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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	church_n	heaven_n	peter_n	4,199	5	7.9041	4	true

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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

Consciences whatsoever they say though never so contradictory to the Primitive Doctrine delivered in Christ and the Apostles days yet all must be received upon pain of Damnation as R. E. saith and this he calls the Visible Church and the infallible Judge and Rule and Directer and hath laid wast the Office of Christ and turned the spirit out of doors and made it ineffectual and would perswade all others to look to this from the true Foundation and so is a Deceiver and an Antichrist Again we have this to say he that teaches a contrary Doctrine then that which was once delivered unto the Saints is a Deceiver and deceived and this was Christs Doctrine once deliverud unto the Saints Swear not at all and love your enemies pray for them that persecute you do good to them that hate you And many more precepts which this visible Guide to wit the Roman Church holds not but hath made void First it teacheth its Members to swear and again gives absolutions to remit them of their Oath if she think fit and both must be reckoned infallible and them that are your enemies instead of praying for them you curse them and instead of doing good to them you hate them and stirs up all your strength against them to destroy them instead of convincing of them in love and sound judgment Instance the days of King John and divers other Princes which felt your fury and wrath and also Frederick the Emperour after he was Interdicted was made to go to Rome to before the Popes Palace and to stand bare foot and bare leg with his Wife and Child two or three days in Winter waiting for Peters Successor his Absolution But it may be thou wilt say this was in love to them and in charity to their souls but let all unbyassed spirits judge and whether have not you when you have been the strongest party made force violence and success your greatest engine and plea to plead with all Nations and whatsoever people that dissented from you either in matter or form instance Germany Bohemia Moravia and divers other Kingdoms and Provinces besides the Indians in America which you destroyed chiefly for their Gold and Treasure under this pretence that they were Infidels and forced a faith upon some and a belief by the violence of your cruelty and swords which made the Noble Man of India say he had rather go to Hell with the Infidels of America as you called them then to Heaven with the Spaniards so cruel a people members of your Catholick Church what might I speak of the King of Castile against the poor Moors of Grandia who were put to cruel torments by force and violence which is a reproach upon this sort of Christianity unto this day and what persecution was raised against the Peddamount Christians by the force of this infallible Judg falsly so called and what Massacres in France and also in Ireland in latter years propagated by the Popes Nuncio a chief Embassadour from the Roman Sea to carry on that design to root out the Hereticks what destruction of people in a most barbarous inhumane preposterous and prodigeous cruelty some killed in the their beds some knocked in the head like Oxen some stripped naked in cold winter and bereaved of all their enjoyments and driven as sheep naked to the shambles and at last driven by scores into Lakes and Rivers and drowned some burned alive in their Houses some tender women strangled in Childbed and their tender Infants taken from their Mothers breasts and tossed upon Spears points and to my knowledg license and pardons given and sent from Rome to divers of their Emissaries there that it should be lawful for any servant or Catholick bondman to steal wast and purloyn their Masters Goods if Hereticks for the weakening and disenabling of them to resist the Roman enterprise begun these things and many more are legable in bloody Characters which I hope this Generation will not easily blot out of their memories so as to commit all faith all hope all religion and all infallibility and judgment to such a degenerated Generation as R. E. would have us do and with such audaciousness is not ashamed to blow his trumpet as in the head of an host to animate and encourage all to come to this black Standard for protection and direction judgment certainty and infallibility under no less then pain of Damnation and why but because Peter was sometime Bishop of Rome as they say and had given unto him the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever he bound on Earth was bound in Heaven and whatsoever he loosed on Earth was loosed in Heaven and because Christ said giving answer to Peters faith upon this Rock I will build my Church therefore all the Bishops and Popes as heires apparent succeeds him in laying claim to headship and doth none of his office nor none of his work and this foolish foppery and private interpretation hath been put off at a very great rate for Catholick Doctrine which brings to my mind a pleasant story I have sometime read of a certain poor Man meeting a certain Bishop at a certain time in great pomp and glory which the poor Man beholding took up a Laughter and being enquired of by the Bishop wherefore he laughed said he that Peter should be such a fool as to live such a poor miserable life as he did and persecuted in the world and to leave his Successors so rich to inherit such pomp and glory with that the Bishop replyed and said Thou fool I am not in this glory as I am Bishop of such a place but as I am Duke of such a place at that the Man smiled again and said When the Duke was in Hell for his pride where then would the Bishop be But to let this pass I am sure them that layes claim to be Peters Successors as to Patrimony and Riches which he was never endowed with for sometime he said Silver or Gold have I none but doth little of his work in converting of souls or feeding of the flock of Christ and doth lay claim unto his privilege and power but will not come near him in Doctrine labour and suffering for his Members and therefore I say to thee in thy own words lay aside thy folly with the consequences of it as destructive to the Church of God to hang all their faith upon such uncertainties but even to humane societies which I have mentioned and might instance more but that I would not be tedious to the Reader Lastly Yes some have some other Testimony by which spirits are tryed and may be tryed to be of God otherwise then by force carnal sword a strong party or success that 's thy own and not ours we have the holy Unction which is poured forth whereby the Saints knew all things and tryed the spirits whether they were of God or no and he that confesses not Christ come in the flesh is Antichrist and he

all these and is sufficient to lead out of all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to do that which is acceptable in the sight of God and this all sects since the Woman cloathed with the Sun fled into the Wilderness viz. the true Church and all parties hath laid claim to and excluded all others that were not of their opinion as from having any share in it as though it were given only to such a company of men that succeeded the Apostles and by arts and parts and natural Language in the course and term of years and at such and such places as the Apostles were sometime conversant at and other sects besides you who have kept more nearer in Conformity in Doctrine and Worship and unto the Apostles then you have done they have laid claim to the spirit of God and to the free Grace of God only extending it self to them under such a quallification as though the Spirit of God and free and saving Grace of God had come by Generation or by succession or because of such and such a quallification or conforformity in outward practice as I said as though the free Grace of God and the infallible Spirit of God had been given to you and had been bequeathed and intailed to you or any of you under such and such a denomination and because inhabiting at such a place and thus you would limit the holy one of Israel and to stop the wind to blow where it listeth and circumscribe the infallible means which God hath given unto all Mankind for a direction and a guide a rule and a judge and pinch it up into a narrow corner and yet shut up all under condemnation who do not believe and yet exclude all but your selves from the sufficient meanes and guide and way whereby they may believe away away with this narrow partial pinching spirit for God will not be limited neither can be either to Men time or place but as they keep in Covenant with him and keeps their first love and integrity in the certain truth revealed in the first publication of the Gospel which the Roman Church above all other hath wonderfully apostatised from especially in this one thing which she can never clear her self of to wit Persecution in taking away the lives of many under the name of Hereticks and suppose any had been so as doubtless there are such yet we never read that it was Christ or the Apostles way to kill them and destroy them but on the contrary denyed them and warned others to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them and so left them to the World neither that they exhorted or stired up either Kings or Princes to take away the lives of any who did believe or not believe what as they declared to be truth but on the contrary when the Disciples in the days of their infancy would have commanded fire to have come down from Heaven as did Elias Christ rebuked them and told them they knew not what spirit they were of and again love your enemies and do good to them that hate you How your Catholick Church hath kept this precept I leave all Nations to judge where your power hath been known suppose real Schismaticks and Hereticks as some such there hath been in the world how you have done good to them and how you have loved them is manifest except you judge that shuting them up in Prisons racking tortering and cruel torments and at last of all death was in love to them and in doing good to them which methinks any reasonable man should blush and be ashamed to think or say But an old Plea comes to my mind which some of the members of the Church of Rome hath alledged to me in the days of my youth when I was conversant with them and among them in a friendly neighbourly and sober discourse of things of this nature before mentioned it was said unto me the Roman Catholick Church is that Church whereby Christianity hath been conveyed to all Nations and the great Oraccles thereof delivered unto us and the Scriptures also came from us by which you know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and the knowledg thereof came unto all and all her Children ought to be subject unto her as the true mother that brought them all forth and if any went astray either into Heresie or Schisme which might not only hurt themselves but also others ought not the Mother in natural love to her Children to correct them and ought not they to bear her correction and submit unto it and hath not she power to correct her Children when they go astray unto which is answered Christianity that which is truly such and them whom God will own to be Christians was dispersed through the Nations by the power of God and we say that the Church of Rome hath begotten Christendom into that mould and frame into which they are now cast more by force and awe then any sound Doctrine and as for the Scriptures coming from her that we deny We know they came from the Apostles and from the Primitive Christians according to the will of God and have been preserved to this day though through many polluted hands they have come and we know how much your rage was kindled that ever it should be Translated into the English Tongue and many felt the effect of it to the loss of their Lives as I hope many in England doth well consider But suppose a true Mother have many Children and suppose some do swerve and go astray from her precepts and under pretence of correcting of them she shut them up in Goals and nasty holes and afflict them with sundry kind of torments and at last of all kill them and destroy them what Judgment will be given by reasonable Men of such a Mother but this that she is become unnatural and cruel and hard hearted and degenerated from the nature of a loving and tender Mother and deserves not to have or ever to have had any Children and such a kind of Mother hath your Church been to all that have dissented from her that I may say of her as the Prophet Jeremiah said especially in these latter ages the Sea Monsters and Dragons of the Wilderness draw out their breasts to feed their young ones but the daughter of my people is become cruel Seventhly and lastly We know that God willeth that all Men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth and hath given that and doth give that unto every man that is come into the World whereby every man that doth receive it is capable of fulfilling the will of God and this gift comes not by the will of Man nor is received in the will of Man but in its own will even in the will of the giver and this free gift of God is the free and saving Grace of God which hath appeared unto all Men to wit every man that is come into the World which teaches

understanding of it and they that are without this are like to kill one another about words and names and sounds and titles and jotas but still wants the key that opens and gives an entrance into the knowledg of the things of God which alone is the Spirit of God that gave forth the Scriptures Last of all R. E. after he saith the three former props which is the basis of the whole foundation and glided over as sleightily as he possible could although he hath never stated the matter right indeed as to remove all things out of his way which might hinder him in his cause which he drives so hard on in to wit to set up a certain company or multitude of men visible and universal as he saith to be the only infallible Judge to convey Faith to the World and to be the certain and infallible Judge in all matters that either pertaines to the Worship of God and to be believed under pain of Damnation as his term is all along without questioning at all either their Doctrine or Principles or comparing them with the Doctrine of Christ or Primitive Christians whether they be true or false whether they be with or against but all is to be received by an implisite faith hand over head and by whole sail for it will admit of no examination nor doubt but all must be received of necessity as infallible and upon so great a necessity to as R. E. saith if you will believe him would make it so that all forfeits eternal Salvation for not receiving all the Doctrines of this Church and consequently procures eternal damnation unto themselves who refuse it so that if I should say no more but even lay down his assertions which are scattered up and down his Book called an Epistle to all Nonconformists it were answer enough I hope to many whose mouthes I hope would be filled with arguments and sound and grounded ones too or at least with faith in their hearts to oppugn and not receive all these bold assertions without examination or trial only upon the account of infallibility from the Universal Church of Rome falsly so called but R. E. having removed away all the stumbling blocks which is in his way as he judges the private spirit he hath concluded not to be this rule and judge which I judge he hath no opposers in though he have spent much paper and time in his scribling humour which hath been his manner in former days as he confesseth page the first neither reason nor the Scriptures are this rule and judge but he hath concluded the Catholick Church is but all along he hath waved that which indeed is the only and alone rule and judge infallible viz. the Spirit of God but either calls it the private spirit or concludes it is intailed upon the Church so that she cannot erre page the 54. which I shall say something further unto That there hath been a Church of God and a peculiar people whom God hath singled out as to be objects of his love which feared him in their hearts and bore a Testimony of him and worshipped him according to the manifestation of his Spirit unto them whether by word or revelation which was certain and infallible unto them that received it is granted and this was alwaies but little in comparison of the multitude of the fallen Sons of Adam and the rest of the Nations and people that served and worshipped strange Gods and never made such a boast of universality and visibility as this supposed Catholick Church hath done since the Apostacy entered in which the Apostles foresaw and prophesied off before their departure out of this Tabernacle and since many have believed in Christ and the Worship of the Jewes extinguished and a fatal overthrow of their Civil Government and Kingdom are two main reasons of extinguishing their Worship and hath been no invitation to any to turn Jewes or holden in their worship seeing they have lost their Government and Dominion and are as scattered people without privilege and is no inducement for the World to joyne to them therefore seeing the face of that Government was demolished and their Worship ended but only as to themselves who remained in their unbelief and seeing that the Doctrine of Christ did so far prevail as to extingush it and put out the Glory thereof in the Apostles dayes and sometime afterwards and also the Gentiles Worship and their false Gods and dumb Idols which they were led after the power of God prevailing through the Apostles the Ministers of Righteousness by whom many were converted unto the Faith of Christ the summe and substance of all shadowes many being converted to the Faith did hold forth a publick Testimony and it became in some reputation and many preached him of envy contention and strife and for filthy lucre covetousness and self-ends and many followed their pernicious wayes and yet held the name of Christ and Christianity and thus began the mystery of Iniquity to work and the Devil to turn so far Christian in name only because it was in vain among many to hold forth the Jewes Worship or the Gentiles Worship because they had an inclination another way after Christianity that came into more repute with the World and therefore suffered the name or many to profess it and under this name and under this Cover to bring forth his works of darkness and the fruits of the flesh and the nature of Christ wanting and here was the beginning and rise of your universal visible Church Secondly For the first two thousand years before the Scriptures were written R. E. saith the Church of God was this rule and judge and infallible director which might to some indifferent man have been granted but that I see which way his course bends viz. to the setting up of Men as judge and rule and guide and detracts from the Spirit and power of God in which the ability and power of the Church of God stood and from which alone they received this proper power right because their understandings were enlightened and their judgments informed to declare the mind of God freely according as it was revealed and to give true judgment why is not this attributed rather to the spirit and power of God that was manifest in them rather then to persons seeing their ability stood and their power only as they kept in Covenant with God and as any erred from that in any age or fell from that they came to be blind guides and to give false judgment as some such there were in all ages Thirdly R. E. saith that after the Scripture was written the Church of the Jewes was rule and judge unto the Jewes cites Deu. 17. 8. Thou shalt come to the Priests Levites unto the Iudge and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment and according to that which they shall tell thee thou shall do And likewise he quotes Mat. 23. 2 3. The Scribes

largly of by other hands and pens so that I need not say much But Miracles be not evermore undoubted proofes of a true Doctrine nor such absolute signes of a true Church nor such infallible arguments as from Heaven as R. E. saith his is and so I shall conclude with that which Austin said unto Faustus the Manicha Ye work no Miracles and yet if ye wrought any at your hands we would take heed of them and Jer. 23. saith the false Prophets have deceived my people by their lies and by their lightness and by their dreams and Miracles And so hath this false fained pretended Catholick Church done deceived The Nations and bewitched them with such lying fabulous stories and false and ridiculous miracles and sorceries and inchantments as is above mentioned and many more of the like nature might be mentioned but that I would not be tedious to the Reader which if they were summed up all would hardly make up a Heavenly argument and proof as R. E. saith it doth that their Church is the only true Church and fit to be the rule and judge of all matters of faith and now Reader view over their Miracles before mentioned and see if thou can receive them because the Church of Rome saith they are true and must not be questioned for if thou do thou art like to come under a hard censure by the verdict of R. E. and his Catholick Church first to be reckoned as an unbeliever secondly to be a hater of God and thirdly in not believing these Miracles or whatsoever else shall be declared unto thee by the said Church or else thou comes under no les penalty then eternal damnation as R. E. saith in the 80. page of his Epistle but it is a small thing to be judged by man and especially such a man who hath gaded abroad and changed his way so osft so that he hath forgotten the true path of Righteousness to walk in or else never knew it and hath turned and wheeled about and now at last doth as the poor Indian doth with his Deer skin hangs it upon one shoulder and so upon the other shoulder to shelter him from the wind and tempest that comes of that side But the day is dawned and mens spirits are discovered beyond their words and all the turnings and wheelings of things upside down is but as the Potters Clay for God measures every man not by his words but by his heart and spirit and works and will judge every one in Righteousness according to their deeds And R. E. goes on as confident that his arguments and reasons laid down hath prevailed and almost takes it for granted that it must needs be evident to all that the Roman Church is the true Church and saith he knows but one single point between the Catholicks and them that stand devided from them and that is saith he that we follow a several rule to guide and judge in the great affaires of faith for all sides are bound to believe all truths sufficiently propounded to them to be revealed of God and therefore if the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Purgatory worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints and prayer to the Dead and for the Dead if these or any other point of faith be sufficiently propounded by denying them Gods varassaty is denyed and God thereby made a lyer The difference stands betwixt you and them that are devided from you in more particulars then thou art aware of or ever will be able sufficiently to propound them to be revealed of God though it is true some are but devided from you in Circumstantials and Ceremonies and some others in some points of Faith and Worship yet some deny you in the very ground though 't is true the different rule by which each party are directed is a great and a main thing thou saith this Church Catholick is the rule but I say and am not alone that Christ is the way to the Father and the way to the Kingdom and the rule and means by which his Church is governed and he is the Lawgiver and the judge and all Judgment is committed to the Son and it is he alone that propounds truth sufficiently and they that are in him are new Creatures and that which is the new Creatures rule guide and judge is the rule guide and judge of the Church of God and Christ is the author of faith and it is nothing that availes any thing with God but the new Creature and as many as walk according to this rule peace is to them Gal. 3. 16. and Christ hath not left his people without guide for he said lo I am with you to the end of the world So as to commit the guidance thereof to fallible men who may assume authority without his power and to fasten those things upon God as to be revealed from him when the Lord hath spoken nothing and we are so far from looking that the main grounds that thou lays down to prove your Church to be this rule and guide and the many Doctrines propounded by you are not sufficiently propounded to be revealed of God but rather they are the imaginations of your own brain and things packt up since the Apostles days by different Popes and different mutations and alterations in your Church for filthy Lucres sake and so to deny them is not to deny Gods varassaty neither to make God a lyer as thou falsly saith but thou and you are the lyers as to propound those things to be revealed from God and to be received by all under pain of damnation when God hath revealed no such thing but the contrary and so thy own words at last shall turn to be thy burden because thou saith the Lord saith and hath revealed and sufficiently preposed the real presence of Christ in your Sacrament of the Alter as a devine Revelation worshipping of Images Prayer to the Dead and for the Dead and all the foolish imagination which you have brought in and intruded and thrust upon people by force and these are sufficiently propounded as thou saith as devine Revelations and the Father Son and Holy Ghost or the Incarnation of Christ silence deceit and for shame blush so to say the Prophets who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and prophesied of things to come they declared of the Father Son and Holy Ghost all and prophesied long before that a Virgin should bring forth a Son whose name should be called Emanuel God with us and the Government should be upon his shoulders this the Pope hath usurped and you put it upon his Shoulders but your invented Doctrines aforesaid are meerly the imaginations of your own brain which neither the Prophets nor Apostles bore witness unto but against and therefore it is thy and your great presumption to make God Christ and Apostles the foundation of all this rubbish straw and stuble which thou would put off as devine revelation and as sufficiently preposed as the