Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	speak_v	think_v	word_n	4,073	5	4.0677	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03279	The dignitie of preaching in a sermon vpon 1. Thessal. 5.20. By Sam. Hieron.	Hieron, Samuel, 1576?-1617.	1615 (1615)	STC 13396; ESTC S120671	20,449	30

stint my selfe in that which I could say in this argument I heare what men say when they be not able to elude the euidence of these testimonies Obiect They obiect and crie out Oh Crueltie oh Barbarisme now you doe damne all that haue no preaching Answer I speake al this while of a way and course to which we are tied and whereto wee must trust and out of which wee may not venture I take not on me to preiudice the power or mercie of God I will not for a world say in a pulpit that there are none in heauen which neuer heard a Sermon I am not ignorant of Gods ablenes to saue as he pleaseth I know God can giue bread from heauen c Exod. 6. he can make one sute of clothes or one paire of shooes to serue a mans turne fortie yeeres d Deut. 29.5 he can cause the earth to yeeld corne without sowing e Isai 37.30 he can make one pitcher of oyle to pay a great deale of debt f 2. King 4.2 But what of this no warrant hence for me to say Husbandrie is not the ordinarie meanes of hauing Corne sowing mending the ordinarie meanes to preserue apparell prouidence and industrie and endeuour to get money the ordinarie meanes to pay debts Because the Israelites were fed with Mannah may I lie vnder a hedge in the Sunne looking till Mannah drop into my mouth or because Corne once grew without sowing goe fell away my Plough and like Salomons sluggard g Prou. 26.15 sheathe vp my hands into my bosome and renounce husbandrie or because of that of the Prophets widow discharging debt by a pitcher of oyle purposely runne my selfe into debt many pounds resoluing to leaue to my Executor a Iarue of oyle to pay all we would laugh at such inferences and think a man halfe mad who should make such conclusions And yet I know they are better a great deale then this that because wee doe not say they are all damned which haue no preaching therefore Preaching is not the ordained meanes to seeke saluation by I say these conclusions are better because wee haue euidence of some sustained in outward things by such vnusuall meanes but there is no certaintie of any particular mans saluation without ministeriall Teaching As therefore notwithstanding Gods dealing with the Israelites with Hezechiah with the widow I may boldly say that he who trusts to be fed from heauen shall be sterued and he who supposeth to pay his debts with a pitcher of oyle shall rot in prison So he who thinkes to be saued without preaching shall be damned We must looke to what God bids vs doe and not to what he in his absolute power can do Gods extraordinarie working is no impeachment at all to the truth of an ordinarie Rule Obiect There be some which haue gotten that by the end which Augustine reports touching himselfe how that hee heard a voyce saying to him Confes lib. 8. c. 12. Take vp and reade take vp and reade And so taking the new Testament he fell suddenly at the first opening of the booke vpon that place Not in gluttonie and drunkennes c. h Rom. 13. and hereby it is supposed Augustine was conuerted whereupon they would conclude a possibilitie of turning a man from the power of Satan vnto God without preaching Answer Hereupon I answere that who so shall say that Augustine was not conuerted vntill he heard that voyce shall deliuer an vntruth For it is plaine that Augustine had before that time been in spirituall affliction greatly exercised with a combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit as appeareth plainly in the chapter going next before this whereas he reports the matter of the Voice And when this Voyce came he was on his face weeping and at prayer earnestly confessing his sinnes and desiring to bee deliuered from them This Voyce is rather to be reputed a confirmation and perfiting of his conuersion then the proper instrument of working it If wee would know whereby in deede he was conuerted let himselfe be heard whose report this is Confes lib. 5. cap. 13.14 That being a Rhetorician he came to the citie wherein Ambrose was Bishop desiring there to professe Rhetoricke while hee was there hee would needs goe heare Ambrose preach Non vt doctorem veri Not as a Teacher of the Truth so are his own words for hee thought there was no such to bee found among the professors of the Christian faith but because hee had vnto him shewed kindnesse Now marke what hee speakes directing his speech to God Ad eum per te ducebar nescius vt ad te per eum sciens ducerer Omni die Dominico Sensim nescius To him I was by thee led vnawares that by him I might through knowledge be led to thee and so he goeth on to shew how by hearing him whom as hee reports other-where he heard preaching euery Lords day he was brought by little and little ere he was aware neerer and neerer to the embracing of the truth An excellent example for the confirmation of this point that preaching is the meanes of a mans conuersion And yet I adde that in case it were true that the reading of that place had been the direct meanes of his Turning yet it were nothing to the preiudice of that which I now teach for I would say and well I might it was extraordinarie and such whereof we can make no Rule and so indeed whensoeuer any man is brought to haue sauing grace true faith otherwise then by preaching it is a course out of course such wherein God will shew his power and mercie and the freedome of his proceedings not such wherupon he will haue vs simply and generally to relie I returne then to my poynt which is this We haue no warrant to expect saluation any other way then by dependance vpon preaching neither may we to speake of an ordinary course perswade our selues wee are in the way of saluation vnlesse wee be sensible of our being set into it by this meanes God doth diuers things as it it were by way of preparing mē to grace such are afflictions crosses inward affrightments but when all is done and spoken that can be to this wee must come at last that the maine worke ordinarily either by preaching it is wrought or not at all What an absurd thing were it to acknowledge preaching to be Gods ordinance and yet to denie it to be simply necessarie to saluation and to mince it ouer with I know not what faire termes that it is good if it may bee had and profitable for those who haue no other helpes and the like Why what make we of Gods ordinances doe we account them only matters of conueniencie and not of necessitie For my part I know no more scripture for faith without preaching then for saluation without faith I am sure the same spirit of God which hath said Beleeue that thou maist be

ground of contempt Suppose a parish haue an Incumbent reputed learned but yet remisse in preaching shall not his slacknes cause the people to conclude that preaching is not so simply necessarie as it is thought will they not say Our Minister is learned and of iudgement and knowes what is what surely if preaching were so vsefull hee would be more frequent in it then hee is And what hath bred those preiudiciall paradoxes to preaching as that reading is preaching c. but the indisposition of men of gifts to be diligent in preaching The vnwillingnes backwardnes of men to spend themselues this way hath caused for the hiding of their shame a straining of wits and a wresting of Scripture to proue the competencie to saluation of a reading Ministerie such spurious propositions had neuer seene the light if diligence in this dutie had vniuersally been made conscience of Therfore we must yeeld that that which old Latimer a man who sacrificed his life in Gods cause once blamed vnder the witty terme of strawbery-preaching is a speciall meanes to lay the honour of preaching in the dust It brings a rust yea and a curse vpon our gifts and begets a kinde of habite of idlenes and causeth the people to respect that little which we performe but little when I speak of diligence I doe not meane that a man should be euer and anon in the pulpit for there must be a time of gathering as well as of dispersing and there is a kinde of mercenarie diligence in some which is meete to be restrained but this is diligence a man is readie to take all occasions to doe good especially bindes himselfe constantly vpon Gods day to be busied in Gods word Happie is that seruant whom his master when he commeth shall finde so doing 2. The manner of handling the word of God in preaching so as it is fit If any man speake The second way of honoring preaching by Preachers let him speake as the words of God u 1. Pet. 4.11 let him remember what hee hath in hand and so deale accordingly I remember how often Paul stands vpon his manner of preaching x 2. Cor. 2.17.4.2 Thes 23. It is Hoseas phrase the great or honourable things of the law of God y Hos 8.12 yet may these be so vsed as that they may seeme base to those that heare them Woe be to that good meate that must passe the fingers of a slouen before it comes to the mouth of the eater I loue not to be forward to taxe any mans preaching and therefore I will so speake as shewing rather what may be then what is There may be a preiudicing and an endangering the honour of preaching in handling it two waies One is too much exactnes as when men striue to haue euery word in print and to stand in equipage one neither higher nor lower neither further foorth nor more bacward then another and doe affect termes more then matter embellishing their Sermons with the gleanings of all manner of authors sacred prophane any thing which may bee thought to smell of learning and may raise an opinion of Eloquence profoundnes varietie of reading in the hearers Obiect Will I say this make preaching to be despised Answer rather it is like to procure admiration and reuerence and to cause a kinde of astonishment in the hearers happely it may for the present draw some such superficiall respect to a Preacher as that which is counted euen by the heathen a vanitie in Demosthenes Tully termes him Leuiculus Demosthenes Tus Qu. Hic est ille Demosthenes he said it pleased him secretly when as hee went in the streetes hee should heare the womē that carried water say There goeth eloquent Demosthenes Thus a man may be rewarded with some such breath for this windy kind of preaching but when it cōmeth to the touch this shall bee found to dishonour Gods ordinance in true iudgement For what is that which indeed makes preaching honourable in the hearts of Gods people but their vnderstanding it so as that they may feele the sweetnes of it and receiue comfort by it That therefore which hindreth vnderstanding must needs expose this course to a kinde of disgrace what contentment shal a man take in it when he conceiues but little what it meanes It comes in our ordinarie congregatiōs to as little purpose such a kind of teaching as that which is said in the Prouerb Hic mulget hircum ille supponit cribrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where one doth milke a goate another holds vnder a sieue It may bee the matter is good and excellent but the hearer holds no more then a sieue because nothing to any great purpose is vnderstood It is the pithie plainnes which is the beautie of preaching A text well opened handsomely diuided instructions familiarly raised substantially proued by the Scripture powerfully pressed vpon the hid man of the heart faithfully applied to the soule conscience of the hearer This is the course which makes manifest the secret of his heart and brings him to fall downe on his face and worship God and to say that God is in the Preacher indeed z 1. Cor. 14.25 Ferrum potest quod aurum non potest It is truly said that in some cases Iron can doe that which gold cannot and so that which is by some in their nicenes and curiositie accounted but a blunt kinde of teaching shall yet doe that which the more glorious and glistring and gaudie course could not effect The kingdome of God is not in word but in power a 1. Cor. 4.20 I haue heard of a thing that fell out once at the Councell of Nice where a Christian of no great learning in esteeme Ruffin hist lib. 2. cap. 3. conuerted a learned man whom all the learned Bishops with all their skill and eloquence could not perswade the partie wonne brake out into these words Oh you learned men as long as the matter went by words against words I opposed words and that which was spoken I ouerthrew by the art of speaking but when in stead of words power came out of the mouth of the speaker Non poterunt verba resistere veritati or virtuti nec homo aduersari potuit Deo words could not withstand truth nor man stand out against God Thus that plaine kinde of teaching in which the euidence of the spirit is to be seene works that which the more curious and refined eloquence could not doe A second way by which in handling the word preaching may be made contemptible is in another extreame namely when the manner of dealing with the word is ouer sleight too loose and superficiall a man vents raw sudden vndigested meditations such as haue no manner of coherence either with the text or with themselues the text is rather torne then diuided rather tossed then handled rather named because it is the fashion to haue a text then followed so as that the