The consequence of this divesting the Roman Synagogue of the privileges of a true Church in any sense, 1arising in the thoughts of some to a denial of that ministry, which we have at this day in England, must by the way a little be considered. For my part (be it spoken without offence) If any man hath nothing to plead for his ministry, but merely that successive Ordination which he hath received through the Church of Rome, I cannot see a stable bottom of owning him so to be; I do not say, if he will plead nothing else; but if he hath nothing else to plead. He may have that, which indeed constitutes ⟨p. 197⟩him a Minister, though he will not own• that so it doth. Nor doth it come here into enquiry, whether there were not a true Ministry in some, all along under the Papacy, distinct from it, as were the thousands in Israel in the days of Elijah; when in the ten Tribes, as to the public worship, there was no true Ministry at all. Nor is it said, that any have their Ministry from Rome, a• though the Office, which is an Ordinance of Christ, was instituted by Antichrist: But the question is, whether this be a sufficient and good basis and foundation of any mans interest in the office of the Ministry, that he hath received Ordination in a succession, through the administration of, not the woman flying into the Wilderness under the persecution of Antichrist, not of the two witnesses prophesying all along under the Roman Apostasy, not from them to whom we succeed in doctrine, as the Waldenses, but the Beast it self, the persecuting Church of Rome, the Pope and his adherents, who were certainly Administrators of the Ordination pleaded for: So that in doctrine we should succeed the persecuted Woman, and in Office the persecuting Beast. I shall not plead this at large, professedly disclaiming all thoughts of rejecting those Ministers, as Papal and Antichristian, ⟨p. 198⟩who yet adhere to this Ordination▪ being many of them eminently gifted of God, to dispense the word, and submitted unto by his people in the Administration of the Ordinances, and are right worthy Ministers of the Gospel of Christ. But
The consequence of this devesting the Roman Synogogue of the priviledges of a true Church in any sense, 1arising in the thoughts of some to a denyall of that ministry, which we have at this day in England, must by the way a little be considered. For my part (be it spoken without offence) If any man hath nothing to plead for his ministry, but meerly that successive Ordination which he hath received through the Church of Rome, I cannot see a stable bottome of owning him so to be; I do not say, if he will plead nothing •lse; but if he hath nothing else to plead. He may have that, which indeed constitutes ⟨p. 197⟩him a Minister, though he will not own• that so it doth. Nor doth it come here into enquiry, whether there were not a true Ministry in some, all along under the Papacy, distinct from it, as were the thousands in Israell in the days of Elijah; when in the ten Tribes, as to the publick worship, there was no true Ministry at all. Nor is it said, that any have their Ministry from Rome, a• though the Office, which is an Ordinance of Christ, was instituted by Antichrist: But the question is, whether this be a sufficient and good basis and foundation of any mans interest in the office of the Ministry, that he hath received Ordination in a succession, through the administration of, not the woman flying into the Wildernesse under the persecution of Antichrist, not of the two witnesses prophesying all along under the Roman Apostacy, not from them to whom we succeed in doctrine, as the Waldenses, but the Beast it selfe, the persecuting Church of Rome, the Pope and his adherents, who were certainly Administrators of the Ordination pleaded for: So that in doctrine we should succeed the persecuted Woman, and in Office the perse•uting Beast. I shall not plead this at large, professedly disclaiming all thoughts of rejecting those Ministers, as Papall and Antichristian, ⟨p. 198⟩who yet adhere to this Ordination▪ being many of them eminently gifted of God, to dispense the word, and submitted unto by his people in the Administration of the Ordinances, and are right worthy Ministers of the Gospell of Christ. But
- 1§. 55.
