Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	call_v	prophet_n	2,783	5	6.3476	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

Christ. And therefore the Apostles writing much you can neuer in truth saie Christ preached much but wrot nothing For he both preached and wrot much though he wrot not by himselfe as he ●id preach You say Christ he preached much but wrot nothing you may as well blame the Apostles al the Fathers as any able man in these dayes for writing For if euery action of Christ is necessarily to bée imitated of his ministers then did both the Apostles and the Fathers ill for writing which Christ did not and for writing much when Christ preached much but wrote nothing And thou holy Father S. Augustine which hast out-gone all writers of thy coat since the Apostles time both for number of books and for profitable writinges euen thou hast finned and shalt aunswere for thy payns though of neuer so good an intent vndertaken for the benefite of the Church séeing thou hast not followed the example of Christ who preached much but wrote nothing and thou hast written much whatsoeuer thy preaching was Christ preaehed much but wrote nothing say you So saide the Paganes afore you accusing the good Disciples of sinne as presuming to doe that which Christ the wisest man did vtterly auoyd Christ preached much but wrote nothing say you So say the Papistes to draw all credite from the holy Scriptures vnto their vnwritten blasphemies and traditions For saith one of them Christ outwardly did not write nor commaunded the Euangelical Gospel to be written but onely to be preached and published and another sayth It was not the will of Christ that his Church should rely vppon paper writings nor that hys mysteries should bee committed to parchement plainly showing that the Apostles sinned in writing as they did For they did more then they were enioyned to doe and contrary to the will of Christ when they occupied themselues in writing whereas they would haue preached much after his ensamples and written nothing It may be you dislike not you haue in reuerend estimation the writings of the Disciples and Apostles of our Sauiour Christ I hope so to how be it he that shall mark your words aduisedly can neuer thinke your meaning to be syncere The Arrians thought well of the holy Scriptures too yet they abolished vtterly both the decrées of the Nicene Councel and the most profitable writing of the holy Fathers The Anabaptists think wel of the Scriptures too but they burned al theyr books were they neuer so good If you so commend the writings of the Apostles and Prophets that you condemn the worthy labors of other learned men though you are no Papist because you preferre the Scripture yet you come near them in this point which hinder the growth of true religion so well as Papists To conclude if you are of minde that men are not to wr● because Christ wrote nothing or any way raise a disliking of good mens workes in the mindes either of Students Gentils or common people assure your selfe he that wrote nothing but preached much will by the writings and preachings of his seruants discouer your folly and otherwise pursue you with his iudgements vnlesse you repent Miles Mosse Many that haue the roome of Christ at this day are giuen to write much though they preach litle Miles Christianus Now you are come vnto the ministers of the word which be writers of whom you deliuer thrée thinges First that there be many of them next that they write much lastly how they preach litle And none of these thinges are true if you meane the ministers of the word which are publique writers For the priuate writers who knoweth I trust they are many and I pray God encrease the nūber of the studious so they write and study for the Churches quietnes For sure I am their labors are most blessed of God and liked of his Church which study and write moste for the common good But cursed is he whereabout soeuer he be employed which doth the worke of the Lord negligently Now consider your assertions Miles Mosse Manie Ministers of the worde at this daie are publique writers Miles Christianus The Ministers of the worde that bee writers at this day though they may be many I grant if you set them apart by themselues yet are they fewe very few euen too few in comparison of those Ministers which eyther preach but write not or neither preach nor write I am sure you can not reckon of an hundred one Minister that taketh paines in writing and call you those many Not to speake of other places the state of our Church for publique writers is reasonably well knowen vnto vs both and know we so many Ministers that be writers in the same He is a friend of ours that was woont to say in his Sermons which I haue not heard a great while that your Townsmen of Burie are such diligent hearers of the word on the Monday exercises that they may easely be singled-out from other men surely the writers of our Church all of them may easely be singled and numbred they are not so many and yet too many by some like your selfe vnlesse they exercise their stile in more necessarie matter than they doe I take it all Cambridge at this howre hath not foure nor all Oxford fine nor all London sixe nor all Suffolke a Countie most replenished with Ministers of any Shire or County in England Northfolke and Lyncolnshire excepted nor some whole Diocesse so many I put not euerie publisher of a Catechisme in this number of approued writers some Cuntries shires and Diocesses both in Ireland Wales and England too none at all and of these some not these two some not these thrée yeares and vpward haue committed anie thing vnto the presse and yet shall it publiquely in print and as a reproch a lasting reproch of our Ministerie be deliuered that the writers the Ecclesiasticall Ministers that write be manie Miles Mosse Manie Ministers of the word write much Miles Christianus Blame not Ministers for writing much which in trueth is litle to that which both others afore them haue done and they are bound vnto It is no reproch to our Church that any able men do write but it is a great reproch that either there be no moe of them or that they write no more And our Diuines haue a great account before God to make so manie parishes remaining without preaching Pastors and so many aduersaries on all sides arising to the great annoying of the whole Church in euery corner that yet sit still beholding the house of God miserablie wasting into ashes partly by the flames of inward contentions partly by barbarous ignorance and will not set their handes to their bookes and by their laboured writinges quench the same and bring them out of danger that be readie to perish But more to blame are you and such as you are which neither doe good that way your selues nor like of them which be industrious

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