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
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A49464 A sermon preached before His Majesty at Whitehall March 27th 1664 by ... B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln.; Sermons. Selections Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675. 1665 (1665) Wing L348; ESTC R17615 15,955 41

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

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 then a distemper yea plain drunkenness yet thus it pleased God to put the words of eternal life into these earthen v●ssels 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 foolishnesse 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 wayes besides as First by Reading for though when Gods Word was preached onely it could be onely heard yet when it was a Scripture it might be known as all other Writings by reading also for this reason S. Paul sets Timothy to his Book 1 Tim. 4.13 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 finde 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 1 Joh. 5.13 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 kinde good Preachers Why then should any be scandalized at the Preacher that looks upon his Book where his Ser. mon 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 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 Word of Life Phil. 2.16 That ye may be blameless the Sons of God without rebuke holding forth the Word 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 1 Pet. 1 ye Wives 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 on 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 Catechising 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 need take heed how 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 i. e. that the power of it which consists in the evident conviction of truth be not lost in formalities and impertinences commonly us'd in Sermons As when little regard is given by some to God's Word unless the Sermon presents it self dress'd up with all the curiosities of Art Language and Phansie too which sometimes so disguises it as it can hardly be known from a Poem But for the true use of Ornaments of Art and Speech if they make us love our duties the more as they make us more in love with hearing I should think it well bestow'd But if painted Sermons be like painted Glass that makes a Room beautiful but intercepts too much the light it may well go in the rank too of those things which put God's Word under the bushel The same is done too with a coarser sort of Forms which have no title to be divine but that they want humane Learning And yet if God's Word be not in that jejune formal dress it will not be so kindly received by those who out of a seeming tenderness of the liberty of God's Word are afraid that the Churches Form should bind it and spare not to fetter it in cold formalities of