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A58900 A reply of Lewis Sabran of the Society of Jesus to the answer given to his letter written to a peer of the Church of England, by a nameless member of the same Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732. 1687 (1687) Wing S220; ESTC R7899 5,751 9

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A REPLY OF Lewis Sabran OF THE Society of JESUS TO THE ANSWER given to his LETTER Written to a Peer of the Church of England by a Nameless Member of the same SIR MY Letter to a Peer of the Church of England which you pretend to answer in that which I now receive from you hath clear'd me sufficiently in the Opinion of all Men of Sense of the Mistake you charged me with However I am willing to cast away half an Hour in minding you more justly and more Charitably of your disingenuous Cavils after which I resolve never to take any notice of such unknown Masks or Persons who conceal their Names that their Errors when bafl'd their Calumnies when clear'd may not put them to the Blush That Part of the Debate betwixt us which you maintain still is whether your accusing me of great Ignorance or notorious Forgery for citing a Form of Prayer to the Blessed Virgin as made by St. Augustin being taken out of the 35 Sermon de Sanctis printed in the 10th Tome of his Works And the Proofs you support your Charge with evince my Guilt or rather cast and retort that Blame upon you and discover your inconsiderate itch of Scribling tho it be but to nible at three Lines of the Introduction of a Sermon the Discourse whereof tho it plainly sets out how unwarantable the Schism of your Church was from Catholic Unity you have prudently thought fit to leave untouch'd To make out your Charge against me you offer'd these three Proofs The First That the Title of that Sermon in the Feast of the Assumption doth not agree at all to any thing that is near St. Augustins Time. I answered that your Meaning must be either That no Feast-day of the Blessed Virgins Assumption was kept in St. Augustin's Days or else That nothing was piously believ'd or thought of then concerning her Assumption If the First meaning was yours I prov'd that Instance to be of no Force because that Titles of a far fresher Date than most Sermons of the Holy Fathers bore have been affixed to them which were preach'd on the Days of such Mysteries or Saints Deaths as were not then kept holy Of this I produc'd several Instances As for the Second meaning of those Words I discover'd the Error of taking those Words on the Assumption in the Sence they now vulgarly bear whereas in the Holy Fathers Language when apply'd to Saints or the Blessed Virgin they only signified the Day of their Death of this I brought again many and plain Proofs next I produced many others to which I have more that may be added to evince that in the Fourth and Fifth Century it was piously believ'd that the Blessed Virgin was assumed in Body into Heaven tho it was not look'd upon as a certain Truth made out from any Text of Scripture unquestionable Tradition from the Apostles or Decision of the present Church I conceiv'd this to be so full an Answer to your first Proof as would have forced any one less obstinate than I find you to have owned it of no value But let us examin what you reply You tell us First That your meaning was to deny any Belief of the Assumption of the B. Virgin to have been in St. Augustins Time nor consequently any Sermon on that Subject which this evidently is Secondly that if Day of Assumption do but almost ever signifie the Day of a Saints Death why may not this be the Exception Thirdly that it cannot be the meaning of this Title since the Sermon speaks of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and that it was the Custom of the Church to believe that the Virgin Mary was on the Day of that Solemnity assumed into Heaven This is all you add to support your first Proof that is first a new Error next a false Inference then a plain Cheat and Contradiction T is an Error that there was not in St. Augustins time a general pious Belief tho uncertain of the Blessed Virgins Assumption I have made it out in my first Letter by many Proofs which as it is usual with such Writers you have not been pleas'd to take notice of and I think unnecessary to repeat If you desire others you may find them in Natalis Alexandres Censure of the Book ascribed to the Holy Bishop Meliton 'T is a false Consequence to say Assumption doth not always signifie the Death of a Saint therefore here it may signifie the Corporal Assumption of the Blessed Virgin therefore it doth yet this is your Inference when you bring that word in that Sense against me without any Proof for it 'T is a wilful Mistake of yours by which you make me say That in the Ancient Writings Feast or Day of Assumption when apply'd to Saints did only almost always signifie the Day of their Death It always bore that meaning apply'd to them tho we sometimes find that in a different Sense it signified the Festival kept on the Day of the Coronation of Princes or inthroning of Bishops ' T is a Cheat impos'd upon vulgar Readers to insinuate that the 35th Sermon cited by me doth not speak of the Blessed Virgins Death but of her Assumption in the Sense which that word now vulgarly bears The Author of it Plainly expresses the contrary in Words like to those we find in all the Writings of the ancient Fathers on this Subject They be these The World is honour'd by so great a Virgins Departure in what Order or Manner she passed hence to Heaven the Catholic Church doth no way recount neither is her Body found on Earth neither is her Assumption in the Flesh as it is read in the Apocrypha's found in the Catholic Church this is the true Opinion concerning her Assumption that not knowing whether in her Body or out of it as the Apostle hath We believe her assumed above the Angels Now what a Contradiction is it or a plain Cheat to say that this Sermon was preached when the Church did believe that the Virgin Mary was in the Day of that Solemnity assumed into Heaven Next you make a large flourish of 30 lines and an Essay of a School-boys Rhetoric which moves me to believe that 't is not long since you are come from it Your Subject is my gross Error in saying the 14th Sermon de Sanctis was allowed by all that the Title of it was In the Feast of all Saints the Subject the Praises of a Virgin and Martyr you took great Pains to find it out as you assure us thinking there might have been in the Citation some Errors of the Press but in vain and therefore you lay it to my Charge So many particulars as were cited by me would have sufficiently directed any one that was not resolved to mistake me that he might fancy something to object against There are but two 14th Sermons de Sanctis that of the first ancient Collection and that in the other Compilation of 17 made by the Divines of Paris