Reasons a gainft it. Firft the contrary is proved by Scripture. Calvin will not deny, or when Zanchy faith, God will have fuch Apoftles, or Evangelifts in But we muft ethe Church. qually enter our diffent against this, as against the other For, Firft, the words of feveral texts; God bath fet, 1 Cor. 12. 28. Chrift bath given; Ephef. 4. 11. Lo Fam with Secondly, Cal- of the world, Mat. 28. 19, 20. imply nothing less then fuch uns vin, Zanchy, certainty, and wandringsg &c. and o you to the end Secondly, Thefe divines alledge no Scriptures to prove their thers alledge Affertions. Calvin faith, be will not deny it, Zaneby faith, no Scripture God deth Jend them. Our Affembly fay these extraordinary offi in proof of their opinion. cers officiate without ministerial miffion. Amefius faith (*) they *Affembly have their authority not from, or by man properly, but from God abefore Com lone by Jefus Chrift, and the holy Ghost Of this kind of Offfmittee of ac- cers he reckons fome living, in his own, or his fathers dayes, commodation But v But we must note that he faith it upon his own, not Scripture pag. 98. Extraordina- authority, and we fhall fhew how little reafon he had to lay it, riis miniftris ère we conclude our reafons against the allowance of this latter quibus neq; fort of extraordinary Officers. Aretius (x) faith, Sometime ab bomine,neque per homi- when the world wanders from true doctrine, God dorb extraordinarily neum proprie fend other reformers, who are instead of Apostles, and Prophets, as confort fed Luther Zuinglius, and others in thefe times: But what have we a foto deeper to do with the fayfo's of our Affembly; or Amefius, or Calvins Jefums Cbri tum, & not denyal, our queftion concerns a matter, not of humane Spibut divine inftitution, and we expect the authority +Aer opinion, ritum fandum; Ames of the holy Ghof, not their words for its confirmation: Inmedull Theok deed Zanchy and Aretius fpeak a little louder, but to as little lib. 1. ca. 23. purpose; they fay, God will have them to be in the Church, and Inter- doth extraordinarily Jend them to be, But what matters it of dum cum what men forge Gods volition, or miffion, fince he gives the mundus exor- Church no notice of it in the Scripture. 'Tis not the first time bitat a vera that false prophets have come with a God wills, or thus faith the Lord, when they have only seen the visions of their own beads, and andivem miwit pake the deceipts of their own hearts. What a grave perfon reformatores long fince obferved of loofe Hiftorians, is dayly verified of Se&. 26. do&rina deus\ alios exava 4 forum,&ore loofe divines, i.e. when they have entangled themfelves with Prophetarum monstrous pofitions, deo indigent & machina, they want the engine fint, tales bo- of a deity, to releeve and free them. The ordinary character of die Lutherus, the falle Prophets of old, was to run, ere they were fent, they Zuinglius, & came all extracrdinarily, for neither God, nor his Church call Problem. locled, or fent for them. And we have feen thousands in our problem. loc me who as if they had been Heralds to Chrifts fecond cotime, > Polybius, ming, have foberly affirmed, to here is Christ, lo there is Chrift, alii. Aret. they they wearing a disguise of Sanctity fo neatly upon their Hypocrk fie, as our felves might have been cheated into a good opinion of them, unless the holy Ghoft had forewarned us not to believe rbem, because they shall deceive many, and if it were possible even the elect. Then we saw that fuch confidence in contradictions was an evidence of their being Seducers, or feduced, for whofoever faith fometimes, Lo here is Chrift, otherwhile, Lo be is there, cônfeffeth he knows not where he is, for Chrifts word is not yea and nay, nor his body here and there, nor was it ever fancied fo to be, till the real prefence became confubftantiate with ubiquity. 'Tis our own perfwafien (let it Itand or fall at the pleasure of the difcreet Reader) how no one thing gave a rife and increase tinto the several Sects of the Pharifees, Sadduces, Effenes, and He rodians of old, like this, there were many Prophecies and Pro-T mifes in the then onely Books of God, concerning the future manifeftation of the Messiah, and of Elijah who was to come, ton: prepare his way before him, Mal.4.5. and thofe Sectaries took advantage to vend their Traditions and Inventions under the fained but plaufible Titles of the Laws of that Messiah, or of fomething previous thereunto! But we Chriftians are underm byar ha another Difpenfation, neither do we expect an Elijah to comecsy and loofe our knots, of refolve our doubts; for we ftedfastly be lieve, that he who fhould come, is come, and that we need not look for another, Mat.11.3,4. with 14. Hebr.3. 2, 3. " -1 Object. But may fome fay, Confider a little better with your objection felf what you write, ere you write any more, doth not Zanchy from GOD's fay, God when he will raiseth up Evangelifts, or extraordinary Off Omnipotencie. cers: And cannot God do what he will? I anfwer, He can, but will and can are of equal force with Answered. God, and he will do nothing againft his Truth; Power and Verity are his infeparable natural Attributes, and what is one in his Nature,cannot be two in his Providential Administrations; A God is just as Powerful as he is True, and juft as True as he is Powerful: These Attributes always move and act together. Luxuriant Fancies would perpetually fprout forth into unwor-thy Conjectures of an incomprehenfible Being, and though in their prefumed Exaltations they moft heavily deprefs it, they would obtrude their Notions, as Divine Truths, upon thole who t are as Credulous as they are Confident, did not God check and keep them under, by a peremptory enjoyning all men to respect him, and expect from him, according to a written word: who do fo, may affure themfelves of a certain and timely perfor mance, but whoever wait the affiftance of a Divine Power contrary unto a Sacred Promife, though they fpeciously pretend Gods Omnipotencie, and doing all things, yet they do in effect bend God to their wills; binde one of his hands within another, make him will contradictions, and confequently impotent to do any thing. Whatever God doth, hath done,or promised to do, he fquareth it by a certain Rule or Law;this fo far as concerneth Church-Officers, is Chrifts Inftitution, Commiffion, and Promifes in the Word. And if the Word be proper, the Divine Power hath in nothing fo ftrictly tied up his all-acting power, as in the continuance of thofe Inftitutions, and accomplishment of thofe Promifes. Our Lord Jefus infticuting his Miniftry, promifeth a perpetual prefence with them to the end of the world, and S. Paul argues for the performance of Promifes, upon a Thirdly Amemost true fuppofition,left otherwife God should deny himself, 2 Tim. fius audacioufly faith, There 2. 13. Give us therefore Scripture for this Knight Errantry of is no fcripture Officers, we fhall be filent in that will of God, whatever elle is for it, neither brought, is as easily rejected, as objected; and we dare boldly ef are we to ex- anfwer,that the Apochryphal wills and fendings of God,quoted by authority then Zanchy and Aretius, if God would have them in his Church, or that of the peo fend them to her, why did he not keep them there, while they ple. were there, given and fet by him, with promife of their contiIn hiftoria no-ance unto the worlds end, and till we all come in the unity, &c. vi Teftamenti exempla habe vationis, But P mus conftitu- 3. Amefius bids us defpair of Scriptures having any hand in 2. pag. 77. 1. Popery. exor exorbitancies, when indicted of contradiction, and oppofition unto Scripture, then to fay, There is no Scriptural Example fuitable unto the prefent cafe or time? If at any time corruption leave the Church a Chaos, and confufed lump, why may the mischievous not afwel be formed by Papal as Popular difcretion? Befides 2. Machiavilawhat a wide breach doth this fulphurous notion tear in the walļnism. of the Vine-yard? What! Is not the Church fufficiently in danger by Polititians framing of Trojan Horfes for her Ruine, but her pretended Reformers must trap them with the gay title of Reformation, and Restauration of Religion, and fuffer them to furprize her greateft ftrengths, as Palladiums, and excellent Inventions of a propitious Deity. If the multitude may make a Miniftry, Machiavils fons in the multitude will make and unmake Minifters, till they have made all Religion fubfervient to Reafon of State. Furthermore, what mischievous Se-3. The worst ducer can want a warrant for his actions, how extraordinarily Exorbitancies wicked foever they are? If his perverts once fign his Commiffi of the most on, how vain are all after-difputes and arguments? his inward seducers. call is from God, his outward from the people, to whom all belongs in cale of Apoftacie Be his party powerful who dare gain-fay him? be it weak, how ready is this reply, The Faithful who always are the leaft number, acknowledge his heavenly miffion in their fubmiffion to it; and the oppofition which he and they meet with from the ungodly multitude, ought to be interpreted an additional confirmation to his call, fince all past Lawgivers and Reformers met with the like: dares any filly foul come against him with the fling and ftone of Scripture? obferve how this Goliah defies them. 'Tis for ordinary Officers to conform to Scripture prefident, what others accompt his fin, he efteems to be his glory, namely his adminiftration of holy things without an ordinary call; for otherwife he could have no teftimony to his extraordinary miffion, Scripture containing no example of the Reftauration or Reformation of the Ministry, after a general Apoftacie. Thefe are bad fruits of a curfed principle, but there are worse in the bud,for fince fcripture tells us not who or what fhall be Judge ofthe time of the coming thefe of Extraordinaries,nor whether the Church ftand in need of them, yea or not; What Star can direct us to their Cradles? What perfon was, or fhould be prefent at the iffuing forth the Fiats for their fo long dormant Commiffions, and fealing of their patents? Unto what number of Extraordinaries thofe new Commiffions shall be limited ? Who will, as in Jeroboam's time, may fill his T hand J: the second and third Century, third and ry. This hand, or confecrare himself an extraordinary Officer. And as faft as juftice, or death cut off one of thofe Hydra's heads, "another will arife in its fread; for why may not what hath once been be again? Can that Church, which admitted one, shut the door against another extraordinary Officer? Apoftacy, and corruption was brought into the Chinch by many hards, how Can they be carried out by a few? When feditious malecona Betwixt fents, as (a) the African Schifmaticks in St. Cyprians time, (b) Arius, Aerius, and others afterward hedge up the ordinary way, becaufe 'tis not broad enough to bear their ambitions. b betwixt the "Amefus draws their special plea, and admits them, finte Antichrift hath, or they fay he hath abused it, to ftop it up, and lay fourth Centu-olit, and walk in another. Dare any faucily demaid a fight of their Commiflions? they fay fhew the old cancelled, they will produce their new Letters Patents; Otherwife what was valid for Zuinglius, &c. is the fame for them. The Gofpel is a mystery and why may not they extraordinary members of itsmyfterioufnels) have, as every common fcience, the allowance of precognitio, or conceded principles, againft which no difpute may be tolerated. Prove a Trinity, difcover where Lazarus his foul was, when his body lay four dayes in the grave, or how the eternal God could be born in time, take flesh, and dwell among us, they will fenfibly, and rationally, make out their call. But if you fay faith evidenceth the former, they reply, 'tis becaufe you want it that you do not fee the latter. Wounded men must trust their Chyrurgions eye and art, and a corrupt. Church-ftate (as God knows they live in, and are the blank of the Peftilential humor) must trust her refor mers, though extraordinary in their call, and in their courfes: Honeft Socinus would ever have attempted the reformation of the reformation, had not much been wanting, fo truly is it affirmed by his followers. f Tota ruet Babylon dirupit tecta Lutherus, Ssein the groundwork, thus whole Rome doth fall. The glorious title of Reformation, and odioufnels of Apofaty, leads tender fpirited nien any whither, Even as harmless birds when their notes are counterfeited Into fhares and limetwigs; good meri ! Who can' can blame their ardent deres to be more |