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A81057
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An apology for the Contemplations on the life and glory of Holy Mary mother of Jesus Shewing, the innocency, equity and antiquity, of the honour and veneration given to the blessed virgin mother by the Holy Catholick Church. By J.C. D.D. With allowance of superiours.
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Cross, John, 1630-1689.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing C7249; ESTC R225379
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82,720
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165
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in an Assent to the Existence or Being of them precisely upon the extrinsick Testimony of that Legal Proposer of their being reveal'd who must be acknowledg'd by All to be the most convinceing to any prudent Enquirer after Christian Truth and further to be most conspicuously authoriz'd and attested by the written Word of God. However from these several rehears'd wayes of Intuitive and Abstractive Knowledges which the Saints in Glory may have of us Mortals and of our most secret thoughts and Affections at any distance It appears evidently That this their knowledge of our Petitions here made to Them is possible and is confirm'd from the aforesaid Matters of Fact several Prophets and Saints by such a Vision or Revelation or otherwise exactly knowing Things done or spoken in Absence and at a vast Distance even those things which had then no being but in the Divine Essence or in their abstractive Images as is evident in the Prophecies of the Birth Wonders and Kingdom of JESVS under the Old Law and of the Kingdom of GOD and the Saints in the New. LXVIII Thus then the glorious Saints if not by the Vivacity of their own Intellectuals in that elevated State of bliss yet by those other Mediate Helps know such Requests of their Petitioners at whatever distance as may concern Them considering their State of superabundant Charity and Pitty and the thence amplifi'd Communion of the Saints in spiritual Favours amongst themselves and also to and for us God of his Fatherly Love and Mercy graciously indulging the use of such Advocates for us who were sometimes acquainted with our Miseries and from what they then suffer'd and needed learn'd to compassion the yet afflicted Members of Christ still groaning in the Chains of Sensuality LXIX This suppos'd 't is manifest That our Addresses to the holy Mother of JESVS so Innocent so full of GRACE so exalted in Glory First by Praises Titles of Honour and sensible Acts of Veneration suiting with the degree of her super-eminent Excellencies above All Pure Creatures of whatever Stile or Perfection Next by express Invocation of her Aid for the procuring those Favours we hope by Her efficacious Intercession to God for us grounded on those Her endearing Grandeurs and Gods gracious Promises are exceedingly useful to us LXX For absolutely and universally to make void this congruous and comfortable Advantage of Saint-worship as to All Saints All Requests and All Petitioners It must be peremptorily resolv'd First That no Saint ever petition'd by Mortals can possibly by any power of God or at least doth not by any Means know any one Thing done here or at least Not any one single Request of ours Or that knowing any yet will not Mediate to God for our relief Or that Mediating for us They cannot obtain the Grant of any one Request by Them made to God for us Secondly That neither the Saint so petition'd by us nor any other Saint or Angel upon our Petition made to Them or to God through them these our Petitions known or not known to Them but seen distinctly by God They either Mediating in particular for some or more amply for all their Petitioners at any time being or yet more Generally for all their Co-members here in distress These either begging or not begging their Aid or Gods gracious Regard to those Intercessions of the Saints one of those ways made to God It must be further Resolv'd That no Saint can be assum'd even by the absolute and extraordinary Power of an Omnipotent God at his own pleasure as an Instrument of his Free and unlimited Providence for the Relief of our Necessities And that God in any wise cannot establish one Hierarchy or Empire of Illuminating Inflaming and Ministring Spirits in the two Churches Militant and Triumphant and this precisely because He is our Soveraign Lord can Himself relieve our Wants and doth with a fatherly Love invite us to come to Him Mat. 11.28 LXXI But this surely were too great boldness peremptorily to Assert since the secrets of Gods Power and Counsels are unscrutable and that the Mediation of the Saints for Sinners taught and practic'd by the Catholick Church is so congruous no where forbidden nor involves any apparent Contradiction or Vndecency For if any such knowledge of our Petitions can be in the Saints or any such Petition be made by Them to God or any Divine regard be had to our Petitions for any Saints-sake so prais'd Honour'd Worship'd or Requested by us It follows manifestly That our Saint-servitude is useful to us Because if any Saint doth any way know and relieve any Petitioner to Them or to God through Them It is useful at any time and for any want to implore their Help and Acceptableness to God who being super-abundantly Good and Bountiful 't is likely may then and thus give Relief unto us And if thus for any Saint much rather for the Glorious Mother of JESVS super-eminently priviledg'd above all Saints and Angels LXXII But there be some who would fasten upon our Catholick Addresses to the Glorious Saints That either we who pray to the Saints or God who reveals to Them our Petitions therefore doth it That the Saints may further to God the knowledge either of our Prayers or of our Wants in order to work a greater Indulgence in God to us which is an unjustifiable Calumny no where hinted at by any Catholick Tradition Council Father or Practice All agreeing in this one Verity That the Glorious Saints being exceedingly in favour with God upon account of their participated super-natural Endowments of Grace and Glory inherent in Them and transfiguring Them into a Divine Likeness and Being may more effectually obtain of Gods Clemency the Grant of our Petitions we for our Great and Frequent sins oft deserve not And it is indeed a large demonstration of our good Gods super-abundant Love to us that he makes known our Prayers to the glorious Saints by occasional Intuitive or Abstractive Illuminations and is kind to us for their sakes Albeit too God thereby preserves a congruous Subordination co-herency and Communion between the Members of the Militant and Triumphant Churches under the gracious Illapses of super-natural Lights and Graces for supporting the Dignity and Order of the spiritual Hierarchy of the Elect from the Supream Monarch of both and for the encouraging Humble and Timorous Petitioners by assigning us such glorious Advocates such powerful Co-adjutors at the Throne of a so oft provok'd Judge and amidst so many desperate and entangling Miseries Sect. XVI That the Contemplations are only a Continuation of the Antient Doctrine and Practice of the Catholick Church LXXIII THere remains now only the second and conclusive Point of this Apology The shewing from the Records of all past Ages the Doctrine and Practice offer'd to the Devotes of holy Mary the Mother of JESVS in the Contemplations on Her Life and Glory to contain nothing New besides the Method and therefore to be blameless both in the Matter
and Design being only a new model'd Continuation of the Devotions of our Fore-Fathers in several Ages Tongues and Nations supported by an uniform Tradition of Holy Fathers Doctors and Preachers and co-herent with the un-interrupted Authority of the suceeeding Chief Eminential and Representative Governours of the Catholick Church who are the Fathers of our Faith under Christ And certainly it must appear to any Rational and considering Christian to be an extream Folly and Insolent Madness according to St. Augustine's Rule Epist 118. ad Jan. to dispute a Catholick Doctrine and Duty which the whole Church hath canoniz'd as holy and profitable by her perpetual Acceptance and Practice and whose Opposers have still been branded with the vilest Notes and Characters of Ignominy by the undoubted Rulers and Pastors of that Church and accounted Violators of the Majesty Innocency Holiness and Glory of the Son while they abrogate or impair the Honour of his Divine Sanctuary Holy Mary the Mother of JESVS For the Ignominy and Scorns past on the Parent is also the contumely of the Child Eccl. 3.13 LXXIV Nor may we abridge the Veneration due to Holy Mary since her Son JESVS would not infringe a Rule of Honour to Her engrafted by Nature in All Children and by Grace confirm'd and recommended to all Luc. 2.51 Since the Holy Ghost hath through all States of Gods People since Adams Fall by the Pens of the Divine Writers pronounc'd the lofty and Magnificent Panegyricks of the Mother of JESVS Gen. 3.15 Psalm 86.3 Matt. 1.16 and since our Soveraign Lord has by a special Commission made all Christians adoptive Children of the Mother of JESVS and by his last breath oblig'd all to accept Her as such and to pay all those Marks of Honour to Her which may become that Duty and report we have to JESVS Jo. 19.27 So that there cannot be a greater Reproach cast upon a Christian next to his Apostacy from Christ by Heresie or Schism than to contaminate this holy Sanctuary of Christ by ravishing the Honour and Veneration due to Holy Mary who gave to JESVS those rich Springs of peace-making Blood which was the price of the World the Laver of our Souls and purchase of our Glory and by whom all Nations are bless'd In pursuance of which Magnificent Favours all Generations of the Catholick Church have been ever busie in the Praises Honour and Worship of that rich Fountain whence those precious Streams of super-natural Blessings issu'd and in courting Her by their humble Addresses for Protection and Intercession to God for us Whence such copious Blessings have already flow'd in the Souls of the Saints the living Images of God and Temples of his Sanctity Grace and Glory All which will manifestly appear by the following Testimonies of the Fathers in the several Ages of the Church carrying in themselves and handing unto us the sense and Practice of the Diffusive Church holding Communion with and Obedience to the Eminential and Representative Sect. XVII Illustrious Testimonies of the Reverence of the first Age of the Church towards the Holy Mother of JESUS as a Rule to all succeeding Ages thereof LXXV THE first Age offers to us the sacred and venerable Testimonies of the holy Evangelists Apostles and some Fathers of the Infant Church of Christ though only glancing briefly at the eminent Priviledges Perfections and Merits of this Divine Creature and the consequent efficacy of her Power at the throne of Mercy of her Son JESVS Under which Heads they have left unto all following Ages the most Illustrious and pithy Panegyricks on the Mother of God that could ever be proclaim'd by the Tongue of Men or Angels that have served to all succeeding Doctors and Preachers through all Nations as Theams for their Sermons and Orations and which are of that Majesty and efficacy as to bend the knees of all Pure Creatures unto her as their powerful Queen and Advocate LXXVI First then as to the Illustrious Prerogatives of Holy Mary she is stiled the Spouse of the Holy Ghost (a) What is born in Mary is of the Holy Ghost Matt. 1.20 The Holy Ghost shall come down upon Thee and the Virtue of the most High shall over-shadow Thee Luke 1.35 Matt. 1.20 Luc. 1.35 The Mother of JESVS (b) Of Mary is born JESVS Matt. 1.16 This is the Son of Mary Mark 6.2 Matt. 1.16 Mar. 6.2 and the Miraculous Instrument of the ineffable Vnion of Con-subsistence of God and Man in the Person of the eternal Word and the Rich Fountain of the Blood of JESVS saving on the Cross sanctifying in the Sacraments and pleading at the Tribunal of Gods Justice (c) Thou shalt call his Name JESVS for he shall save his People from their sins Matt. 1.21 He healed many of their Sicknesses and Sores and of evil Spirits and gave sight to many blind Luke 7.21 Neither is there any other Name under Heaven given to Men in which we have Right to be saved Act. 4.12 God fent his Son made of a Woman made subject to the Law that he might redeem those who were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Children Gal. 4.4 5. Thou wert slain and didst redeem us in thy blood Apoc. 5.9 Matt. 1.21 Luke 7.21 Act. 4.12 Gal. 4.4 5. Apoc. 5.9 Titles far above those of Queen of Angels and Refuge of Sinners LXXVII Next for the most sublime virtues of holy Mary The Evangelists recommend unto us Her fervent Practice of Divine Contemplation of Extatick Prayer and of giving praises to her Almighty Benefactor (a) Mary conserv'd all these words meditating on them in her heart Luke 2.19 All persever'd in Prayer with one accord with Mary the Mother of JESVS Act. 1.14 Let my Soul magnifie my Lord c. Luke 1.47 Luke 2.19 Act. 1.14 Luke 1.47 Her exeellent Faith. (b) Blessed art Thou who hast believed Luke 1.45 Luke 1.45 Admirable Purity (c) The Angel was sent to a Virgin espoused unto Joseph and the Name of the Virgin was Mary Luke 1.27 How shall this be done for I know not Man. 34. Let it be done to Me as thou hast said 38. Luke 1.27.34 38. Profound Humility (d) Behold the Handmaid of our Lord. Luke 1.38 Mary arising went to the Mountains 39. Luke 1.38 39. Perfect Obedience (e) Mary went to the Mountains in great hast Luke 1.39 Mary big with Child goes from Nazereth to Bethleem to obey the command of Caesar Luke 2.5 Luke 1.39 2.5 Her Fidelity and Obsequiousness (f) They found JESVS with Mary his Mother Matt. 2.11 Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months Luke 1.36 Matt. 2.11 Luke 1.56 Her incomparable Fortitude and Patience (g) Joseph goeth from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary his Spouse then big with Child Luke 2.4.5 Mary the Mother of JESVS stood near the Cross Jo. 19.25 The Sword of the Sorrows of JESVS shall penetrate thy very Soul. Luke 2.35 Luke 2.4 Jo. 19.25