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A47742 A discourse shewing who they are that are now qualify'd to administer baptism and the Lord's-Supper wherein the cause of episcopacy is briefly treated / by the author of A discourse proving the divine institution of water-baptism. Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722. 1698 (1698) Wing L1130; ESTC R25145 50,009 107

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he bestow'd upon them but rather that their Names were written in Heaven Luke x. 20. which supposes that they might have such Gifts and yet their Names not be written in Heaven And when He taught them how to Pray He added no Petition for such Gifts but only for the Remission of their Sins and the Sanctifying Graces of the Holy Spirit which are as most Pre●itable to Us so most Precious in the sight of God Now some who had these Miraculous Gifts made ill use of them and occasion'd a great Schism the first in the Christian Church at Corinth They were Exalted above Measure in their own Gifts and therefore Refus'd to submit themselves to those who were their Superiors in the Church who perhaps had not such Gifts as they had but set up for themselves and drew Parties after them who were Charm'd with their Extraordinary Gifts thinking that the Participation of the saving Graces of the Holy Spirit must there Chiefly be Communicated where God had bestow'd such wonderful Gifts And they laid more stress upon the Personal Qualifications of these Ministers of God than upon the observance of that Order and Constitution which He had Commanded which was in Effect preferring Men to God and trusting to the Instruments rather than to the Author of their Religion as if thro' the Power and Holiness of the Administrators of God's Institutions and not from Him alone the Graces which were Promis'd to the due Observance of them were convey'd Act. iii. 12. And this as it turn'd Men from God to Trust in Man so as a necessary Consequence of it it begot great Emulations among the People for one Teacher against another even sometimes when it was not the Fault of the Teachers For People being once let loose from Government and Order to follow the Imaginations of their own Brain will run farther than their first Seducers did Intend and will Carve for themselves Thus in the Schism of the Church at Corinth one was for Paul another for Apollos another for Cephas c. much against the Minds of these good Apostles but having been once unsettl'd by the Pride and Ambition of Seducers they Heaped to themselves Teachers having itching Ears and made Divisions among themselves Pretendingly in behalf of Christ and His Apostles but in Effect tending to Divide Christ and His Apostles as all Schisms do Against these St. Paul Disputes with wonderful force of Reason and Eloquence particularly in the xii Chap. of his first Epistle to these same Corinthians wherein from the Parallel of the Unity of Members in the same Body he admirably Illustrates That the many Different and Miraculous Gifts which were then Dispensed all from the same Spirit cou'd be no more an Argumeut for any to Advance himself beyond his own Station in the Church than for one Member of the Body tho' an Eye or a Hand the most Useful or Beautiful to Glory it self against the Inferior Members who are all Actuated by the same Soul or not to be Content with its Office and Station in the Body and due Subordination to the Head Thence the Apostle goes on and makes the Application in the xiiith Chap. That the most Exalted Spiritual or even Miraculous Gifts cou'd not only not Excuse any Schism to be made in the Body that is the Church But that if any who had such Gifts did not employ them for the Preservation of the Unity of the Church which is very properly Express'd by Charity i.e. Love for the whole Body such Gifts wou'd Profit him Nothing loose all their Vertue and Efficacy as to the Possessor and be rather an Aggravation against him than any Excuse for him to withdraw his Obedience from his lawful Superiors and Usurp the Office of the Head and so make a Schism in the Body upon the account of his Gifts which tho' they were as great as to speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels to understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge to have all Faith even to Remove Mountains and such a Zeal as to give all his Goods to the Poor and his very Body to be Burned yet if it be done in Schism out of that Love and Charity which is due to the Body and to its Unity all is Nothing will profit him nothing at all And no wonder when all that Heavenly Glory in which Lucifer was Created cou'd avail him nothing Jude 6. when he kept not his first Principality but Aspir'd Higher and made a Schism in the Hierarchy of Heaven How then shall they who have as St. Jude expresses it left their own Habitation or Station in the Church and advanc'd themselves above their Bishops their lawful Superiors the Heads and Principles of Unity next and immediately under Christ in their Respective Churches upon pretence of their own Personal Gifts and Qualifications and thereby make a Schism in the Terrestrial Hierarchy of the Church which is the Body of Christ Eph. 1.23 the Fulness of him who Filleth all in all How shall they be Excus'd for this whose pretended Gifts are in nothing Extraordinary except in a Furious Zeal without Knowledge and a Volubility of Tongue which proceeds from a Habit of Speaking without Thinking and an Assurance that is never out of Countenance for Ten Thousand Blunders which wou'd Dash and Confound any Man of Sense or Modesty or that consider'd the Presence of God in which he spoke If those truly Miraculous Gifts which were made a Pretence for the Schism at Corinth were not sufficient to justifie that Schism How Ridiculous and much more wicked is the Pretence of our Modern Gifted-men who have pleaded their Delicate Gifts as a sufficient Ground for all that Schism and Rebellion which they have Rais'd up amongst us If the real Gifts and Inspirations of the Holy Spirit were Stinted and Limited by the Governors of the Church to avaid Schism and Confusion in the Church If the Prophets were Confin'd as to their Number 1 Cor. xiv from v. 26. to Two or at the most Three at a time some ordered to hold their Peace to give place to others others to keep silence for want of an Interpreter and the Women tho' Gifted or Inspir'd as many then were totally silenc'd in the Church 1 Tim. 11.12 or Publick Assemblies What Spirit has Possess'd our Modern Pretenders to Gifts that will not be subject to the Prophets nor to the Church nor to any Institutions whether Divine or Humane But if their Superiors pretend to Direct them in any thing they cry out what will you stint the Spirit And think this a sufficient Cause to break quite loose from their Authority and set up an open Schism against them upon Pretence of their wonderful Gifts forsooth That first Schism in the Church of these Corinthians was vigorously oppos'd by the Apostles and Bishops of the Church at that time They like good Watch-men wou'd not give way to it knowing the fatal Consequences of it This produc'd Two Epistles from