Five disputations of church-government and worship

Sect. 3. That the obligation to be Ordained may cease to some persons, I prove by instances in certain cases. And 1. In case of a mans distance from any that should Ordain him. As if one or many Christians were cast upon the Coasts of any Indian Heathen or Mahometan Nation, as many have been. There is no ordination Possible: and therefore not necessary or due. And to return for it to the Christian part of the world, may be as impossible: and if not, yet unlawful by reason of delay.

Sect. 3. That the obligation to be Ordained may cease to some persons, I prove by instances in certain cases. And 1. In case of a mans distance from any that should Ordain him. As if one or many Christians were cast upon the Coasts of any Indian Heathen or Mahometan Nation, as many have been. There is no ordination Possible: and therefore not necessary or due. And to return for it to the Christian part of the world, may be as impossible: and if not, yet unlawfull by reason of delay.

Sect. 4. And 2. In case of the great Necessity of the People that cannot bear the absence of such as are able to teach them so long as while he travaileth many hundred or thousand miles for Ordination; ⟨p. 152⟩As Basil in another case writes to the Bishops of the West, that if one of them (the Eastern Bishops) should but leave their Churches for a very small time, much more for a journey into the West, they must give up their Churches to the Wolves to be undone before they return; And this case is ordinary abroad.

Sect. 5. And 3. That in case by Civil wars or enmity among Princes, men be unable to travail from one of their Countries into the other for an Ordination (which else ofttimes cannot be had) so the Turks and Persians, and the Indian Mogul, and the Tartarians and many other Princes, by such wars may make such passage an impossible thing: Nor is it like they would suffer their subjects to go into the enemies country.