4. Chrift the door.

and reprove his people, as Samuel, Nathan, Elias, Elifba, Jeremiah, Amos, and many more of the prophets but now under the new covenant, where the ministry ought to be more fpiritual, the way more certain, and the access more eafy unto the Lord, our adverfaries, by denying the neceffity of this inward and fpiritual vocation, make it quite otherwise. For there being now no certain family or tribe to which the miniftry is limited, we are left in uncertainty, to choofe and have paftors at a venture, without any certain affent of the will of God; having neither an outward rule nor certainty in this affair to walk by: for that the fcripture cannot give any certain rule in this matter, hath in the third propofition concerning it been already fhewn.

Fourthly; Chrift proclaims them all thieves and robbers, that enter not by him the door into the sheepJohn 10. 1: fold, but climb up fome other way; whom the sheep ought not to hear: but fuch as come in without the call, movings, and leadings of the Spirit of Chrift, wherewith he leads his children into all truth, come in certainly not by Chrift, who is the door, but fome other way, and therefore are not true fhepherds.

Succeffion

the falfe

§. VIII. To all this they object the fucceffion of pleaded by the church; alledging, That fince Chrift gave a call church to his apoftles and difciples, they have conveyed that from Chrift call to their fucceffors, having power to ordain paftors

and his

apostles.

and teachers; by which power the authority of ordaining and making minifters and pastors is fucceffively conveyed to us; fo that fuch, who are ordained and called by the paftors of the church, are therefore true and lawful minifters; and others, who are not fo called, are to be accounted but intruders. Hereunto alfo fome Proteftants add a neceffity, tho' they make it not a thing effential; That befides this calling of the church, every one, being called, ought to have the inward call of the Spirit, inclining him fo chofen

chofen to his work: but this they fay is fubjective, and not objective; of which before.

the Spirit

by primitive

fion.

As to what is fubjoined of the inward call of the Anfw. Spirit, in that they make it not effential to a true call, but a fupererogation as it were, it fheweth how little they fet by it: fince those they admit to the miniftry are not fo much as queftioned in their trials, whether they have this or not. Yet, in that it hath been often mentioned, especially by the pri- The call of mitive Proteftants in their treatises on this fubject, it preferred to fheweth how much they were fecretly convinced in any other their minds, that this inward call of the Spirit was Protestants. most excellent, and preferable to any other; and therefore in the most noble and heroick acts of the reformation, they laid claim unto it; fo that many of the primitive Proteftants did not fcruple both to defpife and difown this outward call, when urged Succef by the Papifts against them. But now Proteftants, having gone from the teftimony of the Spirit, plead Proteftants for the fame fucceffion; and being preffed (by thofe denying the whom God now raifeth up by his Spirit to reform Spirit. those abuses that are among them) with the example, of their forefathers practice against Rome, they are not at all ashamed utterly to deny that their fathers were called to their work by the inward and immediate vocation of the Spirit; clothing themselves with that call, which they fay their forefathers had, as paftors of the Roman church. For thus (not to go further) affirmeth Nicolaus Arnoldus †, in a pamphlet written against the fame propofitions, called, A Theologick Exercitation, Sect. 40. averring, That they pretended not to an immediate act of the Holy Spirit; but reformed by the virtue of the ordinary vocation which they bad in the church, as it then was, to wit, that of Rome, &c.

§. IX. Many abfurdities do Proteftants fall into, by deriving their miniftry thus through the church

Who gives himself out Doctor and Profeffor of Sacred Theology at Franequer.

of

call of the

Proteftants

fall into, by

of Rome. As, firft, They must acknowledge her Abfurdities to be a true church of Chrift, though only erroneous in fome things; which contradicts their forederiving fathers fo frequently, and yet truly, calling her their mini- Antichrift. Secondly, They muft needs acknowthe church ledge, that the priests and bishops of the Romish of Rome. church are true minifters and paftors of the church.

ftry through

of Chrift, as to the effential part; elfe they could. not be fit fubjects for that power and authority to have refided in; neither could they have been veffels capable to receive that power, and again tranfmit it to their fucceffors. Thirdly, It would follow from this, that the priests and bishops of the Romish church are yet really true paftors and teachers: for if Proteftant minifters have no authority but what they received from them, and fince the church of Rome is the fame fhe was at that time of the reformation in doctrine and manners, and fhe has the fame power now fhe had then, and if the power lie in the fucceffion, then these priests of the Romish church now, which derive their ordination from those bishops that ordained the first reformers, have the fame authority which the fuc-, ceffors of the reformed have, and confequently are no lefs minifters of the church than they are.. But how will this agree with that opinion which the primitive Proteftants had of the Romish priests and clergy, to whom Luther did not only deny any power or authority, but contrary-wife affirmed, Luther af- That it was wickedly done of them, to affume to firmed, that themselves only this authority to teach, and be priests might be a and minifters, &c. For he himself affirmed, That preacher. every good Chriftian (not only men, but even women alfo) is a preacher.

a woman

The pre

ceffion of

§. X. But against this vain fucceffion, as afferted tended fuc- either by the Papifts or Proteftants as a neceffary Papifts and thing to the call of a minifter, I answer; That Proteftants fuch as plead for it, as a fufficient or neceffary explained. thing to the call of a minister, do thereby fuf

ficiently

ficiently declare their ignorance of the nature of Christianity, and how much they are ftrangers to the life and power of a Chriftian miniftry, which is not entailed to fucceffion, as an outward inheritance; and herein, as hath been often before obferved, they not only make the gospel not better than the law, but even far fhort of it. For Jefus Chrift, as he regardeth not any distinct particular family or nation in the gathering of his children; but only fuch as are joined to and leavened with his own pure and righteous feed, fo neither regards he a bare outward fucceffion, where his pure, immaculate, and righteous life is wanting; for that were all one. He took not the nations into the new covenant, that he might fuffer them to fall into the old errors of the Jews, or to approve them in their errors, but that he might gather unto himself a pure people out of the earth. Now this was the great error of the Jews, to think The Jews they were the church and people of God, becaufe error of they could derive their outward fucceffion from outward Abraham, whereby they reckoned themselves the children of God, as being the offspring of Abraham, who was the Father of the Faithful. But how feverely doth the fcripture rebuke this vain and frivolous pretence? Telling them, That God is able of the ftones to raise children unto Abraham; and that not the outward feed, but thofe that were found in the faith of Abraham, are the true children of faithful Abraham. Far less then can this pretence hold among Chriftians, feeing Chrift rejects all outward affinity of that kind: Thefe, faith he, are my Mat.12.48. mother, brethren, and fifters, who do the will of my &c. Father which is in heaven: And again; He looked s round about him, and faid, Who fhall do the will of God, thefe, faith he, are my brethren. So then, fuch as do not the commands of Chrift, are not found cloathed with his righteoufnefs, are not his difciples; and that which a man hath not, he cannot give to

another:

Abraham's

fucceffion.

Mark 36338

to the pow

stance, and

ftance to

the form.

another and it is clear, that no man nor church, though truly called of God, and as fuch having the authority of a church and minister, can any longer retain that authority, than they retain the power, The form life, and righteoufnefs of Chriftianity; for the of godliness form is entailed to the power and fubftance, and is entailed not the fubftance to the form. So that when a er and fub- man ceaseth inwardly in his heart to be a Chriftian not the fub- (where his Christianity muft lie) by turning to Satan, and becoming a reprobate, he is no more a Chriftian, though he retain the name and form, than a dead man is a man, though he hath the image and reprefentation of one, or than the picture or ftatue of a man is a man: and though a dead man may serve to a painter to retain fome imperfect reprefentation of the man, that once was alive, and fo one picture may serve to make another by, yet none of thofe can ferve to make a true living man again, neither can they convey the life and spirit of the man; it must be God, that made Succeffion the man at firft, that alone can revive him. As interrupt death then makes fuch interruption of an outward

ed.

natural fucceffion, that no art nor outward form can uphold, and as a dead man, after he is dead, can have no iffue, neither can dead images of men make living men fo that it is the living that are only capable to fucced one another; and fuch as die, fo foon as they die ceafe to fucceed, or to tranfmit fucceffion. So it is in fpiritual things; it is the life of Christianity, taking place in the The living heart, that makes a Chriftian; and fo it is a nummembers ber of fuch, being alive, joined together in the life of Chriftianity, that make a church of Chrift; and life loft, the it is all thofe that are thus alive and quickened, confidered together, that make the Catholick church of Chrift: therefore when this life ceafeth in one, then that one ceafeth to be a Chriftian; and all power, virtue, and authority, which he had as a Christian, ceaseth with it; fo that if he hath been

make the

church:

church is

ceased.