A09445:94
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.
Then will he have mercy upon him.
Then will he haue mercy vppon him.
The fourth general part of this description,1 is the blessing which God giveth to the labours and function of a true Minister: then that is when a man by the preaching of the law, is brought to true humiliation and repentance, and by the preaching of the Gospel, to true faith in the Messiah, then will he (that is, God) have mercy on him (that is, on the penitent and believing sinner.) Behold here the admirable sympathy, and the cooperation of God, and the Ministers office. Man preacheth, and God blesseth: Man worketh on the hart, and God gives grace: a Minister declares unto man his righteousness, and God saith so be it, he shall be righteous: a Minister pronounceth mercy to a penitent sinner, and forthwith God hath mercy on him. Here we see the great and glorious account which God makes, of the word of his Ministers, by them truly taught and rightly applied, namely, that he as it were tieth his blessing unto it, for ordinarily till a man know his righteousness, by the means of an Interpreter, God hath not mercy on him, but as soon as he doth ⟨image 29⟩know it, then as we see here God will have mercy on him, and will say, deliver him &c. This is no small honour to Ministers, & to their Ministry, that God himself gives a blessing unto it, and worketh when they work, and as it were stayeth waiting, when they declare unto a man his righteousness, and then hath he mercy on him: so powerful and so effectual, is the word spoken by a Minister of God. This is that which Christ avoucheth,2 whatsoever you bind in earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose in earth, shall be loosed in h•aven. Will you know the meaning hereof? read Saint John, whose sins soever you remit, 3