appears a married wife and Christ to her an husband in the open face of his glorious administration and withal in this consideration there be times of minority widowhood forsaking as through the antichristian age when the beloved in this second sense had withdrawn himself and was gone Cant. 5.6 the Church of the elect then in some respect in the state of widowhood Luk. 18.4 7. and one forsaken Isa 62.4 the being no more forsaken intimates a forsaking before the marriage then coming infers a non-marriage the season preceding If it be demanded how the marriage can be said to return when the covenant successively remained We answer that the bare Gospel-covenant when not stated in the free and full glory of Evangelical regiment especially when the visible order is another doth not in Scripture-language bear the dignity of a visible Gospel-marriage For the same covenant of grace runs tacitely along through the Jewish legal stand and had a secret saving influence on the godly yet is not stiled a Gospel-marriage till set in the majesty of a Gospel-order and then the nuptials were solemnized Mat. 22. So in the antichristian defection the said Covenant had some close hidden being and breathing on the sealed number yet being deprived of the outward court of its regiment and the Church-constitution becoming a stranger it could not carry the prerogative of a true single genuine visible Gospel-marriage till re-estated from Heaven in the power and beauty of its first dominion and when this returns the marriage of the Lamb is again said to come and not till then Rev. 19. Object 4. It may as well be said that there is no visible marriage between Christ and particular Christians before that time as that there is none between Churches and Christ. Answ As the marriage betwixt Christ and the Church was in this season onely more mystical and hidden so is it betwixt Christ and particular Christians Object You go on and assert That no particular Christian can be a meet bride for Christ who is not clothed with the pure fine and shining linen viz. The righteousness of the Saints Answ We assent that without the righteousness of Christ applyed by faith to the heart there can be no union or marriage to Christ and so no salvation But this more internal work when the outward stand is not answerable is not anywhere in type figured out by the metaphor of garments because they being an outward covering do usually signifie the visible station and walk of the Saints Hereupon this visible station of the godly since the Apostacie is in the Revelation allegorically set forth by a threefold clothing parallel to a treble condition 1. That of the witnesses and Elect while abiding in spiritual Babylon Rev. 11.3 who though they had the inward grace yet being externally in false Churches are emblem'd in the habit of black and filthy sackcloth their clothing being agreeable to their outward stand Rev. 11.3 2. The raiment of the Virgins or separated Saints in the season of separation Chap. 14.4 which for that they are off from the beast and defiled women Chap. 9.7 and in a more approved way then before together with joy and triumph Chap. 15.6 is pictured in the forme of pure white linen and this is the first to whom the type of white garments is attributed since the great defection 3. The wedding garments given as a new grant by the pouring out of the Spirit Chap. 19.7 9. after the period of the former which for their high pure and emphaticall excellency of walk are stiled the righteousness of the Saints Without this latter robe neither many Saints in general nor any one in particular can be a meet bride for a visible marriage with Christ none can give it till they first receive it Object But you appropriate this marriage chap. 19. to the Jewes and those wholy without Answ That this belongs to all as well to Gentile Christians as to the Jewes and Pagans we render these reasons 1. The reigne of God is general the marriage generall the Spouse married the whole Bride the Lambs wife the call is universall they which must comeprehend all the Saints If the Christian Gentiles be not concluded in this marriage then are they no part of the bride nor have any share in the reigne marriage or the blessing thereof View the text well and your sense cannot avoid this absurdity 2. The people injoying and rejoycing in all this royall magnificence are the singers for the utter destruction of Babylon And not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles also who were the chiefe actors in her ruine must questionless rejoyce in her downfall Besides this book was sent to the Christian Gentiles as principally pertaining unto them 3. The externality of Church-government amongst the Gentile Israelites which carries the name and dignity of a Gospel visible marriage as is shewed before was cast out when given to the Nations chap. 11.2 and since that exclusion we find no return grant and call for the restauration thereof if not here in this book no nor yet in any other Prophecie till this time and at this very point of time the whole current of Scripture foretels the same work to revert Now it is extream follie to think that this Revelation should not inform us when the glory of outward order and rule should be restored as well as it teacheth us when it was ruined and rejected or that all the prophecies besides should pass it over in deep silence We rather believe it then again to come when the Spirit fore-declares it to be and not before 4. Our Saviour in Matth. 24.23 24 25 26 27. and Luk. 17.21 22 23 24. acquaints us that since the time of that great falling away till the day of his bright appearance all the visible Lo's or models of Churches being grounded on mens observations are false delusive and that in this his day his shining dispensation shall flash from east tow est like lightning and not be tied up to one or a few Nations Againe the open pouring of the Spirit the begetting cause of a Gospel-marriage doth not returne in its open blast till this season and the effect cannot be existing before its cause neither can any without that manifest administration build up true spiritual Churches Object You insinuate that Isa 62.5 partains to Sion and its restauration which must be the Jewish Nation Answ If it belong to Sion then must it be common to all believers as well Gentiles as Jewes which you have proved from Heb. 12.22 and Revel 14.1 And though you build so much upon other interpreters and therein seem not to be an hairs breadth from him whom you cite to have said Malo cum Platone errare quam cum aliis vera sentire I had rather err with eminent Ploâ—o then to think the truth with others yet we shall rather prize the truth before any humane authority and think it far safer
6.4 9. compared with John 12.40 Acts 2.2 by which the visible keys of Church-power were given and sanctified but after when the Angel fell Rev. 9.1 2 3. another earthen hellish key with other smoke arising from the pit darkning and banishing the lightsome glory of the former as above and at last a new smoaking of the Temple from Gods glory Rev. 15.8 a new opening and entering implying key and doors all shewing that there was no opening nor entering but a cessation and shutting of the true visible betwixt these two days Besides there is a new open breathing of the four windes of the Spirit Ezek. 37.9 after the long restraint of the primitive blast Rev. 7.1 Act. 2.2 Ezek. 1.4 a new pouring of his Spirit Isai 32.15 after the former hiding of his power a new Marriage and Marriage-call Rev. 19.7 9. besides the Marriage at the first Matth. 22. a new lightning Matth. 24.27 besides the lightning at the primitive Ezck. 1.4 13 14. all teaching a non-continuance of this glory Again there was an invisible day between the bright shining day at the first Luk. 17.22 and the like glorious day again at the last vers 24. an invisible kingdom as that within vers 21. passing between the open kingdom of the primitive and the manifest kingdom of God at the last Chap. 21.31 Rev. 19.6 Chap. 11.17 all clearing up this cessation The visibilities Lo here and there were false and delusive The event hath made all this as perspicuous as the sun shines in the open firmament to those who will not obstinately and of set purpose shut their eyes against it to wit That there was an apparent and general Apostacie darkning and swallowing up all the bright Order of the primitive For that Church after Constantine had sully subdued the heathen Emperors and setled all in outward tranquillity about the yeer of our Lord 327 as the margin on Socrates hath it lib. 1. cap. 3. beginning to conform to and mix her self with National and worldly things degenerated and daily declined by the four first trumpets Rev. 8. till at last by the fifth the star totally apostated from heaven to earth about 390 and then the key of external Rule became purely National and was onely in the jurisdiction of Popes Patriarchs Bishops and earthly Hierarchies who alone usurped all Church-power into their hands In all our Western Globe there was no Church-Government visible but what was Romish for many ages and our Antagonist M. Elmestone confesseth that their Office of the Ministery the principal pillar of the Church came directly from Rome no longer ago then Luther's time Hereupon that of Protestantism is not termed a Separation but a Reformation their Office and Membership coming radically from the Romish Synagogue which seems to be hinted by the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 51.9 We would have healed Babylon and she was not healed Object It hath been objected by others What shall we think of the Greek Church who never had to do with Rome nor owned her power Answ To whom we reply 1. That the Church of Grecia may be no plea to such who live in the Levant under the Turk but concerns not in the least our Protestant Churches who derived not their power from the Greek but from the Romish Pontificality 2. It is not true that the Greek Church never had to do with Rome For about the yeer 390 after Christ all the Eastern Bishops yeelded the Primacie of seat the proper place of Christ to the Romane Pope And afterward if the Bishop of Rome obtained by Phocas the Emperour the title of Vniversal then assuredly the Bishop and Patriarch of Grecia must be subject unto him and together with the Church be within the limits of his territories Again the Greek Empire was possessed by the Latines for sixty yeers together even from the yeer 1200 to the yeer 1260 and then Michael Paleologus recovered their Empire who about the yeer 1273 agreed with Pope Gregory the tenth at Iyons in France and promised that both himself and all his people hereafter should yeeld all Sovereignty to the Latine Pope and Church 3. The Greek Church was as well National and had a terrene Hierarchy even the very same with Rome and is so apostated that she denies the holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son prays for the dead believes that the Saints departed enjoy not the presence of God till the Resurrection admits children of seven yeers old to the Sacrament because then as they conceit they begin to sin receives none into Orders but such as are married and forbids marriage to those who are actually in Orders rejects carved Images but admits the painted with many the like Fopperies and in many fandamentals is as gross or grosser then Rome To conclude Chap. 7 all the four windes of all quarters were restrained Chap. 11.2 the whole outward court of Discipline as well East as West was cast out as above and the great City Babylon was not onely at Rome but at Judea where our Lord was slain Chap. 11.8 and then certainly Grecia lying in the midst between must needs be comprehended within the circumference thereof It hath by some as the Dippers been questioned whether these National Churches be within the Covenant To whom I answer that though in their Church-order they were Babylon or confusion yet are they not wholly excluded from the Covenant as Heathens but are termed by the Spirit Israelites who had a sealed number amongst their tribes Rev. 7. Here we may see how though the place or hand failed the name was everlasting And it is not safe to detract from the words of this Prophecie especially seeing the sequele hath cleared that there was some profession of Christianity and a godly people amongst them through every age of this hiding of Gods power You may find this further cleared in the following Paragraph The next thing considerable under this first Querie is touching the true Church in this confusion 1. What she was 2. What was her condition 3. How she was fed 4. The just time of this her captivity 1. What she was In Chap. 7 I finde that there were one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones preserved secured and provided for In Chap. 9 that this number onely was undestroyed by the Locusts In Chap. 11 that the Temple measured must be this sealed company built up a spiritual house by the mystical bond of the Spirit it having no dimensions specified and all the externality being excluded as shall be proved in Paragraph 1. Sect. 4. In Chap. 14.1 that the mount Sion there expressed must be onely the mount of true grace footed on the counsel of God which is called a sure and sealed foundation 2 Tim. 2.19 For 1. All the sealed elect people even the whole one hundred and fourty four thousand stand on this mountain and that through all the apostated season which they did not do in any true visible being mixed amongst the Nations
for this later coming of the Bridegroom by the pouring glory of his Spirit shall go in with him to the Marriage and not all they but properly the wise virgins shall be thus immediately invested from heaven * See Parag 4. Matth. 25.10 what may be afterwards by the sons of the Church we leave to the times to manifest If you will bring all our new-stated Churches to this touch-stone you may finde them to be of a different metal from the true and however so neer the primitive they seem to be in the outward shell yet in reality to be grounded upon another foundation to wit upon believers not possessed with such a power visibly sent down from heaven Now that faith or the profession thereof without such a divine call and spiriting cannot be a ground-work for stating Churches I shall further prove by these following Arguments 1. Faith must foot on a call as done in obedience to the heavenly voice but now there is no call for visible Church-marriage as is declared in our first Rule and no call no faith nay it wanting that must bottom upon our own call name and time which is presumptuous disobedience 2. God having promised to spirit this again faith must rely upon the same promise till fulfilled and not upon its own power the hundred and twenty were believers and yet begun not any constitution by vertue of that but waited till the keys were given 3. Profession alone can no more give life unto Ordinances from which the glory of God is departed then it can infuse a living soul into a dead carcase It is God's sole prerogative to create their breath of life which he will do in his own season according to what he hath promised Faith and profession are but effects and to attribute such a causal vertue to them is to confound and turn the causes upside down and to set the creature in the place of his Creator 4. This pretended saith void of the call and promise of God and the vital influence of its prime original cause is but a meer work a bare creature-foundation by far too weak to lay a Gospel-fabrick upon and being but humane must in divine things be bottomless and whether the smoke or dispensation arising thence be not then that of the bottomless pit we leave it to wise men seriously to consider We are sure that this is the proper distinguishing character to difference the true from the false The true begins with the smoke or winde Gods glory inspiring the follow the keys opening and entering and by that it becomes a spiritual building the false begins with the key the smoke ensueth and thence is it a building made with hands grounded on tradition Rev. 9.1 2. The true is as smoak descending from heaven the false as smoke ascending from an humane bottom I shall now speak a little to you of the Separation who are modeled into the form of stated Churches I know there are many precious Saints amongst you in whom the character of Jesus Christ is printed and confess that some of you have been instruments to bring to light some solid Truths and prepared way for greater You hold a Separation from all National Hierarchies according to the Scriptures have in part cleared that the Beast reacheth further then the Papal Chair of Rome have renounced prelacies and precedencies have vindicated the consciences of the godly from the Laws and Canons of Courts and Classes maintain the Gospel to come in the liberty and power of the Spirit have rightly pleaded that members of true Gospel-Churches must at least have a visible Saintship have to this day been real and cordial in that noble Cause beginning in our ends of the earth For these good things found amongst you I protest in the presence of the great Tribunal I am obliged by the bond of entire affection and desire your spiritual welfare as my own salvation Yet I must not dare not flatter or dissemble in matters divine but because I love I am compelled to deal plainly and faithfully resting confident that those who are truely pious will desire to see their combustible works burn by the fiery trial of the Vials What I shall expostulate with you I have already convinced in my self Consider seriously whether consultations be not weak grounds to bottom Gospel-Churches or whether the primitive the patern you labour to model by was ever laid upon such sandy foundations or whether these your actings do not contradict many of your own tenents before named Did the Kingdom of God in that first day come by observations or by the descending majesty of the Spirit Or will Christ think you be less glorious in this later Reformation then in the former View I beseech you the Scriptures treating of the dignity of this later marriage Or if you cannot search primarily into the cause look into the effects that follow these your undertakings For knowledge in the ordinary way comes to us secundum posterius so that by those signes or symptomes which break out in manifestation we are directed to look into the fountains whence they issue forth Why was there so great efficacy in the outward order of the primitive Government but because it proceeded originally from the manifest blast of the Spirit Why is there so little in your externalities if not because arising from weak humane principles You that are most discerning do you not see too much of formality too little of power Nay why was that one and the same in every particular drawing the flock of Christ into a general unity unless because it footed in the Spirit which by its illuminating glory virtual operation and perswasive attraction congregated the whole body of Sions sons unto it Why are yours manifold disagreeing and occasions of dividing the Saints but because basing on obscure carnal apprehensions Experience informs us that your various constitutions have rent the Lords people in pieces and are as so many walls to keep them asunder and that which divides is carnal Tell us To which of you shall we joyn to come to the general Assembly Yea to what form shall we come and not in the very act of sitting down sequester our selves from the major part of the godly By a narrow search you may finde your union to ground in division your gathering in scattering View Ezek. 34.5 6 and compare them to your divisions Peter James and John chosen vessels were like in their minority to fall into the same relapse Matth. 17.4 Master if thou wilt let us build tabernacles but alas they knew not what they said understood not that Gospel-tabernacles were not to be made with hands but by the powerful dispensation of the Spirit Much like to this do you Let us build temples let us erect Gospel-Churches Well if you must needs be doing the proper work of your Master observe what censure he gives of such designes Matth. 24.23 24 26. Iuke 17.20 21 22 23. Mark rightly the secret chambers
union of the Spirit which is their breath of life and represents them unto us as the lively appearance of Jesus Christ And this may be called ours it being part of our inheritance when the same Spirit is severed and departed from them they remain as empty rudiments Object But many partake of the Ordinances that have not nor ever shall have union with Christ. Answ Those who do truely partake of the Ordinances must in the participation thereof have union with the Spirit of grace because the same Spirit that is in the Ordinances is in the Saints But to such as have in no kinde the workings of that Spirit the Ordinances are both dead and empty or rather a savour of death not that they are so in themselves but by accident because of their spiritual blindness and unbelief There may be a clear and bright light in the air yet for want of light in the eye a blinde man cannot see nor enjoy the comfort thereof Thus the ministery of Christs Gospel was a light shining in darkness but the darkness comprehended it not Joh. 1.5 the Gospel was not void of light nor the Ordinances being as pipes to the Lamps in the dispensation of their lustre but the men wanted spiritual eyes to behold and embrace its beauty Object But the foundation of Ordinances is the institution of Christ. Answ We deny not the institution of Christ to be the foundation of Ordinances but withal affirm that the next immediate principle is the Spirit of grace proceeding from Jesus Christ which by its union gives them their life and soul There may be an institution before the Ordinance hath its proper existence sometimes the command as made known to us by Scripture-record may be a ratification of that which was in being and practise before as we can instance in both However if the institution be perpetuated in the Word then it continues and the Spirit joyns constantly with it when existing if not then may the Spirit leave it sometimes always sometimes for a certain time determined Object The later are grounded on the Covenant of grace and so are the former if by founded you mean they are effects c. Answ 1. If they be effects they must depend upon their cause as their base and principle Every cause is a principle for Omnis causa est principium 2. We deny not that the later are branches of this Covenant but the former have a more neer relation and connexion therewith then the later for the former were used while Christ was on the earth before the keys of the later were given also the elect in mystical Babylon were Israelites as those within the Covenant Rev. 7.3 4. and having their election sealed up had some breathing and nourishment by the former of these Ordinances but the visible Order in which they stood is by the Spirit termed a wilderness and Babylon and the later Ordinances coming from the false key of that Church were bottomless and bestial In the like manner Israel in Egypt had ministery the Passeover c. before the Legal Marriage was contracted likewise the ten apostated Tribes had Circumcision where the visible stated Church was idolatrous Thus the former being before and without the later have a more immediate compliance with the Covenant and the later with visible orderly Church-constitution joyned thereto the one declares a Covenant member the other together with it a visible Church-constituted member To your sixth Objection from Rev. 7.1 I shall hereafter answer in its proper place in Sect. 2. Now we come to examine and remove your Objections brought against the Cessation which we will divide into five Sections Section 1. Our first was that Ministery Prayer the Sacraments Faith with Profession had the promise of the Word to uphold their successive abiding But the later as Ordination Confirmation Church-censures c. wanted the said promise and so lie void and desolate for a time as is proved in the Cessation I shall return to your two first Objections in the third Section next following Object 3. In the third to prove the later sort to endure successively as well as the former you bring Eph. 4.11 12 13. and 1 Tim. 6.13 14. Answ 1. To that of Eph. 4 we assent that all the Officers there exhibited were gifts sent down from Christ after his ascension to his Father vers 8.11 as also that they were differentially distinguished each from other both in the Office its administration and operation vers 7. and that all these together exceedingly furthered the work of the Ministery and tended wonderfully to the edifying of the body of Christ and the completing of the growth and stature of the Saints But yet we maintain that this dispensation of Office continued not to the end of the world as you would insinuate for it reached no further then the Primitive Apostolical times For proof whereof we shall render these Arguments 1. Because all the Apostles were dead at the end of the first or beginning of the second Century and in little time after Evangelists and Prophets You may from this place as well argue the constant abiding of Apostles Prophets and Evangelists as of Pastors and Teachers seeing the Spirit here speaks of a complete and full dispensation of Official Ministery consisting of all these together to bring this noble work to its perfection 2. The whole primitive key of Office was lost in the Romish defection and returns not again till Babylon is destroyed See the Cessation 3. If Office had lineally descended from the primitive then must Rome's Officers and her officiating be good and true and so she a true visible Church in the deepest of her Apostacie whom the Scripture declares to be Babylon and cast out from true measurement Rev. 11.2 Chap. 17. 4. If your sence be right then apostated Rome must be a continued increasing growing Church higher then it was when Paul wrote this Epistle or the highest degree of the Apostolical Church For the word until notes a continued act and all the tenour of the verses declares an increasing growing state whereas Rome was not a rising but a falling away 2 Thest 23.4 5. Because Christ in the time of this backsliding promiseth a new gift that implies the failing of the former Rev. 11.3 6. The union of faith here specified as the period of this time cannot be applied to the resurrection for then we walk by sense not by faith and enjoy the thing now onely beleft Therefore Sir to give you the true sence of this Text in respect of time we conceive that this word until extends no further then the end of the first or beginning of the second Century For then when the book of the Revelations was given the whole Scriptures were completed and so the work of the Ministery made perfect then was the highest rise fulness and unity of faith then was the scruple of Circumcision in greatest part if not wholly removed the Temple being destroyed
their grounds their signes their forms their artificial structure narrowness secrecy multiplicity their walls by which they are parted from the wilderness and one from another and yet their conjunction in the whole and tell me whom you can apply them But alas you are herein asleep and know not what you do or speak or write are ignorant how the Marriage must again descend from heaven The Lord awaken you that you may go forth from these narrow rooms in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace to meet the Bridegroom Let not an over-weening affection to your own models be any impediments for Christ will cashier all buildings of man and break down the partition-walls by the light of his discoveries It will therefore be your wisdoms to deny your selves in your several respective interesles and count them as loss and dung in comparison of the rising dispensation of the Lord Jesus especially considering that humility in self-denial is the high-way to honour in the School of Christ And thus leaving you to the power and guidance of him that calls effectually I shall now come to M. Elmestone's book and to remove those Objections framed by him against what hath been and hereafter will be delivered In the prosecution of this task I shall not directly follow him but rather for ther Readers benefit reducing what is immethodical into its proper place of order think fit to divide the whole Controversie into several members of heads which I call Paragraphs and to distinguish the subdivisions of those generals by Sections The first Paragraph answers to this Cessation The second Paragraph toucheth the book of the Revelation The third Paragraph shews wherein the foundation of the Beast described in Rev. 13. consisteth The fourth Paragraph dictates the true way and walk now to be Separation without stating The Postscript is in the last place as well as his Paragraph I. IN this place we laid down a distinction of Ordinances that the first sort as Ministery Prayer Baptism the Lords Supper Profession c. specified above in the Cessation footed more immediately on our spiritual union and the Covenant of Grace that the second sort as Confirmation Ordination Excommunication Admission Absolution c. are based on Church-constitution and are essential to Officials or a Church stated with Officers The first sort of these remained successively the second not This note of ours was but a hastie and overly work as desiring in some sort to answer your request for the present but intended and offered a fuller explanation of our selves by word of mouth or else I should have given you a more exact and better digested account however we shall resolve those many things you retort against it The first whereof touching a gifted Ministery we shall reply to in Sect. 2. Object Against this you first oppose That to believe in Christ profess him and private prayer are Duties not Ordinances and that Ordinances are solemn and publike means which Christ hath appointed to communicate his grace unto us and to perform solemn service unto him as publike preaching administring the Sacraments publike prayer c. Answ I. The word Ordinance may be taken either 1. more largely for whatever God hath ordained as the ordinances of the heavens meat drink c. and as limited to divine things for what he hath therein appointed and decreed and thus ordain and ordinance may be conjugates or else 2. it is used more strictly for Ministery Prayer c. In the later fence Faith and Profession are not Ordinances in the former they are for Act. 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life believed where faith being grounded on Gods Ordination must be his Ordinance 2. We conceive private prayer to be an Ordinance in the strict acceptation of the word as well as publike it being that whereby we perform solemn service unto God and a means by which he communicates himself unto us Object 2. But say you It is a Duty not an Ordinance Answ To which we reply that as it is a service God requires us to perform unto him so is it our duty we being bound to yeeld him homage and obedience and thus publike prayer and the rest acknowledged by you are duties as well as private prayer but as it is an organical instrument inspired from above and a means for our good so is it an Ordinance Object 3. You except against the word essential and aver that Ordinances cannot be essential to Officials for nothing can be essential but the matter and form the matter of an Officer is gifts the form an orderly placing him into Office by such as have sower to do it Answ 1. It is not true that nothing may be termed essential but the matter amd form for there are some properties flowing from the nature of these internal causes that are inseparably annexed to their fountains without which the causes themselves cannot subsist and the same though they are not the essence yet may be and are in terms of Art called essential 2. By Officials we mean a visible constituted Church completed with Officers and such a Church hath in it essentially the visible Keys of Church-power and discipline which your own words assert in affirming that the form of an Officer is his orderly placing him into Office by such who have power to do it 3. Not onely the matter but the whole being of the Office lieth in gifts the matter is a generical and more common the form a differential propriety of gift to give being to and distinguish the Office and this proper gift may be administred either from Christ immediately in the first stating of Churches as Eph. 4.8 where the gift sent down was the Office or else mediately in a Church stated by the hand as an instrument 2 Tim. 1.6 1 Tim. 4.14 Object Nothing can subsist wanting its essentials but a Pastor or Teacher may be lâ—tted by sickness or otherwise that he cannot preach c. for many weeks together Answ 1. Preaching and administring the Sacraments are not of the later but the former sort of Ordinance the exercise whereof is not proper to an Officer 2. You here confound the faculty with the action the action may cease and yet the faculty be essential and inseparable A man cannot subsist without the faculty of Laughter yet when the action faileth he ceaseth not to be a man So in Sleep the Senses are bound up from their exercise yet their habit remains entire A Constable in the Common-wealth is a true Officer when employed in his private affairs and not doing the work of his Office but without the power proper thereunto he cannot be a Constable So Official Pastors or Teachers lay not down their Office when they are off from their Ecclesiastical ministration but without the potential faculty thereof they cannot be Officers Object 4. You except further that Ordinances are not grounded on our spiritual union Answ All true Ordinances are based on the