and the
bride for her part, have delivered this power of ordination to the
presbytery _jure_ DIVINO. Afterward the presbytery conferred, _jure
humano_, this power upon them, who were specially called bishops, whence
the tyrannical usurpation of bishops hath in process followed, claiming
the proper right and ordinary position of that which at first they had
only by free concession; and thus that great divine, Franciscus
Junius,(1027) deriveth the power of ordination. All which, that it may be
plain unto us, let us observe four several passages.

1. The whole church(1028) hath the power of ordination communicated to her
from Christ, to whom it wholly pertaineth; for, 1. It is most certain (and
among our writers agreed upon) that, to the whole church collectively
taken, Christ hath delivered the keys of the kingdom of heaven with power
to use the same, promising that whosoever the church bindeth on earth,
shall be bound in heaven, and whosoever she looseth on earth, shall be
loosed in heaven, Matt. xviii. 18; therefore he hath also delivered unto
the whole church power to call and ordain ministers for using the keys,
otherwise the promise might be made void, because the ministers which she
now hath may fail. 2. Christ hath appointed a certain and an ordinary way
how the church may provide herself of ministers, and so may have ever in
herself the means of grace and comfort sufficient to herself, according to
that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, "All things are yours, whether
Paul or Apollos," &c. But if she had not the power of ordaining ministers
unto herself when she needeth, then might she sometimes be deprived of
such an ordinary and certain way of providing herself. 3. When the
ministry of the church faileth or is wanting, Christian people have power
to exercise that act of ordination which is necessary to the making of a
minister. Dr Fulk(1029) showeth out of Ruffinus and Theodoret, that
AEdesius and Frumentius, being but private men, by preaching of the gospel,
converted a great nation of the Indians; and that the nation of the
Iberians being converted by a captive woman, the king and the queen became
teachers of the gospel to the people. And might not, then, the church in
those places both elect and ordain ministers?

2. The church hath, by divine institution, delivered the power of
ordaining ordinary ministers to the presbytery, whereof the church
consisteth _repraesentative_. And so saith Pareus,(1030) that th