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A81057 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. Cross, John, 1630-1689. 1687 (1687) Wing C7249; ESTC R225379 82,720 165

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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