A23636:102
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession…
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pennsylvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.
printed by Richard Pierce, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Introduction › Reflections on Chapt. 4th. of Ministerial Gifts &c.
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.
Sect. 4. And that these spiritual Gifts were discernible we deny not. There is a fair & easy Trial to be made of them: but his inference that therefore They could discern whether men were true or false Apostles & Teachers, sincere or Hypocrites, is to be better weighed: That false Apostles might be proved by their false Doctrine. is nothing dubious: That Hypocrites might discover themselves ⟨p. 45⟩by their fruits is also easy to acknowledge; but that in themselves, without any such Effects, and merely by their looks, there was or is a spirit of immediate discerning them, is utterly untrue, neither hath he given us one Rule to direct us in it. As to his Citation of 1. Cor. 4.19. to prove this discerning, it helps him not, for the Apostle speaks not there of their inward Grace, but of the fruits and effects of their Ministry, or of the Conformity of their Conversation to their Doctrine.
Sect. 4. And that these spiritual Gifts were discernable we deny not. There is a fair & easie Tryal to be made of them: but his inference that therefore They could discern whether men were true or false Aopstles & Teachers, sincere or Hypocrites, is to be better weighed: That false Apostles might be proved by their false Doctrine. is nothing dubious: That Hypocrites might discover themselves ⟨p. 45⟩by their fruits is also easy to acknowledge; but that in themselves, without any such Effects, and meerly by their looks, there was or is a spirit of immediate discerning them, is utterly untrue, neither hath he given us one Rule to direct us in it. As to his Citation of 1. Cor. 4.19. to prove this discerning, it helps him not, for the Apostle speaks not there of their inward Grace, but of the fruits and effects of their Ministry, or of the Conformity of their Conversation to their Doctrine.