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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41233	The lawfull preacher, or, A short discourse proving that they only ought to preach who are ordained ministers occasionally delivered in some lectures at Epping by John Ferriby, minister of Thoydon-Garnon in Essex ; now printed upon the anti-preaching of some against it in the same pulpit about the latter end of November last : as also the pulpit-guard-relieved, in a short appendix in answer to a late book called the pulpit-guard-relieved / written by Tho. Collier.	Ferriby, John, b. 1613 or 14.	1653 (1653)	Wing F819A; ESTC R32027	69,768	96

the Truth Some may neglect the reading from a want of desire to know Truth others may cast a way all as false because not suitable to their fancy This will prove a lasting record against you if I shall not now prevail with you If the Preaching of Ordained Ministers be the Ordinance then wait upon it run not up and down after unprofitable Teachers the Prophet Jeremiah saith They shall not profit as in the book And one of their great pen-men in part confesseth that they cannot convert nor beget faith as shall be shewed in the Appendix after it God through his great mercy hath not left me wholly without witness I mean some seal of my Ministry among you the Lord increase the number that I may give up mine account with joy It hath frequently troubled my soul in private to think what hopefull Reformation among us hath been hindred by the false aspersions and causeless opposition of some But the Lord will require it at their hands The good God pardon it Beloved Let not such things discourage you it is a sign God hath some work to do where the Devil stirs opposition against it I would beseech you to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints Jude ver. 3. and with Paul I shall beg you to be stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord The Lord appear so upon you and me that we may order our conversation according to his will that we may all walk that way he hath prescribed us to heaven That when the great day of account shall come we may all have our names written in the Book of Life which is the earnest prayer of Your affectionate and willing servant in the Work of the Lord JOHN FERRIBY To the Reader READER APologies of this nature are so customary that when most sincerely and needfully used they are judged but Complements The needlesse requests of sturdy beggars make many wanting medicants go without their alms Such is this Subject of which many have spoken so much and some so well that it is hard to say any thing that hath not been touched on before such my sense of weakness of which too much is discovered in this that it is hard to say any thing at all worthy Wherefore I might plead sufficient and real excuse were it not that I fear the excuse it self would again need to be excused For if it be fruitful why should not the Sun shine on it without the Gentleman-usher of a Complement to bring it forth if not why had not the darkness still covered it But there being a kinde of necessity laid upon me which although no fair pretence for absolutely unlawfull may be a just plea for seemingly inconvenient things I shall give you a short and inoffensive narrative of the occasion and then be willing to bear what blame you shall justly lay upon me In my Lecture at Epping which at first I voluntarily and freely set up and now for sometime have constantly and gainlesly maintained I lately handled the neglect of the Gospel on HEB. 2. 3. In which pressing the Congregation to receive the Gospel I gave amongst others this Direction viz. That they would esteem and acknowledge the Ministers that brought it which was urged from 1 Thess. 5. 12. My reason was Because people seldome receive profit by any message unless they look upon him as Commissioned that delivers it From this I conceived my self engaged to discover who were Commissioned to preach the Gospel not onely because the Office of the Ministry in these daies and about that place hath been so much decried and that I was so much importuned by godly people to speak something of it but in regard of the profit people might receive by being satisfied and setled in it for I am apt to apprehend that a great cause there is so little profit by hearing of the Word is that the preaching of it is no more looked upon as an Ordinance this I was resolved and laboured to do with as much candor and as little provocation as might be But before I had finished the subject some I conceive through the secret misinformations and impetuous sollicitations of others who could not deny yet would not grant what was delivered were brought to oppose what I preached and if it were possible either by the favourable in sinuations of themselves and their way or the harsh misrepresentations of us and our Calling to subvert or prevent the reception of my Doctrine Which was attempted not only by a long discourse to the people before I preached but by a short opposition of me after I told the Gentleman who spake that I conceived he ought not to speak there unless he were a Prophet nor then unless he had a Revelation nor then but when he may be subject to the Prophets but proffered to justifie what I had delivered either by a private communication or a publick printing of my Notes thinking by that way Truth might be examined to more profit and with lesse passion than by a tumultuary conference amidst an over-passionate multitude than by a doubtfull disputation among prejudiced and unknowing hearers But that was not taken The next Lecture-day the like attempt was made again there having two spoken successively before I went into the Pulpit When although I was loth to provoke yet I was resolved to have accepted any way that could have been proposed as most tending to love and edification for the debating and if possible for the deciding the controversie between us to which end I had bespoken a Notary to prevent present mistakes and after misreports But through Gods goodnesse we ended peaceably Not yet that I expected to convince engaged men nor by any such publick dispute to reduce wilfull men ignorantly mislead there have been too many sad and fruitlesse examples of such conferences already but meerly to prevent their boastings that we dare not stand an Argument or a suspition in others that our cause would not endure a trial The most peaceable is the most Christian way where Gods honour not our own interest is intended that course is most to be pursued which may probably end in most advantage in least difference Good Corn is best winnowed in a gentle gale when a blustering winde blowes away chaff and Corn too The high windes of passionate debates oftentimes blow up storms and clouds seldome produce any clear or fair agreement Upon this I was much strained I love peace but I dare not forsake truth Not to Print the Sermons besides the inconvenience of misreports already raised and too readily received about it were to lye under the suspition of cowardise and with some men to yeeld them the victory that never got it for although the offer was not taken by them it might have been objected against me To Print them besides the discovery of mine own weakness might produce further contest which I have no leasure to attend being sufficiently toyled with the

THE Lawfull Preacher Or a short DISCOURSE PROVING That they only ought to preach who are ordained MINISTERS Occasionally delivered in some Lectures at Epping By John Ferriby Minister of Thoydon-Garnon in Essex Now printed upon the Anti-preaching of some against it in the same Pulpit about the latter end of November last AS ALSO The Pulpit-Guard-Relieved In a short Appendix in Answer to a late Book called The Pulpit-Guard-Routed written by Tho. Collier Convenit scriptis nomen carbone notatum Nigro The second Impression corrected and amended LONDON Printed for William Roybould at the Unicorn in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door MDCLIII To my dearly Beloved FRIENDS The Parishioners of Thoydon-Garnon and others my Hearers at my Lecture at Epping Beloved in the Lord I Told you the reason of my Preaching you know the reason of my Printing these Sermons I Preached them voluntarily to establish you I Printed them by a kind of constraint to satisfie others I Preached them to manifest the truth to prevent others misleading you I Printed them to defend the Truth I wish they may help you to reduce others What my Publike labours and open oppositions from some have been among you you are the best witnesses what my secret trouble hath been partly from a sense of mine own weakness partly from some incapacity to do what I desired among you God and mine own conscience can best testifie I cannot but wonder at Gods providence in this to put me to assert the outward Call of a Minister in Publike who it may be have so often questioned mine inward Call in private But hitherto hath God brought me Some of you may have heard what solicitations I have had to other places of greater profit most of you know what resolutions I had to return to the place whence I was driven of lesse means had not your importunity procuring their consent held me here Many have been the scandals I have suffered about it through the confident reports of bold adversaries for which I could willingly have Printed both your engagement to me here and their testimony thence the one to free me from the murmurings of some against mine abode here the other to clear me from that false imputation of receiving profit thence while that Living lay unresigned in mine hands but to have done it without consent might not have been civil to have done it at all besides the swelling of the book might have savoured of arrogance wherefore I forbear my conscience bearing me witness and many upon the private sight of the Papers being already satisfied I did intend if I had been in Print at all something that might have been more for your practice although I hope this may be for your profit But since God hath called me out in this I will improve it what I can If by what I have already suffered or may by this further undergo you may receive any advantage I shall think my labour well spent and my sufferings abundantly recompensed I shall therefore beseech you 1. That you would not esteem or be contented with any light or heat but what is caused by the rising and efficacy of the Sun of Grace in you There are a sort of people who being dead in sins and trespasses never stir at all but lye senselesse in the grave I speak not this to them although I could be glad they might hear the voice of the Son of God and live that Jesus Christ would effectually call them as once Lazarus out of that deadly sleep that hath seized on them But there are others who seem to stir yet not from a principle of true life in them who continuing in sinne think it Grace enough to pretend to an opinion who neglecting the Power of godlinesse content themselves to talk of some Disciplinary parts of Religion I never liked their building who begun the Fabrick at the roof but indeed he that intends to draw only the picture of an house needs not care at which end he begins I never fancied their Religion which begins and ends too only in opinion To hear drunkards talk of gathering Churches and swearers question the Call of Ministers c. although that is something more then Disciplinary is such a Paradox in Religion that the Churches of Christ have not usually bin acquainted with all When men out of a desire to appear something yet for want of any true work of Grace upon their spirits shall take up only that fashion of Religion which may suit best the times in which they are they may be good talkers but seldom are sound practisers of godlinesse I would have you labour to finde the work of Grace upon your spirits which may make you new creatures for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new creature Gal. 6. When that spring once moves the wheels although the work may seem to go more slowly and with some more trouble yet it goes more surely and with much more truth Practise more the power then the shew of godliness let your lives rather then your tongues declare your Religion Old-fashioned unskilfull Limners were constrained to underwrite the name of what they Painted that people might know what it was rather by the inscription then the draught Such is the new-fashioned Religion of some men that if they did not tell you it was Religion they professed men would scarcely deem it such by their profession People are apt to think well of being Religious but they are often mistaken in what is Religion they will grant godliness to be great gain but they are not convinced what is godliness If I finde a man once shaken who hath been truly rooted misled who hath been set right in Gods way as I am apt to be much troubled for him so I desire to be very tender of him but when I see a loose and light body tossed with every minde I am little affected with it It is as much wonder to see the one stable in blustring times as the other shaking 2. I shall intreat you That you would now be conversant in the study of Fundamentall Truths When Fundamentals are questioned we had need to be well satisfied about them when the foundation is aimed at the greatest defence had need to be made there Paul desired to see the Romans to establish them Rom. 1. 11. it is from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is rendred by one ruitur a suffulcio surely if ever people had need to be established in the Truth it is now when truth in this sense decays and its very foundation begins to be shaken When men build their Religion upon props set up by their own fancy they may quickly be carried besides the Truth It is a strange thing to see how men now adaies delight most in the loose notions of their own conceiving but little in the standing Truth laid by Gods Word This is to lose Truth in the mist of their

own making and to put out their own eyes by the dust they themselves have raised they that flie so high in their affected although confused notions frequently leave the Truth behind when through the coldness of the second region they are so frozen in their affections that if ever they return they seldom pursue Truth with much love after This is to lay up a mans Religion in a Castle built in the Air when every winde of Doctrine may tosse it to and fro It is an unhappy thing that some men are guilty of to delight in expressions they understand not and to be lost in the pursuit of those cloudy notions they cannot reach when they are alwaies pointing at what they have but small ken of themselves although they cannot discover them to others By this the growth of true Religion is much hindered in them and the profit of Christian conference much prevented in their meetings when much is proposed a great deal talked of but little gotten nothing agreed on There is more advantage to be gotten in one hours conference with him who understands and will speak of a Fundamentall in Religion then in many dayes with those for although there lesse may be talked of there is more discovered I would have you much in the study of faith repentance Justification c. To that end reade much of the Scripture and of those other good Books written by godly men which God hath holpen this age withall I could wish besides others you would be all well versed in that little Carechisme I use among the younger people which although small in bulk is as full stuffed with sound Truths as ever I saw any so closely comprized Enquire after the good old way and walk in it The most of our new lights are but old darknesses which are caused rather by the privation then the encrease of true Light most of our new truths are but old errours rising afresh out of the bottomless pit the hand of liberty having rouled away that stone which the arm of Government had before laid to stop the mouth of it Beware of controversies that are either above your reach or lesse necessary to Religion the former may puzzle and perplex you the later but disturb and unquiet you the former often ends in defection from the Truth the later only in difference and contention among seeming brethren By both men are frequently so forced or perswaded from the Truth that if they are not hurried into one they are cheated into another errour When Peter would prevent peoples falling from their stedfastness he presses them to grow in Grace 1 Pet. 3. 18. A low house setled upon a good foundation will stand longer then an high tottering edifice upon a weak basis Not that I would have you contented with small measures low statures in Grace build as high as you will as you can only let the foundation be firm and proportionable 3. I would beg you to measure all the Doctrines you hear by the line of Gods word seeing there are false spirits gone forth into the world it is good to try the spirits whether they are of God or not 1 John 4. 1 2. It is an evil thing in this to have mens persons in admiration If the best of men on earth if an Angel from Heaven should bring any other Doctrine then what is left by Christ for your direction let him be Anathema Gal. 1. 18. Charron in his book of wisdom tels us that every humane proposition is of equal Authority unless reason make the difference No Religious doctrine is of any reputation further then the Scripture speaks it true When mens words are only taken it 's no hard thing to be deceived when men beleeve only with a probable Faith they are easily mislead The Apostle bids the Thessalonians try all things because they should {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hold fast as by violence what was good 1 Thes. 5. 18. What weapon or beast a man hath well proved he will carefully preserve when what may be as good if he know it not may be more easily parted withall It is a great advantage the Devil hath given him when men hold Truth upon too slender grounds Gold and silver is not valued if not known to be such Children may have gold in their hands when if children whom you may perswade it is brasse it is no hard matter to cheat them out of it They were Children that were tossed to and fro Ephes. 4. If a stone be loose although upon a good foundation it is no difficult thing to remove it that will most probably continue which is well fastened When men pin their faith upon others sleeves whithersoever those sleeves are stretched out their Faith must follow when doctrines are judged of by the men that bring them be it what it will it can only be so prevalent as the man that vents it is of Authority with them that hear it The Corinth vvere accused as carnal that they pretend some to Paul others to Apollo 1 Cor. 3. 4. when yet they were both Ministers v. 5. Good God! vvhat are they who are some for this others for that gifted brother who are no Ministers only intrude into that Office intrusted unto others Thus men best like and most cry up those Preachers who are of that party they most affect and then the Doctrine they bring whether true or false This is to judge of things by the men that do them a false rule and not of men by the things they do Hence the Prevailing party hath alwaies most followers such Powerfull Preachers can command Audience It is the practice of our late Astrologers to gaze only on those Stars which are ascendant and still speak best of those Constellations which have the strongest influence especially if they have but a favourable aspect towards them whose Prognosticks are calculated for the Meridians of strength and weakness of power and impotency I vvish it vvere not too much the fault of our new-fashioned hearers vvho love not the light of the brightest Star if not of their party But I shall hope and ask better things of you let truth and falsehood be the cause of your esteem or disrespect of what you hear let that have best reception with you which hath most Authority from Scripture although least of the power of men vvith it When false coyn is abroad all men will look to the money they receive Seeing it hath been foretold that in the last daies vvhich are these there should come seducers and our experience tels us it is fulfilled let us try before vve trust and examine the Doctrine vve hear before vve believe it 4. I vvould have you suspect and be shy of whatsoever doctrines please the flesh of vvhatsoever it is that indulgeth corrupt nature Flesh and bloud are no more apt to love then they are able to enter into the Kingdom of God the flesh lusteth against the spirit