Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A61157
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A discourse made by the Ld Bishop of Rochester to the clergy of his diocese at his visitation in the year 1695 : published at their request.
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Church of England. Diocese of Rochester. Bishop (1684-1713 : Sprat); Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing S5031; ESTC R39999
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25,340
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72
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to the contrary such a compleat and consummate Faculty of reading the Common Prayer Quam nequeo monstrare sentio tantum is of so great difficulty as well as use that I am fully convinced it very well deserves to have some place among our constant Studies at least in the first Initiation into our Ministry if not throughout the whole course of it I could heartily wish it were altogether needless for me to lay so much stress on this Advice as I do Yet I hope I may do it without Offence since it is not with design of censuring any particular Mens Failings or Deficiencies but only for the public Good that we may all strive to attain not only to a Mediocrity but to an Excellency in this kind Which in my small Judgment can never be done unless we shall make this Duty a Business by it self and assign it a special Place among our other Ecclesiastical Studies It cannot be denied but the Church it self has provided for this with all imaginable Circumspection having solemnly enjoin'd every Clergy-man besides the Times of his public Ministry to read some very considerable Parts of his Office once a day at least to himself except he shall be excused by indispensable Business By which wise Injunction tho' no doubt the Church intended primarily to produce and increase in the Minds of all its Ministers a frame of Spirit perpetually serious and devout Yet if that be also accompanied with a proportionable Regard to the Manner as well as to the Matter of our Public Prayers this other Advantage of well-reading what is so often to be read will follow of course and by necessary Consequence It seems indeed to me that the very way of performing all the outward Acts of Religion has so wonderful an Influence towards obtaining the inward Effects of it on our Hearts and Consciences that I cannot but think we can never be too laborious in preparing and exercising our Thoughts and even our very Voices in private for a public Service of so great Importance 'T is true we generally value and esteem Preaching as our great Privilege and Honour And so far we are in the right But we are not so if we look on the reading of Prayers only as our Task and Burthen and as such shall be willing to get rid of it altogether or to get thro' it in any undecent Manner with such Heaviness or Precipitation as in any Affairs of worldly Interest we would never be content with A preposterous Custom which if due Care be not taken may be very prejudicial and mischievous to our Church by quenching the Spirit of Devotion in our own People and giving occasion to our Adversaries to throw Scorn and Contempt on our otherwise-incomparable Liturgy Consider I pray you How can we expect that others should revere or esteem it according to its true worth if we our selves will not keep it so much in Countenance as to afford it a fair Reading If we will not do it so much common Justice as to contribute as much as lies in our Power that it may have an impartial Hearing equal at least to any other Divine Ordinance If we shall refuse to lay as much weight on those Devotions which our whole Church has injoin'd us to pour out before the Throne of Grace for the People as we do on those Discourses which we make on our own Heads to the People Wherefore I say again this very commendable Skill of devout and decent Reading the Holy Offices of the Church is so far from being a perfunctory or superficial Work a mean or vulgar Accomplishment or a subordinate lower Administration only fit for a Curate that it deserves to be placed among your Ministerial Endowments of greater Superiority and Praeeminence as being one of the most powerful Instruments of the Holy Spirit of GOD to raise and command Mens Hearts and Affections of the Holy true Spirit of GOD I say which tho' in our inward Ejaculations or private Supplications towards Heaven it often helpeth our Infirmities and maketh Intercession for us with Groanings that cannot be uttered Yet in the public Worship is most frequently pleased to operate by such Words and Sounds as are express'd with the best Utterance So that now with a just Assurance I may assert this to be a very proper Qualification of a Parochial Minister that he has attain'd to an habitual Faculty of setting forth the public Prayers to all their due Advantage by pronouncing them leasurably fitly warmly decently with such an Authority in the Speaker as is in some degree suitable to the Authority of what is spoken Thus much I may safely say that the Reader of the Prayers if he does his part in the manner I have mention'd by such a vigorous effectual fervent Delivery of the Words and Conceptions put into his Mouth by the Church it self may give a new enlivening Breath a new Soul as it were to every Prayer every Petition in it He may quicken and animate those Confessions Intercessions and Thanksgivings which when read coldly and indifferently with irreligious Carlesness or ignorant Flatness will seem to some to be but a dead Letter He may make every Hymn every Psalm every Lesson Epistle and Gospel to become well nigh a new Sermon at least he may give to the old standing Text of the Bible a very good clear Exposition even by his very way of reading it to the Congregation This upon Experience you will find to be apparently true For if as is usually observed by Men of Learning in printed Books the very accurate and critical pointing of the Copy is one of the best kinds of good new Commentaries on any old Author how much more in all the Offices of Devotion would that which consists not only in good Pointing and observing all due Stops but in so much more besides I mean a good distinct forcible yet easie and unforced reading of every Prayer and Portion of the Holy Scriptures how much more would all this really serve for a good new Paraphrase and Illustration of every Sentence in them It is indeed almost incredible how quite another thing the daily morning and evening Prayers will appear what new Figures and Beauties and hidden Treasures of sacred Eloquence they will continually discover when thus pronounc'd how much apter they will be to kindle in us and our Auditors all manner of Heavenly Affections of Spiritual Grief and Contrition of Love and Gratitude of Faith Hope and Charity and Joy in the Holy Ghost When the Harmony of the Tongue shall be tuned as it were to the Harmony of the Matter When the Zeal of the Reader shall keep Company with his Voice and his Voice shall be adapted to and varied together with every Sense and Expression When by long Use and Imitation of the best Masters or the best we can come at we shall know familiarly how to give every Word and Sentence its due poise Where to lay a greater or smaller weight