perswades them to unity of opinions and minds in these words Now I beseech you Brethren that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement Lastly that he might with the greater successe do this and like a skilfull reconciler might win upon all sides he for a while layes aside the Authority of his Apostleship and mingling Request and Conjuration with Exhortation and Advice he acts the part of an Apostle in the forme of a Petitioner in these words Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Upon these parts the Apostles mild insinuation and addresse of himselfe and the severall Degrees of unity and concord in speech in Assemblies and in Opinions to which he here exhorts the Corinthians I will build my future discourse In the ordering of which I will begin with the Apostles submissive insinuation or addresse of himselfe in these words Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ For the clearer and more usefull handling of this part of the Text First it will be necessary that I speake somthing to you of Saint Pauls person the Preacher here in the Text and of his calling to the Ministery which well considered will conduce very much to the removall of a certaine dangerous error received of late into the minds of too many unlearned vulgar men among us Which is That Universities and Bookes and Studies and Learning are so farre from being necessary preparations to make a Preacher of the Gospell that any Lay-man though perhaps brought up to a manuall Trade of a vocation of Husbandry or attendance upon Cattel if he finde by himselfe that he is called by the Spirit of God may put himselfe into Orders and take the Ministery upon him And thus enabled from above without the forme of Ordination or those other slow tedious lazy helps of sitting twenty years in a Colledge to understand the Bible may in the few minutes of a powerfull Inspiration spring up an Apostle and go forth a Preacher of the Word of God To this perswasion they have been invited by two sorts of Examples in the Scripture one in the Old Testament the other in the New In the Old Testament Doe you not read say they that God called Elisha from the Plough to be a Prophet And doth not Amos tell you in the 7. Chapter of his Prophesie at the 14. Verse that he was a Herdman and a gatherer of Sycamore fruit Then for examples in the New Testament pray what were the Apostles were they great Schollars or did Christ send to Athens for them were they not Fishermen men altogether unletter'd men called from mending nets to preach the Gospell If this were so That God according to his good pleasure without any consideration of study or height of parts chose simple unlearned unstudied men to be Prophets and Apostles and Teachers then why should any thinke he hath so confined or entailed his free Spirit or vocation of men upon great parts and studies that he may not if he please call the like unstudied simple men from the Plough or Fisher-boat or Stall or Shop-board to be Ministers of his Gospel and Teachers of his people now My Brethren you see I have not prevaricated or diminished ought of the strength of the Argument which is urged in favour of Lay-mens preaching In answer to which laying aside all partiality to my selfe and prejudice against them I shall with the same spirit of meekness and Candour with which Saint Paul here in this Text bespoke his Corinthians beseech you who heare me this day to observe and weigh and consider well this which I shall say for a Reply First Far far be it from me so to flatter the place of my Education or so to biass my beleef by any false ovevarluing of humane Industry or great parts that I should pinion as it were or put limits to the power of the Almighty Or should be so irreligiously bold as to gain-say that piece of his Gospell which compares his holy Spirit to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth If they who thus pretend to a private Inspiration doe meane that whatever God did in the times heretofore he is able to doe now I shall easily grant it And here in the presence of you all confesse my selfe to be of their opinion Nor shall I make any doubt or scruple at all to say that if we looke upon what God is able to doe by the fame power by which he was able to raise up Children to Abraham out of stones or to speake yet more neerly to the Argument in hand by the same power that hee was able to make a Herd-man a Prophet or a Fisher-man an Apostle he is able in our times also if he please to make the meanest Tradesman one of the greatest Luminaries of his Church Since to an Omnipotent Agent whose gifts are meerly Arbitrary and depend wholly upon the pleasure of his owne will the greatest endowments of men and the least are alike easie But though he be able to doe this and in the ancient times of the Scripture have imparted his Gifts without respect of Persons yet whether he now will or whether in our times hee doth still thus extraordinarily raise up Teachers to himselfe is extreamly to be doubted For here with all the Christian gentleness and reason which may possibly conduce to the clearing of this doubt were I to argue this Controversie with one of those men who invade our function and from gathering of Sycamore fruit step up into the Pulpit I would onely aske him this question What Commission he hath thus to usurp upon our Office Or who signed him his patent Since the Apostle tells us in the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes at the fourth Verse A place well worth your marking my Brethren That no man taketh this honour of a Priest to himselfe But he who is called of God as was Aaron I know his common answer will bee that God hath called him to this Office by the secret Instinct and Motion of his Holy Spirit But then he must not take it ill if I yet farther aske him by what signes or markes or testimonies or tokens he can either maâ—e it reasonably appeare to himselfe or others that God hath dealt with him as he dealt with some of the Prophets or Apostles called him from his Trade by such a motion of his Spirit Elisha we know made Iron swim and knew mens Closet-discourses in a farre Countrey which was a sure and certaine signe that God had called him to be a Prophet The Apostles also we know wrought many of Christs miracles which was a most infallible signe that God had chosen them to be Apostles If any of these men who derive their warrant from the same sacred spring can make Iron swim or like Elisha remaining here in their owne Israel can tell us what the King of Syria saies in his
Bed-chamber Or if like Saint Peter they can cure fevers and diseases by their bare shadowes passing over them Or if like the rest of the Apostles having never before knowne Letters they can of a sudden speake all Languages the Controversie is at an end It would bee a very great sinne against the Spirit of God to deny that hee is in them of a Truth But if all the proofe and signe they can give us that they have him be onely a strong perswasion of themselves Nay if by an infallible Illumination they could assure themselves that they have him yet as many as have not the like infallible Illumination to assure them so too will not be guilty of an unpardonable offence if they suspect they have him not For here I must once more repeat my former Question and aske by what effects or signes of the Spirit men shall know them to be called By what will some man say why Doe you not heare them preach expound Scripture unfold Prophecies interpret Parables nay plucke the veile and cloud from the Booke of Mysteries it selfe the very Revelation Can any of you great Schollers with all your study of Philosophers Fathers Councells Schoole-men Historians Oratours Poets either hold your Congregations longer or send them away more edified And will you yet ask Questions Or doubt of the certainty of their vocation I must not dissemble with you if I could meet with an unlearned Handicraft-man who without study can doe this to the same height and measure of Truth as those unjustly-cryed downe learned and well-studied men doe I should begin to alter my opinion And should reckon him as hee deserves in the number of the inspired But alas my Brethren as I am not come hither to disparage the guifts of the Holy Ghost in what person soever I finde them or to perswade that Scripture rightly expounded is not one and the same from the mouth of a Priest or an inspired Lay-man so this I must freely say to you That as many of those strange Teachers as I have heard have expounded Scripture indeed and have ventured upon some of the hardest places of the Prophets But then if all my studies of the Bible assisted with all those holy uncorrupted learned helps which might enable mee to understand it aright have not deceived me their expositions and Sermons how passionately delivered or how long soever are evident proofes to mee that they have not the Spirit If they had they would never certainely expound Scripture so directly contrary to his meaning Or make the writings of the Prophets or Apostles weare only that present shape not which the holy Ghost hath imprinted and stampt upon them but which tends to the division of a Kingdom and the confusion of a Church Nor would they as they do what ever the Text be presse that sense from it not which is genuine and naturall but which tends most to the destruction of a party or the fomentation of a most unnaturall Civill Warre Saint Paul tells us in the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians at the 22 and 23. Verses that the fruits or effects of the Spirit are love peace long-suffering gentlenesse meeknesse temperance He useth to speake to men in the voice and figure of a Dove But to entitle him to all those forbidden workes of the flesh of variance hatred sedition heresies envyings murthers and the like there reckoned up in the precedent Verses of that Chapter is to make him speake with the voice of a Raven In short my Brethren the Holy Ghost is not the Author of such Doctrines as breake Gods Commandements in the Pulpit Nor is it a long Prayer or a zealous two-houres reviling of the foot-steps of the Lords Anointed their lawfull Soveraigne which can make their Sermons to be any other then so much Libell or holy Detractation Or which can make their Intrepretations of the Word of God how moderate soever in other cases if they be not agreeable to the scope and minde and intention of the Holy Ghost to be any more then so many zealous mistakes and so many illegitimate births and creatures of their own deluded fancies Next in pursuit of this seasonable Argument give me leave I pray with all the plainenesse I can for I well know where I am and to what Auditorie I speake to make it yet farther evident to you that if I should grant what these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as S. Basil calls them these Saints of a daies growth challenge to themselves who thinke that all that is required to make a Minister of the Gospell is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} onely to be willing and to start up a Preacher If I say it should be granted them that they have the inward calling of the Spirit yet God is so much the God of order that unlesse they will enter themselves into his service by undergoing those Rites of Consecration and Imposition of Hands which God hath prescribed in his Church to stand for ever as the outward formes and signes of their vocation too every act of the Ministerie which they performe is but a sacrifice like theirs who offered strange fire before the Lord and miserably perisht by their owne forbidden Censors Or if you will have me expresse the danger of it by a judgement as terrible Thus to put their hand to the Arke thus to support it if 't were ready to fall is such an unwarranted piece of officiousnesse as will certainely unrepented at some time or other draw the punishment of Vzzrah upon them provoke the abused Almighty to breake forth in a flame of fire upon them and consume them for their unnecessarie diligence For here all the Scripture examples which imbolden them to this worke do returne upon them as so many instances and proofes of their incroachment on our office For here let me once more ask them How was Elisha called to be a Prophet meerly by the secret unknown whisper and instinct of the holy Ghost Truly if he had yet this would not make much for them because God never tyed himself precisely to those outward formes in the choice of a Prophet which he then did and still doth in the choice of his Priests Yet the calling of this Prophet was not without its visible signe Goe saies God to Elias in the 19. Chap. of the first booke of Kings at the 16. Verse Anoint Elisha the Son of Shaphat to be Prophet in thy roome And whether the like Ceremony of powring oyle on his head were not also performed by some elder Prophet upon Amos as the younger as 't is not affirmed so 't is not denyed in Scripture but left probable In the Consecration of the Priests of those times the case is much more evident Read at your leisure the 29. Chapter of Exodus there you shall finde that before God would receive them into that sacred function first divers Sacrifices were to bee offered for them then they
side and all prejudice and hatred against those from whom they differ men would submit themselves to him who is best able to instruct them Or who can bring with him the most saving Truths into the Pulpit Besides may some one say if people should bring minds prepared to entertain the Truth where is that instructor so infallible or so opinionated of the strength of his own gifts and knowledg that another pretending to the same Truth may not challenge to himself the like infallibility who shall be the Judg of Controversies or who shall present Truth to us with such known marks and notes about it that as soon as t is presented every congregation of what mean capacities soever shall presently acknowledg and entertain it Wil you Sir who have all this while thus bemoaningly pitied our divisions We are bound to thank you for your charity to us and should be desirous enough to imbrace a truth of your description But you are a Scholar whose parts and abilities lye in the humane modell and building of your own secular studies We are therefore bid to doubt very much whether you have the Spirit and are told by some who profess themselves inspired that all your Readings and Studyings and tyrings of your self over a difficult piece of Scripture at midnight perhaps when all others sleep by a lone solitary dumb candle are but so many labours in vain Since t is impossible for any to understand the Scripture aright but such only who have it revealed to them by the same holy Spirit that wrote it My Brethren what shall I say to you Modesty and the knowledg I have of my own imperfections wil not allow me to say peremptorily that I have the Spirit of God Or if I could distinguish his secret influences and assistances from the operations of my own soul or could certainly say I have him which S Paul himself durst not say definitively yet 't would not become me so to confine him to my frail narrow parts as to deny him to all others more learned then my self For the setling therefore and composing of your divided minds I will not take upon me to be the Judge of Controversies but you your selves shall be Onely the better to enable you to performe this charitable office to your selves and for your better direction how not to be out in your judgement as a sure clue to guide you through the perplext windings of that labyrinth into which some of you are falne so falne that they seem to me quite lost in a wood of mistakes where every path is a guide and every guide is an error give me leave to commend to you that seasonable advice of Saint John which he delivers in the fourth Chapter of his first Epistle at the first verse where as if he had prophecyed of our times he sayes Beloved beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world In which words you have two of the best Rules assigned you to go by that can possibly be prescribed for the settlement of minds First be not too credulous Doe not presently beleeve every man that sayes he hath the Spirit nor suffer your selves to be tost and carried about with every wind of doctrine For that is not the way to be all of one but of as many severall minds as the art or cunning of severall Teachers shall please to work upon you I am perswaded this easinesse of belief this credulity or as the Apostle calls it this admiration this overvaluing of some mens persons hath been one of the great parents of our present dissentions whilst some weak but yet well-minded people building their judgment meerly upon the outward appearances of men have mistaken the zeal and strict life of their Preacher for his sufficiency And taking their Logicke from the precisenesse of his behaviour have framed these charitable but false conclusions to themselves He is a man of a composed countenance of a reserved speech of a grave carriage and of a devout elocution therefore surely he is a holy man And because he is a holy man therefore whatever hee saies shall be to us Oracle as coming from the mouth of one so much in the favour of God that it is impossible he should deceive us or speak that which is not right My Brethren I have no designe or purpose to bring Holinesse into contempt nor can I bee so injurious to piety or a good life where ever I find it as to expose it to the scorne of the licentious by not giving it its due I am so farre also from lending encouragement to the lives of vitious Teachers Teachers who are the shame of their Mother and the scandall of their Flock that I could wish that every Congregation in England were furnished with such an exemplary Minister that his life as well as preaching might be Sermon to the people Nay give me leave I beseech you to extend my charity yet one degree farther I am so farre from disliking holinesse either in Preacher or people that I wish we all made but one united Kingdome of Priests Or if you will have me expresse my selfe in the words of one of the holiest and meekest men of the earth I could wish that all the Lords People were Prophets But then you must give me leave to say too That holinesse and strictnesse and austerity of life are no infallible signes that the Preacher may not erre Nor hath God so annext the understanding of his Word to the unstudied unlearned piety or sober carriage of the Expounder that he that is most zealous shall still bee most in the right As long as that saying of S. Paul remaines upon record That we hold this treasure this knowledge of Gods Will {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in earthen vessells As long as the Preacher how holy soever he be is so much one of the people as to dwell in a fraile weake Tabernacle of clay Lastly as long as men are men they will bee liable to mens infirmities And as the learned scandalous Preacher may be sometimes in the right so it is possible that the ignorant zealous holy Preacher may be often in the wrong How to know this and how to distinguish them therefore you are to make use of the next Rule prescribed to you by Saint John that is when you heare an Exposition or a Sermon or a new Doctrine preached to you not rashly without distinction or choice to consent to it till you have past the impartiall sentence of a cleare judgement on it compared and weighed Sermon with Sermon and Preacher with Preacher called every Doctrine every Proofe every confident Assertion to the touch-stone and measured it by some plaine evident place of Scripture and examined whether the Holy Ghost or his owne vaine popular ambition have for that time inspired the speaker or whether his Sermon have had some dissembled secular end