Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	holy_a	power_n	9,916	5	5.0704	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89922	The Christian and Catholike veritie; or, The reasons and manner of the conversion of Francis de Neville; formerly a Capuchin, preacher, the Popes missionary, and superiour in sundry covents of the same order. A treatise very usefull for all Christians, and especially for such as are popishly affected, or not fully setled in their beliefe; and for the further confirmation of the faithfull. Wherein many secrets of the Romish clergy, heretofore unrevealed, are discovered. Dedicated by the author to the high court of Parliament now assembled, 1642. See the contents at the next page.	Neville, Francis de.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1642 (1642)	Wing N502; Thomason E144_15; ESTC R11352	153,461	187

from the dead to convert his brethren God who is understood by Father Abraham did he not answer They have Moses and the Prophets let them harken to them that is let them reade and see what they say for Moses and the Prophets were already dead and could not speake but by their Bookes St John the Evangelist having written the Apocalyps which is the most obscure and difficile Booke of all the Scripture in the opinion of all the learned whereof St Jerome saith that it containes as many mysteries as words yet St John who writ it forbiddeth not the reading thereof to Christians nor saith that none but the Pope of Rome or the Bishops and Doctors have power and presumption to reade it but stirreth up every one to reade it and proclaimeth a blessing upon all those that reade it by those words Blessed is he that readeth Apoc. 1.2 and they that heare the words of this Prophesie and keepe the things that are written therein Apoc. 1.2 When Philip went out of Jerusalem by the commandement of the Lord Act. 8.27 to goe for Gaza he did meet with the Eunuch of the Queene of Ethiopia who being a man that sought the Kingdome of God did reade the old Testament the Apostle did not reprove him for reading the Scripture but explained to him a Prophesie of Isaiah that was difficile to be understood and that reading was a means and helpe to finde true faith and to embrace Christian Religion In the time then of Jesus Christ and his Apostles the reading of the holy Scripture was not forbidden neither was it thought to be pernicious The Romish Church commendeth also St Cecill whose feast they keep as of a great Virgin and Martyr for carrying continually in her bosome the Books of the Evangelists and they hold she lived in the times of St Clement who is esteemed one of the first Bishops of Rome after the death of St Peter The Scriptures then were not as yet prohibited nor the reading of the same thought pernicious or dangerous to the simple sort for she was but a simple young damsell brought up in Paganisme As we reade of St Jerome who lived about three hundred yeares after that he did recommend nothing to Paula and Eustochium Mother and daughter both great Romane Dames so much as the assiduous reading of the holy Scriptures and that it should be their most ordinary study and frequent meditations By these and an infinite of other examples which I might alledge if I feared not tediousnesse we see that the reading of the Scripture was permitted yea recommended and laudable in Christians and that neither by Christ Jesus nor his Apostles nor the Romish Church in those times was it thought to be pernicious None will say that the Gentiles Jewes and Christians of those times were of greater judgement than those of our times or that they were more capable to read the holy Scriptures and the most difficile Prophesies for that should be ridiculous Neither dare any one say that the Prophets and Apostles and Jesus Christ himselfe or the first Pastours of those times had not as much and more understanding than the Pope or the Church of Rome in our time and yet they did not conceive that some would abuse such reading for that should be a great impietie notwithstanding this must be the inference from such a prohibition But to speake truth it appeareth to be no other thing but a policy and malicious subtiltie of the Romish Church for the present too much corrupted or rather from those who governe the same for feare that the people reading the holy Scriptures perceive the errours and falsenesse of the doctrine therein preached seeing so little conformitie in it with the Word of God And truly according to the Maxime of policy and for the conservation and upholding of their doctrine they have as great reason as Mahomet had to destroy all the Universities and Colledges of learning within the reach of his authoritie for my part I doe not remember to have seene any Christians who have not in reading the holy Scriptures faln soon to an infinite number of doubts about the beliefe of the Romish Church it being almost impossible to be otherwise and as black is never better seen than when it is brought neere to white in the light so the lies and false doctrine being confronted and placed by the truth cannot but appeare immediately And there are but few learned men who perceive not this cleerely enough but being interessed in that party and being bound to it with humane cords and bands they strive to dissemble the same that they may conserve their goods and dignities and by the spirit of pusillanimitie or avarice endeavour to suffocate and tread underfoot the prickings motions caused by the truth but blessed are they whom neither wealth nor honours nor any worldly or humane consideration hinder to come to Christ and who embrace his holy doctrine and can say with St Paul Phil. 3.8 Phil. 3.8 I account all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Saviour Since then courteous Reader the reading of the holy Scriptures is of such vertue that it discovereth the lies and is so much recommended to us by God the Father who hath spoken to us by his Prophets and servants and by his Sonne Jesus Christ who hath preached it to us from his owne mouth and by the holy Spirit who hath charged us therewith by his Apostles and Evangelists be in love with it reade it againe and againe without wearinesse Let no power nor authoritie in the world no prohibition of any whosoever hinder you from the reading of it for it being against the will and intention of God there is no power nor authoritie in the earth can binde us from it On the contrary God who commandeth it must rather be obeyed than all the Popes that forbid it although they were universall Pastours as they falsely brag themselves to be and undoubtedly it is a great sin to neglect and set at naught the commandements of our God in that point to obey man and therefore I exhort you againe to read the holy Scriptures couragiously and often to have them continually before your eyes to compare the whole doctrine of our salvation with them and hold them for a sure rule of all truth to meditate and ruminate them uncessantly and obey the holy Spirit who preacheth to us therein for I doubt not but yee may reape great profit for your soules necessary instruction for your salvation and a singular consolation And because that some one by Gods punishment and just judgement abusing the same finds death instead of life is that a sufficient reason to deprive others thereof forbid the reading of it Because the Sunne the fire or the water occasions sometimes great damage to certain persons ought the use thereof be forbidden to all men therefore as most dangerous some there are who abuse both

reserved by the Pope alone to distribute to all christians and cannot commonly be obtained without a great deal of money especially for those who are remote from Rome and that for the explanation thereof we must submit to the Church that is to the Pope as I have already shewed So there is nothing but the explication of the Pope which can be a rule of faith and which is infallible doctrine and so the Pope maketh himself sole Judge of all matters of faith to determine that which is and that which is not is not this an intollerable extravagancy and worthy to be laught at by all men of understanding seeing it is without warrant from Gods word as may evidently appear The Pope saith then the Scriptures are very obscure and must not be holden for a rule of faith nor be read for fear of mistaking the meaning It is true that the Scripture consisting of many books written by divers authours at divers times yea and in divers ages and for divers ends contain great diversitie of style for in some places it is historicall in others propheticall in some metaphoricall in some morall and in some mingled and although all that is contained in those diversities of the holy Scriptures be written for our salvation as saith Saint Paul and we ought to make our profit thereof Rom. 13. neverthelesse it is not to be doubted there both are and ought to be many obscure things according to the nature and qualitie of the style in which the things are writren for prophesies parables and metaphors are ever accompanied with obscurity But as our Saviour did make but a short speech upon earth and having lived some 33 years preached but 3 or thereabouts during which small time he did preach and teach clearly and soundly all things which were necessary to salvation so that the most simple and ignorant might understand him and be sufficiently instructed by his sermons Neither is there any but Reprobates who will say that God being come to save mankind did not give sufficient instruction and clear enough for all men to be saved Otherwise how could he have condemned Corasin and Bethsaida and pronounced those words against those towns Matth. 11.20 c. Wo be unto thee Corasin wo be unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto thee that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement then for thee And thou Capernaum if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained unto this day But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement then for thee Out of all question those cities would have received clear and sufficient instructions for their salvation otherwise he would have condemned them wrongfully And if Christ Jesus did preach clearly all things necessary to salvation so that those who followed him and heard him preaching might attain to perfect faith The Evangelists having set down his life and doctrine to us especially that which was necessary and also endeavoured so farre as they were able to make the same known to us as clearly as our Saviour had preached it otherwise they should be very blameworthy and we should have great reason to except against them that our Saviour having preached a doctrine so clear and easie to be understood of all men they should have left it in so obscure and hard terms that none except the learned Divines were capable to understand what not the learned Theologians nay none I say in the world except one man to wit the Pope were able to understand and give its true meaning and explication No no it is blasphemy to imagine it but we must beleeve that the doctrine of the Evangelists being the same our Saviour preached is left to us with all the facilitie and clearnesse was possible and sufficient to instruct to true faith and salvation neither can they be blamed of any defect especially being directed and assisted by the holy Spirit to that end This impertinency also may be confuted by the onely reading of the Scripture and those who tax the same of obscurity or hardnesse do it undoubtedly out of malice or ignorance never having read it nor it may be never seen it whereof are an infinite multitude in the Romish Church For certainly it is so clear especially in those things which are necessary to our salvation that the most ignorant and simple may understand it and that oftentimes better then many learned whose presumption of their science seeking subtile and curious interpretations in the simple words of our Saviour beyond the purity and sincerity of his intentions are by his just judgement deprived of the true meaning of the same As the Sonne of God himself saith in those words Mat. 11.26 I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes t is so Father because such hath been thy good pleasure And be assured no man how ignorant soever providing he hath common sence shall ever reade the holy Scripture with the spirit of simplicitie and a mind onely desirous to seek the way and means of salvation but the holy Spirit who hath indited the same will give him with a singular consolation and satisfaction an easie and clear knowledge of all things necessary to salvation But if any passages somewhat hard be found which is very rare in the Evangelists they may be passed over as not absolutely necessary or rather for greater satisfaction the opinion of learned men may be asked about it nor must we marvell if sometimes we find diversity in their explications for being matters not absolutely necessary nor touching the essence of Faith the controversie in such points is not of great importance But to say that we must instruct all and not read it for fear of mistaking some things is a meer invention of the Romish Church or rather of the Bishop of Rome who desiring to establish many articles of Faith to maintain his authority and the greatnesse riches of his estate and Clergy and seeing nothing clear in the holy Scripture to authorize his doctrine hath gone about to make Christians beleeve that the Scriptures were obscure and that it belongs to him onely to declare their true meaning and determine that which belongeth or belongeth not to faith and that they ought not so much as once presume to read them Further he hath straightly forbidden them under pain of Anathema and an eternall curse fearing lest the people coming once to read them should there find the condemnation of his false doctrine and the more prohibitions there are the more also is the gain and profit he maketh thereby upon those who

quod Now what I pray you are all the traditions of the Romish Church but doctrine and things besides the Word of God Besides that which St Paul and Christ Jesus and the other Apostles did preach yea even contrary for all doctrine taught as necessary to faith out of the Scripture is also contrary unto the Scripture seeing it is against the prohibition to adde to the Word of God Mat. 15.9 and God condemneth them who teach for doctrine of faith the doctrine and commandements of men And mark that Christ Jesus in this chap. of St Matthew did specially condemne the Pharisees because they transgressed the commandements of God by their traditions and what I pray you were those traditions they were not things expresly forbidden in the law of God but simple additions and willing devotions without the word of God and which outwardly smelled of nothing but devotion puritie and holinesse as to fast three times a week to wash the cups the platters to tithe Mint and Annise to make conscience to heal any sick man on the Sabbath day to make long prayers to abstaine from certaine meats and that not through a conceit that those things were polluted but through a willing devotion and humilitie of spirit or through a desire to mortifie the flesh but because those things were taught as being of equall authoritie with the doctrine of faith that is the cause wherefore they are condemned by the Son of God as contrary to his holy Word There is no doubt but by this passage of the Apostle St Paul we cited before are also condemned all the Traditions of the Romish Church which are taught and preached to be of equall authoritie with the holy Scriptures which truely are besides the Word of God and the Gospel that was preached by our Saviour and his Disciples for how cometh it to passe that they should have preached so many things pertaining to faith and salvation and never speak any thing of them in any of their Books nor in the acts of the Apostles which is the History of the most remarkable actions and Sermons of the Apostles for more than twenty yeares see if there be any thing spoken there of the invocation of Saints of Indulgencies Purgatory prayer for the dead of the Communion under one kinde or of the rest and if those and the like things be not in the holy Scriptures they are besides the Word of God and consequently he that preacheth them is accursed and Anathema and they are not to be received as pertaining to faith And to shew that the Traditions which the Church of Rome teacheth as Articles of faith doe not come from Christ Jesus and his Apostles nor cannot be said to be Apostolique nor divine but papall and humane to say no worse there is almost none of them the history of that Church sheweth not by what Pope or Bishop they were invented and at what time they had their beginning Baro. Annal Eccle. Gualter Chronol Durant de ritib. see the Authors who handle the same least I should be too prolix in this matter being desirous to lay open another of not much lesse importance CHAP. VII That wee cannot ground our beliefe upon the Books of the ancient Fathers THose of the Romish Church to authorise their Traditions which are besides nay contrary to the Word of God send us to the Fathers as to other Judges to determine our differences whose doctrine they affirme to be conformable to that which they teach Certainly I have thought Antiquitie in it selfe to be very venerable and worthy to be respected especially the Fathers whose grave and learned Books deserve praise of all good spirits principally if their doctrine be conformable to the Word of God which is the sole infallible rule of all good doctrine And to speak truly I finde that the Fathers of the first ages condemne in a number of places so manifestly the errors and superstitious doctrines of the Romish Church that I have marvailed oftentimes how they can have the boldnesse to alledge them in their favour It is true that as in the time of St Paul the mystery of iniquitie was already working so it is not to be marveiled that they being men some things have now and then insensibly crept into the writings of some of them which were not altogether so pure and seeme somewhat to incline to superstitions which by little and little insinuated themselves into the Church But I beleeve that though all their Books should seeme manifestly to contradict the faith of the Reformed Churches wee are not obliged to receive them as our Judges neither as irreprochable Witnesses and howsoever I esteeme highly of the Authours yet wee cannot ground any Article of faith upon their Writings but so far as wee finde them to conforme to the Word of God which is the toucstone of all truth neither are wee bound to have recourse to them any wayes For if we were obliged to have recourse to them and receive them for Judges of our faith that were to bring our faith and the point of our salvation in an impossibilitie at least morall because all Christians should be obliged to have them and to have them all or the most part which is not possible but to the richer sort and having them they should be obliged to reade them almost all and that wholy to the end they might compare one with another and see if they agree one with another in the same doctrine and if they be conformable to themselves every where and so none but those who had great leasure could reade them and being almost all of them either in Latine or Greeke or other strange tongue but few of them in vulgar tongues what should they doe who understand neither Latine nor Greeke There would be none then but the richer and learneder and those who had no other imployment but to reade could be assured of their faith and so all others should be without faith and knowledge of those things which concerne their salvation and consequently in a manifest way of perdition by their ignorance Notwithstanding our Saviour his coming was to teach the poore as well as the rich the ignorant as the learned the Merchants and Tradesmen as well as those who are not so much imployed Besides it is impossible to build upon their Writings any beliefe of faith for as Printing was not in their time but onely two or three hundred yeares since those who have written in the Primitive Church even to our time since our Saviour which hath been thirteen or fourteen hundred yeares have left us nothing but Manuscripts which behooved to be transcribed that they might be dispersed Now there is no man who will not confesse that the Originals and first Manuscripts written or at least revised and corrected by the Fathers which composed them have been seen but of a few and little or nothing of them all is to be found at this time nor was found

affectionately than to the means of setling and increasing the power and dominion of the Pope and consequently to augment the revenues and profits of the Clergie especially that of Rome and to that end sendeth continually abroad and entertaineth so many agents as he is able amongst his adversaries to whom he giveth commission to use all means and leave nothing unattempted for the increasing of his Empire there promising them great recompence if they have good successe in their designes and if by chance they fall into the snares which they have laid for others and find themselves catched in the gins of destruction which they would have prepared for others and die or be taken in the execution of their enterprises they shall be holden and esteemed Martyrs and written up in the Catalogue of the Saints and although they die as Traitors and disobedient and refractory to the Princes and States to which they owe obedience and submission notwithstanding they shall be reputed as dead for the faith and for the glory of the Gospel to which their doctrine is so contrary as well as their actions And on those frivolous hopes a number of silly fooles have engaged themselves in so desperate actions and execrable enterprises that the onely thinking on them would fright Barbarians very far questionlesse from the modesty which is required in the spirits of Christians as hath been often enough seen in this Kingdome especially in that damnable conspiracy of the Powder Treason forged rather in the Devills shop than in the braines of men but discovered and brought to naught by the providence and bountie of God who hath manifested himselfe so clearely in this and many other occasions both before and after to watch in the protection of this State since the time of the reformation that it is not to be doubted but he would thereby shew that as this people was his people his Nation and heritage so would he testifie himselfe to be their God And notwithstanding the Pope and his Supposts have laboured often both before and after that as well by open force as by secret conspiracies and hidden enterprises to involve this whole State in ruine Neverthelesse his Instruments and Agents have ever lost themselves and all have falne out to their shame and confusion As I hope all those Rebells Papists of Ireland who at this present are up in Armes against their Prince and the faithfull in all crueltie and execrations will doe one of these dayes so that it may be truly said this of the Psal 147.9 Psal 147.9 The Lord hath not dealt so with all the Nations But God having continually shewed himselfe so good and mercifull to this his people it is their part to blesse him with their whole heart and render him eternall thankesgiving and my part also who desire that favour to be holden a member thereof the rest of my life to joyne with them and offer also to that good God the sacrifices of praises and thankesgiving which I doe with my whole heart praying him continually to shew himselfe the God Protectour Saviour and the Ruler of his poore people and that he would continue to powre out upon them all heavenly and earthly blessings and preserve the puritie and sinceritie of his holy Word among them and if there be any thing wanting or to be purged in their practise and discipline that he would cleanse them from all filth and Tares which might in time corrupt the good graine that he would make that order and pollicy to shine amongst them which is agreeable to him and which he hath instituted and taught by his Apostles that he would also impart the same favours to all the Churches and Nations where his holy Name is called upon that he would blesse the Princes which governe and maintaine them and draw and bring to his fold all the soules which are gone astray in any part of the world that he would open their eyes and let them see their blindnesse and errour and bring them to the sight and knowledge of the truth and of the pure and perfect beliefe which is left and taught to us in his Word that being but one Fould and one Flocke under one sole Pastour Christ our Saviour and Master wee may all of us serve Him in holinesse and justice in peace and union the rest of our dayes and hereafter wee may enjoy eternall happinesse through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the eternall Father and glorious Spirit be all honour praise and glory might majestie and dominion now and for evermore AMEN FINIS