&c., as heretofore they
were used; or they may appoint all and every one to sit in the church with
their faces towards the east, to stand up at the epistles and gospels,
&c.; yea, what ceremonies, Jewish, popish, heathenish, may they not
impose, provided they only hold the foundation, and keep to those
essentials which he calls matters of duty? By restraining the unlawfulness
of will-worship to the essentials, he leaves men free to do anything in
religion, _praeter verbum_, so that it appear not to them to be _contra
verbum_; anything they may add to the word, or do beside the word, so that
the thing cannot be proved contrary to the word.

Thirdly, Mr Hussey, ibid., p. 4, 5, saith, That the Parliament may require
such as they receive for preachers of truth, "to send out able men to
supply the places, and that without any regard to the allowance or
disallowance of the people," where, in the first part of that which he
saith, there is either a heterodoxy or a contradiction. A heterodoxy, if
he mean that ministers are to be sent out without ordination: a
contradiction, if he mean that they must be ordained; for then he gives
classes a work which is not merely doctrinal. But most strange it is, that
he so far departeth from Protestant divines in point of the church's
liberty in choosing ministers. He tells us, p. 14, that Mr Herle, "for
want of skill and theological disputations," hath granted to people a
right to choose their minister. Mr Herle's skill, both logical and
theological, is greater than it seems he can well judge of; neither can
this bold arrogant censure of his derogate from Mr Herle's, but from his
own reputation. For the matter itself, it is one, and not the least, of
the controversies between the Papists and Protestants, what right the
church hath in the vocation of ministers: read Bellarmine, _de Cleric._,
and those that write against him, and see whether it be not so. The
Helvetic Confession tells us that the right choosing of ministers is by
the consent of the church, and the Belgic Confession saith, "We believe
that the ministers, seniors and deacons, ought to be called to those their
functions, and by the lawful elections of the church to be advanced into
those rooms." See both these in the _Harmony of Confessions_, sect. 11. I
might here, if it were requisite, bring a heap of testimonies from
Protestant writers; the least thing which they can admit of is, that a
minister be not obtruded _renitente ecc