Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	church_n	time_n	2,817	5	3.2368	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75417	An answer to an impertinent pamphlet lately set forth by Iohn Spencer. Wherein is refuted the arguments brought for the justification of the lawfulnesse, and universall exercise of every mans gift, publike and private. By a Well-wisher to the reformation.	Well-wisher to the reformation.	1642 (1642)	Wing A3352; Thomason E135_29; ESTC R12234	28,632	35

AN ANSWER TO AN IMPERTINENT PAMPHLET LATELY set forth by IOHN SPENCER WHEREIN IS REFVTED THE ARguments brought for the justification of the Lawfulnesse and Universall exercise of every mans Gift PUBLIKE and PRIVATE By a Well-wisher to the Reformation ROM 16.17 Marke them which cause divisions LONDON Printed by G. B. and R. W. for W. L. and are to be sold at his Shop at Pauls Chaine 1641. TO MASTER SPENCER IT is the advise of a learned and godly Divine That Christians in all their actions should seriously survey and by the particular light of spirituall prudence guide and manage whatsoever they undertake It is also noted by Solomon That a prudent man foreseeth the evill and doth presuppose the consequences of his performances which places if you had seriously considered the world had not beene a Spectator of this your weakenesse neither will posteritie wonder at your inconsideratenesse herein these thoughts might have deterred you from such unwarrantable practises and stifled them in their very conception for you cannot be ignorant of the sad effects they have produced and what heavie censures you deservedly lie under not onely generally from the world but particularly from many good Christians Divines and others whose judgment in this respect perhaps you may slight for my owne part I cannot but admire to see Gods Word so miserably rent by such extorted expositions when as the naturall circumstance of the places and the necessary conclusions issuing from thence doe manifestly prove the contrary Nay whereas the whole scope and intent of your booke being to justifie the publike preaching of Lay-men without any outward call from the Church a solemn sequestration to that sacred function and a declaration of the inward sufficiency that God hath indued a man with for the execution of the same and not only in times of necessity but when there is no such need the very Brownists herein a generation extravagant enough are become your adversaries witnesse Mistresse Chidlies allegation out of Robinsons Booke the Separatist who sayes A private member may become a Minister for an action of necessity to be performed by the consent of the rest M. Chidlie Justif pag. 3. Wherein I note that it must be a case of necessity that shall constraine these people to consent to an action so done but you goe further to defend the universall practise as you call it of preaching both publike and private not only in times of necessity but out of it and to that end you have pickt out certain Texts of Scripture to prove the same but wich what poore successe I leave to the judgement of the godly and judicious Reader upon the examination of the ensuing discourse in the which there is sufficient demonstration to conclude that of all whimsi●s hatched in the braine this may carry the bell and fitly bee branded for singularity and therefore most justly called by learned Cartwright as indeed it is Anabaptisticall and mad Can you then so peremptorily conclude and by such undeserved attributions assume that to your selfe that particularly belongs to others B●ltons Instr pag. 160. Hearken I beseech you to what Master Bolton sayes The burden of the Ministry is such that as some of the Antients amplifie it is able to make the shoulders of the mightiest Angell in Heaven to shrinke under it And is it then thinke you the work of every puny and ordinary fellow that pretends the Spirit to dispense the sacred Oracles of God that is miserably deficient in those things God hath ordained and sanctified for that purpose Never O never seek to delude the poore ignorant vulgar with such frothy and undigested conceits and to blinde the eyes of those who are and will be as zealous of a thorough Reformation as your selfe that desire to have all things done by that Apostolicall rule Decency and in Order You alleage Master Bolton Calvin Ursinus Perkins to prove that which none denies but are you content to condescend to what they say will you agree that they shall be Mediators in this particular cause I hope you will not deny but that they were men for piety and learning as eminent as any we have now living and were not they as able to expound Scripture as you if so it will not be amisse to rest in their determination but you will say they dissent from the Word How I pray It may be indeed in the generality of their Writings they may erre the best men have their faults and have no exemption from humane infirmities and errors but if they erre in one thing doe they so in another or to come more neere doe they erre in this speciall point now in agitation no such matter Vnlesse you say as I beleeve you thinke at least they erre because they dissent from you and so indeed they may erre in and by your estimation although not by the Word and I challenge you to produce me any one testimony from any one Orthodoxe and sincere Minister of Jesus Christ that doth favour your assertion and the cause is yours But because I will not hinder you from that which followes I leave you to consider whether in this you dissent not only from learned and godly Divines but from the Truth also upon which you would pin this your factious opinion TO THE READER THe holy Ghost in sacred Scriptures doth often inculcate by many iterations and perswasive expressions to the diligent and serious study after Truth and amongst them all there is one as I may so speake transcends the rest In the third Epistle Iohn 4. I have no greater joy than this 3. Epist Joh. 4. to heare that my sonnes walke in verity a strong inducement to incite all men to such a proficiency for as Solomon speaks Without knowledge the minde is not good because it deprives a man of the instrumentall means to the attaining of which his chiefest happinesse consists so unless this knowledge be originally radicated in the principles of Truth Esay 50.4 it can never minister to a man as the Prophet speakes a word in due time for comfort and satisfaction which point if seriously studyed would prove a meanes to extirpate those Heresies and Schismes which do miserably devide the seamlesse Coate of Christ It is true the Apostle saies There must be Heresies c. but I may to this speech of the Apostle adde that of Christ Woe be unto them to whom such offences come Mistake me not Reader I doe not heare condemne the holy oppositions that accompany the sincere Ministers of Jesus Christ against the corruptions of the times no no farre be it from me to be such a Proctor for the devill or to maintaine his quarrell I onely speake against that blinde zeale which possesses abundance in the world that zeale that wants both knowledge and truth for direction and runns either upon conjectures or evill Enthusiasmes of which the Apostle aimes at that hath its Originall and breeding from a distempered