CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

I shall not at this time prove a distinct calling of Ministers from people, that hath been done already. I shall only show the perpetual usefulness and necessity of a Ministry, for spiritual ends, as long as there will be a Church upon the earth; and the rather, because Socinians and Seekers, though they grant, There was ⟨p. 558⟩once an extraordinary Ministry in the planting of the Church, yet they say, it was only temporal for a season, even as miracles were, and that where the Scripture is made common, there needeth no Ministry. Therefore to inform herein, consider these Propositions,

I shall not at this time prove a distinct calling of Ministers from people, that hath been done already. I shall only shew the perpetual usefulness and necessity of a Ministry, for spiritual ends, as long as there will be a Church upon the earth; and the rather, because Socinians and Seekers, though they grant, There was ⟨p. 558⟩once an extraordinary Ministry in the planting of the Church, yet they say, it was only temporal for a season, even as miracles were, and that where the Scripture is made common, there needeth no Ministry. Therefore to inform herein, consider these Propositions,

First, That God hath appointed a Ministry in his Church, not from necessity, but a voluntary liberty condescending herein to our capacity. God did once govern his Church, as in the Patriarchs time, by immediate revelations and apparitions, and thus he could still do, if he pleased: It's not therefore from necessity, but mere bounty, that he hath appointed such a way of spiritualizing people. God doth not need the parts, or gifts, or piety of any men in the world; and certainly, if God hath appointed second causes in nature, which work from a necessary principle within, not necessarily, but freely, much less did he in these things which are of a supernatural constitution.

First, That God hath appointed a Ministry in his Church, not from necessity, but a voluntary liberty condescending herein to our capacity. God did once govern his Church, as in the Patriarchs time, by immediate revelations and apparitions, and thus he could still do, if he pleased: It's not therefore from necessity, but meer bounty, that he hath appointed such a way of spiritualizing people. God doth not need the parts, or gifts, or piety of any men in the world; and certainly, if God hath appointed second causes in nature, which work from a necessary principle within, not necessarily, but freely, much lesse did he in these things which are of a supernatural constitution.