Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	epistle_n	new_a	testament_n	2,624	5	8.0045	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67134	A view of the face unmasked, or, An answer to a scandalous pamphlet published by divers ministers and entituled The common prayer book unmasked wherein the lawfulness of using that book is maintained ... : whereunto are added also some arguments for the retaining of that book in our Church ... / by Sam. Wotton ...	Wotton, Sam. (Samuel)	1661 (1661)	Wing W3657; ESTC R34766	45,602	60

be true but if any of them be to read any such Chapter at any time which he counteth not to be profitable to be read to the people he may read one out of the New Testament instead of it as Dr. Sparke shews concerning this matter in his brotherly perswasion to unity and uniformity Chap. 10. whether for brevity sake in this treatise I refer any reasonable man adding onely thus much that if those and such other objections seem to any man not to be sufficiently answered yet they cannot make the book wholly to be rejected but needfull in some particulars to be corrected and amended The next thing they come is the grand accusation against Epistles and Gospels which I presume belongs to their second head of frivolous things for though they began orderly with the first particular of false matters yet they proceed not so but I must be forced to follow them as they go up and down from one thing to another Concerning Epistles and Gospels then they have three weighty charges with which they begin thus We may subjoyn that profaning gross abuse of Epistles and Gospels in which there are three strange and remarkable occurrences for which there is no ground or reason but from the mass-Mass-book First These three remarkable things are 1. That the Acts of the Apostles and some books of the old Testament are read for and called Epistles 2. That we read not whole Chapters but scraps and shreds as they disgracefully call them 3. That at the Epistles there is silence sitting c. at the Gospels standing scraping bowing and responds before and after To the first of these concerning the name of Epistles given to books not so called in Scripture What great matter is this to be set out under those words of profane and gross abuse For first we know the old Testament is in the new sometime called the Law and the Prophets sometimes the Law Prophets and Psalms These several expressions shew that the word Prophets is sometimes largely taken for all the old Testament except the five books of Moses sometime more strictly for the other books onely but excluding the Psalms why then also may not the word Epistles be sometime taken generally for all the Scripture except the four Gospels and sometimes more strictly except the Acts Gospel and Revelation and sometime most strictly for those books which we commonly call the Canonical Epistles taking the word in the two former acceptions what hurt in calling all that we read for Epistles by the name of Epistles especially considering secondly that the whole Scripture is a letter or Epistle indited by the Holy Ghost and so sent from God by the holy writers thereof into the world or more especially to his Church and the fitness of this appellation they themselves confess and tell us The holy fathers spake so onely they tell us They spake so in a different sense from us which difference if they had shewed we had either answered them or yelded to them To their second accusation That our Epistle and Gospels are but scraps of Scripture and never a full passage in them If by full passage they mean a whole Chapter we desire to know why a whole Chapter must always be at once and neither more nor less but if by never a full passage they mean that we break off abruptly in respect of the matter read then any one may see they do us notorious wrong and the Book answers for it self without my help To avoid therefore the guilt of so foul a slander I am willing to take them in the former sense but must withal tell them that so they may as well accuse all our Preaching of this gross abuse and say we preach not upon the Word of God but upon scraps and shreds of it and that less shreds too then the other few Texts being half the length of the very shortest Epistles we have But why either our Texts or Epistles and Gospels should be thus taxed I see not the division of Chapters not being Canonical but made according to humane wisdom and discretion Of this therefore no more I come to the third charge which is concerning Silence Sitting Bowing c. To which I must first tell them That this comes in very unseasonably in this place this belongs rather to the ridiculous manner of our Service then to the matter of it but their want of method I must needs pass over many times lest my Book should grow too big Secondly I must tell them again that the Book appoints none of these things they here inveigh against therefore if those things were as bad indeed as they would make them all this were nothing to purpose against the Book which they pretend onely to write against Nevertheless being in many passages they labor to disgrace our Church what they can as well as the Book they write against I would if they would come to particulars assay to answer all and as far as I can by these general words guess at their meaning I will briefly answer them It hath been the custom long ago in many Churches to stand up at the Gospel and it was also usual at the naming of the Gospel to say Glory be to thee O Lord and after the end of the Gospel to say Thanks be unto God These I presume are the things they aim at for the bowing at the name of Jesus was and is as much used in all parts of Service and Sermon as of the Gospel To the other three therefore as proper to the Gospel I will onely speak And first to the standing up We know many men at the naming of the Text and many times in the Sermon will stand up not onely for their ease but to hearken the more attentively Why then is it not as lawful so to do at the Gospel We know standing up when we hear one beginning to speak to us does both shew respect to what is spoken and a readiness to receive what is spoken willingly and chearfully By standing up then at the reading of the Gospel we shew our gladness and readiness to receive it and what prophaneness or grand abuse can be in this Then for saying Glory be to thee O Lord. We know when the Angel first brought word of our Saviours birth the Author of the Gospel there were presently with him a multitude of Heavenly Angels saying Glory be to God on high If the Church then in memory Luke 2. 13 14. hereof do at the naming of the Gospel use part of that Angelical Hymn what grand abuse is this when our Saviour first came into the world this was the Angels praising God and when we hear mention made of the Gospel which declares and preacheth these glad tidings to us with the benefits coming to us thereby we do with like words give glory to God the Son and we are counted prophane for it Lastly when we have heard some of the Gospel read which publisheth these things

to us we presently give thanks to God for this Now what superstition or prophane abuse there is in this standing and respond as they call it before at and after the Gospel let any indifferent man judge Now upon these their grievous complaints they flee to the Parliament as supream Judges to vindicate this dishonor done to God Which how it can stand with the loyalty mentioned in their Preface or with the subscription which they have or should all have subscribed if they be rightly Ministers and Orthodox as they pretend to be let them say who acknowledge the King supream Judge in all Causes and over all Persons Lastly Whereas they say in the end of this Section That the discovery of some evil in the Apocrypha condemns our Common Prayer-Book for appointing it to be read I answer It follows not except it did appoint those Books to be read as parts of Canonical Scripture which we know it does not This for the grand abuses in general in Epistles and Gospels Now we must with them to particular untruths by them charged upon us bidding us to Look upon that egregiously abused place or Christ abused by our dealing with that place namely Revel 12. 1. Michael and his Angels fought c. Which words the Book appoints for the Collect they mean the Epistle for Michaels day where they make Christ by misapplying the place a created Angel Here they make much ado to prove Michael to be Christ which being granted them with such ado their accusation is never the truer nor our Cause or Book the worse The reading the Epistle on Michaelmas day in no sort makes Christ a created Angel but the keeping of Michaelmas day as we keep it is onely in memory of Michael or Christ if they please who is called an Angel Mal. 3. 1. Who with all his created holy Angels fought against the Devil and his Angels We call Christ an Angel so does the Scripture but it calls not a created Angel no more does our Book nor we but in memory of that victory of that Michael and his Angel we keep that day praising God for it and so read that part of Scripture which relates it Secondly They tax the words in the latter end of the Benedicite but to no purpose if that were the Song of the Three Children we do not know we do not now exhort them three to praise the Lord but sing their song in memory of them and their miraculous deliverance When we read Davids Psalms we do not in many of them pray for the things that he in those Psalms prayed for The third particular here is a clause or sentence in our Burial of the dead for which very particular I refer the Reader to Dr. Sparge in Chap. 12. pag. 62. where that matt●r is expresly handled and where I know another man hath answered any thing to avoid prolixity I say nothing Next then comes their Syllogism That which is mans device and hath been an Idol in Gods worship must of necessity be so still But the Ceremonies mentioned in the Service-Book have been Idols in Gods worship as Cross Surplice c. Ergo They must be Idols still in the worship of God To this I answer First The Proposition is false their proof is from some few particulars to a general which whosoever hath the least smatch of Logick in him knows to be nothing worth We may by this rule as well demolish our Churches and Ch●ppels nay somewhat more may be said against them then our Surplices for the very particular individual Churches which we now have have been abused to Idolatry which our particular Surplices have not And so the Minor also is faulty namely our Crosses Surplices and particular Ceremonies which we now use have never been Idols at all And so we deny and have proved their later Proposition also false which they tell us none can deny For the other supposed abuses in the Sacraments in the Churching the Confirmation c. I refer the Reader again to Dr. Sparge to satisfie all Next they tell us We would not have the Lent Fast forgotten which the Patrons of our Liturgy make a Religious Fast abusing places of Scripture by mis-application of Scriptures as Joel 2. 12. Matth. 6. 16. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 2. This Lent Fast which they would not have forgotten no more would I. For the abusing the places of Scripture mentioned by them if they did particularly shew wherein the supposed abuses consist I would answer them more particularly but howsoever supposing they count the Scriptures which speak of Fasting to be abused by being read in Lent which is not a Religious but a Politick Fast as they seem to say I answer that the Lent is indeed by our Laws and the Kings late Proclamation a Politick Fast nevertheless if any man observing our Lent according to Law by abstinence from flesh totally do also by temperance and an abstemious and spare diet all that time and by absolute Fasting sometime in the Lent keep a Religious Fast by subduing the flesh by Mortification and Repentance more then ordinary humbling himself before God This man as he shews himself in that respect a Loyal Subject by the former so he does the duty of a good Christian by the later pleasing God by both for his better help and assistance then in the later the places of Scripture which he shall hear read in the time of Lent are useful and beneficial to him Neither do we incline to Popery in this Religious Fasting nor approve of their superstitious Fast nor Fast in imitation of them for they that do celebrate such a Religious Fast in the time of Lent take not the example of the Papists to follow therein but of the antient Christian Church which did so fast many years before Popery was hatched This Religious Fast therefore though we press not as by Law required yet may we safely and profitably perswade to and preach and read concerning it from the example of the Church in former times Lastly In this Chapter they come to that which they call Fopperies and fooleries in our Book Touching also again upon false Translations that they may be still like themselves observing no method or order in any thing But to the point having answered already I come with them to their fooleries What can be said for those Tautologies and Battologies used in the Service-Book as Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy c. condemned Matth. 6. 7. And by and by One foppery more that mutual salutation between Priest and People in these words The Lord be with you And with thy spirit Last of all they conclude thus Tritenhemius wrote a Book upon Dominus Vobiscum in which are many fruitless questions and so we are sure the thing it self is fruitless If it be a vain Tautology to repeat those words a few times in praying to God what will they say to the Prophet David for repeating the same words