to instruct you in all the necessary Points of Salvation rightly dividing the word of God and not rending it asunder as the manner of some is such as Pray for you without ceasing at home and in the Church such as instruct your Children in the Fundamentals of Christianity the Excellent Church Catechism and your selves as well as them in the Exposition of it such as visit you in all your Distresses and Trials councel comfort succour you For these Blessings we ought all to give Thanks and for the enjoyments of the Gospel without the cruelties of an Inquisition or the barbarities of an Oliverian sequestration For if the Thessalonians were in every thing to give thanks and rejoyce in the Lord always tho' surrounded with Persecutions much more we who have no disturbance in our Religion as the poor Afflicted Protestants now in France and Savoy and other places have whom God of his All-sufficient Grace support God of his Infinite Goodness in his due time deliver 3. I proceed now after these two foregoing positive precepts to one that is negative which is this Quench not the Spirit including as I intimated this affirmative viz. That we reverence the real Gifts of Good and Faithful Ministers Sound and Orthodox Divines The Spirit of God does not now adays Operate in an extraordinary manner as in the Primitive Times so as to ennable Men otherwise Illiterate as most of the Apostles were to speak divers Languages not taught them the common way The Apostles were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspired by the Holy Ghost and in a more peculiar manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Taught Immediately by God The holy Ghost descended visibly in Cloven Tongues like as of Fire as appears from Acts Second and Third from whence this passage of not Quenching the Spirit seems to be deriv'd And to Give them their due tho' many Enthusiasts boast of Inspiration Extraordinary Call and Apostolical Endowments to qualify them for the Work of the Ministery they pretend not to the Gift of Tongues here they will grant that the Spirit is stinted to them and that they are not absolutely so good Linguists as the Apostles were They have had those among them indeed who have made a vain Ostentation of this gift also but they have been Subtile Popish Priests in Masquerade who in Mechanical Dresses have endeavoured to make men believe that they never had any learned Education and yet that they did not want it as having no less a Person than the Holy Ghost himself for their Tutor who has taught them the Learned Tongues but these have been detected for Impostors by trying them in such Languages as they have not understood And so for the gift of Healing Curing the Deaf Blind Dumb Lunatick and Paralytick and Ejecting of Devils they do not lay claim to them and yet one thing observe by the way they assume to themselves which is the Gift of Unpremeditated Prayer and yet that is not mentioned amongst any of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost described at large in 1 Cor. 12. nor in any other place of Holy Scripture beside It may be asked then here What is the Quenching of the Spirit now adays Doth not the Spirit of God work still on the Children of Obedience as well as the Evil Spirit on the Children of Disobedience Eph. 2.2 I Answer Yes without doubt so as to assist all those that use honest Endeavours and proper Means to fit themselves for the Ministerial Function But how can we once think that God will work Miracles upon some to save them the Pains of Study and the Charges of Education and forsake others that by all possible care have made it their Business and been at great Expence both of Time and upon other accounts to qualifie themselves for the Embassadors of Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 5.20 For my part and I doubt not the concurrent Sentiments of all unprejudic'd and considerate Persons I give no credit to any that arrogate to themselves a Supernatural Call to the Ministry With great and profound Humility we Sons of the Church of England are ready to acknowledge That the best Men of us all are unable to act any good thing as of our selves alone but our Sufficiency is of God We owe all we can say or do well to the Aid of God's good and gracious Spirit Co-operating with our earnest tho' weak Endeavours But how unlikely is it and indeed absurd to imagine That God should deny us the Blessings of his Holy Spirit who are always praying for its Sanctifying Influences kind and benign Assistances and by incessant Studies striving to improve our Talents of Grace Learning and Knowledge for the Edification of our Brethren and bestow it in a Super-eminent degree upon Persons who never had any extraordinary Parts or common Ingenious Education so as to enable them to do more without any precious Pains than those who have always been diligent to supply themselves with necessary Sciences of all sorts in order to the great Work of the Ministry Certainly our Heavenly Father hath always been more propitious to the sedulous Endeavours of his Pious Servant joyning the help of his Spirit with ordinary means such as Learning Study Meditation comparing of Passages of Holy Scripture one with another Consulting Original Languages and the like This undoubtedly is the way to a true Gospel-Ministry to have such for the Guide of Souls as have had good Education have been such Studious Preparers of themselves for their Sacred Office that as it would be presumption in them in the highest degree to expect Miracles in these Days to make them Learned Rabbins extempore of Illiterate Men so God be praised it is no wise necessary for them to plead any such thing as being qualify'd for the Work in the usual Method as the Nature of our Establish'd Church requires viz. by being taught the Learned Tongues in their youthful Days Philosophical Insititutions in their fresher Academick Gowns which Philosophy is justly Stiled the Hand-maid to Divinity and afterward in the Maturity of their Judgments have searched into the great Truths of the Christian Religion Perused the Councils Fathers and Primitive Writers and the Defences and Apologies of our Church against all sorts of Opposers Which by the Grace of God will still be done against Atheists and Theists which I look upon to be as near in their Notions as they are in their Names if not many of them though dissembled altogether the same Against Socinians who deny the Lord that bought them and put him to an open shame who as far as in them lies make Him suffer in his Divinity as he did once in his Humanity Against Jesuited Romanists and Bigotted Separatists and Schismaticks of what Denomination whatsoever in the mean time shewing a Spirit of Moderation and of some having Compassion making a difference as St. Jude speaks ver 22. endeavouring to win them together with the Strength of Arguments by all the Sweetness of Temper imaginable
be perform'd and for what reason In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you Thirdly We have a Negative Precept not to quench the Spirit which includes this Affirmative in it viz. that we reverence the real gifts of good Ministers Sound and Orthodox Divines Fourthly and lastly We are obliged not to despise Prophecyings which is a negative precept also and contains this affirmative that we set an especial value on Genuine Interpretations of the Word of God the Holy Scriptures meant here by Prophecyings and consequently on those that make them 1. We are here positively enjoyn'd the great Duty of Prayer and the constancy thereof Pray without ceasing We have many Enemies to contend with in this Vale of Misery and Temptations to Sin and those very potent subtle and ensnaring Such is First the Prince of Darkness the Devil with other his accursed Accomplices and Eternally condemned Retinue partly by that Sublime Angelical Nature they are of and partly by that shrewd Experience they have gain'd by the indefatigable diligence they have us'd for some Thousands of Years together Egged on and Exasperated by an inveterate hatred to Mankind in general For these being desperate Apostates themselves and seeing a second Creation ordain'd as it were in direct opposition to them to supply the places in Heaven by these Rebels Eternally lost a keen and endless Malice inflames them to do all they can to bring us also into the place of Torments where they will not pity us no that will be as far from them as Heaven is 〈◊〉 hell but cruelly Tyrannise and Insult over us when they have done And also much Animated they have been to persist in these their Diabolical Attempts by that victory obtained over Primitive Innocence whereby their Stratagems have gone on with a more fatal success over the infirm Posterity of our Lapsed first Parents 2. Besides these fierce and implacable Foes which will always be endeavouring to draw us into Sin and ruine all our hopes of Eternal Salvation the World is another Enemy that hath a thousand Gins to intangle us in such as Pride Ambition Covetousness Profaneness Irreligion Voluptuousness Intemperance and the like which if compli'd with will draw Men into Destruction and Perdition 3. Our own corrupt Flesh is apt to concur with these to hinder us from doing good and incline us to evil Hence arise inordinate Affections and evil Concupiscencies of the Mind So that we must needs miscarry if we rely on our own Strength and seek not out for some Assistance more powerful than our selves and how is this to be sought but from our gracious Father in Heaven who has promis'd to be found of them that seek Him if they seek him with all their Heart and with all their Soul This must be done by Prayer at the Throne of Grace and to this end the Apostle tells us that we must pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watch thereunto with all perseverance Eph. 6.18 This he had from our Saviour who commands us to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation Mat. 26.41 and always to pray and not to faint Luke 18.1 We must pray every where saith St. Paul lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 By this Prayer to God's Majesty as we are taught to use it w◠distinguish our selves from Atheists and Heathens T is true the Heathens themselves by the Dictates of natural Reason and Religion held themselves obliged to one sort of Adoration or another but here was the mischief their Gods were no Gods Mentis ludicras omnia Picti ludibriae trunci Autebur in varias aut saxa incisa figuras they Worshipped the Fond Imaginations of their own Hearts and many times the work of their own Hands They carved themselves Gods out of some senseless Stone or hewed them out of some inanimate Tree of part whereof they made them a Fire to warm their Hands at of the other part they fashioned them Gods to invoke and hold up their Hands unto To this Horace alludes Serm. Lib. 1. Sat. 8. Olim Truncus eram ficulnus inutile lignum Cum faber incertis scamnum faceret ne Priapum Maluit esse Deum But our Addresses are to the right Object and Owner God alone A God that can hear our Prayers and not only can but will a God that takes pleasure in our Applications to him and hath commanded us not to neglect it to our own hurt We continually stand in need of God's Forgiveness and Pardon when we have Sinned as alas who is there that Sins not we must pray for the averting God's Wrath and Indignation we cannot be penitent if we pray not if we confess not our Sins we must not expect an Absolution of them Neither is the whole Duty of Prayer consisting of Confession alone to expiate for the past Offences of our Lives but t is also necessary to be used as a Method of Prevention for the time to come This is the Antidote to keep off the infection of all Spiritual Maladies the omission whereof is like going out fasting in a time of Epedimical Pestilence whereby a free Passage lies open for the Contagious Air to insinuate it self and corrupt the whole Mass of Blood The holy Father and great Penitent St. Austin confessed it as a just Judgment of God once upon him in giving him over to the mischeif of a prevailing temptation for having gone out that day without making his Prayer to God as he ought to have done and as he used to do It always behoves us therefore e're we enter on our several Employments to beseech the favourable Influences and Assistances of Heaven else what good Success can we look for when we are out of God's Protection But with his help what shall be able to annoy us what may we not obtain at his hands by Prayer that is really for our Good It is a thing that is almost Omnipotent like the God that hears it and whom it is made unto Nay it binds the Hands of the Almighty himself the effectual fervent Prayer of the righteous availeth so much Thus for instance when the Israelites in the absence of Moses had made them a Golden Calf and God was angry thereat he doth as it were ask leave of Moses as if he could do nothing without his consent Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may consume them it is a stiff-necked People yet when Moses meekly besought the Lord he repented of the evil that he thought to do unto his People and he did it not in the Psalmist words God said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath least he should destroy them Thus Nineveh was threatned Yet fourty Days and Niniveh shall be overthrown This determination seems absolute and irreversible yet it was not so for when the Ninevites fasted and
Brotherly Love and Respect Neighbourly Visits especially in any Affliction extraordinary Emergency or Occasion but above all by the Gravity of our Deportment and the Lustre and Ornament of Sober and Religious Lives Where there is such a Ministry as God be thanked ours is And Honour is due Divines that have been Episcopally Ordain'd according to the custom of the Church from the Apostles times having been strictly examined as to their Abilities before admitted Graduates in the Universities afterward before the Imposition of Hands for the Susception of Holy Orders by the Holy Prelates of the Church themselves or by persons of Learning and Integrity deputed by them whom they can safely confide in for that weighty purpose These are the Levites that as the Scripture speaks the Laity are not to forsake as long as they live upon the earth Deut. 12.19 such are to be reverenc'd for their works sake the Message which they came upon being no less than the Reconciliation of Men to God the Salvation of their unvaluable and immortal Souls Which is one great meaning of the not quenching the Spirit that as the Ministers of the Gospel should not by neglect of their Office and illness of their lifes which God avert drive off the Holy Spirit from assisting them in their Labour but keep up Godliness and Religion by devout Prayer and good Preaching joyned with a sober exemplary Life and Conversation so where such persons and gifts are seen none should be averse to them as if they were false Prophets None should rob them of their Tithes and Dues which is call'd robbing of God Malac. the 3d. and v. 8. and such sacriligious Persons are said to be cursed with a Curse in the verse following None should wrong them in their good Names by execrable Lies and Villainous Slanders or any way grieve or misuse them none should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I may so speak haters of the Clergy which yet more than a good many are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of the Clergy remembring that antient observation Qui vera fide colit Deum amat etiam Sacerdotum He that loveth God in sincerity loves his Ministers so too and as the Apostle speaks let us be so accounted of as Ministers of Christ and stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4.1 And that all we that are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God may be found faithful in our several Stations which is required of us v. 2 of that Chapter May the Good Spirit of God guide and direct us that thus by the goodness of our Lives and soundness of our Doctrine we may save both our selves and them that hear us 1 Tim. 4.16 4. Which introduces the Fourth and last Particular Despise not Prophecying i. e. Genuine Interpretations of the Word of God the Holy Scriptures nor consequently those that make them such as labour in the Word and Doctrine as the Apostle's expression is to Timothy 1 Tim. 5.17 The Holy Scripture is the Rule that we are all to walk by and the Expounding of this and the exciting our Brethren from the Examples Precepts Promises and Threats thereof how to deport themselves is our Ministerial Office and Duty That the word Prophecy is Interpreting Scripture and preaching upon it is evident from the 14 Chap. of the 1 Ep. to the Cor. v. 1. Follow after Charity and desire spiritual gifts but rather that ye may prophecy and v. 3.4 He that Prophecieth speaketh unto men to Edification and Exhortation and Comfort he that speaketh in an unknown Tongue edifieth himself but he that prophecieth Edifieth the Church This was our Saviour Christ's Prophetick Office to make known the Will of God to the World and so all that have in any good degree done the like are stiled Prophets all that have Taught men their Duty towards God and man Thus among the Pagans the Divines who taught them what they ought to do their Priests or Religious Persons were termed Vates Prophets The word doth always imply such as are indu'd with a Spirit of foretelling future Events but as Grammarians informs us naturally signifies no more than a Procurator or Prolocutor speaking from or instead of another or acting in his stead as a Pro-Consul is he that supplies the Consul's Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Composition being the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon this account the Jewish High-Priest was a Prophet to his People who entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holies to inform himself of God's Will was to reveal the same to the People In the like Sense it is that God saith to Moses concerning Aaron He shall be thy Spokesman to the People and he shall be to thee a mouth and thou shalt be to him instead of God Exod. 4.16 That which is here render'd Spokesman Orator or Prolocutor is Chap. 7.5 Interpreted Prophet See saith God I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet In the acceptation of speaking from Man to God Abraham is call'd a Prophet Gen. 20. v. 7. where God in a Dream speaketh to Abimilech in this manner Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee Whence may be inferr'd that the Appellation of Prophet may be ascribed not improperly to them who in Christian Congregations have a due Ministerial Call to put up publick Petitions for their People and Administer all the Offices of Religious Worship Now though the Word of God it self in this degenerate Age is despised by many evil Men under the Notion of Reveal'd Religion which they are great Contemners of yet since it is clear as the Sun that it is unjustly and groundless no Writings whatsoever having the like Authentick Truth as the Learned Bishop Stillingfleet in his Origines Sacra makes appear So I take those Words to be Reflection sufficient upon them and which ought to be a Terror to them from the Examples of others as being spoken on the like occasion Acts 13.41 Behold the desisers and wonder and perish The Despisers of the Gospel are here particularly threatned for disbelieving and rejecting our Saviour's Resurrection and other Divine Works fore-told by the Prophets long before And what if the Romanists vilifie this Word of God in comparison with their Traditions their Foolish and Ridiculous Legends as the Pharisees of old is it ever the worse in it self No 't is for this very reason that they do it assign'd by St. John chap. 3.20 Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved And as for those that call it a Dead Letter doubt we not upon the good evidence we have but they receiv'd it from those Deluders the first Projectors of this rude and ill manner'd antick and ridiculous Profession As to us Ministers of the Church of England we desire upon all accounts to have the Scripture for