Four things only we have to say:
1. To beseech you to consider, whether you did not receive the work of Conversion from sin unto God, which ye presume to be wrought in you first of all, in these publique assemblies, from which you now separate? And if once you found Christ walking amongst us, How is it that you do now leave us? Do you not therein leave Christ also? Are we lesse, and not rather more reformed then we were? If the presence of Christ, both of his power and grace, be with us, why will you deny us your presence? Are ye holier and wiser then Christ? Is not this an evident token that we are true Churches, and have a true Ministry, because we have the seal of our Ministry, even the conversion of many sons and daughters unto God? Doth not the Apostle from this very ground, [176]argue the truth of his Apostleship? Is it not apparent, that our Ministers are sent by God, Because their Embassage is made successfull by God, for the good of souls? Did you ever read of true conversion ordinarily in a false Church? Will the Lord concur with those Ministers whom he sends not? Doth not the Prophet seem to say the quite contrary, Ier. 23.33. And therefore either renounce your conversion, or be converted from that great sin of separating from us.
2. To consider, whether there was not a time, when ye could have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to those Ministers, whose eyes you would now pluck out, and whom now you hate, and think you do God good service, in reviling and persecuting them. How is it, that you are thus altered and changed? Are they become your enemies, because they tell you the truth? You will Reply, It is because they are Ministers Ordained by Antichristian Bishops; and therefore before they have renounced their false Ministry, we cannot with a safe conscience hear them, nor expect a blessing from their Ministry. This Reply is, we confess, a great stumbling block to many godly people, in this Kingdome; for satisfaction to it, we offer these particulars:
1. Many of you that make this Reply, hold, That the Election of the people is by Gods Word sufficient to make a man a true Minister without Ordination.
Now it is certain, that many publique Ministers have been chosen by the free and full consent of their Congregations; and most of them have had an after consent, which was sufficient to make Leah Jacobs wife[177], and why not (to use your own words) to marry a man to a people; and therefore according to your own judgments, all such are lawfull Ministers. For sinfull superadditions do not nullifie divine Institutions.
2. Some of you, that besides Election, require Ordination for the making of a Minister, yet say, that this Ordination must be by the people of the Congregation; and thus are your Ministers ordained.
Now we finde neither precept nor president for this in all the Scripture; we finde [178]Ordination by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, but never of the laying on of the hands of the people. We finde [179]the Apostles, Timothy and Titus, Ordaining, but never the people Ordaining; and for private persons to assume the power of Ordination (that is, a power to send men to preach the Gospel, and administer the Sacraments) is a sin like unto the sin of Uzzah, and of Corah, and his company. Therefore we say to you, as Christ doth, Matth. 6. First pluck the beam out of thine own eye, and then, &c. First justifie the Ordination of your own Ministers by private persons, and then you will see better, to find fault with the Ordination of our Ministers.
3. We distinguish between a defective Ministry, and a false Ministry, as we do between a man that is lame or blind, and a man that is but the picture of a man. We do not deny, but that the way of Ministers entring into the Ministry by the Bishops, had many defects in it, for which they ought to be humbled: But we add, that notwithstanding all the accidental corruptions, yet it is not substantially and essentially corrupted: As it is with Baptism in the Popish Church; all Orthodox Divines account it valid, though mingled with much dross, because the party baptized, is baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And therefore, when a Papist turns Protestant, he is not baptized again, because the substance of Baptisme is preserved in Popery under many defects. The like, and much more, may be said for the Ordination of our Ministers by Bishops: It is lawful and valid for the substance of it, though mingled with many circumstantial defects.
And this appears,
1. Because when they were ordained, they were designed to no other Office, but to preach the Word, and administer the Sacraments; according to the Will of Christ.