(2.) The Lord Christ giveth and continueth this office by giving spiritual gifts and abilities unto men, to enable them to discharge the duties and perform the work of it. This is that which I principally
494 OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. [BOOK IX.
design to confirm in its proper place, which will immediately ensue. All I shall say at present is, that spiritual gifts of themselves make no man actually a minister; yet no man can be made a minister ac- cording to the mind of Christ who is not partaker of them. Where- fore, supposing the continuance of the law and institution mentioned, if the Lord Christ do at any time, or in any place, cease to give out spiritual gifts unto men, enabling them in some good measure unto the discharge of the ministry, then and in that place the minis- try itself must cease and come to an end. To erect a ministry by virtue of outward order, rites, and ceremonies, without gifts for the edification of the church, is but to hew a block with axes, and smooth it with planes, and set it up for an image to be adored. To make a man a minister who can do nothing of the proper peculiar work of the ministry, nothing towards the only end of it in the church, is to set up a dead carcass, fastening it to a post, and expecting it should do you work and service.
(3.) He doth it by giving power unto his church in all ages to call and separate unto the work of the ministry such as he hath fitted and gifted for it. The things before mentioned are essentially con- stituent of the ministry; this belongs unto the outward order of their entrance into the ministry who are by him called thereunto. And concerning this we may observe the things following: — [1.] That this power in the church is not despotical or lordly, but consists in a faculty, right, and ability, to act in this matter obedientially unto the command of Christ. Hence all the acting of the church in this matter is nothing but an instituted means of conveying authority and office from Christ unto persons called thereunto. The church doth not give them any authority of its own or resident in itself; but only, in a way of obedience unto Christ, doth transmit power from him unto them who are called. Hence do they become the ministers of Christ, and not of the bishops, or churches, or men, holding their office and authority from Christ himself, by the law and rule of the gospel; so that whosoever despiseth them, despiseth him also in them. Some would have ministers of the gospel to receive all their authority from the people that choose them, and some from the bishops who ordain them, and whence they have theirs I know not. But this is to make them ministers of men and servants of men, and to constitute other masters between them and Christ. And whereas all church power is originally and absolutely vested in Christ, and in him solely, so that none can be partaker of the least inte- rest in it or share of it without a communication of it from him unto them, neither popes, nor prelates, nor people, are able to pro- duce any such grant or concession of power unto them from him as that they should have an authority residing in them and in their
CHAP. VI.] THE INSTITUTION OF THE MINISTRY. 495
power, to dispose unto others as they see cause, so as they should hold it from them as a part or efflux of the power vested in them. It is obedience unto the law of Christ, and following the guidance of his previous communication of gifts as a means to communicate his power unto them who are called to the ministry, that is the whole of what is committed unto any in this kind. [2] The church hath no power to call any unto the office of the ministry, where the Lord Christ hath not gone before it in the designation of him by an endowment with spiritual gifts; for if the whole authority of the ministry be from Christ, and if he never give it but where he bestows these gifts with it for its discharge, as in Eph. iv. 7, 8, etc., then to call any to the ministry whom he hath not so previously gifted is to set him aside, and to act in our own name and authority. And by reason of these things the Holy Ghost is said to make men overseers of the flocks who are thus called thereunto ; because both the com- munication of power in the constitution of the law, and of spiritual gifts by internal effectual operation, are from him alone, Acts xx. 28. [3.] The outward way and order whereby a church may call any person unto the office of the ministry among them and over them, is by their joint solemn submission unto him in the Lord, as unto all the powers and duties of this office, testified by their choice and election of him. It is concerning this outward order that all the world is filled with disputes, about the call of men unto the ministry; which yet, in truth, is of the least concernment therein : for what- ever manner or order be observed herein, if the things before men- tioned be not rjremised thereunto, it is of no validity or authority. On the other hand, grant that the authority of the ministry de- pendeth on the law, ordinance, and institution of Christ, that he calls men unto this office by the collation of spiritual gifts unto them, and that the actings of the church herein are but an instituted moral means of communicating office-power from Christ himself unto any, and let but such other things be observed as the light and law of nature requireth in cases of an alike kind, and the outward mode of the church's acting herein need not much be contended about. It may be proved to be a beam of truth from the light of nature, that no man should be imposed on a church for their minister against their wills or without their express consent, considering that his whole work is to be conversant about their understandings, judg- ments, wills, and affections; and that this should be done by their choice and election, — as the Scripture doth manifestly declare, Num. viii. 9, 10, Acts i. 23, 26, vi. 3-6, xiv. 23, so, that it was for some ages observed sacredly in the primitive churches, — cannot modestly be denied. But how far any people or church may com- mit over this power of declaring their consent and acquiescency unto