Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	gospel_n	mark_v	unquestionable_a	71	3	16.2030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77347	Saul and Samuel at Endor, or The new waies of salvation and service, which usually temt [sic] men to Rome, and detain them there Truly represented, and refuted. By Dan. Brevint, D.D. As also a brief account of R.F. his Missale vindicatum, or Vindication of the Roman Mass. By the same author.	Brevint, Daniel, 1616-1695.	1674 (1674)	Wing B4423; ESTC R212267	257,888	438

Valerius with her holding of Water in a Sieve or drawing a Ship with her Girdle might as well have asserted her Heathenish Religion as her Personal Innocency There is nothing so absurd with the Donatists nor so impious with the Manichees which some Miracle or other wrought among them might not countenance in some mesure And without looking back towards old times the Kings of England and the Kings of France with that gift which it is said they have of healing an otherwise scarcely curable Disease might come near to justifie at once which is both absurd and impossible both Protestancy and Popery So far do these Providential differ from Christian Miracles as to the confirming of any Christian Truth Secondly I say that these true Christian Miracles are commonly but for a time and for the first authorizing c. For the Gift of working Miracles is as that of speaking Languages 1 Cor. 14.12 intended for the Conversion of Unbelievers and for assisting the Gospel wheresoever it should be first Preach'd Therefore the first Evangelists and other first Planters of Churches as well as the Holy Apostles had as long this help of Miracles as God had Nations in the World to whom he would revele his Will which being a work of many Years this supernatural Hand of God help'd it forward both in confounding Pagan Idols and strengthning Men against Pagan Persecutions till God had sent Christian Princes to whose care he then committed the work both of countenancing the Church throout all their Dominions and of mastering her Enemies which till then he did by his own hand After this 't is certain Miracles ceased apace if not to be yet to be common being thenceforth not so necessary as before Those that continued the longest were about the healing of Sicknesses and about the casting out of Devils and the corners where they continued were those wilde Deserts and remote Places the refuge of the Primitive Christians from the Face of their Enemies where there was more need of such continued Wonders because that more Infidels did lurk there And by the way it may be imagin'd that God inclined those last Workers of Miracles whose austere Life and Devotion now adaies seems to us so strange * to leave the more cultivated World and retreat to Deserts in order to convert barbarous men in their most barbarous Countries All this being done and all known Parts and Creeks of the World being either mostly converted or sufficiently called to the Christian Faith the Holy Fathers tell us that Miracles c S. Chrysost 2 Thess c. 2. Hom. 4. ceased that they were d Idem 1 Cor. c. 2. Hom. 6. Author Quaest ex Nov. Test apud Aug. unnecessary that to expect e S. Crysost in Joh. c. 3. v. 25. Hom. 23. of God any other then the old ones by which the Gospel had bin already most sufficiently confirmed was no less then temting of him that if any were wrought in their times they could not be well look'd upon but as a suspicious kind of Signs and not infallible proofs of Faith because the true f Author Operis Imperf Hom. 49. Servants of Christ having confirm'd their Preaching by true signs call'd Men away from their Infidelity to the Faith now this first calling being over the Devil will set up himself by the means of his own Miracles in order to draw Men back again from Faith to Infidelity And as to this God was pleased to take the same course in the publishing of the Gospel as he had bin pleased to take in the publishing of the Law In this first he asserted the Glory of Israel the redemtion out of Egypt and his own Law under Moses by such Miracles as no Egyptian at last could question and no false God could counterfeit For altho most of them as for example the producing of Lice the dividing an Arm of the Sea the making Thunders and Earth-quakes c. seemed not much to exceed that compass which created Causes might have reach'd to yet God so visibly confounded both the skill of all Magicians and the power of all Devils that his Almighty Power and stretched-out Arm did not appear so much in the very working of these Wonders as in restraining the contrary Powers both of the Air and of Hell from attemting to any purpose the like performances Lastly God having sufficiently evidenced both the Power of his Laws and the Truth of his Promises he thenceforth both withdraws his Hand from working his former continually appearing Miracles and takes off that restraint that alone kept the Devils from either doing or counterfeiting any like them And then the Evil Spirits being let loose again to their former Liberty God gives his People this fair warning against all Revelations and Miracles whatsoever If there arise among you a Prophet and give thee a Sign or a Wonder c. Deut. 13.1 In like manner those Miracles which ushered the Holy Gospel and spread it over all the World were in all respects unquestionable First they were mark'd out before-hand by clear infallible Prophecies both of Isaiah 35.5 6. The eyes of the blind c. And of Joel 3.28 I will pour my Spirit c. Secondly to remove farther out of the way both all suspicion and possibility of Error in those first times all the Devils and all their Ministers were tied generally from all false and considerable Miracles I beheld saies our Savior very much to this purpose Satan falling as Lightning from Heaven His Oracles were over the World all upon a sudden * Plutarch de Orac. defect suppressed Magicians and Seducers if they attemted any thing were either struck blind as Elymas in the Acts or silenced as so many Demoniacs were in the Gospel or confounded and even beaten down when they thought to exalt themselves as Simon Magus was by St. Peter as we find both in the Acts and in the Ecclesiastical History Then after a long course of true and infallible Miracles sufficient in all respects both to perswade men through all the World and to seal the Holiness and Importance of the Gospel to all Ages Satan is permitted to use his ancient Power again both for the trial of the Believers and the punishment of the Rebels Then all sorts of Seductions false Revelations and false Miracles could not but return back again by an infallible Consequence and with greater Violence then ever because after a longer restraint Hereupon come the often repeted and serious and merciful warnings of Christ There shall arise false Christs c. Matth. 24. Thus both in the Law and the Gospel the first times and sorts of Miracles do carry alwaies along with them and as it were in their Foreheads such express Characters of Gods hand as is most proper and most sufficient to put the Truth above all doubt Therefore Christ often doth make use of them John 5.36 and 9.37 And so do the Holy Prophets most celebrate and insist upon those Principal

had in her Breast turned into Oil wherewith she did anoint her sores and somtimes also she used it as Butter to sweeten her Bread Cardinals and whole Towns besides can aver these Extravagancies and make therewith the first kind of Roman Miracles A second Evidence against Roman Miracles is their looking quite another way and their being design'd for the confirmation of quite different Doctrines then ancient Miracles were The last Primitive Christian Miracles being wrought for the most part at the Graves of Holy Martyrs never confirmed more then this Truth That the Death the Souls and the very Ashes of those Saints were precious before the Lord and therefore that the Christian Faith which they had believed taught and died for was very true So it remained only to enquire what this Faith was and what kind of Doctrine St. Stephen and other Martyrs believed and Preach'd for nothing else but this can be asserted by their Miracles What is it saith St. Augustin g Aug de Civit. l. 22. c 9. that these Miracles will attest but the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ The Holy Apostles being alive never confirmed by their Miracles but what they taught and what they taught St. Paul tells you is concluded within the Law and the Prophets You may be sure it went no farther then what you find in Christs Gospel This is that Faith which once and but once being delivered to the Saints was carried thro all Nations and thus made Catholic by the Almighty Breath of God and there setled by his Almighty Hand and the Miracles that followed it Mark 16.20 So at this very day tho all sorts of Operations were continually seen at the Sepulcher of S. Paul at Rome they would rather confirm his Epistles then the Popes Bulls As for Roman Miracles they do follow likewise Roman Doctrines which sometimes are quite contrary to and alwaies quite different from the true Christian Gospel They would be huge books that could contain all the Revelations and strange Wonders that encourage Men in general to the worship of the Virgin Mary As many more are bestowed upon the doing it by special waies and at special Feasts for what else mean those swarms of Monks who lie hid h S. Anton. 3. part Hist. t. 23. c. 3. sect 1. under her Coat or those Ladders whited with her Milk i Chronic. Deip. an 1231. from which no body taking that way to go up to Heaven can tumble down or those Quires of k Histor. Carnat an 1116. Angels heard in the bottom of a deep Well to sing her Praises What can you make of those Images that l Archiv Buburg in Frand an 1383. bleed or m Menol. Cisterc 28. April speak or fly as light n Leand. in vita Hyacinthi ap Sur. 16. August as Feathers unless they serve to bring Mankind to the worshipping of Wood and Stone What aile those thousands of sad Souls to ramble up and down the whole World since the times of Pope Gregory but to revele Purgatory and to recommend Masses for the dead How many strange Feats have bin wrought by the hands of S. Dominic and S. Francis to no better end then to confirm the new Orders and waies of these Saints All those heaps of Excommunicated p Specul Exemp Tit. Excommunicatio Exemp 5. Flies and that q Ibid. Exemp 4. poor Raven pining to death under the same Fate for having fled away with a Bishops Ring What else can they signifie but the terror of the Roman Keies What shall I say of those both small and huge great Toads crawling r Ibid. Tit. Confessio Exempl 22. out and into Mens mouths when they do observe ill or well the Rules of Auricular Confession or of the many little Children s Ibid. Tit. Eucharistia standing upon Consecrated Wafers there purposely to justifie the real Transubstantiation at Mass or of the many Cures wrought every where partly in the behalf t S. Bonav in vit Franc. of the five Wounds which St. Francis had in his Body or of the Rope he did wear about his Loins And since we are about this great Saint tell me what you think of this Miracle † Hieron Platus de Bono statu Relig. l. 5. c. 33. A Bishop moved with Passion against a Convent of Franciscans had resolved to turn them out of his City and was to do it the next day the Night before behold their Sacrist sees in a Vision the Image of St. Paul and the Image of St. Francis both painted in the Church Window talking earnestly one with the other He hears St. Paul extremely blaming St. Francis o Gregor in Dialog passim for no better defending his own Order and St. Francis answering to him What shall I do saies he I have but a Cross and that is no defensive Weapon but had I a Sword as you have for commonly they represent them so perhaps I might do somewhat more The man being awak'd starts off his Bed and his Imagination being full of this runs to the Church finds the two Pictures had exchang'd their Arms Paul in the Window had the Cross and St. Francis had the Sword This amaz'd the whole Convent but that which is more then all the rest St. Francis had not St. Pauls Sword in vain for that same night the Bishop had his Throat cut What Evangelical Doctrine can be confirm'd by these three Wonders Pictures that can speak and move St. Paul that exhorts to revenge and a Saint who during his Life made conscience as they say to kill a Louse now can cut his Bishops Throat What I say can you make of this unless it be this wholesome Doctrine That Bishops are not Jure Divino but Fryers are All these and whole Millions of other such Roman Miracles are not fit for Christs Kalender because they never were fitted for perswading Men of the truth of Christs Gospel and therefore upon that account must needs proceed from any other then Christs Spirit The third foul mark of Roman Miracles is that besides their unchristian ends they happen in such suspicious times as may discredit the best that are The Gift of Miracles being to Teachers what both Credential Letters and Roial Colors are to public Officers which signifie much with good Subjects whilst they know them granted to none but such as the King doth really send but very little after they see those in the hands these on the backs of every dirty Carrier who hath a mind for his own ends to counterfeit them and rant with them No wise man takes for good paiment whatsoever hath Cesars Image after he hears of false Coiners who have dispersed vast sums abroad and marked them with the same Stamp We are not now in the privileged daies either of Moses or Elias or Jesus Christ or his Apostles when neither all the Magicians could make one Louse nor all the Baalims could light Fire on one Altar nor all

Christ the Merits of the Virgin Mary and the Suffrages of the Holy Church we beseech thee O Dominic do not keep us here any longer The Holy Angels can revele to thee at any time what thou wilt know and as for us we are such Liars as no Christian can believe us But the Saint fell to another Praier O worthiest Mother of Wisdom for the Salvation of this good People who have learned in this Rosary to salute thee force thou these Enemies to declare to us the plain truth He had scarce made an end of Praying when behold she comes with a Troop of above an hundred Angels armed with golden weapons and in the midst of them the Virgin with a golden Rod fell foul on the Devils Backs Then fell all the Devils to new howlings O Damning foe who emtiest Hell and makest the best way to Heaven thou dost force us against our will to speak out truth and our own Confusion Hear ye therefore O Christians This Mother of Christ is too potent to preserve her devout Servants from ever falling into our hands It is she who breaks all our Plots and we confess that whosoever keeps to her Adoration and Service can never be damned with us we never can prevail against any one of her People She saves many against our Rights at the very moment of Death and were it not that she frustrates all our Designs we might have long ago made all her Church fall from the Faith To say all in a word no man who makes use of her Rosary can be damned S. Dominic having by this time what he lookt for bids the People to say the Rosary then O Miracle never to be forgotten at every Ave Maria a Troop of Devils under the figure of burning Coals breaks out of that Heretics Body and being all out The Virgin gives them her Blessing and goes her way The Conclusion and design of all this is all sorts of People from that time applied themselves in good earnest to the use of the Rosary and to the worship of Mary Christ and all his Apostles never thought of making thus the Devils to preach his Gospel no more did Moses or Elias employ them so to confirm the Law It seems the Rosary as to its end hath neither Christ nor Elias nor Moses nor any true Saint to favor it and therefore t is no wonder if it was helped by other waies Nevertheless all the World was not so generally blind and sottish as not to see that the Devil could tell a ly and juggle then with S. Dominic and so this new sort of service having no better ground to stand upon then the warranty of the Devil made so little Progress in the world that the same sprite under the Name of the Virgin Mary 400 years after was fain to appear e Gonon Chronic. an 1476. to another Saint and with extraordinary Favors as Rings made of her own hair and milk which she Drew out of her own Brest to enchant him to the same Service At the first it was called our Ladies f Bulla Sext. 4. Psalter because the Lady hath there 150 Salutations as in the Bible the Lord hath 150 Psalmes Now it is called the Rosary either because of the Sweet Comforts that g Martin Navar. De Rosar Miscell 1. as they say it perfumes Devout Hearts with or more probably because of a sweet odour sweeter then that of any Roses which devout worshippers pretend to smell at such Praiers Herman this Ladies great Mignion did smell it so perfectly that at each naming of Mary h Chronic. Deip. an 1235. he stooped his nose to the very ground that so he might have it the fresher and they tell us of an old man of the same Confraternity that at any time or place soever when and where he said his Rosary i Ibid. an 1594. he was revived with this Aromatical Fragrancy Nay the very hand of Saint Caecilia k Ibid. an 1507. even after she was quite dead did smell they say better then any Rose by often touching her Rosary This smell is invented to perswade men of the Excellency of the matter which Excellency is quite other as they take it then could be had either from the breath of an Arch-angel or the mouth of a Prophet For the Roman Church hath improved it to such a form to such an end and to such a signification that now it hath a hundred Mysteries in the mouth of a Catholic which it never had in that of the Angel tho you should grant as they will have it that he l Gonon Chronicon pag. 10. sung it upon his knees For as they take it Ave that is sine vae that is without any thing that hath any smell of Curse is such m Martin Navar. de Oratione Dom. c. 19. n. 131. a Salutation as proclams the Virgin Mary to have bin free from all kind of sin whatsoever from the Original in her passive Conception from all Actual whether mortal or venial in her life time and from any decay or corruption in her Body either at or after her death Maria in their Roman Construction raises the heart of a Worshipper to adore her both Soverain and Universal Monarchy over all men and Angels sometimes n Missal Paris in Sab. Missae de S. Maria. over God himself too They take and construe o Navar. De Orat. Domin c. 19. Maria also for that special Star that guides poor Travellers upon the Sea Stella Maris the surest defense against all storms the best Leader into Heaven both by her Example and Merits the Light of them that sit in darkness and the great Star that Balaam saw Gratiaplena makes her in the same Grammar * Navar. ibid. a whole Sea and Ocean whence the Sinners have their Pardon the just men all Increase of Grace the Angels joy and the whole Trinity Glory here they find in particular the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost the nine Miraculous Powers and the twelve p Antonin 4 part Tit. 15. c. 20. special Privileges of being the Mother of us all the Gate of Heaven c. Therefore this Ave Maria when specially thus understood makes the sweetest Melody by * Chronic. Deip. an 1303. her own confession that ever you can sing in her Ears Christ himself as they think or at the least say sings q Vita S. Margaritae Chronic. S. Franc. c. 3. it sometimes upon the Altar and the Virgin hath it written in letters of Gold upon r Gonon Chron. an 294. her brest Many People who knew nothing but the three or four first words of this Angelical Salutation s Chronic. Deip. an 1149. Ren. Benedict de Vit. SS 1. Nov. Th. Cantiprat l. 2. c. 29. sect 9. have bin as they say as well saved therewith as if they had known the whole Gospel And all the t Molan Indic SS Belg. Roses and white Lilies nay

† Chronic. Deip. an 1149. Trees sometimes with these letters upon their leaves which the Virgin Mary or rather some other Spirit makes often grow upon their Graves and out of their very Mouths Noses and Ears who did make it their business and their whole Religion to sing it are among Roman Catholics a most sufficient Evidence both of the Excellency of those words and of the esteem she makes of them Besides all this Depth and pregnancy which these words bear in their signification they think them to carry often also such a miraculous n Ren. Bened. ibid. strength in the sound they are spoken with and in the very Ink and Paper they are written in that no Charm can be stronger What do you think of that x Ibid. an 1598. Infant which being yet not above six months old did sing it out in a full Church when there was neither Clerk nor other Choristers to do it Was it not a clear inspiration that moved your Angelical S. Thomas being yet an Infant as the other was to take up y Vita S. Thom. ap Sur. 7. Mart. a loose Paper where this Salutation was written and to hold it in spight of his Mother till he had swallowed it down But what do you say to the little Bird that z Bust. in Marial 12. Serm. 1. having bin taught by a Nun to prate Ave Maria and being snatcht away by a Hawk assoon as the Bird cried the two words with what understanding or devotion you may think presently the Hawk fell down dead and the poor Bird fled back again to her Mistress Now if these few words an inconsiderable part of the Rosary can do such Feats what may not one hope of the whole when S. Dominic had put it all in a Packthred and cast it about a Magn. Specul Tit. Rosarium Exemp 1. ones Neck he could overmaster any Devil One of his Captains named Antony for S. Dominic was a Warrior could b Alanus de Insulis in Rosa B. M. cause the Clouds to rain hot burning Bullets upon his Heretical Foes by hanging it to his Banner And it is confidently reported that Brave Montford c Chronic. Deip. an 1213. once routed an hundred thousand of them with this Weapon Now you must know otherwise you do not deserve the Name of a true Roman Catholic that the Rosary with the hundred and fifty Angelical Salutations well rehearsed and minded together besides the sense of every word which reaches high contains in its whole Contexture the fifteen great Mysteries which are d Missal Rom. in Missa Rosar celebrated by special Masses What these Mysteries are is a Mystery to Protestants as it was to the holy Fathers but of late times the Roman Catholics have got them all by special Revelations from the Virgin Of these 15 Mysteries the first 5 e Navar. de Rosar Miscell 20. n. 1. are called Gaudiosa the 5 next Dolorosa the last 5 Gloriosa Gaudiosa that is the first five joiful Mysteries are the five great Joies that the Virgin had upon earth as they say she hath reveled to some of her friends the first was when the Archangel Gabriel got into the Sanctuary the doors being shut to salute her with an Ave. 2. The second when Elizabeth saluted her by the title of Mother of the Lord. 3. The third when she was delivered of her Travel 4. The fourth when she presented both her and Gods child in the Temple 5. And the fift when she found him twelve years after disputing among the Doctors What the remembring of these Joies is worth you may learn by the Experience of that holy Monk who whilst he was muttering them by an Altar heard an Oracle from Heaven f Card. Damian an 1360. in these words Gaud●um c. thou hast celebrated my Joies on Earth Thou shalt have great Joies hereafter The second 5 Dolorosa or full of Grief are about the Passion as at the last farwell when Christ went to Jerusalem At the sight of the Crown of Thorns At the hearing of the Hammer beating the Nails upon the Cross c. They say that a very lew'd Raskal and a Magician besides was saved from Hell upon this one account that tho he cared neither for God nor for his Mother g Chronic Deip. an 1360. yet he had the grace to think of these Griess whensoever he passed by her Image The last five Mysteries which are called Gloriosa or glorious Joies are 1. When she saw her Son arising out of his Grave 2. Going to Heaven 3. When she at the Pentecost received the Holy Ghost 4. When she saw her self above waited upon and courted by Christ c. Now if any third part of these fifteen Mysteries can as you have Examples for it sometimes rescue a Soul out of Hell sometimes bring down the Virgin Mary from heaven and sometimes make Altars speak out how strong are the fifteen together Nor is this all The Rosary one way or other involves within its proper Extent besides the 15 Mysteries 165 Contemplations h about what both Christ and his Mother did together and every one of these Contemplations must be applied to every Pater or Ave. So no man living can say how far the holy Rosary can reach It is but a small trial of it to see it sheltering i Chronic. S. Franc. l. 1. c. 36. Monks against a storm as well as the Roof of a strong house could or to see Angels gathering k Autor Method Admirab fol. 210. Lilies at every Pater and a Rose at every Ave that is said and making Garlands and Posies for them l Chronic. Ord. Minor par 3. who are careful to pray that way It is somewhat more to see horrible Blasphemers carried m Lipez de Rosar l. 1. c. 10. away by stupid Asses from the Gallows into Holy Churches for once undertaking the Rosary or to see the Virgin her self breaking on this account n Chronic. Deip. an 1495. all the Halters that should strangle condemned persons or keeping them o Pat. Archang Gian de Rosar so slack and loose that they could never stop their breath But what can a Villain wish for better or a holy man find more horrible then is what they say of dead Whores p Alan 5. part c. 62. arising out of their Graves by the power of their Rosary an hundred and fifty daies answerable to the 150 Aves after their heads had bin cut off The Woman lived but two daies after for she came merely to confess her sins and to have Absolution then being dead after 15 daies more answerable to the 15 Mysteries and to the 15 Paters being in the form q Ibid. of a bright Star you see what wanton Ladies may come to she appeared to St. Dominic to tell him what he knew before but such Things cannot be too well known that there was nothing in the world comparable to