Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	iron_n	part_n	touch_v	1,197	5	9.5651	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46367	The pastoral letters of the incomparable Jurieu directed to the Protestants in France groaning under the Babylonish tyranny, translated : wherein the sophistical arguments and unexpressible cruelties made use of by the papists for the making converts, are laid open and expos'd to just abhorrence : unto which is added, a brief account of the Hungarian persecution.; Lettres pastorales addressées aux fidèles de France qui gémissent sous la captivité de Babylon. English	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.	1689 (1689)	Wing J1208; ESTC R16862	424,436	670

in these Countries they know GOD no better and it may be a great deal worse than in Turky The sacred Histories are utterly unknown to them they know nothing of Christianity but what we find thereof in their Catechism mingled and confounded with the Errours and Superstitions of Popery Instead of the true Gospel what do they preach in those places that are under the Dominion of Popery And what have they preacht in the times when it did Rule and prevail without contradiction They did there preach 1. Corrupt Morality according to which a man might commit Murder to save a Crown to defend his Honour and secure himself from some small Affront according to which a man might Rob when a person did not think himself sufficiently recompensed for his labours according to which a man might exercise Usury and infamous Monopolies according to which a man might keep Concubines and abandon himself to Sodomy without mortal Sin according to which a man might Lye by Equivocation and mental Reservations according to which he might live all his life without the Fear of God without performing one act of Contrition or the Love of God to his death and he might be Dispensed with that at the point of death provided he exercised an act of the fear of Hell when he receives the Sacrament of Penance Popery hath produced this detestable Morality it hath taught it where it could inspired it into private persons and suffered it where it durst not teach it For Holy History instead of the pious and sacred Histories of the Scripture which might turn mens minds towards Devotion they entertain the people with Fabulous Legends Instead of speaking to them of the Miracles and Greatness of Jesus Christ they speak of the Greatness of the Virgin they say that she was conceied without sin that her Father and her Mother had been advertised of her Birth by an Angel that at her Birth the Angels assembled together and formed a Quire and Consort in the Air that this Celebration of the Birth of the Holy Virgin is repeated every year on the same day that many Saints have heard them in the Air that this Holy Virgin was bred and brought up in the Temple and in the most holy Place called the Sanctuary that when she conceived Jesus Christ it was by three drops of her Bloud which the holy Spirit took from her heart that after she had lived most holily she died in the presence of all the Apostles whom the Holy Spirit brought in the Air from all parts of the World whither they were gone to preach the Gospel that three days after she rose again and was carried up into Heaven with charming Musick made by the Voices of Jesus Christ and the Angels and that she was set very near to Jesus Christ above all the Seraphims After the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven they made her do a thousand and a thousand ridiculous Miracles upon Earth sometimes she appeared to a Monk sometimes to a Pilgrim sometimes to some one of her devoted Servants she kisses them she makes them kiss her she opens her bosom to them she gives them suck from her breasts she appoints them to build a Chappel to her in such a place and that they should perform such or such Devotions to her she fixes herself in certain places and there makes her choice to dwell and do Miracles All those which come thither for Sickness Blindness Palsie loss of Bloud Deafness loss of Members return thence safe and sound when one of her Houses formerly frequented ceased to be so she transported it beyond the Seas and fixed it in another Country to draw thither new Servants to her Devotion she forgets nothing that may favour those which serve her In one Convent she takes the place office and figure of a debauched Nun which ran to the places of Prostitution because this Nun when she was going did devoutly commit the Convent into her hand In another place because an Abbess did most devoutly commend herself to her when she had polluted herself with her Domesticks she delivered her in private of her great Belly and restored her Virginity in such sort that those who had accused her remained ashamed and confounded Instead of entertaining the people with the Miracles and Vertues of true Saints as were the Apostles to oblige them to an imitation of them Popery hath substituted unto them new Saints which were Fools and wicked Fools too St. Francis St. Dominick St. Hyacinth St. Vincent Ferrerius or imaginary Saints as St. Christopher and the eleven thousand Virgins or modern and unknown Saints such as St. Milorus St. Alldem St. Colganus and a thousand others To which they attribute ridiculous and impertinent actions for Vertues and such sottishnesses for Miracles as are unworthy of those little Demons called Hobgoblins One to testifie his Humility made himself to be tossed in a Sieve by little Children another to draw upon himself contempt counterfeited the Fool and the Ideot another fouled the Bed of his Host that he might be despised of him another kept company with Beasts Wolves and Swallows another preached to Fishes or Birds another stripped himself naked and in that condition exposed himself to publick view another made himself Women of Snow and embraced them to cool and extinguish his Lust another through great Mortification lay with the fairest Women without touching them another made himself a Bed of Stones and Sticks and crowns of Nails and Girdles of Iron another thrust Thorns into his Body washed his hands in quick Lime and covered his face with an eating Powder which made the flesh thereof one intire Ulcer Behold a small part of the Idea that Popery gives us of the Vertue of its Saints As to Miracles they produce to the people faithful Chronicles as they say by which it appears that some of these Saints for their parts have raised fifty two dead persons another thirty another twelve another six three or four They have healed desperate Diseases raised Dogs Parrots and other Animals from the dead The Water in which they washed their hands cured all sorts of Diseases the clippings of their Hair and the parings of their Nails put into the craks of Walls closed them up again and have made Houses ready to fall firm and strong When these Saints preached to the Birds these Animals reached out their bills and clapt their wings when they preached to the Fishes they gathered together on the top of the Water that they might hear when they pleased they drove away not only evil Spirits which troubled them but also living Creatures which interrupted their Discourse They made Angles serve them not only at Mass but also they used them as Grooms to dress their Horses They caused themselves to be carried by the Devil to places whither they would go they made him hold the Candle till he burnt his fingers therewith if the Devil turned himself into a Cat they put him into such distress that

manner and of small expence to receive him and tast all the saving Fruits of his presence They have enclosed him under a morsel of Bread from whence they have withdrawn the substance leaving nothing but the accidents there And under these accidents they have conveyed in the substance of Jesus Christ by the vertue of Transubstantiation Concomitancy and I know not how many monstrous Imaginations and barbarous Expressions Behold thus much for the Opinions and Doctrine of Popery Let us a little consider its Worship instead of the Adoration and Worship of the only true God who is jealous of his Honour and Glory they have truly re-established pure Paganism The most blessed Mother of Jesus Christ hath taken the place of the Mother of the Gods they have set her upon the Throne of God they call her the Mother of Mercies the Redemptrix of Mankind the perfection and accomplishment of the Trinity the Queen of Heaven They give her the power to command her Son by the Authority of a Mother they address to her in all their needs they desire of her remission of Sins Health the life of Men the recovery of the Sick and the resurrection of the Dead Those which are devoted to her are much advanced above all others Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an infallible Mark of Predestination He can't be damned that prays to the Blessed Virgin. She hath oftentimes fetched men from Hell she hath raised them to the end that they might do pennance she hath rescued the Souls of wicked men out of the hands of Devils who had already dragg'd them down into the bottomless Pit. Persons rejected by the Son have been received into favour by the Mother the white Ladder of the Virgins Milk is a more sure way to ascend to Heaven then the red Ladder of the Bloud of Jesus Christ In the place of the Gods and Demy Gods of Paganism of their Tutelor Gods their Houshould Gods their Protecting Gods subordinate to the great God Jupiter Popery hath put its Saints taken not only from among the Apostles Martyrs and Confessors but from among its Bygots its devout People its Hypocrites its Monks its Founders of Orders its Fanaticks and proud Pharisees It hath placed them in Heaven very near unto God. It hath pulled Jesus Christ from the Right Hand of the Father where he was to intercede continually for us and hath placed there in Conjuction with him its Tuteler Gods and the Patron Gods that are there not only to offer to God their Intercessions but their Merits for they pray unto God to have regard unto the merits of these Saints These Patron Gods have here below their Temples their Chappels and their Altars which bear their Names For here are to be seen the Churches and the Altars of St. Paul St. Peter the Virgin and other Saints They have their Sacrifices of the Mass that is to say the adorable Body of the Saviour of the World and God of the Universe by a Worship as fantastical as it is criminal is offered to the honour of St. Peter St. Paul St. Roch and St. Francis Littanies Prayers Supplications Genuflections and generally all Religious Worship is given to these inferiour Gods to these canoniz'd Saints they have their part every-where they are taken for Protectors Kingdoms Cities Families and persons are put under their Defence Men beg of them Life Health Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Happiness They are constituted Princes Regents Governours of the World to break the Nations with Rods of Iron 'T is not enough to adore their persons men adore their Reliques they expose their Ashes their Bones shreds of their Cloaths their Girdles their Slippers their Shifts the Iron Nails the Wood the Bloud the Tears of Jesus Christ the Teeth the Milk the Hair of the Virgin the Cradle of Christ and a thousand other things which are a shame to the Christian Name These Reliques do wonders heal the sick open mens eyes raise the dead They are laid with great respect and honour upon Altars men bow down to them and kiss them with great devotion they are carried in state about the streets men cry before them as before Joseph Bow the Knee men expect from them rain and fair weather plenty and abundance peace and war. That Paganism may be compleat they have filled the Churches with Idols which they call holy Images They picture God against his express command they represent Angles tho' altogether spiritual by corporeal Figures they set up material Crosses and Crucifixes of wood stone and metal in all places The Virgin hath her Pictures where she is painted with a Child in her arms All the Saints have their seat in their Churches and upon their Altars men fall down before them they offer Incense to them they kiss them and act towards them as if they thought some divine Vertue in them For although the Doctors do sometimes say that we ought not to affix any divine Vertue to them they do nevertheless authorize by their tolleration and examples the fury of the People who make their Nine-days Devotions and Pilgrimages to them who there rub their Beads and their Handkercheifs who make their Children touch them to sanctifie them thereby They dress them up after a stately manner on their Festivals they crown them with Flowers and Garlands they carry them in pomp and cause them to go in procession they put their confidence in these Reliques and these Images The devout persons bear about them a little pieco of the pretended wood of the Cross some small filings of the Nails thereof a pretended Thorn of his Crown and a little bit of the Bone of a Saint They carry say I these about them as Preservatives against the Devil against death and all perils by Sea and Land Every Family has his Patron every particular person his Saint for whom he hath a singular devotion he hath the Image thereof placed in his Oratory he prostrates himself before it to make his Prayers To indemnifie the true God for all the losses which he hath sustained in those Worships given to his Creatures they have dedicated to him in particular an Idol which they call the Sacrament of the Altar there they adore in his honour a little morsel of dry and flat Paste which they call in great reverence Our Lord which they make all the World adore with great ceremony which they carry in state about the streets that every one may worship it and whoever does not so is execrable and accursed they inclose Jesus Christ therein in a state of Annihilation without head feet hands soul motion or life subject to be eaten by Rats stolen by Thieves trod under foot by the Prophane and vomited by the Sick. But in compensation to God they adore this Tomb of Jesus Christ as the soveraign God Creator of Earth and Heaven If on the one hand they have corrupted the Worship by adding in the Eucharist that which is not there on the other hand