A27014:304
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.
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,
1. Of Subjects to men in Office over them.
2. Of the younger to the Elder.
3. Of them that have less knowledge, to them that have more. For Office and Seniority are but formalities, did they not suppose an eximious fitness by Superior knowledge. If therefore God endow here and there one man with extraordinary judgement, it is the wisdom and happiness of the times to know him, and to kindle their Torches at his fire: So did one Luther, one Melanchthon, one Calvin, one Erasmus, one Jewel, Whitakers, Reignolds, Davenant, &c. profit many. You may go a hundred miles amongst the less judicious sort, and miss of that light which one Amesius ne Camero, one Strangius, one le Blanch &c. could show the