Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	scripture_n	true_a	1,770	5	4.4847	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61666	Poimnē phylakion, The pastors charge and the peoples duty a sermon (for the most part) preached at the Assembly of ministers at Exon, June 7, 1693 / by Samuel Stoddon.	Stoddon, Samuel.	1694 (1694)	Wing S5714; ESTC R645	61,189	172

their own Shepherd Pastores suos vehementer amant Fr. ib. as if they were Conscious of their own weakness and need of him The bare mention of these things being enough to direct the Spiritual Mind to their due application I shall wave all manner of further enlargement here Quest 3. The Third Question is this Who the Ministers of the Gospel are with whom this Charge of our dear Saviour is left Sol. One would think the Solution of such a Question as this should not be hard nor is it so in Thesi wherein the clear light both of Scripture and of Nature is so concurring and convincing And yet we find there is hardly any one thing wherein Professors such of them as are too apt to be led by the factious Principles of Ignorance and Prejudice are more uncharitably disagreed in than in this How miserably the poor Church of Christ by the malice and subtilties of the common Enemy and the Carnality Pride and blind Passions of Professors is torn into Rags of Divisions and Subdivisions is too well known for me to inform you And of all these every Party is magnifying their own Teachers as the only Ministers of Christ and ready to condemn all others as Hirelings False Teachers Schismatical Intruders c. This is a Lamentation and let it be for a Lamentation But could we return to a right Understanding of our plain rule in this Affair how easily might the Case be brought to its due Issue I know but these two things that essentially denominate a Man to be a Minister of Jesus Christ Qualification and Commission And neither of which is singly sufficient I am sensible that I am now in a large Field and in a ready way to be lost in Controversy but that I have more practical and necessary work before me Yet I beseech you bear with me while I explain my self a little on these two heads and I will be very short the Truth being commonly best seen in a few plain words 1. There must be Qualifications But what Of special sanctifying saving Grace This indeed is needful and most desireable and morally conducive to the happy and glorious ends of the Ministry both as to our selves and those that hear us absolutely necessary as the sine quâ non unto Salvation but not so to Ministerial Qualification A man may be lawfully a Minister that is not Spiritually a Member of Christ The Sealed of the Tribe of Levi were but a Remnant as of any one of the other Tribes Those that in our Saviour's Time sate in Moses's Chair were for the most part of them far enough from Moses's Spirit and yet our Saviour owns them in their Office Judas was a Disciple and sent forth with a Commission to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom even by Him who knew him to be inwardly a Devil and a Traitor But this is no new Doctrine nor needs any proof to one that has not a mind to be contentious But the Qualification here required as absolutely necessary is Ministerial That whereby a Person is competently fitted for the discharge of all the work and duties of this sacred Office Orthodoxy in Doctrine ability and aptness in at least the gift of Preaching and Praying skill and moderation in ruling c. And certainly there 's a great difference between Ministerial G●●s and saving Grace 〈…〉 the particulars of 〈…〉 refer you to Paul's 〈…〉 1 Epist ch 3. and to Titus ch 1. 2. There must be Commission No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5.4 No man taketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man undertaketh accepteth or assumeth to himself and of himself that is no man ought or can without Sin any way take or receive this Honour or usurp this Office but he that is called of God that is delegated and commissioned by Gods Authority and in the way of Gods appointment tho' not in that immediate and extraordinary manner as Aaron was unless in like extraordinary cases yet by a Power and Dispensation legally and orderly derived from him through such Hands as he hath appointed and impower'd to this end Qualification without Commission makes not a Minister of Jesus Christ but such a thing as he calls a Thief and a Robber a Sacrilegious Intruder such as were Corah and his Complices and such as are too many in our days And Commission without Qualification makes what the Prophet calls an Idol-shepherd or Dumb-Dog a Blind Guide And who are they that have right authoritatively to examine and judge of Qualification or to conveigh Commission to others for the Conservation of a Succession in this sacred Office but those that are themselves both duely Qualified and Commissionated And that too not singly privately or arbitrarily but according to the Rules given in this matter by and from our supream LORD and Master Jesus Christ in the New Testament Methinks this should not amount to a Question with any that have but read the Holy Scriptures and own their Truth and Authority or that have not abandon'd the conduct of common reason by whose light it is easie to see the equity and expediency of the Scripture directions in this case Quest 4. We are now come to the last Question What the duty is that is required of them Or What our dear LORD and Master would have us to understand by Feeding his Lambs and his Sheep Sol. The Flock you see is divided into two parts the Lambs and the Sheep So is the Ministerial Work that concerns them Feed and Rule both which are equally and inseparably enjoined parts of this work as appears in several very plain Scriptures 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they who labour or they labouring i. e. on the account of their labouring in Word and Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is a Text that hath been sufficiently vext by men of different Sentiments and Interests I know no reason we have from this Scripture to infer two distinct Orders of Ruling and Teaching Presbyters seeing what is mention'd here both of Ruling and Labouring in Word and Doctrine are but the essential and required Functions of one and the same Sacred Order and Office than which I am not concerned at present to look any further into any Truths that are plainly enough stated in it or any questions that have been vainly enough started on it And with which there are several other Scriptures that agree in the same Hypothesis 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 Here are the same words applied to the same Persons and Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that are over you or set and appointed over you in the LORD i. e. according to the LORD and in the things of the LORD to rule in his Church and who they are but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

very honourable to him whose Servant he pretends to be especially considering that they could not but know and foresee how tender all Men naturally are in the matters of Honour and Maintenance and of what mischievous consequence the leaving such a Question as this in the dark and undetermined would be That it would involve the Church in endless strifes and quarrels and confusions But will the Lay-Elder lay his Claim to a Maintenance from that word in the Text viz. double Honour taking it for the Honour of Maintenance Let him then read on the next verse there For the Scripture saith Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn And the labourer is worthy of his reward The first of these Scriptures you have Deut. 25.4 which the Apostle makes use of 1 Cor. 9.9 And you may see how he there applies it only to the Ministers of the Gospel Those that sow unto the People spiritual things v. 11. That minister about holy things and wait at the Altar v. 13. The other Scripture you have Matth. 10.10 The work-man is worthy of his meat Which are Christ's own words to the Twelve when he sent them forth to Preach the Gospel Here 's never a word of the Ruling Elder in all this nor any provision made for him And this one thing is enough to clear the sense of the precedent verse that there is no such thing as the Ruling Non Preaching Elder intended in it but the double Honour is for those that tread out the Corn and labour in the LORD's Harvest in Word and Doctrine And these are the only Persons spoken of in that 1 Tim. 5.17 So then The Rulers of the People are their Pastors who are to Rule every one over his own particular Flock or Congregation in the things of God and of their Souls who for the ease of their Government and the advantage of their Ministerial work have warrant from Scripture to ordain and appoint Deacons under them and other necessary servile Officers who derive their power immediately from their Pastor are accountable to him and may and ought to be despos'd by him in case of Male-administration as every Captain in an Army Every Mayor in a Corporation every Master in a Family have the proper power over their own Companies Burroughs and Families and all the inferiour Officers in them to dispose and govern them for their good according to the known and common Laws of that Superiour Government under which they live and unto which they themselves are accountable 2. The Rulers of the Pastors or Officers of the Church I am very apprehensive that this is a tender Point wherein I even tremble to think that I must be either sinfully silent or declare my dissent from so many of my dear Brethren whom I know to be otherwise Orthodox Learned Pious and with whom I dare not compare my self But I have said and O that daisy and doleful Experience did not proclaim it to the World to the grief of some and the shame of others that there is no Company or Society of Men in the World that have more need of the strictest Government than the Men of our Function without which we are of all Mankind in this respect the most miserable and the poor Church of Christ in the forelornest case of any of God's Creatures upon Earth But certainly he that hath so provided for the Government of the Kingdoms of the World hath not left his own mystical Kingdom wherein so much of his special interest lies without such a Government as is every way adequate to all the parts and concerns of it He that hath taken such care to inclose and fence out the wild Commons of the World hath not design'd to leave his own Garden uninclos'd Nor his Vineyard without a Hedge about it and a Wine-press and a Tower in it How weak and insatisfactory is this to say that we are all the Ministers of Jesus Christ and Brethren to one another that we have our Commission as Ministers of the Gospel from him tho' not immediately from him which indeed if it were so would alter the case who is the Supream Legislator That we have our Bibles in our hands and therein the unalterable Rules of our administration both in Doctrine Worship and Discipline the Laws by which we are to Govern both our selves and the Churches that we have the promise of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and an Unction from the Holy One and know all things that our Office and Work is Sacred and Divine of God and not of Men alas will all this make us Infallible or Absolute and Independent exempt from all Laws and Bonds of an Ecclesiastical Polity were we made the Ministers of Christ to rule and not to be rul'd O that men would consider the dismal consequents of such an Hypothesis which I delight not now to aggravate But if there must be a Government among Pastors consider'd as a distinct Body from the People then it will be said there cannot be an equality the Notion of Co-ordination of Pastors and Churches is subverted this being inconsistent with Government But let wise Men consider what that is that must needs lye at the bottom of this Levelling Principle And yet Government doth not destroy the Equality and Co-ordination of Pastors or Churches as such or per se but only secundum quid or in respect of Order e. g. All the Captains in an Army as Captains are equal so are all the Collonels and all the other Officers that are of one and the same Order but between a Captain and a Collonel there is an inequality And as it is in a well Regimented Army so it is in the Church of Christ which is as an Army with Banners Cant 6.10 And 't is supposed too that this subordination of Pastors and Churches will conclude a necessity of a Supream Papal Head and Governour This I take to be the great stumbling-block the plain sense whereof is but this That if every Minister be not allowed to be a Pope over his own Congregation then there must be one Pope over all the Congregations and Pastors in the Christian World Both which extreams are equally wide from the Truth and perhaps equally pernicious to the Church But to defend the Truth from both the Horns of this Dilemma we will examine what is the true Scripture notions of a Church We find in Scripture that the Churches which the Apostles planted are reckoned by the great Towns or Cities which they chose to begin to gather their Churches in as appears both by the names that are given them and by comparing Act. 14.23 with Tit. 1.5 where the ordinary Elders in every Church is the same with Ordaining Elders in every City Neither do we find any Organical Church of the Apostles founding any where mention'd in the New Testament but it bears the name of the Town or City in which it was besides those Domestick Churches of