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A51245 Ho thésauros en ostrakinois skeuesin. A pearl in an oyster-shel: or, pretious treasure put in perishing vessels. The sum or substance of two sermons preached at Withall-Chappel in Worcestershire. Wherein is set forth the mightiness of the Gospel, the meanness of its ministration. Together with a character of Mr. Thomas Hall, his holy life and death. By Richard Moore, a willing, though a most unworthy servant of God in the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ. Moore, Richard, 1619-1683. 1675 (1675) Wing M2583; ESTC R222046 51,229 137

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tasted the bitterness of death No saith she nor never shall For Christ bath promised that they that keep his sayings shall never see death A Believer may feel the stroke but not the sting of death Ignatius going to suffer Martyrdom triumphed in this that his blood should be found among the mighty Worthies and that the Lord when he maketh inquisition for blood will recount from the blood of righteous Abel not only to the blood of Zacharias but also to the blood of mean Ignatius It was a sweet saying of holy Mr. Hall in time of his health That the sweet rescent of a well-spent life would be matter of singular comfort at a dying day He would have his Hearers learn to know and know to do do to die and die to live In his sickness he said I am now going where I shall have rest from Sin Satan and from all fear weariness watching and from all the evils and errours of a wicked world for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at Job 19. 26. the last day upon the earth c. Oh let my life be nothing but prayer and praises since God had dealt bountifully with me and even whiles he was breathing out his last breath he spake thus All the joys of this life are nothing nothing to the joys that are in Jesus Christ Come Lord Jesus And though he be now dead yet he speaks to you not by his Words but by his Works by Precept and by President Oh labour to lead his life that you may die his death for if you tread in the footsteps of his Faith though death bring your body to Corruption yet shall it never bring your souls to Condemnation I am now closing up the second year of my Ministry among you And Lord what have I been doing here all this while that so few of this Congregation have been brought from death to life to embrace Christ by Faith and to lead a holy life and to live to him Shall I say with the Prophet I have spent my strength in vain and laboured for a thing of nought I hope better things of you and I am perswaded better of some of you and that I may the better prevail with you to live by Faith Remember who it is that speaketh to you viz. one that is esteemed as dead And will you not credit such a Witness It was the request of Dives to Abraham Luk. 16. 30 31. that dead Lazarus might be sent unto his five Brethren he thought that if one came to them from the dead they would believe and repent Such a sight or report indeed might work upon the fancy but it is the Gospel preached that must work upon the affections For my own part I do believe the Truth of the Gospel upon surer Grounds and upon better Authority than if I had received it from one raised from the dead For such a Testimony if it be only Humane can beget but a humane Faith and should it be more than this we might see cause to question whether it were Divine or Diabolical for even Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light Therefore be building up your selves daily in your holy Faith by Arguments drawn from the Doctrine of your Salvation that more sure Word of Prophesie and so your Faith will stand not on the Wisdom of Men but on the Power of GOD. 1 Cor. 2. 5 The Life and Death of Mr. Thomas Hall who died April 13. Anno Dom. 1665. THomas Hall was born in St. Andrews in the City of Worcester about July 22. An. Dom. 1610. His Father was Mr. Richard Hall a Cloathier in that City of a competent Estate his Mother was Mrs. Elizabeth Bonner descended of an antient Family but that which truly ennobled her was with the Bereans she Acts 17. 11. diligently searched the Scriptures These two lived together many years God giving them a plentiful Progeny of Sons and Daughters three of which Sons were brought up Scholars and afterwards proved godly Preachers The Mother being to them as an Eunice to Timothy or Monica to Augustine 1 Tim. 2.5 a careful Instructer in their Youth and lived to reap the Fruit of her endeavours in her old age Magnum est Dei beneficium pios nancisci Parentes ac praesertim Matrem qua pene tota filiorum A lapide educatio dependet like another Bathsheba she did bathe them with her Tears and Instructions and with her Prov. 31. 2 warm and melting Supplications This Thomas was first set to the Grammar-School under Mr. Bright and thence sent to the University of Oxford and admitted into Bayliole Colledg whence through the neglect of his Tutor he removed to Pembroke and became Pupil to Dr. Lushington a good Scholar but whose Principles As Plato saith of him were so poysonous that he might have boasted with Protagoras that he had spent many years in corrupting of youth Having taken his Degrees he returned into the Country and for a while preached and taught a private School at the Chappels belonging to Kings-Norton But as yet he was a Foe and no Friend to Gods Truth and People whom he opposed under the notion o● Puritans But as it was with St. Augustine who before was vitious in manners and erronious in judgment going to hear the Eloquence of Ambrose was reduced from his Errours so it fared with him being about that time a diligent frequenter of the learned Lectures of sundry Orthodox Divines at Burmingham he had here a sure and safe foundation laid of the true Religion and from that time he favoured the sincere Milk of the Word of God and intirely loved those that were born and begotten unto God thereby Not long after he was called to supply the Cure at Kings-norton under his Brother Mr. John Hall who had it annexed to the Vicarage of Bromsgrove and a while after gave it franckly to him the Free-School was also added to it for his further encouragement for though it were a large Parish yet the great Tyths being impropriate he had but a small Sallary and could scarcely have subsisted had he not embraced a single life for this cause chiefly as he said Yet after God had set a seal to his Ministry this great people were much upon his heart who ever sought Work rather than Wages that he would never be perswaded to leave them though solicited with a promise of far greater preferment and was in the time of War often accused cursed threatned with death plundred many times and five times imprisoned at the least He was a very hard Student though of a cold rheumatick Constitution he would impallescere Chartis even hazard his life to get Learning and the choice Observations he met with in good Authors he inserted into his Common-place Book and by his great industry he acquired a good measure of knowledg in Arts and Sciences especially in Divinity of God and his Word and Works of
infirmities of flesh and blood you may see it in Elias 2 King 15. 14. Jam. 5. 17. in Jonah in Peter and the rest of the Apostles So Ministers in this sense are Earthen Vessels and Satan is sensible of this and therefore will sift them to the bran Can he Luke 22. 31. but get such as they to side with him in the promotion of his works of darkness it makes much for the advancement of his Interest As Luther said of a great Scholar Cupit a te ornari Diabolus 3. They are Earthen Vessels in respect of their resolution and dissolution subject to the stroke of death as well as others Za● 1. 5. like water spilt upon the ground or like Earthen Pitchers that are carried oft to the Water but are come broken home at last Eadem conditione mortalitatis simili conditione vobiscum humanitatis afficiuntur Budaeus 4. They are obnoxious to crosses and changes in their outward estate in the world they pass from prosperity to adversity they suffer imprisonment banishment Psal 123 3 4. contempt and scorn and are counted the very scum and off-scouring of all things God is pleased many 1 Cor. 4. 13. times to empty these Vessels and to pour them forth as Wine out of a Jer. 48.11 Cask and they are vilely esteemed of men as Vessels of no value The Reasons are such as these They have here many times to do with men of earthly minds to plant Isa 51. 16. a Heaven and to found a Earth or rather that God may do it by their Ministry as our Translators render the Words Now what Vessels are fitter for the Lords use to call home the Vessels Deut. 5. 24 25. of Mercy than men like themselves The Israelites would not hear of it that Exod. 20. 19. God should speak unto them immediately from Heaven but by the Ministry of Moses a man like themselves So men of like passion are men of more compassion such as can truly say with the Apostle Who is weak and I am not 2 Cor. 11. 29. weak Who is offended and I burn not Likeness breedeth liking and our own weakness feebleness afflictions stir up affection as it did in Calvin of whom it is said He was no otherwise affected towards the Churches than if he Beza in vit Calv. had born them upon his shoulders 2. The great Shepherd of his Sheep will have it so to humble us that when we take notice of the Treasure we 2 Cor. 12. 7. are intrusted with we may seem low and little in our own eyes and esteem of our selves Coniah a Vessel wherein is Isa 13. 3. Jer. 22.28 no pleasure Flesh and blood is apt to boast in parts in gifts wherein happily we may esteem to excel other men But did we but consider our own brittle imbecillity and from whom our sufficiency comes We would no more boast than of a borrowed Sute or the Man of his Hatchet Alas Master It was borrowed 2 Kings 6. 5. 3. The Lord doth so ordain that this precious Treasure should pass to you through Earthen Vessels 1. That you should not cast Contempt upon this holy and honourable Calling of the Ministry because of the meanness of mens persons parts parentage trials or temptations since Gods Prophets and even Christ and his Apostles were liable to the like Amos was neither a Prophet nor the Amos 1.1 Son of a Prophet but a Herd-man of Tekoah Jesus Christ before he entred upon his Ministry served in the mean employment of a Carpenter his Apopostles Mark 6. 3. were many of them poor Fishermen And the Apostle Paul was sometime a Tent-maker though indeed brought Acts 18.3 up at the feet of learned Gamaliel and yet for all the trials and temptations that he indured the Galatians were nothing the less indeared to him you know saith he How that through the infirmity of the Gal. 4. 13 14. flesh I preached the Gospel and the trials of me which was in my flesh ye despised not neither abhorred 2. The Lord will have it so that you should not have Ministers persons in admiration for any elegancy of Wit Jude 16. excellency of Learning strength of Memory c. Since they are but Men and of like passions and the Lord is pleased Acts 14. 15. many times to hide the great mysteries Mat. 11.25 1 Cor. 1. 26. of his Kingdom from the wise and prudent of the world few of such are called I know well that God distributes his Gifts variously to some a greater measure than to other men and such are worthy of double honour especially if they labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. But though you ow them reverence yet you must not have them in admiration For this was the Original of the various Sects at Corinth I am of Paul and I am of Apollos and I of Cephas 1 Cor. 1. 12. and the Apostle is afraid lest any one should think o him above that he seeth in him and will rather glory in his infirmities 2 Cor. 12. 5 6. for this very cause 3. That the Grace of regeneration may be ascribed not to the preaching of Men but to the power of God so in the Text and by the operation of his Spirit 4. The Lords intent in this dispensation may be to puzzle and perplex the great Wits of the world who rest and relie upon their carnal wisdom and think thereby to fathom the depth of these 1 Cor. 3. 18. Mysteries but such must empty their Vessels of this Earthly Treasure and count it trash before they be capable of Phil. 3. 7. conceiving of or receiving in the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg in Christ for Intus existens prohibet alienum If any man among you seem to be wise in this world let him become a fool 1 Cor. 3. 18 19. that he may be wise Vse 1. Admire the goodness and gracious condescention of God who might have delivered his mind to you by the ministration of Angels and in terrible things as at the Tradition of the Law upon Mount Sinai with Exod. 20. 18. thunder lightning and sound of a Trumpet the Mountain burning and covered with blackness darkness Heb. 12.18 and tempest so full of terror that not only the People but even Moses himself Exod. 19. 16. trembled But God was pleased to deliver his will to you by men formed of the same clay cut out of the same Job 33.6 7. lump with your selves Earthen Vessels Well may we say with the Psalmist Lord What is man sorry sickly mortal miserable Psal 8. 4. man that thou shouldst be thus mindful of him to leave thy mind to us and Heb. 1. 1. deliver it by the Ministry of Men As the Disciples said Vse 2. If the Apostle who was so eminent an Instrument of Christ and laboured more abundantly than the