10. The pastor's consent must concur with the persons to be received: for it must be mutual consent; and as none can be a member, so none may be a pastor, against his will.[250] And though he be under Christ's laws what persons to receive, and is not arbitrary to do what he list, yet he is the guide of the church, and the discerner of his own duty. And a pastor may have reasons to refuse to take a man into his particular charge, without rejecting him as unworthy. Perhaps he may already have more in number than he can well take care of. And other such reasons may fall out. 11. In those countries where the magistrate's laws and common consent, do take every qualified person for a member of that church where his habitation is, (called a parish,) and to which he ordinarily resorteth, the pastor that undertaketh that charge, doth thereby seem to consent to be pastor to all such persons in that parish. And there cohabitation and ordinary conjunction with the church, may go for a signification of consent, and instead of more particular contract or covenant, by virtue of the exposition of the said laws and customs. Yet so, that a man is not therefore to be taken for a member of the church merely because he liveth in the parish; for so atheists, infidels, heretics, and papists may do; but because he is, 1. A parishioner, 2. Qualified, 3. Joining with the church, and actually submitting to the ministry. 12. Where there is this much only, it is a sinful slander to say that such a parish is no true church of Christ; however there may be many desirable orders wanting to its better being. Who hath the power of trying and receiving we shall show anon. [250] Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Heb. xiii. 7, 17; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13; 1 Tim. v. 17. Quest. XVII. _Wherein doth the ministerial office essentially consist?_ The office of the sacred ministry is a mixed relation (not a simple).[251] I. As the minister is related to Christ, he is his servant or minister by office; that is, one commissioned by him for that sacred work: where there is, 1. The commission itself (which is not particular, but general, in a general law, applicable to each singular person when qualified). 2. The determination of the individual person who is to receive it: which consisteth in the call, which I have opened before and therefore repeat not. Only note again, 1. That by virtue of the general commission or institution of the office in specie, the power is conveyed from Christ to the individual person, and that the church (electors or ordainers) are not the donors, authorizers, or obligers, but only instruments of designing an apt recipient, and delivering him possession. 2. That by virtue of this institution, charter, or law commission, it is that the acts of a man seemingly or visibly called, are valid to the church, though really he were not ordained or truly called, but deceived them by hypocritical intrusion.[252]