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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	scripture_n	spirit_n	1,691	5	5.0206	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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

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

giftes doe their best indeuours to doe good be thankefull vnto these by whome you do or may reape commoditie but blame those for not doing their partes He is a foole that will no siluer because he can get no golde they are no wise men that despice the meane graces of God if any grace of God be meane séeing they can haue no vse of the best mens gifts or more truely of the more notable giftes in worser men For I count him the best man not which hath the most and best giftes but which imployeth his talents to the greatest aduantage of his Maister And take héede how you despice any wisedome and knowledge offered you from the Lorde by a man whose learning is but litle his writing much or because a man knoweth litle and yet writeth much except you can showe that his knowledge or writing is not syncere Least by the iudgement of the Almighty who euen so punisheth commonly as wée do offend it come to passe that you be despiced your selfe séeing other mē of greater learning and more giftes are either silent or more sparing of there spéech then your selfe Which that you may auoyde make more pretious accompt of them which write much though they know litle their litle knowledge for substance being the knowledge of Gods Church and their manifold writings consonant vnto the holy Scriptures Miles Mosse And yet as the Grecians intituled their writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if when à man tooke their bookes in his hand he tasted an hony Combe with his lippes so these men omit no titles for their books which may expresse either the excellency of the matter or the conceited wit of the author But à man that boasteth of false liberality is like cloudes and winde with-out raine saith Salomon Miles Christianus And is it a fault in your opinion to giue apt Inscriptions vnto excellent matter or to giue witty titles vnto ingenious writinges you are sharpe sighted and very selfe conceipted if you can sée more then all wise men can but very singular in condemning that which all wise men doe commend A good part of the piety of the auncient Patriarches appeared in the good titles which they appropriated vnto their children Writings are the fruite of mens industry as children bée of the body Blame not the parent if hée giue his childe a good name in whom hée knoweth nothing but well If euer the wit of our first parent Adam appeared excellent it was when hée ascribed to euery creature a proper name manifesting the disposition thereof They are not vaine which imitate his wisedome but vnwise are they that follow not his steps But happely you dislike not them which giue apt titles vnto good matter but which adorne ill matter with good titles If such you meane then know you that you are not the first nor alone in so doing For many mislike them so well as your selfe The Arrians and their imitators the Papists are not more infamous in the Church for terming themselues Catholiks and yet be not so nor they more odious before God which say they are Iewes and be not then they are condemned both of God and his Chnrch which attribute good titles vnto bad matter It is not the fault of bookes onely but of many men too whose credite were nothing were they not fronted with titles Which being taken away they are as bad as the worst men And as many chaines are but of copper within though they bée gilded without so many beautified with glorious titles are quyte destitute of the riches of true wisedome and holines Pauls without Sauls within like this your Epistle carrying a showe of substance and sincerity and yet is very Mosse Miles Mosse Augustine obserued that our Sauiour Christ preached much but wrot nothing Manie that haue the roome of Christ at this daie are giuen to write much though they preach little And yet as Paule saide He was not sent to baptise but to preach though both were necessarie dueties of his calling so must it be said of Paules successors preach they much in season and out of season write they neede not but as opportunity is offered and occasion doth serue Miles Christianus You prosecute poore writers verie hardly Yet are they not charged with any thing erronious or otherwise offensiue ●hy them published That which hitherto you misliked is their verie writing and their writing much and brandishing their writings with excellent and wittie inscriptions Whereby you haue shewed your young head but no learning at all You haue yet more to saie for the disswading men from writing which I will particularly discusse that you may sée the iniquit● or more truely the iniustnes of your complaint Of S. Augustine which was the most mightie hammer to breake the braines of heretikes into peeccs in S. Bernards for his sound iudgement in religion the Prince of all ancient Diuines whether Greeke or Latin in M. Bezaes iudgement which expounded the scriptures no man so profoundly which taught Christian behauiour no man so profitably which defended the Catholike faith no man more zealously of this S. Augustine I say you write too abiectly when you saie Augustine obserued as ●f he were but Mosse But I maruell not you write no more reuerendly of him which is but one though a notable starre in the Church séeing you eclipse the glorie of all writings and writers in this your Epistle Your citing of S. Augustine sheweth plainely how well you read ●f euer you read S. Augustine He writeth indéede in that place by you quoted how Christ he preached but wrot nothing yet marke the place well and you shall finde how it is no obseruation of his but an obiection of Pagans who to discredite the writings of the Euangelists and Apostles as you do the writings of good men obiected euen as you do nowe Christ he preached but wrot nothing which S. Augustine doth answere Miles Mosse Christ preached much but wrot nothing Miles Christianus Christ he preached much it is true For he taught in the Temple in the daie he taught and daily he taught in the Temple and on the Sabboth daies hée taught and went about all Galile and all cities and townes teaching in their Sinagoges and preaching the Gospell of the kingdome But that he wrote nothing it is vntrue For he wrote moe bookes than Paule as he baptised moe Disciples than Iohn did though neither he baptised nor did write but his Disciples for him and in his name For as it was not the Disciples that spake when they preached but the Spirite of their Father in them l So was it not the Disciples and Apostles which wrote when they did write but the holy Ghost sent in Christ his name brought all thinges to their remembrance which they did write So that the workes and writinges of the Apostles are vndoubtedly the workes of

haue added none more than I suppose them to haue beene entended of the first founders or so necessarie as they might not be omitted Miles Christianus But what hath your selfe done to the booke if one may aske you Haue you so published the same as at the first by the Authors the first founders diuers great Diuines in the Vniuersity of Cambridge it was published Haue you restored the same to the first integritie No you say Haue you not And yet call you them Euil men which haue altered it you hauing your selfe varied also from the first founders But what is it you haue done You haue aimed you saie at two things the one is more shortnes in the ansvvers for the capacity and memory of the simple and the other is more direct and euident profs of scripture to the purpose And is this all No you saie For you haue added besides questions and ansvvers Uerie well then you haue both made some answers shorter which were long that is Abridged and you haue Added questions and answers too that is bolstred it out vvith more then the ovvne Haue you thus done by your owne confession and blame you other men naming them Euil and saying they haue béene preiudiciall very preiudicial to the Authors and yet haue done but that which you haue done and no more But you haue reasons for your doing For you saie that you abridged it for the capacity and memory of the simple and inlarged it but by such things as you suppose vvere either intended of the first founders or so necessary as they might not be omitted And may not they where they abridged it say also they did it for the capacity and memory of the simple and where they inlarged that they either supposed their additions were intended by the first founders or so necessarie that they could not be omitted Be these reasons good alleadged for your selfe and be they not as strong alleadged by and for them And then what praise purchase you but they deserue the same And why are they reproched as ill doing but that which you did and vppon so good groundes as you haue done Is this wel done of you that ill done of them Are they il men doing as you do you a good man doing euen as they Are they preiudiciall to the aucthors and not your selfe And let al men that haue iudgement iudge whether that by your abridging and adding you haue bettered and not rather worsered this Catechisme of so manie great Diuines of Cambridge and whether it were not much better both at the first as the Authors did it and since as other men did publish it then now You say you haue aimed at more direct and euident proofes of Scripture to the purpose I doubt not of that but how wel you haue hit the marke let others say I will not nowe vnfold One thing only I wil tel you but the truth as he knoweth who knoweth all things opening your booke as our Sauiour did the booke of the Prophet Esay I founde this question What callest thou the Catholique Church This answere The Catholique Church the number of faithfull people vvhich are haue bene and shalbe to the worlds end in all places all vvhich are knovven to God and cared for of men These proofs Iob 10. 16. 2. Tim. 2. 19. Matth. 18. 14. The first proofe Iob. 10. 16. is to show that the Catholike Church is the number of faithful people vvhich are haue beene and shalbe to the vvorlds end in all places I turned to that place in Iob and I found the wordes to be these But let it encrease hunt thou me like a Lion returne and shevv thy selfe marueilous vpon me Here is no word to the purpose for which it is quoted You made me to muse but thinking it might be a fault of the Printer and that Iob might be set for Iohn I turned vnto the tenth of Iohn the 16. verse where in déed our Sauiour Christ speaketh of his Church and of one Church and of the encrease and perpetuitie of the same But by your leaue that place neither will proue that The Catholike Church is the number of faithfull people vvhich are haue beene and shalbe to the vvorlds end in all places For though it be true that the faithfull people which are haue beene and shalbe to the worlds end are of the Catholike Church yet are not the faithfull people the Catholike Church For then should manie which neither had haue or shal haue Faith be excluded from the mysticall bodie the Catholike Church of Christ and yet both our Sauiour dyed and shed his pretious bloud for them and they were elected vnto life euerlasting before the foundations of the world so well as they which by hearing the word of God preached hane attained faith b They are in an errour which expounded this Artickle The holy Catholike Church of the visible Church as the Papists do and they are not in the right way which expounded it onely of the Faithfull For the holy Catholike Church which vve belieue in our Creed is not the companie of the Faithfull onely but the whole company of Gods elect and chosen whether euer or neuer they doe belieue The second proofe 2. Tim. 2. 19. is truely quoted But the third and last Matth. 18. 14. alledged to proue that the Catholike Church as you say the companie of the faithfull is cared for of men is nothing so nor so The wordes of S. Mathevv in that place be these So is it not the vvil of your Father vvhich is in heauen that one of these litle ones should perish where our Sauiour plainely sheweth that his prouident care is excéeding great euen ouer litle ones of this world he saith not that men haue a care of his people the litle ones of this world or that they be cared for of man But the contrary we may sée in the holy Scriptures For the vvorld hateth them because they are not of the world but chosen out of the vvorld Neither haue you misapplyed onely this text of Matthew but ouer and that peruerted the good meaning too of the Authours For where in the former editions it is thus I belieue that God knoweth them al and hath a most tender care ouer them which is very true you set downe in yours Al vvhich are knovvn to God and cared for of man the former of which is true the latter most false And yet are you a good man and they ill you a benefactour and they preiudiciall to this booke Fel it into ill company when it came into theirs and was it happy by lighting into your handes This one place maketh me to thinke you haue not dealt soundly in other Miles Mosse And in these I haue not trusted my self alone because euery man aboundeth too much with his owne sense but haue consulted with diuers godly and learned brethren that two might be better then one and a three-folde a●arde