the which you are called preaching truly the word of God to edifie the Church and that you will not abuse the Doctrine to serve your carnall affections or to please any man living but that you will use it in a sound conscience to serve to his glory and the benefit of his people you do promise also that you will keep the Ecclesiasticall ordinances and the Discipline received in this Church and as your charge is admonish those that fail to acquit your self faithfully without giving any place to hatred favour vengeance or any other carnall affection and in general do that which belongs to a good and faithfull Minister Item you promise to keep and maintain as far as lyeth in you the good and preservation of this estate procure in what possible you can the peace and union thereof and not to consent any manner of way to that which may be contrary and hurtfull to it The brother Mr. Stouppe by his gesture signified his promise and answered yea The Minister said to him God give you the grace to accomplish your promise The Minister being descended from the Pulpit and the brother Stouppe kneeling on a cushion within the inclosure where Ministers and Elders siâ— accompanied with Mr. Calendrin Minister of the Dutch Church of London and with Mr. Cismer minister of the French Church of London having all three their hands on his head his back turned towards the people and his face towards the ministers The minister made this prayer as followeth ALmighty God heavenly Father who after the fall of our first Parents was the first preacher of the Gospel in Paradise unto our said Parents and our Lord Jesus Christ being descended from heaven on earth for our sakes honoured and sanctified the holy ministry in his own person and ascending up into heaven to give gifts to man he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ seeing it hath pleased thee to call our dear brother and thine humble servant prostrated here on his knees before thee to be ordinated and ordained Minister of thy holy word We beseech thee to give him sufficient graces that he may thereby acquit himself vertuously and duly of his charge in this his Ministry and denounce the secret of thy Son that he may manifest it as he ought create in him a new heart in changing his heart into another as thou didst unto Saul being anointed King transform him by the renewing of his mind that he may prove what is that good that acceptable that perfect wil of thine enlighten his understanding from above with the rayes and beams of thy divine light warm him and fill him with the true zeal of thy glory and sincere intention to thy Service open his lips and his mouth shall set forth thy praise guide him in all truth that be walk not deceitfully nor falsifie thy word but that he hold fast the faithfull word which is according to instruction let him not have the spirit of fear and timerousnes but the spirit of strength and of courage let the word be given to him with a doore of utterance and with a covenient boldnesse that he may speak freely as he ought and fear not those that can kill the body and not the soul but rather that he fear thee O God that canst destroy body and soul in hell Let the Tummims and Urims to wit perfection and light be upon him give him grace that in any part of his calling he be not moved nor carried away with ambition or covetousnesse but as a man of God not as he is to thee such an one by creation or redemption onely but as he is a man of God by this particular calling he flee these things and follow after righteousnesse godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse dispel from him the desires of the world which may interlace in his thought and traverse his holy resolution permit not O good God that the world by his allurements and baits or his own flesh by its infirmities have the upper hand but strengthen him by thy holy Spirit that he may be victorious in the midst of assaults by faith that may be his victory that overcometh the world Give him thy grace to preach thy holy word purely to live holily and religiously and marry his holy life with his preaching that he ruine not that with one that which he builds with the other but that he may be an example to the faithfull in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity lest by any means having preached to others he himself should be a cast-away Govern him by thy holy spirit that he attribute nothing to himself but to the vertue of thy holy spirit and acknowledge that it is not Paul that planteth nor Apollo that watereth but it is thou O God that givest the increase give him grace that he may have prudence in his guiding efficacy in his preaching that he admonish the unruly comfort those that are of a low spirit and feeble heart chear up the weak ones that he be of a mild spirit towards all and that he walk in his calling as it is fitting to the glory of thy great name to the advancement of the Kingdome of thy Son our Lord to the edification and consolation of this Church and to the salvation of his own Soul Amen After the Prayer ended the Minister added and said in ordaining and consecrating him the two other Ministers continuing their hands on his head with him IN the name and by the authority of the Almighty God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost at the request of the Consistory of this Church and according to the Commission and charge which hath been given us and we have accepted of We Ministers of Gods word do institute thee John Baptista Stouppe do consecrate thee and confirm thee Minister of the word of God in the Church of God and particularly of this Church we give thee power and authority to preach the word of God to distribute the Sacraments to exercise the Ecclesiasticall discipline conformable to Gods word and to do all the functions that appertain to the man of God and Minister of Gods word And to the end that God ratifie in heaven that which we do here on earth we beseech him who is the God of peace who through the blood of the everlasting covenant hath brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep Heb. 13.20 21. who is our Lord Jesus Christ make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Paranymphi Then the two Ministers brought back the Minister newly ordained and confirmed to the seat of the Ministers who sat between them both And the Minister ascended the Pulpit made the ordinary prayer but there where it concerned Pastors he interlaced a prayer for the Minister confirmed and among other things concerning the laying on of the hands on his person The prayer ended he caused the Psalm 133. to be sung O how happy a thing it is and joyfull for to see brethren together fast to hold the band of amity c. and that according to the subject concerning the consecration of Aaron and concord then afterward he blessed the people in the prescribed form in the 6. chap. of Numbers The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee c. Afterwards the Pastours and Elders entred into the Consistory and as James Cephas and John gave the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas Gal. 2.9 so the three Pastors gave the right hand of fellowship to Mr. Stouppe their fellow brother with convenient congratulations and holy wishes then the brethren Elders one after another did the like unto him So this Action ended to the contentment of the Church Amen
they might be saved Consider thou Jonas the type of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore also of his Church thou seest him swallowed up by the Whale thou seest him devoured and thou hast some reason to believe it at the onely word at the twinckling of the eye of the Lord this monster vomits out Jonah upon the dry land a Herald ordained to go from thence to preach unto the Ninivites to a people aliens from the Church and dost thou find it strange that this poore Church which Popery as it were swallowed up God willing it having foretold it heretofore maugre her power and malice she hath vomited it up again and rendered it in our dayes and for to preach the Gospel more gloriously yea and that to our selves So then we bring that which the Apostles have brought have delivered unto us and have taught us and therefore let us retain and maintain these Doctrines And let us reject all false irregular and erroneous doctrines which have too much the vogue and sway in these Countreys For England that was heretofore a Paradise even as the Garden of the Lord is alas become a Bochim a valley of tears an Aceldama a field of blood a Golgotha and Mount of Calvary a Charnel of skulls a common sinke and sewer of all sorts of Heresies and that there are here among us as many or more sects and opinions than there are among all the reformed Churches in Europe There is a place near London named the Isle of dogs but alas how many kinds of dogs are there in this Island of England The sacred Scripture compares divers kinds of persons to dogs the a Mat. 7.6 prophane persons b Phil. 3.2 the Schismaticks c Isa 56.10 mercenary Pastors d Ps 22.17 the persecutors the Apostates and especially those may be called dogs that do bark against the Deity of God or the Trinity of persons e 2 Pet. 2.22 as Arrius Sabellian Servetus Socinus and other blasphemous Hereticks Such an one was Lucian a dog in condition who for his impiety was devoured by dogs Such an one was Julian the Apostata who being struck with an unknown dart casted up his blood with his hand towards heaven crying aloud Thou hast overcome O Galilean thou hast overcome The Arminians and Socinians do agree together in many errors that a man may say of them as of old as of Plato and of Philo either Philo doth Platonise or Plato doth Philonise So either the Arminians do Socinianise or the Socinians do Arminianise in divers points as concerning Predestination original Sin the unperseverance of Saints touching the kingdom of Christ universal grace the Sacrament of Baptisme of the holy Supper of the Lord and divers other things among other points concerning the Son of God saving that the Son of God cannot rightfully truly be called Jehovah God of himself and by himself that the arguments taken from the works of the creation from the attributes of eternity frō the name of Jehovah c. are not sufficient to prove the Deity of the Son of God that Christ is named the Son of God in respect of his marvellous conception his anointing his resurrection ascention his sitting at the right hand of God is it not that which the Catechism of the Socinian Churches in Poland and in Lithuania doth teach affirming that there is but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the only true God that that man Jesus of Nazareth born of the Virgin is not God c. A book full full of blafhemies against the son of God a book that hath been reimprinted in England without the knowledge of the superior powers A book which deserues to be burnt and it is said it hath been the Printers and furtherers thereof worthy to be punished but O Lord how long we read a notable example in the Ecclesiasticall history Amphilochius an orthodox Bishop in Licaonia made a request unto the Emperour Theodosius to be pleased to make a decree for the banishment of the Arrians out of his Empire but the Emperours rejected it as an unjust and cruell request and which could not be executed without danger Now the Bishop thought on a way how the Emperour might be moved to consent to his request He came one day with other Bishops to the imperiall Court Theodor l. 5 c. 16. at the time that the Emperour Theodosius sat on his throne and Arcadius his son sitting on his side newly designed Emperour with him to congratulate them which the Bishops did and did congratulate both the Emperour and his son Arcadius but Amphilochius did bow to the Emperour Theodosius with all reverence and humility but he did it not to his son Arcadius the Emperour thought he did not do reverence to his son either because he saw him not or by forgetfulnesse shews him his son and adviseth him to salute and honour him but Amphilochius told him He that honours the Father honoureth the son the Emperour taking this act this fact to heart with a kind of indignation replyed unto him He that dishonoureth the Son dishonoureth the Father and commands those about him to cause him to avoid the Court. Amphilochius having that which he desired to attain unto his aim and end cryed out O Emperour doest thou take so to heart the contempt of thy sonne dost thou think that in dishonouring thy son I dishonour thee and dost thou not think that in dishonouring the son of God thou dost not dishonor God the Father remember that God hates those that dishonor his Son doth he not say f Josh 5.23 that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him The Emperor was so much moved with this answer admiring the wise boldnes of the old man that he descended his throne embraced the Bishop confessed he had told the truth asked of him pardon and made an Edict banishing the Arrians out of his Empire And certes Saint John saith g 1 John 2.23 Whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also Whosoever therefore preacheth another Gospel another Jesus another Spirit is accursed and if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 O that these Blasphemers that sin against God the Father in sinning against God the Son either in regard of his person or of his divine or humane nature or of his offices were suppressed in England For how can we be said to honour God the Father if we permit that God the Son be dishonoured 2. The Ministers of the Gospel ought and are to preach the Gospel not onely in regard of the Doctrine but also in respect of a holy conversation of life edifying the Church of God as well with the one hand as with the other by the preaching of
Ministers it behoves you to pray to God for your Ministers for that is their desire So the Martyrs were accustomed to close and finish their Epistles to their friends with these words Pray Pray Pray for us c. Thirdly Gods people ought to be united and not divided for where the spirit of division is there cannot be the spirit of prayer nor of concord Now as the amity and concord of Pastors one with another and of Pastors with the people is of great profit so their division is of a dangerous consequence the chiefs and principalls disagreeing have alwayes their adherents The Apostle condemnes these divisions among the Corinthians y 1 Cor. 1.12 It hath been declared unto me of you that there are contentions among you for every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Is Christ divided is Paul crucified for you or were you baptised in the name of Paul z 1 Cor. 3.3 5. There is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men who is Paul who is Apollo but ministers by whom ye believed By this he gives us to understand that there is nothing more dangerous and pernicious than the division among the people concerning Pastors especially when there is more regard to one minister than to another and some are admirers yea idolaters of their persons as the Jews preferred Abraham Jacob Moses and esteemed them above Christ an insupportable blasphemy Luther Calvin and others have been too much esteemed and preferred before other Ministers The report is that there was a man in Geneva that made so much esteem of Calvin that he said if Saint Paul should come down from heaven and preach at the same time that Calvin preached he would rather hear Calvin then Paul O let us not be admirers and adorers of persons it is God that gives divers gifts unto Pastors by the same spirit Such an one will expound the Text wondrous well and cite to the purpose the Passages of the sacred Scripture another will apply well another will be an excellent and eloquent Orator Such an one will be a great disputer of controversies Another as a Boanerges will thunder forth Judgements of God Another will be a Barnabas admirable in his consolations This man will be patheticall in his uses That man will be admirable in his prayers Another will be excellent in Consistory and in Councell and it may be there will be some other that hath not these and the like gifts which will be more humble than all the rest There is not one among a thousand that hath all these gifts together as Elihu said to Job if there be a messenger with him one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightnesse 1 Cor. 4.1 Job 33.23 Therefore let us esteem them all and so account of them as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God and of the divers gifts o his Spirit and that there be no divisions among us which ruines and turns upsided down the Church of God as sad experience teacheth us That as the Tythean stone though a great one yet as long as it is whole swims but being broken in pieces sinks to the bottome So the Church of God united subsists but divided sinks down sure no house no city no Church no Kingdome being divided can stand And therefore if we desire the prosperity of Gods Church the good of this Church be united together a Acts 2.1 be all with one accord in one place fall not out by the way Gen. 45.24 If b Phil. 2.1 2 3. therefore there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy saith Saint Paul that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of of one mind let nothing be done through strife vain glory c Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. endevouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace there is one body and one spirit ye are called in one hope of your calling having one Lord one faith one baptisme one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all and one mother the Church Now he who is is the Almighty God powerfull to confirm and strengthen us according to his Gospel and the preaching of Christ fortifie us more and more in faith and in the truth of his Gospel and brotherly concord and charity make us firm and stable therein that when Jesus Christ shall come in his glory and Majesty pouring down the cataracts of his indignation upon the wicked he may find us holding that which he hath admonished us of observing that which he hath taught us doing that which he hath done retaining his Gospel till his coming Then may we be assured that we shall be saved in that last day Pastors and sheep governed and guided in one sheepfold under the hook of that grand and Soveraign Shepherd of our souls Jesus Christ to be fed by him received in his Kingdome and crowned with glory there we shall live with the Patriarcks the Prophets the Apostles with the angels with the Saints and with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be given all honour glory power Majesty and dominion for ever and ever Amen The Sermon being finished the Minister spake unto the people saying YE have heard my brthren that the brother John Baptista Stouppe being chosen by the Consistory of this Church to be a Pastor of this said Church hath undergone the examination wherein he hath made apparent his dexterity both in his Latine Sermon ad Clerum as also in answering unto the objections which have been made and propounded unto him concerning the principall points of the Christian Religion so that he hath been judged capable to be admitted unto the Ministry who having been published two succeeding Lords-dayes publickly in this Church and having heard of no opposition on your part we take your silence as an approbation of his Ministry among you and therefore we will proceed unto his reception unto the Ministry But first we will read unto you that which is written the 1. Epistle to Timothy chap. 3 from the 1. verse to the 7. verse inclusively and after that the 1. chapter to Titus the 4. verse to the 10. verse exclusively and you may read at your leasure the 9. chapter of the 1. Epistle unto the Corinthians then we will take a promise from our brother and afterwards we will proceed to his ordination unto the Ministry So having read that which is written to Timothy and Titus concerning the charge and duty of Pastors of the Church of God The Minister spake to Mr. Stouppe saying You John Baptista Stouppe do promise before God and his Church that you will serve him faithfully in your ministry to