Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	distinction_n	mortal_a	venial_a	4,934	5	12.1153	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56252	The history of popedom, containing the rise, progress, and decay thereof, &c. written in High Dutch by Samuel Puffendorff ; translated into English by J.C.	Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694.; Chamberlayne, John, 1666-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing P4176; ESTC R5058	76,002	238

Tributary Slaves doom'd to maintain so great a Militia at their own Expences The first are singular in this That they are obliged to abstain from Marriage which they pretend is upon the account of a more particular Holiness and that they may uninterruptedly addict themselves to the exercise of the Charge But the true reason is That they may not be embarassed with the care of Wife and Children to the prejudice of the Church's Interest or oblig'd to side with the Prince under whose Dominion they live nor cheat the Church of its Income to supply the necessities of their Families but that they may devote themselves wholly to the Pope and yield him a blind Obedience and execute his Orders against all but more especially against the Princes whose Subjects they are whose Anger they dread the less because they are not joined or united to the Republick by so streight Bands as the rest are and have but one body to take care for whereas a Wife and Children are look'd upon to be the greatest and dearest Pawns of our Fidelity but a single man can easily get his Bread in any Country In fine the Pope endeavours by all sort of waies to free them from the Dependance and Jurisdiction of their lawful Soveraigns to subject them entirely to his own The Clergy also could never have satisfy'd their Avarice with so rich a Harvest had they been oblig'd to have scrap'd up for their Wives and Children nor so fair a Pretext of begging for the Church and not for themselves But in the mean while those that first introduced Coelibacy or a single Life among the Romish Clergy were wonderfully overseen in not finding out at the same time a fit Receipt for the Gift of Continency which had been very seasonable We may guess at the multitude of the Clergy by the computation which Paul the Fourth is said to make thereof viz. That he had under his Jurisdiction Two hundred and eighty eight thousand Parishes and forty four thousand Cloisters especially if that of the Convents be just We may again divide the Clergy into those that are simply Priests and those that have made particular vows as the Monks and Jesuites which may pass for the Pope's Life Guard The pay of these Troops consists in honourable Charges great Revenues an easie Labour idle daies and a constant Kitchin but those that are kept more strict have their Heads fill'd with a particular Holiness and Merits and Advantages above the rest Sect. 33. The means which the Pope makes use of to keep the Laity in subjection are the accustoming them to a belief that he and his Ghostly Militia are the Promoters of their Salvation and the Lords of their Consciences which is the strongest Argument in the World to lead them into a perpetual Slavery and Submission to their Wills but that it may be more serviceable to their Spiritual Monarchy they have accommodated thereto some of the Articles of the Christian Religion and since made some additions of others tending to the same end So that if you take good notice of the Disputes and Contestations which they of the Romish Religion have with their Adversaries you will alwaies find some Interest mingled therewith concerning the Authority Power or Revenues of the Clergy The chiefest of these Doctrines is concerning the Power and Authority of the Pope of his Superiority over the Councils and of his Infallibility which last point the Jesuites have stretch'd as far as possible for that being once granted all the rest is an easie and natural consequence thereof But the Sentiments of the Ancient Christians with whom if I am not mistaken the Sorbon at present holds viz. That the Councils are at least equal if not above the Popes are directly opposite to the grounds of the Papal State for this Opinion once stiffly maintain'd would destroy the Monarchy and on its Ruins erect a Democracy and in effect to grant the Pope such almighty Prerogatives and yet subject him to his Creatures and Vassals are things incompatible and inconsistent with one another For that which the Holy Writings of the Fathers have attributed to the Church must be only understood of the Pope just as in ordinary Discourse we ascribe that to a whole Kingdom which is done by the King alone The reading of the Holy Scriptures is forbid the Laity and only permitted to the Clergy which does not alone contribute to the Grandeur of the Priests as if they were the only persons worthy to approach the Divine Oracles but does also more particularly hinder the Laity from finding any thing contrary to the Interests of the Clergy and becoming too wise and refusing any longer blindly to receive the Fables of their lying Priests So that the Laity not being permitted to search into Matters of Divinity nor to examin them seriously are oblig'd to referr themselves wholly to their Priests Hence is it that they appropriate to the Pope the Right of interpreting the Scriptures and of giving an absolute decision of all controverted points to the end that none may be alledg'd that are prejudicial to his Interests They give out too That the Scriptures are imperfect and therefore to be supply'd by Traditions to the end that when they would preach up any Doctrine advantageous to the Holy Chair of which there is not the least tittle to be found in the Scripture they may appeal to Tradition and so spare themselves any farther demonstration In the Doctrine of sins they have a distinction betwixt venial and mortal sins as also of particular cases and exceptions all which does only tend to the profit and advantage of the Priests and all that infinite number of Books of Confession enough to lade a whole East-India-Fleet are not writ for the amendment of sins but to the end that by the Taxes therein contain'd the Dominion of the Clergy may be confirm'd and their avarice satiated The comfortable Doctrine of the Remission of Sins is intirely accommodated to their Interest for whilst it is no advantage to the Clergy that a truly penitent sinner should obtain remission of his sins by the confidence he has in the merits of Christ alone therefore they teach that to the attainment of a full and perfect forgiveness of sins a man must reveal even the least particulars of all and every sin to the Priest whereby they do not only make the people to be at their Devotion and give them such impressions as are most conformable to their Interests but they do more particularly thereby discover all the secrets and designs of Families and the humor and inclinations of the people and by that means have the best intelligence of all that is done tho' they are forbid to reveal what is imparted to them at Confessions for without that caution of secresy they could never have been able to have establish'd a thing so contrary and so ungrateful to humane nature They promote also the works of Satisfaction according as the Father-Confessor