Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	church_n	judgement_n	scripture_n	1,546	5	5.9918	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31383	The holy court in five tomes, the first treating of motives which should excite men of qualitie to Christian perfection, the second of the prelate, souldier, states-man, and ladie, the third of maxims of Christianitie against prophanesse ..., the fourth containing the command of reason over the passions, the fifth now first published in English and much augemented according to the last edition of the authour containing the lives of the most famous and illustrious courtiers taken out of the Old and New Testament and other modern authours / written in French by Nicholas Caussin ; translated into English by Sr. T.H. and others.	Caussin, Nicolas, 1583-1651.; T. H. (Thomas Hawkins), Sir, d. 1640.	1650 (1650)	Wing C1547; ESTC R27249	2,279,942	902

sufferings of Jesus Christ the one hasteneth to a neighbour and the other abideth in God the one hath exercise the other joy the one conquereth the other possesseth the one knocketh at the door the other entereth in the one despiseth the world the other enjoyeth God Finally the spiritual man is a man covetous of eternity prodigal of life little careful of the present certain of the future A man who seems no longer to have any commerce with the world and who hath nothing so familiar as a life that is as it were buried in death and who flieth above sepulchers like an Angel who holdeth not of the earth but by the slender root of natural necessities and already toucheth heaven with a finger A man who is as yet in flesh though he hath made an eternal divorce with flesh who is under-foot to all the world by humility and above all the greatness thereof by contempt of it who binds himself to be at liberty who crucifieth himself to combat who mortifieth himself to be the more vigoroue who withereth to flourish again and daily dieth that he may never die The third SECTION Of the first monster which the spiritual man should resist to wit Ignorance and of the practice of virtues by which it is subdued THe greater part of men have dexterity in delving From whence our evils come the ground like moles (a) (a) (a) Oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae Virgil. Geor. and have no eyes to behold the Sun Yet all evils proceed from ignorance and the want of the knowledge of God (b) (b) (b) Primae scelerum causae mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei Silius l. 4. This is the first Monster which we must assault the first obstacle we must take away And for this effect observe a wholesom doctrine to wit that God is the Sun of all the Intelligences and that from this Sun five (c) (c) (c) Five rays of the soul Dignity of faith Aug. apud Gulielm Lugdunens rays of a lively and quickening light are diffused over the darkness of our understandings These five rays are faith understanding counsel wisdom and prudence The first and most excellent light is faith because the other rays do well enlighten the soul in those operations of which it is as it were the fountain but faith alone raiseth him above himself to his beginning which is God (d) (d) (d) Fides res est audax atque improba perveniens quo non pertingit intelligentia ipsa ascendit super Cheruban volat super Seraphim senas alas habens Faith is a virtue bold and urgent which attains to that the understanding cannot reach unto mounteth above Cherubins and flies above Seraphins though they have six wings A man without faith is as the Pilot of whom it is spoken in the Proverbs (e) (e) (e) Prov. 21. that fell asleep and lost his rudder What virginity is to the body the same is faith to the soul It is the first-born of virtues the beginning of spiritual life the life of the understanding as charity is the life of the will the pillar of the cloud (f) (f) (f) Et erat nubes tenebrosa illuminans noctem Exod. 14. 30. which hath two faces the one dark because it believeth the things which are not apparent the other lightsom for that it believeth with an infallible assurance The fourth SECTION Practice of Faith THat you may well practice the acts of faith What faith is Hebr. 12. 1. Sperandarum substantia rerum argumentum non apparentium you must know the nature object and motive thereof Faith saith S. Paul is the foundation of hope and the proof of things not apparent The foundation of hope in regard all whatsoever we hope in matter of Religion is grounded upon faith as the statue upon its basis the proof of things not apparent because it is an infallible argument of truths whereof we have not as yet evident notice S. Bernard Voluntariae quaedam certa praelibatio nec dum propalatae veritatis Bern. de consider It s object S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 1. How we should believe addeth that it is a first-tast certain and voluntary of truth yet not manifested The Gold-smith laboureth upon gold silver and precious stones as upon his proper object and the object which employeth faith are the mysteries revealed unto us by God and proposed by his Church Such mysteries ought to be believed for no other motive but for that God the eternal Truth hath revealed them The arguments which are drawn from the prophesies miracles numbers of Martyrs purity of the evangelical law from the correspondency thereof with reason from the admirable success and consent of all the mysteries from the conversion of the world from the means which the Church hath used to establish it self from her firm constancy amidst persecutions from the wisdom sanctity of the professours of our law and such like things which I have produced in the first obstacle of the second book are most powerful considerations to introduce us to faith and to make easie and familiar to us the acts thereof but they are not properly motives of faith In the same manner How faith works A fine comparison as the soul draweth knowledge from sense and yet notwithstanding is above sense so faith though she serve her self with these considerations which are able to command the most contumacious spirits yet is she admirably raised upon a more supereminent sphere and will abide no other touch but of the eternal Verity which darteth a forcible lightening-flash into the soul able to dazle enlighten and surprize the most prosperous liberty that may be imagined Thence the soul cometh to believe not by Wherin faith consisteth humane discourse by miracles by doctrine by sanctity but because God speaketh inwardly unto it and giveth it so powerful a touch that she judgeth infallible whatsoever is revealed and proposed unto her by the Church Behold to what point the good S. Elzear Count of Arian was arrived when he said he tasted matters of faith with such certainty and resolution of understanding that when Monsieur Miron held for a prodigie of knowledge in his time and all the most famous Doctours would have perswaded him the contrary of what he had embraced in the simplicity of his heart all their subtilties could not be able to give the least shock to his spirit This admitted the acts of faith are I. To submit proper judgement to God with all Touch-stone to know whether one have faith simplicity and humility of spirit who speaketh unto us by his Church by Scriptures by Traditions by Councels by Canons of the sovereign Pastours of the Church II. To believe firmly all the Articles of faith which are proposed to us as well those concerning the Divinity as the humanity of our Saviour those which concern the Sacraments and ceremonies as those which appertain to the order and

of those cold-starved Amorists who hasten to roast themselves in the ashes Notwithstanding all these sayings of wise men we must affirm that beauty and graceful comeliness of bodie is a great gift of God able to do infinit good when they once hold correspondence with sincere virtue and therefore they rather ought to be esteemed among the motives of well doing than the instruments of mischief it being unreasonable to condemn a benefit of God the Creatour for the abuse of men since no man blameth the candle that clearly burneth in the house though butter-flies sindge their wings in it For proof whereof I will produce three reasons onely which seem forcible enough to convince the understandings of wise men and evidently declare to all those that are endowed with corporal beauty the injurie they do to God when they abuse the beauty of the bodie to the hinderance of the soul and drag the gifts of God along in the dust First it is undoubted that to attribute the work of corporal beauty to any other original than that of the wisdom and goodness of God were to apostatize from Christianitie and to ranck ones self among the Manicheans God necessarily approveth beauty since he himself is the authour thereof He hatched it in his bosom as light in the East and distributively spred it upon all the creatures of the earth as the rays of a bright day Man hath been Natural beauty of man praised by Poet. from the beginning the best provided for since God hath made him as it were a Scutcheon whereon he hath pourtrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world Origen saith he is fair as the Origen in haec verba Vocavitque Deus coelum firmamentum Homo ipse coelum est Job 38. Chrys in Genesim Quae major dignitas quàm iisdem hominem vestibus in dui quibus ips●●et dominus juxta illud Dominus regnavit dec●rem indutus ●st Ambr. l. de digni human condition Favorinus l. de excellentia hominis Excellent observations of Favorinus firmament which we see enameled with so many stars that resplendently shine as torches lightened before the Altar of the Omnipotent S. Chrysostom that the Angels are the morning stars whereof mention is made in Job who incessantly praise God and men are the evening stars fashioned by the hand of God with the same beauty in proportion to do the same office And S. Ambrose that God the Creatour for singular testimony of love hath granted to man the same graceful habiliments with which he himself is garnished all which are nothing but beauty Behold whether this be not highly to raise the merit of beauty I adde hereunto also two considerations very pertinent which Favorinus hath judiciously observed in the book he composed of the excellency of man It is that the Creatour who hath given beauty to man in proportion hath by the same mean impressed in his heart a love so tender that every well understanding man would rather desire to be reduced to nothing an estate which some have less accounted of than that of the damned than to be translated according to the imaginations of Pythagoras into the form and figure of some ugly and monstrous beast The other reason is that the wisest Nations as he observeth detesting the beastliness of those who have clothed the Divinitie in shapes of beasts have made express decrees forbidding all painters gravers and image-makers to represent God in any other figure than of man And the reason they give is very admirable for you would say if you heard them they had already some knowledge of this great alliance which should be made between the Divine and humane nature when they said That God was not a lover of horses or birds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a true lover of men and that he was much pleased to be conversant with those who were most virtuous and capable of his presence Ponder with your self whether this beauty which God from the infancy of the world hath so carefully lodged in man ought not to be esteemed an important thing and a strong motive to virtue For the second reason I say that God making use of it in good occasions it is an infallible mark he Beauty an instrument of God approveth the nature thereof for never doth he purposely make use of things unlawful to make the greatness of his counsels and works succeed Now it appeareth that he oftentimes hath chosen beauty as an instrument of his wonders a lightening-flash of his power a bright torch of his victories As when he purposed to stay the violent stream of Olofernes arms he could with an omnipotent hand have touched the rocks and made men to rush out in armed equipage yet notwithstanding without stretching his hand to any other miracle he raised the beauty of a widow to triumph over the flourishing legions of the prime Monarch of the world and himself added a certain air or gracious garb of attractive parts in Judith to surprise this barbarous commander Judith 10. 4. Dominus hanc in illam pulchritudinem ampliavit ut incomparabili decore omnium oculis appareret drunk with love and wine in the snare of her eyes He fought with the self same engine with the same arms against the proud and insolent Aman for when he was ready to command the throats of infinit numbers to be cut as sheep marked for the slaughter God set a frail beauty before him which made him leap from the height of fortunes wheel to the strangest calamitie that may be imagined and changing in an instant King Ahasuerus from a Lion Esther 8. into a Lamb confirmed the safety and liberty of her people Would you have greater proofs of the estimation which God maketh of beauty wedded to virtue than his affording it so glorious triumphs Hath not the Son of God consecrated the same in his own most illustrious Person and in that of his most holy Mother whom ancient traditions joyned with the interpretation of the Fathers upon the texts of Scripture shew to have been endowed with an admirable grace and singular beauty to serve even as an adamant to captivate hearts and sweetly range them under the yoak of the Gospel I am not ignorant that Clemens Alexandrinus thought our Saviour Clemens Alex. pedagog l. 3. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Errour of Clemens Alex. Isaiah 35. 2. Vidimus cum non erat aspectus was willing purposely to deprive himself of corporal beauty as from the possession of riches searching out in all things the greatest lowliness but in this proposition he hath grounded himself upon a passage of the Prophet Isaiah which describing the Savior of the world in the day of his passion saith We have seen him and he had neither favour nor beauty This foundation is ruinous and this Authour doth no otherwise than as a painter who to represent the Moon in her proper nature should delineate her