Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A47742
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A discourse shewing who they are that are now qualify'd to administer baptism and the Lord's-Supper wherein the cause of episcopacy is briefly treated / by the author of A discourse proving the divine institution of water-baptism.
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Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing L1130; ESTC R25145
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50,009
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107
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Ghost which was the reason why He sometimes refus'd to work Miracles among them because thereby they grew worse and worse and if the Preaching of the Gospel by the mouths of Apostles became the savour of Death to wicked and unprepar'd Hearts why may not the words of Truth have a good Effect upon honest and good Minds tho' spoken from the mouth of an Hypocrite or of Persons who in other things are greatly Deluded I have before mention'd the Wizard Major Weir who Bewitched the Presbyterians in Scotland since the Restoration 1660 as much as Simon Magâ—â—s did the Samaritans And yet I suppose the more moderate of the Quakers will not rashly give all over to Destruction who blindly followed him and admir'd his Gifts or will say but that some words of Truth he might drop might have a real good Effect upon some Well meaning tho' grosly Deluded People who followed him Two of Winder's Witches see The Snake in the Grass p. 300. 2d Edit were Preachers among the Quakers for Twenty years together and thought to be as Powerful and Affecting as any others VI. But the Argument will hold stronger against them as to the Sacraments than in the Office of Preaching because in Preaching much depends upon the Qualifications of the Person as to Invention Memory Judgment c. But in the Administration of an Outward Sacrament nothing is requir'd as of Necessity but the lawfulness of the Commission by which such a Person does Administer and a small measure of natural or acquir'd Parts is sufficient to the Administration Therefore let us lay no stress upon the Instrument more than was upon the Waters of Jordan to heal Naaman but trust wholly upon the Commission which conveys the Vertue from God and not from His Ministers That all the Glory may be to God and not to Man 'T is true the Personal Qualifications of the Instrument are Lovely and Desirable but they become a Snare where we expect any part of the Success from them This was the ground of the Corinthian Schism 1 Cor. i. 11. and tho' unseen of ours at this Day VII And the consequences of it are of manifold and fatal Destruction 1. This unsettles all the Assurance wee in have in God's Promise to assist His own Institution for if the Vertue or any part of it lies in the Holiness of the Instrument we can never be sure of the Effect as to us because we have no certain knowledge of the Holiness of another Hypocrites deceive even good Men. 2. This wou'd quite disappoint the Promise Christ has made Matth. xxviii 20. To be with His Ministers in the Execution of His Commission to Baptize c. always even unto the end of the world For if the Holiness of the Instrument be a necessary Qualification this may fail nay always must fail so far as we can be sure of it and consequently Christ has commanded Baptism and His Supper to continue to the end of the world till his coming again and yet has not afforded means whereby they may be continu'd which He has not done if the Holiness of the Administrator be a necessary Qualification and that He has not left us a certain Rule whereby to judge of the Holiness of another And thus have you rendred the Command of Christ of none Effect thro' your Tradition 3. This is contrary to all God's former Institutions The wickedness of the Priests under the Law did not excuse any of the People from bringing of their Sacrifices to the Priests The Priests were to Answer for their own Sin but the People were not answerable for it or their Offerings the less accepted But we were in a much worse condition under the Gospel Administration if the Effect of Christ's Institutions did depend either wholly or in part upon the Personal Holiness of His Priests This wou'd put us much more in their Power than it is the Intention of those who make this objection to allow to them This magnifies Men more than is due to them therefore I will apply the Apostle's wolds to this Case 1 Cor. iii. 21. Let no man glory in men who is Paul and who is Apollo but ministers so then neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God who giveth the increase 4. This was with others the Error of the Ancient Donatists those Proud and Turbulent Schismaticks the great Disturbers of the Peace of the Church upon an opinion of their own Sanctity above that of other Men For which reason they rejected all Baptisms except what was performed by themselves and Re-baptiz'd those who came over to them from the Church for they said that the Holiness of the Administrator was necessary towards conveying the Spiritual Graces of Baptism Thus they argu'd Qui non habet quod Det quomodo Dat i.e. How shall a Man give that to another which he has not himself Adv. Parmen l. 5. de schismat Donatist Ed. Paris 1631. p 87 But Optatus Answers them that God was the Giver and not Man Videte Deumesse Datorem And he argues that it was preferring Themselves before God to think that the Vertue of Baptism did come from Them that they were nothing but Ministers or Work-men and that as when a Cloth was Dyed the change of the Cloth came from the Colours infus'd not from the vertue of the Dyer So that in Baptism the Change of the Baptized came from the Vertue of the Sacrament not from the Administrator That it was the Water of Baptism which did wash not the Person who apply'd the Water That the Personal Sanctity of the Administrator signify'd nothing to the Efficacy of the Sacrament Therefore says he Nos operemur ut Ille det p. 88. qui se daturum esse promisit i.e. Let us work that God who has promis'd it may bestow the Effect And that when we work Humana sunt opera sed Dei sunt Munera i. e. The Work is Man's but the Gift is God's And thence he exposes that Ridiculous Principle of the Donatists Jam illud quam Ridiculum est quod quasi ad Gloriam vestram à vobis semper auditur hoc munus Baptismatis est Dantis non Accipient is p. 89. which they advanc'd to gain Glory to Themselves that the Gift in Baptism was of the Administrator and not of the Receiver But he shews that the Gift was conferred by God proportionably to the Faith of the Receiver and not according to the Holiness of the Administrator The Discourse is large to which I refer the Reader I have given this Tast of it to let these see to whom I now write that they have tho' unaware stumbled upon the very Notion of the Donatists which divided them from the Catholick Church and which with them has been long since Exploded by the whole Christian World and I hope this may bring them to a more sober mind to consider from whence and with whom they have fallen and
from and Superior to Presbyters before the Vaudois in Piedmont the Hugonots in France the Calvinists in Geneva and the Presbyterians thence Transplanted in this last Age into Holland Scotland and England V. If it shou'd be retorted that neither is the Church of England without Opposers for that the Church of Rome opposes Her as do likewise our Dissenters Ans None of them do oppose Her in the Point we are now upon that is the Validity of Episcopal Ordination which the Church of Rome does own and the Presbyterians dare not deny it because they wou'd thereby overthrow all their own Ordinations for the Presbyters who Reformed as they call it from Bishops receiv'd their Ordination from Bishops And therefore tho' the Episcopal Principles do Invalidate the Ordination by Presbyters yet the Presbyterian Principles do not Invalidate the Ordination by Bishops So that the Validity of Episcopal Ordination stands safe on all sides even by the Confession of those who are Enemies to the Episcopal Order and in this the Bishops have no opposers Whereas on the other hand the Validity of the Presbyterian Ordinations is own'd by none but themselves and they have all the rest of the World as opposite to them Therefore to state the Case the most Impartially to receive Baptism from these Dissenters is at least a hazard of many Thousands to One as many as all the rest of Christianity are more than they But to receive it from the Bishops or Episcopal Clergy has no hazard at all as to its Validity even as own'd by the Presbyterians themselves SECT V. The Personal Sanctity of the Administrator of the Sacraments tho' highly Requisite on his Part yet not of Necessity as to the Receivers to Convey to them the Benefits of the Sacraments I. THE only Objection of those Quakers who are otherwise convinc'd of the Obligation of the Sacraments is the Necessity they think ther is of great Personal Holiness in the Administrators without which they cannot see how the Spiritual Effects of the Sacraments can be convey'd But I wou'd beseech them to consider how by this instead of referring the Glory to God and lessening the Performance of Man which I charitably presume and I am confident as to some of whom I speak that it is their true and sincere Intention but instead of that I do in great Good will invite them to reflect whither their well-intended Zeal has turn'd the Point of this Question even to over-magnifie Man and transfer the Glory of God unto His weak Instrument as if any the least Part of the Divine Vertue which God has annexed to His Sacraments did proceed from His Minister If this be not the meaning as sure it is not why so much stress laid upon the Sanctity of the Ministers Act. iii. 12. as if thro' their power or holiness the Holy Ghost was given II. To obviate this pretence our Saviour Christ chose a Devil John vi 70. to be one of His Apostles and he was sent to Baptize and work Miracles as well as the rest And those whom Judas did Baptize were no doubt as well Baptized and did partake of the Communication of the Spirit according to their Preparation for it as much as any who were Baptized by the other Apostles unless you will say that Christ sent him to Baptize who had no Authority to Baptize and that none shou'd receive Benefit by his Baptism which wou'd be to Cheat and Delude the People and is a great Blasphemy against Christ and a distrust of His Power as if it were Limited by the poor Instrument He pleases to make use off whereas III. His Greatness is often most Magnify'd in the meaness of the Instruments by which He works Thus He destroy'd Egypt by Frogs and Lice and the Philistines by Emerods and Mice and sent His Armies of Flies and Hornets to dispossess the Canaanites Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies Psal viii 2. that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger i.e. That the Enemies of God might be confounded when they saw His great Power Exerted by such weak and contemptible Instruments The Walls of Jericho the Type of Spiritual wickedness were thrown down by the blast of seven Rams Horns when blown by the Priests whom He had commanded And He rebuked the Iniquity of Balaam by the mouth of an Ass to shew that no Instruments are Ineffectual in His Hands and made use of the mouth of Balaam to Prophesie of Christ. For this cause says St. Barnabas in his Catholick Epistle c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did Christ choose Men who were Exceeding great Sinners to be His Apostles to shew the Greatness of His Power and Grace and put the Inestimable Treasure of His Gospel into Earthen Vessels that the Praise might be to God and not to Men. IV. St. Paul rejoyced in Christ being Preached Ihil i. 16. tho' not sincerely by those who did it because God can bring Good out of Evil and by wicked Instruments Propagate His Gospel turning their malice even of the Devil himself to the furtherance of the Faith Otherwise the Apostle cou'd have no cause to Rejoyce in the Preaching of wicked Men if none cou'd receive benefit by it And he plainly supposes 1 Cor. ix 27. That a Man may save others by his Preaching and yet himself be a cast-away V. And so far as we can know or judge any thing we see daily Experience of this That God has touched Mens Hearts upon hearing the Truth spoken tho' by Men who were great Hypocrites and very Wicked And what reason can be given to the contrary Truth is Truth whoever speaks it And if my Heart be prepared the good Seed receives no evil Tincture of the Hand that sowed it And who can Limit God that His Grace may not go along with me in this I have heard some of the now separate Quakers confess that they have formerly felt very sensible Operations of the Spirit upon the Preaching of some of those whom they have since Detected of gross Errors and Hypocrisies and they now think it strange But this were enough to convince them that the wind bloweth where it listeth otherwise they must condemn themselves and confess that in all that time they had no true Participation of the Spirit of God but that what they mistook for it was a meer Delusion Or else confess that by the Truths which were spoken by these Ministers of Satan for they speak some Truths God might work a good Effect upon the Hearts of some Well-dispos'd tho' then Ignorant and much Deluded People If not so we must judge very severely of all those who live in Idolatrous or Schismatical Countries ther were great Prophets and good Men among the Ten Tribes And if the Words nay Miracles of Christ did render the Hearts of many yet more obdurate Matth. xii from v. 22. to v. 32. even to sin against the Holy