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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	moses_n	translate_v	12	3	9.9049	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05382	The historie of the defendors of the catholique faith Discoursing the state of religion in England, and the care of the politique state for religion during the reignes of King Henrry 8. Edward. 6. Queene Marie. Elizabeth. And our late souereigne, King Iames. ... With all, declaring by what means these kings & queenes haue obtained this title, defendor of the faith, and wherein they haue deserued it ... By Christopher Lever.	Lever, Christopher, fl. 1627.; Hulsius, Friedrich van, b. 1580, engraver.	1627 (1627)	STC 15537; ESTC S108541	141,977	384

that God willed it the king wrought it and the Pope in despight suffered it to the Glory of God the kings honour and the confusion of Antichrist Eighthly From this ouersight of the Popes this may be obserued that authority and greatnesse in an euill person ruines it selfe with his owne weight neither can the greatnesse of power stand safe where it is not supported by the strength of iustice and honest proceeding And that as Byas saith promotions declare best what a man is So it is true that where authority is so absolute that there is liberty without checke Then doe men giue best demonstrations of their Natures and most apparently discouer their affections and to what ends they are most inclined For by the worke we may iudge the workeman by the fruit of the Tree and by the life the truth and holy faith of euerie man Ninthly Againe vpon this proud and ambitious Bishop may bee obserued how God confounds him in his owne practise he contriueth to make the King of England his fast friend his prop wherupon to support his vnspeakeable pride but God he determines otherwise of that King and leades him to a worke more holy honest and honourable The Pope in pollicie intitles him Defendor of the Catholike Faith because hee writ in defence of his vsurped Supremacie But God maketh him and his in deeds to defend the true faith and to denie that Supremacie So that what the Pope would haue God will not haue hee commandeth God countermandeth he deuiseth God disposeth and maketh the King shoote right whom the Pope made to leuell wrong But before all may bee obserued the Popes false vnderstanding iudgement in this case in respect of Piety and conscience how much he was led from the truth of Religion and from the witnesse of Truth Gods Word to maintaine his vniuersall power which his predecessors had by state practise gotten For it cannot be but in this their iudgements were exceedingly blinded they hauing no example of any Church at any time for their imitation When the Law was giuen God gaue it Moses to giue Aaron the people not Aron to giue Moses the people in euery cause both of state Religion Aron the Priest was obedient to Moses the Prince hee receiuing the dignity of his office from Moses vnto whom God gaue power to giue it Tenthly The like order was in the Iewish Church where the Prince might iudge the Priest and not the Priest the Prince and so in the practise of all times and in all places vntill that CHARLES the Great breathed the spirit of Ambition where it is and where it hath for many yeares disturbed the peace of Christendome yet with such euidence was this error laid open to the vniuersall eye of the world by the diligence of Martin Luther and others as the Pope could not but vnderstand it yet against the witnesse of his owne conscience did he still stifly defend it and this was a pollitique regard least the world vnderstanding him to faile in a matter so important might thereupon call in question the truth of that opinion which in truth is the state and strength of that Religion That in precept and doctrine the Pope cannot erre if then he had yeelded to haue erred in this he denied the truth of his foundation without which his greatnesse cannot stand Eleuenthly And therefore after the fashion of antient heretickes he would not yeeld to the perswasion of truth because he would not haue his iudgement contradicted and shamed by recantation to acknowledge himselfe to haue done amisse And this is onely the pride and Stomacke of the too much authority of these Bishops that respect greatnesse more then goodnes the world more then God falshood than truth desiring darkenesse to obscure the manie deformities wherewith they haue defaced the name of Christian Religion Twelfthly By this wee may learne to distinguish the good and euill the holy and prophane by their end whereto they principally aspire for good men make goodnesse their onely end whereto they reach but euil men make it onely their pretence and like the Lapwing flie most where there Nest is not and such hath bene the care of the Romane Church intituling their Bishops seruants of Gods seruants yet arrogate principallity ouer the highest of Gods Creatures They professe humility and Christian obedience but practise a tyrannie vnsupportable They call Christian Princes their beloued sonnes but make them slaues and seruants to their vngodly wills And from them hath the world learned dissimulation cunning practise for wee see that many men forme themselues very precisely in the habit of all Christian duties outwardly to gaine a reputation and the honour of high place which when they haue obtained they cast off that face of holines and discouer themselues in their true inuentions such was and still is the practise of Popes who by the formes of holinesse haue got a reputation in the world which at length came to the growth that it became like Nabuchadnezzars Tree to couer the whole earth and to spread it ouer all principality then in the height of that prosperity they cast off their vizard and discouer themselues to be but Pope and not Pastors casting from them the Word that they may with more dexterity vse the sword with which like Theeues they Rob Christian Princes of that Regality which God gaue them 13. And therefore King Henries proceedings were very considerable whereof it behoued the Pope to be verie regardfull as did threaten the ruine of that frame which the pride and pollicie of his predecessors had erected the rather because the king began at the top of his dignities to throw downe his Supremacie which had ouertopped the most soueraigne of al Christian power whatsoeuer And herein the King may seeme to vnderstand well what he had to doe for by striking the roote he was sure to perish the branches and the best way to ruine a house is to vndermine the foundation in Warre the victory is sure when the enemie hath lost that power wherein his chiefe strength consisted and so the body of Popery must 17. For these respects the Christian world stood mute at the Kings businesse no man daring to set to his helping hand so much danger their iudgements could see in attempting it as that all could bee content to be spectators but no actor like King Henry euery man hauing earnest expectation what would be the issue of so strange and hazerdous an enterprize 18. It is also very considerable that the French King had at this time aduantage offered him against the King of England The King being now in the heate of so great a businesse deuided from his confederate the Pope vnassisted by any forraigne state and in the danger of domesticke troubles whereby he was vnfurnished of a great part

occasioned a strange alteration in the state of things for these differences did reach beyond particular quarrells euen to the subuersion of whole states whereby it came to passe that one kingdome deuoured another and one people did subiugate many As the Assyrians first who erected the first Monarchie vnder Ninus and Simeramis the Parsians vnder Cyrus the Macedonians vnder Alexander and the Romans vnder the gouernement Conquests of Iulius Caes●r yet all these haue had their alterations and haue indured the misery of Conquest euen by such whom they reputed for barbarous and base people Ninthly The generall care that was had of these worldly occasions was the cause that Religion was scarce knowne not regarded therfore the Church then exceeded not the number of some few families being translated from one holy Man to anotther such as were Abraham Lot and Iob vnto the time of the twelue Patriakes when it began to spread into a holy generation and after the afflictions of Egypt and the wildernesse it came to a flourishing and princely state especially in the times of Dauid and Salomon Kings of Israell but not long after in Reobohams time tenne parts of twelue fell backe from Religion and became Apostates yea and many times that little Iuda that handfull of Gods people being drunke with ease and prosperity would forget God their mighty deliuerer forget his Sabbath and his Sanctuary and giue themselues to Idolatrous pleasures with such generall appetite as if God had giuen them licence for wickednesse no apparance or marke of Religion in Iuda Tenthly The mercifull God willing to cure the infirmity of those times commeth with his Iudgements Famine Sword and Pestilence not as in the old world to destroy but to correct the disobedience of his people who no sooner relish the sweetnesse of his mercy but wantonly returne to their former remisnesse and sinne with greater appetite then before yet for all this doth not God forget to be mercifull but continueth himselfe in his owne nature a God most mercifull and most compassionate who to demonstrate the infinite degree of his loue to his seruant Man taketh from him the burthen some condition of the Law which hee could not keepe and giueth him a new couenant the couenant of Grace the Gospell of Peace And thus mercifully he altereth the tenor of our obligation and to giue this worke of Gracefull authority hee sendeth his onely begotten the Lord Christ to satisfie the old and to rat●fi● the new Couenant both by his actiue and passiue righteousnesse Eleuenthly Heere was the greatest alteration that euer was in the witnesse of time for before this we were commanded to doe and liue else to die but now to beleeue onely and liue Neuer was there a more large demonstration of Gods fauour nor a like time wherein Grace was so freely offered or the gates of heauen so wide set open as if God should reach his hand of mercy to earth to inuite vs to his eternal inheritance and with the fayrest promises of Loue to allure vs to a state of most absolute blessednesse yet notwithstanding all this Grace and all these faire inuitements so constant were the men of those times in their euills that they refuse to indent with God be the condition neuer so easie or his promise neuer so absolute but they combine themselues with all indeauour to resist the Grace of God they will not haue Grace though God giue it freely they are all Moses no Christ all Law no Gospell so powerfull were they in their owne opinions as if the Law had beene an easie performance And therfore did they despise the work of Grace crucifying the Lord of Life that brought it and that bought it with the value of his life a price inestimable killing also the Apostles his faithfull witnesses and persecuting the Saints to whom God gaue Grace to apprehend this Mistery Twelfthly Heere may a Christian man spend his holy meditations in considering the deprauednesse of Man the grosse dulnes of his Nature and how inclinable hee is to all euill Contrariwise the infinite measure of Gods mercie who notwithstanding our disobedience will not vtterly destroy vs his creatures but in a wonderfull degree of fauour yeelds himselfe to the weakenesse of our flesh knowing that our nature hath a pronenesse to euill onely And therefore hath he giuen free passage to the Gospell making it fruitfully prosper in the blood of holy Martyrs shed in the persecuting times of Tyrants and wicked-Emperors 13. And in this passage of blood did Religion march vntill the time of Constantine the Great who intertaining the Christian Faith with good affection gaue it warrant for publike exercise whereby it spred ouer all the knowne world with such admirable increase as God onely could giue to a cause so heauenly And yet in the height of this prosperity according to the Nature of our flesh the state of Christendome grew proud with good successe and wanting the opposition of heathen enemies deuided themselues into heresies and factions wherof insewed the greatest calamitie that could be in a Christian state euery faction receiuing authority and greatnesse according as they were fauoured or not by the Emperours 14. And this diuersity of fortune continued in Christendome for many yeares yet so as Christianity might be well said to flourish vntil the time that the Popes did arrogate to their seate supremacy and vniuersall power or as the History of Florence reporteth it vntill the time of Charles and Pippin Kings of France who in pollicie to secure to them and theirs the possession of the west Empire bound the Bishop of Rome whose authority might helpe that practise by fauours and friendly entertainements to their faction And therefore did the French pronounce this sentence That the Pope being the Vicar of Christ ought not to bee iudged by men but to Iudge all men and to determine euery difference This sentence whether by the Popes themselues or by their fauourites the French Kings was assuredly the Ladder for the Popes ambition and the cause whereof hath ensued so much euill to the state of the Catholike Church as that Christendome yet is full of the markes of that misery 15. Now the power of God that seeth the most secret practice on Earth whose prouidence cannot bee preuented with pollicie suffers the measure of this euill time to fill and ouerrunne with iniquity so that a true Christian might haue thought of himselfe as Elias when he thought he was onely left of Gods people yet in that height of iniquity there wanted not many Obediahs who hid the faithfull from the stroake of persecution neither wanted there some euen in this darkenesse of Time who willingly offered their faith to the tryall of fire and sealed the testimonie of their Religion with the witnes of their blood Obseruations Diuine Pollitique Morall FIRST from this extremitie of euill time doth this following History take beginning

for thankes indulgences and pardons which nothing benefited the Receiuers but much inlarged his own priuate ends Such reward had King Henery for writing against Luther in which may be vnderstood the Popes secret practise for in giuing this honour to King Henry to be stiled Defendor of the Faith hee thereby had a farther end then to honour the King which was to binde him to his perpetuall seruice which he thought he could not better doe then by this obligation of honour which indeed is the greatest that can be to a princely minde The Pope knoweth that the King by accepting of this stile Defendor of the Faith was bound in the tearmes of honour to defend that whereof hee had taken the protection and so by consequence was hee bound to all the Popes occasions he being in the cōmon opiniō of the world the vniuersal head of that faith which the Kings Title did binde him to defend And this howsoeuer the successe did not answer to the purpose yet was it great pollicie in the Pope especially considering the danger of the times and that many eyes began with dislike to prie into the deformities of the Church Fifthly But who can contriue against God with successe for the Pope in this case shot his euill arrow against heauen which in a perpendiculer line fell vpon his owne pate God retorting the euil against him that sent it making him fast in his own snare to fall in that pit which he had digged for another This is Gods doing it is wonderfull in our eyes For this K. whom the Pope had thought to haue made the instrumēt of his greatnes did God make the instrument of his fall the Pope gaue him the name of Defendor But God made the King to defend the Faith against the Pope the enemie of Faith For pollicie cannot preuent piety and God confounds the wisedome of men and can make their subtill practises many times hitt that marke they neuer aymed at as in this particular the Pope making particular choice of the King for his Champion whom God the contrary party would imploy for the Popes destruction giuing him inuincible spirit to be the first Christian K that durst put to his Princely hand to Ruine the walls of Babylon Sixthly And if the Kings nature and the circumstance of time were rightly considered it will appeare so admirable as God only could worke that alteration in the Kings minde the King himselfe being so stiffe and resolute as none of his predecessors I think in this did equall him especially in the tearme of honour and reputation and then considering the King had written and published his protestation to defend the Supremacy of the Pope and the Religion then profest it may seeme the greatest obligation that could be to binde his princely Nature to continue his defence of that which before he had defended especially in a matter of that consequence the rather hauing declared himselfe to the witnesse of all men Seuenthly Againe if wee consider that Reply of Luthers to the Kings Booke so full of heate and bitternesse as that euery page almost hath prouocations rather to obdurate the Kings heart and to incense him to a more resolute obstinacie then any waies to quallifie or reforme him Luther scoffingly answering the Kings arguments with words of such disgrace as ill fitted the grauity of Luther to giue or the Maiesty of so great a Prince with any patience to indure And doubtlesse this in Luther was a great ouersight and a misconceiuing to thinke to helpe his cause by traducing the Kings person For the resolutions of great men are not moued by power but by the perswasions of inferiours And Luther in writing this booke against King Henery doth rather expresse his zeale then his discretion For in all Controuerfies the heate of words especially in the grauer is a want of that moderation and Iudgement which onely giueth seemelinesse and good forme to all our actions yet notwithstanding all these backe occasions which in mans Iudgement might seeme to hinder this gracious worke did God effect it and that by his instrument King Henery whom both the Pope and Luther had rather fitted for the contrary Obseruations Diuine Pollitique Morall FIRST God doth often interrupt and destroy the violence of wicked men and their practise by a contemptible and vnthought of meanes for so was Luther thought in respect of the great and generall authority which then Antichrist had the reason is this that where God doth place his omnipotent Spirit that strength is then inuincible but able to conuince all resistance For God onely can contract in the person of one man Valour and victory to order and reforme the world Secondly The Politique practise here is obserued in the Pope who with demonstrations of Loue without charge could binde the seruice of Princes and great States vnto him For as it is most needfull that the bodies of great Authorities should haue strong and able supporters So it is necessary in the wisedome of state to gaine and continue that correspondencie and indifferencie which may support our estimation In which care this politique forme is very necessary that in disposing our gifts of fauour we giue least gifts to greatest men but with most large circumstance because that where there is any neerenesse of equality of state it is not possible to make gifts valuable but with Ceremonies Thirdly In Luther may bee noted a maruellous defect of pollicie to labour a spirituall cause with such vntempered heate For if Luthers spirit had had moderation and that pollitique wisedome which was but necessary in his Religion and high attempts he would haue made a difference betweene a principall and a second the Pope and the King and not haue prosecuted against them both with like seuerity For Luther could not bee ignorant that the onely meanes to finish the reformation he intended was by the fauour and assistance of Christian Princes which care in the cause and person of King Henry Luther did not obserue Fourthly It is a precept worthy of generall practise that in all societies men should be Communicable and translate their offices of loue from one to another For gifts and retributions howsoeuer they are lesse worthy then our affections yet are they our best witnesses and doe the better and more often remember vs because they are more open and euident to sense Fifthly Againe moderation of spirit which is our indifferent esteeming of our selues with others doth comprehend the very excellence of all humanity being the most noble degree in our nature and the very next to the dignity of Grace Neither is there any morall vertue which doth more commend men to generall estimation because it giueth desert to euery man that hath it and doth often giue from it selfe dignities to such as want them CHAP. III. King Henries first Act of Defence for the Catholike Faith THE first Act of the Kings Defence was

that State where the authority of the Prince is deuided or rather translated into the person of another as in the case of Popish Supremacie is most euident Sixthly Againe to inherit by succession of blood which is of very speciall consideration is by this forraigne Supremacie much indangered because where this power is granted there is also giuen to the Pope the power to alter and dispose of Kings and Kingdomes at his pleasure and to translate the inheritance of States according as hee shall please to fauour or dis-fauour the true owners whereof many times hath ensued much misery and many calamities So that I verily thinke there is no part of Christendome that hath not had a wofull experience in this great misery That were the Prince or the cause neuer so Iust and holy or the Pope and his wicked life neuer so apparantly euill yet by this vniuersall power hee had power giuen him to alter the State and to translate Succession at his pleasure pretending a Religious good but intending eyther the aduancement of his base kindred or else some other enuious and euill end And how dangerous this may bee to a Kingdome let any Iudgement determine Lastly this inconuenience doth follow of Popish Supremacie the practise of so many Treasons wherewith the name of Christendome is much spotted For he that is resolued the sufficiencie of other mens writings to this purpose This onely Argument that whereas by the testimonie of holy Scripture wee are taught to know that man of sinne whom the spirit of God calleth Antichrist by this speciall sensible signe of pride in that he being but man shall presume to exalt himselfe aboue all that is called God Now that Kings and Princes of the Earth are by the sentence of Scripture called Gods it is most euident in that place where he saith I haue said yee are Gods that is neerest to my selfe in your dignitie of place representing my power and my Maiesty in the highest degree vpon Earth Then whosoeuer shall exalt himselfe aboue these degrees of Maiesty must of necessity be he whom the Spirit of God calleth that man of sinne that Antichrist because his sinne is like the sinne of the Diuels in the Creation for as they did so doth he contend for the highest Supremacie and Nymrod-like he buildeth himselfe aloft aboue the reach of Earth reaching his ambition beyond the limits of mortality euen aboue all that is called God Eighthly And therefore great reason had the King and so haue all the Kings of the Earth to cast off all friendly intertainement with him that would exalt himselfe aboue all flesh nay aboue all that is called God and I am verily perswaded that this one respect of pride is that marke whereby shee is best knowne to bee that Babylon with whose Fornications the whole Earth hath bene poysoned yet in these latter times hath shee got more vgly visors to maske in Blood and Treason two such deformities as would be very apparant in the face of Religion And God no doubt hath set these markes in her fore-head as he marked Cain that all his beloued in the world might know her at the first blush and auoide the filth of her Fornications For where those euills are God is not in the honour of his seruice but in his Iustice and angry Maiesty CHAP. V. Of the suppressing of Abbeyes and Religious Houses in England FIRST the worke of Gods prouidence is most worthy of consideration leading by variable turnings the passage of all transitory things to that end whereto God hath decreed them In which worke howsoeuer God doth neuer change the purpose of his will yet the euents many times seeme very admirable to our v●derstandings by reason of their change and varieties For all things in this world are in continuall motion being moued as shall please the hand of prouidence euery thing being like the mouing Sea sometimes flowing sometimes in their ebb againe sometimes vp sometimes downe according as shall please that power that moues them And from this mouing cause is deriued that variety in the state of Earth which men falsly call Fortune the often change whereof to a Christian Iudgement is not strange because he considereth the power that God hath ouer all his creatures and how inclinable they be to alteration Secondly And for particular instances Though Religion before these times had indured an euill change changing the truth for many superstitious Ceremonies yet so venerable was the name of Religion to the people of those times as notwithstanding their misconceiuing the truth thereof they gaue such large demonstrations of loue and zeale to that profession and the Professors as no people at any time did euer exceed them inriching the state of Religion both with honourable regard and with very ample possessions Insomuch as the Church then might rather seeme a Triumphant then a Church Militant So high was it exalted in the degrees of worldly prosperity yet for all this flourish God commeth with his rod of correction and finding euill in the greatnesse thereof he alters their present Condition that as they had forsaken the truth of his seruice So hee would bereaue them their earthly honour wherewith the true name of their false Religion was gorgeously decked Thirdly The first cause then of this alteration was God himselfe who when hee seeth the vessell of mens iniquity full he filleth his violl with wrath to reforme and correct what euill men had before deformed and being most Iealous of his honour hee commeth with more then common corrections to reforme the truth of his seruice For so did God at this time his angry hand reaching destruction beyond the liues of those euill men euen to their lands houses and possessions making King Henry vtterly extirpe these abused Monasteries as the Israelites did the Cananites for their monstrous and heathenish sinnes And therefore no doubt did God make particular choise of King Henry for his instrument fitting him with extraordinary spirit that he might the better mannage this great businesse whereto God had ordained him and wherein God did wonderfully assist him Fourthly But what might moue the King in respect of himselfe many men many waies coniecture Some by the spoyle of these houses that he might inrich himselfe and relieue the occasions of his Warres which then did much distresse him But howsoeuer this hath credit with him that writeth this Storie at large yet in that opinion I doe not beleeue him For it is not likely that any Christian Prince in the world would for any respect of spoyle destroy the estates of so many at that time reputed Religious and Godly men Others thinke the King did this out of Stomacke the Pope being then in full opposition with the King for taking Supremacie from him in the Church of England that had but lately giuen to him his Successors for euer the title of Defendor of