Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	life_n	spirit_n	4,772	5	5.1324	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33486	The converted capuchin, or, The recantation of Father Basil after he had continued nigh forty yeares a fryer of that order and perswaded many Protestants to the Romish-beliefe : with his answers to those reports framed against him since he left his convent at Roüen to be one of the reformed church at Sedan / English according to the French copy.; Declaration du sieur François Clouet, cy-devant appelé Père Basile de Rouen, où il déduit les raisons qu'il a eues de se séparer de l'Eglise romaine. English	Basile, de Rouen, d. 1648?	1641 (1641)	Wing C4738; ESTC R23037	16,013	23

made a vow to keepe the Rules and Institutions of Saint Francis which bind not the Friers to study sacred letters but command in expresse termes That those of the fraternity which are unlearned need not to study to learne them but ordaine in the second chapter that they should be clad in old tayments and that they might peece them with sacke-cloth and other peeces on Gods blessing Being thus fastned to this Order I thought with my selfe that in observing it I should do workes of Supererogation by which I supposed to doe more good than God commanded me and so to merit a degree of glory in Paradise above that common to the Saints which had no more perfection here than meerely to fulfill the Law of God In the interim this perswasion dwelt in my soule that true Religion which leads to salvation comes from God not humane invention To the end therefore I might strengthen my selfe in the beleefe of the Romish Church and be furnished with answers to gain-sayers I desired to know as exactly as I might what Jesus Christ and his Apostles Founders of Christian religion taught us as it is contained in holy Scriptures but in reading them glory be to God it happened cleane contrary to my purpose and intendment His Prayer upon his Conversion O Lord my God and my Creator who from all Eternitie knowest those that are thine owne which no power can wrench from thy holy hands how copious hath bin thy bounty to me thy poore servant thou hast dealt with me ó Lord according to the greatnesse of thy Compassion by reducing my soule from death my eies from superstitious tears my feet from falling Thou didst suffer me to spend neere forty yeares in an erronious religion which I supposed conformable to thy holy Word and have as obstinately defended it not slighting the least occasion tending to the persecution of thy Church But O my eternall God it was my ignorance did it and I now beg thy pardon with an heart contrite and humbled before thy glorious face Thou hast put me to the test O Lord by a sore disease which I thought would have put an end to my being in this world but thy goodnesse contented it selfe to depresse my body that thou mightest raise up my soule in giving a good issue to my heavie triall I have been fully sensible of thy benefits Oh Eternall what shall I render unto thee for them that am but dust and ashes in thy Divine presence I will sacrifice unto thee a sacrifice of thanksgiving I will invocate thy holy Name I will pay my vowes in the presence of thy people in thy Temple and employ the rest of my dayes in the service and edification of thy Church Give O Father of Mercy the same grace which thou hast bestowed on me unto them that shall reade this my Declaration and particularly my God and my blessed Father I beseech thee with teares of true sorrow to have pitie upon those whom I have helped to erre from the right way perswading their revolt from thy holy Church O suffer them not to be deprived of the participation of the blood and merits of thy Son Christ Jesus but touch thou their hearts with a sorrow such as may conduce to a true repentance in them Have likewise mercy upon so many poore soules as goe astray for want of instruction prick them forward with the goad of thy feare stirre in them a desire to know thy truth by reading thy holy Word let thy relieving hand draw them out of the mire whereinto they are fallen by originall sinne regenerate them O good God unto a newnesse of life by the workings of thy holy Spirit nor lay thou to their charge the hatred they beare me for reverencing thy holy Name But grant rather that they acknowledging the sanctity of the doctrine which I have embraced which is the very same Jesus thy Son brought from heaven on earth they may clearely see how they are abused and abhorre those superstitions which inveterate wont makes them thinke to be none that they may detest the impiety of their seducers who being blind may else be throwne into the pit unlesse thou open their eyes by the beames of thy holy Spirit Let them not depend longer upon humane traditions but receive thy Word for the onely guide of their faith and Jesus Christ their Mediator and Sacrificer so that having led a life here in the confession of thy most holy Name and the profession of that truth contained in thy most holy Word wee may together everlastingly blesse thee in thy holy Tabernacle in Heaven Amen A Refutation of calumnies which were put upon mee I Should conclude my Declaration thus with giving of thanks which I am bound to render the divine goodnesse for having not only taken from me the horrid and darke veile of my blindnesse and called mee to his marvellous light but also for the courage he hath given me to withstand all the assaults that corrupt nature and humane respects could bring against my resolution did I not feele my selfe obliged to adde these lines in defence of my innocencie which I understand to be abused by the enemies of true religion Yet if the interest of God and his holy Church could set apart my owne interests herein I would make it my glory to despise these disgracefull aspersions for the love of my Redeemer who hath given me himselfe for an example But such separation not being possible I will genuinely and without sharpnesse represent that which may serve to wipe away these reproaches which they have published against me protesting that all the revenge I will take for these injuries is to entreat God with a good heart for the salvation of them which are the authors that he would please by his goodnesse and the efficacie of his holy Spirit to break the bands of that Error wherewith they are so strongly bound that he would be gracious to them as he hath been to me and putting off that vaine industry to be reputed holy among men they may subject themselves to the Word of God to the end they may be saved The first Calumny I Learn by letters of my friends that they accuse me for drawing out of the purses of divers persons above two thousand pound sterling under pretext of Pius uses and that now I serve my owne turne with it to the prejudice of them for whom it was appointed The grossenesse of this Calumny hath discovered it selfe so much the better for who is it but knowes that Capuchins handle no money nor doth any body use to offer them any unlesse that craving almes at a doore unawares they put a double in their scrip as they would to an Eremite but the Capuchins do never receive it Their Order permitting them to receive a bottle of Wine a Capon or things of like kind but not one Double or Denier as doe others who professe poverty If any man have received this summe of money for me

word had I been wicked as this man writes and had desired to live in dishonest liberty I should have remained whence I came rather then came away For having had the meanes to practice them among them I should have had much more meanes to continue them there then in the condition I now am The Fourth Calumnie THe last slander in the Letter aforesaid containes the most untruth as it is the most outragious and uncivill t is thus If the Church and our Order in particular used not the more purity and holinesse of life he would never have escaped us to have cast himselfe into Ministeriall bonds who have furnished him with what he sought a glut of his sensuall delights among them and a promise of assistance and protection in his vices This poore man must be pardoned for it appeares either he sinnes through ignorance or that his passion hath blindfolded him He shewes you that he knew not how I made my retreat nor how Ministers behave themselves upon those occasions for he never came so neere to know so much His Sword was somewhat of the shortest But to shew that he speaks as a man ignorant and to instruct them that desire to imitate me behold here the method I kept to atchieve the quiet of my conscience by a true conversion After I had a long time striven with the troubles and pricks of conscience which tortured and grievously afflicted my heart and urged my departure from the Romish Church where I observed the Hierarchicall and Priviledged ready to devoure one another and thousands of superstitions I addressed my selfe to the Father of Lights after whose heavenly assistance the reading of holy Scripture and the bookes of Mr du Moulin among the rest his Novelty of Popery and Buckler of Faith gave some stay to my tired soule and guided me in framing my last resolution But because I could not put it in execution without knowing what Order I ought to keepe of some one of the Religion nor was acquainted with any body at Roüen to whom in this case I might addresse my selfe I made use of the occasion of my going to Bresse neare Mount S. Michel whereof I have spoke before By the way I saw a Gentleman of the Religion at whose house I was halfe a day and learned from him how to comport my selfe therein I finished my voyage and a moneth after my returne to Roüen I went from the Covent without either seeing speaking or writing to any Minister whatsoever True it is that while I stayed a little at Roüen after my going from them I had the honour to see two Ministers who gave me the visit at my lodging but our discourse was so short that I had no leisure but to unfold my purpose and they to tell me I must prepare to beare the Crosse of Jesus Christ in professing the true Religion and that if I quitted the Monastery to finde more freedome or means to comply with evill appetites I was very ill bestead I was indeed extreamly comforted I went forth of Rouen at shutting the gate and in day and a halfe arrived at Paris whence I am hither come in the only protection of the Almighty Who report mee a man engaged in wenching or wiving shall accuse themselves of this sinne next Easter I regard not his prate as being usual among the Papists upon the like occasions See how the Ministers have furnished me with what satisfaction I sought not of my senses but my poore soule which sighed after its deliverance I would prolong the discourse to make apparant the cheats of this Detractor who speaks of the Ministers as of men who have furnished me with what I sought for among them sensual and beastly satisfaction and promised protection for my vices But because I cannot do it without I set forth the vertues I observed in them since I frequented them and knowing that their modesties would not approve it I will content my selfe with this onely since it is fit something be said That I observed nothing in their words and actions which did not tend to my spiritual edification and folly perswaded me that they are altogether free from that the Romish rabble doth like it selfe injuriously put upon them I protest I never saw any of them go from house to house to prattle with and court young maids and joyne under pretence of giving ghostly counsel if Ministers go abroad it is to visit the sick comfort the afflicted treat in consistory of the means for reliefe of the poore or else somewhat very beseeming their being or their callings when they goe from home I see them not laden with gay shewes Crosses Agnus Dei kneaded with relicks holy graines mother Lewis's crosse nor Medals nor any of that which they call Aucupia Monachorum Friers toyles to catch those who snatch at them wch nets they reach forth principally to those of the femall sex as the simpler and more enclined to superstitious devotion They cannot complaine of Ministers that in their common talke we never heare them use the Name of God so vainly in good or bad as divers Seculars have noted in the vaine discourses of Monks and complained thereof Nor doe we see them complement with wenches and women three or foure houres together in their portalls as doe the Friers but above all the begging ones The Ministers intents of discourse with any women are examined and if they give an ill example it is not borne with I marvell not that the Holy Ghost infuseth into them such profound notions of holy Writ and that it bestowes upon them such excellent illuminations in Divinity as the Professors of this University deliver unto all that will come to heare them I can never forget what I noted from one of them who handling in his Lecture the Commandement Thou shalt not commit adultery I never saw so grave a stayednesse in words nor so much carefulnesse in discovering this subject which gave mee occasion to detest the Romish Casuists and among other Sanchez a Jesuit who in a sordid manner turnes to and againe the filth that comes along with this uncleannesse for there is nothing foule or base in the most execrable excesses of beastlinesse and sensuality which is not tossed to and fro in his imagination and found in his most prodigious and horrible booke of Marriage See now what in my conscience I knew of them in whose bande they say I am cast Hee to whom this invective against them and my sele is written can judge of these impostures and of the truth of what I assever who forsooke the reformed Church at threescore yeares of age and therefore had time enough to be well acquainted with the behaviours of Ministers What this reverend Sir addes in his letter the Huguenots of Rouen themselves say if I had been an honest man I had not left the Capuchins is a lye by which he makes himselfe a laughing stock and abuseth him he writes to by making a baby