Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	grace_n	pray_v	prayer_n	8,057	5	6.5536	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29182	A cry for labourers in Gods harvest being a sermon preached upon the sad occasion of the late funeral of that eminent servant of Christ, Mr. Ralph Venning, who departed this life, March 10, 1673/4 / by Robert Bragge ...	Bragge, Robert, 1627-1704.	1674 (1674)	Wing B4202; ESTC R20229	19,240	42

of God much less doth a Minister preach a Sermon but there is a providence in it When God sends a Minister to a Congregation he doth lett out a piece of Land or bids him husband that for me Levit. 27.26 You read there how God would have them to value their Land dedicated to God to be worth more or less according to the Seed of it as it was capable of receiving much or less seed so the Minister should value his Land according to his opportunity he hath to sow Seed there 4. It is the Lord of the Harvest that must give success to these Labourers or else all their Preaching and labouring will be but as Plowing and Sowing among the Rocks You must not think Preaching of the Gospel doth work upon souls by any inherent vertue in the Word as Fire warms and Food nourishes and Physick heals If the Spirit of the Lord doth not go along with the Word it will be but as Musick to the Deaf c. 1 Cor. 3. Paul may plant Apollos may water but God gives the increase Now if the husbandman cannot command Seed to grow out of the Ground how much less can Ministers create Grace in Souls If in Natural things it is God that makes the Grass to spring how much more in spiritual things It is he makes the Soul to fructifie Alas it is not the parts and Eloquence of the Minister can beget Grace that must be the work of Gods Spirit 3. Here is our Duty or work in order to the obtaining this Gift that is to Pray the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth more Labourers into his Harvest Prayers you know that is the prevailing course for the removing any evil that lies upon us or obtaining any good we stand in need of Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear you Such and such things God promises to do for his People But for this I will be sought unto saith the Lord. God will do good things for his Church and People but he will do things in his own order Here I might shew you the great power the Prayers of Gods People have with him The fervent effectual Prayer of the righteous prevaileth much Acts 12. You read there how Herod had put to death one of the Apostles And Peter was likewise taken up too and the Church go to Prayer what was the issue Peter was delivered Likewise what became of Herod He was smitten of God As one said Wo be to the Birds of prey when Gods Turtles begin to cry and mourn before him O that we were perswaded of this that there is such a great deal of power and prevalency in Prayer how should we be more exercised in this Duty both in publick and private and to be representing the state of the Church to God as they did of Lazarus to Christ He whom thou lovest is dead so should we say He whom thou lovest thy Church is sick and languishing ready to give up the Ghost I would come to the last thing There are only two or three Uses I would make of it Use 1. If it be the duty of every good Christian Man and Woman thus to pray and cry to God for the sending more Labourers into his Harvest then it shews us 1. The necessity of a Gospel Ministry What do you think of the Husbandmans Calling is that a necessary Calling to Plow and sow the Land that ye may have Bread to eat What would your Houses and Families do without Bread No more can a Church of God subsist in this world without the Ministry of the Word I know there are some ready to say What need is there of mens Preaching what need of the Ministry of Man cannot God do it alone Yea we have Christ and the teaching of the Spirit what need is there of mans teaching is not the Spirit above man is not Christ above Ministers I grant there is no necessity of Preaching the Word with respect to God he is able to save men and women without the Preaching of the Word as well as with it he doth not need the gifts and parts and tongue of any man for bringing souls home to himself As Israel in the Wilderness when they had no Plowing yet God could feed them he could bring them Bread from Heaven But yet as Gods ordinary way of maintaining and feeding your Bodies it is by Plowing and sowing the Field so it is the ordinary way God hath set in his Church for feeding your souls It pleased him 1 Cor. 1.21 by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe and God will keep close to his own Ordinance and honour his own Institution As Acts 9. when Paul was converted it was in an extraordinary way It is true Christ did speak to him out of the Clouds Saul Saul why persecutest c. and he said Who art thou Lord Christ you know Preached himself to Paul and he trembled and was astonished and said Lord what wouldst thou have me to do and Christ said Arise and go into the City and it shall be told thee what thou must do Could not Christ have as well told him his own work and business See how Christ begins the work but would have Paul to wait upon him in his own way therefore Ananias must be sent to Paul The like instance you have in the next Chapter there you read of Cornelius a devout man yet knew little of Christ and God sent an Angel to him Thy Prayer is heard and thine Alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God send therefore to Joppa and call Simon whose Surname is Peter and he shall speak unto thee What was not the Angel as well able to have taught Cornelius as Peter yea doubtless but as if he had said That is none of my Commission therefore send for such a person he shall speak to thee Here I might spend time to shew you the necessity of the Ministry of the Word 1. In order to Conversion Regeneration and bringing sinners to Christ Faith comes by hearing Who is Paul c. but Ministers by whom ye believed Do you look for seed-time without Plowing the Ground No more must you expect Grace without hearing the Word 2. I might shew you the necessity hereof for the building up of those that are Converted When we are in Christ when we are Believers we are not now above the Ministry of the Word above Ordinances No my Brethren this Ministry of the Word and Ordinances must continue in the Church as long as there is one soul to be saved as long as one soul is out of Heaven it must continue till the coming of Christ Again 2. If the sending forth of Labourers into the Harvest be such a desirable mercy then it shews us how much we should prize a faithful Ministry If God hath sent us faithful Ministers we should look upon it as a great and wonderful blessing It is the

coming When Lights are put out what can we expect but that darkness will follow When God calls off his Shepherds we have just cause to fear he will loose Wolves upon the Flocks to devour and make a prey of them My Brethren if God should send such weather that men could not sow or if when the Harvest should be grown up there should be a mortality that there were no men to reap it you would think a Famine were coming and lament over it as a sad and grievous thing Oh there is a Famine the Scripture speaks of not of Bread but of the Word and when God takes away his Ministers so fast have we not cause to fear this Famine is coming on upon us Oh this my Brethren should melt your hearts into Prayers and Tears and if you have any Groans or Tears to pour them out before the Lord if you have any interest in the Throne of Grace to improve it that God would send forth faithful Labourers into his Harvest Here my Brethren I might bespeak you of this Congregation more particularly to lay to heart the sad breach God hath made among you in his late providence in his removing him who was wont to labour in the midst of you Methinks there are some circumstances in that stroke that particularly do require our serious consideration First of all The suddenness and unexpectedness of that stroke Not sudden to him for not many days before he was taken sick he set his house in order acquainting his Wife where his Will was so that it seems he had some kind of presage of his approaching death but sudden to us the stroke was How many of you that were surprised and startled to hear of Mr. Venning's death how many that scarce heard of his sickness until you heard he was dead Who of you thought the last day you saw and heard him in this place that it must be the last day you should hear and see him Who of you when you heard him beginning to direct you how you must put on the first Piece of the spiritual Armour did imagine that he was so near of being uncloathed himself and to lay down his Earthly Tabernacle God snatched him away he had a mind to take him from us and would not be hindred by the Prayers of his People Secondly This circumstance doth agravate the loss namely that he was taken away though I cannot say in the Prime or flower of his strength for he had Laboured many years yet in middle Age. For according to the course of nature we might have injoyed more of his Labours he was not withered by old Age. When a drie stake is removed out of the hedge it is not so great a loss as when a fruit-bearing tree is cut down Thirdly Is there not this Aggravation attends it namely that he is taken away in such a time of scarcity and dearth of faithful Labourers Consider my Brethren the great Mortality of faithful Ministers that hath been of late years in this Nation doth speak aloud to us to warn us of great evils hastening upon us Lastly There is this circumstance above all the rest namely the Eminency of the Ministerial gifts and priviledges God had qualified him withall In this respect he was like Saul taller by the head than many of his Brethren like Benjamin he had a double yea treble portion of spiritual gifts He was such a workman as the Apostle speaks that needed not to be ashamed able rightly to divide the word of truth I do not intend to enter into any commendation of him though I might speak much of him and yet speak below not above his true worth He needs not any such Spices to embalm his name which hath left so sweet a savour behind him It was not praise or Commendation of the dead but instructions to the Living that I intended in this discourse Only the more Eminent a person is for serviceableness and usefulness in the Church of God when there are many can stand forth and say It pleased God by such a mans Ministry to open my blind eyes and others that can bear witness too how God hath spoken to their hearts for quickning comfort and counsel I say the greater is the loss of such an Instrument and the more to be bewailed by us I would wind up all by one word of Counsel that is to teach you how you may improve these sad losses You know Sampson found honey in the Carcass of the dead Lion There are many sweet and wholesome instructions to be gathered from the dead Ministers Abel though dead yet speaketh I may say of the dead Ministers though dead and laid in their graves They speak to you they speak with a louder voice out of their Graves and Coffins than ever they did out of their Pulpit Here I might show you those several lessons you may learn from your dead Ministers but time is gone This one thing to be sure they call upon you for that you would labour to remember and put in Practice those Godly Sermons they Preached to you in their life-time The death of Ministers should revive those Counsels and Comserts that you received in their life-time from them and enliven the remembrance of them upon their hearts 2 Kings 2.14 when Elijah was dead Elisha takes up his mantle I would have you be gathering up those instructions that the Ministers did let fall to you whilest they were ●●●ve to remember how he spake on such a subject at such a time and spoke such a word to my soul at another time Here I might desire you to call to remembrance the late Sermons of this Eminent Servant of God to remember his discourse of the grace of God which hath appeared in the Gospel to teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and Godly even in this Present world And his Sermons concerning the Love of the Son of God And of the saving Operations of the Spirit of God and to labour to shew forth the Works of the Spirit in your holy walking according to those Sermons you heard from him so lately To put on the Armour of God and to prepare for the evil day that you may be able to stand in that day All those heavenly spiritual Gospel Sermons he Preached to you call for holy Heavenly and Gospel conversations from you In a word let it be your care to bring forth fruit Answerable to all the labour and cost God hath bestowed upon you God will certainly call you to an account for the health strength and sweat and labour and lives of his Servants he hath bestowed upon you Therefore people had need to look to it for God highly values his dear Servants lives and labours and will have a valuable consideration from you or upon you Therefore my Brethren to conclude what you would that your Garden and field should be unto you when you have digged them planted them