Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A58188
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A sermon preached at the primary visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of Norwich June, 20th. 1692 / by George Raymond ...
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Raymond, George, A.M.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing R413; ESTC R12214
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14,670
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32
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bless or the People regard what we our selves trifle withal And yet if we be very studious and thoughtful it is odds but we shall overdo and though we may edify our selves shall be Barbarians to the Congregation and speak unto the Air [s] 1 Cor. 14.9 11. There is a loose way of talking that profiteth none and there is a closeness of reasoning too elaborate for common understandings Again If Pulpits affect the Pomp and Dress of the Stage who can forbear concluding That the Actors upon either have much the same design i. e. Applause and Money And yet on the other hand there is a slovenly dress and meen that exposeth the Ministry and gives too great occasion for the Contempt of the Clergy Farther If we neglect to enforce our Exhortations and Instructions with pertinent Citations of Holy Scripture we Preach without Authority and Effect as to the generality whose Consciences are readily commanded by the Word of God when their Understandings can't reach the Force of an Artificial Argument And yet if we deliver in Scriptures by Number rather than Weight or multiply Sacred Phrases without their proper sense we oppress and nauseate some of our Auditors and expose the Sacred Oracles and our selves If we accustom our selves altogether to General Discourses and Soft Harangues to what purpose is it thus to stroke the Consciences of our people as a Reverend Prelate of our Church expresseth it with Feathers dipt in Oyl Yet if we be very particular and mightily fervent there be some whom we shall exasperate instead of persuading or who will be more apt to ridicule the indiscreet Fervour of the Preacher than to weigh the Truth and Importance of the Exhortation If we descend not to the particular estates of mens souls and their Cases of Conscience we harden them in their folly or abandon them to their Doubts and Scruples without remedy And yet Sermons that are very Casuistical by a misapplication almost inevitable are in great danger of doing more harm than good It is hard to determine any Case by General Rules because every man's Case is diversified by Particular Circumstances Again If in our Sermons we do not exhibit Rational and Judicious Notions of the Christian Religion we furnish Sport to the Prophane and give Scandal to the Thinking These we provoke to go over to the Party of the Deists if at any time we obtrude upon them trifling and silly or mis-shapen and monstrous Notions of the Christian Faith and Doctrine Yet on the other hand if we depart but a little from the vulgar prejudices popular schemes and modes of speaking we are presently suspected or despised by another sort of men and lose with their esteem of us our advantage of edifying them If we soar aloft into the Clouds deal much in Mysteries we shall tickle some who imagine themselves wrapp'd into Heaven by such Discourses and admire because they do not understand but then we disgust the wiser sort of Auditors and we profit none Yet if we treat of the common Practical things in a plain and familiar manner this is apt to be despised by many as a mean Performance because we tell no News we merit not Attention But I have said more than enough upon this Head to shew the difficulties attending our Ministry and requiring our Study and Prudence and that it is not so slighty a business to him that will discharge a good Conscience to provide an hours talk for Sunday We are perhaps at the same time to deal with persons that hate Preaching because it disturbs their Conscience and meditate Revenge on the Sermon by Exposing it and with others who are excessively fond of Preaching but in such a fashion and dress as the Prophane can easily ridicule We are at once to treat with and persuade the Judicious and the Ignorant the Timorous and the Confident the Ingenuous and the Stubborn such whom nothing can awaken but the Terrors of the Lord and the Damnation of Hell and such too whose Faith in God we desperately shake if we offer to graft upon it any terrible opinions of him But I dismiss this and will be more brief in the following Instances If we Catechise not diligently we neglect our Duty and omit what seemeth an important work of our Ministry Yet if we do it at all we know not to what purpose nor which are the properest Methods because we can get no account of the Success of any They who are sent to be Catechised are too small to receive any great benefit thereby and they who might receive it will not come for it Again In visiting sick beds we can do but little yet often do too much and by our tenderness to the dying betray the living into false securities Whilst we are intent to cherish good beginnings we are in danger of encouraging a presumptuous dependance upon a good end as they call it i. e. A Death-bed Contrition with the Minister's last Office and the Church's Passport as a sufficient and safe Plank for Shipwrack'd Souls Our Conversation also is a weighty subject of our Prudence and Care that we may edifie by our Example as well as our Doctrine If we keep at a distance from the people we give them occasion to think us Proud and themselves despised And if we be very familiar we are in danger of losing that Reverence and Authority which recommends our Advices and Instructions to them If we shut up our selves from Conversation or be morose and sour in it we misrepresent our Master and his holy Religion And there be those that will not fail to impute such Monkishness to the Notorious Qualities of that Tribe Ignorance and Hypocrisie But if we use our Liberty and converse freely what vigilant Circumspection and strict Guard will be always necessary to secure decorum in our selves and that we be not Witnesses or Allowers of the Extravagancies of others nor give them encouragement to pass their bounds Finally in the very demanding of our Dues we meet with difficulties and have need of Prudence If we do it with Rigour or but Exactness that is apt to create a Prejudice against our Persons and our Instructions and if we be remiss then they that cheat us learn thereby to undervalue and think meanly of us These and many more are the Difficulties that require our Wisdom and will employ our most prudent application For it is given us in charge That no man despise us Titus 2.15 And that we give no offence in any thing that the Ministry be not blamed 2 Cor. 6.3 Neither is it our Reputation only that is at stake but the Credit of Christ's Religion the Interest of his Kingdom and the Salvation of the Souls committed to our Charge For whom if we do not faithfully bend our selves to do the best we can we are guilty both of their destruction and our own It cannot be expected that I should prescribe Rules to the forementioned cases that is the subject of
People to be Unbelievers and Atheists whilst they consider us as a sort of Sophisters that would impose upon them what they plainly see we do not believe our selves [p] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ad Ephes Qui autem dicunt tantùm non faciunt ipsi praeceptis suis detrahunt pondus Quis enim obtemperet cum ipsi praeceptores doceant non obtemperare Bonum est recta honesta praecipere sed nisi facias mendacium est Incongruum atque ineptum est non in pectore sed in labiis habere bonitatem Lactant. l. 3. c. 16. Blessed is that good and faithful Servant who keepeth the Commandments of God and teacheth men so he shall be great i. e. his Reward shall be so in the Kingdom of Heaven And though an Age of general Licentiousness and wherein good Discipline is altogether relaxed doth but little recommend holy Institutions yet even then it is visible that the sacred Ministry is a check and bridle to the Vices of men restraining them from the havock which they would otherwise make of all Godliness and Sobriety But I should exceed my limits if I should proceed to unfold of what signal use it is to have an Order of men eminently holy both in profession and life And these Lastly under the Sacred Obligations of their Office and as they will render a good account thereof ingaged to be constant Intercessors for the people to pray continually and fervently for those under their Charge and for the good success of their Ministry among them What hath been said shall suffice to evince the grand importance and signal usefulness of the sacred Ministry and to admonish us that we prophane not the dignity of our Office by substracting from the Utility thereof Always remembring that useless Authority or Power is scorn'd by wise men and hated of all But the Minister of God for good shall besides his Reward in Heaven have esteem and love from men for the benefit they receive from him 5thly We observe from the words the necessity of continuing the Work of the Ministry in the Church of Christ For it must last as long as the Church can be edified till it be consummated by it Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ v. 13. The Extraordinary Functions of Apostles Prophets and Evangelists ceased with the reason and occasion of them but the Ordinary Ministry of Pastors and Teachers must abide for ever in the Church because ever needful for it St. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus prescribes the Qualifications of Persons to be ordained unto the sacred Ministry and these have nothing in them extraordinary require not the Gifts of Tongues or Miracles or of Discerning Spirits are not appropriate to any one Age but describe the Persons that will be necessary and useful through all succeeding Ages of the Church [q] See 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1.6 c. Our Blessed Lord hath made provisions for the lasting needs of his Church that his Household may not want Stewards nor his Flock Pastors nor his Works which is the salvation of men by the knowledge of the truth those that should labour therein So long as there must be Christian Assemblies held there must be an Order of men to officiate in them a Church and a Pastor or a Congregation and a Minister being in right reason necessary Relatives as well as in fact and usage derived from Primitive and Apostolical practice Publick Preaching whatever some object will be needful so long as men are born ignorant live viciously or remain imperfect So long as there is error wickedness and weakness in the Church so long as there is a secular life to divert men from their holy purposes a Devil to tempt Sinners to entice or Hereticks to seduce The Usefulness of this Ministration is readily acknowledged by pious Proficients in Christianity and sure the Ignorant and Vicious have the least pretence of being above Ordinances and of having superseded the necessity of Teaching and Exhortation They who are so willing to forget their known Duty need such Monitors to stir them up by way of remembrance and it is the force and restraint of such Admonitions which they feel that makes them so desirous to be rid of them So that the sort of the men who are the only Cavillers against frequent Preaching is next to a demonstration of the usefulness thereof Men who are very industrious either to debauch or expose the Clergy secretly hating them for the Authority of their Doctrine and Influence of their Example not valuing any part of their Office unless perhaps their last ministration of Prayers and the Holy Communion upon the approach of Death foolishly trusting to that which can least help them and imagining to patch up a wicked and ungodly Life with a religious End For the use of the Ministry is in the time of life and health by publick Preaching and private Admonitions by good Example and wise Application to lay restraints on the vicious Inclinations of men and to cherish their virtuous Dispositions and Purposes and by renewing holy impressions upon their Spirits to form them by degrees into a fixed Religious Temper by reiterated Persuasions to prevail with them to give up themselves unto and become sincere Disciples and Followers of the Holy Jesus They who resist this Grace of God cannot love the Instruments of it but they who receive the Grace of God and the benefit of our Ministry will always give him thanks for and acknowledge the usefulness of such Authorized Guides in their way to Heaven But I dismiss this intending to speak somewhat more largely of the last Remark or Observation which will contain a particular Address to us of the Clergy Viz. 6thly If the Edification and Perfection of Christians be the end of our Ministry then we may note what diligent Application and holy Prudence is necessary that we may level every Exercise of our Function at that Mark and neither shoot beside nor short of it For we have not only such variety but also such contradiction of Tempers to deal withal that whilst we seek the edification of one sort we are in danger of offending and destroying others Give me leave to lay before you some of the difficult Cases of our Ministry not to discourage but caution to add fervour unto our Prayers for the Divine Assistance and to excite a studious application and prudent diligence that we may not do the Work of our Lord negligently nor betray the Trust committed to our Charge As for instance In preaching whatever some imagine it is no such easie matter to shew our selves Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of God [r] 2 Tim. 2.15 for if we imploy but little pains and thoughts about the business how can we expect that God should