A23636:98
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.
His Inference then, That Hence a man cannot be known to be a true Minister without •his discovery, is vain: he can by our Doctrine, which is according to Scripture, tho not by him which is altogether unscriptural; our People therefore are left in no perplexity about it.
His Inference then, That Hence a man •annot be known to be a true Minister without •his discovery, is vain: he can by our Doctrine, which is according to Scripture, tho not by him which is altogether unscriptural; our People therefore are left in no perplexity about it.
Sect. 2. His Assertion, That No man can be a true Christian without Divine Inspiration, is hither-to unproved by him, and disproved by us: and were it true (as it is otherwise) his Consequence, viz. That without the same none can be a Gospel Minister, is inconsequent: nor is it any absurdity to say, That a man may be a true Minister, and yet not a true Christian, i. e. he may be orderly called to the Office of the Ministry, though yet he may not be savingly brought home to God: There is therefore an Ambiguity in the word [True] which may be applied either to the Professors or to the Profession.
Sect. 3. He mistakes the Apostles meaning, when he distinguisheth between the ministers of the letter and of the spirit, 2. Cor. 3.3, 6. for that whole Context assures us, that by the Letter he means the Old Testament, by the Spirit the New Testament, and the Reason of his so Calling them, is ⟨p. 44⟩thence easy to be gathered.