Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A44072
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The necessity dignity and duty of Gospel ministers discoursed of before the University of Cambridge.
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Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing H2321; ESTC R13341
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17,011
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31
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occasions and occurrences to be able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak upon the wheels that his words may be like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Prov. 25.11 A wise Man will not send a Fool upon his Errand and surely then a most wise God would have his Ambassadours seasoned with Salt to be throughly furnished to every good word and work and to be wise unto the Salvation even both of themselves and of them that hear them And as Ministers must have Salt in themselves so they must season others and this may be done two ways by their Doctrine and their Conversation or by their Preaching and by their Practice 1. They must be sure to preach always sound savoury wholsome Doctrine they must always avoid all unsound rotten or unsavoury Doctrine especially they must preach Christ he that is the Center yea in a sense the α and ω of the Scripture should be all in all in our Sermons We should above all as desire to know nothing but Christ and him crucified so preach nothing in comparison of Christ and him crucified 'T is thought by the Salt required with every Sacrifice both in the Tabernacle in Solomon's Temple and in Ezekiel's Temple and in Christ and by him it is that God hath entered into a Covenant of Grace with Man and this Covenant is an everlasting Covenant and so may be called a Covenant of Salt with this Covenant let Ministers endeavour as to season themselves so to season their Sermons and their Auditours Again Ministers must not dawb and flatter preach pleasing things sow Pillows under Peoples Elbows or throw Sugar upon them when Salt is necessary Their Sermons must have acrimony in them what though it makes Mens wounds smart It will keep them from rankling 'T is a sign of a weak and giddy Constitution of Soul to desire to have our Soul-food powdered with Sugar rather than with Salt God of old under the Law required Salt in every Sacrifice but yet he forbad Honey to be used in Sacrifices and 't is thought the reason was because Honey doth ferment This may teach us not to preach Doctrines that are likely to puff up our selves or others but let our Sermons rather when occasion serves rebuke Sinners sharply and let our Sermons be salted with sincerity I find that the Apostle Paul his Spirit was stirred in him at Athens Acts 17. When he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Ministers must be savoury Salt they must season others by a good Life and Conversation and this by their words and by their works 1. Their Speech must be savoury season'd with Salt such as may minister Grace to their Hearers and this too out of the Pulpit viz. in their Converse and Communication with Men. No filthy Communication or rotten or unsavoury words must proceed out of their Mouths their Throats must not be like an open Sepulchre sending out Stench and Corruption These Watchmen must especially set a watch at the Door of their Lips lest they offend with their Tongue The Priest's Lips should preserve knowledge and there should always stand ready at the Door of their Lips some good or savoury Speech either a word of Instruction or of admonition or of reprehension To this purpose he had need to pray that God would touch his Tongue with a Coal from the Altar and be with his Mouth as sometimes with Moses that he may open his Lips and shew forth his praise 2. Ministers must season others by their good works by works of Piety Charity Mercy as they must be lively in their preaching so their Lives must be a Sermon They must walk exemplarily before their Family and before their Flock labour they must that they may say with the Apostle Paul to others be ye Followers of us as we also are of Christ 2. As good Ministers are like Salt in its primitive and pure Estate so are bad Ministers like Salt too but 't is in its unsavoury and degenerate Estate Salt may lose its savour and so Ministers if they be if they prove unfaithfull they are but unsavoury salt It was the Punishment of Lot's Wife for looking back to Sodom that she was turn'd into a Pillar of Salt and 't is the Case and Condition of Ministers who are called Angels in Scripture if they leave their station if they Apostatize to be like unsavoury Salt to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men Yet as we reade of fallen Angels and of Stars falling from Heaven so there are Ministers Angels of the Churches and that are sometimes compar'd to Stars and in this our Saviour's Sermon call'd the Light of the World some Ministers there have been who have proved faln Angels and falling Stars who have neither the Vrim nor Thummim neither purity of Doctrine nor integrity of Life but become unsavoury salt altogether useless and unprofitable We reade in Scripture of wicked Priests Sons of Belial Priests who made the people abhor the Sacrifices of the Lord we reade of a Judas a Devil amongst the twelve Apostles of our Saviour of false Teachers and false Apostles and false Prophets St. Cyprian in his time complained Non in Sacerdotibus Religio devota non in Ministris fides integra non in moribus Disciplina there was a great defection it seems as to their Religion their Faith their Works their Manners their silver was become dross and their wine mixt with water The truth is the true Prophets had no greater enemies than the false Prophets of old Ahab's Prophets opposed Micaiah Hananiah Jeremiah Amaziah Priest of Bethel the Prophet Amos Am. Chap. 7. the Scribes and Pharisees and Priests our Blessed Saviour the false Apostles the Apostle Paul the Arians the Orthodox and afterwards none more cruel or greater Persecutors under the Papacy than their Bishops and Priests Corruptio optimi est pessima Men of the best Calling if corrupted prove the worst But this truth that salt may prove unsavoury that there may be clouds without water and wandring and falling Stars false Teachers and bad Ministers this hath more need of a lamentation that it is so than of any proof or confirmation that it may be so But if it be so why is it thus How is the Gold and Silver become dross How comes this salt to be unsavoury To this I answer That salt is sometimes made of water taken out of the Sea and if you put it into the Sea again it loses its virtue Ministers are called and taken out of the World that troublesome Sea that always is casting out mire and dirt and if they trn thither again if they desire and affect to live in trouble in Law-suits Quarrels and Brangles with their Neighbours this renders them and their Ministry useless and unprofitable Contentiousness marrs a Ministers good Savour 2. Some Salt or at least the matter of which it is made is taken out of the Earth and if it be laid into the Earth again if buried in
Advertisement of Books printed for W. Rogers SErmons preached upon several Occasions by the Right Reverend Father in God John Wilkins D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Chester Never before Published A Perswasive to Frequent Communion A Discourse against Transubstantiation THE NECESSITY Dignity and Duty OF Gospel Ministers Discoursed of before the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1685. To the Worshipfull PAUL WENTWORTH Esq Honoured Sir THE many Charities and Benefactions of Sir Peter Wentworth your Brother in his Life-time and the many considerable Legacies he left to Ministers at his Death and particularly that to my self all paid by you with such speed and integrity together with your own love to Learning manifested by the Settlement you have made upon the School at Northampton and by your Love and Respects to good Ministers may be a sufficient Apology for my prefixing your Name to this Paper which contains the substance of a Sermon sometime preached to the Vniversity of Cambridge concerning The Necessity Dignity and Duty of Gospel Ministers Sir may you long live a Pattern of good Works and a Patron of good Men and when you die may you leave a Name behind you better than of Sons and Daughters May your Name and Memory be like the remembrance of good Josiah Eccles 49. like the composition of the Perfume made by the Art of the Apothecary sweet as Honey in the Mouth of all that speak of you and as Musick at a Banquet of Wine in the Ears of all that hear of you Which is the hearty desire of Worthy SIR Your very Humble Servant Thomas Hodges ERRATA PAge 6. l. 33. dele thirdly P. 8. l. 9. for ejecit reade evomit P. 12. after Ezekiel's Temple add Christ was typified L. 32. for sincerity reade fire P. 15. l. 7. for trn reade turn L. 24. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 16. l. 29. for are reade or MATT. 5.13 Ye are the salt of the Earth but if the salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted it is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men THE Text is a part of Christ's most excellent Sermon on the Mount after he had spent a whole Night in Prayer to his new elect Apostles a kind of Ordination-Sermon or else a Concio ad Clerum The 14 15 and 16 verses contain a peculiar admonition to his Apostles as Interpreters generally conceive both concerning their Doctrine and their Life and Conversation and this under three metaphors or similitudes of Salt of a City set on an Hill and of Light They are Light they must not be put under a Bushel or in a dark Lanthorn they must shine to whom to all that are in the House yea they must be burning and shining Lights like John the Baptist both by their preaching and living that others hearing their good Doctrine and seeing their good Works may glorifie their Father which is in Heaven Again they are a City set on an Hill very conspicuous in omnium oculis the eyes of the World are upon them any erroneous Doctrine taught by them or any miscarriage in practice in them cannot be hid but will prove very notorious and scandalous Thirdly they are Salt and the Salt of the Earth necessary usefull and beneficial to the world as Salt is but they must be savoury salt not saltless salt if so first they become altogether unprofitable and contemptible secondly they are good for nothing must expect to lose their places and stations in the Church to be cast out and to be exposed to scorn and contempt to be made vile amongst the people to be trodden under foot of men Some I know as Grotius and Dr. Hammond expound extend this Scripture so far as to reach all Christians because the Beatitudes are of general concernment and because they think the twelve Apostles were not called and ordained till afterwards namely till Chapter the 10th but to the last it is answered that in the Writings of the Evangelists there be certain anticipations that is some things are set down after which were done before and some things are set down before which were done after and so here the instruction of the Apostles for the office and work of the Ministry seems to be the main scope of this Sermon and therefore they may be reasonably thought to be called or ordained before as for the election of the Apostles it is set down indeed afterwards in the tenth Chapter but 't is by reason or upon occasion of the Evangelists recording then their commission to preach As to the other objection it may be answered that though he preached in the audience of the people and that in this Sermon he did teach his Followers many things in general yet our blessed Saviour herein did chiefly intend to instruct his twelve Apostles whom he had newly chosen to be teachers of others Thirdly Ye that is ye my Apostles and Ministers ye are the salt of the earth that is of men that dwell on the earth 't is your part and duty to season them with the sound Doctrine ye have heard and with a conversation becoming the Gospel that so they may be preserv'd from corruption and putrefaction Ye are salt not properly but by resemblance yet not in regard of their Persons but of their Ministry hereby by this they were to make the corrupt natures hearts communications and conversations of men to become savoury to season them for God And the Apostles are called the salt of the earth that is not of Judaea onely but of the whole World So our Saviour enlarged their Commission Matt. 28.19 Go therefore and teach all nations now our Saviour amplifieth the former reason whereby he moved his Apostles to fidelity and diligence in their Office and Ministry by letting them know that otherwise they would be but unsavoury salt incurable or hardly curable unprofitable and contemptible good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot A proverbial speech to shew a thing of no worth or value but that is scorn'd and despised greatly I shall endeavour by God's assistence to shew 1. That Ministers are the salt of the earth and that 't is their duty to be savoury salt 2. 'T is possible some Ministers may prove unsavoury salt 3. By what means this salt becomes unsavoury 4. That this unsavoury salt is hardly curable 5. That in this condition 't is useless and unprofitable 6. That unsavoury salt or bad Ministers unfaithfull in their Office are liable to ejection and contempt or to be deprived and scorned and to be troden under foot of men 1. They are so see the Text see also Mark 9.50 and Luk. 14.34 Salt makes that which is insipid and unsavoury to relish it gives it a good taste so the word of God which Ministers preach doth season them