The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 1 · Chapter 35
CHAP. 35. A difference to be obſerved, between the office of Paſtor of the Church, and the means to enter into it.
THere is a wide diſtance between the charge of Paſtor and the means whereby a man gets into that charge; For one can enter by ill means into a good charge, inſtituted by God: As when one enters into the Miniſtry of the Goſpel by favor of factions, by corruption, by gifts, or by uſurpation. But if the charge be of its nature evil, it cannot be made good and lawfull by any formality, nor by any length of ſucceſſion. Formalities do not change the nature of things; and there is no preſcription againſt divine inſtitution. It matters not with how many formalities one undertakes to make war againſt God.
Of theſe two queſtions, the one, Whether the charge be good of its nature? the other, Whether one be entred by good means? the firſt is much more important then the ſecond; for it is neceſſary for ſalvation unto every Chriſtian, but the other is not. It is neceſſary for the people, to know whether the offices of the Pope and of Sacrificer of the body of Chriſt, be good and lawfull, and inſtituted by Chriſt, leſt they be ſubjected to an unjuſt domination, and thinking to ſerve Chriſt, they ſerve Antichriſt: Leſt alſo that being partakers of a Sacrifice invented by men, they be guilty of vacating or wronging the only Sacrifice of the death of Chriſt, and of defiling themſelves with idolatry. But as for the ſucceſſion of perſons, and the forms of entering into the Office of Paſtor, it is indeed neceſſary to a Paſtor of the Church, not to uſurp the holy Miniſtry; and he muſt be very certain in his conſcience, that he hath followed the lawfull wayes, and hath not intruded himſelf; For of that he is to anſwer in Gods Judgement, who will not leave an uſurper unpuniſht, but will call him to account, for making the holy Miniſtry a prey, and conſtraining God (as far as in him lyeth) to make uſe of his ſervice, by doing him that ſervice to which God called him not; and for bringing the traffick into the Temple, and purchaſing by faction and bribery that holy charge, which teacheth humility and innocence.
But it is not neceſſary for the people to know the vocation of their Paſtors, and to have an exact knowledge by what wayes every one of them is come to the holy Miniſtry; For I find not any text in the Word of God, that obliges the people to that examination, or ſaith that the people muſt give account unto God of the calling of their Paſtors. If a man crept into the Miniſtry by fraud and unlawful wayes, yet preach the Goſpel purely, and adminiſter the Sacraments as Jeſus Chriſt did inſtitute them, the people believing his preaching, ſhall be ſaved nothing the leſs; for the ſentence of Jeſus Chriſt is without exception, that who ſo believeth on him ſhall have everlaſting life: The Word of God loſeth not its vertue in the mouth of a Paſtor admitted againſt the forms, as good ſeed doth not change nature, and bears not the leſs fruit for being ſown by a thief. As one may wear a ſuit of clothes, without knowing whether the workman be admitted of Taylors Hall; So one may profit at a mans preaching, without knowing whether the man got into the Office of Paſtor by good forms and lawfull wayes. The people is not accountable unto God for the calling of his Paſtors, but for adhering unto falſe doctrines, and partaking with a Sacrifice which God hath not commanded. Truly if the people that they may be ſaved, muſt exactly know, what and how long the ſucceſſion of their Paſtors is, and whether it be deſended from the Apoſtles by a ſucceſſive line of perſons in the ſame chair, they are excluded from all hope of ſalvation; ſince that cannot be known but by the reading of Fathers, and Greek and Latin hiſtories, where the people underſtand nothing; And if they underſtood them, yet ſhould they find a diſcord between hiſtorians, and intervals, and interruptions, where the readers are at a loſs. Therefore(a)Acts 16.14. Lydia the Purple-ſeller, and the people of(b)Acts 17.11. Berea, and the(c)Acts 2.41. three thouſand Jews converted at Peters preaching, enquired not about Peters or Pauls calling; Nor the Eunuch of Queen Candace, of the vocation and ſucceſſion of Philip: But believed their preaching, becauſe they proved what they ſaid by Scripture, although they had neither ſucceſſion nor ordinary calling. So much was enough for them to be ſaved.
Out of that which was ſaid, we gather two things. The one, that in the Roman Church the people are prepoſterouſly inſtructed; for their Paſtors hide from them the holy Scripture, by which only they might learn, whether the charge of Pope or Prieſts be inſtituted by God; but they are taught to inſiſt upon the ſucceſſion of chairs, and to queſtion us about our calling. That which is neceſſary to ſalvation, is hidden from them, and they are taught to enquire of that which is not neceſſary for them to know, and about which they ſhall not be called to account before God. While they amuſe men about formalities, they hide the doctrine of ſalvation from their eyes. Theſe poor people fed with empty husks, content themſelves to believe that their leaders have the chairs and the ordinary ſucceſſion; but the means are removed from them, to know whether the truth be taught in thoſe chairs: For ſo much cannot be known, but by comparing the doctrine preacht to them with the Scriptures, after the example of the people of Berea, whom St. Luke praiſeth for examining the preaching of St. Paul by Scripture, although the miracles and the holy eloquence of the Apoſtle ſeemed to give him authority enough.
Our ſecond inference is, that our complaints and accuſations againſt the Roman Church, are far ſtronger, and of higher nature, and better grounded, then thoſe of the Roman Church againſt us; For the Roman Church doth not reproach us that the charge of our Paſtors is of its nature evill; acknowledging that Jeſus Chriſt hath inſtituted Paſtors in his Church, to preach the Goſpel and adminiſter the Sacraments. He that limits his Office within theſe functions, cannot be accuſed to have an Office invented by men. Only the Roman Church quarrels with us about formalities, and about the means of entering into that Office, accuſing us of intruding without ordinary calling and without any ſucceſſion.
But we diſputing againſt the Roman Church, bring heavier accuſations againſt them, and ſtand upon far higher terms; For not only we accuſe Popes, Cardinals, Biſhops, Prieſts, and Abbots, of uſurpation, and of getting their Office by ſiniſter wayes, and of want of lawfull ſucceſſion; but we queſtion them about the prime and principal point, neceſſary to ſalvation, which is the validity of their charges; For we find not in the Word of God, that ever he inſtituted Popes, or any ſucceſſors of St. Peter in the Office of Head of the Univerſal Church: And we ſay, that every living head muſt have a body: Whence it follows, that if the Pope be head of the Church, we muſt ſay, that the church is the body of the Pope.Eph. 1. Now Scripture calls the Church the body of Chriſt, not the body of the Pope. But that queſtion ſhall be agitated hereafter.
Neither do we find in Scripture any mention of Cardinals. The firſt Author that ſpeaks of them, is Pope Gregory the I. who writ in the year 596. For the Roman Council where that word is found, is falſe and ſuppoſititious, as we ſhall ſhew in the proper place. But in the time of that Gregory, to be Cardinal Prieſt, was nothing elſe but to be Parſon or Rector of a principal Pariſh.†See Concilium Meldenſe. cap. 54. Other Archiepiſcopal towns as Ravenna and Millan, had their Cardinals as well as Rome. And Popes were elected, not by a Colledge of Cardinals, but by the ſuffrages of the people and Clergy. At this time they are Princes of the Univerſal Papal Church, and have the right of making Apotheoſes or Canonizations, and to elect a Pope, which a few ages ſince is taken only out of their body. In a word, there is nothing in that Court but of humane invention.
As for Biſhops, their Office indeed is good and holy as for the origene, but it hath degenerated. Biſhops being grown Princes of the Papal Empire, to which they ſwear fealty and allegiance in their reception, without any mention of their duty to God, or of his Word, or of the vertues and functions which the Apoſtle requireth in a Biſhop; they get into their places by the favor of Kings, and get letters of inveſtiture from the Pope; A thing unknown to all Antiquity.
Likewiſe the Office of Prieſts, being good of its nature, is fallen from its purity. For whereas the charge of a faithful Prieſt, is to preach the Goſpel, and to adminiſter the Sacraments; now a man may be a Prieſt and never preach. The charge committed to him by the Biſhop, while he anoints him, and puts the pix and the chalice in his hands, is to ſacrifice the body of Jeſus Chriſt for the living and the dead: Of which Prieſthood the Inſtitution is not found in the Word of God, and never a word of it in the holy Scripture.
Here then we have a great advantage over our Adverſaries; for we accuſe them to have overthrown the Chriſtian Religion by forging other charges in the Church, then thoſe which Chriſt hath inſtituted, and changing the nature of thoſe which he inſtituted. But they acknowledging the Office of our Paſtors to be good of its nature, accuſe us only of violating the forms, and of want of ſucceſſion. We ſet their crimes before their eyes; And they upon that, queſtion our Commiſſion. Our accuſation is of the ground and eſſence of faith, and is a point neceſſary to ſalvation. Their accuſation is a point of hiſtory, and of Church Diſcipline, which is of no neceſſity to ſalvation. Such then is the quarrel between us, as if a woman ſhould tax another woman of adultery, and that other woman in revenge ſhould reproach her that ſhe hath a high noſe.
Yet let us ſee with what forms the Church of Rome admitteth her Paſtors, and eſpecially what is the Popes ſucceſſion; For Biſhops and Prieſts are not held ſuch, but in as much as the Pope approves of them: And upon that chair an infinite multitude of miters and hats are hanging.