Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	bring_v	good_a	tiding_n	2,863	5	11.4428	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70248	A sermon preached at the triennial visitation of the right reverend father in God, Richard, L. Bishop of Bath and Wells held at Bridgewater, on the 19th day of August, 1695 / by Matthew Hole ...	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.; Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.	1696 (1696)	Wing H2413; ESTC R212962	17,819	31

Apostle does not here will us to covet but to abhor such vile and detestable Arts. And thus having mentioned some of those Gifts which though too much in vogue are yet none of the hest I proceed now to those more useful Talents and Abilities that tend most to the Edification of the Church and therefore ought to be coveted by us as the best gifts To which end we must note that the two great parts of Edification are Knowledge and Practice The former gives Men the right understanding of Holy Mysteries And the latter teaches them to square their Lives and Actions according to them And consequently the best gifts are those that enable us First To settle and inform Mens Judgments aright in the knowledge of the Truth And Secondly To excite their Affections to the Love and Practice of it First I say We are to covet those as the best gifts that enable us to inform and settle Mens Judgments aright in the knowledge of the Truth Here we must begin for if we go about to move and stir the Affections before the Mind be well informed we shall beget a Heat without Light or a Zeal without Knowledge which will be of very evil and dangerous Consequence Our Apostle tells us That 't is good to be zealously affected Gal. 4.18 but then he limits it always to a good thing And therefore the Mind must be well instructed in the goodness of the thing before we excite to the love or pursuit of it otherwise Zeal may spend it self as it too often does upon very bad matters And this is the root and foundation of all Fanaticism For some Teachers seek to work upon and warm the Passions of Men before their Judgments are well informed and thereby make their Hearers zealous for or against things without giving them the right understanding of either and this hath begot those intemperate heats in Religion which have frequently broke but to the disturbance of Church and State The Affections which are too apt to inflame are very unfit to guide and therefore they must not outrun but follow the understanding and be guided by the dictates of a well informed Judgment for else how easily may the undue fervours of the Mind lead to the heats of Enthusiasme or the weaknesses of Superstition And how frequently have they that have been too hasty and eager in raising the Affections made sad work with the Passions of Men By this means 2 Tim. 3.7 some have been ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth being unstable in their Principles Eph. 4.14 and like children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the cunning craftiness of those that lay in wait to deceive To edifie then or profit our Hearers we must begin with their Judgments and indeavour to settle them aright in the great Points of Religion For as in the Creation of the World the first thing created was Light and that dispelled the Darkness of the rude and unformed Chaos even so in the new Creation the first thing must be to let in a clear and convincing light upon the Soul and that will scatter all the mists of Error and Ignorance To this end Catechizing will be of very great use to instruct Children betimes in the Principles of Religion to instill into them the knowledge of God and to season their tender Years with an Early Piety Prov. 22.6 By thus training up children betimes in the way that they should go Solomon hath told us that when they are old they will not depart from it As they grow up we must explain to them the Nature and Obligation of their Baptismal Vow giving them to understand what they have promised and how they may be enabled to perform it When they come to greater Maturity we are to let them know upon what grounds the Articles of the Christian Faith stand that they may not be shaken from the belief of them And this will be best done by a plain and easie Exposition of the Apostles Creed After this we are to shew them the excellency and extent of the Divine Law by a fuller Explication of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments describing the Nature of every particular Vertue and Vice required and forbidden in them Psal 119 18. So shall we open their Eyes to see the wondrous things of Gods Law we shall lead them as it were by the hand into the paths of Righteousness and guide their feet into the ways of Truth and Peace And having thus fixed and settled their Judgments in the knowledge of Divine Truths we are then to apply our selves to the Second part of Edification and to covet those Gifts that may best serve to move their Affections and to stir them up to the love and practice of their Duty And here we may safely use all the Arts of Divine Rhetorick and betake our selves to the most prevailing Topicks and Methods of Perswasion Here we may describe the loveliness and rewards of Vertue setting forth in the most lively colours the Beauty of Holiness that Men may be enamour'd and fall in love with it Here we may represent the uglyness and deformity of Vice painting it in the blackest and most odious shape to beget the greater abhorrence and detestation of it When we would reveal the Wrath of God from Heaven against Sinners Exo. ●… we may appear as on Mount Sinai in Thunder and Lightning to make if possible the sturdiest Sinners to quake and tremble When we would display the Riches of Divine Grace in the Work of Mans Redemption we may like our Saviour on the Mount of Olives breathe out nothing but Joy and Blessedness Mat. ●… and with open voice proclaim the glad tidings of the Kingdom of Heaven Knowing the Terrors of the Lord we are to perswade Men to flee from the wrath to come Cor. 5.1 And knowing the tender Love of God to Mankind we are to court them to accept of Mercy and Pardon and as Ambassadors in Christs stead ●er 20. beseech them to be reconcil●d This will make our Doctrine drop as the Rain and our Speech distill as the Dew gently sliding through the Ears into the Hearts of our Hearers and by a sweet facility insinuating it self into their Will and Affections ●om 10.5 And then how beautiful will be the feet of them that thus preach the Gospel of Peace and bring glad tidings of good things And thus having shewed what are the best gifts and most worthy of our ambition I proceed Secondly To shew how we are to covet them which our Text tells us must be earnestly Covet earnestly the best gifts Now to covet any thing in good earnest is not barely to approve of it nor yet much less to sit down with faint and languishing wishes after it but to apply our selves to the most proper means of attaining it and to exert the utmost of our Powers and Faculties in endeavours after it And