Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	faith_n	see_v	1,837	5	3.4858	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50367	A true copy of a letter written by N. Machiavill in defence of himself and his religion translated from an original copy.	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.; Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527. Works. English. 1675.	1691 (1691)	Wing M141; ESTC R4918	22,326	35

Iews into Superstition Formality and Hypocrisie to die for the Salvation of Mankind and in fine to give to us the Holy Spirit and to regenerate our Hearts support our Faith and lead us into all Truth Now if it shall appear that as the lusts of our first Parents did at that time disappoint the good intention of God in making a pure World and brought in by their disobedience the Corruptions that are now in it so that since likewise the Bishops of Rome by their insatiable Ambition and Avarice have designedly as much as in them lies frustrated the merciful purpose he had in the happy restoration he intended the World by his Son and in the renewing and reforming of Humane Nature and have wholly defac'd and spoil'd Christian Religion and made it a Worldly and a Heathenish thing and altogether uncapable as it is practised amongst them either of directing the ways of its Professors to Vertue and good Life or of saving their Souls hereafter If I say this do appear I know no reason why I for detecting thus much and for giving warning to the World to take heed of their ways should be accused of Impiety or Atheism or why his Holiness should be so enraged against the poor Inhabitants of the Vallies in Savoy and against the Albigesi for calling him Antichrist But to find that this is an undoubted Truth I mean that the Popes have corrupted Christian Religion we need but read the New Testament acknowledged by themselves to be of Infallible Truth and there we shall see that the Faith and Religion Preacht by Christ and settled afterwards by his Apostles and Cultivated by their Sacred Epistles is so different a thing from the Christianity that is now Profest and Taught at Rome that we should be convinc'd that if those Holy Men should be sent by God again into the World they would take more pains to confute this Gallimaufry than ever they did to preach down the Traditions of the Pharisees or the Fables and Idolatries of the Gentiles and would in probability suffer a new Martyrdom in that City under the Vicar of Christ for the same Doctrine which once animated the Heathen Tyrants against them Nay we have something more to say against these Sacrilegious Pretenders to God's Power for whereas all other false Worships have been set up by some Politick Legislators for the Support and Preservation of Government this false this spurious Religion brought in upon the ruines of Christianity by the Popes has deform'd the face of Government in Europe destroying all the good Principles and Morality left us by the Heathens themselves and introduced instead thereof Sordid Cowardly and Impolitick Notions whereby they have subjected Mankind and even great Princes and States to their own Empire and never suffer'd any Orders or Maximes to take place where they have power that might make a Nation Wise Honest Great or Wealthy This I have set down so plainly in those Passages of my Book which are complain'd of that I shall say nothing at all for the Proof of it in this place but referr you thither and come to speak a little more particularly of my first assertion That the Pope and his Clergy have depraved Christian Religion Upon this Subject I could infinitely wish now Letters begin to revive again that some Learned Pen would employ it self and that some Person verst in the Cronology of the Church as they call it would deduce out of the Ecclesiastical Writers the time and manner how these Abuses crept in and by what Arts and Steps this Babel that reaches at Heaven was built by these Sons of the Earth But this matter as unsuitable to the brevity of a Letter and indeed more to my small Parts and Learning I shall not pretend to being one who never hitherto studied or writ of Theology further than it did naturally concern the Politicks therefore I shall only deal by the New Testament as I have done formerly by Titus Livius that is make Observations or Reflections upon it and leave you Messieur Giulio and the rest of our Society to make the judgment not citing like Preachers the Chapter or Verse because the reading of Holy Scripture is little us'd and indeed hardly permitted amongst us To begin at the top I would have any reasonable Man tell me whence this unmeasurable Power long claim'd and now possest by the Bishop of Rome is derived first of being Christ's Vicar and by that as I may so say pretending to a Monopoly of the Holy Spirit which was promised and given to the whole Church that is to the Elect or Saints as is plain by a Clause in St. Peter's Sermon made the very same time that the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit of God were first given to the Apostles who says to the Iews and Gentiles Repent and be Baptised every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for this Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Next to judge infallibly of Divine Truth and to forgive Sins as Christ did Then to be the Head of all Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes in the World to be so far above Kings and Princes as to Judge Depose and Deprive them and to have an absolute Jurisdiction over all the Affairs in Christendom in Ordine ad Spiritualia yet all this the Canonists allow him and he makes no scruple to assume whilst it is plain that in the whole New Testament there is no description made of such an Officer to be at any time in the Church except it be in the Prophecy of the Apocalypse or in one of St. Paul's Epistles where he says Who is it that shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Christ tells us his Kingdom is not of this World and if any will be the greatest amongst his Disciples that he must be Servant to the rest which shews that his Followers were to be great in Sanctity and Humility and not in Worldly Power The Apostle Paul writing to the Christians of those times almost in every Epistle commands them to be obedient to the Higher Powers or Magistrates set over them and St. Peter himself from whom this extravagant Empire is pretended to be deriv'd in his first Epistle bids us submit our selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King or c. And this is enjoyn'd although it is plain that they who Govern'd the World in those days were both Heathens Tyrants and Usurpers and in this submission there is no Exception or Proviso for Ecclesiastical immunity The Practice as well as Precepts of these Holy Men shews plainly that they had no intention to leave Successors who should deprive Hereditary Princes from their right of Reigning for difference in Religion who without all doubt are by

turvy and never stick at any thing for if once he halt he will fall and never rise again I hope after this I need say little to justify my self from the Calumny of advising these Monsters to break their Faith since to keep it is to lose their Empire Faithfulness and Sincerity being their mortal Enemies And Vguccione della Faggivola to one who upbraided him that he never employ'd honest Men answered honest Men will cut my throat let the King use honest Men meaning the King of Naples who was Established in this Throne and had right to it But that I may have occasion to justify my self against a little more than I am accused of I will confess that in a Work where I desired to be a little more serious than I was in this Book of the Prince I did affirm that in what way soever Men defended their Country whether by breaking or keeping their Faith it was ever well defended not meaning in a strict moral sence or point of Honour but explaining my self that de facto the infamy of the breach of word would quickly be forgotten and pardon'd by the World which is very true nay what if I had said that good success in any Enterprize a far less consideration than Piety to our Country would have cancel'd the blame of such a perfidy I might have alledged a thousand Examples for the truth of this to take one for all we see the treachery which Caesar whom I compare to Cataline used toward his fellow Citizens not only not detested by Posterity but even crowned with Renown and immortal Fame insomuch as Princes to this day as I have observed elsewhere think it an honour to be compared to him and the highest pitch of Veneration their Flatterers can arrive to is to call them by the name of one who violated his Faith and Enslav'd his Country I hope that in shewing as well these Tyrants as the poor People who are forced to live under them their danger that is by laying before the former the hellish and precipitous Courses they must use to maintain their Power and by representing to the latter what they must suffer I may be Instrumental first to deter private Citizens from attempting upon the Liberties of their Country or if they have done it to make them lay down their ill-gotten Authority and then to warn the rest of the Nobility and People from those Factions and Malignancies in their several Commonwealths and Governments which might give hope and opportunity to those who are Ambitious amongst them to aspire to an Empire over them However it prove I hope I am no more to be blamed for my attempt than that Excellent Physician of our Nation is who hath lately taken so much pains to compose an excellent Treatise of that foul Disease which was not long since brought from the New World into these parts wherein though he be forced to use such expressions as are almost able to nauseate his Readers and talk of such Ulcers Boils Nodes Botches Cankers c. that are scarce fit to be repeated especially when he handles the Causes of those Effects yet he did not intend to teach or exhort Men to get this Disease much less did he bring this lamentable infirmity into the World but describes it faithfully as it is to the end Men may be deterr'd and avoid the being infected with it and may discern and Cure it when ever their incontinence and folly shall procure it them I shall say no more in this matter but to conclude all make a protestation that as well in this Book as in all my other Writings my only scope and design is to promote the interest and welfare of Mankind and the peace and quiet of the World both which I am so vain as to believe would be better obtained and provided for if the Principles I lay down were followed and observed by Princes and People than they are like to be by those Maximes which are in this Age most in vogue For my self I shall only say and call you all to Witness for the Truth of it that as by my Birth I am a Gentleman and of a Family which hath had many Chief Magistrates of Justice in it so I have been used in many Employments of Great Trust both in our City and Abroad and at this Hour I am am not in my Estate one Penny the better for them all nor should I have been although I had never suffered any Losses by the Seizure of my Estate in the Year 1531. For my Carriage it hath ever been void of Faction and Contention I never had any Prejudice against the House of Medici but Honoured the Persons of all those of that Family whom I knew and the Memory of such of them as Liv'd before me whom I acknowledge to have been Excellent Patriots and Pillars of our City and Common-wealth During the turbulent times of Piero and after his Expulsion out of Florence though my Imployments were but Ministerial my Advice was ask'd in many Grave Matters which I ever delivered with Impartiality and Indifference not espousing the Heady Opinions of any much less their Passions and Animosities I never sided with any Party further than that the Duty of my Charge oblig'd me to serve the prevailing Party when possest of the Government of our City this I speak for those Changes which happen'd between the Flight of the said Piero de Medici and the Horrid Parricide committed by Clement the 7 th upon his Indulgent Mother joyning with his greatest Enemies and uniting himself with those who had used the most Transcendent Insolence to his own Person and the highest Violence and Fury the Sun ever saw to his poor Courtiers and Subjects that so accompany'd he might Sheath his Sword in the Bowels of his own Desolate Country At that time and during that whole Siege I must confess I did break the Confines of my Neutrality and not only Acted as I was commanded barely but rouz'd my self and stirr'd up others Haranguing in the streets and places of the City the People to defend with the last drop of their Blood the Walls of their Country and the Liberty of their Government taking very hazardous Journeys to Ferruccio and the rest into the Mugello and other parts to bring in Succours and Provisions to our languishing City and Acting as a Soldier which was a new Profession to me at the Age of above Sixty when others are Dispenced from it For all which I had so intire a Satisfaction in my Mind and Conscience that I am perswaded this Cordial made me able to support the Sufferings which befell me after our Catastrophe and to rejoyce in them so far that all the Malice and Cruelty of our Enemies could never draw one word from me unsuitable to the Honour I thought I merited and did in some sort enjoy for being instrumental to defend as long as it was possible our Altars and our Hearths But all that I have undergone hath been abundantly Recompenced to me by the Favour and Courtesie of the Most Excellent Seigneur Cosimo who hath been pleas'd to offer me all the Preferments the greatest Ambition could aspire to which I did not refuse out of any scruple to serve so incomparable a Prince whose Early Years manifest so much Courage Humanity and Prudence and so Fatherly a care of the Publick Good but because I was very desirous not to accept of a Charge which I was not able to perform my Years and Infirmities having now brought me to a Condition in which I am fitter to live in a Cloyster than a Palace and made me good for nothing but to talk of past times the common Vice of Old Age so that I did not think it Just or Grateful to Reward this Excellent Person so ill for his Kindness as to give him an useless Servant and to fill up the place of a far better This is all I think fit to say of this matter I chuse to address it to you Messieur Zenobio for the constant Friendship I have ever Entertain'd with you and formerly with your Deceased Father the Companion of my Studies and Ornament of our City And so I bid you Farewell This 1st of April 1537. FINIS