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A91891
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The peoples plea for the exercise of prophesie. Against master John Yates his monopolie / by Iohn Robinson.
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Robinson, John, 1575?-1625.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing R1696; Thomason E1093_1; ESTC R208638
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39,795
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82
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conceived that a second oâ third especially seeming provided to speake by seating themselues in the same place with him migââ have something revealed further or otherwise theâ he had Which Revelation the Apostle doth not oppoââ to fore-going study as M. Yates thinketh but unto emulation and study of contradiction teaching thaâ the spirit alone must be heard in the Church speaking by whose mouth soever And that there is iâ the Church an ordinary spirit of revelation besideâ comfortable experience these places amongst many other do clearly prove Mat. 11. 28. 16. 17 Eph. 1. 17. Pâil 3. 17. M. Yates ARG. 9. FRom vocation ver. 29. 32. 37. these spirituall men are called Prophets and to imagine a Prophet without a calling that which the Scripture will not endure therefore all these ârophets either had immediate calling from God or mediate âom men or else they took it up themselves the two first weââant lawfull callings but this intollerable Numb 11. 28. the servant of Moses sayâs Forbid Eldad and Medad to prââesie his reason was because he thought they had no calling âhich had bin true if they had taken it up without immediate ââpiration But Moses knowing that it was from God wishâ that the like gift might be upon all Gods people so that âose were true Prophets for the instant by an immediate call âm God and the text sayes They added no further âââwing âat as the gift ceased so did they I. Rob. ASWER âT is true that spirituall men are called Prophets â or rather Prophets Spirituall men what is it theââ that makes a spirituall man but the gift of the ââirit and what a prophet ordinary or extraordinaââ but the gift of prophesie ordinary or extraordiââry Whereupon it followeth undeniable that so âany with us or elsewhere as haue the ordinary gift â ability to prophesie are Prophets though out of ââfice In this Argument he hath made a snare wherwith himselfe iâ taken unavoidably Secondly ââ affirme that our Prophets haue a calling which haâe declared formerly not to make them Prophâ by condition or estate for that they are by the gifts but for the use or exercise of the same gift bâfore bestowed upon them by the Lord through the labour and industry Of Eldads and Medads prâphesying we shall speak hereafter onely note wâ in the meane While how M Yates and rightly proportioneth their prophesying to their gift as wâ doe also ours according to that of the Apostle Haâing then gifts differing according to the grace that is ââven to us whether prophesie let us prophesie according â the proportion of faith or a ministery let us waite on ââ ministery Rom. 12. 6. 7. They then that haue a gifâ must prophesie according to their proportion M. Yates ARG. 10. FRom distinction v. 37. the Apostle from the whole Chââturnes himself to their Prophets and spirituall men sheâing plainely that these had some particular place aboâ the rest and he gives them speciall charge to obserue the thing he writes to the Church therefore those were in some callââ aboue others and to imagine the contrary is to run wide of tâ current of the whole Scripture to set men in publick place wiâout calling is the same with confusion and disorder I. Rob. ANSW THis Argument is founded upon the groundlesse presumption with the former viz. that there is in the Church no lawfull calling for men able to ârophesie but by officing them And for Pauls turâing his speach to the Prophets ver 37. it shewes inâeed that they were aboue the rest after a sort and so âhey are with us rightly preferred before others which want that endowment of the spirit by which âhey are enabled to speake to the edification of the Church The Confirmation of the Scriptvres and reasons brought in my booke to proue publick prophesying out of office by an ordinary gift AND before wee come to examine M. Yates his Answers to the Scriptures by me produced I âesire the Reader to obserue with mee these two âhinges first that I doe not affirme in my book âhat al the there alledged Scriptures are meant of orâinary but prophesie that the same is proued by them Neither will he I persume deny but that many âhinges are sufficiently proued from a scripture by âecessary consiquence and iust proportion besides the particular properly intended in it 2. That M. âates so puts the questian as that it is hard to say say whether he doe mee or himsefe the moâ iniury namely whether the places prove an ordânary gift of prophesie out of office For as I do not saâ that they proue the gift but the vse and excerciâ of the gift bestowed by God whether ordinary â extraordinary so neither would he haue dinied haâ he not leaped before he had lookt but that otheâ besides ministers haue an ordinary gift of prophesyâ Where the Apostle requires of him that desires an office of a Bishop that he be apt to teach 1. Tim. 3. 1. 2âand able to exhort with sound doctrine Tit. 1. 9. dotâ he not therein most evidently teach that the gift and ability to teach preach and prophesie not onely may but must both be and appeare to be in the person to be called to the office of ministery Heâ that is not a prophet or hath not the gift of prophesying or preaching for by his gift he is a prophet and by the use of it he occupies the place of a prophet before he be apointed a Pastor is an Idol shepherd set up in the temple of God neither doth the office giue on âo much indeed as encrease the gift but onely giues solemn commission and charge to use it The first Scripture by me brought is Numb. 11â 29. Where Moses the man of God wisheth that the whole people of the Lord were Prophets the Lord putting his spirit upon them This place saith M. Yates in his Answer speakes of the powring of the Spirit in an extraordinary manner may appeare by the occasion of the speach verse â4 c. Where he also in a tedious manner as his âânner is he proueth the gift of prophesying giân to the 70. Elders to haue been extraordinary âhich as I deny not so neither needed he to haue âoved But this I affirme that hence is proued the âwfullnesse of ordinary prophesying out of office â men inabled thereunto And first as Moyses wiâed that all the Lords people were Prophets the Lord âving his spirit unto them so the minister may and âght to wish that the Lord would so blesse the orâânary endeauours of his people now by his spirit as âat they all might be Prophets that is able for gifts â speak to edification The minister which desireth ât this enuieth for his owne and the Clergies sake âhich Moses would not that Ioshua should doe for âs Secondly Moses makes it all one to bee a ârophet and to have the Lord putting his spirit vpââ a man Now if the Lord so giving his spirit unââ a
with the rest Iohn 20. 22 23. 1 Now if the commission Apostolike were but tââ giuen they were but then not before actually âpostles except he will say they were Apostles beââ they had commission that is calling from Christ to bee I would now see how hee can salue â wound which he hath given himselfe 2 After that the Lord Iesus had Mat. 11. 11. pâferred Iohn Baptist aboue all the Prophets whiâ were before him he yet adds in the same place thâthe least in the Kingdom of heauen is greater then ââ The least that is the least Minister In the kingdom â heauen that is in the church of the new testameÌt prâporly called which began not till after the death â Christ who liuâd and dyed a member of the Iewiââurch the Apostles then being officers of the âurch of the new testament and Kingdom of heaââ and not of the old or Iewish Church it cannot ââ that they were Apostles in act before Christ âath except an adiunct can be before the subject âd an officer before the corporation in of which is an officer â Considering the ignorance of these disciples at ââ time in the maine misteries of Christ of the naâe of his kingdom his death and âeâurâection âat 20. 21. Luk. 24. 20. 21. c. âohâ 20. 9. Mar. â 14. as also how utterly ãâ¦ã they were gifts befitting Apostâlâcal teaching for which âeing an extraordânary dispensotion and that in â highest degree extraordânary infallible revela direction of the spirit was âequisit wher with âây were but first âs it seemetâ âpâinckled John â and afterwards more plentifully filled at the day Pentecost they were as fit for an Apostleship as ââvid was for Sauls armour which he could not âeild nor goe wiâh 4. Besides if they had the office of Apostleship âmmitted to them Mat. 10. how was it that they ântinued not their ministration in that office but âârning after a few dayes to their master continuâ with him as his disciples till his death Christ Ieâ did not keepe a company of none-residents about âm for his Chaplins as M. Yates insinuates against ââ Lastly we are expresly taught Eph. 4. 8. 11. â Christ âsâended on high he gaue gifts unto men Apoâ Prophets c. The Apostles then were first giuen âtually at the Lords ascension and Were before oâ designed to become Apostles or Apostles âlect â not ordained nor possessed of any office and therfore preached and that with warrant from Chrâ without office The next Scripture is Luk. 8. 39. by M. Yâ thus opened Christ hauing deliuered the man possessââids him go and shew what great things God had â for him and it is sayd he went and Preached that is â be to their purpose by ordinary paines and study he prââched the Gosple And with pitty upon us poore soâ that cannot distinguish the publishing of amiracle â the gift he should say the work if he distinguish as he ought of preaching he addeth that if âââ had minded to haue made him a publike preacher he â first have taken him with him and instructed him â then haue sent him abroad 1. Let it be obserued that the word used by Mâ for his preaching {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the same word which commonly used for the most solemne preachiâ that is by the Apostles and Euangelists Secondâ Christ bids him Mar. 5. 19. Go home and declare â great things the Lord had done for him and had had câ passion on him and ver. 20. he is sayd to haue publishâ in Decapolis Luke hath it ãâ¦ã âgreat things Iesus had done for him Which he doâ what else did hee but preach publish and deâe the great loue and mercy of God in and by Ieâ Christ towards miserable sinners for the curing of âir bodily and spirituall maladies 3. Where he âes the pyblishing of this miracle and the preaching of â Gospel diuers things and pitties us pooâe soules that cannot distinguish between them as Christ bade the âen of Jerusalem not to weep for him but for themâs so surely had he need tâ pitty not us herein â himselfe in his so great mistaking Are not the âacles of Christ storied in the Scripture a maine â of the Gospel and the publishing of them a â of the preaching of the Gospel And when M. âs opens publisheth a miracle of Christs as this â did doth he not as well and as truly preach the âspel as at any other time Let the wise iudge â is to be pittied To shut up this point it is sayd â 20. 30. that Iesus did many other signes c. and â 21. But these are writen that yee might beleeue that âs is the Christ the sonne of God and that beleeuing â might haue lefe through his name The publishing â of the signes miracles which Christ did is the âching of faith in his name to salvation which â man therefore did espetially amongst them âch were not ignorant of the Law of Moses and âmise of the Messiah to come which by his glorious miracles done by his owne power and in his oâ name he both declared and proued himselfe to âJoh 5 36 10. 37. 38. And where he adds that Câ gaue this man commission to do that which he diâ but â mirs who gaue ours such authority I answer euen â same Christ as then immediately so now mediaâ by those unto whome he hath giuen authority uâ himselfe for the ordering of the gifts of his spirit his Church And sufficient it is for the question ââtween him and me if it appeare as in this peâ that Christ hath giuen commission to men oâ office by an ordinary gift to publish and preacâ publick the Gospel of saluation I doe quote next in my booke Luk. 10. â which for that W. E. omitteth and leaues out âYates thanketh God but in truth he hath more â to thanke him for sparing him a place which so pânantly proueth the preaching of the kingdom ofâ by men out of office except he can assigne some â found office and the same but of two or three â lasting as ver. 17. to those 70 there sent We are in the next place to come unto Joh. 4â 29. 39. which he openeth and answereth with aâration as the foâmeâ place witâ pitty and comâsion on this manner â simplicitie with contrâtion to his owne writing simplicity that cannot see bâ preaching of the Gospel and carrying tydings of aâ that told her to wit the woman of Samaria â things that euer she did is not this saith she the Christ ât besides simplicity here is contradiction for sayes M âbinson and that truly a woman is not suffered to exâise an ordinary gift of prophesie in the Church and âll the women of samaria serue your turne that it is lawââll for men to exercise such a gift It is indeed my simplicity to thinke that the Gosâ as the word importeth is nothing else But glad âdings and