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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	work_n	world_n	worth_n	33	3	8.2925	4	false

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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

manured them plowed them sowed them and bestowed cost and labour upon them that you should be to God To bestow plowing and seed upon a field and yet to bear nothing that discourages you but if there is a crop coming and when the Labourers find there is a good crop that they can fill their Arms with sheaves this incourages you Then Deut. 16.14 when the Harvest is done they make merry together have a Harvest feast and have Harvest songs and are merry I say then are those words of Christ fulfilled John 4.35 36. and with that I shall conclude Say not that there are yet four moneths and then cometh Harvest behold I say unto you lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to Harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together Thus it is where there is a good Harvest he that Plows the field was Instrumental to begin the work and be that soweth the first seed of Grace and he that reaps the Corn those that had a hand in perfecting the work all these shall rejoice together Then all those faithful Ministers that have laboured according to the Talents given unto them of the Lord then the people too that are made sruitful to God that have received the seed in good and honest hearts they shall rejoice with their Ministers there shall be a Harvest-feast and Harvest-songs the supper of the Lamb and the Song of the Lamb and the Angels they will come in and have a share for they gather the Corn into the Barn and both Angels Ministers and People shall all sing Praise and rejoice together and that for ever and ever Use There are other Uses we should have made of this point We might have made application of it to such as are of the Ministerial calling if there were any such here to stir them up to follow their labour and to reprove such as are Loiterers not Labourers Paul could say he had laboured more abundantly than they all but may it not be said of some they labour not at all Oh how many curses doth the Scripture denounce against such as do this work of the Lord negligently But I shall not stay on this as not suiting the present Auditory Use Let me shut up all with this one word more to the People Remember the lesson and duty we have been teaching this day and make Conscience of practising it If ever it were a duty in season for you to put on sackloath and lye in the dust to mourn and mourn bitterly for the loss of faithful Ministers it is now when they dye and drop into their Graves so fast If ever there were a time for you Christians to crie and crie aloud to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth more labourers into the Harvest it is now when there is like to be so great a scarcity of them And truly if I were able to speak so as to be heard by all the Christians of England who are commonly known and distinguished by the name of Non-conformists I would earnestly bespeak them all that they would with one heart and one consent agree to set apart a day of Humiliation and Prayer for this very end for certainly the loss of many Ministers so Eminent in their Generation as have been lately taken away is a severe Rebuke from the Lord and I fear a sad presage of some greater evils at hand than we think of Remember my Beloved who it is that here bids you Pray the Lord of the Harvest our blessed Lord himself who hath given you not only his command for this duty but his own example too in this very case as you may see if you read Luke 6.12 It is said Jesus went out into a Mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer If you ask what was the Occasion that he was a whole night in Prayer the thirteenth Verse will declare it for when it was day he called his Disciples and of them he chose twelve c. The occasion seems to be the work that he had to do the next mourning to send forth his Apostles to Preach the Gospel Christ looked upon this as a great work a weighty and solemn matter that required Prayer And whatever men may think of it it is the greatest work that ever any of the sons of men were employed in since the world began and the Truths we Preach to you are so glorious and of such infinite Concernment as you souls will have cause Eternally to bless God for if you receive them in faith and love and such as you would not have been without the knowledge of for ten thousand worlds You therefore that have any love to Christ any love to the truth any love to the souls and salvation of men oh Pray all and every one of you Pray pray the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth Labourers into the Harvest FINIS

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