Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	darkness_n	light_n	shine_v	1,307	5	9.6147	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90932	The preacher sent: or, A vindication of the liberty of publick preaching, by some men not ordained. In answer to two books: 1. Jus divinum ministerii euengelici. By the Provincial Assembly of London. 2. Vindiciæ ministerii euangelici. By Mr. John Collings of Norwich. / Published by Iohn Martin, minister of the Gospel at Edgfield in Norfolk. Sam. Petto, minister of the Gospel at Sand-croft in Suffolk. Frederick Woodal, minister of the Gospel at Woodbridge in Suffolk.	Martin, John, 1595 or 6-1659.; Petto, Samuel, 1624?-1711.	1658 (1658)	Wing P3197; Thomason E1592_2; ESTC R208851	240,824	381

intend an Officer 4. When there is a necessity of sending men for the conversion of Heathens we deny that they are sent forth as Officers or that they ought to be ordained to make them Officers before they be sent If such as are Officers and have been ordained do take a journey and preach unto Heathen people it is not in the capacity of Officers for those Heathens are of no Church but they act as persons gifted and warranted by Christ to lay out their gifts in such publick works for such ends The conversion of souls is the work of the Ministery not the proper work so as the Lord useth none but Ministers therein Parents and Masters and Neighbours may be converting instruments as well as they Ministers are lights not by vertue of Ordination or Office but illumination and gifts if men in darkness be ordained yet they are in darkness still Officers are not made lights when made Officers they were lights before therefore to shine in the exercise and improvement of their gifts and might have been Embassadors to the world though they had not been Officers to a Church Gifted men are Embassadors in a general sence for Christ and in Christs name and stead are to beseech people to be reconciled unto God for as we have proved they are warranted and commanded by Christ to preach We desire some Scripture-proof That Ordination may in any case precede Election to Office Object 2. It will also follow That there must be Churches before there be Ministers which is against Scripture and sound reason we do not deny but that there must be a Church before their Minister but not before a Minister the Church Entitative is before a Church Ministerial but yet a Minister must needs be before a Church for every Church must consist of persons baptized unbaptized persons cannot make a Church and therefore there must be a Minister to baptize them before they can be made capable to enter into Church-fellowship Our Saviour Christ chose his Apostles for the gathering of Churches there were first Apostles before Churches and afterwards the Apostles ordained Elders in these gathered Churches and one great work of these Elders was to convert the neighbouring Heathen and when converted to baptize them and gather them into Churches and therefore Elders as well as Apostles were before Churches And whosoever with us holds That none but a Minister in office can baptize must needs hold that there must be ordinary Ministers before Churches and that therefore the whole essence of the Ministerial call doth not consist in the Election of the Church Answ 1. That a Church must needs be before a Minister or Officer is evident because if one be made a Minister an Officer it is to a Church that is necessarily presupposed before one can be made an Officer to it 2. If Apostles were before Churches yet seeing their call was extraordinary and Immediate from God that doth not prove that ordinary Officers who are called by men are before Churches and the contrary is evident Act. 14. 23. When they had chosen them Elders by suffrages in every Church c. the Churches must needs be before the chusing Elders in every Church Neither can it be proved that these were Elders before they were their Elders or that ever any ordinary officers were before Churches Suppose unbaptized persons could not make a Church yet the utmost it could amount to would be but this that there must be a Minister before this or that Church it would not follow thence that there must be Ministers before Churches in general or before any Churches for look upon any Church and if it be said there was a Minister before this or that Church to baptize the persons which it consisteth of we may say then there was a Church before that Minister for he could not be an officer unless it were to some Church because Officer and Church are Relatives if it be said there was some Minister before that Church else the persons therein could not have been baptized we may answer to there must be some Church before that Minister c. and still Churches are before Ministers until we come to the Apostles dayes if the line of succession holdeth so far and if that line breaketh before we ascend so high then where the stop was made either the person baptizing was no Minister and that cutteth the throat of the objection for then they being baptized by one that was no Minister after their baptism they might become a Church before any Minister or else the person baptizing was a Minister and then it must be said he was a baptized person and yet no Church-member or else a Minister and yet an unbaptized person a Church-officer and yet no Church-member for if he were a Church-member then Church was still before the Minister and how could he become a Minister if a Church were not before If the line of succession holdeth to the Apostles dayes their call was extraordinary and they being the onely Officers that were before Gospel Churches it speaketh nothing at all against Election of the Church as giving the whole essence of the call to ordinary Officers and it is the call of ordinary Officers onely that this question is about whether that consisteth in Election or not 3. That a great work of ordinary Elders was to convert the neighbouring Heathens we grant but that they acted as Elders in their conversion we deny that ordinary Elders did baptize then when converted before their being gathered into Churches is a thing which they have not given us any Scripture-proof for A Church is not to suffer persons in it to continue unbaptized but we conceive unbaptized persons may make a Church and then either by Communion with other Churches or by chusing and ordaining an Officer for it self persons in it may be baptized and thus we may hold that none but a Minister in office can baptize and yet need not hold that there must be ordinary Ministers before Churches which to be sure the Gospel speaketh as little of as of unbaptized persons making a Church And so we have answered their arguments against Election as essential to the call to office Two Arguments of Mr. Hookers they undertake to answer by asserting that Officers as such do sustain a relation to a universal Church and by distinguishing between the persons which give being to a Minister as to be their Minister and those which give being to him as to be a Minister but because neither the assertion nor the distinction are proved to have any sooting in Scripture therefore we passe them over CHAP. XIIII Wherein is shown that the Essence of the Ministerial Call doth not consist in Ordination OOur Brethren in their book called Jus Divin Mini. pag. 140. c. endeavour to prove that Ordination of Ministers is an Ordinance of Christ If Ordination be taken in a right sense by Ministers be nnderstood officer we can own the Assertion