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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	religion_n	scripture_n	true_a	4,824	5	5.8720	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41500	Prelatique preachers none of Christ's teachers, or, A Disswasive unto the people of God from attending the ministry (so called) of those, who preach by verture of an (Apocryphal) ordination, received from an order of men, commonly stiled Lord Bishops wherein arguments are tendered to their serious considerations, by way of motive against that practice ... .	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1663 (1663)	Wing G1192; ESTC R33795	80,325	88

court strange Princes for their aid Fear not neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoaking fire-brands c. This King I say by this prudential course as he supposed for the preservation of himself and his Kingdom provoked the just severity of God to the great misery of both Isa 7. 4. compared with vers 17 18. c. and 2 Chron. 28. vers 16 19 20. For brevity sake and partly because of the affinity with the subject matter of the 12th Consideration preceding hath with the Argument of this in hand and partly because the Observations asserted for Truths both in the one and the other are so agreeable to the Wisdom and Righteousness of God as the Great Judge of all the Earth we shall forbear to argue any more Texts of Scripture upon the service of what hath been laid down as the strength of our present Consideration although there be very many more which both in face and in heart carry the substance and effect hereof as by name Isa 8. 6 7 8. -30. 1 2 3 15 17. 2 Chron. 25. 6 7 8. Jer. 2. 36 37. Ezek. 16. 26 27 28. with several others I shall onely instance the case of those Judaizing Christians in the times of the Apostles who to make all sure as they thought for their Justification before God would needs joyn the righteousness or works of the Law and more especially Circumcision with the belief of the Gospel or Faith in Christ for the obtaining of it But through a carnal diffidence of the sufficiency of that way and means which God hath sanctified for their justification whilst they went about to supply the imaginary defect hereof with an additional means suggested by their own wisdom or folly rather unto them they miserably miscarried in that so important a design meeting with condemnation instead of justification from the hand of God according to what the great Apostle plainly declared unto some of them Behold 1-Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised namely with an opinion of obtaining justification either in whole or in part by it Christ shall profit you nothing And again Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified that is expect or hope to be justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace Gal. 5. 2 4. Let us now bind the present Consideration with what hath been proposed and argued in it fast and close to our present purpose First Certain it is that God hath provided yet and at all times or at least ordinarily even in times most threatning the sincere profession of the Gospel affordeth unto his Saints means both unquestionably lawful and unquestionably sufficient if the Scripture may be Judge in the case through his accustomed Grace and Blessing for their Edification Comfort and Salvation Secondly It is no less certain that neither is a Prelatical Ministry nor an attendance hereon any means authorized or approved by God for the promoting or effecting of these ends From hence according to the plain tenour of the premises laid down in this Consideration it roundly follows that either to decline and forsake the means vouchsafed unto us by God for our Edification and Salvation to imbrace others or out of a conceit or pretence of an insufficiency or defectiveness in these means for those ends to joyn others with them which he hath not authorized as by name the attendance upon a Prelatical Ministry however specious or highly promising this means may be in our eye is a policy or course much more like to endammage and hinder us in those great concernments of our souls than any wayes to bless us in promoting them as it is said of Tilgath Philnezer King of Assyria of whom Ahaz King of Judah had desired aid against his enemies that when he came unto him he distressed him but strengthned him not Yea it is added the second time as a matter worth the minding that he helped him not 2 Chron 28 20 21. Now that God affordeth unto his People sufficient means at all times for their spiritual Edification and Salvation without the help of a Prelatical Ministry might be proved at large from the Scriptures if the case were doubtful enough to require it But the more degrees of visibility there are in the Object the fewer degrees of light will serve the visive faculty to discover it First The Scriptures themselves diligently read and with a good and honest heart searched into are able to make us wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified Acts 20. 32. But these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name John 20. 31. These places also well understood speak with many others the same thing Luke 16 29 31. Psal 19. 7 8 c. 2 Pet. 1. 19. John 5. 39. Rom. 15. 4. Heb. 4. 12. Secondly If any shall pretend that the Scriptures at least in many places are obscure and hard to be understood aright without a learned Interpreter the answer is at hand 1. The great variety of learned and profitable Expositions on all parts of the Scripture wherewith the good providence of God hath inriched this Nation in their native tongue in these our dayes render such a pretence as this in reference to the People of God amongst us as light as vanity it self Nor is it like that the present Ministry founded upon the Apocryphal Order of Prelacy should be more Canonical or Orthodox in giving out the mind of God in the Scriptures than they Not to mention the like variety of elaborate and solid discourses well nigh upon all particular Subjects or Heads of matter relating to Christian Religion 2. It is a generally-acknowledged Truth That in all things simply necessary unto Salvation the Scriptures are plain and the sence of them obvious to every ordinary understanding 3. and lastly for this The Judgments and Understandings of many if not of most Christians have in all ages been led aside from the mind of God in the Scriptures and this in things of very material consequence by the false lights of such their Teachers who were in great esteem for parts of learning and knowledge in the Scriptures in whom hath been verified that of the Prophet O my people they which lead thee cause thee to erre they swallow for so the Original the way of thy paths meaning that they do not stand much to consider what they teach thee either to beleive or practise Isa 3. 12. 9. 16. Thirdly The Saints are able to build up one another in Faith and Love yea and are exhortted or commanded by God so to do But ye Beloved building up your selves on or in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost Keep your selves in the love

his action but rather to be charged upon the ignorance that was in him nothing that a man doth being in moral equity and fairness of construction chargeable upon him as his action but onely what his will and as far as his will was consenting unto in the doing of it according to that of the Apostle who is not wont to flatter himself or to extenuate or deny his sinful infirmities at any time Now if I do that which I WOVLD NOT it is NO MORE I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Rom. 6. 20. Yet further the Ministers of whom we now speak by whom much real good was done to the souls of many in the Nation applyed themselves wholly and intirely to the work of Christ in preaching the Gospel and did not make merchandize of the word of God bywresting or perverting it at any time as if it any where spake to the heart of the Prelatique Interest or recommended any such Officer or Ruler unto the Church of Christ as a Prelate or Bishop in the by-sense or high sense of the word or gave him power to obtrude what and what numbers of Ceremonies and Apocryphal prayers and prayers only so called he pleased upon the people of God as well Ministers as others upon severe penalties to be inflicted on those whose Consciences were not wide enough to swallow them Now such Ministers who though having received their Office from Prelates yet shall in the course and work of their Ministry wholly and constantly wave and decline their cause from the one end of it to the other never opening their mouths to cast respects either upon their Office or any thing that hath so much as one lineament of their Image or one letter of their Superscription upon it and instead hereof shall zealously and faithfully preach up Jesus Christ in the glory of all his Offices as the Gospel asserteth and declareth them which consequentially is the preaching down of Prelacy as the bringing in of the Ark of God unto Dagon's Temple was the downfal and destruction of that Idol such Ministers I say that shall quit themselves in the way of their Ministry upon such termes as these do constructively and in effect and with as much advantage to the glory of God and edification of men renounce their Prelatical Ordination as if they should do it more litterally and formally So then all things weighed in the ballance of equity the Ministers unto whom God gave the honour to triumph in Christ as the Apostle's phrase is 2 Cor. 2. 14. and by whom to make manifest the savour of his knowledge amongst the Inhabitants of this Nation were not Ministers of a Prelatical Ordination in any compleat direct or thorough sence of the denomination but only in some such mysterious and obscure notion as that wherein the Beast is termed the Beast which is not and yet is Rev. 17. 8. They that were roundly right down without any abatement or need of explication such have amongst them in matters of true Religion sound knowledge and piety towards God reduced the generality of the Nation to a morsel of Bread All those Idolatrous and Superstitious conceits and practises all that bloody ignorance and prophanesse all that customary boldness in sinning that hatred of goodness and good men which are the nakedness and shame of the Land and render it obnoxious to divine displeasure may justly call this Generation of men either Fathers or Foster Fathers or both Argument V. Many learned and good men have been and many such at this day are very confident that ordination by Bishops in the high sense of the word is regularly founded on the Scriptures yea and that there can be no lawful or true Minister any where created where there is not the hand of such a Bishop to sanctifie the action and to raise it to that worth and dignity that it may be meet to yeild the sacred fruits of a Gospel-Ministry And it is generally known and acknowledged that Ordination of Ministers by Bishops in the upper signification of the word hath been very antiently and for many ages by-past practised in the Church scarce any man questioning or contradicting it Therefore why should the hearing of such ministers be now censured as unlawful Answer This Argument calleth for the consideration of sundry particulars for it's full and due satisfaction Others many have largely and substantially answered all that is pretended and pleaded from the Scripture in the behalf either of the Order or Office of Bishops in the sence of the word lately specified or of their Sole power of Ordination So that as unto these I shall be very cursory and brief chiefly pointing at the heads of some few Considerations whereby it will be made manifest that although all that the Argument saith and pretendeth unto should be granted as true yet all will signifie little or nothing as to the proof of what is intended Therefore 1. Learning is very neer of kin unto knowledge if it be not the same Now knowledge though it be a very useful and commendable endowment yet it hath one bad property which the Apostle himself taketh and giveth notice of 1 Cor. 1. 8. it puffeth up that is it is apt to lift men up into a confident conceit that there is more worth in them than in deed and in truth there is Neither will a very good degree of goodness in the same subject at many turns and in many cases prevent the operation of this evil property upon it Learned and knowing men though good men will too frequently assume more unto themselves than by the assignment of God or good reason cometh to their share The Apostle Paul plainly signifieth that God knew that he would have been exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations vouchsafed unto him if the excessive heat of his propension in this kind had not been corrected and allayed by a Messenger of Sathan sent and given unto him to buffet him 2 Cor. 12. 7. 2. When men of learning and knowledge more than ordinary shall reflect upon their own worth in this kind and hold intelligence with their great parts and abilities as the best of men thus accomplished are apt to do witness the great Apostle Paul himself who told the Corinthians that though he was rude in speech meaning as they thought and talked of him yet not in KNOWLEDGE 2 Cor. 11. 6. See also Eph. 3. 4. especially when they shall be conceited withal that their line of knowledge and understanding is raised higher than really it is which is a weaknesse frequently incident to the strongest of this Geration they are precipitately disposed to presume as our former translation read it or to be wise or to favour as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft signifieth above that which is written 1 Cor. 4. 6. and so to embrace sometimes and to assert with great confidence such notions and tenents for truths which the Word of Truth diligently

used in these dayes and the sacrifice of the wicked being an abomination unto the Lord as the Prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. we have but a quick-sand for a foundation of any hope that Ministers Prelaticall ordained are sent forth unto the great work of the Gospel with a blessing and not rather under a curse Besides suppose we for argument sake that our Lord Bishops and their Chaplains who are the great if not the only doers in the Solemnities of their Ordination were lovers of God indeed and no wayes disaffected against persons truly holy and conscientious yet the Ministers ordained by them not being to serve or minister unto them in the most important affairs of their souls it is not like that their prayers for them or for the blessing of God upon their labours in preaching would be in any degree so effectually fervent as the prayers wherewith the Ministers who are by the particular Churches of the Saints chosen to serve them in the high concernments of their eternal salvation are by them solemnly assembled with prayer and fasting for the purpose presented unto God in the day of their Ordination That Charity is rate which keepeth not her self warmer at home than abroad CONSIDERATION XI Many who at first intended nothing more in hearing the Ministers we speak of but their own Christian Edification and Comfort and nothing lesse than to become Proselytes to their dead forms of imposed worship or to comport with them in their detestable things Ezek. 7. 20. I mean their Fanatick Ceremonies or to approve of their Hierarchical Mission into the Vineyard of Christ c. yet by a frequent and familiar converse with them in their Ministry have in time and some in a very short time been so transformed in their Judgements Consciences as to swallow all these Camels without straining and to make one spirit with them in all their Antichristian Principles and Practices The heat of that pleasure and contentment which we sometimes take in the commendable and worthy sayings or doings of men proves a snare unto us to fall in with them in sayings and doings of a contrary import and which are of a very dangerous if not destructive consequence unto us so that in this sense it is not only true that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil homilies or discourses as the Apostle expresses himself with the heathen Poet 1 Cor. 15. 33. but even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good and worthy communications many times occasionally and from some kind of men corrupt good manners The unsound and rootten Doctrines of the Pharisees as of the Sadduces also were it seems of a leavening nature apt to Spread and to insinuate themselves into the minds and judgements and affections of men Our Saviour himself declareth this unto us partly by comparing them unto leaven but more plainly by admonishing the people yea his Disciples themselves over and over to look to themselves that they were not ensnared with them Then Jesus said unto them TAKE HEED and BEWARE of the leaven of the Pharisees c. Mat. 16. 6. See also Mark 8. 15. Now one main reason why their evil and unsound Doctrines were so catching and likely by little and little to gain in the approbations and consents of their Hearers was in all probability their frequent teachings and zealous pressings of many wholesome and savory Doctrines and Truths according to the tenour and true intent of Moses's Law for as many an Horse that is unserviceable and worth little by reason of some grand defect that is not easily discerned is yet bought and sold at a considerable rate Quod pulchri clunes breve quod caput ardua cervix by reason of some features that are curiously commendable in them In like manner many a mans Ministry may be approved swallowed root and branch head and tail by the brokery and mediation of some choice Sermons or points of Doctrine managed and handled effectually or however to the high contentment of the Hearer although this Ministry taken in the whole body or course of it be not so well and safely calculated for the saving of the Soul I have heard of and in in part known some to whom when they first became hearers of the Prelatical Clergy their imposed Common-Prayer their lumber of Ceremonies their Hierarchy with all their implements and trinkets c. were Hey Stabble and Wood yea or rather Dung and Filthiness who notwithstanding by the droppings of the tongues of these men into their ears became after no long time neither so bewitched in their Judgments and Consciences that all these were conceited by them as Silver Gold and precious Stones Good words are oft-times too hard for good meanings and lead men honestly disposed into a snare nor is there any Method more commodious or promising unto men whose design it is to work sober and good men out of a love and liking of some part of those Truths which at present they believe then by giving them their fill of satisfaction and contentment in some others of them CONSIDERATION XII Although we be in some strait yet to combine with any corrupt Interest or Correspondency for accommodation or help or to fall in with men who have not God amongst them however they may be otherwise of a very promising aspect unto us hath often if not alwayes been of dangerous consequence unto those that have attempted and expected the bettering of their condition in such a way When Amaziah King of Judah judging himself unable to wage war against the Children of Mount Seir with his own strength had hired an hundred thousand MIGHTY MEN OF VALOUR out of Israel for an hundred Talents of Silver there was sent unto him a Man of God with this message O King let not the Army of Israel go with thee for the Lord is not with Israel c. 2 Chron. 25. 6 7. So the People of God seeking for help first of the Assyrians and afterwards of the Egyptians even when they were in an afflicted and hard condition got nothing by these applications but sorrow and shame God threatned them by his Prophet Jeremy Thou shalt also be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast ashamed of Assyria Jer. 2. 36. The Scripture is pregnant with this Truth See Isa 8. 6 7. That the Prelatical Interest is Eccentrical to the Glory of God to the Cause and Kingdom of Jesus Christ runs in a Channel by it self a-part from and in opposition to these and consequently is carnal and corrupt and obnoxious to the displeasure of God needeth no anxious demonstration unto those the eyes of whose minds are not bewitched and blinded with it however somewhat hath been argued to the point already in these papers and somewhat more may be added before we conclude and the question if yet a question it must be hath been largely discussed and learnedly decided by others As for the late reviving of this Interest amongst us after it had lain

in the time of Lent than at other seasons The Soul which made the request unto Christ now opened in the latter part of the verse giveth this reason of it For why should I be as one that turneth aside or rather as the former Translation with others read it to or unto the flocks of thy Companions By the flocks of Christ's Companions are meant as some of the best Expositors that I have met with understand the words the Congregations or Assemblies relating to and depending on such Pastors who make themselves Christs Companions or Equals by instituting new formes of divine Worship as well as he Others not much differing from the former by the Companions of Christ here understand forreign or strange Shepherds unrelated unto Christ and having no Communion with him but only in the appearance and appellation of a Shepherd So that the reason why the religious Soul desireth of Christ to be directed unto his feedings in times of Persecution and danger is lest she might otherwise be tempted and through weakness yeeld to fall in with such Assemblies which have Ministers or Shepherds only so called set over them by whom she know that He took no pleasure to feed any of his Sheep But that Christ as hath been said in tempestuous and foul weather when the spirit of the world rageth high against Church-meetings is not wont to feed his Sheep in the champion or open fields where all men use to come but to lead them into by-places or solitudes into inclosed grounds narrow lanes of a long time dis-used or un-occupied under hedg-rows or the like and to feed them here the Scriptures inform us elsewhere When the Woman that brought forth the man-child was persecuted by the Dragon there were given unto her two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place prepared for her of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes the whole time of her persecution Rev. 12. 6. with 13 14. Therefore the Woman that brought forth the Man-child that is the successive body of Saints or true Believers during the times or reign of the Beast is not spiritually fed and nourished in such Assemblies or Congregations which are publickly authorized countenanced or approved by the Beast or by the World which goeth wondring after him Rev. 13. 3. but in those which are retired solitary and private and which neither of them can well brook or bear but that God hideth them The Meetings of Christians for the exercise of their Religion being hateful unto the Jews and which they it seems would not have tolerated amongst them had they had knowledge of them without doing mischief in one kind or other to those that thereby should have provoked them The Apostles themselves by the guidance of the Spirit of God for they were not doubtless led unto it by the wisdom of the flesh the better to secure themselves from their rage when they assembled 1. Made choice of a private house to meet in 2. Of a private time the Evening yea some what late in the Evening as some collect from passages recorded Luke 24. 29. to vers 36. 3. Of as much privacy in that private house as they could well devise for the doors of the room where they were were shut And in this posture of privacy they did enjoy the blessed Presence of Christ Then the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you John 20. 19. We reade of another meeting of Christians for the Worship of God under all the same circumstances of privacy and this doubtless upon the same account I mean for fear of the Jews Acts 12. vers 6 12 13 14. compared This meeting also had Christ in the midst of it in the sence formerly declared for by his Mediation and Interposure their Prayers fetch'd Peter out of a strong Prison with an high hand So again we reade of another religious Meeting of the Apostles together with a considerable number of other Christians in an upper room for the greater privacy and security comers and goers being oft upon occasion and for civility sake brought into one or more of the lower rooms of an house when there is no occasion of their going or carrying up into the higher Besides a continual voice may much more easily be heard and estimated by those that only pass by an house out of alow room then from an high this being more remote and from whence though the sound of a voice may possibly be sometimes heard below yet the articulateness of it being confin'd to a narrower Sphere expireth and is lost by the way And though Dr. Hamond laboureth in the very fire as his manner is when any thing occurs him in his way that seems to frown upon Episcopacy to prove that the upper room here spoken of was not any room in a private house but one of the upper Cambers of the Temple yet he hath so much of a man in him I mean of Ingenuity whereof when a man suffers himself to be dispoyled he is only a man so called as to acknowledge and this twice over for failing that Christians here met did that more privately which could not we may persume be done in the Temple he might have added nor in any Synagogue in any more publick place the Christian Religion being not much favoured that is bitterly hated by the Jews even as the Religious Worship of the true Saints of God amongst us is not much favoured by those that say they are Jews and are not in the sence of these words Rev. 2. 9. And what the Doctor here granteth namely that believing Christians kept their holy Assemblies by and amongst themselves privately for fear of disturbance or mischief in one kind or other from those that hated their way and manner of serving God maketh as much for our purpose as if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Vpper room which he so wearieth himself to find in the Temple should prove to have been in a private house But whether the word here translated an Vpper room signifieth in this place an upper Chamber in the Temple or no certain I am that Acts 20. 8. it signifieth an upper Chamber in a private house or at least in an house commonly and properly so called where also we find another private Meeting of Christians and Christ in the sence we wot of in the midst of them Elsewhere it signifieth and this twice together as Acts 9. 37. 39. an upper Chamber in a private house but no where at least in the New Testament an upper Chamber in the Temple But this by the way From the tenour and contents of the present Consideration it clearly appeareth that in times of trouble when the Saints are not permitted