A Just Defense of Hearing the Sermons, Chapter 10 · Section 10
Sect. 10. It is a sin not to encourage good men in their Ministry.
Object. 6. But there are some good men amongst them, and such as belong to God, may we not hear good men? To which briefly. Answ. 1. That there are some among the present preachers of this day, that are good men, we shall not stand to deny. Yet, 2. We crave leave to say, That they are all of them such as are sadly polluted and defiled by their complyance, in respect of their standing in the Ministry Antichristian, whose teachings Saints have no warrant to attend upon. 3. The greater hopes we have of their goodness, the more cautelous should we be of encouraging them in a false way; that they by our relinquishment of them, and separating from them (after we have discharged all other duties we are satisfied are incumbent upon us to perform towards them) may come to see their sin, repent, and do their first works, that God and we may again receive them. 4. Yet the goodness of any, as to the main, is no warrant for any to hold communion with them, or attend upon their teach…ngs: There are brethren that walk disorderly, whom 'tis the duty of Saints to separate from: that the very best of the Ministers of England do so, will not be denyed. The incestuous person, 1 Cor. 5. was, as to the main, for ought I know, a good man: yet were not the Saints at Corinth to hold communion with him, till upon his repentance he was again received 2 Cor. 2▪ 6. 5. 'Tis utterly unlawfull to communicate with a devised Ministry upon what pretext soever. 6. So is it for any to partake in other mens sins (as hath been proved:) but every usurped Ministry is the sin of him (though never so holy a person) that exerciseth it.
I reply, this objection being an argument ad hominem against this Author, who hath represented all the present Ministers as walking disorderly, deniers of Christs offices, Antichristian, Idolaters, Scandalous, even the best of them: which what face he can say of them, and yet acknowledge them good men is not easily conceivable, they seem to me inconsistent speeches. That their Ministry is Antichristian, when they minister the word of God is also in my understanding oppositum in apposito a contradiction; That they stand in that Ministry, which they had by Episcopal ordination, is so far from being their defilement, that it seems to me their vertue and wisdome, it being alwayes judged by me a great sin to renounce that ministry, sith it is no other then of the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded, So are the words in the book of Ordination.and as this Church and Realm hath received the same, according to the Commandements of God; which, for any to disclaim, is to go back from the service of Christ, and if the present Ministers do stand in this Ministry, the Saints are warranted, and engaged to attend upon it. The greater hopes we have of their goodness, the more are all, that love the Lord Jesus, bound to encourage them in this way, as being the the true way of Christ, and to relinquish them, and separate from them, for this cause is very sinfull, sith it is to separate from them for doing their duty: To hold them as excommunicate, to reprove, to urge them to repentance, not to receive them, to conceive of them as brethren walking disorderly, is uncharitableness, and injustice. That the incestuous person was a good man before he repented cannot be well conceived, sith he committed such a sin as was not named among the Gentiles: it was the sin of the Corinthians that they were puffed up and had not rather mourned, that he that had done that deed might be taken away from among them, it is no sin, that the Saints do not mourn, that the present Ministers, who are confessedly good men, may be taken away from among them, it is their great sin, if they do not bless God for them, and pray for their establishment and good success in their Ministry. That the Ministry is devised by any other than God is not shewed: they that talk and write ignorantly, not ever reading the book of Ordination, which shews what their Ministry is, make invectives against them, and wildly wander from them upon false suggestions often to their perdition. That to hear them is not to partake with them in sin, is shewed in answer to this Authors 8th. argument, chap. 8th. That their Ministry is usurped, is not proved; if it were, it might be a true Ministry, which if it be, though it were usurped, it is not the sin, but may be the duty of him that exerciseth it. It follows,