Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	aaron_n	minister_n	time_n	27	3	4.2108	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89733	Abel being dead yet speaketh; or, The life & death of that deservedly famous man of God, Mr John Cotton, late teacher of the church of Christ, at Boston in New-England. By John Norton, teacher of the same church.	Norton, John, 1606-1663.	1658 (1658)	Wing N1313; Thomason E937_6; ESTC R207763	38,553	57

one man were excited unanimously and vigorously in the work of the Lord from that day In order whereunto the Court considering That that people of God all the members of which Republick were Church-members were to be governed conformably to the Law of God desired Mr. Cotton to draw an Abstract of the Judicial Laws delivered from God by Moses so far forth as they were of moral ie of perpetual and universal equity Which he did advising them to persist in their purpose of establishing a Theocraty i. e. Gods Government over Gods people It was an usual thing henceforth for the Magistrate to consult with the Ministers in hard cases especially in matters of the Lord yet so as notwithstanding occasional conjunction religious care was had of avoiding confusion of Counsels Moses and Aaron rejoiced and kissed one another in the mount of God After which time how useful he was to England to N. E. to Magistrates to Ministers to People in publick and private by Preaching Counsel and resolving difficult questions all know that knew him and consequently saw the grace of God so evidently manifested in him In the course of his Ministery in New-Boston by way of Exposition he went through the Old-Testament unto Isa 30. the whole New-Testament once through and the second time unto the middle of Heb. 11. Upon Lords days and Lecture-days he preached through the Acts of the Apostles Haggai Zechary Ezra the Revelation Ecclesiastes Canticles the Second and Third Epistles of John the Epistle of Titus both the Epistles of Timothy the Epistle to the Romans with other Scriptures The presence of the Lord being mighty with him and crowning his labours to the Conversion of many souls and the Edification of thousands Besides these labours forementioned he hath many Pieces in Print which being well known need the less to be here enumerated His youth was unstained whence he was so much the more His unstained youth capable of being an excellent Instrument in the Church in his after-age Many do that evil whilst they are young which makes them unable at least comparatively to do so much good when they are old He must have a good report of them that are without lest he fall into the reproach and snare of 1 Tim 3. 7. the Devil Satan catcheth at the scandals of such who are in the Ministery as fittest materials to make snares unto the prejudice both of the Gospel and of souls Augustine to whom God in this respect shewed peculiar mercy upon his ordinarily unparallel'd repentance telleth us A good life Aug. de bono viduitat c. 22. is requisite in respect of our selves but a good name is requisite in respect of others The gratefulnese of the most excellent liquor unto the stomach depends in part upon the quality of the vessel We may be good men if we have a good Conscience but we are not like to do much good if we have not a good Name Our Religion our Report and our Eye must not be plaid withal It is a smart admonition mentioned by Sturmius in his Classical Epistles when upon such an one reading out of Tully's Offices who himself was not of an unblemished life his hearer objects Docet officinm non facit Miraculi instar vitae iter si longum sine offensione percurrere Marian. l. 1. de morte immortal cap. 6. officium He teacheth duty but he doth not do his duty A divine freedom did open Samuels mouth to testifie against the sins of the people whilst they were compelled to testifie unto the innocencie of Samuel To be long at sea and not meet with one storm is unusual To live long and to lead a godly life all-along without offence is not a little wonder and a special favor both to our selves and others He was a general His Learning Non necessaria discendo necessaria ignoramus Sen. Scholar studious to know all things the want whereof might in one of his profession be denominated Ignorance and piously ignorant of those things the nescience whereof made him more learned One man is not born to all things No calling besides Divine requisites calleth for more Abilities or a larger measure of humane knowledge then the Ministery deservedly therefore is his praise great in all the Churches that he not only gave himself thereunto but exceeded many that had done virtuously therein The greater part of the Encuclopaideia he excelled in Those Arts which the University requireth such a proficiency from her graduates in he both digested and refined by his more accurate knowledge of them He was a good Hebrician in Greek a Critick and could with great facility both speak and write Latine in a pure and elegant Ciceronian Stile a good Historian no stranger to the Fathers Councils or School-men Abundantly exercised in Commentators of all sorts His Library was great his reading and learning answerable himself a living and better Library Though he was a constant Student yet he had all his Learning out of his Books He was a man of much Communion with God and acquaintance with his own heart observing the daily passages of his life He had a deep sight into the Mystery of Gods grace and mans corruption and large apprehensions of these things It was wont to be said Bonus textuarius est bonus Theologus A good Text man is a good Divine If you look upon him in that notion he was an Expositor without offence be it spoken not inferior to any of this more sublimated age That great Motto so much wondred at Labore Constantiâ His diligence Labor and Constancy containing nothing more then the duty which God hath laid upon every man Learning saith Hierom. Apolog contra Ruffinum Hierome is not to be purchased with Silver it is the Companion of Sweat and painfulness of abstemiousness not of fulness of continency not of wantonness The earth continueth barren or worse except industry be its Mid-wife The Hen which brings not forth without uncessant sitting night and day is an apt Embleme of Students The wiser Nocte dieque incubando Naturalists who have been serious in improveing and Christians that have been conscientious to improve or redeem their time for the more effectual obtaining of their end have distributed the day into certain proportions setting each a part to his predesigned use Hence the ancient Grecians appointed the first six hours unto their respective contemplative functions the rest say they call upon us to take care of our health and life Sex h●rae tantùm rebus tribuuntur agendis Vivere post illas litera Z monet Melancthon sometime commended this distribution of the day unto a great man that the four and twenty hours being divided into three parts Eight be spent in study Eight in our Bed the rest as our Bodily Welfare calls upon us Others give ten hours in the day unto our studies if strength permits approving of more according to this division His

wherein God purposed to uperadd unto what had formerly been a practical and more notable Testimony against the intermixing of humane inventions with Institutions Divine and to the Gospel Church-worship and Politie in their purity he in his All-wise providence transplants many of his Faithfull servants into this vast Wilderness as a place in respect of it's remoteness so much the fitter for the fuller inquiry after and free exercise of all his holy ordinances and together therewith for the holding forth a pregnant demonstration of the consistency of Civil-Government with a Congregational-way God giveth Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness Ezekiel seeth the formes of the House in exile John receiveth his Revelation in Patmos Jotham upon mount Gerizim is bold to utter his Apologie And David can more safely expostulate with Saul when he is gotten to the top of Terga conversimetuenda Parthi Seneca the Hill a far off a great space between them The Parthians having learned the Art of shooting backwards made their retreat more terrible then their onset to their Adversaries The event soon shewed the wisdom of God herein the people in a short time clearly understanding that truth in the practice which by dispute they could not in a long time attain unto In order hereunto the God of the Spirits of all flesh stirreth up many of his Faithful ones to leave that pleasant Land their Estates their Kindred their Fathers houses and sail over the Atlantick-Ocean unto this vast Jeshimon Amongst whom this choice-Servant of God with many others graciously fitted for such a Work are sent over to set up the worship of Christ in this desart A service of which the Apologetical brethren may we be permitted to transcribe their apprehension thereof speak thus Last of all we had the recent and later Example of the ways and practices and those improved to a better Edition and greater refinement by all the fore-mentioned helpes of those multitudes of Godly men of our own Nation almost to the number of another Nation and among them some as holy and judicious Divines as this Kingdom hath bred whose sincerity in their way hath been testified before all the world and will be to all generations to come by the greatest undertaking but that of our Father Abraham out of his own country and his seed after him A transplanting themselves many thousand miles distance and that by Sea into a wilderness meerly to worship God more purely whither to allure them there could be no other invitement Exilium causa ipsa jubet mihi dulce videri Beza Eleg. 2. Et desiderium dulce levat patriae Bereaved Exiles ought not to repine When as the cause presents an Anodine The persons spoken of in this Transcript in the recital thereof distinguish between the Act and the Agents This testimony whilst they crave leave to present unto the Reader in way of defence for their undertaking so far as to be of God they are ashamed of themselves the Agents as most unworthy They here read their duty what they ought to be and are not insensible of the goads of the wise provoking them to be according to their duty in the mean while confessing and lamenting their too manifest unanswerable walking unto their Profession and their Brethrens expectation The cause of his departure was this The corruption of new- The cause of his removal to new-New-England the Times being such as would not endure his officiating any longer in his station without sin and the envy of his maligners having procured Letters missive to convent him before the High Commission which a debauched Inhabitant of that Town who not long after died of the Plague undertook to deliver to him according as he had already done to some others Mr Cotton having intelligence thereof and well knowing that nothing but scorns and imprisonment were to be expected conformably to the advice of many able heads and upright hearts amongst whom that holy man Mr. Dod of blessed memory had a singular influence he kept himself close for a time in and about London as Luther sometimes at Wittenberg and Paraeus afterwards at Anvilla Neither was that season of his recess unprofitable but as Jerom retired to his den at Bethlehem was an Oracle unto many in his time so Addresses during that interim were made unto him privately by divers persons of worth and piety who received from him satisfaction unto their Consciences in cases of greatest concernment His fliglit was not like that of Pliny's Mice that forsake a house foreseeing the ruine of it or of Mercenaries who flie from duty in time of danger but Providence Divine shutting up the door of service in England and on the other hand opening it in New-England he was guided both by the word and eye of the Lord. And as David yielded upon the perswasion of his men to absent himself from danger so he suffered himself to be perswaded by his friends to withdraw from the lust of his Persecutors for the preservation of so precious a light in Israel after the example of Jacob Moses the Prophets which Obadiah hid in the caves Polycarp Athanasius yea and Christ himself When they persecute you in one City flie unto another Cyprian implieth that a tempestive Flight is a kinde of Confession of our faith it being an open profession that our faith is dearer to us then all that we flie from for the defence thereof It was not a flight from duty but from evident and regularly evitable danger not from the evil of persecution but from the evil of obstruction unto serviceableness It was not a flight from duty but unto duty not from the profession of the Truth but unto a more opportune place for the profession of it Thus this Infant and small Commonwealth being now capacitated both in respect of Civil and Church-estate to walk with God according to the prescript of his Word it was the good hand of the Lord unto his servants who had afflicted their souls to seek of him a right way for themselves their little ones and their substance to send unto them amongst many others this man of understanding that might be unto them as eyes in this wilderness His manner of entrance unto them was with much blessing For at his first coming he found them not without some troubles about setling the matters of the Church and Commonwealth When Mr. Cotton being requested preaching before the General Court out of Haggai 2. 4. Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord be strong O Joshua son of Josedek the High-Priest and be strong all ye people of the land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts As Menenius Agrippa sometimes by his Oration healed that Liv. histor lib 2. cap. 32. then-threatning breach between the Fathers and the People of Rome so through the Lords working mightily by this Sermon all obstructions were presently removed and the spirits of all sorts as