Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
sin_n mortal_a nature_n venial_a 6,243 5 12.3225 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61802 A discourse concerning the necessity of reformation with respect to the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome : the first part. Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707. 1685 (1685) Wing S5930; ESTC R10160 55,727 60

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

it was one kind of Quality others that it was another some placed it in the Essence of the Soul some in the Understanding some in Will c. (m) P. 239. And in case the intention of the Priest be necessary then as the Bishop of Minori unanswerably argued in that Council If a Priest having charge of four or five thousand Souls be an Infidel but a formal Hypocrite and in absolving the Penitent baptizing of Children and consecrating the Eucharist have no intention to do what the Church doth it must be said that the Children are damned the Penitent not absolved and that all remain without the Fruit of the Communion (n) History of the Council of Trent l. 2. p. 241. And what an horrible abuse is it to make such things as these Articles of Faith and impose them upon all Men to be believed under peril of Damnation 7. The Doctrine of Merits That the good Works of justified persons be truly meritorious deserve not only the increase of Grace but eternal Life yea an increase of Glory (a) Concil Trident. Sess 6. Can 32. Whereas the Scripture tells us That our goodness extends not to God (b) Psal 16. 2. That not only all that we do But all that we can suffer is not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed (c) Rom. 8. 18. That when we have done all those things which are commanded us we are still unprofitable Servants and have done no more than what was our duty (d) Luk. 17. 10 That we can give nothing to God but what we have first received from him that we are obliged to him for the good we do as well as for that we receive since all our good Works are entirely owing to his Grace are the free Gifts of his Holy Spirit who worketh in us both to will and to do (e) Phil. 2. 13. Yea even Reason it self teaches us That whatsoever we are and whatsoever we have it is all received from him that we can give nothing to him that it should be recompenced to us again that the best Services we can perform are no matter of favour but a Debt we owe him and in case they were wholly our own yet if put in the Ballance with that exceeding and eternal weight of glory would be infinitely too light Though therefore we readily grant That our good Works are not only Conditions but necessary Qualifications by which we are made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light and without which we are not so much as capable of enjoying it though we do not condemn the Word Merit in that large sense in which it was used by the antient Doctors of the Church as it signifies a Work that is praise-worthy and to which God hath promised a Reward as it denotes a Means appointed by God in order to the bringing us to Heaven Yet we can in no wise grant That any Works of ours are truly and in a proper sense meritorious but whatsoever right is thereby acquired to eternal Life it is founded in the gracious Promise of God who hath declared that he will reward our poor and imperfect services with Glory Honour and Immortality 8. Though every sin be in its own nature deadly yet the distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial is in a sense admitted by Protestants viz. If by Mortal be meant such a grievous sin as actually excludes a Man from the favour of God and puts him into a state of Damnation as all those do mentioned 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. and every other wilful sin By Veniul such a lighter sin for which God in the Gospel Covenant makes allowances and which he will not impute to Condemnation to those who sincerely endeavour to do whatsoever he commands as sins of Ignorance and meer Infirmity But this distinction as it is commonly explained and applyed by the Romish Doctors is plainly destructive of a holy Life and one of the greatest encouragements to Vice For a Venial Sin in their Divinity is a Sin that in its own nature is so light and small that it cannot deprive a Man of the favour of God or render him obnoxious to eternal Death (a) P●●catum aliquod dicitur Veniale ex natura sua propria ratione est illud quod ex se sua natura est tam leve tam minutum ut non valeat aliquem privare ●ratia divina aut facere illum Dei inimicum aut redde●e illum dignum mo●te ●terna Alphons de Castro advers Haeres l. 12. fol. 210. And if you ask them What Sins in particular these Venial Sins are scarce any Sin can be named but some or other of their most approved Casuists will tell you It is no more than Venial even lying and slandering false witness and Perjury Theft and Covetousness Gluttony and Drunkenness are placed in the Catalogue of these little harmless Sins Now let these Venial Sins be never so numerous the greatest evils which according to their Doctrine they can expose a Man to are no more than the temporary pains of Purgatory and these they tell us may be bought off at so cheap a rate that there is no Man in such unhappy circumstances but he may purchase his release from them And what then remains to give check to a Mans sinful appetites 9. But for their loosness in Venials some may think they have made amends by the severity of their Doctrine concerning Mortal Sins For no Man as their Church teaches can obtain the pardon of these without confession to a Priest and performing the Penances he imposes for them And this Confession must be compleat not only of the kinds but of the particular Sins together with the circumstances which change the kind that a Penance may be enjoined proportionable to them (b) Con●il Trident. Sess 14. c. ● de P●nitent Can. 4. 7. But besides that we find no such sort of Confession required by Christ or his Apostles no nor used in the Church for more than four hundred Years But on the contrary that our blessed Saviour proposes pardon of Sin how Mortal soever upon condition of sincere Repentance and new Obedience besides that the thing it self is unpracticable For how shall an ignorant Mechanick know what those circumstances are that change the kind When perhaps his Confessor is not able to tell him How shall he know which Sins are Mortal and which are Venial when their most learned Casuists are at no agreement among themselves about them but that which one says is Mortal another says is no more than Venial and their seraphical Doctor affirms That many Sins are believed to be Venial that are Mortal and it is a most difficult thing to discern the one from the other (c) Multa enim frequenter ereduntur esse Venialia quae Mortalia sunt diffici●limum est in talibus discernere Bonavent l. 2. dist 24. par 2. Dub.
1. Besides I say these and many other insuperable prejudices that lye against it as the matter is managed in the Church of Rome it wholly defeats its own design For what Man will be ashamed to do that which is done upon course by the best Men in their Church the Priest the Bishop yea the Pope himself not excepted And who will be afraid of the most formidable Sin when the Penance imposed for it is usually trifling and next to nothing so far from giving check that it is one of the strongest provocations to sin For what greater encouragement can a Man desire than to purchase a pardon upon such easie terms 10. I need not shew that the Doctrine of Purgatory as taught by the Church of Rome cannot derive its Pedigree either from the Scripture or the primitive Fathers because it is freely confessed by many of her own Members that it hath no foundation in either of them Yea a late learned Writer of that Church hath proved by great variety of Arguments that it is plainly repugnant to Scripture to Reason and to the judgment of the antient Church and exposed the vanity of those pretended Proofs which are commonly brought for it (d) Tho. Aug. ex Al●i●● 〈◊〉 Saxon. de media Anima●um statu And yet it is no wonder that the Romish Clergy so zealously contend for it that the Council of Trent hath established it and that Pope Pius IV. hath put it into the Roman Creed (e) Bull. super formam Jurament Confess Fidei because this is that by which they make spoil of the people and enrich themselves This alone hath erected and richly endowed many fair Abbies and Monasteries this hath founded many Colleges Chappels and Chantryes this hath set up and maintained the gainful Trade of Indulgences and Masses Let the people be once disabused and rightly informed in this Point Masses for the Dead will grow out of fashion and Indulgences will be despised as nothing worth For 11. The Doctrine of Indulgences is another new Article of the Roman Creed This is generally owned by the learned Romanists themselves In particular Durandus one of their famous Schoolmen acknowledges That little that is certain can be said concerning them because the Scripture speaks not expresly of them and the holy Fathers S. Ambrose S. Hilary S. Augustine and S. Jerom make no mention of them (f) De Indulgentiis pauca dici possunt per certitudinem quia nec Scriptura expresse de eis loqultur sancti etiam ut Ambrosius Hil. Aug. Hierom. minime loquuntur de Indulgentiis Durand l. 4. dist 20. q. 3. And Cardinal Cajetan grants That no sacred Scripture no Authority of the antient Doctors Greek or Latin hath brought the Original of them to our knowledge (g) De ortu Indulgentiarum si certitudo haberi posset veritati indagandae opem ferret verum quia nulla sacrae Scripturae nulla priscorum Doctorum Graecorum aut Latinorum authoritas scripta hanc ad nostram deduxit notitiam Opusc Tom. 1. Tract 15. c. 1. And no wonder because their Original bears a much later date than either the Sacred Scripture or the Authority of the antient Doctors for the learned Romanist before mentioned tells us That for ought he could find Indulgences were not thought on before the Age of the Schoolmen (h) De his Indulgentiis ante Scholasticorum aetatem quod sciam ●nspicio nulla De m●dio Animarum statu Demens 27. That is till twelve hundred Years after Christ and therefore no mention is made of them by Gratian or the Master of the Sentences It is true That in the Primitive Church severe and long Penances were imposed upon scandalous Offenders the rigour of which upon weighty Considerations was sometimes moderated by the Bishop and this Relaxation was called by the name of Indulgence But the Popish Indulgences are quite of another nature for they suppose a Treasure in the Church made up of the Merits of Christ and the Saints the Saints must be added to supply the defect of Christ's Merits which is wholly at the Popes disposal which therefore he dispenses to others as he thinks fit to discharge them from those Temporal Punishments to which they are obnoxious for their Venial Sins in Purgatory Nor are these Indulgences as the Practice of their Church is limited to the Souls in Purgatory and to those Punishments which are due to venial Sins only but granted to all Persons indifferently who will pay for them and for all Sins be they never so enormous To such an excess of Abomination were the Doctrine and Practice of Indulgences grown about the time of the Reformation such an intolerable Reproach were they to our Holy Religion that the more sober Romanists themselves cry'd shame on them (i) Espencaeus in cap. 1. Ep. ad Tit. Onus Ecclesiae c. 15. Eras l 30. Ep. 57. 12. Another Error and that which is indeed the main Foundation of many of those already mention'd and of many more which follow under the next Head is this That unwritten Traditions ought to be added to the Holy Scriptures to supply their defect and ought to be receiv'd as of equal Authority with them Whereas the Scriptures themselves which the Romanists acknowledge to be an infallible tho but an imperfect Rule do frequently bear witness of their own Sufficiency as to all Matters necessary to Salvation (a) Psal 19. 7. John 20. 31. 2 Tim. 3. 16. I say all Matters necessary to Salvation because we do not assert that all things belonging to Rites and Ceremonies and to the external Polity of the Church are contain'd in them except only in general Rules by which the particular Determination of them is committed to the Discretion of our Governors but we affirm that there is no Article of Faith or Rule of Life that is necessary to be believ'd or practis'd that is not either in express words contain'd in them or by evident consequence may be deduced from them so that supposing them to be the Word of God we need no other Rule in such Matters And 't is certain that the ancient Fathers were of the same Judgment I shall produce the words of S. Austin only In those Matters saith he which are plainly placed in Scripture all those things are found which contain Faith and the Manners of Holy Living viz. Hope and Charity (b) In iis quae aperte in Scriptura posita sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi spem sc atque Charitatem De doct Christiana l. 2. c. 9. In which words he affirms not only that all things belonging to Faith and Manners are contained but that they are plainly contain'd in the Scripture And in another place the same Father says If an Angel from Heaven shall preach to you any thing concerning Christ or his Church or concerning any thing which belongs to Faith or Life besides what you have received in the Writings