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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	begin_v	time_n	year_n	2,385	5	4.9089	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68091	A preparation to the most holie ministerie wherein is set downe the true meanes to be well prepared to the same, by an exact description, and consideration, of the necessitie, excellencie, difficultie, and great profit therof; with the maruellous effects of the same: also a liuely exhortation to all youth, to giue themselues to the studie therof: and a confutation of the obiections which may be brought in any sort to touch the same: verie profitable and necessarie in these our times, ... Diuided into two bookes. Written in French by Peter Gerard, and translated into English by N.B.	Gerard, Pierre.	1598 (1598)	STC 11754; ESTC S108635	151,047	320

is necessarie that he be of sufficient age Gregory Nazianzene hath very well said that great aduise must be taken of what age he is that goeth about the office of a preacher for feare least if any come vnto it before their time they may come short in dooing their dutie when time requireth as if he would say he hurteth himselfe in entring into this function before hee commeth to mature age And further he addeth that as birdes will flie before their feathers be growne in steed of flying aloft they fall to the ground Also as a woman hauing conceiued in her wombe if she suffer abortion and is deliuered before her time shee filleth not the house but the graue that is her fruit dyeth assoone as it hath life So those that take vpon them this charge before conuenient time or to say better before they be furnished with sufficient gifts fit for that calling they do more go backward thē forward God in olde time ordained At what age the Leuits began their office that the Leuits which shuld be admitted to his seruice and bee employed in the Tabernacle of the cōgregation should be of the age of twentie fiue or aboue as we may read in the book of Numbers Numb 8. in the fourth chap. we may read that the same Leuites shuld be thirtie yeares old or vpward but in the fourth there is a question made of thē which were sufficiently made fit who were 30. yeares old But those that were but 25. it was to shew the those that were of this age they should bee framed and made fit for the Leuitical priesthood for whose instruction it seemeth that Ged appointed 5. yeares that in that time they might be made fit It seemeth that our sauior Iesus Christ had regard hereof seeing that he preached not before he was 30. yeares old And to this ende Greg. Nazianzene saith that none must preach when they are too yong because they cannot be stored with competēt knowledge for this charge vntill they come to ripe age setting before vs the example of our redeemer who did not execute this office before the age of 30. yeares although without blame hee might very well haue done it before howe much more sinful men ought to take heed how they take vpon thē the executiō of this charge falling into many faults before they come to perfect age But because God hath not cōmanded in his law that the Leuits should be 25. or 30. yeares of age to the ende that all those that aspire to the office of the Ministrie should follow them neither did our sauiour Iesus Christ enterprise this charge at thirtie yeares to the end that they that publish the wil of the Lord should imitate him but that the one and the other was done for many reasons which are too long to recite We say that now wee must not regard that age but principally the gifts of god bestowed vpon them whom he wil haue to serue in this functiō for this cause god hath no respect neither of age nor youth for the setting forth of his glorie It is wel said in the booke of VVisedom In making Ministers there must be greater regard of the gifts of God then of age VVisd 4 Age is not alwaies a signe of wisedom Iob. 32. that The honorable age is not that which is of long time neither that which is measured by the number of yeares but wisedom is the gray haire and an vndefiled life is the olde age And to this agreeth that which Elihu saith in Iob who perceiuing that the three friends of Iob had not spoken to the purpose of the iudgemēt of god cōcerning Iob he saith that Great men are not alwaies wise neither do the aged alway vnderstand iudgement as if he would haue said it is not age alwaies that bringeth wisdō but the grace of God For seeing that youth is ordinarily subiect to contempt or to enuie towards all sorts of men wee ought wisely to regard that the graces of God which are in yong mē be not made lesse profitable by the contēpt enuy of the aged as it cōmeth to passe too often This is that which Paul had respect vnto writing to Timothy when he saith Let no man despise thy youth 1. Tim. 4. this precept he giueth In whom enuie preuaileth most because that many times the glory of God which might be greatly aduanced by yong men is beaten back very often by contempt or excessiue enuie with which they are secretly persecuted by thē which are in some authoritie and credit In his book de verb. dom S. Austen saith the enuie is engendred cōmonly amongst three sorts of men that is those that be equal do enuy one another for their equality those that are in base estate do pursue with enuie those that are greater then themselues because they are inferior vnto thē those which are in great estate do bite with enuie those that be vnder them being endued with excellēt graces for feare least they be like vnto them or that they do surpasse thē Beza vpon the life of Caluin The great light of the church Caluin being ready to yeeld vp his soule vnto God amongst many lessōs which he gaue vnto thē that came to visit him he did grauely admonish yong men Many times old men do enuie yong men to carry thēselues modestly to eschew pride vainity and follie which are the vices to which they are subiect but hauing perceiued that old men did enuy yong mē whō they knew to be adorned with singular gifts A graue admonition of Caluin as well to old as yong he exhorted thē liuely to expel out of themselues this accursed passion The lesson of such a man ought to bee of great weight as well with young men as with the aged with young men because it may bee vnto them of one side an wholsome medicine to cure them of vaine opinions which oftentimes they do conceiue of themselues and on the other side to be an exercise of patience vnto them that seeing thēselues beset with the enuie of the aged in respect of their gifts vnto which they cānot attaine With the aged to make them diligētly to cōsider in that God doth freely distribute his gifts vnto all men they must take heede that they depriue not the Church of God of thē for the edification whereof he doth communicate his blessings the which they ought aboue all things to prefer before their particular affectiōs We will alleage here a most memorable history which ought to be wel considered both of yong and old the which we our selues pray you to weigh exactly There was a yōg mā named Pōponius Algier an Italian born of the towne of Nola in the kingdome of Naples of whom it is reported that being taken at Venice where hee studied A notable example of a yong maà which olde men shuld consider not to despise youth

This memorie is so necessarie for a Preacher that if he be destitute therof he cannot execute his charge but with very great difficulties because that assoon as he hath learned any thing to recite vnto the people or to serue him for some other vse if he forget it a little after he must alwaies begin againe and so hardly come to any great knowledge Cicero in his I. It is a hard thing to be a preacher without memorie booke de Orat. speaking of an Orator saith one notable thing that is to say Memorie is the treasure-house of all things the which if she keep not as a good gardē al that which we haue read lerned deuised imagined inuented vnderstāding al things which shuld be in orators which shuld be most excellent shuld by by perish We may very well say the same of a preacher who after that he hath long sweat at his studie and exercised in his charge manie yeares if he hath a slipperie memorie it is certaine that he cā do no more good for if it shal happen for him to speake publikely or priuately or oftentimes to answer vnto questiōs when his aduise or counsell is asked or to bee made acquainted with matters of weight of great men or to bee demanded the text of scripture if he cānot alledge the same to serue his turne many inconueniences may follow therof And if at any time one be constrained vpon a necessitie to recite something in hast he shall speake so obscurely that the hearers shal not vnderstand him to what end he speaketh it may so fall out that he shal not vnderstand himselfe because he hath learned those things as it were perforce hauing no leisure to meditate vpon thē to digest thē althogh at home peraduēture he hath meditated vpō thē neuerthelesse because the oftentimes he is cōstrained to trauell hither thither that he hath not his books at cōmand the surest way is to haue them fast lockt in the memorie because whē they are caried there as it were in a deske as well in the high way as in the house as well by night as by day they may be beatē chewed and considered vpon and by cōtinuall meditations those things may be ripened or seasoned which shal be found too rawe By this then an incredible profit groweth to the preacher that amongst many other things he may expound the word of God soundly Hee that hath a good memorie may soundly easily preach the worde of God and plainly according to the capacitie of euery one for hauing in the treasure of his memorie manie graue things it is an easie matter for him to choose those which hee shall perceiue by the ballance of his iudgment to be profitable and fit for the instruction of euery one This then is to be reckoned one of the greatest and most soueraigne gifts of God that may be for seeing that in the church of God there be of all sorts of men both subtil grosse simple others of some meane conceit others of verie litle reach the greatest dexteritie of spirit that can be in a preacher is so to apply himselfe to euery ones capacitie as that they may be instructed And moreouer the more that a preacher can frame himself to be familiar plaine to euery one the more fitte he is to discharge that function and which is more he shall bee esteemed the more learned Although many be of a cōtrarie iudgment who do not esteem knowledge according to facilitie but rather by I knowe not what reports of some who esteeme many to be learned men which haue only the knowledge of some nūbers who neuerthelesse are reckoned men of vnderstanding by opinion rather then by truth and by those which are not fit and allowed iudges in these things One of the greatest Philosophers who speaking of such kind of men hath vsed a most notable similitude A very apt similitude that as the common people in Magicall arts do maruell at those things whereof they vnde●stand not the reason by which the sorcerers do many absurd things so many saith hee wonders at that stile or phrase of speaking of which they haue no vnderstanding And in truth what man of iudgement wil account him a learned man who is so obscure in his discourse that he may be iustly carped at And those also which do think to cauil shall not know well themselues with what they should find fault who I say will account thē for learned men seeing that they are learned only for themselues These bee they of whom it is said in a common prouerbe that their sciences are hidden Muses but such as are of no account because that such men hauing some good gifts of God neuerthelesse if others cannot be the better for them they cannot be properly esteemed for the greatest learned men because that knowledge is not to be counted knowledge when a man keepes it to himselfe alone and cannot impart it to others But when a mā hath knowledge which doth many good and that he can easily cōmunicate the same he is fitly to be termed a learned man And it is very wel said by an heathen Poet the it is nothing to know any thing for it self vnlesse another knoweth that which thou knowest as though he wold say that otherwise it is not to be esteemed for knowledge But seeing that the marke and principall end of all knowledge is to instruct and to edifie it followeth that the more a mā in vttering his knowledge doth teach and benefit others the more learned he is and ought so to be accounted Wherefore let vs conclude this point that a Preacher should not onely endeuour to stirre vp his minde and polish his tongue with faire words gentle The more plainly a man writes or speakes the more learned is he to be accounted and delectable but also and principally to fill his breast with the knowledge of many good and profitable things For if there be nothing but a filed and polished tongue to vtte● many wordes although they bee well placed they doo not much profit For euen as the spirit of a man eyther he that readeth or he● that hearkeneth to another that speaketh i● not much mooued by words filed one within another if no matter of substance be mingled therewith so the spirit of a man cannot much be mooued by a floud of vnprofitable words in which no matter of importaunce is conteined In such sort that Cicero hath very wel● said that it is a meere folly to speak with proprietie and ornaments without sententious words and to speake sententiously without order and disposition of words it is childish Finally let vs adde that a preacher being sufficiently furnished both wi h words knowledge of many good things he shal attain vnto an easie kind of teaching hauing attained the same he shal discharge his calling with great profite as euerie one may easily perceiue by his praying in which