A27014:302
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.
2. But nothing hath more plagued the Church than the Pride and Arrogancy of some of the Pastors, that think they are wronged if they may not Rule. Think not that this Spirit is only in Papists or Diocesans; Pride is the heart of the old man, and born in all; And doleful experience telleth how it surviveth in too many Antiprelatical Ministers, of humbling principles, and unhumbled souls. Do we not know that the Pride of some among ⟨p. 114⟩our selves, that must be All, and do all, till they have undone all, is the very thing, that hath silenced so many Ministers, and brought us to the state that we are now in? There are some men that must only be heard in all debates, and seldom hear; who are angry if they be gainsaid; who think that nimble Tongues, or popular Interest, or grey hairs, must pass for uncontrolled reason. And they study to make parties, and set up their own Dictates, by passion or indirect contrivances: They can seldom debate a cause, but their spleen swelleth against those that say not as they say, but contradict them, and they secretly back-bite them to blast their names! They note those that follow them, and those that oppose them, and make two parties of them. And all cometh from the common sin of man-kind, An unhumbled overconfident understanding.
These men must first be meekly desired to be quiet, and to let you be quiet, and to remember that Non-conformists are not for self-obtruding Prelacy; And that they are Brethren and not Lords: If that will not do, try by Prayer to prevail with God, for more of humility and peace in his Ministers. If that will not do, silently bear their importunity with neglect: If that do not, Meet without them:
3. And yet there is as great a mischief as any of these to be avoided also: Which is the self-conceitedness and Pride of the younger and the more injudicious Sort of Ministers, hindering them from following the Counsels of wiser experienced men. For though we must have no arrogant Lordly Usurpers among us, yet all that know any thing must confess, that in all professions wise and eximious men are few: It is but to few Divines that God giveth clear and accurate judgments; And undoubtedly there is a three-fold Superiority and submission of divine obligation,