Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	live_v	present_a	ungodliness_n	2,099	5	11.1926	5	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

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

the whole world would Rot and Perish without it All the Hearts of men and women in the World that live without the Gospel they are to God as rotten and stinking meat as filthy carrion is to you Indeed when once the hearts and minds of People are seasoned with the Gospel now they become sweet and savoury to God so Vers 14. What would this World be without the Sun in the Firmament shining upon it but a dark Dungeon Such my Brethren and no other are all the Kingdoms Nations Cities Countries Parishes Villages in the World where the light of the Gospel doth not shine Where they have not had the Ministry of the Word neither Prophets nor Apostles nor faithful Ministers of Christ to preach the Gospel and to make known the mind and will of God to them they are but as so many dark dungeons where the Prince of darkness reigns where unbelief Idolatry Superstition and all manner of wickedness and profaness reigns I say the state of nature is a state of darkness all the world doth but grope in darkness as the Egyptians did till they come to have the Gospel preached to them Alas they know little of God and nothing of Jesus Christ nor of the Gospel nor of the Covenant of Grace nor of the way to salvation by a Redeemer nor what the new Creature is and the work of Regeneration is How great a blessing and great gift therefore is it to have the Ministry of the Gospel You may see it by that promise God gives out in Jer. 3.15 And I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding As if he had said Here is the Blessing the Blessing of Blessings I will bestow upon you for there is none comparable to it Suppose a man should have his habitation or dwelling in never so pure an Air and never so good a soil where he hath his Garden and his Fish-ponds and all outward Contentment his heart can desire but doth not the Sun of the Gospel shine there the Air and Wind of the Spirit breath there the clouds of Gods Ordinances drop there then I say it is but a dark and black place If the best things be not to be had there what is it for a man to be fatted to destruction what is a life without a life of Grace Again what a Blessing it is may appear in that it was the fruit of Christs prayer of his death blood and intercession Ephes 4.8 11. you read there of Christs ascending to Glory when he ascended up on high he gave gifts to men You know Kings and Emperours upon the day of their Coronation they use to scatter Money and let Conduits run with Wine give gifts to their friends this was the day Christ went up to Heaven and went to take his Crown of Glory now he gave gifts to men Vers 11. What did he give them for for the Perfecting Saints As if here was the greatest gifts the Son of God had to bestow on the Children of men here was the fruit of his Blood as well as Intercession Had it not been for the Blood of Christ there had never been any such thing as a Gospel-Ministry or Church or Ordinances In a word If you consider the great ends for which the Ministry is given it is for the bringing about the greatest good of the Children of men it is for the bringing you to the knowledge of God and his Son Jesus Christ whom to know is eternal life it is to reveal the great Counsels of God to the Children of men The Preaching of the Gospel it is not only to civilize men and women though that were good if it were no more and many times where it hath not its saving work it hath the Authority to make people civil but I say the Preaching of the Gospel it is not only to make you civil but to make you Saints new Creatures 2. Pray ye the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth more Labourers into his Harvest Why it belongs to the great Lord of the Harvest to give these Labourers The sending of Labourers into this Harvest is not only an Act of Grace and Mercy but of Power and greatest Authority Therefore Matth. 28. when Christ sends forth his Disciples to Preach mark the Preface Vers 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Mark how Christ doth begin with the preamble of all power being given to him in Heaven and in Earth It is as if he had said I am sending you about the greatest work that ever any Creatures were imployed in the Angels in Heaven were not imployed in a greater work than this of Preaching the Gospel for your Incouragement know all power in Heaven and in Earth is given into my hands and I will be with you and second you Here I might shew you how the Lord of the Harvest doth send forth his Labourers 1. It is he that calls them he that gives them their Mission and Commission they have their Commission on from Christ from Father Son and holy Spirit all their names are in the Commission though it is more Immediately from the Son Indeed did not God send them they could never expect to do any good in the World to convert one soul were not Preaching Gods Ordinance 2. It is he must gift and qualifie these Labourers for the work As in Nehem. 9.10 saith Nehemiah there Thou gavest thy holy Spirit Vers 20. Thou gavest also thy good Spirit The meaning is in the Prophets which he gave them whereby they were fitted for the Work they were set about So it is still under the Gospel 1 Cor. 12.4 5. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of Administrations but the same Lord. Whence are these diversities of gifts and ministerial Abilities they are from God This indeed my Brethren is very wonderful to be considered As you see a multitude of faces in the world yet every one differs from another so to consider that diversity that variety of gifts and spiritual Abilities God hath given to men in this work yet none hath the same gift To one the gift of Doctrine to another the gift of Exhortation One he is as a Son of Thunder to awaken another is a Son of Consolation to comfort I say variety of gifts and why to profit withall It is all for your profit that if you are not taken with one mans gifts you may be with anothers 3. It is the Lord of the Harvest that doth send forth and design every Labourer to his particular place and station wherein he is to labour it is he that appoints them the bounds of their habitation The Apostle he bids them feed the Church of God over which the H. Ghost had made them Overseers the holy Ghost placed them there If a Sparrow fall not to the ground without the power