The principles of Protestant truth and peace in four treatises : viz. the true state of liberty of conscience, in freedom from penal laws and church-censures, the obligations to national true religion, the nature of scandal, paricularly as it relates to indifferent things, a Catholick catechism, shewing the true grounds upon which the Catholick religion is ascertained / by Tho. Beverley ...

CAP. X. Of the Officers appointed by Christ in his Church.

Quest. CAn there be either an Orderly, or an Effectual Actuation of the Truth, by the Church as a Con∣gregation, without distinct and separate Offices and Officers that may attend continually on this very thing?

Answ. It is imposible; for, an Assembly without Order, would cease to be an Assembly, and fall into a Confusion, or Rude Multitude. All Wise and Prudent Assemblies have always had Elders to preside over them; and our Lord hath ordained such to moderate throughout his Congregation or Church, to conduct all the Publick Services of Religion: For all things therein are actually administred by the Mi∣nisters of Christ, the Noblest Organical Parts of the Church, like those Senses that attend upon the Understanding most immediately; Seeing Eyes, and Hearing Ears; so these upon the Word of Christ. And that they may be most fitted, ingaged, and provoked hereunto, they are, even according to the very Laws of Nature, separated to their Offices, and unto all Preparations for them, by Reading and Meditation, as to their Proper Calling and Business of Life, seeing they do not pretend to Immediate and Extraordina∣ry Inablements, or Excitations to their Service.

Quest. What Titles or Characters does the New Testament place upon these Officers?

Answ. Those that we have especial Respect to (for in the Deacons, if strictly taken, we are less concerned) receive

Denominations either from their Work and Service, or from that Honour and Estimation due to the Faithful Discharge of such a Service. From their Work they are stiled Apostles, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, Ministers, Servants of God and Christ, and in a just sense, of the Church also. From the Estimation and Honour due to the Discharge of their Work, and the Authority it ought to carry in the Hearts and Con∣sciences of Christians, they are styled Bishops, Elders, Ru∣lers, Guides, and Ensamples, as also, Embassadours: And the Work and the Honour do so enclose one another, that they ought not to be separated, and are in their Institution the Measure one of another, extending both to Obedience, and Support of them in their Work; and the Titles are so pre∣pared by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost, that they ought not to be changed for any other, nor the Scripture Lan∣guage herein to be altered, for any Words not importing the same proper Sense.

Quest. How shall the True Ministers of Christ be known, that there may be that Obedience and Submission paid to them that is commanded?

Answ. There can be no other Means to discern them, but by the Word of Righteousness, of which all True Ministers are the Ministers, on account of which alone, Obedience and Submission to them is due: Their bringing that Word in its own Life, Evidence, and Power, is their best Commission.

Quest. But how are they most orderly enstall'd into so high a Function?

Answ. Christ as the Head of the Church, hath ascended up on high, and given gifts to Men, and as the Lord of the Harvest takes it upon him, as his Supreme Care, to thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest. The several Congregati∣ons of Christians, observing Ministerial Abilities, and Meet∣ness to Teach, call out to such to help them; and herein, in the Cessation of Extraordinary Gifts, the Schools of Lear∣ning and Religious Education, like the Schools of the Pro∣phets,

do best prepare; and the Judgment of those that have been Pastors and Teachers before them, does most or∣derly recommend to Choice and Acceptance, in the great Service, such as are Scribes, instructed to the Kingdom of Hea∣ven, and commits to them the Charge of Teaching others: For in this, as in all other Acts, the Elders of the Church are to preside, with due Respect to the Congregation.

Quest. Is the Lord Christ pleased then to act generally by the Elders and Officers of the Church?

Answ. Generally and ordinarily he does so; the Officers are therefore more particularly entrusted by Christ with the Keys, even as the Church in general is. Thus emi∣nently, by the Ministry of the Apostles, our Lord found∣ed his Church, and so edifies and builds it up in After-ages, by Pastors and Teachers; and when great Defections have prevailed upon it, summons it to Reformation, by some rais'd up among those Officers, and whom he sends out, as such, to reform and recover his Church: Yet still all this Power is in and according to his Word, and no other; and so, that in all things, as much as may be, the Knowledge, Judgment and Approbation of the Church is to be joyn'd in all the Officers do, as having their Interest in the Keys also; because they have their Interest in the Word of God, in the Understanding, Opening and Ap∣plying of which to Particular Cases, the whole Power of the Keys rests. The Apostles, Elders, and the Brethren, or whole Church, were together pleased, and together joyn'd in that Famous Conciliary Epistle, Acts 15. 22.

Quest. I desire your more full Explanation of the Publick Offices of the Christian Church, and the Power accompanying it?

Answ. I will very willingly do as you desire, and begin with the Apostles.

Quest. Wherein stood their Power?

Answ. It stood in their Preaching, Acting, Directing, Governing, by that Immediate and Infallible Assistance of

the Divine Spirit, by which they writ and sealed Scripture, and by which they were so guarded every way, that they could turn neither to the Right Hand nor to the left, in any thing wherein they exercised this Power.

Quest. How was this Power Justified?

Answ. By the Divineness, substantial Goodness, and Rea∣sonableness of all their Prescriptions, propos'd in all the Methods of Rational Discourse, and manifestation of them∣selves in Mens Consciences, witness'd to by the Holy Spi∣rit, and authorised by a Power of Miracles, generally of Beneficence, or doing good; and in some, but sparing In∣stances, of infliction of Bodily Pains, or Death.

Quest. Did the Apostles never err in their Administration?

Answ. Whenever that Infallible Guidance was not pre∣sent to them, they might err, as was before observed in the Apostle Peter's Miscarriage, which no doubt was re∣corded to shew their Power was not in themselves, but in the Divine Spirit acting by them; that none in After-ages, might pretend to dictate as their Successors, having not their Power, and yet requiring Obedience, as if they had it; whereas even the Apostles themselves might err, and so lose their Power, if never so little deserted by the Holy Spirit: And therefore what they consigned over to After-ages, was winnowed from every thing Humane and Falli∣ble, that both Officers and People might know the one Common Rule, by which one is to Govern, the other, in the Application of it, is to be Governed.

Quest. Who were next to the Apostles in this Office and Power?

Answ. Evangelists, such as were Timothy and Titus, who having a Portion of the Apostolick Work, to plant and settle Churches, and Ordinary Officers in them, had also a Portion of their Power to enable them to it, it being abso∣lutely necessary there should be such, till the General Rule was fully settled and fixed.

Quest. Were not the Apostles and Evangelists above Ordi∣nary Pastors and Teachers?

Answ. They were, in this great Point of Difference, that they had the Word of God by Immediate and Infallible Revelation committed to them, to commit the same to others, by direction from the same Spirit, who gave them Discerning to whom to entrust it, till all things relating to the Kingdom of God in the Church were sealed in the Canon of the New Testament; else they owned themselves Compresbyters, as the Apostle Peter stiles himself, A Pres∣byter with Presbyters.

Quest. From all that hath been spoken, we are to conclude, That the whole Power in the Church, and in all things per∣taining to Religion, is retained in the Word of God.

Answ. It is so: For Christ in his Word is the only King and Lawgiver of his Church, which Glory he will not give to another: Whatever Power can be supposed resident in the whole Church together, is no other than in that Word of Truth publickly offered by it. The Apostles Power was only the presence of that Word to them, by the Immedi∣ate Revelation, and infallible Guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the Preaching it throughout the World, and thereby founding the Christian Church: Such was the ordinary Power of any extraordinary Ministers under them. The and constant Rulership of the Elders of the Church remains unmoveably in the Word, which it is their Office to speak.

Quest. Are not those we distinguishingly call Bishops, Suc∣cessours to the Apostles, in that Preeminency they had over other Pastors and Elders?

Answ. That Successors to the preeminency of the Apo∣stles may be well established, Three things are necessary,

1. That there be found, and produced Distinct Com∣mands given in Scripture ••o the Inferior Ministers of the New Testament to obey Superior Ministers, or Bishops; Commands to Christians to obey Inferior Ministers, or Ordinary Presbyters, as Inferior Ministers, with respect to Superior Ministers, and those Superior Ministers, as Supe∣riors.

We must find the Apostle distinguishing, ordinary Presbyters; as Inferior Ministers, with respect to Superior Ministers; and those Superior Ministers, as Superiors; as we find him distinguishing Civil Magistrates into the King, as Supreme; and Governors, as those that are sent by him.

2. Seeing it is very clear, and apparent, there is nothing more distant from the Design of the Gospel, than to Con∣stitute any thing for the sake of making a great Figure, without as great an Use, or End; and that Christ hath not given Power to his Rulers to Command the very least thing, but as Commanded by himself first, for then they would be Lords, which he plainly declares against, and ab∣solutely denies to them, and that what they do as Com∣manded by him, they should do so in Duty and Service to the Supreme Lord, and Subordinately to his Church, as not to be called, or esteem'd Benefactors for their Services; so that it must be evident, what their Superior Service is; it must be plainly expressed in the Word of God, and there at least so determinately set down, as to be deduced with greatest clearness to the Understanding and Conscience of Christians, and distinguishingly from the Service of other Subordinate Rulers appointed by Christ, that so it may be waited for, and received according to his Ordinance with Faith and Obedience.

3. Seeing Christ appoints none to an Eminency of Ser∣vice, without a suitable Eminency of Abilities, as is plain in the Apostles, and Evangelists; it is therefore reasonable to expect some extraordinary promises of the presence of Christ to those Superior Ministers, to assist them in the Conduct of their Superiority, wherein they might, above any other Ministers of the Gospel, Visibly and Ex∣perimentally make some approaches to the Eminent Assi∣stances the Apostles and Evangelists had in the time of their Ministry, and that they have continued, and suc∣ceeded in their High Function in the Church of Christ,

so, that the History of the Real, Substantial Services of Bishops to Christianity, hath come near to the Acts of Apostles, and as much excelled that of Common Presbyters, as the Order it self is supposed to do: Now without these three self evident concurrent marks of Superiority, secret invisible Characters are of no signification.

Quest. How then is such a Succession of Bishops, in a Superiority over Presbyters, so uncontrolably deduced from Antiquity?

Answ. Besides all other Coincident Accounts, there is this to be given. After the Apostles, there was but a Gradual Cessation of Apostolick Men, Men of Eminent Graces and Extraordinary Gifts, though not of the Infallible Guidance of the Divine Spirit for the Revelation of the Gospel, or the writing of Scripture; yet of more immediate Divine Assistances, in resemblance of Timo∣thy and Titus, for the Confirmation of the Churches planted by the Apostles, Supervisal over them, and Care for them; and al∣so for the further propagation of Christianity, which being but newly set out, had not arrived many places, where it was to come, and so needed some more than ordinary Assistances: Even as Mi∣racles did not immediately Cease, no more did these Persona∣ges extraordinary in their Endowments: Such as these were wor∣thily in a Degree of Superiority over those that had not the same miraculous Inablements, nor Knowledge as yet in Christianity. Afterwards such Manifestations of the Divine Presence by De∣grees retiring, and Christianity having fixed it self where it was then to go, and the Churches settled, the best accounts of the con∣tinuing Distinction between those that were upon the same level, in regard of their Gifts and Graces were but Humane Prudence and Order, which oblige no Man's Conscience beyond the valu∣ableness of the Reasons of that Prudence and Order. Except un∣deniable Holiness, Industry, and Improv'd Understanding recom∣mend any Person to such Eminency. For Eminency, and being Taller than others in those Qualifications, will make any Person a Bishop, in the true sense of one, whether so ordinated or not; and cannot make him that is a Dwarf in these, truly a Bishop; how∣ever for Orders sake he may stand in the place of that Figure.

He that excels in his Knowledge of, Obedience to, Zeal for, and Authority in the Word of God, seeing that Word conveys all this kind of Power from it self, must needs have more of that kind of Power so conveyed than others; for the more purely this Word is understood and Preached, the more Power goes out of it, and along with those that display it, and so they become Pastors of a higher Character, whether of a higher Order, or not.