Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A29730
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A dissuasive from popery sent in a letter from A.B. to C.D.
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A. B.; C. D.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing B5; ESTC R23574
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10,610
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32
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A DISSUASIVE From POPERY Sent in a LETTER From A. B. to C. D. DVBLN Printed by Benjamin Took and John Crook Printers to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by Mary Crook Andrew Crook at his Majesties Printing-house in Skinner-Row 1681. Honoured Sir THe last time we were together you told me that a friend of yours long'd to see in a paper under my hand the reasons of my unkindness to Popery To which he or you for him obligingly added that I did not appear unkind to the persons of Papists and that indifferency in judging is there likelyest to be found where Bitternes of humour is not prevalent Now Sir though I know and very much honour you yet I am not acquainted with your friend and am sensible that use may be made of such a paper to my disadvantage How ever I here send it you for I do really look upon Protestancy That of the Church of England to be so high a Blessing both to the particular professors of it and to the Country where it is embrac'd that I could adventure very far in whatsoever should promise the advancement of it The paper may be shewn as you or your friend shall think fit but I would not have it published in Print t is not studied enough for that A Dissuasive from Popery I Reduce my dislikes of Popery to two Heads the incrediblenes of its Doctrins and the grievousness of the Yoke imposed on its Professors Of its incrdible Doctrins I name first Transubstantiation In the way of Nature this is not so properly called incredible as absurd and impossible It makes the Body of Christ to be in a Thousand places at once It makes that Body wear its own quantity under the dimensions of a Wafer that is to have its own bigness but to be never the bigger for it It makes the accidents of Bread and Wine Exist without a subject that is there is whiteness and there is moisture but there is nothing Either white or moist It makes the accidents of Bread and Wine to nourish the Eaters and Drinkers of them that is to be turned into Substances c. To all which it is answerd that Gods power is sufficient to overcome all these Difficulties Neither will I dispute his Power where his Will is revealed But I say it is incredible that Transubstantiation in the Eucharist should be the will of God For All other Miracles recorded in the Holy Scriptures serv'd to some End Elias called fire from Heaven to make it appear that the Lord is God and that he was his servant So Christ raised up the widow's son for the comfort of the widow and for the manifestation of his own Power But Transubstantiation serves to no End that has been yet nam'd It convices no body it profits no body Our Saviour says so Jo 6. the flesh profits not That is by being bodily Eaten Christs flesh profits by being taken into God by suffering upon the Cross by being believed on but by being bodily Eaten it has no effect either upon the body or the Soul of the cater Not upon the body for that they confess is concern'd only in the accidents of the bread and wine departed Nor upon the Soul for that feeds on Christ only Spiritually viz. by Faith Hope and Charity Now is it credible that God would worke so many miracles as are in the bowells of Transubstantiation for no end in the World 2ly The course of nature is certainly the will of God therefore we must not believe it is inverted but where God himself declares it is so Here they say God has declar'd for Transubstantiation in these words This is my body c. I answer no more then in these that rock was Christ Or then in these of the same Apostle We are all one bread For all three sentences are equally positive and are equally the word of God Now was the rock which followed the Israelites in the wilderness turned into the substance of Christ not then born Or are all Christians turned substantially into bread No all say that rock was Christ imports no more then that rock was the representative of Christ We are all one bread that is we are all represented by one bread Why not then this is my body that is this is the representative of my body If it be lawful to take one word of God figuratively it cannot be wicked to take another so if the matter equally requires And certainly there can be no greater necessity any where than in the Eucharist of flying from Transubstantiation to a figure 3ly t is Incredible that the Apostles or the Primitive Church ever thought of Transubstantiation When our Saviour said I go to the Father the Disciples asked what it was When he told the Parable of the Sower they asked what it meant If they had thought of a change of substance by the words of Consecration would they not have said how can this be do we not see there as formerly and the bread and wine as formerly But he had instructed them Jo. 6. how his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed to wit Spiritually not bodily therefore they boggl'd not Again not one Apostle nor one Christian Doctor for above six hundred years after Christ either mentions this change of substances or in all those vast volumnes says one word that infers it The Christians spoke not of it neither did the Jews or heathens object it Yet Transubstantiation in the eye of an unbeliever is a masse of contradictions What work would Lucian have made with it But no such matter is mentioned by that scoffer or by Porphyry or Festus or Julian the Apostate c. In so incredible a doctrine would Beringarius above a thousand years after Christ have been the first Heritique If Transubstantiation had been the setl'd doctrine of the Church in the days of Charlemaigne would that Emperour have writ to Bertram the Priest for his opinion of the real Presence Would Bertram have positively answered that the host is not the same body of Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary Only that body of Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary is to be ador'd therefore the adoration of the host was not in fashion in Bertrams days 4ly As there is nothing in the Holy Scripture or ancient Fathers which can be rationally brought in favour of Transubstantiation so there are in them very many sayings which seem incompatible with it Mat 26. Me yee have not always Which was spoken because of his Death and Ascension Hear St. Austin upon it Non semper c. Not always according to his bodily presence but as to his Majesty as to his Providence as to his invisible Grace is fulfilled that Behold I am with you to the end of the World So Act. 3. 31. Whom the Heavens must contain till the restitution of all things Yes say they he is only in Heaven locally and in the Host but
sacramentally and not as in a place his whole body being in the least part of the Host if separate from the other parts Which to St. Austin I am sure would have imported that Christ is really in Heaven and not really in the Sacrament for he says upon Psalm 33. Si spatia c. If space of place be taken from a body it is no where that is it is not Does this sound as if he understood the quillets of Transubstantiation Again to Boniface ep 25. Si Sacramenta c. If Sacraments had not the likeness of the things whereof they are Sacraments they would not be sacraments and because of this likeness they often take the names of the things themselves As therefore the Sacrament of the body of Christ is in some sort the body of Christ and the Sacrament of the blood of Christ is the blood of Christ so the Sacrament of faith is faith And against Adimantus the Manichee Non dubitavit c. he doubted not to say this is my body when he gave the sign of his body And upon Psal 3. mira est patientia c. Wonderful is the patience of Christ who entertained Judas at that banquet wherein he gave his disciples the figure of his body and his blood And St. Ambrose de Sacramentis Non iste panis c. not that bread which goes down into the belly but the bread of Eternal life which supports the soul Many such other sayings the Reader may find cited by old Bertram and of late by all the Protestant writers but not a word like them is in any Roman Catholique authour since the Council of Lateran The stile of the Doctours is not altered for nothing And so much for Transubstantiation Secondly I name Purgatory for an incredible doctrin Purgatory as maintained in the Church of Rome is a prison at the edge of hell where souls are deteined till by suffering they satisfy for such venial sins as they dyed under or for mortal sins for which they had not perfectly done their pennance The pains differ from hell fire only in being Temporary and the souls which suffer them are in high Charity and at the last gasp were purg'd from all unfiting affections yet must they ly here and fry for their past trespasses till the utmost farthing be pay'd And all their own charity avails nothing towards their deliverance but they are ordinarily ransom'd from long durance by the Charity of their friends on earth layd out upon Masses Pilgrimages c. And upon some occasions whole sholes are let out by the Popes Indulgence Now I say this is an incredible doctrine in it self for 1. the Christian faith is that Christ satisfied for the sins of the World how then can souls suffer meerly for the satisfaction of the Divine Justice Punishments in this World are our corrections but punishing when there can be no amendment must be a meer wrecking of vengeance t is so in hell and they say it is so in Purgatory 2. t is incredible that God should so horribly afflict those Souls which so entirely love him and which he so highly loves 3. T is incredible that venial sins which upon earth are purg'd with an Ave a Pater noster a thump on the brest or sprinkling of a little holy water should after death merit such horrible torments and which for ought I can hear may last many years 4. If these sins do merit the great pains of Purgatory then 't is incredible that a Masse or a pilgrimage should pay the debt 5. If Purgatory be a necessary and also an assured passage into heaven t is incredible that any fire there can be a torment for the way to blisse is happy In this world hope of salvation made Martyrs endure tortures with patience but that torture which brings with it assurance is matter of triumph 6. 'T is incredible that souls should be sensible of bodily fire who can imagin what a scorch'd Soul is or how fire can torment the understanding or the Wil And the seperated soul has nothing in it besides them two But to all this I am answered as I was about Transubstantiation that God's power is incomprehensible and his ways past finding out However I say Purgatory being so Irrational in it self has need to be well pro'vd from abroad I mean by Texts of Scripture and Expositions of ancient Fathers But there is not one Text in the whole Bible applyed to this Purgatory till after S. Austin Nay t is impossible that many of the Ancient Fathers should hold Purgatory as it is now held in the Church of Rome for they held that no Souls at least very few of the most perfect go to Heaven till the day of Judgment and that in the interim they are kept in receptacles without any pain but that of delay'd Happiness and that at the day of Judgement they must all pass through fire Origen in Psalm 36. Vt ego arbitror c. As I think it is necessary for us all to come to that fire though one be a Paul or a Peter Such a one indeed shall be told though thou goest through the flame it shall not burn thee But a sinner like me shall come to that fire like Peter or Paul but shall not go through it like them Ambros in coment Psalterji Igne nos c. David says thou hast tryed us by fire therefore we shall all be tryed by fire and if we be not consum'd yet we shall be scorch'd Lactant 7 instit C. 1. Sed justos c. When God Judgeth even the just he will examin them with fire then they whose sins are great either in weight or number shall be vehemently scorched the ripe in virtue shall not feel that fire Hieronym tomo 3. in Amos Vocatus ignis c. The fire call'd to Judgment first devours the Abyss that is all the kind's of sins Wood Hay Stubble Aug in 15. Gen. Ad solis c. At the setting of the Sun that is at the End By that fire is signified the day of Judgment separating those carnalls who are to be sav'd by fire from those who are to be damn'd in the fire And in Psal 6. Talem me c. Render me such now as shall not need amendment by fire And 20 de civ Dei Out of what has been said it seems evident that in the judgment some will suffer some purging pains I take this labour to clear the Purgatory held by some of the ancient because their sayings and the Texts which they cite for their Purgatory are all which they bring now for the Purgatory maintain'd in the Church of Rome whereas t is impossible that they who held the former Purgatory should hold this latter for 1. the former Purgatory was in the judgment this Latter is immediatly after Death 2. The former Purgatory was for the amendment of the person this latter punishes for Sin when the person is perfect 3. The former Purgatory