A37042:410
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal…
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal divided into four parts ... : in each of which there are not a few choice and useful questions, very shortly and satisfyingly discussed and cleared / by ... Mr. James Durham ... who being dead (by this) yet speaketh ; and published by John Carstares ... ; to which is prefixed an excellent preface of famous Mr. Blair ... ; together with a table of the contents of the several chapters of each part.
Edinburgh: printed by Christopher Higgins, 1659
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.
1. When such a tentation setteth on upon a people,1 and beginneth to infect or hazard the infection of a particular Flock, or of many together, (for, the hazard of one, is the hazard of many in such a case, as is said) the Minister would look first to God as the great over-ruler, even of these things that are evil in the Churches; and he would consider if things be in good case betwixt God and him, especially in respect of his Ministry; for, such an infection in a Flock is a prime stroke upon a Minister, because the spreading thereof threateneth the unchurching of that Church and blasting of his Ministry, as, Rev. 2. is threatened against the Angel of Ephesus, and it never cometh but it hath with it a spirit and spate of bitterness against, and many crosses, faintings and vexations unto, the Minister; he is therefore soberly and composedly to look to God as his party, and is not to think, that such things come by guess, and spring out of the dust, nor from the corruptions of some giddy people only, but that there is a higher hand; without this there can be no right use made of such a dispensation; and this is it that should humble the Minister and make him serious, lest by the peoples sin, God may be smiting him: Paul hath this word when he speaketh of the Schisms and contentious debates that were in Corinth, 2 Cor. 12. 20, 21, I fear, saith he, lest when I come, my God will humble me amongst you, he did so construct of their miscarrying, as making for this humiliation: yet it is to be adverted, that it is not the Minister or Flock that the Lord is most displeased with, that always is so assaulted and shaken, although it be ever matter of humiliation.
1. When such a tentation setteth on upon a people,1 and beginneth to infect or hazard the infection of a particular Flock, or of many together, (for, the hazard of one, is the hazard of many in such a case, as is said) the Minister would look first to God as the great over-ruler, even of these things that are evil in the Churches; and he would consider if things be in good case betwixt God and him, especially in respect of his Ministery; for, such an infection in a Flock is a prime stroak upon a Minister, because the spreading thereof threatneth the unchurching of that Church and blasting of his Ministery, as,