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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10968	Miles Christianus or A iust apologie of all necessarie writings and writers specialie of them which by their labored writings take paines to build vp the Church of Christ in this age and in a publique, and diffamatorie epistle lately set forth in print, are vniustly depraued. Allowed by auctority.	Rogers, Thomas, d. 1616.; Mosse, Miles, fl. 1580-1614. aut; Mosse, Miles, fl. 1580-1614. Short catechism. aut	1590 (1590)	STC 21238; ESTC S100921	27,752	42

MILES CHRISTIANVS OR A iust Apologie of all necessarie writings and writers Specialie of them which by their labored writings take paines to build vp the Church of Christ in this age And in a publique and diffamatorie Epistle lately set forth in Print are vniustly depraued 1. Tim. 5. 20. Them that sinne rebuke openly that the rest also may feare Allowed by auctority LONDON Printed by Iohn Wolfe and are to be sold at his shop right ouer against the great South doore of Pauls 1590. To Miles Mosse Minister of the Word and Bacheler of Diuinity Miles Christianus wisheth more soundnes of iudgement more substance of learning with more wisedome and discretion in all his actions YOu haue published of late Maister Mosse à little Treatise entituled A short Catechisme c. you fore-saw I doubt not whither it shoulde go from what into whose hands it would come how many eies woulde see and how many eares heare it and heare of the same and therefore vpon mature deliberation for may I thinke otherwise you commended it yet the worke of other heads and your selfe withal the corrector and abridger thereof with many titles and notable words vnto the present age and posterity to ensue Of which Booke I haue nothing or verie little but of the Preface or dedicatorie Epistle of yours which I woulde to God had neuer beene written or more Christianly soberly and aduisedly penned I haue many thinges to say Nowe that you may perceiue my quarrell against you is iust not picked by mee but ministred by your selfe I haue sette-downe all your wordes without either adding vnto or taking from them any whit and where you say well you shall haue the praise due for good deseries but where you haue slidde from the truth and broached vnsound and noisome assertions I haue both laide them open and confuted them also for your owne good if admonished you will see your faultes and reforme your iudgement and for the common benefit of our Church and Countrey to whose seruice I haue dedicated my selfe and studies And this haue I donne as hee knoweth to whome the verie ground not of mine onely but of your writing also is knowen not of any setled ill-will to your selfe to whome I wishe all good but through an vtter detestation of your Paradoxes which neither for mee had beene confuted in an open booke had not they by your selfe to the great dishonour of God in a publike writing and vulgar tongue both in Towne and Countrey beene dispersed I am no aduersarie to your person but to your opinions which if you change I am changed if not assure your selfe to heare that you would not when you will persist to holde that you should not maintaine Miles Mosse To the right Reuerende Father in God Edmond by Gods permission Bishop of Norwich c. There is no ende of making manie bookes saith the Preacher And he spake the truth whether we respect the varieties of matter and inuention whereof there was neuer measure in anie age or whether we respect the multitude of writings which haue ouerflowed all the bankes of modestie and discretion in this present age The one I ascribe vnto the varietie of wits The other to the iniquitie of the time Miles Christianus THere is no end of making many books said the Preacher and he said truely and his ende in saying so was excéeding good and neither to discourage men from wry●ing nor to es●range any godly man or woman from reading holy bookes He was no aduersarie vnto any good helpe vnto godlines whether it be writing or preaching much or little and his owne practise which vttered thrée thousand Prouerbes and made a thousand and fiue songs and diuers bookes besides and the practise of the Prophets after him and of the Apostles Euangelists and other holy men after them also do shew both the good vse and great neede men haue of bookes in euerie age But what is your ende M. Mosse in alleaging this saying of the Preacher There is no end of making manie bookes I feare me you ayme not at that marke which the Preacher did you haue another ende then he had and therefore y●ur meaning is corrupt Indéede the varietie of matter and inuention in all ages hath beene wonderfull yet can you not saie and say truely it was without measure vnlesse you condemne simply the varietie of wits and inuention which are the worthie giftes and graces of almightie God bestowed vpon man nor that this varietie of matter and inuention hath bene manifested in all ages by written bookes For both the heathen people were a long time without the benefite of bookes and the Iewes and Church of God till Moises daies which was many ages from the creation of the world vtterly voyde of all helpe of the written word And saie you not your selfe within a few lines after the writings of the ancients were few If fewe how were they without measure And if beyond all measure againe how were they few Last of all interpreting the saying of the Preacher so as if he spake onely of this present age and latter time wherein we liue you mistake him much For albeit he foresawe the multitude of writings that were to come abroade in the latter daies yet no doubt he ment properly the writings which he saw were attempted in his daies or extant in the world afore his time which neither can be said to ouerflow or to haue ouerflowed the bankes of modestie and discretion because there be multitudes of them that is no sufficient cause yea no cause at all Of good thinges the moe yea the greater multitudes the better and there be multitudes of writings which you dare not without impudencie auouch to haue ouerflowed the bankes of modestie and discretion And of such bookes it is not the iniquitie but the felicitie of the latter time to haue good store Miles Mosse The Writings of the ancients were few but such as were an honor to themselues and benefite to posteritie The writings of this time are manie but such as disturbe the Church and fome out their founders shame Miles Christianus You write your pleasure of all writers both ancient and of this time but vntruely of each vnsoundly of all And that you maie palpably sée and perceiue both the truth of mine and the falshood of your wordes I will before your eies place some propositions pregnantly arising from your verie spéech Miles Mosse The writings of the ancients were few Miles Christianus You do no sooner sée this but me thinkes the red colour commeth into your chéeks Were the writings of the ancients but few What ancients meane you that were but few The Schoole-men and others immediately afore our time or the Fathers and other writers afore them Or the Apostles Euangelists prophets afore them Or the Ancient Heathen whether philosophers orators historiographers or poets If you meane the Schoole men and our immediat predecessors read our countrie

man Bale onely for English writers and he will confute you If the Fathers of the Church read Gennadius S. Ierome Tritenhemius and they will confute you If the prophets Euangelists and Apostles consider their workes their persons their preachings compare the nomber of them which wrote with them that preached and wrot not and all of them with the learned men and writers of our time and you will saie all thing waied that both their examples are prouocations for all able men to write and that neither the writers nor writings were few If the ancient philosophers and such like if you call into minde either the famous librarie of K. Ptolomie in Egypt replenished with seuentie thousand volumes of writings or that other Librarie at Alexandria wherin were contained foure hundred thousand bookes all at one time by a mischance of fire consumed or the sixe thousand treatises which Diomedes wrote De re Grammatica g you will not say I thinke their bookes and writinges were but fewe If these you meane or any of these or any other Ancients besides these both the common voyce of all learned men and the publike writinges of Gesner Simler and many moe will say that Miles Mosse is little séene in the writings of the Ancients if he say the writinges of the Ancients were but fewe Miles Mosse The writings of the Ancients were an honour vnto themselues and a benefite vnto posteritie Miles Christianus This is vntrue if you meane generally all the Ancients if some of them it is also vntrue in many respects vnlesse you vnderstand by Ancients onely the ancient Prophets Euangelists Apostles the very penners of the Canonicall Scriptures For the other Ancients for the most part eyther by all their dooings or by some thinges which they wrote purchased small honour or none at all vnto themselues and benefited no iot the posteritie by their writinges Looke into the writinges of the ancient whether Schoolemen Heretikes or Fathers whereof none were frée altogether from errors and ill opinions and you shall finde it true Miles Mosse The writinges of this time are many Miles Christianus This is another vntruth being vttered as it is comparatiuely and in respect of former dayes and times I shewed you afore of one man which of Grammer wrote sixe thousand bookes Origen wrote as manie yea a thousand moe though of other matters S. Augustine wrote so many bookes that Tritenhemius is of beléefe that no man is able either to read them or to come by them I tolde you also of one librarie that had in it at one instant foure hundreth thousand volumes of seuerall writings Can you name I say not that man which of Grammer but that man which of any matter within this age hath written published seuen thousand bookes or so much of his owne doing as no one man in his whole life is able to peruse And where in England yea in all Christendome will you finde in one Librarie I had almost sayd in all the publike Libraries fowre hundred thousand bookes as was in that one at Alexandria And that at such a time as there were not so notable meanes by printing spéedely to spread abroad and disperse the labors of men as now in these dayes And yet is it true that the writinges of these dayes be manie and of the Ancients fewe Miles Mosse The writinges of this time disturbe the Church and fome out their founders shame Miles Christianus Had you not left-off quite to blush you would haue béene ashamed euer thus to haue written These wordes they deserue not by writing to be confuted they would publikely by authoritie be corrected Do the writinges of this time disturbe the Church fome out their founders shame True it is in déede of those writers wherof both Cornel. Agrippa in his and M. Caluine in his of our Country both M. Ascham in his time and M. Rainoldes of later time hath complayned true also of the writings of Martin Marprelate and such like which all good men doe abhorre they disturbe the Church and fome out their founders shame But will you argue thus Some writings of this time disturbe the Church c. therefore the writings of this time do disturbe the Church and fome out their founders shame Do you so malice or detest some that because of them which you like not you will vtterly condemne all as did Herod all the Infantes of two yeares old and vnder because he hated Christ Or rather thinke you in good earnest that the writings of this time disturbe the Church and fome out their founders shame If you thinke as you write most wicked you of all men that so doe thinke worser that so dare write If you thinke not so badly of the writinges of this present time as you doe write then dissembler you that write otherwise then you thinke and of all most foolish that no better doe consider what you doe write I thanke God Miles I haue receiued that swéetenes and profite by the writings of this time that I thinke it no small portion of happinesse both of this time to haue them and of mine to heare and read them and can not with patience endure to heare them so in publike writing defaced And therefore in the zeale and courage of a Christian Souldier I write it and write vnto you either reuoke these wordes and giue a better testimonie of them by whom both you and the whole Church is the better or assure your selfe you will heare of this Hereticall blasphemie where and when you would not Miles Mosse If the Heathen Philosopher liued which inhibited his Schollers the first seuen yeares from speaking how sharply would hee censure manie hastie heades of our dayes which take penne to write before they knowe to speake I say not learnedly as Schollers or religiously as Christians but sensibly as men of reason and vnderstanding Miles Christianus These wordes be yet more moderately spoken than the former howbeit not truely neither vnlesse you vnderstand them of publike writers Now if any thing come abroad that is so farre from being learnedly and christianly that it is not sensibly done the boldnesse of them is great that so dare write but the negligence of them greater that should and will not eyther restraine such workes before they come abroad or punish the authors for publishing their follies And an heauie account are they to make which either diuulgate or suffer any thing to come abroad vnlesse it be both sensiblie Christianlie and in some measure scholerlie performed I am a plaine fellowe Miles and get not my liuing by dissimulation I tell you as I thinke had some men done their partes this Pistle of yours had neuer come abroad Miles Mosse The Apostles rule is quite forgotten Be swift to heare and slowe to speake and men are become like windie instruments readie to speake as soone as they

side but that one of many or one Catechisme for all may be appointed to all and euery Church by those that haue the gouernement of vs all Miles Mosse This Catechisme hath beene about these twentie yeares extant in the Church had in it at the first the consent of diuers great Diuines in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge whereof some haue yeelded to nature and some continue to this day The one shall excuse me of noueltie the other of singularitie Miles Christianus You that haue condemned al writings afore do now commend a writing vnto our Church and you which preferred preaching far aboue writing and tearmed all books but dead letters doe now extoll one booke as a thing so necessary for the benefite of the Church as preaching and the liuely voice of any minister of the word Diuersly haue men béene and are affected towards bookes that which one commendeth another doth condemne and contrari-wise againe some which like many well yet like one aboue all Tarquinius Priscus was rauished with the workes of Sibyl Amalthea S●ipio Africanus with Xenephon de Cyri●paedia Cardinall Poole with Ciceroes booke de Reipublica Cyprian with Tertulian Hierome vvith Origen vpon the smaler Prophets Carolus Magnus vvith S. Augustine de Ciuitate Dei Thomas Aquinas vvith Chrysostoms imperfect vvork vpon Mathew Miles Mosse with this Catechisme thē which no one thing no not preaching is more necessary for the benefite of the Church in your iudgement This Catechisme you commend first for the long time it hath continued in the Church euen about these tvventy yeares Next for the good approbation which it hath receiued from diuers and they great diuines in the Vniuersity of Cambridge The one whereof shall excuse you so you say of nouelty the other of singularity No Miles the goodnes of the Booke and approbation giuen thereunto by great diuines as you tearme them can much lesse shall and I thinke will neuer excuse you either of nouelty or singularity For is it not nouelty let those reuerend whom you call great and all Diuines bée iudge to commend that vnto the publique Church now which at the first and euer since for these twenty years til this your publication was but for priuate housholders And for one priuate man of a selfe-wil vncommanded or without the licence of his Superiors vnder-hand to deriue that into publique Churches and Schooles which was made but for priuate families especialie when Catechismes already by lawful authority bée appointed both for Schooles and Churches I thinke no wise man iudge you thereof as you liste but will iudge it singularity Miles Mosse Since the publication hereof it hath beene before this foure times imprinted which argueth the good approbation which it hath receiued as well from those in authority as from the particular Churches of this land Miles Christianus The praises of this booke haue not yet an end but you further commend it from the often imprinting of the same For since the publication thereof say you it hath beene before this foure times imprinted Be it so which argueth you say the good approbation which it hath receiued asvvell from those in authority as from the particular Churches of this land But you are deceiued much The often imprinting thereof doth no whit argue the good approbation which publique authoritie doth giue vnto a booke I could name bookes vnto you within lesse than twenty yéeres foure times imprinted which yet neuer by publique authoritie were approoued It followeth not A booke is often imprinted therefore it is allovved by authority You know or at least may know that Printers commonly doe gaine most by those bookes which are most forbidden Whereby you may note into what a peruerse and froward generation we are fallen wherein men most earnestly desire though they buie thē most déerelie the things which by wholsome statutes and Proclamations be most straightlie prohibited to be either bought or solde I say not that this Catechisme is so Yet must I tell you howsoeuer you say it is by authoritie approued because it hath béen foure times imprinted I haue séene diuerse impressions of the same could neuer yet sée as in authorized bookes Seene and allowed or any thing to that effect till this last impression and publishing thereof by your meanes Neither doth it followe It hath béene foure times within these twentie yeares imprinted therfore the particular Churches of this lande do approoue it You are neuer able to prooue that the particular Chuches of this lande haue approoued the same I thinke your meaning is it hath béene approoued by all because it hath béene taught in some particular Churches Which is as weake an argument as the former For the teaching of it in some argueth not that it is approoued of all Now vnlesse all haue approoued the same neuer say The particular Churches of this land haue approued it And when our prudent Gouernors haue so approued that they do commende it vnto all Churches to be taught then as some few Churches alreadie by the toleration of our milde Gouernours haue so all Churches of this lande will in déede approoue the same In the meane season you cannot but by Supposition which is deceiptfull say that it is or euer hath beene approued by the particular Churches of th●s land Miles Mosse And yet it hath fallen as it sometimes happeneth with a Trauailar into the handes of euill companie Some haue abridged it of the right some haue bolstered it out with more than the owne In both they haue beene verie preiudicial to the authors Miles Christianus You haue shewed the good now you declare the ill successe that this Booke hath found And yet it hath fallen into the handes of euill companie you say If it haue done euil men good it was wel for them that it happened so but il for it if it haue béene abused in their companie But what hath fallen out Some haue abridged it of the right some haue bolstered it out with more thā the owne In both they haue bin verie preiudiciall to the authors Had you showen either what they had left out which should not be omitted or what they had put in y e might not be added you had done well and might iustly haue thought them preiudiciall to the authors and euill men but when you so say and yet showe no fault much lesse prooue their actions faultie manie will thinke you preiudiciall vnto them and an euil man so to attaint them in a publique writing The men are well knowen to be better men then your selfe and by their labor● to haue done more good seruice to the Church than your selfe hetherto hath done Miles Mosse The thinges which I haue aimed at in this labour are principalie two The one is more shortnesse in the answeres for the capacitie and memorie of the simple and the other is more direct and euident proofes of Scripture to the purpose Questions and answeres I

preaching to be excéeding great but whether that preaching excéedeth yea as you affirme farre excéedeth writing and the voice of man the bookes written by man would seriously be considered For my part I can not but thinke your position diuerse wayes to be vnfound For though some preaching excéedeth some writing yet shall you neuer be able to proue that preaching simplie excéedeth writing Nay if you denie that some writinges excéede for goodnesse some Sermons you haue a face of brasse and are againe contrarie to your selfe who confessed afore That men are become like windy instruments ready to speake as soone as they receiue breath though they giue an harsh and vncertaine sound which you can not affirme simplie of writings For albeit some writinges like this your Epistle are windie without substance and some are vaine and erronious yet all are not so And those writinges that are studiously and according to the prescript rule of Gods word and of the commendable sciences exactly penned must néedes be not only equall but farre more excellent besides than those Sermons which either be like windie instrumentes and giue an harsh and vncertaine ●ound or otherwise erronious And as some preaching is not better than all but farre inferiour to some writing so some writings are both equall to some some better than many some more excellent in some respects than all Sermons and whatsoeuer procéedeth from the mouth which you call the liuely voyce of man and of this last sort are the written Sermons and other bookes of the Prophets and Apostles called vsually the holy Scriptures whereby we are bettered when we are not by the liuely vey●e of those men the Apostles I meane and Prophets and wherby the controuersies of all times are to be determined when they are not by the voices of any men be they neuer so liuelie Other writinges of holy and learned also in diuerse respects excéede preaching For bookes will teach and counsell and comfort and strengthen and confute and doe those and the like duties both for the instruction of the ignorant conuersion of sinners ouerthrowing of Heresies when and where and in such sort as happely no man can and some men will not or dare not And so writing is not alwaies inferiour but sometime excéedeth yea farre excéedeth preaching vnderstanding by preaching the vtterance of Gods word and will by the liuelie voice of an Ecclesiasticall and lawfull Minister for otherwise the holy writinges of good men are verie preachings And therefore well saide one whom not your selfe onely but the whole Church of God this day hath in honorable remēbrance Paule did preach the Gospell also by writing and the people did heare the Gospell by reading Besides the Scripture saith How Moses is preached seeing he is read in the Synagogues euery Sabboth day the Church of the Thessalonians were taught as well by the Epistles as preachings of S. Paule Miles Mosse Bookes are but dead letters Miles Christianus You would haue it againe seriously to be considered that Bookes and writinges are but dead letters Which if you speake not in good sooth it is fondlie but if seriously you thinke as in plaine tearmes you write it is erroniously not to say blasphemouslie set downe You tearme bookes and writings Dead letters The Papists call the holy Scriptures which are bookes A blacke Gospell Inky Diuinity A leaden rule A nose of waxe A dumbe Iudge consider seriously what companions you haue in this assertion and be ashamed The holy Scriptures which both the Papistes tearme A dumbe Iudge c. and you for he that thinketh all bookes and writings dead excepteth none A dead letter the holy Ghost tearmeth the same Scriptures The word of God which I am sure whether read or preached is a word of power of life of comfort immort●l seede liuely and mighty in operation and sharper then any two edged sword entring through euen vnto the diuiding asunder of the soule and the spirit and of the ioynts and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughtes and intents of the heart You that shall tearme the holy Scriptures either weake that are so mighty or blunt that are so sharpe or dead that are immortal you show your selfe to haue smal sense or féeling or life of truth in you Againe the cause of error and spiritual mortality is not simply the want of preaching but the ignorance of the Scriptures which you call the dead Letter And whereas often we are aduised to beware of Dog● of idle vvorkmen of false Prophets and foretold of an heap of vayn Teachers we are neuer dehorted from reading the holy Scriptures but charged aswell to regard the good instructions written by the pen as preached by the mouth of the Apostles and promised blessing not only for hearing but for reading also the workes of holy men the Prophets of God whose labors doe engender faith and hope and bring vnto perfection saluation and life euerlasting And therefore without impiety cannot be blazoned for dead and basely called A dead Letter effecting so diuine thinges in vs and for our welfare But be it you exempt the holy Scripture out of the number of dead letters yet can you not truly cal the written labors of other holy men Dead letters For what doth preaching be it spoken without derogating any whit from the maiesty of the preached word what doth preaching which bookes by the cooperation of the holy Ghost do not bring to passe in the hart of man Doth it teach They teach and what teacheth any man by mouth which another will not teach by pen your selfe and wée all may ascribe the learning that we haue aswell I am sure vnto the writings as preachings of man Doth it reprehend what doth more forceably what wil so plainely reproue as bookes writings will speake when men either wil not or dare not or cannot The working of this my writing in your heart will tell you when I cannot howe you holde a Paradoxe in thinking writinges to haue no life Doth it conuert I thinke it no error to hold that writings may conuert Sure I am Hilarie and others haue deliuered that by reading they haue beene conuerted I graunt ordinarily it cometh not to passe but by preaching which is therefore of al most highly to be accounted of yet God will haue it now then appeare that by the working of his holy spirit in the readers and hearers bookes can raise from the death of sinne vnto y ● life of righteousnesse to the ●nd the writings of his children should be estéemed and known to be of more force then dead letters And whether they did conuert or no God he knoweth from whom no secrets are hid yet certain it is they wrought mightely in mens harts when for an english booke some haue giuen fiue markes in money some a load of haie for a few chapters of