A23636:113
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. 7. Nor are we pinched or narrowe• (as he insultingly if not triumphantly boasts) to prove our Call to the Ministry, notwithstanding we deny it to be immediate: nor yet are w• necessitated to prove it mediate by deriving i• from the Pope, who is Antichrist. We are no• straitened about a Succession, as if that only would make a Call mediate; (tho' we believe that Christ hath had a Church, and a Ministry continued always ever since the Apostles.) A man's Call to the Ministry i• either Inward or Outward; neither of thes• is Immediate: not the Inward Call, or th• persuasion which a man has that God calleth him; he hath it not by Revelation, but by Investigation, for which (besides his Inclination to it) he must prove his own Fitness for it, which must be by the mediate Application of himself to Scripture Rules, and judging of himself by them. His Outward Call i• also mediate, Viz. by men, on whom he ha• ⟨p. 55⟩no warrant to impose himself; and should he say he hath a Revelation for it, yet if he cannot prove it by Scriptures, G. K. believe's they have no Obligation to Credit him; whereas an immediate Call is neither of men nor by men. Gal. 1.1.
Sect. 7. Nor are we pinched or narrowe• (as he insultingly if not triumphantly boasts) to prove our Call to the Ministry, notwistanding we deny it to be immediate: nor yet are w• necessitated to prove it mediate by deriving i• from the Pope, who is Antichrist. We are no• straitned about a Succession, as if that only would make a Call mediate; (tho' we beleeve that Christ hath had a Church, and a Ministry continued alwaies ever since the Apostles.) A man's Call to the Ministry i either Inward or Outward; neither of thes is Immediate: not the Inward Call, or th persuasion which a man has that God calleth him; he hath it not by Revelation, but by Investigation, for which (besides his Inclination to it) he must prove his own Fitness for it, which must be by the mediate Application of himself to Scripture Rules, and judging of himself by them. His Outward Call i also mediate, Viz. by men, on whom he ha