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cause_n church_n faith_n holy_a 1,679 5 4.7561 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A28677 A letter from St. Omers to a friend in London B. B. 1681 (1681) Wing B36; ESTC R12370 5,869 4

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A LETTER FROM St. OMERS To a FRIEND in LONDON Most Respected Sir WHen first imparted to you my design to travel you desired which was to me a Command to take some observation of the deportment of the Roman Catholicks abroad in Relation to the English Affairs about the late Plot and though it 's impossible to have that account of things of this nature as you might have from a Person under other Circumstances being never out of my native Country before yet in compliance with your request I have sent you what occurr'd to my observation in that little Society I had with those sort of men and this being so eminent a place for correspondence with the English Catholicks I thought it might most effectually answer your expectation to spend sometime in it for here the whole time almost of the Priests is taken up in receiving and sending dispatches to England Ireland and Scotland so that wherever the Plot was Coin'd we may rationally conclude here it was Mill'd Upon my arrival here I delivered your Letter commendatory to your Friend whom I found very ready in a kind Reception to afford me a share in the Company he kept with the Fathers and others of Eminency by which in the General I was informed that the late discovered Plot for the killing of the King and Subversion of the English Government charged upon them was so far from being the Invention of the Witnesses as some have given out that it was the politick Result of grand Councels influenc'd principally by those of the jesuitical Order who as the Papists say are the only Men for projects in Europe which assertion seems to be confirm'd by some Instructions one of that Faction gave to some Puny Catholicks lately deputed from this Place to England upon the Catholicks Service a Copy of which by the Assistance of a Friend came to my hands the substance of which transcribed for your information follows The Father took for his Theme Genesis 18. verse the 19 from whence the Doctrin of equivocation is peremptorily asserted to be according to holy Scripture and that when a Persons Integrity and the Churches interest stand in Competition that then it is lawful by the assistance of this Doctrin to assert the Churches honor in publick though it be circumstanced with the highest suspition of our own sincerity and this was an undoubted article of the Catholick faith which upon pain of damnation they ought to submit to And to prevent any scruple that might arise about the receiving of this Doctrin the example of the holy Patriarch Jacob was urged by the Father which he desired they would set before them and conform to as often as occasion required which he told them would be of great use in the work they was to ingage in for the propagating of the Faith of the Roman Church in England and that it might be safely made use of without any hazard to their Souls even at the hour of Death when the confessing of the truth would be of great detriment to the Catholick Cause upon a stedfast belief of which the souls of those Catholicks that died upon the score of the Plot was supported and made their souls invincible under all the heretical sollicitations for the discovering the secrets of Holy Church It 's impossible to perfect our designs but under the shelter of this Doctrin no ●anquishing of that pestilent heresie without a firm belief and an undubitable assent to it therefore all the successes that the Churches interest has met withal in England since the miscarriage of that great project is to be attributed to this had those of the Ignatian order owned their guiltiness and that the charge against them was consonant to truth what a Loss had the Church sustained by such a cowardly deportment nay so obliging is this upon us that we don't only secure the Churches credit by it and upon that account it 's a debt we all owe her but we merit Salvation likewise together with the obtension of a Crown of Martyrdom to be ranked among all those noble Confessors in the sacred Kalender where our names shall be perfumed with a perpetual esteem and have the honor of being supplicated by the Church Militant yea those exquisite Flames of Purgatory wherein the Patriarchs before the Advent of Christ lay so long for a Purgation are by a serviceable mental Reservation for the advantage of the Church excused from undergoing There is no point so necessary in the present Juncture as this nor none so seasonable to be pressed upon you that have taken the holy vow of mission and are appointed to go for England where you will find it very serviceable in your Assistance for the discharging those important Affairs that will be committed to your Conduct the due consideration whereof impressed upon your minds will mingerate your souls for action and to wade through the difficulties that may be met with The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy those bitter Pills are easily swallowed when guilded with a Mental Reservation by the help of which they may be taken by the Devoutest Catholicks without which they would be nauseous to the Palate No true Catholick being able to take them in their literal signification by this Heretical Assemblies may be frequented and their Sacramental Administrations joined withal when it may conduce to the Interest of the Church which otherwise would be impractible by this you may take up the Cudgels of Episcopacy against Dissenters and when you see it necessary those of the Dissenters against Episcopacy and yet at the same time seek the subversion of both which leads to the main thing I have in Commission that is to give you some particular Instructions about your Deportment in England in the present conjuncture of things as I received them from a solemn Consult of the Fathers You must upon all occasions decry that which the Hereticks call the Popish Plot which was no other but a holy Combination to propagate the Catholick Faith and to extirpate that British heresie the accomplishment whereof much honor would not only redound to God but much emolument to the Church which should inspirit the Soul of every true Catholick to ingage in it and to call nothing by the name of hardship that tends to the effecting thereof but yet secrecy is essentially necessary and the denial of any such thing of absolute use among those Heretical People who amidst of all the clear discoveries they boast of want the dying Testimony of those Charged to have been the Instruments in this Sacred undertaking who to their eternal honor be it spoken preferr'd the Interest of our holy Mother even before their own Salvation and were it possible would have been content to have had the Infernal Punishments inflicted upon them rather than to have been guilty of Revealing those Secrets the Church have enjoyned a concealment of those pious examples are proposed for your Imitation that you should follow their steps