spend the remainder of our time in drawing some practical Inferences from the Discourse APPLICATION First therefore It appears from hence that they that nullifie the Ministry of such persons who have all that is necessary to prove their Mission are no real Friends to the Reformation Our first Reformers though they differed from the Foreign Protestant Churches acted from Catholick Principles that comprehended the Foreign Ordinations chusing rather to assert the Identity of Bishops and Presbyters than to expose those Churches that had thrown out our English Prelacy And though they pleaded for Episcopacy they acknowledged that it was not necessary to the being but only ad bene esse of the Church And it was not till our Reformation went backward by an endeavour to bring in a Coalition with the Church of Rome that Reordination was required of them that had been ordained before by Presbyters Peter Martyr at Oxford Martin Bucer at Cambridge had Ecclesiastical Preferments in the Church of England Cranmer that invited them hither never required Re-ordination of them Whittingham was made Dean of Durham though it was known that in his Exile in Queen Mary's time he had been ordain'd by Presbyters only Mr. Travers ordain'd by a Presbytery beyond the Sea was suffered quietly to hold the place of a Centurer at the Temple Mr. Camero ordain'd in France had the like liberty by the Permission of King James the First when that King was about to set up Episcopacy in Scotland it was argued whether the Bishops intended for Scotland should not be ordain'd first Ministers because they had not received Ordination by a Bishop and it was carried in the negative by the means of Bishop Boncroft Thus this matter went till Archbishop Laud whose great design it was to bring about a Reconciliation between the Church of England and the Church of Rome made it his business to please the Romanists and it could not but please them to see those that had the management of our Church affairs here in England declare a Nullity in our Ministry and Ministrations they knew it would be a good step towards Popery This design dying with him was reviv'd again upon the coming in of King Charles II. Surely those learned Men and Bishops that had been with that King in his Exile beyond the Seas must be supposed to know that King's Religion and what his designs were these were they that among other hard things that they imposed upon us to the exercise of our Ministry brought a necessity of Re-ordination Secondly Seeing the sincere desire of doing good to Souls is so necessary to prove Ministers to be sent of God I beg of you that are to be ordain'd this day to look to your Aims and Ends that they be such for Purity of intention is absolutely required to the acceptance of what we do so that though we do what is commanded but not because it is commanded it is as if we had not done it nay 't is in some respect as if God had not commanded it Remember the words of the Prophet concerning Jehu He was command-to destroy the house of Ahab and yet because he did what he was commanded but not with that Purity of Intention as was necessary to his acceptance not to destroy Idolatry as he pretended but to establish himself in the Kingdom therefore saith God I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu Hos 1.3 4. The more entirely we aim at this the doing of good the turning men from the evil of their ways and doings the more contented we shall be in our present circumstances in which though we have not that encouragement as we could desire yet we have more than the Primitive Preachers of the Gospel obtain'd for the space of three hundred years we have more encouragement than we expected or indeed could rationally expect enough therefore to make us thankfully to acknowledge it is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Thirdly Seeing the Gifts of Knowledge and Utterance are so highly necessary to the Ministry let us more endeavour to qualifie our selves with those Gifts that may evidence it to the People that we are sent of God and not trust to the Ceremony of Ordination which when it is applied to men utterly destitute of those Gifts may be a mere Nullity A Mute or an Idiot is no Minister though ordain'd Our care therefore should be ours that are in the Ministry and yours that stand as Candidates for the Ministry to keep and increase those Gifts that may enable us to the performance of all Ministerial Duties First We are the mouth of the people to God What! should a Minister look no further to accomplish himself for that part of his Ministry but to read out of the Book what he hath to pray for in behalf of the people God commandeth Christians to pray with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit Eph. 6.18 And is the Ministry exempted should he not be able to do that which every private Christian is required to do A Minister should not be confin'd to the Fetters of other mens narrow defective Words and Books whatever may be said on behalf of such as need the help of a composed Form I wonder that men should think it necessary that all should be confin'd to them It can't be supposed that all do need them Let us not be affrighted out of our duty by a pretence that the thing is not attainable on a sudden to express our desires Remember the words of the Apostle Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought The Apostle doth not say the Book will tell you for then there was none for ought appears but the Spirit helpeth our Infirmities So that Spiritual Prayer was in the Church before the Jesuits brought it in This Gift of the Spirit all ought to pray for Ministers especially that they may not only desire graciously and acceptably things necessary but express these desires on behalf of the people that they by joyning with us may make them their own desires And we should endeavour to excell in this Gift that we may avoid all those Indecencies which those that idolize Forms are apt to take notice of and expose viz. a foolish Loquacity pouring out as one saith tumultuous indigested thoughts We are not rashly to utter any thing before the Lord Eccles 5.2 We should also avoid vain Repetitions for we shall not be heard for much speaking Matth. 6 7. We should also avoid affected Words and Phrases for certainly the more plain and familiar our words are the better they suit with the nature of Prayer In a word we should endeavour to observe the general rule of our Saviour not to be as the hypocrites Thus let us all endeavour to accomplish our selves for this part of our Ministry and if our Brethren out of a fondness to their own way of Devotion will ridicule our
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
this that they are mov'd by the Holy Ghost to take upon them this Ministry to serve God in the edifying his people and yet as to this inward motion they know nothing of it but this that they know they never had it It is no great wonder if such Ministers having gotten into the Ministry as into a Calling to maintain and enrich themselves doe endeavour to make the best of their Calling by grasping into their hands as many places as by Favour or Simony they can get and then substitute some poor illiterate Curate a thing so openly scandalous that the Council of Trent would have reform'd it in the Church of Rome nay it is reform'd in some Churches belonging to that Communion but not in the Church of England notwithstanding the great outcries we have made about our Separation from them I say the Council of Trent would have reform'd it had it been over-rul'd by the Court of Rome The present King by his Injunctions to the Bishops doth enough shew his dislike of this matter if they to whom it belongs to prevent it will do their part Secondly A Minister that is sent of God must be qualified with those Gifts of Knowledge and Utterance as are highly necessary to the Ministry Tho' 't is hard to determine what degrees of Gifts are necessary yet 't is easie to see that degrees of Knowledge are necessary to him that is to teach and instruct men above what is necessary to others The Master should know more than the Scholar the Guide should know the way better than the Traveller that takes him for his Guide Tho' the Church of Rome would keep the people in ignorance they are for a learned Clergy God doth make so great use of the gifts of Ministers that 't is strange that any that pretend to Learning should make light of the Qualifications of Ministers under a pretence that the Office suffereth and that people should not much concern themselves about the gifts of their Ministers God they say having instituted the Office will bless it and is not tied to the gifts of Ministers True it is that God is not tied to means and instruments he can do his own work without means and by weak instruments But yet this is no rule to us for we are not to consider what God can do nor what he hath done when means have fail'd when upon the Nations coming out of Popery able Ministers were not to be had I don't doubt but that good was done by such as could be had Some could do no more than read But we are to consider what is the most likely way in which we may expect the Concurrence of God's Grace and Blessing in the use of means Whether it is not more likely that God may bless a laborious faithfull holy Ministry than an ignorant idle wicked one Except in extraordinary Cases God doth use means adapted for the work he employs them about and surely a Minister that takes no care of his own Soul is not like to save other mens Moses was raised up of God to bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt Moses was in every thing fitted for that work except in a readiness of Speech which was supply'd by Aaron who was to be his Spokesman Moses was bred up at Court and train'd up in the Learning of the Egyptians a man that understood the rules of Policy and the meekest man upon earth One that was for forty years an Herdsman and had travers'd that Wilderness through which he was to lead the Children of Israel Whatever St. Paul was before his Conversion God that put him into the Ministry made him an able Minister and tho' our Saviour chose for his Disciples unlearned Fishermen yet St. Paul chargeth Timothy to look well to the Gifts and Abilities of such as he should take into the Ministry 2 Tim. 2.2 The same commit thou to faithfull men who shall be able to teach others and to lay hands suddenly on no man 1 Tim. 5.22 Is it not evident that 't is not the Office but the Gifts of Ministers and their diligence and industry that must convert and edifie the people What is the Ministry but an Office ordain'd for instructing the people And what is the Office but an obligation to do the work of the Office and is the work done by an obligation upon men to do it Doth the Office of a Constable or the Mayor of the Town prevent and punish Debauchery and Profaneness or the care and diligence of him that is in the Office Is a sick man heal'd by the Office or rather is he not heal'd by the skill of the Physician Why should the Kingdom be at that charge to give a liberal Maintenance to the Ministry if there be little odds as to the Gifts and Abilities of Ministers Gifts therefore of knowledge and utterance are highly necessary to him that would prove himself to be sent of God The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they the people should seek the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mal. 2. And the qualifications of a Minister should consist in these two things viz. First Ministers should be able to speak from the people to God to open the case of the people their wants and desires and his own wants and desires in Prayer Ministers should be able to do this in orderly clear and congruous Expressions according to the several occasions that will happen which a stinted form can never comprehend And that a stinted form cannot comprehend the several occasions for which Prayers and Praises ought to be offer'd up to God appears from hence that as oft as days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving are commanded to be observed Prayers are composed and sent down to be used for that occasion which is an open acknowledgment that there is a Defect in our Liturgy and that 't is necessary to supply that Defect But what provision is there made for the particular occasions of each Congregation and for the several Members of the Congregation If new Prayers are necessary for days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving why not for such particular occasions of the Congregation The Minister had need to be able to do this for a stinted Form cannot comprehend the various Accidents of Life for which Prayers and Praises are to be made There will be inconveniences that may attend conceiv'd Prayer and are there none on the other hand that will attend composed Forms Every thing that is the work of man will savour of the imperfection of man However we are as I think on the surest side for the Scripture commands us to pray but what place of Scripture commands that Prayer must be always as oft as the Church comes together in the same words If a stinted Form were so necessary as is pretended I don't think it would have been left undetermined in the Scripture neither would the Apostles have left the several Churches that they planted