§. XI.
But such as object not this Succession of the Church, which yet most Protestants begin now to do, distinguish in this Matter, affirming, That in a great Apostasy, such as was that of the Church of Rome, God may raise up some singularly by his Spirit, who from the Testimony of the Scriptures perceiving the Errors into which such as bear the Name of Christians are fallen, may instruct and teach them, and then become authorized by the People’s joining with and accepting of their Ministry only. Most of them also will affirm, That the Spirit herein is subjective, and not objective.
Object.But they say, That where a Church is reformed (such as they pretend the Protestant Churches are) there an Ordinary orderly Call is necessary; and that of the Spirit, as extraordinary, is not to be sought after: Alleging, that Res aliter se habet in ecclesiâ constituendâ, quàm in ecclesiâ constitutâ; that is, There is a Difference in the constituting of a Church, and after it is constituted.
Answ.A Difference objected between Constituting a Church and one as Constituted. I answer, This Objection as to us saith nothing, seeing we accuse, and are ready from the Scriptures to prove the Protestants guilty of gross Errors, and needing Reformation, as well as they did and do the Papists; and therefore we may justly lay Claim, if we would, to the same extraordinary Call, having the same Reason for it, and as good Evidence to prove ours as they had for theirs. As for that Maxim, viz. That the Case is different in constituting a Church, and a Church constituted, I do not deny it; and therefore there may be a greater Measure of Power required to the one than to the other, and God in his Wisdom distributes the same as he sees meet; but that the same immediate Assistance of the Spirit is not necessary for Ministers in a gathered Church as well as in gathering one, I see no solid Reason alleged for it: For surely Christ’s Promise was to be with his Children to the End of the World, and they need him no less to preserve and guide his Church and Children than to gather and beget them. Nature taught the Gentiles this Maxim,
Non minor est virtus, quam quærere, parta tueri.
To defend what we attain, requires no less Strength than what is necessary to acquire it.
For it is by this inward and immediate Operation of the Spirit, which Christ hath promised to lead his Children with into all Truth, and to teach them all Things, that Christians are to be led in all Steps, as well last as first, which relate to God’s Glory and their own Salvation, as we have heretofore sufficiently proved, and therefore need not now repeat it. It is a Device of Satan for Men to put the Spirit’s Leadings far off to former Times.And truly this Device of Satan, whereby he has got People to put the immediate Guidings and Leadings of God’s Spirit as an extraordinary Thing afar off, which their Forefathers had, but which they now are neither to wait for nor expect, is a great Cause of the growing Apostasy upon the many gathered Churches, and is one great Reason why a dry, dead, barren, lifeless, spiritless Ministry, which leavens the People into the same Death, doth so much abound, and is so much overspreading even the Protestant Nations, that their Preaching and Worships, as well as their whole Conversation, is not to be discerned from Popish by any fresh living Zeal, or lively Power of the Spirit accompanying it, but merely by the Difference of some Notions and Opinions.