Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	age_n	write_v	year_n	1,957	5	4.7409	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44852	The Puritan convert, not to prelatick Protestantism and yet to prelatick Protestantism, nor to popery and yet to popery, but absolutely and without reserve to apostolical Christianity ..., or, A discourse by way of a letter shewing that prelatick Protestants, if they will be true to their practises and principles, have all reason to turn papists in all things as to what papists indeed hold, but in nothing as to what papists are vulgarly believed to hold ... / by W. H.	W. H.; Hubert, William.	1676 (1676)	Wing H3246A; ESTC R41017	28,965	38

seen with their Eyes taught and established by the first Planters of Christianity No I know no such thing Though this would have been a strange favour to the World would the Almighty Creator have wrought such a Miracle in favour of Ignorant Man But what then Did Jesus Christ after the manner of Moses write a Book of all Christian Rites and Observances or did he not at least command some one of his Twelve Apostles or all of them together to write some such Book so full so compleat so plain as none that would not willingly mistake could possibly mis-understand it Certainly he could not but foresee what disputes would arise about observances of Days and Sacraments amongst Christians in future Ages Why did he not tell us plainly by some Authentick Writing or other His pleasure was that all the Mosaical Rites and Observances of Days should be abolished and instead of them he would have no Exterior Rites and Days at all or else if he would have any why did he not take care that some Book or other should be written wherein every one that could read might see how many Rites called Sacraments he would have to be used amongst Christians and how and to whom and by whom he would have them to be administred Whether he would have certain days observed by Christians in memory of his Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension or no any set days of Fasting any distinction of Garments in Priests from the People or no But himself to write never a Book to this purpose nor any of his Apostles to write any thing but his Holy Life and Death four times over and some little of the Life of some one or two of his Apostles and a few occasional Letters of two or three of his Followers to particular Christians whom they had fully instructed by word of mouth what can we conclude from all this But that surely Jesus Christ has left us some other means than those written Books we have fully to instruct us in the whole Counsel of God in Order to our Eternal Salvation Indeed I find an Ancient Prophesie that in the latter days God Almighty would write his Laws in his Peoples Hearts Was this to intimate to us that whosoever would find fully and clearly the Laws of Jesus Christ in the latter days he must not so much consult written Books as the Hearts of Christians And truly there is no other way without a miraculous Revelation by the Ministry of Angels or some such means for us who live now to know what was taught or practiced sixteen hundred years before we were born but only by Books written in that time or near that time or else without Books by the oral Tradition of Fathers to their Children But what Certitude can there be in this Could we speak with every Father and Son that has lived since the Apostles days and should they tell us unanimously that they had been taught to believe and practice thus and thus For Example to Baptize Children or not to Baptize them to abstain from Flesh on Fridays or not to abstain in memory of our Lords bitter Death and Passion and to humble our selves for our sins and such like no body could doubt of the truth of such a Testimony more than he does mistrust his own Eyes or other Senses But all the intervening Fathers and Sons 'twixt us and the first Age wherein our Lord Jesus lived except only our Fathers and Grandfathers being gone to another World my Grandfather can tell me certainly what his Father taught him concerning Fasting on Friday Baptizing of Infants Reverencing such a Book as of Divine Authority written by a Holy Man talled Mathew sixteen hundred years ago but what assurance can he give me that all his Progenitors have practic'd and believ'd after the same manner ever since the Apostles days Why what assurance could a Jew that lived in our Blessed Savioms time have given to a Pagan or to one of his own Children that the Books of the Law of Moses were written by a Holy Man called Moses who familiarly conversed with God so many hundred years ago He could only have discoursed to him after this manner Thus I was told by my Father and thus all our Neighbouts were told by their Fathers and 't is impossible in any Age since our Great Moses all our Ancestors should agree together to tell their Posterity so great a lye to their own and their Posterities Eternal damnation One Man may tell an impudent notorious lye but a whole Countrey cannot conspire in a lye which they know to be a lye or could they some neighbour Nation would tell the Cheat to Posterity In like manner must the Apostolical Christian answer when he is demanded an account why he reveres such and such Books as Apostolical writings or observes such and such Rites as Apostolical Ordinations And this is the belief and practice of an Apostolical Christian in general VVhatsoever this present Age or any other Age since the Apostles time in several Nations and Countries unanimously attest that they have received from their Forefathers from the Apostles and he cannot positively show that it was of a later date begun for Example in or near such a time by such and such he submits to it as Apostolical and this though it cannot positively be proved that for Example such a Book or Practice was received in every Age since the Apostles days by positive Testimonies out of Authentick writings of every particular Age. And thus much satisfaction and no more could Jacob have given to his Children why he kept the Sabbath day commanded by Almighty God to our first Parent Adam above two thousand years before He had neither Scripture nor other Record of writing for any such Institution the use of writing being unknown to the world till afterwards when God Almighty wrote the Ten Commandments in Two Tables of Stone He could only tell them thus he and his Neighbours had been immemorially taught to believe And their objecting how could they tell but some body out of a supersttious opinion of more Sanctity in every seventh day than in every sixth or eighth might have introduced the will-worship of such an Observation such an Objection I say as this would not have excused them before God from such an Obligation which the whole present Generation told them they had observed immemorially from Adam And indeed though it were granted that according to the Holy Scriptures we Christians are obliged to keep every first day of the week Holy yet it cannot be proved out of Scripture or any other Book or by any other Argument but the immemorial tradition and practice of several Christian Countries that the day we now observe is the true first day of the week from that first first-day on which our Blessed Savour rose from Death to Life And yet that there should be Christians who should make no distinction betwixt Friday and the other days of the week

Lady from the danger of Popery I confess a Protestant to whom I read a Dialogue in that Maunal said Surely some body to disgrace his Lordship had Printed it under his Name But on the other side it is not credible that a Book should be publickly sold all over England for four years together under so Great a Persons Name and yet be none of his if there were any thing in it his Lordship was asham'd to own I well foresee what I have written will be ill taken by many but I dare not but discharge my Conscience and profess as in the sight of God I wtite not thus to disgrace any Mans Person but meerly to dis-abuse my well-meaning Relations who I am sure have such a Zeal of Godliness and true Sanctity that they would love Papists and their Holy and strict Religion with their Hearts were not they and their Religion mis-represented unto them To defame a particular Person is a great wickedness but to slander a whole Church is a Detraction of a higher rank and assuredly does oblige the Detractor to revoke his Calumnies God be merciful to us we have faults but too too many what need of belying one another Let us believe one another what we say our Tenets of Religion are and dispute against those and not against the uncharitable surmizes of our own Brains To judge my Neighbours to be guilty of most horrid Blasphemies when they protest they abhor them no less than my self if this be not to Judge my Neighbour which is notwithstanding most severely prohibited me by my Blessed Saviour I know not what is Now for a Grave Doctor to accuse not some private Authors but the whole Roman Church of all those Blasphemies and Absurdities I but now mentioned and yet not that so much as one single Papist you can meet with will own so much as one of them I am at a stand what to think Surely no Man could be so malicious to write such things on purpose to abuse a poor Lady and on the other side to think that a Doctor of Divinity could be so ignorant of the Tenets of Papists as to believe that no body can be a Papist but he must necessarily believe the Pope is a God that he may have leave to commit almost any sin at a known price when he will that the Gospel is a Fable c. Had he in plain terms told the good Lady some Roman writers as he understood them or as Protestants cited them held such and such Absurdities and Blasphemies but not one Papist she could meet with would own so much as one of them this would have signified nothing to the retaining of her in the Protestant Communion For the Reply would have been easie Either you mis-understand the Authors or else they are at most but the phrensies of some particuler Men and consequently I may be a Papist and hold none of them but abominate and detest them all But that he might be sure to preserve the Lady from the danger of Popery under the disguise of a Dialogue he makes a Papist give for Reasons why he cannot become Protestant the Blasphemies and Absurdities above which is as much as to tell her if she will turn Papist such and so Blasphemous must her Faith and Religion be Methinks knowing many of his Catholick Neighbours to be Men of good Judgment and honest Conversation he should have demanded of them whether such things were generally believed by them or no before he had printed them as Reasons why a Papist could not change his Religion for if one may be a sound Papist and hold none of them then all his Lordships discourse falls to the ground whatsoever some particular Doctors may hold concerning them Though that also be a meer calumny and should any be so extravagant as to assert such Diabolical phrensies he would be cast out of our Church as a Blasphemer And that you My Dear Relations may see that I have not at all wronged the Doctor I have thought fit to transcribe some few Lines out of his 7th Chap. Page 101. The next to his Dialogue The foregoing Sixth Chapter says he gives an account of some of the Blasphemies and Abominations of the Roman Church many more might be instanced c. Where in plain terms as before under the disguise of a Dialogue he charges not barely some particular Authors but the whole Roman Church and all Roman Catholicks with the Blasphemies in the foregoing Dialogue He goes on Where is their Piety towards God while they affirm that the Gospel is but a Fable of Christ c. Nay even that the Bishop of Rome is a God c. Where is their Sobriety and Chastity while they Authorize Stews allow Whoredom all the year long c. Scarce a known sin but there is a known price for it and at their Market-rate you may commit them when you will c. Such extravagant Discourses though they may hinder some from ever examining the Catholick Religion yet they are oftentimes God Almighty out-shooting the Devil in his own Bow happy occasions of the Conversions of others I remember to have read of a German Count who reflecting how divers of his Catholick Neighbours were Persons of a very sound Judgment and Understanding he began to think with himself how they could believe such strange Doctrines as were by his Ministers commonly laid to their charge hereupon he resolved to inquire into their Tenets and he found for a great part they held no such Doctrines as they were commonly taxed with and as for what they did indeed hold they had very good Reasons for their Faith And so by the merciful Grace of God became a happy Convert to that Religion the which before he impartially examined it seem'd so exotick and incredible unto him Which I hope My Dear Relations will one day be your happy lot also Take but pains candidly and diligently to inquire and I doubt not but it will But if you will needs go on to think your Catholick Neighbours to be such Monsters of Men and to hold such horrid Blasphemies and Absurdities which they profess no less to abhor and detest than your selves I hope I have done the duty of a Christian Kinsman and to my grief must one day bear witness against you that I told you how grosly you mis-apprehended the True Worshippers of Christ but you would neither believe me nor seriously use any means to inform your selves aright But I hope better things concerning you Another great cause of all your mistakes is the scandalous lives of too too many Roman Catholicks For the truth is no Catholicks believe so much as one of the above-mentioned Absurdities yet many of them Christ Jesus mend us all live so as they may seem to a prejudiced beholder to believe divers of them Considering their Mock-prayers Mock-fasts and Mock-confessions without any Amendment of life c. But to help you against this you must remember the Counsel