Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A61802
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A discourse concerning the necessity of reformation with respect to the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome : the first part.
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Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing S5930; ESTC R10160
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55,727
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60
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of the Law and the Gospel let him be accursed (c) Proinde sive de Christo â—ive de ejus Ecclesâ—s â—ive de â—uacunque alia re quae pertinet ad fidem vitaâ—que nostram c. Aug. contra liâ—eras Petil. l. 3. c. 6. 'T is true the Fathers in their Contests with Hereticks do frequently press them with the Tradition of the Catholick Church But then it must be remembered that the Hereticks against whom they disputed were either such as denied the Authority of the whole or a great part of the Scripture or such as insisted upon Tradition and pleaded that in defence of their Errors that therefore they might beat them at their own Weapons the Fathers confuted them by Tradition too But they never set up Tradition as another word of God or sought thereby to establish any thing as an Article of Faith or a piece of necessary Worship that they thought was not to be found in the Scripture As the Church of Rome does which under pretence of Apostolical Tradition obtrudes upon the Christian World as Matters of necessary Belief and Practice such things as are but of yesterday such things as are doubtful and uncertain such as are childish and triâ—â—ing yea such as are false and impious plainly contrary to Scripture and to Primitive Doctrine and Practice That I may not be over tedious I forbear to mention many other Errors in Doctrine and proceed to the next general Head of Corruptions 2. The Church of Rome hath not only err'd in Doctrines of Faith but hath also grosly â—werv'd from that Rule of Worship which Christ hath given us and from the Practice of the Primitive Church and set up a Worship of their own invention in direct opposition thereunto I shall instance in some Particulars First In having their publick Worship in an unknown Tongue This is expresly condemn'd by our Church as a Practice plainly repugnant to the Word of God and to the Custom of the Primitive Church (d) It is a thing plainly repugnant to the â—ord of God and the Custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers in the Church or to administer the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood of the People Aâ—tâ—cles of Religion Anno 1562. Art 24. That it is plainly repugnant to the Word of God no man can be ignorant who knows what is written in the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians in which the Apostle so directly and with such variety of Arguments confutes this unreasonable Service that 't is as easie to make midnight and noâ—nday meet as to reconcile them one to the other Nor is it less contrary to the Custom of the Primitive Church That in the first Ages of Christianity every Christian Church had the publick Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments in their own Tongue I need not prove by citing the Testimonies of those Persons who liv'd in those Ages because the learned men of the Church of Rome do themselves confess it which is a Proof more convincing than a thousand other Witnesses Out of many which offer themselves I shall produce a few whose Authority is beyond exception Their great Aquinas grants That it was madness in the Primitive Church to speak in a Tongue not understood because they were rude in Ecclesiastical Rites and did not know those things that were done unless they were expounded But now saith he that all are instructed tho all things are spoken in the Latin Tongue they know what is done in the Church (e) Aqâ—in Comment in 1. ad Corinth c. 14. Sect. 5. Cardinal Bellarmine grants That in the Primitive times because the Christians were few all sang together in the Church and answer'd in the divine Offices but afterward the People encreasing it was left to the Clergy alone to perform Prayers and Praises in the Church (f) Bell. de â—erbâ—â—ei â—â—â— c. 16. Mr. Harding to this Exception of the Protestants S. Paul requires that the People give assent to the Priest by answering to his Prayers made in the Congregation returns this answer Verily in the Primitive Church this was necessary when the Faith was a learning and therefore the Prayers were made then in a common Tongue known to the People for cause of their further instruction who being of late converted to the Faith and of Painims made Christians had need in all things to be taught c. And again Whereas S. Paul seemeth to disallow praying with â— strange Tongue in the common Assembly because of want of edifying and to esteem the utterance of five words or Sentences with understanding of his meaning that the rest may be instructed thereby more than ten thousand words in a strange and unknown Tongue all this is to be referned to the State of that time which is much unlike the State of the Church we be now in They needed instruction we be not ignorant of the chief Pâ—ints of Religion They were to be taught in all things we come not to Church specially and chiefly to be taught at the Service but to pray and to be taught by preaching Their Prayer was not available for lack of Faith and therefore was it to be made in the vulgar Tongue for encrease of Faith our Faith will stand us in better stead if we give our selves to devout Prayer g Artic. 3. Divis 28 30. Thus we see he grants that the publick Prayers were in the Apostolical times in the vulgar Tongue and that 't was necessary they should be but nothing can be more false and absurd than the reason he gives why 't was necessary then and not now Add to these the infallible Testimony of Pope Gregory VII who tho he would not permit the Celebration of Divine Offices in the Sclavonian Tongue yet confess'd that the Primitive Church had them in the vulgar Language h History of the Council of Trent l. 6. p. 578. So that by the Confession of the Romanists themselves the Church of England has in this Point no further departed from the Church of Rome than the Church of Rome hath from the ancient Church If they can instance in any Church in the World that for above five hundred years after Christ worship'd God in a Language that the People did not understand we will yield the Cause And may it not justly be matter of amazement that for the serving of some poor worldly ends the Church of Rome should introduce a Practice that renders the Worship of God useless and insignificant That destroys not only the end of Prayer but is inconsistent with the nature of it That is so absurd and unreasonable that S. Paul thought they deserv'd to be reckon'd Mad-men who in such sort pray to God i 1 Cor. 14. 21. So evident is this that many great men of the Church of Rome acknowledge it would be better to have the publick Offices in the vulgar Tongue So Cardinal Cajetan confesses That according to the
while they love the wisdom of the World they are more employ'd in the Offices of the Exchequer than in the Works of Christ they adorn their Bodies with Gold they defile their Souls with Impurity they account it a shame to employ themselves in spiritual matters and their Glory is to meddle with those things that are scurrilous Hence 't is said by Catharine of Sienna they as men that are blinded reckon that to be their Honour that is truly their shame contrary to the Canons they keep about themselves Pimps Bawds Flatterers Buffoons such as give themselves wholly to Vanity instead of men that are Learned and of good report And a little after The Bishops neglect due Hospitality by neglecting the Poor of Christ by making themselves fat by feeding Dogs and other Beasts §. 9. and so one Beast feeds another as if they chose to be of the number of those against whom the Lord will pronounce that just sentence I was poor and ye received me not therefore depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire There are few Bishops who are not covetous they take by violence other mens Goods and wastfully spend the Goods of the Church they bestow the revenues of the Church not to pious uses but upon their Kindred upon Stage-players Flatterers Huntsmen Whores and such like Persons they rather make provision for the wickedness of Men than for the necessities of Nature c. This was the complaint of a Popish Bishop in the year 1519. And that the matter was not much mended with the Romish Clergy more than forty years after appears by the speech of the Duke of Bavaria's Embassadour to the Council of Trent In which he tells the Council that the cause of the evils that were risen among them was the bad life of the Clergy whose wickedness was so great that he could not relate it without offending the chast ears of the Auditory (a) Hist of the Counc of Trent l. 6. p. 527. Tho' it may seem strange that the Clergy who by their very Calling are oblig'd to exemplary Purity and Holiness should be so monstrously vicious yet the wonder will be the less if we consider 3. That the vicious lives of the Popes and Cardinals were indeed the main source of that deluge of wickedness in which the inferiour Clergy was immersed We can desire no better proof of this than the confession of Pope Adrian VI. in his instructions to his Legate for the Diet at Nuremberg in the year 1522. Thou shalt promise says he that we will use our utmost endeavours first that this Court may be reform'd from whence perhaps all this evil hath proceeded that as from thence the corruption flow'd to all inferiours so from thence the health and reformation of all may proceed (b) Sleidan Comment l. 4. History of the Council of Trent l. 1. Richer Hist Concil general l. 4. part 2. p. 129. This was a rare confession from a Pope but no more than what the necessity of the thing extorted from him For the Cardinals were by degrees arriv'd to such an excess of Pride and Luxury as was odious and intolerable to all but themselves and those whose vices were supported by them If a man would make an image of Pride says Clemangis he can no way do it more to the life than by representing a Cardinal to the eyes of the Beholders (c) Jam vero Cardinalium qui Papâ— assident spiritus verba tumentia gestus tam insolentes ut si Artifex quisque vellet superbiae simulachrum effingere nulla congruentius ratione id facere posset quam Cardinalis effigiem oculis intuentium objectando De corrupto Statu Eccles c. 10. They trampled upon Bishops who were their Betters nor would they vouchsafe so much as to salute them when they fell prostrate upon the ground to worship them which is more than any King ever assumed (d) Nec pro quocunque Praelato etiam prono adorante eos in terra ponerent manum ad capellum ut salutarent eum quod nunquam aliquis Rex aut Princeps fecit neque hodie permitteret Responsio Apologet. Gallicanae Nationis de Annat non solvend apud Richer l. 2. c. 3. One of themselves more modest than the rest when he returned home laden with the Spoils of Germany being asked in Consistory what the Barbarians so they called the Germans thought of Rome which was so kind as to send them those choice Wares of Indulgences answered That the whole World complained of the Pride and Luxury of the Cardinals (e) Totum orbem conqueri de luxu fastuque Cardinalium Fascic Rerum expetend ac fugiend fol. 203. And can any man think there was not just cause for this complaint who will but consider what vast Revenues were spent upon their Lusts For not two or three or ten or twenty Benefices would suffice but a hundred or two hundred yea sometimes four or five hundred or more were usurp'd by one Cardinal and those not of the poorer sort but the fattest and richest of all And well had it been says our Author for the inferior Clergy had they been content with that prodigious number but the great mischief was that nothing would satisfie them but how great a number soever they had they still more vehemently coveted more (f) Non quidem duo vel tria decem vel viginti sed centena ducentena interdum usque ad quadringenta vel quingenta aut amplius Nec parva tenuia sed omnium pinguissima optima quibus si contenti essent postquam ad summam illam numerosam perventum est nec ultra quaererent prospere cum pauperibus Clericis qui reliquias earum expectant ageretur Sed quantumcunqâ—â— ad numerum aut summam venerint ad â—mptiorem festinant assidue festinant ardentius festinant De Cor. Statu Eccles c. 11. Nor shall we think it strange to hear of such Cardinals when we consider what manner of men the Popes themselves commonly were We need not look back to foregoing Ages in which their own Historians tell us they were Monsters and Prodigies g Hâ—c monstra haec Portenta Plat. in vita Benedicti IV. Such tragical Examples and so devoid of all Piety as neither to regard the Person they sustained nor the place they were in h Non possum non multum mirari unde tragica haec Pontificum fluxerint exempla quam dira pietatis oblivio eorum mentes irrepserit ut neque personae quam sustinebant ratio ab his ulla haberetur neque loci quem tenebant Sabellic Ennead 9. l. 1. that about fifty Popes together did utterly degenerate from the Virtue of their Ancestors i Hoc vero uno infelix quod per annos fere 150. Pontifices circiter quinquaginta à virtute Majorum prorsus defecerint Genebrard Chronograph l. 4. But passing over these let us only consider what the Popes were