Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	body_n	bread_n	transubstantiation_n	642	5	10.9009	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42781	Demonologia sacra, or, A treatise of Satan's temptations in three parts / by Richard Gilpin.	Gilpin, Richard, 1625-1700.	1677 (1677)	Wing G777; ESTC R8221	552,054	651

their own just consequences yet there are some choice principles of his which if he can but fasten upon the Mind they presently open the gap to all kind of Errours imaginable they are like the firing a Train of Gunpowder which in a Moment blows up the whole Fabrick of Truth such are the delusions of Enthusiasm Inspirations and Prophetick Raptures let these be once fixed and then there is nothing so Inhumane Irreligious Mad or Ridiculous but Satan can with ease perswade Men to it and also under the highest pretences of Religion and Certainty the experience of all Ages hath made any further proof of this altogether needless This is his way when he acts alone But if he use Instruments though he is also gradual in his procedure yet 't is in a different method for there he sometimes proceeds from the abuse of something innocent and lawful by the help of a long tract of time to introduce the grossest Falshood Thus may we conceive he brought Idolatry to its height first Men admired the wisdom or famous acts of their Progenitors or Benefactors next they erected Pillars or Images of such Persons to perpetuate the Names Honour and Memory of them and their Actions Another Age being at a greater distance from the things done and consequently greater Strangers to the true ends and reasons of such practices which being as it usually falls out in such cases abused by false reports or misrepresentations of things for Time covers things of this nature with so thick a Mist that 't is difficult to discover the true Metal of an original Constitution they in a devout ignorance gave the Images a greater respect than was at first intended then did they slide into a conceit they were not of the ordinary rank of Mortals or at least they were exalted to a condition which ordinary Mortals were not capable of thus they supposed them Deities and gave them worship of Prayers and Sacrifices hence they went further and multiplied Gods and that of several sorts according to the natures of things that were good or hurtful to them and then at last consulting how mean their offerings were and how unlikely to please their Godships they concluded Humane sacrifices most sutable especially to expiate greater provocations and in times of great calamity The burthensom heap of ceremonious Superstitions in Popery was the work of several Ages they were not brought in all at once One in a devotional heat fancied such a Ceremony as a fit testimony of Zeal or a proper incitement of his Affections Another deviseth a second and so all along as the minds of Men were best pleased with their own inventions and had so much credit or authority to recommend them to others they encreased the sum by new additions till at last they are become a burthen not to be born and still as they receeded from the primitive purity and became more careless and corrupt in their lives for from good Bishops they declined to but tollerable Arch-Bishops till at last they are become incurable Babylonians so they departed gradually from the simplicity of the Gospel and abounded in contrivances of Ceremonies Thirdly In corrupting established Truths Satan's proceedings are not by sudden and observable leaps but by lingring and slow motions as Flowers and Plants grow insensibly and as Men gradually wax old and feeble Violent and hasty alterations he knows would beget Observation Dislike and Opposition neither will he make such attempts but where he is sure of a strong prevalent Party which by force and power is able to carry all before it In this case he is willing to enforce Errour by Fire and Sword Thus he propagated Mahumetism at first and still continueth to do so by the conquering Arms of the Turks but where he hath not this advantage he betakes himself to another course and studieth to do his work so that he may not be observed The possibility of such a change with the manner of effecting it we may observe in many Churches that have declined from the Doctrine which they at first received but most of all in the Church at Rome which at first was a pure Church as the Apostle testifieth but now so changed from the Truths upon which they were bottomed in their first Constitution as if she had not been the same Church They boast indeed that as they were at first so they are now but nothing is more evident than the contrary and the possibility of their insensible corruption is as demonstrable as the alteration of Doctrine in any other Church The manifold ways that Satan takes in this matter in the abuse of Scripture by raising perverse Interpretations and unnatural Inferences and the advantages of a long succession in Authority of the negligence and ignorance of the common People of the crafty subtilty of the Teachers especially when Religion began to be abused to secular Interest is described by Acontius and others If we should single out any of their noted Errours and follow up the History of it to its first original we shall find that whatever strong current it hath now gotten it was very small and inconsiderable in the Fountain The Invocation of Saints though it be now an established Article among them yet its first rise was from the unwary Prosopopoea's of of the Ancients and the liberty of their Oratorical declamatory stile these gave occasion to some private Opinions these Opinions to some private devotional liberty in Practice and from private Opinions and Practices at last it obtained so strong a Party that it procured a publick Injunction The like method was used for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation whose beginning was from the abuse of such Sentences as this in ancient Writers That after Consecration it was no more Bread and Wine but the Body and Blood of Christ by which expression the Authors intended no more than this that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were relatively altered and were more than ordinary Bread and Wine because they were representatives of the Body and Blood of Christ however this gave them courage to interprect literally and strictly these words of Christ This is my Body and thus by degrees from the Opinion of a few it became the judgment of many and from the toleration of a private Opinion of some Doctors and unimposed it obtained at last a Canon to make it Authentick Publick Doctrine Fourthly This insensible proceeding is in nothing more evident than in the power of Custom and Education Custom doth by degrees take off the startling of Conscience and those Opinions or Practices which at first look affright it are by a little familiarity made more smooth and tollerable The dissents of Men by frequent seeing and hearing become tame and gentle but the force of Education is incomparably great for this makes an Errour to become as it were natural they suck it in with their Milk and draw it in with their Air. This general advantage the Devil hath

a Man conceits himself dead or that he is transformed to a Wolf or Cat or that he is made of Glass as many in this Distemper have done there is no perswasion to the contrary that can take place with him Now if this humour be taken up with Divine matters as usually it doth for it hath a natural inclination to religious things it still acts with fierceness and confidence and there are many things often concomitant to such actings that if it misconceit Inspiration or Prophecy the Parties themselves are not only bound up under that perswasion but even unwary Spectators are deluded For sometime a Melancholy imagination is not wholly corrupt but only in respect of some one or two particulars whilst in other things it acts regularly and then neither they nor others that are unacquainted with such cases are so apt to suspect that they are mistaken in these things while they act rationally and soberly in other matters Sometime they have vehement fits of surprisal for the humour hath its ebbings and flowings and this gives them occasion to apprehend that someting doth supernaturally act or raise them and then when the things they speak are for the matter of them of religious concern and odd notions for the humour flies high and bounds not it self with ordinary things and withal uttered in Scripture Rhetorick and with fervency and urgency of Spirit when these things concur there is such an appearance of Inspiration that the Parties themselves and others rest fully perswaded that it is so Seventhly Pretended and counterfeit Miracles the Devil makes much use of to countenance Errour and this is also one of his strong-holds for he suggests that God himself bears witness by these Signs Wonders and Miracles to such erroneous Doctrine as seems to be concerned by them That the Devil cannot work a true Miracle hath been discoursed before but that he can perform many strange things and such as may beget admiration none denies and that by such unwonted actions he usually endeavours to justify false Doctrines and to set them off with the appearance of divine approbation we are sufficiently forewarned in the Scriptures Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses by false Miracles In Deut. 13. 1. God speaks of the Signs and Wonders of false Prophets who would by that means seek to seduce the People to follow after other Gods Christ also in Matth. 24. 24. foretells that false Christs and false Prophets shall arise and shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect and puts a special note of caution upon it Behold I have told you before And to the same purpose is that of Paul concerning Antichrist 2 Thes 2. 9. where he tells us of powerful Signs and Wonders by the working of Satan who doth all the while only lye and cheat that he may draw Men to Errour If we make enquiry how Satan hath managed this Engine we shall observe not only his diligence in using it on all occasions to countenance all kind of Errours both in Paganisme and Christianity but also his subtile dexterity by cheating Men with Forgeries and Falshood Heathenish Idolatry among other helps for its advancement wanted not this the Oracles and responses which were common before the coming of Christ were esteemed as miraculous confirmations of the truth of the Dieties which they worshipped the moveings and speakings of their Statua's were arguments that the operative presence of some celestial Numen was affixed to such an Image In some places the solemn Sacrifices are never performed without a seeming Miracle As in Nova Zembla where the Priests trances his running a Sword into his Belly his making his Head and Shoulder fall off his body into a Kettle of hot Water by the drawing of a Line and then his reviving again perfect and entire without maime or hurt are all strange astonishing things to the beholders But besides such things as these which are standing constant Wonders we read of some that have had as it were a Gift of Miracles that they might be eminently instrumental to promote and honour Paganisme All Histories agree that Simon Magus did so many strange things at Rome as the causing an Image to walk turning Stones into Bread transforming himself into several Shapes flying in the Air c. that he was esteemed a God Philostratus and Cedremus report great things of Apollonius as that he could deliver Cities from Scorpions Serpents Earthquakes c. and that many Miracles were wrought by him this Man Satan raised up in an extraordinary manner to revive the Honour of Paganisme that it might at least vie with Christianity And though few ever attained to that height which Apollonius and Simon Magus reached unto yet have we several instances of great things done now and then by some singular Persons upon a special occasion which Satan improved to his advantage Vespasian cured a Lame and Blind Man Adrianus cured a blind Woman and which is more after he was dead by the touch of his Body a Man of Pannonia who was born Blind received his Sight Valerius Maximus tells of many strange things and particularly of a Vestal Virgin that drew Water into a Sieve As Livy tells of another Claudia by name who with her Girdle drew the Ship to the Shore which carryed the Mother of their Gods when neither strength of Men nor Oxen could do it Errours under profession of Christianity have been supported and propagated by the boast of Miracles A clear instance for this we have in Popery that Religion being a perpetual boast of Wonders To let pass their great Miracle of Transubstantiation which as one hath lately demonstrated is a bundle of Miracles or contradictions rather because it appears not to the Senses of any Man and consequently is not capable of being an Argument to prove any of their opinions We have abundance of strange things related by them as proofs of some Doctrines of theirs in particular as Purgatory Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation c. and of their profession in the general Devils cast out Blind and Lame cured Dead raised and what not it would be endless to recite particulars it would take a long time to tell what their St. Francis hath done how he fetched Water out of a Rock how he was homaged by Fowls and Fishes how he made a Fountain in Marchia run Wine and how far he exceeded Christ himself in wonderful feats Christ did nothing which St. Francis did not do nay he did many more things than Christ did Christ turned Water into Wine but once but St. Francis did it thrice Christ was once transfigured but St. Francis twenty times he and his Brethren raised above a thousand to Life cast out more than a thousand Devils c. Their Dominious raised three dead Men to Life Their Zeverius while he was alive did many Miracles and after he was dead his Body lay fifteen Months sweetly