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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A25330 The Anatomy of Simon Magus, or, The Sin of simony laid open 1700 (1700) Wing A3059; ESTC R31894 60,038 220

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Christ And to the Corinthians shewing forth the end of his Ministery 2 Cor. 4.6 says God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ And in his Speech before King Agrippa he declares That the End for which Jesus Christ had appeared unto him to make him a Minister of the Gentiles was To open their Eyes Acts. 26.18 and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God that they might receive Forgiveness of Sins and Inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in him Nay that this is the great design of God in the Ministery of the Gospel who is so ignorant as not to know And therefore he will have the same to be the design of all who undertake the Ministery thereof For if he will have this to be the principal End of all our Actions saying 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God Much more will he have it to be the principal End in that work wherein his Glory and the Salvation of Souls are more immediately concerned So that if thou be Call'd of God thine Eye will be upon this as the principal End and Scope that thou aimest at But he who designs not this but intends his own Preferment or Profit to which he resolves to make the Ministery subservient as a Mean to raise him from the Dunghill or it it may be as a rescue from Poverty or from the contempt of a broken Fortune I 'm sure is not Called of God And it is no wonder to see such a one fall into the Suare of Simony since base Designs find hardly Abettors but such as are procured by Bribes But what he will Answer when the Lord shall put home to him both these Questions together Amice quomodo huc intrâsti Friend how camest thou in hither And again Amice quorsum huc intrasti Friend for what End camest thou in hither I know not Secondly Consider whether thou be sensible of the weight of such a Charge Whom God calls to the Work of the Ministery he works in their Hearts a deep sense of the weight and burthen thereof and to this effect he shews them what Labour and Trouble and Pains they must be at what Tentations and Tribulations and Affronts they will meet with and how they will have many Enemies and must grapple with much Opposition and Contradiction and what a weighty Charge the Charge of Souls is what account they must give thereof to him and how the Blood thereof will be required at their Hands if through their default they perish Of these things our Saviour warn'd his Apostles Matth. 10.16 17 c. when he sent them forth upon the Work of the Ministery And this the Lord warned Ezekiel of Ezek. 33. ● when he set him to be a Watchman unto the House of Israel Nay and in hundreds of Texts the Lord in the Scripture sets this before their Eyes whom he Calls and sends forth thereby to engrave upon their Hearts the sense of the Charge whereof they are to undertake the Burthen that so they may count the cost before they begin the Work And therefore when the Lord told Ananias that had he called Saul as a chosen Vessel to bear his Name before the Gentiles Acts 9.17 he said withal I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my Name 's sake So that if thou be Called of God thou wilt have a deep sense of the weight and burthen of the Ministery upon thy Spirit and wilt look upon it as a Work that requires much Watching and Fasting and Prayer And sure whosoever is touched with this sense and seriously considereth what a weighty Charge it is will never make use of the Silverkeys of Simon Magus to open a Passuge for himself thereto nay save upon the account of the Obligation of a Call from God he would not stoop to to take it up It is only a delusory Fancy of carnal Minds that looking upon it as an Office destin'd for Ease and Pleasure and Profit makes Men run to purchase it with Money Thirdly Consider whether thou be sensible of thine own Insufficiency and disproportion of thy Abilities for the Work For whom God calls he imprints upon their Hearts the humble sense thereof that they may go forth not in confidence of their own Strength but of the Strength of him who calleth them So as the consideration thereof made the Apostle Paul cry out 2 Cor. 2.16 Who is sufficient for these things And again Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing 2 Cor. 3.5 6. as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament The deep sense of which Insufficiency hath made many able Men of humble Minds either to decline or with a great reluctancy to embark upon an Employment to which they perceived their Strength so unequal Thus Moses when God was sending him upon his Message Exod. 3.11 and 4.10 said Lord who am I and O my Lord I am not eloquent And thus Jeremiah cry'd out Jer. 1.6 Ah Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a Child And this made many in the Primitive Church deaf to all Entreaties and Arguments till they were forced thereupon by Violence which excessive Aversion though I dare not altogether commend yet it gives me ground to say that if thou be Called of God thou wilt have in thine Heart such an humble sense of thine own Insufficiency and Weakness for the Work as will put thee if not in fear to undertake at least oft to thy knees to beg Strength from above So that there is just ground to doubt their Call where this is wanting as may be perceived in some who assoon as they have commenced Masters of Arts before they have well studied the common Principles of the Doctrine of Divinity much less the true practice of Christianity in the mortification of their Youthful Affections begin immediately to court Churches with such confidence as if the superficial Knowledge of some few speculative Points of Theology and the reading over of some Pamphlets had rendred them sufficiently qualified for the Ministerial Office never considering the great Endowments of Learning Prudence Holiness and Gravity that are required for the discharge of the Duties thereof and for making them shine as Ensamples to the Flock And hence it comes to pass that with a preposterous speed they run to have themselves possess'd of some Charge and if any thing intervene to forestall their Desires or to hinder the success of their Endeavours then all imaginable Arts shall be made use of which the Spirit of Simony can devise to render their Purpose effectual Fourthly Consider by what Instinct thou art moved