of Christ But such are the Ministers before mentioned of the Reformed Churches Ergo This will be proved at once with the next which is Argument 3. Either these Pastors of the Reformed Churches are the true Ministers of Christ or else there are none such visible in the world But there are such visibly and certainly in the world as was proved Else there is no Church no Ordinances no Christianity no Christ For he can be no King without Subjects and Laws no Master without a School and Scholars no Physitian without Patients no Husband without his Spouse no Head without a Body no Intercessor without a Church to intercede for And to Believe the holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints is part of our Belief and therefore the Christian faith is gone if these be gone And that either we or None are Christs true Ministers I prove thus 1. We challenge the adversary to name us the true Church and Ministry if these be none of them where be they and who are they speak out or give up your wicked cause If you know not who they be or where then how know you that there are any such True Ministers are like a Light that shineth to all the house even the lights of the world and like a City on a hill that cannot be hid Matth. 5.14 15 16. 2. But let us try the particulars 1. The Seekers have no Church or Ministry 2. The Quakers have no Ordination that we know of and are every way so unworthy and had no being in the world till a few years ago that he is either no Christian or of a crazed brain that thinks Christ hath no Church or Ministry but them 3. The Anabaptists Socinians Swenkfeldians Familists Paracelsians Weigelians and such like have no more to shew for their Ministry and Churches then we but their errors and are so few and so lately sprung up that of them also I may say that he that takes them for the only Church or Ministers is either out of the faith or much out of his wits 4. The Eastern and Southern Churches have no more to shew for their Ministry and Churches then we but are incomparably more ignorant and erroneous few of them doing more then Read their Liturgies and Homilies and so administer the Sacraments 5. All the controversie therefore lyeth between us and the Papists Either they are true Ministers and a Church or not If not then it s left to us If they are then we are so much more For we have much more unquestionable evidence of our Title 1. The Office of a Tâ—aching Guiding worshiping Presbyter which we are in is beyond all question and yielded by themselves to be of Divine Institution But the office of a Mass-Priest to make a god of a piece of bread and turn bread into flesh so that there shall be Quantity colour taste c. without bread or any subject and a mans eyes tast or feeling shall not know that its bread or wine when we see taste and feel it as also to celebrate publike worship in an unknown tongue this Office is more questionable then ours 2. It remaineth a great doubt whether the Pope be not the Antichrist but of our Ministry there 's no such doubt 3. For Knowledge Godliness and Utterance and all true Ministerial abilities as it s well known what an ignorant Rabble their common secular Mass-Priests are so those military Fryers and Jesuites that are chosen of purpose to play their game among us and credit their cause if they have any reliques of truth or modesty will confess that the generality of our Ministers are much beyond theirs for parts and Piety or at least that we cannot be denied to be true Ministers for want of necessary Abilities We should rejoyce if their Ministers Priests or Jesuites were neer of such Piety as those of the Reformed Churches Some of their Jesuites and Fryers are learned men in which also we have those that equal the best of them but for the learning ability or Piety of the common Ministers on both sides there is no comparison to be made 4. All the Question then is of the way of entrance And there 1. The Papists seek not the Peoples consent so much as we do 2. They despise the Magistrates consent in comparison of us 3. And for Ordination which is it that all the stress must be laid on we have it and neerer the Rule of God then they Are 〈◊〉 ordained with fasting prayer and imposition of hands so are we M 〈…〉 it be by one of a superiour Order Who then shall Ordain or consecrate the Pope And yet a multitude of our Ministers are ordained 〈◊〉 Bishops if that be necessary But the great Objection is that we have not an uninterrupted succession from the Apostles and so those that ordained us had no Power and therefore could not give it to us Proposition 6. The want of an uninterrupted succession and so of Power in the Ordainers doth not disable our title to the Ministry or set us in a worse condition then the Papists For if it be only the succession of possession of the Office there is no man of brains can deny but we have an uninterrupted succession down from the Apostles But if it be a succession of Right Ordination that is questioned 1. The Papists have none such themselves 2. We have more of it then they 3. It is not necessary that this be uninterrupted All these I prove 1. The Popes themselves from whom their power flows have been Hereticks denied the immortality of the soul Whoremongers Sodomites Simonists Murderers so that for many of them successively the Papists confess they were Apostatical and not Apostolical see in their own Writers the lives of silve. 2. Alexand. 3 6. John 13. 22. 23. Greg. 7. Vrban 7. and abundance more Joh. 13. was proved in Council to have ravished maids and wives at the Apostolick doors murdered many drunk to the Devil askt help at dice of Jupiter and Venus and was kill'd in the act of Adultery Read the proofs in my Book against Popery pag. 269 270 255 101. The Council at Pisa deposed two Popes at once called them Hereticks departed from the faith The Council at Constance deposed Joh. 23. as holding that there was no eternal life immortality of the soul or Resurrection The Council at Basil deposed Eugenius 4. as a Simonist and perjured wretch a Schismatick and obstinate Heretick Now these men are uncapable of the Ministry as an Infidel is for want of Essential Qualifications As Copper is no currant coyn though the stamp of the Prince against his will be put upon it Undisposed matter cannot receive the form A fit man unordained is neerer the Ministry then such a man ordained So that here was a Nullity 2. And all the following Popes were the successors of Eugenius that was deposed and thus judged by a general Council but by force brought them to submit and held
cannot be moved and the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem whereof even the Angels and perfected spirits of the just are a part to which we come by faith therefore it ceaseth not Heb. 12.22 23 28. 6. When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 but not before 11. If nothing can separate us from the love of God no not any distress or tribulation then are not all the Ministers and Church cut off Rom. 8.34 to 39. Yea those that in all ages suffer for his sake are not cut off from him but so many faithful Ministers do 12. But what should I say any more against that assertion which carrieth stark Heathenism or Infidelity in its forehead reproaching Christ as no Christ and teaching men that they are not bound to be Christians and believe the Gospel and perswading the world to despise Christs messengers and Ordinances and Ministers to cast off their Masters work which in two words is to turn Infidels or Apostates I must refer you for my fuller answer to such men to my Book against Infidelity Prop. 4. God hath in his Law appointed a standing way for the calling of these ordinary Teaching Ruling worshipping Ministers in all ages and doth himself call them in this way 1. He Instituteth the Office 2. He commandeth that fit persons be ordained to this Office 3. He describeth them by their necessary Qualifications All this is at large 1 Tim 3. Tit. 1. Act. 20. 1 Pet. 5. c. This is his work by his standing Law By which also he commandeth the people to choose consent to or accept the fit and to hear and obey them Acts 14.23 2 Thes. 5.12 Acts 6.3 5. Heb. 13.7 17. And then by providence 1. He giveth them those gifts of the Spirit that may competently qualifie them for their Office 2. He assisteth the choosers and ordainers to discern those qualifications and do their duties 3. He causeth some special fitness of a Minister to the special province or charge which he is to undertake and special inviting occasions and opportunities and oft-times causeth Necessity to make the choice 4. He coweth the heart of the person called to consent and usually to desire the work for the right ends 5. And if he be called to be the Pastor of a particular Church he moveth the people to consent or accept him And thus God according to his appointed Order doth call his Ministers Besides which he afterward 1. Helps them in his work 2. And procureth them liberty and often furtherance from Christian Magistrates 3. And giveth them success Proposition 5. The faithful Pastors of the Reformed Churches are these ordinary Ministers of Christ approved by him and given in great mercy to his people who are bound to know honour and obey them in the Lord I exclude not all others but I now prove that these are true Ministers Argument 1. They that have all that is essential to true Ministers are true Ministers But such are these Pastors of the Reformed Churches as I prove thus If the Office it self be of Gods Institution and their Qualifications competent and their entrance right in every point of flat Necessity then they have all that is essential to true Ministers But the former is true as I shall prove in the three several parts 1. That the Office it self is of Gods appointment is proved fully before and confessed by all Christians that ever I knew Acts 14.23 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1. 1 Pet. 5.1 2. 1 Thes. 5.12 Heb. 13.7 17 24. Acts 20.28 2. For Qualifications they have 1. competent Knowledge 2. and Vtterance 3. and Godliness and these are the Qualifications that God accepteth 1 Cor. 12.8 1 Tim. 2.15 1 Tim. 5.17 Mark the Canons of the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 2.2 They must be 1. Faithful men 2. Able to teach others But such are those in Question 1 Tim. 3. A Bishop must be blameless that is not scandalous the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre but patient not a brawler not covetous one that ruleth well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity To which is added Tit. 1.8 9. A lover of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers Let all here Note 1. That here is not only the mention of the Vertues necessary to the Being but to the well-being also of a Minister 2. And yet through the great mercy of God all these are the Qualifications of multitudes of the Pastors of the Reformed Churches as malice it self must be forced to confess But if any deny it of any particular men as that is nothing to the rest so an unproved accusation is not by honest men to be believed The world knows that the Act for rejecting scandalous insufficient negligent Ministers is very strict and Commissioners in each County forward to execute it and Ministers have enemies enough to search out their faults and yet none are more forward then Ministers themselves to have the act put in execution so that their standing Justifies them before the world Or if any will yet deny them the necessary Qualifications I here challenge and provoke them to accuse all that are guilty and cast them out or else to confess themselves meer slanderers and backbiters and learn more truth and modesty hereafter 3. And for the third point their entrance into the Office They have all that God hath made Necessary to a just entrance as I prove They that have a true Ordination and the Peoples consent and the Magistrates allowance have all that God hath made necessary to a just entrance and more then all But the said Pastors of the Reformed Churches have true Ordination and the Peoples consent and the Magistrates allowance That they have true Ordination I shall shew anon in answering all that can be said against it The Peoples consent by Electing or Accepting is known by the fact and so is the Magistrates by Law and fact I put in all this though more then necessary that all Objections may be satisfied at once So that the Enumerations being unquestionable the conclusion is so to In short All those are true Ministers that are in an Office of Gods own Institution and are competently fitted for that office by Knowledge Godliness and Vtterance and have all and more then all that God hath made necessary to a right entrance or admission even true Ordination consent of the flock and the Magistrates allowance But such are the said Pastors of the Reformed Churches therefore they are true Ministers of Christ Argument 2. Those that have not only the essentials but excell all other Ministers on earth that are known to the world are certainly the true Ministers
to the next Proposition 3. This ordinary Ministry for Teaching Ruling and Publike worship was ordained by Christ to continue till his coming and doth yet continue and did not cease when the extraordinary Ministry ceased I prove it Matth. 16.18 Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The Church never did nor can subsist without its Officers who are an Essential part of it as it is a Political Body and the first and most eminent part as it is a Community And therefore if the Ministry be extinct the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church And then Christ is overcome or hath broke his Promise And then he were not Christ so that if Christ be Christ the Church and Ministry continue So Luke 1.33 He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Isa. 9.6 7. Of the encrease of his government and Peace there shall be no end Psalm 145.13 Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations Christ ruleth by his Officers in his Church If Church or Ministry had an end his Kingdom had an end and he raigned nor for ever Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world To this express promise Clem. Writer hath no wiser an answer but that It is conditional If they teach men to observe all things that Christ hath commanded then he will be with them else not Repl. This is your forgery here is no such words but an absolute promise His being with them is to support and help them in his work And will you feign Christ to promise them help on condition they do it without The further cavils against this Text and others the London Ministers in their Vindication have answered at large Eph. 4.11 12 13. The Pastors and Teachers are given to the Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the saith and of the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect man c. Extraordinary and ordinary Officers are here conjoyned who between them are to perfect the building the first laying the foundation and the others building thereon 1 Tim. 6.13 14. I give thee charge in the sight of God that thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukable unto the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ which must needs extend to his successors The faithful and wise stewards that give the children their meat in due season will be found so doing by the Lord at his coming Luke 12.42 43. And it is not till the last day that Christ will give up the Kingdom to the Father 1 Cor. 15.25 2. The Apostles actually setled an ordinary Ministry in their time as is proved 3. There are commands for setling successors of these as 2 Tim. 2.2 Tit. 1.5 as is proved 4. These Ministers are described and the way of their ordination setled by Canons 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1. 5. We find the several Angels of the Churches in their places Revel. 2. 3. and promises to some of them for the future with a command Hold fast till I come 2.23 and 3.10 I will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come on all the world Behold I come quickly 6. Christ hath commanded the Ministerial work to continue to the end As the Preaching of the word must be to all Nations and every creature Matth. 28.19 Mark 16.15 And these most cruel men would have all the Preachers give over their work and leave the world to perish in Infidelity So for the Assembling of our selves together and exhorting one another we are commanded not to forsake it as is the manner of some and so much the more as we see the day approaching Heb. 10.23 24 25. So that the nearer we are to Christs coming the closer must we stick to Church-communion and holy Assemblies considering that it s but a little while and he that comes will come and shall not tarry ver. 37. God doth on purpose forbear his coming because he is long suffering and will continue the means to call men to repentance and then the day of the Lord will come suddenly 2 Pet. 3.9 10. The word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached to you 1 Pet. 1.25 The Lords Supper is Instituted to be used to shew the Lords death till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 Church-government or Discipline is a fixed Ordinance Mat. 18.15 16 17. And if the work continue the workmen must continue 7. The mercy of God and the Efficacy of Christs blood and the necessities of the Church continue we still need a Teaching Ministry Heb. 5.11 and for our need it is Instituted till the Church be perfect that we be not as children toss'd up and down Eph. 4.13 14. What enemies to us and to the love and mercy of God are they that would perswade men that he so quickly withdrew so great a mercy when the gifts and calling of God are without Repentance 8. The Law and its Priesthood was not removed but by the Glory of a better Law and Ministry And Christ is the Mediator of a better Covenant and Promises Heb. 7.22 8.7 8. Therefore he will not deal so much worse 9. Christ telleth us that a wise man will consider whether he can go through with it before he build or make war Therefore he would not himself begin to build his Church and enter himself the Captain of our Salvation and presently let his enterprize fall 10. If the Ministry continue not then the Church continueth not for as the Head Liver and Stomack or Lungs are to the body so is the ministry to the Church 1 Cor. 12.13 19 20 28 29. They Plant and water it 1 Cor. 3.6 and build it ver. 10. For how shall we believe on him of whom we have not heard and how shall we hear without a Preacher and how shall they preach unless they be sent Rom. 10.14 But the Church doth continue for first else Christ were no longer the Head of it the King Prophet or Priest and so not Christ But he is a Priest for ever abiding continually he continueth ever and hath an unchangeable Priesthood he ever liveth to make intercession for those that come to God by him Heb. 7.3 22 24 25. 2. Those that deny the Church must needs deny themselves Christians and members of that Church 3. There is no Salvation promised but to the Church Eph. 5.23 25 26 27. Mark 16.16 4. Blindness is on the Jews but till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved Therefore it is most evident that the Gentile Church shall not cease till the fulness have prepared for the re-ingrassing of the Jews Rom. 11.25 26. 5. It is an everlasting Kingdom which