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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	true_a	2,848	5	3.8360	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07781	A notable treatise of the church in vvhich are handled all the principall questions, that haue bene moued in our time concerning that matter. By Philip of Mornay, Lord of Plessis Marlyn, gentleman of Fraunce. And translated out of French into English by Io. Feilde.; Traicté de l'église. English	Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, 1549-1623.; Fielde, John, d. 1588.	1579 (1579)	STC 18159; ESTC S107520	167,479	400

his word cherished nourished vp in the faith and she at the first giuing vs sucke and afterwards more fast and strong meate through the Communion of Christ his bodye in the Supper we are more and more vnited to him and by this meane inuested into that heauenly inheritance It followeth then that she is the pure Church and true mother who bringeth foorth vs her children through Baptisme regenerateth norisheth vs through the worde knitteth vs to Christ and so a-amongst our selues one to another through the Sacrament of his Supper that is to saye shee is the true mother in which the worde of God is purely preached and the Sacraments according to the same worde duely administred In the Church of Iuda and Israel Circumcision occupied the place of Baptisme the Passeouer of the Supper the worde of God alwayes keeping his place as the ordinarie nourishment of the children of God and therefore we see that after their entrie into the land of Canaan Iosue being admonished by the Lord to repaire those faults committed in the desert made the people to be circumcised and bound them by an othe if they would be his people to keepe the word of God that is to saye if they would bee his Church Likewise Iosias after so great confusions and mingle mangles when he would reforme the Church in which there was not so much as that visible marke which circumcision had left in the flesh we see that he began there first digging vp as it were the law which had bene buried published the same and made the people to sweare solemnly vnto it And cōsequently he caused a Passeouer to be proclaymed in these woordes Celebrate the passeouer of the Lord your God as it is written in the booke of this couenant that is to say according to the ordināce of the Lord your god Esdras also after he was returned frō Babylon for to reedifie the temple and to restore the Church he began at these foundations he expoundeth the lawe vnto the people and maketh thē to sweare in the forme of that couenant and after to nourish and fortifie them in the hope of their saluation to come he restoreth againe the true vse of the Paschall according to those things sayeth he which were written in the booke of Moses To be short al the true seruants of God after that there came any great scattering of the Church being willing to redresse it they haue alwaies before al other things restored these markes no otherwise then a good Captaine who after a great slaughter confusion raungeth his men into an aray and planteth his standerds in some high place to the end they may shew them selues to all sides Iesus Christ who is the true husband hath giuen vs no other markes to knowe his espouse by For this cause that he calleth the Church his wife he teacheth her her duety which is to obey his worde and not to hearken to the voyce of a straunger not to lose the tokens nor to defile the Iewels and pledges of her mariage but marke how he speaketh in expresse wordes He that is of the trueth heareth my voice And againe My sheepe heare my voice and I knowe them and they followe me and in another place Ye heare not because you are not of god The pure wife and Church then of the trueth is onely she which heareth the voyce of Christ Not a voyce in the ayre or an imaginatiue voyce but that voyce which hath it Echo out of the scriptures and which will resound vntill the end to witte the same that is pronounced by the mouth of his Prophets Apostles vpon which Saint Paul teacheth vs that the Church is founded Christ Iesus being the chiefe corner stone This is the cause why sending foorth his Apostles to erecte the Christian Churches he saith vnto thē Goe and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and teaching them to keepe all that I haue commanded you And in the Actes we reade that the faithfull continued in the doctrine of the Apostles in the Communion breaking of bread in prayers which is no other thing but a briefe description of the true Church of Christ instructed by the worde in true faith and knit together in true charitie through the Communion that is in him The which thing S. Ambrose teacheth vs saying that the Catholique Church is that where God speaketh with his seruāts and S. Augustine also whē he placeth the ministerie of ministers pastors of the Church in the word of God Sacramēts Let vs yet adde hereunto the third mark of this church albeit it be not of the substance but outward to wit the lawful vocation of pastors ministers of the Church which haue the administration of the things aforesaid For seeing that there is question of preaching be it by the word or by the Sacraments which are vnto vs as a word that may be felt and that to preach it behoueth that the ministers be sent it is very necessary that the Church of God haue an order to send forth their pastors But more shal be seene of this point in another place We wil call then the true pure Churches all those wherein we finde the worde of God and Sacraments purely and lawfully administred that is to say as Cyprian saith according to the institution of the Lorde And we nothing doubt to communicate with them that God is there president howsoeuer in some certaine pointes of doctrine there haue bene some errour and in the outward policie some abuse and corruption and impuritie in maners for it behooueth that alwayes we resort thither when the chiefe pointes of the foundation of our saluation be there truly taught seeing we are men the Churches are compounded of men as speache and language consist of syllables and letters of the qualities of which men as long as the Church is in this world she is alwayes a partaker As concerning the false and impure Churches they are not so easely to be defined Trueth soundnes and right are but of one sort but errors diseases crookednesses are without nomber Againe there are many kindes degrees of impure Churches notwithstanding we can say in one worde that al those Churches are impure in which the word of the Lord and his Sacraments are impurely ministred that is are administred both against the honor of God and the saluation of our neighbour and because that the whole Gospel is nothing else but faith and charitie and whole Christ nothing but head and body we may make two principall kindes thereof calling those Heretikes which erre in the faith doctrine of Christ those schismatikes which sunder themselues from charitie and from the communion of his body which is the Church yea although they agree otherwise to the trueth of doctrine in all pointes Nowe as there are many pointes in the

as there is no true fayth nor charitie nor Christ so also we ought not to seeke any saluation but in her And therefore if a man would speake properly we should call the Churche a company onely of those whom God hath chosen to euerlasting life in al times places which is to man inuisible who can not enter so farre as to knowe Gods will neyther the hart of man himselfe but is only visible to God who knoweth those that are his as the Apostle saith hath sealed them with his owne seale Notwithstanding forasmuch as charitie hath commaunded vs to presume particularlie of all those that are called the Churche of Christ that they are of the nōber of his elect that as they are bodily there assembled together so also that they are there spiritually incorporated albeit on the contrarie part the doctrine of fayth generally teacheth vs that the wicked to the end of the world are mingled with the good the Goates with the Sheepe the chaffe with the graine the tares with the good corne yet will we commit vnto God the searcher of hartes the knowledge of the inuisible Church will content our selues to search for the visible in his word into which all they must retire themselues in this world which wil be gathered into the inuisible Churche in the world to come Notwithstanding by the way we will note the differences that are betwene these two The inuisible Church cōtaineth none but the good The visible Church contayneth both the good and the bad to witte that onelye the electe this all those indifferently which are brought into her by the preaching of the trueth And for this cause S. Augustine saith of that that she tooke her beginning by Abel and not by Caine who was the elder and contrarywise of the other he saith that the self same begate Abel Enoch Simon Peter all Christians c. as one people hauing also begotten Caine and Cham Ismael and Esau and Simon the sorcerer with his cōfederates The inuisible Church is partly considered in heauen partly in earth cōprehending aswell those which triumph already with their head Iesus Christ our Lord as those which yet fight here beneath in the earth for his name against the world against themselues which shal fight in the same church after vs The visible church is considered properly to consist in them who not onely fight here in earth for the name of Christ but as well those that fight vnder his name with false markes standerds ensignes And for this cause that is considered euen from the first faythfull vnto the last bringing all the states ages of the church into one this according to certaine places times forasmuch as she is not vniuersally visible and to be seene at one push but according to the ages and in her degrees In the inuisible there is a great many sheepe which neuer were gathered into the visible and contrarywise in the visible a great many wolues which neuer shal be receiued into the inuisible And therefore S. Augustine sayth that there are a great many sheepe without and a great many woolues within and S. Paul saith also they are not al Israel which are of Israel For to be in the church or rather to say of the church is to be vnited with Christ incorporated in the company of the faithfull through true faith towards God and charitie towards our neighbor And there is no doubt but that many here and there vnder Paganisme it selfe had this desire which yet bodily they could not accomplish the which notwithstanding they are bound to doe with all their power as contrarywise to be separated from the church is not onely to be without the assemblie but to haue no participation of Christ nor vnion of faith and charitie with his faythfull Of the inuisible it is sayd that the gates of hell shal not preuaile against her Of the visible that she shal be so troubled that a mā shall not finde faith on the earth that charitie shal be as it were quenched insomuch that the elect themselues if it were possible should vtterly quaile And therefore it is not without cause that we say in our Creede that we beleeue the church For if we ought to hold nothing for certaine but that which we see with these carnall eyes there is no dout but that in all the states ages of the church there should many times be foūd such a confusion as the good graine should be altogether hid vnder the chaffe without any appearance of the Churche and yet notwithstanding this was then whē God sayd to Elias that he had reserued in the same 7000. whereof the chariot of Israel the Seer of the Lord I say he to whom the good people ought especially to haue beene knowen could not outwardly knowe one and euen then there when the state of the Church was such as God could not be serued visiblye but in Iewrie All these differences notwithstanding we do not beleeue two Churches nor two espouses of Christ but we beleeue one onelye considered diuersely one in the blade and the other in the graine one in the threshing floore another in the garner one in the mine another now already fyned the one inwrapped yet in the minglings of the world the other before her husband without spotte or wrinckle Altogether like as by a familie we properly vnderstand the children only although speaking more generally we comprehend the seruants them selues by a Citie we vnderstand the vnion of Cittizens albeit many times one part be at cōtention considered apart by it selfe deserueth not but to be rooted out Returning then to our purpose we will call the visible church the company of those which make profession to serue the true God in Christ of which we haue presently to intreate This Church hath had three principall states or ages one without the lawe then say some of the auncient Fathers when man was but in some sort corrupted by the sinne of the first when he was notwithstanding in some sort a lawe to him selfe naturally felt himselfe conuinced of his sinne that is to say he felt his euil to seeke for remedy for the same although in very trueth this state and age of the Church found it selfe no lesse corrupted then the rest The second was vnder the lawe when it began in such sort to accustome it selfe to sinne that it grewe into a natural habite through the same and then for to shewe the sinne therof the lawe was giuen as a glasse in which she might consider her filthinesse and how farre of she was from that shee presumed to the ende she might returne again to be clensed The thirde was vnder grace in Iesus Christ promised to our first parents by by after their fal and who when the fulnes of time was come was sent of the Father who brought remedy to all them that

most auncient of all For this is alwaies a ryght rule and to be receiued that those thinges which are nought worth in the beginning are no whit better in the continuāce of time and if a mā cannot prescribe against kings and against the Church in their possessions much lesse he can doe it against God and against the trueth which is the only treasure of the Church Nowe let vs come to multitude it is saide expressely thou shalt not follow a multitude to do euill Also the gate is wide that leadeth to perdition Cōtrary wise feare not my little flocke for it is my fathers pleasure to giue you a kingdome Moreouer we see that all the worlde was brought to one onely Noah and afterwards to Abraham Then God chose one people of Israel the least as he hath said of al peoples and finally of all peoples the least part to wit Christendome which for this cause he calleth a litle flocke According to which S. Austin saith that the Church was sometimes in one Abel and in one Enoch Multitude then shoulde be rather a presumption of the false then of the true Church of impuritie rather then of puritie for asmuch also as man in all things is prone by nature to euill and tendeth not vnto good vnlesse he be as it were drawen by force vnto it If we looke to the number of Painims they will set against vs in al nations almost many against one and againe all nations against one only nation yea and in that nation it selfe all the families of one time against one or two as namely in the time of Noah those which were called the childrē of God mocked him his religion Likewise amongst this chosen people of God the Samaritans bare themselues against Iuda for there were ten tribes against two and in Iuda Israel the idolaters gained against the people of God for Elias cōplaineth that he was left alone against the good Prophet Micheas there arose vp foure hundred false the Prophets crie that all the people were deceiued euen from the Kings to the Priests Prophets In the Christian Church also there shall be as fewe in that place for euen at the beginning it was saide Who hath beleeued our word to whom hath the arme of the Lord bin reueiled we read that it was brought to a small number of persons the schoolemen themselues hold that after the death of our Sauiour in one instant it consisted in the virgine Marie alone In the greatest floure of it we reade that after the death of Constantine his sonne being of the same name fauoring the Arrians there were so few sounde professors amongst the Christians that the Emperour reproched thē that foure or fiue persōs with their Athanasius would trouble the peace of the whole worlde to whom Liberius the Byshop of Rome answered that his solitude or fewenesse did no whit diminish the word of faith In the end we are aduertised that when that sonne of man shall come before which that sonne of perdition must seduce the worlde he shal finde neither faith nor charitie on the earth and that those daies shall be as the daies of Noah Lot c. The eclipse thē of this Moone shal be as it were vniuersall all the whole earth being put betweene the Church and the Sunne therefore if we haue no other direction in these darkenesses then the multitude we shall haue no part with that little number Moreouer the Christians which reiect the Pope in Asia and in Affrica are a great many moe in number then the others If the Pope hold them for pure Churches then is the Romaine Church an heretike for she condemneth them and excōmunicateth them for diuers points of doctrine If not then multitude which is a common argument to the impure Churches themselues can not be alledged for a marke of puritie And yet for all this we cease not to praise GOD for the blessing which he hath giuen vnto his woorde making the same to fructifie and encrease to hundreds and to thousandes likewise we pray that as he hath already drawen a part of Christendome frō vnder the yoke of Antichrist so it wil please him to continue it more more But we say that if in certayne places it seeme that God do retire but few as the Pastor that saueth from the mouth of the Lion an eare of his sheepe as saith the Prophet Amos or according to Ieremie taking one of one towne two of one tribe for to retire them into the restauratiō of his Church yet for this cause we must not cal the trueth into doubt for asmuch as the selfe same trueth hath foretolde vs this the great number is no marke of puritie veritie nor the litle number of falshood and heresie Nowe followeth the succession of place and of persons which they alledge against the succession of true doctrine which we require in the Church As concerning the place there is no doubt but that this is to play the Iewes to enclose Orbem in Vrbe that is the whole worlde in one citie For the Church is not any longer tyed to Ierusalem but we see euery day that God calleth his people euen those which seemed not to be his people and contrarywise he hath permitted by his righteous will that many Christian Churches haue bene turned into the Temples of the Turkes as that of Ephesus foūded by S. Paul and S. Iohn and that of Bōne in Barbary wher S. Austin preached c. And further that is said expressely that the Church of God for a long time by reason of the persecution of Antichrist shall retire her selfe into the wildernes as the common glose it selfe doth expound Moreouer the Church is a citie that is to say one vniō of Citizens vnder the iust gouernement of Christ Now betweene a citie and a towne there is this difference that the one cōsisteth in walles the other in the vnion of the people gouerned vnder the same lawes therefore the citie of Rome was at Veies with Camillus being a banished man though the towne of Rome was in the hand of the enemie And Themistocles saide that Athens was in shippes which the Romanes had taught the poore Carthagians to their cost when they made their Citie to be caried out of their towne To be short the Popes thē selues haue maintayned for lxxx yeeres together that the Romish Church had her sea in Auigniō although they had forsaken Rome Moreouer this argument is common to the Churches Greekes Syrians Armenians Ethiopians c. whom the Pope condemneth in many poynts of doctrine To conclude if euer there were Church that might alledge succession of place it was Ierusalem For of it was said The Lord wil euermore dwel in this Temple Also I haue chosen and sanctified this house to the ende that my name may

which for the agreeing of two persons onely woulde refuse to handle againe a processe whereof there had bene a determinate sentence giuen by the Parliament before This therfore is in the Romish Cōsistory where there is manifest doubt of their doctrine or else foule and shamefull lacke of charitie and that in such a wayghtie case as concerneth the saluation of the more part of Christendome To be short we agree and are knitte together in the doctrine of the Bible with all Christians but we reiect the pestilent gloses and traditiōs of the Pope we haue bene willing brotherly to communicate the trueth to our brethren with the danger of our life in the middest of their Churches and contrarywise the Pope in stead of hearkening vnto vs fearing to be discouered hath excommunicated chased and driuen vs out It is therfore the Pope and his greasie ones which haue broken the Communion of the vniuersall Church not we who to keepe vs in are readie to submitte our selues to al reason to abide all dangers Secōdly that they alledge altar against altar if we shall consider the nature of the Christian Church it is not much from the purpose In auncient tyme vnder the law there was but one Temple and one altar without which they were forbidden to sacrifice whereupon we see yet that the Iewes which were scattered throughout the world myght not sacrifice And therefore those which set vp altars in Dan and Bethel albeit that they had not sacrificed but to the true God and according to the sacrifices ordayned in the lawe yet they were guiltie of death because they had broken the expresse ordinaunce of God who woulde haue obedience and not sacrifice and because that in Iesus Christ to come figured by one citie of Hierusalem by one Temple and by one altar they ought to withdrawe themselues from the societie of all other people This is the cause that we reade not that the Prophetes established any order of the seruice of God in any other place although that the Temple of Hierusalem were defiled with idolatrie but rather that they preached opēly against those which mayntained it yet without sacrificing any where else But by the cōming of Iesus Christ as we haue often sayde it is altogether otherwyse For all the worlde is Hierusalem the temple and the altar of the Lorde We pray not any longer towardes the East but on euery side to which we turne vs wee turne to God we looke alwayes to Iesus Christ When therefore the Apostles preaching Christ coulde not be receyued into Hierusalem preaching Christ in the temple they preached him in houses and when they were yet dryuen away they shooke of the duste of their feete in witnesse agaynst them and went and preached else where When also they were forewarned by the holie Ghost of Gods vengeance to come vpon that Citie that had crucified Christ the anoynted they made no difficultie sayeth Eusebius to withdrawe the assemblie that is to say the true Ierusalem and the true children of Abraham from thence to gather them together into the little towne of Pella neere Iordan If therefore the temples of Constantinople are turned into the temples and Churches of Mahomet Christians may serue God and sacrifice to him the sacrifices of prayse and thankesgiuing at Pera harde by Constantinople And if Antichrist bee sette downe in the Church of Rome amiddest his temples we may serue Christ in the porche and if we may not preache agaynst him vnder the roofe of the Church we wyll doe it vnder the roofe of heauen which is euen aswell the Temple of the Lorde And this is the cause why being forbidden by kings and Princes vpon payne of rebellion to preache in Temples agaynst the Idolatrie which is there committed and agayne beyng likewyse expressely commaunded by God to auoyde Idoles and to publishe the trueth wee haue gathered the true faithfull thyther where we myght serue God together according to his worde and we haue withdrawen Hierusalem into the towne of Pella by the example of the Apostles and according to the libertie which Iesus Christ hath gyuen to the Vniuersall Church But by separating our selues from Rome we haue remayned in the heauenly Ierusalem founded vpon the doctrine of the Apostles from which it hath separated it selfe and wee haue not buylt an altar against the altar of the Lorde for Rome is not the peculiar seate of the Lords altar but rather an altar of Christ against the altar of Antichrist a temple of lyuing stones founded vpon the chiefe master stone of the corner agaynst the temples of idoles buylded vpon the stone of offence which is Antichrist There is therefore a notable difference betweene Hierualem and Rome and consequently it is one thing to separat from the faction of Rome that can hardly deserue the name of a member and an other from the Catholique and Vniuersall Church Hierusalem was the Temple of the Lord and at this day the whole worlde is his Temple in comparison of which Rome is nothing To Hierusalem was promised the Sonne of God to Rome the sonne of perdition And from this peculiar Temple of God the Apostles withdrewe themselues for that it refused saluation yea that they myght not perishe in her destruction they remoued the Christians into another place From the cōmunication or fellowshippe therefore of the Church of Rome which worshippeth and vpholdeth perdition wee holde our selues bounde to withdrawe our selues if we will not draw vpon vs the heauy vēgeance of God which is prepared for all those that remaine therein Thirdlye it is one thing to withdrawe our selues from the papacie and another thing to goe away from the poore Church that is there holden vnder captiuitie Euen altogether like as it is one thing to flie from a Citie and another to flie from the pestilence that is in the Citie And it is one thing for a man to withdrawe him selfe from the common Wealth and another from the power of a tyranne that vsurpeth the common weale They that flie the pestilence are ready to come to the Citye againe when the plague is gone and they that auoide tyrannie are readye to ioyne them selues againe to the Citizens that were vnder tyrannie as soone as it shall be banished Yea which is more they are in the Citye and in the Common weale in heart and spirite suffering together with their fellowe Burgesses and Citizens bewayling their bondage and purchasing their deliuerance by all the meanes they can deuise where as the tyrants that keepe that Citie they that are there seeme rather to be shut vp frō all cōmunaltie or fellowship not onely of the common weale but also as Cicero sayeth from all mankinde euen as Thrasibulus was beeing gone aside frō Philes during the time that thirtie Tyrantes did teare in pieces the common weale of Athens And as Camillus at Veies during the time that the Gaules wasted the citie of Rome And