Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	believe_v	faith_n	implicit_a	1,688	5	13.6300	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44721	A German diet, or, The ballance of Europe wherein the power and vveaknes ... of all the kingdoms and states of Christendom are impartially poiz'd : at a solemn convention of som German princes in sundry elaborat orations pro & con ... / by James Howell, Esq.	Howell, James, 1594?-1666.	1653 (1653)	Wing H3079; ESTC R4173	250,318	212

amplius addam THE ORATION OF THE Lord AC ACIUS AXELIUS against POLAND Most judicious and Excellent President and Princes THE Oration that was pronounc'd before was too long and prolix considering the poornesse and tenuity of the Subject but to me it was too brief and concise considering the Eloquence and strength of the stile I will not say it was like those ranting speeches that are usually made upon the Theaters of Italy who use to make an Ox of a Bee or a Mountain of a Mole-hil when they speak in commendation of the vertue of their Balsams to advance the vent of them But I wonder what should come into the mind of the Noble Orator before me to extoll Poland so hyperbolically sure it was to trie what he could doe upon so bare and barren a Subject As we reade that Archippus fell a praising the shadow of an Asse and Passeratius the Asse himself as Glaucus fell in praise of injustice Polycrates and Isocrates of Busiris H●…ttenus of the Fever or as Maro fell upon the praise of a Flea Synesius of Baldnesse Pickhennerus of the Gout Libanius of an Ox Diocles of a Rape ●…ierius of Poetical poverty Mirandula of Barbarism Salerius of Drunkennesse Lucian of a Fly Dion of a Parrat Mayoragius of Dirt or as Erasmus fell upon the praise of Folly and Heinsius of a Louse to make experiment of their inventions what they could say upon such small theames But to make Poland contest either with Germany France Spain Italy or Great Britain for superiority and worthynesse were to make Vatinius and Cicero competitors for one preferment or Arachne to contend with Pallas who was the best Spinstresse Now touching Poland let the report of those French Gentlemen that attended the Duke of Aniou thither to be King be heard who questionlesse found the best things that Poland could afford They at their return to France put her forth in such illfavoured colours that possibly could be They said she was the proper seat and perpetuall domicile of all barbarism and misery Therefore it was superfluo●…s labour for them to passe a decree that no French should have a faculty granted him to purchase any Stable possession in Poland for none of them was of so abject a mind or fortune that would be Great Duke of Lituania Let us take a survay of the fertillest piece of the Country which is Podolia and what is it but a harsh and a hard stony soyl that a yoak of ten Oxen are required most commonly to plough up the Earth Then the cold is there so violent that water thrown but a yard or two high into a ba●…on will freeze in the air before it descends But this extemity of cold hath been sometimes advantagious to the Country for one year there r●…sh'd in an Army of 70 thousand Turkes but there hapned such a terrible frost upon a suddain that 40. thousand of them starv'd for the rigor of the frost and some of them were found wrap'd in Horses bellies Which did strike such a Religion into the Mahumetan that he thought the Pole and Russe were protected by Heaven Touching ●…amogitia a large part of the Kingdom it is such that the very Nobles there dwell in Cottages What shall we thinke then of the Commonnalty Touching the Vertues of the Pole I will begin first with Religion and where is she hous'd so poorly as in Poland Where is she more mix'd with prophannesse Near Vilna one of their Capital Cities the Mahumetan Tartar doth observe his rites Nay between Lituania and Samogitia there are many who attribute a divinity to a kind of Serpents which in their language are call'd Givoijtos they carry them home and a certain time of the year they offer Sacrifices unto them they provide them meat and if those Penates or houshold Gods of theirs do not eat it is an Omen of ill luck and presageth calamities Nay I will not tell so Princely an Auditory a falshood in some places of Russia Lituania and Samogitia the Country people towards the latter end of October do provide Oblations and Holocausts for the Devill They use to meet in some Ba●…n or Stable and bring thither a Calf a Hogge a Cock and Hen with other creatures to make an immolation of them and when they are kill'd to that purpose their Priest or Inchant or whispering out some words doth strike the ground with his staffe and cryes out the whole brigade keeping tone with him in pronouncing these words O God Zeimminick for so they call the Devill These things we offer unto thee and render thee thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to conserve us this year in safety and health And now we pray thee be pleas'd to defend us for the future from Fire Iron the Pestilence and from our Enemies Then they take the flesh of those slain Animalls and eat them throwing first into the four corners of the roome some morsells and pronouncing these words Haec O Zeimmenick nostra Holocausta suscipe comede benignus O Zeimmenick accept of these our sacrifices and eat favourably Now I beseech you how can we think that Christ can cohabit or be found with those infernall and Reptill Gods Moreover the Samogitians are so given to superstition that whereas it was the old custom of that Country to till the ground with wooden Ploughes and Cul●…ers and that the Governor of one of their Provinces brought them the use of iron Plough-shares for the ease of the labourer and that some years after by an unusuall distemper of the air they had a dear year or two They threw away their iron ploughshares and fell to the old wooden ones again attributing a kind of divinity unto them and unluckinesse unto the other Though the rest of the Polonique people be not infected with such grosse Idolatry yet they are as grossly ignorant as any Christians on Earth can be Few of them can say the Lords Prayer or know what the ten commandements are they leave that to their Landlords and Priests it is enough for them to believe by an implicit faith in God Almighty and his Son Iesus Christ and the holy spirit touching more knowledge it belongs to Princes and Great men Now for the Masse of common people They are meer slaves unto the Gentry and worse then the Peasants of France a Landlord may come into any husbandmans house attended with a hungry train of followers and there do or take away what he will without any controllment Nor do the Country people refrain from their ordinary labour upon the Lords day but they plough and harrow they digge and delve as upon other daies hereupon a stranger asking one of them why he laboured upon the Sunday Because said he I must eat upon the Sunday The Landlords there have not only a Despoticall but Regal power over their Tenants having power of life and death which slavish custom Vitoldo Duke of Lituania brought in among them who was such a Tyrant that