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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	evil_a	good_a	tree_n	33,809	5	11.7409	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19675	The three conformities. Or The harmony and agreement of the Romish Church with gentilisme, Iudaisme and auncient heresies. VVritten in French by Francis de Croy G. Arth. and newly translated into English. Seene, perused and allowed; Trois conformités. English	Cro, François de.; Hart, William, fl. 1620.	1620 (1620)	STC 6098; ESTC S121926	188,823	318

them from the Kingdome of God We and you are ordained to be contraries You call vs Hereticks and wee returne againe this title vnto you like a ball in the Tennis-court Who will beleeue you Who will beleeue vs There is no difficulty here let vs examine the doctrines let vs search diligently for that which is true That is true saith a certaine Father which is the first that is first which is from the beginning and that is from the beginning which is from the Apostles Wee haue this true this first this beginning the doctrine of the Apostles which is the Anchor of our Faith There will nothing remaine for you therefore but the last and false to wit the dregges of heresie Yet doe you not cease to reproach vnto vs that we haue renued and as it were drawne out of hell many old Heresies which as you exclaime we haue broached in these latter times and haue insinuated them into the beleefe of men for Euangelicall doctrines And to the end that none should thinke that you had spoken idlely and without reason you set downe their number and if you might be trusted there is no scab or sore of the auncient Hereticks whereon we haue not rubbed our selues It is after this manner that you tickle your selues to make you laugh and when you haue spent all your force whether it be in sleight or eloquence to rouse vp the implicite faith of your flockes you thinke it is enough and that we haue nothing to reply thereto Wee deplore the heresies and haue the register thereof in our memorie to the intent that we may beware of the same Epiphanius gathereth to the number of 80. S. Austin reckoneth eight more Philastrius more yet And before these Ireneus and Tertullian made some catalogues In reading of them we haue found matter enough against you because we haue learned and bee not offended that you are fellowes and fauourers of those who through their Heresies sought to destroy the Church How then can it be possible that we are their companions Thereupon you pay those of your side not with reason or with any likelyhood but with false calumnies against such as withstand you and to this end you picke out certaine Heresies at your pleasure which you say haue beene as it were renued and restored againe by those great Heralds the restorers of true piety which haue gone before vs in the reformation of the Church This little Preface shall declare the contrary and such Christian soules as are mildely disposed shall be iudges of our right and of your wrong Ireneus saith of the Simonians that they taught that men were saued through the mercy of Simon and that workes were not necessary vnto saluation from whom Eunomius hath not gone farre who witnesse S. Austin g did hold the opinion that men could take no harme by sinne how great soeuer it were prouided that their faith had not fayled Bellarmine accuseth Luther for consenting to these follies being followed by Caluin Brencius and others who verily confessed that good workes were the effects of Faith but denyed that they could merit life euerlasting The learned treatises which haue beene compiled by our writers on this subject should haue serued for phisicke vnto your eye-sight and should haue taken the moate out of your eyes that you might behold the truth against your preiudicate doctrine Wee will not doe you so much wrong as to debauch them from your companie that we may draw them to our side Then let them remaine still there in a good time we denounce them accursed Those infamous persons wallowed themselues in all manner of crimes No thing as they thought could hurt them if they had acknowledged Simon Magus to bee the chiefe way vnto saluation Haue you found any thing in our Churches like vnto this Simon reiected all manner of vertuous and iust workes as superfluous wee acknowledge them as necessary but not as meritorious for grace can get no entry there where merits haue taken place already We abhorre Eumenius likewise We confesse the separation of faith from good workes to bee more impossible then to separate the beames and light from the Sunne And what doe you finde worthy to be censured whiles we teach that sinne cannot hurt him that hath the act of Faith You couer your selues with the ambiguity of this word Faith whereby you vnderstand nothing but a simple knowledge of the doctrine and a naked insight in Religion and not this certaine perswasiou that the iust man liues by his Faith Truth it is that the sinnes which make vs guilty before God doe astonish vs but we say in like manner that they are not imputed vnto vs and that they are couered through the iustice of the sonne of God and mediator Christ Iesus Also you would haue vs to bee fellowes withone Florinus and to say with him that God is the author of sinne an heresie which Vincent de Lirin did likewise attribute vnto Simon Magus For an answere hereunto Bellarmine is your oracle it sufficeth if he hath said so to you This assertion saith Ireneus is more then heresie Shall we therefore defend the same Truely all things moue vnder the prouidence of God The wicked and their sinnes are not exempted from this celestiall power and gouernement Is God therefore the cause of sinne Fie on this blasphemie It is not he that inspireth man with wickednesse this worke is of the Diuell The Butt that wee ayme at discerneth the actions The scope of mens euill actions is nothing but rebellion and contempt of the Creator and by the contrarie God aymeth onely at the execution of his immoueable and eternall decree The good and the bad Trees being nourished both with one manner of iuice in the same soyle and place are different notwithstanding in their fruites Who can blame the ground Let vs therefore exeeme God from the imputation of iniquitie and let vs not play the Marcionists Origen thought that Adam through his fall had altogether lost the image of God whereunto he was created in his originall vprightnesse and that Hell was nothing else but a terror of Conscience You doe inclose Caluin within the compasse of the same errors and are not ashamed to cite those places which you vnderstand amisse and interpret worse that you may make him bee detested like an Hereticke Wee abhorre both the one and the other reauing of Origine Caluin speaketh not so grosly he saith indeede that the image of God is not altogether defaced that there are many remnants left vnto vs after this ship-wracke the reason the vnderstanding and other naturall gifts This wee affirme with Caluin that those supernaturall graces wherewith God had honoured man were quenched and lost as the wisedome which made vs to know God the righteousnesse which pushed vs forward vnto a voluntarie obedience of his commandements and holinesse

our God And therein Peacocke-like doth iett But in De Croys Conformities You may his errours plainely see Where all his foule deformities To life discou'red fully bee Obiection vnto the former SONNET VVHat the Church of Christ may it be sedus't And can it erre and can't so foully faile When Christ himselfe hath said Deuill nor hell Should haue no powr'e the faith though small t'assaile Answere Know that the church two waies may be cōceiu'd The one aptly to speake doth comprehend None but Gods children such as he elects And seales and gratiously will defend The other doth containe both good and bad Is that you see here in the world belowe Which erres so oft as Sathan it doth heare And by an euill life the same doth showe The first doth neuer erre for shee attends The sweete voice of her spouse to vnderstand The last may euer erre and be deceiu'd For in foule blacke blindnesse she loues to stand To those of the Romish CHVRCH YOu Romane Catholicks who sees this work I' st possible that it you can behould And cannot marke that horrible inchaunt Wherein bewitching Sathan doth you hould If the Apostles those most holy men Should now into the world againe returne Would neuer thinke that Christians you were Because al means might teach you truth you shun I speake and pronounce this not bitterly I speake it with a godly louing zeale Your pietie of which you make such bragges No warrant hath your grieuous sinnes to heale For you in humane merits firme your trust And that 's your anchors-hould and not in him Who sets you free from the eternall death And is the onely ransome for your sinne Antichrist by little and little and by craft And subtill shifts into the Church is slid And in Gods holy Temple now at last He sits in pompe trusting there still to byd It was often foretold that he should come And for our sinnes this reuolt was suffr'ed And that there must of meere necessitie Great and most blind errours be permitted Yea so ordain'd by our most puissant God That his most sacred Church should be opprest For a time in the bonds of Papacie For so long time as he would thinke it best But from these crooked and peruersed wayes Full of dreadfull and most deadly darknesse God hath bin pleased through his great bountie Vs for to draw and eke with peace to blisse Euen so Christ our Lord and Ionas were The figures of Gods Church in these last dayes For one was dead the other prisoner Christ in tombe Ionas in the fish he prayes Lift vp your eyes with speed behould this light Which shines in you and Iesus Christ imbrace By liuely faith cast off those euill Sp'rits Which makes you scorne Gods word to your disgrace Christ is the truth the way and onely life The Churches most deare spouse run then amaine And by a constant faith liue chast to him His company brings comfort that 's your gaine THE PREFACE To those of the Romish CHVRCH MY Masters who would discerne true coyne from that which is adulterated will not content himselfe with looking on the superscription the stamp colour roundnesse thereof but going on a little farther will come to the triall of the substance of the mettall will take the touchstone and draw thereon to examine the goodnesse or insufficiencie thereof Euen so to discerne true Religion from false and to know the Church of Iesus Christ in this confusion of so many that are like thereunto we must not be contented with the iudgement of the Church which you call representatiue but we ought to goe straight on to the onely Scriptures which are the foundation and pillers of the true cause in matters that concerne Religion And if we had stayed there we should not see at this day such horrible confusions in Christendome neither yet this mixture of cockle with good corne and there would remaine nothing but pure wheat in the garnar and store-house of the Church And would to God that some of the auncient Bishops could haue contented themselues with the marches established by the holy Ghost the greatest part of the world should not now be wandering in the auncient pathes and footsteps of Gentilisme against which the Apostles and many other infinite numbers of the most excellent and worthie men haue foughten and obtained the victorie through shedding of their bloud Should not this exquisite ballance square and canon of the Scripture this rule of right and veritie haue beene sufficient to teach vs whatsoeuer belongeth to the whole perfection of our beleefe We ought not to haue beene ignorant of these beautifull markes of antiquitie That there is no other proofe of Christian Religion but by the Scriptures if any controuersie arise where to find the bodie that is to say the Church that it ought not to be sought amongst our words but amongst his words who is the truth and knoweth his bodie to wit Iesus Christ. It was thither that the Bishops should haue led the Gentils to teach them to worship one onely God to make them turne from their old superstitions and idolatrous customes by the violence whereof they haue beene forced to worship their false Gods and creatures and should not haue giuen way to so many things which are so farre from hauing any warrant in the holy Scriptures that they are meerly contradictory thereunto It is after this manner that it hath seemed good vnto the wisedome of man to iest and play with the high and holy mysteries of true Religion It is after this manner that thinking onely to winke at things and that through tolerating of the lesser euill to eschew greater inconuenience this holy spring of Christian pietie hath beene infected by the filthie mud of Paganisme from whence those deludges haue proceeded which haue ouerwhelmed some fundamentall points of our saluation And would to God that those zealous ones without knowledge had taught their Neophytes to thinke it abhomination to suffer themselues to be led away by degrees vnto such things as at first seemed pleasant we should not see at this day such pestilent doctrine neither yet those superstitions and ridiculous ceremonies which haue caused as well in times past as in these dayes so many troubles in Christendome But this is their reward who haue chosen to preferre the Church to the Scripture and man to God as if it were more expedient to find out the head by the proofe and testimony of the members then the members by the testimonie of the head I am exceeding sorie to consider that when the time of appearing before the tribunall seate of God shall come the damned Gentiles shall know their markes and liueries on you and that in great aboundance as this present table of your conformities vnto their fashions and customes shall clearely and faithfully beare record But let vs examine how this filthinesse hath corrupted that beautie that was among you Those poore Gentils liuing vnder the Empire of Constantine the