Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n
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A62858
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Le Tombeau des controverses a grave for controversies, between the Romanist & Protestant, lately presented to the King of France / Englished by M.M.
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M. M.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing T1793; ESTC R15915
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30,396
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50
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Truth that in a word all who are Great Rational and Spiritual in the Kingdom would give their hearts and minds to the most just verity One may observe in the Debates of Religion that which falls out in all other quarrels One never yields to declared Enemies till after they have tryed the misfortune of Armes and then the Submission increaseth the rage of the Over-come and begets such grudges as are the Fathers or Children of desperate Actions but in a Cessation of Fight they speak together they hear one another they joyn their Interests and every one hath time to do Justice to himself and others If we could have in France so sweet a way to perfect Peace we should see a miraculous effect and sooner than one could believe of this desired Unity because every one being dis-engaged from the Authority of Strangers without fearing to be punished by the Kings Orders would bind himself willingly to his Natural Prince who is most Christian rather than to tye himself to the Roman Monarch who appears very jealous and hard to be served and so not parting their Hearts they would Unite their Souls If a French-man were in necessity of having a Dispensation for Marriage would he not be content rather to obtain it of the King than to buy it of Rome especially when in these days they cost four times more than ordinary to make war against Candia I believe not but that Pastors Ordained by the Kings Authority and Canonically received by the Churches would be as satisfactory and as fully Authorized as by the Power of Rome and when we shall have well thought upon the establishment of this sweet Agreement the Fruits which it will produce will be found to be the very things which the King desires for his People 28. This matter of Religion having been discoursed where there were many of both Religions one approved the thoughts of a person who maintained that the Roman-Catholiques whose minds are not cruelly inclined are more easily bent to the Reformed Piety than the Reformed to the Romish Religion The 1st Reason is that it is more easy to cease believing that which is uncertain than to begin to believe that which appears to be false for example I give you the Creed of the reality of the Body and Blood of Christ of the only and Supreme authority of the Pope of Purgatory and of the glory of the Saints departed whom they pray to The reality of Christs being carnally in the bread is so uncertain that it depends upon the well-making of the bread the right Ordination of the Priest upon the true Pronuciation of the Words upon the fixed attention of the Priest all these necessary conditions are only Supposed or believed by a Charitable Faith The Supream Authority of the Pope depends upon his lawful Election which is often so obscure and appears so clearly defective or so openly Criminal that many Decades of years have passed in which one knew not which Pope to obey if there were two chosen and where there is but one Simony is so ordinary that all Popes are Suspected of it Purgatory is proposed as a place in the hollow of the earth holy Authority speaks not a word of it the Ancients Creed speak nothing of it the Greek Church despiseth it eyes cannot see it reason cannot understand it the perfect grace of Christ doth not favour it The vision of Souls who come again cloathed in White or Red is much Suspected for a cheat and convicted of extravagancy this Mystery hath nothing more certain than the fear it gives the people and the good it brings to the Priests The glory of the souls departed to whom they pray cannot be known but by a popular opinion which hath but little discerning or by particular perswasions which may seduce by freindship or by Canonization of the Pope which may be deceived by a false report The mind of a Roman-Catholique finding in its self these proofs to be so uncertain as well in the Essentials as Circumstatials will have much less a do to deny his full consent than a Protestant to give his because Reason and Faith will fly uncertainties and cannot seek for them nor love them the second Reason is that Roman-Catholiques do believe all that which the Protestant do positively avow in respect of God of Jesus Christ of the blessed Virgin of the life and death eternal and generally of all mysteries universally received in all Churches where Christ is worshipped as God and known as a Redeemer In this common belief it is more easie for rational minds tolimit themselves to this Faith so ancient and general than to encrease it by Articles of humane faith which hath not the principles nor just Characters of divine Authority The third Reason is that the Roman Catholick may have the same comfort of Spirit by the Protestant Religion having laid aside the mysteries which are added to the Primitive Faith that which the Protestants may not do when they go to the Roman Communion A Christian soul may comfort it self without the reality of Flesh if it unites it self Spiritually to Jesus Christ by having respect to him knowledg of him and a sincere Love for him One is more satisfied to believe the grace of God capable to carry our souls to Heaven than to leave them at the bottom of a lake of fire The heart is more content to Establish its faith obedience and its good workes upon the Law and words of the Gospel then upon the Politiques of the Decretals and upon the Engin du droit Canon Prayers have much more justice and confiance when they are addressed to God who sees understands and fathoms all things than if they are carried at randome by the Imagination to get the favour of a Saint whose state is unknown to us These three Reasons which I set down amongst many of the same force prove that the Roman-Catholiques not being corrupted by the advantage of the World nor upheld by the power of a Soveraign or animated by violent passions are easily carried to the Approbation of that Faith Piety with which the Protestants content themselves But the Protestant cannot without violence or without interest submit to all the particulars of the Roman Faith because they make the Spiritual adoration carnall the Spirit of God the material Body of Christ Faith in God Fear Certainty Dubious Divinity humanity Pure and Efficacious grace a defective and weak merit 29. Let us not trouble our selves to dispute to which way pious Reason would turn if it were at full liberty whatsoever inspiration one might pretend to have to presage it is the event that must make the Prophecy known But to see some effects in favour of this desired Unity The intire liberty of the two Religions will make the only overture to this Royal design and then considering no body but the King next to the Majesty of God they will lose the fears which the thunder of the Vatican
God and requite no more from the people but what God himself requireth then the people give to Caesar and to God that justice and obedience which is due to them by one and the same act because Caesar desires all and only that which GodS Wills 15. When the vulgar speak of the uniting of the two Religions in France they speak of a thing impossible because they consist of Propositions which are named Contradictories of which the first are necessarily false if the Opposites are true in this condition they can never be united as may be seen by these Examples one maintaining that the body of Christ in his very Flesh Blood and Bones is really present in the Sacrament the other saying that there is no reality of flesh though there be a real presence and spiritual grace Can these two Notions unite and be conjoyned one saith the souls separated from the bodies being in a state of grace burn in a fire under-ground to satisfie for their sins the other holds that souls justified by grace have no obstacle which can hinder them from possessing or injoying glory One affirmeth that the Pope is Monarch of all Kings and Bishops with the same power which Christ had when he was upon the Earth the other is perswaded that this Bishop hath not this power and that he can neither maintain it without error nor exercise it without Tyranny these propositions can never agree and if one would speak rightly of the design of his Majesty we must interpret it a unity of good Society which may be effected but not a unity of Conformity which can never be 16. I believe that according to the Kings will those of both Religions may agree in the same thoughts and make but one Religion both good and pious In the fourth Age all Christendom was divided upon the Propositions of the Divinity of Christ these two Propositions viz. Christ is God in substance and Christ is not God in substance but by resemblance are discourses and notions never to be reconciled In a word after many unjust Fends of the one and other Party all did agree after the Truth was justly known and sincerely sought after We might experiment the same unity if minds would cease to be prae-possess'd by Interest or Custome Let us search with sincerity the will of God and the reality of his thoughts and then we shall easily be of one mind piously following that which God bids us 17. This Union of Minds in the same apprehensions of things cannot be done with fatisfaction if as some pragmatically say the King should use his absolute Authority without suffering any disputes about it One I Will is not enough to perswade the profound Reason of the Soul One I Will not cannot root out the first Impressions all the effects that these commands can produce is terrour or dissembling one may study to hide one self for fear of anger for the respect one ought to have for his Majesty but every one will keep those thoughts which he thinks necessary for his Salvation What pleasure can the King have to see his Realm full of Dissemblers who fear his Anger or of miserable ones if he should use Violence 18. They rank that which you told me of the Embassage to Rome to obtain a permission for a Conference about Religion Amongst the ill news we hear His Majesty hath too much knowledg of the practices of the Romish Court to expect that the Pope should give him liberty to argue against him and his Universal Power Dare the Signiorle of Venice ask the King of Spain the power to debate whither the Dutchie of Milan and the Kingdome of Naples belong to him by a Ligitimate Right Can one believe that Romane Polity hath ever been so civil to praise Catholick Majesty to ordain a conference upon the posession of Sicily and that it hath ever asked the liberty to publish the Bull in canâ Domini in the Lords Supper by which that King is Excommunicated The King is not under Age let him govern his Subjects in the fear of God even from the bottom of our Souls we all desire it and those who would not have it so are neither Rational nor French-men Can we be in a better hand than that of a King who speaks our own Language whom Nature engageth to cherish his Country whose Inclinations are agreeable to our Climate which is his and whose Interests are necessarily tyed to ours Let the King freely take his own let no body dispute it in his Kingdome let no Stranger rule over us It is one of the most horrible punishments which God hath brought upon his people of which the Hebrews complain most bitterly and which may be compared to the crime of which the Lord himself complains in Jerem. 2.25 But thou sayest there is no hope no for I have loved Strangers and after them will I go and in Jerem. 5. You shall serve Strangers in Lament 2. Our Heritage hath been overturned by Strangers Is not the King a Christian and The most Christian King is he not a Sacred person is he not the Lords Anoynted ought he to ask the Pope leave to search the true Law of God and to offer it naked to his people Let the King speak as the generous Henry le Grand for his Marquisdome of Salus he answered to all the cunning devices of Pope Clement the 8th and the addresses of Cardinal Aldobrandin and the Artifices of the Duke of Savoy with these words I will have my Own It is the Kings right to propose the Law of God as t is his duty to search and meditate it hath not he as well as the Prince of Rome both Moses and the Prophets the Holy History the Doctrine of the Apostles and the Confession of Faith of the Council of Nice hath he not as much Ingenuity and as Penetrating a Wit as the Pope to discern Good from Evil Truth from Falshood and Sincerity from Interest hath he not more Zeal or more Natural Inclination for the good of his Subjects than a Stranger who appears to all reasonable men to make no Conscience of any thing if he can but raise never so little his glory and advantage by it Will he take measure from the Pope to oblige the French to give their Souls to God rendring their Respects to their King can any one believe that France hath no body in it who is enlivened with a Zeal by a sincere and unspotted Soul and by an inlightened Piety Can his Majesty expect Know ledge and Conscience from Italy to make us Famous and Conduct us 13. Believe Sr. that if the King hath designed that of which we discourse he hath too much Grandeur and Light in his Mind to commit it to the Pope or acquaint him with it 19. If the Pope should admit of this Conference he would never suffer that any thing should be concluded on to his disadvantage no one hates his own Flesh The Council of Trent was