Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	prayer_n	spirit_n	supplication_n	3,599	5	11.3996	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71013	Origo protestantium, or, An answer to a popish manuscript (of N.N.'s.) that would fain make the Protestant Catholick religion bear date at the very time when the Roman popish commenced in the world wherein Protestancy is demonstrated to be elder than popery : to which is added, a Jesuits letter with the answer thereunto annexed / by John Shaw ...	Shaw, John, 1614-1689.; N. N.	1677 (1677)	Wing S3032C; ESTC R20039	119,193	138

time by (e) Marsil Petav. def part 2. c. 18. the Nicene Council But because N. N. stands so much upon his points of Prudence it may be neither an imprudent nor impertient digression to compare the Romish Principles and Practices with the Protestant and by discussing one of them more largely to judg of the rest more clearly It is universally acknowledged that the Doctrine of all Apostolical Churches disseminated over the whole Christian World is Infallibly certain because attested by Vniversal Tradition which in it self is so but it is generally confessed that the Tradition of an Apostolical Church of one denomination may prudently be traversed because often found certainly False Now Protestants rely upon Vniversal Tradition truly such for Time Place and Persons and the Authority of all Apostolical Churches Papists content themselves and sit down in security with the Tradition and Authority of the Roman Church and which is worse of the present Romish Church of this age Protestants prescribe for Sixteen hundred years there is no Law nor Custom to destroy or over-rule a Prescription of so long standing Papists plead as N. N. doth the acknowledgment of the sixteenth Century over-leaping all the rest and that but in our parts of the World Protestants believe the Scripture to be the adequate Rule of Faith as to the essentials thereof Papists hold unwritten Traditions are to be received with the same reverence and respect Protestants esteem those Books to be Canonical Scripture which the Catholick Church hath so adjudged Papists singularly superadd others to the Canon Protestants believe the Truths they profess to be Divine Revelation because God by his Son Jesus Christ hath delivered and promulgated them to Mankind Papists believe their supernumerary Articles which they assume to themselves because defined by an Infallible Pope with the advice and consent of a presumed General Council Protestants assert the Pope is not Infallible for Pope Honorius was a Convicted Heretick as before hath been proved The Catholick Church hath always resolved against his Infallibility and the Doctors of that Church cannot agree about it and some of them oppose it neither was that Council General say the Protestants because no Southern nor Eastern Bishops was there nor any Northern but one titular only Olaus magnus the Goth who for that time passed as an Arch-Bishop of Sweethland no English Bishops nor Irish save another blind Sir Robert the Scot who for that time being was reputed the Primate of Ireland only two French Bishops six Spanish the rest were Italians who when they came to be arrayed were mustered but to Forty three in all This was a Plot of the Pope to keep what his Predecessor Leo the tenth had got by the Lateran Assemblers and after him others still maintained but he was for all this contrivance possessed with fears and jealousies the Council would be tampering with his Jurisdiction as other Councils had done and therefore was very careful to have fresh supplies in readiness for a reserve and according as the Pope suspected it hapned for the Council began to form Canons for the redress and reformation of several abuses and to abridg the Popes unlimited Power in granting Dispensations of which design he received early intelligence from his Legates and thereupon moved the Council to desist from any further progress therein for six weeks which being accepted and condescended to he dispatched his new recruits of Auxiliaries forty Italian and Sicilian Bishops who within the time limited ariving at Trent over-voted the reformers in the Council and quite quashed their attempts which made the Apulean Bishops cry out in open Council O we are the Popes Creatures we are the Popes (f) Carol. Malin l. de ton Frid. n. 21. Slaves Protestants rely only upon the Mercy of God and Merits of Christ for their Salvation This Bellarm. saith is the safest way and therefore it is the most Prudential Papists will join in their own Merits of Works done by Grace which Bellarm. confesseth is a more uncertain way and therefore less Prudential Protestants ascribe all Religious Worship to God and to God only Papists give it to Images and the Consecrated Host Protestants know it is an indispensable duty to Pray to God for all things necessary both for Soul and Body and direct their Prayers only to God the Father through and for the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ alone Papists Pray to God by Jesus Christ for which Duty Zanchee entertains a charitable opinion of them but withall they invocate Angels and Saints departed as Conductors secondary and subordinate Mediators for which Practice Protestants aver there is no warranty in Scripture no Authority from Primitive Antiquity nor any rule in Reason to approve it either a necessary lawful or an expedient Duty But because some eminent Protestants have declared that Papists have more to say for this particular than in any of their other eleven additional new forged Articles if this Principle and Practice of theirs be cogently proved unscriptural unpractical and irrational the same may be concluded of the rest CHAP. VI. SECT I. IT is Vnscriptural The Scripture teacheth us and commands us to ask the Father in the name of his Son Jesus Christ it prescribeth no rule to ask in any other name but declareth against it For it proposeth Christ to us as our only Mediator and Intercessor there is one God to whom we are to make our requests known by Prayer and Supplication and there is one Mediator between God and Man 1 Tim. 2.5 the God-man Jesus Christ by whom we have boldness of access to the Throne of Grace The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical importing thus much as there is one God only and no more even so there is one Mediator betwixt God and Man in reference to our Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgivings ver 2. one God and no other besides him even so one Mediator and none but he who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 who as he performed all Righteousness for us so the virtue and value thereof qualifies and capacitates him for the Office of being Advocate for us viz. to recommend open and plead our Cause for us and procure our Prayers to be granted none can effectually Mediate for us but he who did Redeem us he only can be our Advocate who is the Propitiation for our Sins which was Jesus only who for the more effectual execution of his Office of Advocate after he had offered himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice for our Sins was advanced to sit on the right hand of God the Father Rom. 8.34 where it may be observed that it is the same Person that died for us and therefore as Jesus alone died for our Sins and rose again for our Justisication so for the application of these Benefits and Priviledges to us he only sits at God's Right-hand and makes Intercession for us this Office being as proper and

departed by enjoyment of the Beatifical Vision look not upon God as Omniscient or Omnipresent but as the chiefest good their happiness is from his infinite Goodness not from his infinite Wisdom or Immensity 3. If upon their admission to their state of Glory they by virtue of the Beatifical Vision know all things which God knoweth then they should know future Contingents which the Romanists will not grant for the Beatifical Vision can capacitate them for this knowledg as well as the knowledg of the Heart and no reason can be assigned to the contrary but that it is the Will of God for which there is no attempt of Proof 4. It is not necessary nor essential to the Beatifical Vision that the participants should know our Prayers for without knowing them they have all the priviledges of the Sons of God and Children of the Resurrection agreeable to their state the Vision makes them eternally happy not Omniscient 5. Those Ancients who denied this supposition knew nothing of this speculation and those of them who proved the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost from their Omniscience might easily have been baffled if this excellency were communicable to any other besides God for if the knowledg of the Heart were not so proper to God that it could not be communicated to the most excellent Creature their argument from thence even in (c) Theol. dogm Tom. 3. l. 1. c. 7. Sect. 3. p. 39. the judgment of Petavius Omnino nullum esset Was none at all 2. It is Injurious to God in respect of his Omnipresence For Bellarm. disputing against those of his own side who imagined that the Blessed Spirits were Quodammodo after a certain unintelligible way every where by the wonderful swiftness of their nature resolveth the contrary and asserts that Celerity is not sufficient to capacitate them to hear the Petitions of far reremoved Supplicants who direct their Prayers to them at one and the same time from several distant places and that true (d) Bell. de Sanct. Beat. lib ... c. 20. ubiquity is required which they having not by nature as is generally concluded by all Pontificians they must have it by communicated Grace or be without it But the same Bellar. will not allow this for he disputing against the Vbiquitarians assures us that their Salvo viz. that Christ in his human nature is every where by accident viz. by a real communication of that property is naught for then saith he the argument of the Fathers for the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost grounded upon their Ubiquity plaè concidit is quite abated and falls to nothing from which premises laid to our hands by this great Name the conclusion is irrefragable the Blessed Spirits cannot hear our Prayers and then the Practice is Irrational because by the concession of the chiefest Advocates and Proctors of the Cause to Pray to them who cannot hear or understand our Prayers is an Act Superfluous if not Superstitious and so some of them assign as a reason why they do not pray to the Inhabitants of Purgatory because they cannot hear them though it be most certain that God if he pleased can as easily reveal the Prayers of Mortal men to them as to the Saints in Heaven for his assertion affords us this argument True Vbiquity is required to hear the Prayers of numerous distant Orators but the Blessed Spirits have not true Vbiquity for this is so proper to God that it cannot be affirmed of or attributed to the most excellent Creature by communicated Grace therefore the Blessed Spirits connot hear the vocal Prayers of their numerous distant Orators 4. If the end for which this Practice is pretended behooful and expedient may be attained by a more clear and undoubted way than that purposed right Reason will direct us to leave the indirect and crooked way and follow the direct streight forward road for every prudent man will take and pursue that course which is most effectual for the accomplishments of his intentions and desires and for which he hath so great assurance that greater cannot be had for the event and success Now we have such assurance to come to God by his Son Jesus Christ that will not fail nor disapoint us for we have the sure word of Promise Joh. 16.23 that whatsoever we ask of the Father in the name of his Son it shall be given us and by him we have boldness of access to the Throne of Grace but we have no word nor warranty for the impetration of our requests by the Mediation of Secondary under-Solicitors for us and who will seek that at the second hand which he may have upon easier terms at the first or look for that in Cisterns and in danger to be broken Cisterns which is ready and prepared for him in the Fountain which never faileth None but Phantasticks and Vain-glorious Prodigals will complement or Fee a Courtier for admittance into the Kings presence when by his Proclamation he is aforehand ascertained upon his aproach he shall have entrance present Audience and his Petition if drawn according to Law shall be signed and granted 5. But suppose it were both lawfull and behoosefull to Invocate undoubted Saints now reigning in Heaven as the blessed Virgin and the holy Apostles yet a Prudent Man will be shy and unwilling to exhibite that honour to all whom the Pope hath Canonized or shall Canonize for Saints For some great Romanists have not sticked to Affirm that (e) These were a Knack of late invention contrived by the Pope 800 years after Christ Bellarm. de Sanct. beat lib. 1. c. 7 8. Sect. dices Barth-fumus in his Armilla aurea tit Canonizatio tells us that it is not lawful to Worship any Saint publickly without the Popes License so that before Bellarmin's Period of time it was not lawful publickly to Worship any because till that time none were Canonized yet what he adds is somewhat odds if one believe his departed Friend is in Heaven he may Pray to him secretly c. the Popes Canonizations are doubtful and (f) Summa Rosell Verb. Canonizatio Can. loc lib. 5. c. 5. c. 5. qu. 5. subject to Error Thomas Becket was solemnly Canonized by Alexander the Third who thereupon passed for a good while as a pretious Saint as before hath been related but about 40 years after his Saintship (g) Caesarine a Monk Dial. l. 8. c. 69. Acts and Monuments was questioned for in Ann. 1220. an hot Dispute concerning it was held at Paris be-between Roger a Norman and Peter a Parisian Peter took the more Moderate part of the question and affirmed he was saved because Canonized but Roger was for the more uncharitable part that he was Damned because he was a Rebel to his King This indeed was too high a question altogether unfit to be discussed and therefore our Prelates though stiff Romanists declined it in Henry the Eights time but withall publickly declared