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truth_n know_v speak_v word_n 9,131 5 4.2861 4 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A44072 The necessity dignity and duty of Gospel ministers discoursed of before the University of Cambridge. Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688. 1685 (1685) Wing H2321; ESTC R13341 17,011 31

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have salt in your selves that ye may be able to season others Labour for the Salt of Grace that you may preach out of your own hearts from the Heart to the Heart oh that you may not want that Grace which you exhort others to get and grow in You that perswade others to be gracious be sure you be such your selves Labour to feel the power of that Religion you preach to others and then preach the power that you feel Be able to say with the Apostles that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have Fellowship with us But if the Question be here whether a Man cannot be a true Minister and his preaching profitable to others except he have saving Grace himself Our Answer must be that saving Grace is not absolutely necessary to the being of a Minister A Man may be a Minister although he have not the real and saving work of Grace in his Heart Judas was an Apostle called and sent out by Christ and for ought we know succesfull too in his Ministry and yet he was a Cast-away The Ministry saith one is Gratia gratis data not Gratia gratum faciens 'T is appointed for the good of the Church of the Body of Christ and not mostly or chiefly for his own good that is the Preacher of it And you that are private Christians ought to know that the efficacy of the word and Sacraments doth not depend upon the holiness or worthiness of the Minister but upon the Ordinance and Institution and Blessing of Christ the seed may grow that is sowed by a foul hand The Physick may work well and do good though perhaps the Physician lives contrary to his own Prescription and Rules of Physick And what though your Minister should have Jacob's Voice and Esau's Hands or should be like a sile that smooths other things and remains rough it self the Law is not to be condemned because some Professours of it are the Breakers of it and are lawless themselves The letter it not the worse because brought to you by the hands of a dishonest and wicked Carrier Our Saviour hath determined this case Math. 23.23 The Scribes and Pharisees saith he sit in Moses's Seat all therefore whatsoever they thus bid you observe observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not as long as they preached the Doctrine of Moses they were to be heard and so far obeyed 'T is true it cannot be denied but that 't is a Minister's Duty to be good and gracious righteous and really holy himself aswell as to preach and make others holy and to turn others unto righteousness If Ministers be notoriously scandalous in their Conversation it belongs to the Governours of the Church to cast out such as are unsavoury Salt Yet whilst such as these who preach well and live ill are in the Church the People may hear them and profit too by their Ministry We must not tye God to the goodness of any Man's Person He is of infinite Power and Wisedom he can write well with a bad Pen and cut well with a blunt and bad Knife and strike a strait stroke with a crooked Rule or Line he that awakened Peter's Conscience to repentance with the crowing of a Cock can by the Trumpet of the Gospel though blown or sounded by a bad Minister awake them that sleep yea that are dead in their sins and trespasses make them stand up from the dead and Christ shall give them Life Labour for the Salt of Learning for a competent knowledge at least in the Tongues Arts and Sciences in the Hebrew Greek and Latin Tongues the Languages are the Cabinets wherein the Jewels of all Truths both divine and humane are laid up Skill in the Languages is a Key that opens and unlocks all these Cabinets and lets a Man into the knowledge of them all And then as for Arts and Sciences labour for some measure of these of Logick moral and natural Philosophy Rhetorick History c. What good is and may be had of these a Reverend Authour of our own Mr. Reyner hath excellently shewn in a Treatise to this purpose entituled a Treatise of the necessity of humane Learning for a Gospel Preacher These these are good Handmaids to Divinity though not lookt on as the Queen 3. Labour for the Salt of Wisedom that you may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary that you may be able to speak as a Gospel-Preacher ought to speak as a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth as a good Steward giving to every one of the Family his proper portion as a wise Master-builder laying the Foundation aright and building upon the Rock Christ then rearing up an answerable Superstructure viz. Gold Silver precious Stones not wood hay and stubble lest when the fiery Trial come your works be burnt up though you should be saved but so as by Fire but so as to be like a Brand pluckt out of the Fire Be wise as Serpents be wiser than the old Serpent that ye may know and prevent or disappoint his Wiles Strategems Methods and cunning Craftiness whereby he lies in wait to deceive and beguile unwary Souls 2. Labour to season others also by your teaching and by your Living Labour to imitate our great Lord Master Doctour and Bishop of our Souls the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Christ Jesus of whom Cyprian the Father tells us Dominus in verbis Doctor consummator in factis docens quid fieret faciens quodcunque docuisset Preach and Practise say and do both that those that hear your good Sermons and see your good Works may be perswaded to go and do likewise and so you and they may be blessed in the deed Be not like the Carpenters which builded Noah's Ark who were not wrought upon by Noah's Preaching nor by their own working about the Ark and so at last were themselves drowned in the Flood Never dream that your Names and Titles or that your Places and Callings will save you if you prove unsavoury salt heretical idle profane unfaithfull Ministers Consider how severely God punished Nadab and Abihu the Sons of Aaron though thought to be good Men for doing the Work of the Lord negligently so offering strange Fire before the Lord Lev. 10.1 2. How remarkably he punished Hophni and Phinehaz the bad Sons of a good Father and the Posterity of Eli afterwards for the wickedness of those Priests and because Eli their Father the High-Priest restrained them not See 1 Sam. 2.30 Wherefore I said indeed thy House and the House of thy Father should walk before me for ever but now the Lord saith be it far from me for them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Eli the Judge the High-Priest was descended from Ithamar the second Son of Aaron the High-Priest see 1 Chron. 24.3 and