very well that define it to be Missio potestativa You see I speak not at the lowest Well then The Apostles have one Authorative Mission Mat. 10.7 and they have another also Matth. 28.19 Joh. 20.21 They are doubly ordained then and both Ordinations extraordinary Paul hath Mission Potestative from Christ Act. 26. And yet hath an open Ordination also by men Act. 13. He is re-ordained and one Ordination is extraordinary and the other ordinary Barnabas hath Mission from the Church of Jerusalem Act. 11.22 and authoritative no doubt and another also with Paul by them at Antioch Here is double Ordination and both ordinary by men I may stop here for I have enough Who will not be ready to say Give me but one instance of this thing in Scripture and I am satisfied Loe here is two or three for you Nihil est tam certum quà m quod ex dubio certum est And yet what if I add The Bishop hath no new order or office from a Priest and yet hath he a new Consecration without scruple I will fold up this paper then with St. Cyprian Non debemus attendere quid aliquis ante nos faciendum putaverit sed quid qui ante omnes est Christus priùs fecerit neque enim hominis consuetudinem sequi oportet sed Dei veritatem Lib. 2. Caecil Epist 3. SECT V. A Third Objection is this To be re-ordained does seem virtually to renounce our former Ordination and for any to do so at least for me after twelve years Ministeral acts were I think not only a light thing but a heavy sin Besides it seems to be a kind of departure from our station and leaving the Presbytery which makes a man look like one of the Lapsi to some folks thinking For answer to this I do not know what others may judge in their consciences but as for my self I am humbly perswaded That so long as a man doth clearly and unfainedly both before and after unto the concern'd as he hath occasion declare himself to the contrary this will not by the Lord and ought not by Man to be laid to his charge and that upon this evident reason Because Expression in this case does give Construction to the Action The denomination must be à fortiori and there can be no doubt to the unbyassed Whether a manifest declaration by mouth or a dumb shew or act is the clearer and so the stronger signification You may take one full instance in the matter of the Reubenites when they erected an Altar Josh 22. The body of Israel presently rise up and look upon this as a renunciation of their Religion Hereupon they do but make direct profession That they had not built this Altar for Sacrifice but for a witness and you see presently all are pacified the Altar stands and there is no more said against it Besides there is this here takes out the coar that the thing is generally conceived as if already they knew your mind to be Necessity Form and Establishment only and no such matter in the least as Renunciation intended by it Doubt What if my Bishop is of opinion That my former Ordination is null and Ordains me in his mind only on that account Will not that opinion of his render me uncapable to be re-ordained by him Answ If notwithstanding his opinion he gives thee liberty to declare thy self there is no reason thy conscience being discharged for thee to imagine his opinion should hinder thee herein any more then the intention of the Priest in the matter of the Sacraments Quest But what shall I declare That I come not for a new Ordination but a legal confirmation of my former Answ Of your former Call or Ministry if you will The dream it self of Pharaoh is not said to be confirmed by a second but the thing signified was established by both For to be a little accurate here Though as to others in sensu vulgari and to speak only as a Divine my former Ordination may be said hereby to be confirmed yet in sensu peculiari as to the Bishop himself this opinion of his makes it not properly a confirmation Confirmare est rem firmam facere there must be res before it be made firm which he holds null but his Act as Lawyers speak works by way of Estoppel so that he nor any of his judgement shall be able to implead my Ministry for the future which is all one for the doing and notrendring the thing vain as if it were a confirmation in the most proper and formal sense in the world Nevertheless as for my Call or Ministry it self in the very nature of the thing it is hereby confirmed so that I have thereupon the free use thereof in our Church for which I come Care not thou therefore for words but declare thy mind plainly That Presbyterial Ordination is good in the sight of God as thou believest that thou hast not acted basely without Orders hitherto and yet in regard the times require it thou submittest for the Gospel sake to these other also that will pass This is enough and then I must tell thee that the thing it self is Confirmation Ordination I count is a Confirmation of a mans call from Christ to the Ministry which is his Commission coram Deo by the solemn God-speed allowance or approbation of such who are of authority to give a man the reputation of a Minister where lies potestas coram hominibus to its due intents in the Church where he is sent That I think were a true and almost full definition And forasmuch then in regard of the full current of the times you see wherein you may look upon your first Orders though true to be null in certain respects without ever the less esteem of them indeed or injury to them and with the Presbyterians leave too I trow you have clear room and ground for submission to Re-ordination as in the Paper before And indeed while thy Bishop and perhaps many other good men and it may be some of the chief of thy own Parish are of this mind That while thou hast no other hands laid on thee then such of thy own degree thou art not a Minister at all or such a one as thou oughtest to be and so perhaps they sorrowfully but silently get others to do some Ministerial acts for them and there grows strangeness towards thee and they greive for it besides the like and worse effects Who does not see here That this thing is a matter of more consequence then thou couldst at first think of and if thereupon thou yieldest to the remedy thou dost not go beyond nor so far as the Apostles own pattern who became all things to all men as especially in the case of Timothy even to these ends only the magnifying his Ministry and that he might gain some and who hath also left us a clear precept with his example Rom. 15.2 Let every one of us please his
THE QUESTION OF Re-ordination Whether and how a Minister Ordained by the Presbytery may take Ordination also by the Bishop By John Humfrey Minist Published for the sake of the many concerned and perplexed about it at this Season without strife for the promotion only of the holy Gospel and Peace Rom. 15.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for Tho. Williams at the Bible in Little Britain without Aldersgate 1661. Ad Lectorem THis Discourse was written at first in six or seven Letters or more to an intimate friend according to the date scattered with other matters Those Papers were since returned to the Author to peruse set together and amplisie upon further deliberation You have them therefore in this form the Superscription changed from one to many and the Letters from many as it were to one and divided into so many Sections If the former lead on to the latter and the latter taking more line bring perspicuity and fulness to the former and the whole tend to let satisfaction upon the mind as it is like best to take it in I am bid to tell you the Author is not farther sollicitous of the method which is entended not be Polemical for dispute but Medicinal for the conscience Typographus To my Reverend Pious and Worthy Brethren in the Ministry who have been Ordained in these Times only by the Presbytery Grace Truth and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ with the freedom of the Gospel Feb. 1660. WHereas it seems to me a thing reasonable for a man to give an account of his actions which may be else an occasion of stumbling to others I have thought good to write some lines about that Business which hath a various acceptation among the concerned at this season to wit the legal Establishment so I will call it according to the Book of Orders of my former Ministry and Ordination long since had by the Presbytery Before I go further I must confess I have not known or noted yet any Book Pro or Con about this Subject nor would I till I had scann'd over my own thoughts to make use of so much as to give me either reason for it objection against it or notion about it unless obiter on other matters so that the path is to me quite untrod Only I must needs say since I have done this thing I find it hath pleased God to exercise my spirit with many perplexities about it so that I am even forced to find out such a course as this to rid my mind and give vent to them Truly me thinks from the begining I have been apt to look upon the matter it self as nothing yet hath it driven me many times upon my knees with thoughts in the reflexion If it be so why am I thus And I do not see what is the end the Lord hath with me therein unless it be that these throws as it were of mine are only for the delivery of something for one or other of my Brethrens satisfaction As for the repeating or doubling Ordination it self I do thus judge of it There are some things which Divines do condemn indefinitely as evill when being barely considered they sway more this way and have a likelyhood rather thereof then good yet in their nature are indifferent that is indifferentia ad unum not ad utrum libet as they speak so that right circumstances being put they may be done I take this matter in hand to be such which though it be odd and uncouth in its first and naked consideration yet as the case complexedly now stands I put it in the number of such things as Magna utilitas to wit publica facit honestum that is the necessity of convenience renders tolerable for the time To take liberty as to the ingenuous This Re-ordination may be considered methinks Notionally or Morally There is Moral and Notional good if I may so speak Moral good is a conformity to the rule of life which God hath given us in his Word or planted in our hearts Notional good is a conformity in things to their being or nature as we apprehend them or in mens apprehensions So you must give me leave to express it Re-ordination now Notionally I suspect is not good Morally I judge it as I have saâ—◠〈◊〉 indifferent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good â—or bad though unequally as it is used Suppose a thing born with redundant parts Here is an odd thing in Nature Naturae erratum yet as it is God's creature and ordered by Providence it is good and allowed of her in the world Re-ordination let me say is Ordination redundant an Erratum perhaps as to its common notion or a mis-shape in our apprehension yer if it comes to be ordered by man to Moral advantage and the Honor of God as to the peace and freedom of the Gospel the thing is not to be made away but to be allowed in the Church as Nature does of such things as these when yet she likes them not Notional good as natural must give place to Moral good without question Indeed to dead truly herein I must distinguish I think between the part of those that require this and those that submit to it I dare not justifie our Church-Rulers in their imposing hereof notwithstanding its near concernment to them Quid enim facit exceptâ ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non facit sayes Jerome and some others because it is manifestly scandalous to the Reformed Churches abroad and it is supposed they might remedy it if they would They know best their own justifications Let the fault if there be any on Gods name lye where it is But as for the part of the Submitter who for the sake of his Ministry and present service of the Church does only yield himself to obedience and quiet I do humbly hope the matter is not such as that he should charge himself with any great hurt in it Although in immediate positive acts of Divine Worship nothing be warrantable without command yet in matters only of Order it is enough to make things lawful as I suppose that they are required of our Superiors and no where prohibited in the Word of God Quod neque contra fidem neque contra bonos more 's injungitur indifferentèr est habendum pro corum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est Aug. ad Jan. Ep. 118. When Paul circumcised Timothy and purified himself with the Jews in the Temple these were things I count indefinitely unlawful yet commendable in that case I do choose to stand on this ground yet may we draw neerer on probability It may be conjectured and cannot be denyed as certain for very good Divines say it but that Paul was confirmed in his calling to the Ministry by Ananias Act. 9. with Act. 22. which is Ordination and likewise Barnabas by the Church at Jerusalem that sent him to Antioch Act. 11.22 when yet they are both separated after Act.
neighbour for his edification And here I may propose ex abundanti this farther Whether an irrefragable argument may not be drawn from the Apostles use of Circumcision upon any after the Resurrection of Christ to prove that an Ordinance may be used without breach of the third Commandment or other sin even then when it cannot be directed to its principal no not its proper end so long as it will but attain one higher then all to wit The promotion of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus I will therefore now call the Reubenites instance again to mind craving leave to make so much use thereof in the cloze as humbly likewise after this to declare our case There are many of us who have been some years fellow Souldiers with our Brethren we cannot find it in our hearts to be lawful to give our selves a discharge in this war which were so pleasing to the flesh upon a pretence that will not hold with the Lord and hereupon we have been content to be farther engaged and submit in this thing Now the Lord God the Lord God of Gods knows we have not done this to erect an Altar against an Altar one Ordination against another we have not done it in rebellion or renuntiation thereunto but rather for fear of this thing that in time to come or that now is they should say What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel or with his Ministry that are not ordained according to the fashion of the Land and so they shall make us cease from our service of him Therefore said we that it shall be when they should say so to us that we may say again Behold the pattern of your own orders for a witness between us and you that we have our part also in the Lord and how much we desire accommodation And now I hope that Phineas himself the High-Priest and all our pious and tender Brethren when they have heard these words will be pleased and let us pass with that blessing This day we perceive that God is among us because you have not committed this trespass against the Lord. For the second part of the Objection It hath pleased God by his Providence to call us universally to change and it is not the interest now of good men to be stiffe and dividing but to be finding out the most conscionable grounds of complyance as far as ever they can with one another It would have been ingenuous I think for the case of Bancroft and the Scotch Presbyters is known if Episcopacy would by some general act of Confirmation have waved Ordination past but if she deal me thinks against her nature Pedantically not generously not Catholiquely herein it will become us yet who are the parties thus ordained and properly concerned to be fair We know what is her chief flower something must be yielded to her if we would have her part with any thing again and so long as we may declare our own sense and escape the sin we are to comprimize the matter for our selves by bringing our conscience toward God and submission to her unto composition If a second Ordination did necessarily in the fact imply a renunciation of the first what a hainous thing had it been for Paul to be ordained after by men that was made a Minister immediately by Christ Assure your self therefore most firmly from the former Paper about that matter For my part I will confess although I am one that cannot be lookt on as engaged to the Presbytery any more then to have been ordained by them yet am I so held under the conviction of the power and life of godliness in some of that sort of men above many others that I cannot let Naomi go easily and much less part with her with any indignity When these good men or party were high I could not fall in with them Now they are down my spirit like Ruth is more ready to cleave to them Nevertheless as for their way and particular government I cannot choose but retain my freedom and be apt to understand with those that give us the greatest latitude unto agreement and concord in the Nation To which end that tenent of Whitgift Def. Ad. p. 78 83 98. to my thinking does conduce It is true that nothing ought to be tolerated in the Church as necessary to Salvation or as an Article of Faith except it be contained in the Word of God It is true also That nothing in Ceremonies Order Discipline or Government in the Church is to be suffered being against the Word But that no Ceremony Order Discipline or kind of Government may be in the Church except the same be expressed in the Word of God is an absurdity and breedeth many inconveniences For we know sayes Calvin that every Church hath liberty to ordain and appoint such a Form of Government as is apt and profitable for it because the Lord hath therein preseribed no certainty upon 1 Cor. 11.2 as he quotes him To proceed on this subject I have in my second Paper and second Proposition set down certain Texts which according to St. Jerome at large on the first of Titus do plead the identity of a Presbyter and a Bishop and from him made use of by others Now I will take a Note or two thereon which will come in fitly here as the farthest way perhaps about but the neerest way home of saying something to purpose in this business The one Note is this that As those places on one hand do shake Episcopacy if pressed strictly Jure Divino So do they on the other hand go farther and take the Lay-Elder clean away which while some have pressed as strictly in Presbytery it would not pass A Presbyter or Elder is all one with a Bishop in Scripture But there was never heard of a Lay-Bishop a Lay-Pastor and consequently no Lay-Elder I mean as to ruling Ecclesiastically in Ecclesiastical affairs for if there were any as to deciding of quarrels to prevent the Brethrens going to Law according to 1 Cor. 6. that I suspect was all When there are no qualifications layed down by the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. where he directs about the making Church officers but only of the Bishops and Deacons as it cuts off the Bishop from being a distinct Order from the Presbyter so does it quite cut away the Lay-Elder For that controverted place therefore 1 Tim. 5.17 which as it is urged in the Divine right of Church government did hold me under conviction until this light of the Presbyter being one with the Bishop was clearer than it I will give you my interpretation And the rather because neither of the many which Erastus Field Bilson Downam Mead Sutliffe or others have invented to wave that Text against Presbytery could satisfie me as perhaps this of mine may not likewise satisfie others Such as it is however you shall have it The Bishop and Elder I have said are one office the one name only signifying Industriam curae
pastoralis the other Sapientiae maturitatem as Henderson out of Bede This office is to rule and preach Ruling and preaching are the inseparable parts of the same 1 Thes 5.12 13. Heb. 13.7 I speak quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever it be sometimes quoad exercitium Now there are some more able for one part of their office and some more able for the other Those that are eminent in either the Apostle would have to be encouraged or rewarded accordingly Let them have double honor that is Not as some do fondly gloss it two things Reverence and Maintenance for the next verse to this tells us what honor he certainly means such as when otherwhere he says Honor widows that is Maintenance or provision for them and double honor is more maintenance then others The Emphasis then for the Interpretation does lye on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not to be construed barely bené but pulchrè egregiè eminentèr that is the genuine signification of the word as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this being put in the beginning emphatically to the first branch will appear easily to him that ponders the Greek Text that it must be understood again in the latter to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scilicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also Here then plainly is the meaning Those Ministers that are more eminent then others are to have more encouragement honor or maintenance above others that is double honor whether they are eminent in one part of their Office or in the other in ruling or in preaching but especially if they are eminent in preaching The other note I must add in the behalf of Episcopacy for if I know any thing by my own heart it does love integrity which is the speaking as nothing but what I find in it so the whole I find there When I have said above that the identity of a Bishop and a Presbyter in Scripture does shake Episcopacy if it be held Jure divino strictly I must confess also if it be held so only at large there does some impressions ever since my deliberate reading of the Conference at the Isle of Wight remain upon me for it By a Jus divinum I understand vulgarly justum jussum in the Word of God It is true there is no superiority of the Bishop above the Presbyter in Scripture because they were all one then two words for the same thing but yet there is a superiority and inferiority in the Scripture among the Ministers in the Church The Bishops superiority is not jure divin◠but I say Superiority is jure divino The twelve Apostles were above the Seventy God hath set some in his Church first secondarily thirdly c. 1 Cor. 10.28 Now while the Church had her extraordinary Officers it did suffice that this superiority and inferiority was terminated or lodged in those divers orders but when that which was extraordinary was done away and there remained only one Order the Pastor and Teacher of the four Ephes 4.11 there was in the Church before then must the superiority inferiority of the preaching Ministry or Priest quite fall or else the Authority of the Church must interpose and make a difference of degree in identity of order and so the names of Bishop and Presbyter being sit for the turn were prudently distinguished by pious antiquity and mad use of for it For man to create a new officer or another order in his Lords house which himself hath not set there 1 Cor. 12.28 cannot I doubt be taken well by him But to put a difference only of degree or to double the dignity as well as maintenance 1 Tim. 5.17 to some above others in the same office is not like to be at all against his will Now then if you ask me Is Episcopacy jure divino or no I answer If you take this largely it is because superiority and inferiority in the Preaching Ministry of the Church is of Christ and the Scripture If you take it strictly it is not because the distinction of a Bishop and Presbyter is not of Scripture but this disparity of degree in the same order is assumed by man as consonant to the will of God in general and necessary to government To be more short Inequality for orders sake in the Ministry is of divine the mode or fashion thereof in Episcopacy is of Ecclesiastical institution It appears in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus that Paul writes to them after such a rate that does signifie very plainly an authority in them over the Elders and Deacons in their Churches How does he tell Timothy of his abiding at Ephesus to charge some that they teach no other doctrine Why does he lay down qualifications of the Pastor and Deacon what they ought to be and do What are the duties of other men to him but upon this account Wherefore does he bid him Rebuke an Elder And how shall he receive an accusation against him by witness if he had not an inspection and power of Jurisdiction over them And these things I write says he that thou might'st know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the Church of God Again Do nothing by partiality Who does not see here Episcopus pastorum as well as gregis Who will not confess a preheminence of Authority in Timothy at Ephesus and Titus in Crete over the Ministers there that is not compatible with every common Presbyter You may believe it the rather because our Divines at the Conference mentioned never denyed it That which is answered is this That Timothy and Titus were Evangelists But in the mean time the thing it self and matter contended for is found in Scripture and granted to be practised by these two men And what if they had lived and dyed where Paul left them in the exercise of this Authority Had the continuance thereof changed the nature and made it evil Was it lawful for them to exercise such a power and jurisdiction for a year and had it been unlawful if they had exercised it ten or for their lives If it had not there is the whole thing which is disputed for in a fixed Bishop Here then I take up and distinguish There is the matter it self of Episcopacy and the form or mode of it The matter appears to have its warrant in Gods Word The form which is the breaking a single order to wit the order of the Pastor into two degrees in that order and upon the ceasing of the Evangelist an higher order the placing his work so far as it is ordinary and continues necessary to the Churches welfare upon the superior degree of the Pastor so divided is indeed of mans authority and contrivance Let then the Bishop remember that as he is Pastor the Ministers also are Pastors by God whose office as to their own flock is to rule and to teach as well as his Let him beware for his life he does not un-pastor the lower degree but think
an obscure diligence I must confess I am tyred for once in digging the mettal whatsoever of it shall pass the fire when it is tryed may be put into a new mould with less labour to him that shall have use of it There is one thing only I would propose now at last as hugely convenient in my slender opinion at this season in regard of the multitudes involved in our case as also for such as may come over at any time to us from other Churches that for the removing of offence and scruple altogether unto the forms of ordering of Deacons and Priests there were a new added for the Confirmation by the Bishop of such of them who have yet been ordained by Presbyters only which should be made to run in such a strain that we may say of it as Suarez does of the Ordination of Paul and Barnabas Haec manuum Impositio nobis tantum deprecatoria non etiam consecratoria videtur Let all things sayes the Apostle be done in decency and order Now it seems a thing not agreeable to order that he which is a Priest already should be forced back and made a Deacon You may say If this be a breach of order how could I submit to it I answer if I askt how it can be required it were more to the purpose Non oportet ut qui majores ordines susceperunt minores priùs habuerint quanquam sic ordinatè ordines conferri statuerit Ecclesia ut priùs minores deinde majores suscipiantur Aq. Sup. q. 35.50 It is no question but a Priest may be a Deacon because our Church of a Deacon makes a Priest and I was not ordained a Deacon before But that which I have to speak hereto and that satisfiedly is Matters of order I hope must give place to matters of greater moment If the Church does stand upon it it is pro formâ only and I do but observe order in breaking it As for us let our Rulers look to this we do but vail our heads to Obedience to Uniformity to Peace to Necessity What if my Ordinary be of the judgement that I am no Minister if ordained only by the Presbytery as hath been intimated before which by the way if he is I am convinced do what I can for all that it is an error for it is one thing to hold Ordination ought to be by a Bishop and another that no Ordination is good and valid otherwise Quod fieri non debet it self factum valet Yet does sober Davenant quote Athanasius telling us that when some in his time were ordained only by Presbyters they judged them in Laicos redire when yet he has his Ego non ausim before in the same determination And what if accordingly many of my people will not own me but clamour They will not receive the Sacraments from me I am no Minister and ought not to preach Nay what if my self do question whether I am a Minister of England though a Minister of Christ or rather though verè a Minister whether I am yet legalitèr so according to our Church And what then if they will make me Church-warden or Constable Yea to speak more gravely What if they do thus as before mentioned some out of Conscience and others pretend it Who does not see here that the stopping the mouths of gain-sayers the cutting off occasion from those that seek it the satisfying the sober and letting my Ministry have its free course is a matter of more consequence then this whole business that we should scruple so much at it The Lord still keep in me a tender frame and serious spirit but deliver me from a scanty soul and too scrupulously-superstitious conscience And here methinks my heart is enlarged towards many of my pious Brethren that need relief and who I am perswaded If they did know as Christs speaks but what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice would not haply condemn the guiltless that is themselves that for the continuance or the establishing their Ministry do submit to this thing Re-ordination Provided still they may crave remedy if it be clogg'd with any circumstance against their conscience which at present may be attained I presume according to his Majesties Declaration Then Mattathias and his friends said one to another If we shall all do as our Brethren have done and not defend our selves upon the Sabbath then will they come upon us and take our place then shall others possess the Sanctuary and incontinently upon our scruple rid us from the same Deo Gloria mihi Condonatio Feb. 1660. Your unworthy Fellow-servant in the Ministry J. H. Neh. 13.21 Remember me O my God concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy FINIS