A treatise of the nature of a minister in all its offices to which is annexed an answer to Doctor Forbes concerning the necessity of bishops to ordain, which is an answer to a question, proposed in these late unhappy times, to the author, What is a minister?

SECT. XIV. His Fourth Argument answered.

HIS Fourth Argument is; If Ordi••ation give the Essentials to an Officer before Election, there may be a Pastor without people; an Officer sine Titulo, as they use to speak, and a Pastor should be made a Pastor at large; the rest is nothing but an Ap∣plication to Mr. Rutherford's Simile of a Ring, which concerns not us: But this Argument of his invites me to speak of a pasto∣ral Ordination, which will perhaps give farther Illustration to the whole body of this Discourse: A Pastor and a ••lock are re∣latives, and do mutually se ponere & tollere; where one is, the other must be; where one is not, the other cannot be. Now then, to be made a Pastor, will require to have a flock; this shall be presupposed: and again, every Pastor hath not all Pastoral Offices. I can well suppose a mighty great flock which requires many Shepherds, but one Chief above the rest, he hath all Pa∣storal offices; folds, feeds, drives to field, prescribes p••stures, medicines, and doth all this by the Supream Pastoral power that is granted him, either by his own hands, or by the ministry of those Inferiours which are under him; but they have partial Authorities, only to feed or ••old, or catch or drive, as their several shares are d••signed; the second part of the Division of the Pastoral Charge, these men must grant, who divide their Governours into several Offices, Pastors, Teachers, Rulers, which have their several Duties assigned them, and it is most

unreasonable for them to deny the first, That one should have Superiority over the rest, since as reason would direct, without some body to over-look and attend them, they would easily en∣trench upon one anothers duties, or neglecting their own, in∣vite those others to put their hands to their work; and what this reason directs, that I think I have shewed the Scripture like∣wise Crowns with its approbation: Now the first sort of Pa∣stors are those we term Bishops, the second Presbyters; the flock they are to feed is the Church of Christ, when they are ad∣mitted Pastors, and so ordained according to their several Du∣ties; That which Hooker page 61. brings out of one Mr. Best, as if St. Austin or some General Councel had d••creed it, is ab∣solutely to be denyed, namely, that an Apostle differeth from a Pastor, that the Apostle is a Pastor throughout the whole Chri∣stian World; but the Pastor is tyed to a certain Congregation, out of which he is not to exercise Pastoral Acts.

This I deny, if he affirm it by Divine Right; but if by Ec∣clesiastical Authority only, which hath designed particular Bishops and Presbyters to particular places, I shall yield much of it.

For the first part, concerning the Apostles, know, that their Commission was universal, as it is set down, Mat. 28. 19. Go teach all Nations, &c. and John 20 As my Father sent me, &c. and we must conceive this to be divisim, not conjunctim only, every one had all this power, not all only; nor as Bellarmine would have, Lib. 2. De Romano Pontifice, Cap. 12. St. Peter only and the rest from him, for we see the Commission granted to all; but yet we must know, that their Authority was habitu or potentia only, in every one, it was not act•• in any, they might Episcopize, Apostolize in any place of the World: They did Episcopize, Apostolize only where they were r••sident; Just as I have Conceived, if Adam had lived in his Integrity, every man had had an habitu••l and potential royalty over all the Crea∣tures in the world, yet he would have exercised that Royalty only where he lived, yet he might have Travelled any where, and have justly enjoyed any part of the World, although actu∣ally he could possesse but his Share; Now this was the Juris∣diction of every Apostle in all the whole Catholick Church, ha∣bitually, not actually, as the Church of Rome would have their

Apostolical Man as they call him, the Pope, and all this was ne∣cessary for them as Apostles, which is, men sent for the propaga∣tion of the Gospel, to the planting and confirming of Churches, other powers they had of Languages, of Miracles, which were necessary to the first plantation, but no longer; and therefore they were not peculiar to them, but others had them besides, as likewise that mighty power of being Inspired to write Scrip∣ture, which did not appear in all of them; and some others be∣sides them had that power, as St. Luke and Marke; and some think St. James to be the Bishop of Jerusalem who writ that Epistle.

But now of those which were the Apostles, it is evident that these Gifts were not Apostolical, as belonging so to them as Apo∣stles, and it will appear in the other Cause, That the Bishops suc∣ceeded them in every thing that was Apostolical, although not in these extraordinary Endowments, for the Apostolical power of planting, setling Churches, of propagating the Gospel through∣out the whole World, and enlarging the Kingdom of Christ, must remain for ever, and therefore, though the manner of doing it by such Signs and Wonders be not communicated, yet the Office must; and therefore he who is a Bishop or Presbyter by divine right, is such throughout the whole Word; to this purpose you may observe in that famous place of Acts 20. 28. so much and so often canvased by them who handle these Con∣troversies in other points, but not thought on in this, you may observe, that St. Paul speaking to divers Presbyters or Bishops, (which you will) he saith, Take heed therefore to your selves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops, to feed the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Observe here that he spake to many, and diverse Bishops or Presbyters, (I stand not upon th••t now) he sp••ke to them in the plural Number; but when he speaks of the flock they were to pastorize over, he puts it in the singular Number; now if the Holy Gho•• had made them Bishops of particular Con∣gregations only, it must have been the flock, every one his se∣veral; but being all made Pastors of the Catholick Church, he names it one flock; and so likewise to feed or Sheperdiz•• over, not the Churches but the Church of Christ, which indeed were no way congruous, if the Holy Ghost had made them

Officers of particular Churches, and confined them there, but making them Officers of the Vniversal Church which Christ had purchased with his blood, and all Officers of that, it is rightly put in the singular number flock, and Church. This likewise the Holy Ghost intimates, every where describing the Church to us by the name of a ••ield, a Vineyard, a City, and multitudes of such Expressions, which as much as this of a flock intimate the unity of that Body, which is his Church, his ••lock, over which these are Pastors in their several wayes, not only their little Congregations. Now the wisdom of the Church, finding that although the potential and habitual power is uni∣versal, yet the actual cannot be exercised further than where they have some manner of residence, hath therefore restrained the execution of it in other places than where they have that residence, both to avoid Confusion, which otherwise must ne∣cessarily arise out of the Intermedling in other mens precincts, and likewise because the main scope of their endeavours may be applyed to that place in a near Obligation, every one being for the most part worthy of the Incumbents utmost labour. And this they did by the Apostles own example, who appoint∣ed Timothy, Titus, Epaphroditus, their several Diocesse; yet we must further Concei••e, that this Alotment of the Church is not such as doth lay any restraint upon the power given by the Spiris, but directs it only; for although a Particular man may offend by intruding into another mans Pastoral precincts, and Officiating there, yet factum valet: so that if a Bishop give Or∣ders in another mans Diocesse, as was the famous Case of Epi∣phanius Bishop of Cyprus, in St. Chrysostoms Diccesse at Constan∣tinople, or a Presbyter Administer the Communion in anothers Parish, which is the common practice; these things although done without leave from the peculiar Pastor, are valid to the receivers, although punishable in the Actors: Yea, yet once a∣gain, although a man be placed in a Pastoral Charge, and shall either find upon his own certain experience, or the Judgement of his Superiours, that he can advance the Glory of God, or improve his own Commission by removing to another place, either for a time, as Timothy and Titus, and the rest beneficed in particu∣lar places, were yet upon urgencies of the publick good called aside from the more particular Charge to the more publick,

where they were employed; or else, if their whole residence may more advance the general Good of the whole Flock, o∣ver which they are made Overseers, they ought to remove to∣tally to that great Occasion: So when a man of great Abilities shall be beneficed in a private Corner, where perhaps lesse Abi∣lities would as well, if not better agree, it becomes him to be removed to a place better befitting his Qualifications, or a man indowed with the strength of rational Divinity, such a man to be sent to the propagating the Gospel in the Indies among the Heathen, and he ought to endeavour to put himself into such an employment; because he is a Pastor of the whole flock for which Christ dyed: So that now I think it appears manifestly, that an Apostle and another Pastor differ not in this, that one was an Universal Pastor, and the other a Particular; but con∣trarywise they are both habitually, or Potentià, Pastors of the whole Word, actually pastorizing in some particular only. This caused all those admonitions from one Bishop to another, of which the Fathers are full; This made sometimes Contentions; because it was the Duty of every man that was a Pastor to take care of the whole flock he is Pastor over; and therefore to endeavour their good: So that here you see his Argument fully answered by a flat denial of his Minor, he is not a Pa∣stor without a Flock, nor an Officer sine Titulo, he hath Title to the whole Catholick Church, he is Pastor at large; He hath a long Dispute with Mr. Rutherford about Preaching and Ad∣ministring the Communion out of his own Congregation, and the Communication of Sister Churches, which touch me not; yet I will give the Reader a Note, that whereas before he made Preaching almost the whole Act of a Presbyter, he now seemes to make it no proper duty of a Pastor, pag. 63, 64. But I let these things passe as not pertinent, and apply my self to his fifth and last Argument, pag. 67. which is.