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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	church_n	ordain_v	ordination_n	3,255	5	10.2967	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30498	The holy truth and its professors defended in an answer to a letter writ by Lawrence Potts, priest of Staplestown near Catherlough, unto Robert Lacky, a parishioner and formerly hearer of the said priest, occassioned by his forsaking his ministry and embracing the blessed truth herein vindicated / by John Burnyeat [and] John Watson.	Burnyeat, John, 1631-1690.; Watson, John, 1650?-1710.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5966; ESTC R36040	22,397	32

for Pleasure but to get Fish from whence we may groundedly conclude that they used that Imploy for a Livelihood at times when they were not immediately imployed in preaching the Gospel and we challenge thee to prove the contrary if thou canst Concerning thy querying for a Command for keeping the First day of the week or calling it the Lords day We say we meet together on the First day of the week for to meet is our Duty and also upon other days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example the Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lords and he that regardeth a day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such days as you observe which are called such and such Saints days Thou saist thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou maist consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against and for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Jer. 5. 30 31. Ezek 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Joh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Jud. 11. 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou saist our Teachers have no lawful Call to preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostles saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent that is saist thou how can they preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they preach except they be sent c. But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst for we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they preach and their ability from him for the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they preached and ability to preach it from him and not from men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. and in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith they were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the fo●egoing verse he saith our sufficiency is of God. And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares that he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is and prove your way of being bred up at Schools and learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then settling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for greater Gain and Preferment and while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have liberty to speak or preach but such as are so ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the primitive Ministers that this is your practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christs Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Mans ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you aright have reason enough to forsake you and your Church and as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others they make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said he would be with them c doth not say they should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Judas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by lot so here was the Lords lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said they ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou saist we have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby people are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lords Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. First we demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper signification of it we are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for

had not their Inheritance of Land among their Brethren this the Lord ordered to be their Inheritance to wit Tithes and Offerings which they were to have from the rest of the Tribes as thou maist see in Numb ch 18. And likewise when they had received the Tithes which was all the Inheritance they had among the Children of Israel they were not to have it only to themselves but the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widow were to have a share with them they were to be relieved out of the Tithes by the same Law that there might be no Beggers and the Owner himself was also to partake of them as thou maist see in Deut. ch 14. and ch 26. So it is evident you far exceed them as to self-advantage you have all to your selves your Ministry is far more chargeable than the Priests under the Law neither Poor nor Owner must have a share with you nor the Payers of the Tithes eased from the burthen of the Poor for all that you get Pray thee tell us how your Tithes come to be of Divine Right Thou saist it is not hard to prove when demanded we demand it and also deny it do thou prove it if thou canst we are sure if this Law were in force that gave it to Levi you in the using of it walk far beside the Law and so still are under Condemnation Oh! is it not a shame that men that pretend to be Ministers of Christ and can tell the people as thou dost in thine of forsaking all for Christ and yet in your practices do neither walk answerable to the Freedom and Ease of the Gospel nor Justice and Equity of the Law of the first Covenant And therefore we advise thee to lay down thy Religious Plea for these Wages of thine for we can account them no better than Balaams Wages of unrighteousness which he loved but durst not take spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 15. for it doth appear there were such in the Apostles days that forsook the right way and followed Balaams Errour and certainly we are not without such now in our days But now let us consider what Christ hath ordained who is the Lawgiver under the new Covenant thou saist though Paul does not mention Tithes and Offerings yet he speaks what is equivalent to them We desire to know what thou intends by equivalent dost thou mean of an equal Value and Institution with them we grant what Paul saith to be just and reasonable and according to the Gospel that it was no great thing where they had sown Spirituals to reap of their carnal things and thou seest Paul puts it upon an If and says If we have sown spiritual things he claims no power to it else But this will not serve you you cannot abide within the Gospel Ordination and bounds no more than you do the Law about your Tithes but you will reap Carnals where you sow no Spirituals Thou maist see also the Apostle speaks of feeding a Flock and planting a Vineyard and eating the Milk and Fruit but still it 's the Milk and Fruit of the Flock and Vineyard that they had fed and planted and not other mens But this will not serve you let the Nations bear witness you will reap whether you sow or not you will eat whether you feed and plant or not you will have it by force like Eli's Sons if you cannot get it otherwise And thou bringst the Apostles words Even so hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel and then queriest doth Paul say the Lord has ordained and will you say the Lord has not ordained is not this to give the Apostle a flat lie We answer Nay we will not say nor never did that they which preach the Gospel may not live of the Gospel according to Christs Ordination but then it must be according to his Ordination and not according to mans Will and Invention to answer his own covetous Inclination And we also grant what the Apostle saith Let him that is taught in the Word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things but still he must be a Teacher and it is from them that he teacheth that he must expect it But this will not please you but you will have from them that were never taught by you as thousands in Ireland may bear witness So thou maist see here how impertinently thou wouldst apply the Scriptures to them that have no right to them upon that account thou bringst them but they will not serve thy turn And where is the Wrester of the Scriptures to their own destruction that thou speakest of Thou hast need to see if thou canst clear thy self of it Thou goest on and saist thou canst tell what we will say to these and such like Texts you will I warrant you saist thou say that Tithes are not mentioned c. But thou maist see thou wast under a mistake and it was a vain confidence in thee to say so We have something else to say as before But you will allow sure that they enjoin a Maintenance c. Thou saist we will allow that But then let it be what the Lord has ordained and we are content And now let us observe what that is in Matth. 10. when Christ sent forth his twelve Disciples to preach and heal the sick he said freely you have received freely give and the Allowance he ordained for them when he sent them out without Money or Gold was that they might eat such things as were set before them for saith he the Workman is worthy of his meat And in Luke 10. when he sent out his seventy he gave them the like Command and told them they might slay in that House into which they had entred eating and drinking such things as they did give for saith he the Labourer is worthy of his Hire and in the 8 th vers he saith into whatsoever City ye enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you So here it was such as did receive them that they were to abide with and it was such things as they did give and set before them that they were to eat so it was the free act of such as did receive them that they were to live upon and be supplied by Here is no liberty to compell but the Power of the Gospel was to open their hearts to minister freely of their Carnals as they received freely of the Spirituals from them and this agrees with what the Apostle says in all those places before mentioned so that it is evident he had regard unto what the Lord had ordained But this will not serve your turn you cannot be content with what Christ ordains and the Apostle approves of 1 Tim. 5. 18. Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his Reward The question may be by some asked what this Reward is The Apostle clears it up in the