A27014:328
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.
III. Join lovingly with your Brethren, as Servants of one Lord, to promote one work. Look not strange at them, if they desire your friendship; Yea, if any of them prove censorious and peevish, if you are the more patient, condescending, and forward to love and unity, and to further the peoples good, I shall ⟨p. 128⟩take you for better men than them; And so will all that judge by the fruits of the Spirit. Try this way instead of wrath, and I dare undertake that it shall more maintain your honour, with your peace of Conscience.
III. Joyn lovingly with your Brethren, as Servants of one Lord, to promote one work. Look not strange at them, if they desire your friendship; Yea, if any of them prove censorious and pievish, if you are the more patient, condescending, and forward to love and unity, and to further the peoples good, I shall ⟨p. 128⟩take you for better men than them; And so will all that judge by the fruits of the Spirit. Try this way instead of wrath, and I dare undertake that it shall more maintain your honour, with your peace of Conscience.
Brethren, our great account is near: The Judge is at the door: It will be then comfortable to give a true account of Ministerial fidelity, and hear, Well done good and faithful servant; rather than to hear, We have beaten our fellow Servants, or unfaithfully kept the Key of knowledge. The souls of your charge are many and precious: It is a hard and great work to cure one: to make one Ignorant person understand, one proud person humble, one infidel to believe, one worldling to become Heavenly, or one sensualist to be a mortified Saint: What help then do you need; what labour is requisite, to bring a Parish of many hundred or thousand persons to this change! As our weakness must make us all cry out, Who is sufficient for these things, so when one man hath ten mens work to do, he may well say, He is insufficient: In the first three Centuries, when one Congregation had a Bishop with a College or Company of fellow Presbyters, they were not too many, though one only could preach at once. I speak not uncertainties: We have tried the Pastoral work; and know by experience that a Parish of a thousand (much more of many