Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	article_n	faith_n	tradition_n	3,058	5	9.0436	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31383	The holy court in five tomes, the first treating of motives which should excite men of qualitie to Christian perfection, the second of the prelate, souldier, states-man, and ladie, the third of maxims of Christianitie against prophanesse ..., the fourth containing the command of reason over the passions, the fifth now first published in English and much augemented according to the last edition of the authour containing the lives of the most famous and illustrious courtiers taken out of the Old and New Testament and other modern authours / written in French by Nicholas Caussin ; translated into English by Sr. T.H. and others.	Caussin, Nicolas, 1583-1651.; T. H. (Thomas Hawkins), Sir, d. 1640.	1650 (1650)	Wing C1547; ESTC R27249	2,279,942	902

sufferings of Jesus Christ the one hasteneth to a neighbour and the other abideth in God the one hath exercise the other joy the one conquereth the other possesseth the one knocketh at the door the other entereth in the one despiseth the world the other enjoyeth God Finally the spiritual man is a man covetous of eternity prodigal of life little careful of the present certain of the future A man who seems no longer to have any commerce with the world and who hath nothing so familiar as a life that is as it were buried in death and who flieth above sepulchers like an Angel who holdeth not of the earth but by the slender root of natural necessities and already toucheth heaven with a finger A man who is as yet in flesh though he hath made an eternal divorce with flesh who is under-foot to all the world by humility and above all the greatness thereof by contempt of it who binds himself to be at liberty who crucifieth himself to combat who mortifieth himself to be the more vigoroue who withereth to flourish again and daily dieth that he may never die The third SECTION Of the first monster which the spiritual man should resist to wit Ignorance and of the practice of virtues by which it is subdued THe greater part of men have dexterity in delving From whence our evils come the ground like moles (a) (a) (a) Oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae Virgil. Geor. and have no eyes to behold the Sun Yet all evils proceed from ignorance and the want of the knowledge of God (b) (b) (b) Primae scelerum causae mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei Silius l. 4. This is the first Monster which we must assault the first obstacle we must take away And for this effect observe a wholesom doctrine to wit that God is the Sun of all the Intelligences and that from this Sun five (c) (c) (c) Five rays of the soul Dignity of faith Aug. apud Gulielm Lugdunens rays of a lively and quickening light are diffused over the darkness of our understandings These five rays are faith understanding counsel wisdom and prudence The first and most excellent light is faith because the other rays do well enlighten the soul in those operations of which it is as it were the fountain but faith alone raiseth him above himself to his beginning which is God (d) (d) (d) Fides res est audax atque improba perveniens quo non pertingit intelligentia ipsa ascendit super Cheruban volat super Seraphim senas alas habens Faith is a virtue bold and urgent which attains to that the understanding cannot reach unto mounteth above Cherubins and flies above Seraphins though they have six wings A man without faith is as the Pilot of whom it is spoken in the Proverbs (e) (e) (e) Prov. 21. that fell asleep and lost his rudder What virginity is to the body the same is faith to the soul It is the first-born of virtues the beginning of spiritual life the life of the understanding as charity is the life of the will the pillar of the cloud (f) (f) (f) Et erat nubes tenebrosa illuminans noctem Exod. 14. 30. which hath two faces the one dark because it believeth the things which are not apparent the other lightsom for that it believeth with an infallible assurance The fourth SECTION Practice of Faith THat you may well practice the acts of faith What faith is Hebr. 12. 1. Sperandarum substantia rerum argumentum non apparentium you must know the nature object and motive thereof Faith saith S. Paul is the foundation of hope and the proof of things not apparent The foundation of hope in regard all whatsoever we hope in matter of Religion is grounded upon faith as the statue upon its basis the proof of things not apparent because it is an infallible argument of truths whereof we have not as yet evident notice S. Bernard Voluntariae quaedam certa praelibatio nec dum propalatae veritatis Bern. de consider It s object S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 1. How we should believe addeth that it is a first-tast certain and voluntary of truth yet not manifested The Gold-smith laboureth upon gold silver and precious stones as upon his proper object and the object which employeth faith are the mysteries revealed unto us by God and proposed by his Church Such mysteries ought to be believed for no other motive but for that God the eternal Truth hath revealed them The arguments which are drawn from the prophesies miracles numbers of Martyrs purity of the evangelical law from the correspondency thereof with reason from the admirable success and consent of all the mysteries from the conversion of the world from the means which the Church hath used to establish it self from her firm constancy amidst persecutions from the wisdom sanctity of the professours of our law and such like things which I have produced in the first obstacle of the second book are most powerful considerations to introduce us to faith and to make easie and familiar to us the acts thereof but they are not properly motives of faith In the same manner How faith works A fine comparison as the soul draweth knowledge from sense and yet notwithstanding is above sense so faith though she serve her self with these considerations which are able to command the most contumacious spirits yet is she admirably raised upon a more supereminent sphere and will abide no other touch but of the eternal Verity which darteth a forcible lightening-flash into the soul able to dazle enlighten and surprize the most prosperous liberty that may be imagined Thence the soul cometh to believe not by Wherin faith consisteth humane discourse by miracles by doctrine by sanctity but because God speaketh inwardly unto it and giveth it so powerful a touch that she judgeth infallible whatsoever is revealed and proposed unto her by the Church Behold to what point the good S. Elzear Count of Arian was arrived when he said he tasted matters of faith with such certainty and resolution of understanding that when Monsieur Miron held for a prodigie of knowledge in his time and all the most famous Doctours would have perswaded him the contrary of what he had embraced in the simplicity of his heart all their subtilties could not be able to give the least shock to his spirit This admitted the acts of faith are I. To submit proper judgement to God with all Touch-stone to know whether one have faith simplicity and humility of spirit who speaketh unto us by his Church by Scriptures by Traditions by Councels by Canons of the sovereign Pastours of the Church II. To believe firmly all the Articles of faith which are proposed to us as well those concerning the Divinity as the humanity of our Saviour those which concern the Sacraments and ceremonies as those which appertain to the order and

and saith It is the mark of the excellencie of our Religion The third a great obedience to Superiours recommended by S. Paul to the Romans Let every soul be subject to superiour Powers The fourth a sweetness and an admirable patience in persecutions Behold what appeared in the publication of the Gospel If you observe any thing like Consider the force of this proof in the progress of the pretended Religion then have you cause to have a good opinion of it But if you therein do see all her proceedings opposite to the same conclude it is not of God And tell me what are her proceedings in the fore-alledged points It cannot be doubted but that the virtue of humilitie First mark is the foundation of faith and one of the most noble characters of Christian Religion Where humilitie Prov. 11. is saith the Wise-man there is wisdom and God is pleased to drie up the roots of proad people Now Ezech. 10. all heresie is inseparably tied to a proud spirit from whence it took beginning derived nourishment and receives increase We might alledge an infinite number of testimonies to this purpose But we do not now tell you Epiphan hoeres 19. Illebertus hoereticus sub Zacharia how two heretick women of the race of Elxay did as it were cause their spittle to be adored nor how one Hildebert gave the paring of his nails to his sectaries for reliques so true is it that heresie being a sprout of the evil spirit still retains the mark of that pride which having once assaied to disturb Heaven never suffers the earth to enjoy repose It is well known how in the last Age one called John Leyden by trade a botcher and ring-leader of Corvin and Florimon Hereticks in Germanie having first published a law of pluralitie of wives went into the field drawing along with him huge troups of unchaste creatures where after he had played the prophet he caused himself to be chosen King took a triple diadem erected a proud pavilion wherein he gave audience established his Court and Potentates choosing out rogues and reprobates at that time attired in cloth of gold and silver and other costly stuffs which having but a little before served for ornaments on Altars were now cut in pieces by the hands of these Harpies and employed to cover infamous bodies that rather deserved to be involved in sulphur and flames When this King of Cardes marched through the Citie you would have taken him for the great Duke of Muscovia or some antick King of Hierusalem A Page mounted on hors-back bare a Bible covered with plates of gold before him another carried a naked sword willing thereby to expre●s he was born for the defence of the Gospel Besides he commonly had in his hand a golden globe whereon these words were engraven King of Justice on earth Anne Delphonse the first of fourteen wives this Impostour had married went along with him covered with a mantle furred with ermines clasped with a great buckle all of massie gold This would seem strange if we had not lately known the insolence of rebels and their imaginary regalities which are mounted to such a height of furie that they draw very near to the like frenzie Yet will we not at this time instance hereupon in any thing concerning this article We onely say that to separate Religion from rebellion and the manners of men from doctrine the maximes of Sectaries make an absolute profession of the most enraged vanity that may be observed in the course of human life For if the Scripture doth so strictly recommend Rom. 12. Non alta sapientes sed humilibus consentientes Prov. 35. Ne innitaris prudentia tuae unto us in the practice of humilitie not to make our selves over wise or able not to rest upon our own judgement nor proper prudence to hearken to our fore-fathers to obey Pastours who have lawful succession to work our salvation with fear and trembling at Gods judgements what may we think of a sect which authorizeth a peculiar spirit which hath ever been the seminary of all schisms and disorders which without distinction putteth the Scripture into all hands to judge of points of faith from whence have risen amongst them an infinite number of divisions which teacheth to account as dotages all that which the piety of our fore-fathers reverenced all that the wisest and most religious men of the earth decided which teacheth to spit against light and trample under foot the commandments of Pastours and Prelates to flatter ones self with assurance of salvation and predestination in the greateste orbitancies and neglects of life Verily it is an admirable thing to behold how the petty spirits of artificers and silly women busie themselves herein and to what a degree of pride they come when abused by I know not what imaginary texts of Scripture they grow big with the opinion of their own abilitie What pride more irregular than to see men not content with the Religion of Charlemaigne and S. Lewis nor of the Churches and tombs of their Ancestours to become so curious as to think their Kings and Pastours to be Idolaters and all the better part of mankind bestial from whom they separate themselves as from people infected with a spiritual contagion and do all they can to deifie their own opinions What pharisie ever came near this height of pride If there were any the least spark of humilitie a good soul would say within it self What do I or where am I It is an old saying He that too much believes in himself is a devil to himself I think I am grounded on the word of God but have not all hereticks had the same foundation which they in conclusion found onely to subsist in their own imagination Why should I separate my self from the main bodie of the ancient Church to satisfie the itch of my peculiar judgement It is not credible that so many men of honour and worth who are clear-sighted in all other things should be deceived in this they may have had doubts and opinions as we but they have overcome them by humility and reason they have stuck to the bodie of the tree they have followed the general consent of people which rather live in uniformitie than adhere to noveltie Let them not be figured to me as Idolaters ideots and men superstitious they have far other aims than these The wisest and most temperate of our side believe them not to be damned in their Religion To what purpose then is all this to handle a business apart to be separated from our near alies from Sacraments Church tombs and to be the cause of so many divisions spoils and bloudshed I plainly see we must hereafter live in re-union It is the spirit of God which commandeth it If I have beliefs in my heart different from the ordinary I ought not divulge them to create schisms and scandals I should inform my self I should obey it is fit I

Apostles The Pretended quite contrary faigning they honour Saints as one would Socrates or Phocion perpetually mock thereat break down their images call them by the name of idols and false gods The Catholick Church holdeth man hath free wil Genes 4. Deut. 30. Eccl. 15. supported in this article upon so many passages of Scripture The Pretended dispoil man of all liberty which is to destroy the worth of his conditions and to deprive him of the best part of his essence The Catholick Church holdeth the bloud of our Saviour is a treasure infinite and very able to purge away all manner of evil and to merit all good but that it is applyed to us by works of satisfaction and merit and purgative pains in those who stand in need of it as a medicine which profiteth the sick man by the co-operation he bringeth The Pretended teacheth good works are not necessary to salvation but onely faith justifies which is to open a gate to the corruption of good manners and to all kind of liberty The Catholick Church believes a Purgatory for souls which going out of the bodie are not yet purified grounded therein on 19. or 20. passages of Scripture all understood by the ancient Fathers according to our belief The Pretended having disturbed the ashes of the dead deprive them of the assistance and prayers of the living contrary to divine and humane laws and the manifest practice of all antiquity The Catholick Church makes a Sacrament of marriage according to S. Paul and the interpretation of most eminent Fathers of the Church The Pretended make their marriages like those of Barbarians The Catholick Church holdeth the reality of the body of CHRIST in the Sacrament of the Altar and believe that under the Sacramental species which are sensible and corruptible our Saviour subsisteth with a glorious body which is called by S. Paul a spiritual body because it is dignified with qualities and conditions of spirit though it loose not the essence of a body She adoreth therein with all humility that which she cannot comprehend sufficiently after express passages of Scripture the decision of fourty Councels the testimony of five hundred Authours ancient grave and sincere Adding from the authority of the most illustrious Councel of Nice that it is the unbloudy Sacrifice presented for the expiation of the sins of the world The Pretended will place in stead of it chimaeraes imaginary figments cessation of Sacrifices and abominable desolation The Catholick Church publisheth confession and remission of sins by the ministery of Priests as the Son of God did institute it in S. John The Pretended shaking off so wholsom a yoak hath made himself a John 10. way to liberty and dissolution The Catholick Church acknowledgeth a visible Head on earth established by the express word of Jesus Christ in S. Matthew averred by all the holy Fathers Matth. 15. confessed by the continuation of a lawful succession in the revolution of so many Ages The Pretended seek to bring into the house of God an anarchy of the children of Belial The Catholick Church is the bright star of truths The Pretended is a furious Comet which throws disorder and poyson into all the parts of the world To say truly should an Angel have spoken to it yea could it create a golden Age never might this design be accomplished by ways so furious and turbulent But having cost France so much gold and bloud what hath it done but that which is mentioned by the excellent pen of Cardinal Berule in the Preface of the greatness of Jesus A Church without Apostles Apostles without mission Pastours without sheep sheep without Shepheards Faithful without Churches Christians without Baptism Prophets without miracles Temples without Altars Altars without Sacrifices a Religion without ceremonies a Law without obedience a Faith without works and a Charity without effects Behold excellent pieces and well worthy of a reformed Church In the name of God weigh at leisure these considerations Humamum fuit errare diabolicum per animositatem in errore manere August de verbis Apost serm which would deserve a whole volume and since you are convinced by reason kick no longer against the prick go no more about to forge difficulties nor say how shall I put this in execution What means have I to do it What will such and such say What will our whole side say in general Must I confess I have erred and a thousand other thoughts which are true illusions You shall no sooner set your foot in the Roman Catholick Church with so many men of note lately converted but all these fantasies will vanish you shall live in peace of conscience and shall receive before God glory immortal O that we might quickly see that great day wherein France may no longer speak but with one tongue wherein the names of Lutherans and Calvinists may be banished out of the memories of men wherein all French-men reunited under one faith one law one Head one Church may eternally bless the name of Jesus What joy what comfort what embracements of both sides what consolation for so much afflicted kindred which waste themselves with grief and sorrow for these poor straglers what satisfaction for the sacred person of the King what honour for France what peace for the Church what edification for all the world what triumphs for Heaven what blessings of God will fall upon their heads who shall give example of this reunion and shall consent to the peace safety and honour of this Monarchy The third OBSTACLE To live by Opinion THe tree of the knowledge of good and evil Over much wit troubleth us doth also yield fruits which cost us very dear we labour here with too much application of wit which goeth up and down searching and prying into all the objects of the world often forsaking the better for the worse S. Thomas most judiciously S. Them 1. 2. quaest 8. observeth that there is much difference between the natural appetite the sensual and the intellectual The natural aimeth always at things which are really Intellectual appetite faulty good for her and proportionable the sensual is scattered the intellectual much more to desire evil plaistered over with the semblance of good The plant desireth moysture with which it is nourished and will never take a stone for the dew Man having too much wit and sense not contenting himself with things that really are good and truly consonant to his nature forgetteth others in his idea which are good in apparance and evil in substance Notwithstanding apparence taketh upon her when Apparence she hath seduced the sense and conquered the imagination to dive even into the Cabinet of the Prince which is the understanding and putting false spectacles upon his eyes to make him believe that black is white glass is diamond and darkness light It is necessary that the will should dance to this tune and pursue the good which is represented unto her by the

thereunto are more manifest as I will make it appear in the sequel of this discourse First the Scripture speaking of ambition called it Reasons and remedies Psal 18. 14. Ab alienis parce servo tuo Ambition a Forreign vice A singular description of man a forreign vice Pride in man is not in its element it always seeketh height and man is even lowness it self What is man if we consider him in his own nature without the assistance of grace but an excrement of impurity in his conception a silly creature in his birth a bag and sponge of ordures in his life a bait for worms in his death The soul is in the body as in a Chariot of glass The days are the courriers which perpetually run upon a full gallop The four wheels are vanity weakness inconstancy misery The way is of ice the goal is death and the end oftentimes is a precipice The pleasures thereof as saith Plato are winged and wholly armed with pricks and stings to leave in flying a sharp point in the heart the dolour and discontents thereof drench it in a cup full of gall and its feet are of lead never to forsake it Can then such a creature be possessed with ambition such a dung-hill nourish pride All that we behold both above and beneath Al the world teacheth us the lesson of h●mility on the right on the left hand in this great house of nature serves as a lesson of humility for us Heaven which circumvolveth over our heads enameled with stars created in a higher place than we the earth which we tread under our feet which serveth us for a nurse afterwards for a sepulchre the little air we breath without which we cannot live the water which in its wonder hath swallowed up wisdom and afterwards the bodies of the most knowing men of the earth as we read of Aristotle beasts whose spoils we carry about us our body which according to account hath for its portion about three thousand diseases our soul which knoweth not what shall become of her and which cannot tell whether she shall serve as an immortal fewel to those devouring flames that have no limits but eternity or no All preach to us our baseness all thunder out the terrour and affrightments of Gods judgements and amongst so many subjects of humility you O Noblemen have leisure to puff up your selves and to fill your minds with the gentle breathing blasts of imaginary honour At the least if needs you must elevate your selves if you of necessity must take a great deal of state upon you choose the best way but insensible as you are what Ambition the life of a slave do you take upon you becoming ambitious the life of a slave the life of Cain This is the second consideration which I propose of power sufficient to instruct a soul that will give never so little predominance to reason We all naturally love liberty and suppose that to be of ones self is an inestimable good Inestimabile bonum est suum esse Senec. ep 67. Misery of the ambitious Now the most captive Galley-slaves are not greater bond-men than the ambitious The slave hath a chain and a captain who proudly insulteth over him an ambitious man hath as many fetters as he hath appetites as many servitudes as pretensions as many slaveries as manners of ambition His Captain is his unguided passion which tyrannizeth over him day and night with all possible cruelty The slave practizeth and tameth himself in his own condition the ambitious is always savage he always flieth before himself and never overtaketh himself to enter into himself He is in no place because he would be every where and yet notwithstanding he is tormented every where his feaver burneth him where he is not The slave freeth himself with money the ambitious man findeth gyves of gold and silver The slave findeth no chain so straight but that it sometimes giveth him leave to sing the ambitious is never free out of himself there are nothing but objects of frenzie fire-brands of concupiscence and within himself there is not any thing but worms flames and executioners The slave findeth at least liberty in death and death which carrieth the key of all close coverts cometh lastly to unlose all the bands of his servitude an ambitious soul as soon as it is parted from the body is consorted with devils in their tortures as it imitated them very nearly in their passion What a life what a death is this Find you any comparable if not that of unfortunate Cain The Scripture saith The life of Cain Genes 4. 16. Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Procep in Genes that he withdrawing himself from the sight of God did inhabit the land of instability and Procopius thereto addeth an ancient tradition that he perpetually saw certain spectres with swords of fire which brought horrible affrightments upon him Is the ambitious man better used Is not he perpetually separated from the face of God seeing as saith S. Hierom man is divided from the Divinity not by the degrees Hier. Epist ad Damas Peccantes recedunt à Deo affectuum non locorum spatiis of body but of soul which are the affections And how much more the soul is scattered in the waste emptiness of ambition which is indeed a meer vanity so much more it strayeth from this sovereign Majesty which is the onely verity Is it not in the Kingdom of inconstancy In every place where he setteth his feet there is nothing but slippery yce or downfal The saying of the Prophet is accomplished Psal 34. 6. Fiat via illorum tenebrae labricum Angelus Domini persequens eos Extream disaster in his person Let their way be made dark and slippery and the Angel of our Lord persecute them Behold all the most lamentable extremities which may be imagined in a voyage ever to go upon yce and thereon to walk in the obscure darkness of the night and to have behind you in the rere a Sergeant who hasteneth you forward and all this is found in the life of the ambitious What passage is not slippery in the favours of the world all which are feathered and full of mutable conditions What darkness is there in a wretched creature who hath no pitie at all of himself who maketh a liberty of his fetters honour of his ignominie and tropheys of his torments What Sergeant is more troublesom What spectres and what swords of fire more teribble than the pricks of this enraged passion which as much and as violently forceth man as a bull goared with a goad rusheth through some headlong precipice Where is it that the ambitious man can find place of stability and center of repose If he be in quest of honour and when is he not behold him in a whirl-pool in fire behold him in the feverish accesses of heat and cold which afford him no intermission Admit he obtain what he pretendeth unto no