Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	old_a	read_v	testament_n	3,485	5	8.0942	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29074	A vindication of the remarks on the Bishop of Derry's discourse about human inventions from what is objected against them in the admonition annext to the second edition of that discourse by the author of the remarks.	Boyse, J. (Joseph), 1660-1728.	1695 (1695)	Wing B4080; ESTC R1985	67,590	105

his Answer and more largely without excepting the Winter Quarter since in his Diocess all the Dissenting Ministers except one continue their Lecturing thro the whole year Now this matter of Fact all the World must allow to be directly contrary to his severe charge so that if it prove true His Lordship could have no pretence to complain of my Reproving him for offering such barefac't untruths for undeniable matters of Fact Let 's then enquire what he hath said to make good his Charge and to that purpose he alledges Two Things 1. That the Reading the Scriptures should be so ordered That the diligent Hearers may in a competent time be acquainted with the whole Body of them Whereupon he challenges me to produce one Meeting in the North where this has been observed Admon p. 144. Answ As to this Allegation 't is evident That it concerns not the matter of Fact in Dispute at all which is Whether setting aside a verse or two for a Text or Quotation at the discretion of the Teacher the voice of God is never publickly heard among them and a Man may attend most Meetings many years and never hear an entire Chapter read in them For the Allegation concerns only the manner of Reading them whereas the Accusation supposes them not Read at all except a verse or two for a Text or Quotation c. so that I might justly dismiss any farther Consideration of it but since the Bishop gives me this occasion to compare their Practise and ours I shall suggest to him That tho we Read not so much of Scripture as they in such entire Portions as whole Chapters yet we Read the Scriptures more regularly then they and a Man may sooner hear them Read through in a Meeting than he can in most of the Parish-Churches To clear this I must premise That in the generality of the Parish-Churches through the Kingdom there is no Divine Service Read except on Sundays Now if we consult the Calender in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book we shall find That excepting the Psalms there is never read from one generation to another but about 104 Chapters of the Old Testament and that in such order or rather disorder as breaks the Coherence of the Sacred History So that a Man may if he lived to 80 years attend the Publick Worship in most Parish-Churches all his Days and never hear the 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Chapter of Gen. and so on See the Lessons proper for Sundays and how is the New Testament Read This Sunday we have the Matt. 1. and the Rom. 1. Read the next Sunday the 8th of each and next 15th Four Months hence the 3d of Matt. and the 4th of Rom. So that in the generality of the Parish-Churches the Scriptures are Read most confusedly so that the Hearers are incapable of observing the admirable Connexion of its parts and in most Parishes the far greater part of them is never read at all Whereas in the Meetings 't is the general Practice to Read on a Book in order and tho their Exposition hinder them from Reading so large a Portion for which there is abundant Compensation by their Expounding what is read from Parallel places of Scripture yet they will in the course of some years be read all over which they never are nor can be in the generality of the Parish-Churches that are shut all the Week But as this first Allegation had it been true signifies nothing to the purpose 't is brought for so let us see whether the other be more considerable 2. The Bishop Appeals to our selves Whether any of our Ministers ever read one Portion of Scripture but what was either designed for a Text to a Lecture or Sermon or a Quotation If any one pretend the contrary he desires me to name the time and place that he may reprove those Informers which I affirm have so grosly imposed on him Admon p. 144. but till the time and place be named his Assertion he saith is literally true and in a larger sence then he expressed it Ans I must desire his Lordship to review this passage and tell us Whether it be literally true that except a verse or two for a Text or Quotation the voice of God is never publickly heard in their Meetings when 't is as Mr. Craghead informs him their ordinary Practice to Lecture every Lord's Day and usually to Read a whole Chapter or divide a long one that 's full of Textual difficulties Is a whole Chapter or half a long one only a verse or two for a Text Nay is it literally true That a Man may go to most Meetings many years and neuer Hear an entire Chapter Read when in the generality of them he shall most commonly Hear a whole one Read every Lord's Day But what does he mean when he challenges me to name the time and place in which any entire Portion of Scripture was Read but what was either designed for a Text to a Lecture or a Sermon What is this to the matter of Fact that he Ascerted For besides that a Text to a Lecture is a new Phrase Is a whole Chapter or half a long one only a verse or two Or is a whole Chapter never Read because 't is always read with a design to Expound it Nay is this so deplorable a fault as he has suppos'd it that we never Read an entire Portion of Scripture without intending to illustrate the sense of it by comparing parallel Scriptures with it for that 's all his Lordship can mean by making it a Text to a Lecture Is it not rather our great commendation That the Scripture is always Interpreted as well as Read and rather matter of Reproach to others that 't is barely Read without giving the People such help to understand it And shall our extraordinary diligence be made our deplorable crime and their sloth so great a virtue And upon the whole would it not have been more ingenuous in him to own that his Informers had grosly imposed upon him then to persist in so plain a mistake and then colour it over with an Apology the weakness and unreasonableness whereof had been so largely and justly exposed in that part of the Remarks to which he has not yet thought fit to give any Answer But tho' the Bishop be in the wrong as to the Substance of the Accusation he seems very confident of what he has said to vindicate that Circumstance of it viz. That in all the Meetings of the North in a whole year perhaps there is not so much Scripture read as in one day in the establisht Church This he pretends to prove so fully that by his Computation there appears to be four times more Scripture read in the establisht Church than in all the Meetings of the North. To this purpose he pretends to take my own Computation of half a Chapter read in each Meeting for three quarters of a year and so in the nine Meetings in his Diocese he computes