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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	blood_n	body_n	consecration_n	6,066	5	10.8852	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44810	The true rule, judge, and guide of the true church of God discovered, and borne testimony unto what it is, and wherein it consisteth in opposition to the pretended Catholick Church of Rome her rule, foundation, guide, and judge, being returned in answer to Captain Robert Everrand his book, titled An epistle to all the nonconformists ... / by ... Francis Howgil.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1665 (1665)	Wing H3185; ESTC R9586	60,220	70

own profit and their own bellies who mingled their own Inventions and traditions with the Doctrine of Christ and brought the Scripture for a Cloak and the Apostles practice for a president and could say falsly as the Apostles said in the truth It seems good to us and the Holy Ghost that these our Decrees be observed for God hath placed us as Judges and directers as them that are appointed of God himself To which all Christians are to submit and none to question and if any do question or will not obey it is the Kings and Princes duty in every Country to cause all to submit to these our Decrees and orders or else to be punished as Hereticks with death for we are the Apostles successors and we are the elders of the Church and we have the infallible Spirit and though we make Decrees contrary to what the Apostles made in their day yet none is to question that the Church was but in its Infancy then as unwasht and unswadled and in Persecution but now she is grown up to a greater stature and power and indowed with greater privilege and that may be necessary now that was not necessary then and last of all called themselves the Clergie which signifies the Heritage of God and so excluded all others but themselves And these things are true and certain and have been made good by many sufferers for Christ and this kind of Clergie or Heritage made the Heritage of God indeed to fly into the Wilderness who had the infallible spirit and the witnesses to prophesie in sackcloath and then Mystery Babylon began to sit a Queen and to gild her Cup and to fill it full of abomination and brought in Judaisme and the practise of the Apostles and their own Inventions and patched up an endless kind of worship and service consisting of out-side things in a great part in postures and gestures and meates and drinks and dayes and times and vestures and Bonnets and Caps and Coules and such other like trumpery which they made the Nations drunk with and greedy after and if any scrupled at any of those things or any other the Holy Catholick Church hath decreed it and she cannot erre for she is infallible though the errors thereof cannot be numbered and this R. E. thou rests satisfied in as thy only rule and judge and director and thou hangs all thy faith here and saith thou shall not scruple to believe what authority teacheth thee to be revealed by God no more then if thou heard God himself speaking I say unto thee as the Apostle said the Serpent hath beguiled thee as it beguiled Eve and further say as the Prophet said thou must arise and get thee hence for this is not the rest for thou wilt see thy self plunged into such a layborinth of uncertainties as thou never was before if the Lord ever open thy eye And R. E. gives an account that after his reading of some contravertal Books hath made some Collections as to himself and also declares that all dissenting judgments grants there must be a way and a rule appointed to teach us to deside all doubts to judge of all matters and to teach us the true way to Heaven with certainty but who this rule or judge is is not agreed upon by all which he hath collected into four heads First some sets up the spirit to direct them and to be this means Secondly another will have every mans own natural reason to be this rule and judg Thirdly others will set up sole Scripture and the fourth assignes the Holy Catholick Church to be that Judge and Directer Other then these he saith he never heard of any for he saith he always esteemed the Quakers Light to be either the Spirit or Natural reason but which R. E. doth not know and all the four before mentioned he saith he hath examined and treateth largely upon them all wherein he goeth about and giveth grounds and divers reason and divers Iuterpretations of Scriptures he layes wast all the former three and establisheth as he thinks the fourth as to be that way and rule and Judge and governing power to deside all doubts as that whereby all are obliged to submit unto as to Christ himself and this was that question which he was to gain satisfaction in and therefore he saith he ceased to enquire of their Doctrine or this or that article of faith and hang altogether upon this point before mentioned Answ. 'T is true it is granted by all that there must be a way and a rule as the means appointed of God to answer all doubts and to give satisfaction to every man of the certainty of that which he believes and who this way and judge and rule is every one ought to be satisfied and the four heads into which thou hath collected the whole Controversie of all dissenting Judgments in Christianity takes up the whole as to this particular which have ordinarily been holden forth among Christians But I judge thou dealt not wisely in thy Inquisition and search for satisfaction to hing all on this pin but rather to have examined further as concerning matter of Doctrine and matters of Faith held forth most especially of this party to whom thou was so much inclined and see how thou could have swallowed down that Doctrine of Purgatory and sacrifice for the Dead and Justification by a Man 's own works and of Bread and Wine after the words of Consecration by the Priest is Transubstantiated into the very body and blood of Christ and becomes whole God their Saviour and Redeemer for these are principal things either greatly necessary to Salvation or greatly unnecessary and when thou had tryed and found these to be so repugnant unto the Doctrine and faith once delivered among the Saints in the first Plantation of the Gospel this might have put a stop unto thee that thou could not so easily close with their judgment and pretended infallibility who pretends to be only guids and yet leads into the greatest errors in matters of greatest moment But as to the four particulars mentioned I shall not stand to trouble either my self or the Reader as to speak much what of that which is no part of my faith or judgment but only to vindicate the truth against the many false conceptions of changable men And first of all R. E. begins to treat of the spirit and perverts the Scripture at his first on-set and saith as touching the spirit bearing witness in secret with our spirits or as he saith in plainer terms the private spirit this saith R. E. I considered could not be the means to convey faith unto the World nor the rule guide or judge which I enquired after nor indeed the true spirit of God which he promised to his Apostles Secondly Those who pretend this guidance do not believe God but themselves only and their own perswasions which tell them they have the spirit of God but they can give no other account but they

not at all as Material in this thing seeing they have had the reports from other hands and Pens of certain Monkish stories which they have found scattered here and there published themselves and left their fables upon record to deceive poor people withal for their own advantage and most of the Miracles that we hear of is either wrought about your Tombes and Sepulchres and your holy Mass and your Relicks and Images I have heard of indeed how that from the skirt of an Image of yours one in a Bloody Flux did but touch and immediately vertue came from it and water and blood issued forth wherby the party was made whole by washing therin also I have heard of the Image of the Virgin Mary first honored by Christians in Nazareth afterwards translated into Slavonia when Images began to be villified there and disesteemed it removed it self from place to place as discontent did arise in it it seems at the place and people where it was situated sometimes and at last it removed a whole Island with it nearer Rome now call'd Lorreta and commonly known by the name of our Lady of Laretta to which all the Pilgrims and Monks commonly and frequently go to confess their sins and to receive Absolutions before they came to Rome and so continues to this day I cannot forget indeed the notable Miracle wrought by Austin the Monk of which R. E. glories so in wrought at Cometon in Oxfordshire touching the Doctrine of due payment of Tythes a profitable Doctrine to Austin and his Monks the first Bishop of Canterhury confirmed by a Miracle and such as it is you shall have it About the year 600. as it is said Austin comes to preach at Cometon in Oxfordshire the Priest of the place complains to him how that the Lord of the Manner would not pay his Tythes Austin questioning the Lord about the fault in his Devotion be stoutly answered that the tenth sheaf doubtless was his that had the Intrest in the 9th and therefore would pay none presently Austin denounces him excommunicate and turning to the Alter to say Mass publickly forbad that any excommunicated person should be present there suddenly a dead Corps that had been buried at Church door arose and went out of the Church and stood while the Mass continued which ended Austin comes to this living or dead whether you will and charges him in the name of God to declare who he was he tells him that in the time of the Brittish state hujus villi Patteronus and although he had often urged by the Doctrine of the Priest to pay his Tythes yet he never could be brought to it for the which after be was dead he saith was carried to Hell Austin desired to know where the Priest that excommunicated him was baried this dead shewed him the place where he makes an Invocation of the dead Priest and bids him arise because they wanted his help the Priest rises Austin asks him if he knew that other that was risen he tells him yes but wishes he had never known him for saith he he was in all things ever adverse to the ●hurch and a detainer of his Tythes a great sinner to his death and therefore I excommunicated him But Austin declares that it was fit mercy should be used towards him and that he had suffered long in Hell for his offence you must suppose the Author meant Purgatory wherefore he gives him an Absolution sends him to his grave where he fell again to dust and ashes he gone the Prist new risen tells that his Corpes had lyen there about 170. years and Austin would gladly have had him to have continued on earth again for instruction of souls but could not thereto intreat him so he also returns to his former lodging the Lord of the Town standing by all this while and trembling was now demanded if he would pay his Tythes but he presently fell down at Austin's feet weeping and confessing his offence and submits to pay Tythes and receives pardon and became all his life time a follower of Austin Besides the common Legend of our Saints it is in some Volumes put alone for a most observable Miracle and it is found to be bound up at the end of the Ms. Life of Tho. Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury written by John Degrandesono and it remains in the pvblick Library of Oxford there also it is related in Johannes Anglicus his History Aurea besides Selden in his History of Tythes makes mention of it and in the 274. page of his Book And as concerning the Miracles which is reported by certain Jesuits which was done in the West-Indies by them of that Society after they had converted to the Christian faith as they call it in confirmation of their Doctrine they write of great Miracles that was wrought by them how that with holy water they had calmed the Sea in great tempests and with holy water they had driven Mice out of the Country and how that by holy water they had made barren Women to bear Children See Copes Dialogve the first page the 18. And many devised and fained Miracles is storied among you and kept up to deceive and blind the people withal dead Images have been forced to sweat to weep to laugh and to shift themselves from place to place and as among the Pamins and Infidels the Image of Jupiter was able by art to cry aloud let all Christians be banished the Country Euseb. lib. 8. Even so among the false Christians Images have been able to speak whatsoever his Keeper or Sexton listeth and the Image of our Lady hath been able to attend her own Candle and other Images hath been able to heal all Diseases believe it who can Nicholaus saith in the Church of God the Priests often times deceive the people with fained Miracles for Lucres sake and thus the World hath been borne in hand that Images were not only bare Images but had some secret devine power hidden within them but I shall conclude and say as Hirome saith the truth of Christ shall devour and consume the falshood of Antichrist and all his fained Miracles and lying wonders and inchantments and sorceries with which he hath deceived the Nations Alexander Hales saith p. 4. qua 53. men the 4. in the Sacrament it self there appears flesh sometime by the conveyance of men and sometime by the working of the Devil And hath not R. E. heard or read of a certain Catholick of theirs and no Lay-man neither not many ages ago that did penance at Pauls Cross and made a publick confession of his dissimulation when he pricked his finger and made it bleed when he gave that which youcall your Eucharist or sacrament of the Alter as you call it unto the people to delude them making them believe that as the phrase is Christ by Miracle had conveyed his blood into the bread after the words of Consecration but enough of this hath been said by others and written