Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	church_n	tongue_n	unknown_a	2,125	5	9.4258	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62632	Several discourses viz. Of the great duties of natural religion. Instituted religion not intended to undermine natural. Christianity not destructive; but perfective of the law of Moses. The nature and necessity of regeneration. The danger of all known sin. Knowledge and practice necessary in religion. The sins of men not chargeable on God. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late lord arch-bishop of Canterbury. Being the fourth volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.; White, Robert, 1600-1690, engraver.	1697 (1697)	Wing T1261A; ESTC R221745	169,748	495

them but the Remedy which he prescribes against this mischief of Knowledge is not to with-hold from Men the Means of it and to Celebrate the Service of God the Prayers of the Church and the Reading of the Scriptures in an unknown Tongue but quite contrary Chap. 14. of that Epistle he strictly enjoyns that the Service of God in the Church be so performed as may be for the edification of the People which he says cannot be if it be Celebrated in an unknown Tongue and the Remedy he prescribes against the accidental mischief and inconvenience of Knowledge is not Ignorance but Charity to govern their Knowledge and to help them to make a right use of it ver 20. of that Chapt. after he had declared that the Service of God ought to be performed in a known Tongue he immediately adds Brethren be not Children in understanding how-be-it in malice be ye Children but in understanding be ye Men. He commends Knowledge he encourageth it he requires it of all Christians so far is he from checking the pursuit of it and depriving the People of the Means of it And indeed there is nothing in the Christian Religion but what is fit for every Man to know because there is nothing in it but what is designed to promote Holiness and a good Life and if Men make any other use of their Knowledge it is their own fault for it certainly tends to make Men good and being so useful and necessary to so good a purpose Men ought not to be debarr'd of it Thirdly Let it be Consider'd that the proper and natural Effects and Consequences of ignorance are equally pernicious and much more certain and unavoidable than those which are accidentally occasioned by Knowledge for so far as a Man is ignorant of his Duty it is impossible he should do it He that hath the Knowledge of Religion may be a bad Christian but he that is destitute of it can be none at all Or if ignorance do beget and promote some kind of Devotion in Men it is such a Devotion as is not properly Religion but Superstition the ignorant Man may be zealously superstitious but without some measure of Knowledge no Man can be truly Religious That the Soul be without Knowledge it is not good says Solomon Prov. 19. 2. because good practices depends upon our Knowledge and must be directed by it when as a Man that is trained up only to the outward performance of some things in Religion as to the saying over so many Prayers in an unknown Tongue this Man cannot be truly Religious because nothing is Religious that is not a Reasonable Service and no Service can be Reasonable that is not directed by our Understandings Indeed if the end of Prayer were only to give God to understand what we want it were all one what Language we Prayed in and whether we understood what we asked of him or not but so long as the end of Prayer is to testifie the sense of our own wants and of our dependance upon God for the supply of them it is impossible that any Man should in any tolerable propriety of Speech be said to Pray who does not understand what he asks and the saying over so many Pater Nosters by one that does not understand the meaning of them is no more a Prayer than the repeating over so many Verses in Virgil. And if this were good Reasoning that Men must not be permitted to know so much as they can in Religion for fear they should grow troublesome with their Knowledge then certainly the best way in the World to maintain Peace in the Christian Church would be to let the People know nothing at all in Religion and the best way to secure the ignorance of the People would be to keep the Priests as ignorant as the People and then to be sure they could teach them nothing but then the mischief would be that out of a fondness to maintain Peace in the Christian Church there would be no Church nor no Christianity which would be the same wise Contrivance as if a Prince should destroy his Subjects to keep his Kingdom quiet Fourthly Let us likewise Consider that if this Reason be good it is much stronger for withholding the Scriptures from the Priests and the Learned than from the People because the danger of starting Errors and Heresies and Countenancing them from Scripture and managing them plausibly and with advantage is much more to be feared from the Learned than from the Common People and the Experience of all Ages hath shewn that the great Broachers and Abettors of Heresie in the Christian Church have been Men of Learning and Wit and most of the famous Heresies that are Recorded in Ecclesiastical History have their Names from some Learned Man or other so that it is a great mistake to think that the way to prevent Error and Heresie in the Church is to take the Bible out of the hands of the People so long as the free use of it is permitted to Men of Learning and Skill in whose hands the danger of perverting it is much greater The Ancient Fathers I am sure do frequently prescribe to the People the constant and careful reading of the Holy Scriptures as the surest Antidote against the Poison of dangerous Errors and damnable Heresies and if there be so much danger of seduction into Error from the Oracles of Truth by what other or better Means can we hope to be sec●red against this danger If the word of God be so cross and improper a Means to this End one would think that the teachings of Men should be much less effectual so that Men must either be left in their ignorance or they must be permitted to learn from the word of truth and whatever force this Reason of the danger of Heresie hath in it to deprive the Common People of the use of the Scriptures I am sure it is much stronger to wrest them out of the hands of the Priests and the Learned because they are much more capable of perverting them to so bad a purpose Fifthly and lastly this danger was as great and visible in the Age of the Apostles as it is now and yet they took a quite contrary Course there were Heresies then as well as now and either the Scriptures were not thought by being in the hands of the People to be the Cause of them or they did not think the taking of them out of their hands a proper Remedy The Apostles in all their Epistles do earnestly Exhort the People to grow in Knowledge and commend them for searching the Scriptures and charge them that the word of God should dwell richly in them And St. Peter takes particular notice of some Men wresting some difficult passages in St. Paul's Epistles as likewise in the other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. where speaking of St Paul's Epistles he says there are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned