“If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly… for a bishop [elder] must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.”
Titus 1:6-9
“A bishop [elder] then must be… not a novice…”
1 Tim. 3:2,6
“But when it pleased God, who… called me [apostle Paul] by his grace… that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia… then after three years I went up to Jerusalem…”
Gal. 1:15-18
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Subsection
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Order of Contents
Articles 8+
Quote 1
Gifts through Means 2
Call to Ministry 5+
Before Ordination 1
Latin 1
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Articles
1500’s
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – The Common Places… (London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), Appended Discourses
’An Exhortation for young men to study the holy Scriptures’ 32-36
’A praise of the Word of God taught in the Scriptures, and an Exhortation to the study of them’ 36-43
Ursinus, Zachary
There is a threefold order, or there are three parts of the study of divinity in The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered… in his Lectures upon the Catechism… tr. Henrie Parrie (Oxford, 1587), pp. 2-57
An Oration… exhorting to the study of Christianity: pronounced by him in the Elizabeth School when he began his Lectures upon Philip Melanchthon’s grounds of Divinity… in A Collection of Certain Learned Discourses… (Oxford, 1600), pp. 58-87
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1600’s
Church of Scotland – A Humble Acknowledgement of the Sins of Those Preparing for Ministry (1651)
Those preparing for the ministry, try yourselves by this heart searching and convicting piece, and look to Christ for more grace to walk worthily of Him.
Johnston of Warriston, Archibald & Matthew Vogan – ‘Discerning a Call to Secular Service’ at Reformation Scotland
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1800’s
Alexander, Archibald
Thoughts on the Education of Pious & Indigent Candidates of the Ministry (1846) 12 pp.
Cunningham, William – An Introduction to Theological Studies Buy chs. 1-7 of his Theological Lectures 100 pp.
Hodge, Charles – On the Necessity of the Knowledge of the Original Languages of the Scriptures (1832) 18 pp.
Miller, Samuel
A very fitting text and subject for the opening of the first presbyterian school to train pastors for the Christian ministry in America, by he who would later become Princeton’s second professor.
The Importance of a Thorough & Adequate Course of Preparatory Study for the Holy Ministry (1832) 37 pp.
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Quote
1600’s
English Puritans
A Refutation of the Errors of Separatists (1604; RBO, 2025), pt. 2, p. 242
“…the manifest differences that may be noted betwixt those that have been taught by a learned ministry and those that have had none…”
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On God Blessing through Means, Diligence & Industry, & some Spiritual Gifts may be Attained & Improved through such
Quotes
Order of
Presbyterians & Independents
Baxter
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1600’s
Leading English Presbyterian & Independent Ministers
The Grand Debate between the most reverend Bishops & the Presbyterian Divines appointed by His Sacred Majesty as Commissioners for the Review & Alteration of the Book of Common Prayer... (London, 1661), ‘The Papers’
p. 60
“And undeniable experience tells us that God ordinarily proportions the success and blessing to the skill and holiness and diligence of the instruments, and blesses not the labors of ignorant, ungodly drones, as He does the labors of able faithful ministers.”
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pp. 71-72
“…nor did we deny that ordinary men of natural parts and voluable tongues may attain it [the gift of prayer]; but yet we humbly conceive that as there is a gift of preaching, so also of prayer, which God bestows in the use of means, diversified much according to men’s natural parts, and their diligence, as other acquired abilities are, but also much depending on that grace that is indeed special, which makes men love and relish the holy subjects of such spiritual studies and the holy exercise of those graces that are the soul of prayer, and consequently making men follow on such exercises with delight and diligence and therefore with success; and also God is free in giving or denying his blessing to man’s endeavors.”
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Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter on Worship & Catholicity against Separatism & John Owen (1684; RBO, 2024), p. 68
“3. Christ gives gifts to men now in the due use of means and not by miracle: Therefore He gives them in great diversity and by hard study and long time, Heb. 5:12, “For the time they ought to have been teachers,” etc. Therefore a novice must not be a bishop, but an elder [older person], whence the office had its name.”
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On a Call to the Ministry
Articles
1500’s
Bullinger, Henry – 4th Sermon, ‘Of Calling unto the Ministry of the Word of God; what manner of men and after what fashion ministers of the Word must be ordained in the Church; of the keys of the Church; what the office of them is that be ordained; of the manner of teaching the Church, and of the holy life of the pastors’ in The Decades ed. Thomas Harding (1549; Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 4, 5th Decade, pp. 128-63
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – ‘Of Calling, & Especially unto the Ministry’ in The Common Places… (London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 4, ch. 1, ‘Of the catholic Church’, pp. 9-15
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1600’s
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1800’s
Hodge, Charles – on 1 Cor. 12:28, p. 263 in An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (NY: Robert Carter, 1860)
Dabney, Robert – ‘What is a Call to the Ministry?’ no date or source info
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Quote
1600’s
Richard Baxter
Christian Concord, or the Agreement of the Associated Pastors & Churches of Worcestershire, with Richard Baxter’s Explication & Defence of it, & his Exhortation to Unity (London: A.M., 1653), ‘Objections Answered’, pp. 82-83
“3. And He has described the persons that he will have to be the officers by their requisite qualifications [e.g. 1 Tim. 3]. All this is done in his laws already.
4. There is nothing therefore left to be done but to determine which are the individual persons that are fittest according to God’s description. This God Himself also will do, but has not tied himself to one way in doing it: In general, some sign of God’s will that this is the man must be had; At first in calling the apostles his own immediate nomination was the sign. Now the most notable sign is the most eminent unquestionable qualification of the person, which when God confers so notably or discernably, that man must be taken as chosen by God, and they that reject him do sin:
These qualifications lie both in abilities, willingness, conveniency of habitation or other externals and interest in the people; and if God bow their minds to consent, there is the fuller signification of his will; yet lest any by intrusion should abuse the Church, God has made the pastors and overseers judges of men’s fitness, or the ordinary discerners of it, for the guidance of the Church in their consent.”
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On the Inward Call
Quote
1600’s
Francis Turretin
Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr. (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 3, 18th Topic, 23. ‘Of how many kinds is the call to the ministry and is an ordinary call always necessary? We distinguish.’, p. 215
“III. Second, this special call is either internal or external.
The former is that by which the heart itself is excited by God to consecrate itself to the work of the ministry (of which Paul speaks in 1 Tim. 3:1). This is rather a disposition of mind to receive the call than a call properly so called. By it, a man is conscious before God that he is impelled to undertake this office not by ambition or avarice or any other carnal affection, but from a sincere love of God and a desire to build up the church.
The latter, however, is that by which a man thus disposedis expressly called to exercise the office.”
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – Ecclesiastical Politics (Amsterdam: Waesberge, 1663), vol. 3, pt. 2, bk. 3
Tract 1
1. Of the Internal Calling and of the Extraordinary 529
2. Of the Ordinary Calling under the Old Testament and under the New Testament; and of the Examination or Consideration of those Called 535
3. Of the Mode of an Ecclesiastical Election 543
4. Of Elections by Voting, or the Execution by Fortune 552
5. Of a Five-fold Approbation: 1. by the People, 2. by the Neighboring Ministers, or Classis [Presbytery], 3. by the Magistrate, 4. by the Minister or the Ordinand, 5. by the Church from Where he is Called 560
6. Of Calling in the Reformed Churches and of the First Reformations 573
Tract 2, Of the Opposites to Calling
10. The Opposites of a Legitimate Calling are: 1. A Dallying and Evading [Circulatio et Circumambulatio] from any Certain Calling of the Church; 2. the Desertion of a Minister; 3. a Violent Explusion out of the Ministry. 660
. Appendix 682
Tract 3, Of the Conditions which ought to be Sought for and Chosen in a Minister
1. Of Real [Genuinis] Conditions or Requisites, namely: of Piety, of Orthodoxy, of Temperament, of Learning, of Eloquence, of Prudence 699
2. Of Cutting-Short[?] Requisites of the Chosen, that is, Requisites which are not Requisites, or Pseudo-Requisites 704
3. Of Some Requisites and Conditions, the Tolerance of which is Looked into 712
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Before Ordination
Article
1700’s
Henry, Matthew – Matthew Henry’s Self-Examination Before Ordination (†1714) 13 pp. being questions Henry put to himself before his ordination.
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – Ecclesiastical Politics (Amsterdam: Waesberge, 1663), vol. 3, pt. 2, bk. 3, Tract 4, Of the Preparation of Those Called
1. Of the Preparation of Candidates, or of Those Put Forth 728
2. Of a Close Preparation in Academies, or Upper-Level Schools 733
3. Of a Distant Preparation in Common Schools 737
Appendix 1, to Ch. 2 – A Tract on Preparation 747
Appendix 2 – Of Travelling Abroad 764
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