Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	person_n	son_n	20,542	5	6.1434	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91504	Les provinciales: or, The mysterie of Jesuitisme, discover'd in certain letters, written upon occasion of the present differences at Sorbonne, between the Jansenists and the Molinists, from January 1656. to March 1657. S.N. Displaying the corrupt maximes and politicks of that society. Faithfully rendred into English.; Provinciales. English	Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1657 (1657)	Wing P643; Thomason E1623_1; ESTC R203163	222,033	540

to see whether it were so have found it and all are satisfied This now is an easie and ready way to resolve questions of fact Whence comes it then Father that you do not make use of it you said in your Cavilli That the five Propositions are in Jansenius word for word all in express termes totidem verbis You were told they were not What then was to be done but either to cite the page if you had really found them there or to confess you were mistaken But you do neither and waving that and finding that all the passages of Jansenius alledg'd by you sometimes onely to daze the world are not the individual and singular condem●ed Propositions which you were engag d to shew in his book you present us with Constitutions which declare that they are taken out of them without citing the place I am not ignorant Father of the respect that Christians owe the holy See and your Adversaries have given sufficient testimony that they are resolved ever to own it but do not you imagine it shall argue the least defect thereof to represent to the Pope with all submission as Children ought to their Father and Members to their Head that it is not impossible he might be surpris'd in that matter of fact That he hath not caus'd it to be examin'd since his coming to the Chaire and that his Predecessor Innocent X. had onely caus'd it to be examin'd whether the propositions were heretical not whether they were Iansenius's which gave the Commissarie of the H. Office one of the chiefest Examiners occasion to say That they could not be censured in the sense of any Author Non sunt qualificabiles in sensu proferentis because they had been presented to them to be examined in themselves and without any consideration who the Author of it might be in abstracto ut praescindunt ab omni proferente as it may be seen in their suffrages newly printed That above ●0 Doctors and a very great number of other able and godly persons have read over the book very exactly yet found them not there but met with some that were contrarie thereto That those who had made those false representations to the Pope might very well be thought to abuse the trust he reposed in them it being their main concernment as interessed persons to discredit that Author who had discovered in Molina above 50. errours That what makes all this the more credible is that they hold this Maxime one of the most authentick of all their Theologie viz. that they may without crime calumniate those by whom they think they are unjustly molested and consequently their testimony being suspicious and that of the others so considerable there is some ground to intreat his Holiness with all possible humilitie to order this matter of fact to be examin'd in the presence of Doctors of both sides so to determine it by a solemn and regular decision Let able and competent judges be assembled saith Saint Basil upon such another occasion Ep. 75. before whom let every one be free Let my writings be examined Let them see whether there be any errours contrary to faith Let both the Objections and the Answers be read that the judgement may be formall and according to the merits of the cause and not a defamation without any examen Think not Father to make those be accounted refractory toward the holy See that shall take this course The Popes are far from treating Christians with that Tyranny which some would exercise under their names The Church saith S. Gregory the Pope upon Job lib. 8. c. 1. which hath been brought up in the School of Humility does not command with authority but perswades by reason what she would teach her children whom she thinks ensnared into some errour Recta quae erantibus dicit non quasi ex authoritate praecipit sed ex ratione persuadet And they are so far from thinking it any way dishonourable to retract a judgement wherein they had been surprised that they as it were triumph in the contrary as S. Bernard witnesseth Ep. 180. The Apostolick See saith he hath this for which it is much to be celebrated that i● stands not upon punctilio's of honour but is easily prevailed with to revoke what had been procured from it by surprise it is indeed but just that no body should thrive by injustice and that especially before the holy See See here Father the true sentiments ought to be suggested to Popes since that all Divines do unanimously hold they may be surprised the transcendent quality they are of being as to that so far from securing them that on the contrary it many times makes them the more subject thereto by reason of the infinite businesse whereby they are distracted And this is acknowledged by the same S. Gregory to some persons who wondred at another Pope that was over-reached Why do you wonder saies he l. 1. Dial. That we are deceiv d being but men Have you not observed that David that King who had the spirit of prophesy having credited the false suggestions of Z●ba gave an unjust judgement against the son of Jonathan who therefore will think i● strange that impostors should surprise us sometimes us I say who are not prophets We are orewhelmed with affaires and our spirits being diverted by so many things are the lesse attentive to any thing in particular and so may be the more easily mistaken in some one thing I am perswaded Father that the Popes know better then you whether they may be surprised or no. They acknowledge themselves that Popes and the greatest Kings are more subject to be over-reached then persons whose affaires are of lesse consequence We must take their words And it is no hard matter to imagine by what meanes it comes to passe that they are so surprised S. Bernard makes a discription of it in a Letter he writ to Innocent II. in this manner It is not a thing strange and to be wondred at that the spirit of man may deceive and be deceived There are some Religious men come to you with a spirit of lying and illusion They have spoken to you against a Bishop whom they hate though he be a man of an exemplary life These persons bite like Dogs and would turn good into evil In the mean time holy Father you are exasperated against your Son Why have you given his adversaries occasion to rejoyce Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God I hope that when you have understood the truth whatever hath been built upon a false report will vanish into aire I earnestly beseech the spirit of truth to give you grace to separate light from darknesse and to reprove the evil that you may encourage the good You see then Father that the eminent degree wherein Popes are exempts them not from surprise and that he endeavours to make their surprises seem the more dangerous and of greater consequence That is represented

to speak of it with respect and for Father ' Bauny's Lectures concerning Theft whereby John ' d Alba was induc'd to commit it against your selves are they so sacred that you have a priviledge to treat those as Reprobates that laugh at them What Fathers must the imaginations of your Authors be receiv'd for such truths as wherein our Faith is concern'd and people cannot make sport with the passages of Escobar and the fantastick and dis-christian-like decisions of your other Authors but they must be charg'd with scoffing at Religion Is it possible you should presume to repeat so often a thing so irrationall Or are you not afraid when you blame me for censuring your extravagancies to give me fresh occasion to laugh at the reproch and to return it upon your own heads by shewing that I have not taken occasion to laugh at any thing but what is ridiculous in your books and consequently that when I make sport with your Morality I am so far from jesting with holy things as the doctrine of your Casuists is different from the holy precepts of the Gospel There is certainly Fathers a vast difference between laughing at Religion and laughing at those that profane it by their extravagant opinions It were impiety to want a respect for the truthes which the spirit of God hath reveal'd but it were no lesse impiety to want a contempt for the falsities which the spirit of man opposes thereto For Fathers since you force me to engage in this discourse I beseech you consider that a● Christian verities require love and respect so the errours contrary thereto deserve onely scorn and detestation The reason whereof is that as there are two things in the Truths of Religion a divine beauty that renders them amiable and inviting and a sacred Majesty which makes them dreadfull and venerable so are there likewise two things in Errours impiety rendring them horrid and impertinence making them ridiculous And therefore as the Saints have ever for truth these two sentiments of love and fear and that their wisdome is comprehended between Feare the beginning and Love the end of it so have they for errour these two sentiments of detestation and contempt and their zeal is equally taken up to oppose by force the malice of the impious and with scoffing to confute their folly and extravagance Flatter not your selves therefore Fathers with any hope to make the world believe that it is a thing unbeseeming a Christian to treat errours with scorne since it is an easie matter to satisfy those that know not so much that this kind of proceeding is very justifiable that it is frequent among the Fathers of the Church and is authorised by the Scripture and the examples of the greatest Saints nay by God himself For do we not find that God at the same time both hates and scornes sinners nay so far that even at the houre of their death a time when their condition is most sad and deplorable the divine wisdome joynes laughter and scorne to that vengeance and indignation which shall turn them over into eternall punishment I will also laugh at your destruction and mock when your feare cometh And the Saints actuated by the same spirit shall do the like since that according to David when they see the destruction of the wicked they shall feare and laugh at it the same time Videbunt justi timebunt super ●um ridebunt And Job hath the li●e expression the righteous man shall laugh them to scorn But it is a thing very remarkable upon this occasion that in the first words which God said to man after his fall we find a scoffing discourse and according to the Fathers a bitter Irony For when Adam had broken the commandement out of the hope which the Devil had put him into of being made like unto God it is apparent out of the Scripture that God for his punishment made him subject to death and yet after he had brought him into that condition as the reward of his sinne he yet laugh'd at him in that posture with these scoffing expressions Behold man is become like one of us Which is a sharpe and biting Irony wherewith God reprov'd him most bitterly according to Saint Chrysostome a●d his interpreters Adam sayes Rupertus deserv'd to be scoff'd at by that Irony and this ironicall expression made him more fully sensible of his indiscretion then a serious one could have done And Hugo de Saint Victor having affirmed the same thing addes that this irony was a just reward for his sottish credulity and that this kind of raillery is an act of justice when he on whom it is bestowed hath deserv'd it You see then Fathers that derision is sometimes the fittest way to reduce men out of their extravagances and that it is at that time an action of justice because as Jeremy saith the actions of those who go astray are worthy to be laugh'd at by reason of th ir vanity Vana sunt risu digna And it is so far from impiety to deride them that it is an argument of divine wisdome according to Saint Augustine The wise laugh at the indiscreet because they are wise not according to their own wisdome but that divine wisdome which shall laugh at the death of the wicked In like manner the Prophets filled with the spirit of God have made use of these derisions as we see in the examples of Daniel and Eliah In a word the very discourses of JESUS CHRIST himself are not without example thereof And it is the observation of Saint Augustine that when he would humble Nicodemus who thought himself very well skill'd in the law seeing him much lifted up with pride by his quality of Doctor among the Jewes he exercises and brings down his presumption by the depth of his demands and reduc'd him to an incapacity of answering What said he to him are you a Master in Israel and ignorant of these things Which is as much as if ●e had said Arrogant Prince acknowledge that you know nothing And Saint Chrysostom and Saint Cyril affirme upon that passage that he deserved to be so derided You see then Fathers that if it should happen at this day that such as pretend to be masters among the Christians as Nicodemus and the Pharisees were among the Jewes be ignorant of the principles of Religion and maintaine for instance that a man may be saved without ever loving God in all his life he did but follow the example of Iesus Christ that should laugh at their ignorance and their vanity I doubt not Fathers but these sacred examples are sufficient to convince you that it is not a proceeding contrary to that of the Saints to laugh at the errours and extravagances of men otherwise you must quarrell with that of the greatest Doctors of the Church who have practis'd it And among these may be numbred S. Hierom in his letters and in his writings against Jovinian Vigilantius and the Pelagians Tertullian

Religious men treated after this rate they are not more troubled that Religious men should treat Truth as they have done And if they are incensed not onely against the LETTERS but also against the MAXIMES cited therein I shall acknowledge that their resentment may haply proceed from some zeale but not well illuminated and then the passage here produc'd will sufficiently enlighten them But if their violence be against the reprehensions and not against the things reprehended your Reverences must pardon me if I cannot avoid telling them that they are most grosly abused and that their zeal is very blind 'T is certainly a strange zeal that is incensed against those that discover publick enormities and not against those that commit them What new kind of charity is this that 's offended to see manifest errours baffled meerly by bringing them on the stage and is not mov'd to see Morality turn'd upside down by those errours If these persons were in danger to be assassinated would they be offended with any one that should acquaint them with the ambush laid for them and instead of turning out of their way to avoid it would sit down and bemone the want of charity in those that discovered the wicked design of those assassins Are they angry when they are forbidden to eat such a meat because it is poysoned or to go into a City when the plague is in it Whence comes it then that they find this want of charity when a man discovers Maximes prejudicial to Religion on the contrary think it a great defect of charity not to discover things prejudicial to their health and lives but that the tenderness they have for their lives makes them take kindly whatever contributes to the preservation thereof and the indifference they have for Truth makes them not onely avoid having any part in her vindication but also not a little troubled when they see others endeavouring the destruction of Falshood Let them then as in the sight of God consider how shameful and pernicious the Morality which your Casuists scatter through all parts is to the Church how scandalous and illimitable the liberty you introduce into Manners is with what a violent and obstinate confidence you maintain them And if they think it not time to arme against such disorders their blindness is as much to be deplor'd as yours since that both you and they have equal cause to fear this saying of Saint Augustine upon that of JESUS CHRIST in the Gospel Wo unto the blind that lead wo unto the blind that are led vae caecis ducentibus vae caecis sequentibus But to the end you may have no occasion to put these impressions into others nor to take them your selves I will acquaint you Fathers and I blush that you engage me to acquaint you with what I should have learn'd from you with the marks which the Fathers of the Church have left us whereby to discern whether reprehensions proceed from a spirit of piety and charity or from a spirit of impiety and exasperation The first of these rules i● that the spirit of piety enclines a man to speak alwayes with truth and sincerity whereas envy and exasperation spare neither lyes nor calumnies splendentia vehementia sed rebus veris sayes Saint Augustine Whoever makes use of lying acts by the spirit of Satan There 's no direction of the intention can rectifie calumny and were it to convert the whole earth it were not lawful to traduce the innocent because we must not commit the least evil to promote the greatest good and that the truth of God doth not stand in need of our lying as the Scripture saith It is the duty of the champions of Truth saith Saint Hilary not to advance any thing but what is true Accordingly Fathers I may say as in the presence of God that there is nothing I detest more then to do Truth the least violence imaginable and that I have ever been extremely careful not onely not to falsifie that were horrid but even not to alter or distract in the least the sense of any passage So that if I durst presume upon this occasion to make use of the words of the same Saint Hilary I might safely say with him If we advance things that are untrue let our discourses be reputed infamous but if we plainly shew that what we do produce is publick and manifest it is no breach of moderation and Apostolical Liberty to reprove them But Fathers it is not enough not to produce any but true things but we must also not produce all that are such because there ought to be alledged onely those things that are requisite to discover and not those which can onely hurt without any advantage And so as the first rule is to speak with t●uth the second is to speak with discretion Wicked men saith Saint Augustine persecuting the good are hurried away with the blind passion that animates them whereas the good prosecute the wicked with a prudent discretion as Chirurgions consider where they cut whereas murderers care not where they strike You know Fathers that of the Maximes of your Authors I have not cited those that might have troubled you most though I might have done it without any breach of discretion as well as a many learned Catholicks that have done it heretofore All those who have read your Authors know as well as your selves how sparing I have been to you as to that besides that I have not said ought relating to any one in particular and indeed should be much troubled had I discovered any secret and personal miscarriage what pregnant proof soever I might have of it For I know it to be the character of envy and animosity and that a man should never do it unless there be some extraordinary necessity for it as to the benefit of the Church It is therefore evident that I have have not any wayes been wanting as to modesty in what I have been forc'd to say concerning the Maximes of your Morality and that there is much more reason you should acknowledge my reservedness then complain of my indiscretion The third rule Fathers is that when a man is oblig'd to fall into something of satyre the spirit of piety inclines him to direct his wit against errours not against holy things whereas the spirit of Sycophancy impiety and heresie makes sport with what is most sacred I have already vindicated my self as to this point And certainly a man speaking onely of the opinions I have cited out of your Authors is far enough from being subject to that vice In a word to shorten these rules I shall onely trouble you with this one more which is t principle end of all the rest And that is that the spirit of Charity inclines a man to make hearty wishes for their salvation against whom he speakes and when he directs his reproches to men at the same time to addresse his prayers to God A man should alwayes with Saint

corrupt the most canonicall and sacred expressions that may be by the malicious subtilties of your new sangled equivocations For who ever hath made use of other termes then those and that particularly in simple discourses of Piety where there is nothing of controversie medled with And yet the love and respect they have for that holy mysterie hath given them occasion to speak so much of it in their writings that I defie you Fathers as craftie as you are to find therein the least shadow of ambiguity or compliance with the tenents of Geneva All the world knowes Fathers that the heresie of Geneva essentially consists as you expresse it your selves in believing that Jesus Christ is not enclosed within that Sacrament That it is impossible he should be in severall places That he is truly no where but in heaven and that there onely he is to be adored and not upon the Altar That the substance of the bread remaines That the body of I. Christ enters not into the mouth nor the breast That he is not eaten but by Faith and consequently that the unfaithfull eat him not And that the masse is so far from being a Sacrifice that it is an abomination Now see Fathers after what manner Port-Royal conspires with Geneva in their bookes There you may read to your confusion that the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ are contained under the species of bread and wine M. Arnaulds second Letter pag. 259. That the holy of holyes is present in the Sanctuary and that he ought to be adored there Ibid. p. 243. That Jesus Christ dwells in the Sinners that communicate by the true and reall presence of his body in their breast though not by the presence of his spirit in their hearts Freq Com. 3. part ch 16. That the dead ashes of the Saints bodies derive their principall dignity from that seed of life remaining in them after the touching of the immotall and enlivening flesh of Jesus Christ 1 Part. ch 40. That it is not th●ough any naturall power but through Gods omnipotence to which nothing is impossible that the body of Jesus Christ in inclosed under the heast and under the least part of every hoast Fam. Divin Lect. 15. That the divine vertue is present to preduce the effect which the words of consecration signifie Ibid. That Jesus Christ who lyes dejected upon the Altar is at the same time elevated in his glory that he by himself and through his own power is in severall places at the same time as well in the midst of the Church triumphant as Church militant Of suspension Reason 21. That the Sacramentall species remain suspended and subsist after an extraordinary manner without being upheld by any subject and that the body of Jesus Christ is also suspended under the species that it depends not on them as substances depend on accidents Ibid. 23. That the substance of the Bread is changed the accidents remaining unchangeable In the prose of the blessed Sacrament That Jesus Christ rests in the Eucharist with the same glory as he hath in heaven Letters of M. Saint Cyran Tom. 1. Let. 93. That his glorious humanity resides in the tabernacles of the Church under the species of bread which visibly cover it and that knowing us to be dull he takes that course to induce us to the adoration of his Divinity which is present in all places by that of his humanity which is present in one particular place Ibid. That we receive the body of Jesus Christ upon the tongue and that it is sanctifyed by his divine touching Let. 32. That he enters into the mouth of the priest Let. 72. That though Jesus Christ be made inaccessible in the Blessed Sacrament through an effect of his love and clemency yet doth he still continue his inaccessibility therein as an inseparable condition of his divine nature for though there be therein onely the body and blood by vertue of the words vi verborum as the Schoole speaks yet that hinders not but that his whole Divinity as well as his whole humanity may be there by a necessary consequence and conjunction Vindication of the Rosarie of the Blessed Sacrament pag. 217. And lastly That the Eucharist is as well a Sacrifice as a a Sacrament Fam. Divin Lect. 15. And that though this Sacrifice be a commemoration of that of the Crosse yet is there this difference between them that that of the Masse is offered onely for the Church and for the faithfull included within its communion whereas that of the Crosse was offered for all the world as the Scripture speakes Ibid p. 15. This is sufficient Fathers to let the world see evidently that there hath not been haply since the beginning of it a greater impudence then this of yours But yet I will go a little further and make you pronounce this sentence against your selves For what caution would you have to take away all suspicion of a mans conspiring with Geneva If Monsieur Arnauld sayes your Father Meyni●r p. 83. had said that in this adorable Mystery there were not any substance of the bread under the species but onely the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ I should have confessed that he had absolutely declared himself against Geneva Confesse it then Impostors and make him publick reparation for this publick injury How often have you seen as much in the passages before cited But besides the Familiar Divinitie of Monsieur de Saint Cyr●n being approved by M. Arnauld must needs contain the sentiments of both Read then the whole fifteenth Lecture and particularly the second Article and there you shall find the words you desire and that more formally then you have expressed them your selves Is there any bread left in the hoast and any wine in the Chalice Not any for the whole substance of the bread as also that of the wine are taken away to make place for that of the body and blood of Jesus Christ which remaines therein covered onely with the qualities and species of bread and wine Now Fathers will you still affirme that Port-Royal teaches nothing which is not receiv'd by Geneva and that Monsieur Arnauld hath not said any thing in his second Letter which might not have been said by a Minister of Charenton Do you make Mestrezat speak as Monsieur Arnauld does in that Letter pag. 237 c. That is an infamous falsity to charge him with denying Trans-substantiation that he takes for the foundation of his booke the truth of the reall presence of the Son of God opposite to the heresie of the Calvinists That he thinks himself happy to be in a place where the Holy of Holies who is present in the Sanctuary is continually adored which certainly is a thing stands at a greater distance from the belief of the Calvinists then the reall presence it self since that as Cardinal Richelieu saies in his Controversies pag. 536. The new Ministers of France being united with the Lutherans who believe it have thereby