Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	reason_n	word_n	1,564	5	4.5860	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37113	Du Vergers humble reflections vpon some passages of the Right Honorable the Lady Marchionesse of Nevvcastles Olio, or, An appeale from her mes-informed, to her ovvne better informed iudgement	Du Verger, S.	1657 (1657)	Wing D2921; ESTC R21646	66,712	176

HERE Madame prouisions are brought so thicke in vpon you that you haue not leasure left to reuew them but all goes in topsie turuie hand ouer heade They say they are couetous cheaters sellers of ceremonies Marchands of Gods mercies brokers of adulterie incest murther blasphemie past presēt to come streets established to increase sin make money of it And all this certainlie without either electiō or approbation of yours For here not Monasticall life onely enters of which you vndertake to speake but Catholike religion in generall not onely the Monke but the Bishoppe also is got into the potage and they smell high and change your daintie Olio into a confused Hodgpog that I may not say death is in the pot with the Prophete mors est in olla You please to tell vs you had these corrupt prouisions from our enemyes and We easily beleeue it without an oath that they were enemyes to vs and truth and noe friends to your Lad. to furnish you with such a rable of stinking stuffe whose noble designe was to haue giuen a wholsome and gratefull entertaynement to all the world They seeme to throw stones about them like mad blind men hit where they will They hurle calumnies about our eares as thicke as hale following it should seeme that pernicious maxime Calumniare fortiter semper aliquid adhaerebit Calumniate boldly somewhat will alwayes sticke and indeede it is hard enough to claw of the dints of bold lyes cloked in generalities and conueyed from enemyes tongues to enemyes eares which lye but too open to the whisperings of such serpents Marrie were those bold Assertours putt to the law of Talion either to proue the imposed cryme or be lyable to the punishment due to it as all iustice would haue it which presumes euery one to be good vnlesse they be not suspected or accused or slaundered to be badd conuinced to be badd we should neede noe apologie at all which I ingenuously confesse in this case is a hard taske where we are to deale with negatiues which noe man is bound as indeede hardly any man is able saue in some cases onely to make good THE II. PARAGRAPHE AND how hard it is Madame I appeale to your owne iudgement We will suppose some base fowle mouthed fellow had gale enough to degorge vpon all womenkind in generall these impudent and false aspersions that they were all nought that they desyled their husbands bedds putt their honours to sale that their seeming deuotion were clokes of hypocricie that they farmed out their daughters sinnes c. Or that he should cast as much durt vpon the reputation of the consort or wife of some King or Lord in particular as here is cast vpon the immaculate Spouse of the Lord and king of heauen and that merely vpon suspitions coniectures rash iudgements because happly some among them is noe better then were to be wished What meanes is left for this single Queene or Lady to purge her selfe She behaues herselfe fairely to the eyes of the world her comportments are modest her gate graue her eyes soberly cast downe to the grownd she hath the good reportes of her neighbours and seruants the approbation of her husband I but for all this goes the calumniatour on she is reported to be a whore and who knowes c. If she fayled not at one tyme she might at another Why but she prayes much fares poorely lyes hard flyes not onely naughtie or suspected but euen almost all compagnie Nay to auoid not onely danger but suspition too she shutts herselfe vp within foure walls and liues vnder the shelter of many graue and vigilant eyes All this matters not forsooth she is said to be a whore Madame if our honour were thus at stake and at the mercy of an impudent vilaine how should we possibly purge ourselues And yet Madame the inuentours and renewers of these reports putts the venerable state of Monasticall life and euen the chaste Spouse of Christ into the like straites not with standing they haue as much or more to say for themselues as the supposed Queene or Lady produced THE III. PARAGRAPHE BVT Madame though as I intimated before the burden of the proofe by all iustice equitie and reason ought to lye vpon the affirmer and that by the same lawes the defendant is as absolutly freed from that burthen as cleared of all cryme vnlesse conuincing proofe be made against him yet relying vpon the assistance of a good cause I will aduenture to trye what satisfaction my weaknesse may afford in the behalfe of my Catholike Mother and her best children who stand accused without any proofe at all THE I. CALVMNIE Their enemyes say they are not onely the couetous but the greatest cheaters in the world THE XII REFLECTION MADAME in the first place please to esteeme I speake to those that haue abused your honour and vs not to your selfe THE I. PARAGRAPHE THEY to wit Monasticall persons are not onely couetous c. This is said with as much facilitie as hardly proued and God be thanked it is as easily denied as affirmed What grownd in reason then hath the Calumniatour got hereby but the marke of a bold follow who is as forward in aduanceing as slow in prouing THE II. PARAGRAPHE THEY are not onely the couetous They Which they I pray it is a word of so large an extēt that I beleeue you neuer meant to make it good If they extend to all of that profession you haue taken a huge worke in hand They are dispersed all the world ouer Asia wants them not Affrica is not vnacquainted with them Europe is full of them in euery Kingdome in euery Prouince in each good toWne all the countrie ouer I pray you haue you had commerce with them all to discrye their couetousnesse THE III. PARAGRAPHE THEY haue further penetrated into the other world they are spred all ouer it and by good right since by their labours and danger and bloud and death they conuerted it to the Catholike faith and found wiues enough to people a great part of it without the helpe of nuns in the way of your counsell haue you trauelled thither too I suppose not for I guesse by your language of what tribe you are I conceiue you are of that litle flocke which keepes at home in a corner and neuer haue occasion to bragge of the nations you haue conuerted into Christs fold or doe in your next suggestion to my L. New castle declare which they were Honour your profession by naming them If not we le take it for granted that you cannot conclude you Calumniatours THE IV. PARAGRAPHE WAS it happly by report that you heard this bad newes of your neighbour whom you neuer saw nor knew It s probable you tooke them vp too lightly and he that easily beleeues is held light of faith Charitie would haue taught you rather to haue suppressed such bad reports which tend to your Christian brothers preiudice and rather to haue

men But if thou wilt be perfect or obserue the same commandements more perfectly and more securely if thou wilt not onely haue life but haue it more aboundantly goe and sell all that thou hast c. And it is a free counsell That is commanded vnder paine of eternall damnation this counselled vnder hope of an hundred-fold in this life and life euerlasting in the next That is extended by way of commāde to all this is proposed and counselled to such generous soules as by Gods grace and their own free cooperation vnder and in vertue of the same grace render themselues capable of it which yet certainly would neuer haue bene counselled by wisdome it selfe had it neuer bene to be followed by man nor would Truth it selfe haué said there are some that geld themselues for the kingdome of heauen if neuer any such were to haue be●● Or he that can take it let him take it if none could euer take none vndertake it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capable of it in fine if it were impossible as diuers sectaries would perswade vs THE III. PARAGRAPHE IT is not then Madame as you see a will worshippe or a humaine inuention taken vp vpon fancie to which noe great credit were due but a dictamen of the holy Ghost a counsell of heauenly wisdome deliuered from the mouth of truth it selfe And was that seede of heauen to meete with noe good earth within all the lardge extent of Christs possessions Was this word of God fruitlessely to fall to the ground to passe ouer without any effect of which it is said heauen and earth shall passe but my word shall not passe So would it appeare indeede by those bablers who as they hate our Catholike Mother so they blaspheame her pious practises none of them giueing obedience to the Words of her Spouse none leauing all to follow Christ in pouertie none pretending a virginall state of life none euen endeuouring to proue eunukes for the kingdome of Heauen none presseing to emulate these better giftes none among them disputing vs these titles of pietie but willingly leaueing them branded with as much infamie as malice can inuent to the children of the Catholike Virgine Mother alone confirming that ancient truth that none but a Virgine Mother is the Mother of Virgines None but the Catholike Church euer ayming at a virginall state As though our Sauiour had dropped downe an vnprofitable counsell which could neuer be performed by any And thence S. Athanasius who hued in the fourth Age putts this practise of a virginall life for a proofe of the truth of our religion when speaking of virginitie he saith this is a great argument that true religion is with vs In his Apologie to Constantius THE IV. PARAGRAPHE BVT farre be it from Christian harts to thinke that the words of wisdome mett with none but deafe eares or that his sacred counsells found noe heroïcall hartes in earth who were readie to imbrace them Noe noe we may heare S. Peter presently giue the lye to such vnworthy thoughtes Behold saith he we he speakes for all the Apostles haue left all and followed thee We who we Apostles haue left all Who saith all excludes nothing we haue left all All we possesse all our hopes of possessing All yes all I say their poore fortunes such as they were their aymes inclinations wayes their wills yea their wiues as saith S. Hierome And that too vnder vowe as they had learnt by our B. Ladyes leading practise S. Augustine confirmes it of them both Of our Blessed Lady speaking of that passage of S. Luke Because i know not man which certainly saith he she had not said had she not formerly vowed to remayne a Virgine And of the Apostles saying for those mightie ones had said behold we haue left all and followed thee this vowe had those Mighties vowed but whence had they this vowe but from him who giueth vowes vnto those that vowe for none can vow any setled thinge to God but he must haue it from God And by their holy example all the young Christian Church at Hierusalem which was yet as it were in her cradle conspired into one great congregation to witt the multitude of Beleeuers had but one hart and one soule neither did any say that ought was his owne of those thinges which he possessed but all thinges were common vnto them c. neither was there any needie amongst them Whence S. Augustine inferres saying therfor they to witt the Apostles c. first heard that of the Psalmist Loe how good and pleasant a thing it is for brothers to liue togeither They were the first indeede but they were not alone For this loue and brotherly vnion descended not onely downe vpon them but that exultation of Charitie and vow to God came downe to posteritie c. Yes these younge vine-branches which newly sprouted out of the true vine whose wine begetts Virgines fruitfully branched and spredd themselues out all the world ouer beginning first at Hierusalem thence to Alexandria in Egipte where those fuitfull Desertes were turned into Paradises and were peopled with humane Angells or Angelicall men thence into greece wittnesse S. Denys of Arcopage who makes the description of them as you shall heare in the next reflection finally all the habitable world ouer as Phylo one of the most learned of the Iewes tearming them Therapeutarum genus worshipers or Physitions of soules And this is so well and solidly auerred by ancient Authours that there lyes no way open to any specious contradiction In the first place let the said Philo be heard who speaking of those worshippers or Physitians of soules saith this kind of people is spredd all the world ouer to witt Greece and euen barbarous nations too were to pertake in this perfect Good but the greatest multitudes of them are in Egipt especially about Alexandria as may be further seene by what S. Hierome relates out of the same Authour Adde to him S. Hierome who speaking of S. Marke saith Marke went into Alexandria taking with him the Gospell which he himselfe had written and established a Church there with so much doctrine and continencie of life that he euen compelled all Christs followers to imitate his example c. And then speaking of Philo the Iewe he adds I therfore place Philo the Iew natiue of Alexandria among the Ecclesiesticall writers because he writing a booke of the first Church established by Marke the Euangelist at Alexandria speakes in the commendations of our men not mentioning those that were there onely but euen many other places also tearming their habitations Monasteries whence it appeares that their Church who first beleeued in Christ was such as Monkes now endeuour and desire to be so as that none hath any thinge of his owne proper none among them is riche none poore their patrimonies are diuided among the poore their imployment is praying and singing Psalmes learning and continence such as Luke represents the first Beleeuers of Hierusalem