Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	jesus_n	15,155	5	6.0417	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33725	The old apostolical way of preaching, or, Peters last legacy to all his true successors in the ministry and faith of the Gospel being an awakening word from a dying-preacher to his dying-hearers in a sermon preached on the death of Mr. Edward West, late minister of the gospel in London / by Thomas Cole ...	Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697.	1676 (1676)	Wing C5032; ESTC R43106	10,675	23

THE Old Apostolical Way OF PREACHING OR Peters last Legacy to all his true Successors in the Ministry and Faith of the Gospel BEING An awakening Word from a Dying-Preacher to his Dying-Hearers IN A SERMON Preached on the Death of Mr. EDWARD WEST Late Minister of the Gospel in London BY THOMAS COLE Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockeril at the Atlas in Cornhil 1676. THE OLD Apostolick Way of Preaching 2 Pet. 1.12 13 14 15. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present Truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my Decease to have these things always in remembrance I Do not so much intend a Funeral Elegie for the Dead as a plain Practical Sermon for the Living The Dead know not any thing neither are they any more concerned in the things that are done under the Sun Yet we may draw Arguments from their Graves to quicken us to our Duty 'T is evident that this great Apostle had Death in his eye when he wrote these words whether those to whom he wrote were under the like consideration of their own Mortality is uncertain Peter being so solicitous here to put them in remembrance seems tacitly to charge them with a careless negligent forgetful frame of Spirit and those who do not bear in their minds the great Truths of the Gospel that shew the Consequents of Death and so make it weighty and considerable in our Thoughts can never seriously prepare for it He tells them he is but a Sojourner amongst them in a Tent and Tabernacle intimating that they themselves dwelt under as thin a Roof that might suddenly let in Death upon them which he foresaw was not far off from himself this stirred him up to a more diligent and vigorous performance of his Duty He is very desirous to finish and perfect his Work before the Night comes upon him that he might not Run in vain nor Labour in vain but throughly fix those Truths upon the Hearts and Consciences of his People which he had Preached to them that they might Remember them when he was Dead and gone The Text is An awakening Word from a Dying Preacher to his Dying Hearers I know I am engaged in a Funeral Sermon but it is upon the Death of a Minister and to a Congregation who by this sad Providence are called to the Choice of a new Preacher And therefore if in the former part of my Discourse I say something of the Nature of Preaching of the old Apostolick Way which God did so wonderfully own in the Primitive Times and unto which we must certainly return before we can expect the like Success in our Ministry I hope if I do insist a little upon this you will not judg it wide of the Occasion or altogether unseasonable But if any do let them know that the Circumstance of the season must give place and yield a little to the Substance of the Text which by and by will sute that also Therefore I must crave a little time to shew you the general Scope and Design of the Apostle in these words afterwards I shall more particularly speak to the 15th verse which will bring me nearer to the present Occasion And because many particulars in a Sermon do usually run out into new matter carrying the Speaker sometimes both beyond the Text and his own Intentions to avoid this I shall cast my whole Discourse into this Method and couch all I have to say under these two General Heads which I will insist upon 1. The Old Apostolick way of Preaching that was so much upon the Heart of Peter just before his Death 2. His last Legacy to all his true Successors in the Ministry and Faith of the Gospel The shortness of Time both to prepare and deliver what I have now to say must excuse that want of Method and Exactness that suddain Things are usually defective in I begin with the first viz. The old Apostolick way of preaching in laying down the plain Fundamental Truths of the Gospel proving them by Scripture and frequently minding the People of them by way of Remembrance this was Christ's Method Luke 24.27 44 45. 'T is the Method of the Holy Ghost to bring things to our Remembrance and for this very end was the Holy Spirit promised to the Church John 14.26 But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you 'T was Iohn's Method 1 John 2.21 I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth I but because you know it and that no lie is of the Truth I must tell you what you know already that is the way to know more 't was Paul's Method Phil. 3.1 To write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe 'T was that he advises Timothy to 1 Tim. 4.6 7. If thou put the Brethren in Remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Iesus Christ nourished up in the words of Faith and of good Doctrine whereunto thou hast attained But refuse profane and old Wives Fables and exercise thy self rather unto Godliness 2 Tim. 2.14 15 16. Of these things put them in Remembrance charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the Hearers Study to shew thy self approved unto God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth But shun profane and vain Bablings for they will encrease unto more ungodliness 'T was the desire of those Gentiles which Paul and Barnabas complyed with with very great Success Acts 13.42 to hear the same words preached to them the next Sabbath 'T was Peters design in his Epistles 2 Pet. 3.1 2. This second Epistle Beloved I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure Minds by way of Remembrance That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the Holy Prophets and of the Commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour As appears also in the words of the Text. The first Sermon that was preached after the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was by Peter Act. 2. And three thousand Souls were converted by it to shew the mighty Efficacy of the Spirit of God and the power of a plain Gospel-Sermon for it was no other but a plain Narration of those Things that concern the Power and Coming of Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. 1.16 For we have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known

unto you the Power and coming of our Lord Iesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty The Effect of this Sermon made deep Impression upon Peter he was greatly affected with it he never forgot it to his dying-day and being now going out of the World he would fain preach over that Sermon again putting them in Remembrance again and again he mentions it thrice over Vers. 12 13 15 q. d. Remember Remember Remember the things that I have told you concerning the Power and Coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and for all humane Inventions and cunningly devised Fables and Stories of I know not what that Men may tell you in the Pulpit to set out themselves and their own Parts and Learning away with them If ever you be Converted it must be from that Testimony the Spirit gives in your Hearts to those Fundamental Truths of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ and hence do's certainly arise the Conversion of all the Sinners that are ever brought home to Christ. You may think that the Doctrine of the miserable state of Man by Nature of the only way of Redemption by Christ the Doctrine of Faith Repentance and Self-denyal are all of them but common things which you have heard over again and again and are cloy'd with the very sound of them I say these and such like Truths are the only converting Truths and we must hold Men to them till God doth work by them upon their Hearts they are indeed easy Words but they are hard things to receive and practise When God brings our Souls under the Power of these Truths how wonderful are they then how full of matter those who are Converted do admire those Truths most which before they looked upon as common and ordinary but now they think they can never hear too much of the way of believing in Christ and laying hold upon him as their Righteousness and life these Truths do find them work enough now though before they were unconcerned in them and these are the things which we must insist upon You see the old Apostolick way of Preaching was in all plainness and simplicity to propound Gospel-Truths in the name of God to the People and to Commend them to their belief upon the bear Credit of Divine Testimony till Faith came by Hearing they knew the Word had all its weight from that stamp of Divine Authority that is upon it and from the Efficacy of the Spirit accompanying it to the Hearts of Believers these things they often inculcated and kept in their Remembrance telling them what was to be done upon the belief of such Principles and this was the Application they made and here is scope enough for Exhortation to the People but now a-days too too many do lay aside their best Argument which is to ground the Truth of the written Word upon Divine Testimony and the whole efficacy of the Word Preached upon the promises of a Divine Concurrence which God has made to this Ordinance here lieth the Strength and Vertue of this Ordinance it would signifie nothing without this Go says Christ teach all Nations Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World We that are Ministers should take this promise up into our Pulpits every time we preach and leave the whole matter with God who works as he pleases by our Ministry but instead of this Men take up these Weapons of our Spiritual-Warfare Which are mighty only through God into the Hand of Carnal Reason and think to set a further Edge upon them that way What hath Man to do to give his reasons of Gospel-Mysteries since there is no other way of knowing them but by believing comparing Scripture with Scripture till we are satisfied that Things are so set down in the Bible as they are reported to us out of the Pulpit Act. 17.11 Naked Truth is far more venerable in its own Simplicity than in that Artificial Dress which the Self-admirers of this Age to please themselves and to delude and amuse others have put upon the Back of abused Truth that labours greatly even almost under a total Eclipse by the Interposition of such gross terrene matter between the Heavenly Light of the Gospel and this sinful World upon whom this Sun is risen and would shine out in more Brightness were these Clouds and Mists the empty Vapours of a human Brain more throughly scattered The further we go in our own reasonings about Spiritual Things the less we discern them 't is not in our own Light but in his that we see Light yet how do many please themselves with a meer humane Knowledg of Divine Things disputing all things rather than believing any thing heaping up Distinctions and Terms of Art and all by way of Explication as if the Subtilties of Logick and Metaphysicks were of the essence of saving Faith and that a proficiency even to the Highest Form in the Schools of humane Literature were as absolutely necessary to make a Christian as a Divine though something else is required to both Thus they would engross all Religion to the Gown leaving nothing to those of a lower capacity but a blind implicit Faith as if Gospel-Principles were unintelligible to all but Scholars when God who causes the foolish Things of this World to confound the wise hath declared to the Contrary Logick alone may speak Natural Reason but seldom good Divinity Therefore after all Disputes about the Polemical part of Divinity give me the sincere unlearned Mans Religion who hath no more in his Head than he hath in his Heart whose Reason doth not out-run his Faith and Experience he lives in what he believes and knows more of the Nature of Faith by one Act of Faith than others do by reading of an hundred Books and Discourses of Men about it A down-right plain-hearted Christian who hath but one Notion of things I mean of any one Truth but that is a right one he keeps to it without any variation in his Conceptions about it and walks evenly and uprightly with God all his days according to his Light What a great place in Heaven will such a one have who is faithful over a little and is what he is by the Grace of God Whereas others of larger Heads abounding too much in their own sense keep not their Hearts so close to the plain Fundamentals of the Gospel their Reason out-runs their Faith and insensibly winds them off from the power of the Gospel into many Labyrinths of Error or at least into empty airy Speculations Thus losing themselves in their own thoughts they become vain in their Imaginations and framing some curious Notions in their Heads they presently grow fond of them and must find some place in Religion for them They go back to their Faith to justifie their Reason in its late rare Inventions and if that cannot be rather than fail they will offer Violence to their first received Principles and shape the very Fundamentals