N00779:152
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in…
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1700
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. If we make the Essence of a Ministers C•ll to consist in his Ordination by imposition of hands from other Lawful Ministers, it will be a difficult thing to prove that our first Reformers were true Ministers of Christ As for Ordination in the Church of Rome some of them renounced it, not at all supposing themselves to be Ministers of Christ merely o• that account. They thought it was their duty, inordinatissimam Ordinationem ejurar• as Beza speaks. Some of them never had it▪ For they did first Preach without any formal Call or Allowance of those who usurped th• Title of Pastors and Bishops, and the Sol• power of Ordination, and were afterward• called to the Ministry by the Churches which they had taught. Tilenus being demande• of the Earl of Laval from whom Calvin had hi• Calling, Answered, from the Church of Gene•va, and from Farel his Predecessor, who had also his from the People of Geneva, who had Right and Authority to institute and depose Ministers. Bellarmine objects that the Protestants have no true Ministers among them, because they have not received Ordination by Imposition of hands Successively from the Apostles. Dr. Willet in Answer thereto says, (a)In the Corrupt times of the Gospel the Lord has raised up Faithful Ministers to his Church that could show no Succession from the Degenerate Clergy. They that stand upon a Lineal Succession ⟨p. 95⟩of Ordination from the Apostles, must of necessity own the Church of Rome to be a true Church, and (the Bishops of Rome) the Ministers of Antichrist to be the true Ministers of Christ. For Churches to go to them for Ordained Ministers, is (says Melanchthon) as i• the Sheep should go to Wolves for Shepherds. It has been well said by those who have gone before us, That God does so much abhor Antichrist that he would not have his People to seek to him, nor to his Priests to Ordain Christs Ministers, as he would not take of Babylon a Stone for a corner, nor a Stone for a Foundation.