Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A47200
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The woman-preacher of Samaria a better preacher, and more sufficiently qualified to preach than any of the men-preachers of the man-made-ministry in these three nations / by George Keith.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing K236; ESTC R218789
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20,048
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40
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THE Woman-Preacher OF SAMARIA A Better Preacher and more Sufficiently Qualified to Preach than any of the Men-Preachers of the Man-made-Ministry in these Three NATIONS Quia non cognovi literaturam introibo in potentias Domini Psal 71. v. 15. So the Ancient Latine and so the Septuagint in some Copies and so the Hebrew it self being rightly Translated In English thus Because I know not Letters I will enter into the Powers of the Lord. By George Keith Printed in the Year 1674. THE Woman-Preacher OF SAMARIA COme hither all you Men-Preachers of a Man-made-Ministry in the three Nations whether Conformists or Nonconformists unto the present way of the Ministry and Worship in these Nations Established by an Humane Law who cry out against Womens Preaching and Speaking and say Women ought not to Preach There should not be Women Preachers They should keep them to the Affairs within the House and not meddle with our holy Function Behold a Woman-Preacher the Woman of Samaria Iohn 4. who may be an Example unto you all and the best of you and most Learned and Qualified of you all have need to learn of her how to Preach This Woman of Samaria may be your School-Mistress to teach you to Preach and it were good for you to learn of her who though being dead yet speaketh unto you Verily she is a witness for God unto the true way of Ministry and Preaching against you all and against all your false and invented ways Oh for shame let alone your crying out against Women-Preachers while you are short exceedingly short of this Woman-Preacher of Samaria and first of all learn the true silence and to have that mouth in you stopped which God hath never opened that the true mouth which is of his opening you may come to witness or else for ever to be silent that him you may know to open your Mouths who hath the Key of David who shutteth and no man openeth and openeth and no man shutteth The Woman then left her Water-pot and went her way into the City and saith unto the Men Come See a Man which told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ Then they went out of the City and came unto him c. Iohn 4.28 29 30. Here she Preached Christ in few words but very effectually and with good success Come See a Man that told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ These were her words few and short but very material and Pertinent and very powerful and effectual as appeared by the good success her words had upon the men of the City for it is said Then to wit after her speaking to them they went out of the City and came unto him and v. 39. it is said And many of the Samaritans of that City believed on him for the saying of the Woman which testified he told me all things that ever I did but v. 41. it is said and many more believed because of his own Word But How came this Woman to be a Preacher of Christ First Who taught her Secondly Who called her Verily she was not taught by Men nor by Men was she called but by Christ. She had not been learned at the University neither got she her Ordination either by the laying on of hands of a Bishop or company of Men called a Presbytery yea we find no hands that Christ laid upon her in the outward but spoke unto her and talked with her and she with him So then she was taught of Christ himself that he was the Messiah or the Christ. She had heard of the Messiah that was to come but she knew not that he was come or who he was yea for some time though he was speaking unto her she did not know him to be the Christ but when he said unto her I that speak unto thee am he then she believed and went her way into the City and Preached him unto the men of the City So first of all she was taught Christ by Christ himself she was taught immediately and being thus taught she believed on him and then she went and Preached him This is an excellent Pattern and Example unto all true Ministers and Preachers of Christ First to be taught by himself before they go Preach him unto others Secondly to believe on him and having both heard himself and from his own word and testimony believed on him then to Preach him unto others And this same Method Paul followed who of a Persecutor of Christ became a Preacher of him First he was taught Christ by Christ himself and that inwardly Christ was revealed in him When it pleased God said he to reveal his Son in me that I should Preach him to the Gentiles And Secondly he was a believer in him as he said himself We having received the same Spirit of Faith we believe therefore we speak and said David I believe therefore have I spoken And what sort of Faith was this Was it onely an Historical Faith which Hypocrites and ungodly Men have whereof Paul and David spake Nay surely it was the true saving renewing and sanctifying Faith and according unto this none ought to preach who have not a measure of true and saving Faith and who are not truly in some measure Sanctified and renewed and by being Sanctified and renewed through Faith by the operation of the Holy Spirit are fitted and prepared for the work of the Ministry Now by these two qualifications of a true and right Preacher of Christ let us try the Ministers and Ministry of those called Preachers in these Nations both Conformists and Non-Conformists Both of them affirm and hold it as their Principle That true and saving Faith is not necessary unto a Mans being a Preacher It 's true they say if he be a true Believer and godly Man he will be the better Preacher but a true and Lawful Preacher he is and ought to be followed and heard and maintained though he be not in the least a godly Man or true Believer if he be a Scholar and can Preach in a Form of Sound words if he have Latine Greek and a little Hebrew and Logick and such like Natural Arts and Sciences it is enough to qualifie him to be a Preacher and this Principle Iames Durham a great Presbyterian expresly holds in his Book called An Exposition upon the Revelation in his digression concerning the Ministry and I my self have had sundry debates with both Conformists and Non-Conformists so called touching this same thing both affirming that true Faith and Piety was not needful to a Mans being a Preacher but that Letter Learning was needful so that he could not be a Preacher without Letters but he could be a Preacher without Faith and Piety Oh abominable Doctrine And this same Rule both follow in their trying of mens qualifications unto the Ministry they try what knowledge they have in strange Languages and Arts and Sciences Natural and what they can say upon plaâ—es of
Scripture but never one word they question them concerning the work of God in their hearts or concerning their Faith and Piety But alas how can they try them concerning the work of Grace in their Hearts seeing they acknowledge thâ—â— have not a discerning themselves whereby to know them surely and infallibly yea they affirm there is no such discerning in these dayes as whereby men can be known to be truly gracious And doth not sad Experience shew it that the generality of those Preachers have not true Faith and Piety their Lives and Conversations are so gross and Carnal Yea do not many of themselves see it and have they not complained of it And yet doth not this Principle of theirs That wicked Men may be Preachers and ought to be Received lay a Foundation for a wicked 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being laid with their own Hands will not wicked Men come in thick and throng And will not thâ—se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have all like themselves If they can have a wicked Man will not the wicked prefer him to another that but seems to be a godly and may or may not be and thus in process of time the whole Ministry will consist of ungodly men the wicked being still preferred by the wicked and carrying it by most Votes as among them called Presbyterians or by the Authority of the Bishop as among the Episcopal Oh! for shame never say that you are for a godly Ministry while you both lay such a Foundation for the ungodly And Secondly as both sorts hold that true Faith and Piety is not necessary to a Mans being a Preacher so they hold that immediate revelation and to be immediately taught by Christ himself is not necessary either to his being or better being yea they wholly exclude it and affirm that all immediate Revelation and Teaching by Christ himself so as to teach Men the Truths of the Gospel is ceased since the Apostles dayes and is no more to be expected while the World lasts so Iames Durham concerning Prophecying in his afore said Book and in the first Page of that Book he saith God hath spoke his last words to his Church by Iohn in the Revelation and so the Church nor any in the Church is not to hear any word from God or Christ himself nay he hath spoken his last words sixteen hundred Years ago Oh gross blindness and darkness Is the Lord wholly absent from his Church Or if he be present with her and in her doth he never speak himself Hath he lost the power of his Speech or his willingness to speak that he hath been so long silent Surely nay as it is written Our God will speak and not keep silence he is not so unkind nor hard-hearted as those Men would make him so as not to speak himself And as concerning the immediate Teachings of Christ who is such a Stranger unto them and their Principles who know not that they deny them and are Enemies unto them and that one of the main things of Controversie betwixt them and us lyeth here they say the immediate Teachings of Christ are all ceased since the Apostles dayes We say not and we are Witnesses of the contrary in our Experience who witness the New Covenant fulfilled they shall be all taught of the Lord that is immediately else what doth the new excel the old and first Covenant in For under the old they were taught of the Lord mediately as by Moses and the Prophets but under the new they are taught of God himself who dwelleth in them and walketh in them and is their Teacher Shepheard and Husband And now How can these Men be taught of the Lord himself or immediately to Preach Christ who deny the thing it self How can we have Charity unto them to believe they are so taught while they deny that any are so taught in those days And then what is their Preaching of him it is but by hearsay and report they are all short of this Woman She both heard Christ himself and saw himself which none of them as they confess have ever done they say they have never seen him nor heard him nor spoken with him and yet they preach whereas she both heard him and saw him before she Preached him and thus did John and the Apostles Preach him That which was in the beginning which we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears and our hands have handled of that Word of Life we declare unto you for the Life was manifested and we have seen it and delare it unto you that you may have fellowship with us c. Now which of the two ways of Preaching are the best to Preach only from a hearsay by others or from a fight and hearing of Christ himself Surely this was the best and therefore this Woman is a better Preacher than all your University men and Doctors amd Batchelors she learned more of Christ from himself in that small time perhaps not one hours length than your Doctors and University men have yet learned for all their many years Studying labouring Reading and Hearing As Christ upbraided the Jews that they had neither heard his Fathers Voice nor seen his shape so it may be said of them yea they say it themselves they have neither heard him nor seen him Alas for such Teachers What should men hear them for they can tell us no more of him but as they have heard it from men or read it in the Seripture and all their knowledge is fron the Scripture and all have the Scripture as well as they and so without them by the Scripture may know as much of Christ as they and save both their pains and their Money And as concerning this Woman it is manifest that as she heard him and saw him outwardly so she both heard him and saw him inwardly and was taught by his spirit in her heart for had she not been inwardly taught and heard inwardly she could not have believed on him which she did neither had the outward hearing and seeing made her blessed for many heard and saw him outwardly and yet were not blessed But said Christ to his Disciples Blessed are your eyes for they see and blessed are your ears for they hear this was inwardly they both heard and saw inwardly and this made them blessed whereas others heard and saw outwardly and therefore were not blessed as the Disciples and this Woman was Yea that she was taught inwardly and that more largely and fully than by what she heard outwardly it doth manifestly appear from her words in that she said He hath told me all things that ever I did now this could not be outwardly for he told her but some things outwardly as concerning her Husbands that were dead and how the man she had was not her Husband and certainly in so small a time as they had together words outwardly could not have told her the half yea not the hundred part of all that ever she did she was