Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A26980
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One sheet for the ministry against the malignants of all sorts by Richard Baxter.
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Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing B1335; ESTC R13471
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14,605
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17
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One Sheet for the MINISTRY Against the MALIGNANTS Of all sorts By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Book-seller in Kederminster Anno Dom. 1657. One Sheet for the Ministry Against the Malignants of all sorts AS mans first felicity was attended with the malice of the Serpent so is the wonderful work of his Restauration The promise of Reconciliation by the seed of the woman is joyned with a proclamation of open war with the Serpent and his seed The enmity was hottest in the Devil and his seed against Christ himself who bare and overcame it and is become the Captain of our salvation that his Church may overcome by his Cross and Strength and Conduct The next degree of malice is against his Officers the most eminent the General Officers had the hottest assault and his ordinary Officers bear the next That we shall be hated of all men for the Name of Christ Mat. 10. 22. is still verified to our experience Not only the openly prophane abâ—oâ—â—â— for our work-sake but fals-hearted professors that turn from the truth do presently turn Malignants against the Ministry and many weak ones that are better minded are dangerously seduced into a guilt of the sedition To all these I here proclaim in the name and word of the Lord Numb. 16. 26. Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye be consumed in all their sins Which I shall now open to you 1. The office of the Ministry is an undoubted Ordinance of God to continue in the Church to the end of the world No man can pretend that they ceased with the Apostles for it is Gods will that ordinary fixed Presbyters shall be ordained in every Church Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 5. 1 Tim. 3. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 2. And Pastors and Teachers are appointed for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry and edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to a perfect man Ephes. 4. 11 12 13. A Ministry authorized to Disciple the Nations baptize and teach them is instituted by Christ as King and Saviour and have his Promise to be with them alway to the end of the world Matth. 28. 18 19 20. The same necessity and work continueth still souls are born and bred in darkness and how shall they be saved without believing or believe without hearing or hear without preaching or we preach without sending Rom. 10. 13 14 15. There is a clearer word in the Gospel for the Ministry then the Magistracy though enough for both Our own call I shall speak of anon 2. These Malignants set themselves against the Principal members of the Body of Christ that are in it as the eyes and hands to the natural body 1. Cor. 12. 16 19 27 29. Ephes. 4. 11 15. The Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. The Over seers of the flock that is purchased with Christs blood Acts 20. 28. They are the chief members 1. in Office 2. Ordinarily in gifts for edification of the body 3. And in Grace Now a wound in the stomack or liver is more mortal to the body then in the hand and the loss of an eye or hand is worse then the loss of an ear 3. These Malignants are therefore principally enemies to the Church it self They take on them to be only against the Ministers but it will prove most against the people and whole Church If they sinite the Shepherds the sheep will be scattered How can they more surely ruin Christs Family then by casting out the Stewards that must Rule and give the children their meat in due season even milk to the babes and stronger meat to them of full age Heb. 5. 12 13 14. Luke 12. 42. Mat. 24. 45. What readier way to ruine the Schools of Christ then by casting out the Teachers that he hath appointed under him Or to ruine his Kingdom then to reject his Officers Or to wrong the body then to cut off the hands and pull out the eyes or to destroy the principal parts Was it not Ministers that planted the Churches and converted the world and have ever born off the assaults of enemies where was there ever Church on earth that continued without a Minister The great Kingdom of Nubia fell from Christianity for want of Preachers The Nations that have the weakest and fewest Ministers have the least of Christianity and those that have the most and ablest Ministers have the most flourishing state of Religion All over the world the Church doth rise or fall with the Ministry Cut down the Pillars and the building falls He is blind that sees not what would become of the Church were it not for the Ministry Who should teach the ignorant or rebuke the obstinate explain the word of truth and stop the mouthes of proud gain-sayers What work would heresies and division and prophanness make if these banks were cut down when all that can be done is still too little It must needs therefore be meet enmity against the Church that makes men malignant against the Ministry 4. The design of the maligners of the Ministry is plainly against the Gospel and Christianity it self They take the readiest way in the world to bring in Heathenism Infidelity and Atheism which Christianity hath so far banished For it is the Ministry that Christ useth to bring in light and drive and keep out this damnable darkness Acts 26. 17 18. I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light c. Why are so many Nations Infidels Mahometans and Idolaters but for want of Ministers to preach the Gospel to them These Malignants therefore would take down the Sun and banish Christianity out of the world 5. And they hinder the conversion of particular souls and so are the cruellest wretches on earth Though an Angel must be sent to Cornelius it is not to be instead of a Preacher but to send him to a Preacher Acts 10. Though Christ would wonderfully appear to Saul it is to send him to Ananias for instruction Acts 9. Though the Jaylor must feel an Earth-quake and see miracles it is but to prepare him for the Ministers words Acts 16. Philip must be carried by an Angel to expound to an Eunuch the word that must convert him The Ministry is Gods instituted setled way by which he will convert and save the world as truly as the light is the natural way by which he will corporally enlighten them Acts 2. 18. 1 Tim. 4. 16. Matth. 5. 14. Rom 10. 14. Do you think so many souls would be converted if the Ministry were down Do you not see that the very contempt of them that the scorns of the ungodly and opposition of Malignant Apostates have occasioned doth hinder most of the ignorant and prophane from receiving the saving benefit of the Gospel How many millions of souls would these wretches sweep away to hell if
they had their will while thousands are in damnation for want of the light they would take it from you that you might go there also Do you not understand the meaning of these words against Christs Ministers Why the meaning is this They make a motion to the people of the Land to go to Hell with one consent and to hate those that are appointed to keep them out of it They would take the bread of life from your mouthes They are attempting an hundred times more cruelty on you then Herod on the Jews when he killed the children or the Irish that murdered the Protestants by thousands as the soul is of greater worth then the body 6. These Malignants against the Ministry are the flat enemies of Christ himself and so he will take them and use them He that would root out the inferiour Magistrates is an enemy to the Soveraign and he that is against the Officers of the Army is an enemy to the General Christ never intended to stay visibly on earth and to Teach and Rule the world immediately in person but he that is the King will Rule by his Officers and he that is Prophet will Teach us by his Officers and therefore he hath plainly told us He that hâ—areth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luke 10. 16. O fearful case of miserable Malignants Durst thou despise the Lord thy Maker and Redeemer if he appeared to thee in his glory to whom the Sun it self is as darkness and all the world as dust and nothing Remember when thou next speakest against his Officers or hearest others speak against them that their words are spoken against the face of Christ and of the Father I would not be found in the cafe of one of these Malignants when Christ shall come to judge his enemies for a thousand worlds He that hath said Touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm and hath rebuked Kings for their sakes Psalm 105. 15. will deride all those that would break his bands and will break them as with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces as a potters vessel Psalm 2. 3 4 9. And as he hath told them plainly Who so despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 13. And He that despiseth despiseth not man but God 1 Thes. 4. 8. So he hath told us that it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement then for such Mat. 10. 15. Many a thousand prouder enemies then you hath Christ broken and look to your selves for your day is coming If you had but stumbled on this stone it would have broken you in pieces but seeing you will strive against it it will fall on you and grinde you to pouder Matth. 21. 44. And then you shall see that he that made them his Embassadors will bear them out and say In as much as you did it to these you did it to me And you shall then say Blessed are they that trust in him 7. It is apparent that these enemies of the Ministers are playing the Papists game Because the just disgrace of their Ministry was the ruin of their Kingdom therefore they hope to win of us at the same game They know that if the people were brought into a hatred or suspition of their guides they might the easier be won to them They tell us in their writings that not one of ten of our people but taketh his faith on trust from their Teachers and therefore take them off from them and they will fall but they delude themselves in this For though the ungodly among us have no true faith of their own and the godly must lean on the hand of their supporters yet there is in them a living principle and we do not as the Papist priests teach our people to see with our eyes and no matter for their own but we help to clear their own eye-sight Doubt not but the most of the sects in the Land that rail against the Ministry are knowingly or ignorantly the Agents of the Papists For the principal work of a Papist is to cry down the Ministry and the Scripture and to set all they can on the same work 8. These sects that are against the Ministry do all the same work as the Drunkards Whore-mongers Covetous and all ungodly persons in our Parishes do And therefore it seems they are guided by the same spirit It is the work of Drunkards and all these wicked wretches to hate and despise and revile the Ministers and to teach others to say as they And just so do Quakers Seekers Papists and all other Malignants reproach the same Ministers And yet the blind wretches will not see that the same Spirit moveth them 9. It is apparent that it is the Devils game they play and his interest and Kingdom which they promote Who fights against Christs Officers and Army but the General of the contrary Army What greater service could all the world do for the Devil then to cast out the Ministers of Christ and what more would the Devil himself desire to set up his Kingdom and suppress the Church Wretches you shall shortly see your master and he will pay you your wages contrary to your expectation Read Gods Word to a Malignant Acts 13. 10. 10. These enemies do reproach as faithful a Ministry as the world enjoyeth and their malice hath so little footing as that the result must be their own shame Among the Papists indeed there are Mass-priests that can but read a Mass whose office is to turn a piece of bread into a God And yet these the Malignants either let alone or liken us to them The Greeks and Ethiopians and most of the Christian world have a Ministry that seldom or never preach to them but read Common-prayer and Homilies The most of the Protestant Churches have a learned Ministry that is so taken up with Controversies that they are much less in the powerful preaching and practice of godliness Above all Nations under heaven the English are set upon Practical Divinity and Holiness and yet even they are by Malignity chosen out for reproach Alas scandals in the Ministry as drunkenness swearing c. among other Nations are but too common but in England Magistrates and Ministers combine against them Ministers are still spurring on the Magistrates to cast out the insufficient negligent and scandalous and desire and use more severity with men of their own profession then with Magistrates or any others in the Land In nothing are they more zealous then to sweep out all the remnant of the scandalous And for themselves they are devoted to the work of the Lord and think nothing too much that they are able to perform but preach in season and out of season with all long-suffering and doctrine and yet Malignants make them their reproach 11. It is abundance of Pride and Impudency that these Malignant enemies are guilty of