And afterward, speaking of ordination " de universse fraternitatis suffragio," " by the suffrage of the whole brotherhood of the church," he says, " Diligenter de traditione divina, et apostolica observatione servandum est et tenendum apud nos quoque et fere per universas provincias tenetur;" — "According to which divine tradition and apo- stolical practice, this custom is to be preserved and kept amongst us also, as it is almost through all the provinces."
Those who are not moved with his authority, yet I think have reason to believe him in a matter of fact of what was done every- where, or almost everywhere, in his own days; and they may take time to answer his reasons when they can, which comprise the sub- stance of all that we plead in this case.
THE OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. Vl
But the testimonies in following ages given unto this right and power of the people in choosing their own church-officers, bishops and others, recorded in the decrees of councils, the writings of the learned men in them, the rescripts of popes, and constitutions of emperors, are so fully and faithfully collected by Blondellus, in the third part of his apology for the judgment of Jerome about episco- pacy, as that nothing can be added unto his diligence, nor is there any need of further confirmation of the truth in this behalf.
The- pretence also of Bellarmine, and others who follow him and borrow their conceits from him, that this liberty of the people in choosing their own bishops and pastors was granted unto them at first by way of indulgence or connivance, and that, being abused by them and turned into disorder, it was gradually taken from them, until it issued in that shameful mocking of God and man which is in use in the Roman church, when, at the ordination of a bishop or priest, one deacon makes a demand, " Whether the person to be or- dained be approved by the people," and another answers out of a corner, " That the people approve him," has been so confuted by protestant writers of all sorts, that it is needless to insist any longer on them.
Indeed, the concessions that are made, that this ancient practice of the church in the people's choosing their own officers (which to deny is all one as to -deny that the sun gives light at noon-day), is, as unto its right, by various degrees transferred unto popes, patrons, and bishops, with a representation in a mere pageantry of the people's liberty to make objections against them that are to be ordained, are as fair a concession of the gradual apostasy of churches from their original order and constitution as need be desired.
This power and right which we assign unto the people is not to act itself only in a subsequent consent unto one that is ordained, in the acceptance of him to be their bishop or pastor. How far that may salve the defect and disorder of the omission of previous elec- tion, and so preserve the essence of the ministerial call, I do not now inquire. But that which we plead for is the power and right of election, to be exercised previously unto the solemn ordination or setting apart of any unto the pastoral office, communicative of office- power in its own kind unto the person chosen.
This is part of that contest which for sundry ages filled most countries of Europe with broils and disorders; neither is there yet an end put unto it. But in this present discourse we are not in the least concerned in these things ; for our inquiry is, what state and order of church-affairs is declared and represented to us in the Scrip- ture ; and therein there is not the least intimation of any of those things from whence this controversy did arise and whereon it doth depend. Secular endowments, jurisdictions, investiture, rights of
72 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
presentation, and the like, with respect unto the evangelical pastoral office and its exercise in an}^ place, which are the subjects of these contests, are foreign unto all things that are directed in the Scriptures concerning them, nor can be reduced unto an}^ thing that belongs unto thera. Wherefore, whether this "jus patrouatus''' be consistent with gospel institutions; whether it may be continued with respect unto lands, tithes, and benefices; or how it may be reconciled unto the right of the people in the choice of their own ecclesiastical officers, from the different acts, objects, and ends required unto the one and the other, — are things not of our present consideration.
And this we affirm to be agreeable unto natural reason and equity, to the nature of churches in their institution and ends, to all autho- rity and office-power in the church necessary unto its edification, with the security of the consciences of the officers themselves and the preservation of due respect and obedience unto them, and constituted by the institution of Christ himself in his apostles and the practice of the primitive church. Wherefore, the utter despoiling of the church, of the disciples, of those gathered in church-societies by his authority and command, of this right and liberty, may be esteemed a sacrilege of a higher nature than sundry other things which are reproached as criminal under that name.
And if any shall yet further appear to justify this deprivation of the right laid claim unto, and the exclusion of the people from their ancient possession, with sobriety of argument and reason, the whole caiise may be yet further debated, from principles of natural light and equity, from maxims of law and policy, from the necessity of the ends of church-order and poAver, from the moral impossibility of any other way of the conveyance of ecclesiastical office-power, as well as from evangelical institution and the practice of the first churches.