A73023:186
M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in…
M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in Stourbridge Fair. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignity of the ministry: delivered publicly in the University of Cambridge. With a preface prefixed touching the publishing of all such works of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the particulars [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word.M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in Sturbridge Faire. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignitie of the ministrie: deliuered publiquely in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. With a preface præfixed touching the publishing of all such workes of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the perticulers [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word.
London: printed by T. Creede for William Welby, 1605
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.
The truth hereof is manifest, by the experience 1of all ages, wherein it is strange to observe, how few men of any sort, especially of the better sort, affect the calling of a Minister: and which is more strange, how few of those that are Ministers in name and title, do deserve these honourable names of an Angel, and an Interpreter, and the truth is too manifest in common practise, to insist much upon it: rather therefore let us see the reasons of it, and they be these principally.
The truth hereof is manifest, by the experience 1of all ages, wherein it is strange to obserue, how fewe men of any sort, especially of the better sort, affect the calling of a Minister: and which is more strange, howe fewe of those that are Ministers in name and title, doe deserue these honourable names of an Angel, and an Interpreter, and the truth is too manifest in common practise, to insist much vpon it: rather therefore let vs see the reasons of it, and they be these principally.
- 11. The truth hereof.
First, the Contempt that lieth on that 1calling, it being always hated, by wicked and profane men, because it discovers their filthiness, and unmasks their hypocrisy: 2and their doctrine ofttimes is a fretting corrosive to their conscience, that they cannot welter, and wallow so quietly, and secretly in their sins, as otherwise they would, therefore is it that they spurn both against the calling, and the men, and watch them narrowly, and take hold of their least infirmities, thereby to disgrace them: judging that to cast contempt on that calling, is to remove shame from their own shameful courses: nor is it possible, but that they should thus hate this calling, inasmuch as they hate so deadly both that law and Embassage which they bring, and that GOD, whose Ambassadors they are.