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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	action_n	enable_v	great_a	12	3	2.0729	3	false

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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

therefore when the Apostle adviseth us to covet earnestly the best gifis he thereby puts us upon using the best means of becoming Masters of them And because it may be asked what they are I shall briefly mind you of these four 1. Diligent Study 2. Frequent Exercise 3. Hearty Prayer And 4. A good Life Of each of which a word or two distinctly And 1. We must covet these Gifts by our diligent Study and earnest search after them for this is now the ordinary way and means of acquiring them Indeed in the days of the Apostles the Spirit was poured out and came upon them not by Study but by sudden Infusion The mighty wind in which the Holy Spirit descended was a Symbol of Inspiration and betokened the breathing into them the Gifts of the Holy Ghost The Fire that sate upon their Heads represented that fervency of Spirit which enabled them with courage to go through all the difficulties of their Office The Cloven-Tongues bespake the diversity of Languages with which they were endow'd by which means Illiterate Persons excelled the greatest Rabbies and Fishermen spake more Languages than the most studied Linguists But now we are to seek that by Industry which they had by Inspiration and the Church being arrived at the Stature of a Man in Christ Jesus God Almighty hath laid aside those extraordinary helps and supports of Infancy So that Diligence now keeps the Key of Knowledge and 't is Study alone that opens to us the Treasures of Wisdom 2 Tim. 2.15 Study saith the Apostle to shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed To be an Able Divine is a work of Study and a serious intention of Mind is necessary to the expert and faithful discharge of our Office We may not now pretend to or look for Inspiration nor hope by Dreams and Visions to know the Will of God No Ignorance and Folly are the effects of Sloth whilst Learning and Knowledge are only the Rewards of Industry Rom. 1● 8. The word is nigh thee saith the Apostle even in thy mouth and in thy hand oh let it be in thy Heart too and make it the daily object of thy Study and Meditation 2 Pet. 19. We have a sure word of prophesie saith St. Peter whereunto we do well to take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place Solomon that great Master of Wisdom exhorts us to seek for Knowledge and to search diligently for Understanding yea he wills us to search for it as for silver and to dig for it as for hid treasure Prov. 4. for though there be some truths that seem to float at top and to lye open to a careless eye yet there are others that lye deep and require a profounder search here we are to imploy our most composed thoughts giving our selves to Reading and Meditation as the first and great means of attaining them 2. Our study for these Gifts must be accompanied with the frequent use and exercise of them This will whet our Parts and set an edge on our Faculties and thereby enable us rightly to divide the Word of Truth St. Paul exhorts Timothy Tim. ● 6. to stir up the gift of God that was in him signifying that 't is Exercise that puts Life and Vigour into our Parts that blows up those Sparks within us and quickens them in o a bright and useful Flame Thus to imploy is to improve our Talent which will daily increase by Exercise and like the Widows Cruise of Oyl multiply by being used A lazy neglect of Mens Gifts makes them do the work of the Lord negligently and for want of a due exercise of their own Parts they do but too much exercise the Patience of them that hear them He that buryed his Talent in the Earth and he that wrapped it in a Napkin were both deprived of them and doom'd as wicked and unprofitable servants to outer darkness whereas he that used his Talent to his Masters Honour was commended for a good and faithful Servant and enter'd into his Masters Joy which makes it evident that Exercise is a good means of improving our Gifts and procuring to us the Reward of them 3. To the Exercise of our Gifts we must add hearty and fervent Prayer for a Blessing upon them for though Paul may plant ●or 3. and Apollo may water yet 't is God alone that gives the increase 〈◊〉 1.5 If any lack wisdom saith St. James let him ask it of God Thither our recourse must be if ever we hope to obtain it and indeed whither else should we go 〈◊〉 6.68 He only hath the words of eternal life To seek for Wisdom only in Books and Writings is but to seek the living among the dead 't is the Blessing of God that enlivens our indeavours and makes us rich both in Grace and Knowledge and he that leaves out this in his search after them will never arrive to more than what will betray his own Ignorance ●es 1. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights And therefore we must look upward and make our requests known unto him in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and for our encouragement the same Apostle tells us that he giveth to all men liberally Jam. 1.5 and upbraideth not And our Blessed Saviour hath assured us that Earthly Parents are not more willing to give good Gifts to their Children Mat. 7.11 than our Heavenly Father is to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask it Our desires then of these Gifts must be carried on with uncessant Petitions to God for them and if we would attain to any measure of them we must seek them upon our Knees● for 't is the Blessing of God that gives the Talent and the Improvement too and the Fruits of the Spirit owe all their increase to the Dew of his Heavenly Benediction Lastly To our Prayers we must joyn the exercises of Vertue and a Holy Life for Wisdom enters not into a polluted Soul nor can so refin'd a perfection inhabit an impure or corrupt Heart The carnal mind is enmity against God 1 Cor. 2.14 It receives not the things of the spirit of God neither can it know them because they are spiritually discerned And therefore our Hearts must be purged from the corruptions of Sin and Errour to make way for the entrance of Divine Truths and our Souls must be consecrated to holy uses before they can be fit to be the Temples of the Holy Ghost A good Life will best dispose us to a good Understanding and sincere desires of pleasing God will make us useful and profitable unto Men. So that if we mean to arrive at any proficiency or growth in Knowledge we must live up to that whereunto we have already attain'd for he that doth the will of my father saith our Saviour John ● 17. he shall know the