unprovided of a Form of Prayer if a Form had been necessary This Argument which some have well improv'd carries that weight with it that they that are for the imposing of Forms do yet acknowledge that such Forms of Prayer from which it was not lawfull for the Minister to vary were not imposed for the first three Centuries and consequently that they came not into the Christian Church till about four or five hundred years after Christ Now to take off this prejudice they tell us that then there was no need of them Ministers were supplied with extraordinary Gifts Gifts of Tongues Gifts of Miracles Gifts of Prophesie I confess 't is very evident that such extraordinary Gifts were then bestowed but that every one that was ordain'd to the Ministry had thereupon a constant extraordinary Gift either for Prayer or Preaching is sooner said than prov'd Nay rather the contrary to this is evident that tho' the first general Preachers of the Gospel that were not limited to this or that Church but were to spread the Gospel in all Places and Nations tho' I say these no doubt had such an extraordinay Gift it doth not appear that all others had it The directions that St. Paul gives to Timothy and Titus about the Qualifications of Ministers do plainly intimate the contrary So that stinted Forms of Prayer coming into the Church not till four or five hundred years after Christ whether the imposing of Forms of Prayer be to be justified from hence because about 500 years after Christ they were impos'd I say whether this be a good argument must be determined from the state of the Church at that time As to this all that I shall say is to repeat the words of one that hath ransacked all the Corners penetrated the inwards and dived to the bottom of Antiquity viz. Mr. Clerkson p. 181. speaking of the Introduction of Liturgies They were not entertained till nothing was admitted into the Church de novo but corruptions or the Issues of them no change made in the ancient Usages but for the worse no Notions from its Primitive State but downwards into degeneracy till such orders took place as respected not what was most agreeable to the rule and primitive Usage or what was best to uphold the life and power of Religion in its solemn Exercises or what might secure it from that dead Heartlesness and Formality into which Christianity was sinking In a word not till the Church was rather to be pitied than imitated Thus far Mr. Clerkson I confess however 't is a cunning Device for by this means viz. the casting out of all Prayer but what is read out of a Book there will be no discernable difference of Ministers Gifts but they will hardly be able to prevent the people from saying this way of Pryer is no more than we our selves can do why should we maintain and honour men for doing no more than a Boy of ten or twelve years old can do nay there will be a greater inconvenience than this Let Ministers be provided for with Forms of Prayer made to their hands without putting forth themselves to exercise the Gift of Prayer and in time they will be unable to pray otherwise Secondly A Minister should be able to speak from God to the people to declare the whole Will and Counsel of God to them The Work and Design of the Ministry is to better Mankind to turn men from their evil ways and from the evil of their doings surely such a work doth require Gifts of Knowledge and Utterance Conversion doth restore man to the image of God which consists in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and the means must be fitted to the end Ministers should be able not only to make Sermons set studied Discourses but upon all occasions to speak a word in season I am sure this is that which Ministers promise to do viz. to use both publick and private Monitions and Exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole Spons 3. Office of Ordination Thirdly Together with these there ought to be the approbation of those to whom it belongs to judge of the Qualifications of those that would devote themselves and their Labours to God in the Service of the Ministry when these have approv'd them as persons duly qualified and commended them to God and have by Prayer and Imposition of hands invested them in the Ministry these are to be owned by the people as Ministers sent of God I know that some engross this power of making Ministers to such as are now called Diocesan Bishops whom they make so necessary to Ordination of Ministers that whoever is ordain'd without them by Ministers of particular Congregations some of our Brethren are pleas'd to say these Ordinations having not the concurrence of a Diocesan Bishop are a mere nullity And the Parliament that made the Law that required Reordination of all such as had been thus ordain'd were no doubt of this opinion Some indeed have said their Ordination was required to the exercise of their Ministry and not the Office A License would have done that without Ordination Moreover there was no difference made betwixt those that had been ordain'd before and those that pretended not to it which proves that our Law-makers of whom the Bishops were a part look'd upon all those Ordinations as a Nullity for no less was required of us that had been ordain'd than of those that had not been ordain'd And yet they would not declare that all our Ministration were a nullity So inconsistent are all they with themselves that design the interest of a Party more than of the truth This puts me in mind of what a reverend Minister then told one of the Bishops viz. I am afraid said he there is that Severity shewn in the Act of Conformity that 't is to be feared very many Ministers will not conform To whom the Bishop replied I am afraid there will be too many Surely to speak modestly that Prelate was not of the opinion of the Apostle Paul who rejoyced that Christ was preached tho' some that preached him were no great friends to the Apostle But in confirmation of what I have to say I would not make Reflections upon what is past any further than our own Vindication will make it necessary First Therefore to prove this let it be supposed that a Minister of a particular Congregation whom for distinction-sake we call a Presbyter be of an inferior order to a Bishop It is upon this pretence that the power of Ordination is denied to them Now if these Ministers Presbyters being but the Ministers of particular Congregations may make a Bishop they may certainly make and ordain Ministers for if they can do the greater they may do the less This was the answer of Archbishop Usher to King Charles the First who told that King that in the Church of Alexandria the Presbyters always made their own Bishop And the thing is so necessary that Episcopacy can't
well be preserv'd except the inferiour Clergy have a power to make their own Bishops Suppose as sometimes it hath fallen out here in this Kingdom that there were not Bishops enough to consecrate Bishops who can make them but the inferiour Clergy It fell out so in England at the coming of Queen Elizabeth to the Crown Cardinal Poole then Archbishop of Canterbury died within four and twenty hours of Queen Mary and upon his death the See of Canterbury being void Dr. Parker was preferr'd to it there were not as Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Salisbury observes Bishops enough of the Protestant Religion to ordain him and the Popish Bishops would not so he was made Bishop by Barlow Story Coverdale and Hodgkins three of these were only Titular and had no Sees and the other a Suffragan So that the first Bishop that was made here upon the coming of Queen Elizabeth to the Crown was made by Presbyters and not by Diocesan Bishops This put Mr. Mason upon the writing of his Book in Vindication of the English Ministry against the Papists who triumph'd much upon this occasion Surely therefore if Ministers may make Bishops who pretend to be a superiour order to them what should hinder that they should not have a power to ordain Ministers Just such another absurdity the Papists run themselves into for they also appropriate the power of Ordination to Diocesan Bishops and yet according to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation every Priest by a few words speaking can make a God and turn the Elements of Bread and Wine into the natural Body of our Saviour but they must not presume to make Ministers Secondly The nature of Ordination proves our Ministry to be no Nullity Ordination is but a determining of the persons to be ordained as persons duly qualified for the Office whereupon they are by Prayer and Imposition of hands invested in the Ministry Now what is there in this that Ministers may not do without a Diocesan We do not give them their power and ministerial Authority that is from God and what that power is that God gives them 't is not we but the word of God that must determine The power and authority Eccesiastical or Ministerial is from God as the civil power Now 't is not usual for Kings to be invested by Kings 't is always done by their Subjects True it is in the Office of Ordination as appointed in the Church of England the Bishop is directed to say Take thou Authority to preach the word of God and to minister the holy Sacraments But 't is not the Bishop that is the Donor of that Authority and that 't is not so will appear to him that doth but consider this one thing they that ordain men to the Office don't make the Office He only gives the power that made the Office to which the power belongs As the King that can make Corporations and Mayors doth give them what power they have Our Brethren that would nullifie our Ministry are pleas'd to tell us that Bishops in ordaining Ministers do give them what power they have and that Ministers can have no more power than the Bishops intended to give them in Ordination and that therefore Presbyters can have no power to ordain because the Bishops in ordaining them intended it not to them True it is that about two hundred years ago all our Ordinations came from those that were of the Episcopal Perswasion and Communion and who can pretend that they that then ordain'd did intend to give this power The argument were of weight if the Bishops had made the Office but it being not so it matters not what their intentions were that then ordain'd Ministers Were it not so what I pray would become of the Reformation Had our Reformers no more power than the Pope and his Bishops intended to give them Surely they never intended them a power to reform Ordination therefore being but a determining of the Persons and an investing men in the Ministry what power thereupon Ministers have is from God as when one of your Neighbours is made Mayor of your Town he doth not receive his power from them that chose him nor from him that swears him but from the King that gave the Charter Thirdly I would argue from the necessary consequence of that opinion that would engross the power of Ordination to a Diocesan and make all other Ordinations a meer Nullity It followeth and they own it that their Ministry is no Ministry their Sacraments no Sacraments their Churches no Churches and 't is well if they allow them to be in a state of Salvation and yet these very men acknowledge that they are true Ministers and Churches that have Roman Ordination proclaiming hereby an utter Renunciation of the reformed Churches which have no such Ordinations and yet a Coalition with the Roman Church and Clergy whom they will allow if any of them will come over to us the exercise of their Ministry without Ordination but not the Protestant Ministers that were driven out of France That I do not wrong them see Mr. Dodwell's Preface to the Unity of the Priesthood p. 11. where he saith That we are guilty of abetting a divine Authority in men to whom God hath given no such Authority that we are guilty of forging Covenants in God's name and counterfeiting the great Seals of Heaven in Ratification of them And what can be more treasonable by all the principles of Government what is more provoking and more difficultly pardonable These are his words and they are indeed severe and frightfull but as one saith the Devil hurts those most he least affrighteth Our Comfort is that the old Church of England owned the foreign Protestant Churches as true Churches and their Ministers as true Pastors It is but a few I hope of the Innovators that call themselves the Church of England that say they have no true Ministers that have not an uninterrupted Succession of Diocesan Ordination from the Apostles It was these men or men of these Principles that made the severe Acts that required Re-ordination and have been the great Agents of all the dividing persecuting silencing Laws to which God Almighty by bringing in of our Protestant King hath put a stop I shall mention one consequence more that they must necessarily own that go this way if our Ministry without the concurrence of a Bishop in our Ordination be a Nullity our Ministrations also in the giving the Sacraments must be a Nullity a counterfeiting of the broad Seals of Heaven to speak in the words of the before-mention'd Author those that we baptiz'd are not indeed baptiz'd It follows hence that our Sovereign Lord the King had need to address himself to them for Baptism for I am perswaded he that gave his Majesty Christian Baptism was not Episcopally ordain'd And surely that Prince that would be supreme head of the Church had need to be initiated by Baptism More might be said in confirmation of this but I shall
Minister receives which he is not to deliver the Officer may and in some cases ought to shew his Warrant that gives him Authority but not to part with it However as a Minister is to take heed that he don't deliver what he hath not received so also he must not pretend to come in God's name except God hath sent him He that is not sent hath no Authority to make use of that man's Name that did not send him This I confess may be a suitable Subject upon this occasion to shew how necessary 't is for Ministers to be sent of God in order to our Acceptance with God and Success among the people that the want thereof may not lie at our own doors As it was with these false Prophets If they had stood in my Counsel and caused my people to hear my words then they should have turn'd them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings But because it is agreed upon on both hands that they that preach the Gospel must be sent and the difference is chiefly in this how they must be sent who are they that under God must invest them in the Ministry I say for this reason I shall wave the usual method of a Sermon and spend the remainder of our time in speaking to this Question viz. How may it be known to the satisfaction of our selves and the people that attend our Ministry whether we are sent of God I mean as far as 't is necessary for those that pretend not to be immediately called and sent of God We all love glad Tydings and are apt to wellcome the Messenger that brings them and indeed it is but fit it should be so Isa 52.7 How beautifull are the feet of them that bring glad tydings And yet 't is not fit that every one that knows as Ahimaz something of the matter should go without sending Our Brethren that satisfie themselves in their Conformity are not content that the publick Maintenance is engrossed to themselves but they would engross the Ministry many of them and don't only condemn us for the exercise of our Ministry as Schismatical but they would have it believ'd among the people that our Ministry is a Nullity that we are not sent of God Now to relieve our selves against this Censure and to give what satisfaction I can I shall make it my business at this time to answer this Question viz. How shall it appear that we are sent of God No man taketh ought to take this honour to himself but he that is called of God Heb. 5.4 Now in answer to this Question I shall lay down these three things viz. First He that is duely sent of God doth sincerely design and chiefly desire the Glory of God and the good of Souls by turning men from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God The design of the Ministry is to better Mankind and for this end St. Paul was sent Secondly A Minister sent of God is competently qualified for that Service with the Gifts of Knowledge and Utterance both which are essentially necessary to the Ministry Thirdly To make him a Minister he must be approv'd devoted consecrated and ordained by such as have received power to invest men in the Ministry He that hath these Qualifications viz. a sincere desire to serve God in the Ministry is qualified for it not only in his own conceit but in the Judgment of those to whom it belongs to ordain and is by them set apart for the work the People ought to own him as a Minister as one whom God hath sent First We can never justifie our selves before God no nor to our own Consciences except there be a sincere desire to do good to mens Souls except we can say with the Apostle I seek not yours but you your good more than your reward For to design the Ministry as a Calling to live by and to look no higher is so low and mean that he that looks no higher is unworthy of the Name True it is that he that preacheth the Gospel must live by the Gospel as they that serve at the Altar had their maintenance from the Altar 1 Cor. 9.13 14 For if it be a Calling and if Ministers ought as much as they are able to give themselves to the work of their Ministry as their Calling and that wholly as the Apostle commandeth Timothy to do 1 Tim. 4.14 15. Give Attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them I say if it be a Calling 't is almost as easie to prove that a maintenance is due to them as 't is to prove that they must eat and drink and the people are to consider this more than I fear they do The want hereof must in time quite extinguish or at least cause the Ministry to dwindle away into Contempt And the Lamp must needs go out when 't is not maintain'd with Oil though not so soon as when 't is blown out People therefore should take heed that they do not that by detaining a maintenance which their Enemies would do by force and violence And yet to design the Ministry as a Calling to live by and to have no higher ends is base and mercenary The first Question in the Office of Ordination is this viz. Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministry to serve God for the promoting of his Glory and for the edifying his People And the answer that every one must make that will be ordain'd is this viz. I trust I am Surely the thing is to be consider'd by all Ministers by us that are Ministers that if our design was not entirely the Glory of God and the good of Souls to be asham'd of it and humbled for it that we came under that Curse that was threatned against the house of Eli 1 Sam. 2.36 Put me into one of the Priests Offices that I may eat bread And those that at this time are entring upon the Ministry should seriously consider that Question whether they can with a good Conscience make that answer and not lie in the Presence of God and the Congregation in so solemn a manner and upon so solemn an occasion And yet 't is too evident that many Ministers never had that inward motion nay perhaps did never consider what it is If it were well weigh'd that heat that they have to be made Ministers would soon abate in them that have nothing more in their Eye but some Benefice to which they cannot have Presentation and Induction but by Orders And so they enter into the Ministry as men do into secular Employments and Callings to get a livelihood Now if men do make their first step into the Ministry by a Lie such an open solemn Lie as