A77593:1319
The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
Ton anexichniaston plouton [sic] tou Christou. The unsearchable riches of Christ. Or, Meat for strong men. Milk [for] babes. Held for th in twenty-two sermons from Ephesians 3.8. By Thomas Brooks, preacher of the Word at Margarets New-Fishstreet.Ton anexichniaston plouton [sic] tou Christou. The unsearchable riches of Christ. Or, Meat for strong men. Milke [for] babes. Held for th in twenty-two sermons from Ephesians 3.8. By Thomas Brookes, preacher of the Word at Margarets New-Fishstreet.
London: printed by Mary Simmons for John Hancock, 1655
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I Answer. These Eleven.
First, Jesus Christ must be Preached Plainly, Perspicuously, so as the meanest capacity may understand what they ⟨p. 297⟩say concerning Christ; they must Preach Christ for edification, and not to work admiration, as too many do in these days. Paul was excellent at this kind of Preaching, 1 Cor. 14. 18, 19. he had rather speak five words to edification, 1then ten thousand words to work admiration in ignorant people. So in 1 Cor. 2. 4, 5. And my speech, and my preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit, and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. As if he should say, Such Preach with little power, who come with the excellency of speech, or with the enticing words of mans wisdom. Ah! many there are (I speak it with grief, and to their shame) that delight to soar aloft in obscure discourses, and to express themselves in new-minted words and phrases, and to show high strains, and flashes of wit, and all to work admiration in the ignorant. Such kind of Preachers are as clouds, and painted glass-windows, that hinder the 2light from shining in upon souls, that hinder the Sun of righteousness from breaking forth in his beauty and glory upon the spirits of poor Creatures. Woe unto these men in the day when such souls shall plead against them, when they shall say, Lord here are the persons whose Office and work was to make dark things plain, and they have made plain things dark and obscure, that we might rather wonder at them, then any ways profit by them. Aaron's Bells were of pure gold; our whole Preaching must be Scripture-proof, or we and our works must burn together. The profoundest Prophets accommodated themselves to their hearers capacities. Holy Moses covers his glistering face with a Veil, when he was to speak to the people. Yea, 'tis very observable, that the Evangelists spake vulgarly many times for their hearers sake, even to a manifest incongruity, as you may see in