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spirit_n fervency_n zeal_n zealous_a 56 3 8.8728 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A74688 Vox Dei & hominis. God's call from heaven ecchoed [sic] by mans answer from earth. Or a survey of effectual calling. In the [brace] explication of its nature. Distribution of it into its parts. Illustration of it by its properties. Confirmation of it by reasons. Application of it by uses. Being the substance of several sermons delivered to the people of Heveningham, in Suffolk. / By J. Votier, minister of the gospel.; Vox Dei et hominis Votier, J. (James), b. 1622. 1658 (1658) Wing V709; Thomason E1756_1; ESTC R209691 204,151 359

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may charge Soules home with their sins Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins Isai 58. 1. Some are so fine fingered they dare not touch the sore so mure hearted they dare not search the wound so mealy-mouthed they cannot speak hard against sin some so guilty they are afraid to condemn themselves A Minister must Preach not as acquitting but accusing not as soothing but as searching not as discharging but charging the wicked and ungodly not as flattering but frowning upon sin not as pleasing man but pleasing God To Preach generally not particularly to Preach as a farre off never come near is not the way To make all wel for fear of ill will is too low a frame for the Spirit of a Minister of Jesus Christ to be in and argues an heart seeking more it's own temporal comfort than Gods Eternal glory I mean not that Ministers should particularize publikely persons or names or that that their words should savour of Spleen and Gall against ought but sin But this that they should charge their peoples sins upon them as Nathan said to David Thou art the man So they you are the 2 Sam. 12. 7. people that are thus and thus Let them endeavour to cause them to know that they are the people that have contemned Gods Commands broken his bonds worked wickednesse practised perversenesse refused repentance and slighted their own Soules that they are in a lost and undone condition after this manner did John the Baptist Preach to the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 3. 7 8 9. He opens the Book and shewes them their sins he brings them to the brink of Hell and shewes them their danger and so doth Peter Him have ye taken and by wicked hands Crucified and slain Acts 2. 23. And did not the Lord blesse this his Preaching For they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Verse 37. And so again in Acts 8. 20 21 22 23. Read them I pray How terrible doth Peter thunder there against Simon Magus and come home to him My heart riseth much against flattery especially in a Ministery it is a most desperate thing and of cursed consequence There is not a speedier way to damn Semper vitanda est perniciosa dulcedo people whereas a Ministers work is to Preach their Soules to Heaven For Ministers to hover and keep at a distance in their Preaching and never seek to come home nor get into the conscience argueth cowardize or unskilfulnesse Such Preaching will bring little of comfort to the Pastor or conversion to the people It is said of Bernard that once he Preached a curious neat flourishing Sermon and every one was taken with it though not by it but he was sad and heavy thereupon soon after he Preached another Sermon not of kin to the former but an home searching pressing Sermon it was no commendation of this as of the former But he carried it very lightsomely and cheerfully to what he did before the people asked him the reason of his so various divers Heri Bernardum hodie Christum deportment he answers yesterday I Preached Bernard to day Christ yesterday my self to day my Saviour Though people condemn such kind of Preaching yet God will crown it though it be harsh to flesh and blood yet it is health to the Soul and Spirit many look upon it as needlesse when the Lord knows it is very needful 3. Powerful Preaching Powerful zealous S. 12 Preaching is a means of effectual calling Ministers should Preach not with affectation but affection not with formality but fervency not with listlinesse but livelinesse Sermons should be fired with zeal and filled with love Cold dead lazy Preaching maketh Christians thereafter faint wooing for Christ goes away Qui timidè rogat negare docet with a denial if they be not more hot in their work they can never win the castle of the heart for Christ Eli's vile Children feared not their 1 Sam. 2. 25. Fathers faint chiding The Lord did earnestly protest to his people by his Ministers Jer. 11. 7. I earnestly protested saith the Lord or as in the original protesting I protested I delivered my mind to you over and over which sheweth earnestnesse Earnest Preaching many times brings early practice Ministers should first warm their hearts at the Spirits fire and then warm their Sermons at their hearts they should so speak that their words may seem not to fall from their heads but to rise from the hearts what comes from the heart is most like to go to the heart To speak as if one were afraid to wake the sleepers to disquiet sin as if one had no sence of grace or sin of mercy or misery is like to prove fruitlesse and without good issue Sinners are asleep and they must be rouzed they are secure and they must be rounded and they are regardlesse and must be ratled as the Heb. 4. 2 word should be mixed with Faith in the hearer so with fervency in the Preacher It is said of that eminent Divine Master Perkins that in his Preaching he would pronounce the word Damn with such an Emphasis that Fuller holy state he left a trembling impression upon the Spirits of his Auditors Ministers must be Boanerges Sons of Thunder as well as Barjonas Sons of Consolation when they speak they should 1 Pet. 4. 11. speak as the Oracles of God powerfully pressingly vehemently urgingly Reader when the word hath been powerfully Preached to thee in a zealous stirring way hast thou not had some convictions have not the secrets of thine heart been made manifest and thou been constrained to fall down and worship God and report and say the Lord is in this Minister 1 Cor. 14. 25. of a truth Hast not been almost a Christian thereby and thou that art Godly did not the Lord use the obstetrication of means of such kind of Preaching for bringing forth the Man-child of grace The Lord give such Watch-men such Work-men where they are wanted the Lord blesse them where they are seated Was not Christs Preaching after this manner How Pathetically doth he expresse himself Luke 13. 34 35. And can we learn of a greater Doctor than he And what else doth Paul mean and intend but earnest Preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pasor Lex in his counsel to Timothy Preach the word be instant in season out of season 2 Tim. 4. 2. that is be earnest pressing be urgent as some translate the word 2. Means of the higher forme Now we S. 13 come to speak of means of a superiour order and that is the Spirit of the Lord the Spirit and the Word go together the one as the Servant the other as the Master the one as the Instrument Nisi Spiritus S. adsit cordi audientium