Aspects of Piety 03
Preaching
It is difficult at this remove to appreciate how popular preaching and printed sermons were in the 17th Century. The reading public was far greater than historians once thought and there was a flood of literature of all sorts to sate its appetite. This flood inevitably spilled over and affected more illiterate sections of the population too. Alexandra Walsham (Providence in early modern England p 33) has written of
an explosion of cheaply priced printed texts designed to entertain, edify, and satisfy the thirst of a rapidly expanding reading public for information. … Hawked and chanted at the doors of theatres, alehouses, and other habitual meeting spots, and displayed for sale in shops in the vicinity of St Paul’s churchyard, they also penetrated the provinces and countryside to a degree which is only gradually coming to light.
The nation’s preachers seem initially simply to have bewailed this flood of largely unhelpful literature. Then, reluctantly at first, they began to swell it with the most wholesome material they could produce in various formats, from cheap unbound booklets to high quality folio editions. An incentive to putting sermons into print was the fact that unscrupulous printers might otherwise produce pirated and potentially inaccurate editions, so great was the demand for such material. While sermons undoubtedly held little attraction for some, there was a sizable number for whom ‘they were like an addictive and intoxicating drug’. (Walsham p 61)
Perhaps especially in London preaching was as much a communal gathering as a solemn spiritual event, to which restive and wayward youth eagerly swarmed.
In general, both hearers of preaching and readers of sermons were many and varied. (Walsham, p 62). Adams complains of ‘perfunctory hearing’, (Works 2, p 271) and asks ‘How many sermons are lost whiles you bring not with you the vials of attention.’ ‘You come frequently to the wells of life,’ he complains ‘but you bring no pitchers with you.’ The people either lack mouths to receive the balm of grace or bottoms to retain it. (Works 3, p 366) He also says '… never did the Egyptians call so fast upon the Israelites for making of bricks, as the people call on us for the making of sermons; (Cf Works 2, p 169). Typically, he cannot resist adding ‘and our allowance of materials is much alike’! He asks of London ‘What city in the world is so rich in her spiritual provision as this? Some whole countries within the Christian pale have not so many learned and painful pastors as be within these walls and liberties.’ (Works 2, p 271) Paul Seaver has commented ‘In its preaching, as in so many other respects, London was without rival. Nowhere else were there so many lectureships packed into so small an area ….’ (The Puritan lectureships the politics of religious dissent 1560-1662 p 121)
Adams was one of many who sought to capitalise on this interest through printed sermons. Various means were used to reduce sermons to print. We do not know what happened in Adams’ case but judging from the presentation of the material and its general lack of literary (as opposed to homiletical) polish, it would seem that amanuenses were employed to record Adams’ sermons verbatim. (Cf ‘I know you have long looked for an end; I never delighted in prolixity.’
It is difficult at this remove to appreciate how popular preaching and printed sermons were in the 17th Century. The reading public was far greater than historians once thought and there was a flood of literature of all sorts to sate its appetite. This flood inevitably spilled over and affected more illiterate sections of the population too. Alexandra Walsham (Providence in early modern England p 33) has written of
an explosion of cheaply priced printed texts designed to entertain, edify, and satisfy the thirst of a rapidly expanding reading public for information. … Hawked and chanted at the doors of theatres, alehouses, and other habitual meeting spots, and displayed for sale in shops in the vicinity of St Paul’s churchyard, they also penetrated the provinces and countryside to a degree which is only gradually coming to light.
The nation’s preachers seem initially simply to have bewailed this flood of largely unhelpful literature. Then, reluctantly at first, they began to swell it with the most wholesome material they could produce in various formats, from cheap unbound booklets to high quality folio editions. An incentive to putting sermons into print was the fact that unscrupulous printers might otherwise produce pirated and potentially inaccurate editions, so great was the demand for such material. While sermons undoubtedly held little attraction for some, there was a sizable number for whom ‘they were like an addictive and intoxicating drug’. (Walsham p 61)
Perhaps especially in London preaching was as much a communal gathering as a solemn spiritual event, to which restive and wayward youth eagerly swarmed.
In general, both hearers of preaching and readers of sermons were many and varied. (Walsham, p 62). Adams complains of ‘perfunctory hearing’, (Works 2, p 271) and asks ‘How many sermons are lost whiles you bring not with you the vials of attention.’ ‘You come frequently to the wells of life,’ he complains ‘but you bring no pitchers with you.’ The people either lack mouths to receive the balm of grace or bottoms to retain it. (Works 3, p 366) He also says '… never did the Egyptians call so fast upon the Israelites for making of bricks, as the people call on us for the making of sermons; (Cf Works 2, p 169). Typically, he cannot resist adding ‘and our allowance of materials is much alike’! He asks of London ‘What city in the world is so rich in her spiritual provision as this? Some whole countries within the Christian pale have not so many learned and painful pastors as be within these walls and liberties.’ (Works 2, p 271) Paul Seaver has commented ‘In its preaching, as in so many other respects, London was without rival. Nowhere else were there so many lectureships packed into so small an area ….’ (The Puritan lectureships the politics of religious dissent 1560-1662 p 121)
Adams was one of many who sought to capitalise on this interest through printed sermons. Various means were used to reduce sermons to print. We do not know what happened in Adams’ case but judging from the presentation of the material and its general lack of literary (as opposed to homiletical) polish, it would seem that amanuenses were employed to record Adams’ sermons verbatim. (Cf ‘I know you have long looked for an end; I never delighted in prolixity.’
‘I know you have long looked for an end; I never delighted in prolixity.’ Works 1, , p 421; ‘… it hath led me further than either my purpose or your patience would willingly have allowed me.’ Works 2, p 38; ‘You see the measure [the hour glass]. Only give me leave to set you down two short rules …’ Works 2, p 45; ‘I am loath to give you a bitter farewell, or to conclude with a menace. I see I cannot, by the time’s leave, drink to you any deeper in this cup of charity .…’ Works 2, p 412.)
His sermons vary in length. Possibly material was added. Sensitive to accusations of simply affecting to be a man in print, in 1630 he rehearses a popular argument for printing sermons in his dedication ‘to the candid and ingenious reader’.
Speech is only for presence, writings have their use in absence … our books may come to be seen where ourselves shall never be heard. These may preach when the author cannot, and (which is more) when he is not.
His sermons vary in length. Possibly material was added. Sensitive to accusations of simply affecting to be a man in print, in 1630 he rehearses a popular argument for printing sermons in his dedication ‘to the candid and ingenious reader’.
Speech is only for presence, writings have their use in absence … our books may come to be seen where ourselves shall never be heard. These may preach when the author cannot, and (which is more) when he is not.
(Works 3, p ix). It had been profitable when he spoke it and now he hopes it will be profitable in written form (Cf Works 3, p xvii).
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