§. XXVII.
As this Manner of separating Men for the Ministry is nothing like the Church in the Apostles Days, so great Evils have and do follow upon it. For first, Parents seeing both the Honour and Profit that attends the Clergy, do allot their Children sometimes from their Infancy to it, and so breed them up on Purpose. And others, come to Age, upon the same Account betake them to the same Trade, and having these natural and acquired Parts that are judged the necessary Qualifications of a Minister, are thereby admitted, and so are bred up in Idleness and Pleasure, thinking it a Disgrace for them to work with their Hands; The Clergy’s Study out of Books; the Gift of God neglected.and so just study a little out of their Books, to make a Discourse once or twice a Week during the running of an Hour-glass; whereas the Gift, Grace, and Spirit of God, to call and qualify for the Ministry, is neglected and overlooked. And many covetous, corrupt, earthly, carnal Men, having a mere Shew and Form, but Strangers to, and utterly ignorant of, the inward Work of Grace upon their Hearts, are brought in and intrude themselves, and so through them Death, Barrenness, and Darkness, and by Consequence Superstition, Error, and Idolatry have entered and leavened the Church. And they that will narrowly observe, shall find that it was thus the Apostasy came to take Place; of the Truth of which I could give many Examples, which for Brevity’s Sake I omit. Thus the Office, Reverence, and Respect due to it were annexed to the mere Name, so that when once a Man was ordained a Bishop or a Priest, he was heard and believed, though he had nothing of the Spirit, Power, and Life that the true Apostles and Ministers were in. And thus in a short Time the Succession came to be of the Name and Title, and the Office was thereto annexed; and not of the Nature, Virtue, and Life; which in Effect made them to cease to be the Ministry and Ministers of Christ, but only a Shadow and vain Image of it; which also decaying, was in some Ages so metamorphosed, that not only the Substance was lost, but the very Form wholly vitiated, altered, and marred; The marred Church compared to Theseus’s pieced Boat.so that it may be far better said of the pretended Christian Church, as was disputed of Theseus’s Boat (which by the piecing of many new Pieces of Timber was wholly altered) whether indeed it were the same or another? But in Case that the first had been of Oak, and the Pieces last put in but of rotten Fir, and that also the Form had been so far changed as to be nothing like the first, I think it would have suffered no Dispute, but might have easily been concluded to be quite another, retaining nothing but the Name, and that also unjustly. The Abuse following the Distinction of Laity and Clergy.Secondly, From this Distinction of Laity and Clergy this Abuse also follows, that good, honest, mechanick Men, and others who have not learned the Art and Trade of Preaching, and so are not licentiated according to these Rules they prescribe unto themselves; such, I say, being possessed with a false Opinion that it is not lawful for them to meddle with the Ministry, nor that they are any Ways fit for it, because of the Defect of that Literature, do thereby neglect the Gift in themselves, and quench many Times the pure Breathings of the Spirit of God in their Hearts; which, if given Way to, might prove much more for the Edification of the Church than many of the conned Sermons of the Learned. And so by this Means the Apostle’s Command and Advice is slighted, who exhorteth, 1 Thess. v. 19, 20. not to quench the Spirit, nor despise Prophesyings. And all this is done by Men pretending to be Christians, who glory that the first Preachers and Propagators of their Religion were such Kind of plain mechanick Men, and illiterate. Both Protestants and Papists exclude mechanick Men from preaching, who greatly contributed to the Reformation.And even Protestants do no less than Papists exclude such Kind of Men from being Ministers among them, and thus limit the Spirit and Gift of God; though their Fathers, in Opposition to Papists, asserted the Contrary; and also their own Histories declare how that Kind of illiterate Men did, without Learning, by the Spirit of God, greatly contribute in divers Places to the Reformation.
By this it may appear, that as in Calling and Qualifying, so in Preaching and Praying, and the other particular Steps of the Ministry, every true Minister is to know the Spirit of God by its Virtue and Life to accompany and assist him; but because this relates to Worship, I shall speak of it more largely in the next Proposition, which is concerning Worship.
The last Thing to be considered and inquired into is, concerning the Maintenance of a Gospel Minister; but before I proceed, I judge it fit to speak something briefly concerning the Preaching of Women, and to declare what we hold in that Matter.
Women’s publick Preaching and Praying asserted.Seeing Male and Female are one in Christ Jesus, and that he gives his Spirit no less to one than to the other, when God moveth by his Spirit in a Woman, we judge it no Ways unlawful for her to preach in the Assemblies of God’s People. Neither think we that of Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 34. to reprove the inconsiderate and talkative Women among the Corinthians, who troubled the Church of Christ with their unprofitable Questions, or that, 1 Tim. ii. 11, 12. that Women ought to learn in Silence, not usurping Authority over the Man, any Ways repugnant to this Doctrine; because it is clear that Women have prophesied and preached in the Church, else had that Saying of Joel been ill applied by Peter, Acts ii. 17. And seeing Paul himself, in the same Epistle to the Corinthians, giveth Rules how Women should behave themselves in their publick Preaching and Praying, it would be a manifest Contradiction if that other Place were taken in a larger Sense. And the same Paul speaks of a Woman that laboured with him in the Work of the Gospel: And it is written that [94]Philip had four Daughters that prophesied. And Lastly, It hath been observed, that God hath effectually in this Day converted many Souls by the Ministry of Women; and by them also frequently comforted the Souls of his Children; which manifest Experience puts the Thing beyond all Controversy. Quest. 4. Ministers Maintenance. But now I shall proceed to speak of the Maintenance of Ministers.
[94] Acts 21. 9.