Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	david_n	psalm_n	sing_v	2,543	5	9.4001	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34020	Gospel order revived being an answer to a book lately set forth by ... Increase Mather ... entituled, The order of the gospel, &c ... / by sundry ministers of the gospel in New England.	Colman, Benjamin, 1673-1747.; Pemberton, Ebenezer, 1672-1717.; Woodbridge, Timothy, 1656-1732.; Bradstreet, Simon, 1671-1741.	1700 (1700)	Wing C5399; ESTC W13238	38,537	52

account not enjoy them And that those who are thus covenanted or the major part of them have power to make or unmake Officers to admit or reject Church Members to mannage Discipline to order the affairs of Christs House in his Name as if they had warrant and commission from him so to do Of such a Church Covenant neither Moses nor Christ himself the Prophets nor the Aposties have spoke any thing None of the Scriptures Arguments or Quotations of our Reverend Author prove any thing of it We will take leave therefore to call it Mans Covenant and no● Gods for it has nor Gods Seal affixed to it though good wise or learned men may endeavour to obtrude it and plead its harmless ●●ifying or for the Interest of Religion yet according to the afore-quoted Rule of the reverend Mr. Willard we are to reject it and shall do so till it comes with a divine Stamp But possibly this may be called a Misrepresentation You will say Who owns it or will plead for it in this Dress We Answer by querying Whether there be not several that own and plead for the things contained in it We wish there were a less Number But to evince it let us take it into the several parts Are there none that plead for a seperate Covenant which some and generally the lesser part must enter into and if it be good and for good ends why must so many be excluded If it be to reform Manners if to maintain the Ministry and Worship of God if to lay stricter Bonds of Duty if to bring men more effectually to submit to Discipline why then are not the whole brought in for the whole Congregation are oblig'd to these Duties and why must the Covenant be seperate Again do not some plead it is requisit in order to a Persons partaking of the Lords Supper But did our Lord Jesus Christ require any such thing when he first instituted that holy Sacrament Did the Apostles when they administred it Was it the term of Communion in the primitive Church or where i● the Scripture that commands it and why should Gods holy Ordinances be annexed to Mens Covenant Again do not some plead that those who thus covenant have the Power to make and unmake Officers The Reverend Author will not scape here whose Opinion in this matter we shall see hereafter And finally do not some pretend ●●at these are the Persons commissioned by Christ for the admitting and rejecting of Church Members This the Reverend Author defends with all his Might under the third Question tho' as we showed he could find no Proof And so much for the Church Covenant which is a stranger to the Scripture and has no foundation in the Word of God Q. 6. Is publick Reading of the Scriptures without explication or exhortation there-with part of the Work incumbent on a Minister of the Gospel The Author does not mean as we suppose if there be no explication or exhortation throughout the whole time of exercise If he doth he fights with the air for we know no Sect of Men but have some explication tho' many among us neglect reading We therefore take his sense to be this If no explication follow immediately without the interposition of Prayer or any other part of divine Worship For we conceive that the ordinary preaching the Word may very properly be call'd exposition explication exhortation and that in every Sermon there is a competent portion of Scripture for one time explicated and applyed No● can we imagine the Reverend Author means that every clause a Minister reads in publick should be in a formal manner explicated Methinks it should satisfie if after one or more Chapters read some select clause verse o● paragraph be insisted on and expounded i. e. chosen as a Text and preached on We are obliged to the Author if but for quoting the Text in Timothy where it is given him in charge as his Ministerial Work To give attendance to Reading as well as to Doctrine Exhortation That the Jews were wont to read the Scriptures in their Synagogue saith the Reverend Author we all know and that it was their Duty to read the Scripture at some set and solemn Times we also know for so it was appointed Deut. 31. 11. Again he grants that in Just in Martyrs time the Scriptures were read and thereupon followed a Sermon We should have been thankful if he had added more Proofs by way of Encouragement as he could easily have done and thereby confirmed some that are apt to stagger He could have to●d how the Assembly of Divines at West minster do order and advise to i● He could have quoted the many famous Churches that do practise it at this day He could have named several famous Ministers in England and some in New-England that plead for it and practise it He could have told of more than the Bishop of Derry that complain of the neglect of it and that to use the wo●ds of a most eminent Divine not far from us as the most just Reproach that the Churches of New-England labour under He could have told for encouragement that it is a clause in our publick Confession of Faith in New-England chap. 22. which treats of Religious Worship and the Sabbath day Sect. 5 The reading the Scriptures Preaching and hearing the Word of God singing of Psalms as also the Administration of Baptism and the Lords Supper are all parts of the Religious Worship of God to be performed in Obedience to God with Vnderstanding Faith Reverence and godly ●ear Finally He could have told us had he searched all our New-England Antiquities on this head how in the Preface to our Version of the Psalms the reading of David's Psalms as other Scriptures in Churches is taught to be one end of them as well as singing of them which is another end It is ridiculous to say that reading with exposition is here meant for then why was it not so said However it looks very oddly that they who neither read nor exp●u●d should talk so much and quote so many Name● as our Author has done for a Practice which they never intended to come up unto We have heard what our Author has said and much more that he could have said to encourage this good Practice His Discouragements follow And first he brands it with a hard uncouth Name and twice tells us that som● call it Dumb Reading We wish he had named those that so term it There is so much Venom in the Epithite and so complicated a Mali●nity in the Phrase that we fear its infectious and may propagate a Spirit of Pride contempt of his Neighbours and irreverence to his Maker The Author well thought so odious a Mark on the Front would give all honest People a disgust to ●● villanous and stigmatiz'd a Practice But his Policy has failed him for it raises a just Indignation in all sensible and ●n●enuous Christians We will for once inform the