Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	assistance_n	good_a	great_a	104	3	2.1271	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36367	Family devotions for Sunday evenings, throughout the year being practical discourses, with suitable prayers / by Theophilus Dorrington.	Dorrington, Theophilus, d. 1715.	1693 (1693)	Wing D1938; ESTC R19123	173,150	313

FAMILY DEVOTIONS FOR SUNDAY EVENINGS Throughout the YEAR BEING Practical Discourses WITH Suitable Prayers Volume I. By Theophilus Dorrington Authour of the Reformed Devotions LONDON Printed for John Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. IMPRIMATUR Lambeth Nov. 30. 1692. Ra. Barker THE PREFACE IF I should here make a long Discourse on the Necessity the Importance the Usefulness of Family worship and set my self by many Arguments to urge the performance of it I should do but what is already excellently well done in a late Book Entituled Domestick Devotions for the Use of private Families and particular Persons And I think that to add some farther assistance and direction for the more easie and useful performance of it than what is there done is all that is necessary to be added to that Book for the better promoting of the good and useful Design of it I shall therefore say but little to this purpose We have thanks be to God a great many good and practical Discourses in the common Language but they are not all so fit for the profitable performance of this Exercise as some are Those long Discourses which cannot be finisht at one reading and which have the parts of them well connected and depending upon each other both for the better understanding and the usefulness of them are fitter and more useful for the retired Meditation of such as are already well taught in Divine matters and as have leisure to sit a good while over them And I believe such short Discourses as these which have little or no dependance upon each other and may be finisht at one reading are more fit for the Family Besides though I am very sorry for it I judge such short Discourses most agreeable to the genius of the time which is not very patient of much reading or long thinking upon any thing through the Custome of neglecting these While it has been the ill Fashion to do so and we have affected to be idle vitious and witty rather than to be useful vertuous and wise But yet this also may be said for short Discourses that all that which is very pertinent to any Subject and which is important and necessary to it may be contained in a little Room especially when the Subject is so particular as these are And though several long Treatises have been written upon some of these yet I believe whoever does well consider them he will find that whatever is most pertinent and important to be said to them or the greatest part of it is contained in one of these And if this be indeed done as I have endeavoured and designed it should be then I may believe these will find those to whom they will be acceptable as long as there are any that value their money as the most do or their time as all should do And especially may this be because as I doubt not to say this way of writing is more profitable and useful than the other For when a Subject is copiously handled 't is very seldom distinctly and accurately explained and besides the Thoughts are distracted with the multitude of things which are brought into the Discourse so that the true and proper Subject of it must needs have the less efficacy and impression upon the Mind And since the lasting and steady Efficacy of what is said to any Subject in Divinity depends upon the serious repeated and deliberate Meditation on it but when such long Discourses come to be very deliberately considered they appear to contain many weak and false Arguments and many things impertinent to the matter then though they were fit and able perhaps to raise a sudden flash of warm Affections yet they prove unfit and uncapable to make a well setled and solid Change and Impression on the Mind and Life And this I doubt not is observed by others as well as my self concerning some of the late practical Books that are popular among us To conclude this matter I could perhaps say so much to recommend and justifie this way of writing practical Divinity as would make the Preface half as long as the Book but besides that all the Reasons of this Design are not fit to be exprest I must also take care not to make the Preface long while I contrive every thing else to be as short as is possible I therefore heartily recommend the reading of some such practical Discourse as one of these together with the offering up to Almighty God the Evening Sacrifice of a suitable Prayer on the Evening of the Lord's Day in a little Assembly of the particular Family Such an Exercise as this I am sure may very well be performed in Cities and great Towns where they have much time to spare on this Day besides that which the publick Worship employs and they commonly spend it very ill And in the Country Villages I know it to be very frequently necessary and that they too have for the greatest part of the Year at least time enough for this in the Afternoon notwithstanding the necessary Cares and Business of Husbandry because many things commonly hinder them from attending more than once on a day at the publick Worship which would not hinder but that they might spend an hour in reading and praying together with their Families at home And this certainly they ought to do rather than spend the whole Afternoon in sloth or worldly business as too many do to their Eternal prejudice Besides very often the Necessity of ancient People that cannot go far or of sick Persons that dare not go out will require the help which they might have from such an Exercise at home I think I have so contrived the following Discourses as that the whole Exercise may be performed in an hours space And that I am sure no Person who has already any sense and relish of Devotion can think too much to be thus spent on this Day besides the publick Worship tho' they have had opportunity of twice attending upon that and for those that have not such a sense I hope so short a performance will be useful to possess them with it by degrees and will not be in danger to tire them Besides there is in the keeping a Family together for this purpose the advantage of keeping them out of the way of mischief and temptation which when they are disperst they are exposed to I must confess it is my opinion that the general reviving of such a practice as this is absolutely necessary to the reviving and recovery of us from the deplorable decay of Christian Piety that has been of late years among us and that I believe it the most conducing and useful thing in order thereto that can possibly be advanced among us besides the wholsome and most edifying Rules and Orders of the establisht Church As for those that labour hard all the Week if they let themselves loose to worldly pleasure on the Lord's day they commonly intoxicate themselves with it they