Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	4,605	5	9.4382	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68096	The boy of Bilson: or, A true discouery of the late notorious impostures of certaine Romish priests in their pretended exorcisme, or expulsion of the Diuell out of a young boy, named William Perry, sonne of Thomas Perry of Bilson, in the county of Stafford, yeoman Vpon which occasion, hereunto is premitted a briefe theologicall discourse, by way of caution, for the more easie discerning of such Romish spirits; and iudging of their false pretences, both in this and the like practices.	R. B. (Richard Baddeley); Wheeler, Mr.	1622 (1622)	STC 1185; ESTC S120841	43,472	84

if that those spirits might by the power of Adiuration be compelled to shew that they were deuils and that being knowne they would confesse nothing but truth All which notwithstanding the Romish Priests ordinarily seeke to bee informed of them concerning Purgatorie Indulgences worshipping of Images and other Mysteries of Romish Superstition which Bellarmine and other Iesuites doe endeuour to confirme by Apparitions of the dead when as according to the iudgement of ancient Fathers the soule that it conuersant in holy Writ will re-resolue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that though the Deuill as in the petition of * Not to omit which is else-where forgotten that the Boy of Bilson did fayne himselfe to abhor and to be affected with this Petition as with the first verse of Saint Iohns Gospell Vide pag. 58. 59. Deliuer vs from euill may come into his Pater-Noster yet that he shall neuer enter into his Creed Not to stand any longer vpon Antiquitie I would but desire any one Example of any one Father in the space of fiue hundred yeares after Christ or Historie in the same compasse of time recording and approuing any Conference with the Deuill by way of Exorcisme or otherwise for satisfaction of any Christian in points of Religion Let vs at last reason the matter with these men The two and twentieth Aduertisement Shewing the Reasons which may be produced against this perswasion of the Deuil arising aswell from the Cause it selfe as from the Euents Reasons of the first kind Two reasons may suffice if they be pregnant The first thus If such be the power of Exercists that they constraine the Deuill in the Name of God and by the warrant of the Church to confesse any truth that shall be demanded of them by Adiuration then should there need for our satisfaction in matter of Religion no other Questionists then Exorcists no other Catechists than Deuills no other Tradition Councell Scripture or Gospel than the confession of Deuils yea and then the Decrees of Popes which are held as Oracles in that Church must now for many of them haue erred giue place to the testimonies of Deutls I may not except their Councell of Trent Conc. Trid. Sessio 5. cap. 1. which would not determine the question concerning the naturall Conception of the blessed Virgin whether shee were originally immaculate for either great was the ignorance of those Fathers that could not or else obstinacie that they would not set it downe for an Article in their Romane Creed as they haue done many other Articles as far repugnant from truth seeing that Verrine the Deuill Admir Hist pag. 205. by power of Exorcisme was brought to sweare vpon the blessed Sacrament and did answer vpon that Oath that she was originally immaculate Albeit Bernard Thomas Aquinas Bonauenture and many hundreds in the Romish Church would heerein haue giuen the deuill the lye It had beene good before they had giuen credit to this deuill to haue sought some certaine resolution how to reconcile the different reuelations made to Saint Bridget Saint Katherine concerning the same question Katherine being told by reuelation that the Conception of the blessed Virgin was immaculate but Saint Bridget informed of the contrarie And because such contradictions will admit no reconciliation it would become them to learne how to discerne whether these Reuelations came from the deaill as from the lying Angel whereof wee thinke the deuill Verrine can be no competent Iudge Secondly you that question the deuill suffer your selues to bee questioned in a few words If the deuils be made as you say Messengers of diuine truths by the power of your Exorcismes why doe you indeauour to expell them Are they but lying Oracles Why doe you then conferre with them and not presently expell them Many other reasons might bee added to conuince these Priests by the deuil's contradictions in their owne stories euen then when hee was adiured to speake truth But to labour to prooue that the deuill cannot lye when hee list and that hee will also whensoeuer hee can for a mischiefe were to deny him to bee a deuill whose propertie is vel falsum vel ad falsum dicere either to speake that which is false or else to a false end What a dangerous thing it was in our first Mother to entertaine and maintaine parle with the deuill concerning our religious dutie to God all mankind feele by that woefull experience of originall corruption which they must carrie with them to their graues That which no Aduersarie shall euer be able to refute is that the power of Exorcisme was giuen vnto the Church of God for expulsion of the deuill neuer for consultation with him in matters of Conscience Thus haue I endeuoured to dispell this doctrine of conferring with deuils in such cases with the same zeale as I would wish to dispell the deuill himselfe and hold it a good resolution not to beleeue those Priests for direction in matters of Religion who make the deuill their ghostly Father Wee choose rather to conclude with the sentences of the holy Fathers of the Church one directing vs how to auoid such fascinations saying Cyprian Non statim c. We ought not presently to admit of such Acts as are done in the Name of Christ except they be done in the Truth of Christ The other detesting them saying August Remoueantur illa vel figmenta mendacium hominum vel portenta fallacium spirituum Away with those workes which are either the figments and deuices of lying men or else the deceitfull acts of prodigious spirits The 23. and last Aduertisement Is to demonstrate the Romish falshood in Exorcizing by the Euents which is particularly exemplified in a discouerie of their Impostures about the Boy of Bilson not inferiour vnto any of the rest of their prankes in this kind BVt before wee come to lay downe the naked truth of the matter touching that Boy and how things stood de facto let vs first suffer the Romish Priests to boast themselues a while of their miraculous power in Exorcizing this Child whom for a while you must imagine bee really bewitched and possessed of the Deuill that afterwards by the the euent may be verified of these Miraculists that Scripture which saith Phil. 3.19 Whose glorie is in their shame Heare we then the Priests speake helpe the child was if they had sought medicine still in Israel and not at Endor and of Belzebub First then to shew how the Child grew thus to bee tormented as I haue vnderstood it of his Parents and haue heard the Child confirme it himselfe The Boy returning homeward from schoole to Bilson in Staffordshire where hee dwelt an old woman vnknowne met him and taxed him in that he did not giue her good time of the day saying that he was a foule thing and that it had been better for him if he had saluted her At which words the Boy felt a thing to pricke him to the very heart

Sonne of God Matth. 8.29 Mark 5.7 Luke 8.28 We easily grant that Christ could as easily compell the deuill to speake truth as he could aske him the question concerning any truth and that therefore the deuill could no more conceale that his Confession concerning the God-head of Christ acknowledging him to bee the Sonne of God than hee could deny his name to bee Legion But this being granted that Christ could so constraine the Deuills yet what can the Priests collect from hence Their first collection is that Christ did inforce the deuill to make this Confession But Saint Chrysostome will deny this See this after saying That Christ was so farre from desiring this Confession of the deuill that hee did abhorre the Confessor and presently inioyne him silence Their second collection from hence is this Admir Hist If say they Christ did extort truth from the deuill Why not wee Which if it were spoken of them vniuersally as if they had absolutely the same power in Miracles that Christ had it were an inference very blasphemous because as all diuinity doth teach Christ had in him potestatem excellentiae that is diuine power to the full as the Sunne hath light and all others haue it but deriuatiuely from Christ as is the light of the Moone But to vnderstand these men in their more moderate sense that whatsoeuer concerneth the authoritie of commanding or countermanding deuills they may presume to haue receiued it from Christ yet is it most false because Christ went out of his owne accord into the Wildernesse to combat with the deuill will you therefore say Why not wee likewise Doth not the Lords Prayer teach you not to follow but to flie temptations To come nearer to you Christ at the time of his questioning the deuill concerning his name whereof you haue spoken had in himselfe a power of dispensation and permission to suffer the Deuills they requesting as much to goe into the Hogges of the Gadarens and to carry them headlong into the Sea an Act of his owne omnipotent Iustice Dire you assume this power vnto your selues of permitting the deuill if hee should aske you to enter into other mens Oxen or Hogs vpon the firme presumption of Why not we Furthermore to shew you why not you Christ had the wisdome of discerning of spirits to know what spirit he had to deale with and that infallibly but the deuil how easily may he deceiue you or others when transforming himselfe into an Angel of light 2. Cor. 11.14 and pretending himselfe an Author of truth hee shall become but a Messenger of lies whereof the Iesuit Del'rio and other Authors can satisfie you by manifold Examples Disq Mag. Lastly to pose you a little tell vs when did euer Christ interogate the deuill concerning any doctrine of truth either Theologicall or Morall points of Faith or precepts of life The onely question he asked him was What is thy name and the deuill answered Legion Mark 5.7 Luk. 8.30 for we are many euen troupes of deuills Which Christ did to manifest the power of his God hend against the whole hoaft of infernall powers You therefore that thus arrogate his power should rather imitate his wisedome who neuer conferred with the deuill touching any doctrinall or dogmaticall truth The sixteenth Aduertisement Shewing the falsebood of their second Reason for the proofa of their power of Adiuration to constraine the Deuill to speake truth taken from the Deuills adiuring of Christ with the particular confuration thereof THey set this down for an vndoubted Maxime that the Deuils must necessarily speake truth Whensoeuer the Exorcist shall exact an oath of the Deuils Admir Hist pag. 131. compalling them to sweare according to the meaning of God and his Church They doe not deny neither doe we charge them with it that the Deuill when bee speaketh of himselfe is a liar and the father of lies but onely say that being adiured to tell the truth hee is then compelled to speake truth Epistle to the Reader before the History Their proofe is thus grounded The Deuill said vnto Christ Mark s. I charge thee by God that thou doe not torment vs but suffer vs to enter into the herd of Swine Wherein 〈◊〉 may obserue saith he a remarkable point that Christ being adiured by the name of God although it was done by the Deuill yet condescended to the Deuils tequest And thus they would perswade vs that by virtue of this band of an Oath the Deuill is tied infallibly to confesse the truth And hence it is that these Priests in France and they at Denhom and at Bilson together with others in then questioning with Deuills doe relye altogether vpon the coaction of them by an Oath But concerning the example which they haue vrged of the Deuills adiuring of Christ in the name of God it cannot but prooue to be either an illogicall argument or else blasphemous For wee demand whether the Deuill adiuring Christ in the name of God did constraine Christ to speake truth or no If they say that hee did not then is it no small absurditie to proone a compulsarie charge of a Priest against the Deuill by Christs voluntarie answer to the Deuill But if they say that the alliuration vsed by the Deuill had power to constraine Christ by virtue of the name of God to make an answer then is it altogether blasphemous for what is it else than to make the Deuill the Exorcizer of Christ It had beene well that these men that thus vrge and presse their power of Exorcization had remembred that which is recorded in the Acts 19. of the runnagate Exorcifts the sonnes of Sceua a Iew when they tooke vpon them to adiure euill spirits saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wee adiure you by Iesus but what Acts 19.13 c. It followeth The Deuils in the possessed partie did violently fall vpon those Exorcists and made them runne away then might they haue learned rather to reason thus That if Exorcisme was not of power in it selfe by the name of Iesus who is God blessed for euer to driue away the Deuills how then could we say that it had power from the mouth of deuils in the name of God to mooue Christ Iesus himselfe And inferre thereupon saying to themselues Why doe wee not now blush that wee haue argued so fondly The seuenteenth Aduertisement Shewing their second ground taken from an Oath by virtue of the band of an Oath of Stipulation the Priests imposing a formall Oath vpon the Deuill and the falshood thereof FOr in their Admirable French Historie the Exorcists say Admir Hist pag. 186. that the Deuils when they are constrained by the Name of God and by the authoritie of the Church to take an Oath the Oath bindeth them And as if by vertue of the same Oath the Exorcists themselues were bound to beleeue the Deuill they put the Deuill to an Oath Pag. 206. saying It was thought fit that

then further examined till the next time THE SECOND EXAMINATION AND ANSWERE of the said William Perry made vnto certaine other questions which vpon iust and special presumptions were propounded vnto him by the Reuerend Father in God THOMAS Lord B. of Couentry and Lichsield taken at Eccleshall Castle the 13. day of Octob. Anno Dom. 1620. FIrst it was demanded of him that seeing the old man called Thomas perswaded him that at length hee should be cured by some Popish Priest whether hee meant not accordingly in the end to seeme to bee dispossessed by some or one such of them He answereth yes and further that thereupon he meant to become a Papist Secondly being asked that if hee did meane so why then he would not after so long a time and so great paines taken about him by those Priests yeeld to their Exorcismes and seeme to bee dispossessed by their meanes Hee answereth because that much people did resort vnto him and brought him many good things as also for that he was not willing to goe to schoole againe yet that in the end his meaning was to be holpen by them Thirdly being asked that after hee saw himselfe halfe discouered whether in his griefe and feare that all should come to light he had not an intent to doe himselfe some bodily mischiese He answereth that he had for saith he the Diuell had * It was his owne word steeled my heart so that I cared not to hang my selfe and had purposed to doe so one night but that I was watched and hindred Fourthly being asked how it could be thought that he should be moued by any Papist to charge a woman for bewitching him which was her selfe an obstinate Recusant He answereth that hee was moued by Thomas the old man to lay it on some woman so suspected but that onely of himselfe without the perswasion of any other he named this * Ione Cocke woman because she was a woman ill thought of and suspected for such like things Being here put in mind of the desire which formerly before his discouery he had to be prayed for as was accordingly then done but as at the same time was told him not to driue the Diuell out of his body but onely out of his soule wherin the Diuell had possessed him by a diuellish obstinacy of his heart in faining himselfe to be bodily possessed of the diuell And being further wished to remember how that after those prayers he writ on a paper that he had found much ease thereby He was hereupon demanded whether he did not as then intend and resolue with himselfe to make an end of his former course and counterfeit practices and seeme to be dispossessed by such prayers He answereth that it was indeed in his minde to doe so because hee had then wearied himselfe with dissembling so long and was also in feare to be discouered and found out And albeit this was easily discerned to haue bin his resolution yet as was at that time told him it became not the Professors of truth to imitate the Popish Priests in such cases who falsly arrogated to themselues such an Apostolicall power by Exorcizing to expell Diuels although it might in mans opinion much worke for the glorifying of God edifying of Christian people in our Church and also for the conuerting of Romish Recusants vnto our true Religion because this ought to bee the profession of Christians to seeke to glorifie Him onely by truth who will bee worshipped in spirit and truth And here was an end made of examining the Boy any further Examinat ' coram praefat ' R do Patre dictis diebus anno loco Praesente Ryc Baddeley Notario Publico THE BOY OF BILSON his priuate and publike Acknowledgement c. NOw after those Popish * Bilson in Staffordshire is a Chappelrie within the peculiar Iurisdiction of Wooluerhamptō where sacrilegious impiely hath produced such effects that it is much insected with Popery insested with Popish Priests whose ordinary Rendeuouz it is No maruell therefore if they made choyce thereof as the fillest nest wherin to lay and exclude their addle and supposititious egs of politicke impostures and godly deceits But this Cockatrice was crusht in in the shell and their viperous disseine thereby deseated Priests were departed and had left the Boy as before is confessed and set downe his Father sought for further helpe by the meanes of Witches but as wickedly so all in vaine vntill such time as he was brought from the towne of Bilson aforesaid vnto Lichfield before Doctor Master Chancellor of the Dioces where he continued vntill hee was carried to the Assizes at Stafford and there by the Iudges referred and left vnto the aboue-named Reuerend Father in God the I. Bishop of the Diocesse who after a very short time sent to Bilson for him and after his arriuall did deale with him as formerly in this discourse hath been related Since which time the Boy vpon laying to his charge the hainousnesse of that his offence as being blasphemous in respect of Christ whose words in the Gospell he fained himselse to abhorre and diuellish in respect of the Diuell whose person hee would seeme to bee possessed of and also murtherous in respect of the poore Woman whom he willingly occasioned to bee brought as much as in him lay to the poynt of death He hath earnestly bewailed these his sinnes and as after his first Examination by prayer coneiued by himselfe to such purpose craued forgiuenesse at Gods hand for the same So hauing continued at Eccleshall Castle aforesaid vntill he was perfectly recouered of his former weaknesse and benummed limmes and that his Parents were willing to dispose of him otherwaies hee was finally brought againe to the last Summer-Assizes held at Stafford the 26. of Iuly Summer Assizes held at Stafford 19. Iacobi R. 1621. Anno 1621. where before Sir Peter Warburton and Sir Humfrey Winch Knights his Maiesties Iustices of Assize and the face of the County and Countrey there assembled the Boy craued pardon first of Almighty God then desired the Woman there also present to forgiue him and lastly requested the whole Countrey whom hee had so notoriously and wickedly scandalized to admit of that his so hearty Confession for their satisfaction And thus it pleased God to open the eyes of this Boy that I may so say luto with the clay of the Romish Priests lewd impostures and sputo with the spittle of his owne infamy to see his errors and to glorifie the God of truth Gloriasoli Deo THE EXAMINATION AND ANSWERE OF THOMAS NECHILS of Nechils in the County of Stafford Gentleman a Recusant taken vpon oath before the R. Reuerend Father in God THOMAS L. Bishop of Couentry and Lichfield at Eccleshall Castle the 17. of Octob. Anno 1620. touching the aforementioned Relation of the Priests of their proceedings with the Boy of Bilson BEing examined whether hee knew a written discourse then shewed vnto him touching the Boy of Bilson entituled and beginning thus A faithfull Relation of the proceedings of c. and ending in these words Yours in charity loue or any good office Hee answereth that hee doth very well know and remember the same Being examined how hee came first by that discourse or Relation and from whom he had it Hee answereth that it was deliuered vnto him by a Gentleman whom he met iourneying on the way towards Lichfield whose name was Master Wheeler as he told this Examinate And being further demanded he saith that he was as a man of a reasonable stature round faced about fiftie yeeres old and of a blackish complection Being examined what further discourse did at that time passe betwixt them two touching the said Boy called VVilliam Perry He answereth that the said Master Wheeler then told this Examinate that he would acquaint him with the whole businesse concerning that Boy whereupon hee gaue this Examinate a copie of the afore-named discourse or Relation hauing two copies at the same time about him and willed this Examinate to get it copied out and to giue one copie thereof vnto one Philip Higgins of Westbromage Yeoman as hee this Examinate remembers And further that the said Master Wheeler said vnto this Examinate that was no matter who should see it Being further examined what the said Master Wheeler did at the same time acquaint this Examinate with touching himselfe Hee confesseth that he told him how that he did often vse to resort vnto the French Embassadour that hee did know the Bishop of Couentry and Lichfield and further that he was knowne to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Tho. Nechils Examinat ' coram praefat ' R do Patre dictis die anno loco Praesente Ryc Baddeley Notario Publ.