to the being of the Ministry some but to the well being It s the first that I now speak of Sect. 5. Before I name them lest you misapply what is said I shall first desire you to observe this very necessary distinction It s one thing to ask Who is to take himself for a called and true Minister and to do the work as expecting Acceptance and Reward from God and it s another thing to ask Whom are the people or Churches to take for a true Minister and to submit to as expecting the Acceptance and blâ—ssing of God in that submission from hiâ— adminâ—stratioâ—s Or its one thing to have a Call which wil before God justifie his Ministration and another thing to have a Call which will before 〈◊〉 justifie the Peoples submission and will justifie in foro Ecclesia both him and them And so it s one thing to be a Minister whom God and Conscience will justifie and own as to Himself and another thing to be a Minister to the Church whom they must own and God will own and bless only as to their good In the first sence none but truely sanctified men can be Ministers but in the latter an unsanctified man may be a Minister As there is a difference among Members between the Visible and Mystical of which I have spoken elsewhere So is there between Pastors Some have a Title that in foro Ecclesiae or Ecclesia judice will hold good that have none that is good in foro Dei In one word the Church is bound to take many a man as a true Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in faith and expectation of a Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it As in worldly Possessions many a man hath a good Title before men and at the bar of man so that no man may disturb his Possession nor take it from him without the guilt of theft when yet he may have no good Right at the bar of God to justifie him in his retention So it is here Sect. 6. It is too common a case in Civil Governments the ignorance of which occasioneth many to be disobedient A man that invadeth the Soveraignty without a Title may be no King as to himself before God aod yet may be truly a King as to the People That is He stands guilty before God of Usurpation and till he Repent and get a better Title shall be answerable for all his administrations as unwarrantable And yet when he hath settled himself in Possession of the Place and exercise of the Soveraignty he may be under an obligation to do justice to the people and defend them and the people may be under an obligation to obey him and honour him and to receive the fruits of his Government as a blessing Mens Title in Conscience and before God for Magistracy and Ministry themselves are most to look after and to justifie and it s often crakt and naught when their Title in foro humano may be good or when the people are bound to obey them And those miscarriages or usurpations of Magistrates or Ministers which forfeit Gods Acceptance and Blessing to themselves do not forfeit the blessing of Christs Ordinances and their administrations to the Church For it is the guilty and not the Innocent that must bear the loss A Sacrament may be as effectual and owned by God for my benefit when it is from the hand of a man that shall be condemned for administring it as when it is from the hand of a Saint that hath a better call supposing still that I be innocent of his usurpation or error This necessary distinction premised I say that special Grace is necessary to that Call of a Minister that must be warrantable and justifyable to himself before God but it iâ— not necessary to that call that 's justifyable before the Church and is necessary to our submission and to the blessing of the Ordinances and their Validity to our good Sect. 7. But yet here are some Qualifications essentially necessary to Dispose the man to be Receptive of the Ministry coram Ecclesia though saving grace be not As 1. It is of Necessity that he be a Christian by Profession and so that he Profess that faith repentance love obedience which is saving For the Minister in question is only A Christian Minister and therefore he must be a Christian aliquid amplius by profession 2. It is therefore Necessary that he Profess and seem to Understand and Believe all the Articles of the faith that are essential to Christianity and do not heretically deny any one of these what ever he do by inferiour Articles 3. He must be one that is able to preach the Gospel that is in some competent manner to make known the Essentials of Christianity or else he cannot be a Minister at all 4. He must be one that understandeth the Essentials of Baptism and is able to administer it Though the actual administration be not alway necessary 5. He must understand the Essentials of a particular Church and profess to allow of such Churches as Gods Ordinance or else he cannot be the Pastor of them 6. He must Profess to Value and Love the Saints and their communion Or else he cannot be a Minister for the communion of Saints 7. He must Profess and seem to understand believe and approve of all the Ordinances of Christ which are of Necessity to Church-communion 8. And he must be tolerably able to dispense and administer those Ordinances Or else he is not capable of the office 9. He must Profess and seem to make the Law of God his Rule in these administrations 10. And also to desire the saving of mens souls and the wellfare of the Church and Glory and Pleasing of God If he have not beforehand all these Qualifications he is not capable of the Ministry nor can any Ordination make him a true Minister Sect. 8. If you demand my proof it is from the common principles that 1. The form cannot be received but into a disposed capable matter but such are no disposed capable matter therefore c. 2. The office is for the work and therefore presupposeth a Capacity and ability for the work The office containeth 1. An Obligation to the Duty But no man can be obliged to do that which is Naturally Impossible to him though a Moral Impossibility may stand with an obligation to duty and a Natural only as founded in the Moral 2. It containeth an Authority or Power to do the work But such Power which is but a Right of excercising Naturall Abilities doth presuppose the Abilities to be exercised Natural Power is presupposed to Civil Authority 3. It is Essential to such Relations that they be for their Ends And therefore where there is an apparent incapacity for the end there is as apparent an incapacicy of the Relation But enough of this
between you and your Brethren for so they are is too much known to friends and foes at home and abroad and too much daily manifested by each side Shall it still continue or would you have it healed If it must continue tell us how long and tell us why Would you have it go with us to Eternity and will you not be reconciled nor dwell with us in Heaven It is not in your Power to shut us out And will you not be there if we be there Or do you think there will be any Discord where Love is Perfected and we are One in God If you can be content to be saved with us and believe that all of both Opinions that truly love and fear the Lord shall live there in dearest Love for ever how can you chuse when you forethink of this but Love them now that you must for ever Love and long to be reconciled to them with whom you must there so harmoniously accord You know that Earth is our preparation for Heaven and such as men would be there they must begin to be here As they must be Holy here that ever will there see the Lord in Holiness so must they here be Loving and Peaceable that ever will live in that perfect heavenly Love and Peace And why is it that the distance must be so great Are we not all the Children of one Father Have we not all the same God the same Redeemer the same Spirit in us if we are Christians indeed Rom. 8.9 Are we not in the same Baptismal Covenant with God Have we not the same holy Scripture for our Rule and are we not in the same universal Church and of the same Religion some of you say No to the grief of your friends and the shame of your own understandings and uncharitableness I beseech you bear it if I touch the sore For my work is Healing and therefore though it Must be touch't it shall be as gently as the case will bear If I may judge by such as I have had any opportunity to know I must say that the distance on your part is continued in some by confused apprehensions of the case and not distinguishing things that differ In some by discontents of mind and too deep a sense of worldly losses and the things that you take as injuries from others In some by the advantage of a co-interest and consociation with those Divines that are of your way and so by a Willingness to think them in the right and those in the wrong that you take for adversaries In some by a stiffness and stoutâ—ess of disposition that cals it Constancy to hold your own and Manliness not to stoop to others and takes it as dishonourable to seek for Peace even in Religion with your supposed adversaries or to yield to it at least without much importunity With too many miserable souls it is meer ungodliness and enmity to that way of Piety that in many that you differ from appears And in the best of you it is a Remissness of Charity and want of Zeal for the Churches Peace and the Love and Vnity of Brethren To confute the reasonings of all these sorts would draw out this Preface to too great a length The first sort my experience hath caused me to observe Oft have I faln into company with men that pour forth bitter odious words against Presbyterie and I ask them what that Presbyterie is that they speak of with so much abomination Is it the Name or the Thing which they so abhor If the Name is it not a term of Scripture used by the Holy Ghost 1 Tim. 4.14 Are not the Pastors of the Church most frequently called the Presbyters or Elders Tit. 1.5 Act. 14.23 15.2 4 6 22 23. 1 Tim. 5.17 Act. 20.17 James 5.14 1 Pet. 5.1 c. It must needs then be the Thing and not the Name which they abominate And what is that Thing most of them cannot tell me Some presently talk of the disuse of the Common Prayer as if that were a part of Presbyterie and Government and the form of worship were all one Some presently run to Scotland and talk of forcing men to Confession of sin and of their secular enforcement of their Excommunications But 1. If this be odious why was it used by the Bishops Is it good in them and bad in others 2. And why plead you for Discipline and against Toleration if you so loath the things you plead for 3. But will you not when it s known so openly distinguish the Ministerial Power from the secular It s known by their Laws and constant Practice that all the Power that was exercised by Violence on Body or Estate by the Assemblies was derived from the Magistrate whose Commissioners also sate among them And the Bishops in England were seconded by the Sword as much as they It s known that the Presbyterians commonly maintain in their Writings that Pastors have no Coercive or Secular Power but only the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to exercise on the Conscience committed to them by Christ. 4. And the writings and practice of those in England openly manifest it and its them with whom you have most to do Some tell me that Presbyterie is the Government of the Church without Bishops And is it only the Negation of your Prelacy that is the odious thing Is there nothing Positive odious in Presbyterie Thus our Belief is condemned by the Papists even because we Believe not so much as they when in the Positives of our Faith there is nothing that they can blame Some make it the odious thing that they have Lay-Elders But 1. The Presbyterians account them not Lay but Ecclesiasticks 2. And what is the Odious harm that these men do among them They are present and Consent to the admonishing and censuring of offendors And what great harm doth that to the Church Is it because they do not Preach No sure in that your Readers are much like them What work can you Name that these Elders are appointed to that by your Confession is not to be done It is not the Work then that you blame but that these men do it 3. But what is this to all that are in this point of your mind and think that unordained Elders wanting Power to preach or administer the Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of Gods appointment As far as I can understand the greater part if not three for one of the English Ministers that you stand at a distance from are of this mind and so far against Lay-Elders as well as you of whom I confess my self to be One. and that M r Vines was One I have shewed you in the End Surely then all we are none of the odious Presbyterians in your eyes Why then is there such a distance And are Lay-Elders as bad as Lay-Chancellors So also when some have been hotly condemning us as being against Bishops I ask them what a Bishop is and what
way or other feel ere long that they have owned a very unprofitable cause and such as they shall wish they had let alone and that it made not for their honour to be so much enemies to the welfare of the Church as the enemies of the abolition of that Prelacy will appear to be Cons. II. The matter of that clause in the National Covenant which concerneth the abolition of this Prelacy before mentioned was so far from deserving the Reproaches and Accusations that are bestowed on it by some that it was just and necessary to the well being of the Church In this also I purposely mean the Civil controversie about the authority of imposing taking or prosecuting the Covenant and speak only of the Matter of it to avoid the losing of the truth by digressions and new controversies They that by reproaching this clause in the Covenant do own the Prelacy which the Covenant disowneth might shew more love to the Church and their own souls by pleading for sickness and nakedness and famine and by passionate reproaches of all that are against these then by such owning and pleading for a far greater evil Cons. III. Those of the English Ministry that are against the old Episcopacy and are glad that the Church is rid of it are not therefore guilty of Schism nor of sinfull disobedience to their spiritual superiours If any of them did swear obedience to the Prelates a tyrannicall imposition that God never required nor the Primitive Church never used that 's nothing to our present case which is not about the keeping of oaths but the obeying or rejecting the Prelacy in it self considered It is not schismatical to depart from an â—â—â—rpation that God disowneth and the Church is endangered and so much wronged by and to seek to pull up the Roots of Schism which have bred and fed it in the Churches so long Cons. IV. Those that still justifie the ejected Prelacy and desire the restauration of it as they needlesly choose the guilt of the Churches desolations so are they not to be taken for men that go about to heal our breaches but rather for such as would widen and continue them by restoring the main cause Cons. V. If we had had such an Episcopacy as Bishop Hall and Bishop Vsher did propound as satisfactory and such men to manage it Episcopacy and Peace might have dwelt together in England to this day It is not the the Name of a Bishop that hath been the matter of our trouble but the exorbitant Species introducing unavoidably the many mischiefs which we have seen and felt Cons. VI. Ordination by the ejected Prelacy in specie is not of necessity to the being or well-being of a Presbyter or Deacon If the Species of Prelacy it self be proved contrary to the word of God and the welfare of the Church then the Ordination that is by this Species of Prelacy cannot be necessary or as such desirable Cons. VII A Parochial or Congregational Pastor having assistant Presbyters and Deacons either existent or in expectance was the Bishop that was in the dayes of Ignatius Iustin Tertullian and that Dr. Hammond describeth as meant in many Scriptures and existent in those dayes I speak not now to the question about Archbishops Cons. VIII The Ordination that is now performed by these Parochial Bishops especially in an assembly guided by their Moderator is beyond all just exception Valid as being by such Bishops as the Apostles planted in the Churches and neerer the way of the Primitive Church then the Ordination by the ejected Species of Prelates is Cons. IX As the Presbyters of the Church of Alexandria did themselves make one their Bishop whom they chose from among themselves and set him in a higher degree as if Deacons make an Archdeacon or Souldiers choose one and make him their Commander saith Hierom ad Evagr. so may the Presbyters of a Parochial Church now And as the later Canons require that a Bishop be ordained or consecrated by three Bishops so may three of these Primitive Parochial Bishops ordain or consecrate now another of their degree And according to the Canons themselves no man can justly say that this is invalid for want of the Consecration by Archbishops or of such as we here oppose Cons. X. Those that perswade the People that the Ordinanation of those in England and other Churches is null that is not by such as the English Prelates were and that perswade the people to take them for no Presbyters or Pastors that are not ordained by such Prelates and do make an actual separation from our Churches and Ministers and perswade others to the like upon this ground and because the Ministers have disowned the English Prelacy and withal confess that Church of Rome to be a true Church and their ordination and Priesthood to be just or true are uncharitable and dangerously Schismatical though under pretence of decrying Schism and many wayes injurious to the Church and to the souls of men and to themselves This will not please but that I not only speak it but further manifest it is become Necessary to the right Information of others FINIS The Second DISPUTATION VINDICATING The Protestant Churches and MINISTERS that have not Prelatical Ordination from the Reproaches of those Dividers that would nullifie them WRITTEN Upon the sad complaints of many Godly Ministers in several parts of the Nation whose Hearers are turning Separatists By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1658. The Preface Christian Reader IF thou be but for the interest of Christianity more than of a party and a Cordial friend to the Churches Peace though thou be never so much resolved for Episcopacy I doubt not but thou and I shall be one if not in each Opinin yet in our Religion and in Brotherly affection and in the very bent of our labours and our lives And I doubt not but thou wilt approve of the scope and substance of this following Disputation what imperfections soever may appear in the Manner of it For surely there is that of God within thee that will hardly suffer thee to believe that while Rome is taken for a true Church the Reformed that have no Prelates must be none that their Pastors are meer Lay-men their Ordination being Null and consequently their administrations in Sacraments c. Null and of no Validity The Love that is in thee to all believers and especially to the Societies of the Saints and the honour and interest of Christ will keep thee from this or strive against it as nature doth against poyson or destructive diseases If thou art not a meer Opinionist in Religion but one that hast been illuminated by the spirit of Christ and felt his love shed abroad in thy heart and hast ever had experience of spiritual communion with Christ and his Church in his holy Ordinances I dare then venture my cause upon thy judgement Go