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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	speak_v	word_n	2,716	5	3.8043	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07475	An examination of certaine motives to recusancie. By W. Bedell	Bedell, William, 1571-1642.	1628 (1628)	STC 1786; ESTC S113798	20,794	67

the honour which they gave to him and as he saith a little before to signifie their faith that the departed are living and yet subsisting with the Lord and that we have hope of them as those that be from home in another countrey and to signifie that state which is more perfect c. Thus Epiphanius there And to the like purpose the Author of the book of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite Neither of both doe speak a word of Purgatory or the releasing of Saints out of their torments there The Church of England doth not deny such Praiers for the dead as shall after appeare Iovinian for holding perpetuall Virginity of no greater merit then Marriage TOuching Iovinian neither Philastrius nor Epiphanius say any thing because he was after their writing S. Augustine among other his damnable opinions as that all sins are equall that a man regenerate cannot sinne that fasting profits not that the virginity of the blessed Virgin was corrupted by her bearing Christ reckons also this in these termes The virginity also of women professing holinesse and the continency of the manly sex in those holy men that choose a single life he made equall to the merits of chaste and faithfull marriages By which words it is plaine that Saint Augustine takes merits for the value and dignitie or reward of marriage chastly kept Otherwise in the judgement of the Court of Rome the desert of marriage is smal But thus doe the Fathers take the word merit and meriting which hath brought in the opinion of deserving heaven by good workes Shortly this opinion of Iovinian the Protestants are free from Vigilantius for denying praier to Saints VIgilantius is in none of the three Catalogues to which he sends us S. Hierome writes two Epistles against him very bitter and wherein saith Erasmus He doth so take on against him with railing as I could wish a little more modesty in him In them there is no mention of prayer to Saints But first of Vigilantius blaming the adoration of the reliques and bones of the holy Martyrs Secondly his denying that the souls of the Apostles and Martyrs as being in Abrahams bosome or in a place of rest or under the Altar can be present at their Tombes and where they will Thirdly his maintaining that while we live we may pray mutually each for other but after we are dead no mans praier shall be heard for another specially since the Martyres calling for revenge of their owne blood could not obtaine it unlesse we will gather some such thing out of these words of Vigilantius which S. Hierome sets downe Ergò c. Doe the soules of the Martyrs then love their ashes and flye about them and are alwaies present lest perhaps if any should come to pray being absent they might not heare him But neither doth it appeare that Vigilantius meant or Saint Hierome understood this praying of prayer to the Saints and Martyrs themselves but God at their Tombes desiring their furtherance suffrage and recommendation upon this opinion they were present with their Reliques or at their Memories So doth Saint Hierome relate that Constantia a devout woman was wont to spend whole nights watching in the Tombe of Hilarion and to talk with him as if he were present for the furthering of her praiers And indeed Saint Hierome maintaineth against Vigilantius they are present They follow the Lambe whither soever he goeth If the Lambe be every where they also which are with the Lambe are to be beleeved to be every where Of which beliefe I doe not think there were many besides himselfe or yet are save onely simple and superstitious people as the woman that I mentioned right now which when she heard that Hilarions body was stollen away died presently Against these corruptions and superstitions which then began to creep into the Church Uigilantius recommended to Saint Hierome by Paulinus in his travels to the East and by him stiled a holy Priest till he understood he favoured his adversary Ruffine opposed himselfe Neither was he blamed therefore by his Bishop though Saint Hierome calls him A holy man or by any Councell yea as Saint Hierome confesses he had certaine Bishops of his opinion What the reformed Churches hold here about I shall shew by and by Xenaias for denying due honour to holy Images of Christ and of Saints and praying before them XEnaias lived long after the times of those three Authors to whose Catalogue this Collection sends us He was a Persian by Nation a servant by Condition ordained Bishop of Hierapolis before he was baptized a defender of Eutiches his heresie But i●… no ancient history worthy of credit reported to have said or done any thing about Images much lesse to have been condemned for so doing Nicephorus is brought by Canisius and Bellarmine affirming so much a fabulous Author which lived not by Canisius owne account till after one thousand three hundred yeers since Christ and was himselfe an Image-worshipper Evagrius who lived neer to the time of Xenaias and mentioneth a letter of certaine Monkes of Palestina reporting his outragious carriage toward Flavianus Bishop of Antioch hath nothing of his opinion against Images or praying before them See the Catalogue in Saint Epiphanius in Philastrius in Saint Augustine All these heresies now renewed by Protestants condemned within the first foure hundred yeeres whosoever communicateth with these in giveing countenance by his presence at their Service or Sermons as they were cut off from the Primitive Church so he cutteth off himselfe and is partaker of their sinne and rebellion as S. Iohn saith VVE have seen what is in the Catalogues to which he referres And for the rest it is utterly untrue that these opinions or any one of them in that sense wherein they are defended by the Protestants was condemned within the first foure hundred years after Christ. Which that it may the better appeare I will set downe the doctrine that sounds in our Churches touching these points First we teach that a sinner truly penitent for all his sinnes and resting by faith upon the Redemption that is in Christ Iesus is by that faith alone freely justified without the workes of the Law Notwithstanding true faith worketh by charity and sheweth it selfe by good workes which God doth account for righteous and reward farre beyond desert Secondly that Baptisme is a Sacrament appointed by Christ our Lord to wash away sinne and in stead of Circumcision to be a seale of the righteousnesse of faith And that none despising this Sacrament can be saved Yet they are not wholly to be excluded from the mercy of God who by the straits of time not by the will of their Parents are deprived thereof for they may have the baptisme of the Spirit though not of Water as those catechised in the Christian faith that suffered martyrdome sometimes before outward Baptisme Thirdly that