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death_n	endowment_n	good_a	great_a	16	3	2.1033	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80847	The peoples need of a living pastor: asserted and explained in a sermon, preached Novemb. 4. 1656. At the sad and solemn funerals of that late, learned, pious and eminently hopeful minister of the gospel, Mr. John Frost, batchelor in divinity, late fellow of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge, and pastor of St. Olaves Hart-steeet [sic], London. Together with a narrative of his life and death. By Z. C. minister of the Word at Botolph-Aldgate, London.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1657 (1657)	Wing C6997; Thomason E909_1; ESTC R207455	39,189	68

Labour to supply his place by a a lawful pious and prudent Divine blessed be God you may be stored be speedy in making up your breach beg of God to direct your choice agree among your selves and the Lord give you a man that may stand up in his stead In the careful and conscionable performance of these duties you will witness the life of a faithful Minister to be of absolute necessity to the Church of God and constrain the Ministers of the Word to assent unto your apprehensions in the words of the Text with which I shall conclude this first part of this discourse Nevertheless that we abide in the flesh is more needful for you Having presented you with the necessity of a Ministers life in the general as it relates to the Church of God let me now affect you with a sense of the want of this Minister learned Mr. John Frost in special by presenting you with the hopeful parts and high endowments which rendred him serviceable whilest living and may make us sorrowful in such a loss now he is dead That the memorial of the just may be blessed and preserved whilest the remembrance of the wicked doth perish it hath been the constant and commendable custome of good men to make honourable mention of the graces and eminent endowments of deceased friends famous are the Panegyrick Orations made at the Tombs of the primitive Martyrs memorable are the several Orations of the two Gregories Nyssen and Nazianzen on the death of Basil the Great This laudable practise hath been ever used and still is in the midst of us we have too too lately had published the lives of too many learned lights and eminently pious Ministers pillars of the Church of God not only in the Countrey but also in this our City learned Gataker judicious Vines acute Gouge affectionate Robinson pious Whitaker and profound Usher with many others have been lately added to Londons Catalogue of deceased Ministers the which if the Lord stay not his hand is like to swell into no mean volume their worthy praises have sounded in our ears and been laid before our eyes I am this day to trace the same course and to characterize this eminent person and hopefull instrument whom God hath to our sorrow added to this sad Catalogue whose worth deserved to have been advanced by the Tongue of some Angelical Doctor or present Academical Orator rather then to be depressed by my rude and plain expressions yet seeing this work is cast on my hands I shall according to my ability give you an account of him as I have received it from his nearest relations best acquaintance or my own personal knowledge and herein let me mention him in general and particular In generall I may say of him to the aggravation of our grief he was from his cradle to his grave eminently commendable for he was admirably endowed by nature adorned by the acquirements of learning and advanced by ministerial qualifications which might have made him exceeding useful as ever any our age may I not say our nation produced and gave occasion to many eminent Divines to say of him as Erasmus of Philip Melancthon he is an excellent Grecian and a most learned man he is a youth and stripling if ye consider his age but one of us if you look on the variety of his knowledge almost in all Books he is very exquisite in learning I pray Christ this Youth may live long among us In particular Mr. John Frost was sonne and eldest sonne to an antient reverend and pious Divine Mr. John Frost Minister of Fakenham in the County of Suffolk His relation where he hath resided above twenty years past and yet exerciseth his Ministry surviving and sadly this day lamenting the losse of his first-born his might the beginning of his strength the excellency of his dignity nay the comfort of his old age honour and hope of his gray hairs So that if descent from and relation to the Tribe of Levi Ministers of the Gospel be as blessed be God it hath of late been asserted and publiquely appeared to be an honour worthy a publique association let the constituted Company of Ministers Sons lament the losse of this glorious Pearle and glittering Diamond which is fallen out of their Crown He hath three brothers all surviving Thomas Master of Arts and Minister of the word James now Student in St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge and Richard an Apothecary in Cambridge and now present to condole the losse of such a Brother to two of them learning his ornament is become essentiall and to the other the chief ingredient that compounds his calling May it be our hearty prayer this day to God that the two intended Ministers may revive Mr. John Frost and arise in his stead and that a double portion of his Spirit may rest on them as did the spirit of Elijah on Elisha for the good of the Church of God! Amen This is the person and thus related in Nature whose life whilest I relate in your ears I shall observe him and represent him to you in a threefold estate Childehood before his going to the University Growth in his behaviour and acquirements at the University and perfection in the exercise of his Ministery in all which you shall see he was a promising Sprout and primely growing Tree plentifully bearing fruit in its perfection First in reference to the first In his Childehood His Infant disposition even from his Cradle he was so well tempered by nature that he was alwayes towardly and hopefull no way subjected to the wildenesse or wantonnesse much lesse to the wickednesse of other children he was mild of nature harmlesse in behaviour soon snub'd for any defect and submissive under any check even from his Fathers Servants so gentle sweet and amiable was his disposition that it rendred him dear to his brethren delightfull to servants neighbours and all that knew him and the Darling of his Parents So that in this respect were it not a saying too hyperbolicall I might say of him as it was said of Bonaventure In hoc homine non peccavit Adam Adams depraved nature was scarce visible in him Being grown into some competency in years and by his Father found docible ingenious and pliable to every thing that was good and religious and greatly desirous of learning he was sent to School and placed under the tuition of an eminent School-master at Thetford in the County of Norfolk where he continued till the thirteen or fourteenth year of his age to the great improvement of his naturall parts in the attainment of knowledge in the Latine and Greek Tongues and indeed the perfection of Grammar and Rhetorick to the glory and comfort of his School-master and the admiration of his School-fellowes whom he much out-stripped His School demeanour for Nature had endowed him with all helps to learning an healthfull and good constitution of body a quick capacity a criticall and enquiring

THE PEOPLES NEED OF A LIVING PASTOR Asserted and explained in a SERMON Preached Novemb. 4. 1656. At the sad and solemn Funerals of that late learned pious and eminently hopeful Minister of the Gospel Mr. John Frost Batchelor in Divinity late Fellow of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge and Pastor of St. Olaves Hart-steeet LONDON TOGETHER WITH A Narrative of his Life and Death By Z. C. Minister of the Word at Botolph-Aldgate London ACT. 20.38 Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Thomas Parkhurst at the Three Crowns over against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside 1657. To the Inhabitants in the Parish of Olaves Hart-street London Gentlemen and Christian Friends I Know not to whom the inscription of this ensuing Discourse can more properly belong then to your selves the occasion of it being the sad Funerals of your deceased Pastor it being spoken specially in your ears and designed to affect your hearts and direct you to a serious Christian endevour under and improvement of so sad a providence To you therefore I do present it not doubting your readinesse to patronize and defend it of which had I no testimony of respects to my self yet that high respect you did bear to your late hopefull and learned Pastor witnessed by your importunate desires of him eminent delights in and unexpected union under his Ministry with your sorrowfull celebration of his Funerals and the importunate desires of many among you to read these Observations when you had heard them doth give me good assurance The scope of the following discourse was and yet is to inform your judgements of the necessity of Ministers life and so to affect your hearts with Ministers death directing your mournings to be from a right Principle that so they may regularly stream into their due measure and proportion and proper end you must know every Minister falls under a double notion as in his life so in his death as a man and as a Minister in the one a member of humane society in the other a main Pillar of Christianity in both he is desireable whilst living and deplorable when dead But you must know Nature entertains him under the one and Grace under the other Men are apt to admire acute parts profound judgement amiable carriage and learned language where they find it but never regard the Office in which a Minister stands and Authority by which he acts in his place no this is the work of Grace for it is religion must teach men to receive a Prophet in the name of a Prophet and to account of Ministers as the Ambassadors of Christ and to esteem them living and dying for their work sake Whilest I would not deny you the liberty of your lamenting your losse in your late Minister by reason of his naturall parts and endowments which I have noted to have been great I would desire in speciall to find your sorrow Christianized seizing on your spirit from the consideration of him as a Minister spirituall Guide and Father and so witnessing that you lived under his Instructions as under the word of God not of man and indeed under this notion you have much cause to lament him for that he was unto his Ministry excellently qualified in it very industrious and of the duties imposed on him by vertue of his Ministry very consciencious for your good And his death under this consideration is the sad Symptome of Gods displeasure and of smarting influence on your Congregation I have for some years observed your carriage in this case in reference to a Minister your selves know and I hope yet remember your sad divisions and smarting distractions into which you fell on a Ministers relinquishing his work among you God was pleased to cement all and settle you in peace and unity and good tendency to order by your now deceased Pastor by whose death you are again liable to the like danger I pray that you may be warned and preserved from it and that you may lay to heart this hand of providence in the losse not only of a man excellently qualified but a Minister of the Gospel very hopefull in and to the Church of God to which end I intreat your serious reading of this following Sermon and if it prove in any thing effectuall give God the praise and that shal be the honour of him who unfainedly condoles your losse and praying that the Lord may make up this breach among you remains Yours in all neighbourly Offices in the work of the Gospel Zach. Crofton To the READER Courteous Reader THere is not a truer Maxim in Nature then that Man passeth away like a shadow and vanisheth like smoke as the flower of the field it to day flourisheth and to morrow withereth Nor a truer Principle in Divinity then that the Prophets do not live for ever These are both of them witnessed daily not only by audible voice of Mourners for the dead but also visible objects spectacles of Mortality Death is a condition so common and inevitably certain to the Sons of men that neither age nor excellent endowments can stave it off but young and old fools and wise men are followeed to the Grave An evident and undeniable testimony hereof is eminently hopefull Mr. John Frost Being 30 years old who in his youth strength of dayes and sparklings of glory is fallen to the dust and thereby calls for the discharge of duty due to dead men viz. mourning for him and memoriall of him both which as they are commended by us by the counsels and constant practise of the wisest Heathen not affected with a Stoicall stupidity and senselesse apathy so also by Scripture if Moses or Samuel die all Israel must mourn and the Holy Ghost will dictate the memoriall of them Jer. 16.5 Ezek. 24.23 Jer. 22. It is a judgement threatned against the wicked they shall not be mourned for and their memoriall shall perish from the earth but the remembrance of the righteous shall be blessed it is their priviledge to die lamented God takes notice of it as lasie that the righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart Yet it is the common guilt of our age to let the Prophets die without lamentation nay amongst too many with high insultations for their death God hath of late taken from us many a Samuel and Paul and hopefull Timothy and yet our Israel are not affected with it nor in themselves afflicted for them they mourn not over them nor mind the memoriall of them Certainly the great cause of this evil is insensibility of their worth and serviceablenesse and our own want of their Ministrations As a cure therefore to this cause this Discourse is put into thy hands let me intreat thy serious reading of it and second thoughts about the necessity of Ministers lives for the Churches good And certainly if there be in thee any measure of Grace

thou wilt sorrowfully bewail the losse of so many needfull and shining lights and sadly fear it to be a presage of some future judgements upon our Nation and City And to the affecting of thy heart the memoriall of their parts and endowments will be desired by thee and the Narrative thereof be read with much pleasure And amongst others thou wilt find Mr. Frost at whose sad Funerals this Discourse was uttered not to be the least lamented Not therefore to hold thee in the Preface or swell with Apologies I cast this work on thy censure hoping that thou wilt exercise a spirit of candor and charity if not towards the living Author yet the dead man of whom it is thy duty to think and speak no way detractive and whose life thou hast annexed on the most certain and cleer account that could be had from Naturall relations Academicall acquaintance and the Personall knowledge of him who hath done his duty for the deceased desiring thee to own nothing that may come abroad under his name unlesse attested by his sorrowfull Father Brother or my self who shall freely midwife what is fit for publique use and now pray that thou mayst have grace to do thine and to that end find helpfull this Discourse Thine in the Lord Z. C. THE PEOPLES NEED OF A LIVING PASTOR Asserted and explained in a Sermon Preached Novemb. 4. 1656. at Olaves Hartstreet London at the Funeral of Mr. John Frost B. D. and Pastor of the said Church PHIL. 1.24 Nevertheless that I abide in the flesh is more needful for you SEnse of worth engageth sorrow for want Bona a terge formosissima when once a people are affected with the absolute and indispensable necessity of a living Ministry they affectionately rejoyce in the enjoyment and as passionately lament the loss of it evident this is in the Philippians joyes in and for Epaphroditus recovery from death-threatning sickness and the Ephesians passionate weeping at S. Pauls ultimum vale last farewell with a You shall see my face no more Act. 20.38 And let me to pass by Londons too too late instances increased say it is evident in that joy with which you of this Parish did begin to be transported in the injoyment and that exceeding grief with which you are this day dejected in the loss of your learned and hopeful Pastor Mr. John Frost whose sad Funerals we do now celebrate on which occasion give me leave to lay before you the necessity of a Ministers life and the greatness of your loss in the loss of this particular Minister of the Gospel the one from the text the other by the narrative of his hopeful parts and high endowments and first in reference to the Text. The Apostle Paul having been by an especial call from God in a vision acquainted with Macedonia her want of the Gospel Ministry Act. 16.9 10. went thither and there preached the Gospel to good purpose and with good success and planted a Church of Jesus Christ at Philippi the chief City thereof from whence being soon removed his care was to confirm them in the Faith they had received and counsel them to the due order of a Gospel conversation to this end he wrote to them this Epistle from Rome and sent it by the hand of Epaphroditus and according to these two ends the Epistle divideth it self into two parts 1. A confirmation in the Faith received and that is in this chapter 2. Counsel unto a Christian conversation in the following chapters The confirmation in the Faith is in this chapter and not to stand on the analytical parts of the chapter it is managed by the removal of the then great stumbling block of Christianity viz. the Crosse to which the Apostle was subjected to the startling of the Saints in his death-threatning sufferings and themselves seemed to be nigh unto danger for the very cause of their Gospel profession now this the Apostle removeth by suggesting to them this threefold consideration 1. The access of the cross advanceth the Gospel of Christ Jesus vers 12. I would that you should understand brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the progress of the Gospel whilest thereby it is spread in the publication of the cause of his calamity Hist of the Councel of Trent Edit 2. lib. 5. p. 418. whilest it might be said of him as of Au du Burge a Senator of Paris that the death and constancy of a man so conspicuous did make many curious to know what Religion that was for which he so couragiously endured punishment and made the number to encrease Not only was the Gospel spread but hereby also others out of spite and envie or sincere zeal were stirred up to preach Jesus Christ and every good Christian rejoyceth under all curses and crosses that advanceth the name of the Lord saying with Luther Prorsus Satan est Lutherus sed Christus vivit regnat Amen I am accounted a Devil and I know not what but be it so I matter not whilest Christ is magnified and therefore must neither dismay them in nor divert them from their profession 2. The access of the cross would be his advantage in life or death in life causing the lustre of his graces to shine or in death giving him communion with Christ in glory and therefore love to him could never lead them into backsliding fears and this is urged from vers 19. to vers 27. 3. The access of the cross would be their advantage if endured with patience whilest it is an honour and priviledge not only to believe but also to suffer for the name of Christ so that the cross should be so far from driving from their profession Fox his Acts and Monum p. 1330. that they should say as father Latimer answered to the sentence of death by burning O I thank God most heartily that he hath prolonged my life that I may in this case glorifie God in that kinde of death The words of the Text fall under the second consideration propounded to remove the stumblings at the Cross of Christ and is a part of an answer to an objection from thence thus framed Object Sir It is true that in respect of your self we have no cause to be offended at your sufferings for if they bring you to death yet it will be your advantage and exceeding great gain you will be with Christ but what shall become of us we shall be depriv'd of your Apostolical parts and power which should counsel and confirm us in so sad and suffering seasons and therefore for us it were more needful that you abide in the flesh Answ To this the Apostle answereth It is indetd true that in respect of my self it were better for me to die but for you that I live so useful are my parts and power in the midst of you that I am affectionately reduced into a great straight what

be spared how far is this from the esteem God sets on them and requires his people to have of them whilest it is an imposed duty to know them that are over us in the Lord and that labour among us and esteem them very highly with an honour due to things essential without which we cannot be 1 Thess 5.13 How far is this from the expressed sense of Ministerial worth in the primitive Christians who would pluck out their own eyes in preservation of Ministers life received them as an Angell of God accounting themselves blessed in the enjoyment of their life and presence Gal. 4.14 15. and how doth this evidence our insensibility of Ministerial work and service can pilgrims count their guides conveniencies children their father indifferences and garrisons their watchmen and centinels superfluities and Christians the Ark of Gods presence the Oracles of the most high the stewards of the mysteries of God the earthen vessels in which the heavenly treasure is brought and without which it cannot be enjoyed honourable ornaments and superfluities certainly such thoughts are sugestions of Satan sprouts of ignorance and lukewarmness and certain signes of hypocrisie and apostasie But much more profane and wicked are they which account Ministers not only superfluities that may be spared but needless burdens the peoples pressures the Churches excrements that must be removed and rejected that groan under their lives and account the death of a godly Minister their greatest joy their study is to load their name with reproaches and their lives with distress and dangers railing on their persons and profession reviling them in all companies exciting against them the powers of the world by false accusations representing them troublers of Israel sowers of sedition and as Haman did the Jewes men scattered abroad and dispersed among the people Esth 3.8 whose Lawes are divers from the Lawes of all people and so are good for nothing Beloved though the spirit of Satan hath appeared against godly Ministers in all ages yet in this age of ours it doth more openly and impudently appear then ever making the Ministerial office a manifest crime in any person and give us cause to say in the complaint of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebantur homines vilissimi abjectissimi item scelerati exitiales item sacri seu piaculares quorum nece exitio publicae calamitates expiabantur Tertul. apol cap. 1. God hath set us forth as it were men appointed unto death for we are made a spectacle unto the world to Angels and to men and vers 13. we are made the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day they were so accounted that were the vilest and basest men wicked and to be banished the sacrifices of the people to be offered to their gods whose death expiated the calamities of the people The debauched expressions and traducing termes that are in the mouthes of the most of men doe loudly witness the spirit of Campian that grand Jesuite to possess them whilest they can utter of Ministers no sound but that of his Ministris eorum nihil vilius nothing is more vile then their Ministers but my brethren how far is this short of the Philippians frame of spirit which constrained the Apostles assent in the Text Nevertheless it is more needful for you that I abide in the flesh but my brethren the disrespect of the people in our Age constrains Ministers to see a necessity of their death giving them an aptitude to say with Melancthon the Ministry is Miseria miseriarum the misery of miseries but I would gladly hope better things of you even in this very case things that concern salvation and intreat every of you in your places to witness by your carriage that you are sensible that the Ministers life is needfull to the Church of God if ever your sense of it must appear this is the time when all the world almost say the contrary and God by death takes from us not only Paul the aged but also hopeful Timothy Let me therefore direct you in a word how to express your assent to the Doctrine and herein I shall apply a few directions to all in general to my brethren in the Ministry in particular and to you of this parish and congregation in speciall First in general to us all Exhort to Christians in general Christian brethren we are all members of the Church subjected to the influence of those glorious stars God hath fixed among us and guided by the lights which at the present possess Gods Candlesticks in general we have a common advantage by the lives of the faithful Ministers of God which labour in his Church in this generation let it then be our care to carry towards them as convinced that their lives are our advantage their being our necessity and their death would be nay and is our exceeding dammage to this end let me commend to you these few directions Direct 1 1. Appehend their worth this is that which will affect your hearts with want study therefore the authority by which they are appointed and the work to which they are assigned nay the necessity of their interposing between God and us to the end we may enjoy communion with our God It is not in vain that God cals Moses into the Mount nay when Israel cometh to be a little affected with the glory of divine Majesty and the dazling splendor of immediate glory they will see the necessity of a Ministers interposition and say to Moses Speak thou unto us and we will hear but let not God speak unto us lest we die Exod. 20.19 Doth not our own observation and experience witness the fancy of immediate enjoyment of God and Christ founds the slighting of the Ministry of Gospel-ordinances I beseech you therefore see the Ministers servants of Gods own appointment to give you your meat in due season and you may not count them unuseful they are the earthen vessels by which we enjoy the heavenly treasure suitable to our capacity and as we are able to bear and therefore not unnecessary Christ when he ascended up into heaven Ephes 4.11 12 13. gave Ministers to perfect his Church and fit it for glory there is no enjoyment of God here nor expectation of God hereafter save by the medium of ministerial endevours they are therefore needful Oh see them to be the chariots and horsemen of Israel Direct 2 2. Adore with admiration the Providences of God in the preservation of their lives the providences are many and remarkable in the deliverance of Ministers lives sometimes from outward violence of the sword sometime from the inward assaults of death-threatning distempers and these are much to be eyed and adored Ministers that are delivered from death should be received with joy and held in great reputation Phil. 2.29 nay the appearance of an imprisoned Minister should be to the astonishment of praying Christians as