Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	pray_v	spirit_n	supplication_n	6,826	5	11.2274	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58886	Dr. Sherlock's preservative considered the first part, and its defence, proved to contain principles which destroy all right use of reason, fathers, councils, undermine divine faith, and abuse moral honesty : in the second part, forty malicious calumnies and forged untruths laid open, besides several fanatical principals which destroy all church discipline, and oppose Christs divine authority : in two letters of Lewis Sabran of the Society of Jesus.	Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732.	1688 (1688)	Wing S217; ESTC R16398	73,086	90

not to be Punished is to declare they value not Gods Love and Grace like Children but meerly fear the Lash like Slaves and all Catholics look on such a Disposition excluding positively all regard to Gods Grace and Love as incapable of receiving forgiveness of Sins Christ hath made Atonement for our Sins but his Blood is to be applied by Baptism and in case of Relapse by perfect Contrition or Penitential Works during Life or Punishment after Death before all Pain due to Sin be remitted thus applied it frees us from the whole Curse of the Law. No Suffering or Punishment is the Death of the Soul as Dr. Sherlock supposes but only the privation of Gods Grace which is her Life and which is enjoyed through Christ as much in Purgatory as by penitent Saints on Earth in their penitential Sufferings and the mercy of our Lord appears as much in purging his Members from all Stains of the least sin by the Fire of Purgatory as here by the toilsom Labors of a penitential Life such as his dearest Servants were ever purified by St. Paul never taught that all things that are not seen or of another World are Eternal or else God would be Eternally Judging and so never Rewarding his Servants or Punishing his Enemies so that Dr. Sherlock's Demonstration hath not so much as the least appearance of a seeming Reason Having thus represented our Faith I conclude with S. Augustin Enchirid. c. 10. against Dr. Sherlock It cannot be denied but that the Souls of the Dead are relieved by the Piety and Devotion of their living Friends as often as the Sacrifice of our Mediator is offered or Alms-deeds are done in the Church for them but these things do bring profit only to those who in their Life-time did merit to receive profit by the like after Death For there is a certain State of Life neither so good that it needeth not these Helps after Death nor so evil but that it may be helped by the same I have already Answered in the first Section all those Calumnies which are repeated here concerning the Blessed Saints Intercessions for us Our Doctrin directly opposite to the slanderous Misrepresentations here offered is 1. We look on the Prayers of Saints as meerly humble Supplications for we hold that Christ only standeth our Mediator challenging he alone in Justice and by his own Merits to be heard in favor of us 2. We conceive Charity to be at least as proper to and inseparable from the Seraphical Souls of Saints as from any of Gods Servants on Earth and as much inclining them to Pray for their Fellow-Members of Christ's Mystical Body engaged here below in Miseries and Dangers 3. We never required the Prayers of Saints to render God good and merciful but only when joyned with our Prayers to render these a fitter Object of Gods Mercy and to reconcile the Effects thereof to his Wisdom and Justice 4. Whatever pity the Saints may have on us we look on it as on a small St●●l●e situ●●e Drop compared to the Ocean of Gods infinite Mercy of which that very Pity and the Intercession of Saints is a free Gift to us given with all other Blessings together with and as an Effect of his greatest Gift to wit his Eternal Son with whom in whom and by whom he hath given us all things This Faith of ours doth I conceive most evidently expose the shameless Calumnies which Dr. Sherlock hath disfigured her by Thirty Misrepresentations and Calumnies offered by Dr. Sherlock in his Third and Fourth Sections and some of his Phanatical Principles NEver did Man speak more without Book without Truth and without any respect to Shame or Conscience this Preservative deserving more the Fate of defamatory Libels than those two which he prises and recommends Fol. 78. No Provincial Letters Jesuite Morals burnt by the Hangman Narrative of the Minister Oats contains more Lies and Calumnies against the Persons of Catholics than the Minister Sherlock's Preservative against their Religion the latter is infinitely more Impudent because he accuses with an equally shameless Scurrility not single Persons but most Princes Bishops Universities Kingdoms of the Christian World and all the General Councils to boot I do own and will maintain it That no man ever Lyed in Print with more Confidence ever was so deafned by Passion to all the Reproaches of Conscience and Honor And had not a long Custom of saying any thing in the Pulpit tho' never so monstrously false that could render Catholic Religion odious or ridicule it by disfiguring it dictated to his peevish Distemper this Second Part of his Preservative it would not I conceive have been possible that all the Gall that can drop from a Christians Pen should in one Pamphlet have heaped so many and so defamatory Calumnies Take the following Instances 1. The Catholics by unwritten Traditions that make up a part Fol. 73 74 75. of their Rule of Faith mean such things as may be concealed from the knowledge of the World for 1500 Years never heard of before in the Church of God kept very privately and secretly for several Ages and totally unwritten By Tradition we mean a Revelation received from God by the Apostles conveighed by the continual teaching and preaching of Lawful Pastors strengthned by the visible practice of Christian Churches found in the Books of succeeding Fathers and Historians though not in Canonical Scripture which St. Paul recommended 1 Tim. 6. 2 Thes 2. de Sp. S. c. 27. Ipsam fidei praedicationem ad nudum nomen Contrahemus to Timothy faithfully to be kept as a depositum And commanded the Thessalonians to observe which if it be laid by says St. Basil We shall retain of the Preaching of the Faith but an empty Name and which is delivered to us as Preached by the Apostles by the same means and with the same security at least as the Letter of the Gospel is conveighed to us as written by them 2. They teach several External Observances to be much more Fol. 79. pleasing to God and therefore much better in themselves than true Gospel Obedience Moral or Evangelical virtues that they supply the want of true virtue Compensate for sin and make men great Saints We teach that Gods inherent Grace only Sanctifies us and that whatever External observance void of Evangelical virtue is a sinful Hypocrisie and only can make one a greater sinner 3. They teach that when a Priest Absolves men that forsake Fol. 81 82. not their sins God must confirm the Sentence of his Minister and therefore they are Absolved and need not fear whence they believe that God can be reconciled to sinners whilst they remain in their sins And therefore they must believe that God hath given power to his Priests to Absolve those whom he could not Absolve himself We teach that to receive Absolution without a real forsaking of our sins in lieu of forgivness of them adds a hainous Sacrilege 4.

In the Church of Rome men may Expiate their sins by Penances Fol. 90. but are under no necessity of forsaking them No pain due to sin can be remitted whilst the guilt remains nor this removed till they be forsaken no Exterior Penance can in the least Expiate the guilt of sin This is our Doctrin by which the Calumnies of the following Misrepresentations appear 5. They account Satisfactory works Fastings acts of Penance Fol. 45 46. Prayers Alms though done without the least sorrow for sin without any true Devotion to God without mortifying any one Lust mere External Rites and Observances being judged Satisfactions and Expiations for Sin. 6. They use External Mortifications to satisfie for sins not to Fol. 91. kill them by subduing the Flesh to the Spirit to punish themselves for sins that they may commit them more securely again 7. The Roman Church teaches that men need take no care of Fol. 79. Venial sins and that they may keep clear from mortal sin without any great attainment in virtue It teaches a voluntary Venial sin ought not to be committed to save a whole Worlds Lives that it disposes to Mortal sins as Diseases do to Death that if our Passions be not curb'd by the practice of solid Christian Virtues mortal sins will not be avoided nor Heaven attained which they only purchase who use Violence 8. In the Roman Church Mony is paid for Indulgences Fol. 45. 48. and with them Satisfactions and Merits are bought To pretend to buy or sell any such Spiritual things we account a most grievous sin And every Alms-giver might with as much Justice be accused to have bought of God his Grace and Pardon for a sum of Mony. 9. They Consecrate senseless things to pardon Venial or sometimes Fol. 44. Mortal sin by touching or kissing them 10. They attribute Divine Virtues and Powers to senseless Fol. 43. things as is evident from the honor paid to Relicts and from the Consecration of Agnus Dei ' s Wax Candles Oyls Bells Crosses Ashes Holy Water 11. With them senseless things are capable of the Sanctification Fol. 44. of Gods holy Spirit by his Graces and can convey such Sanctification by Divine and invisible effluviums of Grace All these are misrepresentations of our Faith which teaches us nothing of all this What we believe is that nothing can free us from the guilt of any sin which is external and doth not effect and change the heart That all Creatures of God are good 1 Tim. 4. and that they are Sanctified by the word of God and Prayer neither doth Faith teach us that any Material thing hath any other than Moral Connexion with Grace either obtain'd for us by the Prayers of the Church offered for us at the blessing of those things or of those blessed Saints whom we honor and call upon by that Veneration or by the Sacraments according to the Institution or Covenant of Christ but we do not believe that Gods Grace is inherent but in the Souls of the Faithful or that any sin is remitted without a due disposition in a repentent sinner Or any virtue to be now-a-days Communicated otherwise by insensible things than it was to the Woman that touched the Hem of Christs Garments or by the Handkerchiefs of St. Paul or Shadow of St. Peter Neither do we use any Blessings which we do not find in the Records of the Primitive Church to have been ordered by the Apostles as I am ready to make out when ever required 12. The Popish Ceremonies are more severe and Intollerable Fol. 39. than the Jewish Yoke it self which St. Peter tells the Jews neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Unless he means it intollerable to Christians to Fast in Lent in imitation of our Blessed Lord and Friday and Saturday in memory of his bitter Agony on the Cross and laying in the Grave for us or their obligation of praying to God daily and particularly the Lords day and of relieving the necessities of the Poor thus calling Fasting Watching Praying and Alms-deeds so recommended by Christ our Lord Mere Ceremonies I know no Obligations imposed on the generality of Christians by any positive Law of the Church which can be called a Yoke As for the Ceremonies used in the Liturgy if they be a burden sure the Clergy or Religious must feel the weight of them yet I am sure not one ever owned it but this predominant passion of Calumniating will venture blindly at the most shameless untruths 13. Their Canonical Fast is not to abstain from Food but only Fol. 40 41. from such Meats as are forbidden This is most false but one Meal being allowed of on Fasting-days 14. There is no imaginable reason why it should be an act of Fol. 41. Religion meerly not to abstain from Flesh if Flesh have no legal uncleanness Here he would insinuate that we Judaize But when God by Hyeremy praised the Rhechabites for abstaining from Wine was it because Wine was held by them to have a legal uncleanness Is the taming of the Flesh the curbing of Sensuality no reason at all for Abstinence 15. They may Fast and say over their Beads and perform their Fol. 43. Penances and Satisfactions by another as well as if they did it by themselves This is an Impudent Sham. Each man is bound to satisfie by himself fulfilling the Penances imposed upon him 16. They hold that they have no title to Reward by doing thier Fol. 47. Duty and therefore they add Works of Supererogation A shameless untruth Nay the more pressing the Duty is the greater the Reward Alms given to a man starving for hunger we hold more meritorious than if not so great a necessity bore off the obligation of relieving him Each necessary observance of the Commandments hath a Crown laid up to be render'd by the just Judge 17. Whilst they Pray in an unknown Tongue a Parrot may as Fol. 58. much be taught to Pray in Spirit as they He would insinuate that Catholics when they assist to Prayers which they do not understand are not Commanded to pray in Spirit by devout thoughts and pious affections which is a mere Calumny 18. They take no care to instruct men in all necessary Doctrins Fol. 61. they learn their Creed as School-boys their Grammar without understanding it they receive the Impression that is made on them as Wax doth and understand no more of the Matter And with them this is the utmost perfection of Knowledge that any Christian must aim at A heavy Charge but so perfect a Slander that besides the Obligation laid on all those that have the charge and Cure of Souls hundreds of thousands of Religious men make it their daily Employ to instruct the Ignorant and each Parish hath Schools of Christian Doctrin to that end so that usually Children of ten years old can give a better account of their Faith in Catholic Countries than

as a piece of Wood is the Material Square of a Carpenter their application of Sense to this Letter is that which makes their real and Formal Rule as the streightness or crookedness of a Rule is the true Rule of the Carpenter that uses it 'T is against this I write and against Dr. Sherlock's Principle that tho' several Men using the same Method of making Rules find and own that their several Rules make different Lines yet it follows not says he that the Rules they work by are not true nor their Methods of making themselves a Rule erroneous Preservat f. 83 84. Were all Protestants of a mind would their Consent and Agreement prove the certainty of their Faith Answer f 7. Not at all but 't is a most ridiculous Inference of yours This is the same Rule and their Disagreement proves not their uncertainty All Union is not an Argument of the Spirit of God for People may combine to do ill But St. Paul assures us Disunion and Dissention is a certain Mark of the absence of the Spirit of God. Defence f. 21. You should have added in some not in all the disagreeing Parties If the Question be put amongst a company of Men to go rob such a House is it a Mark of the absence of the Spirit of God in those which do not agree to that Wickedness Answer Certainly this honest Footman is hired to write as wide as may be from Reason that in Comparison with it Dr. Sherlock's Errors may appear tolerable I speak of People led into Disunion by the same Principle which from thence I conclude to be no good one And I pray those who refuse to go and rob the House do they act in this Refusal by the same Principle by which others are moved to the Robbery If they be for Example out of Spite tho' their Refusal be just and good their Motive or Rule they act by and of that only I speak is stark naught Dr. Sherlock's Principle which makes void all Scripture-proof IF a Mystery appears against Sense and Reason Preservative fol. 72. we must have a Scripture proof as cannot possibly signifie any thing else or else it will not answer that Evidence which we have against it Sense and Reason proving it naturally impossible Answ f. 7. A Text which cannot possibly have an other sense doth not leave it in any ones liberty who owns Scripture to be an Heretic therefore the Church produced no such Texts against the Arians or Nestorians to whom the Mysteries of the Trinity and of Christs Human and Divine Nature in one Person appeared against Sense and Reason whence it evidently follows that according to Dr. Sherlock the Arians and Nestorians were bound not to believe the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ A happy Ministerial Guide and well led such as follow him Defence f. 22. The Trinity and Incarnation which the Arians and Nestorians disputed they are Mysteries indeed and might seem to be above Sense and Reason but they are not contrary to it But that Transubstantiation contradicts both is plain Answ The Footman had better have minded his Masters business than to pretend an Answer to what he doth not as much as understand Certainly the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation are not against Sense and Reason but they did appear so to the Nestorians and Arians and that is the Case put by Dr. Sherlock and therefore 't is evident that according to his Principle Arians and Nestorians were bound not to leave their Heresies Dr. Sherlock's Principle making void all use of Councils and Fathers AFter he hath respectively told us That Preservative fol. 73 Learned men may squabble about the Fathers he gives these Rules without which they be of no use 1. We must know that the Father is truly Author of the Book or the Council of such a Decree 2. That he was not corrupted by the ignorance or knavery of the Transcribers while they were in the hands of the Monks and to make this impossible he assures us They not only pared their Nails but also their very Habit and Dress to fit them to the Modes of the time 3. That the Father doth not in some other place Contradict what there he says 4. That he did not alter his Opinion after Answer f. 8. That 's to say some of these requisites not being possibly to be known no use is to be made of them Defence f. 23 24. These requisites that man that will build any thing upon their Authority must know or else he may be miserably mistaken yet this is not to deny any use of Fathers and Councils for Learned men may dispute about them Answ A rare Privilege granted to Learned Men that they may dispute about Fathers and Councils but not till they have resolved some doubts first which cannot possibly be resolved This is to sport pretty pleasantly but not to answer Dr. Sherlock's Principle which makes void all use of Civil Charity and Moral Justice to our Neighbor IT lies in his last Chapter in which he attempts Answer fol. 8. in vain to colour the Misrepresentations which his Party hath ever been guilty of It is when a mans Exterior Actions are naturally capable of a good and pious meaning and he ever and clearly declares that it is His. Yet to fasten upon him another opposite design and meaning taken from his opposers contrary Principle Than which there cannot be a greater and more unjust disingenuity this he calls to join Protestant Principles with Popish Practices For Example to insinuate That a Catholick thinks the blessed Virgin more Powerful in Heaven than Christ He tells us that he says ten Ave Maria's for one Lords Prayer And this though he knows that the first half of the Ave Mary is in memory of and thanksgiving for the Incarnation of Christ and the other half asks of the Virgin only to pray for us to Christ which is all the Power we allow her in Heaven Defence p. 24. The matter of Fact is true Suppose he doth not think her more powerful than Christ yet sure he must think her more merciful and ready to hear his Prayers Answ This is in lieu of excusing his Masters Malice and disingenuity meerly to make the Proverb Good like Master like Man. Mary her self her Merciful concern for us her Prayers are an Effect and Gift of the Mercy of Christ But to see how people will speak in spight of Sense when they are resolved to impugn Truth how can it prove that I believe a person more merciful than another because I repeat oftner my instances and Petition Naturally we call that a greater mercy which is sooner moved and yields to a single address But the whole is a most false Calumny as it insinuates that our Church applies her Devotions more to our blessed Lady than to Christ Our Mass our Church Office except now and then a short Prayer of three or four lines our Meditations our Fasts are all

might Pray the more for us the Christians as St. Gregory Nyssen observes calling on the Martyr as on God's Tract 8. in Joa Serm. 27. de verb. Dom. l. 22. c. 10. de Civ In S. Thcod Mar. Minister who being Invocated by Men is able to Impetrate for them what Favors he pleases That Christ by refusing himself all Worship to God's Enemy the Devil teaches Vs to pay none at all to God's Saints and Angels is an Inference that no one but Dr. Sherlock was ever capable to make That to bring or invite Saints to the Feet of God's Throne to joyn their Prayers to ours is to set them in the Throne of God is a Position that seems to be supported in spite of all Sense and Reason The Catholics by Petitioning the Saints to Pray to God for them do most perfectly worship God and that by as immediate a Prayer as the Three Children in the Furnace of Dan. 3. Babylon as David in his 148. Psalm and others where he invites all Creatures to Praise God and whatever we admire in them being the Graces and Glory of God and the Worship which they pay him as directly leads to God as any other Prayer the best sort whereof is Thanksgiving or a Memorial of the Blessings we have received our selves from God. Besides since we are sure that they faithfully return to God as the Author of all that is praise-worthy in them whatever Praises they receive from us we honor and worship God more by Praying thus to them than he that should have held a Book of Prayers to St. Peter or St. Paul on Earth to read their Seraphical Prayers in The Catholic Believes there is but one God and one Mediator Jac. 4 between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus as he believes Jac. 5. there is one Lawgiver and one Judge and one Redeemer yet he believes that he who converts his Brother saves his Soul tho' Christ be the only Saviour because all other Means to Salvation have their efficacy from him Christ is the only Mediator by Nature and his essential Office by his own Merits only challenging in Justice to be heard having given himself a full Redemption so that he is as St. Augustin observes the Priest In Psalm 64. who being now entred into the vail alone there of them who have been partakers of flesh doth make intercession for us yet as the same Saint says without doubt the Martyrs intercede for us 'T is true we are bidden to come with confidence to the throne In Psalm 8● and 8● of glory that is with security that a full Ransom is paid for us of more than sufficient value to obtain whatever we ask but as the beloved Disciple observes that full confidence that they shall be heard is only for those whose Heart doth not check 1 Joan. 3. them with the consciousness of their Sins and we reach not the Pharisaical Pride of those who rank themselves with the Innocents We own Christ to be the Gate the Way he in whose Name we must ask and we say with St. Augustin That In Psalm 108 Prayer which is not made in the Name of Christ Mediator between God and Man not only doth not blot out sin but is it self a sin We are certain that whoever asks as he should in the Name of Christ will obtain what he asks and therefore finding our Prayers so often not to be heard and knowing that the very Prayer of a Sinner is odious to God whilst his Sins crie louder we put that adorable Name in the Mouth of Saints not by choosing them for our Mediators since their Prayers are of no other efficacy or value but thro' the Passion of Christ but for our Fellow-Intercessors as the Apostles themselves when on Earth asked the Prayers of others tho' absent by their Letters and we as much apply the Mediation of Christ to us by the Prayers of our Fellow-Members of his Mystical Body as we do by Alms-deeds and other pious Works which is no more a derogation to Christ than that St. Peter should work even greater Miracles than he himself because he wrought them in his Name and we honor God as much as those who laid their sick Friends where St. Peter's Shadow as he pass'd might cover them in lieu of calling immediately upon Christ whose Devotion was approved by Miracles We pay no other Worship to Images than the Jews by the Holy Ghost's Commands paid to the Ark or Mercy-seat or to the Cherubins for whatever Dr. Sherlock says to the contrary the same Worship may be paid to God's Throne as to his Footstool the Images are not the Object of our Worship but a Means to convey it to its proper Object which they represent We adore God every where and particularly where his Representative as a Crucisix is of Christ by a livelier Representation renders him more present to our Faith and we direct no other way our Worship towards a Crucifix than we do towards Heaven when we adore God there We adore but one substantial Image of God Christ Jesus but Pictures and Material Representations no more than our own Thoughts when in Contemplation we adore God tho' we have a singular Veneration for them as we have for the Bible proportion'd to that Civil Respect which we pay to the Images or Statues of our Kings If our worship of Creatures be Idolatry all the first Christians were great Idolaters who shewed so much Respect and Love to St. Paul and the other Apostles and confided so much on their Prayers which they asked with Tears for we own and practise no other sort of Creature-worship That Catholics have every where and even in this last Age destroyed all Idols and converted Nations from Idolatry is a certain Truth and therefore 't is as evident a Calumny that they have only changed the Names of Idols The Heathen Philosophers never pretended that their Prayers to Idols were only to ask the Prayers of Angels and Daemons not the least footstep of this appears in any one of them and the Silver-Smith Demetrius who accused St. Paul for teaching Act. 19. 26. Quoniam non sunt dii qui manibus fiunt that those were not Gods which were the work of mens hands sufficiently teaches us what Notion was generally received of Idols I have seen some part of the Catholic World as France the Low-Countries some Parts of Italy and Germany it hath been my great Employ to instruct the weakest Age and dullest People yet I profess I never met with any one that was in the least danger to take a Picture or Statue for a God or for a Saint that heard him And the Inquisitions against whose Severity Protestants so often declaim tho' they have often detected those who turned Jews a Persuasion most opposite to Image-Worship yet never discovered any one who by the use of Image or Statue was fallen into Idolatry We know God can hear us immediately and