Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	learned_a	pastor_n	reverend_n	3,088	5	16.4121	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53273	A seasonable discourse wherein sincerity & delight in the service of God is earnestly pressed upon professors of religion delivered on a publick fast at Cambridge in New-England, by the reverend and learned Urian Oakes, late pastor of the church there, and president of Harvard Colledge.	Oakes, Urian, 1631-1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing O22; ESTC R31761	29,412	40

A Seasonable Discourse Wherein SINCERITY DELIGHT in the Service of GOD is earnestly pressed upon PROFESSORS of RELIGION Delivered on a Publick FAST at Cambridge in NEW-ENGLAND By the Reverend and Learned URIAN OAKES Late Pastor of the Church there and Praesident of HARVARD COLLEDGE Zech. 1. 5 6. Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever But my Word and my Statutes which I Commanded my Servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your Fathers Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which dy in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their works do follow them CAMBRIDGE Printed by Samuel Green 1682. To the READER THere are especially two things whereby discourses are commended unto the acceptance of their Readers One is the Weight Excellency and seasonablenesse of the Subject The other's the known Worth Ability and Fame of the Author Upon both which accounts the ensuing Sermon may and I doubt not will find a ready reception amongst all that are godly and judicious into whose hands it shall come As for the subject matter of this Discourse it is that which highly concerns a Professing People and the Lords New-England People are eminently so most intensely to consider of The heart-searching God requireth that those that enter into Covenant with Him should be sincere in all their Callings upon His Name Josh 24. 14. Fear the Lord and serve Him in Sincerity and Truth He knows who have only a forme of godliness but are strangers unto the power of it whose services can never please Him Sapiens Nummularius est Deus Nummum fictum non recipiet Nor is there a more sure discovery of secret and deep hypocrisy in the hearts of Men then that of being weary of Gods service or thinking a little service too much for the great God When the Iew brought a lean sacrifice and then said What a wearinesse is it as if he were tyred with so great a burden he did serve the Lord and yet not serve Him at the same Time Mal. 1. 13. Nor is there any thing more offensive to the Lord Iesus then luke-warmnesse in prof●ssion or having a Name to live and being dead as we see by the Epistle sent from Heaven unto the Churches of Asia and consequently unto all other Churches to the end of the World cautioning them to be watchfull against evils of that kind as they would not have the Lord deal by them as He hath done to Jerusalem or as He hath done to the Churches in Asia who because of hypocrisy and formality in Profession are rejected and their Raines become such as that Travellers cannot look upon them without horrour and amazement That there is still a blessed number of lively Christians in these Churches is through the grace of Christ very true the Lord increase them and make them a thousand times more then they are Neverthelesse that there is also a prevailing spirit of Apostacy among multitudes is no lesse certain Where is the love of our Espousals When our Fathers followed the Lord into this vast and then wast Wildernesse having no other interest but Religion and no other designe but Reformation before them Have not many of this generation left and lost that love to the pure and holy institutions of Christ which those of the former generation desired and delighted in Are not some weary of that Theocracy or Government which God hath established amongst in as to sacred and civill respects willing for a change in both This Wise Master-builder hath then accommodated the word by Him spoken upon a very publick occasion to the state of these Times and of this People And he hath thereby manifested himself to be of the same spirit with that faithfull and worthy Shephard who went before him in the work of the Ministry in that precious flock of Christ which is at Cambridge This Sermon seconding and confirming those of his eminent predecessors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chron. 12. 8. long ago both preached and Printed How happy has Cambridge been Indeed the Church at Ephesus enjoyed the Ministry of Paul and Timothy and Tychicus Blessed men of God but such a succession and eminent lights is seldom known in the same Church the un thankfulnesse and unprofitablenesse of men provoking the Lord to eclipse their Glory Concerning the Author His worth is well known and I wish it were more known in both Englands Doctor Preston chose to be a preacher in Cambridge in England Rather than in another place because he had then a special opportunity d●lare non tantum Lapides sed Architectes The Lord was mercisul to all these Churches in ordering the labours of this able Work-man to be in a place so sutable for his more then ordinary Capacity There have been several of the same Name heretofore renowned for their rare accomplishments in some particular faculty wherein they have excelled Iosephus Quercetanus was a learned and famous Physitian Joh. Drusius the Greek word for Oaks was a great Divine and eminent for his Critical Genius But an Age doth seldome produce one so many wayes excelling as this Author did If we consider him as a Divine as a Scholar as a Christian it is hard to say in which he did most excell I have often in my own thoughts compared him to Samuel among the Prophets of old inasmuch as he did truly fear God from his youth and was betimes improved in holy Ministrations and was at last called to be the head of the Sons of the Prophets in this New-English Israel as Samuel was President of the Colledge at Najoth And in many other particulars I might enlarge upon the parallel but that it is inconvenient to extend such instances beyond their proportion What shall I now say New-Englands Samuel is dead How doth Cambridge How doth the Colledge How doth New-England shake since this Oak whom Christ had made a Pillar in the Temple of his God is removed Heu tua Nobis Morte simul tecum solatia rapta It may without reflection upon any be truly said that He was one of the greatest Lights that ever shone in this part of the World or that is ever like to arise in this Horizon He is now become a Royal Diadem in the hand of the Lord being as one speaks concerning a great Worthy An ornament to Heaven it self This Sermon was not by the Reverend Author designed for publication Had himself Emitted it there would have been some Ornamental additions Quicquid tam docta condidit manus caelum est But it is here presented as sound written with his own hand among his Sermon notes And inasmuch as M r. Oakes preached it there needs no more to raise in the Reader a expectation that he shal meet with something worthy his perusal and beyond what others do ordinarily attain unto It is to be lamented that he did not live to finish his meditations on this