Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	apostle_n	church_n	elder_n	5,779	5	10.2377	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30499	The truth exalted in the writings of that eminent and faithful servant of Christ, John Burnyeat collected into this ensuing volume as a memorial to his faithful labours in and for the truth.	Burnyeat, John, 1631-1690.	1691 (1691)	Wing B5968; ESTC R13272	188,344	292

we Meet together on the First Day of the Week for to Meet is our Duty and also upon other Days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example The Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lord's and He that regardeth a Day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the Day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such Days as you observe which are called such and such Saints Days Thou sayst Thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou mayst consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such Covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against And for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity's sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the Words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Ier. 5. 30 31. Ezek. 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Ioh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Iud. 11 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou sayst Our Teachers have no lawful Call to Preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostle's saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they Preach except they be sent That is sayst thou how can they Preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they Preach except they be sent c But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to Preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst For we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they Preach and their Ability from him For the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they Preached and Ability to Preach it from him and not from Men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. And in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith They were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the foregoing verse he saith Our sufficiency is of God And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares That he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any Man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any Man Minister let him do it as of the Ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his Eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our Ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be Glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is And prove your way of being bred up at Schools and Learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then setling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for Greater Gain and Preferment And while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have Liberty to Speak or Preach but such as are so Ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this Method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the Primitive Ministers That this is your Practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was Ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all Prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle Ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christ's Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Man's Ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you a right have reason enough to forsake you and your Church And as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others They make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said He would be with them c. doth not say They should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Iudas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by Lot So here was the Lord's Lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said They Ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou sayst We have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby People are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lord's Supper by which they are strengthned and preserved in it Ans. First We demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper Signification of it We are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And Secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for that which thou callest Baptism by which thou sayst People are admitted into the Christian Church viz. Sprinkling Infants We deny that you have any Authority from Scripture either by Command or Example for it For we never read in all the Scriptures of either Baptising or Sprinkling Infants There is no such thing in that Scripture by thee quoted Therefore thou

he judges ours Vain and Impertinent let him prove his Proposal in this Case to have been the Practice of the Antient Gospel-Ministers and Primitive Christians and thereby he may Convince us of our Child-hood For when he Discoursed with our Friends that we sent to whom we left it to conclude with him about time and place for a Dispute speaking about the Moderators he said to them He looked upon it Improper that those Moderators which should be chosen should be either of his People or our People and gave this Reason for it that then the Difference would still be the same So it 's evident that the Moderators must have been of a different Faith and Principle from us both Now how this would consist with True Christianity and with a right contending for the Faith delivered to the Saints according to Iude's advice let it seriously be considered For us to give up our Faith and Testimony and to be concluded whether it 's Right or Wrong by Men not of the same Faith we thought very improper and that which no True Christian can do We do understand the Apostles and Primitive Christians were concern'd in Disputes and did contend for the Faith and were to give an answer to every man that asked a Reason of the Hope that was in them with Meekness and Fear 1 Pet. 3. 15. But where it was thus referred to chosen men agreed upon not of their Faith to judge who was in the right and who was in the wrong is not to be proved from their Example tho he proposeth that the sacred Scripture shall be the standard of Examination and trying every matter by We find in Acts 6. 9. and Acts 9. 29. that Stephen and the Apostle Paul were concerned to dispute with such men of malice and bitterness as Iames Barry appears to be but finds no such chosen Men to refer their Testimony or the Difference between them and their Opposers unto We also find in Acts 17. 17. Paul disputed in the Synagogue with the Iews and with the devout Persons and in the Market daily with them that met with him but nothing is said of such Moderators to be in such a capacity to judge as Iames Barry proposeth and in Acts 19. 8. how Paul went into the Synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three Months disputing and perswading the things concerning the Kingdom of God and in the 9th Verse that he disputed daily in the School of one Tyrannus but nothing of Iames Barry's Method of Moderators Therefore we leave it to Iames Barry to bring forth his Example from the Standard he hath chosen for examining and trying every matter by for if he do not though he saith we bespeak our selves Children he will appear to be in a worse condition not yet come to be a Child and so not so far as the Childhood of the true Birth without which none can enter into the Kingdom of God But he saith Willing we are to leave the Dispute to be determined by the Conscience or Reason of every one that shall hear We do say as touching those things which the Witnesses charge him with seeing he denies some part of it when he and we and the Witnesses have said what each hath to say we will quietly leave it to the Consciences of the People c. and then proceed to Discourse of the three Principles aforementioned and when we Dispute and are perswading the things concerning the Kingdom of God as Paul did as before shewed whether it be not most proper to leave or commend our Testimony to the Consciences of the Hearers in the sight of God let Wise Men judge For the Apostles as they were concerned in the Ministry and in handling of the Word of God did by the Manifestation of the Truth commend themselves to every Man's Conscience in the sight of God as you may see 2 Corinth 4. 1 2. And you may see what he further saith in Chap. 5. 11. how he said they were manifest to God and did trust also they were made manifest in the Consciences of them at Corinth and this is the furthest we ever intended thus to leave it to the Consciences of People and let them receive or reject as they will answer it to God And this is evident from the Scriptures to be the Method of the true Ministers and such as were concerned to dispute or perswade things concerning the Kingdom of God but not to give up our Testimony in matters of Faith so to be determined by any chosen or not chosen whether it is right or wrong and so to hold or deny accordingly as to our selves and our own Faith that we find no Example for from the true Christians For Paul saith They were made manifest to God and there he stood and did trust they were made manifest in their Consciences he also saith 2 Corinth 2. 15 16. they were unto God a sweet Savour of Christ in them that are Saved and in them that Perish but to the one the Savour of Life unto Life and to the other the Savour of Death unto Death So that you may see they did not give their Faith away as it was to God but commended their Testimony to every Man's Conscience and left them to answer it to God as they received or rejected So that we do not find in the holy Scriptures Iames Barry's method of choosing Men not of the same Faith and Principle to be in a capacity to judge who is in the right and who is in the wrong and so to end the Dispute by their Determination We have been the more large in answering this because it is looked upon by him and some of his Hearers to be so wise and necessary a Proposal that ours in comparison to it is accounted by them altogether vain and impertinent And to other Qualifications proposed by him we answered thus in ours to his first Paper That we look upon it to be all our Duty to keep in the Fear and Wisdom of God that we may be preserved out of all Clamours Janglings and unhandsom or unchristian Railings or Reflections on both sides which were also his own Terms having thus assented to him therein We further said Being thus preserved then to stand in our Christian Liberty to endeavour that which may tend to the Honour and Glory of God There is one passage more in his Paper we are not willing to omit the observation of before we proceed further where he saith Blessed they are I confess more than the generality of their Neighbours but saith he It is with that kind of blessedness which is the Portion of God's Enemies and so cites Psalm 17. 14. and Psalm 73. 12. where it is said From Men which are thine Hand O Lord from Men of the World which have their Portion in this Life Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the World they increase in Riches And then Iames Barry saith I doubt not but that this is one