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unto men set apart for the work of the ministry: as the slaying of men's lusts, and the offering up of them being converted by the preaching of the gospel unto God: so saint Paul, of his ministry, Rom. xv. 16. That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God; that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable,' &c. Ministers preaching the gospel, to the conversion of souls, are said to kill men's lusts, and offer them up unto God, as the fruit of their calling; as Abel brought unto him an acceptable sacrifice of the fruit of his flock; and so also in respect of divers other acts of their duty, which they perform in the name of their congregations. Now these sacrifices are appropriate to the ministers of the gospel, not in regard of the matter, for others also may convert souls unto God, and offer up prayers and praises, in the name of their companions; but in respect of the manner, they do it publicly and ordinarily; others privately, or in extraordinary cases. Now if the ministers, who are thus God's instruments for the conversion of souls, be themselves ingrafted into Christ; all the acts they perform in that great work, are but parts of their own duty, of the same nature in that regard with the rest of our spiritual sacrifices; so that they have not by them any farther peculiar interest in the office of the priesthood more than others but if these preachers themselves do not belong unto the covenant of grace, as God oftentimes out of his care for his flock, bestows gifts upon some for the good of others, on whom he will bestow no graces for the benefit of their own souls, men may administer that consolation out of the word unto their flock, which themselves never tasted, preach to others, and be themselves castaways. St. Paul tells us that some preach Christ out of envy and contention; not sincerely, but on purpose to add to his affliction; and yet, saith he, 'whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached, and therein do I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice;' Phil. i. 16-18. Surely had there been no good effected by such preaching, St. Paul would not have rejoiced in it; and yet doubtless it was no evidence of sanctification, to preach Christ merely out of contention (and on purpose to add to the affliction of his servants): but, I say, if the Lord shall be pleased at any time to make use of such, as instru

ments in his glorious work of converting souls, shall we think that it is looked upon as their sacrifice unto God? No, surely, the soul of the Lord is delighted with the repentance of sinners; but all the sacrifices of these wicked men are an abomination unto him, and therefore they have no interest in it; neither can they from hence be said to be priests of God, seeing they continue dogs and unclean beasts, &c. so that all the right unto this priestly office, seems to be resolved into, and be the same with, the common interest of all believers in Christ, whereby they have a participation of his office. Whence I affirm,

3. That the name of priests is nowhere in the Scripture attributed peculiarly and distinctly to the ministers of the gospel as such; let any produce an instance to the contrary, and this controversy is at an end: yea, that which puts a difference between them, and the rest of the people of God's holiness, seems to be a more immediate participation of Christ's prophetical office, to teach, instruct, and declare the will of God unto men, and not of his sacerdotal, to offer sacrifices for men unto God. Now I could never observe that any of those, who were so forward of late to style themselves priests, were at all greedy of the appellation of prophets; no, this they were content to let go: name and thing; and yet when Christ ascended on high, he gave some to be prophets, for the edification of his body, Eph. iv. 11. none as we find to be priests: priests then (like prelates) are a sort of church officers, whom Christ never appointed. Whence I conclude,

4. That whosoever maintaineth any priests of the New Testament, as properly so called, in relation to any altar or sacrifice by them to be offered, doth as much as in him lieth disannul the covenant of grace, and is blasphemously injurious to the priesthood of Christ. The priest and the sacrifice under the New Testament are one and the same; and therefore, they who make themselves priests, must also make themselves Christs, or get another sacrifice of their own. As there is but one God, so there is but one mediator of God and man, the man Jesus Christ;' 1 Tim. ii. 5. Now he became the mediator of the New Testament chiefly by his priesthood, because by the eternal Spirit 'he offered up himself unto God;' Heb. ix. 14, 15. Neither is any now called

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of God to be a priest as was Aaron, and without such divine vocation to this office, none ought to undertake it, as the apostle argues, Heb. v. Now, the end of any such vocation and office, is quite ceased; being nothing but to offer gifts and sacrifices unto God, Heb. viii. 3. for Christ hath offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, and is sat down at the right hand of God,' Heb. x. 12. yea, 'by one offering he hath perfected them that are sanctified;' ver. 14. and if that did procure remission of sins, there must be no more offering for sin;' ver. 18. and the surrogation of another makes the blood of Christ to be no better than that of bulls and goats. Now one of these they must do, who make themselves priests (in that sense concerning which we now treat); either get them a new sacrifice of their own, or pretend to offer Christ again : the first seems to have been the fault of those of ours, who made a sacrifice of the sacrament, yet pretended not to believe the real presence of Christ in or under the outward elements or species of them; the other of the Romanists, whose priests, in their mass, blasphemously make themselves mediators between God and his Son, and offering up Christ Jesus for a sacrifice, desire God to accept him; so charging that sacrifice with imperfection, which he offered on the altar of the cross, and making it necessary not only that he should annually, but daily, yea hourly, suffer afresh; so recrucifying unto themselves the Lord of glory. Farther, themselves confessing that to be a true sacrifice, it is required that that which is offered unto God be destroyed, and cease to be what it was; they do confess by what lies in them to destroy the Son of God, and by their mass have transubstantiated their altars into crosses, their temples into Golgotha's, their prelates into Pilates, their priests into hangmen; tormentors of Jesus Christ. Concerning them and ours, we may shut up this discourse with what the apostle intimates to the Hebrews, viz. that all priests are ceased, who were mortal; now small cause have we to believe them to be immaterial spirits, among whom we find the works of the flesh to have been so frequent.

And this may give us some light into the iniquity of

For offering the host or their Christ they pray: Suprà quæ, propitio ac sereno valtu respicere digneris, et accepta habere sicut dignatus es mun era pueri tui justi Abel, et sacrificium patriarchæ nostri Abrahæ:' with many more to that purpose.

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those times, whereinto we were lately fallen; in which lord bishops and priests had almost quite oppressed the bishops of the Lord, and ministers of the gospel; how unthankful men were we for the light of the gospel, men that loved darkness rather than light. A wonderful and horrible thing was wrought in our land; the prophets prophesied falsely, the priests bare rule by their means,' almost the whole 'people loved to have it so: and what shall we now do in the end thereof?' Jer. v. 30, 31. Such a hasty apostacy was growing on us, as we might justly wonder at, because unparalleled in any church, of any age: but our revolters were profound, hasty men, and eager in their master's service. So what a height of impiety and opposition to Christ the Roman apostacy in a thousand years attained unto; and yet I dare aver that never so many errors and suspicions in a hundred years crept into that church, as did into ours of England in sixteen; and yet I cannot herein give the commendation of so much as industry to our innovators (I accuse not the whole church, but particulars in it, and that had seized themselves of its authority), because they had a platform before them, and materials provided to their hand; and therefore it was an easy thing for them to erect a Babel of antichristian confusion; when the workmen in the Roman apostacy were forced to build in the plain of Christianity without any pre-existent materials, but were fain to use brick and slime of their own provision: besides, they were unacquainted with the main design of Satan, who set them on work, and therefore it is no wonder if those Nimrods ofttimes hunted counter, and disturbed each other in their progress; yea, the first mover in church apostacy knows, that now his time is but short, and therefore it behoves him to make speedy work in seducing, lest he be prevented by the coming of Christ.

Then having himself a long tract of time granted unto him, he allowed his agents to take leisure also; but what he doth now must be done quickly, or his whole design will be quashed: and this made him inspire the present business with so much life and vigour. Moreover he was compelled then to sow his tares in the dark, while men slept, taking advantage at the ignorance and embroilment of the times; if any man had leisure enough to search, and learning enough

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to see and find him at it, he commonly filled the world with clamours against him, and scarce any but his avowed champions durst be his advocates: in our time he was grown bold and impudent, working at noonday; yea, he openly accused and condemned all that durst accuse him for sowing any thing but good wheat, that durst say that the tares of his Arminianism and popery was any thing but true doctrine. Let us give so much way to indignation, we know Satan's trade what it is, to accuse the brethren; as men are called after their professions, one a lawyer, another a physician, so is he the accuser of the brethren. Now surely if ever he set up a shop on earth, to practise his trade in, it was our high commission court, as of late employed, but areXWπTE.

CHAP. IV.

Of the duty of God's people in cases extraordinary concerning his worship.

THIS being thus determined, I return again to the main Enroúμevov, concerning the duty and privilege of the common people of Christianity in sacred things: and first, in cases extraordinary, in which, perhaps, it may be affirmed, that every one (of those I mean before named) is so far a minister of the gospel as to teach and declare the faith to others, although he have no outward calling thereunto; and yet in this case every one for such an undertaking must have a warrant by an immediate call from God; and when God calls there must be no opposition, the thing itself he sends us upon becomes lawful by his mission; 'what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common;' Acts x. 13. never fear the equity of what God sets thee upon; no excuses of disability or any other impediment ought to take place, the Lord can and will supply all such defects: this was Moses's case, Exod. iv. 10, 11. ‘O Lord,' saith he,' I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant: but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? have not I the Lord?' So also was it with the prophet Jeremiah, when God

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