Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	word_n	write_v	5,673	5	5.6270	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49408	Five sermons, preached before His Majesty at Whitehall, published severally by command, and now printed together, tending all to give satisfaction in certain points to such who have thereupon endeavoured to unsettle the state and government of the church by B. Lord Bishop of Ely.; Sermons. Selections	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.; Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675. Study of quiet.	1669 (1669)	Wing L342; Wing L351; Wing L352; ESTC R16949	80,355	196

first publishing to the world Because the Law was then given by writing though afterwards preached it is called the ministration of the Letter So the Gospel though afterwards written yet because it was then only preached by revelation of the Holy Ghost it is call'd the ministration of the Spirit That likewise which St. Paul speaks of the hearing of Faith and of saving men by the foolishness of preaching hath a peculiar relation to Christianity in the manner of founding it at first For certainly Preaching in it self was not in the eye of humane wisdom a foolish way to perswade but such as the wisest of them all used when they would perswade the people any thing they did it by orations and speeches which are of the same kind with preaching But if we look at that preaching by which the Christian Religion was at first introduced it had in the eye of humane wisdom something of folly in it For to introduce a Law or Religion to any people these two things among others are necessary That they give it in Writing that they might more certainly know what they had to do and that it be by such as have authority and power And this way God himself took in giving the Jews a Law for first he wrote it with his own fingers and then published it by the Ministry of Moses who was their leader and governour But for the introduction of the Gospel it pleased God to take a far different course that is to commit all to the preaching of a few poor despicable Fisher-men who were only private men of no authority and of whose Gospel they had no knowledge but from what was to be taken from their mouths And that when first preached was by some esteemed no better than a distemper yea plain drunkenness yet thus it pleased God to put the words of eternal life into these earthen vessels and by that means to make his own power known and by that folly to confound the wisdom of the world But for our preaching though it may have many times too good a title to foolishness in preaching yet not to the foolishness of preaching for those obstacles remov'd it is the ordinary way by which all knowledge humane as well as divine is communicated My meaning is that hearing now is to be looked upon as the common natural instrument to receive instruction and therefore no benefit to be reckon'd on from it but what is common to all other learning and knowledge that is by serious studying and diligently pondering the things we hear for if we trust to any secret sacramental mystical vertue in hearing that profit we should get by the Word we may lose by the Hearing Therefore take heed how you hear for this is a second way of putting Gods word under a Bushel There is another way which in part at least puts under the Bushel too when we confine it to the Sermon whereas that is of little use if Gods word be not in it they say The word is of as little if it be not in a Sermon which is a derogation to the goodness and bounty of Almighty God who hath dispensed his Divine Truth so many ways besides as First by Reading for though when Gods Word was preached only it could be only heard yet when it was a Scripture it might be known as all other Writings by reading also for this reason St. Paul sets Timothy to his Book Till I come give attendance to reading Search the Scriptures for therein you think you have eternal life and search we cannot unless we read them that by reading we may find the way to eternal life yea though all were to be done by preaching Reading is that too For Moses had in old time them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day Acts 15. 21. Secondly By writing Gods Word works Faith in us if S. John was not mistaken when he said These things have I written unto you that ye may know ye have eternal life and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God Good writers are in their kind good Preachers Why then should any be scandalized at the Preacher that looks upon his Book where his Sermon is written Indeed if men now were to speak as the Apostles did as the Spirit gave them utterance it were a great mistake to look for him in a Book But if we as all must take Gods Word out of the Scripture and every Preacher if he be not too bold with God and his Auditors that he may speak from thence what is both true and seasonable prepares by writing that which he is to preach the Sermon is the same in the Pulpit that it was in the study and though the Preacher that looks in his Book be the worse the Sermon I am sure is not Thirdly We may receive the fruit of God's Word in the virtuous life and example of others for this St. Paul calls the holding forth the VVord of Life Phil. 2. 16. That ye may be blameless the Sons of God without rebuke holding forth the VVord of Life i. e. it is visible and legible in all our actions and demeanour Thus a Man may be a Preacher of God's Word though he be not in Orders Yea Women that are forbidden to speak in the Church may thus convert their Husbands at home Likewise ye VVives be in subjection to your Husbands that if any obey not the Word that is when it is preached they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the Wife So powerful and effectual is God's Word that it works by example though in the weakest Vessels There be divers ways of preaching in the more proper sense besides the Sermon for preaching is either publick or private as we learn from St. Paul Acts 20. 20. where he gives account to the Elders of Ephesus of himself That he had taught them publickly and from house to house Sure he did not make a formal Sermon in every house he came into but as occasion and opportunity was given by Conference he made known to them the Will of God Again Publick preaching is not all of a kind for that may be either by laying the Foundation the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ as the Apostle calls them Heb. 6. 1. which we call Catechizing If this be not Preaching if laying the Foundation be not edifying we shall make but a sorry Building If this Foundation of Faith be not well laid every new wind of Doctrine that rises blows it straight down again In these several ways besides the Sermon is God's Word effectual Now if we put all these under the bushel and set up the Sermon only we had need take heed how we hear that for if that wherein all our hope and confidence lies should go under the bushel too we are in a sad case It will therefore neerly concern us to take heed That God's Word be not lost in the Sermon

make some testification and acknowledgment of it by Sacrifice To these we may joyn the whole Herd of SECTARIES who are but a kind of godly Atheists When the late storm that raged amongst us brought with it those Locusts that over-spread the Nation though their whole business was to destroy yet of all most virulently the Publick Service of the Church And hence it is that in the practice of their devotions you shall find nothing that looks like the offering of a Sacrifice of praise for the honor of God But their meeting together is only to tell one another their dreams and ridiculous phansies belying the holy Spirit an hour or two and then depart And so I leave them And come to another sort of enemies whom I intend more particularly to call to an account and the rather because they seem to allow of a Publick Sacrifice of praise as far as a free Directory will go but for a set and stinted Liturgie as they call it they have it in abomination as appears by the heap of accusations they bring against it 1. That it is a polluted unclean thing 2. That it is a dead Sacrifice 3. A Book-service of the Letter and not of the Spirit 4. A Childish 5. Confused 6. Improper impertinent service 7. A tedious service 8. A lame sacrifice full of defects And lastly A blinde one that edifies not All this dirt and filth they cast upon it is easily wiped off with a right understanding of this only general Doctrine of the Text That it is a sacrifice of praise to God for the honour of His Name First They say it is a polluted unclean thing taken out of the Popish Missal and Breviary But if it be truly according to the patern in the Text as ye have heard a Sacrifice of praise to God we need not be troubled through what hands it passed before it came to us For as we are not ashamed to confess that our Religion is not a new but Reform'd Religion so nor need we be ashamed to say We worship God not by a new but Reform'd Liturgie And so our Faith and Worship are both of a piece and both as old as the Text. Secondly They say it is a dead Sacrifice made up of empty Forms and Ceremonies void of that life and affection which is necessary in Gods service If there be that want of affection in our Prayers it is a fault lie where it may But certainly the Forms are not guilty of it It is injustice to require that in a Sacrifice which belongs only to him that offers it The Church that composed the Forms cannot create affection If we come to this Sacrifice and leave our hearts behind us I know where the blame must lie But you will say you do not accuse Set Forms for want of life in themselves but that by the continual repetition of the same things they be-dead affection in those that should have it And how I pray should that be If the sense of real wants and blessings which are always the same cannot keep up our affections how should a new set of words do it Can we imagine that God should be taken with variety and shift of phrases or that the affection that takes heat from them will render the service more acceptable to God And therefore when they complain that their devotion is tired with nothing but Almighty and most merciful Father in the Morning and Almighty and most merciful Father in the Evening and the same over and over again every day That complaint did never lie against the Jews daily Sacrifice which was a type of ours that there was a Lamb in the morning and a Lamb again at evening and the same over again every day in the year When our Saviour at his last agony in the Garden three times retired himself from his Disciples to pray he used still the same form of words without any change St. Matth. 26. 44. And who dares say he wanted ability to vary his prayer or can say he wanted affection though he did not For as St. Luke relates it He prayed so earnestly that his swet was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground and then sure there was no want of affection for when our zeal is at the hottest we do not use to swet at our prayers I go on to a third charge That Set forms instead of helping us hinder the Spirit by which we should pray The truth is Such as the Spirit may be and too often useth to be it ought rather to be bound with chains than left at liberty under a Form of Praying to Libel their Governors or whom or what they please to bring into hatred with the people But for the true Spirit of Prayer that cannot be tyed with words For they are utterly mistaken that think the Spirit of Prayer supplies any defect of words or phrases for that very Text of St. Paul whereon they ground it confutes them Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities But in what not in words for what the Spirit supplies are there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not spoken at all or as we translate it which cannot be uttered What then doth it supply It maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered The true Spirit of Prayer consists in groans in zeal and fervency and that where it is will animate and put life into any Form of Prayer They who call Forms of their own making or borrowing con'd without Book Praying by the Spirit do both cheat the people and blaspheme the Holy Ghost A Fourth Objection is That it is but a Book-Sacrifice a Reading-Service which any child may do They complain it seems of ease If God should require a harder thing of us as no doubt there are many harder things to be done do them we must The easiness lays the greater obligation upon us How ridiculous would this exception appear against the Legal Sacrifices A Butcher could kill and dress a Lamb as well as a Priest This is a false deceitful weight Gods service is not to be weighed by the labor of doing but by the relation to him for whom it is done And therefore King Solomon when by the advice of his Father upon his death-bed he call'd to account the chief Leaders in the rebellion of Adoniah as Joab that commanded in chief and Abiathar the High Priest made no question of putting Adoniah and Joab to death but for Abiathar though he deprived him of his office yet he spared his life And why he gives no other reason but this Because he bore the Ark before his Father David But was that a work of such merit and difficulty Could not any Porter do as much it was but carrying of a Chest Solomon did not take his measure by that That Sacred Chest the Ark was a Symbol of Gods presence it had relation to his Service and that he preferred before his own for Adoniah