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
Decease of your Minister keep those Truths fresh in your Memories and warm upon your Hearts which he Delivered to you in his Life-time Let me urge this upon you from these following Considerations 1. You lie under a very great Obligation to God and Conscience to live up to what you have heard the Word heard neglected and forgotten hath a dreadful Influence upon us many times Prov. 1.24 to the end of that Chapter so Rom. 10.18 21. Have they not heard Yes verily which was a great Aggravation of their Disobedience If it should be so with any of you Let me tell you there is a Witness now gone to Heaven against you to testifie at the last Day before God Angels and Men what Truths he Preached unto you and earnestly pressed upon you God takes notice what Means what Ministers what Messengers have been sent to every Congregation How early how often how many All my Servants the Prophets Jer. 7.25 26 27 28. rising up early and sending them q. d. I did nothing else for a long time from Morning to Evening but send unto this People What could I have done more that I have not done let them speak let any judg between me and my Vineyard I appeal to Heaven and Earth I 'le refer my self to the whole World therefore God stiles them the Generation of his Wrath rejected and forsaken of the Lord Ver. 29. 'T is a dangerous thing to have Sermons by you that are not to be found in your Hearts and Lives it signifies little to have them in your Books How inexcusable will they be who go to Hell with Directions to Heaven in their Hands and will not vouchsafe to Read them May not God say I told you which was the Way you took it from the Mouth of your Minister and noted it down I have it under your hands to shew 2. The oftner you draw any Gospel-Truth through your Hearts by calling it into your Remembrance the deeper impression it makes it seeds in the Heart and leaves a fresh fructifying Vertue behind it upon the Soul you 'l find something new in every old Truth you take up into your Thoughts if not in Notion yet in Power which is the best of all fresh mixtures of Faith make the same words exceeding profitable to us every day Faith is never cloy'd with the Word but finds it sweeter and sweeter still Faith comes at one time to a Promise that it might know the way the better the next time Faith has never done with the Word in this World but has more and more business every day with the same Promise with the same Word 'T is hid in the Heart Psal. 119.11 It dwells there 't is never out a constant In-mate 3. The Word is eternal all Flesh is Grass the Fathers where are they and Prophets do they live for ever Zach. 1.5 The Prophets may die but their Prophesies live The Word of our God shall stand for ever Isa. 40.8 'T is still in force 't is of eternal concernment 4. 'T is the greatest Honour you can do to the name and memory of your worthy deceased Minister to keep his Sermons alive upon your Hearts 〈◊〉 you keep life in them and they will keep life in you as the Word quickneth Faith so Faith quickens the Word joyning the Spirit and the Letter together God hath taken him away you have all of him and from him that ever you are like to have in this World make much of those precious Remains he is now silent in the Grave never to be seen or heard more in the Land of the living till he stand in his Lot at the end of days but if you keep in mind the Instructions he formerly gave you though he be dead he yet speaketh and you may yet hear him The Sermons you so remember and think upon you are as it were continually hearing they are well pleasing to God very profitable to your own Souls and the greatest Argument imaginable of your high esteem of and sincere love to that Faithful Shepherd of this Flock whom God hath now smitten and taken from you This is more than to build Sepulchers and adorn the Tombs of the Prophets you will erect for him an everlasting Monument in your Hearts by holding forth the Seal of his effectual Ministry among you When you can say the Word of God that came by the Mouth of such a one now in his Grave was to me a Saving Word a Sanctifying Word a Healing Strengthning Word What Spices what Perfume's so Sweet an Embalming as this Me thinks I smell these Spiritual Odours already and I hope the Sent will be stronger and stronger every day Let me add a Word of Advice to you of this Congregation God hath made a great Change among you and a Change there must be and you will find it more and more every day 't is one end that God aim's at in such dispensations to vary his Course towards you even in the means of Grace he doth all things wisely he hath variety of Work and variety of Workmen the Word reaches from top to bottom in the Soul and works here and there as God appoints it who knows best where our weakness lies what though he lay down a sharper and take up a blunter Tool be not discouraged the nature of the Work may require this sometimes as God hath Top-Stones to lay so he hath Foundations to examine he hath variety of Instruments diversly qualified for such and such special Services in the Church he knows when to set on and when to take off his Workmen he changes Hands sometimes by Death and sometimes by a providential Removal I am not against a fixed Ministry yet I think a more interchangeable Course in our Ministry sometimes would tend much to the encrease of Love and Union among Professors and to the mutual Edification of all we should have a taste of the Spirits of Men and of the variety of Gifts that may not be exactly the same in any Two in the World Some are Suns of Thunder some of Consolation you may and ought to covet the best Gifts in your choice now But still know your Faith consists not in the Wisdom of Man but in the Power of God therefore leave it by an Act of Faith to the great Shepheard of the Sheep to provide for you to direct you in all your endeavours that way and submit after all to the Lords Disposition of this Lot wherever it shall fall though you do as I told you but now you would find a difference between former and future means yet suffer the Lord which doth all the work to make Choice of the Workman and then whether Paul Apollo or Cephas all things are yours and shall be blest to you while you live in such a dependance upon the God of all Grace You may expect I should say something of your worthy Minister and my most beloved Brother and Fellow-Labourer in the Gospel who very lately step'd out of this Pulpit into the Grave this is not a day nor a place to speak of Man no not of the best of Men further then we may gather Arguments from any eminency in Gifts and Grace in them to stir up our selves and others to our duty and upon this Account only I shall say something that may add some further Weight and Strength to the Obligation that lyes upon you to keep those Truths always in Remembrance that have been delivered to you by so skilful a hand I shall not suffer his name to slip into Oblivion without some memorable remark upon it I confess what I have to say might better come from another Mouth than mine considering my Relation to him in his younger years But I am not ashamed to own that I had some hand in Planting Fruit that was ripe before me and is now gathered though this forward Increase is under God to be ascribed rather to the goodness and fertility of the Soil than to the skill of the Husbandman he was one for Endowments of Mind both as a Man and a Christian far beyond his Years he Died young but Lived long He was a Man betimes and which is more an early Christian He came into the Vineyard the first hour of the Day did his days-work by Noon and God hath given him the Preference over us all in taking him to Heaven before us Therefore I say again see that now after his Decease you have those things always in Remembrance which you have been taught by so able a Misnister of the New Testament that it may never be said you Buried your Preacher and his Sermons too in the same Grave I Had thoughts of taking more liberty in the Press than was fit for the Pulpit in giving the World a further Character of this Worthy person deceased but Considering that what I might say in his just Praise and Commendation is no news to them that knew him and may seem altogether incredible to those who knew him not I shall spare my pains leaving his Friends to their own Knowledg of him and Strangers to what enquiries they please to make concerning him being confident they will meet with that good report of him from the Mouths of many that will go beyond the testimony of my single Pen and greatly endear his name to Posterity FINIS Eccles. 9.5 Psal. 199.129 Mat. 28.19 20. 2 Cor. 10.4
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