reality of that comfort which our Saviour intended us in the blessed Sacraments But Catholiques doe adore the Lord Jesus here truely present onely him doe they adore who although till the world be dissolved after a naturall manner he is above yet here with us is the truth of the Lord That as often as we receive we eate his Flesh and drinke his Blood without which there is no life in us by which Union how doe our soules receive a torrent of joyes and graces which flow from a Celestiall source into all the faculties and powers of our minde sanctifying them to him who is our head being incorporated into him Invocation of Saints Whilst we live in the earthly Tabernacles of our Bodies we are subject to the sumes of flesh and blood to the Impressions of diverse affections and the clouds of the world whence we are put to execute a warfare and act a vigilent part against the depths of Satan and to that end we desire one anothers Prayers And shall theirs be lesse effectuall whose blessed soules are unbodied out of a possibility of falling and enjoying the blessed presence of God inflaming with charity and good will towards us They rejoyce at our conversions they understand our conditions holy Church hath ever practised to make them friends in the Court of Heaven To obtain their requests of their King and ours the effects of Christs mediation and merits may be more hopefully purchased by Angelical Petitions then mans disturbed and cold devotions Chrysost Hom de Martyr Egyp Let us aske the Fathers and they will tell us By the Prayers of the Martyrs we may after our departure hence see and imbrace them saith saint Chrysostom And elsewhere Mary praies for us stronger then Deborah more powerfull then Jael De Cog. nit verae vitae St. Augustine saith When you call upon the saints in Prayer it behoves you thus to thinke of them as placed in the glory of the Eternall beauty most glorious lights farre out-shining the Sonne who have fully all that is good in the Vision of God and who forcibly assist all that call upon them St. Hierom to Heliodore After death saith he you shall pray for me who have incited you that you might overcome In the Liturgy of Basil Now Martyrs earnestly pray that God may grant us remission of our sinnes De vidu◠Saint Ambrose saith The Angels are to be called upon in our behalfe who are assigned to us for our defence And againe let us not be ashamed to have them the Intercessors of our infirmity of the Intercession of the blessed Virgin Doctor Don saith prettily Her Wombe was a strange Heaven for there God cloath'd himselfe and grew our zealous thanks we poure as her deeds were our helps so are her Prayers nor can she sue in vaine who hath such titles unto you The piety and fruits of 〈◊〉 Whilst men make themselves such strangers to the Inhabitants above they break the communion of saints if mens joyes were all above if men did thirst after those glorious fruitions they would accept of all the helps that might leade them to it In invocating and worshipping the saints we worship him whose saints they are Saith a Father in often contemplating their crownes and begging their patronage how are our hearts inflamed through their helps it erects our thoughts on high and gives us courage in our journey below to have seen all the dangers of it conquered by those who as they were our example so now are our Patrons 〈…〉 It inlarges and mends our prospect when we view those Celestiall Inhabitants shining all as stars of severall magnitudes one glorious in the ruddy beams of Martyrdom another shining with the snow white purity of Chastity others now the higher by having been low in their own esteeme they provoke us by viewing their glories to the care of acquiring their vertues neither let any pretend and say God hath commanded us to call on him therefore its needlesse to goe to any other for he hath told us He heares not every one that cryes Lord Lord but him who doth the will of his Father and his will is that we should be obedient and hearken to his Church and not in stead of observing its commands revile it and rent and teare it by contempt of its Doctrines Confession Absolution Satisfaction This is and ever hath been so universally generally deliver'd Preached urged practised in the Catholique Church that none can deny it but those whose stiffe-neckednes will not give thē leave to look back into any Antiquity or Fathers these words are plainely frequently made use of to expresse this part of the Discipline of the Church which the Father 's called The vigor of the Gospel as if without it all mens manners and courses towards Heaven would languish Sermons of Confessions Bishop Andrews from the Text Whose Sins yee remit they are remitted acknowledges a perticular personall Confession to be ment by reason he saith it is exprest whose Sins not what Sins soever Epist 55. Let us heare Saint Cyprian expresse himselfe against those that opposed it It is indevoured saith he that sins may not be redeemed by satisfactions and just lamentations that mens wounds may not be washed away with tears true peace is taken away by the lye of a false one and the healthfull bosome of a Mother a step-mother interceding is shut up weeping and mourning should be heard from a sinner and the face of those who have falne August Hom. 5. Let him come to the Priests those by whom the Keyes are disposed of in the Church and let him from those who are set over those holy rites receive the measure of his satisfaction Tertullian de poenitentia Confessio satisfactionis consilium It is objected that its an all-daring presumption to pretend to be able to satisfie in the most pure eyes of Almighty God and so plausibly run on in an ill applide humility when a man doth what anothers demand is it s said he hath satisfied his desires nay if the Creditor doe for some reasons forgive the Debt he is said to be satisfied and it s spoken by reason of the Evangelicall compact when God by promising makes himselfe a debtor saith the Father and we doing what is required that is bringing forth fruits worthy of Pennance and performing such expressions of sorrow and those penitentiall injunctions as the Church wil be satisfied in for the demonstrating our hearty repentance it is cal'd satisfaction but whom the expressions of the Councel of Trent will not satisfie touching it he is sicke of siding and parties nor is any desire of peace with the Church prevalent with him Sessio 14 cap. 8. It s agreeable to the divine clemency lest sins be pardoned us without any satisfaction occasion being taken that we lightlier esteeming of sins fall into more grievous ones injurious and contumelious to the holy spirit of God treasuring up wrath for us
A DISCOVRSE touching Choyce of RELIGION By Sr. RICHARD TEMPEST Baronet Antiquam exquirite matrem Virgil. Judge yee what I say Acts Apostles To the Lady TEMPEST Madam IT is my Duty to give you an account of spending my Houres whose vertuous directions hath still enjoyned me the imployment of them in the best things and there can be no endevour comparable to the Inquest after Truth Happy are Mens early imbraces of that most worthy mistres of Mans soule when the Son of their Judgement rises free from those Clouds and Mists which otherwayes by long ascending time and endevour they would be but hardly able to expell I must acknowledge my weakenesses and errors knowing it is the Victory of Christianity to conquer the Pride of a Man 's owne understanding and whose vigor is shewed in our lowest submissions The World is like that Nymph which still destroyed those to whom she most seemed faire And Men in the short course of life heape up to themselves a sort of Opinions and Passions and make them the faithlesse guides of their lives of which though they highly esteeme yet doe they but dwell under those barren Hills which are never without Clouds and Showres discending thence And who would for the love of that which in a moment perishes refuse to professe that which will bestow on him Eternity and in a confusion of all humane things will render him a felicity solid and durable I shall shew you what Port my Thoughts have arrived at to escape the stormes of Error and from thence to despise the severall Winds of Doctrine with which Men are much tost but never Saile and through the diversity of Opinions halfe of them Pray for those Winds whereby the rest are Drowned The name of Rome but once Named some Mens minds become surcharged with the apprehensions of Superstition Conspiracy and what evills throng not into their conquerd Imagination whereas they being got out of the Magicke Circle of parties where their minds are Conjured with the Devill of Faction they finde that to be the place which did commend to the whole World The Faith of the Romans And where Christian Profession hath with infinite sufferings and persecutions triumphed over the Armed Power of its Adversaries and foure hundred Heresies that have sprung up before Luther such high displeasures Men have entertained against those Names which they looking directly on with the Eye of Reason would perceive ingraven the well-drawne Lines of Truth they by going on one side looking with the Eye of Passion draw the same Figures and Lines by a deceit of the Eye to beare an unhandsome proportion We intertaine Christian Profession and the Sacred Word of God the Records of it delivered over to us upon a Divine infallible testimony which is that of the holy Catholique Church to which he hath promised his holy spirit to the Worlds end Wherefore if Men would inlarge their thoughts and take a free and open view of all the parts of the Fabricke of Christianity and shall consider of that power which he hath left to his Church of his injunctions to heare his Church of his promises to assist his Church The Gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it to remaine as a Light upon a Hill How great comfort must it needs rayse in the Hearts of Christians to finde this made good in a constant un-interrupted succession of Bishops from Saint Peter Let God be true and every man a lyar The Church of Rome locally is but a particular Church but let them not offer affront to the Divine goodnesse through abuse of Wit or Logicall trifle of a Vniversall particular for the Church of Rome hath ever defended the Catholique cause and antiquity hath ascribed unto it a more powerfull principality calling Her The Mother of Churches though the Holy Catholique church is ever the same like the Ocean which as it beats upon severall Countries with its Waves begets severall Names being now called the French Sea then the Spanish Those Madam who are possest with prejudice against the Sea of Rome have all different wayes of maintaining their opposition neither will they agree to the judgement of any one Tribunall the same Arguments have not the same effects with its different enemies but like Wards in a Key they are to be fitted to the diversity of parties and capacities to unlocke their judgements fast bound with error It being truely said That not the perfection of Reason but the proportion doth prevaile Some retain still something in the bottome of the Box and will not let it see the Light by conference lest it fly away accounting it the surest tenure of Truth to stick with obstinacy in the quicksands of error and esteeme it their best title to it to refuse to dispute it Another Measures Truth by the temper of indifferency and esteemes it to be the safest way to be freed from Error to be willing to capitulate A third frames his own principles and by Reasons and deductions drawne thence makes all their Discourse agree well enough with it selfe As Astronomers some of them making the Earth to move some the Heavens and by both Doctrines according to their principles layd downe make up their Phainomena and appearances but tell them of Antiquity Fathers and the Councels they will answer you with that Merchant that hung out for his Signe Books set on fire so that if any desired to have been Trusted or to have come in his Bookes He answered them That they were burned so if you would get any beleife from them from Libraries and Bookes their Zeale hath already Burnt them Another sort are wittily placed betwixt a Puritan and a Priest If the Priest urge Councels and Fathers they turne to the Puritan and steale the Bible out of his pocket to confute him with And if the Puritan urge the Bible then he turns to the Priest and borrowes of him the Decrees and Councels to defend himselfe with Children saith Aristotle call every one Mother but comming to the use of Reason they then acknowledge onely their true Mother Thus doe Men beare their spirituall Allegiance drest up in severall garbes and formes and apply to themselves the benefits of that stupendous Mistery of our Redemption by the severall Conduits and Channels of their owne Fancies but God is both the Way the Meanes and the End He hath made compleat the designations of his Grace and Men will be found to be more in love with the Meanes then the End and to empty all their Zeales and Devotions into some new Mode in Religion or particular Opinion whereby they are differenced from others They hold such a course that doe make them seem to be desirous to take our Saviour by the Hand over the backe of his Church whereas he hath said of his Embassadors which were to continue to the Worlds End Who heares not you heares not me But Madam it s more agreeable to you and more contentfull to cast the Lines of ones
Church which is the house of God notes upon it thus Of which Damasus then Pope is at this day ruler And againe Primà adversus Ruffinum fidem suam quam vocat camque qua Romana pollet Ecclesia Si Romana respondent ergo Catholici sumus St Augustine of the fifth Age lib. 11. cap. 2. contra Faunsâ—um Vides in hac re quid Ecclesiae Catholicae valeâ—t authoritas quae ab ipsis fundatissimis seâ—ibus Apostolorum usque ad hodiernum diem succedentium sibi met Episcoporum serie populorum consensione firmata St. Jerom of most austere life a profound Schollar and generall Linguist lived unmarried a Monke a Priest said Masse St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo confessedly a Priest and offered up the body and blood of Christ in Sacrifice for the living and the dead Saint Basil a Monke Priest unmarried did not they all live and dye in the communion of the Church of Rome and did detest Scisme I remember one told me at Venice pleasantly discoursing of the difference which that Republique had with the Pope We would have become saith he any thing to have been ad oppisitum with the Pope Lutherans or Calvenists but that we were satisfied with the truth of all opinions of the Church from our own Records which have been in violated and kept intire and delivered then with as great vigor as now observed for about a thousand years which time that City hath stood never taken or plunderd nor burnt the two great winding sheets of humane things Will not the Laws and constitutions of all ancient governments declare and demonstrate the same even of those places which have revolted from them must all men in so many grave Councels resorting from all parts of the Christian world relating one to another what in the severall places whence they came hath been held and so from time to time an universall establishment of such things as have been found to be the generall Traditions and Doctrines of the Church and yet must all these be thought to have walked in a vaine shadow Rocks Cities Woods must be thought to move while their eyes dwelling too much upon the currant of the times breeds this deception that they are thought to move from the little Boats when it is the Ship boats departing from them Thus it is evident who thrusts the Church of Rome upon them and what hath thrust them from the Church of Rome When parties are once engaged though testimonies be as lowd as Thunder yet the ball must be kept up poore pretences must undergoe the opinion of inevitable necessities all sticks seen in that Water must be crooked Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris They say It must not be obtruded upon them as Catholique it excluding three parts of foure of the Christian World All Christians in all Ages have pronounced that Artikle I beleeve the holy Catholique Church if mens saith should not vary the object must never faile and in all Ages downe from our blessed Saviours time they have most stedfastly pronounced this Artikle in the bosome of the Church of Rome which taken locally is but a Parish Church but in respect of retaining with others that same Doctrine which the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul delivered them whether by writing or by word of mouth in that sence it is called Catholique and so Orbis in Vrbe est When Heresies sprung as there must be Heresies they had recourse still to what was delivered by way of Doctrines to them wherby they did repel all false and erronious opinions as constantly maintain their own Doctrine When diverse parts of Scripture were called in question it was the Churches Authority did pronounce them Divine now the Church was to be deceived in its Sentence or not If it was then infallible why not now and in the interpretation and exposition as well as the Letter when Scripture is not Scripture but rightly Expounded As touching an externe and adventitious condition of the Church it suffers sometime dilatation and inlargement other time persecution and contraction yet still ever the same The Arke that was the type of the Church vvas sometimes on the Waves sometime in the Wildernesse travelling againe in the Temple in peace and glory When the Arrian Heresie had so catchingly surprized the World no doubt but the Catholique Church did exclude them and because it vvill not now let every stinking puddle of Opinion and every infectious currant of Faction run into its Sea or that like the Sea it will not let any dead or corrupt thing lye in its bowels therefore forsooth it must not be obtruded upon any as Catholique it excluding three parts of foure of the Christian World If it should have so much good nature to admit all its Doctrine would not be Catholique that is what was profest at all times the holy Catholique Church is but one Episcopacy is but one saith Saint Cyprian as Streames from the same Fountain Branches from the same Root here is nothing but that fidelity which a Spouse owes to her Betrothed no intertainment of Forraine loves or unlawfull mixtures Those that are called Reformists exclude not one another when they would appear a great body of opponents of the Roman Church they exclude them not from opposing the same Authority though in manner and in their own opinions they oppose and exclude one another like that Image part whereof was Clay part Iron that by cleaving together resembled a body though never incorporated Harmony of Confessions B. Hall of the Churches of Holland and France They are enemies of a good Catholique malice whilst they would unite all the different Formes of Scisme wherein every ones Fancy was their guide and of these would make an angry union to gratifie their humour of opposing their Mother Church and if one should lend a severe aspect into their own Commonwealths and Interests he shall seem to retreave the ancient Chaos each Sect so differing from other and every one dissenting from what themselves were at first When they shak'd hands with the Church of Rome every one departing a severall way according to the concernments and ends of their Leaders or the Genius and nature of the People or the accidents affaires of those times which steared their furies and indignations The Lutherans hold the Calvenists for the Phaetons of Europe and in a late Sinod have condemned them guilty of all the Warres and disasters in these late times Calvin allowes of Episcopacy yet his followers make it ground enough of an immortall quarrell to have them extirpated In every Country that ill Seed that Calvin sowed came up of a different fashion as he well perceived who described their severall humors of Genevizing Anglizing Scotizing What Wars are raysed in the mutuall opposition of each others Doctrine every one of them having some perticuler Opinion wherein they magnifie themselves being their Eurika and sets it as it were in the Van for an Ensigne of the Faction