Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	scripture_n	8,342	5	5.9261	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56654	A discourse of profiting by sermons and of going to hear where men think they can profit most	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1683 (1683)	Wing P790; ESTC R11883	20,690	35

that there is a natural heat also in some mens tempers which makes them speak vehemently with such a warmth as hath the appearance of much Zeal when they are nothing near so deeply affected with what they say as some men of more sedate and cool tempers are whose Judgment operates more strongly than their Passions And these men surely may be very serviceable for Illumination of the Mind with such force of Argument as will certainly move the affections vehemently by the help of serious Consideration without which if any affections be raised they are little worth and will not last but vanish as soon as that blast is over which stirred them up And this difference of temper is observable in your men as well as in ours and therefore this can be no hindrance to Edification among us no more than among you As for reading of Sermons it is not universally used but there are those among us whom God hath blessed with such strength of Memory or readiness of Conception that they need not the help of any Notes at all in the Pulpit And others do not tye themselves to them so as never to look off the Book but only assist their Memory by them sometimes Whereby the Auditory is assured that they hear nothing but what hath been beforehand considered and digested and the Preacher himself also is secured that he shall not forget any thing of Moment which he hath prepared and that no Expression slip from him on a sudden which may prove indecent or imprudent As for those whose weakness of Memory or their great Modesty and Fear of being out as we speak compells them to keep their Eye constantly upon their Notes as they and others have the forenamed advantages by it so no man can be in the least prejudiced by it who will but turn his Eyes another way and not look upon the Preacher Then the Sermon will sound as well as if it were all pronounced without Book or if this make it unprofitable by the same reason the Holy Scriptures become unprofitable when they are read out of the Bible and they also must be got without Book to make them edifying Nay this exception will lye also against some of your own Preachers of great note who read every word I am sure they did so heretofore and this was then thought no hindrance to your profiting by them or if it were you heard them when you could not profit by them so as you could by those that did not read And so you may do now by our Preachers of this kind nay so you ought to do when you have nothing to say against them but what they are equally chargeable withal whom you highly commend III. But after all I have some reason to fear that when men complain they cannot profit by our Sermons they mean nothing by profiting but that their affections are not moved in the hearing of them so as they are by the Sermons of Nonconformists Unto which I have many things to say if this Paper would contain them but it will be sufficient to touch only upon these three 1. That men have several Talents both among you and among us which are all very profitable Some for informing the Judgment others for moving the Affections and others which is most desirable for both you are not able to say that all yours move you so as some do and yet you make such account of all that it hath ever been lookt upon as a very disorderly thing among your selves and worse than that I shall prove by and by for People to run from their own Minister to hear some other though of the same way merely to have the affections more moved Because 2. This alone is so far from profiting by Sermons that it is very great unprofitableness to be moved by a Sermon and do nothing thereupon but only commend it That is to be tickled and pleased a while but not altered nor changed a whit or to be warmed perhaps a little for the present and then left as cold as a stone without any spiritual life or indeavour to be the better 3. But the great thing of all is this that affections raised merely by the earnestness of the Preacher at present in the hearing of a Sermon and it is well if the affections which some People speak of be not motions which they feel merely from the tone of the voice as from a taking phrase a similitude or some such trifle are nothing comparable to those which we raise by Gods blessing upon our own serious consideration when we reflect upon what we have heard which sort of most excellent affections the Sermons that are preached in our Churches cannot fail to produce if you please but to attend to the matter of them and press them upon your Hearts Nay your Judgments being well informed it would not be hard for you if you would but take a little pains with your selves to excite such affections unto that which you know to be your Duty as would abide and remain when the others that were excited in the hearing of a Sermon are gone and quite vanished and can never be recalled but by your own serious Meditation upon those Divine Truths which entred into your Mind and would have touched nay peirced your Hearts if you would have brought them thither and held them close to your Consciences Which ought to be every Christians care more than I doubt it is in order to their profiting by Sermons and that they may not be barren and unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ IV. And now it is time for all those who are concerned in what hath been said to apply it to the present case and going down into themselves to enquire where the fault must necessarily lye if the Sermons preached by our Ministers have proved unprofitable to them which supposeth that they who object this against coming to Church have come heretofore at least to the Sermon but went away and came no more because they reaped no benefit thereby Else how can they pretend that our Sermons are unprofitable if they never heard them Now I have demonstrated that the blame cannot be justly cast upon the Sermons which in themselves are every way fitted to do Men good and therefore we must seek for the cause of this Unprofitableness somewhere else and where are we so likely to find it as in those that heard the Sermons Whom I beseech in the Fear of God by whose Word we must one day be all judged to consider with themselves impartially and to ask their Consciences such Questions as these 1 Quest Had you not some Prejudice in your Mind against the Person of the Minister whom you came to hear either upon the score of his Conformity or of his strictnoss in it or some other account If you had and carried it along with you there is great Reason to think this made his Pains unprofitable to you because you