1. Many of you that make this Reply, hold, _That the Election of the people is by Gods Word sufficient to make a man a true Minister without Ordination._
Now it is certain, that many publique Ministers have been chosen by the free and full consent of their Congregations; and most of them have had an after consent, which was sufficient to make _Leah_ _Jacobs_ wife[177], and why not (to use your own words) to marry a man to a people; and therefore according to your own judgments, all such are lawfull Ministers. For sinfull superadditions do not nullifie divine Institutions.
2. Some of you, that besides Election, require Ordination for the making of a Minister, yet say, that this Ordination must be by the people of the Congregation; and thus are your Ministers ordained.
Now we finde neither precept nor president for this in all the Scripture; we finde [178]_Ordination by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery_, but never of the laying on of the hands of the people. We finde [179]the Apostles, _Timothy_ and _Titus_, _Ordaining_, but never the people _Ordaining_; and for private persons to assume the power of Ordination (that is, a power to send men to preach the Gospel, and administer the Sacraments) is a sin like unto the sin of _Uzzah_, and of _Corah_, and his company. Therefore we say to you, as Christ doth, _Matth._ 6. _First pluck the beam out of thine own eye, and then_, &c. First justifie the Ordination of your own Ministers by private persons, and then you will see better, to find fault with the Ordination of our Ministers.
3. We distinguish between a defective Ministry, and a false Ministry, as we do between a man that is lame or blind, and a man that is but the picture of a man. We do not deny, but that the way of Ministers entring into the Ministry by the Bishops, had many defects in it, for which they ought to be humbled: But we add, that notwithstanding all the accidental corruptions, yet it is not substantially and essentially corrupted: As it is with Baptism in the Popish Church; all Orthodox Divines account it valid, though mingled with much dross, because the party baptized, is _baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost_. And therefore, when a Papist turns Protestant, he is not baptized again, because the substance of Baptisme is preserved in Popery under many defects. The like, and much more, may be said for the _Ordination of our Ministers by Bishops_: It is lawful and valid for the substance of it, though mingled with many circumstantial defects.