Sacramentum sumserit in quolibet ex diebus infra scriptis piasque ad Deum preces fuderit pro haeresium extirpatione fideique Catholicae propagatione aliisque sanctae Ecclesiae necessitatibus plenariam suorum peccatorum Indulgentiam corsequetur nimirum die Festo Nativitatis Domini nostri Jesu Christi Circumcisionis Epiphaniae Resurrectionis Ascensionis Pentecostes Sanctissimae Trinitatis Corporis Christi die Conceptionis Nativitatis Praesentationis Visitationis Annunciationis Purificationis Assumtionis beatissimae Virginis tum Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptistae Sanctorum modo Canonizatorum omnium Sanctorum dedicationis propriae Ecclesiae ejusdem Patroni vel tituli Quisquis in vigilia cujuslibet istorum sanctorum jejunaverit confessus in ipsius Festo Sanctissimum Eucharistiae Sacramentum sumserit oraveritque Deum ut supra dictum est toties Indulgentiam plenariam consequetur Quicunque Missam celebrarit vel confessus sacrâ Communione refectus interfuerit Missae ad Altare in quo Imago aut corpus aut reliquiae cujuslibet praedictorum quinque Sanctorum asservantur pieque Deum oraverint at dictum est die uno quem voluerit cujuslibet Mensis plenariam Indulgentiam lucretur Quisquis vero poenitens peccata commissa emendare firmiter proposuerit eadem die visitaverit septem Ecclesias quaslibet ubi tot Ecclesiae non reperiuntur quotquot ibi sint si unica tantum Ecclesia sit in loco omnia ipsius altaria pro haeresium extirpatione c. pie Deum oraverit semel in anno fruatur Indulgentiis concessis septem urbis Ecclesias visitantibus Quicunque devotè cogitaverit de aliquo sanctissimae passionis D. N. Jesu Christi mysterio in ejusdem passionis honorem septies terram deosculatus fuerit eo die lucretur Indulgentias concessas ascendentibus Romae per scalam sanctam hoc autem semel in singulis annis Quisquis praedictorum quinque sanctorum imitatione vel peccata sua vere detestabitur cum firme proposito non peccandi de cetero vel actum aliquem virtutis exercebit toties lucretur Indulgentiam septem annorum totidem quadragena Quisquis leget aliquod libri caput de vitâ corundem Sanctorum aut invisitet eorum altare vel imaginem venerabitur eraverit pro felici statu Sancta matris Ecclesiae peccatorumque conver sione singulis vicibus percipiet Indulgentiam ce tum dierum Eandem pariter consequatur qui aliquid pauperibus tribuet vel eosdem instruet aut por alios instrui curabit in iis quae pertinent ad fidem bonosque mores Quisquis in Sanctissimae Eucharistiae cultu vel Beatissimae Virginis se exercebit meditans illius mysterii dignitatem quantaque ex eo ad nos beneficia manant aut commiserans ejusdem Beatae Virginis dolores quibus in passione morte filii affecta fuit vel alia qualibet ratione Sanctissimum Sacramentum venerabitur pro necessitatibus Ecclesiae orabit toties Indulgentiam centum dierum consequatur Quilibet in urbe commorans vel ab ea ultra viginti milliaria non absens si legitimè impeditus non interfuerit Benedictioni qua Romanus Pontifex in Festo Paschatis Ascensionis solemniter benedicere consuevit confessus autem Sacrosancta Communione reficiatur pias ad Deum preces pro haeresium extirpatione c. fuderit Indulgentiis fruatur quibus praesentes fruuntur eadem vero si adimpleverint longius ab urbe distantes easdem Indulgentias etiamsi legitime non impediti consequantur Omnes supradictae Indulgentiae fidelibus defunctis applicari possunt per modum suffragii Pro iisdem percipiendis satis est privatim habere apud se aliquam coronam vel crucem c. cum praedictis Indulgentiis à Sanctitate suâ benedictam quae superius praescripta sint adimplere licet illa etiam alio nomine impleri forte debuerint Quisquis in articulo mortis se totum Deo commendans praedictos Sanctos vel ex iis unum invocar it ore si potuerit sin minus saltem corde confessus sacraque Communione refectus si potuerit alioquia saltem contritus plenariam omnium peccatorum Indulgentiam consequetur In distribuendis hujusmodi Coronis Crucibus earumque usu sanctissimus servari jubet decretum Fel. record Alexandri VII editum sub die sexto Februarii 1657 nimirùm ut Coronae Cruces Rosaria Numismata quae vulgo Medalliae nuncupantun sacrae Imagines cum praefatis Indulgentiis benedictae non transeant personam ilionum quibus à sanctitate suâ concessae sunt aut quibus ab his primâ vice distribuentur neque commodari aut precario dari possunt alioquin Indulgentiis jam concessis aliquatre ex praedictis deperdita pro ea subrogari altera nullo modo potest quacunque concessione aut privilegio in contrarium non obstante Prohibet Sanctitas sua hanc Indulgentiam imprimi extra Vrbem MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Romae ex Typographiaâ— Rev. Camerae Apost 1671. Thus Englished A Form of Indulgences wherewith our holy Father Pope Clement X. did bless Crowns Rosaries Crosses sacred Images and Medals by occasion of Canonizing the holy Confessoâ—s Cajetan Francis Borgia Philippus Benitius Lewis Bertrand and Sancta Rosa a Peruvian Virgin Whosoever shall accustom at least once a week to say the Crown of our Lord or of the Blessed Virgin or her Rosary or the third part of it or the Divine Office or the little Office of the Blessed Virgin or of the Dead or the seven Penitential Psalms or the Gradual Psalms or to visit Prisoners or relieve the Poor or spend at least a quarter of an hour in mental praier if he confesses to a Priest approved by the Ordinary and receive the holy Communion in any of the daies below mentioned and shall pray to God for extirpation of Heresies the Propagation of Catholic Faith and for other necessities of the Roman Church shall obtain a Plenary Indulgence of all his sins viz. in the day of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ his Circumcision â—piphany Resurrection and Ascension the day of Pentecost holy Trinity and Corpus Christi and the day of the Conception Nativity Presentation Visitation Annunciation Purification and Assumtion of the blessed Virgin the day of the Nativity of S. John Baptist of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul of the five Saints now canonized of all Saints of the Dedication of his proper Church and of the Patron or Title of it Whosoever shall confess and receive in the Vigil of any of the foresaid Saints and shall pray to God as aforesaid shall obtain Plenary Indulgence as often as he doth it Whosoever shall say Mass or having confessed and received shall hear Mass at an Altar in which the Image or Body or Relique of any of the foresaid five Saints are kept and shall pray to God as aforesaid in any one day which he pleases of every Moneth
gains a Plenary Indulgence Whosoever being truly penitent will propose firmly to forsake his sins committed and in the same day will visit any seven Churches or where so many Churches are not to be found shall visit those that be and if there be but one Church in the place shall visit all the Altars of it and pray to God for the extirpation of Heresies once a year shall enjoy the Indulgences allowed to such as visit the seven Churches at Rome Whosoever shall think devoutly of any Mystery of the Passion of our Saviour and in honor of the said Passion shall kiss seven times the ground will in that day obtain the Indulgences allowed to such as go up the holy Stairs in Rome but this once in every year Whosoever in imitation of the foresaid five Saints either shall truly detest his sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more or shall exercise some act of Virtue shall so many times obtain an Indulgence of seven years and so many quadragena's or forty daies Indulgence Whosoever shall read any Chapter of the life of the said Saints or shall visit their Altar or worship their Image and pray for the happy state of our holy Mother the Church and for the Conversion of sinners shall at every time obtain Indulgence of 100. daies The same Indulgence shall any obtain who will give anâ— Alms to the Poor or shall instruct them by himself or by another in things belonging to Faith and good manners Whosoever shall exercise himself in the worship of the holy Eucharist or of the blessed Virgin meditating upon the dignity of that mystery and the benefits redounding from it to us or commiserating the griefs of the said blessed Virgin wherewith she was possessed at the Passion and Death of her Son or in any other manner shall reverence the blessed Sacrament and pray for the necessity of the Church shall obtain Indulgence of 100 daies as often as he doth it Any dwelling in Rome or not distant from it above twenty miles if he hath a lawful impediment not to be present at the solemn blessing which the Roman Pope is wont to give in the Festivity of Easter and Ascension but shall confess and receive and pray for the extirpation of Heresies c. shall enjoy the Indulgences which the people present will enjoy but such as are further distant from Rome shall enjoy the same Indulgences performing the said duties tho they have no lawful impediment for absence All the Indulgences aforesaid may be applied to the faithful deceased by way of Suffrages For to gain the said Indulgences it is enough to have privately with you any Crown or Cross c. blessed by his Holliness with the foresaid Indulgences and to fulfill the duties before mentioned even tho happily you may be obliged to perform them upon another account Whosoever in the point of death commending himself to God shall invoke the foresaid Saints or any of them with his mouth if he can having confessed and received the Communion if he may otherwise having at least contrition shall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins In the distribution of the said Crowns Crosses c. and in the use of them his Holiness commands to observe the Decree of Alexander VII issued the 6. day of February 1657. viz. that Crowns Crosses Rosaries Medals and sacred Images blessed with the foresaid Indulgences may not pass the persons of those to whom his Holiness gave them or such as from them received those things the first time and that they may not be lent or be bestowed otherwise to lose the Indulgences and any of them being lost no other may be subrogated for it by any means notwithstanding any allowance or priviledg to the contrary His Holiness prohibits this form of Indulgences to be printed out of Rome MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Rome out of the Print of the Reverend Apostolical Chamber 1671. I leave the judicious Reader to gloss upon this grant and the profuseness of it whether it be a rare or difficult thing to gain a plenary Indulgence where grants of this kind are frequent They will tell us it will promote Piety to have such encouragement to Penitence praiers and deeds of Charity But let them consider whether it may not rather be an occasion of continuing in vices and a wicked life if by a verbal Confession and an imperfect kind of contrition or displeasure with sins for penalties following them apt to be conceived by the most wicked livers a security is given of remission of all sins tho never so grievous and repeated and of the eternal pains due to them and likewise all the temporal penalties following them are remitted by a plenary Indulgence so easy to be obtained as we have seen Who will not perceive that encouragement is given hereby to persevere in vices whatsoever other purposes they may have who grant them And if this be well considered Mr. I. S. will cease to admire that Protestant Doctors should accuse the Roman Church of facilitating by these means the way to sinning CHAP. XXXI The dismal unhappiness of the Romish people in having their Liturgy in a Tongue unknown to them EX ore tuo te judico serve nequam thus begins Mr. I. S. his answer to my discourse upon this subject wherein I lamented the misery of the Romish People in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them and thus also shall my reply to him begin which certainly will be to put the Saddle on the right Horse What is it Sr that I have said which may be a judgment against my self in this case That the purpose of nature by speaking is to communicate the sense of him that speaks to the hearer which cannot be obtained if the hearer perceives not the meaning of the words he speaks This say you proves against my self for in the Liturgy or public Service of the Church we speak to God and not to the Congregation and God can understand us tho we do not our selves But stay Sr is not the Liturgy or public Service of the Church as well with you as with us composed of an exchange of speech betwixt God and his People they speaking to him in Praiers and Thanksgivings he speaking to them by the Lessons of sacred Scripture by the Epistles Gospels and Psalms Is it not necessary for both these purposes that the People should understand what they say to God by Prayer and what he says to them by Exhortation And for the first wherein you think your pretension to be obtained for praying I say is not Praier a rational and voluntary Elevation of the mind helped by the expressions and sense of the Praier read or said Is not this elevation of the mind mainly advanced by understanding the word of the Praier read or said whoever heard a Psalm sung with solemn Music may well tell how different a feeling and elevation of mind he hath when he sees or knows the words sung
of those who are to be saved but not without some note of infamy And a little after he added these words Sunt enim in Ecclesiâ credentes quidam acquiescentes divinis praeceptis erga servos Dei officiosi religiosi ad ornatum Ecclesiae vel ministorii satis promti sed in conversatione propriâ impuri obscoeni vitiis involuti nec omnino deponentes veterem hominem cum actibus suis Istis crgo Christus Jesus salutem concedit sed quandam infamiae notam non evadunt There are in the Church some believers and honorers of his Servants and ready to contribute towards the decency of his Service in the Church but in their private life impure and liable to vices not putting off altogether the old man with his works To these therefore Christ Jesus allows Salvation but they shun not a certain note of infamy According to this doctrine of Origen some may depart this life in state of Salvation and be received in Heavenly bliss tho with some blemishes of smaller guilt not inconsistent with Gods amity but occasioning a decrease in their degree of Glory and therefore capable of a pardon of such blemishes or imperfections even in Heaven if so your Text mentioning a pardon of sins in the other life doth not evince the existence of Purgatory If you say that Origen has erred herein as I conceive you will then first think it not a scandal to say that some one or other of the ancient Fathers should err Secondly acknowledg therein a fault of your Church in making choice of the foresaid words of Origen for Gloss ordinary of the above-mentioned passage of Joshua with the Gibeonites and conclude from all that this subtilty which clearly solveth your strongest Argument for Purgatory out of the New Testament is no invention of mine but a doctrine of a very learned Father of the ancient Church approved and received by yours modern with so public a qualification as to take it for an ordinary Gloss upon the fore-mention'd passage of Scripture CHAP. XXVII The attemt of our Adversary to make the doctrine of Purgatory an Article of the Apostles Creed declared to be vain Mr. I. S. makes sure account he found Purgatory in the Apostles Creed where it is said He descended into Hell And what if you are told those words were not in the Apostles Creed from the beginning and that the first time and place they were used in it was in the Church of Aquilcia some four hundred years after Christ that they are not expressed in those Creeds which were made by the Councils as larger Interpretations of the Apostles Creed not in the Nicene or Constantinopolitan not in that of Ephesus or Chalcedon not in those confessions made at Sardica Antioch Seleucia Syrmium not in the Creed expounded by St. Austin de fide Symbolo And * Ruffin in Expositione Symboli Râ—ffinus saies that in his time it was neither in the Roman or Oriental Creeds Sciendum sanè est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferna sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo It is certain saith he that the Article of the descent into Hell was not in the Roman or any of the Oriental Creeds It is not mentioned in several Confessions of Faith delivered by particular persons Not in that of Eusebius Caesariensis presented to the Council of Nice nor in that of Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra delivered to Pope Julius nor in that of Acatius Bishop of Caesarea delivered to the Senate of Seleucia nor in others mentioned by the learned Bishop of Chester Dr. Pearson in that his grave and judicious exposition of the Creed writing upon the fifth Article of it I am perswaded this will appear strange unto you and tho sufficient to weaken the force of your Argument grounded upon the foresaid words of the Creed my Answer will not rely upon it I allow the said words to belong to the Catholic Creed long time received in the Church and embraced by that of England But I deny your inference from those words of the Creed in favor of your doctrine of Purgatory to be pertinent He descended into Hell I believe he did But not into the Hell of the damned say you for all Christians abhor the Blasphemy of Calvin that saies Christs Soul suffered the pains of the damned What then therefore he descended into Purgatory I am sure the more learned and pious men of your Communion will abhor this consequence I never heard any of them say that descent of Christ should have bin to Purgatory First because under the notion of Hell they never understood Purgatory Secondly if you mean he should descend thither suffering the pains of that place it s no less blasphemous then that you call Blasphemy in Calvin for if we believe your Authors the pains of Purgatory are the same with those of Hell and inflicted by the same Ministers of divine Justice that punish the damned souls in hell If you say he descended thither triumphant and glorious without suffering the pains of that place to purposes of divine Providence not manifested to us you may say without any Blasphemy he descended the same manner into the Hell of the damned triumphant and victorious without prejudice to his glory and honor as the Divinity of Christ is there still without prejudice to his glory why may not his Soul be there for a short time with the same immunity and to the same purpose of triumphing over Hell and his Enemies And the words of the Creed being capable of this Exposition more literal and obvious what need is there of your new Invention of Purgatory unknown to Primitive Christianity for the right understanding of that Article of our Creed CHAP. XXVIII How weak is the foundation of the grand Engine of Indulgences in the Roman Church WHEN first I came to examin the grounds of the doctrine of Indulgence used in the Roman Church I confess I was astonished to see how little ground they could shew in the Fountains of divine Faith for this mystery of the Romish belief of so great noise and so much use among them I thought it a strong negative argument against such a dectrine not to be contained in the Word of God that two so great Champions of the Roman Church Cajetan and Suarez both emploied by public authority to defend this doctrine should not meet with any convincing testimony of it in divine Scripture as both do confess plainly Both do examine the two chief Testimonies alledged for this doctrine the first out of John 20.23 Whose soever sins you remitt they are remitted to them The second out of Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And both do acknowledg them not to convince the doctrine of Indulgences as now practised in the Roman Church Cajetan tom
I. S. has bin in his pretended triumph over me touching this point of History CHAP. XXX Of the strange and absurd terms used in the grants of Indulgences and the immoderate profuseness wherewith and slight causes for which they are granted TRuly if we do consider the absurd language used in the trade of Indulgences and the vast boundless profuseness in the grant of them for very slight causes of all which their most learned Defenders do confess not to be able to give a rational account we may with some grounds suspect that some such Lay-cardinals mentioned in the precedent Chapter out of Baronius granting Indulgences in Rome should have bin the Authors and Inventors of the present practice of Indulgences and terms of it used in the Roman Church First they divide Indulgences into total and partial A total Indulgence is a full remission of all the temporal pains due to the mans sins committed A partial Indulgence is a remission of a part of the penalties according to the will of the person granting it A total Indulgence is subdivided again into plena plenior plenissima a plenary or full more full and most full Here the wits of the Learned are strained to find sense in these words how one Indulgence that is plenary can be capable of these degrees of increase in regard of the same person If by any plenary Indulgence he has a total remission of all the penalties due to his sins how can he have a more total or full remission of them Suarez disp 1. De effectu Indulgent Sect. 4. finding no ground for these degrees would fain give some sense to them by a parity of the Virgin Mary full of grace by the coming of the Angel more full by the coming of her Son and most full in her death but finding himself weary of such bare conjectures resolves that according to the present state there is no substantial difference as to the effect in those gradations of plenary Indulgences whatsoever was the meaning of those terms with the first Authors of them whereof at present there is no clear knowledg and relates Sotus saying that Preachers of Indulgences have introduced those gradations by way of exaggeration Partial Indulgences are likewise subdivided into quadragena septena carena and the like Quadragena they call an Indulgence of forty daies septena of seven years carena composed of both the former containing seven years and forty daies And now enters a very perplex difficulty that turns the brains of their ablest Divines what to understand by these years and daies of remission whether so many years and daies of the pains of Purgatory to be remitted as Viguerius did conceive or so much time of penance enjoined by Canons for sins and tho this latter be the more received and common opinion and approved by Suarez in the place now mentioned yet he finds so many difficulties for a congruous sense of so many thousand years allowed by Indulgences so little consistence in reasons alledged by several Authors that he resolves it s a matter obscure and unknown to us and that we must rest upon the judgment of the Church which knows the meaning of those measures concluding thus Breviter vero assero de re nobis incertà Authores hos disputare Ecclesiam vero uti illa mensurâ quae sibi nota est I say briefly that these Authors do quarrel about a thing unknown to us and that the Church uses herein that measure which is known to it self remitting those pains of Purgatory which may be proportionable to the penalties of this life enjoined by Canons and so leaves us as wise as we were before for understanding what sense so many thousands of years can have whether relating to the pains of Purgatory or to penalties enjoined by Canons But this Language is used and received in the Roman Church and therefore we must stand to it let it mean what it will be it sense or non-sense and that 's all the account that Suarez can give us of it after the trial of his own wit and examining the discourses of others being to speak in earnest Now to the cause of giving Indulgences Mr. I. S. gives us occasion to say somthing since he boasts that Indulgences are not granted so slightly as Protestant Ministers would make their flock believe It s true that Cajetan teaches Opusc de Indulgent cap. 8. that great Indulgences ought not to be given for small causes and that there ought to be a proportion betwixt the quality of the Indulgence and the work performed to obtain it But how can this consist with what Cajetan tells there that a plenary Indulgence is given to every one that stands in the Yard of St. Peters Church when the Pope gives his blessing to the people there on Easter day Here he recurs to a mystery that tho to stand in that place be of its own nature of no great consideration yet relating to the purpose of representing the Members of the Church united under one head it s of great weight and proportioned to the Indulgence received But what mystery shall we find to render decent that famous Indulgence granted by Innocent III. to all such as would marry public Harlots as Spondanus relates in the year 1198. Who would not think that so many loud and learned cries made against the abuses of Indulgences in the Roman Church for more then a hundred years and the scandal and contemt of them grown among the sober and judicious men even of their own party would not be a means to moderate at least the boundless profuseness of those grants feeding continually the hopes of sinners for a remission of all their crimes and encouraging them to persevere in their wicked waies But that 's the unhappiness of that Church and the dismal symptom of a disease being mortal that it grows worse with remedies and hates a cure Setting aside numberless instances of their most absurd prodigalities in this kind whereof many Books are replenish'd I will only set down here a Copy of Indulgences granted by the present Pope Clement the Tenth upon the occasion of Canon zing certain new Saints of late in which you may see a full Idea of the Romish corruptions in this kind Formula Indulgentiarum cum quibus S. D. N. Clemens Papa X. Coronas Rosaria Cruces sacrasque Imagines numismata Medallias vulgo nuncupata benedicir per occasionem Canonizationis SS Confessorum Cajetani Francisci Borgiae Philippi Benitii Ludovici Bertrandi Sanctae Rosae Virginis Peruanae QVicunque saltem semel in hebdomada Coronam Domini vel Beatissimae Virginis aut Rosarium ejusve tertiam partem aut Officium divinum vel parvum Beatissimae Virginis vel defunctorum vel septem Psalmos poenitentiales vel graduales recitare aut detentos in carcere visitare aut pauperibus subvenire aut saltem horae quadrante mentali orationi vacare consueverit si confessus Sacerdoti ab Ordinario approbato sanctissimum Eucharistiae
that the words of their Pontifical accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium provivis defunctis are contained in those others of our Saviour at the last Supper hoc facite in meam commemorationem Do this in remembrance of me is notoriously weak gratis dicitur gratis negatur as t is said without ground so it may be denied without regard Now as to the form of Ordination * Bellar. de Sacramento Ordinis lib. 1. c. 9. Bellarmine tells us that all agree in taking for form the words that are pronounced by the minister when he exhibits the sensible signs or matter he adds that tho the Scripture doth not mention particular words to be pronounced in each order yet the ancient Fathers of the Church Ambrose Jerome and Augustine do expresly teach that a forme of words suitable to each Order is required and was practiced so in the ancient Roman Ordinals and so is practiced to this day in the Ordinal of the Church of England which in King Edward the sixth his time was disposed according to the more qualified ancient Ordinals used in the Catholic Church In the Ordination of Deacons the Bishop laies his hands severally upon the Head of every one of them kneeling before him saying Take thou authority to execute the office of a Deacon in the Church of God committed unto thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost c. After delivering to every one of them the New Testament he saith Take thou authority to read the Gospel in the Church of God and to preach the same if thou be thereto licensed by the Bishop himself In ordaining Priests the Bishop with the Priests present do lay their hands severally upon the Head of every one that receiveth the order of Priesthood the Receivers kneeling and the Bishop saying Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands whose Sins thou do'st forgive they are forgiven and whose Sins thou do'st retain they are retained and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God and of his holy Sacraments in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost In the consecration of Bishops the Archbishop and Bishops present do lay their hands upon the Head of the elected Bishop kneeling before them and the Archbishop saying Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen And remember that thou stir up the Grace of God which is given thee by this imposition of our hands for God has not given us the Spirit of fear but of power and love and soberness The Church of England being thus exact in observing the form and matter essential to holy Orders it appears how rash and false was Kellison in saying that in King Edwards time neither matter nor form of Ordination was used How vain and windy * Fitz Symons Britonomach p. 3â—9 Fitz Symons his flourish cum in Sacramento mutatur materia forma intentio faciendi quod facit Ecclesia quae ejus essentiam conficiunt desinit esse Sacramentum omnium qui ante te vixerunt tecum vivunt post te victuri sunt orthodoxe sentientium consensu When in the Sacrament the matter form and intention of doing what the Church do's which make up the essence of it are changed it ceases to be a Sacrament by the common consent of all Catholics that lived before you do live with you and after you shall live Truly Fitz Symons seem'd to study more how his phrase should be round and sounding then to furnish it with sense and truth so as without injury I may say here of him dat sine mente sonum Setting aside what belongs to the matter and form who told Fitz Symons that the Ministers of the Church of England in the administration of Sacraments have not an intention to do what the true Church of God do's And tho their intention were to do expresly what their own Church of England do's and not what the Church of Rome Bellarmin declares that not to be an alteration annulling the Sacrament non est opus intendere quod facit Ecclesia Romana sed quod facit vera Ecclesia quaecunque illa sit vel quod Christus instituit vel quod faciunt Christiani imo si quis intendat facere quod aliqua Ecclesia particularis falsa ut Genevensis intendat non facere quod Ecclesia Romana respondeo etiam id sufficere nam qui intendit facere quod Ecclesia Genevensis intendit facere quod Ecclesia universalis It is not necessary saies Bellarmin to have an intention of doing what the Church of Rome do's but what the true Church which soever that be nay if he should intend to do what some particular false Church which he thinks to be true as that of Geneva saith the Cardinal even that will suffice for he that intends to do what the Church of Geneva * Bellar. de Sacra in Gen. lib. 2. c. 27. do's intends to do what the Universal Church do's of which he believes the Church of Geneva to be a member Then Fitz Symons was mistaken when he said that the supposed alteration in the intention of the Ministers did annul the Sacrament by consent of all Catholics if he will not have Bellarmine to be put out of that number not to take notice of his extravagancy in making the intention of the Minister an essential constitute of the Sacrament nor of the dismal confusion and discomfort he brings upon his proselytes by making the effects of Sacraments depending upon the foresaid intention whereof no Man receiving a Sacrament can have a full certainty the words of the Minister I can hear and his action I can see but of his intention I can never be entirely assured Then if the matter and form of Order necessary and essential be retained in our Church as we have seen and no reasonable doubt is left of the intention of our Ministers to do what the Church of England do's which according to Bellarmin's supposition now mentioned is sufficient How comes Fitz Symons to say that in the matter and form and intention of our Ministers such alteration is made as annulls our Sacraments CHAP. VII How far the form of Ordination used in the Church of England agrees with that of the ancient Câ—â—rch declared in tâ—e fourth Council of Carthage and how much the form prescribed by tâ—e Roman Pontifical of this time differs from the ancient fâ—rm AS in many other points so in this of Crdination especially I cannot but admire how bold the Romish Writers are in imposing upon the ignorant that themselves are the observers of antiquity and the Reformed Churches the contemners of it whereas indeed
Colledg of Pamplona and Divinity scholastic Moral Polemic or Controversial in the Colledges of Pamplona Palencia Tudela and Salamanca joyning with these functions of continual teaching which in those parts are exceedingly laborious the practise of very frequent preaching together with a constant and eager study of holy scripture counsels Fathers and History Ecclesiastic in which kind of study I had alwaies my chief delight when duty and employments enjoyned upon me forced me to the study of those other faculties And is this to be a vagrant person that could bear no fruit united to the stock what fruit would be man have me bear But what if we refer him to himself few pages after saying still excessive that before I was vir Apostolicus a most resplendent star in the firmament of the true Church c. now plunged in all the contrary vices and cries * page 27. quomodo obscuratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus how is the Gold become dim how is the most fine gold changed Truly I am to return the same question upon him How came this change or * Thren 4. how came he to know it For I feel no other change in me but to the better to a quiet of conscience and full satisfaction that I am in the right way of worshipping God But I find in his own words an answer to all he saies I was before vir Apostolicus now Apostata vilis dictus a vile Apostate not really but called so and by whom by a party which I prove by demonstrative reasons not railing at random as I. E. that they have apostatized from the true faith and Doctrine of Christ in several points as evidenced both in my former discourse printed and in the second part of this treatise at large wherefore to be called Apostate by them is to me the same as if I were called a Theif or high-way Robber by one that is such himself I knowing my self to be an Alien from those practises or as if I were called an Infidel by a Turk or Pagan If I was induced to make a blind vow of blind obedience to the Pope of Rome and his Ministers I made a former vow of Religious obedience to God and his holy Laws in my baptism if I find the latter vow made to the Pope not to consist with the complyance of the former made to God as I found clearly not to consist then must I stand to my former vow made to God and rescind the latter made to the Pope If this Libeller were contented to rail at me his guilt had bin less but he extends his insolent soul language to the whole Protestant Church belching out streams against it I know not which more of brutish ignorance or hellish malice in most notorious calumnies * Pag. 30 You deserted a Church saies he in which only is Faith Religion Priests Sacrifice Altars Sacraments and real remission not only of originall sin but also of actual mortal sins all which is excluded and exploded and quite abolished by your Protestant Sect. And all this he bables out boldly without giving one word of reason for all or any part of it but I have proved with clear demonstrative reasons from the beginning of this Treatise that in the Protestant Church we have and do profess the same true Catholic faith and Religion which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and was professed by the Church first called Catholie That we have a right Hierarchy and due ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons and therefore a due administration of Sacraments and remission of sins both original by Baptism and actuall by contrition and also by absolution upon confession not only allowed but commended and enjoyned to our people and practised by many if neglected by others it s their fault not of our Church and of the horror some have to this practise wee may well say your Church to be the cause by its intolerable tyranny over consciences as well in the reservation of cases to be absolved only by Prelates or by the Pope as in the difficulties daily added touching the mode of Confessions and circumstances to be declared in them which deters many even from the right use of it and is thought to be occasion of more loss then gain of souls among you He tells me * 63. Page that I know in my conscience that the Protestant Sect doth place all happiness in the pleasures honours liberty and contentments of the body and obstructs all means and waies to vertue to Sanctity Piety Mortification c. and doth stifle the fear of a living dreadful God and all this likewise without any proof of it Was there ever seen a more desperate insolency false prophet who dost pretend to dive into the inward of my conscience known only to God and to my self I will declare to the glory of God and edification of the Christian people miserably deluded by such Slaves of fury and lies what I know in my conscience to be true That in the Protestant Church I saw more practise of solid vertue piety and devotion and of the fear of God more apt means used to purchase those vertues both by the doctrine of our Church and by the ordinances of our state then ever I saw among the Romanists Since my coming to the Protestant Church my constant habitation has bin in Trinity Colledg of Dublin where I see more practise of sobriety devotion and piety then ever I saw in a Colledg of so many young men on the Romish side Three times a day they go all to prayers to the chappel at six in the morning ten at noon and four in the evening with admirable reverence and attention their Prayers most grave and pious for all purposes and for all sorts of persons they say kneeling the Psalmes standing and the sacred Lectures they hear sitting reverently and bare-headed with a respect due to the Lessons used by them sacred indeed as taken out of those blessed fountains of Living waters of the old and new Testament not out of the broaken Cisterns of Romantic Legends all being read in a voice audible and language intelligible and thereby sutable to the edification and instruction of all the people present The same order and style I see observed in the Palaces of Princes and Prelates and in the houses of Gentlemen and godly persons all the family being called to pray together in the Chappel or other decent room of the house after the manner now declared When I come to the Royal Castle or palace of Dublin there I see the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to whom a judicious French * Georg Fournier in geograph li. i. cujus praecipua inter omnes qui n Europasunt Pro reges eminent authoritas writer gives the Chief place among all the Viceroyes of Europe with all his flourishing family and many Nobles attending on his Excellency break off discourses and business tho weighty and serious and answer the found
those indirect means which other solicitations of men tending to the like purchase are capable of All this being so how can you defend at least from blindness and imprudence your practice of more frequent recourse to your supposed Saints then to the supreme undoubted Saint of Saints Jesus Christ Not to treat at present how much this doctrine of the Invocation of Saints is in it self injurious to God by giving that worship to Creatures which belongs only to himself as may appear by all those places of Scripture which appropriate our Invocation to God only in regard of his incommunicable Attributes of Omniscience infinite goodness and power nor how dishonorable it is to Christ both in regard of his infinite merit and office of Mediator And finally the silence of such a practice in the first and better Ages of the Church so as Cardinal Perron confesses that in the Authors who lived nearer the Apostles times in the three first Centuries no foot-steps can be found of the Invocation of Saints this silence I say is a sufficient Argument of the unlawfulness of this practice how unsuitable it is to the spirit of the Apostles Origen is not only silent of such a practice but directly protests against it in several places assirming that Praiers and Supplications are to be directed only to God by Jesus Christ For being inquired by Celsus what opinion Christians had of Angels he answers That tho the Scripture somtime calls them Gods it is not with intention that we ought to worship them For all â—raiers and Supplications saies he and Intercession and Thanksgiving are to be sent up to the Lord of all by the high Priest who is above all Angels being the living word of God And reflecting often upon the unreasonableness of making addresses to Angels by reason of the little knowledg we have of their condition he adds That even such a knowledg if we were furnished with it * Origen contra Celsum lib. 5. p. 233. Edit Cantab. would not permit us to presume to pray unto any other but God the Lord of of all who is abundantly sufficient for all by our Saviour the Son of God And after he declares how Angels and Saints may assist us and pray for us to God if we be in the favor of God and do endeavor to please him We must endeavor to please God only saies he who is over all and pray that he may be propitious to us procuring his good will with piety and all kind of virtue And reflecting upon Celsus his proposal of worshipping Demons or Angels he addeth these remarkable words †Lib. 8. pag. 120. But if he will yet have us to procure the good will of any other after him that is God over all let him consider that as when the body is moved the motion of the shadow doth follow it so in like manner having God favorable to us who is over all it followeth that we shall have all his friends both Angels and Souls and Spirits favorable to us for they have a sympathy with them that are thought worthy to find favor with God ....... so as we may be bold to say that when men who with a resolution propose to themselves the best things do pray unto God many thousands of the sacred powers pray together with them uncalled upon Here and in other such Testimonies of Origen and others of his time we find mention of Angels and Saints to pray for men and to help them by Gods appointment but we find no mention at all of such a thing as an Invocation of them He saies they pray together with us when we pray to God himself and that not because we prai'd first to them to pray with us but uncalled upon Here we have the Spirit of that Church truly Catholic and Apostolic declared to us that we are to make our Addresses of Praiers and Invocations to God alone and thereby win the assistance and praiers of heavenly Spirits in our favor For as all the world shall fight with him against the unwise sinners so all the Court of Heaven will assist their King in favoring his Saints and Servants CHAP. XXV A great stock of Faults and Absurdities discovered in Mr. I. S. his defence of Purgatory SIR as you shew your special study to be to soure your Pen with all manner of sawciness even without occasion given to you and starting often from the point and purpose for to pleasure your self in the Sea of bitterness so it is my no small care and certainly a harder task then to answer your Arguments to refrain my Pen from pouring upon you continual showers of heavy Censures whether reflecting upon your boldness in asserting manifest untruths or upon your rudeness or malice in mis-understanding or mis-representing the state and terms of the Question in every point of my Discourse you pretend to answer or shunning shamefully or childishly the point and purpose and proposing another of your own instead of answering as Schole-boies do with riddles or hard questions as they call them when they want an answer to one of them they return for answer another of that kind of Questions Of all these faults I could easily convince you guilty in every point you handled from the beginning of your Book to the end I have abstained from doing it in formal reflexions tho in my replies faced with your Proposals the discreet Reader may easily see your foresaid faults really contained out of my aversion to offensive expressions and because I fear to offend my friends and Patrons on this side as you hope to please yours by bitter Language But when you tell palpable untruths shall I desert the defence of truth not to make you a liar when you clearly abandon the question proposed and misrepresent the case or misunderstand it shall I desist in my serious and close enquiry of the truth not to discover your ignorance and weakness So much complacency you are not to expect from me and by shewing you are guilty of all these faults in your reply to my discourse upon the point of Purgatory you will perceive I have bin indulgent to you in not enlarging upon a formal discovery of them in all the points hitherto treated upon among us Now to the proof of so much I begun my Discourse upon the point of Purgatory with the method and order that exact Disputants are wont to observe in handling seriously any subject First examining what we are to understand under the notion of Purgatory Seeondly whether such a thing be really extant As to the first I told how I did not find the more learned Men of the Roman Church so confident as the Vulgar in taking for Purgatory a determinate place in the bowels of the Earth with those frightful qualities their Legends do specify being contented to conclude from some places of Scripture by conjecture that after this life there must be some place to expiate sins without determining whether
defend it and debar from offices and preferment such as will not take such oaths And Mr. I. S. must enter into a formal dispute upon the point The testimony of S. Paul saying Rom. v. that all men sinned in Adam and consequently the Virgin Mary with the rest he values nothing It is a general rule saies he capable of exception but gives us no testimony to prove the Virgin was excepted from that rule He admits that Christ was Universal Redeemer and died for all men but thinks it not a consequence that the Virgin should have bin redeemed or drawn but only preserved from sin and so the consequence of St. Paul was not legal saying 2 Cor. v. 14. If one died for all then were all dead or if if it be legal sure the Virgin was dead by Original sin as the rest or else all were not dead You say it is not unlawful in a community to require certain conditions from such as will be members of it and so may require of them engagement to defend the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary To demand conditions not including a disturbance of conscience nor occasioning dissimilations may be lawful not so to require conditions contrary to a mans conscience and judgment which was our case You say the Oath of Supremacy in opinion of Papists is an heresie why then is it required from me I answer it is only folly or malice can make it appear such as I have declared in the 18. Chapter and the Law is not to be regulated by such passions I gave likewise a short touch to the cruelty used with consciences in the practice of Consession as well in the manner of its exercise as the frequent reservation of cases And here Mr. I.S. must enter again into the deep of the dispute whether Confession ought to be admitted which was not the case in as much as the Church of England doth not only admit but commend and enjoin the practice of Confession in necessary occasions tho not the unnecessary and pernicious superstructures of the Roman Church touching the mode prescribed and the reservation of cases occasioning lamentable perplexities and desperate melancholies of Souls whereof I could declare miserable instances if certain due considerations did not make me supersede enlarging upon this kind of matter Only I will reflect upon a new addition of rigoâ— brought in by Mr. I. S. of which he will have St. Augustin to be Author that the quality of the sin the place time continuance and diversity of persons must be specified This makes me doubt and wonder what kind of person my Antagonist is whether ever he was bred among learned men of the Roman Church or did read their Books for certainly any of them that has but the least tincture of moral Theology will think strange of this paradox That the place and time of sins are to be declared as also the diversity of persons being of the same kind or species But of these kind of lapses Mr. I. S. his Theology makes no scruple if â—e were better acquainted with the practice of Doctors in the Roman Church he would not fetch up doctrines of Fathers opposite to the present practice of that Church If he did but sit certain hours of the day from St. Lukes to May-day or thereabouts in the Halls of Divinity of the Colledges of Palentia and Tudela where he saies no Divinity was ever taught he would learn that it is not the duty of a Penitent to specifie in his Confession the time place and diversity of persons wherein and wherewith his sins were committed and they would tell him that if St. Augustin said the contrary it was one of his errors and a doctrine now out of date But Mr. I. S. is of a stronger stomach can swallow by the gross and cares not so much for chawing or mincing distinctions of doctrines CHAP. XXXIV A reflection upon the many falsities impertinences absurdities and hallucinations of Mr. I. S. his Book which may justifie a resolution of not mis-spending time in returning any further reply to such writings and a conclusion of the whole Treatise exhorting him to a consideration of his miserable condition in deceiving himself and others with vanity Mr. I. S. concludes his Book as he began and did proceed in it pouring out a shower of falsities non sense impertinences and hallucinations of which I will give some testimonies here whereby the Reader may see with how much reason I may resolve not to spend precious time in further answering to or taking notice of such faulty writings The very first words of his Dedicatory Epistle to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland contains a heap of the said faults and falsities He calls his Book A Vindication of both Churches which a viper has endeavoured to bite c. he may better call it an affront of both Churches of the Protestant for the rude injuries offer'd to her of the Popish for having no better defense of her cause to exhibit With what truth or propriety can he say that I endeavor'd to bite both Churches As for the Protestant I gave sufficient testimony of my endeavors to make the world know that in her is professed the true Primitive Catholic Apostolic Faith and therefore is the surest way to Salvation and as for the Roman Church from which I received the belief of a Christian if the matter be well considered I will make good I have not bin a Viper but a dutiful and truly loving Child and more dutiful and true then Mr. I. S. If a Mother infected with a pestilent canker had two sons of which the one knowing the remedy would apply it tho with reluctancy and displeasure of the infected Mother and the other not to displease his Mother would feed the sickness with lenitives or soothing pleasing the Mother but feastering her wound and hastening her ruine which of both do you think were the more truly dutiful and loving Child Certainly the former who would apply a healing hand to the Mother tho against her will This is the difference betwixt you and me I saw that Mother at whose breast I did suck the belief of a Christian and therefore cannot chuse but revere and love her as a Mother sicken of a pestilent canker I tried to apply some beginnings of a remedy and finding her impatient of cure while in her reach I betook me to a distance whence I might apply the cure letting her know that her Innocations proceeding from Ambition and Aâ—aâ—ice are cause of her Pestilent disease that renders her odious to God and men She should return therefore to her former innocency and holiness practiced by St. Peter and his Successors for many Ages which rendred them glorious and venerable to all the world when their study was not to make Princes of Nephews and Nieces and of Peasants Heroes pretending to that end to make all mankind tributary to their power and riches but to purchase heaven for themselves and for
flesh such they do commend and many do practice tho with less ostentation then is used among you You tell me that the Precepts of the Roman Church without Controvers do oblige me and that by every omission of a Holy-day Mass c. I commit a hainous sin Oh great Divine I have demonstrated with reasons in my own judgment at least evidently convincing that I can not fulfil the Precepts of the Roman Church without infringing the Divine that in many things they are opposite Which of them shall I prefer Is it not so that we ought to obey God rather then men Act. v. 29. You speak of vows I made but if all was grounded upon a blind obedience to the Pope of Rome including a dis-obedience to the Laws of God whereof I am now certainly perswaded and delivered reasons of it which after sundry oppositions and streight scrutinies remain still in the same force with me by the common vote of Divines such vows are null and I am totally free from obligation of complying with them And finally whereas you conclude with Exhortations to me of returning to your Communion I will requite you with an Admonition better grounded of considering the miserable condition you are in dazled with the splendor of the Roman Grandeur and baited with the strong allurements of it deceiving the world with colours of Sanctity when Ambition and Avarice is the primum mobile and the Soul that animates all your motions Many simple Souls are not aware of the profane secular drifts of this great Engine of Religion set up by cunning Italians to make all the world contribute to their Lust and Pride hooking in with slight more then those more honest anciâ—nt Romans could win with the sword But you and your like that pretend to learning and knowledg are in a worse condition and we have but too much ground to suspect you are wilfully in an error and therefore guilty of deceiving the world and being complices of the destruction and miseries of Christendom being your self the most deceived when your work is to deceive others This is a matter of greater scruple and consequence then that you intimate to me of an obligation to hear Mass on every Holy-day I commend it therefore to your serious consideration and to fear and think upon seriously that wo declared against corrupt Teachers by the Prophet Ezekiel XXXIV 2. c. Wo be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves Should not the shepherds feed the flocks .... with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them and they were scattered because there is no shepherd .... Therefore Oh ye shepherds hear the words of the Lord thus saith the Lord God Behold I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock c. O how may we fear this will be the end of your Pride and Cruelty that pretending to have all you may lose all and while you pretend to domineer over all the faithful you may be trampled under the feet of Infidels If you continue to set God against you it will be so he will cause you cease from feeding the flock and require at your hands the decay of it This is our fear but our earnest desire and hearty praier to God is that he may be graciously pleased to clear your minds from the cloud of earthly passions which possessed of the will do blind the understanding that he may raise your hearts to a real inquiry of Gods honor and service and inspire into your leaders thoughts of peace with your Christian Brethren and not a further affliction to his holy Church FINIS