An apology for the nonconformists ministry containing I. the reasons of their preaching, II.…

3. Experience assureth us, that from the beginning of the Church, to this present day, Christ never gave too many able faithful Ministers to his Church: Supernumeraries of such were never its disease, nor the amputation of them its cure. There is still need of the Lords-prayer, Thy Kingdom come; And, Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers, &c. That man is but a Christian or a Pastor in jest, and Image, and not in earnest and reality, who thinketh that the Pastors now allowed are so sufficient for the great employment of the Ministry, that more are but supernumerary, and the rest may be spared, without any detriment to the souls of men. Even in the Apostles age of Miraculous gifts, Dr. Hammond thinketh the Pastors were so scarce, that every Episcopal Church had no more than one Bishop, with some Deacons, without ever a Subject-Presbyter; And that there was de facto, none of the Order of subject-Presbyters in Scripture-times, (And so think all the Presbyterians too). And it is a notorious truth, that afterwards the Presbyters were so low in abilities, that public preaching in the Church, was mostly used by the Bishops only. And many Countries have lost the Gospel for want of Preachers: And wherever ignorance and profaneness have broken in upon the Church (as the Greeks, Abassines, Armenians, Muscovites, Papists, and too many Protestant Churches), it hath commonly been by the decay of able, godly, faithful Pastors: And if one City or Parish of ten thousand have had too many, their near neighbours have so much wanted them, that they could not be esteemed supernumerary. And in England there are few Parishes which need not helps, even where the ablest men are placed, much more where—Is it seasonable then, or doth it answer the Will or Providence of ⟨p. 190⟩to call in so many, when the Church hath always had too few?

3. Experience assureth us, that from the beginning of the Church, to this present day, Christ never gave too many able faithful Ministers to his Church: Supernumeraries of such were never its disease, nor the amputation of them its cure. There is still need of the Lords-prayer, Thy Kingdom come; And, Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers, &c. That man is but a Christian or a Pastor in jest, and Image, and not in earnest and reality, who thinketh that the Pastors now allowed are so sufficient for the great employment of the Ministry, that more are but supernumerary, and the rest may be spared, without any detriment to the souls of men. Even in the Apostles age of Miraculous gifts, Dr. Hammond thinketh the Pastors were so scarce, that every Episcopal Church had no more than one Bishop, with some Deacons, without ever a Subject-Presbyter; And that there was de facto, none of the Order of subject-Presbyters in Scripture-times, (And so think all the Presbyterians too). And it is a notorious truth, that afterwards the Presbyters were so low in abilities, that publick preaching in the Church, was mostly used by the Bishops only. And many Countries have lost the Gospel for want of Preachers: And wherever ignorance and prophaneness have broken in upon the Church (as the Greeks, Abassines, Armenians, Moscovites, Papists, and too many Protestant Churches), it hath commonly been by the decay of able, godly, faithful Pastors: And if one City or Parish of ten thousand have had too many, their near neighbours have so much wanted them, that they could not be esteemed supernumerary. And in England there are few Parishes which need not helps, even where the ablest men are placed, much more where—Is it seasonable then, or doth it answer the Will or Providence of