Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A51743
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Some considerations towards peace and quietness in religion. In answer to the question, whether the multitude are fit readers of Holy Scripture.
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Manby, William.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing M389; ESTC R31159
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11,498
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26
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Commandment Thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy maid-servant c. The Scriptures came at last to be so abused that about the year 1645. you might have seen Papers publickly affixt on Walls and Posts in the City of London with these and the like inscriptions On such a day such a Brewers Clerk exerciseth such a Taylor expoundeth such a Waterman teacheth c. Which impudence S. Basil reproved long ago in Demosthenes Cook to the Emperour Valens Tuum est pulmenta decoquere non Evangelium exponere mind your Pottage and meddle not with the Mysteries of Scripture I end all with a passage or two out of our own Histories The first out of Howes in the Life of Q. Mary In the year 1553. Sr. John Gates was Arraigned and sentenced to death for Rebellion against his Soveraign the Princess Mary Eldest Daughter to King Hen. VIII At the place of Execution he made his Confession to the People in these words MY coming hither this day good People is to dye whereof I assure you all I am well worthy For I have lived as Vitiously all the dayes of my life as any man hath done in the World I was the greatest Reader of Scripture that might be of a man of my degree and a worse follower thereof not living for I did not read to the intent to be Edified thereby nor to seek the glory of God but contrariwise arrogantly to be seditions and to dispute thereof and privately to interpret it after mine own brain and affection Wherefore good People I exhort you all to beware how and after what sort you come to read Gods holy Word For it is not a trifle or playing game to deal with Gods holy Mysteries For as the Bee of one flower gathers honey and the Spider poyson of the same even so except you humbly submit your selves to God and charitably read the same to the intent to be edified thereby it is to you as poyson and worse and it were better to let it alone Thus he Better for him at least and all such ill-disposed People to understand their Catechism that is the principles and maxims of Christian Religion collected by the Church and to pray to God that they may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty The other passage is this One of the Murderers of K. Charles the First of glorious memory as he passed to Tyburn in October 1660. called for his Bible and embracing it said This hath the whole Cause in it meaning the Good Old Cause Yea the cause for which I have engaged is contained in this book of God A certain Minister asked him what he meant by the Cause He answered Sir I mean that Cause which we were engaged in under the Parliament which was for common right and freedom and against Surplice and Common-Prayer This was Colonel Axtel a man of good natural Parts See Collection of Speeches Prayers and private passages of Regicides Printed 1661. To this we may add the words of Colonel John Barkstead another of the Regicides out of the Narrative published by their own Friends anno 1662. A Friend coming to Visit him that week he suffered did partake of many choice breathings from him one was this Although I find I have no strength to encounter with those great tryals I am to meet with yet I will labour to quiet my heart through the Spirit of saith from that Scripture Isaiah 30.7 Your strength is to sit still and indeed I find it so Then one present asked him if he thought the Cause in which he had been engaged would ever rise again he Answered the Cause lyes in the Bosom of Christ and as sure as Christ arose the Cause will rise again and we dye but to make way for it For when John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Christ he must be beheaded for it so we by our death do but make way for the next coming of Jesus Christ personally to reign a Thousand years with his Saints and although we dye the Cause will certainly live This he gathered out of Ezekiel Daniel and the Revelations FINIS POSTSCRIPT IN the year 1536. when the Bible was exposed in English by the commandment of K. Hen. 8. these following reasons were given pro and con which the Reader will give me leave to transcribe out of the History of those times with some few remarks Those who deny the People the use of the Bible in the Vulgar Tongue must needs know their own doctrine and practices to be inconsistent with it Therefore Arch-bishop Cranmer who was projecting the most effectual means for promoting the Reformation moved in Convocation That they should petition the King for leave to make a Translation of the Bible which Bishop Gardiner and all his party opposed both in Convocation and in secret with the King saying That all the Heresies and extravagant opinions which then distracted all Germany sprang from the common use of the Scriptures and that there was an example before their eyes of nineteen Hollanders that in May 1535. were convicted for denying Christ to be both God and Man or that he took flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary or that the Sacraments had any effect on those that received them It was complained that all these drew their damnable errours from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures and that to offer the Bible in the English tongue during these distractions would prove as they alledged the greatest snare that could be Therefore they proposed namely Gardiner and his party that there should be a short Exposition of the most useful and necessary doctrines of the Christian faith given to the People in the English tongue for the instruction of the Nation which would keep them in a certain subjection to the King and Church in matters of faith The other Party though they liked well the publishing such a Treatise in the Vulgar Tongue yet by no means thought it sufficient but said the People must be allowed to search the Scripture by which they might be convinced that such Treatises were according to it Whereof the Reader may take notice the unstable multitude are excellent Judges To this great opposition was made at Court For some told the King that diversity of opinions would arise out of it and that he would be no longer able to Govern his Subjects if he gave way to it These were shrewd guessers On the other hand it was represented That nothing would make the King's Supremacy more acceptable to the Nation With what truth this was suggested the event hath made apparent our numerous Sects at this day finding no such thing as his Majesties Supremacy in the holy Scriptures Further it was said that nothing would render the Pope more hateful to the People than to let them see that whereas the Popes had governed them by a blind obedience and kept them in darkness the King brought them into the light by the free use of Gods