Sacrament considered with the Eyes of Faith and believe that this Sacrifice helps much to a holy life but not at all without it 30. Amongst them one can Merit for twenty so there is no need above one in twenty should be Good. Merit with us is Personal and not Communicative no one is better in the sight of God for the Piety of another and in what ever sense one may satisfie Gods Justice for the Penitential works he exacts from an other whose sin is remitted no one hath a title to the least degree of Glory and consequently hath any Merit by an others Sanctity or Merit Many more of this Man's Calumnies I pass by these Thirty and the other Ten I have laid down being a clear Evidence that he is the most confident Calumniator that ever Preached or Writ who dares say any thing without the least respect to Truth without any regard to Charity Honor or Conscience Now Sir give me leave to offer you some few of the many Fanatical Principles he advances as destructive to what you call your Church as to Christianity in general that in your second thoughts you may blush if you are capable of it for having set your Name to them and Licensed them to the Press The First God being a Spirit must not be sought for in Houses Fol. 48 50 51. of Wood and Stone because he must be worshipped in Spirit he must not be worshipped by any material or sensible Representations Those words Except your Righteousness exceeds the Righteousness of the Fol. 38. Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven cuts off every thing that is External in Religion Do not these Principles remit all Christians to the Silent Meetings of Quakers Exclude the use of Churches rather than Barns Singing of Psalms and such other material Representations of the God whom we Praise The Second God and Christ are not present in the Assemblies Fol. 37. of Christians by any Figurative or Symbolical Presence There is no Symbolical Presence of God under the Gospel 'T is a great Fol. 34 55. Absurdity to talk of more Symbolical Presences of God than one for a Symbolical Presenc confines the unlimited Presence of God to a certain Place in order to certain Ends as for Example to receive the Worship which is paid him Now to have more than one such Presence as these is like having more Gods than one To say nothing of the absurdity of this Discourse which makes that Christian an adorer of two Gods who by Faith adoring God in Heaven and in his own Soul worships him in both places doth not this destroy the very Essence of your Sacrament the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper which you own to be a Symbolical Presence of Christ The Third If God be better worshipped before an Image than Fol. 53 54. without one then the Worship of God is more confined to that Place where the Image is I cannot see how to avoid this whereas there is no appropriate Place of Worship under the Gospel And 't is the same tho' the Image be not appropriated to any Place but carried about with us for still the Image makes the Place of Worship This is an Argument for all Dissenters from you and all Fanatics against a Set Liturgy a Set Form of Prayer for if God be better worshipped by a Set Form of Prayer than without it then the Worship of God is more confined to that Place where that Set Form of Prayer that Set Liturgy is used and 't is the same tho' no set Place be appointed for that Set Form of Prayer c. The Parallel is exact The Fourth Having laid this Principle All that is meerly Fol. 34 36. External in Religion is taken away all Rites believed to be in themselves Acts of Religion and to render the Worshipper acceptable to God and this because God must be worshipped as a meer Spirit To defend the use of Baptism and the Lord's Supper he brings this only Reason Mankind by Sin hath forfeited all natural Right to Gods Favor they can challenge nothing but by Promise and Covenant such Covenants require a mutual Stipulation on both Sides Therefore they must be transacted by some visible and sensible Rites whereby God obliges himself to us and we to him Is not this last Inference destroyed by the former Principle taking away all Rites that are Acts of Religion all that is meerly External And on this Principle ought he not to teach that the mutual Stipulation betwixt God and us must be made by his interior Graces and our interior Worship because God must be worshipped as a meer Spirit Upon whatever account that interior Covenant requires a visible sensible Mark and our actual Communion with Christ another all the Communications of Gods Graces to us all our return of Worship and Adoration will equally admit of sensible Signs and Rites To avoid farther Prolixity I will end with the following Principle of his most injurious to Christ and an open and never to be coloured Blasphemy Fifth Principle There never was never can be an Infallible Fol. 68 69 70. Judge Christ himself was not an Infallible Judge altho' he were an Infallible Teacher I must my self judge of his Doctrin before I know that he is Infallible therefore Men were to judge of Christ's Doctrin before they believed him and they are thus to this day to Examin his Doctrin by the Law and Prophets and he never required that they should submit to his Infallible Authority without Examination He could not be an Infallible Judge obliging Men to receive all his Dictates as Divine Oracles without Examination 'T was impossible to know him to be Infallible but by judging of his Doctrin by the agreement thereof with the Principles of Reason and of former Revelations Doth a Christian teach this and a Christian approve and license it What JESVS our God blessed for evermore even when owned the Son of God even from us Christians cannot exact a Submission to his Infallible Authority without Examination of the truth of what he says by comparing it with the Principles of Human Reason He cannot oblige us to receive all his Dictates as Divine Oracles Was Christian Faith was the Author of it JESVS ever thus affronted Did the Apostles err did they act against Sense and Reason when they believed what he had taught of his Flesh being meat indeed Joh. 6. v. 69. only because he had the words of Eternal Life because his Dictates were Divine Oracles Were all men of this mind Christ would not indeed find any Faith on Earth What tho' we certainly know Christ to have taught and declared a Truth must we not upon his word submit to it and embrace it till we have consulted our Reason and found it can object nothing against it Were the weapons of S. Paul's 2 Cor. 10. 5. warfare such as could humble what raised it self against the science of God and bring into captivity all understanding in obedience to Christ and had the Word and Preaching of Christ less power Christ teaches it is not yet a sufficient Motive for me to believe Should an Angel from Heaven teach me this I would with St. Paul return him no other Answer than Anathema and do you Sir approve this Do you License men to teach to Christians they are not to submit to Christ's Word as to Divine Oracles that they must make themselves his Judges and Examin by their Reason whether he spoke truth or no Well Sir were it but not to give occasion to the spreading so horrid Blasphemies against our Lord and God I take my leave of you and of such Books Licensed by you and end with this Profession of my Catholic Faith Christ is an Infallible Judge I must not Judge of his Doctrin but believe it and submit to him I submit to his Infallible Authority without Examination I receive all his Dictates as Divine Oracles If tho' Summoned by me you still refuse to Subscribe to this Doctrin I will obey St. John's Counsel I will have nothing to do with you nor return to you so much as Ave or any Greeting but content my self with Subscribing to this Profession of my Faith LEWIS SABRAN Of the Society of JESUS
the rest If therefore Protestants are in the wrong we are certainly in the right as far as we are opposite to them And besides since that all the positive Proofs that can be brought for the infallible Authority of Church-Teachers express also in what Church they are by evident Marks not to be found but in our Catholic Church it follows if the Protestants be in the wrong as to that Principle we are certainly in the right as to each Point of our Religion taught us by an unerring Interpreter Preserv f. 80. This that the Protestant Faith is uncertain may signifie two things First That the Objects of our Faith are uncertain and cannot be proved by certain Reasons Secondly That our Persuasion is wavering Answ f. 7. Besides the two mention'd it fignfies a Third thing also to wit That whatever Reasons there may be for a thing he who believes it hath not for the Motive of his Belief those certain Reasons There are for Example certain Reasons whereon to ground a Faith in Jesus Christ yet he that believes in Christ meerly because his Mother or a Minister hath taught him so to do hath a very uncertain and no Divine Faith. Defence f. 18. What can be the Gentleman's meaning I cannot conceive unless it be this That because Protestants take the Reason of their Faith from Scripture and not from the Church of Rome that therefore they can have no certain or Divine Faith which if it be I pity him if it be not I must desire him to explain himself Answer The honest Footman is grown very tender-hearted But is not this very plain that altho' there be very good Reasons for the belief of an Article of Christian Religion yet one that should believe it on the account of some silly Motive only such as I cited would have no Divine Faith But how can this be applied to Protestants who take the Reasons of their Faith from Scripture This I had shewed Fol. 6. but the Footman passes it by with this Answer only I shall say nothing to that Harangue so often Answered by our Divines It seems he had forgot those Answers or was conscious of their weakness Thus I discoursed there The Catholics prove that an uncertain or wavering Faith is no Divine Faith which the Protestants can never have of any one Article of their Religion because they never can have a certain one 'T is easily proved because they cannot have an act of Faith of any one Article till their Rule of Faith proposes it i. e. till they know certainly by their private Reading and Judgment what the Scriptures teach of it not by some one Text or two but by comparing all the Texts that treat of that Subject for the Sense of a single Text for Examp. My Father is greater than I cannot be had but by expounding it by other Texts on the same Subject Till a Protestant then hath a certain knowledge First that he hath all the Books of Holy Writ Secondly that all those he owns for such were really written by inspired Pens Thirdly that he hath a true and sound Translation in case he understood not the Original Languages and in case he doth a true Copy not altered by the Error or Malice of our Forefathers Fourthly since the Letter kills that he understands the true Meaning and Sense of each Text which relates to the Object of his Act of Faith Fifthly that he remember them all so as comparing them to see which be the clearer that must expound the obscurer and what is the true result of them all for any one which he understands not or hath forgotten may possibly be that one that must expound the rest he cannot have one Act of Faith. Now Catholics say this is impossible to most if not to all Protestants who are in each of these Points to Judge for themselves and not to submit to any Authority where a Doubt arises therefore few or no Protestants can in their whole Life-time frame one Act of Divine Faith concerning any one Mystery not that Scripture is not a very certain Rule but because they have chosen an useless because impossible and uncertain way of applying it Preservat ib. We believe the Apostles Creed and whatever is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles This is all we believe and I hope they will not say these things are uncertain Answer They are very certain but not to any Protestant whose Rule of Faith considering the Method he applies it by cannot make him certain of any one Article But the pleasant Answer which Justifies Turk Jew and Gentile For this is a Rule of Faith most sufficient according to Dr. Sherlock and a good Plea We believe all that God hath revealed and nothing else is not all that he hath revealed certain Here lies the Doctor 's gross Mistake that no one is an Heretic for not believing that what God hath revealed is true 't is impossible to fall into so mad an Heresie But Heretics are such for not believing him to have revealed what in effect he hath tho' he hath given sufficient Methods to come to the knowledge of it if they would use them Defence Do Jews Turks and Gentiles believe all that is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles Answer No Sir nor you neither If they believed all that God hath revealed as they pretend they would believe all that is delivered in the Bible which you pretend but upon as little ground What they think in their Judgment God hath revealed they believe what they think he hath not revealed they disbelieve that 's their Rule of Faith and 't is yours your own private Judgments being on both hands your Guides and not any Authority Established by Almighty God. Preservat f. 81. If these things which are believed by those who take their Faith from the Bible interpreted by their own final Sense be not built upon certain Reasons their Infallible Church can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. Answer Even this is most notoriously false since she is not Infallible by any Light of her own but by the Guidance of the Spirit of Truth Were not the Apostles when they had once acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God certain of all he revealed to them before he had given them certain Reasons for it It were a blind Impiety to think so Defence f. 19. Was there in that Case of the Apostles a certain Faith without a certain Reason An infallible Man must know things as they are or else he is mistaken Answer The Footman is very dull here and cannot distinguish between a certain Reason moving me to believe him that speaks and a certain Reason in the things that are delivered moving me to believe them This Second Dr. Sherlock requires saying That if these things which are believed be not built upon certain Reasons the Infallible Church seeing not any such Reasons can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. An
of Faith and a new Religion or at least Phanatick-like by Enthusiasms and new marvelous Revelations make new additions to our Faith so that we may have daily a different one their Votaries like a blind Herd being driven now to one Opinion then to another yet still supposing themselves infallibly right all this is a monstruous misrepresentation without one word of truth but men who themselves follow a lawless fancy and loose liberty must thus disfigure that admirable Guide which God hath left us otherwise they would soon be without any followers this account I shall deliver here of the infallible Guide which Catholics follow the Church of God will I am sure represent her in very different because in her true proper Colours Our Guide then is the Catholic Church either diffusive in its whole extent or representative in its Head and Bishops the Pope and a General Council for as in the State here in England we have a Common Law and a Statute Law the first not compiled by any one Lawgiver but delivered by all the Judges and Sages of the Law and preserved in all Courts and the daily use of the whole Kingdom the second delivered particularly by the Kingdoms Great Representative in its Head and Members the King and lawfully convened Parliaments So in the Church there is a general Faith first received from Christ and his Apostles and preserved by all Bishops in their respective Diocesses and in the mind and actions of each faithful Believer in the whole Catholic Church and when any difficulty arises by the opposition of new Heresies then the Church Representative the Pope and a General Council or Synod of the ablest and Holiest Bishops of the Catholic Church deliver their Sentence in favour of the ancient Truth ever followed in the Church which Decisions or Canons are like our Statute Law only declaring and applying to particular instances the Common Law or Belief of the Church We hold that this general Faith received from the Apostles and preserved in all the Members of the Catholic Church explained upon occasion by the Church Representative is infallibly true and this is all the infallibility the Catholic Church pretends unto neither the whole Church nor any person or persons in it are held to possess any intrinsick infallibility which we own to be proper to God alone Nay no man in this present state or condition of life as our Divines observe can be in himself impeccable or infallible all are of themselves subject to Error Scotus in 2. diff 2 3. Q. as well as to sin and whatever God doth in favour of his Church doth no more alter her defectibility than a strong man lifting up a great weight with a Child takes away the natural weakness of the Child which remains still the same though the weight not moveable to the Child be in effect drawn or lifted up Hence Rufinus observes that we do not say in our Creed I believe in the Holy Catholic Church as we say I believe in God the Father In Jesus Christ In the Holy Ghost By that Preposition that syllable in we separate the Creator from his Creatures Divine help from In Symb. art Eccless S. Cat. Hac prepositionis syllaba Creator a Creaturis secernitur divina humanis separantur Humane means but we say of these humane means appointed by Almighty God that although they be fallible and exposed to error in their own nature yet by Gods appointment and Grace they will prove infallible as to us and certainly lead to the knowledge of truth We do not say that they cannot of themselves deceive us but that God according to his promise directing them by his infallible Spirit it cannot possibly happen that they should deceive us If then says S. Thomas our Creed as many understand it teaches us to believe in the Catholic Church this is the sence of it That is to say our Faith leans on the Holy Ghost and the meaning of these words are I believe in the Holy Ghost who sanctifies the Hoc est intelligendum secundum quod fides nostra refertur in Spiritum sanctum Sanctificantem Ecclesiam holy Church and Guides her When God revealed to St. Paul that he should come to Rome and die there or to St. Peter that being grown old he should be Crucified were either of them immortal the one till he came to Rome the other till he became old not the least they were as srail as before as exposed to Diseases within as capable of being wounded and that mortally yet in a true sense they were immortal for that time because that by reason of the Revelation and protection of God it was impossible they should die before they came the one to Rome the other to old Age according to the Revelation Thus should God reveal to a Traveller in a wild Wilderness full of wild Beasts and beset by Thieves that he should pass certainly unhurt and not fall he nor those who follow him into the Hands of these or Claws of those this man would remain as weak as ignorant of the ways as exposed to danger as before yet would prove an infallible Guide to those who would follow him So supposing which I shall presently prove that God hath promised to the Catholic Church that his holy Spirit should guide her in all truth that she shall follow that true Guide and ever avoid falling into Error though each Member of the Church remain as fallible as weak as subject to Error as before yet it evidently follows that this Church will infallibly avoid all Errors never lead any of her followers into it and this is all we mean by the Churches infallibility A thing when thus rightly understood as clear as evident as certain as that God's Revelation cannot prove false as that the Holy Ghost and Christ himself who remains with the Teachers of this Church be in themselves infallible We do not expect any new Revelations or Lights we do not admit any new Article of Faith though where a doubt arises the Church hath infallibly power to declare what hath been revealed by Christ to the Apostles and Preached by them which perchance some part of the Church might have had a less clear understanding thereof and though when the sense of Scripture appears doubtful to some this Church can explain infallibly what the true sense and meaning is and deliver more explicitly what is implyed in the Word of Scripture for example if some doubts whether in the Mystery of our Lords Supper there be a true Change of the substance of Bread into that of the Body of our Lord. This Holy Church can declare that these plain words This is my Body do declare it and to avoid further mistake may give a new clearer Name to the old Mystery so revealed by Christ and Preached by the Apostles calling it Transubstantiation as She calls the Mystery of God one in Nature and three in Persons Holy Trinity a
love his King and pay Allegiance to him alone therefore no Reason can justifie the love of a Man for his Wife or of a Child for his Father St. Augustin drew from that very Text the contrary Conclusion he takes off all blame from Abraham who is said in Genesis to Q. 61. in Gen. have Adored or Worshipped the People of the Land because 't is observable says the Holy Doctor That in the Commandment 't is not said thou shalt Worship God alone as it is said and him alone thou shalt serve which in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a service of Latria is given to God alone Defence f. 12. What a delicate piece of Sophistry is here The Commandment is to serve God only which service we must of necessity understand to be that which is Divine but Worship is so Therefore the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. Answ All that is plain in this Answer is that men necessarily want a Guide in the interpreting of Scripture and that an infallible one also for such is the pride of some men that even an ignorant Foot-man as you see thinks he understands the Bible better than the Holiest and most Learned of Doctors S. Augustin and what reason teaches of the Service of God better than the most enlightened Patriarchs Abraham Worships men S. Augustin declares that the Commandment hath nothing against it there being an inferior Worship which is far below Divine Service but the Protestant Doctor teaches his Footman to aver that all Worship so he should have said to have spoken sense is Divine that the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. How likely is it they shall by their own judgment and reason understand the Bible who cannot construe right the Commandments no not the first of them and if Dr. Sherlock and his Footman understand right the first Commandment St. Augustin did not Do you not blush Sir to License the boldness of such ignorant Pride Preservative f. 26. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image Is so express a Law against Image-Worship that no reason must be admitted for it Answ f. 6. What if you be told that the Jews may perhaps have had a Command of making no graven Image c. yet this being a positive Law and not renewed in the Gospel doth not oblige us will this Reason be admitted of No no reason and yet you have no other reason for passing by as Express a Law of Sanctifying Saturday What if it be rejoyn'd that only the making to themselves by private Authority making that to be which is not a Statue for Example which of its nature is the representation of a Man or a Calf to be to them a true God an Idol to adore it which divine Worship thus misapplyed is forbidden Cannot this Reason be heard No then Belezeel by Gods direction and Command making several likenesses of things on Earth below and in Heaven above Salomon placing such in the Temple sinned against the first Commandment for the making of such is as distinctly forbidden as the Adoring So if a Law thus says Thou shalt not carry any Arms thou shalt not strike the carrying of Arms would be as directly against the Law as the striking so do all Painters and Carvers and all our London Merchants that hang out a Sign-post The truth is what sense they put on any Text is the express Law against which no reason must be heard so they challenge to themselves that infallibility which they so sturdily deny to the Church of God. Defence f. 13 14. 'T is held on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative and so abolished at the death of Christ but as far as it was Moral namely that a Seventh Day should be kept that still remains Besides Christ and his Apostles were Authors of this change Christ as he rose on that day so he usually did appear on that day to his Disciples and Scripture maintains the Celebration of it by the constant practice of the Apostles Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 21. Answ We have four untruths in very few lines The first that 't is agreed on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative all that understand Scripture right say the contrary to wit that it was not a meer Shadow of a thing to come as Figurative speaks but a Memory of the past and never to be forgotten benefit of the Creation from the work whereof God rested on that day and says Moses blessed the seventh day 'T is a second Untruth then that the Moral part of it was only the keeping a seventh day and that Christ our Lord altered it 'T is an untruth that Christ our Lord usually appeared on that day to his Apostles for Acts 1. 3. S. Luke assuresus he appeared every day to them Perdies quadraginta apparens Eis Act. 1. 3. Act. 2. 7. Salutatio mea manu Pauli 1 Cor. 16. 21. How St. Pauls meeting at Troas with many in the participation of the Sacraments and disputing till Midnight it being the Eve of his departure or his subscribing his Epistle with his own Hands for these are the two Texts produced is a Proof that the Scripture maintains the constant practice of the Apostles of keeping Sunday Holy I leave it to you Sir to make out the truth of it Defence f. 14. 'T is sufficient with Catholics to submit to an infallible Guide and that too if he declares as the Council of Constance did Concerning the Eucharist that notwithstanding our Lord did Institute it in both kinds and the Apostles so celebrated it yet now it should not be so But for us Protestants we cannot think that any Reason can be sufficient to lay aside an Express Text. Answ The meaning of these words as they lay here is to persuade the Readers that the Council of Constance did own that Christ did Institute or order that the Sacrament should be taken by all in both kinds and that in the Apostles time it was ever so taken yet that by the Church Authority it was ordered it should hereafter be otherwise If the Honest Footman means not so and would not have all to believe so there is no sense at all in this his Inference That Protestants cannot think that any reason can be sufficient to lay aside an express Text. But in this sense 't is a most outragious Calumny and though a Footman's ignorance may be excused yet with what face Sir can you pretend to judge of Books and License them if you are in the same gross Error or if wilfully and wittingly you License such impudent Slanders against the whole Churches Representative what Libels and Lampoons are you not qualified and disposed to License These Decreta Concil Cons Dec. 4. are the words of the Council Although Christ did Institute this Venerable Sacrament after Supper and did administer it to his Disciples under both the
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
to lift up our Hands and Eyes to Heaven where the Throne of God is when we pray to him but the very Image for Example of Christ crucified is the Object of the Worship of Papists 6. By the Incarnation God is visibly represented to us in our Fol. 12. Nature but the Papists not contented with this contrary to the Design of God made Man make and adore other Images Fol. 13. of God. 7. They have the Worship of Creatures and Images still and therefore all the visible Idolatry that ever was practised in the World before 8. They only change the Heathens Country-Gods into Saints and Angels and give new Names to their Statues and Images As to internal Notions 9. The Pagan Philosophers made the same Apologies for their Worship of Angels and Daemons and Images which the Learned Papists now make And 10. 'T is doubtful whether the Unlearned Papists have not as gross Notions about their Worship of Saints and Images as the Unlearned Heathens had The Faith and Practice of Catholics as to their Worship THE Catholic hating above all Sins the vain and abominable Qui confidunt in eis Ps 133. Sacrificans diis Eradicabitur praeterquam Domino Deo soli Exod. 22. Idolatry of the Heathens says Amen to that heavy Curse of David on all those who put their trust in those strange and false Gods for those truly make a false God not who carve his Idol but who create him a Divinity in their Mind and Heart by having recourse to him by Prayers and Sacrifices and what Sacrifice more valuable than that of the Heart by a full return of confidence and dependence He acknowledges no other Name to be invocated no other Protection to be sought but of our Lord God thro' Christ in the Holy Ghost That there is no other Name under Non est in alio aliquo salus non enim est aliud nomen sub coelo datum hominibus in quo oporteat nos salvos fieri Act. 4. Ostende nobis Domine misericordiam tuam salutare tuum da nobis Ps 84. the Heavens in which we can attain Salvation 'T is God's Mercy and his only he calls upon from him only with the Prophet he seeks his Eternal Bliss So that he adheres to God alone Psal 84. and places therein his Virtue and Comfort That all his Prayers lift up his Heart towards God six his Hope on God increase his Love of God From him alone he seeks Relief in Want Protection in Adversity Grace in Temptations Security in Dangers Virtue during Life Victory in Death Happiness in Eternity As he abhors that Saying of the Poet Each Mans Security is best placed in himself so with St. Augustin he equally Aug. de Praedest SS cap. 1. fears that Curse of the Prophet Be he accursed who confides in Man. He owns with Ezechiel that the Protection of Noe Ezech. cap. 14. Daniel or Jacob will not avail their wicked Children and he places amongst them all those who put their trust not in their Creator but Creatures not on God but their Fellow-Servants He believes that each best Gift each perfect Good Jacobi 1. is from above and issues from the Father of Lights That whoever sweats under temporal Afflictions and thirsts after Joan. 7. ease and comfort who ever sighs under spiritual Infirmities and faints for want of relief whatever our craving Hearts pant for Jesus is ready by his Blessings to refresh us and that since he shed his precious Blood for us on the Cross 't is our fault in not addressing our selves to him with confidence if Isay's Promise be not fulfilled in us You shall with joy draw Isaiâ—e 12. abundant Waters of all Comforts from the Fountains of your Saviour his Wounds And therefore in all his Prayers he casts ever his Eyes on Jesus the Author of his Faith and the Perfecter of it it being the Essence of his Religion that it fix Quod uni Deo religemus animas nostras Aug. de verâ relig cap. 55. his Thoughts Hopes Wishes Prayers and whole Soul on God. This all our Pulpits ever Preach all our Universities and Divines teach all our Catechisms explain all our Books of Devotion move us to all our Liturgies public and private Prayers express If we honor God's faithful Servants now glorious in his Presence if we ask of them to joyn their Prayers to ours 't is God's Glory we aim at and God's Mercy we sue for All Divine Worship we pay to God alone an inferior Worship Cui honorem Rom. 13. we not only may but must pay whereever it is due as S. Paul commands us The reason of it is that all Worth and Dignity exacts a proportionable Value and Esteem and having it interiorly we ought to express it exteriorly and such Expressions we call Worship and those who may challenge it Worshipful If that Excellency and Worth be created and natural as Power Greatness Learning we call it Civil Worship such is paid to Kings Magistrates Parents If Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 26. de S. Mim M. and uncreated we call it Divine Worship or Latria and pay it to God alone If created but supernatural 't is a Religious Worship but such as is paid to holy Fellow-Creatures as St. Basil observes Such is paid to holy Places as Churches to holy Things as the Sacraments to holy Persons as Prophets Prelates Princes living Saints and with more reason to those who in Glory possess God therefore as St. Augustin observes We give them that Worship of Charity and Fellowship Eo cultu dilectionis societatis c. Lib. 8. de Civit. c. 26. which we pay to Saints on Earth but with as much greater a Devotion as we are more certain of their Holiness now they are past all Dangers and Vncertainties but with that Worship which in Greek is called Latria which is a Servitude properly owed to the Divinity we neither worship nor teach to worship any one but God. 'T is false that Sacrifice is the Only Act of Worship which we appropriate to God we appropriate to him all positive Prayer or Worship and give none but Relative or directed finally to God to any Saint or Angel. It was a Calumny invented by Faustus the Manichaean that we had exchanged the Pagan Idols for others to wit the Shrines of Saints And St. Augustin having owned Religious Solemnities in honor of Lib. 20. c. 21. contra Faustum Saints praises them because the Christians then as Catholics now by them only sought to excite themselves to the Imitation of Saints to be associated to their Merits and to be helped by their Prayers minding that Heretic that Sacrifice is indeed the only Exterior Worship inseparable from Latria and therefore never to be offered to any but God and therefore then as now it is still practised no formal Invocation directed to any Saint was used at Holy Mass but only Commemorations that they