifie of the veritie he hath receiued from the Father and the Sonne And hence it comes to passe that sinning after the knowledge of the truth is most dangerous because it is opposite to the last act of God further then which he will not goe in the addition of any new supply of grace and goodnesse Q. What may wee learne for conclusion of all this A. That to him the worke is especially giuen in whom the manner of working doth most appeare as Creation to the Father Redemption to the Sonne and Sanctification to the holy Ghost This may a little be manifested vnto vs out of man who is said to doe all things by his wit will and power The first mouer of man to action is will then by wit and wisedome he proceeds and by his power concludes The will workes by wit and power wit workes from the will by power and the power workes from them both Will begins wit dispenseth and power doth finish the action Onely here is the difference that they are not alwayes able to worke inseparably for sometimes a man hath more wit then will Agrippa Act. 26.28 had more wit to be perswaded to be a Christian then will to imbrace so dangerous a profession Sometimes he hath more will then wit as Peter Mat. 16.22 Master spare thy selfe loue made him blind in seeing what was fit for Christ to doe Sometimes againe more will and wit then power as the Devill Mat. 4. in the temptation of our Sauiour he shewed all his wit and will to trap our Sauiour but he had not power thereunto somtimes also there appeares more power then eyther wit or will as in the Legion of vncleane Spirits Math. 8. who carried the whole Herd of Swine head long into the Sea By this wee may see the inseparable co-operation of the three persons as through a crevis or lettice a little glimmering light of their distinct manner of working The Father wills the thing to be done hence in Scripture will is oftner giuen to the Father then any other person Mat. 11.26 Ephes 1.11 Secondly the Sonne being the wisedome of the Father dispenseth what the Father hath willed And here wee vsually call the Sonne the wisedome of the Father and so indeed we finde him to be in our redemption 1. Cor. 1.30 Thirdly the holy Ghost as the power of both doth finish and consummate their works and so the Scripture stiles him the power of the Highest Luk. 1.35 For as the Father did will that his Sonne should take vpon him our flesh and as it was proper to the second person to assume so the finishing of this worke in the last act of it was due to the Spirit for as there is a naturall spirit to vnite the body and soule together so is there a divine spirit equall to the worke to vnite the divinitie and the humanitie of Christ together God wills that his sonne assume and his sonne will not assume but by the worke of the Spirit To conclude nothing is done no not in their most distinct manner of working but they will all haue an hand in it what more proper to the sonne of God then to take our flesh and become our wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption And yet he can doe none of this but from the will of his Father and by the power of his Spirit CHAPTER XII Of the Creation of things immediately made perfect Question HItherto of Gods efficiencie in generall what are the kinds Answere A. Two Creation and providence In the one we see the orderly production of the creatures in the other Gods carefull administration and preservation of them See for this Psalme 104. Of creation to the tenth verse of government to the 27. verse of preservation to the end Nehe. 9.6 Thou hast made the heauen with all their host c. Thou presoruest them all and they worship thee in regard of their Government Q. What is Creation A. It is the first part of Gods externall efficiencie whereby he made the world of nothing originally good Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God made Heb. 11.3 of things which did not appeare Gen. 1.3 and they were very good Psal 33.6.7.8.9 and 146.6 Ier. 10.11.12 Act. 17.24 All which places testifie of a Creator and his power wisedome and discretion in framing them so excellently and that minimo motu by his word and breath Q. What is here generally to be obserued A. That because things here originally had their beginning therefore the Fathers manner of working doth here pruicipally appeare to whom the originall of all things is giuen 1. Cor. 8.6 All are said to be of the Father so are they of the Sonne as God but as a person he is not the originall for in the same place it is said by the sonne And so in the Creed we giue all personally to the Father vntill wee come to the worke of redemption and here we are to learne that the Apostasie of Adam was especially against the Father and therefore could not he by way of satisfaction be our Redeemer for the person properly offended cannot satisfie himselfe by himselfe but by some other that must come betwixt the Father and vs and thus agrees it with the iustice of God that we should be reconciled by a second person Q. Did God make the world all at one instant A. No but in the space of sixe times 24. houres that wee might more distinctly consider all his workes And Aquinas giues a good rule Successiverum non simul est esse perfectio God could haue created all at once but in his wisedome he tooke daies for it Some glimps of reason hereof we may aime at thus as some creatures were to begin with the first instant

And this God hath done many wayes generally either externally or internally Externally by voyce without vision Act. 9.4 or by both together Christ for a time assuming the shape of men and Angels Gen. 18.9.13.17.33 and 19.2 Internally either awaking by inspiration or sleeping by inward dreames and visions Gen. 15.12.13 c. Math. 2.12.13 Act. 2.4.17 Sleepe reacheth not to the reasonable Soule and God may conferre with man when both his internall and externall senses are locked vp He is able to informe the Soule immediately without all vse of the body and by a divine vision let man see his will though his reason was never informed thereof by his eare or any outward word So God can informe the inward senses without the outward and by a dreame let a man see that which was never within the supposition of any sense So God can shew vnto the outward senses obiects without naturall light or colour Rev. 1.10.12 He saw and heard in an extasie His eye and his eare were spiritually taken vp with revelations not as the Prophets of the wicked Spirit when they are said to be Deo pleni full of God behauing themselues like mad-men but quiet and calme vnderstanding well what they did God first certifying their vnderstandings after their wills and so inclining them to speake and liue accordingly the other knew not what they said as being possessed by the Spirit of darkenesse And this extraordinary revelation shews the immortalitie of the soule being able to conferre with God even without the body 2 Cor. 12.2 Wee receiue all our knowledge by our outward senses Rom. 10.17 which conuey things to the inward and they informe our reason but God can invert the order and beginne first with our reason and by that informe our inward senses in dreames and then by them our outward c. Q. What are the ordinary Governours A. Such as are called by the Church where there is try all of their gifts election of their persons and consecration of them in office The two first were supplied by the third in all those whom the Apostles ordained for they by imposition of hands gaue gifts and therefore such were not tryed by the learned seeing they had no gifts for such callings before hands were imposed by the Apostles Hence it followes that the new Testament speaking of no other consecration of Ministers but by the Apostles speakes nothing of examinations or elections Men then had not ordinary gifts for they receiued them together with other ornaments by the hands of the Apostles that place Act. 14.22 is abused even against Grammaticall construction by those that would draw it to election before ordination and that by the suffragies of the people for the Nominatiue case to the Verbe must needs be Paul and Barnabas they therefore and not the people were agents in that businesse and made Ministers of such as they found fit for gifts whom God with an ordinary calling extraordinarily gifted Wee reade Act. 19.6.7 of 12. made Ministers which before had not heard whether there was an holy Ghost yea or no whose power immediately they felt after Paul had imposed his hands So that wee may safely conclude that ordination is more essentiall to ministry then popular election and yet in after-times the people were not reiected for the liking or disliking of their Pastours vntill they became factious and patrons of schismes or at least-wise abetters of the worse and so made themselues vnworthy of their voyces I would faine know of any strict defender of the peoples choice whether it were better in point of schisme or heresie to leaue them to their owne libertie or to haue them restrained If they be left in such eases to themselues then shall the Church of God be destroyed As for example in the times of Arianisme whiles the people had libertie they would choose no Pastours but Arians It shall ever be observed that in siding and factious divisions the worst are for the most part strongest c. So that election is to be moderated by the discretion of the civill Magistrate or faithfull Pastours But ordination and consecration hath still gone in his course and Ministers are to make Ministers and not the people Gal. 1.1 Some are called immediately of God and by God as Apostles some of God by man as Timothie Titus c. Some of men and by men as the Prophets of Brownists and therefore none of Gods This is the Tenent of truth that the first course of Ministry hath ever bin extraordinary the second hath ever gone on in an order as from one government to another and never hath Ministry begun at the people We deny not that we are Ministers by Rome but we affirme wee are not the Ministers of Rome Wee are of God by them and they may as truely be instruments of our Ministery as of our Baptisme For as Ezek. 16.20 the Iewes did beget children vnto God but consecrate them to Molech so Papists may beget both a people and Pastor for God but till they separate they are both consecrated vnto Antichrist And here let all take notice how Separatists gnaw vpon this bone and sucke in nothing but the bloud of their owne iawes Q. What were the Governed A. All those in the Congregations which were subiected to their lawfull Pasters Act. 20.28 1 Thess 5.12 Heb. 13.7.17 It is for Korah and his confederates to rise vp against Moses and Aaron because they are lift vp aboue the Congregation Num. 16.3 Q. Of how many ought a Congregation to consist A. Of so many as may conveniently meete together in one place for the publicke exercises of Religion The severall portions are left to the discretion of our Governors and so far forth a Parish is humane yet the Congregation it selfe is Gods ordinance who would haue it gouerned according to his owne lawes 1 Cor. 5.4 The flocke is Christs the fold is lesser or greater as the Governours judge it fit and convenient Q. What if some members of more Congregations meete together to consult of some matters A. Then it is called a Councell for single Congregations are the weakest parts of the Church and therefore haue need of neighbour helpe Act. 15. The Separation teach that euery Congregation is absolute in it selfe and that assembling of Councels is voluntary c. which if it be true then the guiltie or infected Congregation cannot be cited to appeare Iudicium redditur in invitum for pars rea is in law pars fugiens the party presumed to come thither against his will c. If then councels be lawfull there must needs be a subordination of Churches In the time of Constantine Pastours were called a great way from their charge many dyed in their travell and many in their absence found much hurt done at their returne to their flocke whereupon order was taken for a more convenient calling of councels They had foure Patriarkes then vnder euery Patriarke diverse Provinces which had an Archbishop