Chapter 100 of 325

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Jer. 23.21, 32. Comp. Article xxiii. Luther’s language is very strong—‘Expecta vocantem; interim esto securus; imosi esses sapientior ipso Salomone et Daniele; tamen, nisi voceris, plus quam infernum fuge, ne verbum effundas. Si tui eguerit, vocabit te. Si non vocabit, non te rumpat scientia tua.—Nunquam enim Deus fortunat laborem eorum, qui non sunt vocati; et quanquam quaedam salutaria afferant, tamen nihil aedificant. E regione, magna semper fecerunt, qui, Deo vocante, docuerunt.’ Quoted in Sal Teroe, ut supra. Comp. Scott’s Conti. of Milner, i. 156. ‘I wish it were well considered by all clerks, what it is to run without being called or sent; and so to thrust one’s self into the vineyard, without staying till God by his providence puts a piece of his work into his hands. This will give a man vast ease in his thoughts, and great satisfaction in all his labours, if he knows that no practices of his own have put him in a post, but merely the directions of providence.’ Burnet’s Past. Care, ch. vii. ‘The Ministry is a matter of pure grace and favour; who then will dare to enter it without a Divine call’? There is nothing in which a king would willingly be more absolute than in the choice of his Ministers. And shall we dare to contest, and take away this right from the King of kings’?’ Quesnel on Ephes. 3.2; Col. 1.1.

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