Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	john_n	luke_n	mark_v	4,432	5	10.4916	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41500	Prelatique preachers none of Christ's teachers, or, A Disswasive unto the people of God from attending the ministry (so called) of those, who preach by verture of an (Apocryphal) ordination, received from an order of men, commonly stiled Lord Bishops wherein arguments are tendered to their serious considerations, by way of motive against that practice ... .	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1663 (1663)	Wing G1192; ESTC R33795	80,325	88

am earnestly perswaded that God will ere long raise up a better workman who by his direction and assistance shall hammer this nayl to more purpose then hath yet been done In the mean time because errour and sin have their glosses and colours as well as Truth and Righteousness their weight and substance let us briefly survey some of the fairest Pretexts wherewith the practice hitherto censured and disswaded from may probably hope yea possibly be confident that she is able to justifie her self Cities and Castles that have been long built and were never yet attempted at least never conquered either by siege or assault are like to impute their freedome in this kind and long continued safety unto their own strength The Arguments then whereby the practise condemned in the premises seems most desensible are these following And verily I shall acknowledge my self a Debtor as for a signal courtesie unto him that shall either mend or improve these my Arguments or offer me others of more strength Argument I. Our Saviour Christ to the multitude and to his Disciples saith thus The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but c. Mat. 23. 1 2 3. If it were lawful yea matter of duty for so the command or charge of Christ maketh it for them to observe and do whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught them according to Moses's Law then is it lawful and no less matter of duty for Christians to observe and do whatsoever Prelatical Ministers teach them according to the Gospel For these are not at least many of them are not a more unworthy Generation of men then they And if they stand bound to do whatsoever they thus teach they stand bound to hear them when they teach at least they may lawfully hear them Answer 1. The reason why Ministers of a Prelatical Edition ought not to be heard in their publick teachings is not because they are a Generation of men more wicked and vile then the Scribes and Pharisees were but because their delinquency is such and so unhappily conditioned that we cannot wait upon them in their Ministerial employments without being partakers with them therein and we stand expresly charged by God not to be partakers of other mens sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. Eph. 5. 11. with many other places For deriving and accepting their Ministerial Function from an Anti-christian Power I mean such a Power which exalteth it self against and in many things above the power of Jesus Christ acted and exercised by him in and over his Churches as was shewed in the last Consideration in and by every exercise and administration of this their Function they avouch and justifie that so highly-sacrilegious an Usurpation and they who countenance them with their presence whilst they act this great unworthiness do nothing less then justify such their justification and so must needs share with them in the iniquity of it Whereas the Scribes and Pharisees of whom our Saviour speaks in the Text before us according to Dr. Hamand's own Paraphrase of the place were of the Sanedrim and to be looked upon by them the people and his Disciples themselves as their lawful Rulers that had Authority over them succeeding Moses and the seventy Elders Numb 11. 16. According to this notion which is not altogether improbable there was no reasonable ground of any scruple about hearing them when they expounded and declared Moses his Law And if it could be proved on the behalf of the Ministers whom we judg it unlawful to hear in their Teachings that they in any such sence sit in the Seat either of the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors or Teachers which Christ when he ascended up on high gave for the perfecting of the Saints c. neither should we question the lawfulnesse yea or duty upon occasion of hearing them But the conjecture of Grotius seems more rational and better comporting with the Scriptures which is this That the Jewes had no Consistory of Tryers nor any person or persons publickly authorized among them to examine or take account who were meet or fit to be allowed for expounders of the Law but that it was free for any man whose heart served him for the work or take it upon him and to instruct and teach the people accordingly only adding that more generally they who did take this profession or work upon them were Pharisaici instituti of the Sect or perswasion of the Pharisees As saith he among the Romans it was permitted unto any man that would to plead any mans Case at any Bar of Judicature in their state That which we read Acts 13. 15. favours the said conjecture And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying ye Men and Brethren if ye have any word of Exhortation for the people say on which seems to imply that any person amongst them might without breach of any order or custome teach the people publickly out of the Law and Prophets If it were thus neither could there be any the like reason for the Jewish people to deny their attendance upon the Scribes and Pharisees in their teachings of the Law which according to the premises there is why Christian people should separate themselves from Priests of the Prelatical Unction in their preachings of the Gospel These pollute themselves by poluting the most Sacred and Blessed Name of Jesus Christ in accepting their Office or Power of Preaching upon the terms they do whereby they become irregular for this employment whereas the other supposing them of competent abilities for the work committed no offence offered no indignity unto God in accepting or entring upon it Argument II. The Apostle Paul rejoyced yea and professed that he would rejoyce that Christ was Preached every way whether in pretence or in truth Phil. 1. 18. Therefore certainly it is lawful yea and more than lawful even matter of duty upon occasion to hear such at least of the Prelatical Teachers who preach Christ which it seems hard to deny but that some of them do For such preaching which no man can hear without sin cannot be any just matter of rejoycing unto a Christian nor indeed unto any man Answer 1. This general expression every way is to be limited and understood according to the Subject matter in hand There is nothing more frequent in the Scriptures than to deliver that in general terms which yet admits not of a simple or absolute universality in the meaning of it but only of such which renders it consistent with the tenor and notion of other Scriptures and is for the most part commensurable to the present occasion Matth. 23. 3. Mark 1. 5. 11. 24. Luke 2. 1. 10. 6. 30. John 10. 8. Acts 5. 42. Rom. 1. 5. to omit other instances without number Besides it is a common and true Rule Praedicata sunt talia qualia à subjectis suis esse permituntar In

in the time of Lent than at other seasons The Soul which made the request unto Christ now opened in the latter part of the verse giveth this reason of it For why should I be as one that turneth aside or rather as the former Translation with others read it to or unto the flocks of thy Companions By the flocks of Christ's Companions are meant as some of the best Expositors that I have met with understand the words the Congregations or Assemblies relating to and depending on such Pastors who make themselves Christs Companions or Equals by instituting new formes of divine Worship as well as he Others not much differing from the former by the Companions of Christ here understand forreign or strange Shepherds unrelated unto Christ and having no Communion with him but only in the appearance and appellation of a Shepherd So that the reason why the religious Soul desireth of Christ to be directed unto his feedings in times of Persecution and danger is lest she might otherwise be tempted and through weakness yeeld to fall in with such Assemblies which have Ministers or Shepherds only so called set over them by whom she know that He took no pleasure to feed any of his Sheep But that Christ as hath been said in tempestuous and foul weather when the spirit of the world rageth high against Church-meetings is not wont to feed his Sheep in the champion or open fields where all men use to come but to lead them into by-places or solitudes into inclosed grounds narrow lanes of a long time dis-used or un-occupied under hedg-rows or the like and to feed them here the Scriptures inform us elsewhere When the Woman that brought forth the man-child was persecuted by the Dragon there were given unto her two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place prepared for her of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes the whole time of her persecution Rev. 12. 6. with 13 14. Therefore the Woman that brought forth the Man-child that is the successive body of Saints or true Believers during the times or reign of the Beast is not spiritually fed and nourished in such Assemblies or Congregations which are publickly authorized countenanced or approved by the Beast or by the World which goeth wondring after him Rev. 13. 3. but in those which are retired solitary and private and which neither of them can well brook or bear but that God hideth them The Meetings of Christians for the exercise of their Religion being hateful unto the Jews and which they it seems would not have tolerated amongst them had they had knowledge of them without doing mischief in one kind or other to those that thereby should have provoked them The Apostles themselves by the guidance of the Spirit of God for they were not doubtless led unto it by the wisdom of the flesh the better to secure themselves from their rage when they assembled 1. Made choice of a private house to meet in 2. Of a private time the Evening yea some what late in the Evening as some collect from passages recorded Luke 24. 29. to vers 36. 3. Of as much privacy in that private house as they could well devise for the doors of the room where they were were shut And in this posture of privacy they did enjoy the blessed Presence of Christ Then the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you John 20. 19. We reade of another meeting of Christians for the Worship of God under all the same circumstances of privacy and this doubtless upon the same account I mean for fear of the Jews Acts 12. vers 6 12 13 14. compared This meeting also had Christ in the midst of it in the sence formerly declared for by his Mediation and Interposure their Prayers fetch'd Peter out of a strong Prison with an high hand So again we reade of another religious Meeting of the Apostles together with a considerable number of other Christians in an upper room for the greater privacy and security comers and goers being oft upon occasion and for civility sake brought into one or more of the lower rooms of an house when there is no occasion of their going or carrying up into the higher Besides a continual voice may much more easily be heard and estimated by those that only pass by an house out of alow room then from an high this being more remote and from whence though the sound of a voice may possibly be sometimes heard below yet the articulateness of it being confin'd to a narrower Sphere expireth and is lost by the way And though Dr. Hamond laboureth in the very fire as his manner is when any thing occurs him in his way that seems to frown upon Episcopacy to prove that the upper room here spoken of was not any room in a private house but one of the upper Cambers of the Temple yet he hath so much of a man in him I mean of Ingenuity whereof when a man suffers himself to be dispoyled he is only a man so called as to acknowledge and this twice over for failing that Christians here met did that more privately which could not we may persume be done in the Temple he might have added nor in any Synagogue in any more publick place the Christian Religion being not much favoured that is bitterly hated by the Jews even as the Religious Worship of the true Saints of God amongst us is not much favoured by those that say they are Jews and are not in the sence of these words Rev. 2. 9. And what the Doctor here granteth namely that believing Christians kept their holy Assemblies by and amongst themselves privately for fear of disturbance or mischief in one kind or other from those that hated their way and manner of serving God maketh as much for our purpose as if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vpper room which he so wearieth himself to find in the Temple should prove to have been in a private house But whether the word here translated an Vpper room signifieth in this place an upper Chamber in the Temple or no certain I am that Acts 20. 8. it signifieth an upper Chamber in a private house or at least in an house commonly and properly so called where also we find another private Meeting of Christians and Christ in the sence we wot of in the midst of them Elsewhere it signifieth and this twice together as Acts 9. 37. 39. an upper Chamber in a private house but no where at least in the New Testament an upper Chamber in the Temple But this by the way From the tenour and contents of the present Consideration it clearly appeareth that in times of trouble when the Saints are not permitted