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	time_n	word_n	4,755	5	4.0289	3	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

at the common and publick Prayer His last general Rule is that we ought to teach our Children and Servants to shew Reverence to the Sanctuary and publick Worship of God For God cannot indure profaneness and contempt of Religion no not in Children And it stands us all upon to use the utmost Authority we have to maintain the Reverence of Gods Sanctuary for the open contempt done by any may bring Gods curse on us all And certainly saith he among other causes of the Plague and other Judgments of God upon the Land this is not the least that Gods publick Worship is performed among us with so little Reverence and Devotion as it is I am tempted to transcribe a great deal more of these Lectures because by them you may see that if I had moved all that hath been said about our Sermons I might according to the Judgment of this devout and learned man have maintained that there wants not sufficient means of profiting in our Congregations if there were none as long as the word of God is there read by which together with the other holy duties all may receive the greatest profit and comfort if they please For it is of far greater excellence authority and certainty than the Sermons of any Preacher in the World First because it comes more immediately from God and though it be translated by men yet is there in it far less mixture of humane Ignorance and Infirmity than in Sermons While the Word is read we are sure we hear God speaking to us and that it is the truth that we hear but not alway so when men preach for the best man is subject to Error which by the way shews the great ignorance and profaneness of this Age wherein men make nothing of the reading of Gods Word but take the liberty to discourse and chat all the time while the first and second Lessons are read to them And secondly the Word that is read is the Foundation of all Sermons and the very touch-stone whereby they are to be tried To that which we hear read simple and absolute Obedience is due without any question made of the truth and certainty of it but so it is not to that which we hear preached farther than we find it agreeable to the written Word for they of Beraea were commended for examining by this even that which the Apostles themselves did preach IX But I say no more of this and shall only crave leave with some earnestness to desire two things of every one who saith he cannot profit by our Sermons 1. The First is that he would examine himself strictly upon this Question whether he thinks he could profit by such a Sermon as this did he hear it preached by one of your Ministers Search to the very bottom of your Hearts and be not satisfied till you feel how they stand assected and how they would receive a discourse upon these Subjects should you come occasionally as you now speak into one of our Churches and there sind the Preacher pressing these things upon the Peoples Consciences Especially if you heard him add to these Rules that for the reverence of Gods publick worship care should be taken that the place where the Congregation assembleth may be decent and comely And he should call this place a Temple and affirm that Gods publick worship is no where so well performed as in this Temple and that it is a foul sin and contempt done to Gods worship that Parishioners either will not be at the charge to maintain such as may keep the Church decently or are altogether careless to see it done and that the true cause why now adays Men will be at no cost with Gods House is because they have no delight in it and that this is a piece of irreligiousness which is a just cause of grief to every godly man c. Reflect I say upon your selves and resolve what you really think you would judge of such a Sermon How would it be accepted by you Would be apt to look upon it as altogether unprofitable or at least as a needless discourse which might as well nay better be spared than preached to the People If this be your mind then consider with your selves why such things out of one mans mouth should relish well enough or go down without disgust which coming out of anothers you presently dislike Is it not manifest that you are partial and disaffected and that this is the reason you cannot profit by our Sermons Or if you could not like such discourses either from Nonconformists or from our Ministers then consider whether you have not reason to think you are very much mistaken in this business of profitable Sermons when you imagine such discourses as these to be unprofitable and superfluous which in the judgment of sober men of all sides are not only very useful but so necessary to be taught the People that for want of a sense of such things they are in danger to lose their Religion For as that good man said long ago and I doubt we are much improved in such impiety since that time as Supersitition made the Papists too careful and too bountiful so Profaneness and Atheism hath made us too void of all care in beantifying the House of God 2. But if you think that you should count such a Sermon profitable then I desire you Secondly to examine your selves and consider whether you have learnt so much out of the Holy Scriptures as to observe all the foregoing Rules duly and carefully or so much as to make them your study and to think how to bring your Heart into conformity with them Do you for instance reverence God's Sanctuary and when you come into it and while you are there give open signisications of it Do you come at the beginning of Divine Service or only to some part of it at the latter end or the Sermon only Do you stand up and do you kneel when the rest of the Congregation doth c. If you cannot say that you are so well acquainted with these and the rest of the foregoing Rules as to endeavour to live by them then in reason you ought to conclude that the fault is some where else and not in our Sermons if you cannot profit by them For you do not profit by the Holy Scriptures themselves Where these things are so plainly taught that a Man ought to think very meanly of himself and to look upon himself as a poor proficient in Religion who is not advanced thus far in his regard to the Duties and the Solemnities of God's Worship and Service And if being admonished of these things he do not humble himself nay become vile in his own Eyes for having thus long entertained an high opinion of himself though so deficient in the very rudiments and beginnings of Religion he is not likely to be much the better for any Sermon whatsoever because he will relish none but those only which feed his vain conceit of himself and of his high attainments and intimate acquaintance with God and communion with him in his Ordinances while he hath not a due esteem of them nor makes a right improvement by them X. But I hope these short Admonitions may put better inclinations into those Mens minds who will seriously think of them and particularly beget in them a greater regard than is usually given to the Holy Word of God read in our Churches Which will dispose every one to profit better by all Sermons which are but the Interpretation and Application of that Word especially if with due devotion of heart they will joyn in the whole Service foregoing By which they may profit I have shown as much if not more as by Sermons if they be religiously disposed and will come at the beginning of the Prayers and with all humble reverence attend upon every part of God's Worship For as he that is away from any part of the Sermon says the same Person again shall profit the less by that which he doth hear so he that is away from any part of the Divine Service gets the less good by that at which he is present For there is no part of God's Service not the Confession not the Prayers not the Psalms not the Blessing but it concerns every one and every one may receive edification by it and will lose much of the Benefit he might have had if he absent himself from it A thing in which it seems many of them who had most knowledge and were the forwardest Professors in those days did offend which moved him to set out the sins of those Men in several Respects and Considerations Which it would be too long for me to mention nor is it needful if this that I have discoursed already be laid to Heart And if Men will lay nothing close to their Consciences all that can be said or wrote or preached will do them no good but they will be only hearers or readers not doers of the Word deceiving their own Souls Wherefore laying aside as S. Peter speaks I. II. 1. 2. all malice and all guile or deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word or that rational sincere milk the pure food of your mind and understanding and not of your fancy that you may grow thereby As certainly you will when you become of the same disposition with little Children void of hatred of guile of wrath of dissimulation and such like evil affections and are of an humble teachable and submissive Spirit For if every one had but such an increase of grace as to hear meekly Gods Word and to receive it with pure affection they could not easily fail to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit So we pray in our Litany And may it please God as it there follows to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived for Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS