Difference of Men.
Minister Divine.
THE imposition of Hands upon the Minister when all is done, will be nothing but a designation of a Person to this or that Office or Employ∣ment in the Church. ’Tis a ridiculous Phrase that of the Canonists [Conferre Or∣dines] ’Tis Coaptare aliquem in Ordinem, to make a Man one of us, one of our Number, one of our Order. So Cicero would understand what I said, it being a Phrase borrowed from the Latines, and to be understood proportionably to what was amongst them.
Those Words you now use in ma∣king a Minister [receive the Holy Ghost] were us’d amongst the Jews in making of a Lawyer; from thence we have them, which is a villanous Key to something, as if you would have some other kind of Praefeture, than a Mayoralty, and yet keep the same Ceremony that was us’d in making the Mayor.
A Priest has no such thing as an in∣indelible Character: what difference do you find betwixt him and another Man after Ordination? only he is made a Priest, (as I said) by Designation; as a Lawyer is call’d to the Bar, then made a Serjeant: all Men that would get Pow∣er over others, make themselves as unlike them as they can, upon the same Ground the Priests made themselves un∣like the Laity.
A Minister when he is made, is Mate∣ria prima, apt for any form the State will put upon him, but of himself he can do nothing. Like a Doctor of Law in the University, he hath a great deal of Law in him, but cannot use it till he be made some bodie’s Chancellour; or like a Phy∣sician, before he be receiv’d into a House, he can give no body Physick; indeed af∣ter the Master of the House hath given him charge of his Servants, then he may. Or like a Suffragan, that could do no∣thing but give Orders, and yet he was no Bishop.
A Minister should preach according to the Articles of Religion established in the Church where he is. To be a Civil Lawyer let a Man read Justinian, and the Body of the Law, to confirm his Brain to that way, but when he comes to pra∣ctise, he must make use of it so far as it concerns the Law received in his own Country. To be a Physician let a Man read Gallen and Hypocrates; but when he practises, he must apply his Medicines ac∣cording to the Temper of those Men’s Bodies with whom he lives, and have re∣spect to the Heat and Cold of Climes, otherwise that which in Pergamus (where Gallen liv’d) was Physick, in our cold Climate may be Poyson. So to be a Divine, let him read the whole Body of Divinity, the Fathers and the Schoolmen, but when he comes to practise, he must use it and apply it according to those Grounds and Articles of Religion that are established in the Church, and this with Sense.
There be four things a Minister should be at; the Conscionary Part, Eccle∣siactical Story, School Divinity, and the Casuists.
In the Conscionary Part, he must read all the chief Fathers, both Latine and Greek wholly. St. Austin, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostome, both the Gregories, &c. Tertul∣lian, Clemens, Alexandrinus, and Epipha∣nius; which last have more Learning in them than all the rest, and writ freely.
For Ecclesiastical Story let him read Baronius, with the Magdeburgenses, and be his own Judge, the one being extream∣ly for the Papists, the other extreamly a∣gainst them.
For School Divinity let him get Javel∣lus’s Edition of Scotus or Mayco, where there be Quotations that direct you to every Schoolman, where such and such Questions are handled. Without School Divinity a Divine knows nothing Logi∣cally, nor will be able to satisfie a ratio∣nal Man out of the Pulpit.
The Study of the Casuists must fol∣low the Study of the School-men, because the Division of their Cases, is according to their Divinity; otherwise he that be∣gins with them will know little. As he that begins with the study of the Reports and Cases in the Common Law, will thereby know little of the Law. Casuists may be of admirable use, if discreetly dealt with, though among them you shall have many Leaves together very impertinent. A Case well decided would stick by a Man, they will remember it whether they will or no, whereas a quaint Position di∣eth in the Birth. The main thing is to know where to search; for talk what they will of vast Memories, no Man will presume upon his own Memory for any thing he means to write or speak in publick.
[Go and teach all Nations.] This was said to all Christians that then were be∣fore the distinction of Clergy and Lai∣ty; there have been since, Men design’d to preach only by the State, as some Men are design’d to studdy the Law, o∣thers to studdy Physick. When the Lord’s Supper was instituted, there were none present but the Disciples, shall none then but Ministers receive?
There is all the reason you should believe your Minister, unless you have studied Divinity as well as he, or more than he.
’Tis a foolish thing to say Ministers must not meddle with Secular Matters, because his own profession will take up the whole Man; may he not eat, or drink, or walk, or learn to sing? the meaning of that is, he must seriously attend his Calling.
Ministers with the Papists [that is their Priests] have much respect, with the Puritans they have much, and that upon the same ground, they pretend both of ’em to come immediately from Christ; but with the Protestants they have very little, the reason whereof is, in the be∣ginning of the Reformation they were glad to get such to take Livings as they could procure by any Invitations, things of pitiful Condition. The Nobility and Gentry, would not suffer their Sons or Kindred to meddle with the Church, and therefore at this day, when they see a Parson, they think him to be such a thing still, and there they will keep him, and use him accordingly; if he be a Gen∣tleman, that is singled out, and he is us’d the more respectfully.
The Protestant Minister is least re∣garded, appears by the old Story of the Keeper of the Clink. He had Priests of several sorts sent unto him; as they came in, he ask’d them who they were; who are you to the first? I am a Priest of the Church of Rome; you are welcome quoth the Keeper, there are those will take Care of you, and who are you? A si∣lenc’d Minister. You are welcome too, I shall fare the better for you: And who are you? A Minister of the Church of England. O God help me (quoth the Keeper) I shall get nothing by you, I am sure you may lie and starve, and rot, before any body will look after you.
Methinks ’tis an ignorant thing for a Church-man, to call himself the Mi∣nister of Christ, because St. Paul, or the Apostles call’d themselves so. If one of them had a Voice from Heaven, as St. Paul had, I will grant he is a Mini∣ster of Christ, I will call him so too. Must they take upon them as the Apostles did? Can they do as the Apostles could? The Apostles had a Mark to be known by, spake Tongues, cur’d Diseases, trod upon Serpents, &c. Can they do this? If a Gentleman tells me, he will send his Man to me, and I did not know his Man, but he gave me this mark to know him by, he should bring in his Hand a rich Jewel; if a Fellow came to me with a Pebble-Stone, had I any reason to believe he was the Gentleman’s Man?