A09445:61
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.
1First, if every true Minister must be ⟨image 14⟩Gods Interpreter to the people, and the peoples to God, then hence we learn that every one, who either is or intends to be a minister, must have that tongue of the learned, whereof is spoken in Isaiah,2 where the Prophet saith (first in the name of Christ, as hear the great Prophet and teacher of his Church, and secondarily in the name of himself, and all true Prophets while the world endureth) The Lord God hath given me a tongue of the learned, that I should know to speak a word in season to him that is weary: where note the weary soul, or troubled conscience, must have • word in season spoken to him for his comfort, and that cannot be spoken without the tongue of the learned, and lastly that tongue of the learned must be given of God: Now to have this tongue of the learned, which Isaiah speaks of▪ what is it but to be this Interpreter, which the holy Ghost here saith a minister must be: But to be able to speak with this tongue is, first to be furnished with […] and learning. Secondly, with divine knowledge, as far as it may by outward means be taught from man to man: but besides these, he ⟨image 15⟩that will speak this tongue aright, must […] inwardly learned, and taught by the spirit of God: the two first he must learn from men, but the third from God, a true Minister must be inwardly taught by the spiritual scholar, and the holy Ghost: Saint John in Revelation must take the book,3 that is the Scripture, and eat it, and when he hath eaten it, then (saith the Angel) he must go preach to nations, tongues, people, and to Kings: which was done not that Saint John had not eaten that book, in the coming down of the holy Ghost, 4the very end of whose coming was to teach them spiritually: but that in him Christ might teach his Church for ever, that no minister is fit to preach, to nations and to Kings, until they •ae eaten the book of God: that is, till after and besides all the learning that man can teach them, they be also ught by the spirit of God himself, and this teaching is it that makes a man a tr interpreter, and without this he cannot be, for […] can a man be Gods interpreter to his people unless he knwe the mind of God himself, and how can he know the mind of God, but by the teaching,