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A67644
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A defence of the doctrin and holy rites of the Roman Catholic Church from the calumnies and cavils of Dr. Burnet's Mystery of iniquity unveiled wherein is shewed the conformity of the present Catholic Church with that of the purest times, pagan idolatry truly stated, the imputation of it clearly confuted, and reasons are given why Catholics avoid the Reformation : with a postscript to Dr. R. Cudworth / by J. Warner of the Soc. of Jesus.
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Warner, John, 1628-1692.
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1688
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Wing W907; ESTC R38946
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162,881
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or S. Paul composing his Epistles nor so much neither seeing these were so assisted as to Compose Holy Scripture when the Church only pretends to Expound the Word of God. How doth such an Assistance of the Divine Spirit derogate from the Infallibility of God from which it is derived But Her Exposition must be admitted say you though contrary to the Sense As if Infallibility did not exclude all possibility of such a wrested Exposition The Infallibility of the Church may slight your Attempts whilst you are armed only with such Straws We have seen your Arguments let us see your Answers to ours G. B. pag. 44. The Gates of Hell not prevailing against the Church Mat. 16.18 proves not the pretence of Infallibility Why not Learned Sir Not a word of that but as if you had forgotten what you were about you fall upon the English Translation of that Text which you say deserves amendment and I will leave you to be taught better Manners by your Fellow Ministers or your Mother the Kirk of Scotland G. B. pag. 45. The Spirit leading into all truth Joan. 16.13 advances not the Cause a whit since that Promise relates to all Believers Here is another Assertion without Proof as if we were bound to take your word Those words are part of the Sermon after the last Supper at which only the Apostles were present and which was directed immediately to them You should then give some Reason why they relate to all Believers althô spoken only to the Apostles G. B. The Church's being built on the Rock Peter proves nothing for a Series of Bishops of Rome seeing the other Apostles were also Foundations Answ If it prove all Bishops together Infallible firm in Faith as a Rock it confounds your Reformation which is condemned by them all G. B. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 16.19 import no more than that Peter was to open the Gospel When you shall give in a Proof we will consider it till then I will believe not you but Christ who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adds the Office of the Keys to open and shut not the Gospel but Heaven by loosing and binding Sins G. B. pag. 46. It is certain that Vice as well as Error is destructive of Religion If then there be no Authority for suppressing of Vice but that same of the Discipline of the Church it is not incongruous there be no other Authority for suppressing of Error but that same of the Discipline of the Church Answ It is certain that both in the old and new Law several Persons have been secured against Error who were subject to Sin. S. Peter was truly reprehensible (a) Gal. 2.11 for a thing he did not for any thing he writ or preached The same of David of Salomon c. For this reason our Blessed Saviour commanded (b) Mat. 23.23 all to follow the Doctrin of the Scribes and Pharisees because they sat on the Chair of Moyses but not their Example So your Question why God should provide more against Error in Faith than against Vice in Manners can find no place amongst Catholics who are taught to adore God's holy Will even when they understand it not and to (c) 2 Cor. 10.5 Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ To you who think it absurd to deny a Man the use of his Reason in Judging and Diseerning all things and submit even Divinely revealed Truths to its Tribunal to you I say we leave the search of those Depths and discovery of those Mysteries G. B. pag. 48. I could prove from History that General Councils have erred that Popes have been Heretics Answ By what you have done we may guess what you can do Your Learning appears by your Writings as also your Judgment in using it We have seen many Proofs of it and shall see more in this small Tract I will add to them one Instance out of another Work of yours Observations on the First Canon of the Apostles pag. 66. You prove that anciently Priests could Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation out of the First Canon of the First Council of Orange When it is evident that That Canon doth not give Priests power to Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation but commands them to use Chrism in Baptism since when every Divine of the First Year knows that Vertical Chrismation hath been a Ceremony of that First and mysterious Sacrament Such Mistakes as these are incident to such as are bred in a Congregation where Ceremonies are abrogated G. B. pag. 49. We are not the Servants of Men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judge but where he hath Power to Try and to Coerce Now none but God can search our Hearts so none but he can be Judge Answ The Independent and Quaker and all who endure with regret Prince and Prelate Canon and Civil Law under pretence of Evangelical Liberty will thank you for this CHAP. XIV Of Merits G. B. p. 50. IF any have derogated from the value of the Satisfaction of that Lamb of God they have offered the utmost Indignity to the highest Love and committed the Crime of the greatest Ingratitude imaginable Answ Transeat totum what then G. B. Who would requite the most unconceivable Love with such a sacrilegious Attempt Answ None that I know of But say you how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and Works of Men in an equality with the Blood of God Answ I know none such if you do point them out for Punishment no Catholic is concerned in them G. B. pag. 51. It is true this Doctrin of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper thô early used by the Ancients in an innocent Sense But many of that Church acknowledge there can be no Obligation on God by our Works but that which his own Promise binds upon him Answ Here is one of the malicious Sleights of you and your Brethren when you cannot with any colour accuse the Doctrin of our Church to pretend it is only the Doctrin of some few Persons that you may persuade your Disciples the generality of Catholics hold the contrary The Council of Trent contains what all Catholics Subscribe to and this is the Doctrin of that Council in this Point Concil Trid. Sess 6. cap. 16. Benè operantibus usque in finem in Deo sperantibus proponenda est vita aeterna tanquam gratia filiis Dei per Christum Jesum misericorditer promissa tanquem merces ex ipsius Dei promissione bonis ipsorum operibus meritis fideliter reddenda To those who persevere in good Works even to the end of this Life and who hope in God Life everlasting is proposed both as Grace mercifully promised to the adopted Children of God through Jesus Christ our Lord as also as a Reward due in vertue
Gods let them know how much better the Lord of them is But if they were astonish'd at their power and vertue let them understand by them how much mightier he is who made them There is yet another Species of Idolatry of such who Deified and Adored all Creatures which was grounded on that Opinion of the Stoicks that God was the Soul of the World which is exprest by Virgil Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet But nothing about this occurring in Scripture and not much in Fathers I let it pass These are the several Species of Idolatry which occur and are most conspicuous amongst Pagans All were absolutely inexcusable for leaving the Creator for the Creature Yet amongst all methinks the cause of those who adored the Sun was somewhat more excusable than the rest for altho Reason teaches it evidently not to be a God yet Experience shews it to have one Property of God for the Sun gives Light and Life to all that have Eyes and Heart it gives without Interest it never appears but as a common good and besides its visible effects produces many other by hidden Influences These Considerations do not excuse but they somewhat diminish the guilt of those who adored that wonderful Instrument the work of the most High. Ecclesiastici 43.2 To sum up what we have said we find that even the wisest Men have been guilty of the greatest Folly that can enter into man's head how weak soever to take for a God a thing so much inferiour to them in nature that they expected help of a thing helpless and direction from what is senseless To this they were disposed by the humane Shape striking their fancy they were moved to it by love of a dead Master Fear of a living Tyrant Flattery to one on whom their fortune depended and these altogether heightened by the Illusion of the Divel Sometimes Gratitude to beneficial Creatures enclined Men to renounce the great Benefactor Yet these motives how powerful soever could never have made Men so prodigiously to renounce the use of Reason had they not by former sins so far left God as to deserve to be left by him not that they received no Grace at all from him but that they had not such Graces as would keep them in what was good and prevent their fall into those sensless Errors SECTION III. What were the Gods of the Pagans Or What things were represented by their Idols where it is proved that Pagan Gods had been Men. THE Occasion I have to treat of this Quaestion is given by G. B. and E. Still who pretend that Chiefly one and he the true God was adored by the Idolaters who used several Statues and Names only to represent his several Atributes And that by Jupiter they understood the true God. What I have cited out of Scripture and Fathers is sufficient to convince the contrary seeing that it appears that dead Men Stars c. were adored Vossius l. 1. de Idol cap. 5. p. 30. says Idolatry began with the Adoration of Angels thence past to the Souls of Men. Lactantius l. 2. c. 14. says the Aegyptians first adored the Stars afterward their Kings S. Cyril of Alex. l. 1. contra Jul. p. 17. saith the same of the Chaldaeans But the Aegyptians whilst the Israelites lived amongst them adored either Apis or Joseph under the shape of an Ox or Calf And in imitation of them the Israelites in the Desert Exod. 32. and the ten Tribes at their Schism from the Temple of Hierusalem the third of Kings 12.28 which continued amongst them till they were removed quite out of the Country Altho that was not the only Idolatry they were guilty of for they had Baal 3. Reg. 18. and the host of Heaven toward the end of their Kingdom as appears 4 Reg. 17.16 which they learnt probably of the Assyrians After the Transmigration of the Tribe of Juda we find those who remained in their Country much addicted to the Star-worship Hieremy 44. as to a Superstition ancient amongst them which I guess they learnt of their King Achaz and that he receiv'd it from Damascus 4 Reg. 16. where a Copy of an Altar was sent to the High-Priest to have another made like it and placed in the Temple But this being a matter of no moment I do not trouble my self with further examining it Our only Dispute is about the Romans and Greeks whose Idolatry was banish'd the World by Christian Religion which our modern Adversaries pretend that we have renewed again You say then that they by Jupiter adored the true God Creator of Heaven and Earth we say that all the Gods of the Pagans were Men and that Jupiter himself was such and that they were Divels who took upon themselves those persons Names to delude the World I will prove this 1st out of Scripture 2ly out of such Fathers as lived with Pagans and consequently had more occasion to know their Theology than we who must gather it only out of their Writings 3ly out of the Confession of Pagans 4ly out of the Acknowledgment of the Gods themselves who were adored and lastly by the Confession of Protestants My First Proof is taken out of Scripture Psal 95. 96. 5. All the Gods of the nations are divels Omnes Dii Gentium Daemonia So it is in the vulgat Edition and was so from the beginning while Paganism slourish'd and yet Pagans never accused the Christians for imposing upon them Opinions which they did not hold See S. Augustin upon that place The English Translation is somewhat different viz. All the Gods of the Nations are Idols Which notwithstanding confutes sufficiently the contrary Error for if this be true All Gods of Nations are Idols as it must being in Scripture E. S. his Proposition being contradictory to it must be false Jupiter the chief God of Nations is no Idol nor Devil Moreover if the Sacrifice the Idolaters offered which was always held to be the Prime Act of Religion was offered by them to the Devils and not to God then it follows they did not worship the true God but only Divels But they sacrificed to Divels and not to God Ergo they did not adore the true God but Divels I prove the Minor. Denter 32.17 They sacrificed to Divels not to God to gods whom they knew not to new gods who came newly up whom your fathers feared not Psal 105. 106 37. They sacrificed their sons and their Daughters unto Devils And 1 Cor. 10.20 The things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God. Hence Aug. l. 20. contra Faust c. 18. ait Nihil in sacrificiis Paganorum Deo displicuisse nisi quod fierent daemoniis Nothing in Sacrifices of the Pagans was displeasing to God but those to whom they were offered viz. the Devils My Second Proof is taken out of those Fathers who living with the Pagans and conversing familiarly