A27014:230
Sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministry rebuked, and tolerated preaching of the gospel vindicated,…Sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministery rebuked, and tolerated preaching of the gospel vindicated,…
Sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministry rebuked, and tolerated preaching of the gospel vindicated, against the reasonings of a confident questionist, in a book called Toleration not abused; with counsel to the nonconformists, and petition to the pious conformists / by one that is consecrated to the sacred ministry, and is resolved not to be a deserter of it ...Sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministery rebuked, and tolerated preaching of the gospel vindicated, against the reasonings of a confident questionist, in a book called Toleration not abused; with counsil to the nonconformists, and petition to the pious conformists / by one that is consecrated to the sacred ministry, and is resolved not to be a deserter of it ...
London : s.n., 1672
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.
Jackson notably concludeth, that the reason why Martyrdom among Christians now, is rarer than among Unbelievers heretofore, and that more suffer not, as John Baptist did of Herod, is not because Great ones among Christians are not ready to do as Herod did, but because Ministers more omit their duty; The dearest duty is the most gainful.
2. I beseech you, Study harder that you may now so preach, as that you may convince men practically, that you are really useful & needful to the World, and that your silence is a real loss. They that now take your labours to be needless, are tempted to it by the weakness of too many. They can scarce find in their hearts to say so of any Eminent judicious Men; If when you have so long made the World believe ⟨p. 86⟩that silencing you is a most heinous sin, you shall now preach so rawly, so incongruously so injudiciously, & unskilfully, or coldly, as to confute your selves, & harden those that were for your silence, how great will your shame be? If you will be thought more useful than others think you, preach better now than others do. I really fear, lest meer Non-conformity have brought some into reputation as conscientious, who by weak preaching will lose the reputation of being judicious, more than their silence lost it. What now will you do better and more than others to prove that the Nation cannot spare you? I expect not great Judgement & Learning in all the younger sort, nor those that in these times have bin kept from study, by labouring to get their children Bread: but verily the injudiciousness of too many among you, is for a lamentation. But the grand calamity is, that the most injudicious are usually the most confident and self-conceited; and none so commonly give way to their ignorant zeal, to censure; back bite, and reproach others, as those that know not what they talk of. I impute not this to you as Non-Conformists, but as sons of Adam: for experience hath convinced me, that PRIDE OF UNDERSTANDING, when men have little to be proud of, or confidence of all mens own apprehensions, is the vice of Men, Women and Children, when they are ⟨p. 87⟩