Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	scripture_n	sense_n	true_a	3,681	5	5.0801	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

A Discourse OF PROFITING BY SERMONS AND Of going to HEAR where men think they can PROFIT most LONDON Printed for T. Basset at the George in Fleet-street B. Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard and F. Gardiner at the White-Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. A Discourse OF PROFITING by SERMONS AS there is nothing that all good men more desire nothing that they more heartily seek and endeavour than a happy re-union of all those with us who have rent themselves from us which we should reckon to be one of the highest blessings that God can now bestow upon us so there is little hope of seeing those desires and endeavours satisfied while the smallest Scruples seem a sufficient cause to hinder many People from joyning with us But among all the Reasons that I have heard alledged for leaving our Churches this seems to me to be the weakest and most ungrounded That our Ministers are unedifying Preachers for they cannot profit by their Sermons Which I am informed is so commonly objected and some lay such weight upon it and it carries with it such a shew of Piety it being a very commendable thing to desire to be the better for every Sermon one hears that it is thought to be worth some body's pains to try to remove this unjust Prejudice which too many have entertained against the most instructive and useful Sermons that perhaps are preached any where in the Christian World This may seem too high a commendation but it is the judgment of more indifferent persons then we are on either side of strangers I mean who have seen the World and having learnt our language and heard and read the Sermons that are commonly preached and printed in this great City affirm there are not the like to be found in any Church whatsoever God grant we be not deprived of such singular helps by our contempt of them and that our Candlestick be not removed out of its place because we withdraw our selves from the light which it holds forth to us Of which we are in very great danger if not knowing what it is truly to profit by Sermons we make no progress at all in the state of Christianity but deceive our own Souls in a vain opinion of our acquaintance with God and our blessed Saviour and the Mysteries of the Gospel which have little or no effect upon our hearts and lives I do not pronounce this to be the case of those who object to us that we have an unprofitable Ministry but I doubt not to demonstrate that the Sermons which are generally preached by the Ministry in this City to whose inhabitants I principally write are such that they may profit by them if it be not their own fault and then leave them to judge of themselves as they see cause I suppose we are all agreed or may easily agree what it is to profit by Sermons for we agree that the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to our Salvation and therefore when they are rightly opened and duely applied in a Sermon so that the Hearers improve either in Christian knowledge or in Faith or in well-doing then they profit by that Sermon Now if any man do not improve in these by the help of the Sermons which he may hear in our Churches and the fault lye in the Sermon it must be either in the matter of it or in the manner for none I presume will be so bold as to affirm that Gods Spirit doth not accompany a Sermon which wants nothing belonging to either of these the Preacher also being duely qualified And thanks be to God there are none that dare now complain of an Idle Scandalous Insufficient Ministry about this City but instead of that they that were wont to have those words in their mouths have taken up the complaint of an Vnedifying Whereby we have gained this great Point That they have no colour to pretend the Person who preaches is unsanctified and therefore God doth not bless his Ministry but the fault must lye if there be any in the Sermon it self and that in the matter of which it consists or in the manner of its delivery I. And as for the former of these I can scarce think that any Dissenter when he seriously considers will except against our Sermons upon that account they being taken out of the Holy Scriptures which are the foundation of our Religion and with such care to find out their true sense and proper meaning that perhaps they were never more clearly opened and rightly applied than they are now a dayes in our Churches I am sure All that heavenly Truth which was delivered to our first Parents when they were about to be expelled out of Paradise which God repeated in his Promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob which he shadowed and confirmed in the Law of Moses illustrated by the Oracles of the Prophets and finally fulfilled in the Incarnation Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascention of the Son of God and dissused by the Preaching of the Apostles and the Power of the Holy Ghost all over the World is there so fully and distinctly taught that we may safely say the whole Counsel of Gods Will is at one time or other faithfully declared among us And as that is declared compleatly so little else is medled withall matters of controversie being as rarely handled in our Pulpits I believe as in any place of the World unless it be those which the present State of things sometimes makes absolutely Necessary to fortifie the People against Popery and against Separation yet even these are not so often treated of as matters of general concernment to all Parties of Christians whatsoever For the great drift of our Preachers seems to be to instruct the People in the Truth and to make them good particularly to give them right notions of God which are the very bottom of all Religion knowing that Errors and Superstitions will fall of themselves without a particular confutation For they are supported by nothing but ignorance and naughty affections which will uphold them against all the Arguments whereby they can be assaulted unless mens minds be informed and possessed with such a right Sence of things as alters their Wills and Affections and turns them to an unfeigned love of God and Goodness Which seems to me to be the aim and scope of the Sermons which are generally preached by our Ministers and which is so well performed that we need not fear to affirm there is nothing necessary either to make men truly knowing in the things of God or to work belief in them or to confirm them in the Faith or to direct them in their practice of what they know and believe or to excite them to follow those directions and to live according to the Laws of the Gospel or to satisfie material Scruples to resolve doubts and cases of Conscience to comfort disconsolate penitents and awaken drowsie sinners or any thing of like Nature but may be met withall