Scriptures, but had not been of a long time ufed in that degenerate Church of Rome, and unto which the Divine Afflatus now directed them to return? And that this is his very Senfe, would appear to every one that can but conftrue fo many of the easiest Latin words, Ibi demum fit ei locus, ubi nullus eft legitime Vocationis ufus. i. e. Where the Regular Scripture way of Ordination is rejected and difufed, as it had been by the Church of Rome, there is a Call from Heaven to reform thefe Abuses, and to reftore the Church to its first Institutions, which by their own Practices appears to be, in their Judgments, the Presbyterial, and not the Epifcopal, which was the Popish Way. And thus Beza agrees very well both with himself, and with us; and he feems to add these last words only as a Caution against the Anabaptifts, and other Enthufiafts and Schifmaticks of his Days, that denied the great Ordinance of the Ministry, and Ordination by the hands of Men, falfly pretending to a like Afflatus, where a Lawful and Scriptural Ordination may be had. And now, Sir, in fome of your cooler Intervals, you may fit down and confider how far you have found your account from the Acute and Learned Beza, as you call him on this occafion.

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Again, as to your Citation of Calvin, in an Epistle of his to the King of Po- Vind. p. 70. land, where all that you quote of him is this, "The Office that the Lord hath conferr'd on as is Extraordinary. His own words are these, Atque omnino Extraordinarium fuit boc munus, quod "Dominus nobis injunxit, dum opera noftra ad colligendas Ecclefias ufus eft. That the Work which God "bad enjoyn'd and given them to do, was very Extraordinary, while he was pleafed to make ufe of their "labour to gather his Churches, and to recover them from the abominable Defection of the Church of Rome. The Senfe whereof can be stretch'd no

higher than this, That their Office, the Munus, or Charge of the Office, was Extraordinary, in that their Call to it (tho' not immediately from Heaven, but from Scripture) was fo very different from that Ufe and Manner which had fo long obtain'd in the Church of Rome, as I had told you before from Monfieur Turretin, and to which Calvin's following words feem to agree, Qui ergo ita præter fpem in folito “modo repente apparuerunt fincera Pietatis Vindices, eorum Vocatio a communi Regula eftimari non debet. Therefore the Call of thofe, who beyond the hope of Man in an unusual manner fo fuddenly appear'd to vindicate the fincere Religion, ought not to be efti66 mated by the Common Rule, i. e. the Rule then in common ufe; their Work being not properly to Plant, but to Cleanfe and Replant upon the Original Bottom, what was by the length of Time, and the Corruptions of Men, grown fo intolerably Irregular and Offenfive. This was an Extraordi nary Work, not only as that which was Rare, and not to be done every Year, nor every Pajon Exam. Age, as Monfieur Pajon fays, but on the P. 234. account of the Difficulty of the Work,

and the Extraordinary Gifts and Divine Affiftances that are neceflary to carry on fuch an Undertaking. Therefore adds Calvin, "Talibus "enim, qui Ecclefiam ab Antichrifti defectione reduce-: "rent, opus fuit. There was need of fuch Men, who in 66 fome refpects refembled the Apostles and Evangelifts, "to reduce the Church from the Antichriftian Defe "tion. And of the External Formality of whofe Call to the Miniftry there was, in Extraordinary cafes, no abfolute need; but a Call from the People or from the Prince (fo that the Perfons were duly qualified with Minifterial Gifts) was in a prefent Exigence fufficient. And therefore he goes on in that Epiftle, to encourage the King to fet up fuch Faithful Paftors over his People by his own Autho

'rity. Quicquid de bæreditario facerdotii jure garriat Papalis Cleris, i e. Whatever the Popish Clergy prate "of an Hereditary Right, or Succeffion to the Priesthood. And answers the Objection of Remedium Violentum, that this would be judg'd too violent a Remedy for the King to create Paftors by his fole Authority. Effet tamen (fays he) boc temporale munus quantifper res incompofita manent & fufpenfe. Thut this would ferve as a Temporary Office, as long as things continued in the Interim of an unfettled Fino won "State. Therefore where you obferv'd, vindic, plób. that there have been but thefe Two

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ways of advancing Perfons to the Sacred Fundion, The one by Succeffion to those that were poffeffed of it before, which indeed hath been the Ordinary Way; Inftead of the other, which, you fay, is by an Extraordinary Call immediately from God Himself, and which, you fay, but have not yet prov'd, was the Foundation of thefe Foreigners Title to their Paftoral Office; you should rather have made this your 'other, and Extraordinary way, viz. The Call from the People, as in cafes of neceffity they did, and where the Ordinary Call is not to be had, which hath fometimes been the cafe, as it was of Frumentius and his Brother Edefius, when they firft began to preach the Gofpel to the Indians; and we find in Scripture, that Micha himfelf, in a cafe of neceflity, confecrated firft his own Son, and afterward (which was a little more proper) the Levite, to be his Prieft. But to fay that it was by a Divine Afflatus, without any Ordination by Men that had Authority to ordain, whether in the Ordinary or Extraordinary Cafe, that thefe Foreign Reformers receiv'd their Paftoral Offices, is but a Fiction of your own,and not Beza's Words or Senfe.

Socrat. Hift.

E.XV. L. I.

Judges 19.

And yet, fhould I grant you the Senfe that you would fo unreafonably impofe on Beza's Words,

how

how little will it relieve the Impertinency of your Argument. The Question is, Whether Men may be true Ministers, or Paftors of the Church of Chrift, without Epifcopal Ordination? Which you deny. Now what tho' Beza fhould have faid, that the Call of their first Reformers was Extraordinary? You your felf have obferv'd from Beza, that this Extraordinary Call is not to be allow'd of in Conftituted Churches; but the Reformed Foreign Churches are now Constituted Churches, and have their Paftors by Presbyterial and not Epifcopal Ordination; Are they then true Churches in this their Conftituted State, or are they not? To what purpose do you tell us of the Extraordinary Call of their firft Reformers, which was in the proper and strictest Senfe true of all the Chriftian Churches in the World, as to their firft Apoftolical Planters; The Foreign Churches do not now, any of them, pretend that their Pastors are fuch by an Extraordinary Call, and Immediate Commiffion from Heaven, but that their Call to the Office is Ordinary, and their Presbyterial Ordination is valid; and that a Bishop and a Presbyter are not Officers fpecifically diftinct Jure Divino. What have we to do then with a Call that is Extraordinary; So that the Question still stands as it was; Are they in this their Conftituted State, true Churches of Chrift, or are they not?

Once more, to convince you how they understand the Extraordinarinefs of their Call to the Ministry; you might have found enough to have done it, had you but candidly confulted the Author you have marginally quoted to me, the Learned and Judicious Monfieur Claude, Part 4. Chap. 4. of his Hiftorical Defence of the Reformation, where he treats with a

Papift, the Author of the Prejudice, on this Page 85. very Queftion, and fays, "That as to the Ministry of the first Reformers, it is true, "that it is not Extraordinary, nor newly Inflituted,

t but the fame that the Apostles established at first, for "the Prefervation and Propagation of the Church, and which was preferv'd in the Latin Church down to the Age of our Fathers, in refpect of all that was abfo"lutely Effential to it, and which shall also fubfift unto "the end of the World. We may fay notwithstanding, "that the Reformation, in which they were employ'd, "was an Extraordinary Function of their Office, in-as"much as their Flocks had an Extraordinary need of "their help; As a Veffel that is ready to be Shipwrack'd "has an extraordinary need of the affiftance of those that fteer it, to avoid that entire Destruction wherewith it "is threatned. And then it may be called Extraordi"nary, on the account of the Extraordinary Change "which the Reformation made for the better in the "Church. But as for that which regards their Call, it "was not Extraordinary, if by that Term they mean, it "fhould have come immediately from God, as that of

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Mofes and the ancient Prophets; or immediately "from Jefus Christ, as that of the Apostles; but it was "Ordinary, that is to fay, they receiv'd it from God, LL mediately by the means of Men. It is alfo certain, "that the Manner of their receiving their Call, as to the greater part, was the very fame with that that is "moft common and ufual in the Church, which is, that they received their Ordination from the band of thofe "Paftors who were themselves in that Office. And much more he there fays to the fame purpofe, which is too large for me to tranfcribe; And acknowledges that there were fome few who receiv'd their Call immediately from the Churches hand, i. e. the Body of the Faithful People," And of

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ແ those (fays he) we may fay their Call Page 87. was Extraordinary, in the Senfe that we

"call Unusual things Extraordinary, which tho' it be not Unlawful, as he had prov'd before, yet ought not to be "the common Practice, but only in cafes of abfolute Neceffity: But as for thofe Minifters who fucceeded

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them,