Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	catholic_a	church_n	faith_n	1,730	5	5.6193	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15508	Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.	Knott, Edward, 1582-1656.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed author.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646. Want of charitie justly charged.	1630 (1630)	STC 25774; ESTC S102197	54,556	140

CHARITY MISTAKEN WITH THE WANT WHEREOF Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming as they do with grief that Protestancy vnrepented destroies SALVATION Printed with Licence Anno 1630. PREFACE HAVING obserued the liberty which men are growne to take in not holding it ne-necessary to belieue that any one Religion is precisely true that for the excusing of themselues from blame they thinke fit to lay the fault on others as being too strict in approuing and vpholding only one I haue thought fit to imply some of my houres vpon examining how much or little reason they haue in a case of this high importance either to bragge of their owne charity or to impeach the opiniō of ours And therefore I shall humbly pray all my Protestant Readers to bring attention without passion to the perusall of this ensuing discourse wherein I will hope they shall meet with cause to be as good to themselues as I wish or at least to giue ouer mistaking vs though perhaps they shall not care to mend themselues But certainly if there be any such thing as Heauen and God and Christ and Faith and Church that indeed there be but one not only shall they be miserable men in the next life vvho apply not thēselues intirely to the beliefe of that and that alone but they shall euen in this vvorld be vvorthily held ignorant and imprudent vvho taxe men as vncharitable for nothing but because they approue not many For let that vvhich follovveth be vvell vveighed and they vvill see that not only Catholickes affirme this truth but that the beliefe there of is also auowed both by the practise and principles of the chief Protestants themselues in their vvritings hovvsoeuer the contrary discourse raigneth too much in the minds and mouths of particular men of that profession vvho haue many times so much of the good fellovv that they haue too little of the good Christian But I remit my selfe to that vvich follovves vvhich againe I recommend to the Reader THAT CATHOLICKS ARE both improbably and vniustly charged with lacke of Charity for affirming that Protestancy vnrepented destroyes saluation CHAPTER I. IF it be a part of honour and iustice for a Cauallier of this world to defend the rights of the oppressed and to contribute if there be cause with particular care towards the protection and defense of some excellent but afflicted Lady whose fame were blasted by the ill tōgues of men how much more iust and honourable will it be for a Catholike who in this time and place may well goe for a Cauallier of Christ to defend the honour and fame of his Lady and Mother which is the holy Catholicke Church Shee being so innocent as the immaculate Spouse of Christ our Lord ought to be and yet with all so much wronged as to be taxed for wanting the very wedding ringe and the nuptiall to be it selfe of Charity whereby shee is best distinguished from all pretenders to that Mariage bed and most euidently marked out to be that very Spouse which indeed shee is For that the abounding in Charity should be the distinctiue signe of the Church of Christ our Lord from euery other congregation vpon earth he did by the Oracle of his owne blessed mouth declare expressely vpon record when speaking to the same Spouse of his in the persō of his disciples he sayd thus By this shal all men know Euan. Io. c. 13. whether you be my disciples or no if you loue one another And least by occasion of these words a man might chance to thinke that the Church were only bound to loue her owne children and consequently that Catholicks were but obliged to mainteine Charity towards their fellow Catholicks our Lord did elswhere teach vs that we were not only to loue our friends but our enemyes also by his owne example of bestowing his sunne Matt. c. 5. and rayne not only vpon the iust but vpon the vniust also and that it was to be a signe of a true Pastour if he were ready euen to lay downe his life for his slocke Ioh. 10. whereby in this case the spirituall good of no lesse thē the whole world is to be vnderstood So that to charge the Catholicke Church that shee proceeds vncharitably towards Protestants and that so far as through the want thereof to censure and condemne them to the paynes of hell is as good as hath bene said as to tell her to her teeth that she is but a harlot and strumpet and not indeed the Spouse of Christ as she pretends And now therefore I as a childe though an vnworthy one of this Church feeling the affront which his mother vndergoes vpon this occasiō will procure to remoue it the best I can and in the first place to shew how improbable the slander is and in the second place how vntrue First then at the very first fight it is wholy improbable euen supposing that the Catholicke Church should vniustly vntruly hold as shee is charged by her aduersaries to doe that Protestancy vnrepented destroyes saluation that yet this should be affirmed by her through want of Charity and not rather vpon some other motiue namely error in iudgment indiscreet zeale of soules immoderate feare of the iustice of God or the like For to see the holy Catholicke Church dissolue and euen as it were defeate her selfe of her very selfe for the acquiring of all imaginable both temporall and eternall blessing to mankinde then yet to say that because shee wants Charity shee will not allow men of different Religions a place in heauen where yet there is roome inough for all the world doth stampe the marke of absurdity vpon the very front of the proposition euen whilest it is deliuered Now to see that this Catholicke Church is after a most eminent manner so expressiue diffusiue of her selfe towards the good of others as hath bene sayd a man needes no more but to haue eyes in his head for the truth thereof is not only to be euicted by reason but it lies subiect euen to common sence and to the obseruation of euery ordinary looker on For what kinde of creature is there of what condition what sex what age whom the Catholicke Church doth not striue to wrap vp in the bowels of her pitty how restles is that solicitude wherwith shee doth it As soon as any childe is borne shee considering the precise necessity of Baptisme will be sure to initiate him with that Sacrament wherin other Religions are farre more remisse When he growes vp to yeares of discretion shee strengthēs him with the Sacrament of Conformation When shee findes him once to haue drunke of the poysoned cup of actual sin shee striues to make him cast it vp againe by the Sacrament of Confession and Penance To the end that he may not only enioy some proportion of health but be able to stand out and grow and passe on with strength and comfort shee feedes him from time to time

with the pretious Body of our blessed Lord in the Sacramēt of the Altar If he will bestow himselfe vpon the seruice of Almighty God in a more particular manner by taking Priesthood she not only giues him holy Orders but she doth it by a Sacrament cōferring grace If he haue not spirit for so much as that but resolues to walke on in the broade way of a marryed life that state is honorable though it be inferiour to the former and she ioynes him to a wife by a Sacrament also cōferring grace If in his last sicknes he be assalted by those sharpest arrowes of his inuisible enemy she annoynts him towards the combat enables him by that Extreme Vnction and by the benedictions and prayers which accompany it to resist conquer those aduerse powers When he is giuing vp the ghost she recomends the soule with most tender and affectuall words into the hands of God And it is no sooner discharged from that body but instantly she makes it her businesse to pray for it and still she prayes and prayes and neuer giues it ouer till the worldes end But now in the meane time whilest Christians are leading this mortall life for such as haue a desire to consecrate themselues wholy to God in any Religious Order by the vowes of Pouerty Chastity and Obedience whether they be men or women the holy Catholicke Church with excessiue Charity prouides meanes for them in Monasteries and other Religious houses either by the foundations of Princes and great persons or els by the ordinary and daylie Charities of her deuout children in generall that they may be enabled to liue and wholly attend to that sacred fūction for the assistance of mankinde in the way of spirit though some after a more contemplatiue and some others after a more actiue or mixed manner without scattering or dispersing their thoughts and cares vpon prouiding for the necessaries of this life She doth also otherwise finde meanes that secular men woemen be succoured according to all theyr miseries whether they be spirituall or temporall If men be to suffer as malefactors she hath children who by speciall deuotion oblige themselues to watch some nights with those poore creatures of what Religion soeuer they may be to prepare them before they dye for that great passage If men be taken prisoners by Moores or Turkes or other Infidels she nourishes whole Orders of Religious people in her bosome whose office it is to keep correspondence in those other vnbelieuing parts by meanes whereof the miserable creatures are redeemed and restored to their former liberty through the Charity of her children Orphanes and poore virgins are brought vp by thousands and endowed with marriage money And persons sicke of all diseases are cherished and relieued and regaled by whole Armyes as man may say of Christians in her Hospitalls yea they are serued and attended after the example of Christ our Lord by the owne hands of great Princes and Prelates of choice delicate Ladies Queenes in the Communion of the holy Catholicke Church But then as much as soules are more worth then bodies so farre doth the Charity of Catholicks for the instructing gayning soules exceed those former Charities which they impart for the relief of mens bodies For where there is question of bringing vp youth in vertue of drawing ignorant and dull people to some reasonable proportiō of knowledge in thinges belonging to their saluation of reducing men who are peruerted by heresy of conuerting men who are buryed quicke in the blindenes of infidelity what paynes what care what vast iourneys both by sea and land what incommodity what danger what torment what death is not most gladly vndergone and euen desired by worlds of Religious men who are children of the holy Catholicke Church and who sucke the sweet strong spirit of the loue of martyrdome from the brests of their mother she being inspired and inriched therewith by her celestiall spouse In the strength whereof they blesse such as curse them they pray for such as persecute them and are ready vpon all occasiōs in the hope of freeing their enemies from damnation to runne hazard of their owne temporall death Now she who is so profuse in affoarding fauours will be sure precise in not doing wrongs And so it is notorious to the whole world as appeares both by our innumerable books of Cases of conscience and by those Formularies also which are dayly set out to instruct and teach men how to examine themselues and to confesse their sinnes that she is most strict in keeping vs from iudging or speaking vncharitably of any one and from doing men the least wronge either in thought word or deed And now without recrimmating vpon our aduersaries for the want of such great charities and diligences as these mee thinkes I may appeale euē to themselues whether it be euen probable as I sayd before that the belief of the Catholicke Church concerning the ill estate of such as dy impenitent in the Protestant Religion can be thought to proceed from want of Charity and deserue not rather to be imputed and ascribed to some other cause Of the intention of Catholicks when they say that Protestancy vnrepented destroyes saluation and how the speech is to be vnderstood CHAPTER II. THe intention therefore wherwith Catholicks declare that Protestancy vnrepented destroyes saluation cannot with any colour of reasō be thought to proceed from want of Charity in them but indeed from the religious and iust care they haue to awake men toward the sauing of theyr soules in the right way by procuring that they see that they are to perish if they continue in the wrong And the good God of heauen doth best know that when we speake to Protestants in this kinde our very hearts are sad as considering how true it is and how much it imports them to weigh it well and that yet the while in steed of theyr proffiting by our aduice they maligne vs for presenting it to them in the best sorte we can Nay they calumniate not only our intention as hath bene sayd by affirming that it proceeds in vs from want of Charity but they charge vs withall with taking the office of Almighty God out of his hands by pronouncing iudgment vpon our fellow seruāts before their time and in fine that we make their Protestancy to be as the sin against the Holy Ghost which is not capable of any remission at the hands of God But the Case being well considered will appeare to be ill put against vs who are farre from being liable to such aspersions as these Wee iudge not them or any other for we know that we all must stand or fall to our owne Master We loue their persons and we pitty them for their errors and we proceed no otherwise towards them then as towards creatures who are made after the image of Almighty God and who were redeemed by the death and Passion of our onely Lord and Sauiour

Charity in cōmaunding that mē should be held for no better then Pagans Matt. 16. and Publicans if in any thing of scandall and much more of doctrine concerning faith they disobeyed the Church for his precept of obedience was indefinite and therefore our obedience must not be limited only to this or that That God the Father himselfe wanted Charity who sent Chore Dathan and Abiron aliue Numb 16. and headlong into hell for a meer act of schisme and commanded that whosoeuer would not obey the sentence of the Priest for the time being should without any other remedy be put to death And lastly that Luther himselfe and his most learned Disciples wanted Charity not only for defaming the Church of Rome as the seate of Antichrist the whore of Babylon and the Beast of the Apocalips which printes the marke of damnation vpon the foreheads of her Children but for condemning also all Caluinists for their heresie concerning the blessed Sacrament besides many others which are both imputed and prooued vpon them by the Lutherans As for Luther and his Disciples it costs me little to lay them a side as not importing much what they say saue that their authority is argumentum ad hominē against al such Protestāt Libertins of this nation as so vniustly chardge vs with want of Charity towards them for saying that if they dye in Protestancy they cannot be saued But that which I haue shewed à parte rei namely that the Fathers of the Primitiue Church that the blessed Apostle S. Paule nay that God the Father the Sonne the holy Ghost haue both practised and imposed vpon all Christians and especially vpon the Church and Church-men to declare the danger wherein sinners are to loose their soules by cōtinuing in sinne must needes suffice to exempt vs in the iudgment of any indifferent morall man from offending against Charity for doing the like It is not therefore want of Charity in vs to affirme the danger of their state who are in errour out of a most Christian desire to see them deliuered from the same but it is too euident that their mislike of vs vpon this occasion proceedes in them out of Libertinisme and their too great good fellowship in matters of the soule and out of the meane conceit which they haue framed in their mindes of the vnity of Faith and of Cōmunion both in Doctrine and discipline with the Catholicke Church and of the entirenes of the infallible truth and the vnspotted seruice of Almighty God And what indeed doe they but shew by their whole course that they desire and resolue to belieue and professe according to the occasion and to comply with the superiour powers of this world and to obay the motions of appetite and sense without being euer so much as tould if they can choose that they must loose heauen for their labour Whereby it may be seene that the children are in this as like their Mother as they can looke For who perceaues not that the Protestant Church doth rather carry a respect to outward Conformity then to reall vnity in matter of Religion that indeed they are but as in iest when there is speech of sauing soules in any one Church rather then in another It is true that they make both lawes and Canons whereby they oblidge me vnder a world of penalties to frequent their Churches and to receaue their Sacraments but without caring greately whether men belieue their Doctrine to be true or no. For I put this case If a mā who were knowne to be wholly affected in his heart to the Catholicke Faith should yet for the sauing of his lands or goods resolue to comply with their lawes by going to their Churches and by receauing their Communion yea and withall should declare in company the day before that he was resolued to do so the day after for the only sauing of his estate and for the shewing of his obedience to the Kings lawes though yet withall he were persuaded that their Sacraments were vnlawfull and their Church impure would that Minister refuse to let him goe to his Seruice and or to communicate with the rest Infallibly he would not and we see dayly that they doe not in like occasions For that Church as I sayd aspires not to Vnity but Vniformity But the proceeding of the Catholicke Church is very different and hath that diuine truth which was committed by our Lord to her care in so high account that if she haue but iust cause to suspect that any man belieues not in his hart as she teaches she is so farre from obliging him vnder pecuniary mulcts to repaier to her seruice and Sacraments that she will by no meanes admit him thereunto till he haue first cleare himselfe of that suspicion and sufficienly shewed himselfe free from any such want of beliefe Thus doth the Catholicke Church of this age proceed and thus also did the same Church proceede in the most Primitiue times In so much as that then there were and now there ar certaine mē deputed belōging to particular Churches who were called Ostiarij Whose duty was and is to attend within at the Church doores of purpose to hinder their being present at the celebrating of diuine Mysteries whom they may know to be obstinately auerst either from belieuing any part of the Doctrine or from liuing vnder the discipline of the Catholicke Church This Church which is enriched and endowed with the holy Ghost and consequently with spirituall Fortitude which is one of the seauen prime gifts thereof proceeds like a body which knowes it selfe to belong to an omnipotent head and feares not to avowe both what it saith and what it doth And as on the one side she expresses all the suauity which can be conceaued and is most ready to wrap vp the most enormous sinners of the world and the most mortall enemyes which she hath in the very bowells of her compassion if they will come to God in the way of pennance so yet withall on the other side if men will presume to be soe vastly proud as to preferre their owne fancies before her wisedome which was sent downe from Heauen for the direction of the world and if notwithstāding her most charitable endeauours to reduce them they will yet add contempt and obstinacy to their other sinnes she threatens them with the danger wherein they are and she goes on so farre if she finde cause as to separate them in the quality of heretickes from her Cōmunion and proceeds not against them as against Traitours to Princes or states according to that poore shifte of Protestāts whose guylty Consciences make them not dare though their hearts be well bent that way to punish our Priests capitally as for a corrupt Religion but they set vpon them impudent and false pretext of Treason For as the Catholicke Church is most perfectly charitable so withall she thinkes she cannot expresse that vertue better then by clearely distinguishing betweene truth and

to those seuerall spirits which our Lord imparts to seueral persons For though any man may be good in any lawfull state of life but especially in some holy Order of Religion yet because men are not only of seuerall constitutions in body but of as seuerall dispositions also in minde and that some are apter for contemplation others for a more actiue life some for corporall austerities others for mentall reflections and mortifications some for catechising preaching and cōfessing others for silence and recollectiō Vt omnis spiritus laudent Dominum it was most agreable to the sweete prouidence of Almighty God to inspire his eminēt seruants with seuerall spirits who might erect seuerall Orders at seuerall times which seuerall natures might affect and so apply themselues to God both more cheerfully more fruitfully therein especially if they conserue that spirit with which the Order was first indued And as wel wisely might Caluin haue cōfest a differēce of Religion amongst thēselues because some men weare gownes others cloakes as to haue argued a disuniō amongst our Religious men because of their differēce in habit or diet either frō other Orders or else from secular people I heare them also make a third obiectiō against our vnity in points of faith in regard of the difference betweene our learned and vnlearned men for in consequence thereof they say that some one of vs belieues incomparably more then an other For the clearing of this point I will open a certaine distinction the subiect whereof they are wont to lay to our chardge as a crime but if they lend me a litle patience the same will serue them for a light to let them see that thēselues are out of the way This distinction is of Explicite and Implicite faith A man is sayd to haue Explicite faith of any Article or doctrine when he hath heard it particularly propounded to him and hath some particular knowledge thereof and giues particular assent thereunto But as for Implicite faith of any Article or doctrine a man is then sayd to haue it when he belieues that concerning it which the Church teaches them explicitly who are capable thereof although for his owne part he haue not perhaps so much as heard of it in particular or if he did he hath forgot it or if he remember it he hath not capacity inough to apprehend or vnderstand it But howsoeuer as I sayd he is resolued to belieue both of that and all things else as the Church teaches wil giue an Explicite consent to it whē he shal be informed hereof be made ab●e to vnderstand it hath this firme resolutiō that he will neuer hold he cōtrary either of that or of any other thing which they Church shal require him to belieue This I say is our doctrine concerning Explicite and Implicite faith and I dare confidently affirme that whosoeuer considers the same indifferently and with a resolution to receaue satisfaction if there be cause and not to be still cauilling whether there because or noe will confesse that not only the doctrine of Explicite and Implicite faith doth not only not impeach our vnity in beliefe in regard that some mē belieue some things more Explicitely ●hen others do but that if it were possible to abo●ish this doctrine which indeed it is impossible to do because it is rather deliuered vs by the voice of nature it selfe which hath ordained a different capacity in the mindes of men it would be wholly impossible to maintaine any Church in any vnity of faith at all For example will any man amōgst them be so absurd as to cōceaue that any plough man or Trades man or silly Woman doth belieue the same things Explicitely concerning Originall sinne or the relation which runnes betweene free will and grace and a hundred other questions of this nature which may be Explicitly belieued by some principall Doctour of diuinity amōgst them who haue particular studied these questions And if they confesse they cannot will they be content that we shall inferre thereby that there is no vnity of faith maintained amongst them Infallibly they will not and therefore it is but reason that they measure as they would be measured to and that they acknowledge that if dissension in point of faith could depend vpon the Explicitenesse or Implicitenesse of a mans belieuing seuerall doctrines there would be in effect as many seuerall faithes amongst vnlearned Christians as there are seuerall capacities For as much as we can hardly finde two such men whereof the one belieues iust as much Explicitely and no more then the other doth because the notice and the attention and the capacity and the memory and the profession is euer in effect more or lesse in one then in another and according to the more or lesse of these circumstance will the Articles Explicitely beleiued be either more or lesse The truth concerning this particular holds not only in the Catholicke Church but in all congregations which professe any Religion whatsoeuer consisting of seuerall Articles parts They who are learned and haue eminent endowments of nature and apply themselues with particular industry must euer belieue Explicitely more points of their Religion whatsoeuer it be and those others who are of contraries qualities must belieue Explicitely fewer points And this is also clear that the more points of any Religion which a man belieues Explicitely the fewer doth the leaue himselfe to belieue Implicitely and so on the contrary side the more he belieues Implicitely he reaches so much the fewer with an Explicite faith He may must belieue all the Articles and Doctrines of his Religion with a true entire most certaine and supernatural faith but that he should belieue them all with an Explicite faith is neither necessary nor possible But by belieuing as much as he can with an Explicite faith and what he can not with an Implicite a Cardinal Bellarmine and a Collier nay the simplest Catholicke woman in the whole world and the most glorious Mother of God if she liued still on earth should be absolutely fully of the selfe same Religion faith wi●h one another So that the sw●rd of our aduersaries prooues a buckler to vs and that obiection which they make to disproue our vnity in faith vnder which they would both shelter their weaknes when we iustly obiect their departure from the Church against thē also authorize their malice when they haue a minde to cast the scandall of affected ignorance vpon vs prooues a foundation to vs of that truth which shewes how our vnity is made perfect These are the three obiections which Protestants are wont to make against our vnity in point of faith And now there remaines an allegation or argumt wherby they procure to defend themselues against our obiectiō that they want vnity amongst themselues For in vertue hereof they affirme that they ought not to be held in disunion either with the Fathers of the primitiue Church