Arg. 2. Doth not your attendance upon, and following of such a ministrv, help to midwife and bring forth all those evils with which their ministry travails, and is in pain to be delivered of? Could they do any hurt, if they were generally dechned and a- voided ? Their strength lieth in you : As a great commander once said to his soldiers, ' That he flew upon their wings.' Hence it was the Pharisees were so often disappointed in their attempts to lay hands upon Christ ; they had a strong design to do it, but the text saith, " They could not because of the people," Mark xiv. 9.. Acts iv. 21. So the false teachers in Jeroboam's time, Hosea vii. 6, 7. were as hot as an oven, with desires and designs to draw tiie people to false worship, but the people were a great lump, and could not presently be leavened ; and therefore in the mean time, till that were done, the baker slept, and ceased from rising. This for a time, obstructed the design; but here is the misery, the people are materia disposita, matter fit for them to work into any form, if they give them but a heat or two in a plausible sermon, they are malleable, and fit to be hammered into any shape, Jer. v. idt. " The people love to have it so :" And Amos iv. 5. This liketh you, O Iwuse of Israel. Fear of persecution makes them comply with any thing, Gal. vi. 12.
Arg, 3. Can you attend lawfully and comfortably upon such a ministry, upon which you cannot pray for, or expect a blessing ? Doubtless, you will readily confess you may not. And can you pray for, or expect a blessing, where you have no promise in all the book of God to warrant or encourage you so to do.^^ It is clear you cannot. Now produce but one promise to the labours of such as God hath not sent. A curse upon their labours you may find, Jer. xxiii. 32. and upon their gifts and parts. And a pro- hibition of hearing them, you may find, Jer. xxiii. 16. But no promise of a blessing ; that only attends a ministry of Christ's ovfXi sending, Mat. xxviii. 19, 20.
Object. But hath not Christ sent them f How shall we be satis* Jied in that 9
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Sol. Consider what is requisite and necessary in the sending, or due call of a minister. (1.) Whether it be personal qualifications, described, 1 Tim. iii. 7. 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 1 Tim. iii. 2. 2 Tirti. ii. 2. John xxi. 15, 16, 17. (2.) Or free election by the church, to which the ministry is given : See Acts i. 23, 24. and vi. 5. (3.) Or (aecording to true Presbyterian principles) ordination, by fast- ing, prayer, and imposition of hands, Acts vi. 6. and xiii. 3. and xiv. 23. 1 Tim. v. 22. and iv. 14. 2 Tim. i. 6.
If the sending or call of a minister, consists in all or either of these, then judge yourselves whether these men are sent. For their gifts and qualifications necessary to fit them for such a work, let their congregation witness, who are fed upon husks, and starved under them.
For their election by the church, let the godly in their respec- tive parishes witness, whether they were elected by them, or ob- truded upon them, and so stand upon the ruins of their own law- ful and godly pastors.
And for their ordination, their own canons liiay inform you : Wherein it is ordered, (1.) That they be made deacons: (2.) Then after a year's spaccj they must be presented to the bishop, or his suffragan, by an archdeacon or his deputy, saying, ' Reve-
* rend father in God, I present these persons to be admitted to ' the order of priesthood.' (3.) Then after the Litany and Some ' collects, the prelate asketh them, ' Do you think in your hearts,
* that you be truly called according to the will of Christ, and the
* order of this church of England, to the ministry of priesthood ?' And every one of them answers, / tliinJc it. (4.) Then they pro- mise reverently to obey their ordinary, and other chief ministers of the church. (5.) And then kneeling down at the prelate s feet, he, with the priests present, lay their hands on their heads, say- ing, ' Receive the Holy Ghost. Whose sins thou dost forgive, ' they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost retain they are re- ' tained : and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and ' of his holy sacraments, in the name of the Father, Son, and
* Holy Ghost. Amen.'' (6.) Then delivering to each of them a Bible, he saith, * Take thine authority to preach the word of God,
* and to administer the holy sacraments, in the congregation where ' thou shalt be so appointed.' (7.) Asd after all this, by the ca- nons of 1603, none of them are to be admitted to any ecclesiasti- cal living, or suffered to preach, except he be licensed so to do, by the archbishop, or bishop of the diocese, and shall subscribe, ' Tliat the book of common prayer, and of ordering bishops ' priests, and deacons, contains in it nothing contrary to the word ' of God, and that it may be lawfully used, and that lie himself
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' will use the same ; and that he alloweth the book of articles of ' religion.' (8.) And then lastly, having abjured the covenant, 5:c. he is a complete priest to all intents and purposes.
Judge now what a fair and regular call here is to the ministry. I remember Acquinas tells us, that ' if the artificer's hand were * his rule, he could never work amiss.' And if so, if the prelate's hand be the rule of ordination, they cannot but be well ordained ; but if the scriptures be indeed the rule, I am at a loss where to find a text parallel to this practice, unless it be that in 2 Chron. xiii. 9- which, I confess, suits it to an hair's breadth.