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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	age_n	church_n	time_n	1,732	5	3.5963	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01368	The vviddoves mite cast into the treasure-house of the prerogatiues, and prayses of our B. Lady, the immaculate, and most glorious Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. With reasons why we are to haue great confidence in her prayers. Whereunto is annexed, A prayer, for the loue of God, made in contemplation of the passion of Christ our Sauiour.	A. G., fl. 1619.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed name.	1619 (1619)	STC 11490; ESTC S118624	73,100	210

proofe of what I say as that it needeth not to be much inforced For first it may be considered that he was in a great multitude of people That he was treating about the state of their soules That he was in the act of working a miracle at the end whereof the people were already drawne into admiration and whilest he might expect to reap the fruit of their conuersion which was to be ripened by driuing away out of their minds those clouds of ignorance and obscurity and those stormes of malice and enuy this passionatly affection at deuout woman with more feruour of louing zeale then exact consideration of all due circumstances brake off by her exclamation that profitable discourse of our B. Sauiour to which he with diuine wisedome made the aforesayd answere Wherby they might vnderstand how true it was that as his Mother was incomparably happy so should they also be according to their measure if they would make their benefite of those instructions that from tyme to tyme he gaue them about which he was in a particuler endeauour at that instant and therfore it it is no meruaile if he did not cherish the distraction which speach had caused in the hearers But least of all other places doth this decrease the extent of our B. Ladyes felicity for by it we learne that she was doubly happy Happy she was because her wombe had borne the Sauiour of the world and because her breasts had giuen him sucke for our Sauiour Christ did not reuerse this sentence of the holy woman pronoūced vpon her which though it were not then so seasonable was yet in it self most highly true Nor could he who was Truth it selfe say that to be vntrue which the holy Ghost by the B. Virgins owne sacred mouth had formerly pronounced concerning her being Blessed in that diuine Canticle of the Magnificat And happy againe we find that she was since by the testimony of our B Sauiour they all are happy who heare the word the word of God and keep it for what creature did euer come so close to the keeping of the word of God as she who had in her sacred wombe kept God himselfe who was and is the VVord to which she communicated all the Humanity that it had whose presence afterward she continually enioyed during the whole tyme of his aboad on earth whose perfections she imitated whose Church whilest she suruiued she instructed and whose kingdome now that she is assumed into heauen she hath beautifyed And al this because Almighty God who made her the Mother of God made her in all respect to be as worthy of that incomprehensible vocation as the state of a creature could be capable and with which also she did concurre after an vnconceuable māner Now to be a Mother and a Mother worthy of God himselfe implyeth such moūtaynes of perfection as euen fill and exceed the world and from which the least graine cannot be taken in any discourse of reason vnder the pretence either of holy Scripture or common sense But it were well since it is so ill that it were no worse Melanc ad c. 2. Ioan. Constāt Copron. apud Theo. orat in S. Nicetā Melchior Hoffmānus asserens Christum non suscepisse carnem ex Maria Virgine apud Bulling aduers Anabap. l. 2. c. 13. in euang Domin 2. Epiphan Caluin harm in Luc. 2.35 edit Gal. Caluin harm in Matt. 12.48 but that our Aduersaryes would only diminish the Honour of our Blessed Lady by seeking to proue that she was lesse excellent and not expresly to affirme thinges of her which make her to haue beene an vnworthy and sinnefull creature In the strength of which spirit of giddines many say That she was but like to other womē in vertue others That she was but as a saffron bagge wherby they inferre that hauing lost the spice she was no more to be esteemed others That she was but as a Channell or Conduct of water insinuating thereby as if Christ had scarce taken flesh of her or els that at the best hand he infused not any vertue into her Luther is often disgracing her and ranking her with the rest of creatures in generall Caluin doth as good as deduce that proposition into particulers and draw Conclusions out of those principles now saying That the Virgin was at least inconsiderate That she was importune and did preposterously endeauour to breake off the course of her Sonnes doctrine Caluin harm in Ioan. c. 2. That she sinned by exceeding her boundes and by intruding her selfe so far as that she might chance to haue obscured the glory of Christ thereby and that our Sauiour made in a manner no accompt of that which the woman in the Ghospell did only extoll which was her being his owne Mother as also when the Angel announceth the Incarnation of the Sonne of God he findeth Caluin harm in Luc. 1.34 edit Latin That she had want of fayth he sayth That she did not with lesse malignity restraine the power of God then Zacharias had done before vpon another occasion and when he hath done the blasphemous Heretike concludeth Quod non sit magnoperè laborandum c. That there is no cause why he should take much paines in excusing the Virgin from not hauing committed some fault Iouin apud August haer 82. Petr. Martyr ad c. 4. epist ad Rom. Apud Can. l. 2. c. 8. marial To this let it be added that they thinke often say That she was deliuered of our Sauiour after the same laborious vulgar and vncomly manner to which other women are subiect by their descendēce from Eue. Some againe That she liued afterward with Ioseph to all purposes as women vse to do with their husbands With a thousand such other beastly blasphemyes and heresies as these For Heluidius by the testimony of S. Hierome was condemned as an Heretike within foure ages after Christ for only houlding that our B. Lady did not continue in virginity after the birth of our B. Sauiour vntill the end of her mortall life and I would to Christ that our poore Countrey did not swarme with these vile and far worse opinions But as the soule is infinitly to be more esteemed then the body so may she be concluded to haue receaued more offence by Caluins tongue who wounded her in her soule by his charging her thus with sin then by these others who haue subiected her sacred body to so much shame yet euen in that kind In the Preface to the Christiā Directory Caluin himselfe hath hardly gone so far as our Countrey-man Bunny who imputeth to her with a most blasphemous mouth the hauing committed no lesse then foure mortall sinnes in the short tyme of our Sauiours Passion And those famous or rather infamous Magdeburgians who are called Centuriatours being certaine Lutheran Doctours who in corps and by publique Authority pretended to draw downe an historicall narration of the Church from age to

age speaking in the first booke of the first Century of the life of our B. Sauiour tooke occasion therby to taxe most boldly blasphemously the immaculate Mother of God to say that when she lost her Sonne in the Temple she committed so great a sinne as that they tremble not to compare it with that first most grieuous sinne of Eue and so doubt which of the two sinnes were the worse CHAP. IX THE beliefe and practise of the Holy Catholike Apostolike Roman Church is very different from that of these men and hath beene most expresse in this point for it hath throughout the whole course of so many ages decerned and applyed the highest honours vnder God to our B. Lady by giuing her most glorious titles by erecting in memory of her most sumptuous Temples by enioyning Christians to keep in contemplation of her most solemne festiuityes and by powring out before her continuall supplications and prayers that by her intercession of meditation the intercession of Redemption which was performed by Christ our Lord and could only be performed by him may be applyed to the sauing of mans soule When I name the Catholike Apostolike Roman Church I meane not by Roman that Congregation of Christians only which is comprehended within the walls or diocesse of the Citty or Sea of Rome as some would fayne impose vpon vs and thereby inferre an absurdity vpon that proposition as if the same Church whereof we speake were both vniuersall in being Catholike and particuler in being but of the Citty of Rome but when I say the Catholike Roman Church I meane the Church of Christ which is spread into all the corners of the earth but yet communicating euery where in the same fayth and Sacraments doth acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for the visible supreme Head therof vnder Christ The dignity and eminency whereof if it be considered be weighed withall how deuout it hath euer beene in tenderly honouring religiously praying to our B. Lady I think there is no man of modesty and euen common sense who will not be induced not only to an excuse but euen to an imitation thereof August confess l. 6. cap. 11. Non vacat non estinane quod tam eminens culmen authoritatis Christianae fidei toto orbe diffunditur It is no trifle it is no matter of smal importance that the Christian fayth hath obtayned ouer the whole world such a sublime top of authority These are the wordes of S. Augustine which he spake being yet no Christian and the same weight which that kind of discourse had against Paganisme or Manicheisme in his tyme the same hath it at the least in fauour of Catholike Religiō concerning the honour and inuocation of our B. Lady amongst and aboue all the other Saints of God against Caluinisme or whatsouer other such Innouation Non vacat non est inane it is no toy it is no contemptible thing which the whole Body of Catholikes hath so long and so deuoutly practised concerning the honour of our B. Lady and the need which it findeth mankind to haue of her helping hand Yea and a Protestant that is either morally wise or discreetly modest as S. Augustin was before he was a Catholike Christian will thinke and speake reuerently of this Church though he shall abstract from this beliefe That it is the only true Church of Christ and do but confesse which no body in his wits will deny that it is a congregatiō of great Order Wisedome Vertue Learning Extent and Continuance Though indeed whatsoeuer may be pretended by our opposits it is both more true and more euident then the Sunne is bright That either Christ hath no Church at all That the prophesyes of the old Testament were false and That the promises of the new Testament were feigned or els that this church is the true and only true Church of Christ since all those markes and plaine tokens which were deliuered as belonging thereunto do clearly apply thēselues to this Church and to no other For what other but this can without the impudent face of an harlot pretend Tertull. l depraes haer Vita B. Bern. l. 2. c. 7. Beda in 6. Cant. Ambr. epist 13. Ose 2. 1. Tim. 3. To haue conuerted Nations To haue beene fostered and nursed by a longe series of Kinges and Queenes To haue imbraced euen the very ends of the world To haue beene espoused to the Messias with an indissoluble bound of Matrimony as was fortould by those men of God in the old Testament Or what other then this can with any colour affirme That it is the piller and ground of Truth as S. Paul did witnes That it is but one That it is and hath euer beene and is to be euer Visible That it hath beene and euer must be Infallible as is clearely to be conuinced by that one direction which our B. Sauiour gaue Dic Ecclesiae Tell the Church And Si Ecclesiam non audierit sit tibi tamquam Ethnicus Publicanus let him be to thee as a Pagan and Publican if he obey not the orders of this Church For vnles this Church were euer to be indued with Vnity with Visibility and with Infallibility impossible it were either for that counsaile of our Sauiours to be followed and this were to impute folly to him or els though it were followed it would be impossible for men to be saued by meanes therof and that were to lay a worse note if worse may be vpon the fountaine of all Wisedome and goodnes Or what other Church then this Ephes 4. can apply to it selfe that Legacy which S. Paul to the Ephesians affirmed to haue beene giuen to mankind by our Sauiour Christ when he ascended vp to heauen namely Doctours and Pastours to continue from that tyme till the end of the world that so the body of Christ might be built vp and Christian soules be kept by the ancker of true fayth from floating after the fashion of Heretikes by the windes or waues of phantasticall and foolish doctrines No other congregation then the Catholik will so much as pretend to many of these true marks of the Church at least none but she can proue that they any way belong to theirs or thē who therfore by a miserable necessity are constrained to hide themselues in certaine castles of the aire whilst they talke of Scripture wherby they meane nothing els but that interpretation or conceipt of their own which the interest either of their profits or passion doth suggest By al which I infer that since we make so faire a claime to be the true neuer erring Church of Christ which euen our moderate Aduersaryes will confesse to be of great appearance that doctrine which it teacheth from whence the honour inuocation of our B. Lady proceedeth ought not in any reason to be so blasphemed euen by them who will not yet imbrace it This Church hath also further being inspired and guided