Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A81282
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The case of peoples duty in living under a scandalous minister, stated and resolved
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1684
(1684)
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Wing C965; ESTC R229514
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12,032
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23
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under the use of such means as his gracious Providence hath afforded you doing your own Duty to God in a constant diligent Attendance upon his publick Ordinances and to your lawful Minister for the sake of God You may countenance him in his Office and yet discourage him in his Sins The worse he is pray the more for him and talk less against him but take more pains with him to recover him and if nothing will do wait with patience till God put you under some milder and more comfortable Dispensation by removing him one way or other from amongst you and sending you a better in his place Which thing I am confident God will do for you in his good time if he see you thus to deny your self in meer obedience to him by casting your self and cause upon him and wholly referring it to him free from all indirect projects and practices of your own which may argue your being dissatisfied with the present provision which he hath made In the mean while if you edifie by your Minister in nothing else this exercise of Faith and Patience and Meekness and Love and Unity and Uniformity will become far better Evidence of your real Edification and growth in Grace than any you will be able to produce in the contrary course For whoever they be that minister to your Losts or Passions or meerly to a Party will never minister truly to your Edification And indeed woe to this present World that Mens growth in Grace should be measured by their heats and contentions about indifferent things by being ready to quarrel at the times and to arraign the actions of Superiors and Governours in Church and State by being always complaining of the miscarriages of other Men but especially Ministers as if all the title Men had to vertue in themselves consisted in a certain delight which they took in repeating and proclaiming other Mens vices which is such a kind of Edifying as Infernal Spirits boast of and which is indeed only proper to the Accuser of the Brethren did Men rightly consider it Where envy and strife is saith the holy Apostle Jam. 3.16 there is confusion and every evil work as also that this sort of Wisdome is from beneath even earthly sensual devilish v. 15. Because I fore-see and know the Consequences of these things both in reference to the publick and your private Peace to the rending the Church and your own Soul asunder I am therefore concerned to warn you against every thing that hath but a necessary appearance or tendency thereunto as much as against all inclinations or tendencies to Drunkenness or Adultery or Stealing or Forswearing your self and the like For a Conclusion Let me remind you of the Advice of the Blessed St. Paul to the Corinthians in the like Case where one was for Paul another for Apollo and another for Cephas and all were in that respect and therefore carnal saying I have in a Figure transferred these things to my self and to Apollo for your sakes that ye might learn in us not to think of Men above that which is written that no one of you be puft up for one against another Therefore let no Man glory in Men 1 Cor. 4.6 And here Sir I had concluded your trouble in reading these Lines having already transgressed the Lines of an Epistle did I not fear you might fancy I had some Design in writing some of these at least to make an Apology for the sinsulness of Ministers Lives which God forbid and my comfort is that you know me better But lest any may hereafter become privy to these Papers who may be inclined by Inrerest Party or Prejudice to Judge so hardly I think it therefore needful to add that I abhor all Debauchery and Ungodliness in any Man but most of all in a Minister who hath so solemnly Consecrated not only his mouth but his whole Self Soul and Body unto God so that to desecrate or unhallow either is an high point of Sacriledge against God and a most grievous Scandal to the World while all good Men are afflicted to see it and all bad Men are hardned in their wicked Courses by it While the poor wretch in all his Preachings playeth but the Orator against himself and each good Sermon which he makes is but a fresh Inditement of his old wicked life No no I wish from my heart that every Minister in his respective place was as St. Paul for his Conversation in Heaven and an Apollos for his Eloquence in the Pulpit that he was furnished with both a Mouth and Wisdome which Gain-sayers were not able to contradict I mean in few words that he was himself a living Word This would be a means to heal our divisions and make up those breaches amongst us which the sins of both Preachers and Hearers keep open and in Gods good time help to make us of one heart and of one mind Amen Though my own sad Observation for the present gives me to see that as yet this alone will not do it For as much as it is too too manifest and plain that in such places where the Ministers live every way exemplary and blameless and are sound laborious and faithful in their Preaching yet even in those places the Breaches are kept open and the Separation continued Whence I cannot but conclude there is something else at the bottom besides the pretence to Religion and Reformation which keeps men from their Duty and at that distance one from the other But the making Men of one mind in an House as well as the working effectual grace in Mans heart is a Dispensation beyond the reach and power of Man and indeed is the only Prerogative of God who seems to me to have reserved this so great a Blessing and so much to be desired for another World or some other Age of this In the mean time it is a great comfort that you and I have got thus far on our Journey toward our longed for rest in so much Prosperity and Peace free and secure from all those amazing staggering temptations of the Primitive Christians under the good Providence of God and gracious Protection and Sun-shine of mild and most merciful Governours whom God of his goodness yet preserve notwithstanding all our frowardness and unthankfulness so as we may live to to see our Childrens Children and Peace upon Israel I have thus far gratified your pressing importunity upon a most unpleasing Subject in compliance with my Duty to your Commands and to exemplifie how much and how far I am to be commanded by you who indeed am SIR Your most humble Servant Aug. 28. 1684. FINIS