XXII. ART. carried to higher notions of God, and to a more spiritual way of worthipping him, that there fhould be fuch an approach to fome of the worst pieces of Gentilism; that it seems to be outdone by Chriftians, in fome of its moft fcandalous parts: fuch as the worship of fubordinate Gods, and of images. These are the chief grounds upon which we feparate from the Roman communion: fince we cannot have fellowship with them, unlefs we will join in those acts, which we look on as direct violations of the First and Second Commandment. God is a jealous God, and therefore we must rather venture on their wrath, how burning foever it may be, than on his, who is a confuming fire. ARTICLE ARTICLE XXIII. Of Ministering in the Congregation. It is not lawful for any Can to take upon him the Olice of public Picaching or infring the Sacraments in the Congregation; before he be law. fully called and fent to execute the fame. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and fent, which be chosen and called to this Work by Jen, who have public Authority given unto them, in the Congrega= tion, to call and lend Pinißezs into the Lozo's Uinepazd. WE XXII. E have two particulars fixed in this Article: the first ART. is against any that fhall aflume to themfelves, without a lawful vocation, the authority of difpenfing the things of God: the fecond is, the defining, in very general words, what it is that makes a lawful call. As to the first, it will bear no great difficulty: we fee in the Old Difpenfation, that the family, the age, and the qualifications of those that might ferve in the priesthood, are very particularly fet forth. In the New Teftament our Lord called the twelve Apoftles, and fent them out he alfo fent out upon another occafion seventy Difciples and before he left his Apoftles, he told them, that as his Father had fent him, fo he fent them: which feems to Joh. xx.21. import, that as he was fent into the world with this, among other powers, that he might fend others in his name; fo he likewife empowered them to do the fame : and when they went planting Churches, as they took fome to be companions of labour with themfelves, fo they appointed others over the particular Churches in which they fixed them: fuch were Epaphras or Epaphroditus at Coloffe, Timothy at Ephefus, and Titus in Crete. To them the Apoftles gave authority: otherwise it was a needlefs thing to write fo many directions to them; in order to their conduct. They had the depofitum of the faith, with 2 Tim. i, which they were chiefly intrufted: concerning the fucceffion 13. in which that was to be continued, we have these words of St. Paul: The things which thou hast heard of me, among many 2 Tim. ii. 2. witneffes, the fame commit thou to faithful men, who shall be 1 Tim ii.1, able to teach others alfo. To them directions are given, con- 2, 3. cerning all the different parts of their worthip; fupplications, 12. prayers, interceffions and giving of thanks: and alfo the keeping up the decency of the worship, and the not fuffering of women to teach; like the women pficits among the Heathens, who 1 Tim. ii. ART. XXIII. 1 Tim. 15. 1 Tim. v. I, 3, 17, 19, 22. who were believed to be filled with a Bacchick fury. To them are directed all the qualifications of fuch as might be made, either Bishops or Deacons: they were to examine them accord ing to these, and either to receive or reject them. All this was directed to Timothy, that he might know how he ought to beTim. iii. have himself in the house of God. He had authority given him to rebuke and entreat, to honour and to cenfure. He was to order what widows might be received into the number, and who fhould be refufed. He was to receive accufations against Elders, or Prefbyters, according to directed methods, and was either to cenfure fome, or to lay hands on others, as should agree with the rules that were fet him and in conclufion, he is very folemnly charged, to keep that which was committed to his truft. He is required rightly to divide the word of truth, to preach the word, to be inftant in feafon and out of feafon, to reprove, rebuke and exhort, and to do the work of an Evangelift, and to make full proof of his miniftry. Some of the fame things are charged upon Titus, whom St. Paul had left in Crete, to fet in order the things that were wanting, and to ordain Elders in every city: feveral of the characters by which he was to try them are alfo fet down: he is charged to rebuke the people fharply, and to speak the things that became found doctrine: he is inftructed concerning the doctrines which he was to teach, and those which he was to avoid; and also how to cenfure an Tit. iii. 10. heretick: he was to admonish him twice, and if that did not prevail, he was to reject him, by fome public cenfure. Tim. vi. 2 Tim. ii. 20. 2 15. 2 Tim. iv. 2,5 Tit. i. 5, 9, 33. These rules given to Timothy and Titus do plainly import, that there was to be an authority in the Church, and that no man was to affume this authority to himfelf; according to that maxim, that seems to be founded on the light of nature, as well as it is fet down in Scripture, as a standing rule agreed to Heb. v. 4. in all times and places: no man taketh this honour to himfelf, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. Rom. xii. 6, 7, 8. 1 Cor. xii. 28. Eph. iv. 11, 22, 13, 16. St. Paul, in his Epiftles to the Romans and Corinthians, did reckon up the feveral orders and functions that God had fet in his Church, and in his Epiftle to the Ephefians, he fhews that these were not tranfient but lafting conftitutions; for there, as he reckons the Apostles, Prophets, Evangelifts, Paftors, and Teachers, as the gifts which Chrift at his afcenfion had given to men; fo he tells the ends for which they were given : før the perfecting the faints, (by perfecting feems to be meant the initiating them by holy myfteries, rather than the compacting or putting them in joint; for as that is the proper fignification of the word, fo it being fet firft, the other things that come after it make that the ftrict fenfe of perfecting; that is, completing does not fo well agree with the period) for the work of the Miniftry, (the whole ecclefiaftical or facred fervices) for the edifying XXIII. edifying the body of Christ (to which inftructing, exhorting, ART. comforting, and all the other parts of preaching may well be reduced), and then the duration of these gifts is defined, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. This feems to import the whole ftate of this life. 23. We cannot think that all this belonged only to the infancy of the Church, and that it was to be laid afide by her when the was further advanced: for when we confider that in the beginnings of Chriftianity there was fo liberal an effufion of the Holy Spirit poured out upon fuch great numbers, who had very extraordinary credentials, miracles, and the gift of tongues, to prove their miffion; it does not feem fo neceflary in fuch a time, or rather for the fake of fuch a time only, to have settled those functions in the Church, and that the Apoftles fhould have ordained Elders in every Church. Thofe extraordinary gifts Acts xiv. that were then, without any authoritative fettlement, might have ferved in that time to have procured to men fo qualified all due regards. We have therefore much better reason to conclude, that this was fettled at that time, chiefly with refpect to the following ages, which as they were to fall off from that zeal and purity that did then reign among them, fo they would need rule and government to maintain the unity of the Church, and the order of facred things. And for that reafon chiefly we may conclude, that the Apoftles fettled order and government in the Church, not fo much for the age in which they themselves lived, as once to establish and give credit to conftitutions, that they forefaw would be yet more neceffary to the fucceeding ages. This is confirmed by that which is in the Epiftle to the Hebrews, both concerning those who had ruled over them, and those who were then their guides. St. Peter gives directions to the Elders of the Churches to whom he writ, how they ought both to feed and govern the flock; and his charging them not to do it out of covetoufnefs, or with ambition, infinuates that either fome were beginning to do fo, or that, in a fpirit of prophecy, he forefaw that fome might fall under fuch corruptions. This is hint enough to teach us, that, though fuch things fhould happen, they could furnish no argument against the function. Abufes ought to be corrected, but upon that pretence the function ought not to be taken away. If from the Scriptures we go to the firft writings of Chrif tians, we find that the main fubject of St. Clemens and St. Ignatius' Epiftles, is to keep the Churches in order and union, in fubjection to their Paftors, and in the due fubordination of all the members of the body one to another. After the first age the thing grows too clear to need any further proof. The Y argument Heb. xiii. 7 17: 1 Pet. V. 2, 3. ART. argument for this from the ftanding rules of order, of decency, XXIII. of the authority in which the holy things ought to be main tained, and the care that must be taken to repress vanity and infolence, and all the extravagancies of light and ungoverned fancies, is very clear. For if every man may affume authority to preach and perform holy functions, it is certain religion muft fall into disorder and under contempt. Hot-headed men of warm fancies and voluble tongues, with very little knowledge and difcretion, would be apt to thrust themselves on to the teaching and governing others, if they themselves were under no government. This would foon make the public fervice of God to be loathed, and break and diffolve the whole body. Á few men of livelier thoughts, that begin to fet on foot fuch ways, might for fome time maintain a little credit; yet fo many others would follow in at that breach which they had once made on publick order, that it could not be poffible to keep the fociety of Chriftians under any method, if this were once allowed. And therefore those who in their heart hate the Christian religion, and defire to fee it fall under a more general contempt, know well what they do, when they encourage all thofe enthufiafts that deftroy order; hoping, by the credit which their outward appearances may give them, to compass that which the others know themfelves to be too obnoxious to hope that they can ever have credit enough to perfuade the world to. Whereas those poor deluded men do not see what properties the others make of them. The morals of infidels thew that they hate all religions equally, or with this difference, that the ftricter any are, they muft hate them the more; the root of their quarrel being at all religion and virtue. And it is certain, as it is that which thofe who drive it on fee well, and therefore they drive it on, that if once the publick order and national conftitution of a Church is diffolved, the strength and power, as well as the order and beauty, of all religion will foon go after it; for, humanly fpeaking, it cannot fubfift without it. I come in the next place to confider the fecond part of this Article, which is the definition here given of those that are lawfully called and fent: this is put in very general words, far from that magisterial ftiffness in which fome have taken upon them to dictate in this matter. The Article does not refolve this into any particular conftitution, but leaves the matter open and at large for fuch accidents as had happened, and fuch as might ftill happen. They who drew it had the ftate of the feveral Churches before their eyes that had been differently reformed; and although their own had been lefs forced to go out of the beaten path than any other, yet they knew that all things among |