Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	holy_a	prayer_n	6,254	5	6.1558	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41160	Janus Alexandrus Ferrarius, an Augustine friar, his epistles to the two brethern of Wallenburgh, concerning the usefulness and necessity of the Roman Catholick faith wherein the ambition and avarice of the Church of Rome are lively demonstrated in a mathematical method, by a continued series of connexed propositions / from the original Latine.	Fabricius, Johann Ludwig, 1632-1697.; Fabricius, Joannes Ludovicus.	1673 (1673)	Wing F73; ESTC R32018	52,870	158

Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister And again He that would be the greatest among you let him be as the least and he that would command as him that serveth Which words might possibly disturb them and lead them into that Error as if it were forbid them to affect Government or seek Empire over Emperours but however that were In this at least the Apostles grievously err'd that they gave the same Precepts to their Successors which had been given to them when the Reason of things are quite otherwise For as Severinus of Mozambane has most rightly observed in his Golden Commentary to his Brother Laelius Postquam recentiorum Portuna sacerdotum De Statu Im. Gem. cap. 2. immane quantum a tenuibus Antiquis-simorum rebus discessit Absurdum fuerit illosamplius adstringere velle Obsoletis super modestia ejus Ordinis hominum a salvatore promulgatis Et fortasse istae leges ad prima illa tempora duntaxat debebant valere Nam id revera ridiculum erat homines Piscatores aut Textores Primum locum affectare quibus in diem victus aut labore manuum aut stipibus collatis quaerebatur Since the fortunes of the latter Clergy has been so wonderfully changed even from the slightest things of the Ancient it would be absurd any longer to tie up them to those obsolete Laws for the Modesty sake of that first Order of men to whom they were at first published by our Saviour and possibly those Laws were designed only to be of force in those first Times For it would certainly have been very Ridiculous that Fishermen and Weavers should have affected the first places who were daily to seek their Bread either from the Labour of their hands or Set-wages Which distinction the Apostles not observing gave occasion to Hereticks and to those who are often worse then Hereticks Politicians to think that those Answers of our Saviours might appertain likewise to our Days then which no Opinion can be more pernicious to our Church or more scandalous to Pious minds And hence it comes to pass that the Right of Fishing which in all Lands nay even in the Super-caelestial and Infernal Waters does Jure Divino belong to our Popes is at this day Prohibited them and that neither in the Brittish Ocean the Baltick Sea the Lake Lemane nor the Rivers of Germany they are admitted such free Fishing as formerly Nay it was once to be feared least it would have been Prohibited in the Neighbouring Adriatick Epist Piscat venet ad Paulum V. as one of his own Tribe Pisanius di Pizzoni an Honest man and a Lover of his Country very Brotherly admonishes So much is that Puzillaminity of the Apostles and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Simplicity in which they used to Glory hurtful to the present Church DEMONSTRATION Since the Apostles aim'd at nothing High nothing Sublime but with broken and dejected minds praised and recommended only Plebeian Virtues such as Modesty Patience Humility by which not only the Churches Welfare is impeded but the whole Structure utterly overturned It is of necessary consequence that they Enormously have straied from the foundation of the Catholick Doctrine and the whole Scope of that Faith and therefore the Religion by them delivered is in it self and the Nature of its Principles very unapt for the attaining of Salvation which is what was to be Demonstrated It will be therefore our Business quite to remove or at least to amend all ill placed things from those Principles and accommodate them to the Establishment of the Sacred Empire which in our next Letters we shall begin to do In the mean time Farewel and take diligent care of Brevingius Health Paris Cal. June MDCLxvii JANUS ALEXANDRUS FERRARIUS OF THE AUGUSTIN ORDER HIS Seventh Epistle Concerning the Usefulness and Necessity of the Roman Catholick Faith To the Right Reverend ADRIAN and PETER of WALENBVRCH Right Reverend Brothers THat the Christian Religion as it was at first dictated by the Apostles is both in its self and in the Nature of its Principles not at all fit or proper for attaining Salvation or establishing the Royal Priesthood of Rome We have in the preceding Epistle at large set forth There remains that we as evidently demonstrate what is therefore to be done with it To which end we lay down PROPOSITION VIII Though the Christian Religion do's unreasonably and even to abhorrency differ from the ends and aim of our holy Roman Church yet it is not at all adviseable that where it is approved by Reason introduced by Custom and established by the Authority of Princes attempt should be made openly to ruine it at one violent impetuous stroke EXPLICATION Sect. 1. There have been those indeed who have adjudged it ought utterly to be overthrown and openly destroyed as altogether so erroneous from the most profitable and therefore main end of True Faith That there seemed but little hopes it should ever by any Art or Industry be wrought to our purpose or if possibly it were never so well accomodated there was still some hazard lest at some time or other it should unawares revert to its pristine Nature and to that dull and Sterril genius first possest it And that this was no vain fear the experience of former as well as present times has taught us For from whence have the Rebel Hereticks raised more and more serviceable Engins to assail the Powers of our Sacred Empire then from the most hidden and secret Mysteries of the Christian Religion Which if they had been not only hidden and as it were Plaistred over but utterly blotted out they could never have provided themselves of such vast quantity of Arms against our Church Sect. 2. But though this may have prudently enough been thought of by some yet before we can assent to it we think it convenient other ways of proceeding be first examined For in affairs of this kind which are on every side encompassed with difficulties the first way presenting it self is not obstinately to be held but all are to be made trial of that after having diligently compared one with another we may make choice of the safest and easiest Sect. 3. And the first thing herein to be taken notice of is what has in this case been the opinion of wise Men in former times Among which we may account of Mahomet a Man as the event testifies of a very clear Judgment whose example we should be the more earnest to imitate because he so happily prosecuted the same purpose and was verst in the same cause with us Wherefore the very Hereticks themselves make him a Colleague with our Pope and whilst they will have Antichrist to be two-headed or at least two-horned they give the right Horn to our most holy Father and the Left they place on Mahomet For this Mahomet when out of his quickness of Spirit he perceived how much the Christian Religion was averse to his purpose as diverting Men from seeking after present Felicity and softning and depressing their minds with the awe and reverence of Weak and Unwarlike Virtues recommending Peace instead of War Gentleness instead of Fierceness Service instead of Freedom and Prayers and

the Greeks foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling-block they forbore to Preach Christ Crucified whom only Paul professed to know and set up another Christ Beautiful Splendid Clad in Chiness habit who with wonderful Magnificence had formerly descended from Heaven into Europe and foretold the Reign of our Pope Palafor in Epist ad Innoc. x. Pontif viii Joan. And also in Diario de Mr. de St. Amour Doctoris Sorbon alegatorum Nothing Preached they of Christ Crucified nothing of Mortification nothing of Fasting nothing of Repentance nothing of yearly receiving the Sacrament so that if the Church would again teach the Chinesses and Instruct them in the right Rules of Faith they would oppose it and cry out they were deceived for no Fasting Religion no Penitent and Weeping Faith dreadful to Nature enemy to the Flesh destined to Death and Danger No Saviour Crucified had their Masters the Jesuits told them of They will protest they Embraced him not as Man and God Scourged Spit on Contemned loaden with Wounds hanging on the Cross and Dead but received a Saviour Beautiful Lovely Glorious such as the Jesuits paint him in the Chiness habit and a Law and course of Life Easie Pleasant Sweet Delightful Merry and Peaceable 14. Yet this new Method some have disallowed and among those great stirs were raised in this matter by John Palafox de Mendoza Bishop of the City of Angels in America and Dean of the Counsel of the Indies a man too Simple and Rude to understand these Arts. He possibly imagined with himself that Anathema which St. Paul pronounced Gal. 1.8 Even against an Angel from Heaven preaching any other Gospel was to this day and even in the Indies themselves of force and did not rightly Interpret another saying of the same St. Paul So that Christ be Preached that is so that Christs Name be retained Led by which Errors this Morose old man publickly damn'd that Jesuitical Catechism whereupon it was no wonder if he were disturbed in his Bishoprick cast out of the City and by the Ignatian Society made a comman Laughing-stock having a Cross put upon him made of Bulls Horns whilst they sung as a Litany From Bishop Palafox Good Lord deliver us as himself in his Letters most lamentably complains Certainly he that thus durst stickle for the ancient Purity and Simplicity of Religion was worthy to be turned out of doors there eternally and bitterly to Weep and exercise Fasting as long as he pleased 15. Indeed many good and simple Men throughout Europe were much offended at the declarations and importunate complaints of this Bishop and such like imprudent Men whom that the Pope might in some measure satisfie and perhaps being justly fearful by sacred edict he restrained the publication of that Method the instrument of which prohibition was lately transmitted us by Hurtado a Spanish Divine Thomas Hurt in Opusc Colon. ● 1655. But that Censure is not at all to be interpreted as relating to the Christians Inhabiting beyond Ganges and the Equinoctial Line when it was only made in favour of those who yet in Europe retain some remains of ancient Christianity as to omit others the famous Didacus de Moralez a Jesuite Rector of the Colledge of St. Joseph in the City of Manilia which is the Capital of the Phillipines has taught us in one entire and solid volume 16. And since things are so I believe that the safest way which the Emperours of old held in Converting the Roman Commonwealth into a Dominion For as they left some resemblances of the late liberty though the liberty was wholly taken away so it will be convenient to expose some image of Christ though himself by degrees be utterly abolished To which end we may observe the advice of the most Religious Machiavel Whoever would innovate the form of the Commonwealth in that attempt Disput de Repub. lib. 1. c. 25. it is necessary that he retain some shadow of things that were before for so it comes to pass that the People do not think any thing changed though all things be innovated For the People use to look no farther then things are Visible and outward appearances and as such takes and receives them though the Magistrate plainly creates new things and new duties are imposed upon Men yet retaining the same names they are thought still to be the same Hence may evidently be gathered The CONCLVSION Since the Condition and State of things permits not that Christ be taken from the midst of us by open Violence 't is adviseable to dispatch Him by a lingering Consumption and whilst He Withers and Pines away by Babylonish or Egyptian Arts so temper harden and paint Him over that He may be imposed upon duller Understandings as the Image of a lively and perfect body Which Arts that I may truly set forth and particularly explain I humbly supplicate that Spirit which resides in the Cabinet of our Popes Brest not to think we unworthy of his Guidance and Inspiration And you likewise Most Reverend Men assist me with your Prayers and Intercession to him Dated in the Library of the great Convent these Calends of December MDcLxvii FINIS