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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canonical_a	old_a	testament_n	7,030	5	8.4269	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66373	A brief discourse concerning the lawfulness of worshipping God by the common-prayer being an answer to a book entituled A brief discourse concerning the unlawfulness of the common-prayer worship lately printed in New-England, and re-printed in London, in which the chief things objected against the liturgy, are consider'd.	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1694 (1694)	Wing W2683; ESTC R203	34,319	42

viz. Rom. 3. 13. and quoted by the Apostle from other Psalms c. 2. It 's not the common-Prayer-Book that adds but the Translations which the common-Prayer followed viz. the Septuagint and Vulgar and tho it was a mistake yet it 's far from being such as incurs the penalty of Deut. 4. 2 c. As for the Gloria Patri I deny that it 's added to the Scriptures as Canonical any more than the Contents of the Chapters the Chapters and Verses of the Bible or the Dates of the Epistles are nay I deny that it 's added at all for any one that can read will see that it 's not inserted in the Psalter but only rehearsed as the Rubrick directs And it was for a good end that this was anciently used in the Orthodox Churches of old and is continued in ours viz. in opposition to the Arians and Anti-Trinitarians Sozom. l. 26. 4 He saith Sometimes words are sacrilegiously stolen out of the Bible As the last Verse is omitted Psal 72. So are the Scriptural Titles of many Psalms And I know not how often those words Praise ye the Lord are left out He durst not trust his Reader with the things left out for they would have appear'd of so little Consequence as would have betrayed the weakness of his Cause as well as his own partiality That verse omitted Psal 72. is this the Prayers of David the Son of Jesse are ended The Titles of the Psalms are for the most part such as are no key to the matter of them and without which the Psalms are as intire as the Chapters without the Contents The Clause praise ye the Lord as in the Hebrew Hallelujah and is only left out when it 's independent and has no immediate Relation to the preceding or following Verse And the reason of these Omissions seems to be Because the Psalms being to be read in Parts according to the ancient Custom in Chrysostom's time and before or chanted and so read on without naming the Psalm the Titles c. would have made a break in that order And this was done after the manner of Singing the Psalms in the Temple-Service in which the Titles and the passage the Prayers of David the Son of Jesse are ended were to be sure no part And so it is in the Singing-Psalms used by the Dissenters as well as us And who may as well be charged with such Omissions as we who there for the reason abovesaid use neither the Verse nor Titles Surely these Persons are hard put to it that after such a bloody charge of violating adding to and taking from the Word of God can produce no better proofs and evidences for it but only that we leave out the Titles and Hallelujah and that only in the ordinary Service in the publick where they themselves read it not at all and when upon the like way of arguing we may charge them with laying aside the whole Scripture out of which they read not one Chapter for the information of the People He goes on 3. In the Liturgy the Apocrypha Books are made equal with nay advanced above the Holy Scripture Strange that a Church should be guilty of this that in their Articles exclude them out of the Canon and saith That they are not read to confirm any Doctrine but only for informing the Manners But let us see how he proves this not by any Assertion of the Church but some stretches of Arguing As 1. They are made equal For in the Preface to the Common-Prayer it 's said nothing ordained is to be read but the pure word of God or that which is evidently grounded on the same But is the Apocrypha so Here for improving his Argument he alters the words of the Preface and for that which is in that agreeable to the same he reads evidently grounded on the same and then triumphs Is the Apocrypha so But take it how he will its evident from hence that the Apocrypha is so far from being made equal with Scripture that there is a plain difference between them for that to which a thing is agreeable and on which it 's grounded is above that which is agreeable to it and grounded upon it A Plea grounded on the law is surely of less Authority than the Law on which it is grounded The Apocrypha being read not for establishing any Doctrine but for informing the Mannners there is nothing in what is appointed of that kind to be read but what is agreeable to the word of God and not contrary to it and so may be read as well as their Sermons be heard which can pretend to no more 2. He saith The Liturgy appoints the Apocrypha to be read as Lessons just as I find it in the Pope's Service-Book and in a greater proportion than Scripture for as some have observ'd of 172 Apocryphal Chapters but 38 are omitted So that these Books are equalized with the pure word of God But surely he doth not find it in our Service-Book that the Apocrypha Lessons are read for Canonical Scripture and declared to be so as they are in the Pope's service-Service-Book but only as Apocrypha He that will look for the Apocrypha-Books in the Pope's Bible as well as Service-Book will find them mixed with the Canonical as Hester and Esdras c. but he that will find them in our Bibles will find them by themselves and Apocrypha in the head of them If as he affirms the Apocrypha is read in a greater proportion than Scripture it doth more than equalize and doth rather advance it above the Scripture and so belongs to his next Assertion which he would have done well to have reserv'd it to to make up the proof he is there wanting in As for what he affirms that the Apocrypha is read in greater proportion than the Scripture nothing more false For 1. All the Second Lessons throughout the Year are out of the New Testament 2. All Epistles and Gospels read on Sundays and Holy-days are wholly out of Canonical Scripture 3. All First Lessons on Sundays are out of the Old Testament and none out of the Apocrypha 4. On the 33 Holy-days on the Week-days there are but 26 Apocrypha First Lessons whereas there are 40 out of the Canonical Scripture 5. When the Apocrypha is appointed to be read in Course it 's not clear two Months for First Lessons but the Holy Scripture is read all the other Ten Months and more 6. Of the 39 Books of the Old Testament but 3 are entirely omitted viz. Chronicles and Canticles but of the 13 of the Apocrypha 6 are not read at all 7. Of the 929 Chapters of the Old Testament 753 are read in course and 176 only omitted the reasons for which generally will appear to the Reader but out of the 172 Chapters of the Apocrypha there are not as he saith 38 66 omitted and among them that of Tobit that he objects against Where methinks he that pretends to have

becoming and of excellent use to quicken Devotion and excite attention What may not be said in any case by such persons as these that call this way of Devotion as he doth a taking God's Name in vain And what occasion may others take after the same manner to treat their long Prayers that are often nauseous to standers-by for their affected length and tedious enlargements and forced Repetitions 2. He objects The Common-Prayer Book is guilty of violating the sacred Word of God And here he charges it with no less than obliterating contradicting adding to it and detracting from it and then concludes Amongst men clipping and corrupting if Coin is Treason and certainly it 's a dreadful thing to add to or take from the Word of God Dent. 4. 2. Rev. 22. 19. And it 's certainly a dreadful thing and wo to them that are guilty Here I should have expected a rounder Charge by one that had so exactly read the Liturgy and that he would have told the World that we take whole Chapters from the Word of God and which have no place in our Kalendar nor are read publickly in the Church as I do acknowledge And surely if the omission of one Verse in a Psalm and of Hallelujah in others be a taking from the Word of God then much more is the omission of whole Chapters nay of three whole Books But he durst not press that too far for if he had it would have fallen hard upon such as never have the Scriptures read in their Congregations tho that was a solemn part of Divine Worship in the Churches of God as the Scripture informs us Acts 15. 21 c. And if the Church of Rome is so deservedly blamed for reading the Scriptures in an unknown tongue what do they not deserve that never read them at all in their Congregations Surely if they had according to our Saviour's advice considered the Beam in their own eye they would not have thus magnified the Mote in their Brother's eye I remember a Question in a Book of the same kind with our Author's Whether Protestants do not sin in defrauding the people of some Books and Chapters of Scripture as well as Papists in defrauding them of all And then what sort of Protestants are they that with the Church of Rome defraud the people of all so far as the Publick Service of God is concern'd But to return Before I shall consider his few Instances that he would make good this Bloody Charge by I shall premise a few things 1. That the Instances he offers are at the worst Mistranslations Slips and Errors and not chargeable with Perverseness according to what we charge upon the Church of Rome For here is no interest to be served For what is our Church concern'd whether it be read as the Liturgical Translation has it the 7 th Day or as the Common Translation The Sabbath whether as that they were not obedient to his word or as this they rebelled not against his word whether as that The rod of the wicked cometh not into the lot of the righteous or as this resteth not Whether as in that the Titles of some Psalms and Hallelujahs are omitted or as in this they are inserted Surely here is no interest visible in this that should incline our Translators of the Psalter to pick out these Texts above all others to make bold with 2. Mistranslations and Errors of this kind are no sufficient reason for not using such a Translation and much less for separating from a Church where they are used for then no Translation could be us'd or no Church communicated with because no Church is without such Translations and no Translation without such Errors Thus it was in the Church of the Jews when the Septuagint was used in publick Which doth often alter and add to the original Hebrew and yet was not only used but is quoted by the Divine Writers even in many places where those Alterations and Additions are So it alters Heb 10. 5. 11. 21. Rom. 10. 18. Act. 7. 8. It adds as Luk. 3. 36 37. Act. 7. 14 Then also must not our common Translation be used which besides the mistakes allowed to be in it does add in many places and particularly half a Verse 1 John 2. 23. So it adds the Dates and Subscriptions to the Epistles Chapters Verses and Arguments throughout the whole as if Canonical And of this kind are all his Instances As 1. He saith The common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book violates the word of God as sometimes the words of Scripture are obliterated and others put in their room Thus in the Catechism they have changed those words in the Fourth Commandment the Lord blessed the sabbath-day into the Seventh day A. We grant it is so but it 's to be remember'd that it 's not so in the 20th of Exodus but in the Liturgy and if the Liturgy differs from Exodus it 's a difference without a distinction since the Seventh day and Sabbath are all one and if it differs from Exodus it agrees with the first Institution Gen. 2. 3. where it 's said God rested on the seventh day and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it 2. He saith Sometimes the Liturgy makes bold directly and in terms to contradict the Scripture so Psalm 105. 28. it 's said they were not rebellious but the Common-Prayer-Book saith they were not obedient and so Psal 125. 3. We grant That there is a seeming contradiction in words but not in the meaning of it for the relative they being undetermined and indifferently to be applied to Moses and Aaron or to the Egyptians accordingly is this place to be interpreted if understood of the former it 's to be read in the common Translation they were not rebellious if of the latter it 's to be read in the Translation of the Liturgy they were not obedient And this last reading is according to the present reading of the Septuagint and some other Translations that follow that And yet that Translation was generally used by the Primitive Christians and was worse than any ever used by us As for Psal 125. 3. The rod of the wicked shall not come c. that is so as to rest there and so as to tempt them beyond what they are able 3. He saith Sometimes the Common-Prayer-Book adds to the Scripture there are three whole Verses added to the 14th Psalm And the Gloria Patri is frequently added to Scripture as if it were Canonical Ans When he saith That it is a dreadful thing to add to the word of God and charges our Church with it we might expect some very criminal instances to make it good and when he saith three whole Verses are added one would think that this was somewhat invented and herein inserted by the Church upon some wicked selfish design But 1. tho we allow that such Verses are added yet it 's not an addition to Scripture for tho not found in this place yet they are in another