Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	see_v	write_v	year_n	3,146	5	4.6224	4	true

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

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

painefull for the common good but thinke that much I am affraide too much which is bestowed in writing Assure your self some Citizens Physicians Lawyers Gentlemen and Courtiers shall be renowmed in the Church of God when a number of idle-bellied Ministers shall perish in obliuion For they haue taken time frō their worldly affaires and pleasures to encounter with the Familists Brownistes Martinistes Atheistes the monsters of our daies when these haue suffered them to rage and make their praie either with none at all or with colde resistance they haue cut the throats of those spirituall Harpies and brought them to their bane when these haue either nourished or encouraged them by their silence Miles Mosse Manie Ministers of the word write much but preach little Miles Christianus If Ministers by their writing neglect not their dutie of preaching produce them not as offenders eyther for their preaching or writing whether it be much or little If they do their partes let their paines then in writing and preaching ●e as quicke spurres to pricke them forward either which preach litle to preach more or which neither write nor preach vnto one of them or which preach much but write nothing vnto more diligence It is a praise for a Minister eyther to write or preach if he can doe eyther and not both of them but to write and preach too as it is a double labour so it deserueth a double honor as neither to write nor preach if men be not otherwise by the Church profitablie employed is a double sinne and so bringeth a double shame Note them not as faultie that write much preach litle but blame them which preach little or nothing and plaie much Were some whome I could name in their studies writing when they are either at the Pondes with their Spaniels ducking or in the Allies with their mates bowling I am sure they would thinke them much iniured that priuely much more in publike monuments are disgraced as faultie which bestow that time profitably in writing for a generall benefite which others bestow vainly often times wickedly for a short and priuate pleasure And yet is it an vntruth that They which write much preach litle For howsoeuer it be true in some which either will not or cannot preach and I woulde to God they which cannot do both would yet do the one and which cannot do the one woulde do the other at the least yet true is it not in all nor in the most and best approoued Writers who I am sure both ordinarily in their owne places euerie Sabbaoth day and extraordinarily too when either by authoritie or friends they are called forth doe preach and that as often and as commendably as other men which doe not write but onely preach And they by good experience doe finde that writing is no hinderance but a furtherance vnto preaching Would you cast your eies from vanities vpon the labours either of Maister Caluine Beza Mus●ulus Bullinger Sadeele and other famous Writers abroade or of some of your painefull brethren at home you would be enforced to confesse not that they which write much preach litle but that they which write much so God blesseth their good indeuours do preach much and be as glorious lights vnto the Church by their preaching euen most profitable preaching much as by writing Miles Mosse And yet as Paul saide Hee was not sent to baptize but to preach though both were necessarie duties of his calling so must it be said of Paules successors preach they must in season and out of season write they neede not but as opportunity is offered and occasion doth requeire Miles Christianus Yet Paule saide He was not sent to baptize but to preach And yet Saint Paule was sent both to preach and to baptize and as well to write as either to baptize or preach And as he had not done his parte if he had neglected either preaching or baptizing so had he not done his duetie if he had not written For the same God which elected him to preach and minister the sacraments appointed him also to write S. Paules successours are to followe his steppes Your selfe doth say They neede not write but as opportunitie is offered and occasion doth require Therefore when oportunitie is offered and occasion doth require they not onely may but must also write I wot wel as al the Disciples and Apostles were not but some were so are not all ministers of the worde but some to write Now when is not opportunitie offered to write The ende of all writing is either to instruct the rude or to reproo● the froward or to confute the aduersaries or to admonish the vnruly or to exhorte the godly or to some such good ende or other and when is there not iust opportunitie offered and occasion giuen for some or others to be occupied in these matters The more that either ignorance and wickednesse is rooted and aduersaries doe arise the more earnestly ought men to exercise themselues herein If at any time men haue no we both matter and occasions manifolde to imploy their gifts and talents for the publike benefite Thus in fewe shordes you haue ouerthrowen whatsoeuer in your former words you haue vttered against the multitudes of writings in these our daies He that will write vppon no iust occasion is a fond man but they that can and may and will not write vpon iust occasion offered is both wicked against God and iniurious to the Church Miles Mosse My fellowe Ministers therefore I intreate that they consider seriously howe farre the liuelie voice exceedeth the dead letter the other I leaue to the censure of auctoritie Miles Christianus This is your conclusion wherein you make a request which is that Your fellow Ministers would seriously consider namely how farre the liuely voice that is preaching exceedeth the dead letter which is writing I also intreate your fellow Ministers and your betters and your inferiours and your selfe and all men to consider your wordes and that seriously For my parte I haue seriously considered of them and I obserue some things in them worthy due and serious consideration First I note therefore that you so write as if by euident demonstration you had prooued that Preaching farre away surpasseth writing whereupon you say My fellowe Ministers therefore c. which is nothing so you haue insinuated such a thing but not prooued it Nexte I note that you who so basely haue spoken of books and writings in the premises are nowe by the force of trueth driuen to saie and confesse that the benefites of writing are excéeding great howbeit the liuely voice that is preaching farre excéedeth the dead letter that is writing Other things are besides to be considered which in the discussing of your assertions shall be reuealed Miles Mosse Preaching doth farre exceede writing Miles Christianus He is verie blind that séeth not much vnthankefull that will not acknowledge most impudent that dare denie the benefites of writing and

S. Iames or S. Paules Epistles Doth it confute Were they dead and had no force and power to ouerthrow the kingdom of errors and Antichrist our aduersaries the Papists would neuer procéed so hardlie against our writings as they do He foresaw somwhat who at Paules crosse in London publikely did say we meaning the Papists either must roote out printing or printing will roote out vs They also foresaw somewhat who at the late and last Councell holden at Trent so carefully decreed for the publishing of some and prohibiting of other bookes who by their open writings haue condenmed a great number of our labours as hereticall and daungerous and miserablie shauen mangled depraued which they cal censuring and purging the worthy monuments both of the ancient Fathers and best noted writers of this age they foresaw that our writings though they may be reputed but dead letters yet would giue a deadly blow vnto poperie which thing M. Luther also foresaw as his Epitaph doth witnesse Pestis eram viuus moriens ero morstua Papa They are not dead which bring the Pope vnto his death He was a Bishop of Portingal that durst not send vnto another Bishop as ranke a Papist as himselfe one of our bookes being yet a confutation of an Epistle of his without the speciall fauour of a Cardinal Impossible was it for one of the vulgar people to come by one of those bookes when a Bishop might not reade it no not when it concerned himselfe but by the lic●nce of a Cardinal What thought they it would worke in the simple peoples minde when they doubted it might infect a Bishop And if you marke it well our home Papists which will heare the Sermons of some Preachers wil neuer or very hardly be drawne to peruse anie of our bookes neither may they It seemeth therefore that in our writiggs there is life when they hate our bookes as monsters O that Gods children were as carefull to keepe men from bad euery word of some of them being warrants vnto diuelish mindes to commit sinne g as the wicked are politike to keepe ill men from good bookes and that we made as much conscience not to reade theirs as they doe not to read our writings if we did sure I am as there be few Protestāts among them so would there be lesse Papistes and Traitors and other wicked men among vs neither would so manie of vs reuolt vnto their idolatrie being bewitched by their inchaunted bookes seeing so few of them turne vnto the true religion because they will not acquaint them selues with our bookes containing sound and forcible perswasions vnto the truth For they know ours vnto that which we hold as we know theirs to be perswasiue vnto that which they maintain and both they and we and all men know that bookes well and pithily penned are not dead letters which can not moue but of great force to perswade either vnto sinne or virtue Miles Mosse My selfe though I haue alwaies desired to benefit the Church as I could and haue found by experience no one thing more necessarie for the benefit thereof then a sufficient forme of teaching the principles of religion yet to publish one of mine owne I durst not partly because it is a thing which craueth the consent of many partly because the world is scarse able to containe the Catechismes alreadie printed Miles Christianus Now you speake of your owne experience We will therefore consider it the more seriously But what is it which by experience you haue found out Namely that no one thing is more necessarie for the benefit of the Church then a sufficient forme of teaching the principles of religion This you speake of a publike wr●ting and a sufficient prescribed forme of catechising to be published as this whole section doth plainely demonstrate Now surely Maister Mosse I would you knew your selfe In the sentence nexte immediately going before you intreated all your felowe Ministers to consider seriously how farre the liuely voice namely preaching doth exceed the dead letter that is writing here you sing a Contre-tenor and saie y e by your experiēce ye haue found that No one thing is more necessary for the benefit of the Church than a sufficient published fo me of teaching the principles of religion If no one thing and so not preaching by your ●lone experience is not more necessarie for the benefite of the Church then a certaine prescribed Catechisme which is a booke or writing then re●oke your former saying that Preaching doth farre exceed writing for some writing is as necessarie for the benefit of y ● Church as preaching But if preaching doth farr excéed writing then renounce this saying No one thing is more necessary for the benefit of the Church than a certain sufficient Catechisme For if the one be true the other must néedes be false Againe if true it be that the liuelie voice exceedeth farre the dead letter and a Catechisme being a printed Booke is but a dead letter then true it is not that a certaine prescribed Catechisme which is a dead letter is as necessary as the liuely voice which is preaching and if the liuely voice far excéedeth the dead letter then is not a Catechisme which is but a dead letter as necessarie for the benefite of the Church as preaching which is the liuely voice Hereof it followeth that either in this you affirme more than euer you found true by your experience or in the other saide more than you could affirme by any certaine knowledge either your knowledge is better then your experience or your experience to be praised before your knowledge Either your experience is ill and your knowledge good when you say preaching dooth farre excéede writing and the liuely voice the dead letter or your knowledge is not sounde and your experience good saying that for the benefite of the Church a certaine prescribed forme of Catechisme is as necessarie as preaching and the dead letter as the liuely voice A sufficient forme of Catechising is necessarie you say Maister Caluin approoues it I graunt it But you are much insufficient either to inuent or appoint that same sufficient Catechisme for all Churches That belongeth not vnto you and a fewe like your selfe but vnto publique authoritie And yet such is your Spirite you insu●uate that you woulde so doe were it not partly that it requireth the consent of many partly that there be very many Catechismes already the one manifesteth either your stomach that you will not aske or your owne weakenesse that cannot attaine the consent of many thereunto the other some arrogancie in you that being but one priuate man would yet prescribe vnto all Churches a certaine forme of Catechising were there not too many alreadie The consent of some though they be many men is no cause to vndertake such a worke except that some be of auctoritie the multitude of Catechismes is not let on the other