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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	scripture_n	8,342	5	5.9261	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55892	The principles of a people stiling themselves Philadelphians discovered in their nicest points and matters; accurately handled, shewing their rise, continuance, and tenents in doctrin and manner of proceeding, &c. Also a curious discourse between an English dissenter and French Protestant, by way of dialogue, in vindication of the Church of England against novelties in religion.	Lafite, Daniel. Friendly discourse between an English dissenter and a French Protestant.	1697 (1697)	Wing P3494A; ESTC R219027	36,218	131

it will never be a lawfull one for to speak freely and without mincing the matter I am of opinion that though it may be lawfull to use some Form of Prayer yet it is altogether unlawfull to use that Form which is now in vogue amongst you F. P. Then I find you are not altogether irreconcilable to the Lawfulness of Praying by Forms but you are not satisfied with the Forms we use I shall be glad to hear the Grounds of your dissatisfaction as hoping by this means to have an opportunity offer'd me to enlarge my self more in the Praise of our Common-prayer than hitherto I have had occasion to do E. D. I know the humour of French-men is to be complaisant and complimental and so very probably you design in comliment to the Church of England to fall down to the Common-prayer the great Idol of the English Clergy as you have already express'd your great Respects for their dull and prophane Priests F. P. I beg of you sir let us discourse without Prejudice or Passion and be so kind as to tell me calmly and friendly what Objections you have against our Common-prayer-book in particular E. D. Before I give you the Particular Objections I have against the Common-prayer-book I shall premise this General Observation That your Common-prayer is so bad that there is nothing good in it no nor any thing that is so much as tolerable F. P. How strangely you and I differ in Opinion As for my part I really think there is nothing in it but what is very good E. D. If you can prove that as I desire you would Eris mihi magnus Apollo for indeed you will do more than all your Clergy-men that ever I discours'd with and more than all the Books that treat of this Subject have been able to do F. P. If the case be so indeed I should be loath to undertake the task For if none of our Clergy that you have discours'd with nor any of those excellent Books written in the Defence of our Liturgy have been able to convince you of the goodness and usefulness thereof it would be folly for me to attempt it for I am very sensible that my Parts and Abilities are far below any one of our Clergy that you have had to deal with and to speak the truth 't is from them and their Writings I have acquired the best part of that little learning and insight into these things that I have E. D. I hope you are as modest a Man as your discourse would import besides being a French Protestant you as such can have neither publick nor private Reason to bear any ill-will to our Party wherefore I look upon you as an unbiass'd Person without Prejudice or Partiality and consequently fit to be discours'd with about the matter in question between us And indeed all this makes me the more desirous to hear the Arguments you can produce for proving your Assertion That there is nothing in the Common-prayer-book but what is very good F. P. I thought all this while that you intended to propound your Objections against the Common-prayer and that my onely business would have been to Answer them E. D. I suppose we may do both these things at once for if you please to tell me what you find so extraordinary good in the Common-prayer I shall also on my part declare what I dislike in it F. P. Be it so And to the end we may proceed with some order let us cursorily reade over the Common-prayer-book which I have here with me E. D. This indeed will be a good way to enable us to judge the better concerning it and therefore I am very free to run it over with you onely must desire you not to take it ill if now and then I interrupt you with my Objections against any part of it F. P. What you desire is contain'd in our agreement for according to it I am to tell you what I approve of in our Liturgy and you are to tell me what you dislike in it by propounding your Objections against it E. D. Very well and in so doing we shall finely Anatomize these Relicks of Popery But it is your turn to begin F. P. The first thing I meet with in our common-prayer-Common-prayer-book are some Sentences of the Holy Scriptures of which the Minister is to reade one or more before he proceeds to the Prayers or Devotions which seems to me to be very proper and usefull for certainly we can never better begin God's Service than with his own Words Next follows an Exhortation wherein is represented to the People the End of their present assembling or meeting together which is as the Exhortation expresseth it To confess their Sins to render Thanks to God to set forth his Praise and to ask those things that be necessary either for Soul or Body and towards the end thereof we are informed and directed how to perform these holy and bounden Duties viz. sincerely and reverently with a pure heart and humble voice which caution is very necessary if we consider how prone Men are without any due preparation of themselves to rush into the presence of the great God who is a consuming fire and before whom they ought to appear with the most reverential awe and trembling as likewise how apt we are to utter any thing before him without considering that he is in Heaven and we on Earth and how negligent we generally are in disposing and qualifying our selves for the acceptable performance of the Sacred Duties of our Religious Worship E. D. So far all is pretty tolerable but by and by we shall meet with a great deal of stuff F. P. Not to insist now upon your plain contradicting of your self for whereas but just now you positively asserted that there was nothing so much as tolerable in our Liturgy you now plainly confess the contrary I shall onely desire you when we come to those places where your great deal of stuff lies that you would stop me for I shall be glad to hear the Objections you have against any part of it and in the mean time I proceed to speak of the Confession which is the next thing that occurs in our Liturgy The Minister and People having been thus stirr'd up by the foregoing Exhortation to compose their Thoughts and prepare their Hearts for a due offering up of their Morning or Evening Sacrifice the next thing they do is to fall down on their knees confessing in a solemn and humble manner their Sins unto Almighty God earnestly imploring his Grace and Mercy for the Pardon of them And this according to my apprehension is very proper and necessary in our approaches to God for since it is our Sins that separate between God and us and hide his face from us we can do no better than in the first place to beg of our most mercifull Father the Remission of them that he may utterly efface them and put them out of the way of

Faith receive the Word of God read to us or as St. Luke phraseth it Chap. 11.28 When we hear the Word of God and keep it we do conceive Christ by Faith for according to St. Paul's doctrine Gal. 4.19 't is by hearing and keeping the Word of God that Christ is formed in us not Carnally but Spiritually Wherefore we are as much obliged after a due hearing of God's Word to break forth into a holy Magnificat My Soul doth magnifie the Lord because Christ is formed in us spiritually as the Blessed Virgin was because Christ was formed in her according to the Flesh And as to your second Objection I might tell you that this Hymn of Old Simeon is frequently us'd in our French Protestant Churches as being commonly sung every Lord's-day but if this Authority do not satisfie you I shall give you a reason why the Church of England after the reading of the second Lesson at Evening-prayer orders the rehearsing the Song of this Blessed Man for though indeed in the reading of the New Testament we do not behold Christ with our bodily Eyes as Simeon did yet may we with the spiritual Eyes of our Faith see that Salvation he then saw and that more clearly because it is now more fully manifested and therefore upon this account we have the same reason to say with him Lord now lettest thou thy servant to depart in peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation c. E. D. I perceive you have a peculiar way of applying the Scriptures to your selves But let us examine what is next F. P. The next thing that follows is the Confession of our Faith commonly called the Apostle's Creed E. D. But I suppose you do not believe the Apostles made it F. P. Though strong and convincing Arguments might be alledged to prove them the Inditers or Composers of it yet I am resolved at present not to differ with you about it and the rather because I am sure you will agree with me that as long as it comprehends nothing but what the Apostles have taught us to believe and believed themselves it may very well of just right be called the Apostle's Creed E. D. But what particular reason hath your Church to place it after the Lessons F. P. Because having heard some Chapters out of the Word of God read to us it is but fit that we now make a publick profession of our Belief of the main and sundamental Truths therein contained which cannot be better done than by repeating the Articles of the Apostle's Creed which is not onely a Compendium of the Gospel but of all Holy Writ E. D. But why is it you repeat it so often twice a day at least Morning and Evening F. P. Truly it can never be repeated too often and I am sure our French Protestants thought so whose Example if it should not convince you I hope the following Reasons may because it serves to express our Loyalty to God and our Vnity among our selves and with the Catholick Church it is a Touch-stone to discover whether we continue in the number of Christ's Disciples and in Unity and Concord with one another it is our Watch-word our Badge Mark and Character whereby we may distinguish Frends from Foes true Believers from Infidels and Hereticks and therefore as was said before it cannot be too often repeated But before we proceed further we may here take notice that upon certain Festival-days the Athanasian Creed is read instead of that of the Apostle's E. D. Is there any thing more in the Athanasian Creed than in that of the Apostles's F. P. Onely this that in the Athanasian Cree the Mysteries of the most Blessed Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Son of God are more at large esserted explained and unfolded and that in the most sound plain and perspicuous terms those sublime an incomprehensible Mysteries are capable of After which we proceed to this devour hearty and mutual Salutation of the Minister and the People the Minister saying The Lord be with you and the People answering And with thy Spirit E. D. For my part I cannot approve of the Minister and People thus saluting one another because it looks too much like Compliment which though perhaps it may agree very well with your French humour yet is not at all agreeable to mine F. P. If you 'll quarrel at this you must quarrel with the Word of God and with the language of the Holy Ghost in Scripture for most certain it is that this Salutation is taken thence viz. what the Minister saith out of the Book of Ruth 2.4 and used by St. Paul 2 Thess 3.16 and what the People answer out of the Epistle to the Galat. 6.18 Which words whether consider'd in themselves or with respect to the end they are design'd for are of exceeding great and good use for now we are entring upon a new part of Divine Service viz. that of Prayer but seeing that wthout God's aid an assistance it is impossible either for Minister or People to acquit themselves rightly of this duty which is of so great concern to the whole Congregation Minister as well as People wherefore they begin by praying each for other humbly supplicating God to assist them in their present undertaking the Minister beginning with this short Prayer for the People The Lord be with you lifting up your Hearts and raising your Devoitions that my Prayers may not be in vain for you and the People in acknowledgment of the Minister's hearty good will and as being themselves extreamly concern'd in the work he is about answer his Prayer with this good wish And with thy Spirit to the end your Prayers may be so fervent that you and we may reap the fruit and benefit of those Petitions you are now going to offer up to God for the whole Congregation And having thus both Minister and People implored the Divine Presence and Assistance in the great Work we are entring upon we do next in a most humble and solemn manner address our selves to each Person of the most Blessed Trinity to have Mercy upon us viz. that our Sins and Transgressions may not hinder our Prayers and Petitions from being graciously received and accepted at the Trone of Grance saying Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us After which we address our selves to God in that excellent Form of Prayer our Saviour hath taught us E. D. But me-thinks forsmuch as you have used this Prayer already that the reiterating of it must needs be accounted a vain repetition condemned by our Saviour in Matth. 6.6 F. P. True it is that our Church has appointed te Lord's-prayer to be used more than once in our Liturgy but that the reiterating of it cannot come under the lash of those vain repetitions forbid by our Saviour will appear if you consider that wer repeat it onely in each distinct Service of the Church before we made use of it