Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A26980
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One sheet for the ministry against the malignants of all sorts by Richard Baxter.
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing B1335; ESTC R13471
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14,605
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17
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They are most of them persons of lamentable ignorance and yet they dare revile at the Teachers and think themselves wise enough to rebuke and teach them Many of them are men of wicked lives and yet they can tell the world how bad the Ministers are A Railer a Drunkard a Covetous Worldling an Ignorant Sott is the likest person to fall upon the Minister and the Owl will call the Lark a night-bird Alas when we come to try them what dark wretches do we find them and should be glad if they were but teachable And yet they have learnt the Devils first lesson to despise their Teachers 12. And O what barbarous ingratitude are these Malignant enemies of the Ministry guilty of For whom do we watch but for them and others Can they be so blind as to think a painful Minister doth make it his design to seek himself or to look after great matters in the world Would not the time and labour and cost that they are at in the Schools and Universities have fitted them for a more gainful trade Do not Lawyers Physitians c. live a far easier and in the world a more honourable plentiful life Have not the Ministers themselves been the principal Instruments of taking down Bishops Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Prebends and all means of preferment And what have they got by it or ever endeavoured Speak malice and spare not Is it any thing but what they had before even the maintenance due to their particular charge Unthankful wretches It is for your sakes and souls that they study and pray and watch and fast and exhort and labor to the consuming of their strength and when they have done are made the Drunkards song and the scorn of all the wicked of the Countrey and when they spend and are spent the more they love the less they are beloved In the times of this greatest prosperity of the Church they live under constant hatred and scorn from those that they would save and will not let alone in sin And what do they endure all this for but Gods honour and your salvation Would we be Ministers for any lower ends Let shame from God and man be on the face of such a Minister I profess were it not for the belief of the greatness and necessity and excellency of the truths that I am to preach and for the will of God and the good of souls I would be a Plow-man or the meanest Trade if not a sweep-Chimney rather then a Minister Must we break our health and lay by all our worldly interest for you even for you and think not our lives and labours too good or too dear to further your salvation and must we by you even by you be reproached after all God will be Judge between you and us whether this be not inhumane ingratitude and whether we deserve it at your hands 13. Yea it is Injustice also that you are guilty of The labourer saith Christ is worthy of his hire Luke 10. 7. Mark that you that call them hirelings The Elders that Rule well are worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5. 1. 7. Especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine And will you throw stones at their head for endeavouring to save your souls Will you spit in their faces for seeking with all their might to keep you from Hell Is that their wages that you owe them But blessed be the Lord with whom is our reward though you be not gathered Isa. 49. 5. But as you love your selves take heed of that curse Jer. 18. 20. Shall evil be recompenced for Good for they have digged a pit for my soul Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them and to turn away thy wrath from them c. O how many a time have we besought the Lord for you that he would convert you and forgive you and turn away the evil that was over you And when all these our prayers and groans and tears shall be remembred against you O miserable souls how dear will you pay for all 14. And is it not a wonder that these Malignants do not see what evident light of Scripture they contradict and how many great express commands they violate They break the fifth Commandment which requireth honour as well to spiritual Ecclesiastical parents as to civil and natural And he that curseth Father and Mother his Lamp shall be put out in darkness Prov. 20. 20. The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Prov. 30. 17. Did these wretches never read 1 Thes. 5. 12. We beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in Love for their work-sake and to be at peace among your selves And Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you And Heb. 13. 7. Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God And so ver. 24. And 1 Tim. 5. 17. The Elders that Rule well are worâ—hy of double honour c. with abundance more such passages as these Do not you feel these flie in your faces when you oppose the Ministers of Christ Doth a thief or murderer sin against plainer light then you 15. These Malignants sin against the consent and experience of the Universal Church of Christ till this day The whole Church hath been for the Ministry and instructed by them and as the child doth seek the breast so did new born Christians in all ages seek the word from the Ministers that they may live and grow thereby And all the Nations of the Christian world are for the Ministry to this day Or else they could not be for Christ and for the Church and Gospel Is it not plain therefore that these Malignants are dead branches cut off from the Church that are so set against the Spirit and interest of the Church 16. Moreover they sin against the experience of all or almost all the true Christians in the world For they have all experience that Ministers are either their Fathers or Nurses in the Lord And that by their means they have had their life and strength and comforts their sins killed their graces quickened their doubts resolved the taste of the good Word of God and of the powers of the world to come May we not challenge you as Paul oft doth his flock Whether you did not receive the illuminating sanctifying Spirit by the Ministry if ever you received it I tell you it is as much against the new and holy nature of the Saints to despise the Ministers of Christ as it is unnatural for a child to spit in the face of his
but our selves Answ Who doth not desire that all the Lords people were Prophets But yet we know all are not Prophets 1 Cor. 12. 29. nor Teachers We would have none of Gods gifts in our people huried but all improved to the uttermost for his glory But we would not have men turn Ordinary Teachers that are neither sound nor able nor sent nor every self-conceited ignorant man have leave to abuse the Name and Word of God and the souâ—s of men What would you have more then is granted you When any unordained man that is judged competent by the Commissioners of Approbation of whom some are Souldiers may be a constant Preacher and have fullest maintenance as well as Presbyters 6. Another charge is that we are some weak and some scandalous Answ We do all that we are able to cast out such and I think never more was done The Magistrate sets his guard at the door and lets in none but whom he please and sure if he knew where to have better then those that are in he would put them in or else he is too blame If he do not know will you blame him for using the best that he can get But if you will come and help us to cast out any that are vitious and unworthy we will give you thanks 7. Another accusation is that we differ among our selves and one saith one thing and another another thing Answ 1. And are all these sects that oppose us better agreed among themselves Enquire and judge 2. Do not all preach one Gospel and the same Essentials of the Christian Faith And we expect not perfect unity till we have perfect Knowledge and Holiness which we dare not boast of what ever Quakers do 8. Another accusation is that we are not true Ministers And why so Because we have not an uninterrupted succession of lawful Ordination Answ. This Objection is the Papists who have little reason to use it while it is so easie a matter to prove so many interruptions of their Papal succession At large and often have we answered them and are still ready to deal with any of them herein and to prove 1. That an uninterrupted succession of right Ordination is not of necessity to the being of the Ministry 2. And if it were we have more to shew for it then they If others stick on this let me tell them that Magistracy is as truly from God as the Ministry And let ever a King on earth shew me an uninterrupted succession giving him title to his Crown and I will shew him a more undoubted succession or title to my Ministry But here 's no room to discuss this Question 9. Object But you are Parish Priests and no true Ministers because you have not true Churches Answ All the Christians in our Parishes that consent are our flock And we undertake to prove the truth of such Churches not only against scorn but against all the Arguments that can be brought 10. Object But you have not the Spirit and therefore are no true Ministers Answ And how prove you that we have not the Spirit The approvers admit none but such as they think have the Spirit He that is sanctified hath the Spirit Prove us unsanctified and we will resign our Office Object You read your Sermons out of a Paper therefore you have not the Spirit Answ A strong Argument I pray you take seven years time to prove the consequence As wisely do the Quakers argue that because we use spectacles or hour-glasses and Pulpits we have not the Spirit It is not want of your abilities that makes Ministers use Notes but it 's a regard to the work and good of the hearers I use notes as much as any man when I take pains and as little as any man when I am lazy or busie and have not leisure to prepare It 's easier to us to preach three Sermons without Notes then one with them He is a simple preacher that is not able to preach all day without preparation if his strength would serve especially if he preach at your rates 11. Object But the true Ministry is persecuted but so are not you but are persecutors of others Answ 1. For our pesecuring others be so merciful as to prove it to us that we may lament it If punishing wicked men and seducers be persecuting not only Paul was such that wished they were cut off that troubled the Galatians but God himself would be the greatest of all persecutors that will lay you in hell without repentance and then you will wish your old persecution again And if we be not persecuted What means the reproaches of you and all the Drunkards and Malignants about us But I pray you envy us not our lives and liberties and a little breathing time Do you not read that The Churches had rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied Act. 9. 31. Envy not a little prosperity to the Church Doth not Paul pray that the Gospel may run and be glorified and that we may be delivered from unreasonable wicked men 2 Thes. 3. 1. Sometimes you can say that more glorious dayes are promised and that the Saints shall Rule the world Unmerciful men It is but a while ago since we had our share of sufferings Since that the sword hath hunted after us Many of our Brethren are yet in America that were driven thither at this time in Spain and Italy and Germany and Savoy Alas what do our Brethren suffer in the same cause and calling that we are in And do you reproach us with our mercies if we be out of the Furnace but a little while in one corner of the world Object 12. You work no miracles to confirm your Doctrine Answ It is true nor do we need It is confirmed by miracles long ago If we brought a new Gospel or as the Papists gave you not our Doctrine on the credit of Scripture but Scripture and all on our own credit then you might justly call for miracles to prove it But not when we have nothing to do but expound and apply a Doctrine sealed by miracles already Again I say Let any Prince on earth that questions our calling shâ—w his Title to his Crown or any Judge or Magistrate to his Office and if I shew not as good a Title to mine let me be taken for a deceiver and not a Minister Christian Reader as ever thou wouldest be sanctified confirmed and saved hold fast to Christ Scripture Ministry and Spirit and that in the Church and Communion of Saints and abhor the thoughts of separating them from each other August 15. 1657. FINIS