ABSTRACT
In gaining Scripture literacy, lay people gained a means of inscribing selves through appropriated words. Convinced of the importance of Scriptural devotion, they had been equipped with tools for analysis and organization and they used application to the self to analyze their particular cases. Wallington and Venn represent the way that Scripture literacy invited even those with minimal schooling into a book-centered subculture. Scripture provided an abundant source of stories, characters, moral dicta, and figurative language. Scripture was also the chief influence on the style of these writers, though filtered through the medium of sermons and vernacular godly books. The collation of Scripture phrases served as a method of rhetorical invention even for someone like Willis with his grammar school education. The meditations that follow are in a Scripturalist style, weaving in the language of the Bible, and applying and explicating the verses thus gathered.
