Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	king_n	lord_n	prophet_n	5,880	5	7.0867	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45328	An apologie for the ministry and its maintenance wherein is set forth the necessity, dignity and efficacy of a gospel-ministry against the Socinians, Swenckfieldians, Weigelians, Anabaptists, Enthusiasts, Familists, Seekers, Quakers, Levellers, Libertines and the rest of that rout ... / by Tho. Hall.	Hall, Thomas, 1610-1665.; Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1660 (1660)	Wing H425A; ESTC R28055	88,780	120

such is the tenderness and softness of the most that they had rather rot in their sinnes than to be sharply reproved although that be for salvation But this is an infallible Argument of a wicked man and a heart full of putrifying fores not to be able to abide the salt of sound Reproof witness Ahab 1 Kings 18. ●4 Amaziah Amos 7. 10. and Faelix Acts 24. 25. No wonder then if they have filthy hearts and stinking lives who studiously put away from them this salt withdraw themselves from this Ministry As for us Brethren in the ministry let us not faint but go on with chear and courage thanking God that we are worthy to be hated of the world for it is a good proof of our sincerity to be so entreated And if this be to be vile to season the corrupt world with the savoury Word of God Oh that we might be yet more vile let us love study preach sound doctrin which although it be sharp yet its savoury although it wound the conscience yet it will heal although it be bitter in the mouth yet in the Conclusion will prove sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Although the Ploughshare of the Gospell touch upon our very soules yet let it be welcome if by this means our spirituall weeds and thistles may be rooted out Christs Spouse is a Dove Cant. 5. 2. Now Doves love salt exceedingly Oh then ye Christians fly to the Congregations where this Salt is to be had as doves to the windows CHAP. VII More Corrolaries issuing from the Doctrine THe Third Use is for Consolation It is clear that Sathan does persecute the sound and sincere Ministers of the Gospell with all might and main knowing them to be the main enemies of his kingdome that seek by all means to destroy it according to what was prophesied of them Luke 10. 18. them therefore he assails with reproaches persecution perdition fire sword banishment hunger thirst and death it self He encourageth his Agents against them as the King of Syria did his Captains 1 Kings 22. 31. Fight neither against great nor small save onely against the King of Israel For the King being conquered the souldiers flie the Shepherd being smitten the sheep are scattered Let not us dream of better usage from him and his than Christ and his disciples found from them The Apostles were counted by the world as the filth of the world the off-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. 12. men unworthy of the society of men worthy to be exterminated the world and to be troden under foot Paul is counted a babler Acts 17. 18. a pestilent fellow nay if we translate the word properly the Plague it self Act. 24. 5. a man unfit to live Act. 22. 22. Christ himself was every where entertained with scoffs beaten with whips assaulted with stones and at last put to an ignominious death But let us quietly endure all these Afflictions and patiently undergo all that men or devills can load with in hope of the glory that is to be revealed Let wanto●● mock let malice insult 〈…〉 world whe● it's teeth at us the devill smite his hands at us Christ Iesus holdeth the starrs in his right hand and will certainly maintain and preserve them For he is not only the author but also the Protector of the Ministry and he hath promised safety to the persons and successe to the pains of his Ministers Ier. 15. 20. Luk. 21. 15. This is shadowed out by Christ'● right ●and For the right hand denotes love Hence Iacob call● his yongest sonne Benjamin or the son of his right hand Gen. 35 ●8 Because he was as dear to him as a mans right hand uses to be to him It also denotes and promises protection and the greatest care Ps. 17. 7. The Ministers of Christ are his e●bassadors Now embassadors are inviolable by the law of all Nations and injuryes and indignityes done to them use to find a sharp revenge If David so severely revenged the injury offered to his Embassadors by the Ammonites who shaved their beards and cut their garments by the halfes with how much sorer vengeance shall Christ repay the greater reproaches and indignityes with which wicked men entreat his Ministers VVho ever curseth Father or Mother shall dye the death Lev. 20. 9. Christ's Ministers are spirituall fathers to regenerate men as has been already proved and spirituall Mothers travailing in birth till Christ be formed in their people Gal. 4. 19. Nay it is evident by palpable demonstrations that God hath revenged the quarrell of his violated embassadors He hath broken prelaticall powers and hereticall Councells proclaiming warre against his Ministers He hath reproved Kings for their sakes saying Do my prophets no harm Ps. 105. 14 15. He will smite thorough the loins of all that rise up against them and hate them that they rise not again Dent. 33. 11. Witnesse Gods dealing with Pa●hur who persecuted the prophet Ieremiah Ier. 20 3 4. the Children that mockt the prophet Elisha 2 Kin. 2. 23 24. King Saul who had slain many of the Lord's prophets himself was miserably slain at Mount Gilboa Korah Dathan and Abiram pay'd dearly for their conspiracy against Moses and Aaron Numb 16. Ieroboam's hand which he stretched out against the man of God dryed up 1 Kin. 13. 4. Asa imprisoned Hanani the Lord's seer and he dyes of the gowte notwithstanding all his Physicians 2. Chro. 16. 10 12. Ioa●h commanded his servants to stone Zechariah the son of Ieho●ada the priest and for the blood of the same Zechariah did his servants kill him upon his bed 2. Chro. 24. Elymas withstood Paul and he is struck blind upon it Act 13. We know the sad desolation of Ierusalem that had killed the prophets and stoned God ' s Ministers and what befell the whole b●dy of the Iewish people who killed the Lord of life and evill entreated his Apostles any body can tell It is done unto them according to the sentence which themselves past upon such offenders Mat. 21. 41. Now if God spared not Ierusalem because of the injury done to his Ministers 2. Chron. 36. 15 16. 17. How shall he spare the haters and despisers both of his Ministers and Ministry Shall not the like causes produce the like effect Is not God allwayes like himself And if the man that refused to hearken unto the priest standing to minister before the Lord was sentenced to dye by God's law Deut. 17. 12. what more heavy doome shall they undergoe that scorn contemn reproach the Ministers of Christ When God would expresse a people given up to all wickednesse he says of them that they are like to them that strive with the priest Hos. 4. 4. you may read the greatnesse of the sinne and the proportionablenesse of the judgment Ier. 20. 11. 1 Thes 2. 16. whosoever shall neglect or despise the sacred ministry or the faithfull Ministers thereof let him know that he despises Christ himself who gives both the gift

although it lye in the dust for the present yet he will not let it be choakt there But to the purpose They that are sensible of the weightinesse of the ministeriall calling will not run upon their own heads nay they will abide thrusting Mat. 9. 37. Moses undertook the charge of Gods people with reluctancy and Ieremiah after many excuses and so do they that know they are about a work of continuall pains inevitable danger and implacable hatred And therefore we have Moses sent by God Exod. 3 10. Aaron s●parated that he should sanctify the most holy things 1. Chr. 23. 13. The prophets called the Apostles chosen Ioh. 6. 70. In a word all Ministers are sent Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent That is they can not lawfully preach For although it be evident that many doe preach that are not sent yet by what right by what authority with what good conscience can they preach except they be sent No one can undertake and exercise the publick employment of the Ministry except he can say with the Apostle that he is made a Minister of the Gospell Eph. 3. 7. he must stay for a call lest that be charged upon us Ier. 23. 21. I have not sent them yet they ranne Which is yet further plain from the practise of all in old and New Testament times who diligently expected and observed a mission or call to this sacred employment No man of them took this honour to himself that is rightly and safely Heb. 5. 4. That of Luther therefore deserves golden letters Sit still till God call Nay although thou wert wiser than Solomon or Daniel yet if thou be not called flye the office as hell it self and speak not a word If God need thee he will call thee if he call thee not thy knowledge will not burst thee c. For God doth never prosper the labours of them whom he never called to labour For although they may preach things in themselves wholsome yet they do not heal things in themselves profitable yet they do not profit the people But on the contrary great hath been the successe of those that have gone at God's sending and preacht at Gods bidding Away with the unfixed Anabaptists then who determine any self-ordeiner of what condition and calling soever to the pulpit promiscuously without any proofe of a lawfull call and by this means have brought in a kind of barbarous disorder and babylonish confusion into the Church of Christ which confusion God abhorrs as appears by his reiterated complaints Ier. 14. 14. and 23. 21 32. and 27. 15. Christ reproves the Angell of Thyatira for suffering Iezabel who called her self a proph●●esse but was none to teach and to seduce many Rev. 2. 20. God hath also punished such usurpers with exemplary judgments witnesse Uzzah 1 Sam. 6. 6 7 Uzziah the King 2 Chro. 26. 16 17. Korah Dathan and Abiram who for offering to arrogate to themselves the priesthood were swallowed up alive into a grave made without hands Numb 16. 10 32. 4. Inference follows If there be a Ministry then there must be Schools of learning and Universityes If the end be allowed the means conducing to that end must not be denied It is now necessary that they that are intended for the sacred Ministry be instructed and principled in the Schools those Nurseries for the Church As an Orchard though it be excellently prun'd manur'd and managed and set with the choicest and fruitfullest trees in the world wil decay and at length come to nothing except there be a Nursery of young plants which may be placed and succeed in the roome of the barren and dead trees So the sacred Ministry cannot long endure sale and firme except there be some formed educated instructed in the Schools and fitted to succeed in the employment For Ministeriall gifts are not now adayes inspired into men immediately and miraculously but mediately gotten by reading meditation study and diligent pains as appeares 1 Tim. 4. 13 15. Hence it hath been the care of pious Princes to found endow and maintain Schools and Universities in which young Students might be seasoned with and educated in piety and good Learning who might afterwards be Champions to defend the truth and put to flight Errours and Heresies And therefore let it be the care of all who have power in their hands strongly to defend and diligently to preserve the Revenues and Priviledges of Schools and Universities that the glory of our Church may not fade but be still more and more glorious unless you will be worse than the uncircumcised Philistines who are observed to have spared the Colledge of the Prophets Isa. 10. 5. Away then with Familists Anabaptists VVeigelians c. who rail against Learning and Learned men at this rate They are unsit for the Ministry who are trained in Schools and taught of men There is no knowledge of Christ in Universities They are the Nurseries of wickedness the Plagues of the Common-wealth Oh the Aegyptian darkness that hath overspread the mindes of men Oh Impudence like that of Pope Paul the second who condemned them all for Hereticks not onely that were Students but whose hatred of Learning was so deadly tha● he pronounced all them Hereticks that either in earnest or in jest should name an University who therefore commanded the Romans not to suffer their children to converse in Books or to study for Learning saying it were enough if they could write and read These men are not more like this Paul the Pope than he was unlike to Paul the Apostle who himself was brought up at the feet of learned Gamaliel and commends Reading Study and Meditation to his Son Timothy as you saw before But if there be found the seeds of sinne in these Seminaries let them be purged and not spoyled refined and not consumed made better and not unmade Let corruption be drained abuses be taken away and the use of them remain 5. It appears hence that that is a sound and savoury Ministry which bites and pie●ceth the consciences of the hearers The Masse indeed is toothlesse and cannot bite but Salt is of a b●ing and sharp nature Nothing torments a sinner like the free and ●incere Preaching of the Word Hence it comes to pass that the sincere and savoury Preachers do purchase to themselves all contempt reproach and hatred which gave occasion to Luther who knew well enough what salt preaching was to define preaching thus It is a deriving of the hatred of the whole world upon ones self Hence it was that the world hated and persecuted Christ and his Disciples because they testified of it that the works thereof were evill Iohn 7. 7. and 15. 19. The Gospell because of its sharpness has alwayes been the scorn and derision of the stinking world requiring the Mortification of the flesh self-deniall and other things unpleasant to corrupt nature And although these sharp Corrosives these bitter Pills do heal and purge yet

need a savo●y and ●●ving Ministry to keep us that we die not of this Sickness and to restore us again to pe●fect 〈…〉 Nay we are all by nature distanced from the mercy of God are destitute of all i●●ate strength whe●by to help our se●ves Nay we are not onely sick and unable to restore our selves to health but even dead in sin Eph. 2. 1. and therefore b● sure unable to restore our selve to life and so we are obnox●●us to the hea●●●st wrath of tl● M●migh●y God And does not this sad condition call for A●istry of Reconciliation 5. ●he Necessity of a Ministry appears by the sad condition of them that are destitute of the preaching of the Word as may be exemplified in the I●ws sometime wanting it and the Heathens at this day without a teaching Priest and without the true God are put together 2 Chron. 15. 3. And the Heathens that want this Ministry are without God in the world without Christ without hope Eph. 2. 12. When Moses the Iews Minister was a way but five or six weeks the people presently become idolatrous Exod. 32. 1. After Paul's departure grievous Woolves are seen entring in amongst the people Act. 20. 29. where there is no vision the people perish saies Solomon prov 29 18. Where there is no Ministry of the Word we may exspect whatever evi●l is exprest or signified by the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate perish 1. Denudation or stripping off the true and saving knowledg of God faith love with the whole Armour of God as also of Divine safeguard and protection 2. Rebellion viz. against God and against men 3. Cessation from the study of good learning performance of good duties and practice of good works 4. Separation not onely from God by Apostasie but one from another by cruel enmities and carnal Errors as sheep having no Shepherd and as when there was no King in Israel so if there should be no Preacher in Israel every one would do what seemed good in his own eyes Nay I doubt not to say if Israel were nothing else but Kings yet if there were no Preacher they would all do so We see some good fruits which God is pleased to hand over to us by the Ministry some sad fruits of the want of it and some Arguments evincing the necessity and efficacy thereof What remains but that we maintain and stick to this Ministry love and reverence the Ministers at least for their work sake CHAP. IV. The Doctrine is applyed in an Vse of Information THe Corrolaryes issuing out of the bowells of this Doctrine thus explicated and demonstrated will serve for Information Instruction Consolation Reprehen●ion Exhortation 1. For Information There is then a Ministry in the Church To what purpose are all these Names and honourable Titles if there be no such Order as Ministers in the Church Which Order is not of a moneths a years or an Ages standing but must be contemporary with the world even in its last Ages There is and shall be a Ministry in the world so long as there shall be a world for it to be in which we shall prove by Arguments 1. Confirming the truth 2. Infirming and confuting the Cavills of the Anabaptists 1. It is plain by those Evangelicall Prophesies and Promises by which God hath made himself a debtor to his Church He standeth engaged to his people in all ages as well as to those of the Primitive times to give them Pastors according to his own heart who shall feed them with knowledg and understanding Isa. 30. 20. Ierem. 3. 15. and 23. 4. Ezech. 44. 23. 2. It is plain by the Promise of Christs presence and help with the Ministry of his Word to the end of the world the enrollment of which Promise we may see Matth. 28 20. Loe I am with you not a day nor a year but alway even unto the end of the world Although it may be shaken sore in this world yet it shall not be pluckt up by the roots although many may and do gnash their teeth against it yet shall they not be able to devour it for Christ will build his Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it or its Ministry Neither did our Saviour make this Promise only though chiefly to his Apostles but to all his Ministers also in generall that either in times past have been to us who now are and to them that shall be after us even to the end of the world 3. The Offices of Ministers and the works of the Ministry shall be perpetuall Therefore shall the Ministry it self last also The Preaching of the Word and the Administration of the Sacraments are Offices of Ministers and works of the Ministry but these have a long-liv●d Char●●r a promise of perpetuity and an injunction that they be perpetuated A Ministry was given not for one age but for all ages ●ot for the Edification of one man but of the whole body of Christ the Church Eph. 4. 11 12. The Administration of Sacraments must extend it self to the utmost times and last age of the Church Matth. 28. 19 20. 1 Cor. 11. 2● Now whilest the Office continues they must needs continue that execute it Where there is any Religion there must be some set apart to maintain it Baal himself if he be a God must have his Priests The same may be found in Scripture concerning the fictitious crew of all those devilish De●●ies which the Phili●●ines Egyp●●ans M●abites and Ammonites worshipped 4. It is plain from the necessity of this Calling VV●●hout faith no Salvation Iohn 13. 1● VVithout the preaching of the word no faith Rom. 10. 17. VVrithout Preachers no preaching and without a Ministry there can be no Preachers For How shall they preach except they be sent So then without the ministry and Ministers no Salvation So long as there shall be any to be saved God will provide some by whose hands he will save them 5. Whilest there shall be a Church there must be a ministry of the Church But God will have a Church militant upon earth whilest ●un and moon endure 〈◊〉 31. 36. Matth 16. 18. Eph. 3. 21. It is necessary therefore that as there ever hath been a ministry because there ever hath been some ●●●ct so there should be a ministry for ever because there shall ever be some Elect who●e Salvation shall be carryed on thereby that it should be commensu●able with the Churches necessi●ies Whilest God shall have upon earth a Church to be built a Vineyard to be planted a field to be tilled a Flock to be ●ed an harvest to be reaped and soules to be saved so long will he have builders planters tillers shepherds reapers Saviours and a Ministry for the accomplishing of these things see Act. 1● 10 11. 6. It appears in that it is said to be the priviledg and is rep●esented as the Property of the New Ierusalem to have no Temple in it Rev. 21.