A09445:100
Of the calling of the ministry two treatises, describing the duties and dignities of…Of the calling of the ministerie two treatises, discribing the duties and dignities of…
Of the calling of the ministry two treatises, describing the duties and dignities of that calling. Delivered publicly in the University of Cambridge, by Master Perkins. Taken then from his mouth, and now diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word with a preface prefixed touching the publishing of Master Perkins his works, & a catalogue of all such particulars thereof, as are to be expected.Of the calling of the ministerie two treatises, discribing the duties and dignities of that calling. Delivered publickly in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, by Maister Perkins. Taken then from his mouth, and now dilligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word with a preface prefixed touching the publishing of Maister Perkins his workes, & a catalogue of all such particulars thereof, as are to bee expected.
London: printed by I. Roberts for William Welby, 1605
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
If an Angel, an Interpreter come to a man and declare unto him his righteousness, the•• (mark the connection) then will GOD ha•• mercy on him, and will say, Deliver him, &c. Whence comes this blessing? from this promise of God. If then other callings will challenge ordinarily the same blessing, then must they have the same promise. Besides, other Christians being private men, though they be sanctified, & have a good measure of knowledge, yet have they not the same spirit of discerning that godly Ministers have: nor can so fully and truly judge, when a man hath repented, when not; and therefore cannot so truly pronounce the sentence of the Law or Gospel, nor have they ability ordinarily by their good conference, and Christian counsel, to con••rt a soul, but to confirm one converted: but ⟨image 31⟩that power ordinarily belongs to the public Ministry of the word, therefore it followeth, that ordinarily they have not the power to pronounce the sentence of binding or loosing upon any man: I confess, in times or places, where no Minister can be had, God blesseth the labours of private men, that have knowledge, sometimes even for the converting of a man to God, & for comforting him at the hour of death, and gives a virtue and power to that sentence which they shall pronounce one upon another's repentance: but as this is extraordinary, & in the want of ordinary Ministers, so in that case a private man of knowledge & godliness, is made a Minister for that time to himself, or to another, even as a private man in cases of extreme danger, when no magistrate is present, is made a magistrate himself to defend his own life. So then as in want of a Magistrate, the sword of the magistracy is put into the hand of a private man: so in the want of Ministers, the keys of the Ministry are committed and put into the hands of private men, (as in days of persecution) that then they may with comfort admonish and advise: and with ⟨image 32⟩power pronounce mercy and forgiveness one unto another, upon their true repentance. Yet always remember that in so doing, a private man is as a Minister for that time, and in that case: but ordinarily, (and always in settled Churches) this power pertaineth to the Ministry, & is theirs alone by ordination; and to them belongeth the promise and the blessing, that when he hath declared to a man his righteousness, then God will have mercy on him.