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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	catholic_a	church_n	communion_n	2,376	5	9.1446	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07344	An antidote against popery confected out of scriptures, fathers, councels, and histories. Wherein dialogue-wise are shewed, the points, grounds, and antiquitie of the Protestant religion; and the first springing vp of the points of popery: together with the Antichristianisme thereof. Being alone sufficient to inable any Protestant of meane capacitie, to vnderstand and yeeld a reason of his religion, and to incounter with and foyle the aduersary. By Iohn Mayer, B.D. and pastor of the Church of little Wratting in Suffolke.	Mayer, John, 1583-1664.	1625 (1625)	STC 17729; ESTC S102861	69,172	94

it is agreed by all that beare the name of Christians but onely those particulars about which there is difference Serg. Paul I am also resolued by that which I haue heard from thee heretofore of all that is generally held by all Christians that there is one God which made and gouerneth the whole world who is a spirit incomprehensible and comprehending all things and one Lord Iesus Christ perfect God and perfect Man who dyed for our sinnes c. Tell me therefore onely what particular points of faith are held by the Protestants but contradicted by others Saul The first is that God onely is to be beleeued in and not any man of what title or succession so euer nor yet any company of men called the Church Rom. 3.4 because God only is true and all men are lyers neither doth the Apostles Creed propound any other to beleeued in but God onely Serg. Paul What doe you say that the Church is not to be beleeued in Is it not expressely said I beleeue in the holy Catholike Church Saul It is indeed said I beleeue the holy Catholike Church but not in it because the Catholike Church that is the Church of God being in all ages and ouer-spreading all parts of the world is an obiect of faith and not of sense forasmuch as by sense and experience wee cannot know this but by faith onely as wee apprehend the Communion of Saints forgiuenesse of sinnes and the life euerlasting Of all which the same is said that of the Catholike Church seeing there is but one Verbe I beleeue after which they all follow So that if hence it might bee gathered that the Church is to bee beleeued in it may likewise be gathered that the remission of sinnes and the refurrection of the body c. are to bee beleeued in which vvere absurd Serg. Paul What is the second particular point Saul The second is that Christ Iesus is our onely Mediator and Aduocate with the Father in Heauen neither is it lawfull to come to the Father by any other but by him and in his name alone and that the Saints departed out of this life know not of our seeking their mediation if wee should craue it Serg. Paul Is the Lord so strict that by him wee are thus restrained from all Mediators in Heauen and yet directeth vs to craue the helpe of others vpon earth to pray for vs Saul It is the voice of Gods own Spirit There is one God 1. Tim. 2.5 and one Mediator betwixt God and Man of whom onely and of none else mention is made sundry times as Ioh. 14. Ioh. 16 Rom. 8. 1 Ioh. 2. As for that direction to craue the prayers of men vpon earth it is that by hauing mutuall help one from another our mutuall loue might increase which cannot be in crauing their mediation in Heauen seeing howsoeuer our loue may increase towards them yet theirs is already fully perfect But to insist vpon nothing else they cannot heare vs as the liuing doe and if they heare it is kept secret from vs neither hath the Lord spoken one word to direct vs to them without which who so seeketh to them may iustly haue the complaint taken vp against him Ier 14.14 Hee runneth before he is sent Serg. Paul What is the third particular point Saul The third is that we are iustified and saued only by faith in Iesus Christ and that our workes euen when we are at the best merit nothing towards our eternall glorification For to this effect speaketh the Lord. Luke 17.10 When yee haue done all that ye can say that yee are vnprofitable seruants And Saint Paul A man is iustified by faith Rom. 3.28 without the workes of the Law Serg. Paul Is not the worke of him that hath faith then of more vertue then his that hath none Is he not Christs member and so Christs vertue his vertue that as in Christs actions so in his there should be merit Saul The workes of the best are of no more vertue to merit because hee is still a seruant and bound in duty to what hee doth whereas merit implyeth doing more then duty requireth And as for Christs vertue communicated vnto him it is sufficient that he is made thus worthy though not his works seeing perfect blessednesse is already fully merited by Christ for him neither is there need of any more merit Serg. Paul Can hee be said to be iustified then that hath no workes but resteth vpon a bare faith Saul No by no meanes for faith which iustifieth worketh by loue is liuely by workes as the bodie by the soule Wherefore Saint Iames writing against such a faith as is without workes Iam. ● 24 saith A man is not iustified by faith onely but by the workes of the Law That is hee is not become iust and righteous in the sight of God that hath a single and bare faith but proueth his faith sound by his workes For that he disputeth not of faith which is the sauing grace wrought in the hearts of the Elect but of a common faith of which euen Deuils are capable is plaine from the Text. For onely that common faith is the faith of which he saith A man is not iustified by faith onely Serg. Paul What is the fourth particular point Saul The fourth is that faith assureth a man without wauering or doubting of the remission of his sinnes and of eternall saluation Rom. 4.20 For such was Abrahams faith Hee doubted not through vnbeliefe but strengthened himself in faith And that faith which is ioyned with wauering in any man is like the waues of the Sea Iam. 1.6 Serg. Paul This is much that man should come to know so farre what the will of God is touching his future estate It may be that some singular man as Abraham or the holy Apostles might surely know by reuelation because they had more then ordinary acquaintance with God but for other beleeuers I cannot see how they should know though they may all hope well Saul There is great reason why any faithfull person should know this because hee hath receiued the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.12 which knoweth Gods will euen as the spirit within a man knoweth his minde Serg. Paul But seeing euery man is apt to conceiue the best of himselfe and naturall presumption ofttimes assureth a man of his saluation how shall he know that it is the spirit whereby hee commeth to be thus assured and not his owne partiall fantasie Saul It is a great indignitie to the Lord when as he hath taught vs Rom 8.16 that his Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God to question whether this testimonie can be knowne for wherefore serueth the testimonie of any if it be vnknowne Many indeed doe through their own fault deceiue themselues because being void of the spirit of sanctification they presume But hee that is renued in his mind vnto holinesse can

fall into the ditch Onely the iudgement of the Leader shall be greater especially if in sinister respects his conscience being conuicted by the truth he doth yet persist in vpholding errour as experience hath taught that many of them haue done Serg. Paul It standeth with good reason that they which wittingly preferre errour should beare the burthen of it but methinkes such as are mis-led by them following their conscience should not perish for many of them serue God according to their profession with a good heart Saul Errour is of that nature as that it is damnable in whomsoeuer First because it is contrary to truth which sanctifieth and maketh free For so the Lord hath prayed Ioh. 17.17 Ioh. 8.32 Sanctifie them by thy Truth and hath pronounced the truth shall make you free Wherefore contrariwise errour polluteth and enthralleth and so debarreth from entring heauen Reuel 22. because no vncleane thing shall enter there and the bond-woman shall bee cast out with her children Secondly Gal. 4. because it is a iudgement vpon those onely that perish and are damned to haue their eyes blinded and to bee giuen ouer to delusions as I haue shewed 2 Cor. 4.4 2 Thes 2.11 Thirdly because God is truth and the Deuill is a lyar and therefore by error the minde is out of the way to God and can neuer enioy him but is in the right way to the Deuill Serg. Paul Any one of these reasons is sufficient to proue their wofull case But may there not be any meanes found out to reconcile these two Religions by yeelding somewhat on both sides and by laying aside austeritie and strangenesse and by putting on lenity and familiaritie one towards another Saul In all the particular points of difference I haue made it plaine that we are in the truth as therefore if wee would not goe from God we must not go from any of these things either in faith or practice● for ●hat were but to yeeld to accompany them in the way to perdition and not to doe any thing aduantageous to their soules Wherefore they must yeeld vnto vs and as we haue already done come out of this Babel of errours and superstitions if euer they will inioy true peace and comfort to Godward In the meane season if gentle and perswasiue meanes would doe them any good they haue them in greater measure then they could expect considering their forepassed cruelty and rigour but for familiaritie and bosome friendship it is expressely against that charge Tit. 3.10 An Hereticke after once or twice admonition auoid Serg. Paul I thanke you most heartily for this light which you haue giuen vnto me and I thanke God who sent you vnto me by whose grace I resolue to liue and dye in the faith which you haue declared and after no other manner to worship God And for this you shall no more be called Saul but because I count you my best friend in the world and so another very selfe you shall be called after mine owne name Paul because I know not otherwise how to expresse how nearely to my heart I haue placed you for your good instructions this day giuen vnto me Elymas Most excellent and worthy Gouernor I am sorie to heare that a man of your place and wisdome should haue his eares and minde so much abused by the seducing words of an Arch-hereticke Is your Church the onely True Church of God and is the Church of the Catholikes a false Church or none at all Oh God what will not these men perswade vnto Is it not manifest to all the world that yee are a company of Heretikes and Schismaticks and a Church but of yesterday or since Luthers time at the most Was God without a Church till your faction began What impudencie is this to abuse Noble Gouernours of Countreys thus by drawing them from the Catholike Church of Rome that hath euer been famous through the world for constant cleauing to the Christian Religion Paul Thou bewitching Sophister and beguiler of simple soules is is knowne to all men that this is your vsuall false slander of our Church and the chiefe string to your Bow so that when yee haue nothing else to fay your refuge still is the old Religion the old Religion what will ye forsake the old Religion for a new But to follow you and beat you with your owne weapon Be it knowne that the reformed Religion is the old Religion indeed and the present religion of the Church of Rome a new religion of which this noble person present shall be iudge seeing you haue prouoked me to enter these lists with you Elymas I am content that either he or any man shal iudge herein betweene vs and if you can proue what you haue s●yd I will lose the day Paul I proue it therefore thus The Religion commended to vs by Gods Spirit in the holy Scriptures is the old Religion and that whereof men of later times are authors is new in comparison of it But the reformed is thus commended to vs as I haue already fully declared and the Religion of the present Church of Rome is from men of latter times Ergo. Elymas Neither is the Protestant Religion commended in the holy Scriptures nor the Roman Catholike Religion inuented by man since For as much as you bragge of the Scriptures you haue not one plaine sentence in your owne Bible for any one point of your Religion without adding altering or glossing vpon it as is your vsuall manner And for our Religion shew if you can when and by whom those points which you call errors were inuented for wee hold that all things haue euer since the Apostles times been thus Paul I maruell that you and your fellow whosoeuer hee was that wrote the book blasphemously intituled The gag for the Gospell are not ashamed so boldly to charge vs that we haue not one plaine place of Scripture What is that saying of our Lord Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Mat. 4.10 Doe not both the words and the circumstances plainly make for vs denying to fall downe and worship any but God otherwise Christ had not spoken so appositè to Satan bidding him to fall downe and worship him What is that command Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image c. And againe Deut. 4.15 Take good heed vnto your selues for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake vnto you in Ho●eb lest you corrupt your selues and make you a grauen image the similitude of any figure c. What is this saying There is one God 1. Tim. 2.4 2. Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 and one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Iesus and this Wee are not sufficient of our selues to thinke a good thought as of our selues and this God worketh in you the will and the deed of his own good pleasure with many more text● before alleaged which I spare to repeat

to your colourable Heresies I say that all which you haue produced to disgrace the Catholike Religion as nouell are nothing but cauils For if our Religion be new and so faire degenerated as that the foundation is hereby ouerthrowne there was no Religion and so no true Church of God in the world for many hundred yeares seeing by your owne confession the Church which was aboue 1000 or 1300 yeares agoe had many customes and held many things which you doe not at this day And with what face then can you alledge them as being on your side so commonly as you doe as though your Church were all one with theirs when as it is plaine to any that will vnderstand that they are our Fathers and not yours and such as suffered death our Martyrs sealing vp with their blood the Romane Cathohke Religion and not your new deuised way of seruing God without crossing Chrysme Holy water Prayers for the dead deuotion to the Saints c. and full of carnall liberty in all things pleasing to the flesh as mariages of Priests and worldly liuing of all without any renouncing of secular affaires for the seruice of God and repenting only with a little griefe no workes of penance being after required with many other points of licentiousnesse If any held with this Religion in all these points tell who they were when and where they liued if you can till within these hundred yeares and that is as late as the newest of our points to grant you your owne saying Paul Neuer were any so iustly to bee taxed for cauilling as you for what can it else bee when all your points in that manner you hold them haue beene plainly shewed to bee new to fly to this generall reason for euasion The Church in the time of these ancients was the same with ours in all matters of faith as I haue fully declared neither can a few ceremonies since more corrupted and therefore by vs abolished estrange our Church from theirs no more then the breaking downe of the brasen Serpent and seruing God without it in Hezekiahs dayes estranged the Church then from the Church in the time of Moses As for the holy Martyrs it is a most vaine bragge that they sealed your Religion with their blood which was not then in question It was rather our Religion that they sealed seeing they commonly suffered for such zeale to Christ as that together with him they would not worship Idols as we also refuse to doe For holding the same points with vs in euery particular it is not necessary to shew any that did it is sufficient to proue our Religion true and Apostolicall to haue shewed the rising vp of all those rites that we ahue done away to haue beene long after the Apostles dayes And for carnall liberty whereby you seeke to disgrace the truth herein you blaspheme the very liberty of the Gospell after the manner of the malicious Pharisees who cryed out vpon Christ Behold a glution and drinker of wine a friend of Publicans and sinners When hee did no more then hee might in taking liberty herein For euen so wee maintaine liberty of mariage to all men and reiect your superstitious austerities because mariage is honourable amongst all men and wee would not through a multitude of obseruances make Christs easie yoake and light burden heauy Heb. 13.4 like to that vnder the Law of which Saint Peter complaineth that it was such that neither we nor our Fathers were able to beare Act. 15.10 And if experience may be heard this your taking vpon you to be stricter then God shall bee abundantly conuinced to opon a farre wider gap to licentiousnesse seeing all he world ringeth of the carnality vncleannesse and dissolutenesse of your very votaries and Priests and of Rome it selfe aboue all And it is obserued that your very Confessions and appointments of penance is turned into a fountaine of liberty seeing more rioes and disorders are against the time of shrift in Italy comitted then all the yeare before Serg. Paul But can you not show any that were of your reformed Religion for substance and matter of faith from the time of the ancient Fathers till Luther That was a very long distance of time of about 1000 yeares Doe you hold that God was without a true visible Church all this time Paul God was neuer without a true Church neither was she hid long at any time For till the Pope was made an Idoll and idolatry with Images and with the Masse tooke place in the Church and the Virgin Mary was made ioynt mediator with Christ it was a true Church which was till about Anno 700. And when the Latine Church was by these abhominations corrupted the Greek Church still continued more sound for they withstood the Popes supremacy opposed images held no transubstantiation neither subscribed to the points maintained by the Romanists till the Councell of Florence Anno 1439 at what time I haue also shewed how much this subscription was mis-liked by the body of that Church So that if no where else yet in Grecia the true Church was to be found till then But there wanted not oppugners of Images and of the Popes supremacy in other places at the same times The Councell of Franckford was famous for determining against Images as I haue also declared Betweene 700 and Anno 800 Albertus Gallus a French Bishop opposed himselfe against the Pope in his Legate Boniface Hist Magd. Cent. 8. c. 10. and with him one Clemens a presbyter and Saemson who were therefore excommunicated by the Pope and imprisoned And about the same time Iohan Mailrosius and Claudius Clemens sent from Scotland first Professors of learning in the Vniuersity of Paris denyed to subscribe to the Romish superstitions Betweene 800 and 900 Claudius Taurinensis Bishop of Thurin in Piemont denyed the Pope to bee an Apostolike Bishop for he is not sayd he an Apostolike Bishop that sitteth in the Apostolike chaire but that fulfilleth an Apostolike office Whights way to the Church p. 386. He cast images out of the Church and impugned the worshipping of the crosse About that time were Ioh. Scotus also and Bertram that denyed the reall presence Anno 847. Thergandus Bishop of Treniris inueighed against Pope Nicolas calling him Antichrist Auentin Reginold lib. 2. for which he was excommunicated and afterwards staine Betweene An. 900 and ●000 Otho impugned the supremacy Uhite ibid. and Arnulphus called the Pope Antichrist Betweene An. 1000 and 1100 Berengarius impugned the reall presence of whom I haue already spoken About that time Leaskerius an Archbishop in France was of the same opinion Berweene An. 1100 and 1200. A certaine Bishop of Florence preached Hist Magd. Cent. 12. that Antichrist vvas come in the time of Pascalis the second Also one Francis an Abbor and Petrus do Beuis a Priest impugned the reall presence with many other Popish points and Bernard is famous for many points against Popery