Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	apostle_n	ghost_n	holy_a	8,521	5	5.7573	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47413	A sermon preached at Lewis in the diocess of Chichester by the Lord Bp. of Chichester, at his visitation held there, Octob. 8, 1662.	King, Henry, 1592-1669.	1663 (1663)	Wing K506; ESTC R17990	15,047	47

Send me and is accepted But before his setting forth He has his Mission Go and say unto the People The Reason is given by St. Paul No man ●aketh this Honor to himself but he who is called of God as was Aaron Nay saith he Christ took not to Himself this Honor to be made the High priest But He who said to Him Thou art my Son This day begat I thee Gave it to him I fear there be some Straglers in our Church who as they speak what Christ and his Apostles ne'r taught so they have done what they did not I mean Invested themselves in the Ministerial Function before Lawfully Ordained and Run on God's Errand before he sent them Of which sort were Those Obscure men Hierom speaks of Qui de cavernis cellularum damnant orbem who from their dark Corners and close Angles wherein they lurk breathe out the Sentence of Damnation against all that are not of their Opinion and Sect. VVould that unruly violence which transports them stop a little at the Book of Jeremy They should find their giddy zeal waited on by as much rebuke and danger as the false Prophets who are first Degraded and then Cursed God disclames their service I have not sent them neither did I command them neither spake unto them And after condemns them to Sword and Famin. I am sure that Prophet was so tender of himself in this particular That lest he might be suspected for an Intruder upon his Office He makes a voluntary protestation He had not thrust in himself for a Pastor So St. Paul before he delivers any Message by his Pen to the Corinthians opens his Commission Vocatus ad Apostolatum Paul called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God Nor doth he keep it back from Timothy but shews it although he required it not Whereunto I am appointed a Preacher The Minister is Sagitta electa a chosen Shaft drawn from the Quiver of God An Arrow doth not flie of it self unless sent from the Bow by that hand which fits it to the String How disordered then must their motion need● be who leap out of the Quiver and fly without their Mission St. Paul doth not onely ask why any should do this but how they should perform the scope of this Message Quomodo praedicabunt nisi missi How shall they preach unless they be sent The Apostles never spake with power until they had received the holy Ghost And then see how St. Peters first Sermon like a sharp Sword peirces to the quick The Hearers were pricked to the heart and said to the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do Those who preach without this Spirit may preach the dead Letter or rather not Praedicare but Sonare not Preach but make a noise VVe are perswaded that in the Lawful Ordination in our Church the Spirit of God is imparted in those words Accipite Spiritum Sanctum Receive the holy Ghost Nor must we judge them Ministers who want these Seals of Ordination to their Patent God touched the lips of Esay And Ezekiel must have remained still dumb had not the hand of God opened his mouth Christ our Blessed Saviour signed the Apostles Commission in his Gospel Go out and preach to all Nations But he sealed not that Commission until the day of Pentecost wherein He gave the Holy Ghost as the Seal of his love and favour to them Those Preachers who have this Hand to their Patent and this Seal to their Commission can onely call themselves Preachers VVhen they have this warrant it will not onely be seasonable to speak but necessary For their Commission then becomes a Charge and this Loquere speak Thou is not so much a License as a Mandat There was no Vessel of the Sanctuary but had its peculiar use There is no Priest but is or should be a Sanctuary like it holy and furnished like it I know my Heart is my Portable Oratory but if my Tongue be tied up to the Roof of my mouth I am onely a Chapell without the Service and an Altar without the Sacrifice The Praise and glory of God is a Stock entrusted to the world Every Creature hath a Talent from this Treasury and with it drives this pretious Trade Therefore David musters up the Elements as well as the Bodies formed out of them and will have every Letter in the Creature 's Alphabet as well as the VVords made out of those Letters to Praise God Shall every Creature in his way and every Beast in his Dialect Praise God And shall the world's Interpreter Man be mute If God will not dispence with this want of service in those Creatures which want Speech how can he whom alone he hath made Vocal excuse his silence Where is the Tribute of the Tongue due but from him who is endued with Organs of speech Or where is speech significant as when the Tongue is prompted by a knowing heart The Prophet says that the Lips of the Priest preserve knowledge And therefore Speech as it is most profitable so most warrantable from Him He who lets not down his Pitcher into this Well As he refused now to draw water for the Thirsty's relief so he must hereafter look to thirst for his punishment The first thing Christ did when he came to Jacob's well was to ask the courtesie of the Samaritan's pitcher Give me water And Abraham's Servant concluded from the ready letting down of Rebekkah's Pitcher into the well that God was with his Errand God's Messages are like refresh●●g Dews to a barren and thirsty Land There is none then that derives himself from Christ who is not as liberal of his Comforts as Christ of his Living waters when he proclames Qui s●it veniat Let every one that thirsts come God grant our Wells never want these Waters nor that the Wells prove so illiberal to deny them When Fountains of knowledge restrain their waters not pouring out by the Tongue which is the Conduit of speech to fill the Cisterns I mean the ears and hearts of the Congregation that dearth threatens drought to the Fountain it self The Preacher says There is a time to speak and a time to be silent But the Apostle brings not the Minister within the compass of this Interpretation No time must silence him no respite no privation of speech but he must preach in season and out of season Or if he do make any pause in this service it must be onely Caution must stop him not Silence Sit Rector discretus in silentio utilis in verbo ne aut tacenda preferat aut proferenda reticescat is Gregory's Rule There is no Law bids him repress his words But both the Law of God and the Law of Reason bids him weigh them before he speaks When David resolves upon his Dixi Custodiam St. Ambrose glosses upon it Rectè David