Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	time_n	year_n	9,128	5	4.5915	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49156	The abominations of the Church of Rome discovered in a recantation-sermon lately preached in the French church of the Savoy : whereunto are added many curious particulars of the practices of the papists beyond the seas / by Franc. de La Motte ... ; English'd.; Motifs de la conversion à la religion reformée. English	La Motte, François de.	1675 (1675)	Wing L303; ESTC R8201	73,183	130

to degrade him and cast him into a Prison where I think he remains yet We may judge by this what to think of all the other Miracles noised abroad in the Church of Rome § The last Article relates to the Indulgences I don't here question whether the Pope hath power to pardon sins when he pleaseth Jesus Christ can do no more the Pharises would never allow him that power I desire therefore that the Divines of the Church of Rome would resolve me these Questions which I have often proposed to my self Wherefore do the Popes proclaim their Universal Jubilees which causes ●o many thousand people to trot to Rome or to some other great City where the place is appointed to gain them For if they answer that it is to obtain the forgiveness of our sins I may reply that there is no need to go so far to obtain this forgiveness there is no Parish but a full Indulgence may be bought every year several times There is scarce a noted Town but it may be purchased every day only one being concerned and initiated into the Fraternity of the little habit of the Virgin many times obtains for us above one hundred and fifty every year I shall not speak of the other means to get these priviledges and advantages Now those Indulgences as the Popish Divines affirm free us as well from the punishment as from the guilt of all manner of sins if therefore this is to be had in every Parish-Church what need is there of a Pilgrimage to Rome if all our sins are pardoned what will the Pope's or his Agents Absolution profit us Is not this to make a sport of mens credulity and to deal with them as with blind men and fools It may be they will answer that at such solemn occasions the Pope absolves from grievous sins reserved to himself which are not forgiven every day but if I have not been guilty of such horrid crimes wherefore am I sollicited and press'd upon to go and purchase a Jubilee wherefore am I obliged otherwise to make a general confession of my sins and if I don't wherefore am I look'd upon as an Atheist From hence we might conclude that their Church is never perfect but in the time of the Jubilee because at that time only it hath a power to forgive all manner of sinners But Bishops and Priests are to be found in every corner that have power granted to absolve these grievous and horrid sins there is scarce a petty Monk but will say he hath that priviledge four or five sins excepted which scarce happen in an hundred years in a Province If none but such as are guilty of these sins did go to Rome the Roads of Italy would not be so populous as they are at this time I might here mention the other Indulgences that may be obtained every day The abuses are so great and ridiculous that if you please to view the instruments of a Popish Zealot you shall see stuff and trinkets enough to set up a Shop You shall see Beads of all sizes shapes and numbers fifteen in a string fifty in another thirty in another ten in another all this is full of mystery you shall see little garments like childrens babies attire some white others red others brown you shall spy Medals of all sorts Cords with knots of several magnitudes and Crosses of all fashions The Papists are become so ridiculous to cause their Zealots to wear two pins a-cross upon their sleeve of breast assuring them that they shall obtain the forgiveness of several days sins as often as they kiss this Cross or pronounce over it two or three hard conjuring words I was never more astonished and scandalized than I was the last year when I was sent about the time of the Festival of the holy Sacrament to preach in the City where I made my abode I found every body stored with these Indulgences wearing pins a-cross they inform'd me that the devout and right Reverend * These Knaves and Cheats of that bloody Society play a thousand such tricks in those Kingdoms and Cities that are at their devotion as in Spain Italy and France Father of the Jesuits called Father Huby had recommended this notable piece of devotion to them By this means he disposed of above ten millions of pins which he had the conscience not to sell he gave them out of an excess of charity but in requital his charity did require for every two pins a summ of money to help his Brethren the Jesuits travelling in China and in far Countries to say Mass for in those places they cannot meet with such fools that will encourage them by contributing to their subsistence If we did but run over all the other Tenents of the Romish Faith we should find as many errours mistakes and abominations as we have done in these But it is not my design to mention all I intended to be more succinct and I look not upon my self as able to make this description so well as others who have more studied the Disputes and Controversies THE THIRD PART THE Third Reason that hath so long kept me in the Romish Religion was grounded upon the practices and Laws of that Church the solemn Festivals the Auricular Confession Abstinence from Meats the Forty days of Lent the Priests Vows of Chastity and the austere Lives of the Monks All these things did present themselves as it were in a body together in my mind and caused me to entertain so high an esteem for Popery where I saw so many holy and religious customs observed that I could not look upon the rest but with disdain hatred and aversion because I could not find the same things But when against my will I was forced to open my eyes and being engaged by my Office to seek into the beginning of all the abominations that I saw acted in the world I found that these things proceeded from the Laws invented to deceive the most subtil wits and intice the devoutest souls into the broad road of hell by the Devil who sometimes appears as an Angel of Light § What a vast number of disorders have been occasioned by the many Festivals of the Church of Rome There were so prodigious a multitude lately observed in France that the King was forced about seven years ago to get a Dispensation for the ease and benefit of his People from the Pope who abolished a great many But this Dispensation hath caused a strange deformity in all the Bishopricks of France Some were willing to obey the Popes order by casting out of the Calendar such Festivals as were abolished other Bishops would not admit it some cut off a few keeping still the rest others were offended that the King did incroach upon their priviledges therefore instead of diminishing the number of their Festivals they established new Feast-days some fast in the Saints Eve and keep not the day others regard neither the fast nor the day others cause them

their Lives for Christ's Cause where so many Saints have observed the Rules of the Gospel and made such a glorious profession of all Christian Virtues a Religion where so many pious Souls do yet live a very exemplary and a holy life having forsaken the World to confine themselves to a Convent Who dares deny such a Religion to be the best the securest and the holiest of all In this manner I did argue and many judicious Persons suffer themselves to be thus deceived with a false appearance But such as will as I have done look more narrowly to this particular and weigh every thing in the Scales of the Sanctuary shall find by experience that the Church of Rome hath no cause to glory so much in them There are many Martyrs reckoned in the Church of Rome I confess but this is no infallible proof of its excellency There have been many also in the Churches of Jerusalem of Antioch of the Georgians Muscovites Greeks c. yet the Papists esteem them not the more But they say that many Saints in this Profession have and do yet perform notable Miracles I have cause to question the truth of this Assertion for many false ones are published but when they should be real they are no infallible signs of the Truth of their Faith for the Magicians of Egypt by Gods permission did also work Miracles Exod. chap. 7. God whose Secrets and Judgments are not to be searched out may suffer the Devil to keep men in ignorance by this means But the Papists say that amongst them many Religious Persons are to be seen that lead a most holy life I answer that they are for the most part but whited Sepulchres and that this is the Devils cunning to deceive Souls I shall say something more in this Chapter But what advantage do they expect from this Argument There are men of honesty every where amongst the Heathens and Hereticks as well as amongst the Christians and Catholicks there are persons of good behaviour or at least appear so to the world This is therefore no infallible sign of a true Religion but suppose it were so that the holiness and integrity of life were an infallible sign of the Truth the Papists will never be able to better their Cause by this reason unless their Chief and Governours who are to be look'd upon as the Paterns of the rest change their manner of living The Church of Rome is not so holy as it is said to be to the simple people ignorant of the Affairs of that City Examin the Transactions there now and within this eight or nine hundred years If we did but see the disorders of this Church plainly presented unto us we should have cause to wonder at the things related by the Papists themselves of their Popes I shall here mention some of them and that I may not be traduced as a Lyar I shall bring two or three of their own famous Writers speaking of the Court of Rome such I mean who endeavour to cover its imperfections and have never made use of their Pens but in its defence The first is devout St. Bernard Ser. 1. de Convers Pauli This man's integrity can never be suspected In this manner he speaks of the Court of Rome Iniquity proceeds from the grave Judges who are named Christ's Vicegerents and who seem to govern His people Of them we cannot say As is the People so is the Priest for the people were not like or so bad as the Priest And elsewhere de Consid ad Eugen. lib. 1. cap. 4. From all parts of the world the ambitious the covetous and persons guilty of symony sacriledge debauchery and incest and such like Monsters did flock to Rome to get the Ecclesiastical Honours or to keep them by the Pope 's Authority About the year 897 Cardinal Baronius affirms That there were the most wicked Varlets brought in to sit in St. Peter 's Chair men of most infamous lives most fearfully debauch'd of a corrupt and filthy behaviour every where and in every respect And when he speaks of the year 900 he intreats the weaker sort of Christians not to be offended from thenceforth if they see sometimes the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God Afterwards he cryes out What horrible Monsters were introduced into this See which the Angels respect O disgrace O grief how many evils have proceeded from them how many grievous tragedies have been acted by them what villanies have been here committed in this glorious See what filthy and base actions have appeared here c. In the year 912 he saith sect 8. this Church was so debauch'd and swimming in vice That the filthiest and the noted whores did govern all at Rome At their pleasure the See was disposed of the Bishops were created and their Favourites and Gallants were chosen in St. Peter 's Chair to be Popes This is what Baronius hath been forced to acknowledge after many other Historians who have recorded the disorders of the Roman Church Let any man read Genebrard Chron. l. 4. ad ann 902. Isidor Peleus l. 3. epist 323. Baptist Mantuan de calam suorum temp l. 3. Alvar. Pelag. de planctu Ecclesiae Or let any man go to Rome to see how such behave themselves who pretend to be established of God to govern His Church on earth and they shall find there more wickedness than ever was in Sodom or in Nineveh Let Rome be therefore ashamed saith a Learned Man who beheld these abominations Claud. Espens in Epist ad Tit. c. 1. Let her never offer to shew a Catalogue of her shameful Crimes I would advise her to not mention nor produce this Calendar of so many Saints whom she hath canonised and in whom she glories so much for all those former Saints discover her shame seeing that the Lives of the present Popes and Governours are quite contrary to theirs therefore she hath no cause to challenge them as her own Those former Worthies are her reproach and condemnation because she doth not imitate their Example Nevertheless the Popish Doctors are so impertinent to boast of these disorders vices and abominations and to gather from thence reasons to prove the truth and holiness of their Religion Who would believe that Baronius after that he had filled his Annals with the filthy debaucheries of many Popes should gather from thence a conclusion to the advantage of his Church Yet this he doth very boldly for when he hath taken notice of the debauch'd and abominable Lives of some Popes declared their vices in a most horrible manner and acknowledged all that hath been written of them by his predecessors to be very true that there have been Popes very ambitious covetous symoniacal impious Murderers lecherous incestuous Atheists and Sodomites which things the Papists cannot deny because their own Historians declare them Nevertheless when Baronius hath said all this of the Popes he concludes as boldly as if he had to prove the Divinity of Jesus