Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	church_n	day_n	indulgence_n	5,335	5	12.6268	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60933	The political mischiefs of popery, or, Arguments demonstrating I. that the romish religion ruines all those countries where 'tis establish'd II. that it occasions the loss of above 200 millions of livres ... to France in particular, III. that if popery were abolished in France, that kingdom would become incomparably more rich and populous ..., IV. that it is impossible that France should ever be re-established whilst popery is their national religion / by a person of quality.	Souligné, de.; Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1698 (1698)	Wing S4719; ESTC R25778	81,776	162

continual C●…nspiracy against God and the King and their Neighbours for as those different Orders subsist and enrich themselves meerly by the Idolatry Superstition and Ignorance of the People they foment it as much as they can and engage in the Interests and Designs of the Court of Rome to favour the same against the King and the State and every one of those Orders hate and despise one another both out of a principle of Envy and because they know one another at bottom and then their Devotionists who are join'd to their Fraternities espouse all their Passions Quarrels and Interests Those Monks do likewise persuade abundance of Silly Women of Quality and others to enter their very Sucking Infants into their Fraternities persuading them that there 's no better method to make them to Live insomuch that sometimes we shall see those poor little Creatures muffled up in a Monks Hood and Cassock by which the Order lose nothing Another method made use of by the Ecclesiasticks to catch the Wealth and Substance of the People is their Indulgences which they obtain of the Pope from time to time for some Churches or Monasteries which whosoever Visits during such a number of days which serve as a Fair or so many Market Days to the place shall infallibly receive a Pardon of all their Sins provided they give bountifully also to the said Church or Monastery for that is always to be understood and there are very few but what give more or less in such cases Another of their Baits to fish for the Peoples Money is the Holy Relicks as they call them in their Churches Monasteries and Convents And when the Peoples Devotion grows cold for the Old Relicks they never fail of bringing New Shrines or Boxes full of New and Fresh And ordinarily they say they come from Holy Rome It is well enough known that oftentimes those Reliques are pieces of Past-board fashioned like Bones sometimes they are the real Bones of an Humane Creature and sometimes of Beasts as it hath been often proved the Priests and Monks making it the Matter of their Diversion to insult over the foolish Credulity of th●… People in this Impudent manner and yet at the same time make them pay for Seeing and Touching those Reliques There are also Miracles to be performed from time to time when the Priests and Monks please by the Statues Images or Bones of some dead Man or Woman under the Name of Reliques or Shrines of some Saints as they call the Bones and Boxes in which they keep them Those Miracles are of great Advantage to the Clergy for by this means they bring abundance of Offerings to their Churches ●…nd Chappels There are moreov●…r Legacies Dirges and Donatives whether they be Voluntary by Persons whom they have Seduced or Suborn'd or altogether false which the Priests or Monks forge in order to dispoil Families whereof the World has had Millions of Examples and some such happen every day Auricular Confession is also one of their most Gainful Inventions by which they Shear their Flock four times a Year There are few People who don 't at such times give them a Piece of Money especially those who are guilty of Great Crimes and thereupon the●… receive Absolution provided that together with this they do some little troublesome thing which the Priests impose upon them under the Notion of Penance the better to colour that Infamous Traffick and to make the People believe that 't is not for the Money they Absolve them for that would appear odious ev'n to the most dissolute Wretch in the World I take no notice here of the great Advantage the Pope and his Clergy make of this Confession to dive into the Secrets of Princes and Grandees and of all People in General that so they may make their own use of it and take their Measures thereupon to pry into the greatest Secrets of Men and Women which gives the Ecclesiasticks an opportunity to Debauch all the Sex or to squeeze Money out of them for by this means they lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins and carried away with divers Lusts according to the Words of the Text. There 's another thing very Gainful to the Romish Clergy and that is Burials not only in that they sell the Ground at dear rate in their Churches and Convents and that they make a great deal of Profit as I have said already by Masses for the Dead but they get also a great deal of Money for the singing of a multitude of the Priestly-herd at ordinary Interments where there is commonly a great number who have each of them a piece of Money and a good Treat at which they use to fuddle themselves as well as at the Aniversaries above-mentioned I don't here condemn a reasonable Allowance for one or two Ministers or Priests who go before the Corps and cannot subsist without those little Profits or who are there to comfort the Friends of the deceased or to instruct the Company by putting them in mind of their Latter End or to Preach the Funeral Sermons of Persons of great Merit but I condemn only the great Excess of that pretended Church in imploying such a great number of Priests at Funerals without necessity who sing in the Streets like so many Priests of Bacchus things which neither the People nor the greatest part of themselves understand and which occasions a great Charge to the Friends of the deceased who frequently have not one bit of Bread left after they have paid for the Funeral and the Masses that are to be said afterwards for the deceased In my time it was a Complaint at Paris that the meanest person such as a Footman could not be Buried for less than four Pistoles Perhaps the Court has moderated the Charge since they have erected so many Offices of Buriers of the dead and Criers of Burials and that there 's a Tax as I am inform'd of eight Crowns laid on every Burial for the King for it would be very hard that the Priests and the King should squeeze so great a sum from the Poor People all at once upon this Account The Gain which the Priests have by Marriages and Baptisms is also very Excessive Let them in Gods Name have some Profit thence as the Ministers have in England who cannot subsist without it but this matter ought to be moderated and there should be a distinction made betwixt Poor and Rich. At present I confess that those profits of the Popish Priests in France are much di●…inished because as times are now there are but few Marriages or Baptisms in that Kingdom These are the most General and Common Methods that the Idolatrous Clergy of France make use of to cheat the poor Ignorant people of their Money and Substance I take no notice here of what they gain by their Schools and Boarders because it may be said in some sense that what they gain that way is honestly got Yet herein also they occasion a loss