Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	heresy_n	schism_n	4,424	5	10.0782	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70610	Essays of Michael, seigneur de Montaigne in three books : with marginal notes and quotations and an account of the author's life : with a short character of the author and translator, by a person of honour / made English by Charles Cotton ...; Essais. English	Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592.; Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.; Cotton, Charles, 1630-1687.	1700 (1700)	Wing M2481; ESTC R17025	313,571	634

or a Kitchin They were formerly Mysteries but are now become Sports and Recreations 'T is a Book too Serious and too Venerable to be cursorily or slightly turn'd over The Reading of the Scripture ought to be a tempera●e and premediatt●d Act and to which Men should always add this Devout Preface Sursum Corda preparing even the Body to so humble and compos'd a Gesture and Countenance as shall evidence their Veneration and Attention Neither is it a Book for every one to fist but the Study of Select Men set apart for that purpose and whom Almighty God has been pleas'd to call to that Office and Sacred Function The Wicked and Ignorant Blemish and Deprave it 'T is not a Story to tell but a History to fear and adore Are not they then pleasant Men who think they have render'd this fit for the Peoples handling by Translating it into the Vulgar Tongue Does the Understanding of all therein contain'd only stick at Words Shall I vent●re to say further that by coming so near to understand a little they are much wider of the whole scope than before A total Ignorance and wholly depending upon the Exposition of other Qualified Persons was more knowing and salutiferous than this vain and verbal knowledge which has only prov'd the Nurse of Temerity and Presumption And I do further believe that the liberty every one has taken to disperse the Sacred Writ into so many Idioms carries with it a great deal more of Danger than Utility The 〈◊〉 Mahometans and almost all others have Espous'd and Reverence the Language wherein their Laws and Mysteries were first conceiv'd and have expresly and not without colour of reason forbid the aversion or alteration of them into any other Are we assur'd that in Biscay and in Brittany there are enow competent Judges of this affair to Establish this Translation into their own Language Why the Universal Church has not a more difficult and solemn Judgment to make One of our Greek Historians does justly accuse the Age he Liv'd in for that the Secrets of Christian Religion were disperst into the Hands of every Mechanick to Expound and Argue upon according to his own Fancy and that we ought to be much asham'd we who by God's especial favour enjoy the purest Mysteries of Piety to suffer them to be Prophan'd by the ignorant Rabble considering that the Gentiles expressly forbad Socrates Pluto and the other Sages to enquire into or so much as to mention the things committed only to the Priests of Delphos saying moreover that the Factions of Princes upon Theological accounts are not Arm'd with Zeal but Fury that Zeal springs from the Divine Wisdom and Justice and governs it self with Prudence and Moderation but degenerates into Hatred and Envy producing Tares and Nettles instead of Corn and Wine when conducted by Humane Passions And it was truly said of another who advising the Emperour Theodosius and told him that Disputes did not so much Rock the Schisms of the Church asleep as it Rous'd and Animated Heresies That therefore all Contentions and Logical Disputations were to be avoided and Men absolutely to Acquiess in the Prescriptions and Formula's of Faith Establish'd by the Ancients And the Emperour Andronicus having over-heard some great Men at high words in his Palace with Lapodius about a Point of ours of great Importance gave them so severe a Check as to threaten to cause them to be thrown into the River if they did not desist The very Women and Children now adays take upon them to document the Oldest and most Experienc'd Men about the Ecclesiastical Laws Whereas the first of those of Plato forbids them to enquire so much as into the Civil Laws which were to stand instead of Divine Ordinances And allowing the Old M●n to conferr amongst themselves or with the Magistrate about those things he adds provided it be not in the presence of Young or Profane Persons A 〈◊〉 has left in Writing that at the other end 〈◊〉 the World there is an Isle by the Anc●en● call'd Dioscorides abundantly Fertile in 〈◊〉 sorts of Trees and Fruits and of an exceeding Healthful Air The Inhabitants of whi●● are Christians having Churches and Alta●● only adorn'd with Crucifixes without any other Images great Observers of Fasts and Feasts Exact payers of their Tythes to the Priests and so Chast that none of them 〈◊〉 permitted to have to do with more than 〈◊〉 Woman in his Life As to the nest so content with their condition that environed wi●● the Sea they know nothing of Navigatio● and so simple that they understand not 〈◊〉 Syllable of the Religion they profess 〈◊〉 wherein they are so Devout A thing incredible to such as do not know that the ●gans who are so Zealous Idolaters know nothing more of their Gods than their 〈◊〉 Names and their Statues The Ancient beginning of Menalippus a Tragedy of Euriped● ran thus Jupiter for that Name alone Of what thou art to me is known I have also known in my time some Men's Writings found fault with for being purely Humane and Philosophical without any mixture of Divinity and yet whoever should on the contrary say that Divine Doctrine 〈◊〉 Queen and Regent of the rest better an● with greater Dec●ncy Keeps her State apart What she ought to be Soveraign throughout not Subsidiary and Suffragan And that peradventure Grammatical Rhetorical and Logical Examples may elsewhere be more suitably chosen as also the Arguments for the Stage and Publick Entertainments than from so Sacred a matter That Divine Reasons are consider'd with greater Veneration and Attention when by themselves and in their own proper Stile than when mixt with and adapted to Humane Discourses That it is a fault much more often observ'd that the Divines Write too H●manely than that the Humanists Write not Theologically enough Philosophy says St. Chrysostome has long been Banishn'd the Holy Schools as an Hand-maid altogether useless and thought unworthy to 〈◊〉 so much as in passing by the Door into the Sacrifice of the Divine Doctrine And that the Humane way of speaking is of a much lower form and ought not to serve her self with the Dignity and Majesty of Divine Eloquence I say whoever on the contrary should Object all this would not be without reason on his ●ide Let who will Verbis Indisciplinatis talk of Fortune Destiny Accident Good and Evil Hap and other such like Phrases according to his own-Humour I for my part propose Fancies meerly Humane and meerly my own and that simply as Humane Fancies and 〈◊〉 consider'd not as determin'd by any Arrest from Heaven or incapable of 〈◊〉 or Dispute Matter of Opinion not matter of Faith Things which I discourse 〈◊〉 according to my own Capacity not what I believe according to God which also I do after a Laical not Clerical and yet always after a very Religious manner And it were as Rational to affirm that an Edict enjoining 〈◊〉 People but such as are Publick Professors of Divinity