Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	father_n	holy_a	spirit_n	8,932	5	5.4539	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33223	The state of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began as it appears by the advice given to Paul III and Julius III by creatures of their own : with a preface leading to the matter of the book.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing C4400; ESTC R15337	26,546	43

being taught by the Divine Spirit who as St. Austin says does without noise of Words speak in the Heart very well understands this to be the Original of these Mischiefs that some Popes your Predecessours having itching Ears as says the Apostle Paul heaped up Teachers after their own Lusts not to learn from them what they ought to do but that they should take pains and employ their Wit to find out ways how it might be lawful for them to do what they pleased To which we may add that as the Shadow follows the Body so Flattery follows Greatness and Truth can hardly find any way to the Ears of Princes hence it has come to pass that there have been Doctors ever ready to maintain that all Benefices being the Pope's and the Lord having a Right to Sell what is his own it must necessarily follow that the Pope is not capable of the Guilt of Simony insomuch that the Pope's Will and Pleasure whatever it be must needs be the Rule for all that he does which doubtless would end in believing every thing lawful that he had a mind to do From this Source as from the Trojan-Horse those so many Abuses and such mortal Diseases have broken forth into the Church of God which have reduced her as we see almost to a State of Desparation The same of these things having come to the Ears even of Infidels let your Holiness believe us speaking what we know who deride Christianity more for this then for any thing else so that through our selves we must needs say through our selves the Name of Christ is blasphemed amongst the Nations As for you most Holy Father for so in truth you are besides that Prudence which you so long since have obtained being also instructed by the Spirit of God when you gave your self wholly to this care that the Church of Christ wherewith you are entrusted might be healed of her Distempers and recover a good state of Health you saw and you saw aright that where the Disease grew at first there the Remedy must begin And following the example of the Apostle Paul you intended to be a Dispenser and not a Lord but to be found faithful in the Lord like that Servant in the Gospel whom the Lord set over his Family to give them their Food in their season And in order to this you resolved at no hand to Will that which is unlawful nor to desire the Power of doing what you ought not For these Reasons you called us to your self who how unqualified soever we may be in point of skill for so weighty an Affair do not yet want a good Affection towards the Honour and Glory of your Holiness and above all to the Reformation of the Church of Christ You enjoyned us with most serious expressions that we should go and bring together all those Abuses and lay them before you protesting that if we proceeded herein negligently and unfaithfully the account that should be given to Almighty God of this matter committed to our Trust should be upon our selves And that all things might be more freely handled by us and opened to you afterward you bound us by an Oath and under the Penalty of Excommunication that we should discover no part of this our Trust to any one whatsoever We therefore in obedience to your Command have brought together those Distempers in as few Words as may be and their Remedies the most effectual at least which we for our part could think upon And now we rely upon your Goodness and Wisdom to mend all those faults and supply all those defects of the performance which are left in it by reason of our incompetency for this undertaking But to reduce all our Thoughts to some certain Heads since your Holiness is both the Prince of these Provinces which are the Ecclesiastic Estate and Territory and withal the Governour of the Universal Church and likewise the Bishop of Rome we have not taken upon our selves to speak of those things which concern that Principality which by your Prudence is so excellently Govern'd as we see We will touch upon these matters only that belong to the Office of the Universal Pastor and some also that are proper to the Roman Bishop First of all then we think most B. Father according to what Aristotle says in his Politicks that as in every other Commonwealth so in the Ecclesiastic Government of the Church of Christ it should be esteemed the principal Law of All that Laws should be observed as much as is possible and that it be not lawful to Dispense with the Laws but for a Cause urgent and necessary For no Custom introduced into a Commonwealth can be more pernicious than inobservance of Laws which our Ancestors thought were religiously to be kept and doubted not to call their Authority Venerable and Divine All these things you know Most Excellent Pope you have read them long since in the Philosophers and Divines But one thing there is of moment next to this or rather of far greater consequence as we think that it is not lawful for the Pope who is Christ's Vicar to make any Gain to himself of the use of the Keys of the power of the Keys we say which Christ hath committed to him For this is the Commandment of Christ Freely ye have received Freely give These things being in the first place provided for since your Holiness has the care of Christ's Church upon you so that it may be furnished with divers Ministers by whom that trust is to be discharged and that these are all the Clergy to whom Divine Service is committed the Presbyters especially and those of them chiefly that have the care of Souls and above all the Bishops it follows that in order to a right Proceeding in this Government the first care that is to be taken is that these Ministers be such that are fit for the Duties of their Function And here the first Abuse in this kind is that in the Ordination of Clerks especially of Presbyters no manner of care and diligence is used but every where the most uneducated Youths of the vilest Parentage set out with nothing but evil Manners are admitted to Holy Orders even to Priesthood it self thô that be the Character which expresseth Christ more than all others From hence grow innumerable Scandals from hence comes the Contempt of the Ecclesiastic Order and hence it is that the reverence of God's Worship is not only diminished but well nigh extinguished We think therefore the best way would be for your Holiness to appoint two or three Prelates of Learning and Probity to look after this matter who should govern the Ordinations of Clergy-men and then to enjoyn all Bishops under the Penalty of Censures to take the like care in their Diocesses Nor should your Holiness suffer any to be Ordained but by his own Bishop or with the License of his Bishop or such as are Deputed in the City And every Bishop should provide a Master

in his Church for the instruction of the inferiour Orders of the Clergy in good Learning and good Manners as the Law requires Another Abuse of a most grievous Nature is in the Collation of Ecclesiastical Benefices especially with Cure of Souls and above all of Bishopricks the manner having been that good Provision is made for those who have the Benefices but for the Flock of Christ and the Church none at all In bestowing therefore these Benefices with care and chiefly Bishopricks it is highly requisite that they be conferred upon good and learned men who are able by themselves to discharge the Duties belonging thereto and who withal are most likely to be resident for which reason a Benefice in Spain or Britain is not to be given to an Italian nor the like which Rule is to be observed both in Collations when a Vacancy happens by the Decease of the Incumbent and in Cessions too whereas now no regard is had to any thing else but the will and advantage of him that resigns We think therefore it would be very well if one or more honest men were appointed to govern this Business Another Abuse is when Benefices are conferred or resigned to others that Pensions are to be paid out of the Revenues nay and sometimes he that resigns reserves all the Profits to himself In which matter it is to be observed that Pensions ought not to be allotted upon any other account but as certain Alms which should go for pious uses and for the relief of the Poor For the Revenues are annexed to the Benefice as the Body to the Mind so that of their own nature they belong to him that has the Benefice that according to his Rank he may live honestly upon them and be able to bear the charge of Divine Service and to repair the Church and the Houses belonging to it and that he should spend what remains in pious uses For this is the natural employment of such Revenues But as in the Course of Nature some things are done otherwise then according to Common Rules and besides the Inclination of Universal Nature So as to the Pope who is the Universal Dispenser of Ecclesiastical Benefices if he sees that the Portion of the Priests which ought to be laid out in pious uses or some part thereof may be employed for some particular good uses that it would be most expedient it should be so he may without doubt provide accordingly He may therefore very lawfully set a Portion upon a Benefice for the relief of an indigent Person especially a Clergy-man that he may be able to live in some measure according to his Order But 't is a great Abuse that all the fruits should be reserved and that wholly taken away which is to serve for the maintenance of Divine Service and the support of the Incumbent and that Pensions should be given to rich Clergy-men who can live conveniently enough upon the Revenues which they have is surely a great Abuse also and both of them are to be removed There is another Abuse also in the changing of Benefices upon Contracts that are all of them Simonical and in which no regard is had to any thing but gain Another Abuse to be taken away altogether has prevailed in this Court by the knavery of certain persons that are shrewd in their way For whereas the Law provides that Benefices cannot be given away by Will because they are not the Testators but the Church's Fee and that the Church's Patrimony should be continued as a common provision in the behalf of all good men but never grow into a private Estate No little pains have been taken in which more of Worldly Wisdom than Christian Honesty is to be seen to find out divers tricks for the eluding of the Law. For Bishopricks and other Benefices are resigned first with a condition of resuming them to which is added a reservation to Collate the Benefices belonging to them with another reservation to Administer and Govern And so here comes to be a Bishop who has not so much as one Right of a Bishop while the other is no Bishop at all who claims all the Right belonging to one Your Holiness may see to what a pass things are brought by the flattery of making every thing lawful that is resolved to be done For we would fain know what this is but to make a private Inheritance of a Benefice Another cheat besides this is invented that Bishops upon their Petition have Co-adjutors granted to them not so well qualified as themselves so that unless a man be resolved to shut his Eyes he must needs see that the Co-adjutor is by this trick made Heir to the Bishoprick Again it is an ancient Law established by Clement that the Sons of Priests should not succeed their Fathers in their Benefices and this least the common Patrimony of the Church should become a private Estate But as we hear this venerable Law is dispensed with and we must not conceal what every prudent person will by himself discern to be a great truth that no one thing hath raised more of that Envy against the Clergy from whence so many Seditions have already happened and more are at hand than this turning of Ecclesiastical Profits and Revenues from being a common to a private thing All men had some hope before this but now they are reduced to despair and sharpen their Tongues against this holy See. It is another Abuse that Benefices are disposed in Reversion and occasion is given to the Expectant to desire another mans death and to be glad when he hears of it By which means also when a Vacancy happens they that deserve best are excluded besides the Law Suits that are hereby caused All this we think ought to be mended By the same craft a farther Abuse is introduced For whereas some Benefices are by Law Incompatible and are so called our Ancestours intending to admonish us by the signification of the word that they ought not to be confered upon one person this too is now dispensed with and not onely two but more of these Benefices and which is worst of all Bishopricks are enjoyed by the same man Which custom brought in by Covetuousness we think ought to be turned out again especially as to a plurality of Bishopricks What shall we say to the union of Benefices for a mans Life to avoid the incompatibility of them under this colour is not this a meer fraud upon the Law Another Abuse has prevailed that Bishopricks not one only but more are collated upon the most Reverend Cardinals or given them in Commendam which we most blessed Father believe to be no slight grievance in the Church of God in as much as first of all the Office of a Cardinal and that of a Bishop are incompatible in the same person For the Cardinals province is to assist your Holiness in the Government of the Catholic Church But that of a Bishop is to feed his Flock which