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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	darkness_n	light_n	shadow_n	7,372	5	9.4624	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40655	The church-history of Britain from the birth of Jesus Christ until the year M.DC.XLVIII endeavoured by Thomas Fuller.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.; Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661. History of the University of Cambridge snce the conquest.; Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661. History of Waltham-Abby in Essex, founded by King Harold.	1655 (1655)	Wing F2416_PARTIAL; Wing F2443_PARTIAL; ESTC R14493	1,619,696	1,523

Idolaters who from misapplying that undeniable Truth of Gods being in every thing made every thing to be their God Trees Rivers Hills and Mountains They worshipped Devils whose Pictures remained in the dayes of a Epist de Excid Brit. Gildas within and without the decayed Walls of their Cities drawn with deformed Faces no doubt done to the Life according to their Terrible Apparitions so that such ugly Shapes did not woe but fright people into Adoration of them Wherefore if any find in Tully that the Britans in his time had no Pictures understand him they were not Artists in that Mystery like the Greeks and Romans they had not pieces of Proportion being rather Dawbers then Drawers Stainers then Painters though called Picti from their self-discoloration 2. Three paramount Idols they worshipped above all the rest Their Principall Idols and ascribed divine honour unto them 1. Apollo by them styled Belinus the Great 2. Andnaste b Xiphil Epi. in Nerone or Andate the Goddesse of Victorie 3. Diana Goddesse of the Game This last was most especially reverenced Britain being then all a Forest where Hunting was not the Recreation but the Calling and Venison not the Dainties but the Diet of Common people There is a place near S. Pauls in London called in old Records DIANA'S CHAMBER where in the daies of K. c Camden Britann in Middlesex Edward the first thousands of the Heads of Oxen were digged up whereat the Ignorant wondred whilest the Learned well understood them to be the proper Sacrifices to Diana whose great Temple was built thereabout This rendereth their Conceit not altogether unlikely who will have LONDON so called from LLAN-DIAN which signifieth in British the Temple of DIANA And surely Conjectures if mannerly observing their Distance and not impudently intruding themselves for Certainties deserve if not to be received to be considered Besides these specified they had other Portenta Diabolica a Gildas ut prius pene numero Aegyptiaca vincentia as indeed they who erroneously conceive one God too little will find two too many and yet Millions not enough As for those learned b Druides unum esse Deum semper inculcarunt Camden and Bp. Godwin Pens which report that the Druides did instruct the Ancient Britans in the Knowledge and Worship of one onely God may their Mistake herein be as freely forgiven them as I hope and desire that the Charitable Reader will with his Pardon meet those unvoluntary Errours which in this Work by me shall be committed 3. Two sorts of People were most honoured amongst the Britans 1. Druides who were their Philosophers Divines Lawyers 2. Bards who were their Prophets Poets Historians The former were so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The office and employment of the Druides signifying generally a Tree and properly an Oak under which they used to perform their Rites and Ceremonies An Idolatrie whereof the Iews themselves had been guilty for which the Prophet threatneth them c Isai 1. 29. They shall be ashamed of the Oaks which they have desired But the signall Oak which the Druides made choice of was such a one on which d Pliny Natur Hist lib. 6. cap. 44. Misletoe did grow by which privie token they conceived God marked it out as of soveraigne vertue for his service Under this Tree on the sixth day of the Moon whereon they began their Year they invocated their Idols and offered two white Bulls filleted in the horns with many other Ceremonies These Pagan Priests never wrote anything so to procure the greater Veneration to their Mysteries men being bound to believe that it was some great Treasure which was locked up in such great Secresie 4. The Bards were next the Druides in Regard The powerfull practices of the Bards on the people and played excellently to their Songs on their Harps whereby they had great Operation on the Vulgar surprising them into Civility unawares they greedily swallowing whatsoever was sweetned with Musick These also to preserve their Ancestours from Corruption embalmed their Memories in Rhiming Verses which looked both backward in their Relations and forward in their Predictions so that their Confidence meeting with the Credulity of others advanced their wild Conjectures to the Reputation of Prophesies The Immortality of the Soul they did not flatly denie but salfely believe disguised under the opinion of Transanimation conceiving that dying mens Souls afterward passed into other Bodies either preferred to better or condemned to worse according to their former good or ill behaviour This made them contemn Death and alwayes maintain erected Resolutions counting a valiant Death the best of Bargains wherein they did not loose but lay out their Lives to Advantage Generally they were great Magicians insomuch that e Natur. Hist lib. 30. cap. 1. Plinie saith that the very Persians in some sort might seem to have learn't their Magick from the Britans 5. So pittifull for the present 37 and more fearfull for the future was the condition of the Heathen Britans The first preaching of the Gospell in Britain Causes which hastened the conversion of Britain before other kingdoms which lay nearer to Palestine when it pleased God with a strong hand and stretched-out Arme to reach the Gospel unto them who were afarre off both in locall and theologicall Distance This was performed in the later end of the Reigne of Tiberius some thirty seven years after Christ's Birth as Polydor Virgil collecteth out of the testimony of f Tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris inp Epist de Ex. Brit. Gildas 6. If it seem incredible to any that this Island furthest from the Sunne should see Light with the first whil'st many Countries on the Continent interposed nearer in Situation to Iudaea the Fountain of the Gospell sate as yet and many years after in Darknesse and in the Shadow of Death Let such consider First That Britain being a by-Corner out of the Road of the World seemed the safest Sanctuarie from Persecution 37 which might invite Preachers to come the sooner into it Secondly it facilitated the Entrance of the Gospell hither that lately the Roman Conquest had in part civilized the South of this Island by transporting of Colonies thither and erecting of Cities there so that by the Intercourse of Traffick and Commerce with other Countries Christianity had the more speedy and convenient Wastage over Whereas on the other side this set the Conversion of Germany so backward because the in-land Parts thereof entertained no Trading with others and out of Defiance to the Romans hugged their own Barbarisme made lovely with Liberty bolting out all Civility from themselves as jealous that it would usher in Subjection Lastly and chiefly God in a more peculiar manner did alwayes favour the Islands as under his immediate Protection For as he daily walls them with his Providence against the scaling of the swelling Surges and constant Battery of the Tide so he made a

winding but burning sheet as expecting at last he should be brought to the stake for his religion But men may make cloaths either for mirth or for mourning whilst God alone orders whether or no they shall wear them 13. After the coming of Queen Elizabeth to the Crown A single man yet a true father he with more earnestnes refused a Bishoprick then others affected it His parsonage at Haughton as it might seem a Bishops Palace for building so was it no less for hospitality Fourteen Villages belonging to that mother Church the poor whereof besides many others were daily relieved at his door twenty Scholars he commonly boarded in his house which seemed a little Colledge In a word he was commonly called Father Gilpin and well deserved it for his paternall affections to all Making his yearly progress into Rheadsdale and Tinsdale in Northumberland where people sat in darkness of ignorance and shaddow of death and instructing them by his heavenly preaching 14. Now began that fatall yearl generally foretold that it would be wonderfull as it proved no less The brave coming forth of the Spanish Armado Whence the Astrologers fetcht their intelligence hereof 1588 whether from Heaven 31. or Hell from other Stars or from Lucifer alone is uncertain this is most sure that this prediction though hitting the mark yet miss'd their meaning who both first reported and most believed it Out comes their invincible Navie and Army perfectly appointed for both Elements Water and Land to Sail and March compleat in all warlike Equipage so that formerly with far less provision they had conquered another new world Mighty was the bulk of their ships the sea seeming to groan under them being a burden to it as they went and to themselves before they returned with all manner of artillery prodigious in number and greatness so that the report of their guns do stil and ought ever to sound in the ears of the English not to fright them with any terrour but to fill them with deserved thankfulness 15. It is said of Senacherib The shameful sight and return thereof coming against Hierusalem with his numerous army by a 1 Kings 19. 33. the way that he came shall he return and shall not come into this City saith the Lord as the later part of his threatning was verified here no Spantard setting foot on English ground under other notion then a prisoner so God did not them the honour to return the same way who coming by South-East a way they knew went back by South-West a way they sought chased by our ships past the 57 th Degree of Northen Latitude then and there left to be pursued after by hunger and cold Thus having tasted the English valour in conquering them the Scotch constancy in not relieving them the Irish cruelty in barbarous butchering them the small reversion of this great navie which came home might be look'd upon by religious eyes as reliques not for the adoration but instruction of their nation hereafter not to account any thing invincible which is less then infinite 16. Such as lose themselves by looking on second causes impute the Spanish ill success This deliverance principally wrought by Gods arm partly to the Prince of Parma who either mind-bound or wind-bound staying himself or stopt by the Hollander would or could not come to their seasonable succour and partly to the Duke of Medina's want of commission to fight with the English save on the defensive till joyned with Parma Anno Regin Eliza. 31. Thus when God will have a designe defeated Anno Dom. 1588. amidst the plenty yea superfluity of all imaginable necessaries some unsuspected one shall be wanting to frustrate all the rest We will not mention save in due distance of helps the industry and loyalty of the Lord H●ward Admirall the valour of our captains the skill of our pilots the activity of our ships but assigne all to the goodness of God as Queen Elizabeth did Leave we her in the Quire of Pauls church devoutly on her knees with the rest of her Nobles in the same humble posture returning their unseigned thanks to the God and giver of all victory whilst going abroad we shall finde some of her subjects worse employed in implacable enmity about Ecclesiasticall discipline one against another And let not the mentioning of this deliverance be censured as a deviation from the Church-History of Britain Silence thereof being a sin for had the designe took effect neither Protestant Church in Britain had remained nor History thereof been made at this present 17. But bullets did not fly about so much at sea Scurrilous Pamphlets dispersed as bastardly Libels by land so fitly call'd because none durst father them for their issue They are known though not by their Parents by their names 1 The Epitome 2 The demonstration of discipline 3 The Supplication 4 Diotrephes 5 The Minerals 6 Have you any work for the Cooper 7 Martin Seignior 8 Martin Junior Marprelate 9 More work for the Cooper c. The main drift and scope of these pamphlets for know one and know all these foule mouth'd papers like Blackmoors did all look alike was to defame and disgrace the English Prelates scoffing at them for their garb gate apparel vanities of their youth naturall defects and personall infirmities it is strange how secretly they were printed how speedily dispers'd how generally bought how greedily read yea and how firmly beleeved especially of the common sort to whom no better musick then to hear their betters upbraided 18. Some precise men of that side thought these jeering pens well employed Their reasons for the lawfulness of such pamphlets For having formerly as they say tried all serious and sober means to reclaim the Bishops which hitherto proved uneffectuall they thought it not amiss to try this new way that whom they could not in earnest make odious in sport they might render ridiculous Wits will be working and such as have a Satyricall vein cannot better vent it then in lashing of sin Besides they wanted not a warrant as they conceived in Holy Writ where it was no soloecisme to the gravity of Eliah to mock a 1 Kings 18 27. Baals priests out of their superstition chiefly this was conceived would drive on their designe strengthen their party by working on the peoples affections which were marvelously taken with the reading thereof 19. But the more discreet and devout sort of men These Books disclaimed by the discreet sort and why even of such as were no great friends to the Hierarchy upon solemn debate then resolved I speak on certain knowledge from the mouths of such whom I must believe that for many foul falsehoods therein suggested such Books were altogether unbeseeming a pious spirit to print publish or with pleasure peruse which supposed true both in matter and measure charity would rather conceal then discover The best of men being so conscious of their own badness