A57976:393
A peaceable and temperate plea for Pauls presbytery in Scotland, or, A modest and…A peaceable and temperate plea for Pauls presbyterie in Scotland, or, A modest and…
A peaceable and temperate plea for Pauls presbytery in Scotland, or, A modest and brotherly dispute of the government of the Church of Scotland wherein our discipline is demonstrated to be the true apostolic way of divine truth, and the arguments on the contrary are friendly dissolved, the grounds of separation and the independency [sic] of particular congregations, in defence of ecclesiastical presbyteries, synods, and assemblies, are examined and tried / by Samuel Rutherfurd ...A peaceable and temperate plea for Pauls presbyterie in Scotland, or, A modest and brotherly dispute of the government of the Church of Scotland wherein our discipline is demonstrated to be the true apostolick way of divine truth, and the arguments on the contrary are friendly dissolved, the grounds of separation and the indepencie [sic] of particular congregations, in defence of ecclesiasticall presbyteries, synods, and assemblies, are examined and tryed / by Samuell Rutherfurd ...
London: printed for John Bartlet, 1642London: printed for Iohn Bartlet, 1642
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.
8. Argument If the Church-worship must be forsaken,1 for the wickedness of the fellow-worshippers, then the public ordinances of word and sacraments, should have their worth and dignity from the persons worshipping: as preaching should be more the word of God, ⟨p. 147⟩the holier the preacher be; and less the word of God, the less holy that he be, and not the word of God at all, if the preacher be an unwashen and an unhallowed Priest (whereof there are too many, alas, in our age) But this were absurd, the word hath all the essential dignity and holiness from God, and preaching and baptizing are true pastoral acts and means of salvation, so the men be called by God and the Church having their power from Christ Jesus, whose ordinances they are, what ever be the mens moral carriage. I grant it is more unsavoury, and worketh the less, if the man be an ungracious slave of sin, but that is by accident and from our corruption who cannot look to Gods word, and receive it as his word, but we must look who he is, a good, or a bad man who carrieth the letters; and what vessel it be that beareth Gods-treasure, if of gold, or of earth.2 This argument Augustine presseth against the Donatists.
8. Argument If the Church-worship must be forsaken,1 for the wickednesse of the fellow-worshippers, then the publike ordinances of word and sacraments, should have their worth and dignity from the persons worshipping: as preaching should be more the word of God, ⟨p. 147⟩the holier the preacher be; and lesse the word of God, the lesse holy that he be, and not the word of God at all, if the preacher be an unwashen and an unhallowed Priest (whereof there are too many, alas, in our age) But this were absurd, the word hath all the essentiall dignity and holinesse from God, and preaching and baptizing are true pastorall acts and meanes of salvation, so the men be called by God and the Church having their power from Christ Jesus, whose ordinances they are, what ever be the mens morall carriage. I grant it is more unsavoury, and worketh the lesse, if the man be an ungracious slave of sinne, but that is by accident and from our corruption who cannot looke to Gods word, and receive it as his word, but we must looke who he is, a good, or a bad man who carrieth the letters; and what vessell it be that beareth Gods-treasure, if of gold, or of earth.