Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	scripture_n	word_n	7,766	5	4.4516	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62565	The indispensable necessity of the knowledge of the Holy Scripture in order to man's eternal salvation and ignorance therein, the mother of idolatry and superstition asserted in a sermon / preached by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1687 (1687)	Wing T1198; ESTC R31967	15,700	26

publick Prayers which are made by the Priest wi●hout understanding what they are If it be enough for the Priest to understand them why should not the Priest only be present at them Unless the People do not meet to worship God but only to wait upon the Priest. But by saying that the Priest understands 'em it seems it is better that some body should understand them than not and why is not that which is good for the Priest good for the P●ople So that the true state of the Controversy is whether it be fit that the People should be Edified in the Service of God and whether it be fit that the Church should order things contrary to Edification For it is plain that the Service of God in an unknown Tongue is useless and unprofitable to the People Nay it is evidently no publick Service of God when the Priest only understands it For how can they be said to be publick Prayers if the People do not join in them and how can they join in that they do not understand and to what purpose are Lessons of Scripture read if People are to learn nothing by them and how should they learn when they do not understand This is as if one should pretend to teach a Man Greek by reading him Lectures every day out of an Arabick and Persian Book of which he understands not one syllable As to their depriving the People of the use of the Holy Scriptures our Blessed Saviour exhorts the Jews to search the Scriptures And St. Paul chargeth the Christians that the Word of God should dwell richly in them And the ancient Fathers of the Church do most frequently and earnestly recommend to the People the reading and study of the Scriptures How comes the Case now to be so altered Sure the Word of God is not changed that certainly abides and continues the same for ever I shall by and by examine what the Church of Rome pretends in excuse of this Sacriledge In the mean time I do not see what considerable Objections can be made against the reading of the Scriptures which would not have held as well against the writing and publishing them in a Language understood by the People as the Old Testament was by the Jews and the Epistles of the Apostles by the Churches to whom they were written and the Gospel both by Jews and Greeks Were there no difficulties and obscurities then in the Scriptures capable of being wrested by the Unstable and unlearned Were not People then liable to Errour and was there no danger of Heresy in those Times And yet these are their great Objections against putting the Scriptures into the hands of the People which is just like their arguing against giuing the Cup to the Laity from the inconveniency of their Beards least some of the Consecrated Wine should be spilt upon them As if Errours and Beards were Inconveniences lately sprung up in the World and which Mankind were not liable to in the first Ages of Christianity But if there were the same dangers and inconveniences in all Ages this Reason makes against the Publishing of the Scriptures to the People at first as much as against permitting them the use of them now And in truth all these Objections are against the Scripture it self and that which the Church of Rome would find fault with if they durst is that there should be any such Book in the World and that it should be in any bodies hands learned or unlearned for if it be dangerous to any none are so capable of doing mischief with it as Men of Wit and Learning So that at the bottom if they would speak out the Quarrel is against the Scriptures themselves This is too evident by the Counsel given to Pope Julius the Third by the Bishops met at Bononia to consult about the Establishment of the Roman See where among other things they give this as their last advice and as the greatest and weightiest of all That by all means as little of the Gospel as might be especially in the vulgar Tongue should be read to the People and that little which was in the Mass ought to be sufficient neither should it be permitted to any Mortal to read more For so long say they as Men were contented with that little all things went well with them but quite otherwise since more was commonly read And speaking of the Scripture they give this remarkable testimony and commendation of it This in short is that Book which above all others hath raised those Tempests and Whirlwinds which we were almost carried away with And in truth if any one diligently considers it and compares it with what is done in our Church he will find them very contrary to each other and our Doctrine not only to be very different from it but repugnant to it If this be the Case they do like the rest of the Children of this World prudently enough in their Generation Can we blame them for being against the Scriptures when the Scriptures are acknowledged to be so clearly against them But surely no body that considereth these things would be of that Church which is brought by the undeniable evidence of the things themselves to this shameful Confession that several of their Doctrines and Practices are very contrary to the Word of God. Much more might have been said against the Practice of the Church of Rome in these two particulars but this is sufficient I shall in the second place consider what is pretended for them And indeed what can be pretended in justification of so contumelious an affront to Mankind so great a tyranny and cruelty to the Souls of Men Hath God forbidden the People to look into the Scriptures No quite contrary Was it the Practice of the Antient Church to lay this restraint upon Men or to celebrate the Service of God in an unknown Tongue Our Adversaries themselves have not the face to pretend this I shall truly represent the substance of what they say in these two points As to the Service of God in an unknown Tongue they say these four things for themselves First That the People do exercise a general Devotion and come with an intention to serve God and that is accepted though they do not particularly understand the Prayers that are made and the Lessons that are read But is this all that is intended in the Service of God does not St. Paul expresly require more That the Vnderstanding of the People should be Edified by the particular Service that is performed And if what is done be not particularly understood he tells us the People are not Edified nor can say Amen to the Prayers and Thanksgivings that are put up to God And that any Man that should come in and find People serving of God in this unprofitable and unreasonable manner would conclude that they were mad And if there be any general Devotion in the People it is because they understand in general what they are about and why