Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	holy_a	life_n	time_n	2,197	5	3.3218	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69842	An account of the first voyages and discoveries made by the Spaniards in America containing the most exact relation hitherto publish'd, of their unparallel'd cruelties on the Indians, in the destruction of above forty millions of people : with the propositions offer'd to the King of Spain to prevent the further ruin of the West-Indies / by Don Bartholomew de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, who was an eye-witness of their cruelties ; illustrated with cuts ; to which is added, The art of travelling, shewing how a man may dispose his travels to the best advantage.; Selections. English. 1699	Casas, Bartolomé de las, 1474-1566.	1699 (1699)	Wing C797; ESTC R21602	188,943	313

on some accounts War may be made with Infidels for instance if they have violently usurp'd the Lands of Christians as they have the Holy-Land if they profane our Churches break down our Images and offer any great outrages to Christians in hatred and contempt of their Faith That when the Emperor Constantine forbad the Heathens to keep their Idols it was for fear the Christians should be scandaliz'd by ' em He says If God severely punish'd the Crimes of the Sodomites it does not therefore follow that we may take upon us to punish all Infidels for their unnatural Pollutions That we are to admire the Judgments of God but not always to imitate every thing he does He says we may punish Infidels if they blaspheme the Holy Name of God or dishonour the Saints and the Church if they openly hinder the publication of the Faith and if they massacre those that preach it but that it is not lawful to declare War against 'em merely on the account of their Idolatry their unnatural Sins or any other Crimes they commit among themselves And whereas Dr. Sepulueda says The Indians are a barbarous People and born for Slavery the Bishop of Chiapa answers this Objection in saying That we ought not to make War upon Infidels to bring 'em to the true Religion which is only to be demonstrated by genuin Reasons that the understanding may be captivated according to the words of St. Paul That it must be a pious Affection to the Christian Faith that will dispose men to embrace it and that care ought to be taken that they may have no aversion against those that preach it who therefore ought by their good Examples to engage the Indians to relish the Doctrine they endeavour to propagate among 'em That War is visibly contrary to this end because it fills the minds of those Idolaters with horror and indignation against the Christians for bringing so many Miseries upon 'em and that they cannot chuse but think the Law of Christ an execrable Doctrine since it authorizes as they imagin such terrible Disorders The Bishop concludes in saying 't is a mere delusion to assert that the Wars made against these Infidels are not design'd to introduce Christianity among 'em by open force but only to subjugate those barbarous Nations the better to dispose 'em to receive the Faith of Christ voluntarily He pretends that this is ill reasoning because War spreads so much terror among those People that if they afterwards embrace the true Faith 't is to be suppos'd they do it rather out of fear than love and that their Neighbours when they hear what Violence Spoil and Massacres have attended this War may probably to avoid the like Mischiefs blindly embrace the Faith without knowing what they do themselves Dr. Sepulueda urges for another reason of War that the Indians massacre innocent Persons either to sacrifice or to eat ' em To which Argument the Bishop returns this answer That if the Church exhorts us to undertake the defence of Innocents it ought not in this case to be by the way of Arms. First because of two Evils we ought to chuse the least If the Indians massacre some innocent Persons to eat 'em 't is indeed a great Evil but War would bring much greater slaughters with it besides that these Wars dishonour our Religion and render the Christians odious to the Infidels who tho they sacrifice men are not altogether inexcusable because of their great Ignorance and have reason not to put themselves into the hands of the Spanish Soldiers who come with their Swords in their hands to rob and kill 'em instead of instructing 'em in Religion whereas they have no right to punish 'em for their Errors That Plutarch says when the Romans subdued divers barbarous Nations who were wont to offer men in Sacrifice they did not punish 'em for that Crime but only forbad 'em to do the like for the future That it is not to be expected of the Indians that they should renounce their Errors in a moment that the light of Nature which informs 'em there is a God teaches 'em to shew him respect and to return him thanks for the Benefits they receive of him and likewise to endeavour to make atonement for the Sins they commit against his Divine Majesty and that they ought to devote the best they have to him in Sacrifice Consequently their evil Custom of sacrificing human Creatures to the suppos'd Deities they worship is the less to be wonder'd at since they have no knowledg of Divine Revelation but only the glimmerings of natural Light to direct 'em which Light too is obscur'd with much thick darkness in the minds of Pagans That these People believe they perform a very acceptable Service to God when they offer him the Lives of Men that this may be confirmed in some sort by the Testimony of Holy Writ seeing God when he would try the faithfulness of Abraham commanded him to sacrifice his only Son whom he tenderly lov'd which God might do as he is the absolute Master of the Lives of Men that besides this Instance the Scripture testifies that God requir'd the Israelites to redeem their own Lives by the sacrifice of Animals That the Word of God remarks that 't is impossible to give a greater Testimony of Love than to offer ones self for the Person belov'd that those Women in the Indies that were most dear to their Husbands while they lived chose to be buried alive with 'em to give the greater proof of their conjugal Fidelity and Affection In answer to the other Argument alledg'd by Dr. Sepulueda namely that the barbarity of the Indians which he says shews they were born for Slavery is a sufficient reason to declare War against 'em in order to subject 'em to the Government of the Europeans the Bishop of Chiapa says there are three different sorts of Barbarians First that this Term is taken in general to signify any Nation that differs from others by some strange Opinion or peculiar Customs tho they want not Prudence or Policy to conduct their Affairs That the second kind of Barbarians is of those who have no Language proper by which to express themselves to other People such as the English formerly were when they had no Letters or Characters whereby to explain their Thoughts The third sort of Barbarians are such as resemble savage Beasts by the dulness and stupidity of their Minds by their brutish Inclinations and by the extravagance of their Customs who wander up and down in the Fields never dwelling together in Towns or Cities who are without Laws or Civil Government and take no care to observe the Law of Nations who rove about to commit Robberies and use Violence on all that have not power enough to resist 'em such as the Goths and Alans were formerly and such as the Arabs in Asia are to this day That 't is as lawful to make War with this sort of People as to hunt

Vivacity in which the Eastern People are inimitable and 't is a Quality one can't behold in 'em without Astonishment But seeing a Fancy that is tractable and obedient determines nothing and what it discovers may as well deceive it as inform it it ought to commit the discussion of all to the Judgment that so it may come to a result For this purpose the Judgment ought to be sublime and clear tho these two Qualities are not so compatible as at the first glance they seem to be for the elevation of the Mind exposes it to Mists and Clouds tho clearness of thought is common to an extensive Soul The former is like the tops of Mountains which reach to the Clouds and almost always seem cover'd with a Mist to them that stand in the Plain That is to explain the Similitude That Genius which is naturally sublime being less capable than others of stooping down to the many frivolous Circumstances which concur to the discovery of the politick Spirit of a Court often happens to pass such a Judgment as is not free from all Objections or else his way of expression is less clear and intelligible than that of others On the contrary they that affect clearness of Judgment creep on the ground as it were still following the natural extent of their Minds which serves for a Line to direct their steps and as without this they could never go directly to the end they have in view so by the help of it they do every thing with a becoming Justness and Deliberation Happy are they whose Genius is both sublime and extensive for the elevation of their Minds shews 'em what Souls of an inferior Rank could never have discover'd and their extension serves to help to render every thing present to 'em without confusion because the elevation of their Minds gives 'em a prospect of every thing so that they see both distinctly and as it were at one view whatever is necessary to direct 'em to make a right Judgment To inculcate this matter the better it may not be amiss to make use of a Comparison Suppose three Men walking in the field together discover an Object at a distance one of 'em having observ'd it says 't is a Cart going on the top of a Hill another supposes it to be a Bush wav'd up and down by the Wind and the third is confident 't is a Man on horseback riding against the Wind. Now it being naturally impossible for the same Object to be at once a Cart a Bush and a Man on horseback 't is most certain that at least two of the three are mistaken in their Judgments and if one of them judges right it must be he that considers with the greatest force of thought all possible Motions of that Object about which he has thought fit to make a Judgment This discovery is not to be ascrib'd precisely to the sense of seeing since this is suppos'd to be alike in all three therefore the truth of this Judgment must be attributed to the quality of his Mind who has the best notices of the matter The application of this Comparison is easy Travellers often think they have discover'd every thing that passes in a Court those Enterprizes that are yet only to be seen at a distance and those Designs that are still more remote yet 't is not possible that all that make these Observations should have the same elevation of Mind and none but such as have a very sublime and clear Judgment are capable of speaking accuratly of what they have observ'd Hence it is that we see so many different accounts of foreign Countries and yet all of 'em publish'd for truth by their respective Authors and indeed they may be so but this in proportion to the Character of the Minds of those who compos'd 'em in their Travels according to the Judgment they made of things If I had not read in the account of the Voyage to Athens the History of one Hieros Damaskinos of Caloyero with whom I had just such another interview as the Author of that Relation says happen'd to him I would here give an account of it at large but shall now only add something which that Traveller seems not to have met withal There were three Gentlemen of different Countries and my self one day discoursing with this illustrious Caloyer about the Policy of the Turks which each of us pretended to look upon as barbarous and uncultivated on purpose to give him an occasion to speak of it after such a manner as might give us light into it He told us he had no skill in Policy either in general or in the use of it among the Turks and that he made it his business only to understand and explain the holy Scripture to his Disciples of Athens but he said if we would address our selves to the Turks as to the Vaivode of Athens or any other Person of Note they would be sure to give us satisfaction in those matters I remember I was the only Person in the company that could not be perswaded that this Caloyer was unacquainted with Politicks A very ingenious Polander thought he was too much devoted to the study of the Scripture to have any great matter of skill in other things A German that was of our company took him for a Person only vers'd in the Notions of the School-men and capable of criticizing on the holy Scripture an Italian that was with us maintain'd that as he was one of that remnant of Greeks who seem to be the Posterity of the Peasants of former times he had not subtilty of mind enough to penetrate into such Politicks as were as burdensom to 'em as they appear'd violent and unreasonable We push'd our Curiosity yet further and by good luck a Sangiac who was upon his return from Candie to the Port and pass'd through Athens was so kind as to inform us of many things we had a mind to know and among other things told us there was no Man in the World knew more of those matters than this Grecian It may easily be imagin'd I hug'd my self for judging differently of this Man from the rest of the company And at last after many earnest Sollicitations we engag'd this learned Caloyer to take off the Mask and shew us that he was under such a serious disguise of Simplicity as would have deceiv'd a thousand People To return from this Digression I say to judg well of all that presents and strikes the Imagination of a man in travelling into foreign Parts whether it concern Religion Morals or Politicks there 's need of both elevation and clearness in the Judgment that is to say such a measure of both as may dispose things in so much order that they don't perplex and confound the Minds of other Men nor produce any thing in 'em but Light And this Qualification is not to be acquir'd if a Man is not born with a sutable disposition It can't be well explain'd but

the Indians before the Faith of the Gospel be preach'd to 'em and whether these People will be in any condition to receive the Light of the Gospel after they have bin subdu'd by force of Arms whether they will be more tractable and docil and better dispos'd to receive the Impressions design'd to be given so as to reject their Errors and embrace the Doctrine of the Gospel Dr. Sepulueda maintains that this War is not only allowable and lawful but necessary The Bishop of Chiapa is of the contrary Opinion and pretends that this War is unjust and an invincible Obstacle to the propagation of the Faith in the Indies Sepulueda supports his Opinion by four principal Arguments The first is founded on the enormous Crimes of which the Indians have bin and are every day guilty especially their Idolatry and their Sins against Nature His second Reason is taken from their Barbarity and Ignorance which may be reform'd under the Government of a People so intelligent and polite as the Spaniards His third Reason respects the facility he supposes of publishing the Christian Faith to the Indians when they are once subdu'd His fourth Argument is taken from the cruel Treatment the Indians give one another in that they offer human Sacrifices to their false Gods He confirms his first Reason three ways 1 st By Examples and Authorities taken out of the holy Scripture 2 dly By the Suffrage of Doctors and Canonists 3 dly By a particular account of the gross Crimes which the Indians commit He cites a Passage out of Deut. 20. to explain after what manner War ought to be made on the Indians the words are these When thou comest nigh unto a City to fight against it then proclaim Peace unto it And it shall be if it make thee answer of Peace and open unto thee then it shall be that all the People that is found therein shall be Tributaries unto thee and they shall serve thee And if it will make no Peace with thee but will make War against thee then thou shalt besiege it And when the LORD thy God hath deliver'd it into thy hands thou shalt smite every Male thereof with the Edg of the Sword ver 10 11 12 13. and ver 16. But of the Cities of these People which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an Inheritance thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth The Doctor adds that this Passage is not to be strictly taken and enforc'd against the Indians with so much severity tho 't is also said Thus shalt thou do unto all the Cities that are very far from thee by which Passage the Gloss understands those of different Religions From hence he concludes that we may lawfully declare War against those Nations that are of a Religion different from ours My Lord Bishop answers him four ways First he says it was not to punish the Sin of Idolatry that God commanded the Israelites to make War with the Gentiles and Infidels That God was pleas'd to single out precisely seven Nations the Canaanites the Jebusites c. mentioned in Deut. 7. who possess'd the Land of Promise bequeathed to Abraham and his Posterity He allows it to be true that God design'd to punish the Idolatry of those Heathen Nations in giving 'em up to the Israelites but he says if God's intention had bin only to chastise 'em for their Idolatry he would also have punish'd all the Nations of the whole World after the same manner seeing they were all polluted with the same Sin Whereas God specified only these Nations to be abandon'd to the Sword of the Israelites to shew that it was rather to accomplish the Promise he had made to Abraham than to punish these Idolaters that he deliver'd 'em into the hands of their Enemies That God himself expresly forbad the Israelites to offer any Violence to the Edomites or to the Egyptians who had entertain'd 'em when they were strangers in their Country Secondly That the Passage of Luke 14. where it is said Compel them to come in is not to be understood of an external Constraint by War and Arms but ought to be interpreted of internal Inspiration and the Motions which God produces in the Hearts of Men either immediatly or by the Ministration of Angels In the third place the Bishop maintains that Christian Emperors have never engag'd in War with Heathen Nations to oblige 'em to renounce Idolatry and to induce 'em to imbrace the Christian Faith that the Wars of Constantine were purely on a politic account and that the Passage of the Ecclesiastical Historian lib. 10. cap. 6. is to be understood in that sense That this Prince who was so animated with Piety when he subdued by his Arms the Goths Sarmatians and other barbarous Nations excepted those that sought his Friendship and desir'd Peace That because he subjected himself to the Divine Commands God was pleas'd to recompense his Virtue in subjecting all the People of the World to his Dominion Besides he says Constantine made War with the Goths and Sarmatians because they made incredible Ravage and Spoil wherever they came But when these barbarous People were at peace with the Christians and offer'd 'em no Injury they were suffer'd to live at quiet He adds in the 4 th place That if we would do any good upon Pagans it must be by the power of good Examples and not by Violence He cites to this purpose a passage of St. Augustin who says it belongs only to men transported with Rage and to Assassins to use force against those that are inferior to 'em in Power that this Father also condemns such as were not able to do the Pagans any hurt and yet rashly offer'd themselves to death to gain the reputation of Martyrs He also quotes a Passage out of Deut. 7. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the Land whither thou goest to possess it c. ver 1. Ye shall destroy their Altars and break down their Images and cut down their Groves and burn their graven Images with Fire ver 5. Upon which Passage he says St. Augustin expresses himself after this manner Many of the Pagans have Idols in their Fields must we take upon us to break these Idols in pieces 'T is much better to endeavour to get 'em out of their Hearts When they have embrac'd Christianity and exhort us themselves to break these Idols we shall do it with pleasure We must in the mean time pray for their Conversion without appearing violent and passionate against 'em because of their Idolatry We are not ignorant where they hide their Idols and yet we let 'em alone because God has not given us a Commission to take 'em away without their leave When then does God give us leave to take 'em from them Not till the owners of these Idols are become Christians He farther produces the examples of the Apostles and Martyrs who took no other course to overthrow Idols but by their Doctrine He grants that indeed

have over the Indians is prejudicial to the Crown of Spain that by this means your Majesty loses an infinit number of Subjects who are every day cut off without any lawful occasion whereas if suffer'd to live they would chearfully submit to your Majesty's Government when they saw the difference between your Majesty's Yoke and that Slavery in which they are held by their private Masters If your Majesty had once receiv'd 'em into the number of your Subjects so that they might be secur'd from the inhuman Severities they now daily endure they would love and serve your Majesty with incredible Zeal being naturally inclin'd to be very submissive to their Princes Your Majesty may farther consider that you lose immense Riches by the cruel depopulation of the Indies which otherwise you might justly acquire for 't is impossible for the Spaniards to subsist long in the Indies if the Natives be exterminated And those Treasures sufficient to enrich all Spain would be no small advantage to promote your Designs and enable you to resist your Enemies If there come no Mony from the Indies but that Spring of Treasure be suffer'd to dry up Spain must necessarily sustain great Inconveniences for want of it Experience already shews that the Indies don't furnish us with so great a quantity as in time past and 't is likely to diminish more and more for time to come Besides the manner of extorting it from the Indians can't possibly last long because 't is too violent a course The Isle of Hispaniola is an unexceptionable Instance of what I say for whereas above three Millions of very fine Gold were drawn out of it at first it cannot now afford the tenth part of that Sum. The least Reflection your Majesty can make will easily convince you how your Revenues every day diminish Your Majesty has nothing certain and stable in the Indies if the Land be not cultivated and the Inhabitants preserv'd for those Labors that are so advantageous You have now but a small number of Indians in all New Spain from whence your Majesty might annually have drawn a Million of Ducats if the Indians had been preserv'd and your Majesty's Interest at first regarded There have been yet greater Confusions and Disorders in Peru and the Mischief daily increases from which Kingdom your Majesty might yearly receive two or three Millions of Gold if the Indians were not treated with so much Injustice and Inhumanity many of 'em having been murder'd togther with their great King Atabalipa All the Gold the Christians have taken by force in Peru would of right have belong'd to your Majesty because that Indian Prince would have voluntarily presented himself to your Majesty with all his Treasures The Church has likewise receiv'd great damage by these Cruelties for as your Majesty has been frustrated of those immense Riches so the Church has lost an infinit number of Souls who have perish'd in their Ignorance when they might have been taught the Mysteries of our Faith so that the Losses sustain'd both by Church and State are irreparable The Kingdom of Spain which your Majesty rules with so much Equity is surrounded with Enemies and in danger of being wasted and ruin'd by the Turks and Moors those declar'd Enemies of the Catholic Faith Because God who is the just Judg and Soveraign Lord of the Universe is grievously offended with the Violence and Massacres which the Spaniards have committed in the Indies where they have opprest and slaughter'd innumerable multitudes of People These Indians have rational Souls form'd after the image and likeness of God and ransom'd by the Blood of his Son who keeps an account of 'em and will not think 'em of no value how ignorant and barbarous soever they seem to be He was pleas'd to choose Spain to the Service of carrying the Light of the Gospel into the New World and to engage those Nations to entertain the Christian Faith And it seem'd as if the Almighty had discover'd all these Temporal Riches to the Spaniards as a recompense for those Spiritual Pleasures with which they were to enrich the Indies But tho he open'd a way for 'em into those vast Regions so wealthy fertil and pleasant so full of Mines of Gold Silver and precious Stones instead of being thankful for all these Favors they have committed the most hainous Crimes to provoke him Now 't is usual for God to distribute his Punishments by a rule of proportion adjusting them to the nature of the Offence If Men sin by Pride he covers 'em with Confusion and Shame if they get any thing unjustly through Avarice he often suffers 'em to lose their own Goods and they that have stolen are in turn rob'd themselves Those that oppress and murder others he permits to fall into the hands of such as treat 'em with the like Cruelty They that take away their Neighbors Wives and violate 'em have sometimes the same Outrages committed on their own And such as usurp Kingdoms that don't belong to 'em by God's Judgment come to see their own Kingdoms invaded by their Enemies and thus it is with other Judgments which frequently answer the different kinds of Sin The Holy Scripture and other Histories are full of Instances to this purpose and Experience every day furnishes us with such marks of the Divine Displeasure as these The Moors once over-run Spain and this was interpreted as a Judgment from God to punish the Crime of King Roderick who ravish'd the Daughter of Count Don Julian tho 't is more probable it was to punish the Crimes of the People of Spain and the Injuries they offer'd their Neighbours and that the Crime of this King only fill'd up the measure of those Vices 'T is convenient to inform your Majesty what is thought by Persons of the best sense who are govern'd by no Prejudice but only compassionate the Sufferings of the poor Indians I have heard many such Persons say I pray God these extravagant Cruelties don't one day fall heavy upon Spain It may be such words as these that drop from many wise Men are so many Advertisements and Menaces from God who has been highly incens'd against this Nation by the Crimes of the Spaniards And we already see that Spain is reduc'd to great Necessities and Mony is very scarce among us tho more Treasures have bin brought hither than Solomon possess'd in all his Glory Most of those that have brought these Riches from the Indies have made a miserable end and their Children are reduc'd to extreme Poverty which justifies the old Maxim Vix gaudet tertius Haeres the third Heir seldom enjoys an ill-gotten Estate and that Passage of holy Scripture He that oppresseth the poor to increase his Riches shall surely come to want Prov. 22. 16. Because as has bin said the Divine Judgments bear some proportion to the Crimes that Men commit If your Majesty have the curiosity to inform your self of the detail of all these matters we can shew you