Demonstrations to wit That God is in Scripture praied to and that the Holy Ghost is every where or it proves Saints to have it also Sixthly As it is practiced by the devoutest Persons of Rome it complements the Saints with such Praiers such Expressions and such Services as you may safely challenge Melchisedec Moses David and all the Prophets and Apostles to magnifie God Almighty with any better You may be sure that the Papists will disown this because their own discretion suffers them not to avow more among strangers then they think themselves able to make good But where Mass is the reigning Service there Books and Mouths and if these should hold their peace the very stones of their Altars Churches and Images do speak it out and judg what Religious Worship that is which modest Men must flatly deny or palliate and excuse Some will tell you r Georg. Cassand Hym. Eccles in Vigil Pontec Schol. pag. 242. Edit Paris 1016. that all their Praiers to the Saints are but such Apostrophes or Rhetorical Figures as was that of David to Heaven and Angels Psalm 103. and that their Litanies Peter Paul c. Pray for me come but to this wishing Would to God or how I do wish that all these Saints should pray for me Others who see what either blindness or impudence it is to say so plainly confess that they directly s Bell. de Sanct. Beat. l. 1. c. 19. sect Praeterea in utroque pray to Saints but mince it as it were but as to Friends only to desire them to pray which yet at that distance were bad enough not as to principal Benefactors and it is upon this ground they say that praying to Saints in Heaven and praying to Friends in my House to pray for me comes both to one These Men are so confident at Rome and do think us to be so blind to all ends and purposes here in England that they shall perswade us these two things The first That all their Breviaries and Psalters signifie nothing but what they please The other That they make Saints * Ibid. c. 18. sect Nos autem facile to be Rulers and Princes over Nations with an Iron Rod in their Hands only to pray This desperate Cause forces Bellarmin at every turn the honestest and wisest Papist of his time to forsake upon this account both all Knowledg and Conscience For here you shall find him sometimes offering t Bell. ibid. c. 19. Athanasius Sermone proofs out of some Books under the name of St. Athanasius which when he needs them not u Id. De Scriptorib Eccl. observat in Tom. 3. Athanasis he acknowledgeth to be false sometimes most willingly and grosly satisfying x Bell. de Beatit Sanct. l. 1. c. 19. sect Eusebius lib. 13. Eusebius sometimes insisting y Ibidem sect Deinde in sexta Synodo upon such Canons and Decrees ascribed to the sixth Council as in his Heart he knows to be z Binius infin 6. Synod pag. 360. Edit Paris 1636. meer Forgeries somtimes siding with the a Cyrill Alexand. Thesaur p. 115. Edit Paris 1638. Arians and leaving the b Ibid. pag. 116. Athanas cont Arian Orat. 4. pag. 260. Edit Commel 1600. Chrysost in Genes Hom. 66. Fathers thereby to get some little thing that may favor the Praying to Angels sometimes he saies that the Roman Church praying to Saints makes c Bell. sup c. 19 20. them no more then Holy Men and in the point of Vows and such other Divine Honors that mere Men are in no wise fit for he himself d Id. De Cultu Sanct. c. 9. sect Tertio quia Sancti makes them to be by participation nothing less then Gods And thus the Papists must own at last what they did dissemble at the first And what can you make of such shifts turnings and contradictions but that there is most plain untruth as well as jugling in the case Either let them shew out of Scripture or out of any true Record written in true Primitive Times that any Prophet any Apostle or any Martyr have in any one of their many and great Distresses called upon any other Saint but God alone or else let them shew they have found some new Lights and some better waies then all these Saints ever did St. Chrysostom e S. Chrysost in Lazar. Orat. 2. S. Epiph. contr Collyrid pag. 447. Edit Basil takes for mere Devils those Spirits who even in his time did appear under human Shapes and did go under such and such Mens names And St. Epiphanius adds more to this that these Devils will under Religious and plausible pretences both make Men to appear like Gods and induce People to believe it And who can warrant that all those Souls that come creeping in Bellarmin first under the notion of Gods Friends and afterwards as Gods themselves are none of these However in point of serving them let the pretences be never so fair it is not safe to venture on waies which none of Gods ancient Servants have trac'd before But the following Chapter shall tell us more for certainly the name of the Blessed Virgin is unworthily abused now adaies to complete in all respects the full mesure of Idolatry CHAP. V. Of the Worship deferred to the Virgin and all the Blessings expected from this Worship THat which Rome adores under this name deserves a Chapter by it self It is both the great Allurement to and the great Diana of that Church It is with them the Head of all the Saints the very †Vid. infra Crown and Accomplishment of the ever Blessed Trinity and therefore such a Divinity in the Eies of thorough Catholics that some that had denied both their Baptism and God himself could never * Scala Coeli be temted so far as to deny and leave this Goddess Between the two contrary Extremes to wit the looking with some indiscreet Arabians on the Blessed Virgin as an ordinary Woman and the Worshipping her as a Goddess the Holy Fathers keep the middle way Let the Virgin Mary be honored saies St. Epiphanius a Epiphan contra Collyrid but let God alone be worshipped The Holy Scripture doth the same calling her in opposition to all profane Persons Blessed against all Superstitious Adorers leaving her among the Women Blessed art thou among Women Luke 1.28 Elizabeth likewise calls her The Mother of the Lord as the Fathers do upon another account The Mother of God that is Mother of that Savior as to the flesh who by the Hypostatical Union is also God And lest this Title should seem to exalt her as it doth commonly other Mothers to the same dignity with her Son the Holy Scripture sets her alwaies by Christ since the time of his public appearing to Israel rather like a Disciple then like a Mother witness the manner he uses her or answers her at all the times when they appear both
them after they are dead without Repentance It is enough for you to know y Rich. ibid. she doth it And what might she not do for these Villains since she can with her two Angels be a Midwife z Discipulus De Miracul Mar. Tom. 2. Serm. Exempl 25. Palbart l. 21. c. 13. to very whores your main Interest is to see in return of these great Mercies Kindnesses and Protections what Services now she will have CHAP. VI. Concerning the Adoration and new Waies of serving the Virgin Mary WHEN the Roman Doctors are among themselves either worshipping at their Altars or discoursing in their Pulpits or teaching in their public Scholes they freely talk of adoring a Vid. Concil Nicenum 2. the blessed Saints they think them to be Canonized most principally for this end that they may publicly b Antonin Sum. part 3. l. 22. c. 8. be adored and praied to and they highly commend the Greek who at his first Conversion professed that he did c Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 15. n. 114. adore from his heart our Lady the Queen of the world And their S. Damascen is herein their great Goliah driving before him all the Fathers with this weapon Decet enim c. It must be so f Damasc 1. De Nativ 2. de Assumt or t is fitting that this Mother of God should enjoy that which belongs to her Son and therefore the Glory of being adored by all men But when the Papists are amongst us tho they keep still their hearty thoughts they do quite reform their Language they are ashamed to say in England what they are proud to do at Rome If you believe what they say here it was never heard in their Church that they must adore any Saint g Censura Colon. p. 228. unless by chance it be in that sense in which Jacob adored his Brother and Abigail King David which is no Divine honor at all but only such a reverence as is deferred h Coster in Enchirid. to Kings or Fathers or such honorable Persons and therefore and justly too why not to Saints And if you be inquisitive and press them farther about this Point then they will run out into so many Distinctions and terms of Art as will puzle any Lay-man Dulia Latria hyperdulia Absolute and Relative Worship Divine Adoration and bordering upon Divine Godhead essential and Godhead participated so that it will go very hard with them if they do not leave him whom they pretend to satisfie as ignorant and more confounded then he was before They will tell you that they intend not either to adore the Virgin or to adore her otherwise then respectively that it is in a mere relation to her Son and those Intentions being in their hearts it is impossible there to search out either the Truth or the untruth of what they say But if you look to what they do instead of hearkning to what they say their most solemn and practical Devotions have such a plain and real language as must declare to all the world both what their Religion is in it self and what you may best think of it 1. First they bestow and accumulate upon the Virgin all the best Titles which both in the Church and in the Scripture are proper to God For in their most solemn Devotions she is a She God a She Savior the Queen of Queens the Fountain of Salvation the Ladder and Gate of Heaven c. And it were great folly in us to think that they do not worship her according to what they call her since it is not in such Rencounters that men use to play the Hypocrites 2. Secondly in their ordinary Praiers and Praises and Giving of Thanks they do most commonly join her with God Jesu Maria comes in one word out of their Mouths and Glory be to God and to the blessed Virgin is but one compleat Doxologie at the end of most of their Books Now such an Association as this is in the judgment of the Fathers a clear Evidence of being God Thus they prove i Athanas Orat. 4. contr Arian pag. 260. Edit Comel against the Arians that the Angel whom Jacob praied to when he blessed his Grand-children Gen. 48.16 is the Lord Christ because in that praier he is joined with the God of his Fathers and that this Christ is very God k Ibid. p. 159. because the Apostles join him with God both in their Praiers and their Praises Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 1.7 c. The strength of their Demonstration consists in this that in all those daies both when the Prophets and Apostles did write the Holy Scriptures and when the holy Fathers did maintain the Faith which is contained in them no man was seen or heard praying l Athanas suprà Cyrill Alexand. Tom. 5. in Thesaur pag. 115. Ed. Paris 1638. for any thing both to the Father and to an Angel or to any other Creature for Popery was not yet abroad nor wishing that God or his Angel or any greater Creature whatsoever would grant or give him any thing And they take it for an insufferable piece of m Cyrill Alex. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sawciness when the Arians dare couple as upon their Principles they do any Creature with the Lord God Such was the known Catholic Faith and Profession of the Primitive times for otherwise judicious and learned Men would not have produced it in that manner as an undoubted Evidence against such subtil and dangerous adversaries Now both the Roman Faith and practice taking a quite contrary way we I hope are more bound to think that the Papists who follow this are Idolaters then that the holy Fathers who went on in that were very Fools 3. Thirdly The Papists apply to the Virgin the most illustrious Places of Scripture that belong directly to Christ and by this means either disable all true Christians from the possibility of proving by the Scriptures that He is God or prove as well that She is so too I will mention out of many but few Instances Every word almost of the eighth Chapter of the Proverbs which doth describe the Eternal Wisdom of God which by the Fathers is applied to Christ alone and which is none of the least cogent Mediums they stand upon to demonstrate him to be that true essential and uncreated Wisdom is now turned another way n Vid. Salazar in Prov. to deifie their Virgin It is by her namely the Virgin if you believe those Abusers of Holy Scripture that Kings reign and that Princes decree Justice v. 15. By her Princes rule and Nobles and all Judges of the Earth 16. Riches and honor are with her true durable Riches and Righteousness 18. She leads in the way of Righteousness she causes them who love her to have substance The Lord saies she out of these Blasphemers
affirm that they may come down now and then and take some care of our Affairs Admit that these few Apparitions which I find recorded by good Authors 1. Of Potamiena k Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 6. c. 5. to Basilides 2. Of a Father l August de Curapro Mort. c. 11. who after his death brings the true Acquittance of a Debt that his poor Son was troubled for 3. Of something like Felix the Confessor m Ibid. c. 16. appearing to relieve Nola 4. Of something like Spiridians daughter that n Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 12. offered to the good Bishop her Father to shew him where she had laid the Jewels which a Friend had entrusted her with 5. Of somthing like John Monachus a Holy Man that o Aug. sup c. 17. appeared to a really pious Woman when once she longed to see him 6. And of something like St. Augustin that once appeared to his p Ibid. c. 11. Disciple Eulogius and another time q Idem c. 12. to one Curma about Hippo when both this John and St. Augustin were yet alive and knew nothing of this appearing at the least St. Augustin did not but what he heard other Men say Suppose I say both against all probability and the s Ibid. c. 16. c. positive judgment of St. Augustin himself that these were not Angels but real Souls What are some few extraordinary Apparitions to ground an universal and perpetual way of Worship And suppose that not few but whole thousands of Souls should swarm down amongst us as we know the Angels do the Angels we also know were never called upon nor praied to by any true Servant of God as long as the Church was ordered by any Prophet Apostle or Apostolical Men and after their departure it is well known how the Fathers who next succeeded them alwaies voted both against Worshipping and Praying to any one created Angel The Disciples of Christ saies St. Ireneus t Iren. cont Haeres l. 2. c. 57. sub fin do nothing by praying to Angels but by directing holy and undefiled Praiers to the Lord who hath created all things Praiers directed to others it seems are defiled with something And tho the blessed Angels u Orig. Cont. Celsum l. 5. p. 233. Edit Cantabr saies Origen a most authentic Author in this Point are sometimes called Gods and convey down to us the favors of God yet we do not serve them as Gods for all our Praiers Supplications Addresses and givings of Thanks which he makes to be all one with the true Service of God must be directed to God who is the Master of all things thro our High Priest the living Word and God who is greater then all the Angels And as for the Angels themselves we have no reason to pray to them because we do not understand them well and tho we did this very knowing of both their Nature and Offices would not afford us the confidence of offering our Vows and Praiers to any other then to the All-sufficient and Supreme God by his Son our Savior Not to trouble my self or others with any more clear and direct Citations to this purpose I will only add the Verdict of two and thirty Fathers who find x Concil Laodic Can. 35. in a full Council that the praying to Angels for so St. Theodoret y Theodor. Colossens c. 2. v. 18. interprets the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be both a hidden Idolatry and a forsaking of Christ and his Church The true reason which makes these and other Fathers so sharp against Praying to Angels much more against Praying to Saints as to call it Idolatry is not because the Angels cannot hear alwaies the Saints never for this would make praying to them no more then an idle and useless act but mainly and principally because Praier Vows and giving of Thanks is a main part of Gods service and therefore Saint z Iren. Sup. Ireneus and a Orig. sup Origen take Praier and Worship promiscuously for the same thing And 't is upon this same account that both b Psalm 50 14.15 Scripture and the Ancient c Tertullian Apol. c. 30. Euseb Demonst Evang. c. ult sub fin Orig. in Rom. c. 10. v. 14. p. 382. Edit Paris 1619. Fathers still reckon Praier and Thanksgiving among the truest Sacrifices and which can belong to none but God Now Praier is part of Gods service because if serious and devout and I am sure Roman praying to Saints is no jest it presupposes and acknowleges in the Saint which is praied to such an infinite knowledg of Mens hearts such an Universal and extensive Capacity or rather Being in hearing them all alwaies every where and such an immense sufficiency and power of helping them accordingly that to make or to presuppose created either Saints or Angels fit persons for to be praied to is to make or to presuppose them to be Gods And this is the true account wherefore calling upon God is reputed an Honor given to God Call upon me and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.15.23 because it implies and in very deed acknowledgeth the Immensity the Knowlege the Mercy and Power of God not calling upon him is Atheism Psalm 79.6 And so calling on them who are not Gods is down-right Idolatry The truth is you may call upon a Saint without any danger of Idolatry if he be in such a distance whence intelligent Creatures may without Miracle hear one another thus the Prophets were not afraid to speak to Angels Dan. Ch. 10. and Ch. 22. Zachar. 1.9 If you did pray a Holy Man whil'st he is with you to pray for you and to recommend you to God after he is dead perhaps this exceeds not much the ordinary power of a Saint Thus St. Cyprian d Cyprian l. 1. Ep. 1. sub fin intreated his Friend Cornelius then Bishop of Rome that he of them two who should by suffering Martyrdom step the formost to Jesus Christ would being with him there continue his wonted Praiers for his poor Brother whom he knew to be left behind And as I take it the same Father asks the same favor of his Holy and Devout Virgins against the time when their Virgin Zeal and Piety e Idem de Habitu Virg. Tract 2. sub fin should be crowned with its due Honor. Thus far I see nothing at all that an humble Christian may not wish and a created Saint may not perform and if such Praiers have any defect it is not Idolatry nor Superstition perhaps 't is only they want an Example Nor is it any Idolatry to pray to your Friends by letters at any distant whatsoever for St. Paul in his Epistles doth often so and therefore I would not blame our learned Papists for dedicating their Books and writing Dedicatory Letters to the most Blessed Virgin Mary if they had Expresses to carry them But if you can fancy a Saint of such
together as when she seeks him in the Temple Luke 2.49 or when she put him in mind of what they wanted in Cana John 2.13 or when she stood without and sent for him Mark 3.34 or lastly for I do not find them any more meeting and speaking together when he saw her standing by his Cross John 19.26 for there you cannot chuse but observe how little this great God and Savior was moved with all those Concerns even during the daies of his flesh that had their ground in flesh and blood and that if this Blessed Woman deserved any b Chrysost in Matth. c. 12. Hom. 44. Blessedness and had a gracious access to her Son it was by being a Believer rather then by being a Mother These four Passages cannot well bear any other sense and the severity which some of them express besides as some Fathers do c Epiph. cont Haeres l. 3. p. 447. Edit Basil well observe it stands upon Record for a warning to keep the Church from thinking better of Mary then her being a Blessed Virgin and perhaps a Holy Martyr Christ by this short Reply Woman what have I to do with thee John 2.3 having branded that great Impiety which he foresaw in after Ages and which we see to our great grief scandalously reigning in our daies For now at the head of ten thousand Saints of whom some were never in being as far as any true Authors can tell as St. Christopher St. Catharine St. Longis some were no better then Villains as Thomas Becket James Clement and such like which the Pope pleases to Canonize some are very true and blessed Saints but were never praied for nor praied to as long as Israel had a Prophet or the Church of Christ an Apostle at the Head I say of all these appears now in the Church of Rome what all both Prophets and Apostles may justly rend their Garments at the Virgin Mary under the Pomp and the very name of Goddess Not to mention the Worshippers how many and famous soever who in their Devotions * Ambros Cathar de Consummata Gloria pag. 112. and 115. Bernarden Meriale 3. p. S. 5. de Nominatione Mariae Lugdun Francisc Mendos Virid l. 2. Probl. 2. call her so one Pope or two may serve for all Leo the tenth in an Epistle that was published and therefore confirmed by the Command of Paul the third demands some better Timber for the repair of one of her Churches Ne tumnos tum Deam ipsam c. d Petr. Bemb Epist. l. 8. Epist 17. Lest by sending some useless sticks you seem saies he to delude both his Holiness and the Goddess her self This pretended God-head Deification e Petr. Damian Serm. 1. in Nativ Virg. and Divine f Mart. Delrius de Divin Milit. p. 886. Lips de Virgine Hall passim Gononus Chronic. an 1356. Majesty which under several Titles is attributed to this Goddess is not a thin Participation such as they allow to other Saints whom upon this score they call Gods but g S. Bernardin Serm. 61. a kind of Equality with God and an Infinity of Perfections which no Creature ever had Some do call it h Argentensis De Sept. Excellentiis identity others more plainly i B. Alanus part 2. c. 6. Esse Dei that is the very same thing or the very Being of God besides her other three Beings 1. of Grace 2. of Glory 3. and of the Mother of God Hereupon the Jesuites infer as well they may 1. that k Mendosa de Florib l. 2. Problem 2. n. 11. there is an infinite distance between the Mother and the Servants 2. That the greatness l Viegas Apocal. 12. Comm. 1. Sect. 4. n. 3. of this Goddess is a Mesure in a manner of Gods own Immensity 3. And that therefore 't is impossible to know well Gods Immensity without understanding the Virgins greatness Now if you will know how the blessed Virgin who was and is confessedly a finite Creature hath attained to this real Godhead and to the Infinity that attends it they will tell you that this great Miracle of being made Goddess was wrought in her 1. By a Singular Glorification and mutation in her proceeding from the whole Trinity For when once m Alan suprà c. 8. pag. 130. she presented her self to the Blessed Trinity in behalf both of her self and her devout servants God Almighty they say spoke to her thus Esto c. Be thou the noble and threefold Room where the Trinity shall inhabit I will be thoroughly changed into thee and thou shalt be thoroughly changed into me by special and singular Glorification 2. More especially by an entire and essential Communication from the second Person for thus they make Christ speaking n Guerricus ap Mendos Virid l. 2. Probl. 2. n. 11. to her Thou hast given me to be man I will also give thee my being God 3. Most specially by such a large Effusion of all Divine Excellencies as may o Quir. Salazar in Prov. c. 8. v. 23. n. 302. hold up proportion with the infinite Goodness and Appetency which the holy Ghost hath to be diffused to others So that as the Father did satisfie his own desire in bestowing his whole Divine Being on his Son and the Son with the Father in bestowing all what they have upon the Holy Ghost so likewise the Holy Ghost hath the same satisfaction for want of a fourth Person to spend and to pour himself in gifts and Graces upon Mary whom upon this account they dare all and God forgive them for calling her so Totius Trinitatis Complementum that is the Perfection and Accomplishment of the whole Trinity and to this purpose belongs what they say that in Heaven she hath her Throne by the Father as his only Daughter and Mignion or as others say p Argentens De Septem Excell 7. in quality of Gods Lady above the Son q Ibid. as being his Mother and close to the Holy Ghost in quality of his dear Spouse I have no mind to trouble my Reader and my self with rehearsing what here they babble or rather most ridiculously blaspheme concerning the r Salar in Prov. c. 31. n. 55 56 57. Jealousie between the Holy Ghost and Joseph upon the point of serving and pleasing her best It is enough which they will tell you and insist upon twenty times that this Virgin was the chief Allurement which in the beginning moved God Almighty s Idem c. 8 v. 25. n. 317. to make the world t Bernard Serm. 1. in Salv. and that Heaven and Earth were created and all the holy Scriptures written ob hanc propter hanc for her sake and upon her account That when in the eternal Decree and Prevision u Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 23. n. 269. of God all other things did appear but as Molehills the great worth of this Virgin stood before him as
a Mountain That when he put his hand to the making of Creatures Heaven and Earth Stars Angels and Thrones x Ibid. v. 22. n. 269. he had still this woman in his thought to pick and chuse out of every Creature as it came out the very best of it for this true Pandora and true Abbreviate of all his works That then she was the very y Ard. Hierosolymit Serm. de Annunc Perspective thro which from all Eternity God both foresaw and predestinated all Christians S. Peter S. Paul and all the rest because they were not predestinated to any Grace but such as should be conveied to them thro her hands That when God did order the Springs and course of Water z Salazar c. 8. v. 27. n. 363. then he but studied what way it were possible to make Mary an Aqueduct of all Blessings upon Mankind That God had not set up so many Princes in the world nor so many a Rupert ap Salaz p. 246. Kings in Israel had it not bin to procure her a more Roial Extraction And finally that he made Eve b Salaz Prov. c. 31. n. 418. the Ark the Tabernacle and other Ceremonial Figures to pass his time in those Images and Representations of Mary and so to amuse as well as he could the extreme longing that he had to possess the Original At last this blessed Creature being come forth she appears at her very c Idem c. 8. v. 25. n. 321. Birth when she was lying in her Cradle above all both Angels and Saints like a Mountain above small Hills far holier as they say then Mount d Joh. Damascen Sina but somwhat like e Bernard Serm. de Annunc the Mount Sion in which God was pleased to dwell all the Angells f Gabr. Biel. in Can. lect 80. that are in Heaven all the Souls that are in Hell all the Saints and Prophets that ever were and all men that are or shall be must by all means look towards Her as the Center and Support of the whole world as the very Ark of God as the Cause of all Creatures as the g Bonavent in Psalter founder of all Blessings as the Fountain h Bernard apud Salaz c. 8. v. 35. n. 450. and Vein of life and the Author of i Petr. Dam. Serm. 1. de Annunciat Salvation Now lest you should think that these great Titles as great as God himself and our Savior can ever have are given her chiefly upon the account of Christ whose Mother she was after the Flesh thorough Catholics will tell you that before she was the Mother of Christ she k Anselm de Excell Virg. c. 12. had deserved to be so that by her own Goodness l Ozor Tom. 3. Conc. 1. in Annunc Conc. 1. in Nativ and Grace she had drawn God down towards her and induced him m Bernardin de Bust 2. part Serm. 2. de Coronat Mariae to take her Flesh and that being as commonly they do term her Negotium omnium Seculorum the work of four thousand years and possessing eminently within her self all the Perfections that lie scattered up and down in all Celestial and subcelestial Creatures such a complete Hostess could not but procure or o Salaz Proverb c. 8. v. 16. n. 106. at least hasten the coming in of the best Guest The Founder of the Jesuites did commonly p Salaz Prov c. 9. v. 4. 5. n. 144. bless himself whensoever it came to his mind that swallowing down Christ at Mass he had also by the same means some of the Flesh of this Goddess And they say that on this same account Christ takes delight q Judoc Clictov Serm. de Visitat to lie hidden under transubstantiated wafers and to fall down into mens stomacs because it represents and reminds him of his Ancient being in her womb and that therefore she r Anâ—nymus apud Metaphrast would not miss a day without taking the Sacrament after her Son was in Heaven that he might have that sweet satisfaction every day But when at the Salutation of Gabriel she opened her Heart and her Breast to take him in and therein to make him her Son that one Act of humble Obedience expressed in nine Latin words Ecce Ancilla c. Behold the Handmaid of the Lord c. that one Act of hers they say is more Meritorious then God himself in a manner can recompense Christians may think 't was no Merit of hers but rather a favor of God and that all which she could do towards it was her Duty but Roman Catholic Authors and Saints too teach otherwise 1. That by that one Act she had fully s Stellarum Coronâ— B. V. l. 11. part 2. c. 11. repaied to God for n Bernard Serm. 2. de Pentecost all the things that he ever bestowed upon men and this they call Retribution and take it for the eleventh of those twelve Stars which shine continually about her Head 2. That by that Act she repaied more then she ever received her self and so that t Methodius Constantin Serm. de Purificat God is in her debt 3. That by that Act she hath done more u S. Bernardin Serm. 61. Bernardin de Bust Marial part 6. Serm. 2. de Visitatione Mar. for God or as much at the least then God for her and all Mankind and that men may say to their comfort rather blaspheme to their confusion that upon the Virgins account God is more obliged to them then they to God This is the most stupendous Merit which they say x Salazar Prov. 4. v. 13. n. 53. Christ insisted upon to shelter himself against the wrath of his own Father when after their interpretation he praied thus upon the Cross O turn thee unto me and have mercy on me give the Kingdom to thy Servant and save the Son of thy Handmaid that is if thou wilt not save me from off this Cross for thy sake or for my sake save me for her great Merits sake who said Behold the Handmaid of the Lord and give me also that Kingdom the Monarchy of the whole World which she hath y Ildelph Serm. de Assumt deserved by that Act and which devolves to me as being her Son So let all men here consider both how admirable those Merits must be which Christ makes his own shelter of and how useful to a poor sinner since they are thus needful to Christ We have not yet don The Virgin Mary appears as great at her Sons Death as at his Conception and if some talk of her saving men only because she hath brought forth their Savior thorough Catholics will inform you that z Quir. Salazar c 8. v. 19. n. 207. Conceiving and Bringing forth are two Acts which of themselves being Natural and not Voluntary cannot be much Meritorious and therefore besides all what she contributes either by her
x Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 15. n. 136. her Servants and her Salves The best is that this large and wide Empire is not setled on her by God as a mere Donation y Ibid. n. 121. Mendosa Virid l. 2. Problem 1. n 1. and Favor it is they say a just and proper Right of her own grounded upon natural z Ibid. n. 131. Equity both as being the a Anselm de Excell Virg. c. 4. Spouse of the Holy Ghost on which account they say b Pseudepiphan de Laud. Mar. she had Spiritual Gifts upon the Title of the Wedding present and afterwards she was to have what she hath now Heaven and Earth for her Jointure and as having c Anselm ibid. c. 11. by her own Merits saved and restored all things or d Damascen de Fide Orthod l. 4. c. 15. as being the Mother of Christ and therefore Queen e Salazar supra n. 132. upon as good a Title as he is King and even as God himself For saies another Blasphemer As God the * Ludolphus de Saxonia de vita Christi part 2. c. 86. Father is Lord of all because he hath created all thro his Power so is the Mother Mary the Lady of all because she hath repared and re-establish'd all things by her Merits These things being so as no true Roman Catholic must doubt but they are it concerns us all next to enquire First What use this Queen of the World is pleased to make of her Power Secondly What kind of Homage Men must return to that high and Soveraign Majesty for the great Favors and Blessings that flow continually from that use As to the use of her Grandeur both old and new Papists will tell you That since all Power is given to f Petr. Damian Serm. 1. de Nativ Virg. her as to Christ it is to this Blessed purpose that all Men may receive as well of g Antonin 4. part T. 15. c. 6. sect 3. her as his Fulness Grace for Grace and that every one may take out of her Bosome h Bernard Serm. de Aquae ducti all such Blessings as he most desires Here the Sinner shall find Mercy the Righteous all increase of Grace the Angels happiness and Joy and the whole Trinity Glory Among all others Kings and Warriers are much concern'd on this account She hath a Temporal Power both of taking and giving away of Estates Thus by her help both the Spaniards and the Portugeses discovered and i Petr. Maffaeus Hist Indic l. 2. got a good part of the East Indies She turns Armies and Victories to what side she pleases Read what they say she did for Philip k Nicol. Aegidius Annal. Franc. in Philippo Aug. King of France against Otho the Emperor for l Histor. Carnot An. 1328. Philip de Valois and m Ibid. An. 1304. Philip le Bell against the Flemings and for the Cities of n Annal. Flandr l. 12. Tournay o Meyer Annal. Fland. An. 1386. Ipres †Nic. Aegidius Annal. Franc. in Carol. 7. Orleans and p Chronic. Deip. An. 1200. Poictiers against the English This last is considerable for there they say she stood like a great Queen and the Keys were conveied away by night no Body can tell how from under the Governors Pillow and found hanging in the morning by her Image Her very Shift being once set up as a Banner upon a Wall q Antonin 2 part Hist tit 16. c. 2. sect 5. routed a great Army and if any ones Shirt chance but to touch that Blessed Shift it may go near to make the whole Body as once it r Anton. Solerius de Venerat SS did invulnerable Her very Images will inspire strength for when King Arthurus was tired s Robert Holc Sapient Sect. 35. c. 3. some say that he had one of her Images which was painted upon his Shield that when he look'd on it did recover him from fainting Fits You may guess by these Shifts and Images what the Lady her self can do By virtue of this same Power about Temporal Affairs she sends or removes all Temporal Blessings and Curses Honors Riches and all manner of Earthly Prosperities are in her hand and what Gods Eternal and uncreated Wisdom is in Scripture Prov. 8.18 the same by a foolish Impiety now is the Virgin Mary in Popery Read their Sermons and see what good use they make of all the Power given to Christ †Vid. Quirin Salazar in Proverb Solom See the eighth Chapter of the Proverbs she is now made blasphemously what Christ was then the Tresuress t Idiota de Contempl. Virg. in Prolegom of all Gods Graces and the very Tresure * Ricard a S. Laurentio de Laudib Virg. l. 10. of the Church It is out of this new Store house that the greatest Scholars of Rome if you will believe them had their Learning Albert the Great was a u Leander de viris Illustrib dull Fellow and Duns Scotus a very x Wadd Tom. 1. Annal. Minor An. 1304. Dunce till the Virgin Mary gave them more wit Vdo Arch-bishop of y Canisius de B V. l. 5. c. 20. Magdeburg and St. Rupert z Eradenbach Sacr. Collect. l. 2. c. 7. Abbot of Tuits had it the same way But St. Thomas Aquinas and S. Tharlevarct are in this Point most admirable that one a Surius F. Mart. became an Angelical Doctor by swallowing down his Throat a Paper that Ave Maria was written upon and this other got the full understanding of the whole Bible by drinking out of a Silver Cup a sweet Liquor b Balanghem 25 Dec. which she gave him Not to trouble you with more Instances what can you add to what they say that She is the very c Bonavent inspecul c. 3. Ahysse and Ocean * Salazar Prov. 8. v. 27 n. 364. from whence all Blessings flow like so many streams into the Church that she is the true Mother who keeps us alwaies like Embrions in her d Ibid. v. 18. n. 190. Bowels and makes us live with her own Breath that she is both the Neck and the Hand e Idem c. 31. n. 118. that is both the passage and only means thro which our cries may go up to God and his Blessings come down to us They who will speak at a soberer rate compare the Virgin f Georg. Venet. Hav Cant. 1. T. 4. c. 38. to the Moon which both qualifies and transmits all the Influences that come to us from the Sun and other Planets that is from Christ and all his Saints But here to speak the plain Truth without terms of Astrology they do find an absolute Decree made by all the three Persons together and God knows where they can find it whereby g Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 18. n. 193. God the Father hath obliged himself to his Daughter and the Son to his
having Bibles and Psalmes and other Instruments of Devotion wherewith Christians serve God and Christ there is no reason she should want Churches And she hath them in so great a number consecrated to her Service and Visited to her honor and all in such a special manner that as they impiously are used to say c Salazar Prov. ε. 31. v. 11. n. 55. that the Holy Ghost is jealous of Joseph on her account because they both are her Husbands God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost may justly be Jealous of that Idol which appearing under her Name gets more Churches to its Service then God to his Those men cover this Shame but with Figleaves who give out these Churches to be but d Bell. de Cult Sanct. l. 3. c. 4. sect Altera solutie Palaces and herein as well their own Church Books as their very Goddess gives them the lie Their own Church Books For they have not one Church consecrated to God since Poperie that is not with the same words and order consecrated to the Virgin e Pontifical Rom. Tit. de Dedication Eccles Sanctificetur c. Let this Church be Sanctified and consecrated in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to the Honor of God and of the Glorious Virgin and to the memory of such a Saint By which words it appears that tho the Palace be pretended to be but a Memorial to such a Saint talis Sancti it must be a Church to the Virgin or not to God Since He an She have the same Rank and Interest in that main End that the Church is consecrated to I say that their very Goddess also confutes their distinction between a Palace and a Church whensoever she appears abroad for the building either of them Witness the Celestial f Chronic. Deip. an 1274. Ladder and the ascending Angels and her self above them all to mark the very Ground where she would have a Church built to her Honor. Witness S. Balduin the Ermite whom this evil Spirit for the g S. August contra Faust. l. 20. c. 21. item de Civit. l. 20 passim good Spirits abhor such things chid severely h Chronic. Deip. an 1112. for not building a Church so fast as she did wish in a place that She had chosen for them that would serve her Witness that large and square Stone of Anis where she declared what she intended for her self both in that and all other places k Odo Gissaus Histor Virg. Anic This is the Place saies she which I have chosen to this purpose that here and hereafter mortal men may worship me and serve me throughout all Generations Now I hope such houses for Devotion Praier and Worship by what name soever you call them are just that which we use to call Churches by making them stately and Roial you may make them Palaces also but this Magnificency cannot unchurch them The Jesuite Canisius is plain and downright and herein more sincere then his good Brother Bellarmin for he calls them Templa Mariana l Canisius De B. V. l. 5. c. 23. the Temples or the Churches of Mary In those Churches they say that she will appear sometimes in a created capacity only either to sing her part among the Nuns like a Chorister or to burn Incense to Perfume n Bover Tom. 1. Annal. Capucin the Church like a Diacon or to give the Sacrament o Chronic. Deip. an 1248. like a Priest Visne c. that is My Son Sylvester wilt thou take the Body of my Son or to Confirm her worshippers and cross them p Leand. Albert. in vita Jordan all with her Sons hand or to sit in an Episcopal Throne like a Bishop But at last her main purpose is to appear there more like her self to proclame before all the world that she is the x Blosius in Monili Mother of God and the Queen both of men and Angels and upon this account Bellarmins Palace well becomes her to swear y Henriquez in Guntelin 13. Sept. Catholics to her Service to promise them z Nicephor Eccles Hist l. 15. c. 25. protection and all spiritual Blessings upon condition they shall pray to her heartily and at the Service of God both begin a Chronic. Deip. 221. and end with her Praises Sometimes she will take this trouble upon her of teaching them how to do it And this is the Model she gave and sung once to S. Godrick S. Maria c. b Matth. Paris in vita Godric Holy Mary Mother of Christ blot out my Sins reign in my heart and bring me up to Happiness with God alone God himself cannot have more and Churches by their usual Consecration promise no less And to render this Consecration yet more solemn as the Ground where these Churches stand is commonly markt outby the Virgin so the Consecrating of them to her Service is now and then c Odo Gissaeus Histor B. V. Anic performed by her Angels 9. Ninthly These Churches of hers have Altars which are no part of a Palace and which are dedicated to her Service Every Altar even in Christs own Church is consecrated to this double use to wit d Pontificat Roman supra to the Honor of God and to that of the Glorious Virgin and this on several respects either e Ibid. as a Stone or a Table or a Sepulcher or a complete Altar twenty times But besides this She hath as many other Altars which are proper to her alone where if God have any share it is as it were but by the by Such as the Rosary Altars Mariana Altaria the Altars of the good Mary and sometimes under several Titles f Chronic. Deip. an 1287. five such in one and the same Church The Holy God of Israel never had so many in his own Temple It is both a great disingenuity to disguise and as great an impudence to face out this gross and open Idolatry with saying as they will sometimes that these belong to God alone as Altars and to the blessed Saints as Sepulchers For first the Virgin Mary left no Bones if that be true which they say that her whole Body was taken up and carried by the Angels into Heaven And if you be so simple to believe what they talk of that great Abundance of milk which they have got of her since she is above to wit when she is pleased to come down and give suck for having a Child on her Arm she must needs have milk to give him these Altars are not sepulchers for they do not bury this milk under them but keep it among the other Relicks they have of her Combes Gloves Hairs Shifts and Slippers very safe as in wardrobes 2. It is not a Grave it is an Altar which she or rather a quite other Spirit under her Name calls for Go saies that Ambitious Spirit and get me g Chronic. Deip. an
which they try Evil Spirits with and which those Devils do not care for they would but consult the Example of the former Ages and the practice of all Faithful People much above four thousand Years there they might see that the Church of God ever had Angels had Saints had Deliverers and sometimes Workers of great Miracles and yet never had one Altar nor one Chappel nor one Image to serve them with And that if the very best of all their either Saints or Angels had called for any such Service they would have thought him qualified rather for Execration then for Worship The Women of Arabia did come far short of the Papists in their Devotions to the Virgin yet St. Epiphanius calls what they did p Epiphanius cont Antidicomar pag. 445. Edit Basil Diabolical and plainly tells them That the Devil had put them upon the conferring of such Honors What manner of Spirit must it be then that falls himself and puts the others upon seeking and craving them If the Blessed Virgin saies the Pious and Learned q Ibidem Father have had a natural death and burial let her sleep and rest in peace If she have bin slain by the sword let her be celebrated among the Martyrs for in those daies it seems her end was not known If she hath seen no death at all for no man saies he knows her end then let her be as Elias who also was a Virgin and was taken up into Heaven None of these Saints was ever adored and if r Id. contr Collyrid pag. 448. God will not have the Angels much less Anna's Daughter that is the Virgin to be so Churches Altars public Praiers Vows and Sacrifices do betoken by their own nature and set out a supreme Adoration to the highest degree that it can reach to For if Adoration or Bowing and Worshipping in general may sometimes signifie no more then a kind of Civil Honor as when 't is said Abraham adored or bowed himself before the People Gen. 23. Vowing Sacrificing and erecting of Altars or Churches denotes alwaies Soveraign Worship these Acts as the Jesuits themselves confess s Bellarm. de Sanct. Beatitud l. 1. c. 12. sect Tertia species Coster in Enchirid. having in themselves this inherent and proper sense which no private Intention can make lower as sometimes it doth Bowing and Kneeling Therefore they take it for a good evidence to prove our Savior Christ to be God because the Church t Bell. de Christo. l. 1. c. 8. sect Denique omnes honors him with Temples Altars and Oblations and so saies Bellarmin if Christ were not truly God never such an Idol were in the world And by the same reason if the Virgin be not a Goddess with all her Churches Oblations in good earnest what shall she be Here no Grove nor hardly the shade of a green Leaf covers their sin The Whore may kiss hard her Neighbor and say she kisses him as a dear Friend but she cannot lie with him and put it off in the same way saying she doth it meerly upon her dear Husbands account because the other was his Kinsman this saying proclames her to be a most bold impudent Woman as the very Act proclames her light and guilty in all the rest For my part I like them better who tell ingenuously what they do and following the Trade of Idolaters think they may use as well their Language Sacrificemus c. say some of them u Abbas Livriacensis in Roset Exercit. Spiritual Tit. 4. c. 6. that is Let us Sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out to her Drink-offerings Jerem. 44.17 Here both Jews and Romans hit just upon the same Idol the Moon for those the Virgin Mary whom they represent by the Moon for these and the Queen of Heaven for both CHAP. VII Concerning the daily Services bestowed upon the Virgin Mary THE Virgin Mary that is the Ghost that walks and appears under her name doth not possess these Churches in vain For first They must serve for keeping eight great and universal Holy-daies which she is allowed every Year the Annunciation Conception c. God the Father under the Law had but three such and God and Christ at Rome have but eight So she and her Son are as to this both of them pretty equal sharers 2. So are they too in every Week for if Christ hath the Sunday she hath the Saturday before it and therein that Weekly Office so famous among them for Miracles and so plentiful of Blessings which Service is called Officium Sabbatinum that is the Office of the Saturday But do not think that there is one day in which you may excuse your self from some other more private daily Praiers and daily Praises to her Honor. 1. Not from Praiers For the best Masters of Popery say a Salazar Proverb c. 8. v. 34. n. 435. that as you cannot live any one day in the week without the Influences of some of the Planets so can you neither without the special Assistance of the Saints and that the Virgin Mary being the true or the Original and super-celestial Moon Luna archetypa Supramundana that both qualifies and immediatly pours down all the Blessings which you can expect from other Saints as the other Moon doth the good Influences which you receive from the other Planets t is more then fit you should pray to her every Day and order your Devotions suitably to the Temper and strength of the Star that rules the same day For example they say that upon Munday the Moon hath a proper faculty of tempering the Heat of the Blood then come with an office short or long that is proper to that and every Munday and pray to the Virgin for Modesty and Chastity Upon Tuesday wherein Mars reigns you must pray to the Virgin again but not so much for Modesty as for Zeal and Strength and Courage Upon Wednesday which is the day of Mercury the Merchants must pray to her for good Trade and the Lawiers for Eloquence Upon Thursday which is the day of Jupiter call on the Virgin for high Designs Upon the Friday because of Venus for loving kindness and Charity Upon the Saturday because of Saturn for Prudence And finally upon Sunday because the Sun is conceived to rule that day you are directed to pray to her for clear and bright understanding about Supernatural Mysteries You may likewise upon any of the seven daies pray for one of the seven Gifts for tho they proceed originally from the Holy Ghost they do not think they come to you otherwise then through the Virgin In doing this they warrant you * Salazar ibid. that you shall find both the Virgin Mary propitious and the Scripture true which saies when most impiously misapplied from Christ to a Creature Blessed is the man or all sorts of Blessings will light upon the man who hears the Virgin Mary and watches every day at Her Gates Prov.
alittle Button of Wood Globulo ligneo as could save any one Soul if in saying the Lords Praier he will but hold it in his hand now this Blessing will stick to it though you throw it into the Sea and if you did throw it into the Fire this admirable saving Vertu would probably stick to the Ashes I am sure it will lay hold upon the very ringing of Bells and whensoever o Richard Cluniacens in Papa Joh. 22. you hear them in the Morning especially at Noon and at Sun-setting and have the grace to put off your Hat to say an Ave Maria you may thereby expiate some sins Happy sinners whose Churches Altars and the very Bells can do so much and the Tresure shall pay for all But this is a fitter matter to be abhorred then jested at As this Tresure is best contrived both for the Interest of Covetous and the Lust of lewd Persons it is made up of Blasphemies and impertinent lies against God The first Pope who invented it maintain'd it upon this ground That p Clemens 6. Extravag Vnigenitus one drop of Christs Blood could save man-kind whence follows that he had no need to die Hereupon the Blasphemer concludes That since God spared not his Son but put him to such a violent death as forced out of him not one single drop but q Ibid. a whole stream and Flood of Blood there must be somewhere a Tresury to receive this most precious but superfluous quantity lest it be lost But First This impious untruth destroies the necessity of Christs satisfaction and sufferings and countenances all what the old and the new and worse Arrians will say against his Sacrifice upon the Cross For if one drop of Blood was sufficient he shed that and more at his Circumcision and thus far his Passion was useless Secondly It charges the Justice of God with such a foul Reproch as can never be wash'd off as long as this Roman Tresury shall stand For since it stands merely to receive that Blood which might have bin spared at our dear Saviors Passion it stands up as an Evidence that whatsoever is therein kept was demanded of and paied by Christ as a tyrannous rigor above what was due to afflict and torment him and that the same Eternal Judg who as they say is so merciful even in Hell as to take * Aloys Novarin Vmbra Virg. To. 2. l. 4. Excurs 43. n. 799. less of damned men then they deserve was in the very acts of Grace and the Redemtion of Man-kind so severe against his own Son as by most insufferable Punishments to extort from him a thousand times more then it was strictly just he should suffer Thirdly It throws the same Dirt upon that Love which God bears to his only beloved Son For Christ never sought for Torments farther then they were necessary for the saving of his own Flesh that is Man-kind Contrariwise with Praiers and Tears he wish'd That that Cup might pass from him And therefore what kindness had this bin in God the Father to put his Son to vain Tortures and to plunge his very Soul into a most shameful kind of death when one drop of Blood had done as much the Popes Interest being laid aside And what Bowels and natural Compassions were these in both a Just and Loving Father to draw so much Blood out of his Son as should bring him to a cruel Death merely to fill up Roman Purses Fourthly Nothing less then blind Covetousness could betray Men into that blind Opinion For what could perswade the Popes that one drop of Christs Blood was enough to save all the World out of Hell but the pretence of having all the rest in their disposal to save Men from Purgatory Can any ordinary Divine unless blinded by that Interest be so fundamentally ignorant as not to know that what sinners deserve the Law demands the Sacrifices for sin did threaten and therefore either we or our surety for us was to suffer was a real and cursed Death And can any other then a mad-men think that a Drop of Blood shed without Death is a real and cursed Death It is true one Drop of that Blood was of an infinite value and t is perhaps with this pretense that Popes blind themselves and others or unconsidering men in their harangues have talkt unwarily but there are many more things in Christ which are of an infinite value as for example his Praiers his Groanings his Tears c. which yet are not sufficient for our Ransom for no infinite thing could be it but such as were an infinite death and certanly a Drop of Blood is neither death nor a death of infinite worth Popes or at the least Popish Divines r Bellar. de Indulg l. 1. c. 2. sect Tertia Propositio Becan de Iâ—â—ulg q. 1. sect Prima Conclusio have another Foundation to set their Church Tresure upon which I confess is not so impious as the former but is as much or more impertinent They say and they say well that the Death of Jesus Christ was abundantly sufficient not only to save those few who are saved out of the World but to save all men besides and twenty thousand both men and worlds more if God had created them and if they had corrupted themselves Hereupon and this is their foolish Impertinency they part Christs death and infinite Ransom into two Namely that which hath bin really applied and made use of and that which hath not bin so The former they think well bestowed on them who are or shall be really saved and therefore lay no claim to it But the other which is the far greater part that never was applied because it was rejected for fear it should fall to the ground they challenge it for their Tresure and that is it which they apply every 25th year in a Jubilee and every day in Indulgences After this rate Rome may provide for new store-houses for they may part as well in two the Infinite Wisdom or power or Providence of God and leaving that part he makes use of for Creating and Ordering this one world wherein we live take for themselves that other share which might have served and yet did not for creating and ordering of thousand more Did one ever hear of mad-men that went about to tresure up that part of sun-shine that might shew the way to a whole Army when but one man makes use of it or to reserve that part of Christs Voice as far as it might have bin heard by the seventy where it was heard but by the twelve Disciples the Papists in this Poin are very little wiser then so The same Wisdom and Power of God which is all-sufficient both to create and order many worlds is all necessary and therefore indivisibly and wholly set to order one the same Sun-shine which at one time fills a whole Hemisphere or the voice and Sermon which fills a great Auditory do not use to
in applying it to strangers or God the Father being there present in applying it to his Children Is it that Christs Redemtion must come to Rome and there be ratified by some Bull before it be good against Burning Secondly this Paiment however reacht to is they say presented to God by the Pope It is so in all Indulgences but in those especially which his Holiness grants for the dead For there the Pope rescues no man from what he suffers but by offering as much to God of Christs Sufferings that so Justice they say n Bellarmin de Indulg l. 1. c. 14. sect Tertia Quaestio may be satisfied by the exchange And herein lies a most impious Absurdity 1. For what is this to offer up again what Christ by his eternal Spirit offered before Was not Christs once offering it sufficient Is the Popes Offering more acceptable and since Christ alone can by the Law of Mechisedecs Priest-hood offer up his Body and Blood what is the Popes second Offering in every Bull but a most sacrilegious Boldness Will they say that this Offering is merely intentional such as every Christian may do by praier then say I the Indulgence which the Pope sells with this kind of Offering is a mere Cheat if it be more it is the Sacrilege 2. Secondly what a rude extravagancy is it to offer to God for Paiment his own Mony and to present him with that which he had already from an incompatably better hand Is this fair and honest dealing to pay one out of his own Purse and what Piece of Courtship is it in a Subject to present his Prince with nothing else then his own proper Roial Jewels This is the truth of Christs Satisfaction and Pope and Papists should either learn or teach it better Christ having once offered to God a Ransom most sufficient to redeem all men both from all sins and all the Penalties which attend them God the Father hath accepted of it for such at the hands of his Dear Son Now the way of applying this great and infinite Sacrifice and of rendring it as well all Efficacious to us as it is al-sufficient in it self is not to return it up to God either by ordinary Priests at Mass or by Popes pretending to repay it him in Indulgences for this were rather the way of applying it to God who gives then to us who must receive it but to beg it of God through Christ by continual Praiers to thirst and long after it by the sense of our wants and unworthiness to qualify our selves towards the receiving of it by repenting and then to embrace what God according to his mercies and promises will give to embrace it I say with faith and secure it to our selves by a constant course of holy life Or to say the same in Roman terms The Church hath an infinite Tresure both of Satisfactions and Merits out of which you may have as many Jubilees and Plenary Indulgences for all your Sins and all the Penalties whether eternal or temporal that attend sin as you shall want This Tresure of Satisfactions hath already bin both so sufficiently and so efficaciously offered to God by Christ and accepted of by God for you that without any farther Offering by Mass Oblations or Popes Bulls it stands alwaies before God in his mind and acceptation God is pleased to offer it you full as it is in his Gospel His Holy Sacraments and his gracious Promises are both his Bulls and Indulgences and be sure that you shall gain them if you are but willing and earnest to have them Only know this that Christ who is the Steward and the Dispenser of the Tresure throws it not a way undiscreetly on every sinner that bids mony None of his Indulgences are to be had sine Causa rationabili as the Bull-mongers use to speak without some reasonable cause which is leaving the Pope to come with repentance and Faith to Christ instead of bowing to a Rosary Altar or an Image to humble your self and walk uprightly both before God and before men Now have you got the whole Tresure upon these reasonable terms you have the keies along with it as far as your private concern reaches Impepenitency or continuing in any sin are the two ordinary keies that lock it up holy Faith and true Charity are the keies that get it open There are keies of another kind that belong to public Persons S. Peter S. Paul and all the Lawful Officers in the house of God These public keies are to lock out of it all such wretches as stand in the Church to shame it and to open it to them again when after due proofs of Amendment they shall watch and knock at her Gates And this is more then perhaps you think for altho directly they belong only to the Church they do also consequently both lock or open Gods good Tresure and in some manner Heaven it self For tho Christ properly be the keeper of as well as the way and the Gate of this Celestial Palace take it for certain that his Keies do shut or open his Kingdom whensoever Paul or Apollos or any other Lawful Bishop Lawfully shuts or opens the Church and whensoever also your private ones shut or open your own Tresure If Rome trespass against the rule as her keies may turn wrong and not in the wards of the Catholic Church your private ones shall serve your turn and the keies of Christ will second them These keies every true Christian as Tertullian p saies very well doth keep and carry about him and may with them attain unto the tender Mercies of God and the satisfaction of Christ for all his sins without the Bull of any Pope The very Papists do confess it tho they do it in other words when they say r Becan de Sacram. c. 31. sect 1. Parag. Tertia Conclusio Lay-man de Sacram. Poenit. c. 1. n. 8. That there is no mortal sin but may be remitted by true Co trition without the Sacrament of Penance Only for fear of beggering themselves they keep in their own Power the remitting of Temporal Pains This one Reservation makes all the trouble about Pardons and so secures all the profit It makes all the trouble for Pardons for let the foulest sinner go and confess the meanest Mass Priest can absolve him from all his sins and from all the eternal punishments in Hell and if some Repentance be required tho some s Sylvester Verb. Confess 1. c. 21. Soto in 4. Sent. d. 14. q. 4. a. 3. think it scarce necessary it will go hard with the Penitent if a very small sorrow be not counted Attrition and by the power of their Keies be not elevated that is made to pass into such a degree of Contrition or Roman Repentance as shall secure the worst Livers from Eternal Destruction And God knows how many Wretches both are drawn away to that Church and there emboldened to sin by this sweer Enchantment But when
with 150 Psalms and because as Davids Psalter was an Instrument wherewith he could ease the Spirit of Saul when it was troubled by the Devil so do Catholics with these Aves defend themselves and charm all the Powers of Hell from doing any harm to their Souls 3. It is call'd the Rosary because as with Roses you make Rose-water Oil Sugar and Hony Rosal so do the Brethren and Sisters of the Rosary make with it admirable Confections Drugs and Syrops to Physic their poor sick Souls to soften the hardness of sin to dispose Roman Catholic Hearts towards all Graces and to say all with them Caelum ridet c. that is the Heavens laugh the Angels dance the Church keeps her joiful Festivals Hell trembles and all the Devils run away when they say or sing Ave Maria. I much wonder they should excuse or exclude all the prisoners in Purgatory from jumping or cutting Capers since they hold that the Dead are as much concerned as the Living Therefore when one goes to enter a Name he may Å¿ Caraccio De Rosar Part. 1. c. 13. put in as well any Soul of Father Son Uncle or any other Relation as his own Only thereby he binds himself to say the holy Rosary and to perform all other Duties for them he puts in that so they may wheresoever they be above or under ground receive all the Profits and Pardons of the Society And if he put in two Names he must perform the Duty twice once for himself and once for his Friend This double work is less troublesom because you may speed it away at any time you have little else to do as when m Id. parte 3. c. 3. you dress and undress your self when you walk stand sit ride abroad or wait and for more ease and more Merit too you may join more hands to one work when for example you are with two or three Neighbors walking and travelling together I did forget another Duty which you must by no means forget it being as indispensable as it is easie and it is this both the Poorest and the Richest must needs contribute to the Charges of setting up a near Altar n Id. part 3. c. 12. and adorning it with a Standard bearing the Picture both of our Lady giving and S. Dominic receiving on the other side the holy Psalter from her Hand They must be likewise at the Charges of having the fifteen great Mysteries fairly painted both over and on each side of the great Altar Besides you must pay your small share for both the wax and the Oil that burns night and day before the Rosary Lady and least you should grumble at such expenses be you sure that one Mass upon or one Ave or one Pater before such a privileged Altar especially on solemn Daies is better worth then a thousand whether Masses or Aves that you may hear or say elsewhere This being done you may confidently look for all sorts of Blessings and Privileges must needs from all parts flow towards you 1. Rome opens in your behalf her whole Celestial Tresure a full Pardon of all your sins at your first coming to this Society at your going out when you dy at all and every holy Day kept to the Ladies Honor through the whole year at all and every solemn Day kept for any one of the fifteen great Mysteries at Christmas the Sunday before Epiphany holy Thursday and good Friday the 3 holy daies at Easter at the Ascension the three Holy Daies at Whitsuntide all the first Sundaies of every Month c. And all this both for sick and sound for the absent as well as present at Sea or Land in prison and at Liberty so that there be a just Impediment that detains you from the Duty and from visiting the Altar you can hardly make three or four steps or open the o Caraccius de Rosar part 2. c. 7. Mouth to say Jesu or Maria but you shall get by it a considerable Indulgence When you devoutly * Ibid. c. 8. take your Beads When you hear Salve Regina t is a short song to the Ladies Honor when you walk after the Procession when you march after the Banner at a Burial when you visit a sick Brother or Sister when you wait upon the Host in the street c. you gain hundreds of Daies of years and some Quarantains or Quadragenes to boot And if all this be not enough all the Stations and daily Indulgences of Rome are at your command and mercy if you will but visit a Rosary Church with saying three Aves in it or in case of too much throng stand at a distance before one or the five Rosary Altars and you may stand sometimes before them five tho you do not stir from one Place however my Italian p Ibid. c. 10. Author assures me that divers Popes have granted all these huge Pardons both by Bulls and by word of Mouth Oraculo vivae vocis which is the Roman Church's Oracle upon these terms I hope that by this time you have enough for your own use But if you please also to plesure your Friends you may weekly rescue out of Purgatory two of their Souls one on the Sunday q Ibid. c. 5. the other upon the Wednesday following and Eleven other souls more upon other special daies which I leave out to spare you trouble Only you must take the pains to visit the Rosary Altar and of saying at it this short praier O Lord I pray you to accept of the Indulgence which hath bin granted by your High Priest the Steward of the holy Tresure to the soul of John or James or if he the said John or James have none or little use of it to such a soul in Purgatory which I am most obliged to concluding all with a Requiescant in pace thereupon let them rest in peace This way one may help in one year some 115 souls and she is a woman of large correspondence that hath more friends yearly to care for 2. Besides this incredible abundance of Privileges and Pardons coming upon you from without they say that this Rosary Confraternity enjoies within it self the greatest Tresure of the whole World namely a real and perpetual Participation of the Merits and Penances of all and every one of the greatest Saints since Adam Consider what vast Abundance of Good works S. Dominic left in this Magazine by whipping r Caraccio De Rosario Part. 1. c. 3. himself to the Blood thrice every day once for his own sins which it is verily thought he had none once for the sins of the World and once for the sins of the souls burning in Purgatory Calculate what Saint Vincent might hoard up for the use of his Brethren by converting 8000 Turks and 25000 Jews Think what Tresure might Agnes bequeath to her Society with those incomparable Jewels which s Bov. Tom. 13. Annal. an 1317. n. 9. she had partly received from the Virgin
Mary and partly got and stolen from her Son when he had bin in her own lap What can you not hope of S. Osanna another sister of this holy Confraternity who being yet t Balinghen Calendar B. M. 17. Jun. a Child had the Virgin for her School-Mistress and being come to riper years had the Holy Babe for her Husband What shall I say of St. Alanus of Dinam for whose Deliverance the u Chronic. Deip. an 1212. Rosary Goddess destroied his Enemies at land with 150 Thunderbolts and raised out of the deep Sea as many Mountains an equal number to his Beads to make him a Bridg to run away and what of the other S. Alanus de Rupe the Restorer of Rosaries the true x Ibid. an 1476. Husband of this Goddess and withal her bosom sucker Have these and all whom I could name Popes Cardinals and other Grandees of the same Confraternity cast nothing into the Tresury And if all these did not cast in enough take all Gods Saints from the very beginning of the World to the year 1431. for if Roman Revelations be at all true they y Arch. Caraccius De Rosar part 4. c. 35. all without exception use and sing out the Rosary Take along with them all the Angels and as they love to speak the whole Celestial Court for every good Roman Catholic is perswaded unless they offer to contradict z B. Alan parf. 1. c. 19. both S. Alan and his Virgin that they also sing in Heaven the Rosary and that both these to wit Saints and Angels make up but one Arch-Confraternity together Now the Custom of this Society a Navar. de Psalter Miscellan 9. n. 4. being so free as to limit no favors at all as others most commonly do but to allow to every Member a full Communication of all what a huge deal of wealth is all this to every one be he otherwise never so poor All the Intercessions of Saints above all the Merits of more Saints below all the extraordinary showers of Privileges and full Indulgences from Rome all the watchings and helps of the good Angels and that which must be reckoned above all things the continual favor and Countenance of the Queen of Heaven her self in this vast Concurrence of all the Saints and holy things from Heaven and Earth together what can the wit of man fancy that both this Confraternity may not contain and the Rosary Brother well expect Are you for a shelter against public Calamities The Holy Rosary is good for it They think that by the strength of this Weapon the b Gregor 13. Bull. Monet Apostolus Turks were beaten from Europe the war ceased from d Leo 10. Bull. Pastoris aeterni Cologne and e Arch. Carac de Ros part 1. c. 17. Genua and the great Plague f Id. part 4. Miracul 19. from Pavia Are you troubled with private Distresses Frier Amat had no better way to g Chronic. Deip. an 1538. choak a Devil nor S. Salvator h Ibid. an 1567. to cure the deaf nor S. Dominic i Bov. tom 13. an 1213. n. 9. to procure Children and cure Barrenness nor General Montfort and Captain Anthony k Alanus de Insulis in Rosar to rout Armies nor the two Spanish Women l Archang in Rosario part 4. to escape hanging What they say of the Spanish Ass is most pertinent to this purpose This Beast is often in that Country made use of to carry condemned Persons to the place of Execution and 't is not heard but the innocent stupid Animal performs quietly this Office except one time m Lopaz de Rosar l. 1. c. 10. when it grew so intelligent as to perceive that the Wretch who was on its back related to the Rosary then it was wonderful to see how quick and nimble this slow Beast turns back again from the Gallows and galloping through all the Guards who attended the Execution and all the common People which then was thronging to see it carries her dear charge to the Church there laies it down most devoutly before a Rosary Altar You must conceive that either the Grace infused into these Beads at their Consecration works out these ordinary Miracles or that the Rosary Queen whom they call the Mistress of the World and the General of this Order is alwaies present and active upon all great Exigencies wherein her Officers are concerned especially when she sees them bearing up or marching under that which she takes n Caraccius de Rosar part 1. c. 10. for her Banner Nevertheless tho the essential Riches of this potent Confraternity be so extremely considerable in all Secular advantages even sometimes so as o Navar. de Horis Canon c. 19. n. 160. to make Men fortunate in Wives and all other Bargains yet it s great worth lies more in all Spiritual and Eternal Concerns St. Alain who never was seen without the Ring which our Lady p Gonon Chronic. an 1476. twisted for him of her own Hair nor without that Heavenly Chain of Beads which she put about his Neck at the same time doth assure us upon this account that to be enrolled in the Book of this happy Confraternity is q Beat. Alan part 1. c. 17. to be enrolled in the very Book of Life that the benefit which they receive from being thus registred r Id. c. 18. is no less then to be chosen and adopted for Gods Children that such registred Persons are much better then the hundred forty four thousand were in the seventh of St. Johns Revelation and that all Friends and Promoters of this admirable Society do set up for all sinners as good as the Ladder in Jacobs Vision to scale Heaven And as for themselves they shall be there glorified not only as Abel and Abraham and the other Patriarchs are but as the noblest Angels of God And let none be discouraged from this great Hope for feeling himself but a sinful Wretch since as the same Father saies if true Qui propriis c. that the very Reprobates as to their proper and personal Demerits are made the Children of God by the communion and benefit of this Society For as a Rosary had in the hand of S. Salvator the vertu of curing Quartan Agues when it was laid t Chronic. Min. l. 5. tit 4. upon ones head so it had in the hand of St. Dominic a greater Gift namely that of infusing Grace or however expelling Vice when laid u Bovius Annal. to 13. an 219. n. 12. at Night under ones Pillow For my part I know no fowler Villain then that Noble Man at Paris was who was sanctified by this means Where ever was a more prostitute Whore then fair Catharina at Rome who both in the heat of her Lust and her Zeal for this blessed Rosary was converted also and in such an extraordinary manner x Chronic. Deip. an 1221. as is not fit for
a while and all things are ready for the Office let one Sub-Deacon or more bring the three Bottles orderly one after another on his left Arm where the Lady carries her Babe and deliver them being decently covered into the hand of a more noble Officer who shall name what Bottle it is as for Example Oleum Infirmorum Here is the Oil for dying People and so set it before the Bishop upon a little Table near the Altar At that moment the Bishop shall rise up and with a pretty low voice not so low nevertheless as when he changes Bread into Flesh thus conjure and consecrate the Bottle set before him I conjure thee shall he say O thou most unclean Spirit and all you Apparitions and Incursions of the Devil to get forth out of this Oil in the Name of the Father c. that it may become a Ghostly Vnction fit to streng then the Temple of the living God Then follows the solemn Consecration that God would be pleased to send down the holy Comforter out of Heaven into this Fatness of Olives that it may scatter all the Pains all the Infirmities and all the sorrows both of the Soul and Body and that it may be a safeguard and restauration to them who shall be anointed with it After this must the two other Bottles be brought up on the left arm likewise but with more Ceremony for the Chorus must sing the Verse or as they call it the Charm O Redemtor c. four or five times and the high Mass Priest must consecrate the Balsam and mingle it with some of the Oil in a lesser Dish or Patin This don he blows three times cross-wise over the Mouth of the greater otherwise called the Chrismal Bottle After him twelve other Mass Priests but of an inferior Dignity who stand ready for the same purpose blow each in order thrice and cross-wise on the said Bottle Then here follows the Conjuring Consecration Exorcizo te c. that is I do exercise thee by God the Father Almighty O thou Creature of Oil that all the Armies of the Devil and all the Incursions of Satan may flee away out of thee and that thou maiest become to them who shall be anointed with thee an Adoption of Sons by the Holy Ghost in the Name of the Father c. Having thus conjured and praied he falls upon singing the Praises of this Chrismal Oil calling upon the Trinity as impertinently as before that the Vertue of the Holy Ghost may be mingled with the Fatness of this Oil just as he the High Mass Priest mingles what is upon the little Dish or Patin and lets it in into the Bottle with a Fiat that is wishing or commanding that this mixture of Liquors be a saving Propitiation and safe guard to them who shall anoint themselves with it And in full assurance that it is so the Inferior Priest takes off the white Veil which this Bottle was hooded with then the High Priest with a threefold humble kneeling worships the Bottle three times together saying at every kneeling and salute Ave Sanctum Chrisma but raising his voice by set degrees for this belongs to the Mystery at the second and the third time the rest of the present Clergy do somewhat more for at every Ave in several notes as before instead of bowing where they stood they must approach and kneel before the Bottle call it worship or Idolatry or what you please Lastly both the High and low Mass Priests do most reverently kiss in order not the Mouth as before but only the Lip of the Bottle Labium Ampullae Nothing of all this is don in vain and nothing can be don too much for this is the great Chrismal Ointment which supplies the want of Baptism and which arms the true Catholics with all Graces not one excepted against all Temtations whatsoever The third Bottle conteins what they call the Oil of the Catechumens which laying Balsam aside is consecrated as the former for the High and the 12 low Mass-Priests blow thrice on it then it is conjured and praied over that all the Devils may flee from it and that so many Graces may come into their Places as both to adopt and to purifie the Flesh and the Spirit of all who shall therewith be liquored For the Conclusion they all worship the third Bottle as they did the second with their repeting Ave Sanctum Oleum I worship or Salute thee O Holy Oil. So you have all you can desire to set your Salvation forward against the world the Flesh and the Devil Fourthly the Church of Rome knows how to advance Salt and water either each by it self or both together by Conjuring them into another n Pontifical Rom. sect De Benedict primi Lapiddis saving Sacrament the Salt to be both the Health and the Salvation of the Body and Soul Salus Mentis Corporis and the water by it self no less but when both are mixt together then you are safe on every side then all ill Spirits and uncleanness must fly away and then the assisting Presence of the Holy Ghost comes in good earnest about you That is the reason that no wise Catholic will pass one day if he can help it without sprinkling himself with this water nor let the Chamber where he lies be without a little Bottle full of this holy Preservative Fiftly the Roman Church affords two other great Saving o Pontifical Rom. ibid. sol 114. Devises by blessing Wine and conjuring Ashes These Ashes if it be possible must be taken p Id. sect De Officio 4 Ter. Cinerum out of the burning of such Boughs as had served the year before for Palm-Sunday What vertu these Ashes have especially on a Catholic when troubled in his Conscience guess by the praier of the Church who sends expressly for q Ibid. Gods Angel to infuse strength and blessing into them The Wine not that of the Holy Communion for this is a Mysterie which neither Christ nor his Apostles ever thought of as it appears by its consecrating Praier hath a great deal of vertue too But it shews it especially when the Mass Bishop hath mixed it with the said Ashes Salt and Holy water therewith to hallow Churches Altars and all other Instruments of Catholic Devotion with such admirable Properties as can make all Services more acceptable Sixtly this is one of the greatest Perfections and Allurements of Rome that over and above the many Means of Inherent Blessings to enable the deadest Souls towards something she can enable Marble Wood and Stone to raise and quicken the least Performance And for my mony give me such a Master as can both animate my hand with skill and motion to play upon an Instrument and help me to such an Instrument as can make most sweet harmony of the least touch of my finger when I come near and this is the Case of the Roman Church and the great Attractive she hath to make