Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	great_a	way_n	2,889	4	4.3202	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B12207	The copy of a letter sent from an English gentleman, lately become a Catholike beyond the seas, to his Protestant friend in England in answere to some points, wherin his opinion was required, concerning the present busines of the Palatinate, & marriage with Spayne : and also declaring his reasons for the change of his religion.	Crynes, N.	1622 (1622)	STC 5742.7; ESTC S1070	15,353	106

he would send so many togeather into the world about a restauration wherein they should be so opposite one vnto the other that they should goe about the setting it forward in sundry different fashions ech according to his owne manner and ech condemning the endeauours of all the others should preferre his owne for the sole and only truth And seeing there can be but one fort of true Reformers if there be worke for them and that all these pretenders thēselues doe confesse so much and ech of them as no doubt our sort in England doth in like sort pretend themselues to be those only true reformers and consequently to be directly sent from God into the world with the priuiledge and commission of restauration of true Religion I thought my selfe bound in all right and conscience to seeke to discouer by the best way which thereunto I could possibly imagine to be most requisite which of all others this might be wherin I also with my prayers beseeched Almighty God his fauour and direction relying vpon his promise when he sayth He that seeketh shall find Heereupon came a resolution to my mynde to demaund of these different sorts of Reformers of ech a part in particuler what they could alleadge for themselues to declare proue vnto me why their interpretation and vnderstanding of Scripture was better ought to be followed more then that of any of the others that differed from it And of this I desired to be certified by some proofes and reasons as that sort to whome I made the demaund could only alleage for it selfe and none of the rest for themselues but when all came to all that I had most seriously dealt with ech of these apart the satisfaction I got of the one was as good as that I had of the other albeit their vnderstandings were neuer so different and contrary for alwayes I found that after many circūloqutions before I could bring them to the matter for euery sort sought by shifts exasions to slip from giuing direct answere to the question in conclusion the proofe and assurance of hauing the true vnderstanding and interpretation of Scripture was no other then that they had it ech of them within it selfe deliuered vnto them by a certayne inward illumination of spirit But when vpon this I told them that I was now as farre to seeke as before because ech sort pretended his inward illumination of spirit that I desyred then to know how I might be assured that any one of these illuminations of spirit was from God and which it was they told me I might know that by that doctrine that was most consonant vnto the Word of God I demaunded which that was None but ours quoth the Hussite None but ours quoth the Lutheran None but ours quoth the Anabaptist and so in like sort any of our English Protestant Preachers would also haue sayd if he had byn heere among the rest But who shall iudge this quoth I Gods word quoth the one Gods word quoth the other and Gods word quoth the third But who shall shew me quoth I out of Gods word which it is that Gods word so iudgeth That will I quoth the Hussyte no that will I quoth the Lutheran no that will I quoth the Anabaptist and so would as many and as more haue sayd if they had all byn heere In fine it came to no other conclusion but that ech would haue his truth and true illumination of spirit tryed by Gods word but iust according as himselfe would be the interpreter thereof and heerby was I brought at last to be as far to seeke as at the first Consider now I pray you how well and wisely I was adrest Trust me if wishes might haue wrought their effects I desyred nothing more then that you had byn present with some two or three of the principall of your Paules-crosse Preachers to see what victory they could heere haue gotten aboue the rest that fight there so valiātly agaynst the ayre and make their auditory belieue that the dwelling place of Gods word is only in their mouthes My experiēce in this busines hath emboldned me to deliuer it thus plainly vnto you as it was and further to tell you that not long after I had left this discordant company I mett with one of our English Rabbins who held himselfe for no small foole neyther and I proposed vnto him the same question and I assure you he delt so honestly and plainly with me that he gaue me iust the same answere so left me as much beholding vnto him for good satisfaction as had done the others before him Trust me good Sir I had neuer thought that our pretence and bragge of our Ghospells light in England had stood vpon so weake a foundation as now I haue byn taught to discerne it and yet by no Papist neyther A man heerby may see what it is to be nuzled vp in deceyt and foolery and himselfe not to know it You may see by that which heere I haue sayd I haue not byn carelesse but curious in the seeking of such satisfaction as is most requisite reasonablee but you would haue wondred if you had byn present to see with what tricks and shifts ech of these sought to diuert and put of his answering to the question of giuing me assured knowledge of his illumination of spirit howbeit I lost not all my labour for all of them in the end gaue me assured knowledge that this their inward illumination that euery one is assured of aswel as the other is but a meere bable to beguile fooles Wherof hauing so cleerly discouered the vanity and folly I must desyre you to giue me leaue no longer to make a foole of my selfe And albeit I had continued vntill now my auersion from the Church of Rome yet considering that Hussytes Lutherans Anabaptists and Caluinists for by the name of Caluinists our Protestants in England are of all these others called aswell as of the Catholikes had al played the run-awayes from the sayd Roman Church were now become the accusers thereof but with different accusations I considered with my selfe that if the accusers of Susanna were proued false she innocent vpon the disagreemēt of two witnesses in their accusation how much the more may the Church of Rome be deemed innocent when there is so great a disagreement found in foure of her principall accusers Vpon this motiue I resolued to seeke to haue conference with some sufficient learned man of that Religion which by the meanes that I vsed I attayned vnto but bearing my selfe still as an earnest Protestant I found myself so confuted in my alleaging of the Protestants reasons and arguments that I neuer imagined them to haue byn so weake nor did I euer thinke that so much could be sayd of so great force for the contrary I found also very manifestly that diuers pointes which our preachers in England make vs belieue they hold are very

primitiue Church of Christ This vpon their meere saying so I confidently belieued without euer making doubt thereof or further enquiry for any proofe But coming into Germany whither my iourney was as you know intended for the seruice of the Prince Palatine who we then called King of Bohemia and there beholding the Lutheran preachers to stand swaggering in their pulpits with their mouthes as full of Scripture as any of our Pulpit-mens in England might possibly be and there to see them so to contemne scorne deride our English preachers pretension of restoring Apostolicall religion as the most ridiculous iest in the world I stood not a little amazed at the matter Trauailing from Germany into Bohemia there did I heare the Hussite-preachers as I had heard the Lutherans before condemne our doctrine of England laugh and scof at our preachers pretension of primitiue truth as a iest only to make sport withall not conteyning nor carying therewith so much as any shew of truth which to my consideration proued no iest at all Lighting after this in the company of Anabaptists with which albeit England be little acquainted yet in these parts they will also be some body as wel as the rest seing they hold themselues to be as flush in Scripture as the proudest of their Competitors they protested by yea and by nay that our Protestant Religion of England was not consonant but contrary to the truth of the Ghospell of the Lord. What might I thinke of the great boast which our Pulpit-masters in England make of the light of their Ghospell who seeme where they are there alone to be the only men at it in the world whē heere in Germany I heard the Lutheran Preachers whose Patriarke Martin Luther we in England so much cōmend extoll the light of their owne Ghospell aboue the brightnes of the Sunne make our Ghospell of England more dimmer then a lanterne How might I maruell thinke you when I heard the Hussite-preachers so much to scorne our Gods Word of England as if it were but the Word of Robin-hood And what might I imagine when the Anabaptistes that speake nothing but Scripture durst challenge all our Rabins at no other weapon but at the only Word will alwayes be ready to continue the combat as long as they haue fingers to turne ouer leaues in the Bible But what labyrinth may you thinke me to haue lighted in why in my trauails I hapned into an Inne where I had about myne eares all these at once where I found my selfe enuyroned about with different Wordes of God different Lights of the Ghospel where when I went about to defend our Ghospell of England I had Bibles so fast drawne out vpon me that I knew not which way to turne me but was fayne to stand as an Owle among other birdes and with much impatience patiently heare our Gods Word of England made the veriest hotch-potch Olla-podrida of the world They became so pleasant and sportfull with me as to aske me whether God had banished his truest Religion into an I le and hembd it about with the sea to the end it shold dwell no where but there intending thereby that our Religion of England both in fayth and in forme was different from all other Religions that now are extant which when I would haue gaynsayed they strayghtwayes came vpon me with Temporall and Feminine Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction and with pageants of little Popes as though they had their instructions from Puritans and Brownists Lord how hartily did I wish that but some one of our great Pulpit-thunderers had byn heere that can talke so brauely in England before those that belieue in him to haue seene how these different kinds of Scripture-followes would haue Bible-bastonaded him and put him downe like a poore Snake for verily there did neuer squirrell skip more nimbly from one bowgh vnto another in a tree then do these fellowes from one text to another in the old and new Testament Of all which when I had well considered there was nothing wherat I more stood amazed then at my owne ignorance whylst I was in England because I did not apprehend any opposition to any purpose to be made against the Religion there allowed then that which was made agaynst it by those of the Church of Rome and because our Preachers could smoothly dissemble these other opposites and but little meddle with them crying Crucifige lowdest of all agaynst those of the Church of Rome But finding now a farre other matter to wit these seuerall sects so full of Scripture as none in England could be fuller and these so contemptibly to despise scorne hold most ridiculous our English protestant religion as a very mock-religion and in most serious asseueration of their soules to declare it to be the damnation of al their soules that follow it what might I now imagine Finding them also to haue asmuch sense and vnderstanding as great acquaintance as farre to haue trauayled in the Word and as ready in their language to speake defend their causes as any in Englād how Text-fast soeuer he be is able to do and in fine to protest with all zeale vehemency of spirit his resolution for the offering of his body to the torments and paynes of death and his soule to the sentence of saluation or damnation thereon what could I find any of our professing people in England to say more and what reason had I now to reiect these not to heare them speake as well as I had I heard our Pulpit-people in England vnlesse it should only haue byn for their not being Englishmen which were too poore a reason to be yielded vnto All this also considered what I pray you might I thinke whether I were now in a perplexity or no I leaue your selfe to iudge what reason did there now remayne to oblige me vnto our English Protestant Religion other then because it was the Religion of England and whether the following therof because it so was could be a sufficient warrant for the proofe of it to be true Religion and consequently for the saluation of my soule lying dying therin Whylst I stood in this amazement hearing the Hussites most resolute in mayntayning the Reall Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and the Lutherans also the former by transubstantiation the later by consubstantiation yet eyther affirming no signe but the very same body that was borne of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be there I was by this meanes brought to looke backe vnto the Christian world of former ages and to thinke with my selfe that if so be the ancient Church of Rome from which also these new congregations had deryued their Christianity was in processe of tyme become alienated from her first purity by hauing as these pretend nourished and entertayned many corruptions and that God would vouchsafe to benefit the world with a restauration or reformation of Religion according to her first purity that it was not then like