Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	great_a	rome_n	5,301	5	6.4962	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07210	The nevv art of lying couered by Iesuites vnder the vaile of equiuocation, discouered and disproued by Henry Mason.	Mason, Henry, 1573?-1647.; Goad, Thomas, 1576-1638.; Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645.	1624 (1624)	STC 17610; ESTC S112437	93,492	129

you of this dangerous deceit when I could not haue opportunity to speak vnto you our of the Pulpit And this I was moued to vnat this time the rather because I haue of late obserued that these artificiall Lyers among their other deuices and forgeries which vpon confidence of this Arte they take liberty to vse without remorse doe instill into the minds of their credulous followers an opinion and doe labour to spread abroad among others a suspition that among our Learned men many in heart are of their Church howsoeuer for the worlds sake they dissemble their opinion and that there are a good number among vs of the Clergie who are better perswaded of their Religion then of our own Doctor Sheldon a man well acquainted with their dealings as hauing liued in their bosome and taken the Orders of Priesthood in their Church doth write that whilest hee fed on Romes huskes hee often heard of many grieuous imputations laied vpon some of the greatest Clerkes in the Church of England as though in heart they were theirs which he then beleeued to be true as others did but since hath found to be much otherwise And my selfe haue met with some which perswadeth me that they abuse others in this kind beside our greatest Clerkes who haue more then intimated to my selfe that I knew that which might iustifie their cause if I would speake it Which might well put mee into a muse what had euer slipped frō me why they should be perswaded that I had such an opinion of their Church sauing that I considered that this might well be one of the Iesuires equiuocating deuices to instill that opinion cōcerning vs into their Disciples minds that so they might gaine more credit to their cause Vpon which occasion entring a more serious cōsideration of the point I perceiued that besides this Arte they vse other deuices also for this purpose which I thought good for your better caution and safety briefely to relate in this place First then if they meete with any of our Clergie which are of weake braine and vnsettled resolution as it is possible wee may haue some such as well as they they set vpon such weaklings with plausible tales in commendation of their Church whose open abominations practised at home among themselues are not so well known to vs who haue neuer trauelled into Popish Countreys And if by this meanes they chance to peruert a weake and vnsettled man then the cry goeth that such a Learned man is become a Catholike because euidence of truth forced him to forkake his old Profession Secondly if they meete with men who being either opinatiue of their own worth think their good parts not sufficiently rewarded or being indeed of good parts haue but slender meanes they tempt such as the Deuill did our Sauiour with offers of gifts and preferments And if by these allurements they can bribe any man to become their Proselyte for filthy lucre sake then they blaze abroad the conuersion of such a great and learned Scholar who could not withstand the light of truth shining in the Roman Church Thirdly if by these and such like policies they preuaile not for these deuices fit them best because then they bring men ouer to their side with their own mouthes to publish their owne shame but if thus they preuaile not yet one shift they haue behind which is to deuise lyes of such and such mens conuersion to their Church who euer hated it from their very soules In which kind of forgerie they haue so farre proceeded that they haue spared neither liuing nor dead For as if they had cast off all feare of shame which was sure in the end to be their reward they haue in writing belyed in this maner the chiefest Doctors in our Church who haue suruiued to refute and to detest their forgeries in Print But when men are dead then they become more bold and of the most constant and zealous Professors of our Religion they giue it out to the world that such and such men of chiefe esteeme in the Protestant Church did recant vpon their death beds it being then no time to dissemble any longer And when themselues haue first deuised these tales on their fingers ends then they produce them in their serious bookes of Controuersie as graue argumēts to confirme the Roman faith by The discouery of which falsehood I wish it may worke the like effect in your hearts that it hath done in mine which is that whereas I vtterly disliked Poperie before I do now detest it more then euer And for this purpose I was the rather moued to penne this small Treatise that you of whose soules I knowe my selfe to haue vndertaken the charge seeing these forgeries may learne to beware of Equiuocating Spirits who though otherwise they professe strictnes of conscience according to the rules of the Romane Faith are very deuout and religious yet can cozen you with an hundred lying deuices and neuer feele the least grudge of conscience for it For so Father Persons telleth vs that Equiuocations are allowed principally to 〈◊〉 of scrupulous conscience for auoiding of lying By which he giueth vs a faire warning and I desire you take notice of it that if there be any scrupulous and tender consciences amongst them as some no doubt there are though they would not tell a lye if they knew it for all the world yet euen such men may without any scruple or feare deceiue vs with equiuocating reseruations and mentall deuices And hauing thus giuen you this faire warning now me thinketh I may speake vnto you to the same purpose as our Lord did to his Disciples If they shall say vnto you Loe heere is Christ or loe there beleeue it not for there are many false Prophets arisen and doe deceiue many Behold I haue told you before And if after all this warning any of you shall suffer himselfe to be deluded by lying Equiuocators his blood will bee vpon his owne head but I haue deliuered mine owne soule But I feare not this in you of whose constancie and zeale I haue had good experience so that I may rather take vp that saying of the Apostle I haue confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be no otherwise minded but that if any man shall trouble you or seeke to withdrawe you from your faith he shall beare his iudgement whosoeuer he be And in assurance hereof I leaue you to Gods grace in the words of the same Apostle Brethren the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with your Spirit Amen Yours the vnworthy Minister of Iesus Christ and your seruant for Iesus sake HENRIE MASON To the READER WHen the Impression of this Treatise was almost finished I obtained the sight of two seuerall papers of Latine Verses composed long since in the yeere 1606. by two then Students in the Vniuersities now Doctors in Diuinitie and my worthy friends Which Verses being according to the

spoken with reuerence to his Maiestie for iniustice and slander because hee hath branded him with the note of a lyer and calleth him the Father of lyes But these consequents are most absurd and therefore the Doctrine of Equiuocation from whence they follow is most false Thus by Gods grace I haue declared and I trust in some measure also cleared the poynts propounded in the beginning Now for conclusion I will onely commend one Caueat to the well-meaning Christian and that is to beware of trusting them whose profession is to equiuocate For such men are both more impious and more dangerous than any other sort of lyers that I know beside First They are more impious because among men of other Religions though there may be vicious persons that make too common a practice of lying deceits yet that is the fault of the men and not of their Doctrine But in the Church of Rome their great Doctors doe not onely practise this deceit but praise it too and commend it to their Disciples as a good Arte very fit fo● scrupulous consciences Which doctrine cannot be conceiued to be without great dishonour to God and much disgrace to Religion Secondly They are more dangerous then any other sort of Lyers because they come masked vnder a vizard of truth armed with resolution to protest and sweare and pawn their soules and saluations vpon the truth of that which they say notwithstanding that for so much as they vtter and for all that you can heare or gather by them all is most false which they speake From the consideration whereof I inferred before that it was not safe to beleeue a Iesuite or any of his fellowes or schollers for that a man may as soone be deceiued by an Equiuocating Iesuite as by a lying Deuill Now I adde therefore wise Christians must beware of them and if wee will not be decei●ed wee must not beleeue either their words or oathes in what businesse soeuer wee haue to doe with them This Caueat that it may the b●tter appeare how farre it is to be extended I will for example sake set downe some speciall cases of ordinarie vse in which it will 〈…〉 to beleeue them 1. ●irst then we may not safely beleeue them when they are disputing and arguing for their Religion and deliuering points of their faith For they tell vs that Iesus our Lord did equiuocate when hee preached of Prayer and Sacraments and of his office of iudging the World c. And I trow Iesuites will be ready to imitate the example of Iesus whose name they beare But we need not doubt of their meaning in this case for they therefore alledge the example of Christ that they may defend and make good their owne practice And therefore when I heare a Priest or a Iesuite telling of Popes Pardons and preaching of S. Patricks Purgat●rie c. and when for these he telleth me of the consent of the ancient Church and alledgeth many Fathers to confirme his Assertion how can I be sure that hee doth not equiuocate with mee in that case or what reason haue I to thinke but that he speaketh against his knowledge and conscience or how can I without a note of rashnes and temeritie beleeue that he● doth not wilfully belye the Fathers and other Authors to serue his owne turne and when he hath done all make vp all with a secret Reseruation that I neuer dreamed on Secondly Wee may not beleeue them when they giue Answers or beare witnesse in a Court of Iustice or before a Magistrate no not though they sweare what they say and take it vpon their soules and saluations For they professe to equiuocate in such cases if either the Iudge be incompetent or if he proceed incompetently And when I heare one of them speake and sweare before any of our Gouernors or Rulers either Ecclesiasticall or Ciuill what can I tell but hee may thinke either the Iudge or his proceedings to bee incompetent and vniust Nay sure in most cases in which they haue to doe before our Gouernors they are knowne to hold either the Iudge or the proceeding or both to bee incompetent And therefore I cannot see how wee may safely beleeue them when they make answere or giue euidence vpon their oath Thirdly Wee may not beleeue them when they tell of great wonders and Miracles done by men of their Order and profussion and by Saints and Images of their owne making For they professe to equiuocate when it may bee for some good to themselues and therefore much more when it may proue so great a good to their Order to their Church and to their Religion And therefore when they tell mee of many great miracles don● by their men in the Indies and by the Ladies of Lauretto and Hall how can I tell that they doe not fitten and deuise all that vpon their fingers end to gaine credite to their profession Fourthly We may not beleeue them when they publish and disperse disgracefull tales and reports against the professors and Doctors of our Church For the disgracing of these men may breede great aduantage to their Religion and beside it is an Axiom of theirs He must bee disgraced because he is an Enemy to their order And therefore when they tell mee of Luther and Caluin and Beza and Bucer and such others that they either despaired or recanted or renounced their Religion how may I beleeue them that they doe not Equiuocate Nay it is certaine that in the forging of these reports they did either lye or Equiuocate or both And therefore when they now tell vs that many of our Reuerend Bishops and learned Preachers and Schollers are of their opinion and thinke them to be in the right but that for the worlds sake they dissemble their iudgement how can I giue credit to their words or to their writings And when they tell vs that such a Doctor vpon his death-bed and such a Bishop toward his latter end turned Papist and renounced in their eare what he had taught in the Pulpit and was reconciled to the Church of Rome by one that came and went inuisibly shall wee beleeue them to speake as they thinke Nay wee should rather spit in the Lyers faces that presume vs to bee so simple as to beleeue an Equiuocator in a case so auaileable for his Order and in a thing so vnlikely and absurde in it selfe that the narration of such a thing might call in question the truth of a knowne honest man Fiftly We may not beleeue Equiuocators in matters of common life and ciuill conuersation For they professe to equiuocate in most cases of common practice and in all cases in which they are not bound to reueile the Truth if the thing may be for their aduantage And therefore if one of them should contract to marry a mans daughter amongst vs how can any of vs tell that th● Equiuocator thinketh himselfe bound to lay op●n his heart and to speake the truth in this

to be vsed it was but in some such sense as the circūstances of the persons time place and occasion did put vpon them and that according to the intention of publique Lawes and the reasonable construction that the Hearers might make of them and that afterward they allowed violent constructions and such as the words together with the circumstances could not beare in any reasonable mans vnderstanding but such as the speaker in his minde did fancie to be agreeable to that businesse and occasion And lastly that this ouer-bold liberty in them in framing such a sense as the words in reason cōgruitie could not beare made way to fine wits following after to adde something to the former inuention and to frame a sense of words spoken which they acknowledge not to be signified by them but made vp by a Reseruation in their owne breast such as themselues would please to fancie what euer it were either pertinent to the businesse or as farre different from it as the falling of the skie is different from the paying of money But this will appeare yet more plainely if it be considered that Nauarre who liued at the same time with Soto Sepulueda but wrote after them and when they were dead doth from the opinion of those Diuines and in speciall from the opinion of Soto also and from his sayings labour to inferre and proue the lawfulnesse of the Iesuiticall Equiuocation because as hee saith there is the like reason of them both How truely he inferreth his Conclusion from the sayings of Soto and the rest I dispute not I onely note in his course of disputation that hee taketh their assertions for a ground to proue his owne by And that sheweth that those former Writers gaue occasion c. And thus I haue declared my second Assertion concerning the originall of this new Art 3. The third is that whosesoeuer wit deuised it yet it seemeth to mee most probable that it receiued the first life and credit from the See of Rome and the Romane state My reason is from these grounds 1. Doctor Nauarre who as Persons saith Mitig. cap. 7. nu 41. pag. 301. is held to be one of the most liberall and largest in admitting Equiuocations both in words and oathes was thought a fit man to be the Popes Reader of Cases in Rome And if I mistake not hee was the first that broached this new arte For hee read at Rome not long after the time of Soto and Sepulueda who as before was noted had not yet heard any thing of this arte And there he read framed that Commentary in which he teacheth this mysterie for the instruction of the Iesuits Colledge and dedicated the same vnto Gregorie 13. the present Pope which may breede suspition that the Pope was well pleased with this new deuice of Nauarre of whom he made choise to be his publique Reader of Cases and who while he was imployed in this seruice did perfect that arte and from whose Readings the very Iesuits themselues may seeme to haue borrowed the grounds of that Doctrine which afterward they polished with great dexteritie and care Secondly In Queene Elizabeths time there was a Treatise found out which before was in the secret keeping of Iesuits or Priests in which beside the Resolutions of Nauarre were contayned sundry instructions and directions giuen by Sixtus Quintus for the practising of this mysterie of Equiuocation Which if the Reader be desirous to know more fully hee may reade a Relation thereof set downe by a most reuerend and learned Prelate Thirdly I finde that Emm. Sà in his Aphorismes V. Mendac had giuen his opinion concerning this Equiuocall reseruation in this manner that in a case Where a man is not bound to reueale the truth according to the intention of the Demander some say that a man may answere by vnderstanding or reseruing something in his minde as that is not so to wit so as that hee is bound to tell him or that hee hath not such a thing meaning that hee hath it not to giue it vnto him But others admit not of this kinde of answere and perhaps vpon better ground and reason Thus hee gaue his iudgement of this poynt and so the Booke passed in the Low Countries and with approbation and commendation of Silu. Pardo the Inquisitor and Censor there and was printed at Antwerpe 1599. But when it came to be perused and reuewed at Rome the Censor there Io. Maria Master of the sacred Palace he purged the Booke and put out the last words which were And perhaps vpon better reason In which words Sà had signified that hee inclined to their opinion who disliked this Equiuocating by reseruation And hence it appeareth how acceptable and welcome this Doctrine of Equiuocation is in the Popes Palace For whereas F. Persons saith that in the last Edition of Sàes Booke at Rome 1607. this whole last sentence was left out as though hee had changed his opinion And that it seemeth that Emm. Sà did afterwards change his opinion it is but a tricke of iugling such as this Father often vseth to delude his Reader with For Sà died as Ribadeneira reporteth in the yeare 1596. eleuen yeares before this edition of Rome and three yeares before the impression of Antwerpe being then aboue threescore and ten yeares olde And if Sà after so many yeares deliberation had changed his opinion how came it about that that change was not seene in the Antwerpe Copy which was printed 3. yeares after he was dea● Besides the Edition of Rome re-printed also at 〈◊〉 An. 1612. doth professe that that Book was purged by Ioan. Maria the Master of the Palace and not that it was corrected or amended by Sà the first Author of it Further Persons giueth no one piece of a reason by which the Reader may imagine that Sà did euer change that point And therefore this is but one of Persons vsuall trickes of fittening with which his Brethren of the secular Clergy doe so often charge him Now these considerations layed together make mee thinke it very probable that this Arte receiued its life from the State and See of Rome But if any man can shew mee whence it might rather haue its first ground I will willingly yeeld to him and be thankefull to him that can and will discouer the Spring or Well-head whence first flushed forth this muddy Nylus so fertile of Crocodiles I meane of this sophistique Crocodilites whereby vnware men are ouer-reached and caught 4. My fourth Assertion is It is obserued by learned men that whosoeuer was the Author yet the Iesuites especially those of our English Nation haue beene the chiefe Abettors Defenders and Polishers of this Arte. For proofe of this I will set downe the words of some learned men The learned Gentleman who wrote the Relation of Religion speaking of false newes frequent at Rome for aduantage of their Sect addeth that he found